Monday, October 7, 2013

Author Notes from Guilty Sparks!

For those who don't know, I have been publishing a Mass Effect/Halo crossover over the past year or so. Its been a lot of fun, but I've also built up too many Authors notes on the profile. So, I'm transfering them here. Beneath the break you'll find the first group of authors notes. A second post will soon follow with the rest.

For any who haven't read the story yet I'll leave a link to it, although you may want to read the story that precedded this one first.

Guilty Sparks


343 Guilty Spark: You all love to hate him, but those terminals in the AE sure did flesh him out. So yes I did borrow quite a bit of inspiration from them and overall transferred their sequences into appropriate literary form. Mainly because Spark is gonna be an important side character for our little story. You'll see him pop up from time to time, even before you know what shows up. What's my goal? Well in part to do what the terminals did, make him more of a character and less of an annoying chipper rampant dipshit who abandons you at every locked door you run across.

Liara T'Soni: Well she got Shepard into this mess by leading him to the wormhole, she might as well have her own story too. Liara more than likely will have chapters to herself so when she pops up we'll be taking a break from Chief and Shepard if only to mix things up some more. I don't want to just repeat the events of the game after all. To keep you invested in case you don't like Liara we'll have a few other friends along for the ride. If you read the Chapter and know where Liara is going you can probably gues sone of them already. My goal here is to do what BioWare I feel failed to: Explain why the hell Liara is so big on getting you back to the land of the living if you told her you didn't want to sleep with her last time? The answer will probably not be all that original, but it's the journey not the destination that matters here and Liara has one hell of a journey ahead of her. You may not agree with everything that comes and goes, but rest assured it will be interesting at least.

Thel 'Vadamee (Pre-Arbiter Days): Like I wasn't gonna include him? We know he's in charge of hunting your ass in the first game but we never see things from his point of view until the second game. A lot of people were shocked that his levels took up over half of Halo 2, but I felt it was interesting to see the war from the Covenant's side and I applaud Bungie's attempts regardless of the results. We're gonna do what they couldn't, see how our future Arbiter dealt with the events of Halo in person. Thel at the height of his glory before he fell hard. Should be fun.

Three Chapter Update: Allow me to explain, at the advice of my editor, Crow T R0bot, what was originally two chapters was split into three. The top half slidding into chapter 1 at the end, a chunk of the middle making up chapter 2 and chapter three the end. I agree with Crow's assessment that this makes the chapters easier to read. I'm getting the feeling I'm gonna have to do this again though because... well I write too much for my own damn good. Sometimes that's great, you get a big chunk of stuff to read and that tides you over, sometimes it's a bit daunting and hard to truly invest in. You can't bookmark pages on the net like you can with real paperbacks. So, compromises were made.

Lieutenant Vorvak: Meet our new original villain! Vorvak, the Batarian Terrorist. Not much to say about him now, he needs more time to properly develop and bloom. He has to follow Kreave's act of course which probably isn't easy. But we'll get to see him quite a bit and even use him as a secondary peek into how the bad guys are functioning this go around. With any luck I can make him as memorable as Kreave.. with less ham of course he doesn't roll that way.

The Jackals: You may have noticed that sniper kept popping up, well he's a Jackal, that's for sure. I won't say more on that, just that after learnign a bit more about them I felt it was time we explore them a bit. Xytas got a chance to showcase the elites, now it's time to give someone else a shot. And come on, Jackals are cool. They got those badass feather mohawks, what's not to love?

Chief and Shepard: Yep, we finally got to it. Took awhile, but all good things come to those who wait. We'll be seeing more of their team-ups and what not. If you're concerned about our dear Johnny losing some of his street cred because of this don't be. He's still the hero, he's still awesome and he will not be deminished in anyway. Think of Shepard like a canonized co-op partner if you will. He's not gonna steal Chief's thunder, he's just there to help make him look even better.

Everyone else: We got a cast of a lot of people here and they got their own little mini-arcs and sub-plots so it's not gonna be easy keeping it all straight. I have it in my head how things go down, but obviously I still need to tread carefully. Tali, Legion, Jack, Kowalski and CO., Samara, Buck, Garrus, everyone of significant preseance will be allowed to shine. Rest assured of that. Big casts just means we got bigger hurdles to climb and more stuff to keep straight. Other than that it will be easy... or not.

The Horror Part: You may have noticed that this is classified as Sci-Fi/Horror. I think most people know why. We won't be getting to the latter for awhile though. Think of things now as a sort of... Dusk Till Dawn approach. We're in one genre now and the second comes later. You'll know when the second hits.

New Update - Chapter 4

Zek: You've now met that wonderful Jackal Sniper I teased you so much about. As you can see like Varvok he's a different kind of bad guy from Kreave. Although he believes in the religion as much as the old crazy krogan did. But he's a Jackal, they don't roll like that. He and Varvok are going to be our principle eyes and ears as to how things on the bad guys side of the fence go. Don't worry Arbiter fans, Thel is still present that was always the plan, but Varvok and Zek are a bit different from him as you'll soon see. Hopefully I've left enough mystery about Zek's past to keep folks guessing why he's with the Covenant if he doesn't respect them. I'll reveal more as we go along.

Halo: This isn't so much a note on the chapter as it's me talking about my experience first playing this level. I was pretty much in awe with Halo the second I stepped out of that lifeboat. The whole world just opened up from me, exiting the cramped spaces of the Autumn and my escape pod to lush open terrain of this new strange world. The skyline was always what caught my attention. It spanned for what seemed like miles and just looped back over itself. I could see landmasses and clouds and contients all off in the distance and even though I know I couldn't visit them in person I felt for a moment like I was there on that ring.

That's when Halo became real to me I think, although I didn't know it at the time I guess. Mainly because I was a stupid kid just getting into high school and I got distracted by the fact I could get in a jeep and run aliens down. Point is, that vista is part of the reason I defend Halo so much from people who downplay it. It immersed me in the world alone. That is the mark of a successful game to me, immersion, making the world seem real. And when the Anniversary edition came out and updated those old 2001 graphics to their incredible high definition version, well, it felt like coming home all over again. I guess this story is a bit of a nostalgia trip for me, as well as a reimagining of that first experience with a franchise I'd be following well into my young adult years. If I succeeded in capturing that sense of wonder for you, than I'm content in that success.

Halosaurs!: That's what I call them, I'm sticking to it. I bet you didn't expect these guys to show up, huh? Yep, they're part oft he story now and before you start both of those creatures are canon according to various sources. Not just online but in the books and the game itself. So when I learned that I said "No questions, we're doing this! Dinosaurs on Halo!"

For those who are a little lost, namely ME fans who didn't play much Halo back in the day, allow me to explain. You see back in Halo's development cycle, which had gone through many phases mind you, there originally were animals on Halo. Various wildlife could in fact be tamed and used as transportation. Unfortunately they could never get the Blind Wolves, those little eyeless armless raptors you saw, to work properly. They didn't control so good when you rode them to be honest and they were scrapped. The Thorn Beasts, the giant hulking creatures with spikes on their backs, also met the cutting room floor, not so much for technical reasons but for overall plot reasons.

You see Bungie thought that having a bunch of dinosaurs, local fauna essentially, running about would in some way spoil the surprise of the Flood. Well not so much spoil as in dilute it. Keeping Halo indigenous creature free made the sudden appearance of space zombies a lot more unexpected, according to Bungie. Frankly I don't see how I'd correlate alien dinosaurs with a future appearance of the Flood, I doubt I would've been any less freaked out by a bunch of parasitic spores turning people into bloodthristy monsterously leaping undead terrors, but I suppose I would've seen them as less of an unnatural invading force if I had encountered other creatures before. After all, its not like I wouldn't have other animals on the ring I could compare it to. Who knows? I may have in fact thought they were just another variation of the Halosaurs.

Well, because the Flood are no longer the super secret twist of Halo they once were, their backstory has been throughly explained and I'm writing a fanfic that doesn't require a game mechanic to work in order to function... the Halosaurs are back. Because a dinosaur chase in a Halo story is too good an opportunity to pass up.

New Husks: Expect a lot more husks like our new flamethrower gunts, who have yet to earn their nickname so start voting people. I have a ton of idea, mainly because husks allow me to get super creative. I can warp, splice, cut up, stitch up whatever my sick little mind can think up. It's very liberating. So long as I can find a practical reason why the Inquisitor would turn a Covie into one of these monsters I'm pretty much good to go on them all. And it also builds up a roster of freaks for the ever approaching conflict you've all been dying to see since the Husks were first introduced in this story.

"The Wormhole Chronicles": Its the Series' name now! Thank Crow for it. Now, you don't have to worry about what to call the series when you refer to it. That should simplfy things, hopefully. I'm happy it with it at least.

New Update - Chapter 6

Kat and Chief: It only recently occurred to me while writing this chapter that Kat’s position as a Lieutenant Commander makes her the highest ranking Spartan on Halo at the moment. Meaning she very well could order John around if she wants to. I doubt the chain of command is disrupted by coming from a different series of super-soldiers. With this bit of knowledge, I’m more comfortable than ever with my decision to let Kat live as this gives me the opportunity to explore some possibilities. Kat is now in a position to be in charge. This of course won’t diminish Master Chief’s presence or impact. After all, he’s still the highest ranking named Non-Commissioned officer. In any case, Chief’s always followed the orders of those in charge, more or less, and that doesn’t make him any less badass. Of course, by this logic, Shepard could order Chief around as well seeing as he outranks even Kat. But I imagine there would have to be extraneous circumstances for that to work out. It’s a concern at the moment that I could unintentionally make John look a bit lost in this shuffle, but I’m confident by keeping the majority of the action from his perspective I will alleviate that.

Action Sequences: To be fully honest, while I appreciate the praise I get for writing such detailed action sequences, they are a chore. It’s probably their existence alone that slows down a lot of these chapters. It’s something that can’t be avoided though. Skipping them would make for a boring and disappointing read. The problem with them is that it’s difficult to advance character arcs within them. Which is why I take time out to show Romeo isn’t a fan of Spartans, give Chief a few minutes to reflect on Jorge and take time out to give Tali and Cortana a little bonding scene. I tell you this because it’s important to note, in any story never let your action override your duty to inform your audience of the characters and their motivations. That was Michael Bay’s mistake, as well as Roland Emmerich’s after Stargate. Explosions are not as important as making people empathise with the characters involved in the plot. Regardless, this is another reason we’re headed back to visit Liara. While that chapter won’t be devoid of action it is a lot slower paced and more character driven than plot driven. It gives me time to flesh out her part of the storyline and to take a break from the constant battle sequences. It helps to have some moderation in your stories.

Boxed Canyon: Just in case you were wondering, yes, the structure that Jack, Thane and Jacob hold down the fort in is in fact based off the Blood Gulch bases. I figured, if they’re going to be forced to defend some place it might as well be in an iconic structure. If this is now making you wonder if I intend to shove the Red vs. Blue characters into this story... stop. As you all know, the canon of the RvB series takes place after the first game. And even if I was going to do that the canon of that series also states they’re stuck in a training simulation forced to be used as target practice for a bunch of UNSC assholes running a semi-illegal super-soldier program. (At least I think that’s what the canon is, the show is kinda confusing at times.) So they couldn’t show up anyway. Does that mean we’ll never see them at all over the course of this series? Not saying anything there.

Title Name: I called Chapter 6 “Longshots” both for the fact that things kept getting more difficult for one side or the other and we had a lot of snipers in this chapter to boot. Also for some reason spell-check recognizes the word “longshot” but as soon as you place the space bar it thinks it’s a mistake. I checked, I go to synonyms, it tells me what “longshot” can mean and then I hit space and it suddenly forgets that its a word. It’s like spell-check has the memory of Dory the Blue Tang from “Finding Nemo.” Not important to the story, but it was just freakin annoying to me.

The Voice in your Head: If there is one thing I’ve learned writing this chapter it’s that Cortana is at the greatest risk of being lost in the shuffle. Her dialogue is mostly spoken to Chief within his helmet and she has no physical presence within the scene at hand at times. She’s there, but she’s a voice talking through the radio. Even I sometimes forget she’s there so I try to use every opportunity I have to have her talk and advance her budding relationship with the Master Chief. There’s more about Cortana I want to talk about, but I’ll save that for another time. For now, I just want to say that at the same time she gives me a chance to be reflective during fight scenes or afterwards with Chief, I also have to remind myself she’s there. It’s a challenge, but God forbid I will be like the Digimon fandom and write a fanfic where I completely forget about a principal character within the story. Seriously, how many stories have you seen where the Digimon partners never appear at all? Too frickin many! Slight random tangent over, author’s notes done.

New Update: Chapter 7

Citadel: I'm getting this out of the way first so we can get on with the meat of this update. I played Citadel and it quickly became my favourite DLC of this game. Was it's position in the story of ME3 non-sensical? Not entirely, but yeah you can argue it was. Was it goofy at times? Sure. Was it awesome? Most definitetly. All my friends, kicking ass, dolling out badass oneliners, I got to take Tali out on a date at a Casino, I laughed, I cheered, I even cried. Hell it really affected me too. I think I fell into a bit of a depression when I realised that this was the last adventure... and I'd have to eventually finish the game now... crap. Plus, Wrex elbow dropped a shuttle to save me! YAY! Now I know there are complaints, specifically from my fellow Talimancers. I don't share them. At this point I don't really care about Tali's face never getting an in game showing. Obviously BioWare was not going to spend a bunch of money to make a new face for Tali for a minute long scene or so. I think we got a lot of content regardless for our dollars. Also, I don't care what anyone says Tali's fan girl sing-a-long was adorable and Ash Sorka is a terrific singer.

As for the dramatic shift in tone from "Dire end of the World Drama" to "Fanservice Fun", I can see the mood whiplash and disconnect from the narrative. I'd be blind if I couldn't. But I feel it does fit... as long as you do it right before Cronos. I think of it in these terms, they're getting the Normandy and the fleet at large ready for the final fight and all Shepard can really do at this point is wait. So he might as well wait it out on the Citadel until Hackett says it's time to go into the endgame. Does that still make it a bit of a disconnect narrative wise? Suddenly it goes from grim and gritty to lighthearted fun? Well I still think there are still some dire things in the story presented, Shepard's identity, what makes him who he is, that sort of stuff. I'll admit it's still a bit goofy, but I can't really care. I justify it like this, Shepard needs one last vacation, eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. And in Shepard's case that can happen two of three ways.

The best example I can give is the DS9 episode "Badda-Bing Badda-Boom" which takes place in the last season of the show in the middle of a devastating pan-galactic war. It's a goofy fluffy episode involving, like Citadel, a casino heist. It doesn't fit with the tone of the series at that point, but sometimes it's nice to have one last fun little episode where the whole cast gets to make jokes and not be taken too seriously. I really think Mass Effect is more analogus to a TV series to be honest than a movie, although that's a whole other discussion for another day, so I can take it's various missions and quests as episodes more within a story arc. Citadel is a one episode long bit of filler, but it's fun filler. And, like Garrus only being used for his body, I'm okay with that.

Those are my thoughts, it was hard to say goodbye, but I loved having one last hurrah with the most awesome crew in the galaxy. And yes, somehow it will feature into the story when I get around to it. I love Citadel shamelessly, and that will never change.

Urdnot Wrex: Wrex was an instant favourite of mine from ME1. He was a giant gun-totting space dinosaur. I was hooked on that alone. I think I must've played through my entire first game with him and Tali along for the ride. Although admitedly I can never not bring Liara with me on the Noveria mission, so Wrex took Tali's place for that. My point is I loved Wrex, we were like bros to each other. He was so damn awesome that when I learned he could get killed I made it my top priority to keep that from happening. To this day I still retain anyone who kills Wrex is an asshole and a horrible, horrible person. It's another reason I haven't really rewatched SFDebris' ME2 review. The review is great, but the lack of Wrex blows chunks. His brother Wreav pales in comparisson. He's a dumb muscle who talks big but is ultimately a shithead.

I don't like the idea of "Intentionally Bad Playthroughs" in general as done by people who analyse the story of Mass Effect. I get the point, it's an option in the game to play it like an idiot and screw up so you might as well take the opportunity the game gives you to explore this narrative idea. I don't like it though because many of these intentionally bad playthrough story analysis ideas cut you off from the full game. You ignore principle characters and their motivations, you don't fully explore who they are, you don't experience the entire story because you intentionally do stupid or bad things that fuck you over. In the end, they just feel and sound like speed runs and a game like Mass Effect should never be sped-run. Since most of these intentionally bad playthroughs get Wrex killed and at times even ignore Mordin's and Tali's loyalty missions and their significance... I really don't like that method of analysing the game's story that way. It's like saying "I will intentionally skip chapters in this book and then come to a conclusion on what its significance to the medium is!" That's what we call lazy in academia.

My point is, Mass Effect without Wrex isn't half the experience it's meant to be. But saying that, you may wonder why I think Wrex not joining up with you in the second and third games is okay. Well, remember when President Dubya Bush showed up on that carrier in a flight suit to proclaim Mission Accomplished back in the day? It was both cool... and incredibly embarassing because it made the most powerful man in the world look like a bit of a fucking maroon... not that he needed help. Now Wrex gets more leeway, he's the equivalent of the Krogan President (Although I like to think of him as the equivalent to Conan the Barbarian when he becomes king, because he is) He has to be seen kicking ass. In the second game, however, he is rebuilding and restructing his civilization, so he can't go running off with his best bud on a suicide mission. He has responsibilities to his people. Now Tali does too, but she's Shepard's friend and she doesn't want to abandon him. Also she's not an admiral at this point, so she actually can go on a suicide mission. Plus she's already a super awesome away mission operative... not a great leader, but she definitetly can kick ass. I mean she went to Geth space! Behind enemy lines! Wrex in contrast is trying to keep his people in line and on the path towards a progressive future. He can't just put that on hold for Shepard.

In ME3, he could go with you, if the story didn't make up excuses as to why not, but then you have to factor in Wrex is a freaking badass and would probably make the game far too easy. Hell, just putting him on my squad with Grunt in the Citadel arena we were able to clear the Reaper Elite enemies like they were nothing. Wrex is a monster. A Monster! Wrex is just too awesome for his own good to be reduced to a squaddie in the middle of intergalactic war when he's supposed to be kicking ass and punching ravagers in the face. Now he can put it on hold to help his good buddy take down an evil conspiracy against him, but that's a weekend thing. My point is, Wrex can't be your squaddie in either game for more than a short while, because otherwise it would deminish him as a character.

That's why I had to come up with an excuse to make putting him in this story as a squaddie make sense. Wrex is not following Liara's orders, he maintains control over his krogan that he's brought on board. He is in essence a joint partner with Liara. Wrex's reason for coming as stated to his men? To fight a worthy opponent like everyone has been telling him he should. Yes, he's in it to find Shepard, but he's bringing some muscle along because they need to get in on things too. This way it doesn't look like he's abandoning his people, he's just like an English Lord going off to fight a war in a distant land while he leaves a trusted advisor, the Shaman in this case, to rule in his stead. Wrex get's to be involved and he doesn't look like he's leaving his seat open to get stolen by his stupid big mouthed brother who will never be cooler than Wrex. Yes, I did enjoy writing Wrex kick Wreav's ass, does it show?

Saya Empa: The first rule of Ninja Aliens, do not give them a katana. The second Rule of Ninja Aliens, we do not talk about fight club... because there were no ninjas in fight club. To my knowledge. Seriously though, if you never listen to any of my advice but this, listen closely. Aliens do not come from earth, they do not have katanas, never give an alien a katana that is a bad idea. Make up an alien sword, make it a friggin buster sword if you really have to (Gunblades are a no, because that is a stupid weapon, it doesn't even shoot bullets it just has a crappy handle that's gonna break) but no katanas!

Now onto Saya Empa himself. His name is an anagram utilizing the first and last letters of three hindu translations for three english words. Snake, Eyes and Zero. I think you can tell what my inspiration for him is. That is also what his general look is based on. He does not speak in haikus, but only because I'd suck at writing them and I find the idea of a silent protagonist interesting. Now you have to emote the character without dialogue, but only through action. As a firm beleiver in "show, don't tell" I like that prospect. Fun fact, the Real Snake Eyes on the cartoon got shafted because of his lack of speech. This my way of correcting that stupid misstep of the 80's.

Saya's sword's name is also a combination of the Hindu dieties "Shiva" and "Kali", and before you correct me, yes, I know those two are actually the same damn god. I may love Indiana Jones but I don't take history lessons from Hollywood. The reaosn for the Hindu slant to these things is simple. Mordin explained that many Salarians follow a reincarnation form of religion, similar to the idea of Hindu reincarnation. I decided to borrow from that idea a bit and work it into things.

Saya is more than just his design, however, I put quite a bit of thought into his backstory and why he doesn't talk. I even put a lot of thought into how his sword works. Basically I went on this form of logic... the STG is essentially the Torgue Corporation. Every gun they make causes explosions. So... their swords make explosions. That is how it is now. He isn't perfect and has a particular character flaw he will need to overcome over the course of this story. His inability to communicate causes friction for one thing and he's very distant towards people. But he's got a far more negative character trait, one you don't see in a lot of heroes because of how inherently loaded such a trait can be. But, we'll it explore together in time. I hope you enjoy him along with the next upcoming members of Liara's crew.

Update for Chapter 8

Aria: Writing for Aria is awesome. She's both not a villain and yet not a hero. She's somewhere in the middle, right in the murky middle. She has all the qualities that make writing a villain fun, but she's not so easily defined as one, so you don't feel as guilty being a total ass with her. I didn't mean to unfortunately lead people astray by saying she'd be showing up, making people think she'd be a crew member, but I think, like with the Omega DLC, we all knew that wouldn't happen. Aria doesn't save the galaxy, she survives it and blows smoke in it's face for kicks. Hell, we all just wanted another hub in the end to walk around in. Sadly we didn't get it. I guess that would've required what they did with Citadel eventually to pull off. Oh well.

I noticed a number of people suggested that Nyreen would be the new recruit. While I do have plans to use a female turian, I don't think that would've worked. Nyreen's dialogue in the Omega DLC suggested she returned to the station AFTER Aria had been forced out or at least shortly before Cerberus invaded. She then took control of the Talons. Like many, I was dissapointed with how they killed her off in the DLC. I wasn't expecting her to be a new crew member, but I was kinda hoping that we'd have more missions with her or maybe she'd show up with Aria in Purgatory. I'm going to be fixing that in due time, but, that's far away.

You can expect Aria to show up again, like I said in the chapter, but I still want to keep Liara's sub plot focused on Liara and her growing crew. Aria would just kinda... well... take over things otherwise. She doesn't take orders, especially not from someone she thinks is a child that is beneath her like Liara. If only she knew that Liara is now the Shadow Broker and she just technically agreed to give info to her. I bet the Yahg never thought of that approach. She'd of course never give intel on her operations... which means she may use Liara to kill her competitors. I'd like to think Liara would be smarter than that though, so we'll see how this sorta alliance pans out.

Vik'Sajee: Or as this chapter kinda makes him out to be... the Anti-Tali. Not in the terms that's he's evil or self-serving or selfish or anything like that. Vik is a dude, his suit isn't as good-looking, he's got social problems and mental problems, and while he's quick to join the cause he's not very trusting if you can tell. That and I doubt Vik would be able at this point to evade assassins on his own for any length of time, unlike Tali who roasts them alive when they piss her off and kill her friends. (Like Isaid, Tali has a bit of a ruthless streak in her. Never endanger the people she cares about or you're fucked.) Essentially, he's smart enough to be a great engineer and techhead, but he's not what you'd call on Ms. Vas Normandy's level. I'm only really comparing him to Tali in the first place because how they're introduced into their respective stories are so similar. At least, here.

Vik was spawned from my desire to get into some Mass Effect RPGing, but I soon learned that I couldn't do certain things with him and within good reason. RPGs aren't as big a vaccum as fanfics, especially when you have to go by the stated canon and works or a dozen other people working in tandem within a collective community collaboirating with eahc other to make stories. There is no rule that says you can't use the characters in other places. So long as I use him and don't force anyone else's characters in on this without their permission I'll be okay.

I created Vik to emmulate some of the crazier internet conspiracy junkies you run into on the tubes. The idea was, make this guy who I normally wouldn't agree with on any level and make him grow and develop into a potential hero. It's not so easy a process of course, because, well, he's kinda messed up in the head. Liara is now placed in a mentor role to Vik of sorts within this story, somewhat of a change from when I did this previously. What I'm trying to get at, is Vik in this story and the Vik from the RPG, are the same person, but obviously in different universes. In the RPG he never meets Liara, he never has any contact with the Normandy crew and he has to find other people to help him grow. Here, it's Liara who assists him in that development. Over there, we'd call this an elseworlds, here's its just fanfic stuff.

I'm hoping you'll all enjoy him and his crazed antics. This may be weird, but even though I made Vik to poke fun at conspiracy nuts, over time, writing things from his point of view, kinda helped me to understand his point of view and maybe push me a little more left of center. Don't get me wrong, I still think anyone from the truther movement or a lot of anti-establishment groups are wrong, but I do have a bit more respect from where they're coming from even if I vehemently disagree with them and their politics. Vik may be crazy, but he does have good intentions, he wants to stand up to injustice and corruption. I think he, and a lot of people I imagine, just need to get a better understanding of what is more important, how the world functions and what those words mean at times. Pick your causes wisely, is what I'm saying.

Luckily, the Hegemony is a totalitarian, imperialistic, fascist society of racist slavers who have nationalistic superiority complexes engrained within their doctrine... so Vik may have found the right machine to rage against after all.

If you're imterested, I commissioned upshdragoon, Quarian artist extraordinaire, to draw Vik in the proverbial flesh. Check out his profile on deviantart for Vik later today and while you're there check out his other artwork too. He's probably one of the very few people on the interwebs that can draw quarians exceptionally well. He's also a really cool guy and he could use all the support he needs. So if you have your own commissions, he's taking them, but only for a short time, so if you have a quarian of yours you'd like to see made real see him! Here's his page for the drawning of Vik:

http://upshdragoon.deviantart.com/#/art/Commission-Vik-Sajee-vas-Truth-365518670?q=gallery%3Aupshdragoon&qo=0&_sid=1254b2b3

That's all for now, aren't you glad I don't do this in actual chapters anymore? So, tune in next time for more authors notes based on the chapters released then. And please do review or edit the Tropes page if you want, totally anonymous and pretty easy. I assure you. See ya readers! Hopefully the next chapter will be out sooner than this one was.

Chapter 9 Updates:

Squad Rounded Out: So Nelanax has been added to Liara's team. I'll reveal more about her in time, but suffice to say she's a character I'm really interested in exploring. Female Turians don't get enough love in fanfiction. And the only named female Turian in the games ends up dead to force a reaction from another female character. I'm not sure if that counts as stuffing her in the fridge, but it still felt wrong. Oh well, now we got an awesome Turian Girl as our heavy for the story. Why? Because screw convention. We're having a turian woman that can kick ass, take names and make movie trailer one-liners off hand like they're working for Cannon films or something. Mass Effect has always been at the forefront of introducing strong, compelling and well-written female characters. So, I'm doing my part by introducing Nel to the mix. I hope you all like her.

Racism: So Saya's secret is kinda out, he's a bit of a racist in terms of Krogan. Well, maybe not racist, but certainly prejudiced against the Krogan. Of course he obviously had his reasons. My goal in his character arc is to show him changing from a salarian with a chip on his shoulder, to someone who understands things from the point of view of his enemy. Hell, Ashley Williams, Human Isolationist Extraordinaire, became like a big sister to Tali and she even ended up considering Garrus a friend. Garrus, an alien who's species made her Grand-Dad look like a chump! I may not like her that much, but even I can recognize her character arc. But salarians and krogans have a longer, far more complex, history than humans and turians, so let's see if an STG Ninja with a bit of a grudge can get over his past and figure out a way to live with a progressive former-mercenary war chieftain with biotic powers and a shotgun fetish. I smell sitcom!

Kayap's Story: We got a bit more of Kayap's backstory in this chapter. We met at least one of his friends and learned a bit more about unggoys in general. The next step is telling the rest of his origin without stumbling. Unggoy are the foot soldiers of the Covenant, but while we have tons of stories about elites, regular marines, even some kig-yar, the grunts don't seem to have many named characters or stories that focus on them. We got YapYap, but he's probably the most well-known of the Unggoy aside from the Thirty Grunt. And only to really hardcore fans who read the books as well as played the game. So what motivated Kayap to join Liara when his comrades opted to kill themselves rather in a suicidal assault rather than surrender and join the good guys? Well you got an idea in this chapter, but we'll learn more later. Also, expect Kayap's suit to change next time we board the Lucen. We need to differentiate him a bit from the other grunts. If only so he doesn't get shot by accident.

Chapter 10 Update:

Major Silva: Silva, for those who don’t know, is a character from the novelization of the original Halo game. He was a very smart ambitious soldier who despite being a major was apparently the leader of the entire ODST battalion aboard the Pillar of Autumn. He’s also a major glory hound and general asshole. Not unreasonable, but certainly a dill weed in his own special way. I re-read some of his bits from the book, and while I tried my best to see it from his view, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was a complete and total tool.

After Chief gets back to alpha Base there is a scene where he calls him up to his quarters. Because Keyes is captured he’s the highest ranking officer and thus in charge. And his first official act is to essentially call the Chief up to his office if you will so he can gloat that all his friends are dead, that he is a freak of nature, barely even human and in general act like a douche bag. Chief is of course the better man and doesn’t knock the man’s head off his shoulders for insulting his dead comrades and instead tells him to fuck off by basically saying “No, sir” to all his statements.

I essentially allowed for the Normandy’s actions to save and bring Colonel Holland to Halo for the sole purpose of putting the glory hound in the doghouse a little. Don’t get me wrong though, I don’t think Silva is a bad guy. Obnoxious and pigheaded sure, but he had good intentions and I can fully understand why he hates the Spartans given how his men got killed by the Chief. His reaction to that incident is reasonable.

Speaking as an outsider though, I’m a bit more objective in my perception of that scenario. Obviously, Chief was far younger when the event happened, practically still a teenager. So, essentially, Silva’s men were given orders to beat up a kid. Now, they probably didn’t consider him one, probably thought of him as just some science experiment, maybe they even thought of him as their replacement and that was why they were more than eager to try and get some payback. Either way, it doesn’t look good for them in the moral high ground department. If I was given orders to beat up a fellow soldier by a commanding officer, I would refuse such plainly apparent illegal orders and, according to military doctrine, it would be in my right to do so. There would of course be consequences, but that is why military courts exist, to allow soldiers the right to speak in their defence for why they disobeyed an order, because they felt it was morally objectionable or against doctrine.

Silva’s men obviously didn’t give a shit about that and were more than eager to go along with things. I won’t say they got what they deserved; I will say that it was their decision in the end and that if anyone is to blame for their deaths it is the people who used them as guinea pigs. Chief was defending himself from what he could only perceive as an unprovoked attack. And UNSC military teachings, if the web series “Forward unto Dawn” is anything to go by, say that if you are under threat you are well within your rights to strike against your enemy. I imagine Chief was taught the same. And anyone who knows Chief, especially fans of Halo, knows that Chief doesn’t take pride in killing. He is proud to serve and save lives. And unlike Silva, he doesn’t ask for medals or admiration, he doesn’t even like being put in front of a camera.

Also, how the war between humans and Covenant ends kinda belies Silva’s belief that humans alone will be enough to stop the war. The very fact it requires an unlikely alliance proves that he was completely wrong. I kinda like that.

Nostalgia: I think an underlying theme for this story has become nostalgia. This was inevitable when I have the characters reflecting so much on their pasts, mistakes and all. While not the main theme, I have wanted to reintroduce folks to the old days of both games that are in this crossover.

The first Halo game was my first FPS console experience as a kid. It was an incredible experience. One that I could probably argue was only truly matched years later with the first Mass Effect game in terms of scope and the world itself. Mass Effect was also one of the first RPGs I invested real time in as well. Capturing the feeling of both those games is the main goal for this story a bit, whether it is replaying the old Halo levels with the Mass Effect characters along for the ride or creating similar story beats to Mass Effect 1 with Liara’s team, only changing them around to make them seem familiar but fresh at the same time.

For Halo, it’s about giving that sense of atmosphere that you’re trapped on an alien world, outnumbered and outgunned. You are trying to do your best to survive in this situation while uncovering the secrets of this strange forgotten world. For Mass Effect, it’s the sense of building an unstoppable badass team that can take on a bad guy with a nefarious plot that may doom the entire galaxy. Along the way, you build relationships with the people you take under your wing, you care about them and you learn about them. They’re both epic in their own scopes, and capturing a bit of that feeling of the old days is important to me.

Which is why, in this chapter specifically, we have a lot of characters thinking about those old days themselves. The decisions they made and the trials they faced, what those memories and experiences did to make them who they were. Shepard trying to bond with his counterpart, the Master Chief, Tali trying to reconcile her own past with the fact she is now the caretaker of the most advanced AI she’s ever encountered, Zek pinning away his lost sense of individuality and freedom, Silva still stuck in the past as he can’t get over what he feels the Spartans did to his men, Kowalski thinking about his mortality, it was all about the past in some way. With any luck it helped round these characters out a bit and made you think a bit about your own past. I know it kinda made me while I was writing.

Kig-Yar: They’re the Ferengi of the Halo franchise, except not nearly as profit motivated to the point of ludicrousness. Plus, they’re definitely prettier, not by much though. I think if the Covenant never interfered with them as a society, given the evidence from the expanded universe, they and the UNSC could have had a decent trading partnership. We’d probably be friends with them, selling and purchasing goods from each other, if the Covenant hadn’t put us at odds with them.

That’s the sad thing about the Covenant, it commits cultural genocide with each species it forces into its collective. It’s a horrifying process to see everything that makes you unique and different die a slow and agonizing death. Imagine if tomorrow, America’s entire culture was just supplanted by something else and you all had to follow it, no questions asked. It happened to Native Americans and its happened to the Kig-Yar.

I’m not saying we should feel sorry for them, they’re still criminals and thieves and money grubbing capitalists in general. Even if we were friends they’d probably employ some shady business practices. But it’s sad to think of what could’ve been if the Covenant never existed. So even they are victims of this whole thing in their own way. It sucks that a race that probably wouldn’t be a part of a murderous campaign against us otherwise, were forced into service by a bunch of religious jagoffs. Even worse when you consider the religion is a lie in the first place.

Chorkas and Ichor: If any of you must ask, yes, I did take the idea of Zek’s pirates drinking ichor from the Tales of Monkey Island video game. I just felt the idea of getting wasted off the bodily fluids of a sea mammal was appropriately disgusting enough for an alien to do. Plus, I just like the image of Kig-Yar whaling fleets hunting down giant creatures with sores on their backs, just so they can harvest booze. It may seem crazy, but hey, tons of people apparently risk their lives to capture scores of crabs every year. What makes more sense? Whaling for booze? Or risking stormy waters just to make Red Lobster happy? I guess both of them do, as they no doubt pay well either way.

As for Chorkas, I made them up. It sounded like an appropriately ugly name for a no doubt ugly creature. Think of a giant beluga with a flat head, pale from nose to tail, covered in boils, lesions, pimples and sores, all spewing some kind of puss out of them constantly. It seems kinda gross right? Well, try to think of it this way. If you were a predator... would you want to eat that? No more outlandish than a raptor with no eyes, no arms and only a mouth I say. If you must ask as to how the Kig-Yar figured out that puss and fluid it spewed out could make a tasty beverage, let’s just say that sailors take really stupid bets when they’re bored.

Halo 5 and the Xbone: Please don’t ask me about Microsoft’s constant foot shooting or the fact they were shown up by Sony simply saying “We’re gonna be doing what we’ve always been doing.” It’s really depressing to know the only way you’re gonna be able to play your favourite shooter series anymore is by purchasing a console with questionable unfriendly consumer attributes installed. I may end up holding off my purchase of the system until Microsoft can stop screwing themselves over and realise that they are setting themselves up for failure.

As for Halo 5, I like the idea that Chief is gonna be one some kind of personal quest it seems. We won’t be dealing with an epic “Save Humanity” story here, Halo 5 is going to be about John first and foremost. With any luck, it also means we’ll be seeing Cortana again. Chief has put it on the line for her before, why not again?

A recent Concern: One kind viewer was nice enough to point out some of potential mistakes in a constructive manner. In response, I took those concerns seriously and on prompting from my editor decided to issue some rewrites. The Sangheili Shipmaster meeting scenes now better reflects matters. I would like to thank the anonymous guest for being so polite in pointing out these problems and I hope that my timely correction has at least eased those concerns.

 

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