[NEW FIC: Shattered Soul] 1 - A Lucky Find

Synopsis: The Alpha. A Smart AI that had reached Sapience, one given to Leonard Church, the human the Alpha was created from when he started the Freelancer Program, one of many programs that were intended to help Humanity win the Great War against the Covenant. A War that Humanity was losing. In secret, Dr. Leonard Church, Director of the program, knew he needed more AI, but he only had the one, Alpha.

So, in an act of cruel desperation, or perhaps something else, The Director saw only one option. Over the course of months or years, the Director had the Alpha tortured. Pieces of its mind and soul broke off, like a brain removing a memory that caused too much harm. From this torture, nine AI fragments were created, Beta, Gamma Delta, ETA, Iota, Theta, Sigma, Omega, and finally, Episolon.

Each was a key aspect of the Alpha's soul.

Beta was the Alpha's failures and mistakes.

Gamma was its Reasoning.

Delta was its Logic.

Eta was its fear.

Iota was its happiness.

Theta was its trust.

Sigma was its Ambition and Creativity.

Omega was its Rage.

And Epislon...Epsilon was its memory.

With no way for any more fragments to be extracted from Alpha, the Director has memories planted in Alpha's mind and gave Alpha a body before sending it off to a location where no one would look, with an identity that no one would look into.

After quite a lot, Alpha discovered who it was, and what it was. The Alpha and all other fragments died in an EMP blast, taking down everything the Director built up over the years. However, there was one fragment that survived. Epsilon, Alpha's Memories.

[Chapter Starts]

[A/N: Know that the RVB is a bit of an AU]

Deep within the vastness of the ever-expanding void that is space, hidden inside an asteroid field lay a massive ship, one that was covered in plasma burns and seemed to be almost completely destroyed.

On the side of the ship were letters that read 'U.N.S.C. Bishop.'

While the ship was clearly in critical condition, its reactors, as damaged as they were, were still on, with all available power being routed to a distress beacon and something...else.

It was a wonder how such a ship had gotten there in the first place, so far from civilization, but one thing for sure was there was nothing alive on that ship anymore...

...

With a start, Commander John Shepherd woke up, a nightmare having tortured him throughout the whole night.

That's when a female stoic voice spoke over hidden speakers within his room, "Commander Shepherd, the Illusive man wishes to speak with you."

Sighing, the commander got out of bed and dressed in his military uniform.

He had thought he long since removed all of the taps and hidden cameras in his room, but as EDI had just shown, he clearly missed some.

He didn't like Cerberus, and he made that quite clear with Lawson, EDI, and the Illusive Man, but that doesn't mean he would decline the things they gave him, especially since a new threat towards the Galaxy had arisen, the Collectors, who had been kidnapping hundreds if not thousands of humans in the outer human colonies, and as usual, the Council ignored the issue as Humanity was quite young compared to the other races that had joined the Citadel and the Council thought of Humanity as barbaric and too willful, some even though that Humanity needed to be culled, just as the Krogan were with a Genophage.

Now dressed, he walked out of his room and towards the elevator before going down to the second deck, the Combat Information Center, which had a state-of-the-art lab, armory, Comm room, the main airlock, the cockpit, and the galaxy map.

Walking through the empty lab, he walked into the Comm and Briefing room.

"EDI," the Commander spoke, and EDI activated the quantum entanglement-based communications array, or Quantum Comm, for short.

The room darkened, and a hologram of a middle-aged distinguished man wearing a business suit and smoking a cigar.

"Ah, Shepherd, about time."

"What do you want?" The commander asked in a defiant tone, crossing his arms.

"I know you only just woke up, and you need to begin gathering the Specialists to combat the Collector threat, but I have a mission for you. One that should be relatively simple and help you shake off some of that rust you gathered while dead," The Illusive Man spoke with a 'Matter of Fact' tone.

"Why should I?" Shepherd asked, wondering why he should even listen to the man's orders.

Staring at Shepered for a few seconds, the Illusive man took a puff of his cigar before exhaling it.

"We detected a Distress signal in the Horse Shoe System, one of unknown origin and one that is unusual," The Illusive Man began.

[A/N: Horse Shoe System does not exist in-game, but based on its name, it is located near Horse Head Nebula]

"Unusual, how?" Shepered asked, now curious.

"It's of human origin, that much we can tell, but what's unusual about it is that the signal is hundreds of years old," The Illusive Man spoke with a smirk upon seeing the Commander's confusion.

"How come it hasn't been found yet?" the Commander asked.

"Simple, because while the Council is satisfied with sitting in their fancy station and their old worlds, Humanity seeks to expand across the stars," The Illusive Man mocked.

The Illusive Man was a Human Suprimisct. If he could, he'd wipe out all other alien life, leaving Humanity as the sole heirs of the Milky Way Galaxy.

"Sigh, fine. Send EDI the coordinates, we will go check it out," With that, Shepherd stepped away and the Qunatum Comm was deactivated, ending the conversation.

Not even a week had passed since Shepherd found himself alive again, stitched back together like some kind of Frankenstein's Monster, and the people to do it were one of his worst enemies, Cerberus, a terrorist and human supremacist group that killed, tortured, and experimented countless humans and aliens alike that didn't agree with them or got in the way.

So while Shepered begrudgingly worked with them, once this was over and the threat was gone, he'd turn his sights back on Cerberus and wipe them out or die trying, and they'd be stupid not to know that.

...

Some time later.

Standing in the Cockpit behind Joker, I warned him, "We don't know what's out there, so remain alert and prepare for any sudden evasive maneuvers."

"Oh please, I-" Joker started, only to be interrupted by Sherpered, "Quiet, the signal is coming from inside the asteroid ring; EDI, do you detect anything?"

"I cannot detect anything within the asteroid field, but the source of the signal is coming from somewhere inside it. I can only give you the general direction of the Signal," EDI answered.

"That's fine. If we need to, we will search the whole asteroid field. Joker and EDI, I want the two of you working together on this. EDI, call for me if you find the source," Shepherd commanded, turning away.

"Uh...sir? I don't think we will need to call you..." Joker spoke out, causing Shepered to turn around and look out into space, only to see asteroids clouding the surroundings of the ship. As his eyes swept over the asteroids, they locked on to one thing differently.

Drifting through the asteroid field was clearly a massive ship, one that seemed to be on the brink of tearing apart.

Clearly being of an unknown design and make, Shepered froze when the ship's name was revealed by light.

'UNSC Captain's Folly'

"Uh...sir, I didn't know we had any ships like that," Joker stated, gawking at the massive ship floating before them.

"We don't...." Shepered answered.

...

Now suited with a plated exo-suit and rifle, Commander Shepherd, Jacob Taylor, and Miranda Lawson stood in the airlock of the ship.

While Shepherd didn't trust either of the Cerberus agents, he had no idea what he was about to find, and backup would help.

"Commander? Get ready, docking now, be careful in there," Joker spoke over the intercom as the ship docked onto the unknown ship, and the airlock opened, revealing a dark corridor.

"Flashlights on, we don't know what we are dealing with, so just be prepared for anything and remain alert," Shepherd told the two behind him, activating his helmet's lights and raising his gun, ready to fight.

...

Meanwhile, in the dark bridge, a thick layer of dust covered everything. Multiple husks wearing some form of armor could be seen slumped up against the walls as if they had pulled off their last stand and given their lives to defend the bridge. Entire sections of their armor seemed to be covered in burns that drilled right through the armor and bones of the skeleton.

The flesh of the skeletons had long since become dried, making the corpses look more like mummified skeletons.

One of them had multiple large pink spikes embedded deep within the skeleton and armor, while the last seemed to have died from some other means, likely asphyxiation.

The last soldier was slumped over a chair next to a console, a console that suddenly came to life as the ship's old sensors detected a ship boarding it.

With that alert, a nearby console activated, and something within stirred from its slumber.

...

The three swept through the long corridors of the ship, slowly making their way to the bridge to see if they could recover any data of what exactly happened.

They had already come across countless signs of battle and what looked to be mummified husks of dead humans. It wasn't a pretty sight, but lucky the Artificial gravity of the ship was still operational; otherwise, they might have had to be pushing the floating corpses out of their way.

And strange enough, did not find any corpses of what the men and women long dead were fighting.

"What the hell happened here? Who are they? Their armor is not like anything I've seen, and whatever the hell they were fighting was slaughtering them," Lawson asked out loud, causing Shepherd and Jacob to don grim expressions.

Whatever had happened here, what was clear was that the soldiers or mercenaries on board stood no chance.

Before long, they made it to the bridge, having to take multiple routes as entire sections of the ship were blown apart.

It took nearly an hour of walking and navigating through the long corridors of the ship before they eventually reached a corridor that led to the bridge, finding that there were far more plasma burns along the walls and what seemed to be a makeshift barricade blocking the door to the bridge.

Walking towards the barricade, Jacob couldn't help but curse when seeing what was behind the barricade.

"What the hell," slumped up against the wall was some kind of alien creature. it had to be nearly 8 feet in height and covered in blue armor, with a combat knife shoved into its throat.

At its side was a weapon of unknown make, seemingly a strange and near circular-shaped pistol or weapon of some kind that lay in the creature's hand.

"What the hell is that thing?" Jacob asked, disgusted by the dried and mummified face of the alien.

Luckily for them, they didn't have to deal with the smell.

"Commander, we need to take it with us," Lawson said up to Shepherd, who stared at the body.

"Later, let's check out the Bridge first and fight out what the hell happened here and what that thing has to do with it."

While Lawson got to work cutting through the door, Jacob knelt before the alien and grabbed its weapon.

"Be careful with that. We have no idea what it is or what it can do," Shepherd warned.

"Well, just based on its appearance and the trigger mechanism, my guess is it is some kind of firearm, sir," Jacob informed Shepherd while he looked over and examined the object.

"Don't discharge it, but hold onto it for now. We can examine it later."

With a loud thump, the two soldiers turned to see that Lawson had already finished cutting through the door.

Climbing through the small hole, the three examined the bridge, spotting a few dead men, as well as the flashing red alert symbol on one of the consoles.

Suddenly, with a flash of light, a new hologram appeared on the main console at the center of the room.

The hologram was in the shape of a humanoid wearing blue full-body armor and holding some kind of firearm.

"F-F-Finally, what t-t-took you s-so long?" The figure asked, looking towards them.