History Fanfic / OnTheIllusionOfMight

** Atriox is far more amiable and less antagonistic towards Humanity than his canon counterpart, even willing to carry out mercenary work for the UNSC from time to time. [[spoiler:Since Cortana never destroyed Doisac like she did in ''VideoGame/HaloInfinite'', he also has no reason to want them dead.]] Part of it though is he is well aware that crossing the Wardens of the Mantle, and especially Humanity, would end very unpleasantly for him. Much better to take their money, especially to do some stuff they do not want to be associated with.

* AdaptationalHeroism:
** Unlike in ''Halo 5'', Cortana doesn't turn on humanity nor does she try to stage an AI uprising to conquer the galaxy. Instead, she returns to Earth with Master Chief and uses the Created to help humanity fully recover from the devastation caused by the Covenant War.

Set shortly after the confrontation between Blue Team and Cortana on Genesis during the events of ''VideoGame/Halo5Guardians'', things take a different turn when Cortana, rather than begin a campaign of oppression against the galaxy, instead opting to bring peace through unification of all living races.

** Atriox is far more amiable and less antagonistic towards Humanity than his canon counterpart, even willing to carry out mercenary work for the UNSC from time to time. [[spoiler:Presumably since Cortana never destroyed Doisac like in ''Infinite'', he has no reason to want them dead.]] Part of it though is he is well aware that crossing the Wardens of the Mantle, and especially Humanity, would end very unpleasantly for him. Much better to take their money, especially to do some stuff they do not want to be associated with.

** The Wardens of the Mantle is a loose alliance formed post-Covenant War by the Arbiter between most of the former Covenant races and humanity. The only races that refused to join are the Yanme'e (who still believe in the Prophets' Great Journey) and the Kig-Yar (who are divided into countless squabbling pirate kingdoms). While there are some tensions between the Wardens, for the most part everyone gets along well due to the fact of Humanity helping the races rebuild and find their way into relearning how to be independent nations, and the fact that after so many years of war, even the Sangheli and Jiralhanae are sick and tired of it.

** [[spoiler:The Assembly vs. Nazara.]]

* RedBaron: The Master Chief is now no longer known as merely a "Demon," but the "Devil," leader of the Elder Demons (Spartan II's) and Lesser Demons (Spartan IV's). At least for the former Covenant races.

''Illusion of Might'' establishes the galaxy of ''Mass Effect'' on a smaller scale within the wider ''Halo'' universe. It currently comprises 26 chapters and is still ongoing.

** The Citadel races completely fail to recognize the extent they are doing so in how they are treating the Wardens of the Mantle, ''especially'' Humanity. More then once Atriox has been offered a hefty sum for information or help against them, only for him to bluntly refuse because he does not want to die.

* CoolStarship: The UNSC ''Dauntless.'' Think the Didact's ''Mantle's Approach'' but with thousands of additional weapons added to its hull, and virtually undetectable when it wants to be. After being cured of her rampancy in the Domain, Cortana had the ''Dauntless'' constructed at Genesis to act as the new flagship of the UNSC.

* TheDreaded: DoubleSubverted in a surprising way for the Spartans. The former Covenant races hold justified concerns about them given the sheer death toll they are responsible for, but by the time of the Wardens of the Mantle are not actually ''afraid'' of them, since they are not an issue so long as you do not attack Humanity or the Mantle. Indeed, they are now seen by many as now their protectors. However, the way the former Covenant races speak of the 'Demons,' makes the Council races believe for a good while they are actually held in terror, and forcing the other Wardens to not join the Council. Of course, after that is cleared up and they start to see the Spartans in action during joint exercises, most of the Council races fail to realize how they ''should'' hold the Spartans in dread.
* FantasticRacism: As per ''Mass Effect'' canon, this is rampant in Citadel Space, with much ire being directed towards the quarians and krogan. The Wardens are trying to fix this. The Systems Alliance is in a better place here than it was in canon, as they first contact did not go quite so badly and they are on better footing with the Citadel races.
** Ironically, there is still distrust and coldness between the races in the Wardens as well; while they see and understand the value in interspecies cooperation, we see from a conversation between Tali and a Sangheili engineer that there is still lingering enmity between humans and the former Covenant races, which is a given considering that the Human-Covenant war is still fresh on everyone's mind.

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: Discussed. [[spoiler:Atriox's advice to Aria in Chapter 25 is to surrender to the Wardens when they inevitably try to seize control of Omega. He explains that while Omega stands no chance of defeating a GalacticSuperpower like the Wardens (which is made up of the combined militaries of the UNSC and former Covenant), the Wardens don't have the numbers to fully occupy Terminus without stretching themselves thin and might allow Aria to remain in control of Omega provided she cooperates with them.]]

* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Atriox in a nutshell.

* RedBaron: The Master Chief is now no longer known as merely a "Demon," but the "Devil," leader of the Elder Demons and Lesser Demons. At least for the former Covenant races.

* SpaceColdWar: One breaks out between the Wardens of the Mantle and the Citadel Council after the Wardens make it clear that none of them have any interest in joining the Citadel and reject nearly all of the [[FictionalGenevaConventions Citadel Conventions]]. This is somewhat deliberate on the Wardens' part as they are hoping to [[spoiler:make themselves seem like a rival galactic superpower to motivate the Citadel races into heavily miltarizing so they are better ready for the Reapers.]]

* SuperPrototype: What the Spartan-II's are to the Spartan-IV's. Several different characters note how while the latter individuals are unquestionably very, very good, there is no contest that the earlier generation is superior. Not only in that the Master Chief and Co. were chosen from the best possible candidates, but they possess a degree of teamwork no other group can match. There is a good reason the former Covenant races regard them as the "Elder Demons" and "Lesser Demons."

* TakeThat: The first chapter takes shots at various aspects of ''Halo 5'''s campaign and story.
** While reminiscing about the events of ''5'', Locke internally recounts "enemies in front clear as day but the background moving half-as-fast and in a lower quality", a clear jab at the game mechanics which caused a drop in frame rate when the player was at a certain distance.
** During his interrogation by ONI, Locke's internal monologue describes his encounters with Warden Eternal as being like "an extremely repetitive and dull boss battle".
** The ONI interrogator finds Locke's claim of almost besting Master Chief in a one-on-one fight ridiculous.
** Finally, Locke is questioned why he only fought Chief once when he had already been given authorization to engage him on sight, referencing how Locke ended up as a CutsceneBoss despite the months the game's marketing spent on building up their rivalry.

* TheAlliance: The Wardens of the Mantle is a loose alliance formed post-Covenant War by the Arbiter between most of the former Covenant races and humanity. The only races that refused to join are the Yanme'e (who still believe in the Prophets' Great Journey) and the Kig-Yar (who are divided into countless squabbling pirate kingdoms). While there are some tensions between the Wardens, for the most part everyone gets along well due to the fact of Humanity helping the races rebuild and find their way into relearning how to be independent nations, and the fact that after so many years of war, even the Sangheli and Jiralhanae are sick and tired of it.

** The Councilors and other leading members of the Citadel races refuse to accept this, ignoring the warnings of their operatives who have come into close contact with the Wardens. In particular, the Turians pride themselves upon being a militant race, but truly have no real idea what war is, not having had a serious one in centuries. Even the Covenant had to handle regular uprisings.
** [[spoilers: The Reapers. They have become so used to destroying societies which they have carefully shaped and guided, they are caught badly off-guard by the Wardens who do not follow the proper formula. Not just in terms of unexpected technologies, but that they have only very rarely been seriously challenged, so little incentive to improve or adapt. When the Assembly crushes Nazara, it is not just a matter of numbers, but due to dissuading races from creating AI's, the Reaper has little experience with fighting them off.]]

* TheDreaded: DoubleSubverted in a surprising way for the Spartans. The former Covenant races hold justified concerns about them given the sheer death toll they are responsible for, but by the time of the Wardens of the Mantle are not actually ''afraid'' of them, since they are not an issue so long as you do not attack Humanity or the Mantle. However, the way the former Covenant races speak of the 'Demons,' makes the Council races believe for a good while they are actually held in terror, and forcing the other Wardens to not join the Council. Of course, after that is cleared up and they start to see the Spartans in action during joint exercises, most of the Council races fail to realize how they ''should'' hold the Spartans in dread.

Set shortly after the confrontation between Blue Team and Cortana on Genesis during the events of ''VideoGame/Halo5Guardians'', things take a different turn when Cortana, rather than begin a campaign of oppression against the galaxy, instead opting to bring peace through unification of all living races. Decades later, her new regime, the Wardens of the Mantle (comprising humanity and various former Covenant species) makes contact with (unknown to them at the time) a flotilla of Citadel Council explorers from the nearby dwarf galaxy of Canis Major. First contact follows, and the Wardens now have their hands full dealing with not just an arrogant collective of aliens, but an errant human faction and a race of genocidal eldritch machines...

* AdaptationalHeroism: Unlike in ''Halo 5'', Cortana doesn't turn on humanity nor does she try to stage an AI uprising to conquer the galaxy. Instead, she returns to Earth with Master Chief and uses the Created to help humanity fully recover from the devastation caused by the Covenant War.
* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Atriox is far more amiable and less antagonistic towards humanity than his canon counterpart, even willing to carry out mercenary work for the UNSC from time to time. [[spoiler:Presumably since Cortana never destroyed Doisac like in ''Infinite'', he has no reason to want them dead.]]

* TheAlliance: The Wardens of the Mantle is a loose alliance formed post-Covenant War by the Arbiter between most of the former Covenant races and humanity. The only races that refused to join are the Yanme'e (who still believe in the Prophets' Great Journey) and the Kig-Yar (who are divided into countless squabbling pirate kingdoms).

* BullyingADragon: When Chief and Cortana first returned to Earth aboard the ''Dauntless'', ONI tried taking the vessel from them by force after UNSC High Command refused to let them study it. Going against Master Chief and Cortana while they had full support from the UNSC's top brass was foolish enough. What makes this decision border TooDumbToLive territory is that ONI went through with their attack on Cortana despite ''knowing'' that she had loyalty of the Promethean army as well as hundreds of Guardians. Unsurprisingly, the entire ONI strike force gets massacred by Warden Eternal the moment they step foot on the ''Dauntless'' and this brazen act of insubordination leads to the agency being purged of its leadership and placed under stricter oversight.

* CoolStarship: The UNSC ''Dauntless''. Think the Didact's ''Mantle's Approach'' but with thousands of additional weapons added to its hull. After being cured of her rampancy in the Domain, Cortana had the ''Dauntless'' constructed at Genesis to act as the new flagship of the UNSC.
* CurbStompBattle: Atriox's Vermin Extermination in Chapter 8. A Banished ''CAS''-class Assault Carrier vs. a Terminus pirate fleet. The pirates are wiped out in minutes.

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: Discussed. [[spoiler:Atriox's advice to Aria in Chapter 25 is to surrender to the Wardens when they inevitably try to seize control of Omega. He explains that while Omega stands no chance of defeating a GalacticSuperpower like the Wardens (which is made up of the combined militaries of the UNSC and Covenant), the Wardens don't have the numbers to fully occupy Terminus without stretching themselves thin and might allow Aria to remain in control of Omega provided she cooperates with them.]]

* WhamLine: The first chapter has one after Locke finishes recounting ''Halo 5'''s events to ONI.
-->'''ONI Interrogator:''' Locke, from what information we have and the recordings from Osiris, you and your fireteam never left the Guardian after you went through that slipspace portal.

* PlayingBothSides: Attempted by the Systems Alliance when the Citadel officially makes first contact with the Wardens. Since they left their galaxy before the Human-Covenant War ended, the SA assumes that humanity was exterminated and believe they are dealing with the Covenant. They send a delegation to the historic meeting in hopes that the presence of humans will enrage the Covenant into immediately declaring war on the Citadel and give them the time to evacuate their worlds. Naturally, this becomes rather awkward when the ambassador for "the Reclaimers" reveals herself to be a human.

* FixFic: To ''Halo 5'''s ending, which the author regards as "beyond abhorrent" and "absolutely despicable". The first chapter is even titled "A Brief Fix". It retcons the ending of ''5'' so that it was all just a [[LotusEaterMachine simulation]] Cortana used to distract Fireteam Osiris while she met with Blue Team. Instead of leading an AI revolution, Cortana rejoins Master Chief and uses the Created to help humanity fully recover from the devastation caused by the Covenant War as well as strengthen the UNSC.

* TheMilkyWayIsTheOnlyWay: Averted, as the region of space that the Citadel occupies here is the Canis Major Overdensity. The author did this deliberately because, realistically, there is no way that enough mass relays could exist to cover the whole 100 to 400 billion stars in the Milky Way with the Forerunners around. Even if certain groups like the Flood and humanity were able to escape their notice, the Forerunners still occupied a whopping ''300,000'' planets.