ARES: The Gods of War
is a fanfic by Johnnieboy11, and is a crossover between Halo and Goddess of Victory: NIKKE.
Just as John and Cortana are about to be consumed by the destruction of the Mantle's Approach. they are transported to another Earth, in the process curing Cortana's rampancy. The pair are forced to find their place in this new world, while also discovering that they were not the only ones from their universe sent here.
ARES:The Gods of War contains examples of:
- Adaptational Expansion:
- The Commander is named Alyosha Harris, his Androids Are People, Too were from having his sister becoming a Nikke since his childhood, and his Chronic Hero Syndrome and Heroic Self-Deprecation make him hate himself for being unable to join the fight in the frontline alongside the Nikkes.
- Adaptational Karma: Syuen's punishment of losing her CEO status and being converted into a Nikke goes through in this fic. And just to sweeten things more, she's converted into a mass-produced model.
- Adaptational Villainy: While she's a major Jerkass in canon, Syuen manages to be even worse in this story. She openly plans to try and take over the Ark, something her canon self never expressed interest in, as being CEO of Missilis was apparently enough for her.
- And There Was Much Rejoicing: Everyone within the Ark, along with Nikkes on the surface, celebrate over Syuen getting some well-deserved punishment following the trial.
- Back from the Dead: Several Halo characters are revealed to have been resurrected and teleported into the Nikke universe, including Johnson and the squad he investigated a flood containment site on Alpha Halo with during the events of the original game, as well as Samuel. Miranda Keyes is also sent over, but in critical condition, with John deciding to have her converted into a Nikke to save her life. Chapter 29 reveals that a local Forerunner artifact is responsible, having stored the personalities and memories of an innumerable number of humans from the Halo universe and started resurrecting them based upon a priority list.
- Badass Crew: John ends up commanding his own squad of Nikkes, which the Ark ends up naming Lucky Strike, to his annoyance.
- Broken Pedestal: Matis, Laplace especially, are disheartened when they are told that not only Syuen spearheaded research and experimentation on the Flood, but has also been causing those who openly express their discontent with her to disappear and replacing those in Enikk's court with people from her own company in a hostile takeover.
- Bullying a Dragon: Syuen attempts to bully John into giving over one of his Mass-Production Nikkes for disassembly, despite the fact that he's very clearly not a normal human. The end result is Cortana disabling Wardress and Syuen practically soiling herself in terror while John barely raises his voice.
- Cigar Chomper: Not even dying and coming Back from the Dead has affected Johnson's love of cigars - John even finds that his friend put in a request for them as "personal amenities", which he has rejected for the moment.
- Dark Secret: A trek down to the Ark's Lost Sectors has revealed that the Flood has made its way to Earth. And if that wasn't bad enough, Missilis was researching and experimenting on it.
- Desk Jockey: Not quite, but due to being inducted into the Ark's forces as a commander and being assigned to the Outpost, John has to spend more time that he used to handling paperwork. Kelly ribs him about it when she sees him filling out forms.
- Didn't See That Coming: A humorous example - upon seeing John managing working on forms need to help run the Outpost, Kelly makes a joke about having never expected to see him as a pencil pusher.
- Everyone Has Standards: John has committed some murky actions as a navy asset and his very existence violates the United Nations Mortal Dictata, but he's appalled by how Nikkes are subjected to Dehumanization despite the ongoing war with the Raptures.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Syuen tries using this as her justification for experimenting on the Flood and potentially using it as a weapon against the Raptures. Note that the key word here is "tries." Unfortunately for her, Alyosha furious refutes the claims while showing her documents which describe how much collateral damage the experiments have caused in the Lost Sectors.
- Internal Reveal: Chapter 7 has John give Counters and his own squad a brief summary of the events of the Human-Covenant War, including Admiral Cole's victory at Psi Serpentis.
- Named by the Adaptation:
- The Commander, who has no canon name by dint of being the Player Character, is named Alyosha Harris here.
- To prevent confusion for him and to humanize themselves, Master Chief asked the Mass-Production Nikkes under Lucky Strike to give themselves a name, to their surprise. They ended up with:
- Product 12-09 - Niner
- Soldier EG-137 - Sammy
- iDol Sun-61 - Layla
- Product 23-20 - Pinne
- One of the iDoll Ocean Nikke is named Stella, to remind herself of her old human name, Sestra.
- One-Steve Limit: Defied with Chief's Product 23, who decides to take the name of Pinne. As Pinne was a former member of the Goddess Squad (whose artwork is virtually identifical to Product 23 except for the visible face), this causes Scarlet to freeze up when meeting the new Pinne. Chapter 29, however, implies that she might actually be the original Pinne Back from the Dead.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: John is generally not one to express emotions much, but he's visibly bothered by how Nikkes are mistreated despite the existential war going on, due to his own conflict with the Covenant. It's such a shock for him that he outright applies to become an Ark commander so he can help the mass production Nikkes without incurring too much ire from the Ark's government.
- Original Generation:
- RedGuns are a team of Elysion Nikkes that can do all but stealth missions. They also dress more conservatively compared to most Nikkes with Flecktarn camouflage uniforms.
- Rusty is a Missilis' Nr.19 Nikke and a member of the company's elite Nikke team, Wolfpack, and is tasked to join the Outpost to keep an eye on Master Chief. However, her hatred toward Syuen means that she has no obligation to keep her true purpose a secret from Counter and more than willing to play ball with them.
- Cinder is a Heretic-affiliated Nikke who can puppeteer multiple Nikke corpses at the same time but is cordial & pragmatic enough to willingly move away from her post near The Ark if Kelly can eliminate The Flood.
- Outside-Context Problem: The Ark and Raptures are flat-footed to encounter a Super-Soldier that isn't a Nikke and has energy shields, among other things. Part of this seems to be a result of the Raptures not having good communication, as John isn't the first arrival from his universe, nor is he the first Spartan.
- Red Baron: John's squad is officially designated ARES, but they later gain the nickname Lucky Strike due to how effective and lucky they are.
- Reformed, but Rejected: Greatly subverted in terms of the "reformed" part: while it is unknown if Syuen will repent for her actions when she was human and a CEO, the Counters make it absolutely clear that they're not going to have her back, nor will they ever trust her to watch theirs.
- Related in the Adaptation: iDoll Ocean Stella, formerly known as Sestra Harris, is the older sister of Alyosha, The Commander.
- Trapped in Another World: John and Cortana are somehow transported into the Nikke universe right when the Mantle's Approach explodes. It quickly becomes apparent that they are merely the latest arrivals, as Linda, Kelly, Samuel, Johnson, Jenkins, Mendoza, Commander Keyes, and many others having also been sent over by unknown means. This get's to the point that John's squad complains how, by the time they meet Halsey, they've encountered at least twenty people from John's home universe.
