Earth
Reaper Invasion
A ball of fire came raining down from the sky, bringing with it an almost sun like presence in the ash filled sky. Despite its intense power and size, the light vanished almost as soon as it had appeared. Its departure returning the bleakness of a night filled with death. However, its brief existence did not go unnoticed by those below.
Jumping off the roof of a car, a young boy sprinted across the pavement, his bear feet crushing against the gravel littered with glass and debris. Ordinarily, the pain of stepping through such hazards would have left him unable to continue, but after two months of nothing else, his soles had developed a hard almost unnatural callus to protect against the pain. Not that he didn't take special care to avoid the most harmful steps, practically skipping across the road instead of running straight through it.
"Hey Manny," the boy shouted, approaching an armor clad Human leaning against a collapsed rail. "Did you see that light? Wonder what it was?"
At first, Manny hadn't noticed the boy, his mind wondering about the same light the child questioned. It wasn't until the boy was standing in front of him, that Manny's thoughts were brought back into reality.
"Damn it, Jimmy," he cursed. "I thought you were supposed to be at camp with the group? I can't be babysitting you out here."
"Oh come on! I can handle myself," Jimmy said, putting his fist on his hips, clenching them in an almost aggravated manner. Despite his tall attitude, the boy himself only reached up to Manny's chest, barely old enough to be alone at home in the best of times, let alone in the middle of a war zone.
"Just get back to Reynolds, tell him what you saw," Manny said, gently pushing Jimmy towards the opposite direction. "And try not to get yourself killed."
Shrugging Manny's hand off of his shoulder, the boy sneered. "Yeah yeah, go be messenger. Don't you guys have radios or something?"
Climbing over the wall, the boy landed on the damp soil, his feet seemed to jump with glee to be on a soft cool ground. He started off towards the east, headed back in the opposite direction of where he had followed the marine. It had taken Manny and his squad almost two hours to reach the road, meaning that he now had to travel the same long path alone to return to camp.
Though to the boy, it didn't seem too particularly long. The only thing that allowed him to recognize the passage of time, was his rhythmic heart beat, which was almost always erratic and stressed. Barely any moon light lit his way, and the stars were even less so. The sun could barely penetrate the sky during the day, the once blue scenery now replaced with ash and smoke. Rumors were that the entire planet was covered in darkness and fire, covering far more than simply the UK. An idea that grew increasingly more realistic as time passed and the fighting with the Reapers worsened.
Something caught Jimmy's attention, diverting his gaze towards a collapsed house. Three Cannibals walked into his field of view, followed closely by a Marauder, their bionic like appearance giving them a clear outline through the fog and smoke. Panicked, Jimmy dropped down, his presence now hidden behind a small patch of grass.
"Crap crap crap, I am going to be in so much trouble," he cursed, his voice barely above a whisper. He could hear the Reaper forces howling, groveling like dying animals in the mud. Peeking through a gap in the grass, Jimmy struggled to make out what they were doing. It appeared to him that they were searching through the smoldering ruins, the Cannibals were pushing over rocks and walls, trying to find something hidden below it all. At first, Jimmy thought they had somehow spotted him from afar, well before he had managed to see them, and they were now looking to where they found him last.
Panic set in again, as Jimmy tensed his muscle preparing to take off and sprint away. He was almost positive they were looking for him, it was the only logical explanation, and he was unwilling to be dragged away to the city to be processed. Positioning his arms, Jimmy readied to push himself up, waiting until all four of the aliens were facing a different direction. If he could just make it across the field, then he might be able to lose them.
A shrill shriek stopped him cold, freezing his body in place. The Marauder was pulling something from under a crumbling counter, struggling as the something resisted its grip.
"Let me go you creep!" the something said, sliding out from below the counter for Jimmy to see. It was a girl, her clothes barely rags that hung on her half starved body. Despite her seemingly frail and weak demeanor, she was intent on giving the Marauder a fight, resisting his grip with wild turns and kicks of her legs.
She barely managed to break free, dropping to the ground as the Marauder stepped back stunned. Desperately, she struggled to crawl away backwards, her eyes trained in fear on the monster before her. Scooting across the ground, the girl backed up against the counter behind her, blocked from escaping.
"Lydia, run!" Another voice screamed through the air. Coming out of seemingly nowhere, a tall muscular man came running towards the Marauder, hitting the creature to the ground. Shaking away her fear, the girl jumped off the ground and sprinted away from the house. The Cannibals, realizing their leader was in danger ,rushed to its aid. Surrounding the man, they readied their weapons to fire.
Jimmy had been watching all of this unfold before him, fear still gripping his body. He could see the man charge the Cannibals, watching at his futile attempt to fight back.
"Moron," Jimmy muttered to himself. "Should of kept running." The man had tackled one of the Cannibals to the ground beyond his field of view. He took notice of the girl again, who was running straight towards him. In a moment, she would trip right on top of him, or at the very least step right over him. If he hadn't been in harms way, he might have just let her run and remained safely hidden. But as it were, that was no longer an option.
Pushing himself up, Jimmy was almost amused when the girl stopped dead in her tracks, obviously surprised that another Human was standing before her, a look of shock appearing evident on her face. She couldn't have been older than him, maybe only thirteen or fourteen. Her messy black hair covering her dirt encrusted face, bringing a darker hue to her already dark complexion.
"Who are.." she started, before gunshots from the house behind her caused her to turn. The squad of Reaper forces had recovered from their little skirmish, and were now looking towards their position. "No, Brian?" she cried out, dread already edging into her psyche.
Having already taken his first step away from the whole debacle, Jimmy paused for the slightest moment, turning to look at the girl staring back at the approaching soldiers.
I can't leave her here like this. Manny wouldn't, so I shouldn't, he thought to himself, debating over what should be done.
"Come on," he shouted, stepping up to grab her hand and turn her around. He sprinted away, leading her away from the Reapers and the house. Their hands remained interlocked as he lead the girl back towards his camp.
They ran, the both of them, sprinting for their lives as the creatures behind them gave chase. Two children, two complete strangers running with their lives on the line. Making into a tree line, the pair stopped, winded and breathless they dropped to the ground behind the safety of a large tree that had somehow remained standing.
"I don't know how much farther I can go," the girl said between shallow breathes.
"There's a camp with soldiers not too far away form here, if we can just get there."
"What's the point?" she asked, her mournful eyes staring up at his.
The Marauder and Cannibals were within sight again, their bodies never seeming to tire as they closed in on the pair. Grunting, Jimmy pulled the girl back to her feet, struggling to urge her to follow. Halfheartedly, she complied with his urging, only following the base instinct now to live. Again they ran, dodging through the tress and brush, desperate to improve the distance between them and their pursuers.
Their path dropped suddenly, unbeknownst to them. Tripping over themselves, the pair fell down a steep hill, crashing and tumbling into each other and the earth. Landing on his leg, Jimmy screamed in pain as the girl fell on top of him as well, the sound reverberating off the trees and piercing through the smog. Quickly, she pushed herself off of him, as they both struggled to stand. Unable to put weight on his leg, Jimmy fell back down, almost bringing the girl with him, their hands still clinging to one another.
"My leg, I can't move it," he exclaimed, swallowing down the pain and exhaustion just to talk. He could feel the adrenaline coursing through him, urging him to get up and move, to fight past the feeling of weariness and injury.
Footsteps could be heard behind them, the crunching of twigs and mud beneath heavy feet as the Reaper squad approached them. It all seemed so hollow now, as if each thundering foot step brought with it a kind of imminent dread. Unable to move, Jimmy could only hold his breathe as the steps grew louder, the girl dropping down next to him on the ground, gripping his arm for dear life.
The Marauder came around the hill, turning to face the pair. It was difficult to even tell what the creature used to be, the normal head crest of the Turians being its only familiar trait, the rest of its body had become some kind of mechanical monstrosity of nature that sent a chill down Jimmy's spine. Walking over to the kids, the Marauder lowered its weapon, knowing they were now unable to flee again. The Reapers were known to kill indiscriminately, but there was a purpose when they took people alive, something much worse than a simple death. Closing his eyes, Jimmy flinched as the metallic hand gripped around his shirt collar, pulling the boy off the ground as the Marauder prepared to carry him away.
That's it, this is how it ends. Should have listened to Manny, shouldn't have gotten myself killed like this.
Suddenly, he fell to the ground, the grip on his shirt loosening as the Marauder fell with him. Opening his eyes, Jimmy watched as the three Cannibals started firing towards some trees in the distance, weapons unloading indiscriminately into the air. The Marauder had fallen on top of him, crushing his already broken leg even further. Wincing, Jimmy desperately tried to push the thing off of him, eager to ease the pain of his leg. He felt a pair of hands on his shoulders, the girl had hurried over to him and was pulling him back away from the firefight and monsters.
More weapons fire flew through the air, dropping one of the Cannibals onto the ground as the other two ran into cover behind a fallen tree. Jimmy watched in shock as a single round punched through one Cannibal, leaving a large hull in place of its skull. The last one moved, knowing its position to be unsafe. It squatted behind a large boulder, easily out of sight from where the previous hail of bullets had originated from. Something flickered in the air beside it, shimmering as if a pool of water had somehow passed by. Jimmy noticed the disturbance far before the Cannibal was aware of anything. The familiar orange hue of an omni-tool lighted around the shimmer, as a hard light blade pushed through the monster's rear, killing it instantly.
The Cannibal fell, and an armor clad alien appeared in its place, his tactical cloak flickering away to reveal his presence. He was quickly joined by three more aliens, all adorned in similar black armor with dark gold highlights. They wore slick helmets, with a large visor covering their faces, that protruded at the end. One of them was slightly smaller than the others, more feminine in appearance than her comrades. All four of them seemed to be examining the pair of Humans from afar, unsure of what to do with the huddled pair.
"Turians," Jimmy exclaimed aloud, recognizing the aliens from some biology text book from long ago.
They seemed to be talking among themselves, discussing something that neither Jimmy or the girl could guess at. And without a translator, Jimmy had little hope of actually communicating with them at all.
"Thanks for saving our lives," the girl said, breaking the silence between them first. The nearest one took notice first, seeming to understand what they had said. He stepped towards them, placing his Phaeston on his back in a small sign of trust. Removing his helmet, the Turian crouched down to be on a closer level with the pair, cradling the helmet between his arm and hip.
"I'm Nero," he said, trying his best to appear friendly to the startled kids. "We were sent by the Hierarchy on an advanced scouting mission." As he spoke, there was a clear delay in his words as he struggled to remember the correct translation. "Do you know where the Human forces are?"
Another Turian stepped forward, shouting something that was unintelligible to Jimmy. Nero responded to him, turning his head slightly to glare at his fellow.
"I can take you to Church, he's the soldier in charge at our camp," Jimmy said, his voice still shivering in fear.
Standing straight, Nero nodded his head in appreciation, translating what he had been told to his squad mates. Looking back towards the kids, he squinted his face plates into a kind of scowl, before looking back at the boy still unable to support himself.
"Are you injured?" he asked.
"I think his leg might be broker," the girl responded for him, struggling to assist Jimmy into a standing position.
Pushing his weight onto her, Jimmy managed to hobble on one foot, as the other stood loosely at his side. "I should be fine, so long as you don't mind helping me out some."
The girl flashed him a small smirk, before wrapping his arm around her shoulders to better leverage his body. "Just be sure to point the way."
Nero watched as the pair started limping out of the forest, placing his helmet back on his head as they made little distance away from him. The rest of his Turian squad spread out, creating a small perimeter around the pair as Nero followed close behind.
"We'll make sure you get home safe," he said to the Humans, trying to sound as sincere as possible in the foreign tongue.
Leaning in close to the girl, Jimmy struggled to talk and limp at the same time. "By the way, what was your name? I forgot to ask during all that running."
"Lydia," she said, readjusting his weight to make the strain a bit easier. "You?"
"Jimmy."
"Well thank you for saving my life, Jimmy."
"Thanks for carrying me home," he replied, a small beam of happiness escaping his sore voice for the first time that day.
AN: And that's a pretty good spot to leave it off.
Right so now to explain this to all of you probably confused people, especially those asking why its in the xover section with no Halo in it! How dare I have a cross over without the appropriate crossing! Shame on me, someone should probably be chopping off my head right now.
I always love the idea of exploring what happens on the front lines of the conflict during the Reaper war, not just from Shep's point of view. And I really wanted to see what happens with all the races and stuff fighting it out, like in the multiplayer but with more characterization and intrigue! As such, I present to you The Cycle Universe Spin Off! A small series of battles and war tales that take place on Earth during the events of Mass Effect 3, all set up in the xover universe established during the events of The Cycle which is still not 100% done. But don't worry, it will be! I've hit a bit of a wall with that story though, and decided to start writing something that I really really wanted to do. So please, do tell me what you think and share your thoughts in review form. And as always, thanks for reading!
CONTINUITY BELOW!
A small note of intrigue for those of you who actually care to read this story at all. I'm going to give a quick rundown on what you need to know about the universe cannon so you don't have to read something else and can solely enjoy (or tolerate) this story.
After Shepard surrenders to the Alliance following the destruction of the Collector Base, the Covenant attacked the Alliance, the Prophet of Truth thinking they could undermine the entire Covenant as a whole. Shepard is forgiven for his ties with Cerberus, and is sent to investigate the first planet the Covenant have attacked. There, he finds a Forerunner structure that leads them to Halo, where Shep and co. discover the Flood and Halos purpose. Destroying the ring, ala blowing up a Covenant ship, Shepard returns home to Earth with the Normandy and a Huragok engineer with him. The crew arrives home, and then Earth is attacked by the Reapers, with a few Covenant ships following them. The Covenant and Reapers seem to be working together, as neither attacks the other, and the Prophet of Regret takes his fleet and a few Reaper ships away from Earth and to another Halo, the Normandy following close behind. There, Shepard defeats the Covenant forces as Truth begins the Great Schism and the Elites are killed. He and the Arbiter become good buddies (Kind of sort of) and he follows him away from the ring after they successfully stop Tartarus from blowing up the planet. Truth heads to Earth, Shep and co. head to the Citadel to focus on the war on large, and using the recently discovered Prothean weapon from Mars.
And that's all I got so far. As always, please let me know what you think!