Introduction: An ED Production…
(I did full B**** rewrite for this, I hope it does better.)
UCAF
United
Colonial
Alliance
Forces
-Arcturus Station-
The profiles of five candidates appeared on a holographic projector, each one displaying name and origins.
A feminine voice came from the darkness of the room known as ONI.
"Let us begin."
A file appeared of the first unit.
A young man clad in modified Marauder armour appeared, the yellow and khaki coloured scheme made him look more military than civilian.
MXV-Unit 1015- Marauder generation 3 Name: Jovi, orphan, survivor
"His entire unit was killed on the Akuze recon mission, but he managed to kill most of the thresher maws with just his bare hands, the young soldier was supposedly traumatised for life."
"His background covers that he was an orphan, living on the streets of Anomia, he definitely knows how to handle himself, doesn't he?"
"Do we need someone like that for the Spectres?"
"We shall see if he can prove himself the title, and then we shouldn't have any problems with allowing him on the team."
The next image arrived, this time of an older looking teen, albeit he did have white eyes and white hair wearing a black and blood red armoured figure, the young man looked far more than just intimidating.
CCXV-Unit 215- Vindicator G3 Name: Dominic, born soldier, hero
"Dominic saved the colonies of Tan from the Blitz, he was awarded the Nova star and was granted as guardian of a younger quarian child, she resides on Au Vannoch, he is still considered a major hero, and many look to him for aspiration."
"Yes but look at him, his record shows that he is too close to the quarian people and their goals of returning to their home world of Rannoch, but even if he chooses to accept our offer, he's still tangled in their mess."
"Which is why we need him, a voice of the quarian people will help, especially since our last efforts."
CLXV- Unit 0165- Reaver G3 Name: Alexis, adopted, assassin
"Alexis zero-one-six-five, the female member of the Reaver third, she has proven her worth and skill on Advent and Wei, she removed the old covenant loyalists with ease, and helped deal with the pirates on Wei with just herself, though she has similar records to that of Dominic."
"How can we let her join her record is completely hidden and what could you think of a daughter of the…"
"NOT here, Udina, there may be voices listening, as true as being the daughter of Ether, we cannot be choosy as to whom receives the position."
"Fine, if you need her."
The next image appeared a blue armoured soldier with grey hair, he looked almost ethereal like, his skin much like snow, and his face was handsome with soft green eyes.
CCLXV- Unit 0265- MA-EVA-G5 Name: Ian, alien raised, pilot
"Ian zero-two-six-five, the youngest of the candidates, the first crossbreed of human and asari, he is truly an astounding feat of gene engineering. Unit has also a sister but she's another option, Ian was the best of the best, he is the only one to have successfully destroyed a cruiser and twenty stations."
"Yes as colourful as his history is, can we trust him? The asari public still is in the dark about his existence and he is only fifteen, his sister is over 30 and she's a hybrid as well."
"The asari appreciate our effort in dealing with their 'demon' issue, and we do provide them with the best in gene therapy, and the turians as hateful of our creations and creativity, still admit that we made the best cure for their ailments. The salarians appreciate our ability to advance fast, but they fear we might end up replacing them in the long run."
The image cleared up and another image came, this time of a blue skinned female, she had her ears in a more depth of her cranium and her hair looked slightly stringy, in any other sense she looked asari but possessed specific gene traits of her family.
Alliance Forces: Name: Selena
Species: Asari/Human
Age: 31
"So the daughter of unit 0159, the famous pilot who survived using the HRUNTING Mark I and the MA-EVA. Whoever knew that he would marry that asari? Well it's isn't as though we could ever change what has happened, is she a viable candidate?"
Hackett spoke up.
"She is, we tested her skills, she's more than capable, she survived ten years in the field and most of her instructors believe she has definite promise."
ONI ONE
"I agree, and of course having a human asari hybrid on the team will surely increase public attention, another step for us to gain a seat."
"Well I have no objections, I will agree, but I must ask for a full psych check before letting her in." Udina said his tone did betray a small amount of doubt.
The final image was of a brown haired woman with a hairstyle that spiked at the back and went around the front of her face; she was beautiful in any sense and looked more like a woman who should be a model rather than a soldier.
ALPHA-0019-NAME: Ellen H Shepard
AGE: 21
GENDER: F
RANK: XO (Commander)
Facial and bodily structure:
HEIGHT: 189cm
EYES: Green
SKIN: Hazel
HAIR: Redish Brown
BACKGROUND:
Colonist: Family was murdered by Covenant Loyalists during the PURGE: Classified
War Hero: Joined operation: CASCADE: Killed Batarian leader and destroyed main base of operations.
KILLS: 589
"She is still the best the alliance has to offer, and probably more considering she is the child of Fred himself."
"I couldn't agree more, the child of the Legendary Spartan himself would make anyone walk away in fear."
"And she has the highest record for friendly fire on those of the ODST teams she was assigned to." Hackett added he was chuckling in the background.
"Well let's just hope for her future husband, they don't have any issues."
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Shepard looked out her window watching the world of Anomia below, she had been summoned by the Alliance Vanguard, and she knew only those prestigious enough to warrant an escort had to be very important.
Unknown to her was the powers that were now in play.
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CH1
This is the original chapter 1
Walk the line…
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BEGIN
Arcturus Station
The open expanse of space seemed endless and the opportunities in the galaxy were vast, but in Nova Stratus the port of Arcturus gave the options of getting ones way in life.
The seamless coloured armour plating and mass took up the view of any incoming vessel, the station in all its glory shined like it had 30years ago, and it still does to this day.
Hundreds of thousands of ships went past the station to wherever destination of the mass relay, the reason for the station was to ensure the safety of the public, Arcturus served as a military outpost and a critical access point to Nova space and the outer colonies.
But inside the depths of space along Anomia, the Normandy came flying past at the speed of light and slowing down from its maximum flight; it had just finished its warm up, and proceeded to the relay.
Inside a buzz of people went about the new stealth ship, it cool black and white armour plating made it look almost invisible to the outside, and the resonating armour of light kept the ship glowing, ever since departure from Anomia shipyards.
The Normandy came about past the Agar ship yards the place of its first production, the world itself was a massive ship yard, created by the forerunners and forgotten until the covenant war, since then it was used to produce the hundreds of thousands of vessels, and it still does.
The orange world with rings went by, and the Normandy continued its approach to relay 314, carefully navigating through the stream of ships the Normandy cleared itself for the acceleration.
Inside the stealth frigate a figure walked to the cockpit, Ellen Shepard walked past the consoles and stood back in her black and red armour with the N1 insignia, the proud hawk and sword of Anomia, she watched as the ship finally accelerated into the relay.
"Ignition sequence check, inflight systems check, all pre-flight navigations are set, and we are just drifting under 100mm." Joker said looking at the display.
"Excellent, I will inform Captain Anderson of our progress." Nihlus said walking past Shepard.
As soon as he left, Joker said. "I hate that guy."
Jane and Kaiden along with the other co-pilot looked at him.
"He just said the jump was excellent and you hate him?" Kaidan asked.
"Learning to ride a bike, that's excellent, but flying the most advanced stealth frigate in this side of the galaxy and hitting a target as small as a pin head, that' awesome like pie, and besides, spectres are trouble, call me paranoid."
"You're paranoid mate." The co-pilot said in an Australian accent.
"The council helped fund this joint military project along with the new covenant; they have every right to keep an eye put on their assets."
"Yeah well the covenant weren't trying to annex us now were they thirty four years ago." Joker replied.
"Yes, but they were trying to annihilate us before then, and trust me on this, we should be thankful for that."
The intercom activated. "Anderson the Joker, what's our eta?"
"Green captain, we just went through the relay, we'll be arriving soon."
"Good, is Commander Shepard there?"
"Here captain." She said.
"Come and meet me in the com room in a few moments, I'll be right along with the others."
The intercom went off.
"The captain sounds a bit agitated." Ellen said.
"Yeah I guess you should go commander, we have things here."
"Yeah see you." Joker said.
Shepard left for the com room, along the way, she spoke with Jenkins and Chakwas, though they did help with the history of the ship and crew, they didn't really explain much about the other operatives except the hero of the Blitz who was on board.
Finally entering the large conference room, she could see a table and where all the seating arrangements were, a dozen seats and half of which were occupied.
The six stood up to greet her and Nihlus who was waiting welcomed her.
"Greetings commander, looks like you made it in time."
"Who are all these people?"
Jovi decided to explain.
"Ma'am, were your team, or should I say team members, we were chosen for you as well as part of the spectre selection program."
"Selection program, you mean this is an evaluation and test?"
Nihlus said. "Exactly, we asked for a list of viable candidates and we were given you and your fellow soldiers."
The half asari said. "Actually I'm part of L1 security not a marine."
"Right still as soldier though, I'm sure the asari people would be welcoming you as one of the most unique Selena."
The male with pale skin who looked surprisingly human and something more, added. "I am also sure that they would be quite surprised, about the two of us, sir."
"I'm sure they would Ian, now I'm positive you are wondering about your mission?"
Anderson came down to greet them, and all of them came to salute.
"At ease soldiers, I came here to brief you all, Nihlus tell them."
A picture on the holographic display came up with the planet Eden Prime.
"As you must know this is not an simple milk run errand, over three days ago, a group of scientists conducting a dig on Eden Prime discovered a prothean beacon inside the wreckage of a once standing forerunner site, it was discussed as a necessary point of interest."
Shepard had read about the protheans a long time ago, it had been stated that the race was wiped out by a great dark force in the past when the forerunners died out, but many scientists disapproved the Ascendants claims as sheer superstition.
One of the other candidates asked.
"Sir, do we expect resistance in taking the artefact?"
"No what we needed to do is just recover it."
"Then why all the secrecy for such a simple mission, the alliance forces didn't even think that this could have such an effect, and no one is stupid enough to go against the alliance forces."
Nihlus was not as confident in their protection for some odd reason.
"As powerful as your army's maybe, there are plenty of species who could just as easily take the beacon out of the alliances grasp, which is why we are being sent in."
"I can understand that the hierarchy was not as welcoming to humanity but words will do you no good without action as I can see." Shepard said.
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Eden Prime
Orbital station 1
"Sir, I'm receiving contacts at L1-5, they do not match any known description on sensor scans, do we classify as hostile?" An ensign asked the station commander.
"Take every precaution, we don't know who they are, but better to be safe than sorry." The commander said remembering Harvest.
The station went to alert status 3 and all the fighter pilots and ships began forming at the defence point.
As far as military restrictions go, the defensive forces of the militia were very powerful, they constantly recruit from the population to ensure future safety of the people, and provide fleet resources to defend their worlds.
The planet was also alerted and many civilians began making their ways to safety shelters, they always listened to their neighbouring instructors to take calm when in an alert status.
In the faraway lands near the dig site, a town was alerted as the approaching fleet came.
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"Sir unknown contacts have changed course they are on approach from lunar orbit, I detect one large ship three kilometres in length and more than three dozen other vessels ranging from frigates to cruisers."
"Alert command and all neighbouring fleets to converge here, we're at alert status 1, code red."
The dozens of ships poured out of FTL and began their assault on to the defensive fleet, the UCA forces began firing first as they accelerated into combat, but with only one cruiser and four frigates, they were heavily outnumbered.
Hundreds of fighters swarmed out of the fleet and engaged the unknowns, the battle started to only just intensify.
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Normandy eta 30 minutes
"Sir we are receiving a distress call from Eden Prime, you need to see this." Joker said over the com.
The marines looked to the display with Nihlus and Anderson.
And explosion followed by gunfire, a person stood up and started firing, her voice yelling orders, other soldiers also firing at the unknowns, but the camera wouldn't face the enemy contacts.
A few more minutes followed until a screeching noise, the camera turned to face the incoming vessel and like a wave of darkness the screen went dead.
"That's it sir, it cuts out after that, we also received a level one alert from the fleet about unknown contacts."
Anderson and Nihlus were both unsure about what had happened but they needed to get there.
"Joker, what's our eta?"
"Another twenty minutes, sir."
Anderson faced Shepard and the team.
"Alright commander, you and the team will be sent in via drop, we have support teams and as many troops loaded and ready to deploy, I want you and Alpha team to drop in and secure that beacon, understood?" Anderson said.
"Understood, sir, Alpha will make the drop."
"Let's move out people." Shepard said.
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Eden Prime
Drop point Alpha
As the Normandy came over the burning plains, the ship lowered itself into an open area and let the marines down onto the drop deck.
"Sir, we are ready to depart, I already have Dominic and Alexis ready to go scouting ahead."
"Good, the mission is yours Shepard, make sure to get the beacon and secure it from the unknowns."
"Sir yes sir."
Nihlus arrived to the deck as well, checking his MA7A, a much low powered variant than that of the alliances MA9C, for good reasons.
"Nihlus, are you heading down with us?" Dominic asked.
"No, I'm going to go scout ahead, I'm better on my own any way."
"You sure you don't need support, it isn't a good idea to-."
Nihlus jumped off into the wilderness, he didn't hear the last sentence.
"Well looks like our stop, see you sir." Shepard said jumping off.
"Good luck." Anderson said to himself.
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On the ground the team of seven walked about, Jenkins was here to see his home, just not in ruins; he was horrified at the wanton destruction of his home land.
"Ma'am, do you want us to follow up on Nihlus?" Dominic asked.
"Yes, make sure he doesn't get killed, we still have a job to do, and we'll meet up at the port, and go on from there."
"Yes ma'am, heading out." Dominic said while Alexis seemed completely quiet.
Something about her being a telekinetic and psi user made Shepard wonder about the younger woman's past.
Hurrying along with her team of five they made their way over to the path, watching for any ambushes or traps, they covered the distance, and nothing seemed to fill their minds either than shooting the bastards that were responsible for the attack.
"Jenkins, move up with Jovi." Shepard ordered.
The two nodded and began carefully, they did pause to see if there was anything ahead, and taking a look in his scope Jenkins looked about, he saw nothing strange.
He stepped out of cover and just a few feet ahead…
"LEROY!" Shepard yelled.
The other candidates had much enhanced hearing and such installed and knew that there was something around the bend.
But unlike that of Leroy Jenkins, he never saw it coming.
Five assault drones appeared in an ambush formation and began tearing into the soldier, his shields buckled and his ODST ablative armour buckled, some rounds tore into his lower torso and sprayed his blood out.
The team quickly returned firing, taking two drones shields down, Ellen could see that these drones were made for heavy combat; no one else had advanced enough shields to withstand a barrage from Spartans.
The fire fight only lasted a few moments as the marauder Jovi tossed an anti-tank mine into the fight, the explosion was powerful enough to shake the ground 500m in every direction but it had the desired effects, with a bit of overkill.
"Area is clear ma'am." Jovi declared.
Ellen went to check on Leroy, his pulse was still there but large amount of blood loss.
"Normandy we have man down, I repeat man down we need med-transport now."
"Roger that, med transport is en route."
Shepard and the team had to leave the young marine behind with bio-gel in his system; hopefully he should recover once aboard the Normandy.
As far as how Spartans went, Alpha team were mostly Spartan V descendants and were just more capable of doing their job than others.
"Let's get going we need to rally with Nihlus." Shepard said.
They cut across the grounds and fast, many of the small assault drones were dealt with quickly, and others much like them started appearing, rocket drones started their assault and began trying to hamper the team's efforts.
But still they broke as quickly as they were made.
It was not until they reached a slope, a soldier in clad green armour that took shape to her body started running, her shields flared as she took damage, it was not until the fourth hit she rolled on her back and fired at the drones.
Both exploded and landed in pieces, she got up to watch a fellow colonist being impaled by walking flash lights, the humanoid walking machines were tall and slender, they looked like quarians, but they possessed a more armoured figure.
Seven of them came at the marine who was now hiding.
Ellen and her team took up flanking positions as the hostiles made their way over, she and the team took aim.
And three hostiles went down; the remaining four took to the surrounding cover while the largest in the group suddenly vanished.
'Active camouflage? No, this is different, they don't have covenant tech.' She thought.
Jovi was also the one to notice the sudden disappearance of the unit, and looked for a shimmer, instead he found an outline of displaced light, it was relatively easy to spot, unlike most cloaking tech the alliance and covenant had.
He fired half of his clip until the walking stealthier was on the floor spilling out its plasma fluids.
"That's another one down." Jovi said.
The remaining robots fell to the combined fire of the team.
Ellen walked over to the exhausted marine.
"Sargent Ashley Williams's ma'am, I was part of the first colonial defence forces stationed here on Eden Prime." She said with a salute.
"At easy soldier, can you tell us what happened?"
She fidgeted as she explained.
"We were securing the beacon when fleet com told us that hostiles were on approach, we had everything instead set down and took a defensive position along the entire region, the geth then started pouring in."
"Wait, geth? I thought that they were behind the Perseus Veil?"
"That's exactly what we thought until we ID them through defence network HQ, which stated them as geth, they have large numbers and amassed a large enough fleet to strike at us."
"So we got ourselves a real fight on our hands?" Jovi said looking about at the remains.
"Don't get excited Spartan, the Fenris Wolves do that."
"Right ma'am."
Ellen turned her attention back to the sergeant.
"Do you know where the beacon is?"
Ash turned to face the Far East above the point of the structure in the distance.
"Just head that way until you hit a ridge, there should be a base camp from there and you just follow the road until you hit the transit station."
"Are you capable enough to come along with us sergeant?" Ellen asked.
"Just fine, I needed to get back at those flashlight heads for my platoon, ma'am." Ash said.
"Good, we'll be heading there, get locked and loaded."
Ash grabbed her assault rifle and her secondary heavy weapon, a grenade launcher and TLD (target laser designator).
"Let's move people."
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The next few minutes were fighting the remaining geth in the region and securing the original dig site.
Shepard and the team met some resistance at the dig site, but they were dealt with quickly, though the hunters as they were identified were far more troublesome, Shepard had to duck on more than one occasion to avoid being hit.
Ash explained that the beacon was previously located there, but it must have been moved to another location, Dominic responded by telling them the beacon was moved to the transit port over the ridge.
"Let's move we don't have time to waste." Shepard said.
The team quickly and hastily followed up the hill into the camp site where the previous inhabitants had once lived, the scientists were almost nowhere to be found, except the few unfortunate ones impaled on the long pikes.
That was until the pikes slowly drew down and the bodies became active.
"My god they're still alive, what did the geth do to them?" Ash said horrified.
"Ash I don't think they're alive anymore, and also I might add, you might want to shoot them." Ian said before opening fire on the five cybernetic figures.
The bodies rushed at them, waving their arms in a vain attempt to harm their shields, though there was one odd looking husk, it had a type of cylinder like arm that glowed.
A small blast of energy seemed to surprise the team, Shepard's shields flared as the impact from the blast took her shields down a few notches.
"Damn." She said before putting in a dozen rounds through the husk.
The bodies were left strewn across the field, and left there to rot.
"What the hell was that?" Ash asked Ellen.
"Looks like some kind of adaption, I think it was power generated by the pike that changed the bodily structure, and in total the body became capable of containing and holding such energy."
Jovi said examining the body; he had a PHD in xeno-biology and a full teaching from the Anomia first university on the multiple species in existence and on how to treat venoms.
(This explains the origins of the Reaper guards.)
"Not to call me a bit queasy, but that was F***** up." Ash said.
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(This is Eden Prime for now.)
I do hope you guys can review.