As if on a movie screen, events played out.
…
It kind of was on a screen at the moment.
Rochelle sat up from the couch that she created earlier, walking up to the TV that she made. It was currently paused on a frame showing a man, young, and strong firing a beam out of his hands. Rochelle didn't find this strange, as many a universe used her creation of Aetherion to some degree. It was, after all, necessary for life as it is known now. She wasn't at all perturbed by that. What really got her thinking was how this man was using it. It was odd for a mortal to have such a mastery over her creation. If not for the power requirements, she could guess he'd be making new life from scratch.
Doing such, strained her.
"Who is his adversary?" She asked the Television
The frame fizzled out, only to show a black void. She smacked the remote, thinking that she got it wrong, but no… this is what he was facing.
"A void… No mortal should know of there, or even come into contact with it… so how?"
The screen obeyed her.
Diagrams and models flew across the screen. Charts and programing filled the screen until it turned blue, reading an error message:
ERROR; SYNTAX, DATA OVERFLOW;
"It's that complex huh? I kind of figured with the way Aetherion works… Why'd I have to make it so complicated?"She muttered to herself
It was difficult to trip up the literal embodiment of change. She created Aetherion to stop the Void's habit of destroying change. It was annoying really. You create a life form here and it gets frozen in time, losing any sense of progress. Then she'd start over, rinse and repeat. Aetherion was the embodiment of change, so it allowed things to continue to advance, but at a cost. Things broke down and decayed eventually. It was a pain, but it worked.
"Now, how is he attracting the attention of the void?"
She created another TV, wiping the previous from existence. This one, more capable of handling the stresses of the information.
This time, the screen showed a more simplified version of the design. The design was brilliant, and made use of things that she completely forgot she put into the ruling last of her universes.
"The energy requirements for this must be astronomical! How can he supply that?"
The screen fizzled out again, showing a power system diagram that, in her opinion seemed absolutely insane. In the formula, it hinted at something she thought impossible.
"He's pulling energy from the same pool that powers the laws he's working under…"
"It's insane; no wonder he has such mastery. He obviously has no complaints with stealing energy from me."
She switched the TV to a feed of the man and pressed play.
"I want to see how this plays out."
"HADRON…" Alex roared as he charged one of his greatest attacks
It was the only hope for the small colony of Shanxi. He had traveled here, expecting to find the source of his problem… only to be thrown into a first contact scenario. It was a pain and now to make things better, there was a disabled alien dreadnaught careening straight for New Harbor, the capital of Shanxi.
"CANNON…" Alex slammed his arms forward, his wrists meeting in the center
Now, his Nanites were practically dying by the millions just keeping him from killing himself. Thankfully they were powered by the universe itself; otherwise he'd be dead a hundred times over from this attack alone. They had infinite energy to work with, but they could only duplicate so fast before errors were to form and he'd have to replace his nanite supply.
"FIRE!" The Aetherion he'd been charging up for this attack spiraled around him and into the wave that spiked every which way, but maintained enough stability as to not destroy the city he was in.
The wave splashed from his hands spreading for miles beyond the atmosphere, and wiping out a few extra ships in orbit. The wave was a brilliant purple flash in the sky, and a terrifying plume of fire in space. It melted the outer hulls of nearby ships, and caused the air for miles to smell of Ozone.
Alex's gloves were burnt, as was the skin on his left hand, his right mechanical one glowing a bright red as he heaved in air. His vision blurred and his sight grew dim. His arms drooped as he fell in the crater created by the backlash of his attack. Random sections of the soft sand that were reduced to glass from the blast's frays crunched under his weight.
Then, the camera cut out.
"Back at history insider, we celebrate the 26th anniversary of the First Contact War with an in depth review of the historical figure only known as The Ranger of Shanxi." The smooth female voice stated
"The clip shown earlier is one of the four known recordings of this strange figure. This clip was taken by Petty Sargent Grey Wilkins during the atmospheric re-entry of the Turian Dreadnaught currently known as the Palavon's Talon. The ship, measuring a colossal 800m in length, began it's descent from orbit due to a secondary drive core overload."
Shepard glanced up from her desk and at the program on TV. She always did that when ships came up. Glancing at her collection of models, she frowned. She needed a place to put them…
"The ship was sent on a dead course for New Harbor, the capital of Shanxi at the time. This footage has been often disputed as to its authenticity, but upon our in depth investigation for our viewers we discovered thousands of accounts describing this event from afar. One of the people we interviewed at this time is verified as a Turian captain that fought in the battle of Shanxi." The blonde woman at the desk swiveled over to a Turian man who appeared to be scarred heavily on side of his face.
"So, you were there at Shanxi. Would you describe this event for the viewers?" She asked politely
The Turian scratched the back of his head (Apparently a common trait between them and humans) and spoke.
"Well, Miss Marucia, I was the captain of the Fire Spawn, a small scouting frigate that had been tasked with locating the orbital defenses in an earlier point in the battle."
"So you were an important figure for the orbital supremacy seen at Shanxi?"
"You could say that. It was a few days into the battle and the Alliance support fleet arrived, that I saw it. When they jumped into the system, they took us by surprise. The Alliance fleet's first volley hit us hard, but my frigate got lucky, only being skimmed by one of their dreadnaught rounds. Unfortunately for us though, our barriers were overloaded along with our core. We were sent adrift when we caught sight of the Palavon's Talon hitting atmo. Our ship was set in the perfect revolution speed to follow it.
Most of us watched it careen to the planet. It was at this point that the light grew too intense for most to watch. Atmospheric re-entry is usually a bright affair, and for some reason, I was the only one in the bridge to continue looking. After a few moments, the ship was just gone…"
"Gone? How so?"
"It was vaporized… and replaced by a massive purple fire. It spiked everywhere, cutting into a few nearby ships. It skimmed out right wing, and flashed by the bridge window… Giving me this." The Turian said, pointing to the left side of his face
Shepard's eyes were glued to the screen. How? As of yet, the Alliance had never and any form of tech that did anything even similar to what he was describing…
Shepard was drawn out of her thoughts by the voice of the Turian.
"I was treated, but according to the doctors I had no form of radiation damage. In any other known case, I should be dead from Radiation sickness. Spirits saved me that day… the only thing we could think of it being was a massive antimatter bomb. The alpha particles produced should have killed me."
Shepard drew her head away from the screen, and turned it off. She had a Spectre to hunt down. She didn't have the time to look into things like this. Maybe after this mess was over…
She got up from her seat, and opened the door to her cabin, turning left into the cafeteria/sleeping area. She sat down at the table that easily folded down from the wall. She then ordered a coffee from the machines that laid behind the folding table. A medium sized silver mug filled with the roast slid out of the machine, which she gladly took.
It was almost a shame that they made this coffee so bad. More people might actually drink it otherwise. The Navy needed as much energy as it could get…
Shepard leaned back in her chair, and took another gracious sip.
"Oh my, I seem to be out of as of late…" Rochelle stated as she looked at the timestamp of the recording.
It was dated at 2157 C.E. She was 26 years behind!
"I hope this fellow hasn't died yet… this looks like it'll be fun to watch!"
...
...
...
She got 5 minutes in before getting bored.
"Oh COME ON! He's just in Cryo-Sleep!" She yelped throwing her hands up in agitation
Flopping down further into her chair, she frowned. What to do... what to do. Maybe there was something interesting in the same universe?
"Are there any odd presences that'd be interesting to see?" She asked the TV
The screen popped up a view of two separate images. One of a redheaded woman drinking coffee, the other being reptilian bird figure with that appeared to be a massive set of bionic implants. It also seemed strange that when she sensed the Atherion within him... it was tainted.
"What's the taint on the second one?" She asked
The screen went black.
"Well... shit. Void is making it's presence known in this universe."
"I created this one a while ago too..." She finished frowning
Hmm... She didn't want to let void take this one too...
She liked this one almost as much as the one where people were flying and shooting lasers out of their hands...
"Any way to counter Void without getting directly involved?"
The screen popped up that strange man in Stasis yet again.
"What's his name, Race and Planet of origin?" She asked
"Alexander Smith, Unknown, and Unknown" The machine responded
"Unknown?"
"It appears his Aetherion signature does not originate from this universe."
"Run it across the verses in my sector." she stated
"No results found."
"Try the public files of... my neighboring three gods."
"... 1 match found."
"Who's sector?"
"Arkashan God of Progress' sector."
"Arkashan's sector? That's pretty far away... Is there any reference to him in my domain?"
"Yes."
"List them."
"Verse 5 8 and 23 along with 612 seem to have had his presence."
"What did I call them?"
"List them by main Aetherion impacts?"
"Why not. Go for it."
"Verse 5 is known for it's fantasy ties as well as it's Dragons. Namely a former duel between an Elf and a dragon described as the 'World Eater'. Verse 8 is linked to the fates of a Magic Guild Titled 'Fairy Tale'. Verse 23 is from when you were drunk and wanted people to wish on a dragon's testicles."
"HAH! That was a good one!"She yipped with a fond tune
"Universe 612 is based in a new element which the locals term to be called Element Zero." It finished
Those were some of her most powerful universes...
Just what did this man want?
"I guess I'll have to figure this out with a bit of meddling. Alter events in verse 612 to direct... that coffee girl to the guy in ice. Make sure they meet.
It might make for some entertainment."
A/N
Due to the confusion in my previous fic by the same name, I have decided to redo this fic in between chapters of Trail of Dust. I'm going to be much more in depth on my explanations and further explore my Oc's background and motivation behind his actions.
So…
Peace