Betad by HowlnMadHowie.
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December 14, 2183
Nubian Expanse
Dakka System
MG-375 "Pragia"
Type: Garden
Population: Unknown:
Workers: 356
Orbiting Station: Lethe
Official Status: Active
Capacity: 3000
Population: Permanent 401
(CORRECTION) 402
Visiting: 6
Owned by: Lasalle Bionational,
USCM (SPONSORED),
Systems Alliance (SPONSORED)
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The first thing Amanda Ripley noticed when she opened her eyes was the overwhelming feeling of nausea, exhaustion, and vertigo. Her body felt beaten to hell, as if this were her first time put under for hypersleep. She blindly slid her hands up the sides of the pod, her fingers searching for the edges of the metal container.
When she finally found them, Amanda pulled herself up against the freezing sides. She tried to blink away the blurriness, it was dark like the corridors on Luna, but that was forgotten as her body shook as bile rose up her throat. Instinctively she leaned out of the pod and allowed her body to expel the bitter green fluid.
As she wretched, Amanda thought back on what she could remember…she remembered a light, the crushing cold of the black void that was space, and that thing.
'A life form, an unknown type, some kind of alien organism. It's extremely dangerous.' She remembered telling…
She couldn't remember his name. She remembered his brown hair, his slim build, she could even remember his face but try as she might she couldn't remember his name. It was frustrating, remembering the smallest details but not knowing their names nor being able to connect specific traits to them.
Something was wrong and for some reason she couldn't blame it on stasis. Slowly, she pulled herself off the pod.
Her legs could barely support her own weight. Using the container as support she took her first careful steps, careful to avoid the puddle of bile. Amanda looked around the dark, sealed room for a way out. Once she was far enough away from the pod she let it go losing her support and her footing, causing her to slip. Ripley quickly put her hands in front of her bracing herself against the sudden impact.
There was a bang and the room exploded in light.
Amanda closed her eyes in response to the unexpected stimulation. She grunted as the numerous sensations bombarded her. That was when she heard the familiar hiss of a door sliding open. Amanda eyes shot open, primal fear pumped adrenaline through her system, which gave her enough that she was able to quickly push herself onto her feet and against the wall.
She heard a placating voice, it was soft and melodious with a hint of something almost hypnotic swimming beneath its surface. Her eyes struggled to lock onto the unknown blue humanoid Xenoform. A part of Amanda found it to be strikingly beautiful, the other, the part that had kept her alive on Servastopol, wanted her to hide.
The blue humanoid rose its hands up in an eerily human manor and slowly moved closer. Amanda stood frozen in place, unsure what to do or who to trust
"Seda, Amanda, Seda."
"How do you know my name?" Amanda managed out.
Her unexpected shout brought in two others came in; one plainly human, male, grey haired, half scarred, and dressed in strange yellow and white armor, he had some type of gun in his hand and and other, tall Xenoform with brown skin, white tribal looking markings, and more avian features, he was dressed in white like the blue one.
The tall one's mandible chirped and hissed something out that was clearly a warning. The man glared at him with his one good eye, but lowered his weapon. "Fine by me." the man said with a thick gravely British accent. "Just pay me what we agreed and you can deal with this."
Amanda had been too absorbed by the two newcomers that she hadn't noticed just how close the blue alien had gotten until it had laid its hand on her shoulder. Instinctively, Amanda swatted the hand away with one of her own while the other pushed the alien away.
The alien fell back and skidded to the scarred man's feet, which prompted him to lift his gun once again but this time she didn't notice; instead focusing on the metallic black nails that she was certain she couldn't remember being there before she'd ejected herself and the creature out of the Torrens airlock.
The tall creature hissed but the man did not falter. "It's set to stun." And that was all the warning Amanda had before a bolt of electricity hit the side of her face.
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Back in the Sol system, Gunnery Sergeant Richard Babayev rose from his stasis pod, tired and sore but otherwise fine. It had been a long year with the growing number of incursions on independent colonies, (More commonly known as those colonies that relied more on the private sector, like Horizon, and less on the Alliance, like Eden Prime.), since John Shepard's death. Richard was glad he was getting a month off before having to go on another Bug Hunt.
Richard had never liked the term Bug when referring to enemy combatants, it left bitter taste in his mouth… it just felt like they were under estimating just how dangerous their enemies could be. He'd lost some good friends to those so-called 'Bugs', but there was nothing he could do about it.
It was too ingrained in how the Marines where trained to view themselves. "Being the Ultimate Badass" didn't leave much room to think either in or out of the battlefield. They weren't Alliance Navy with their divisions, every soldier trained for a an entire three hundred and sixty five days to before being allowed to enter a battlefield, they all received the same combat training and after that you either learned well and survived or you didn't and you died.
"Hey, Gunny." Richard turned his head in the direction he was called. He waved at Commander Michael Kane, the voice's owner, with a half-assed salute. He was already dressed out in his combat fatigues. Kane was the Colonial Marine stereotype, six foot five inches tall with two hundred pound of muscle "You look just as bad as I feel." Kane said tapping his green chest plate.
"We expecting trouble?" Richard asked in a dry voice. " 'Cause, I'm sure the Captain won't let you go on leave dressed for war."
"Ah, shit." responded Kane scratching the back of his head. It was a nervous tic Kane had developed after an encounter with the Geth in the Skyllian Verge. "That's right, you weren't there for the announcement…"
"What announcement?"
"We're not going back to Earth, we're meeting up with an Alliance cruiser picking up an extra squad and heading to Lethe."
Richard's eyes widened slightly before a tiny bit of anger flashed in him. "Why wasn't I pulled out of stasis like the rest of you?"
"You do remember crashing the APC against a Colossus, don't Gunnery Sergeant Babayev?" A new voice interceded before Kane could respond. This time Babayev snapped into attention, jumping off from his seated on the pod so his bare feet made contact with the freezing cold metal.
Captain Maximilian Wick stood at the entrance of the barracks in a grey uniform that reminded Richard of the old WWII generals from the vids. The captain was without a doubt one of the most effective commander he'd ever served under, having taken part in confrontations like the First Contact War and leading the offensive on Torfan during the Blitz he was a great strategist.
"At ease, Gunny." He said waving Kane off. "Call convinced me that it would be in your best interest if we allowed you to rest a bit more before informing you about the new mission."
Call was the new onboard synthetic after their Bishop unit was lost. She was far more aggressive than their old Bishop but surprisingly more human. She was short and usually followed the Captain wherever he went, but for some reason was absent.
"What's the new mission, sir?"
"Command received intel that Cerberus is planning to make a move against one of our research stations in the Dakka system, we're going to be waiting for them."
"If it's our research station, why are we meeting up with an Alliance ship? What's their stake in this?"
"Son, that question is way above your pay grade." He said in a tone that brokered no room for argument. "Keep your head down cause the Alliance is going to be leading this mission we're just along for the ride."
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Alia watched with shocked silence as the mercenary blasted her patient with his handgun. She watched as Primus quickly made to catch the collapsing woman and how Massani holstered his gun as if he hadn't just sent an electrical charge through one of the greatest enigmatic human's she had eve encountered.
Amanda Ripley had been missing and presumed dead with the rest of the Torrens forty-six years ago. She had been one of the last recorded living humans on Servastopol before it's destruction. Her discovery on Pragia by Lasallle Bionational would unravel one of humanity's greatest mysteries…assuming that there weren't any serious side effects from her prolonged exposure to an early exploration hypersleep pod and the unexpected malfunction that had caused her to awaken prematurely.
"Mister Massani," she told the mercenary. "The credits for you and your team will be transferred to you after we attend to Miss Ripley. If the information she provides us is sufficient you will receive considerable more than the commission you and your team are entitled to." She then stood up and approached the human. "But until then you may wait in the mess hall or with your crew mates."
"Alright, no need to get your knickers in a twist, but I want my money." He said stepping out of the medbay. "I'm not some goddamn hero."
Once he was gone and and the subject was safely in Primus' arms did the turian speak.
"Where did the company find that man?"
"They hired him through a banker on the Citadel, he came highly recommended by others who'd hired him for security." She said as she scanned the woman. "She has several scars… at least five of them, but otherwise the body seems to be intact."
"How about her brain?" Primus asked.
"Superficially, there's nothing wrong but her brain activity is off the charts."
"Is that good or bad for humans?" He wondered aloud as he made to move her to another room, preferably one with an examination table. "I can never tell with them."
The asari continued to study the scans while she followed Primus. "I am unsure." was her eventual response; Alia wasn't an expert on the human central nervous system. "But I could send the scans to Doctor Lillum, she should be able to tell us."
Primus scoffed. "That woman couldn't tell the difference between her brain and her ass, how she was even hired is beyond me."
"Then I have no idea what to tell you."
There was a pause and uncomfortable silence filled it up as the two entered a neighboring room. Primus sighed as he gently placed Amanda on the cool metal examination table.
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"Fine," He finally gave in. "Message the fraud, see if she's of any help."
Zaeed was waiting for the elevator when his omni-tool beeped.
There was one message from his employer. It simply read:
'Phase two has begun. Return to the planet's surface. '
The old mercenary frowned and erased the message. He really wished he hadn't taken this fucking job.
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A/N: Well then, here's the first installment of what will hopefully become a successful crossover. Hope you enjoyed, please review feed back is very much appreciated. As always Review or PM with any questions.
On another note looking for a second Beta.