Me: Here it is, the first chapter of the sequel to Mass Effect: Johnson.
Trin: Before anyone asks, it is not centered on Johnson.
Helix [Remember her?]: It's centered on my GHOSTs.
Me: People who have played Fuse will recognize a few things. I own nothing, now on with the story!
"Talking."
"Thinking."
"[Electronic communication.]"
{AI_intercommunication}
The GHOSTs
[Nova Galaxy, Orbit over Batarian Pirate controlled planet, UNSC Prowler 'Reaper':]
"[This is Dalton. Everyone online?]" the team leader of the GHOST fire team 'Overstrike' asked.
"[Angel team reporting in,]" the team leader of GHOST team Angel, Captain Angelica Valence, said.
"Captain Brooks, I suggest you try to remember you're only in charge of your squad. And I am still in charge of them also," Helix said to Brooks.
"[Understood Colonel. Brooks out,]" Dalton said as the drop pod's timer hit zero.
Helix's pod launched out first as the remaining eleven GHOSTs launched shortly after. Helix double checked that her three weapons, the GHOST X1AR 'Savager,' the GHOST X2AR 'Daybreaker,' and two GHOST X1P 'Guardians,' were still secured in their holders. She looked back at her hand again and observed the armor covering it. It no longer looked like the standard ODST gear. It now had its own look, sort of.
The members of GHOST had decided that they needed armor that looked different from everyone else's. So ONI brought in multiple armor manufacturers from Nova Earth and Terra Earth. Only one had been accepted by the GHOSTs. A new addition to the military equipment manufacturing industry, named CORTech. The armor design they gave looked light weight and flexible, yet able to take a hell of a beating. The colors were black and orange, and the helmets left the wearers hair out, yet could be covered if desired. The GHOSTs thought this diminished the armor's survivability in any compromised atmosphere, yet it was proven by the armor's maker that it could also be used that way in space. They had instantly fallen in love with the armor's look and how it worked. Though CORTech still makes more of that armor for the market, the GHOST version of the armor is by far superior since it utilizes Precursor tech. [For a better description, look up Fuse Prototype skins. Its one of the team's alternate armors.]
"[I still love the look the CORTech representative had on his face when we altered ourselves to match the armor they brought,]" Diana said within Kim's mind.
"Not something I'll ever forget…if I even could," Dawson said in reply.
"[Hey boss, AA fire. Should we ditch the pods?]" Valence asked.
"Go ahead, but make sure to land at the DZ still," Helix replied as she attached her weapons to their spots on her armor and activated the pods 'Mid-air Deployment' program, or as Brooks named it, the 'Shitter Mode.'
The bottom of the pod peeled away and dropped Helix into the air before closing again. Helix slowed her decent by spreading her arms and legs out and looked behind her to see the rest of the GHOSTs doing the same. She looked forward again to see the ground only a few meters away. A quick flip and she landed on her feet. She heard a large thud and turned around to see the newest GHOST, Sergeant Andrew Malovic, having face-planted into the dirt. He pulled himself out of the small crater he made and checked on his weapons, a GHOST X1S 'Prowler,' a GHOST X1SMG 'Dragonfly,' and one of the four weapons only used by, and only given to, GHOSTs, the XL1 Warp Rifle.
"Da, they are still good," Malovic said happily.
"It'll take more than that to break UNSC tech," Sergeant 1st Class Naya Deveraux of Overstrike team, said.
"Back to the mission people," Helix said as she grabbed her weapons and led her team, Hell Spawn, and the others towards the objective.
Other than herself, each member of the GHOSTs carried an XL weapon. One member on her team carried two in order to cover for her. Said person suddenly stopped and flashed red twice on his HUD before having a blue arrow pointing left appear on everyone's HUDs. Helix looked at Lieutenant Sean Vasquez of her team, Naya, and Malovic before nodding. Each of them nodded back before activating their cloaks and disappearing. Dawson had everyone stop and double check their weapons. In the middle of them doing that, three green flashes appeared on Helix's HUD, a minute after that, everyone was holstering their weapons, and the three scouts had returned.
"How was it?" Helix asked them.
"We proved why we're called GHOSTs," Sean said.
"Yeah, he didn't find out what killed him," Naya said.
"Good, lets move out," Helix called to everyone as they continued towards the supposed Batarian THOR manufacturing facility.
ONI had gotten word that one of the UNSC's manufacturing facilities had been raided by Batarian pirates. Being one of the further out facilities, it didn't have the usual amount of protection. Add that to the fact that there had also been a Cerberus raid at the same time and it makes sense that the Pirates had managed to get away with a few schematics.
UNSC Brass wanted to send in SPARTANs, THORs, or ODSTs to get them back. ONI Command saw this as the perfect chance to test out the GHOSTs. This was their first real mission as GHOSTs, and they had no intel at all, didn't know the land, and weren't going to be given reinforcements or supply drops. All they were able to bring was their armor, weapons, and a few mags for each weapon. Their objective was to find and destroy all copies of the schematics and any prototypes they might have created.
The planet they were on was technically uninhabited, but that didn't mean no one was there. The Batarians they were hunting for called this place home. Helix led the GHOSTs to a small cliff and looked over before smiling beneath her helmet. The Pirate's base was below them, and had little security. Diana made the visor zoom in and Helix saw an easily reachable way inside. She marked it with a gold waypoint before zooming back out and getting the GHOSTs moving again.
"[Coms only from here on out,]" Helix said through the GHOSTs secured com-link.
Her voice could no longer be heard by anything that wasn't wearing Precursor armor with their coms, and neither could anyone else's. All of her GHOSTs flashed green and they began their decent down the cliff. One member of Dalton's team, Sergeant Isabelle 'Izzy' Sinclair, looked around to see if there was a quicker way and spotted none. She shrugged before climbing down after the others. They got to the ground and readied their weapons. The GHOSTs made their way towards the compound and managed to get there without being spotted. The last member of team Overstrike, Sergeant Major Jacob Kimble, raised Naya to the vent above them and held her there while she got the vent cover off. Ten seconds later she handed it to Dalton and climbed in as he leaned it against the side of the building. He climbed in as Izzy set it to where it looked like it just fell off. The rest of the GHOSTs climbed in one after another Helix waited until everyone was in before looking around and climbing in. Just as she got out of sight, a Batarian patrol came to the vent. One of them sighed as he lifted up the cover and began working on getting it back into place.
Helix dropped out of the vent to find the others standing inside a factory repurposed for THOR construction. They looked at her and nodded before placing charges everywhere. Helix and her team started heading towards a room over looking the factory floor. They went inside and found a Batarian asleep at the console. Lieutenant Adriana Houser walked over and tapped his shoulder. The alien woke up slowly and looked at the commandos in front of him. A second later, he realized they weren't Batarians and reached for the alarm. Before he could, Adriana grabbed his wrist and elbow and broke its arm at the elbow. The Batarian screamed in pain just as Adriana grabbed its head and slammed the alien to the ground before curb stomping its head.
"[Remind me not to get on your bad side Adriana,]" another member of Hell Spawn, Captain Victor Garret, said.
"[Draco, check for the data,]" Adriana said as the screen in front of them turned on.
"[Done, I deleted all digital copies they made, and I have located the hard copy. The container at the corpse's feet holds the stolen documents,]" Draco said.
Helix picked it up and opened the container. She set it back down and pulled out a container of liquefied magnesium. She poured it into the container before lighting a match and dropping it in. The documents disappeared in a burst of flame.
"[All GHOSTs, we have a vehicle coming in. I think its time to leave boss, we need someone to spread around what the GHOSTs can do,]" Kimble said as he looked through the scope of his XL4 'Arcshot.'
"[Understood. Are all explosives set?]" Helix asked everyone.
"[Almost…there, done,]" Brooks said as he set up the last charge.
"Alright people, time to bug-…]"
"[CONTACT!]" Helix heard Malovic shout before his Warp Rifle started firing.
"[Angel team, help him out,]" Helix heard Angelica shout to the rest of her team.
"GHOSTs, make this as noticeable as possible for the incoming vehicle," Helix said.
"[You want him or her to stop and see what's going on?]" Sinclair asked.
"Right."
"[On it,]" Izzy said before Helix heard the sound of a GHOST X1SR 'Harbinger' firing. "[Driver is down, the guy is getting out, along with some guards. Hold on, they're trying to get the corpse out so they can leave…now it doesn't matter if they do or don't,]" Izzy said as she destroyed the vehicles engine with a few well place shots.
"[Want us to take out the guards?]" Kimble asked as he readied his Arcshot.
"Do it," Helix replied.
"[Working,]" Kimble said s he fired three bolts and hit each guard.
Helix switched her visor to see what Kimble saw and watched as the Batarians looked at each other, not sure what just happened, before Jacob activated the bolts. The Batarians instantly burst into flame as the augmented liquid mercury inside the bolts was set on fire. The three aliens died screaming from the looks of it as they tried in vain to put out the flames before they died. The main alien attempted to get back into the vehicle, but was stopped as it suddenly became covered in some sort of crystal substance. Helix smiled as she recognized the work of an XL2 'Shattergun.' She switched back to what she was seeing as her team started to leave the room.
"[We got a runner,]" a member of Angel squad said over the coms, "[want us to take him out?]"
"No let, him get to the other Batarian," Helix answered.
"[You sure?]"
"Yes, the other one doesn't know what happened in here, and he's only a pig waiting for the slaughter."
"[Got it,]" the GHOST replied before everyone began to regroup at the rally point.
Once they got there, Izzy and Jacob went back to watching the Batarian that had come here. They saw the two Batarians meet up. Sinclair and Kimble watched as the first Batarian told the second about what happened in the compound. When it looked like the story was over, Izzy and Jacob began firing their weapons. Jacob's bolt hit and stuck into the second Batarian before Izzy's multiple Shattergun rounds crystalized him. Jacob then detonated the bolt and caused the Batarian to shatter into flaming crystal pieces. The other one began reeling backwards before turning around and running. Jacob smiled as he and Izzy got up before flashing Helix a thumbs up. Colonel Kim 'Helix' Dawson smiled beneath her helmet as she activated the explosives inside the factory. The compound disappeared in a mushroom cloud of high explosive and napalm.
The GHOSTs left the single Batarian survivor to run away in fear of the invincible humans with devastating weaponry that had called themselves GHOSTs.
Me: Short and sweet, how a first chapter should be.
Trin: I'm not so sure that qualifies as 'sweet.'
Me: Ok you have a point. Onto the new version of the codex entries.
{Warning_accessing_classified_intel_without_authorization_will_result_in_your_termination…Welcome_Dr._Halsey._Opening_classified_intel}
June 8, 2565: ONI GHOSTs stop construction of Batarian THORs. Mission is complete success and the galaxies now know a fraction of what the GHOSTs are capable of.
GHOST Weaponry:
X Weapons Family:
X1P/Guardian- The GHOST program's primary sidearm and its only pistol. It holds 15 high power rounds per mag and has a scope and laser sight attachment. A reliable weapon that can be trusted to defend you and kill anything you shoot at with it if you run out of ammo for your other weapons. It fires as fast as you can pull the trigger.
X1SMG/Dragonfly- The GHOST program's secondary sidearm and its only SMG. It is able to hold a maximum of 106 rounds per mag and has a scope attachment. A reliable weapon and capable of sustaining an acceptable amount of covering fire. Note that the weapon may be powerful and have a high RoF, but it is inaccurate and only as powerful as an MA5D.
X1AR/Savager- The GHOST program's primary assault rifle. The Savager is a devastating weapon that is able to hold 104 rounds per mag. It is as accurate as an MA5D and as powerful as a BR85.
X2AR/Daybreaker- The GHOST program's secondary assault rifle. The Daybreaker is a powerful six round burst weapon that is as powerful and accurate as a DMR. It has a scope and laser sight and holds 66 rounds per mag.
X1S/Prowler- The GHOST program's only shotgun. The Prowler is an extremely powerful close range weapon that has a laser sight and holds 12 shells per cartridge. Though it is pump action, it is able to be fired as fast as a UNSC DMR. It is as powerful as a UNSC MA45 and has the Scattershot's rebound ability.
X1SR/Harbinger- The GHOST program's only sniper rifle. The Harbinger is a death dealer at both close and mid range with its higher ammo cap than any other UNSC sniper. It holds 10 rounds per mag and has a zoom scope. Though it is only as powerful as the standard UNSC sniper, each shot is able to be magnetically charged by holding down the trigger. Once it is fully charged, a shot is as powerful as a Gauss turret's shot.
XL Weapon Family:
XL1/Warp Rifle- In layman's terms, a rifle that fires weaponized biotics. The rifle fires warp rounds that, after a target has been hit by them enough, create a singularity. Targets can be painted with the rifle by hitting them five times. Once a target has been painted, create a singularity on another target to create a singularity chain blast, or warpchain. Combine fire with other XL weaponry to create even more devastating effects. Mag holds 250 rounds.
XL2/Shattershot- An energy weapon that, once a target has been hit enough, incases its target in crystal. The target can then be shattered by hitting it or shooting it more. It rifle also has a secondary fire that heals allies. Combine its primary fire with other XL weapons to create even more devastating effects. Mag holds 300 shots.
XL3/Magshield- Though its primary function is mobile cover, it is able to be used as a weapon as it can catch and 'fire back' anything that hits it. It is also able to send out short range energy blasts in the direction it is pointed at. These blasts disintegrate anything in front of it unless it belongs to allied troops or is an allied troop. The Magshield is also able to drop up to five other shields that are immobile. Shields can be deactivated by pressing the button on the right side of the 'barrel.' Shields can be shot through by allies without damaging the shield or rounds. Accelerates any XL weapon rounds that are fired through it. Mag holds five deployable shields and one handheld shield.
XL4/Arcshot- This rifle resembles a crossbow in shape. It fires bolts containing augmented mercury that is able to be lit on fire, creating an explosion similar to a fire bomb going off. The bolts can be fired into anything and can bee auto detonated by firing several more shots into the target or be manually detonated by pressing a button on the weapon's side. Combine fire with other XL weapons to create even more devastating effects. Mag holds 100 bolts.