John was your average teenager. But that was just what he would tell you. He wasn't the best at sport, but he certainly wasn't bad either. He was about 6ft tall, being average height for his peers with sandy brown hair and oddly coloured eyes, that noone could quite describe the colour. They were a deep green, much like that found within woodland, except that from a distance they appeared to be blue, due to a ring of aqua coloured iris surrounding the green. Strangely he also had four dark brown spots of pigment in his left eye, not large enough to see from a distance, but they added a sort of depth and mystery to his eyes. He never thought of himself as an intelligent person but, undeniably he was although, he lacked the friend circles that many of his peers had at his school and (he thought) because of this, all of the girls ignored him - at least all of the prettier ones anyway.
It was an ordinary yet unusual day for him. Maybe he woke up a little early, but that was expected as he was sitting the last of his school exams, and his nerves were starting to kick in. Fascinated by too many subjects to count, John had painfully selected the four of his favourite: Engineering, Biology, Physics and Computing. Normally, each and every day he was completely enthralled in every part of each subject - and he was good too; if there was anything he didn't know or understand, he would either consult the internet for background information before prying the rest from his teachers, or would simply read extensively on the subject, becoming lost in books and documents, but successfully becoming an expert in the topic.
But today was different. It was his very last exam, before being freed from school forever, and then he would search for something to interest him for a year before finding a job in 'the real world'. His thoughts were consumed by home, even though they should be directed at the Engineering paper that was sitting in front of him. He looked down, saw a diagram of a net engine, and read the question: Explain, using correct terminology, how the engine uses fuel efficiently.
He knew what it was asking. He had to write about the fuel consumption to energy output ratio, while explaining how the main parts of the engine work when put together. This was easy stuff, but it demanded his full attention and so he wrote as quickly as he could so he could get back to being in his countryside home, so close to the sea...
Something caught his eye. Light had been flooding into the open gymnasium that was now an exam hall and someone was reflecting the light off of a transparent ruler. He lost himself in the dancing colours; their strangeness throwing him, halting his mental tracks. Hearing footsteps in the echoing room he snapped his head forward, to find there was just over 10 minutes left in the exam. Rushing, he flipped over the page only to find it was blank. It took him a moment to realise he had finished and, checking his answers, he realised he was free. He had just finished nearly eighteen years of school. He had suffered along the way - bad teachers, annoying people, surprisingly though he had never had any trouble with bullies, although that could have been because of his dad.
John's father was in the military. He had served for almost twenty years now, including tours in the Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan. He had recently been promoted to staff sergeant - meaning he was now in command of roughly one hundred men in what was called Zulu company. Unfortunately, his work kept him away from his family most of the time, which meant he spent next to no time with his son, considering that he was always either on tour, or in the barracks and John was in a boarding school (albeit not anymore).
His father had made him go to jiu jitsu classes and self-defence classes all the way until he was sixteen, when John had been in London with one of his older friends and they had been attacked. To cut a long story short, John protected both his friend and himself from a gang of four armed with baseball bats and the like. The gang had suffered broken arms, legs and one had a broken nose and a severe concussion, while he and his friend got off lightly, with minor scratches and a couple of bone fractures. John thought he had disappointed his father, because after being discharged from hospital, he had rejected the notion of joining the army much to his father's dismay. But that was probably why most people seemed cautious around him - he hadn't stopped practising and everyone knew that they were more likely to lose a fight with him - let alone if it were an arguement concerning something remotely scientific - even teachers now had difficulty arguing their point over his, as John's logic and reasoning was fool-proof.
That day, a tired, relieved John made his way to the coast much like a few holiday makers were, but his home was there, not just some place to stay. He lived in a relatively large house. There were two barns and a shelter, plus an acre of field, with at least an acre of garden. The actual house possessed a conservatory, several bedrooms and an attic room, which John had quietly converted into a workspace of sorts, designing new engines, learning about various plant and animal life and even, showing an artistic flair, drawing whatever he could. From the occasional person to whatever came out of his head - mostly the ones he kept were not the ones from his head as those tended to be either incomplete or so abstract that you weren't able to see what it could be.
He arrived in the early evening, to be greeted by his mother. She was turning forty this year, but she still looked as though she was in her late twenties. Devouring the hot meal that had been prepared, John left to go upstairs to his room - where not shortly after he collapsed onto his bed, a heavy sigh escaping his mouth and his heavy eyelids dropping like lead, forcing him to succumb to sleep.
He woke the next morning to find a nose on right next to his head. Startled he jerked his head backwards and rubbed his eyes so he could see more clearly. It was his dog, no need to panic, and he slumped forwards again in resignation. Moments later he felt his bed move as the animal launched itself onto it, to settle next to him.
He lay in bed, for a few more hours, while the clouds fled from the sky and the temperature warmed to a summer's day as he made his way down to start his day.
Every day, for the next two weeks was very much the same. He would wake, but be able to stay in bed till it suited him, although he couldn't do anything to stop his dog from jumping onto his bed everyday. With his newfound freedom most days he went to a less well known beach, so as not to be crowded by holiday makers. He would swim in the sea, lie on the sand and, strangest of all, he would throw rocks for his dog to chase and dig for, to swim after and to dunk his head under the water for. Each time he did, there was pealing laughter as John stood and watched his dog hastily scrabbling and the sand or nearly dive underwater to retrieve a small rock. His dog would then proceed to look at him longingly until he threw another rock for him, and he would be devastated when it was time for them to leave.
When he returned home he went nearly straight to his room after seeing a package he had ordered several days before had been delivered. It was a while before his parents saw him again. He has been in his room, for half a day, coming out briefly to get some pizza and then he rushed back up to continue working. It was another day though before his parents found him going outside during the sunset to 'set up a telescope' He had told his parents he was going to camp outside for a few days as well. John had made a few journeys carrying pieces of metal to the far end of their field. But true enough, when he had set up everything, before him, and before the sun went down he had a telescope.
Unbeknownst to everyone except for a few people working in observatories, Pluto had disappeared. Many people couldn't explain its orbital patterns, many could describe it and a few made suggestions that it was something to do with the amount of matter during the formation of our solar system, or the temporal fluctuations of the nebula during formation, but the truth is a little more frightening. Pluto had disappeared, except for several large chunks of rock which had been blasted into space, but now there was an undeniably alien object in the night sky. It was and odd object and NASA had many telescopes pointing at it as soon as it was confirmed. It was formed of two halves, separated by space. The overall shape looked similar to an energy sword from a particular game that one NASA scientist had remembered his son talking about – something about elites and a masterchief, but he couldn't remember the details. What was strange about this object though was that there was a bright, light blue ball of energy trapped by what appeared to be two rings, rotating on different axis around it.
Plans were being made to send a spacecraft towards it, but quickly they realized that it would take too long – the voyager spacecraft had been travelling twenty years and were only just at the edge of the solar system. The best they could do now was wait, watch and prepare for whatever happened next.
Several days later and the Goldstone Communications Complex – which had now focused on the strange object which had replaced Pluto was getting some odd readings. With each passing minute, they were detecting more and more objects entering the solar system next to the odd planet sized object – but no sooner had they sent a message to command, the objects were disappearing by the dozen – so they sent a corrected statement as well, before contacting other space-watching organisations to confirm what they had just witnessed. They had. What could it mean?
In search of a new home, the largest fleet in the galaxy, home to over 17 million was the Quarian flotilla. They had had some difficulty activating the relay to the system they were entering, and after a few hours of trying, they had activated it. They were heading into uncharted territory now. The Quarians had passed through many different systems, but they all had colonized worlds where was possible. So in a desperate attempt to find a new world to colonize, they had traveled to this system.
Upon entering, the admirals had scanned the planets and had found a gardenworld, but they had also picked up lots of analogue and digital radio signals. When they listened to one of them, they found a strange language. It was, melodic rising and falling in pitch with pauses while a harmony was played upon an instrument which gave it the feeling of a story. To you and me this was an old song – probably 50 years old or more - and it had been played on the radio during a golden oldies hour. The Admirals had immediately activated their stealth systems, so as not to be detected by any devices that were pointed at them as; surely, they had noticed the bright blue orb that had appeared? And they didn't want to cause panic amongst these beings. The admirals convened to discuss what they should do with these creatures.
'We know nothing about them!' Admiral Zaal'Koris exclaimed 'we should report this to the council!' As he said this he began to realize that the council wouldn't listen to anything they had to say. The Salarians might send STG to confirm their find, but then they would get the credit for the discovery of a new species, and not them.
'We should learn more about them before we do anything.' This was Admiral Xen'Daro. She was always intrigued by new things, and had studied briefly on most known species in the galaxy. 'It could be an amazing opportunity…'
Admiral Han'Gerrel was furious, as he knew what she was getting at. 'Are you suggesting we risk sending our people down there just to take some samples? We should just launch probes onto different areas and have them send back data.'
Admiral Shala'Raan turned to face the other admirals. She had been looking at the planet from a large monitor on the wall in the board room. 'I Agree.' Admiral Rael'Zorah had nodded his head at this in approval – he didn't normally offer his point of view unless it directly affected him and his ship – this he thought did not.
Zaal'Koris' head hung. 'It looks like I am outnumbered. Launch four probes into unpopulated areas, so we can get readings and then retrieve them discretely.'
The admirals returned to their respective ships and each launched a probe to different land masses. One was sent into the golden yellow sands of Africa, another to the thick forests of the Amazon, one more to the frosted tips of the Himalayas. The final probe was launched. As it headed towards earth its targeting computer was fried in the atmosphere due to a faulty radiation shield. It veered off course, pulled more strongly by the Earth's gravity into a beautiful arc – heading for the bottom corner of a large island.
John was looking into the sky, wondering where to point his telescope during the first hours in which the stars could be seen. He noticed a bright blue spot – almost as though there was a small sun glaring down at him. Its incipience was captivating. The light bounced around inside his head for several minutes before he looked away. He looked up again to the sky, odd colours appearing in his eyes as they readjusted to the night sky. Looking for a new target to marvel at he noticed a small bolt of fire, racing across the sky, as though someone had cut the sky open and flame was pouring out in a bright red scar. Before he could point his telescope at it, the trail had disappeared.
Disappointed, he turned away. But something made him turn back, no longer a sight a marvel, but a sound that made his hair stand on end. It wasn't so much a screeching but a low dulled blast, almost as though someone had detonated a bomb several miles in the distance. He looked towards his house, no lights were on. Had they not heard it? Muttering under his breath all the way he ran to the top of a nearby hill and to his astonishment there it was a small pod, emitting a low pulsating red light was sitting at the bottom of the hill, in a small crater it had made. The blast must've been the noise it made when it hit the ground – but what the hell was it?
He wondered whether it was a satellite that had suffered orbit decay and eventually fell to the Earth – but then he mused that it would either have burnt up in the atmosphere or made a crater much larger than the one he was currently looking at. John approached the object – normally at this time he would have been quite tired – it must've been getting on for at least midnight – but it didn't matter anymore. His senses were as alert as they'd ever been, all of them concentrating on this strange object in front of him.
As he neared it he began to realize, that not only was everything around the object not on fire, but that the object itself was remarkably cool for something that had just fallen the twenty-something miles to get to the Earth's surface. Edging himself ever closer, ever more slowly he reached out a hand to touch it. It was cold now on what he presumed to be the top and growing in confidence he looked and touched the object, as though he were the first human to discover fire.
'WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!' yelled a furious Zaal'Koris.
'Uuuh, not sure, sir. It looks as though the targeting computer has been deactivated – I can't regain control of the direction of the probe.' replied an anxious navigator.
'Oh Keelah… which Bosh'tet forgot to check the heat shields?' Zaal'Koris was now holding his head in his hands 'Dispatch some marines to retrieve the probe. We can only hope that no one has noticed it.'
Already a small squad of Migrant Fleet Marines was prepped and ready, stepping into the shuttle refueling to take them down to the surface.
'Remember this is a search and retrieve mission only – no one must notice you and must not discharge your weapons on their planet – who knows what could happen. Just keep everything quiet and you'll be fine.' Kal'Reegar was a captain in the MFM. He gave his orders just as he normally did, although everyone could tell that he was nervous – and for good reason. They were about to land on an uncharted, inhabited world where they could find any number of creatures that could kill them, let alone the race of creatures that were thought to be dominant on this world.
'You might want to strap in boys – this is gonna be a little bumpy' the pilot spoke energetically, but still quietly, as the shuttle didn't make a lot of noise – this was followed by a jerk as the shuttle flew through the stratosphere and made its way to the surface.
John could hear a low throbbing noise becoming louder and louder. Startled, looking around him he realized the noise was coming from above him he could just make out the silhouette of what looked like a car flying through night heading straight towards him. He ran towards some nearby bushes, just as the car shot out four jets of bright blue flame – one from each corner -and then four from the underside as it steadied and lowered itself to the ground.
It was a moment before anything happened. Then the side of the car lifted straight up, like the gull wing doors of an expensive car and out stepped four bipedal creatures. Each wore what looked like a skin tight – air tight suit, with a metallic-looking chest piece and armor pieces over leg and arm joints and the bottom of their legs and arms.
They looked so strange – their legs were much curvier than a humans – it looked like they had fused bones under the knee which gave the bottom of their legs an unhealthy curve. He noticed that they had two large toes, plus a smaller toe on the side of the foot. He could also see that they had three fingers on each hand – two of which were digits, with the third being what looked like opposable thumbs. Each had a series of pipes and wires leading from their backs to the back of their helmets. Each helmet was shaped in the same way, a small circle at the bottom, with a light in the middle that turned on and off with the strange noises they were making. The circle was edged on either side of the face by a wide pointed metal plate – holding in place the frosted glass that covered each of their faces. Surprisingly, he could still see their eyes. They seemed to glow , rather than reflect and they shone a bright white, as though somebody had literally put fire in their eyes.
He shuffled to get a better look, but he accidentally broke a twig, giving his position away. All four of the aliens quickly lifted up what looked like pistols and ARs, and he tried to move quicker, panic setting in him as he realized that they would, without a doubt, kill him if he made a move towards them. Finally making it out of the back of the bush, breathing heavily he tried to calm his nerves. He could hear one of the aliens speaking and then the two of them moved cautiously towards the bush he was just in. He realized, having had enough talks about military command from his father that the one who had spoken was in charge. Moving silently across the grass, he was climbing the hill again, so he could get his bearings, when one of the aliens shouted something and John fell to the ground, a searing pain in his left leg.
He felt his leg for a wound, but there wasn't one. He realized that it was an electrical discharge that had caused the pain as his muscles had contracted with such speed that he was left in pain, with the feeling returning to his leg. He had to get moving again – looking around he saw the aliens moving towards him. Adrenaline pumping through him, he got up and started to run to the top of the hill, he was hit once more – in the same leg no less – and he tumbled down the side of the hill, his leg cramping and hurting more than ever now. He had to keep moving, but he found himself unable. Panic-struck he forced himself up and behind cover of a nearby tree, where he found some small stones. He picked them up, and looked around the tree, to find the aliens still heading towards him. He threw one stone and it whizzed past one of the aliens who stopped dead in its tracks before saying something – the reply sounded gruff and the alien moved forwards, a little more cautiously now.
John threw another stone. He hit one of the aliens' hands and it yelped in pain and in surprise. He threw another – this one glanced off of the shoulder pad. The alien looked around, as though in surprise, but kept advancing. His aim was getting better – he launched one of his last rocks at the advancing invaders – and hit it right in the mask, the glass shattering, making it fall over. He took this as a moment to think – if he ran, he would keep getting shot and he might not make it through the night – but if he attacked, he might buy himself enough time to get back to his house – just over the next hill.
John looked around the tree once more – the alien was getting back on its feet helped by another – it then ran back over the hill to the car as fast as it could while the other three turned to face him. John had made his decision. He ran at them, and launched himself, tackling one of them to the ground, the other two stepped back in shock before they tried to capture the fighting boy. John jumped off of the one he had tackled, and thrust his hand into the abdomen of one of the others, knocking it backwards. He ran at it and kicked it in its chest knocking it to the ground, apparently incapacitated as it didn't get up again. He turned, now two on one. He waited for them to advance a bit more, then he struck. As one of them tried to grab him he ducked out of the way, his arm catching the legs of the alien, sending it sprawling then he lost consciousness.
It was supposed to be simple, but then again, for Kal'Reegar, nothing ever turned out to be that. One of his men was suffering a violent reaction after being exposed to several types of bacteria found on the rock that broke his helmet, another had literally had the wind kicked out of him, and the one other soldier that wasn't injured had been tripped and got dirt trapped in several parts of his suit that were difficult to clean, which meant he was likely to suffer a reaction as well at some point. The mission was a success, on the upside. But they had the unfortunate problem of explaining what they were doing with an alien on their shuttle to the admiralty board.
He had given a mission update the moment they were all on board the shuttle, even though it would take several minutes to reach the Rayya – the ship where the admirals would meet. When he arrived they were all there – and news had obviously spread quickly as a crowd had gathered to see the alien that was coming aboard. The crowd were to be disappointed however, as they had been instructed to put it in a storage unit, to be transferred to a medical lab aboard the Rayya where it would be scrutinized and investigated by some of the Quarian scientists.
Kal'Reegar however, would not be so lucky as to say it has been a complete success – that would have been the most obvious of lies. He was called upon by the admiralty and questioned about the events on the surface. He said earnestly that he didn't know that there was one of these creatures watching until it had been seen by his men, silhouetted against the sky as it climbed a nearby hill. The marine had then fired a shock charge at him, but surprisingly, after a moment it got back up and continued to move, faster than before. It was hit again and rolled down the far side of the hill. When they had got to where it should have been, there was nothing. All of a sudden stones were flying out of nowhere, one had hit Reegar on the hand, and shortly after the marine standing next to him went down 'His mask just exploded' and then he lay on the floor covering his face. Reegar had helped him up, and after watching the marine run back towards the shuttle he had turned only to be knocked over, with something pinning him down, hitting his sides while he was on the floor. Next thing he knew, it was off of him and attacking the other marines – it had proceeded to kick one of them, the heavy blow knocking the wind out of his body, before it tripped his only standing marine, when Reegar had gotten behind the creature and knocked it unconscious with the butt of his rifle.
Xen'Daro looked wide-eyed at the description of the small fight 'Such brutality…' she said these words breathlessly, almost as though just hearing about it had knocked the wind out of her.
Breaking the near silent gathering – there were a few gasps but they were very quiet – Rael'Zorah requested that he be allowed to observe the alien in the med labs before he returned to his work on the Alarei. His request was met by some suspicion from Xen'Daro.
'What do you want from him – you study synthetics not organics!' this roused suspicion from the others 'what could you possibly learn from him?'
Rael'Zorah looked calmly back at the fuming Xen'Daro and simply said 'I'm just curious, there is no need to be over-zealous' there were a couple of chuckles from the back of the room and Xen flashed a furious look at Zaal'Koris, standing where the laughter was coming from. Adamant, Xen had agreed and left, fuming. The others took this to mean that the meeting was over and they each went off to return to their duties.
Kal'Reegar was just leaving the room, when Rael asked him to join him in walking to the medlabs. 'Did you manage to see what it looked like?' Reegar could almost see the interest coming off of Rael, but in honesty he only had a general description. 'Uh' there was a pause as Reegar collected his thoughts 'Two arms, two legs… strange hands though. I couldn't see its feet – they were covered. I didn't get a look at its head either' Reegar spoke quite slowly, struggling to remember any details but he added 'it looks like it has hair though'
Expectedly, Rael was engrossed in his thoughts 'So similar, yet so different…' he trailed off, making Reegar wonder where his mind had gone to. Before long though they had arrived at the medlabs and they passed through to where the alien was being placed on a gurney for inspection.
Nothing could have prepared him for the shock he felt as his eyes lay upon the unconscious creature in front of him. He watched as the doctors pulled off most of its clothing (most of it was torn and dirty) to reveal large pectorals and faintly visible abdominal muscles. He was if anything well defined (although John hadn't been the best at sport he had been forced into some sort of physical activity or another and had often been sent to the gym instead). Rael'Zorah's thoughts were uncontrollable. Was it an Asari male? Was it truly a new species – it did look so remarkably similar.
It had short hair – a light autumn colour, with golden brown skin and strangely it had five fingers on each hand – why would you need two extra? When they removed its foot protectors they saw it also had five toes – but they weren't the same as Quarian toes – they were much shorter and they were all on the end of the foot… He absorbed the image of the peaceful creature for a few more moments before he left with many thoughts racing through his head.
When he returned to the Alarei, Rael found himself confronted by his daughter – Tali'Zorah asking many a question about the alien. At first she didn't believe that Reegar had captured an alien – he was a young (though able) captain after all. His father gave her permission to leave to go and see it since she wasn't allowed to help in his experiments on recovered Geth technology.