(A/N): One, two, three, four, what do the Reapers have in store? I dunno, they're a bunch of broken machines, their "logic-based" thinking stopped working a thousand cycles ago. Unfortunately, my progress in computer science isn't helping me to understand either. I know it isn't healthy to produce these at the rate Scott Cawthon puts out another installment of FNaF when I have homework and other shit to be concentrating on, but this shit's all still fresh in my mind, along with how the fuck I'm going to answer the next comp-sci problem and questions concerning my mental health. Maybe it's the satisfaction of seeing a piece that one produces that brings satisfaction to the mind.

Chapter 2: Another Day, Another Year

I shouldn't have trusted that filthy whore, Samelthea T'zeros. Now, she's "retired" and is long gone, knowing full well she has my attention. But I'll find her, and I'll tear her limb from limb for everything she's done. But for now, my mind focuses on the greater threat lying in the shadows: Nazara and what could possibly be the four horsemen. Benjamin mentioned that Nazara is one of many destructive entities that come through every unknown period of time and harvest the galaxy of civilization. Until then, I will not stop hunting for clues as to who they are, how others fell to them, and how they can be stopped.


Jan 17, 2080

11 hrs/25 min/02 sec

TMD Sokol mess hall, en route to the Nubian Expanse

Fredrick took a sip from his drink, before turning his attention back to the military-issue meal before him. Silently, he continued to eat, not even bothering to talk to any of the troops around him. As much as he denied it, he very well knew in his mind that this last decade was the loneliest he had ever been. Not just because it was a decade without Alice, but it was a decade without his team. Each was cut off from him and thrown out to another division to blend in with the rest of the soldiers. Over all the years he had spent with them previously, they were the closest thing he had to genetic family after Andrew.

He looked around him as he thought back to the soldiers under his command now. These were all fresh faces, barely five years past recruitment, significantly less experienced than he was. At most, they had several firefights with pirates and mercenary groups under their belt, but nothing more. Furthermore, these kids simply didn't have the same spark Ivan, Henry, Lauren, Mary, Amory, or even Nolan ever had. They all still had their stock gray and blue armor colors, they had yet to really learn, yet to really grow if they lived as long as he did. These new kids, however, were born with natural biotics. Since having dark matter cores were necessary for using their implants, powering carried battery cells, and venting after biotic use, the newer generations had plenty of dark matter exposure during fetal development.

Hell, had it already been fifty-seven years? This question continued to drift in his head as he disposed of his dishes at the automated dish washer. His nanites and modified genetics had significantly slowed the aging process for him and others from Khonsu, but he when he was training as a doctor and field medic, he still came from an era where the average human life expectancy was around eighty to ninety years of age. Already, the first generation of humans on Khonsu had opted out of getting the implants and nanites and chose to let nature take its course, saying that the new generations should take over. General Sokolov, Dr. Müller, and Dr. Noel were all gone now, leaving only their legacy in the form of the still young Terran Republic. At his current rate of aging, he didn't have an defined expiration date.

He walked to the bridge, looking at all the youthful soldiers walking by. Usually, Fredrick was more of a conversationalist, but most of the conversations felt so one-sided, like playing racquetball instead of tennis. When he talked to other soldiers, it was because he wanted to hear of the fights they've fought, the troubles they've seen, and the adventures they've otherwise had. Because the majority of them were new to the battlefield, it was often the case he would tell battles of decades past.

As he entered the bridge, he went straight for the galaxy map, and took note of how far they were from their destination. Ever since Cobalt's collapse, he had been increasingly sent to mines in various systems surrounding the space Ra system was located in. The Terran Republic was increasing operations towards digging up more artifacts, find those who were responsible for their creation, and perhaps find proper countermeasures to infection. The Terran Court was beginning to suspect that the Protheans' extinction was caused by these ancient monstrosities, whatever they may be, and needed to find proof of the event. Fredrick was in every way devoted to these missions if it meant getting back at Nazara.

Their destination was another frozen wasteland, called Zirnitra. Within their confined space cluster of systems they could visit in the Attican without becoming too disruptive in other parts of alien territory, an artifact recently turned up in the Nubian Expanse. It was already showing the same basic effects of the artifact from Vicchio, and had been confined in a container where it wouldn't have any further effect. Like on Vicchio, Fredrick was sent in to retrieve the artifact with considerable force to prevent it from being stolen via surprise attack. As overkill as it was, he took a dreadnought for the retrieval mission, because he "wasn't making the same mistake again."

He began to communicate over the ship coms. "All units, this is your CO speaking. We are arriving at our destination in less than an hour. I want all of you to finish what you are doing, get suited up, and head down to the hanger area for briefing. I remember doing one of these missions eleven years ago, and it all went to hell, so I expect no room for mistakes. We are to head in and out as quickly as possible, if there are pirates who want that hunk of creepy metal, they can't have it regardless of what it does to them. This is to be brought back to the Ra System for further study, and I hope all of you know what is at stake here. You are to be down in the hanger and ready by 1230 hours. As you were." He proceeded to walk down to the lockers himself to get his own equipment.


12 hrs/28 min/14 sec

TMD Sokol hanger area, shortly arriving at Zirnitra

He walked about the hanger area making final inspections. He saw the various troops and engineers preparing vehicles, checking weapons, armor, and batteries, and talking with each other with voices of excitement. He remembered his first mission to that barren rock, where he killed Shrimps and those two Thresher Maws. He remembered how once upon a time he was like them, inexperienced, but young, energetic, and full of hope. He didn't want to extinguish their dreams just yet, and wanted to avoid doing so before the mission briefing. The large groups of soldiers began to line up in rows by the dropships as the minutes before arrival became seconds. In total, they were about five dozen.

Leaping atop one of the gunships, Fredrick began to address the crowd. "Alright mutts, listen up! I know the majority of you are still new, and that I'd personally prefer to see to it that most of you runts live long enough to see your actual first firefight. This means if we encounter something that you are in no way prepared to truly combat, you are to follow my orders, even if it means leaving me for death. I'd honestly prefer not to write your families notices that you died to Shrimp. Now, I want two dozen to come onto the surface with me, a dozen standing by under the circumstances raiders come into the system for back up and retrieval, and the remaining two dozen are to stay behind at battle stations should the need for a dog fight arise, or they start boarding. Understood?"

"Sir, yes sir!" the crowd rang.

"Good. Like I said before, this is to be as fast as possible. If any of you read the documents I've brought up to you, the object of our interest is capable of great damage and cannot be lost to criminal hands, or otherwise. The purpose of our presence is to dissuade scum like Blood Pack or Eclipse from getting their grubby hands on that metallic nightmare. You are not to bring the object out of its case, you are to report anyone who shows any signs of infection as remote as they may be, and you are obliged to gun down anyone who is infected beyond the threshold. Do you mutts understand?" Fredrick continued.

"Sir, yes sir!" they rang again.

The void outside the ship began to slow down as they approached Zirnitra. Quickly afterwards, two dozen troops began to file into a few gunships and deployed for the icy nightmare below. The three ships dashed through the thick overcast blocking the view of the mountainous surface below. As Fredrick investigated his weapon, Private Max Hong, a new field medic and demolitionist from the other row spoke to him.

"Do you expect to find trouble, sir?" he asked rather timidly.

"Trust me, child, once you get into the swing of the service, age, and whatever scum lays out in this galaxy, you'll always expect trouble. You'll have doubts the moment briefing ends and there isn't so much as a mention of conflict, you'll instantly get nervous. Verstanden ?"

"I don't know about that last part, but yeah. 'Too good to be true.' Does this mission remind you of any jobs from the past?" Hong asked again.

Fredrick stopped for a few seconds. "Well, for starters, this is giving me the same vibe of my first mission. Hopefully it doesn't even remotely conclude the same way."

"What happened?"

"Got to shoot Shrimp, and then two thresher maws simultaneously. Three of my men were still down in the mine, but I had a scout and sharpshooter with me, so we managed to put them down quickly before too many died."

"Maybe we'll encounter another one?"

"I hope-to-god not. Not while I'm carrying this many kids around with me. Our armor is though, but the nanites can only repair so quickly before the acid manages to find some hole to burn through and enter."

When they finally broke through, they saw a small camp on a flat field, with three mine entrances drilled into the side of the mountain. Down below, workers of various sorts walked about attending their various jobs on the camp. The gunships touched down at the parking area, as the workers had set up landing lights nearby. Fredrick took a sharp intake of breath as he and his men stepped out of the gunship.

"Ah, nostalgia is on the air. I already smell Thresher acid," he spat bitterly towards the end.

"C'mon, major. It couldn't possibly end nearly as badly," Private Hong tried to reassure him.

"Another thing I probably should've mentioned before we left the gunship is that you never, never tempt fate like that. Murphy's Law has it out for men like us at every turn. Just when it begins to bring promise, it burns it all away from you, and has no shame of doing it in front of your very eyes," Fredrick responded solemnly.

His group made their way towards the mine entrance, where the package was being held for them. "Shit, major. From what I hear, you weren't the deeply pessimistic type. What happened?" Hong asked yet again.

"Life happened, private. It strikes when you least expect it," Fredrick. As the mine entrance opened, three miners and two locally posted troops brought the crate out. It was heavily plated in dense metal to prevent the object's harmful effects from leaking out. The third miner, and presumably manager of the mine walked towards Fredrick with a datapad in hand.

"Here you go, major. We found it rather quickly and contained it before anyone became heavily infected. Those who did suffer some of the effects were quickly treated," the man reported.

"Excellent work, you may return to your scheduled work, and keep an eye out for more artifacts," Fredrick said looking over the details concerning the object's finding, treating, and extraction. After glancing over patient conditions, he returned the datapad.

After scanning the crate to ensure the artifact was still inside, the team began to walk away back to the gunships with the crate in tow. "Sir, I didn't expect the operation to be this easy. You sure there would be pirates like you mentioned back in the hanger?" Hong asked. "I've been itching for some action all morning."

"Hong, the reason people have a hard time trusting us is because there was an incident where an minimally protected artifact was stolen and used as a means of causing us harm. Though actually, those who were trusted to handle said artifact were actually helping the mercenaries there to steal it, we still had men on site who were too few to help it. That dreadnought above our heads is a deterrent. Even if they manage to get down to the surface and steal the crate, the planet orbit is contested by the biggest, meanest hunk of metal we can offer."

"How do you know?"

"I was there, private. I was there."

As they got back to the gunships, a tremor rippled through the ground before a Thresher Maw ripped out of the South West quadrant of the base, unleashing its haunting howl. The miners began to panic and scramble. The others were rather horrified of the creature's sudden appearance while Fredrick remained calm as a cat.

"Ah, yes. Nostalgia never comes in quarter packages, at least half. Alright everyone, remain calm, Team A will ship the package back to the Sokol and send down Team C, Team B will help direct the miners and other personnel to safety, I'll personally deal with the critter. Move out!" The soldiers all went their separate directions as Hong and his team dashed off to the miner town to help get the workers to safety, Team A's gunship disappeared into the clouds as it left for the Sokol, and Fredrick brought out his pistol and began to shoot at the critter's swaying head. He continued to shoot the creature before it turned its attention towards him. "Hey! Over here!"

The creature retreated back into the ground, just as Fredrick planned. He then made a mad dash out into an open area with small hills and dips. Just as the Thresher Maw burst out of the ground, Fredrick used his biotics to dash off to the side, away from the reach of its jaws. Fredrick began to taunt the creature, attempting to provoke the creature into unleashing its corrosive payload.

"Come on, that's it you miserable worm. Come at me!" he yelled.

Suddenly, it reared back its head and unleashed a bellowing, echoing howl into the air. Fredrick looked back at it with confusion as it continued to delay attacking. His eyes widened with surprise as the ground began to shake again. This time, two more thresher maws of equal size came bursting out of the ground behind him. The trio of worms now had Fredrick surrounded in a triangle formation.

"Oh, scheisse," he muttered simply.

He quickly dove out of the way as the spot he was previously standing was suddenly engulfed with three blobs of acid, eating the ground away. Without second though, Fredrick made a mad dash for one of the Thresher Maws, rolling to the right as the thing's head came lashing out to take a bite out of him. Returning to his feet, Fredrick turned around and latched on the critter's armor plating as it rose back up again. He climbed onto the back of its neck when it finally reached full height. The worm began to look side to side, increasing speed each time as it attempted to throw him off. His grip was temporarily released before he latched back on, before the spot where he previously was, and a location less than a meter below his feet were consumed by putrid green. The worm he latched onto began to sway and roar with pain. Eventually, he was finally forced off as the creature gave a solid shake, before it was pelted by yet two more blobs of acid. It finally gave one last painful bellow before tumbling backwards towards where Fredrick currently lay. He rolled off to the side just as the partially dissolved monstrosity landed with one last groan before laying there motionlessly.

He got up and dashed to the left as the two remaining worms continuously bombarded him with blob after blob of acid. Suddenly, the second one retracted back into the ground while the other one remained at its current distance. Fredrick kept an eye as the other approached him from underneath and as the one before him launched yet another blob. Executed with impeccable timing, Fredrick performed a backflip as the second worm erupted where he was and as the blob made contact with its head. Whipping out his particle knife, Fredrick latched on to the worm's exterior plating, and continued to ride to the top as it continued to extend out of the ground. Then, he yanked out his knife, climbed the rest of the way, then did a little dance at the top. As expected another blob came flying at him, to which he reached down at what was left of an armor plate, yanked back, and lept off as the blob disintegrated what was left of the head.

As the dead worm slid back into the ground, Fredrick brought out his pistol and walked towards the last Thresher Maw slowly. As per usual, it mindlessly threw another squirt of acid at him, to which he flung it back using his biotics. With a general lack of excitement, he pelted the remaining Thresher Maw's exposed head with multiple rounds before it fell over dead. Off in the distance, the miners cheered him on about his victory over the three beasts. Team C touched down at the landing pad, coming out towards the camp. As the teams began to clean up, and begin their return to the Sokol, Hong came towards him, barely able to contain his excitement.

"Wow, major! That was amazing!"

"Heh, just another day on the job, private. Just another day," Fredrick responded, attempting to not bathe in glory.

"I wish I could've joined though, it seemed like a lot of fun," Hong said with some light disappointment.

Fredrick patted him on the back gave a light grin through his helmet, before his smile faded away. "Well, last long enough, and you very well could make your own place among the Terran Republic Forces." For a moment, Fredrick felt both happy and sad for Private Hong. In more ways than one, Hong reminded Fred much of himself as a younger man. He couldn't help but wonder what Hong would be like had he seen the things he'd seen, done the things he'd done. No doubt by now, the private knew of the horrors that awaited him, and eventually know of Nazara and its clique of monstrous friends. Now that he was under his command, maybe he could save Max from the same fate he had. Maybe Max could learn from his victories, learn from his defeats, learn from his achievements, and learn from his failures. Maybe he could find redemption with Max under his wing.

(P.S.): O.K, enough doom and gloom for a bit, maybe leave off with a happier note. Also, life would honestly be boring with Fredrick alone. Until we reach the year 2183, Wrex, Benezia, Vakarian Sr., Saren, early encounters with Shep, and several other support characters who had little to no importance, they can only do so much as side characters. I thought I'd throw in the protege character to keep Fred company in the mean time. As to whether or not I'll eventually kill him off in the long run, I don't exactly have the stomach to do so. Yet.