Mass Effect: The Unsung Hero, Chapter 3
Revelations
A/N
First off: 2 reviews, 4 favorites, and 190 different visitors for my first 2 chapters... A huge thanks for everyone who has read it thus far.
It'll take another chapter before I get to any real action sequences. Hang in there guys!
As soon as I exit the medical bay, my senses are greeted by several new sensations. Firstly, the sounds of a military ship humming with life, crew members running around fulfilling their duties. Secondly, the smell of an overcooked meal, god knows what went into it. Thankfully, Commander Shepard grabbed exactly what he told me he would, a power bar and drink which I ate and drank immediately. One thing that I saw that stayed the same from the medical bay was the dark blue steel and a seeming lack of interior lighting. You'd think that with this being an apparent military vessel that they would want better lighting. Although the eating area is well lit. But why in an orangeish light?Also what's up with those weird pods over there?
"Hey Ryan," the Commander spoke, catching me looking around "I'll give you a proper tour later. Lets get up to the Captain."
"Yes, of course sir" following his lead to past the eating area to a set of double stairs, and going up one side. The next room was incredible. While it had the same dark blue steel, it was the numerous workstations with what appeared to be an orange display. Whats with all the orange lighting? There is a huge triagonal shape island in the middle of the room with more workstations lined around it, and ahead of that I can see a long hallway with even more workstations with one more at the very end, although I couldn't exactly see that far. I'll have to see if I can get this blurry vision fixed some how. Then I was lead behind a wall to a room with chairs arrayed in a circle. Standing in the middle of the room was Captain Anderson.
"Ah, Master Sergeant, glad to see you walking around. I'm sorry but I'm going to have to keep this brief. Before we picked you up, we were on a shakedown run. The Normandy here is a state of the art vessel that was completed just a few days ago."
"I understand sir. But what do you mean, picked me up?" Now I was thoroughly confused... What other kind of vessel, other than naval, could they be talking about?
"That is actually a good way to start this off. You see the year is 2183, and you are aboard the Systems Alliance Space Vehicle SR-1 Normandy of which I am the captain. In 2148, a human colony on Mars discovered an alien settlement with several data caches intact. After decrypting, the data revealed something called the 'mass effect'. By using a particular substance, Element Zero or eezo for short, faster than light travel was made possible. Then in 2149, one of Pluto's moons was discovered to be a giant alien piece of technology called a mass relay." At this, a giant picture was projected behind the captain, showing a weird structure with a partial gyroscope at the middle with something glowing in the middle. "It was discovered that the Charon Relay is part of huge galactic network that allows intergalactic travel... Are you holding up Sergeant?"
Was my mouth hanging open that obvious?"Well sir, let me see if I got this right. We found some alien artifacts that allow us to travel efficiently through space, with even larger artifacts allowing even further travel... And you found me floating in space in that armor I saw earlier… To be honest, I understand the need for a quick briefing, so please continue and when I have time I can do my own investigations"
After that, the Captain just smiles and shakes his head, "Well, John, it seems to me you have a doppelganger here. Ryan's attitude toward new things is exactly what I'd expect from you."
Shepard belt out a good laugh "Great, now all I need to do is train him and then he could take over my spot on the ground team."
After that, Anderson continued on with a little more history, covering Jump Zero, First Contact, and then finally moving on to alien races/cultures/governments.
This is all very interesting but what good will this do if I don't know whats going to happen to me…
"Captain," I gotta say something now before I get caught up in some political bull shit "I don't know exactly how long it will take me to get up to speed here, but right now my first concern is what's going to happen to me. I know eventually I'll learn all about the Citadel government, species and what not, but knowing about that stuff now won't help me much."
God I hope that sounded ok... Take a deep breath and keep moving
"I also know that you guys are interested in that armor I had on me when you rescued me. What I'm worried about is that I'll get locked up in some unknown facility being studied to no end while some scientist tries to figure out how the suit functions."
Pause for effect… that should be long enough
"Captain Anderson," I state as professionally as possible while going into a stance that just seemed to feel right and raising my hand to my forehead, "Master Sergeant Ryan Mitchell requesting permission to remain aboard the Normandy to study and acclimate to the System Alliance standards of a soldier"
For being on board this ship for all of an hour, I hope I made a good first impression…
The Captain crossed his arms, with a hand coming up to his chin as if to scratch a beard that wasn't there. After a minute of deep thought, he suddenly looked happy. Umm... I dont know if this is a good thing...
"Well, Staff Commander Shepard, what do you think?"
Wait... what? I look to Shepard to see his reaction at the Captains words... Those eyes, they look like they have a fire burning behind them... but not of rage...
"Captain, I would be honored to have Mitchell become part of the crew" he said with a smirk.
"Good, I'll call in some markers to get the necessary paper work done," Anderson then went to the same stance I'm in "Permission granted… Lieutenant Commander Mitchell." He snapped his hand down, and for some reason I followed suit. Must be an old memory or something… Anderson continued on, "Since you are demonstrating such initiative in learning what you can, let me introduce you to some one." As he said that, Anderson activated a glowing orange thing that encompassed his lower left arm... Again with orange! What the fuck is it with orange displays? "Nihlus, could you come to the comm room please?"
Nihlus... I remember that name from before I woke up in the med-bay...
A figure began to walk into the breifing room, although I couldn't make out many details, it was obviously not human.
If I remember right, that's a turian… follow a very strict tier level society, similar to a military which explains their military prowess, many have facial markings that indicate their homeworld/colony… wait… that is exactly how Captain Anderson described it… hmmmm…
"skjfbvi fhiodfhsef bnfksjfh ouhfwoeuifh pieuf ipeuf efo[iyh f sopifh pi9euf f'paiuef fipasefu "
"Uhh… Captain… I sure hope you can understand what Nihlus is saying because I sure can't…"
"Gah, I knew I forgot something," Shepard muttered "Kaiden, get up here with that translator!" he spoke into the orange glowy thing… Seriously… what the hell is that thing?
Less than a minute later, the guy I recognize as taking my necklace thing earlier is coming through the door with something resembling a large gun…
"Um… I'm all for using guns to speed up a negotiation but isn't this a little far?" I ask
"What?... No no this isn't a gun, it's a actually a device which will allow us to give you a universal translator so you can understand every known alien dialect…" he said reassuringly
"Ah… ok, lets get this over with then…"
"Alright, now just stay still. The translator is actually implanted directly on to the cerebellum where it interacts with the primary auditory cortex to translate alien languages into English."
"Um… ok… how does it do that and how much will it SONUVAFUCKINGBITCH!"I scream outloud as Kaiden puts the device behind the upper part of my left ear and pulls the trigger. I somehow stay completely still, against my will, as I try to fall down from the pain of something cracking my skull and implanting it self on my brain...
After a minute or so the pain dies down and finally manage to say "I hope that isn't a standard procedure when someone is conscience, damn that hurt..."
"Here let me apply a little bit of medi-gel and... wait... what the fucking hell? Commander come look at this!" Kaiden definitely sounded worried, shocked almost.
I'm almost afraid to ask this..."Hey, whats wrong?"
"Well when this procedure is implemented, a piece of the skull is cut out so the micro chip can be implanted directly on to the cerebellum. This of course leaves the area exposed and needs to be covered with a salve we use called medi-gel. Using medi-gel it usually takes about an hour before the area is completely healed... You some how have healed your self in a matter of minutes."Shepard didn't have that warmth in his voice like he did earlier... "Mitchell... Do you know anything about how you healed so fast?" He looked me dead in the eye, as if he could see the truth in me.
"Commander, I have no idea whats going on with my body and how it can heal itself from such a procedure as you described. Sir, perhaps Dr. Chakwas blood samples may reveal something about this"
"Shepard, I believe that Mitchell here is telling you the truth."
wait ...I haven't heard that voice before...
"I'm sorry but was that you Nihlus that just spoke? If it was then the implant is working already"
"Well, Commander it seems that your arrival here is full of mysteries: Special armor that kept him alive with out massive shielding, dog tags indicating he is over 190 years old, the ability to heal rapidly like a krogan and adapt himself to completely foreign technology that takes most a few days to get used to," Nihlus said sounding impressed almost, "No wonder you and Captain Anderson here have seen fit to give him a position in the Alliance Military. If he were discovered in Turian space, he WOULD be locked up and studied."
I FUCKING knew it!
"Thankfully, my current mission precludes me from commenting on this new development, so the Council won't know a thing about Lt. Com. Mitchell's abilities here until... the proper time arises."
Well.. Let's hope that when the time does come, I'll have friends in high places to help out
"Now then, as I tried to say before. Mitchell I am Nihlus, a Special Tactics and Reconnaissance agent for the Citadel Council. The Spectres are an elite group of individuals that operate above and beyond Council Law. We are the first and last line of defense for the known galaxy."
"It's a pleasure to meet you Nihlus, but I'm sure that you aren't on a human ship's shakedown run just for kicks..."
Nihlus starts to open his mouth, mandibles flaring for a second while Anderson just chuckles to himself.
"... and something tells me that that is reserved for the Captain and Commander here to know about. Captain, with your permission, I'd like Kaiden's help with getting my armor reactivated and its usefullness determined."
Before Nihlus could interject Anderson spoke up"Permission granted, Lt. Com.. Feel free to use the cargo bay as your... "workout" area." a person could hear the smile in Anderson's voice at the end there.
I think he of all people is willing to accept that I'll be the only one able to understand and harness that armors full potential
Kaiden snapped off a salute, as did I just going through the motions as if my body already knew what to do. He was out the door before I caught up to him.
"Hey Kaiden wait up!" I semi-yelled, which caused the soldier standing by the door to jump a little bit
"Yeah? Whats up?"
"Well #1, I'm pretty sure the only reason I know your name is because the Commander said your name before you came into the breifing, so we really haven't introduced ourselves."
"Ah riight, sorry about that. 1st Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko sir,"
"Master... err... Lt. Com. Ryan Mitchell, but please call me either Ryan or Mitchell, I'm just glad that I won't be hauled off to some research lab thanks to the Captain getting me paper work so I can stay here."
"All right Mitchell, your informal like the Commander is, thats a good trait to have."
"Ok #2 I don't have the slightest idea of where the cargo bay is."
"Yet another blunder on my part Mitchell, lets go back down to the med-bay so we can grab your armor and then I can show you the cargo level"
"Sounds like a plan Kaiden, lets go"
"Wow, considering how you guys found me, this armor is deceptively light... It's probably only about 50 lbs yet it stopped enough radiation to kill me 10 times over." We had hauled the armor from the med-bay, distracting Chakwas from her investiation of my blood samples. Apparently something showed up that shouldn't normally show up, but isn't life threating.
"Yeah its really tough stuff thats for sure. If you don't mind as you get your gear on I'm going to take some scans and other readings so we can figure out how exactly it works and what its made of." as soon as he said scans, he activated the same kind of thing Shepard has!
"Ok, I know I'm the new guy and all, but what in the fucking world is that glowing thing on your arm! Shepard had one that he used to call you, and now you are using one to take scans."
"Ah, this my friend is what we call an omni-tool, like the name suggests it can do almost any job the user needs it too. Tell you what, lets get this armor working, then I'll see about getting you one as well so it'll be easier to explain."
"Deal, but first why dont we see what happens when we piece the armor together without me in it?"
"Sound approach, right after you"
It only took a few minutes to assemble the armor from its various pieces: feet-knees, knees-waist, waist-neck, upper arms, lower arms, gloves, and finally helmet; 7 sections in all.
"Ok then, I didn't find any sort of on button at all when we were piecing this together. Did you find anything out from your scans Kaiden?... Kaiden? YO!"
"GAH! Sorry Mitchell, but the scans I took seem to indicate that a person needs to be wearing the armor before it activates. The thing is that I didn't detect a power source anywhere on the armor, so if you don't get it activated after you put the helmet on, you'll have 30 seconds of air. After that I'm getting you out of it."
"One helluva way to test something out eh? Possibility of suffocating just to try and get something to turn on... and that's after it saved my ass from space... you probably couldn't find a better definition of irony"
After another couple minutes of taking the armor apart I begin to slip each piece on... Unfortunately I had to disrobe when I tried to get the knees-waist part on other wise it didn't fit quite right. A moment that was only made more awkward when a female crew member came down the elevator on her way to the engineering section... Well at least I'll have a good rumor going around about me now. The rest of the armor went on without a hitch and it was pretty comfortable too.
"Ok, now for the fun part..." I muttered as Kaiden helped me with the helmet, it seemed like it could attach somehow to the spinal part of the armor, allowing it to just hang there until needed, but that was a project for another day. "30 seconds you said?"
"Yeah... It should be pretty obvious though when the armor is activated. It seems like it is partially on now, you are able to move around in it with relative ease. When we brought you aboard, it wouldn't budge a centimeter."
"Thanks for the encouragement..." trying to give an extra emphasis on the sarcasm. "Here goes nothing..." I press the buttons on my neck that activate the helmet, causing it to close around my head.
A few seconds go by, then all of a sudden I feel like the suit is squeezing me. My first instinct is to panic, but thankfully I'm able to hold my wits about me. The suit then eases off a bit, but it feels like its skin tight. After that, a display of some sort comes up in front of my eyes and a loading bar is showing along with a checklist... Must be the start-up program... Huh I wonder what Nanocell interface means... After that item on the list is completed, I suddenly feel like there is nothing separating me from the outside, like the suit isn't there at all. I can feel the cold metal of the cargo bay floor on my feet, as well as the air rushing around me from the life support systems. Well then... I suppose that with a suit like this with out any kind of tactile input could end in disaster. Finally, the display shows the cargo bay around me with Kaiden rapidly typing away on his omni-tool.
"Hey Kaiden, what happened to 30 seconds?" I ask, and some how the suit is able to broadcast my words to him
"Sorry Mitchell but as soon as the helmet closed I picked up an energy reading that indicated the suit powering up. The thing is that it's producing more power than a power cell for the Mako produces and I can't pinpoint the source! It's like the suit is drawing power from no where... unless... no that would be impossible..."
Ok now I'm curious... "What would be impossible?"
"The suit may actually be drawing its power from you, but the human body by itself can't sustain that kind of power generation!"
"Well... I'm feeling fine, great even... So how about we put aside the issue of where its getting its power and see what this can do" Gotta admit, I feel almost invincible in this thing... Now for some fun...
"Ok, first off, you must have some sort of display right?"
"Yup"
"Ok, can you describe it?"
"Its almost like there isn't anything in front of me honestly. Save for the image of the armor in the bottom right of my vision, with what looks like a power bar on top of that. Both are showing 100%, so it seems like the armor is fully functional."
"Alright, so first lets do some agility and speed exercises. Just follow what I do."
We do some sprints, as well as some quick turn moves, and I'm totally capable of keeping up with Kaiden. At the end of all of them, Kaiden is slightly out of breath.
"How are you holding up in there?"
"Alot better than you. It felt like I was walking to tell you the truth."
"Hmm... well then how about we have ourselves a little race? First one to get from the cargo ramp, around engineering and back wins?"
Hmm... I was able to keep up with him and I was sprinting like I would normally... I wonder if this suit is able to augment that as well?
"MAXIMUM SPEED"
What the fuck was that?... I look around my display and discover in the bottom left hand corner is a symbol that has multiple arrows... Only one way to find out...
"Ok, Kaiden lets go..." I get into a staggered stance to get ready to run...
"Alright... Hey Jenkins come here! Give us a countdown quick"
"Uh ok..." he's just a kid! What the hell is he doing on this ship? "On your marks... Get set... GO!"
With that I take a step, but the suit seems to take over causing me to run at the pace I was before the change up... Kaiden and I are tied, as we reach Engineering. Can't admire the drive core, got a race to win! I keep up the pace as does Kaiden, shocking the female crew member from before. As we exit the Engineering section, I decide to see what would happen if I step it up... I begin to focus entirely on sprinting when I see the cargo bay door... and all of a sudden the door comes rushing up at me!
"OH FU-" BANG!... "-ck..." Not having enough room to slow down I hit the bay door head on. "ow..."
"ENERGY CRITICAL"Huh? I look over to the right of my display and see that the power bar has dropped to 15% but was steadily climbing... The suit display showed the helmet section slightly highlighted but that was going back to normal as well... Nice... a self recharging and self healing suit... this could come in handy...
"Hey Kaiden... I think I won..." I mutter as I pick myself up... "Kaiden? You gotta stop spacing out on me man it's getting old..."
Kaiden was still standing by the elevator that led up to the crew deck, looking on in disbelief...
"Mitchell... how... did you do that?"
"I some how managed to activate a dedicated speed mode on the armor, but that burst I had there drained the power down to 15%, but I'm already back to full."
"I hope that there is some way we can replicate that armor... it would definitely give us a huge advantage on the battlefield."
"I hear you man, but lets keep going with these tests. What should we do next?"
"Hmm... lets see how you are able to handle a weapon. We'll start with a pistol first." We went back to the desk where started originally. Kaiden then called over the requisitions officer and asked for the standard load out..
"Ok, what we have here are the standard guns used by Alliance soldiers, all made by Hahne-Kedar on Earth. Each weapon has a different name and series behind it, which is generally what they are referred by. For example, this pistol is the Kessler I." He picked up a rectangular object and it unfolded to become a pistol.
"Why was it folded up like that? Wouldn't that slow down a solider if they had to rapidly switch weapons?
"It does to a point but the main reason is to make it easier to carry. All modern weapons can compact themselves down in similar fashion as you see before you. All it takes is the flick of this switch here and it'll unfold and activate." Kaiden folded the gun back up and handed it to me. As soon as the gun touches my hand, I feel a slight buzz in my hand. With my finger even touching the unfold switch it activates by itself, and all of a sudden my display changes. As I look around I am able to see movement much clearer than before, and when I fake aim the pistol my eyes were greeted by a projection of where the bullet would go.
"Um... Kaiden... With these guns... are there targeting computers inside of them?"
"Yeah... How did you know?"
"Well... Lets just say that my suit interfaced with the pistol and I can see where the bullet will go without having to aim..."
"Damnit Ryan... You know what... You are going to end up being in a squad all by yourself... You are a one man army in that suit." Kaiden spoke sounding jealous.
I laugh really hard at that last one "I'm sorry Kaiden... One day you and I will have to go at it with nothing but our fists to see who is better... By the way that reminds me... When you implanted that translator, something held me upright even though I wanted to fall over. What happened?"
"Ah, I was wondering when you would ask about that... It would be easier for me to show you than to describe it..." He then began to glow blue, causing some interference in my display, then all of a sudden he turned and looked at a crate on the opposite wall by the huge 6 wheeled vehicle. Kaiden then rose his right arm and the crate he was looking at rose as well.
"Whoa... and your complaining about my suit?" I asked incredulously.
"Yeah because that requires a lot of concentration and energy. I can only do a couple different maneuvers once in a while. What I just used was something called biotics, maybe sometime later the Commander and I can get you up to speed on that as well."
"Sounds like a plan buddy. Now then, I think it's time to test my armor's true potential. We need to see how well I can handle a gun as well as how well my armor can take a hit. Do you have some small targets I can set up over on that vehicle over there?"
"You mean the Mako? Yeah I do, but first I have to exchange the ammunition block. Right now its solid titanium, but for target practice we use a specialized rubber block." Kaiden handed me 6 targets to go set up while he switched out the ammo blocks.
"Alright, lets see how you do your first time firing a gun... Hmm... Ok you got the proper stance down for target practice, and of course as you can guess in battle youll rarely ever be able to get that stance and be able to fire effectively. Range is clear, take your shots."
Thanks for the advice coach... Ok here we go, got the projected impact point lined up on the first target... Nice and easy... BLAM!...
"Nice shot, dead center... Keep it up"
Ok barely felt any recoil, lets do this... BLAM!BLAM!BLAM!BLAM! All of a sudden the last one started moving all over the place, Damnit Kaiden's using his biotics to make this difficult... I followed the targets movements waiting for just the right moment... BLAM!
"Excellent work Mitchell! Glad to see you didn't freak out over that last target there" with out turning to look, I could tell Kaiden had a smile on his face.
"You mean it was moving? I hardly noticed at all" I quipped back at him.
He let out a good laugh "Well Mitchell if I didn't know better, I'd say you were Shepard's twin brother, hell you both look to be the same age even."
"Ha! I'll Take that as a compliment Kaiden. Now then... on the other part of the test... We gotta see how well the armor can take fire from your guns."
"Alright but first we are using the same rubber rounds, I don't want to end up killing you accidentally."
"Ok," I hand him the gun I was using, "Head on over to the other side of the cargo bay and fire one shot when ready."
Kaiden walked on over to the other side of the room while I checked my suit and energy status. OK 100% on both... This should be interesting to say the least...
"Range is clear!" I heard Kaiden shout, and then he fired one round. The only way I know he did is because I heard the gun go off, but nothing registered on my display. I looked down at my chest and saw a small ball of rubber sticking on right pec.
"Hey Kaiden... I didn't even feel anything and the suit didn't register anything either. Go ahead and put in the regular ammunition block and be sure to only fire when you have a clean shot."
"Roger that, it'll just be a sec for me to switch out the blocks." I double check the suit readouts to make sure everything is normal... Huh... Speed mode is still active... I wonder if that will have any effect on the suits ability to stop a bullet...
"Alright, range is clear!" This time Kaiden waited for a second before pulling the trigger... BLAM!
"GAH! DAMN THAT FUCKING HURT!" I yell out, causing the girl from earlier to come running out to see what happened.
"Mitchell! Are you all right? Are you hurt?"
I check my display... "I'm fine, the suits armor stopped the bullet but just barely... The bullet stopped before hitting my actual shoulder... Energy levels are still at 100%, but suit efficiency is down to 50% but climbing. There has got to be a way to increase the armor effectiveness of the suit" There has to be... When I thought about running faster earlier the speed mode activated... I wonder what would happen if I think about
"MAXIMUM ARMOR"
BINGO!
"Kaiden, lets try that again... I think I just activated the enhanced armor function of the suit..."
"How?"
"Similar to how I activated the speed mode... I thought only about our race when it activated, allowing me to sprint like it was nothing but also gave me a crazy boost when I pushed."
"Ok, I'm taking your word for it, go back over by the back end of the Mako."
I head back over to my spot... As I do I look at the bottom left of my display... The arrow's have been replaced by a shield... Must indicate the armor mode is active...
"Range is clear!" Kaiden yelled, the crewmember from engineering looking on with a look of concern on her face.
BLAM!
I felt an impact but it felt like some one tapping me on the arm, not like before. I check my display and find something interesting... "I'm fine, but energy levels dropped to 95% and suit functionality is down to 99%... both are climbing back though."
"Whew... I was worried there for a minute... But damn you don't even have shields like our armor does and it seems like you could take A LOT more damage than we could ever hope to survive."
"I'm glad your impressed, but I'm sure the Captain and Commander are wanting to view the data we collected"
"Your right on that one Mitchell, Shepard will definitely want you on the ground team after he sees this"
Suddenly over the PA, we hear Shepard's voice. "Lieutenant Alenko and Private Jenkins to the cargo bay immediately. Repeat, Lieutenant Alenko and Private Jenkins to the cargo bay."
Kaiden, with a look of worry on his face, activates his omni-tool, "Commander, what's up?"
"Kaiden, where are you?"
"Still in the cargo bay. Mitchell and I just finished our preliminary tests and were about to head up to get to you and the Captain."
"Ok, stay down there and get armed up. We are going on a mission."
"What? I didn't even realize we made a jump... What's going on sir?" There was a slight pause on the other end...p
"We received a distress call from Eden Prime."
A/N
Finally! Past all the introduction b.s.! On to some real action, for those of you wondering the Alliance's ranking system goes like this:
ENLISTED
Serviceman 3rd Class/Private 2nd ClassServiceman 2nd Class/Private 1st ClassServiceman 1st Class/CorporalNCOs
Service ChiefGunnery ChiefOperations ChiefOFFICERS
2nd Lieutenant1st LieutenantStaff LieutenantLieutenant CommanderStaff CommanderCaptain/MajorRear Admiral/GeneralAdmiralFleet AdmiralI chose to be a . mainly because I didn't want to get caught up between Kaiden and Ash and take away any spot light from them.
Also, new chapters may take a while for me to write from now on, especially if they are as long as this one was... Reviews may help that out though! Let me know what you would like to see happen in this cross over! (Nanosuit CQC versus a krogan will happen eventually don't worry)