A/N: By 2552, heat sinks and thermal clips are severely outdated in the Alliance. The combat effectiveness of mass accelerators is understandably improved. By 2552, mass accelerator cannons are capable of the same ammo modifications that handheld mass accelerators are capable of by 2183 (I have not seen anything to lead me to believe they are not capable of such modifications by 2183, I'm just assuming they aren't).
If you read the codex, then you know that all Alliance personal receive genetic modifications, but gene mods are relatively new during the events of Mass Effect, and no one has grown into them yet. That's part of BioWare'sexcuse for why 2183 humans are almost no different from 2014 humans. By 2552, the Alliance humans have overcome their development-restricting geas placed upon them by those who shall remain unnamed at this time (my excuse for why they're not so advanced when compared to where real-world humans expect to be by 2183), and have advanced their civilization to more believable levels.
Alliance shields are traditional energy shields by 2552. Kinetic barriers are archaic.
Medi-gel is understandably more powerful by 2552, as is omni-gel. You'll see what I mean.
I was intentionally ambiguous with the descriptions of the marine and the trooper. I actually do not intend to describe them at all. They are a conduit with YOUR imagination flowing through them.
Our Newest Heroes
LOCATION: MILKY WAY / EPSILON ERIDANI SYSTEM / REACH
DATE (ALLIANCE / UNSC CALLENDER): 23-7-2552 CE
NOTABLE EVENT(S): COVENANT INVASION OF REACH / SIEGE OF NEW ALEXANDRIA
366 years after the Reaper War...
After 27 years, the Human-Covenant War was finally coming to a close as the Covenant invaded Reach, the last remaining UNSC stronghold before Earth. The Covenant could sense victory was near, and were throwing in everything they had to bring the decades-long interstellar war to a close. An SDV-class heavy corvette hung ominously over the city of New Alexandria on Reach, providing support to the Covenant forces in the city below.
After his entire squad was decimated by a single Elite, a lone surviving UNSC Army trooper linked up with the survivors of several other units who had suffered the same fate, including 18 other troopers, 12 police officers, and a team of four ODSTs. The trooper had been drafted immediately after graduating from high school six months ago, and was assigned to defend his people from the Covenant do his dying breath. He was not the kind of person one would expect to join the military, and he wouldn't have, if Humanity wasn't about to be erased from existence, but he was committed to the cause with every fiber in his body. Him and the other survivors held themselves up in a parking garage, with a barricade of vehicles and roadblock barriers forming a perimeter around the top of the entrance ramp. The trooper sat behind a barrier at the far right end, allowing him to lean around the corner and fire down the street on the advancing Covenant forces. He had heard the ODSTs say something about unidentified ships showing up in the system and destroying the Covenant supercarrier a few minutes before what seemed like hundreds of enemies started assaulting their position. He didn't believe them. It sounded like motivational bullshit, false hope meant to boost morale. What he saw next made him reconsider his disbelief.
The distinctive boom of kinetic bombardment rang in his ears. He instinctively took cover and looked to the Covenant corvette looming over New Alexandria. The corvette was firing away at the UNSC ground forces in the city, which was why he assumed it was the source of the noise, but it most certainly was not. Four sparkling blue shots rained down from the sky, burrowing themselves in the corvette. They were too fast and too loud to be plasma, but they didn't look like any projectiles the trooper had ever seen before, not with that sparkling blue. They impacted the corvette with seemingly little force, moving it by a barely noticeable margin. The rounds also stopped inside the ship rather passing through. At first glance, it seemed as if they had little to no effect on the corvette. However, electrical arcs sprouted all over the ship until it exploded three seconds later, the powerful shock wave rippling in the trooper's chest. Flames and debris raced towards the city streets, threatening to claim the lives of all they touched. Before the aftermath could reach the ground, a field of mysterious red and blue energy enveloped the giant flaming mass and sucked it up into space, saving countless lives. The amazing spectacle momentarily distracted the trooper from the Covenant forces firing on his position.
The trooper leaned back out of his cover to take a few more shots at the advancing aliens, hoping to slow them down until someone with a heavy weapon or a grenade could put them down permanently. The moment he leaned out, his cover was stuck by a bolt of superheated plasma. The plasma splashed over the surface of the barricade he was leaning around and grazed both his hands and forearms, his right shoulder, and part of his face and chest. His weapon was also melted and fused to his hands.
Screaming, the trooper fell back behind his cover. Body fluids were flash vaporized and exploded around the affected area as he went into shock. He looked down to see both of his arms had fallen off below the elbow. Shortly after, his entire right arm fell off. All around, his fellow defenders fell one by one. His vision became slow and his hearing distorted. The world grew darker and darker until he could see no more.
Just when he thought it was all over, his existence coming to an end, he felt a cool, soothing sensation in in his in his chest, and he could hear a distorted feminine voice.
"We've got a live one."
The trooper opened his eyes to see what looked like a human in a base red battlesuit with white stripes applying some kind of gel to his wounds. The gel was materializing from a glowing white gauntlet around the beings arm. He tried to get up, but the being gently held him back. Its sinister helmet with a pair of slanted glowing white slits for eyes retracted from his or her face. It was like nothing he had ever seen.
When the helmet retracted, the face of an undeniably human woman was revealed.
"We're not going to hurt you. We're here to help."
She said we. That meant she wasn't alone. He looked around and saw more humans, sixteen in total, who were all bigger than him, wearing similar armor sporting a variety of colors, shapes, and bulkiness. They only thing they all shared was an insignia on the right side of their breastplates, two separated bars that curved inward to form an disconnected triangle with a triangle formation of three stars in the center. One of them was bigger than all the rest, as big as the Spartan-IIs he had heard so many stories about. One time he had seen a group of Spartans here on Reach; seeing them inspired hope. This monster was obviously not trying to instill hope in anyone, with his massive dark armor and his pulsing red lights. He, if he even was a he, also had a different insignia from the rest of the big humans: N7. They all wielded modular weapons with glowing parts that almost reminded him of Covenant weaponry, especially when they began firing red, green, blue, purple, and white.
Plasma bolts crashed into them and were stopped by transparent bubbles that flared upon contact with the ionized gas. One of the big humans raised his hand in the air when his different colored glowing gauntlet appeared over his arm, and a giant semitransparent dome was emitted overhead that halted enemy fire, but not friendly fire. Two of the humans sent bursts of red, blue, and white from their glowing gauntlets. Every so often they would be enveloped in blue clouds and shoot blue spheres of varying shapes from their hands.
All of a sudden the trooper regained feeling in all of his nerves that had been fried. He looked down to see the woman attaching his lost limbs, using the strange gel like glue. He didn't know what that stuff was, but it made biofoam look like shit. She also repaired his armor with a slightly colored different gel, not that his armor did him much good anyway. She put her illuminated hand to his chest and he felt a pinch, like he was just punctured by a hypodermic needle. He suddenly felt better, a lot better.
"Now..."
The woman slapped a device onto him that wrapped around his waist like a belt. One of those bubbles he had seen on the other big humans wrapped around his body. He looked back into the woman's eyes. She reached behind her and revealed a strange rectangular box. His was extremely surprised when it unfolded itself into what the trooper guessed was a submachine gun. She did something to the weapon with her glowing gauntlet, and a red holographic design shone above the surface. She then pressed it to his chest and he grabbed onto it. It was incredibly light.
"...Get up and fight."
Her helmet extended back over her head, scooping up her flowing hair as she stood and returned fire with what the trooper guessed was an assault rifle.
"You don't have a HUD synced with your shields, so you'll just have to listen closely. When you hear them pop, you get you ass back in cover."
After listening to her last advice, the lone surviving UNSC Army trooper finally stood back up and rejoined the battle. He took aim at an Elite with his new weapon and pulled the trigger. He was slightly surprised to have next to no recoil affecting his aim. The weapon's smart targeting system also negated the effects of the environment on the bullet's flight path, unlike the M118 FMJ-AP rounds fired from a MA37.
Fire was often used as a figure of speech; weapons fire, firing a weapon. It could be used as a noun to refer to ammunition, or as a verb to refer to the act of shooting. When he fired this weapon, actual fire spewed forth and set the Elite aflame, leaving only a pile of ashes.
"Don't worry about ammo or heat. We dealt with that a long time ago."
"Don't worry about ammo or heat? What kind of gun is this?" the trooper though to himself.
To the right, he saw two grunts freeze solid and then explode. To the left, he saw two more shredded to pieces by a sickly green substance that expanded across their bodies upon impact. A jackal came into his sights and was turned into another pile of ash. There was a strange glowing ball that appeared next to a group of three Grunts, a Jackal, and an Elite. An arc of electricity extending from the ball and dropped the elite's shields before exploding and killing the entire group. Another elite came into his sights, another pile of ash. One of the big humans extended an arc of electricity from a glowing gauntlet that chained throughout several enemies, electrocuting them with such high voltage it could be seen discharging from their bodies. Another big human sent a ball of fire from his glowing gauntlet that caused all of the enemies to explode like something out of a nightmare.
Two Hunters entered the fray, and immediately the trooper felt a giant lump of dread form in the pit of his stomach. Before the two monsters could even charge their weapons, two of the big humans became enveloped in those same blue clouds. One sent a sphere that formed what looked like a black hole near the hunters, dangling them helplessly in the air. The other sphere caused a frightening explosion that tore the hunters apart. The trooper's jaw dropped from all of this unbelievable devastation, and for a moment, he forgot his was in the middle of a battle. He just couldn't believe his eyes. It wasn't even a fair fight, for the Covenant. These big humans were tearing them apart in a terrifying fashion.
"Hey! What the hell's wrong with you!? Kill these alien bastards!"
He snapped back to attention, and turned two more grunts into ash. The woman materialized a grenade in her hand and tossed it at a large group of enemies, lifting them helplessly into the air and slamming them back down with bone crushing force. That feeling of dread he received from the hunters was starting to return, only this time he was receiving it from these big humans.
All the big humans began taking cover, and the woman pulled him down too.
"The barrier is about to drop."
Just like the woman said, the dome surrounding their position disappeared under the sustained fire.
"It must be our lucky day. A flock is coming in."
The trooper stared at the woman with a confused look on his face, silently asking for an explanation.
"A flock is a group of friendly drones. They really kick ass in large numbers."
Sitting behind his cover, the trooper was facing the opposite direction of the enemy. In this opposite direction, he saw what looked like simply flying guns with tripods underneath. Some of them were machine guns, others were rocket launchers. They would occasionally land with their tripods, and when they did, they became much more aggressive. This "flock" of drones flanked the enemy from all sides, forcing some of them to scatter their fire away from the big humans, or else be torn to shreds.
Even with the drones, without the barrier, the fight now continued in a matter similar to before these big humans showed up; leaning around cover to try and shoot targets who were also leaning around cover, only this time, when he shot enemies, he could actually take them down himself. He also wasn't immediately downed after being hit just once. It was not long before the enemy started to fall back, and the big humans started advancing. The woman made sure to stay close enough to him so he could hear her speaking, since their was no time to sync their comms.
"Get up. We're advancing."
"Advancing!? On the Covenant!? Who the hell are these people!?"
The lone surviving trooper got up without question and advanced along with the big humans. His heart sank even further when he realized the enemy were falling back down the street to be reinforced by a tank that had just turned the corner to annihilate them. Once again, he could barely believe what he was seeing when one of the big humans disappeared in a flash of blue energy, and then reappear right on top of the tank. The big human fired two shots straight through the tank with a high power rifle. The vehicle seized its advance as the big human teleported back to his squadmates.
"This isn't happening. This just isn't happening. I must be dreaming. This is too good to be true."
"Enemies on our right."
The trooper moved to a position providing cover from the street on the right along with the big humans. A wave of about thirty big, roaring apes came charging at them guns blazing. He had never seen any aliens before, but he recognized them from the reports as the Jiralhanae; more commonly known among the UNSC as the Brutes. They were approaching faster than they were going down, and the big humans activating giant, glowing red blades fixed under the barrels of their weapons like bayonets. The woman pushed him aside.
"Stay back, and watch your fire. Don't shoot me."
The Brutes' numbers had only been slightly reduced by the time they reached close-quarters range. The monster N7 human stomped his foot into the ground, sending a wave out that knocked down the closing aliens. Once they were down, the other big humans lunged on top of them and dug the bayonets into their skulls, reducing them down to half their numbers. Apparently, the bayonets were extremely hot, as evidenced by all the melted Brute heads.
He counted 12 Brutes left, including one with a hammer, who the trooper assumed was the leader. The remaining Brutes managed to get back to their feet before the big humans were upon them. Four of the big humans – including his savior – stayed back and waited for clear shots, of which there were none. The other 12 big humans engaged the conveniently 12 remaining Brutes in melee combat, with the monster N7 human engaging the leader.
The trooper watched the N7 slap his rifle – which was much bigger and bulkier than the rifles of all the others – onto his back and summon a giant glowing shield over his left arm and a blade over his right. The Brute's hammer smashed into his shield and appeared to break it, if that was the appropriate term for something that looked holographic. Some strange distortion seemed to emanate from the hammer upon impact, twirling the N7 around and bringing his blade across the alien's chest, eliciting a dreadful roar of pain from the beast. The hammer was slapped out of the Brute's hand by the N7, who was still spinning, albeit now of his own accord. With one last turn, the N7 brought a spinning back kick into the Brute's chest with that same wave from earlier crashing solely into this single enemy, rather than spreading out across the ground. It looked as if the Brute was shot by a tank. That was all that could be said to describe such gore.
All the aliens were dead now, and there were no more in sight. The big humans appeared to be talking to one another, but the trooper couldn't hear them because they were communicating through their enclosed helmets. The woman informed him of the situation.
"We're clear for now. All enemies in the area are vacating the city faster than we can chase them down."
Fighters zoomed overhead, and the trooper could hear bombing in the distance.
"Well, faster than us marines can chase them down that is."
The big humans started jogging away, all following the N7.
"We're gonna link up with the rest of our platoon in a warehouse. We'll figure out our next move from there..."
The marine started to jog away, following her squadmates. She quickly stopped when she noticed the trooper wasn't following. She turned to face him. He was staring blankly, unsure of what to do.
"...Are you in, or out."
The trooper didn't really have any other viable options. Everyone in his platoon was dead. They dropped like flies at the hands of the Covenant, and now, he was all that was left, the lone survivor. No other UNSC personal were responding to his calls. He was cut off, alone. His only two choices were go with these big humans, or stay here and join the rest of his platoon. He should be dead right now, but he wasn't. He was saved; saved by this dangerous and inspiring woman, who was now asking him to follow her to places unknown. He had no other choice but to go with her, but more than that, he wanted to go with her. He wanted to be like these big humans, tearing the Covenant apart, actually doing some damage and making a real difference in the war. UNSC Army troopers were no more than cannon fodder in this war. He knew that. They all knew that. And the trooper didn't want to be just another one down anymore. He wanted to be like these big humans, to save his people, and he had a feeling this woman could show him the way.
"I'm in. Lead the way."
The marine and the trooper both shared a nod. And then, they were off. Their journey together was just getting started.
A/N: I know there wasn't a whole lot of action in this chapter, but that's because it was entirely from the trooper's point of view, and there isn't a whole lot he can do right now. He was pretty much just along for the ride. Combine that with the fact that the Covenant's presence on Reach was still relatively small because their reinforcements were cut off by the Imperium, and the Covenant not having biotic or tech powers to allow them to really stand up to the Alliance, and you've got yourself a lack of action. The next chapter has a fight scene from the Alliance marine's point of view, so I'd like to believe it has a significantly more excitement, since her superior capabilities allow for much more ass kicking than the just point, shoot, and hope you don't go hand to hand with a brute capabilities of the UNSC Army trooper.
I have not started my extensive planning on this story. All I know is I want to focus on the marine and the trooper, and the journey they face together (they may get separated at times during their journey). There may be cameos with 'big characters' like Titans or N7s, but like I said, this story will mainly focus on the ambiguous marine and trooper, the 'little characters' on their 'little journey.'
The weapon the marine lent to the trooper was an M-39 Locust, the newest model in the Locust series (I couldn't state that in this chapter because it was from the trooper's POV, and he didn't know, nor was there any time for the marine to tell him). It has more damage and accuracy, faster travel speed, higher rate of fire, weighs next to nothing; you name it, it's got it. The marine had to give the trooper a submachine gun because a 2552 Alliance assault rifle would have been too big for him to hold.
