Salutations, dear readers! This is the first author's note I have done, as I usually prefer to get on to the story, and it will be pretty brief.
As I'm sure you guys have probably assumed, I own none of the fantastic and creative universes I have drawn from, only my own OC's. Thanks to you guys who review/have reviewed... without you my procrastination levels would be infinite.
(Every review gives you 100 more war assets towards defeating the Reapers!)
Mysterious guest reviewer: Yes. Yes it is.
Lord Inquisitor B Joseph H: Indeed they are quite OP. Don't worry, though. It is not going to be an imperial stomp the entire fic... rest assured I do not plan on nerfing or buffing any particular group to compensate, but there will be balancing factors as time goes on.
Thanks for reading this far. I hope you enjoy the story.
Hail the Emperor.
Valar Morghulis.
2185CE-1225KT-HORIZON SURFACE-TERMINUS SYSTEMS-REAPERVERSE
It hadn't taken long for someone to come looking.
Only a minute or two had passed since the explosion, and the strange assortment of Terrans and Imperials had just noticed a small shuttlecraft("Or a fighter." The Ghost muttered) making its way across the plain. It came to a landing a short distance away from the group, and out of it climbed five human-looking figures in armor that no one present recognized. One of them, a woman in white and pink armor, was clearly the leader, obvious through posture and interactions, passively picking up stray thoughts, or the fact that she was the only one not wearing a helmet, depending on who was making the observation.
"All right," The woman said, "Who the hell are you!?"
"I am Inquisitor Maresia of the Ordo-"
Teresa coughed loudly, interrupting the Inquisitor. "Oh, sorry Maresia. Hello!" She said with a bright smile as she turned back towards the leader of the new group. "We're sort of... uh... lost. Our ship kind of crashed-" Teresa pointed towards the now raging inferno behind them, "and I think we could use a bit of help. Would you mind telling us where we are?"
The woman scowled. "Bullshit. No way in the frigging universe does someone 'accidentally' crashland on a Terminus system colony. Tell me who the hell you are or I'll have my squad blow your heads off here and now." The 'squad raised their guns to shoulder level, aiming squarely for the heads of the group members.
The Inquisitor's eyes narrowed. "You would dare threaten us? You and your pitiful 'squad' would be mere-"
Teresa dissolved into a flurry of coughs. "Heh... sorry. Gunk in my throat. Anyways," she continued with a nervous glance at the guns, "I'm Teresa. The one in the hat is Maresia. The big guy is... er... what was your name again?"
'the big guy' glanced bemusedly at her. "Arcturus. Arcturus Typhan." His grip had tightened slightly on the hilt of his hammer, which he had been shifting casually from a relaxed position on his shoulder to a more ready stance. He doubted the small arms these people held could do any damage to the finely crafted armor he wore, but he disliked the idea of any of his companions coming to harm, and he was best able to express that dislike through his hammer.
"Right, thanks! And that robot-y guy-" She continued.
"I don't care about your god-damned names! Who do you work for?" The very rude woman asked.
"Uhm..." Teresa was not really sure how to answer that, especially considering that 'they' were not technically together.
The Inquisitor's eyes blazed. "We serve the holy Emperor of the almighty Imperium of Man, fighting to cleanse the universe of the foul heretic, the despicable xeno, and the unfathomly vile forces of chaos, and if you dare to oppose us we shall cleanse it of you foul hea-"
"AAAAAACHOOO!" Teresa sneezed.
Maresia glared up at her. "Your bodily expletives are beginning to annoy me. I demand you cease with these interr-"
"So!" Teresa interrupted, causing the Inquisitor to scowl, "Aaaaanyways... yeah. They're with the, um, Imperium, I guess... I'm a Terran."
"What the hell is a terran?" The rude lady continued. If Teresa had not grown up with miners and mechanics, she was sure her ears would bleed from all the cursing this woman was doing. She wondered if the lady had had enough coffee that morning. "And who the unholy shit is the Imperium of Men?" Continued the rude lady.
"Man." The Inquisitor growled. "It could be your salvation, or, as your current actions seem to be showing, your destruction, you loathsome, pitiful whor-"
"-Orrible weather today, isn't it?" Teresa quickly interrupted, earning yet another annoyed growl from the Inquisitor. "Well, actually, it's quite nice, but anyways..."
Meanwhile, the Space Marine observed with a mix of mild amusement and trepidation. He was surprised that the girl was still alive. If she had not been so young, or had she been under her command, the Inquisitor would have likely beheaded her by this point for such insubordination. Not that it wasn't still a likely possibility.
He was also surprised by how well she seemed to be handling the situation. Imperial talks with was usually only a trap, a ruse, or ended quickly in blood and death, so by his standards they were going spectacularly. There was some word for it... possibly starting with a D? It had been used often on ancient Terra. "Desecration?" He muttered to himself. "No, that cannot be correct... possibly 'dissection'? No... not decapitation either... 'discrimination'?"
Back at the main conversation...
"So, yeah." Teresa continued. "To sum that up, I'm a Terran, you're a terran, we're all terrans. Unless you're, like, a protoss or zerg or something."
The rude woman blinked. "That... is the biggest load of bullshit I've ever heard."
Teresa frowned. "Hey, I'm telling the truth! What do you call yourself if not 'terrans'?"
The rude woman raised a mocking eyebrow. "Humans. Duh." She glared at the Inquisitor. "I still see no reason not to shoot you all where you stand. I'm feeling generous today, so I'll give you one last chance before I splatter your pretty little brains all over that weird robot thing you're sitting in. Talk."
Teresa's face paled. "L-look, I'm serious! We were flying away from a zerg swarm when we went through a weird portal thing and-"
"Bull. Fucking. Shit." The rude lady raised the large gun she held to point directly at Teresa's face.
"N-no!" Teresa said, hating her nervous stutter. If that woman fired... SCV windshields could take being hit by rubble and a bullet or two, but direct machine gun fire(she assumed it was probably a machine gun) would break through it in seconds. "P-please, wait! This is a mistake-"
"Indeed." Said the Inquisitor, though she now grinned wolfishly. She drew her saber slowly from her scabbard and pointed it directly towards the extremely rude woman(who had neglected to even return the courtesy of her name! The nerve.) "A mistake that you will not long survive."
The imbecilic woman glared back at the inquisitor. "Are you threatening me? With a sword?" She gave a mirthless laugh. "You're crazy. I've got a squad of five people with assault rifles, and you're threatening me with a fucking sword. And you!" She turned her glare to the giant figure. "Trying to be some sort of goddamned space knight? Well nice armor, I hope it can take a hand grenade."
The inquisitor burst out into uncontrollable laughter.
"What the hell is so funny, you psychotic bitch!?" The rude woman yelled.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Maresia choked out through the occasional chuckle, not sounding sorry in the least. "It's just that... heheh... I've never seen anyone foolish enough to threaten an Astartes Terminator with low grade explhohohsives-" She dissolved into laughter again, clutching a hand to her chest.
"You're insane." The rude lady scoffed, lining up her rifle with Teresa again. "And now, you're going to be dead."
"Oh really?" The inquisitor said with mocking cheeriness. "All five of us?"
The rude lady's eyes widened. "Five? What-"
*click*
Ashley froze, feeling cold metal touch the back of her head.
"Drop. Your. Gun." A voice growled in her ear.
Ashley dropped her gun.
"Chief?" One of her soldiers said tentatively. "What are you-"
"Tell them to lower their weapons" The voice said. She could feel his breath on the back of her neck.
"Lower your weapons." Ashley had been completely alert. How could this have happened? It didn't matter now, though. Ashley wasn't about to let her family's reputation be sundered even more by another failure.
With the speed of an experienced combatant she turned and ducked, lashing out with one foot in an attempt to kick out the legs of-
Ashley blinked. There was no one there.
At least she thought that there wasn't until she felt something slam into her shoulder, knocking her to the ground and keeping her there with increased pressure.
It was then Ashley saw something that made even less sense than the rest of her day.
Empty space shimmered and dissolved into teal hexagons, which disappeared rapidly, revealing an extremely intimidating armored figure holding a silenced rifle with a barrel inches away from her face.
"Stay down," the man said in a voice that crackled slightly through the audio projectors of his mask, "or I will splatter your 'pretty little brains' all over the ground."
"SCV!" He called without looking up. "You've been taking the lead here. It's your call. Do we try again or take them out?"
Teresa let out a sigh of relief. She'd almost been a goner there. "Look, Mrs. Soldier lady-hey, what is your name, anyways?"
"There's no way I'm going to-ugnh!" The Ghost put more weight on her shoulder. "Fine! Chief of Operations Ashley fucking Williams! Happy now?"
"Well," Teresa said. "I'd be happier if we could just talk about this peacefully with no death threats or violence- but anyways, Ashley, we really don't want to fight-" She glanced at the Inquisitor. "Okay, scratch that. Look, all we want is to know where we are and how to get back to where we used to be. Would you please help us?"
"There is no way in-" Ashley began.
"Ahem." The sound came from the tech priest. Those assembled glanced at him in surprise. "This conversation has been pointless. I advise we currently direct our attention to a higher priority occupation."
"Oh?" The Inquisitor said with an eyebrow raised. "And what would that be?"
In response, the cyborg simply pointed towards the sky. Specifically, the small brown dot that had grown significantly in the sky over the past few minutes unnoticed by those below but for the cyborg.
"It appears to be a small landing craft of some sort." The tech priest elaborated.
"Small!?" Ashley exclaimed. "That thing is the size of a cruiser!" Her face had gone extremely pale. "Oh no... you need to let me up, now!"
"Whatever for?" The Inquisitor asked with a skeptical eyebrow.
"We need to get out of here! I don't care how insane you idiots are, those things might be the Collectors, and unless I get back to the colony right fucking now we're all screwed!" The men Ashley had brought with her were visibly shaken.
"Well, OK then, as long as you promise not to shoot at us I guess." Teresa said with a shrug.
"And if this is a trap?" The Inquisitor asked. "Say they are trying to get us to let our guard down?"
"Look, you're just going to have to trust me on this one, because we seriously need to go right now."
"We can do more than that." The Ghost said.
"Wha-what the hell!?" Ashley shouted. "What was that!?" She'd felt... something... in her head, almost as if a secretary was going through her memory files.
"She's telling the truth." The Ghost said with a sigh, taking his boot off of the woman's shoulder. He seemed slightly disappointed.
"What the heck, Ghost dude?" Teresa said incredulously. "Did you just-"
"Nevermind." He interrupted. "Now, Chief Williams, are you going to get going or not?"
Ashley scowled as she brushed herself off, but did not reply to him. "Alright, people, let's move!" She glanced back at them. "Get to the colony if you want to live. You don't want to get caught out in the open."
They watched in silence as the shuttlecraft began to speed towards the aforementioned colony.
"Well that was weird." The SCV pilot commented. "Oi, Ghostman, did you just break into that woman's mind?"
The green eyes of his mask stared back at her. "What of it?"
Teresa crossed her arms. "Not cool, dude. You can't just go reading people's minds. Major breach of privacy."
"If you don't like it, find some tinfoil and make yourself a hat. In the mean time, we need to go." He turned to the other three. "Are you coming?"
"Indeed." The inquisitor said. "We cannot simply stand by and allow a human colony to be attacked. Besides," she added with a malicious grin, "I feel like killing something today."
2185CE-1235ET-HORIZON ORBIT-TERMINUS SYSTEMS-REAPERVERSE
"Chief." Cortana said as Master Chief jumped down the last ladder.
"Hmm?"
"This is a bad idea."
"Yep."
"This is the fifth time I've said that. I'm starting to think you're not listening to me."
"I'm listening." He'd reached the door to the airlock. "Do you have a better idea?"
"...Oookay, point taken. Still, is blowing up the ship really necessary?"
"We can't let the ship fall into enemy hands. You know the rules." He entered the airlock. It looked similar, if smaller, than the one he'd used to give the Covenant back their bomb over Earth.
"Well, yes, but what if the blast kills us?"
"It will get us to the other ship."
"Yes, but what if it kills us?"
The Chief grabbed the switch. "It won't."
"You don't know that."
"Trust me, Cortana." The Chief grabbed hold of the release latch. "Did you prime the reactor?"
"Is the space pope catholic?"
"...Space pope?"
"I see we still have more work to do on your sense of humor. Yes, the reactor's ready to go anytime."
The Chief pulled the release latch. As soon as the door was fully opened the Chief pushed off from the wall towards the rapidly nearing spaceship. "Now."
The ship exploded in the brilliant blue of a slipspace explosion, propelling the Chief rapidly towards the strange ship. The Chief maneuvered his legs to face its hull, aiming the RPG he'd picked up on his way down directly at its hull.
"Tell me when, Cortana."
The Chief zoomed towards the Collector vessel, its craggy hull approaching like a truck whose windshield he-the Chief decided not to finish that analogy.
"Now, Chief!" The Chief pulled the trigger, blasting a rocket through the side of the ship he would have slammed into a moment later.
"Brace for impact!"
2185CE-1236ET-COLLECTOR VESSEL-HORIZON ORBIT-TERMINUS SYSTEMS-REAPERVERSE
A group of Collectors had been headed for the mobilization bay when the hull in front of them exploded.
As the smoke began to clear, they saw a crouched figure. A hulking, green armored figure, with a golden mask that seemed to be glaring directly at them.
They, of course, opened fire.
"Well they're not very friendly." Cortana said to the Chief, who had taken cover behind a strange organic seeming column.
The Chief drew his shotgun. "Neither am I."
*cha-chic*
2185CE-1238TT-HORIZON COLONY-HORIZON SURFACE-TERMINUS SYSTEMS-REAPERVERSE
"Well this is disappointing." Maresia muttered.
They had arrived at the so-called 'Colony' to find a rather pathetic shantytown(in the Inquisitor's eyes) whose defenses seemed to be sorely lacking.
"Damn it, we need every able bodied person up and armed!" The annoyance known as Ashley was shouting. The defense force they had mustered was so meager that she actually felt somewhat embarrassed for them.
Strangely enough, the girl in the mech(Teresa, if memory served) was proving extremely useful constructing a barricade, embellishing it with strange bunker-like structures. She did in thirty seconds what would've taken four men at least five minutes. Whether this was innate to the girl or due to the machine was unclear, and warranted further observation.
In any case, the strange enemy ship had only just entered the upper atmosphere. The brief story she'd been given had stirred an old rage against the xenos. These colonies might have been small, but allowing them to be taken one by one and doing nothing about it was a grievous crime. No genocidal alien scum would be allowed to live on her watch. She would ensure that they were annihilated to the last molecule, and afterwards she would 'discuss' this negligence with those responsible.
"Look sharp, people! They should be here in less than five minutes!"
Emperor be praised.
Maresia turned from her position on top of the barricade where she had been looking over the field to the location of their enemies to face the assembled troops.
"People of the colony of Horizon!" She proclaimed, turning heads across the plaza.
"Ma'am, what do you think you're-" Ashley began.
"You are about to face the vile xeno in combat." Maresia continued, ignoring the now annoyed Ashley. "These foes will show no mercy. If they had their way, they would execute you, and your families, and your friends, and desecrate your remains with their unholy stench. All of those you know would be slain, their guts lying at their feet, their eyes stabbed out, their screams echoing across the planet!" A considerable number of the faces in the crowd were now paled.
"Stop this goddamned-" Ashley tried again.
"But fear not!" Maresia proclaimed. "For we stand before them! So long as we hold true and do not yield, they will not have their victory! The almighty Emperor stands with us, granting us the unstoppable sword of his wrath and the invulnerable shield of his wisdom! Heed now your weapons, your armor, and go to battle with joy in your hearts-for on this day we shall be victorious!"
Though somewhat confused about this 'emperor', the assembled defenders felt a sudden peace and confidence grow within them, and at the end of the speech their cheers could be heard miles away.
"Well that was annoying." The Ghost muttered as he checked his rifle for the third time. He found the Inquisitor's religion very strange... but then again everything here seemed to be strange. Their weapons, armor, and technology were all completely alien to anything he'd encountered before, and none of the minds he'd glanced over had held any knowledge of the Dominion, let alone the Zerg and the Protoss. He hadn't even tried any of the Imperials-he could feel that both the Inquisitor and the armored giant were psionic, and trying to read other psychics was generally a bad idea. That aside, he didn't need to read their minds to know they were clearly not familiar with his world.
He glanced up from scanning the battlefield to observe the now more enthusiastic colonists join him on the barricade. He had been very skeptical about their choice in armor, appearing more like a jumpsuit than true marine armor. He doubted that they would stand up to any sort of gunfire. He had, however, learned(while perusing the surface thoughts of a civilian) that they had some sort of shielding.
They weren't soldiers, though. The majority, at least, were minimally trained civilians. This fight was going to be tough.
He still was not certain what to think about the Imperial's choice of weapon.
"Damn it, you psychotic idiot, you can't fight with a sword!" Ashley was yelling.
"Care to put that to the test?" The Inquisitor replied.
Roy concluded that either she was extremely capable... or a complete idiot. They'd find out soon enough.
The Collector ship had grown significantly closer, and Roy could see strange clouds moving out from it. "They may be using chemical weapons. All of your helmets have air filters, yes?"
The person crouching next to him gave him a confused look. "Of course. Who would wear a helmet without air filters?"
"Just checking." He brought his hand up to his mask and zoomed in for a closer look at the clouds. "Wait- Inquisitor, those are insects!"
"Oh?" She replied, glancing skyward.
"If they swarm us..." The Ghost did not like these odds. "Anyone got a plan?"
"We've got GUARDIAN laser emplacements. If we can get them fully active we might be able to-" Ashley began.
"No need." The Inquisitor interrupted. "Typhan, if anything tries to attack me while I'm distracted, kill it." The Space Marine nodded.
She then looked up towards the sky, closing her eyes in an expression of fierce concentration.
"What are you-" Ahsley was interrupted as Maresia flung a hand in her face.
"Not. Now." The Inquisitor said through clenched teeth.
Roy began to feel a powerful buildup of psychic energy, centered on the Inquisitor. In the material world a wind began to pick up around her.
And suddenly, the swarms began to writhe, joining together in a gigantic cloud. Insect carcasses began to fall, crunching as they hit the ground and splattering strange slime where they hit.
When Roy looked closely at the swarms, he realized that they were tearing each other apart. "Interesting." Said Roy. "Haven't seen that one before..."
In the meantime, the alien ship landed with a loud thump. Figures began to emerge, flying rapidly towards their position.
"This is it, people!" Ashley shouted. "Wait until they're in range, then fire at will!"
Roy eyed the approaching enemy. There were a lot of them, but they were flying towards their line with no apparent deviations in their course. They're sitting ducks, he thought as he drew up his rifle. Time to go hunting.
The Dominion Ghost opened fire. His first shot went through one of the alien's bizarre heads, blue shields flashing and failing as the creature fell out of the sky. His second went through another alien's head, and his third eviscerated yet another. This is easy. Roy continued to fire.
Then, however, the strange aliens began to fire back. Their strange laser weapons tore chunks out of the barricade, forcing those on it to duck under cover. One man screamed as a beam blasted a hole in his stomach and pushed him over the side, where he landed with a crunch. A woman fell silently, a blackened hole where her face had been.
"Open fire!" Ashley yelled. The colonists popped over the barricade, opening fire with assault rifles and SMG's. The Collectors tried to dodge, but in the air they were easy targets. As they started to die in earnest, they began to fall back.
"We've won!" A colonist shouted, pumping his fist in the air.
"No, wait, they're not done yet!" Ashley shouted.
"Hold fast, defenders of Horizon!" Maresia shouted. She looked slightly drained from her slaughter of the swarms, but the last of them had fallen a moment before and her sword was in her hand. "Indeed, this is only the first step on the path to victory!"
"But they're falling ba-" An orange beam lanced through the man's chest, cutting off his protest, and the Collectors were advancing. This time, however...
"What is that noise?" Someone asked.
Ashley's expression had hardened. "Husks!"
Roy glanced back at the battlefield, where he saw something that made even his stomach churn. They looked like they had once been human, but now had been infected with machines, their eyes empty and glowing. They seemed to be screaming with synthesized rage, their voices multiplied by the dozens.
Roy started to fire again, taking out a husk with every shot. It didn't seem to make a difference, however. For every one he killed, there seemed to be five more, charging on like monsters from a nightmare. They were getting closer.
When they were in range, the colonists opened fire. They managed to hold them back, mowing down the husks long before they reached the barricade. Just when the situation seemed to have stabilized, however, the Collectors began to fly back in again. Colonists all along the line began to fall as the aliens picked them off, causing those around them to refocus their fire on the Collectors.
As more and more colonists focused on the Collectors, the husks began to get through...
"Damnit!" The Ghost cursed, blasting one of the howling monsters at point blank range. "We're being overrun!"
The three bunkers Teresa had built into the side of the barricade were holding back some of the husks, but colonists were already starting to die. Roy grimaced, but continued to rapidly kill off Collectors.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a strange sight.
Arcturus Typhan had had enough of these strange creatures, and had charged up and over the barricade, leaping off of the top. "FEEL THE WRATH OF THE EMPEROR, XENO SCUM!" He roared, hammer over his head.
A moment later the ground shook with the force and sound of thunder, blasting a gaping hole in the husk's ranks and sending many of them flying into the air, some slamming into collectors and knocking them out of the sky.
Standing from where he'd landed, the Astartes raised his hammer again and charged.
Behind him, the inquisitor leaped down as well, landing feet first on a husk and crushing its mechanical spine. She charged after the space marine, her saber becoming a whirlwind of steel as she nimbly leaped and dodged over, under and through the horde of husks, leaving severed heads and limbs in her wake.
Immediately, a group of collectors broke off, firing their strange weapons at the pair. When they hit the Space Marine, however, no shields flared as they had been expecting, yet their shots seemed to glance off. The armor was not even scratched. The Inquisitor, on the other hand, could not even be hit. She was always gone by the time they fired, causing their weapons to cleave even further into the ranks of the husks.
Back at the barricade the situation had improved temporarily, but the alien horde was still coming.
Roy glanced at his ammo counter on the back of his rifle and cursed. He had, conservatively, only a minute of ammo left, with no way to refill it. This fight was going to get interesting, and not in a good way.
2185CE-1244ET-COLLECTOR VESSEL-HORIZON SURFACE-TERMINUS SYSTEMS-REAPERVERSE
"Behind you!"
The Chief glanced back, putting a magnum round through the face of one of the humanoid-machine-zombie creatures as he continued to sprint through the strange alien ship. He had been experiencing flashbacks to his battles with the flood, as the architecture of the ship was eerily similar and, of course, there were hordes of zombie-creatures inside of it.
"Door to your left!" The Chief jumped at the wall to his right, thrusting off of it with his legs and leaping through the door that Cortana closed half a second after he was through. He rolled as he landed, coming out of his roll at his previous running speed.
Behind him he heard the more and more distant sound of creatures clawing at the entrance. They would probably get through eventually, but he'd be long gone by then.
"Upper right and center!"
"I see them." The Chief rapidly holstered his magnum and drew his shotgun, perforating the two surprised aliens with one shot as he passed by them. He ran up a short incline, arriving at some sort of console. "This it?" He asked.
"I think so." Cortana said.
"You don't know?" The Chief asked, a miniscule note of worry entering his voice that only Cortana could detect.
"Hey, give me a break! I had to decipher an entire alien language on the way here!" She neglected to mention that it had been extremely easy, as one of the many programs she'd absorbed from the Forerunners was one for quickly translating alien languages. "I'm 99% certain. Well, maybe more like 96.5%. Whatever. Just plug me in already!"
With an inaudible sigh of exasperation, the Chief pulled Cortana's chip out of his head and placed her on top of the terminal on the spot he estimated to be a viable location.
"All right, I've got their main systems under control." Cortana said after a moment. "Hmm... I think I'm going to have a little fun."
"Don't get distracted, Cortana. Find us a way out of here."
Cortana's blue figure popped op from the chip, arms crossed. "Oh come on, chief! Can't a girl have a little fun?"
"..."
"I mean, we've been trapped on that stupid ship for so long and it's just so good to finally have something to do!"
"Not really the place, Cortana..."
"Well, I just violently pressurized and murdered a bunch of aliens for you. You're welcome. You know, you never really thank me for what I do. If I didn't know better I'd think you don't appreciate me."
"Thank you."
"...sorry, Chief." Cortana rubbed her virtual face. "I haven't had anybody to talk to in years... it's been kind of lonely. Let's just get out of here, okay?"
The Chief nodded, plugging Cortana back into his head. "First door on your left."
2185CE-1245KT-HORIZON COLONY-HORIZON SURFACE-TERMINUS SYSTEMS-REAPERVERSE
"Damn!" Roy exclaimed as he fired his last shot into another husk. He dropped his now spent rifle.
Might as well do some more weapons testing.
He reached up to his upper gauntlet, pulling down a red switch.
With a flick of his psionic powers, the green jewel on his gauntlet glowed and a one and a three foot long triangular blade of glowing green energy blazed into existence out of the front of his gauntlet.
He turned as another husk leaped over the wall, slicing off its head with a swing of his arm.
"Holy crap!" A colonist standing next to him exclaimed as he struggled to turn on the other switch without accidentally cutting off his arm. "That's a fucking laser sword!"
The Ghost raised an eyebrow under his mask. "It's not a laser sword. It's a psi blade." He turned back towards the edge of the barricade as his second blade hummed to life.
"Same thing." The colonist muttered, glancing back at the horde of husks. "Hey, what are you even gonna do with-" He glanced back at the Ghost, only to see a foot disappearing into a ring of teal energy as it pushed off of the barricade.
...
"Die, unholy abominations!" Typhan roared, bringing his hammer down again in a blast of thunderous force and obliterating yet another group of husks.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the Inquisitor dancing her dance of death through the crowds of monstrosities. "Typhan!" She shouted. "We must return to the barricade! They are being overrun!"
"Their flood will cease once we annihilate the source!" He replied as he took another thunderous strike.
A small group of collectors flew down, firing their weapons uselessly into his armor. Suddenly, one of them began to glow, its skin glowing with cracks like a stream of lava. "I AM THE HARBINGER OF YOUR DESTR-"
"DIE, DEMON!" The space marine shouted, slamming his hammer down onto the face of the strange possessed alien, slamming it into the ground with enough force to crush a Leman Russ*.
(*an Imperial tank)
The Space marine watched the formerly possessed pile of ash and bone for a moment to make sure it wouldn't rise again and then broke the remaining Collector squad with relative ease.
Suddenly, however, he found himself back to back with the Inquisitor, surrounded by a circle of husks. The main horde continued to charge around them, but for the moment they had a reprieve.
A single collector, glowing as the past one had been, flew down to face the Inquisitor.
"WHAT ARE YOU?" The creature asked. The Inquisitor had thought it to be demonic at first, but she could not sense chaos in its aura, only a deep and harsh coldness.
"I could ask the same." She pointed her sabre at its face. "You are no demon- make yourself known, so that I may know what foul creatures to annihilate when I cleanse this sector."
"WE ARE THE HARBINGER OF YOUR PERFECTION. WE ARE ETERNAL, THE PINNACLE OF EVOLUTION AND EXISTANCE. WE ARE BEYOND NAME, EACH A NATION UNTO OURSELVES, FREE OF ALL WEAKNESS. OUR EXHISTANCE TRANCENDS YOUR VERY UNDERSTANDING. THE PROTHEANS CALLED US REAPERS, A FUTILE ATTEMPT TO GIVE A NAME TO THEIR DESTRUCTION. WE CLEANSED THEM, AND ALL WHO CAME BEFORE. NOW HUMANITY AS WELL SHALL ASCEND AND BE CLEANSED. BUT YOU ARE DIFFERENT. WHAT ARE YOU?"
The Inquisitor grinned like a wolf. "I," she began, with a flourish of her glowing blade, "Am Inquisitor Maresia of the Ordo Malleus, a soldier of the Emperor's will! If you desire to destroy humanity, vile xeno, his wrath shall sing through me as I annihilate you and all of your 'eternal' kind."
"I CARE NOT FOR YOUR PITIFUL RELIGION. YOU ARE DIFFERENT. YOUR MIND IS STRANGE AND UNKOWN TO ME." The Inquisitor could feel the creature prodding at the edges of her mind, trying to find a hole in her mental defenses. It's presence was oppressive and vile. Two can play at that game, xeno.
The creature roared with rage as it felt her consciousness pierce deeply into its mind. Its consciousness was enormous, but it didn't have the speed to repel a psyche of her experience and power. What she found there... were horrors. Not the worst she had seen but incredibly vast in scale. "You..." An expression of utter loathing came across her face. "You will pay dearly for this."
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? WE DEMAND AN ANSWER!" Strange blue energy began to glow around the creature.
"Here it is, then." The Inquisitor glared into its face. "You may have succeeded in this 'harvest' in the past. Now you face a far greater foe." She pointed her sabre towards the sky as she gathered her psychic energy around it. "The Imperium will not fall so easily, and we will not be fooled by your deceit. Our fleets are grander, our armies mightier. Your entire race has been doomed from the moment you met-"
Her monologue was interrupted as a glowing blue orb smashed into the alien's head and exploded, leaving only ash.
Through a channel he'd carved himself in the alien horde, an armored figure sprinted at incredible speed, only skidding to a halt inches away from the somewhat disappointed inquisitor.
"Oh. Hello." The Chief said.
"I wanted to finish that conversation." The Inquisitor replied.
The Chief shrugged, then turned to face the alien horde. "It doesn't usually end well if let them keep talking."
The three warriors charged into the fray once again as the strange creatures began to shake off their shock.
2185CE-1248ET-NORMANDY SR2-TERMINUS SYSTEMS-REAPERVERSE
"We've arrived in system, commander!" Joker said over the intercom. "Looks like the Collectors have already gotten busy."
Shepard sighed, taking one last sip of her coffee. "Alright. Get us down there, Joker, we've got a colony to save."
"Aye commander." The intercom clicked off.
The Spectre rose from her seat in the mess, hardsuit clanking against the metal of her chair. With a nod to Sergeant Gardner, she made her way out. As she walked towards the elevator Miranda appeared beside her.
"As you know, commander, fighting off the Collectors is the main priority. Cerberus would also appreciate your acquiring any Collector tech lying around, as well as looking into the warp disturbances." Miranda said quickly.
"They weren't caused by the Collectors?" Shepard asked as they entered the elevator.
"We don't think so. In any case, I'm sure you'll find out soon enough. Who have you decided to bring with you?"
"Hmm." Shepard thought for a moment. "It's going to be some heavy fighting down there." They exited the elevator onto the hangar deck, where she turned to the nearest EDI terminal. "EDI, tell Garrus, Jack and Grunt to get down here ASAP. We're going hunting."
Miranda raised an eyebrow. "Four people, Shepard? I thought you preferred to work in threes. Something about a lucky number?"
Shepard shrugged. "We might be jumping into a horde of husks for all I know. I'm going to need some backup."
She began to walk towards the shuttle.
"Good luck." Miranda said as she waited for the elevator to return. Her eyes narrowed when the door opened to reveal the vibrantly tattooed ex-con biotic, arms crossed.
"Hey, cheerleader. Where'd your pom-poms go?"
"Same place as your childhood." The biotic scowled, bumping Miranda as she passed.
"Fuck you."
Garrus Vakarian and the hulking form of Grunt followed, the Turian sparing Miranda a quick glance.
As the elevator door closed, blocking the hangar from view, Miranda felt a strange sense of foreboding. It she felt that something big was going to happen, something important. She had no idea why.
2185CE-1250KT-HORIZON COLONY-HORIZON SURFACE-TERMINUS SYSTEMS-REAPERVERSE
"Damn it!" Roy exclaimed as his cloaking generator failed again. It was supposed to be a permanent cloaking device, but evidently there were still several design flaws to be worked out. Not something you really wanted to learn when surrounded by angry robotic monsters who wanted to tear you to shreds.
This ran through his head as he flipped over the head of one such creature, slicing off its upper torso in the process. He landed in a crouch, springing up higher onto the barricade. He turned around in time to stab his right blade through the chest of a leaping monstrosity before kicking it off his blade and slicing through another of the beasts with the other one.
A collector shot slammed into his shoulder, pushing him down onto the barricade. It felt like being punched in the shoulder by a pro boxer, but his prototype Protoss-style shields held. He sprang back up, kicking a husk in the face and sending it barreling into a pile of its compatriots.
He took a moment to observe the rest of the barricade and did not like what he saw. Though the tide had been slowed somewhat, colonists were still being overwhelmed by their alien foe. Dozens of husks crawled up the barricade, many being killed by colonist gunfire and adding to the gigantic pile of mechanical dead that had been gathered there. It still wasn't enough. Even now a colonist he was too far away to help was grabbed by one husk as another tore out his throat, his companion screaming with rage and dousing the three of them with bullets.
He turned back to the rapidly advancing horde, cleaving another husk on his left and stabbing yet another through its face, then using it as a temporary shield as another Collector took a potshot in his general direction. They'd mostly withdrawn, he'd noticed bitterly. They were allowing their monstrosities to do their dirty work for them.
"Damn it, dude." The colonist from before said from where she crouched behind the top of the barricade. She'd been holding out well, but he could see the terror in her eyes. "We're... we're dead, aren't we?"
The Ghost kicked the husk corpse off of his blade and into another one still climbing up, starting a minor husk/corpse avalanche. "No. We're doing well."
The woman laughed despairingly. "Well, yeah, you are." She grinned almost psychotically. "Guess what?" She giggled. "I'm out of ammo."
The Ghost glanced at her. "You think that's funny?"
"No." She giggled again. He could tell she was barely holding onto her sanity. "One of those things is just going to come over and tear off my head and I'm gonna be dead like Andrew over there." She pointed to a nearby corpse. "Only reason it hasn't happened yet is cause you're here being a badass."
The Ghost glanced back down the pile of dead husks. They were coming again, but he had a moment at least. "Take his gun." He said.
"What?" The woman said.
"Your friend. Andrew, or whatever. Take his gun." He looked directly at her. "You have to fight."
The woman blinked, staring at him. "His... his gun." She leaned over, picking up the heavy pistol that lay beside the corpse. "He loved this damn thing..."
The Ghost flicked off his right energy blade and pulled his knife out of its sheath on his leg. "If that runs out... use this." He flipped it in his hand, catching it by the end of its long blade.
The woman stared at it for a moment, then eventually reached up and grasped its hilt. "Thank you." She said with her eyes locked on his, her face a mask of determination.
"Fight well." He said, flicking his second void blade back into existence. He turned back to the horde and resumed his work.
...
Teresa had been desperately trying to repair the barricade for the entire fight, frantically dodging the Collector's weaponry as Kate welded armor plates back in place. At that moment she was trying to repair a bunker that had taken lots of fire and was currently on fire.
Then she heard a strange noise, like rolling thunderstrikes-
And suddenly her world was spinning and crashing and pain.
When her head finally stopped spinning, she looked around her and felt a growing dread.
The bunker she'd been trying so hard to repair had been completely smashed, leaving only a smoking crater behind. Kate the SCV had landed on its side and had been half buried in rubble. Her systems were blinking red, legs totally shot. The rubble they'd been buried in had them pinned to the ground.
Then she noticed a small bit of red dripping down her nose. She reached up to her forehead and felt a small cut that was pumping out way more blood than she was comfortable with. The skin around it was tender and bruising up quickly. She glanced around and found the edge she must have slammed her head on.
She checked over the rest of herself and was glad to find only bruises and small scrapes. She popped open the first aid kit that was attached to the wall and received a shower of first aid materials for her trouble. (In hindsight, opening the first aid kit on the wall that was now the ceiling was not a good idea.)
She sifted through the medical material and was rewarded with a clean roll of bandages, which she quickly tied around her forehead. Satisfied, she looked back up from the pile of random stuff on the floor and found herself face to face with a husk.
...
Roy had just cut down another husk when he heard the explosion. He glanced over at where the bunker used to be and noticed the form of the SCV half buried under rubble. Suddenly, he felt a strange sense of sadness building up within him.
He slashed through several more husks but for some reason his gaze continued to be drawn to the smoldering wreckage. The strange girl had been annoying, yes, but she had not deserved death at all.
Then he heard the scream.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH GET AWAY GET AWAY GET AWAY YOU GORRAM ROBOT ZOMBIE FREAK!"
There was no one else that could be.
Suddenly the Ghost found himself sprinting to the fallen mech, hacking a path through the monstrous horde.
...
It was times like this that Teresa wished she had a gun.
Her dad had told her she'd need to be older before he'd let her own one, of course. Not that that seemed like a good reason at all right now. But though she didn't have a gun, that did not mean she didn't have any weapons.
In other news, she had discovered a new use for her favorite wrench.
"Die! DIE! How are you not dead yet?" With a final smash to the face the battered husk finally fell. "Yeah! Take that you stupid-" Teresa glanced up.
Two growling husks were closing in rapidly, their glowing eyes staring into hers.
"Weeeeell crap."
Then she felt a rush of wind behind her and a shadow passed over her head, slamming into the two creatures and pushing them to the ground.
The shadow stood and turned, synthetic fluids dripping off of its armor and green blades glowing. Its green eyes stared into hers.
"...hey, Ghost dude." Teresa couldn't really think of anything else to say.
"You are unharmed?" His voice crackled through his mask.
"Uh... yeah, I guess." She gripped her wrench tightly as she heard the howls of more approaching husks.
"Then let's go." He flicked off one of his blades.
"Hey wait, what are you-" the breath was knocked out of her as he sprinted forward, catching her with his arm and throwing her onto his shoulder. "What the heck are you doing! Put me down you jerk!" He began to run at the pace of a genetically modified assassin with a horde of guards on his tail.
She noticed the rather large horde of husks swarming behind them. "Okay, nevermind! Don't put me down!"
Above them, she noticed, a strange, carapaced creature floated. As she watched, it launched another thunder-like attack, blowing up a second bunker. "Oh, come on!"
Then, suddenly, it was hit by a blast of bluish light, which burned through its shell and made it explode violently.
She turned her head to glance at its source, which turned out to be the strange red-robed priest. He continued to adjust the weapon he held as one of his mechanical arms fired at the hordes with a strange gun and the other stabbed through any husks that got too close.
Huh. Maybe we're not so screwed after all.
The Ghost finally stopped after they'd reached the top of the barricade, dropping her down abruptly.
"Ow." She said, rubbing away the pain. "Hey, Ghost dude, what are you doing?"
He was glancing around as if looking for something, only stopping when his eyes fell on a pile of husks. He walked over to it, pulling several of them off before revealing the grinning corpse of a female colonist, her hand still gripping a knife driven through a husks face.
Teresa felt bile building in her throat. She'd done her best to avoid looking at the bodies. "You know her?"
The Ghost pried the knife out of her hands and tore it out of the creature's skull. "No." He replied.
He turned to her, flipping it so that the handle faced her. "Take this. You'll need it."
Teresa raised an eyebrow but took the knife. It was big, half the length of a machete, and made for severing bone. "Thanks. So, what now?"
He turned back to face the horde, green blades snapping to life. "Now we fight."
...
Maresia was growing tired. She'd long lost count of the monstrosities she'd slain, her sword cutting them down like wheat. Yet there were so many still-less so than before, as the mounds of corpses could attest to, but still many-and the Harbinger creature was proving troublesome.
"YOU SHALL FALL, AS ALL BEFORE YOU HAVE." The foul thing proclaimed as it hurled another blast of whirling blue energy at the Inquisitor, an attack she easily dodged, though slightly more slowly than she had before.
"NOT today, monster!" She gave in to her fury and unleashed a blast of psionic lighting, lancing into and incinerating Harbinger's current host. They were only puppets, however, and she knew that thing would return shortly.
Typhan had thoroughly smashed his way throughout the body of the collector forces, annihilating almost one third of the total husk horde and many Collectors in the process. His hammer strikes deafened any who drew too close. Of all of the forces defending the colony, he was doing the most damage.
Almost all of them.
"Duck!" Cortana shouted. The Chief complied, sliding forward on his knees under a tremendous laser blast from a weapon appearing similar to a Spartan laser, a weapon he promptly tore out of its owners hands as he leapt up and dashed its brains out with a strike from the butt of his magnum. Holding the laser cannon in one hand he activated it, slashing a large group of husks in half.
"Ooh, fun!" Cortana said. "Upper right!"
"I see it." One of the large floating things was up there, looking ready to fire its strange laser beam eyes at him. He promptly fired the laser weapon at it, though it seemed to have some sort of powerful shielding and the laser quickly ran out of energy. Hurling it away, the Chief pulled out a plasma grenade.
The monstrous thing, which seemed to stare at him with the faces of dozens of husks fused together, fired its lasers.
The Master Chief glanced at his shield bar. It was going down, though not as quickly as he'd expected.
The Chief primed the grenade and hurled it onto the creature. It exploded with blue light, tearing a gaping hole in the side of the thing and sending it crashing to the ground and landing on some unfortunate collectors.
The Chief pulled out his shotgun and continued to run, dodging left and right through the alien forces and generally laying waste to their hordes. This was going to be a long day.
...
When the shuttle dropped down into sight range, there was only one thing to say.
"What. The. Fuck." Said Jack.
"Yeah, I'm inclined to agree with you on this one." Shepard said.
What lay below them could only be described as a battlefield. The colonists had barricaded the main road into the colony and had apparently been defending it extremely well, given the enormous amount of Collector and husk corpses strewn around it. Outside the city there seemed to be at least three strange figures fighting in the middle of a giant and mostly dead(er) horde of husks.
"Put us down in the Colony, behind the barricade." Shepard said.
"That looks like a good fight! I can't wait!" Grunt said with a krogan grin.
"Yeah, me too! It's been way too long since I last killed someone." Jack said.
"What's the plan, Sheppard?" Garrus asked.
"Well... we go down there, find out what in the name of the almighty space illama is happening, and shoot some stuff."
Garrus chuckled. "You are truly a mastermind, Sheppard."
Shepard smirked. "Yeah yeah, Vakarian. Keep on laughing. Just don't come calling next time you're drunk out of your mind and being chased by a lovesick Salarian begging you to, what was it again, 'take me to the stars my shining prince'?"
The turian attempted to imitate a pout. "I thought we'd agreed to never mention that again, Commander."
Sheppard shrugged. "Hey, it's not like they're listening."
"I'm sooooo gonna kill way more than you!"
"Heh. Big words from such a puny human."
"You wanna go?"
"Guys," Shepard called, "I'm sure you're both going to kill plenty of things once we get out there, would you mind not starting a fight in here?" She waved a gloved hand at the pair. "I still reserve the right to personally chuck you off of this ship!"
"Yeah, right, Shepard. Like you'd ever fucking follow through with that."
Shepard's eyes narrowed. "Jack. I have not slept. For several days. Messing with me right now is not a good idea."
Jack decided to stop talking.
When the shuttle landed, the hatch popped open to reveal-
"Shepard?" Ahsley said, lowering her rifle.
"Ash?" Shepard had not known what to expect, but seeing Ashley was not even on the list of possibilities. "Ash! Oh my god! What are you doing here?" She stepped off of the shuttle, followed by her three teammates.
"I could ask you the same." Ashley raised her gun again.
"Ash, it's me!" Sheppard said, a little put off by her response.
"Like hell. The Shepard I know wouldn't work with Cerberus."
"Ash." Garrus said, drawing her attention. "It's Shepard."
"What-Garrus?" She slowly lowered her gun. "Okay. Fine. So maybe you're Shepard. Seriously though, what the Hell! Two years! Two years and you were with Cerberus-"
"Chief!" Someone shouted. "They're coming over the barricade! We can't hold them back!"
Shepard glanced back at Jack and Grunt and nodded her head in the direction of the barricade. "Sic 'em."
Without further prompt the two warriors charged towards the fortification, a similar grin plastered on both of their faces.
"Look, Ash, I know we need to have this conversation. Right now, though, it looks like you need our help. I promise I'll try to explain afterwards, okay?"
Ashley scowled, but nodded reluctantly. "Fine." Shepard turned to walk towards the barricade.
"Uh, one more thing." Ashley said. Shepard looked back at her. "You aren't the only person who popped up today. You'll meet them when you get out there... but they're really strange. Try not to shoot them."
Shepard frowned, but nodded. Tapping a hand to her helmet com, she opened a line with all the team. "Hey guys, if you see any strange non Collector things that aren't shooting at you... don't kill them, I guess."
"Will-er, won't do, Shepard." Garrus replied. The other two didn't even bother.
The collectors had already begun to fall back to their cruiser, but when Shepard arrived a group of them split off to fly back towards the commander.
Now they landed, opening up with gunfire at the Spectre, who barely managed to take cover behind a building.
"AT LAST. SHEPARD." A glowing one said.
Shepard drew her shotgun, cloaked herself in a biotic aura and charged straight into the center of their group, blasting the Collectors back. "Who are you?" Shepard asked. "Why do you know my name?" She blasted two Collectors with her weapon, slaying them instantly.
"WE ARE THE HARBINGER OF YOUR PERFECTION."
"Sooo..." Shepard took cover behind an upturned car. "A reaper, then."
"REAPER IS A PITIFUL TITLE, BESTOWED ON US-"
"-by the Protheans to give a name to their destruction'. Yeah, I already got this from Sovereign. Let me just get this out of the way right now. I don't care how 'eternal' or 'incomprehensible' you claim to be. I'm going to stop you."
"FOOLISH HUMAN. YOU ARE BUT DUST, AND WE ARE A SOLAR WIND COME TO SWEEP YOU INTO ETERNITY. YOU WILL BE PERFECTED, CLEANSED. YOUR PETTY RACE SHALL BE HARVESTED, AS SHALL ALL THE REST."
"You know what? I don't believe you. The only reason to tell someone that there is hope is to try to make them lose it. And you know what else?"
Harbinger launched a biotic wave at Shepard, but with a pulse of biotics she charged through it to stand barely a foot away from the reaper host. "I'm tired of hearing you talk." With a blast of her shotgun, she destroyed it and watched it dissolve into ash. "Asshole." She muttered.
In the distance, the Collector ship rocketed into the sky.
When she reached the top of the barricade, she found that there wasn't a lot for her to do.
With the reinforcements of Jack and Grunt, plus Garrus in support, finishing off the husks was easy. The remaining Colonists, plus some guy with crazy green blades coming out of his arms, made short work of the few that remained in the horde. Meanwhile, out in the field, Shepard could see what looked like a battlemech with a hammer that seemed to be exploding, a blur of green armor, and some lady using some strange form of biotics and a sword slaughtering the remaining husks.
When the last husk had fallen, there was a silence broken only by a soft wind blowing across the plain. The colonists stared, their faces pale and eyes dull, at the carnage on the plain in front of their home. Cries of anguish began to ring out as they began to count their dead. The defenders had paid a heavy toll for their victory.
Teresa had been taking cover in the last bunker, but as the howls of the husks had died down she'd started across the battlefield, searching for her Ghost... companion? She still wasn't sure where they stood, exactly, but she felt it was probably a good idea to stay with him.
She found him standing, arms crossed, over the body of the woman from before. She'd been dragged out from under the pile of husks, her arms placed on her chest. Her eyes had been shut. He'd retrieved his rifle.
She stood silently next to him for a moment, watching him stare across the battlefield. "I thought you said you didn't know her." She said softly.
"I don't." He replied.
The moment ended with the sound of a rather rude woman yelling, "All of you people who said you came through a portal, get over here!"
"There she goes again." Teresa said. "Come on. We'd better see what this is about."
After a moment, he followed her.
...
When the Imperials, the Terrans, and the Master Chief had all found the spot the call had come from, they found a rather annoyed Ashley standing with a group of guards. She scowled at the sight of Master Chief.
"All right, I guess there are six, then." She motioned to the guards, who turned to face the group of newcomers. "Look, we're grateful for your help," she said in a voice that did not sound particularly grateful, "and so I've decided to give you another chance to explain why you're he-"
"Hello, there!" A voice said. The six of them looked up to see someone looking down on them from on top of the barricade.
"Who, exactly, are you?" Said Shepard, a friendly smile forming on her face.
