A/N: Welcome to another chapter of Tiberium Eclipse, sorry for the long wait writing my first firefight is harder than I thought. Since this is going to be my first firefight scene don't hate me because it's lame, this is my first time writing and I don't have a lot of writing experience but I'll do the best I can and I know Nihlus is an a$$ in the original Mass Effect but he is different because he is going to have a pivotal role in the story. For those of you who want to know what is Shepard's history, he is a Spacer/a Sole-Survivor/and a War-hero. I can do that because I'm awesome, and I did change the dates of the events in Akuze and Elysium. For those of you, who want to help me name Shepard, review me on a name for my male Shepard and I pick the name I like the most. The selection would happen the week after this update. And now just enjoy the show.
Disclaimer: I don't own C&C or ME they belong to EA and Bioware
Tiberium Eclipse
Shepard arrived in the cargo hold and saw Riflemen cleaning and checking their weapons Troopers calibrating they're armors and Raiders checking their teammates' shoulder mounted rocket launchers. Shepard is wearing the Integrated Combat Suit with his last name paint-stamped on the left side of his chest and his helmet is also painted with a skull (CoD Ghost logo). Commando armor have built in EVA Unit in the suit that receives and transmit information from other units in the field, Sensor Fusion helmet compliments the suit and displays the information from the EVA in a heads-up display with command & control capability and issuing orders; When not in combat, its plates can fold, revealing the user's face - useful in secure environments, several upgrades here and there to increase performance, and an upgrade in the form of a reverse engineered Nod portable Stealth generator for silent attacks only available to the Infiltrator class of the GDI Commando due to its complexity in construction and skill required to use it effectively.
When Shepard entered the cargo hold every human went rigid and saluted at Shepard, which Shepard replied by saluting back. Once the honorifics are done the Riflemen, Troopers, and Raiders return to preparing their suits. Riflemen wear 'Viking' composite armor with ID lights on their suit, have a distinctive blue T-shaped visors, a grenade backpack, and is armed with the GD-12 Werewolf Battle Rifle.
While the Troopers wear a lot heavier 'Goliath' armor which is the size of a Krogan, have a helmet with a yellow Y-shaped visor, and a collapsible Tibrinium(inert Tiberium alloy) combat shield mounted on their left shoulder that acts as portable cover that turns Zone Troopers into walking walls, they also have a power and a scanner pack like 3rd Tiberium war models only it works much better and faster, and are armed with the GD-12Z which is a larger more powerful version of the GD-12 model made for Zone Infantry.
And the Raiders are currently wearing 'Valkyrie' armor, which have a purple V-shaped visor, still have those shoulder rocket pods since the Third Tiberium War but it's improved now that it folded back because of a hinge connecting it to the suit, if it's damaged it can be replaced with another rocket pod; and it's still popular and only the rockets themselves evolve in to multiple varieties; like shock-wave rockets that is similar to the sonic grenade only rocket propelled, there is also the RPG rocket, the same copper-coned missile used on Earth centuries ago because of the Batarians use of old school weapons ,GDI decided to re-use old weapon designs that would help troops on the field, and since an RPG can kill a tank crew without having the hassle of destroying the entire tank it was 1 in a dozen of re-used tech, and there is also the new Cluster missiles that splits into four warheads that is used for taking out large groups of weak enemies, air burst missiles act as fragmentation grenades that explode a couple of feet from the target to give the shrapnel time to spread and cause the most amount of damage and lastly there is the newcomer in missile technology is the EMP missile that overloads and disable electronics when fired. Zone Raiders are also armed with the GD-12Z.
"Alright, our real mission here is to retrieve a Protean beacon from Eden Prime and deliver it to the Citadel so it could be analyzed." Once they quieted down Shepard continued. "But there is a problem." He paused for dramatic effect "Eden Prime is under attack by the Scrin." This caused several reactions the Riflemen are surprised but from their body language they are furious that there is another alien invasion, While the troopers and raiders are a bit more vocal and began talking.
"Yes, our troops are fighting tooth and nail to take out as much Scrin as possible but our objective is the same we have to secure that beacon. If the Scrin gets they're appendage on it who knows what would happen, so taking the beacon is our primary objective."
A Rifleman raised his hand Shepard thinks his name is Isaac and said "What if we come across survivors, sir?"
"If they're close enough we will help as much as we can." Shepard answered "But securing that beacon comes first." Isaac nodded and lowered his hand. "All of you must have known about the Scrin in school, but for those of you who fall asleep or wasn't paying attention here is important part." said Shepard which caused a few chuckles, once they calmed down Shepard continued. "The Scrin is an advance alien race that we believe was responsible for bringing Tiberium to Earth and Akuze and directly and indirectly killed billions during the Third Tiberium war; right after a certain Head of Treasury turned GDI Director ordered an Ion cannon attack on Kane's Temple Prime in Sarajevo which caused a Liquid-T explosion that nearly whipped Eastern Europe of the map. In-Ops believe that the explosion's Tiberium radiation attracted them to Earth and built the Scrin Tower in Italy."
"Any other information about the Scrin is available by accessing the Normandy's EVA Unit." Shepard said as he saw most of them fire up their EVA helmets to connect with the ships EVA. EVAs on GDI military vessels contain battle information about every strategy and every GDI opponent used in history, from Nod to Batarians. The EVA is updated when a ship has engaged an enemy using a new strategy. InOps filter out strategies already used by the enemy and which ones are new or updated versions, if it is new InOps sends this new information on encrypted messages to every operational EVA Unit and EVA unit factories to include newly gathered information to be included on every finished EVA Units memory. This prevents GDI Captains, Commanders, and Officers to be surprised by the same trick twice.
"From what we know from the emergency transmission sent from Eden Prime, the Dig Site is currently under attack by what looked like… cybernetic zombies." Shepard said while sending the picture of the Dig Site under attack from robotic zombies from the transmission video.
"How do we even know the Scrin is on Eden Prime?" asked a Raider who Shepard thinks is Felicia.
Shepard didn't answer but put the footage of the Riflemen being sliced apart by buzzers. A few of them nearly lost their lunch but managed to hold it down. Then Shepard said "Those are Buzzers they are a dead giveaway that Scrin is on that planet."
Felicia again asked "What about the zombies attacking the Dig Site? History class said that the Scrin mind-control and didn't mention any zombies in them. If it did then people would start to pay attention in class." she said and whispers the last sentence which caused a few laughs.
"That, we still don't know maybe they have gotten some new tricks since we beat them on Earth and Akuze, or they are another part of the Scrin, I don't know and I don't care. What I do know and care is that we beat them twice we can do it a third time. Anyone else have questions?"
A Zone Trooper whose name is Mike raised her hand and asked "So, how do we kill those Buzzers and those robot zombies."
"Buzzers are a hive minded organism. You injure 1 in the swarm there is a feedback effect that injures the rest. You kill 1 the feedback is stronger, kill 4 or 5 the feedback is too strong for them to handle and they die. They have a lot of surface area and no armor so sonics, incendiaries, and warp are good ways to kill them. Shoot them with a hail of bullets and you are bound to hit something. For the zombies, shoot them in the head like in the movies."
"Sir, we would reach the drop zone in 5 minutes." said Joker from the intercom. Shepard nodded and said "All right everyone, prepare for engagement. We drop with the Hunter-Killer in a 'Spear' formation and head to the Dig Site as fast as possible to lend support."
The Spear formation is GDI's simplest attack formation for breaching defenses with only 1 assault vehicle and a whole bunch of infantry. Basically you form a spear with the assault vehicle as the tip while armored infantry are at the sides with support infantry at the center.
After Shepard said that every soldier stands up and went to prepare their gear. Shepard saw Nihlus heading his way wearing standard Turian armor that have a Salarian designed spherical jump jet that was now as common as Kinetic Barriers and said "I have been briefed about the Scrin and GDI have made a lot of thorough reports on their weaknesses, strengths, and capabilities."
"GDI don't take kindly to invaders." said Shepard. Nihlus nodded and saw Captain Anderson heading our way. "Captain on deck!" Shepard said.
After that every human went rigid and saluted to Anderson and he said "At ease." and head to Shepard.
"Are you ready Shepard?" Anderson asked. Shepard replied with a nod. "Nihlus will only do reconnaissance, so he won't be joining you but will lend support and additional information when necessary."
"Much appreciated." replied Shepard.
"Drop zone in 2 minutes." said Joker on the intercom.
"Good luck, Commando" said Anderson. And Shepard reply with a salute, closing his helmet and made his way to the rest of the squad"
Nihlus knew that GDI Commandos isn't just a rank but a high status that is similar to Krogan's Battlemasters. To earn that status you would have to pass a powerful training and selection program that have a 88% of recruits that never finished training and 2% of everyone entered the program died or is crippled during training. He doesn't know what they do with their recruits to the program and he didn't want to know since he liked sleeping at night.
Suddenly the cargo bay door opened and Nihlus heard Shepard calling the soldiers over the radio. "Drop in 5…4…3…2…1…JUMP!" Then the HK drive out the cargo door and landed softly with the help of its small Eezo core and a few jump jets. Next the Riflemen, Troopers, & Raiders dive and activated their jump jets and landed behind the vehicle. Lastly Shepard and Nihlus also jump and landed on Eden Prime. There they saw a red sky as the Normandy shimmer into nothing as its stealth systems activated. Nihlus was already moving to scout the area and city, while the GDI troops prepare to move in a spear formation heading to the Dig Site.
GDI soldiers use standard issue weapons namely the GD-12 Werewolf rifle. It's an upgraded form of the old GD-11 created after Shanxi. It came standard with assault rifle, shotgun, and sniper attachments with railgun attachment for Zone infantry which replaces the sniper rifle attachment. For troops who want different attachment they can trade their attachments from either the shop or fellow soldiers, also the attachments traded could be re-sold at any GDI base for extra cash or to lessen the price of a different attachment. It helps save money and attachments.
GDI troops plus an HK move in a spear shape toward the Eden Prime Dig Site. They are 10 miles away from city limits when they heard the cracking of railgun fire and gunshots up ahead which means there is a firefight going on.
After a few silent steps to cliff there was 3 Riflemen and a Zone Raider behind what was left of the Hunter-Killer tank protecting 4 civilians armed with GD-12s and fighting what looked like human cyborg zombies and plain robot with a flashlight for an eye which only mean 1 thing, Geth.
'What is geth doing on Eden Prime?' Shepard thought.
"ZT-2, RF-1, and ZR-3 on me. Everyone else head to the Dig Site with the Hunter-Killer and we'll meet you there with someone who might know where the beacon is."
Everyone nodded and the Hunter-Killer and the rest head to the Dig Site while the ones with Shepard prepare to jump jet and flank the robots. "RDs launch rockets at those bots, RF provide covering fire, while ZT attack from behind, on my mark." Shepard explained the plan.
Everyone nodded and Shepard initiated the attack "Mark!"
After that word was said, Jump jets activated and 10 weapons and rockets rain on their cybernetic foes. The Raiders launched their Scatter and EMP missiles, and Riflemen shoot the zombies while keeping the robots suppressed, and Shepard with the Troopers attack anything that is non-GDI. The machines quickly changed targets and formation while the GDI troops they were attacking was surprised but now that the robots attention is else where they began to fight back. The raiders' Cluster missiles have taken out a good portion of the cyborgs and a few geth got EMPed and blasted that wasn't able to get to cover, while the Riflemen taken out what was left of the cyborgs and have taken out a few of geth and kept the rest pinned to cover, which left the Troopers and Shepard to flank them from behind and destroyed what was left.
Shepard slowly approached the survivors and EVA automatically patches our radios together and said "Names and Rank, soldier."
The Raider was the first to answer. "Ashley Williams, Gunnery Sergeant, sir."
The Rifleman left of Ashley said "Marcus Bishop, Corporal, sir."
The next Rifleman to his left said "Peter Sheridan, PFC, sir."
The last Rifleman on right of Ashley said "Martin Brass, Sergeant, sir."
"What happened here?" Shepard asked.
"We were escorting researchers to the Dig Site before we heard the alarm. We were ambushed and as we were driving away, a geth managed a lucky shot to the tires and we crashed to the bottom of the cliff as the geth went down to finish the job. My squad died while protecting them during the attacks almost died I, but these guys," he said while pointing at the Raider and Riflemen "got me out before I become chopped liver." Martin said.
"We helped his squad or what was left of them and hunkered down behind the HK. Next wave have taken out what was left of his squad and we need all the help we have so we gave the lab coats weapons and have them help us, third wave was when you came in, sir." Sergeant Williams continued for Martin
"Are there any other Scrin besides the Buzzers?" Shepard asked.
"No none that I've seen sir, only geth, buzzers, and those things." answered Ashley.
"Alright, let's move to the Dig Site and secure that Protean beacon." Shepard said to his team.
"What Protean beacon?" a female scientist asked.
"The beacon you found on the Dig site that we were supposed to transport to the Citadel." Shepard said.
"We didn't find a Protean beacon, what we found is a Tacitus and we were informed that you would bring it to the Philadelphia." a male scientist said.
"What?" Shepard asked.
"Sir, we are being played like marionettes." Kaidan said.
"I know, after this is done I'm going to have a chat with Nihlus."
"Who's Nihlus?" a scientist asked.
"Nihlus is a Turian Spectre." Shepard said "Alright, change of plans take the civilians to the subway while we secure the Tacitus." said to Ashley's team.
"Roger that." said Brass with a salute
"Can I come with you?" Ashley asked
"Are you sure they are going to be fine?" Shepard asked
"Yeah, there's a subway tunnel near the end of town and we didn't get that far away from the city limit anyway. And besides you need someone who knows the place." Brass answered.
"Alright, move out." Shepard ordered.
After that Shepard and his team salvage what was left of the HK and jump jetted back out to the other side of the valley while carrying 4 civilians, and then they parted ways. Brass's team went to the city while Shepard's team head to the Dig Site. After 2 minutes of walking and jump jetting they reached a clearing in the forest, to recharge their jump jets.
"Alright we are going to take a break th-" before Shepard finished his order, the forest light up with pulse fire.
"AMBUSH!" Ashley yelled.
"Hit the deck!" Shepard yelled and everyone was prone and fired their respective weapons at the flashes. Then geth started pouring out of the forest into the clearing from the North and East in an L shaped crossfire.
"Troopers, 12 o'clock, Riflemen at 3, Raiders cover us, Move' Move' Move!" Shepard ordered his troops into action.
Shepard lead the Zone Troopers forward into the forest for cover and saw a large 4 legged walker with a large flashlight head surrounded by a swarm of buzzers and saw it charge up for an attack, and fired at a Zone Trooper that hit dead center on the chest an left a hole big enough for a head. Shepard yelled "Jackson, Bobby take out the geth troopers, Liz cover them. Kaiden, Ashley take out that thing's shield and buzzers, I'll blow it to hell!" As instructed the remaining Zone Troopers attack the geth troops, while the Raider support them with missiles and sonic fire on the geth and their walker.
Shepard position himself to the left of the walker while firing at any nearby geth with his Werewolf while Ashley fired her EMP missiles and shut down the walker's shields while Kaidan fired a warp field at the buzzers that instantly killed them. Once its protection is out, Shepard jump jet across the battlefield and landed right on top to the walker's back and placed the new C-6 explosive charge that GDI Commandos can now use against tanks on its' neck.
Once the charge is placed he jump jet again behind a few fallen trees and said "Take Cover!" after that every human hide behind cover, There was an explosion that decapitated the walker which causes the rest of it to self destruct and few of the geth were thrown of their feet a couple of them are destroyed. Before the geth can get their bearings, GDI troops attack the still disorganized robotic troops and disabled what was left. Then they went back to assist the Riflemen and Raiders still engaging their opponent. They arrive by jump jet and got the geth to have taste of their own medicine by putting them into an L-shaped ambush themselves and quickly turn them to scrap.
After a head count, Kaiden said "We lost Private Isaac and Corporal Jones."
"How was Isaac killed?" Shepard asked solemnly.
"Pushed Robert and Irene out of the way of a geth missile and got blown to pieces. He died instantly." Kaiden answered grimly and gave Shepard their dog tags. Standard GDI procedure to give KIA soldier's dog tags to the founder's commanding officers to be returned to their families.
"Place a beacon for us to find them after our mission is finished." Shepard said. In GDI a casualty is considered a loss of a friend, soldier, and family member. It happens, but the felling of failing them and sending them to their deaths stay in your mind until you die or get closure.
"Alright, we need to get to the Dig Site to help our men who are still holding off the geth." Shepard said. "And let's pay them back for all the lives they took on Eden Prime by kicking them off our rock, bleeding, Hoorah!"
"HOORAH, sir!" every soldier responded with a yell and prepares to move to the Dig Site, pumped up by the idea of having revenge. 'An eye for an eye' is a saying GDI takes to heart like what happened on Torfan was one very good example. And the geth are going to regret attacking GDI.
EVA Files: Integrated Combat suit
GDI needed a new armor for commandos. The aging Zone Commando armor is too bulky, expensive, and inefficient. So Kassa Fabrication and Mitsubishi designed and built the Integrated Combat Suit or ICS to GDI Commandos, Kassa Fabrication also designed the Viking, Goliath, and Valkyrie armor systems for the other GDI troops while Mitsubishi manufactured the components which was a Hyperlite augmentation rig mounted on a Kevlar8 elasticized carbon polymer core with medi-gel webbing in case of injury surrounded by 'Dragon Skin' body armor for added protection.
The suit can be adapted to 6 different varieties; the first is the Soldier class suit which has strong magnetic holsters and strong exoskeleton that can make a commando sprint at 30 mph while carrying 6 different weapon systems and enough space for grenades, its armor name is 'Gladiator'. Second is the Infiltrator class have a built in reverse-engineered portable stealth generator used by Nod commando's in the 3rd Tiberium war that only cloaks when activated and only cloaks for a limited amount of time it's armor name is 'Ghost'. Third is the adept class have an extra eezo nodes in the suit detects a users movement and synchronize with the user's implant which gives the user a boost in biotic power it's armor name is 'Wizard'. Forth is the Engineer class suit which has 2 mini-fabricators for creating grenades, ammunition, and combat drones at twice the speed than other armors and have an EVA-AM6 Unit solely designed to hack electronics, mechs, drones, and recently have been reported to hack geth for 15 seconds its armor name is 'Hacker'. Fifth is the Sentinel class that has the newly designed Crystal Tech-Armor that can withstand a blast from a mammoth tank its armor name is 'Knight'. And the sixth is the Vanguard class have an EVA Biotic Calculator that measures the distance of the target with amount of biotic power needed to deliver maximum damage to the enemy while using the least amount of effort by the user in their biotic charge it's armor name is 'Brawler'. All armored suits can be upgraded with attachments like extra armor plating or other upgrades.
Because of these suits, GDI re-design the Commando program into different 6 classes which decrease the number of drop-outs and fatalities in the program which also means more Commandos are ready for battle as specialized troops rather than its Jack-of-all-trades predecessors, but still have the quality to make them the best of the best that can handle every situation.
A/N: Opps almost forgot to place the Codex entry and what do you think of the new commando suit, the design is available in the command and conquers wiki but only the inside is different. What do you think of these fight scenes, If you don't like it review kindly because I'm juggling my fic deadline 4 homeworks and 3 tests in this week alone, please review this chapter to help me add more material for this story. I'm guessing you fans know those zombies are husks. Writing a fanfic in school is harder than I thought but I still manage. And remember the winner of the Shepard-Naming-Contest would be selected on the end of this week. That means Monday, so see you next week.
