Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or Naruto.
A big thanks to reviewer Trife for pointing out that I was making Shepard rather overpowered. This chapter, plus edits I made to the previous one, should address most of that.
I moved translations to a bottom footnote starting this chapter to decrease breaks in flow. If the translation is not a surprise I save for later, it will be listed there.
The Ancients From Alchera
Whatever happens, excluding galactic extinction events spanning all lifeforms that can even remotely be called 'alive', the galaxy as a whole moves on. While many lives were altered in the wake of the Sovereign's attack on the Citadel a month ago and the destruction of the SSV Normandy three weeks later, most were at worst peripherally affected and continued about their lives the way they had always done. For the vast majority, that meant that they loved, argued, had kids, got married or divorced, and generally tried to go through the motions of life to achieve a somewhat happy conclusion. These lives were otherwise utterly unremarkable. A handful had lives worth recording for a few moments; those with uncommon or dangerous jobs, those with exotic diseases, and those who were in the right place at the right time to get some limelight before once again fading into obscurity.
And then there was the rest; those very few individuals whose life was worthy of being called 'plot'. The members of this last group all had something special about them that set them apart from the common person. Whether they were criminal masterminds responsible for the stability of the most law-less region of space, Black Ops agents that had attracted the eyes of the Norns, or something more mundane; all of them had in common the fact that they were politically significant or were involved in politically significant events. Another common occurrence among those with plot-worthy lives was that they tended to gravitate towards another. As friends, lovers, or bitter enemies, they couldn't help but interact.
It should therefore come as no surprise to anyone that the Citadel, the so-called 'Heart of the Galaxy', and the Omega Asteroid – often called the 'Terminus Citadel' – housed a fair number of those few individuals. It should come as even less of a surprise that communication between the Citadel and Omega was frequent, and frequently highly encrypted. What would surprise most people, had they known about one particular highly-encrypted channel on one particular day slightly over a month after Sovereign's assault on the Citadel, was the identity of the two individuals. Both were high-profile, purple-skinned Asari in positions of leadership, but all similarities ended there. Where one of them was dressed conservatively, holding a glass of fine Thessian vintage and held herself with all the demeanour of nobility, the other wore a slightly revealing black leather jumpsuit with contrasting white leather jacket, preferred human vodka for its nice kick while not being as dangerous as ryncol, and carried herself with the air of a hardened criminal. The first had striking stormy grey-green eyes that showed the permanent serenity she was known for, but if one looked deeper they would see that she gazed upon existence with shrewdness found in very, very few. The other had misty blue eyes reflecting the ocean near which she was born, but there was no serenity shown in their depths. There was a hardness in them that came only with centuries of experience in dealing with the underbelly of civilization.
"Are you absolutely certain of this, Celia?" the blue-eyed Asari asked with narrowed eyes in response to something the other had said. "You realize this is going to be extremely bad for business, I hope?"
"I trust in Reah, Aria," Celia replied, somewhat testily. "She said that there was a ninety-nine point five percent match."
"Damnit," Aria said bluntly. "Reah does know better than to fuck with either of us, so she wouldn't have." Celia watched stonily as Aria slammed a hand on a nearby table, slightly denting the surface. A harsh sound could be heard as the vase's shards spread all over Aria's apartment and Celia could not help but give a small chuckle. Perhaps now she would purchase a more beautiful vase and not put it near the edge of a table? "How long, Celia?" Aria eventually asked once she calmed down a minute later.
"Two years, six months, and thee days in Galactic Standard time according to the latest projections. Give or take a month, assuming the original data is, in fact, accurate."
"That's something at least," Aria responded. "Even if it isn't all that long, it's enough time to get back into shape and clean ship over here. I assume you'll be coercing the others to start R&D?"
Celia nodded. "Naturally, even if I can't mention our enemy by name I'll think of something."
Aria gave a satisfied nod of her own. "Good. In the meantime, since you will likely not do so, I'll be hiring Quarians. A whole fucking lot of Quarians. Maybe then we can actually get something done in those two and a half years."
Celia raised a painted-on eyebrow – such clever little things the humans introduced to the galaxy – at Aria's statement. Utilizing the technological skills of the Quarians was an angle that she'd completely overlooked, but could generate some very good results. It was such a shame that hiring Quarians was so politically inconvenient, and she couldn't afford to give the Matriarchs a reason to replace her at such a critical junction. All the candidates to replace her were excellent choices for peace-time governing, she'd give them that, but they would not fare well with what was to come. "Will you need assistance in meeting their price? Quarians don't work purely for credits, you know."
"Of course I know, and I've got a few ships lying around that'll help seal the deal," Aria said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Nothing overly fancy for the most part, but the oldest ship is younger than anything in the Flotilla."
"I was just checking, as the humans would say. They may ask for more than ships, and I don't recall you talking about having uncolonised dextro planets just lying about," Celia said, placing a slight sarcastic lilt on the last three words. Aria scowled.
"I don't, but it'll be fine. I know how to play Quarians, Celia."
"I was not suggesting otherwise, Aria," Celia said serenely with a hint of amusement on her face. Even after all this time, it was still fun raising Aria's hackles, though the list of people that could do that and get away with it was exceedingly small and featured her own name at the top. "I was merely ensuring that you'd covered all options and possibilities. Our very existence as a species is on the line, after all."
"Indeed," Aria responded once she was done gritting her teeth. She never did like it when someone inferred she wasn't capable or prepared, even if that person was Celia. I hope you do realize there'll be consequencesfor your ribbing later, c'taela, Aria thought with an internal cackle. Outwardly, her expression softened ever so slightly, which would have most people scrambling to find the real Aria for this one was obviously a fake. Celia was not most people. "Hang in there, alright?"
"I will," Celia replied in a soft but firm voice. "I don't intend to be on the losing side of this conflict,c'taela." She glanced at the chronometer and sighed. "It's time to get back to work. Goddess guide you and brighten your day."
"Nor do I. Goddess grant you the wisdom to walk the path of life without obstacles, c'taela," Aria responded in kind. She watched as Aria leaned forward and winked with a mischievous grin before the screen went blank. She shivered slightly, the last time Aria disconnected a call like that it led to events that left her unable to properly sit down for a week.
Celia rose gracefully from her chair, her long robe with traditional embroidery – even if the material was not, simply because human silk was so vastly superior to any Asari produce – gently dropping down to her ankles. She set off at a brisk pace that reflected the speed of her thoughts. Now, how to get Valern and Sparatus on board? Numerous arguments were proposed and rejected in the time it took her to walk from her chair to her private skycar, before she finally settled on something that should work. She only really needed one of the two to comply, though both would be preferable for the sake of galactic unity. She didn't doubt that Anderson, who looked like a shoe-in for the new Human seat since he had Shepard's approval, would agree with her. Anderson trusted Shepard, and this was something stemming from a warning given by Shepard.
"The Reapers are coming, Madam Councillor. Hundreds upon hundreds of behemoths equally as durable as Sovereign are headed here to kill us all."
Councillor Celia Tevos had her argument to convince Sparatus and Valern.
They had encountered only one Sovereign, true, but any race capable of building something like Sovereign wouldn't have stopped at just one, would they?
– – – –
"Fucking hell, I did not need that right now," Aria groused as she worked several kinks from her shoulders. "Bloodhounds at the gates, mercs starting to run rampant throughout the streets, and now giant fucking metallic squids from Dark Space intent on ruining everything?
"Fuck. That. If it was anyone other than Celia and Reah I'd probably have kicked their asses before the first word came out of their mouth." A moment's pause. "Well, except for Liselle," she amended. She ruthlessly quashed the pending distracting thoughts of her daughter and concentrated on the immediate problem; mercs. Specifically the Blood Pack, Eclipse, and Blue Suns. The Talons weren't causing problems, their leader was wise enough to adhere to Omega's only rule; Do Not Fuck With Aria T'Loak.
The Blood Pack was getting bolder lately, going to places they had no business being, and needed a reminder of their place on Omega. The Eclipse were slowly doing much the same, often making hostile contact with the Blood Pack that regularly killed more bystanders than they did mercs, and the Blue Suns were in the shadows egging both groups on while only being peripherally involved in the combat. Gavorn could deal with the local Eclipse chapter, led by a Salarian named Jaroth. For all his bluster, he had no biotics and was technologically inept by Salarian standards. He knew how to run a tight ship and possessed skill with weapons well above Salarian standards for good, but so was Lieutenant Gavorn. More than a few dancers were former Commandos so she did not foresee any issue taking the local Eclipse down a peg or three unless they were hiding Commandos of their own. She was pretty damn sure they weren't, but she didn't get where she was without being cautious. The Blood Pack, on the other hand, required her personal attention. While Garm's minions may not have been much of anything at all, Garm himself was an accomplished Battlemaster. He was biotically powerful enough to contend with her and had freaky fast regeneration, even by Krogan standards. She needed to spend a little while lubricating her biotics, and then she would deal with the Blood Pack situation personally. Hopefully, her show of force would enlighten the Blue Suns to back off. If it didn't, then she would deal with them too. She doubted she needed to, Tarak was more intelligent than his predecessor and displayed a capacity for logical thought uncommon to Batarians outside of the Heaven and Celestial Caste or SIU personnel.
A massive shitstorm was coming and she would brook no dissent among her ranks. Omega will not fall, she silently vowed. She had sunk far too many hours into this place, carving out a not-so-little slice of galactic space to rule over to let it fall to anything, including metallic space-squids with delusions of divinity.
But before she could deal with any of that, she had to get back into shape. It had been far too long since she took the time to practice biotics, and she would need her biotics running smoothly again if she was going to tussle with Garm. He was old enough to potentially be more powerful than she was – in fact, she was pretty sure he was more powerful than her even if she had kept up with her training –, but she had an edge; 'finesse' was not a word found in many Krogan vocabularies, while the Asari prided themselves on finesse.
She lifted her omni-tool's microphone to her mouth. "Grizz, I'll be at my range for the next hour. No interruptions," she barked at her bodyguard. She shut down her omni-tool without waiting for an answer and walked into her personal practice range less than a minute's walk from her apartment.
Flinging her jacket onto a nearby table, she performed a few stretches to get the blood flowing. After she was done she stuck her hand out towards one of the targets. A light blue something – vaguely oval in form, but there any definition ended – rushed towards it, and when it made contact it was pulled towards her. A grin lit up her face as she snapped her fingers and a dark blue, nearly black, orb sped from her hand towards the now air-borne target. Upon impact it detonated with an ever so satisfying boom. She could feel the shockwave of the biotic explosion rumbling through her chest, and she revelled in the reverberations going through her ribs. It had been far too long since she used her biotics for something more than looking impressive. With a satisfied nod, she flicked her hand at the target, specifically crafted to be able to withstand biotic explosions, and another light blue something rushed towards it. When it made contact the target was hurled away, impacting with a sickening crunch on the far wall mere moments later. She clenched her outstretched hand and a Singularity made its way down the range. She gave a mental command for it to stop when it was at the desired location, and clicked her tongue when she saw it continue to move for a full second after she told it to stop, though it did stop at a location sufficiently close to the other targets present at the range that they were pulled into the singularity. "Damnit, I'm more rusty than I thought," she groused. She dropped her outstretched fist, and with her other hand flung her personally created biotic attack at the target trapped in the singularity. The Flare's unique effect of strengthening biotic detonations – in addition to massive damage from impact – was seen when the target was shredded into tiny little bits. She glared at the scorched steel left behind by the detonation, thoroughly annoyed. That wasn't nearly as powerful as I was capable of even a century ago. Fucking hell I allowed the rust to pile up.
In rapid succession, she ran through the rest of her Commando exercises; sustaining multiple Singularity fields at once, detonating more than one biotic effect using a single trigger – though multiple primers, no one was good enough to let a single biotic primer explode more than once –, steering Warp fields mid-flight, and her favourite exercise; sustaining multiple biotic fields, from Singularity to Lift, while manoeuvring several Warps to detonate all of them in one go. Her maximum before she lost control was six fields for two minutes plus two Warps, though that was mostly academic. She needed a meditative state to get that many effects going simultaneously, making it absolutely useless for combat. Near the end of the hour she sat down while a bottle of water and seethed in light of her performance. It was absolutely pathetic for an Asari with two hundred years as a Huntress and another three as a Commando before she took control of Omega at 650, a century ago.
She had barely half of the control she had two centuries ago, though her power hadn't decreased as much as she initially feared. Fortunately, re-acclimating the body to high levels of biotics was easier than acclimating the body for the first time.
The amount of time she would need to get back into shape depended on how swiftly the mercs got the message to stay the fuck down and not mess with the tentative order she had managed to achieve on her station after she took over the lead spot, but she figured she could get pretty far before the ETA counted down all the way to zero.
She dismissed the biotic fields currently active on the range, and sent a message to alert the maintenance crew while cooling off. She had Quarians to hire, mercs to deal with, and resources to consolidate in light of the coming shitstorm. Omega will not fall, she repeated to herself with a determined glint in her eye. Making a mental note to order her Commando dancers to keep up their practive, she walked out of the practice range and made her way into her sanctum sanctorum; Afterlife. It was time to get to work.
– – – – Two Years Post-Alchera, Parnack – – – –
"Alright, Shepard," Naruto said excitedly. "It's almost time for your graduation exam."
She eyed him warily from where she sat on the cave's floor. She remembered what happened the last time he talked about an exam. And the one before that, and the one before that. As it turned out, her first kill of a Yahg had been something of a fluke, despite – or because of – the ease with which she took him down. Due to the Yahg culture, only the least able-bodied individuals were sent on scouting missions. The one she encountered was in possession of particularly fragile skin, in addition to the standard reduced muscle tone all Yahg scouts had and catching him completely by surprise.
So when she was pitted against a duo of fully capable Yahg two months later, she got her ass handed to her. She had responded to the Yahg charge with a Doton: Ganchūsō, much the same as with the first one – why fix what isn't broken, right? –, and received the nasty surprise of the spikes not piercing at all, though she was sure that the Yahg felt something. Much like standing barefoot on a Lego block, it doesn't pierce but sweet spirits above does it hurt.
While the Yahg charge had not been halted, she should have been capable of reacting in time to dodge the swiping claws of the two individuals, but she had lulled herself into a state of complacency, absolutely certain the technique would work to stop them as it did the first. So when it didn't, she couldn't react fast enough and paid for it. She had allowed the two Yahg to close to ten metres and she learned then the hard way that Yahg were almost entirely muscle and far faster than their form gave them any right to be. She took two massive swipes to her chest and gut that flung her a few feet before she could defend herself, and the hits would have killed her without her new compartmented organs. Even so, ad she not been in the presence of Kokuo she still would have been likely to bleed out before she got medical attention. It was then that the Yahg made a fatal error; they assumed their prey was down and out and stalked their way to her bleeding body. Had they rushed her and started eating, there would have been very little she or Kokuo could do – though she was certain Kokuo could take both of them out before they actually started to eat –, but they gave her the time she needed to knead lightning chakra and put her hand in the Snake seal. It was possibly the most foolish thing she could do at that point, but she wanted to end the conflict on her terms – damn the consequences – and tried firing a Raiton: Gian with only the single handseal out of five required by the technique. Looking back it was a miracle it didn't backfire, but right then she didn't care and only wanted to reduce the two Yahg to mincemeat using the high-power flashy jutsu she had learned the week before. In that she succeeded, but the False Darkness wasn't a cheap technique to begin with and without vocalization it was even more of a chakra draining monster, so she when she woke up a week later, she was informed she damn near killed herself.
"Congratulations, Shepard," Kokuo said dryly as she sat aside her bed. "You have managed to come close to terminating your time on this plane of existence. Again."
Shepard gulped. A Kokuo that wasn't serene was a dangerous Kokuo, and if she wasn't far too tired to move she would be running for the hills, regardless of its futility. She learned her lesson the last time she encountered Kokuo like this. For all her newfound power, Kokuo was always happy to remind her that she and the rest of the Tailed Beasts were a lot stronger still. Before Kokuo could start her rant, a shadow appeared at the entrance to her little slice of space.
"Give her a rest, Kokuo," a voice called out, saving her from Kokuo's tirade. She craned her head in an attempt to find out who had rescued her from the eruption of Mt. Kokuo, at least for now, for her mind was hazy enough to not immediately recognize the speaker. Her neck disagreed with her intention and violently made that disagreement known. Kokuo huffed slightly and left the pair alone. The newcomer walked to her bed and she now recognized the unruly mop of blond crowning the man's head.
"Didn't I tell you that Yahg scouts are physically the weakest of their tribe?" Naruto asked admonishingly as he stood near her bed.
She glared at him. Now he informed her of that little titbit? "No, you didn't," she responded with venom in her tone.
"Oh," was all Naruto responded with, owlishly blinking a few times. Apparently, he was certain he had told her that. After a minute, he shrugged before helpfully saying, "Well, consider yourself warned from now on. From what I gathered, the Yahg you killed almost a year ago had particularly soft skin. It's to do with keeping their able-bodied warriors fresh for combat and finding a use for those that aren't fit for the Yahg way of fighting, even after the Yahg invented gunpowder-based firearms."
She scowled at him for his reticence in giving her vital information. That would have been extremely useful to know, though she supposed there was a valuable lesson in her defeat. No matter how much things look the same as what you've already accomplished or conquered, always stay guarded for hidden tricks. "How long have I been in bed?"
"'Bout a week, and we don't expect you to move for another three days. Blood loss and chakra exhaustion." Naruto tutted. "What the hell were you thinking firing a single-seal, silent Raiton: Gian when you had time and opportunity for a vocalized one? Though," he added after a minute, "I don't disagree with your decision to only use a single handseal."
She shrugged in lieu of an answer. Naruto nodded regardless, "Ah... pride. The flaw in us all. I hardly remember the events of my mortal days excepting a few of the more character-defining moments and individuals, so very much unlike my dearest wife whose memory was pretty much eidetic even then, but I remember my pride got me nearly killed more than once back then." He nevertheless flicked an admonishing finger on her forehead. "Unlike me, you're a properly trained soldier, an elite operative from what Taigun-kun told us. The best of the best. You're not supposed to let pride get in the way."
"I know, sensei," she said gruffly. "I guess I was just mad at myself for being complacent, expecting the spikes to pierce and stop their advance, that I wanted to end it on my terms."
"I know the sentiment," Naruto said thoughtfully, reminiscing on days long gone by. "There was this guy, in about my thirteenth century after I became the Kyūbi, that actually was capable of Ascension to divinity. We had to put him down, of course, since he did not have an existing deity ready to willingly sacrifice their divinity to pass it on. That's the rules; immortality is restricted to the divine and those empowered by the divine. They can pass on their power and responsibility to individuals they choose, at the cost of their own power and immortality. Mortals cannot otherwise become immortals. Any who attempt so are to be culled. This particular shithead had found a way to steal someone's divinity. He nearly succeeded when he tricked me and it almost got me killed." He looked like he ate an extremely overripe fruit, though Shepard couldn't say if he was disgusted at falling for a trick or with the concept of stealing divinity. It could be either. "Needless to say, when I recovered I demanded the others stay at the sideline. My pride would accept no less. Without his bag of tricks to help him, his personal power was not enough to defeat me and I ended his pathetic existence."
Shepard goggled even as she flinched from the fury and venom lacing his voice near the end of his monologue. It was hard to believe that any of her four sensei could be hurt at all, let alone killed. How powerful were the ancient civilizations, and just how ancient were her sensei themselves? It wasn't the first time she wondered that, but there never had been a real opportunity to ask. Somehow, she suspected that not even they knew the true extent of their life if they had been sleeping on Alchera as they said.
"Regardless," Naruto continued before she could respond, "you better take a rest. You've been progressing beyond even our wildest imaginations, and trust me that's not exactly easy to do, but you need to let your body rest. We've been bad sensei in that regard since we kept pushing and pushing, not allowing your form to rest and refresh. In our defense, it's been literally millennia since we were mortal and our immortal bodies don't have the same restrictions. For the next three weeks, all we'll do is the morning workout, and an extremely light version of it at that." He hummed thoughtfully. "We'll even allow you to send a message to select people to hint that you're alive. How about that?"
Shepard's head snapped towards him so fast Naruto was sure it would have hurt even if she had been perfectly healthy. Her eyes were wide, and hints of wildness could be seen even as her neck protested her motion so fiercely she was sure the neck cramp she felt last week was a result of this. 'A chance to let people know I'm alive?' she thought. 'A chance to let Tali, Liara, Garrus, Wrex, Ashley, and the rest know I'm still around to kick ass and take names?' she thought. 'Hell. The fuck. Yes. Thank fuck we sort-of planned for something like this. Spectre and Council paranoia is good for something after all!'
Evidently, her sentiment must have been visible, for Naruto gained a bright smile and nodded. "That's settled then. When you're good to go I'll ask Taigun-kun to connect to the extranet so you can send a message, content of your choosing."
She sank into thought, and failed to notice him leave. She was, as a matter of fact, so embroiled in her thoughts on what could have happened to her crew over the year that she didn't notice Morpheus' grasp reaching for her and pulling her into his realm.
Two months later she was pitted against another duo of Yahg – once again able-bodied – and emerged victorious, but far from unscathed. She had underestimated just how far Yahg could swivel their arms backward and got slashed, though nowhere near as severely as the first go-around. Two months after that she faced a quartet of able-bodied Yahg, and once again required the attention of Kokuo to save her from dying. Yahg were simply far too tough for her to fight in more than one or two on one after less than two years of training, no matter how intense it may have been. Their physical strength was high enough that they could probably win in hand-to-hand against Krogan, and the general nature of existence on Parnack meant that all but the most drastic of weapons, ballistic or otherwise, were mostly ineffective unless one got a lucky shot or very good aim. Likewise with jutsu. She didn't even try to use Earth techniques below A-rank any more, unless she'd softened the skin through kunai or blade. Fire was mildly effective, though if she managed to breathe fire into their eyes or mouth she could drop the descriptor 'mildly' and replace it with 'highly'. Lightning and Lava were the only elements she had that were capable of hurting Yahg without any preparation or special targeting.
But, to get back on track, throughout her entire time training with the four Tailed Beasts, as they called themselves, she had concluded one thing; the combination of 'Naruto' plus 'examination' was not good for her continued well-being.
"Initially," Naruto continued in the same excited tone that ripped her from her thoughts, "we had the idea that we would stir up a little trouble and have you put it down." A grimace briefly appeared on his face before he resumed his excited façade. "Unfortunately, we had to scrap that plan when we found out that the tribal Yahg are perfectly willing to forget even age-old grudges to band together to take out a threat. As much as we believe you capable of putting down a hundred Yahg in a no-holds-barred fight, we didn't want to tempt fate and have you face ten thousand or more of the nasty buggers. We could step in, but that'd defeat the purpose of the exercise in the first place."
Shepard couldn't help but sigh in relief, closing her eyes in the process. Had she kept her eyes open she would have had a different reaction because her eyes would have allowed her to see Naruto's vulpine grin. "So we put together a replacement exam that is even better, in our eyes." As it was, his tone conveyed his sadistic amusement with the situation regardless.
"And what exactly does this replacement exam entail?" Shepard asked warily, dread rising in her when her eyes allowed her to see Naruto's wide grin. I fear this isn't going to be pretty.
"Ever since we came here, Taigun has been pulling experimental weapons from the extranet and... modifying them with upgrades from when we were awake last."
Experimental weapons? Modifications? What, like Gauss rifles? Directed energy weapons? Multi-barrel plasma cannons? Shepard was sure she drooled a little even as somewhere deep down she doubted it. A girl could dream though, couldn't she?
"Down, Shepard," Naruto said amusedly, addressing her like one would a pet. She levelled a glare at him even as she sat down again. When exactly did I stand up? "It won't be anything completely special, like energy or plasma rifles, but we figure you'll like them regardless."
Shepard's face fell before she perked up slightly. "Wait," she said, her mind latching onto something the blond had implied. "The fact you considered it means you can do it, right? Right?"
Naruto could feel the excitement rolling off her in waves and couldn't help but grin. "We can," he said neutrally, and watched as Shepard's excitement became a nearly physical force. "But we won't," he finished in the same tone. He chuckled as he saw Shepard's face fall once again in a heartbeat. Had she been a manga character back in the day he didn't doubt she would be lying on the ground, one twitching leg stuck up into the air and a sweatdrop on her face. Do they have manga on Earth? Naruto wondered randomly. It'd be kinda creepy if they did, but the full workings of Time, specifically the evolution of species and cultures, are a mystery even to us.
"What does this, as nice as it is, have to do with the replacement exam?" Shepard asked, deciding not to question 'why'. They'd already mentioned more than once that they were keepers, custodians, not changers or fixers. She'd asked them once why they replaced her biotics with chakra, and her only answer was silence. Highly aggravating, but she wasn't capable of forcing them to answer questions they didn't want to answer.
Naruto's grin widened so much it almost literally split his face in two, and Shepard's mood sank into the floor. Grins like that couldn't be very good for her continued good health.
"We dropped your guns, specifically a pistol, a shotgun, and an assault rifle, as well as your omni-tool inside the largest Yahg village in the surrounding area. Your goal is to infiltrate and get them back. You don't need to worry about the Yahg picking them apart, though, we ensured that they can't be taken apart."
Shepard sat there unblinkingly. I'm hosed.
"Just how many Yahg are there in the village?" she asked. Less than ten of them had done a number on her, and while she was confident that she could take on fifteen, maybe twenty if she could set the battlefield to her liking – in other words, engage them near a volcano so her Yōton jutsu would have their chakra cost cut by half or more –, she wasn't feeling very confident about numbers beyond five in any other scenario.
"Give or take a thousand," Naruto said lightly. Spirits take me I'm dead, Shepard thought morosely. "It's not as if we were dropping you into the global Yahg capital where you'd have to fight off five hundred thousand of them."
"Right," she said, nodding, taking what relief she could find from his words. It wasn't much. "Though, a global capital of only half a million? That doesn't seem very large."
"It's not," Naruto agreed. "There are a few thousand settlements similar in size across the globe, though, with hundreds of thousands smaller settlements scattered across Parnack. Total Yahg numbers are approximately equal to a hundred times the recorded amount living on Illium – according to Taigun-kun –, or slightly over eight and a half billion." Naruto shook his head slightly. "To get back on track, you will be provided with only two pieces of information; a map of the area and the fact that Yahg brains are only five percent heavier than a standard human's while having roughly the same density." He reached into a pocket and withdrew a folded paper and threw it to her. "You set out tomorrow at first light, I'll take you to the point marked on the map with the Hiraishin, and from there you're on your own."
"Is the mission time-sensitive?" she asked as she caught the paper with one hand.
"It is," Naruto confirmed. "Counting from now, you have a day and a half until the seals that make your weapons unusable to the Yahg as well as unbreakable disintegrate. From your starting point, you will have exactly a quarter day, or one night, to retrieve the items before the seals break. That's approximately ten standard hours, according to our metallic friend. You have until the mission starts to come up with a plan based on available information. Good luck."
She nodded and unfolded the map, spreading it across the floor of the cave she'd been calling 'home' for the past year and nine months. The village itself featured five concentric rings of uniform thickness. The outer ring, the first one she would encounter after breaching the wall, was empty of structures and meant for training grounds – whether for the gun, the blade, or the body wasn't marked – as well as a buffer zone to give invaders no cover so the sentries could gun them down. There were four gates, one at each cardinal direction, but unless she could pull a miracle out of her ass she wouldn't attempt to enter that way. The second ring featured residential areas, where the Yahg and their families spent the night. If she required a distraction, setting off a few detonations in the second ring would be most effective, though she was loath to do so. As an Alliance Marine, then Alliance N7 Operative, then Council Spectre, her entire career was aimed at protecting the innocent – or at least the non-combatants depending on one's views on innocence – and she wasn't about to do otherwise now, regardless of species. The third could be roughly considered the commercial district. Butchers, weapon shops, blacksmiths, and the like were dotted around this ring. The fourth ring was probably the most important to the overall success of the village. It only counted a few structures, but each of these structures were highly important. The hospital, the ammunition factory, an R&D facility, a power plant, and an educational facility. I wonder what the Yahg equivalent to a justice system is. The fifth and innermost ring was entirely taken up by a single structure, marked only as 'chief's'. She presumed this was the tribal leader's residence.
First question: where would my gear likely be stashed? Public and semi-public areas are out, any tribal leader would not allow any but his most trusted subjects to become more powerful than him, which any mass effect weaponry would allow even without modifications. That leaves only two options, really. The R&D facility and the chief's place so that they could be studied and replicated or handed out as the chief saw fit.
Second question: How do I get in? There are only two real options for entry. The two marked training grounds in the south-east. I don't doubt there are more, but they're not marked and therefore too risky. A lot depends on the wind; if it blows from the south-east the difficulty goes up. I could use the Dochū Eigyo, but I'm not good enough a sensor to say what's near the emergence point if I haven't seen the point beforehand.
I'll need a distraction at the opposite edge of town, but the Kage Bunshin is too costly even if it can use jutsu, unlike the others. Perhaps a Kaminari Bunshin detonation?
An idea hit her. A single Kage BunshinusingDochū Eigyo to insert somewhere in the town, distract the Yahg with the aid of multiple Kaminari Bunshin while I sneak in over the wall near either of the two training grounds and make my way to the R&D facility? Then out by Shunshin and pray I don't have to fight while moving to the extraction point.
That could work, she decided after a few minutes of deliberation. It needs refining though. A hell of a lot of refining.
Hours passed while Shepard was bent over the map, furiously making notes on possible routes of entry, plans of attack and escape, and likely responses to actions based on the little she knew about Yahg psychology. She silently cursed her teacher for not providing more information. She was sure that he had much, much more than he had given her. She was capable of planning an assault with little information, it was one of the criteria of passing N6 training, but she'd not actually planned an operation like this since then. Sentinels generally weren't called for covert ops. Especially after her... upgrade, for want of a better word, to whatever human-looking race the Tailed Beasts used to be she figured that she was ideally suited for overt operations. Fire and Lava didn't lend themselves to staying silent very well at all. In addition, while she couldn't be sure because she had not subjected herself to such, she would hazard a guess she stood out like a magnesium flare in the dark on IR and UV imagery, even compared to normal humans.
When she next looked up, the day had turned into night and she finally realized just how tired she was. Yawning, she folded the map and placed it, and her notes, in a pocket of her jeans. She'd have to convince Naruto to get her some actual armour tomorrow. No way in hell was she going to do this without armour even if it was only to conveniently carry her guns.
As she succumbed to Morpheus' embrace she thought, by this time tomorrow I will be on my way out of here, away from this hell-hole of a planet, away from the damned ration bars that haven't started tasting better after two years and towards real food, away from the sadistic training and towards trying to save the galaxy... again.
By this time tomorrow, I will be on my way to reuniting with my crew.
– – – –
Translations:
Doton: Ganchūsō; Earth Release: Rising Rock Pillars. Canon.
Raiton: Gian; Lightning Release: False Darkness. Canon.
Dochū Eigyo; Underground Fish Projection. Canon.
Kage Bunshin; Shadow Clone. Canon
Kaminari Bunshin; Lightning Clone. Not to be mistaken for the lightning-imbued shadow clone shown in canon, this technique holds far more similarities to the water clone by being a mass of lightning chakra layered by a genjutsu to look like the user.
Shunshin; Body Flicker. Canon.
– – – –
A/N: So I wanted to include Shepard's graduation exam in this chapter as well as leave Parnack behind, but then the Shepard section of this chapter just kept becoming longer and longer, so it's relegated to the next chapter since I do not like writing 10k+ chapters.
I've always liked Aria as a character. The Omega DLC confirmed – to me – my interpretation of a character with rather simple base motivations (Omega is mine), with a lot of complexity around her. I'm not sure if I've done her justice in this chapter, but I'll wait for the reviews to make a definite judgement.
To cut off those that complain I'm making Asari overpowered, remember that the prideful Turians admit that Asari Commandos are the best in the galaxy, and that they're glad there's not a lot of them.
That said, it IS Commandos we're talking about; in this story that's slightly less than a million out of a military of just over three billion (ten percent of the population, like every other species except the militaristic Turians). You may wonder how Benezia and her squad of Commandos got taken out so easily, yes?
That's an answer for a later day.
I have exams at the end of January (20 and 30, respectively), so the next chapter may not be here until February. It's already half-written, but my ADD and PDD-NOS gets in the way. If I can get enough work on it in between studying, you should see it around 14-15 January.
Merry holidays and I'll see you in the next year!