It's been a while, I know but my job has been demanding as of late, I apologize for that but who would have thought that marching could be so hard. I mean we all watch them do it but when it's our turn we suffer for it…my hands are blistered and my feet hurt but I haven't forgotten about this story, not while I still breath.
Disclaimer: I'm legally obliged to comply with this so….yeah. I own nothing of Mass Effect or Stellaris or any other RTS elements from other notable RTS, FPS, TPS etc. games except this story and some of its AU or OC contents.
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(Gameplay Time: 2wks 12days 20hrs 22mins 10+secs)
[2183 Citadel Era]
[3000. 02. 12. Covenant Calender]
[Undisclosed Cerberus Facility]
[Unknown System]
The Head Researcher in charge of the facility, Cameron Mane, a 57 year old man with a reputation for ruthless pursuit of his brand of science…which up until recently had been all but ignored due to constraints, not that further advances in this field of research was impossible but it did need funding. Which in recent days it had received a lot of, so there's that to be happy about he guessed. The Illusive Man is not one to be discussed by a mere scientist but right now Dr. Mane could practically prostrate himself in front of the Illusive Man for giving his research a chance to shine. And with the arrival of the Subject to his facility, its projects will finally progress to what will be a dream come true.
He walked up to the single technician standing next to the man-sized pod, its shape a large cylinder, pristine white and sterile. Inside was the Subject, happily dozing off in La La land. He stood behind the technician and cleared his throat trying to catch her attention, and then in his best authoritative tone demanded, "How is the subject doing?"
The lab tech, a young woman, looked up at the man and broke into a happy smile, her eyes twinkling with excitement when she saw him, "Dad!" She exclaimed loudly causing the rest of the other lab techs to roll their eyes, shrug or simply ignore the odd girl. Not that they would call her that in front of her father…it'd be like signing a one-way ticket to a remote outpost somewhere to the middle of freaking nowhere! Though many think it's more likely Cerberus would just grind you down into paste and use you for their next experiment…that's not true right?
The aforementioned girl just so happened to be a bright and talented, not to mention a brilliant scientist and advent researcher in the field of genetic engineering and manipulation. Her name, Alicia Mane, aged 27 with bright-fiery red hair which had a slight tinge of orange along several strands and edges of her bangs, probably artificial coloring. She was slender of form, lustrous curves accentuated by her tight fitting lab clothes but hidden under a classic white lab-coat. She stood at 5 feet and 9inches tall, her skin fair of complexion and with a smattering of tan while her near oval shaped face was a picture of an angel as some would call her, on her cheeks she had light freckles that seemed to add to the alluring blue eyes that could pierce even the hardest of hearts…if she could at least take the time and find a guy that was. Basically she was married to her work but this new addition to the lab was going to be the ultimate test of her resolve in conducting said work as she had begun to have some rather un-ladylike thoughts creeping into her science filled head. Her father could only pray…or shudder, whichever one the situation concerning his daughter would require at any given moment with her work…or as far as the Subject was concerned.
For now though she was just too excited to see her father and to tell him just how much this new addition was going to broaden their understanding of modern genetics and unlock untapped potential within the human DNA. Then again they wouldn't have done this kind of thing what with the laws and regulations that no doubt would interfere with their work, if they had conducted their research in Alliance or Citadel territory and certainly not in the Terminus systems since that'll just get you an early retirement, which was why Dr. Mane accepted the Illusive Man's offer when he was approached many years ago though he didn't have a daughter at the time.
Dr. Mane gave his daughter a welcome smile as she walked up to him, giving him a bear hug, all the while giggling madly and muttering thanks for the opportunity to study an extraordinary subject.
"Can you believe it?! Kyah!" She squealed putting her father at arms' length and staring up at his face. Her eyes still lit up with the excitement of having to study the new subject. 'I wonder why I'm not insane yet.' Dr. Mane thought in exasperation at his daughter's antics. She usually couldn't hold in her excitement whenever there was a new breakthrough or on the verge of understanding something better, or mayhap even finding new information or just getting the chance to study something astonishing.
"This is one of the most significant events ever!" She declared as she let go of her father, who stared at her with a single brow raised in concern, she twirled around three times before stopping at the base of the horizontally placed cylindrical tube that housed their subject, a man, nay not a man, an alien man, whose species had evolved on a different world, a species remarkably similar to humans yet foreign at the same time, it truly fascinated her and she wanted to know more. "If we can determine the markers in his DNA to be similar to humans…our humans, we can unlock the secrets to how his humanity evolved to such a degree! Then again I wonder if he even is human! I mean look at him!"
She told her father, her voice raised to a scream rising from the lowest to the highest pitch her vocal cords could afford to give her, whilst giving everyone else throbbing ear drums. She was breathing rather rapidly and her heart was pounding against her rib cage at an astonishing rate clearly excited. Her father widened his eyes in concern as he rushed to her side when she was about to collapse, it was almost inconceivable that he might have heard Alicia's heart banging against her ribs as if begging to be let out to dance on the sterile floor...now that was an odd image.
"Damn it, Alicia, why can't you ever take things slowly?" Dr. Mane admonished his daughter who simply nodded before muttering that she was okay and he let her go. She looked a bit wobbly on her feet and he made to catch her again but she batted away his hands and said she was fine. When it looked like she could stand under her own power and not keel over from the blood rushing into her brain, the Head Researcher cleared his throat and asked once more, his tone attaining a business-like hint to it. "How is the subject?"
"W-what?" He stopped the urge to rub his nose as he waited for his daughter's focus to return. She still looked a bit dazzled from her overdose of excitement…something he had not counted on when he made her. Oh that's right, Alicia Mane is the product of genetic engineering that was the first thing he conducted his research on…granted his main reason had been to revive his dead wife, one of the reasons he pursued genetics research with such drive and passion, but gradually he came to look upon the product of his DNA and that of his wife's to be a miracle, of his own making of course. It was painstakingly bloated in mistakes from day one and added with the low funding he had gotten several disappointing and disturbing results until that fateful day when he accidently tumbled and knocked over a vial into his mixture and a new formula was created. He replicated the process, after going through several vials and chemical reagents for a straight week and therein spent the next few months perfecting his formula.
When all was done he once again conducted his experiment and lo and behold a miracle of genetic engineering was born. Using the last of his wife's DNA he created an embryo (AN: the technical stuff of which I'll leave to any expert who happens to read this), and with that he added his own DNA into the mix and watched as the two combined and within a few weeks, in the artificial womb created for the specific reasons of such experiments, a little tiny baby was in the first stages of forming its body. He had not brought back his wife…no…but he did create something that he knew would have made her very happy. So when the little girl was born, artificially of course, the methods of her conception were a closely guarded secret that only the Illusive Man, Dr. Mane and several top scientists were cleared for. Miranda Lawson was not privy to such secrets as of yet, god knows how she was going to react when she hears about the project. That's why Cerberus acted in cells, acting independently not knowing what the other cells are up to except for the select few and the Illusive Man himself, Dr. Mane was thankful for that because he didn't want the genetically engineered biotic woman to know or it could get messy for him. Oh but Alicia knew what she was and how she came to be and as a little girl had shown extreme intelligence for her age, so her education under her father began and arguably she had surpassed him in many ways as she grew, much like his wife had when she was alive.
Right now though she was really stressing him out, her behavior had steadily gone from bad to worse, not that it impeded her brilliance and performance when it came to her work but it just didn't seem right, somehow. She was an odd person, a bit of an introvert but overall she was nice to people who worked with her. Although certain persons do get to see that childish and sometimes disorienting personality of hers, these were the ones she grew up knowing and considered her family. Her father most of all had to put up with all of her quirks but he loved her so much he was willing to ignore them…most of the time. So now he reigned in his impatience and waited for Alicia to get her bearings which she did and had looked flustered with her cheeks red in embarrassment.
"Hehehe…sorry, dad." She chuckled nervously twiddling her thumbs in front of her, eyes darting around the room looking at the other scientists in the room, who all were conveniently facing away from her. "I didn't know what came over me."
"Well it happens." Dr. Mane said, giving her an understanding pat on the head. She closed her eyes and purred like a kitten, some of the nearby lab techs could have sworn they saw her face morphed into a catlike anime image as well as being twice as big. But it was probably the lights or something playing tricks on their minds…yeah…the lights were playing tricks on them.
He stopped patting her head and turned toward the tube, Alicia pouted with disappointment that he'd stopped. "How is the subject?" he repeated his previous question for the third time, perhaps third time will be a charm.
"Oh right." Alicia giggled whilst scratching the back of her neck, eyes suddenly darting around her immediate area obviously looking for something. "I forgot about that."
Another woman, this one similar in age, body type and height to Alicia walked up to the pair and handed over a data pad to her counterpart. Alicia seemed surprised before giggling nervously again and taking the pad from her colleague.
"Thanks Mary." Alicia beamed happily to the woman who politely smiled and went back to her station. A table on the other side of the subject's canister, she settled down and began her work, ignoring the odd looks her other colleagues were sending her way. Sometimes being friend to the local weirdo had its downsides…she sighed.
"Anyways, dad." Alicia looked at her father who was beginning to think his lab was a ghost house with how quiet it's been since he came in. He gave his daughter his full attention, gesturing her to continue. "Thanks, as to the subject, who's really cool by the way, his vitals are great and holding steady despite being…you know, formerly dead. Which reminds me, why weren't we included in the Lazarus project, you'd think Timmy would have let us in on it so our expertise would have been used to contribute to the restructuring of the subject's…"
For a moment he zoned out before a snapping finger in front of his face brought him back. "What did I miss?"
"Come on, daaad!" Alicia whined, pouting at his inattention when she'd gone into a lengthy explanation on the benefits of their cell's expertise on genetic engineering and how it could have been used to make the Lazarus Project produce results much faster than the current trend allowed. "You never listen."
"Sorry, little angel." The doctor apologized to his rather gifted yet slightly crazy daughter, who was he going to fool? He should have seen this coming in the first place. His creation, with its brilliance, had to have some odd tendency and it so happens that she turned out to be a little insane when it came to anything related to genetics and DNA. He did laugh a little when he saw her pout because she looked adorable, like she was 8 years old again.
"But the subject is fine, then?" he said trying to distract her from her current thoughts. She seemed to come back out of it before nodding but muttered how the subject's reconstruction would have been a whole lot faster if she and her father were there to oversee the project. He frowned at this. He needed to get it in her head that the Illusive Man's decisions weren't something to be messed with or disobey. "Listen, angel, I know you have all these great and wonderful ideas on how to speed things up for the research we have but I need you to remember who we work for…understand?"
"Yes, dad, I get it. Big Bad Timmy will kill us if we mess up his plans. Sheesh, that guy needs a vacation, heck I could use a vacation!" Dr. Mane and those who overheard her gasped in shock. She had never been this morbid before in any of her conversations…or maybe it's just a new brand of her crazy manifesting itself for the first time.
"Oooh look he's awake!" Alicia exclaimed gleefully whilst clapping her hands and looking into the transparent lid of the canister.
"What?!" the scientists all cried out in alarm as they saw that yes indeed the subject had awaken. His eyes, his unnaturally purple glowing eyes scanning the room and seemed to take notice of the wide eyed woman that had put her face on the glass, distorting her pretty face, she seemed excited.
"Hi!" She waved at the subject whose eyes had also widened, half in surprise and half in confusion. He did wave back which caused the young woman to shout out in her happy tune. He grimaced at that along with the rest of the lab techs but the doctor was looking at the subject with a kind of fascination he only had when something truly captivates his attention and that was the glowing purple eyes which seemed to fade until only a set of violet eyes were staring warily at him and his daughter.
This was going to be an interesting research opportunity, the doctor could practically feel the experiments and formulas creeping into his cranium all of which would unlock the kind of muscle and bone growth that the subject had shown, it was an evolutionary miracle not to mention the enhancements added to said muscles and bones, making this alien man as strong as a Krogan and nearly as tall. To top all of that off he gets to study why the man's eyes were glowing purple and see if it had anything to do with the spikes in his brain chemical makeup as the images swirled around erratically when his eyes had glowed.
"We're going to have so much to talk about in the coming days." Dr. Mane spoke to the subject and a sinister smile crept along his face in a wide grin. The lab techs that saw this shivered, a few were mumbling about how the apple didn't fell to far from the tree. While the man in the cylindrical tube gulped, his lips moving rapidly, little did the lab techs knew that he was praying to the Holy One to deliver him from whatever evil was going to happen to him, never mind the fact that these people in what could only be described as scientist garbs, looked like him, a Tunari. Maybe he was in some sort of Tunarin Healing Facility…or not, any hopes were quickly squashed as the strange orange vertical hexagon was displayed proudly on the wall behind the older man.
A single thought did go through the man's mind as he gazed fearfully into the crazy look in the eyes of the elderly man and the pretty young woman, 'I am so retiring early!'
=/\=
(Gameplay Time: 2wks 19days 14hrs 56mins 43+secs)
3000. 01. 12
[From: Minister of Science Directorate – Imperial R&D Department]
[Subject: Asari Species]
[To: Supreme Martial Commander Akbar Khan]
With the conclusion of our dissection and investigation into the biological makeup and mysteries of the lone Asari captive we acquired, we have determined that the Asari species is a danger to ourselves and the rest of the galaxy. In the detailed statistical data attached to this missive you'll find the technical reasons behind our conclusions.
Included amongst the many threats this Asari species pose to the Tunarin Covenant, is the fact that their reproductive system is parasitic in nature, allowing them to essentially create more of themselves by taking behavioral traits of their intended and transplanting that information within themselves and thus adding it to their offspring which affects how they behave, in close proximity to that of the sponsor, to allow for the birth of a pure Asari, though it is to be noted that not much detail was acquired about this species' social relationships with their partners of a different species other than that newborn Asari would share only behavioral traits of the other species but remain as an Asari, purely.
This implies that the Asari, in all scenarios, would outlive and outbreed the rest of the galaxy's species within a few centuries. Action is required to not allow such a parasite to remain. My colleagues and I have proposed a planned development of a new biological weapon specifically designed to affect the Asari genetic makeup. It would be similar to what they did to the Krogans, however, where as they possibly neutered them via high mortality rates per birth, our weapon will simply cause the Asari species to die out instantly. Any Asari that comes into contact with the weapon will decay from the inside out through a series of nano-molecular bots that will eat through the Asari entire body. We request permission to research and develop this weapon at the earliest possible time.
All pertinent information detailing further the essential data regarding the Asari's capabilities regarding their manipulation of dark matter, are attached to this missive alongside the statistical data pack.
By the Most Holy,
Minister of Science Directorate – Head of Research and Development
Salazar Snipe
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[Unsurveyed Star System]
[8th Fleet/Holy Hammer]
Fleet Composition:
1x [Support Class - Battleship]
2x [Artillery Class - Battleships]
15x [Javelin Class - Cruisers]
15x [Hunter Class - Cruisers]
30x [Corsair Class - Destroyers]
30x [Streamer Class - Destroyers]
107x [Interceptor Class - Corvettes]
100x [Torpslinger Class - Corvettes]
Total Contingent: 3 Battleships, 30 Cruisers, 60 Destroyers, 207 Corvettes = 300 Ships
[Flagship: Hammer – Support Class Battleship]
[Adm. Udnoy Blue]
The newest admiral on the block, a former pirate king who up until 2990 had been the scourge of the 7 Plathori Hyper-lanes in the Yevin sector, now stands proudly on the bridge of his newest ship courtesy of the Yevin Shipyards, one of the best shipyards in the whole damn empire. If he was being honest with himself, he would gladly admit to anyone who would listen that the Yevin Sector's shipwrights deserved to be praised for their craftsmanship when it comes to building big ships. The cruisers, destroyers and corvettes in his fleet he didn't give two shits about except for his new baby, the Hammer and boy it can hammer just about anything heading his way, short of a Titan.
With a Tachyon Lance as its main spinal mounted bow weapon capable of unleashing a literal torrent of hellish blue beams of death, its core containing the Carrier variant of two hangars that each housed two full wings of Mk.3 Advanced Strike Fighters for a total of 4 wings, as well two flak artillery turrets capable of discouraging even the most skilled fighter pilots from even thinking about closing in for a bombing run, then there were the two small Stormfire-autocannon turrets mounted alongside the point-defense systems to help against curious corvettes and if necessary enemy fighters. While at the stern core there were two medium turrets both of which were Gamma Laser turrets that could deal out considerable amount of damage to enemy hull and armor at medium to close range somewhere within the area of no less than 100 thousand kilometers away (AN: I'm guessing on that…space is big after all and lasers can go very long distances though I've heard they lose power or energy the further they go…I'll let you tech heads do the math since I'm just a story writer and not a scientist).
Like all Tunar ships of that particular design, it was sleek with a streamlined arrow-like superstructure but if Udnoy was to be honest with himself, he'd say it was more of a spearhead than an arrow, and had a length of more than 3km but less than 4km, an average width of 1.1km with the superstructures at three critical slants increasing it by 0.3km each. It had four immense Impulse thrusters to maneuver in sublight speeds and housed a Zero-point reactor that powered all of its shields, weapons and computer systems along with various other miscellaneous yet important sub-systems…such as life support and the internal fabricators and matter replicators. It was truly one of the most advanced Support class battleships currently in service with the Tunarin Navy, and though he didn't show it outwardly, the admiral was grinning like a kid who got his Viszlantin presents early in the year.
And the Holy One was the ever generous presenter of such a lavishly dangerous gift for the once long ago Pirate King. Udnoy could not have picked a better time to repent for his sins…then again one wrong move and its straight to the slammer for him what with his track record and whatnot.
He was a reformed citizen for crying out loud! There wasn't any need for the heavy security! It's not like he was going to abscond with the damned ship even if presented with the chance.
"That's not what you're subconscious is saying, Admiral." Undoy groaned at hearing that voice, he turned to look in the direction of said voice and saw the bane of his existence.
"Ah, Warden Smythe." Udnoy put on his best smile for the Warden, who did not look amused at all, yeah well the old pirate didn't feel at all happy with him so they were even.
"No we are not." The Warden, Smythe, scowled at him.
"Stop reading my damned mind!" Udnoy whined, this seemed to annoy the Warden so Udnoy opted to continue just for kick of it. "This is so not fair! I'm reformed, I'm one of the good guys now!"
"Your thoughts say otherwise and quit with the whining, I know what you're thinking."
"Yeah well I don't like it." Udnoy muttered irritably under his breath.
"Until High Command is confident you won't run away with this ship, I'm going to be around for as long as they deem necessary and to be honest I don't want to be here anymore than you want me to be." Warden Smythe said, this was by far the longest conversation they've had since the fleet left port. "And the sooner you behave yourself the sooner I get out of your hair and I get back to my vacation. So shut up and order the damn fleet to engage the enemy."
Said enemy was a variety of destroyer and corvette analogues along with a considerably lesser number of enemy cruisers. Though there were a few that did not match the profile of the Turian ships, like the strange purple sleek vessels sporting holes in the middle of their structures…whats up with that?
Udnoy pondered on the new alien ship type before his NeLI popped in with the relevant information on who owned the new ships. With both brows raised and a wolf whistle between his lips, he smiled and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at the Warden. "Well, well, looks like we got ourselves a Flutari situation."
"Seriously?"
"What?" The admiral shrugged, "It is."
"Please refrain from any more porn references otherwise I'll be forced to incapacitate you on grounds of immoral behavior and language." The Warden warned the one time pirate who laughed it off with a wave of his hand and turned his attention back to the coming battle. The enemy fleet was arrayed at one of the planets, a total of 348 ships, most of which were corvettes and destroyers as shown on the tactical display, several red and orange holograms showed up, the red indicated friendly ships whilst the orange ones were the enemy each one of both colors were marked. But whereas the enemy ships were designated Menaces 1 through 348 and categorized into more understandable hull classifications, the red ships had far more details.
The two Artillery class battleships were something to be proud of for the fleet, each wielding considerable firepower and capable of laying waste to several ships all on its own. However, its drawback, to which the new Admiral always shakes his head at, is that it is extremely vulnerable to enemy corvettes and destroyers and, Holy One forbid, fighters. This class of battleships is mostly an offensive platform designed solely to decimate enemy cruisers and battleships and to even go toe to toe against a Titan, but smaller ships have an easier time maneuvering out of the kinetic artillery batteries mounted on the ship. Therefore in response to this setback the top researchers and designers, who all claim that they receive new designs directly from the Holy One, came up with the Streamer class destroyers, which are armed with flak artillery, Guardian PDF turrets and Stormfire autocanons , this ship was made for the purpose of providing supportive defense fire for the heavier and more offensive ships and therefore purely for defense purposes.
So with practiced ease of command and a healthy grasp of tactics and strategy the Admiral positioned his Artillery battleships at the back of his line and set 15 each of the Streamer destroyers to make sure no enemy corvette sneaks up on them. Then placed his flagship in between the two other battleships and ordered the remainders to form around him in a sort of semi-circle curved out in front of his position. The Warden looked thoughtfully at the formation and then at the man issuing the orders and tried to figure out what sort of move the newly minted admiral was making.
Udnoy had put his cruisers in the middle portion of the curve coming out from the center of it toward the rim which was where the rest of the destroyers were positioned. On the rim of the semi-circle itself were the corvettes, the Torpslingers and the Interceptors were positioned with ease of access in mind. Udnoy used his NeLI to finish issuing personal orders to the commanders of each ship utilizing the tactical display to drive his point home as well as a makeshift PowerPoint presentation. After the initial positioning of his fleet the Admiral smiled and turned to his minder, the Warden stared at the display before turning to the Admiral.
"Larger cone of fire?" Warden Smythe asked, Udnoy's smirk dropped and was replaced with a mixed pout and glare. "Corvette Interceptors to watch stragglers and flankers while cruisers and destroyers to be the battering ram, and the Torpslingers to provide missile and torpedo blankets."
"How did you know…wait never mind, don't answer that!" The admiral grumbled as he remembered he was talking to a psychic.
"Not a bad plan but you failed to take into account the enemy's maneuverability." Smythe's tone was that of a disappointed teacher, he then pointed out, "They have more corvettes so you'd best utilize your autocannons to their fullest, leave the Artillery battleships to deal with the enemy cruisers. Have your destroyers protect gaps in your formation and let the javelin and torpslingers loose, the missile blanket they churn out can overwhelm the enemy if not outright killing them first, that's assuming they stay put which is highly unlikely."
"Sir, the enemy fleet has sent out emergency transmissions…we've intercepted them and have now begun jamming the system's communications capabilities. We've also found their comm buoys and the fighters have destroyed them." The Tactical officer informed the admiral who looked happy upon hearing that.
"You know, I've been wondering how is it that we were able to break into their communications system." Udnoy wondered aloud, throwing a questioning look at the Warden, who raised an eyebrow at his query.
"I am not an encyclopedia, look through the files via NeLI." Warden Smythe grunted before flashing his eyes purple making his irritation known. Admiral nodded making a zipping gesture over his mouth.
"Sir, we're getting hailed, somehow, it's from the enemy. What are your orders?" The Communications Officer spoke from her terminal gaining the attention of most of the bridge crew, the silence was thick and the waiting was even worse. Each Tunari wondered what their peculiar leader was thinking, as Udnoy stood there with a blank face until he smiled, slowly.
"Answer it…audio only." The smile never left his face as he gave his order.
"…diance, you have entered Asari space." The voice was distinctly female and quite soothing too but each crewmen on the bridge knew this to be a trick by the xeno, one can never trust the voice of a species as parasitic as the Asari and by stroke of luck they have stumbled upon the first world owned by the mono-gendered race. Udnoy couldn't believe his luck, oh but he did after all he was once a pirate and pirates are among the luckiest if they serve the right employer, and even the Warden was surprised yet still suspicious that this was a trap by the Turians. "You have 20 minutes to leave the system before we are forced to take lethal measures of defense."
"You hear that?" Udnoy jerked his thumb toward nothing in particular but the Warden knew what he meant. "They will be forced to take lethal measures. Haha!"
The admiral laughed, slapping his thigh to emphasize his amusement, the Warden was likewise amused but not enough to openly make a fool of himself in front of the crew. "Enough of this childish behavior, you are an admiral of the Tunarin Military, act like it." Smythe reprimanded the former pirate who stopped shaking bodily up and down and wiped away small tears from his eyes.
"I haven't heard that since my days as a pirate…oooohhhh so scary….ohhh." Udnoy waved his hands in the air and pranced about the command platform ignoring the angry growl emanating from the Warden, the crew near and below him hid their laughs and giggles while quite a lot just wished they'd have been transferred to someone else who took their work seriously and not so annoying.
"Will you stop it!" Smythe snapped sharply, halting the man's antics. "Get a hold of your senses and answer the damned xeno before I take command and have you thrown in the brig!"
"Sheeesh, you're no fun."
Warden Smythe snarled, it was a low and guttural sound, primal and deadly, warning the admiral to cease and desist or else. His glare had also intensified as had his psionic aura, exhuming a feeling which caused the crews' hair to stand on ends and made them shiver with dread as the icy stare had turned into a furious scowl, the warden's eyes were now freely glowing a misty purple flaring once every microsecond. The admiral gulped, knowing any further tomfoolery on his part will result in his mind being flayed in response.
"Hehehe, sorry." It was a weak apology and Udnoy knew it, but he had to try and placate the warden's wrath…or risk a future mind flaying if one of his merry outbursts were to give the warden any reason to do that. So taking a more serious tone and expression the admiral turned to his crew, to his comm officer and nodded for her to open the line.
She did so looking at him to confirm that the line was open and the admiral can now talk with the xeno. He cleared his throat and with as much seriousness as he could muster he bellowed, "Our god demands blood for the slight against His people!"
A lot of brows were raised questioningly at that, but the admiral ignored the stares from his crewmen and continued. "Your species is a blight upon the galaxy and it is our duty to the Most Holy to cleanse and purge the galaxy of your taint! Prepare to die, xeno! May whatever you worship have mercy on your souls for I surely will not show any!"
Using his own authorized codes, Udnoy closed down the communication lines between the two fleets and began issuing orders for the preplanned formation to be modified to compensate for the enemy's unimaginable and ridiculous speed. And so begins the second space battle between the might of the Covenant navy and that of the Citadel race.
'Or is it the fourth…maybe fifth battle?' Admiral Udnoy wondered in his mind, mentally tallying up the number of battles that they've had up until now with these Citadel alliance types…or was it the Turians themselves, he can't recall which came first, only shaking his head and shrugged nonchalantly. He came up with nothing on the number of space engagements as well, because believe it or not, counting had never really been his strong suit either. And neither is it the author's…just saying.
=/\=
[2183 CE]
[Terminus Systems]
[Normandy – Briefing Room]
"I hope you've gathered your team, Commander."
The voice of Admiral Steven Hackett coursed out of the holographic representation of him over the large viewing holoscreen in the room. The Commander, in her casual wear, stood in the middle of the room facing the Admiral. Her team, some of whom were handpicked, and recruited by herself out of necessity and talents, stood with her.
"Yes, sir." Shepard nodded.
"Good. I have a new mission for you, Intel has recently received word of another Cerberus facility deep within the Terminus sector. The contact was discovered and killed, most likely, but not before sending this video footage." The admiral's hologram was replaced by a video stream showing a large cylindrical tube opening and out of it stepped a man, he was tall, judging from the way he towered over the people in the video, by a clear two feet, or three in the case of the nearest scientist to the man. Was muscular and wore a black bodysuit, had short dark crop cut hairdo typical of a military standard but other than that his features were hidden by the opaque breathing apparatus attached to the bottom half of his face.
"Sir," Lt. Kaiden Alenko, Shepard's XO, and on again and off again boyfriend, stated, "Who is that?"
"We don't know, that is why we're sending Commander Shepard and the rest of you in. You've had quite the success rate thus far making you the Alliance's best asset at present." Admiral Hackett's voice spoke as the video kept playing. "We believe it's a super soldier, considering that this man *video pauses and a box sections out part of it, zooming in on a middle-aged man* was a former Alliance Geneticist, whose expertise was on genetic manipulation and engineering. He was one of our top scientists in that field before he disappeared following the death of his wife…in the Batarian raid."
"Batarian raid?" Wrex wondered aloud, earning him a disapproving glare from Shepard, and a scowl from Ashley, Garrus just shrugged while Tali kept staring off to the side for some reason, away from the screen.
"Elysium." Shepard remembered that day well, she was there when the Batarians staged the raid, lots of people died or injured. Her heart still sings a sad song in remembrance of that time and burned with hatred when she thought back to it, the memory of Batarians killing innocents and taking the rest captive for slavery. She could still smell of the burning dead and hear the cries of the dying as she fought ferociously to keep the Batarians from taking any more lives, in the end all the decorations couldn't make up for the lives that were lost even if she was accredited with saving just as many. "Shepard I need you to investigate the system I've uploaded on your galaxy map. Any edge we can find to stop Cerberus will be needed to curb their growing power and if they're up to no good with regards to the Rachni, you know what to do."
"Yes, Admiral. I know what to do…we all know what to do." Commander Shepard affirmed, her posture stiff as she nodded. Her team members all glanced at one another before nodding in agreement.
"Oh and one more thing, Captain Anderson forwarded me some information regarding the new contacts from the galactic edge. I've sent it to you, good luck Commander. Hackett out." The old timer gave a slight nod of acknowledgement before his image blinked out.
She nodded a salute before the holoscreen blanked out completely and she turned to her assembled team. "We've got another mission but I want you all to try and find any leads on Saren as best you can. I'll do the same. For now if you need me I'll be on the bridge going over the mission details, though keep in mind that finding Saren is our top priority."
The others nodded before walking out of the room, all except Kaiden who looked at her with worry in his eyes. She saw him and put both hands on her hips, one brow raised questioningly before she sighed, "What is it, LT?"
"Nothing…just don't get too worked up over this." Kaiden said, shaking his hands and smiling a little at her before putting on a more serious expression and the tone of his voice changed. "I understand we have a duty to find Saren, I'm just saying that you need to relax a little, Commander. We'll find him eventually, it might take a little time but we'll find him."
"I hope so…" Shepard straightened herself, her eyes looking down at the floor. "But I can't help but feel that if I don't find him soon, something really bad is going to happen…after Feros I'm beginning to think that the images burned into my mind are telling me more than just the Reapers."
Kaiden paused whatever else he was going to say before he asked, "Wait, what do you mean by that?"
"I mean…" Shepard hesitated, looking unsure of what to say or how to say it. She looked right at her second in command and decided to just get it out. "I mean that there might be something else worse than the Reapers."
"How much worse?" The Lieutenant really didn't want to know but he had to ask…didn't know why he had to ask but he did.
"Worse."
=\/=
Covenant Intelligence Index
Subject: Asari
The Asari are a mono-gendered species capable of reproducing via neural means with any species, including their own, in a way that defies most biological and natural laws. No further analyses is needed on the matter, the species itself is a parasite feeding off the rest of the galaxy's races. They also possess an, as of current lack of information, ability to manipulate dark matter and affect gravity in an unnatural way.
NOTE: Combatants are advised not to engage Asari on their own, squads are to coordinate in order to bring down an Asari. GENE Warriors (Super Soldiers), ANDROID troopers and PSI Commandos are by far the most effective means of combating any Asari on a squad/group or individual basis. Special Units such as Xenomorphs or Titans prove quite effective as well…not to mention messy.
Threat Level: EXCEED
NOTE: Other species within Citadel territories, as per their codex, also appear to exhibit these…biotic…abilities. Above threat level applies.
=\/=
[2183 CE]
[3000.01.29 CC]
[Asari Colony near Turian space]
[Groundside Combat ]
[87th Shock Battlion – 23rd Armored Division]
[Commander Rayne Alliser]
"Enemy armored resistance spotted," the monotone voice of the onboard automated assistance computer within the 800 ton monster of a tank alerted the crew, Rayne among them.
"You heard the tin can," Rayne looked to her crew, "Take aim and fire main rounds, no armor piercing this time around. We all know what happened the last time."
"Aye, Commander." The three men and two other women in the command pit of the large tank spoke in unison. Rayne had seen firsthand during the engagement that their armor piercing rounds just bounced off harmlessly against the enemy's kinetic barriers, unless repeatedly used against the same target, the AP rounds would just get deflected seeing as they operated somewhat within the parameters of the xeno's mass effect theory, travelling at fast speed. Fast enough that the enemy xeno's kinetic barriers activated and proved to be very resilient against a few sporadic shots.
So this time the armored tanks of the Tunarin military of the 99th Army Group under General Thorum Tullius, were using High yield explosive rounds that proved even more effective than intended. After all a single shot of one of these shells could blow apart two or three blocks of the enemy's city, so their use was limited outside the city on open ground to avoid making more debris for the enemy to take cover in and for the 99th's heavy armor to get bogged down in. Out here in the open field the single tank was firing off HP rounds left and right like there was no tomorrow turning the once beautiful landscape into one of burning and crater littered muddy ground with an assortment of destroyed vehicles and corpses littering the battlefield.
"Enemy kill confirmed." The computer informed the crew.
"Find a new target, we need to get on top of that hill so we can provide support for our boys in the city." Rayne commanded. She was an experienced commander of various tank battles but all of them were simulations up until now, the battlefield was an ever changing thing more fickle than a player and just as deadly. Her plans needed constant changes but for now she was content in just moving slowly and blasting away at any enemy armor that came up against her tank, or rolled down the hill against her tank in this case.
"Commander, Forward Center is demanding to know why we haven't taken the hill yet." The radio man informed her not looking back but knowing enough of his superior officer to know that she was grinding her teeth. Rayne did not like it when the armchair commanders demanded something from her.
"Tell them to shove their demands up their asses. We're taking that hill when I say we will." Her crew stifled their snickering however tempting it was to laugh.
"Yes, commander." The radio man nodded and kindly informed HQ of what his commanding officer had just told him. He quickly muted his receiver before he went deaf from the shouting coming from the other side.
"That aside, we do need to take that hill and fast." Rayne said in a more serious tone, "Any ideas?"
"We could always dozer right over their lines." The driver suggested, she sounded hopeful but was disappointed when the commander shot that idea out of the way.
"And leave our flanks exposed? No."
"I just wanted to ask why we're the only tank tasked with taking this hill?" The co-driver asked from his spot, "We do have support from the infantry and the lighter armored vehicles but sending only one Behemoth to take the hill doesn't make sense. Don't we normally stampede an objective?"
"We do but apparently the aliens managed to decommission three of the Behemoths sent in to city and now the rest of the Behemoths have been sent in to help secure them." Rayne explained, best she could tell from the info she received from HQ was that those tanks had been ambushed and were likely in the process of being stolen, not good. "Still you're right, we need the other Behemoths to take this hill, it's slow now but we're still going to take it."
"I like your confidence, Commander." The Analyst, in charge of electronic warfare and maintain the tank both electronically and mechanically, said as he typed away on the terminal in his side of the tank command center. The center or pit was cramped but large enough to allow some free movement. "Although I do wonder if sometimes your clash with Command is what landed us this illustrious duty."
"Those assholes don't get to demand results from me every damn time," The commander growled, her anger at her superiors' impatience grated on her nerves. "If I get the results they wanted I'll tell them then…no need to pester me so much every five minutes! It's annoying."
"Regardless of that," The other woman , the gun operator, added in her voice to the conversation. "We still need to take that hill. Perhaps if we can work with the commander of the infantry we can finally get the job done and over with. I need more time to groom my hair and it's so stuffy in here I'm sweating oceans."
"We have air conditioners in here." Rayne deadpanned to which all of the crew of the tank looked at the gun operator. They did notice that she was sweating. A little bit surprised at the gunner, the commander shook her head. "You can't be serious, it's like 14 or 12 degrees in here."
"I grew up on an extremely cold planet, commander." The gun operator told her, "Didn't I mention that?"
"Uh no you di—"
The tank was suddenly stopped as one of it's' tracks was shown on the monitors that it had been destroyed causing the large tank to stop dead in its tracks, no pun intended. The enemy xenos quickly pressing their attack on the large armor clad vehicle the infantry holding them at bay with the support guns of the tank helping them.
"Oh shit." The co-driver cursed tapping away at his weapons console making the heavy machine guns rattle as their payload was unleashed in a torrent of spiraling projectiles that tore through the light enemy armor…after they broke through the kinetic barriers first, like in space the enemy's kinetic shields were pretty easily negated by rapid firing kinetic armaments. Enemy infantry seemed almost impervious but then again they had blue magicians helping them, which was what prompted the 79th Psi Com unit to be attached to the 99th Army Group…except Rayne wasn't seeing them anywhere and those Asari soldiers were getting too close for comfort.
"Computer, damage report!" Rayne screamed and was met with silence. "Hest, what the hell happened to the computer systems?!"
Hest, the analyst, shook his head, typing frantically on his holokeyboard. "I don't know but I'm working on it!"
"Well work faster, I don't wan—"
The tank was hit with a concentrated blast from several enemy armored vehicles that had crested over the hill and rapidly driving their way down the side, providing cover to the combined forces of Turian and Asari soldiers as well as a few Krogan and Salarians and the Tunaroid-like beings, the humans. It was a maddening experience in Rayne's humble opinion, seeing this many species working together. It was also quite disturbing about the fact that the humans looked so much like Tunari, as if they were long lost twins in the vast cosmos but she knew they weren't.
By the Holy One's grace they were different and the humans were just aliens in Tunaroid disguises. Very convincing ones, she'll admit.
"Commander the main gun is offline!" The gun operator yelled. "We're down to the secondary guns."
"Armor integrity is failing…concentrated fire is compromising the forward hull!" The analyst screamed as he read off of his small terminal screen. "Auto-repair has failed!"
The situation suddenly looked grim and Rayne fought down the panic attack that had surged up from the deepest pits of her bowels, she wasn't about to let any xeno scum get the better of her…not yet and not ever! "Reroute power from non-essential systems and focus fire on the enemy armor. I want them gon—"
She never finished her sentence as her vision was engulfed in a bright light right before all feeling in her body was gone and she, along with her crew and tank, ceased to exist. Though a single thought went through her mind just before the light claimed her, it went along the lines of who designed a tank with its engines in the front?!
=/\=
[2183 CE]
[3000.02.01 CC]
[Unknown Asari Colony bordering Turian Space]
[Grid 5-34, Sector 13 – Hill 94]
[99th Army Group – 19th Mechanized Infantry]
[Sgt. Killian Verge]
Outskirts of Asari colonial city at the Southern Base of Hill 94C-12E-X12…or Hill 94 for short
"Welp, there goes our armor support." Killian Verge, with a slight glower and his left eyebrow raised, said in a deadpan tone as he and his squad of five-himself included-watched as the Behemoth class battletank exploded into a spectacular ball of red and orange fire and ash with several pieces of its torn and tattered armor flying in an upward direction, falling down on those unlucky enough to be in the vicinity of the tank, the ones standing next to the tank when it went up in flames were simply…gone. "Lora, get on the mike and tell them dunderheads at Forward Center that we've lost our armor. Make it quick, I doubt the blues and the fringes are gonna hold back now, not to mention we got lizards on our flanks and the knockoff Tunari look-alikes keeping us from getting up this damned hill."
"I'm on it," Lora, in a gruff but still feminine voice nodded as she grabbed the ear comm transmitter from her pack and using her NeLI she sent out the call. Meanwhile, the other members of Killian's squad sighed and began reloading or checking their weapons, the other men and women around them scurrying around their position to get to better cover, enemy armor and infantry rolling down the side of the hill to meet them head on now that their heavy hitter was out of the game.
"I don't plan on dying today, you know." Killian spared a glance to his machine gunner, Corporal Vance, a tall dark skinned Tunari from the burning words of Messa in the Burni sector. "I got me a wife and kid back home to get back to…I promised the missus…I ain't going back in a body bag or as dust…and neither as a tag. Ain't no xeno gonna kill me while I got a promise to keep."
"I hear ya." Killian glanced over at the youngest and dare he say it, oddest of his squad. Private 3rd Class, Uriel 'The Imp' Nister, who by all that was holy must have been a mistake for the man was a dwarf…a midget…a bloody short person. In a world where genetic defuncts were corrected at the fetal stage, this man standing before him, who he sees on a frakking daily basis…this person, was like a bad miracle that somehow crept through the proverbial crack in the Holy design of things. One of these days Killian was sure somebody else would point out that little fact…about the gene therapy bit but he kept his mouth shut on that front, why? Well maybe the fact that the dwarf can kill him in several different ways would be a factor, he guessed, not that he was prejudiced or anything but in this day and age with the tech the Covenant has at their disposal? Well one can guess why he found the dwarf a bit of an oddity…even though he's served with the man for well up to five years now and had been saved by him a couple of times…Killian's mood suddenly plummeted when he thought about the third time he had been saved but that's another story for another time. "Sergeant, you're staring at me…again."
"What?" Killian managed to say before he snapped out of whatever trance had him in its grasp and apologized to his small squadmate…Killian groaned in his mind, he really needed to stop referring to Uriel in that manner, even if its only in his head, the man was a soldier and a damned good one too, despite the fact he was…well, a dwarf. "Sorry, Nister."
"And that's the seventh time you've called me by another of my names, again." The other members of the squad started snickering, bar Lora who was still talking to HQ, Uriel gave Killian his signature smirk that made the snickering even worse. Killian groaned and glared at the rest of his squad. The immediately stopped and began to take more interests in their weapons, "You must be forgetful in your old age, eh?"
"Yeah, whatever, just get your gear ready, private." Killian grounded out his emphasis on the dwarf's rank but had a smile on his face. He turned away from the others to Lora who looked like she was finished, "What did the dunders at Forward Center have to say this time?"
"Well, sergeant." Lora inclined her head sideways whilst raising her eyebrows, accompanied by a shrug and a tired sigh. "It seems Hill 94 is no longer needed."
"I'm sorry, say that again."
The others in the squad stopped what they were doing and turned to Lora who repeated what she said, slowly and in a more clear tone, as if she was speaking to children. A frown appeared on the sergeant's face as he too sighed tiredly with a bit of frustration seeping into his exhaled breath and glanced at the hill, watching as the enemy took their positions and began a slow crawl down toward them.
"So what are our new orders?" Corporal Vance asked, worryingly eyeing the incoming wave of enemy light armor and infantry, their first line of trenches coming under fire and the squads stationed there firing back. Anti-tank weapons and machine gun emplacements complemented by what few Psi-Commandos there were furiously holding out against the onslaught of blue skinned magic wielding bitches followed by slippery lizards and reckless humans, and then there were the fringes, each one adequately giving the soldiers of the 19th a run for their money.
High-end energy shields barring access to the trenchlines below this side of the hill were being pestered by the enemy rapid firing heavy guns, DEWs were used by the troops to offset the new enemy's reliance on kinetic barriers, but now without armor support, said armor a smoking wreck just a few meters ahead of the trenchlines, the advance in taking Hill 94 is halted and most likely would be pushed back. The odds have not yet changed but they may as well change sooner what with the enemy having more numbers most of whom were Asari which bode ill for the first line of defense, and right now Killian and his squad were recharging weapons and restocking on other munitions, they needed to get back into the fight but first Killian needed to clarify the message from Forward Center.
"Sergeant Verge!" Killian snapped his head sideways to see his company's commanding officer, Captain Vandal, the man was dressed in his combat exo-armor, face obscured by the full face helmet he wore. "We are leaving!"
"What?!" The squad looked at each other quizzically before turning back to their CO.
"Forward Center has issued a general retreat!"
"Why?!" Ordering a general retreat never happens without express permission from the highest of authority and that was the Divine Authority of the Holy One Himself, it was a proven fact that most important decisions made by the government was through the divine will and power of the Holy One, as proven by the Priesthood and the Imperator time and time again. However, the question still remains as to why they were going to retreat when clearly they had the superior hand for the moment. They only needed to push their advantage via surgical precise strikes against the concentrated number of enemy magicians…er...biotics they're called.
"Apocalypse."
Killian blinked only once but nodded not needing to be told twice. He and his soldiers grabbed what gear they could and high tailed it as fast they could to the nearest transport. They needed to get the hell off the planet as soon as possible because he did not want to be stuck here if the apocalypse was coming to town.
=\/=
(Gameplay Time: 3wks 04days 08hrs 59mins 12secs)
[Apocalypse Class - Colossus]
[EndofTimes - Bridge]
A solemn silence reigned over the room as the lush gaia world came into view, the viewing window with its reinforced plasteel glass allowing the bridge crew an obstructed view of the planet before them. Its dark side showed the hazardous flames of death lighting up the night sky, black clouds clogged the sunny side of the planet and in its orbit was the 8th Fleet/Holy Hammer, the ships silhouetted against the star's shining form. Upon the platform in the middle of the bridge stood Admiral Ian Thorn, the man had aged well past 200 years due to the medical sciences of the Covenant's ever vigilant R&D Division. And so it was that that same Division was responsible for one of the most powerful weapons in the Covenant arsenal. This beast of an architecture, this monstrosity of power, this weapon of war designed for the sole purpose of destroying entire planets. Granted, a shot from a Titan's Perdition Beam would devastate a planet, this Colossus on the other hand would simply shatter the planet into tiny bits and pieces, however, should the need arise the other Colossus The Purge with its neutron sweeper would just cleanse the planet of the filthy xeno whilst leaving the world intact but for now a message was to be sent to the Citadel races.
A fact not lost on the aging admiral who smiled at the sight of the next victim to come into contact with the tested claws of the End of Times. An apt name for such a weapon, he mused.
"Entering the planet's orbit, in T-minus 30 minutes," The monotonous voice announced over the speakers in the chamber, bringing the End of Times that much closer to its target. Admiral Thorn watched in amusement as the 8th Fleet scrambled its ships away from the planet, heading past his giant mobile station of death, like insects scurrying away from a bird of prey, he smiled happily at that mental picture.
"We're getting hailed by the 8th Fleet's flagship, Admiral Thorn." Thorn raised an eyebrow at that statement, wondering why on earth the fleet admiral was calling.
"Very well, on screen." Admiral Thorn waved his right hand dismissively turning his attention toward the large holo display above the main viewing window. A 3D image of the 8th Fleet's admiral appeared and Thorn's wrinkles cringed as he recognized the man. "Udnoy."
"Thorn." Was the reply from the former Pirate King, whose face showed he was none too pleased to see the old admiral. "Aren't you dead yet?"
"I see you're not in your cage." Admiral Thorn hissed back at the man who grinned smugly at him. "Where is your Warden?"
"I am here." The Warden's face appeared next to Admiral Udnoy's who frowned, having an annoyed expression aimed at the Warden. "There is no need to worry, Admiral Thorn. This one's leash is firmly held in place but should he pull too much…"
The Warden let his words hang for a moment causing the former pirate to growl at him but was ignored. Admiral Thorn sneered at Udnoy before the Warden bowed and faded away from view leaving behind a grumbling former Pirate King.
"What the hell do I have to do to prove I'm not a liability around here?" Udnoy muttered irritably to himself.
"Was there a purpose to this undesired call, filth." Admiral Thorn narrowed his eyes at the image of the man who simply looked at him before his 3D image disappeared in wisp of fading particles. For a mere second Thorn stood frozen in his spot before he began snarling, "Insufferable flea ridden pirate scum."
"Admiral." The old admiral turned to look at who called him, seeing a man wearing the lapel of a lieutenant on his collar, nodding toward the man to continue. "We're within range of the planet now, shall I begin the sequence?"
The crew aboard the bridge all looked to the man standing on the platform, his posture straight and rigid, his wrinkled skin giving him an aura of wisdom encompassing them all, his eyes roaming from one man to the next making eye contact with each of them. Then with a short breath he spoke, "Begin sequence, lieutenant."
For the next forty minutes the firing sequence was set as the crew and technicians on the bridge moved around the bridge from one terminal to the next calling to each other and contacting the engineering bays and checking for anything out of the ordinary with the firing of the planet killer. Light dances across their faces as their terminals lit up in a wide array of the light spectrum throwing random colors around the bridge, this made Thorn a little dizzy being dazzled left and right by these irritating color lights but by now he didn't care anymore.
Having served for nearly one hundred and fifty-eight years, he has come to liken the colored lights to those of the fireworks during celebrations back on his homeworld of Ellor Prime, the Governing world of the Ellori Sector. However, in all that time he had finally found the ultimate light show, a show worthy of being called the firework of the millennia if not eternity. The show that was about to unfold before him, as he had seen it countless times before, now filled his old bones once again with excitement and glee as if he could take on the whole world all on his own, his eyes watching from his platform through the plasteel glass as the arms of the colossus extended outward to their fullest, with the smaller arms following suit, and the pulsing energy vibrating throughout the colossus' hull beneath his feet.
"Admiral Thorn, weapon charge complete." The same lieutenant informed him as he counted his breath before closing his eyes.
In the silence, in that moment, at that particular time the crew watched in anticipation, waiting for the order to be given by their leader, praying to the Holy One that this decision to unleash the power of this beast was the right one. For many within the Covenant itself had questioned the existence of such a device, and even amongst this crew there are some that did not see a reason for such a weapon to exist yet years of conditioned obedience toward the norm and to the government and the invisible but guiding hand of the Holy One have thus far stayed their hand from acting out against the established order. It was a disconcerting thing to the Admiral that such fractures were present within his crew, something that he had noticed over the years, but as a leader amongst his people, and by the Holy One's grace, he will show these younglings the light of the Holy One and that no other but the Holy One's power through his worshipper's creations is the only way whether wrong or right. This machine of death will be the weapon that opens the eyes of those that have not yet been affirmed in their belief to the Holy One. For the Holy One's will is to be done no matter the cost and if the believers should falter then their faith must be renewed in Him in fire and death.
With his mind settled upon his decision aided by the Holy One's hand, which he could feel like so many times before, Admiral Ian Thorn opened his eyes and breathed out, "You may fire when ready."
=/\=
[Asari Colony]
[Hill 94]
2 hours prior to End of Times' arrival…
"They're retreating!" Somebody shouted over the ear splitting rapid cacophony of gunfire and the roar of light tanks booming both near and in the distance. A group of Asari combatants rushed down the hill closely followed by Turians and Humans as they made their way toward the forward position of the humanoid shaped enemy that had invaded the colony. Said colony was not a large one, it was a fairly recent addition to the Asari Republics even, but somehow the aliens had managed to find it so far out of Turian space that it unnerved a lot of people on the planet itself and the Republics and the Citadel in general.
"Flank 'em!" A human barked orders pointing wildly with his hands at the retreating forms of the enemy. Their armor giving them a general human appearance but it has yet to be determined whether or not they were actually humans or Asari-type aliens. However, rumors have been flying around that the new but aggressive kids on the block are actually humans, though not many would believe that yet.
Enemy light tanks gave as good as they got from disruptor warheads plunging into them causing them to explode from within killing several nearby aliens as well. A squad of humans and Turians rushed forward toward the energy shielded bunkers with the intent on taking it intact but when they got there it promptly detonated into eternity as the earth shook and shattered remains of the would-be occupiers were thrown around. Gore and blood decorated several salarians nearby who had been tinkering with one of the downed alien tanks trying to get it to work.
But through all that, through the shouting and the deafening gunshots cracking the air, a lone Asari waded her way down through the muck, blood and gore trying hard not to throw up her lunch, regretting even having lunch. With her head held low and eyes peeled for any threat she made her way around burned out wreckage of enemy tanks, bodies and equipment. Her light armor giving her the extra needed mobility.
She shivered when she came upon a gruesome sight, not wanting to look at it any longer than she had to, the Asari sidestepped around the gory sight and continued on with a purpose. Her eyes finding her target, she activated her cloaking system her body disappearing from sight as if she never existed, only the slight wobbly waves of light around her leaving evidence that she was there. Her cloak was not the best but it got her by without a hitch and several times had saved her life…like now.
"Thela you there?" She paused for a moment, cursing her radio before moving on. Careful not to make a sound, her eyes watching the four figures currently carrying large blocks of what she can only assume as explosives up the burned out chassis of the largest tank she had ever laid eyes on. It's twin barrels deformed but overall still giving it that menacing look as if to say that even in its current state it was dangerous as when it was alive. She shuddered involuntarily as she thought back to when she had first seen these things enter the city, blasting through and knocking down hardened skyscrapers like they were paper instead of the steel and concrete that they were.
"Thela come in, where are you?"
"I'm at the site." She whispered into her radio trying as hard as she could not to be spotted or heard. Moving on her stomach through the mud she sighed as she was hidden from sight by a large piece of debris. "Intel was right, they're planting explosives like they did in the city with the other tanks."
"You know what to do. We can't afford to lose another opportunity like this again. That tank is still largely intact and we need it that way." She nodded along with the voice but then frowned, she may be an Asari but she wasn't a qualified Commando for Athame's sake. She was only a mercenary, for like a year, that just happened to be stuck on the planet doing security work for some up and coming company when shit hit the fan as the humans are fond of saying when in a bad situation.
Her mind snapped back to her current situation when she heard the distinct shouting and words being spoken by the aliens, drawing her attention to them as she peeked out of her cover. By her estimates they had finished placing the explosives and are getting ready to bail out but before she could make her move she spotted two more of them coming around from the other side of the tank. Dammit! She cursed herself from being a little too hasty, she waited a moment before they were all together before she activated her cloak again and hurrying over to the next available cover.
She skidded on a slippery piece of ground causing a little bit of dirt to move around and piece of debris to be dislodged from the ground, it made a not so loud noise that got the attention of the six alien who raised their weapons. She quickly dove into cover as they opened fire. "Crap!"
Cursing her luck the Asari popped out of her cover and threw out a singularity, it was weak but it may be enough to deal with this crowd, before ducking back into cover and pulling out her SMG. Taking five quick breaths she popped out of cover again and took a shot at the nearest alien combatant who was floating in the air trying to grab its weapon that floated just out of reach. Three more of the aliens were caught in the singularity but one of them had its weapon and fired at her as soon as she shot at her target.
She plopped back into cover checking to see if her cloak had cooled down, seeing that it had she activated it and sprinted away from her position toward a new one luckily not being noticed by the other three aliens who rushed over to her last known position.
Thela grunted as she took deep breaths and her cloak gave out, she had managed to hide behind the tank but the shouting made her realize that the aliens were still trying to find her. She chanced a peek and saw that the one she had shot was lying on the ground in a pool of its own blood, she smiled at that and moved out of cover throwing a singularity at them followed by a warp.
She took aim and followed with a burst from her SMG, her quick tactic proved effective in taking two out of the fight temporarily, another one imploding from the Warp she threw at him, one disappearing behind a large piece of debris and the other one she shot at died instantly when the high velocity grain sized bullets pierced his helmet's faceplate. She quickly turned to the two floating and shot at them but had to move away to find cover when her barriers were peppered with high impact kinetic rounds from the one that had taken cover.
Cursing once more for being a little bit too cocky she made a blind shot before activating her cloak again and going around her cover, she saw the alien coming out of its own cover and threw another warp at it causing it to implode much like its friend. This all happened relatively fast, but to her it was almost as if time slowed down but now that everything returned to normal (atleast for her), she looked around, admiring her handiwork.
"Not bad for a rookie mercenary. If I do say so myself," She smirked, but then she heard somebody coughing and went to investigate. She found one of the aliens lying down facing the sky, she approached it and observed that it had the overall masculine body type typically associated with males of the human or batarian variety. Curiosity taking its natural course in her, she reached down and grabbed its collar, it grunted in pain but she ignored that in favor of taking off its helmet.
What she saw behind the helmet confirmed what many of the rumors have been saying. There was no doubt in her mind that this thing was human, the anatomy and body shape matched perfectly, however, she did question the color of the blood. It being light purple instead of the iron red that is normal for humans, but even then she firmly believed that these aliens were in fact humans…if not the humans that the rest of the galaxy knew of. Could it be that they are some long lost human cousin or something? She wondered, her mind wandering in her head but the sneer on the human's face caught her attention.
"What are you sneering at?" She narrowed her eyes down at him, but he looked up at her without hiding the clear disdain and hatred in his grey eyes. She huffed at his arrogance and let him go, dropping him painfully to the ground.
"Thela, come in. What's your status?"
"I'm cleared here." The Asari mercenary happily reported but then scowled down at the human when he began to laugh, it was a light cough ridden laugh that soon grew into an outright maniacal booming laughter mixed in with heavy coughing of blood and occasional grunting of pain. She raised a questioning brow at him shaking her head, mildly pitying the man, but then he spoke and she froze…for he was speaking in fluent Asari.
"The End of Times is upon you." He said, a huge murderous grin on his face as he coughed out the last of his energy before a loud booming sound brought Thela's eyes to turn upwards. There in the sky…was a large structure that was not there before…it hung up high above the clouds its center glowing red before a beam of light so bright forced itself upon the ground in a lance of red hot beams that bore through the earth. She was shaken off her feet as the ground shook so hard her view of the world became wobbly, try as she might she could not get up and had to lay down on the ground with the mud and the blood and assorted body parts from her Warp victims staring disbelievingly at the red shaft off in the distance.
"Thela are you seei—" The voice on the other end of the radio ended in static and it was the last thing the Asari maiden known as Thela, would ever hear again.
=/\=
[2183]
[Citadel – Presidium]
[Private Conference Room – Council Chambers]
"Admiral Hackett, an honor to finally meet you in person." Councilor Tevos greeted the human Systems Alliance Admiral with a cordial smile and a customary human handshake followed by the begrudging nod from Sparatus and a slight acknowledging stare from the Salarian Councilor, Valern.
"The honor is mine, Councilor." Admiral Hackett returned the gesture with a nod of his own barely taking notice of the other two Councilors in the room. He took a seat at the conference table, looking at the three top guns of the Citadel Council he cleared his throat before asking the Asari councilor, "Although I was selected to represent the System Alliance's interest in the matter regarding the aggressive new contact bordering Turian space, I still wonder why you specifically requested me."
All three Councilors looked at one another before Sparatus spoke on their behalf, "Admiral, you're one of humanity's greatest leaders since the 314 Incident; we felt that your skills in space naval combat was needed in this growing conflict."
Admiral Hackett remained silent which the Turian took it as his cue to continue. "We're also quite certain that these aggressors may be human."
"I've heard the rumors—" Hackett began but was interrupted by the Salarian in the room who laughed before speaking, his voice laced with suspicion as his large black eyes narrowed.
"We have enough bodies for an autopsy to be conducted. They're definitely human." Valern stated firmly, his eyes never leaving the Admiral's, who glared right back at him for such an accusation.
"That does not prove that they're human, their blood is quite different as are some of their organs." Hackett narrowed his eyes at the Salarian as he pointed out the differences between his species and that of the aggressors.
"Be that as it may," Valern scoffed, "The base genetic DNA shows quite clearly that they are humans despite the blood. In fact it comes down to genetic manipulation on a scale we aren't even capable of..that is the result of the difference you speak of."
Admiral Hackett stared at the Salarian, torn between punching the arrogant lizard and trying to process that information. Even if Alliance intel on these new aggressors said they weren't human…the fact remained that the Salarians were the smartest species in their own right and if what the Councilor said is true then what the hell does that mean for the rest of humaniy?
"I don't know what to say to that but whoever they are, we are not them." Hackett declared firmly, there was a burning fire behind his words as he glared at the salarian who kept his expression straight…at least that was what Hackett thought he was doing since Salarian expressions wasn't exactly a thing he knows anything about.
Tevos felt that the conversation was headed toward dangerous waters so she interrupted before both did anything stupid but she knew deep down that the two weren't going to do anything so drastic, like go at each other's throats, most likely the talks would just end with either one leaving the room but she couldn't afford to have that, the Citadel couldn't afford to have that. Not when things have just become direr than before.
"Gentlemen please," the Asari smiled at both of them sending a glare at the Turian who was no doubt smirking at her effort. "Whilst Councilor Valern raises a valid point, I believe that further investigation is needed to determine whether these aggressors are indeed the humans we know."
"Humans we know?" Sparatus raised on of his metallic eyebrows at the Asari wondering where she was getting at with this.
Admiral Hackett was also a little intrigued by the Asari's phrase of words. Valern merely squinted disapprovingly at her before relenting.
"Now," Tevos said, looking at each of the males seating before her. "The Asari Republics in conjunction with the Salarian Union have done preliminary autopsies on the alien bodies recovered belonging to the aggressors and have concluded that they bear remarkable genetic similarities with humans as he stated before."
"Makes sense actually," Sparatus put in his two cents but stopped when the others were looking at him. "We weren't sure what to do with the information we had in our hands, field autopsies done by our medics during the first ground battle revealed similar findings. At first Palaven High Command wanted immediate action against the Systems Alliance but cooler heads prevailed. I assume you found the anomaly as well?"
Both Tevos and Valern nodded but Admiral Hackett was beginning to feel left out of the conversation even though he was following it as best he could. What the Councilors were talking about was news to him, hell one of the reasons he agreed to represent the SA was to gather information in order to ascertain the true nature of the rumors and the information Alliance Intelligence was able to gather on their own.
"If you don't mind…" Hackett cleared his throat getting their attention. "What exactly did you find?"
"Ww weren't sure how'd you react, but thanks to Valern you didn't do too badly." Tevos hesitated glancing to her counterparts before breathing in and with a nod from them she looked straight at the Admiral and told him. "As my fellow Councilor explained, the new species are human but only on a base DNA level. I don't know much of the science behind it but the Salarians were the ones who discovered that these humans had extensive genetic tampering on a scale we've never seen before. They're larger, stronger and smarter than we can imagine."
Tevos paused to see if the Admiral was following her, it looked like he did because his eyes were slowly widening in surprise before he schooled it back to a neutral expression.
"We've been facing them for quite a few months now and in that time we've lost five colonies near the outer rim," Sparatus spoke up looking straight at the human admiral. "Our losses have exceeded billions now and Palaven Command has heard back from those that managed to survive that these humans or Neo-Humans as the scientists have taken to calling, are purging entire worlds."
It was quite the shock, really, what they've encountered was something on par with the Rachni Wars. Admiral Hackett needed to get this information back to the Alliance to prepare for the inevitable, it won't be that long before humanity comes face to face with these people. His voice never faltering but the horror and disgust was there, "Purging?"
"They're killing off my people, Admiral." Sparatus stated, he sounded angry but refrained from being outright hostile because this wasn't the human responsible for the death of so many of his Turian brothers and sisters. "The colonies they conquered have become slaughter houses."
"Therefore you see the need for us to work together now more than ever," Tevos interjected before that line of conversation went somewhere unwanted. She looked the human in the eyes when she said, "Your species are not these people, we know that, but we need your assurance and that of your government that you'll do the right thing here and not let these people get away with what they're doing."
"Of course," Admiral Hackett answered almost immediately, causing Tevos to smile inwardly. "The Systems Alliance will offer its full support, you have my word and I'll make sure of it. I just need the information you have and I'll be able to convince the Parliament on Arcturus to act."
Tevos was actually surprised he was very receptive but not to look a gift horse in the mouth as the humans are fond of saying, she nodded and Valern handed over the datapad he had on him and she passed it to the admiral who took it with a nod. "I'll get this to the Alliance immediately," Hackett told them but before he could get up from his chair the Salarian Councilor spoke.
"This may or may not be relevant," Valern said, causing Admiral Hackett to sit back down. "But is there any chance you know of anything about psionics?"
Blood seemed to drain entire from his face as Admiral Hackett went pale, Tevos' eyes went wide in response to that, being a species closer in mannerisms to humans, she understood that it was a sign the Admiral knew what the Salarian was talking about. With that one word the human in the room suddenly felt like he'd been caught in the headlights of a fast approaching cruiser.
"You'll find the information regarding the Neo-humans with that ability with the rest of the information that we've compiled, Admiral." Tevos had never spoke so fast before in her entire life. This made the Turian and Salarian councilors stare at her for a moment, she cursed herself but she was certain that the Admiral wasn't comfortable around a certain topic being discussed and it looked like he'd rather not talk about it and ever the diplomat, she had tried to mediate before any trouble could even begin.
She was about to say something further when she was suddenly interrupted by an aide, a human woman, bursting into the conference room with a frantic look on her face. She was sweating and panting, as if she had run all the way to here. Admiral Hackett turned his head to her and saw the horrified look in her eyes as she spotted Tevos and strode directly to her.
"Ma'am, the Matriarchs have been trying to call you. It's urgent….something has happened." The aide said between breaths handing over a data pad to the Asari Councilor who took it and began reading through the data, eyes widening with the same horror in her eyes as the aide but a look of disbelief ran across her face before she turned to the Salarian Councilor.
"Valern, has STG reported in anything new regarding the aggressor's fleet movements?" She asked, nearly sounding desperate but Admiral Hackett could clearly see she was distraught over something.
In a flash the Salarian had his omnitool activated and was flicking through it before nodding furiously. "I recently received a video file, displaying it now."
He pressed a few hardlight buttons and the conference table's middle began glowing and a holographic image of a space station was shown. It was unlike anything they had ever seen before, it had sloping angles and looked sleek and streamlined like the ship profiles the former unknown, now identified Neo-human aliens used. However, Valern gasped when he read the statistical data that came with the video file.
"That can't be right." Sparatus himself frowned and looked at the Salarian for confirmation.
"Afraid it is." Valern said in fast but grim tone, eyes blinking faster than he spoke, a sign of agitation and anxiety. "Data does not lie. This space station is larger than the Citadel."
"What?!" Tevos looked at the Salarian Councilor, alarmed at what he said. Admiral Hackett was equally disturbed by that revelation. Something as large as or even larger than the Citadel…it was inconceivable yet from what the intel he had gotten from the STG and the Citadel Council, the new contacts barely used eezo which no doubt put no limit to the size of their structures or ships but that would have no doubt taken considerable amount of energy to power.
"How large are we talking about?" Hackett inquired and was immediately obliged.
"Estimated size in height…120km," Valern stated causing the human Admiral to contemplate the information. "Widest estimated at 80km, this station is also mobile."
"If that is true…then what are we looking at here?" Sparatus brought up a good point and all turned their attention back to the display. "Play it through."
The video that was paused now began playing again, the large station was indeed mobile given that it was moving in the void. Soon it came toward a planet and Tevos held her breath as did the aide. They watched as the ships that had been bombarding the planet along with the troop transports scrambling away from the planet as fast as they could before the station in question reoriented itself vertically above orbit of the Asari colony.
With subdued awe, the Councilors, aide and the human Admiral watched in stunned fascination as the mobile space station opened its arms, four of them longer than the Citadel's arms, it had four smaller arms further down and it looked like it had four smaller thrusters and a larger engine. For a moment nothing happened then a shaft of light appeared from the tip of the station facing the planet below it, it was intense and looked to be drilling through the surface of the planet. The data was read by Valern who translated what was happening to the planet when suddenly a bright pulse of light temporarily blinded them and then they watched helplessly as the planet began to shatter apart into pieces.
Once where there was a lush garden world now remained a shattered husk floating in space. The station was largely unaffected by the resulting blast as it shield's flared to life and when it felt it's deed was done its arms closed and it began moving away toward the edge of the system.
The video stopped playing and the occupants of the conference room remained silent for minutes before Tevos broke the silence with a gasp, "Goddess…"
"You'll have the full support of the Systems Alliance, I'll make sure of it." Admiral Hackett spoke, his tone suggested he was determined to convince his leaders of the threat they were going to face. The Reapers can wait, he thought, for whoever these people are they just showed him irrevocable proof that they cared nothing for life if they were willing to destroy an entire planet, never mind that they are or may not be humans. He needed the Systems Alliance to see this threat as what it is not what that they were related. "I need to contact Arcturus."
With that the human admiral left the conference room followed by the aide who would show him out. Meanwhile the Councilors were still sitting at the table too stunned to even speak or nod in agreement to the human as all of their thoughts were on the lives lost, millions of innocents dead in a matter of minutes. What enemy were they facing…what lengths would they go to for their religion…why did they have to face such a foe. These were the questions going through their minds as they replayed the video again and again watching with growing contempt and hatred for these beings, the matter of psionics temporarily forgotten …for in the end the humans would likely be their best hope in defeating this new enemy.
"I'm going to the Asari Embassy," Tevos declared, "I need to contact the Matriarchs, this has just escalated into something on the level of the Rachni Wars…maybe even worse." Yet she remained seated, unable to trust her legs to carry her to her offices…at least not yet.
"Indeed." Valern agreed, silently happy that such an opportunity to gain new technologies was within grasp of the Salarian union…should they play their cards right. He looked to Sparatus no doubt the Turians would scramble to get their hands on the enemy's tech as well, a subtle discouragement would be needed to keep the playing field leveled. But in essence they would need to work together to prevent another catastrophe like what they just saw.
"I'll contact the Primarch…Spirits, I still can't believe that entire world…is just gone." Sparatus lowered his head, offering a small prayer for the lost souls. His anger ever growing at witnessing this newest atrocity, "We're upping production, we'll need more eezo in the process, but that means more mining of said eezo is needed and we all know that we're running low. We're already disregarding the Treaty of Firaxien." Sparatus pointed out, "Why not lift the ban on exploring new Relays."
"I-" Tevos hesitated not knowing why, it has always been their creed that no new Relays would be opened but without knowing more about their new enemy, they're hard pressed to begin searching for more resources in order to fuel the war machines they'll need against the Neo-Humans but that means more avenues of eezo were needed and that means they needed to open new relays. It was a dilemma she wasn't qualified to make a decision on…that falls into the Matriachs' hands and a select few Salarians and Turians. "I'll bring it up with the Matriahcs."
Tevos quickly left the conference room, trying hard not to think about the lost colony. She may have not known anyone there but they were her people…she felt their loss as her own. 'There really is going to be a war' She thought grimly to herself.
Sparatus was soon to follow heading to the Turian Embassy leaving the Salarian in the room all by his lonesome. He sat there unmoving before he flicked his wrist and played the video once more, marveling at the power such a weapon had but if only his people could have such power…
Unbeknownst to them all a presence in the room cackled madly as it floated about, having watched their varying expressions at the revelation of the newest Covenant toy. It crested up the unknowing Salarian's back and whispered in his ear, Patience child….
Valern felt a chill go down his spine as he looked around, the video paused and forgotten as he swore he could have felt someone was right there with him. He shook his head, blinking and ignoring the cold feeling he got in this room.
=\/=
Trick Question #1: To which title or song does this part of a lyric belong to…Fans will know of it instantly I'm sure.
"And who are you, the proud Lord said, that I must bow so low
Only a cat of a different coat, that's all the truth I know,,
Next update will depend on whether or not I'm free from work since independence is nearing the corner and people are going to go bat shit crazy with their perceived freedoms…I am so not going to enjoy this coming independence day.
In other news Please review or PM
Danen5 signing off.
