A/N: There's no reason why the Heavies wouldn't carry sidearms.
It looks like Enemy Returned is chewing through my other stories with 55 per cent of poll votes at the time of writing. If you haven't already, please go vote. Additionally, there is another poll going up specific to this story. More details at the end of the chapter.
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AEGIS MANTLE
As soon as she had reached her quarters on the dreadnought, Tali went over to the music player and switched it on, blasting out dubstep into the cabin. She personally hated the music but she wanted a bit of privacy. After all, it would feel a but strange if every psi on the network could pop into her head while she was in her underwear.
Funnily enough, Tali, being Quarian, had never had a proper look at her own body. Now that it had been so radically changed she was interested to see exactly what was going on.
She pulled the sleeveless top off, then her trousers and boots, standing in front of the mirror and looking at herself. The most obvious change was lashing at the ground behind her - her brand new fully prehensile tail. She brought it up to stand out straight behind her, having to lean forwards slightly to balance it, then wrapped it round one of her legs before bringing the end up and in front of her where she took it in one of her hands. Feeling her fingers on her tail sent a shudder up her spine, unused to the source of the information. The end of the tail had a tuft of soft hair covering it, the same black as the hair on her head, and was covered in patterns of tiny bioluminescent spots like the rest of her body. A quick mental command made the sedative sting slide out of its sheath, the curved black needle a somewhat disconcerting sight when emerging from her own body. She pulled it back, the other sting popping out, this one a straight silver tube lined with powerful muscles that could propel the cloud of regenerative spray usually expelled from an XCOM standard medikit over a wounded comrade or herself.
Putting the tail down, she curled it around her left leg for safekeeping and peered into the mirror. She hadn't noticed previously but one of the genetic mods, she wasn't sure which, had made her pupils hexagonal. Putting her hand over her chest, she could feel her new double heartbeat, and she could feel a tingle in her skin that somehow told her exactly how many living things were nearby and where they were. Perhaps strangest of all, there were a series of ripples of colour that intermittently ran over her skin. Then she blinked, and when she opened her eyes again she had disappeared. She nodded in satisfaction as she deactivated her mimetic skin with a mental command.
Walking over to her locker, she opened it up, examining the contents. As one of the relatively small number of Quarians who had undertaken the genetic modifications, and one of the even smaller number of Quarian psis, she had access to the most advanced armour and weapons available to XCOM, as shown by the plasma pistol in her locker. The pistol was the XCOM standard issue Carnifex used by almost every operative in the field, the exceptions being the MECs. She also had a nanofibre vest and a couple of plasma grenades, basic equipment should she need to lend a hand in repelling boarders. Her Archangel armour and alloy cannon were both stored in the nearest armoury two decks down. She was quite excited about the whole thing. It was an adventure, and yet one that needed to be done. She had seen what the Ethereals had done to her fleet. She wouldn't wish that fate on anyone.
Well, maybe Prazza'Oron.
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THE CITADEL
Garrus Vakarian was not happy. He had been pulled from his dying mother's bedside along with his father and sister by a full mobilisation order, expecting to charge off and fight for the Hierarchy only to be assigned guard duty on the Citadel while the Council and the Geth played politics.
Growling, he shifted his shoulders, his assault rifle and sniper rifle dragging on his cowl as he maintained his steady plodding patrol along the Presidium. Keeping the peace in times of war.
His Omnitool beeped and he accepted the call.
"Vakarian here."
"Vakarian, what's your rating on a sniper rifle?"
"Seven hundred metres, sir."
"Good, get to a vantage point over the Council chambers."
"Sir?"
The line went dead. Confused, and somewhat concerned, Garrus made his way up to the Citadel Tower.
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THE CITADEL
No less than seven dreadnoughts were aiming their main guns squarely at the Aegis Mantle as the shuttle containing the XCOM dignitaries departed, gravity wave drive flaring as it came to a smooth halt in the docks. Shepard looked around at the operatives assigned to her command. It wasn't her usual squad, that was for sure. For one, Tali was there. Though the girl had gotten in several hours in the simulator she had no real combat experience. Shepard knew why she was there - firstly, being a gene modded psi she was the perfect showcase of just how advanced the new Quarians were, and secondly if it came to blows the Council would be the villain for firing at a sixteen year old girl. She didn't like it, in fact she had grown quite fond of Tali, but she had orders. Alongside Tali was Kal'Reegar in his enormous red and gold MEC suit, nervously jittering a leg up and down as he cradled his particle cannon in enormous alloy arms. Directly opposite Reegar was Stewie. Hackett had grudgingly agreed to kit Stewie out with XCOM standard issue equipment, meaning the enormous Adraa bull was sitting in Archangel armour, a heavy plasma cannon on his lap and a blaster launcher on his back, nestled between the two enormous antigravity thrusters. Next to him, and looking distinctly nervous, Major Alenko, the best medic she had ever seen, although with the new tails she, Tali and Stewie were sporting she wasn't sure how necessary that was, and finally rounding off the group was Zaeed, his scrapheap orange MEC arranged in a pose as nonchalant as it was possible to achieve in a ten foot tall suit of cyber armour.
As the shuttle swung in to land, Tali felt a pressure behind her eyes and acquiesced, allowing the greater flow of information that was the hallmark of the XCOM mind merge. She could feel the strength of everyone in the cabin, the exception being the MECs. Because they couldn't participate in the mind merge there was talk of separating them into specialised MEC units. Ensuring her alloy cannon was safely stashed on her back and her plasma pistol on her hip, she ran through a mental checklist of her armour's systems. Chitin underlayer, mind shield, psionic amp, flight systems, hardening field and melee gauntlet all at one hundred per cent. Her weapons were all equipped with SCOPE targeting systems, flashlights and laser sights, and the brace of grenades across her chest was full with two plasma grenades, a needle grenade, a gas grenade, two flashbangs and a ghost module. She was laden down with enough firepower to take on an entire squad of C-sec and emerge without a scratch, not even counting her psionic abilities. None of that stopped the nerves as the shuttle swooped over the landing pad and she took a running jump out of the hatch.
Her dense leg muscles absorbed the fall, allowing her to spring up from her catlike crouch, unlimbering her alloy cannon even as she dove into cover, mimetic skin instinctually shifting to match the hull of the Citadel as the rest of her squad took up identical positions. Shepard spoke into her throat mic.
"Area secure."
A squad of Turian C-sec officers rushed up, seeming to be appropriately cowed by the sheer presence of the two MECs and the descending shuttle behind them. From the shuttle emerged Commander Hackett, looking around at the scenery with a seemingly disinterested aura before addressing the leader of the Turian unit in perfect Llavic supplied by the translator clipped to the collar of his uniform.
"Which one of you is Arterius?"
The leader of the Turian group stepped forward.
"Spectre Saren Arterius. Follow me, I will bring you before the Council."
Hackett nodded, jerking his head and signalling the two MECs to fall in behind him. Saren raised a hand.
"I'm afraid I cannot permit your ... soldiers ... to follow you into the Council chambers."
Hackett stared at the Turian spectre.
"Then we have a problem. I was told I could bring an appropriate military escort."
Before Saren could respond his Omnitool lit up.
"Spectre Arterius, stand down. We did promise a military escort."
Saren's jaw worked for a moment. As if menacing the Citadel defence fleet wasn't enough with their enormous ship, they would just waltz into the Council chambers in power armour larger than a Krogan. He didn't much like it but those were his orders. And a good Turian follows orders.
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COUNCIL CHAMBERS
Shepard glanced around the cavernous chamber, decidedly unimpressed.
"I don't get it. The Citadel is just a big stupid thing the Asari found floating in space. How come they show it off to everyone? It's like finding a painting in your attic, hanging it on your wall and telling everyone you painted it."
She hadn't bothered to turn her translator off, taking a perverse pleasure in the mixture of surprise and annoyance coming off their Turian escorts. Clearly they were expecting the might of the Citadel to overawe potential visitors. Shepard wasn't too fond of the place herself. There was a low buzzing in the back of her head that was setting her on edge. A quick thought exchange confirmed the other psis were feeling it too. It almost felt as if an incredibly weak psionic was trying to psijack her. She deactivated her translator and glanced across to Hackett.
"Sir, there's some sort of low level psionic effect here."
Hackett's jaw tightened.
"Could it be from the Asari psiwaves?"
She shrugged.
"Maybe. But whatever it is, we don't like it at all."
"Understood."
The group came to a halt in front of the Council, looking up at the triumvirate as they stood like a trio of elder gods behind their pedestals. An Asari in civilian clothes approached them, heading towards Hackett. Shepard smoothly stepped in to intercept her. They recognised this step from retellings of first contact with the Quarians. The Asari would meld with the leader of the diplomats, assimilating their language, then act as an interpreter. However, XCOM weren't so keen on an Asari shifting through Hackett's brain, so they had nominated Shepard to be the one who melds. The Asari seemed to get the message, slowly reaching up and placing two hands either side of Shepard's head.
"Embrace Eternity!"
The psi network was dimly aware of another consciousness entering, one unlike Human or Quarian, one that wasn't mentally equipped to handle it. So the network took the only action it could. Expelling the foreign contaminant. Shepard's neural feedback activated, bouncing the mind meld back towards its owner. The Asari started convulsing, blood beginning to drip from her nose as she fell away and hit the floor. There was a brief pause in which Shepard had time to consider exactly how badly they had fucked up.
Then all hell broke loose.
The team dove for cover as the Turian security forces opened fire, the psionics erecting a telekinetic shield that slowed all the incoming rounds to a tiny fraction of their original speed and redirected them away from the team. Against plasma the defence could last for barely a minute. Against the microscopic specks of matter being flung at them, it was nigh impenetrable. The return fire, however, was not blocked in any way. Diplomacy was dead, and now there were aliens shooting at them. XCOM were in their element.
The Turian forces, Shepard was finding, were comparable to the unmodified EXALT operatives she had fought at the beginning of the war. Plasma fire cut through them like they weren't even there and Mindfray attacks were usually enough to put them out of commission if not kill them outright. However there were only seven XCOM operatives and literally thousands of Turians. She clenched her fist and flung a psi lance that cut through a hostile that was slightly too slow at getting back to cover, then quickly drew a bead with her plasma sniper and executed two clean headshots before pausing to assess the situation. She spoke out loud for the benefit of her father and the two MECs.
"We're pinned down! If we keep this up they'll just keep going until they bring in something that can punch through the TK, and then we're screwed."
Hackett paused to take a shot with his plasma rifle before responding.
"Anyone have any ideas?"
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COUNCIL CHAMBERS
The Geth Ambassador, followed by the modest force assigned to it, sprinted full tilt towards the Council chambers. If its auditory receptors were accurate, Ethereal plasma weapons were being discharged in the Council chambers and intervention was deemed necessary by the Consensus. The Geth had been permitted a maximum of twelve combat specialised platforms at their makeshift embassy, the same as all the other associate species, but the Council had made the mistake of saying 'combat specialised' when they meant to say 'combat capable'. As a result almost forty Geth platforms were sprinting towards the Council chambers, armed with plasma weapons and protected by hard shells of Ethereal alloy armour.
They entered the Council chambers and immediately the Consensus was thrown for a loop. Because inside the psionic bubble were two Creators. The Geth instantly analysed the situation. Forty platforms armed with plasma weapons would break the stalemate for either side. The first reaction was to side with the Creators, but there was no guarantee the Creators wouldn't attack their platforms. Likewise, the Creators were fighting alongside a species confirmed to be allied with the Ethereals, as well as four members of a previously unknown species. The Geth were faced with a decision to make.
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The Geth have to decide. Well, congratulations readers. You are now programs in the Geth Consensus. Should the Geth side with XCOM, stick with their allies in the Council or take the Paragon option? The choice is yours. Vote on my profile.