ME:The Unsung Hero
Chapter 10
A Friend In Need, part I
A/N:... *peaks head from around corner* Uh... Hi guys!*ducks back behind corner, avoiding several potentially fatal thrown objects* Hey now! You better be careful with what your throwing! Anyways, I must apologize for not getting this chapter out sooner, but school, work, and family kinda tore me away from my computer. But I'm back and with good news!
The story has broken the 12k hits mark! Thanks for all the attention!
The 50 review mark was also broken! While I'm glad that almost every review is one of praise, I decided to give you guys some incentive to write more reviews... which I'll tell you at the ending A/N
If you've been checking, Chapter 2 has been updated in a format that should hopefully make it easier for you to figure whose perspective your reading from and when.
Also, with so much time spent away from my computer, I've had a couple plot bunnies start bouncing around in my head. I've got an itch to write a Stargate/Mass Effect and an Iron Man/Mass Effect crossover. Me being me, I'm going to take an entirely different approach for both so that the SG/ME crossover wont start off like every other one I've read, and the IM/ME would be based on the IM movies, not the comics. If anyone is interested in contributing or making one or both a collab please let me know!
OK enough ranting... The story must go on!
Normandy SR-1
Comm Room
Having just finished giving our report to the Councilors, I was ready to tear something apart. The Turian Councilor, it seemed, just sat around to find a reason to get John and I off the Spectres. Every question I've heard from him was loaded to get us to burst out at him. I think I might have to have a sparring session with Wrex to get rid of this feeling. As I stood in the same spot, lost in thought, John must have noticed because he suddenly punched my shoulder. Hard.
"Gah! What the hell John? Did you use your biotics for that?" I asked as I rubbed the spot he punched.
"To answer your first question: to get your mind off the Turian Councilor. Then for the second question: yes I did, and for the inevitable third question: So I could see how you'd react. Most people would have a broken arm from that kind of punch." John answered smugly at first which gave way to impressed.
"OK, #1 Thanks, #2 Your an ass, and #3Aren't I special?" I retorted.
"Yeah speaking about that..." John started. "I know this entire situation can't be easy for you. Hell, we picked you up floating in space, told you that humanity made contact with aliens and can travel the galaxy. To top it off, you have a piece of technology that makes everything else look like bows and arrows and your trying to stop a crazy man from destroying the galaxy."
When John finished his little rant, I took a deep breath and went and sat in the chair Liara was in earlier. "Welll... Since you put it that way, yeah I guess I'm in a unique situation. Then add in the amnesia bit and I'm a walking talking legend."
"About that, have you recovered any memories yet? Anything that could tell us about who you are?" John asked, trying to make it sound comforting but failing.
"Yeah... Before we prepped for picking up Liara, I got a pretty good one." I said. As I told John the details of the dream, which I some how was able to remember crystal clear, I saw his entire demeanor change when I mentioned the name Hargreave.
"Wait... Your telling me that you were apart of the Ceph Incursion?" John asked as soon as he heard the man's name.
"I don't know John, all I know is that he selected me to be the test pilot for his prototype suit, which I assume is the one currently sitting in my quarters. What is the Ceph Incursion anyway?"
"Long story short, an advanced alien civilization was discovered at Ling Shan Island in 2020. They had been on earth for millions of years but were dormant. After the initial breakout from the aliens, who we called the Ceph, the U.S military was able to contain them. It was bloody though, because the aliens had created some sort of energy sphere which made conventional combat almost impossible. Some how, and no one knows the details, the mother ship that made up most of the island was destroyed. Then 3 years later, the Ceph showed up in New York City. First there was some kind of plague, which led to chaos as different civilian, private, and military groups tried to establish control. Once it seemed like it couldn't get any worse, the Ceph showed up, but with some different tech. Again, some one, and no one knows who, was able to use the plague spore against the Ceph and used it to eradicate them."
As John went it story telling mode, which he was very good at, I began to get some more flashes in my memory. It started off as nothing, as as John continued, my head started to ache like someone was inside it with a jack hammer.
"Um.. John..." I started off, the headache was getting worse by the second. I could barely focus on talking, "You... might need... to get me... to Chak-"
Goddamnit not again
A/N: This is going to start answer some questions about Mitchell's past in the Air Force, his involvement in the Crysis events, and something else I cooked up so be ready!
Again, I feel I have to specify that I AM NOT A MEMBER OF ANY US ARMED FORCES! While I would love to join the U.S. Air Force, I am not currently able to. If there are however any active members or vets who are reading this, please let me know what needs improving because I'm not big headed enough to think that I know everything about squad tactics, etc etc.
Mitchell's Body:
En route to Citadel
Normandy SR-1
Comm Room
2183
Mitchell's Mind:
Vandenburg AFB
Santa Barbara, CA
USA
2020
Maybe enlisting wasn't what it was cut out to be anymore... I argued with myself. I have been in the Air Force for 12 years, and I just turned 30 a month and a half ago...
I was walking down the hall from my "office" to the mess hall. Even though it was 3 pm., the hall was busy with guys trying to get a quick early dinner in before their evening excercises. Ever since the 1000 day war, the US military realized that their standards for physical fitness wasn't enough any more and all active combat ready personnel had to do at least 2 different work outs a day. The Air Force was more lenient at Vandenburg, allowing for either basic PT or for ones own personal workout which was monitored by the biometric implants that we were testing out. Gone were the days of paper medical records and multiple chances to reestablish ones fitness. If you failed a bimonthly Official Fitness Evaluation (OFE), you had 2 weeks to retrain under a superior officer's supervision before you did a retake. If you also failed that retake, no matter what rank or how many years you put in, you forfeited your contract and any lasting benefits.
As I got in line to get some food, several of the airmen gave me knowing nods. It was well known throughout the base that I wasn't one for salutes when I was a grunt like them. Although a highly trained and intelligent grunt. While waiting for the line to move, I started thinking about the 1000 day war.
With the need for oil at an all time high in 2009, OPEC declared that its fields were dry. Naturally, crude oil quickly became as important as the need to eat, and its price sky rocketed. When the last 20 oil tankers left the Gulf, there were several small navies from all over the world, (minus the United States, European Union, and Russian Federation having already agreed to finally tap their own untouched fields and share equally) waiting to intercept them. When it seemed like a small naval skirmish was about to start, suddenly a privately owned boat under the Chinese flag exploded in a 20 megaton nuclear explosion. Vaporizing the oil tankers and all the small navies of the lesser 1st World Countries.
The owner of the boat, was eventually found to have ties directly to the Chinese leadership. Meanwhile, every major intelligence agency had their best satellites up over the Gulf. They each captured in minute detail the exact locations and names of each vessel within 200 miles of the blast. While everyone else was reeling from the first aggressive nuclear detonation in just over 70 years, the Chinese military made its move.
The "Billion Man Army" (BMA) as it was known around the world, plowed its way throughout South Eastern Asia. With North Korea's Korean Peoples Army (KPA) being the BMA's meat shields, their combined forces overran the Korean Demilitarized Zone. The Republic of Korea Army (ROK) put up one helluva fight, even after the Chinese used napalm bombs to clear the large minefield, they managed to hold the DMZ for 3 days with help from the US QRF (Quick Reaction Force) of 10,000 Marines who were stationed in Seoul. Unfortunately, it was a war of quality versus quantity. Quality, no matter how good, had no chance of defeating a force nearly 1000 times their size.
I finally got up to food, and the server gave me a dollop of everything. While most of the stuff was impossible to make out what it was, it tasted OK and provided a very well balanced diet for those who burned over 3000 calories a day. As I mindlessly made my way to an empty table, my thoughts drifted off again.
With all the hustle and bustle going on, it took analysts days to figure out what the Chinese were up to. They were spreading almost in every direction, save towards Russia or Japan. The countries they were invading were already unofficial allies to the Chinese, yet they put up resistance as best as they could. It wasn't until an unknown source made it abundantly clear. Using the nuclear detonation as a cover, the dwindling Chinese economy needed something to jump start itself. By utilizing the fortress strategy Empirical Japan used in World War II, China was aiming to control as many resources as possible and to create a buffer zone, seeing that the Big 3 (US, EU, and RF) already had a head start in resources.
By this point, the UN was nearly useless. Their pleas for a immediate discontinuation of hostilities fell on deaf Chinese ears. The respective Big 3 leaders, seeing that they needed to halt the Chinese by force, formed the Alliance Defense Initiative. By temporarily combining their collective forces while maintaining their own basic command structure with some minor alterations, ADI moved in on the expanding Chinese forces.
It was at that time that I had finished my Air Force Special Ops training. While in basic, I had climbed the ranks, gaining the respect of everyone in my platoon and even the Brigadier General in charge of the base. In every area of testing, I continually broke the records, my more noted records were in Marksmanship, in every unclassified weapon class (hand guns, sub-machine guns, assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles) that were offered to beginning recruits.
The toughest records I broke weren't even intentional. While learning Close Quarter Combat, I managed to out do the instructing officer (who was a highly decorated one at that) who was a 4th degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do as well as a Marine Corps CQC master. The fight was brutal, each of us having broken bones in our fists, feet, chest, and face. The cuts and bruises were nothing compared to the sheer intensity with which we fought. Once the General's XO, a Colonel, found out about our match, which had been going on for an hour at that point, came out and ordered us to stand down.
The instructing officer, being a Major, should have obeyed that order. Instead, as soon as I respectfully obeyed the Colonel's orders and went to parade rest, the Major decided to make a final strike. Luckily I was able to defend the solar plexus punch by slamming my elbow into the side of his wrist, grabbing his now exposed head, brought it over my shoulder with him at my back, and threw him over. As I threw him, I was able to get my arm around him for a choke hold in such a way that by the time he landed I had him in a full headlock, with my longer and stronger legs wrapped around his torso. The Major, unwilling to accept defeat, never tapped out. It wasn't until the Colonel came over and told me to let him go that I finally did.
I didn't realize it, but at that point my right hand itched a scar on my left arm from that fight. The Major's broken finger had a bone sticking out past the sick and it tore a rather large gash when it grazed my arm when I blocked the punch he had thrown.
When I finally graduated basic, I was the undisputed top of my class, and as such the General took me into his office and gave me my options. I could attend Officer Training School and become a commissioned officer, or I could take any posting I wanted. Every Air Force Commander who had been at a water cooler had heard my name and wanted me to join their command. I chose a third option which the General didn't think of.
6 months later I emerged from my self made hell hole that was Special Tactics Squad training. I had gone in with 100 other freshly graduated airmen, officers and combat vets. By the third week, 40 had dropped out, mostly due to injury. By the end of the second month, another 30 had dropped. Out of the remaining 30, 10 were new airmen, 15 were the vets, and the other 5 were the new officers. Each of us were determined to become part of the 720th Special Tactics Group, or simply STG. Being US Air Force our training would be focused on two of three main areas: Para-rescue, Combat Control, or Weathermen. It was highly encouraged that, during the 3rd month when we covered the basics of each, that we choose one specialty and one secondary, which during the remainder of the course we would focus our attention on. Naturally I went with Para-rescue and Combat Control.
Training to be a Para-rescuer (aka PJ's) entailed that I along with other PJ's or Special Forces (SF) teams would be inserted into hostile territory to pick up a downed pilot or another priority target, and if need be fight our way in or out. We covered many different ways of entry and egress: parachute (basic and High Altitude Low Opening), combat diving, and underwater egress. In addition, we were given enough medical training to be able to treat anything from a bullet wound to a hangover, as well as survival training that would make those reality TV shows look like camping in your backyard.
Combat Controller training was just as important as it was fun for me. Combat Controller Technicians (CCT's) were trained to covertly find, create, or take control of landing zones/airstrips while guiding aircraft in and out of the battlefield. They also had the battlefield authority to call in airstrikes from any capable aircraft in the area. Here we were taught how to use Primacord to create a quick LZ for helicopters, or how to suppress resistance at an air port for a friendly to land. Naturally we were also trained that in case of being overrun, how to render an airfield inoperable by devastating the runway with a new kind of plastic explosive. I had always had a fascination with things that went boom, and being able to carry enough explosives to level a sky scraper just added to it.
Each of these "courses" took six weeks, and by the time the remainder of the 6 month STS training was up, only 10 of the original100 were left. Besides myself, there were 2 other enlisted airmen, 1 officer, and 6 vets. Right after the closed door graduation we received which was headed by the General of the Air Force (4 Star General) and one of the members of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), we were given a weeks leave before we received our official assignments.
Too bad I didn't have any one to go back too. My family was dead in a drunk driving accident. The idiot was traveling down the highway, swervely slightly. As my father tried to pass him, the drunk bastard swerved directly into my family's car right behind the right rear tire well. That caused my family's car to spin out directly in line with an oncoming semi. The doctors and police told me that my parents felt no pain.
I didn't care about them at the time. I was just finishing my senior year in high school, and was on a school trip when I got the call. As soon as I found out the drunkards name, I found where he lived and confronted him. If it hadn't been for my girlfriend, who showed up a few minutes after I had arrived, the murderer would have been a quadriplegic. When the police found out about it, they threw me in jail only to have me released. The same murdering douchebag who I had nearly killed told them that he wasn't going to press charges and paid for my bail. It was at that moment where I had an epiphany, I realized that my father would want me to take that rage I had and focus it towards something meaningful. That was when I decided to forgo college and go into the Air Force. My girlfriend, who I had been with for 3 years at that point, broke up with me so she could join the Army.
The base where we trained was so isolated and classified that when we were sent here, we arrived on a bus with all its windows blacked out and the driver was completely separated from the rest of the bus. That same bus was waiting for us out side the compound. The 10 of us, having been through hell together, had quickly become close friends despite differences in rank, we were class STS-392 and no one would be able to take that from us. We were waiting in the lounge hall that we had learned about right before graduation for one of the other airmen. He was busy making sure that he hadn't forgot anything even though we all had come with almost nothing.
One of the vets was flicking through the channels on the TV, all that was on was the news about the then recent nuclear explosion in the Gulf, and the Chinese-Asian War. Suddenly, the broadcasts stopped saying the President was going to be giving an emergency speech.
"My fellow American's. As you all know, the Middle East group OPEC recently declared their oil fields were dry, used up. A short few days ago, the last of the oil tankers that were leaving the Gulf were met with an international navy bent on claiming those tankers. Before things escalated, a nuclear device was set off killing thousands of sailors and civilians. The fallout of the explosion continues to come down, but with no one taking the blame, the world's attention was shifted away. Yesterday, Chinese forces began to push into sovereign Asian countries with extreme force and prejudice. I have just learned that as of 4 hours ago, North Korea backed up by Chinese military assets attacked and crossed the Korean Demilitarized Zone to begin a second Korean war.
I know not the reason behind these acts of war, but one thing has become abundantly clear. The Chinese and North Korean Armies have encroached on our allies' sovereign soil in an act of war and as such I am asking the United States Congress the European Union, and the Russian Federation to band together in declaring an act of war upon the Chinese and North Koreans. Those who show no respect for another countries sovereignty should be shown no respect in return. It matters not their reasons for this war, but the fact that instead of seeking a diplomatic solution they have chosen a militaristic one. I am calling for a full mobilization of U.S. Military forces to begin immediately."
I was speechless at the time. Everyone had expected there to be another Korean War eventually, but not this soon, especially not when it was combined with the Chinese expansion. I looked around the room at my friends. They all were listening to the reporter's reaction to the news.
"Well, gentlemen..." We all spun around to source of the voice and saluted. The General of the Air Force was standing at the door that led to the black bus. "You got a war to fight..."
"MASTER SEARGANT MITCHELL TO THE GENERAL'S OFFICE... REPEAT... MASTER SEARGANT MITCHELL TO THE GENERAL'S OFFICE." The PA announcement had broken my train of thought. Great... Hope this isn't about my "project"...
A/N: DUN DUN DUN! Hate to leave you guys in suspense, but it's for a good reason! I have to say thanks to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, and alerted this story so far! Your support as been amazing!
To repay you guys in a way, I would like it if those of you with your own Mass Effect OC's to come up with a scene in which your OC would play a cameo part and put it in a review so every one can see! The top five will be listed in the next chapters Author's Note and a poll will be made for you guys to decide!