Chapter 25

Adjusting

Author's Note: Sorry about the long wait, but I've been working on a review/roast for a friend. It's for a story called Mass Effect Parallel Realities, which is basically a massive Gary Stu Shepard's story, he's always right, always wins, and you either love him or are stupid and evil. And...well, you can see when its done, I promise to tell you when that happens. I did my part of it but my friends still need to do theirs. Until then, back to From the Ashes

XXXXX

"I...wow," Volker said, "this is your ship?" He was walking through the mess hall of the Normandy, Jane, Tali and Jenkins right behind him.

"Yes, this is the Normandy," Jane said.

"Normandy? As in the Normandy landings?"

"The very same."

"Huh...I guess you people appreciate your history." After the four of them had taken the bridge, Coalition reinforcements had arrived via shuttle and stormed the ship, Jane using the ship's surveillance system to give away the alien's locations. They had succeeded in clearing out the ship, but they hadn't found any scientists. Apparently the five the they had found outside were the only ones that had survived. With nothing left to do, they had returned to the Normandy along with the rest of the teams, the ship having docked with a space station orbiting Earth.

"Yeah, this is pretty impressive," a voice that seemed to come form nowhere said. "I've never seen a drive core so big."

Volker tilted his head, looking around for who had spoken. "Did you say that?" he asked, looking at Tali.

"No, I didn't," she said, scanning the room herself. As she did, a figure appeared behind Volker, glowing slightly as the tactical cloak that it had disappeared. Volker turned around just in time to see the figure appear. He nearly jumped out of his skin as he took a step back, his eyes widening in fear.

The figure chuckled. "Sorry about that, but I couldn't resist having a look around. I'm Kasumi, Kasumi Goto."

"A neo-ninja," Jane said, looking at the woman. She was wearing a solid black bodysuit complete with a hood and face mask, the latter currently pulled down. "I guess it's true what they say, they're damn hard to catch."

The woman giggled. "Please, you're making me blush." She turned to look at Volker. "Wow, I thought I knew all of the light infantry divisions in the Coalition but I've never seen anyone like you before. Do me a favor, if you get a chance tell the guy that did your uniform that he did an amazing job. The trench coat, the pouches the boots-IS THAT AN MP-40?! A genuine one? You could make a fortune with that thing!"

"Uh," Volker said, glancing at Jane and clearly asking for help.

"Listen, miss Goto," Jane said, taking a step forward. "This is Volker Hoffman he...he's not from around here."

"Oh, is he from that alien ship?"

"How did you know about that?"

Kasumi grinned. "I was part of the team that cleared it out. They managed to slip a couple of us neo-ninjas in with the neo-samurai. They weren't happy about that let me tell you."

"The neo-samurai don't like you?"

"Not really. They're all about honor and respect and dignity and that good stuff. They think that we're cowards because we sneak around and stab people in the back. They call it cowardly, I call it practical."

"You're...you're Japanese?" he asked, looking at the woman.

"Yup," she said, folding her arms behind her head, "been with the Federation's ninja division for a couple of years now. I joined up back then because...well let's just say I had to get out of some hot water."

"Wait a minute, the Federation? Not the Empire?" Volker said, sounding confused.

"Huh?" Kasumi said.

"Oh...damn it that's right," Jane hissed, "Volker...could you sit down please? "

"Uh, miss Shepard, may I ask why?"

Jane fought back the urge to bite her lip. "I told you that I would tell you everything that happened while you were captured wouldn't I?"

"I...oh, yes ok," Volker said, hastily pulling out a seat and sitting down.

"Ok," Jane said activating her omni-tool, "like I said, the Axis lost the second world war, but someone rather important is how they lost. Germany lost via a fairly conventional way, the Soviet Union stormed Berlin and took the entire city, breaking their backs and-"

"The Red Army in Berlin?" Volker said, a look of sheer horror on his face "but they...oh, sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt."

Jane smiled slightly. "It's ok, don't hesitate to stop me and ask questions. Anyway, with Germany out of the picture, the only main Axis powerhouse left was Japan, and for awhile America had been forced to fight them by themselves, everyone else had been focusing on defeating Germany. But the thing is that Imperial Japan and its people were very dedicated to the concept of honor, and they believed that any option would be preferable to defeat or surrender and that no price was too high for victory. They did everything that they could to defeat America, smashing their fighters into ships, creating torpedoes and missiles guided by Human hands, jumping off cliffs to avoid capture, charging machine-gun lines with spears. It was bloody for both sides, but America realized that if they wanted to end the war, it would most likely cost another quarter million of their people dead...so they found an alternative. Volker...have you ever heard of the atomic bomb?"

"I...I little bit. I heard that it was a weapon that the Fuhrer wanted built, one that would make conventional weapons seem like popguns in comparison. Why?"

"The Americans created the world's first atomic bomb," Jane said grimly. She activated her omni-tool and typed in a series of commands. It began to project a holographic image of a city, which floated in the air in front of her. "This is the Japanese city, Hiroshima...and this is way happened to it." She pressed another button and a massive nuclear explosion appeared in the middle of the city, engulfing all of it within seconds. Volker gaped in horror as the flames dissipated, revealing that it had devastated the majority of the city.

"I...what is that?"

"The atomic bomb splits an atom, the basic building blocks of all matter, which causes a nuclear explosion. Not only is the explosion powerful enough to level an entire city, but it also releases something called nuclear radiation into the surrounding environment. Radiation can't be seen, but it can be felt. It is highly damaging to the Human body and when America bombed Hiroshima, just as many people died from radiation poison as the explosion. To make things worse, radiation can also contaminate soil, making it so that nothing can be grown there, even if it used to be the most fertile of farmland."

"I...God," Volker whispered, sinking back into his chair. "It...it kills everything."

"Yes," Jane said sadly. "It's easily one of the most deadly weapons ever created. Japan realized this after America dropped another one on Nagasaki and surrendered. There were 60 million dead, but the second World War was over...but the world only technically knew peace after that. The end of World War II was also the start of the Cold War."

"The Cold War? What...what's that?"

"With the invention of the atomic bomb, America had made itself a superpower, all the eyes in the world were focused on them. But other countries decided that they didn't want America to be the only country in the world with an atomic bomb, so they started researching their own. Within a couple of years, the Soviet Union had their own."

"Oh God," Volker whispered, "it wasn't bad enough that the damn Yankees had that thing, the Soviets had to go and make one too?"

"I'm afraid so. This sparked off the Cold War, which divided the nations of the world into two sides, NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Each side kept trying to outdo the other, making more nuclear warheads and simply trying to make more advanced weaponry. Politics got dragged into it too, and the whole thing became democracy vs communism."

"So...in other words it was people standing on opposite ends of a line, putting down bigger and bigger guns and pointing them at each other?"

"Pretty much yeah."

"I...those morons...I...what happened after that?"

"The Cold War lasted a good century, it becoming even more intense when China became a communistic state. Eventually things got even worse. Earth's natural resources started running out. Countries started waging entire wars over pockets of oil and whatever other materials they lacked. China even invaded Alaska for the oil, sparking off a war between the two of them. Things just started rolling downhill, especially when the United Nations disbanded."

"The...the United Nations?" Volker asked, sounding confused.

"Oh yeah, they weren't around yet in your time...do you remember the League of Nations? They were kind of like that."

"The League?" Volker said, sound very bitter all of a sudden. "Yeah...I remember them. It sounds like the United Nations were just as useless as they were."

"I'm not going to argue that, a lot of historians agree that when they disbanded was the last ray of light for that situation being salvaged being snuffed out...but then in 2077...i just became too much."

"What became too much? What happened? I...oh God." Volker's eyes widened in horror, "those atomic bombs were used weren't they?"

"Hundreds of them, maybe even thousands. No one knows who launched the first strike, but on that day the Great War began, every last nation with nuclear capabilities fired every last nuke that they could. The war...lasted two hours."

"How...how many people d-died?" Volker stuttered.

"Do this day we're still not quite sure, but it's definitely in the billions. But the initial fallout was just the beginning. Countless people were killed by radiation poisoning and farmland everywhere was rendered useless. To make matters even worse, society completely broke down. Nearly all of the nations' governments were destroyed in the initial attacks, so Humans were left disorganized and many of them regressed to tribal states, fighting among each other over everything, food, water, weapons, you name it. This dragged on for centuries."

"God...so that's what happened to Earth...I never thought that this...this would be what happened to us. I thought that we were capable of so much...I...I just-"

"Hold up Volker," Jane said, raising her hand up and smiling softly. "There's light at the end of the tunnel. You see, as the years went by, Humanity started to get back on its feet. New nations were formed, bringing order back to Earth, and agriculture and industry recovered. But the leaders of these new nations were terrified that history would repeat itself. So they made a contingency plan. They spent years building a ship to take colonists to Mars to harvest its resources, considering that Earth is already depleted."

"Did it work?" Volker asked.

Jane grinned. "Better than anyone dared to hope. They managed to build a city on Mars, but they also found something else. A cache of technology. Alien technology."

"Alien?"

"Yes, it belonged to a species known as the Protheans. They disappeared 50,000 years ago and no one knows why or how. However, we were able to use their technology to make countless advances. The ability to travel across the stars faster than the speed of light, advanced medicine, machinery, more powerful computers-"

"Uh...what's a computer?"

Jane sighed slightly. "I'm starting to get the feeling that I'm only scratching the surface with you. I'm going to have to try and get you up to date on everything in the modern world, but first, let me finish. When that happened, the nations of Earth united into one power, the Coalition We then spread out into space, colonizing over a hundred worlds, and as we did, we met other alien races. Like Tali's" she said, gesturing to the Quarian. "All of them had found Prothean data caches like us, and many of them had formed a faction known as the Council, which we're currently independent of. That's more or less all that happened while you were asleep, the abridged version at least."

"I...Christ," Volker said, slumping back into his chair. "So much has changed...and you're telling me that I haven't even been told a fraction of what there is to know yet?"

"Yeah, but I think that's enough for right now. If I load you down with too much information at once you'll probably forget something important, and you've been through a lot today. You must be hungry by now, can we get you anything specific to eat?"

"Uh..." Volker said hesitantly, "I wouldn't mind having some pancakes right now...with blueberries."

Jane smiled. "You got it, I'll go get Gardner started on them." Jane turned and began to walk off in the direction of the Mess Sergeant.

Volker sighed loudly as he slumped back into his chair. "Unbelievable," he whispered.

"Are you ok?" Tali asked, sitting down next to him, Kasumi watching them with interest.

"I don't think so...I spent more times than I can count crouching in the crumbling remains of a building trying not to get killed by Russian rockets...and now there are even more powerful weapons out there."

"There's a bright side to it," Kasumi said, "they're pretty heavily regulated and no idiot is going to try and start a war with them."

"I...I suppose," he muttered. "I...I'm still having a hard time believing all of this."

"Well, you'd have to be insane not to," Tali pointed out, "but you're still taking it a lot better than I expected you to."

"It's...I don't know, those alien things...what did they call themselves? Exulans? And that one called himself Opifex? They...they made me a little willing to beleive that this stuff exists...can I ask you a question?"

"Sure," Tali said, "what is it?"

"This Saren guy and these...Geth things that he have. How big of a threat are they?"

"My people created the Geth to use as manual labor, but they evolved into Artificial Intelligences."

"Artificial what now?"

"Basically they're artificially created beings that can think for themselves. When my people tried to exterminate them, they launched a counter attack. There are only seventeen million Quarians still alive today. We used to number in the billions."

"I...God...I...wait a minute, what do you mean your people tried to exterminate them?"

"It's complicated, they weren't supposed to be Artificial Intelligences and they're outlawed by the Council anyway, it doesn't really matter though. The Geth are back and they've already attacked a Coalition colony. Thousands of people are dead."

"And...they're not going to stop are they?"

"Probably not," Kasumi said dryly.

"...ok," he said, "I'll do it."

"Pardon?" Tali asked.

"I...I want to help. If these things are attacking us...then I'm a target too. I...I can help."

"You made an interesting deal," Jane said, approaching the table again, setting down a steaming plate of pancakes. "And I have to admit that you proved that you can handle yourself on that ship. I'll be willing to be a part of my crew, but in exchange, I'm going to need you to have regular drills with our Gunnery Chief, she's going to be the one getting you up to date on modern equipment and weapons. She'll take a look at that gun of yours and give it a couple of upgrades too."

"I...I think I can handle that," he said, taking a knife and a fork that had been placed on the plate and cutting himself a piece of pancake. "I'll be sure to do my best."

"Hey, I want in too!" Kasumi piped in.

"What?" Jane said, looking at the neo-ninja, "why?"

"I've only been on this ship for a couple of minutes and already I never want to leave."

"I...ugh," Jane said, rubbing her temples, "I'll look into it."

"Is it always like this?" Volker asked, looking at Tali with a mouth full of pancake.

"I haven't been on that long, but a little bit."

XXXXX

"This...certainly is interesting," Admiral Hackett said. He was sitting in an lounge on Mars, an incredibly well furnished one, comprising of two couches with a table in-between them. He was sitting on one with Opifex sitting on the other, John and Ashley standing behind him. "Your kind...called itself Exulan correct?"

"Yes," Opifex said, reaching forward and grasping a cup of water on the table, having come difficulty with his elongated fingers. "I must say...I'm impressed. You've designed the technology so that you can have translators that allow us to speak? It's...it's nothing my kind could ever design."

"We've been poking around that ship of yours-"

"Mothership Zeta," Opifex said.

"I-what wait?" Hackett asked.

"Mothership Zeta...it was the designation of our ship."

"I, I see. Well, we were poking through Mothership Zeta and we found some interesting things. Your computer technology is rather inferior compared to ours, but have surpassed us in some fields. You're energy weapons are very powerful from what we've seen of them and one of our troopers found this." He produced a small tube of blue liquid and placed it on the table. "We haven't been able to make anything like this."

"Ah, yes," he Opifex said, "we use this for small scale repairs. Mainly for our weapons, it's a complex chemical that mimics the metal around it. We can't use in larger scale problems, it destabilizes in large quantities. We have to use raw resources for major system failures, that's what caused our ship to crash."

"Yes, but something else that we found is that your ship has a very large main weapon. It appears defunct now, but from what we can tell, when it was functional it was capable of defacing continents."

"Yes, our weapons are...fairly complicated, but they produce a unique energy signature that we call Theta Energy. It's very effective as both a power source and as a weapon. Our main cannon used Theta Energy too, the most powerful weapon that our kind ever created."

"I think it might be more powerful than any weapon that we've created too, though I'm not in a hurry to use it as a power source. But I'm beating around the bush. Opifex, I want to make you an offer."

Opifex paused as he lifted the glass of water that he had, taking a sip. "What kind of deal?"

"You said that your people devastated yourself in a nuclear war, to the point where they weren't any communications between your homeworld and your ship. Do you have the coordinates to your homeworld?" Opifex nodded cautiously. "Our ships can travel faster than the speed of light. If you give us the coordinates to your homeworld, we can send some ships out there to help your people rebuild their civilization or evacuate as many people as we can if the damage is too much for the environment to recover. We will also be willing to help to achieve faster than light travel and harvest Element Zero. In exchange, I would like for you to show us how your technology works. I would also like for you to personally be assigned to the Normandy, a prototype starship that we have. I want you to do everything that you can to improve it with the design of your technology. Do we have an agreement?" Hackett held his hand out towards Opifex.

Opifex paused before reaching out and shaking Hackett's hand. "Your deal is fair. I'll do what I can do upgrade your starship, but I'm going to need materials. The coordinates to our homeworld are in the main computers to our ship, the others will get it for you."

"Just tell me what you need and I'll be sure to get it for you," Hackett said.

Opifex laughed nervously, looking up at John. "I suppose I will be seeing more of you Commander, I'm going to be on your ship."

"Never thought that when we went onto that ship that we'd be walking out with a crew mate. You're all right Opifex, and I'm glad John tried to talk to you." She turned to look at him and gently hit him on the back of the head. "You didn't have to put your gun down though! If he hadn't turned out to be friendly he could have burned a hole in your head."

"Ash, cut me a break here," he said defensively.

"I'll cut you a break when you stop acting like an idiot."

"Please keep your flirting to when we have less important matters to deal with," Hackett said, grinning slightly as he spoke. "Commander, I take it that you will be all right with this? And so will Jane?

"I don't know about my sister but I'm king of glad that he's going to be on, he seems like a nice guy. I'm looking forward to see what he can do with the Normandy, I'd like to see if he can replace the plasma cannon with one of those Theta Energy cannons."

"That...might be difficult," Opifex said, "recreating another cannon of that size would take a long time and it would use up a lot of supplies. I may have been bred to build but-"

"Bred to build?" Ashley said, looking confused, "what...I don't."

"Oh, back on my planet, all members of the military were grown in tanks to serve the people," Opifex said, "it was a fairly new technology, but they managed to use it to alter our minds to better fit our roles. I'm part of the engineering caste, my mind was practically designed to learn and build. The Captain and the soldiers though? They were designed to ignore pain and be far more aggressive. I imagine that is why he did not want to negotiate with your kind."

"That's fairly interesting," Hackett said. "Also, John I prefer that you keep Opifex a secret. What I mean by that is that I'd prefer that the galaxy at large didn't know that he was on it."

"Do you mean to say that you mean to keep my kind a secret?" Opifex asked.

"No, I'm going to make a public announcement in a couple of days saying that we've made first contact with a new race. The Council would flip if we kept this a secret from them. I just don't want people do know that you're on the Normandy because if could make you a target, someone could try and capture you so that you could build weapons for them."

"Oh," Opifex said, "I...that is understandable."

"Very well, now then I-"

"Admiral!" Everyone turned around to see a Necro-Human officer approaching them.

"I'm in the middle of something," the Admiral said, turning to look at the officer.

"I know, but we just received a message on an encrypted channel. It's from Matriarch Benezia, and it's directed to you. It's...you need to see it for yourself."

"What?" The officer stepped forward and handed a datapad to the Admiral. "Protect my daughter...she's in danger...it's involves Saren. That's all it says aside from some coordinates...wait a minute, these coordinates are for one of our colonies. A mining colony."

"Protect her daughter? What is Matriarch Benezia's daughter being threatened or something?"

"It definitely sounds like that," Hackett said, "and if Saren is involved, then it might be because...I don't know, maybe Benezia was investigating him and she got a little too close. Maybe he's threatening her to keep her quiet...John, I want you to take the Normandy and get out there. Find Benzia's daughter and get her out of there. Benzia might have information on Saren that could help you hunt him down."

"Got it," John said, nodding, "Ash, Opifex we need to get to the Normandy."

"There's a light infantry division on the planet called the Roughnecks, they serve as the military and the police. I'll contact them and have them take Benezia's daughter into protective service and tell them that you're coming. Good luck John."

XXXXX

Six soldiers walked across a barren plain on Earth, weapons in hand. "Hey!" a man in black armor said, running up to a blonde haired woman in blue armor who turned around to look at him. "I just remembered that our three year anniversary is coming up next week. Is there any place that you want to go?"

"Hm," the woman said pursing her lips, "how about that fancy place on Mars that we walked past the last time that we have leave."

"That place?" the man said "aw man that place is expensive."

"Well if you don't want me sleeping in the same bed as you, fine," the woman said teasingly.

"I didn't say no," the man said indignantly "fine fine, we'll go there. But you're paying for desert."

"Hey! We've got contacts up ahead. You're on point!" one of the other soldiers yelled.

"Ugh," the soldier groaned, "you think these damn raiders would get the message, they keep shooting us in the chest and our shields hold up. Guess they really are stupid. Anyway, I gotta go."

The woman smiled, leaning in and kissing him lightly on the check "make it quick, we need to make plans."

"You'll get plenty of time to chitchat. I want you covering him along with you two! If anything tries to get him from the side, you take it down."

"Wow, it's my lucky day," the man joked.

"Less chit chat, they've spotted us! Get in formation!"

The man grinned as he stepped forward, the woman and two of the other soldiers sliding into formation. A group of four raiders wearing crude metal armor rose up from behind a small makeshift barricade, firing their weapons at him. The slugs hit the man's kinetic barriers, doing little to harm him. He raised the assault rifle in his hands, returning fire and mowing down three of the unshielded targets with ease, the last one ducking back down into cover. "No you don't," the man said, grabbing a grenade and throwing it over the barricade, where it detonated, sending the last raider flying.

"Ha!" the man shouted, "I got them! They're gone!" He looked forward at the dead raiders, a smile on his face when a voice reached his ears. It sounded like a person screaming, but it seemed to be getting fainter, as if the person screaming was getting farther away. Curious, the man turned to the side, the direction that the voice was coming from. He had two seconds before something massive slammed into him a blinding pain ripping through his right arm.

The man was thrown back onto the ground, searing with pain. He looked up, and his eyes widened in terror. A massive Deathclaw was charging at him, crimson blood coating it's right claw. The man desperately attempted to swing his assault rifle to the front and fire at it. His arm didn't respond. His eyes darted to the side and saw that his rifle was still clutched in his hand...which was lying ten feet away from his along with the rest of his arm. Glancing back up in terror, the Deathclaw swung at him with its claw. The man roared in pain as he attempted to dodge, but one of the claws still store through one of his eyes. Seething in pain, he grabbed the pistol that he had by his side with his remaining arm, raising it and firing it at the Deathclaw. The first shot hit it in the throat, causing the creature to stumble backwards. He continued to fire shot after shot after shot at the creature, which eventually collapsed under the strain.

Panting, the man got to his feet, clutching his bleeding stump of an arm. He looked around and saw that he was completely alone. None of the other soldiers were nearby and there were no traces that they had been killed by the Deathclaw. "Hello!" he shouted, stumbling forward. "Anyone! Guys! Rachel! Where are you?! Please...please." The man stumbled forward, pain tearing through his body, "Someone...anyone...HELP!"

Roger let out a deep gasp as he thrashed around in the bed that he was in, eventually falling out of the bed that he was in. He sprang to his feet, looking wildly around until he noticed that he was in the quarters that had been assigned to him on the Normandy. "It was...it just a dream." He panted as he leaned against the wall and slid down into a sitting position, "It...it was just a dream." As he continued to speak, his eye caught sight of his cybernetic arm. It slowly tightened into a fist. Raising it above his head, he smashed into the ground.

"Fucking bitch! Fucking bitch! Fucking bitch!" he swore, hammering the ground over and over, "why the fuck did you run?!" he swore, choking slightly, "why...why the fuck did you run?" He continued to hammer the ground, but as he continued to do so his blows became weaker and weaker, and as he continued, tears began to leak out of his organic eye. "Why...why did you run?" he said, silently weeping on the ground, "I...I would have stayed and helped I-if it was y-you."

Roger simply sat there for a good five minutes tears continuing to stream down his face until he finally got to his feet, wiping the tears out of his eye with his organic hand. "Come on Roger...you need to get over her...she left you to die, she didn't even show up when you were in the fucking hospital, none of them fucking did! They never saw you again after that, even after you called and called and fucking called! They were supposed to be your fucking friends and...oh god."

Slowly, he got to his feet and made his way to a small sink that was on the far side of his room. He turned the faucet on and cupped his hands, collecting water in it. He splashed it on it on his face, before reaching down and repeating the process. He panted as he felt the cold water on his face and as he did, he looked into the mirror that was directly over the sink. He looked into it, slowly reaching up with his organic hand to his cybernetic eye. He gently touched it, feeling the cold metal. In a sudden spasm of anger, he lashed out, smashing into the mirror with his cybernetic arm, causing it to splinter into dozen of pieces. He stepped back, looking at the shattered mirror. For a moment he stood there before he took a deep breath and climbed back into the bed, pulling the covers over him. There was a hollow empty feeling in his stomach as he desperately attempted to fall back asleep.

XXXXX

CODEX UPDATED

ENTRIES ADDED

The Roughnecks: The light infantry division of New Carson the Roughnecks double as both the military and the police force for the planet. They wear dust coats over their combat vests, in addition to cowboy hats, tinted goggles and and bandannas. They commonly use pistols and rifles, taking pride in their sharpshooting abilities. It is not uncommon to see them riding horses while they are policing the people.

The roughnecks are very well known throughout the outer colonies of the Coalition, in addition to well respected. They are deployed to planets that are undermanned, serving as both the defenders and enforcers of law on the colony. They take pride in their uniforms and how they mimic the gunslingers of the old west of America. They take pride in enforcing the law and are known to be ruthless against those who break it.

The Neo-Ninja: Like the neo-samurai, the neo-ninja were founded in Japan after the great war. The neo-ninja were not only light infantry, but they were also infiltrators, spies, scouts, assassins, and even mercenaries. The attire of a ninja would vary depending on their mission, and on the environment. The most common attire would be a classic ninja uniform overlaid with black body armor, and heat-detecting night-vision goggles. Weapon wise, they are fond of bladed and silenced weapons.

Unlike the neo-samurai, the neo-ninja usually did not answer to a single providence of feudal lord. They were generally nomadic, traveling from place to place, working for whoever hires them, and when the mission was done, they would leave as quickly and silently as they arrived.

Though many ninja worked alone, some ninja stayed together in small to large clans who traveled together, and did missions together. Very few Ninja stayed in one location for to long.

When the Japanese Federation was united, the neo-ninjas become a regular part of the military, the scouts and assassins to the heavy infantry of the neo-samurai. While they are on the the same side, there is some rivalry between the two divisions, mainly do to difference in beliefs and combat style. They have not been afraid to upgrade themselves with modern technologies, such as tactical cloaks

XXXXX

Author's Note: I once again give credit to 117Jorn for coming up with the idea of the neo-ninja with me just editing his codex entry. Sorry about the long update and the short length, but like I said I had another project to work on. Darth Revan the Second is the head of this little project, but he and my other friend are still working on it. I'll let you know when it's done.