"You said, what?" The Illusive man uttered with obvious disappointment in his tone as he leaned towards the holographic projection of Koliat, the head researcher of the Zeus Project.
Koliat swallowed nervously, "Yes. Bachtein escaped and freed three newly revived Kalinin before we could place the control chips. Since then, they managed to take over the labs and are currently holed up in there. We are trying to subdue them while they continue to try understanding their current situation, but it's not easy."
"Then you should know that it's perfectly acceptable to kill them. We can always repair their bodies later." the Illusive man answered sternly. Despite Kabuto and the others' scheme having been averted just a few days ago, he deeply frowned upon the news that the Collector base had been destroyed during the fighting. Regrettable. He hadn't heard a word from George either, who was supposed to extract information from the base during the fighting while possible... "How long since it started?"
Koliat noticeably hesitated.. "It's been going on for a few days now, sir."
He brought his palms to his face out of disgust at how the situation could have gone on for that long. "And you thought only about telling me about this now?"
"W-we thought that we could handle it..."
"Forget about it.. now, clean it up right away and resume the project! I want no further delay, the Jubi got away and the Reapers are now possibly on the way as we speak! We need our army now as soon as possible!" the Illusive man continued, hammering out his next words.. "Succeed, or suffer the consequences!"
"A-aye sir, yes sir!" the Head researcher managed to utter before the connection was severed between them.
With that out of the way, the Illusive man leaned back on his chair and turned to watch the sun-filled decoration on the wall while in deep thought.
So much to do, and for all that is known, they may not have any time at all. Some loose ends have to be dealt with first.
Zeus station stood as one of Cerberus' most secret facilities. A space station hidden in the blackness of space between star systems, and located within a sector belonging to the Systems Alliance.
After all, who would think such a facility would be located practically in their backyard?
And if some did find it, they would simply be informed of it being either the property of Binary Helix Corporation, or a remote Systems Alliance outpost recently put in place to observe the sector for any Geth activity depending on those making the inquiry. If they doubted that, unfortunate "accidents" would occur.
Few would question the cover story though, after all, most people in the galaxy wouldn't think that such a large and well-equipped facility could possibly be owned by Cerberus, a "mere" network of terrorists.
Until the project within started, it did not warrant extensive protection. After, it did. Most of which were pulled away when the Illusive man needed to build the fleet needed to attack the Collectors, a fleet which has since become history. Leaving the station to be protected by no more than a pair of Frigates which lazily moved practically in orbit around it.
But that protection suddenly diminished as one of the Frigates came apart, showering the space around it with a rainbow of shattered metal, and the ghostly blur from the ship's ruined mass effect core.
The second Frigate burst into motion as a Hensa class Cruiser jumped in, a few mere seconds before the first ship was destroyed. It couldn't possibly outgun the Cruiser, so it moved at high speed, to circle around it while harassing it with Guardian laser fire. A challenge which the larger enemy gladly obliged to, resulting in a brief heavy exchange.
It lasted for a few intensive minutes until the Cruiser finally managed to cripple the Frigate and finished it off with a well-placed mass accelerator round before proceeding towards the station in question.
The station's crew did not have any reason to be happy about their situation, it being difficult enough as it is.
"The defenses outside the station have been done away with. Ready for boarding action?" Konan asked, looking over at the teens where they all stood within the hangar.. having donned the necessary gear needed for their "jump" onto the station.
"We're all go!" Shikamaru called back, adjusting his headset... "Just get the ship into position and we'll take care of the rest."
The woman looked them over, all of the youngsters had been mobilized for this mission and wished that she could go with them. But she and the others have other objectives needing to be done. The teens' job remained simple though, to eliminate the defenders inside the space station. They needed to capture it relatively intact.
The hangar door opened as the ship moved past the target destination's own hangar, which was closed as they approached.
"Mission go! Naruto, jump in first, open the way for us." Shikamaru ordered. Naruto gave a curt nod before he leaped out of the hangar. The rest following suit.
Naruto did exactly what he was needed to do, summoning a shadow clone along the way, formed a great Rasengan and slammed the sphere into the opposing hangar, grinding a hole through it.
He lost his momentum from the blow though.. Tenten and Hinata threw a rope to him, focused their Chakra under their feet to adhere to the surface of the station's exterior and pulled him in once he managed to catch it.
"We need smoke and covering fire." Shikamaru noted them as bullets started to rain through the breach.
Hinata hurried to the hole and primed a few smoke bombs while Tenten summoned her Gun array, or what remains of it. She hovered the guns before the openings and answered enemy fire, forcing the guards inside into cover. Hinata threw in the smoke bombs, giving them a precious smoke screen as the teens quickly entered, and spread out.
The Humans fought back in confusion as they lost sight of the hole and the enemy. But the fact that their fighting Kalinin remained extraordinarily clear to them. The smoke was unusually dense, and concealed the presence of those within to the point that infrared sensors proved less than useful, so they fired blindly rather than letting the aliens get in close. But their movements stopped cold, they couldn't move, nor could they fire even if they wanted to.
It's as though their bodies moved on their own, discarding their weapons to the floor. And from the distance, a voice could be heard.. "Caught the targets, move in!"
The guards could only cry out in fear at their sudden powerless state as a trio of Kalinin emerged from the smoke, charging straight towards the Humans. And within less than a minute, the last of the guards collapsed to the deck. The hangar now in the hands of the aliens.
Shikamaru emerged after his shadows pulled back and moved to the local control interface and opened the hangar door as well as the exit. Breaking the console right after so that neither could be closed again.
Naruto walked towards the closest door, blinking at the dozen red dots on the wall nearby. The dots seemed to twitch, so Naruto created a clone to move in before he would. A movement followed by a thunderous barrage of weapons fire hammering into the wall, the clone vanishing instantly from the blows dealt to it.
"Careful, Naruto. A lot of mechs have arrived at the far end of the corridor." Hinata informed him, seeing through the walls with her Byakugan.
"Okay, Tenten. Take care of them, so we can proceed." the Nara requested.
Tenten moved past Naruto and brought out her Gun-array, using her periscope to look around the corner before she brought in the rain.
The group proceeded from there once the mechs had been destroyed. Their curiosity driving them forward as the sounds of a battle could be heard further in. And as they moved in, something was slammed into a wall somewhere with sufficient force for cracks to appear on the opposite side.
Whoever is currently fighting within the inner confines of the station, it's a strong one. No doubts about it.
The containment had failed. The Kalinin managed to break out of the labs and started to wreak havoc, and the situation grew worse by the hour as the reduction of base guard personnel forced the scientists to rely solely on mechs to keep them safe. But to no avail.
Now, members of the free group managed to invade the base. They were trapped by the certainty of their defeat. How were they supposed to handle a battle on two fronts? Utterly ridiculous, they couldn't even handle the three that remained confused about the world they woke up to.
Koliat and the rest of his science staff holed themselves up in one of the containers in the station's cargo area, hoping that the aliens would overlook them even as the fight continued around them. The head researcher deployed their remaining YMIR mechs to stall the group that just arrived, but which group remained a mystery, and none of them were eager to go check.
The container shook like all hell as something solid struck it, they could hear the distinct noise of an YMIR trying to correct it's movements, trying to bring it's gun to bear, only to receive a blow that pulverized it and left an imprint that showed on the inside of the container. Their hiding place twisted mildly out of shape as a result... the scientists tried to stand as still as possible, a few didn't even dare to breathe as the fighting continued. And slowly decreased as the number of mechs dropped.
They could hear steady noise of the bursts of gunfire and the explosion of launched grenades. Mixed with what sounded like plain punches and the oddest sounds that none of them could fully place. The container rocked slightly side to side as if it had landed itself in a river.
With that, the amount of gunfire lessened significantly.
Koliat held his breath. Whispering a prayer in the depths of his mind.
They could hear signs of action up ahead. In what looked like a cargo area. Heavy metallic footsteps could be heard along with the discharge of heavy weapons. All together with noise caused by effects of Jutsu they found mildly familiar.
"We got allies in there, get in and provide assistance!" Shikamaru hollered.. the group shouted together as they leaped past the organized piles of cargo in their immediate path.
And right there, they found an YMIR that seemed to be trying to locate a target before it's sensors registered the group that had just arrived, turning it's massive guns towards the teens. A rapid flurry of movements followed.
Naruto and Hinata leaped to the side, to flank the mech from two sides while Shikamaru clasped his hands together into a sign while getting down on one knee while his shadow shot forward. Tenten brought her weapons to bear to provide suppressive fire.
But someone beat them to the punch.
The shadow of a man burst out of the background, zigzagging through the many crates in the area at a speed that would have broken a lesser man. One of his hands glowing with an incredibly focused ball of lightning as he rushed forward, calling his attack as it hit the YMIR mech that had been distracted from it's previous target. The machine's chest blasted away as the piercing strike connected.
"Lightning Blade!"
The teens halted in their attacks, completely stunned as the mech collapsed from the blow dealt to it. The man, wearing white shirts and pants, along with a surgeon mask as if to replace the mask he used to wear almost all the time. He simply stared back at the youngsters, though none as young as when he last saw them. They had grown quite noticeably. "Naruto..? Hinata..? Shikamaru..? Tenten..? … H-how long have I been gone...?" he asked in astonishment.
The others did not answer at all.. the silence only broken as a few tears fell from Naruto's eyes.. "K-Kakashi-Sensei!" he cried out as he broke into a full run towards him.
"Eh..? Oi!" Kakashi stopped Naruto before he could hug him.. "That's just too embarrassing." he calmly told the boy, but fell silent as the other teens did the same, closing in all around him.. the group collapsing all around him. As if only by examining him up close could they confirm that it's indeed him.
"Has it been... that long?" Kakashi asked softly.
Naruto wiped his tears away.. "Yeah.. you've been dead for months."
The man's eyes widened in apparent horror.. "Wait... is this edo tensei?" he gazed down at his own hands uneasily.
"No. These aliens revived you. Shikamaru have gone through it as well." Tenten told him.
Kakashi turned towards the Nara, blinking before looking back at his hands. Speechless, but released a sigh of relief.
"Are there others with you who have been revived?" Shikamaru inquired.
"Hmm, yes... Temari and the Raikage's here also. Fought alongside them during the last few days to escape this place."
"Hinata.." the Nara turned to the girl, "Find them and bring them to the hangar. Tenten, you escort Kakashi to the hangar right away. Naruto, let's find what Cerberus personnel remains on this station."
"A crowd of them are inside that container.." the Hyuga informed them, pointing towards the mildly twisted rectangle-shaped construct.
"Then we'll go round them up. Everyone, let's get it done."
The group scattered as everyone attended to each their objectives. All the Scientists quickly chased out of the container by the Shinobi, and herded them together. Slowly making them all move as directed.
The hangar turned into quite a busy area after their ship finished docking. Onoki and Nagato held a meeting with the three most recent additions to the group, going through everything they have gone through. A general summary of the war, it's result. And a thorough explanations of what occurred over the course of their journey across the galaxy. About their new allies. And their new adversary... the Void Demons especially. About the separate group led by Kabuto and Madara.
The meeting went on.. All three of them with a lot of questions to ask. The Raikage especially, who's loud voice carried across the hangar over the hushed voices of the others.
The rest of the group attended to different matters, getting to know the station, and acquiring a complete list of the inventory. The number of bodies, the equipment. And artifacts that had been taken from their world. Using the Cerberus survivors they found as a work force.. Forcing the Scientists to strip the station of everything the Kalinin need to revive their long dead comrades.
The cold storage area on board their ship was modified so that they could store away all the bodies on the station within it.
They also brought out the artifacts. Much of it which they could very possibly need in the times ahead. Inspection still pending, but the amount of items in the crates used to be greater. Some of it had been sold on the black market according to the Humans.
This process filled up much of the empty space on board the ship. The Cruiser filled to the brim with activity as Humans moved back and forth. Scientists and scattered engineers and technicians that were found after when they inspected the station in full.
Kisame acted as overseer to direct the Humans, and at the same time keep them in line. Having next to no knowledge on how to use the technology used by Cerberus in the reanimation process, they did not have any choice but to keep the Humans around on the ship. Crafting bunks in a tight collection of rooms so that the Humans could have somewhere to rest in between work hours.
Naruto and the others wanted to help.. but Onoki ordered them to rest. Reasoning that they had been doing much more than their share of the recent days of work. Mei and Konan brought them some warm soup and some soda to drink. And the teens eventually accepted the break, though only with a certain amount of reluctance, but slowly managed to relax.
Temari excused herself from the meeting eventually, heading over to the others with a monstrous headache plaguing her.
Kakashi turned his attention to away from the meeting as it slowed it's pace. Having gotten the gist of most of what the Tsuchikage and former Akatsuki member told them. While the Raikage continued to inquire for further details.
His attention soon focused on Naruto and the others, admiring how they've grown in his absence. But in the midst of this, he noticed something. About how Naruto and Hinata smiled to each other, talking and laughing together. Their entire body language alone told him plainly that they had gotten very close. Before he died, Naruto still remained completely oblivious to the fact that the Hyuga had watched him from afar for years. This change did take him by surprise. Deciding to later ask one of the others about how those two developed their relationship to such a degree once he's able to get sufficient elbow-space.
With that, he turned back to the others and listened in rapt attention. The questions venturing towards topics regarding the Citadel.
Temari nearly fell as she sat among the others, a hand resting on her forehead as the headache rained hell on her.
"Hey, you doing alright?" Shikamaru asked, receiving a groan in return.. A rather dumb question he admitted immediately.
Temari hissed softly "Of course, with all the stuff you've been going through explained all in one go. Can barely even believe it."
"Well, it's all true." Tenten confirmed, fishing into the bucket of ice Konan brought with the soda, containing plenty of ice and emptied some of it into a bag to form an improvised ice pack before tossing it over to Temari.
The Sand-nin accepted the ice pack and sighed with some relief as she placed it on her head.. "And we basically have to repopulate our species as well as fight a war against a race of super-machines on top of all that. This is such a drag.." she lamented with a dry tone.
"... That's my line.." Shikamaru drawled.. "But it's not like we got much of a choice in the matter. Without repopulating, our people won't have a future. And if those machines win, it'll be over for everyone."
It was then that they noticed Mei approaching them.. "I've set up a few extra beds on board the ship. Temari, is it? Your bed's in the same room as Shikamaru and Tenten."
The two others did blink at that. Shikamaru thinking that their room's already crowded with just two. Such a drag.
"I don't even know where that is.." Temari groaned.
"Then ask them to show you around. Other than that, feel free to retire to your rooms at any time. We'll take care of things out here. Especially you two.." she turned her attention more directly towards Naruto and Hinata.. "Kami knows you've earned some R&R."
A familiar sharp chuckle could be heard within the next few seconds.. "I've done a lot of hard work too, may I take some time off?" Kisame asked, having suddenly appeared close to them.
"No." Mei walked past him and dragged him away by his ear while the missing-nin flailed at the unexpected move.. "You still have much to do..!"
The teens watched the two leave before Tenten turned to Temari.. "So... want us to show you around?"
Temari shrugged, dropping the ice pack to the floor as the headache gradually lessened. "Sure."
The Raikage stomped his way through the station after having donned a set of armor from the armory. Heading towards the station's main office. Back in the armory, he encountered Kurotsuchi and Hidan as they gathered together the entire inventory into various crates. Hidan about to transport all the equipment to the ship with the help of an automatic forklift, which he hitched a ride with once he set it to move towards the hangar.
He asked about the location of the station's main office from Kurotsuchi, whom knew where to go after having inspected the entirety of the place herself.
"Is this it?" he asked, gesturing to the door at the end of the hallway.
"It is. Anything more you want to know?" the woman asked.
A simply shook his head. "That won't be necessary. Just stay out here, I'll go in by myself."
Kurotsuchi nodded slowly.. "Alright, call out if you need anything." she replied, hefting one of the weapons she kept with her.. of the weapons in the armory, it was practically overflowing with M-96 Mattocks. Standing guard while A conducted his business, whatever it is.
…
The office itself appeared to be far cleaner than most of the facility. Everything had been kept nice and tidy. Near-perfect symmetry. He wanted to see the leader of the organization responsible for the project that had just been reduced to nothing, everything now within the grasp of the Shinobi. He had briefly interrogated the Head researcher Koliat to find out how to contact that leader, taking away the scientist's Omni-tool as well.
But he didn't need to search for long. A Virtual Intelligence popped up on the side of the table, regarding the Raikage as it scanned him and found the Omni-tool. "Good day, Sir. The Illusive man have requested a meeting regarding the current situation."
A stared right back at the VI for a moment before nodding.. "Open the link, now."
"Establishing connection." the VI responded.. parts of the floor shifting to form a circle from which a sort of grid ascended, scanning the space within the circle and showing an all-around image.
Taking this as the answer.. the Raikage turned and marched into it and found himself looking at quite a magnificent sight.. his eyes resting on the incredible if excessive decorations in the office shown. But centered his view on a uniformed Human whom certainly didn't expect to see him. "Who are you? Where is Koliat?"
"In our employ now. Your experiments on our people ends now!" A stated firmly.. "We will soon finish stripping everything we need off this station."
The Illusive man looked stunned.. "It can't be.. None of our personnel would serve you. There's no way for you to escape.." his voice fell into silence as he noticed the slightest smirk from the Kalinin.. "Nagato and his crew's there, aren't they?"
"Yes." he answered in a straightforward manner. "We'll be leaving soon. You and your organization better stay out of our way. Try to stop us and Cerberus will be dismantled by our hands. It is best for all concerned if you preserve your forces for the upcoming invasion." the Raikage raised his fist, his body instantly covered by a shroud of lightning. "Although, if anything... even though your intents weren't for our well-being, it gave our species a second chance. For that one reason alone, I thank you. That's all I needed to say to the likes of you."
The Illusive man stood up from his chair, dropping his cigar with the expression of a man who felt his whole ambitious scheme crashing down around him, "Wait!"
But A wouldn't listen, and brought his fist down on the floor, utterly destroying the COM system along with the entire office.
The door opened as Kurotsuchi rushed in, weapon held at the ready as she stared into the resulting smoke.. "What's happening here?"
"Nothing worth paying further attention to for the time being." the Raikage replied as he pushed past the woman whom stared at the ruined office for a moment before she turned to follow.
"Why did you go and ruin it?" she groaned, "Onoki needed that office intact to find out where Cerberus shipped off some of the artifacts' they stole! Now it's all gone, the aliens don't keep information like we do!"
The man simply huffed and continued. Kurotsuchi couldn't help but stare at him in exasperation.. he breaks everything he touches when upset. Should probably convince the others to tie him up while he's on board the ship. Last she wanted was for a hull breach to happen because of one of his tantrums.
She slumped a little bit, deciding to head back and get a heavy drink, no, make it an extra heavy to calm her nerves.
Still got plenty of work for the next few days before they'll leave the Zeus station behind after all.
And another Chapter done. Will be initiating a hiatus for this story after the next chapter... covering a few more details including the aftermath of the battle against the Collectors. Oh, and Kakashi's question concerning how Naruto and Hinata got together during his absence. Probably something which should of been explored in greater detail earlier, but decided it would flow better if Kakashi asks the others about it in curiosity about how they got together in the first place.
Thought about having them managing to getting involved on the events of Arrival. But decided against it.
Oh, and do review, please. :)