Alright, and now it's time to begin the next chapter. To recap what happened last time; the Sith made their way to the Nexus where they were eventually cornered and killed off. And with that, the Initiative now knows that someone is on the inside leaking intel.
Meanwhile, one of the escape pods from the Quarian Ark crash landed near Initiative territory, only to find unknown aliens wrecking the place. And I will confirm they're definitely not Kett. But that's enough recap, let's dive right in, shall we?
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or Mass Effect: Andromeda.
The direct attack on the Nexus had left a lot of people rattled. Even if it was just from two people, the fact that the Sith had even been able to infiltrate the Nexus had made sure that many of the colonists were afraid.
Ahsoka could sense the undercurrent of fear from the people around them, and to be honest, she couldn't blame them. The fact that they had been able to get aboard indicated both a massive lapse in security, and more importantly, that someone had helped them onboard.
But that wasn't what was bothering her; during their fight, she had been able to sense their emotions and it was no doubt a factor as to why they had fallen so easily compared to before. Underneath the Sith arrogance, they had been... afraid.
Just like their master had been before he died. The implication was clear; they knew what had happened here during the Scourge. And any chance of learning the mystery of what that might have been had been destroyed with the Holocron.
They couldn't just use the security footage or any other method of recording either; Kota had blocked the audio of any recording devices in his office. Meaning that whatever information was in the Holocron had died with the Sith.
It was frustrating, to say the least. After all their efforts with Meridian, all their efforts to unlock the Sith holocron, to discover what truly happened in this galaxy, and now they were pretty much back at square one again.
"How are you doing?" The Jedi Knight was pulled from her thoughts by Scott, who clasped a hand to her shoulder. "I know that look."
"Could be better." The Togruta admitted with a sigh as she looked over the balcony. "I'm glad we stopped the Sith before they could do any more damage, but they shouldn't have gotten this far in the first place."
"I get what you mean." Scott agreed. "You were right; they had to have been getting aid from someone in the Initiative. And given my dad's memories, this has the Benefactor written all over it."
"And we're still in the dark as to what they want." Ahsoka clenched her fist in frustration. "Though one thing is definitely clear; if they're willing to work with the Sith, then their intentions are unlikely to be altruistic."
"It looks that way. Though hopefully we won't have to worry about any more Sith." Scott paused. "You think they were telling the truth about another Jedi?"
"Maybe? I couldn't sense any deception from them, though that doesn't mean much. Either way, we won't know for sure." Ahsoka sighed. "That holocron was our best bet at figuring out if there were any other Sith to worry about, or finding this ancient Jedi."
"And anything else about what might have happened here." Scott finished, chuckling as he noticed Ahsoka's side glance. "I can tell that's been bugging you too."
"There's that." Ahsoka nodded. "Don't tell me you're not curious about that as well."
"You obviously know I am." The Pathfinder shrugged, then sighed again. "Then again, it seems like this entire galaxy is just one mystery on top of another."
"Isn't that why you all came here?" The Jedi Knight countered with a smirk, gesturing to the Nexus around them. "To find and explore new frontiers?"
"Fair enough." Scott laughed, before his expression became serious. "Though not all the mysteries are as harmless or in the past as we might like. Such as the Benefactor, and more pressingly right now, whatever is raiding the outer edges of our territories."
"Right." Ahsoka frowned. "And we're sure it's not Outcast pirates, Roekaar, or Kett?"
"Fairly sure, yeah." The human shook his head. "The pattern doesn't match." He sighed heavily in frustration. "In other words, we have even more work to do. Again." Ahsoka chuckled in response.
"Scott, welcome to the life of a Jedi."
...
Thanks to the infiltration of the Sith and the clear indication that someone was helping them, plus with the addition of new and unknown threats, security amongst the Initiative and Angara was being taken far more seriously, causing a little more unrest than normal.
On the plus side, between the Nexus Science teams and Imperial engineers, plus help from the Angara and additional usage of Jardaan tech, scientific collaboration was starting to see results.
Stormtroopers were now getting Kinetic barriers to augment their armor and defenses, while hybridized blaster weapons were being handed out among most of the militia. They wouldn't completely replace what they already had, but it would be a good supplement.
Even better news was that some warships were already being brought online. The first Initiative built frigate had completed construction and was ready for battle. The Angara's own warships were also coming online, with the ships all utilizing familiar design philosophies for now.
There were plans to make more hybrid designs, but for now they would stick with the fundamentals that they understood well enough. Of course, that was only the beginning of their efforts; they needed to make more ships.
The Angara would serve as the backbone of their burgeoning navy, due to the Initiative's still low population and the Impassive's own firepower and faster hyperdrive would serve as the muscle and quick reaction force for any situation that developed.
But while the macro scale situations developed, the micro scale wasn't neglected, and a discovery had been made that had massive philosophical ramifications for all sides of the allied forces.
...
It was rather surprising when the Imperials called the two Jedi over to the Impassive. Even more so when they were directed to the ship's medical wing. Though the Jedi were still somewhat wary about trusting the Imperials, they couldn't sense any deception from them and agreed to come alone.
They were surprised to find Captain Neral already present in the medical center, deep in conversation with their chief medical officer, Dr. Pershing. The spectacled scientist turned as the two of them walked into the room.
"Ah, General Kota, Lady Tano." The scientist greeted as they walked up to him. "Thank you both for coming."
"What's this all about?" Kota asked, getting right to the point as they could both sense the confusion and anxiety coming from both of them.
"Doctor Pershing here as found something that would undoubtedly interest you." Captain Neral explained as he gestured to a hologram projector, which activated to show two humans side by side.
"Well, we've done some tests regarding humans from the Initiative and humans from the Impassive, and we found something you might find... distressing." The Doctor hit a key, and the display shifted to two blood samples side by side. "This is the blood of Scott Ryder." The doctor gestured to one sample, then to the other. "And this is your blood, Master Kota. I think you can see the difference."
"I actually can't." Kota deadpanned. "But I think I can guess what you're saying."
"They don't have midichlorians." Ahsoka spoke up, her eyes widened. "The humans of the Andromeda Initiative don't have them?"
"Not just humans." Doctor Pershing shook his head. "We tested the other species of the Milky Way, the Angara and the remains of the Kett. One of the most fundamental building blocks of life in our galaxy is completely absent here."
The ramifications hadn't been lost on the Imperials, but to the Jedi this was even bigger news. While this certainly helped explain why no one from either Andromeda or the Milky Way had any sign of Force sensitivity, the implications were still troubling.
"I thought that was just because the Initiative and Angara didn't know what to look for." The Togruta murmured. "But if they don't have midichlorians... then what does that mean?"
"I don't know." Kota said.
...
Unbeknownst to the Jedi or Imperials, a similar meeting was going down in one of the Nexus' research labs at this moment, with the two Ryder siblings meeting up with Lexi and the Moshae privately.
"So, what's this about?" Scott asked.
"The Moshae and I have discovered something in the blood of the Jedi and Imperials." Lexi explained. "Something the rest of us lack."
And so they brought up a medical readout of their blood samples, just as the Imperials had done with the Jedi. There they showed the fact that there was some unknown form of life attached to each of their blood cells.
"This is on the Jedi?" Scott asked curiously, putting the pieces together. "These things are in their blood?"
"Yes, Kota and Ahsoka have thousands of them per cell, but even the Imperials have the same bacteria, in much smaller amounts." Lexi explained. "We checked the bodies of the Sith as well, and despite being completely different species, we detected those exact same organisms in their bloodstream.
"The correlation is obvious." The Moshae agreed. "It would seem these organisms have some connection with the Force."
"Ahsoka did mention that at one point." Sara recalled, remembering one of her talks with the Jedi Knight. "That Force sensitivity had some biological element to it."
"That's the other thing we found..." Lexi pulled up another hologram with a frown. "Everyone of our own species lack those those same organisms. Angara, Kett, the other species of the Initiative, including humans, we all lack whatever these things are."
"Okay..." Sara looked at her brother, then back at the two doctors. "That's definitely weird, but... well, what exactly do we do about it?"
"More than anything, we need to tell Kota and Ahsoka about this." Scott said, looking around the lab. "At least, assuming they haven't already learned about this as is."
"That would probably be for the best." The Moshae admitted, looking back at the displays. "I will admit that I am out of my element here. Someone more knowledgeable on the subject would undoubtedly prove valuable."
Before the Ryder siblings could say anything else, both of them got a message on their omni-tools. With a quick glance over the contents, Scott frowned, an expression shared by his sister with an additional sigh.
"It looks like we've got another issue to deal with."
...
When the two siblings made it to the APEX HQ, they found most of the usual crowd already present, with the Jedi and Imperial captain joining by hologram, as were the other Pathfinders. Tann, Addison and Kesh were also present, the latter looking particularly grim and angry.
He also noticed that both Ahsoka and Kota seemed unnerved in a way he couldn't understand, and even Captain Neral seemed to be in distant thought as well, though why, he wasn't sure. That said, it was clearly a topic for later, as everyone had been waiting for him to arrive.
"I take it that we have more bad news on the way." Scott said, noting the frown deepening on Kesh's face.
"Understatement of the century, Pathfinder." Scott's eyes widened in surprise at the ire and fear coming from the Krogan engineer, but it wasn't directed at him.
"We've recieved a distress call from Elaaden outpost. They're under attack by an unknown hostile force." Kandros said, with Neral's hologram nodding along grimly as he activated his omni-tool and uploaded a video.
An image played on the screen, with Imperials, aided by Initiative and Angara strike teams, alongside security mechs, held the line against an unknown alien force. And they were losing badly. Even the aid of the Krogan wasn't enough to push these attackers back.
As the video continued, they got a good look at the new attackers, and they were definitely unknowns to everyone present. The aliens were tall, almost three meters in height, covered in strange black armor. They were also fairly strong, given one was able to grapple evenly with a Krogan.
But more disturbing was the fact that everything they used, from their weapons and their clothes seemed to be organic. Small bugs tore apart armor, staffs of slithering creatures spat venom when they weren't being used as melee weapons.
Their armor was also fairly strong, able to take blaster bolts and normal mass accelerator fire with ease. And of course, they weren't hesitant to destroy all examples of high end technology, confirming that these were undoubtedly the beings who had been attacking the outskirts of the allied territories.
Then one of the creatures stopped in view of the camera, an AT-ST burning in the background behind him. He raised his snake-staff in the air as he shouted orders to the rest of his party.
"Death to the infidels!" A snake staff bit a Stormtrooper's neck. "Glory to the Gods!" An angara was blown apart by a small flying bug while an asari had her neck broken by one of the aliens. "Victory for the Yuuzhan Vong!"
That was when the feed cut out.
Y'know, I clearly love being evil to leave you all on cliffhangers like that, but honestly, it just felt like a good place to end it. So yeah, the Yuuzhan Vong have arrived in Andromeda, or rather, a small detachment of them have.
I've been dropping hints for a while, the first being the Knights of the Old Republic reference with the asteroid waking up, but yeah, suffice to say, they'll be taking center stage as the antagonists for the next little while.
With that said, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and reviews are always welcome.