Alright, and now it is time to begin the next chapter. For those who don't recall, the last chapter revealed that elements of the Yuuzhan Vong have appeared in Heleus and are currently attacking the Outpost on Elaaden.
Suffice to say, shit has hit the fan at this point, and things are going to get really interesting now. But that's all I'll say on the matter for now, so without further ado, let's dive right back in, shall we?
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or Mass Effect: Andromeda.
Everyone was silent after the video ended, with no one making a sound. Not any of the Pathfinders, not the Nexus leaders, not the Angaran ambassadors, not even the Jedi or Imperials. Everyone was silent, digesting the images they had seen. Eventually, the silence was broken.
"What the fuck was that?!" Sara asked, giving voice to the question they were all thinking.
"I don't know." Ahsoka muttered. "But I doubt it's good."
"So, I'm guessing whatever those things are, they aren't from your galaxy?" Raeka asked, looking to the Jedi and Imperials as she spoke.
"No." Neral shook his head. "I've never seen anything like those things before in my life."
"That doesn't necessarily mean much." Kota pointed out. "There are plenty of unknown species in our galaxy. Of course, it's equally as likely that they are some unknown native species from Andromeda itself."
"It could be." Evfra admitted. "It's not like we know of any species outside the Kett and Jardaan. And it's pretty safe to say that this is not either."
"Either way, it doesn't really matter." Kesh interjected, her fists clenching and crushing the side of the table she was leaning on. "These things are attacking our people. My people! We cannot let this go unanswered."
"And we won't." Neral said placatingly. "We're already prepared for the jump to Elaaden."
"APEX teams have also been dispatched to the planet." Kandros added. "They should be there within the hour."
"Very well." Addison nodded reluctantly, still shaken from the violence they had all seen. "We need to put an end to this, and quickly."
...
With that said, there was little need for discussion. Everyone was quick to gather up what they needed and prepare for combat. The Tempest crew had already returned to the ship, prepping their gear for what would come next.
Drack, of course, was ready and willing for a fight. Ahsoka and Kota didn't need the Force to feel the anger that was wafting off him in waves, especially with New Tuchanka under siege.
That said, Drack wasn't the only one ready for a fight. The arrival of a new enemy was hardly unexpected after dealing with the Kett, and everyone was already gearing up. Vetra checked over her equipment while Liam made sure his weapons were working in pristine condition.
Cora and Peebee tested their biotics, ensuring that they were geared for a fight. Jaal was making adjustments on his sniper scope, while the Ryder siblings ensured their connection with SAM was unbroken and working.
As for the Jedi, they were either testing their lightsabers and practicing like Ahsoka, or meditating like Kota, focusing on the fight ahead and not what they had learned just beforehand. Altogether, the crew of the Tempest, while weary of the constant conflict, were still prepared for the next fight.
Meanwhile, the ship itself had taken off at Ryder's order, following the Impassive towards Elaaden. Thanks to the new upgrades that were going around, it didn't take long for either vessel to arrive in orbit over the desert planet.
The crew had gathered on the bridge as the ship headed down and the colony came into view, the pillars of smoke already demonstrating just how bad the situation was, with Scott and the others frowning at the sight.
"Main landing pad is a no go." Kallo reported calmly. "We'll have to land further out."
"Understood." Scott said simply, then turned back to the hanger. "Gil, get the Nomad ready."
"Already done." The engineer replied.
The crew gathered up in the Nomad and as soon as the ramp opened, it shot out like a bullet, making a beeline towards the battle lines and under seige region of New Tuchanka and its accompanying Outpost.
"We'll be there within five minutes." Scott reported from the driver's seat. "So be ready."
"There's a problem." Everyone turned to Kota, who's eyes were wide and his voice sounded more frightened than anyone had heard it before. Which inevitably drew chills up everyone else's spine. Just what could make him so afraid? "Ahsoka, reach out with the Force and tell me what you sense."
Frowning in confusion, the Jedi Knight did as requested, sending her awareness out towards the battle zone. She could sense the Krogan, the Imperials, APEX teams, Initiative and Angara... her eyes snapped open in realization at what she couldn't sense.
"Oh, this is bad."
"Okay, you're killing us here." Peebee grumbled. "What's going on?"
"Whatever these creatures were, we can't sense them in the Force." Ahsoka looked afraid as she glanced at Kota. "But that... that doesn't make any sense!"
"Didn't you say some Sith could do that?" Vetra pointed out.
"Shit, does that mean we're dealing with more Force users?" Liam asked.
"No, it's not like that." The Jedi Master shook his head. "This, this is something else."
"Um, then should you really be coming with us, General?" Cora asked. "If you're using the Force to see and these things can't be sensed in the Force..."
"She has a point, Master." Ahsoka agreed. "We're in uncharted territory here."
"I- you may have a point." The Jedi Master reluctantly admitted with a sigh. "I'll stay in the Nomad and off the battlefield." He was reluctant to sit out a battle like this, but if these unknowns really were undetectable to the Force then he would only be a liability.
"We can certainly use your help in coordinating the reinforcements." Scott offered in response.
"Very well then." Kota replied, now feeling slightly less like a liability.
...
After a few more minutes, the group had arrived at the edge of the battle zone, with the Tempest team debarking from the Nomad. While Kota stayed behind, the rest of the crew made their way through the outpost, which seemed to have already suffered the worst of the fighting.
Bodies were strewn everywhere, from various members of the Initiative species, to several Stormtroopers and even some Angara. Multiple mechs were on the ground, reduced to scrap metal.
A lot of the buildings were severely damaged, with the more sensitive tech and computers reduced to scrap metal. However, it was clear by this point that the fighting had moved on, into New Tuchanka proper.
"I swear, when I get my hands on whoever these guys are-" Drack growled, gripping his weapon tightly as the group headed towards the Krogan colony.
"You'll get your chance, Drack." Scott said, even as they came up to several wounded APEX members on the outskirts of the colony.
"Hey, over here!" One of them called out, a Batarian, surprisingly. "Heard you're the human Pathfinder, right?"
"That's me." Scott stepped forward, even as he started applying bacta to the alien's wounds. "What happened?"
"We were one of the APEX teams sent to respond to the attack on the colony." The Batarian groaned, letting the healing salve seep into his wounds and works its magic. "Our shuttle got shot down on arrival. We tried to fight as best as we could, but these bastards are nasty. If it weren't for the Imperials, we'd probably be dead already."
"Don't worry, we're here to help." Sara said, but Ahsoka stepped forward and knelt down in front of him.
"The invaders." The Togruta said, refocusing the topic at hand. "What can you tell us about them?"
"I'm guessing you're one of those Jedi I've heard about, right?" The Batarian coughed and shook his head. "Really freaky type of guys. I swear, I think everything they have is somehow alive, and more than willing to kill us. Never seen anything like it."
"What about the Krogan?" Peebee asked, mostly for Drack's sake, as the old warrior was itching for a fight.
"From what I can tell, they're still fighting." The APEX member replied, struggling to his feet. "Though I'm not sure for how long. I know Krogan are tough, but these guys, these 'Vong' are something else."
"Then we've wasted enough time already, Ryder." Drack turned away from the colony to the Pathfinder. "I'm going to go help my people. You coming or not?"
"I am, for sure." Ahsoka said, igniting her lightsabers in response.
With her response, everyone else agreed, and with the team making sure that the wounded were in no danger of dying, and that Kota was sending help as is, they moved into the colony proper.
After making their way through the caverns and pass far too many Krogan bodies for their liking, the team finally laid eyes on their new foe; the Vong matched what they had seen in the video before, yet somehow were even more unnerving in person.
Their faces were almost skeletal, their armor was black yet disturbingly seemed alive, and all their weapons looked similarly organic. Those same weapons that were being unleashed against Krogan and Imperial forces, tearing chunks of them apart.
"So glad you could make it." Their eyes were drawn to Morda, who was leaning back against the wall near the cavern entry, blood leaking out from several wounds in her stomach.
"Shit, Morda!" Ryder ran up to her and applied medi gel and bacta to her wounds. "This looks bad."
"Understatement of the damn century." The Krogan overlord coughed. "You better be here to help, Ryder."
"We are." The Pathfinder said, his face turning to a grimace as he glared towards the Vong. "Let's take them down!"
And with those words, the team exploded into action, unleashing a torrent of fire towards the surprise attack. One of the Vong warriors ignored the fire though, and was moving in with its snake-like amphistaff to finish off a wounded Krogan.
Refusing to let that happen, Ahsoka leapt into the fray and blocked the strike with her lightsabers. She was surprised when the energy blades didn't even do a thing to the snake like creature, and narrowly avoided the venom spat from the creature's mouth. The Vong on the other hand, was not as surprised to see her.
"JEDI!" All the Vong turned at the scream, leaving Ahsoka under their angry gaze as a chill ran down her spine.
These things knew what she was, and more to the point, looked at her with a blind hatred only matched by the Sith. Especially when several of them charged right towards her, ignoring the mass accelerator fire that was being shot at them (not that it was even penetrating their armor anyway).
The Jedi threw out a wide Force push, aiming to knock these Vong down and give herself room to manuever. But her eyes widened in shock when the telekinetic attack had little effect on the invaders. It seemed that they weren't just immune to being sensed by the Force.
"Your tricks won't work on us, Jedi!" One of the Vong shouted as it threw several small bugs towards her, whirling in mid air. She attempted to block them with her sabers, but the razer tipped bugs flew around and started cutting into her armor and skin. She screamed in pain as the razer bugs cut skin and drew blood.
"Get away from her!" Peebee shouted as she glowed with blue fire. She hit one of the Vong with a biotic warp, the energy tearing through him at a molecular level. She could swear he was enjoying the pain before he collapsed over dead.
Cora and Scott also joined the fray, the blue glow of biotics around their bodies as they unleashed their own attacks against the Yuuzhan Vong. Where the Force had no effect against the invaders, the opposite could be said about the element zero powers.
A biotic explosion shredded two Vong while throwing the rest aside, their unusual armor and weapons providing little defense against the esoteric dark energy. And that wasn't the only benefit.
Whereas blaster bolts and normal Mass accelerator rounds were seen to have minimal impact against the armor of the Vong, cryo and incendiary rounds had much more of an effect.
The burning and freezing seemed to hurt the definitely living armor, with several Vong being forced to fall back or die outright. However, one managed to avoid the brunt of the incoming fire, and charged at Ahsoka, swinging it amphistaff at her wildly.
"So now the Empire is finally willing to work openly with the Jedi." The Vong leader laughed. "Too little and too late!"
"How do you know of us?" Ahsoka demanded, even as she parried the swipe of an amphistaff. "Who are you?!"
"You know who we are!" The Vong replied, kicking her in the stomach and knocking her back. "Your galaxy will fall to us! Coruscant is already the new Yuuzhan'tar, and your New Republic is scattered beneath us! You will all submit to us, as a conquered species-GAK!"
While the Vong was talking and despite how alarmed Ahsoka was at his words, she was nevertheless able to focus on reaching out with the Force, not against the Vong himself, but by grabbing a few loose pieces of rock and debris. With a swipe of her arm, she hurled them at the warrior, the impact sending him flying back.
Glancing up at the cavern, she noticed a few loose rocks. With a brief use of the Force, she collapsed those rocks onto several Vong warriors, crushing them underneath. "Well, at least that works."
While this was happening, several other Vong warriors re-emerged from deeper inside the Colony tunnels, covered in injuries. They linked back up with one of the Vong leaders as they were pulling themselves out of the rocks.
Krogan proved tenacious, even to the Vong. The hardened species of Tuchanka had evolved to survive their wasteland of a home, and proved to be a dangerous threat to even the extra galactic invaders. Add in these reinforcements, and it was clear that a retreat was in order.
"We need to leave." The leader of the scouting group said. "The virus is not here."
"We can't leave now!" The other Vong replied. "The Jedi are here. We cannot let them escape."
That was when the sound of multiple ships landing outside and vehicles being offloaded permeated the tunnels of New Tuchanka. It was followed by the sound of running boots and explosions as more passageways were blasted into the caverns.
"We don't have a choice." The Scout replied. "We are outnumbered and outmatched as we are. We must head back and try another strategy."
That was the moment a force of Nexus Militia, Angaran Resistance fighters and Imperial Stormtroopers led by Storm Commandos emerged into the cavern, with General Kota leading at the front with his lightsaber active.
"Fine." The main Vong leader said, seething at the unexpected arrival. "But these unknowns must be dealt with."
"And they will." The scout replied. "Once we can get back in contact with the fleet and summon reinforcements. But we cannot win this battle with what we have."
"All warriors retreat!" The Vong leader shouted, his orders carrying even through the new din of battle.
Several eels uncoiled from a number of Vong warriors, and were thrown towards enemy lines like spears. Upon impact, they exploded with the force of Thermal detonators, catching a number of Angara in the blast radius.
The detonations also caused the more unstable portions of the cavern to start collapsing, with Ahsoka and Kota immediately diverting their attention to stop the debris from crushing anymore of their people.
With the Jedi distracted, the Vong warriors were quick to withdraw, escaping through the tunnels to their exfiltration point. Their asteroid shaped vessel was already waiting, firing off its Yaret-Kor weapons to cover their escape as the scouts withdrew.
As the ship lifted off into orbit, leaving a number of their own dead behind, the Yuuzhan Vong warriors within felt a degree of doubt, even as several Imperial walkers burned beneath them.
Several fighters, both familiar TIEs and complete unknowns, tried to intercept, but their dovin basals were sufficient enough to deal with the laser blasts and strange projectiles, while Yaret-Kor projectiles swatted them out of the sky.
The familiar shape of a Star Destroyer in orbit would be much more of a threat, but fortunately, they were out of range enough to allow a jump to hyperspace, avoiding these strange energy clouds as they did.
It felt wrong for the Yuuzhan Vong to retreat. It was almost completely anathema to their way of life. But times had changed. Even with their victory over Coruscant, they had lost so much of their own forces, so conserving them became a higher priority.
It didn't help that their latest mission had undergone unexpected complications. Their orders to find a bioweapon hidden away had drawn them towards the Unknown Regions, where an anomaly sent them to this unknown sector of space, filled with this unusual energy cloud.
In truth, they had been unable to contact anyone from their own species. At first, it was thought that their Villips had problems, but upon further inspection, it was discovered they couldn't detect any familiar patterns.
Their abductions of the unknown alien inhabitants of these worlds also painted a disturbing picture. Their translations were still a work in progress, but if what these 'angara' and 'quarians' said were true; they weren't even in the right galaxy anymore.
The Yuuzhan Vong didn't want to believe it, they refused to believe it. And the presence of the Jedi and Imperials certainly suggested that they were lying or there was a mistranslation. But if it was true, and that humans somehow evolved in two different galaxies...
The Vong commander of this scout group refused to think about it. For now, they would continue their mission. They would find the virus that they were after, and they would retrieve it. Once they did... their next course of action remained to be seen.
...
Back on the ground, the allied forces were left with a massive mess to clean up. The bodies these Yuuzhan Vong had left behind were not pleasant to look at, and doubled as a disturbing reminder to just what threats they had to deal with.
But much more worrying were the implications of what those Vong said, and it what it could mean for their own galaxy. As Ahsoka made sure to reiterate their words to General Kota and Captain Neral.
"And you're sure that's what they said?" Neral asked, actually present on the ground for once. "That they've invaded our galaxy and conquered Coruscant itself?"
"Basically." Ahsoka shivered at the implications once more. It wasn't something she wanted to contemplate, just for how surreal it was. "And they were definitely aware that we were Jedi and Imperials."
"And they said "your galaxy will fall to us"?" Kota asked in clarification. "Specifically?"
"Yes." Ahsoka's eyes widened. "You don't think that they could actually be from another galaxy, do you?"
"At this point, we may need to consider all the possibilities." The Jedi General said grimly. "Especially given our own predicament."
"We also need to figure out how they got here. And more importantly, just how many of them there are." Scott walked up, inserting himself into the conversation. "I'm hoping that they came through the same way you did and that there's not that many of them, but if they already crossed Dark Space once, they could do it again."
"If I may interject." SAM spoke up for all of them to hear. "It's likely that however these Yuuzhan Vong got here, we know what they were looking for. They did mention a virus, after all."
"Blackwing." Neral muttered, frowning as he grabbed his chin in contemplation. "That could explain a few things, but it raises even more questions."
"As if we don't already have enough of those." Ahsoka muttered, causing Scott to put a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, we're going to get through this, okay?" He then turned to Kota and Neral. "All of us. If we were able to deal with the Kett and the Sith, then we can certainly deal with these Yuuzhan Vong."
"I hope you're right, Scott." Ahsoka glanced at the Pathfinder, a small smile on her face in spite of herself.
"For now, our priority is ensuring that these Vong don't gain access to that virus." Kota said, shaking his head. "Priority two is finding out just how many of them are here."
"That's going to be easier said than done." The Imperial captain shook his head. "Especially without anyone to interrogate or a way to track them."
"We've got a live one!" One of the Krogan shouted. He had been digging through some of the rubble when the shifting stone caught his attention. It turned out that one of the Vong had survived getting the ceiling dropped on top of him.
"Not for long." Drack growled as he walked over, his shotgun aimed at the injured warrior.
"Stop!" Kota shouted. "We need him alive."
"You can't be serious." Morda growled, looking over to the Jedi and Imperial captain as they ran over. "These things have killed our people."
"And if we want to keep that from happening again, we need to know everything we can about them." Ahsoka replied, as Drack reluctantly lowered his weapon at Ryder's gesture. "So we need him alive."
"Infidels and infighting." The Vong warrior spoke, spitting up blood as he did. "Always the same. This is why you will fall to us." Scott walked up to the Vong warrior and knelt down till he was at eye level with the alien warrior.
"We'll see about that."
Right, and I think I'm going to end this chapter here. Suffice to say, we now have a good idea as to the situation, as do the Jedi, Imperials, Initiative and Angara. For now, the Yuuzhan Vong will be serving as the arc villains after the Sith, but I'll just leave it at that for now.
With that said, I hope everyony enjoyed this chapter and reviews are always welcome.