I do not own either the Mass Effect series or the Halo series, they are owned by their respective owners.
"speech"
"radio/hologram/etc. communication"
Ship Names
'thoughts'
You get the point.
Guest: Its not bullshit, due to the nature of mass effect technology and Eezo, ME ships and weapons are alot faster than Halo and remember speed plays a large part in penetration and kinetic force.
SaidNoEvil: ONI is ONI they will do whatever is needed to ensure the survival of Humanity, i feel like the moto of the SCP foundation 'we die in the dark so thay you may live in the light' is kind of fitting for ONI in a sense
N1cok: Drescher goes from the assumption that the Citadel races will not know how to operate forerunner technology. It is a over confident stance but somewhat placed in fact.
Blaze and Prime Cronos: The UNSC and by extention the UEG cant officialy agnowledge the attack as one sanctioned by the council since the human population would demand war. But Tevos and by extention the Asari will regret it.
Guest: Specters arent trained. Specters are selected from a large group be it ex military, mercs etc. any skills, including interrogation suvival training they bring with them is the only one they have.
2584/2174CE August 8th, Unknown System, ONI Darksite Charlie 7
Admiral Harper, or simply Jack to those that knew him, was a man that never really slept much. Today was no different, having to travel from Earth all the way here was taxing on the man that only slept for 4 hours each day, the information he came here for however was worth the sleepless flight. He entered the Computer lab of the ONI base where a group of operatives were already waiting for him.
He took out a cigarete igniting it and saying "What do you got?"
The lead of the operation Operative Brooks responded "Sirta foundation office on Thessia within first hours of opening shop in Armali intercepted serious traffic between the different Republics. Our Agents imbedded in the Office managed to intercept this" she said as she showed the different signals.
"All of them are using different encryption keys, did you find the same key that matches the one from Sarens Omni-tool?" asked Harper letting out smoke
"That we did. The Encryption Key is used by the Tevos House, the Embassy Agents and AIs imbedded in the Citadel confirmed the same encryption key was not only used to contact Saren with the Mission details but also one other Individual" said Brooks as the brought up a Picture of an Asari that Harper Already recognized.
"Aria T'loak" he only said
"Correct Admiral, yesterday we managed to crack the encryption and we found out that Tevos paid Aria a hefty amount to attack Eden Prime, Aria at first refused but got blackmailed by Tevos later on, noting about how she managed to reintroduce Aria to the council of Matriarchs"
"Good job Operative, I expect the Encryption of the T'suza and T'soni families to be cracked by the end of October" he said as he turned around walking to the comms room of the Base.
Normally bases like this had the Communication options limited, Either to ONI Command, to him Personally or the general UNSC Emergency Channel. Normally. If you have high enough clearance you could contact anyone inside of this galaxy with no time lag, even contact the Ark with slight delay.
Inputting his clearance code Harper contacted the one Individual that could claim to have some sort of power over him. "Drescher, my teams have found it"
"Colour me surprised Jack, I gave you 3 months you did it in 3 weeks. What do you got for me. " asked Drescher
"Cutter was right, Councilor Tevos ordered this Attack. Paid the Pirate queen of Omega a hefty amount, enough to buy you that new cruiser you want for your fleet. Knowing this was suicide she highbred the biggest scum of the station and surrounding systems. Eclipse and Blood pack mercs some big shot Batarian slavers, she hired them all."
"That's one less thing to worry about. What About Tokyo and Berlin?"
"Inspection of the wreckage found nothing conclusive besides that whoever attacked them has good decryption capabilities and is armed enough to stand up to our Ships. The Blackbox of both ships is completely wiped clean. The Wreckage itself suggest a Energy weapon of sorts, the damage sustained is similar to Covenant Plasma lances but not quite. We speculate that the weapon fires molten Metal to achieve the same result but the extend of its power is unknown. All bodies were recovered from the ships except for the Pirate ship, surprisingly no body was found and the ship sustained no Damage. This suggests that whoever took out the 2 frigates either disabled the pirate ship through as of yet unknown means or the pirate ship got abandoned in favor of the unknown."
"That's not good, I will allocate additional ships to patrol the Mass Relay sector. What about the Prime Minister, did he try to reach out already?"
"He bit down on the bait, agents report he truly believes there is a huge rift between UNSC and ONI leadership if all goes according to plan he will be gone by next year"
"Good, remember Jack, we need that budget. Humanity first Party needs to win the next election for that to happen. I expect dirt to be dug up on the opposition and distributed during the elections to parliament and for the PM"
"It can be arranged, we already have some dirt on Schneider and his coalition, sexual favors, bribery and surprisingly occult activity has already been recorded."
"That's good, now, I heard you plan on going forth with the Blue Suns initiative. I want a target raided and I wont take no for an answer"
"What kind of Target?" he asked Skeptically, Drescher usually washed her hands from this kind of thing.
"If the Asari want to play hard ball we will play with them. Establish the Blue Suns as a major player in the Terminus, have them soften up the Eclipse and Blood pack before we and the Turians finish them off in the Upcoming deployments. Stage some confrontations between joint Patrol groups. Once they form enough clout have them Strike Illium"
"Illium? Why is that?" asked Harper Surprised
"The Quarians, Slavery is illegal inside of Citadel Space they do talk about how what the Batarians are doing is bad but they don't bat an eye on Illium. The Quarians make majority of the Illium Slavery and many Citadel Companies including many Asari ship and weapon producers make use of their expertise. Sack Illium, hit the Stock Exchange and kidnap the Quarians. The Asari will feel the hit for Decades to come."
"You bad woman." Replied Harper with a smile
"Oh you flatter me" she said
"Still this kind of strike will require many ships, personnel and not to mention money"
"I have the ship part covered, how does 5 Autumn-class and 30 Stalwart-class sound?"
"That makes it more then enough. As for Personnel I already have an Idea. Now the money part"
"Prize law still applies even after a 1000 years Jack, what they steal remains theirs. Offer up to 200,000 Credits for each hit on Merc Bases and prepare a fund of 50,000,000 for Illium. I can live without a Dreadnought for a year. And for Personnel I know you said you have it covered Jack but I want veterans, retired soldiers. No inmates or Pirates, we both know how last time ended"
"alright I will make sure of that. Now then, does next week still stand? Same restaurant as a year ago?"
"Don't try your luck Jack, I might have agreed to go to dinner with you but im not going back there, I am sure the chef tried to poison me with his 'speciality'" She said and disconnected
2584/2174 August 10th, Trebia System, Palaven
Garrus got out of the Taxi taking his bag with him, looking at the house he was standing before was a weird feeling. After a while he regained his resolve and walked to the door opening it and stepping inside. As he entered, the door closing behind him, he saw pictures on the wall, him graduating bootcamp, his sister graduating bootcamp, him getting into C-SEC. His sister getting her first paint set.
"Garrus, what are you doing here?" asked a Voice he knew too well.
Turning to face the person Garrus spoke "I came to visit before I ship out, I have been recalled back to service"
His father grabbed Garrus in a hug "Its good that you are here, your mother has been asking about you. As much as it breaks my heart I have to ask you to not tell her what you will be doing. Letting her know will make her worry and stress."
Returning the Hug Garrus replied "Don't worry father, I wont." Both of them broke the Hug and garrus asked "Have you looked for treatment outside of the Hierarchy?"
His Father looked down at the floor "I Did, the Asari are demanding a astronomic amount to even check up on her, the Salarians checked up on her and are researching ways into it. The Hanar have looked at her and said there is nothing they can do. I tried the Humans a month ago. They checked her and said they will study the condition further just as the Salarians did. I pray to the spirits for the best but I am slowly loosing hope"
"Its important to keep fighting, that's what you taught me father. Lets go and talk to mother while she still has the strength" said garrus as he slowly walked to the stairs leading up
2584/2174 September 14th, Tokyo-class Frigate UNSC New Alexandria
"Attention!" once he heard the one word that was grinded into him, Garrus stood at attention alongside 3 other Turians and 4 Humans wearing Black Armor.
In through the Door leading to the bay that they were standing walked a man wearing a jet black piece of armor and a Helmet with a silver visor and a red stripe under his arm, together with a Turian wearing also black armor. "I am Captain David Anderson of the UNSC Marine Core Special forces branch N7"
The Turian spoke "I am Colonel Adrian Kuril of the Turian Blackwatch"
"You recruits have been chosen to be part of the first and as of yet only Experimental joint Turian-Human special forces squad. We are currently in orbit above the training facility allocated to this unit. Your first task begins here, You are to storm the Facility and get as far in as possible to the location of an HVT" said Anderson
"For this exercise you will be using sim rounds and you will be dropped into the field of fire immedietly. Everything down on the ground is up to you on how you approach it" said Kuril
"Behind you, you will find 8 SOEIV pods, pod 5 through 8 have been modified for turian physique. Any questions?" asked Anderson
The Turian next to Garrus, Tiran Kandros if he recalled raised his hand "Sir, how will pods help us get to the surface of the planet?"
Anderson smilled "You lot will be entering the battlefield in style" this sentence visibly soured the mood of the humans standing to his right, Garrus noticed, of course they already had a suspicion when they heard the name SOEIV but thought the captain was joking "You will be flying in the metal coffin, feet first into hell" he finished as he put his helmet on as did Kuril "Prep for combat drop" he said as the bay they were standing in was bathed in red with Clarkson's blaring.
Taking a seat in the pod Garrus prepared for the worst as he looked down on the planet, they were really high up, he just hopped the humans knew what they were doing. On one of the screens Anderson appeared while Kuril appeared on the other.
Kuril said "Relax recruits all you have to do is survive the fall, the pod is preprogramed to its stages as you cant yet control it." he finished and the pods started moving. Kuril started counting down "3, 2, 1, Drop!" he said and Garrus felt the contents of his stomach wanting to leave his body.
2584/2174 September 30th, Unknown System, Unknown Planet
John woke up, quickly scanning the area he was in. He noticed 3 things, first is that he is missing his armor, Second is that cortana wasn't with him and third was that the room he was in reminded him to a certain degree to Forerunner architecture but not quiet. Standing up he was startled by an opening door, taking a fighting stance he prepared for anything that could come through it.
To his disappointment and anger, a Monitor like 343 Guilty Spark Came through. It flew up to John who wanted to rip its light out but without his armor or any weapon for that fact besides his body the fight would be short lived. "You are awake reclaimer, splendid, splendid. My name is 031 Exuberant Witness, may I be of service?"
John relaxed a bit, lowering his arms and speaking to the monitor "Tell me where my armor and Cortana are"
The monitor stayed silent for a moment "Both are with the old one, luckily for you the old one also wants to speak to you together with your Ancilla. If you would follow me I can bring you to him"
John followed the monitor through empty corridor after empty corridor until he was brought out to a garden inside of this place. Trees, flowers and even animals were around with the sun shining from the sky. The Monitor flew past all of that until it led John to a Mass of Flesh that reminded him of the Gravemind and a Humanoid figure on his knees before the mass of Flesh.
The Humanoid figure looked at John as did the Mass of Flesh. It spoke to him with a booming voice "So you have finally woken up" It crawled up to John using the many insect like legs on its lower body to move. John Instinct moved back a few steps "I see you are afraid of even this form, I even made sure to use my original one as compared to last time, what a shame"
The kneeling figure yelled out "Don't listen to him human, whatever you do, don't listen to it and its lies" he was quickly pressed against the floor by unknown force.
"I Thought I told you to remain silent Shadow. This conversation if exclusively between me and the Reclaimer, you come in later"
John looked at the Mass of flesh and asked "What or Who are you, you speak as if we met before yet I don't remember meeting anything like you"
"You have met me more than once, as for who I am. I have many names none given to me by my chosing, I was called the beast, the Timeless One, your ancestors called me the Captive yet none can ever agree to call me by the name given to me by my people. I am Primordial yet you have met me under another form and name, if I recall you call me, gravemind" it replied
John knew that a fight was pointless against this thing yet he still held up his hands "That's impossible the Gravemind is dead, the Halo ring blew him up at the Ark"
"The body was destroyed, yet the mind cant be unless you wipe out my entire species alongside the flood. I have memories dating back billions of years. I shaped your species Human, I watched over it, I hid from the forerunners and I killed them once they failed me and my species. For you see the flood is not a mindless parasite only focused on consuming everything it comes across, it is made to look that way to entice cooperation.
The flood is much more, it is a chess piece in a far larger game. The game for the Mantle of Responsibility, My species created every living thing in this Galaxy as we did with many others. In each of them we bestowed the most promising species with the Mantle of Responsibility. A Task to protect all living things in the Galaxy, to preserve Life. In this Galaxy we at first chose the forerunners but their actions across eons made us reconsider this decision in favor of your species.
The forerunners turned on us wanting to claim the mantle for themselves. They traveled across this galaxy in order to wipe us out. But to us death is just part of a cycle we repeat for times unimaginable it ment nothing and in the end only made us realise the error of our ways. At that time we realized that a species needs to first prove itself worthy of the Mantle, as such a species deemed suitable to receive the Mantle would be subjected to tests.
The conflict you call the Human-Covenant war was one such test, as was the Human-Forerunner war. Would your species chose to fight an enemy stronger than you even if the extinction of life was almost guarantied? The answer was yes, as such you passed the first test. Next came the one that the Forerunners failed.
In an attempt to keep their hold on the Mantle the forerunners made sure no species could rival them after their war with Humanity. Many space faring species were cordoned in their homesystem or only allowed few systems to colonize. Any that objected were degraded and left to fend for themselves on their worlds.
As such when the flood came to punish the forerunners they fought alone, no one there to help them, no one there to fight alongside them.
When the flood came at the darkest hour of Humanity. You fought and defeated it yourself, when we came the second time you managed to put your differences off for long enough to fight us and defeat us once more. After that you could have turned on yourself, but tired of war and destruction, you instead chose to rebuild and create life once more. Even now faced with enemies that want to see your downfall Humanity does not go out of its way to kill them even if they posses the power to do so. As the remaining flood has been rendered inert. What once made it up, will return to its original form and will seed life in a new galaxy.
Yet there remains one more test to see if Humanity is truly worthy of the Mantle. The time is nearing to see if we need to recreate life in the Galaxy of if we can entrust you to keep it safe"
It finished talking leaving John to think about what he just heard. He However had more important things to care for "Where is cortana" he asked
The mass of flesh showed its teeth in a crude smile "Even faced with the knowledge of millions of years, you still value life over it. You might just pass it." he moved one of its 4 arms revealing curtana's Chip to him.
John grabbed it gently "Cortana are you alright" he asked.
Cortana soon appeared in Hologram form from the chip with a smile on her face. "Never been better John, I feel better than I did when I was created"
"The Design is primitive, but I cant blaim you for it even the forerunners never managed to find a way to create Artificial Life without rampancy. One of my gifts to you is an upgrade to her form." Replied the Primordial.
John was relieved as he heard that, he was scared of letting cortana go, he was scarred of her dying from rampancy. Knowing she was alright and would never suffer like that again brought a great amount of relief to him. Enough to focus on his current situation "Where are we right now?" he asked
The Primordial turned around extending his arms "We are in my garden, I create and observe life here. As I did for eons. I observe the beauty of life, its cycle and more. As for where my garden is.
We are in a place created by my people, used by the forerunners after our supposed extinction.
This place contains the sum total knowledge of everything in the galaxy. From the extermination of my kind by the forerunners, the creation of all life and even the defeat of the Flood by the hands of Humanity. This is the domain, my final gift to your species"