I return after a 3 year absence, time to wreck this story
Danil and Rokka stood up and followed Shepard, following to what they believed to be an armory of sorts. The doors had a soft hiss as they opened, Danil saw a dark skinned man cleaning and field stripping weapons on a raised table, he must be the quartermaster it seems. This armory must have been only supplied with enough armaments to supply maybe 2 or 3 squads of men at best, but what he couldn't see were stacks upon stacks of armor. Do these madmen rush into battle with no personal protection aside from helmets?
"Where is your body armor or flak vests Shepard? Do you send your men into battle without any protection?" Danil asked with a worried tone.
"What are you on about? We have enough kinetic shield emitters for every person on board twice over" Shepard looked insulted.
"A...kinetic shield?" Danil paused, if Shepard was talking about a personal shield and having them in such bountiful quantities...
"You mean a shield that can protect against blasts or solid projectiles?"
"Not only solid, that can also shield the user from radiation and even act as a temporary closed environment in extreme weathers or even against toxins"
This is something humanity lost? Mass producible personal Rosarius devices? However this must mean that their armor will be built lighter, relying mostly on shields. "I see, then shall we continue to our weapons then?" Rokka mumbled to Danil asking if these kinetic shields are like those amulets the Ministorum adepts wear, he replied with a yes and told him to stay quiet and let him do the talking.
"Of course, we had some questions about some of these, mainly how you have such weapons" Shepard said as he took the lasguns and sabre out of a gun locker.
"That's going to be an issue, both me and the Sergeant only know the basics of how the lasgun works and how to clean and maintain it. Manufacturing and the science behind it are almost a mystery to us" Danil replied, sounding disappointed that he didn't know. "And the power sword is completely out of the question, it was a relic passed down through my family for about 5 generations now. And as such the technology behind it has been lost in most parts of the Imperium, making manufacturing impossible"
"Ah, I see" Shepard paused, thinking about his next question "Then you wouldn't mind if we scanned these weapons and then you tell us what you know about them?"
Danil smiled "If it means progressing humanity and giving it the upper hand over xeno scum this early on, I will tell you everything I know!"
Shepard recoiled back at Danils statement "What do you mean by xeno? Aliens? Anyone else other than humans?"
"What else could I mean? Humanity has always been fighting xenos since the dawn of time, it is our divine birthright to rule the stars. Granted to us by the Holy Emperor"
Shepard began to worry, has he brought back 2 fanatics and human supremacist from the future or is everyone like that there "Lieutenant, right now humanity is more or less at peace with all other alien species that we know of. Aside from pirates and other such undesirable elements of society"
"We have good relations with most of them. Some even marry other species" Jacob added.
Shepard was shocked that a member of Cerberus was able to say such a thing and not mention how disgusting it is.
Danil gagged at such a possibility, not only did they allow the existence of other xeno but they...copulated? How can this be possible? "So your telling me that there are humans out there willingly interbreeding with one their arch enemies?" If any of the men under Danils command would show signs of sympathy towards the alien or mutant he would've done the Commissars duty himself on spot. Showing sympathy to ones own kind is to expected, even if your battling against them. But showing it to a completely different species? It doesn't make any sense. He looked back at Rokka and he had the same thoughts as him.
"Okay, Lieutenant. I see that I struck a nerve there but this is something you have to start getting used to. Aliens or as you call them 'xenos', live side by side and have been for decades now. If you plan on working in this team" Shepard raised his hand and pointed at Danil like a father would teaching his son "you must be able to work with other species and show restraint when talking to them" Such a gesture would've been somewhat menacing to the Lieutenant, however he towered over Shepard as well as having more mass than him.
"If you dare to order me to do such heretical acts, I would sooner discharge the Emperors mercy to everyone on this ship" Danil sneered, making him follow such ludicrous orders would be unthinkable.
Shepard stood and thought for a moment "You will have to work with aliens whether you like it or not, but I can offer a compromise, you don't have to talk to them or be in any contact. But you must be able to work as a team when needed" Shepard believed this could be enough to make Danil agree.
"Id sooner take my own life than fight alongside a xeno" Danil replied without a moment of thinking about the preposition.
Shepard remembered that when Danil mentioned fighting aliens he fought against orks, maybe his knowledge of other alien species is limited? Perhaps showing other species could help with this. "Lieutenant you mentioned that you have fought against orks, is this the only other alien youve seen?"
"No Ive battled against Eldar but I have never seen their faces, too busy crushing their bodies under the treads of the tank"
"Okay..." Shepard paused, disgusted to think about something like that "Then what do you think of the Asari?" Shepard said as he pulled up a hologram image of an Asari
Danil studied the xeno in front of him. It was a blue female that looked human enough but had a blue skin pigment. She would've been beautiful by most human standards if it were not for the disgusting tentacles pointing back on their head, like that of a mans hair that's been oiled back to hold its shape. "So these Asari, what do their men look like?"
"Oh they don't have a male gender, they're all born female and can reproduce with each other as well as virtually any other species out there"
This vile creature can reproduce with anything including itself? "Seems like some kind of Slaaneshi warp spawn, something like Daemonette"
"Can you explain both of those things? Because it seems we will be in the dark about most things you will mention" Jacob requested.
"Yeah that would be best for all of us here" Shepard added.
Danil was surprised, perhaps the Warps presence is lesser in the past during the infancy of mankind? "Well Slaancesh is the god of chaos of pleasure and ecstasy and Daemonettes are one of the numerous warp spawn that worship it" Danil explained in a calm manner as if describing a mundane chemical reaction.
Jacob and Shepard stood in shock. Gods? Demons? What kind of fantasy will the galaxy become in the future? Shepard tried to understand what Danil meant by 'god of chaos'. He obliged by explaining to the best of his ability and knowledge about the chaos gods and what each of them represent and the threat to humanity they bring. Shepard and Jacob looked at each other with even more disbelief than before. "Okay look maybe we should avoid talking about these things right now because we'd be here all day"
"Agreed and I wish to finally reunite with my family heirloom" Danil desperately needed to clean and bless the machine spirit of his sabre, too much time has passed from its last blessing and Emperor knows he will need this sabre more than ever
Shepard handed Danil his sabre and Rokka his lasgun, they detached the magazine from the both lasgun for now for obvious safety reasons. "Rokka you strip your lasgun and explain how it works, I will go and bless the spirit of the sabre"
Jacob raised an eyebrow "What does he mean by bless the spirit?"
Rokka replied with a quick explanation of how the machine spirit is inside very bit of machinery and technology mankind uses. Ranging from the smallest sword all the way up to the spirit of super heavy tanks. He then proceeded to field strip the lasgun and began explaining how the focusing lens other pieces of the lasgun work. In addiotion telling Jacob that unfortunately most of their powerpacks are on low charge due to being out in the cold for so long.
"Do you normally get new ones when the old ones burn out or are they rechargeable?"
"Oh heavens no, if we threw away a powerpack every time it ran out we would have planets consisting of only powerpacks. Yes, we can recharge them although I doubt we can find a charging station at this point in time. Although we can recharge them with the heat generated from a fire, that however will damage them and at some point make them unusable.
"Do you mind?" Jacob reached out his hand to take a closer look at the powerpack. Rokka obliged and handed it to him.
After a moment of looking Jacob was surprised to find a obvious port for a wire covered with by a sliding metal plate that had a lightning bolt on top, he asked if this was for charging. Rokka confirmed, what this said to Jacob was that he should be able to make an adapter that should be able to fit on the powerpacks to charge them. This was some good news for both Imperials because it meant they will maintain the advantage of having training for their own weapons instead of having to master new ones.
The ship echoed a tune through out the ship notifying the crew that it was time for dinner. "Wait we've been here for over 8 hours straight?" Shepard did not notice the time fly,, maybe everything was just that captivating.
When the tune finished Danil Sheathed his sword and uttered a small prayer while holding in an offering position. After finishing he finally attached it to the left side of his waist, keeping his left hand on the pommel. Shepard noticed that he only wore a glove on his left hand, maybe he knows it scares people away?