Chapter 2-
As the Captain left, the Turian that had been watching the event came up to them. Ruby and Neo already knew who he was, the Captain having informed them both about his presences but not explained it.
"Spectre Nihlus. A pleasure, I'm Commander Rose and with me is Commander Gelato." Ruby said calmly, introducing the pair.
"I know who you are Commanders. Especially you Commander Rose, I look forward to seeing what you have to offer." Nihlus stated before leading the way up to the pilot's chair.
They were quiet as the pilot was flying them towards the relay, calling out all the information as he went through the relay, the inertial dampeners forgoing any feeling of the jump but regardless both women felt it.
"Good job. You're Captain will be pleased." Nihlus commented as he walked away, going to meet with Anderson.
"Good? I'm not good, I'm not even great, I am the best damn helmsman in the Alliance fleet! Look, you remember to zip up your flight suit on the way back from the bathroom, that's good. I just shot us halfway across the galaxy and hit a target the size of a pinhead. That's incredible." The helmsmen, Joker stated to Kaiden.
"He's a Spectre. What do you expect?" Neo stated from behind, shocking the pilot.
"Gods! Don't scare a guy." Joker said, jumping from the sudden statement. "How do you move so quietly in all that gear?" Joker commented, looking over his shoulder to see the two women. Commander Neo, he had spoken with her. She was nice, and would play along with his jokes, whereas the other Commander, Ruby Rose was much different.
Everyone on the ship knew her name, and to a lesser extent knew Neo's. But Ruby was famous across the Alliance for what she had done, and it seemed to scream in her appearance and her behaviour.
Hidden beneath her red cloak she was never out of her armour or without a weapon close by, she was just as the stories said. Softly spoken except for anything official. Several people had attempted casual conversations with her only to be stonewalled.
As Qrow called through asking after a status report and Joker warned him about Nihlus being on his way, while asking for the two women at the same time.
"Thanks, piss him off why don't you." Neo mumbled as she turned to follow Ruby, who was already halfway to the briefing room already.
Walking past the ships doctor, Glynda Goodwitch Ruby just nodded at her while she called out, "Commander Rose, remember you need to see me for a psych evaluation." She called out, only to receive a grunt in reply.
"I'll bring her in doc, don't worry." Neo said, smiling to keep the peace a little bit.
Entering the briefing room, Neo shot a glare at Ruby. "Play nice, she gets to decide if we go on missions or not." Neo stated.
"Fine." Ruby said in reply, turning to see Nihlus looking at them, amused. Or at least they assumed amused. Turian's were always hard to read.
"Eden Prime, the jewel of Alliance human colonies." Nihlus said, ignoring the conversation the two shared.
"Wouldn't know, never been there." Ruby stated, acting on Neo's advice to play nice.
"But it's quite an accomplishment for humanity though, showing that your species is able to establish colonies and protect them." The Turian stated, watching Ruby keenly.
Ruby tensed subtly, it wasn't visible but the room suddenly felt colder and Ruby went to stand at parade rest while Neo spoke up.
"I suppose so, but we were under the impression Captain Qrow would be here." Neo said calmly.
"He'll be along shortly, I wanted to speak to you both in private first. Particularly Commander Rose." Nihlus said, amused.
"Why would that be Spectre?" Ruby asked calmly, though her body seemed coiled, ready to strike.
"You intrigue me Rose. Your past is one of note, many things stand out. From the beginning, through to now. You've both weaved a large tale, though it's not complete. I'm curious to see where it goes from here." Nihlus said weirdly.
"Perhaps it's time to tell them what the mission really is." Qrow said, coming through the briefing room door and entering the room.
"What are you talking about?" Neo asked, turning to look at the man.
"Nihlus is here to evaluate you kiddo, sorry, Ruby. He's here to evaluate you in the field. We're here on Eden Prime to retrieve a Prothean artefact that had been dug up on the surface, a beacon to be exact." Qrow explained.
"Yes sir, may I ask why me though?" Ruby asked, speaking up.
"The Captain has shown me your records, and while Commander Neo yours is no less outstanding. Commander Rose has shown that she will get the job done, no matter the cost. He's spoken of your character, so I'm here to evaluate you and depending on the outcome you may be inducted into the Spectre program." Nihlus explained.
A million thoughts shot through Ruby's mind at that, and she looked impassive on the outside. Not revealing what she thought, though Neo could read her and gently grabbed her arm and squeezed to bring Ruby back.
"Politics. Humanity would be taking a step forward, that's all they care about. But just think." Neo said softly, though the others in the room heard and while it was true to a point they all knew the truth.
"I understand." Ruby replied, but just then Joker came over the intercom.
"Captain, Joker. We just got a direct link from Eden Prime, and um…you need to see it." Joker said, he sounded somewhat worried.
"Put it up on screen." Qrow said, turning his attention to the screen.
The four of them watched as the sounds of battle and screams of pain came onto the screen, a cry for help broken up by static and then shaky footage of some ship before it cut off.
Qrow's keen eye picked out a time in the video and froze it there, revealing the almost squid like ship in the air that looked impossible.
"What is that?" Qrow mumbled.
"I don't know." Neo replied, while Ruby seemed to just stare at the image.
"I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." Ruby said huskily, staring at the image and her words caused a chill to go through the air, everyone shivering.
They all turned to the woman, seeing her eyes glowing slightly. "Ruby?" Neo said, snapping Ruby out of whatever it was she was in.
"Joker! Get a strike team assembled and in the hanger immediately! And set condition one throughout the ship." Ruby ordered in quick succession, getting an encouraging nod from Qrow.
"Let's move. We need boots on the ground yesterday." Ruby said, the two women almost sprinting out of the room, though they had no need to do so as they were fully armed.
It took thirty minutes, much too long in Ruby's opinion to reach Eden Prime. Kaiden, Jenkins and Neo were all suited up and ready.
"The beacon is your priority; survivors are purely secondary. We're running silent so no contact unless you must. When you've secured the beacon, radio for pick up and we'll swing by again." Qrow explained to them all, over the noise of the air rushing past the opened hanger door.
Ruby and Neo held a closed fist to each other, shaking it three times before making a shape. Neo went with paper, while Ruby went scissors.
"My command." Ruby said with a slight smile.
"Spectre, aren't you joining us?" Jenkins asked, hearing them approaching the first drop point.
"I move faster on my own. We'll rendezvous at the dig site." Nihlus replied.
The two women shared a look between each other, understanding passing between them. "I'm going with you." Ruby stated, moving closer to Nihlus.
"I work alone Commander." Nihlus replied immediately, annoyed.
"You're here to evaluate me, so let's go. Haven't got time to waste." Ruby said easily, she was in her element now and could easily talk.
"Fine. Let's move." Nihlus said and once Joker confirmed they were at the drop point they jumped.
Ruby pulled her hood up and followed Nihlus, as soon as her feet hit the ground she raised her weapon to her shoulder and checked her surroundings.
"It's clear. Let's move." Nihlus stated, "Take point."
Moving forward Ruby went in front Nihlus and led the way, they came across a series of dead bodies. Killed by some sort of plasma based weaponry.
"Don't recognise the bullet type, looks plasma based but I'm not entirely sure." Ruby said as she took a knee next to a body to look at the wounds.
"Got it. Let's move on, we need to secure the beacon." Nihlus reminded her.
Leading once more, Ruby moved through the colony with a stony silence. Ignoring the bodies around them and they didn't face any foe until they saw people impaled on these weird spikes.
"What the…" Ruby managed to say before the spikes started to retract and some sort of blue hued husks started to run towards them.
Ruby jumped back, weapon coming up into her shoulder with the trigger being pulled before it was fully aimed. The first bullet tore through the creature's stomach, but it didn't deter the creature as Ruby brought her weapon to aim at the head, and with another pull of the trigger the creature fell to the ground and stayed down.
Nihlus had already killed the other one, and the last one fell to Ruby's Omni-blade that flared to life as she dismembered it.
"What the fuck are they? They look like humans, or used to be humans." Ruby stated, looking curiously at the creature and took out a combat knife to try and discover more about it.
"Let's move. You can dissect them later." Nihlus stated, urging them forward.
"Got it." Ruby said, standing up once more and as they advanced over the next ridge towards more buildings they saw the cause of all the destruction.
They watched as two robots laid a human down on the spike, said human attempting to fight back but failing as he was placed on the spike and was impaled.
"Fire and advance!" Ruby called out, already killing one of the robots before moving on to the next. Her shields flared up as bullets hit them but she just shrugged them off.
"Rose! Get down!" Nihlus called out, but was ignored as Ruby did the opposite.
Her body flared up in a red hue, her biotics coming into power as she charged forward. Smashing one of the robots outright from the power of her charge, and Omni-blade deployed on her left and she removed the head of another before shooting a final one.
"Geth…fucking Geth." Ruby mumbled to herself, having recognised what the robots were.
"This is weird. They haven't been out of the Veil in decades, why now?" Nihlus voiced.
Before Ruby could respond a loud droning sound echoed around them all and they looked to see the massive ship taking off from the surface.
"That's not possible, surely a ship that large can't land let alone take off like that." Ruby stated.
"Seems we've got a lot of unanswered questions, but it looks like it was at the docks. We should head there and investigate." Nihlus said.
"Understood." Ruby said, raising a hand up to her ear, "Ground team, ground team. Scout One, report." Ruby said over the short-wave radio.
"Scout One, we have One KIA but picked up a survivor from the 212th moving to the dig site now. We've come across Geth, be advised." Neo replied.
"Copy Ground team, we've encountered them as well. Watch the spikes, they're hostile. We're moving to the docks, secure the dig site and we'll rendezvous when we can. Out." Ruby said, cutting the connection. "Let's move."
The pair moved silently, working together easily and using hand signals instead of talking. But they didn't encounter anymore Geth but heard fighting coming from the other team, and if the explosions were anything to go by then they were heavily engaged.
Reaching the docks, they found it near deserted, and while Nihlus went down to the main cargo area to look around, Ruby remained searching the living buildings around the area, finding out that was locked.
As she was working through the hack, she looked over to check on Nihlus and saw him talking with another Turian, who was slowly raising his weapon to the back of Nihlus' head.
A/N
I apologise for taking so long in updating this, I've had a few things happen that's just put me off from doing too much but I'm sort of getting back into things.
This will go back to weekly updates now though, and I'm working on something else out of my comfort zone so that'll be interesting to see.
Anyway, not much more I want to say, so until next time.