Authors note: Sorry for the wait for this chapter, a convention, this disgusting heat, and life got in the way.
Also, the next chapter is when i shall close the Shepard poll, its a tight race so please do vote if you havnt already
Now on with the show!
"Heh, looks like we owe Marisa a drink after this is all done."
Tenshi smiled as she looked over to Iku, her long-time friend and assistant. Iku was wearing a similar uniform to her own, though the accents and edging were blue and red in coloration. She was standing at a window of the drop shuttle they were in, glancing out at the beam that was devastating the alien fleet, Marisa's handiwork. "We'll just have to surpass her with taking control of the situation quicker than expected then. Otherwise Marisa will gloat about this every chance she gets." Tenshi replied with a grin as she sat against the back wall of the shuttle.
"That may be a challenge, unless you're planning on hitting every alien with a lightning bolt at once!" came a snide remark from one side of the shuttle.
Tenshi looked up at the voices owner and grinned. Standing there was Reisen Udongien Inaba, a moon rabbit of Luna and one of Lady Kaguya's oldest retainers, second only to Eirin Yagokoro. She was the highest ranked Red Eye in the alliance, as well as a mid-ranked operative. She wore low fitted black leather pants and a simple black sleeveless shirt with a vest over it. Two holsters and sheathes were held firmly on the belt around her waist, and one of the knives was in her hands being sharpened by a small stone. Her hair was long and hadn't changed whatsoever from how she kept in in Gensokyo, but she did have some sort of earpiece that went from her ear down around her neck and over both eyes, giving her red eyes a pinkish hue.
"Hardly. That would be Iku's job." Tenshi said as she looked at Reisen and then glanced at the eight other Red Eyes that were sitting or standing in the shuttle with them, preparing for their quickly approaching mission.
"Please don't make me try that." Iku said with a sigh. "If I cannot see them, it would be nigh impossible to hit them accurately even for me."
"I think she's taking you seriously." Reisen said with a grin as she flipped her knife around, more akin to a dagger from its shape, and slipped it into its sheathe without even looking.
"Yes, she is." Tenshi replied with a grin, making Iku sigh again.
"Entering Atmosphere!" came the shuttle pilot's voice through the intercom, just as fire seemed to flare up outside every window of the shuttle.
"About time," Tenshi muttered as she looked to Reisen. "Your people are ready?"
"Yes, unless the mission has changed."
"It hasn't. I want your forces spread across the city and harassing the alien forces. Kill commanders, squad leaders, or any other targets you wish. Sabotage their equipment if possible. Terrorize their entire force and give them reason to fear the alliance."
"More reason in addition to the ones that our other forces will give them?"
"Yes."
Resien nodded and after a few second of silence looked at Tenshi again. "Why did you want us to come with you down to the planet in a shuttle?"
"It's faster. The quicker I get down and take command, the sooner I can control the battlefield. I want to be in control before our main forces get down and fully deployed, and considering that our cruisers, while able to enter atmosphere, are slow, this is the fastest way." Tenshi explained calmly.
"It may be fast, but if the cruisers are landing behind us, we could come under attack." Reisen countered.
"She has already made up her mind, there's no changing it." Iku provided just before the shuttle suddenly shook a bit, making every Red Eye hop to their feet and ready weapons in less than a second.
"Sit rep, now!" Tenshi commanded as she tapped an earpiece in her right ear.
"We're getting long range flak from the alien base outside the city. Alien strike craft are also trying to strafe us. Shanxi's air defence is thinner than expected."
"Did something happen to some of the air defences?" Iku asked as she held a button on the one wall.
"Unsure. Our shields are holding, but the landing zone may be hot."
"How long until we arrive?" Tenshi asked sternly
"One minute."
"Then just hover above the LZ, we'll airdrop." Tenshi ordered as she stood up, causing everyone to tense at her words with anticipation.
"An airdrop, really?" Reisen asked as she began stretching in the shuttle along with the rest of the Red Eyes.
"It's the fastest way down." Tenshi said as she reached to one side of the wall and reefed on a level, causing the whole wall to begin opening up, creating a massive, yet withstandable wind to buffet the insides of the shuttle.
Outside of the shuttle, Xi'an was under siege. Buildings had clearly been destroyed, but it was also clear that the defensive lines that Tenshi had discussed with Williams were, for the most part, holding as intended. Alien aircraft, shaped like small pods with attached wings, flew about over the city with impunity, and the only AA that appeared to be firing were the mechanical emplacements around the headquarters. Tenshi's strategy was to use everyone's abilities to their best, and Yuuka had volunteered to operate her sunflowers as an AA resource. If they were not firing, had something happened to her?
"We're above the LZ!" The pilot said as the shuttle came to a stop to the side of Xi'an's command centre landing pad. "Good hunting!"
Pulled out of her thoughts by the pilot, Tenshi took a step forward and stepped out of the shuttle. She smiled at the familiar feeling of falling through the sky without a care, and quickly righted her body and landed on the platform with little more than a small step, making no sound whatsoever. A moment later Reisen and her forces landed soundlessly behind Tenshi, and then Iku floated down, having chose to slow her descent.
Turing around and looking up Tenshi could see the cruisers that were behind them now arriving, slowly descending over the city in preparation to disembark their forces. Lasers and beams then filled the sky as the cruisers attempted to keep the fighters off of them, to deadly effect.
"We're out of here. Time to see just how mad we can make these aliens." Reisen suddenly said as she and the Red Eyes all turned around and rushed off, jumping down the mountainside like it was nothing to them.
Tenshi nodded and did not even watch them go as she turned and headed toward the doorway into the command building, until the sound of a screaming in the air caught her attention. High above, zipping between two of the cruisers was an alien fighter craft, its one side letting a trail of was losing altitude fast, and then turned toward the platform, right at Iku and Tenshi, as if hoping to take someone out as a last act
"Shall I? Iku asked as she took a step forward, her red and white shawl floating around her, and crackling with energy.
"No, I'll deal with it." Tenshi said as she pulled the sword handle off her belt, the bright golden blade forming seemingly out of nowhere as it was touched.
Iku stepped back as the alien craft opened fire, sending small blue bolts toward them like hail as it careened towards them. Tenshi's arm moving staggeringly fast , blocking each round, destroying them on contact with her blade until the craft tried to pull up, passing over her head, and grinding into the landing platform behind them, skidding across it to the far edge before stopping. Surprisingly it did not explode, and a couple of seconds later, the canopy popped off of it, shattering on the platform. The battered form of an alien crawled out of the craft, making noises that Tenshi assumed were akin to a cough as it tried to get to its feet. Some information had been sent to her already on what the aliens looked like, but this was the first time Tenshi or Iku had seen one of the aliens, and they were not very impressive looking. They had small claws, seemingly pointless mandibles, and their legs were bent backwards, perhaps good for sprinting, but little else. Its skin was a metallic grey blue, and coming off of its head were numerous horns. Pulling out some sort of small weapon it turned to Tenshi and squawked, pointing its weapon at her.
"Stand down or die. Only warning." Tenshi stated as she pointed her blade at the alien.
The alien simply squawked again and shook its weapon, pulling some sort of disc out with its free hand and holding it at the ready.
"I warned you." Tenshi muttered with a shake of her head as red mist began forming around her blade. Hisou no Tsurugi was not a regular blade by any stretch of imagination, and the alien was about to find out why.
The alien fired its weapon, spitting a blue streaked fleck at Tenshi, who simply sidestepped it and dashed forward, grazing through the subsequent rounds the alien fired. Grazing was the act of utilizing a barrier alongside fast movement, usually flight or a linear dashing motion. The barrier would move enemy attacks to the side, allowing the user to close the distance and keep themselves protected and ready to strike all at the same time. It did have its drawbacks however, as a strong enough attack from the front, or attacks from the sides or rear, would often break through and hit. The alien's weapon was not capable of piercing her barrier, and within a second Tenshi was right in front of the alien, much to its surprise.
Swigging Hisou in a wide arc, seemingly bending far more than a sword should be capable of doing, Tenshi bifurcated the alien, dropping its upper half to the ground with a thump as its legs then fell forward a second later. Turning around and walking back toward Iku, Tenshi looked over Hisou, focusing her attention onto the mist that formed around its golden edge.
"So, what is their weakness?" Iku asked as she met Tenshi halfway across the platform and then turned toward the door into the building.
"Earth and water it appears." Tenshi said as the disc in the alien's dead hand, apparently a form of grenade, went off and blew its body to pieces. "If I was to use its weakness to affect the weather we'd get a torrential downpour that would likely flood the streets.
"Could be useful then if we use it right," Iku provided as they both stopped by the door as a shadow loomed over them, a cruiser slowly stopping above the platform.
"Perhaps, but I will hold back for now until our forces have landed. We'll let them have some fun, while we find out exactly what the situation is!"
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Rumia let out a smile as the infantry forces all stood and prepared to disembark from the cruiser carrying them. They had moved over Xi'an, the doors to the cargo bay had opened up revealing the city in all its splendor, and it was time to begin their mission.
"You all know your mission, deploy to the defensive lines to reinforce and hold them. Once the Special Forces have landed and come up behind you, you can join them in their advance. Good hunting!" The commander of the division said, just before turning around and running down the ramp to jump out of the cruiser.
In that moment everyone else began doing the same, leaping from the cruiser down to the battle below. youkai and Lunarians had powerful bodies, and leaping such a great height posed little problem to them. Even humans with a little technological assistance found it not as dangerous or fatal as it once had been.
Within a minute nearly a hundred soldiers had landed in the streets and flooded down them, spreading out to their predetermined locations as a hundred more prepared to come down behind them
Rumia flew down one street with a smile, heading towards the furthest defensive barrier alongside nearly four dozen other soldiers, a mix of various youkai, humans and Lunarians. Being behind their own lines they encountered no alien infantry, only the occasional fighter that tried to strafe them with little accuracy due to the cruisers supporting fire above them.
"Smoke ahead! Double time it!" one soldier called as he pointed toward a plume of smoke rising over a building ahead of them, right near their objective.
Everyone let out cries and roars as they turned the safeties off their guns, readied their magic, and drew their weapons.
Around the next building they found the barrier in broken pieces across the ground, its defenders lying on the ground or crouched behind rubble as they fired over at the alien forces that were further down the street.
The alien force was spearheaded by two angular floating vehicles with some form of turret on their tops. They fired a near constant stream of the blue glowing shots down the street, and beside them their infantry stood like a wall of armour and guns. It would have been an imposing sight to many, but not the Alliance, not Youkai, Lunarians, and the humans that trained and fought beside them as their equals.
No one had seen the aliens in person, yet despite this being their first view of them, not a single person held back, and rushed forward to the barrier, reinforcing their allies with all they had. Lasers, beams and magic soared through the breach in an instant, and the barriers defenders cried out in joy at the support as they fired with renewed vigor. The aliens were taken completely by surprise and fell apart for a moment, until their vehicles pushed forward and turned sideways, blocking their allies from being struck.
"Hold their attention!" Rumia cried out as she crouched down and moved to one side of the barrier by a collapsed alleyway. Concentrating for a moment she formed a ball of darkness in her hand and grinned as she popped back out of the alleyway and tossed it into the alien's ranks. A moment later the entire alien force was covered in black mist, making it impossible to see them, or for them to see.
Much to everyone's surprise, Rumia then leapt over the barrier and charged into the black mist, holstering her pistol and brandishing her sword in both hands. In the past, her abilities affected her like they did anyone else, making her darkness useless for most situations besides self-preservation. Now she could see through it perfectly, as if there was no darkness surrounding her or the aliens. They glanced around in fear and confusion, easy prey for her blade.
Each swing of her blade cut deep into the aliens, their barriers unable to activate to counter its speed, and their frail armour unable to stand up to the strength of such swings. Cries of pain and fear echoed out of the darkness as her blade danced through them, severing limbs from bodies, dividing torso's and shattering weapons upon her blade.
Leaping through the darkness Rumia could tell it was beginning to thin and lunged at one of the vehicles, hoping to destroy at least one of them. Her blade soared through the air and into its armor, slicing partway through, but stopping before she could finish the cut. Reefing on the blade did nothing but make metal groan and whine, but it would not budge. Whatever it had struck beyond the armour had firmly caught hold of her blade, it would not move.
"Damn thing! Rumia groaned as she placed a foot on the vehicle and continued to pull, even going so far as taking out her pistol and firing at the armour around her blade, hoping to break it free.
"Get out of there!" someone called from behind her, causing Rumia to glance around, to see the second vehicle aiming its main gun at her.
Rumia just grinned as the gun began whirring. The gun fired, but not quickly enough to hit her as Rumia used her lodged sword to spin around onto the top of the alien vehicle. With her pistol in hand she fired at the second vehicle from atop the first until it realigned its gun at her and fired, dodging its shot by moving at the last second, a blue fleck skinning her cheek as she moved. Running around the vehicle as it tried and failed to track her, Rumia climbed up its back and began shooting at the turret, causing it to spin around to target her, while the vehicle itself still spun around. Jumping off of it Rumia positioned herself between both vehicles, but instead of the one firing on her, it moved to the side, and the other tried to fire on her. It seemed these aliens were too smart to fall for being tricked into shooting each other, she needed a new plan, one that did not include running off and leaving her sword embedded in an enemy vehicle!
As if answering her prayers, four beams suddenly seared from the barrier and into the vehicle she had been harrying, cutting and burning though its armour until it began to some and explode. This took barely two seconds with all four beams focusing their fire on its side.
Taking the chance that she was given Rumia chose to deal with the other vehicle herself. Grabbing the turret of the one that had been destroyed off the ground she swung it around and threw it into the turret of the other, crushing them together before she rushed forward and gripped her sword again, this time standing on the vehicle from above it.
All four of the soldiers with beam weaponry began firing on the vehicle in that second, and much to Rumia's joy, one of the beams was striking right beside her blade, heating and cutting through the armour. Her blade budged, then shifted, and finally she ripped it out of the enemy vehicle , just before it exploded and sent her flying back to the ruins of the barrier with a hard crack.
"Ow. Not my best choice of actions." Rumia groaned as she sat up and shook her head, feeling a little dizzy from the explosions blast wave and the knock she took on landing.
"I'd say, you're bleeding from three different places just at a glance." Said a human man as he knelt down and looked over Rumia's wounds, a medic from her group. "It looks like the projectile that hit your side is embedded, the two that hit your one arm went right through and your regeneration is healing them already, but I'll have to extract the projectile that is stuck in you, otherwise you'll heal over it."
"Oh, that would suck. This will hurt. Get it over with." Rumia said with a grimace as the medic pulled out what looked like a long pair of tweezers with teeth on the inside. She hated getting things extracted from wounds, it hurt far more than the wound itself ever did, and true to past experience she had to hold back a screech as the medic plunged the tweezer into the small wound and dug around for a second before pulling out what looked like a ball bearing, only it was smaller, like a grain of sand. "Wait, that's it?"
"Yes, it's smaller than I expected." The medic said calmly as he ducked down a bit, a couple of blue flecked shots flying overhead.
"No wonder I barely felt them." Rumi said as she licked her thumb and rubbed it on her cheek, smudging a small amount of blood before licking it off her thumb. "So how much damage did I do?"
"A pretty fucking lot, lass!" A British human man said from a few feet away as he leaned against a pile of debris. "You single handedly cut apart most of their vanguard, and with that we had time to dig in with everyone's help. You reinforcements know how to make a bloody effective entrance!"
"No, it's just one of our division's resident blade maniacs who's trying to get into the BladeBreakers." The medic said with a shake of his head as he slid back a bit and looked at Rumia. "Don't jump into combat again for a couple minutes so your regeneration finishes up."
"Yes, Dad!" Rumia said mockingly as she shifted and looked over the barrier, seeing the aliens not pulling back from their position at the streets end, but not moving forward either. Some of them were taking shots at the barrier at range, and their own people answered these shot for shot. "I don't think they're going to attack again anytime soon anyway."
"No, probably not. They've lost their armour, so they'll wait I think. We pushed them back a few times, but just before you came an airstrike hit us pretty hard and decimated our defences." one soldier, who looked wounded and weary, said from experience. "If you've arrived, how long until our forces are ordered to push forward?"
"We already have the order. As soon as the BladeBreakers start pushing forward, so do we." A Lunarian, holding a heavy beam rifle explained calmly as he set his rifle on the debris, pointing it downrange in case he needed to use it.
"Pretty soon I think, actually." Rumia said with a smile as she looked up at the command building and could see a cruiser leaving the landing platform into the evening light.
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With the last of the Special Forces disembarked, and the cruiser that transported them flying back into orbit, the BladeBreaker squads and the EarthRazer forces all began to prepare. The BladeBreakers broke up into their groups and began checking over their weapons, while the Earthrazers began organizing the area around the platforms, making sure they could set up their long range guns without problem.
"Make sure the gun legs are down nice and firm! We don't want them shifting as they fire!" Mokou no Fujiwara, the operative in charge of the Earthrazers called out to her people, getting positive responses from all of them.
Earthrazers were both heavy support and heavy assault specialists, focusing either on massive destruction from afar, or scorched earth from close up. With the Bladebreakers taking point on the operation, the Earthrazers were acting as long range heavy fire support, something they were all fine with.
The primary weapon of the Earthrazers in a support role was one of the Alliances few ground vehicles, the Merlin Self-propelled Variable Gun. It was designed partially off the early 21st century human self-propelled artillery guns. Like them it had a driver's canopy and had the main gun on the back of the vehicle, and it had external legs that deployed when it was to fire, but the similarities ended there. Once set up and ready to deploy its fire, the back section of the Merlin would open up, revealing a large crystal that glowed and pulsed in all colors. Around this crystal was a cage of metal that was open on one end, where five rails extended out like the sides of a barrel. Beside this crystal was a seat and console of controls where its operator controlled the gain, aiming and firing it as ordered. With the controls they could change the shots velocity, parabolic arc, size, as well as the element and how powerful the shot was. All of this meant that the Merlin was a very viable weapon for long range support, the only downside however was that it was not well armored, as additional armour beyond the guns travel casing, would interrupt the magical energy, meaning they could not take punishment beyond very small kinetic fire.
This problem was dealt with partially by its innate range, but also by the fact that as long as the battlefield was controlled and they were protected, they would not come under fire. With the command centre's AA they would be well protected, especially once they had firing coordinates.
Mokou had already spoken with Reisen by a private communication, so the Red Eyes, once the artillery were set up, would be able to call in precision artillery strikes on targets they deemed dangerous. Luckily, there were four Merlin's being set up, and very soon their crews would be itching to get to work.
Stepping away from the preparing crews, Mokou walked over to the edge of the platform and looked down at Xi'an. Smoke, fire, explosions, the sounds of laser and magic fire, and the occasional laugh or cry of enjoyment could be heard even from all the way above the city. It had been so long since many had been able to let loose, that most of their forces that did enjoy such violence were reveling in it.
She could roughly make out the lines of battled from the platform, and noticed that the BladeBreaker squads that had landed with them, had disappeared and were rushing down the mountain side into the city, not willing to wait any longer. It was going to be a very bloody first encounter for the aliens.
Turning around and walking over to her forces Mokou opened her mouth to speak, but stopped as the sound of an engine roared nearby. Turning on instinct she spun her leg out in a wide kick, sending out a wave of thick orange flame into the air, where an alien fighter craft suddenly appeared, having been in flight against the mountainside. Her flames struck it dead on, and the grey ship was suddenly glowing hot, its armour melting off of it, and its engines lighting on fire from the excessive heat. A moment later it simply stopped going up, and came back down as a ball of melting metal that splashed against the mountain side.
Mokou stared back out at the city, looking past it at the forest and further to the barely noticeable alien encampment, a field beside it where alien fighter craft took off and landed from. "Are the Merlin's set up yet?" Mokou called as she turned back and stormed over to the gun crews.
"All set! Ready for fire orders!" One solider called as he climbed up the cage around the merlin's crystal and dropped himself into the control chair.
"Good. Set the guns for high energy electrical cluster rounds!" Mokou said as she turned back around and looked across the city one last time before she would begin altering its looks herself. "Target the alien camp and airfield!"
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Saren growled as he ducked behind a wall, narrowly dodging alien fire that struck a soldier a few feet behind him, killing him instantly. Everything had gone bad since he had met his brother on the battlefield.
After losing the other two members of his group he had met back up with the rest of his cabal unit, which had taken similar casualties. After getting his arm looked over, and confirming it had just been bruised and twisted, he and the other cabals were back at the front, assisting another group that was trying to push through another alien barrier.
Then there was the strange beam up in space that caused a loss of communications, making every front confused as only short range communications were working between units, and communications with the camp was sporadic and jumbled. Even worse, almost immediately after that, alien ships began coming down into the planet's atmosphere, where they seemed to airdrop into the city!
Those exact reinforcements were responsible for his current situation. An airstrike had managed to destroy the oversized gun and the barrier it had been protecting, allowing the Jiris to move forward and act as walls, letting their forces move close enough to put real pressure on the alien defenders. They had destroyed the barrier, and then alien reinforcements came with some sort of smokescreen. Saren hadn't seen it himself, but everyone was saying that a single alien wielding a long sword, had ran in and torn apart the Jiris single handily, ending their offensive as the alien reinforcements pushed them back with their beams weapons.
He didn't believe a single alien could do so much, but the truth was that they had been pushed back just before his own unit arrived to support them, and the number of aliens now defending the barrier had grown, easily tripling their number, if not more. They had three jiris still, but with the alien heavy weapons able to punch through them in a matter of seconds, it was a flimsy shield, and the operators did not want to risk it, not until they had some more support, both from the ground and air.
Which led to the situation they now found themselves in, dug in at the end of road while they, and the aliens, exchanged rounds at a range that made it difficult to ascertain if anything was even hit!
"Spirits forsaken aliens!" one Turian roared as he moved his rifle around a pile of rubble and fired blindly for a couple of seconds before pulling back. "Ugh, where is that air support!?"
As if answering his cries a pair of Turian fighters zipped past overhead, pummelling the alien line with fire from their cannons. As they pulled up though, a pair of beams shot up, striking the wings of one fighter and sending it careening to the ground in the distance, hidden by buildings. The other was fired upon, but with some fancy maneuvers managed to dodge the beams, only to be on a course for crashing into the massive mountain at the back of the city. To everyone's amazement it managed to pull up and fly along the rise of the mountain, only for a wave of what looked like flames to flash out and engulf it, causing it to melt as it flew up, and then fell back done against the mountain, tumbling as a ball of flame.
"Oh, spirits. That's not good." the same Turian who had been complaining about the air support said in a very defeated tone.
Saren averted his gaze, looking instead at the alien line down the street; only, something was off about it. Grabbing an extra sniper rifle of the ground beside him he looked down its scope, to find, much to his surprise, the aliens appearing to fall back!
"The alien forces are falling back!" another Turian declared, evidently having noticed the same movement that Saren had.
"But why would they-?" one Turian began to ask, until a massive chain of noise echoed across the city as balls of yellow blue energy began being launched from the platform beside the cities command structure across the whole city.
"Spirits, they have artillery? Did they bring them in on those ships?" Saren muttered to himself as his mind began swirling with possibilities, including what the artillery could be firing at.
"The enemy is falling back! We need to push ahead!"
"No, their firing on the base, we-.."
"We stay put!" Saren yelled, catching the attention of everyone who was arguing and nervous about what to do. "The enemy is pulling back and have artillery; they are likely trying to lure us to a positon they can strike us. The buildings must protect us here, so we stay here and wait for the extra reinforcements and artillery support we requested!"
"Sir, yes-.."
"Contact!" A Turian suddenly called out, bringing all eyes down the road to where the alien line had been.
To everyone's surprise, a single alien was standing in the middle of the road. No one had managed to get a solid look at any alien yet, but something about the alien just standing there sent warning sirens blaring in everyone's mind, even more so when they slowly began walking down the street toward them.
"Are they armed?" Saren called out, hoping for answers. If the alien was unarmed, it was possible they had defected, or were delivering a notice of surrender. Not that they would be able to understand them as of yet, no one had heard anything about how a translation for their language was going.
"Unsure." A Turian replied as he looked through a rifle scope at the lone alien. "They carry no projectile weapon, but there's something on its waist."
"Let's take a look." Saren said as he took a sniper of the ground and looked through it at the alien.
The alien's basic build and looks matched that of reports from other squads, but the longer he looked at them, the more worried he became. The alien was clearly female judging by the shape of its waist and the curves on its upper body. She wore strange short pants that left the lower half of her legs bare and simple shoes that only went halfway up to her knees. A simple green shirt covered her upper body, short in its length and showing off a sparse strip of her belly. Over that she had a jacket, short in its length and its sleeves. All of her clothing was dark green in coloration except for the jacket, which was black. The fur on her head, in stark contrast to her clothing, was completely white and cut immaculately short.
What caught Saren's attention however, were the last three things he noticed. The alien woman had what looked to be melee weapons of some sort, likely swords, hanging off her waist in sheathes. She walked with a confident gait that screamed skill and training, and hovering above her, bouncing around aimlessly, was a mass of white mist like something that seemed to follow her. Was it some sort of Vi assisted drone?
Suddenly, the alien woman stopped, grabbed one of the sheathes with one hand, and the handle of the blade with the other, and fell into some sort of combat stance with one leg stretching forward, while the other bent down. Wind seemed to begin whipping around her as her stance bent further back, putting the rear end of the sheathe high into the air.
"Oh spirits, brace for attack!" Saren yelled out in realization, a second too late.
As soon as his words left his mouth, that woman struck, disappearing in the blink of an eye and appearing in the middle of the Turian forces nearly a dozen meters behind the two Jiris that had been completely in her way. Barely a fraction of a second later, both of the Jiris exploded as they were ripped in half lengthwise, and every Turian within a meter of the Jiris suddenly fell, their upper half's falling to the ground as blood spurted from both of their halves. With both Jiris's gone, and their comrades killed in such an impossible way, every Turian was stunned for a moment. It was all the time the alien woman needed.
The white mass of mist beside her bolted at a Turian, catching them in the shoulder and sending them to the ground with a spin. In that same moment the woman rushed to a Turian beside them, bringing her sword up through his lower torso up to his shoulder, cutting through armour, skin and bone with absolutely no resistance. As his body fell in two she moved on, and split three more Turians, often with only a single handed swing of her blade.
"Fire! Spirits take her down and fire!" one officer finally called a he raised a pistol at the woman and pulled the trigger, feeling the familiar kick of a mass accelerated round flying at his target. He saw the round streak toward her, but at the last second her free arm was impossibly above her head holding a smaller second blade, and she had seemingly not been hit.
Every Turian was now trying to fire at the alien, but simply holding her shorter blade in a reverse grip in front of her produced a seemingly impenetrable field, stopping every shot that tried to hit her as she continued to move forward, slicing into Turian's who could not move out of the way fast enough.
"Grr, stay still!" Saren growled as he pulled the trigger on the rifle he had, sending a shot down at her, only for it to ping away harmlessly as she moved her arm, her eyes falling on him at the same moment. "Oh, spirits." Saren muttered as he dropped the rifle and quickly pulled out his pistol.
This choice saved his life, as the alien woman lunged at him swinging her blade in a broad horizontal arc. Already having dropped his rifle, Saren threw himself to the ground, twisting so he faced the alien from below. Firing his pistol twice, one round missed, and the other skimmed the aliens arm, causing a thin line of red to appear on it skin. Its barrier was not permanent and didn't surround its entire body; it only appeared in front of it when it willed it!
The alien turned to Saren and moved forward, swinging its blade again at Saren who had tried to get up. Throwing himself to the side Saren threw out his arm, letting loose a biotic throw that flew right into the alien, knocking them backwards almost a dozen feet.
To his surprise however, the alien twisted in the air and landed on her feet, narrowing her eyes at him with a pained expression.
Saren grinned as an idea came to his mind. If the alien's barrier only protected its front, he merely needed to hit them in the back! Forcing power into his one arm, he raised his pistol in the other and fired at the alien, watching it produce its barrier in response as it took a step toward him. "Come on you savage! Come and die already!" He yelled as he felt his biotics surging to their greatest height. He was ready!
The alien rushed forward, holding its short blade in front of it, and the longer one to the side, clearly intent on plunging one of them into Sarens body, but as soon as she began moving, Saren reacted. Throwing his free hand up he produced a classic biotic attack meant for opening lines of movement, a Biotic Shockwave. A barrage of wide biotic shockwaves thrust forward like a knife, knocking aside anything in their path as they went. The first one to hit the alien was blocked by its barrier, but the second appeared right behind her, and sent her flying sideways to the ground. Before she had a chance to get up Saren launched another throw at her, sending her further sideways into a wreck of one of the Jiris with a thud.
Taking a step toward the alien, thinking of how much he would enjoy killing them when they had done to same to so many of his comrades, Saren glanced over the wrecked Jiris, and saw dozens if not hundreds of aliens all charging down the street, firing of their weapons and holding melee weapons high above their heads while screaming incoherently.
"Spirits, she was just the vanguard!" Saren said in shock as he looked back down at the alien, to see her now crouching on the ground. His training told him to shoot her, and his pistol moved to do just that, but she was faster, and her shorter blade whipped through the air and struck the side of his pistol slicing it cleanly in half, taking his trigger finger off with it.
None of his present training could stop the instant reaction of his remaining finger letting go of the remains of his gun, or screaming out in pain and grabbing onto his hand with his other, leaving him defenceless for a second. The aliens leg quickly came up and struck him in the side of the head, sending him sideways into a pile of debris.
"Gah, Sprits dammed savages," Saren groaned as he tried to push himself up, putting blue blood all over the debris beside him from his missing finger, and he glanced around. He was just in time to see dozen of alien of all shapes and sizes, all of them wielding melee weapons from knives, to clubs, to swords as long as they were tall, leaping over the Wrecked Jiris and cutting into his fellows.
Turian blood flicked into the air like raindrops and metal cut through them, too slow to be picked up by their barriers but fast and strong enough to dig right past their armour and into their flesh, sometimes right through the bone.
Most of the aliens went for Killing blows that would be instant, but he noticed a few of them went for more sadistic attacks, slicing limbs off and impaling people on their blades, only to throw them off to the side like garbage. He even saw one alien, wielding a sword of black metal, rush up to a Turian, impale them, and then literally bite his exposed neck with her mouth, before leaping back and sliding her blade out of their torso, just to swing it again and lop his head off.
These aliens were as brutal, no, more brutal than the Krogan! They were not savages; they were monsters masquerading as a species!
The alien that bit one of his comrades suddenly looked to Saren and said something in its tongue, causing many other aliens to turn to him, and one to aim what looked like a pistol at him. Then the white haired alien, who apparently had gotten up, yelled something, causing almost all of the aliens but a few, including the one that had bit into a Turian's neck, to run off and go after others in the area.
One alien walked over to the white furred one, holding what appeared to be a short blade, far more simple looking than what other aliens seem to carry, and spoke with them for a few seconds. Once done, they threw the sword to the ground at Sarens feet, along with a chain of some sort with a metal ring on each end. It seemed likely it was some sort of detaining tool, and it made the message clear.
Put the chains on and surrender, or pick up the blade and fight.
Saren looked around, looking at the carved up and mutilated bodies of his comrades, and then looked at the white furred alien, who now stood with her longer sword out and the shorter one sheathed, clearing stating she would fight him if he picked up the blade. It gave him a chance to study the alien's body a bit more, showing him that their body was extremely similar to an Asari, even down the number of fingers they had, five thin fingers on each hand. Unlike a Turian, if they lost a finger they could still use their hand, but without one of his fingers on is left hand, it would be impossible for Saren to hold anything with even slight capability.
His left hand was crippled. If he picked up the sword it would have to be in his right, the hand he preferred to use biotics with. He could of course use his biotics with his left, but with a finger missing, he could not be sure of his accuracy or control.
Despite this, he looked at the sword and felt anger well up inside him, alongside a malicious hope that he could inflict just as much pain to the one alien, as they had inflicted upon his entire people!
He stood up, and picked up the blade. The handle was an oval in shape, letting it sit well in is hand, but the weapon itself was extremely heavy, easily twice the weight of any gun the hierarchy used. Saren gave the sword an experimental swing, testing its weight and smiled at how well it moved in his hand, then fell into a stance he had not used since training.
All Turians entered the military at fifteen, and learned the basic for everything a soldier would need. If they wished, they could join special classes to learn extra skills, and one of those classes was advanced hand to hand combat, a class that had included a short, but painful and effective class on utilizing common objects as melee weapons when nothing else was available. Along with the very common knife training, Saren felt like he could use the blade to a decent degree, and hoped it would be enough to get him close enough to the alien to cripple it before he died by its hand!
Bringing his wounded hand to the blade, Saren held it in front of him and pointed the tip at the alien, taking a step forward as he did. This act seemed to signal that he was ready, as the white furred alien took a step forward, and then rushed forward, blade risen high above her head almost too fast for Saren to watch.
Saren reacted on impulse, moving the sword in his hands up in an attempt to block the blow. It did, but the force from it broke his guard, and threw his arms down against his chest, and the swords edge into his shoulder, right through his armour.
"Impossible!" Saren growled as he twisted and pushed the alien back before forcibly pulling his hands forward and pulling the blade out of his armour. He had felt the blades edge touch his skin under his armour, his form had broken. He had almost lost his right arm in a single instant! Just how strong was this alien, when it looked thinner than an Asari maiden!
Saren glared at the woman, seeing that she had returned to her original position in a single moment, as if she was mocking his reaction time!
"Fine then, you want to toy with me, then I'll kill you before you even realize your position here!" Saren yelled as he rushed forward, his left hand pulsing with biotic power. The alien woman did not move in any way, and as soon as he was within range he swung the blade with one hand, right at the alien's neck.
As he expected, the woman blocked it with her sword in one hand, but it left her side open, and Saren grinned as he let loose a throw at the alien. She flew backwards, but again flipped in midair and landed on her feet, looking at Saren with a disgusted look covering her face, as if her skin itself was writhing. Was something about these aliens biology affected negatively by biotics?
With that possible realization Saren lunged forward, using a biotic charge, and closed the distance between them with his sword leveled at her stomach, intent on impaling her. Miraculously, in the last moment the woman moved her blade in the way and parried Saren's blow, causing him to overshoot, and leaving him completely open.
With the backside of her blade, the woman swung up at his side, sending him flying sideways across the road and into the wall of a building. Unlike before, she immediately rushed towards him, and Saren, as soon as he got up, threw himself to the side and clenched his injured hand, letting out a massive wave of biotic destruction. A Biotic Nova.
The woman was thrown backwards as the debris, the wall, and even the street below Saren was torn apart. He was perfectly fine, and took a second to get up and saw the woman on the ground a dozen meters away. She was cringing and writhing as she got up; gazing at him with what he could only consider a cold stare of hate. Good, it was about time these aliens learned what fear of the hierarchy was!
Charging his biotics again, Saren inwardly smiled as he slowly began walking toward the obviously in pain alien, sure that a biotic warp would finish her off by devastating her molecular build. He watched the woman try to stand up and grinned, in pain as she was, there was no way she could dodge his finishing blow, and raised his hand to her.
Only for the alien to suddenly swing an arm up from her crouched form.
For a moment nothing seemed to happen, then Saren felt the pressure wave from her swing, a complete second after she had swung, and felt a pang of horror cross his mind as obscene pain spiked in his shoulder. His eyes tracked his left hand lift sideways to an impossible angle and then fall to the ground, the biotic energy arcing off of it for a few seconds. He glanced to his left, looking at his shoulder where nothing else was below it, his entire left arm lying on the ground in front of him.
Training could only hold back pain for so long, and in that moment, it overcame Saren's mind and he cried out in pain, dropping the sword to the ground as he reached at his shoulder on impulse. "You monsters! I will kill-.." Saren began to say as he looked up at the alien, only to see her swing her sword with its pommel aimed at his face.
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"Ow, that alien had a bit of skill, it hurt more than I expected." Youmu Konpaku muttered as she sheathed her blade and looked over the unconscious alien before her.
"Why did you want to fight it anyway?" Rumia asked as she leaned against the wreck of an alien vehicle, chewing on something bluish in color.
"I wanted to find something out." Youmu said with a shrug as she cringed a bit, touching her side where the weird blue energy attack had struck. "Do I want to know what that thing in your mouth is?"
"One of those aliens mouth flange things. A mandible maybe. I wanted to see if these aliens taste any good," Rumia replied as she spat out the mandible. "Kind of tastes like rust and paint."
Youmu let out a sigh as she shook her head. She had forgotten for a moment that many Youkai preferred fresh meat.
"So what did you want to find out?" Rumia then asked curiously.
"I wanted to see what kind of people these aliens are. They fight well, but I wanted to see how far some would go. It seems that given a chance to keep fighting these aliens may take it. They are very militaristic." Youmu said as she looked at the alien below her and scowled. "Just my luck to get one that manipulates element zero, yuck."
"Wait, that's what it was throwing at you?"
"Yes, my body ache's all over, and I feel like I'm contaminated from it," Youmu said with a shudder as she turned around and began walking away. "I'll need to cleanse myself of that element zero contamination, ugh." Youmu said with a shudder.
"That sucks. I think the force will be fine while you do that though. Shall I finish of the alien?" Rumia asked as she looked at his body and smiled.
"No, have its wounds cauterized and capture it. With the way it fought, it may be a leader of their forces and have Intel we can use. So make sure it lives." Youmu said as she walked off uncomfortably.
"Ugh, damn. Anyone got something to cauterize a wound?" Rumia asked the couple others nearby, one of whom stepped forward, aflame appearing in his hand.
"I can heat up your sword if that will work?"
"It will have to. Heat it fast." Rumia said with a sigh as she looked down at the aliens arm lying on the ground and picked it up with a lick of her lips. "Well, it won't need it anymore!"
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Codex
Youkai Diets – While Humans and Lunarians are Omnivorous, a large number (37.2639%) of youkai are strictly carnivorous, with the majority of these youkai proffering their meat just recently killed, or alive, as they eat it. Because of this, many youkai who refer live meat, especially that of sapiens, hold back until high ranking criminals are sentenced to death, as such sentences are often carried out by such youkai. The war with aliens has given many of these such youkai a chance to try new meat uninhibited.
Magic and Element Zero – in the Alliance, it is well known that element zero does not play nicely with magic. The little research done into element zero concluded that it and magic effect each other negatively, interrupting their cohesion. What this means is that youkai, or humans and Lunarians with magic, who contact element zero have their magic, or magical abilities inhibited by the element zero. It also often, because of this inhibition, causes a range of symptoms from uncomfortableness, to nausea and even spontaneous bleeding. Youkai who contact element zero get these symptoms to the extreme, with one instant of total organ failure being reported from element zero contamination.
Because of this, element zero is contained and destroyed in Alliance space, and is only kept in small amounts for research purposes.
It should be noted that space ships, and their crews are unaffected by the element zero field of mass relays, though magical Based weapons need to reset their systems when through.
Element Zero Contamination - Element Zero contamination is the instance when a magic capable person is contacted by a larger amount of element zero, or the fields created by them. Small particles of the element zero become stuck to the contaminated person, causing negative symptoms that escalate over time, and can lead to total organ failure if untreated. Element Zero contamination can be treated by a cleansing shower or purification magic, and the newly gained knowledge that some of the invading alien race has some individuals with element zero in their body and the capability to create element zero fields, worries many.
Operative Bio – Tenshi
Name: Tenshi Hinanai
Race: Celestial
Gender: Female
Age: Unknown, Looks mid-twenties. Rumored to be well over four hundred at minimum.
Power rank: S
Class: 0
Class Specifics: Is capable of leading any number of allies provided there are the facilities to do so. Can directly lead nearly anyone and utilize people best suited for a job. Cannot/will not lead Yukari Yakumo or Reimu Hakurei into battle under any circumstance.
Powers: Ability to manipulate the weather and land. Manipulation of Temperament via the sword of Hisou
Capabilities/skills: leadership skills, tactically and strategic skills, mid rank sword skills, organizational skills.
Bio: Most Celestials are extremely relaxed people who care little for others, or anything besides their own relaxation and enjoyment. Tenshi however long ago grew tired of such a carefree and boring lifestyle, and came down to Gensokyo to cause havoc, and have fun at other people expense.
When the border broke down, Celestials became worried about the situation of the world, mainly because it could affect them. Tenshi however came done and helped the world deal with the situation and release of magic, alongside many others. Because of this, the celestials agreed that she would become the military force the celestials gave to the alliance, and she has served as this since its creation.
Historically selfish and arrogant, Tenshi has mellowed those particular personalities in favor of being far more serious and collected. her arrogance still shows from time to time, but she constantly tries her best to focus on her job, going so far as to study up on economics, military strategy, supply control and other various subjects in her free time.
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Operative Bio – Mokou
Name: Fujiwara no Mokou
Race: Human (Immortal)
Gender: Female
Age: Immortal and un-aging. She looks early twenties, but is well over 1500.
Power rank: A
Class: 1
Class Specifics: is skilled at effectively commanding those under her and protecting them from harm. Can work well with others, but has trouble commanding groups larger than 100.
Powers: manipulation and resistance to fire and heat. Immortality.
Capabilities/skills: Martial combat skills, Military command skills, Long distance targeting skills, Survival skills, cooking skills.
Bio: with a history over 1300 years in the making, Mokou has done more than most youkai, and as she is completely immortal, will continue to do as she wants for eons to come. Between stints of fighting with Kaguya Houraisen, Mokou used to work as a yakitori stall owner, and a guide, getting out of Gensokyo's bamboo forest. When the border broke, she began doing the same, getting regular people out of trouble, when not cooking food to make a living.
As an operative, Mokou has changed little. She still is the same person and is more than willing to help people in need. She runs a mid-scale restaurant when not acting as an operative, and while she still despises Kaguya, she no longer fights her on sight. It is of note that she used to be a loner, and while still considering herself one, is far more willing to just talk to people and make conversation.
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Operative Bio – Youmu
Name: Youmu Konpaku
Race: Half Human/ Half ghost
Gender: Female
Age: over 180, looks mid-twenties.
Power rank: A
Class: 2
Class Specifics: works best when unhindered by those that cannot keep up with her, but is still capable of leading small groups of units personally, or commanding large groups without leading bide them.
Powers: superhuman Speed and concentration.
Capabilities/skills: Master class sword skills, High level concentration capabilities, Instant acceleration skills, Housework, cleaning, cooking skills, Gardening and exorcism skills.
Bio: The gardener, servant, and bodyguard of Lady Yuyuko Saigyouji, Youmu Konpaku is a straightforward person, and one of the most dangerous operatives in the alliance. Her swordsmanship is the most powerful in the alliance, and his her ability to accelerate and keep up speed, momentum and traverse distance, it is said she is capable of clearing out an entire city on he own if she wanted to, though she rarely shows off such skills.
She is a model swordsman, wanting to test her limits and the skills of others she fights, and often can tell much of an opponent just by crossing swords with them.