Hello everyone, got another nice chapter for you all. Have to thank my Beta for forcing me to write something up so he can edit it and that he did, a beautiful job as well. So this is for everyone who is a fan of Are We Alone, surprising that another chapter came out so quickly? So am I.
Well I won't bore you with the details but say here it is and enjoy.
Are We Alone
Chapter 09: God has Fallen
Eden Prime, Auxiliary Spaceport
"Speak up!"
The resounding smack was painful to listen to, but the Turian simple turned with the blow. Joshua huffed, glaring at the captive who had turned back towards the floor without a fight, nonsensical ramblings escaping between shaking wet breaths. They have had him for the last fifteen minutes and hadn't managed to get a single straight word out of him aside from a few bizarre threats.
"Still not talking?" Shepard asked, strolling up towards N6 operative and his prisoner.
"Nah, the bastard's only muttering nonsense at this point." Joshua replied, turning away from the guy with a shake of his head to look the Lieutenant in the eye. "Ballsy move with the Guardian of Elysium back there, I almost didn't think you would get him to talk."
"Hey, I'm just as surprise as you are." Shepard stated with a nonchalant shrug. That was the honest truth: despite how calm and confident she'd been at the time there'd been only the slightest of chances that it'd work. But she was very glad she'd gone with her gut.
That conversation certainly got them a sizable piece of information from the elusive anomaly, probably more than Ichigo had intended actually. The crown jewel was a hint, however vague it might be, as to what sort of species the anomalies might be. Many were tentatively pushing the idea that the anomalies actually were some of humanities gods, or, at least the individual beings those gods were based off of, with special attention being paid to Japanese mythology. If their very Japanese names weren't enough of a hint, their cloths and predominate spoken language swept away all doubts. But it wasn't as if such things hadn't been noticed and assumed from the first day, no, what interested Shepard was something small Ichigo had said that triggered a faint memory from a documentary she'd seen when the inevitable Japanese craze hit.
Apparently the Japanese Shinto culture had no solid name for gods in their language. While the word "kami" was almost always translated as "God', meant something far more…abstract. A Japanese kami could be anything from forces of nature, to spirits and guardian deities, to even more traditional Gods. Worshipers often believed that the kami existed in many, if not all things, and not just living beings, but even everyday objects and abstract aspects of life. When Ichigo said that they didn't have a word for God in his language, then it was practical confirmation that they were on the right track culturally, and not pursuing some bizarrely specific parallel culture. If that was the case, than maybe all those damn shows trying to match these guys up with gods in history weren't that far off.
Unsurprisingly, Ichigo was the one most theorized, simply because he was easily the most appealing anomaly for the general public. Bishamonten was a popular theory for Ichigo specifically, since he was a fairly well known warrior god and the description as being a 'punisher of evildoers' certainly seemed to fit the teen's targeted slaughter on Elysium. But, there was a distinct lack of a jewel-spitting mongoose and his swords certainly weren't a parasol, leaving a lot of people to gravitate towards Hachiman. He was also considered a protector as well as being a warrior god who actually had a sword, but something about the entire thing still felt off to Shepard. With how Ichigo took to even simple idolization, it was hard to imagine he'd ever wanted people to worship him, and the entire mythology could be nothing but fluff to pad out his existance.
"People are going to be all over you about this, you know." Rochelle said, shouldering her rifle as she strolled up to Shepard. "When word gets out that you were standing right in front of him and talked to him, you're going to be the center of a media typhoon. It'll probably be more attention than you got when you were the Lion of Elysium. But that's the good news: worse news is if someone else gets a hold of you and begins interrogating you."
"Don't know which sounds worse." Shepard snorted, crossing her arms and thinking just how her superiors would take everything, "Shit, hope the reporters get me, as weird as that is to say. That hell sounds more preferable to the political one I got after Elysium."
The whirl of engines punctuated her little quip and, turning, she saw a troop transport flying rather recklessly fast towards them. Rocking to a stop a few feet in the air, it softly landed near the spaceport platform, engines still roaring. The door slid open and a group of marines rushed out, Mikkai and two other N6 operatives a few steps behind the rush.
"Shepard, I heard you got something for me." Mikkai said, strolling up to her.
"Yes sir, I got you the bastard behind this whole attack." Shepard replied, giving a winning smile and a dramatic turn to gesture to the Turian.
Mikkai looked at the supposed mastermind of this invasion, his face rapidly flickering through three different distinct emotions. The heated glare born from the suffering world widened in shock and clear recognition. A moment later, it fell into a vicious smirk, as if the world had been handed to him on a silver platter.
"Un-fucking-believable, I should have guessed. But if I had, I would have been ruining the surprise for this early birthday present." Mikkai said, advancing on the Turian. The Major's smirk only widened as he caught sight of the Turian's missing arm and other various wounds.
"You know him sir?" Shepard asked, actually surprised that her commander seemed to instantly be able to pick out who this guy was.
"Oh yeah! This, ladies and gentleman, is Saren Arterius, Spectre of the Citadel Council." Mikkai presented, smirking at the looks of dumb shock that overtook the surrounding troops.
The news was practically earth-shattering and more than a few had moved past shock and straight into disgusted horror. The Turian, who'd they'd all assumed was a simple rouge, was a member of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance division? The so called right-hand of the Citadel Council that were their greatest tools in preserving the stability of the Galaxy? A Spectre, top of the line soldiers, said to be better than the best of the best and with skill and ability beyond compare, had led the attack? To be chosen to join the Spectres was said to be a massive honor, and, before the shitstorm, humanity had believed that getting a human into the Spectres would have possibly gotten them a Council seat. The influence of a Spectre was palpable and probably the only outsiders that were capable of swaying the Council in a political decision. It was something many races wished to attain, their reasons being almost identical to humanity: A real voice in galactic politics.
So for one to openly attack humanity was incredibly damning.
"No way, he's a Spectre?" Joshua breathed, trying to process the ramifications of what this meant.
"So asshole, you finally got caught." Mikkai said, smirking as he directed a glare at the wounded Turian. "I would love to see you try to get out of this. If you are here on orders from the top, then that's even better. And if not, well, it's still going to be a field day for us."
Saren only growled at the insult, but kept his mandibles shut, even if there was little he could do at this point. The Council was well and truly fucked at this point. When word got out that one of their closest operatives, especially one as famous and highly respected as Saren, had practically declared war on humanity and was in an unholy alliance with the Geth, then there would be hell to pay. It gave humanity the moral high ground to demand whatever they wished of the Council, something many were looking forward to exploiting. It was certainly going to turn this grim and horrible day into one for the history books, for better or worse.
"Get him up and back to base, Anderson is going to want to have a 'talk' with his old friend. Make sure he doesn't bleed out before that." Mikkai ordered, gesturing towards the two N6 soldiers to cart the Turian off.
They did so, picking the Turian up and dragged him towards the shuttle with less than tender love and care, plopping him into a harness seat and slamming the doors shut. A moment later it was up and off, speeding towards their forward operative base in Pishon. The entire time Mikkai couldn't have wiped the smile off his face if he'd have even wanted to. It was a bit unnerving for those who worked under him to see anything but the serious frown he usually sported.
Later, when the troops had time to themselves, they'd come to a clear consensus: that smile made him look disturbingly like a mass murderer.
Any hope Shepard had for not being practically worshiped by her squad mates died a swift death with Mikkai turned to her, still with that smile, and she didn't even so much as blink, "Shepard, I also heard that Ichigo was here. Did you get any info out of him?"
"Mainly that he will speak with his superiors to see if we can organize a meet, but he didn't sound too optimistic about it."
It was strange really to think that the boy had superiors and people in charge that he had to listen to. The idea of a hierarchy among godly beings was strange to think about, though considering how often it popped up in mythology it made some sense. If they wanted to work together, as they seemed to be, then there had to be a totem pole to clearly and cleanly state where you stood amongst your godly peers or else absolutely nothing would get done. But if that hierarchy was based on strength or political prowess was completely unknowable as it was now, and the mere thought that there were beings above Ichigo was…terrifying.
He was already a true god in the eyes of almost everyone, his own personal thoughts on that completely ignored, so for possibly many people to be higher than that to exist was practically beyond comprehension. It wasn't even a comforting thought, not when the other sighted anomalies seemed fairly unconcerned with those around them. If their disinterest was genuine and not just them following orders to avoid contact, and it turned out that Ichigo was the odd one out, then suddenly the anomalies were a whole lot more terrifying.
Not that Shepard voiced any of those thoughts, not with so many troops around her needed to believe that all the anomalies were their own personal guardians. Anything less was a disaster waiting to happen.
"Good enough for me." Mikkai replied, his expression slowly morphing back to his usual impassive grimness, much to the relief of the surrounding soldiers. "Alright, let's get a move on then. We're moving for the Main Spaceport, and we've got a long hike ahead of us! So all of you better be ready for a good run."
Shepard was quick to comply, rifle unfolded and held ready, running to catch up with her superior who'd taken off like a shot. Behind her she could hear several others fumbling with equipment to keep up, lest they be left behind, though no one complained. They still had their primary mission to complete after all.
Find and secure the Beacon before anything else could happen to it.
'Critical Mission Update. Prophet-Saren captured. Extraction: Impossible. Nazara Destroyed.'
'Enemy Combatant: Ichigo-Anomaly, unidentified dimensional organism. Threat Analysis: Extreme. Alliance Patrol and Resupply Fleet in system, Marine Battalion deployed planet-side. Threat Analysis: High.'
'Drone Status: Combat Platforms down to Twenty-nine percent, Run-time greatly hampered. Unknown energy signature causing interference, multiple platforms scattered across colony.'
'Recommendation: Immediate departure and retreat. Consensus: One-hundred percent approve.'
The whirling mass of Geth consciousness was quick to agree, decision reached almost instantaneously even by their standards.
This catastrophic failure had decimated not only the standing army the Geth had brought with them, but also their belief they could gain their future. The arrival of the anomaly had caused waves of unease among them, the numbers and durability they had come to rely on meaning nothing to the new enemy. It was jumbling the network, and the new thoughts were strikingly similar to that of an organic who'd just been humbled. Their directives had changed, with the defeat of Nazara and the capture of the Prophet they had no one to lead or guide them to their promised future.
'Anomaly detected: Drone Platform Z-43 locat-'
'Status Reports: Network reporting loss of contact with Z-43. Subsequent losses of eighteen other platforms also detected. Examining: No data burst signal detected, possibility anomalous energy interference is disrupting network in alerting to disable platforms. New standard operating procedures needed to compensate for this.'
'Sanction Confirmed: Altering Platform and IFF receivers to calibrate when signal is lost. Completion Time: Two point Seven Seconds.'
'Anomaly Detected: Destroyer R-14 lo-'
'Signal lost. Confirmed destroyed. Triangulating R-14's last transmitted location: One point Nine kilometers from main Spaceport Platform. Triangulating Z-43 previous transmitted coordinates: Two point Four kilometers from main Spaceport Platform.'
'Analyzing potential destination: Trajectory plots a course directly to the main Spaceport Platform. Estimate time until arrival: Within Sixty-Two seconds, data unreliable. Previous combat data limited, viable theory that target is impervious to conventional weapons fire. Recommended action: Distract and lure.'
'Mission Update: Platform group directed to arm warheads, lure enemy to location and detonate.'
It was their only possible option at the moment to try and kill the entity. They had five ten-megaton warheads at their disposal and enough data collected to reason that, despite all appearance of invulnerability, it could in fact be harmed. Footage showed that Nazara's cannon had done some damage. Superficial, yes, and it was likely the organics hadn't even noticed or thought it to be of no concern. But the magnetohydrodynamic spinal mounted cannon's approximate power output was four hundred and fifty kilotons of energy- barely a twentieth of the blast of just one of their warheads.
If they detonate them while the anomaly was in the epicenter, theoretically it should be vaporized.
That was the consensus, and their only viable option left to defeat it.
There was the potential they could recover at least some of the astronomical losses. A scavenger group was combing Nazara's corpse for any information or technology they could quickly strip away to later attempt to reproduce. But they needed to move quickly to secure anything before the Alliance moved in to secure the location, and any of Nazara's secrets. Worse still, they had to ensure the Anomaly did not move off course. Luring it with soldiers seemed to work, but it was a weak hold they had at best and if it decided to go elsewhere there was absolutely nothing they could do except cut their losses and flee.
But then they received a garbled message from the retrieval team.
'Retrieval Force Update: Unknown organic located within Nazara Element Zero Core. Warning: Unknown energy signature detected…'
Ichigo ducked and weaved between the Geth troopers lazily, severing limbs and crushing guns under his feet. It didn't matter if it were one of the seemingly infinite smaller ones or the taller, hulking machines that were built like a brick wall, he ripped them to shreds all the same. He had been tracking these bastards, stalking steadily after their retreating forms like a dangerous predator and picking off any that fell behind. But he held off on eliminating them all in one go, now that they weren't physically blocking his way. His quarry was able to make himself stronger through violence and bloodshed, and even if these things weren't organic or technically alive, the act of slaughter alone would still empower him. So now that things had settled down a bit, he held his blade unless it were to encourage their retreat or they decided to try and use civilians as living shields.
The Geth had attempted that little stunt once and only once.
'Where the hell is this guy hiding?' Ichigo thought.
He couldn't sense him or even pick up any residual spiritual energy anymore. At least at the previous sites there'd be a trace of energy to track, even if the trail was already cold. He'd already been on multiple worlds and was still traceable, which meant it probably wasn't something to do with the planet itself. He'd been on both Elysium and Torfan, somehow with the foreknowledge that a bloody battle was only a few hours, if not minutes, away. So, the power he had collected from those slaughters must have made him stronger, that was a given.
But he couldn't sense a thing! Sure, his sensory abilities still weren't anything amazing, but everyone agreed he'd improved in most of his weaker areas significantly. Of course, they said it was only because he was so bad at technical things in the first place, but he'd still improved damn it! Was he even still here, or was he too late once more?
He narrowed his eyes a little, thinking over what he knew about this guy. From what he'd been told, each of the Three had their own domains of sorts which dictated how they'd operate in order to empower themselves. His target was the unholy union of a warmonger and hawk who would steadily push any worlds he could find to violence and then lapped up the bloodshed and hate that flowed forth as his ambrosia. His moniker of War hadn't been earned for nothing, for he'd been the very incarnation of it before he was sealed in the Mukon all those centuries ago. As bad as he was, at least he was flashy and loud, not nearly like the quiet and slow suffering Famine and Pestilence brought.
Pushing aside those thoughts for now, Ichigo continued forward, pursuing and herding the Geth away from the colony while keeping his sense as open and far-reaching as possible. If he could find just a single thread of energy then it'd be enough to for him to latch on to and never lose. After many lessons with Yoruichi he was at least a decent tracker and his instincts were sharp enough to make up for any shortcomings he had. Eliminating even one of the Three was well worth the budding headache he felt from concentrating for so long. The absolute last thing they needed were any of those three working together, and he wouldn't give them a chance to even consider it.
Arcturus Stream Relay, SSV Orizaba
Hackett stood, stiff and at attention as he watched the last preparations for the Fifth Fleet's hasty departure for the neighboring System. It had taken a lot of sweat, effort, and a good number of favors to get the fleet up and running on practically nonexistent notice, but it had been done and would be completed a full hour earlier than expected.
"All ships are in formation, Admiral. Relay coordinates received." An officer called out.
Through his Flagship's main view port Hackett could see the thirty ships he'd managed to scrape together to bring with him to Eden Prime. And while it may have seemed like a sizable force, it was hardly a fraction of what he would have liked to have mustered. Ignoring that the majority of the Cruisers and Carriers he would have liked to bring were dry-docked or out of the system, each vessel he had managed to scrounge up was operating at less than fifty percent capacity on average.
Reports from Eden Prime were scattered at best, directly contradictory at worst, and he was forced to hope that the frigates and his Dreadnaught would be enough to handle whatever the heck was down there. Some of the reports they'd gotten told of an unidentified ship that dwarfed anything short of the Destiny Ascension in size and firepower, and Hackett wasn't at all too fond of confronting something of that scale with such a tiny fleet.
'Although, considering who is down there I don't expect there to be much left when we arrive.' Hackett thought, remembering how a few reports were already claiming the unidentified ship had been completely destroyed in a wave of light. The specifics hadn't been confirmed, but he'd bet his entire salary that it had been Ichigo.
He almost pitied the Geth foot soldiers. Almost.
That boy was someone that Hackett was sure he'd come to like if he ever got the chance to meet him. He was clearly someone who was brash and headstrong, someone who liked to take action and ignore the rules, even when said rules happened to be the laws of physics and everything the galaxy had thought it had known. Hackett was almost envious of how much easier Ichigo's life was to his right now. Buried up to his eyes in political backstabbing and tip-toeing lines that fewer and fewer people were willing to actually follow, there was little that could be done when the highest power itself decided to abuse its authority.
The lead communications officer suddenly waved for him to come over, "Sir, there is a priority message coming through on a secure channel. It's Captain Anderson."
"Patch it through." Hackett ordered.
A moment later and the image of a surprisingly pleased looking Anderson manifested on the screen. "What do you have for me Anderson?" Hackett inquired.
"Good news." Anderson replied, sounding strong and actually happy. "The Geth are in full retreat."
"Let me guess, Ichigo is responsible?" Hackett asked, mostly to be polite since there couldn't be any other explanation.
"You'd be right. But there is more." Anderson replied, a small window of video feed popping up next to his image, paused for the moment. "Just got this from Shepard's squad, take a look and see."
Hackett watched the recording, and for several moments had no idea why Anderson was happy over this. An utterly massive laser from what had to be the biggest damn ship he'd ever seen was utterly destroying the land just outside of what he assumed was Eden Primes main colony. It wasn't until the feed zoomed in to the impact sight of beam, refocused, and revealed the breathtaking sight that he realized what exactly was happening. And, despite his many years of experience and have the privilege of knowing more or less all the feats the anomalies had accomplished, he couldn't help but gape at the outright dismissal of all logic and reason he was seeing.
The anomaly on Torfan, Kenpachi, had shrugged off an Anti-Air gun with a punch of nearly three kilotons of TNT, so maybe he shouldn't have been as surprised. But the quick number crunches in the bottom of the screen showed that the beam was several dozen times more powerful, and yet Ichigo was walking through it like it was a particularly breezy day.
"I shouldn't be surprised, and yet here I am…" Hackett mumbled, much to Anderson's amusement. A second later he saw why that stray thought was so funny, for the real kicker came just a few seconds after the beam sputtered and died.
The feed was a bit blurry by virtue of sheer distance, but something primal stirred in Hackett's heart when Ichigo swung his blade in front of him, slicing the air apart and leaving a scratch on the very world. His lips moved, as if saying a prayer or incantation, before he brought the sword down, colliding with the energy and sending an arc of rapidly expanding destruction outward. It billowed, bloated, and, from what had only been a few feet at most, a swath of pure power as large as any cruiser arced through the sky towards the unidentified ship. The shields barely flickered, not even slowing the tidal wave of power that collided and then consumed the ship, slicing it to pieces. The feed stopped, leaving the surreal sight of Dreadnought-sized pieces of ship suspended in the sky as the titanic ship fell apart along the cuts the cross of energy had made. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, an impossible display of raw power he'd never thought he'd see, even second-hand like this.
"The shields didn't seem to register the attack." Hackett mused. He was sure the attack would have still broken through even if they had, but the destruction might not have been so utterly devastating. Or maybe it wouldn't have made a difference, since there was no way to know just how much punch was behind that attack except 'enough'.
"Noticed that too huh? Got some eggheads working on it but they're stumped. They're torn between some bizarre sword-based direct energy weapon or that it's part of the nature of the anomalies. Personally, I think the second makes more sense: you can't protect against something you didn't even know existed, and Biotic barriers aren't exempt from that rule." Anderson replied, giving an uncaring shrug as if the topic was just something of unimportance. "But that's only one part of the good news."
"What's the second?"
Anderson brought up another file, this time a still image of a single Turian. Hackett looked at it for a moment, he mind memorizing the face and quickly realizing who it was, "Saren Arterius? What's he got to do with this?"
"He was on Eden Prime, leading the Geth; he's the instigator of this entire assault. My men caught him leading a group of Geth towards the Beacon." Anderson informed, looking quite pleased about the entire thing.
It wasn't very well known, but Saren and Anderson had a lot of history back in the day. There was no love lost between the two of them, a great deal of personal and ideological conflicts between the two having never been settled. The years had done nothing to quell those feelings, only seeming to stoke the animosity as Saren grew more and more successful while Anderson had been forced to claw his way back up after the disastrous mission that'd kept him out of the Spectres. The obvious hatred of humanity hadn't helped anything.
Even knowing all that, the fact that Saren had decided to work with the Geth was almost unbelievable. Almost, but Hackett had seen far worse in the last hour alone, so he pushed aside his feelings easily enough, "Where is he now?"
"Down in the Pishon Colony. He's got a nasty laceration on his chest and is likely going to die if he doesn't get treatment soon. Can't have that happening before the interrogators gets their hands on him." Anderson chuckled.
"Try to take this seriously Captain, you can have your fun when we shove this incident down the Council's throats. That'll bring more than enough entertainment for us all and will be the moment everyone will get something to cheer about." And for once not at humanity's expense. "My Fleet is about fifteen minutes out, we will be there soon to help with the clean-up."
"Understood Admiral, see you then." Anderson replied, cutting off the communications a moment later.
Hackett turned back towards his skeleton crew, "Are the coordinate set in for the Fleet?"
"Yes Admiral, they are ready and waiting for your order." An officer replied.
"Good, alright approach and ..."
"Sir, emergency communication coming in. It's from the PFS Havincaw."
Hackett wanted to curse his luck, knowing well who was in charge of that ship. But ignoring the message would be even worse, so, like setting a bone, he steeled himself to get it over as fast as possible, "Patch him through."
The screen immediately showed the Captain of the Frigate, Lartis Epidinion, someone Hackett was less than thrilled to have to deal with. He respected his dedication to his duty and his high intelligence, yes, but that didn't make someone likeable at all. In fact, it just made him more or a pain in the ass with how sure he was that he was smarter than everyone else.
"What is it, Captain?" Hackett demanded.
"I am here to tell you that you are not taking this Fleet through the relay." Lartis said, professionally curt and precise with his words, "The sanctions prevent any Fleets from organizing together within the same Cluster, regardless of circumstances."
"So are we not supposed to defend ourselves against the Geth? I'm moving to stop an invasion on Eden Prime."
"I am well aware, but there is already a Fleet present in system." Lartis intoned, not bothering to look up from his datapad. "That Fleet was sanctioned specifically to guard the Batarian Border to offer protection to your colony worlds. You, however, cannot move an entire second fleet there to aid in a mostly ground-based battle you are already winning, quite spectacularly from what I've heard."
Hackett wanted to curse the man for being such an uptight bastard and using draconian laws to force someone of a higher rank than him to stand down. But he held his tongue, not out of respect for the law, but because something the Turian had said didn't make any sense. Or it did, but the only explanation for it was a thought that made his stomach churn.
"What do you mean 'from what I've heard'?" Hackett inquired slowly, his words dangerously low and sharp.
"We have been monitoring your transmissions both to and from Eden Prime, and what interesting things it has revealed to us." Lartis said, an actual scowl pulling down his normally stoic features, "An anomaly, who you claim to have no control over, apparently aiding your troops directly, on a world that just happens to have a Prothean Beacon? And apparently a Council Spectre has been assaulted and grievously injured, and is now in human custody? My superiors are certainly going to find this a most interesting read."
The news was like a blow, stealing his breath and clenching his heart with a fear-anger mix that boiled his blood and locked his muscles with the barely restrained urge to lash out. This son of a bitch had the nerve to speak to him like that, as if her were at the top of the galaxy and had the right to intercept secure messages. Hackett knew exactly what this meant, knew the Council wouldn't care if the means were illegal, but he hadn't risen to the rank he was without doing his damnedest to salvage even the worst of situations.
"Do you have any idea what you are doing right now? Do you have any semblance of common sense?" Hackett asked slowly, both to give himself time to think and seem more in control than he actually was.
"If you are referring to halting your Fleet and screening your private communiques, then I am well within my bounds." Lardis was cold and calm, knowing very well he was safe, "Considering all military communications during an operation are open for investigation, I am well within my rights to listen to every word you say. It is humanity's fault for purposely withholding information pertaining to a Prothean Beacon; otherwise, your mission would have hardly been worth noticing."
Hackett scowled and cursed his own stupidity. He'd assumed that the secured channels would be safe, but what the Council wanted, the Council got eventually, even if that meant scouring and decoding every human transmission until something of note came up. The laws imposed by them were varied and had too many loopholes in them to ever count, making it nearly impossible to keep track of each and every one of them. It just so happened they'd waited to play their hand until the prize was too big to ignore, and both a Prothean Beacon and an anomaly on one planet was surely more than they'd ever expected. He should have expected the spying, but no, because he'd felt safe for even a moment suddenly the entire situation had tipped on its head.
"You can expect the Council to be calling on your soon Admiral." Lardis informed with all the compassion of an executioner, "But until they do call, you are to stand your fleet down and return to Arcturus Station."
With that final order, the screen flickered and died, leaving the bridge to stew in its own unnatural silence. Hackett stared at the empty placed, eyes unseeing. His mind was a mess, but one thought rang true:
'We were so damn close.'
They could have finally gotten out from under the Council's thumbs if all had gone well. The Beacon was just a tool at best, a bargaining chip at worst, to force the restraints to lift, and the attack would have been a perfect way to shove them out of their politics completely, the sanctions having hurt Alliance Space terribly. It would be so easy to use their victimhood to earn the pity of many species and none would have blamed them for leaving entirely.
They'd be seen as oh so generous letting the Council see the Beacon in exchange for a joint research project, and a truly positive relationship would have finally been established.
They'd have been generous to the Council if they played ball with them and butted out of their business once and for all. That had been the original plan before it changed to fucking over the Council all together, keep the Beacon and use the Eden Prime incident to get them to drop the sanctions due to the public outcry of what their imposed laws had done and harmed the System Alliance and its people. This had become a win-win for them, they get to keep the Beacon and all its knowledge, using it to beef up their otherwise starving race.
Now that plan was shot to hell and pissed on just to add some humiliation to the mix.
As much as Hackett loved Ichigo and all that the boy stood for, but his presence had only made things harder. Hackett would bet his right arm that Saren's laceration was caused by Ichigo; wounds like that just weren't a common part of warfare today, and suddenly it seemed as if the anomaly had assaulted a Council Spectre for reasons that would surely be covered up. Saren, despite almost surely leading the attack, was smart, probably had ten different alibies, and they'd just handed him yet another: investigating stories of a Prothean artifact humans were rumored to be hoarding, which the Council now had proof for. Suddenly humanity was a whole lot less pitiable, and instead a force to be afraid of with these anomalies at their beck and call. They may have just lost all leverage they had, and all because he didn't remember a single goddamn rule.
The Beacon would be gone; the Turian traitor would be taken in by the Council and likely barely even interrogated before released with minimal charges, if even that. But most damning of was the Anomaly presenting himself in such as open and brazen matter, even saying he'd be willing to speak with the Alliance. Some might have considered that a good thing, but Hackett knew very well that even considering opening talks was practically declaring his undying love for humanity to the Council. All that they'd done to try and convince them that they had no control over the anomalies would go right out the window.
"Damn it… Damn it!" Hackett roared, unable to control his fury, he punched in the screen.
Their best chance of freedom had turned on them with just a few words said at the wrong time.
Eden Prime
Ichigo raced across the area, following after the Geth and trying to keep his senses open to detect even the smallest trace of War. But the longer he went without even so much as a single trace, the more he realized the shameful truth: War was already off-world. He was mad at himself that he hadn't even got a chance to see the guy- he would have taken just a glimpse of him fleeing so they'd have at least known how he traveled around so fast and get between worlds. But no, he'd missed the one pinprick in a sea of trigger-happy Geth and one giant-as-hell ship that also enjoyed shooting him except this time with lasers, so sue him that he'd been a bit preoccupied.
And maybe he wasn't nearly hardened enough to completely ignore the slaughter around him, ignore all the death a screams for help and go straight after the man and take him down. It was technically the ideal time to attack, since War would have surely been feasting and thus leaving himself vulnerable. He would have had to invest some energy in order to feed properly, and in those moments he was at his weakest as he drew in the volatile psychic energies and fell under the power's thrall. But Ichigo wasn't someone to ignore the men and women who'd been begging to live, and if the higher ups hadn't gotten that message up, then, well, they were pretty stupid in his option. Now there wasn't enough conflict and fighting around for War to even bother to stay and suck up the fumes.
That decided, Ichigo threw himself at the Geth and crossed the distance they must have thought was safe in a fraction of a second. By the time the Geth even realized he'd reached them, a destroyer fell in two, body cut cleanly from shoulder to hip. The machines, ever pragmatic, only continued to run towards the distant ships, ignoring their fallen.
A few threw themselves at him, but he cut them apart carefully, being sure to not accidently level the landscape. A quick slash and he cut a Geth Juggernaut in half from groin to crown and he pushed past the two pieces as they stumbled to the ground, not quite registering it was dead.
As much as this was a massive failure for him (again), and likely serious reprimand waiting to happen from the Gotei 13 and Central alike, Ichigo couldn't find it in himself to regret anything. He'd technically done his first job: protect humanity from monsters. Even if he doubted most of the other captain would see it the way he had, caring more about the 'bigger picture' than individual lives, he'd live with it. Very few of them would actually disapprove of what he'd done, just that he'd failed his mission and the way he'd gone about it. Like it mattered how flashy they were anymore.
The Galaxy knew about them now, and that wasn't going to change, ever. They couldn't just hide away, thinking that everyone would forget. Maybe they would, when three generations of Asari had passed away, but they didn't have that time anymore. And even if they did, they shouldn't just hole up, no; it was time that they actually start doing something more productive and stop hiding in the shadows. It was getting harder and harder to keep track of all the humans as they spread out farther and farther while still remaining under the radar on the spiritually anaemic planets, and soon it'd be outright impossible. So trying to avoid the issue wouldn't get them anywhere.
'Seriously they are so slow to catch up with the times.' Ichigo mused.
Before he arrived on the scene the only people that advanced the Gotei 13 was the Twelfth Division, and those guys were too crazy researching obscure to properly keep up with the living world. Seriously, when he'd gotten there they'd be the definition of ass-backwards. Somehow they regularly used cellphones without a single issue, but didn't know how to open a juice box? It was practically madness and, while he'd personally made sure it'd gotten at least a little better, the mindset to mostly ignore the living world was still there. If they seriously didn't think for a moment and realize that they need to change their methods to suit the changing times, then all they would be doing for the next hundred years would be chasing the Horsemen down.
The chase had been on since practically the day they'd defeated Yhwach, and hundred and fifty years later they weren't any closer. It'd been bad enough when they'd been limited to just Earth, but now, with a whole galaxy? They, the entire Gotei 13, were doing something seriously wrong, and until that was changed Ichigo wouldn't give a crap about how rebellious he was being. In his experience, it was the crazy shit that actually got results.
'Still… hate it that I have to do probation now.'
Another little punishment he got for his stunt on Elysium, and technically long overdue for the sake of fairness since Kenpachi and Rukia both got chewed out and he had gotten a slap on the wrist. Ichigo hated fairness sometimes.
Ichigo pushed aside his musings when he caught sight of several of the Geth ships slowing rising from the ground, clearly intent on making a run for the relative safety of space. A few Geth must have noticed his shifting interest, for they turned and fired at him. He didn't even so much as look as he cut them down, distracted enough that the ground buckled slightly from the force. Ichigo cursed, but, well, all the machines ahead of him were now dead, so he supposed it worked out.
He looked back to where the ships were, maybe a kilometer away at best, and mentally shrugged and 'stepped' forward.
His step ended a foot from the edge of a long railway tram and even closer to several stunned Geth guards. Three more bursts of Shunpo and the machines fell, in pieces and without a chance to warn their allies. Or at least, he'd thought that was the case, but instead the remaining Geth seemed to act as one, turning their weapons on him and scattering. The ships still there rose higher in the air to flee, abandoning their forces to their inevitable fate to save those already aboard.
Maybe they'd forgotten gravity was kind of optional to him, or maybe they were just praying he was easily distracted by the hail of gunfire peppering him. Either way, it didn't matter, for Ichigo ignored the annoying shots and leapt up, carving lines through the air and unleashing a barrage of small Getsuga Tenshou's towards the retreating dropships. They exploded spectacularly and forced the Geth to take cover as scraps of metal rained down on them. A few vessels slipped away, shooting into the sky at impressive speeds, but Ichigo had felt he'd still gotten his message across.
He dropped from the sky and flattened a Geth Juggernaut and cut down the nearest trooper in one smooth motion. Ichigo twisted, swinging his blade and tearing through synthetics with every sweep of his arm. It went on like this for a while, the Geth doing their best to shoot him and did their best to keep their distance in a futile attempt to stay alive. But he caught them despite all their efforts, and would have pitied them were they not soulless machines who'd gunned down countless innocents. They got what was coming to them and he wouldn't be losing any sleep over their destruction.
Ichigo wasn't quite sure why they hadn't just given up and tried to run away at this point. He was pretty sure machines were supposed to be more logical than the 'spray n pray' level of strategy he was seeing now. There didn't seem to be any interest in fleeing or even trying to act as a distraction to let a fraction at least attempt an escape. Instead, rather idiotically, they all stood strong, keeping the pressure up as if that'd actually do something if they did it for long enough.
Huh, maybe he broke them.
But even with that dismissal, he continued to feel as if the entire situation was…off. It was a tiny tingle that poked at his instincts, but never really roused it enough to feel as if he were in danger. The Geth surely couldn't do anything to hurt him, of that he was sure, yet the longer the farce of a fight went on, the more he felt as if he were being strung along. It wasn't until during a lull in the gunfire that he heard a beeping sound not that far from him that he took notice. He didn't really know what those tubes he saw suspended in some weird support chassis were, but did notice the notice the radiation symbol engraved on the side of one of them, and suddenly had a very good idea of what they were.
'You've got to be fucking kidding me!' Ichigo thought, suddenly realizing that there were several very large bombs dangling just a few yards from him.
These Geth weren't trying to survive, they were going to kill themselves and try to him with them in some crazy kamikaze strike! Gunfire suddenly not an issue, he Shunpoed over and grabbed the frame holding the bombs. For a half second he thought of throwing it over the hill and being done with the mess, but a quick heave and he realized just how sizable it was and knew immediately the thing would glass wherever it detonated and might takeout some off-shoot colony he didn't know about. So, Ichigo did the only logical thing he could.
He decided to chuck it into space.
With a heave, he lifted it and shot off as fast as he dared with a half dozen warheads. His speed steadily increased, breaking the sound barrier several times over as he slowly but steadily accelerated as smoothly as possible into the upper atmosphere. He didn't need to reach escape velocity or anything like that if he just kept pushing up, though he was pretty sure it wouldn't be too big of an issue anyway. He raced Yoruichi across the globe once just for the hell of it, and, while he naturally lost, he'd still cleared the distance from Japan to America in less than five minutes. So getting past atmosphere shouldn't be a problem for him, just had to make sure that there were no ships up there.
But he drew to a sudden stop several dozen kilometers above the planet, his sense prickling for the first time since he'd arrived. He locked onto something far below him, unable to actually see whatever it was, but feeling the energy as clear as day as if the bastard was holding up a neon sign.
'It's him!' Ichigo thought with a snarl.
His eyes narrowed as he saw the sight of exactly where he was, amongst the smoldering remains of that monstrous ship that had tried to kill him. Whatever was going on down there couldn't be good- it felt like he was gathering every last drop of his power. In that moment Ichigo was torn. Chuck the nukes as far away as possible and pray it was enough keep the colony from being utterly obliterated and go on with his mission, or keep going and hope the Horseman didn't pull yet another disappearing act while he was busy.
That choice was ripped from his hands when, with hardly a warning, he was swallowed by a beam of crimson energy for the second time that day. Except this time it was so much worse, and he screamed, carried up into the sky by the tide of relentless energy and well-past his original goal. He felt it, his spiritual pressure waver under the intense power and his skin start to blister and rip. He threw as much energy as he could outwards to protect his body, and heal the damage, but it was relentless.
'Shit! I have to get out of the beam!'
Above him, forgotten under the onslaught of power, the chassis of warheads warped, melted, and then gave way entirely.
Ichigo never knew what hit him, only that his world whited-out as he was engulfed in a brilliant blast of antimatter.
Eden Prime High Orbit
Anderson watched the beam of bright crimson shoot out of the atmosphere and into the darkness of space, his eyes narrowing as he observed it. The energy reading from the thing was insane and he was glad his ships were well away from it. If not, well, he was sure he'd be down a vessel and crew.
"I want to know what the…"
The world was suddenly white, practically blocked from sight by a massive explosion. His eyes widened, recognizing a powerful upper atmosphere nuclear detonation. The how and why could wait, all that mattered right now was…
"Brace!" Anderson ordered, grabbing onto the railing and waiting.
Not two heartbeats later was their entire ship rocked, swaying like a true boat as it helplessly road the wave of force. The thinner atmosphere meant they weren't thrown nearly as hard as they could have been, but it was more than enough to throw anyone unprepared from their seats. The equipment sparked angrily from the sudden burst of energy, and Anderson cursed, hoping their radiation shielding hadn't failed.
"Sound off!" Anderson ordered.
One by one people called out and he felt his nerves settle for the moment. Most people were green, and while quite a few had some injury or another, the worst he heard reported were a few bashed knees and scrapes. But when he heard the barely audible gasps of pain from nearby did Anderson realize the pilot was hurt, and bad.
Casting aside his own shakiness, he moved for the piolet's chair. Jeff Monroe sat, half curled in his chair and cradling one arm as he did his best to control his breathing. Anderson would have checked on him, but knew he'd likely just end up breaking the poor man's ribs while trying to move him.
"Chakwas, I need you up here now!" Anderson barked, hand on his omni-tool.
"I am a little busy down here Captain, I have a lot of wounded here." The crisp reply came through after a moment's delay, sounding a little bit forceful and stressed.
"I need you up here. Joker is injured, looks like a broken arm or wrist, and I need your expertise."
"I will be up in a few minutes. Do not touch him." Chakwas' reply was instant this time, filled with the absolute authority only a doctor could have.
"Understood. Anderson out."
A quick scan of the bridge to find people being pulled back to their feet, and realized that they'd gotten lucky and had some time to prepare themselves. But others, deeper in the ship and busy working, wouldn't have had any time to get ready, suddenly thrown around and ripped away from whatever they were doing. The lower decks were probably riddled with concussions, sprains, and even broken bones.
"What was that explosion just now?" Anderson barked. He needed to know five minutes ago if there was a risk of getting hit again or somehow under attack.
"Unknown, but we are picking up massive amounts of radiation from the epicenter. Likely a nuclear device, over thirty megatons at least." Officer Trent called out, dropping into his station's seat and with one hand working the monitor. "Crap. Sir, some of the systems are out. We're getting a lot of electromagnetic interference."
"What about the rest of the Fleet and the ground teams?"
"Nothing sir, all signals are being overwhelmed by the discharge. We won't be getting in contact with anyone anytime soon."
Anderson scowled. No one knew what the hell had just happened or what it meant, and that was a dangerous thing. For all he knew, someone could be launching warheads at them and were readying their next shot at this very moment. He needed to get the fleet back in order to see about getting communications back up with the ground teams. Whatever that explosion was, it had fractured his fleet's formation and damaged communication between them, panic only avoided because of how well trained the soldiers were.
Anderson, helpless to do anything else until the expects patched things back together, looked out over Eden Prime, "Let's hope nothing else happens that takes us by surprise."
Shepard was sprinting with her team along the lengths of the Spaceport's main tram railway, fighting off miniscule resistance from the Geth and the rather disturbing glowing zombies they'd nicknamed Husks. Despite how sure she was that those…creatures were going to haunt her nightmares, they were weaker than even the lowest Geth soldier, running blindly into gunfire until they were destroyed. Small bursts of quick confrontation aside, it had been a slow and rather boring run, the opposition incredibly light and nothing but more of the same.
"Come on, we're still a click away from the Main Spaceport! Hustle up!" Mikkai barked, still in the lead and a good deal ahead of the rest of the troop.
To think the guy was in his sixties and still outpacing them.
Shepard took in a deep breath and quickly picked up the pace and tried to match her CO's stride. Which was nice in thought, but she was a full head shorter than him with equally shorter legs that just weren't going to cut it at this rate. But not one to be deterred, she picked up her speed and was at least able to get directly behind him.
"Resistance is pretty light sir!" Shepard called.
"Good thing too, means we will get to the Main Spaceport quicker." Mikkai responded.
Right now letting things slow them down was something that just couldn't be tolerated, not when the Beacon was still in the hands of their enemy. So fights were done while still practically running, like some sort of on-foot drive by, and the very real threat of being left behind for anyone who couldn't keep up loomed over their heads. Anything that hindered their progress had to either be bypassed or eliminated quickly.
There were dozens of Geth Dropships traveling in and out of the Space Port, and Mikkai knew for a fact that the Geth were running, probably loading the Beacon on a ship right now and deciding to cut their losses. He hoped the Fleet in orbit could keep the bastards from getting away too quickly and pick off a few of them. It risked destroying the Beacon, but better for it to be gone than to fall in the hands of the Geth. They had to hurry and reach the Space Port before the last of the transports left, hoping that the Beacon was still there.
Despite their resolve, the troop drew to a stunned halt when about a dozen sharp arcs of light cut across the sky, tearing apart just as many of the Geth dropships. Several slipped away between the claws that'd ripped the others to shreds, but the number of ships had easily been reduced to a quarter. It was obvious that Ichigo had easily beaten them to the scene, which was an equally good and bad thing.
Mikkai huffed, "I hope that knuckle head isn't blowing that Space Port up!"
"Knuckle head…?" Joshua said, looking to Greer and wondering if he heard that right. That was certainly less than an…awe-inspiring nickname for the anomaly.
"He sounds twenty years older than he should be..." Greer muttered back, giving his commander a sidelong glance.
Mikkai let out another bark, telling them to shut their holes and get back to running. There was a massive firefight going on at the Spaceport, and, while their backup wasn't even somewhat needed, it was best they got there before the entire place was levelled.
They were close now, only a few hundred meters from the structure that they could now begin to make out in the distance. But something else that was certainly not a dropship suddenly shot off into the sky, destroying the sound barrier and becoming nothing more than a back pinprick in a matter of seconds.
"The hell was that?" Joshua called out.
"I'm tracking it!" Rochelle said, raising her rifle and trying to get a read on the thing. But it was already several kilometers in the air and rapidly rising, well out of her range. "Damn, that's fast."
"You think…?" Shepard started, but she was promptly interrupted.
"Doesn't matter! We got to get to the Space…!"
A massive beam shot up from the valley ahead of them, smothering all sound with its sheer presence. It ripped the horizon in two, tearing across the sky and practically straight into space. Stunned, they rushed over to the side of the mountain precipice and looked down to the smoldering remains of the Geth's Dreadnaught.
"It's still kicking? It's in pieces and we saw the core detonate!" Shepard shouted, her voice sounding muffled even to her own ears.
"Tough son of a bitch. But what the hell is it firing at?" Mikkai said, looking up into the sky in vain. All he could see was red.
Or at least, that was the case until pure light exploded outward from the center of the red, bleaching the sky white. The soldier turned away, the sheer intensity burning their eyes and washing out the world around them. Mikkai ignored it, squinting through his visor and fingers at the edges of the expanding light. Clouds evaporated as the air itself was shoved carelessly aside and, with a start, he realized he could faintly see the wall of force heading their way. Quickly, he turned to grab Shepard and dove to the ground, and yelled for the rest to do the same.
"Take cover!"
Training and experience had them reacting without question, diving to the ground and many under the tracks themselves. A few tense moments later and the shockwave washed over them, pressing them flush with the metal and doing its best to flatten them all entirely. The massive blast of concussive force was brief, but even for that short moment, through all their armor and shields; they felt their bodies groan under the pressure as if the sky itself were lying on their backs.
A second later it was over, air rushing back into the eerily silent void and their lungs alike. No longer feeling as if they were about to be crushed, the soldiers pulled themselves up from where they'd scattered, some coughing to reassure themselves that they could finally breathe again. It was over within a few seconds before the air came rushing back to filled in the void. When that happened they all pulled themselves off the ground and crawled out from under the tram. Above them it looked as if someone had torn a hole in the sky, leaving behind a perfect, cloudless void.
"That was a goddamn nuke." Mikkai growled.
"Where the hell did it come from?" Rochelle asked, getting up on shaky legs and trying to not wobble and sway. "Was it one of our ships?"
"No, that wasn't anything we were carrying. That was a couple dozen megatons for sure." Mikkai thought, narrowing his eyes.
A small ball of fire dropped from the sky, falling towards them without any signs of slowing. It hit the Spaceport ahead of them with a resounding boom and screeching metal that shook the entire mountain. The shockwaves, however, didn't subside and instead grew in intensity until the ground was rocking and pitching under their feet. Supports buckled and ripped, and suddenly the floor dropped several feet, slanting sharply down and slowly falling apart.
"Shit, the mountain's collapsing!" Shepard cried out and scrambled to her feet before she tumbled down the new slope.
They held on for dear life as the section of the mountain range they occupied threatened to fall away. The edge dipped lower and lower until they were threatening to slip down despite their efforts. With a tearing snap, the Spaceport tore away from the rest of the pathway, crashing under the tide of the rockslide and disappearing down the hill. The railway gave one last shudder before finally settling. For the second time, the soldiers pulled themselves up on shaky legs, stumbling a bit at the slight angle the railway was now on. Ahead of them, the Spaceport and a huge chunk of the surrounding area was simply gone, disappeared into the deep valley below and leaving their path cut off.
"Dammit! This is Major Mikkai to Pishon FOB, I need a pickup now!"
The only response he got was the pitiless buzz of static. He scowled and tapped the transceiver in his helmet, bringing up his Omni-tool to see if he could get something out that way.
"This is Mikkai, does anyone ready me?"
Again he was met with static, his Omni-tool warning of interference. Hell, now that he looked, he saw that even the Omni-tool was flickering and bordering on malfunctioning.
"Shit." Mikkai growled.
"Must be the electromagnetic interference from the explosion." Joshua said, lifting up his own Omni-tool and waving his hand through the air, watching as the normally reliable device struggled to accurately track his movement and left behind flickering distortions. "We won't be calling for help anytime soon."
"Then we keep moving on foot." Mikkai ordered, turning to glare at the rocky slope ahead of them. "Check your gear and make sure it's working; we're going down the mountain."
The Spaceport was utterly destroyed. Towers and catwalks jutted out from where they were half buried under several thousand tons of rock, scraps of platforms and dropships littering the rocky grave haphazardly. Amongst the scattered pile of destruction, a single figure breathed hacking breaths, pushing aside stone and metal to dig his way to freedom.
Punching his way through the last of the obstacles that barred his way to open air, Ichigo crawled out, desperately pulling his body out to freedom. He stumbled his way into something that might have been a standing position, hissing as his bones and muscles stitched themselves back into proper alignment. Outwardly, he looked remarkably fine outside of being remarkably dirty and a little scuffed up, but he could feel his insides sloshing around worryingly. Regeneration was powerful, but it struggled to repair his organs even as it stitched back together all the tissue surrounding them, and his mouth tasted worryingly of blood. The world spun and Ichigo cursed, falling to one knee and trying to will his dizziness to fade away.
Everything was so bright and flashing that it was impossible to tell which way was up and what was down, amongst a sea of agony. That explosion had done more than shake him up: the heat and pressure had nearly torn him apart. It had still half-way succeeded and there was only so much he could do about his insides with Blut.
"That… shouldn't have hurt as much… as it should have…" Ichigo hissed, pushing himself up with sheer willpower alone.
His mind was a cloudy mess, shaking with a pounding headache that shattered any attempts he made at focusing. He stumbled around, practically blind to the world around him, trying to ground himself with the pain, yet finding it to be nearly impossible. He vaguely remembered the wave of burning red light that had clawed past his defense, ripping into his skin and ate away at his life.
"War… he did that… he made me vulnerable…" Ichigo mumbled, slumping against a twisted spiral of metal to try and regain his energy.
That was the only explanation, but even so that hit still rattled him.
"Gotta find… him…" Ichigo pushed away and continued to trudge forward, swaying unsteadily. The beam had been from that giant ship, but modified, changed, until it hurt, and he needed to get to its remains before War could do anything else.
But before he could get far he heard a strange whine, like a machine powering up. At first he ignored it, thinking some Geth had managed to survive and was going to try and shoot him again. As weak as he felt, he still had enough power rushing through his veins to repel any attack they could throw at him, and he really didn't care anymore if it ran away. But then something seized his whole body at once, startling him and pulling him to the ground.
Panic brought on a moment of lucidity and he awkwardly turned to the source. The strange pillar had somehow managed to stay upright throughout the chaos, an unnatural ring of untouched ground surrounding it instantly set him on edge even more than the strange green energy. He reached for his fallen Zanpakuto with plans to destroy this…thing before it could do whatever it wanted, but Ichigo yelped as he was suddenly ripped from the ground and suspended in the air before the pillar.
His eyes narrowed as he was held in place as if somehow had cast a weak Bakudo on him. Just what was this thing?
The field that held him wasn't particularly strong and could easily be shattered with a bit of his reiatsu being released. Yet, when Ichigo attempted to do so his mind was suddenly assaulted with an image he couldn't understand. They poured into his brain like a tidal wave, places, people(?), creatures and monsters, emotions and feelings that weren't his, all of it assaulted his senses.
It was happening too fast for him to comprehend or make sense of, but the scars it cared into his very soul were incredibly vivid and deep. He could feel it, the fighting, the suffering, the dying over and over again until his life was nothing but that cycle. Hurting, suffering, not even allowed to mourn the fallen as the world, the empire, collapsed and their struggles meant nothing. They were dying, dying, dying, dying, dying-
Dead, every last one of them.
The galaxy was silent.
Ichigo collapsed and cried for reasons he didn't understand, but suddenly knew as intimately as his own life and dreams. It was gone, it was all gone, and even as he surrendered to the darkness of his own mind, the cycle continued to play.
There you have it, hope you liked it, I certainly did.