Location: Teleporting from Pluto – Sol System
Date: April 9th, 2084
Time: 0126hrs XCOM Standard Time
Unlike every other time he has teleported, this time wasn't instantaneous and it felt like his brain was on fire and getting hit by a MEC at the same time, was it ten seconds or ten hours that he was teleporting for, he couldn't tell. The telltale hot and cold feeling of a teleport hit him like a dumpster fire and he flashed into existence, it hurt a lot more than it should, instead of discomfort it felt like every nerve was on fire and freezing at the same time.
When his vision came back to him it was only for a second and he saw a creature with four eyes and a flat nose before he fell unconscious.
Location: Kes'heel-Class Cruiser Bumi – Bridge
Date: June 27th, 2180
Time: 1356hrs Local Time
For Captain Farlak Khor'berk this was suppose to be an easy assignment, having served his year in a Slave Fleet this was his last assignment before being smuggled back home to his wife and children and being able to enjoy the large wealth he has acquired. A simple Smash and Grab turned into hell on Khar'shan when his Sensor Officer spoke up.
"My Captain, I have detected an anomaly in space" The Sensor Officer stops talking for a moment. "A ship is emerging."
"We have the Relay mined." Farlak stated, his voice laced with annoyance.
"Not the Relay, My Captain, from the anomaly it's…" The Sensor Officer stops talking.
"Well!" Farlak demands.
"It's two-thousand-two-hundred meters long, six-hundred-and-ten meters wide and six-hundred-and-sixty meters high, it's bigger then the Destiny Ascension." The Sensor Officer states with utter horror.
"Is.. is it Alliance?" Farlak asks, dreading the answer.
"No, My Captain, I.. I don't know who it belongs too, I am also not detecting any Mass Effect Elements from the unknown ship." The Sensor Officer replies.
"Power the Kinetic Barriers and GARDIAN Array to maximum, arm the Mass Accelerators and Disruptor torpedoes and move the fleet into attack formation." Farlak orders.
Location: UNSC Fearless – Cryo Bay Section One
Date: September 5th, 2552
Time: 0359hrs Military Standard Time
In the Cryo Bay of the UNSC Fearless the Command Crew and Essential Personal are being waken up from their Cryo Sleep, one such person is Commander Miranda Keyes the Acting XO of the Orion-Class Assault Carrier. As the lid of her Cryo Chamber opens she collapses to the fall and vomits up the chemicals inside her system that kept her alive during the Cryosleep.
"Apologies for the Quick Thaw commander but we have a situation." The Shipboard AI Agiad states.
Wiping her mouth of the white chemical Miranda stumbles to her feet and looks around her, almost all of the Cryo Chambers in this section are being opened and their occupants, vomiting the chemicals up and getting dressed. Looking at the Cryo Chamber next to her own, it isn't opening and the captain doesn't appear to be in it.
"What are the orders from the captain?" Miranda asks as she walks over to her locker and pulls out her uniform.
Agiad hesitates for a moment. "The captain is no longer with us, you have Command of the Fearless, commander."
Miranda wants to know more about the captains' situation but she puts those thoughts aside to focus on the situation at hand.
"Report, what kind of situation?" Miranda asks.
"There was an anomaly with both the Slipspace Drive and Slipspace, I was forced to commence an emergency shutdown of the Drive and we appeared at an unknown planet with unknown ships in orbit. The designs do not match the UNSC or the Covenant, I won't know more until we deploy an Intel Gathering Operation. Report Complete." Agiad answers as Miranda finishes putting on her uniform.
"Deploy a…" Miranda was cut off by Agiad.
"Commander, they are moving into a formation against the Fearless, unknown whether it is an attack or defensive formation."
"Go to Battle Stations and start waking all personal." Miranda orders.
"Yes ma'am."
The lights dimmed, making way for the flashing red emergency lights and a loud klaxon starts blaring.
"This is not a drill, this is not a drill, General Quarters, General Quarters all hands man you Battle Stations." Agiad's voice said over the sound of the klaxon.
All through the Cryo Bay everybody including Miranda picks up speed as they quickly get dressed and report to their Battle Stations, along the way Miranda orders the deployment of a Clarion Spy Drone.
Location: Unknown – Last Known Location: Pluto, hidden underground bunker
Date: April 9th, 2084
Time: 0126hrs XCOM Standard Time
Stash felt extremely hot and cold which was her first indication that something went wrong, as she appeared out off a Psionic Flash she fell to one knee. In front of her a four eyed X-Ray stood holding a human girl in one hand and a weapons she doesn't recognize in the other, both the X-Ray and the girl are staring at her group with shock and surprise.
Warlock collapses to the ground next to her blood coming out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
Stash quick draws her Mag Shorty, as her hand grips her sidearm the weapons SCOPE links itself to Stash's HUD and produces an aiming reticule, rising her hand until the reticule is in the X-Rays mid-section and fires.
The Magnetic Round impacts the X-Ray in the chest and pushes his armor into his chest and pushes him over, he's dead before he hits the ground, unfortunately the round also hit the girl in the arm which gets severed just above the elbow, she starts screaming in agony as blood rushes out of the wound.
Ten more of the new X-Rays notices Strike-1 and start moving towards them firing their weapons inaccurately.
"Terminator, C.H.P.J. clear out those X-Rays and begin search and destroy protocol around this area." Stash orders as she grabs the girl in her good arm and throws her four meters behind a house.
"Copy, C.H.P.J. fly high." Terminator orders the Hover S.H.I.V. as she starts charging the X-Rays in her 2.7m tall MEC-7 Vindicator Armor.
C.H.P.J. starts flying straight up its' speed boosted by the Elerium Turbos and starts firing it's Superheavy Plasma Cannon. Stash grabs Warlock and pulls him into cover next to the girl, holding her in place against the building she yelps in pain as Stash sprays her with her Nanomedikit sealing the wound on her arm, preventing anymore blood loss as well as easing the pain to numbness.
Terminator quickly closes the distance with the unknown X-Rays and pulls out her upsized Fusion Axe and attacks them in melee combat.
As the human child goes to slump to the ground Stash forcibly holds her to the side of the house.
"Girl, what is happening here, where are we and who are the X-Rays?" Stash demands to know.
"Wh.. what?" She mumbles.
"Master Sergeant Foster twenty X-Rays inbound from your three-o'clock." C.H.P.J.s' mechanical voice said over the Team Radio.
Pointing at the human girl Stash orders her to "stay," before taking a step back, seeing that Terminator is facing a non-stop wave of X-Rays.
"C.H.P.J. assist Terminator." Stash orders and pulls her Plasma Dragon Light Machine Gun from her back and levels it at the twenty X-Rays charging her.
"Yes, Master Sergeant Foster." C.H.P.J. replies and flies towards Terminator firing it's Superheavy Plasma Cannon at an unfortunate X-Ray.
As Stash starts firing her Plasma Dragon LMG her W.A.R. Battle Armor and augmented muscles struggle to keep the weapon stabilized as Plasma Rounds start flying down range at an incredible rate.
As X-Rays start dropping, Stash notices a slight shimmer around them when they get hit but ignores it as her current tactic of shot everything until it dies is working. The X-Rays caught in the open don't stand a chance while those that dive for cover quickly find that their lifeline quickly explodes in plasma fire. After about ten seconds of concentrated weapons fire Stash stops and the only thing left is blown up and melted buildings and containers and burnt and blown-up corpses of the now dead X-Rays.
As Stash is about to move towards the girl a six wheeled vehicle comes around the corner of a building thirty meters away and lines its' top turret at Stash. Rising her right arm Stash fires her Wrist Mounted Blaster Gauntlet at the vehicle, the Plasma Blaster round impacts the front of it causing a plasma explosion that destroys the front half of the vehicle and melts the back half into a distorted pile of molten metal.
Turning back to the girl she looks at Stash in shook of what just happened.
"Who.. who are you?" She asks.
"What is happening her girl?" Stash demands.
"Um.. the.. the Batarians, their taking everybody, they took my mum and dad and they tried to take me." She replies as she starts crying again but this time not from the pain.
"Terminator report." Stash says over the radio.
"We've taken care of all X-Rays in the immediate area, they seem to be focusing their assault on a Police Station one-kilometer north-east, the forces there are under heavy assault." Terminator reports.
"Copy, take point and start clearing a way to the Police Station, C.H.P.J. keep the rear clear of X-Rays, Warlock is down and I got a plus one." Stash orders.
"Copy, moving now." Terminator replies.
"Order received Master Sergeant Foster." C.H.P.J. replies.
"Can you shot?" Stash asks the girl.
"What, um, maybe." She replies holding her stumped arm.
"Good." Stash says and injects her with Combat Stims and puts her Mag Shorty in her good hand. "Stay on my ass and shot anything trying to kill us, and don't fucking lose that."
Stash picks up Warlock and throws him over her shoulder and puts her Advanced Grenade Launcher in her free hand. "Move." She orders.
Location: UNSC Fearless – Bridge
Date: September 5th, 2552
Time: 0410hrs Military Standard Time
Miranda rushes onto the Bridge of the UNSC Fearless some Bridge Officer are already at their stations while others are running closely behind their Acting CO.
Miranda makes her way to the Holo-Table in the massive bridge which is displaying a Tactical Layout of the current situation, and Agiad's Hologram of an Ancient Spartan Hoplite is standing at attention.
The UNSC Fearless is outside of the system about two-hundred-thousand-kilometers away from the nearest planet, ten unknown ships are moving towards them in a tight formation.
"Agiad, what's the status of the Clarion Spy Drone?" Miranda asks as officers finish manning their stations.
"The Clarion Spy Drone is moving towards the planet and avoiding the unknown as ordered." Agiad replies as he highlights it's position of the Holo-Table, above halfway to the planet.
"Start charging the MAC Capacitors, unlock safeties on Archer Missile Pods A1 to A9 and bring Autocannons and Point Defense online." Miranda orders.
"Commander they're hailing us." Lieutenant Koby Evans yells from his Communications Station.
"Put it through, audio only on our end." Miranda replies.
On a nearby screen, an image of small bridge filled with unknown aliens with four eyes, flat noses and a structed forehead appears.
The Alien speaks with confidence and demand but nobody on the Fearless can understand him.
"Charming fellow." Agiad comments.
Miranda was about to respond but Agiad and Lieutenant Junior Grade Alex Watson interrupt her. "Incoming weapons fire incoming!"
Moments later the ship gets hit but the Battle Plate holds.
"Direct hit, Battle Plate holding." Agiad says.
"MAC Capacitors at twenty-five percent." Lieutenant Peter Hall the Chief Weapons Officer states.
"Lieutenant Miller, ahead full, get us in Autocannon range." Miranda orders.
"Yes, ma'am." She replies.
"Commander, all stations report manned and ready." Agiad reports.
"Deploy you Wombats and the Broadswords, keep Wombats in the lead and standby to launch Longswords." Miranda orders Agiad.
"Understood commander, should we deploy the Spartan in the Saber?" Agiad asks.
"Yes."
Moments later the thirty AI control F-99 Wombats deploy out of their Hanger Bays, followed closely by twenty-five F-41 Broadswords. A half-minute later they are joined by a Spartan piloted FSS-1000 Saber.
"Commander, MAC Capacitors charged and ready to fire, Autocannons in range thirty seconds." Lieutenant Hall reports.
"Firing solution, target the flagship and its' twin with both MACs, and launch Archer Missiles in Pods A1 to A3 to impact at the same time as the MAC rounds." Miranda orders.
"Firing solution ready." Lieutenant Hall reports moments later.
"Fire."
Moments later seventy-two M58 Archer Missiles are fired from the Starboard Side of the UNSC Fearless and racing towards the ten unknown hostile ships.
"Agiad, have your Wombats move ahead to engage the enemy fleet after the missiles hit." Miranda orders.
"Wombats moving ahead full, commander." Agiad replies.
"Autocannons in range ten seconds." Lieutenant Hall announces.
"Target the smaller ships and fire when ready Lieutenant Hall, Lieutenant Miller decrease to combat speed."
"Yes ma'am." Both Lieutenants reply.
Miranda watches on the Holo-Table as the two MAC rounds and seventy-two Archer Missiles hit the two ships at the same time as they try to avoid the missiles, their point-defenses of all the ships fire but they are only able to destroy fifteen missiles before impacting.
The MAC rounds impact both their targets destroying both ships in one hit, a large number of Archer Missiles impact their wreckage, Agiad is able to divert ten of the Archer Missiles five of them get picked off by the enemy point-defense, the remaining five are able to destroy one of the six smaller ships. About ten seconds later the thirty AI controlled Wombats start engaging the two ships of sam size to the two destroyed ships but different design.
"Hull breach, Forward Section, no casualties, sealing off." Lieutenant Mark Shaw announces.
"Recharge MAC Capacitors." Miranda orders as the rest of the enemy ships start to break formation. "Agiad, analyze."
"Ma'am, both enemy ships were destroyed by the MAC rounds moments before the Archer Missiles hit, recommend we use the Archer Missiles to assist the Autocannons." Agiad replies.
"Do it, you have Pods A4 and A5 at your disposal." Miranda replies relieved that fighting these aliens isn't like fighting the Covenant.
"Autocannons in range, firing." Lieutenant Hall announces.
The fourteen Twin M66 Sentry 400mm/40cal Naval Autocannons start firing at the five remaining smaller vessels as and Agiad fires all twenty-four missiles of Pod A4, five seconds later firing the twenty-four missiles of A5 in a staggered line.
With the combined effort of the UNSC Fearless and the Wombats the UNSC is able to quickly and easily destroy ten enemy ships.
Location: Intai'sei – Thoreau Mesa Police Station
Date: June 27th, 2180
Time: 1425hrs Local Time
To say that First Lieutenant Sara Ryder was having a bad day was an understatement, what started out as a nice and quiet last day of tour has ended with a fight for her very life inside a shot up and in same areas blown up police station. Being one of two Biotics, she was key to keep the Slavers from overrunning the Last Stand location that was the Intai'sei Police Station.
The amount of Singularities, Lifts, Pulls, Throws and Warps that Sara has thrown at the never-ending Slavers would be funny to her if she wasn't suffering Biotic Exhaustion.
"Lt, incoming Mako." One of the Intai'sei Militiamen yelled at her.
"Shit, fuck, shit, fuck." Sara yells in frustration as she throws to Wraps at the Mako. "Get heavy weapons on that Mako and focus fire."
"We're out of heavy weapons." The same militiamen replies before getting gunned down by the Mako.
"Fuck! Everybody down!" Sara orders loud enough for everybody on her side of the building to hear.
"Staff Lieutenant, we got a Mako and nothing to take it out with." Sara all but screams into her radio.
"Understood, I'm sending my last rocket over to your side of the building." Staff Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko quickly replies.
As Sara is about to poke her head above her half-destroyed cover, a cannon round from the Mako impacts it and sends Sara to the ground a couple of meters away. Fighting to keep conscious, her vision is blurry and her ears are ringing, seconds later the Mako slams through the front door the wheels barely missing her, an unfortunate Alliance Marine who was running to help her gets hit and run over by the Mako before it reverses out.
Another marine grabs her by the shoulders and yells at her but she can't make out what he is saying, the ringing dies down and she can hear him now along with the many explosions around her.
"Lieutenant what do we do!" The marine screams at her before his head snaps to his right, a headshot from that damned sniper.
Pushing the dead marine off her and grabbing the side of her helmet she stumbles onto her hands and feet and looks at the Mako aiming its' turret right at her, then it explodes in green fire.
"What the fuck!" Sara mutters to herself as the ringing dies down so she can hear the people are her clearly.
A Mech unlike anything she as every seen, falls from the sky its' back having some sort of Jetpack and it starts engaging the Slavers with a big fucking axe.
"What the hell is that thing!?" Someone yells.
"Don't fucking now, but it's on our side, don't let the bastards in." Sara orders.
What's left of the defense force, whether they be Alliance Marines, Militia, Local Police, or people who picked up a gun all aim out of the three-story building and start gunning down the Slavers.
As the defending force keep firing it doesn't seem enough as the slavers seem endless, someone wearing unknown and heavy armor drops in front of Sara.
A little girl about nine falls off the unknown soldier and runs inside, she is missing most of one arm and carrying a strange pistol type weapon, while the unknown soldier walks in and put down an unconscious soldier in different but also unknown armor, looking at the back of the armor it has two massive thrusters and the armor has an integrated Exo-suit.
"Who is in command here?" A female voice demands.
"I am, this section at least, First Lieutenant Ryder."
"Ma'am we have a couple hundred X-Rays converging on this position, what kind of support can we get from XCOM?" She asks as she pulls a large green glowing tube of her back and shoulders it.
"What's XCOM?" Sara asks confused more than anything.
The unknown female soldier stops in the middle of the door and turns her helmet to look at her, the full-face helmet scares the shit out of her. While she is stopped in the door frame several mass accelerator rounds impact her armor, leveling dints in the armor, no Kinetic Barrier flared though which peaked Sara's interest.
Leveling her green glowing launcher at a building forty meters away with a lot of Batarians she fires and the round arches and impacts into the building causing a massive explosion and melting away half the building left.
"Is that plasma?" Sara whispers.
"Ma'am rally your forces, we're in this for the long haul." The Unknown Soldier says as she puts the maybe Plasma Launcher on her back and levels a large cannon that is also glowing green with what Sara thinks is plasma.
Looking outside Sara can see hundreds of Plasma Rounds going down range destroying, melting and in some cases both anything that gets hit, the almost three-meter tall mech is killing Slavers with a large axe and burning the less fortunate with a Flame Thrower attached to one of its' arms.
Then to add to her confusion even more a flying mech starts firing large plasma rounds every second and flying around the Slavers with incredible speed so it doesn't get hit.
As she look around at what is left of her defense group see notices no one is firing and just staring at the newcomers.
"Maintain fire, don't let up!" Sara orders.
Location: UNSC Fearless – Bridge
Date: September 5th, 2552
Time: 0415hrs Military Standard Time
"Ma'am the Clarion Spy Drone is in position over the main colony, it is under heavy assault, four cargo ships have landed on the outskirts of the colony, what's left of the defensive force is in the center of the colony. The defensive force is made up primarily of humans." Agiad informed and as he did he highlight the area he was talking about on the Holo-Table.
"What's our ETA until we are in orbit?" Major Clint Xao the Acting Ground Force Commander asks.
"ETA is five minutes." Agiad replies his Hologram turning to face the major and then back to Miranda. "Commander I have detected an unknown fleet inbound; they appear to be using an unknown method of FTL, they arrive in six hours."
"Let's make this quick then, we don't know who they belong to or if they will engage us or not, major when we get to a stable orbit you will have five hours to get everybody back onboard." Miranda declares.
"Understood ma'am, Agiad have the 105th on standby for immediate drop and I want the 21st Marine Division and 124th Mechanized Infantry Division on standby for planetary deployment." Clint orders.
"Orders sent; shall I prioritize the marines over the army for first wave deployment?" Agiad responds.
"Yes."
Location: UNSC Fearless – ODST Bay One
Date: September 5th, 2552
Time: 0415hrs Military Standard Time
Captain Veres Tarkov walks along the ODST Bay the men and women under his command stand at attention in front of the Pods.
"Troopers!" His voice echoes throughout the large bay. "We are dropping on an unknown planet and engaging unknown hostiles, Command has given us five hours to clear the colony and get back to the Fearless." He stops walking and looks at a fellow ODST from Reach. "I know we are still hurting because of Reach." He continues walking and takes note of the Hellbringers. "Reach may have fallen but we have not! The anger, the pain you are feeling use it, we may not be fighting the Covenant, but the alien bastards are killing and taken humans and it is our job to make them regret that! We will make them regret the day they were born! We will make them regret being alien scum! We will make them regret facing the UNSC! We're dropping into Hell troopers, it's time to grow a pair!"
"Oorah!" Every ODST and Hellbringer shouts then turns and enters their Pods.
As Veres enters his Pod the hatch closes, the screen on the right shows his Second-in-Command and the screen on the left shows a Spartan in Black Armor with a Commando Helmet with a Black Visor.
The bottom of the ship opens up and three-hundred M8823 SOIEVs hung in place with magnetic clamps.
Agiad voice comes over the Command Level on the Battle Network. "Ok people it's time to show these alien scumbags what the UNSC is capable of and not to fuck with humanity."
"Oorah." Several Veres and several ODSTs responds.
"Noble Six you will land five-kilometers away from the colony and move to engage and clear the enemy ships on the surface, the 11th Shock Troops Battalion under acting CO Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck will drop within your AO to render assistance. We have identified a Last Stand location in the center of the colony, a police station, Major Tarkov and Warrant Officer Bernstein your Battalions will drop in and around the police station to render aid to the last defenders, the Clarion Spy Drone over the colony has identified an underground bunker below the police station, we believe the majority of the colonists are there. Captain Antonovich, the 10th will be dropped throughout the colony in teams of ten for Search and Destroy Operations. I have been authorized to deploy ten F-99 Wombats to provide Air Support, Shortswords will bomb and destroy any hostiles outside of the colony limits." Agiad relays their orders from Major Xao.
After a series of acknowledgments, the Maglocks holding the Drop Pods releases and the Pods rocket thruster ignites shooting all three-hundred Pods to the surface. The bottom of the carrier closes and three-hundred more Pods are moved into position so the 10th and 25th Shock Troops Battalions can Drop to the surface; they will land five minutes are the first wave.
Location: Intai'sei - Thoreau Mesa Police Station
Date: April 9th, 2084
Time: 0135hrs XCOM Standard Time
"The bastards to give up do they?" Stash yells over her Plasma Dragon LMG to Sara Ryder.
Sara shouts and unleashes another Singularity, five X-Rays get caught into, four of the four eyed ones and one that looks like a blue human, they remind Stash of the Thin Man of the First War.
"What they want is below us, we had time to get most colonists into the bunker." Sara shouts back.
Stash changes her fire arc to focus on the five X-Rays in the Singularity quickly and brutally killing them. C.H.P.J. flies through a window and lands next to the unconscious form of Warlock as Terminator's Mark III GREMLIN detaches itself from the MEC-7 Vindicator Exo-Armor and flies next to it to perform a field repair. Glancing at C.H.P.J. Stash notices that the left Elerium Turbo has been heavily damaged, she also notices the girl is helping the GREMLIN, following the instructions of the robotic voice, Stash's Mag Shorty clutched closely to her chest with her stump arm.
Stash's HUD updates with a message from Terminator.
Unknown Ship in Orbit, dropping unknown elements, appear to be pods.
Looking up Stash can she the outline of a large ship and what appear to be hundreds of streaks of something going beyond the speed of sound dropping towards them.
"Record message, Receiver, Terminator." Stash says to herself, a ping sounds indicating the message is ready to be recorded. "Keep an eye on them, if they are hostile engage, parameters of hostility are engaging XCOM Forces or colonist."
Her Plasma Dragon stops firing and lets out a burst of built-up heat.
"Fuck!" Stash says to herself and moves behind the wall next to the door, Ryder looking at her confused.
"What?" She asks.
"I'm ou.." Before Stash can finish either a stray round or a well-placed round impacts her in the neck with enough force to break through the Carapace Plating and make her stumble to the ground.
"Sniper!" Sara yells and rushes over to Stash and uses her Biotics to help maneuver her behind cover.
"Gibson!" Sara yells.
"Hear Lt!" A male voice yells back.
"Find that sniper and kill the bastard!" Sara orders as she leans Stash against the wall.
"Yes Lt!" He yells back.
A lot of blood has rushed out of the wound and made its' way down Stash's chest plate. Sara applies some Medi-gel to the affected area as Stash rips her helmet of and slams it into the ground next to her, the floor cracks from the force used.
Stash's head is covered in heavy burn marks and deep claw marks are mixed in mainly on the right side of her face, her right eye was scarred shut at one point but someone has cut into the socket and replaced the destroyed eye with a robotic one, her left cheek has been replaced with a metal plate of some kind and she has no hair on her entire head from the burn scars.
Sara is horrified and most likely scarred for life with the image of her would be saviors' head and it shows on her face.
"Something to say?" Stash gurgles out with blood and the one good eye closes as she falls unconscious.
The Medi-gel seems to have closed the wound but Sara doesn't know how long she will last without proper medical attention.
"Gibson's hit!" Someone to Sara's right yells.
Dozens of loud thuds sound outside the police station and fighting stops on both sides, Sara looks out the door and sees lots of five-meter tall, two-point-seven-meters wide and two-point-three-meters long egg shaped pods, everyone stands or crouches on confusion looking at the pods, then everyone gives of a loud bang and the front of the egg shaped pods blow off and out of each pod a soldier in armor and weapons nobody has ever seen charge out of the pods, running to cover and firing their weapons at the Slavers.
About forty soldiers rush into the police station, using all three floors for cover and reinforcing the entire building.
"Who's in charge here!?" One of the soldiers yells.
"I'm in charge of this section!" Sara yells back.
The man walks towards Sara, and his helmet visor a solid grey shifts and becomes clear, his face is one of a soldier and has several scars.
"I'm Captain Veres Tarkov of the UNSC 19th Shock Troops Battalion, the 19th and 25th have been ordered to reinforce and hold this station at all cost." Veres says in his Hungarian Accent.
"Um, the what?" Sara asks confused.
Captain Tarkov looks Sara over and then says, "we are ordered to hold this location the 19th is fortifying this station and the 25th will establish a perimeter fifty-meters in every direction, two addition units are being dropped throughout the colony make sure you people doesn't engage anyone that looks like us."
"Understood sir." Sara says and activates her radio. "This is First Lieutenant Ryder to all Alliance Forces, do not, I repeat, do not, engage UNSC Forces they are here to help."
Sara hears an engine power up and looks over as the XCOM Drone with the Plasma Cannon flies out of the police station and starts firing and the other XCOM Drone with what look like four stabilizers flies over to Stash quickly followed by the one-armed girl with the weird weapon.
"Citizen Arrow, remove the Nanomedikit from Master Sergeant Foster's right waist, aim the Nanomedikit at Master Sergeant Foster's neck and pull the trigger." As the drone gives the instructions the little girl follows them and a blue mist is sprayed over Stash that seems to heal the neck.
"Incoming IFV! Get the Jackhammer up front!" An ODST yells from outside.
Looking outside Sara sees a Mako and takes cover seconds later two rockets impact the Mako and destroy it. The almost three-meter tall XCOM Mech goes charging after the retreating Slavers, as the Slavers are starting to panic and retreat from the police station Sara goes to the third floor and looks outside, dozens of the UNSC Pods have landed around the police station, from reports she is getting more have landed on other sides of the police station, some have even landed in buildings. The courtyard in front of the police station is littered with dead and three destroyed Makos.
"All this death and carnage, just so some bastards can get a payday." Sara mumbles to herself.
"Don't worry about it ma'am, the UNSC will put a stop to 'em." Someone with a think Hungarian Accent says to her.
As the ODST says that ten strange aircraft that don't look like they have a cockpit start strafing Slaver positions throughout the colony, mainly around the police station.
Location: Unknown Colony Outskirts
Date: September 5th, 2552
Time: 0420hrs Military Standard Time
SPARTAN-B312, Noble Six the last Noble, maybe Jun is still alive, Six thought to herself as she landed her FSS-1000 Saber in a clearing within the forest.
"Agiad, Noble Six, I have made planet fall and I am moving to secure the targets." Six said over the UNSC Battlenet.
"Copy that Noble Six, a contingent of UNSC Army Forces alongside an ONI Operative are deploying ground side to ensure the Saber remains out of unauthorized hands." Agiad replies.
Six secures her weapons om her MJOLNIR Armor and goes into a sixty-five-kilometer-per-hour sprint towards the colony, covering the five-kilometers in four minutes and thirty-seven seconds.
As she gets close the forest comes to an abrupt stop, with her direct uplink to the Clarion Spy Drone she has a part of her HUD show the live feed of the area around the Cargo Ships and takes note of the ODST Drop Pods ten seconds from landing.
The Slavers have setup a Rearguard but only assigned fifteen people it.
"Smart but not smart enough." Six says to herself and pulls out her Combat Knife.
Wanting to take out most of the Rearguard before the ODSTs land Six activates her Active Camouflage and runs towards the closest Slaver. Running at high speed will render the Active Camouflage somewhat ineffective but Six is hoping it is enough to gain a couple more seconds.
As she charges the first Slaver her adrenalin increases causing the world around Six to appear to be in slow motion, at the last second the Slaver sees Six and goes to raise his weapon but as he gets half-way Six's Combat Knife is plunged into the Slavers' throat and Six pulls the blade out the from then pushes the blade through the back cutting his head off. The four around the Slaver see their point man killed by something and move to engage the shadowy demon.
Taking two long strides to the next Slaver, this one looks bird-like, Six plunges her blade into its' eye, killing it instantly, she throws the blade at another four-eyed alien hitting him in the lower right eye and charges a four-eyed alien as weapons fire goes where Six just moved from and hits the alien in the gut, as he is recoiling from the strike, Six kicks him in the knee snapping the bone out of his body and as he collapses Six knees him in the chin sending him flying backwards and pushing his jaw into his brain.
Rolling to avoid more weapons fire, Six draws her Type-31 Needle Rifle takes aim on the last alien in this cluster and fires, a needle sharp impacting the four-eyed alien in the upper left eye.
Six notices a blue orb of some kind go past where she was standing a second ago and sees a blue human-like alien surrounded in a blue aurora, taking aim Six fires twice impacting the blue alien in the head, the blue aurora fades.
With rapid fire Six kills the four other aliens in that cluster, all with headshots. Rolling and shifting to focus on the last cluster behind her, Six's shields take an impact but she notices Shield Bar Barely moves.
Firing Six kills the last four aliens in the Rearguard as the ODST Pods impact in the surface and their occupants jump out guns blazing.
"Noble Six, this is Gunnery Sergeant Buck we have boots on ground and engaging the enemy." Buck says over the Battlenet.
"Copy, the Rearguard has been dealt with, secure the area around the ships, I will secure the ships." Six replies over the Battlenet.
"Noble Six, Gunnery Sergeant Buck, at the orders of Major Xao I have infiltrated and disabled the ships, they can no longer take off." Agiad says over the Battlenet.
"More time to clean house." Buck comments over the Battlenet.
Six ignores the troopers' comment and retrieves her Combat Knife and makes her way to the ramp at the front of the ship. As she reaches the ramp it is in the process of closing, Six is easily about to make the small jump and slides into the ship.
"Agiad, transfer my HUD Visuals to Fearless Actual." Six says as she kills the Slaver closing the ramp.
Six is in a large Cargo Area, if Six was to guess this section ran a third the ship, with stairs and catwalks allowing access to higher areas, the area is filled to the brim with cages.
"Noble Six, HUD fed transferred to Fearless Actual." Agiad informs.
Walking to the closest cage Six sees a human female, naked and covered in mud and blood, she has been cut in several spots and has bruises on her face and chest, she is hugging herself and diverting her gaze from Six.
"I'm going to get up out of here." Six declares and the woman glances at Six, fear and dread in her eyes.
"All UNSC Elements this is Fearless Actual, no prisoners, repeat no prisoners." Commander Keyes says over the Battlenet, anger laced in her voice.
A series of acknowledgments comes over the Battlenet, everyone understanding what will happen when they surrender.
Six's Shield flares as she starts taking enemy fire, she draws her Type-31 Needle Rifle and returns fire, making sure to double check what she is firing at and moving onto a catwalk so that most of the hostages are not in the line of fire.
On the Uplink to the Clarion Spy Drone Six notices that the ODSTs have secured the immediate area, she also sees B-65 Shortswords bombing around the colony, ten AV-22 Sparrowhawks, ten D96-TCE Albatrosses, twenty D77H-TCI Pelicans all moving towards the colony and a single D77H-TCI Pelican making its' way to Six's Saber.
Six charges the enemy position as fast as she can to limit civilian casualties, when she makes it to the end of this section four Slavers are dead, Six throws the Needle Rifle at a Slaver coming through the Hallway leading deeper into the ship smashing his helmet and knocking him back, taking note of her Shield Bar at half, she body slams a Slaver into the bulkhead, dinting it and crushing his bones and organs into the ship.
Behind her someone shouts and hits Six with a makeshift melee weapon, her shields flare taking the hit. Turning Six stares at the Turian.
"Spirits." The Turian says to himself, right before Six Spartan Kicks him and he impacts a bulkhead five meters away killing him on impact.
Drawing her M6C-SOCOM Six walks into the hallway and picks up the Needle Rifle places it on her back, at the same time firing at more Slavers. Quickly clearing the two storage rooms she physically opens the door leading into the next section. Her shields having had time to recharge is reduced by a quarter by the amount of weapons fire she is receiving.
"Any of you bastards that brings me it's head gets triple pay!" A loud male voice declares across the forty-meter cargo section.
Just like the last section this section is filled to the brim with cages and people in them. Six runs and cross the forty-meters in several seconds and she brutally and methodically kills the ten Slavers in this section in hand-to-hand combat.
As her shields recharge Six walks over to the massive blast door that stands between her and the ship's bridge.
Six jams her hands in the blast door and proceeds to force the door open, for the first several seconds the last of the Slavers on the ship don't fire, then their captain barks an order at them and they start firing.
When she is able to enter the bridge her shields have depleted and she proceeds to fire her M739 SAW killing the Slavers in a hail of UNSC Bullets.
Six spends the next ten minutes clearing the other three ships as Pelicans and Albatrosses deposit their marines, soldiers, and vehicles.
Location: Intai'sei – Thoreau Mesa Police Station
Date: June 27th, 2180
Time: 1600hrs Local Time
First Lieutenant Sara Ryder looks at a young family that was mercilessly gunned down by the Slavers on the outskirts of the colony, her unit a mismatch of Alliance Marines, Intai'sei Police and Militia and UNSC Marines and Army Soldiers was tasked with patrolling the outskirts to the north, many Slavers and in a full panicked retreat north of the colony only to be bombed into oblivion from the UNSC Bombers, the B-65 Shortswords one of her UNSC Squad Members called them.
"Something you never get used to seeing is dead civilians, this sight will stay with you for the rest of your life." A UNSC Marine Sergeant says as he walks up to her.
Sara goes to talk but no words form.
"Staff Lieutenant Alenko has ordered us back to the police station." The sergeant says then turns around. "Mount up!" he orders.
Turning around and following the sergeant, Sara climbs onto the Jumpseat on top of the forward left track of the M808C Scorpion, the sergeant taking the back left one. Looking behind her the driver is encased in protective plating and the turret gunner is scanning the buildings.
As the tank starts driving Sara grabs hold of the hand holds not wanting a repeat of earlier where she fell off the Jumpseat while under fire. As the tank drives back to the police station, Sara takes not of the destroyed or semi-destroyed buildings, the corpses those of the Slavers and the colonists. Some of the UNSC Army Soldiers are working to put of fires in buildings, Sara was told that a specialized flamethrower unit called the Hellbringers burned the buildings that Slavers took cover in, Sara can see it isn't only the buildings they burned as Slaver corpses are burnt to a crisp in the streets.
Ten minutes later the Scorpion drives into the courtyard of the police station, the pods the first wave of UNSC Forces came in are starting to be moved away and what is left of this fight are three destroyed Makos and hundreds of dead, maybe a thousand total in this area alone.
Sara jumps of the Scorpion and walks towards the police station, half of it is missing or in rubble, the almost three-meter tall XCOM Mech was facing the station not moving, when Sara glances up she notices the helmet of the mech is missing and it looks like there is room for someone to fit inside it. Turning back to the station that is when she notices something she never thought she would see, an advanced looking mech humanoid mech with a human head.
"First Lieutenant Ryder." Major Tarkov said in his Hungarian Accent.
"Sir." Sara replies and salutes which Veres returns.
"Earlier when we first met, you were confused as to what the UNSC is, what organization are you with?" Veres asks.
"I'm an officer in the Systems Alliance Marine Corps." Sara proudly states, both Veres and the Mech women who is watching the exchange can hear the exhaustion in Sara's voice.
"And the Systems Alliance is?" Veres asks.
"How do you not know what the Alliance is, where are you from?" Sara asks the confusion of this situation coming back to her.
Veres says nothing and waits for Sara to continue, after an awkward pause she continues.
"Um." Sara coughs awkwardly. "The Systems Alliance is the representative body of Earth…"
"What!?" Both the mech woman and Veres interrupt Sara with surprise, then look at each other and back at Sara.
"Is there a problem?" Sara carefully asks.
"Continue, First Lieutenant." The mech woman demands.
"The Alliance is the representative body of Earth, it is backed by the most powerful nations on Earth and represents Earth and human colonies in Citadel Space, we are humanities military, exploration and economic spearhead in all things space related." Sara finishes.
"What about the UNSC?" Veres asks confused.
"I've never heard of the UNSC sir, what is it?" Sara replies.
"XCOM?" The mech woman asks.
Sara shakes her head.
"Um excuse me." The little girl with one arm says awkwardly.
The mech woman turns and kneels down to be face to face with her.
"You're flying drone thingy says that Master Sergeant Foster needs a medical facility, and.. and the pain is starting to come back."
"Hang on sweety." She says and walks over to the other XCOM Soldier and takes something of his waist and injects it into the girls good arm, her bad arm still holding the Mag Shorty close to her chest awkwardly. "Feel better?"
"Yes, thank you miss."
"I'm Gunnery Sergeant Zofia Molska, you can call me Zofia."
"My name is Nichole Arrow." She says and offers her hand to which Zofia shakes it.
Standing up Zofia turns and looks at Veres. "Sir, do you have Medical Facilities on that ship of yours?"
"There are hospitals in the colony." Sara states.
"You mean the hospitals that have been shot up, blown up and are overflowing with wounded." Zofia replies.
"Yeah, those ones." Sara replies looking at the girl with curiosity. "What did you inject her with?"
"Combat Stims, one of it's functions is to reduce pain levels."
"She's missing an arm."
Zofia looks at Sara with 'so' face and turns back to Veres.
"I have to clear it with Actual, do you know about the UNSC?" Veres replies.
Zofia shakes her head and walks over to Warlock. "Point Blank."
The GREMLIN Mark III flies over to Warlock and a scanner runs over his body.
"Field Commander Harrison has suffered minor brain damage due to the prolonged Psi Teleport; Recovery will take time recommend contacting Jaeger Corps Psionic Specialties for further analysis."
"Where are we?" Zofia asks turning back to Sara.
"We're on the planet Intai'sei in the Argos Rho Cluster." Sara explains.
"And Earth?" Zofia gets uncomfortably close.
"Um, three maybe four Relay Jumps away." Sara replies with a hint of uncertainty in her voice.
"Relay?" Zofia takes another half step forward, theirs almost touching.
"The.. the Mass Effect Relays, what Galactic Civilization is built around, they um.. allow us to travel vast distances instantaneously. Where are you from?" Sara replies as she backs up in a wall, Zofia moving with her.
For about thirty seconds Zofia is still as she searches for an signs that she is lying but find none, she then backs and returns to the girl.
As that is happening Veres puts his helmet back on. "Fearless Actual this is 19th Actual." He said over the Battlenet.
"19th Actual, this is Fearless Actual." Miranda replies over the Battlenet.
"Ma'am, there is a third party here helping the defenders, they call themselves XCOM and they have requested we bring them up for Medical Assistance, you should now ma'am their tech and armor is unlike anything anyone else is using here, I also think they have some sort of plasma-based weaponry, it's unlike anything the Covenant use." Veres says.
About a minute passes before she responds. "I'll authorize it but make sure they understand that they cant have any weapons on their person and they will be under guard at all times."
"Yes ma'am." Veres replies and walks over to Zofia as she kneels down to be face to face with Nicole.
"You did good today soldier; you'll make a fine XCOM Operative one day." Zofia's says her voice laced with pride. "Do you know where your family is?"
Nicole looks down her expression turning to sadness.
"Do you have anyone that will take you in?"
Nicole shakes her head. "Can.. can I come with you?" She asks weakly.
"XCOM doesn't have civilians, we're all soldiers." Zofia says her Polish Accent appearing as she lets her persona down.
"I can fight." Nicole declares.
"Sure, welcome to XCOM Squaddie." Zofia says and stands straight and gives her a salute which Nicole returns with her good arm, her bad arm lowers to her side and the Mag Shorty falls to the ground.
"Gunny." Veres says getting her attention. "Actual is allowing you to come aboard but you will have to be disarmed, and you'll be under guard at all times."
"Sir, I care about two things right now, the first is my squads welfare and the second is figuring out what in the fuck happened to us." Zofia replies.
"Good enough, a Pelican is landing in a minute."
"Um, what am I supposed to tell my superiors?" Sara asks.
"Not our problem." Zofia replies.
True to his word a D77H-TCI Pelican landed in the courtyard a minute later and medical personal disembarked, they spent about five minutes getting Warlock and Stash ready for transport and loaded them up on the Pelican. While this happened a second Pelican came in and Maglocked Terminators MEC-7 Vindicator Exo-Armor to it and took off for the UNSC Fearless, when Veres and Zofia boarded the Medical Pelican they piled all XCOM Weapons in the rear and they took off, leveling a bewildered Alliance First Lieutenant behind.
Over the next thirty minutes all UNSC Personal and Equipment was evacuated from the Intai'sei and returned to UNSC Fearless which then started flying off into deep space. Four hours later the Systems Alliance Navy Fifth Fleet arrived.