Note:
Jack Cooper is equipped with all abilities, like grapple and phase NOT the time travel one as it's weird BT has the Monarch Loadout (Abilities explained later)
--
Hello my name is Jack Cooper and currently I am falling from orbit, how many may wonder how exactly did I get here and to that; I don't know. Last thing I remember I was part of a last ditch assault on the IMC facility on Typhon with my titan BT-7274. Fighting through waves of IMC troops we tangled with the apex predators and came out on top no worse for wear. Viper put up a fight and Sloan fought until the end, and so we reached the ark, in all its glory.
When BT and I messed with the fold weapon's activation something happened, everything froze every piece of debris every soldier, I saw Ronins paused mid swing grunts frozen just after leaping away from a grenade. Yet we still moved unhindered by the seeming pause in time Trekking towards the center what we saw will stick with me, a rend no better description; glowed in multicolored light yet the center was dark no light, no movement. Yet we advanced, something about it simply, called to us.
"BT you seeing this?"
"Affirmative pilot I have now cataloged it in my database, we seem to be stuck in a situation similar to what happened at the IMC research facility. The Fold weapon test firing froze time similar to this but this rupture is new, further study must be done."
"Got to consult, BT what's our next move"
"It seems we have to enter the rupture pilot, the probability of surviving, slim to none."
"But is it our only option?"
"Affirmative Pilot"
"Then what choice do we have? Let's do it"
"Affirmative"
BT then held out his hand, I hopped on and like all the other times he deftly put into the cockpit and locked up.
"On three Cooper" I blinked
"One" I checked power systems
"Two" Core functionality green lighted and ready to go
"Three" I braced myself
BT took long steps forward first putting his hand through then the rest, I for a brief moment saw swirls of gold and green with a hint of red toning the walls of a tunnel. Then I lost consciousness, blacked out for what felt like an eternity, then woke up to see the flames of reentry sticking close to the optics of BT.
"BT status report, pronto!"
"All systems at 92% functionality same as before"
"I meant what the hell is going on?!"
"We are falling from orbit"
That simple response got me paused, surely he knew th- whatever, don't dwell better to take care of the situation at hand.
"Reorient chassis to standard drop procedure, forgo landing shield and reroute power to fortify impact dampeners, I didn't get this far just die now!"
--
Tali Pov
I was having a bad day, like a really bad day. I had just started my pilgrimage just a few weeks prior, and traveled to Eden prime in search of work to save credits in hopes of bringing back something big to the fleet. Yet I now sit behind cover cradling a shotgun and readying an overload as a geth colossus fires upon my location.
"Stupid Geth, of all times they could've choosen to invade in the last 300 years, they choose the middle of MY pilgrimage, and they first invade the planet I'M on, Bosh'tets." I peek over the cover only to duck as fast as she can, three geth units advance on her position, I move quickly and fire on one, taking it by surprise and knocking it out with one shot. The other two wheel to face me firing a barrage of bullets. I duck behind the same box I hid behind the first time. Readying the overload I prepared in advance, I peek quickly unleashing a storm of high voltage electricity, leaving the last two geth in a heap on the ground. Picking up one of the geth and dragging it to cover as I turn on my omnitool.
"Okay you bosh'tet let's see what you got. Huh; Okay, there are a couple files pulled from recent memory I'll comb through them later. First I have to deal with the big one."
I finish up gleaning what I can from the geth memory core before they fully wipe when something catches my eye. A bright streak descending from the sky, covered in the flare of what I can only guess is from the result of orbital reentry, and it seemed to be heading my way.
"Come ON! Could this day get any worse!"
BOOM! A thunderous crash sounds out, and while she can't see, from the dust kicked up Tali knew something landed, something big. Peeking out she sees something that will be engraved into her mind for as long as she lives, a metal giant kneeling then extending to its full height at 8 meters tall it was no doubt a machine of war.
"Keelah, just what is that?" I whisper, afraid of being heard, my voice muted in awe. Then I saw another wave of geth approaching behind me; she sprinted into cover again hoping that this wouldn't be the day she died.
--
Cooper Pov
"Ugh, yeah I'm gonna feel that one tomorrow." Regaining my bearings I blink to look around, hearing BT's familiar voice come online to give me a status report.
"Cooper, we have survived the landing. All systems reporting green, overall functionality at 87.9%"
"That's good, I'm going to dismount and scope out the area. You reroute power to the dome shield, draw straight from dampeners and life support, don't want you getting into any trouble before I get back."
"Affirmative Pilot, be warned there seems to be signs of battle in the area."
"Understood BT, let me out"
With the hiss of the depressuring sequence of the armored cockpit hatch, I put on my helmet and grab my R-201 to head outside. The hatch swings open and I'm greeted by the sight of crates and greenery all scarred with bullet impacts and plasma bursts. This just got a whole lot more interesting, I grapple to the top of the nearest crate and look around. The scenery of this planet is picturesque, but nothing like any world I know in the frontier. Sounds of gunfire draw my attention, I see a suited figure, lady by the looks of it in a skirmish with 6 stalker look-alikes.
"BT I'm going to go over to that fight, hold position and stay on the lookout."
"Affirmative"
I stim and slide into a grapple, my momentum carrying me far and fast, I hit the side of a crate and start to wall run. Nearing the end I push off activating my jump kit, boosting me to a nearby crate to start again, as I draw closer I pull out my data knife, leap and plunge down onto an unsuspecting enemy.
--
Tali Pov
Crouching here behind a box waiting for the first geth to come around the corner to use my overload, is when I hear it. The steady thunking of boots against steel, but that doesn't make sense there's no metal walkways, only crates stacked on dirt. As I contemplate, I see him, the third major surprise of the day, a man in a red jumpsuit running along the side of the crate. I pause as he takes a leap on flames trailing his jump, I lose track of him as he bounds around the corner.
"Who was that?! Movement like that shouldn't be possible, so how?"
I look over the small crate I hide behind, a sight of carnage appears as the man leaps from geth unit to unit dispatching each one with a bladed weapon of incredible sharpness. He then drops to the ground, pulls out his gun and lays into a geth unit dismantling it with ease. He stops seemingly unaware of the geth unit sneaking up behind him with a shotgun, just as I'm about to warn him, a flash of blue light and he's gone. No trace of him other than the destruction of 5 geth units in the span of less than 30 seconds, the remaining unit, a prime, swings around losing track of its prey. Then he's back, right behind the prime stabbing down with the same knife he used to take out some of the others, he cuts straight through the next of the prime, pauses and puts everything away. I stare in awe, he did with ease not a movement wasted, a perfect takedown, and now … now he's staring right at me.
"Keelah! Oh I'm so sorry I didn't mean to stare. I was here on Eden Prime for my pilgrimage when the geth attacked and got caught up. I'm sorry and didn't mean to intrude. Again - … "
--
Cooper Pov
I finished off the last hostile, wiping my blade of what seems to be hydraulic fluid and stowing it. I turn to where the lady was last only to do a double take. Now that I'm closer I can make out more defining features, she's or at least I assume it's a she, because whatever it is, it's not Human. With two digits on either hand, and longer more slender limbs, curved inwards shins, covered in a full body exosuit the alien is standing there running her hand up and down her arm as she grinds her foot further into the ground. Nervous, she begins to speak in a language that I can't understand running on stuttering and stammering between words, it's kind of funny actually. I'm here the first member of the human race to meet an alien, and she's nervous, twist of fate huh. I radio back to BT to inform him of the sudden and most unexpected status change.
"BT; You there?"
"Affirmative Pilot"
"Remind me of standard protocol when encountering an extraterrestrial being"
"Contact Command"
"Okay so I don't think that's gonna be possible"
"Looking through your helmet footage this alien seems to be of no threat see if she has a portable computer on her to access her language"
"Copy that BT"
I raise my hands above my head hoping to convey that I am not going to hurt her, and slowly approach. She then raises her right hand and a glowing orange holo construct appears. She taps on it for a bit and seems to be looking for something.
"If I was a betting man, I'd bet that's your way in"
"Affirmative Pilot"
"Language base downloaded converting input from helmet now."
"I'm sorry and didn't mean to intrude. Again -"
I cut her off, "You're fine, just tell me what's going on here."
"Uh- Um well okay, I was here for my pilgrimage an-"
"Pilgrimage? Is that a sort of coming of age thing for your people?"
"Wel- Well yes, it's when a young Quarian" I make a mental note of what her species is called, "leaves the flotilla to go explore the wider galactic community, I left and ended up here on a human world."
Now THAT left me speechless, a Human world?! That shouldn't be possible. I know for a fact that humanity never once met any other species, and now she's saying that not only did we meet one, but we are part of a greater galactic community of MANY other species?! I mute my helmet speaker.
"BT; are you getting this?"\
"Affirmative Pilot, with databases I have pulled from her omnitool, her story checks out. We appear to be in the year 2183, twenty seven years before when we left. It stands to reason that we are in a Parallel universe"
"A parallel what?"
"Parallel universe, a different reality than the one we came from yet still remarkably similar to ours in numerous ways."
"Ooookay then, so how should I act?"
"Pretend as if you belong here and you are a mercenary, I will forge the necessary background for you."
"Copy that BT"
I focus back on her. It's clear she's agitated, probably because I wasn't focused on her. I unmute and voice back up.
"Sorry Miss I received an important call that I had to take, could you continue on where you left off." She sort of tilts her head at me awkwardly, seemingly unnerved by how polite I was, 'weird' I think to myself, odd to be unnerved by someone being polite. I cast that thought to the side, so I can refocus.
"After landing on Eden Prime I looked for odd jobs to earn money and so I stayed on world for a few weeks before this started. The Geth landed knocking out key defenses around the colony before dropping troops to clean up, I fought a couple around here before something big dropped from the sky didn't stick around too long after that, then I ran into these ones here." She stopped to kick the corpse of the downed geth prime. "You know the rest from there, but what I'm interested in is how you're here and how you were running along that wall earlier."
"Well Miss- Actually I don't think I ever caught your name, would you care to inform me?"
"Tali, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya just call me Tali, actually may I ask something?"
"Sure Tali go right ahead"
"Why are you so polite to me? Most people I encounter show visible disgust or hate and think of me as nothing more than a thief, no more than a suit rat" She flinches at her own words, it's obvious to me that she is viewed with hate, discriminated against for being what she is. I hold out my hand to stop her mid rant,
"Tali, I barely know you, I'm just a guy passing by. You haven't done anything to me so I can't judge you for anything, as I prefer to judge not based on what you are rather who you are. It's that simple, I don't want anything more than to know what's going on."
"Sorry! Sorry It's Jus-"
"Your used to people discriminating, I get it. So don't worry so much." I try to calm her nerves. The sound of gunfire far off in the distance doesn't help, but I seem to be getting through as she draws a long shuddering breath.
"Thank you again for saving me uhh-"
"Jack Cooper at your service." She giggled at that, "I'm a pilot of a titan. My titan is just over yonder, it was that thing you saw land"
"Thanks Jack, when I was fighting the geth I pulled files of a memory core would you mind sticking around as I decode them?"
With nothing better to do and Tali being friendly, I had no reason to refuse, "Sure Tali I call my Titan over and you can decrypt the files inside the cockpit." She looks at me tilting her head in a way that I take as confusion.
"Your what?"
"My Titan, an extremely mobile weapons platform capable of high orbit deployment, it's pretty nifty and the seat is pret-ty comfortable if I do say so myself" My words only seem to add to her confusion, confusion which she voices not seconds later.
"I've never heard of one of those, is it some new alliance tech?" BT who has remained silent for the previous conversation speaks to me over the headset.
"Cooper, you cannot inform her of my nature as an AI, I am a mech that you built with credits from bounties with a cutting edge VI installed." This made me pause, why would BT ask me to hide his nature? Still I trust him enough to take his call here, as he had probably been surfing the web, or whatever its equivalent was here.
"It's a mech that I designed and built with credits I skimmed off of bounties."
"Oh that's cool! Can I see it?" Her luminescent eyes glow behind that purple fogged mask, a person she just met a couple minutes ago in midst of a battle, and she's asking about BT? I look her over, not an ounce of deception in any of her body language. All of it suggesting that she is like a kid in a toy store, looking at the hottest new brand.
"Sure why not" I look towards BT's direction and call out, "BT!" Soon later a deep mechanical voice sounds out,
"Affirmative pilot on my way" Loud thunking steps sound out, I look over at Tali. She's standing straighter and holding onto her gun tighter, I sigh inwardly cursing that it's to be expected. Almost everyone who hasn't seen a titan would react this way. It doesn't matter though as BT rapidly closes in dashing one last time before coming to a halt in front of us. I'll be the first to admit it, standing at 8 meters with the chaingun in hand, he is pretty damn intimidating. Tali seems to think so too as she stands still hardly moving.
"So? What do you think?"
"Keelah"