A Mass Effect Reaction fanfiction
Hello, to anyone that's reading this. Thank you for doing that, and if you want to, I would appreciate any critique and reviews if you leave any, as this is my second fanfic. I do not own Mass Effect or Evolve, they are owned by Bioware and Turtle Rock Studios respectively.
I would also appreciate any ideas for what the Citadel should react to because I don't have a very large list of that yet.
I've also decided to take some of your guys' advice by not giving away too much of humanity's armaments and tech as I did with Titanfall, since it seemed like I was trying to alienate humans when I was actually just trying to establish why trying to control them was a bad idea. This chapter should hopefully establish that, because what can describe humans better than being far too stubborn to admit a planet is fucked and abandon it and instead make dedicated, monster killing 'planet taming' crews?
Also, since a lot of Evolve lore is super vague, I'll probably be freehanding a lot of this.
Finally, I probably won't be going too far past Stage 2, as that's when hunters started to die, so if I ever do a crossover fanfic using Evolve, the story will probably revolve around that time period.
Evolve
XX Citadel At Large XX
Many were still reeling from the previous viewing, the species in various states of either panic or worry until the Council appeared on all of their screens, stalling them all.
"Attention people of the Citadel, this is councilors Tevos speaking. We all have to remember, we may not even meet this humanity, the Fold Weapon may not even exist. But we must also remember how our 'host' for lack of a better term describes these humans. If we argue about controlling them, we are directly going to fulfill their fears, we are going to be the aggressors and START a war with them, and the blood will be on our hands." She tried to explain, making the Matriarchs give pause, and shudder in horror at the thought, remembering their violent roots.
"This is Councilor Sparatus speaking to all Turian Generals, until we know for certain which humanity we're facing, stand down. We don't need to waste precious resources on situations that might not even exist." He said with a bit of bite, utilizing a tone that his drill instructors used when he was in basic.
"And this is Councilor Valern speaking. While I won't stop my fellow Salarians for coming up with the science behind such new inventions that we see, we need to keep an open mind, and even acknowledge that we can even tell when some of these humans can't exist, as this is the multiverse, therefore there could be universes where the laws of physics act differently." He said, causing many to stop their mental rants.
While it worked for the most part, the hunger to see more humanities was stoked anew, many wanting to see what could inspire such variation and attitude in a species, before the screens suddenly flicker on again.
XX Mordin's Clinic XX
"Finally! Kalros, I would have asked you to shoot me if we had to listen to the windbags for any longer." Wrex said, turning to Garrus.
"I'm just glad they managed to stop any riots from happening, as they would have been my problem." He said and leaned back to relax.
"Hello again everybody! I have the next universe prepared and ready to be viewed! This one shows just how stubborn of a species humanity can be." The voice said with a laugh as the screen changed.
The screen then showed an older man in a bomber jacket with two patches, one on his shoulder saying "Sol Guard", and another on his chest that said "Planet Tamer", along grenade belt strapped across his chest, and an awkward look on his face. In addition, he was also wearing leather pants, as well as some metal boots that had extra plates extending up to his knees, and finally there was a massive gun right behind him.
He was looking at someone off screen as he spoke, "But why do I have to do it? Couldn't you, or one of the scientists like Lazarus handle this?" He asked the person offscreen before they spoke up as well.
"Hey, you're the leader, not to mention you have the most experience with planet taming. You got this. Besides, do you really want 'Lazarus' to be humanity's first impression?" They asked, and the man on screen winced at the thought, muttering 'good point'.
He sighed before looking back at the screen, clearing his throat, "Hello, my name is William Cabot, and if you're watching this, then that means we've made First Contact! Or, at least, first combat with a species that won't eat us. And it also means that we made it off Shear!" He said with a grumble before getting optimistic in the end.
"I honestly don't know why they picked me for it, I'm just a merc, but hey, apparently I had "The necessary skills and unique experience of explaining humanities situation", whatever that's supposed to mean." He said with a nervous grin as he added air quotes.
XX Mordin's Clinic XX
"What kind of merc needs a gun like that?" Garrus asked as the man started talking, seeing the cannon behind him.
"One that's hired to hunt Thresher Maws. Or Krogan, as I'm pretty sure that would pulp one of my kind in one shot." Wrex said as he saw it, slightly wanting it.
"Indeed, appears to be some kind of primitive, but undeniably powerful railgun, most likely with incredible armor piercing capabilities." Mordin said, taking more notes.
Tali then spoke up, "Did he just say that another species tried to eat them?" She asked nervously, the others pausing at that as well.
XX Conference Room XX
Unknown to Tali, her father repeated the same situation, causing the Council to pause as well, before Tevos spoke up, "Well, this is off to a great start." she said with some sarcasm.
"Indeed, though I am surprised this humanity would choose a mercenary instead of a soldier. Surely they'd have the same experience." Sparatus said, confused for now.
"Doubtful. Weapon behind human indicates abnormal foes, unless entire human military outfitted with similar weapons." Valern said, the weapon looking more like something you'd strap to a ship or vehicle, such as a mako.
XX T'soni's Room XX
"Wonderful, another humanity that's been through war, this time with another species." Liara said a bit despondently.
"I doubt it was a full scale war, little wing. Unless it was one between corporations, as I can't see why the human military would resort to hiring a mercenary from a guild known as 'Planet Tamers'." Benezia said as she took note of the patch.
"So, starting off way early here, we started really gaining speed with our colonization by discovering the equations to make our Patterson Tech, known, as you could guess, as Patterson Equations." Cabot started.
"For a while, none of us actually knew just why these equations would work when applied to our bohrium reactors, until we discovered FTL. When we did that, we realized that we're not so much creating power as we are siphoning and stealing it from another place between Dimensions known as Cherenkov space." He explained, showing pictures of smaller reactors, but no schematics.
"Human expansion boomed, wildly at that. Random worlds get colonized and massive Patterson Generators being built everywhere, providing nearly limitless power so long as you had a large enough supply of Bohrium, all mined in incredibly large quantities out of asteroid belts and various planets." Cabot continued as he then showed pictures of massive, corporate owned haulers taking in large asteroids and strip mining them.
"By the time we really started to name things, the first worlds to be colonized were built up enough to rival our homeworld, and so the collection of systems that were the most built up, surrounding the areas between home and them became known as Hub Space, controlled directly by the government on Earth, and any past that was the Far Arm, controlled almost entirely by corporations, rich people, and even a few mob bosses controlled space stations out there."
XX Mordin's Clinic XX
"Fascinating, these humans both managed to prove the existence of other dimensions, but space in between, as well as use it as a viable energy source! Imagine the possibilities, and with reactors so small? A reactor the size of a building could probably rival the Citadel in power output!" he said, his mouth going a million miles a minute.
"Yeah, but the way he said 'stealing' puts me on edge. Sounds like there might be something between dimensions." Garrus said.
Wrex grinned though, "Hope they're fun to fight."
Tali, meanwhile, rolled her eyes at the Krogan.
XX Conference Room XX
"Oh look, another alternate form of FTL." Tevos said with a sigh. What frustrated her the most though, was that when she saw some of the massive frozen chunks of ice in the pictures of some of the systems, and just knew that at least one of those had to be a Mass Relay.
"Yes, strange how we never found one." Valern said with an inquisitive look.
"Probably because we never bothered to find one. With how efficient Mass Effect technology and the Mass Relays are, we seem to have gotten fairly reliant on it all." Sparatus said, not all that happy with the situation. He remembered dismissing the idea of alternate FTL methods in the past, but with now two different methods, easily done by these humans, he realized that maybe the idea isn't such a bad one afterall.
Rael remained silent, observing the worlds and technology, trying to guess how it all works.
"Now, while I'm not at liberty to give you schematics or exact materials for how a Patterson Drive works, I am allowed to give you the equations and explain the terms used. Basically, all Patterson tech and Patterson drives operate off the equation ΔK/iT, the terms meaning Kaluzas over Imaginary time. Now, if that sounds confusing, trust me it only sounds that way. Kaluzas is a form of measurement we made to measure the strength of dimensional displacement, or to simplify it, the larger the Kaluza, the bigger the object manipulated. Simple. Sort of." Cabot said, shaking his hand in a 'so-so' manner.
"It's Imaginary Time that usually confuses people. See, in Cherenkov Space, time moves differently than it does in regular space, leading us to create the term 'Imaginary Time' to describe just how long you're spending in Cherenkov Space. To simplify the whole matter, the equation basically just describes Velocity. Yeah, that's how complicated our tech gets. We had to create two whole new terms and four theories just to calculate VELOCITY." Cabot stated, clearly finding the whole part ridiculous.
"I mean, I get it's a different branch of science, but still, I just-whatever, moving on, because we could honestly take up hours just explaining basic Patterson Tech theories." Cabot said, clearly done with the matter.
"Anyway, as humanity expanded out, back in the Hub some people weren't exactly too happy with the way things were run, one planet in particular being Bode's World. Among the Hub worlds, it had the worst crime rate in literal centuries, and because of this many people on the planet couldn't pay their taxes. To say that they 'helped' the Government sent a small Sol Guard regiment, which didn't even leave the base." Cabot said, before turning to someone else, "You three want to explain the rest of it?" He asked.
"Sure." A voice said, strangely sounding somewhat like it was buzzing, before three people stepped in front of the camera as 'Cabot' moved out of view.
The first man to step into view was massive, large with both muscles yet also a bit of a gut, had a black mohawk, and some nasty scars on the lower right side of his face, his left arm seemingly replaced with an enlarged, metallic prosthetic, clearly housing a secondary function. The next man was shockingly pale, bald, and had a large mustache, another strange device with multiple blue tubes on his arm. It was the final one that stepped out that shocked the Citadel, and revealed to have been the one that spoke, "Hello, whoever's watching this, you can call me Slim, and I'll be the one informing you about the Mutagen War with two fellow veterans, Hyde," he said, laying a hand on the mohawked man's shoulder, "and Lazarus." he finished, putting a hand on the pale man's shoulder.
XX Conference RoomXX
Sparatus sighed, "Guess we can cross 'genetically engineered soldiers' off for this humanity as well." he said, Tevos looking faint at seeing Slim.
"Based on previous viewings, unless he hasn't been exposed to sunlight for most if not all of his life, that human should not be that pale." Valern said, looking at Lazarus.
"There's also something vaguely psychotic and threatening in that other man's eyes." Rael said as he looked at Hyde. He, like all Quarians, have gotten good at reading eyes, and it was partially how he found out about Daro'Xen's lack of empathy and borderline sociopathic fanaticism to her work.
Slim cleared his throat before continuing, "So, the Mutagen war. Its cause was honestly one that any rational human being should have seen coming from a mile away. You see, after sending the Sol Guard and all but abandoning us, the people had enough. We rose up, resorting to vigilante justice to clear the scum off Bode's World, publicly hanging them, beating and gunning them down in the streets, burning entire blocks full of illicit drug labs and acres of farmlands that supplied said drug labs with ingredients. By the time it was done, the people of Bode's World were practically veterans in their own right."
Then Slim's voice changed to one of anger, "And then, the fucking Sol Council had to fuck it all up. As soon as we were able to pay our taxes properly, they used their little 'token' force, supplied them with top-tier equipment, and scaled up the annual tax rate to ten times the old amount, hoping to 'regain any lost funds'. The people, naturally, didn't take that too well, and so it all devolved into armed revolt as they enacted guerilla warfare, slaughtering the entire Sol Guard regiment on the planet." He said with a small amount of vicious glee.
"This action saw many other planets realize the sheer amount of tyranny the Sol Council could get away with, so the immediate 5 systems around Bode's World's system revolted with us, until soon our rebellion had enough ships, scrap, and soldiers to make our own standing navy." Slim said, pictures being shown of those times.
"But, we knew the Sol Council had better troops, stronger supply lines, and help from both other systems and corporations in the Far Arm, so we adapted, and so was born the first generation of Basilisk soldiers." Slim said grimly, and a picture was shown of a reptilian-human hybrid.
"Taking just about every kind of reptilian DNA they could get their hands on, the rebellion allowed soldiers to splice and modify themselves to be more efficient killers. The downsides of this, however, was that because we were mammals and the DNA was from reptiles, it didn't always bond the best, especially the brain, resulting in a strange mix of bipolar disorder, psychopathy, and sociopathy. One second, you'd have a sociopathic soldier that could listen to every order with the cold, calculatedness of a professional, and the next you'd have a completely psychotic, raging lunatic ready to kill everything in sight." Slim explained, showing images of the battles, and just how much bigger the Gen 1's were than the average humans.
XX Mordin's Clinic XX
The Salarian Scientist cringed at the side effects, obviously denoting shoddy and rushed genetic work on top of incompatible DNA types. How the soldiers even survived in the first place is a miracle that he would have loved to study.
XX Citadel XX
While many on the Citadel somewhat agreed with Bode's World's reaction to the government doing that to them, they were similarly horrified by the lengths the soldiers went to fight back.
For the Asari and Hanar who worshiped the Protheans and their ancient laws, this was practically heresy of the highest form, and even the non-religious Asari had to admit that such a thing wasn't very appealing.
For the Krogans, many wanted to fight them, no surprise there.
For the Batarians, they immediately hated it for multiple reasons, one of them being that they could never utilize these incredibly strong humans as slaves like they could with the Krogan, as it was sure fire way to get the handler killed, but their religion also heavily looked own on augmentation and the like. In their society, you were either born better, or you're a slave.
Turian generals were seeing the logic in this, after all if your force is smaller why not make them stronger, but they would have preferred if the humans had gone through more technological means such as more powerful equipment and such.
"Anyway, the end of the first Mutagen war, which ended in a technical draw, saw 3 more systems join the rebellion, the 2nd Gen Basilisk soldiers, and the creation of the Chem Troopers." Slim said.
Hyde took over, "I was one of those. We were made to combat the nearly impenetrable hide and scales of the first gen Basilisks, melting through them, and we did so with brutal efficiency." he said with a nasty smile.
"The 2nd Gens, however, didn't need the heat to be killed as the rebellion had started using mammalian DNA, which cured most of the mental problems but resulted in a slightly less armored but far more muscular soldier." Slim explained, showing some 2nd Gens, who, like the 1st Gens were over 8ft on average, but had far broader chests, massive canines like those of mandrills, and were absolutely covered in hair.
XX Citadel XX
When the 2nd Gens were revealed, many calmed down a bit when they said that they had cured the mental problems, allowing the races to view the soldiers more clinically or, in some cases, personally.
For the Asari, many of them saw the 2nd Gens as more natural looking, almost like a slightly devolved form of humanity but bigger, and more than a few voiced how they would have loved to meet them and discuss the history of the wars. Then there were of course the Maidens.
The Turians were comparing the two generations in their heads, finding the 2nd more preferable, after all you can always make basic armor a lot cheaper than you can make exosuits to increase strength.
The Salarian geneticists, including someone we all know, who were having headaches about the idiocy of the previous generation found themselves more intrigued by the second.
"While they were still prone to emotional outbursts, that was much more of a hormonal thing due to an increase of growth hormones experienced." Slim said, waving it off.
"Like the first war, the second was just as bad, if not worse due to the increased effectiveness of the Chem troopers, not to mention a new type of soldier, Lazarus men." Slim said, looking at Lazarus.
"Our official term is Thanatologists, or well, MY official term, seeing as how I might be the last one left, and it was our job to 'raise the dead' on the battlefield through our Lazarus devices, which were made illegal after the third and final war. By raising the dead, they meant extending the period of time one could resuscitate a downed soldier either in a medical tent or on the battlefield, though it could only be done so many times, as increased usage could cause permanent brain damage." He explained, holding up his gauntlet.
"Speaking of the third, that's the one that I enlisted in. By the time I signed up for the splice, a third generation was born, using the DNA of creatures whose brains were too small and simple to affect our own, but had plenty of rough, strong chitin on them to be more effective against chem troopers. Bugs." He said, blinking his massive compound eyes.
"The third was the worst by far, killing off almost all the Lazarus men, Chem troopers, and Basilisk soldiers along with hundreds of thousands of rank and file soldiers, and in the end we lost. However, we were able to deal one massive, crippling blow by killing the entire Sol Council with a well placed bomb, who we lucked out on being replaced by one thankfully far less corrupt, and even put more bills into place to prevent the Far Arm corporations from affecting the government. Unfortunately, seeing the havoc my kind wrought upon them, being a basilisk soldier became illegal, and they were all given bounties to be shot on sight for 10,000,000 keys." Slim said, wrapping up that particular history lesson as he turned to Cabot, "can we go now?"
XX Citadel XX
Sparatus sputtered, enraged by the thought that these soldiers sacrificed everything, even most of their ability to call themselves human, and at the end of it all they were reduced to nothing more than targets for bounty hunters. Even after their unification wars, the remaining rebels who surrendered were allowed to go on with their lives, albeit with some restrictions and heavy monitoring.
Valern sighed in disappointment, knowing that if they outlawed the creation of the Basilisk soldiers and the Lazarus gauntlet, they probably destroyed the research for such things as well.
Tevos, meanwhile, was thankful that they banned the Lazarus and Basilisk programs, but it didn't sit right with her that the remaining ones were hunted down like common criminals.
Cabot coughed, taking center stage and nodding at the three, who left. "Anyways, after the Mutagen Wars there was relative peace as the Far Arm was starting to get heavily colonized. That all changed, however, when They showed up on the planet of Factor." Cabot said, a video showing a harsh looking forest covered planet, colonists going about their day as they built up a small township in a clearing, when there was suddenly a loud roar and a massive boulder came flying out of nowhere, smashing through a building.
There was chaos and panic as the Goliath revealed itself, breathing fire on everyone nearby as it killed and smashed into people and structures indiscriminately, the corporate forces hired to protect the colonists standing little to no chance as they shot magazine after magazine into the monster, not noticing several more Goliaths emerging from the forest, as well as several Behemoths, and thousands of small, drone-like bugs, and the slightly distorted view of a massive, twisted lump of flesh and meat behind the tree, the full picture of the Host thankfully not being seen, the video ending to the screams of the colonists.
XX Citadel XX
Parents covered the eyes of their children as the carnage was broadcasted.
Asari wept for the species that resembled them so much, now prey for beasts.
The Turians, despite despising mercenaries, saluted the dying corporate soldiers as they all showed courage, protecting the colonists.
All species on the Citadel, however, felt something cruel, malevolent, and worst of all intelligent, everytime a monster's eye caught their own through the screen.
XX Conference Room XX
Tevos covered her eyes as Rael and Sparatus were angry at seeing such a thing. While they've heard of dangerous worlds in the past, this was a whole new level.
Valern, meanwhile, was more focused on what they meant by 'they', not to mention something else, "They're doing it on purpose." He said.
Sparatus' eyes snapped to him, "What do you mean?" he asked as he tried to watch.
"Whatever these beings are, they can't be natural, to hate the human's tech this much." He said as he watched a Behemoth go straight for the generator.
"Factor was the first planet to fall to the Monsters. At first, we thought they were simply hostile, if a bit strange, wildlife. That is, until we found them on another world before we even showed up." Cabot said as he showed another video, this time of another planet.
"The Monsters would just randomly show up from time to time, slaughtering wildlife and growing stronger in an inordinate amount of time, gaining new adaptations that should have at least taken several generations to develop in the span of hours." He said as a clip was shown of a Kraken reaching stage 2.
"Eventually, we realized they were going after the Patterson tech, so the corporations created us, the Planet Tamer guild, to gather mercs and outfit them to combat this threat, slaughtering the Monsters en masse, or if we couldn't, evacuate any colonists still alive." He said grimly.
Cabot then had a grin on his face. "I, along with my 19 teammates, ended up making a bit of a name for ourselves, taming planets, and becoming one of the most successful groups out there. That is, until we went to the planet Shear." As he said the planet's name, he got a haunted look.
"It's hell in this place. Even in orbit, the planet just looks 'sick' from all the monster invasions. Eventually, though, we learned why they were so interested in this place, and my good friend, Doctor Kala Kapur, will explain that." He said as he stepped to the side.
XX Conference Room XX
Sparatus could sympathize with Cabot when he saw that look. He'd seen and had it many times after his days of service in hunting pirates. Of witnessing the atrocities committed almost daily in Terminus space.
XX Mordin's Clinic XX
"That man's seen some shit." Garrus said bluntly, causing wrex to cuff him on the back of the head.
"Of course he has. Could you imagine making a living out of hunting strange, anomalous creatures that randomly invade any planet that your tech is on? You'd be seeing people getting eaten almost daily." Wrex said, having some sympathy due to his own homeworld being much like that, only something about these Monsters left him on edge, his instincts screaming at him that they were just wrong.
The good doctor entered the screen from the left. She was wearing long, baggy clothing, a sort of sleeve on her left arm, along with a matching glove, and finally a ceramic mask that covered the left side of her face.
"Hello everyone, as my co-worker said, my name is Doctor Kapur and I will be explaining the Monsters our people face." She said, deadly serious.
"The first thing you have to realize is that there's absolutely nothing 'natural' about these things. They're intelligence is almost matching our own, they evolve and adapt within literal minutes of arriving, and they can show up on any world with Patterson Tech, and even some that don't have Patterson Tech." she says as she thought of how to display it, before rolling out a digital 'whiteboard'.
"Now, to start with, let's talk about the building blocks of the monsters, they're DNA. Or, should I say, their LACK of DNA. Instead, the monsters use HNA, or Hexitol Nucleic Acids. What's special about this is that such a thing NEVER can occur in nature. That, and they're so highly modifiable, they'd be the perfect thing to use in an artificial organism made for hyper adaptation." She explains, drawing two different helixes, one for HNA and one for DNA.
"Now, to further prove this point, we'll be talking about diet. See, this is another thing that differentiates Monsters from animals, and that would be that upon first glance, it seems they simply 'don't know' how to eat." She said, emphasizing her point as the whiteboard showed off pictures of partially eaten corpses of animals.
"Upon closer inspection though, we learned that it does not lack the knowledge of how to eat, rather, it specifically targets pieces of the body for both that specific type of biomass and 'piece' of the DNA so that they could adapt it to their own. Now, that means, theoretically, if one were to catch two monster and feed one nothing but creatures with incredibly amounts of spikes and muscle, and the other with creatures that have organs that can increase heat or flammable gas as well as other such adaptations, then both creatures, while being the same type of Monster, will have different abilities." She said as she showed pictures differentiating a Goliath and a Meteor Goliath.
XX Clinic XX
"Fascinating. You know, before creating the basis of the Galactic Community with the Asari, my people proposed using biological weapons like this, not like diseases but instead genetically modified hybrid creatures. It seems like these 'Monsters' as they call them are somewhat of a finished product of that line of thinking." Mordin noted with grim fascination.
"Yeah, but who would create a weapon that can think for itself?" Garrus asked, not seeing a good reason behind it.
"You wouldn't. At least, not by operating off of logic. A weapon with that much intelligence would realize what it was made for, making either a more efficient weapon, or a time bomb waiting to go off." Mordin continued, making Garrus and Tali gulp.
Wrex, meanwhile, wanted to leave the station and hunt that beast down. When he saw the video of the Monsters destroying the human settlement, his instincts flared that the creatures were just wrong, but when the killing started and the creature on screen, labeled Goliath, purposefully targeted a school full of children, it made him want to slaughter every last one of its species, as the Genophage had instilled a deep protective instinct of all children in most Krogan, many not wanting anyone else to go throught he same pain they experience time and time again.
XX Conference Room XX
Sparatus grit his teeth at the implication that these things were artificially created. To think anyone would be so stupid as to make a beast like this, and give it enough intelligence to have a sense of hate was incredibly reckless. That's why they had a law prohibiting such things.
Valern, meanwhile, was leaning in like so many other Salarian scientists. While they've created HNA in their past as well, research in that division has all but been defunded and dismantled for other projects.
"Now, while this does present some rather decent intelligence, it still doesn't prove how it's any smarter from another animal. Unfortunately, the only way to truly prove that last bit, is to step onto the planet with them." She said as the video then showed Cabot, Parnell, Abe, and Caira.
As they ran throught he jungle, Abe pulled out a tracking bullet, before a sound made them all go on high alert, getting in a loose circle. After a few seconds, they all turned to Cabot, who made a hand motion to move forward, yet right as they let their guard down, the Wraith arrived, picking up Cabot and abducting him.
Once the other hunters got back to their senses, they ran after the Wraith, following the strange blue glow it left behind as it zipped around, jostling Cabot, before he's deposited onto the ground in front of Abe. It then showed the Wraith stalking behind a tree, creating a clone and then cloaking away to ambush from another angle.
XX Citadel XX
As soon as they saw the trail the monster left, they immediately believed Dr Kapur's words about the Monsters not being natural. Some Asari thought at first that it was biotically charging around, until they noticed the trails were more white than blue.
Everyone was on the edge of their seats, and many screamed when Cabot was grabbed, despite knowing he'd be okay. Afterall, he made the video.
When they saw the Decoy, however, many were left open mouthed in shock and horror.
XX Council Chambers XX
"For once, I'm so glad my people live on our ships." Rael said as he watched in horror.
Tevos was shaking like a leaf in a strong wind as she watched the screen, never having liked horror movies in the past.
Sparatus was analyzing the monster as it moved and how it behaved, "It's an ambusher, though why it didn't just eat him I don't-" He started to say before it created the clone and cloaked.
"T-there's absolutely no possible way such a creature could ever spawn out of evolution. It goes against everything we even know about the subject!" Valern started to rant as he watched the screen.
As the Decoy dashed around, Abe tried to shoot it a few times, finally hitting it as the Decoy charged head on, dispersing into white particles.
The real Wraith then revealed itself right behind the two hunters, smacking them hard enough to send both flying into some rocks, but before it could finish the two off, Caira and Parnell used their grenade and rocket launchers respectively, landing right next to them.
He then activated his Super Soldier ability, the syringe injecting a blood liquid as he tossed his rocket launcher to the side, bringing out his combat shotgun as he pumped shot after shot into the Wraith, stunning it each time before it recovered fast enough to strike him, again and again, stunning him back and making his shield activate, before breaking it and sending him on his ass.
Then, Cabot showed up, damage amplifier activating as Abe and Caira assisted, the Wraith getting bloodier and bloodier. Finally, it had enough, dashing past the hunters and up the rock wall, roaring before dashing away.
As the Hunters followed, many on the Citadel thought that the hunt video was over, before the Wraith emerged from the brush at the bottom of the rocks, making an amused noise.
XX Conference Chambers XX
Rael was praying, hoping that his people could reclaim in the Perseus Veil soon, as he didn't want his ships anywhere near that.
Tevos nearly fainted when the Wraith showed back up at the end, and was fully ready to declare the Citadel Accords moot so she could order kinetic bombardment on human worlds.
"Did it just laugh?!" Sparatus asked as the video ended. While he was fascinated with some of the technology, the sheer fact that the Monster could experience humor and sadism was undeniable proof to the Human's claims about them.
"More like a chuff, but yes, it did just express amusement." Valern said. While he was fascinated like Sparatus, especially wondering about Cabot's damage amplifier, he was far more terrified of a creature that could cloak, create a solid decoy, dash faster than any land based vehicle could move, and possessed incredibly dangerous amounts of intelligence and stealth experience, not to mention it had the brain capacity to toy with its prey.
XX Mordin's Clinic XX
"That was…informative." Mordin said, reaching many of the same conclusions as his councilor, and instead focusing on further questions, while an efficient killer, why would anyone design it to have a sense of humor? That's just asking for it to get cruel.
"And terrifying." Tali said, Garrus nodding. His main method of combat was sniping, so he was understandably terrified to see a creature too fast to hit that can get way too close, way too fast.
"That creature was a coward." Wrex said with a growl. He hated fighting opponents like that.
"As you can see, the Wraith is by far one of the most intelligent Monsters we've ever faced, only rivaled by the Kraken." Dr Kapur said, coming back up as the white board cleared, before showing images of both the Wraith and Kraken.
"Even the least intelligent of the lot, the Goliaths, are still dangerously intelligent, most likely just below our own intelligence. Moving on, the monsters do actually have a goal, and that is the destruction of all Patterson Tech, its creators, and to revert our dimension to a stable, true Vacuum, or, in simpler terms, they want to destroy all life, both synthetic and organic, as well as find a way to snuff out all energy in our universe." She said as there were even clips of the Monster's voices that had been recorded beforehand.
"Though, thankfully they aren't very efficient at that, due to needing the Patterson Tech to be used as a sonar as the use of our tech creates Minkowsky Waves in their space, which map our own like Sonar. It's also what caused them to notice us, as Minkowsky waves are incredibly painful to their ethereal, true forms." Kala explained, holding her arm.
XX Citadel XX
That was a breaking point for a lot of people, causing a bit of panic, to hear that these monsters did what they did not for food, or for truly being in pain, but simply because they just didn't like the concept of our universe so much, they wanted it gone.
XX T'soni Hotel XX
Benezia held her daughter close, glad that these Monsters couldn't find them without Patterson tech, and even then, some of these humans use it on such a small scale that they probably can't even use that to locate a path into our universe.
XX Conference Room XX
"You know, maybe we should cure the Genophage." Sparatus said in a strange tone, causing everyone to look at him, "Or at the very least, not only hire but support these human's, as well as make our own Planet Tamer groups." He said.
"Agreed. While I'm not sure about the Genophage plan, maybe we could modify it, not giving them their original birth rate back, but removing the damage it does to them, and making it one every fifty chances." Valern said. While he typically stood by his people's decision about the Genophage, this just presented an entirely new situation.
"What I want to know is why the Monsters don't try to invade deeper into the Hub worlds that the humans have." Rael says, before Valern speaks up again.
"The Monsters most likely tried once, but it seems like without a proper destination they could show up anywhere from the bottom of the ocean to straight in the line of fire of defense turret places." He said.
"The only other way of getting a precise location, would be for one of them to lay 'eggs', which act as their own personal sonar, though apparently this one doesn't hurt them, not that they really care about pain, seeing as their evolution process is the single most painful thing a living creature can go through." She says before turning to Cabot, "Now, since I've explained, may I get back to my work?" She asks irritatedly, and he nods before turning back to the screen.
"So, yeah, that's our situation. Now, if you're seeing this, I hope it means you didn't attack us, because we really can't afford anymore enemies at the moment, and if you didn't, then I hope we managed to leave a good impression on you." Cabot said genuinely as the video started to zoom out, showing that it was being shown on a cracked screen by a Turian squad in a small, abandoned building in the middle of a dense jungle.
The Turian viewing it, a General as shown by his armor's markings, sighed as he looked around, the video explaining what most likely happened to this place and the colonists as he spoke, "Look around for any more clues, maybe there will be survivors." He said, and the soldiers did as he said, another soldier stepping outside to survey around.
Desolas looked outside the windows, scanning the treelines and wondering just what could be out there, wondering how long the Monsters would stick around and if they were still there, watching. Soon, one of his soldiers came back, telling him of a massive civilian bunker a kilometer and a half away that's currently online.
XX Citadel XX
Many were saddened, seeing the destroyed structures, but everyone gained some hope as they heard about the bunker, until they realized that the Turians on screen would have to trudge through the muck and jungle to get to them, remembering the video about the Wraith.
The Turians, Krogans, and Salarians were already vouching for just burning the jungle to get to the humans, repairing the damage later.
The Asari, while not sharing the same mind, did advocate for sending in one of their stealth commando squads, thinking that they should have a higher probability to sneak past any monsters that might still be out there.
The Batarians took note of the Civilian bunkers just in case they ever got the chance to raid a human colony like this.
As the Turians walked out and started the trek, they were constantly scanning through the trees, looking out, and eventually gathering up with three others and even an armored group, as well as one of the units, a Cabal unit, making their total numbers 34, counting the crews of the two Jirrus tanks.
They eventually got to the location of the bunker, walking by what must be one of the human's generators as he quickly booted up a translation program that his VI was able to piece together.
The sounds from the forest, however, soon stilled and he got a bad feeling as he told his men to start setting up fortifications around the Bunker's entrance, quickly utilizing their omnitools to construct turrets and cover as Desolas pressed a button on the bunker.
"Hello? Who's out there?" A voice asked, and had to be one of the colonists, "Are you the Planet Tamers we called for?" they asked.
Desolas cleared his throat before speaking up, "I'm afraid not, human. I am General Desolas Arterius of the Turian hierarchy, and it seems like we've just made First Contact in a rather horrible situation." He said, and heard some muttered cursing from the other side in disbelief, "If you'll accept it, we can have several of our shuttles fly in to help evacuate you and your people, but I need to know how many are in there to know how many shuttles to ask for."
He heard a sigh, as well as some muttered debates behind the door, "Fine, there's thirty of us, and we're running out of supplies fast. I'll open the door to let you folks in." The voice said, and soon the massive bunker doors started to open.
When they were just head height however, humans started to come out, the roars started.
XX Conference Room XX
"Damnit!" Sparatus said, slamming his fist down on the table. He knew something was going to go wrong, but this was just insane.
"They should get back inside the bunkers." Tevos said urgently, Rael and Valern agreeing.
XX Mordin's Clinic XX
"They were fucking waiting for them!" "Bosh'tets!" Were Garrus and Kali's reactions.
Mordin sighed, "Indeed. They have even greater intelligence than we thought, and most likely work together to achieve their goals. This group was most likely led by a Wraith." he said.
"Let's see some carnage." Wrex said excitedly as he got some more snacks.
Monsters soon began rushing out of the forest, thankfully just being a few stage ones for now which the Jirrus tanks could dispatch after a shot or too to the head, the soldiers providing good distractions from behind their cover, and biotics were aiming their powers at the feet of the Monsters, tripping them up as well as grounding the few Krakens.
Some humans emerged as well, 10 Sol guard all with heavy weapons helping lay into the Monsters as several stage 2 Wraiths started to dash out, these ones getting much further and allowing the Goliaths and Behemoths to stalk out, all while gorgons were producing nests before they charge. Krakens started to fly out of the forest, unleashing dark matter and lightning strikes at random, one even got lucky and disintegrated three unlucky Turian soldiers.
Desolas grit his teeth at the loss as he was joined by what must have been the leader of the Sol Guard on this colony, joined him and let loose with a massive chaingun, and Desolas briefly got a view of the badge on the Sol Guard's shoulder, reading James Shepard.
Soon though, the Stage 3's were running out, absorbing fire much better, and some of the Kraken started to target the Jirruses, killing one before absorbing the Element Zero within, overcharging itself and its dark matter abilities.
"Retreat! Into the bunker!" Desolas shouted, providing covering fire with James as they slowly stepped back, but the door was closing too fast, and Desolas only just managed to shove another soldier in that tried to stay and help before turning back to the treeline, the monsters stalking around the edge, almost seeming to be laughing at the remaining soldiers. Of the people that stayed there were 4 other Sol Guard and still 12 Turians, including Desolas and James.
He didn't even notice that on his omnitool, a message said there was an unknown ship en route to their location.
XX Citadel XX
Many Turians saluted the men and women for willingly staying out of the bunker to provide time for the gunships and shuttles to arrive, sacrificing their lives for the civilians, while most of the other species just prayed for the shuttles and fire support to get there soon.
Seeing that it might be his last stand, he looked at the human leader, "Why didn't you retreat?" he asked, the colonists still needing protection.
The human considered him for a moment before asking, "Tell me, you got any family?" He asked the General.
He chuckled, "A brother. I actually just shoved him in the bunker. Saren wanted to stay out here with us." He said as he threw his Phaeston to the side. He had bypassed the warnings and venting protocols, melting the gun to slag in the process to keep firing, so he picked up one of the heavier weapons that one of his dead support troops was carrying.
James smiled at that, "Well, my wife, my 3 year old son, and 3 year old daughter are all in there, and I don't think I could look any of them in the eye if I abandoned the people that tried to save them." James said as he checked the ammo he had left, already half out.
Desolas nodded, and it finally seemed like the monsters had enough waiting, and they all charged. As the remaining Jirrus and soldiers killed a few, as well as the wasp-like drones that a Host in the back was creating, they heard the roar of engines.
Desolas looked up in confusion, not expecting the shuttles to get here so soon, but that's when he saw the same dropship that was in the First Contact package, and he heard James whoop in delight as the human kept firing.
"God damn Planet Tamers! Just in time! Get your ass down here Cabot! You're missing all the fun!" James yelled up at the opening, and soon 20 people started to drop from the ship, their weapons all firing into the mini horde, slaughtering many as if the Monsters were nothing but livestock.
Soon the horde began to thin, but there was one last Stage 3 Goliath that roared right in Desolas' face, raising its arm to turn him into a red smear, before Cabot jumped on its head at near terminal velocity, the exosuit legs being the only thing preventing them from shattering as he put a railgun round their the back of the Goliath's head.
XX Citadel XX
The entire population was cheering and in awe at the sheer effectiveness of the Planet Tamers. They were obviously professionals at their jobs as they seemed to kill the horde with minimal difficulty.
The Turians were wondering if they'd be a threat, but just by looking at their varied arsenals they concluded that they would only be a threat if his people relied too heavily on Jirrus' and heavy armor.
The Salarians were trying to examine all the various bits of tech that each human had, seeing if they could recreate some of it, and many were interested in Hank's modified laser cutter. While they have their own laser cutters, the fact that he could easily modify it into essentially a heavy laser machine gun was fascinating to them.
The Asari, meanwhile, were starting to grow more appreciative of some of the humans, and more than a few maidens were making comments about 'thanking' them as the Matriarchs rolled their eyes, all while making notes to get the contact info for this group in case any Monsters come to their homeworlds.
XX Mordin's Clinic XX
Wrex, like many Krogan on the station, was cheering with vicious glee upon seeing the blood and guts of the Monsters go flying as the Hunters slaughtered them.
Soon, the shuttles started to arrive as the dropship excited, and Cabot spoke up as the Bunker doors opened again, "Everybody! Get loaded up quickly, there's another horde roaming not too far from here that will be attracted to the noise!" He shouted as people started to load up.
He then turned to James and Desolas, giving them salutes, "Generals." He said, his experience as a former Sol Guard showing as they returned it and James motioned for him to be at ease.
"Perfect timing Cabot, glad you could make it." James said as Cabot hefted his railgun over his shoulder.
Cabot shrugged with an easy grin, "Couldn't let you steal my paycheck."
Before Desolas could speak up, Bucket walked over, putting all of the Turians on edge when they heard a way too human voice emerge from within, "Cabot, we have a problem. The horde is coming much faster than we anticipated, its going to get hot soon." He said.
Unfortunately, he was heard by EMET, who's demon core decided to make itself known, speaking in a glitchy voice, "The-the-then we'll fuck them up! St-stick our hands up their asses', rip-rip-rip their fucking guts out, a-and use them as fu-fu-fucking party streamers!!" The not-vok-not-supervok drone said before switching back to the logic core.
Deciding he'd unpack that later, Desolas sent a message to the pilots to get all the guns ready to fire, and soon more roars were heard as he shouted his orders, firing his big gun as well, "Protect the colonists!" He yelled as suddenly there was much more variety with the ordinance.
Soon, everyone was backing up into the ships, all while still firing, and it was only when Cabot, the last one to get in, stepped up the ramp that they began leaving, the Patterson Tech starting to glow as it rapidly shrunk with distance, before it detonated, the sensors informing him that they just got out of range of the 30 megaton explosion.
As they started to approach the Turian dreadnought, James turned to Desolas, his family behind him as Saren was behind his brother, "So, is this how First Contact typically goes for you all?" He joked.
"No, typically we send in Asari when we find a new species, but we figured you'd appreciate heavy fire support more than words and paper." Desolas joked back.
Author's Note: Hello Everyone, thanking you for reading this chapter, I hope I did well portraying the hunters. Sorry that it wasn't as in-depth with the tech and what not, but I figured I'd try something a little more vague since the Evolve lore is so vague these days.
I've decided to try and do Gears of War because of a mix of personal preference, reviews, and because Halo would make a HUGE chapter about just their history alone. After Gears of War, it'll probably be Cod: Infinite Warfare, all while I work on Cyberpunk and Halo in the background.