(Note)
I do Not Own the Mass Effect or The Halo Franchise. Both Universes Respectively Belong to Bioware/EA and Microsoft/343 Industries.
Now ON WITH THE STORY!
Commander Jane Shepard was sleeping soundly in her quarters, the Normandy sr-1 was on its way to the terminus systems. At the request of an Asari political figure, who had beseeched them to find her sister who she claimed had been captured by pirates.
Having been offered heavy recompense for their troubles, the commander couldn't quite say no to the politician and had accepted the request to search several pirate outposts.
Now on their way to the terminus systems the crew aboard the Normandy was readying for the hunt, Shepard had been given two likely locations to search.
Both of which the politician claimed to have acquired from the Salarian STG, both coordinates were home to a minor pirate staging areas.
Both places were slave cargo deposit locations, where slaves are dropped off for either selling to the Batarians or to some independent colonies that allowed slaves; that was their secondary purpose.
Their main purpose was to be a rally point for a pirate fleet to gather… either for a major raid, or for defense against citadel and alliance forces.
Shepard was having a wonderful little dream about making the citadel council; along with ambassador Udina, mop the floors of her old N7 boot Camp's restrooms. When the intercom blared with joker's snarky voice, "Oh Commander dearest to mine heart, their awaits a call from one of our stupendous almighty leaders!"
Shepard was coming to hate the sound of joker's voice, "The great wise blue skinned diplomat appointed by the gods themselves too one of the three seats of power, has requested your humble presence in the communications and conference room…"
Shepard sighed; she hated early morning calls, gosh darn it! by her clock it was two AM. She would have to get coffee first before having to talk with councilor Tevos, "oh and commander just too let you know… it's on a priority one channel."
The radio cut off with the darn pilots chuckles, Shepard flipped out of her bunk; she sprinted around the cabin, doing all the things required to look presentable to the councilor; all the while cursing jokers name to hell and back.
She would have thrown him out the airlock and sent him off to hell before now; if he wasn't such a darn good pilot; she was now tempted to do so anyway.
Setting aside her anger at the pilot's antics and having finished with all her preparations for taking the councilors important call, Shepard made her way to the communications room.
Upon arrival she received the call and the hologram of councilor Tevos shimmered into existence. "Shepard your last reports state that your headed towards the terminus systems… ill get straight to the point and be frank with you, the Asari government is asking for your assistance."
Shepard raised an eyebrow at that, "What do you people need me to assist with?" she asked. Tevos sighed and looked rather grim, "there is an Asari maiden ship that was on its way back from an exploration of Human culture, the young Asari on board ranged in age from just nineteen years of age too two hundred…"
"they were assaulted by pirates and their commando guards were overrun by sheer numbers, the higher class aboard are being held ransom while the Asari of lesser standing are going to be sold as slaves… we have no scout fleets in the area at this time, and you are the closest one able to effect a rescue."
"The Asari republics is ready to offer sufficient payment and future trade discounts, if you should accept our request." Tevos waited for Shepards answer, while Shepard gave the request some thought, "I accept this mission councilor, me and my crew will do our best to rescue your people.
The councilor nodded her head in thanks, "we managed to track their communications that demanded ransom; to a garden world on the edge of the terminus systems… be forewarned Shepard, it may just be where they bounced their signal, if that is the case you will need someone who has a great understanding of technology to trace the signal."
Shepard just grinned, "I have the perfect person for the job if that's the case, don't worry councilor as I already said we will do our best to find your people."
After ending the call Shepard headed toward the Normandy's cockpit, she had a bone to pick with a certain jokester. Upon arrival at the pilot's location she thoroughly chewed him out, on the proper way to wake a superior officer.
She then gave him the coordinates for the garden world, stating that after they found the Asari politicians sister; they would search for the missing Asari maidens.
Joker began cracking horrid one-liners on how all the men and even some of the woman on board would be overjoyed to rescue a whole gaggle of Asari beauties… a statement which Shepard had to sadly admit held a grain of truth.
Shepard was pissed, she had been set up. The Asari politician had lied and had sent them to find a missing supposedly captured sibling that was actually a hostile pirate officer; who was blackmailing afore mentioned politician.
When Shepard returned to the citadel she would have words with the Asari who set her up, in order to have her pirate sister killed… shelving her thoughts on the matter to ponder over later, Shepard had Joker set the Normandy on course for the un-colonized garden world that was supposedly harboring a pirate outpost.
She hoped that the search for the missing maidens would be quick to yield results, she didn't want to spend too much time in terminus space; Shepard would rather avoid pirate vessels if possible.
They were halfway to their destination when the Normandy's sensors picked up two separate encrypted distress signals broadcasting on both Turian and alliance frequencies… the signals were coming from the system that contained the un-colonized garden world they were already headed towards.
They wouldn't arrive for another day and a half, so they would have to wait in order to find out what was happening at their destination… all while wondering what they would find.
Upon their arrival in system the signals were both found to be originating from the same planet, the garden world that the Asari councilor had said the ransom broadcasts had been traced from.
Jane Shepard was not one to waste time, the commander immediately set out to investigate, taking Wrex and Tali, dropping in with the mako light scouting vehicle; in order to search the first of the signals to begin its broadcasting…
While approaching the small mining facility they had found, that was supposedly abandoned and now was likely a pirate outpost.
Shepard had the surprise of not being fired upon when approaching the place… in fact seen from afar the base was lacking in activity… no movement signatures, no anything…
The parked freighter ship and perimeter defenses marked the place as occupied, but no sign of life was detected outside the mineshaft…
Upon arrival Shepard found out why, for the dead bodies of 13 pirates lay strewn through-out the outer buildings and the freighter…
All killed by either headshot or knife wounds, with several having wounds from CQC.
The desert sand had blown away any traces of footprints and other than the bodies of the pirates no trace of the attackers remained… nothing was stolen, taken or out of place as far as they could tell either.
The entire situation was strange and un-worldly, there was no sign of the enemy attackers taking wounds or cover. The dead pirates had mostly been killed where they stood, most lying in positions of daily routine; these ones had knife and CQC wounds.
The remaining pirates lay dead, most of them behind a makeshift cover. They all lay dead in a large circle, around a place covered in signs of weapons fire from all outside directions, with no dead attacker or signs of wounded; despite no cover to hide behind.
There was no sign of return fire from within the circle like area, other than the lethal holes burned through all the surrounding pirates' heads.
"Keelah! Shepard what could have done this? There are no signs that I can see as to suggest an answer" Stated the young Quarian tech specialist.
"Cant even find a damn foot print… But whoever did this I sure like his style, they must be one hell of a bunch of fighters." Mentioned the battle hardened Krogan warrior.
Shepard pulled herself from her musings for an answer and stared at the mineshaft entrance… "I bet well find footprints in there, and maybe some answers."
Making their way to the airlock entrance to the mineshaft, Shepard and her companions hacked the entrance and proceeded into the makeshift pirate base.
Upon reaching the lift's destination they found a pile of dead pirates stacked neatly in a small room next to the lifts entrance, the room was sealed by a simple stasis field on the door.
"Shepard do you find this somewhat worrying?" asked Tali. "Worrying? No. Concerning? Yes," replied Shepard moving forward into the eerily silent base.
Wrex just huffed and took up the rearguard, as they proceeded farther in. Checking their corners and waiting for the usual ambush that always seemed to accompany these types of missions… none came.
Suddenly the silence was broken by a child's laugh… not the creepy haunting child like laugh from horror vids, but the real life filled heart lifting laughing of a happy child.
When the laughter stopped Shepard called out "Hello? We are alliance navy and are searching for survivors… is anyone there?" silence was her only reply.
Until a minute later when footsteps could be heard approaching them, then a tall woman in her mid forties slowly stepped around a corner, "I see you have a Quarian willingly in your company, that proves you aren't pirates; oh thank god." The woman sat down against the wall and began to tear up, "I stayed strong for the young ones, the wee little things needed someone to look up to and keep fear at bay… Come out children they are not pirates!"
Three figures stepped out from behind the doorway the lady had come through, a boy, a girl and an Asari no older than thirteen.
The three remained silent, staring at their three rescuers… until Tali gave a slight nod to Shepard and turned toward the children. The Quarian gave a slight squeal of delight, rushing over to talk and play with the younglings.
Shepard was thankful for the Quarian female's way of giving her time and space to interrogate the older woman as to what had happened.
Wrex stood by leaning on a wall quietly chuckling at the Quarian's antics, whilst having his ears glued to the conversation between the commander and the woman.
"My name is Mariah Brooks, me and the children were on a small transport ship to go see some of the colonies that have been drawing in tourists; we were attacked by pirates and only me, two others and the children survived."
She looked down at her feet and shook slightly, "The other two were killed for sport by a pirate Krogan officer visiting the outpost…" she gave an uneasy look towards Wrex, "I had to stay strong and be a pillar for the young ones to hide behind, we were going to be sold as slaves and would have been as well… if it hadn't of come."
Shepard put her hand on Mariah's shoulder, "Don't worry about Wrex there, he isn't a pirate. He is a good friend and one of the few decent Krogan I have had the pleasure to meet."
Smiling Shepard continued talking, "You did an excellent job of caring for these children; however I need to know what happened here, what is this "It" that you refered to earlier?" after a moment to regain her wits Mariah spoke.
"About two days ago there was a commotion followed by screams and gunfire outside or door, the noises continued for a minute or two and stopped. Only one scream was heard after that and it was cut short, then something came to our door and opened it."
Mariah paused and took a deep breath, before continuing on with her story. "I had the children huddled behind me, the thing… it looked like some sort of advanced Human Mech."
"It just stood there in the doorway; I told it if it wanted us as slaves it should just take us to market already." She lifted her arm and activated the omni-tool that was on her wrist.
"Instead of taking us to its owner, it tossed this in my lap and said it was the outposts' pirate officer's personal omni-tool; it has the codes for all the doors here. It told us were to find food and water, said it was activating a beacon for the Turian or alliance patrols to find us. Then it turned and left, we left our room an hour later."
"I found the pirates all dead, stacked and sealed in the room next to the lift. It must have put them there… I can't say if it was alone or not," Mariah finished her summary of previous events.
Shepard looked contemplatively at the nearby wall, then turned back to Mariah and asked. "What exactly did this Mech look like?" Mariah answered. "It looked like a big man in strange armor; it was over seven feet tall, had five fingers, spoke English and had weird looking weapons that weren't built into it."
"It was dark green and black colored, with little light green lights here and there on its armors chinks and edges… it had a gold reflective face that should not have been as scary to look into as it was." Mariah sighed, "That's all I have to tell you."
Thanking Mariah Brooks for the information, Shepard called the Normandy to report the situation and have Dr Chakwas prep her med-bay for medical checkups on the new guests they would be bringing aboard.
After returning to the Normandy with the four refugees, Shepard took Tali and Wrex out yet again to check the other nearly identicle distress signal.
"What the Hell Happened Here!" Shepard exclaimed aloud as she walked over what was once a garage door… Wrex replied, "Not the same as the other outpost… last place was slaughtered with efficiency and cleanness in mind. Whatever took out this place had no qualms with redecorating… they didn't bother with clean up like the other one."
With Shepard's prior permission the Quarian was recording everything in order to send the info back to the migrant fleet; she'd already gotten a copy of Wrex's recording of Shepard's conversation with Mariah Brooks…
The admiralty had to be informed of these new occurrences… this second one being especially important to relay to them. someone was apparently fielding new Mechs and weapons of terrible power… testing them on pirate bases.
Known only to a few, the migrant fleet had more ears to the ground than the STG, their fleet needed to know what threatened it.
To not learn of a threat in time could lead to the extinction of the Quarian species, they were down to seventeen million remaining people; if the fleet fell so did they.
And whatever type of Mechs destroyed these pirate outposts, qualified as a possible risk to the migrant fleet's future safety, Tali would not let whatever had done this be deployed against her people… not if she was able to stop it.
Her reasoning was simple, manufactured Mechs were sold. The thought of the wrong people getting their hands on advanced super Mechs that could do this to a pirate outpost was not a comforting thought.
After staring at the remains of the grizzlies in the garage, the three of them began moving through the base. They walked through the melted walls and torn apart bulkheads…
The Krogan looked around as they walked through the utter destruction and carnage of the now destroyed pirate outpost, "Shepard this worries me…"
Shepard and Tali remained eerily silent, the destruction and death was terrifying to look at, much less walk through…
Arriving at what had been the bases command and security center they found the charred remains of four pirates… their bodies burned and parts turned to ash. The burns were eaten into the remaining flesh as if they had been subjected to a superheated sticky like substance.
Tali grabbed the omni-tool off a Salarian whose arm was mostly intact… unlike the rest of him. She copied the data over and sent copies to Shepard and Wrex; it might shed some light on the events that lead up to the pirates' deaths.
Moving on they heard murmuring up ahead, which soon cleared up into the sound of hushed voices. Turning a corner they found an entire bulkhead had been burned, torn asunder and shunted aside… leaving the room full of busted cages open for them to see.
The three stood and stared at the fourteen or so people gathered around a crate with an Asari handing out rations, all paused at the sight of the strangers. They continued staring at one another until Shepard stated that they were with the systems alliance… cheers followed by excited questions and laughter from the former slaves ensued afterwards.
Postponing any questioning until they could get everyone onboard the Normandy and away from the carnage of the base Shepard had their elected leader; an Asari by the name of Zelise V'laala gather them up and escort them outside the remains of the pirate outpost for pick up.
They were not going to have a boring time listening to the interviews, she thought to herself; not if what she had seen and was already hearing had anything to do with it.
Aboard the Normandy semi controlled chaos reigned in the shuttle bay. After their arrival, the refugees were taken by groups of two to the medical bay in order for Dr Chakwas to give them a medical check up.
Most passed with the remaining few being prescribed as severely dehydrated or malnourished, they were kept under Dr Chakwas's care.
The rest were returned to the shuttle bay, where mats had been laid out and the majority was now sleeping. Shepard, Garrus and Tali had made the rounds asking questions; with Tali recording each conversation and sending a copy to Shepard's and Gurrus's omni-tool's.
The answers to their questions were varied… all involved seeing two giant creatures or Mechs that had their armored heads and spines scrapping the roof whilst crouched down. Both wielding massive shields and built in glowing green cannons that fired burning green beams of light that nearly incinerated their enemies.
Zelise, the leveled headed Asari leader from the second outpost; believed them to be some kind of experimental Mech with added organic bits for strength purposes… "You could see muscle like flesh wriggling and moving under their outer shell of metal whenever they shifted... it would help explain why they never spoke, instead humming and vibrating like some weird engine."
She looked thoughtful whilst tapping her arm with her fingers, "That would explain how they pulled apart that bulkhead instead of burning through it like they did the others we saw afterwards."
Zelise seemed to realize something, "I don't have anything else to add but there was a little girl who doesn't speak much, she might know more. The first one of the Mechs stopped in front of her cage for awhile and hummed at her… terrified the poor thing, she hugged my waist afterwards and wouldn't let go for ten minutes."
Looking around Zelise shrugged her shoulders "Don't see her here wonder if she went and played with the other young ones that were here before us." Leaving the Asari to get some rest on the mats, Shepard and Tali went in search of the children.
They found them in the mess hall eating the food that was of much better quality than pirates' cheap rations. The group had been joined by a very young Drell from the second outpost's group, who claimed to be nine years old. Upon asking where the girl was they were directed by the Drell to the med bay.
Upon arrival they found their target to be sitting on a desk kicking her legs back and forth, with a smile on her face as she stared at the opposite wall. "hello young one" Tali said, but the girl didn't seem to notice, until they got within her line of sight that is. Then the girl turned her head and looked at them with her two huge blazingly bright, intelligent and fiery sapphire green eyes.
Shepard smiled while Tali repeated her former greeting, the girl smiled at them and looked at Tali with a slight shake of her head, motioning with her hand to her ears and quietly whispered a barely legible "No… no hear" smiling a soft smile the entire time.
Tali was somewhat horrified for her blunder and quickly without thinking, she apologized with Quarian sign language; used for when space walks were needed for a Quarians ship's repairs.
After finishing the hand motions Tali realized the girl wouldn't know that method of speech… before she could hit herself over the head for yet another mistake, she was floored when the girl replied her apology with a basic version of Quarian sign language.
Shepard watched the exchange and began to motion her hands into the universal Human sign language she learned at her N7 trainings language studies. Tali seemed to catch on and both began to talk with the small girl, the conversation went something like this.
(Tali) –Hello. (Shepard) –Hello.
(Girl) –Hello, who you?
(Tali) -Me T-A-L-I (Shepard) -Me J-A-N-E.
(Girl) –Me S-A-D-I-E.
(Shepard) – We ask you questions?
(Sadie) Yes.
(Tali) –you learn Quarian hand-speak?
(Sadie) me learn from N-A-F-I she look like T-A-L-I.
(Shepard) –you know creatures?
Sadie laughed and smiled at them with those strange green eyes.
(Sadie) –Yes.
(Shepard) -what look like?
(Sadie) –Big, alive.
(Tali) -Alive?
(Sadie) –Yes. Alive.
(Shepard) –Creature Scares S-A-D-I-E?
Sadie laughed again and looked at them with mirth flowing from every movement of her body, both Shepard and Tali realized that this girl was an interesting oddity… seemingly knowledgeable beyond her years.
(Sadie) –H-U-N-T-E-R-S scares me no.
(Shepard) –Hunters? (Tali) -Hunters?
(Sadie) – Hunters kill monsters. Monsters take me away. Daddy... Mommy...
Sadie's face fell a little and a spark of sadness flashed across her eyes, before Shepard could continue Dr Chakwas entered the room and immediately fussed at them for disturbing her patient, while Sadie just laughed merrily at the whole situation.
Waving and signing goodbye both Shepard and Tali left the room… leaving Dr Chakwas to deal with the still giggling strange little girl
"Well… after a conclusive amount of searching through the pirates electronic files from both outposts, I have found the location of where the pirates are holding the Asari maidens; that the Asari republics want us to rescue." Said Tali during the meeting Shepard had called in the conference room.
"The base they are being held at is a good four days trip away on the other side of the terminus systems." She concluded.
The next person to speak was a surprise to all present, "did you get the camera footage of what slaughtered both outposts?" asked Wrex.
Every one waited for the answer, they had all seen Tali's footage of both bases and were wondering what these new unidentified experimental Mechs looked like.
All were surprised when Tali Gave a Angry huff, "I went through all the camera footage I could find, the attackers had to have some kind of jammer that blocked the cameras' frequencies. Because whenever they enter a cameras location it goes to static." Tali sighed in frustration.
"I only found this from when the second outpost was attacked. Movement sensors put it at two attackers." The footage played on the rooms screen, showing two Turian pirate Mechanics working on one of the grizzly APCs in the garage.
They watched as alarms blared and the garage doors were slammed from the outside, the Turians hopped in the two APCs' turrets and readied to fire. Then the noise came… the deep vibrating roar… the garage doors smashed in and the Turians opened fire a massive shadow moved in the door way and the camera faded to static… Tali fast-forwarded the footage to show the static fade and the garage in ruins, the grizzlies utterly destroyed.
Every one was quite… until Liara T'Soni spoke up, "the fear factor of the roar is an interesting thing to add to a Mech." Garrus agreed.
After laying out plans for dropping off the refugees and rescuing the Asari maidens, the commander dismissed the present crew, and everyone but Wrex left the room; leaving the Krogan alone to think.
Loading the footage back up on screen, the Krogan showed a Surprising amount of smarts by manipulating the footage to show a zoomed in freeze-framed shot of the giant shadow in the garages doorway; right as the camera's feed began to fade to static.
Pulling out a piece of paper he remembered his meeting of the strange girl earlier that day…
(FLASH BACK)
Wrex walked towards the storage room on the opposite side of the ship from the med bay. He had stored all his weapons and the crap piece of ancestral armor Shepard had helped him get; It was worthless in combat. In his locker and added an extra lock, he didn't need the refugees stealing or messing with his stuff.
He was going to nap in the small storage room… not with the refugees who were sleeping in his space in the shuttle bay. Upon opening the door to the storage room Wrex groaned quietly in frustration, someone had set the refugee younglings to sleep in here undisturbed. He'd have to go to below to engineering… if he could fit.
Before he could turn to leave, his senses picked up a strange faint sound that seemed to pull on his mind; calling him to the back of the room… most Krogan would have put it off as a draft of air messing with them, and left it at that.
But Wrex trusted his senses; they had saved his life more times than he could count. Slowly and quietly so as not to disturb the four younglings sleeping, he walked to the back of the room.
The faint flowing feeling was coming from behind a crate there, and when he peered over the crate he found himself peering at a small female Human youngling. She was staring off into nothingness and the strange quite sensation was surely… yep. Definitely coming from her; the Krogan turned leave the room and made his way towards the door giving curious guttural hum to himself on his way out.
The faint feeling stopped when he was halfway across the room and there was a quite cough behind him, he didn't stop to turn around again. Suddenly Wrex felt the sensation return, this time a bit louder; almost a whisper that one could barely grasp on to.
He stopped and turned around to see a sight that should not have been strangely terrifying… yet it was.
Standing on the crate she had previously been behind the Human youngling stared him down with strange, wise, flaming sapphire green eyes… that shouldn't really be able to seemingly glow like that.
The stern expression on her small face would make others shake in fear, Wrex just chuckled, "You have got yourself a quad youngling… heh heh heh, and you definitely have a large one; plus a crap-load of guts to stare a Krogan such as me down."
Both times he chuckled she stiffened and seemed to focus on something… and the barely registered strange sensation would increase ever so slightly… the Krogan eyed her carefully for a moment when this happened… shrugged and turned to leave the room.
He had to go find a place to nap, strange stupidly suicidal brave younglings aside. He had overstayed his welcome.
When he got to the middle of the open doorway something hit the back of his left leg… slowly turning around he stared at the strange green eyed girl who now smiled at him. Reaching up with her hand she offered him a simple piece of paper… slowly he accepted it, assuming it was some sort of peace offering.
She smiled at him, waved goodbye and turned back to go to her mat on the other side of the crate.
After the door closed behind him, Wrex made his way to the elevator in order to go to the engineering section to look for a place to crash where he'd be alone. While in the elevator he examined the strange girls peace offering… it was interesting to say the least.
After the painfully slow elevator ride to Tali's kingdom came to a stop, Wrex watched the doors open only to see the chipper engineering monarch herself; preparing to enter the elevator that Wrex had heard ships pilot say was built to honor the Humans' sloth gods.
However before he could exit the infernal machine, Tali brought him the bad news… a mandatory meeting in the conference and communications room; all of Shepard's friends and important crew were to be there… no exemptions.
Grumbling curses under his breath he waited for the elevator from hell to slowly ascend to the proper deck, Tali shared in his frustrations by mumbling her own curses. Everyone hated the elevator… everyone.
(End FlashBack)
Slowly Wrex unfolded the piece of paper the girl with fiery green eyes had given him, he stared at the amazingly detailed child's drawing of a creature covered in armor with huge spikes on its back, a shield for an arm and the other arm being a strange massive weapon.
The creature was drawn with neon green streaks swirling around the weapon arm. The girl was a tiny figure standing next the creatures leg… putting the massive thing in perspective.
Below it was a simple two words; with the first one having been attempted several times before being crossed out, as if the girl couldn't spell it correctly. The second one was legible though, and it simply said "HUNTERS." Wrex held the paper up and stared between it and the shadow in the pirate outpost's garage door; on the screen's frozen camera feed.
"heh heh heh… So you're not really a Mech now are you, none of you are." He chuckled again.
"This is going to be an interesting future with a species like you lumbering about."
Chuckling some more, the Krogan went on his way to show Shepard the child's drawing. Without more solid evidence Shepard wouldn't stop believing they were Mechs, and a little girls drawing wouldn't convince her of them not being so...
But Wrex didn't really care, she was his current commander and all things were reported to her; besides it was a nice drawing… it deserved some praise from someone who could appreciate it better than he could.
(Note)
Whew Chapter five people! and it was a doozy! anyways there might be a slight delay for future updates, due to catagory four hurricane Mathew most likely hitting my state tomorrow evening...
(Note UPDATE)
Well it looks like the eye of category 4 Hurricane Mathew is gonna steamroll over my house... good thing me and nearly everybody in the surrounding counties and cities bugged out before the storm arrived.
the future updates are gonna be a bit slower in arrival... depends on if my home is still there when i get back, LOL its outta my hands. me and my family did our best to secure it and batten down the hatch's... as i said, its now out of our hands, god willing it will still mostly be there when we go back. (Damages are a given, LOL 130 mph wind gusts do that.)
Anyways! see y'all on chapter six Folks! This is Gabenator5 SIGNING OFF!