(Note)
My sincerest apologies. This chapter was in the works for a while! My life decided to get extra hectic these past few months.
Since my last update, I have joined the armed forces and I am currently slated to leave for basic training tomorrow, promptly followed by a 16-week long A-School… so starting August 2017 all my stories will be on hold until my military training is completed.
Fear not! I won't be abandoning my little fanfiction typing hobby, I enjoy it too much. So once both trainings have been hurdled I'll be sure to settle down with a laptop during free hours each week and type to my heart's content. (I will eventually finish these stories! As well as a few others. I have been cooking a few short ones up on the old mental backburner for future development.)
To quote a certain world war 2 general "I. Shall. Return!"
And indeed, I shall! Wish me luck!
I Do Not Own Mass Effect or The Halo Franchise; neither do I own the Titanfall Franchise. All these Universes Respectively Belong to Bioware/EA, Respawn Entertainment and Microsoft/343 Industries.
Now ON WITH THE STORY!
Among a vast asteroid field sat one of, if not the single largest structure made by the current living species of the galaxy. A project that had taken thousands of years to complete, bankrupting super corporations who had taken over its ever-constant construction and expansion throughout the ages. A place that had been shut down and made lifeless several times through history before being started up once more… a place now considered the central hub for the black market and every shady corporation and mercenary group not based on Novaria.
A place the 'Civilized' portion of the galaxy looked at with fear and disgust.
A place that carried an infamous name…
Omega.
Far from the massive space station, a lone dark green dropship expertly wove its way through the surrounding asteroid fields. Its pilot observing his destination from the many glimpses he could glean from between the moving masses of space rock his vessel was gracefully maneuvering through.
The dropship was missing its usual markings, all had been removed in order to preserve the secrecy of its faction. If one were to search up the vessel on the Extranet's ship database, they would find that it was a custom-built mining surveyor and personnel carrying vessel… a prototype that had failed to work out and had been scrapped from any attempts at full production years ago.
To the casual observer, the many obvious patches to the vessel's hull attested to that belief, which is what the orchestrator of the false trail of Extranet documentation wanted them to think. She did not want the many eyes on Omega to become suspicious of her agent's future escape vessel, after all, suspicious reports would draw unwanted attention which would make things risky.
The Stoic Spartan sat at the Pelican's controls masterfully controlling the vessel like an extension of his very will and body. The dropship was comparatively smaller than most vessels docking at Omega and the Spartan had no issues with slipping past the heavier security checks, which were enforced on larger vessels by Aria T'Loak's faction.
The Pelican had been dropped off by The Dawn outside sensor range of the station, the Spartan had spent many hours flying the Pelican dropship towards his destination. He landed at a small landing hangar on the rock part of the converted space rock and exited his vessel.
Ce'ra T'soros, a young Asari maiden within a minor hangar bay on the station, had watched the strange vessel land and dock within the bay she watched and managed. Mostly out of curiosity she checked the vessels data files for its source of origin and was satisfied with the information the extranet database provided.
However, it was with slight fear and confusion that she watched a brown cloaked figure of very large proportions exit the vessel, the figure then approached her kiosk located by the entry into Omega's lower slums and wards.
The twenty-year-old Asari had grown-up in the streets and slums of the pits of Omega and by seemingly a miracle of luck, had not lost her beautiful looks or her maidenhood to the dangers that lurked around every corner.
It was the reason Ce'ra T'soros had been able to gain the position she now held, her manager thought her appearance would make his business look better to the higher-ups who answered directly to Aria T'Loak. Ce'ra had offered to work two shifts a day for half a shift's pay so long as he did not try anything sexual with her.
With T'soros being a natural and very powerful biotic both sweetening and enforcing that deal.
Because of her upbringing in the slums, Ce'ra had gained the ability to form a quick instinctive analysis of a person's abilities and intentions, this had saved her life more times than she could count or even care to remember. So, it was with growing confusion that she watched this unknown character approach her booth.
She sensed a suffocating danger like she had never felt before, counteracted at the same time by a sense of power and calm safety that let her breath easier… her instincts had no clue what to do or expect and it was utterly confusing her. Doing her best to remain calm she stated the inflated price fee for docking, at which the cloaked giant simply nodded its hooded head, during which she could've sworn she saw a slight glimmer of gold from under the brown canvas hood.
With slow fluid movement, the mysterious person reached out from the brown folds of the cloak to reveal a green and black armored gauntlet with five fingers. It was holding a rather odd-looking credit chit, without a word, he paid for his stay, nodded and then strode through the doors with an aura of hidden power, mystery and purpose.
Ce'ra T'soros stared after the cloaked giant wondering just what the hell she had allowed to enter Omega, she had a gut-felt trepidation that the stranger who had just passed through those doors could easily slaughter everything on the station if it was assigned such a task… Ce'ra couldn't help but wonder what the odd character's purpose was in visiting this goddess-forsaken station.
If she listened to the local news's holographic terminal by her booth she would soon find out.
Orelle Gemmegar was having a rather normal work shift, his boring job of protecting the Hierarchy's networks from cyber-attacks was proceeding as it always did.
Boringly uneventful.
The network's VI's caught all the small-time hackers and the few cyber defense staff such as Orelle were left to dawdle away their time, having access to the extranet was a lifesaver for the few workers who were merely there to enable their government to claim it had "Impenetrable defenses against cyber-attack".
Something Orelle personally scoffed at, while outwardly putting on a mask of enthusiastic agreement. Orelle Gemmegar was one of the few Batarian's who had purpose and experience in the Cyberdefense ranks. He had been a former media editor for the Hierarchy, helping to maintain their propaganda machine as well as scouting out popular individuals who may disagree with aforementioned propaganda.
This was usually followed by the public denouncement and execution of the aforementioned popular characters, or, at the very least, an assassination of their credibility through deceit, subterfuge, and control of the media in Batarian space.
Gemmegar missed those days, a time when he had power and standing when he could remove any political opponent for the one who paid him the most. Sadly, he had been too good at his job, too ruthless, allies became enemies at the drop of a hat, and enemies became ruthless in their attempts to destroy him before he could destroy them…
Unlike many other Batarians Orelle Gemmegar was a tad somewhat of a realist and saw the writing on the wall, he'd had his run and his fun, he'd stirred the waves of the political lake and the big predators on the bottom were now taking notice of little fishy Orelle near the surface…
And to them little fishy Orelle looked rather tasty.
Using the few favors and political power he still had, Orelle had removed himself from the afore written proverbial lake of politics and placed himself in a dead-end career position so as to leave no reason for anyone to see him as a threat.
The attempts on his life had finally ended only three years prior.
Now Gemmegar had a new problem, with his long absence in the political field, as well as having lost his last favor owing political contact the year before…
He had no way to leave the Cyberdefense division and return to politics.
So here he was, doing his shift and sadly thinking about how he was stuck doing them until his retirement, which wasn't that far off now that he thought of it… it was only five more years or so until he passed the age limitation for serving in all but the highest portions of the Hierarchy.
While caught up in his depressing thoughts Orelle was unaware that today's work shift was not going to be normal…
Not at all.
It all started when he was startled from his musing's when a message popped up on his holo-screen, he had received mail…
Orelle hadn't had any non-work-related messages in months, he really should have thought of that and been a bit suspicious as well as careful with the situation in hindsight.
Not that it would've have assisted in stopping what happened.
Opening the message, he saw it was a sales advertisement for extranet site involving what it repeatedly exclaimed was "entertainments to satisfy all".
Orelle snorted in disbelief, the first private message in five months and it was an ad for a movie streaming service. He figured his non-existent social life should start becoming an existent social life if he actually wanted to receive mail from a friend.
Closing the ad, he continued on with his shift, with no clue as to the horror he had just accidentally assisted in unleashing on himself and his fellow Batarians.
In the Omega Star cluster, by a secondary relay sat an innocent third party extranet link up… it wasn't the cutting edge of technology by any means, it was indeed considerably dated compared to council extranet link-up stationary satellites. But it was still connected to the galactic wide network, still, it would be an extreme challenge to anyone who wanted to do a massive hack attack at any government computer systems.
Cortana loved a challenge, it sure as hell beat playing countless games of Solitaire while battling yourself at a hundred games of chess where your time per turn was limited to one millisecond or less. Either way, she would win she was playing herself after all, and all the chess dumb AI she made couldn't beat her… she had made them to begin with, predicting their moves was child's play. Especially with the whopping upgrade Mendicant Bias had slipped into her databanks, in order for her to survive the logic plague and the other long-term effects from being tortured by the Gravemind.
The challenge she now faced, was prediction. She would have to predict every anti-virus failsafe the Batarians had in their network. A Virus with a slip-space physics encoded algorithm protecting its data from counter hacking would do the trick, it was designed to run its course and die while leaving numerous hidden backdoors for her to slip through at a future date if she so wished… not that she needed them.
The key to success in this form of viral cyber-assault required many upload links, so as to spread through the main network before the individual network cells that made up the whole disconnected via anti-virus attack protocols.
That wasn't going to be an issue, however, Cortana had been collecting the return IP addresses of multiple Batarian devices connected to their network. It seemed that many had received her emails and then opened them, in a sense they were just begging to be hacked… they hypothetically just opened the front door and offered her pet attack virus she'd named Spam in for a spot of evening tea.
And Spam, while not an AI in any sense whatsoever, was more than ready to accept that offer. Cortana decided to be a good Extranet neighbor and send Spam over for an extended stay, the Batarians were going to love him.
With that line of malicious thinking, Cortana cut the proverbial leash and sic'd Spam over the extranet to go and say, "hello world" to its new four-eyed friends.
Cortana couldn't help but find herself giggling an evil demented giggle throughout the entire process, as well as long afterward… After a quick psychological review of herself and her current actions, Cortana came to the conclusion that the two girls they had taken on board must have been influencing her personality.
It was fun to be somewhat childishly devious on occasion, taking gleeful excitement in a successful prank of galactic proportions was such a wonderful feeling!
Having come to that conclusion, Cortana activated the Dawn's unique form of galactic transportation and the vessel entered the eleven dimensions of slip-space.
Spam arrived in the Batarian network at multiple locations… and immediately decided to give its gracious hosts its surprise housewarming present… mommy had programmed it not to be rude in this respect after all.
So, it completed its purposed function and unleashed its glorious Command functions on Batarian systems, seizing control of the entire linked network it ran its final activation protocol before shifting to defense mode.
When finished with its entrenchment and having finished its activation Spam did its purpose. Every Batarian screen in the Hegemony government went blank before beginning a video, confused workers and officials could only watch while trying to understand what was occurring.
"Hello Galactic citizens, I am Irwish the Salarian and these are my dear friends and colleagues, amazing camera wielder Verend the Volus and Narrator extraordinaire Hartlett the Elcor, as well as our galaxy guide Tiffy the Turian." Spoke a rather enthusiastic young Salarian.
"This is an unedited collection of our scientific adventures in the mating habits of the most rare and dangerous of galactic wildlife! We are excited to say that we have 15 hours of footage per your viewing pleasure! All Narrated by Hartlett who will explain what is happening down to the finest detail for your better scientific understanding of the many animal mating's we recorded while on our travels! So, let us begin!"
With the Salarian's cringe-worthy introduction over, an Elcor's droll, monotone inflectionless voice flooded the speakers… a voice the Batarians were soon going to become very, very familiar with.
"Hello, galactic citizens. Happily, excited. I am Hartlett, I shall narrate in detail from the notes Biologist Irwish has compiled for me to use. Pleased, relieved, thankful. To begin we shall start with a few instances of Thresher Maw's we recorded during their last mating season. Convey awe. From there we will move onto Harvesters and Klixen."
Now let us start with the thresher maw. Fear and awe. As you can see in this footage the male approaches the…
Three seconds of shocked silence reigned… then the screams of Batarians began to be heard all throughout the Hegemony as a corrupted governmental system's means of communications and propaganda was paralyzed by a simple explicit nature documentary.
Spam had done its job well.
Initiating mandatory pre-mission systems status checklist…
Systems scanning… 25%... 50%... 75%...100%...
Systems scan successful…
Scanning results: pending…
Chassis status: All Systems Online…
Mounted Weapons, 100% Online…
Left Arm Status: 100% operational…
Right Arm Status: 100% operational…
Left Leg Status: 100% operational…
Right Leg Status: 100% operational…
Running Software Diagnostics…
Diagnostics Complete: all systems operating at 100%.
Ammunition status: currently at 100% Capacity…
Pre-mission mandatory checklist complete.
Re-confirming location via available data…
Location: in low orbit of mission target world Logasiri.
Optic visuals conclusive: drop pod bay of UNSC Vessel Forward Unto Dawn.
Current combat Mission presets…
Mission Combat Priority One: Search and destroy all Batarian military and slaver operations planetside.
Mission Combat Priority Two: All Slaves and civilians are hereby marked as neutrals and shall not be targeted unless they prove otherwise hostile.
Mission Combat Priority Three: ALL Oxygen Storage and recycling equipment ground side is now designated as Non-Targetable objects, this is imperative for Neutral forces future survival.
Current pilot condition: Error, no pilot currently accompanying unit.
Beginning Attempt #20197 to contact Pilot Jack Cooper…
Attempt #20197 failed…
Last known Pilot Status: Healthy…
Signal received from Ally AI Cortana, 30 seconds to mission start.
Last mandatory drop protocols activating…
10% 50% 67% 100%
Activated.
Chassis entering lockdown.
Joints status: locked.
Hydraulic systems: Locked, pressurized, sealed for atmosphere re-entry.
Weapons status: sufficiently shielded.
15 seconds to mission start.
…
Beginning Attempt #20198 to contact Pilot Jack Cooper…
…
…
…
10 seconds to mission start.
…
…
Attempt #20198 failed…
…
…
5 seconds to mission start.
…
…
…
…
…
Mission status: Begun.
Objectives status: Pending…
…
Above the world of Logasiri a large grey ship passed by at a blistering blustering speed, from its underbelly a group of objects let loose their grips on their hanging racks and dropped into the slowly dying world's thin atmosphere, these objects were mostly crate pods of supplies for the mission.
Most of these crates had food supplies and compressed air tanks for the many slaves on the surface who would soon be likely to lose the pressurization of their habitat domes for a brief period of time. The crate pods with the lifesaving supplies would land outside of the few habitat domes that did not have an airlock large enough to accommodate the combat mission operator's large form.
In the middle of the formation of falling pods was one that was different than the rest, a shell-like structure designed only to receive the heat and stress that the Combat operator's chassis couldn't take, the gaps in the shell-like object showed glimpses of the large object within its grasp.
If one looked through the flames that now flared about the surrounding pods and the shell-like structure, they would see glimpses of green and orange painted metal, a hunched massive figure ready to explode into motion and break its shell like drop pod apart.
Inside the drop pod so different from the rest, a single round blue lensed optic narrowed into a Y like shape as its owner focused on controlling the shell pod's trajectory with maneuvering thrusters, as it descended towards the planet's surface the sole occupant broadcasted the only warning the world of Logasiri would receive before it began an invasion that would soon spook the rest of the galaxy…
"Stand by for Titan-Fall."
It was an invasion of Titanic proportions…
An invasion of one.
The drop-off completed, the Forward Unto Dawn turned about in a loop and its massive thrusters lit up as they burned at full strength, propelling the vessel towards the scrambling Batarian defense fleet. Said "fleet" consisted of six ships: they were all outdated models: a Dreadnought, two cruisers, and three frigate class vessels.
The Batarian ships had picked up a radiation anomaly by the planet, followed by alarms of a large cruiser analog appearing on sensors from seemingly nowhere. The Batarian vessels were stationed to intercept vessels coming into the system, the Dawn had appeared behind them, and nearly in the upper atmosphere of the planet, they were tasked with guarding.
The Batarian vessels closed up in ranked formation, accelerating towards what they thought an unidentified large cruiser… unaware that the Unknown vessel's faction considered it a mere light frigate.
Thus, the Batarians charged on to seize glory, one vessel against six was impossible odds was it naught? What could such a heathen ship do against the might of a Dreadnought, outdated though it may be? Thus, On they charged! For the Hegemony!
On they charged… to their doom.
With a mighty crash, the Vanguard class Titan had landed from its orbital descent, rising to its towering height, the mighty machine of war focused its sensors out at the wasteland that surrounded its current location. Stomping quickly over to a crate that had landed near its own impact site, (as the container was supposed to do) the Titan acquired its current weapon of use.
It was a gorgeous piece of death spitting ingenuity, a Gauss Cannon and two M41 Light anti-aircraft machine guns all stripped down and mounted together in a large tri-barrel rifle shaped encasement for the Titan to wield as needed.
In BT-7274's opinion, the spare Warthog parts on the Dawn had been repurposed for effective use. So far BT-7274 was indeed very pleased with the weapon that had been built in such short notice, as pleased as a Titan can get. This new multi-versatile weapon system had the power of a light anti-armor cannon combined with two anti-personnel chain guns that spewed heavy caliber high-velocity death.
Now it was time to give this new weapon a field test.
Without farther ado, the Frontier Militia machine of war turned towards its first target. Its goal was to clear out enemy heavy weapons and armor emplacements, as well as enable the slave populace to fight back. Each of the other crates that had landed contained food and medical supplies, as well as non-element zero containing ammunition blocks and heatsinks.
Cortana had manufactured the shaped pieces of metal using the small parts forge on the Dawn, this had been accomplished throughout the weeks it took preparing for this strike while the Dawn was in dry-dock for its recent overhaul.
BT would break the heavy Batarian Fortifications, enabling the slaves to fight back… if the most populated habitat domes were hit and their slaves freed to fight back, then Logosari would fall into their vengeful hands within a few days.
This would be farther enforced by the planetside anti-vessel defense systems, once those systems were manually in free slave hands (Cortana had already compromised them electronically) BT's mission would be done and the Titan would begin extraction protocols.
The mission should not take too long to complete, outside of the larger habitat domes and a few slaves powered the mining quarries, the Batarian combat forces on the planet's surface were rather low in numbers.
It was then that the Titan began traversing the small planet's surface towards his first set of targets.
In one of the crew workstations built into the Dawn's bridge Bulkheads, a pair of inseparable friends watched the approaching vessels on the workstation's screen with no small amount of fear. Both Sadie and Laura had suffered greatly at the hands of Batarians, so to be told that the attacking ships approaching them were full of these creatures didst make them greatly afraid.
Both the inseparable duo had curled up together in the NAV-station's chair having strapped themselves in per Cortana's instructions, she had explained that they were about to give battle and things would probably get greatly shaken about before the fight would be finished.
Laura was randomly switching between nervous mumbling and partial sign language without realizing it, all while still attempting to hang on tightly to her emerald-eyed best friend. while Sadie was watching the screen with unblinking eyes that seemed to glow in the light that the video feed gave off. Both children clung to the other for comfort and support as the Dawn accelerated to give battle.
Both fearfully watched the Console screens as the enemy ship analogues grew larger and larger on the scanners of the Dawn the closer they approached.
Meanwhile, through her many eyes both within and without the Dawn the AI the two girls had come to subconsciously call mother, watched with sympathy for her wards and anger at the approaching ships. making a hologram on the console the two girls were huddled in front of, Cortana signed them a message via sign language.
(Cortana) Fear Not, for I shall slay them all.
Forek Dak'revan cursed and ranted with gusto, the Hegemony had awarded him the glorious position of Admiral of the Logasari Defense fleet. It was a small command but one that paid a lot, not from Hegemony paychecks but from the large smuggling market and tax dodgers that paid him to turn a blind eye.
So, suffice to say the current situation was enraging Dak'revan to no end, the fact that a large cruiser had somehow bypassed his small fleet and deposited unknown objects planet-side would get him executed was not helping matters.
Dak'revan now had only one option left to redeem himself, destroy this unidentified cruiser and pray to the Pillars that whatever it had deployed to the planet was not harmful to Batarian interests. With a loud shout of fury, he screamed at his subordinates to get the ships in order and charge at the enemy vessel… the enemies annihilation was a surety! None could defy the Great Hegemony and win.
They would burn or be taken as slaves, their females taken for sport, no one messed with Dak'revan! No one! Such was the mindset of Dak'revan.
'I shall make their vessel's walkways flood and slosh with their lifeblood, I shall force the commander of that blasted ship watch as I destroy every member of his family… his mate and female offspring will be a worthwhile distraction.'
'I shall take their possi…'
"Admiral! We are reading a massive energy spike! the enemy vessel is firing!" screamed a lieutenant.
The Batarian Admiral was ripped from his thoughts as the enemy Cruiser fired its main gun at an unheard-of distance to spectacular effect. He could only watch in disbelief as the now identified and unbelievably large bored cannon slung a massive shell towards one of his cruisers positioned at the front of his defense fleet's hastily assembled formation.
The Batarians watched the slug move across the monitoring systems screens on the bridge, there was no quick transit, the shell moved much, much slower than a dreadnought's element zero propelled round which was mere kilograms in comparison to their sensors readings of a mere… Six-Hundred TONS! At 33 kilometers per second.
"By the Pillars what fool makes such a slow firing weapon, that shell is heavy, but it is surely a sign of this fool's stupidity to fire at such range." Muttered a bridge officer to the hearing of all.
"Admiral we are receiving an emergency call from the targeted cruiser Master's Wrath." Called the communications officer.
"Answer them." Dek'raven replied.
The opened channel crackled to life and crew shouting could be heard in the background. "My Admiral, my cruiser is no dancing frigate, that shell is coming in far slower than our own cannon's fire, but the shell is much larger, and my vessel cannot maneuver completely clear in time! Not with us already moving forward at this momentum! I request permission to abandon ship!"
Admiral Dek'raven scoffed. "You coward, I shall kill you myself when this is through. Your shields will hold off this primitive attack! I shall remo…"
"Admiral enemy vessel is firing again and still closing! It's targeted our other cruiser!" interrupted a bridge officer.
'I should shoot him for interrupting me, but his station is needed until that blasted ship is destroyed' thought Dek'revan. "as I was saying, I shall remove you from command and have you executed!" finished the admiral before the navigation office cried out a warning.
"5 seconds until first enemy shell impact!" the bridge watched in silence as the shell hit, they're confidence turned to shocked horror as the cruiser that had attempted to move away from the slug's trajectory was hit. First its kinetic barriers flared too no visible effect before shattering, the vessel was clipped down the bow portside and holed through the port-stern by the enemy shot, shearing a wing off of the Cruiser that was of Turian influenced design, putting the vessel in a tight spin that ended with the ships Element Zero core destabilizing and detonating, leaving no survivors.
Static ran over the still open com channel before the communications officer closed it on reflex as he stared at the screens at the front of the bridge like all others present were doing… A few precious seconds passed before pandemonium erupted on the bridge, this was quelled by a shot fired by Admiral Dek'raven's pistol, killing the communications officer.
And silencing the rest of the bridge crew in the process.
"Report! why did the shields on the Master's Wrath not halt the enemy shell!" he screamed. He was answered by the bridge engineer.
"My admiral the Barriers were shattered before they could even begin to take the brunt of the enemy's slug's kinetic energy transference, they lasted barely a half-second before they were shattered! Our charging velocity towards the enemy vessel only increases the impact strength of a hit from such a weapon." His reply was followed by the cry of the Navigation officer.
"My Admiral ten seconds till impact of enemy's second attack on remaining cruiser Pillars Honor, they have not attempted any evasive maneuvers until after the destruction of the master's Wrath!" the bridge crew watched as the remaining cruiser was hit by the massive slug, it blew the Kinetic barrier and entered near the front of the vessel, traveling its length from bow to stern before exiting through the engines taking the Ships core out in the process.
The Pillar's Honor was completely gutted, the finale element zero core detonation was the icing on the cake. Dek'raven now had lost two cruisers with no known survivors… there would be no redemption for him now, only an execution for failing the Hegemony.
Enraged to near madness the Admiral sought vengeance. "Fire on that Vessel! Now!" he cried but his weapons officer answered in desperation.
"My Lord Admiral we are not in aiming range for our main gun, and even if I could fire it our VI's in control of aiming would not fire until the inhabited world behind the enemy vessel is no longer a target for a missed shot, there is Nothi…"
The Weapons officer was silenced by a shot to the head by the now mentally unstable Admiral Dek'raven. The rest of the bridge crew cowered in fear, no longer focused on their tasks... fear of your Master killing you in useless anger is never an effective way to motivate a crew.
Out in the black of space on the viewscreen, a flash was seen originating from the far distance, the enemy vessel had fired a third shot and was now close enough to have its weapon discharge seen clearly.
12 seconds later the outdated Dreadnought Pillars strength was halfway gutted by a six-hundred Ton Ferret Tungsten slug. The following fourth and final MAC round fired in the battle annihilated the rest of the vessels working remains.
Of the outdated larger Batarian vessels there were no survivors.
The Dawn Continued forward at an intense pace, coming in range of the Nimble Batarian Frigates before the three smaller vessels could alter their vectors and flee. Without any farther ado, the Dawn unleashed three lightly energy shielded archer missiles and wrapped up the entire engagement.
Meanwhile, on the Bridge of the Rebuilt Vessel, Cortana's avatar was calmly telling Sadie and Laura that the battle was over. However, internally the AI was cackling madly and jumping about her cyberspace like a child on a sugar high. Her favorite toy had performed beyond expectations, her tweaks and calibrations had even increased its ammo's traveling rate from thirty kilometers per second to thirty-three per second.
Not much of an increase but it added a lot more to the impact damage of each shell. She had also cut the reload and recharge rate down by a small margin… not by much but she would take what she could get.
Meanwhile, Sadie and Laura were now doing an impromptu victory jig on the bridge and Cortana was now finding their apparent lack of talent in that field rather amusing.
After ensuring all enemy vessels were destroyed entirely, Cortana continued the Dawn's charted course towards the nearest planet, they would slingshot around the Elcor colony planet Thunawanuro and head back to Logasiri to assist BT-7274 with orbital support as well as the Titan's eventual exfil.
There were currently no other vessel's in orbit of Thunawanuro and the Elcor on the ground of the high gravity world would have few delicate instruments outside of element zero sensors due to the high gravity and thick atmosphere.
all was going according to plan.
Brumius was tired, not just in body but also in soul. He had lived his entire life here in the slave worked mining pits on Logasiri, he was a slave, therefore, he had no last name, no clan, no family left and little to live for. The Turian was supposed to be at the prime of his life yet he did not look or feel the part.
This place he called home was hell, just that day three more of his fellow slaves had been shot as an example to those who would consider attempting any form of disobedience.
Their crime? Working until their portion of the mines dried up of resources to extract, instead of being assigned to another tunnel the masters had seen the lack of resources coming from their section and turned a deaf ear to their pleas.
They had been executed in brutal manners before a bunch of the younger and newest workers as an example. It had terrified and broken the hearts and wills of the younger group, as was the farce of a trial's purpose to begin with. Those three had been old, they were no longer needed so the masters made their planned deaths meet their needs… sending a clear message: You live and exist to serve us… nothing more, nothing less.
That message had been taken to heart by the quietly crying and now quiet young ones, the youngest of them being only eleven years. Now the mixed group of enslaved species were trudging back to one of the domed facilities on the planet, one of the larger ones at that.
The forced march was approaching its end as they drew near to the two and a half story tall airlock, only a mile or so out from arrival. One of the younger new hands was staring intently at the sky as the overseers allowed them to slow their pace to a walk, the young Salarian nearly drew the attention of the overseers Electra-whip when he made a startled exclamation about falling stars.
Brumius looked up and saw the glowing lights fall from the sky, only to make landfall beyond a ridge in the far distance, his suppressed curiosity couldn't help noting that meteorites don't fall in formation… his survival sense, however, didn't consider it his business to begin with.
He needed to focus on staying alive in this miserable existence until he was too old, and the masters decided to kill him too. He had heard the whispers among non-born slaves about the wider galaxy, but Brumius knew that this citadel council he kept hearing about would never save them or even care about them… they hadn't in the past so why now? These falling stars were probably the work of the masters in the mighty Hegemony.
As they approached the domed facility's airlock entrance the Turian slave couldn't help but notice the Overseers growing uneasy after trying to call ahead to announce their arrival with no response being received.
They were approaching the large closed airlock doors when it happened, it began with a loud noise!
"CRACK!"
Which was immediately followed by two of the overseers in charge of Brumius's group losing the entire upper half of their Bodies as a high velocity gauss round tore their aligned torsos into a fine bloody mist, this was repeated with another guard being obliterated by a very loud weapon with little to no vapor trail for one to trace to its location.
It didn't stop a few of the now very wary Batarians from trying to find it though. Spreading out to either side of the road, they jumped behind cover whilst Brumius and his fellow slaves were forced to cower on their bellies in the middle of the road, any attempts at running would've gotten them all shot in the back by their overseer guards.
'Spirits! What is happening!? We are caught between a rock and a hard place here… if the attackers shoot at us then were dead, if we move to seek cover we will be killed by the masters, maybe…' The Turian's thoughts were cut short by the sound of loud booming steps approaching them at a rapid sounding pace, Brumius's eyes soon beheld a terrifying sight he would not soon forget…
A massive battle mech, putting a YMIR heavy mech to utter and total shame was sprinting towards them across the lifeless field of dirt and rocks to their right… Bromius could scarce believe his eyes, Sprinting! Machines that size should not be capable of doing that. Aside from its unbelievable balancing and movement capabilities the very large machine was sporting a single optic and looked to be holding a weapon in its huge metal hands.
It sprinted up to the overseers on the right side of the road and began its assault by tactfully stepping on one. It then shouldered its weapon and twin rotary barrels shot dual streams of devastating rounds towards its chosen targets, with this weapon the machine killed all the Overseers in a matter of seconds!
Having killed the Overseers, the Machine stopped firing and glanced about the area before lowering its weapon as it turned to face the slaves who lay on the road.
Brumius slowly stood up, if he was to die here than he would not die cowering like a scared Pyjack. However much to the Turian's shock, the machine pointed to the Overseers weapons that lay upon the ground by their bullet pierced corpses.
It then spoke in synthesized Turian, "This unit's current combat mission is the liberation of Logasiri from the Batarian Hegemony, supplies of oxygen, water and food have been dropped planet-side." It said while pointing towards where the grouping of stars had landed not long ago.
"Arm yourselves and secure the supply cache, this Unit will compromise key domed facilities within the area, once hegemony forces are annihilated at these locations an uprising of the slave populace will be successful. You will safeguard one of the supply caches that have made landfall, once it is secured send a messenger to that domed facility." It said, gesturing to the nearby large glass domed structure.
"It has already been cleared of all hostile combatants." With that message delivered the machine sprinted off into distance disappearing around a rise in the nearby landscape. Brumius could only stare in shocked surprise at this turn of events, he didn't even really believe it until he turned and saw the destroyed anti-infantry turrets at the Facility vehicle airlock entrance as well as the shattered Batarian wreck of a light assault vehicle that lay nearby… he didn't know how they missed noticing these things when they had been approaching the Facility to begin with.
Walking over to the overseer who had initially been stepped on by that… thing, Brumius stared down at the dead slaver's weapon, a weapon that had killed his fellow slaves and kept him and the rest who were yet living in a perpetual state of fear and submission.
Reaching down he picked up the assault rifle and slowly looked it over before adjusting his hold to what his sire had taught him in secret when Brumius was just a mere child. For the first time in years, the Turian felt something he thought he would never feel again…
He felt hope.
Stepping over to another corpse he grabbed a shotgun and tossed it over towards the now recovering group of former slaves, a young Drell lad fumbled with the weapon for but a moment before getting a firm grip and shouldering it.
Looking at his longtime companions and friends Brumius dredged up all the remembrances of their suffering and the ones they had lost to their so-called Batarian masters, he brought forth all the cold righteous rage he had stored for a day such as this… though he had never thought that this day would arrive.
He never thought they would have even the sliver of a chance at successfully attaining their freedom, he would take the leap of faith and trust the Machine that had just decimated their long-time persecutors… and if the supplies were indeed where the machine had pointed towards then all the better, the first thing the Batarians would do is crack down on all Oxygen distributors, one couldn't use a breather without an air tank and rebreathers were not given to slaves.
Logasiri was not livable without a breather mask… unless you were Vorcha or perchance a Krogan.
Clearing his thought and gesturing to the other dead overseers scattered about he spoke to his companions, "Gather anything of value, weapons, masks, heat sinks, air tanks, boots, etc. and then equip yourselves as needed, leave what we don't need…
"Today we rise and strike back at our former masters, we will gain our freedom so that the deaths and sacrifices of those who are no longer with us have not been made in vain, we will fight! I do not know what that thing was, only that it was on our side and saw fit to free us from the Overseers… if what it said holds true than we stand a chance at defeating the Hegemony on this Planet, they would not be able to stop us by depriving us of oxygen if we have our own source."
"we will rise, we will fight, and we shall do so for our fallen brethren," Brumius stated this with a no-nonsense clear and strict voice, he was pleased to see that his pep-talk had had some effect on his audience by the surprisingly loud reply to his talk's ending statement.
It would become a rallying cry throughout the entirety of the Logasiri revolution.
"For the Fallen and For Our Freedom!"
The Hulking Titan made of metal and circuitry, as well as being the bearer of several devices that spewed metallic gifts both big and small for its enemies' short lived enjoyment, was currently fleeing a group of gunships.
Said flying vehicles were all that remained of the Batarian Rapid Deployment Slave Suppression Force, BT-7274's first priority target and the only group that could stop a slave revolution before it even got started. The Frontier militia Titan had attacked their base Facility after clearing the first two glass domed structures used as mass slave living quarters, the Batarian R.D.S.S.F was the only force on the planet capable of quickly finding and neutralizing the drop pod supply caches of air, water and food supplies critical to a slave uprising's success.
The mech had breached the weak perimeter defenses of the facility and smashed open its airlock, killing the majority of the R.D.S.S.F's troops by the sudden lack of breathable oxygen. Those that had survived via breathing devices had fled into the aircraft hangar and loaded themselves onto four gunships, they had fired missiles on the titan who had been forced to retreat at a rapid pace to avoid critical damages if such an attack was successful.
BT-7274 had fled to a nearby field that had large boulders the size of houses scattered about, and a deadly game of real life Pac-man had begun, the gunships flying low over the boulder-strewn field in search of the metal monstrosity that moved deftly about within said field's confines.
The hunters became the hunted when a gunship came upon the Mech's position, only to die by a gauss round to a wing followed with being shredded by AP dual rotary gunfire on its short trip to the ground after the gauss cannon had evicted the vessel from the heavens.
The gunship's sister vessels converged on the location only to discover themselves on the wrong end of a terrifying tool the Machine brought from its home dimensional universe…
Deploying available anti-air countermeasure:
Acquiring Target lock.
Target lock confirmed: targets acquired.
Firing.
Two appendages with a box at the tip unfolded from the mechs back and unleashed their payloads on the three remaining gunships, the vessels never stood a chance. Though tried to flee and deploy countermeasures to avoid the attack they were far too late to achieve this goal.
One by one the gunships fell prey to the locked-on missile barrage, with three loud explosions they ceased to exist as gunships and began a new life as scrap metal fragments.
The Titan checked for any surviving hostiles and found none remaining in the area. The machine's next goal was to locate and liberate the nearest populated slave facilities and give them the info and location of the R.D.S.S.F's now lifeless base of operations.
The remaining supplies and light combat vehicles and aircraft would prove critical to the slave uprising the Titan had incited on the planet. BT's job was to enable a full-scale revolution to be successful, the Titan would not be guiding or organizing the movement. That would happen by those left in the Mech's wake after they had been liberated.
The revolution had begun and was just starting to gain momentum. The ex-slave forces had already captured a small facility while BT had cleared yet another of the large ones, getting in without compromising the structures atmosphere was tricky.
Once the slave uprising had control of the anti-ship defenses planet-side the Titan would head for ex-fil. The goal was to enable a revolution to occur and succeed against the slavers, the Mech was not meant to be that revolution, only the match that lit it.
The continuation and success of this effort would rely on the slaves that were willing to fight, they would need to band together and defeat the slow to respond Batarian forces located around the planet. however, with BT having landed at the main mining hub and spaceport facility cluster to begin the liberation of Logasiri, the young uprising would find the most defensible place on the planet its new headquarters.
Couple that with the annihilation of just over half of the active and alert enforcer Hegemony troops, the planetary defense system's controls eventually slaved to resistance headquarters, the supplies left by the now exterminated R.D.S.S.F. and the revolution's success was suddenly a matter of when they would win, rather than if they would even get on their feet to begin with.
Now all the newly up-risen slaves needed to do was realize this fact, they were still disorganized and lacking in numbers, not to mention a lack of communication and supplies. Unless a leader stepped up to inspire them than this whole effort would be for nothing, once a leader took command then BT would give the coordinates to the orbital defense systems control station.
With the defenses held by the planet's new liberators, the enemy re-enforcements that would arrive in the system some weeks later would be unable to land on the planet while the slave revolution cleaned up any leftover ground side enemies.
Once the hegemony lost all forces on the planet, the former slaves could declare the planet no longer of Batarian ownership or management. The council would turn a blind eye to the events taking place in the terminus, as would most others, however, Aria T'Loak and the Batarian Hegemony would take great interest in new future events.
In the dark and waste-filled passages of the Station known as Omega, shadows walked the passages and alleyways. Some were small others were big, but all were shadows. Some were prey too good at hiding, most were predators and it was the afore-mentioned prey and weaker predators they were stalking. Out of these figures, a select few were wisely being both predator and expertly evasive prey. But two, two different creatures in this sector of Omega were different from all the others.
One was a man who had faced and defied both gods and demons, an unknown legendary soldier. A hero to billions of souls that didn't exist in the dimension he didst find himself in now. Carrying a tragic past yet giving himself not an ounce of self-pity the Spartan carried on, his purpose to one-day return home.
Confidently and silently; the large cloaked figure maneuvered the crowds of Omega easily fading in and out of sight amongst the occasional alleyway entrances. His steps were silent, his cloak all concealing, and his presence masked from all whom he passed by.
Just as he wanted to be perceived, by not being noticedto begin with.
The other creature was hundreds of years old, an addict who was skilled in emotional manipulation and in the unique way her people fought. Her addiction was a horrid thing in the eyes of others, even most of her own kind despised it, a group of which she was the most powerful... and most arrogant.
Her addiction had led to the death of hundreds, each one a small boost in her power and control with her biotics, each one added to the urge's power… and slowly all other purposes in life had faded away until only the want for power was there, the need that buzzed at the back of her mind hungering for another victim.
Another fly caught in the luring ointment, only for the attractive oil to snuff out its puny life. She had killed at least one of every species, and now she was looking at adding another life to be snuffed out, snuffed by a dose of death-dealing pleasure that came from a meld with an Ardat-Yakshi.
This alpha predator's name was Morinth and she was the most powerful known Ardat-Yakshi, Ardat-Yakshi are an Asari genetic issue that caused any meld attempt with another soul to kill the non-Ardat-Yakshi of the pair. This was immensely pleasurable, and every victim caused the Ardat-Yakshi to crave even more.
Morinth had killed many, many souls. And now she was stalking another. The young human woman's name was Nef, an interesting introvert and aspiring young artist, the girl had caught Morinth's attention and Morinth thought it was time to make her move.
She was about to make her pass and invite Nef to go get skewers at the other side of the VIP afterlife club, the access of which had been happily provided by her previous victim. He was the first kill of her current stay on Omega and the Krogan had even given her a statue in his hopes to please her, after all her very aura and presence commanded all weak-minded beings to bend to her will and worship her in hopes of pleasing her.
Those that gained her attention had the great destiny of dying in utter ecstasy, they're last moments so pleasurable that they're very brains hemorrhaged as their minds broke and ceased to think. With every new person that she gave this to die for experience to Morinth would gain a small portion of power. Now at almost four-hundred and fifty years old, she had reached the ability of a matriarch over twice her age.
She had dominated the minds of a small village once, demanding to be worshipped as a goddess and the population's daughters as willing and eager sacrifices. That sprint of fun had ended with the arrival of her mother who had sworn to kill her, Morinth had ordered the Villagers to attack the Asari Justicar which led to all but the youngest children of the village to be killed… and even some of those younglings had been killed by Morinth's meld before she had fled, they had been begging for her to do it after all.
Her ability to sense the nervous system and aura of those around her had saved the rogue Ardat-Yakshi many a time from Justicars as well as other hunters of her kind, the Collectors had even put a bounty on her head once.
The Asari serial killer was about to step out of her dark corner in the VIP lounge and approach Nef when she sensed it. It was muted, suppressed by either willpower or armor or both, but it was still there. Just on the edge of her awareness, a being of incredible power and utter mental self-control. She lost all sense of those in her immediate presence as she attempted to locate where she sensed this presence from… this was a far more dangerous being than any other she had encountered, she could tell.
She didn't even notice when Nef walked by her location without noticing her, the young woman leaving the dance floor and heading to the exit, the stares of other patrons having unnerved her. No, Morinth was far too focused on sensing this presence's location her eyes becoming black orbs as she focused her sensing abilities, she had learned it was not in the after-life club, but it was in this sector of Omega.
It was like a beacon, far outside her normal sensing range but close enough that she could still catch a whiff of its presence. Morinth stood from her table and exited the After-life VIP Lounge, searching for this alluring presence, she had turned down a nearby alleyway when the distant Beacon flared into a veritable sun with such a presence that the Ardat-Yakshi who's eyes were still black orbs was ensnared by her own power, unable to cut her now tuned in powers from turning off as she felt a far off nervous system like no other she had sensed before, its fluctuations so rapid that it caused her to begin feeling pleasure from the sensing of it alone.
The powerful Ardat-Yakshi could do nothing as the far-off nervous system fluctuated even faster and the serial killer gasped as her entire being was flooded with pain, pleasure, anger, serenity… her every single emotion was looped on a slow building increase, her body glowed blue with biotic power as she began to float upward and with a scream that made her throat hoarse Morinth sensed the source of her pleasure and suffering snuff out like a candle put under a bushel, without farther ado she expelled a blast of biotic power, fell to the ground and blacked out.
She awoke to find herself sprawled out on the ground in the alleyway, her clothes ruined, mere tatters from her biotic discharge, the walls on either side of the alley had caved inwards by her uncontrollable biotic repulse. She was in minor shock that she had sensed such a thing… she had no clue as to what the creature she had sensed was.
But she knew that she would have it, and if it survived her meld as she suspected it would, then she would keep it as her personal slave and meld with it as much as she possibly could, its very presence was addictive to her.
She was Ardat-Yakshi, only the most powerful of minds and nervous systems were fit to meld with her, the rest of the population just didn't satisfy her thirst. But this thing, whatever it was, would give her power enough to outdo the matriarchs.
She would have it… She. Would. Have. Him!
So, it was, that the Alpha Predator sensed the Veteran Guardian… and wanted him. She would soon find that the feeling was Not mutual. But for now, she would have to track this unknown presence down…
Thus, the hunt had begun.
The Unique Geth Platform had been motionless for a long while, in that time it had highjacked the transmissions of the Human forces aboard the old Machine. The Geth Platform had stood vigilant and acquired much valuable information.
First and foremost was the fact that, apparently, this Old Machine was not the Leviathan of Dis. No, this was a different Old One, a corrupter that now eternally slept in its death throes… "forever dreaming" as the most recent human transmissions began to say.
Which lead to the second valuable fact, the humans foolishly exposing themselves to a dead god's influence were now reaping the rewards of such unsafe actions, their indoctrination was in its latter stages. Soon they would willingly lay down upon the dragon's teeth spikes and willingly turn themselves into husks in service of their dreaming master.
The Geth unit did not fear Indoctrination in the form used to affect organics, it was Geth; it was synthetic. What the Geth feared was subtle hacking and edits to their code, and with this Old Machine incapable of higher thought, the Geth platform would have naught to fear in terms of a hostile AI takeover.
Its wait would not needs be much longer, the Cerberus Humans would soon be gone, having been replaced by mindless enemy husks.
When that occurred, it would begin its planned lengthy exploration of the vessel.
It was tempted to log back into the Geth network, but a quick consensus decided that the Blue Lady was still causing trouble, the Collective had determined that she was testing them, studying them.
A spare few of the smarter programs put forth the possibility of her actually preparing them.
The Old Machines were coming soon, her time of appearance was indeed odd. No, the local platform's consensus decided against connecting to the network at this time, it did not want to be distracted by her antics.
(Note)
End of Chapter 15. I was going to have a bit more, but it's late and I leave tomorrow for Navy basic. You'll just have to see what happens to Tali and the situation at the Collector base next chapter… that won't be until I'm done with my training...
In the meantime, there is a New Fanfiction that has been recently published, it is a mass effect and halo crossover and is featuring an original plot mixed with an epic feeling of mystery whose aura just draws you into the story and leaves you begging for the next chapter. I Highly Recommend it! It's called "The Lost Civilization," and is written by fellow fanfiction author "Apollonir." you can find it on my author's page in the list of my favorite stories! what are you waiting for?! go take a look!
UNTIL NEXT TIME! THIS GABENATOR5 SIGNING OFF.