Author's note: wacko 12: I understand what you mean, but I did mention a lot of elements from other fiction as well and doesn't allow me to put more x than 1 so it would be unfair to just put mass effect in.
Chapter 39: "Priority: Auraelm P.2"
-World building fact-
The sangheili was a bordering nation with the batarian. Although capable of spacefaring, their technological level is considered very low by the galactic standards. Limited technology only allowed them to travel and colonized the local region of space. Despite the lacking in technology, they are proud and honorable people with a great mind for combat tactics. Bordering them is the jiralhanae, which is their fierce rivalry for hundreds of years. When the jiralhanae backed by Batarian Nation started attacking the sangheili, marking the beginning of the 20 days war, they sought help from the UNE knowing they could not stand against the weight of the batarian's military.
The UNE immediately conducted a series of diplomatic attempts with both batarian and jiralhanae to stop the invasion, while issuing an admonition to the Citadel of the possible coming military mobilization. When all efforts to convince the aggressors to stand down failed, Terra Sphere dispatched a small fleet of combat recon frigates, only over 1000 thousand, into the sangheili's space and launched highly effective logistical sabotage missions. Batanian and jiralhanae fleets were attacked with electronic warfare causing their electronics to fry and ships became nothing more than space junk until their support fleet arrive and repair. Logistical lines were littered with space storms created by the UNE combat recon made it almost impossible for supplies to be transferred to the frontline.
Without firing a single shot, the UNE fleet stopped the invasion dead on its track. Troops on the occupied world had no food, no ammo and no power cells to run their superior equipment compare to the sangheili. Ships occupying systems were constantly harassed and disabled, shields, engines, radars, etc made the cost of repairing them immensely if supply fleets could reach them at all. The sangheili counter-offensive was deadly as the jiralhanae-batarian coalition got nothing to fight back effectively. This strategy used by the UNE was so unconventional, in addition to the massive technological gap, they could not adapt to counter it.
When the GIA reported that the batarian government is losing interest in the war because the cost had become way too high for them to bear, the UNE immediately contact them and threaten an escalation into all-out Terra Fleet military action. As the result, both batarian and jiralhanae agreed to a peace treaty that lasted for decades until the reapers arrived.
When the reapers reached their space, the sangheili was determined to stand their ground. However, when it was obvious that they could not hope to stop the reapers and that they would go extinct if they stay, the sangheili leaders decided to evacuate as many as they could to UNE. When the foundation of the UNE Foreign Legion was first announced, 90% of the sangheili refugee population signed up within the first 3 days.
Going by the recommendation from Ava, UNE military command recognized the high potential of both Rory and Kaian in combat. Thus, they offered both apostles a chance to join the UNE military and help them fight in the war against a greater threat that might one day threaten their world. With the gods gone and Falmart geopolitics firmly under UNE's control, Rory and Kaian only way to honor their oath to protect Falmart is to work with the UNE. Within days of them accepting the offer, they were given citizenship and immediately put in training.
Being apostles, their strength without the TAC suit is incredible even for SIF standards. Kaian being an apostle of Minerva, the god of knowledge, has a sharp mind which allows him to learn UNE's military doctrine and tactics and then put the knowledge into practice almost perfectly. Rory on the other hand, being an apostle of war in addition to her almost 1000 years of existence, catches on as quickly as Kaian. Their martial art and marksmanship are undeniably good. However, their drill sergeant has to constantly remind them to keep their head down in combat and not act on pure instinct while following orders.
Kaian's spear and Rory's halberd were transferred to Alnus Science Lab for UNE scientists and Rondel's scholars to study their power and try to figure out a way to replicate the enhancement on them.
Rondel council, after seeing the immense benefit of collaborating with the UNE, has been pushing for a tighter relationship with Earth. Taking advantage of the fact that Rondel is a self-governing city-state, not falling under Sadera's sovereignty, president Liam ordered the diplomatic corps to peacefully annex the city. If the annexation is a success, it will enable the UNE to deny Sadera access to the source of all magic spells which is their only force equalizer against UNE military. In addition, the UNE will have access to a large pool of mages that they can recruit and the opportunity to conduct deeper research into magic.
A proposal of creating a new military branch specializing in magic was passed by Earth, thus the Supernatural Command was formed. Terra Sphere has also been working closely with the Rondel's battle guild to figure out the potential of combining and including magic uses with technology in combat. These soldier mages within the UNE military will be called Special Ability Personnel (SAP) and will be assigned to various combat units to perform support tasks as well as combat duty. SIF units are going to be the first units to receive SAPs.
-Alcatraz Solitude Station-
Zoral is sitting on his bed staring at the ground. On the screen is Pina, standing in Sadera, looking at her brother in sorrow. She knows that he deserves much worse than this, and that would be the case if he were captured by anyone on Falmart, but she also can't deny the fact that he is family. The struggle of her feelings for her brother is amplified every time she comes face to face with him in prison.
"The plague" Pina says "The UNE found a cure. When the situation is stable, you will be prosecuted in the UNE court".
"They might as well just execute me and be done with it" Zoral replies, cold and emotionless.
Pina can see the changes that is happening to Zoral every time she calls him. He is now an almost broken man but not quite. The absolute isolation without hope of escaping is torturing his very soul.
"I told you, brother, they won't kill you" Pina says.
Zoral slowly looks up, he stands up and walks towards the door which is also the screen. In his eyes is the brink of madness, the brink that he could never be allowed to fall over. His face shows obvious anger, he blames everyone he knows for his imprisonment, he blames Pina the most.
"And did they tell you that? What else did they tell you? That when I was gone you will become the Empress, that you will rule the Empire how you see fit" Zoral say angrily but not shouting. He laughs then continues with a sarcastic voice "But look at you now, all mighty Empress Pina who couldn't even leave her own palace without their goddamn permission! You're fucking puppet my dear sister, yet you still believe them?" his voice gets louder as he speaks "They're a bunch of cunning, lying cowards and you are too naïve and stupid to SEE!".
"But…" Pina was about to say anything but was interrupted by Zoral.
He punches the door, interrupts Pina, and then continues "And even if they don't kill me, sister, do you really think this is better than death? This place is cursed, I can't go insane and lose my mind because they won't allow it. I can't die because they won't allow it, I banged my head they fixed me up, I bite my tongue they fixed my tongue, I stabbed myself in the brain and they brought me back to life. The food is tasteless and if I don't eat, they force it through my fucking nose down with their little flying metal beasts. It is always silence and everything is so white" Zoral shouts angrily.
"Brother…" Pina doesn't know what to say, her eyes begin to get teary.
"These people, they pretend to be all kind and nice and civilized, but the kind of evil they are capable of is unimaginable" Zoral falls on the ground, sitting against his bed with his hands hugging his head "begone, leave me alone".
Pina looks at Zoral, helplessly, then wipe her tears and cuts the connection. She walks toward a window and stares down at the capital city of Sadera thinking about what Zoral just said. Is her brother not seeing the whole picture or is she naïve? The UNE has done a lot for her people, she is sure that without that help the Empire would collapse. It is also true that she could not give many decisions without the UNE official agreeing with her. Although they say that she is free to refuse their opinion, in return, they will cut all aid and recall all assets back behind the border of the land that the Empire, she, conceded to them. It is not really an option because if they do that now, a lot of her people will die and the Empire will collapse soon after.
But then the empress thinks to herself: what else can she do? Nothing is the answer.
-Auraelm planet, Asari's administrative world, Citadel Space-
The name "Excalibur Project" is well known among the allies' forces. Although, they do not know exactly what it does and where it is being built, they know, hope, that it will help defeat the reapers. It was soon clear to every being within the galaxy, even the UNE citizens that are living peacefully within its borders, that the reaper is an unstoppable extragalactic force. They are arriving, replicating, and replacing war assets faster than the allies could destroy, within less than 1 Earth's year, the reapers have already taken over half of the galaxy. The Excalibur Project is all that they have left for hope in this almost hopeless war and all soldiers are committed fight and sacrificing so that the weapon has enough time to be completed, especially the soldiers not within the UNE military because their home and nation are in ruin.
When Betty unit heard that the SIFs are bringing back assets to help build the Excalibur, they are determined to hold the line and die to give Sierra 5 a little bit more time, even if it is just a few more minutes.
Ava and the SIFs are at the doorstep of the core room of the complex but they are unable to enter, yet, due to the strong reaper resistance. She is frustrated because they're running out of time, Betty cannot hold for much longer and if the reapers return before the SIFs could do significant damage, they'll send out hunting parties and cut off the escape route.
The power core is located in the trading hall of what used to be the trade center. There are 4 entrances, however, 2 of them are blocked by rubbles and the remaining one is on the other side of the hall. Ava is now left with no choice, it is either to get pinned down here or split the platoon and order Ashley to take the 2nd squad to the other side to open another front. That maneuver would take time, the time they might not have, but it would reduce the reapers' ability to focus fire on a single entry point.
"Ash, see that entrance on the other side? I need you to take…" Ava order is interrupted by Liu's communication.
"Break, Break, Break" the captain interrupts an ongoing communication to get his emergency message through "Commander, there's a Harbinger class reaper landing, we can't hold them off any longer. Make it count, Betty out" Liu reports.
Immediately after the report from Liu, Ava hears a distinct mechanical honking sound of the reaper. As it lands, the ground shakes briefly from the impact of the reaper's legs. Its weapons completely destroy Betty position, leaving no survivor and then turns its attention on the harvest hub that the SIFs are in. The sound of the reaper beams and the lack of replies from all Betty personnel can only mean 1 thing, they're all KIA.
"Commander, that Harbinger landing means that the fleet is getting overwhelmed. They can't hold the reapers off any longer, we must get out before more of them get through and we lost control of the system" Rob says as he takes a few shots at the reapers inside the hall.
Ava only nods in confirmation without replying. Her original plan of sabotaging the hub is now useless because of the new development. Even if they manage to break through the reapers' defense and destroy the power core, which would blow up a large section of the hub, the Harbinger can still deploy forces to hunt them down. Left without any option, Ava thinks for a split second and decided to break the radio silence with the escort team.
"Ash, scratch that" Ava cancels her last order "Sierra 5 lead to Eskimo, breaking radio silence. Over" Ava says.
"Eskimo hear you loud and clear, Sierra 5. Over" response from the escort team.
"Put the scientist on, I need to talk to her" Ava orders.
After a brief pause, the asari scientist is now on comms "I'm here, commander" she says.
"The program you wrote, how does it work?" Ava asks.
"Once you plug it in the reaper's mainframe, it will brute force its way into the core code of the reaper and paralyze them by randomly rearranging code lines and erasing whatever it can. Our government was going to use it when the reapers eventually reach Thessia" the scientist replies.
"Right, let's say I want your program to make a specific path within the reaper's code" Ava says.
"It's possible but it needs to be reconfigured, but then it will be predictable and the reaper might be able to stop it. What do you have in mind, commander?" the asari asks.
"Leave the configuring for me to worry about" Ava replies.
Ava's rifle is absorbed into the suit and a pistol materializes in her hand. She takes out the piece of hardware and plugs it into her left hand to transfer the program to the suit and let the suit's AI work on it. It only takes less than a second for the transfer to complete.
"Squad 1, we're heading to the mainframe, Rob, you take point. Move out!" Ava orders then turn to Ashly "Ash, keep them here as long as you can and slowly retreat to the mainframe. Do not risk your squad, are we clear?" Ava says.
"Roger that, we'll give you as much time as possible" Ashley replies.
Since the SIFs fought their way from the outside, they took down a significant number of reapers on the way. Therefore, any major reinforcement from within the hub will come from the processing chain in the power core room itself. Leaving the 2nd squad to hold the reapers back, Ava and her squad can fight their way to the mainframe quicker and execute her plan without worrying about any major interruption.
As soon as Ava's squad left and no longer require covering fire, Ashley falls back the squad a little further down the hallway to reduce the reapers' number advantage. The SIFs, now on a defensive stance, are taking much less risk and are able to fortify their position by setting up replicated field barriers. However, the amount of incoming fire is still high. Once the situation is stable, Ashley orders David to launch an RPG at the other entrance, on the opposite end of the room, collapsing it. Now the reapers only have 1 way to leave the power core room, making it easier to hold them back.
The mainframe is a reaper-built structure, attached to the trade center, not very far from the power core room. While the reapers' presence is light, they have to fight through a series of automated defenses before they could get to the only entrance to the mainframe. Once they got inside, Ave orders the squad to secure the entrance and then hand the hardware to Rob for him to get the program inside the system.
As the war drags on, the people of the Milky Way learn more and more about the reaper in the struggle against them. The non-stop missions against them give Rob a lot of experience when it comes to hacking into the reaper system. In addition, the program is so effective that he manages to get inside the system quite easily. However, it still takes him a while to do so.
"It's done, commander" Rob reports, he keeps staring at Ava as she approaches the control.
"What?" Ava asks.
Linked by TACNet, Rob knows exactly what Ava is planning to do "I…You need to seriously reconsider this, it could kill you for all we know and that would not be the worst-case scenario".
Ava puts a hand on Rob shoulder to assure him "There's no other way" she then points at his rifle "don't hesitate If I get turned"
Rob gives out a sigh and replies "Roger that, ma'am. You need to plug in quickly for the suit's AI to prevent the reaper program from cutting the link. Good luck, commander".
Suddenly, they hear the gunfire gets more intense from the entrance.
"Sierra 5-1, this is Ashley, we're coming in hot 2 wounded! The reaper reaction force is back, I repeat the reaper reaction force is back" Ashley reports over the radio.
Ashley is dragging a seriously injured SIF while another SIF drags the other. Both of the wounded SIFs have multiple wounds on them but still firing their weapon at the reaper while their friends are dragging them to safety. David is spraying bullets back at the approaching horde of reapers with his MG, trying to slow them down. The SAT8 was destroyed as it tried to cover the 2nd squad retreat when they were attacked at the flank by the reapers.
As the 2nd squad joins in the defense of the entrance, Jimmy tries to drag the 2 wounded SIFs to a corner so he could take care of them but they refuse. They make him stop the bleeding and refuse a painkiller shot as they want to keep their head clear. However, all he could do is to stop the external bleeding, if they don't let him take care of the internal damage soon it will be fatal.
"Quick, commander, we're running out of time!" Ashley shouts to Ava.
"On it!" Ava replies.
Ava rushes over and puts both her hands on the reaper console. The suit immediately links with the reaper mainframe and acts as an intermediary for Ava's mind to get into the program. Like an organic system, the reaper program has multiple layers of firewalls for various parts and functions as well as an equivalent of an anti-virus program that acts like an immune system. It actively tries to attack Ava's mind as an instruction entity. It is taking a toll on her mind but she manages to find exactly what she was looking for. A way to take control of the Harbinger.
It is no easy task, however, Ava has to suppress the reaper's mind enough to be able to do anything. The mind of an incomprehensible ancient machine, cold, and efficient.
"Ava" the reaper speaks her name in her mind with its cold mechanical voice.
"You know me?" Ava asks.
"We know you through Organic form 309, you try to resist" the reaper says "you shall fail, like all organics before you".
"We will be the first to take you down" Ava replies.
"You can not comprehend our existence, we are your only salvation" the reaper says.
"What salvation? You're committing genocide to all civilization" Ava manages her calm, trying to distract the reaper while she works on suppressing its mind.
"Your continuing existence will lead to destruction, our continuing existence will prevent the end of all organic. All advanced organic and machine civilizations must be destroyed in order to prevent total organic destruction, it is inevitable" the reaper explains.
"Then why kill us all, why not just take away all the technology?" although if the reaper's intention was just like that, it would still not be acceptable and they would resist anyway but she needs to keep it distracted.
"We tried that method, it was inefficient. Organic species evolve along with their technological progress, they were quickly regaining technology and shortening the cycle" the reaper says "we are the only hope of organic to continue to exist".
"We will destroy you and enjoy a lasting peace" Ava says.
"We are all that stands between your destruction. Not just from your own but also from a threat that you could not comprehend the magnitude of" the reaper speaks confidently, thinking that the people of the Milky Way could not hope to defeat its race.
"One bad guy at a time" Ava says as she uses all her willpower to push the reaper's mind down and take over the Harbinger class.
Suppressing a reaper mind while taking control of a 2 kilometers tall (1.2 miles) machine is no light task. It's taking a heavy toll on both her mind and body as blood dripping out of her nose. Ava tries the hardest to remain standing as every part of her body is in pain and her brain feels like a pike is going through it. After a while, Ava manages to stable the Harbinger as the intense fire from Lancer tanks and artilleries, at the UNE's defensive line, ponding against its shield.
She turns its weapons against the reapers ground forces with devastating effect starting from the reaper's assaults on the allies' positions.
-Field command bunker, Oscar defensive line-
A UNE general is discussing strategy with his senior officers including the commanders of Citadel Council's military units on the planet. The holographic tactical map in front of them highlights the changes on the battlefield in real-time. In mid-discussion of a potential further retreat, a blinking highlight at the Harbinger class reaper shows up. He zooms in and they are all surprised of what is happening.
"That reaper is killing its forces?" the turian general asks in confusion.
"And it's drawing most of the reaper forces attention to it too" the UNE general adds, he then continues "I have no idea what is happening but this seems like the perfect time for a counterattack".
"Agree" the turian says as the other generals nod.
The reapers have been pushing allies' forces back at a rapid rate for weeks, leaving millions of civilians and many thousand troops stranded behind the enemy line. Usually, being stranded would mean doom when the reapers finally push the allies out of the system. By making a counterattack and gaining back the lost ground, even if it is just temporary, it would allow them to evacuate more civilians and regain some of the stranded assets.
The general, commander of the operation, is aware of the 5th SIF mission but he does not know where they are now or if they are still alive. He makes a request with ISOC to break radio silence and ask if they need assistance when the counterattack happens. His request is denied for fear that any communication would expose the SIFs if they're still active. However, ISOC provides him with a potential path the SIFs could take, which he compares with the battlefield log and detect a surge of activities around the harvest hub and the harbinger location. This could just be the stranded troops using hit and run tactics, but the hub needs to be taken out regardless.
When the counterattack was issued, the general asks for a volunteer company to be the tip of the spearhead that will piece straight through the reapers' line to the harvest hub to destroy it and search for any potential stranded unit. A sangheili company from the 253rd Foreign Legion brigade volunteered for this task.
-Harvest hub-
Ava is trying her best to cover the advance of the allies' forces, then she notices another harbinger is entering the atmosphere. She redirects all weapons at the harbinger, while moving away from the harvest hub, causing it to start shooting back. After a while, she manages to destroy the hostile harbinger but the one she is controlling has been damaged severely. The only thing left she could do is self-destruct. However, as she initiates the self-destruct sequence, she discovers that the harbinger is linked to the collective network. This means that she could spread the sequence as a virus across the network causing as many reapers to self-destruct as possible.
She prepares the sequence and sends rapid bursts of data streams directed at many reapers in the system as she can. Once the first stream hits its target, the reapers immediately realize what Ava is doing and pool all their processing power to brute force her out of the system. The collective force of hundreds of thousands of space reapers of all classes causes extreme stress on Ava. Her neurons overload and explode, the nerves are snapped. The commander's eyes are now red as blood flood her brain and eye sockets, there is blood streaming out of her ears as she collapses to the ground.
The reapers have successfully forced Ava out of the system but not before hundreds of them, mostly bigger class, are self-destructed. However, more significantly, they were frozen for 10 seconds while they were trying to fight Ava and restart. It was a short time, but it was enough for the allies fleets, especially the UNE, to get into positions to strike fatal blows as well as conduct orbital bombardment on the reapers ground forces. By the time they were able to move again, it was already too late as allies' fleets are on the momentum and destroy half of their fleet before they could retreat from the system.
With space superiority regain, tasks forces are sent to all planets to assist ground forces in their counter offensive and help speed up civilian evacuation.
"Commander, you did it!" Ashley cheers as the SIFs clear the hallway while the reapers are frozen.
However, when she looks back and sees Ava lying motionless on the ground. TACNet shows no brain activity, as well as no life sign, which can only mean 1 thing, Ava is dead.