Hey guys. Not much to say, not a whole lot of action in this chapter, frowny face, but hopefully it will be back soon, I'm living out of a hotel for the next month or so, so that means no Xbox, therefore more time writing, but at the same time I'm working twelve hours a day six hours a week, so most of the time I just go straight to bed.
But I doubt you're interested in that. You could enjoy this chapter, but that would take someone with real conviction.
Anita Goyle rubbed her temples for what felt like the thousandth time that day. As her understudy Udina liked to say, today was a total, complete, and absolute 'political shitstorm'.
Her day had actually started out quite nicely. A simple meeting with the elcor diplomats to try and get trade rules worked out on titanium shipments, the gentle giants were a true pleasure to work with, even if their monotone and habit of announcing how they feel did get a little annoying after a while. Then she had gotten through till lunch filling out some minor paperwork, performance reviews of the other human diplomats, correspondences with the chancellor back at Arcturus, then a nice lunch at her favorite asari café underneath the beautiful simulated sunlight of the Presidium.
An afternoon of reading reports from the Traverse colonization efforts had been rudely and unwelcomely interrupted by possibly the worst possible situation she could have dreamt up. She had stood in the private audience chambers of the Council and withstood a barrage of accusations, though she had a sneaking suspicion they were designed mostly to test her reactions to them.
Shadow war with unknown alien species. The secret creation of artificial intelligences. Illegal weapons testing. The list was a little out of hand, and she still had no idea what it was all even about. The Councilors, especially Sparatus, were very aggressive in their questioning, pushing her to her limits and clearly trying to get her to reveal something, but again, Goyle had no idea what they were looking for. There were some classified projects the Human Systems Alliance were involved in that could potentially get them in trouble, but certainly nothing like a shadow war with unknown aliens. They had a very real war with batarian slavers and Terminus pirates to worry about.
The worst part was whenever she tried to broach the subject of exactly what had happened, she was told she would have to wait! Wait for what? For Anita to crack and just start telling them whatever they wanted to hear, regardless of the truthfulness?
Oh yes Councilors, the HSA was indeed engaged in a full out war with another species that no one has ever heard of, we've managed to keep it away from your attention by dedicating absolutely none of our fleet to it, and instead flew around cardboard cutouts of warships and made PEW PEW noises with our mouths. Illegal AI research? You bet. We even made giant robot bodies and completely automated warships so they wouldn't have to take over our technology to wipe us out, part of that illegal weapons research you see.
"You will get your answers in time, Ambassador Goyle," Tevos, the tiebreaker of the Council, reassured the human woman, "But for now we need you and a military leader to answer our questions."
A military leader? Who'd they get?
The door to the private Council chamber opened, revealing a stern turian guard and the proud and rigid form of Admiral Steven Hackett.
"Admiral, thank you for joining us, if you could take a seat, we have some questions for you," Valern said in the typical salarian pace.
Steven, in his finest blues, strode over next to Ambassador Goyle, giving her a questioning look before taking a seat, his only answer an apologetic tilt of the head.
"Admiral," Sparatus began, "The Alliance currently has twelve dreadnaughts, sixty two cruisers, and one hundred and thirty two frigates in active military service, is this correct?"
"Sixty four cruisers, and one hundred and thirty five frigates, Councilor," Hackett replied without skipping a beat, "with one dreadnaught, three cruisers, and five frigates under construction, and an additional five assault carriers. If I may ask, what is this about?"
"We will get to that, Admiral," Tevos said, giving the navy man the same treatment as Anita, "The majority of these ships are dedicated to patrolling the Alliance's borders, yes?"
Steven's eyes narrowed as he realized just how well and truly fucked up the situation was, "The Third and Fifth Fleet are currently deployed along our borders within the Traverse. The Second Fleet patrols our inner colonies."
Now it was Valern's turn to ask a question, a tactic to keep Hackett's attention shifting, never letting him focus in on one speaker, "Where are the First and Fourth stationed?"
"First Fleet is stationed over Earth, Fourth Fleet is charged with the security of Arcturus Station," the Admiral licked his lips and leaned forward, "Councilors, you already know all of this, what is this about?"
Sparatus bulldozed through Hackett's request, "In time Admiral, just answer the questions. What is the combined strength of those fleets combined?"
Steven narrowed his eyes as Anita silently begged him not to become intransigent with the Council. The man was a professional, so she wasn't too worried, but the Council, particularly Sparatus, could push anyone right over the edge.
"One hundred and eighty eight total ships," he responded coolly, "Eleven dreadnaughts, fifty six cruisers and one hundred and seventeen frigates, all split between the five fleets, four carriers split between the First and Fourth. Each fleet is broken down into further battle groups and patrols, I can give you the exact breakdown if you would like."
"That will not be necessary, Admiral," Tevos again, using her classic condescending tone that she so loved whenever she was speaking to those she considered primitives, "but we are interested in where the remaining twenty eight vessels are."
"The Everest is being refit with a new barrier system, the rest undergo regular educational combat drills for our officers in training, but are battle ready."
"Battle ready enough to fight a small scale war?" Valern dropped the bomb almost casually.
To his credit, Hackett didn't so much as flinch, "Who would we be fighting?"
Sparatus and Valern made eye contact past Tevos, then each nodded to the asari who nodded in return. A wave of the matriarch's omnitool brought a holoprojector to life in the middle of the table between the two humans and the three aliens. The device flickered blue for a second before the image of the interior of some strange room sprang to life, the image of a pretty brunette leaning over the corpse of a turian.
Another wave and the image began to move as the video started to play.
"Corporal? We need to-"
SNAP…HISS!
Anita Goyle was typically very collected, never one to display undue emotion, but she couldn't help but flinch as she saw the young woman's life cut short by a strange blue blade. She audibly gasped when the blade revealed the monster wielding the weapon. It looked like something straight out of a nightmare.
Big, muscular, long, and a mouth filled with nasty looking teeth, but what really got her, and her military companion, was what it did. It spoke English.
"Pathetic worms! What do you think you have accomplished?"
It displayed prodigious strength as it threw the woman, combat gear and all, across the strange room with nothing more than a flick of its wrist.
"Allied with humans, you've condemned your kind to burn! You and the demon will never leave this vessel."
The recording stopped at another wave of the asari Councilors hand, "We were hoping you could tell us. I don't know who or what these aliens are, but they clearly seem to know you."
The ambassador was quick to respond, "I've never encountered anything like that, and I certainly have never heard of any first contact scenarios through Alliance Command."
"I'm in the same situation as the Ambassador," Hackett affirmed, "There has been no contact between the Alliance and any otherwise unknown alien race, though if I may ask, where did this recording take place?"
The still recording shifted to show a picture of the Serpent's Nebula, and a strange ship cast against the purple light of Widow, the lonely star the Citadel orbited. It was strangely pretty, long curves, a flowing design, and pleasant lights along its hull all reinforced just how alien this vessel was.
The image shifted to show a closer picture before the outlines of a turian, salarian, and human dreadnaught were superimposed on the screen to give reference to the size of the vessel.
Hackett shifted uncomfortably.
"Three days ago, this vessel appeared on the opposite side of the Citadel from the Relay in a massive radiation burst," Valern started for the Council, "There was no response to any form of communication, so a team was sent in."
The holo changed again, showing piles of corpses of all different types of aliens. Again it shifted, showing more bodies in different places. The grisly slide show continued for a while before Tevos finally spoke.
"The crew of the ship was found to be, for the most part, dead."
"But not all," Hackett stated rather than asked.
"Forty C-Sec officers, all with at least some prior military experience, the best available on the Citadel, went in to investigate that ship, only one made it off at all," the turian Councilor spoke grimly, "and he only made it off thanks to this…"
Now that's the stuff of nightmares. Menacing posture, intimidating size, powerful frame, and that face… Like a human, quarrian, or asari skull, but violent, screaming, filled with rage and hatred.
"…human."
Wait, what?
"You're telling me this thing is human?" Goyle asked quickly, making her very real shock as apparent as possible.
"He has been in a medically induced coma in C-Sec medical bay for the past three days," Tevos told them, shedding all doubt, "He was found unconscious from a combination of a concussion suffered during his escape from the alien dreadnaught, extreme exhaustion, our doctors believe he hadn't slept for at least a week prior, malnourishment, he hadn't eaten in days, severe dehydration, bordering on death, and various injuries, each of which would be considered lethal for a human if left untreated."
"His body shows extensive signs of anomalies we can't explain," Valern continued, "His musculature has been artificially augmented to be more than three times as dense. His bones have been reinforced with tungsten carbide, his nervous system has been replaced! We had no idea human medicine was so advanced."
Anita was floored. Did somebody get caught making super soldiers? If what they were telling was the truth, then it wasn't the Alliance, or any human organization she was aware of. Their technology wasn't anywhere near this advanced. Replacing an entire human being's nervous system? Even the asari had just barely scratched the surface on basic gene mods, let alone grafting the hardest known metal in the universe to a person's bones.
That's when she caught something in Sparatus' subvocals, a little trick she had been trying hard to pick up while she was on the Citadel. Turian's had pretty remarkable harmonics in their airways, and even without ever saying anything, they were almost always making some sort of noise. Most of it was too far out of the auditory range for other species, but a few were audible to humans, just like this one. She wasn't sure what it meant exactly, but it did cause her to focus on Valern.
His inner eyelids retracted slowly when he blinked. If he were agitated, or actually trying to be aggressive with his accusations, his eyelids would be in near perfect sync, not lazy like they were now. And come to think of it, Tevos was making a lot of eye contact, way more than usual for her.
"I've heard and seen enough," Anita started, "You all three know the Alliance isn't responsible for that ship, or that person lying down in C-Sec Medical, you knew well before we walked in, that's why you sat on it for three days. You've been collecting information, and now you've brought us here to confirm your suspicions."
"Our apologies, but we had to be absolutely sure that this wasn't any of you doing," Tevos said calmly, clearly not surprised that the human ambassador had figured it out. If anything, the asari seemed slightly annoyed it took this long, "When one species threatens your own with extinction, simply for having allied with another, it forces you to act cautiously."
"What happens now?" the ambassador asked.
"The soldier had a VI with him, an incredibly powerful one that has resisted all attempts at reprogramming," the salarian began, "It has refused to give detailed answers unless we can assure that its… 'Spartan' will not be harmed."
Sparatus continued for Valern, "Apparently, that means the human soldier must be awake, and the VI has also assured us that unless a more human authority was present, it was likely this man would kill everyone he saw."
"Given the recordings taken from the C-Sec officers helmet cams, we chose not to test his ability to do so," Valern finished.
…
Admiral Steven Hackett stood in front of an observation window, his reflection barely visible on the pristine glass in front of him. Not that it mattered, his eyes were focused on what lay beyond. An asari doctor, perhaps six hundred years old, it was impossible to tell with asari, was standing at one side of the bed with a human nurse changing the IV bag and preparing a syringe full of what the military man could only assume was some sort of anesthesia to keep the patient in his coma.
Speaking of the patient…
He didn't look like the monster from the recording. Being out of the armor undoubtedly helped, but asleep he just looked… well soft wouldn't be the appropriate word. The man was as hard as granite even while he slept, but there was something saddening about the vast and numerous scars crisscrossing his uncovered torso, long, corded arms, and shockingly youthful face. This man, whom Hackett was sure was younger than many officers he referred to as kids, had seen things that would keep a krogan awake at night.
"What's his name?"
A terminal nearby was highlighted by a pulsing grid that showed a variety of patterns provided the answer, "He is designated as Spartan 239 of Alpha Company, later transferred to Noble Team where he was given a new designation as Noble Four of Noble Team."
Steven sighed, "I meant what is his name. I'm Steven," he indicated the human ambassador next to him, "her name is Anita, what is his name?"
"… While that information is not necessarily classified," the incredibly advanced VI replied, "Reports indicate that for a Spartan it is very personal."
The Admiral gave the glorified computer program a look, "I think we're going to have to set personal preferences aside."
A pause.
"Emile."
"That's it?"
"His full name is not on file," 'Dot' replied, "Personal records were lost when the Covenant glassed his homeworld of Eridanus II."
Anita beat him to the punch, "Covenant? Glassed?"
"Eridanus II was an outer colony world with a population of approximately two hundred million in a mostly agriculturally based colony," the VI replied, "The Covenant found and attacked the colony in 2530. They quickly and efficiently destroyed all orbital and planetary defenses, then proceeded to bombard the planet's surface with plasma weapons until the entire surface was reduced to molten rock."
"An entire planet?" Hackett had almost forgotten about the Councilors and the Executor of C-Sec in the room with them until Sparatus had scoffed at the VI, "Impossible."
"Not one entire planet," the console assured them, "Twenty entire planets."
The grid then disappeared, replaced with before and after shots of twenty different planets. Some were green with life, blue with vast oceans, lit up with the lights of cities that expanded over entire continents, or even great sandy plains. Each planet was unique, until these… Covenant visited them. Each and every world was the same, different in size perhaps, but their surfaces nothing but molten rock cooled to glass.
"Who are these… Covenant?" Hackett asked, disturbed at the implications behind completely destroying twenty planets. What could spark that sort of resolve? That kind of hatred for humanity? And what were the logistics behind it? How many ships did it take? How long did it take? How powerful were their weapons?
"The UNSC believes the Covenant to be a theocracy split into several race based castes," the VI answered in its even tone.
Sparatus stepped up, "How many ships like the one we found do they have?"
"The most ever recorded at one time was over Reach with seventy three, though logic would suggest that they maintain a fleet of several magnitudes greater, not to mention the larger classes of vessels."
"Larger?" the Executor, Vakarian was his name, practically exclaimed. Fortunately Councilor Tevos stepped in before they could go on another tangent.
"We're getting off topic," she said forcefully, "Are the Covenant a threat?"
There was another pause as the VI seemed to mull over its answer, or calculated some sort of response. Whatever it was computer programs do.
"If they were in this galaxy, undoubtedly. My calculations based on the information from you Codex and the VI Avina suggest that within three years, all centralized forms of government within the galaxy will have been eradicated. The homeworlds and colonies of any significant military species glassed."
"This galaxy?"
Hackett could feel the mild headache taking a dark turn. Fortunately he was saved by the asari doctor entering the observation room.
"He's more than stable," she reported, tapping on a datapad the entire time, "In fact I've had to up the dosage considerably just to keep him under, and I'm not comfortable upping it again. I'd like to get him awake soon anyway to test for any neural damage my scans may not have picked up."
Councilor Tevos once again took command of the conversation, "In time Doctor. What can you tell us about him?"
The asari snorted, clearly not phased at all by being in the same room as the three most powerful people in the galaxy as well as her direct boss and two strange humans, one of which was in full military dress.
"Other than he's the answer to nearly all of my woes as a doctor?"
No one responded to that so she took the opportunity to expand upon her statement.
"His surgical augmentations are impressive, but nowhere near repeatable. I still can't figure out how he survived them, they'd kill the toughest krogan in minutes. What is really interesting is his genetics. Several synthetic genes in his DNA that are just a little beyond us right now, though for once I don't think it's due to advanced technology."
She tapped on her pad a few more times, "Nature had its way with his DNA. There's no trace of any enzymes or any retro-virus that we would use to implant synthetic genes, so I'm forced to conclude that he inherited them, and that nature refined them."
"Cancer?" the doctor asked rhetorically, "Tumors? Systemic degeneration, viruses, bacteria, genetic disorders? If there is a single thing out of place. A single cell not doing its job, or a single foreign contaminant, his immune system will kill it if it can or pass it through if it can't. I've subjected blood samples to some of our most dangerous diseases and watched the viruses die in minutes."
"I even slipped a tiny amount of dextro fluid into his body. Not enough to give someone a severe allergic reaction, but enough to definitely give him some sort of reaction," the asari smiled wistfully, "It was carefully segregated and moved along with no negative immune reaction. He's incredible."
She looked over to the window and cocked her head, "Hot too."
Hackett sighed, "When can I talk to him?"
The asari's omnitool lit up, "Apparently in just a few hours… His metabolism is already ripping through the sedative."
Valern spoke next, "Good. We have more questions for the VI."
With a wave of his three fingered hand, the salarian Councilor dismissed the doctor, "Now what did you mean, 'this galaxy'?"
The migraine was coming back.
…
"Come on Chessin," a dark plated turian said disbelievingly, "It can't kick that hard!"
A gray plated turian shook his head, "I'm telling you Mokelin, you can't fire that Spirit's damned shotgun without body armor. For one, your shoulder will fall off after a few shots, two, it'll knock you right on your ass!"
"It's gunpowder," Mokelin sneered, "Garrus, tell me you don't agree with this frilless fool."
Sergeant Vakarian was currently standing over one of the alien's plasma weapons. He'd taken the damn thing apart and put it back together a dozen times and was no closer to determining how it actually worked. Sure it was plasma contained in a magnetic field launched through a magnetic rail system, but the actual functionality of the components eluded not only him, but the best technicians C-Sec had to offer.
"All I know is that it's definitely louder than any mass accelerator I've ever fired," Garrus said neutrally as he shouldered the energy weapon and fired it downfield. The plasma bolts shot straight through the target's kinetic barriers and destroyed the holographic target, "What concerns me is these alien weapons. They just pass right through our shields."
"How?" Chessin asked, "They have mass, they're not lasers."
A human technician in the background snorted, "Yeah, so does air, a stiff breeze doesn't trip your barriers."
Mokelin scoffed, "Wind isn't going to melt your face off!"
The human turned around, "Yeah but the suit's sensors don't know that. All they're designed to do is calculate mass and speed of incoming particles and try to block anything with sufficient kinetic energy. Those plasma bolts weigh less than a mass accelerator round and travel slower than gunpowder bullet. Our rigs don't think they're dangerous, so they don't trip the barriers."
Garrus looked down at the gun in his hands, "So it didn't pass right through the target's shields…"
"It never even activated them."
Chessin brought up his omnitool and activated some simulation software, "But if a kinetic barrier was active, it would stop the plasma bolt?"
The human shook his hand in what looked like an indecisive gesture, "Kind of? There'd still be a shitload of heat transfer. The electromagnetic field would destabilize the containment field and the heat would still be trying to move in the same direction the plasma was moving in."
Garrus nodded, "Modified shielding and thermal plating. That will afford at least some protection."
"Do you have any idea how expensive those shield mods would be?" Mokelin asked, "You'd need cutting edge sensors on you rig, and a VI powerful enough to make the necessary calculations. You don't want the damn things tripping whenever you walk to close to a steam pipe."
Chessin chuckled, "Slam on and throw you right across the room."
Mokelin just shook his head, "Not to mention thermal plating. Ceramics might be able to hold up, but they'd lose their ballistic protection. Metal plating would hold even better, but that'd almost be as bad as going bare skinned because the plating's just going to get hot and burn you!"
The human tech was leaning in on Chessin's simulation, plugging numbers as he saw fit, "Steel alloy with fire retardant padding underneath?"
The gray plated turian nodded vigorously, "Yeah, but it'd be pretty heavy… wouldn't want to do my patrols in it."
Garrus set down the plasma weapon and looked at it a little longer. It had been three days since the incident on the alien dreadnaught. Three days and three sleepless nights. He hadn't been terribly well acquainted with any of the officer's he'd lost on that ship, but just the brutal way in which they had been killed left a mark on him. Even that, though, wasn't the reason he found himself struggling to sleep.
Everytime the turian marksman closed his eyes he saw… it, again. That skull plagued his dreams. Instilling terror even long after the initial encounter. The jaws closing in on him, the soulless eyes judging him unworthy, the powerful frame menacing him, the noises it made as it walked still pounded in his ears whenever he lay down to sleep.
He had woken up in a medical center, feeling like he had gone nine rounds with a senior Blackwatch operative. Vakarian had yet to see the bizarre… well supposedly it was a human, again, but he had been pulled off of active duty and only allowed light activities. Weapons testing, marksman training, that sort of thing, though his father had seemed a little nonplussed this morning, well, more than usual since the incident. Perhaps something big was going down right now.
"Is there any way to stop the plasma and the heat?" Garrus asked, shaking his current train of thoughts.
Chessin scoffed, "Maybe. With a powerful enough electromagnetic field you could maintain a thin plasma membrane that would absorb the heat and repulse the plasma."
The human openly laughed, "The power requirements on something like that would be ridiculous though. You'd need a fusion generator just to power up one big enough to cover a person."
Vakarian nodded, losing himself in thought. Energy shields weren't practical, not by Council tech, but he had seen them. On that ship. It seemed as though every topic took him back to that place, under the powerful gaze of him. Watching as every limit the turian had thought he knew was shattered. Speed, strength, and now energy limitations…
"Sergeant?" Chessin was speaking, "You went blank for a second. We were just checking out the new arrival."
Garrus looked in the direction the other turian was pointing. Striding through the academy campus was a distinguished looking asari, followed by a ridiculously large retinue.
"I think that's the Consort," the human said, confusion evident in his voice.
"Definitely," Mokelin reaffirmed, "Though I don't know why she'd be here. I thought she never left her place on the Presidium."
The former special forces sniper felt his brow plates shoot up as his stomach hit the floor. No, she couldn't be here for… for him. He shouldn't even be here, not on the Citadel. By now the Council should have shipped that thing off a long, long ways away, to an STG blacksite to be studied. Why would they keep him here?! They saw the footage, they knew what he was capable of. That thing could kill everyone here, what's more, he wanted to.
"I have to go."
…
"Executor, I…"
Flavius looked over to the door just in time to see his son stop dead in his tracks as Garrus presumably realized just who he had walked in on.
The elder Vakarian sighed in exasperation. The young turian had been changed by what had happened aboard that vessel, and Flavius had meant to talk to him about it. He was the only member of the family that could. His wife and his daughter Solana certainly couldn't, what had happened was classified. It was enough that other C-Sec officers were testing weapons taken from that alien shuttle.
"Sergeant, you need to leave," the Executor began, "This is-"
"Spirit's you're not actually going to try a meld with him?"
Flavius looked to the observation window where Sha'ira was currently preparing herself over the mutant human. It was decided only recently by the Council that an asari mind meld would best before he woke. That way he couldn't refuse, and could be caught in a lie when he spoke to the human admiral.
Personally, he thought it was a stupid idea. The mutant was on the verge of waking, just another hour according to the physician, who had already admitted that she could only give the roughest of estimates when it came to what she considered to be a medical marvel. Flavius had seen the recordings, and while he was grateful that the mutant had gotten Garrus off that alien vessel, but he knew the difference between a man and a monster, and that thing on the bed was no man, human or otherwise.
The Consort flashed blue as she laid her hands on the mutant's dark skin. The elder Vakarian turned to the junior and began to reprimand his son yet again, "Garrus, you have to-"
"Goddess," Councilor Tevos whispered behind him, "Sha'ira…"
Both turians looked back to see the Consort glowing blue over the mutant, an expression of agony plain on her face as a trickle of purple blood flowed from her nose. The ancient asari began to convulse violently as her biotics flashed violently around her. Her assistant, a very nervous and frightened looking purple skinned asari, reached for her mistress. Shaking the woman wasn't going to get it done, however, as Sha'ira began openly sobbing, tears falling from her pitch black eyes.
"What's happening?"
Flavius wasn't sure who asked the question, but it was a good one. The Consort was a Matriarch with a thousand years of experience melding with members of all species, she was supposed to be an expert at this, it was why Tevos wasn't in there, or some other asari, it wasn't guaranteed that they'd be able to meld with someone in a coma, or that they'd be able to retrieve the information they required. Instead, they had Sha'ira, practically dying, and a dangerous killing machine only an hour away from waking up.
There was a blue pulse, and the Consort was flung back from the mutant as she ended the meld. Her assistant immediately made to steady her, but Sha'ira forcefully shook her away, squared her shoulders, and strode with a purpose for the door.
Flavius turned back to his son, "Garrus, you have to leave, now!"
"He shouldn't be here!" the young turian argued, "We're not equipped to handle him!"
"That's not your decision to make, now leave Sergeant Vakarian!"
"He'll kill everyone he sees!"
"He's certainly capable of it," a calm voice interrupted the two.
Both turians turned to find Sha'ira standing in the doorway, a trickle of purple falling from her nose, but otherwise maintaining a perfect dignity.
"Your… superhuman… as you put it, certainly fits the term perfectly," the dignified asari seemed to be experiencing trouble putting her thoughts into words.
"What did you see, Sha'ira?" Councilor Tevos asked her fellow asari.
"War, a decade's worth of constant war, no rest, no breaks from the frontline. Killing, destruction, slaughter, loss, and pain… so much pain. Physical, emotional, spiritual. Hate and anger fuel him now, they consume his thoughts, and drives his actions."
"Sounds like you're saying he's a monster," the human admiral said, clearly in disagreement with the assertion, despite the fact the empty headed human had only ever seen the mutant while it was asleep.
"I never said he was a monster," the Consort refuted, quite powerfully considering only moments before she had plainly said the thing in the medbay was a killing machine.
"He's a soldier, who's been fighting so long memories of a different life are nothing more than blurry images and distorted sounds. I'm sorry I can't provide any specific details, just getting the scale and time of his conflict was difficult enough. He did not enjoy my being there."
"He resisted? How? He's in a coma!" Tevos sounded worried now. Flavius wasn't sure how mind melds worked, but apparently, and quite obviously, this one hadn't gone according to plan.
Sha'ira's nose was still bleeding as she wiped it again, "He didn't just resist, he ran through me unimpeded. His resolve is unbreakable and his willpower is… simply incredible. He didn't have time to make sense of everything before I broke the meld, but I believe he has gained a simple understanding of our society… through my eyes of course."
This is why the Executor didn't like asari in charge. They got metaphysical. This wasn't the purpose of the meld, and it certainly wasn't intended to give the mutant access to potentially sensitive information! They never stuck with facts, always going on about what they felt, never about what was real, or had substance. They needed to know if this thing was an Alliance black ops project, or if it knew more about this… Covenant that was apparently powerful enough to destroy entire planets and drive an entire species to extinction. But now this glorified prostitute had gone and made a mess of things! If only…
"Where'd he go?"
All eyes in the room snapped to the observation window where they should have been able to see a large, dark skinned human lying on a medical bed. Unfortunately they could not.
Flavius already had his omnitool out, keying up C-Sec channels to broadcast a lookout for anyone matching the description of the mutant when there was a muffled noise from outside the door.
"Stop!"
It sounded like one of the asari commandoes assigned to the Council's security detail.
THUMP!
"Hostile! Open-"
CRUNCH!
There was muffled gunfire as the security detail opened fire. The sound of dropping bodies sounded soon after, but the elder Vakarian wasn't willing to put credits on it being the aggressor's body.
KLUNK!
The door violently bent inwards at the sudden impact, the console operating the door sparked from the impact. Steel groaned as something on the other side began pulling at it.
The occupants of the room stood in horror as twisted metal was pulled aside, and it stepped through.
Flavius wasn't sure why he thought the mutant would be less impressive out of its armor, but he knew now, this… machine of death was just as imposing half naked, as it was encased in half a ton of titanium. Wrapped in one massive hand was the throat of a turian soldier, one of the Hierarchy's best soldiers as he was charged with defending the three most powerful people in the galaxy. The brave man was still alive and conscious, as he struggled against the mutant's unbreakable grip.
Green eyes blazed with passion as the mutant regarded each and every single person in the room, spending extra time on Garrus before sneering.
"Which one a y'all took my knife?"
And that's a wrap. I hate chapters like this. Information dumps I call them. Pointless wastes that I as an author are still expected to power through. The fact of the matter is they're hard to write dialogue for, well, interesting dialogue. It all just turns into question: answer, other question: answer, but what about this question: answer. They get so boring and stupid, especially when the majority of the readers know everything already! And the reactions have been rehashed a gazillion times… whatever, I'm over it.
So, Emile want's to kill everything he sees, but is restraining himself for the time being. Dot is doing her best as a non sentient computer program to acquire assistance for her Spartan while at the same time not divulging classified materials. I seriously wish I could have skipped this chapter, but then I'd get a bunch of you guys complaining, and rightfully so. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I should just get better at these stupid things.
Anyway, next chapter is going to be a step back into the action, with a little bit of character bonding and relationship building… we'll see how well that goes for Emile.
Someone help me out quick, timeline. Was it Akuze, then Elysium, then Torfan? Or Elysium, Akuze, then Torfan? I know Torfan is last I just don't know what the order on the other two are.
Also, quick review on what I've been able to watch of Youtube videos of Mass Effect Andromeda. Looks cool. Can't wait till I'm out of a hotel and can hook up my Xbox to the interwebz and download it. Legally of course.
No I'm not put off by bad facial animations or boring characters. To be perfectly fair, neither of those things put me off the first three ME games! You can't tell me Liara was a well written character after all. She was the worst disguised cop out of a plot point… ever. No, I play Mass Effect games cause of dat Universe! Damn Bioware makes a good universe! They're not bad at stories either, though they do seem to chicken out halfway through sometimes. Like with the Reapers, they didn't have to explain that shit, I would have been perfectly fine not ever knowing why they did what they did, that would have given the whole thing a sense of mystery and honestly made the Reapers more badass than they ended up being. Instead they chickened out, and made a botched attempt at explaining their origins.
Whatever, please review, don't want to write, what you don't want to read.
And sorry to everyone waiting for my response to their PM's, just know that I know, that I am the worst.