Bang!Bang!Bang!Bang!Bang!
Commandant of Earth's Interior Defense Units Ben Hislop walked along the trainyard, looking at the old graffiti marked train cars with disinterest; the gunshots of the Civil Protection Officers executing the most seriously injured Aliens echoing throughout the area.
It wasn't cruelty or sadism, it was practicality; and in his opinion, a mercy.
It was a far better fate than slowly bleeding out in these Godforsaken wastelands; or being subject to the bite of a headcrab. And above all, it was better than being Vivasected by Dr. Lawson and his staff.
They had no clue how to treat the most seriously injured, and there was no way in hell that he or anyone else in the Combine command structure would trust them to operate on each other.
He looked over at the ones deemed 'likely to survive'.
There were about half a dozen of the ones that looked like metal birds; eight of the blue space babes, and four of the walking lizards. All were roughed up in some way, but looked fine otherwise; which was probably the best he could do for the time being. Lawson at least would have plenty of bodies to nab the genetics, DNA, and body structure of the Aliens.
Three aliens in particular were openly glaring at him; likely correctly identifying him as the officer in charge. That wasn't a hard feat considering that he wasn't wearing his mask like his subordinates or the Overwatch soldiers, and the black leather Trench Coat-Armor combo probably made him stand out too.
Bang!Bang!Bang!Bang!Bang!
Another round of executions; it seemed like his officers had found more seriously injured Aliens.
"Sir, we got a live one; Blue one, bringing her over now." One of his sub commanders radioed.
Ben raised an eyebrow, before giving a single click on the radio to let the officer know he had heard.
After a minute, the officer arrived; leading one of the Blue women by a set of anti-dark energy restaurants. This one looked… older, more authoritative, powerful; and paradoxically more beautiful.
Ben frowned as he looked at her; She wore a torn dress that barely covered her, but the Woman looked uncowed by everything happening around her. She stared at him, her eyes glowing deep blue with power; and Ben stiffened as he felt a foreign presence at the edge of his mind.
He had experienced Vortals contacting him telepathically, and while they were always hostile; it had always felt soft and restrained. This connection felt… wrong somehow; the exact opposite of a Vortal.
Narrowing his eyes, he nonetheless hid a smirk of satisfaction as he saw a flash of surprise in the woman's eyes; but it was only there for a split second, before it was replaced by inquisitiveness. Looking at his subcommander, he jerked his head and the Officer nodded; leading the woman to the group, gently, which Ben took note of.
Potential mind control… definitely not Vortal then; they despise even the idea of it so much they don't even use it against us. Ben mused, before turning his attention to an APC rolling up into the trainyard.
Smiling, Ben walked over to the APC as the passenger door opened; and Jack climbed out.
They looked like mirror opposites; while Ben wore black with a Trench Coat-Armor Combo, Jack wore white. They looked mostly the same, except Jack's armor blend with his Trench Coat looked smoother, curvier, and more seamless.
Smiling in return, Jack stuck out his hand; which Ben took, "Don't tell me this doesn't give you a hard on Jack. Haven't had this much fun since we were tangling it up with the Vorts back in Black Mesa." He said, chuckling.
Jack chuckled as well as they walked towards the circle of captured Aliens; "I got a present for you." Ben said, gesturing towards the Aliens; one Overwatch Grunt, and a Civil Protection Officer followed behind them, the two clutching AR1's in their hands as they eyed the Aliens with distaste.
Jack eyed the Aliens up frowning; focusing on the older Woman in particular, narrowing his eyes.
Ben knew Jack was having similar thoughts to his own at the moment. Jack's frown remained as Ben glanced between him and the Aliens; after a moment, he said "You know you should be enjoying this more."
Jack tore his gaze away from the Aliens and looked at Ben, the expression on his face contemplative. He turned to look at the Aliens, before Jack finally said; "It's just silly worries Ben… And M-91811441 failed her mission, She's currently MIA; Vortal hit her in the head it seems. Likely damaged or destroyed the control chip in her brain; so she's probably chasing after the Vortal on a child's petty vendetta."
Ben nodded as he took the info in, "I'll order a hit squad to find and eliminate her then."
"Eva's already taken care of that; she and Lawson took it as a personal insult that their own 'Perfect' daughter failed in her task." Jack informed him, turning away from the aliens and started walking slowly towards the pile of dead bodies.
"Hm… And Commander Anderson's pet Vortal was the one that rescued the aliens I assume?" Ben asked, following beside him.
"Correct… one of your CP's died from being impaled, so we were able to pull his footage. Apparently there were two additional Alien species on that ship. One looked like a Dinosaur; and the other looks like a skinny human with three fingers, glowing eyes, and double jointed knees." Jack informed him as they reached the pile of bodies.
"Hm… we'll keep an eye out for them then; probably went into the Antlion tunnels. If they have a Vortal with them they'll avoid Cumberland like the plague." Ben noted.
"Two Vortals actually." Ben looked at Jack with a raised eyebrow, and Jack nodded; "There were two of the human looking aliens, one female and one male presumably, the male unlocked his Vortal abilities."
Ben jerked back slightly in surprise; "Really? I wasn't aware that races other than Humans and Vorts had enough of a connection to develop powers." He admitted, "Lawson and Eva are at the sight where the Aliens escaped correct?"
"Yes-" Beep!Beep! Jack looked down at his chest, "they seem to be contacting me right now; care to join in?"
"I thought you would never ask."
Eva Core frowned behind her mask as she took in the destruction.
It was, as typical for a Vortal attack, carnage; dead CP's and Grunts lay everywhere, their weapons gone having long since been scavenged by the Aliens that the Vortal had saved. Three other Assassins walked around, checking to make sure all the Grunts and CP's really were dead.
It was just a formality of course, all their biomonitors reported them as dead; and if they weren't, well… that just earned them a bullet in the brain for failure. But the lack of gunshots confirmed that she needn't dispense her punishment.
"Hm… lack of Alien dead bodies… means the survivors likely destroyed them or the Vortal used an energy Pellet to clear the evidence." Dr. Lawson noted.
Eva had mixed feelings about the doctor, the two had used their Genes and DNA to create M-91811441; for Lawson the perfect daughter, and for Eva a worthy Assassin. But clearly he had failed, as evidenced by the fact there was no sign of M-91811441 beyond a destroyed face mask.
"Any other signs of Alien DNA Doctor?" She asked, bored out of her mind.
She was eager to get moving and start her hunt for M-91811441, and put her down for her failures; and for disobeying orders and pursuing the Aliens rather than holding position to receive a milder punishment and support.
"Just the one, two really if you count the Vortal." Lawson replied, sounding eager.
Eva looked at him and tilted her head in curiosity; "You mean you actually found that Vortals DNA?" She asked incredulously.
"In a way, the Alien was stabbed by M-91811441's wrist blades; and the blade broke off when the Vortal struck her. Now look here, on the surface the blood looks the same; but underneath?" He grinned, "A miniscule amount of human blood, tiny, a few drops at most. Probably pricked their finger, or I should say her since the two or three drops of blood hold XX chromosomes. The Alien is male, since the blood that coats this blade holds XY Chromosomes." Lawson explained.
Eva rolled her eyes; "So?"
"So I can combine this DNA with yours and mine, we can try again; only this time she will be even better than before. I'll set her up in the Maturation chamber of course, but maybe I'll take her out earlier; nine or ten perhaps. I left M-91811441 in the chamber too long I think; still too childlike once she reached sexual maturity to really think for herself." Lawson rambled, talking so fast that Eva could barely keep up.
"Of course doctor, shall I inform the Consol?" She asked.
"Yes, Yes, right away! Oh, note to self; begin the process of creating O-1891141 as soon as I return to the Labs." He said into his datapad, grinning like a schoolboy as the pad recorded his command.
Cato watched in horror as Ayita screamed in pain; and felt panic begin to overtake him as Gravity finally grabbed a hold of the Vortal human, and she started to fall. He rushed forward to try and catch her. A double flash of purple light caused every antlion to turn and charge Wrex and Liara while Tali and the rest dealt with any stragglers heading his way.
His attempts to catch Ayita with telekinesis were hampered by his exhaustion, though he did manage to slow her down before she landed on him.
He scurried back to the survivor line as the rest dealt with the last wave of antlions. Mordin ceased firing and helped lower her to the ground. He drew a kit, as well as a knife which he handed to Cato. "Injuries need cleaning. Please remove the upper garment while I prepare a sterile mat."
Both Cato and Tali balked at the statement. "What?! I can't just-"
"I cannot risk contamination from soiled clothing being reintroduced to the wound."
Cato was brought up short by the Salarian's sudden serious tone.
"I'd do as he says kid." Nihlus commented from his firing position. "I've worked with the professor before, and among other things he's a renowned surgeon."
Cato hesitated for a moment when Tali tapped his shoulder. "Take over for me; I'll help your girlfriend, little brother." Despite her light tone, he could feel both her distrust of Ayita and her discomfort at the thought he might be attracted to the stranger.
He also knew his sister, and she wouldn't do anything to a wounded person.
He stood and handed off the knife, then wound his arm up and let some of his stress out into a retreating worker; which turned out to have been one of the last antlions, and now there were only the nine of them.
He could faintly feel the emotions from most of them.
Tali was Tali: always trying to protect him from the universe. Mordin was cool and focused like a scalpel as he removed fine filaments from Ayita's wounds. Liara was collected on the outside, but a roiling mass of nerves from one trauma after another. Nihlus was like Mordin, but pointed outward.
Garrus, who had moved off to reconnoiter, was a bit like Tali, though he was spreading himself thin across everyone.
Wrex was a tight mass of grief wrapped in centuries of calcified cynicism, though with a few cracks of something brilliantly kind trying to break through.
Then there was Skreech. We definitely need a new name for her. The assassin turned prisoner felt childlike, both in her simplicity and her inquisitiveness; though it was buried under years-deep layers of trauma.
"I can feel you reading me."
He started at the sudden voice on the edge of his senses. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude."
"Yes you did!" There was an almost petulant tone to the response. "Do you know what you did to me?!"
"Is it any worse than what your masters planned to do to us?" His tone wasn't accusatory, but the girl flinched like she was slapped. "We came here to explore; to learn. Your people attacked us without warning and ripped us from the heavens. Would you have done any less?"
"I…" She hung her head and looked away. "I wouldn't have been caught."
His focus was broken when Garrus returned. "There's a room with furniture about 30 meters that way. The walls are intact, and there's only one door."
"Good." Mordin stood from where he had been working and nodded to Cato. "She's not in any grave danger that I can see, though there seems to be some slight inflammation, and I would like a better location to work from than a cave tunnel."
Cato bent down as Tali wrapped Ayita's tattered clothes around her chest before he picked her up, and they all followed Garrus.
The short trip was no less exhausting than the rest of the day had been, or maybe that was the adrenaline wearing off. They came to a single door frame in the side of the tunnel leading into a steel lined room. Once the last person went through, Tali pulled a small canister from her belt and tossed it at the entrance, which swiftly filled with a fast setting foam.
She saw Garrus' curious look. "Hull breach kit. It should slow down anything that tries to get in here with us."
He flared his mandibles in a grin. "Huh, learn something new every day. Welp," he collapsed and slung his rifle on his back, "everyone should settle in and get some food and rest. I think there's a lavatory in the back if anyone needs any privacy."
Cato found a bench that wasn't covered in concrete dust and rust flakes. He lay back on the plank, and was asleep moments later.
Jack stared at the Holographic projections of Eva and Dr. Lawson with a critical eye.
"So what you're telling me is that you have Vortal and Alien DNA." He finally said.
"Yes sir, I intend to mash them both with similar structures to M-91811441; try and see if something new won't make it better." Lawson replied, bobbing his head like a school boy showing his favorite teacher his plans for his school project.
"And how… is this any different from your last… attempt at creating the perfect 'Daughter'?" Harper asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Because it's not a 'daughter' per say, more like 'grandchild'; you know all those stories about how direct children are nothing like their parents yet their grandchildren are like a Xerox." He explained, "That's why all my previous attempts were failures; any daughter or son of mine won't be like me, but grandchildren? Now there is something I can work with."
Jack traded a look with Ben, who just gave him a baffled shrug. Sighing, Jack ordered; "All right doctor, go ahead with your… experiment; but remember that it is a secondary priority. We've already removed the FTL drive from the crashed ship, and downloaded the schematics; we'll send it to you by courier. We don't want the Administrator, the Advisors, or the Resistance to chance upon it."
"Yes sir, we'll begin designing a warship for you as soon as I get back to the labs. Oh incidentally, have you saved any bodies for research?" He asked.
"Yes of course doctor, all dead; we're sending the survivors to 'Hades Gates' so you can interview them and take live samples. But no vivisections or killing, do you understand me?" Jack ordered.
"Of course sir. Krystalev! The Car!" Lawson shouted, walking away and disconnecting.
Eva watched him go before turning her attention back to Jack and Ben; "I cannot believe I shared my DNA with that egghead; if it weren't for the fact that all my girls were geniuses I'd demand he find someone else from here on out." She grumbled.
"It's because you love him so much Eva." Ben said, saying his first words since the call had connected.
Eva turned her gaze to Ben and he could tell she was fixing him a glare that could melt the walls of the Citadel; but he just smirked and she turned her gaze back to Harper. "Shall I begin my hunt for M-91811441?" She asked.
"No… I want you back in City 1." He quickly raised a hand before she could protest, "I want to reassess the situation before you go after your daughter alone with no backup. We stretched ourselves thin pulling this off; and now we need to close ranks and make sure that information about these events don't leak out to Breen."
Eva stared at him for a long moment, "A Purge?" she asked simply.
"Yes, we need to deal with the Breennites in the America'swhile they are still scattered and disjointed. And the Resistance of course will be poking their heads out to see if it's safe. We let them leave their dens while we recuperate; and then chop off their heads when we're ready." He explained.
"Sounds like a plan Jack, what about them?" Ben asked, gesturing to the Aliens who were watching them intensely.
"Get them on the trucks and to 'Hades Gates'; And you'd best make sure they get there Ben." Jack ordered, walking back to his APC; and cutting the connection with Eva.
"You know, we can use this… we build that ship; we can use it for our own purposes." Ben mused.
"Just… bide your time Ben, we've done so for seventeen years, we can do so for a couple more days to weeks."
Ayita slowly regained consciousness; her eyelids felt so heavy, she didn't want to open them.
It felt like she had slept for days, her back hurt, her stomach hurt, her arm hurt; and it felt really cold, the top half of her body felt like it was freezing. Groaning softly, Ayita felt something hard and uncomfortable covering her; likely some sort of makeshift blanket.
She could feel that she was resting on hard wood; which was not helping with her discomfort.
Finally opening her eyes, Ayita found herself staring right into Cato's sleeping face. Ayita shrieked in surprise and fear as she quickly shot up from the Bench she had been laying on; charging up two spheres of energy in her hands.
Cato's eyes shot open as he woke up from the sudden noise; and he yelped as he knocked himself off balance, falling to the floor with a soft thud.
Realizing where he was, Cato quickly messaged Shephard, "Ayita wait! Wait! You're safe now!" He yelped mentally.
Ayita stared for a moment, and he stared back; before she relaxed and dispelled the energy gathered in her palms. Then she blinked as she realized something; at the same time Cato glanced downward, and to her confusion his face turned deep purple and he looked away while covering his eyes.
Ayita blinked again, My mask! She noted dumbly, she could feel the cool air on her face; and she also realized that her hair was out of its bun, falling to the small of her back in its uneven choppy chocolate brown colored mess.
Then she realized, Wait… I can feel my hair touching my back?
She looked down, and let out a strangled squeak as she finally noticed that the top half of her suit was gone; and she wasn't wearing anything underneath. Crossing her arms over her chest as she turned as red as a tomato, Ayita spun around away from Cato who was still covering his eyes; "You did NOT SEE ANYTHING! Now go get me a shirt or something! GO!" She ordered.
"Right! Right! I didn't see anything!" Cato replied, scrambling out of the room.
He paused just outside the area and leaned against a pillar. Quarians spent their entire lives inside their suits, so seeing someone in any circumstance of undress was considered either the greatest of intimacies next to, well... physical intimacy; or it was a violation of person one step below rape.
She hadn't voluntarily shed her clothing for him, so this was definitely not the first.
A chill draft reminded him of his own state of undress, and suddenly he wished he could pull off Ayita's shadow trick from the Vortessence.
He started looking around the area and saw several rows of stacked metal lockers. He started rifling through them for something for himself and Ayita. The third locker had a surprise for him, as every interior surface was covered in images of naked human females.
His suddenly slamming the door attracted the attention of his sister.
"Cato? Are you alright?"
"No! I mean yes! I'm just... trying to find something for me and Shephard to wear."
She looked sideways at him, trying to give Cato what privacy she could. "Okay. If you need any help..."
He nodded and smiled; this seemed to placate her and she left.
He sighed and leaned on the offending locker, only for a Vortal spark to pop it back open. He swatted it closed and yelled over his shoulder as Tali stuck her head back in. "Just my Anti-Biotics acting up." She gave him another aside glance and left.
He grumbled as he moved to the next locker. "What kind of Bosh'tet puts things like that where anyone can see them?" His search continued for two more lockers before he came to his next surprise.
While the previous one was like the contents of a dozen Fornax periodicals, this one was more like a tourism brochure exploded inside the locker. More than a dozen images of different terrains were either affixed to the locker or piled at the bottom. There were white mountains, great fields filled with a riot of colors, and cities of every shape and size.
Every image had words printed on them, though he couldn't read them.
Two more lockers down and with only a scratchy knitted cap with a fuzzy ball on top to show for it and he came to another decorated locker. This one wasn't covered in naked people or strange places, but with one group of people over and over.
Their coloration was significantly darker than Shephard, and where she was lithe and wiry like a Quarian, the male was stout and the female seemed... plump. There were two children and a small varren-like creature. The defining characteristic of every image though, was their smiles.
Cato gently closed the door to this shrine to a forgotten life and leaned on the locker again.
After recentering, he moved down. There were dozens of lockers in the room, and they seemed to run the mix of those three standouts; each serving as a shrine to what it's user held most dear. It took him halfway through the room before he found some suitable clothes; a small but durable soft lined canvas coverall almost perfectly sized for him. He'd also found a light white cloth shirt, as well as a drape like the one he had formed during Ayita's second foray into the Vortessence with them.
He changed out of his old suit and folded it neatly, then rewrapped his Sehni. He gathered the remaining items and headed back to Shephard. "Ayita, I found some things for you. May I come in?" He asked timidly.
There was a short delay. "Yes; just bring them in and leave them on the bench if you could, then step out. We would like privacy to dress."
He stepped in and saw Ayita sitting on the bench with her back to the doorway. He set the clothes down and turned to leave.
"I'm... sorry for yelling earlier. We were laid here after you fell asleep, and it was wrong to lash out like that."
Cato kept his back to her. "It's alright. Quarians view the body as deeply personal, so I understand the sentiment." He stepped out and leaned against the wall.
Ayita stepped out after a minute. The drape included a hood which Shephard had pulled up. It gave the impression of a little Tali wearing one of Auntie 'Raan's Sehni's when they were both very young.
He smiled at the memory. "What?" Shephard asked, looking down at herself.
"Nothing, you just reminded me of my sister for a moment."
He was taken aback at the flash of conflicting emotions that caused Shephard. She squared her shoulders and marched past him. "We need to keep moving. We still have to pass through the Rat-Queen's lair before we get to the base."
Cato followed after, wondering what it was that had upset her. I really will never figure out females.
"Embrace Eternity" Benezia whispered, holding her hand to the cold metal helmet of the Alien that stood over her; forcing her way into it's mind and extracted it's language and suppressing both its aggressiveness and removing the memory of her melding with it.
It was something she did not like doing; but it was clear to her that she would need to use everything in her arsenal to survive and escape this situation.
She stared at the Alien as it shook its head, clearly wondering why it suddenly had a headache; before shrugging it off and putting a hand to what appeared to be an audio receptor; "Sir, we got a live one; Blue one, bringing her over now." He reported.
Even with her new understanding of the Aliens language, she found that she could barely understand what he had just said.
Intentional, almost certainly; prevents others from hearing what they are planning or talking about even if they know the language. She thought, looking at the white masked alien with a critical eye.
Grimacing slightly, she forced a tiny strand of her mind into the Aliens.
What she was doing was a Biotic ability known only to Justicar's and Matriarchs; and it was an ability that was forbidden in all but the most dire of circumstances. But, hostile First Contact with a race that had Pulled the capitol ship of the Citadel fleet apart probably warranted such a response.
He quickly restrained her arms, and Benezia could feel it restricting her biotics; but not canceling them out completely. That was good, that meant she had something to fall back on in case things got even worse.
The Alien led her through what looked like some kind of transportation hub; before they came to a clearing, where Benezia felt her heart sink slightly in spite of her iron hard control over her emotions.
The Spectres Saren, Vasir, and Bau were all still alive; along with a few members of the crew, as well as some survivors from the security and science teams.
The Alien didn't deposit her with the rest of the group however, he took her to the Alien that appeared to be the commander; if the flowing cape like clothing he wore over his armor and his lack of a helmet was anything to go by.
The Aliens looked very much like Asari in terms of facial structure; to the point that it was scary.
Benezia was old enough to remember the times Quarians could go around without their masks and their suits; and she remembered how Quarians were seen as 'desirable' mates for Asari because of how similar the two looked.
She suspected that these Aliens would have garnered a similar response had they been peaceful and space faring.
The Alien commander glared at her; the black, Quarian like, hair on his head was cut short. Benezia took a chance and cautiously extended a tendral from her mind to the Alien Commander to try and gleen his thoughts.
To her astonishment, the Alien almost immediately detected her; and sealed his mind from external influence. That's not good… She realized. That meant these Aliens likely had something similar to 'Mental Melding' meaning that infiltration and subversion would be much more difficult to accomplish.
Difficult, but not impossible.
The Alien commander's eyes narrowed, before it nodded to it's subordinate; who gently led her to the group of captured Allies, and she sat down while ignoring the severe state of disrepair her dress was currently in.
"Are you alright Matriarch?" She heard Saren whisper to her.
"I am alright, I managed to meld with one of the Aliens; but all I could get was its language." She whispered back.
"What do we do Matriarch?" Tela asked under her breath.
"We wait and we bide our time." Benezia replied.
"Someone important is arriving." Bau informed them, and everyone looked to see some kind of four wheeled armored Vehicle. She saw the Alien commander smile and start to walk towards it.
"Everyone hold hands, I can share their language with you; do it now." Benezia hissed.
Everyone complied with surprising speed, and she quickly used her meld to spread the language to them. Another technique closely guarded by the Matriarchs, but at this point Benezia knew that nothing could be held back if they were to get off this Goddess forsaken planet alive.
She completed the transfer just in time for the two Aliens to start talking.
"Don't tell me this doesn't give you a hard on Jack. Haven't had this much fun since we were tangling it up with the Vorts back in Black Mesa." The Black clothed Alien said to the new arrival, taking his counterpart's hand and shaking it.
The new Arrival was dressed in white, and his Armor was smoother and curvier than his black dressed counterpart. Both had the same Gold symbol on their arms, and both had that odd cape like trail mashed into their Armor.
Hm… enjoyment of combat and mentions of previous conflicts; military like slang and crude humor. Krogan like perhaps. Benezia mused, and refocused on the Alien Commanders as the Black one gestured at Benezia and the rest of the prisoners. "I got a present for you." The Black one said, the two walking over to them.
The new arrival looked them over before settling on Benezia.
Right away she could tell that like his Black Clothed counterpart, the White one could see that she was the most powerful and dangerous of the group; in direct contrast to her tattered dress, beautiful face, and her own attempts at looking harmless.
Immediately, she could see the same keen intelligence that all Matriarchs displayed; but what scared her, was that along with that she could see an almost Salarian like cannyness and ruthlessness.
She had little doubts that these two had clawed their way to the top of whatever Hierarchy these Aliens had through intrigue, ruthlessness, and a mountain of bodies. Like the more Bloodthirsty Matriarchs in Asari history.
She was brought out of her musings by the black one saying; "You know you should be enjoying this more."
The white one looked at the black, before saying; "It's just silly worries Ben… And M-91811441 failed her mission, She's currently MIA; Vortal hit her in the head it seems. Likely damaged or destroyed the control chip in her brain; so she's probably chasing after the Vortal on a child's petty vendetta."
'Ben' nodded; "I'll order a hit squad to find and eliminate her then." He replied.
The White one turned away from Benezia and the other prisoners and started to walk towards the pile of dead bodies. Benezia felt her blood boil at seeing such callous treatment of her fellow Asari, and the Turians and Salarians; but she pushed it down to listen to the two Commanders.
She had to strain her hearing, but she managed to pick out what they were saying.
"-care of that; she and Lawson took it as a personal insult that their own 'Perfect' daughter failed in her task."
"Hm… And Commander Anderson's pet Vortal was the one that rescued the aliens I assume?" Ben asked, following beside the White one.
"Correct… one of your CP's died from being impaled, so we were able to pull his footage. Apparently there were two additional Alien species on that ship. One looked like a Dinosaur; and the other looks like a skinny human with three fingers, glowing eyes, and double jointed knees." White informed him.
Benezia felt a little bit of relief flood her heart; the Krogan Battlemaster Wrex, and the two Quarians she had hired had at least escaped. She had many thoughts about Wrex, but she knew he wasn't stupid.
And the fact that these Aliens were fractured between these obviously dictatorial men, and some unknown but presumably friendly rebels resisting them gave her some hope of rescue; and also gave her hope the Council wouldn't create another genophage, or genocide these Aliens.
The two had moved out of hearing range, and seemed to be conversing with two holograms; one looked distinctly Asari, just with Quarian like hair, although it's hair was a gold-yellow color. The other had a distinct Scientist look to him.
She watched them converse for a bit, before they wrapped up their conversation and the White one walked towards his armored vehicle.
"-a plan Jack, what about them?" 'Ben' asked, gesturing to the group of prisoners
"Get them on the trucks and to 'Hades Gates'; And you'd best make sure they get there Ben." 'Jack' ordered, walking back to his APC.
"You know, we can use this… we build that ship; we can use it for our own purposes." 'Ben' seemed to muse; and Benezia did not miss the implied meaning in his tone.
The one called Jack didn't seem to miss it either; and he said, "Just… bide your time Ben, we've done so for seventeen years, we can do so for a couple more days to weeks."
She wasn't able to hear more, as the White masked and Black suited Aliens began grabbing everyone and started shoving them into a rail car of some kind.
"What's the plan, Matriarch?" Saren whispered, as the Aliens began to approach them.
"They won't be killing us… yet; so just bide your time."
Pilot A/N: Ahh… teen love.
I was on the fence about the ship tease between Cato and Ayita; but Ian pointed out that the two would at the very least be close to each other, if only because they're the only two Vortal's around.
Now then, to more important things.
Ayita's back injury will be important later on in the story beyond being an opportunity for a "I saw her boobs" gag between Cato and Ayita. It was also meant to highlight the differences between Quarian and Human relationships; since from Ayita's POV it was an honest (though still very embarrassing) accident, and it wasn't Cato's fault.
From Cato's perspective, he just committed an act one step below rape in Quarian society; and only Ayita explaining the difference and reassuring him that it wasn't his fault is all that's stopped him from beating himself up.
Next up is Lawson and Core.
Core is pretty simple really; she's a former sociopathic Black Op's Assassin now in charge of the Overwatch's Special Forces, and moonlights as a scientist since it interests her.
Lawson though… I VERY heavily based this version of Lawson off of Simon Russell Beale's portrayal of Lavrentiy Beria in 'Death of Stalin'. Say what you will about that movie, but Beale's portrayal just perfectly encapsulated the Creepy, Sadistic, Happy facade that was Beria.
Jack and Ben; I based off of Obergruppenführer John Smith and Generaloberst Bill Whitcroft from Man in the High Castle respectively.
Ben is not a true believer in the Combine Hierarchy; he's just biding his time to yank humanity free from the Combine, but he knows he has to play the game of 'Dog eat Dog' to do so, and he allies with Jack Harper because Jack is his old friend, and because Harper plays the game the best.
Jack is an opportunist; and while he may agree that he wants humanity to have a better lot in life, he wants them to be the top dogs of the Combine Hierarchy as opposed to breaking free of them.
Now these two won't have much more than a token viewpoint through Act one; but they will be much more important in act three.
Your thoughts Ian?
Ian A/N: There isn't much I can add to this other than how much I enjoyed working on the locker room scene. The Half Life series of games, especially HL2, works very hard to impart a sense of melancholy and loss. Up until this point we haven't had the chance to show this, and future chapters will not afford another chance, so it was necessary to 'paint the picture' now.
There are several powers we demonstrate and allude to among Biotics (especially Asari matriarchs) that we have inferred are beginning to be explored, as well as the social and political ramifications of the same. You may notice that the character of Matriarch Benezia is treated more gently than in the game series. This is intentional, as the First Contact War/Relay 314 Policing Action has not happened to twist Benizia and Saren.
Keep an eye out for details like that; they will have... unexpected consequences.