Mass Effect: ODST Lost
Chapter Two:
Eden Prime Divergence
All in all, my first contact with unknown alien species could've gone better, I did have to kill a member of one and roughly a dozen of another. However, it could have been worse, I did get on good terms with a few as well. I also have my own ship now, another plus. I have my own Omni-Tool with knowledge of how to use it. Thank you, Vetra. And, on that note, this thing has an absurd data storage limit for being so damn small. Thankfully I was able to link it to my Neural Interface so I'm able to control some aspects of it with just a thought. It also gives me access to the 'extra-net', a galaxy wide information service complete with interspecies translator. Of course, wherever there's good news there's also bad news. The worst of it? The UNSC does not exist in the 'known' galaxy. There were humans, certainly, but there was no UNSC or UEG. Earth's nations were still as divided as they were centuries ago. So, while the UN was the primary power on Earth, the rest of the galaxy knew of humanity as The Systems Alliance.
Another oddity was the year. The last time I checked it was 2553, but the date on my Omni-Tool claimed it was 2183. I restarted the device and checked for system errors several times before I concluded that the information was accurate. If that was the case, then it leads to one of two possible, and concerning, conclusions. The first being that a separate sect of humanity broke off from ours and colonized unknown sections of the galaxy, founded a second 'earth' colony, and eventually joined this new galactic community. While this theory was highly preferable to the second, it was also highly unlikely. Even without proper star charts, there are plenty of other factors that disprove the theory. The lack of any Covenant presence being the primary one. These Citadel races had explored a vast majority of the galaxy and have yet to have any sort of run in with them. The second theory, though it was near impossible to gather any actual evidence to support it, was far more likely. The Slipspace anomaly didn't just pop me out in some random location in the Milky Way, it dropped me into a different version of it entirely.
Even in the 26th Century, the many worlds theory was still considered completely theoretical. Even with Slipspace travel becoming commonplace, humanity had yet to provide hard evidence of parallel worlds or universes. It was, however, one of the most likely theories I could come up with. Not that I have a lot of them, mind you. I'm a soldier, not a quantum physicist. Hell, I needed Vetra's pilot to give me a crash course in how to fly my new ship! Not that it was my fault. I may have had to take over flying a pelican once or twice in emergency situations, but this thing was definitely not a pelican. Instead of having a steering column to control direction, it had a purely holographic interface that had to be programmed correctly by the pilot in real time so that the ship would fly straight. Why is this the way it is!? I know the larger ships are controlled this way, but even the smaller Prowler's have a fucking steering column! … Ok, break down over. For now. Just focus on getting to the Citadel, then the Embassy, then finish the break down. Focus.
The planet I landed on, Eletania, was about an hour behind me. Unfortunately, I had to leave my drop pod behind and hope no one found it. It was still UNSC property, so I couldn't let it fall into anyone else's hands, but I was starting to wonder if it mattered at this point. Thoughts for another time. The ship's computer said it would take several hours to reach the Citadel from there. The Mass Relay's, one more of many things I needed to learn about before takeoff, were as fascinating as they were frustrating. They initiated a type of FTL travel different than Slipspace, forming a massless corridor for the ship using it to travel through. It was fascinating technology, by it was also extremely limited. Unlike the Slipspace Engines, the ship wanting to initiate FTL had to reach a Mass Relay to move between star clusters. And there was only one Relay in any given cluster, no matter how many individual star systems it had. It's why I'm currently preparing for a cooldown cycle of the drive core in order to make another FTL jump instead of doing it in one go. Way too damn inefficient.
A harsh beeping pulled me out of my thoughts as I dropped out of FTL. Pulling up a new screen showed what seemed to be a distress signal coming from a nearby planet. An Alliance distress signal. I sighed. "Why can't life be easy for once?" I muttered, changing course to investigate. "I guess I can make human contact a lot sooner, though. Silver linings, yeah?"
ooOoOoo
"Ok, this is definitely more than I bargained for." I said as I jogged. A slow approach to the signal showed a large, very oddly designed, ship hovering over a small settlement. Figuring it best to come in on foot, I set the ship down in a relatively clear spot and disembarked. The rifle in my hands, one that I had pilfered from the merc ship, felt off. Foreign. It was far too light, and the barrel was too long. It was likely a sniper rifle, not my usual weapon of choice, but it was the closest thing I could find to my DMR. A bit of an inspection of them when I found them aboard showed that they didn't use conventional ballistics. A quick extranet search later showed that they use something called Mass Effect Technology, something to research later, to shave a pellet off of a large block of metal to serve as a bullet and fire it at the target. They also used things called thermal clips to absorb the heat this created and switched the clips out as needed in place of traditional ammo clips. Is everything in this galaxy needlessly complicated? What the hell was wrong with traditional ballistics? This meant that it would likely be some time before I could find ammo for my own weapons, so I was hesitant to waste what little I had left. My DMR and SMG were still strapped to my thigh plate and rucksack respectively, however, since I wasn't sure if I would be going back to the ship or not.
The sound of gunfire drew my attention and I pushed into a full sprint. I came upon some sort of dig site down from a couple of small, temporary buildings. A small group of soldiers were retreating down the path, shooting at their six. I took aim with my rifle, attempting to find their targets, when another group came into view. They were clearly synthetic, their stiff movements and far too precise aim (flashlight heads not withstanding) made it unlikely to be anything else. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure which side to help. Were the synthetic soldiers Alliance mechs fighting off its enemies, or was this a revolt caused by a Rampant AI? I glanced back up to where I knew the unknown ship to be before turning back to the firefight, only to see the retreating squad having been thinned down to two remaining fighters. Decision made, I lined up my first shot.
My first two shot took out a larger mech with some kind of heavy weaponry, causing the remaining three to look my way. It was enough of a distraction for one of the soldiers to take out another, but the other two returned fire immediately. They obviously took some hits as they fell backwards and dropped their rifle. Thankfully they were still able to pull themselves back into cover while their partner and I took out the last two hostiles. I turned my scope back along the path to the camp, ensuring no other hostiles were en route, before scrambling down into the dig site. The wounded soldier was still leaning against the fallen pillar she had been using as cover while the other, whose armor was a strange mix of white and shocking pink, seemed to be helping to patch them up. They both looked up as I approached. My mind vaguely noted that both of their armor sets, femininely shaped, seemed to match the types that Vetra's crew wore. So, not only is everything in this galaxy unnecessarily complicated, but it's also all made with a similar design base. That can't be normal.
"I take it that was you giving us some cover?" The soldier in white and pink armor spoke. "We appreciate the assist. That first one you took out was a right bastard. I don't know what kind of weapon it was using, but it was damn effective. What unit are you from? I don't recognize that armor."
"Just doing my job, ma'am." Fuck, whoever made that armor pink needs to be shot or fired. Maybe both. "Captain Nathanial Renkov, UNSC Marines. I was passing through the system when I picked up a distress call and changed course to assist."
Both soldiers frowned at the mention of the UNSC, unsurprisingly, though they didn't voice their confusion. "I'm hardly going to look a gift horse in the mouth at this point. Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams and Serviceman Nirali Bhatia of the Systems Alliance, Sir. Is there any chance of an evac, Sir? I've got Bhatia patched up, but she still took a couple solid hits."
Moving to take a closer look, I noticed a few bullet holes under the woman's hand as she clutched her left side. They didn't look immediately life threatening, but it would hurt like a bitch when she moved. "Can you walk, Bhatia?"
Bhatia took a deep breath and attempted to get on her feet, Williams having to help her. "Yes, Sir. Not very well, but I can walk."
I nodded. "Alright. My ship is about a twenty minute jog east of here, probably about thirty to forty minutes if we take it slower. Think you can make it, soldier?"
Bhatia just nodded, drawing her sidearm. "Yes, Sir!"
"Good. Williams, help her along and watch our six. I'll take point. We get into any trouble, you get Bhatia into cover and stay there. Copy?"
Williams was already taking some of Bhatia's weight off of her, drawing her own sidearm. "Crystal, Sir!"
"Then, move out."
As much as I wanted answers, I knew they could wait. With only two soldiers, and one of them injured, there wasn't a whole hell of a lot I could do to help the rest of the apparent colony. And I couldn't just let these two make their own way if they could end up in another scrap they couldn't handle. We didn't get far though, before Williams spotted a couple of attack drones scanning the area behind them. I ordered the two Alliance soldiers into cover behind a large piece of stone jutting out of the ground before moving to my own cover a bit further up. My rifle took out one, but the other suddenly zipped forward, out of my scope, before I could take a second shot. Too close, damn it! Thankfully, a few pistol shots from behind me took it out before I took a few rounds myself.
I moved quickly back to Williams and Bhatia to see two more soldiers moving down the hill towards us. I tensed before noticing Williams holstering her side arm. Please, for the love of all that is holy be reinforcements.
Both men were dressed in what appeared to be light armor, with one having his right arm and shoulder painted with a red stripe. A round of introductions saw my prayers answered, the two newcomers identifying as Alliance officers Commander Shepard and Lieutenant Alenko. Then Commander Shepard seemed to notice that I had yet to speak. "What about you, soldier? Name and rank. I don't I've seen that armor type in the Alliance before."
Yeah, there's a club forming for that, apparently. "Captain Nathanial Renkov, UNSC Marines. Squad Leader of ODST unit 147-Alpha, Sir." I recited, deciding on keeping to the polite route. Even if we aren't part of the same military, this guy does technically outrank me. "As I explained to Williams and Bhatia, I was passing through the system when I received a distress call from the planet. As a soldier, I couldn't just ignore it and continue on my way like nothing happened."
There was the seemingly traditional frown at the introduction, but Alenko spoke up from his place beside Bhatia before he could question me further. "Commander, Serviceman Bhatia is stable, but will still need medical attention, Sir. Soon."
Shepard hesitated, looking between Bhatia and myself, before seeming to come to a decision. "Alright. Alenko, take Bhatia back to the LZ and radio the Normandy for a medical evac. I'll take Williams and Captain Renkov to secure the objective." Then he looked straight at me. "Any objections?"
Yeah, instant distrust. Not unwarranted, though. I did kind of pop out of nowhere. "None, Sir. I'm ready and able."
ooOoOoo
Making our way back up the path saw that mechs had replenished their numbers in the area. That, plus the chatter between Shepard and Williams, proved my suspicions of a synthetic invasion. The Geth, as Shepard identified them, were a race of murderous AI that were hellbent on destroying all organic life they came across. While the attack on this settlement seemed to give weight to that explanation, there was a major hole in it, in my opinion: The fact that the Geth hadn't been seen outside of their own section of space in over three centuries. If they wanted to wipe out all organic life, why wait three hundred years to start? I shook my head before I could really start thinking about it. We didn't have the time.
Our mission was to secure a Prothean beacon, whatever the hell Prothean meant, and get it off world as soon as possible. Shepard, having switched out his pistol for a shotgun, took up a vanguard position. Williams was right behind him with her assault rifle, leaving me on the rear guard in a sniper role. Again, not my favored position, but a role I knew how to play. Back at the dig site, Williams admitted that the beacon had once been there, but surmised that it had been moved. By whom, we couldn't tell, so we kept moving forward. Up the rise to the camp showed us what happened to the colonists. Disturbingly, they had been impaled on giant spikes and seemingly left to rot. Seconds after our approach showed that thought to be wrong as the spikes lowered their victims, who proceeded to rush towards us in an effort to claw us to death. They went down easy enough, but I couldn't help but compare them to Flood infected victims. Slower and weaker, maybe, but still.
"Renkov!" I jumped slightly as a hand roughly grabbed my shoulder. I looked away from the husk of the person it once was to see Shepard and Williams staring at me with concern. "You spaced out there for a minute, soldier. Are you ok?" Shepard explained.
How the hell long was I staring at that thing? I shook it off and faced forward again. "Sorry, Commander. I'm ok."
He looked at me a moment more, to make sure I wasn't lying. He either decided I wasn't or that we didn't have enough time to talk it out. Not knowing the man, either was likely. "Then move out. We've still got some ground to cover."
In truth, I wasn't alright. Not even close. There was so much to take in and no time to really process it. It was just too much. I felt my body move on autopilot as we searched the camp for survivors, which we did find. One of the leaders of the dig, and her assistant, suspected that whoever had taken the beacon had most likely moved it to the nearby tram to the space port. Having nothing else to go on, we left them in their shelter and made our way to the tram. Of course, it's never a simple jog at get from point A to point B, and we ended up fighting another wave of Husks and more Geth along the way. Williams's rifle fire was pretty damn accurate, and Shepard surprisingly deployed liberal use of the same ability Kiara used back on Eletania. Biotics, I think she called 'em. At the tram station we found the body of an alien, the same species as Vetra that Williams identified as a Turian. Shepard explained that he was a special operative that had arrived with his team. A noise from nearby damn near had us cutting down a civilian stupid enough to just pop out of nowhere, Shepard going as far as to tell him off for it. The lazy dock worker was fortunate enough to have seen what befell of Nihlus, the now dead Turian. While I won't say I'm suddenly an alien sympathizer, even with my positive first contact with Vetra's team, I still flinched at the story. Being cut down by someone you thought of as an ally was a bullshit way to die. The dock worker left us to continue to the tram, cutting through a rather large squad of Geth along the way.
Shepard sighed as he started the tram. "This mission just keeps going from bad to worse. First the Geth and the Husks, now Nihlus."
"Do we know anything about this other Turian, Saren?" I asked, knowing any platitudes wouldn't be well received. Not many in the UNSC used them, to my experience. We've gotten too used to missions going bad. That's probably not a good thing, now that I think about it.
"No." Shepard admitted. "Though, if he knew Nihlus well, we can guess he was probably another Spectre. That's another problem by itself, if he's the one orchestrating this attack."
The chatter stopped as the tram started nearing the next station. We were greeted by our newest problem as soon as we stepped off the tram: Demolition charges. Shepard stooped next to it, but hesitated before messing with it. "Please tell me one of you has experience with tech bombs." He practically begged.
I rolled my eyes when Williams vigorously shook her head in denial and pushed Shepard out of the way. "Move over." The front plate displayed a timer that had just recently reached the five minute mark. Fuck me. Not seeing any way to remove the face plate, I tried accessing it with my Omni-Tool. And override interface popped up and I flinched. "Give me a second, this isn't a standard interface." That might even be true, for all I know. Ok, just look for the code running the timer and trace it back to the fuse. Should be able to disconnect it from that point. Where are - there! A quick code break later and the timer shut down. "There. You'll still need a bomb squad to come through for it, but it won't explode now."
"Works for me! Keep moving!" Shepard barked.
The next few minutes passed in the same fashion. We fought Geth troopers up some stairs and along the surrounding catwalk, Shepard and Williams covering me as I disarmed three more charges. The platform on the other side of the loading bay had a couple more Geth and more of those Husks, but they were dealt with just the same. In the middle of the platform stood some sort of relic. It was advanced, the beam of light coming out of it proved that, but it looked otherwise unimpressive. And, behind the platform, was both a depressing and infuriating sight. These bastards had utterly devastated what looked to be a large town. Most of what could be seen was either destroyed or in flames.
So lost in rage induced thoughts, I almost missed the Commander calling his ship for a pickup. I came back to reality when the device activated and seemed to be pulling Williams up to it. Shepard moved before I could and bodily threw Williams out of the way, only to get caught up by it himself and strung up in the air by the light. Williams called out to him and tried to help, but I held her back. The device was already interacting with Shepard with an unknown function, there was no telling how it would take to an interruption now. Unknown alien tech is the most unpredictable shit at the best of times, catastrophically destructive at the worst.
The device exploded seconds later, Shepard being thrown a few feet back as a result, then Williams and I moved to check on him. He didn't seem to have any physical injuries, beyond what he sustained in prior combat, but he was completely unconscious. Our inspection was cut short by the arrival of a ship that Ashley had recognized as flying Alliance colors. At least they made damn good time. As the ship hovered low next to the dock, Williams helped me sling the Commander into fireman's carry and started marching towards it. The cargo doors opened to reveal what was most likely a marine detachment and a man in what looked like an officer's uniform. This was confirmed as we moved closer, and I spotted the captain's bars pinned to the dress shirt. At least that's still the same. I let Williams explain the situation to the guy. Partially because I was needed to carry Shepard to the med bay, but mostly because I now needed to explain my presence here and I was in no way ready for that. I was originally going to have hours to come up with a plan and now I had minutes at best. Note to self, silver linings can be assholes sometimes.
