Following the end of their morning meal, Pyrrha instantly made her way to Snake, already dressed in her combat gear.
"Boss!" Pyrrha called out, getting his attention. "I was hoping we could continue our CQC lessons, since it's been a while since we last had one."
Venom Snake impassively looked the huntress up and down, his face unreadable as ever. "Sorry Pyrrha, can't right now." Snake simply said as he turned around and made his way out of the cafeteria.
"Oh, okay." Pyrrha sadly accepted as the Boss left.
Seeing the dejected Pyrrha pouting at the ground, Shepard walked up right behind her and clapped her on the back. "Hey no need for that! We can get some training done on our own." Shepard brightly smiled to lift the huntress's spirits. "How about the rest of you? Anybody interested in a few rounds?"
The other legionnaires glanced at each other, and the two fellow aura enhanced fighters stepped up first.
"If we are to do some sparring, I shall join you all." Thane spoke first. "I require more practice with my new abilities as it is."
"Same here." Sarah casually waved.
Shepard grunted. "Hmm. Anyone else?"
"If you're fighting, Sarah, I'll jump in as well." Six called out. "I still owe you for last time anyway."
Sarah grimaced slightly, remembering her outburst against the Spartan. "Yeah, it's only fair I suppose."
Shepard clapped her hands together. "Alright now it's a party. Everyone get suited up and we'll do a two on two tango."
Thane, Six, and Sarah acknowledged the order and left for the armory to get equipped. Meanwhile Pyrrha walked up to Shepard with a small smile on her face.
"Thanks for filling in Commander, though you didn't have to do all of this." she stated.
Shepard shrugged. "Hey, what else am I here for? Now go get your butt to the armory as well. Just because you've had your aura unlocked for the longest doesn't mean you'll have an easy time."
Pyrrha smiled and gave a salute, before heading off as well. "Of course Shepard."
Within a few minutes, the 5 heroes gathered in the battle circle. On one side, Pyrrha stood beside Sarah. She warmed up by stretching her limbs and giving her sword and shield a few practice swings while Lyons flexed her T-45d power armor's servos. Opposite them, Thane twirled his Chinese officer sword in one hand and his Carnifex pistol in the other, while Six cracked his neck within his Mjolnir power armor.
Shepard between the two pairs, just outside of the ring, hand raised in the air and ready to begin the match. She glanced to her left as Pyrrha and Sarah dropped into their combat stances, weapons and fists raised high, ready to begin. She glanced to her right as Thane and Six mirrored them, nodding to acknowledge their readiness.
So with one arm held high, Shepard chopped her hand down and yelled, "Begin!"
Immediately the two powered armor super soldiers charged for each other. The two bruisers had a grudge match to settle and they wouldn't let the others get in the way with their fancy acrobatics and Wuxia. They wanted a good old fashioned brawl.
Sarah began with a flurry of jabs and front snap kicks. Each attack was light but fast, probing Six's defenses and searching for any weakness. But even with her now Aura enhanced abilities, Six's scientifically enhanced abilities allowed him to keep up with her. Every strike she threw was deftly parried and redirected. And his superior skill allowed him to break the stalemate of strength and speed.
Throwing a right straight punch, Sarah had hoped to land a solid hit on Six to at least stun him. But with no movement wasted, Six barely slipped underneath the attack, dodging it. Lightning fast he bobbed and weaved under her arm, and followed up with a devastating left hook. Despite her armor and aura, Sarah still felt that punch hit her liver as her body crumpled. Raising his leg up, Six then spartan push kicked the sentinel right in the torso, sending her backwards.
While the super soldiers boxed, Thane charged Pyrrha first, raising his pistol and firing several shots at her. The pellets pinged off of her shield as she raised Akoúo̱ up. Once the thermal clip was spent, Pyrrha dashed forward as well. Pyrrha was faster than the drell, cutting the distance first and attacking with a swift, horizontal strike.
But Thane's honed reflexes wouldn't allow him to be caught by such a simple attack. Raising his own sword perpendicular to hers, he stopped the strike dead in its tracks. Charging his biotics in his left hand, he then blasted Pyrrha backwards with a biotic throw. As the red head was forced back, Thane swiftly switched to his pistol and unloaded onto her flew in the air.
The shots rang true, slamming into her aura and taking a good chunk with them. But Pyrrha wouldn't let such an attack go unanswered. Using the momentum of the biotic throw, Pyrrha tucked backwards and flipped to regain her balance. While flipping she flung her shield right for Thane, enhancing its speed with her semblance. The shield turned into a buzzing discus as it flew too fast for Thane to counter. Akoúo̱ slammed into the assassin's chest, knocking him down and stunning him as well.
Her opponent temporarily down, Pyrrha took the opportunity to check on her partner. An opportunity that couldn't have come at a better time as Six had mounted Sarah on the ground, trying to twist her into an arm bar.
Quickly, Pyrrha shifted Miló into its rifle form and fired several shots at the Spartan. Dust rounds pinged off his Six's shields, the attack forcing him to raise his arms to guard. The shots didn't do much but it was more than enough of a distraction for Sarah to capitalize on. Bucking her hips Sarah forced Six off of her, and from the ground hit him in the chest with a straight side kick. Six was knocked a few feet back, giving the sister of steel enough room to stand back up.
Sarah retreated to Pyrrha's side, while Six and Thane regrouped as well. Taking a second to catch their breaths, the teams took this opportunity to propose a new strategy.
"I know you two are having your lover's quarrel, but it seems that Six is getting the better of you." Pyrrha quietly whispered to Sarah. Sarah shot a glare at the huntress, who smirked in return. It wasn't often that Pyrrha was the deliverer of the teasing, so she'd enjoy it while she could. "How about we trade partners?"
Quickly battle scenarios went through Sarah's mind. With both her aura and power armor, she should be able to take down Thane. Pyrrha would probably have as much trouble with Six as she did, but her polarity would give her an edge.
"Sounds good." Sarah replied, cracking her knuckles.
Immediately the duo traded places, facing down their new opponents. Thane and Six were slightly surprised by this. The two shared a quick glance with each other, Six only shrugging in response, as they would easily adapt to the new fight. Taking that as acknowledgement, Thane lobbed his pistol to Six, who deftly caught it and aimed down its sights, before taking his own sword stance in front of Sarah.
As Sarah raised an eyebrow at the action, Thane explained, "It's only fair. After all, you are not using a gun, so I will not."
Sarah scowled and puffed some air out of her nose in frustration. While he didn't mean it, to Sarah it sounded like he was taking it easy on her. And she's sick of being underestimated. And so Sarah charged right for Thane, intent on tackling him to the ground. Seeing her direct attack, Thane charged his biotics and attempted to pull her towards him. He hoped to throw her off her balance with his biotics to give him an opportunity to slip passed her armor and aura.
However Sarah had long since become accustomed to battle opponents with such telekinetic abilities. Taking a page from Pyrrha book, as soon as she felt her body be pulled forward, Sarah jumped forward as well. The power of her armor and aura adding to her momentum as she shifted her body mid air into a leaping punch.
The attack was sure to be a knockout blow and Thane knew it. It was only thanks to his drell physiology combined with his own aura that he had the capabilities to narrowly dodge the punch, twisting his body out of the way as Sarah landed in all of her metallic glory. With no hesitation Thane moved to counter attack, swinging his blade in a series of rapid fire strikes enhanced by his own aura. But the attacks only seemed to harmlessly bounce off of Sarah's armor and she raised her arms to turtle the onslaught.
Meanwhile Six took advantage of the switch by attempting to overpower his new opponent. He charged forward, pistol level as he fired several shots at the huntress. Pyrrha met his attack head on, twirling her blade and deflecting the bullets with each swing. When the two Spartans clashed, Pyrrha attacked first with a thrust towards Six's helmet.
But Six proved faster than the huntress anticipated and dodged the attack with ease, cutting the distance even further as he moved to hand to hand range. Six was relentless as he threw punch after punch. For every attack that Pyrrha was able to deflect or redirect with her semblance, Six threw two more that landed. The series of attacks was so unrelenting that Pyrrha barely had time to think, her body working solely off of instincts to block and dodge.
Six then threw a jab-cross combo that connected with Pyrrha's face, snapping her head back. Seeing the opportunity, Six raised his leg up for another spartan push kick. However, Pyrrha saw the attack coming, and with a subtle use of her semblance was able to retake the advantage. As Six's leg was raised in the air for the kick, Pyrrha grabbed onto his standing leg with her polarity, and yanked the foot backwards. This threw Six off balance, causing his kick to flail uselessly.
The interruption caused only a moment of confusion for Six, which a champion fighter like Pyrrha could easily capitalize on. Stepping forward Pyrrha grabbed onto Six's kicking leg and moved to sweep his standing leg and throw him to the ground. However Noble-Six would not let not let himself simply be taken down. So as Pyrrha swept him down, Six latched onto her shoulders, dragging her down as well as several hundreds pounds of weight yanked her forward.
As the two hit the ground, Six was able to free his foot from Pyrrha's grasp and tried to maneuver her into a triangle choke. Pyrrha felt Six's legs wrap around her neck as he moved to suffocate her, and she knew she only had a few seconds to counter before she'd be knocked out. Calling on her polarity once again, Pyrrha levitated both her and Six several feet into the air, before driving him down into the dirt. The impact freed Pyrrha from Six's grasp as she then jumped back to gain distance. Before Six could stand and begin his counter, Pyrrha used her polarity on his armor to pin Six down instead, immobilizing him.
As this was happening, Thane and Sarah continued to trade blows with one another. They were at an impasse as Thane lacked the capabilities to get through Sarah's defenses, while Sarah lacked the skill and speed to take down Thane. Stepping back, Thane took a moment to assess his surroundings.
He saw that Six was currently down and unable to assist, but trying to save him while Sarah was on the field was very risky. Thane glanced back at Sarah and quickly began mentally going through possible tactics and maneuvers he could use. Unfortunately for him, the only strategies he could think of to get passed Sarah's indomitable defenses were lethal maneuvers not suitable for a training match.
So, Thane ultimately decided to go for the riskier play with the higher reward. Hoping to distract Sarah, Thane threw his sword at the sentinel, sending it soaring like a javelin right for her. As soon as the blade left his grasp, he charged his biotics to pull Pyrrha off of his teammate. However Sarah would not be as distracted as he hoped, as she dashed forward as soon as Thane looked away from her, tanking the sword strike and ignoring it as it deflected off of her armor. Before Thane could unleash his biotics, Sarah was already upon him, disabling him with a leaping superman punch.
The strike resounded with an audible CLAP as Thane was knocked to the ground.
"Oooo." Was all Shepard had to say as she felt that punch from where she was standing. Seeing that Thane was out and Six was immobilized, Shepard clapped to get their attention and called the match. "And with that we have our winners. Sarah and Pyrrha, good job changing it up when your previous tactics failed. Six and Thane, you did well, but you gave your opponents too many opportunities. If you kept your pistol, Thane, you could've worn Sarah down from afar."
The fighters all responded with various acknowledgements, dusting themselves off and helping each other up. As they did, Wynne moved forward to do a quick check up for any injuries. With a green light from the medic, Shepard was about to begin the second round when a voice called out behind her.
"Shepard. I need you in the CIC." Snake called as he appeared on the scene.
Shepard turned to Snake, surprised by his sudden appearance, before looking back at the fighters who froze as well. "Got it, Boss. Wynne, you're in charge until I get back."
Wynne nodded and moved to take Shepard's place as referee as the Commander followed Snake to the command center.
Shepard walked in step with Snake for several moments before they reached the command center. When they arrived at their destination, Snake lit up a cigar as he led the Commander to a table with various stacks of intel reports and photographs.
"So Boss, what's going on?" Shepard asked as Snake puffed his cigar.
"The interrogation of Bacara went well." Snake began. "We now know the name of the man leading the Empire's forces."
Shepard raised her eyebrows in surprise. Part of her was curious as to what methods Snake used to get Bacara to talk, but she knew better than to ask. "So, who is it?"
"His name is Thrawn, Grand Admiral Thrawn. From what I've gathered from Bacara, he's some kind of alien Napoleon."
"Does Galen know anything about him?"
Snake shook his head. "No, I've spoken to him about this already. He only has a cursory knowledge of Thrawn at best, and never met him in person. During the time that Galen served underneath Darth Vader, Thrawn was operating in the Unknown Regions of his galaxy, and he was not privy to his activities. What he does know, is that even Vader respected Thrawn's strategic mind, which means he will be a deadly foe."
Shepard's face adopted a grim expression. If someone like that was leading the Empire, with their exceedingly large amount of resources and manpower, the Legion underestimated the amount of work they had cut out for them. "Don't suppose you have any good news?" The Commander added on.
The Boss nodded. "While it's taken some time, T3 has finished translating the texts from the Archives. From what he's found, the ruins located in the Super Mutant territory is known as the Temple of Order, while the ruins in Korriban is the Citadel of Darkness. If we really were brought to this world by some goddess of order, we know where we're going to get some answers."
"Well that's good then. Let's head up there and ring the doorbell." Shepard was more than ready to shove her boot up the ass of some cosmic entity who thought she could mess with them.
"But… there's a complication." the Boss added on.
Shepard sighed. "Of course there is. What is it this time?"
"After I finished my interrogation, our sensors picked up something in the super mutant territory. A spike in radiation. A massive one. I consulted with Sarah, and we came to the same conclusion. The super mutants are moving nukes through their territory." Snake stoically said.
Despite not drinking anything, Shepard did a spit take. "What!? Nukes in the hands of those monsters!? Those idiots will kill everyone with that! Do we know where!?"
Snake puffed his cigar one more time. "Once I received the report, I performed a solo sneaking mission into the Capital Wasteland. Funny enough, your field trip with Sev provided a good opportunity for me to get in." Snake put out his cigar and pulled out a series of photographs.
Shepard shoved down her annoyance that the Boss had performed a solo stealth mission without informing anyone and looked at the intel. The first photo was that of a building Shepard had seen in her history books, the US Capitol Building, albeit a ruined, post-apocalyptic version. The second photo was of an army of super mutants, including two massive behemoth super mutants easily 6 to 7 meters tall, dragging what looked like a bipedal walker, similar to the AT-STs she'd seen, but far larger, and armed with a massive railgun on its right side.
"The super mutants weren't exactly subtle with their transportation. Entire armies were dedicated to moving equipment, all to one place." Snake explained, pointing to the Capitol Building. "Weapons, missiles, and more are all heading here."
"So the muties are stocking piling WMDs." Shepard said. "So it's safe to assume that they're using the Capitol Building as either their headquarters, armory, or some kind of staging area. Snake, this is showing a much higher level of strategic thinking than we've seen the super mutants display before."
Snake nodded in agreement. "And the worst part of it all, is that they now have their hands on a Metal Gear. Specifically, Metal Gear ZEKE." Snake pointed to the photo of the bipedal walker.
"Metal Gear?" Shepard parroted.
"A Metal Gear is a classification of nuclear capable bipedal tanks. They were designed to fire nuclear warheads from railguns, eliminating the need for missiles or launchpads, allowing them to be deployed against any target in the world on any kind of terrain." Snake explained.
Shepard's tactical mind immediately began thinking of both scenarios for using and for fighting against such Metal Gears. She was shocked that even though her universe was over two centuries more advanced than Snake's, they had been able to develop a weapon of this destructive capability. She shuddered to think of how the First Contact War might've gone if humanity had access to weapons like these, but also wondered if these beasts could go toe to toe with the smaller of Reapers.
Shepard was cut out of her musings as Snake continued his exposition. "Metal Gear ZEKE was specifically a weapon designed and built by my former organization, Militaires Sans Frontières. It was designed to be a deterrent to protect our mercenary nation from hostile countries that opposed us."
Shepard thought there was a lot to unpack in that single sentence, but decided to ask only one question to stay on topic. "Did it work?"
Snake turned to her, his tired, older eye meeting her's. "No, it didn't. Regardless, we have a mission to plan."
Nodding her head, Shepard leaned on the table to look at the maps the Legion had gathered of the Capital Wasteland. "We have two objectives, the Temple of Order and the Capitol Building. So we'll need two teams and a Hell of a lot of fire power. Let's get this thing started."
A/N, 3/17/20: Hey everyone, I hope you're all staying safe and healthy during these crazy times. I for one, am now working from home for an indeterminate amount of time, which means I'll probably be getting more fic updates done quicker. Gotta find those silver linings.
Review Responses:
Arcanis7274: Starcraft is one that I plan on working with. But this is a long fic so takes a while for characters to get introduced.
And with that, I hope you all enjoyed my chapter, don't forget to wash your hands, avoid crowds, and leave enough toilet paper in stores for the next person. I'll see you in the next one!