Mother Base...
Standing within the tent that currently housed Mother Base's armory, Shepard double checked the kinetic barriers on her Blood Dragon armor as she finished donning her gear. It was a well practiced motion she had done a thousand times over her career as a soldier, and one that she had yet to overlook. She had heard dozens of different adages about the necessity of being prepared, and she could without a doubt say that all of them were correct. As the commander loaded up the rest of her usual arsenal of weapons, she heard the flaps to the tent open up. To her surprise, she saw Pyrrha quietly shuffle her way into the armory to join her.
"Hey Pyr, everything alright?" Shepard nonchalantly asked as she holstered her geth plasma shotgun to her back.
Pyrrha shrugged as she sat on a nearby wooden table. "Doing as best as I can be, I suppose. I feel like I would be doing better if I wasn't being excluded from today's mission." she said with a small amount of annoyance in her voice. "My powers are more than suited for fighting geth."
Today, the Legion was going to perform a raid against the ruins called the Armory. It was a sneaking mission to infiltrate the Ilos and the Armory while trying not to draw the ire of every geth in their territory. The team chosen was Snake, Shepard, Thane, and T3-M4, Snake for his expertise in stealth espionage, Shapard and Thane for their experience fighting geth, and T3 for his cyberwarfare defense.
Shepard shook her head at Pyrrha's words, and turned to face the teen with her arms crossed and face impassive. She looked Pyrrha right in the eyes, Shepard's stern gaze showing that she wasn't amused, and the more petulant teen looked away first.
Sighing, Shepard said, "Believe me Pyrrha, we're all aware of that. But this is a stealth mission we're going on. And while you're more than well trained, stealth isn't exactly your forte."
Pyrrha's lips pouted almost an imperceptible amount. "It's not like you have a reputation for being subtle either." the huntress shot back, but her words were teasing and lacked any actual spite in them.
Shepard smirked for a brief second, before indignantly defending herself. "Hey I can be stealthy when I want to! Did I ever tell you about the time I helped my master thief friend infiltrate a crime lord's party and commit a heist?" Despite the larceny, Shepard had to admit she was pretty proud of that night.
"And how did that mission end?" Pyrrha raised a brow unfazed.
Coughing into her hand, Shepard flushed a bit. "Alright, we may have tripped the alarm and had to blast our way out. But my partner Kasumi jumped up on top of a gunship to disable it so we could kill the crime lord, so that was pretty cool." Shepard tried to gloat, but Pyrrha remained unimpressed.
Goddamnit when did I become an old person trying to impress teenagers with my war stories. Shepard groaned before trying to defend herself once more.
"Ok fine that was a bad example. There was this one stealth mission on a planet called Virmire-" Shepard cut herself off, thinking, that mission ended with us detonating a nuke. "Actually no not that one. How about this one mission on Omega where we pretended to be mercenaries to save my vigilante friend-" that ended with a firefight with another gunship that nearly killed Garrus.
As Shepard struggled to come up with an answer, Pyrrha snarked, "You need a minute there Shepard? I could come back later if you like." It wasn't often that Pyrrha could get one on Shepard, so she was going to milk it.
"No, no, no… I'm sure I have something." Shepard pondered for a few more seconds before her eyes lit up with recognition. "Oh! I got one. Saving Thane's son! Thane and I were looking for his son Kolyat to stop him before he could comitt a murder. Had to shadow the target and wait until Kolyat showed himself so we could intercept him." Shepard had a satisfied grin on her face.
Pyrrha chuckled. "What, so no car chases, air strikes, or fire fights?"
"Nope!" Shepard grinned, popping the 'p' as she said it.
"Well, I'm sure that was Thane was the reason your cover wasn't blown."
Shepard shrugged. "Well, Thane'll be on mission with me, so I'm sure he'll keep me in line."
Pyrrha smiled at that, but it quickly left her face as she sighed. "I just wish I could go with you guys, watch both of your backs."
Frowning, Shepard walked to the huntress and sat beside her. "Pyrrha, what's going on? You're not normally this… sulky."
Pyrrha's own frown deepened "I'm not sulking! I'm just…" Pyrrha sighed, collecting her thoughts. "I just hate the fact that I'm just sitting around in base. It makes me feel… useless, especially after all of the revelations we received. I feel like I don't know if what I'm doing is enough."
"Believe me Pyr, none of us know if what we're doing is enough." Shepard snorted, but then saw how her sarcasm didn't lift the teen's spirits. "Sorry that came out wrong. Look, the honest truth is, we're all out of our depth here. All we can do is hope that every small victory that we achieve will help us win in the end. And staying here training the others, as well as watching over Lileath's unconscious butt is important work. Nobody here knows how to train someone in the use of aura as much as you do."
"I suppose that's true." Pyrrha muttered out.
Shepard gave Pyrrha a friendly pat on the shoulder. "Besides Pyr. Being bored in war is a good thing. It means people aren't actively trying to kill you right now. Savor it, because that's going to become a luxury from here on out."
Pyrrha had a thoughtful look on her face before pivoting topics. "Putting that aside, I think there is one thing I can at least do to help you out on your mission."
"Oh, what's that?" Shepard asked with a raised brow.
"Your aura of course! You're the only one who hasn't gotten it unlocked yet, correct?"
"Oh yeah, almost forgot about that. You want to awaken it now?" Shepard asked as she cocked her head to the side.
Pyrrha nodded. "Best I do it now, rather than burdening one of your squadmates on mission."
"Fair enough. Let's get to it then." Shepard stood up from her seat and walked in front of Pyrrha.
Placing both hands on the commander, Pyrrha spoke her mantra once more. When she finished, Shepard was engulfed in a light blue glow, signifying the color of her soul.
Shepard held her hands up, examining the energy field now around her. "Aw man blue? I always liked red more."
"Perhaps the color is to represent more your virtuous nature as a paragon of good, rather than simple preference." Pyrrha chuckled.
"Still, thanks Pyr. I'll be sure to put this power to good use."
Pyrrha sent a small smile. "Just be careful, and take care of the others as well."
"I will." Shepard gave a fox-like grin. "While Snake and I are gone, it'll be your job to hold down the fort. Which means no parties and no inviting strange boys over while we're gone."
Pyrrha flushed red and smacked the commander in the back as Jane struggled to restrain her chuckling.
Not long after their talk, Pyrrha and Shepard parted ways as the commander met up with the rest of the fireteam, Snake, Thane, and T3-M4. Snake walked up first to meet her. As usual, the team was given an animal designation that Snake seemed to be so fond of, the current team being Fireteam Mantis.
"Boss." Shepard respectfully greeted.
"Shepard." he returned. "You're running late. Everything fine?"
"Just had a talk with Pyrrha. Got my aura unlocked." Shepard gave an experimental flex with her aura, causing her to glow light blue.
Snake nodded his head and turned, gesturing Shepard to follow. "Good. You're familiar with the mission parameters? We'll be flying in low to avoid radar detection, landing a click away from the Armory. From there, we move in on foot. Our goal is to reach the Armory without alerting the geth to our presence. Once there, we infiltrate the Armory, eliminate any defenses, then call in extraction so we can leave with as much as we can carry."
Shepard simply nodded her head in return. While she already knew this, going over objectives beforehand was never a bad thing. From there, Shepard and Snake converged with the rest of Fireteam Mantis and boarded the pelican. Noble-Six was the pelican pilot for this mission, and would both infil and exfil the team, as well as provide fire support if needed. With no hesitation, the fireteam loaded up into the pelican's blood tray and the operation was a go.
As Johnson and Church continued to hoof it through the Capital Wasteland, the Sergeant Major focused on putting one foot in front of the other, trying to shut out all distractions, particularly one annoying blue asshole.
"I spy… something grey." Church drawled out.
"I am not playing this game." Johnson growled out.
Church's holographic form flashed red for a brief moment. "Hey look here asshole, we've been walking in a straight line for two goddamn days and have had literally nothing to do. And I think at a minimum, one hundred times faster than you, so two days is a long time for me. If I don't get some kind of mental stimulation, I swear I am going to go rampant. So I fucking spy, something grey."
Johnson sighed, "Is it concrete?"
"Yeah. It's concrete." Church weakly admitted. After a beat of silence, he spoke up again. "Well it's your turn now."
"I spy something, light blue, holographic, and in need of an ass kicking." Johnson grit through his teeth.
Church crossed his arms, making his disapproval obvious through body language thanks to his faceless avatar. "You know, I get the feeling that you're not getting into the spirit of the game."
"Church soon you'll be feeling my boot going up your virtual ass-"
"WAAAGH!" Johnson's tirade was cut off by a deafening roar as 4 purple skinned nightkin super mutants appeared around Johnson wielding both sledge hammers and jagged swords carved out of car bumpers.
"Sweet Mother of God!" Johnson cried out as he rolled backwards, narrowly avoiding a blade swing. Raising up his shotgun he pulled the trigger, blasting the offending nightkin back but not killing it. "Damn it Church! Why weren't you keeping an eye out for them!" Johnson spun about face and broke out into a sprint as the nightkins bounded after him.
"Ok yeah, this one may be on me. But! To be fair, whatever they're using for camouflage is fucking with my motion sensors. Some kind of ambient radiation." Church shrugged.
"Ambient radi- Oh sonnuva DIE FRANKENSTEIN!" Johnson fired his shotgun once again, this time scoring a headshot on a nightkin and killing it.
Johnson couldn't put too much thought into arguing with Church as the mutants caught up to him, their longer limbs allowing for a longer stride. Soon enough, Johnson found himself surrounded on three sides by the super mutants. Unfortunately, Johnson knew it took at least two blasts each to put one of these monsters down, and he had four shells left in his shotgun. It was going to be close, but Johnson had a few tricks up his sleeve, and no punkass purple brute wannabes were going to be the ones who take him down.
Raising his shotgun up Johnson was about to let out a battlecry as the supermutants charged for him as well. Before either side could take a step however, lightning crashed down around them, striking the nightkin and incinerating them.
"Whoa! What's with the light show!?" Church yelled as Johnson covered his eyes from the blinding light.
Within seconds, the lightning storm seemed to recede, and leaving only the ashen remains of the supermutants to mark its passing. The dust then moved, pushed away by an unnatural wind as something descended from above them. Johnson snapped his shotgun up, and laid eyes on an alien he'd never seen before.
The alien was tall, easily standing over 7 feet. It stood bipedal like most humanoids, with bare feet that showed two digits with talon-like nails, and four fingered hands with similarly claw-like nails. It had pale blue-grey scaly skin, and donned resplendent golden armor tinged with blue highlights and crystals. It had a diamond shaped head, with two glowing blue eyes, and strangely enough no mouth or nose. Finally a series of long, dreadlock-like tendrils flowed out of the back of its head.
Then the figure spoke. Not vocally, as the absence of a mouth would make that impossible, but directly into Johnson's and somehow Church's minds. "En taro Adun, humans! Have no fear, for I mean you no ill will! I am Tassadar, high templar of the Protoss, and friend to your terran kin."
Johnson and Church stared blankly at Tassadar's entrance and proclamations, before looking at one another, then back at Tassadar.
"There's… a lot to unpack in what you just said buddy." Church mumbled.
"Indeed. But I fear we have no time for such elucidation. I sensed your presence quite some time ago, and I must ask for your forgiveness, but I read the human Johnson's mind, studying your memories and past in order to ensure you would be amiable to conversation." Tassadar spoke with confidence as he floated down to meet the others.
"You what!? Stay outta my goddamn head." Johnson snapped.
"From now on I shall. As I said, it was merely a precautionary measure on my part, and is not something that I will allow to become habit." Tassadar assured as he finally landed beside Johnson, towering over him.
"Jesus christ you are a mean looking motherfucker up close." Church said, slightly awestruck. "Puts the aliens in my world to shame."
"Which ones? You mean Elites, Brutes, or Hunters?" Johnson asked.
Church brough his hand to his chin in actual contemplation. "Oh fuck, you know we kinda just called them aliens. Uh they're like seven feet tall but always hunched over, kinda lizard-y, got four jaws, speak like 'blarggh!' or 'wort wort wort!'" Church gave his best impression of an alien.
Surprisingly enough, Johnson was able to understand what Church was talking about. "Right, Elites then." Johnson then scowled and looked disbelievingly at Church, "Church, how do you not even know the names of the aliens we're fighting? You must be the dumbest Smart AI I've ever seen."
The holographic Spartan seemed taken aback. "Ok first off, rude. And second, I'm not a full AI but a fragment. My designation is Epsilon, and was split off my original AI, the Alpha. Now why don't you use that high school GED of yours to figure out how many other fragments there are. God knows the Corps wouldn't take in anyone with an actual diploma. Might intimidate the crayon eaters."
Johnson started flushing with anger. "Well us crayon munchers are the only thing keeping the Covenant from blowin up all your precious servers and power generators. I'd like to see how long an AI like you could hold a Super MAC without the boys in green to help."
Church scoffed. "I could probably hold it for as long as it takes a marine to do basic algebra."
Johnson stepped forward toward Church's hologram and stuffed his finger into the light-based projection. "Listen here you glorified nightlight, you better start showing some respect before I turn your virtual ass into actual dust."
"Perhaps it would be more productive to focus our attention back to our situation." Tassadar cut in, causing both figures to look at him. "My psi storm was sure to attract the attention of the other savages that call these ruins their home. I believe it would be best for us to take this… conversation… on the move."
Johnson and Church shared another look, and Church shrugged. "Yeah sure, I'm over it already. How about you leatherneck?"
"Just peachy." Johnson ground out, fantasizing about crushing Church's AI chip.
"Then we have an accord." Tassadar boomed. "Come must be swift and move with stealth." Tassadar turned and gestured to them to follow.
"No offense big guy, but you don't exactly look like the sneaky, stealthy type." Church quipped.
Tassadar turned back briefly, meeting Church's look with a blank gaze of his own, before calling upon the powers of the Void. Darkness shrouded around Tassadar's form, and as the shadows embraced him he began to move as silent as any true Dark Templar.
Johnson raised an eyebrow at Church, "Church, why do you have to taunt the eight foot tall, psychic alien?"
"Pssh he's just showing off."
Johnson shook his head and took off after Tassadar.
"So big T." Church started once they were on the move again. "Where are you from, because like I said before you look nothing like the aliens I've seen."
"The Protoss people hail from the world of Aiur." Tassadar spoke directly into their minds. "And I do not share the appearance of any aliens you know of, because I believe we are not from the same universe."
"What!?" Both Church and Johnson squawked, breaking any semblance of stealth they had.
Tassadar turned to briefly glare at them before continuing. "When I read your mind, Sergeant Johnson, I was able to glean much about your society and people, as well as the foes you fought. And from what I can tell, your humanity differs greatly from the humanity of my realm."
"Those terran kin of mine you mentioned." Johnson recalled.
Tassadar nodded. "Indeed. The terrans as they were called, represented the humans of my galaxy. Their technology and even culture was quite far removed from your own, but they shared the same indomitable spirit and will that your own humanity has."
"Stop you'll make us blush." Church deadpanned, causing Johnson to glare at him again, causing Church to put up his hands in surrender. "Alright I'll stop. But still, multidimensional aliens. Pretty crazy."
"Not necessarily." Johnson responded. "Back in some of those stores, I saw food and newspapers dating back to 2077, talking about possible nuclear war with China. That never happened in my world, which means this place has another kind of humanity in it as well."
"Great, this plot doesn't sound convoluted at all." Church grumbled. "By the way, do you even know where you're going Tassadar? We're following you so we're kinda just assuming you know what you're doing."
Without breaking stride Tassadar answered, "I go where my path takes me."
"Oh of course he's fucking cryptic." Church muttered.
"And my path." Tassadar continued, ignoring Church, "leads me to others. I sense we are not alone in this land, as there are more than just the mindless mutants that roam these wastes."
As Tassadar finished speaking, Church began to pick some strange noises on his sensors, the sound of a high-frequency hum, as well as the distant popping of a revolver.
A/N 8/24/20: Happy one year anniversary to Legion of the Damned! Crazy to think that it's been a year since I first started writing fan fiction. Crazy. Anyway, now we got even more schmucks joining us in this battle royale. Tassadar was one of the first characters I wanted to add in the second wave of Legionnaires. It's been quite some time since I've played StarCraft so I hope I got his character right.
Review Responses:
Brother Bov: I'm glad you like it. Also I changed the tags because I am 100% a ho for stats and was hoping that switching it to Star Wars would get in more views. Not even going to try and lie about that.
Guest: Thanks. And that's an interesting idea for a crossover.
Hunter Zickafoose: Glad you're excited!
TheDoctor1998: I will say, I've never seen Tales of Ladybug, but dang that sounds dark. Isn't that supposed to be a kid's show?
Hellz swordsman: All good suggestions! I will say, anime is one I probably wouldn't get into as my knowledge of most animes would be more limited than games. Also, since I already have multiple characters from ME, I probably won't introduce anyone else from that universe.
Nilochristou: While a lot of Spartan IIs and IIIs would fit super well, like the rest of Noble Squad, Spartan Black Team, etc, I probably won't add them in just to leave more room for characters from other franchises, since I already have 3 characters from Halo.
And with that, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, keep staying safe, and I'll see you later.