On the Border of Kabul and the Forever Fall Forest...
VP-292 was one of the many probe droids the Imperial Remnants had under their command. True to its purpose, VP, along with many other spy droids, floated across the crimson forest of the Forever Fall. In the weeks previous, it was impossible for any such droids to explore the forests without getting shredded by the various grimm denizens that inhabited it.
But as Darth Nihilus brought the dark side animals to heel by forcing the Grimm Dragon to serve, the master of the Imperial Forces also became the master of the grimm, and the Imperial and Covenant forces were able to tentatively start to make their way into the forest. Despite the unnerving atmosphere caused by the now docile grimm, the forces of Chaos began to slowly establish forward operating bases within the Forever Fall.
And with the forest under their control, the Empire was now free to begin sending probes further and further from their home territory of Korriban. This included VP-292. As VP continued to float its way through the Forever Fall forest, carefully cataloguing all of the grimm it encountered for research purposes, it eventually made its way to the border territory between the Forest and the mountainous-desert biome designated Afghanistan.
With a plethora of drones already scouting out the forest, VP began its new mission to explore the deserts in search of signs for the insurgents. VP-292 spent the next several days scouring the arid plain, hiding during the day while exploring at night under cover of darkness. It was by chance that VP happened to see a pelican, one of the dropships used by the insurgents flying to a plateau that actually had a camouflaged castle atop of it. VP zoomed in and was able to get a recording of two known insurgents, the alien assassin known as Thane Krios and the clone commando known as Sev, exiting the pelican with a bounty of stolen Imperial supplies.
Grand Admiral Thrawn smiled as he reviewed the footage. While the Imperial strategy of simply sending out probes en masse and hoping one would find something was rather crude and boorish in his opinion, its effectiveness was often proved true due to the Empire's overwhelming industrial power. And while they no longer had access to the mighty factories and forges of the Empire, the remnant here had enough probes supplied that such a tactic was still viable.
It was viable enough that it allowed Thrawn to discover the location of the insurgents a second time. However, this time Thrawn would not rush a hastily assembled team to try and decapitate the Legion. Thrawn had learned from his mistakes at the Temple of Order. This was where Thrawn respectfully diverged from the leadership style of Darth Vader.
Vader was prone to killing subordinates for even the smallest failure, and while that would inspire the rest to perform at their very best out of fear, Thrawn often found that such a style of leadership more often than not merely resulted in loss of potential. Failure was a tool to be learned from, and killing one's men for their first failure would mean they would never get the chance to learn, to adapt. And adapt he would. He would slowly move a much larger force numbering in the hundreds into Afghanistan to overwhelm them.
The strength of these insurgents lay in stealth and maneuverability combined with the sheer quality of their warriors. It was a blunder on Thrawn's part to try and match them with similar numbers. A blunder he would not make again.
And so Thrawn stood from his seat and made his way through the black, obsidian corridors of the Citadel of Chaos. While many of the infantry under his command have made comments about this place being, "completely fucking evil," Thrawn found such comments to be both ignorant and wrong. Thrawn greatly appreciated the opportunity to study the architecture of this structure. The jagged, roughly hewn walls combined with the obviously violent sculptures of skulls and malicious looking eight-pointed stars taught him much of the previous denizens of this lair. They were violent, brutish, and savage people who prided themselves on the carnage they wrought. Subjugating them would've made for an interesting challenge.
But that was neither here nor there as Thrawn entered his master's throne room, a massive open hall held up by several cracked pillars. In the center of the hall, he could see Kai Leng, Tartarus, and Skull Face standing next to a large pool of unidentifiable black ooze. And on the far end of the hall, sitting upon a black iron throne decorated by uncountable skulls, was Darth Nihilus.
Walking to the foot of Nihilus' throne, Thrawn kneeled before his master, saying, "My Lord, I have found them."
Nihilus stared at the chiss, before simply responding with a slight nod. To an outside observer, it may not have seemed like much, but to Thrawn he knew that it was Nihilus giving him permission to do what he had to destroy his enemies. Thrawn bowed his head in deference once more, and rose to stand beside Skull Face and Kai Leng. Skull Face gave the Admiral a polite nod, which Thrawn returned, while Leng merely scoffed at his very presence. Tartarus seemed to care little for Thrawn's presence as well, merely looking bored at the pool of ooze.
It was then that Nihilus stood, making his way towards the viscous fluid. Nihilus raised both his hands, and from them energy began to crackle out, a cacophony of colorful lightning exploding from his fingers that struck the pool.
The ooze began to bubble and shake violently as the chaotic energy charged it. Tartarus, who had never before seen such a thing, felt his hair rise as he stepped back from the terrifying performance. Another bolt of energy struck the black goo, causing four human sized masses of ooze to levitate out of it. The amorphous blobs began to spike and pulsate, twisting and writhing until shapes began to form from it. Arms, legs, a head, each of the blobs became more and more humanoid in shape, until four distinct figures appeared, floating above the pool. Once the figures took shape fully, Nihilus released his control on them, allowing them to fall to the ground, landing on a solid obsidian ground as the pool of ooze had now solidified.
The first of the figures that Nihilus summoned was an older woman, with long blonde hair and blue eyes, her head was covered by a red hood and her body clad in plate mail. Her arms, part of her torso, and her face seemed to be covered in some kind of glowing red crystal, and in her right arm was a jagged sword made of the same material. This was Meredith Stanndar, former Knight-Commander of the Kirkwall Templars.
The second figure was that of a young man, a kind of near-human Thrawn surmised, due to the fact that he had a pair of bull horns sticking out of his forehead that swept back along with his spiky red hair. He was clad in mostly black and grey clothing, decorated and embroidered by deep red in a flower motif. On his hip was a kind of katana-gun hybrid, and on his face was a bonewhite mask that had four slits for his eyes. This was Adam Taurus, former terrorist and leader of the White Fang.
The third figure was undoubtedly not a human at all, but a massive alien easily towering over them at 15 feet tall. The alien's heavily muscled form was protected by gold-trimmed white armor, with two massive wings projecting from his back. His bald, scaled white head was half covered by facemask, but his deep set red eyes remained visible. This was Ghaul, Dominus of the Red Legion, and former leader of the Cabal.
And lastly, was another human, and one whose form Thrawn was somewhat familiar with. It was an armored human, who wore a similar type of power armor as one of the insurgents, though his armor was coloured white, and he had a helmet that had a much larger, spherical shaped visor that took up nearly half of the helmet. On his back was a weapon that Thrawn recognized as a brute shot from his new Covenant allies. This was the Meta, formerly known as Agent Maine of Project Freelancer.
Tartarus snarled at the appearance of the Meta, mistakenly identifying him as one of the demons of his universe. But Tartarus would not attack him yet, as not even the brute's rage would overcome his fear of Nihilus.
The four figures stood, obviously dumbstruck and disoriented at their situation, looking between each other with bewildered expressions before focusing in on Darth Nihilus, who silently stood above them.
Confusion quickly gave way to anger in the Dominus as he stepped aggressively towards Darth Nihius. "Where are we, human!?" Ghaul roared.
Nihilus didn't respond to Ghaul. He didn't even bother giving a physical reaction as the Dominus of the cabal was so beneath him. Instead he left the task of responding to his subordinates.
Thrawn stepped up and calmly responded, looking down at the alien warlord despite it being over twice as tall as he was. "My Lord, Darth Nihilus has summoned all of you here for a purpose. He has saved you from the very void of death itself to serve him here."
Of the newly summoned warriors of Chaos, both Ghaul and Adam reacted poorly to Thrawn's declaration, the former scoffing at the very notion of a human commanding him, and the latter snarling angrily. The Meta and Meredith however, glanced at the two, and stepped back, content to merely watch at how things unfold rather than challenge the stranger who apparently rose them from the dead.
"Serve?! I am Ghaul! Dominus of the Red Legion, and I will bow to no creature of the Darkness!" Ghaul proudly boomed out.
"And I am no one's slave!" Adam hissed out, drawing his sword Wilt from its scabbard.
Both Adam and Ghaul charged the Dark Lord of the Sith. But neither warrior made it more than five feet before they were blasted backwards by a massive storm of black and red lightning. Ghaul and Adam screamed in pain as they were launched across the grand hall, landing in smoldering heaps.
Darth Nihilus strode forward, hands crackling with power as he moved to punish the two for their disrespect. Meanwhile Thrawn took the opportunity to approach the two more docile recruits, Meredith and Meta.
"I take it neither of you wish to test my lord's might?" Thrawn inquired.
The white-armored Meta simply growled, crossing his arms as he nonchalantly watched Nihilus torture his two fellows, both unable and unwilling to respond.
Meredith, her mind somewhat cleared from the Red-Lyrium addled state in which she died, said, "Your lord is obviously a being of power. And attacking our hosts when we have no idea of your numbers or capabilities is simply foolishness."
Thrawn allowed himself a small smirk. "A wise choice." he simply said as he listened to another crackle of lightning followed by Adam and Ghaul screaming out in pain once more. "You will all serve or be made to serve, same as the rest of us. Once those two are… broken in, we shall discuss what your roles shall be."
Meredith narrowed her eyes at Thrawn, and Thrawn could sense the Meta doing the same behind his visor, obviously grated by him immediately taking command of them, but neither wanted to fight back against him either.
"Understood." Meredith said through grit teeth.
With a nod of his head, Thrawn left the two newcomers and made his way for Skull Face, who watched their lord work with sadistic amusement.
"Skull Face." Thrawn began. "Are you interested in leading the attack on the insurgent stronghold?"
Skull Face raised a curious brow at the Chiss's offer. "You do not want to lead the assault yourself?" Thrawn could detect the hint of suspicion in the XOF commander's voice.
"I could, but I feel as though there would be a missed opportunity if I did." Thrawn coldy explained. "I know of the lust for vengeance you have in your heart for the leader of the insurgents, the so-called Snake. But your rage is also tempered by restraint." Thrawn cast a sideways glance at Kai Leng, who snarled in return. "I believe your emotional state will allow you to do what is necessary to ensure their destruction."
Skull Face gave Thrawn a long, blank look, trying to ascertain any hint of deception in his words. When he found none, he nodded. "I do not disagree with your assessment. Fine, I shall take command of the strike force you are assembling. Snake and the rest of his followers will die."
"Very good then." Thrawn simply responded.
"Are you sure it's not just your cowardice keeping you from leading the attack?" Leng sneered at Thrawn.
Thrawn sighed at Leng's outburst and said, "As always, Agent Leng, your humanocentric xenophobia is both childish and unbecoming. I do not need the glory of victory. I simply know that Skull Face here, not myself, is the best tool to lead his attack. No more, no less."
Leng growled and took a step towards the Grand Admiral, when another scream from Adam cut through the air. Leng gave a sideway glance at the young man being tortured, and backed off. Thrawn did not taunt Leng as the human retreated, as such conflict was needless and counterproductive. Instead, he chose to simply return his attention to the hazing of Ghaul and Adam as another flash of lightning sparked from Nihilus's hands.
Mother Base…
Exiting the subterranean basement, Fireteam Buffalo and their new guests entered the Main Keep to the bewildered looks of Sarah Lyons, who was in the middle of categorizing documents, as they entered the Legion's war room.
"New friends?" Sarah asked as all of the Legion's guests filed in, her eyes lingering on the golden armored Tassadar most of all.
"You know it!" Cayde-6 answered for them. Immediately his eyes zoomed in on a musty sofa couch that the Legion had found and leapt over its back to lay on it. "Real cool of you guys to let us crash at your place. Not that I mind sleeping in caves and ruins mind you. Oh hey! Rations!" Cayde found an old tin of Soviet Union rations and opened it up, shovelling the questionable food down his mechanical mouth.
"Can you even taste that?" Shepard asked.
Cayde's eyes jumped between the Commander and the food he was currently eating, before he shrugged and said, "It's the thought that counts."
Shepard rubbed her temple and elected to ignore Cayde as she turned to the others. "Ok. Six, Wynne, you two get Pyrrha to medbay. Sarah, go get everyone else. I'm calling a team meeting."
"Roger commander." said the chorus of replies.
It did not take long for the rest of the Legion to gather up in the War Room at Shepard's request. With Six and Wynne staying in medical to watch over Pyrrha, Boss was the last one to enter.
Boss, intent to speak with Shepard about their guests, made it about half way across the room when a voice called out.
"Boss!" the voice of Gray Fox gasped, his voice tinged by both his shock and the electronic modulator of his cybernetic suit.
Everyone turned to the cyborg ninja, who's shock could be seen throughout his entire body. However, Gray Fox quickly recomposed himself as he walked to the Boss and kneeled in front of him. "Boss, it's an honor to be by your side once more."
Snake's outward expression was mostly neutral, but everyone could tell he was a little put off by this. Snake clearly did not recognize who Gray Fox was, and wasn't sure what to say in response.
Luckily though, Gray Fox seemed to pick up on this as well, and chuckled to himself. "I suppose it's to be expected that you don't recognize me." With a mechanical hiss, the Gray Fox's mask retracted revealing a light skinned man with many scars, including his right eye which was damaged, leaving the iris white.
Venom Snake's eye did widen as he recognized who this was, albeit an older, more scarred version of the man he knew. "Gray Fox, Frank Jaeger."
Gray Fox nodded his head. "Indeed. It has been far too long, Boss. I suppose it shouldn't surprise me to find you in this land of the dead as well."
Boss paused for a moment, examining Gray Fox. Frank Jaeger was one of the many young people who were rescued by the Big Boss when the two bosses operated as mercenaries in the 1980s. While Frank and Naomi were rescued by the original Big Boss, Frank had worked with Venom Snake in Africa as part of Diamond Dogs, and then as part of Foxhound with the original Big Boss. Luckily, Gray Fox never knew that the two bosses were in fact separate people, but the same person all at the same time.
Pausing as he recollected all of this, Boss finally said, "What happened to you?"
Gray Fox stood as he began to explain. "During our revolution in Zanzibar Land, Solid Snake made far more progress against our forces than expected. Eventually I fought against him in one on one unarmed combat, and Snake proved the victor. During the encounter I was heavily wounded and left for dead. In fact I would have died if it wasn't for the Patriots."
Both Venom Snake and Gray Fox scowled at the name of their hated enemy. Gray Fox then continued. "The Patriots saved my life, but also turned me into this, a cyborg meant to serve them and their goals. Naomi was then able to help me escape, after which, things get hazy."
Snake had an inscrutable expression as he took in Gray Fox's news. Zanzibar Land was supposed to be the contingency if the Outer Heaven uprising failed, which it did when Venom Snake died. If the operation in Zanzibar Land also failed, that meant that the original Big Boss was probably also dead.
"What happened to the Patriots?" Snake asked.
Gray Fox shook his head. "That I do not know. I killed Dr. Clark in my escape from them, and afterwards I somehow came into conflict with both Solid Snake and Liquid Snake on Shadow Moses Island, and helped Solid in stopping Liquid from escaping with a new Metal Gear. But what role the Patriots had in that incident, and what happened to them after I do not know."
Processing this new information, Snake simply grunted in response. It was interesting to know what had occurred on his Earth following his death, but ultimately unimportant. "Understood. So what do you want to do now, Fox?"
Gray Fox paused to think. "Fighting… is the only thing I was ever good at. It's where I found my purpose. But I fought not for governments, nor for a paycheck, but for what I believed in. And I believed in you, Boss. I still believe in you. And I'll be happy to serve under you once more." Frank Jaeger saluted the Boss.
Snake nodded his head. "Good." He then turned to face all of the newcomers. "If you're all here to fight with us, you'll need to know what we're up against."
And so Snake explained everything that the Legion had found. The origins of the Final Destination, the existence of the cycles, the Goddess Lileath, and the forces of Chaos who now control the demiplane. The newcomers all listened with rapt attention, but their expressions were grim. The Legion was surrounded on all sides, outnumbered, outgunned, all while being chased by some kind of Chaos demi-god. When Snake finally finished, there was a tense silence amongst everyone in the room.
"So the situation is fucked?" Church was the first to find his voice again.
Shepard shook her head. "Not necessarily. There's still hope."
"I don't know about that Commander, I kinda agree with the little AI." Cayde cut in, his voice lacking the usual cocky enthusiasm. "Even back when I was immortal, and yes I was immortal by the way, I don't know if I could've taken on three or four different alien armies at the same time." Cayde shrugged and laid back into the sofa once more. "If it was just one or two, then sure I'd have it in the bag."
"Not necessarily." Tassadar finally spoke. "I believe you are being too pessimistic my friend. The mutants in the North do not seem to serve the forces of Chaos, as their brutish minds simply seek out conflict with anyone they can. Meanwhile to the East, the machines who live there would be immune to any mental control that Chaos could produce. Perhaps we could subvert one of them, and gain an army of our own."
Thinking about this, Shepard looked at Tassadar and said, "Well the Super Mutants were under the control of a powerful psychic being known as the Master. Snake, Sev, and Thane killed him a little while ago. Do you think it would be possible for you to take control of them with your psionic powers?"
Tassadar considered the proposition, tapping one of his large, clawed fingers on his chin, before shaking his head. "Perhaps if it were a handful of mutants, but controlling an entire race is something beyond even me. Only the most powerful of psionic creatures, such as the Zerg Overmind or Cerebrates could do that."
With that option shot, Sgt. Johnson spoke up. "What about those robots in the East you mentioned. The Geth? If they're just robots, can't they be hacked or something?"
T3 let out a burst of droidspeak that caused the newcomers to look at him confused.
Luckily Sev was there to translate. "T3 says he's been able to hack into Geth before, but it's the same issue as Tassadar. As soon as the Geth see a platform is compromised, they cut it off from the network, meaning he can only control maybe one or two at a time."
"I mentioned this a while back, but when I was alive, my team and I were able to use a virus to reprogram a large amount of Geth to no longer be loyal to the Reapers." Shepard recalled. "The virus was destroyed afterwards, so I thought that avenue was closed off to us but…" her gaze then turned to Church and Cayde. "The Geth aren't actually true AI, but a hivemind network of VIs. If we can get it into their core any true AI should be able to overpower their cyberdefenses."
Cayde then put up his hands defensively. "Hey hey hey now, don't go making any assumptions about me." he said, a little insulted. "Despite my cold, cool, and very handsome metal exterior, I'm not an AI. I'm an Exo."
"What's the difference?" Sev asked, genuinely curious.
"AIs are just that artificial programs that are super fucking smart. Way beyond me. Us Exos though." Cayde thumbed towards himself. "We're human minds and consciousness transferred over to cybernetic brains. I think." Cayde tilted his head. "I'll be honest I'm a little fuzzy on all those details. But the main point is that I'm not a robot… mostly."
Shepard shrugged. "Fair enough. What about you Church? Can you do anything?"
Church brought his virtual hand to his chin as he thought about it. "I could maybe work my way in and reprogram them, maybe with T3's help. But I'll be honest this hacking stuff isn't an exact science."
Shepard was flabbergasted at Church's statement. "But… but it is an exact science. It's literally in the name of 'Computer Science.'"
Church scoffed at the Commander. "Please lady. If you ever get digitized and told to hack into an alien hive-mind from a different dimension, you can make the call on what is or is not science."
Shepard glared at the hologram, and opened her mouth to reproach him, but found that she didn't have a counter. "Ok, fine, good point. Regardless, the hard part will be getting you two into the Geth Mainframe itself. If you try and hack in through a single platform, you'll be shut out instantly."
"That's a tall order." Sarah muttered. "That's not going to be an in-and-out raid like we usually do. This'll be full scale assault on the most heavily fortified part of Geth territory. More fortified than the Temple of Order was. Even with the new guys backing us, we'll need some more fire power to punch through the Geth's defenses."
A silence fell over the group once more, as they once more thought about their options.
It was then that Sev rose his head, an idea striking him. "What about that giant mech from the Armory?"
A/N: Got some new baddies. When I decided to add in Adam Taurus specifically, I couldn't help but draw some parallels between him and Kai Leng, both horrible, xenophobic, sociopathic terrorists with eye masks and swords. I think a Death Battle between them would be fun.
Review Responses:
Brother Bov: Thanks! And that's a good idea. I'll probably include that.
MarauderPrime12: Thanks!
Smaugh666: I'll be honest the lyrics confused me for a bit, I had forgotten I made a reference to that song back then. And personally I consider the RvB and Halo universes different enough to count as separate universes, but parallel. Kinda like the Marvel 616 universe and the Ultimate Marvel Universe. Or the various Earths in DC.
And with that I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you in the next one!