"You were correct, that is a giant fucking mech." Church whistled as he looked up at the purple and gold form of the inactive dreadnaught in front of him.
The entirety of the Legion, whose numbers now included the newest warriors of light brought to the Final Destination, sans Pyrrha were standing in Mother Base's vehicle bay. The dreadnought was laid out supine beside the AT-TE, left alone since the raid on the Armory. The idea was that between T3 and Church, they could figure out a way to reactivate the massive warmachine in preparation for an attack against the Geth.
Finding an undamaged access port on the side of the mech, T3 was able to begin slicing protocols, allowing both him and Church access to the machine.
"Jesus Christ what is this thing?" Church said in disbelief as he began interfacing with the dreadnought. "Based on its looks I thought this thing would be some archaic, first-gen hunk of junk, but some of the systems on this thing are insane. Way more advanced than anything I've ever seen, human or alien made."
T3 let out a few beeps in agreement as the droid was running into extremely heavy resistance trying to slice in, dweeting in frustration.
Church nodded his head, already having downloaded the necessary knowledge to understand T3. "You said it little buddy. This thing can punch through a tank like it's made of cardboard with that claw. And where the Hell is its main processor? Or AI for that matter? All I can find are a bunch smaller, dumb AI that run the subprocesses."
"That is because this is no machine." Tassadar spoke as he walked up, placing his hand along the adamantium sarcophagus. "This is a man. A warrior entombed within this armor, sustaining his life beyond the limits of his mortal flesh, much like the dragoons of my people."
As everyone looked at Tassadar, Church stepped back as he gasped. "Holy shit you're right. Life support systems, neural interfaces, awakening protocols. This isn't a robot, it's a giant fucking cyborg."
"Well can you wake him up?" Shepard asked, as she stepped closer to the helmet of the dreadnought, trying to peer within.
"Yeah… yeah I think I found the correct sub-routine. What the Hell, there's a dozen other steps to this process. Why the Hell are they called rites too?" Church shook his head. "Alright whatever. Yeah, I think I got it. Lemme just read the instructions. Ahem, 'Oh venerable ancient, we call you to battle once more! By the will of the Emperor and the Omnissiah, we beseech the machine spirits to awaken you! You are his vengeance! You are his retribution! Only in death does duty end and you are not dead yet! OoooOoohhh!" Church proclaimed, adding on ghost-like sounds at the end for special effects, wiggling his fingers.
Everyone turned to face Church, with Johnson asking. "Was all that really necessary?"
Church shrugged. "Maybe? I don't know, it's what these dumb-AI said to say, machine spirits they call themselves."
As Church said that, a heavy grinding echoed throughout the air as ancient servos began to move. It was followed by a hum of flowing energy that began low, slowly ramping up to a cacophonous racket as more and more power funneled into the mech. The sound of energy coursing through the dreadnought was soon joined by the sound of screaming. They all looked to the source of the cry, and saw Tassadar on his knees, hands clutching his head.
"Tassadar!" Wynne and Shepard called, rushing to his side to try and keep him steady.
But Tassadar continued to scream as the psychic roar of the mech amplified, the shriek cutting into the minds of everyone nearby. Shepard fell to her knees as well as she felt the scream as well. Her mind felt like it was being speared through by a white-hot lance of pure rage and anger. Shepard felt blood pour from her nose, far worse than any biotic headache she'd ever gotten.
Shepard grit her teeth through the pain. If it was this bad for her, the pain must have been far worse for Tassadar who was far more sensitive to the psychic powers. Glancing to her side, she saw that Tassadar was unmoving on the ground, blue blood pouring from his eyes. Snarling, Shepard staggered over to her ally, clumsily grabbing onto the taller alien, and focused her biotics into her legs. With a powerful biotic charge, Shepard rocketed away from dreadnought, bringing Tassadar along with her.
As they put distance between them, the pressure lessened, and soon enough Tassadar seemed to regain his coherence. Tassadar blinked deliriously, obviously shocked and confused as to what just happened.
"Hey calm down there big guy." Shepard patted him on the shoulder as she wiped her own blood off her face. "We'll get Wynne to patch you up soon."
Tassadar weakly nodded, before letting his head lay on the ground. Shepard shakily stood up, the psychic screech of hate and contempt emanating from the dreadnought lessened more and more with every passing moment. Everyone else began to stand once more as well, all similarly dazed and confused as to what just happened. As they recomposed themselves, a voice, deep and distorted by the vox-caster it was projected from, boomed out.
"Who. Awakens. Me!?" The dreadnought roared, drawing all eyes to him.
Everyone held their tongues. The air was thick with tension and the fear itself was palpable. The raw burst of emotion that was so powerful it brought them all low aside, no one wanted to be on the wrong end of either the massive assault cannon or power claw that the dreadnought was armed with. One wrong word would mean death for all of them.
"We did!" Shepard yelled out as she stood. When the dreadnought turned to face her, pushing itself up with its massive claw, Shepard almost took a step back. It took all of her discipline and courage not to show any weakness, but she knew if she did the cyborg might pounce on such perceived weakness. "We call ourselves the Legion of the Damned, and we seek allies in our battle against Chaos! Do you know where you are? Do you remember your name?"
The dreadnought looked down in thought, mechanical servos whirling as he did. As the dreadnought searched through his fractured memory and once broken mind. "Yes… I. Remember. My mind… once clouded, remembers! I am Rylanor! Ancient and venerable one of the Emperor's Children! And who are you to dare wake me!? You are no Astartes, nor are you of the Mechanicus!"
Tassadar, having dragged himself back to his knees as Wynne healed him, used his psionics to peer into the mind of the ancient Rylanor.
His eyes widened as he quietly spoke to his allies. "Perhaps it would be best if Thane and I acquit ourselves."
It was not quiet enough however, as Rylanor's head snapped to him as he spoke.
"Foul Xenos! You dare defile this land with your presence!? Your corpses shall be the first stop for my redemption!" Rylanor roared as his assault cannon began spinning.
"Son of a- Thane, Tassadar get out of here!" Shepard yelled and the two aliens immediately complied. With a use of his semblance, Thane vanished and appeared beside Tassadar, and the two then blinked out of existence together, teleporting to literally anywhere else. As they left, Shepard called back at Rylanor. "You! Look down here big guy! Nobody is killing anyone right now!"
Rylanor's head swiveled down to the commander once more. "And who are you to command me, mortal!"
"My name is Commander Shepard and these are my men you are threatening right now!" Shepard snarled back.
"And you believe your rank gives you the capability to stand against me?" Rylanor's tone shifted from that of righteous fury to almost pitying contempt.
"I stand against you because it is the right thing to do!" Shepard snapped back, biotic fire flaring around her. "I don't care who you are Rylanor! You touch any of my men and I will make you suffer for it!"
At Shepard's words the rest of the Legion snapped into combat stances as well. They weren't about to let the Commander fight against this psychotic mech by herself. Rylanor looked over the gathering of warriors standing against him. As far as he could tell, they were a gathering of mostly normal humans, perhaps a psyker or two amongst them as shown by the fire that enveloped Shepard. And they stood against not only a space marine, but a venerable contemptor dreadnought. It was not boastful pride but a statement of fact for Rylanor to say that he could slaughter them all without much effort.
But when Rylanor looked at them and did not see a mad rabble of traitors standing to fight against him, but instead a group of soldiers, bonded together through duty and loyalty to their commander and to one another, fighting despite unassailable odds. Rylanor couldn't help but see an image of himself in his final moments, standing against his prodigal father upon the ruins of Istvaan III.
The silence that fell upon the fortress was deafening. The Legion didn't move for fear of triggering the dreadnought to attack, while Rylanor stopped all movement. The legionnaires couldn't tell what was going through the dreadnought's mind, but at the very least he wasn't tearing them all apart with his assault cannon.
A booming sound scared the Legion into taking cover. But it wasn't the roar of Rylanor's assault cannon, but instead the space marine's racious laughter. The legionnaires looked at each other in confusion, unsure of what was going on, or if there was even going to be a fight.
Rylanor continued to laugh for several seconds, until it was reduced to a mechanical wheezing as the Ancient One dropped into a relaxed stance. The Legion was still wary however, nervously waiting for the mechanical warrior to recompose himself.
"I've heard no finer words of fire and bravery in many years! It is a pity you could not be taken into the Astartes, for you would have made a fine space marine!" Rylanor's mechanical voice praised through his vox.
"Thanks, I think?" Shepard scratched her head at the awkward praise.
"You are most welcome." Rylanor returned. "However, your candor has not bought you my cooperation, merely time to explain yourselves and why you consort with xenos."
Not wanting to waste time, Shepard began to explain their situation from the top. "Well first things first, you, along with everyone else here, are dead. We all died in our own respective worlds, only to be brought together to this demi-plane between different realities. We were all brought here by the Elven goddess Lileath to fight against the forces of Chaos, which seek to overtake it."
Rylanor grunted at this. "Hm, of course an Eldar deity would seek to use others in her defense, instead of fighting themself. Cowardice is their way. But regardless, I am aware there have been… circumstances when allying with the Eldar in the face of an enemy like Chaos is necessary. I can accept this being such a case where one must work with the xeno."
Shepard nodded her head, thankful that Rynalor was at least open to the idea of not summarily killing all of her alien comrades. "So you know of Chaos already?"
"Indeed." Rylanor nodded his massive head. "Chaos tore my Legion apart, set brother upon brother, and fractured our entire Empire. We were too slow, too ignorant of the insidious ways of Chaos, and before we knew it corruption had taken root." Despite his massive, mechanical frame, Shepard could see Rylanor's stance shift into one of melancholy. "I… was one of the few, if not the last loyal member of the III Legion, betrayed by our Father to the Ruinous Powers."
"I'm sorry that happened to you." Was all Shepard could say. She knew of loss and betrayal as well, and also knew no petty condolences would ease such pain. "But Chaos is who we fight now. A champion of Chaos has merged with evils from our worlds as well, and seeks to break free from this plane and return to the living world to spread death and destruction. We need your help to stop him. We may not be able to help you return to your world, or save your Legion, but we can give you the next best thing, lots of Chaos worshippers to kill."
Rylanor gave a rueful chuckle. "Not the most eloquent of speeches Commander, but one I can pledge myself to nonetheless. If this abomination seeks death and destruction, then by the Emperor's will it shall not be found wanting!"
At Rylanor's proclamation, the Legion of the Damned finally found itself able to fully relax as the dreadnought agreed to fight besides them.
The next day...
Pyrrha stirred in her bed as she slowly awoke to a new day. As her eyes fluttered open, she dragged herself up and stretched out her tight muscles. As she twisted her back, hearing the cracks of her spine, Pyrrha got out of the infirmary bed and realized she felt great. Better than ever. Seeing that she was mostly undressed, she quickly moved to put on a set of spare armor that was laid out for her.
But as soon as she slid her usual corset she realized something was wrong. The corset wouldn't close. Not only because it was too tight, but because it looked like it was almost a size or two smaller. Pyrrha's first thought was, who the Hell shrunk her clothing. As she examined the clothes in her hands, her gaze focused on her hands, then her arms, as she realized her bicep was far bigger than normal. Eyes widening, Pyrrha immediately ran for the closest mirror. And what she saw made her scream.
Sarah Lyons was the first to burst into the doors of the infirmary. Since it was where they kept the comatose body of Lileath, they always had at least one person on guard. So when she heard Pyrrha scream, Sarah immediately assumed it was an assassin who had somehow snuck in.
Kicking the door down with her power armored leg, Sarah leveled her laser rifle, looking for any possible threat. Instead what she found was a half naked Pyrrha, who scrambled to pull a sheet to cover herself. However, Pyrrha was not the same as she was when they brought her into the infirmary.
Before, Pyrrha was a respectable six feet tall in heels, above average for a teenage girl but within the realm of normalcy. Now however, Pyrrha looked to be a six and a half, maybe seven foot tall amazonian without the aid of footwear. Not only that, but where Pyrrha once had a more lithe, athletic figure, her muscles were now broader, far more defined, almost looking like a bodybuilder. Hell, if Sarah didn't know any better, she'd say that Pyrrha was also physically glowing light.
"Whoa." was all Sarah could say as she looked Pyrrha up and down, who was currently burning a red the same shade as her hair.
"What's going on!?" Sarah heard the call of Six out as the Spartan had come running at the sound of the commotion, Sev and Thane trailing behind him.
Pyrrha somehow blushed even harder as she heard Six's voice, and looked to Sarah with an expression of pure terror.
"Nothing!" Sarah immediately yelled back, also blushing at the absurdity of the situation. "Just a misunderstanding! Everything is fine! Go back to what you were doing." Sarah went to go close the door, when she realized that she kicked the door off its hinges when she initially burst in.
Sarah's jaw dropped as she looked at the ruined door, then back to Pyrrha who also stared at the destroyed entrance.
"No!" Pyrrha then cried out as she completely balled up underneath the blanket.
"Pyrrha you okay?!" Six yelled out as he continued to run for the infirmary.
"I said stay the Hell out!" Sarah snapped as she clotheslined Six to the ground.
Majority of the Legion gathered up in the Armory as they prepared for their assault on the Geth mainframe. Pyrrha, still slightly red faced, strapped on her resized armor over her resized ballistic mesh undersuit. She had to be far more careful donning the armor, as she quickly realized that becoming a living saint gave her an enhanced strength that surpassed even her new musculature. It took conscious effort for her not to accidentally destroy door handles as she opened them, or crush canteens when she took a drink of water.
As Pyrrha continued to get ready, Church was taking the time to integrate himself into Six's Mjolnir armor.
"Ok then, let's see what we got here." Church excitedly said as he finished connecting to Six's armor and began inspecting his armor enhancements. "Holographic decoy projection, useful. Speed and agility enhancement, not as strong as Carolina's but it'll do. Bubble shield, classic. Ohh Armor lock! That doesn't sound like a broken ability at all. Jeez Six, You got enough equipment here to give the Meta a run for his money."
"Who's the Meta?" Six asked.
"Only the scariest fucking mute in the galaxy. He was part of Project Freelancer, and pretty much went insane thanks to all of the AIs in his head. I'm pretty sure I died at least once fighting him."
Six gave Church a blank look. "How do you 'think' you died to him."
"Hey man, once you realize you're a copy of a copy with multiple sets of memory, things tend to get a little hazy." Church shrugged. "If you want me to get specific, the original AI, the Alpha, of which I am the memories of, I.E. a copy or clone, got killed fighting the Meta. I still retain most of Alpha's memories, so it gets hard to distinguish myself from him sometimes."
"Sounds rough." Six didn't really know how to empathize with the AI about something like that, so he shifted to more comfortable topics. "So what made this Meta so dangerous?"
"Well he had a suit like yours, so he had your general superhuman abilities, but also had like, half a dozen AIs in his head. They directed him to kill pretty much everyone so he could get his hands on more AI, and they also let him use all of his experimental equipment so he was essentially a one man army. He may not have been the sharpest tool in the shed, but he was the deadliest. My buddies eventually put him down though."
"Your friends must be skilled soldiers then."
Church hesitated. "Ehhhh. They try. Anyway, with me helping you out, you can now switch between armor enhancements whenever you want, instead of having to manually select one between missions. I can handle all of the processing and calculations needed to swap them out mid fight."
"Thanks." Six nodded. "That will be useful for the upcoming battle."
"Eh don't mention it. Nothing I'm not used to."
As Six and Church chatted, Sarah moved around Sergeant Johnson as he equipped a suit of T-45d power armor, Sarah's old suit of power armor in fact.
With a final adjustment, the suit flared to life as Sarah said, "Ok, kinetic barriers are operational, fission battery running at optimal efficiency. Looks like we're good to go." Sarah dusted off her hands on her pants as she stood "Remember what we went over. Relax your muscles and let the suit do all the work."
Johnson nodded his head while he made a few experimental fists. "Goddamn, is this how you Spartans feel all the time?" he called out to Six.
Six shrugged as he walked over. "More or less. You'd still need the augments but the armor is pretty much halfway there."
"Hm." The Sergeant grunted as he finished inspecting his armor, deciding not to bring up his own enhancements from Project Orion. "So, I've been wondering Six, where did you bite it?" Johnson asked nonchalantly.
Six didn't immediately respond to Johnson's question either physically or vocally, though Sarah did look up from her work, curious about the conversation. Church also turned his attention to Six, vanishing as to not distract but listening all the same.
"Reach." Six finally said after a moment of silence.
Johnson nodded his head as he recalled the battle. "I was at Reach too, defending one of the orbital platforms. One of the biggest shit shows I've ever been through." The sergeant then lit himself a cigar. "Well if you died at Reach, that means you don't know how the war's pretty much over then."
That elicited a massive reaction from Six as his head snapped to the sergeant, his face one of pure shock behind his helmet. "The War is over?"
"Pretty much." Johnson shrugged as he puffed out a smoke ring. "See after Reach, we did a random slipspace jump and found an ancient alien hula-hoop that was actually a secret weapon of a long dead race designed to exterminate all life in the galaxy."
Pretty much everyone in the armory now stared at the Sergeant in disbelief.
"I'm truncating a lot of the story, but it's what happened." The sergeant pushed. "Anyway, the covies got so riled up about this thing that it pretty much caused a civil war when the Prophets decided to betray the Elites. The Elites didn't like that all that much, and decided to switch sides, and together we kicked the rest of the Covenant's collective ass." Johnson took one more puff of his cigar. "I was there when the Master Chief and Arbiter killed Truth, the last Covenant leader, and we worked to wipe out a galactic eating parasite, before I got killed by a flying light bulb that shoots lasers."
"That… doesn't sound real." Sarah said, skeptical of the eccentric sergeant's possibly hyperbolic story.
"No no, I think he's telling the truth." Church cut in. "Trust me, I was a floating lightbulb that shot lasers for a while, they exist."
Meanwhile Six was quiet, seemingly contemplating everything that he was just told.
"Hey you doing okay there Six?" Sarah asked, concerned for her friend.
"Yeah… yeah I am." Six responded shakily. "Thanks for the update." Six then walked away as he contemplated that he didn't die for nothing.
A/N: Obviously, I wasn't able to finish this story for Nanowrimo, but I did get a lot more done than I usually do, around 3 chapters in a single month vs just 1, so I still count it as a win. This one took a little for me to write because I wasn't entirely sure how to write Rylanor, since the only actual dialogue of his that I've read have been from his short story, which wasn't really enough to get a view of his full character.
Review Responses:
Dovahwolf13: You know it would actually be pretty cool if Alfabusa would be able do something in the Emperor's Text To Speech with Rylanor. Maybe a short like his Ciaphas Cain one.
Djmegamouth: I will say, I won't bring the Red Legion in just because I think it'd add too much. In an earlier draft of my plan I had them included, but found that they were pretty extraneous and didn't add too much to the story itself besides being more fodder to fight, meanwhile Ghaul can be a foil to Cayde.
MarauderPrime12: Thanks!
Smaug666: Oh I haven't seen that but I'll check it out. And idk who I'd cast in a live action RvB. For Church at the very least you'd need someone who can do both drama and comedy well. I think someone like Nathan Fillion would be a good choice. As for the others, they're all more straight forward action-y characters so there's tons of choices you could go through.
Anyway, with that I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you in the next one!