Author's Note: So yeah, this chapter has been a damn long time coming. A mixture of depression and rationing out the f*cks I have to give have resulted in the extreme delay. I will say with some certainty that I have gotten off my ass and intend to keep working on this at a better rate than a chapter every 6 months. With that being said, I do hope you enjoy and *legal crap I don't really care about, I don't own anything*
New Ark Experimental Armory
The armor was suspended in front of him as he inspected it, Cortana's avatar waiting the Spartan inspected it with an expert eye. She hadn't gone over the specs yet with him, instead letting him take it all in for a moment.
His eyes passed over the OD green plating, the familiar style that seemed to flow more like Forerunner armor. The plating seemed to cover every bit of his body, interlocking plates held in place with immoveable hard light. The old, familiar lines of the Mjolnir armor could be seen but only in passing as they gave way to curves more often than the abrupt, blocky style that had defended him against all manner of ill-tempered foes. The armor had more than a passing resemblance to the armor the only Forerunner he'd ever fought had. The helmet was the largest difference from Forerunner combat skins, being distinctly a human design, it look more like like a modern version of his armor although elsewhere, the odd, angular organic lines were replaced by the more blocky, angular shape seen throughout Halsey's iconic armor line. The faceplate had the same lines as his armor when he fought on Requiem although the gold had a more iridescent quality.
When the moment had passed, he looked at her, "Why does it remind me of the Didact?"
'Of course that's the first thing you'd notice.' she thought.
"Well, I started with that combat skin and made my own modifications. Tried to blend the Mjolnir design into it. Make it human." She put her hand on her hip and tilted her head as she finished the statement.
He nodded, "How effective is it?"
She smirked, "Well, against most anything on the ground short of one of the redesigned Scarab would have a hell of a time getting through the shielding and armor. This was based on the Didact's combat skin John, it was the best the Forerunners ever produced. With more than a little of my flair thrown in"
He stepped to the base of the suspension field the armor was in and noticed the under suit for the armor not much different than his old Mjolnir armor. Without a word, he began to put it on as Cortana continued.
"Now, assuming you're not actively engaging said Scarabs, if you stand still and let them shoot you you'd have some issues but if you actively attack them you'd have no problem. And I do mean actively." She paused as when he looked at her for a moment. Only continuing when he went back to suiting up.
"The newest generation of Mjolnir incorporated a lot of Forerunner designs but they just don't match up to modified Forerunner combat skins. They did fight the flood for much longer than we ever did…" She saw a small pause in his movements at the mention of the flood.
"How different is it from my old armor?"
"It wears the same, although putting it on will be more seamless. You can don it in the same way the infiltrator armor that Commander Austra has." He stood and inspected himself after he had finished putting on the under suit.
Her smirk widened into a knowing smile, "Just think about it and…."
She hadn't even finished before the armor slid out of view from the suspension field. Traveling through a slip space pocket, it immediately slid into place over his under suit.
In the span of a few seconds, the armor had locked into place. He began moving through the set of movements designed to check how much the armor restricted his range of motion as she continued.
"I couldn't get the slip-space jump generator the Prometheans had installed though. The Didact apparently designed them so their slips-pace generator was actually in slip-space all the time."
Musing to herself for a moment as she watched him testing the systems, the shielding flickered on and off she crossed her arms with a hand to her chin thinking, "I'm not entirely sure how he managed to do that and there's no record of it in the Archives. He must have had that information on the Composer."
John just shrugged, "I've never worried about that before."
Having settled that, he went to walk over to the Armory before she put a hand on his shoulder, "All the usual things are there though, shields and armor that could put some ships to shame, interlocking hard light like the team that assisted Commander Shepard at the Collector base." Anticipating his question, she held up her hand.
"I've tweaked the system so it doesn't draw a huge amount of power and CPU cycles, but even if I hadn't, it wouldn't matter with the power core this armor has. Also, you have a variety of the Forerunner weapons available at any given time." She watched as he finished his checks, going through the weapons he had fought with on Requiem and after a moment seemed satisfied. She was about to continue before an incoming connection got her attention. Before she could do anything, Assembly override codes opened the connection and Minerva's avatar took form next to them.
"Cortana, John-117, neither of you are authorized to be here anymore." A scowl on her face and her arms crossed as she said this, waiting for the response.
John looked over, "Cortana?"
"I used the same codes to get here as I'd always have Minerva. I built this place. Why wouldn't we be authorized?"
Minerva shook her head, "Yes but that was what you had when you were the AI Science and Military adviser. That title was stripped from you and his access as well."
"I wanted to talk to the Assembly about that." they both turned to John as his gravely voice cut into the conversation.
Minerva's avatar sighed and her arms dropped to her side, "Yes, I owe you two an explanation for our decision if I owe that to anyone."
It was Cortana's turn to cross her arms, "We're all ears sister."
Not at all amazed that the oldest human AI could rile her at times, she began, "When we saw the division between the Arbiter and Admiral Hood we realized that many of the decisions all of you had made were based on the enemies the Covenant and UNSC had fought." She stood straighter, clasping her hands behind her avatars back.
"No one from the SSC and by extension, the NSSC has fought an enemy of that magnitude since the Great War. While neither you or John-117 have been the source, or even caught up in, the turmoil we've seen since we encountered the Council, with the exception of the little stunt Hood pulled with the Council organization Cerberus" John shifted on his feet slightly at that, clearly not comfortable at having had something that had been directly his responsibility usurped like that.
Minerva picked up on that,"….it was the Assembly's decision that the old guard would be retired and replaced in its entirety."
Cortana was still skeptical, "So you're just going to ignore the literal centuries of fighting and leadership experience and one of the most advanced military AI's in existence?"
"No, you are both free to fight. Just not to lead."
"Then why try to kick us out of our armory?" Cortana sounded annoyed now.
Minerva smirked and Cortana noticed the coding for the area changed, "I didn't. It seemed a good excuse to come down here to talk to you two. I've assigned this place to be the personal armory of Master Chief. Accessible via his partner, the Veteran AI Cortana."
Cortana stuttered a moment, "Partner? Why did you say it like that Minerva….we work together, that doesn't-"
Minerva stopped her, "Call it an inside joke then, there's not a whole lot I can do to get a rise out of you. The point is we know you and him are going to fight this war. We're not against that, it was just time for new leadership."
John spoke up next when the glare from Cortana made it clear she had nothing to add, "Who will be our replacements?"
At that question, Minerva's expression became more guarded as she shifted her stance, crossing her arms across her stomach, "For you and her, none yet, maybe never. The companies of Spartans will be led by their respective Captains but the Spartans as a whole have no leader yet. They will put their own candidate forward for the Assembly to review. We trust your soldiers judgment enough for that." John just nodded.
"And the fleet and ground forces? Who will lead them?", Cortana cut in sharply.
"You sound angry, I understand that Cortana but it won't change our decision." At that, Cortana's face remained the same for a moment before returning to a more neutral state, a very concsious decision for an AI.
"It's...it's just that it was unexpected after so long Minerva. You can't fault me for feeling….a bit betrayed. Besides, you still didn't answer my question."
Minerva's expression went blank for a moment as she continued, "We've decided to find a candidate amongst our ranks Cortana. Hood was right, and I want to stress that this is privileged information, we don't want to send hundreds of thousands, millions even, of our population to death against the Reapers. Not that we're not committed to the cause and the Mantle. We just don't have the numbers here to fight the way wars have been fought in the past." Cortana began to object, John stayed silent.
Having seen where her fellow AI's explanation was going, "How many of us will be sent instead? Are we just going to throw ourselves at the Reapers? You remember that we can die too Minerva?" She threw her arms up in exasperation, "Or what they did at Pluto! I've seen some of the data, it was like an induced rampancy and that is not something I want any of us to go through….again."
Minerva shook her head stiffly, "No Cortana. Even if that was true, you know we'd be much more effective. But, no, there won't be an army of us….there will be just one of us. As Mendicant Bias led the Forerunner fleets, we have yet to choose who, but one of our own will lead our fleets against the Reapers."
John spoke up at this point, "Mendicant Bias turned on the Forerunners."
Cortana gestured to him and then turned back to Minerva, "Yes! He did, in a big way Minerva."
"After the Flood, a grave mind and a Precursor in the flesh, captured him and spent time, years even, corrupting him. We believe that the Reapers are not as capable as the Forerunner's foe. The grave mind had to have physical access to Medicant Bias' core for a good bit of time. I think that says it all."
John shook his head, "It's still a big risk Minerva, from what's been found, these Reapers could have hundreds of millions of years of experience to pull from. Is the Assembly is sure about this?"
"Yes" was her only answer.
Cortana shook her head, "This is crazy"
She almost laughed when she noticed John's gaze fall on her immediately, instead only an exasperated laugh made it out, "Fine, I know, crazy is what we do...when will the fleet be ready?" A thought occurred to her.
"How long will it take to elevate one of us to the level required?"
Again, Minerva shifted slightly, "Long enough that the Reapers will be unopposed by our forces long enough that the Council races will undoubtedly hate us for it. Politics aside, many will die."
An almost palpable tension filled the room. For them, those who had dedicated their lives, their existence, to protecting the many it was like a sickly fog that did its best to dampen their resolve. Unsuccessfully, but still, it was one of the downsides to their long lives. More and more regrets had the chance to pile up.
Minerva was the first to break the macabre atmosphere, "In a few days time the fleet moving Khar'Shan will be available and there's talk of sending the other Fortress-class ships but with what we've seen of their capabilities...well, we will be more cautious. The Council races will be mostly on their own for a while."
Minerva was quiet for a moment after that, the gravity of the situation evident before she seemed to shake it off, "You two will go to Palaven then, despite the fact that we may not be able to provide support?"
Cortana perked up, "I hadn't looked into where we might be needed yet, it seems like it will take days to get anywhere near where we'd be useful and we might be too late anyway. I had just planned on making it to Earth and coordinating with them." a small shrug accompanied the end of her statement.
"Normally, it would take you that long to reach Council space but...I think for you two we might have a faster way." As Minerva said this, an image of the NSSC slip space relay appeared.
"It's a whole hell of a lot faster." Her smile was mirrored by Cortana as she opened the files on the project.
"It's hadn't realized it was ready for anything larger than a few kilograms." She had lost track of the project days ago when the Reapers had attacked and she had thrown herself into the armor for John and a myriad of predictive simulations.
"It's stable enough for a Pelican variant. Once the Reapers arrived, we pushed harder. Almost destroyed the array again but it's stable now." Having said that, Minerva and Cortana looked at John.
Cortana had her confident smile, "Looks like our ride is here Chief. You ready?"
A modified Forerunner assault rifle slid into place in his hands, "Ready."
Destiny Ascension - Council Quarters
"Councilors! We cannot continue bickering like this!" Sparatus' mandibles were clenched in a mixture of anger and annoyance. The four of them had been going back and forth since they had discovered the relays into Alliance space had closed.
Udina rounded on him angrily, "What do you expect us to do Sparatus, expect ME to do?! My species is under attack, we NEED to get these relays back online." Sparatus saw his human counterpart's hands shaking slightly, betraying a large amount of dread and trepidation he knew the Human councilor must be feeling.
"Councilor, if what we've come to know is correct, the Reapers built the damned relays and I very much doubt that we can activate them if they don't want us to." He felt like he was hitting a wall in a very un-helpful way, Udina had been reasonable as of late but as soon as they realized that they wouldn't be able to bring the Citadel fleet to help the humans he'd become his old self.
Udina's reaction was to simply sneer and turn away, furiously inspecting the reports they'd received on his omni-tool. Tevos moved closer to him and put a hand on his shoulder, "Udina, we want to help, we are here to help but we have no way of doing so. As much as we want to however, we can not with the relays shut down leading to Alliance space."
With pronounced sagging of his demeanor and a heavy sigh, "I know Tevos, it doesn't make it any easier to accept but I know. The damned Reapers, we finally unite as a Council, above most of the squabbles of the past." a ghost of his old smart-ass smirk visited his face for a moment before melting away to a scowl, "and as quickly as we do, they cut everything out from under us."
A moment passed where none of them wanted to say anything, the gravity of what could be happening on the other side of the relay settled over them as an oppressive silence. The other three Councilors feeling a mix of dread for what was happening to the Humans and enough relief that their race wasn't the focus yet to make each of the Councilors feel slightly ashamed. Finally the moment was broken by Udina as he stood straighter and faced his peers again, having found his resolve again.
"Valern, are you certain there is nothing we can do to reactivate the relay?" The Salarian Councilors eyes darted around the room as he considered his response. Only slightly annoyed at having been asked the same question for the seventh time by Udina but maintaining his tact nonetheless, he answered.
"Yes, absolutely sure Udina. None of the old reactivation methods are effective likely due to Reaper interference." After a moment , uncharacteristically, he added, "I'm sorry."
Udina just nodded and turned to Sparatus, "Very wel-" He was suddenly cut off as he started, the chime signaling a message from the bridge sounding over whatever he had been ready to say.
The voice of the ship's commander came across the intercom, "Councilors, I have news from Earth. The Normandy and the NSSC Forward Unseen arrived just now. Spectre Shepard has a report for all of you."
Tevos was nearly bowled over by Udina as he rushed the door leading to the bridge. His only thoughts were that Earth was either saved, or knowing their luck, had already fallen. Even considering the worst option, Udina was, for the first time, looking forward to speaking with Shepard. The feeling mirrored by the other Councilors who for the first time since perhaps the Rachni wars, felt united in their course.
Upon entering the bridge, the four Councilors were greeted by the first human Spectre. Her image was composed but they all saw the signs of battle. The effects the events at Earth seemed to radiate from the Human Spectre. While at first glance she seemed worn out, her hair was in disarray, she still had dirt on her face, the signal wasn't the clear and clean report it usually was, small bits of static interrupted the image. Shepard's armor looked the same as it had when she had finally gotten off Earth which looked like she had used it to protect her from a falling building, which she had. Her eyes, stance, and expression spoke volumes more than her report and appearance however. A predatory glint in her eye reflected her resolve while her expression and stance was one of elation held back by her own professionalism.
Udina saw her expression and immediately felt his spirits rise, stopping on the raised area that led into the main area of the Ascension's bridge, he leaned forward with his hands on the guardrail overlooking the crew area.
"Commander Shepard, you look like you have some good news from Earth." The other Councillors took positions next to him, equally interested although not quite sharing the same rising spirits that the human Councilor seemed to have.
"I do, the Reapers have been repelled from Sol." Her expression didn't change but she paused as she considered her next statement.
Seeing she had the undivided attention of the Councilors and everyone being on the bridge of the ship, she continued, "There were losses Councilors, I won't lie to you. Earth took a hit, many cities are in ruins and most of our infrastructure from Earth to the Arcturus relay is gone." She looked off screen for a moment as someone spoke to her before looking back at the Councillors.
"Arcturus station and it's fleet are gone." The Councilors were taken back for a moment, Udina however just froze. He had been expecting better news and while Arcturus' destruction, and the governing body of the Alliance meant he technically was the most powerful human in history, that fact didn't sink inasmuch as the scale of destruction. Standing straight and taking his usual thinking stance with one arm crossed and his hand on his chin he considered the news for a moment.
"I'm glad to hear the Reapers aren't on Earth anymore Shepard, the rest of the news you brought, not so much. There must be details." He straightened. Hands clasped behind his back, standing tall as he waited for her to finish.
Keying up her omni-tool through her neural lance and the gesture of holding in her arm in front of her, she glanced down at the orange gauntlet out of habit as it transmitted, "I'm sending my full report Councilors but I want to tell you myself three things; One - Earth would have fallen if the NSSC hadn't been there, you'll see the details you wanted in the report but the Reapers would be rampaging across Sol and all of Alliance territory if not for the NSSC."
Seeing the Councilors were waiting for the other reasons, even Udina, she continued, "Two - Due to their losses Commander Austra informed me that they would be unable to assist in the larger war effort for an undisclosed amount of time. Her face briefly soured into a sneer, while brief, the expression was not lost on the Councillors.
Having regained her composure, she continued, "They were the only effective fighting force in the system but the Reapers were still able to push back with an effective…" Thinking about what she had heard and seen she settled for something more mundane, "E-war attack. They paid for it in the end but we need, and I stress NEED, to work with the NSSC if we don't want to waste billions of lives."
Tevos took the opportunity in the moment of silence as they all thought of enormity of what happened, "They are an unknown, an effective one if what you say is true, but we are resolved to bring our combined strength against this threat Shepard."
Before she could continue, Shepard cut in, "With all do respect Councilors, the Protheans fell to these same damn machines. I don't know if we can do this on our own."
The Councilors couldn't keep quiet at that, Tevos broke in loudest as the other three tried to talk at the same time, "Shepard, while that all may be true, this is OUR space. We will defend it."
Shepard almost laughed, "Councilor, do you remember when Sovereign attacked the Citadel?! How effective was the Citadel fleet then? There were thousands of those same ships in Sol. Thousands! I am glad that the Council is united on this but we can't beat the Reapers head-on. The NSSC, maybe if we can convince them and are smart about it but…." In a rare display anywhere in the galaxy, Shepard briefly appeared tired before she composed herself.
"Just, read my report Councilors because like I said, we need the NSSC. They are now the only group with the technology to access Sol." Her statement dropped on the Councillors like a bomb.
Standing straight again, "The last thing I have to tell you is that the Charon relay along with Pluto and the rest of its moons were destroyed along with the bulk of the Reaper and NSSC fleet." No one spoke for several seconds, each being on the bridge processed the information.
Finally, Velern's curiosity overshadowed his shock, "H-How Commander? What happened in Sol?"
"I'd rather not recall it now in too much detail Councilor, it's all in the report. A lot of people died today and there's still a lot to do. The next place the Reapers will attack will most likely be Palaven." Sparatus stiffened at that, "Commander Austra is going to perform recon for the NSSC to provide the most up-to-date information for if-" off screen a voice interjected forcefully, "-when Shepard, when-"
She paused for a moment as she looked off-screen, looking back at the Councilors, "When they send reinforcements. Until then, I have been asked to inform the Council that the small fleet of seventeen NSSC Prowlers are at our disposal."
Sparatus processed this news quickly, seeing it all through a very Turian point of view, "We need to get them integrated into the fleet then Shepard." Glancing at the other Councilors and receiving nods, now that this was firmly in the purview of a joint military action and the fact that the Turian homeworld was threatened - he had the lead, he continued.
"I assume their capabilities have been included in your report?" Shepard nodded, having anticipated many of the questions the Council would have, along with a few bits of information that her crew had pointed out would be helpful, she had taken the time they'd spent in slip space writing a comprehensive report.
"Very good Commander, it will take some time to coordinate the fleet and with this news we need to rethink our movements. For now you will go to Palaven for the same reason as Commander Austra. We need information on the Reaper movements and numbers, how much of the Reaper fleet left the Sol system and would they be moving towards Palaven as well?"
"None of the Reaper fleet escaped Sol Councilor, in fact, a good number of them were destroyed while inbound as the relay was destroyed." Surprise rippled throughout the bridge as they considered that.
"Just how many Reapers did the NSSC destroy Shepard?" While her face tightened, not in rage as before, but in contempt, a small smirk pulled at the corners of her mouth.
"The initial invasion fleet numbered at approximately ten thousand Councilors, rough estimates of the final numbers destroyed during the relay destruction put that number at nearly ninety thousand, bordering on a hundred thousand. A mix of the Sovereign-class and Destroyer-Class ships." Her smirk dropped and her face took on a neutral expression, "Although the intel the NSSC gathered at Khar'Shan indicates their fleet may still be nearly three, four times that number." she deadpanned.
Everyone on the bridge of the Ascension was stunned, Sparatus' mandibles flared out in surprise, Tevos muttered a prayer to her goddess, Valern's mouth hung open as he blinked rapidly, and Udina simply scowled. The idea of a Reaper fleet of that magnitude was stunning and disheartening even on top of the news of the destruction of so many of them.
Shepard had already came to terms with the way the Reapers would fight this war, "We need to hold the line against the Reapers Councilors while we look for another way to win this. If we only hold on long enough until the NSSC sends whatever reinforcements they're going to send, so be it."
Sparatus nodded numbly, "Then it is even more important for you to go to Palaven. We need a report on the Reaper forces and I need you to extract the Primarch. He directs the Hierarchy's forces, we will need him as soon as we organize a war summit with the leaders of the other races."
Udina spoke up at this point, "And what of the NSSC? We obviously need their help."
Tevos answered, "We have ambassadors traveling to their 'New Ark' as we speak, they should have arrived by now and they have orders to contact us as soon as they do. They will be our channel to the NSSC."
She nodded to Shepard, "Thank you for bringing us this information Shepard, if the other Councilors have nothing else…" the others shook their heads, "We need to review your report and coordinate with the fleets. We will be in touch Spectre."
Commander Shepard's image disappeared and was replaced by a zoomed in view of the Normandy as it turned and prepared to enter FTL. As soon as it did, they noticed a small portal open and a shimmer travel through it before it closed. The Councilors looked at each other briefly before moving back towards their chambers. They had a lot of work to do.
Author's Note:
Not the longest chapter considering the time gone by but it's what I have to kick start everything. The next chapter will come sooner, and most likely be upwards of 10k words since I enjoy posting giant walls of text. Either way, in the next three weeks I plan on having another chapter out, that much I can promise you. Read and review, I thoroughly enjoy feedback.
*Raises glass* Cheers, I do hope I am keeping you entertained.