John looked over the caskets which had the bodies of the dead from the attack. While most of them were covered in the flag of the empire but two were covered in the old alliance flag. Hackett and Chackwas had died from the attack, they died trying to save as many people as they could. As soon as he heard he ordered the construction of a new building and renamed another. The new building was an officer training academy which would be called the Admiral Steven Hackett Imperial Officer academy, as for the other building it was a hospital that was renamed to, Karin Chackwas memorial hospital.
He tried to hold his tears back but failed and fell onto his fathers casket. Family members of the dead soon followed and began to morn themselves. It was a good few hours before John could be pulled away.
OOOOO
The two Kodiaks flew down to the planet and landed. John exited with Garrus and Miranda following him. Oda and two of his guard exited theirs and the two groups met up as they looked at the barren landscape. There was the odd tree and animal.
"Nice place." John muttered.
"Hai, this place is very desolate." Oda said. "Where was the object found?"
John looked to his omni-tool before pointing. "30 meters dead ahead." he said before moving.
As they walked there was little conversation between them as they had nothing to say to each other. Garrus, could feel the tension in the air. He was going to speak before John beat him to it.
"This place looked like it got nuked… from orbit." he said looking around.
"Well it's the only way to be sure." Oda said and the humans of the groups laughed.
Garrus on the other had was confused by the reference and rubbed the back of his neck. "I really need to watch more human movies." he muttered to himself as he walked along with the rest of them.
It was a few more moments until they reached the point where the object was found. A small crater was in front of them making the two lead humans look at each other with raised brows.
"Spread out, see what you can find." Oda said to his men.
"Same." John said as he squatted down and looked at the crater.
As the others moved Oda squatted down and looked as well. "Too small." he muttered.
"Yeah Someone placed it here." John said. "Or made to make it look like it crashed here."
Oda squatted as well to get a better look at the crater. Like John said it was inconsistent with an object like what article station had would make. Just then Johns comm activated and Traynor came on.
"Commander I've got Mordin on the line." she said.
"Patch him in." John said.
"Sheppard, have found something, very fascinating." Mordin said in his rapid fire way. "The object, not metal, biopolymer very advanced and fascinating. Does not use mass effect technology or nay known variation, not from our galaxy quite clearly. But the device seem to be more like a canister of some kind and not just a beacon…." he trailed off as something happened. "It.. it just opened."
OOOOO Earth Area 51 Mordin's lab.
Mordin's lab was just how he liked it, it was large with everything that he would ever need but right now he focused on the canister that was set on his table. It was open showing something inside, it was some kind of pulsing organ. Two of his assistants looked at it as well. One of them got close and the organ opened up releasing a gas. His STG training kicked in and he moved like lighting to the door, once he reached it he looked to his assistants.
His eyes widened, or as much as they could for a salarian, and watched as they inhaled the gas and began to transform before his eyes. He wanted to help but there was little he could do and exited his lab and locked it. Security soon came and he watched as his assistants transformed into flesh pods and attached themselves to equipment in the room.
"Fascinating and horrific." he said to himself before turning to one of the guards. "This area is to be under strict quarantine."
"Yes sir."
OOOOO
Jane along with two other members of her gild crawled up a dune and got a good look at two warlords standing next to a crater. The other two mercs with her, the first one just called herself Goto. She was a hooded body suited thief with a penitent for being mischievous. The other was a Turrian who just called himself Knife, he was quite but a good melee expert. As they looked at the Warlords the one in a blue cloak stood and began to yell.
"This will be good." Jane said as she looked at the Warlords with a smile. "That's John Shepard and Oda Nobunaga. They'll fetch a nice bounty."
"We are here to find Flashpoint and Landlock not collect a bounty." Knife said in a monotone voice.
"Who says we cannot do both?" Jane smiled.
OOOOO
"Mordin come in!" John demanded over the comm.
He was getting worried now, he didn't hear anything from the scientist and the look on Oda's face said a lot.
"Shepard come in." Mordin then said making John sigh with relief.
"Finally, what happened?" he asked.
"The capsule, when it opened it released some kind of gas. It caused my assistants to turn into some kind of pods. I have no idea what they are. More study is required to see what happens but my lab is under quarantine. So much I can do with that."
"Understood, send what you found to the other Warlords. Article priority, they need to know even if we do hate each other's guts."
"Understood commander." Mordin said before cutting the link.
"So?" Oda asked.
"The capsule was a trap, two of my head scientist's assistants have been turned into some kind of pod. Whatever it was it's bad, we may have something similar to a Reaper scenario going again."
"Great." Oda said sarcasticly.
Just then someone fired rounds at them. The snaps and hiss of the rounds hitting the floor made the two look up to see three people walk up to them.
"Guild mercs." Oda muttered.
John hit his comm twice but said nothing. He then moved his hand down to his pistol but a shot stopped him.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." said the bronze skinned woman in dark yellow armour. "Keep those hands where we can see them."
John and Oda looked to each other then to the mercs and raised their hands.
"What do you want?" John asked.
"Nothing much." said the hooded woman. "Just your bounties and any information on two mercs who where here recently."
"Recently how recently?" Oda asked.
"Five days ago." the turian said.
John and Oda looked to each other. "You don't think..." Oda trailed.
"It's possible, I mean look how Dragon's teeth made the husks." John said.
"What are you two on about?" the hooded woman asked.
"They're on about the recent call to Article station. To which I call bullshit on, there is no way in hell that any self respecting Warlord will help other Warlords to survive." the bronze skinned woman said.
"Then why are we here?" Oda asked.
"Mining rights, base placement, colonisation… I could go on but you get the idea." she said with an arrogant tone. "Now on your knees."
John and Oda did nothing but just smiled. "How about no and you go on your knees."
The bronze skinned woman was about to laugh but a shot rang next to her making the three of them jump and turned to see Garrus and Miranda aiming their weapons at them.
"So drop the guns and fall to your knees." John ordered as he and Oda pulled out their pistols.
Grunting the leader dropped her weapon along with the other two and fell to her knees. They then placed their hands on the backs of their heads as the Warlords, Garrus and Miranda walked up to them.
"Hey Garrus, Miranda long time." said the woman in the hood shocking the two of them.
"Kasumi? What are you going here?" Miranda asked surprised.
"Well hiding, I have some people after me and I felt that sticking with a guild was the best idea." the thief answered.
Miranda then offered a hand and helped her up.
"Traitor." the yellow armoured woman muttered.
"Oh do be quiet Jane." Kasumi said looking down at the woman. "I was never truly a part of the guild unlike you hiding your name."
"Name?" Garrus asked. "What name?"
"Her last name."
"It's Smith." Jane muttered though her teeth.
"No it's not, it's Shepard." Kasumi teased.
"Shepard?" everyone else asked at the same time.
"Yep, at least that's what I heard."
John looked at Jane for a moment before turning to Miranda. "Do you have those vials?"
She nodded and handed two to him, he pressed one against his neck and took some of his blood before doing the same with Jane.
"Hey! Owww." she complained. "What was that for?"
John said nothing as he scanned both of the vials. "EDI, I need you to check these scans for a similarity check."
Saying that got everyone's attention except for Garrus' and Miranda's.
"Seriously?" Jane asked. "What you think I'm your log lost sister or something?"
"Yes," he said nonchalantly.
Before anyone could speak and unnatural cry rang out making everyone on guard.
"Ok you two if you want to live get up and follow our lead." Oda said as he looked around.
Jane and knife got up as the group got into a circle formation. Whatever it was it wasn't good, nothing that made that kind of sound would ever be good.
"Cortez, we need extraction." Garrus said.
"On the way," Cortez said as the Kodiak started up.
The group just stayed in the circle keeping their eyes open as the ship began to descend. But as it dis something shot at it. Streaks of yellow shots few at it but thankfully being the pilot he was Cortez managed to avoid the fire heading towards him. The ship spread up and landed close to the group and all of them got on board. As they did what was firing at Cortez then came into sight.
What came up looked horrific, parts of the creature like the left arm looked turian but the rest was very different. For a starters there was no head but three black eyes, it's body looked bloated with rocks inside of it. It's right arm was a vindicator assault rifle but tentacles and flesh growths along it. As it fired large yellow projectiles headed towards them. The rounds impacted their shields, the impact almost made them lose their shields.
Miranda was taking pictures while the others began to open fire at it. The rounds hit it but did next to nothing. All of a sudden the creature then clutched it's chest and fell to the ground dead. Everyone looked to each other before John and Garrus got out of the ship and walked over to the creature. After unloading a few rounds into it they then dragged the body back to the ship much to the chagrin of the others.
OOOOO
Once on the Normandy Oda, Garrus and John looked through the window to the medical bay as Shoko, in a hazmat suit, looked over the creature. It had been over an hour since she was in and the others lost interest. But the three where interested, Garrus so that he would know how to kill them and the two warlords for threat assessment. Shoko then came out and looked at the three.
"I'm not even close to finishing but the creature didn't die because you shot at it but because of a heart attack. It's skin is so thick that normal rounds wont even tough it." she said.
"So it took you this long to get into it?" Oda asked and Shoko nodded.
"Hai, I had to use everything in order to get it open. Whatever this thing is, if there's more we have got a big problem."