John ran into the war room and activated the holo communications. The Warlords stood around the table. There were a few blank spaces for the others but as soon as John came on they started. Some of them however looked annoyed
"Commander good to see you," Wrex said nodding.
"Yeah, let's make this quick I have some problems at the moment," he said.
"What happened?" one of the turrian warlords asked.
"We were attacked and one of my scientists has been taken," he half expected to see eyes glint in their eyes but instead there was one of worried looks. "Something wrong?"
"This is too much of a coincidence," an asari said with Wrex nodding.
"What's happened?" one of the Warlords asked with a confused look.
"The Warlord Limgata has been killed and her territory has been taken over by some cult," a human Warlord said surprising some of the others. "Watch," a video then showed of what happened to the asari warlord.
Several of the warlords covered their mouths in shock at what happened. John's teeth gritted slightly as he watched. Something seemed familiar about this, but there was also something off about this. When the video finished the was an air of silence around the table. No one said anything but Wrex and John did exchange glances at each other. That one word the asari said, Thorian, echoed in their ears. The attack on Zhu's hope involved the entire team due to the heavy geth presence.
The plant fell a good 100 feet to the floor if not more. How could it survive?
"This is mess," Oda said with an annoyed tone.
"Will she become a warlord?" a Salarian asked.
"Doubtful," Mikyle said stroking his chin. "We have tried contacting her and said that if she wants to join our 'friendly' ranks she needs to sign the treaty. She has said 'I will not talk to heretics', she needs to be stopped,"
"Where is Limgata's homeworld?" an asari asked.
"Terminus, close to the Solar Empire," a turrian said glancing over to John who sighed.
"I get 100% of the territory then," John said in an annoyed tone as he knew where this was going.
"80%," a Salarian said with a frim voice but not everyone agreed.
"It's close to my territory and my resources are getting sparse," he shot back. "The battle with the Xei has almost run us dry," he half lied. "I either get 100% of the territory and resources or I won't help. Recently every time we've been in trouble you've all looked to me for help, I'm not some bald guy who can destroy everything with one punch. I need something in exchange this time,"
Wrex shot him a look but he knew that the commander was bluffing. This was a chance to get more resources in order to take his place with the Warlord masters. But even if the others refused to John's demands, he would investigate the Thorian. The faces of the other Warlords were grim. They didn't want to give the commander what he wanted. Limgata's territory was small but rich in resources, or so it was rumoured, and that meant a lot to every Warlord.
The room fell silent as the Warlords looked to one another. No one could get this saturation sorted out faster than John.
OOOOO
Ashley checked the new weapons that came from the labs. Still using the retrofit idea that they used, they based the frame on old XM8 weapon. This allowed it to be highly modular which was Miranda had ordered. Modular weapons would allow for troops to adjust for different situations. Locking a heat sync into the chamber she turned to face a series of targets and fired. The rounds hit near the centre mark.
She smiled and lowered it. These weapons needed more testing but so far, they were good. At that moment John entered.
"Everything good?" he asked.
"Yep, the lab's new weapons are looking good to say the least," she replied.
"Good to hear. We have a new mission, one of the Warlords, Limgata was sacrificed to the Thorian," that last part got her attention.
"The Thorian?" she asked in surprise. "I thought we killed that thing,"
"Looks like we didn't," he said as he picked up a pistol and aimed it down the range. "The other warlords are backing out of this as they are not close enough to take the region for themselves. All they were concerned about is the treaty. Thankfully Article hacked the comms and said that since I'm the closest I have the right to the territory given the situation," he fired a few shots and hit the target's centre mass.
"So, what's the plan?" she asked.
"Full mobilization of all infantry and ships with enough for defence," he said turning to her. "We cannot let the Thorian do whatever it's doing,"
Ashley just nodded.
OOOOO
Miranda moaned as she woke up looking at a light. Her senses quickly came back and she looked around. She was in a white room and strapped to a table. Tugging at the restraints she looked around to try and get her bearings around the room. It was some kind of medical room given the objects and equipment. Nerves got her as she tried to use her biotics, but nothing happened. Whoever this was knew that biotic suppressors would be needed to keep her in place.
Taking a deep breath and supressing her fetish for being tied up she began to tug harder at her restraints. The nanites inside her increased her strength but it was proving to be difficult even with the nanites. The sound of a door opening didn't stop her from struggling, but the sight of her captor did. Her eyes widened as she looked at the clone of John Shepard. But he looked drastically different from the original. For a starter his left eye was gone, replaced a glowing blue slit with a black like organic substance covering it and connecting other parts of his body.
His left arm was encased in this substance as well but she couldn't see more than that. This was repurposed Reaper tech that the Cerberus remnant had left behind. Fear ran though her unsure what was going to happen as the clone smiled.
"Hello Miss Shepard," he said in a slightly metallic voice.
"It's still Lawson," Miranda shot back. "Why am I here?"
"Well, it's simple. I need your DNA," he responded as he turned to one of the draws and pulled out a syringe. "That and I know about you and the other one, he will come to save you. Once I kill him, well let's just say I've achieved my goal,"
OOOOO 2 weeks later.
Full mobilization of the Solar Empire military took longer than expected even with the size of the army. Everyone knew about the simple fact that this was a conquest mission. All commanders were informed about some major issues. They were told about Thorian and the controlling abilities of the creature. This was essentially a full suit seal order for all troops with no exceptions. They were also told to expect Krogan reinforcements. Wrex was coming but he needed some time to mobilize his own forces.
Jack was placed as a commander with her own force of biotic soldiers. They were a select few of her acolytes who requested for this post. They had a bit of training with firearms, mostly pistols and smgs. She was told along with the order commanders about the Thorian. Given her personality and temper she was going to be sent to the planet with the most amount of action. The ship approached the Thorian cult's capitol world with several others.
The Normandy flew in first to recon the area and establish a landing zone. The rest of the ships where hanging back waiting for the order. Thankfully the combat ships the dethroned warlord had sent her ships to another part of her empire leaving only a few left. With the amount of ships left, the space battle would be easy if the navy didn't surrender. It didn't take long for the signal to arrive and the ships jumped into system.
The enemy fleet moved to engage the Solar empire navy which outnumbered and outgunned the Thorian navy. Mass drivers fired their weapons fast along with the thanix cannons ripping the enemy ships to shreds. As this happened the main transport ships flew into the planet's atmosphere and landed offloading troops. Jacks ship flew down and opened up the hanger bay doors and dropped off the troops.
Jack was the first to jump off and move off into the city. It was still in ruins thanks to the coup but this meant cover for both the Empire and Thorian cult. Jack and a group of her acolytes moved up to an outpost controlled by the Empire and she met up with one of the commanders.
"What's the situation?" she asked as her troops got into a defensive line.
"The cult is setting themselves up in different sections of the city," a Turian commander said. "We have no idea about the main command post, but recon says that they are digging up the city and setting up a trench line,"
"So, we gearing up for a siege?" Jack asked.
"And trench warfare, the cult has clearly been planning this for a while. They are well defended, it's going to take time,"
"Were do you want my acolytes?"
"Artillery, and putting up barriers, we're going to need them,"
Jack nodded and turned to her students. "Team one, front and centre cover the troops and put up barriers! Team two, target cultist forces and blast them!" she called out.
The acolytes moved as fast as they could into the positions. Their orange and black robes were noticeable for the other troops who moved out of the way for the acolytes to take their positions. Due to their robes they had little armour and due to the quarantine order, they only had gas masks on. A few of them were not used to being in a firefight and were either stood in place or cowering, but others who had been in fights just took their positions. Jack walked up to the closest acolyte and looked at him.
"Are you afraid?" she asked and he just nodded.
Reaching over she placed her hand on the side of his face and gave him a motherly look. "It's ok to be afraid, but look to the left, look to the right. They will not let anything happen to you, will you extend them the same courage that they are showing you?"
The young man looked to the left and the right, both of them were Solar empire soldiers who heard what Jack said. They looked to the acolyte and nodded, despite the fact that their helmets looked like skulls. Taking a deep breath, he stood and turned to look into the city while grabbing his prayer beads. He then muttered to himself in an old asari language as he began to form biotic barriers in front of the rest of the soldiers.
Jack did the same with the rest of the ones who coward in cover until all were up in time to face off a cultist attack. Snipers were the first to try their luck and only managed to take down a few before Solar snipers took their own shots at them. Unlike normal snipers, Solar empire snipers had no scopes on their rifles, but instead had a wireless link from their weapons to their helmets. This allowed them to lose the scope and aim at will removing the glint from their scopes.
The cultist then moved technical's into at the other end of the street and began to fire. Anti-tank shells began to impact the improvised barricades of the Solar outpost as the troops began to fire back. The acolytes did their job of defence and long rage attack. The rear acolyte's used their staffs to change up an amount of biotic energy before throwing it over the barrier and hitting the cultists. One of the technicals was heavily damaged but it provided more cover for the cultist forces.
This was going to be a hard battle.