Jun'li and Ashely moved around each other not taking their eye off each other Both of them wore a set of gym clothing with their hands and feet having wraps around them. The scars on their bodies told the legacy of their fighting. This was just a friendly match as the two just wanted to gage how each other fairs in a fight. The Spectre vs the former honour guard Capitan. The two were almost equally matched.
Jun then charged in fast, pouncing like a cat she dived at Ashley. But the Spectre was fast as well grabbing Jun's arm and throwing her down to the ground. But the Xia was flexible and removed the marine's legs from under her. That forced her to let go but Ash dived into a roll away from Jun before she recovered. She then charged at Jun by going into a sweep and knocking the non-human off her feet in payback. But the Xia, being agile like a cat landed on her back and kicked Ash in the jaw sending her staggering back.
She followed in with a swift kick to the chest. But Ashley stepped back and spun around the kick before jumping and bringing her heel down onto the Xia making her recoil but she responded by punching Ashley in the gut. In response the marine punched Jun in the face. The two then collapsed breathing deeply.
"I must ask," Jun spoke. "Why must we train?"
"New Alliance mostly uses arcologies for its civilisation," Ash answered. "It's easier to control their populations. So, I figured that it's best to get some close quarters training in,"
"A fine point," Jun said nodding. "I unfamiliar with arcologies,"
"Arcologies are mostly an asari architectural marvel. They are essentially cities inside a single building. They are meant to house people on planets that we cannot normally inhabit,"
"They close off buildings inside a bigger building? Strange way to build,"
"Given some of the environments they are in it's not surprising. Sometimes the world's we inhabit are dangerous, so we have to adapt in unique ways," Ash lay out on the floor looking up at the ceiling. "We are going to have one hell of a fight on our hands,"
The two just laid here for a good long while just looking at the ceiling. They just lay there in peace for now relaxing in each other's company.
"Sister Ash, I tell you something," Jun then spoke up.
"Yeah?"
"I carry child," she then admitted making Ashley just look to her.
"Then no more combat for you," the marine said with a smile and closing her eyes.
She was just too relaxed to care about anything else.
OOOOO
Oda's capitol of Owari-mei had little technology outside of the standard stuff such as screens, cables and more. But the structures were similar to that of old Japan. It was peaceful and people went about their own business. Little did they know that it was all going to end soon. Three people moved around a long cylindrical object prepping it.
"How much longer?" an asari asked looking around.
"A few more moments," a salarian said as he typed in a few keys.
The final one, a turrian just looked around as well with a rifle in his hands. He just stayed silent as the salarian worked. After he keyed in a few more keys a slide opened up and green lights opened up.
"Ok ready, we need to go," he said and the three left.
An hour later the green lights went off and a neon green gas emerged from it. It then drifted up into the streets making people scream in panic and terror. But as the gas took a hold of the city no one made it out outside of Imperial command. As soon as the gas touched one person their body broke out int puss filled burns which burst open and emptied their bodies of blood. They died from blood loss.
The people who made it into Imperial command, a building that had a similar style to pagoda's but more metallic, survived thanks to it's closed off air systems. As soon as the attack started alerts went out.
OOOOO
John, Oda, Wrex and at least three other warlords sat around a table. The attack on Owari-mei wasn't the only one. For the Solar Empire a settlement on Mars was attacked which was a prime manufacturing city. But the question was who was in no doubt. The New Alliance was planning this for years, target some of the biggest threat to the rule of Mikyle and expand his empire. But John's mobilization toward the NA didn't go unnoticed, but this accelerated the President's plans.
Shepard wasn't at fault, but given what he had done it didn't make him feel any less guilty. WMD's were not unheard in the wars of the Warlords, but it was seen as a dishonourable tactic. Even in a galaxy with few rules, there was always some unspoken rules. Only a few desperate or bloodthirsty Warlords used them. The problem was how to deal with it. John just looked down at the table with a deep sigh as the others talked.
"This is insane," an asari Warlord said. "We have to do something,"
"But the use of WMD's hasn't been outlawed by Article," a salarian said. "They only deal with galaxy wide threats!"
"What are WMD's if not galaxy wide threats?" Oda practically yelled.
"Enough," John muttered silently making eyes look to him. "We all understand the threat posed here, but that doesn't mean we need to argue. We have plenty of threats to deal with, the cults of Korne and Throian but this gas is a bigger threat. At the moment the other warlords are reinforcing their borders and cities. We have sent all relevant information to them, but the problem is NA, they have to be taken out," he said only for nods to echo across the room. "Since Mikyle used WMD's I propose we use one of our own,"
Eyes widened at that but no one spoke, but after a moment the asari spoke up.
"But won't that cause even more chaos?" she asked.
"Yes, it will, but we need to look at this from a tactical view," he said. "Gas is not like a nuke, or radiation. It doesn't destroy or contaminate an area; it just kills all living beings in the location. We need to destroy that production of the gas, and in order to do that we need to target the facility it's coming from and break the President's control over his empire,"
"And the only way to do that…" Oda said.
"….is to use nukes," Wrex finished. "On his capitol,"
John nodded his expression turning dark. "And this isn't an option I take lightly but… with recent new from his homeworld…" he fell silent and just activated his omni-tool and played a video.
The Warlords watched in horror as they witnessed several non-humans being put into slabs forcefully. Once on their heads were opened up and pulled out before being replaced with something else.
"Project Ghost, I though it was some kind of weapon. Instead it's an infiltration unit. They used former slaves as avatars for infiltration," he said making eyes widen even further. "That's not counting the fact that he kills non humans and distils their remains into food," The other warlords began to turn a little green at that.
The video closed and the others just looked at each other with a nod. "I agree, nukes it is then," the final member, a turian, said.
OOOOO
Kolyat and Kasumi had found a good vantage point up on one of the towers. Out of site and out of mind but will a full view of everything. The thief monitored the camera's while the assassin monitored the workers. Their orders came down, destroy the facility. It was too dangerous to be kept up an operational, especially with these ghosts coming from it. This place wasn't the gas factory, but was the plant for creating the ghosts.
Between the two they made a plan, overload the mass effect core of the factory. But it had to be subtle and fast so that no one would notice. Another problem was that in order to start the chain reaction, you needed to start it at the core itself. That building was protected by at least three heavy mechs. It seems that the NA was so paranoid that a secret facility needed tones of guards and defences.
Kasumi checked her omni-tool and punched in a few keys. "I can create a malfunction in one of the distilleries," she said. "Make people run towards it,"
"And pull the guards from the core, sounds like a plan," Kolyat nodded.
The thief smiled and keyed in a few keys. A moment later an explosion sounded in one of the distilleries, this had the unintended effect of secondary explosions with the other distilleries. That got a lot of attention from the guards. Even the mechs broke formation to go and investigate, only leaving one left. The two then left their spot and made their way to the core building. The lone mech just stood looking around slowly trying to find intruders. But it never detected the assassin and thief as they moved past with ease and into the core's building.
Once inside trying to find the core wasn't too difficult, getting there was. Engineers were everywhere. While it's not uncommon to see engineers at the core, it was very uncommon to see a small army of them around a core. As they moved though the internals of the core building, they soon found out why. The core wasn't a mass effect core, but it was a combination of mass effect tech and Xia generator technology.
Kasumi quickly pulled out her omni-tool and hacked into one of the local terminals. As she looked into the information of this new generator. Her eyes began to widen as she read.
"This…" she muttered in surprise and horror.
"What is it?" Kolyat asked.
"This generator is highly unstable, but can generate power for 50 dreadnaught class ships. And judging by the instability it needs to be regulated all hours of the day. This is a problem," she muttered.
"What do we…" Koyat asked but someone took shots at them.
"UP THERE! INTUDERS!" a soldier yelled.
He had a mask over his face that could see their heat signatures. "Shit," both spies yelled out.
They moved out of the firing line, but now they had been discovered this mission just went from bad to worse. But as they bad it halfway down the vents Kasumi stopped and screamed in pain clutching her head. Kolyat moved up to her.
"What's wrong?" he asked as her pain died down but she still held her head.
"Cancer," she muttered as she leaned up against the side of the vent. "Grey boxes are complicated items, while they can story memories, using them causes major problems. I have an aggressive form of brain cancer that cannot be removed. This was meant to be my last mission, before I could retire," she admitted.
"So, what's the plan now?" Kolyat asked.
Kasumi removed her hood and looked at the Drell. "You go, I'll stay," she said in a sombre tone. "They'll follow you allowing me to create a chain reaction in the core. Once detected they shift their focus back to me so you can escape,"
Kolyat hesitated with that. "Y… you sure?"
The Japanese thief nodded. "Go," she said as she headed back to the core and he left.
There was no going back for her, she had fun with Ashley and the crew, training new infiltrators but now was her time. She moved to back to the vent where the core was. Kicking the grate open she fell down into the room and fired off a few rounds into the air making people look to her and run. She looked to the core and sighed before moving to one of the terminals.
She began to type something in and the core began to growl and shake.
"I'm coming Keji," she said quietly before the core began to glow.