BioWare/EA; it's in the game.
SSV Normandy, Eletania Space, Hercules System, Attican Beta Cluster, July 6, 2183
Author's Notes: P-P-P-P-POLITICS! (NO!)
After seven hours of traveling through Gagarin Space and interstellar space in the Armstrong Nebula to reach the Tereshkova System and its Mass Relay, it had taken another two hours and twenty-two minutes to translate from the Armstrong Nebula to the Attican Beta Cluster to outrun the potential Geth threat as the ACV Horizon and the SSV Normandy 'landed' in the Hercules System, where Battle Group Montezuma pulled a defensive position over the starter Alliance colony of Eletania. Eletania was a domed colonization effort that had started up three years prior on a semi-toxic world where pollination caused anaphylactic shock due to microscopic bacterial creatures that lived in the moss and algae of the world, light enough to travel in the winds. The two domed colonies were both situated above the 'treeline' of the planets' growth to enjoy its rich nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere and pleasant weather.
It was where the Normandy ended up escorting the Horizon with its Battle Group and nearest possible facility to aid any survivors found on the Flying Dutchman vessel.
Captain Jane Catherine Shepard (SAN, N7, OST) stalked down the Command Deck, leaving the Communication Room in a foul mood. Her and her team had practically towed the Horizon into friendly space, the threat of pirates and Geth all too real as the Frigate played escort for the much slower Carrier-Class Cruise Liner. Mister Arnold Donald of the Earth-Alliance Carnival Corporation had been given a summarized report of the bad news, Jannie leaving out the parts about the massacre that had ensued. All he needed to know was that the Geth indeed take over the vessel, and that a complete loss of life was probable, even likely. She had sent that report from her Ready Room before receiving a message from Arcturus Station, specifically the Admiralty Board.
"Captain Shepard, reporting as ordered." Jane had saluted the seven members of the Admiralty Board as they were holographically represented before her in the Normandy's Communication Room. The Frigate had been in the Hercules System for less than an hour, and no doubt her initial report of what happened to the Horizon had been reviewed and decided upon. The Commanding Officer for Battle Group Montezuma, one Captain Rhys Llewellyn, hadn't been looking forward to the fact that he would be hosting a potential Geth vessel with some Husks on it. She had filled him in that TEAM LION had eliminated some thirty-nine hundred Husks with a team of twelve. The man had a Marine Battalion and balked at the thought of doing a standard VBSS mission. Five hundred Marines… she could have worked with just a platoons' worth!
"Captain." Fleet Master Kastanie Drescher spoke through the KERBEROS Communications Protocols of sending encrypted data packets over an unsecured line, the image a little grainy and jumpy, but otherwise difficult to penetrate as the encryption changed every five seconds, ensuring that, if cracked, only a very small portion of conversation could be heard. "We have received your report about the ACV Horizon. We had been in contact with Carnival's CEO, one Mister Donald, who had requested military assistance from the Alliance Navy. Unfortunately, our fleets are tied up at the moment thanks to Alliance and Earth Parliaments." Evidently, Jannie had stepped on toes pulling off a rescue mission. Thankfully, she didn't exactly answer to the Admiralty Board, though pissing them off would limit options and help later on if some Armchair Admiral got miffed forgetting what it was like actually serving. "As for your request in utilizing some of Montezuma's Marine forces to clear out the vessel and search for survivors, it has been denied."
You have got to be fucking shitting me, Shepard seethed internally, keeping her face a blank mask.
"That wasn't agreed upon." Rear Admiral (Upper Half) Steven Bishop Hackett replied with a growl, turning his head to look upon the Fleet Admiral. "And I do believe that Battle Group Montezuma is assigned to Fifth Fleet, in which I am its Commanding Officer." Jannie knew that politics was raising its ugly head, but Uncle Steven had never danced to that beat. Fleet Master Drescher frowned heavily, but said nothing. While she was responsible for the entirety of the Systems Alliance Navy and Marines, she did not run an individual Fleet. She could give guidance, but it was ultimately the responsibility of the Commanding Officer of the Fleet to give direction. Jannie knew that Kastanie Drescher could order Admiral Hackett to stand down, but she would lose face amongst the other members of the Admiralty Board. Considering five of the seven members were, in fact, the Commanding Officers of the five Fleets of the Systems Alliance Navy, stepping on toes would get her nowhere. "Our duty is to our people, Kat. Captain Shepard just pulled that ship out of enemy hands and eliminated most of its enemy forces with less than a combat section. If there is the possibility of just one survivor, we owe it to them. Or have you forgotten how many survived Shanxi, Mindoir, and Akuze?" No one had known the initial enemy composition or amount of survivors for those incidences, but that hadn't stopped Marines and Sailors from deploying. There had been less than a dozen survivors from Mindoir, and only eight from Akuze. As for Shanxi, it had been a double-sided slaughter, both for the original defenders of the colony as well as the Turian forces deployed there.
"I concur." The Admiral of Fourth Fleet, Rear Admiral (Upper Half) Kyle Singer, replied. Jannie just stood at parade rest, a little shocked to hear from her estranged stepfather. "If we renege and just scuttle the ship without any kind of investigation or effort for the people aboard that vessel, we might as well resign our commissions when the political and public backlash occur. Civilians aren't going to understand the term 'military necessity' when we fire upon one of our vessels and have no proof that we looked for survivors or tried to identify the bodies. If someone gets a hold that Captain Shepard practically brought the Horizon to us wrapped with a bow and we destroyed it arbitrarily? The media will slaughter us first, then the public, and then the politicians. That is the last thing we need when potentially staring at the next Geth strike." While she wasn't exactly thrilled with Admiral Singers' reasoning, he was correct about the politics of it. At the least Uncle Steven thought about the men and women, a little bit of humanity in Humanity's defenders. "As I understand it, the away team of the Normandy did an excellent job of purging as much of the Geth software as they could while eliminating as much of their forces as well. We now have the potential insight on how the Geth work. More intelligence gives us an edge on defending our people better." The Admiral turned his holographic attention towards her. "Are there any indications of survivors?"
"Unknown. We didn't look." The Captain replied. "I know that the crew manifest reports at forty-five hundred and thirteen people, and we only encountered thirty-nine hundred and eighty-seven altered personnel. That leaves less than six hundred personnel unaccounted for in the Horizon. They could be there, physically taken by the Geth, dumped out the airlock… security footage was corrupted, so it's anyone's guess." No one was expecting a sixteen-man team to clear out a Carrier. One needed at least two full Marine Infantry Companies to accomplish that task, at the very minimum. Jannie didn't doubt her accomplishment would be studied rigorously and practiced in VBSS tactics and training; it was rare one ever cleared a ship with full combat strength. She probably set a record somewhere, though that was never her thing. "I've sent a list of details on what recovery ops and ground forces will need to do in order to protect themselves from Geth intrusion and the Husks. Gentlemen? Do NOT let the recommendation of Husk danger get slipped into the solar breeze. I watched one of my Marines get actively assimilated from being stabbed in the ankle. It took about an hour for the conversion process. Doc Sara Ryder and Commander Karin Chakwas are performing an autopsy on Lance Corporal Jeong to discover how it was done."
"And you are willing to send Marines, to risk their lives?" Fleet Admiral Drescher berated, and Jannie was absolutely appalled by the question. This shouldn't be the mindset of the highest-ranking military individual in the Alliance Navy. "Out of the question, Captain. The Horizon will be scuttled at current location under my orders." Uncle Steven looked ready to jump out of his seat and throttle somebody. Fleet Admiral Ines Lindholm, the Commanding Officer of First Fleet and the SSV Everest looked ready to murder someone. Rear Admiral (Upper Half) Nitesh Singh of the Third Fleet and the SSV Logan appeared to be in serious objection. Even her stepfather, the Commanding Officer of Fourth Fleet and the SSV Kilimanjaro, had an ugly look to his face. None of the Fleet Officers agreed with the Fleet Master, and the lone person on the Admiralty Board that wasn't in command of a ship, Rear Admiral (Lower Half) Leselle Beauecomp, in command of the Office of Naval Intelligence, shook her head slightly, obviously disappointed.
Enough of this shit, Jannie thought to herself as she raised her OmniTool and toggled the ships' VI protocol.
"Joker, put the Normandy in between the Horizon and the Montezuma Battle Group. NOW." She told her OmniTool. Right in front of the Board.
"Um… WILCO?" Flight Lieutenant Jeff 'Joker' Moreau's voice came over her OmniTool, his tone uncertain but not insubordinate. "Give me half-a-minute. We're not exactly in position."
"Half-a-minute is fine, Mister Moreau." The N7 replied, toggling off her Kassa Fabrications' Polaris OmniTool, returning her attention to the seven holographic images in front of her. All of them were shellshocked by what just happened in front of them. She had just willfully countermanded a superiors' orders; that was considered mutiny by some. "You want to blow that ship out of the sky? You're going to have to shoot through me." Several Admirals had their jaws physically drop, and Fleet Master Kastanie Drescher looked ready to chew right through an AlumniSteel bar.
"Captain Shepard…"
"Agent Shepard." Jannie corrected her by interrupting, no longer standing at parade rest, insisting upon her other rank; the Council one. Now she had her arms folded across her chest, and was leaning back slightly on her right leg as she stared at the Officer who was four ranks higher than herself… in the Alliance Military. But she had another authority she answered to, another set of rules she could use. And she was going to play that fucking card right now. "The Council of Law deemed this to be a Human problem. If we can prove it to where there is no doubt that the Geth mean to wage war with anyone and everyone, we can get allies. That proof might be on that vessel where survivors might exist, to be confirmed by what my Surgeon and the Angel of Illyeria are dissecting at this time. We get allies, we can protect our people better, prevent more Horizons, Eden Primes, and Therums. I can't stop Saren and the Geth if I've got to clean up after everyone."
Fleet Admiral Drescher stared right at her. Jannie stared right back.
"Captain, we're in position." Her OmniTool chirped up with Joker's voice about half-a-minute after her order, in the middle of the staring contest of the ages. "Mind… telling me what you want me to do? Shields? Sing the Russian National Anthem? Damn it, Jim, I'm a Doctor?"
"Give me a minute, Joker." Shepard toggled her OmniTool to vibrate, her eyes never leaving the Fleet Master. She was playing a very dangerous game with a woman that was her boss's boss's boss… but Kastanie Drescher answered to someone else above her; the Minister of Defense. This issue would be raised at an inquiry, and with practically every other Admiral on the Board disagreeing with the Fleet Master's call, not to mention how hard the Systems Alliance worked to even get a SPECTRE? The story would be undoubtedly leaked to the press, and the social media networks would practically howl for Drescher's head. Drescher was a FCW Vet who had commanded Second Fleet during the push against Turian forces, but Jannie remembered well the stories that Poppa Bear and Uncle Alec had told her when she was a kid; Jon Grissom had been the driving force while Kat Drescher held a holding pattern over Shanxi. She had been the 'safe' choice back in 2155 when Second Fleet came to existence, the Alliance wishing to look ethical by having a female Admiral in charge of the second existing fleet. Her politics were safe, her tactics were safe, her outlook was safe.
That worked fine… during a time of peace. Which this wasn't. Not for the past month. Not since Eden Prime.
"Fine." The Fleet Admiral buckled, Jannie not being the only one looking at her. "I'll have Captain Llewellyn spin up his Marines and send a detachment of ONI Agents from the Crime Forensics and Intelligence Bureau." Her tone was pure steel, and the Captain knew that likely there would be hell to pay later. "I will not forget this."
"See that you don't, ma'am." Shepard drolled as the communication ended.
"I see the Admiralty Board gave you hell."
Jannie had been standing on the Captain's Podium, still seething at the audacity of the Fleet Master wishing just to blow a ship out of the sky when the Normandy brought it out of the enemy's grasp. The fact that everyone else in the Board thought the idea retarded had helped her decision in defying a woman who massively outranked her… somewhat. Thanks to Agent Avitus Rix, Shepard knew exactly where she stood as a Level Three Council Agent in effect when it came to her military, her government, and her species. Technically, she 'outranked' just about everyone save for the actual President of the Systems Alliance, the Prime Minister of Earth, and the Human Ambassador. The military couldn't frag her or charge her with anything considered insubordination unless she murdered someone without cause, and there was a good deal of legal wiggle room concerning even that! They couldn't kick her out, couldn't take her 'authorized' ship, and even her crew was protected under the Treaty of Farixen; one of the subsections detailing the responsibilities of a signatory species when it came to dealing with Agents of the Council. If Jannie wanted to, she could completely ignore anything and everything the Admiralty Board wanted to do. It wasn't a smart choice, but her job was, essentially, the protection and defense of the Human Race, not its presiding government. While she was an arbiter of Council justice and wrath, her first duty (according to the files that Avitus had supplied her) was to her species first, against all enemies both foreign and domestic. If any member of any species was discovered by her with an Infraction? Agent Jane Shepard could neutralize them right then and there with a few pieces of evidence or proof, even unconfirmed. Council justice didn't wait for verification, spectral analysis, collaboration, or a trial. One eyewitness account was all that was needed to enact a punishment that made sapients fearful of SPECTREs.
"Had to teach the Fleet Master a painful lesson about Council Agents." Jannie answered Commander Mark Vanderloo quietly, making an eyebrow raise up in question. "Drescher wanted to blow the Horizon out of the sky post-haste. I had the Normandy maneuvered to take away the threat…"
"… because Captain Rhys Llewellyn wouldn't fire on an Alliance ship, not to mention a SPECTRE." Mark got it. "Dangerous… but necessary. We wanted a SPECTRE. Now that we got one, it's up to you to teach us what that means. For what it's worth, I'm glad you saved that ship. We went through a lot of hard work to bring it back, and I wouldn't be pleased to see it destroyed by someone sitting safe in the Arc just because it was the safe option. We didn't sign up to be safe; we signed up so others could be."
"Something I think some of those station-bound cowards have forgotten, sitting safe on the Arc or back on Earth." Eden Prime had rattled cages in a way that the Blitz never did. Jannie had gone to ICT to be a better warrior, to better defend Mankind. Just because some Armchair Admiral sitting toasty in an office in Arcturus Stream didn't want to deal with the grisly details on a datapad wasn't an excuse not to do what was necessary. It was one thing to follow an order that one didn't really personally agree with. It was something else when it started skirting dereliction of duty. Fleet Admiral Drescher should have known better. Such a call that she had made would likely send her to an 'early' retirement, forced out by the Ministry of Defense. If the Earth Alliance Carnival Corporation caught wind that the military was about to blow their flagship out of the sky without any kind of rescue or relief force other than her own? Arnold Donald showed himself to be a man who would muscle through the political arena to get heads to roll. The man had waited outside the Normandy himself to ask for aid; he wasn't adverse to getting his hands dirty in the name of responsibility. A good man, in her opinion. "Contact Captain Llewellyn and coordinate instructions on what his Marines need to look for in order to defend themselves better against Husks and the Geth. There's still five hundred missing, and there could still be hardware platforms on that vessel."
"I'll see to it, ma'am." Vanderloo nodded from his station. "I'll continue Watch while you get yourself a post-op shower. Your armor smells like gunfire." That had Jannie snort, but smile all the same.
"You have the Conn, Mark."
A post-op shower sounded lovely, but Jannie had two more stops to go to first.
Captain Jane Shepard tapped on the access panel to the MedBay, the panel beeping in acknowledgment that she wished to enter, but the door not sliding open as the access had been limited to authorized personnel by the Ships' Surgeon. Jannie waited a moment before the access panel went from red to green, indicating that she was allowed into the MedBay. The access doors slid open as the N7 entered into the dispensary to see Commander Karin Carolyn Chakwas suturing up the body of Lance Corporal Hong Jeong, closing his chest cavity, while Petty Officer (Second Class) Sara Elaine Ryder stared at something through a nanoscope, undoubtedly looking at a sample. Jannie noted that on a secured tray were several PlastiGel-crafted jars filled with a clear emulsion fluid and… God, organs floating inside of them. Shepard knew that they were going to do an autopsy, but she really didn't know what that pertained save from what she had seen on ENetFlix shows and vids. They were studying the Marines' organs, and now that Jannie actually looked at them, they seemed… wrong. Shriveled, miscolored, misshapened.
What the fuck had the Geth done to K-Pop? To all the others?
"Ah, Jane." Karin's cool British accent came to her ears as Shepard pulled her attention away from the jars that sat across from the MedBay and towards the Medical Doctor. "We have just finished up with Lance Corporal Jeong, affording what dignity we could considering his condition." The Captain noted that Chakwas was still in BioCom Level Four, meaning Biological Contamination, Level Four Posture. The only thing missing from the older woman was the hood. In fact, Sara was in BioComFour as well, minus her own hood. The Posture was for any infectious disease or condition. No hoods meant that whatever it was wasn't an airborne contagion. Thank God for that, even if they had all been wearing helmets on the Horizon and breathing processed air. The body bag that Sara had used was one from CitEMS meant to protect sapients from such things, being an airtight seal, and the MedBay ran off its own atmospherics just for that reason. They had tested and cleared the air, obviously, since they had let her in without her own HMWA MasterGear SPECTRE Mk. IV Armor helmet on.
"Did he have any family?" Jannie asked quietly. It shouldn't matter, but she would be responsible for the condolence letters. She remembered all too well learning that Corporal Richard Jenkins' parents had died on Eden Prime as well. She carried his dog tags in her armor, knowing that the Marine would have been elated to work for a SPECTRE, and a Human one at that.
"Mother, father, two older sisters." Sara replied from the nanoscope, pulling her eyes from the viewing reticle as she straightened her back out, wincing slightly. Trust Doc to know her Marines. Ryder looked exhausted, both from the ordeal on the Horizon, K-Pop, and the fact that she had been working the past seven or so hours on an autopsy as well as whatever investigative procedures she was conducting. A twelve-hour day wasn't pushing the scales, but considering what had transpired? It was physically, mentally, and spiritually exhausting. "They all live on Earth. Both sisters are married, five kids between the both of them." Sara frowned as she turned her head to look at her Auntie. "He… he was engaged, too. A nice girl in Seoul, her name's Song. They talked and messaged every day."
"Fuck." Jannie pinched the bridge of her nose. One of the nastier bits about command; the losses and those who would be affected. "Is there anything we can do for Hong to make him more… presentable?" Mommy and Daddy Jeong probably didn't want to see their son look like Husk. Closed casket funerals were a painful thing to endure.
"Yes there is." Commander Chakwas replied, nodding her head. "A light coat of OmniGel and PlastiGel at the right mixture and temperature can create a synthskin that will look realistic enough, though it will feel false. But we will have to cremate the body, I'm afraid."
"Why's that?"
"Auntie… he's infected with nanocytes." That had Jannie frown. She wasn't familiar with the term as she found a nearby stool and utilized it.
"Talk to me, kiddo."
"The Husk injected him with some fluid medium, likely an electrolytic medium such as electrolytic plasma." Sara began, having turned to face Shepard while remaining in her stool. "In the fluid were likely hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of nanocytes; nanomachines that act much in the same way as stem cells."
"That doesn't sound good." Stem cells were basic building blocks that one found in Human fetuses, and were grown for legal organ cloning. They could be used for effective treatment as well as illegal genetic research.
"It isn't." Ryder's' smile was distant, never touching her eyes. "The nanocytes latch onto cells within the body, infecting them with a germ-line mutated RNA sequence right into the nucleus of each cell, warping it and consuming it as it self-replicates into a synthetic adaptation. If it enters a blood cell, it ruptures the cell and propagates itself with dozens of nanocytes. If it enters a fiber, it sucks out the necessary elements to chemically alter the fiber in question, changing it from carbon to silicon."
"Wait… what the fuck?" Carbon was the building block for life save for the Volus, as Jannie understood it. Humans, Turians, Asari, Salarians, Drell, Elcor, and Quarians were all carbon-based life forms. She wasn't a hundred percent certain on the Hanar or Krogan. The Volus were the only known race to be based off of silicon. She remembered chemistry and the Periodic Table, that Carbon was lower than Silicon as an element. But to physically change an element? That was… well, the only example she could really think of was the OmniLoom in the House of Boom where she, Sara, and Marshal Samantha Collins had their bodysuits and SPECTRE Armors crafted on the spot, literally grown from elements to finished product, no need for installation, wiring, or integration. It sounded like the same damn process.
"Here." Sara toggled something on her HMOT MasterGear SPECTRE Mk. I OmniTool and opened up the holovision monitor installed on the MedBay wall, opening up a file to play.
Jannie watched… horrified.
There was a scene of red blood cells, obviously Human in nature, suspended in plasma. The she saw an addition of nanocytes injected into the site, where the magnification illustrated a red blood cell suffering an attack from a nanocyte; a black, spider-like thing with pseudopod-like feelers that latched onto the cell and began to burrow its way inside. The sight sickened her as she watched the red blood cell begin to quiver and darken, growing more diseased by the second as it shriveled upon itself before exploding, releasing an easy dozen more nanocytes into the bloodstream. Good God… the Council Agent felt her mouth grow dry at the sight. Even viruses and bacterias didn't replicate that much.
"Is that… real-time?" Shepard asked, her tone a little shook up. There had been no defense whatsoever as the nanocytes attacked and infected other cells. God it was multiplying exponentially. If one cell could make a dozen nanocytes in that period of time?
"It take about five to seven seconds from integration to replication." The Academy Alumni replied, toggling the next file. "This is what happens when a nanocyte hits a fiber, this one a skin tissue sample." Jannie found herself unable to look away as she watched the microscopic machine enter into a piece of skin, burrowing inside, blackening the flesh as it likely sucked out whatever nutrients and elements it needed. The site looked diseased as it began to spread and spread and spread. The initial site continued to grow in circumference as the skin began to crack and grow brittle, and the tissues began to turn… crystalline? Siliconization, Shepard had to guess. The flesh looked harder, but more brittle, too. "The nanocyte continues to burrow, replicating inside the flesh and spreading to the connecting tissue fibers and whatever else connecting to it. For the blood stream," Sara sighed, "it is merely a vehicle of transfer, suffusing the entire body. A skin contact can be prevented… with immediate amputation. But the nanocytes are quick. They will convert around a mass of a kilogram in approximately two minutes. An injection?" The Corpsman merely shook her head. "If one is fortunate and it is in a capillary region, we might get lucky with immediate tourniquet and amputation. An actual artery or vein? No, there's no stopping it."
"What you did for Jeong?" Sara had tried electrocuting the process, muttering something about electricity. It was obvious that the Corpsman was trying to fry out what she thought some machine with too much electricity.
"I'm afraid that the Human body doesn't conduct electricity well enough for that to be effective." Ryder replied, looking at the body in sorrow. "I don't know what these things are using for processors or a power source. But I'm guessing nanoprocessors or intelligent DNA for guidance, and perpetual motion as a power source."
"…holy fuck." Jannie knew what perpetual motion meant; a machine that could run indefinitely without the need of an external power , it was impossible due to the fact that such a device would violate both the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics. "How is that possible?"
"I don't know, but Jeong's caloric outtake ceased with the growing spread in his body, meaning that his ambient temperature and caloric conversion stopped." Sara shook her head. "I… I think the nanocyte ran him, like mini-batteries. I know it's only been several hours, but… Jannie…
"He hasn't begun to decay at all."
"Wait, wait, wait… that would mean he isn't dead? None of the Husks?" The Council SPECTRE felt a chill go through her heart. Now she knew why Chakwas insisted on cremation; total body destruction.
"He's become something else, Auntie. See the jars?" Sara gestured towards the PlastiGel jars she had noted earlier. "Each one is active, still functioning. Despite that we removed them from the host body and suspending them in emulsion fluid for preservation… they are still working." Jannie felt a deep, deep cold ball form in her gut. "Each one? They're… semi-sentient. A living organism in their own right. I… I don't know what else to say except that I think it's possible that each 'unit' is a separate entity."
"No offense, Sara, but that's… I don't think the Geth can possibly do that." Jannie was beyond baffled. At a technological standpoint, that was… centuries beyond anything she had ever heard of. That was well beyond crafting Artificial Intelligence or NanoTech. "If they could, they wouldn't need robotic bodies."
"Agreed. This is… something else." The Academy Alumni frowned, looking at the sample that rested under the nanoscope. "I talked to Doctor Chakwas about this. We're destroying all the evidence. This is just too dangerous to risk the small possibility of someone getting their hands on it. I know… I know that there were bodies on Eden Prime and T-Therum," Jannie's heart broke at the sound of that stutter, knowing that Sara was still affected by what happened to Red Platoon (1B3/7MAR), "but my full and complete medical analysis is to destroy all evidence and remains. One drop of this even in benign hands is beyond the scope and capabilities of our control, Auntie. God forbid some stupid motherfucker thinks about weaponizing this tech for their own purpose. This is… First Day Violation, well beyond anything we're capable of."
"Matter creation and dissemination." The N7 breathed out, knowing what Sara was implying. Humanity and the other races had been molding and shaping objects from existing elements for millennia, crafting objects from one to the next. No matter how advanced they had gotten, from simple metallurgy to advanced plastics and even the Gels, it was still a simple scientific barrier that they could only create from what existed, limited by what was available. Oh, sure, sentients have synthesized a great deal of products, able to bombard an element with electrons to change it subtly to their needs, or forging two or several metals into an alloy for their purposes. But they had to find it, research it, and craft it. They could break a molecule apart, and even forge one together, but the basic premise was the same; they couldn't create something that didn't exist before.
Matter creation? True creation? That was the stuff of the Gods… or much worse.
"ProTech?" Shepard asked quietly, her eyes darting over to where Doctor Chakwas was, still finishing up with Lancie Jeongs' body. The Medical Doctor knew the score about dissemination of information and classified materials, but one didn't shout out sensitive information. Jannie implied the OmniLoom in the House of Boom.
"Honestly… no, no I don't think so." Sara bit her lower lip, thinking. "I just don't see how they could have gone extinct if they had this kind of capability, even a fraction of it or just in small amounts. This is akin to some fantastical concepts, like teleportation, replication, and resurrection. This is a high-level of math and science we're nowhere near cracking… possibly ever, and rightfully so. If the Protheans could craft the elements? They'd still be in power today, and God forbid where we would be in the scheme of things against that kind of power. Could you imagine the abuse?" Jannie shuttered at that. "No, this isn't Prothean. Or if it were, it got out of hand and it was ultimately responsible for their extinction. I might bring that up to Liara; she loves her conspiracies." That had the Captain snort as Sara looked thoughtful.
"It could possibly be MetTech, the Metacons."
Shepard frowned. She knew that term from Doctor T'soni, Professor T'vara, and Sara.
"That was the machine race the Protheans fought against, right?" Like most Humans, Jannie didn't exactly get a galactic education. Sara knew far more about species history than the redhead ever would. Something the Cit-born prided herself on.
"Yes, approximately fifty-five thousand years ago. Eventually destroyed the Protheans' home system, if the Asari Protheantologists are correct." Jannie wasn't sure how one destroyed an entire solar system. It was too scary a thought. What would drive someone to do such a thing? "But what little we've recovered about the Metacon Wars was that they were sentient computers and thinking machines; likely Synthetic or Artificial Intelligence, maybe like the Geth, but probably closer to that one Terminator movie series." Sara eventually shook her head. "But I honestly have a hard time believing even the Metacon developing this; they would be in existence today as well if they had this capability, and who knows what fifty millennia of time would let them do. Whatever this is, whoever made this…" Sara went quiet as her blue eyes looked right at her Auntie.
"Whoever is making this… is God."
Captain Jane Shepard awoke with a start, her body covered in a thin sheen of cold sweat as she lurched forwards quickly, her heart racing as she gasped, clutching at her chest, her heart absolutely pounding inside her bosom. Her green eyes darted left and right to taking in her surroundings, and found herself to be in the darkened confines of her Captains' Quarters, sitting up in her own personal bed. She let off a sigh as she wiped at her face, feeling the sweat drying rapidly on her heated skin, knowing it would likely be an hour or so before she could comfortably fall back to sleep.
That fucking dream… unlike most, this one she remembered vividly.
Jannie threw the Systems Alliance-issued blanket and cover sheet off, kicking it down to the bottom of her bed as she threw her legs around to rest on the soft rug on the deck so she wouldn't have to touch the cold metal floor with her bare feet, looking down at her long legs, seeing a few marks here and there associated with her profession as an N7 SpecOps warrior. She had two small incisions on either side of her left knee for ACL and LCL repair, and a nice patch along the middle of her right shin where she had broken her tibia into an open fracture, the lower portion of the break actually piercing her skin on a mission back in '78. Doc Haskell had taken off her leg armor, shoved the bone back inside, reset her leg, and splinted it with a PlastiGel sheath so Jannie could continue on that mission; not her wisest decision. There was also the nice sight of dimpled flesh from a gunshot wound along her right thigh, thankfully missing both the femur and the femoral artery.
Seeing her battle scars, Jannies' right hand went to the dimpled mark that rested right above her heart as it always did; the one that almost killed her.
God damn it, why'd she have to dream that dream?
Shepard sighed as she slipped on a pair of fuzzy slipper in the likeness of Blasto!; Sara Ryders' idea of both a present and a joke a couple of years back when the first movie came out. Despite the ridiculousness of them, they were warm and comfortable to wear as the redhead stood up and padded over to her personal terminal in her quarters, rocking out with only her pink Underarmor boyshorts and her pink Underarmor Medium-Impact sports bra. The feel of the SSV Normandy's atmospherics recycling the air brought a slight cool breeze to her flesh, drying off the sweat and bringing a slight chill to her skin. Jannie sat in the chair in front of her work station and waved the terminal on, watching the holographic screen and Haptic keyboard activate as she touched an app on the gesture-recognition screen, the device noting her hand position relative to what was being displayed in light form and activating the app she had 'touched'.
"Personal log, July Seventh, Twenty-One Eighty-Three. Time? Zero-Two Hundred in the fucking morning." Jannie spoke as the terminal recorded her words.
"Operations on the Horizon were completed late last night, Marine teams from Battle Group Montezuma doing a full VBSS on a Carrier-sized vessel. We had complete and full control of the vessel in question, so it went textbook easy. A hundred and fifty Marines searched that death trap from Crows' Nest to Keel, Bow to Stern, Port to Starboard. Took them about six hours to search and clear every room on every deck, taking it slow and proper.
"Didn't find one other Goddamn survivor. Human, Husk, Geth… anything."
Jannie went silent for a moment as she pulled her feet onto the chair, hugging her own legs, thinking.
"It seems that TEAM LION killed all the available Husks, not one living or mobile one was found. I ordered the teams to incinerate the remains of the Husks, and there was no flak with that once those boys and girls saw what they were. Some of those Jarheads served in the Blitz, seen combat and what slavers could do, but not one of them was prepared for that. One of the Gunnys' mentioned that it looked like all the personnel on the Horizon were stuffed into the Atrium, but that about five hundred or so were missing. There was a body count, a physical one, and it was compared to the crew manifest. Somewhere out there… there's five hundred Husks waiting to tear and infect. That… scares me."
That fucking dream. Why did she have to dream that dream?
"Sara…" Jannie continued, "Sara held a Wake with the remaining Marines for K-Pop. We'll do a proper one when we hit the Arc next, but they held their own for Jeong's cremation. What he had become? God, it's scary to think that there were hundreds, if not thousands, of Husks running around on Eden Prime. We slaughtered damn near four thousand of them on the Horizon, but I can't help but think what those people must have been thinking when everything began, the terror of it. Watching strangers and families dragged to a Dragons' Tooth, impaled and converting. Hong… was still alive and conscious when he had been injected with Husk nanocytes, never passing out or falling unaware. That… that means that the people spiked on Dragons' Teeth are likely not only still alive, but probably conscious and aware, too. God, what fucking horror."
Jannie closed her eyes, but she could still see the last visage of her dream.
"So the Horizon has been cleared, and tomorrow ONI will scour the ship for any usable data and intelligence." Shepard continued. "I just hope that we can find something to justify the loss of over four thousand people and the political and public backlash of this incident. This is going to terrify people if they ever know the full truth. Bad enough they imagine killer robots from outer space. I don't doubt that the Alliance will suppress some of that intel, such as Husks being Human Beings, or what happened to Jeong. The last thing we need is a panic and rioting from people who don't seem to get that such actions puts them in further danger if we've got to break off to quell such things. I've… yet to inform the Alliance of Sara's discoveries involving Husk nanocytes. We don't know enough, and Sara's extremely paranoid about samples getting sidetracked or used retardedly. I don't blame her; that shit scares the fuck out of me. I personally watched every piece of contamination on my vessel get destroyed, and I had Tali monitor the same on the Horizon, making sure no one was pocketing 'trophies' or some such bullshit. Purification ops… never thought it come to this."
That Goddamn dream, why wouldn't it fade?
"It's been… twenty-one days since Therum, and thirty-one since Eden Prime. With the exception of his holographic appearance to the Council and his pet Krogan that Sara ripped the headplate off of, there's been no further word or intel of Saren's location or activities. I have no idea where he is, what he's doing, or what he has planned next. The fucker is a twenty-year veteran of Special Ops of the highest caliber, and no doubt he's got extensive networks and finances set up if he's been planning this for some time. With the Geth at his side, or at least in alliance with for the time being, he could practically get any piece of intel on-hand in short order, and likely very few places could be closed of to him thanks to Geth hacking and infilltration of the ExtraNet. He's got to have some sort of base of operations or place where he can think; a ship, a headquarters, some small station. The fact that the fucking Council of Law seems utterly inept and clueless to their own golden boy strikes me as singularly insipid of them, unless they've got some reason to hold back info on the spike they call a traitor. I imagine there's a good deal of political flak involved, considering he's been there right hand man for something like fifteen years, according to both Sara and Sam Collins. They were blindsided good, and I suspect they're cutting losses and loose ends to protect their reputations and careers. Ah… the ever-predictable act of the politician. Accusation in one hand, denial in the other.
"Still," Jannie continued, "we got lucky. The Horizon was pulled out of whatever plans it was involved in with one military loss, and we've identified the SSV Xterra as a Vessel Of Interest throughout Alliance Space. I have no idea how the Geth got aboard and took it over. Hacking, I imagine. Scary thought."
Jannie could still see the dream's conclusion in her minds' eye.
"Had… a strange dream." The redhead finally opened up, knowing that she should. "Not something from the Beacon for a change. Something more recent." God she could still see it, feel the horror and revulsion of it. "Just… picturing what it must have been like on the Horizon, for the people there. The Geth taking over, probably instituting lockdown so they can gather everyone piecemeal, impaling a quarter-thousand at a time." Jannie remembered the Atrium, seeing it filled with tourists in her minds' eye… families. Her heart shuttered as she pictured Sara amongst them, the ten-year old girl that had been a part of the inaugural flight of the ACV Horizon. That's what her dream had been about, a defenseless, helpless young Sara Ryder captured by the Geth, crying as she watched people impaled on Dragon's Teeth, lines of Humans waiting their turn as people were assimilated.
Jannie had woken up when Sara had been pressed against that tripod, the spike forcing its way up through her like she had seen with that one researcher on Eden Prime. She could still hear Sara's scream.
"We've got to stop this." Jannie wiped at a tear that escaped an eye. "I'm not going to stand by and watch my race get turned into monsters. I'll fucking shatter Rannoch if I have to and write the Quarians an apology letter.
"I'll fucking kill them all."
FINE: ARC V: A Forest Of Spines
ARC VI: The Battle of LaGrange Point Two (Feros)
SSV Normandy, Eletania Space, Hercules System, Attican Beta Cluster, July 7, 2183
"Ma'am? We're getting FLASH Traffic from the Arc. Requesting immediate response."
Captain Jane Catherine Shepard (SAN, N7, OST) looked over to Lieutenant Commander Charles Pressley, who looked at her with shock. It was Dog Watch, and Commander Mark Vanderloo was in his rack after the hellacious days they had pulled involving the Horizon and the subsequent clearing operations. She was standing Watch as the Officer of the Deck for the off-shift, being evening time for the SSV Normandy. To celebrate the safe return of the ACV Horizon, she had ordered the Mess Chief to crack open 'the good stuff' and the crew's evening meal consisted of surf and turf… as well as booze. Everyone was allowed two beers for their meal, and morale had skyrocketed as expected. There was even imports for the non-Humans, and Jannie was somewhat amused to discover that Agent Zevin Raeka had a taste for Batarian Ale while Doctor Liara T'soni enjoyed a Hanar Stout. Who knew that an aquatic species knew how to make beer? For TEAM LION, they got an extra ration; wine or liquor as well. No one envied TEAM LION the special treatment considering what they had to do in order to earn it.
FLASH Traffic from the Arc was never a good sign. It was only authorized by seventeen people; the President of the Systems Alliance, the Vice President, the Minister of Defense, the Vice Minister, the Fleet Master, any Fleet Admiral, five deep-space Cruiser Captains who pulled picket duties on the Batarian Hegemony border, the Human Ambassador of the Citadel, and the Human Chamberlain.
"Put it on my screen." Jannie replied, looking to the podiums' monitor in front of her as it came to life with whatever was being sent. It showed, unsurprisingly, Fleet Master Kastanie Drescher, her face made out of pure steel. Considering their last conversation, Shepard wasn't surprised, but FLASH wasn't an acronym to be taken lightly.
It stood for Fleet Logistical Acquisition, Send in Haste. It was a cry for help… or a call to war.
"Fleet Master." Shepard executed a quick salute while standing at her podium. "I have you on comms at my CIC." That was to let the Admiral know that whatever she said would be said in front of several set of ears. If it were sensitive or classified, she would have to wait for Jannie to go to the Communications Room.
"We've got a hit, Jane." The Fleet Master spoke, obviously not worried. "Thankfully, you're actually close by. You are to redeploy the Normandy with all due haste to the Theseus System in the Attican Beta. Alliance IFF Protocols have pinged back a return on the Xterra, and we have its current location thanks to passive tight-beam communications analysis. We never would have known to look for it without your response to the Horizon as well as the intelligence we're getting off the Carrier. You were right, Captain. And now we've got a chance to pay back the Geth for what they did to Eden Prime, Therum, and the Horizon.
"Jane… they're hitting Feros."
The CIC went deathly quiet at the name of the planet in question as everyone around the CIC looked at their Captain.
"Oh." Jannie felt her throat go dry and her heart plummet. "Oh fuck."
Nobody needed to be told what was there above the ancient Prothean planet; all of them already knew. The Fourth Fleet was stationed above the colony to protect the inhabitance so far away from the Relay system. Feros was important to the Alliance, with its Prothean data caches, research and development sites, and an entire city-planet for them to play with. It was the host of many a training modules, and even where some of the N Courses were held to spice things up. Feros, despite being a backwater planet, had its importance. Which was why the Fourth Fleet was there. Which was why the Kili was there.
Her mother, the Kilimanjaro's XO, was there.
Author's Note: Jersey, why did you have to go and make it personal?
Trust me, this will be brutal. Like Battlestar Galactica vs. the Cylons brutal.
This chapter marks the 300,000 word mark, making it by far the longest story I've ever posted. I hope you've enjoyed the average 12,000 word chapters. To think my daughter whines about doing 500 word book reports!
A Forest Of Spines? A fan asked me about the title of the ARC and what it actually had to do with the story. I originally planned to have the Horizon filled with Dragon's Teeth, like a forest of spines (being a tall sharp object, not your backbone) while also likening to personal courage (having a spine) in such a horrific site. I instead went with the Zombie Apocalypse Time method of the hallway hold out, introducing two instances of children and then adding K-Pop's demise.
LaGrange Point Two? - There are five LaGrange Points for a celestial object. Point One is where the object is in between sun and planet (for instance, the 'light' side of Earth and the sun). Two is on the far side of the object, where the planet is in between object and sun (like the full moon as a reference). Three is where the sun is the pivot point, the sun at the apotheosis of orbit of the object. Four is the 'lead' Trojan Point, ahead of the object in question, and Five is the 'trailing' Trojan Point. There are, in fact, several rocks, asteroids, and objects that circle Earth around some of these points, such as 2010 TK7, the first Earth Trojan discovered. For you space nuts out there, check out the Near-Earth Objects!
Eletania is the planet with the toxic algae, Prothean Sphere thingie that just so happens to match up with the trinket that the Consort gives you, and where you can slaughter pyjaks/space monkeys with a MAKO. In the game, it wasn't colonized due to the toxicity issue, but I made it a domed colony above the treeline. Usable planets are too rare to give up on. I don't doubt we'll colonize Mars despite the environment.
Battle Group Montezuma and Captain Rhys Llewellyn both come back from Where The Law Stands Tall.
KERBEROS Protocols - Data encryption in which encrypted data is sent over an unsecured (ie, civilian) line to a trusted source. Pronounced 'Cur-bur-oos', it is the actual Greek pronunciation of CERBERUS, and a Real-Life encryption protocol practiced by national states. When the CIA has to send an update to its Agent and they can't risk a trip to the Embassy or a safe house, this is how that information would be sent. Not exactly giving up classified info since I LOOKED THIS UP ON WIKIPEDIA!
"Damn it, Jim…" - Doctor James 'Bones' McCoy (MD) of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701). Had to throw out a Star Trek reffie after the Hunt for Red October one.
Huskification - I only remember a little how the Borg did it; an injection of nanomachines that sprouted receiver/transmitter devices, as well as some other systems to override cognitive function. I went another parallel; John Carpenters' The Thing; an alien life form that 'fed' off of its host and replicated it to perfection organically. Each part, even each cell, was a separate and distinct animal in its own right. While the Husk body isn't that advanced, it does have the basic capabilities of being infectious and useful, such as a severed arm. There is precedence before you accuse me of jumping off the far end; that Husk head in the Leviathan DLC was both active and aware despite being separated from its body.
The idea of nanocytes originally came from Meytal's The Spirit Of Redemption, where someone gets a hold of Reaper technology any tries to use it to their own ends (no, not Cerberus). One character gets infected and spends six months fighting it with everything that they got, and still ends up in between man and machine. I didn't want that, as CyberPunk, while fun, isn't exactly my thing. Nanocytes and Reaper Plague will show up later on.
Sentient Computers and Thinking Machines - Actually, this concept is out of Frank Hubert's Dune series, specifically the Butlerian Ji'had. I went old-school Sci-Fi on you.