For The Republic

AN: I must have in a past life kicked a dying child down a flight of stairs making them drop the laptop they wanted for their last wish while proclaiming my eternal hatred for all things electronic along with being a troll in my spare time because that is the only way I can explain this amount of bad luck when it comes to me and technology. A technologically aligned cosmic force/god/eldritch abomination/alien space bat must have it out for me because both my laptop and cell phone were stolen from me which in turn was kind of the last straw in a long line of mishaps and sent me into a depression.

As you can no doubt tell I'm alright now and back in the swing of things. I got a new job and will soon be able afford a new place along with replacing what was stolen so things are looking up. Despite all the roadblocks life is throwing at me I swear that I will finish this story and if whatever cosmic force has a problem with that then they can take it up with me! SAXTON HA… I MEAN WANDERER101!

United Nations Space Station (Arcturus)

Embassy District

Asari Embassy Complex

Matriarch Benezia sipped her cup of Armali tea. While not as large or aesthetically pleasing as the Citadel this Arcturus Station that the humans built as the Headquarters of their United Nations was still very impressive. It had the appearance of a human 'dumbbell' with two giant balls nearly 20KM in diameter connected by a circular tube. One of the balls was the Military District which was the headquarters of the United Nations Fleet and containing barracks, armories, repair stations, and other facilities. The other ball was Embassy District. It held the various embassies for the great nations, minor powers, and now the races of the Citadel. The meeting chamber for their 'General Assembly' was also located here. The tube connecting them was the Residential District and most impressive part of the station in her opinion. The tube was like the humans' very own Presidium but more… open.

All along the sides were green landscapes, serene lakes, rolling hills, and beautiful forests. There were five 'cities' along with numerous smaller towns each representing a different nation. A place for them to share their culture with all of humanity. It was a concept that she and her fellow Asari loved. The Citadel despite being home to so many races and touted as the center of galactic culture was for lack of a better word boring. Over the centuries the culture on the station had become rather stagnant. There was little besides its appearance that set apart from any other multiracial place in the galaxy. Though it pained her to admit it Omega had more personality than the Citadel did. The races of the Citadel had no place of their own but there has been talk among the great nations to allow them to build their own towns with the option to expand them into cities later on. This was still just talk however so until then they would have to take up residence at one of the human cities. The Asari had purchased a beautiful 'Industrial Era' style manor in 'Little Republic' and while her staff spent their free time wandering the city she spent it building connections among the humans.

This was proving difficult however. The humans were still new to the galactic community. Unlike turians, salarians, batarians, and even vorcha they haven't had enough time to really get used to the idea of aliens especially after their less than ideal first contact. While the humans she met were polite their uncomfortableness was easily seen by her well trained eye. They were used to dealing with each other and despite being from different nations having different cultures they still were members of the same species giving them this familiarity they never noticed. This was a phenomena that she read about but hadn't been experienced since first contact with the Drell by the Hanar. Even on the edge of extinction the Drell were wary when dealing with the Hanar due to how different they were.

In all her months on this station and what might be approaching a friendship she has with the Wanderer she still is nowhere near the same level as the diplomats of the minor nations. This was further proven by one event. She and her fellow Citadel Ambassadors were allowed to act as observers at a Security Council meeting to discuss the Republic's declaration of war on the Batarian Hegemony and not allowing the other human powers to join as per their Exterrestrial Defense Treaty. During a rather heated argument Emperor Caesar muttered something in his native Latin and without noticing continued to speak in Latin. Without missing a beat the Wanderer retorted in Latin and this continued until something was said and Bismarck interjected in German and the debate continued on from there. The leaders continued switching languages on the fly initially leading my fellow delegates to wonder if they were doing so on purpose to leave us out of the loop since official translations for other human languages other than Republican English were still works in progress. It quickly became apparent that the leaders simply didn't notice. It took Premier Catherine noticing our dumbfounded expressions for them to realize their mistake. The various leaders were suitably embarrassed and spent a couple of minutes informing us of what had been 'discussed'.

In all her centuries of life she had never seen such an unconscious display of unity. They had been working with each other for so long, were so familiar with each other, that despite their stating they could barely stand each other they interacted better than she had with any non-asari she worked with and many she considered close friends! This was her goal. To build up this kind of relationship for the Asari or at least lay the groundwork for her eventual replacement. Let's be honest she isn't getting any younger and as a matriarch she doesn't have that much time left. Probably a century at most. She had hoped that her Little Wing would follow in her footsteps but she's chosen the life of an archaeologist and a damn good one despite what those judgemental bitches at the university think. Oh she got a little too angry there. Goddess she was turning into Aethyta. Now that was someone she hadn't talked to in a while. Last she heard she was running a bar on Illium which tended to happen when you refer to several prominent matriarchs as 'outdated','old fashioned', and 'ass backward'. Maybe she should invite her to join her here. She will definitely fit in with the humans.

Torfan

City Sewers

"Shit" said Shepard as he step in something he was fairly certain wasn't mud.

"Really man?" said Kenneth "Of all the things you could have said you chose that?"

"Would you prefer crap?"

Kenneth sighed. "I'm definitely gonna have to burn this armor after takin the mother of all showers."

"I really hope the guy in charge doesn't surrender so I can properly 'thank' him for making us have to come down here." said Shepard as he stepped over a suspicious pile of 'mud' only to step into a puddle of what he hoped was water.

"I hope I can thank everyone in their entire government for starting this damn war in the first place."

"So do I. I'm supposed to be vacationing right now."

"Was wondering what ya did to be on Eden Prime. I thought you might have shagged someone's daughter."

"Not recently." Shepard replied coyly chuckling as Kenneth sputtered.

"Ha. Ha. Now if you're done jokin around. I think we might be gettin closer."

The two Rangers crept slowly as they heard voices from farther up the tunnel. They kept low to the ground and avoided making any noise. As they rounded a corner they could see the light of a security checkpoint. A sandbag wall was set up with a squad of four batarians sitting. The batarians were upon closer inspection very weary and dejected. Their armor was dirty and cracked with one having the entire right shoulder area of his armor gone and replaced with what looked to be older pieces of armor. Bloody bandages could be seen just underneath that. They didn't seem to be really into manning their post only making occasional looks down the tunnel. They were engrossed in their conversation which Ken and Shepard were more than happy to listen in to.

"I'm telling you Jaar, the general has gone insane. We should try to make our way to the human's lines while we still can."

"Listen to yourself! This is deserting you're talking about! You have any idea what the Hegemony would do to us if they found out!? What they'd do to our families!?"

"You saw what the General did! He's going to get us all killed for this worthless mudball. Besides the Hegemony won't find out. The Republic has Torfan blockaded and destroyed the comm buoys. If we do this right no one will know we're gone."

"But what about the humans, Cathka!? If we even do manage to make it to the Republic's lines what makes you think they won't just shoot us on sight!?"

"We could tip them off for ya!" Kenneth happily yelled down the tunnel to Shepard's horror.

Despite their laziness earlier the response to Kenneth's quip was impressive. In less than 5 seconds all four batarians were in cover and had their weapons aimed directly at them.

"Put your hands where we can see them!" yelled one of the batarians.

"Wait a second." said Kenneth "Maybe we can cut a deal. We'll let you head to our lines so you can sit out this war safe and sound while we can sneak into this place undetected. It's a win-win."

The batarians all looked at each other before their leader said "And you can guarantee our safety?"

"The Republic will never mistreat prisoners of war and best part is that the Hegemony will never know. We drop you off where ever you wanna go when the war's over."

There leader after a moment's thought lowered his weapon. "Alright you got a deal human."

Kenneth nodded before looking at Shepard. Shepard took the hint and activated his comms and put it on speaker to allow the batarians to hear.

"Command we're sending some surrendering batarians through the sewer back to base." said Shepard

"Acknowledged. Tell them to stick to the southern tunnels. Command out."

"See? Just stick to the southern tunnels and you can wait out the rest of the war." said Kenneth

"Thank you, human. There is a guard by the door. Most troops are either manning the windows or trenches outside. The General never really expected anyone to attack through the sewers but if the guard heard any fighting he can alert the others."

"Where are the hostages?" asked Shepard.

"They're in the basement. The door to it is down the hall to the left. The hostages are being looked after by mechs with a single soldier overseeing."

"That's it?" said Kenneth "And here I was expecting a challenge. Hey Shepard wanna capture their General while we're at it?"

"One step at a time, Ken." said Shepard as he crept up the stairs.

Kenneth quickly followed him leaving the batarians to make their way to Republic lines. As they climbed the stairs they pulled out the suppressed weapons they brought. As Shepard reached for the door knob Kenneth tapped him on the shoulder. Turning around he could see Ken hold up his chosen weapon a suppressor equipped .45 pistol. Understanding what Kenneth was proposing he quietly stepped aside.

Ken stood up and opened the door. The batarian guard thinking nothing was amiss turned to greet who he thought was one of the soldiers guarding the sewer.

"What? Did you guys see…"

The batarian did get to finish because Kenneth quickly put his pistol to the batarians head and pulled the trigger. The batarian crumpled down towards the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. Both Rangers quickly followed the directions they were given to get to the hostages. They were both quick and methodical. They peeked around corners and tread quietly to avoid being detected but when an area was confirmed clear they didn't hang around long. They soon came across the door leading to the basement. There was no guard, no security camera, or any other form of security they could see or their omni-tools could detect.

"No guard?" said Kenneth "Amateurs."

"That just makes things easier for us." said Shepard "We might be back in time for dinner."

They quietly open the door and were met with a depressing sight. Republic soldiers all kneeling on the concrete floor their hands bound. Many of their faces were covered with bruises and welts that neither Ranger believed they got in combat. With the soldiers were various other species sprinkled in looking no better. Those were most likely the slaves. The largest amount of people were all batarians no doubt the civilians. They lacked any recent injuries but looked very much miserable. You would be too if your home was invaded by an enemy army and the soldiers that were supposed to protect you used you as a shield.

The only resistance they faced was a three LOKI mechs armed with pistols and a single batarian soldier whose attention was on his omni-tool. Using their helmets' internal comms Shepard and Ken were able to plan out their attack.

"So you take out the mechs while I cap the batarian?" asked Ken

"Leave him alive. We'll have to interrogate him for the general's location." replied Shepard

"Oh so we're going after him after all."

"No. I'M going after him. You have to stay here and protect the hostages until we get relieved."

"Fine. Don't you die on me you hear."

"Didn't plan on it." said Shepard as he pulled out his MP5. "Alright on three. One. Two.

Private Lawrence Mears was a URGF rifleman. He was captured when while clearing a house they came across a bound gagged slave. The slave was frightened and had a panicked look about them. Upon removing the gag they found out why. The slave only had enough time to exclaim that they wired him with an explosive vest before it went off. The next thing he knew all but one other member of his squad was dead and a group of batarians had their weapons in his face.

He'd been here for over a day now. Since he arrived he hadn't been fed or had his injuries addressed. The batarians seemed eager to give him even more. From what he could see neither had the slaves or even the civilians. It sees the batarians were only interested in holding them rather than keeping them alive. That or they didn't have enough supplies to feed them which wasn't any better.

Suddenly like miracles sent by God two Rangers then arrived and in mere seconds dropped the mechs and had the shocked guard at gunpoint before he could fully look up from his omni-tool. It was without a doubt the most badass thing he had ever seen. He grew up hearing the exploits of Rangers. He watched Rangers Go! as a kid and played the Ranger Ops video games religiously in his teenage years. Since he joined the URGF he had met some Rangers and even talked with some but nothing could compare to actually seeing them action.

One of the Rangers walked up to the batarian guard who was too shocked to even reach for his weapon. The Ranger put away his suppressed pistol and pulled out his oversized revolver. He grabbed the batarian by the collar and put the barrel of his gun under his jaw.

"Alright pal." said the Ranger in an accent Mears couldn't identify "You're gonna tell me exactly where your General is and then you're going to sit down and shut up like a good prisoner."

The batarian managed to summon up his courage because he said "Ha! You must be crazy to think I'll...GAH!"

The batarian would have fell to the ground if the Ranger hadn't been holding him up. The Ranger hit him on the forehead with the butt of his revolver almost hard enough to knock him out.

"I'm sorry but you seem to have misunderstood me. That was not a request. That was a command. You're going to tell me where he is or I'm going to clean out your head better than an entire bar's worth of booze." The Ranger threatened jamming his gun to the batarians head for good measure.

'Jesus Christ that was so fucking badass.' he thought as the batarian no doubt soiled himself.

"He's upstairs in the command center!" said the batarian "You won't be able to get to him there are dozens of soldiers there with him! You can't kill them all!"

"Try us."

General Dretin was on the brink of his sanity. He staked everything he had on this defense. He bet his reputation on his ability to hold Torfan. He bet his wealth since if he made a lot of favors to get more support from the Hegemony's military and without the rise in prestige a victory would bring he would be ruined. If he failed not only would he suffer so will his family.

This was all the fault of the humans. They couldn't submit like a lesser species was supposed to. They used technology that rightfully belonged to the batarian people. They attacked their raiding ships freeing their property. They conspired with the other lesser races on the Citadel to take territory that rightfully belonged to them. While much of the blame lied with the humans some of it fell to his own troops.

They wanted him to fail. That had to be the only explanation as to how batarian forces could fall to the lowly humans. These lowlife scum wanted him to fail so they could take his riches for themselves! Well he was one step ahead of them. He was going to plan one last assault on the human lines so these traitors would be slaughtered and he would arm the so call 'civilians' so they could join them. They have done nothing but sit around and use up his supplies so he should at least get some use out of them.

All that had to be done was to deal with the prisoners. They were of no use and would make poor slaves due to their aggressiveness. He activated his omni-tool to contact the guard watching the hostages.

"Private Sako, come in." He barked

Silence.

"Private Sako." He repeated

After another moment of silence he could hear Sako give a quick 'sir'. Probably was playing Galaxy of Fantasy on his omni-tool again.

"Send the civies outside to the main line. We're arming them up. Also the prisoners are no use to us. Execute them."

"Yes Sir!" said Sako sounding very strange for some reason. "I'll get right on that…"

With that Sako terminated the connection. This strange behavior began to set off Dretin's paranoid mind and fragile ego. He began to wonder if Sako was apart of this conspiracy among his troops. He didn't have much time to think on it because an unfamiliar voice told him to put his hands up.

He turned around to see a human standing in the doorway pointing a strange looking pistol at him. The human armor was that of a 'Ranger' he believed they were called. He read up on Rangers in the Codex and bad never seen such an obvious attempt at propaganda. Only the Asari Commandos' entries were more unbearably filled with lies and exaggerations.

He yelled for his guards only for the human to simply say 'Dead'. Dretin was stunned. Those were some of his best troops and officers. This human not only killed them all but quietly enough that he didn't hear a thing! Dretin felt himself get angry. This was supposed to be his victory! His moment of glory!

"Damn you humans! You are a blight on the galaxy! The Hegemony will destroy your armies and conquer your worlds!"

He continued on with his rant with the human patiently waiting for him to finish. If he was in his right mind he would remember to draw his own sidearm and attempt to shoot the human but he wasn't in his right mind. He continued to rant and rave at the human about batarian superiority, human inferiority, and a conspiracy against him that stretched from his troops all the way to Kar'shan.

When he was finally out of the breath he and the human stared at each other for what felt like an eternity. Then without any warning the human shot him in both his knees.

"You talk too much" said Shepard as he holstered his handcannon.

He sighed trying to tune out the general's screams. At first the general's nervous breakdown was amusing with him even recording it to share with everyone back at base but it very quickly grew annoying. Most of this frustration grew from the fact that he had to stealth his way here. He hated having to sneak around and would have preferred a full frontal assault.

Shepard made his way over to the general and not to gently rammed a stimpack into his leg. The medical substance inside the syringe worked instantaneously. Any bleeding was stopped and he wasn't in any danger of dying. The kneecaps were still shattered and he'd have to undergo a rather painful medical procedure to have all the fragments removed before prosthetics can be applied.

Once that was done he went over to a nearby computer. The hacking program on his omni-tool after some difficulty managed to get through all its firewalls. It helped that these Ranger-issue omni-tool programs were designed by AIs for maximum efficiency after all who would know cyber security better than a cybernetic being.

There was some pretty juicy info here including undeniable proof that the Hegemony funded and equipping slavers since they made first contact. The DRI will no doubt be very interested in this. Shepard copied everything he could before making his way to back to the general.

"Hello general." He said cheerfully while giving a mock bow "My name is Ranger Shepard and I will be accepting your surrender."

"HA! You must be mad to think I'll surrender to the likes of you." The General spat with as much venom as he could muster

"Completely unrelated question, General. Which testicle is your favorite?"

The General was silent for what felt like an eternity before he muttered "What are your terms?"

"Unconditional."

"I-I accept…"

Cultural Civilopedia

Name: Rangers Go!

Type: Cartoon

Year: 1981 (Original Series)

Nation of Origin: United Republic of States

Plot: A special team of Rangers do (kid-friendly) battle with the evil terrorist organization COBRA who is determined to rule the world. The show has seen numerous reboots over the years.

Famous Quote: "A Real Republican Hero!"

AN: GI Joe. That's basically it.

Name: Call of Honor: Ranger Ops

Type: Video Game

Year: 1998

Nation of Origin: United Republic of States

Plot: A spinoff series to the popular first person shooter series Call of Honor. Ranger Ops unlike the main series which is well known for its attempts at historical accuracy is mostly unique stories based on declassified reports. Due to how rarely Ranger missions are declassified even if they occurred during WW2 they mostly rely on original material.

Famous Quote: "We're Rangers so fuck you." -Captain Frost, Ranger Ops 2

AN: CoD and Medal of Honor fusion with a dedication to historical accuracy, a couple of years between games, great single player, and no microtransactions of any kind.

AN: Dear god this took forever. I hate typing on my phone. It's so frickin dull that I keep getting distracted by PS4-related things. Not only that but the autocorrect makes me want to kill someone. I hope to release this in February or early March but now it June.

It's obvious that I won't be able to stick to any schedule and i hate to have to do this to you guys but so I'm taking a page from Valve's book. You get new chapters when They're Ready and not a moment sooner. I'll try not to procrastinate too much. I'll try.

*Cleaned this up so there's less cringe. Expect a chapter in a week or two.