\\TRANSMISSION 1/
Metal clashed with metal. Ashley Williams strained her mech to its limits, just barely overpowering the giant robot in front of her. The Jupiter's heavy weave synthmuscle was good, but somehow the spindly robot before it could nearly match its strength, and had far greater dexterity.
Ashley smashed Jupiter's right weapon mount into the alien robot, and fired the mass driver at point blank range.
More synthetic whirring was picked up by Jupiter, though. It was time to go.
|||\\=(°•-)=/|||
Far above her, the Normandy flashed into existence.
At the helm, Pilot Jeff "Joker" Moreau breathed out a sigh of relief. He wasn't worried about the jump, but the calculations for that sort of thing were stressful, even through the Ship Control Interface. Beside him, Kaidan Alenko relaxed.
"Under 1500k drift, Joker. Not bad, for an experimental ship." said the human biotic.
And below them, in the sector of the ship designed for Giants, SpecTRe Nihlus Kryik nodded. "That was a solid jump. Your captain will be proud."
Joker said nothing until the Turian was out of earshot.
"Not bad is remembering to zip your pants up after going to the bathroom. Solid is doing it quietly and covertly. I just launched us a quarter of the way across the galaxy in a ship tens of times bigger than anything else Humanity has fielded. I expect more along the lines of, 'you're my god, Joker,' or 'have a raise, Joker.'"
"You should try to be more positive. It was a compliment, after all." Kaidan retorted.
"Yeah, sure, but the thing is, I don't really like having a SpecTRe on board. Council business on a shakedown run? I don't trust it."
Kaidan shook his head. "You're being paranoid. In their position, I'd do the same thing. The Normandy is, after all, the first human vessel any alien race can board."
"Alenko is right." stated a calm, stern voice from behind the two. "SpecTRe Kryik is just here to observe. After all, the galaxy has been quiet recently."
Joker was almost surprised by Commander Shepard. Almost, as nobody but a biotic could walk across the catwalks quietly.
"You say that now, Commander, but just you wait. The SpecTRes are bad, bad news." Joker said, his voice theatrically ominous.
Before Shepard could respond, though, she was interrupted by the comm system. Captain Anderson needed her in the communications suite.
Shepard turned and left without a word, and Joker remained quiet.
"What, no comment? No 'warning Anderson' or anything?" Kaidan remarked.
Joker snorted. "I'm a cocky bastard, but even I'm not dumb enough to make fun of a spec-ops soldier seven times my size."
|||\\=(°•-)=/|||
The Normandy was traveling to the deployment site, after learning of Eden Prime's current situation. Kryik was getting ready to do a hot-drop over a small village near the spaceport. Accompanying him was Kaidan Alenko.
"I move faster on my own. Your M.E.C.H.s aren't as agile as I am." the SpecTRe calmly stated. Alenko smiled.
"Mr. Kryik, I would like to remind you that I'm a biotic. We human biotics are a stealth recon unit. I'll keep up by biotically accelerating myself. Think of me as an eye in the back of your head, rather than a squadmate." he informed.
Kryik couldn't argue with that, and a few minutes later, SpecTRe and Biotic Reconnaissance Operative together leapt from a slowed Normandy.
||\\=(°•-)=/||
Meanwhile, the M.E.C.H. wing of the Normandy prepared for battle.
Lieutenant Alexei "Doberman" Dobrynin was preparing the Light M.E.C.H. wing for rapid deployment. Light was a unit twenty strong. In spirit, they formed the modern Marine Corps. Their job: secure the deployment site, scout in the opposite direction of the beacon that the Normandy was there for, and provide fire support for the Heavy and Support wings.
The task of Support was to move the beacon safely onto the Normandy, and as such they piloted something slightly different. Support Wing operated Passive Utility Gear, which were similar to M.E.C.H.s, but had no weapons, armor, or shields, and instead had longer batteries, larger eezo cores, and lifting arms. Due to this, P.U.G.s had to be guarded by something; in this case, a squad of light M.E.C.H.s.
Commander Shepard, MO Jenkins, and MO Carvajal were the Heavy M.E.C.H. wing. Technically, though, only Shepard actually piloted a Heavy unit; Jenkins and Carvajal were only qualified for Medium M.E.C.H.s.
Their mission was to secure the beacon, knock out any enemy forces they found, and rescue any survivors. Heavy Squad had an operating time of sixty minutes (limited by Shepard's unit).
The M.E.C.H. squadron touched down at 17:43.
By 18:28, all of Support, some of Light, and much of Heavy had been damaged or destroyed.
||\\=(°•-)=/||
Fighting quickly became intense. Light's first job had been harder than anticipated- touchdown being greeted by eighteen robot soldiers. Light consisted of twenty Locust-class M.E.C.H.s, but the robot soldiers had a tech advantage.
Rapid fire weapons drowned shields, and the heat from the plasma softened armor without even punching through. Once a Locust's shields went down, it could take four or five plasma rounds before going down.
Light's guns were no peashooters, either. By most standard infantry measurements, their two weapon mounts collectively formed firepower equivalent to a Light Machine Gun.
Doberman, though, was an extremely skilled pilot, and the operator of a Medium unit. When the bay door opened, and plasma rained in, he was the first on the ground. When the robots changed tactics to focus on one M.E.C.H. at a time, it was Doberman's shuffling tactic that saved many a soldier. When the robots were down to five, Doberman made the call to end the fighting there, in a final push to clear them out.
Despite this, robot forces traded nearly evenly with Light. In the end, only Doberman and five damaged Locusts stood over thirty three downed machines. Soon after, Support and Heavy landed.
Shepard gazed at the battlefield through her Threat-class unit, Henry. Fifteen soldiers down. Fifteen, on a shakedown run. She was angry- anyone would be, after such catastrophic losses.
"Alright, Heavy, parameters changed. Seeing as Light units can't safely face off with these robots, we're going to get the beacon and get out."
Jenkins and Carvajal flashed their affirmatives. Heavy Squad began their move to the dig site. Despite their size, the trundled through the uneven terrain very quickly.
Before long, they reached a straight-and-narrow. Shepard paused.
"I'll take-" she started, but before she could change the squad layout, several small, flying drones whizzed around the corner. All four of them opened fire, targeting Jenkins' mech.
The concentrated plasma fire ripped through his shields instantly, following through to melt and slag his armor. Jenkins never stood a chance.
Carvajal and Shepard opened fire on the drones, but Carvajal only took one down in the time Shepard nailed three. The difference in firepower was stark, and worrying. How much had losing Jenkins just cost them?
Carvajal moved over Jenkins' mech. "Commander..."
"We don't have time, Carvajal. We're already down to fifty minutes. Keep moving." Shepard commanded. Even so, she'd make sure Jenkins got the burial he deserved.
"Aye, Commander. Moving out." Carvajal resumed the forward march.
After a few more firefights, during which their clocks ticked down to thirty five minutes, Heavy Squad reached a field. Sprinting at them was a Phoenix-class M.E.C.H., weapons primed.
Shepard's IFF pinged it as Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. A friendly, then, and judging from the plasma rounds shrieking her way, one in trouble.
Another firefight, with some damage to Shepard's right leg. A brief recruitment, and with it a clock reduction- the Phoenix was down to ten minutes. Even worse, Nihlus and Kaidan had gone radio silent. Then, something horrible happened.
A ship in the distance lifted up. It was huge, outclassing anything any race owned. A gauntlet, leaking electricity, menace, and death into the atmosphere. After a shriek that actually rattled Shepard's dear Henry, it launched beyond the clouds.
Shepard and Heavy Squad continued their advance. By the time they reached the dig site, they were down to eight minutes, and the beacon was missing.
"Fuck!" Shepard exclaimed angrily, "We don't have time for this! Williams, Carvajal, any ideas?"
"The spaceport?" Ashley offered, "The dig team may have moved it to try to escape the robots."
"Agreed, Commander. Plus, once there, we can drop in a recharger." Carvajal added.
||\\=(°•-)=/||
Still no contact from Nihlus or Kaidan. The dock was deserted, excluding a squad of robots, who put up little fight.
Heavy pulled up to the tram, but as they embarked, a rocket slammed Carvajal off of the side.
"Carvajal!" Shepard shouted, before beginning to return fire. The offending rocket launcher belonged to an 8-foot-high monster of a robot, that began charging at them. Fire support from various robot infantry units backed it up.
Now was the Phoenix's time to shine. Its shields held beneath the crippling fire, and it was Williams' return fire that nailed four robot infantry units.
Shepard's heavy weapons rained three millimeter slugs at a tiny fraction of c in the big guy's direction, throwing it off balance and doing some damage.
Yet, it locked into melee combat with her. The huge synthetic muscles of the 8-footer easily overpowered Shepard's ten-footer heavy muscles. The enemy machine pressed her gun mounts apart, stressing the joints and preventing Shepard from doing much but be crushed. At that time, Williams finished dispatching the infantry. Turning to the large robot, Jupiter opened fire, point blank.
||| TRANSMISSION 1 END |||
\\FILE ADDENDUM/
M.E.C.H. (2): Balancing large mechs is a challenge. This is done by having four small element zero cores in the unit's fore, aft, port, and starboard. In addition to this, as a rule of thumb, all M.E.C.H.s have a diameter that is 1/3 of their height- a 6 foot tall mech is 2 feet around.
\\FILE ADDENDUM END/
{The Mass Effect: A Documentary}
{Arc 3, Scene One: Ballistic Weapons}
Why move from bullets to Element Zero technology? Bullets are much larger, bullet weapons are cheaper, and more durable.
First: weapon power. With the help of Element Zero, tiny bullets can be accelerated to a fraction of the speed of light. That speed gives a grain of sand the killing power of an AP round on steroids. The first Element Zero rifle could dent contemporary tank armor. Modern weapons have almost three times the killing power, rendering bullet weapons effectively useless in a straight fight. Of course, Element Zero weapons cannot be traditionally silenced- they move faster than sound, thus rendering any silencer pointless.
Next, there is ammunition…
{Video Clip Ends}
