Here's the forth chapter! I was planning on adding some background info on this chapter but I ended up making the chapter long enough as it is. So those of you who don't know anything about the eve online universe will have to wait until chapter 5. Now on with the story:P
Naruto, Shepard, Jacob and Miranda had left the Normandy to head back into Omega. Their objective was simple. Find Mordin and recruit him to assist in dealing with the Reapers. According to Aria, he was in the Gozu district helping out with an outbreak of a plague that affected all species except humans and vorcha. They went to the entrance of the district, passing a batarian who was preaching about humanity being a blight upon the galaxy. Naruto was a bit curious about this. The data he read only had basic info on the various species in the galaxy. Details were lacking.
"Hmmm I read that humans are considered to be "bullies" of sorts here due to your initial contact with the Turians." Naruto began. "But the Batarian seem to have a deeper hate for humanity than any other race I've seen so far."
"The bad rep we humans had has diminished significantly after we saved the council from the Reaper attack, so we're not considered "bullies" anymore." Jacob started. "As for the Batarian, it's simple. We started colonizing in a region that they were already actively settling in. They asked the council to declare the region a place of batarian interest but the request was declined. They closed their embassy in the citadel and severed relations with them. They then funneled money and weapons to pirates and attacked the human colonies that were being settled in the region until finally they attacked the human capital of Elysium. The alliance retaliated by attacking a moon on Torfan, a staging point long used by the batarian for their raids. It resulted in them pulling back to their home systems. They were bitter about what happened ever since."
"Hmmm I see." Naruto said thoughtfully as they neared the entrance to the distinct.
As they got closer, they ran into a Turian guard who was arguing with a human woman.
"Just let me get my stuff before they get stolen." The human begged.
"It's a quarantine zone. No one is allowed in." The guard said.
"But humans are immune to the plague." She countered.
"I have my orders."
It was at this time Shepard caught the guards notice. "What do you want?" He asked.
"I'm here to see doctor Mordin." The commander answered.
"Mordin? What the hell would you be interested in him for?" The turian asked.
"You know him?"
"Yeah he showed up on the far end of the district a little while back. Think he was part of the STG or something. When the blue suns tried to make a squeeze on him he paralyzed them with some sort of gas and coldly gunned them down, then casually went back to work."
"I really need his help on a certain matter. Can you let us pass?"
"Sure."
"What?" The woman shouted. "How come they can get past?" She asked in outrage.
"You don't have a grenade launcher lady." The guard answered before turning to Shepard. "Watch your asses down there" He warned. "The blue suns and vorcha are shooting anything and everything that moves." He finished as he opened to door.
The squad entered and made their way into the district. Passing several of Aria's guards until they finally made it to the door that lead to the district itself. Immediately after entering they saw a group of 5 blue suns mercs on guard. The element of surprise was on their side. With each of them picking a target, 4 of the mercs went down fast leaving the last one to be cut down by a wall of fire from all of them.
Several fires where around the area. Upon closer inspection, they realized that the fires had bodies in them. "Damn." was all Naruto said until a pained groan caught everyone's attention. Immediately their guns were in the ready position. They slowly moved to the source of the sound and found a batarian stricken with the plague.
"Humans." He spat bitterly. "You did this." He said accusingly.
"He won't last long." Miranda stated.
"You're hurt. Let me help you." Shepard said as he started to bend down towards the batarian, but quickly stepped back when he pulled out a gun and pointed it at him.
"Don't come near me you filthy human." The plague victim strained out. "Bastards won't even wait until I die to loot my corpse." He coughed. "You humans had this planned."
"We didn't do anything." Shepard defended.
"Then why? Why is it that only humans are immune to the plague? Yes the vorcha are immune as well but everyone knows their too savage to make something like this." He said as he coughed up blood. "You, you humans are the ones who did this…I…I." He said as he was beginning to pass out.
"Hey pull yourself together!" Shepard said as he caught the batarian from falling over. "This isn't the cure, but it may help." He added as he gave the ailing victim an application of medi-gel.
Slowly, the batarian got up to his feet. "You…you helped me?" He asked in disbelieve. "Why?"
"I'm just looking for Mordin, and maybe help in finding a way to stop this plague." Shepard answered.
"He's at the far end of the east side of the district down this direction." The batarian said while pointing Shepard in the direction.
"Thanks. We'll tell Mordin about you and see if he can get anyone to get you." Shepard said.
"I still can't believe you would help me. But thank you for giving me a shiver of hope in my last bleak hours." The batarian said as he coughed a little.
Shepard nodded and left, intent on getting to Mordin as quickly as possible. They made their way to his clinic, dealing with any vorcha and blue suns mercs that gave them any problems. Upon entering the clinic, they had to pass a human with battle mechs.
"Don't cause problems, or else." He warned.
After a few minutes of searching, they found him Examining a patient and thinking out aloud, Cleary trying to find a way to cure the illness.
"Doctor Mordin solus?" Shepard called.
The doctor turned his attention to them and activated his Omni-tool, performing a scan to find out who they were. Soon after he spoke in a rapid manner, confusing Naruto a bit. "Hmmm. No merc uniform, too well armed to be refugees, quarantine in effect… after vorcha? Clean up crew perhaps? No vorcha only a symptom not a cause, the plague? Investigating possible use as bio weapon, no not enough data equipment, looking for someone perhaps? Yes yes! But who? Someone important-"
"Relax doctor." Shepard said.
"Damn so this is a Salarian. You guys need to switch to decaf." Naruto joked.
Ignoring Naruto's jab, Shepard continued. "I'm Commander Shepard, and I'm here with Cerberus to ask for your help."
"Cerberus? Thought they only worked with humans. Why ask for salarian aid?"
"We are on a mission to stop the collectors." Shepard answered.
"The collectors?" The salarian asked. "Hmmm one of the few who can create such a virus, our goals may be similar. But I can't come with you, need to spread cure. Already made it. Need to go to environmental center to distribute it. Vorcha guarding it. Need to kill them."
"I can deal with the vorcha."
Just as Shepard finished that statement, the sound of the ventilation systems could be heard shutting down.
"What the hell was that?" Jacob asked.
"Vorcha shut down environmental control. Trying to kill everyone. Need to get it back online before entire district suffocates." Mordin answered.
"Leave it to us. We'll take care of it." Shepard said as he started to leave but paused. "One last thing doctor. On our way here we saw a batarian stricken with the plague."
"I'll try to send someone for him."
(A/N ok for the life of me I can't remember how they went about fighting in this area, and I don't have the game to replay it at the moment so I'll try this the best I can.)
Shepard nodded and left, exiting from the opposite side of the clinic. Not long afterwards, they ran into a fight between vorcha and the blue suns. Hoping to bypass the fire-fight, they took a route on the far side of the area, however, their hopes where shot down however as the vorcha noticed them when they were half way across the area. They found themselves a part of a three-way gun fight, where the vorcha were had them severely out numbered, and the blue suns where about to be defeated. Shepard looked around the area for anything that could give them an edge, that's when he saw it. A large crate of highly explosive gas.
"Miranda that crate! I need you to pull it directly in the middle of the group of vorcha!" Shepard shouted while ducking back into cover, a hail of bullets just missing him.
"Understood commander." Miranda said, peeking out of cover to find the crate. Upon finding it she sent a ball of dark energy toward the crate, causing it to float towards the center of the vorcha before falling.
Shepard, Naruto, and Jacob moved out of cover and shot the crate, causing a large explosion that killed a great deal of the vorcha. Intent on taking advantage of the chaos the explosion caused, Shepard and company pushed on, killing the few vorcha that avoided the explosion, and made it into a safe area.
"Wow, I thought we were dead." Naruto chuckled.
"Same here. Those damn vorcha multiply like rabbits." Jacob said. "The only upside is that they're lacking in the brains department. We have a huge disadvantage here in terms of numbers. A fight with vorcha as things are now could get messy."
"Right let's try to avoid anymore fighting." Shepard said.
They continued on, being careful to avoid any unneeded combat until the got to the environmental control center. Immediately after entering, a group of vorcha spotted them.
"We not let you pass!" A vorcha shouted. "Collectors will make us strong! We cut off fans so all can choke and die!"
"We don't have time for this. Kill em off." Shepard ordered while everyone got into cover.
"Commander, according to the schematics, you need to activate the control panels on both sides of the room to restart the life support systems. The cure can be administered at the main control hub at the center of the room." EDI voiced over the comm.
"Roger."
"Heads up!" Naruto warned. Everyone braced themselves as a rocket impacted on to their cover, severely damaging it.
"Up there!" Jacob warned as another rocket was lunched. Everyone scattered for more cover before the missile impacted, destroying the cover Shepard and company was using. "They have the high ground at 1 O clock high!"
Shepard followed Jacob's direction and quickly found the vorcha that were firing the missiles at them. He also took note of the many vorcha that were closing in on them. "Naruto, you handle the enemies with the rockets, we'll deal with the ones on the ground." Shepard ordered, taking down several vorcha that would get in the way of Naruto's move to get in weapon's range.
'At this distance? Too easy.' Naruto thought as he pulled out his pistol and aimed it at one of the vorcha at the other side of the room.
"Naruto, their too far away! You can't aim that far!" Jacob shouted.
Naruto paid Jacob no mind and fired his pistol six times, empting his clip, prompting him to reload. He hit his target square on the vorcha was down. It's something that made the others amazed, not that they had the luxury to express it, they had problems of their own.
Miranda was now behind cover, being suppressed by gunfire. But she saw Naruto's feat of gunmanship. 'That vorcha. It had to be at least 200 meters away.' She thought in amazement. 'At my best I can only shot like that at 100 meters.' 2 explosions sounded off, followed by a lull in the suppressing fire. Shepard used grenades to take care of the vorcha suppressing her. By this time Naruto had come out of cover and dealt with the second rocket lunching vorcha.
"Miranda! Singularity at my 3 o clock!" Shepard shouted.
Without much thought Miranda launched a ball of dark energy in the direction Shepard ordered, sending 15 vorcha into the air to be gunned down by Jacob and Shepard. It was during this time Naruto took out the final vorcha that was firing rockets at them and re-equipped his assault rifle. Just as he moved out of cover to start taking out the enemy, he came face to face with a vorcha equipped with a flame thrower. The vorcha gave a loud shriek, spewing drops of vile spit on to Naruto's face. Naruto pulled out his pistol with his free hand and positioned it under the vorcha's chin.
"Get a breath mint bitch." He said as he fired a single shot. The vorcha fell to the ground, its body giving occasional spasms. Naruto slammed his foot onto the vorcha's chest and fired several round from his assault rifle into the creature's head. He wiped off the spit from his face as he went back into cover. "Such disgusting creatures." He commented.
After several minutes of fighting, the vorcha's numbers began to dwindle, allowing Shepard and company to make their way to the two control panels. Soon they were able to reactivate the life support systems to the area, completing their task. They returned to the central room where they fought the majority of the vorcha to find that quite a few of them were still alive.
"Kill off the rest of these vorcha." Shepard answered. "The district will be in enough chaos as it is without them."
Everyone nodded and spread out to kill any surviving vorcha. As Miranda and Jacob got further and further from the everyone else, Shepard stayed relatively close to Naruto. When the two Cerberus operatives were out of sight, he called out to him. "Naruto come here quickly." Shepard said in a slightly hushed tone, just loud enough for him to hear.
Naruto did as told and made his way to Shepard, firing a shot into a vorcha that was trying to crawl away. "What is it commander?" He asked.
"I needed to speak to you about a few things." Shepard began. "But I couldn't talk while we were on the ship, it may have bugs to listen in on us."
This got Naruto on edge. There were bugs on the ship? And Shepard wanted to speak about something out of their range of operations? "What is it?" He asked.
"As you know, we're working with Cerberus." The commander started. "What you may not know however is that Cerberus is a pro human organization that puts the human race above all others."
"No matter where you go there are always a few people who think they don't need the help of others outside of their nationality or race." Naruto said. "In my experience organizations like that are hardly ever worth attention."
"Cerberus is one of those rare exceptions." Shepard answered. As he looked around to see where Miranda and Jacob were. "They are being backed by several unknown, but very rich intervals and or companies, making them highly organized and well supplied, capable of conducting their own research. Over my career as a SPECTRE I encountered several Cerberus installations all of them dealing with highly inhumane experiments on humans. All attempting to create super soldiers under the ruse of "betterment of humanity." Anyone with even the least bit of common sense knows what they really want."
"Not the betterment of humanity, but its dominance." Naruto said. "But you don't strike me as someone who would work for guys like this."
"I'm not. I dismantled several of their facilities. And after the threat of the reapers were dealt with, I had planed to deal with them, but." Shepard left the statement hanging.
"But what?"
"Several things. The council believed the Reapers don't exist and instead sent me to hunt the geth, who they believe were the ones who where pulling the strings behind the attack on the citadel a few years back." Shepard said. "They want solid proof besides the fact that the reaper ship that attacked us was light-years ahead of anything the geth could hope to produce."
"Politics." Naruto deadpanned.
"Right." Shepard confirmed. "Then came another problem." He paused. "I died."
It took a few moments for that statement to sink in before Naruto said anything. "Wha?"
"I and my original crew were attacked by the collectors, although we didn't know who they were at the time. I died. But Cerberus brought me back to life 2 years later."
"So you now feel obligated to work for them?" Naruto asked. "And why would they bring back the one who destroyed their faculties?"
"Not a chance. Cerberus's current goals and my current goals are the same. I could go back to the citadel but for what? To go off running after geth?" Shepard asked. "No. While I see Cerberus as dangerous, I won't deny that they truly want to stop the reapers, same as me. They have everything I would need, a ship, resources, manpower everything that would be needed. As for why they brought me back to life? It's because they see me as a valuable icon to the humans. Better for me to be alive than dead."
"Do you believe that?"
"No. I have no doubt they would stab me in the back first chance they get. Let's be real Naruto. What they want is technology." Shepard said. "The Reapers, and by extension the collectors, have tech that can put even the most advanced tech we have to shame. If they got their hands on a cache of reaper tech, they would only use it for foolish gains. I have no intentions of letting that happen. I have no clue where you would stand but I wanted to talk to you to get you to stare clear of Cerberus. I have no doubt they would be very interested in you."
"It's really not much of a choice. I am against all forms of unethical research. That alone would be enough to get me to dislike them." Naruto said.
Shepard nodded in agreement. "You had Sakura get data while here on omega. I'm sure you'll find a few files on Cerberus. Look at them yourself so you can get a better idea on just how they operate."
"I think I'll do that."
"One last thing." Shepard started. "Be on you guard when dealing with Miranda. I feel that I can trust Jacob. He has a high moral code but Miranda, she seems to be willing to do anything for Cerberus. In a situation like this you may want to be careful around someone like that."
"Understood."
MEANWHILE WITH MIRANDA AND JACOB…
The Cerberus operatives had killed several vorcha in the area and were now working their way up to the platform where the rocket launching vorcha were positioned. Upon reaching there they saw a lone vorcha crawling to one of the rocket launchers. Jacob quickly gunned it down and took the rocket launcher.
"This would be a good addition to our armaments." He commented as he turned to Miranda, who was looking down at the other 2 vorcha shot by Naruto. He walked next to her and inspected the sight. Both the vorcha had large holes in their heads. "A pistol shouldn't be able to make this kind of damage." He said.
"There's more to it than that." Miranda started. "A lone shot from a pistol can never cause a wound like this, however, Naruto shot them 6 times each. The first bullet made a hole while the 5 other shots hit in such a way they made the first hole larger. The other one over there most likely doesn't have the same wound because it may have suffered severe head trauma a some point in its life, giving it a much harder skull compared to these two."
Jacob took out a standard pair of binoculars with a built in laser to measure distance. Pointing it to where Naruto stood, he gave an impressed whistle. "Wow 223 meters." He said. "Damn he makes you look like a joke."
"I'd have to agree. It was truly an impressive feat to pull off with out a scope." Miranda admitted as she looked around the area. "I think that's all of them. Let's head back to Shepard."
One our later…
Everyone had returned to the Normandy with Mordin, who left his assistant in charge of the clinic on Omega.
Jacob was tasked with showing Mordin around the ship while Naruto returned to the cargo bay to check up on Sakura. Upon entering, he saw that Sakura was still connected to his terminal and was working on the cynosural field generator. After seeing he had returned, she paused her work. "Hey Naruto. Had fun?" She asked.
"Lots." Naruto answered. "Watched stuff defy gravity and go boom, should have been there it was awesome." Naruto laughed.
"Hmm you and your explosions." Sakura commented.
"So you finished uploading that data?"
"Nah still uploading. I forgot I compressed a lot of the data. It was actually around 600 gigs of data I got. And your piss poor terminal can't handle me uploading that much data in the space of the 3 hours you were gone so I'm stuck here being bored out of my wits." Sakura answered. "But I did upload the more pressing things you wanted separately for you to look at in case you wanted to."
"Reliable as almost always." Naruto commented.
"Thanks." Sakura said cheerfully before pausing for a minute. "Heeey whataya mean "almost" always?" She asked in anger.
Naruto only shook his head. "So you been working on the cyno generator huh? How does it look?"
"It's coming along great. In fact we should be able to make a small field big enough for us to send a message to the federation. We have just enough fuel to pull it off."
"If that's the case then I should take a look at it before we try. We'll only have on chance at this."
"Trust me it's ready."
"If this was a normal cyno I would trust you Sakura." Naruto began. "But this is an experimental model I helped design and you don't have a full understanding of it is workings."
"Hmm true. Well then, look away o mighty cyno god." Sakura said while backing away from the module.
Naruto took a seat in front the module and went to work. After a few minutes of tinkering he spoke. "You did pretty well considering you know hardly anything about this model." Naruto started. "But there are some problems here and there that would have caused a few inconvenient problems."
2 hours later….
Sakura was sitting at the terminal impatiently waiting for the uploading to complete. "Aww come on! It's been at 99% for the past 5 minutes!" She whined.
As if to answer her plea, the upload finally finished. "YES!" She shouted as she pulled out the cable that connected her to Naruto's terminal and made a break for the crate that had she food stored.
"If you were that hungry you could have just asked me to get you something you idiot." Naruto said nonchalantly.
"Shut up!" Sakura said as she started eating at a feverish pace.
Naruto only chuckled. "I've finished with the cyno generator. We should be able to send about 3 messages with the fuel we have now. Hopefully we can get the darn thing fully repaired to use it as it was intended somewhere down the line." He said as he sat in front his terminal. "Now to make the message….."
15 minutes later…..
"Good it's ready." Naruto activated the cyno generator, resulting in a faint hum from the device followed by a small orb of distorted space just above it. He then transmitted his message from his terminal in hopes that his people would receive it.
IN NEW EDEN, ABOVE THE MOON OF THE GALLANTE HOME WORLD…
A space station orbited. This station was instrumental to the Gellente, as it had the most advanced communications and sensor array in the federation. From this station, they are able to intercept messages and receive requests for support should a battle break out. However such battles were rare nowadays new Eden was living in peace for the past 500 years. That peace was shattered however when alarms blared loudly throughout the entire station.
Admiral Tsunade, who was stationed there for the time being, rushed into central control with her assistant Shizune close behind. "What's going on here?" She demanded.
One of the executive officers spoke. "We're getting reports of an unauthorized entry into our jump bridge generator." He reported.
"The jump bridge? How? The security on those things are state of the art." The admiral said.
"We don't know sir."
"Well then what ship came out of it?" She asked. "Caldari? Amarrian?"
"Nothing sir. No ship past through."
"Covert op class possible?" The admiral asked.
"If it were a covert ops class ships we would most certainly have seen it briefly and it would have disturbed the quantum wave emanating from the bridge."
"Then what-"
"Admiral we're getting an unknown transmission." The communications officer stated. "It appears to be coming from the jump bridge."
"Patch it through." Tsunade ordered as she turned her attention to the main monitor on in the control room.
Moments latter the monitor came to life revealing Naruto, much to the admiral's surprise.
"Before I begin, I apologize for any alarm this transmission may have caused. This message was sent via the experimental cynosural field generator, which meant that the only way you could receive this is if a jump bridge is open. So I used a program to force one of the bridges open from my end so my message can get through. This was the only option open to me, as my ship was destroyed." Naruto paused. "I am captain Uzumaki of the Gellente special forces serial number: 6493743. Tasked with the mission to find new galaxies. I am pleased to report that we have found a new galaxy, not just any galaxy, but our race's home galaxy."
That statement caught everyone in the control room off guard.
"There are many amazing things to behold here. Alien races, new alloys, so many things that it is impossible to fit it all in this small message. I am currently in a human built ship, taking part on a mission to fight the reapers. A race of sentient ships that threaten to wipe out all advanced life forms, including humans. I would like to request assistance when the need arises. I am working to repair the cyno generator. As it is now, I can only send 2 more brief messages and small amounts of data." Naruto said. "With this message, I'm sending you data on a new element called element zero, an element that allows the control of dark energy. It's a very valuable resource here in the Milky Way galaxy and the conditions by watch element zero is formed is rampant in new Eden. Research into this could prove very useful." After Naruto said this, a small alarm could be heard. "Well that's all the time I have. I will send another report when something of significance happens. I hope and pray you would approve my request." With that, the monitor went to static.
After several moments of silence the communications officer spoke. "Sir we have the data that came with the transmission."
"Good put it along with the message on a portable storage device and wipe it from our systems completely. Everything that went on in this room is classified am I understood?" Tsunade asked with authority.
"Sir!" Everyone acknowledged.
"I want that message and data copied and wiped right here and now." The admiral said while looking at the communications officer. "And order my shuttle ready. I will deliver this to high command personally."
"Sir!" The communications officer said as he turned and started working at a rapid pace.
A few minutes later he presented a flash drive to Tsunade. "Here is the data sir. Your shuttle is waiting for you."
Tsunade smiled. "Good work. Now return to your post and if by any chance more messages come through, I am to be notified immediately."
"Understood."
Tsunade nodded and left, Shizune following close behind her. When they were finally in the shuttle, Shizune spoke. "Admiral, is something wrong?" She asked
"What kind of question is that?" Tsunade asked.
"For you to classify the message like that is unlike you."
"That's because you never got to really know Naruto before he left." Tsunade said. "He's a brilliant mind and was the one who built your body (A/N nanoroid). An annoying trait he has is not expressing the proper value of the data he sends in his reports. We've come to the conclusion that whenever Naruto says something is "useful" we should take his word for it. And with his lone wolf attitude, for him to ask for help must mean something big is happening. The last time no one listened to a call for assistance from him, Sansha's nation almost took over new Eden. He's a hero of great renown, and although he is lower in rank, many higher ranked members of the federation would take orders from him just from his battle prowess. Only 2 within the federation can match him and that's his own parents. But eough idle chatter I need to think." Admiral Tsunade said. "We must make preparations."
"For what admiral?" Shizune asked.
"War." Tsunade answered darkly.
A/N What's up people. Sorry for the long update. There is no excuse for it. I was lazy as hell and I didn't have much fun on this chapter (fun when writing = faster updates) I was suppose to have a background for the eve online universe this chapter but by the time I finished with Shepard getting Mordin I realized that the chapter was big enough as is. So chapter 5 will have the background story for those of you who have absolutely no clue about the eve universe.