I would like to thank "Tigerwar" and "Miner249er" for proof reading the chapter before being upload.
I hope you wont be disappointed by it, considering that I miss the "deadline"
By the way, can you give me a feedback regarding the story line/plot? Or should I do Q&A? If yes please leave a question in review or PM it to me.
Thats all, I hope you enjoy it!
Date: January 13, 2164
Location: unknown region of space, SSV Normandy,
Diplomat Philips looked at the hologram of the UNSC fleet admiral. The admiral was a woman called Julia Marshall. She was a clear example of UNSC militaristic nature that their system alliance ancestors fled from.
She spoke first. "So, if what you are saying is true, then you are descendants of terrorist who were fighting against the UNSC during 24th century, our 24th century, and collaborated with the covenant, a coalition of multiple alien species, during human-covenant war"
It wasn't long ago that Philips received this information from the captain, or as the aliens preferred rank, shipmaster, of the ship that they encountered. They called themselves "Sangheili", a warrior race, that the Normandy marines learned the hard way. When the Sangheili captain entered the hangar, some of the marines had apparently mistaken him and his escorts for Turians and opened fire. Philips was informed by Commander Shepard that all marines were neutralized in a mere minute. A number of invisible aliens had appeared and sliced the marine weapons with a "blue fork" weapon made of plasma. It was only due to the timely arrival of the UNSC warship, Dawn of War, which prevented hostilities from rising any further. After explaining to the shipmaster and captain his situation, he was now on board the UNSC Dawn of War and speaking to the UNSC admiral in charge of this part of UNSC space.
"That is correct admiral"
"Now, may I know why exactly did you come back to us?"
"Admiral, I'm here on behalf of the System Alliance, to ask for help against the hostile alien forces, known to us as the Turian Hierarchy and the Batarian Hegemony"
"And why exactly would we help you? You are after all children of rebels and terrorists"
"You would refuse to help your fellow human beings?"
"Yes, two reasons, the first is the fact you are former insurrections and the second is that we have no issue with these aliens" Admiral Marshall said with a slight hint of boredom in her voice.
"After they defeat us, they will come through this relay and attack your precious UNSC" Phillips retorted thinking that he could threat UNSC into assistance. The response he received was not what he expected.
"If they arrive with this mass relay, then we will just destroy the relay"
"This would be impossible to accomplish, our scientist tried to destroy one of the relays that leads to our capital planet, but with little success. Our nuclear weapons didn't even scratch its hull"
"Our weapons are much more powerful, compared to the weapons on the SSV Normandy"
"And even if you do destroy the relay, the explosion of all that element zero inside of it would result in a super nova that could destroy this solar system" The Admiral was just about to reply when she was contacted by the ship A.I.
"Admiral, I would like to speak with you in private"
Admiral Marshall deactivate the holo projection and muted the sounds for communication room on board the Dawn of War.
"What do you want to talk about Diana?"
"Admiral, I think that if we do not investigate part of a galaxy the system alliance is from we may miss a change to acquire new technology" Technology is something that gets admiral Marshall interested.
"My scan of the SSV Normandy indicates that while they field different type of technology though primitive as compared to the UNSC Dawn of War. However, their weapons are interesting" said Diana and showed a projection of a blueprints of a system alliance assault rifle "Their infantry weapons are much more advance then our own, for example their M-8 Avenger assault rifle fires a grain sized bullets at about five times faster speed then our standard weapon do and it holds a dozen times more ammo then our current weapons. In short, their weapons have more bullets and fire faster than ours"
"Meaning that they have almost unlimited ammunition in their guns"
"Yes admiral, the main drawback is that their weapons emit heat. The gun tends to overload after a sustained amount of fire"
"Interesting, perhaps our scientist could fix this problem"
"There are other specs that are different than ours, for example their bullets are designed to squash the target, not penetrate"
"Is there any other tech, which would be of use to us?" Diana did not say anything, instead she show the admiral a number of different technology that would be useful for the UNSC.
"Well Diana, you convinced me, but I will not deploy a fleet or a task force, if I do, the Sangheili and Jiralhanae would become suspicions of our activity"
"This is why I suggest that you send the Dawn of War alone"
"The Dawn is a destroyer class, I believe that a frigate or a corvette class would be better suited for this, either that or we refit the Dawn of War, perhaps a forerunner power generator"
"I will have my recommendations on what upgrades we should include"
"However we do have a problem, what do we do with the Seeker of Redemption?"
"The "Seeker" is considered to be a neutral ship, while it's a Sangheili empire ship, her shipmaster chose to be a mercenary. I believe that we can count on its support on this mission"
"Hmm…very well after I'm done with Phillips, I will talk to the seeker of redemption shipmaster" The image of Diana faded away and admiral marshal returned her attention to the System Alliance representative. "Mister Phillips, after a talk with Diana, I have decided that we will assist you"
Phillips smiled and bows slightly as he replied "Thank you admiral Marshall, on behalf of…" Marshall raised her hand to indicate that she would like to speak.
"However I cannot deploy a large number of ships, due to the troubles we face on our own borders. So, for the moment, I can only deploy one ship, the Dawn of War, after it receives additional equipment needed to operate better in your space"
Philips was visibly upset, not only won't the UNSC support them with a large fleet, which the System Alliance would need to turn the balance of war into their favor. They will only send one ship, ONE ship. He had serious doubts that this one ship could tip the tide of the war into Alliance favor.
"Can we count on more ships in nearby future?"
"You can count on 200 heavily armed and armored capital ships in following year, but first we need to stabilize problems we have at our borders with the Jiralhanae empire" That was a lie, but she spoke skillfully enough that Philips bought it.
"Very well…if this is the best you can do, then we have no other choice but to accept it" said Phillips as admiral Marshall leaned forward to speak "The Dawn will go to the planet Reach to receive a refit, and the SSV Normandy will travel with it"
Philips raised his head and asked "Why would we come?"
He received a grin from Marshall "Because you simply cannot refuse my offer"
Date: February 3, 2164
Location: Unknown region of space, SSV Normandy
Commander Shepard walked into the medical bay, inside of which laid several wounded marines under his command. All of them had been defeated by the alien species called "Sangheili". Truth be told, the Sangheili had defended them self as the marines had fired first. A marine named Terry Patterson, for some reason (possibly because of the Sangheili mandibles) mistook them for Turians and opened fire. This conflict was short but fierce when several cloaked Sangheili suddenly appeared and flanked the Alliance marines. It didn't take them long for them to disarm and defeat the marines. Shepard, at the time, had not been on scene. He was in the second, more heavily armed marine team, positioned deeper in the Normandy just in case the aliens broke through. Before he could move in to assist his comrades, another human team arrived by the means of a shuttle (now known as the pelican) and managed to prevent further fighting.
The fact that there are other humans inside the galaxy was news of surprise for Shepard. It was a bigger surprise for these yet unknown humans, whom Captain Anderson later referred to as the United Nations Space Command, or the UNSC for short. Diplomat Phillips went with these UNSC humans on board their ship with no escort. Something that commander Shepard believes is a mistake. However, Captain Anderson had allowed it, thus Shepard concerns had been overruled. With nothing else to do, he decided to visit the medical bay where he is now.
"Doctor Chakwas…" Shepard said as he walked inside the med bay. Doctor Chakwas (a civilian doctor who decided to spend the war on warship) turned away from a wounded marine with a broken arm and faced the commander.
"Ah yes, Commander Shepard, nice of you to stop by"
Shepard gave her a nod and continued "Are any of my men critically injured?"
"No, mostly broken bones or plasma burnings, both of which we can treat with medigel, whoever these aliens are, they certainly know enough of human anatomy to know where is lethal and where is not" spoke doctor as she consulted her datapad "For example, those wounds on private Long…" she motioned to Shepard to follow her as she walked to the alliance marine who was sleeping on the bed, a nurse was applying medigel on a nasty looking wound left by one of the Sangheili plasma blades. "As you can see, the Sangheili that stabbed him knew where to aim"
Shepard raised his eyebrow and asks "It hit close to Long heart didn't it? An inch more to the left and private long would be history"
"Commander, the Sangheili blade hit a non-critical area, it did bring a lot of pain to private long, that's for sure, but it didn't critically wound him." Shepard gave a nod at doctor Chakwas explanation and spoke "How long before private Long and the rest of marines would be fit for duty?"
"Those with broken bones, it would take them about six weeks. For those with plasma burns it will take them less, about three weeks"
"Carry on doctor" Shepard said as he walked outside the med bay. He then walked towards the elevator and took it up to the Normandy's Bridge. There he met with Captain Anderson, whom then met with captain of the UNSC warship that saved them from the Sangheili wrath. Captain Anderson was escorted by two of Alliance marines. The UNSC captain was escorted only by one soldier, who looked more like a robot instead of a human being.
"Captain Angelos, I'm Captain Anderson, I welcome you on the System Alliance ship the SSV Normandy" Anderson said and offered a hand to the Captain Angelos who gladly accepted it and shook it.
"It's a pleasure to be on board the Normandy captain" Both of the captains walked into Anderson's quarters, while the robot, apparently programmed to only obey the UNSC captain remained behind. As Shepard walked pass it and he could swear that the robot tracked him with its eyes behind its blue faceplate.
With nothing better to do, he decided to once again check the recording of the Sangheili's easy victory against them.
Date: February 2, 2164
Location: Citadel, embassies, council chambers
"Ambassador Jath'Amon, you wanted to talk to the Citadel council, well here we are" spoke Sparatus the Turian councilor.
"We have several important meetings scheduled today, so please, forgive the rashness of councilor Sparatus" spoke the Asari Councilor Tevos "What is it that you wish to discuss with us Ambassador Jath'Amon?"
The Batarian ambassador, tilted his head to the left before speaking, thus giving the councilors the Batarian way of showing the respect he felt for them. "I have two matters to discuss with you councilors, the first matter is on behalf of the Batarian Hegemony" he cough once and continued "Our leaders wish to know when will the Batarian people be allowed to officially be part of Citadel space and be offered a position on both the Spectres and a seat on the citadel council"
Councilor Tevos slightly shook her head the motion was undetectable to anyone in the room, undetectable to all but the experienced Batarian politician, who then focused on the Asari with curiosity and expectation in his four eyes.
"We have been over this ambassador, the council will officially offer the invitation to be part of citadel space to the Batarian people when you abolish slavery" Councilor Tevos took a moment to breath and continued "As we speak, the Batarian pirates are attacking ships and taking its crews to be sold as slaves. Not to forget the human prisoners that you capture and are later sold as slaves"
"Bah, those humans deserve to be sold as slaves, they have no honor in fighting a war" spoke councilor Sparatus "If you want my opinion on the matter of human slaves, I say we let the Batarians gather as many as they want"
The Ambassador smiled and tilted his head left, showing a great respect to the Turian councilor and then brought up a datapad he was keeping in his pocket and transferred its information on his Omni-tool "Councilor Tevos, I know that you are disgusted by slavery, but I find it interesting that almost 75% of human slaves are bought by the Asari"
"Well, that is interesting information, it would seem that the Asari are not such an enlightened race after all" spoke Sparatus with his mandibles forming into a Turian equivalent of a chuckle on his face.
The Asari councilor however was not shaken by this information "I cannot comment on this information at the moment, but my vote for the Batarians to join the citadel council will be postponed until the Batarians abolish slavery"
"I vote for Batarian hegemony to join the Citadel council and the council spectres, due to their support against the human system alliance" spoke councilor Sparatus.
Now it was up to the council Valern to vote and as democracy works, his vote will be the deciding factor "I postpone my vote for the Batarian hegemony to join the citadel council until they accept our laws, which state that slavery of any kind is not allowed"
Councilor Tevos let out a sigh of relief when she heard this, but the Salarian councilor was not done just yet as he continued to speak "However, I do believe that the Batarians have earned a chance to join the council spectres. I suggest that ambassador Jath'Amon gathers a list of an acceptable candidate and sends it to us for a full review"
The Turian councilor nodded in agreement and even councilor Tevos had to agree on this. "Very well, given that I am outvoted on this matter, I suggest that we have a spectre from each of our races evaluate the Batarian candidates and determine if they are acceptable or not" Valern agreed and after a moment of hesitation so did Sparatus.
"With this resolved, what is the second matter that you wish to discuss ambassador?"
The Batarian ambassador Jath'Amon accesses his Omni tool and an image of ring appeared "Councilors, one of our frigates, while on a mission to scout for suitable planets for a colony discovered a Prothean construct." This information surprised all three of councilors. It was Salarian councilor who spoke first.
"What makes you think that it is a Prothean construct ambassador?"
"This ring size is astounding, the frigate virtual intelligence had to double and then triple check it in case of faulty equipment"
"It can't be bigger than the citadel, if it was we would have already found it in the mass relay files left by the Protheans" Sparatus said and Batarian ambassador only shook his head, stating that Sparatus was wrong.
"That is incorrect councilor, this ring is bigger than the Citadel, much, much bigger"
"Well don't keep us in suspense then ambassador, how big is it? 80 kilometers or is it 100 kilometers?"
"Councilors, the size of the ring is an amazing 10,000 km and if the scanners on the frigate are correct, it is capable of sustaining life on it, so it's possible that we may actually find a living Prothean civilization on board the ring!" spoke Jath'Amon with amazement in his voice.
This news left the council awestruck. Not only that the ring was impossibly large, there are also chances that they will find an actual living Prothean civilization and still working technology on it. The importance of this discovery could be only compared to the discovery of the relays and the citadel itself. And even those two discoveries would fade when compared to this. It was councilor Tevos who first recover from this information and spoke, or rather ordered it to the Batarian ambassador.
"Ambassador, you will order your ship not to approach the ring any further, not until a combined citadel research and archeology team arrives at the scene."
"The expedition would require protection in case of an attack, I will ask the hierarchy to divert one of our fleets from engaging the System Alliance to provide protection" Sparatus spoke up while Valern was selecting Salarian experts on Prothean technology who will accompany the fleet.
"The Turian Hierarchy is already stretched thin in this war councilor. The Asari Republic will provide the protection. I'm sure that I will be able to convince the matriarchs to provide the protection needed, perhaps even the Destiny Ascension sister ship"
"We will need one of us to initiate a first contact, or at the very least a spectre" Valern said and started searching his log of acceptable spectres.
"I suggest that we use Asari spectre, they are the first to discover citadel, also since they are not as aggressive as the Turians they may have better chance to begin a peaceful talk" suggested Valern and Tevos agreed. Sparatus turned to the Jath'Amon who waited rather impatiently and spoke to him
"Ambassador, with this discovery, I believe that you earned a seat at the citadel council, even if you DO keep your slavery" Tevos look at Sparatus with shock and was about to speak before being cut off by Valern.
"Yes yes, this discovery is too important to ignore, I vote for Batarians to join the council" Tevos shift her shocked expression from Sparatus to Valern.
The Turian councilor then spoke "Congratulation ambassador Jath'Amon, you are now officially the first Batarian councilor on the citadel council"
The Batarian bowed and said "It's an honor councilors, the Batarian Hegemony and I are grateful for giving us this chance" Tevos gave up after she heard the end of the sentence she couldn't do anything after all, due to the fact she was outvoted. She could perhaps black mail the Batarian councilor, into abolishing slavery, but right now, she couldn't do that. She couldn't focus on this even if she wanted to. The ring that the Batarians discovered is top priority of the Citadel council.
Date: January 12, 2164
Location: Eden Prime, Alliance bunker, biological weapon facility
Major Faustus Tarrium did not consider himself to be a coward nor did any of his superiors. He was always on the front lines, fighting any enemy the Hierarchy had to face, from lowly Batarian pirates to krogan mercenaries. He wasn't afraid to face krogan in hand to hand combat. So he certainly didn't fear any human soldier, no matter how much training they received. But now he was afraid. He was afraid of the foot size animals lurking in the Alliance bunker. These animals did something that Faustus thought to be impossible. They reanimated the dead. He was one of the Hazmat Turians who were sent inside to learn what had happened to their Batarian allies. And he was the only one who survived and managed to return to the Turian forward outpost.
"Major, hey major, can you hear me?" spoke one of the Turians next to Faustus but he couldn't tell who it was.
"I'm sorry spectre, I can't reach him, the biosigns say that he is alive and that he can hear me but I doubt he can speak" the voice that replied him was a cold one and once again, Faustus didn't recognize it.
"Pathetic, in his record, the major Tarrium is almost a hero, coming from a family with a military tradition and served a full decade as a black watch commander and it does not stop there. The commendations just keep on piling up. It's hard to believe that this wreck of a Turian here is the major Tarrium"
XXXXX
Faustus began to recall what happened inside the bunker. He and a group of experienced soldiers explored the hallways of the abandoned bunker, searching for the missing Batarians. They decided to divide into teams of three, thus making four groups to cover more ground. Faustus took two "green" soldiers with him as he explored a hallways with designation 4-F. There were several unknown human words written under it, perhaps in a code. It didn't matter much to Faustus however as he and his backup continue to sweep room after room. They found no bodies inside any of the rooms, except one. Inside the room with the number 324, his team found blood and from the looks of it the blood was human. Sensors attached to his helmet confirmed it. The amount of blood located here would be enough to be from at least five humans. He wanted to examine the room further when his team received a radio call from team one, who chose hallway with designation 1-F.
"This is team alpha we located one of the missing Batarians. He's dead sir, gunned down. We're searching for whatever killed it, alpha out" Just a few moments later he received another radio call from team delta.
"This is team delta, we're under attack, need backup! Hostiles are unknown, repeat hostiles are…" delta team leader was then cut off by a loud scream and the transmission was replaced by static.
"Delta, come in! Come in delta! By the spirits what is happening over there?" instead of delta, he received a call from beta leader, who reported that they are the closest to delta's last known position.
"We're nearing the location, we could hear gunfire a few seconds ago, but its quiet now" spoke beta leader as his team reached the delta team last know location. "By the spirits, major, their all dead"
"Talk to me beta, what killed them!" major Faustus wanted to know as he and his team made their way towards beta team's location.
"Major, this is alpha, we found something, looks like one of those gas ball animals native to this planet, only that its smaller and deadlier, killed by Batarian small arms" Faustus ignored this as he was currently more concerned about what killed delta team and he wanted vengeance for murder of his fellow Turian soldiers.
"Major, we can't find any bullet wounds. I'm not a medic, but as far as I can tell, these Turians died by a brute force. It's like an enraged krogan ripped them to shreds"
"MAJOR! Hostile contact! Under heavy fire from Batarians!" yelled alpha team over the sound of gunfire in the background "I'm the only one left of alpha team, the other two fell in opening salvo!"
Faustus and his team just reached the hallway where the squad split up "Repeat that alpha, did you say that the Batarians are firing at you?" all he received in reply was a scream from alpha team and once again a static filled the channel just like it did with Delta.
"Beta, were falling back, whatever is in here just killed six Turians." He waited a moment for Beta to acknowledge.
"Roger that major, Beta falling back. SIR! Something just pulled the bodies of delta team into the shadows!"
"What pulled them? Did you see what did that?" major Faustus yelled into his radio communicator
"Something big sir, something really big, trooper behind you!" yelled Beta leader and sound of gunfire was heard among the noises of panic and terror "By the spirits, we're facing living corpses!" screamed one of the Turians in beta team "Corpses of humans and Batarians!"
"That holds and fire weapons! What the? GRENADE! Get do…" all that Faustus heard was explosion following by static.
"Major, we should get out of here while we still can" said a Turian who was with major Faustus. He turned towards this Turian and looked into his faceplate.
"You're right, we should, get working on those doors" the second Turian turned to the doors and put his rifle on his back.
"On it sir"
Faustus turned to the Turian who suggested that they retreat and pointing to a corridor "You take position there while I take my position on the other side, shoot anything that moves"
"Got it sir" with that said, he took the position then aimed his rifle down the corridor and waited.
"How long until those doors are open?" asked Faustus while he kept his focus down the corridor.
"Sir, it should take me a minute tops" It was then that major heard a crawling sound coming from the vents, so he aimed his rifle upwards.
"Contact!" yelled the trooper and opened fire.
Faustus looked down the corridor and froze at the sight. About a dozen of corpses stumbled down the hallway and had their weapons pointed towards them. Before he could fire something jumped onto his back. He reached to grab whatever fell onto his back and grabbed it, only to explode in his hand. He had no time to check what it was as he was too busy firing at the corpses advancing towards them.
"Grenade!" yelled his partner as he threw a disk shaped grenade in front of the mass of corpses.
Faustus counted to three and the grenade exploded, whipping out the zombies, as he remembers from the human movie he once watched before the war. However, the grenade only killed the advance party, for now they had to face their fellow Turians. They were no different from the previous corpses, but it was still hard for him to fire at his former comrades.
One of the Turian corpses threw a grenade, which unfortunately for the Turian near Faustus, stuck on his armor. Faustus reflexes kicked in and he grabs his fellow Turian and threw him into the incoming living dead. He regretted his decision, but there was nothing he could do now as grenade exploded, killing his squad mate and the Turian corpses walking towards them.
"What's the status on those doors?"
"I can't open them sir, not in time!"
"By the spirit, there must be a way!" he look down the corridor, wishing that he didn't, for he witness a large mass of small ball shaped things, running towards him. Their sheer numbers completely covered the remains of the dead.
"I won't be able to hold them off any longer!" he fired his rifle and to his relief a single shot took out a dozen ball shaped beings with a chain reaction. He keeps firing until his weapon overheated. In record time he switched his rifle for his pistol and fired it.
"I got it, the door is open!" yelled his last remaining squad mate. Faustus turned just in time to see mass of the small aliens jumping on his back, bringing him down.
"Major h-help me!" his squad mate begged.
Faustus however couldn't help him, and he knew it. As he ran past his squad mate, he could hear the Turian cry for help and screamed in agony. Faustus managed to collect a grenade, primed it and threw it behind him as he shut the door.
He heard the sound of the explosion and he said to himself "I…I'm sorry" He looked up and as he walked towards the outpost he continued "May your spirits join the spirits of our ancestors"
XXXXX
That was the last thing he remember, before he fell unconscious and woke up later in the outpost or so he thought.
"Doctor, give me his helmet" spoke the same could voice that spoke before. He couldn't see to whom it belong to, but he heard it belong to a spectre. "Hmm, yes, his helmet video and audio recording is intact" he let out a sigh of relief, for now he knows that his superiors will know of the threat.
"Spectre, what are you doing?"
While he couldn't see what the spectre did, he felt a barrel of a gun at his forehead. He couldn't tell if spectre wanted to interrogate him, but he doubts that as he was hardly capable of speaking. The second reason why spectre would put a gun at his forehead would be a mercy execution. A second later he heard felt the gun shake. Sound of a gunshot. The feeling of the bullet breaking his skull and the pain as the bullet pierced his brain. He could feel the spirits of his ancestors claiming him and joining his squad mates.
The spectre that pulled the trigger put away his pistol and looked towards the female Turian medic whom looked at him with shock.
"Don't be so shocked doctor, I granted him mercy, something that you wouldn't" The spectre then walked out of the medical tent, leaving the Turian doctor stunned behind him.