Piece of Mind
A/N: This story is rated M for a reason. You can expect offensive content from Fireteam Dinomite. They WILL NOT be the focus of this story, but they are the focus of this chapter.
LOCATION: MILKY WAY/ATTICAN TRAVERSE/EMPTY SPACE/ISV DEADLY SILENCE
DATE: 162,913 AR
2183 CE
Darrien, the Deadly Silence's servitor, boomed over the roaring crowd, acting as a referee for the match.
"Alright, listen up. These people came here for a show, so give 'em a show. I want the dirtiest fight the Mini Way has ever seen. That means hair pullin' and eye gougin'. Ready?"
The two Titans just nodded.
"Begin!"
Samir and Samson both closed in and began circling each other, keeping an eye on each others waistline so as to see incoming attacks from both the arms and legs. Samir made the first move with a jab to Samson's face. Samson avoided the jab and faked a double-leg. When Samir moved to stuff Samson's takedown, Samson sprung up and took Samir's back. Samson thrusted his waist into Samir's back, breaking his center of balance and dragging him backwards to a seated position. With his spinal alignment broken, Samir struggled to defend himself as Samson began violently attacking his head. Samson pushed Samir's face to the right with a left arm cross face, exposing his throat. Samir brought his right fist up to the side of his neck to cover his carotid artery just as Samson's right arm crossed over his throat. Before Samson could attack his right wrist that was now trapped, Samir brought his left hand up and grabbed onto the back of Samson's head with his four fingers and placed his thumb over Samson's left eye. Samir pulled with his fingers and pushed with his thumb. Samson completely let go of the hold he had around Samir and brought both of his hands up to defend his eye, but Samir was faster. As soon as Samson released Samir's right hand, Samir brought it up and smacked his right palm into the back of his left thumb, gouging Samson's eye. Before Samson could shoot back up to put some distance between the two of them, Samir backwards somersaulted, putting Samson on his back with Samir leaning over his face. In a swift motion, Samir clamped down on Samson's throat with his right hand and brought his left index and middle finger to join his thumb inside Samson. He then ripped the eye right out of its socket and dropped down to north-south position. Samir showed no mercy as he began bringing knees into the top of Samson's head. Knee, after knee, Samir pounded away at Samson's head until his skull was split wide open... and the crowd cheered wild.
"And the match goes to the white motherfucker!"
Samson walked out of the reanimation after a fresh body was constructed and was greeted by a smug grin plastered all over Samir's face.
"Motherfucker get that shit off yo face."
"Motherfucker get that shit off yo de-ick," Samir said in a mocking tone with emphasis on the "dick" part while forming a circle with his hands and bumping them into his crotch, imitating doggystyle.
Samson fumed with his notorious anger,"Boy, I will shove a rocket launcher up yo ass just like I did to that one motherfucker who wouldn't tell us about the bomb! I SWEAR TO GOD I'LL TURN YOUR BITCH ASS INTO A MOTHERFUCKING ROCKET PROPELLED POPSICLE!"
Samir and Samson started faking each other out and the crowd egged them on until Kathalle, the digitized member of Fireteam Dinomite, appeared and intervened; ceasing the pair's banter, bringing them to attention, and dismissing the crew who were eagerly anticipating another fight.
Samir and Samson faced the blue eyed, light skinned female with long, wavy brown hair wearing a sleeveless red dress with white polka dots that cut off right above her knees.
"Play time's over boys, the Preserver just showed up."
Samir strained his voice as if they had been stuck on patrol duty for eons, "Oh thank balls, I feel like we've been waiting forever."
"Boy, shut yo ass. We been out here for a damn week."
"Yeah, and that's a whole week I've gone without getting laid."
Kathalle decided to burst Samir's bubble.
"You don't get laid that much."
"Oh yeah, and how would yoooou know?"
"Because of the implant in your wee wee that tells me whenever your gettin some." Kathalle thrusted her hips and dropped her voice when she said "gettin some."
"What!? There's no implant in my dick!"
"Yes there is. I put it in there while you were sleeping one night."
"Nu-uh."
"Uh-huh."
All of a sudden Samir felt a pinch in his tip that caused him to shoot both his hands shot down to cover his groin and bend over.
"Awww shiiiiit."
Samson seemed pleased by this bit of information.
"Oh ho ho ho, that's fucked up man."
Samir raised his head to see Kathalle mimicking his smug look from the end of the fight between him and Samson.
"You monster. Why?"
"Just in case."
"IN CASE OF WHAT!?"
"You never know. Maybe it'll come in handy someday."
"I CAN'T POSSIBLY IMAGINE ANY SITUATION IN WHICH-"
Samir paused, reconsidering his statement.
"-Okay, I take that back, I can think of some ways this could come in handy. But I need access to this damn thing!"
Samir, Samson, and Kathalle were all teleported to the hanger bay where they met Benjiro and Felicia as their armor assembled itself over their bodies, save for their helmets.
They all wore very, very, VERY heavy armor, preferring to be a hard hitting, tank like unit that plowed through enemies in firestorms of brute force. They were capable of sneaking around if need be, but none of them possessed any stealth technology. Standard-issue Titan armor came with a cloaking device installed, but all the members of Dinomite had theirs replaced with extra shield capacitors, furthering their ability to absorb damage. Each of their individual suits sported designs and lights that matched the colors of their respective eyes, with the base color being white.
Boss's armor displayed a thick orange stripe vertically across the center of his helmet. There were orange bands around both his wrists and above his left elbow. His entire upper right arm, and the right half of this upper chest were colored orange.
Fixer, whose technical expertise rivaled that of CC's, possessed a thin vertical stripe of green in the center of her helmet. Her upper right arm was completely green, with a stripe running along the outside of her right forearm. Her left arm sported a band just above the elbow, and a stripe along the forearm symmetrical to the one on the left. A thick stripe ran down her lower torso from underneath her breasts to her waistline, and symmetrical green ran down the inside of her legs.
Scorch, an explosives technician with a history of overkill, had yellow forelegs and stripes along the fronts of both his forearms. The insides of his thighs were yellow with a stripe extending around his leg just above the knee. His shoulder and the majority of his arms were black, and black also covered the jaw of his helmet.
Sev, the team's most skilled marksmen, possessed armor designs that one would have expected from Fixer. There were violent gashes of red claw marks across his arms and legs, with a giant gash on the center of his face.
Kathalle preferred to stay digital and inside the team's battlenet, rather than fight in the physical world She instead continued to talk to Samir.
"And what exactly do you have in mind Samir?"
"What else would I do with a little camera in my penis?"
Kathalle shook her head and sighed. "Maybe someday."
"You know, I could take it out; program the reanimation unit not to include it."
"Go ahead, try it."
Samir and Kathalle began a short, funny faces fight with no achievable victory in mind.
After the fight, Samir stepped over to Benjiro and the two of them spoke quietly, at first.
"Did you know Kathalle implanted me with some kind of dick monitor?"
"Yes."
"What!?"
"I authorized it."
"WHAT!? WHY!? You know that's not cool man."
"I authorized it because of your obsessive asari sexual fantasies."
"Obsessive? Come on now, don't tell me you haven't watched asari porn."
"We've all watched asari porn, but recently it has dominated your life. First, you started watching asari porn exclusively. Then, you downloaded programs that simulate sexual intercourse with an asari. You began playing these programs while participating in sexual intercourse with other humans. The last straw was when you began searching for asari brothels."
"Why can't I bang an asari chick?"
"Because their melding capabilities present a significant security risk."
"I can deal with that."
"I know you can, but at the moment, intimate contact with asari is against Imperium policy, and you got yourself put on a watch list."
Samir's head drooped and he let out a sigh.
"Can I at least-"
"No, you cannot use the implant as a camera."
Samir's head shot back up.
"Oh come on. It'd be so cool, a little vag-cam."
Benjiro was somewhat of a comedian himself, but, as usual, Samir was beginning to take things too far, and Benjiro was getting fed up with his blatant misconduct during an operation.
"ENOUGH! Need I remind you that you are on duty?"
Samir straightened up and prepared for deployment.
"Sir, no sir!"
"Good."
Benjiro stepped away from Samir and addressed the entire team, signaling the use of their code names.
"All ready?"
The three Titan Commandos all relayed acknowledgments across the team link to their leader while CC digitized and uploaded to their battlenet. A few minutes passed as they all stood in the hanger bay and went over the mission details with their helmets assembling over their heads. They visually distinguished themselves as a team with the same diagonal black slit across their faceplates.
Monitors in the Widow system alerted the Imperium the moment the Preserver showed up, and about half an hour later, the Deadly Silence jumped to the scene with a reaction time rivaling a synthetic race. The preserver was attacking the Citadel alongside a Heretic fleet. The Deadly Silence would enter the battle under cloak and take a few shots at the preserver, aiding the Citadel Fleet. After it was down, Dinomite would drop in with the massive industrial strength plasma cutter they had brought along and retrieve its memory core. They were to avoid detection at all costs, and were authorized to fire if need be. If everything went according to plan, the operation should be quick and easy. Get in, get out. Waiting patiently to be deployed, the team streamed the ship's sensory data through their helmets and watched the ensuing space battle.
The Deadly Silence dropped out in the clear space around the Citadel under cloak, avoiding the thick, hazardous nebula that made the Widow system so dangerous to navigate. The preserver had locked itself inside the Citadel, and there was nothing undetectable they could do but watch the massive Citadel Fleet fight desperately. The battle was not going well at first, but an Alliance fleet came through the relay and attacked from another angle, catching the enemy in a crossfire. The Alliance lost several of their own ships to the advanced synthetic fleet, but they had been at war with the Heretics for the past few months and had some experience in fighting them. They managed to save the Destiny Ascension,and eliminate the enemy.
Intercepted communications revealed that Commander Shepard was opening the station's arms, allowing the joint Alliance-Citadel fleet to move in and attack the preserver with the Deadly Silence tagging along silently. Dinomite continued to watch the battle, eagerly awaiting their time to jump into the fire. The team could see the Deadly Silence fire a shot with its ion cannon and disable the preserver's shields, allowing the joint fleet to really do some damage to the beast. The Deadly Silence began picking up lots of chatter from the fleet once they realized the preserver's shields were down. They saw victory was close at hand, and opened up on the monster with everything they had, suddenly empowered with new-found confidence. The Deadly Silence shot the preserver once more with its ion cannon, and the ship came down. The Alliance assault ships that had hung back from the space battle began moving in and deploying marines to the Citadel to clear out the heretic ground forces. Citadel Security Services, or C-Sec, had been devastated by the superior enemy, and were in desperate need of reinforcements who had fought heretics before.
Darrien spoke into the team's channel.
"Get ready Titans. It's time."
"Darrien?"
"CC?"
"Next time, if you're going to say, it's time, you should say, it's time to shine."
"Oh, um. Okay. Get ready Titans. It's time to shine."
"I feel so much better now," Fixer said sarcastically, but without any sarcastic tone.
CC actually sounded genuinely pleased.
"Me too!"
Fixer rolled her eyes while the rest of the team cracked a few smiles. Sev put his arm around Fixer and teased her with his sleaziest voice.
"Cheer up baby. We're gonna shine tonight?"
Fixer tried to hold it in, and she may have succeeded had CC not tickled her brain just the slightest bit. A smile spread across Fixer's face as she lowered her head and looked away from the team. Sev seemed very pleased with this, as if he had achieved his greatest goal.
"She smiles! I have done it!"
Sev jumped up onto a few nearby crates with his left leg on a higher crate than his right. He forged a hard light sword in his right hand and raised it high over his head.
"Let it be known across the land! I have tamed the beast! The people no longer need live in fear!"
Fixer looked to Boss for the go ahead. Boss nodded his head and Fixer sent a bolt of lightning at Sev, striking him in the chest and tossing him across the room. She had to concentrate very hard to produce the lightning attack since neither she, nor any of her teammates ever payed much mind to psychokinesis. They preferred to blow shit up with lots of firepower.
"The beast lives... Bitch."
Fixer addressed the now disembodied CC, "Did you get that?"
"Yeeeeup. Sending to Command for approval of video distribution."
Sev sat up dazed and confused from the vicious surge of electricity.
"I DIDN'T TOUCH HER! I SWEAR!"
The rest of the team and the crew members in the hanger bay all stared at Sev in silence before Scorch decided to ask what they were all thinking.
"Didn't touch who?"
Sev snapped back to attention.
"What? No. Nothing."
The team eyed Sev suspiciously until Darrien's voice came over their comms.
"We're right above the memory core. Opening the hanger doors."
"Got it. We're going in."
Boss began barking orders to his team through their neural link.
"Fixer, CC, I want that cutter fired up BEFORE we hit the ground. Sev, on your feet. You, me, and Scorch are gonna cover the tech girls while they extract the memory core."
The team all grabbed onto the mobile cutter and charged out of the hanger into free fall 100 meters over the dropsite. Sev looked back up over his shoulder and saw nothing. The Deadly Silence's cloak was still active.
"Cutter online, sir."
"Got it. Touching down in 5.. 4.. 3.. 1.."
The team landed softly onto the preserver's surface thanks to inertial dampening field emitted around them by the Deadly Silence.
"Start cutting."
"On it. Cutting now."
Fixer and CC immediately set the hulking machine in motion over the preserver's body, burning deep into its chassis. The joint fleet was not happy with the ship tearing up their home, and they mercilessly blew it to pieces; scattering its remains across the Presidium and just barely leaving the relatively small portion containing the memory core intact; a chunk about 8 meters tall, 6 meters wide, and 10 meters long.
"It's going. We'll be alerted when it's done."
"All right, let's form a perimeter."
"Yes sir."
The four physical beings jumped down from atop the remains with their weapons assembled and moved to positions designated by Boss. The chunk had fallen in the middle of what was once a open field, now scorched mostly black with flaming debris littered all around. There was also half of one burning tree. The Presidium was designed to be like a giant park in the center of the ring, with the buildings built into the curving sides, blending with the surroundings.
The team was dangerously exposed, with countless doorways on each side through which hostiles could start pouring out of, and bridges and balconies where they could be lit up from elevated positions. Boss didn't want to stray too far from the cutter, but he didn't want to be on top of a pedestal either. They cooled a smoldering crater with the snap freeze functions of their omni-tools, devices which had been carried over into this new galactic civilization through means which Dinomite didn't care about. They also moved some debris around and dug it into the ground to make a foxhole. They deployed disposable one-way shields over the debris they dug in to add more protection. The shields allowed weapons fire to pass unaffected through the back, but not through the front.
"Remember people, the geth are all linked. That means, when one geth sees us, they all see us. So lets be sure to make a good first impression."
"Oh, I'll make a good impression alright. Motherfuckers."
The team waited three minutes for the cutter to finish its job. So far they had only seen two keepers who seemed oblivious to their existence, and one screaming volus. It was not long before CC's bubbly voice could be heard in their heads.
"All done. The ship is sucking up the memory core now. Let's go, ladies!"
Sev and Scorch were not happy about leaving before shooting someone.
"Go? We ain't even killed any motherfuckers yet."
"Black Sam is right. We can't go yet. Not without killing somebody."
"Bitch!"
Unlike his two loose cannons, Boss was actually glad to have everything go according to plan for once. No combat drop had ever gone this perfectly for them before.
"Get your asses moving! You want something to kill!? You can kill each other back on the ship! NOW MOVE!"
There was no further discussion. The team jumped up onto the chunk of the preserver's corpse and into the gravity lift. The ship was still cloaked, and all the team could see was a giant bright light in the sky lifting them up. Sev couldn't help but wonder what the Deadly Silence actually looked like from the outside. None of them had ever seen it, and they never would because they weren't supposed to.
Before they knew it, they were through the light and back in their room aboard the ship, signaling the use of their casual names. As usual, Kathalle decorated whatever living space the team was currently occupying, if she was permitted to that is, and being a Titan, she usually wasn't questioned.
Across the back wall, opposite the door, were five beds all side-by-side with deployable shields and mounted guns underneath, ready to vaporize any unwelcome guest. The two on the left were Samir's and Samson's, with red and orange bedspreads. The two on the right were Benjiro's and Felicia's, with orange and green bedspreads. The one in the middle was Kathalle's, and was in no way plain and simple.
The image on Kathalle's bed sheet was that of a grassy field with various colored flowers across the surface. Her pillow was shining yellow sun, and her comforter a bright blue sky with several fluffy clouds. Hers was also the only bed with a headboard, which was made of black marble dotted with silver specks that looked like a starry night.
Samson commented on Kathalle's bed every time he saw it.
"That is the stupidest fucking thing I have ever seen."
Kathalle didn't care what Samson thought about her bed, but Samir still tried to defend it.
"Oh come on. It's so fun, and pretty, and stuff."
Samson turned to Samir.
"I take that back. I have some something stupider."
"Damn right."
Everyone besides Samir chuckled a bit.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing."
Felicia lay down on her bed as her armor left her body like liquid flowing down a surface, folding itself up next to her bed and leaving her in her just her bodysuit. Several probes rose from somewhere behind the bed and attached themselves to different areas on her head. She closed her eyes and entered a subconscious training program.
Benjiro sat down at a desk in the corner of the room with his armor also removed and sliding over to his bed. He touched the surface of the desk and began controlling the computer in it with his mind. He opened hacked surveillance feeds on the Citadel through a holographic screen that appeared over the desk and watched the still ongoing battle.
Kathalle graciously fell back onto her bed after sending the mission report while Samir and Samson stared each other down for a few seconds with their helmets retracted before something made Kathalle jump back up with joy.
"Guys, I have wonderful news!"
Samir and Samson turned their death stares to Kathalle; Benjiro closed the feeds and turned around in his chair; and Felicia opened her eyes and tilted her head to the side to see what was so wonderful.
"We've just been reassigned... to pirate hunting!"
Everyone's eyes widened at this revelation. It seemed their society had finally grown back to the point where pirates were an issue worthy of a Titan's attention. The two Sams were the most enthusiastic about this truly wonderful news, as evidenced by their high five and loud cheers.
"FUCK YEAH!"
"FUCK YEAH!"
"WE'RE GOING HUNTING, BITCH!"
"WE GONNA BLAST US SOME MOTHERFUCKING PIRATE FOOLS! FUCK YEAH!"
"That video was also approved."
Samir turned to Kathalle.
"What video?"
"You'll see."
They all sat down on Kathalle's bed and watched the screen she projected in front of the door.
"Command removed some things from the background, and I added some fluff as well. Enjoy, The Beast."
The video started with Samir making Felicia laugh. He jumped up on the crates and began his rants. When Felicia sent the bolt, Kathalle added a slow motion roar. When the video sped back up, and the bolt struck Samir, Kathalle made the video playback nine times from different angles. After the ninth playback, the video switched to split second shot six Imperium mobile battle stations destroying a forerunner shield world with their superlasers. The video then switched to Samir being struck two more times, with a third in slow motion before one last time with the video continuing to Samir falling and Felicia's final line. The screen appeared to explode, then cut to black with dubstep music playing in the background and the credits rolling.
This has been another Dinomite Production, brought to you by Kitty Kathalle.
"Aaaaand uploaded to my blog. So. Whatcha think?
Samir couldn't lie, he loved Kathalle's videos, even though most of them in which Samir was included revolved around his humiliation.
"It was awesome."
"Thanks."
The four friends shared a few smiles, laughs, hugs, and friendly pushes. They reminisced over some of Kathalle's past videos; played a few games; ate some exotic snacks; had a dance contest; and watched a movie together. At one point, Samson stabbed Samir in the leg, which turned into another video. After several hours of just having fun they entered a training program together and practiced killing virtual pirates. It was a great ending, to a shitty mission.
A/N: A horribly excessive, but extremely important author's note.
I fear there is a misconception among the Halo fanbase that the conflict between the humans and forerunners (and for a time the san 'shyuum) described in Halo 4 and the Forerunner Saga is "THE Human-Forerunner War," as in one war. It's actually the "last of the human-forerunner wars." The Humans and Forerunners fought many major conflicts that may also be referred to collectively as the Human-Forerunner War. I'm assuming they may be referred to collectively because any periods of relative peace may have been too small to even acknowledge, or maybe it's something like the War in Afghanistan. Think of the First and Second Human-Forerunner Wars referenced in this story like the real world First and Second World Wars. They are not the only wars that have been fought, but they are the two most notorious, with WWII being the deadliest conflict in human history. When new canonical information regarding human-forerunner conflicts is released (something I'm hoping for), I will incorporate it.
More information will be revealed later on regarding true psychokinetic abilities versus psychokinetic imitation technologies, such as constraint fields.
One last thing. I must apologize for incorrectly assuming readers would understand that the statements regarding the origins of the melee weapons utilized by Alexandria and the Promethean were stated from a third-person perspective. They were not Alexandria's direct thoughts. Horses are native to Erda (Earth), the location of which was lost during a dark age. It is unconfirmed whether or not horses even existed back then, and even if they did, I doubt the Humans would have had public knowledge of the origins of the scimitar, since such a great deal of historical knowledge was lost.
A few other important things. Due to reasons that will be explained later on (you can probably guess with a little critical thinking), the UNSC and Alliance run on the same date. What I mean is, when it's 2185 on the Alliance calender, it's also 2185 on the UNSC calender. With that being said, the UNSC does not begin establishing extrasolar colonies until 2310. Needless to say, the UNSC humans does not make a significant impact on the greater galaxy during the events of the Mass Effect Trilogy. They will be mentioned only.
In canon, the Alliance Navy is not mentioned to have assault ships (warships meant specifically to deploy and assist ground forces). This may just be because the stories of the Mass Effect Universe focus on individual characters and their experiences, rather than big events in the universe as a whole (big topics are left to the codex, which most people apparently don't read, as evidenced by all the false information about mass effect technology in many fanfics); not because the Alliance Navy actually doesn't have assault ships. Or maybe their carriers play the role of carriers and assault ships, I don't know.
I made a few errors regarding the weapons the civilians were said to wield in Chapter 2. I called them phased energy weapons, when I should have said phased plasma. Phased plasma weapons are wielded by both Skynet and Resistance forces in the Terminator Universe, and were the inspiration for the ones I will reference in this story. Phased energy weapons, or phasers (PHASed Energy Rectification), are what the United Federation of Planets calls particle accelerator weapons in the Star Trek Universe.
I'm not surprised someone noticed the blatantly obvious similarities between Fireteam Dinomite and the clone commando unit Delta Squad (later imperial commando unit). I've already said too much on this matter.
I sure hope to never need another crazy author's note like that again. (I added a line to separate the A/N from the story and it started replicating itself. All my attempts to remove them have failed)