Here is the Second Chapter of The Great War. Now if anyone has constructive ideas for the war please don't hesitate to PM or review. I will ignore flames or insults as they just waste my time. I don't own jack shit from Mass effect or C&C.
Black Hand Flagship Purifying Flame
Kyar'Tegran nar Neema walked down the hallways with Chief Engineer Gregory Davowski. Kyar stood at an even 5'6" with a green tinted black enviro suit. He was showing Kyar the areas of the ship so he wouldn't get lost. Kyar was on his Pilgrimage from the Migrant Fleet. Due to the better relations with the HDI most Quarian pilgrims went to Human planets because of their more relaxed stipulations on jobs they could have and the technologies they could buy for the Fleet. Kyar had signed on as an engineer for the Purifying Flame. He was curious about these Black Hand. Not much had been available on the Codex entry he found concerning The Black Hand. Their motto was "Cleanse the enemy with purifying flames and march forth over thier ashes."
The ship and it's technology was amazing, the entire thing had nearly blown his mind at the impressive design. The ship even had a red crystalline data layer that could be seen on the inside under thick armor-glass. The engines were a deuterium-fusion reactor allowing more use of FTL because it didn't create heat like a Ezzo core did. Kyar was glad his contract for two years allowed him to choose a technology to bring back to the Fleet, true there were limits to what he could take back mainly weapons technology and Tiberium but there were many other useful items.
They passed several rooms that contained either storage or relaxation for the crew. He could see some of them relaxing while most were hurrying about. "All hands, to stations and prepare to get under way. I repeat all hands, to stations and prepare to get underway."
Gregory turned to him, "Come on I will show you your room later, we need to get to the engines." The elevator was faster than most in Citadel Space, Kyar thought. They reached the engine room quickly and Kyar saw the most amazing engine he had ever seen. There was a raised rectangular pyramid that stretched eight meters, along that stretch were four reactors on each side. These shell-like reactors connected by tubes to the upper surface of the room. In these tubes Kyar could see the raw electrical power flowing through them. It was an interesting sight.
"The power output could easily power an entire colony planet for a year on ten minutes of output. It unfortunately needs constant maintenance to keep up full power." Gregory nodded to a real computer station that was near them. "That will be your station. Get ready the ship will be underway soon. Your job will be to regulate the power through the various systems in and out of combat and general maintenance of the engine.
The Purifying Flame headed toward the relay with the Rising Fire and the Falling Ashes, all three were Black Hand Cruisers with laser cannons replacing the cannons and blue Tiberium core missile launchers replacing the particle defenses and the Sonic torpedo launchers. These ships were a light blue with crimson flame detailing that gave them a fiery appearance. They started to head for Torfan, it would take about ten hours to reach Torfan.
Head Security Office
Mars
David was fielding calls from planetary governors about the threat of Batarian slaver attacks. He was running ragged between civilians and politicians arguing over what to due while he tried to keep the peace.
"David," Jack Harper activated a hologram in his office, "we found the colonists and have the Black Hand heading out. The Shadow team onsite is preparing the defenses to ensure the troops land. They are also making sure the colonists aren't being sent else where."
David sighed in relief. "Thank God, I was going to lose my mind due to the calls. Alright, just make sure the Council can't do anything to try and stop us from recovering our people."
"That's being done already. I took the liberty of having Anita Goyle being sent to the Citadel to see if the Council will do anything. If that is all, sir?"
David stood his head and Jack's hologram shutdown. "Like hell those idiots will do anything. Probably claim the suffering of a few is better them more." David whispered to himslef as he started on the never ending horror, paperwork.
Torfan
The fiery fleet appeared near Torfan and was taking an hour to prepare ground forces and to assault the eight ships in orbit. They wouldn't be a problem since three converted cargo ships with a few guns slapped on making them little more than bullet shields for the real threats. The three destroyers and two cruisers. The three Black Hand ships will be able to take care of them but the bullet shields were the problem, the cargo ships would be able to soak up damage.
"Rising Fire I want you to jump to these coördinates and fire on the bullet shields while the Falling Ashes will jump to the other side once the they get between you and the real threats and we will then drive straight down their throats." Admiral Gideon Raveshaw the second commanded. He was descended from the original Black Hand leader under Kane, standing at 4'10" he was a little short but still commanded respect from his troops.
The Rising Fire used a short FTL burst to the left of the defense formation and fired it's Obelisk turrets to carve a long groove into the closest cargo ship and hammered it with Tiberium core missiles to shock them into action and fired its only rail gun that fired a magnesium thermite mix round into one of the destroyers causing it to burn. The destroyer was basically out of the fight for the moment allowing the Falling Ashes to strike the far side forcing one bullet shield to head back over allowing them to send a magnesium thermite round into a cruiser damaging it but it was still in the fight allowing it to send a barrage of rounds into the Falling Ashes' ion shield which took a hit but started to recharge, that was the trade-off with the ion shields they were a little weaker but recharged easier than kinetic barriers.
"Start the assault. I want boots on the ground in five minutes or I will have every man who delays me go through initiation again and prepare a Firestorm Bomb." Everyone stiffened at doing initiation again, it was a brutal way of making sure Black Hand was the best.
Down on the surface Batarians were getting defenses ready at the bunkers on the surface. The HDI were in orbit and the Batarians weren't going down without a fight since they had the backing of the Hegemony and everyone in the universe that the Council wouldn't do jack to help a few little lost souls since they haven't done anything in centuries. "Look up aircraft inbound!" Someone yelled out. They could see the giant transports of the Humans but also a small craft in front of them. After the transports landed near the bunker the first ship leveled and dropped a small object before heading back up. After a few seconds the small object released some fluid and kept falling. After the fluid hit the ground the object hit and the world disappeared in a storm of hellfire.
Inside the lead lander the strike force command stood. "Alright team the Vertigo has dropped the Fuel Air Bomb and is headed back now it's our time to show these heretics our ways of war. Show no mercy, you all saw the videos of the poor souls they enslaved and tortured, they deserve nothing but purifying fire. We stand between Humanity and the enemy."
On the ground Hegemony soldier Jaen had been on the outskirts of the blast and barely managed to survive because of the shockwave. Lying on the ground in pain he could see the fiery hell of the blast sight, the only lucky thing was he knew nothing could survive that fire so they had a moment to recover. That was until a slaver next to him yelled out, "Look in the fire!" Large black shapes marched through the fires towards them as if they weren't standing practically in a firestorm from hell.
Then gunfire started to hit the pirates and slavers as the black soldiers just rushed towards them. Once they got close the figures fired blue flames at them and easily started to push them back as they tried to hold the bunker entrance so the engineers could shut and lock it down. They managed to do and relaxed inside wondering what exactly could the invaders do now. They could hear a hissing noise and could see the blast door start to glow red. "Their melting the door!" Someone said hysterically.
Outside the squad's sergeant was using his plasma caster to burn through the metal door. Usually the plasma caster made for enemy armour but it did make an impromptu plasma torch. "How long until we breach the door?"
"Five minutes, Sir." The rest of the squad was making sure the Batarians were truly dead. "Found a live one here sir!"
They stood around the injured trooper and one noticed the insignia on his armor. "That's a Hegemony insignia!"
"Drag him back to the transports, Intel can have him. We have other priorities to deal with." The injured Batarian started to panic and curse as one of the Initiates draged him none too gently back to the landers.
They melted the door close to breaking so they could charge through it to surprise the enemy on the other side. Breaking through the Black Hand immediately started to fight their way through the bunker looking for the prisoners and slaves hoping to find the colonists stolen from Elysium.
They came across some slave but no humans just some asari and turians. "Get some Black Disciples down here to help them back up to the surface. Mark and Johnson, stay here until they get here."
They kept fighting their way through while the Batarians screamed from the fires burning them alive as they fought against the "Black Demons" who used fire as their way of war.
On the surface things were a little harder for the Black Hand as the Batarians kept their distance from them forcing them switch to assault rifles and heavy incinerators. The assault rifles used magnesium infused metal to burn their targets while heavy incinerators fired a glob of napalm that stuck to their targets. Above them stood the Purifiers with their flamethrowers and inferno cannons. They took quickly with the burning of entire floors with the purifiers' fire cleansing them.
A few Batarians futilely tried to use incinerate to light them ablaze to no effect. The Black Hand had obtained minimal casualties in the fight. Then a transport landed and released a modified Redeemer. Standing forty meters tall it carried two incinerator cannons and two flamethrowers instead of infantry hard-points and an obelisk laser. It roared, "The Redeemer has Risen! Onward to Victory!" It's cannon fired and caved in a building upon a couple of batarian defenders who had managed to hold out for a few minutes.
Hade Kesair was running through the remains of his base firing quick shots to keep the beasts in his way from stopping him long enough to get past. He was running for a hidden air pad with a small freighter with a small FTL core. If he could just get away he could easily out maneuver the ships in orbit long enough to hit the relay.
He could see a squad of Batarian Soldiers putting up a fight against the invading Humans. Hade tossed a frag grenade near the Humans and sprinted to the squad next to the hangar door. The squad nodded to Hade and one spoke yelling over the din of rifle fire and the roar of fire. "Sir, you need to get out of here. Orders from the Hegemony state that you have information that cannot be gained by the Humans. We will hold this door so you can escape."
Hade nodded, "Thank you for your men's sacrifice, soldier." Before Hade could move a shimmer in the air fired a small burst of bullets into the squad as three others fired as well. The shimmer rippled and revealed four Human shaped figures. The four men stood in slim black bodysuits with light metal strips put in strategic areas of the body. They wore plexi-glass visor helmets with rebreathers. Hade tried to flee but one pulled a ballistic knife and fired it into his leg, taking him down.
Hade was pulled over on his back as one of the large black figures knelt above him. "Okay, Batarian you can make this easy on yourself or you can do the stupid thing and try to be tough. I want to know how you got the pirate and slaver groups to join for the attack. It would take a lot of capital and strength to bring them together. So think carefully and tell me what I want to know."
Hade spat at the helmet of the man. "Go to Hell, you beast!" The Black Hand just sighed, "I didn't want to do this, Mike show him the error of his ways." Another one, this one's armor was a little smaller pulled a flamethrower and lit the pilot light and pressed it into the wound from the knife the Shadow had put in his leg. "YGAAAAAAHHH!"The pain was excruciating and he felt like his entire leg was on fire. "Ok, The Hegemony gave us the funds and weapons to bring the groups together for a strike at the Humans. They hated that the Council would do nothing to stop the HDI from colonizing the Verge!"
"Alright good one last thing, then we will let you go." Hade looked shocked but nodded. "Do you have anything to prove this. I won't let you go until you give me physical proof." Hade sighed in relief. "I have the video file from his call on my Omni-tool. Here take them! You have what you want, let me go! Please!"
"Today is your lucky day Batarian, Now go before I change my mind." Hade fled into the hangar to his ship.
A Disciple stepped next to him. "Sir, should we let him go?" The commander nodded, "Command wanted us to let him go, besides he has a tracking device on him that will lead us to the others and spread the story of this place. Come on, we have to secure the rest of this building."
The Citadel
Hours after the Burning of Torfan
The Council was in an emergency meeting with the Human and Batarian representatives. The meeting had only started and already the Batarian started yelling about reparations from the HDI. He started yelling three minutes ago about his people's suffering and still hadn't stopped. "They should be paying for the troubles they have caused the Hegemony! We will not let this insult go unnoticed."
He pulled a video up and played it. "This is what these savages did to Torfan!"
The video was a little grainy at first then cleared. They watched as a small aircraft dropped a bomb towards the planet surface. When the bomb blew they were shocked at the devastation caused by the bomb. The video went to static for a moment and then they could see the field of hellfire burning bright. After a moment they heard a Batarian yell out, "Look in the fire!" Indeed they could see black figures marching through the flames as easy as if there weren't any flames. Once the figures got closer they unleashed blue flames and swept them across the field against the Batarian pirates. They watched as a fight ensued as the Batarians gave ground to the invading forces. After they got the bunker door closed the Council and civilians thought they were safe but Anita and Donnel knew better, the Black hands' flamethrowers burned at nearly a thousand degrees Fahrenheit. They watched shocked at the door growing red and patches melting and running like water down the door.
Someone spoke in awe, "Spirits, What in the hell are they!?"
Anita stepped forward, "They are the Black Hand, they will cleanse the Heretics against Humanity with Purifying Flame. They hold fire as the greatest weapon in their arsenal from incendiary rifles to "Firestorm" fuel air bombs and magnesium artillery shells. Their vehicles include the military verions of the Purifiers.
The video skipped forward to where the pirate defenders fought tooth and nail against the Black Hand who marched forward relentlessly as Mantis drones took Mantis gunships out of the air easily with a barrage of Tiberium core missiles. Then a HUGE mech that was double the size of the Purifier mechs strode forward on the four legs. It spoke in a loud deep voice, "The Redeemer has Risen! Onward to Victory!" It strode forth and destroyed literally everything in its path uncaring about the damage it caused. The Redeemer kept getting closer than when it filled the screen it raised one of its huge feet and the foot stepped straight on the origin of the video. It then went to static as everyone was in shock at the might the HDI would bring against just a group of pirates.
Anita was calm as he railed against them, finally when the video stopped she spoke to cut him off. "What suffering have we caused exactly, we attacked a slaver base that was holding kidnapped colonists from a pirate attack on Elysium. So unless the Hegemony would like to confess to the attack they will receive nothing from us and trust me Ambassador if the Hegemony had anything to do with this attack Torfan will be just the beginning. We warned you about this. We will declare war on you for your crimes. They," Anita gestured towards the Council," might let your crimes go unpunished because they are too afraid of trying but we will not let your childish behavior go unchecked."
After she finished her com-pad flashed. Looking at it her eyes widened and she gave the Batarian a feral grin. "Ooohhh, You guys just fucked up big time." She stepped forward and announced, "I have new evidence to submit to this meeting."
She hit a button and over the speakers in the room a voice spoke, "Ok, The Hegemony gave us the funds and weapons to bring the groups together for a strike at the Humans. They hated that the Council would do nothing to stop the HDI from colonizing the Verge!" Anita smirked and spoke again, "I also have proof in the form of the Batarian Hegemony leader speaking to the leader of the pirates who attacked Elysium."
At that people who were watching the meeting from the side lines knew the Hegemony was in trouble but the trouble came from the wrong group. Tevos stood, "We will speak to the Hegemony and tell them this kind of behavior is not appropriate from them. Rest assured this kind of thing will not happen again." She sat and seemed to think Anita would accept that.
She drew a breath and spoke harshly, "Are you idiots that dumb? You think telling them off will work when it has done nothing in the past. You know what? Don't worry about it we will take care of the problem ourselves." She turned to the Batarian ambassador. "The HDI declares war on the Batarian Hegemony due to an unprovoked attack on our borders and civilians. You will be punished for your crimes against Humanity." The Council stood horrified.
"You can not do this, we forbid it!" Tevos yelled at Anita. She looked at them with a raised brow. "What right do you have to order us about? We will not sit by and let innocent people be kidnapped and enslaved like you do."
The Batarian ambassador snarled at Anita, "You will pay for this Human!" He pulled a pistol and aimed it at her. Around Anita eight Shadow team members decloaked and aimed their dual N7 Hurricanes at the ambassador and his two guards. Anita smiled and turned to walk away, "The HDI will not let pirates and slavers attack our colonies because it's too difficult to guard our colonies and that we don't want to provoke the Terminus Systems." With that she left with Donnel as the guards watched the Council and Batarians. After an unseen signal the Shadows one by one stepped away and cloaked themselves.
Everyone was surprised by the turn of events. Humanity just declared war on the Hegemony and told the Council to screw themselves and shown they were capable of cloaking infantry. Things were going to get interesting.
Codex
Purifier: Used exclusively by the Black Hand. It was the predecessor to the Avatar mech and was fitted with a subliminal messaging system to boost morale and comes pre-equipped with a flamethrower and laser. Recently the Black Hand's increase in use of Flame tech caused them to use a fire cannon rail gun that fires a slug of thermite mixed into Magnesium.
Redeemer: An unit built to counter the MARV the Redeemer is a epic unit built to give heavy damage while living through anything thrown at it. Armed with a Obelisk-based tri-part laser on it's left arm and two infantry hard-points on it's shoulder blades. It is the representation of Nod's power on the battlefield
Vertigo bomber: The Vertigo was a stealth bomber used during the Third Tiberium War. Holding a single bomb capable of leveling small buildings it was a heavy short range bomber used by the Nod forces to great effect.
This is the second chapter of the rewrite. Please read & Review.