Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
Genesis 9:6, Christian Bible
"Welcome back to radio free earth! Resist! Humanity demands it. Resist! First, a quick news update. It is now 68 hours into the fight for reality. Reaper forces are sweeping west through America. Expect heavy fighting up and down the Mississippi river, with gusts of air bombing around the greater Chicago metropolitan area. The Reaper forces have consolidated their hold on Western Europe, and are now sweeping east. Reapologists predict overwhelming forces heading towards Greece. There's a lot of turbulence to the north, however; Reaper forces are bogging down in Russia. Looks like they made the cardinal mistake of fighting a land war in Asia. Hold tight folks, it's nowhere close to GG yet.
"Now a word from one of our sponsors, the Zombie Defense League. Fire! Remember to always use fire! If it's good enough to kill, it's good enough to kill it with fire. If you're going to die, die in a fire. That way you won't come back as a zombie."
"Our current story for today is proper targeting locations and weak points on husks. If you know what you're doing, you can kill them with a spoon! That way it hurts more. Next we'll have an expert discuss building stealth fetishes with materials found in your kitchen, but now on to husk weaknesses…"
82 hours after Reaper invasion, final assault on last Reaper invasion forces in America.
Commander Shepard and Admiral Anderson sat around a small table, quickly eating MREs.
The planning for the final assault to wipe out the last Reaper landing forces in North America was over, and the assault would begin in a few minutes. Shepard and Anderson were taking a few moments to eat, and figure out the next mission for the Normandy.
"We can send the Normandy out to sabotage the Relay."
Anderson shook his head. "No. While the Normandy can escape detection again as it leaves Earth," he inclined his head towards Shepard, who nodded in acknowledgement, "there's no way it can reach the Relay undetected. Plus, how can we sabotage the Relay? We still don't have a deep enough knowledge of how they work to do subtle damage, and an explosion may not be strong enough to work. It took crashing an asteroid into the Relay at Aratoht for you to destroy it. I don't know if we have anything easily available with that magnitude that the Reaper's won't be able to detect before we can get it to the Relay."
They sat in comfortable silence, thinking and eating.
Shepard frowned, tone pensive. "Let me ask you a quick question about this…magic."
Anderson leaned back. "What do you want to know? And why are you asking me, instead of a mage?"
Shepard shrugged. "You've got the most experience among the Alliance in dealing with magic. Also, they're a bit…." She rotated her hand and shrugged. "They're a bit mad, you know?"
Anderson nodded in agreement. "Yes. I understand. I understand completely. So what do you want to know?"
"The way I understand it, the more coincidences, symbology, communal beliefs, history, handwaving, bullshit, technobabble, props, background music, bling, numerology, and faith, the easier magic becomes."
Anderson nodded. "That's my understanding as well. Basically anything can help. The more things, the better. The stronger the connection the better as well. Why do you ask?"
"Well. We're going to be looking to take back Europe next, attacking into entrenched Reaper positions. So we should try to make our assault as magically superior as possible." Shepard nodded to herself. "Do you think we can insert the Normandy into Western Europe?"
Anderson blinked. "As a stealth insertion, yes. As part of the assault? Maybe. Why?"
Shepard was silent, looking at a calendar app on her omnitool.
After a few moments, she spoke slowly. "You know, the 6th of June this year will also be a Tuesday. Just saying."
Admiral Anderson's head rose. He quirked an eyebrow at her.
"What?"
She looked up, and repeated. "Tuesday. 6th of June. Normandy. Invading an entrenched evil empire."
He stared at her, then slowly smiled. "Operation Overlord."
They grinned at each other.
"What a coincidence." Magic at its best.
Shepard snickered. "Does this mean we get to call the Reapers Space Nazis?" She looked back down at her omnitool. "Too bad it won't be a full moon this year, though. That's on June first. Maybe it'll be close enough to count."
Anderson shrugged, leaning back in his chair. "Meh. We'll just ask the Garou to drive the moon around so it can be full that night."
The Alliance liaison scratched his head. "So how exactly does this work?"
The tactical team leader was lifting a bandana to his head. He paused and glanced at the Alliance officer. He lowered the bandana.
"Ok." He pointed at himself, and his team. "Mages actively change reality based on belief and will. With me so far?" The Alliance officer nodded. "It's not just mages. Humans believe things all the time. And if enough humanity believes something, it gains truth. But there's more. Belief starts reinforcing itself. For example, what's the credo of the Marines?"
"Semper Fi."
"Right. Always faithful. I'm sure there have been corrupt marines before. But the more faithful Marines are, the more people believe in Marines, which in turn makes them more faithful."
The Alliance officer thought for a second, then nodded. "Ok, I think I get that. But how does belief reinforcement apply to this?" He gestured around him to the tactical team suiting up.
The team leader smiled. "It's not just reinforcement. The next principle is sympathy. By making ourselves similar to something, we can tap into beliefs about it."
He glanced at the blank look on the officer's face, and sighed. "Look, we're tactical recon. It's what we do. Sure, Spectres do it also; it's in their name after all. Special Tactics and Reconnaissance." He tied the wide bandana on, covering his entire forehead. He carefully adjusted it to align just over his eyebrows. He gestured at his uniform. "But now, what's the first thing you think of when I say..." He deepened his voice slightly, "Tactical. Espionage. Action." He glanced at the mirror, nodding at his reflection.
The Alliance officer paused, then grudgingly nodded.
The tac team lead nodded. "See? It goes beyond beliefs. You thought it. You know. You can have an opinion about it; you may disagree. You may not think it is true, but the connection exists. Undeniably. That's what we're tapping into." He turned to face the officer, letting the trailing cloth of his bandana fall behind him. "It's why the Technocracy made their HIT mark 13's look like Daleks. Hideously effective against aliens. Hilariously ineffective against humans. It's why the Akashic Brotherhood dresses like Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris. It's why cultural memes have been fought over for all of human history."
The tactical team leader turned. He spot-checked his team, and nodded in approval.
"Infiltration team Solid; begin operation Snake Eater!" As one, the tactical espionage team crouched down and pulled large cardboard boxes over their heads, completely covering themselves. They scuttled forward.
The Reapers never saw them coming. The Reapers never saw them pass through their lines. The Reapers never saw them perform their mission. The Reapers never saw them leave.
Omake:
"Alright team! Focus up! Time to get in the game!"
The team clustered together, then lowered their heads.
There was a moment of silence.
The team leader raised his head and spoke. "Snake."
The 2IC raised her head. "Snake?"
The rest of the team raised their heads, and everyone bellowed, "Snaaaaaaake!"
Double Omake:
"This is the one part I hate." He grimaced as he stuck a pack of cigarettes in a bag and swallowed it.
