A/N: Alot of the comments helped, especially the technical ones about the Spartan armor and about my idiocy/grammar. Haha. :) I need to get the story right so all background info is appreciated.
I am glad people are enjoying the story overall, and my nameless protagonists. As far as Persona goes? It rocks. And *gasp* I would never hurt my precious Chie. The reason I started the plot where it is because. 1) I didn't want to retell Mass Effect 1 in it's entirety. 2) I wanted to stay canon in timeline, but obviously it being a cross over throw my own spin on "what if."
About Jorge. All the Noble Members will make their presence known in the story... if not exactly the way everyone is expecting them to.
~ Feros: Prothean Skyway ~
The thunderous canon fire from the M35 Mako rumbled, muffled by the layers of reinforced combed-titanium protecting the Normandy crew from the Geth onslaught outside. Blazing down the ancient Prothean skyway ruins to Exogeni headquarters, Noble Six was fine with the Geth siege - the Spartan was used to the bombardments. What he wasn't used to was the sardine can feeling inside this crowded weapon on wheels.
Sitting next to an antsy Krogan during a shaky ride in a compact tank certainly wasn't helping.
"We're two miles out!" Shepard shouted from the driver's position, maneuvering around and over numerous Geth troopers.
The UNSC definitely needs this thing against the Covenant.
The M35 Mako build 2.5 was indeed the perfect compact combat vehicle for fast battlefield insertion. Six was especially impressed with its deceptive speed, this being a far cry from the hulking Scorpions he was used to. It had the maneuverability of a Mongoose but the armored protection and weaponry of a Scorpion. The vehicle aficionado of Noble team so wanted a shot at the wheel.
*Crunch!*
"That's sixty three crushed Geth in two minutes." Garrus was armed on the cannon, just getting done incinerating a high sniper tower into ashes. "You just broke William's record Commander."
"She was gonna beat me at some point" Ashley sighed playfully, gripping the vehicle's turbulence bracers.
Shepard smiled a victor's grin as she made a sharp turn to avoid an array of rockets, power sliding into a few more Geth, crushing them against the concrete barricade. "After Wrex gets his turn you'll get another shot Ash."
Gasp! Everyone's guts cringed at the sheer horror of their Krogan behind the wheel of a Mako with them in it.
Wrex paused expertly as he was glared at, looking as innocent as a Battlemaster could be. "What?"
"Not funny Commander." Tali groaned to Shepard's 'twisted' humor.
Six simpered inside his helm, observing Shepard's team closely going about their work for the very first time. It definitely was a looser feel than his Noble team but there was that even keel confidence and determination that made it feel all so similar. They all respected Shepard. They would all jump off a bridge for her just like any Spartan would for the cause of victory.
Perhaps the helplessness of Reach's fall didn't let Noble have the most free of spirits. This was a nice change of pace.
"INCOMING!"
This next part wasn't a nice change. The crew felt like they were thrown into the heart of a cyclone. Metal screeched and tore; armor bending more and more with every creak. The entire tank was in an uncontrollable spin, slamming over and over on the jagged concrete terrain. The Mako may have been a beast of a vehicle but a blast of epic proportions to the lower wheel flipped the tank completely off axis, sending the vehicle in a spark inducing careen, almost skidding completely off the edge of the skyway.
*pulse*
"S-SHEPARD!"
*pulse*
"COME ON WE NEED TO MOVE!"
*pulse*
"WAKE UP!"
The next few seconds were like the results of a night with too many downed champagne bottles; Shepard's vision and her hearing were shot, getting hit with the blunt trauma from the collision. She heard voices call her name, an ashen gloved hand reaching out towards her from the light. She grabs the hand out of instinct.
"You alright Commander?" Noble Six checked, shaking Shepard back into this realm with one hand to her collar, standing her straight up.
Shepard nodded woozily before full recovery, shaking the remnants of her daze. "T-thanks Noble. I am… alright. Is everyone else okay?"
"Never better!" For Wrex the impact was more like a Disneyland ride, stomping around the corner of the downed Mako to get a peek at the oncoming Geth forces. The numbers had to be in the hundreds, "Looks like the welcome committee is here."
"Ugh. Guess we'll be on foot from here on out." Ashley slowly crawled out of the wreckage, mostly unscathed but rattled.
Garrus grunted in effort, pulling Tali out as laser fire began to come down. "That was a weapon I haven't seen before."
"It seems this Colossus has a cannon upgrade." Tali frustratingly brushed off the dirt on her artful protective suit. The Quarian quickly assessed the damage. The bottom half of the Mako was as charcoal black as bad BBQ. What kind of magnitude of weapon could do this damage to an armored vehicle like the Mako?
Sovereign perhaps was beginning to equip his followers with new weapons. Was it an act of desperation?
"Ungh," Liara groaned holding her azure forehead, leaning against their overturned vehicle.
"Are you alright?" Shepard rushed over to the Asari checking the small wound on her forehead, patting away some of the blood with much concern. Six noticed. She was quite protective of her.
Those two had something going on...
"I'll be fine Shepard. You worry too much… I'm tough… too." The Asari smiled weakly, standing on her own quite admirably. She acted cute but she was one tough cookie. Just ask any mercenaries that have crossed her singularity attack.
"No mean to rush you Commander! B-but-" Ashley loaded her rifle, firing off some rounds that caught a few Geth Armature units dead on, tearing some of their domes off. "We need a plan and-"
"Everyone down!" Six pulled Ashley to the ground, suddenly bracing for impact by slamming his palms into the Mako.
BOOOOM! The team again was overwhelmed by that new canon. They felt the already unstable ground beneath them rumble even looser, the Mako, their only source of cover shoving them closer and closer to death's edge. Out of pure survival instinct Noble Six and Wrex pressed against the overturned tank, preventing their only means of cover from perhaps being their one way ticket to the base jump of their doom.
The vehicle creaked and scraped, Six and Wrex's muscles burned, the wreckage kicking up dust and debris in their face. The two slowly and steadily stopped it by driving their boots into the ground and not giving an inch. A peer over the skyway and the crew now got a good glimpse of how high up they were. They were thanking their lucky stars for Krogan/Spartan power. They needed every inch of that resistance.
That's a far way down. Ash gulped, watching a few pebbles free fall, being helped up by Six.
"Sorry for pulling you down like that. You alright?"
Ashley tried to reply but just got caught staring at that MJOLNIR helmet, an overwhelming feeling of solace in her when being near him. She couldn't explain it. The way his mask hid his face, the way he carried himself - it was like he was some sort of superhero from her comic book youth or something.
"I-I… y-yeah…" She stammered. "Thanks Noble Six."
"Don't mention it."
"We're gonna need a plan switch and quick." Shepard stated, more calm then a praying monk.
Pinned between the edge of a thousand foot drop off into an abyss of ruins and a huge hoard of Geth with a suped up Colossus about to bring the boom down upon them, Shepard had her head running through the few options they had. There was little cover from here to Exo-Geni, and the underneath pathway was being blocked by an armada of Geth.
They either had to run around and risk being split up or…
ZKKT!
"Ideas anyone?" Garrus tore a disruptor ammo right through a Geth Jumper in mid attack, letting it hit the floor in a brilliant explosion. Shepard one upped her Turian comrade with a fatal shot to a Geth Prime's midsection circuitry.
"We can't split and go around them!" The Commander shook her head. "We'll be picked off one by one!" From behind Wrex blew another Geth unit into smithereens, compliments of a shotgun blast at point blank as it tried to sneak around.
"Let's move now and hit them head on!" Wrex growled. "We're sitting targets here!"
"That's suicidal Wrex." Tali sent out a droid as a distraction, disarming a Geth by taking out its limb. "Even with our shields and Liara's biotic barrier we'll get cut to mincemeat by that new blaster of theirs! Did you see what it did to the Mako?"
"Either way team we've got to do something now!" Garrus was emptying his shells in cover as the Geth attack was becoming more ferocious. "If it fires again we're going to be as flat as one of your human delectable pancakes!"
Shepard didn't even blink. She noticed from the corner of her eye a certain silent Spartan, preparing himself for a move, grenades in hand. With a glance into that faceless mask, Shepard knew they were on the same page.
"A head on attack is what they wouldn't be expecting Wrex," Shepard slowly broke a grin, the crew looking at her like she was crazy. She looked at them with her nonchalant eyes. "We take out that Colossus? We can handle the rest."
They began to remember the video footage they saw earlier before his awakening. The crew turned to Noble Six, the Spartan soldier staring back behind that MJOLNIR suit, grabbing both his assault rifles. It was his turn to show his worth to the team, and we all know how Spartan's hate to disappoint.
"I've got an idea Commander."
"We're all ears Six."
~ Meanwhile at an Undisclosed Location ~
(Audio Feeds)
*ksst, kssst*
~ Cerberus Headquarters ~
Miranda Lawson: Jacob… I've stumbled upon something big. We need to meet up right now.
Jacob Taylor: Miranda I'm in the middle of my work out… can it wait?
Miranda Lawson: Get your ass over to headquarters now! It's about that unidentified wreckage.
Jacob: …
Miranda: Fine, dinner on me?
Jacob: Now we're talking.
Miranda: Ugh.
*ksst*
~ Citadel Space ~
Yosuke Hanamura: The creepy cybernetic goth girl said Reapers! I heard it with my own ears! Chie heard it as well!
Chie Satonaka: Damn it why don't you all listen? It's obviously a warning!
Anderson: I no doubt want to believe you all and I do but-
Udina: I don't question where or not you two are telling the truth, but maybe you two are a bit traumatized from your near death experience. Like Shepard, we're obviously being fooled by Saren. He's trying to distract us.
Hanamura and Satonka: Bullshit!
Udina: ENOUGH!
*kkksst*
~ Covenant Phantom ~
Raven: We're almost to the Omega-4 relay… *rustling* Yes… I know… he is quite… amazing… I told you I was right. He is everything we thought he could be and more…
*Deep non-cohesive voices*
Raven: No, it does not seem the Turian can control himself anymore. Indoctrination is a thing of the past… Yes… I will not fail you… the one in the relic will be integral to our victory… I will not say a word…
*Feed begins to static, cutting off*
~ Feros: Prothean Skyway ~
(Minutes Later)
The Geth felt their targets' imminent destruction. They had their enemy pinned in a corner without their vehicle's main weapon and their battle calculations pointed to a .001% chance of a frontal assault. What they failed to realize was they were missing an element to the equation. A Spartan element.
The Colossus' Nova canon erupted in a crimson flash as its targeting computer reacted to a gray blur that darted across its sensors. The crimson beam took out an entire mass of the bridge's safety barrier about the diameter of the Mako itself in one blast. To the Geth army's surprise they noticed that the beam soared right through its target as if it were a ghost. They then notice that there was no heat detection coming from that blur…
A hologram.
Just then a few Geth Prime in the frontline shattered one by one, precisely aimed disruptor ammo shredding through their programming units, shields faltering before they could even react. Before the out of commission Geth fell, their killer had past them, a few Geth Jumpers experiencing full forced trauma in shattered skulls - complimentary of assault rifle alloy. The Colossus turned, taking its concentration to its newest threat, watching a Spartan making a b-line right at it. The team finally had their opening.
"I think we've got an equalizer Shepard." Garrus took aim, jumping up on top of the Mako, firing trigger happy to clear the way for a Spartan on a mission.
"I'll say." Ashley looked at the wake of Geth Noble Six was leaving in his path, taking the full brunt of the attention. She set up her sniper rifle with Garrus, the two marksmen beginning to lay down the cover fire.
"Liara hit them with it now!" Shepard commanded. With a nod the Asari's eyes glowed that glistening purple, energy running up her lean figure to her hands, suddenly a wave of biotic energy clearing the entire left side of oncoming Geth like a tidal wave. Shepard took this as her cue, rushing right behind it following Six's lead.
"Wrex!" Shepard downed a few with a toss of a grenade disk.
"RAARGH!" The Krogan crushed a unit with his head, shoving another Geth Prime upward with his shotgun, slamming it into the Mako and finishing it off brutally with a blast through its already crunched chest.
"Shepard, there are more arriving to protect the Colossus!" Liara shoved a few Geth Armature units away with a biotic push, sending it soaring off the bridge.
Shepard slid into cover, taking out yet a few more Geth before she hit the wall. "Don't mind them, keep pushing forward! We need to get into Exogeni now!"
"But Commander!" Ashley batted a jumper away as she stopped in her tracks. "I don't care how good we think Noble Six is. I really don't think he can handle that Colossus and those ground forces alone! That's suicide!"
"Mouths shut and keep moving!" Noble replied on the intercom, as lasers flashed around him. "I'm going to take them all out in one big blast! Get to safety!"
Ashley stood her ground, looking at Shepard shaking her head. There was no way in hell any soldier could take on a vehicle behemoth like a Colossus with a varied and numerous array of ground patrol units. This was a waste of the newest recruit. This was a waste of a potential difference maker. This was a waste.. of a young man's life...
"Trust him Lieutenant Williams. Please!" Liara pleaded, pulling her.
"You heard Noble, everyone keep your asses moving and that's an order!" Shepard made the decision with much needed haste.
"You're nuts..." Ash peaked over her shoulder a couple of times, making a dash towards the base. "You better know what you're doing…"
I hope I do too. Six thought as he grabbed a Geth Armature unit, pushing it in front of him so it was taking the blaster fire from its own colleagues. As the 'protection' was shredded like Swiss cheese it was obvious to Six that these machines considered each other disposable for their greater good.
They thought like machines, fearless but limited. This Spartan had them. Unlike the unpredictable Elite's he's dealt with, these things were too easy to telegraph. He had been analyzing every move of the Colossus as he completely dominated the ground forces protecting it. The Nova Cannon located on the hulking unit's back was powerful, but he knew it had to recharge every time it was fired.
For something with that much power and gathered energy, to cause it to malfunction…
"Come on big guy." Six ripped a hole through a Geth Prime, kicking it back, seeing that red energy from the Colossus begin to charge for an attack. The Spartan's shields were holding up just enough to wait.
Here's my chance!
Suddenly without warning the Spartan engaged his jetpack, launching himself upwards into the air about a hundred feet. The Geth armada attempted to fire upon him, the Colossus taking aim for one final blow. Six already anticipated this, suddenly offing his jet pack into a dive bomb, slamming into the back of the huge robotic beast in a falling roll. He clung on for the ride of his life.
"Let's see how you like this." Six reached for the knife against his chest, pulling it out as it glowed blue. Tali had installed a vibroblade mod to his trusty blade that already ended quite a few thousand Covenant lives. It was time for the Geth to get acquainted with it.
Like a vicious saw, he drove it into the bottom of the canon, watching as the armored Geth hide was shredding away. The Colossus attempted to buck but the Spartan would have none of it, pulling out grenades, staring at the crimson generator that powered the Nova Cannon. From a distance Shepard and her team made it to the base, finishing off strayed Geth, suddenly hearing an explosion of unfathomable power, a sonic jolt knocking them all back on their asses.
"UGH! Six!" Ashley gasped, trying to stand, staring at nothing but smoke.
It was a total dead zone and that was all that was left. The entire area of the sieged bridge was taken out, a gap of about a half-mile in distance forming. Crushed debris was pouring down the gap like a dirty waterfall, tons and tons of dust being spewed up into the air as if it was a mini-nuke that just went off.
"Come on, I know you're okay." Commander Shepard's breath slowed, clenching her fist in hope. The crew grew as silent as all Geth were taken out, the only things audible was collapsing concrete. Six was nowhere to be found.
Silence.
You idiot… Ashley slammed her gun against her thigh with much anger. This couldn't have happened. Six gone in the first battle. It wasn't time for him to go yet. They still had too much to do. They had too much at stake for a suicide mission. Losing one member was already one too many.
"H-hey!" A filtered voice yelped from the thickened debris cloud. The whole team's facial expressions pulled a complete turnaround at the sound of that voice.
"Noble Six!" Shepard rushed over to the cliff side, seeing a quite dirtied Spartan clinging onto the edge with one hand as the dust cleared. Those gloved fingers were dug tightly into that ledge of the skybridge remains, Noble Six hanging calmly as if it was just another day's work.
"Told you it'd be a big blast."
Ash scowled at him, crossing her arms in a fit. "You crazy bastard, you scared the hell out of us!"
"Sorry," Noble Six peaked over his shoulder to look at his slightly damaged jet pack. "... Can I get some help here?"
Wrex was all laughs coming over, grabbing the Spartan, lifting him up easier than Six even expected. "You really are a warrior kid! That was the most fun I had in ages!"
Shepard could only join in the good cheer. Watching that display she knew she had a weapon and a team member she could count on. This was a gamebreaker for the Alliance Fleet. They possibly had the most dangerous weapon known to Council Space. If not the craziest soldier she'd ever seen.
"You... um... always operate like this Spartan?"
"Only once in a blue moon Commander." Six plainly lied, being placed down by the Krogan with a bop on his helmet.
Garrus sighed in relief, looking at the bridge. "I think we're going to like having you on this team Noble."
"I told you all the visions I saw were quite accurate." Liara looked approvingly over at Six with her cute smile. Six only nodded back a little and relieved himself, understanding that the Asari was the only one who knew what and where he came from. It was comforting that at least one person wasn't surprised in the least bit of this exhibition of Spartan business.
"I am glad for this too... I guess..." Ashley groaned, "But between the Commander's daredevil stuff and now your insanity. I'm going to have a heart attack by the time this is all said and done!"
"Okay everyone, we got a mission to complete… no celebrating yet…" Shepard took lead as she patted Six on his helmet in appreciation.
Six took it with a nod. He was fitting in quite well.
~ Cerberus Base: Lower Level ~
Cerberus main HQ was a monument to human design. The underground base was the largest hidden complex in the human region of the Milky Way galaxy. So of course, the newest Ceberus recruit Jacob Taylor had little trouble finding the cafeteria.
"I got you paid for Jacob." Miranda waved to him from across the cafeteria, finally getting a bead on her.
Jacob smiled at his new workmate, pulling his Cerberus credit card away as he got his grub. He strolled over with his tray, about to sit down, only to blink at the sight in front of him.
"Come on, sit down!" She hurried him. "This is serious news that I haven't told anyone yet. The Illusive Man considers this a high priority. And I am going to tell the newest recruit… because honestly? You're the only one I can trust."
"… I'm listening." Jacob sighed looking down at his plain Jane meal. "If only to hear that accent of yours again."
Miranda typed with an annoyed eye roll. "Do you remember that ship the Illusive Man was so curious about? That the Alliance tried to keep under wraps?"
"Yeah, I think we all got debriefed on that." Jacob cut the salmon on his plate and ate. "Apparently the Alliance found some wicked super soldier that's scaring the lights out of our troops stationed on a few planets. What's his name..."
"Noble Six," Miranda read her little database pad. "An unstoppable force. A killing machine. A death dealer."
"Are you sure he's even human?" Jacob didn't believe it. "From what I've seen it doesn't look like it. Looks more like some machine that can't be killed. Some of our guys called the dude an immortal."
Miranda shook her head. "He is human. At least from what we know," she began to tap her fingers on the table in amusement. "... this Noble Six has really gotten the Illusive Man riled up. Our plans are in a huge upheaval. It was only Shepard at first..."
"Isn't this kind of old news Miranda?" Taylor began attacking his salad with larger bites now.
Miranda wondered if Cerberus was feeding their members proper… she had to ignore the hyena picking bones in front of him and stay on track.
"R-right. Let's get what you came here to hear." Miranda prepped, getting her colleague's attention. "I'm here to talk about newly found footage of the mysterious ship that appeared in the Titan Cluster."
"The ship Noble Six came from?"
"Yes, it recently got attacked by a group of Geth - Saren to be more specific," She detailed it word for word. "A few hours after the Normandy extracted Noble Six and another dead human. The Geth annihilated a small Alliance fleet with one triple the size just to seize it."
"Apparently that ship holds some significance to them too?"
"Makes sense," Miranda nibbled on her lip curiously. "Dead alien bodies confiscated, the ship mysteriously powering up on its own, traveling to a dead zone in Council Space…as if that wasn't mysterious enough?"
Jacob looked up with a mouth full.
"Also ... you remember that Teltin Facility on Pragia I was telling you about?" Miranda began typing again.
"Yeah, where Cerberus is experimenting on meta-biotic humans?" Jacob chewed.
"Yes," Informant Lawson went into her personal files. "I dug a little bit of info to confirm another base that was doing the same things."
"More special biotics?"
"There was a Cerberus facility on Trebin as well." Miranda was in deep thought. "It was such a short lived project but there was no way I could forget this place."
"Why the hush hush on this particular place?" Jacob blinked. Usually a base like that would be hard to go undetected. This was strange.
"... The reason the program isn't part of archived data because it failed miserably." Miranda stated. "It was attacked by Geth three weeks into experimentation for no apparent reason, everyone was assumed dead because no survivors were found."
"Assumed?" Taylor turned. "So there are survivors."
"Yes... " Miranda paused as if she was trying to make sense of things. "There was a young girl's face I could never forget when I was updating the database a month ago." Her eyes were wide in remembrance. "A young purple haired fourteen year old girl with a gift of biotics no human could ever dream of. Some say she was more powerful than Subject Zero at the Telfin Facility. She was classified top secret, even to me."
"Who was this dead girl?"
"Her name is Rachel and she's not dead." Miranda turned her computer, showing Jacob an image of a young purple haired and eyed girl half-smiling into a camera like it was a picture for school day. The other image beside it told another story however– it was the very same the girl killing Alliance members in the Phantom ship. The all pale skin, the black hood, those dead eyes, those crimson veins running across her defecated face… it was freaky to even think it was the same person.
"That school picture reminds me of my sister." Miranda frowned. "That's why I couldn't forget the face when I saw the footage of the Geth attack on Death Drop."
"So the Geth, took her..." Jacob stared eerily. "Why hasn't Illusive man freaked out yet?"
"Good question… probably because no one is supposed to know about her." Miranda mused. "The footage now? That girl looks similar to Saren with his upgrades and is more than alive. There's something going on here. There's a human working for Saren… actually three."
"… And you need me to help you get to the bottom of it right without making too much noise?" Jacob finished his meal timely.
"Exactly.. I'm too close to Illusive man to do much right now until we can confirm some things. You up for it, recruit?"
Jacob paused, keeping the one who recruited him to Cerberus chewing. "Hmm, I'm assuming there's going to be a crap ton of Geth and it's only going to be you and me… alone," Jacob's optimism in the mission slowly became brighter. "In the dark… probably really close… you waiting for me to save you…"
Miranda twitched.
"Then I save the day and we spend the night-"
"No."
"How about if we're about to die on the mission a peck on the cheek?"
"No."
"A hug?"
"No."
"… Fine… I'm in.."
Miranda smirked. "Thank you."
~ Omega 4 Relay: Phantom Ship ~
They have arrived.
Raven and her servants stood on the edge of space on the revived Phantom, staring still like scarecrows. A large semi-organic looking craft approached them at cruising speed. The cruiser was a giant, dwarfing many of the Geth ships that were patrolling around it. Like a flying monstrosity of technology and destruction, a Collector cruiser ship always demanded attention… or fear.
Raven paid them little respect for now. She knew she had them at their knees even though she had never seen one in her young life time. Her master Sovereign summoned these creatures from their void that they had been banished to, that was the only reason they were and could be here. The Collectors were here for the Reaper project.
Sovereign's change of plans.
"Prepare the bodies." Raven commanded her servants, the mute hooded beings piling up the grunts, jackals, Elite, and Brute.
The young Reaper-enhanced biotic began to breathe a little heavier as the armored leviathan craft engulfed the entire Phantom, taking the Phantom in its docking bay. Raven was taken back a bit feeling so small and vulnerable, still being a teenage human girl at heart after all. The dim, harrowing, insides of a Collector cruiser overwhelming even the coldest of warriors let alone some child.
It smelled of death in here.
A few pods open, demonic humanoid beings that towered over Raven walking over with no emotion or division, stepping in icy symmetry. They had no armor to say but you could say that their skin was their armor - droning weapons and servants to the Reapers.
"… T-take the relic to your world now." Raven commanded them a bit hesitant. Apparently still new to her commanding role.
The Collectors did not speak a word. Their Reaper masters wouldn't allow it, deathly staring at this strange girl with those empty evil glares they were given. The Reaper in Raven told her to stand her ground, glowering back, eyes glowing red like her master. Those eyes of Sovereign told the Collector's everything they needed to know.
The creatures slowly turned in compliance to their 'God', once again filing in a straight line, picking up the dead Covenant bodies over their shoulders, slowly emptying the Phantom.
This is the future… of humanity… Raven watched almost solemnly as the Collector's left, the coldness of the air thickening. The plan was beginning to shift. She turned to the depth of space where Sovereign laid in wait for his invasion of the Citadel.
"The delivery of the relic has been made Father. Now to bring you… Noble Six."