Scout Ship Normandy, Acrid Mothership, 190,000 km above Earth
The three Earthlings stood atop the Normandy, a repurposed acrid Scout Ship named, ostensibly, after the beginning of the end of the Second World War. All three were dressed similarly, and were near enough it height, that the easiest way to tell them apart would be their weapons and footwear. Of the two that wore armored boots, the slightly slimmer one was armed with a pair of submachine guns, both of them hanging from straps rather than in holsters of any sort. The other one in armored boots had a single submachine gun hanging on the left, and a battle rifle slung from the right. The third figure has a battle rifle in hand, and a grenade launcher in a holster over the right shoulder.
"Normandy, this is Dreamland, the shields are down, repeat, the shields are down," came the voice of Major Mitchell over the radio, or rather, the magically linked communications system that had replaced the radio in each face mask the three wore.
"Roger Dreamland, confirm shields are down. Commencing secondary objective," said Captain Hiller, holding his rifle in hand. He then tapped a button on the side of his face mask, switching the communications to just between the three of them. "Let's do this."
"You sure you're comfortable with this?" asked Shepard, pulling a wand from seemingly nowhere and drawing his SMG. "I mean, it's going to get a little hot and heavy down there."
"Jimmy," began Hiller, before pausing, "May I call you Jimmy?"
"Seems everyone else does, so why not you?" Shepard replied sarcastically.
"Well, Jimmy, of the three of us, I'm the only one with combat training. I may be a pilot, but every Marine's a Rifleman," Hiller replied.
"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure you've never faced three to two billion odds," said Shepard.
"Two … billion?" stuttered Hiller.
"Well, it's probably closer to a few million, tops," said Winona, readying her own SMG, as well as summoning a wand from the Demesne. "Plus, if they're anything like humans, we're only going to have to, at most, decimate them before we get a surrender."
"So only a few hundred thousand," said Hiller with a chuckle. "And you two planned to do this on your own?"
"Well …" said Shepard, walking over to the edge of the Normandy. He looked down, the assembled acrid troops barely visible in the haze over a kilometer below. He then looked back to Hiller and Winona, "It wasn't just going to be the two of us, and it's wasn't exactly a plan."
"Wasn't the two of … wasn't a plan?" asked Hiller, confused. "Who were you planning on bringing?"
"Well, officially, the newest battalion of the New York Guard," said Winona. "Though, really, pretty much any of our forces we thought would be valuable."
"Forces?" asked Hiller. "The New York Guard? Wait, you're talking about those guys that helped evacuate Manhattan? How were you planning on bringing them?"
Shepard absently waved his wand, and a trio of black clad soldiers in body armor, traditional body armor not the fancy stuff the three of them were wearing, and armed with battle rifles, SMGs, and grenades launchers, appeared on the other side of the Normandy, docked as it was to the massive stalactite that dominated the center of the Mothership.
"Who the fuck are they? And how the fuck did they get here?" asked HIller, taking a step back, though he stopped before getting too close to the edge.
"Members of the New York Guard, and magic, respectively," replied Winona. "They are the most traditional soldiers were have at our disposal, and since technically Governor Pataki allowed all of the soldiers in the employ of Cerberus to join the Guard, even those no deployed to Manhattan, all of our soldiers will be Guard members."
"And who, or what, are they?" asked Hiller, noticing the way the soldiers stood stock still, as if posed.
"They're ghouls, a bit like zombies only without the decaying flesh, the hunger for brains, or the lack of the same. They're smart, deadly, and loyal, plus, they're immune to pain," explained Shepard.
"So, we're fighting an alien invasion with an undead horde?" asked HIller. He then shrugged, "Why not? It's not like anyone I told would believe me anyway." He turned to Winona, "But, just so we're on the same page, if one of those undead freaks even looks at me sideways, it's getting a three-round burst to the head."
"Noted," said Winona. She then turned to the ghoul soldiers, "Stay here, guard the ship."
"Now, everyone remember where we parked," said Shepard. He then smirked, and took a step backwards, falling off the edge of the Normandy. Hiller rushed over, before being stopped by Winona, and just caught sight of Shepard turning into a cloud of smoke and then flying down to the assembled acrid soldiers. He couldn't quite make out what happened, except by seeing a burst of red light and then the acrids in a small circle fall over.
"How the … ?" asked Hiller.
"I assumed you're rather like a more civilized journey?" asked Winona.
"I'm tempted to head back inside, except for the ghoul squad over there," said Hiller, pointing to the still stationary ghoul soldiers.
"Well, let's go, can't let my brother have all the fun, now can we?" asked Winona, looping her right arm, holding the wand, through Hiller's left, and then pulling him tight.
Hiller would later describe the sensation of his first side-along apparation as being sucked through a straw sideways while spinning like a top.
Winona and HIller joined Shepard in the clearing, the wizard casting spells with his right hand, while shooting his SMG with his right. Winona, even before Hiller decided that puking into his face mask was a bad idea, nearly as bad as deciding to accompany the two mages up to the Mothership had been, sent a burst of red glowing shots from her SMG, dropping an acrid soldier that was charging.
Hiller quickly extricated his arm from around Winona's, dropped to one knee, and began laying down shots his his rifle, bursts of duplicated depleted uranium rounds shattering acrid heads. He quickly switched to auto-fire and stun rounds when the acrids got too close, "You know, this rifle's not that bad, but it sure would be nice if it had some grenades."
"Noted," said Winona, as she send a spell that slashed through a trio of acrids, sending a burst of silvery blood across the space. Luckily the face plates were charmed such that, not only did fog not accumulate on the inside, but various ichors didn't accumulate on the outside either.
"Okay, bringing in some heavies," said Shepard, as she paused his firing. Winona turned to cover the gap left, but only temporarily, as four giants suddenly appeared surrounding the trio of Earthlings.
They stood about seven meters tall, and had proportions roughly that of some Marines that Hiller had known, if only by reputation. They wore that same style of outfits that the ghouls above had worn, boots, trousers, jacket, balaclava, and body armor and helmet over them, all in black with the copper and silver Cerberus logo and the blue flag of New York the only color. Instead of the rifle, SMG, and grenade launcher the ghouls at the Normandy were armed with, Hiller could only describe the weapon the giant ghouls wielded as a cannon, looking not unlike the Vulcan of his Hornet, or the Avenger of the Warthog. Then, they began to attack, and as the sound made its way though his ear protection, he knew his guess was right.
The giant ghouls, or rather ghoul giants, began to slowly walk forward, clearing their area even more, as the acrids began to waver, and then retreat. Unfortunately they retreated into the mass of their own invasion force, and were stalled, becoming a wall of dead bodies.
"Holy shit," said Hiller, as he paused in firing, watching the walking talks, and their cannons, tear through the acrids like a chainsaw through butter.
"We've got Attackers," said Winona, ducking as a squadron of Attackers, over twenty of the sleek craft, began to counter the ghoul giants.
"I've got them," said Shepard, and then two of the ghoul giants lifted their cannons from the mass of soldiers before them, and then upon the Attackers.
Hiller smiled, seeing the Attackers explode as the line of hot depleted uranium cut through them, their shields still down due to the virus. "Well, let's not let them have all the fun," he said, as he stood and began to jog after the advancing ghoul giants, his shots transitioning from frantic attacks to mercy kills.
Over the next half hour, and joined by a company of human-sized ghouls, the three Earthlings cleared the invasion assembly platform, even going so far as to destroy all but one of the waiting Troop Transports. Among the dead acrids were two of the ghoul giants, their heads destroyed by shots from the Attackers, and over a dozen of the small ghouls, from both the Attackers and attacks from the acrids themselves.
When Hiller had asked why one of the Troop Transports was saved, Winona had responded, "To bring the aliens to Earth to surrender, of course."