I'm not dead! So I realized I've been neglecting this story for too long and I've put my other story on hiatus to work on this one (the fact that I have writer's block for that fic didn't influence my decision at all I swear!). Anyway the next chapter is going to be the end of the Shanxi arc and after that it'll be open season on the council races.
"It may be necessary to accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good."-Margaret Mead
Affinity Alliance space-Shanxi
"Are these xenos really the mythical Protheans we've been worrying about for all these years? If they're all as incompetent as this then the Legion won't even need the Collective or Pact to deal with them," frowned Gabriel as she observed the numerous ships surrounding her as the infiltration craft snuck through the blockade around the planet.
"True but keep in mind we haven't seen them in combat yet and they just might not have a very effective espionage division. They did manage to take down the Pact's scouting team after all so they at least know their way around space combat," replied her partner from the seat next to her.
"True," conceded Gabriel with a nod to her companion
The Inquisitor then frowned as they entered Shanxi's orbit and their infiltration vehicle shuddered as it encountered turbulence from the planet's atmosphere. To any observers that happened to look up at that moment all they would have seen a strange distortion in the sky as the duo's shuttle landed silently. Unstrapping herself from the pilot seat she turned to her partner whom did the same before they both donned skintight armour.
"I hate these damn stealth armours. Give me my thick battle suit, at least that an actually take some punishment unlike this piece of crap," grumbled the Inquisitor.
"This is a stealth mission and marching in with Crusader armour is not the ideal means to infiltrate a city," replied her partner, crisply.
"I don't see why our Lord sought the need to have you accompany me. I can do this job by myself with my eyes closed, there is no need for you to even be here," scoffed Gabriel as she prepped her weapons.
Her partner just shrugged, "who knows? Maybe the High Lord Inquisitor has doubt about your abilities… or your loyalty? Not surprising since you were nothing more than a street rat before he picked you up, we'd be fools to trust you with a missi-"
She never finished her sentence as Gabriel's hands clamped around her throat, both glowing a biotic blue as she lifted up her partner off the ground. Gabriel brought her companion up to her Caucasian face and saw her partner flinch under her gaze before turning blue from a lack of oxygen.
"Let me get something straight Miranda," snarled Gabriel. "I could take these insults about my skills; after all it's only natural for a weakling like you to be jealous. However, if you ever question my loyalty and devotion to our Lord again. Then I will see to it you and your dear sister are labelled heretics and hunted down as the dogs you are! Do I make myself clear?!"
Miranda just nodded and gasped as the hands around her throat disappeared, her face returning to its normal natural hue as oxygen returned to her. As Gabriel turned away from her, Miranda saw the incriminating mark burned onto her companion's hand, making the devotee's blood boil. Burned on Gabriel's hand was a skull with a H embedded on its forehead and below the skull the words haereticus were written.
Once she was sure Gabriel was out of hearing range Miranda scowled, "why would our Lord chose to help the child of heretics? And induct them into Cerberus of all places?"
As she grabbed her weapons Miranda's scowl deepened before a cold smile spread across her face, "once a heretic always a heretic. Make one wrong move Gabriel and I will be ready to send you to whatever hell your parents are in. The glory would be immense; I would become his top agent, an instrument of his will, after all how many other Inquisitors can say they've killed the daughter of the 'Heroes of Elysium.'"
Walking out of their infiltration ship Miranda saw Gabriel looking through her scope at something in the distance. Joining her at the edge of their landing site Miranda pulled out her rifle to see what had caught her companion's attention and saw a crashed xenos transport of some kind. It must have belonged to the xenos attacking Shanxi since it clearly wasn't a Supremacy ship of any kind that she recognized.
"Let's go," ordered Gabriel as she headed towards the grounded xeno's ship.
"Our orders are to infiltrate Shanxi's capital not study xenos," argued Miranda.
"And we shall," replied Gabriel before pointing in the distance.
Frowning Miranda followed her direction with her scope and immediately saw a rapidly approaching Supremacy Redeemer heading towards the crash site. Blinking in surprise she nodded to her companion and they both headed to the crash site, their forms becoming indistinguishable from their environments as their cloaking field activated.
Numlius groaned as he groggily got to his feet and coughed as smoke entered his lungs, 'wait, smoke?' The Turian paused as memories of the past few hours caught up to him and immediately he began panicking as he spotted Tiso lying motionless next to him. Rushing over to his teammate Numlius breathed a sigh of relief as he saw his friend's chest rising and lowering in a slow rhythmic movement.
Throwing Tiso over his shoulder Numlius sent a warp at the bent door and grinned, as it swung open before he exited the burning wreck. Laying his friend on the ground Numlius looked back to the crashed ship and groaned as he ran back in and headed for the cockpit, the smoke now completely engulfing the inside of the wreck.
By the time he finally found the pilot, Numlius was feeling weak and light headed as he dragged his fellow Turian out of the smoking ship. Once he was out Numlius simply collapsed to the ground in exhaustion and had to fight to keep himself conscious, only now beginning to notice the numerous wounds on his body.
Hearing an odd noise getting louder the Turian forced himself to his feet and dragged his two fellow Turians behind cover before hiding himself as an unfortunately familiar shape rapidly began growing in the distance. The Cabal just sighed as he drew his pistol and activated his omni-blade, having lost all his other weapons in the mad rush to the gunship or in the crash itself, and prayed to the Spirits that they weren't heading his way.
Unfortunately, the recognizable shape of one synthetic's hover cars only grew larger, making it quite clear that it was heading towards the crashed. 'Of course they are, damn synthetics won't stop until they wipe out all organic races,' cursed the Turian as the hover car came to stop in front of the crashed gunship.
Numlius watched with fascination as the back of the hover car opened up and turned into a ramp as four Asari like synthetics emerge from with it before heading over to the crash. 'Odd are they some kind of drones? Workers or salvagers maybe? They don't appear to be as heavily armed or armoured but there's something about them that doesn't seem right,' frowned the Cabal.
As he observed them examining and searching the wreck Numlius realized exactly what it was about these types of synthetics that seemed wrong, it was the way they moved. Every synthetic whether they were simply a mech or a Geth platform had the same kind of stiff robotic movement, even the battle models that this group had sent against him still had this trait. So why didn't these ones? Their movements were simply too fluid, too imperfect, too organic, to be a regular synthetic.
The Turian couldn't ponder this for much longer as he felt something placing a hand on his back, eyes widening the Cabal member slowly turned around only to see…nothing. Numlius frowned he was sure he had felt something touching his back, even his instincts were screaming that he was being watched. Giving his surroundings one last glance he turned his attention back to the odd synthetics and the moment he did he clearly felt something push him from his hiding spot and sending the Cabal stumbling to the ground.
Cursing himself for not trusting his instincts, he quickly pushed himself up from the ground as the four Asari synthetics noticed him and surrounded the Cabal. They all leveled their orange glowing weapons at him while Numlius did the same with his pistol and omni-tool. Remembering his previous encounter with the synthetics, he sent a warp into one of his opponent only to curse as he saw it be knocked back with a dent in its armour before getting back to its feet.
'Biotics aren't as effective against these ones. Guess I'll settle this the old fashioned way,' thought Numlius as he fired his pistol at the damaged synthetic only to gasp as the rounds bounced off a familiar shield. 'They have kinetic barriers! But why? The other combat models didn't yet these types that aren't even built for combat do,' he raged as he dodged the orange lasers fired in retaliation.
Having no other option the Cabal growled as he Biotically charged the damaged one, knocking it to ground again and denting its armour further before he stabbed the omni-blade into its chest, hoping he pieced its power core. He smiled as the synthetic stopped moving before a worryingly familiar red liquid began pouring out of its chest.
Before he could react Numlius heard the other three synthetics cry out in what almost seemed to be rage as the opened fire again. This time the Turian wasn't fast enough to dodge all of the lasers and cried out as he was hit in the leg, tumbling to the ground. Instantly the three synthetics were on top of him as one of the pulled out what looked like an advanced Taser that was sometimes used by C-Sec.
Realizing what was about to happen Numlius struggled to escape his captor's grasp, reactivated his omni-blade, and slashed at one of the synthetic's head. The one hit gave a very non-synthetic cry of pain as it let go, allowing Numlius to stab the other in the head as it went limp.
Getting up from the ground he turned, ready to kill the damaged synthetic only to freeze as he saw it grasp its head. It then shocked Numlius again as it took off what he now realized was a helmet, to reveal a heavily augmented and damaged face but none the less quite clearly not a synthetic one.
"You're organics?" he muttered in shock.
Suddenly intense pain flooded his body as ever nerve felt like they were tearing themselves apart before Numlius caught a glimpse of the Taser sticking into his exposed neck and everything went dark.
From the nearby cover two invisible spectators watched as the two remaining Pact Apostles collected the bodies of their two comrades before tying up the three xenos and placing in the back of the Redeemer.
"Was that really necessary? The Xeno was going to be discovered anyway," sighed Miranda.
"True but if he managed to ambush those Apostles then we would have lost our ride into the capital. That aside it looks like you were right about them. That Xeno fought pretty well despite being wounded and caught by surprise," explained Gabriel.
"Any animal will fight like that when it has been back into a corner," scoffed her partner, clearly unimpressed.
"True, well shall we hitch a ride?" laughed Gabriel.
The two of them quietly snuck into the Redeemer as the ramp began closing, checking to make sure the two Apostles were preoccupied with the controls they Biotically lifted each other until they touched the vehicle roof. Grabbing onto any handholds they could find to entangled themselves with they settled in for the trip back, using the occasionally Lift when their arms needed a rest.
As the Redeemer finally came to a stop the two surviving Apostles opened the hatch and dragged the unconscious xenos out before doing the same to their companion's bodies. After that the ramp shut behind them and the Cerberus agents dropped down to the floor.
"Well looks like this is our stop," remarked the Inquisitor.
Miranda nodded before she activated her omni-tool, "according to the data from the Lord Inquisitor the Shanxi gate should be hidden beneath the main compound."
"Good it's time to start this war off with a bang," smirked Gabriel as they both disappeared into the shadows.
Purity Homeworld-Keplar
High Lord Inquisitor and leader of the Cerberus forces Jack Harper was considered an odd man in the Purity Legion, seconded only to the High Priestess herself, his word was law and undeniable. Nevertheless, despite this he had a reputation for unorthodox decisions and methods that had made him hated by both heretics and Church officials alike.
His pardoning and accepting of a heretic into his organization as merely the tip of the iceberg and not just any heretic but the child of the 'Heroes of Elysium' themselves. The two that lead the most successful rebellion in the Legion's history, even managing to convince numerous other worlds to join them.
Secretly the Legion enjoy a minor revolt every now and then, it kept the troops sharp and the Church feared and so at first they didn't pay it much interest. This soon proved to be more dangerous than the Church officials had expected as this small revolt turned into a full-blown rebellion, it was organized, it was well equipped and it was growing.
As they finally began realizing the potential danger to them, especially if the other factions of the Affinity Alliance found out, the Church ordered Harper to quell it immediately. He was given the third and fifth fleet to accomplish the task, less than half of what the rebels had commandeered by this stage.
It was a suicide mission and everyone knew it, a delaying tactic until the real force could be mobilized, it should have been over in a matter of months and it was, with the rebels defeat. Much to the shock of the entire Legion, Harper managed to defeat his opponents repeatedly through his cunning and unorthodox tactics and his newly minted Cerberus commandos.
If there was a certain rebel leader that was proven to be an annoyance then he was found dead the next day, if a building needed to be taken down before the main assault then it was done, if a ship was too valuable to destroy it was captured. Time and again his new Cerberus commandos proved their worth to the point that even mentioning they were in the area was often enough to get rebels to surrender.
One the final battle on Elysium though the Cerberus commandos finally met their match in the form of two former Enforcers, the 'Heroes of Elysium.' After months of failing to take the last rebel held stronghold Harper had had enough and sent in Cerberus. They were tasked with detonating the Thorium Reactor destroying the last rebel stronghold and killing millions. They didn't even make into the city before they were killed by the rebellion scions, the 'Heroes of Elysium.'
Impressed with them Harper offered to protect them from the Church's wraith if they would renounce the rebels, much to the shock of the Church who tried to convince him otherwise. The two disagreed and they were about to go back to fighting when Harper made another offer that was much simpler. Turn themselves in and he wouldn't bombard the city from orbit.
It didn't take long for them to agree and so the 'Heroes of Elysium' were 'tried' and executed, without their leaders the rebellion devolved into scattered pockets of resistance. In recognition of his actions, Harper was given the rank High Lord Inquisitor and his Cerberus organization was made the official special forces of the Church and tasked with hunting down the remnants of the rebellion and other heretics.
To this day no one can figure out just where the rebels got their hands on that much equipment or how they were able to be so organized. All that is agreed upon was that this was when Jack Harper gained absolute control of the Legion.
'And yet despite my position even I can't avoid politics, how tiresome,' sighed Harper as he removed the cigar from his mouth and watched representative Udina in front of him.
"Don't worry Udina I've sent two of my Cerberus Inquisitors, they'll see your mission done. Although I must say I do not believe this is a good idea," he reassured him.
"Why? This way those Pact monstrosities won't try to restrain us when we go on the offensive, after all don't forget what those filthy Protheans did to our race," replied Udina.
"I agree and I can't wait to lead the 9th Crusade against these Xeno scum, this day has a long time coming," replied Harper as a predatory grin spread across his face, only for it to drop quickly as he glared the politician.
"However, I didn't need this mission in order to do that. The Pact would have acted horrified at our actions but in reality they wouldn't care since they were attacked first. Which is why I am against this plan, it weakens the Pact's forces too much, which we might need in the upcoming wars, plus Shanxi was a good staging ground for our invasion. Not to mention, if they ever find out about this then we will likely have to fight a civil war against both the Collective and the Pact," replied Harper coldly.
"That sounds like the talk of a heretic and heathen Harper, I would advise you watch your tongue," growled Udina as a hint a fanaticism began seeping through his politician's mask.
Harper growled as his armoured form stood up and dwarfed over the politician, a Biotic blue aura surrounding him as numerous objects began lifting off the ground, including Udina himself. "DO NOT INSULT MY LOYALTY BOY!" he roared.
Udina soon found himself staring into the eyes of the Lord Inquisitor and head to stop himself from ruining his suit, "I hate those monsters and Xeno loving scum just as much as you. However, unlike most of the Church, I realize the need for them!" he spat as he dropped the politician.
"Humanity is a great race and the Purity Legion is the embodiment of that greatness, and I intend to see to it that this great Empire thrives for thousands of years after my death. Even if that means we must ally with heretics, heathens and even xenos if necessary," replied Harper calming down slightly as he walked over to the collapsed Udina.
"That is what Cerberus is Udina, we dabble in heresies and the heretical, we are the necessary evil to ensure our survival. The Reapers are coming Udina and we're not ready, Shanxi is proof of that and yet despite this you think the best method is to weaken our allies' strength," he growled as looked down on the politician below him.
"There is nothing you can do, this order came from the High Priestess herself," replied Udina in a hurry.
"Oh I'm aware, however that little girl is far too innocent and not nearly clever enough to think up a plan like this," nodded Harper before he picked Udina by the throat. "So tell me Udina who put her up to this?"
The politician couldn't look away as Harper gave a predator grin, "because it looks like it's time for Cerberus to clean house again."
Codex:
Cerberus: Not much is known about Cerberus even within the Affinity Alliance as the Purity Legion is very protective of that information. What is known is that they serve as both the Church's elite commandos as well as inquisitors and are under the direct command of High Lord Inquisitor Jack Harper.
High Lord Inquisitor: One of the highest rankings in the Purity Legion and below only the High Priest/Priestess themselves. Due to the High Priest/Priestess' isolation from the public this position is often considered to be the most influential in the Legion.
High Priest/Priestess: The position of the highest authority in the Purity Legion, their word is law and without question. The location and identity of the current one are known to only a few high Church officials.
Enforcers: The collective name given to all factions of the Purity Legion's military who have disgraced themselves in some way and were delegated to mere law enforcement. This disgrace can be as minor as low scores upon graduating military academies or even as major as suspected heresy. It is possible for Enforcer to eventually join the proper military provide they should the require skill and are deemed clean of heretical thoughts.
Okay so why did I write Harper like this? Because in the games he does want the best for humanity and is willing to do whatever it takes and what methods he can to achieve this. So I just thought how this mind set would evolve in a fanatical cult like setting. He's actually really fun to write now that I think about it.
There is a poll on my profile to see which faction you'd want to see fight first so be sure to go over and vote one what you want.