Chapter 15: Pacem.
A/N: Last chapter, a little longer for all of you.
More at the bottom
"The life of a warrior,
Known by few, respected by all."
-Unknown soldier
August 30, 2158: Peace is formally declared between the Turian Hierarchy and the pact.
September 5, 2158: Pact troops began to leave Palaven.
September 7, 2158: The Citadel relays are opened, the same happening with the Turian home system relay, when this is noticed the Turian fleet jumps back into home. However, Pact's relays are still closed.
September 10, 2158: The council expels the Turians from the council of the Citadel. The list of reasons is sufficiently long and valid to silence any complaint. They membership is now degraded to client race.
September 13, 2158: The treaty of Farixen is reworked, the final result being 5:3:1, with the Asari at the front, followed by the Salarians and the Turians.
September 26, 2158: In a sign of hope the Council sends a message to the pact territory hoping for it to arrive, the message being: 'We're waiting'. Surprisingly the response is almost instantaneous. 'You will continue to do so.'
September 30, 2158: The Turian casualty count of the Pact-Turian war is complete on Palaven, officially being 9,246,451 million people. Most of them civilians.
October 14, 2158: After weeks of silence the unique human battleship appears on the citadel, without saying a word more than necessary the ship leaves millions of credits worth in resources to the rebuilding effort on Palaven.
October 26, 2158: The Shanxi relay is opened after weeks of inner discussion in the Pact, for now the admission of aliens' ships is still denied.
November 16, 2158: The first council merchant ship arrives on Shanxi and completes the first trade of goods under heavy allied presence.
Mars, O'Connor's apartment.
Alex silently rested his head on Nadia's shoulder as she looked to the sunset through the polarized window of the apartment.
"You ok, babe?" He softly asked while embracing her around her stomach.
"Yeah." She replied softly too, putting her hands above his and embracing him around his waist with her tail. "Why you ask?" She leaned a little on him.
"I don't know." He kissed her slightly on the cheek. "I noticed that you looked a little worried lately." He kissed her again, more softly this time. "I'm worried babe, talk to me. What's happening?" She turned around and embraced him around the neck, her tail left his waist and moved between her legs to embrace him around his left knee, and his hands were now firmly placed on her lower back.
"Yesterday I went to the medic-,"
"Please don't tell me you're sick." He asked in a hurry. "Oh shit, it's bad, no?" He spurted rapidly. "It'd have to be bad-"
"Alex." She tried.
"If not, why would you go to the medic, you hate hospitals." He continued, even more worried. "But, no, it can be only a cold-."
"Alex." She tried again with a more tired voice.
"But what if it isn't a col-." Nadia finally got bored of his worried babbling and kissed him to shut him up.
"Alex, I'm fine." She said when they parted. "I'm not sick; I went to the doctor because my mom told me that she felt something weird about my pheromones."
"And what is it?" He asked calmer.
"I'm-I'm." She looked to the ground, trying to come to a way to say it. After a few seconds she looked up again, her purplish blue eyes making contact with his dark brown ones trying to convey all the love she could with them. "I'm pregnant." He didn't moved, he didn't spoke, he almost forgot how to breath, how to blink. While she stood there, waiting for the worst, denial. Rage. shouts.
Things that didn't come.
With a laugh he tightened his grip around her lower back before raising her and beginning to spin around the room laughing maniacally.
"Alex!" She shouted surprised, grabbing him by the arms with a death grip, her tail moving to his waist again. "Alex, put me down!" She shouted again, feeling a little dizzy, he finally lowered her to the ground, with one of the biggest grin that she had ever seen on her life. once her feet made contact with earth he grabbed her by the sides of her head and kissed her deeply, at first she didn't returned the kiss, but after three seconds she finally surrendered to her lifemate. two or three minutes later they finally parted for air, though their foreheads still remained connected.
"You're not angry?" She asked, loosening her grip on his waist.
"Angry?" He replied. "Babe, please tell me a reason why I would be angry with you?" She opened her mouth, but he kissed her again to shut her up. "Nadia, the only reason of why I could be angry with you if we couldn't give this baby a safe home." He gently stroked the place where her womb was. "But we have enough money for her to have a good childhood." He noticed a few tears running down her cheeks.
"I'm so happy." She whispered before he could ask. "I'm so happy to being able to carry your child." She whispered as more tears fall, he closed the distance between them, their noses barely touching each other. "I love you so much." He whispered with a smile.
"I love you too." He replied before kissing her.
November 17, 2158: Extranet access is now available on Shanxi's capital; plans for expansion are cancelled due to the low interest of the pact races. Asari, Volus (built reluctantly by the Pact, with the simple condition that no diplomat was allowed to leave the premises unless if it's under heavy allied escort) and Salarian embassies are finished. On a lesser side note the first talks to authorize civilian travel between the two governments takes place. But after a leak to the media apparently the talks are completely one sided, given that most of the Pact population (98.4%, as stated on a poll made a few days ago) would not voluntarily leave allied territory, either by fear to be taken into slavery or by the racial incidents that they will most likely suffer.
November 18, 2158: The first exchange of prisoners is done, also all the Pact technology in Turian power is returned.
November 20, 2158: The Pact officially changes its name to The Alliance of the United Races, or AUR for short.
December 18, 2158: The Phantom corp is created; the objective of this elite unit is the active counterintelligence and the gather of sensitive intelligence behind enemy lines. The Phantom corp is a multi-species program created on the AUR, so now the Human's ghosts are no longer required for the intelligence department.
December 20, 2158: A message large enough to be seen from beyond orbit appears carved with a laser in Menae; the first glances are directed to the AUR. A couple of hours after the 'attack' the AUR leaders make a public message condemning the action and promising to find those responsible for this attack and bring them to justice. The message being as follows:
'Do not fuck with us damn birds'
December 24, 2158: With an overwhelming attack the UTC put end for a try of Eclipse to settle down an operations base on Shanxi, the few survivors of the attack are executed publicly to make an example to future operations of this kind.
December 25, 2158: The AUR's R&D program to replace the now considered obsolete MK armor finally comes to fruition, with the first functioning prototype of the recently named TALOS (Tactical Light Operational Suit) armor is revealed to the public.
June 31, 2159: The Council finally stops their tries to establish an investigation agreement with the AUR, on a side note those responsible for the vandalization of Menae are captured and spaced.
Somewhere.
"Command, do you copy?" Static was his answer. "Command, here operative XSG-032, do you copy?"
"We're here 032, we had a little of static over here because some idiot-" He heard a few shouts on the other side of the line. "-threw coffee on one of our consoles. Anyway, what's your report?"
"Is affirmative." More static.
"032...we have a little of static over here, repeat please."
"Is affirmative, right now I have visual confirmation of UTC and SRM technology on Turian hands."
"Goddammit, I don't know why we trusted they would return everything-"
"Orders, sir?" Interrupted the operative.
"Yeah, right. How many personal do you see on the room where the tech is?"
"Something near to twenty, from what I can see here the guards are on other room. I believe that there will be more personnel and tech on other rooms."
"Ok, your orders are to activate the purge on the weapons and armors; we're just going to left empty carcass."
"And the bright protocol, sir?" Asked the operative while eyeing the turians below him.
"The most probable thing is that they have already found the systems for the bright protocol. If not, your orders are to activate it."
"Understood, sir. Anything else?"
"Negative." A small pause. "May the Motherland protect your soul, 032."
"Because she's the only one with the right to do so." He finished the small prayer to the motherland, he took out the small transmitter of his ear and crushed it between his index and thumb. He began to move along the roof being careful to not make any sound, when he was in top of the tech; he activated the sound dampeners and waited. Fifteen minutes later a loud klaxon was heard, most of the personnel looked at each other before nodding. Once the last engineer left the room the people of the room lowered to 5 heavily armed guards, he separated his hands and knees from the wall, hanging only on the plant of his feet, with a swift motion he deactivated the sticky component of his armor and rolled before impacting on the floor.
An action that became natural after months of training on hell, better known as Zelek, the most dangerous rainforest on Manifus. He tiptoed to the a piece of MK armor that was inside a hermetic glass box, he touched the red holographic interface of the box, the omni-tool's hacking program activated on the background, his fingers began to dance onto the subroutines programs of the interface. With a silent hiss the glass separated from the rest of the box, he moved the glass and grabbed the armor; he activated the subroutines of the armor and scrolled down the program list. After a few minutes he finally found what he wanted.
'Ok, ok... oh, fuck.' He left the armor where it was, closed the box and deleted his movements on the subroutines of it, he moved to another piece of armor, finding the same. 'Ok, so they found them. Bright protocol is out of the question then.' He jumped back to the roof and began to move to other rooms. As he passed he read several terminals, being more amazed and angry with everyone he read, finally he arrived to what he supposed was the main room. What he found left him speechless.
'That's a fucking drive core!' He thought amazed, he dropped to the ground and approached the drive core that was suspended in what he supposed was a eezo powered containment field, after reading the terminal he grabbed the emergency transmission and began to record a message.
"Here operative XSG-032, recording from a top secret laboratory located on Palaven," he cleared his throat. "I was deployed here to investigate the possible retention of AUR's technology by the Turian hierarchy. Is true. From what I could gather here there were several attempts to reverse engineer our technology, with almost non-existent success on the warp drive core -yes, they obtained a fucking warp drive core- or the MK armor, and with low success on the UTC's and SRM's weaponry. But's that not the worst part, from what Intel I could get from the terminals there is connections with asari high command and the salarian STG, my conclusion is that they're afraid of us. They're trying to copy or find weakness on our weapons, armor and FTL travel mode. Since I already used all of my one time communicators this will be transmitted in the moment my suit stop detecting life functions." he paused the recording and talked to his AI.
"Christopher, can you hear me?"
"Yes, sir." He heard the AI reply on his mind. "There's something you need?"
"Yeah, I would like to ask you a favor. Can you please upload yourself and delete all the data on this base please?"
"With pleasure. But sir, I detect some minor distress in your voice, what's wrong?"
"Is because i want to ask you to upload yourself to the extranet and delete everything you can on the Salarian and asari military networks, and that's practically a suicide mission."
"I will do, sir." Replied the AI without hesitation.
"Are you su-."
"I'm sir; I will happily die knowing I did it to protect my fellow AIs and humans."
"Ok, it was a pleasure working with you Christopher."
"Sir?"
"Even if we delete all the data here they still have our armors, that's unacceptable, and the bright protocol is not an option."
"Sir?" asked the AI again.
"I...I will overload this drive core."
"Si-."
"I'm not going to discuss with you! Do it, now." After these words he felt how Christopher presence left his brain, five seconds later a message automatically started on his earpiece. 'It was a pleasure too, sir. Goodbye,' He smiled and approached the interface, activating the self-destruct routines and settling it on thirty seconds, he activated the recording again and grabbed his pistol. "I did it, I found a way of destroy every bit of data they have on our technology. Since the only way I found to deliver this message is by my death I will have to take drastic measures for the message to not be destroyed alongside me-." He cocked the pistol when the timer reached the 10 seconds. "-My name is Karak-." The counter reached seven seconds; he put the pistol at the side of his head. "-Remember me." He pressed the trigger.
July 27, 2159: After the discovery of the retention of AUR's technology by the Turian Hierarchy and the subsequent support of the citadel council for the investigation, the AUR completely cut any kind of ties with them. On the first twelve hours all the diplomatic personnel on Shanxi is kicked out of the system with the embassies being closed until further notice. On the following twelve hours inbound relay traffic is stopped, once the last council merchant ship leaves the system the relay is closed. Also when C-seg officers arrive to the AUR's embassy on the citadel they only find an empty room, with the diplomats and guards having disappeared mysteriously.
Nos Astra's slums, Illium.
Lienth S'Jak walked down the streets of the 'slums' of Illium; the name was mostly given by the people who lived on the higher wards. Given the expensive of a room in the buildings the people who lived at ground level was considered poor, but in reality the place could be compared to some pleasant middle class neighborhoods on other Asari planets, the soft hum of actual wheeled vehicles made her mind wander of the most concerning matters at hand to think about of how funny it was that on this places vehicles with wheels still existed. Given of how sparse eezo was, Sky-cars tend to be very expensive to these people. With a shake of her head her expression changed again to one of worry, taking out her left hand from the pocket of her jacket she read the paper note again, the message was very simple.
'They discovered us. To everyone.'
She stored the note again, thinking about the repercussions that this could bring to the galaxy, to her colleagues, or to her. In the moment she read the note she immediately regretted accepting the job, the pay was good, but the now very evident repercussions scared her to her very core. Because she used the back of her hand to clean the moisture that was forming on her eyes she didn't noticed a van approaching at a dangerously low speed, not until the copilot's door was right at her side.
"Lienth S'Jak?" She stopped at the same time that the van, looking at her side she was received by a polarized window.
"Yes?" She asked on a slightly shaky voice.
"High command sends its regards." Before she even noticed she saw herself staring down to the barrel of a silenced mass effect pistol.
"Fuck." Her head snapped back by the shot that followed, the van accelerated quickly leaving the scene.
"What a lovely last words." Said the voice with a chuckle.
Talat, Sur'kesh.
With a sickening crunch a soft left arm found itself twisted on an unnatural manner, soon followed with a scream filled of pain of the owner of said arm.
"Why're you doing this?!" Asked Jharot, once a proud salarian scientist, to the un-helmeted monster on front of him.
"There is not room for questions!" Shouted the monster with a menacing voice while putting his heavily armored foot on top of the left leg of the handcuffed salarian, after a pause he applied enough pressure to completely pulverize his bone, this action earned a few chuckles from his two also un-helmeted companions.
"Stop please!" Shouted Jharot again from the floor, the monster grabbed the other arm and twisted it on three different points, every time being rewarded with a crunch and a scream.
"Don't you dare to ask for forgiveness, motherfucker." He grabbed the foot of the sane leg and twisted it 180° degrees making it point onto the wrong direction. "You dared to touch our technology!" He repeated the action on the other foot. "Technology that took us decades to invent and master!" He backed away a little and raised his hand, the waves of biotic energy flowing like an ocean on top of it. "You tried to use it to your own twisted fucking ways!" The same waves appeared on Jaroth's body. "There is no pardon in that!" At this point the screams of Jharot almost overcame the powerful voice of the biotic guy.
He lowered his hand and the biotics disappeared but the pain on Jharot body didn't, he tried to talk but he only managed to cough or spit blood. The furry creature crouched at his side, resting his arms on his knees. "The royal family sends their greetings motherfucker." He stood up and grabbed Jharot by the arm; he untied him and put his arm above his shoulders. When Jharot noticed to where they were heading he tried to struggle, but his several broken bones and punctured organs only caused him to scream, the furry creature dropped him at the edge of the cornice and placed his foot at his side.
"Good landing." He said darkly before pushing him onto the void, he looked at the floor almost 20 stories below. Waiting patiently until a green puddle was formed and panicked screams reached his ears.
"Let's go, guys." He said backing away from the cornice and heading to the shuttle. "We're done here." The loud sounds of police sirens were heard approaching as the shuttle cloaked, leaving no trace that anything ever happened on that roof.
July 31, 2159: After a series of murders and suicides in strange circumstances, unrest began to arise on Citadel's planets around the galaxy demanding action against the AUR since they're the most likely perpetrators of those. Several military garrisons across the galaxy are sent to stop these riots, most of them ending on open firefights with military personnel and civilians killed by the dozens. Also most of the Homeworlds' fleets and armies are put on max alert in case of attack by the AUR; even so the council denies any AUR implication on the deaths.
August 14, 2159: Tensions began to openly arise between the AUR and the council when an UTC patrol fleet found a Salarian frigate adrift on the middle of UTC territory. Apparently the frigate had tried to get into UTC territory with conventional FTL, this theory being supported by the amount of food that the UTC's marines found inside the ship, but most likely is that the ship suffered a malfunction or something like that that ended with the crew dead as the corpses inside the ship showed. The ship, instead of being returned to Citadel space for the repatriation of the bodies, is simply thrown onto the nearest star.
November 20, 2159: A grave incident occurs between the AUR and the council when a SRM patrol flotilla finds a small Batarian flotilla trying to unlock a deactivated mass relay heading to the former's territory. The Batarian flotilla managed to barely hold their ground against the patrol one only to be finally kicked out when the 2nd fleet jumped to the system. Not even a day later the single human battleship and its escort made their appearance on the citadel, demanding to speak with the Batarian ambassador and the council.
Public Docking Bay F-74.
Saying that White was pissed off was the understatement of the century. Oh, hell no, he was far beyond that being pissed; one could literally see how his veins were marked on his neck and how his ears fumed with pure anger.
"Dude, relax." Whispered Xen at his side. "Or that little vein on your neck is going to pop," White followed the advice of his old friend trying to calm down by taking deep breaths.
It did not work.
As they walked down the gangplank he noticed that the so fucking annoying crowd of reporters was there.
"Ambassadors." Said Tevos with a smile meeting with them at the end of the gangplank as was customary, she oddly looked at the spot where Ik'er used to be at the side of White, now being empty. "Where's ambassador-"
"We can later speak of that bullshit." Replied White with a harsh tone. "We're here to stop a possible war," Tevos finally noticed that they brought something near to a platoon of soldiers. She paled as memories of their last hostile meeting reached her brain, the amount of destruction and death which took place in just a couple of seconds. shaking her head to disappear those gruesome thoughts of her mind she tried to focus onto the people on front of her, just to find pure ice escaping from White's helmet.
"L-let's head to the Citadel tower." She was very uncomfortable by the situation, by now she was used to White being a polite gentlemen. But this made her remember that behind that politeness there was something... uncontrollable. "The Batarian ambassador is there."
"Good." Replied White curtly, as they began to walk a few dozens of selected reporters began to approach. "No interviews!" Roared White as the whole platoon was covered into greenish-blue biotics, the reporters backed away on a flash.
The Citadel Tower; Council Public Chamber.
White stood silently into the two person podium with Xen at his side, his eyes silently traveled around the council public chamber noticing the differences between the place and where the UTC held their public meetings. While on the UTC everything was arranged on a way to create a sensation of equality to all its members, this place only served to feed the black hole that was the ego of the council.
'Damn arrogant assholes.' He thought with a sour taste on his mouth as he continued to inspect seeing how the place began to fill with people of all the citadel races, and then finally his eyes stopped into the Batarian ambassador, who was mockingly looking at him with his four eyes. Withdrawing the most murderous thoughts on his mind (at least for now) he looked at the podium that was way taller than the one the ambassadors were located as the two council members entered.
"This meeting is open," said Tevos with a commanding but overly neutral tone. "Ambassador White you... requested to speak with the Council and the Batarian ambassador. Could you please speak your reasons of why?" White was about to open his mouth until the four eyed bastard stopped him.
"Objection," he started with a tone that said that he didn't care in the slightest about the procedure. "This outsider is not part of the Citadel races and thus doesn't have any right to make any kinds of demands to the Council or any associated race."
"That's true." Said Valern, the mocking look returned to the ambassador eyes as he looked at the ambassadors of the AUR. "But given that their governmental body made the necessary requests and arrangements -and the possibly grave matter that they're trying to talk- this meeting was accepted by the Council with unanimity. And given the status of client race of the Batarian hegemony they don't have any word on our final decision, which was that this meeting would take place." The ambassador looked completely astonished by the explanation, with his four eyes and mouth wide open.
"Dude, shut your mouth there are flies." This apparently took out the ambassador of his stupor given that he shook his head after closing his mouth.
"With this cleared could you please tell us what happened Mr. White," asked Tevos to which he nodded.
"18 hours ago." He said after clearing his throat and taking a datapad that Xen offered to him. "The 49th SRM patrol flotilla made contact with a small flotilla on the relay XGT-242P on the outskirts of SRM territory. At first there was the believing that they were lost but after a more profound scans of one of our AI -who want to remain anonymous- we detected two things. First, the flotilla was part of the Batarian hegemony, the 32nd flotilla to be precise-"
"That could have easily been a pirate fleet." Said the batarian ambassador.
"-And second." He lowered the datapad and looked at Tevos ignoring the ambassador remark. "They were trying to activate our relay. We took action and proceeded to trying to establish communications with them. After the sixth try, we proceeded to make warning shots. When that didn't work we used lethal force."
"You attacked one of our fleets?!" Asked the ambassador enraged.
"That wasn't supposed to be a pirate fleet?" Asked Xen with grin.
"Ehh... well... ah." The ambassador noticed that he had backed himself on a corner.
"And what happened?" Asked Valern while rubbing his chin.
"The 49th engaged the 32nd on combat that lasted a few hours. Then the 2nd fleet jumped in the system and kicked the remnants of the Batarian flotilla out of it, after the combat the AI scanned what was left of a few ships and we concluded that they were activating the relay to attack our planets."
"And in what you support your accusations?"
"Maybe because there was a Batarian fleet a jump away? Or the data that the ships had that indicated your plan of slaving our people?" He said while activating his omni-tool and showing a conversation between two batarian captains.
"That could easily been a fabrication!" He shouted while the captains laughed, calling the AUR's races primitives and stupid.
"I don't care what you believe; we're not here to make any demands."
"Then why you're here?" Asked Tevos with curiosity.
"To make ourselves clear." He turned to the batarian again. "We're going to let this slip up, everyone deserve a second chance. But hear me well, try to slave our people and we will throw every bullet, soldier and ship on a crusade to exterminate your race. World by world."
"That's a threat?"
"No, threats usually are fake. This is a warning."
"And you're going to let him talk to us like that? He just made an open threat to a citadel race. That is an act for war!"
"This is an internal affair between the Hegemony and an independent government. We cannot take action by these choices unless they affect the Citadel as a whole."
"This is an outrage!" Shouted the ambassador indignantly. "We should be exterminating these damn primitives-!" Before anyone noticed White had grabbed the man by his throat and has raised him a few centimeters.
"Let me tell you something you piece of shit!" Roared White while the ambassador grabbed his arm in a futile try to release himself, around the room the sound of mass effect accelerators being activated was followed by the one of safes being released, Human and Saryn soldiers pointed their weapons to C-sec which did the same back.
"You can call me with whatever name your fucking piece of shit that you call a brain can think, but don't even think that someone who comes from a race that practices slavery can call me a damn primitive!" He applied more pressure, risking breaking the man windpipe. "My race had endured a lot of things. Millennia of war! Brutal diseases! Harsh climate! We even survived a damn nuclear holocaust!" All the aliens that were inside the room were surprised to the revelation.
"Do you see this damn helmet!? Tell me, do you see it!?" The batarian hastily nodded. "This is a repercussion that will always follow us, while you can relax on a sunny day with a slave cleaning your dick, we need to hide behind this dammed helmets to avoid becoming blind!" After that he did something unexpected, he grabbed his helmet with his free hand and snatched it out of his head, short matt black hair appeared when he discarded the helmet, he also showed a two day beard of the same color. But the most impressive thing was his ghostly pale face, which had a pair of sunglasses more black than coal. "Look at my face!" He roared, spitting into the Batarian face who was astonished as everyone else. "Look at me when I'm talking to you!" The Batarian looked to where he believed his eyes were.
"You believe yourself to be powerful because no one makes any move to stop your raids, but let me tell you something. You're all weak. You're all cowards, you make hit and run attack with pirates financed by your government. Do you believe that the galaxy is stupid enough to think that those poor people end in somewhere apart from your damn territory?" he put his face a few centimeters away from his, the normal warm breathing of a living creature was replaced by the most icy wind that anyone could think. "Don't even come near us again." He said on a dangerously neutral and controlled tone.
"You'll… pay for… for this!" Said the ambassador struggling for air.
"Good," said White with a predatory smile that showed white teeth. "We'll be waiting," the lights turned off for a second, when they were on again there was an unconscious Batarian ambassador on the floor.
And no one else.
November 31, 2159: More tensions arise as a 'pirate' fleet is found on the outskirts of declared Quarian territory blindly firing into the direction of Aurora, the fleet after detecting the presence of allied fleets jumps out of the system. At the end the shots were harmless but this incident just helps to create more animosity between the AUR and the Hegemony. On a happier side note the first daughter of one of the most recognized inventors and engineers of human history is born on the Martin Luther King hospital located on mars.
Military base 0-34; outskirts of Far'kal; Manifus.
"Unidentified ship, your arrival is not scheduled. State your business or we will open fire." Flight controller Novak Karneval said with a serious tone while watching the vessel through the windows of the control tower. "Guys do you have something?" He said on a more friendly tone after pressing the button to pause the connection.
"Nothing!" Called someone from the other side. "The ship has no IFF and the design doesn't match with anything on our records."
"Fuck." Muttered Novak while putting his headphones again and restarting the connection. "Unidentified ship, this is your last warning. State your business or we will be forced to use lethal force." He was meet with silence again, not even static. "Dammit." He said after repeating the process of taking out the headphones and pausing the connection. "Call the guys of the AA system and tell them to activate the heavies."
"Done sir." He raised his left hand wide open while putting one headphone with his right one after activating the comm. "Unidentified ship, you've been warned." He closed his hand into a fist. Around the base heavy AA systems activated and targeted the vessel, on the moment the order was given all of them fired. The ship tried to evade long enough to fire once, failing miserably.
"Tower, requesting visual confirmation of the ship going down." Rang a voice on the general intercom system.
"Give me a minute." Said Novak while reaching for a pair of binoculars, when he found them he looked through the area he believed to see the ship going down, after a minute he found the burning wreckage. "Colonel, we have visual confirmation. Ship on the ground and burning, no survivors on the immediate surroundings."
"Roger that, reassume normal duties and I want a detailed report of what happened on my desk by the end of the shift, a platoon will be sent to explore the wreckage once the fire settles."
"Understood, sir." He put the binoculars on the locker and sat down on his seat while taking out a data pad to write the report.
Zhu'ul, Manifus.
Three fighters were flying silently over the city of Ner'Zhul, the people below them unaware of the threat this three were trying to stop, one of massive proportions.
"Command, what the fuck we are exactly searching?" Asked Cobra 0-1 while looking the streets whit the integrated camera.
"A cargo truck that raised suspicions once it left the dock, keep searching. It should be around the area."
"Yeah, sure-"
"Wait a second." Interrupted 0-2. "Command, I have visual confirmation," the other two pilots confirmed too after checking the coordinates provided.
"Requesting orders." Said 0-1.
"Follow it up."
"Roger that-" Suddenly a flash appeared where the truck was, soon a shockwave destabilized the three fighters.
"Holy fuck! Holy fu-" Was all 0-1 managed to scream before being engulfed by nuclear fire.
December 16, 2159: After two weeks of intermittent firefights, suicide bombers and attacks to military bases, a manifesto is anonymously delivered to several Saryn's news channels that publicly reveal it after being given approbation by the military;
'On these dark days we have to stand strong and united.' A raspy voice began to speak. 'Centuries ago my people were persecuted, captured ... annihilated. The cult of Tuhan was forced to disappear by direct orders of the royal family. Their job wasn't done, today we stand by the thousands, united, strong, and determined.' War cries were heard on the background. 'Determined to eliminate until the last of the heretics that worship the makers. There will be no mercy, because we didn't receive any. There will be no forgiveness, because they did not give us any. There will only be bloodshed that will fertilize the soil for the future generations of my people.' shoots and more war cries consumed the transmission before it cut down.
Manifus' second civil war started
December 24, 2159: Martial law is fully enacted on Manifus.
Zhul'Kal; Manifus
Karl walked down the street on the city of Zhul'Kal, carrying a shopping bag with non-perishable food and water, the world was possibly going to hell, and he'd be damned if he doesn't get ready for the worst with his family. He moved his tail to an imaginary tune as he kept walking, looking at the diverse military vehicles (and their corresponding platoons) that were parked in places which were considered strategic points.
He felt the ground slightly shaken beneath him so he turned to the side just to see a formation of three tanks slowly moving through the street, one of the soldiers that was walking alongside the tanks noticed Karl standing and ordered him with his hand to keep moving, not wanting to get in problems he obeyed the order and continued his way to his house passing a few 4-man units and hearing the occasional sound of a helicopter passing.
'Man, martial law is going to mess with the Christmas spirit.' He thought while waiting that the light of the crosswalk turned green, out of the corner of his eye he noticed a young man approaching a group of soldiers, curious Karl turned his head and watched how the man talked to them. he was about to look ahead when he noticed something weird on the man's hand, his eyes widened after realizing what was.
"Look ou-!" He began to shout at the top of his lungs when a powerful shockwave violently tossed him to the ground. Seconds later his vision was a blurry and he only was able to hear an annoying beep, rolling around he lifted himself as best as he could with an elbow, with his free hand he was rubbing his eyes to take out the blurriness while shaking his head and coughing uncontrollably. As his vision and hearing returned to him he could faintly heard screams and gunfire, a few seconds passed before he was able to see and hear again. His expression sickened as he began to look around the scene, a very huge hole was on the floor where the soldiers used to be, their bodies completely vaporized by the explosion. He threw himself on the floor as he tried to cover his ears by the deafening shooting that was happening around him, soldiers were taking cover where they could and wildly firing to a building that was far away across the street, apparently someone noticed him because he felt how he was roughly grabbed by the shoulder and dragged behind an armored truck, he and whoever dragged him were the only ones behind it.
"Kid, what the fuck were you doing there without moving?!" Shouted the soldier but concern was obvious on her voice, he was about to reply but the soldier stopped him. "Doesn't matter. Come on, you have to leave this hellhole," the soldier looked above the truck, just to ducking when a bullet bounced on the metal. "Fuck, look ki-what's your name?"
"K-Karl." He replied shaking the shit out of himself.
"Karl, what a good name. Anyway Karl, just follow me. I'm getting you out of here. By the way, I'm Kyara," She smiled a tiny bit before grabbing the helmet she had on her waist and putting it on Karl's head. "There." She said while securing the neck seals. "You need it more than me." He didn't say anything as she began to test the helmet, pulling up to make sure if it was well strapped. "Good, now follow my instructions to the booth." Gunfire had subdued a little around them, now only the occasional small firefight remained. "These damn fanatics already brought reinforcements so just follow me and cover behind something solid when we find one." He nodded but noticed the use of 'when' instead of 'if', he saw how she grabbed a ballistic helmet and put in above her head. She looked back and patted his shoulder.
"Don't worry, we're going to be ok." She then pointed to the nearest building. "When I say 'run' you run there like if your life depends on it, because it does." He nodded as gunfire increased on the area, now with the occasional explosion and helicopter rotor sound. "Ok, run!" He simply obeyed and ran to the indicated building as fast as his legs could carry him, as soon he left the truck he noticed several dead bodies -soldiers and civilians alike- as bullets began to fly to him, one of them impacted near his feet that made him stumble with his own feet and fall face first to the ground, as soon he hit the ground he expected the searing second of pain before the nothingness.
When he didn't feel anything he raised his head to found himself inside the empty building. 'Thank the makers!' He thought as he raised and sited down, looking to where Kyara was. She doubtfully raised a thumb up to which he replied with his own. She nodded, checked her weapon and began to run to the building, slowing down and firing occasional sprays. Once she reached the building he looked shocked to the small holes on her armor.
"Y-you o-ok?" She nodded.
"Yeah, they bounced off." She changed the thermal clip, storing the half-spent one and indicating to keep moving. They kept moving through the buildings, trying to be the shortest time in the open, as the time passed the gunfire began to be heard more far and far away.
"Well, kid, it appears I saved your ass. So the most appropriate thing would be to you to buy me a drink." She said with a smug grin on her face.
"I-I'm s-sixteen." He said still being nervous and scared of what happened.
"What a pity," she said while shrugging her shoulders. "Anyway, I suppose one of your dads should have something alcoholic."
"Y-you did this just for a drink?" He asked getting pissed off.
"Oh no, of course not." He calmed down. "The drink is just a bonus." He was about to retort but they heard something on the next room, she raised her hand and indicated him to hide behind a lower wall, she approached the door as he crouched and looked above it, she put her finger on her mouth before heading to the knob. Just when she grabbed it the door simply exploded sending debris everywhere, after that two bulky figures walked around the now opened door and looked around, one of them pointed to him and laughed. He began to back away on fear while the two guys just approached to him, once his back touched the wall he looked around frantically for a way to save himself, then he saw Karya's rifle. Without thinking he lunged to the rifle and turned around on the moment his hands found a hold on the rifle, once the rifle pointed to one of them he tried to find the trigger.
Tack.
'nononono!' He thought at the verge of panic as tears began to fall down his cheeks, one of them raised his pistol and pointed to him straight on the heart. He closed his eyes and waited for the shot, grimacing when he hear it.
He didn't feel anything.
He opened his eyes when he hear a heavy thud, finding one of the guys with blood pouring a hole on his head while the other looked around only to meet the same fate, his blood and gray matter finding their way on Karl's face.
"Kid!" He heard Kyara shout. "Kid, you ok?!" He got up to where he had heard the voice to found Kyara supported on the wall with a smoking gun on her hand.
"C-come on we need to leave."
"I don't think so, I broke my fucking back and the exo-skeleton is offline," he didn't reply, instead he went to put one of her armored arms on top of his shoulders. "No, I will slow you down, I weigh too much." He put her back on the ground after seeing she was right, she tossed the ballistic helmet to the ground and took off the one he had then she grabbed the rifle and inserted a new thermal clip, after that she took her pistol and handed it to Karl who slowly grabbed it. "Do me a favor Kid." She said softly while patting his arm. "Live your life; not let this mark you."
"T-thank y-you." He saw how she took something for a pouch on one of breast pouches and handed it to him. He touched the small metal sheet with his fingers, while silently asking what it was.
"My dog tags," she answered while putting the helmet. "Keep them and give them back to me on the other side. I have no one else to do it." He simply nodded, not trusting his voice.
"Go." She said while hurried footsteps were hear approaching, once he was on the door frame he looked back, seeing her with her back against the lower wall and pointing to the door frame that had been exploited.
"Hey kid, remember." She said while looking to him for a second. "Live your life." He nodded and ran outside, had not run fifty meters when a brutal shooting began in the building.
"MERRY CHRISTMAS, MOTHERFUCKERS!" he heard Kyara shout before a massive explosion almost launched him to the floor, he doesn't looked back already expecting what to see, he just keep running while sobbing uncontrollably for who knows how much time. Once he crossed the main door of his house he just dropped to the floor and put himself in fetal position against it with the pistol falling the ground with a loud clank. He doesn't stopped crying even when his mother grabbed him almost in hysterics asking what happened. He just keeps crying.
Remembering the woman that gave her life for him.
A/N: Wow, I can't believe it. My first story ever completed. All of you don't know how proud i am to complete this story (even if I started on the wrong foot) but wow, it was a long trip (not so much really) but hell I'm satisfied. Anyway, I will be eternal grateful to those people who read this story and survived my horrible grammatical butchering of English. Specially to all of you who reviewed/followed/favorite, specially you SPARTAN-626, man you don't know how much your reviews brightened my days on the early steps of the story. Thanks also to R3DRaven, for giving me one of the most constructive reviews I received. And also my eternal and most grateful thanks for my brain for coming with this marvelous universe.
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Nah kidding thanks to MoonSword1994 and Ghostboy95, because man, those two endured the butchering by first hand by being my betas, and at the end but no less important 'reliable drums' You, yes you 'point finger to the screen' because without you and your support I wouldn't have be able to form the genkidam- I mean, finish this piece of crap that I would like to call a fanfiction. But by how high other authors left the poll of the AU subgenre I know I'm just a piece of shit on the Mapocho River (who understood, understood.)
Anyway, be alert soldier for the epilogues and possible future stories. This only depends of the support the people give for a new one (and not, is not a for terra 2, at least not for now)
See ya everybody.
Your mighty god
Redhood02.
"Man, everybody is gonna hate me by that joke." Looks at camera. "Shit, is still recording." Grabs the camera and throws it out of the window.