Evolution
A Section 8 & Mass Effect Crossover
A/N: Yeah I know I said that updates would be sporadic, but like I said before when you get an idea stuck in your head you sometimes just have to work on it until it goes away. I will honestly say I was surprised at the reception the first chapter got, thanks for the support one and all!
But you didn't come here to read my rambling... If you did, well...
EDIT (2/11/13): Fixed some spelling errors, renamed the Asari dreadnought that would be used for the Asari negotiation party as the Destiny Ascension most likely would not leave the Citadel Defense Fleet unless times were really desperate, also changed the name of the Section 8 trooper who kills Desolas.
EDIT (3/4/13): Corrected the Citadel Era date to be the correct Galactic Standard year.
Citadel Era: 2657.033.001
Location: Argos Rho Cluster
Fleet: Turian Border Patrol 131
To put it mildly, Admiral Desolas was not having a good day. He didn't at all mind when he was given the orders to patrol this section of Citadel space, not when the Terminus pirates and slavers seemed to be coming out of the woodwork lately. No, what irked him was when his fleet, a dreadnought with ten escort cruisers and five packs of three frigates, was reassigned to help move the infamous Pinnacle Station. He believed it was a last line of defense the Citadel would need in case the Krogans on Tuchanka ever got their heads out of their humps and organized against Citadel space. Primarch Delop, at the urging of some Asari Matriarch's and Dalatrass Mivon, though had ordered the elite training station moved closer to the Terminus systems. Allegedly it was to provide logistical support for any future raids, but Desolas knew that it was pointless.
-Unless galactic communication technology evolves, by the time a report of raiders even reaches the nearest capable fleet, the pirates will have had time to do what they please with the colony. As such, I request that Patrol 131 be returned to it's original task of patrolling the border between Citadel and Terminus space.
Desolas put the finishing touches on his plea to the Turian Councilor, hoping his long time friend would see reason and agree to pressure Delop into getting another fleet to move Pinnacle. There was one fringe benefit to having received this assignment though.
"Brother," a voice called out to him, forcing him to look up. "How's your groveling going?" Saren teased.
Desolas smirked at his brother's antics. Having the chance to meet with his younger brother, who was currently on Pinnacle to complete some Blackwatch training, for the first time in nearly a decade made the assignment almost worth it. As such Desolas got up from his desk, walked over to his shorter brother, and hugged him.
"Ah Saren..." He breathed out, "The spirits I see have decided to gift you with some muscle in the time I've been away."
Saren chuckled at his brother's jab, and responded with a light biotic shove, "As well as some more biotic control."
Desolas flexed his mandibles in a Turian smile, "So I see my little brother." He then turned around to go back behind his desk. "Just let me send this message off to the Councilor and then I will be off duty. Tell me though... Are you still seeing that Asari you wrote to me about?" Desolas again took a shot at his brother's ego before hitting send on his terminals holographic interface.
"As a matter of fact no." Saren replied staunchly. "She left me for a Salarian when I told her about my Blackwatch Cabal selection."
"I'm sorry to hear that brother. From what I remember she was quite... Shapely." Desolas grinned at seeing his brother's eye's go slightly blank, the memories coming back of his ex, before he caught himself day dreaming.
"Uh... Yes she was..." Saren stammered. "But she would have only slowed me down. After all, the only way I can beat my brother the Admiral is by becoming Spectre, and to do that I can't leave anything behind."
Desolas got up from his desk and walked over to his brother who was still standing in front of it. Putting a gentle hand on his shoulder, Desolas spoke "There is time enough for that Saren. Don't forget to live your life for yourself before you devote it to something as great as the Spectres."
Saren looked a little bewildered, "That... Is the most un-Turian thing I have ever heard you say Desolas."
Desolas merely shrugged in response, "Perhaps being an Admiral in charge of a fleet has changed me. Now then, let us go to the mess hall and see what the chefs have prepared for us!" Desolas began to lead Saren out of his personal quarters when his omni-tool pinged, notifying him of a new message. He quickly surveyed the notification, and his heart sunk.
Citadel Era: 2657.033.002
Location: Unexplored Space Beyond Relay 314
Fleet: Turian Border Patrol 131 & Patrol 089
The message Desolas received were orders to absorb what was left of Patrol 089 and to investigate the area beyond the newly activated Relay 314. The Captain in charge of the 089 was known to be a bit of a hothead when it came to enforcing Citadel law, and was sent to patrol one of the more inactive sectors by the Hierarchy. Unfortunately, fate was not without a sense of irony.
The preliminary report from the Captain, one Aruv Utellan, described the scenario as such that the new comers, who held three ships that were in the heavy cruiser classification, were working on activating Relay 314 when his patrol of five standard cruisers and three frigate packs happened across them.
When two of the alien ships had adjusted their position to cover the third and began to emit a massive electromagnetic field (a sure sign of power levels increasing), Utellan ordered his group to open fire.
The resulting battle was not pretty. The two ships were able to almost shrug off the mass accelerator volleys from the cruisers despite the lack of shielding, and fired some kind of energy weapon that destroyed a cruiser in one shot. Down to three cruisers, Utellan had ordered his frigates to close in and use disruptor torpedoes against the doubtlessly heavy armor plating.
Again that maneuver was costly as the two ships combined point defenses managed to chew through one of the frigate groups on their first pass. By that time, Relay 314 had been fully activated by the third alien ship, and as such it retreated back through. The other two ships fired one more volley, taking out a single cruiser together, and also made for the relay. However, due to their size and distance from the relay, they were much slower than a Citadel ship would have been. This hinted at their lack of element zero drive cores, and as such Utellan pushed to continue the attack until they went through the relay.
Despite Utellan's best efforts, the two ships managed to get through the relay, doubtlessly to report back to their home world. It was then that Utellan reported back to the Hierarchy, who then immediately sent a message to the Citadel Council and to Admiral Desolas.
When Desolas arrived at the relay, his first order of business was to throw Utellan in the brig for conduct unbecoming a Turian officer and ignoring First Contact protocol. Desolas then ordered his combined fleet through the relay to try and begin negotiations.
What awaited him though on the other side were the same three ships that Utellan had reported, as evidenced by the alien language written on the hulls of the ships, in geosynchronous orbit above what scans found to be the only settlement on the only hospitable planet in system. Desolas had his comm officer send the first contact package as well as an apology for the earlier incident.
The aliens though would have none of it. Desolas' fleet at this point held his dreadnought, twelve cruisers, and seven packs of three frigates. After the message was sent on all broadcast frequencies, the alien ships began their dramatic power buildup. Before Desolas could order evasive maneuvers, they fired. Three of his cruisers went down in a single volley.
His fleet quickly regained some composure and battled it out. Having learned from the first engagement, Desolas had his frigates fire their disruptor torpedo at maximum range, while he had his cruisers attempt to flank the enemy ships. The aliens it seemed were slow moving in their fleet movements, relying on their extremely durable armor and extraordinary firepower to get them through battles, whereas Citadel ships prioritized being able to move around the battlefield to try and line up the perfect shot.
That left him and his dreadnought at the back of the battle, using it's maneuvering thrusters to line up the perfect shot on one of the ships. With one his analysts guessing that the strange tower at the back of the ships was where the aliens put their bridge, he ordered for the first shot to be there. Turian dreadnoughts were capable of delivering several hundred kilotons of firepower in a round at the expense of fire rate, so when his dreadnought finally fired, the entire ship shook at the vibrations of the twenty kilo slug being accelerated at a fair percentage of light speed.
The results were equally impressive, as it shore off the entire tower section of left most ship. His crew cheered at the results, the aliens weren't invincible. That was short lived though as the wounded ship fired one of their devastating rounds at the dreadnought. Dreadnoughts, due to their size, often stayed far away from actual battles, engaging at distances over tens of thousands of kilometers. A range that only other dreadnoughts could match. This race though held weapons capable of reaching that far out in the size of a cruiser.
Their results weren't disappointing either, as the round hit the starboard wing assembly and tore it asunder. Crippled but not out of the fight, Desolas' crew responded by firing another round at their opponent without being told, this one aimed for the bow. That impact finally cracked the ships armor, and created an opening for one of the frigate packs to fire a salvo of disruptor torpedoes into.
One ship down. Two to go.
Citadel Era: 2157.033.003
Location: Unexplored Space Beyond Relay 314
Fleet: Combined Turian Border Patrols 131, 089, & 174
The battle in space had been brutal. Thankfully, with the arrival of another Patrol, 174 which held two dreadnoughts, it was ended quickly with no more Turian lives lost. After conferring with the Admiral of 174, Desolas agreed that they needed to solidify a position on the planet. It was obviously a colony, given the lack of a global population, and the massive cannons that were under construction that were pointed towards the sky.
The other Admiral, Suqwal, was an old friend of Desolas', and realized the potential this species held if their ships armor and firepower were anything to measure them by. Desolas had agreed, but was wary of the ramifications of trying to subdue the local population if a fully fledged force showed up. At which point Suqwal convinced Desolas that having a presence on the ground would put the odds in their favor. No species in their right mind would fire upon a garden world, let alone their own colony even if it was in 'enemy' hands.
As such, Desolas had his ground commanders draw up a plan of attack.
Citadel Era: 2657.033.003
Location: Serpent Nebula, Widow cluster, Citadel
Turian Councilor Vetak was sitting in his office reviewing some new proposals by the Salarian STG to look into some possible corruption within C-Sec that could involve some potentially classified material. He okay-ed the approval, as the cleaning house manuever would allow for a younger generation of C-Sec officers, mainly Turians fresh off their required stint in Hierarchy military, to come in and give C-Sec new life. His console beeped thrice, signaling a message flagged as urgent coming in. Opening it immediately, Vetak had to reread it to be sure that he had everything straight.
"Huh... Well Desolas, it seems that moving Pinnacle was a wise move after all." Vetak mused to himself before keying his omnitool to ping his secretary in. A near purple shaded Asari with a few white facial tattoos come in shortly after. "Ayana, clear my schedule for the rest of the day. I am calling an emergency meeting with the Council."
Citadel Era: 2657.033.003
Location: Alien Colony, Unexplored Space Beyond Relay 314
Fleet: Combined Turian Border Patrols 131, 089, & 174
Again, the new species had shown that they were no pushovers. When the fleet launched their drop-ships to start attacking the only recognizable city of the planet, they were met by fierce ground based AA fire. The first wave lost fifteen percent of its fighting force due to the effective fire, and it went downhill from there.
When troops did land on the outskirts of the city walls, they were met with heavy fire from automated machine gun and missile emplacements. These and the visible AA emplacements were taken out by a frigates bombing run, but at heavy damage to the frigate in question. With the path opened up, Turian soldiers began to move in. What they found was an eerily quite city. Normally, raid alarms would be blaring, civilians would be running for shelter, and whatever defense force there was would be engaging them as soon as possible.
Here, they met no resistance. As the first wave continued deeper into the city, the second wave came down and began setting up command posts and the like a fair distance from the city walls. When the first wave reached about a quarter of the way through to the colony's center, one of the squads spotted what appeared to be a scout on a hover bike. Before they could confirm, the entirety of the first wave was hit by mortar fire coming from seemingly random locations. As the front line began to retreat from what could have only been a pretargeted position, they were utterly decimated by a line of planted explosive charges.
As such, the game of hide-and-seek began.
Citadel Era: 2657.033.004
Location: Alien Colony, Unexplored Space Beyond Relay 314
Fleet: Combined Turian Border Patrols 131, 089, & 174
Desolas was just about ready to lay waste to this colony. It had become apparent that the civilian population had retreated to the city center long ago, and it was also the primary location for the defenders as whenever his ground commanders tried to push closer to the incredibly tall spire-like structure, their forces were met with stiff resistance.
What bothered him most were the few eye witness reports of seeing the defenders in person. One of the surviving privates of an ambushed patrol reported that the defenders dropped from a building over a fifteen stories high before using large blades to kill his squad-mates. That same private was convinced they were up against the Geth, as only machines could move as fast as what he saw.
A lieutenant from an earlier attempt at getting to the colony center reported much the same thing except that he saw what appeared to be more in lines with a Batarian in a science fiction set of power armor as it held some kind energy shielding that wasn't based on element zero and was near impossible to bring down without an Overload attack from an omnitool. Then of course the guns the aliens carried were impossibly huge, something that only a krogan could even attempt to carry.
Perhaps the worst part of it all was that they had yet to kill or incapacitate a single member of the defenders, lending credence to the theory that the Hierarchy had gotten itself into more trouble that it was worth. The wounds that were being inflicted on the Turian soldiers made their own weapons look archaic in comparison, and those who were lucky to survive suffered from extreme shell shock. All of it was making morale plummet.
We need some kind of victory here, or we'll be in trouble if a fully fledged fleet arrives. Desolas thought as he paced around his command prefab. His thoughts were interrupted though when his brother came into the tent.
"Desolas, I have something you might want to see." Saren spoke with a hint of smugness.
It didn't take Desolas long to connect the dots. "You went out with one of the patrols, didn't you?"
"I did, and we managed to get one of these alien upstarts."
Desolas strode quickly over to Saren, and struck him in the face. "THAT is for disobeying the order of a superior officer." Saren was stunned by his brother's action, and more so by the embrace that followed. "Thank the spirits that you came back."
After Desolas broke the hug, he let Saren lead him to where they brought in their prize.
"I will admit, it was all luck really. I happened to spot this alien moving to a better piece of cover and used a pull on him. Rather than take a chance, the squad filled him with holes. Nearly melted our guns in the process even after we disabled it's shields with an Overload." Saren explained as he lead the way to another prefab. Current guns operated by taking the heat produced by the barrel and storing it in dense heat sinks. If not given the chance to cool down, the heat sink could fail and melt the barrel of the gun. Opening the door, Desolas expected to see some monstrosity like a Krogan, but he could only see an engineering masterpiece lying on the table, with red liquid pouring out of the numerous bullet wounds. The armor plating held a gunmetal gray sheen while what appeared to be dark purple synthetic muscle was beneath it. Even with it's occupant dead, the armor was intimidating.
A Salarian scientist who had been attached to one of the patrol groups walked in from a side lab as Desolas and Saren observed the dead alien. It's size put it somewhere between the average Asari and Turian height wise, but any other physical characteristics were hidden by the armor. Desolas noted some kind of decal on its upper arms, along with an emblazoned winged creature.
"As you can tell," the Salarian began, "the exterior is an extremely durable, powered exoskeleton. Initial scans show the metallic plating to be a tritium alloy, while we have yet to determine the make up of what appears to be the muscle system to the suit."
Taking the information in, Desolas asked, "Is there anyway to get the alien out of the suit?".
The Salarian shook his head, "If there is, I haven't discovered it yet. Penetrating scans are unable to get us a look inside, and for a suit this complex, it will take time to even find a proper starting point."
"What about it's weapon?" Saren asked. "Is there anything we can learn from that?" The weapon in question was sitting on a separate table nearby. Any one whose even seen military weapons would be able to guess that it was the alien's analogue of a sniper rifle by the barrel length and the large scope.
"Other than its remarkably similar to our own technology minus eezo and that if you tried to fire it you would most likely lose your arm, nothing."
Saren looked over the fallen defender, What other wondrous technology could you be withholding?
After a moment of silence, Desolas spoke up, "Well, we now know that biotics are effective against them." He then keyed his omnitool, "Get the Cabals ready."
Citadel Era: 2657.033.005
Location: Alien Colony, Unexplored Space Beyond Relay 314
The deployment of the Turian biotic Cabals went great at first. A squad of them were able to stop an ambush in it's tracks, but then the defenders switched tactics from up close and personal to long range. Their snipers were deadly accurate and were able to punch through even the toughest of biotic barriers with ease. Biotic turians were rare, so Desolas was forced to spread out the handful of Cabal members he had amongst the regular ranks despite the animosity between the regulars Turian soldiers and the Cabal members.
Desolas was just going over a message from the fleet in orbit, which said that some of them had to leave to continue their normally scheduled patrols, when one of his lieutenants came into his prefab.
"Admiral! The latest recon team has come back with casualties!"
Desolas was growing weary of hearing that phrase and sighed, "How bad?"
The lieutenant faltered, "Uh- Ha-half of them were killed in action. S-sir, Lieutenant Arterius was woun-"
Desolas was out of the prefab before his underling could finish. He ran towards the medical section of the command post they set up, and saw several bodies bags laying around, waiting to be taken up to a ship to be transported home to Palaven. Once he reached the triage area, he didn't see head nor tail of his brother's distinctive silver plate tone. He continued on to the treatment area, and again found nothing. He was just about to breach the surgery suite when he was stopped by an orderly.
"Who are they working on?!" Desolas demanded.
"Sir, I do not know, but you cannot breach the sterile environment right now." The orderly answered just as a speaker turned on.
"Admiral, I am aware of your relation to my patient right now." A Salarian spoke, "He will recover. The sniper round tore off his right arm at the shoulder. We are working on fitting him with a prosthetic now. He will be out for a day, two at most. Now please, I have work to do."
Snarling in rage, Desolas punched the wall of the prefab. The pain in his hand now numbing the pain in his heart over his brother. After taking a deep breath, he refocused and went back to his command post.
Once he got there, he brought up the entire Turian comm network. "Attention all personnel, as of this moment we are no longer going to put innocent Turian lives at risk. We will begin a systematic orbital bombardment of this colony until the defenders are either neutralized or surrender. All ships stand by for further instructions. Ground personnel are to pull back to the base camp immediately."
Citadel Era: 2657.033.005
Location: Serpent Nebula, Widow Cluster, Citadel Council Chambers
"Are we agreed now that the Council should send a representative to help broker a peace before this small conflict turns into another Rachni War?" The Asari Councilor Besea questioned her colleagues. For the past forty Citadel hours the three Councilors had been going over every scrap of information they could glean from the initial reports from the Hierarchy. Even on the highest priority, messages took time to travel through the current comm buoy system. A front line report, depending on the distance it had to travel, could take any where from an hour to a full two days to reach where it was needed.
As such, when the reports of Desolas' fleet managing to take space superiority over the new alien arrivals came in, the Asari Councilor immediately pushed for a more diplomatic approach to be taken while the Turian Councilor Vetak wanted to send a full expedition fleet through to completely secure the system. The Salarian Councilor, Kalio, wanted to use the opportunity to gather as much information as possible from the wrecks of the alien ships, and requested that no matter what a STG contingent be sent to gather what they could. It had taken another full ten Citadel standard hours of debating to reach this point.
"Fine..." Vetak spat. "I highly doubt though that these new arrivals will not appreciate another alien party trying to call for peace between them and the Hierarchy."
Besea nodded in thanks to Vetak and looked to Kalio for his response. "As I said before, we should send the STG in to get more data. In the event that hostilities will ensue, we may get a key piece of information. If they don't, then we may have gained a significant technological advancement without having to negotiate for it."
"Then it is decided." Besea finally announced, "An Asari portion of the Citadel Defense Fleet, spear headed by the Asari dreadnought Devout Grace, will leave immediately to begin negotiations and I will act as the lead negotiator."
Citadel Era: 2657.033.005
Location: Alien Colony, Unexplored Space Beyond Relay 314
As the soldiers on the ground prepared for the orbital bombardment, Desolas was in an observation tower looking for the best locations to fire on. Based on orbital scans and ground surveillance, he found four structures in four sections of the city that seemed to be important. Whenever his soldiers got near them, the defenders reacted as swiftly as they would when turians soldiers got too close to the central spire.
"Have the cruiser's target those locations." Desolas ordered, "Then have a pack of frigates perform a high speed pass to weed out the locations of any AA emplacements. Ground based observers will then mark those locations for the next salvo."
"Aye-aye Admiral." His fire support officer replied as Desolas climbed down from the post.
Only a few more minutes before these animals learn their lesson, Desolas thought as he made his way to the communication prefab to make another report for the Hierarchy. So far they had approved his actions, but he didn't know how they would take this. Orbital bombardment of a garden world was not something to be done on a whim, but Desolas couldn't care less at this point. He had several dozen wounded on his hands and only one confirmed enemy dead. If this engagement ended, he had no doubt he would become the laughing stock of the Hierarchy.
He typed up his report and was about to leave when he noticed one of the communications officers repeatedly trying to radio one of the advanced recon elements Desolas had deployed around the outer edge of the city.
"Lieutenant... What's the matter?" Desolas demanded as he stood behind the young Turian.
"I can't raise Element Two Admiral. They have missed their regularly scheduled check in."
"Have you sent in Element Three to check to make sure that it's not just a communicator glitch?" Desolas asked.
"Already done sir, they will be at Two's last known position in a minute."
"Excellent. Keep me up to speed Lieutenant." Desolas offered before leaving.
As he left the comms prefab, his omnitool pinged with a message from the Salarian doctor. Saren was awake from his surgery early, and he was needed.
Desolas sprinted over to the post-op section of the medical prefab, and was greeted by several Turian orderlies being flung back by a biotic push.
"I said... Leave. Me. ALONE!" Saren seethed with rage as he used his new prosthetic to punch a sizable dent in a wall next to his bed while the rest of him glowed with a biotic aura.
"Saren Decmas Arterius!" Desolas roared in return, causing Saren to divert his attention to his older brother. "Stand down!" Saren, realizing the situation, feebly laid back in his bed and his biotics died down. "Good. Leave us." The orderlies didn't need to be told twice. "Now then Saren. What seems to be the problem?"
"Nothing Desolas, just my age showing through. I am one of the youngest members to be accepted into Blackwatch after all." Saren tried to blow him off.
"No, it's more than that." Desolas urged.
Saren was quiet for a bit. Finally he answered, "I feel like I failed you and father. I was wounded in action, and now my chances at becoming a Spectre a practically gone."
Desolas did the equivalent of a snort. "That's all? Saren, you are fighting in a conflict that by all rights you shouldn't even be in. You have shown true courage and valor in stepping up and going out with the patrols to give them a fighting chance at taking out these defenders. You have done father and me proud."
"Good." Came Saren's quick reply. "Then use your status as Admiral to get me released from this hospital. You know how much I hate being couped up."
Desolas laughed, "Once the doctor's confirm that your body won't reject the prosthetic-"
"Which he did already."
"- and you get some proper clothes on."
A few minutes later, Desolas and Saren were up on the observation tower. Both eagerly awaiting the coming bombardment. It was the most effective method after all since the civilians had obviously fled the area for the central structure, which numerous scans said was a fortified bunker, then the only other possible casualties would be that of the defending aliens.
"Captain... Begin the bombardment." Desolas ordered. The fire-support officer then turned to his console to issue the commands. As he did, his head suddenly exploded from front to back. Blue blood sprayed onto the back wall of the observation tower, and highlighted the fist sized hole that the sniper round had created even after it went through the fire-support officer's head. With his body falling, the sound of the sniper shot finally caught up to the bullet's action. Reacting on instinct, both Saren and Desolas hit the ground as soon as they heard the plop of the Captain's head go.
Desolas' personal comm device then went haywire as Admiral Suqwal tried to contact him directly.
"DE—LAS! ALIEN FL- IN OR-! - HAVE TO GET OUT! I'M S-RY!"
Even with the static of battle, Desolas knew what was coming. As such, he pulled Saren up with him and jumped from the top of the observation tower to the top of the command prefab a few meters below. From there, Saren had his wits about him once again and they both made for the armory. Saren being the younger of the two was able to pull ahead of his older brother. The sounds of extremely high powered automatic weapons filled the air, with Turian squad leaders attempting to organize themselves to locate the source of the incoming fire and push back.
Just as he reached the armory door, Saren looked back at his brother. Desolas was only a dozen or so meters behind him. What happened next though would be something that would forever be burned into Saren's mind.
Time seemed to slow down as he first heard the on coming rush of air. Then in his peripheral vision, he saw a jet black duplicate of the aliens power armor come flying down towards his brother. A large knife was in it's hand, which it raised back as it continued it's head first dive towards his brother. Before Desolas could even react, the alien was directly on top of him and plunging the huge knife into his neck. The momentum of the aliens fall the transferred fully to Desolas' body, which couldn't take the sudden strain and crumpled loudly as bones were broken throughout it. All the while, the alien rode Desolas' now lifeless body, as the knife had severed the spinal column, down to the ground. Desolas' armor also began to crack from the immense weight of the aliens armor. Finally, blood and guts that had suddenly been compressed beyond belief within Desolas now had a way out, and spurted onto the ground.
With nothing practically under it now, the alien began to stand up without even looking at it's kill. Before Saren closed the door, he was able to make out two things on the armor. The golden emblazoned winged creature, similar to the alien he had killed the other day, held two red stacked circles over it, and something on the aliens collar: "CORDE".
MOTHER Network File Access: Granted
SUBJECT: BURNING-IN
A tactic used by USIF Armored Infantry to enter the field of battle. After boarding a drop ship, they are then flown over the battlefield at unknown altitude in the tens of thousands of meters. From there, they are ejected out of the drop ship via jet propulsion. Traveling at slightly super sonic speeds from exospheric heights requires the constant use of the Patton-Class Powered Assault Armors plasma shielding to allow the Armored Infantry member to pierce the atmosphere in tact.
Once launched and into the lower sections of the atmosphere, the Armored Infantry can then guide themselves to a landing zone to avoid any potential incoming fire. Once they are closer to the ground, they can then activate the Assault Armors jet pack to allow for a smoother landing (as well as longer hang time to adjust landing position), or allow themselves to crash into the ground at terminal velocity (Note: The Assault Armor's nanomuscle structure absorbs all of the impact force) to arrive on the battlefield much quicker.
There is a third option that members of the infamous 8th Armored (aka Section 8) are known to do. They will delay firing their jet packs until the last few moments so they can either impact an enemy soldier or structure to cause massive damage. Captain Corde of the 8th Armored's 1st Recon has been known to use the same technique but instead of relying on the physical impact to kill his target, will use his combat knife when 'tackling' his target to ensure a stealth kill. This particular maneuver has gained the term 'Corded' amongst Armored Infantry personnel as Corde is one of the few members in the USIF able to perform it proficiently.
A/N: So yeah... This chapter just kept getting bigger and bigger. I know I have seriously fucked with Mass Effect canon with the way I killed Desolas, but it's for a good reason. I also felt the need to try and portray Desolas as that older brother we all wished we had, as that is something I think didn't come across in the comics at all. I also figured that since I was killing Desolas non-canonically, I might as well make it as horrific as possible for Saren to witness.
Again I need to stress that this is just an exercise for me to get the idea out of my head, don't expect regular updates.
And I'm done rambling...