A/N Hello, sorry for the long wait, I've been having a bad month.
Anyway, without further ado: Chapter 5.
August 13, 2026
Eden Prime
Cerberus Research Outpost: 1
1 hour before UTN Alert 027
Doctor Marcus Flint frowned at the data pad clutched in his hand, an inspection, here? In the middle of nowhere? He looked around at the modest collocation of buildings that made up Outpost 1, three long movable trailers arranged in a triangle around an elevator going down into the caverns below the surface. If he listened hard enough he could hear the rest of his coworkers in the recreation trailer, talking over a glass of new Zero Volt Vodka.
He grinned as he remembered the stuff, the buzz of electricity that it gave people was pleasant experience when you wanted to forget stuff.
"Incoming transmission." He groaned as this intrusion to his thoughts.
"Patch it through," He said with reluctance, then to the caller. "What do you want Maria?"
"Marcus, you have to come and see this," A worried voice sounded in his hear.
"Maria, I've told you before. I've been over every inch of the place twice, there's nothing down their that can come remotely close to surprising me now." Maria Walker, the youngest person on the small research team of ten, was both a blessing and a curse. She was a genius with technology and biology, but she sometimes lacked commonsense and restraint when she was excited. From her first day here she had almost killed them all twice with her meddling.
"Yeah, I know that," the reply came."But honestly, I found something in section 7. Just please, just come and see it."
"Fine! What is it?"
"No! You need to come down here." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.
"You aren't going to leave me alone on this, are you?
"No."
"Well, why me and not any of the others?"
"Are you kidding me! They're probably to high and drunk to even understand me!" She probably wasn't to far from the truth. Turning to look he could see the trailer visibly shake on its supports and the voices inside turn into cheers. He really didn't want know what was happening in there.
"What happens if I refuse?"
"Then I trash everything down here and shit hits the fan." Her voice had turned threatening. "Get dressed and get down here, now."
"Get dressed," he looked down at his current attire, black T-shirt, jeans and runners. "I don't walk around naked you know."
"You know what I mean, if your not down here in three minutes I start pushing, starting now." The call disconnected, leaving Marcus fuming. That little bitch.
Seeing no other option, he mentally triggered nanite overflow and looked down at his hands. At a rapid pace, tiny black hexagons formed across his skin while his clothes instantly tightened around his body as the nanites they were made of reattached to his skin. The coltan-titanium pieces came next, growing out of the bones that they lay over. The two components merged together seamlessly over his body, forming the advanced hardware that was the nanoshell. Marcus shut his eyes as the overflow reached his head and formed his helmet, opening them to see the familiar sight of his HUD appear in his vision. Reading his thoughts, SECOND put up waypoint on the elevator.
"Yeah, I know, I'm going." He muttered, canceling the waypoint as he stepped on the platform and hit the down button. The elevator silently lowered itself into the ground, it's open sides showing the layers of dirt and rock as it it went deeper. The silence made him reflect on the events of the last two years.
Since humanity entered space Cerberus was far ahead of the UTN in terms of exploration. The Stealth Recon Vessel-01 class Frigate was the main vessel of the privet Cerberus fleet. Developed secretly under the Atlantic ocean in 2025, these small 50 meter, ten man vessels were capable of hiding from the most advanced scanners anywhere. Along with unmatched speed and maneuverability they could easily out-fly and out-hide anything in the UTN fleet. Though their weapons were limited to a single point-to-point plasma cannon and their armor was weak against all kinds of fire, making them less then ideal for hit and run tactics.
Already Cerberus had seven SRV-01cFs in service and had successful mapped out eight mass relay systems surrounding the Sol system. Anything that they found was classified beyond top secret, Marcus personally thought they found other alien civilization that were caught in the reapers "Eezo trap."
"Alert, external temperature decreasing." He looked to the elevator's hand railings and saw a thin layer of frost cover the metal, it hardly surprised him now and cold and other temperatures couldn't touch him through his shell. But it brought his mind to the reason they were here. A Ceph construct, hidden under the surface of Eden Prime.
The descending elevator entered into a large underground cavern, reviling the outer hull of the alien building buried in the rock wall. He had seen the remnants of Ceph hives back on earth, while they were similar this was something completely different. The most prominent difference was the colors, earthbound Ceph constructs were primarily varying shades of grey with red lights. This one was still grey though it had a blueish tint, and any visible lights or glowing power conduits were bright blue.
The elevator shuttered as it hit the bottom, lowering the safety rails allowing Marcus to step out onto a long walkway leading to the entrance. The visible armor was smooth, broken only by the large gash in its side, evidence that the place was attacked at some point. He continued along the walkway, occasionally slipping on patches of ice that had formed on the metal until it lead him to the construct's wound. Entering through the gap he couldn't help but stop and stare, whatever weapon that dealt this blow must be incredibly powerful to carve through 3 meter thick armor.
The gap entered into a large empty cavernous room, dim blue lighting from overhead provided enough light to see an open archway on the far side. His heavy footsteps echoed with each step as he made his way across to the apparent doorway.
"You down here yet?" He jumped at the voice that blared in his ear.
"Dammit Maria!" He shouted, stepping through the archway into a long corridor. "Yes, I'm down here! Just set a waypoint," he finished exasperated. A marker popped up on HUD, 4.5 kilometers from his current location.
"Shit," he sighed before turning left and headed in its general direction.
The entire ship was a maze of twisting hexagon shaped corridors almost four meters tall, grey metal plates covered everything and a dim blue light came from glowing lines across the ceiling. Large closed doors appeared occasionally on ether side, leading to unknown parts of the ship. The entire thing made Marcus nervous, the dim lighting, closed doors that they couldn't open, and no trace of any Ceph at all. The last one worried him most of all, the Ceph never left anything they built unguarded. But so far nether he or anyone else had seen any squid, living or dead.
Ever since this place had been found five months ago by a Cerberus SRV-01cF it had been kept top secret, partially to keep project Eden from being stopped and also to keep the thing from waking up. The UTN was completely in the dark and no one but Harper, the highest Cerberus officers and the few at Outpost 1 knew of its existence. If it had gone public then possibly all colonization efforts would be stopped until the thing was destroyed, and that would be too big of a loss of alien tech when they still had so much to learn on the Ceph. That was the reason that Outpost 1 was so small, it was easy to maintain and not attract the attention of the UTN.
He turned into another corridor, Maria's waypoint was only 2 km away now and apparently she was in what the crew had dubbed the "bedroom" of the ship. With a sinking feeling he quickened his pace to a light run, if she was opening a new door then they could be in big trouble. The bedroom was essentially a corridor full of cryo-chambers that ran on for a good kilometer, and every single one of them was sealed. No one was willing to open one for fear of any Ceph on the inside waking up, but Maria had no such reservations.
He turned again entering the "bedroom". Closed doors now appeared on both sides at regular intervals with frost coating their seams sealing them shut. He could see Maria, now only two hundred meters away down the corridor, kneeling beside one of the doors. He sighed in relief and dropped his speed to walking, she hadn't awoken or blown up anything so everything was alright, for now.
"Took you long enough," she said as he drew near.
"Traffic was bad," he joked.
"Ha ha ha, you crack me up." She leaned her head forward in concentration, only then did he notice that she had removed a panel from the wall beside the cell and was fiddling with something inside.
"You know you're not allowed to do that, right?" He motioned to the panel on the floor.
"I know."
"And your not going to stop, are you?
"Good deduction Sherlock." Marcus sighed in frustration, sometimes it was impossible to make her listen to sense or orders.
"OK," he said ignoring her insult. "You called me down for something, what is it?" Maria delicately removed her hands from the hole in the wall, before standing and motioning down the corridor.
His gaze followed her finger down the hall to the specified door and his blood froze in his veins, the door was torn apart. He slowly approached, now regretting his choice to not bring a gun of some kind.
The damage was worse than he had originally thought. Plasma had melted the inside of the door and something had clawed its way out of the hole, yet he couldn't clarify if it was Ceph at all. The claw marks around the edges were too long and deep to be anything related.
Though he had only fought the Ceph in a lab, trying to counter the early spore, he had seen pictures and these marks were unlike anything he had ever seen.
He tentatively reached out a hand and gripped the edge of the hole. It was still slightly warm.
"Its just been made recently," said Maria appearing by his side. "But look at what's inside."
Marcus lifted his eyes and saw the strangest piece of machinery he had ever seen. It was a thick tripod with a long spike sticking out of the top with a dull grey color and covered in Ceph body fluids and flesh. He gagged as a terrible smell hit his nostrils before his helmet filtered them out.
"What is that thing," he asked standing away from the hole. "And when did the cryo quit? Shit it smells bad!"
"Answering in order, I have no idea but I thought you would know. The cryo chamber shut down around two hours ago and I know it smells bad."
"How do you know it was two hours ago?"
"That was when my shift ended, I had just gotten back to the elevator when I realized I'd forgotten something here. I came back to get it and found this," she motioned to the hole again.
"Could the cryo have shut off before then?"
"I don't see how, the chamber was still active when I was here earlier."
Taking hesitant steps, Marcus climbed through the hole and approached the device. With his visor activated he began to run a basic scan, looking for clues it might have.
"Scan complete, processing... Alien genetic signatures detected... Alert! Genetic irregularities detected. Sample required for further annalists."
"Anything," he heard Maria call from outside the chamber.
"Just a minute," he called back before he returned his focus to his AI. "SECOND, scan the device and cross reference it to everything in available data banks."
"Scan complete, processing..." Across his vision images of random objects appeared and vanished at breakneck speed as SECOND searched for anything resembling the device.
"Cross reference complete, match found. File: Sovereign interior – section 23." A picture of a cluster of spikes appeared surrounded by the dim lighting of the reaper's internal workings.
"Reaper," he muttered to himself, confused. What was a reaper artifact doing on a Ceph ship?
"Well what is it," Maria asked again from outside.
"Its reaper, I think." He called back beginning to examine the device in more detail. "Couldn't you have scanned it earlier and saved me the trouble?"
"I'm not high enough to access anything over security level 3," her voice became muted as she moved back down the hall. "That's way too low for any reaper stuff."
He nodded in silent agreement as he reached out a hand and poked a large clump of Ceph flesh hanging on the spike, allowing SECOND to get it's sample.
"Genetic sample acquired, processing..." He withdrew his hand and studied the small clump of flesh that stuck to his finger. Whatever color it might have had was gone, replaced by a lifeless grey that seemed so unnatural, even for Ceph. He was about to leave when a question came to mind.
"SECOND, did Sovereign ever say anything about the Ceph?"
"Negative."
"Nothing at all?"
"Negative."
"Broaden search parameters to any reaper databanks currently decoded."
"Processing... … … Negative."
"That doesn't make sense," he muttered to himself. "The Ceph have been on earth for millions of years, how could the reapers miss a species that advanced for so long?"
"Unknown." He sighed, wishing for the silence of his thoughts from before the Ceph invasion.
Making a dismissive gesture he flicked the clump of flesh back at the spike before he exited the chamber. Pushing his questions to the back of his mind, he approached Maria who was back to working at the hole where he'd first found her.
"So..." He drawled out, coming up behind her. "If the problem was back there, why this so important?"
He gestured to the hole that she was working on.
"Surveillance," she replied remaining focused on her work.
"On what?"
"On whatever is in this cryo-chamber," she nodded her head to the door next to her.
"Why?"
"Because, whatever came out of that," she nodded towards the broken door behind him. "Came here, tore off the panel and fried the controls for this room." She twisted her body away allowing him a view inside of her working space.
Her hands were buried in a writhing mass of clear tentacles buried in the back off the hole. As he watched, sparks jumped from her hands onto the mass and the places where they landed flared bright blue momentarily before it grew dark again.
"Bio-mechanical circuitry," Maria explained, resuming her original position and blocking his view. "It took awhile to clean out most the plasma damage, but after that it just started growing back together. Now all I need to do is send the right signals through... Ah! There we go." In response to hear word, a holographic screen appeared in front of the door, floating just above it's surface.
"Now we're getting somewhere," she said excitedly, rising to her feet and moving towards the screen. Though her mood was instantly put down but a simple fact on the screen.
"Marcus, you wouldn't happen to read alien, would you?" With an exasperated sigh, he went up and began to study the screen in detail.
It was blue, which he had come to expect from everything in this place. The small 1 by 1 foot screen was filed with neatly organized rows of Ceph runes and he couldn't help but marvel at them. The runes were completely unintelligible, but their form and the way the individual strokes flowed together in a complete unbroken sentence across the screen was amazing. It was like someone looking at Chinese or Japaneses for the first time, admiring it but completely unable to understand.
"We have speech translation software," he said slowly. "But I don't think anything we have will be able to translate this."
"When did that come come out," she asked surprised.
"It was with the latest SECOND upgrade, Cerberus standard. Didn't you read the description?"
"No, its like the terms of use thing in any video game installation, no one ever reads that anymore."
"True." He reached out towards the hologram when suddenly the floor under them shook violently, sending them stumbling around. Struggling to keep his balance, Marcus shot out his hand to door through the hologram in an attempt to steady himself. But the hologram in his way instantly solidified when he made contact and his hand landed on a line of script before he was tossed to the ground. The shaking continued on for a few more seconds before it subsided and then disappeared all together.
"No injuries detected, clear to proceed."With a groan, he slowly rose to his feet and offered a hand to Maria who was still on the ground. She was about to take it, when her head turned towards the hole she had been working in.
"That's never happened before," she said worriedly. The hole was filled with a glowing blue light. Kneeling down, he saw that the tentacles in the back were glowing and pulsating light in a steady rhythm. With growing dread he looked down the corridor, every single door now had a holographic screen and the lights above were on at full strength. Full power had been restored.
A beeping sound drew his attention to the screen in front of him, the line of script he'd hit was flashing red. Then with a final beep, the screen vanished and with pops and cracks ice that had built up around the door's edges began to break off and fall to the ground.
"Oh shit."
The door let out a loud clacking sound of locks being disengaged before it slid upwards into the ceiling with a hiss. A thick mist flowed out of the chamber, blinding the two of them monumentally before it cleared and reveled what was inside.
A Ceph Commander.
They both jumped back expecting an attack, but none came. The commander was being held up in a standing position above the floor in the middle of the chamber. Suspended by thick chains around it's arms that connected to the ceiling. It's eye sockets were dark, showing that it was still asleep or something like it.
"Does it look, different to you?" Maria's voice was little more then a whisper beside him. But yes, it did look different from the rest.
It's chest was more heavily armored by three metal plates, each one had an alien rune engraved in it's surface. The gelatinous mass that made up it's body was a deep blue, the color of the ocean. It also had no built in weaponry, or at least he couldn't see any that were visible.
"It doesn't matter," he whispered back. "We should just kill it now, before it wakes up and alerts the others."
She was about to reply when they heard a low groan come from the hanging figure, like something gargling water. Slowly its eyes began to glow, not the usual red but a hard ice blue. It's visible mechanical fingers twitched then curled into fists, but it didn't make a sound. It's eyes powered up to full strength now fully awake and it stared at them, as if almost surprised to see them.
They stared at each other, no one wanting to break eye contact for fear of the other making a move. Then the Ceph began to speak it's unintelligible language of clicks, whirs and electric noises, then paused as if waiting for an answer. When none came it spoke in a louder voice and used a shorter sentence as if to say, answer me.
"SECOND, can you translate that?" Maria asked quietly.
"Translation software initialization, stand by." The alien was speaking again, it's tones coming close to shouting.
"Initialization complete."
"...ANSWER ME!" The voice came suddenly in their ears making them jump slightly.
"What was your question," Marcus asked stepping forward, but it wasn't his voice that came out. Clicks and whirs took the place of the English he thought he was speaking, voicing his question in a recognizable language to the alien.
"Who and what are you?" The alien's voice sound mechanical coming through SECOND but it sounded like bear growling in anger. But he could hear the tones of an old war veteran, one who has seen far too much bloodshed in his life.
"Our names don't matter, but I though you know what we are, squid." The Ceph drew it's head back, obviously confused.
"We have never encountered your race, not even before the dark age."
"Bullshit," Marcus growled. "Your kind nearly destroyed humanity, killing every man, women and child that stood in your way." The commander's eyes glowed brightly as if he was widening them in shock.
"Impossible! My clan would never..." It's eyes dimmed as it realized something, then they darkened completely and it's hands clenched into fists.
"FATHERS CURSE THE VOLKASAK!" It shouted explosively, shaking in fury, making Maria shrink back. "MAY THEY BURN IN UNQUENCHABLE FIRE FOR THEIR DEEDS!" It ended with something between a gasp and sob. Marcus looked about nervously, afraid that the alien's shouts had awoken something else, but everything up and down the corridor was still. The commander lowered it's head to it's chest, it's eyes still "shut" tight.
"So," it said quietly. "It is my destiny, to atone for the sins of my people. My brothers!" It spat the last word out as if tasted bad.
Before anyone could say anything else the floor once again shook, sending the two humans to the ground and the alien swinging. The shaking continued on for a good minute before it finally stopped.
"Uh... What was that?" Marcus groaned, rising to his feet and helping up Maria beside him.
"The ship's stasis cycle has ended," the alien replied, looking around anxiously. "It has risen from it's tomb after millions of years waiting."
"This is a ship," Maria asked amazed.
"Indeed." A sound carried from far down the corridor, heavy footsteps stomping towards them. The alien appeared troubled.
"My fallen brothers awaken," it turned to them urgently. "Soldiers of humanity, my brothers will show your kind no mercy. Whatever dwellings you have on this world will be destroyed and your people slaughtered, but I can stop this from happening!" The footsteps were growing louder, from far off down the corridor Marcus saw a lumbering shape coming slowly closer.
"How," he asked sceptically, looking back to the Commander.
"While the crew is infected the ship remains pure, though it remains under their control. They will use to bombard your settlement from above, your people will stand no chance. But from the command deck I can regain control from them and stop this madness!"
"What are they infected with," Maria asked in a hushed voice. The thing down the hall was growing closer by the second.
"The curse of the machines." It strained it's head to the side, listening to the approaching footsteps, before imploring them more urgently. "The crew is not in their right minds, they will slaughter us all when they find us. Please, you must release me!"
"You could be lying to save your own skin," Marcus replied weakly, glancing back and forth between the moving mass and the alien in front of him.
"Genetic sample processed. Reaper implants detected. Further results pending." Marcus started at SECOND blaring in his ears, but he couldn't care less about that now. The thing coming down the corridor he recognized as a Ceph Devastator, but with a few horrific enhancements. Its mini-gun had appeared to be cannibalized and its parts used to make three long serrated claws on it's right hand. Pieces of it's chest armor were torn off reveling it's gel like body, it had turned a clear grey and reaper implants were visible throughout its entire body, some even covering it's armor.
The Devastator stopped a couple meters down the corridor and seemed to evaluate them, it's claws clenched and twitched in anticipation. The Commander had grown more desperate, tugging at the chains that bound it and begging them to release it.
"Why do you care if we live or die?" Marcus asked, nervously eying the Devastator's cannon. If it used that they were all dead.
"My people have wronged yours greatly. This is the least I can do, to atone for the shame that their sins bring."
The Devastator roared, it's normal sounds being combined with another sound, a rising screech that seemed to ring in his skull. Then it charged at them.
"Maximum armor." Marcus grabbed Maria by the shoulders and threw her into the open chamber, just a split second before the Devastator swung it's claw arm and backhanded him down the corridor.
"Energy levels depleted." He groaned while lying on his back, he wasn't cut out for this, he was a scientist not a soldier. He rolled onto his front and crawled to his feet.
Another roar came from behind him and he was brutally slammed into the wall by another swing, he gasped in pain as he felt his bones break from the blow. He rebounded off the wall and hit the floor, unable to hold his painfully screams as broken ribs made contact with the ground.
"Energy restored. Maximum armor." He panicked when he felt the Devastator's claws wrap around his chest and he was lifted off the floor, before being slammed back down.
"Energy levels 20%" It lifted him again and slammed him down, making an indent in the metal floor.
"Energy levels depleted." It slammed him down again and again and again. His visor cracked and every bone in his body shattered and screamed in protest.
It slammed him down one last time before he felt it release it's hold on his chest and he fought to hold back screams of agony as it's serrated claws cut through the his nanoshell and deep into his skin. Then with a final tug it flipped him onto his back.
He groaned in agony, SECOND had pumped his body full of painkillers but that could only do so much. Through his cracked visor he saw the Devastator leering down at him, it's red eyes glowing in stark contrast to it's clear gel. Then it's body leaned back as it's massive foot positioned itself above his head.
"Well... Shit." Marcus croaked out before the foot slammed down, crushing his skull like a grape. Blood flowed over the floor as his body went limp and his life fled from his body in a fountain of blood.
The Devastator removed it's foot and sniffed the corpse, satisfied that it was dead it turned back up the corridor. There were two more organics alive that needed to be silenced, Harbinger demanded it.
oOoOoOo
Maria hit the ground hard, landing the commander's feet. She looked back just in time to see Marcus get backhanded and the Devastator following his trajectory.
"Free me human, or we all die!" She looked up into the alien's glowing eyes, they radiated both concern and hatred as it glared at the Devastator's back.
"How," she asked panicked. The chains were too thick for her to break even with maximum strength and the controls that she couldn't read were back outside with that, thing.
"Use my knife, hurry!" It raised it leg as it spoke and a strange tube fell from it to floor in front of her. Its was six inches long and one across, with a line running across the top cylinder. In slight confusion, she grabbed it and a 7 inch long straight plasma blade strung into life. She jumped as a loud bang carried down the corridor, followed by a shout of pain.
Griping the knife, she rose to feet and reached up the chains holding it's left arm. She didn't know why she was doing this but the Devastator would kill her instantly, and this Commander might just be telling the truth.
The metal hissed and melted when she put the plasma blade to a link. The thick metal was highly resilient to plasma it seemed, for the small blade was having a hard time cutting it and after three seconds it was only halfway through.
With a final hiss, the blade cut through the final sliver of metal. Loud continues bangs began to fill the corridor followed by groans and screams. The commander pulled at the chain and the broken link bent apart until the chain broke. It's arm fell to its side as half the chain landed on the floor in a jumbled heap.
With new fire in it's eyes, the commander reached across to it's right hip where a larger cylinder hung waiting. The commander grabbed it and meter long plasma blade sprung in being. With a quick swipe the chain holding it's other arm fell away and the alien crouched down before her.
"Thank you, human. I am in your debt." It said with complete sincerity.
A wet crunch drew both their heads to the corridor followed by heavy stomping coming their way.
"Stay here, human." The commander growled. "This is my fight." It ran out in to the corridor chains still dragging at it's arms, plasma blade active.
She watched as the commander stopped in the middle of the corridor, the footsteps of the Devastator paused then it roared and she heard it charge. The commander didn't seem troubled by this, for it crouched down in a ready position. Then it jumped high over the charging Devastator, dodging it's clumsy downward swipe with an impressive display of acrobatics.
It landed behind it on all fours, then almost too fast for her to follow, whirled around and stabed it's blade into the Devastator's exposed back. The blade sunk in to the hilt and the Devastator screamed in agony as the plasma burned into its back, boiling the water and blood inside the gelatinous mass. It's claw arm reached behind trying desperately to remove the blade, but was unable to reach it. With a final groan its body burst apart, steam, boiling liquids and reaper implants spilled out on to the floor. Deprived of it's pilot, the huge metal suit fell to the ground with a crash that echoed up the corridor.
"Forgive me, brother." The commander's voice was just above a whisper. "May you find peace in the oceans of the afterlife." It stood in silent remorse over the corpse for a few moments, before it reached down and retrieved it's plasma blade from where it had fallen on the floor.
"Come human," it said beginning to walk away. "We can still save your people on this planet, but we must hurry!"
"All right," she replied uncertainty, she rose to her feet and cautiously followed it down the corridor. She tried hard not to stare at the remains of Marcus as they passed by.
"Where is the command deck," she asked trying to break some of the tension between them.
"In the heart of the ship, no more then eleven kilometers from us."
"Eleven kilometers," She gasped out. "How large is this ship?"
"Thirty five kilometers lengthwise and two across. But this is only a small dreadnought, the largest ones can reach the sizes of planets."
She stared around with a new sense of awe, this was small? Bullshit! She was about to make a comment when the ship rumbled beneath them. It stopped after a second, but the commander paused and looked about anxiously.
"They have found your settlement," it said at last turning to her. "Are you capable of warning them, human?" She nodded.
"Good, do so." It turned around and began to walk away, with a mental shrug she followed.
"SECOND, how high up are we," she asked quietly.
"Sixty kilometers above sea level."
"Send out general alert 027, all channels and frequency's."
"Processing..."
"Also, was anything received from Outpost 1 when the ship powered up?"
"Negative. Possible conclusion: Outpost 1 has been terminated."She shut her eyes, fighting back tears. They had all become good friends in their short time studying this place, to hear that they all died was too much for her.
"Have you warned them yet, human." The alien asked looking back, completely oblivious to her emotional state. Unable to speak, she just nodded and it understood.
"Good." They had turned into another long corridor with shut doors appearing occasional on ether side. But the commander appeared to be looking for a very specific one.
"If memory serves me well, a weapons locker should be here somewhere...Ah!" It stopped in front of a door and began to tap the holographic screen, unlocking it.
"Human..."
"Stop calling me human!" She interrupted rudely, her emotions getting the better of her. "My name is Doctor Maria Walker of Cerberus Research Branch 11, and I would appreciate it if you used it!" The commander's head slowly turned to stare at her, it's eyes were blazing with something she couldn't determine.
"Whats yours?" She asked in a quite and humble voice under it's withering gaze. After a few more seconds it turned back to the screen, and she had become sure it wouldn't answer when it did.
"I am Xar'Karoth of clan Halkava, High Templar of the Kalisk Order and captain of the dreadnought Black Depths, at your service."
oOoOoOoOo
The command center was a frenzy of activity, technicians in full nanoshells scurried around, transferring data between each other and comparing notes while marines shouted orders to their underlings above the noise.
"I knew I should have stayed on earth." Miranda muttered angrily to herself as she shoved through a group of technicians clumped around a terminal.
When she and Gould picked up Alert 027 they had immediately returned to New Vegas in the VTOL, it was also another time she was impressed with Gould work. The WarHammer almost kept pace with the VTOL, reaching running speeds of almost 210 kmph. Needless to say they got back pretty fast.
She shoved through another group as they yelled in protest, adding to the noise level. She glanced up to her target, Colonel G, Rodgers stood atop a podium in the center of the command center, shouting out orders to everyone in range.
She growled in irritation as she got stuck in a crowd of yammering techs and had to force her way through, it was like swimming through quicksand that was always getting in your way.
She final got to the foot of the podium after pushing through a startled privet handing out datapads. The Colonel looked down and eyed her thoughtfully.
"Miss Lawson, a pleasure you could join us!" He yelled over the noise, stepping down to her level.
"Whats the situation Colonel?" Miranda yelled back.
"Aliens, that's what!" He walked over to a blank terminal and the screen lit up showing the wavelength of the 027 transmission.
"But," he continued. "We found the sender of the alert, a Doctor M, Walker. Last time I read the roster she was part of Cerberus, know anything about this?!" His visor glared at her accusingly.
"We have a visual!" The shout came from somewhere in the churning throng and interrupted her reply. Everyone fell silent as a large overhead screen flickered to life and the footage from an Orbital Planetary Assessment Drone appeared on the screen.
It was flying high in the upper atmosphere so that the land was spread out like a map, and in the center of that map was a dark rectangle was slowly moving across the screen.
"Bring the drone in closer and get us a better look." The Colonel ordered and the technicians jumped to obey.
The drone zoomed in on the object at a dizzying speed until it hovered directly over the object. Every one gazed at the thing with visible fear. The thirty five kilometer long hulk was covered in the all too familiar sharp and flowing edges of a Ceph construct, but this was the largest one they had ever seen. A bright flash on the ship drew everyone's attention, and they all watched as a bright ball of plasma flew up from the ship heading straight for the drone. The last thing the drone saw was the glowing blue ball rushing up to the camera before all connection was lost and the screen burst into static.
"Gentlemen," the Colonel's voice snapped everyone out of their frozen state. "We will not lose our heads over this. Comms, send an SOS to earth tell them whats happening. Major, ready the defenses. I want everyone armed and loaded in 20 minutes. Tactical, how much time before it arrives."
"We estimate two hours sir," someone shouted. The Colonel nodded.
"More then enough time. Snap to it people!" The command center erupted into action as everyone ran to carry out their duty's.
Miranda was about to leave when the Colonel grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her close.
"I don't know why but somehow I can't help but think you and Cerberus are responsible for this." He hissed in her helmet's audio receptors. "Whether you are directly responsible or not, I have no idea. But know this. If your Cerberus is responsible for waking that thing up, then the blood of those who will die are on your hands. With that he turned away leaving her to contemplate his words.
A/N For those of you who will scream at me that i got the ceph all wrong, and that their supposed to a hive mind and mindless killers and they come from another galaxy. I KNOW.
But the ceph are just so underrated in every single crysis crossover i've read, you'll hear about them briefly for one or two sentences then they are cut out of the story. But when i thought about returning them to power I thought, why not make their story deeper beyond the mindless killing and conquering. Also they make a rather fine addiction to the mass effect galaxy when you come to think about it, distant cousins of the hanar maybe. So please, i ask you to bear with me on this and i will try to have the next chapter up as soon as possible, i'm still having a time with work.
Also i'm looking for Beta readers, so PM me or however it works if your interested.
(I own nothing)