A/N: Apologies for the blather. This is what happens when I try to socio-political. Also, really sorry about the delay. I'm suffering from a horrendous amount of writer's block at the moment.
###
Hominem regnat, firma contra extraneum.
Man reigns, firm against the alien.
The words emblazoned on the wall underneath the orange hexagon of Cerberus in the command room of Cronus Station had an air of ominous certainty about them, a promise that no creature on the station would rest until the prophecy on the wall was a statement of fact. And with every day that passed the Illusive Man could feel that goal slipping further and further away.
He had started the organisation Cerberus after he served in the gruelling and savage three year battle of Seu'Tseuma, determined that another alien power could never grow to the point where they threatened his species. It was through his intervention that the Raachok Union's military shipyards were outsourced to Human-run construction firms and a handful of bombings every now and then ensured the Atavira nations stayed at each other's throats, while a couple of greased pockets or threats ensured the periodic motions to increase the political status of the Seu'Neue government never made it through a vote. However, the playing field had changed dramatically when the Citadel Council came on the scene.
In the Turians, Humanity had gained a staunch ally with military power almost equal to the combined Human nations and despite his best efforts he was unable to prevent his species from pissing away their technological superiority to their alien friends. Then, instead of using the Batarian attack he instigated to crush the Hegemony, drive a rift between Earth and the Citadel and drum up a healthy undercurrent of xenophobia, the USA and USSR ripped the Hegemony off the Batarians and adopted their underclass as yet another alien element affecting their politics and weakening them from within, not to mention the Krogan, Quarians and Geth.
At least he could take pleasure in watching the slow downward spiral of five alien species. The Asari were leading the way down the can, dragging the Salarians, Hanar, Drell and Elcor with them. The credibility of the Council was based on a policy of technological and social domination from the Asari and Salarians backed up by the military might of the Turians. With technology in use by the Turians diverging from the Prothean stream tech used by the rest of the Council and Turian culture becoming more independent from the Asari mainstream thanks to Earth bloc influences, the Asari had lost their social and technological domination and with the support of the Turian military becoming less and less of a guarantee with every day the threat of Council intervention was no longer taken as seriously as it used to be.
Economically speaking the Asari were losing out as well. Although the eezo market was still dominated by Thessian corporations the demand for eezo was in decline as the Hierarchy and the Vol Protectorate's requirements were drastically reduced by the advent of alternate technologies from the Earth bloc, and more recently the Hierarchy's own rejuvenated scientific community. In theory, the loss should have been offset by the opening up of Earth bloc markets, but labyrinthine Atavira contract laws ensured that the significantly smaller Earth bloc eezo market was dominated by Emaris, acting as a completely separate economic entity from Thessian eezo ventures.
Ironic, he felt, that he was torn between two paths. On the one hand he would love nothing more than to see the Council in all its arrogance torn apart at the seams. On the other hand he wanted the Turians to fall with them, become subservient to humankind instead of equal to them. In that respect he found himself in a separate camp to the mainstream Earth bloc government, who wanted to tear down the Council by making the Turians part of the Earth bloc. The Asari had held together the Council by creating a polyglot yet primarily Asari culture, absorbing new species into the collective shaped to their designs. The Humans held together the Earth bloc by a single tenet - diversity. The Human race was the single most diverse species out there, both genetically and culturally, and it was with that mindset that they functioned. Not by absorbing Turian culture, but by embracing it as an alternative.
He had to admit, the Earth Bloc had been clever in how they had started to integrate the Turians. It had taken less than ten years for them to grow fed up of the Treaty of Fairxen and start to wilfully ignore it, but once the USSR gifted a pair of battlecruisers to the Hierarchy the Turians hadn't particularly minded, leaving the Council's vocal protest an empty threat when the Turian councillor had refused to lend his support to the resolution. Another example was a system of several high profile mergers between Earth bloc and Volus corporations, the new mega-conglomerates putting a great deal of economic pressure on the previous leaders in the fields.
The slow yet inexorable drawing together of Human and Turian had left the Illusive Man with no other choice if he wanted to break up this alliance. He turned to his console and hit the comm link.
"Nazara. I have some new targets for you."
###
Nicassar Belk was surprisingly polite for a Krogan, thought Matriarch S'Zomo as she followed the tour group around the Alliance capital of Mah Kroga. The name literally translated to 'Cradle of the Krogan', an arrogant yet surprisingly accurate descriptor for the place. It was certainly impressive, in particular the grand Alliance Hall with its clan statues and ornately carved stone balconies. She had to admit the sight of a group of Krogan children playing a Human game called rugby was quite endearing even when their tackles involved hitting the opponent on the floor repeatedly. Nevertheless she had a mission. She was to gather as much intelligence as possible on the state of the Krogan's weapon development. The 'diplomatic demonstration' was surely the best venue.
"Okay then!" Forget polite. This Krogan was peppy. "Through here you can see some of our Terminus infantry dreadnought armour. As I'm sure most of you are aware from the after action reports these units were instrumental in the capture of the Collector cruiser currently docked at a secret US/USSR research station."
Matriarch S'Zomo blinked once. For a matriarch schooled in keeping her emotions totally concealed that was the equivalent of a dead faint. Looking around the group, she noticed that the Salarian, Hanar and Elcor delegations were all staring dumbly while the Turian and Earth Bloc groups were merely nodding in acknowledgement. She wasn't sure why she was surprised, to be honest. It seemed that being in the band, if you will, was highly dependent on whether or not the entity was a signatory of the Hyper-Relativistic Technology Regulation treaty. Several other treaties signed by the Earth Bloc and the Turians were dependant on the recipient being a signatory of HRTRT, or as it was often known, Har-Tart. These included, among others, the Mutual Military Security Pact, the Interstellar Trade Agreement, the Sensor and Intelligence Disclosure Treaty and the Official Secrets Act. Nevertheless she thought it was a little unfair that the Krogan Alliance weren't signatories of the Har-Tart yet seemed to be included in this little plot. Then again it was the Krogan who had captured the ship. She tuned back in to what the tour guide was saying.
"Here we have several examples of the Infantry Dreadnought armour. I'm going to hand over to Squad Leader Raik Damo."
The black crested Krogan that stepped in front of the group was a muscled monster of a specimen and despite herself S'Zoma felt her hormones get going. The whole trip had brought back fond memories of her time on Tuchanka during her Maiden years. It had certainly toughened her up for two hundred years of commando service but she had also spent a significant time interacting with the locals. After all, from where she had stood (or lay, or was bent over upon) the Krogan had been one of the most exciting species in the galaxy. Raw savagery, strength and power the likes of which she had never encountered before. The fond memories were parcelled away to the back of her mind. She was no longer that blushing, or perhaps slutty was a more accurate descriptor, maiden. She was a Matriarch. One who was determined to improve relations between her people and the Earth bloc by any means necessary.
"You can see here several examples of ID armour with various weapons which all have different roles in an engagement. This is our basic ID weapon, the Gorgon automatic cannon."
The enormous three barrelled weapon was honestly terrifying. That was an infantry weapon?
"We've done away with the basic ammunition block system for this weapon, going for an old Human concept called the magazine. These boxes contain physical bullets which we accelerate to the same velocity as the Earth bloc Mattock, slightly slower than the Turian Phaeston."
He took out a bullet from one of the magazines and held it up for them to inspect.
"This is an airbursting fifteen millimetre thermal fragmentation shell with an inbuilt proximity sensor. The shrapnel it releases is hot enough to melt through conventional light vehicle armour. You'll be able to see these in action during the demonstration later today. You can see on the thighs of the ID armour we have Claymore shotguns modified to fit the armour's gauntlet for use as a sidearm."
S'Zoma examined the other weapons on the rack. As well as a plethora of heavy weapons, including one that had a menacing cluster of barrels, what looked like a vehicle mounted flamethrower, two she could only guess at the purpose of and some sort of missile pod, she could see what were unmistakably melee weapons. An enormous midnight black sword that had strange curved patterns etched into the blade that glowed faintly red, what looked like several brand new double size versions of the Warlord Hammer and most worryingly a pair of gauntlets with four long blades sprouting from each, the blades easily as long as her outstretched arms. She turned back and listened to the Krogan soldier giving a very brief description of each weapon.
"Now ladies and gentlemen, if you'll follow me to the demonstration room we have almost a thousand LOKI mechs to destroy during the demonstration of the Terminus warrior's capabilities."
S'Zoma followed the rest of the dignitaries into the viewing gallery overlooking an enormous hall.
"As you can see down there we have eight warriors wearing Terminus ID armour. The first up will be Urdnot Kastiel. He'll be demonstrating the Gorgon rifle. Then we have Orkalas Skavac with the Heavy Gorgon, Kellar Tencton with the Annihilator flamethrower, Ravanor Korm with the Ether rifle, Ravanor Midras with the Ether cannon, Raik Eanyak with the Mawskull missile launcher, Kabassai Venk with the Varren Claws and Drogal Efrag with the Mass Multiplier Hammer."
S'Zoma settled herself in her seat as the first Krogan stepped forward and dropped to one knee, bringing his Gorgon to a firing stance as a phalanx of at least fifty LOKI mechs approached his position.
"In each example we have fifty factory default LOKI mechs armed with basic Predator or Shuriken weapons and then the next wave of fifty will be programmed to simulate tactics used by various militaries across the galaxy. As an example the second wave Kastiel will be facing will be programmed to simulate a Turian platoon."
The Loki mechs started moving.
"Fire when ready, Kastiel."
The mechs started to advance, bringing their weapons up to a firing stance and pinging rounds at the crouching Krogan. Kastiel responded by flicking a switch on his rifle.
"He's set it to three round burst fire."
He squeezed the trigger and the weapon roared. S'Zoma was focused on the rifle so she missed what happened when its shells impacted on the mechs a split second later. When she looked around at least five mechs were gone, replaced by a smear of robotic parts and machine oil. The rifle boomed again and S'Zoma almost missed the flash as the shells detonated, the white hot shrapnel painting streaks across her vision as the unfortunate Lokis disintegrated. She blinked away the afterimage just in time to hear a long rattle as the Gorgon fired on full auto. The poor mechs didn't stand a chance as their ranks lit up, every single one obliterated by the raw firepower poured at it.
"Kastiel expended all three of the weapon's magazines on those mechs so he needs to reload. As you can see he has six magazines. Each one contains thirty shells. He removes the empty ones and inserts them into the slots on his backpack. The back mounted ammunition store will replenish those magazines. In the meantime he takes the other set of magazines and inserts them into his weapon."
The matriarch leaned forwards and watched as the Krogan demonstrator reloaded the rifle. The next wave of mechs used standard Turian cover-by-cover advance, with a central block, two flanking squads and a rearguard. They lasted about three minutes against the raw power of the Gorgon. S'Zoma quietly mused that she should mentally reclassify Krogan Terminus Armour as a medium tank.
The next weapon along was an enormous six-barrelled rotary cannon that fired Gorgon shells directly from the user's back mounted ammo store. The bullets came out so quickly the weapon fire looked more like a solid beam than individual shells. The mechs hardly stood a chance. Likewise, the enormous flamethrower sent gouts of white flame almost thirty metres, melting through the mechs with disturbing ease. The next pair of weapons fired strange red beams, the first one wielded like a semi-automatic rifle and the next one looking like it belonged on a frigate. The shoulder mounted missile racks were equally devastating, sending blasts of white hot shrapnel scything through ranks of mechs.
Finally, the two melee weapons. The so called 'Varren Claws' proved exceptionally adept at dismembering mechs, leaving behind droplets of melted mech armour as they blurred through the air. Honestly, S'Zoma couldn't imagine it being possible to defeat the Varren Claws in a one on one melee. The blades moved almost too quick to dodge and judging by the amount of heat the armour had taken she doubted even an Omniblade could pierce it. The hammer was something else. Each blow created a flash of light and made the entire room rumble, craters appearing where mechs had once stood. Each time the hammer fell it struck with the force of a crashing aircar, more than enough to put a medium tank out of commission. She leaned forwards as the Krogan demonstrators gathered around, hearty backslaps and jokes filling the air. The one with the varren claws mimed something and the others laughed uproariously. S'Zoma wasn't sure what to make of these new Krogan.
###
A light flashed inside the Normandy's cargo bay as the six members of the strike team anxiously gripped the handles of their drop harnesses. Anderson glanced across to Saren and rolled his eyes.
"Christ, Arterius, you really come up with the craziest ways of deploying to a planet, you know that?"
Saren quirked an amused mandible.
"Would you believe me if I said I made a bet with Spectre Bau about it?"
Anderson blinked twice.
"Yes. If it's you we're talking about, I'd believe just about anything."
Meanwhile Ash looked across to Kaidan's drop harness, examining the element zero thrusters integrated into the sleek frame.
"It looks much cooler than it did in the picture."
Kaidan shrugged and adjusted the shoulder mounted weapon mounts.
"That's because in the picture it didn't have Gatling guns on it."
The light stopped flashing as Lizzie turned to Garrus.
"Tally ho."
Garrus glanced across at her, his face arranged into an expression of mock horror.
"Hold me."
Then the floor of the cargo bay disappeared and they dropped.
Lizzie's common sense was telling her she should be a smear of plasma across the atmosphere but the mass altering tunnel projected by the Normandy was protecting her and her teammates as they dropped towards the surface of Therum. The tandem drop had two operatives to each harness, one in the pilot's position and the other one unceremoniously strapped to their chest. They glanced around, nervous, aside from Saren and Anderson who were whooping with glee.
With a flare of thrusters the teams slammed into the ground, Lizzie, Garrus and Ashley popping off and raising their weapons as the three harness pilots shot off towards the horizon. The plan was for the pilots to make a good deal of noise elsewhere while the stealth team snuck in and scouted out the mine the Collectors seemed very interested in. That plan lasted all of three and a half minutes.
The stealth team were under strict comm silence so they didn't hear Joker's transmission to the distraction team.
"Uh, Captain? We've got a slight problem up here."
###
Cursing, Joker mashed the controls and sent the Normandy into a steep nosedive, a flick of his wrist spinning the ship round on its axis. Reams of code flew across the console to his left as EDI balanced power loads and fuel distribution faster than any organic could aspire to while simultaneously fighting off numerous hack attempts. Confident he had bought himself at least fifteen seconds, Joker turned his attention back to the comm console.
"Three way space battle up here sir! Us, an entire Collector fleet and this annoying as hell stealth corvette that keeps trying to board us! Shit!"
With another deft touch the Normandy flipped end over end, main proton beam cannon spearing out and into a Collector frigate that was moving in on their six. Thrusters shrieking, the ship arrowed out of the atmosphere, the unknown corvette swooping in from the side and unleashing a pair of EM missiles that EDI blew away with the point defence turrets.
"That damn corvette bushwhacked us and clipped us with an EM missile! The discharge triggered the ship's emergency lockdown, half the crew can't get to their stations."
The reply was garbled but Joker got the gist.
"... engaged with heavy Collector ... evasive manoeuvres ... don't get my ship blown up, Moreau, that's an order!"
"It's hot up here, no promises. Going comm silent."
He shut off the comm console, glancing up as light footsteps resolved into crystalline figures.
"This isn't the best time, you two."
Ko and Va wordlessly slid into the two seats either side of Joker, with the larger in the co-pilot's station and the smaller in the gunnery station.
"Taking control of weapon systems. Ko, talk to me."
"Collector frigate bearing zero-three-three nine-zero-one two-seven-four."
Joker nodded, bringing the Normandy round to give Va a good angle with the portside mass driver turrets. The three barrels spat a fusillade of golden ingots that stitched lines of smoking craters in the flank of the hostile ship as they sped past, looping upwards from the plane of the system as the mass driver volley was followed up with a salvo of nuclear torpedoes.
"That corvette's still on our ass. Wait ... Incoming! Brace brace brace!"
The entire ship shook as something slammed into the crew deck. Alarms screamed before being silenced as the boarding pod locked down the hull breach it had caused.
"We have boarders!"
Ko checked his display.
"They're on the crew deck. They can't do much damage there. Re and Su will take care of them."
Joker shrugged.
"If you say so."
###
Kaidan slammed into the rock face hard, thrusters kicking in at the last minute to save him from an impact that would have turned him into something resembling chutney. He kicked off from the cliff, jamming his thumbs down on the triggers and watching in satisfaction as his weapons snarled out his displeasure with the Collectors firing up at him. He was having the time of his life. His kinetic barriers were too strong for small arms alone - anything heavy enough to threaten him was too cumbersome to hit him as he darted through the sky. Saren roared as his own miniguns joined in the attack, menacing clusters of barrels whirring as below him Collectors were split open by the sheer weight of fire he was putting out.
The waves of Collectors slowed to a trickle then stopped altogether, prompting Anderson to descend to ground level as the other two covered him from above. He peered into the cave the Collectors had been emerging from.
"I'm not sure if we got all of them."
He raised one forearm, the Gatling gun attached to it pouring fire into the ceiling of the cave until the whole thing collapsed. Saren chuckled.
"Well, that'll certainly hold them up some. We should find another group to hit."
###
The three Cerberus Phantoms leaped out of the boarding pod, blades in hand as they spread out to cover the deck. Miranda checked her helmet display.
"Move out, pacify the crew. Take the target alive."
Her two squadmates moved out, each one taking a different vector. She could hear muffled thumps as her team knocked out every crewmember they came across. She poked her head round a corner then withdrew, having caught a glimpse of the face she was after.
"Target located."
She didn't have time to wait for the others. She activated her stealth shroud and stepped round the corner. Jack turned to look straight at her. Of course the kid couldn't see her, her stealth shroud rendered her invisible ...
"I had a feeling you were after the biotic kid."
... What?
###
Su smirked as she let her concentration drop, the image of Jack melting back into her crystalline body. Her natural form distended further, two foot long flensing blades sprouting from her fingers as her arms extended and her legs ripped out of confinement, folded underneath her like springs under tension even as her toes turned into hooked grasping claws. Spikes erupted from her arms and shoulders as a barbed prehensile tail lashed out from her spine. Her face shifted into a demonic visage of horn and tooth, all rendered in psychic crystal. She saw the stealth operative visibly gulp. For somebody whose entire body was one enormous sensory organ she could build up a perfect image just by the minute air displacement caused by the invisible woman.
"Don't bother calling for your backup. They're already behind you. In a manner of speaking, of course."
Miranda turned round, sword raised, to see a second crystalline monster. This one was a thick crimson in colour. No it wasn't, she corrected herself. The crimson was Amili's blood, running over the creature's skin from where she was held, impaled at least a dozen times on the spikes emerging from the creature's back. Celine was held in front of the monster by a claw impaled through her shoulder and hands, whimpering quietly as her arms were held folded painfully behind her by the single crystal blade pinioning her. Looking at her arms, Miranda could instantly tell both were broken in several places.
"C, are you okay?"
Miranda was certain that beneath her faceless helmet Celine was fixing her with what could only be described as a Look.
"Just peachy."
The smaller of the two creatures made a grating sound halfway between a laugh and two Mass Relays having sex.
"Aww, that's cute, they use one letter codenames. Can we kill them?"
The larger one shifted, drawing a fresh whimper from Celine.
"I'm sure the boss man will want to see them. Then I guess we can always send a message."
###
Lizzie held up a fist and her team immediately halted, weapons snapping up and at the ready. She had heard something, she wasn't sure what. A couple of handswipes sent her comrades into cover, weapons coming to bear. Both her and Garrus were trying out the new Collector based rifles she had made, with Ash toting her customary anti-material rifle.
They were all very surprised when an enormous silver-crested Krogan in Blue Suns armour rounded the corner. He looked around and spoke, seemingly to thin air.
"We know you're there. Captain Ocean wants to speak to you."