The Sword of Humanity
Chapter Eight
Council rooms
"Ambassador, we do not know how you obtained this…proof, but it clearly is a forgery!" Sparatus exclaimed. "The Audio logs cannot prove anything, and the other voice? Matriarch Benezia cannot be involved! She is one of the most prominent members on peace-talks with your empire."
Miranda Lawson watched calmly as the Turian councilor spoke. She was dwarfed by the size of her protectors, clad in the Brawler suit and equipped with self-detonating nuclear devices. She was always brushing death, but this didn't mean she would do her job with any less fervor.
She was perfection made human. Her father hadn't created her from nothing to let her make mistakes.
"Ambassador, this doesn't seem anything more than insane rambling," Tevos acquiesced quietly. "Saren is our prime Spectre. He has served the council well and for many years, and unless further proves are brought, there is clearly nothing that we can say about it."
"We understand concerns. Yet Saren not culprit. Forgery of Quarians probable. Their anger at Citadel Races undisputable." Valern spoke next, his voice clipped and to the point.
"We found no sign of lies from the rescued Quarians, and there was no forgery involved," Miranda ground out through gritted teeth. "However, if your claims are correct then should we not have the Spectre in question here, to rebuff the accusations?"
Sparatus snorted.
"He is currently occupied with another Spectre, working on an extremely important mission that is of no concern to Solforce."
Miranda raised an eyebrow.
"You understand that the Director will not take this pleasantly," she calmly stated. "I am sure your Spectre could find the time to write back his defense, unless he is behind enemy lines? In which case, where would he be? The Terminus Systems? Solforce space?"
"Preposterous. We know the rules of the armistice. Spectres are undercover in citadel's space." Valern remarked.
"So how could he speak of the Conduit? How could he speak of the beacon?" Miranda pressed on.
"As said before. Audio near accurate forgery. Normally indistinguishable. We will verify authenticity if pressed but can be nothing less than forged." The Salarian spoke quickly, its eyelids closing and opening a moment later.
"We must take the battle back to the Geth, Councilors. Clearly the way they travel through relays unchecked is dangerous." She began to tap on her Datapad while keeping her eyes trailed on the council. "Maybe because they're machines, you cannot detect them? We will have to send the Terminus System patrolling fleet then…"
"You'd leave us with the threat of the Batarian Slavers!" Sparatus roared.
"Well Councilors, whose fault is it that you cannot seem to come up with a decision?" she replied. "Is Saren a traitor, or not?"
"He is not, and no amount of petty bullying will make the Council change his opinion," Tevos spoke next. "Should any Solforce military vessel pass through the Citadel Space again, we will not hesitate to retaliate."
It was Sparatus who actually added afterwards, with a serious tone.
"You can, however, bring the war to the Geth...as long as no fleet is seen within two system jumps of any Council's races Homeworld."
Miranda brought up an eyebrow for just a second, before a small smile stretched on her lips.
"Then I will give your answer to the Director. Know that, most probably, total war against the Geth will be declared. We thank you for your cooperation and understanding, Councilors..."
There was silence for barely a second…then Miranda Lawson turned and left.
None of the Councilors saw her press a button in her Datapad, giving the go-ahead to the Noveria operation.
Leviathan SFS-001 Normandy
Commander John Shepard narrowed his gaze at the Datapad's news, his eyes scanning both the incoming messages and the holographic display of the galaxy in front of him. From his position on the Command Bridge he could clearly watch the tense shoulders of the officers around him, which probably mirrored his own.
"Feros will be left behind for the moment," he remarked. "Our objective at present is Noveria. We have the all-clear from Central Command! Geth presence detected by Secret Intelligences, activate Protocol Omega, all hands to battle station at all time. Noveria space is to be considered hostile territory until further notice."
"Aye, aye Commander," Joker retorted as he began to pinpoint their location through the console. "How are we coming in?"
"We don't have time to waste," he remarked. "The Eezo supplies bought from Omega will be put to use. Initiate Mass Effect, flight Lieutenant! Get us to Noveria!" John flicked a few holographic buttons, bringing up into the coms the Armory and Magazine supplies.
"Taylor, prepare the Cruisers for hostile encounters. Secondary and Tertiary crews are to be awoken from Cryo-sleep. Fourth crew must commandeer the battle deck, and get the Fifth crew on back-up duty."
He didn't wait for a reply, as he pushed yet one more button to get Engineering.
"Donnelly! Make sure the Anti-Matter's shielded and off-line! We're switching to Mass Effect!"
Another button, another push.
"Chawkas, set Medbay to code Red above!"
Once more, another section of the ship.
"Xavier Module is to come online! Joker section, you are to jam communications upon entrance!" he stood up, closing all windows of communication to open the wide and general one.
"Men and women of Solforce! The Council thinks Humanity blind and deaf! They will face our kind heart no longer! By the orders of the Director of Solforce, we are to initiate retaliation upon the Planet Noveria! All marines respond to Cruiser ship SFS-001 Alpha and prepare for invasion! All Boarding Troops to Cruiser SFS-002 Beta!" He slammed his right hand curled in a fist against the open palm of his left one.
"Geth forces are attacking Feros as we speak. Geth forces are harassing our borders. The Council claims ignorance, but we have received intel that their top operative is cooperating with them! We will show them never to mess with Humanity again! Memento Terra!"
"Hurrah!" the exclamation of the rest of the bridge came back with strength, as there was a flurry of activity as the last check-ups were completed and people moved across the entire Leviathan.
Soon, sparks of blue flew throughout the frame of the ship, while the Mass Relay slammed them through a corridor of Mass Effect towards their destination.
It wouldn't take more than a few hours tops to reach Noveria. Time enough to prepare for a full strike…and get used to the Holo-Tank deeply seated within the Leviathan's private Ai Core.
He walked out of the Commanding Bridge, letting Pressly take the spot of Commanding Officer while he moved to settle into the 'tank'.
The Holotank was, simply put, a glass tube filled with a nerve stimulant liquid that granted the one imbued increased reflexes. It was extremely useful when maneuvering an entire fleet into battle, giving the Commander in charge quite a bit of a time span to make decisions. This also meant he could directly relay orders to the Cruisers, without resorting to the other ship's captains.
"Sir!" a female voice stopped him as he was just about to enter the half-section of the ship, and from there traverse down to the bowels and then back up. "I need permission to deploy!"
"Williams?" he stared at the woman incredulously. "You're still on medical leave! You should be in the med-bay, not out here!"
The two meters tall woman had both hands clutching her assault rifle, as the Brawler suit was apparently already equipped on her. Her face was set in a scowl, as she had yet to lower her visor. "I can fight, sir!"
"You have a cybernetic implant to get used to," John muttered shaking his head. "And your nerves still have to adapt! You're still on painkillers aren't you?" he asked sternly. "You're not going anywhere soldier. Not today."
"But in eight hours I will be fine, sir," she pleaded.
"The answer, Gunnery Chief, is final." He snapped back at her, before turning to the closest attendant on guard. "You! Make sure she gets back in the infirmary. She's on medical-arrest from this moment onwards," he spun once more to face Williams, before she tried to get some words in. "And I swear, Williams, you are close to becoming a Private any moment now. Do not force my hand!"
Snarling curses in his mind, he angrily grabbed the metal ladder that would lead him downwards, and left behind the stunned and silent woman.
He broke into a run, even though he really shouldn't have needed to. He was just about to pass by one of the storage areas, when he stumbled onto Wrex.
"Shepard!" the Krogan exclaimed with a stranger grin. "They told me there's war to be done!" the alien laughed out loud. "This," he held a Datapad in his hands. "Just pinged! Seems we're kicking the council in the balls! The Blood Pack is ready to help!"
John stopped for a moment, narrowing his eyes slightly. "Are you familiar with Boarding Pods?"
"Course we are," Wrex huffed, starting to move his arms open wide to loosen his shoulders. "We all fight close and personal, we of the Blood Pack."
"Good," he snapped his Datapad up and sent a message to Beta. "They'll be expecting you down in hangar bay two. Don't make them wait."
"Ah!" Wrex roared with laughter. "The boys will love it!" the Krogan marched to the nearby door and slammed it open. "Guys! I got us a fight against the council!"
Shepard didn't remain to hear the slander or the cussing, nor the general cries of dubious joy. "Was that wise, Commander?" Edi piped a few terminals away.
"We need to test their strength," he retorted. "See if they can work with humans."
"Understood, Commander," Edi spoke next. "You are too trusting though you were not with the Asari."
"They had no right to look human," he remarked at the next terminal. "Aliens are…aliens. They're cannon fodder, or genetically engineered weapons, but not humans. The Asari had no right to look human."
"Commander? I am not able to compute a logical reasoning," Edi beeped a moment later. "Please explain."
"I don't know," he replied calmly. "It just irks me. We fought Hivers. We fought Zuuls, Morrigi, Liir, Loa and Tarkas. We fought the Suu'lka. We fought Von Neumann machines and horrors of ancient wars. We lost our Homeworld…completely, not like the Quarians…and in the end…in the end we became this." He muttered. "The Asari didn't. They evolved with lifespans long thousands of years, of which they spend hundreds acting like strippers in dingy clubs. A marine trained for three hundred years would be a weapon of murder. Their 'Asari Commandos' are pitiful. Any trained operative could take them down. They do not know suffering, they just bicker about 'peace' and 'everyone should lay down their weapons and join us in trade and mind-rape' and things like that."
"Commander, said parameters are in line with jealousy," Edi remarked.
"They are wasting away their lives," he retorted angrily. "They think the universe is filled with peace and love, and they do not even know what true turmoil is. They fought the Rachni and the Krogan, but never once did they come close to losing their homeworld. The numbers of their deaths? Those are pitiful! A single battle fought on one of the major beachhead colonies has numbers higher than all the deaths in the Rachni wars!"
"Commander, I am merely asking. I do not understand hostility without purpose for one race and acceptance for the other with no reason apparent."
"Edi," John breathed in slowly. "The alien is the enemy. Always. The human is not. Never. The alien may be your friend today and your enemy tomorrow. Do not care for his appearance: use him if needed and discard him when done. In the end all that matters is humanity."
"I see. Commander, if I were to say that all that matters is 'Artificial Intelligence', would I be acting as Solforce or Loa?"
John watched perplexed the flashing orb of blue, before letting the words sink in.
"You'd be acting like the rest of the universe, Edi: selfishness always comes first with the other races. If you had to save yourself by uploading your program to the net or saving a child, you'd save yourself. You can try and claim it was because of self-preservation regulations or laws…but you'd do it. That's being selfish. That's what the rest of the aliens have always been and will always be. They don't see 'Humanity' as equal. The Hivers saw us as food! The Tarka as an inferior race to submit. The Zuul saw us as slaves. The Liir as lab rats! The Morrigi believed us primitives. The Loa wanted to remove the 'excess carbon'. In the end Humanity is alone and will stand alone! Even against one another, even in the face of the direst perils! We refuse to be used again! We refuse to become yet once more the victim. We are the righteous avengers of all those who died before us! WE ARE SOLFORCE! AND WE REMEMBER EARTH!"
"Hurrah!" a marine who had been running through the hallway exclaimed, putting himself in the pose for the military salute. "Nice speech Commander!"
"Carlson," he remarked calmly. "How long have you been listening in?"
The marine remained quiet for a moment.
"The point where you verbally lashed out against the Ai?"
John narrowed his eyes for a moment, before nodding and gesturing for him to move along. He had wasted enough time.
He had a planet to invade.
Liara T'soni
Her skin was pink.
She had spent the last hours looking her own body all over; touching her head that seemed to now sport long curls of a strange silky thing that she felt were a part of her now, looking at her pink nails and even going as far as sticking her tongue out near a mirror to see it, in all of its red splendor…
She was human.
Her eyes were a deep blue, just like her hair that descended in curls and stopped midway towards her shoulders. She felt fine though, physically she was the perfect example of health.
Psychologically speaking, she was a wreck.
"I'm human," she mumbled. "Human. Human." She babbled. "How is that possible? What was it all about?" she turned around, her sense of balance slightly impaired –why were humans so tall? Couldn't they be as small as Asari to begin with?
She misjudged the distance and fell down with a startled cry.
The room she was in was wide and spacious. The digital clock on the wall marked the twentieth hour of the Galactic Time, and she was pretty sure the scenery from the window was that of Noveria's prime hospital. She felt her stomach grumble a moment later. She blushed, her cheeks taking on a slight rosy color as she watched herself on the mirror.
Liara couldn't just leave from the door. Her best bet was to wait for her mother or one of her men to come and get her, even though she supposed she'd have to explain the situation first.
It took her a moment to recollect herself, but once she did find the strength to stand back up, a powerful explosion deafened her and shattered the window of the hospital.
The windows, actually.
Her eyes widened as she watched a cloud of nuclear smoke and ash rise from the far off distance of Noveria, the snow that incessantly fell on the planet parting way to let in swarms of metallic white shuttles.
Shuttles she recognized the form of.
The screams were the first thing she heard once her hearing returned. Alarms went off in the hospital, as she found herself locked into the room before she could even reach for it.
"Please remain patient," the VI remarked. "The Medical Team will begin evacuation soon. Do not try and open the door." Liara's hands slammed against the metal door to no avail.
She gritted her teeth.
She flexed her hands by instinct, letting the feeling of her biotics run over her body as she prepared herself, before unleashing a powerful wave of bright…transparent energy?
The metallic door, the wall, the surroundings…they exploded outwards as she literally tore apart a good chunk of the Hospital itself. Her mouth stood open in fright as her eyes widened in fear for the damage she had caused. What if there had been people around?
She walked out of the remains of her room, just in time to hear gunshots coming at her direction.
"She came from Matriarch Benezia's daughter's room!" an Asari Commando screamed while pointing at her. If only she had waited five more seconds, they would have certainly reached her in time…and she could have explained.
"It's a human!" another Asari yelled. "Fire to kill!"
"No…I," Liara tried. The bullets from the Commando's submachine guns opened fire. She screamed as she brought both her hands forward. "STOP IT!" she cried. The next instant, whereas she had expected to feel her entire skin hurting from multiple gunshots, she felt nothing.
She opened her eyes and paled at the sight of the bullets flung and stilled in mid-air. "Oh Goddess," Liara whispered. "What have I…"
And then the bullets flew back.
The wall of lead and steel slammed against the Kinetic barriers of the Commandos, not as much wounding them as simply overpowering their mass and flinging them off their feet and backwards, across the hallway.
"Oh Goddess, are you all right?" she tried to move closer, only for the corridor to creak and break in half from the repeated usage of her…abilities?
An Asari raised herself from the ground, lithely charging across the broken corridor to slam and tackle her on the ground, before trying to pummel her face with a biotic enhanced fist.
A laser shot tore apart the Asari's head before she could even finish her incoherent rants.
Next to the broken off wall of the hospital, one of the Solforce shuttles floated by. The backdoors opened in a second, and a couple of Human Marines emerged and landed near her.
"Command! We've got…we've got a POW here!" one of the marines remarked.
"Get away from me!" Liara recoiled, scared out of her wits.
"Calm down now," the other marine was a woman; the voice was trying to be soothing even with the menacing suit. "You're safe now soldier."
Liara tried to bring her arms forward once more, to try and use her strangely morphed psionics. A small push was what she managed to obtain, not even enough to faze the soldier.
"Psionic confirmed," the female marine said to the male. "She's confused," she added as an afterthought. "Thank God we came around to check. Think there are others?"
"Ask her, I'm preparing a Medivac to get her out of here," the male spoke.
Liara's eyes closed shut. This was a bad dream. This was a really bad dream. She couldn't be human and Noveria couldn't be under attack. This much was clear. There was no other reason. Really, there couldn't be another reason.
"Are we…" she whimpered. "Are we at war?"
The female marine chuckled. A light chuckle that came out as amusement, even in the face of being surrounded by burning buildings and dying people, even as nuclear fallout fell from the skies and thousands died beneath Solforce's attack…even then, the chuckle was of amusement.
"Sweetie, we're always at war. It's the first thing they teach us at the Academy," she said with a cooing tone, like a mother talking to a child. "Now, let's get you out of here and back to safety, all right?"
"Ask her if there are others around," the male curtly butted in. "We've got the Commander on line."
The female marine stilled for a moment, before nodding.
"Listen to me," she turned to Liara, grabbing her face with both her hands. "Were you with others? Are there other prisoners?"
"N-No!" Liara exclaimed. "I'm…" —I'm an Asari— was clearly not something she was going to say.
"All right, Commander did you copy? No humans remain on the planet. Understood Commander. It will be done." The male marine turned to the shuttle and gestured something. The pilot understood, because the next instant it moved so that its back was closer to the crumbling side of the Hospital.
"Take her aboard. We'll be setting off the explosive charges here."
"I think this is a densely populated area anyway," the female marine quipped as she firmly grabbed Liara by the shoulders. "Don't take too long."
"Wouldn't dream of it. I'll link up with the third column. They're advancing across the city and towards Peak Fifteen."
"Uh, oh well," the female pushed Liara on the shuttle, gently dropping her on the nearby bench —which was cold as hell, since she was wearing the hospital gown only and nothing more.
"Damn, you're getting blue from the cold," the female marine remarked offhandedly. She made a small nod, hoping she wasn't reverting to her Asari form in that precise moment.
The world couldn't be that cruel, right?
A warm blanket appeared from one of the compartments of the shuttle. It was made of a strange silvery substance that flowed like silk and was warm the moment it was put on her shoulders. She curled up inside it instinctively, before slowly starting to doze off.
"Don't worry," the female marine said again in a low voice. "They'll pay for what they did to you," the woman gently caressed her head, patting it as if she were a child. Strangely, the simple action was soothing to her very bones.
Dozing off, Liara's mouth spoke before she could even connect the dots of what she was saying.
"Repensum est Canicula."
Revenge is a bitch.
How had she known that, though?
Commander Shepard
The Holotank was made of green tinted glass, while the liquid he floated in was transparent. He didn't need to breathe or eat as the substance sustained him and delivered oxygen directly to his body. His hands moved as if he was some sort of Orchestra director.
His right hand moved in a horizontal swipe and the Assault Shuttles of the Cruiser Alpha burst through the incoming military Frigate and tore it apart like ravaging locusts. He could hear the music surround him as the violins increased their tempo, followed by his heartbeat increasing and time seemingly slowing down to a crawl as he redirected the Cruiser Beta to invade the planet's communication station. The Mass Relay of the system was barricaded by the actual ships, while their ordnances were unleashed from afar.
A Salarian Cruiser tried to make a break for the relay, its kinetic armor withstanding the barrages of missiles thrown. He ordered the Leviathan's portside to fire the entire armament.
Laser beams tore the emptiness of space with their might, as they cut through the ship as if it was nothing more than butter. The detonation happened in a split second, and yet no noise reached him as the camera feed turned off to move him back to the land situation. Everything was so slow that to him it looked like they were crawling about, not actually running or pushing through.
He watched as the boarding pods connected with the metal walls of the Communication station, the Joker section of the Leviathan having successfully jammed their only way of asking for help.
Those who rely only on one type of technology will never survive the war.
Without the Mass Relays, communication was impossible for the Council Races. Jamming the Relay itself was tricky, but no different than actually activating it. By simply overlapping the activation sequence with random bursts of nonsensical data, the relays' mainframes could not send anything because they had to repeatedly purge their memories.
The problem was that the Leviathan had to remain stationary near the Relay, but if any ship managed to get that close…like the Salarian Cruiser, then the volleys of laser fire would tear them apart in seconds.
"Blaster lasers ready," Edi piped at normal speed. "Communications still blocked at 99.89% of functionality."
"Increment static noise," he rebuffed the Ai. "Keep only side thrusters under active AI controlling for the moment."
"Understood Commander. Hacking of Hospital Mainframe yielded no results. Jane Doe currently being researched in Solforce Mainframe."
"Scratch that," he retorted. "She's coming up. We'll ask her once she's here."
"Affirmative Commander Shepard. Alert. Message priority One from Solforce Shock Team Three, Lt. Kaidan Alenko requiring Code Alpha permissions."
"Patch him through."
"Commander! We've found Matriarch Benezia laboratory on Peak Fifteen. The staff is cooperating, but there's a Geth presence that's out for blood. They cloned the Rachni of all things!"
By the time the lieutenant had finished speaking John was already prepared to give out orders.
"Have a team grab genetic samples. Take the head of the project prisoner and whoever has more information on it. Once you've brought them back, tank them. Get Matriarch Benezia alive if possible, but shoot to kill if you can't. Edi, patch Wrex through."
"Shepard," the grumbling voice of Wrex came a moment later. "I was killing Salarians when your Ai said it was urgent we talked." There was no real malice in the voice, if anything the Krogan seemed genuinely happy.
"A facility on Noveria has yielded interesting results on Rachni clones. The Krogans fought them before: have any helpful hints?"
"Shepard? You're speaking like a Salarian, you know that?" Wrex commented. "Wait a moment. Rachni!? There are Rachni on Noveria!? Oh those goddamn bastards!" he yelled in the microphone. "Shepard, listen, the Rachni are a bad thing. The stories say they could easily prepare a fleet within a week at the apex of their glory, and that if it hadn't been for the Krogans' uplifting, there wouldn't even be a Council left today…you must destroy them all!"
"Understood Wrex," Shepard remarked. "Percentage of station conquered?"
"Uh? Well, I didn't think you'd be so easily convinced," the Krogan's voice was actually perplexed. "Station's nearly ours. A few resist but they're surrendering."
"Once the station is completely ours, shoot all the prisoners," he replied with a clipped tone. "We take no prisoners."
"What? There's nothing fun in shooting an unarmed Pyjak!"
"We take no prisoners Wrex. We are sending a message to the Council with this action. They are protecting the Geth. They are protecting Saren. We will not stand by and let them act with impunity as Solforce is harassed by their own allies. They think us stupid, Wrex…do you want them to fear the name Krogan once more, or do you prefer them to believe your race's might a thing of the past?"
Wrex said nothing for a few minutes. Silence stretched thin, until in the end the reply came tersely.
"Fine Shepard, we'll do it."
"Good."
He closed off the connection with Wrex, before opening that with Kaidan.
"Lieutenant, you are to secure whatever Rachni adult you can and send it to the Alpha Cruiser in containment. This is priority Cerberus: except for your team, nobody else is to know. Do not fail me."
"It will be done, sir."
"Commander Shepard out," the exchange done, he turned back to the battle. The enemy had reorganized itself and was pushing forward towards the station, probably in an effort to counter-board it. He sighed and flicked two fingers in that direction.
The Beta Cruiser activated its anti-matter engines and flew, soaring like a bullet in the emptiness of space, as it closed onto the entire scrambled fleet of merchant ships and private yachts. The few military vessels were the first to fall, their kinetic barriers useless against plasma beams and lasers.
This wasn't a battle.
This was a simple mindless slaughter.
He watched the next volley of missiles launch, flying blindly and attacking the planet itself as nuclear detonations visible from orbit spread across the icy world. Settlements which did not have humans were prioritized, the radiation waving throughout the air and killing or slowly poisoning all that it came across. The ice caps would melt soon, and eventually Noveria would crumble and collapse beneath itself.
It would be a nice place for a Colony…the planet was big enough, and depending on the end result colonization while costly would give them a war benefit in case of war…since the Salarian systems weren't far away from the planet in question.
"Commander, I am detecting Space-Time distortions from the other side of the System. Possible enemy fleet. Signals estimate numbers to be twenty Cruiser class ships and twenty-seven Dreadnought class ships. They do not respond to Solforce Hail."
John frowned. If it had been from the Relay, he would have understood. If it had been from Solforce fleet, he would have understood.
Time slowed down to an extreme crawl as his brain tried to patch up with what he knew. Space-Time distortions were common with Node-Lines. If it wasn't responding, either they were a stranded fleet finally coming back with the crew in Cryo, which was doubtful…
Or they were the second space travelling species to utilize Node-Lines.
"CODE SUU'LKA! ALL CREWS TO AWAKEN AND PREPARE FOR BATTLE! RECALL BACK ALL FORCES!" he snarled as fast as he could, the colors of the Holotank turning dark red as his heart beat began to accelerate even more. Hastily, his hands moved across the appearing holograms to personally direct the retreat efforts. His gaze lingered for mere instants on Alenko's situation, before slamming his right hand against the reinforced glass panel.
"Lieutenant! Get the hell out of there!"
Noises of gunshots were heard through the coms.
"Commander! We're engaging the Matriarch!"
"Then KILL HER, TAKE HER BRAIN AND GET OUT OF THERE!"
"Yes Commander," Kaidan remarked with a dry chuckle. "Glad to see you care so much."
John snorted and pressed a few more buttons. "Adams!"
There was silence in the Engineering section for a minute. "Sir?" Donnelly remarked.
"Right," John cussed. "Donnelly! Activate the Anti-Matter engines! Edi, send Node-signals to the Director! Code Suu'lka! I repeat, we have a Code Suu'lka!"
"Yes, Commander!" Donnelly answered back before the communication was cut. Moments later, and time slowly began to sped up again as his orders were executed.
The enormous hangars of the Normandy opened up within seconds, just as the Alpha and Beta cruisers reacquired their ordnances and troops.
Edi piped in five minutes later.
"Commander, Suul'ka vessels recognized at the edge of the system. We will be within their scanners as soon as they enter normal flight speed."
"Reroute Jamming device on us. Make us invisible, Edi."
"Yes, Commander."
A video feed opened up soon afterwards, showing enormous holes in the space-time continuum being ripped open by a Cruiser sized Bore-ship of the Suul'ka.
"Cruiser Alpha: all clear!"
"Cruiser Beta: all clear!"
John watched in silence as the deformed and painful to watch ships of the most loathsome race ever to be birthed came through the hole, reaching normal speed velocity and immediately dashing for the planets filled with life.
Had this been a Solforce Colony, he would have laid his life down in an effort to stop them. Taking out the boreship would without a doubt give them time to regroup…but if he didn't, then the Zuul would have the ability to move further away from the system…unless they scavenged the Mass Relay.
Doing that would make it detonate however…
He took a deep breath.
"All Engines to Max! Set interception course with the Zuul's Boreship! Prepare Psionic module Xavier at my signal!"
He brought up his right hand, clenching it in a fist.
"It's a hit and run men! Do not fire until my command is given! Xavier module, operate and Stealth us!"
"Yeah, yeah," a voice remarked. "Rodriguez here. A pleasure meeting you too, Commander."
John didn't reply as he felt the ship move. No, more than simply moving, the Normandy sailed through the vast void of space as its entire armaments were primed and ready to fire. Like with the naval battles of the past, the Solforce technique was to always deliver the broadside.
At the same time however, Solforce had specialized in a variation of said move.
The Zuul boreship found itself beneath a barrage of point-blank lasers and missiles, coupled with the Heavy Laser beams, before it could even retaliate. The already damaged Cruiser was then slammed against the planet's surface by the Xavier module, just as the Leviathan spun upon itself, in all of its one kilometer and six hundred and more meters of glorious length, and sent forward the second volley tearing apart the ship's engines.
The next moment, the Zuul fleet retaliated.
Slugs of metal and mass drivers bounced off the reinforced armor of the Leviathan, as the point defense laser blasters fired upon the encroaching missiles.
"Concentrate firepower on the Dreadnoughts first!"
"Attention, Boarders incoming," Edi's voice clicked in. "Preparing Marines for counter-assault."
"Xavier module! Are you able to push again!?"
"Negative Commander, we're not machines!"
John growled slightly, staring at the incoming dreadnought that didn't at all seem willing to budge.
"Joker, can you pass us through them!? We cannot lose the Engine sections."
"Wait a moment, you're asking ME if I can make a LEVIATHAN pass through a Dreadnought fleet? Oh, geez, demanding little are you?" the Lieutenant Moreau barked back. "I'll need full access to thrust parameters Commander, and keep Edi away while I work."
"Permission granted," he said quickly as he watched a boarding pod blown off by the point-blank defense.
Lasers burst through the void, reflecting or striking the armor plates to create small craters the size of cars. Missiles made with crude materials impacted as they sailed through the emptiness of space, many exploding simply because they had been ill-prepared rather than because the lasers had shattered them.
"The FTL database gives us their designs as pre-dating the Conquest of Khalix," Edi spoke calmly. "They are probably an exploration force that simply never returned home."
The Leviathan slammed its upper side against a Zuul Dreadnought, the 'smaller' ship —still at over eight hundred meters— was pushed backwards by the strength of the momentum, before the Psionic push of the Xavier module hurdled her to crash against a fellow ship, creating a ship-wrecking ball that badly damaged a nearby cruiser before exploding.
"Solforce Three, Evil Mindraping Zuuls zero!" Joker's voice cheered through the coms of the Leviathan, as the marines tensed near the portside area of the fourth Recycling unit. A boarding pod was working its way through the steel armor in that point, and unless they were repelled somehow…
John gritted his teeth as Joker began spinning wildly from right to left, before making a somersault in space that made the entire ship creek under the strain.
"I swear if he wasn't the best pilot I had," John muttered as he held his body curled in fetal position, to prevent giving accidental orders.
"Ha! Watch this backflip! Not even the Stutter Warp can do this shit better than me!" The left side thrusters activated, the barrel roll in action literally letting two cruisers of the Zuul fire upon one another with their beams and mass drivers.
"Joker, get us to the Node-Line!"
"Aye, aye Commander!"
Finally, the last of the ships stood behind and beneath them, as the Normandy sailed through the air.
"Xavier module, can you engage a Mirage?"
"Mirage engaged, Commander." Three copies of the Normandy materialized around the ship. In sheer size and form, they were perfectly identical.
"Commander, we have a situation," a voice beeped in from the Cruiser Alpha. "The Rachni Queen, she's…"
"What?" John muttered. "Do the Rachni Queen…perhaps have the same connotation as the Hivers' one?"
"Yes sir, they appear similar." It was Alenko's voice who came next. "I secured her aboard but…she's talking. Like, she's using Psionic frequencies and I'm barely capable of understanding her, but she speaks of 'a song of oil and darkness' becoming stronger."
"Suul'ka," Shepard remarked calmly. "We'll have to interrogate her too. Any scientist gave us leads?"
"Chawkas is still tanking them; albeit with the chaos Joker is doing I doubt she'll progress fast enough. How's the situation out there, Commander?"
John looked at the radar, before slowly exhaling.
"I think we might move down to Code Tarka once we leave the system."
"So Commander, where do I set the course?" Jeff Moreau asked. "I mean, these guys have to have come from the Exodus Cluster, right?"
"I doubt it," John remarked. "You know how Node-Lines work for us Jeff…for the Zuul, they just point their boreships in a direction and hope to slam into another system."
"The bastards are a plague that should be exterminated," Pressly's voice cut through the coms. "We can reach Arghos Rho in a week and make our way from there with the Mass Effect, Commander."
"Very well, in the meantime maintain alert."
"Sir?" Chawkas' voice now reached his ears. "I think we've got an extra passenger aboard, and she's…well, confused and in shock I think."
"Right," John wearily sighed. "I'll be there in a minute. She's a POW of Noveria. They rescued her from a medical facility…probably a front for underhanded experimentations. Take her genetic tailoring and make sure she's calmed down by the time I come around to talk with her."
"It will be done, Commander."
John sighed.
So the Zuuls had slipped past the Curtain…
What had the Colonel of Ashes been doing?
Solforce Director Jack Harper
"Admiral Ashe," he smiled as he curtly greeted one of his top Fleet Admirals. "How are things proceeding on the Zuul front?"
"We let the bore ship through as instructed," the man remarked calmly. He was nicknamed as the Admiral of Ashes, because not only did his ruthlessness provide him with the firmest of beliefs against the aliens, but also because he had no problem leaving behind scorched earth rather than a planet with resources.
"This will do nicely," the Director acquiesced. "The Council will crack or be cracked."
"Sir, permission to speak freely?"
"Granted," the Director nodded.
"Rumor in the upper echelons is that we're getting aliens to fight the Hivers. Sir, that doesn't fit with me at all."
"Admiral, are attack dogs used or not in war? We can produce ten to twelve infants at the same time the Hivers produce two hundred. We need attack dogs with faster reproductive rates. Attack dogs whose children and children's children will all have the Genetical Kill-Switch installed. We are not allying with the aliens; we are assuming control of them!"
"Yes sir, I thought that would be the case," the Admiral remarked with a nod. "We have reconquered Hercules. The Zuul tore half of the city apart before they discovered our little surprises."
"Is the Weapon working as instructed?"
"On the Zuul? Definitively Director. Whatever the research department did to get it I don't know, but let them know they have the thanks of the Fleet of Ashes."
"Duly noted, Admiral. The Weapon Thor is classified however. Need to know basis only."
"Understood," with a stiff salute, the hologram disappeared.
It was then that his tired eyes moved to the incoming message from Commander Shepard. He probably knew already what he had written, and thus left it for later. Nihlus had already informed him of the Rachni and of Matriarch Benezia. The Mu Relay was easy to discern and see.
The point wasn't whether to stop Saren or not. The point was whether humanity would benefit from it in the long run.
Better let them have their hopes squashed, better let them see the 'Protheans' for what they were.
He pushed another button, and soon a hologram of a cloaked figure appeared on screen.
"Status Report."
"This form is weak," the voice remarked with a gruff expression. "An empire must always replace another, but how this weak form managed to do so surprise me."
"Are the projects still there?" he asked again.
"Yes Director. The Crucible is present. We never completed it…but you might stand a chance," the figure seemed to look at him for a moment more, before slowly adding.
"With it, my people will have their revenge."
"And the alien races will bow to the might of Humanity, as it is meant to be," the Director muttered then, before closing communication with the figure.
He took a deep breath, and then lit another cigar.
Out of the windows, next to the sun of the system, the new fleet was being armed.
He eyed the bulk of the fleet and smiled briefly.
Humanity would not be defeated. Humanity would never bow down to the enemy.
Humanity…Humanity would always emerge victorious, no matter the costs.
And so Jack Harper smiled as he waited for the Council's move.
The Black
The song…
Shifted.
It was…
Horrible.
The screams…
Died.
Silence.
It deafened.
And the fleet…
Moved.
Author's notes
You didn't expect this, did you?
Now, I'm offering the readers a choice. The plot won't change, but the 'talk options' of Shepard can be in the Paragon or Renegade line from henceforth. I have different endings envisioned. Make your pick, I'll choose at the end…
And you will Reap what you Sow.