Chapter 34: Detainment - Rah
A/N 1: This chapter is written in honor of one of my gaming friends. The man that I only knew as Pawnee was a great gamer, a great tank driver, a great person, and an even better friend. I hope you are resting well and that your soul found salvation my friend.
The first few days after Rah returned to Grissom, he was a complete wreck. He'd never done anything that had caused the deaths of so many at once. It was hard for him to cope with, but he did it. Almost entirely thanks to Jack, Rah managed to become functional once more after a few days.
He resumed his duties once more, but remained on Grissom for the time being. During the day, he would be able to focus on his work to keep the events with the Alpha Relay out of his mind. At night, Jack stayed with him to keep them at bay. Rah hated needing to lean on Jack as much as he did, but every time he told her she didn't need to stay, she would tell him otherwise and stay until he left the next morning.
Two weeks after Shepard had been brought in and thrown into a prison cell (a very nice one thanks to Rah and Anderson), Rah was asked for help with Shepard. It seemed that the Alliance was trying to question her, find out if her story was true, and the tactics they were using were not working. Those interrogating her clearly didn't understand how an N7 worked, nor that no one that was a member of the elite soldiers would ever help break one of their own.
If only for the chance to talk with Shepard, Rah accepted and had the Forward Unto Dawn (the ship that was now in essence his) bring him back to Earth. Red was less than happy about it, seeing as how his work always got pushed onto her whenever he left, but she knew better than to bring it up with him. The woman had certainly been doing her best to avoid him unless it was completely necessary after he had given her his file to read.
The crew of the Dawn were a bit nervous around him as well. It was more likely had to do with the pet varren that stuck to his side than him. The crew got to know him well enough that they were at ease around him, especially the cook who would always ask him for advice to get better at making the food they were given not taste like shit. After the three day trip from Elysium to Earth, the crew managed to not be afraid of Urz, but they were still a little cautious around him. They realized that the varren wouldn't bite their faces off, but he would lick them off. The crew just needed to get the innate fear of varren out of their systems.
After he was let off the frigate, he gave orders for them to go to Omega and pick up someone for him. When asked who, he told them to look for a giant of a human getting his ass handed to him in Skyllian Five by a bunch of Batarians in the lower level of Afterlife. He didn't give them a name, but knew that they'd find the marine easy enough.
When Rah entered the Alliance HQ, he did so unannounced and unnoticed. He had managed to find out when it was that Shepard would be brought in for interrogations before he left, and was on his way to the room. A large part of his N7 training came into use while the general walked through the halls of Alliance HQ. He blended into the crowd, even with his rank on his nondescript uniform, and bypassed all the security checkpoints with clever usage of various maintenance areas.
It didn't take Rah long before he entered into the observation room next to Shepard's interrogation room. When he opened the door and stepped in, he was greeted with looks of astonishment from a few high ranking Alliance officers, along with the barrel of a pistol from one of the closer officers.
"Gentlemen." Rah smiled to them. "Lady." He nodded to the only female officer in the room. "What do I owe the pleasure?"
"W-what?" The female officer, a rear admiral, asked in confusion.
"I was asked to come here, so here I am." Rah told them all, gesturing at the glass next to them. Rah held in a grin at seeing that Shepard was asleep in her chair, a pair of handcuffs on the table in front of her. "You said you were having issues with a prisoner?"
"We are." One of the other officers noted. Rah smirked at seeing that none of them were marines, all of them were navy. "We sent word for help from the villa, are you it?"
"Clearly." Rah smirked, rolling his eyes. While none of them could see that action behind his sunglasses, but they could all feel it. "Now, I assume that you are asking me for help breaking one of my N7s, yes?"
"We don't even know if she is one of your N7s General-." A third officer replied, asking for his name in the statement.
"She is indeed one of mine Captain." Rah told the officer, a scowl on his face. The officer backed down and didn't press the issue.
"If I may ask sir, how did you get in here?" Another captain asked him.
"You saw me walk through the door right?" Rah asked, pointing a thumb at the door behind him.
The navy officers all looked between themselves in confusion. Rah was clearly not what they were expecting.
"And the answer to your request, no." Rah told them all, forcing them to look back at him with raised eyebrows.
"No?" The female admiral asked. "What do you mean no?"
"You need me to get you the definition of the word?" Rah asked, enjoying how easy it was to screw with them. "I am not going to break one of my own. And that one in there, she can't be broken."
"Everyone can be broken!" The second officer growled out, Rah looked to see it was an admiral that told him this.
"Kid that woman in there is one of, if not the, best soldier in the N7s. She is quite likely the best soldier in the entire galaxy, She cannot be broken." Rah told the officer, who was several times in years his senior, without a note of anything but seriousness.
"And how the hell do you know?" The admiral replied, his fists clenching.
"Until recent events, that woman was my CO and then later my XO. She has personally trained several of the best soldiers humanity has to offer to be what they are now. If my training was anything to go by, that woman can't be broken." Rah admitted to them. None of them would be able to confirm his words, but what he told them was all true. Shepard was the reason that he was an N7, and the reason that he was now the General of both the marines and the N7s.
"Then what do we do?" The rear admiral asked, her voice holding a slight nervous tint to it.
"Nothing." Rah shrugged. "You either accept that she is telling the truth, or you don't. Either way, you will never be able to tell if she is lying." All of the officers looked at him blankly.
"It is part of the training for an N7 to become an infiltrator into the ranks of a given demographic. In this way, we are all skilled at deception. If you haven't figured out the truth to her words, you never will." Rah told them all.
His gaze turned towards Shepard. At some point during his chat with the navy officers, she had woken up.
Rah flicked his biotics on ever so briefly, and then turned them off. Shepard made to look like she was stretching and working kinks out of her body, but Rah knew better. The language she used was an awkward version of what they'd been taught in training, but it was a different setting. To him, and him alone, she gave him a message.
You come to see me? Shepard asked him, no not so many words.
Rah flicked his biotics on in response, keeping the glow from being seen from the Navy officers. He used a sort of Morse Code, one that was taught to him when he joined the Ghosts after her.
I'll come and visit you later.
"Now." Rah spoke to the others in the room, stopping their hushed conversation. "If you are done wasting my time, I have more important people to see."
After getting no response, Rah left the observation room. He had a friend of Shepard's that he needed to check in with before seeing his old CO.
One month after Alpha Relay destruction.
Rah smiled with barely contained joy. According to his techies, the Terminator armor that they'd been working on for the last month and a half was now a proto type. The techs had produced thirteen different variations on the armor so as to try out different methods of operating the suit, along with how to best lay the plates over each other. For Rah and the twelve grunts that he'd been running into the ground, it meant it was time to have some fun.
Silently, Rah crept his way up to the door to the grunt's quarters. Even before opening it, he could hear the sounds of his men sleeping heavily. Rah grinned to himself and opened the door.
"WAKE UP LADIES!" Rah barked into the room, flipping the lights on. "RISE AND SHINE! GOT SOMETHING NEW TODAY!"
To his amusement, the twelve soldiers, men and women from all creeds and backgrounds, floundered out of their bunks, some even falling from the top bunks onto the floor below. Rah grinned at the soldiers as they groggily woke up and rushed to get into formation at the foots of the beds. Rah discovered after only a few days of training these grunts, why it was that drill instructors enjoyed waking their men up stupid early, it was hilarious to the point of pushing even Rah's control.
"Have a good sleep?" Rah asked when the twelve grunts had formed two lines in their quarters at the foot of each row of beds. He only received a muttered response from all of them.
"I'm sorry, my hearing's going. What was that?" Rah asked them, a smirk on his face.
"Sir yes sir!" The twelve replied in unison, their voices echoing off the walls.
"Better." Rah replied, beginning to walk down the aisle between them.
"Now." He spoke, looking over each of them as he went. "Today, we're not going through our normal training." A collective sigh of relief was heard around him. "We're going to be doing some grunt work for the techies in the base."
A soft, stifled, sneeze was heard at the very end of the line when he stopped speaking. Rah looked to the person that did it and found one of his younger recruits quickly pulling her hand from her mouth. Rah expected as much from the woman, Private Margaret "Maggie" Anders, as she hadn't looked that good by the end of the past day.
"Private." Rah looked to the woman. "Something wrong?"
"No sir." She replied immediately, her voice a tad stifled thanks to congestion. "I'll be fine sir, just a cold."
"Maggie." Rah spoke to her, his tone softer, one that he often took when pulling his 'dad' card. "I want you at your best. Go see the doc, make sure its nothing. If she clears you, then you can come to the training yard."
"But sir-" Maggie began, but Rah quickly cut her off.
"I gave you an order private." Rah told her, his voice still gentle.
"Yes sir." Maggie grumbled.
"Now." Rah turned back to the rest of them. "I want you all in the yard in thirty. Khaot." Rah turned to his designated squad leader, Gunnery Chief Nick Khaot, opposite of Maggie. "Get them there on time."
"Yes sir." Khaot replied, turning to the rest of the squad. "You heard the General! We move out in five!"
Rah walked out of the quarters, only allowing his grin to reach his face when he left. The twelve of them had come close to being like his kids, annoying and always talking about how they hated him kids, but his kids none the less. His grin spread when he caught wind of mutterings from the room before the door closed behind him.
"Fucking hard ass."
"The fuck is the time?"
"Why the fuck is it ten in the morning?"
"Who gives a shit! Asshat let us sleep in for once."
Rah chuckled to himself. With what he knew was in store, none of them would get any sleep until the next day.
Two months after Alpha Relay destruction.
Rah had given his squad a few days off and both he and they were taking the time to enjoy themselves. While his men, both Ghosts and grunts, took in the tourist traps that Elysium had in store, mostly bars and strip clubs, Rah however revisited spots from his past. Currently, he was kneeling in front of the statue that had been built after the Blitz.
While he could feel curious eyes on him as people passed him by, Rah paid them no mind. His head was bowed and his hands were clasped around the gold cross that normally hung from his neck. His lips moved in silent prayer, one to thank those that watched over him, and asking for the souls of those he protected and failed to protect to be returned to the loving embrace of their gods.
"Didn't think I'd see you here." Jack spoke behind him and Rah grinned to himself. He knew that Jack had been taking her students planetside every once in a while, but he hadn't planned on running into her.
"Didn't think I'd see you either." Rah returned after he finished his prayer. Rah stood up and looked to the biotic woman. He noticed that a couple of her students were around and looking at him oddly.
"Something on your mind?" Rah asked both Jack and her students. "I don't still have blood on me do I?" He glanced down at his tight black shirt as if looking for a stain.
"Why were you kneeling there?" Jack asked him. Behind her, one of the two students looked like he wanted to ask something to, but held back.
"Seemed like the right time to pay my respects." Rah told her. "Ask my forgiveness from the Lord, ask for the souls of those I've failed to be protected and guided to their afterlife."
"Why the fuck?" Jack asked, at a loss for words. Rah mentally kicked himself, he'd never really shown his religious side to her.
"I may not seem like it, but I'm a man that believes in a higher power." Rah told her, smiling while he did so. "A hand that guides us along our path, and a force that makes us who we are."
"Stupid idea." Jack snorted. She breathed out a curse at herself however, she hadn't thought about the bite before saying it.
"It's fine Jack." Rah chuckled. "I understand that not everyone holds my belief, but it's what has helped shape me when no one else could help me."
"Excuse me." The student behind Jack piped up, Jason Prangley if Rah remembered right, saving them from an awkward moment. "Is that you sir? On the statue."
Rah looked over his shoulder and grinned. The gold plated statue that had been built was one that he rather liked. The statue was of him and Shepard. She floating in the air, her face far away and her arms spread for a biotic attack. He standing on the ground before her, his machine gun in hand, and a mad look of joy on his face. It was this statue that had become the laughing skull on his back.
"Yes it is." Rah told him with a chuckle. "Not as good looking as the real thing though."
"Whatever you say you ass ugly marine." Jack replied, a look of mirth in her eyes. "Anyone that thinks your hot is clearly fucked up in the head."
"Explains you then." Rah grinned. Jack glared at him when her two students began chuckling at the look on their teacher's face. "Don't you have a swear jar too? Pretty sure we could get something nice with today alone."
"Ha ha." Jack rolled her eyes at him. "Very funny." Jack glanced behind her at the two students, taking note of her reaction to the reminder.
"Um sir." The other student piped up, Rodriguez if he remembered right. "What's that behind you on the statue?"
Rah looked over his shoulder and noticed the small form cowering behind his legs on the statue.
"One of the kids from here." Rah told her. "She wasn't able to get to where we were keeping the civies safe, so She stayed with Shepard and I."
"First of the dozens of kids I've saved in my time." Rah told them, remembering another. "How I got my call sign too."
"What?" Jack chuckled. "I need to hear this."
"There was a colony being attack by slavers when I started in the N program. I was with the squad that saved the colony." Rah told them. "I saved this one little girl, maybe only two or three or so. But until I left, she kept calling me Rah, since she couldn't pronounce Rob. After that, the name just stuck."
"Just like saving girls left and right don't you?" Jack teased him. Rah grinned at her when her students rolled their eyes and left them.
"I'm a natural, what can I say." Rah chuckled back.
"Been dying to ask you this, where did you learn to cook?" Jack asked after a few moments. "You spoiled me and now I want your cooking back."
"My cooking history is something you don't want to live through." Rah sighed. "Not a pleasant thing for anyone."
"I don't get that." Jack replied, a curious and concerned look on her face.
"I learned on Illium, shortly after my parents died." Rah told her, letting out a sigh. He didn't blame her for asking, but he wouldn't keep it from her if she wanted to know. "Needed to find a way to stay out of the system of foster care, but ended up in one that was just as bad."
"What happened?" Jack asked, stepping towards him and taking one of his hands in hers.
"I sold myself. Entered into a contract on Illium that would give me a place to sleep, food, and when I hit eighteen, cash. The Asari that bought me however, she had more ideas for me than just working for her.
"I was an assistant to the cook for a dinner that the Asari owned. When I wasn't learning how to cook, how to make things taste the right way, how to make shit into the best meal you've had, I was working for my owner. Six years of being a part time cook and part time sex toy gave me a reason to join the Alliance."
Rah looked to Jack when she leaned into him. On her face was not one of pity or sorrow like he received from others, but one of understanding.
"Seems like neither of us had it good." Jack told him softly. "Least we can make the best of what we have now."
"Miss Naught!" One of Jacks students called out before Rah had the chance to respond.
"Fuckers." Jack sighed, but Rah could see the warmth in her eyes when she glanced at a group of her students that were headed towards them.
"Go on." Rah chuckled. "I'll be here for a while. Go and play mom while you have to."
"You'll pay for that Robert." Jack chuckled at him, shoving him playfully.
"Counting on it." Rah replied.
Rah watched her leave and held in a grin at seeing the two chatter boxes from when he first arrived on Grissom were whispering to each other and pointing at he and Jack. A devious look on their faces. Rah turned his back on them and stared back at the statue.
Three months after Alpha Relay destruction.
Rah watched in disappointment from the observation room while his men trained. One of the benefits of his base over that of others, were the virtual reality training sims. One of the rooms that these used for the simulations was where Rah looked into.
Over the last two months, Rah and his grunts had been stress testing the second prototype of their Terminator armor. The version that had been settled on was one of the bulkier sets, turning an average human into a Krogan. The suites were too bulky for normal weapons, so they were outfitted with arm mounted weapons that varied from machine guns to flame throwers to grenade launchers to high caliber shotguns to even shoulder mounted snipers and railguns.
To stress test the armor as much as he could he enlisted the aid of his friends from the Ghosts. His grunts had run several sims in their armor while the Ghosts controlled virtual enemies that the room would project into life. Every time they trained that he was not involved in, the grunts lost, and lost hard.
Now, it was even more apparent that he had a lot of work left to do with them. If only he had enough time. Rah decided that for once, he would confront the soldiers over their failure rather than let them figure it out on their own.
When Rah reached the training room, the soldiers were swearing and cursing at each other.
"LISTEN UP LADIES!" Rah yelled out when two of them began shoving each other. They were still in their armor, and there was every possibility of them getting hurt.
As one, they all snapped to attention and saluted him. Rah let his scowl show and strode to stand in the center of them.
"Now! Who here would care to tell me, where it is you all screwed up!?" Rah yelled out to them, anger in his voice.
"No one!?" Rah yelled out after a moment when no one spoke.
"Khaot!" Rah barked, turning to the squad leader. "Tell me Gunnery Chief, why did you sorry bunch of monkeys get your asses handed to you by a single N7?!"
"Sir! Because she's an N7 sir!" Khaot replied. Rah looked to see that Rookie had entered the training room, it was embarrassing to say that she alone had taken them all out with minimal casualties on her part.
"Wrong!" Rah barked to the gunnery chief. Rah looked around, looking for his next victim.
"Lommy!" Rah barked, turning to the older marine. Service Chief Mike Lomshivek was at least three times Rah's age, but had only just entered the military a year ago. "Care to tell me what it is that Khaot clearly cannot see?"
"We are unorganized sir!" The older marine replied.
"Exactly!" Rah barked out to the others. "Now tell me Chief, why did you not fix this issue?!"
"I was not in command sir!" Lommy replied.
"Bullshit!" Rah barked back. "Rookie!" He called out to the other N7. "When did you take out Gunnery Chief Khaot?"
"Four minutes in." Rookie replied easily.
"When did you take out Service Chief Lomshivek?" Rah asked.
"He was the last to fall." Rookie told them all easily.
"See?" Rah barked into Lommy's face. "For nearly the entire op, you were in command! However, you saw fit to let your squad fall into chaos!"
"And none of you," Rah barked to the others. "were willing to take up the slack and pull the others together! The reason why Corporal Ramsey was able to eliminate you all without major losses to her forces was due to this! Unlike you, her forces were one cohesive unit, they did not falter when a commanding officer fell out of stupidity for not taking cover when needed!"
"It won't happen again sir." Lommy spoke up.
"You're damn well right it won't! If you all prove to be the disgraces that your old COs told me you were, you'll not only be kicked out of this unit, but kicked into desk jobs for the rest of your miserable lives!" Rah looked around him, satisfied when all the faces around him registered shock at his words. "Now, you apes can either prove your COs right, or you can piss in their faces and become the best damn ground unit in the Alliance!"
Silence hung over them all for several long, agonizing seconds.
"Do you get me?!" Rah barked out at them.
"We get you sir!" They replied in unison.
"Dismissed." Rah ordered and began walking away.
"Sir!" Corporal Scott "Poon" Ponners called out when he was halfway out of the room.
"Make it quick Corporal." Rah snarled over his shoulder.
"Permission to run the sim again sir!" Poon called out.
Rah looked over to Rookie and grinned. Rookie nodded her head at him.
"Granted." Rah called out in reply.
Rah left the room with Rookie, the shouts from Khaot and Lommy barking orders filled the room behind them.
"Long way to go." Rah groaned to Rookie.
"Can't get much worse." Rookie shrugged.
"Oh I have a feeling it will." Rah replied.
Four months after Alpha Relay destruction.
The last week had been more productive that he'd even considered it to possibly be. Not only were the grunts getting better, but he'd had several calls returned to him.
A week ago, Rah had sent out messages to Garrus, Tali, Samara, and Wrex about possibly sending soldiers his way to train for the oncoming Reaper invasion. The last few days were filled with calls from Admiral Zorah, Justicar Samara, and Urdnot Wrex. All three of them had agreed to send what they could, but told him not to expect much.
Rah's omni-tool flared to life the day after he'd finished talking to Samara. He grinned at seeing that Garrus was returning his message.
"Scarface!" Rah laughed when he answered the call. "Took you long enough to get back to me."
"I have a ton on my plate." Garrus replied in a shrug. "But I owe you for getting my messages to Shepard."
"Woman's been nagging at her guard to get messages from you." Rah replied. "Guess she found out I put him there and he has a direct line to me."
"Still, I owe you." Garrus replied. "The fact that you're a friend has nothing to do with it."
"Ha ha." Rah replied. "So you somewhere private?"
"I don't think I like where this is going." Garrus smirked. "But yes."
"Good. I wanted to ask if you'd send me some people." Rah asked. "Working on training my own men for fighting the Reapers, no point in giving everyone else a handicap."
"You have a way to fight them?" Garrus asked, leaning forward in his seat.
"Not the ships, no. The ground troops yes." Rah replied with a sigh. "Hell if I had a giant laser that would yell fuck you to every Reaper and then blow them to hell, I'd have them everywhere by now."
"So what are you doing then?" Garrus asked, interested in his idea.
"I have an idea, a thought that the Reapers wouldn't only convert humans, but every race out there." Rah told him. "I've had Fox come up with a Reaper version of every race, and have been throwing my men up against sims with them."
"Why?" Garrus asked. Rah felt like this was a test of sorts, Garrus wanted to see what it was that made Rah think the way he was.
"I know how it was when it was just the Husks. If humans have as much trouble shooting the Reaper controlled corpses of other humans, how would they cope with that of the other races? How would the other races fair against it too?"
"Makes sense." Garrus replied with a smile. "I'll be to Elysium in a few days then."
"What?" Rah blinked, not sure he heard the Turian correctly.
"I'm not just sending you a few men, I'm sending you everyone that I have under my command, including me." Garrus smirked at him.
"Will you guys have any problems working with other races?" Rah asked.
"Not sure, depends on what ones." Garrus replied in a shrug. "Lot of bad blood between the Turians and some other races.
"Quarians? Asari? Humans? Krogan?" Rah asked.
"Krogan might be a stretch. But we can make it work." Garrus told him.
"That we will." Rah replied with a chuckle.
"So." Rah spoke after a moment of silence. "Need me to pass anything along to Sarge? Anything that might be different than normal?"
"Yeah, I've got something." Garrus smirked at him. "Let me send it to you."
"I feel like I don't want to know where this is going." Rah grimaced at seeing the mirth in his eyes.
"Nothing like that." Garrus chided. Garrus sent him a message, but then turned to look off screen. "Duty calls."
"Take care Scarface." Rah told the Turian.
"You too Carmine." Garrus returned. "Take care of Jack too."
Garrus closed the connection before Rah could retort.
Five months after Alpha Relay destruction.
Rah watched in tense anticipation from his spot in the observation room. His grunts had been getting better and better at being the unstoppable fighting force that he was training them to be. Now, they were proving him right. He'd pitted them up against all of the Ghosts that he had stationed at the base, each Ghost controlling several platoons of Reaper and Cerberus troops.
"Lommy! Nine!" Corporal Lee "Klash" Kalashnikov barked to the older soldier. Rah grinned at Seeing Lommy pivot and engulf the Krogan-Reaper that had flanked him in flames.
"Weasel! Cover!" Poon called out to Private Zach "Weasel" O'Keefe.
Only moments after the call rang out, Poon charged out of his cover, rushing a group of Turian-Reapers. Behind him, Weasel laid down cover fire with his machine guns. When Poon got in range, his shotguns tore through the Reapers with no difficulties.
"Fury! Cover Angel!" Khaot called out, seeing that Private Terry "Angel" D'angelo was pinned down by a group of Cerberus phantoms. PFC Farah "Fury" Hedges said nothing, but ran off to lay fire into the Cerberus biotics, her frag grenades tearing into them with ease on detonation.
"Bruiser! Day! Follow me!" Maggie called out. PFC Mitch "Day" Knight and Private Claire "Bruiser" Bruno fell into formation with the smaller woman, covering each other while pushing into the Husks that were charging them.
Rah watched them all in grinning joy. They had improved so much in so little time. They were still sloppy however, or at least he thought so. Three Asari-Reapers and an Atlas mech managed to flank to group while they waded through the carnage before them. The Atlas prepared to fire a rocket, but a single round punched through the back of the mech and into the driver. The three Asari-Reapers charged up biotic attacks, but in rapid succession they too fell.
Rah searched the field for the source of the shots. He grinned at spotting the armors of Private Gordon "Pawnee" Garrison and Corporal Chris "Wolf" Rush hanging at the back of the room. The two had their railgun and sniper, respectively, out on their shoulders. The two had taken up the roles of the team's snipers with Pawnee picking off the arnored targets and Wolf picking off the softer ones.
After that, Rah watched his men tear through the enemy forces. With only mechanical issues and a couple of concussions, they all were standing by the end of the exercise.
"Well done ladies and gentlemen." Rah spoke over the comms. "Get cleaned up, and I'll see you in the mess at 1800 for dinner."
Rah didn't let the pride he felt for them all into his voice. To them, it would just be another round of training, just another day.
After they had all showered and then later eaten, Rah told them all to follow him. He said nothing on the way to one of the armories of the base, and let them wonder where he was taking them.
"Folks." Rah spoke when he stopped outside the door. "You did good today, but you can still get better."
Around him, the soldiers groaned, but no one protested. They knew his words were true.
"But tonight, we're not here about that. I've brought you here to ask you one simple question. Whether you accept or refuse is up to you, after this point it will only get harder. If you want to take the easy way out, all you need to do is say so." Rah told them all. He looked around and saw no one was speaking up, no one took the way out.
"Anyone that passes through this door, will accept that they are part of something much bigger. You will accept my offer." Rah told them and opened to door. He stepped inside not looking to see if anyone followed him.
Rah grinned when he heard the sounds of shock from all of them. They all followed him in, and all of them saw what was inside.
Laid out in a half circle, were thirteen sets of Terminator armor. All of them were painted midnight black with only a few markings on them. The breastplates of all of them had a grinning skull backed by white angelic wings and crossed scythes under it. Next to the painted skull design, was a small N7 symbol. On one of the shoulder pads was a smaller version of the logo on the front with three fives above it and the words "Death Angels" below it. On the opposite pad, were various bars for their ranks. On the chest, just below the N7 marking, was a single name, one for each of them.
The soldiers behind him looked to the suits of armor in amazement. They all found the one that was made just for them and stood in front of them.
"Ladies and gentlemen." Rah spoke to them all his voice full of pride. "Welcome to the Five Fifty Fifth Death Angles, subdivision of the N7's Ghosts of the Past outfit. Welcome to the family."
"Sir." Khaot spoke out, his eyes glancing at the unclaimed suit. "Who's that one for?"
"If you'll let me. That suit is made for me." Rah told the all. "I'll only wear it if you lot are fine with me being amongst you, fighting and bleeding with you. Dying with you."
The twelve of them all looked between each other.
"If you must." Pawnee sighed in mock exasperation.
"I'll leave you to get to know your armor guys." Rah smiled to them. "You've got a week before I expect you to be ready for combat."
"Yes sir!" They all barked to him and snapped to salutes. Rah returned them and left them to the equipment.
A/N 2: There we are folks! This is the first of at least three chapters that I have planned like this. If anyone would like me to cover a particular squad member before I get into ME3, please let me know. I know that there were a lot of characters introduced in here, but they are all very minor and will only be mentioned when Rah will be in future chapters.
Major thanks to my outfit mates from Ghosts of the Revolution that allowed me to use variations of their names and call signs. If any of you are reading this, a massive thanks to you lot.
To everyone else, thank you all so much for the continued support! Hope you all enjoyed, and if you did, please let me know!
Until next time!
