The Cosmic Age

by Familiar47

Long after the days of the Courier and the Lone Wanderer, humanity uses the technology of alien visitors to build themselves back up. When they reach out into the cosmos however, they discover that the galaxy is not always receptive to the adventurous. Rated for violence and language. Bashing kept at a minimum.

6. Chapter 5: Fall of Shanxi Part 3

Cosmic Age

Long after the defeat of Caesar's Legion and the liberation of New Vegas, the Courier and Lone Wanderer make use of the Theta Technology to bring humanity back from the edge of extinction and take to the stars. When they reach too far they discover that the galaxy is not always receptive to the adventurous.

I do not own Fallout or Mass Effect

Also, for anybody who is sick to death of stories where the Council is incompetent/evil/out of character/childish/any sort of combination of those things...this is for you.

Also, I will be taking SOME liberties with material from both Mass Effect and Fallout.

For anybody who is concerned, the Fall of Shanxi will last at least several more chapters, after which there will be another arc called 'Shanxi Insurgency'. This chapter and the several afterwards shall focus on two separate plotlines:

1) The battle between Desolas Arterius' army and the defenders serving under Colonel Williams (Taking place five hours after the Turians make planet fall in this chapter)

2) The situation occurring in Vault Bunker 9 between Owen Mason's team and a Manifest task force (Taking place two hours earlier). I will avoid switching between both plotlines too much, since I know how confusing that can be.

Xxx

Chapter Five: Fall of Shanxi, Part Three, Manifest Conflict

Shanxi System, Shanxi

Turian Staging Ground Alpha, approximately forty miles east of New Taiyuan

Command Post

Five hours after Turian landing

General Arterius peered at the distant shapes of the city's taller buildings through a scope, spying at least several air craft travelling along the border. "It would seem they are quite entrenched." He mused, lowering the borrowed sniper rifle before he returned it to its owner and strode to the middle of the platform serving as his command post. "Let us remedy that."

He turned his attention to a semi circle of hologram images. To his left were General Oraka and Colonel Victus, and to his right were Admiral Trisun and Captain Pridius.

"Admiral, I have positioned several teams to begin infiltrating the defensive perimeter of the city." Desolas declared, "But first I think, in the spirit of adhering to protocol, I am to wait until after you have initiated a light bombardment of the perimeter. If these 'humans' are smart they will recognize how outgunned they are and lay down their arms."

"I find this to be agreeable," Trisun answered, "I'll move my ships into low orbit so that they can initiate their bombing run."

Citadel Conventions forbade the use of orbital bombardment against a Garden class world by WMDs, ranging from the use of weaponized asteroids, nanotechnology, antimatter warheads or even biological life forms introduced to wipe out vital native species. The use of Dreadnoughts on the other hand was discouraged but not necessarily illegal, as it had the potential for great amounts of destruction but would not alter the state of the biosphere if only used for targeting specific strategic points. A single shot from Trisun's flagship would level the entire city, but the goal of this campaign was to subjugate this world, not annihilate its inhabitants. Even Desolas would not be able to wiggle his way out of a political shit storm if he needlessly destroyed a potential civilian population centre.

Trisun had positioned six frigates earlier in preparation of this phase of the invasion, and had taken the liberty of personally overseeing the simulations that the flotilla would be re-enacting. Each frigate was assigned to bombard an area of the city's perimeter, causing moderate damage to the outer defences and weakening the resolve of the defenders. They were under specific orders to make their bombardments as quickly as possible and pull back out of range of any ground side defences, which Trisun had insisted on identifying before considering this move.

Desolas may have lacked respect for the older officer, but he still knew when to appreciate her thoroughness and tactical ingenuity. Because of her the majority of his troops had reached this world alive and now had a powerful stranglehold over it that would take an armada to break.

"Perfect," He opened his Omni-Tool, "After the bombardment has subsided we will dispatch the new surrender package before moving on the city."

And while Trisun waited on a response to this package Desolas would deploy the newly arrived Ghost team to infiltrate the enemy settlement and position themselves to begin sabotaging the defences. If the humans surrendered then the Ghosts would make themselves known and ensure Desolas had a clear path to walk into the city unharmed. If they refused this offer then the Ghosts would make themselves known and still ensure that Desolas would be able to walk through the city gates by the end of the day.

"You may be pleased to know that Captain Pridius has been of great assistance with developing a Translation Index," Trisun informed Desolas, "You might proclaim your victory speech in a rough form of Human tongue by the time you are finished."

Her enthusiasm was clearly layered with sarcasm and dry humour, but did little to deter Desolas' mood.

"With luck, yes," He drawled, looking pointedly at Trisun's image before he faced the distant city again. "You may begin at your convenience, Admiral."

And so Trisun did. She sent a single order to the frigate flotilla, which dove down on entry vectors that would split them up across many miles by the time they reached low altitude flight. They were vaguely visible to the countless Turian regiments watching, angling out as they broke through the cloud cover and flying a couple hundred feet over the ground, engines blazing bright blue as they generated a loud explosion of noise upon breaching the sound barrier.

One frigate passed close to the camp, so much so that Desolas would have been able to see the sigil of the Hierarchy emblazoned on the side if it had been moving slower. He immediately turned his attention to the holo-map, which showed six golden figures closing in on the city from different directions.

"Weapons primed and barriers are online."

"Marking visible emplacements for targeting."

"Fire!"

The closest frigate unleashed a single shot with its mass accelerator, blasting a hole clear in the wall along the eastern section of the city. Turians viewing this through scopes and cameras let out a cheer before a light seemed to wash over the city, forming a dome that flashed several times in response to the attacks by the other five frigates.

"Pull up! Pull up!"

"Shot failed to connect!"

"PULL UP-" One of the frigates struck the massive dome while it was still active and became a plume of fire and smoke that could be seen all the way from the staging ground even without electronic assistance.

"Spirits...what is that?" Admiral Trisun whispered.

From where the Turian Army was entrenched it seemed as though the entire city was enveloped in a massive dome of blue energy that began to fade.

Desolas managed to find his voice after several moments of silence throughout the entire camp. "Bring the frigates back around for a second strike."

"What purpose would that serve?" Colonel Victus asked.

"It will allow us to properly scan that dome while it is active, for one." Admiral Trisun answered, her thoughts accurately aligned with Desolas' on the matter as she transferred orders to the frigates. "Updating flight routes. They'll make higher passes over the dome to scan it up close and resume bombardment. Desolas, have your scouts record everything they can and let the VIs sort out the details."

The frigates turned about and began to make several more runs over the dome, which would reappear every time they tried to fire on the city now. It would flare up in the area where it had intercepted the incoming projectile and then vanish completely until triggered again. This went on for two full minutes but it did not seem as if the frigates were even straining it!

"General, FOB is transferring findings our way." One of Desolas' command staff announced, "The combat VIs state that the dome appears to be operating on the same principle as a Kinetic Barrier, sir. It projects repulsive mass effect fields and only activates and registers on scanners when responding to an incoming projectile, but the power level needed to operate something that large and sustain it...you could power a city ten times as big."

"These humans are not as unrefined as we had believed." Captain Pridius noted, both impressed at the scale of the shield and intimidated that this race had accomplished what no Turian scientist had succeeded at doing in centuries: creating a shield large enough to protect an entire city from bombardment and sustain it past the first salvo. He could already picture scientists salivating over such a finding.

"No matter," Desolas said dismissively, "If that shield does operate on the same principle as a Kinetic Barrier then it can only intercept objects moving past a certain speed sufficient to trigger it."

He opened his Omni-Tool again. "And right now I think intimidating these humans into surrender is off the table until we can dispose of this obstacle."

"Could we not just have our frigates approach at a decreased velocity to bypass this barrier's activation?" General Oraka inquired.

Trisun shook her head. "And leave them vulnerable to enemy gun fire? I had them executing a lightning bombardment to minimize the chances of the defence turrets being able to lock onto them in time. We would lose more ships that way, and I doubt our fighters would do much better. An air attack is no longer an acceptable option."

As Desolas received a silent response from the recipient of his message he closed the Omni-Tool and faced his officers. "Return to your regular duties and allow me to handle this matter. I will inform you when this shield array has been dealt with."

"How do you intend to do that?" Captain Pridius asked.

"Quite simple, Captain," Desolas allowed a ghost of a smile to cross his face, "I'm going to break it from the inside out."

Xxx

New Taiyuan

Brotherhood of Steel Citadel

Command Centre

Five hours after Turian landing

"The Shell is holding!" A Knight cried out, and the room filled with cheers from the rest of the men and women gathered around a holo-map of the city, which showed the Shell repeatedly withstanding bombardments from the alien ships.

"Well damn," Colonel Williams muttered, standing near the room's entrance with his body guards and watching the light show taking place in the middle of the room, "Looks like that thing really was worth the ass load of money we had to blow on it." He glanced around the room, trying to find the de facto leader of the Brotherhood of Steel's Shanxi Chapter who could help him to coordinate the armoured warriors more effectively while Elder Thompson remained MIA.

"Debris from the enemy ship has crashed down on the eastern river bank," One of the Brotherhood Knights announced, "No casualties, minimal structural damage to several buildings, moderate damage to the waterfront where the main hull of the vessel crashed down."

Williams pulled one of his guards aside and whispered to the man, "I want a platoon to secure that crash site and a Hazmat unit to sort through it. Get me bodies, get me tech and get me some idea of what our new interstellar neighbours look like. Make sure they watch for anything being washed downstream too!" He sent the man off.

"Colonel!" A voice called out over the crowd, and a large figure began to lumber towards Ashe, whose jaw dropped, causing his cigarette to plummet to the floor.

"Fuck...me." Williams murmured as a massive Meta Human clad from the neck down in Brotherhood of Steel armour and cloth approached. Its limbs were thick as tree trunks, its skin was a coppery colour and it had metal plates embedded directly into its skull, including a synthetic optical implant shaped like a scope of sorts.

"Sentinel Noland!" The Meta Human declared in its rough, scratchy voice while banging the base of its hammer against the floor, striking a salute. "Reporting for duty!"

A Sentinel! That was the rank separating Inquisitors and Paladins from becoming the next Elder!

"A-at ease." Williams managed to say.

Noland relaxed his posture. "Apologies for not meeting with you sooner, Colonel," The Meta Human said, "I was busy going through all of the armouries in the sub levels around the time that Elder Thompson was confirmed captured."

"Wait, hold on." Ashe held up one hand. "He's been captured? Not killed?"

"Affirmative," Noland nodded, "I have an uplink to the network implanted right into my brain!" He rapped one set of knuckles against his noggin. "An AI is still operating secretly on the Chairman, and it says that Thompson is still alive but is being held captive! Anybody who didn't get off fast enough is still up there."

It was a relief to know that Thompson was at least still alive. This left the possibility of rescuing him open despite how unlikely it appeared to be.

"Sorry to say the news doesn't stay good!" Noland growled out. "The aliens have more ships coming through every hour. It's mainly just small ones, but they brought a whole lot of big ones through to land that army watching us from the hills!"

And there was the answer to the question that had been plaguing Colonel Williams ever since he saw the fleet of landing ships landing out of range of their guns. The aliens wouldn't have had enough room to carry the tens of thousands of soldiers that were now swarming through the thankfully now uninhabited forest region close to New Taiyuan, not with a fleet mainly formed by frigate sized ships. They must have held back their fleet transports until they had finished securing the planet; a wise move to ensure that they could use their naval assets to their fullest without risking the needless loss of entire battalions' worth of soldiers.

"Then our situation is worse than I had feared," Williams said, walking to the holo-table showing the terrain. "The aliens could probably breach the Shell if they tried hard enough. Those missiles they employed against the defence fleet could do some major damage, but I bet some of their stronger guns could just as easily do the job." He lit a new cigarette, not caring for any ugly expressions sent his way. "That tells me one thing: they want this city, and they want it intact as reasonably possible, and more than likely they want prisoners."

After pocketing his lighter, Ashe pointed to the edge of the city where the initial bombardment had successfully landed. "We were too slow to activate the Shell in time to catch this one, but the rest of the projectiles from the first bombing run they made were also aimed at the perimeter. They weren't looking to blast us into the dark ages, just to hit our defences."

"Probably so they could march right into the city." Noland huffed as he set his long hammer over one shoulder and watched the sea of red that represented the alien encampment. "I say we hit them while they're still in the open!"

Williams couldn't argue with that, it was what he had in mind from the moment he realized that the alien army was numbering at almost sixty thousand. Between that and the fleet of a hundred some ships in orbit with likely more on the way it would be prudent to remove their foothold on Shanxi before they could really dig in.

"Agreed," Ashe declared, "But if we're going to be doing this, we have to make sure to maximize the amount of damage to the enemy landing force and minimize our losses in the process. These aliens can afford to replace their troops from the looks of things, and we can't afford unnecessary casualties before the actual battle itself." He faced the now silent mix of Brotherhood members and marines. "As you are well aware this is a farming colony with only the standard military garrison and armaments required by Alliance Law, however I am hopeful that our good friends in the Brotherhood of Steel might be able to churn out something that would allow me to dispatch teams to infiltrate the enemy camp."

Paladin Noland grinned, showing crooked and jagged teeth. "Oh, we can do that, we can." He chuckled. "I think I know just the person to send."

"Fetch them for me and have them report to my command post," Williams ordered, "Time is of the essence, and I need this soldier deployed by nightfall."

"Of course sir! However...he is no soldier." Noland confessed. "But he's a friend."

"Mercenary?"

Noland nodded.

Williams sighed. "Meaning he'll want payment."

Noland nodded once again.

"...get him over here and I'll see if I can find a check book." Williams decided, "But he better be worth the god damn credits."

Xxx

Bunker Vault Nine

Level 5

Three hours after Turian landing

"Why does this place not look similar to the other four levels in any ways whatsoever?" Sergeant Scott asked. "I mean is it just me or did they hire somebody else for this floor?"

The change in design was obvious from the moment the team had stepped through the doors leading down to the deepest level of the bunker. The previous four had been designed after the classic Vault Tec interior designs with some alterations made for the sake of efficiency or changes in trends of design. The fifth level of the bunker however was something entirely different.

The walls and floor were made of some lightly blue tinted metal, and every sharp corner and angle had been changed into rounded tips and curving walls. The doors were all circular and seemed to split apart into many segments which sank into the walls. There were no computer panels next to the doors, located at security checkpoints or in any of the rooms, instead there were hologram interfaces similar to what could be found in most military installations...only the entire floor appeared to have been outfitted based on Prothean designs.

"I know the Brotherhood has unlimited access to the Prothean data cache on Mars, but I've never seen it being incorporated to this extent." Knight Rice whispered, stopping to examine the open door of a room containing rows of what looked like the newer trimmed down Brotherhood Power Armour, only modified to pretty much fit perfectly over the average sized human without having thicker plates over vital areas. Even Rice's armour still had sections that were bulkier to allow for power sources, extra ammo and supplies, but he doubted that he could hide a paper clip on these suits with the lack of obvious storage spaces.

Owen glanced through windows into rooms containing laboratories, barracks, lunch rooms, armouries...and every inch of the facility looked like it had been designed by a whole different race. The case was often the same on Mars where the Prolat were given free reign to design their own architecture, clothing and vehicles. It was similar enough to the standard Alliance counterpart to be recognizable, but clearly made by the hands of someone who had not been raised in a culture that had remained locked in the mid 20th century. The ideas that had been applied to the creation of this level must have been taken directly from the Prothean archives with some modifications.

"Doesn't matter if this place had Protheans, Prolat or god damn bug people designing it." He said to break the topic of conversation. "What matters is that down here there are Manifest soldiers who have killed our allies and will kill even more if we allow them to escape...and more importantly they have a General with them, which means they sure as hell aren't walking out of here."

He faced the team. "Alright, expect heavy resistance down here. We got lucky with the troopers back upstairs, and this time we're expecting three times as many at the very least if their entire force was squeezed into those ARVs in the garage. Parker and Rice, this is your turf so you're best qualified suggest a course of action."

The Ghoul Inquisitor huffed and crossed her arms. "Don't get your hopes up, smoothskins. This whole level looks fundamentally different from any sort of interior design I've seen the Brotherhood use since I joined up, and I guarantee that was before any of you were born."

"But they wouldn't have changed certain design trends," Owen insisted, shaking his head. "The Brotherhood may be a para-military order but it's got military tradition embedded into it all the way back to its founding. This place might look different but I bet the computers are compatible with our Pip-Boys, the sensors recognize us as allies and-"

Rice suddenly broke in, "And the security office would have a compliment of Mk X Securitrons!"

At first this would have seemed like a reason to celebrate, but Owen realized that the Knight was staring past him and down the corridor with a wide eyed expression...

Oh fuck.

Owen spun around and set eyes on a series of figures which had uncloaked behind him. Each was about six feet tall and had the build of the average Alliance marine, had a standard laser rifle attached to their backs and more hidden onboard weapons. Their outer shells were made to look like the armour worn by both Alliance marines and Brotherhood warriors outside of the heavy infantry, but with a dark blue tint and the emblem of the Brotherhood on their chassis.

"Unauthorized presence discovered," One of the Mk X Securitron robots stated while pulling its rifle from its back, displaying a flexibility that could fool someone into thinking it was a human wearing the armour if they didn't know better. As the laser rifle unfolded to its full length the rest of the squad of six mimicked their designated squad leader unit. "Enacting appropriate response."

"DOWN!" Owen bellowed, throwing himself to the side immediately and taking shelter within the alcove of a sealed door's frame as red energy lanced down the hall, forcing the team into cover.

"Fucking hacked!" Parker growled, positioned across the hall from Owen. "Well, looks like we ain't dealing with your usual Manifest grunts; these ones must have the brains that God gave a fucking turnip!" She leaned out from cover and fired several shots, managing to clip one of the robots on the shoulder pauldron and then scorch its chest plate before she ducked back into cover.

Rice peeked out from cover briefly. "I think I can hack them," He proposed while opening his Pip-Boy. "Just cover me for a minute!"

Next to the Knight, Lieutenant Sutton blind fired her laser pistol twice, accidentally landing a glancing hit against the same robot hit by Parker. "Make it half a minute." She ordered before firing three more times.

The Securitron-X models advanced, taking cover or even moving to avoid some shots as their tactical matrixes adapted to the situation quickly. By the time Sergeant Scott managed to burn a hole through the chest plate of one of them the rest had started advancing under cover fire from their fellows, moving in perfect formation. One of them employed an arm mounted shield large enough to cover its entire body when held in a defensive position, and used this to both draw the team's fire and cover its comrades as they slowly began to close the distance between the two groups.

"Is it me, or are we running out of room a little too quickly?!" Campbell called out as he tried to overwhelm the shield, but his plasma bolts were next to useless against the polycrystalline-composite material that composed the barrier. In the place of less than efficient kinetic barriers the Alliance and Brotherhood had explored and perfected many ways to defend against gunfire-and it was seriously biting them in the ass right now! (1)

Owen peeked out and quickly examined the shield for weaknesses as its wielder knelt down and allowed two of its allies to take cover behind it, firing out bursts from the sides as the shield scraped across the metal floor hard enough to create sparks. It lacked a slit that would have made a perfect target, and in its place were several sensors facing outwards that fed visual data to the robot carrying it. Two of them had been melted already, but seven more were still perfectly functional.

"Rice, new plan!" Owen called out. "Can you sync up our Pip-Boys to share targeting information?"

Rice glanced up from the green tinted holo-screen projected from his Pip-Boy and shouted. "What would that get us?!"

"I need you to set up a synced V.A.T.S barrage, that's what it'll get us!" Owen answered before part of the alcove was melted clean through a few inches from his head. "Hurry it up!"

Rice worked quickly, establishing a link to all six of the team members' individual Pip-Boys.

"Okay," The Knight breathed, "Just give the command!"

"NOW!" Owen barked, leaping from cover with the rest following...and the world slowed down to a crawl as their assisted targeting systems locked onto the shield.

Each shot had over sixty percent chance of hitting from ten feet away while each person was in motion and basically firing without taking the time to aim on their own. They all had two good shots to make, and Rice managed to arrange their coordinated salvo so that each person would fire at two different sensors.

Plasma and laser fire flew, their vectors set automatically by the targeting system physically guiding the shooters' arms. The sensors sparked as they were fried and melted within the span of a second, and by the time it was over each team member had moved to the opposite side of the hall and back into cover, breathless and shaking.

"Wow..." Sutton whispered. "We really did it." She looked at Rice. "Remind me to kiss you later, would you?"

The robots' advance paused. The shield bearer was now blind, forcing its tactical matrix to re-evaluate its options while its comrades continued to lay down suppressing fire. This moment of indecision was all that Owen needed. He pointed to both Campbell and Scott before forming his hand into a fist, raising it up and then lowering his arm; Owen pointed to the sides flanking the shield bearer and the two Securitrons it was protecting.

Both marines nodded and pulled one grenade from their belts, primed them at once and then rolled them eight feet down the hall to where they exploded on either side of the trio, reducing the Securitrons to mangled and twisted metal pieces and sparking wires. The other two further back instantly began to retreat, laying down cover fire for one another as they backpedalled down the corridor.

"Don't let them get away!" Owen shouted, and managed to score a hit to the chest plate of one Securitron in the process of moving back, followed by three more hits before it finally collapsed. Overwhelming fire quickly took down the final Securitron before it could escape, but not before it could send out a request for reinforcements.

"Well shit...now our element of surprise really did just go out the window." Campbell sighed as he stepped out into the corridor again.

Owen slid a fresh clip into his rifle. "We can't waste anymore time then. Rice, Parker, could you two override whatever Manifest did to get the Securitrons under their control?"

"Give me a few minutes in the security office and we'll see." Parker responded and tugged Rice along by the arm. "Come on boy, I need the extra hands!"

Sutton smirked and called out to the retreating pair while cupping a hand to her mouth. "Don't forget what I said, Rice!"

"What are we going to be doing?" Sergeant Scott asked as he reloaded his plasma caster. "This thing has enough ammo to last us a few short fire fights, and it'll dry up quickly if we run into more of those shield droids."

"You won't have to worry about that because we're leaving it behind." Owen asserted, reassuming his no nonsense disposition and fixing the team with a stern stare. "We won't last ten minutes if we keep running into Securitron patrols, and Rice and Parker will take too long to disable them before Manifest has a chance to pull something on us. We're going to move quickly and quietly, stop only to identify patrol patterns and then move past when we have an opening."

Owen slid his rifle onto his back and secured it with its strap. "Time is of the essence, Inquisitor Grey and her surviving Paladins might not have a lot of it."

Xxx

"Clear," Inquisitor Parker grunted, leading the way with her side arm while Rice covered their rear. "How many of those things do you think this place holds?"

"Uh-probably thirty," Rice replied, gripping his plasma repeater tightly. "All combat models, and the rest will know about what we did to their friends."

They would already be fully updated with information on the team. Their numbers, armaments, strategies...the next engagement would be much harder, which made it important that the Securitrons be shut down fast.

Parker exhaled as they reached the next door. "Perfect," She muttered, and opened the door only to come face to face with a pair of the Securitron X models.

"Oh fucking perfect!" The Inquisitor shouted, firing her pistol at close range into one of the robots only to be grabbed by her arm and slammed against the side of the corridor.

Rice took several steps back and fumbled with his repeater. The second robot lunged forward and slammed into the Knight, knocking him to the floor and gripping his throat. It began to squeeze, its mechanical fingers slowly constraining Rice's wind pipe despite his armour and hard suit even while he struggled to dislodge the automaton.

Parker grappled with her own opponent, trying to keep it from repeating the same treatment against her. She quickly cycled through a list of options in her head and settled on one that as both risky but also highly likely to actually damage this thing enough to shut it down in one hit...

The ghoul released one of the metal arms, allowing a hand to close around her neck and begin to slam her back into the wall even as she reached over and tapped into her Pip-Boy. As the Securitron began to lift her off her feet Parker's right hand began to squeeze its secondary arm...and actually bend the plating enough for it to take notice.

Parker smirked and said in a strained voice, "Surprise, soup can!" She then released the Securitron's arm and clenched her hand into a fist, which split apart to reveal mechanical components beneath that shredded the sleeve of her robe and formed into a device which looked like a clenched fist resting on a sort of mechanical battering ram.

A moment later the implanted Power Fist struck, driving into and through the Securitron's chassis and shredding through the circuitry beneath; several tubes stuck out of Parker's forearm, emitting a yellow glow as she pulled her arm back. The synthetic warrior flailed and fell back while the Power Fist retracted only to strike again, this time hitting it across the face with more force than the human body was capable of safely exerting on its own; this time she shattered several plates and sent others flying off, and the yellow tubes on Parker's arm turned orange. After a third strike a warning was sounded from Parker's Pip-Boy to indicate that the quick and successive strikes were overheating the weapon, but luckily this time she had punched the thing's head clean from its shoulders and sent it rolling down the corridor, freeing the Inquisitor. The tubes on her arm were now glowing a dangerous red as steam escaped from several ports in an effort to reduce the mechanical arm's inner temperature.

Rice in the meantime was beginning to black out, one of his wrists pinned to the floor while the other futilely gripped the hand choking the life out of him. Just as his vision began to turn dark the robot was ripped away from him and thrown against the wall much in a similar way to how Parker had been manhandled, only when she struck again she rammed her elbow into the neck section of the Securitron-a weak spot. The result was every component in the targeted area being crushed into scrap, and the Securitron went limp as the command module in its skull ceased to send directions to its extremities.

Parker dropped the metal paper weight to the ground and huffed. "Fucking overhyped tin cans," She looked at Rice, who was rubbing his throat and coughing. "You alright there, kid?"

"Y-yeah," Rice coughed, sitting up now. "You have an-an implant?"

Parker flexed her arm as it finished venting heat. Mechanisms began to fold back up until the limb seamlessly sealed itself into the shape of a basic human arm. "A Power Fist augmentation," She responded with a nod, "Got it when I became an Inquisitor on account of losing an arm in the field. Ghouls are capable of being augmented like you smoothskins despite the popular belief, and the Brotherhood wrote the book on modern combat augmentations."

She bent down and offered Rice a hand, which he accepted and wheezed as he was pulled to his feet. "I won't complain."

"How far is the security office?" Parker asked, grabbing her sidearm from where she had dropped it.

Rice checked his Pip-Boy and pointed ahead, still doubled over a bit while trying to take a full breath. "Just up ahead," He said in a strained voice, little better than a whisper. "But we'll have company soon, the rest might know what we're up to."

Parker rolled her eyes. "These things are that fucking adaptive?"

"The designers wanted them to consider all plausible tactical options, and what we're doing now counts as one." Rice defended, and began to walk with some assistance from the Inquisitor until he was able to stand back up on his own and his muscles relaxed. The door to the security office lay before them, a pair of melted turrets sticking out of the ceiling on either side of it-compliments of Manifest most likely. "Just cover me while I open this thing."

"In that case I'm borrowing this," Parker replied as she snatched Rice's repeater away from him along with a microfusion clip from his belt; she slid the clip in and heard the weapon charge up just in time to also detect metal footsteps clanking down the corridor towards them.

Parker knelt and aimed down the corridor back the way they had come from. "Make it fast! And this time don't tell me you need a ruttin' minute!" She commanded the Knight as he pried open the access panel next to the door.

Xxx

On the far side of the level Ian Mycroft watched as his men moved the monolith, which rested on a floating metal platform towards a set of doors on the far end of the room. The Manifest Commander & Chief rubbed his hands together, anticipating the success that this would represent.

"Sir, the Enduranceis reporting that it remains undetected by the alien fleet and is awaiting our signal to evacuate." The soldier accompanying Ian informed him.

"Good," Ian turned and strode out of the room, "Set the charges and have them set to go off after we've left. Let us bury this place and any who would interfere with the true destiny of our people."

"At once, sir." The soldier nodded and split off from Ian, who was making his way to the base's control room, the Brotherhood's version of an Overseer's office.

General Mycroft hummed a pleasant tune as he sauntered through the energy scorched corridors and ducked through a hole which he had personally burned through the command centre security doors. The room was not the basic circular design that the Alliance favored, but was instead arranged un a U shape with a long platform from which the commander worked overlooking rows of consoles and projection tables on both sides. His destination was the command console resting on the very tip of the platform at the commander's seat.

"Engage QEC, one way transmission." Mycroft commanded as he leaned back in the chair, one leg crossed over the other in a relaxed pose, "Message begins: have retrieved artifact code named Ark, securing for transport to Houston Base. Stand by to receive Endurance and lay some bread crumbs to keep the Alliance from following them home. Message ends."

The screen lit up with a green tinted message informing Mycroft that the transmission had been successfully broadcasted many light years away to a Manifest base nestled in a territory not yet touched by the Alliance. The QEC ensured that the Alliance would not be able to intercept this message, much less become aware of its existence in the first place; more importantly it wouldn't be noticed by the aliens either.

"Message received, response dispatched." The computer announced, "Message begins: Acknowledged. Houston Station is prepared to receive Ark, proper containment facilities have been established and personnel reassigned to accommodate. Have checked sources inside Alliance command structure; no leaks, location secure. Council of Joint Chiefs has authorized full activation of Project Nietzsche. (2)"

Mycroft couldn't help but clap his hands together and grin while whispering to himself, "Excellent, excellent!"

Suddenly he became aware of several figures standing in the open doorway, weapons levelled at him.

"Message begins," Ian continued, pretending not to notice the newcomers. "Houston, we have a problem. Message ends."

"Oh great, a comedian," Sutton drawled as she advanced into the room alongside Campbell, Scott and Mason. "I want to see those hands moving away from the console or both are turning to slag."

Ian raised his hands and smiled as he leaned back in his seat. "Oh I'm sure if you gave me the chance you'd see these hands do what they do best."

Sutton grimaced. "Great, he's that kind of funny guy."

"Heaven forbid! I was actually referring to using them to mangle the life out of someone..." Ian's eyes settled on Mason, and his smile fell. "And if it wasn't for obvious reasons you'd be seeing them in action right now."

Owen narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip on his rifle. "Ian Mycroft," He breathed, "The head of the snake himself, this is almost too good to be true."

"And you are the spawn of a man who has singlehandedly set back progress and the restoration of a perfect nation by decades, possibly centuries." Ian replied with barely restrained contempt in his words. "Rest assured Mason: with your presence here the feeling is mutual. When I'd heard that it was you who drew these aliens to Shanxi I honestly couldn't say that I was surprised. After all, you Masons have a habit of starting things you have no business in."

"Save the self righteous rambling." Owen deadpanned and waved Campbell and Scott forward. "Disable his armour functions and restrain him."

Ian didn't resist as the two marines set about removing his weapons and then systematically targeting and disabling his armour's hidden weapons. Even as they cuffed his hands behind his back he only kept his stare fixed on Owen.

Only after they had the Manifest General secured did Owen allow himself to relax. "What are you doing here? What's in this bunker that you want so badly?"

"Something that will correct the damage that your father and Alice Shepard did," Ian replied. "Right now the human race is suffering from a cancer, and what I have done here today is the first step to cutting it away one piece at a time."

Sutton holstered her gun and accessed the console. "He cut the link," She said after slamming one fist down against the computer, "I can't trace where he sent it to."

"If he was using the QEC then we should be able to find out in short order," Owen replied, breaking away from Mycroft's piercing gaze and looking at the pilot. "But...that wouldn't make sense. The relay in this base would connect to one in a Brotherhood or Alliance base...unless he wasn't using it at all."

"But how? We heard him activate it before we came in." Scott jabbed Mycroft with the tip of his rifle for emphasis.

"Yes, but..." Owen thought it over for a moment, running one hand through his matted hair before it came to him, and he pointed out in response, "Isn't is possible to wirelessy hook up to one from a distance? Transmit the data through it?"

"Yeah but most relays are hardwired just to take direct input since a wireless transmission is something that could be picked up." Sutton nodded, "But I've seen it done before when the situation calls for it, also seen it being done on a frigate."

"And what better way for a General to waltz into and out of enemy territory than with one such frigate?" Owen asked, glancing between his companions. "I'll tell you: a stealth frigate."

"Quite astute of you," Mycroft shrugged his shoulders. "Of course this all just adds up to you being back to square one. For all your faults your bloodline is, historically speaking, annoyingly efficient."

In hindsight Owen should have realized that without even needing a moment to think it over. Using a QEC relay was both an incredible advantage and a colossal risk to a group attempting to remain secret. They came in pairs, allowing for instantaneous communication across light years. Other forms of FTL communications existed, but required a transmission buoy and left room for hackers to intercept signals; the QEC couldn't be intercepted, but if you had one of the paired relays you could track the other one to the most distant star at the edge of the galaxy and deduce its exact location without the other party being able to do anything short of destroying the other relay to stop you.

Mycroft may have had his quirks, but he was the leading military commander of Manifest for a reason. He wouldn't make an amateur move by using an enemy QEC to try and send a confidential message, least of all with the intent of sending it somewhere other than its paired relay located where the information would be viewed openly. The short range signal might pose a risk to the idea of secrecy, but with all the chaos going on from the alien invasion there wouldn't be Brotherhood Knights focusing on intercepting unauthorized transmissions way out in the countryside.

"We can deal with it later," Owen decided, "For now we have the head honcho of Manifest's military divisions at our mercy."

"If you really believe that my captivity changes the outcome of what is to occur, you are more delusional than your father." Mycroft quipped, seeming far too relaxed for a man in bindings and with two guns pointed at his head. "My fate is insignificant in the-"

"Oh shut him up already!" Owen snapped, prompting Campbell to strike Ian across the face with the butt of his rifle hard enough to drive the General to his knees. "Thank you Sergeant, I could seriously do without anymore of his 'charming' dialogue."

"My pleasure, sir," Campbell responded, aiming his rifle at Mycroft's head as the older man wiped some blood from his lips and slowly rotated his head to gaze up at his attacker, his glowing eyes making the marine shudder and fight the urge to step back.

"Alright, now we need to locate the rest of his forces." Owen walked up to the command console. "Sutton?"

"Already have them." Sutton pulled up several floating holo-screens showing the armoured Manifest personnel and the route they were on. "They're moving towards an emergency exit: a tunnel that leads miles away from here to a series of natural caverns. If they get there they'll have a dozen different exits to take and a million places to hide from the aliens and us until their ship picks them up."

"Then that's where we're heading." Owen announced, "Campbell, I want you to stay here and guard Mycroft."

"Sir, is it really a good idea to split the team up any further?" Campbell asked.

"We can't risk him escaping and we can't let his troops get away either." Owen responded. "Once Rice and Parker disable the security droids you can come follow us, but try to contact Inquisitor Grey while you're here."

Campbell nodded. "Yes sir." He switched to his side arm and kept it locked on Mycroft with one hand while using the other to tap commands into the main console, making sure to keep Mycroft at more than an arm's distance but also close enough to quickly spot any movement from the cuffed General. "Just try not to take too long, this guy's already giving me the evil eye."

Campbell paused on one of the security footage screens and zoomed in on the object being moved by the Manifest troopers. It was a tall, spiralling object which was glowing with energy and planted on a mobile platform to move it with its escorts maintaining formation around it.

"Just what the hell did you people come here for?" He demanded, glaring over at Mycroft, whose smile returned.

"I think I'll refrain from spoiling the surprise." The General responded with a wink. "Just know that it changes everything, son."

Xxx

End of Chapter

CODEX OPENED

Accessing files...

File opened: Ian Mycroft

The sole heir of Manifest's founder and original leader Kenneth Mycroft, Ian was groomed from a young age to take over from his father before Manifest had even been formed. Upon Kenneth's death his son (at 27 years of age) immediately took control of Manifest without any resistance from its council of 'Joint Chiefs', and has since authorized or taken part in numerous hit and run actions against Alliance military assets and civilian population centres. Recent sightings have verified that Mycroft has undergone extensive cybernetic augmentation unlike anything dating back to the days of the Great War. The full extension of these augmentations remain a mystery, but Ian Mycroft is considered to be armed and extremely dangerous to the point that even Meta Humans and Death Claws are advised to avoid facing him alone.

Ian is most famous for being the first human child to be born into the ranks of Manifest, and for the capture of an Alliance cruiser, renamed the Promised Rebirth which now serves as his flagship. He also has ensured that Manifest is able to keep up with the Alliance on the scale of technology and weapons.

File closed

Accessing files...

File opened: Sergeant Nathan Campbell

...

...

...

What the hell do you mean 'Redacted?!'

(1) The shield was directly taken from the Cerberus Guardian unit in Mass Effect 3.

(2) Frederick Nietzsche, creator of the concept of Ubermensch (Overman, Superman, Beyondman, etc), describing it as a goal to be attained by humanity. The species Nietzscheans in the sci-fi television series Andromeda were inspired by the philosophies of Nietzsche, Social Darwinism and Dawkinsian genetic competiveness and created as genetically enhanced super humans who value survival, strength and ensuring the continuation of one's genetic legacy through conceiving an heir. The Nazis used the term Ubermensch to describe their idea of a genetically superior master race (the Aryans).