Author's Note: Honestly? I feel at the end of my rope with this story, the recent shut down does not subtract from my feelings. Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 94: Rift Eta Part 2
08M 14D 16H Until the Colossus Fires
Hackett looked at the reports he was getting, it seems that no longer being influenced by their masters their followers tend to break away from them, though they are still far from what The Union would call allies. The Gaian's just want to be left alone, the Tzynn are trying to hunt their God for sport, while the Sathyrelians have joined the Tebrids in their degenerate gamer lifestyle. The only ones that were still reporting problems were the Gorthikians. Even after being cut off from the Whisperer the Gorthikians showed no signs of ceasing their endless hostility, it wasn't just the Tidal world that Tali was operating on that they were attacking. All of the major communication centres of the Union had come under assault by the Squids, even on the worlds that were being actively shielded by the Thorian still had Gorthikians actively fighting on them, and they weren't sure why. To resolve this issue a team of experts had been called in, behaviourists, xenobiologist, military strategists and of course, the Gorthikians themselves. Purgatory was quite successful when it came to keeping the hostile aliens captive, Gaians, Tzynn, Sathyrelians and of course Gorthikians. For now the assembled team began their discussion.
"For one, it's unusual that they're only targeting the communication stations." Admiral Hackett explained as he paced around the room. "In the same system as the worlds the Gorthikians have attacked there have been military installations, supply distribution centres and major civilian cities, and yet the only thing that matters to them is getting to their communication hubs, only ever adjusting their targets when they prove to be a threat to destroying their initial targets."
"I've had the chance to dissect their brains thoroughly." The xenobiologist known popularly as Skeletor brought up the results of freezing and sectioning the Gorthikians brains, because while the Union has policies against killing people just to satisfy their curiosity the Gorthikian's seemingly endless aggression means that there were plenty of corpses to go around. "Assuming that we're reading this correctly, they have a abnormal brain structure, their bodies pain receptors are heightened particularly around the ear canals and throughout the head, and there is no signs of any photo receptors of any kind." In short, they're unusually sensitive to stimuli other than light, probably because they're blind. "Their sense of hearing is unusually well developed even for the blind though, not to mention their ability to turn their psionic impulses into waves to control machinery through electronic signals." The Lich explained with a fascinated tone of voice.
"The ones that we have in custody... aren't really acting like prisoners." An Asari Neuroscientist by the name of Rana Thanoptis was looking at a cell where several of the Gorthikian's were being kept prisoner. Contrary to their behaviour on the outside they were the most well behaved prisoners on the ship, she has even taken to playing with the infantile Gorthikians that had been 'born' during the course of the riots. "The only time they show any resistance at all is when we try to take them out of their cells, in which they become extremely violent." The group looked over at the cells, which at the most generous they can only describe as being large white rooms. There was no food aside from what the guards bring in to feed them, no form of entertainment aside from what they can do for themselves, and no way for them to exercise aside from what they were doing on the daily. Near as Rana could tell there was nothing inside those rooms that makes those things want to stay inside so badly. "What kinds of security measures are you guys employing to make them behave like that anyway?"
"We aren't as far as we know." Zaeed was cleaning his weapons off to the side. As the warden he has the right to know about whatever harebrained scheme these so called scientists come up with to try and figure these things out, and in that same capacity he had the responsibility to stop them from doing stupid mot. "That cell is surrounded by every 'anti' security measures that we can think of, signals from the outside can't go in, and they can't extend their telepathy outwards either." Zaeed looked remarkably unconcerned for someone who was sitting next to a cell full of one of the biggest menaces to Union space, the others simply guessed that he was use to it, or that he had simply seen worse. "There is no possible way for them to interact with the outside world beyond the times that we give them food."
Dr. Thanaptolis looked at Zaeed, looked at the aliens and came to a radical conclusion.
"Skeleton-"
"I do not accept that designation."
"-the Squids would need to be able to detect signals somehow in order to be able to match them right?" The Asari scientist asked as she took a look at the results again. In the mean time Skeletor walked past the scientist and stared ahead at the creatures beyond the one way glass.
"Could it really be that simple?" Skeletor reached over to the side of the observation window and flipped a switch. Suddenly the Squid's paused in disbelief, grabbing hold of their heads they started screaming in agony.
"Hey don't touch that!" Zaeed immediately ran over and flipped the switch back, turning on the signal jammers that were keeping the Gorthikian's from interacting with the outside world. And yet opposite of prisoners that had been denied escape, the Squid's visibly relaxed from the intense screaming they had done. "Do you have any idea how much damage you could've done right now!?"
"Admiral, I believe we have the answer to their unceasing hostility." The various experts looked into the room with surprise as they started to clue in to what the Gorthikians were trying to accomplish. They weren't attacking the communication hubs because they were trying to fulfil some objective from their master from beyond the void coming into contact with the different kinds of signals causes them pain, a signal that can reach across the galaxy? Excruciating beyond comprehension. It would be impressive that they can even work through that to do all the things that they were rightly terrified of that they were doing, but then you remember that the 'Average' Gorthikian is a nutcase with four to five redundant brains that eventually split off from the main body, join another, and then goes on to grow a whole other Gorthikian with their own redundant brains.
There was nothing about these aliens that wasn't impressive whether it was their biology, their perseverance, soon they would establish proper contact and learn their history too. But for now they had a more immediate problem they needed to deal with.
08M 14D 15H Until the Colossus Fires
"I do not believe reconciliation is possible." EDI stated sitting off to the corner of the room. She, Tali, and the other members of the Task force had been getting ready to raid the enemy base when the report from Purgatory came in. The information described how to reconcile their differences with the Gorthikian's, and thus they established why doing so was completely impossible, at least for EDI. "Communication is key to any civilisation, the larger the civilisation the more advance the communication must be. The only form of long distance communication that does not bring them pain is Quantum Entanglement."
By long distance EDI meant communication between planets. Quantum entanglement was efficient but clunky, complicated and expensive, a single entangled particle can connect two points and only two points even then there are limits to it's information, so it's best to employ redundant particles. To connect multiple points together in a network you need to employ a switch board to alternate between multiple points of entangled particles, which means that the costs of maintaining a conversation between two points is doubled, if there is a break down, or even just regular maintenance, then the cost of ripping out the broken parts and replacing them goes up, now scale those problems up to the size of the galaxy.
"Not just long distance communication either." The vast majority of the signals they are picking up are from short range radio signals, albeit ones that would be distorted and weakened from bouncing around and escaping from the atmosphere, since there is nothing in the vacuum of space to stop them or slow them down they can go for quite a distance for a long time, in fact the majority of the signals the Gorthikians are probably hearing are most likely decades or even centuries old. Which also meant that changing out to lined communications, such as fibre optics would also be materially expensive, they do things now won't do anything for them immediately. There was also the little inconvenience that they were in the middle of a war right now and the proposed process involves ripping out and replacing their information and communication network would put them at a massive and unforgivable disadvantage.
"Well I understand your point, I don't want to be cut off from the network either, let alone it getting torn down." Tali held her chin in her hand as she turned to Chief Wrund. "I have an idea to resolve the situation with the Squids, but I'll need a few days to put it in place. Your men will have to be kept captive for a few more days, I can't promise their minds will be alright."
"Failure will be good for them." The Chief didn't seem worried. "If just coming into contact with their minds is enough to break them then there's nothing we can do for them now, if not then it's just on the level of being unpleasant. If they're suffering the consequences of their actions then maybe they'll learn for better next time." Chief Wrund was a pragmatist first and foremost, if his men were gone he'd mourn them when he had the chance, if they were still alive he would discipline them for their recklessness and retrain them to be better for next time. "If as you say the chances of returning my men to their families safely will be increased by waiting then wait we shall." Chief Wrund gave more of a honour bound vibe than Wrex did, though Wrex valued honour he was far more jaded as well, through to be fair both men probably only recently had their faith in their fellow man restored. Regardless, Tali worked to live up to the faith that had been placed in her.
08M 11D 06H Until the Colossus Fires
After working for over three days Tali's plan had been put into action. The Gorthikian's had not ceased their assault on their base, and while the threat of them ripping out their base by the root was inconvenient, for today their presence meant that Tali would not have to look for them either. The hostile aliens responded with confusion when the wretched signal filling their heads with intrusive thoughts had ceased. Then something unfamiliar to them appeared, a large loud machine, it's limbs hissing as they crunched into the snow. It came alone, and then it buzzed with sound.
"You spent a long time in our systems, I wonder if that means that you can understand me?" The Aliens tilted their heads in confusion, some gestures were simply universal after all. "I'll have to take that as a yes." It's not like she had a choice after all. "What you are experiencing is a signal jammer. It blocks out all incoming signals in a given area, we use it as a strategic weapon but I sense you have another use for it. In two of our hours we will have our people back, or the Jammer goes off." Showing no sign of comprehension of what Tali had said, she returned to the base camp. For now their efforts to set up a new tree of life on this world was progressing.
With plentiful amounts of energy the Eezo planted here could create a field of Anti Gravity to encourage and support the growth of the Tree of Life, and thanks to the lines of Brain Fruit supported by thermal kinesis the energy could be efficiently transferred over large distances.
?M ?D ?H Until the Colossus Fires
The ongoing war between the Four Tumours and the Union Dragoons was raging as new combatants were introduced to the fray, or rather old ones.
"Unbidden again. Lovely." Saren looked down at multi-coloured array of different extra-dimensionals that were rampaging on the battlefield alongside the enemy monsters. "Not just Unbidden, Aberrant, Vehemont and some red ones too. I guess those would be called 'The Insatiable?'" Shepard compared what she knew about the enemy to the new enemy. Both Unbidden and the four Tumours were creatures made out of almost pure psi-energy, the difference was first quantity and second was a sense of self that allowed them to control their followers. In this way there may exist a connection between the Four coloured forces and the four tumours. "Looking at them there's a colour for each of the Four Tumours. Whisperer Blue for the Unbidden, Instrument Gold for the Aberrant, Composer Green for the Vehemont and Eater Red for the Insatiable."
"Yes I see your point, but for now I believe we need to reduce the number of enemies." Saren cocked his gun as he slid down the hill, Shepard soon following him. There was already a lot of metal on the ground from fired slugs, so Shepard threw lightning into the ground, gathered up the scattered metals and made a giant blade of vibrating metals and electricity, easily slicing through the bodies of the nearest Giants with one sweep, and then a headache hit Shepard. "Looks like using Psionics without proper support takes its toll." Shepard looked up through the air at the Extra-dimensional enemies. "No that isn't it is it?" It probably wasn't a good idea to use too much psionics around creatures that were made out of psychic energy.
"Wipe the extra dimensionals first!" Luckily though they suck against the laws of physics.
Being literal glass cannons the Extradimensionals might have a lot of offensive power they lacked in defensive ability, so the good ol' fashion boom sticks did the trick. The issue here lay in the fact that while the Extradimensionals themselves were fragile their not so extra-dimensional allies were most certainly not, each of them were durable or numerous enough to act as a wall of bodies to protect the fragile creatures from the other wall made up guns and belching polonium.
"Move around to the back and flank them in Melee!" Shepard considered barking orders psychically or using coms but honestly? The enemy included walking radio towers and psychics, shouting the orders as loudly as possible and hoping they reach as many allied ears as possible would be just as likely to keep the orders from reaching the enemy ears. "If they move to block us move around them!"
A group of Dragoons did as Shepard instructed, whipping out the maces and high frequency blades to rip through the fragile Extradimensionals, of course the mutated enemy didn't just stand around and let their charges get powdered, spinning around to meet their enemies but that left their own flanks exposed to belching Great Graal Throwers spitting spikes directly into their vitals. Part of the good thing of a well oiled war machine is that the soldiers aren't mindless automatons that need to get instructions to do every single thing, and are more than able to take blatant advantages where they can get them.
"Slam those eye balls on top of the skeletons!"
What happens when you mix super heated laser shooting eyes, a weight increasing biotic field and a group of exotic gas spewing skeletons? Boom! "Let's turn those bone heads into shrapnel!" Shepard was basically handed a unlimited supply of explosives in the form of a field of flaming exotic plasma and a crack team of biotics, firing off such fun things like Push into the flames turned the bones into shrapnel flying away and stabbing into the rest of the enemy forces. However their foes were not taking the new development lying down. Telekinetics scooped up the flaming gas and tossed it back to the Dragoons. Sound waves pushed the flame towards the group, and perhaps most important of all giants charged through the flame in suicide attacks intent on slamming into the group in question.
"Trip em up!"
The nearest Dragoons smashed the ankles and slashed the tendons of the giants with their weapons causing them to do a rather amusing face plant.
"Fall back!"
No one bothered to do anything about the makeshift barricade other than get away from it as soon as possible before it smashed them or blew up. The Next group of giants tripped on the barricade of their fellows and slammed face first into the ground, unmoving.
"They're top heavy! Gravity's no friend of theirs!"
Shots continued to be fired with the intention of bringing the enemy down, Graal spikes to fired into the ground and the Giants stepped on them, much to their own Chagrin as make shift caltrops shot pain upwards into their bodies forcing them to bleed from their feet, gravity did the rest.
"Looks like air support's here!"
The Beholders flew over the flames and resumed their bombardment with laser beams.
"Then shoot them!"
Given the massive obvious weak point, the Dragoons focused their fire on popping the eyes like giant balloons, to little effect as the shots were either incinerated with laser beams or hit rare crystal.
"Keep mobile and go in different directions!"
The Dragoons scattered, peppering the eye ball with their weapons for a weak spot or trying their damnedest to make one with focused fire.
"Lift me!" Shepard pulled out the trusty Ship saw.
"Now!" Shepard was thrown into the air above the Beholder, and Slammed back down weapon revving as it tore the creature apart. "Undersides are protected by barriers!" Shepard landed uncomfortably close to the fire. "Pyro your ammo and pop spikes into them!"
The two halves of the Beholder slammed into the ground for dramatic effect.
"Get them out of the air before they cross the fire wall!"
Shepard looked at the wall in question and judged distance and time.
"Get eyes to the sides!"
If presented with an impassable wall, do not go through, go around. Soon the Centaurs as the fastest on their feet were able to run around the wall of flame and were now blasting their tone death sensory overload at full volume and throwing the aim of those shooting at them.
"Toss the rocks!"
Faced with the issue of a seemingly unlimited supply of enemy forces and a limited amount of allies the Dragoons got creative needless to say. Biotic fields levitating boulders into the air, and then slamming them back down again on top of the enemy forces was enough to do a fair bit of damage against the likes of say a group of Skeletons, and better yet they were reusable, in this case it made good makeshift ramparts against the Centaurs forcing them to slow down, turn or jump over them.
"Make choke holds and focus on taking out the larger lower half!"
Perhaps not aiming for the most vital area's didn't make a lot sense at first, but they would be crippled and stop moving, and with the hollow spikes letting them bleed out they would be dead soon enough, in the mean time their bodies created more obstacles, or got trampled on and died, nobody was complaining. They did however have three fronts to the battle that they now had to deal with, the Giants and Skeletons charging through the flames betting on their durability to make it through, the Beholders flying over to attack from above, and the Centaurs going around the sides. The Dragoons in the mean time had the guns which were operating on a limited supply of Heat sinks, energy heavy psionics and Biotics, and a limited supply of medi-gel forcing them to slowly back away or outright retreat when they couldn't fire off any front load damage any more.
And then someone apparently got tired of watching.
A Gungnir rod fell from the sky, Weighed down by a powerful biotic Slam while a Barrier protected the tungsten rod from the air friction, thus slamming down in the middle of the field of fire, the combined might of the impact burst and biotic explosion flattened the battlefield and sent combatants on both sides flying around the resulting crater.
"Did anyone catch the name of that nuke?"
The difference between the Dragoons and the Shroud Forces in this case is that one side had built in medical cybernetics and the other did not. It did Leave open the question of who had taken a shot at them though.
08M 10D 20H Until the Colossus Fires
After days of argument Liara and Miranda reached a impasse, Liara could no more find any other obvious sign of Miranda being compromised than Miranda could prove she wasn't. And as the daughter of a diplomat Liara could in theory filibuster with the best of them, but stall tactics wouldn't save Shepard. With the aid of Miranda's ally the Collector with a direct link to the Animater of Clay a stable connection was formed through the Astral Rift, in which a two part missile was fired. The Missile part acted as a delivery mechanism, blowing off the bulk of the capsule, fuel rods and other unnecessary components and letting out it's pay load of Gungnir space to surface rods to slam into the planet with force comparable to a nuclear blast. They cleared much of the forest, avoided the Dragoons fortress ship, and even managed to ruin a bonfire of exotic gas that the Shroud Forces had going, which now led them to their current position.
"Is that what I think it is?" What Liara was of course indicating was the city sized ship that the Shroud Forces were in the middle of building. "If you mean it's two thirds of a Union standard issue transport ship then yes." Miranda made the situation explicitly known, that right now the enemy was getting ready to leave this world to go on the offensive against the wider galaxy with their army. "If they're building something of that size, then they have something nasty planned."
"We already knew that much." Liara rolled her eyes. "The question is what are they planning to take off world?" That was the million dollar question.
"For now let's start with the Dragoon base."
The base was still relatively intact, despite weeks worth of work the Four Tumours didn't manage to break into the base, or rather weeks of training. Just kill more Dragoons who were now joining the ranks of the enemy forces after being getting the lich treatment. Here Liara touched down with Miranda, and met the returning Dragoons after their latest fight against the four Tumours saw the battle abruptly ended when a weapon of mass destruction was abruptly dropped into the area. Here the two exchanged information, about how the Union was fighting back against the Tumours through the use of the psychic jammers that the Thorian created, which is likely what led the Tumours to create new minions from the ground up, and deploy extradimensionals to support them. In the meantime the Tumours were using the Dragoons to beta-test their forces, making improvements to counter any newly discovered weaknesses, give them a better understanding of Union tactics. Two facts became clear from this: They cannot stay here, because the longer they stay here the stronger the Shroud Forces were going to get, and they can't leave either, because if they leave then the Shroud Gods will no longer have reason to stay here.
Author's Note:
RonaldM40196867: Probably. I'm leaning sorcery. Not really.
Monster King: I'm nearing my limit.
TheMacGuffinMan: Glad you like it.
Ned: Hello.
Halo: This is worst than learned helplessness.