Well at least it's not raining.
It took approximately three seconds for the admirals to go from discussion mode to battle stations. As soon as they were able to confirm which scrap yard it was in they had troops moving on the location.
"I feel there's something utterly ridiculous. A trio of teenagers succeed through dumb luck as we scramble around in the dark. All while doing the middle class equivalent of dumpster diving." Divayn mused, voice tinged with amusement.
"We can find amusement in the matter after it's dead." Almia began distributing specific orders and plotting troop placements. "Trying to get troops inside that thing will be a death trap. It probably has the entire thing mapped out for ambushes. If it goes airborne though…"
Sehtil let Viveht and Almia begin mustering their troops, turning for a moment to Luciana and the asari, one of the few working in the command center. "Excellent work, you've saved us quite a lot of time and resources. I'm not sure how you found it but keep up your efforts."
Luciana got a curious look on her face, somewhere between rage and amusement. The asari seemed to shrink and offered a trembling salute. "Thank you Admiral! I'll do my best Admiral!"
Dismissing her, Luciana joined them around the holo-projector. "I guess this proves it rests during the day, I'm not sure what the music was about though."
"If it's as advanced as it seems to be, perhaps it has the ability to appreciate the arts in its own bizarre way. I can't imagine playing music requires much power compared to reconstructing weapons or rebuilding body parts." Divayn theorized, mandibles practically vibrating.
"Great, I'm so glad the murder bot likes music."
"We can't confirm the kill if we don't send troops into the destroyer." Viveht insisted to Almia, they had already deployed gunships and pointed satellites and sensors at the scrapyard, now it was just a matter of how to close in.
"If we send troops in we're sending them to die. It's a waste of men! And it flees the destroyer then we have a bunch of troops tripping around an empty wreck!" Almia shot back. "We destroy the thing from a distance and comb the scrapyard after!"
"How will that go I wonder? Instead of a stable structure over their head, a bunch of soldiers wandering around flinching at shadows. If it could survive the crash, I doubt filling that wreck with bullets will do anything." Viveht insisted, subtly glancing at Sehtil to break their stalemate.
"Then we don't just "fill it with bullets." Sehtil declared, sending orders to mobilize ships with heavier ordinance. "We flatten it. Now that we know exactly where it is, our sensors will have better luck tracking it. Keep it monitored even before we begin the assault. As long as it stays in range we can end this here."
Viveht looked annoyed but Almia seemed content with Sehtil's compromise, if it could be called that. "My concern is if it tries to flee. It's far more maneuverable than our ships, at least from what we've seen."
"We will be putting boots on the ground, even if they aren't moving in until they receive the order. If it does flee we have a better chance of tracking it. If it flies our satellites can monitor it, if it stays on the ground it will be facing our men on open terrain."
"Open is a bit of a strong word given this is a scrapyard we're talking about." Divayn reminded them. "But unless you want to wait until nightfall and see if it really is more dangerous then we have to strike now."
"Sirs, what about the civilians?" Luciana asked finally.
Almia looked at the captain. "What about them?"
In all likelihood they were already dead. Even if the drone had left them alive for some reason, any chance of a rescue mission was out of the question. Killing this AI now and preventing more death outweighed the lives of a few civilians.
Luciana didn't need it explained to her. "Understood sir."
"CONTRACT SPECIALIST, INCONCLUSIVE FINDINGS," J stomped around her "hideout" cursing. "LACK OF FUNDING, SHORT-TERM PROFITS!"
"What is it doing?" One of the teenage aliens whispered and J whirled on them. The trio stiffened as she stalked forward glaring, blades in the shape of a claw emerging from her arm.
"Congratulations you three." She hissed at them, wanting nothing more than to rip their throats out. "You've just been promoted from victims to hostages."
"I think being taken hostage still makes us victims." The salarian muttered and J swiped at him loosely, nothing deadly, just enough to slice his arm open. He screamed in pain and she leaned in.
"Just so you know, hostages don't need all their limbs to serve their purpose. Keep quiet if you want to keep them." She whispered sweetly and patted him on the cheek as best she could given salarian facial structure.
He whimpered a little, clutching at his cut but didn't utter anymore words.
Okay, problem, the turians almost certainly knew where she was and were coming for her. Second problem, it was the middle of the day. Third problem, she had not finished digging her escape tunnel yet.
Solutions… pending. But she could hopefully get the turians to hang back with the hostages until she could come up with something. She doubted they would be enough to get the turians to let her go without a fuss but they might make them hesitate.
J ripped open an oil jug as she passed and downed as much as she could before tossing it aside. She wouldn't be able to take any with her so that would have to last her until she could restock.
She dug through her supply crate, various items she'd "acquired" from the citizens of the planet over the past week. Three items in particular stuck out to her, a kinetic shield, a security forces radio, and a handheld radar.
J had still been avoiding consuming Element Zero. It was something she still intended to investigate further and once she knew for sure she could consume it without any side effects she'd start chowing down.
But that meant she still couldn't produce her own shields which was something, she could use that right now. Which was why she went out of her way to "liberate" an existing model. Last night was her first opportunity to get an intact one but she hadn't had a chance to experiment with it yet.
Time for a stress test then.
With a bit of fiddling she strapped it on. Glancing at the radar revealed dozens of objects moving on her position.
Grimacing, J opened up her listening software. Immediately her mind was filled with chatter as turian forces began encircling the scrapyard.
Well, time to introduce herself. She set the radio to broadcast to all frequencies.
"Alright listen up scum." Some of the chatter went quiet as she began speaking. "I was taking things easy today so I don't feel like killing all of you right now. As it happens, I have three little twerps who poked their noses where they didn't belong…"
She glanced at them, and felt a spike of shame when she realized the salarian didn't have a proper nose even if it had nostrils…. Nope, nope, ignore the mistake, it was not important right now.
It was important though. "Well two of them did, the other one doesn't belong either though."
Phew, correction made. "Now, why don't we cut a little deal. I let you take these three precious little angels home, and you get off my lawn before I call the homeowner's association. Deal?"
J ended her message. That should get them talking for a couple minutes. Now she just needed to-
The radio crackled. "If they're with you they're already dead."
Her eye twitched and she glared at her "hostages." They looked appropriately horrified that they were being left for dead with the Disassembly Drone.
"You three are the worst hostages I've ever-" The wall exploded behind her and the entire ship shook.
"SON OF A LAWYER!" J swore as the deck tilted forward, sending her and the aliens down to the lower levels.
The ship continued to shake as the bombardment continued. J used her laser to cut a small hole in the wall, just enough to see. Multiple turian gunships were unleashing their payload at the ruined destroyer.
Careful to stay out of the sunlight J turned both her arms into rocket launchers. "GO STRAIGHT TO HR WAGE-SLAVES!"
Six rockets were fired in rapid succession between her two arms. One of the rockets was shot down in midair, and two others narrowly missed their targets and collided as they swerved.
The other three made impact. One ship started smoking and listing, the pilot struggling to keep it in the air before accepting they were going to crash and doing their best to control it. Another got lucky, the kinetic shields protecting it from the worst of the damage.
The last however was completely obliterated, she must have hit a fuel line or maybe ignited the other missiles on board.
That was just the start, there was no way J was going to sit here and die to these aliens. They were nothing compared to the nightmares of the Xenocide War.
Probably.
At least that's what her records told her. There weren't even any giant scrap robots!
Before she could fire another barrage, the debris above her shifted and her arm started burning. With a very professional scream of pain and horror she scrambled backwards out of the daylight.
"Stupid low quality alien material. JCJenson model ships wouldn't let sunlight through like that!" J muttered as the damage began repairing itself.
"Wait you burn in the sun?" One of her hostages asked. "Who makes a robot that burns in the sun?"
"And it drinks oil, maybe it's kind of like a-"
"NO CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM AT THIS TIME!" J howled at them, going back to shooting at the turians. They weren't worth the bullets or time it would take to kill them.
She switched one of her arms to a normal gun, shooting some of the rockets out of the air before they could make more swiss cheese out of her shelter. The other kept firing rockets.
Another gunship went down, but more were incoming. This wasn't sustainable, J had to get out of here and fast. One of the gunships slipped out of her line of sight, and playing a risky move she changed her gun to a laser, slicing in that direction, cutting through the old metal.
A series of explosions rewarded her gambit but she didn't get much time to celebrate. Her focus returned to the others she could see just in time for a warning to pop up on her HUD.
'WARNING: PROJECTILE WEAPON.'
Then a rocket slammed into her face and exploded.
J's vision went black, error messages flashing through her mind faster than she could register them. The world shook and her audio sensors glitched, playing a single tone as her internal systems scrambled to correct themselves.
When at last she recalibrated she was lying under a pile of scrap metal. She wasn't sure how long she was out, could have been seconds, could have been minutes. Considering the ship was still shaking the turians hadn't stopped shooting yet.
Oh and one of her arms was gone. Great. Perfect.
Worthless projectile warnings-
She started clearing the wreckage off herself, but she wasn't at a good angle to lift it. As soon as her arm regenerated she turned it into a plasma cutter to finish the job.
J did her best to take stock of her surroundings, she was lower in the ship, although with all the damage it was hard to tell. Something exploded a few meters to her right, showering her with tiny pieces of debris.
Something sparked on her chest and she glared down at the burnt out kinetic shield generator. "Worthless thing, if you can't even protect me from a direct missile what good are you?"
Then again she was more intact than she had been after the rocket last night. Maybe she just needed a bigger one?
Not that it mattered now, she ripped the smoking wreck off and then realized her hostages were gone.
Probably dead. Whatever, they were the worst hostages she'd ever held hostage.
A mix of shrieking metal and crashing sounds came from above. That was all the warning she got but J made good use of it, somersaulting out of the way of whatever chunk of ship just came crashing down.
She had to get out of here. But as soon as she went in the sun she'd start burning up, and no matter how much oil she had just downed it wouldn't be enough.
What other choice did she have though, it's not like she could just cover herself with a cloak-
J slowly turned to a torn sheet of metal slightly larger than herself.
This plan sucked.
Too bad she couldn't think of anything better.
"There goes the main structure." Almia mused as the destroyer seemed to cave in on itself. "I'm a little surprised it didn't even try to engage our gunships in the air."
"I'm beginning to suspect that retreating during the day has more to it than simply recharging." Sehtil admitted, half talking to himself. "However, I can't imagine what would cause it to avoid sunlight."
"I'm just glad this nightmare will all be over soon." Almia sounded a bit too victorious. Sehtil eyed her warily, this wasn't over until they had confirmation the AI was decommissioned.
"I wasn't expecting it to try to negotiate using the civilians as hostages." Divayn admitted. "For all the good it did the damnable thing. It should have known we would prioritize its destruction."
"We'll have to give something to their families, while they may have just been foolish children, their sacrifice allowed us to stop the greatest threat Aephus has seen in decades, if not centuries." Almia decided, cold comfort being better than none at all in her mind.
Viveht had been oddly quiet as he watched the raid play out. "This doesn't feel like how it should end."
"Now what do you mean by that?" Divayn gave the admiral an utterly baffled look.
Before Viveht could elaborate there was a commotion beyond the door to their command center. "What is that racket?"
"Captain Pollon?" Sehtil gestured and his right hand stepped out as they continued to observe the assault.
The sound calmed down and Luciana quickly returned with another turian, one that those gathered were not immediately familiar with. "Apologies, Admirals, but I am overruled."
Overruled? What a curious phrase. Sehtil observed the other turian, his armor bore numerous minor scratches and scrapes but was obviously well cared for. He counted at least three separate weapons obviously on his person and potentially another four concealed ones.
"Who is this?" Almia asked, crossing her arms.
"I must apologize if my arrival has come at an inopportune moment, but the council was quite firm that I must meet with you as soon as I arrived. My name is Nihlus Kryik." The turian explained himself.
"The council? You're the investigator they sent then?" Viveht deduced, straightening a little.
The turian seemed to find that slightly amusing. "In light of the escalating situation the council thinks the time for investigation has passed. They have decided that a more direct solution is in order."
Sehtil quickly solved the mystery. "Ah, I see. I suppose a Spectre does seem a reasonable choice given the circumstances. Do you know why the council did not inform us of your arrival ahead of time?"
"I'm afraid not," The spectre agent shook his head and approached the hologram. "It seems you are already in the midst of operation though."
"A bit of luck and good timing." Divayn explained with a dismissive shrug. "Some local civilians accidentally located the AI at its base of operations. If you can call a gutted destroyer a base that is."
"And you're filling it full of rockets to flatten it?" Nihlus guessed as he watched the holographic battle play out. "How do you plan to confirm the kill?"
"We have teams on standby to sweep the area once the gunships finish their job." Almia explained. "However that may be unnecessary, while it was actively fighting back at first it seems to have been destroyed during the bombardment."
"That would be good news for the council, and I can't complain about simply playing a spectator to a successful operation." Nihlus said pleasantly. "I would like to remain here until the mission is officially complete however."
"By all means, enjoy the fireworks." Viveht still sounded a little off but did a good job of masking it. If Sehtil didn't know him so well he might not have noticed.
Despite Nihlus's own words, the spectre didn't seem to relax, his eyes focused on the destroyer even as it continued to crumble.
Without warning, a beam shot from the destroyer, bisecting a ship, another narrowly avoiding the same fate. Almia cursed and Sehtil shook his head. Seems the drone was still active, maybe they had managed to damage it and it simply needed time to repair itself.
"That would be the energy weapon?" Nihlus confirmed. "More powerful than the recordings I received implied."
"It used the beam a few times during the assault." Sehtil explained. "It's a versatile weapon, but it does not make use of it frequently. We suspect it may need time to recharge or it simply drains a lot of power."
"Green-four, green-five, target-" Almia started relaying orders when something else shot out of the wreckage. It was too small for them to get an accurate image of it, but the way it moved seemed to imply it was more advanced than simply a piece of debris or a rocket.
"We have visual! Target is airborne and- what is it holding?"
"Refocus your fire! Target the drone!" Almia demanded, neither of the other admirals having a counter order. As they watched, the small object made contact with one of the gunships…
J knew that being remade into a Disassembly Drone had come with some undocumented modifications, but now she wondered if Cyn had somehow mixed some of N into her. As a joke.
Or a curse.
The very concept made her feel ill but how else would she have come up with this idea?
Using a pole and sheet of metal as an umbrella, J had launched herself out of the collapsing destroyer and in the air. The tips of her wings were just out of the shade and began to smolder, but she had enough momentum and control to collide with one of the gunships.
The pilot looked at her in horror, a sadistic part of her wanted to wave but she needed to act quickly, the turians evidently had no qualms with friendly fire. Her arm turned into a blade and she hacked her way into the cockpit, skewering the pilot.
He wasn't the only one inside though, the gunner drew a pistol and began firing. J scowled as bullets embedded themselves in her cranium, one of them hitting something important as her hearing cut out. Not the best time for that.
Feeling particularly vindictive, J's tail shot forward and pumped the turian's skull full of nanite acid. The alien barely had time to scream as the substance began melting his insides.
She tossed the dead pilot out of the seat and took his place as the gunner continued to melt into a gurgling pile of organic matter. Yet another ship she had to learn how to fly, this was not a pattern she wanted to continue.
The makeshift umbrella provided her some shade from the sun but massively reduced her vision, leaving her reliant on the ship's sensors and her own hearing.
Which wasn't working yet. Would be nice if it could fix itself already!
Hissing replaced the gurgling and J spat at the puddle of dead turian to deactivate the nanites before they melted through the ship. Said ship was already listing to the side so she grabbed the controls and started fiddling.
"Going up!" The ship went down and J shrieked, quickly changing direction.
"Left?" It started going right and she smacked the console. "WHAT ARE THESE INVERTED CONTROLS? WHAT UNION STOOGE DESIGNED THIS?"
Finally the ship shot forward and J started to celebrate, then saw she had entered an impromptu game of chicken with another gunship. They better turn away because she didn't know how to yet.
Unfortunately they were distracted fliers.
The two gunships collided and went into a mad spin of burning metal that slammed into the ground.
Fortunately for J, her repairs had already started to deal with the bullet holes so they just stepped up their game and got her back in action before the ships still in the air could rain death on the crash.
She shook herself and looked up, nearly burning her face to nothing in the process. "NO!" J scrambled from the wreckage and retrieved her mutilated but still functioning umbrella, racing across the ground as the sky seemed to start falling around her.
Not good, the other ships would know to keep their distance now, she might be able to get inside another one but it would be more difficult. She fired up her map program and began charting a course for Balmorn.
J was going to have to do this the hard way. She added a few commands to the route so she'd get as much shade as she could, but that wasn't going to help much. Especially not with the turians gunning for her like this.
If she had any oil reserves left by the time she got to Balmorn it would be a miracle. Once there she should be able to restock. Even better the city had a lot of cover, the turians might be willing to kill a few of their own but she doubted they would willingly obliterate their own spaceport.
As she cleared the last of the shady overhangs in the junkyard, hearing it collapse behind her as the gunships continued she risked a bit of flight. Her wings could repair while she ran and they would let her clear this last heap.
With a gust she shot off the ground and started ascending the heap. J struggled to keep her wings as protected as she could but already the ends were starting to fall apart.
Why had Cyn designed them like this? What kind of "Solver of the Absolute Fabric" left such a critical design flaw?
Some time ago…
"Cyn it's not that I don't like your choice of movie but-" N flinched as a character screamed and covered his eyes. "Does it have to be this bloody?"
"[Giggle] Vampires are fascinating." Cyn tilted her head but didn't take her eyes off the screen. "An apex predator doomed not by their prey or anything they can fight, but by the power of a star."
"I'm glad you find them interesting little buddy, it's just-" N risked a glance at the movie and got to watch as a vampire ripped a family to shreds. "Oh robot-god why?"
"[Thoughtful Expression] I should make vampires." Cyn deduced. "[Excited Smile]"
As she rose over the peak of the junkpile J frowned as she heard the gunships seem to veer off. Why would they do that?
Then a barrage of sniper fire began coming from the ground below and J lost her momentum as the bullets forced her into the scrapheap and she started rolling down.
"CUBICAL-"
*Crack.*
"BUSINESS CARD-"
*Crunch*
"TEAM BUILDING-
*Bang.*
"COMPANY POLICY-"
*Thud.*
"...I want a raise." J muttered into the dirt and picked herself up. Her eye screen was cracked but she was in surprisingly-
And the sun started burning her, overheating warnings filling her vision while her surface smoldered.
"TARGET SIGHTED!" A voice shouted and through all the warnings she saw the approaching turians.
This was it. She couldn't-
NO!
NO! NO! NO!
J screamed and shut down the program that provided her warnings. Her wings erupted from her back once more and she manuevered them over her head. They burned but it shielded her vital systems from the sun's deadly rays.
She cycled through her weapon choices, she didn't have anything that could take them all out except maybe her laser, and using that while overheating was a death sentence. But if her calculation were right she could use something else that would at least cripple them.
The Disassembly Drone raised her arm, electricity crackling around her as the pulse charged. Bullets began striking her as the ground forces got into range, but they did nothing to stop her as she glared at them.
"I HATE ALIENS!" She shrieked defiantly as the EMP pulse washed over the area.
"What happened?" Viveht demanded as the hologram fizzled into nothing. "What did it do?"
"Report, Captain Tanion do you copy? What is your status?" Sehtil contacted the leader of the ground forces advancing on the drone.
"It's never displayed a weapon like that before. Some sort of pulse?" Divayn frowned and leaned on the projector, willing it to reactivate.
"An EMP maybe? It wouldn't kill them but it would stop them in their tracks." Nihlus took a stab in the dark.
"One that large?" Almia looked like she was about to protest but thought better of it. "Regardless, we have it on the run."
"It was actively avoiding direct sunlight," Sehtil nodded and mentally began calculating possible routes the machine could take. "Assuming it doesn't stop to kill all our men while they're vulnerable it will probably be fleeing to some sort of shelter from the light."
"Green-three to command, we have lost visual, repeat we have lost visual." One of the gunships still in the air reported in.
"Damn." Luciana swore, thudding a metal fist against a desk. "We almost had it."
"The versatility it displays is incredible." Nihlus noted with a frown. "I don't like that, I want it simple and easy to understand."
"I doubt anyone in this room blames you for that." Divayn chuckled darkly and sighed.
"It was leaving on the east side of the junkyard," Sehtil dismissed the static and brought up a map of the terrain, focusing on the area around Secunda Scrap and Collections. "If it keeps going that way it will end up in Balmorn."
"Muster the troops, when that thing arrives it's going to find a fortress." Almia swore, a small vicious smile growing. "Assuming it doesn't burn up before it arrives."
"I suppose all hopes for secrecy are gone at this point, Captain Pollon, check in with Elo Reh, he was leading the media blackout operation." Sehtil directed, "inform him to take whatever steps needed to control the response."
As the admirals gave their orders Nihlus silently turned and began walking out of the command center.
"Where are you going Spectre?" Viveht called before he could leave
"The council sent me to destroy this AI. That is exactly what I intend to do." The door closed with a hiss.
In the forgotten remains of the turian destroyer a desperate heave shoved a tattered bulkhead away.
"We-we're alive." Korious stuttered and started praying, considering he was an atheist that was quite the change in pace.
Tyrron looked around at the smoking junkyard. "Remember when I said I thought the military was pretty cool?"
"You were gonna join right?" Helun checked.
"I don't think I want to join anymore."
"Fair, I just hope they kill that freaking robot. We should get home and tell our parents we aren't dead, for however long that'll last once they get their hands on us." Helun shuddered. "Can't believe the engine room shielded us like that."
"Thicker walls, stronger supports, I don't know." Korious shook his head. "I don't feel like questioning it."
"Yeah…" Tyrron stood still for a moment before groaning. "I… I think the next time we stream we just play a video game or something."
"Sounds a lot safer and less violent."
Can I just say how much I love the fact J swears in buzzwords?
Well it only took five chapters but we finally have a canon Mass Effect character actually make an appearance!
Nihlus versus J is very much something I'm looking forward to. Good thing I already wrote it and you guys get to see it Wednesday!
But yeah, J's having a rough time. Everything is kind of going to crap all around her and she's just trying to figure out how to not explode. Easier said than done when everyone is shooting rockets at you!
Also to the person who predicted J just strapping a kinetic shield to herself, kudos! I was actually giggling when I read that.
And I let the teenagers live. J had bigger problems once the hostage negotiations didn't work out.
She is now on the run and the turians are closing in with more guns and someone who is a lot more dangerous than any given soldier. Her bad day is about to get worse.
We'll see if she can turn it around.
Reviews!
Nullblaster: She's doing her best but also she kind of has it coming.
KanoMk1: I'll be honest I don't quite understand what you're trying to say here? Best I can figure is you interpreted something as J setting out to kill all quarians, which technically she did but also no it's not going to go the way she thought.
Already-Lost-It: Honestly the turians actually being competent was one of my main goals. They're not idiots, just a bit zealous and cold. J is an enemy they've never faced before so they've dedicated time and effort to figuring out how to fight her.
Guest: J being a Slasher Movie villain was exactly what I was going for with this.
That covers it for now, we're going to getting peaks at the rest of the galaxy soon as things spiral beyond Aephus.
I'm looking forward to it. See you guys next time!
~FriTik