The talks had gone surprisingly well, with the Alliance, UNSC, Colonial and Republic representatives having all come to a surprising agreement over the state of the world they found themselves in. President Roslin had taken the 'stand' now, sitting at the head of the table as she spoke, "I wish to thank our newfound and dear friends for the compassion they've showed the people of the Twelve Colonies. When we first set out from Cyrannus, we were lost, without a target save a mythical planet where a thirteenth Sister Tribe was supposedly settled, so we may all rebuild. Now, we find ourselves in the company of not only fellow humans, but people with kind hearts. Humanity owes her siblings a great debt we will never truly be able to repay, but let me declare:may our friendship be long and prosperous."
"Hear, hear!" Cheered the representatives. Handshakes were exchanged, smiles and laughter and a couple of drinks to celebrate the formal signing of a sort of aide treaty between the group. The people present had agreed that they'd be cooperating for the betterment of everyone involved, though Roslin had felt the need to point out the Colonials seemingly couldn't help with that much, considering their technology felt a little more archaic in comparison to the others'.
Halsey walked up to Shepard as the last of the chatter was winding down, then said, "It seems as though our two Earths will be cooperating henceforth, Commander..." all while nursing a small soda. The talks had taken little more than four hours. Four hours since Shepard had received the message about their last recruit's location. The Dossier on the Warlord had waited enough.
"Here's to that being a long and fruitful relationship, Doc," Shepard offered with a kind smile, "Once everyone's off, we'll be heading out. We got a mission."
"Excuse me," Roslin, who was apparently right beside them, caused the women to turn toward them. Her eyes seemed suddenly filled with hope. She asked, "Did you two say 'Earth'...?" her voice shaky, as she stared at the two of them. Her voice did genuinely crack as she clarified again, "Two Earths...?" all while staring both women in the eye. For a moment, confusion struck. Then?
"Yes...?" Both women replied, then paused. Halsey stood for a moment and asked, "The Thirteenth Tribe. They settled on Terra. Earth. Did they not? Per your own religious scriptures that a couple of your representatives kept quoting," all while looking at the dark-skinned and slightly more heavy woman clad in what seemed to be similar attire to that worn by African-American women of deep religious belief from the URNA, or the US, in Shepard's case. They both received a nod from Laura and Halsey covered her mouth, "Incredible."
"There must still be an Earth in your Galaxy, then," Shepard murmured, "That makes three."
"Or perhaps yours are the sole two, unless the Republic humans were born on their version of Earth or the Twelve Colonies," Roslin whispered, then looked back at her aides, Billy, the young man who had kept her company and become a sort of surrogate son included. She turned to Shepard and Halsey and requested, "I beg of you, keep this secret for now. I will talk to Commander Adama and Colonel Tigh about it, but..."
Halsey completed, "It might lead to a rather terrifying political discourse aboard your Fleet. Riots, perhaps even discussions on the Religious matter of which Earth is the true Earth," then sighed deeply, rubbing her face, "I sometimes dislike our race simply due to such petty discourse leading to greater issues. Religious and political lines should have gone out of the window the moment we took our first steps into the Void."
"Humans are as varied as the aliens we met along the way, Doc," Shepard quipped, arms crossed to her chest, "Can't ask us to be so uniform when we travel up here. There'll be dissenting ideas and voices simply based on the fact we are not alike," and she shrugged. She was a woman born of Military parents that were currently serving aboard Alliance warships and she hadn't even managed to tell them she was alive.
"Indeed. Variety is the spice of life, after all," Roslin chuckled, "Though I do agree a little with the doctor. Life would be so much easier if we could all just simply agree."
"Simplicity is also boring," Senator Amidala joked as she approached. The three women looked to her, the young senator and mother cracking a small smile as she said, "Our little meeting is a complicated series of events, honestly. And it's all the more exciting for it. Makes for a fun thought of my kids befriending the random human from one of the two Earths or the Colonies."
Shepard smiled, "That's the spirit, Senator. See? Admiral Thrawn's friends ain't as scary as him."
Padmé chuckled at the quip, then said, "You haven't met my husband, then. Anakin can be a lot to handle when you first meet him, but he grows on you," only to hear her comlink beep. She sighed and said, "Right, I guess I do need to get aboard our envoy ship and send a message to the Chancellor, let them know we're fine here," then she put her hands together and said, "As a member of the Republic Senate and a leader of the Quorum, let me say that I look forward to a fruitful cooperation between our four nations."
Shepard raised her hand, putting her index and middle finger and her ring and pinkie and splitting them into a V sign, stating, "Live long and prosper, Senator," which got an actual, genuine snort out of Halsey. The Commander laughed and said, "Don't freakin' tell me you know Star Trek, doc Halsey!" only to see the two confused women ahead of them. She said, "Long story..." while still giggling, "Maybe we'll have a sit-down and watch it together some time."
"I prefer VOY, though TNG is a close second in favorites," Halsey joked, though with the usual serious face she wore, one could never tell if she was, in fact, joking. Shepard could tell slight hints of the dry wit and humor of the Doctor, seeing as she used it herself at times. She escorted Doctor Halsey and Senator Amidala to the airlock, while President Roslin excused herself and was escorted by her Marines and staff down to the Hangar bay, where a Raptor was waiting for them.
It wasn't long after that Shepard and her crew were alone on their ship once more, with Shepard looking through her Omni-Tool's data and eyed the Fleets hanging out around the Star Road. Two new UNSC vessels jumped in-system, the blue aura they were tinted in vanishing as they activated their fusion engines and pushed themselves away from traffic. One of the last surviving Punic-class Supercarriers of the UNSC, a massive armored behemoth, and another UNSC Frigate, this one an 'Anlace' energy weapon ship.
"Commander," She heard Miranda. Turning her head from her Omni-Tool, the Commander nodded to her for-the-moment-XO to talk. And talk she did, asking, "Why haven't we left to find Doctor Okeer yet? I understand the current situation demands we let all political staff leave the ship for the newly-arrived envoy vessels, but that does not mean we should just stay here. Especially after President Roslin, Doctor Halsey and Senator Amidala have left."
Shepard replied, "We'll be on our way in the next ten minutes. All three sides made a request out of me to test out cooperation between our militaries," and she shut off her Omni-Tool with the touch of a button. She then clarified to the seemingly-confused woman, "We're getting soldiers from each group assigned to us, including a pilot from the Galactica whose bird they requested we take care of."
"Oh," Miranda blinked, "Well, I'm going to have to recalculate our pay slips then..."
Shepard snorted at that, "I look forward to hearing what we're paying the New Hires with, heh..." before pausing as a com ping echoed. She showed her to follow her to the cockpit and said, "Patch them through, EDI. Encrypted channel..." as she noted the four contacts on the radar. She leaned forward and spoke over com, "Allied craft, you are clear for landing in the Hangar Bay. We'll be down to greet you momentarily. Welcome aboard."
Affirmative replies filled the com as Shepard stretched and yawned, mumbling, "First salary they get, I'm getting them to pay for my drinks," as she walked forward. Miranda almost seemed stunned that Shepard so easily let new people in. When they boarded the elevator, Shepard told Miranda, "You need to learn to relax. They're new people, more guns for our hunt."
"I'm worried about how they will work with the overall crew," The woman replied, "We both know Jack will not be keen on making new friends... This entire group is a squadron of misfits and strangers, you know that. Adding people from three different Galaxies into the mix may cause further friction than just the issues I have with Jack," and she paused as the elevator dinged. They'd arrived.
Shepard told her, "I'm well aware of the possible problems, miss Lawson," now utilizing a more standard, straightforward, no-bullshit military tone, "Doesn't mean we can deny the requests of our three newfound allies for a trial run. We'll be getting them aboard and the Alliance envoys made it plenty clear they'll be expecting reports from us, too," only to see her eyes shoot wide open. She told her, "I'm still an Alliance officer. Reporting to the Alliance, dead or alive, is my prerogative."
Miranda seemed to resign herself at that. She went quiet and walked out onto the busy hangar deck with Shepard as the ships completed the final checks after their touchdown. Shepard saw a decently well-armored fighter first, its cockpit providing a fairly good view of the surroundings to the pilot. Said pilot sat beside the aircraft in a flight suit, doing a quick check on the craft's systems. She turned and gave a wave to the Commander, smiling, then got back to work, her lekku moving slightly due to the speed she turned her head back with.
Next was an exoatmospheric, sleek-looking gunship with missile launchers and laser cannons mounted front and back. It disgorged a platoon of troops clad in white armors with blue marks. The two leading men wore more ornate gear, though, with 'skirts' and pauldrons with the blue marks. One had a Republic coat of arms emblazoned on the side of his helmet's rounded dome, while the other had an extra layer of chest armor, colored grey, with a blue double chevron poking out from underneath the collar.
Following up, a Dropship that was already preparing to leave, namely a UNSC Pelican, dropped off another of the Master Chief's Spartans onto the deck. The man cradled a Designated Marksman Rifle and wore a matte blueish armor and a helmet with a narrow, menacing-looking orange visor. Last, but not least, was a Colonial Raptor from which a pilot and his systems officer dismounted. The pilot was a handsome young man from the looks. Buzzcut black hair, blue eyes, sharp jaw and all. His SO looked calm, collected. She was cute, too.
General Ahsoka Tano lead the group of soldiers in white and blue up to Shepard. The two women saluted each-other and said, "Commander. Sorry for bringing in a few extra hands, but I figured the boys in Jester Squad could use a little RnR from the Frontline," before turning to introduce them. She pointed at the man with the republic mark on his helmet and said, "This is Jesse, the Lieutenant of Jester."
"Ma'am," Jesse greeted, "Don't worry, team's name's just for show," before casting a glance at the other Trooper and quipping amusedly, "For the most part."
Ahsoka chuckled, then showed the other Trooper and said, "And this is Fives."
"Commander," Fives spoke with a concerningly simialr voice as Jesse. He sounded jovial about it, too, "Don't worry. I won't be too much trouble, I don't think," before crossing his arms to his chest. Shepard looked to the General, to which Ahsoka raised a brow. Shepard made a motion of the hand to the two men, then signed to them to take off their helmets. They did as asked...
"Holy..." Miranda blanked, "Twins?"
"Clones," Ahsoka spoke, surprising the pair further. When she saw just how bug-eyed they'd become, she asked them, "Didn't senator Amidala get to tell you girls that we're using a Clone Army that's numerically supplemented by an experimental volunteer force we call TK Troopers?" only to get synched shakes of the head from them. Ahsoka sighed and replied to them, "Let me reassure you, the boys are just fine. They're great soldiers and even greater men."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, general," Jesse quipped as he and Fives both slid their helmets back on. He then looked to the Commander and told her, "The Clone Army has been fighting the Seppies since the start of the war. I scrapped enough droids myself to tell you we're better," as he patted the two pistols on his hip. Continuing, he told Miranda next, "We're paid with Republic credits, serve the Republic willingly and are treated fairly by most of our officers. General Tano's one of the best."
Ahsoka replied, "Pays to have been serving with them since the start," before putting a hand on the Commander's shoulder and stating, "If you're feeling uncomfortable, we can talk about it, figure out a compromise, but I took the Jesters with me because I figured the extra firepower wouldn't hurt." She sighed, added, "Considering we're apparently hunting some mythical group who abducts people...?"
"Any extra gun is welcome," Shepard conceded with a nod, still slightly surprised. She scratched her cheek, speaking with a lower tone of voice, "Just... Gonna have to get used to the fact you guys are using Clone Troops. Don't let the Citadel know, they have a whole charter on sentient rights," then she sighed. She looked to Miranda and said, "You mind if you lead them to their quarters after we gather everybody, miss Lawson?"
"No, that'll be fine," Miranda replied, still staring at the squad of men led by Jesse and Fives.
"Welcome aboard, gents. Make yourselves at home and watch out for Cerberus staff," The Commander joked, looking back at Miranda, "They're prone to poking and prodding things they don't understand 'till it bites them in the ass," and she smirked as the Clones and the General laughed, while Miranda rolled her eyes. Little jabs like that weren't uncommon between them. Much as Miranda disliked it.
She approached the next man over as the UNSC Pelican took off and was surprised to see he was the sole man dropped off. The Spartan proceeded to salute the Commander, stating, "Spartan Lieutenant number 104 reporting aboard, ma'am. Call me Fred," to which Shepard saluted. They had a Spartan supersoldier with'em now, huh. Fun. Shepard had gotten a little information out of Halsey about them a few hours ago and it turned out they were some of the toughest SOBs in the UNSC.
"Welcome aboard, Lieutenant. I'm Shepard and this is my XO, Lawson," Shepard replied kindly, "Glad to have you on board," and she got a nod from Fred. That seemed to be it for the conversation. Shepard had realized it a minute into sitting face-to-faceplate with the Spartan and not exchanging another word. She dismissed him with another quick salute and a nod, then approached the final party.
The pilot of the Raptor turned about and saluted, stating, "Commander Shepard, sir. My name is Karl Agathon, captain. Callsign's Helo. Good to meet the people we're gonna be supporting from the air," as Shepard gave one back and extended her hand. He told her, "If you need someone jamming Coms while you're down on any rock, me and Charger are your best bet on that," but Shepard could tell something was bothering him as he shook her hand.
"Glad to have you aboard, Helo. We'll trust you got our backs with extra ECM," She replied. She figured it was best to ask him about what was bothering him later, so, she turned to Miranda and said, "If you don't mind leading them to their quarters, I'll go set a course to the system we need to get to. We'll get Okeer and move on to our next series of objectives."
"At your orders, Commander," Miranda replied, seemingly finally happy they were getting a move-on. Shepard understood, getting stuck in one place for this long as probably going to negatively affect their progress on finding the Collectors and dealing with them, so she just took the next elevator up to the bridge. That meant that she'd stayed behind to look at the four new craft.
Ahsoka's fighter looked like a mean, proper warship with twin cannons and lighter weapons, what looked like inbuilt missile launchers and some form of fold-out solar panels. It was colored dark-red with white marks, sort of meant to contrast with her orange skin, she supposed. Shepard also made a mental note to ask the Commander just what Ahsoka's race was for future reference, should she have to visit their Galaxy.
Next was the gunship the Clones had come aboard on. The two pilots were still aboard, seemingly running checks on it. Both waved to the Commander and both wore the samey blue markings and stripes as Fives, Jesse and Jester Squad. She smiled and waved back at them, her mind still partially stuck on the fact they were all Clones, basically siblings. It was cool, a big family and all, but it was also fairly scary.
She noted the heavy cannons and slim, beautiful design of the drop ship, noting that they had two heavy-duty air assets covering them if needed now. Speaking of, she switched to the Raptor itself, a bulky Colonial vessel, painted an almost rusted brown. It had small wings, RCS thrusters and computer systems inside that looked a little ancient, honestly, but they were probably for facing the 'Cylon'. That machine race probably had really good electronic warfare skill.
Was time to set a course to Korlus, though, Shepard thought. She'd see all that stuff in action later.
Above Korlus, some hours later
Shepard stared at a holographic table, having donned her black N7 armor with the white outer and red inner stripes on the left arm. She checked her Carnifex pistol and her Mattock. The bulky, tan rifle was the heaviest AR-type weapon she owned, while the Carnifex was the true definition of a Mass Effect-based hand cannon. She looked at both, stowed the first, watching it collapse into its portable form, then stowed the second, letting it do the same.
She looked at the people around her on the deck of the Kodiak dropship they were about to take down to the planet. She'd elected to bring General Tano and her squad, Frederic, Miranda and Garrus. The latter two were to assess the new arrivals, with Ahsoka noting, "I've called up Reaper Four to provide us air cover. Joker and Blackmail are the pilots..."
"And we have Helo and his Raptor preparing algorithms to jam hostile coms," Fred quipped as he racked the bolt of his honestly ancient-looking slugthrowing firearm. He stood to his feet and said, "I suggest we divide the team, Commander. Take two approaches to this Doctor Okeer's lab, hit them, split their forces. We go in during the confusion, nab the alien and get out."
"Gunship's gonna be running interference against possible enemy air and hardened structures." Jesse continued as he drew his twin blasters, "Reapers are good pilots, damn fine shooters in their bird. They'll get us in and out if things get hairy and we need to bug out, too, considering the cargo space on the new LAATs is actually pretty good," then he looked to Fives, "What're you thinking, Fives? Plan Two-Four?"
"I'll go with Fred if we're splitting the teams," Fives nodded as he readied his DC-15 carbine. The other half-dozen or so clones behind her, whom Shepard had yet to learn the names of, nodded in agreement of the plan to split the teams. Shepard looked to Miranda and Garrus, with the former seemingly staring impassively at the group, while the latter retained some form of a Turian smirk.
Shepard nodded, then said, "Alright. I'm gonna trust one of Doc Halsey's supersoldiers to lead Team Two. We meet at the Lab, nab Okeer, get the hell out with the Gunship. Rifles up, eyes peeled and hit'em hard," as she drew her rifle. They felt the aircraft begin its descent, with Garrus, Ahsoka and Shepard taking position to be the first off the bird. She looked to the General and told her, "Y'know, I thought I got used to working with aliens. This is way beyond my paygrade right now."
Ahsoka snorted, "Don't I know it..." then she drew two hilts from her belt. She looked to the Commander and told her, "This is gonna be interesting. If I caught you folks right, you use slugthrowers. Magnetic in nature," to which she got a nod. She hummed, then ignited the twin plasma blades from the hilts and looked back as she caught the slightest twitch from Fred.
As the Kodiak dropship came down below the cloud layer, the group could finally see the junkyard the planet had turned into. Remnants of old Starships lay strewn about, from hull shapes to small power conduits, still flickering in the darkness of the shaded parts, to even weapons systems, long disassembled and laying strewn about in pieces, like those of a very large and very deadly puzzle.
"So," Shepard looked at Ahsoka, "Laser swords?" and she smiled awkwardly. Ahsoka flashed a grin and jumped down, landing on the first pair of the Blue Suns' mercenaries with acrobatic prowess. Shepard and the others soon rappelled down on dropped lines, with the Commander drawing her rifle and shouldering it as she stared at Ahsoka, impressed. Last to drop in was Fred.
"Lightsabers," Ahsoka corrected, "Long story. We'll talk when we're back aboard the Normandy."
Shepard nodded, then activated her omni-tool and transmitted, "Helo, you're clear to initiate jamming," before shouldering her rifle. The Clones and everyone else formed a perimeter as the speakers around the junkyard began to scream out at them, the Commander sighed as she checked the map she'd received from the Illusive Man, then looked over toward a large crashed cargo hauler. She pointed at it and said, "That's our target."
"... Intruders will be decimated by the Blue Suns' military prowess! Or you can turn around now and avoid needlessly dying to my boys!" A female voice barked over the PA system, clearly full of herself and willing to argue about her and her Mercs' superiority. This was gonna be an interesting outing, Ahsoka thought as she prepared herself to engage the rest of the enemy's troops.
The General sighed and said, "She sure loves to run her mouth," before looking to Miranda, "Any idea who the Blue Suns' commander is on this planet?"
"Her name is apparently Jedore," Miranda replied, powering her Biotics and drawing her submachine gun, while Garrus grabbed his sniper rifle off his back. She told them, "Raptor crew reports hostile communications have been jammed. We should make a move as soon as possible, Commander," and looked at Shepard. The Commander gave a nod of approval, readied her weapon and, with a chop of the hand, told her team to execute the plan.