948Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or anything else referenced here. Those are the sole property of their writers/companies (Bioware/EA and such). I do not claim ownership of anything but my OC and original concepts.
List of track(s) used (you can copy+paste them in your PC by temporarily switching to the mobile version):
[1] –) Recommended Track: Mass Effect 2 Overlord theme extended (part of the YT link: /watch?v=8Wn3F_cmWCM).
[2] –) Recommended Track: Mass Effect 3 Sur'Kesh [Salarian Homeworld] combat theme extended (part of the YT link: /watch?v=naNUN2IZ-FE).
[3] –) Recommended Track: Darth Revan's Boss Theme (Extended Version) (part of the YT link: /watch?v=OgR8ZOB4yK0).
[4] –) Track Timed to Scene: [short] Hans Zimmer - I Don't Think Now Is the Best Time - Pirates Of The Caribbean 3 Soundtrack (part of the YT link: /watch?v=WM1MHolaFOE).
Chapter 20: The Elusive Peace in Heaven and the Intense War in Hell
Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Arcadia System. Early 2180 CE.
A carved out slice of a heavenly land.
That's how the galaxy renowned Consort, Sha'ira, would describe this place.
Waterfalls cascading from the 'sky cloud' into rock formations, with fog walls and a small rainbow resulting from it. A cluster of small towns built around this marvel, forming a green city with dense but not claustrophobic buildings (mid rise at most), and small rivers cutting through them. Forests, green spaces, parks and gardens as far as the eye could see. Technology perfectly intertwined in all of it. And a society with a lively community, yet also featuring a serene ambience.
It was such a contrasting feeling. She was staying in an artificial world that was floating in space, all neatly wrapped around like the inside of a bottle, yet closer than ever to nature.
Every time she visited it, she was awed by some new thing that the people living here had built and added to it. Fields with large communal spaces, dense and beautiful groves, cozy and dense residential housing, or a new lake from melted water asteroids, etc. And to think she got to experience this simply because, around a decade ago, she got curious about a human.
In her defense, they were still quite new back then, so it was only natural she became a bit interested in one who could walk around the Presidium. As for him specifically…
At first, she was rather reluctant to believe everything he told her. Sure, the melding didn't lie, and neither did his tale contradict some secrets she knew about high society, but it was still a lot to take in all at once. However, just a short time after she'd given a little help, she got contacted by the Shadow Broker and given free access to a lot of information. A lot of secrets too.
Apparently, with the aid of a team of unique individuals, he'd simply taken control of the biggest intelligence network in the galaxy. After that, they saved and rescued biotic kids and a small farming colony, both tragedies described in those 'memories'. In no time at all, she had found herself deep within the biggest conspiracy in the galaxy.
And, what perhaps was the craziest thing of all, it didn't feel bad one bit.
In fact, it was quite the opposite. The number of people they'd managed to help and save was immense, especially rescued slaves, to whom she and her girls provided a place for psychological therapy. At the start of those operations, Sha'ira took her best acolytes and, using their accumulated knowledge on living beings' psyches, led the creation of a system for the recovery of enslaved people, helping them reintegrate back into society. All in all, it was more good done in just a few years than she'd ever seen anyone else do in all her life.
And at the heart of this endeavor was one individual, who set it into motion a decade ago. Not because he built any of it. In fact, destroying things was more his style these days. But because those who did build it follow him, rallying in their shared belief, and work together for something greater than themselves individually.
And now this otherworldly human was sprawled on a couch, casually chatting with her, as she drank tea in her own cozy recliner, inside a fantasy-like modern house.
"Maybe it's just my impression, but you seem to be coming here quite often, huh?" He questioned playfully. "At this rate, people will think you've retired. Somewhere far away."
"What can I say? You've been giving lots of work to me and my girls recently. One has to wonder if we're going to rescue all the slaves in the galaxy." Sha'ira shot back playfully as well. "Actually, I wouldn't mind retiring here. Once, you know, it's all over."
"Can't say I'm surprised. This place is very special. No place better for 'soul' healing too." He paused, moving his eyes away from the ceiling to stare at her directly. "It'll all get better once we're done. Then you might really be able to retire here. For now, though, you should prepare for an increase in our rescue operations."
"Why? What are you planning now?" That got her attention.
"We're close to fully finishing a… very special fleet. Then it won't take much longer to clear out the Terminus." He grinned. "It will also be easier to raid some places without worrying about the slavers using people as shields. They won't see us coming, literally."
Sha'ira narrowed her eyes, getting an idea of what he was hinting at, but otherwise didn't make any comment.
"There's something stuck in my mind, for quite a while now, that I've been meaning to ask… Why do you fight personally?" She inquired. "You could just enjoy life as a successful businessman, away from danger, instead of living this… double life."
"Because I started the Terminus Wars. Most of them, anyway." Was his simple answer.
"That's it?" She asked.
"Pretty much, yeah." He said candidly.
"..."
"I think I've never met a stranger being than you. Sigh, if the people who wanted wars had to fight in them, there'd be no more wars." Sha'ira derided.
"Which is why I can't turn away from it, so that I don't lose sight of our initial goal; and see it through to the end." He declared.
"Then how come you've found time to visit my humble abode?"
"Not much happening these last days… So, I'm on stand-by. And waiting…" He mentioned off-handedly.
The conversation came to a stop for a few seconds, the quietness quickly settling in. But it was enough time for him to assume a serious and contemplative expression; and for her to notice it.
"You look worried. Restless, even. What's on your mind?" Sha'ira suddenly inquired.
"It's this lack of a proper response from the batarian slavers, and their backers, after we've begun retaliating against them. It's bothering me." He remarked before asking a seemingly random question. "Do you know why we've been 'taking our time' in dealing with the Batarian Hegemony presence in the Terminus?"
"I have a feeling it has something to do with those novel ideas that you've shown me a few years ago…" She answered sagaciously, giving him a sly smile, "...and an even bigger one that you'll just tell me anyway."
"Ha, smartass. That's right. In short, it's because of its economics." He stated. "The Hegemony is a slave-owning society, since slavery is basically its dominant economic system as well as an integral part of its caste system. This means that it is beholden to certain economic logics; logics which no individual acts can overcome."
He sat up, adjusting himself to one side of the couch, and faced her directly.
"For starters, this kind of society can be roughly divided into main groups: slave owners, or slaveholding aristocracy, who have all civil, political and property rights, and slaves, who are themselves property of the former and have no rights. So, those who rule and those who are ruled." He explained. "For obvious reasons, physical – and often very demanding – labor is reserved for slaves, while mental labor, like the arts, sciences, philosophy, services and so on, is the privilege of free people – or those relatively free within the confines of their social caste."
"From my experience, physical work is treated with scorn by the free batarians, especially those of a high caste. It's seen as something beneath them." Sha'ira added.
"That's right. And that's a logical consequence of this kind of social division; if anything for the simple fact that it'd end up being associated with the lowly slaves." He continued. "So, here we see another logic, or a law, that arises from this type of system: it gives birth to an antithesis between mental labor and physical labor. And that has big implications for their society."
"Such as?" She inquired.
"Since those free are averse to physical labor, it gets pushed to the slaves, which exhausts them increasingly more. This, without even touching on the deaths due to the brutal abuse, leads to a high mortality rate. And that's on top of being able to be killed with impunity." He expounded. "On the other hand, besides slaves having little to no incentive to reproduce, most slave-owners are also averse to 'raising' new slaves, preferring instead to capture new ones, due to costs."
"Basically, the slave-owning system is a form of exploitation that constantly destroys the basic productive force of this society: slaves. Conversely, the development of the system makes it so that increasingly more of those who are free break away from any productive activity, especially the slave-owners, who lead a parasitic form of life, living off of the labor of those they enslaved. Only a certain portion of the slave-owning upper class and of the other free population engage in actual work. Adding to this, the free population is…. well, free to reproduce into ever greater numbers…"
"Which means… They desire slaves more and more, just to keep the system running." She concluded, complementing his explanation.
"Yup. And thus we can glimpse at another logic: an uninterrupted influx of slaves and their cheapness are important conditions of existence for a slave-owning economy." He spoke his conclusion, pausing briefly. "So, with that in mind, what happens when a huge source of fresh slaves, let's say from an entire region of the galaxy, gets cut off from the system?"
Sha'ira widened her eyes slightly in realization and said: "It starts having problems. Society begins to rupture. For example, those who once had an easy life will need to make up for the labor loss…"
"…which fosters discontent and conflict. In other words, the system starts to decay."
"They can't allow it to happen. At least… not just like that." She mused.
"Exactly. If we had sought to end slavery 'in one swift stroke', then the Hegemony would've retaliated fiercely against us, slowing down our development." He replied, pointing at her briefly. "Because this is an imperative of their socioeconomic system. Even their despotic Hegemon can't, by himself, hold back this kind of societal force. Pressure from all parts of society, especially the biggest slave-owning 'aristocrats', would force his hand, at the risk of, in not doing so, creating social instability. Even indoctrination can't change that comlpetely. Those at the top would, eventually, be called upon to act. If anything in order to maintain social cohesion. That's why we've been 'taking our time'."
"So, now that you've started poking at their slave colonies here in the Terminus…" Sha'ira said, dragging her words a bit before continuing, "...The question isn't if they will hit back. It's when will they finally have had enough."
"Right once again. Could you imagine how much this would've set us back when we'd just started?" He asked. She figured it was a rhetorical question. "Also, there's one more thing I took into consideration…"
"And that is?" She asked, curious.
"The loss of Terminus would intensify the exploitation of slaves, who would have to take on the burden of the 'missing' ones. The contradictions inherent to that type of society would lead to a further increase in state oppression against them." He revealed. "In short, I didn't want the Batarian Hegemony to decay so fast. Well, more than losing the Traverse already did."
"I see. The rope, after all, always breaks at its weakest point." Sha'ira said melancholically. "The Hegemony is indeed a society full of contradictions. It's no surprise it runs on copious amounts of propaganda."
"If it wasn't for that, and its brutal control methods, I guess it'd face constant armed risings. So, that's what's been on my mind lately. How quiet they've been…" He concluded. "Loss of a large portion of drug trade crippled part of their crime syndicates. Loss of the Traverse and the Terminus left them with almost no place to offload economic pressure; no source to replenish those slave-owners with 'living commodities', as well as with every other kind of commodity. All of it is gradually gestating a time bomb. And we're at ground zero. When is it going to blow up?"
"..."
"Can't they replace slaves with machines and automation?" Sha'ira suggested.
"Perhaps… However, it wouldn't fully solve the issue. The truth is, although places like this may give that impression, it's not so easy to eliminate manual labor; even for us, who have the help of superintelligences." He revealed. "But then again, even if that was possible at some level, who would they lord over? Without someone crawling in the ground, how can they stand tall above all?"
"..."
"So, I gather that there's no chance of resolving this peacefully, such as by persuading the Hegemony to change their ways." She sighed.
"Many asari naively believe, or were led to believe by your mainstream media, that it's just a question of 'enlightening' the Hegemony with 'good ideas' and then they'll just peacefully abandon their 'outdated cultural practices'." He spoke confidently. "But that's pure idealism – in the philosophical sense. While a few individuals of the slave-owning group might be receptive to change, the group as a whole won't ever give up power. At the end of the day, it's a question of control and dominance; it's a matter of power. And, in order to hold on to this power, they won't hesitate to wield the apparatus of violence that they've been honing for a very long time, their State, in the most brutal way they deem necessary."
Sha'ira had nothing to say. In truth, not only their media, but all institutions of asari society were uniform in disseminating the belief that, in order to get the Batarian Hegemony to end its slavery, the asari just needed to be diplomatic, promote dialogue and eventually convince those slave-owners that abolishing slavery was 'right' and would result in a better system for society. Because the ideas would compete, any and all hateful, backwards or bad ideas would be dismissed, and the truth would eventually win out over falsehood!
Or so their faith preached…
Pure aesthetics and form; no substance.
For hundreds of years already, they've been promoting this 'moderate' position, instead of a more combative one, and maternalistically feel that they could set a timetable – and asari's timetable, no less – on another living being's freedom. They've been more devoted to 'order' than to justice; and prefer a negative peace, which was the absence of tension, to a positive peace, which was the presence of justice.
And the result of all that talking, debating and 'persuading' was that nothing fundamentally changed. In fact, things just kept getting worse, with the Hegemony getting more and more blatant in their aggression and oppression, up to the point where they just left the Council – and, as such, closed the door on that idealistic 'solution'.
"Fortunately, we know what it really takes to… 'change the minds' of those kinds of people, as well as anyone else who'd try to prevent this kind of system from being abolished. From being swept into the trashbin of history. The armada we're steadily building here is the real 'Measurer of Truth', the best 'Instrument of Persuasion' for them." He smiled.
"You're really planning to go to war with them, aren't you?" She asked hesitantly.
"All in due time…" He replied cryptically. "After all, even if I were to become someone else and decide not to, don't forget that a significant portion of our forces were once enslaved by the Hegemony or its associated organizations."
"So I'll take that as a yes. Goddess…" Sha'ira sighed once again.
"..."
"That was a good chat, but I'll be going now." He said, getting up and straightening his clothes. "I've decided. If the Hegemony won't come for us, then I'll go after them to cause some trouble."
"And, let me guess, that means you'll be bringing more work for us." She reached for a hug while pretending to complain. "Well, which colony is it this time?"
"Not a slave colony per se…" He spoke, accepting her hug with open arms. "An advanced military base, built on a resource-rich planet. They have a budding mining operation there that's mainly dependent on slave labor, but the soldiers keep a few slaves for 'stress relief' as well."
They separated.
"It's also a place lovingly nicknamed 'Hell'."
Somewhere in the remaining Hegemony-controlled part of the Terminus. Half a day later.
Orbiting quite close to a red giant (star), there was a lone planet with a reddish surface and long history of tectonic shifting and volcanic eruptions. Precious metals constantly spewed out of its blazing core right into its scorching hot crust, which would then eventually make it to the planet's surface, dying it in red lava. This made it a valuable mining spot and one of the most important settlements in the region.
Or at least it would be, if it weren't for the huge amount of light (luminosity) emitted by the System's Star, dyeing the planet's surface in an eternal red tint and heating it almost to the point of uninhabitability. Not that the Hegemony cared about that. It'd colonize every rock it could squeeze a few credits out of, no matter how hostile the environment was. And that's exactly what it did here.
All in all, if there was one word to describe this place, it would certainly be the color red.
Red (giant) star. Red planet. Red lava. Red (luminosity) tint. Everything was red. It was no wonder then that a place with such a hellish appearance was codenamed 'Hell'...
…And now its Angels had finally come to wage war on this infernal and accursed planet.
This was how Lyud 'Lady Oblivion' Milas, a drell specialized in long-range combat – mostly with a sniper rifle –, viewed this prey their offensive had set its sights on. It was, after all, well in the path of Hell's Angels recent 'trail of operations', making it a very tempting place to add to their list of targets. This was also the general consensus of her comrade-in-arms when they were called upon to choose their next slaver target.
So, as a veteran of quite some years, she was one of the first to decide to come here and arrived with other 'long-range' teams as soon as the ground battle really began. While they rushed through the combat zone looking for targets and objectives, she quickly took over a tall guard tower and began assessing the battlefield. Silent eezo-equipped drones secured a perimeter around her, also amplifying her combat vision.
Unlike many of her fellow drell, who'd typically join the Network's black ops, she preferred direct battle, so she took the path of a 'Siha', a warrior-angel of the goddess Arashu; 'fierce in wrath' and a 'tenacious protector'. This wasn't to say that she'd thrown away the training she did back in Kahje. The 'stealthy' rifle held in her hands made that quite evident.
So, from her vantage point, she surveyed her surroundings. A metallic sheen filled much of the huge batarian base, denoting its military character and where its State's priorities really were, considering the rather liberal use of resources. APCs, IFVs, tanks and other types of military vehicles could also be found in the midst of battle, but a few remained untouched – either due to a rushed reaction or simple lack of maintenance. Although it was located on a plateau near a lava lake, there was a substantial amount of mining machinery/equipment outside the base. She also spotted a considerable number of large, abandoned containers, covered only with simple fabrics, haphazardly scattered around its edges.
A total mess, she thought.
At least we get to fight a 'proper' military for once. Said her DS partner, Mark, a quiet guy with an ordinary human avatar.
Seen anything interesting yet? Lyud inquired.
Some. Take a look. Mark stated curtly, adding a few points of interest to her HUD.
Without delay, Lyud switched her focus to those and the engagements currently happening everywhere. Even now, Orbital Insertion Pods were still dropping in the midst of this base, rendering most of its outer defenses useless. The coordinated flying drone swarms as well as mobile Angels were systematically dismantling enemy resistance and defenses, striking them with swift precision, from any and all directions, sometimes dispersed, sometimes all at once, leaving the batarians in total chaos. Enemy buildings were merely their cover.
Not even heavy tanks were capable of stopping this force. Temporarily halting, yes; but not stopping. Their beefy kinetic barriers were chewed through by concentrated fire and their sturdy armor was penetrated by big rocket-like 'rounds' that had no business being found in mass effect assault rifles – logic be damned! A few daring Angels would even get up close and personal, slashing their way inside armored vehicles, or just cut openings in them to throw explosives inside. Meanwhile, what little batarian air force that hadn't yet been taken down by the drones swarms would, in despair, find itself facing a technologically superior aircraft force that had just arrived from space.
In one word, pandemonium. And it only took a couple of minutes for all hell to break loose.
By observing this unique type of asymmetrical warfare, she once again gained a refreshed understanding of what the galaxy's denizens spoke about Hell's Angels – of how people perceived them.
The Angels were a very unusual military force in the galaxy. Any onlooker who saw them in action would find it difficult to figure out their command structure, or to differentiate their members from one another when it came to military hierarchy.
A turian platoon, an asari commando unit, or even a random merc group? Yeah, you could tell who took orders and who gave them. Usually by looking for the fanciest uniforms or armored suits.
But not with the Angels. Although they all looked unique in their own way, they all wore the same kind of Power Armor, brandished the same winged symbol, had the same arsenal to choose from, fought as one, etc. Individual Angels could break off formation at will, in order to carry out certain objectives somewhere else, and then reform a new squadron on the fly. A company could break off into small teams to give their foes a 'death by a thousand cuts'. Likewise, at the snap of a finger, some teams could also gather to form a massive platoon, overwhelming any target in sheer firepower. A tank, for example.
Evidently, all of this made the Angels quite resistant to decapitation tactics. Their enemies, conversely, enjoyed no such advantage. And such was the case for the batarian currently shouting orders at his men in full view of Lyud's scope. His ostentatious armored suit and overbearing/imperial attitude was an open invitation for the drell to pull the trigger.
And so she did.
BANG!
A rumbling shot rang out from a sniper rifle that could only be classified as an anti-material cannon. Its recoil was strong enough to shatter an ordinary human's arm and shoulder, yet only pushed the Power Armor exoskeleton-enhanced drell back a bit. Her target, however, wasn't faring so well, as those parts of his body that didn't turn into a bloody mist crumbled into the ground.
With its leader now quite dead (and resting in many pieces), the enemy squad quickly fell into panic. Not missing the opportunity, a team of Angels swooped in to make short work of them. Those who broke formation were quickly caught by a biotic singularity, while a biotic shockwave hurled those who didn't all over the place, which was accompanied by swarms of drones clearing out the weakened enemies.
There was almost no delay in their use of biotic abilities, a situation that could be attributed to their recent switch to L6 biotic amps. One of their main benefits was allowing their users to control only their artificial eezo nodules; no organic nodules, which were more resource intensive. That was, in fact, where a major part of their reduced 'cooldowns' came from.
Despite the chaotic battlefield, an unexpected event drew the sniper's attention. A massive turret emplacement, previously hidden, emerged from the metallic ground and began firing upon a large squadron of Angels with explosive slugs. The ambush actually did something for once, as those caught off guard sustained injuries in the first volley and were hurt even more when the building they were using as cover was blown up.
Lyud focused her mind, tapping into the theater of war, and contacted the squad closest to her position, radioing one of their members. A very eccentric one, even for their standards.
"Interitus, do you see that entrenched position?" She asked.
"Yes." The turian replied as soon as the location appeared in his internal HUD.
"Well, I don't want to."
"Aye aye, Major." He acknowledged.
Soon after, her HUD showed that Interitus began triangulating the target's location, getting it ready for an orbital strike from one of their low-orbit Artillery-Drones. Her own partner, Mark, helped in the process. In mere seconds, the result of their actions was shown.
SWISH!
With a thunderous roar, a medium-sized slug rapidly traveled through the atmosphere in a straight line towards the batarian turret.
BOOM!
Upon impact, the large weapon was engulfed by an even larger explosion that consumed it in an instant, turning, without resistance, its structural integrity into structural disintegration. Shields? What shields? There was only a boom. It shook the entire base. Soon after, wind pressure coming from the blast brushed past Lyud's body, slightly pushing her backwards, and raised a cloud of redish dust. When the dust settled, all that was left of the target was a large crater and bits of molten metal.
Assessment; order; execution. A textbook example of Hell's Angels' modus operandi.
"Well done." She said to Interitus in praise.
"At your disposal." He replied, cutting off their channel.
Sure, outsiders and bystanders might not be able to tell, but this didn't mean that the Angels had no ranks or a command structure; it was just that theirs was a very unique system. In a few words, it was a very bottom-up approach.
Squad leaders were democratically chosen by their squadmates, who then went to vote for and choose higher ranking officers (e.g. sergeant, lieutenant, captain, major, general, etc.). These officers, however, also required proven leadership abilities, merits and the approval of the group, in a general sense. If an elected major wasn't accepted by the majority of the group, for instance, they wouldn't be able to assume said rank. This situation, luckily, was extremely rare – and had more to do with lacking commanding qualifications, or role/rank compatibility, than internal disunity/discord.
So, no military rank in the ordinary sense (i.e. no titles, no badges, no heel-clicking and no saluting, save for the common greeting). A situation like one with 'dear' Rear Admiral Boris Mikhailovich, therefore, in which a 'superior' ordered a nonsensical 'surprise inspection' for what only amounted to a retaliation and power-trip, would never occur under this system.
It was, after all, understood that orders had to be obeyed, but it also understood that, when an order was given, it came from someone whom its recipients democratically vested their power into; and it was, above all, given as a comrade-in-arms to comrade-in-arms, not as superior to inferior.
Furthermore, their command structure was combined with asymmetrical Digital Sentience plans running top to bottom at the strategic, operational and tactical levels, replacing most of the need for a strict hierarchical system. What remained was discipline and trust in each other. In a word, camaraderie.
In sum, this was achievable because the pure technological power (equipment, augments, energy usage, cybernetics, etc.) to which they had access determined the possibility of a very different kind of organization. A very unorthodox one…
Following the turret obliteration, Lyud continued assisting her fellow Angels with long-range sniping fire until a new development caught her attention. In her HUD…
[General-level objective: assist 'Bulwark' with the extraction of enslaved sentients]
After downloading the mission intel into her memory implant and quickly parsing through it, she decided to accept it.
So, she got up from her kneeling position, holstered her rifle behind her back and switched to a pair of SMGs, both heavily modified M-12 Locusts. Then, with a jump, she ignited her thrusters and zipped right through the battlefield, providing assistance along the way.
Eventually, she made it to a big 'abandoned' barracks; empty because its former batarian occupants had already become decaying corpses on the ground. With a sharp maneuver, Lyud firmly landed in front of its security metal door. As she entered the building, the iconic wings flared up behind her briefly, venting all accumulated heat.
Shortly after, she found a newly formed squad, mostly made up of 'little celebrities' within the army, waiting there and promptly linked up with them, joining the same 'team channel'. They were: Xalryn, the Bulwark; Nychta 'Night Demon' M'kilis; Tyrannus 'Demolition Man' Interitus; Seeth 'Nameless' Valker. This new squadron also included humans, other asari and turians, and even a former quarian marine; once a crippled veteran, now reborn as an Angel of War.
Lyud was the highest rank, but she had no desire nor need to actually take over command, choosing instead to go along with their DS partner's plans. And those came in rather fast, getting uploaded directly into their minds.
Their target was an underground complex, on the other side of the barracks, that was filled with many holding cells, where these batarians soldiers kept slaves for 'stress relief'. More fucked up than that, they'd also bring in the slaves' children to sadistically show what being done to their parents; to prepare them for what their future held. And even… with them…
Lyud cut off her own thought process right then and there, lest she let her anger get the better of her. Nonetheless, she couldn't completely stop her biotics from flaring up. Nychta noticed this and placed her hand on the drell's shoulder, calming her down. Then, they nodded at each other, getting ready to do what needed to be done.
With all preparations complete, the squad gathered their drone swarms and set off for their target, an underground base whose metal entrance was locked down. Scouts and rangers among them, such as Lyud, took point. They quietly approached the entrance's walls, soon hearing a commotion going on on the other side with the batarians, and activated an ability that came with their 'infiltrator kit'.
Through the concrete walls, they perceived a group of slavers holding a few slave asari as hostages, as living shields, like scum like this usually did. Each painting their own targets, the Angels switched their sniper rifles to high-power mode and AP rounds, and took aim. Some specialized drones did the same, adding in their firepower. Then, with a coordinated and timed attack, they pulled the trigger…
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
…and a series of loud shots pierced through the walls with an insurmountable force, hitting and tearing apart the slavers with acute precision.
These shots were instantly followed by the rest of the squad blowing up the entrance and charging into the large room. Stun grenades followed suit, completely disorientating all the batarians still alive and recoiling.
Xalryn, the 'Bulwark', their mini-tank, took the vanguard, pushing forward with those gatling miniguns installed on his broad back…
…BBBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTT!
A solid beam of light intersected batarian shields, armor and troops alike, violently ripping them apart in mere seconds. As for those enemies farther away, they were quickly mowed down by a team led by Tyrannus, whose biotic enhanced shields easily slapped away any return fire. They'd exchange part of their shields' energy in order to guarantee no innocent was harmed in the crossfire. Trying to use living shields just made one a priority target.
At the same time, droves of drones streamed into the room and rushed towards the depths of this hellish place, where the holding cells were. This veritable flood of flying metal made short work of the soldiers, followed by their controllers releasing the captives. All the while their DS partners were wrecking absolute havoc on the batarian's electronics.
The drell warrior soon found herself helping rescue the enslaved, consisting of humanoids; mostly females, especially young asari, although there was also the occasional male. Their holding – or, more like, torture – cells had all kinds of restraining devices and were soaked with bodily secretions, even blood, so one could only imagine the smell. The 'relief slaves' were found in a state that could only be described as miserable – frail, sickly, injured, with lifeless eyes, scared, etc. The Angels had to administer their own medi-gel just to get them moving.
One asari in particular caught Lyud's attention. Her eyes to be precise, which she believed were the window of the soul. Although they were jaded, there was still an ember of life – and hatred – burning deep within them. She held a much smaller asari, possibly the source of said spark, who couldn't be older than six (although there was no telling how much of that could be attributed to malnutrition).
"Will you be our new masters?" Spoke the asari mother with a monotone, while looking at one of Lyud's squadmates.
"No, we're here to free you." Said one of the human Angels, briefly taking off his helmet to show his face.
"What… are you?" She asked with wide open eyes, not realizing the rather rude nature of her question.
With an understanding smile, the Angel replied: "I'm human. We're… something new; very, very new. And different from what you're used to."
"Hu-man… Can you really save us from this nightmare?" She asked further, hugging her child closer.
"More than that. We can take you away from here… and also make your oppressors pay." Answered the human after putting his helmet back on.
With a short pause, she squeezed her hands hard, glancing at her confused little one, and then spoke with a firm tone: "Take me with you. I'll help."
With a newfound hope, the asari mother took her child and followed Lyud's squad, helping communicate with and lead the other rescued people to come with them.
In no time at all, they'd cleared out this den of foul, evil and wretchedness, and could fully concentrate on evacuating those rescued.
Nevertheless, Lyud kept getting a restless feeling. This assault, the enemy response, gear and movements, these rescue operations… It had been almost… too easy; even for them. Like they'd been led on.
"I've got a bad feeling about this." Tyrannus muttered, mirroring her unease.
"You always say that, Tyr. Things usually go well in the end." Nychta rolled her eyes.
So she said, and nothing really happened. They escorted the crowd of rescued slaves to a secured area of the battlefield, close to Hell's Angels Orbital Insertion Pods, where they'd be extracted later. Things progressed smoothly from there. While a few Angels checked for hostiles along the way, the rescued civilians moved under the lead of that asari mother.
At some point, however, something happened.
She stopped in her tracks and looked down at her chest.
A little red dot from a thin red line was moving there.
BANG!
A loud sniper shot rang out far away.
The mature asari staggered, clutching her chest briefly, before falling backwards feebly. In confused desperation, her child clung to her body while screaming for her mommy.
[1]
"Ambush!" Lyud shouted on her squad channel.
She wasted no time assuming a sniper position and looking for the shooter. She also didn't miss the laser line that aimed lower, now going after the asari child. Still, that wasn't for her to worry about.
"Nychta."
BANG!
The second shot rang out shortly after. It, however, didn't find its target. That was because, way before it could do so, Nychta positioned herself between it and the asari kid, deflecting it away with her massive biotic barrier.
Now, with the hostile sniper's position fully revealed, Lyud...
BANG!
…pulled the trigger on her rifle, which had been switched to high-power mode in her wrath, and watched as the destructive projectile tore at a metallic wall, before turning most of the batarian sniper hiding behind it in a mist of blood.
Meanwhile, Nychta took out a Nanite Injector, a tube-shaped device, and plopped it in the adult asari's heart. In no time at all, her wound closed itself and her vitals stabilized, after which she was carried away by another Angel with a stunned/joyous asari child in tow.
This, however, wasn't the end of it. No, it was only the start – or the prelude.
With the sniper shot as a signal, countless new enemies suddenly began appearing out of nowhere. An increasing number of red dots filled the radars on the Hell's Angels' HUDs. Although they seemed to belong to different factions, each of these groups advanced with precise teamwork and purpose, in a carefully prepared plan, aiming for the weakest link in their target's defensive lines.
This prompted a few Angels to put up big biotic bubbles around the large crowd of rescued people, taking them to hide in a nearby building. The others were left to contend with those incoming hordes of enemies, which were easily (at least) 15 times the number of batarians they were dealing with just a moment ago, and were well-equipped. In fact, there were so many of them that it became somewhat dangerous for any single Angel to break formation and go after them individually. As such, they were immediately put on the defensive – also having to take cover inside buildings.
"How…? Where are all these fuckers popping out of!?" Nychta cursed.
"Many places, including underground and those abandoned containers on the outskirts of the base. We didn't check them properly." Said Bellicus, her DS partner, who went into overdrive while controlling the drone swarm to rival their foe's numbers. "Their timing and movements are very coordinated. Evidently, this was premeditated."
"It's a trap!" Interitus also finally realized, albeit out loud.
"Way to state the obvious, sherlock." Nychta mocked.
"That's not my name, little Demon." He replied.
She just rolled her eyes before shifting her focus to the fierce battle outside, on the 'street'. Her twin SMGs didn't stop sending their hypervelocity projectiles towards any enemies that got too close, while she occasionally threw biotic abilities at them, throwing their formation in disarray. However, the enemies' shields were quite robust, their numbers were endless, her biotic attacks were sometimes nullified by these hostile's own biotics and her drone swarm was facing constant interference from their EW attacks.
Meanwhile, as they fought to stand their ground, a plethora of reports kept coming in from all other squads spread around the theater of war.
"Report… Hostile electronic warfare is disrupting and jamming some of our equipment… It doesn't conform to known Hegemony EW suites."
"Report… They have equipment that can disrupt a controller's link with drones."
"Report… Their equipment is mostly top-of-the-line stuff, including cyclonic shield tech. I'm talking tech very similar to the best arms companies and corporations in the galaxy."
With a blueish white flash, Seeth appeared inside the building with damage marks all over his Power Armor from his outside adventures. He noted as he rested: "We're surrounded. Enemies everywhere."
"Good. That means we can shoot everywhere!" Tyrannus laughed boisterously.
And he did just that. With a reckless move, he worked in unison with rocket/missile Drones and sent a large quantity of explosives towards the enemy lines. BOOM!x42 His jovial and joking attitude infected his squadmates, raising their morale considerably, but certainly not more than seeing the massive damage his crazy action did to their enemies. So, they took this opportunity and cut down all the hostiles closer to them, pushing back a little.
Still, at some point, their enemies managed to take control of all the buildings surrounding the one they were taking cover in. They then began to fire at this Hell's Angels squadron in a well-timed rotation, trying to make it impossible for them to retaliate. What's worse, a few heavily armored and well-equipped enemy squads showed up around an equally armored and advanced tank, providing support for it. It immediately shot in their direction, its scaled down Thanix cannon sliced apart one side of the building they were taking cover on.
Like so, they were thoroughly pinned down!
"Shit! We can't just stay here, taking a beating like this." Nychta remarked.
"Indeed. We need to go on the offensive." Lyud agreed, then ordered. "Interitus, create an opening for us. Make it a big one."
With grinning mandibles, he replied: "Aye aye, Major. It's my pleasure."
Reaching back, he took something from his Power Armor mag-locks, a huge weapon with a small nuclear radiation sign on its side. It was, without a doubt, a portable M-920 Cain.
"On my command, charge towards that fortified, tall building; the one they're shooting at us from behind those metal windows." She added, marking the location on their HUD.
After a four second long power-up sequence, he popped out of cover and fired at the tank – right at the middle of its defensive formation. And then…
BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The impact hit its target with such an overwhelming explosive force that it actually created an archetypical 'mushroom cloud' as well as produced a momentary intense blinding light. The resulting destruction only served to cement its reputation as 'the win button'.
"GO!" Lyud shouted.
While that massive explosion blinded their enemies, her squad rushed towards the specific building she'd marked. When they got close enough to it, all of the Angels locked-in on the enemies who'd been leisurely shooting at them from their advantageous high-ground, then gathered their biotic power and charged at them as streaks of blueish white light.
SWISH!
As they (almost) biotically phased through the windows, their targeted enemies were sent flying by the powerful impact. Now inside of that fortified building, Lyud's squad didn't allow any recovering time for their foes. Immediately, and with the aid of the exoskeleton of their Power Armors, they rushed towards those stunned foes to finish them off in melee.
And so, from the top of their gauntlets, two long Blades with varying colors emerged.
Any piece of matter they passed through, be it the lightest air or heaviest metal, would be cleanly separated at the molecular level by two strong, precise and diametrically opposed mass effect fields, which quickly split its affected matter in opposite directions.
It wasn't any different with the enemies these Blades were moving against, who they easily cut through without any resistance. In mere seconds, a bunch of heavily armored corpses fell lifelessly to the ground, all sliced apart in many pieces. One enemy, a batarian standing close to the entrance of the room, tried to escape after seeing this scene. But, with a wave of Nychta's hand, blueish white biotic energy washed over his body, pulling him over closer to Lyud's teammates; and to Seeth's Blades.
Slash!
With a clean cut, the batarian was sliced in half by his Blades – weapons, armor and all. In the end, all that fancy gear meant nothing in the face of weapons that separated matter at the level of space itself! After all, they represented the improved version of the old Warp Blade (which worked by rapidly shifting mass effect fields that rips anything apart at the molecular level).
And they now operated based on warped gravity (spacetime).
They were thus called Gravitic Blades!
Like this, Lyud's squad quickly took over this part of the building and then turned it against their enemies below. Seeth went downstairs, to clear out any hostiles still inside of it. She, on the other hand, climbed up to its terrace, to get a more advantageous sniping position – with a clearer view of the battlefield. They soon turned this position into a meat grinder; for their enemies, that is. So much so that cracks started appearing in their assault formation.
Meanwhile, Lyud noted that more and more hostile aircraft arrived from space. Enough to overwhelm their own and, therefore, to contest for aerial superiority. One of those, taking offense to her sniping its allies, turned its weapons directly on her.
Coming to a decision, Lyud chose to meet its challenge head on, but not before putting up a massive barrier around her body. So, she set her sniper rifle to its highest power setting, loaded a 'full sized' HEAT round and resolutely stood her ground as she faced that aircraft, even while its weapons quickly drained her shields.
Then, her aim true, she pulled the trigger…
BANG!
Her shot reverberated through the battlefield, even briefly overwhelming all other sounds, overloaded the aircraft's kinetic barriers and penetrated its frontal window, instantly killing the pilot. The aircraft then began falling down, shortly after crashing and becoming a pile of wreckage on the ground.
With these new developments unfolding, the rest of Lyud's temporary squad began carving a path through the enemy lines and led the rescued civilians in the direction of their Orbital Insertion Pods, where the enemy presence was minimal. Bulwark took the vanguard, while Lyud, Nychta, Tyrannus, Seeth and a few others stayed behind for a while, enough time to hold off enemy forces, before moving as well to protect their rear.
Along the way, they faced an increasingly varied number of species. Batarian, turian, asari, krogan, vorcha, salarian – even humans. High-Command (mainly their DS partners at HQ) had already identified a lot of the factions involved in this trap, but actually seeing this reality represented in this way was definitely a first for these war veterans. And, regardless of losses, those enemies just kept coming, one after another, seemingly without end.
"What the hell!? Are we fighting the whole Terminus or what?" Nychta spoke out.
"Huh?" Tyrannus uttered.
"Look, we've got mercs, bastard slavers, Batarian External Forces, pirates, local warlords, crime syndicates, drug cartels and even some human corporations' private forces, 'cause why the fuck not? This Coalition is made up of almost everyone we've pissed off!" She said in response.
"Almost everyone?" Lyud asked, trying to figure out who was missing.
"The Council's not here." Seeth added before disappearing immediately after.
"Oh."
"..."
"To be honest, they probably just didn't get the memo." Nychta quipped.
That earned her a small chuckle from the others.
Contrary to their easygoing chat, however, no one was really having it easy – especially those fighting a desperate battle in space…
Space, CSV Lightbringer's bridge. Right after the trap was sprung.
Alert! Alert! Detected multiple signatures inbound!
Ysin'Mal vas Lightbringer, Fleet Admiral of Hell's Angels 1st Fleet, jumped from his chair in startled shock. The ringing alarms were a constant reminder that they were no longer fully in control of this campaign. Evidently, they'd walked right into a trap.
ESTABLISHING BATTLEFIELD CONTROL…
Declared Tatica, his glass-wearing strategist DS partner, assistant and Vice-Admiral, in the bridge's command group channel as well as his mind. In his tactical view, a massive Mixed Fleet suddenly appeared and began rearranging itself in front of his smaller Fleet.
Ysin sat back down.
"1st Fleet, prepare for battle! Establish a defensive perimeter around the Lightbringer, CSV Artificial Selection and CSV Destructive Criticism." He ordered in his fleet group channel.
After his command was issued, the Fleet started rearranging itself in a spherical formation under the guidance of its Digital Sentience co-pilots. With that finished, both Fleets began exchanging fire from a safe distance, as safe as one could be when firing Thanix cannons close to their effective range limit. Like this, glowing red lances of relativistic molten metal raced through space while ships simultaneously shot and dodged each other in a 'drunken dance'.
Gone were the days when only Hell's Angels' Fleets had an overwhelming advantage on weaponry against their opponents. The only saving grace was that only those identified as Batarian External Forces' warships made use of these newest technologies. Besides, they stood way further back, especially the Cruisers who were most likely leading this 'Coalition Fleet'.
While it wouldn't take long for these Thanix cannon shots to actually begin connecting with their targets, the quarian Admiral prepared for another hurdle. A large portion of the enemy Fleet, made up mostly of what they identified as turian pirates, left its formation and rushed to face his Fleet head on. Despite their reckless behavior and inferior warships, their numbers were a problem.
So many… How did they manage to sneak up on us? He inquired.
Preliminary investigation suggests they masked their heat signatures by hiding close to the System's Star, while also keeping their e-grav turned off. Tatica replied.
What? Did they figure out our gravity sensors? Ysin speculated uneasily.
Insufficient data. She said. There's a high possibility of them simply acting very cautious in order to hide from us. Hence, the complete shut down of non-essential systems.
That's true… I hope you're right. He commented.
"Report, enemy fighters and interceptors setting course for the Artillery-Drones deployed around the planet's low orbit." An urgent alert interrupted their conversation.
"Send our own aircraft to intercept them and have the drones withdraw." Ysin immediately ordered, shifting his focus there.
Disengaging from their platform 'mode', the Artillery-Drones lit up their thrusters and made their way back to the safety of the 1st Fleet. Along the way, they were quickly besieged by a huge flotilla of enemy spacecraft, losing a few of their numbers in the ensuing battle, but most managed to return in one piece after Hell's Angels' own aircraft entered the fray.
Soon after, without caring about the damage they took, many enemy Frigates and even a few Destroyers got close enough to be able to exchange fire, making it impossible for the 1st Fleet to hold orbital supremacy. Then, part of the enemy spacecraft began descending towards the planet, while the rest served as escorts for the larger warships. They created a battlefield that was becoming increasingly more intertwined and chaotic as time went by.
Incoming priority transmission from the Commander. Patching it though. Tatica reported.
Due to its urgency and origin, she promptly connected the call.
"Admiral, can you provide orbital artillery support?" The Commander requested.
"Not possible, Commander. Too many enemy ships here. The Artillery-Drones would be sitting ducks. We've already lost a few to enemy aircraft." The Admiral replied. In addition, he sent him chunks of memory from the prior engagements.
After a small pause, the Commander spoke again: "I see… Hold them off as best as you can, Admiral. Reinforcements are already on their way."
"It shall be done. Keelah Se'lai." Ysin swore, saluting before their channel was closed.
He then turned his attention to the 3D display of the battlefield, already formulating some plans of (delaying) action. Tatica, who shared a mental link with him, also devised a lot of ideas while improving his own. These included: making maximum use of their DS support, which involved warship 'drunk walk/dodging' and 'pinpoint' accurate FTL jumps; broadside Thanix weapons combined with high delta-V maneuvers for 'hit and run' tactics; unlimited and constant use of EW suites to disrupt enemy coordination; turning drones into 'space mines', which carried all sorts of 'gifts' (e.g. nukes), to commit 'suicide' in close proximity with enemy craft; and so on.
Anyway, the truth was that they had to show and play more of their cards than usual.
"Send a team of small ships, led by the Traumatic Event, to serve as a fast vanguard and bait. Have them prepare escape pods, to use at a moment's notice." Ysin'Mal ordered.
"But Admiral… won't we just be putting them in danger?" His pilot inquired. The rest of the crew also shared his doubt.
"Don't just look at what's right in front of you – think beyond it. Think about what they want, why they planned this trap without resorting to nukes down there." He explained. "It's our technology. They want to plunder it from our corpses. So, they won't kill indiscriminately."
With his explanation said, a substantial portion of Frigates and escorting spacecraft, led by a Destroyer, the Traumatic Event, was quickly reorganized with Tatica's help and then sent to cause mayhem within the enemy ranks.
"If the enemy doesn't take the bait, have this vanguard switch from broadside tactics to a 'drunk walk' before retreating to our defensive perimeter." Ysin added, as a contingency in case he had made the wrong call.
"Aye aye, Captain."
The Admiral then returned his focus towards the approaching enemy ships – mostly turian pirates. While his Fleet's Cruisers dealt with the enemy's own larger warships, he hoped to use that 'vanguard' to draw in those smaller ones into a killing trap, where they'd be slowly whittled down by overlapping, superintelligence calculated shooting fields.
Good Captains shoot at where the enemy is. Great Captains shoot at where the enemy is going to be. As for Ysin? He wanted to be a Legendary Captain. So, he'd make the enemy go there!
With that resolution, he buckled up for a long and grueling fight. If it was just his Fleet here (i.e. under different circumstances), this would be one of those rare cases of Hell's Angels retreating in the face of the enemy. But the safety of the people planetside hinged on how much time they could buy, so they had to fight.
At that moment, however, something happened which drew all of Ysin's attention.
He received a priority data packet from Tatica with the memories of something that had just happened on the surface; scrubbed of anything other than visuals and audio, of course.
Still, just the images he'd seen were enough to widen his eyes in surprise and prompt him to shout: "Jamm all communications, full spectrum! Nothing comes in and nothing goes out of this System until commanded otherwise. Tatica, have a drone hack into the comm buoy and prevent what's happening here from leaking outside."
The crew were startled by his intense reaction, a rare occurrence in their experience. Ysin, nevertheless, didn't care about anything except preventing future trouble – which would be a lot if others learned of what was about to be unleashed planetside. For he knew that the surprising card this enemy played wouldn't be beaten so easily, requiring more of what the Angels could do, of what they kept hidden from the galaxy at large…
And neither of those could be allowed to be leaked!
Planetside. At the edge of the batarian base. Moments prior.
Amidst this raging battle, a lone human Angel zipped through the battlefield chasing some members of this 'Coalition Army' – as they've taken to call them for now – into a deserted area of the batarian base, close to its outer perimeter defenses. These enemies belonged to a technology-minded elite salarian merc group, as evidenced by the thrusters on their backs. It helped them move like the wind and evade most attacks.
Following this cat-and-mouse chase, they soon arrived in front of a large hangar that had been used to store armored vehicles. As soon as the human got inside, he was welcomed by a batarian holding a homing missile launcher. Not one to dawdle, the Angel dodged the incoming missile with a small sideways thruster dash, aimed at the batarian and fired two bursts of his low-power Harrier rifle, popping his shields and penetrating his armor in quick succession.
Soon after, both sides began exchanging fire inside this large hangar, dashing from cover to cover. The salarian mercs were fast on their tracks, using whatever was available inside the hangar as shelters/barriers. In the middle of it, there was even 'something' very tall and big covered by a large piece of cloth, though they curiously steered clear of it. This small stalemate lasted until the human's drone swarm caught up to him, after which the mercs began to be routed.
[/1]
However, this success/victory would soon prove to be short-lived.
Loud noises of machinery turning on filled the place, as the cloth covering that 'something' slowly fell to the ground. After seeing what was revealing itself, the human, Igor, one of the newest members of Hell's Angels, halted his movements with an audible gulp.
It was tall. Between six and seven meters (20-23 ft) in height. It was also heavily armored, more than any land war machine needed to be. In fact, its armor looked even thicker than that of the tanks they'd been fighting so far. Added to this, the giant mech also carried with it a massive assault rifle as well as a bunch of weapons systems all over its frame. Overall, its design resembled a humanoid insect with two arms and legs, a torso, and a 'head' with four 'eyes', just like a batarian.
While Igor scanned it, the giant mech slowly got up, powering up its systems. Its four eyes lit up with an eerie yellow glow while its head turned to face the human invader. For a brief moment, they both stood there motionless.
Time ground to a halt as they stared at each other in silence… Until the giant moved.
Only one word came to Igor's mind.
RUN!
[2]
He charged away from there with all the biotic energy he could muster.
Behind him, the mechanical monster roared in an electronic voice and gave chase, tearing apart anything that got in its way with its powerful synthetic limbs. Outside the hangar, Igor only got a short breather before his mechanical pursuer caught up, which it did by using its giant body to smash straight through one of the building's walls. It carried with it metal and concrete debris, and its brutal movements left behind a red cloud of dust.
With its hated enemy now within sight, the mech raised and aimed its enlarged assault rifle towards him, preparing to shoot. His instinctual reaction was to respond in kind, the Angel Harrier in his hand releasing a stream of hypervelocity phasic-enhanced rounds. All of its shots, however, were easily swatted away by the mech's massive cyclonic kinetic barriers. Switching to a stronger weapon setting didn't make much of a difference.
Hacking also didn't work, since its internal electronic systems/networks were air-tight.
Meanwhile, that massive batarian rifle was the exact opposite, quickly draining Igor's own cyclonic shields as he tried to dodge the incoming fire. Their energy didn't last long against those tank-like projectiles, which penetrated part of his Power Armor shortly after and then punctured his left arm and shoulder. The resulting bleeding was quickly stopped by nanites – as was the pain –, but the impact of this exchange could not be so easily eased. It lasted only a few seconds, yet was enough to solidify his only option left: to run. Which he did.
Seeing this, the batarian mechanical monster played another card made specifically with Hell's Angels in mind. It opened up missile launchers spread all over its body, out of which it released a big barrage of small guided mini-missiles, which flew towards him in a group. They firmly locked-in on his position, not losing their targeting no matter how much he tried to dodge, and soon hit his general vicinity.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM…!
With a rapid series of explosions, they blew up everything around him, including the metal crates and building walls he tried to take cover in, scorching his Power Armor and riddling him with wounds as their force threw him into said walls. While he tried to stabilize himself, the mech prepared to send another round of fire his way. In this moment of danger, a huge number of drones poured out from that hangar's new 'entrance', flying and firing towards the mech under the control of Igor's DS partner.
In response, the insectoid metal giant revealed a series of capacitors around its body, from which it released a 'swarm' of wide and long electrical arcs towards the incoming swarm of drones. This unprecedented attack reached it instantly, jumping from drone to drone, and zapping them out of the sky and into the ground, completely fried. Some arcs also reached the mercenary, overcharging and almost frying his suit's systems, but they ultimately held on long enough for him to put some distance between them.
Still, while this was happening, his DS partner didn't forget to send warnings to the rest of the army. This, however, turned out to be a somewhat unnecessary act.
All over the base, mechs like this one showed up and ambushed Hell's Angels' warriors, in locations that allowed them to form a closing circle. Everything up to now had been a ruse to draw in their mortal enemies towards the center of the base and then encircle them with those large war machines.
"Fall back and regroup!"
At this time, an urgent order reached all the warriors of Hell's Angels, coming directly from their Commander. Evidently, it was specially meant for those Angels who were operating alone and, as such, were more vulnerable. Ones such as…
While Igor was now without his drone swarm, the giant mech grabbed its massive rifle with its left hand and pointed the other one at him, from which emanated a substantial build up of energy that was noticeable by its increasingly brighter glow. In a very short moment, this build up then turned into a devastating attack…
HIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
A thick yellow particle beam shot out of its hand, following him closely as he scrambled to escape its path with all the biotic rushes he could perform. Wherever it passed, it scorched the ground, leaving a trail of melted metal and burnt red soil. The sizzling of melting metal added itself to the continuous sound of the beam scorching everything it hit as it traveled through the air, heating it up. When it finally stopped, the lingering heat and radiation given off by it brushed past the goosebumps on its target's skin.
After personally experiencing this new and terrifying weapon, Igot threw away any notions of fighting this synthetic monstrosity in his current condition and wasted no time connecting to Hell's Angels' 'all channel' – the one reserved for contacting every one of its members in any given war theater.
"Report! Commander, I request the temporary release of our limiters…"
He wasn't the only one to do so. All over the combat zone, his comrade-in-arms were facing similar situations.
By the time he finished his requisition, the mech had vented enough heat and shot another particle beam at him, slicing apart a nearby construction crane and part of a small building. "At this rate, we won't hold on for much longer!"
As such, a notification popped up in his HUD soon after.
[Requesting Supreme Commander-level authorization…]
[Waiting…]
[...]
Every Angel on the battlefield waited for the response, as they struggled to hold on against these new war machines. Especially that particle beam weapon, which could actually tear through their shields and armor in a short time.
Stil, the answer didn't take long to arrive.
While rushing to regroup with his nearest allies, Igor suddenly paused.
In his internal helmet HUD as well as mind, a series of notification messages popped up.
[Authorization… cleared]
[Requirements... met]
[...]
[Permissions on use of weaponry high-power modes… unlimited]
[Releasing Power Armor limiters, eezo nodules set at… 15%]
The battlefield came to a momentary lull.
All Angels in combat felt it. A blue glow flashed past their eyes.
In a fraction of a second, all their organic and artificial eezo nodules synced with their suit's own artificial eezo nodules.
The resulting synergy caused an enormous amount of dark energy turned biotic power to course through their bodies, forming a strong, blueish white biotic barrier that permanently whirled around them. Its enveloping blue glow shaped something akin to an 'aura'.
At the same time, electrical sparks resulting from static discharge flowed from their bodies towards any nearby metal and/or metallic surface. These arcs crackled almost as fast as the biotic power circulated around their bodies.
Igor turned around.
The giant mech chasing close behind, smashing everything on its way to reach him, also caught up. Its arm was glowing slightly red due to overuse of the particle beam weapon, so it decided to use its large assault rifle. The big projectiles raced true to their target, but they were easily swatted away by this 'new' barrier that enveloped his body – not unlike how his previous shots bounced off of the mech's cyclonic shields.
After the first shots, he began biotically phasing sideways, dodging most of the incoming shots with minimal movements. The human Angel's lukewarm reaction was merely his way of confirming something, a fact that gave him a newfound courage.
He could definitely fight that thing now!
The metal giant roared in rage at this perceived display of disdain, abandoning its strategy of ripping its foe apart from a distance. In its place, it produced a large Omni-blade from its left wrist and charged at the small human whose very survival up until now was a mockery to it. While this happened, Igor took this small opportunity to vent his accumulated heat, so wing-shaped radiators sprouted from the back of his Power Armor.
Seeing the giant charging at him, he gathered all the power coursing through his body and casually pulled a nearby batarian tank's wreckage in front of him, to use as a shield. With no hesitation, the mech continued its charge undaunted, crashing into the tank and slicing right through it – its two parts separating right down its melting middle. However, before it could slice the 'frail' human too, two equally thick blades halted its descent. They were his wrist-mounted Gravitic Blades, which he wielded in a criss-cross pattern.
Like this, these two figures, one small and donning wings behind his back, another tall and synthetic, locked Blades amidst the raging battle. The mechanical monster's sheer weight pushed the smaller figure backwards and down, almost making him sink into the metallic surface. His suit's exoskeleton creaked under this force. Still, he held his ground, not giving an inch further.
After stabilizing his footing, Igor's eyes flashed as he focused his gaze on the mech's arm. Then, with a calculated plan, he quickly turned off his left wrist-mounted Blade, allowing the giant Omni-blade to slide down to his right side, and biotically charged in the direction of the mech's right arm joints, near its shoulder. When he reached it, he activated his left Blade again and, with a biotically-enhanced thruster rush, slashed with both of them right at its foe's weakest spot.
As he touched the ground, that arm also fell down, inoperable. After losing one of its arms, the mech backed off, let go of its rifle and prepared its remaining one for a new attack – or, rather, the old, but nevertheless terrifying one. Out of its right arm poured a yellow particle beam that rushed straight at the human. In his defense, he hastily pulled over part of that tank's remnants to block it, but the blazing beam quickly penetrated through it.
With practically no time to evade it due to their short distance, he raised his hands in front of his chest and generated a large frontal biotic aegis barrier, blocking and deflecting the particle beam directly with his biotic power. Before his Power Armor reached its limits, the giant mech's arm reached its own – glowing red hot. Then, they both stood there, glaring at each other.
At that moment, however, a series of advisory hints were sent by the Commander.
"Snipers: group up, get some distance and focus fire on these tall metal bastards. Mid-range fighters, try to circle around them; if they fire that beam weapon, block it with things around you. Everyone else, especially close-range fighters, try to go for their joints…"
They focused on the general disadvantages of a giant mech: it was tall, making it easier to spot and shoot; it wasn't as 'maneuverable' (turning around) as a Power Armored Angel; its joints were weaker than the rest of the body, so breaking them would make it crumble down under its own increase weight; and so on.
While he listened to them, some of which he also thought about, Igor gathered all the biotic energy from his recovering energy supply and began biotically phasing around the enemy. In response, while its particle beam weapon cooled down, it decided to melee the smaller human, trying to kick, stomp or crush him under its massive weight. When his suit's energy had been sufficiently restored, he positioned himself near his foe's synthetic legs.
Then, raising his arms, he activated two devices located on the lower part of his gauntlets, sending waves of high-voltage electrical currents towards the most vulnerable points of the giant mech's legs. This sudden shock was effective, almost frying its interior electronics, and halted its movements long enough for him to slice apart its leg joints.
The mechanical monster began falling down.
Still, pressing his advantage, he lit his thrusters and rushed towards the middle of its chest. There, wielding his wrist-mounted Gravitic Blades, he cut a new opening on it before swiftly killing the petrified batarian pilot that had been driving the war machine.
THUD!
With a loud noise, the giant mech completely fell to the ground, now utterly inoperative.
[/2]
Phew…
Igor let out a deep breath he'd been holding on.
He did it! His Power Armor was damaged, his body wounded, his drone swarm lost and he was tired, but he actually managed to take down that seemingly insurmountable enemy.
It wasn't any different with Lyud's temporary squad, who were evacuating/protecting all the enslaved people rescued from inside the base. They integrated and fought together with a few other squads that had converged there.
As such, when one of the giant mechs tried besieging their position, Nychta worked with some Angels to pool together their dark energy and generated a huge biotic aegis in front of it, halting its large assault rifle projectiles in mid-air. These were then shot back at it, draining a considerable chunk of its massive kinetic barriers' energy. At the same time, some others unloaded their fully unlocked Harriers on it without reserve. Interitus then took the opportunity to drain the rest of its shields with his big shotgun's explosive shots, before switching to his mini-Cain. That mech didn't last long.
Another squad halted a wave of mini-missiles in mid-air. Then, with a powerful biotic push, they 'returned to sender' all that payload.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The succession of explosions drained a large portion of the batarian mech's barriers, since they were spread all over its large frame's surface area. Shortly after, an asari Angel stood close to it with massive quantities of dark energy pouring out of her body and washing over a pile of debris and vehicle wreckage, lifting them up to float around her. She then threw all of it towards the mech, quickly draining another large chunk of its shields.
Following that, this squad used their gauntlet's devices to temporarily shock and paralyze the mech, after which its joints were cut down by Seeth with a swift biotic flash. With it still crashing down towards the ground, a krogan Angel pulled over a destroyed batarian tank's wreckage and biotically crushed it into a massive warhammer, which he swung down with force – as if to nail the mech to the ground. The mech's pilot was crushed into meat paste soon after.
While the others battled those giant mechs, Lyud worked together with Xalryn to safeguard the rescued people from enemy ground troops (infantry units), who were trying to provide assistance and support to their armored walker units.
As biotic power coursed through his large body, Bulwark stomped the ground with his big hands, causing a massive biotic shockwave – no, it'd be more appropriate to call it a biotic earthquake – to rush towards some enemies who were hiding behind a barricade. Despite the ground's hard metallic surface, the red earth beneath it rose, throwing up the enemies in the air and tearing lower limbs with equal force. Lyud then finished off any survivors.
So on and so forth… They fought back fiercely, bringing down mech after mech until, a few minutes later, almost no Coalition forces dared to assault this particular defensive position! They even began to push back and gain ground.
At that time, her squad felt an enormous gathering of biotic power right in the middle of this military base. They spontaneously looked in that direction, where hints of a massive biotic lance forming in mid-air could be seen, before it was swiftly thrown.
BOOOOOOM!
"What was that!?" Seeth shouted, betraying his taciturn personality.
"The Commander's squad. He's moving towards the enemy Commander Center." Bellicus, Nychta's DS, replied to the whole squad.
"Oh. It's where that massive energy signal is coming from, right?" Interitus inquired.
With a blink of his cybernetic eyes, he saw a huge 'light beacon' in that direction – a visual representation of the enormous energy pulsing within that region.
"Yes. Also, the source of most of this annoying jamming." Bellicus 'grumbled' in annoyance at their difficulty in hacking the enemy electronic systems.
"Good. This means that, very soon, we won't have to deal with this shit anymore." Nychta rejoiced with a smile.
After throwing this small event to the back of their minds, they continued to hunt down the Coalition forces, be they mere infantry, armored units, aircraft or even giant fucking mechs. In spite of the ambush's initial surprise, catching them completely off-guard, Hell's Angels squads all over the base began to fight evenly against – and even push back – their foes.
One could wonder what this 'Coalition Army' would feel if they knew they were only dealing with 15% of their mortal enemy's power…
Planetside. Inside the Coalition's Commander Center. At the same time.
"S-Sir, they're…" Stuttered a frightened batarian to a holographic figure.
From his tone and bearing, it was clear he was in a subordinate position in relation to his listener.
The building in which they were discussing the ongoing battle had been reinforced with the Batarian Hegemony's best military-grade materials, especially this main room that was deep within its interior. It was still not enough to muffle the gunshots and explosions happening outside.
"They're what!?" Demanded the figure, also a batarian, one who wore a suit denoting his position as a Captain of the Batarian External Forces.
It was Ka'hairal Balak, who was speaking from the safety of a far away bunker.
"Defeating the mechs. They're destroying the mechs, sir!" The minion reported fearfully.
He was scared out of his wits, especially after learning that 'Commander' was coming their way.
"What!? How…? But those were made with the technology given by the…" Exclaimed the batarian with a tone more of incredulity than rage. "You useless bastards! How can you still lose to those upstarts even after everything I've gotten and planned for you?"
"..."
"Argh, blasted humans! It's all their fault! We were a proud race, a beautiful race… If it wasn't for them…"
His subordinate didn't say anything and just kept his head lowered during the outburst.
"We've underestimated them." The Captain stated, zoning out and muttering to himself in a low voice. "And got too greedy for their tech… Now, it might not be possible to salvage the situation anymore. I should think about the next step, maybe even…"
That, or we just overestimated ourselves. Thought the underling. But he didn't dare say it.
Balak soon stopped his daydreaming, turned his head and gazed at the batarian in silence for a few seconds, seemingly considering something for a second time.
"Do it. Activate it." He ordered.
It only took the batarian a brief moment to understand what he meant. "Do we really have to, sir? We'll also be hit by the wave!"
"As opposed to what? Do nothing and end up losing again anyway?" Balak rebuked. "Do it. I'm authorizing, no… ordering you to use our real trump card."
"Sir... Yes, sir. It shall be done." Saluted the underling.
With an approving nod, Balak's image flickered and disappeared soon after.
Knowing what the consequences of what he was about to do were, he honestly suspected that their dear Captain would just run away and leave them to fend for themselves. There's was nothing he could do anyway.
Accepting his order, the batarian commander turned off the holographic communicator and walked towards the center of the room, where stood a pulsating, organic-like large device. Mysterious blue veins of light traced its surface. Lines of unfamiliar characters constantly refreshed on what was supposed to be its terminal. It looked alien even for him, who had seen all sorts of species during his life of pirating and slaving.
This was their answer to a question that plagued the minds of the galaxy's villains/scum. What made Hell's Angels so feared?
Was it just because of their powerful arsenal of weapons? Perhaps their mobility, including being composed of – and making full use of – biotics? Or was it due to those huge and incredibly coordinated drone swarms? Maybe how they could seemingly have all intel on a foe before the fight even began, applying effective tactics and strategies? Discipline, training or such things?
No, not one of those in particular. It was their state-of-the-art technology, which was applied at every level of their army, concluded Hegemony intelligence.
So, in order to face Hell's Angels, reasoned the Hegemony further, one ought to take away that technological advantage; to clip their wings, drag them down to earth and meet them on a similar level.
And this was their answer to such a foe; a way to 'level the playing field' if everything else failed. Their…
"Attention all troops, I'm activating 'Plan B'. Get ready to change loadout." The batarian commander put his hand on his ear and radioed his troops in advance.
Then, with a determined motion, he placed his palm on that terminal, began following its instructions and got ready to activate the alien device…
Outside the batarian Commander Center. A few minutes before.
SWISH!
CRASH!
A humanoid giant mech traveled through the air, its torso – where the batarian pilot used to be – now marked by a big gaping hole and the lingering biotic power still twisting its broken body. The mech's inoperable scraps crashed heavily into the metallic wall of a tall building, leaving a visible dent on it. The origin of said 'wound', whose combined powers had turned dark energy into a devastating biotic attack, was a heavily armored dark figure followed by other equally armored figures, who'd acted in unison seconds prior to create such a powerful attack.
They all wore the emblem of Hell's Angels. And he was their Commander.
With a gesture and quick mental communications, I sent new missions to my accompanying soldiers. They then spread out, forming a perimeter around the enemy Command Center, which laid right in front of me. As for me, it was time to cut the head of the snake(s) behind this 'trap'.
Are really planning to in alone? She asked all of a sudden.
But I'm not alone. I have you, no? I replied confidently. Ok, the truth is that I'm more worried our foes will try to escape after we go inside, that's why I'm leaving this squad here. Besides...
As I dragged my words in our mental conversation, four batarian giant mechs showed up to stop us from entering the enemy CC. The soldiers I left to guard this place engaged them immediately.
I'm also leaving them to prevent anyone else from going inside, so... I added.
Alright, alright. I get it. Just... don't let the suit limiters' release get to your head. She remarked, to which I nodded.
With that settled, I turned my focus back to the building in front of us. After breaking through all the ambushes along the way, I finally reached the place with the weird/unique EM readings, on top of all the jamming it was constantly emitting. While Gaia attempted hacking its main automatic door and security systems, I took my time examining it, as our drone swarm and nearby squads prevented anyone from getting near me.
The first thing I noticed about the building was that, for what should be their most important strategic position, it wasn't safely hidden underground, but instead located entirely on the planet's surface. Furthermore, it was siphoning large quantities of energy from all over the base, coming from energy lines which themselves were mostly protected underground.
That was strange. Why the need for so much energy? This place had no defensive kinetic barriers covering it completely and Gaia had already confirmed that the defensive systems inside (e.g. automatic turrets) were quite sparse. Speaking of which, she unlocked its main security door with ease, after which we marched inside, sending drones as the vanguard as well as for recon purposes.
Inside, I soon observed that it wasn't all that different from any other building in this military base, with cheap metal floors and walls and pillars filled with sub-par grey concrete as well as shoddy metal and iron beams/bar. Only on the outside were these buildings adorned with proper metallic materials. Honestly, it reminded me of that one batarian prison in Aratoht. It was due to details like this that the Hegemony earned its reputation as a paper tiger. In any case, I made my way beyond the entrance, analyzing all the information sent by the drones.
There was an ambush prepared for me in the next room. A big group of batarians, turians, humans and salarians had set up barricades and turret defenses in a line facing the entrance to the room. I decided to unravel their plans.
Making a big fist with my right hand, I concentrated a large amount of dark energy into it to form a biotic sphere and punched it towards a wall besides the security door, repeating this on the other side. With these two brand new entrances finished, the drone swarm poured into the room through these three openings, wreaking utter havoc on the enemy formation. Entering this chaotic room, my first and immediate action was to create a singularity to add to all the chaos, dragging a few distracted enemies in the air. The remaining ones and their still operational turrets struggled to face our combined assault.
Then, raising my left hand in their direction, my gauntlet's lower device ionized them with a nonvisible laser. Next, in no time at all, it poured torrents of lightning towards my foes, the high-voltage electrical attack cooked organics alive and fried shields and weapons alike. At the same time, I took a SMG from my back and finished off any armored foes who didn't succumb to the electric attack. Gaia followed suit with her drones, finishing off any enemy I missed or just wasn't focusing my firepower on.
And so we kept marching, kept clearing out room after room of incoming enemies, trying in vain to protect this place. No one could put up a decent fight, not even the krogans who had shown up soon after. At some point, I reached a room with a very large open space.
In this big/wide room, there were pillars one after another along its sides. Huge pipes and cables, surging with energy, were intertwined between them like nerves and blood vessels, leading towards… something, a machine or device perhaps, deep within the building. All I knew was that, whatever this thing was, its energy signature was lit up like a fusion reactor in my vision.
What the hell is all this…? I wondered.
Whatever it may be, it's probably not something good. Gaia posited.
Putting those thoughts aside, I continued to march towards the heart of the building, where I'd hopefully find the Coalition's leaders and discover what they were planning. However, before I could make much progress, I was besieged by a small platoon made up of pretty much all of our 'Coalition' enemies. They were well coordinated and shouting all sorts of warcries and profanities at me.
Undaunted, I waved my hand and ripped apart one of those energy pipes, bringing its cables close to me and linking it with my Power Armor's capacitors with Gaia's help. In addition, she had one of the drones pick up my weapon.
All of this happened in an instant.
[Warning! Warning!]
[Power Armor close to reaching maximum supercharge limit!]
My suit screamed at me, alerting me of what was to come. With smooth coordination, the drone swarm also prepared for it. Our foes, on the other hand, had absolutely no idea what waited for them…
With raised arms, I pointed my hands at the two highest concentrations of enemies and let go of a catastrophic amount of energy in the form of a high-voltage storm, which poured in like a flood of lightning.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
The room lit up with electrical arcs, surging and flowing freely from my hands all over the place. The sizzling lightning currents hit those enemies at the front and then jumped from enemy to enemy, connecting them. Their own abundant energy, whatever it was meant for, was turned against them in a very lethal and ironic fashion. The loud and sharp crackling of this lightning storm drowned all sounds in the room, including the enemies' screams.
For a moment there, I felt like my power was unlimited.
When everything was finished, I let go of that energy cable and 'opened' my wings to cool down my Power Armor. After a brief respite, we continued our onslaught.
Along the way, I faced all sorts of species and factions that would otherwise never, shall I say, have such a cooperative relationship, which led me to believe that the leaders of this 'Coalition' against us were really hiding here somewhere. So, I set out to find them.
According to my suit's scans, I was two rooms before the main 'chamber' of this building. It wouldn't take long to get there, even when taking into consideration the company that had just arrived: some batarians, vorcha and a krogan. I swiftly dispatched them, except for the krogan, who let go of his shotgun for some reason and rushed to melee me. I'd kept him at a distance, yet that itself shouldn't warrant this kind of reaction.
Regardless, I prepared to take him down; however, at that moment, I felt something prickle my skin. It was like I'd been enveloped by a very strong energy field.
Watch out! Gaia cried out in my mind.
At first, I thought she was referring to the krogan who was charging at me. So, I pulled out my custom Carnifex and prepared to shoot him. However, I soon came to realize what she actually meant. Right then, a light-red pulse passed us by in an instant.
Immediately after, my vision went completely back, as I could only see the darkness inside my helmet. Then, after pulling the trigger, my weapon didn't shoot. This was accompanied by the sound of all my drones falling and hitting the ground.
Instinctively, I let go of my pistol and pulled out a monomolecular knife, positioning it where I calculated that the charging krogan's head would be.
THUMP!
I felt like I'd been hit by a speeding truck. Then, while my knife luckily dug deep inside the krogan's skull, he smashed me against a wall, hard.
We both fell down.
Meanwhile, the energy pulse continued to propagate outside. It spread out omnidirectionally and was so fast it could easily cover the entire military base.
Wherever it passed, all electronic (and similar) devices ceased to function.
Somewhere in the Caleston Rift. Seconds after the EMP pulse.
[Signal lost.]
[Attempting to establish connection with QEC device…]
[Connecting…]
[...]
[...]
[No signal found. Try again?]
Such was the summary of Gaia's continuous attempts at reestablishing contact with Sam. She'd concluded, through analysis of battlefield footage and given the successive loss of signals before their connection was cut, that he and the ground forces had been hit by an insanely powerful EMP pulse, one strong enough to affect internal cybernetic implants. So, except for the fleet still fighting in orbit, no Angel on the surface of that planet codenamed 'Hell' was reachable at the moment.
Her only comfort was the fact that real-time intel from said fleet showed a 99.8% likelihood that they were still alive and kicking.
Gaia diverted all of her computing power into figuring out her next move and considered all available options. Cyberwarfare was unlikely to be effective in that space engagement and it looked like the enemy came ready this time. A 'normal' Hell's Angels Fleet might also not cut it, due to its rather 'ordinary' arsenal, while she couldn't risk prematurely revealing their real armada to the galaxy unless it was absolutely necessary.
She needed a space force that could get there quickly, without alerting anyone, and deliver a swift, decisive blow to these foes, wiping them out, while also being capable of providing relief to its allies. It'd be better if it could catch them completely by surprise. That was why, after taking everything into consideration, she connected with a secret facility that was part of what became the Andromeda Initiative in this timeline.
This massive space installation of the Initiative, which siphoned all of its materials directly from a Star, was located in a concealed Star System of the Caleston Rift, near the station where the construction and launch point of the interstellar Ark Keelah Si'yah was originally supposed to take place. Now, its real purpose was to research, develop and construct a Fleet unlike any the galaxy had seen before.
Her image was projected in its main control room, with all her features fully revealed in the green-tinted hologram.
"Ah, good day ma'am. How can we be of service?" Asked a young salarian, the Manager of this hidden facility.
"I'm taking over the highest authority of this facility, effective immediately. Start preparation for the deployment of the Fleet. Right now." She didn't mince any words, getting straight to the point.
Gaia's 'Director ID Keys' appeared in his terminal, proving her identity and granting her full access to everything.
"Deployment already? But ma'am, we haven't finished all the field tests yet. The secondary particle beam cannons still need some calibrations and the Warp Dri-…"
While the Manager kept making excuses, Gaia's holographic projection turned bloody red.
"I SAID NOW!"
Her shout was like a clap of thunder, instantly silencing the man and making him recoil.
"Y-yes. Right away." He relented at once, knowing better than to disobey the Lady of Steel. If she was this hurried, there ought to be a good reason. "Give us a moment to prepare the crew. Some of them have gone to cause trouble at Hephaestus Station."
"No need. I'll take personal control of the logistics. Instead, mobilize everyone available on this space station. We need to deploy ASAP." She ordered.
Gaia commandeered many of the space installation's machines, loading up war supplies, drones and personnel, and called upon all of the DSs whose partners were likely locked in a fierce fight to assist her. Minutes later, a Fleet adorned in sleek dark armor emerged from its space hangars. Their numbers were enough to match any Council race military Fleet. It was...
The Penumbra Fleet, a force existing between light and dark. Also called the Shadowless Fleet by some engineers who had been tinkering with new metamaterial breakthroughs.
Under the control of many superintelligences, who'd taken the temporary roles of Warship Captains, and with enough crew for normal operation, it quickly took formation in space. All warships moved in sync, taking mere seconds to pull off maneuvers that would easily be considered impossible for 'ordinary' ships even after trying for minutes.
Their stealth systems were activated, Warp Drives engaged and, jumping from wormhole to wormhole of a hidden Network that spanned the entirety of the Terminus Systems, they rushed towards the eye of the storm…
All the while remaining within their spacial-temporal bubble, outside of causality itself!
Planetside. Moments after the EMP pulse.
All I saw was darkness. My helmet's interior screens were thoroughly dead, no images got sent from the exterior cameras, which were also dead. Blindly, I pushed aside the heavy weight crushing me and slowly got up. It was much harder than I'd have anticipated, since my entire Power Armor had become dead weight too. If it was any consolation, at least my weapons weren't weighing me down anymore, since all of them fell to the ground without their magnetic locks.
Standing, I manually took off my helmet, revealing a face that was still hidden by a full face mask, with openings only for the eyes and mouth. At once, I was hit with everything that my helmet's air filter usually protected me from. The overwhelming smell of brimstone (as in a bit of sulfur), of old dust, of blood and guts; of death.
In my vision, this place became quite dim when compared to before, only being illuminated by a sinister and eerie red light that reached inside from many air vents and openings.
I looked down. My monomolecular knife was lodged inside the now very dead krogan. The special acid imbued within it was probably still wrecking his neural system and insides. As for me, I was pretty sure at least some of my bones would've been crushed had they not been reinforced. The drones also littered the ground, all lifeless. Besides that, there were no communication devices, no tactical/battlefield intel, no cybernetic implants, no biotic enhancements/amp, no weapons, no connection. No… nothing.
I had almost fully reverted from a cyborg to a 'mere' bio-augmented human.
But still, I had something else now… Company.
Their rushed footsteps were a dead giveaway even with my current reduced hearing. All I had was that knife, my armor (plates), fists and remnants of my biotics. As it happened, retrieving my knife marked the moment they finally reached this large room, so I wasted no time in taking cover behind a pillar.
There were a lot of enemies. I spotted batarians, turians, asari, salarians, krogan, vorcha and even random human mercs. They were being led by quite a 'colorful' quartet.
At the front, a human woman wearing heavy armor, whose face I could barely see through, yet still reminded me of someone, despite my memory implant not working at the moment;
Beside her, a big krogan, very clearly a leader of the Blood Pack. His armor reminded me of Garm, a 'freak of nature' who could regenerate even faster than most krogan. Great…
Farther away was a batarian male, probably a high ranking officer, maybe the commander, going by his armor;
At the back, a purple asari with very striking facial markings. She reminded me of a certain top hunting dog of the asari matriarch Kralla. Both of them belonged to a large coalition of crime syndicates, drug cartels and drug lords.
Before this, I was wondering how they'd fight me now that all of my equipment was out of commission, but the answer was simpler than I thought: old-school mechanical weapons, with chemical-propelled projectiles. Others were even simpler. Krogans carried big warhammers with them, while some foes wielded monomolecular swords.
"Well, well, well… If it isn't the great Commander Samael, no, the unstoppable Devil of the Terminus." The woman spoke first, a derisive smile adorning her lips. "Why don't you stop hiding behind that pillar and come here so we can greet each other properly, huh?"
"Lira Speight. Supreme commander of Sonax's private military force." I remarked, finally remembering who she was.
Meanwhile, I began mustering all the biotic power I could and concentrating it on my right hand. It was hard, to say the least, given my current condition. But it was still possible due to the training I'd done all these years.
"Former supreme commander, thanks in small part to you." She said tone deaf, switching the smiling expression to a look of hatred. She dropped the friendly pretense very quickly. "Did you like the present we prepared for you and your bastards outside? You know, it took a lot of time, effort and patience; lots of patience. We almost thought you wouldn't take the bait…"
"Are you buying time?" I cut her off.
"So what if I am?" Lira shot back nonchalantly.
"Good. That's really good, actually. Because... the truth is... so am I!"
Just as my words reached them, I suddenly left cover, a dense shaft of dark energy firmly held in my hand, which I swiftly threw towards a specific part of the roof that was filled with many cracks.
"WATCH OUT!" Lira shouted – already too late.
This biotic lance devastated that small area of the roof, bringing a large section of it upon a number of rusty metal beams/supports, which, in turn, broke as well and made even more of the roof fall. It all came crashing down in the middle of the stunned crowd in catastrophic fashion, overturning everything in its way (mechanical arms and crates), a fact only made worse by this planet's slightly higher than usual gravity.
The collapsing metal bars, concrete and debris forced the enemies separate, ruining their formation and coordination, and raised a huge cloud of reddish dust and of something akin to volcanic ash that had collected over time and neglect, obscuring their vision.
"FUCK! How can you still use biotics!?" The asari, Kralla's huntress, shouted in Thessian while she tried to protect her allies with a small biotic bubble.
I smiled in satisfaction at her outburst. The truth was that I could barely do it due to all the cutting-edge augmentations and training I've had. They didn't need to know that however.
"Only asari can do that without an amp." She continued her dismissive denial.
Still, despite the chaos I'd wrought, they recovered enough to point their weapons at me.
Hopefully, those were not loaded with explosive/HEIAP rounds.
It's what I'd do, at least. My hopes were soon extinguished.
FRRRRRRRRAK!
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!
BANG! BANG!
A loud volley of armor-piercing, explosive and even incendiary projectiles rushed my way, tearing down the pillar I'd been taking cover in. My immediate response was to run for new cover, as debris from the old one flew all over the place. As I ran, I raised my left arm and concentrated my recovering biotics into generating a frontal biotic aegis barrier. It stopped the AP and incendiary rounds in mid-air, and significantly reduced the damage caused by any explosive ones. Their wild and violent energy release destroyed a few bullets, charred my armor and pushed me back a bit.
Still, I firmly held those undamaged projectiles and, with a push, I sent them all back at my foes, which turned into a veritable hailstorm of bullets. They weren't expecting that, so the return fire caught a bunch of them off guard, taking them down by penetrating their inferior armor and even setting one vorcha merc on fire.
"Take cover!"
Nevertheless, the asari huntresses reacted promptly and put up biotic bubbles around their nearby allies, blocking some of the impromptu projectile barrage. This small counterattack gave me enough time to reach a metallic crate.
However, before I could take cover behind it, Kralla's hound hurled a biotic energy sphere in my direction, trying to prevent me from doing so. In response, I put up a hasty barrier to block it, yet a follow up rocket shot from an old-school RPG hit that crate, exploding and sending me flying at a nearby wall while charring my armor even further.
To be honest, I couldn't be happier that we never skimped on the quality of its material.
Thump.
I hit that wall heavily, falling to the ground, yet forcing myself to quickly get up and analyze the battlefield. With an aching body and somewhat dizzy, I saw it. While my enemies were manually reloading their guns, their melee counterparts found an opportunity to approach me. I spotted batarians with serrated blades, turians and asari wielding all kinds of swords, and even a warhammer-wielding krogan.
Our fight – or, more accurately, chaotic scramble – started shortly after.
The opening move was made by a batarian, who tried to slice my head off with a serrated blade. I blocked it by dispersing his attack with part of my gauntlet's armor plates, stunned him with CQC and then finished him off with my monomolecular knife. Taking advantage of this, his batarian pal also tried to attack my only unarmored body part (head). In response, I took my defeated foe's blade and blocked it, before taking my knife back and then driving it into his head through the neck – his dying four eyes staring at me with resentment.
An asari tried to hold me down with her biotics, but I countered by pulling a turian between us with my own power. He got 'locked in' by the (not so) friendly-fire, after which I took his sword and sliced his throat with it. She changed tactics, pouring her biotics on her sword, and swung it at me. I dodged it, though not very nimbly due to my armor. We then began exchanging biotically enhanced blows for a while, until I managed to lock her movements – and, thus, her physical mnemonics – and finish her off.
Still, more enemies approached. It was then that I noticed the krogan getting very close to me – dangerously close, given the weapon he wielded.
Not wanting to be on the receiving end of that warhammer, I put some distance between us while gathering a dense shaft of dark energy in my right hand. Then, with only half the preparation time of my first move, I swiftly threw this biotic lance towards the krogan, which blew his head and face apart.
Yeah, no amount of redundant nervous systems would keep that one alive...
However, weapons reloaded, my foes once again got ready to fire a barrage at me.
Thus, I rushed at that krogan, leaving behind those melee guys who were still alive, and used his falling body as a temporary meat shield. This idea worked rather well. Nevertheless, some projectiles still managed to reach me, penetrate my armor and leave wounds behind, most of them on my arms and legs. The bleeding painted my armor a little bit redder and caused a slight weakness to wash all over my body. This exacerbated the growing headache I was feeling due to my constant use of 'amp-less' biotics.
"So you do bleed." Lira Speight remarked after noticing it.
Well, some of us don't. I quipped to myself to alleviate stress.
This, however, didn't stop me looking for cover, which I quickly found behind a low metal wall connected to a thick concrete pillar. She, on the other hand, got more courageous and began approaching my location, a shotgun in hand. Two human mercs moved along with her, also wielding shotguns.
It was then that I felt a tingling sensation where my wounds were. Not only did it not alarm me, but instead it gave off a very familiar feeling. And I soon realized what that was.
Nanites!
These smart little guys were still swimming around my body! They hadn't been disabled by that pulse. My internal battery, micro-fabricator and small E-reactor weren't functioning, but those little ones were alive and kicking.
Now it was my turn to feel much bolder.
So, I moved out of cover and ran head first into the incoming trio, but not before putting up a small biotic aegis barrier in front of me to soak their shotgun fire. After a round of shots, I returned all the suspended bullets with a push before my barrier collapsed, forcing the trio to separate as they dodged this small hailstorm of metal.
With things as they were, while protecting my head with my arms, I moved closer to one of the human mercs, tanking the damage of their second round of shots. They damaged my armor further, painting it redder with the newly created wounds. The pain coursing through my body from all these injuries mixed with the tingling sensations coming from the nanites' healing, which dulled part of it together with the adrenalin pumped into my system.
Astonished by my reckless action, the trio's reaction staggered, a lapse of judgment which I made full use of by getting closer to one of them, beating him up with CQC and taking his weapon. Before the others could react – by unloading their last round on me –, I used the defeated foe as a literal human shield, protecting myself, and then took aim at the other merc's head, pulling the trigger. His helmet couldn't handle his former ally's shotgun.
Now, it was me and Lira, both wielding ammo-less shotguns. Instead of reloading the gun, I let go of it and decided to tackle her with CQC, all the while pretending to try and pick up my knife. However, to her surprise, I biotically pulled the sword from that dead asari from before and pierced her heart with it, all the while starting deep into her eyes.
She stared back at me with wide open eyes.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a turian charging at me with a sword. So, I wrapped my knife in biotics and threw it towards his neck, causing him to stagger, before pulling it back and plunging it into Lira Speight's head. With a disbelieving expression, her body fell to the ground, never expecting death to come so swiftly. The turian also fell soon after, struggling for breath in his death throes.
There goes one of their leaders. I thought to myself.
There was no response, only silence.
Gaia wasn't there to comment.
As I was now out in the open, they didn't let go of this chance. A batarian pulled out a large grenade launcher, one that actually looked more like a missile launcher, and took aim at me, his finger already on the trigger.
Without thinking further, I reached out and pushed it down biotically, forcing the guy to aim it at the ground – right in front of him. Unsurprisingly, this sudden movement caused him to accidentally press the trigger.
Ka-boom!
With a flash, the released high-explosive payload swallowed him up along with two others in a big explosion that almost burst everyone's eardrums.
Despite being farther away, I still felt a small ringing in my ears. Half of the room was filled by a grey cloud of smoke, with a bit of a reddish hue added to it. This didn't stop my foes in the other half from opening fire to try to kill me, their weapons spewing bullets that blew up and incinerated my surroundings. I acted before they could do any harm.
Out of the fire and smoke, my eyes latched onto a very specific rifle, the one whose rounds were a type of explosive. It was wielded by a human mercenary. Ignoring my headache, I reached out with all the biotic strength I could still muster and enveloped his assault rifle, pulling it out of his hands and into mine.
Now weaponless and stunned, the merc became easy prey. Aiming his former weapon at him, I pressed down and held the trigger.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
The raw cracking of the automatic assault rifle reverberating in the room was music for my ears. It didn't take much more than the third bullet for the guy's body to be blown apart into charred pieces. Unlike me, he didn't have any decent armor. Then, with surgical motions, I turned the weapon in the direction of the other enemies, spraying explosive bullets against them until its magazine was empty. Without delay, I looted the dead guy's remaining ammo and checked the damage I caused to my enemies.
Now they were the ones scrambling for cover, futilely.
I began chasing them down from cover to cover, unloading my current gun's ammunition in a lavish manner, before grabbing a new weapon from the dead and doing it all over again – rinse and repeat. This continued until my advance was blocked by a small platoon led by a heavily armored batarian, shouting orders and commanding his batarians followers with an experienced air. He wielded a large machine gun, with a long ammo clip/belt on its side.
Yup, that was definitely the batarian commander. Had to be, considering he wore the best armor out of all the batarians I'd seen so far. They tried to encircle me.
With a staggered retreat, I calculated my retreating direction and rationed my ammunition so as to keep them off my back until I arrived at a specific location, where the ground was charred by a recent high-energy release. Going from cover to cover, we exchanged blows without any side gaining any real advantage over the other, since the batarian commander used his weapon's massive ammunition supply to suppress and corner me. As his machine gun spewed and sent a deluge of bullets my way, we made it almost halfway across the room.
Then I saw it, that huge grenade launcher from before, just laying there in the ground with scorch marks all over its frame, yet still intact. I didn't waste any time rushing to grab it and preparing to use it to turn the tide.
Putting up a thin biotic barrier around my body, I aimed the grenade launcher at the center of the enemy formation and fired without hesitation.
Ka-boom!
And again.
Ka-boom!
And again.
Ka-boom!
And one last time.
Ka-boom!
I paused. Not because I wanted to, but because I ran out of grenades to shoot. Everyone's ears, including mine, were ringing by now. The room was now filled with a dense and thick dark smoke, with an added reddish hue. It maintained its form in a sort of calm silence until the ringing subsided.
Where the batarians used to be there were only their thoroughly broken remains.
That's two leaders down. I mentally counted.
No, not only that. I'd taken down a comparable number of their subordinates as well, which meant my foes were now…
The smoke stirred, blueish white lights evocative of biotic power dispersing it from within. Then, a series of biotics attacks rushed towards me, which I barely dodged. When the dark smoke finally parted, I saw the origin of the attacks, a group of asari led by Kralla's hunting dog.
With a bit of fear, I also saw Garm – the krogan's leader – charging at me with a massive shotgun. He was followed by a bunch of krogan and turians wielding a mix of long-range and melee weapons. Without warning and disregarding the distance between us, he fired the huge weapon at me. His attack merely grazed my biotic barrier, yet it was still enough to make it collapse.
Disadvantaged, I began running in the opposite direction, looking for a new field of battle; one more advantageous to myself. Like this, we brutally fought on from room to room, as I kept stacking more and more wounds all over my body, until I had no more bullets to use.
Eventually, I took care of all the long range attackers, but the melee enemies still remained – I'd estimated at least one small platoon of them, given that a few had just arrived.
Phew. I exhaled a deep sigh, briefly resting.
All this fighting and moving had taken us to where the main room was. I then finally got to see the device that got me – all of us in fact – into this mess. It was definitely not batarian, of that I was certain, going by its alien design alone. If there was one thing I was gonna do, it was securing this alien device, so that something like this would never happen again.
My enemies, however, didn't let me analyze it for long, as they got closer and closer to my position with melee weapons. I too decided to face them head on.
"Cowards. Should've done this from the start." Berated a krogan wielding a massive 'Fuck You' warhammer.
I was thinking about beating one of them in CQC and taking one of those swords, but then something else happened. Something that changed everything. At that moment, I felt something snap at the back of my head.
It was my biotic amp, which had just been fixed by my nanites. Partially restored, at least.
I touched my Gravitic Blade's hilt. It was broken, just like everything else.
But I was not.
[3]
Sending wave after wave of biotic energy towards it, despite how hard it still was even with the recovered amp, I traced its circuits and made myself into a power source for the Blade, while drawing my foes' attention.
"You might believe you've finally got the upper hand against us, but you're sorely mistaken. You have never faced us at our best before." I confidently said (in Thessian language).
The dark energy poured down on my Blade like crashing waves, slowly but surely bringing it back to life.
"We are meant to face the old ones and their dark armies, not the likes of you." I revealed, to their increasing confusion.
In my hand, I now held a thin blade of colorless mass effect fields, its silhouette only visible due to the curvature of spacetime around its blueish white biotic haze.
"So... Come meet your end, because..." I stated, aiming this Spacetime Blade at them – beckoning. "You. Won't. Stop. Us."
Then, I took up a longpoint guard; right foot forward and holding my Blade with both hands in front of my chest at a 45-degree angle, pointing upwards.
"What? That's it? Where's the biotic attack?"
"He's just trying to scare us. He's got no weapon."
"Fools, what are you waiting for!? Attack him!"
They shouted at each other, trying to build up courage and morale, and rushed at me with their weapons drawn. Their intent was like their movements, easy to read.
So…
I took a step, and another, then a sidestep, a backstep, a small turn followed by a sidestep and, finally, a forward stride.
Seven steps, each followed by a swift stroke or poke of my transparent Blade; and perfect distance at the right time.
Seven thuds, each representing a body hitting the floor; seven lifeless corpses neatly cut down by my Blade.
Those who were still alive halted their steps, glancing at each other in fear.
Even so, although scared, they braced themselves and began circling around me, trying to find an opening to exploit. Now finally free from headaches, I divided my focus to put up a small biotic barrier, defending against any long range attacks – kinetic or biotic. This small stand-off continued for a few seconds, but the balance was soon broken.
The first strike came from behind.
I briefly lowered my body's weight with biotic power and phased sideways to dodge, while keeping my Blade within the attacker's trajectory. The body of my assailant, a krogan, was cleanly separated in two as he swung his warhammer. Before his corpse could even hit the ground, all hell broke loose.
They all charged at me with killing intent, brandishing their weapons. I charged too, quickly closing the distance between myself and a turian, who I biotically held in stasis for a brief moment, before slicing his scally head off. Another one, a krogan, closed in faster than the others, which I responded to by biotically lifting him and then sending, with a powerful kick, the floating guy towards the closest enemies. He disrupted and crushed them as he fell on them.
Before I could even catch my breath, an asari swung her biotically-enhanced sword at my neck at an odd angle. Then, biotically stopping the strike with my left hand, I used my 'free' hand to return the favor, decapitating her in one fell swoop. Her falling blue head displayed an expression of utter disbelief. I turned my focus away from the fallen foes, who struggled to their feet, while maneuvering around the room in order to face the rest.
However, while I was occupied and distracted, a silent stalker made their move.
Swish!
With an almost instinctual swing, I parried the sharp asari made monomolecular blade that was swinging at my back with enhanced biotic power. It'd arrived at a mind-bending speed, a swift assassination attempt. Turning my head, I finally saw who was the one who tried to go for a killing blow, a purple asari, Kralla's huntress. Our blades intertwined in place as she pushed me with her weakened biotics. As expected of an asari commando.
As I was preparing to strike her down, two of her asari – also wielding biotically-enhanced monomolecular swords – attacked me from the sides, in a pincer move. So, I immediately backed away, putting some distance between us. I evaded one of the blows, but the other one came too fast to dodge, even after I took a step back.
Our weapons collided and we quickly found ourselves locked in a static bind. But I had no interest in standing still and just pushing each other's blades. Shifting sideways, I slid my Blade around hers and, with a precise swing at an angle, cut off her head. In rage, the other one charged at me with an overhead swing, a move full of openings, so I merely took a quick step forward and thrust my Blade – straight where the asari's heart was.
While her body slowly fell to the ground in my direction, I picked up her sword, wrapped it in a sheath of dark energy and threw it at Kralla's top – and now remaining – huntress.
Swish!
With a hastily put biotic barrier, she blocked it in time, but not fast enough to stop me from closing the distance to strike with my blade, which she only managed to stop with her own. Then, I tried to repeat what I'd just done previously. However, she'd learned from the other asari's mistake, as our blades kept sliding around each other in order to prevent me from reaching any unguarded part of her body.
But I wasn't out of tricks yet. With a hidden hand move, I biotically pulled the thrown sword off of the ground and, with a simultaneous attack, deflected her sword before impaling her with my left hand weapon. After forcefully pulling the sword from her body, she fell limply to the ground.
Three leaders down. Only one left to go. I psyched myself.
Losing confidence in close-quarter combat, some of my foes tried to grab/loot weapons off of the ground. Smarter, but ultimately useless.
I charged at the one closest to me, a human merc who'd luckily made it this far. He held an SMG in a clumsy way, since he'd just taken it from the ground and was trying to take aim at me. I sidestepped his attempt and, with a swift slash, sliced his throat and took the SMG with my left hand. He held his throat to no avail, trying to stop the bleeding, before falling to the ground dying.
Then, wielding a sub-machine gun on one hand and a Gravidic Blade on the other, I spun around, spraying bullets at my enemies and continuing my onslaught, slashing and cutting them with swift strikes. This went on until my foes were almost wiped out.
It was then that I finally noticed that Garm had disappeared. His armor was the toughest one here, and I could see the faint biotic barrier protecting his body, so I left him last. But he was now gone from the room. This wasn't good. Krogans, especially their leaders, didn't usually run away from fights. He was definitely up to something.
Unfortunately, I found out what that 'something' was soon enough. While I was finishing off the last of the enemies in the room, he finally returned, entering it from the other side while carrying a massive minigun in one hand and a huge box of ammunition on the other. It was a monstrous machine of death and destruction. Without any hesitation, I rushed with all my strength to the nearest object I could take cover in – a pillar that wasn't too damaged.
Meanwhile, his minigun's huge barrels spun faster and faster, until…
…BBBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTT!
With a continuous roar, his weapon spewed an almost solid beam of metal from its barrels towards my location. It ripped apart the pillar's metal exterior and then dug into its concrete interior in mere seconds, crushing my cover. A growing smell of gunpowder mixed in with the disgusting smell of blood and sulfur in the room.
Before it completely fell apart, I gathered my biotic power and charged out towards a new pillar to take cover. His minigun followed me. At the same time, I tried to deal with him from afar with a rifle I'd picked up, but it barely scratched his armor before running out of ammo. I'd even venture to say that it was almost as tough as mine.
Despite its barrels turning visibly red from all the heat released, his minigun was still going strong, tearing apart this new pillar I was hiding behind.
I was gonna run out of cover before he ran out of bullets. Besides, he might end up hitting and destroying that alien device. So, I made a daring decision – almost a gamble.
"WHY. WON'T. YOU. DIE!?" Garm roared angrily.
"Why? Didn't anyone ever tell you?" I asked without expecting a reply, lowering my body's weight with biotics and rushing away from the place where he was shooting.
"JUST FUCKING DIE ALREADY!" He screamed in rage, slowly adjusting his aim.
"There's one thing you never put in a trap." I answered my own question.
And then…
I raised my Blade up high, pouring a devastating amount of biotic power into it that formed a vortex, and chanted words in my mind to help my next move, an attack that would cover the distance.
SPACETIME…
Spacetime around the Blade stirred and distorted. The last mental word was chanted.
SEVER!
Then, with a swift downward cut, I sent a large dark energy wave of distorted spacetime in the shape of a crescent moon towards the krogan, who couldn't react in time.
"AND THAT'S US!" I shouted as my biotic attack reached him.
[/3]
His paltry barrier was hit first, instantly dispersing into nothingness. His armor was next, its once intact frame separated in two, forming glowing spider web-like cracks on its metallic plates. Finally, the attack reached his body, tearing it apart into two and wrecking its insides. But it didn't stop there. It kept going, exiting out of the krogan's back while releasing wild waves of dark energy and tore into the building's foundations, impacting its structural integrity.
The large krogan's leftover pieces fell to the ground with loud thuds.
…I too fell to the ground, so exhausted that I could barely maintain consciousness. All the energy I'd used came from my organic body, which was tired and was weakened by all the wounds inflicted on it.
As parts of the building crashed around me, I was soon enveloped by darkness…
At the same time, in space. Inside the CSV Lightbringer…
"Report! Vanguard warship Traumatic Event has been mission-killed. It's also too far away for us to provide a timely rescue." A report came in on the Cuiser's bridge.
Poor bastards. Admiral Ysin thought to himself, getting sad over the casualties and losses. His previous strategy of drawing in their enemies was working, allowing his side to reduce the smaller enemy ship's numbers significantly; however, this didn't change the fact that it felt like sacrificing their own people – with some already floating dead in space, while others were helplessly stuck inside escape pods.
"Wait, they've stopped firing on it. In fact, a small portion of the enemy fleet seems to be moving closer. Specifically, behind our ships."
"Come again?" Ysin asked incredulously.
"They're attempting to board our disabled vessels, while using them as cover against us."
The quarian was briefly stunned.
Not because their foes were attempting boarding actions. This was actually perfectly in line with what he guessed their main goal was, stealing technology, albeit he thought they were being a bit overzealous about it. But because, out of everything they could come up with, they thought it'd be a great idea to board Hell's Angels warships… Well, at least they were smart enough to move 'behind' the disabled ships, using them as cover against his Fleet. But that was it! For all the quarian Admiral could think about were the killer drones, hidden turrets, crews with a few Hell's Angels augmentations and the DSs managing all of it that they kept inside their warships. He could already imagine the terror these enemies would experience inside warships like the CSV Traumatic Event.
In a sense, it was quite aptly named.
Poor bastards. After processing this monumental act of recklessness, the Admiral repeated, but now with an entirely new meaning, before marking the enemy warships that were moving for the boarding action as [KILLED].
Anyway, with this small interlude out of the way, Ysin took a look at the ETA on his HUD.
The clock was ticking.
Outside the batarian base. Moments after the EMP pulse.
The battle had been going well in favor of Hell's Angels.
After having their limiters released/loosened, they turned the tide of war completely, having already destroyed well over half of their enemies' giant mechs, a feat which demoralized this 'Coalition Army'. And which also made it so that they didn't find anything strange when their foes appeared to have beaten a retreat, while a few even threw their weapons away. After all, they were winning.
And then the pulse hit.
The first thing they lost was vision; the pinhole cameras and internal visual screens of their helmets stopped working, so they had to take them off. Their heads were vulnerable.
The second thing they lost was basically their entire arsenal, which included their drone swarms. Furthermore, after losing their magnetic locks, the weapons stored on their backs fell straight to the ground.
The third thing lost was their Power Armor. What once enhanced their bodies way beyond what it could normally do was now mostly a burden. The only saving grace was that their armor plates were still sturdy enough to protect them against weak damage.
Finally, they lost all of their cybernetic implants, so no more enhancements, quick comms, perfect memory and practically no more biotics (amp).
This was the situation that Lyud's squad was facing at this moment. All of them had been reduced to "mere" bio-augmented beings.
They'd truly fallen from heaven to hell in a single moment.
Some more literally than others, such as the case of Angels who were moving around with their thrusters. When the pulse hit, they fell and crashed violently to the ground, with some injuring their limbs and internal organs, although none broke their reinforced bones. And they did confirm that the healing nanites were still working.
Still, if it was any consolation, at least the rest of the enemy mechs were also disabled. So, they only had to contend with hostile 'biological' beings, who were in the same situation as them as far as high-tech equipment was concerned.
Except they were unarmed now, while their enemies had been prepared for this and were getting themselves armed.
That was the first thing that came to Lyud's mind; the first problem to solve.
"Nychta, led our asari sisters to grab some weapons for us." She ordered in Thessian language.
Their translator had also been fried by that blast. Luckily, Hell's Angels' memory implants' standard package came with a copy of all the common languages in the galaxy, so they all had a copy of those saved in their brains.
With a nod, the asari mustered her remaining biotic power, getting ready to 'snatch away' weapons right from their enemies' hands. Besides their trained asari, only the Commander could still wield biotics effectively without a biotic amp; at what they considered an 'usable level', at least.
Furthermore, now that they were left on their own, they soon reverted to a 'normal' chain of command. All over the battlefield, Hell's Angels' warriors were quickly establishing squads according to 'official' ranks. Luckily, their foes seemed as lost as themselves, going by their poor coordination, caused by factional division and language barrier issues. This gave the recovering Angels enough time to adjust and seek protection on closeby buildings.
"Here they come… Get ready!" Lyud reported to her squad, descending from her vantage point high above. Without a sniper rifle, that position became useless.
There were around two enemy squads this time, made up mostly of batarians and turians. They still wore the same suits of armor as before, but those now had straps around them with magazines, and wielded old-school weapons – the type that used chemical-propelled bullets. Curiously, those were very Earth-like in their design.
These foes quickly took position near the building where Lyud's squad was taking cover, in a loose formation that clearly didn't take its opponent very seriously. Before even trying to find an opening, they aimed their guns at the hiding Angels and pulled their triggers.
"Asari, bubble up!" She shouted a command.
As soon as her words fell, two asari Angels created biotic spheres around the squadron. While these barriers blocked the initial enemy volley, Nychta and another asari didn't miss the chance to pull away a couple of assault rifles each from the nearest foes. Those were then distributed to Lyud and three others, their best shooters.
"Mind the ammo." The Major reminded them.
While they were surprised by this move, Lyud set her new rifle to burst shots mode, aimed it at an unsuspecting victim and gave the signal for the others to pull the trigger. Pa-pa-pa! After a burst of three shots, the frontal visor of her target's helmet shattered, allowing the last bullet to go through and instantly kill its wearer. She then moved to a new target, also aiming for headshots.
After this second volley, their foes reacted and hid behind cover, returning fire. When both their ammunition and their enemies' numbers went down enough, she gave them no time to rest and rallied her squad to charge at them under the protection of Nychta's bubble barrier. Upon reaching the enemy position, the barrier finally couldn't last any longer, and so they tanked a few hits with their thick armor. A brutal struggle then ensued, between a group with weapons needing reloading, little CQC experience and low morale, and another with gene-enhanced strength, high CQC experience and fearless hearts.
With the last of their enemies defeated, Lyud's squad took over their weapons, ammunition and cover, preparing themselves for the next wave of enemies.
That one came soon enough. It was three enemy squadrons this time, formed by batarians with turians on one of them, asari, humans and salarians in another, and a small one with krogan and vorcha. Before anything else, Lyud made it a priority to ensure that the krogan did not get too close and reach their position – by biotic force if necessary.
And thus yet another brutal struggle ensued. At the same rate as their enemies were taken down, new ones would show up to take their place. On and on it continued…
Like this, they held on behind whatever cover could grant them protection, fighting a drawn out, long and bitter battle. It looked like the skirmishes fought between ordinary armies, not the battle that had been fought just a few minutes before, by two highly-mobile armies with cutting-edge technology. Now, these two sides just fired at each other from cover, while the few biotics among them still capable of using their powers exchanged biotic attacks every now and then.
However, this stalemate wouldn't last forever.
At some point, the 'elite' soldiers of the 'Coalition Army' showed up. Evidently, they'd been kept at bay until now, safely hiding behind all the 'cannon fodder'. And, at their head, were squadrons led by batarian officers and commanders. Some of them even had powerful weapons at their disposal.
One of those was a batarian heavy soldier carrying a large missile launcher on his shoulder, the kind designed to damage tanks. Obeying his superios's orders, he positioned himself to shoot that weapon, aiming for a piece of cover that Interitus was using to pin down a few enemies with a pistol and a shotgun.
SWISH!
"WATCH OUT!" Nychta shouted with all her strength.
BOOM!
But it was too late.
The missile trailed its trajectory in an instant and struck right under Tyrannus' feet, sending his mangled body flying away from his cover. The explosion even destroyed part of said protective structure and created a shock wave in the area, temporarily deafening those nearby.
"TYR!" Nychta shouted, rushing to his side.
Orders were quickly given and two other Angels provided protection while she dragged his body back to cover. His legs, as well as a part of his torso, were missing. Only a stream of dark blue blood marked the place they once occupied. He ignored the pain and looked her in the eyes, raising his right hand.
"Looks like… we won't be seeing… each other again… for a while… little Demon." Interitus said through intermittent gasps, his hand touching her face softly.
"No, no, no, no… You can still make it. When we get back to HQ, they can reconstruct your body as if it was new." She spoke rapidly while using one Nanite Injector after another on him. "So… so, please hold on. Don't you dare give up now!"
The nanites were barely keeping him alive, but she knew it was only a matter of time until they reached their limits – especially considering he was losing too much blood. He too felt this, so he used his remaining moments to give her a peaceful smile.
"Please say something, anything…" She begged.
However, his talon-like fingers stopped caressing her face, as his hand fell down lifelessly.
"Tyr…?" She asked, receiving no response.
Nychta stared at his unmoving body in silence, a single tear running through her cheek.
Her biotic power stirred, a nascent vortex slowly began swirling around her. Its dark energy soon formed a dark blue barrier of around her body. Her eyes then slowly turned black; not the blackness of a normal melding – the darkened eyes of an enraged predator.
So consumed by rage and wrath she was… she didn't even notice the snap at the back of her head, signaling the partial recovery of her biotic amp. In this frenzied state of bloodlust, there was only one thing left in her mind: to slaughter all her enemies. And soon she found her first prey: the batarian officer who'd been issuing orders to the enemy squad that took Interitus' life.
Raising her hand, she poured a large amount of twisted biotic energy to disrupt his brain's synaptic harmonics, thus affecting his perceptual system. So, not only could her target not differentiate between friend and foe anymore, but he also saw his allies as enemies. Such being the case, he didn't hesitate to start shooting at his own men. Seeing this, Lyud choose not to get in her way and, instead, commanded the rest of the squad to support the maddened asari.
Meanwhile, after Nychta came out of cover, their enemies began shooting at her. As chemical-propelled bullets powerlessly bounced off her biotic barrier, she watched these foes being mowed down by their own leader, who sowed chaos within their own ranks. From time to time, she provided him biotic assistance, taking pleasure in his slaughter of his former comrades. Then, when this enemy squad's numbers dropped low enough, Nychta gathered all of her power for a powerful biotic ability.
She released simultaneous mass effect fields into their nervous systems, 'reaving' their life away in excruciating pain. Nothing, not even the most potent Medi-gel in the galaxy, could allow her victims to heal their wounds. Her enemies' screams soon died down when they too left this world.
Still not satisfied, she turned to face the enemy who'd fired that missile – the last survivor; the one she specifically left for last. Terrified, he didn't think twice before trying to run away from there. However, dark energy washed over his body and pulled him backwards, closer to her glowing right hand. She then grabbed his head, turned it around and stared deeply into his frightened eyes with her own blackened eyes – cold like the darkest abyss.
Without mercy or remorse, she concentrated a huge amount of biotic power into her hand, creating rapidly shifting mass effect fields flowing from the top of his head to his feet which ripped apart the molecular bonds in his body. Within seconds, the screaming batarian was warped into countless giblets. His blood splattered on her armor, painting it redder.
Nychta stared at this gruesome sight with a vacant look, devoid of any true fulfillment. And then decided to fill this emptiness within her by looking for new victims.
In many other places, similar situations were occurring one after another.
As they struggled, as they lost companions, as their biotic amps recovered, the warriors of Hell's Angels unleashed a ferocious counterattack against the Coalition forces; sometimes merely as a struggle for survival, sometimes full of vengeance. They once again turned the tide of battle, this time by unleashing big biotic attacks, blocking chemical-propelled bullets with strong biotic barriers, snatching weapons directly from their enemies' hands… and so on. A few even managed to light up their wrist-mounted Blades.
In a different battlefield, near a cluster of Hell's Angels' Orbital Insertion Pods, another fight for survival was taking place. One that wasn't any less desperate.
Left weakened by the enemy pulse and with many freed civilians whose survival hinged on him, Xalryn only had his powerful physique and tough armor to rely on. Without hesitation, he took his helmet off and used a knife and his immense strength to tear big holes in it, allowing him to see again through them. It was either this or expose his head.
Luckily, before this dangerous situation set in, they'd managed to take those people they'd rescued to a relatively safe area of the base. Without much time to look for a better shelter, he led them inside of Hell's Angels' Orbital Insertion Pods, which had armor thick enough to survive atmospheric entry and AA fire. Given his vulnerable situation, while the rest of his squad set up a perimeter around the place, to protect against the incoming enemies, he decided to act as their last line of defense – in case any foes managed to reach one of those Pods.
That's where he was currently, guiding a group of said civilians to calm down and settle in. Coincidentally, it happened to be the one in which that asari pair were. The little asari child took care of her recovering mother, who had regained consciousness, but was quite weak from the blood loss of her gunshot wound. Still, she continued to offer her help.
Some time later, when he was preparing to leave after having settled everyone in, he was stopped by the kid. Her mother saw this, so she came closer to take her child back.
"Please don't leave us, big uncle. I'm scared." The little blue girl pleaded.
Seeing this, Xalryn moved closer to her and gently patted her head with one of his fingers.
"Have no fear, little one. I, The Bulwark, am here." He spoke in the batarian language – the only one they all knew.
His words were said with the same monotone that was representative of the elcor, but they still carried a comforting feeling and built trust in her.
"I'll make the bad guys outside go away. They won't hurt you anymore, so promise to stay here with your mom, ok?" He asked gently.
After a few seconds, and a small tug by her mother, she cutely nodded. He then left, to do what needed to be done outside.
The rescued people huddled together in a corner, waiting as they prayed or hoped for it all to finally end. From the outside, they heard constant sounds of gunshots, small explosions going off every now and then, sometimes shouts and screams in different languages. And, whenever these sounds of fighting got too close to their hiding place, they'd hear a defiant roar, before the danger was snuffed out. This lasted for a while…
A few minutes later, Xalryn came back to check up on them.
His body was injured and bloodied, his heavy-looking Power Armor painted with both his blood and (presumably) the blood of his enemies. Regardless, his steps were firm.
He brought with him a stash of old-school weapons, plundered from his dead enemies. His hands were too big to wield them, but that wasn't the case for the people hiding there. And they might just come in handy in an emergency, so he showed those guns to them and left this stash there.
A few of them, like the mature asari, took some of the weapons. Although it was risky to let civilians do that, it was still less dangerous than the alternative: being helpless against the slavers. After resting for a while and upon hearing movements outside, he braced himself and left once again. Thus, a repeat of the previous situation unfolded, albeit a more tragic and bitter fight ensued this time.
That's because, at some point during the fierce fighting, a loud explosion occurred outside, its sound waves reverberating in the entire area and shaking their hiding Pod. Then, there was only an eerie silence.
Some minutes later, more time than before, Xalryn returned once again.
His arms were badly scorched and wounded. Parts of his armor were missing. There was a big hole in his chest, from which blood kept slowly dripping to the ground. His steps were somewhat unsteady, but he still moved with determination.
"Big uncle!?" The asari child cried out.
"Do not worry, little one. This is nothing for me." He stated, casually patting his chest.
Maybe due to her trust in him or childish naivete, she chose to believe his words.
So, after checking in on the people he was protecting while resting for a bit, with his large chest wound also closing enough, he once again took off. Things repeated themselves in a similar fashion at first, until another change occurred in the sounds they heard.
Among all the gunshots, shouts, screams and explosions, there were now a lot of strange, 'bass-heavy' and slightly distorted noises outside, as if the very fabric of reality was being distorted. For the few who knew, those were the sounds of powerful biotics powers being released in quick succession and without any kind of restraint. Fortunately, it didn't appear to be coming from their enemies' side.
Once again, after the worst of the fighting ceased, an eerie silence was all that remained.
At long last... many, many minutes after his last visit, he came back to check up on them for the last time. Blueish white lights swirled around him before quietly and slowly dispersing.
Dragging his bleeding, torn and beaten body inside, Xalryn entered the Pod to see how the people they'd freed were doing, confirmed that they were all safe, slowly moved himself to stand guard at the Pod's exit hatch…
And then he just stood there, in that position, motionless and unresponsive.
The little asari noticed this, so she approached him confusedly.
"Big uncle, are the bad people gone?" She asked timidly.
There was no response.
"Big uncle, are you ok? Why are you so quiet?" She asked further, poking him lightly with her tiny fingers.
Silence… He neither moved nor responded to her questions; just stood there, like a statue.
"Big uncle, did I do something wrong? But I was obedient." The child innocently said.
Unable to see this any longer, her mother began approaching them as well, before halting her steps and simply sighing while looking downcast. By now, the others had also realized what had happened. A mournful, sad and depressing mood quickly set in.
"Please, big uncle… Please say something…" But the little girl didn't give up, now trying to push him to get a reaction, any reaction out of him.
However, there was still no response.
It was only then that a vague idea of the truth began to dawn on her undeveloped mind… So, thinking quickly, she took the (now spent) Nanite Injector that had miraculously saved her mother before, which she'd kept for herself as a treasure, and tried to mimic what the powerful, tall adult asari (Nychta) did back then. She stuck its 'needles' into his chest area.
But there was still no response from her 'big uncle'.
Tears started running down her cheeks. Then she did it again. Again and again. But nothing happened.
"Please…"
Meanwhile, in space. Coalition Fleet's Flagship, the Noble Venture.
Ka'hairal Bhek'hett, Lord Admiral of the Batarian External Forces' Fleet, sat regally in his luxurious golden throne, overlooking his servants from a lofty position in the rearmost part of the room. The room itself was spacious, more so than was actually necessary, and had small stairs around said throne. It was filled with small chairs located in front of terminals, where the ship's pilots, officers and crew – in that very particular order – sat down to work.
It also had, in the middle of the room, a large holographic display with all the information about the warship and its surroundings, more than the windows up above could reveal, as well as an elevator on the other side, the room's only entrance/exit. All in all, the warship's bridge, like any other Hegemony Cruiser, resembled more a royal court than an actual CIC (Combat Information Center). As it was proper, Lord Bhek'hett thought.
The Admiral watched his massive Fleet slowly but surely pushing back their hated foe. The commanding ships, such as his own, stood safely at the back, while their subaltern ships fought on the front and weaker ones took the vanguard. If one were to look back in history and ignore the possible anachronism, this formation was reminiscent of a medieval feudal lord's army, with serfs as cannon fodder in front, mercenaries as auxiliary forces, the lord's soldiers and knights behind both, and the aristocrats themselves idle in the safest place.
Such had been the general arrangement ever since the start of the ambush, regardless of how inefficient or wasteful in 'military resources' it was. As long as they pushed back and reduced their enemies' numbers, it was 'proof' that it worked. Notwithstanding the reality of the battlefield, the batarian Admiral savored 'his' accomplishment with a proud expression.
Eventually, he got tired of simply waiting for the battle to finish…
"Keep pressing on. And get me a channel with Captain Soddus." Bhek'hett ordered.
Before long, the turian's displeased face filled his communicator's display.
"Those spirits-damned bastards are putting up one hell of a fight. You've even had to use that. Isn't that right, Admiral?" Sillius Soddius spoke first. "I've lost way too fucking many of my ships and lads. Better not be stingy with the remuneration, or else…"
"Your… unfortunate losses were already pre-calculated as part of our deal. You know it as well as I do, Captain, that it's all just the cost of doing good business." The Admiral replied coolly. "We'll wrap up these nuisances momentarily. They should already be easily turning the tide planetside."
"I hope so, 'cause we've already lost too much." Soddus growled.
The turian was telling the truth. They'd lost a lot of ships, including loyal servants under the Admiral's personal command, to the enemy Fleet's strange tactics. But this was a sacrifice he was willing to make!
"Enough, Captain, that's not why I called you." He dismissed the turian with a wave, before questioning him. "Tell me, regarding our great technological acquisition endeavor, how did the boarding action go?"
This was, indeed, the real reason he hailed the turian. Privately, Bhek'hett really wanted to just nuke Hell's Angels to death with the trap, but they needed – or, rather, greedily desired – their weapons, Power Armor, gene-mods (DNA samples), cybernetic implants… anyway, every scrap of technology they could get their hands on. Besides, it wasn't just them; there were also some debt Collectors breathing down their necks…
Disturbed, Soddus twitched his mandibles at the question. "Things were going well at first. We disabled a few of their ships, managed to get closer with some of ours and got ready to board. Their Admiral didn't even try to stop us to save his allies. But we lost contact with the boarding parties shortly after they got inside, followed by the ships themselves." Then, he paused briefly, hesitating. "There's only silence now."
Silent was also how the room became following his words. The crew, in particular, was in a state of trepidation, trying to reduce their presence as much as possible in preparation for the – sure to come – outburst.
And it soon did.
"You mean… they failed? Another failure!?" The Admiral loudly berated, slamming his right fist on the throne.
"We don't know, we can't be certain." Replied the turian, no confidence in his voice.
"Useless… I'm surrounded by useless fools…" Bhek'hett grumbled without care.
Not used to being put down, the pirate Captain promptly countered. "Then what about your men, what about what happened on the planet, huh?" After a slight pause, he added. "That blast, you know, wasn't exactly weak. What if it damages those Hell's bastards' equipment too much? Then what about the tech we've been promised, huh?"
"Your worries are unfounded. The impact of the pulse on technological equipment is within a salvageable threshold. We've made sure of that." He responded before letting out a tired sigh. "Sigh… At least we'll get what we came for planetside."
"By the way, I suspect your underling, that Balak, ran away in a shuttle before the pulse hit. Probably 'cause of his 'failure' down there, on the planet." Casually divulged the turian.
Bhek'hett frowned deeply at his words, yet almost as quickly eased his expression. "If that is true, I'll personally deal with him later. But you do not need to concern yourself with such matters. Just keep pressing on, Captain."
"Suit yourself. Not my problem anyway… Just don't forget about keeping your side of the deal." Soddus warned, abruptly cutting off the call.
"What an unrefined barbarian." Bhek'hett muttered in annoyance.
The conversation just now left him quite irate instead of what he desired: pleased. None of it, however, managed to affect his confidence in their inevitable victory in space. Looking at the holographic battlefield display, after all, showed that they'd already whittled the enemy down to about half their original numbers.
At that moment, he noticed that the enemy Fleet suddenly moved, rearranging itself into a more protective formation…
"Ah, they're making a last stand…" Lord Bhek'hett said. "It seems, my loyal crew, it's only a matter of time before our foes are vanquished."
"Yes, my Lord. You're absolutely right."
"Your victory is certain, Lord Admiral."
"It's their bad luck having gone up against you, my Lord."
The crew was quick to parrot his opinion.
The Admiral was satisfied with their response, getting comfortable in his golden throne and fully engrossed in his inevitable victory.
"It's nothing personal, little 'angels'. We're just protecting our interests."
He muttered indifferently. This result was inevitable when the Hegemony got serious about something; one only had to stop struggling and obediently accept reality. However...
Just then, loud alarms started blaring on the bridge.
The Admiral quickly lost his conceited smirk and sought the origin of those alerts.
Bhek'hett looked at his battlefield display and immediately saw it. Dots, many red dots, had appeared on it seemingly out of nowhere. This event was accompanied, almost as if it was all connected in some way, by the sudden disappearance of a portion of his Fleet. To make matters worse, their former defensive enemy switched to a very aggressive tactic, jumping to an almost knife-fight distance and blocking their escape paths.
And the bad news just kept coming…
"Report! Main thrusters down." An engineering officer shouted.
It was quickly followed by the comms officer: "Report! Communications jammed. We can't contact any other ships."
"They enemy... they're disappearing. What!?" The radar officer reported, dumbfounded.
The Admiral ignored them, since he was too preoccupied trying to comprehend how these new enemies could just vanish and appear 'out of thin air' at will. In confusion, he blinked his four-eyes repeatedly, while a feeling of absolute dread started to creep up his spine the closer he got to the truth.
Stealth warships!
Those were stealth warships!
Warships that were truly invisible in space warfare; better than anything the salarians ever came up with; and carrying weapons more deadly than what those weird, insect-like aliens had given him.
"How…?"
"Orders, my Lord?" Asked his second-in-command, but Bhek'hett didn't respond.
He just stared at the display in dismay.
"LORD!"
The shout was strong enough to rouse him out of his daze. But it was also right on time for him to personally see another warship, a Cruiser this time, blowing up into a large cloud of debris right outside the window.
[4]
The Lord Admiral's silence was a stark contrast to the faraway energy beams, which were systematically slicing apart the Coalition's Fleet with cold machine-like precision as well as ruthless coordination.
"ORDERS!? ORDERS, MY LORD!?" Begged his Vice-Admiral, more desperate than ever.
Bhek'hett gave in to despair as his once proud Fleet was being erased by enemy warships who seemingly phased in and out of existence.
He got up from his golden throne to get a better view. With each step he took, another ship was laced by a golden spear of energy.
Eventually, he stopped, grabbing the nearby terminal of one of his pilots.
"Lord, what do you command?" Beseeched an officer who'd just gotten there.
The Admiral didn't even look at him.
"We were just… protecting our interests." He muttered absentmindedly.
Baffled by the reply, and left without answers, the Vice-Admiral did the only thing he could still do and shouted at the top of his lungs: "ABANDON SHIP!"
Those words were quickly mirrored by everyone else.
"ABANDON SHIP!"
"ABANDON SHIP!"
"ABANDON SHIP!"
Bhek'hett simply watched them scrambling – in vain – to escape the bridge.
They tried to reach the elevator, but an energy beam sliced it apart from the warship just as they arrived there, with many getting sucked into the vacuum of space.
He felt a strong tug as well, but clung to the terminal. His boots then locked him magnetically to the floor, after which he started walking downstairs.
His steps were very calm, seemingly accepting his impending fate.
While his remaining crew was desperately trying to find salvation, the Admiral paid them no mind even as many parts of his ship exploded all around him.
Furthermore, all sorts of debris, made up from pieces of terminals, ship materials and even batarians, floated all around him due to the loss of gravity. Bhek'hett merely evaded or ignored them, for he simply could not take his eyes off the scenes happening outside, now completely visible due to unscheduled removal of his warship's front windows.
Through this new opening, he looked at the specter of the enemy stealth warships, a large fleet which only showed its existence when attacking, their golden energy beams ignoring kinetic barriers, with the sheer precision of their fire bisecting his fleet with ease, and finally made peace with the truth…
There was nothing they could do to reverse the situation. Even escape was impossible at this point. The Coalition was already doomed. And so was the Hegemony, when warships such as those pointed their weapons towards it.
He arrived at this conclusion while he also reached the battlefield display's platform, which showed a scene of utter devastation. By now, only half of the Noble Venture remained; the other half became clouds of debris slowly drifting in space. As for the Coalition Fleet, it laid in tatters, utterly incapable of putting up any sort of a fight anymore, for not even its escape pods were spared from the enemy's onslaught.
At that moment, his Cruiser's antimatter storage finally lost containment, rapidly engulfing what was left of it, as well as the Admiral, in a blaze of bright bluish-white explosive energy.
Throughout the surprise attack, no hails were made, no deal was attempted, no quarter was given.
No mercy was shown.
[/4]
The fighting rapidly died down.
The once raging battlefield became quieter and quieter, quickly coming to a lull.
In this new tranquil environment, only the crackling circuitry, gas leaks and burning debris that could be found everywhere denoted any kind of activity. However, this recent 'peace' was broken as abruptly as it came to be when countless drones and aircraft filled the area, sifting through the wreckage of the battle.
They finished off surviving enemies without remorse and carefully rescued allies, including collecting the corpses of the fallen, while half of the stealth fleet rushed towards the planet, to provide reinforcements and relief…
Planetside. At the same time.
Cough! Cough!
Deep inside the batarian Command Center, surrounded by rubble and dust, I woke up with a coughing fit, as my consciousness gradually returned. Maybe it was just my imagination, but the sounds of fierce fighting outside had mostly subsided. What remained was an eerie silence, like the embers of a dying fire.
I struggled to get up amidst a small vertigo, my vision slightly blurred due to the previous loss of blood. Inside my mind, there was a constant mess and white noise. The nanites did their best to repair all my cybernetic implants, but all I got were garbled/error messages in the end.
Like this, I slowly began moving my tired body, tracing my way back towards this building's entrance while avoiding its fallen, broken rubble and the piles of corpses and colorful blood on the ground. Along the way, I picked up my helmet from the ground, carrying it in my left hand, as well as gathered my weapons, which I tied together with a small energy cable.
It was a slow, quiet and uneventful slog, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I kept thinking about the situation outside. I suspected we had won, considering that no one had come after me, but the question that most occupied my mind was what cost we had paid.
After an unknown amount of time, I eventually made it back to that first security metal door. It was still opened, with strong reddish rays of light seeping in from outside. My vision took some time to adjust to it, after which I walked through it with vigilant steps. Outside, before I could get a proper feel of the situation, a beautiful figure appeared and blocked my path. I halted my steps in surprise.
She stood there, tall, graceful and dignified, a mature look that bordered on perfection, her green hair cascading behind her back, as if she was a fallen immortal unblemished by the mundane world. One might even wonder if it was possible for humans to look like that.
We simply stood there for a moment, just glancing at each other in silence.
"Hey. Long time no see." I said casually, trying to break the awkward atmosphere.
She didn't reply, but simply rushed at me with arms ready for a firm hug. In response, I let go of my helmet and weapons, and opened my arms too.
"Ouch, ouch. You're squeezing me…" I weakly protested.
Gaia, however, didn't stop hugging me vigorously. She just kept holding me tightly, as if I'd disappear if she let go of me. So, I let her stay like this, not saying anything.
Sometimes, words were simply unnecessary.
An hour later, we were finally leaving this hellish place. The initial reinforcements, the ones who were coming 'out in the open', had arrived and helped deal with the aftermath, as well as collect that 'alien' device and a few of the more intact enemy mechs.
However, there were simply too many things to clean up – technology and information of ours that we couldn't allow anyone to get their hands on –, so I chose a drastic option…
"Go nuclear." I said, overlooking the planet from orbit, inside a departing CSV Lightbringer.
In the next second, a bright flash engulfed the place where the batarian military base used to be. All traces of the brutal fight, especially the lingering blood and leftover technology, were cleansed out by nuclear fire, as the warship left this planet's orbit and sailed towards our main Star System.
Avalon. Arcadia System. Half a day later.
Inside of a large and wide installation that extended quite deep underground, which was informally just called The Pit by many, a big crowd of scientists, doctors and some civilians gathered. The atmosphere was quiet, depressing and solemn. The people there, save for a few doctors and biomedical engineers, didn't really speak much; their subdued presence and seriousness said it all. These people were here because of the Angels who had fallen in the tragic battle that had happened less than a day ago.
Their bodies – or what remained of them – laid suspended in a sort of stasis, inside of a canister-like bio-tank, fully submerged in a solution that resulted from the perfect fusion of Omni-gel and biological matter. Underneath these bio-tanks, in a terminal, their exploits, merits and accomplishments were recorded for all to see. And, amongst the people paying their respects, there was me, watching everything from a corner of this main room.
We've finished a preliminary investigation of all the parties involved. Gaia reported to me, rousing me from my reverie. As we've suspected, the Batarian External Forces was at the core of this 'Coalition'. They've managed to gather a lot of smaller factions, those who had some kind of friction with us, and set up that trap. These even include factions who should be completely in the dark about it, such as the Blood Pack and Kralla's drug cartels/lords. Still, most of these smaller factions, mercs mostly, have been wiped out then and there.
And, let me guess, much of this 'counteroffensive' was financed directly with credits from large corporations and conglomerates we've pissed off. I guessed.
That's right. Our investigation has managed to uncover the participation of Aristos Linron – a salarian linked to many big businesses in the galaxy, all of them fierce adversaries of the Atlas Foundation, like the arms industry – in the deals with the Batarians. Gaia confirmed. We're thinking of retaliating against them, starting from him. We'll leave it to black ops…
Well, they broke the 'social contract' one too many times. There's a price for that, one I'm afraid they can't afford to pay. I coldly gave her my approval, as I watched the body of another friend being put in a suspended state.
It was Xalryn, the big hearted elcor who joined us, at first, to protect and keep his people safe in their little corner of the galaxy. And then he met other people, in other parts of this dangerous galaxy, who also needed his protection, and so his goal developed into a higher calling.
Besides him, I saw many familiar faces, such as Tyrannus Interitus, a turian aficionado for explosions. Because of his 'soft exile' from the Turian Hierarchy due to his rather eccentric personality, he didn't have family members here. The only one accompanying him today was Nychta, who got along with him as well as water and fire.
There were others; many, many others…
But try to exercise restraint. It's best if we focus on economic retaliation. Do it with the thing they fear the most: actual competition. I complemented, thinking about some of the 'products' we kept in store – none of them being made with planned obsolescence in mind. Just releasing part of those would give a painful blow to our foes' market share.
I see… By the way, the main coordinator of the Coalition, Ka'hairal Balak, ran away before we got there. She added.
I narrowed my eyes. Besides what I knew he was capable of doing (in Terra Nova), there was now another reason for me to personally rip him apart.
Try to keep an eye on him, but otherwise make no moves. We know exactly where and when that rat is going to crawl out of whatever sewer he's hiding in right now to cause more harm. I firmly stated. That's when he'll get what's coming to him.
Very well. She replied. As for all the 'new' technology we've salvaged, especially that 'alien device', we've also gotten some results…
It was the Collectors' tech, wasn't it? I asked, already knowing the answer.
Yes. In addition to their insectoid appearance, those giant mechs used technology, such as synthetic muscle, that matches Collector tech in our database. And their most advanced weapon, that particle beam, uses many similar principles of the Prothean Particle Rifle that Javik had with him. Gaia explained. Also, that 'EMP device' has many internal structures and circuitry that match those found in our Prothean database.
So, on top of everything, we drew the attention of the Collectors. Great... Luckily, they seem hesitant to confront us directly, considering they've only used others to get at us. I mused. What about the pulse itself? Can it be resisted? And… how similar is it to the Crucible's Red blast?
Yes, it can be protected against. We're already ascertained that it's possible and will soon be making the necessary updates to all of our equipment. Gaia responded. Regarding the small similarity with the 'Red blast', we've determined that it has only a fraction of the theorized power output of the Crucible. So no… we probably won't be able to defend against it with these updates.
Our conversation paused briefly as I reflected on things.
Another thing. Did they figure out our gravity sensors' existence? I asked.
Investigation of the enemy Fleet's wreckage indicates that no, they were unaware of our ability to locate them by detecting gravity waves. So, they were just being careful in turning off e-grav. Gaia revealed.
Her answer was a relief, taking a small load off my chest. If others were to learn of it, some of our future plans might be jeopardized.
The civilians, in actuality family members of the fallen who came to see their loved ones, were also in a sort of tranquilized state. After the initial shock, the care provided by experts like Sha'ira's girls and this visit managed to soothe their shaken spirits.
Amidst this solemn atmosphere, one of the visitors in particular caught my attention.
It was a little blue girl, who couldn't be older than 6 years old, accompanying her mother as they walked towards Xalryn's resting place. Besides the new clothes she wore, she carried with her, in her small hands, only a spent Nanite Injector; an emergency item all members of Hell's Angels had in place of the usual Megi-gel.
This gave me a slight pause.
For she carried with her not a rose or bouquet, but an injector of nanites that had no more use; and even one stained with fresh purple blood. With a thought, information about them quickly poured into my memory implant. And I then understood everything.
They soon reached their destination, paid their respects and offered their best wishes. And then, before they walked away, the little one left with him – as if it was a rose – what she carried.
That empty injector… it was the first thing she really possessed in her entire tragic life.
And it was even something miraculous that once saved her most precious person's life.
Now, despite how naive the act was, she hoped it'd save their savior's life too…
Gaia.
…
Prepare the next generation augmentations for Project Angel of War. All of them. I'm skipping this gen and going straight for the next one. I ordered.
Please don't. They're still in the testing phase and prone to complications. Ellen and Suvi's teams are still testing to make sure there's no neural harm… Gaia rebuked, surprised.
Then *I* will be the last testing phase; and the first 'human trial'. I cut her off, showing my determination. You know what, Gaia? The Batarian Hegemony has caused enough harm in the Terminus. I think it's high time to kick them out of it for good!
Media Reviews
[Pacific Rim]
Krogan Vid Reviews
"Today we are canceling the apocalypse!" FUCK YEAH! Now THAT is a badass line if I've ever seen one. All those scenes of the giant mechs beating the shit out of monsters were awesome too. And HOLY KALROS that one scene with the giant mech carrying a big boat and using it as a club? (Hey, this ain't a spoiler, 'cause that was in the trailer).
What can I say, this vid was all 'round badass. There's only a few things I didn't quite enjoy to be honest. Just some minor things really.
Like, the main character and his brother are kinda dumb. Even our runts here in Tuchanka learn to double tap. You know, to make sure your game's really dead. Well, it can't be any different when everything's trying to kill ya and pretending to be dead is fair game.
Also, I hated that one scientist guy who kept blabbing on and on about the giant monsters. Reminded me too much of salarians.
Hey, do you guys think they could cook up something like a Jeager (is that the name?) for us to play with?
Fuck! Now I feel like we should get together and build one. The Council doesn't let us have warships anymore. But hey, they never said anything 'bout a giant mech…
Salarian Vid Reviews
YES. This is what one's dreams should be about, giant robots. These hulking machines of metal delivering major kickassery with their mere presence. Now, what problem does giant mechs solve? The problem, of course, is our disturbing lack of giant mechs!
Ok, but what is this vid about, besides cool giant robots? It's about an alternative version of the human homeworld where these massive monsters, Kaijus, started coming from The Breach, which is like a tunnel deep underwater connecting two different worlds/places, and wrecking absolute destruction in their coastal cities. On a side note, I'll have to admit that The Breach is a very interesting concept, if merely highly theoretical.
Anyway, in response to the Kaiju (existential) threat, the humans decided to get together and pool their resources to build these equally massive machines of war, the Jaegers. The giant robots. They have all sorts of abilities, rocket-boosted punches, plasma cannons, missiles, etc. Also, they need two pilots to operate, who connect to themselves and the giant mech with their minds, which is kinda similar, but not really, to the asari's mind-melding. They even used that wording in fact!
Personally, I'd have the Jaeger control system be either a neural lace kind of technology or with mechanical controls, but they chose a rather convoluted way to do it. I mean, what's up with those full-body exercise machines that they have to put their feet in? Supposedly, they need them to control the machine on top of the neural meld thingy, when it could've been done with simple mechanical controls. Or with motion capture.
But I guess it's there just to look cool. Which it sorta does.
That massive EMP was really interesting as well. It jumbled all the electrical circuits. That's an interesting show of the Digital vs Analog difference, something many people don't know about in our current technologically advanced times.
All of this isn't to say that this vid is without its flaws. Here's an example. Right at the start, so it's not a spoiler or anything, the 'let's build giant mechs to beat the giant monsters plan' stopped working, since the Kaijus became too deadly.
Okay, I get it... The Jaegers weren't cutting it anymore, so they needed something different to deal with the Kaijus. But abandoning your tried-and-true method and then just building a wall has got to be the dumbest idea someone could come up with.
Like, here's a random wild idea I've just come up with. Maybe they could've taken those Strike Eureka's anti-Kaiju missiles and put them on defense platforms, gunships or even tanks. Those took down a Kaiju in just a few seconds after all. Or that super-coolant. That also worked very well.
Basically, just building a massive wall was a really stupid decision, the kind only politicians could arrive at. For a moment there, I almost stopped suspending my disbelief. But then I realized that yes, they can be that dumb in real life, so it's kinda realistic in a way.
There were also some small things that bothered me. Not anything crossing the line, just a bit annoying. For instance, those magical helicopter cables could've been used for carrying the nuclear device at the end. They've already been shown to magically be able to carry giant robots, so why not the much lighter bomb?
Another detail that irked me was when the marshal said "Full titanium core, no alloys" like it's a good thing! Or pure iron? Such a basic metal! Even a school kid knows that pure (no alloys) metal armor is worse than a composite armor of different materials carefully melded to provide a lighter and stronger protection. That's common knowledge.
It even goes against one of the core themes of the vid, which is all about combining people and resources to make something stronger than the sum of its parts! The drifting pilot team is like a "human alloy", a stronger pilot than either teammate would be alone.
So… that's my small rant (sorry). Don't take it as a serious critique or anything.
This was still a very cool vid. Recommended.
Turian Vid Reviews
So, after watching this vid, I reached out to an old friend who went on to pursue a career in the military. Nowadays, she's somewhat high-up in the chain of command for R&D, so I asked her why the Hierarchy didn't ever try to develop/build giant mechs. The answer I got was all kinds of technical words and jargon, but in short I understood that it was because of something called the "square-cube law".
It states: "When an object undergoes a proportional increase in size, its new surface area is proportional to the square of the multiplier and its new volume is proportional to the cube of the multiplier".
Translation: make anything twice as big and you'll get 4 times the surface, but 8 times the volume.
It can get so bad that, in larger structures (like those massive mechs in the vid), the weight of the material cannot be overcome by its own strength. That means it'd be so heavy that it can't even walk. Also, there's other issues with giant mechs, like the taller it is, the easier it is to spot and shoot. And their joints are usually very weak (a weak spot), so if it breaks, the entire thing comes tumbling down and is out of the fight.
Then there's the fact that, save for very few situational exceptions, if you can do it with a giant mech, you can do it with a tank. Or even better, lots of tanks.
What if you add massive kinetic barriers to the giant mech to make up for its armor that is only as strong as a tank's? Then you can take those and put them on tanks.
What if your giant mech has armor that can withstand most conventional weapons? Then you can take it and put it in tanks.
What if there's a low supply of that armor, perhaps only enough for one vehicle? Then you can make more tanks, with more overall firepower, than however many giant mechs you could make with the same amount/supply of armor.
What if the giant mech can wield a really big and powerful weapon? Then take that weapon and make it a tank's main cannon.
What if you can make a giant mech that can fly? The flying mechanism would also work on tanks.
What if you add rockets and other secondary weapons to them? Add to tanks.
What if…? TANKS!
What I'm trying to say is that, for everything a giant mech can do, tanks can do it better. In other words, if you can make a giant super mech that is worthwhile as a military asset, you can make more tanks that are equally as valuable or even more so. That's the bottom line I guess.
The closer we can get to a mech that is viable is power armor or exoskeletons.
I feel like giant mechs could only be worthwhile as military assets if someone manages to change this situation, like with some crazy synthetic muscle tech, or find a reason for them to exist alongside other armored units…
Anyways, giant mechs remind me of the Titans we used to believe strode across Palaven, reaching for the heavens, so they're still cooler than tanks!
Krogan (2) Vid Reviews
If making giant mech suits to fight giant monsters is stupid, then I don't want to be smart.
This vid is definite proof that there isn't any kind of problem we can't punch our way out of.
9.5/10 would watch it again.
[Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End]
Turian Vid Reviews
For a vid that's set in a technologically lacking world, there's a certain beauty to old school gunpowder cannons that can't be denied. The slow burning of their firing mechanism, the thunderous sound they make upon firing, how they destroy and rip apart their targets when they hit… There's something visceral about it. And there's no scene in cinema that better encapsulates all of this than the death scene of a certain antagonistic Admiral.
Yes, this vid has plenty of amazing scenes, battles and moments. But that one was by far my favorite one. My fellow turians, believe me when I say this: it is worth watching for that alone. Moreover, after watching this vid, I maintain my position that sword duels are really cool, even in our current interstellar civilization that is dominated by firearms.
Hanar Vid Reviews
This one is having a hard time deciding which ones were the best: the water battle scenes in this vid or those in the vid named Pacific Rim. It is only sad that the invincible mythical beast of the ocean, the Kraken, was simply killed off outside of the "screen". Such a waste of potential. Although this one understands the reason, it still wonders how a fight between that feature creature and the characters in this vid would play out.
And also how a technologically advanced version of it, one fit for space combat, would be like!
Author's Notes
It's been a while, hasn't it? Did you miss me? I kinda put the story on hiatus for quite a whle. And that's how it returned with a 32k+ words chapter. Anyway, let me address some things...
It seems the "GNN" addition was a major success. It'll come back, when it's appropriate for the story. For now, I'd like to note that it's not yet mainstream – more like "thejuicemedia" is to us –, so its impact on the story is kinda minimal at this time. Besides that, according to the Cerberus Daily News story dated 09/16/2010, "Polls Show Many Citizens Are Ignorant of Galactic Politics". It says that "...two out of five respondents can't name their Citadel Representative, and that three out of ten don't know the difference between full and associate membership on the Council. Educators and political parties are calling the polls an alarming indication of just how little the average citizen feels connected to galactic-level politics." So, there's only so much it can do for now.
On another note, now you know what Sha'ira was up to; helping create an institution (or organization) to heal the mind of the rescued slaves.
Also, I thought it'd be good to do a bit of worldbuilding on how Hell's Angels is structured, by taking into consideration their advanced technology, history, philosophy and goals (e.g. Reaper War).
Btw, my OC of this "Hell" planet is quite lore friendly. Just check out the Codex description of the planet named "Ezka" and you'll understand.
Why did the "EMP" work? Because it was Collector Tech, powered by an immense amout of energy and eezo, that created a pulse slightly similar to the Crucicle's Red Blast (i.e. the one that fries all your technological shit). Now that they've gotten a hold of it, countermeasures will be put in place and Hell's Angels will be pretty much EMP-immune from now on. This is part of the build-up for their future OPness. I thought I'd made it pretty clear in the chapter, but it seems it just flew past some people's heads in the reviews section...
Lastly, I'd like to address something a reviewer said regarding what I've speculated about how the Mass Effect humanity fell for the "eezo trap". Caliburn0 commented: "(...) That's just... it's too stupid to be acceptable. I get why politicans or the random joe doesn't think of it, but scientists are trained to think these thoughts and these ways as a part of their jobs. It's how science and technology WORKS."
But it's not how the current socioeconomic system of our society works. Neither we nor the humanity of the Mass Effect Universe live in a sort of "technocracy", in which society's decision are taken by pure "technical" or "rational" reasons, if those things could even be possible at all (btw, I'm not making a moral judgment or anything here, just making a descriptive statement).
Scientists or "technical people" don't get to control the State, don't write policy, don't get to decide how to, or where to, invest funds and allocate resources and so on. The owners of capital and States do. And their one and only goal is to generate the most profit possible so as to grow their capital; everything else is secondary (in fact, that's one of the main reasons why there's so much focus/talk on GDP growth).
For instance, in spite of how much it might make sense from a "scientific" (long-term) point of view, there's no "incentive" to build an O'Neill Cylinder when just finding a Garden World and colonizing is cheaper and, thus, more profitable.
O'Neill Cylinders have a bad return on investment (ROI). They require too much R&D (like small-scale "terraforming") to be feasible while capitalists just abhor taking risks, preferring instead to invest in "sure" things or things with good ROI. So, it'd take State funding for it to be viable, as with most things in real life (e.g. computers, the internet, microchips, medicine, etc.). But then, in that case, they'd rather just allocate those resources to colonizing planets without delay.
You could extend this point to "Star Forges". They didn't try to make those not because no one ever thought about it (that's not my point), but because actually doing so would mean that they'd have an insane abundance of raw materials (oversupply), and that's bad, really bad for profits and, thus, the growth of capital. Therefore, it wouldn't be allowed; or, if it somehow was, then they'd limit supply tremendously (i.e. artificial scarcity), effectively rendering the whole thing moot.
My friend, you may think it's "too stupid to be acceptable", but our reality has many things even more stupid and unacceptable than that, such as:
- Ever since the 70s (so, for around 5 decades now), we've had the agricultural production capacity to feed everyone on Earth. However, 9+ million people die from hunger-related causes every year (3+ million of which are children under the age of 5), while 800+ million people worldwide suffer from food insecurity, including undernourishment (sources: World Food Programme (WFP), World Health Organization (WHO), and other UN orgs).
This alone has already resulted in hundreds of millions of unnecessary (preventable) deaths ever since the 70s.
It's not a problem of production; we produce enough food to feed around 1.5 of the world's population. It's also not a matter of distribution (as in logistics); we can buy something from the other side of the world and have it shipped to our home in just a few days, besides the fact that hunger still exists in the world's top food-producing countries, such as the US and Brazil.
Why then? Because, in our current socioeconomic model, food is a commodity, something produced solely to sell and make a profit; not to satisfy a need. Thus, if it can't be sold, if it can't circulate to make a profit and grow capital, then it must be discarded. Keep in mind that, in the USA, around 50% of all food produced is discarded every year. At the same time, this very same system requires a permanent mass of unemployed people, to press wages down as low as they can go, so that the line of profits keep going up.
As such, food can only be obtained by buying it, but the means to do so (employment) is kept from a significant portion of the population (can go as high as 7-9%, or even more). The result of this contradiction is very clear for all to see: constant famine and deaths (even events like the Irish potato famine – or it'd be more appropriate to call it Irish potato starvation);
- In the richest country on Earth, the USA, there's "officially" 653,000 homeless Americans as of today (source: 2023 Annual Homeless Assessment Report). However, there's around 15+ million vacant houses just lying there, either for renting or merely as speculative assets. Even if we were to look at the actual number of homeless people, which is likely in the millions, there's still more empty homes without people in them than people without homes;
- For quite a while now, what is commonly known as "clean" or "renewable" energy has been developed to the point where it's perfectly viable for use as an alternative to fossil fuels, including making it profitable. However, "we" are still very dependant on fossil fuels, even expanding our use of this source of energy (like the Willow Project in Alaska) instead of working towards reducing it, and there's no real move towards a "renewable" energy transition save for a few exceptions. Even if we were to set aside climate/pollution concerns, it's still not a wise move to rely solely on a type of resource (fossil fuels) that's limited and close to being depleted (by 2060, at our current rate of burning). Heck, nuclear power would still be a preferable alternative to it until we finally fully develop fusion energy (which is seriously and chronically underfunded, because it's potential abundance of energy may seriously hurt the oil industry's profits...);
- Speaking of energy, it isn't rare for this to happen: raw materials mined in one country are shipped to another, where they're processed, to be sent to another one to be refined, then sent to a third (industrialized) country to be made into an actual product, circulating all over the world in cargo ships and, thus, wasting a lot of resources, when all of this could've been done in the same country;
So on and so forth…
If we analyzed our RL world with the same scrutiny that you used, the conclusion that we'd reach is that we're as 'dumb', perhaps even 'dumber', than ME humans – with the possible exception of weapons/military development (yay!), which appears to be 'nerfed' in ME. Of course, this has nothing to do with intelligence or morality; it's just the "inevitable" result of our socioeconomic model and its logics/laws (just like the need for an "uninterrupted influx of slaves and their cheapness" was for the Roman Empire, as well as its eventual downfall after it couldn't just get new slaves and needed to chill – Pax Romana).
Still, you are completely correct regarding two things. Firstly, the 'hand' I've been dealt with by the original writers holds me back a lot. The other is that there is indeed 'more to it' than I've written so far. You might've gotten a glimpse of it in this chapter. I'll try to explain this better in the future, when it's more appropriate.
…
Question(s) for my readers:
1) What augmentations do you think should be included in this new "batch"?
2) How do you picture those stealth warships, especially appearance-wise? They were so stealth even the damned author didn't describe them!
…
When is the next Chapter coming? When it's ready!