412Author's Note: Okay so first Chapter didn't go like I had hoped, a pity, but I won't let it deter me for now. Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 2: The First Contact War Part 2
The Batarians were stonewalling the Council's efforts to investigate what had appeared on the far end of their territory. Which was a logical course of action, considering that the planet was one big slave camp where they had gathered together millions of slaves, thousands of which have already been worked to death, not to mention the high chance of exposing hundreds of other slave worlds like it. The council was equally reluctant to force the matter on the other hand, aware of the existence of said planets and what was going on on them. The political backlash they would face for their actions would probably be enough to shatter the council's power block.
It ultimately made no difference to Wrex one way or another. His people have long since suffered the council's stupidity and corruption, it would be nice if the rest of the galaxy got a taste of it too, but for now his work was with a trio of mercenary companies that were on their way to the ass end of Batarian space. He watched the footage they had received again, still not entirely grasping what he was seeing, a full blown zombie apocalypse like a bad Salarian B Movie. He's lived for over a thousand years and he's never seen anything like this before.
"If this is a joke it's not funny." Garn snapped as he threw his own tablet to the ground breaking it in the process.
"It's a fact that the Batarians have lost control of the planet." Jona on the other hand was looking at the footage with the keen intellect of a master of the technological arts. "A more likely explanation is that we're looking at is exactly what it seems like, a cheap B-movie made by the Salarians." Dismissing the contents of the footage the Asari woman put her tablet down and looked to the rest of the mercenaries aboard the carrier. "Most likely this is some STG plot to justify the council being able to sweep through Batarian territory."
"I wouldn't put it past them." A nearby Turian eclipse mercenary agreed while cleaning his gun.
"If they are expecting a council rescue party they will be sorely disappointed." Garn stated as he cracked his knuckles.
A landing party had been prepared by the Stellar union and had now made planet fall, the incredibly scary skeleton doctor was in the process of removing the control devices the cruel Batarians had implanted into their slaves bodies. People calmed down when they realised their dead friends and relatives crawling out of the pits weren't interested in them, and immediately spiked into a rancorous rampage when they realised that they were interested in any Batarian they could find above the rank of slave. The Undead did their jobs of meat shields well consuming the defenders in a tide of the damned and rotting while they wasted the shots on their weapons trying to put them down again. Communications on the planet had been jammed after the initial landing, so the four eyed bastards only realise the situation that they're in after they realised that their weapons were no longer effective against their former victims.
Years of training to shoot for centre mass and through the eyes had been cast aside, for not even holes in their heads or obliterated organs were enough to do more than slow the tide down, instead precise shots blew off legs of the new enemy, reducing them to crawling across the ground, and then getting crushed under the feet of the rest of the hoard. However while the Batarians fought a defensive retreating battle slaves were being sent into the fray, their slave collars detonating whenever they approached the hoard, for each slave killed in this manner dozens of the undead were destroyed as a consequence. Seemingly as a result the most curious thing happened as they did so. The Undead stopped and stared at them.
"What are the damned monsters doing now?" One Batarian SIU member said to another as he looked through the steel shutters of the building that they had been in.
Of course they weren't just standing around waiting to get overwhelmed again. Standard issue Terminator assault rifles could fire millions of shots without paying concern for ammunition in it's life time, the only flaw in the technology is that the heat sink becomes over worked and needs to be cooled regularly, so there were brief pauses in between trying to gib the enemy in which they could talk.
"I don't know, but I'm mighty glad this shooting gallery is staying still for us." And then the two SIU officers resumed blasting.
The main purpose of the mission was rescuing captive slaves from the Batarians, naturally they had to rethink their strategies when the Batarians started using the very people they were trying to rescue as explosive suicide bombers against the hoard. They learned first hand already that the Batarian's had no convenient mass off button for their slave collars, why would they? Such a thing would be the equivalent to creating a big red shiny button for the slaves to press. Even if it was kept somewhere secure the slaves would still drop by the hundreds to get to it. They knew that the slave collars operated on a remote of some kind but the main issue they were having was that they didn't know the frequency to break it, but there were those who do. Salarian's do not live long lives, they want to spend as little of it possible here in this hell hole, and are widely considered the most intelligent race in citadel space, the Batarians go as far as to set up dedicated breeding posts for them for these reasons. In other words there was an entire hoard of motivated geniuses among the people rescued.
"So the collars detonate automatically if the slaves leave a dedicated area?" Shepard had her helmet off as she talked with Padok, surrounded by her fellow dragoons and allied necromancer.
"Correct." Padok held his chin in his hand as he thoroughly thought through the situation. If the collars can no longer detect the signal keeping them from blowing up then they will detonate, if the slaves leave the extremely short radius of the microwave signal then the collars will blow up. "Must seize Batarian signal room. Not easy to accomplish." The Dragoons had to give the council some credit, it wasn't like cleaning up this section of space was as easy as storming the planet with a army.
"Well I suppose that's what we're here for." Leo the Flerkin Dragoon stated as he rubbed the back of his neck and cracked his fingers.
"Can you not break the building this time like in the training sim?" Shepard snapped by way of response.
Microwave transmitters were primitive, it would need a clear view of all of the slaves that were working outside in order to maintain the signal connection, so the big radio dish on top of the building became rather obvious as a target for them to focus on. Luckily all of the gun men were focused on the ground, continuing to shoot out the legs of the zombie hoard below no one noticed the figure on the roof that was tampering with the microwave transmitter, disconnecting it with the supports and seizing manual control over it.
"Alright bone head. Release the dogs."
The undead resumed their rampage, many of them had been reduced to crawling on their hands, which was inconvenient in it's own way, partly because they couldn't move as fast anymore, but mostly because it left nothing to the imagination when the slaves were made to run out into the middle of the Zombie horde with the Batarians expecting detonations or for the undead to grab them and try to stop them. Imagine the surprised looks of everyone involved when the Zombies just ignored them, and then stack those with the surprised looks from when the collars did not detonate, the microwave transmitter having followed them to safety. Then the zombie Elcor and the Asari moved to the front of the horde. The Asari slaves received some kind of biotic implant, however crude Batarian engineering is compared to Citadel, in order to be able to make full use of their abilities for transportation, of course soon after their death the implant in question would be taken out to be 'recycled' they were lucky that the Batarians were in no real rush. The Asari corpses used their biotics to lift the legless corpses into the air and throw them while the Elcor undead made do with simple brute strength. The bodies were subsequently thrown at the guards who weren't prepared for the new tactic and were subsequently overwhelmed. This scene was happening all over the planet on multiple fronts as control over the planet was slowly being transferred to the Stellar union.
"Well it's been fun getting out of the office." Patrick Harris, the long suffering assistant to the mad skeleton in a space suit, bagged Batarian corpses inside of a preservation unit. "The mad scientist wants me to take this back to the ship so that they can see how suitable these four eyed bastards are for the 'ritual.' Eeeuuuggghhh!" Fifteen years and the creepy bastard still freaked him out. Pat pulled a cord on a bundle of pods and a small generator activated, splitting the water molecules being kept in a tank in the middle of the body pods into oxygen and hydrogen filling up something that resembled a weather balloon as it rose into the sky carrying the ultra light pods with it. The various refugees that were just rescued were escorted into crates which were locked behind them, sealed, and then airlifted via the same hydrogen balloon into the cloaked ships above. Pat was about to leave with the last crate and group of refugees up to safety when he noticed a ship in the distance that was landing on the planet side, presumably since the Union wanted prisoners instead of space debris it was allowed to land safely. "Looks like you guys got company." Pat stated as he sealed the crate behind him.
"Looks like fun to me." The other female human stated pulling the cord on the crate and airlifting it.
"Reinforcements from the Batarians?" The Chozo Sam pressed a button on her helmet, footage of the landing craft replaying while zooming in on the craft in question. "Not the same kind of shitty ship design that the Batarians were using."
"Friendly?" Sheppard asked and Sam shrugged her shoulders. "Right then. Kaiden, Ashley lets go see if they're willing to talk. Everyone else get in position to shoot someone."
Everyone was getting into their usual positions to dish out violence, the Talon mercenaries were getting into sniper nests, the Eclipse technicians were setting up turrets and the Bloodpack had deployed their Vorcha cannon fodder to flush out whoever was responsible for this madness.
"I don't see any slaves at the usual pits." One Turian Sniper reported before he made a more interesting report.
"The Mass Grave's empty too." Wrex narrowed his eyes. There was a limit to theatrics, a cheap Salarian horror movie to make people think that the dead was rising and justifying the council coming out here was one thing, continuing to sell the story by emptying out the mass graves was another. The latter implied a huge presence of individuals were here, certainly more than the usual small groups that Salarian STG liked to operate in. Wrex continued to observe his surroundings, the wall that looked like an elcor had torn it down, the distinct lack of presence of anything, even the bodies where he could clearly blood spatter indicating that someone or something had been shot. A little further ahead he started to see the evidence of what was happening here, craters, and gibleted body parts indicating an explosion and the people who were caught in it respectively.
"We got a live one people! 10 O'Clock!" The rag tag bunch of mercenaries saw a shambling Turian in slave scrubs walking towards them. "Looks like one of the extras from the movie." As one the various mercenaries used their helmets to zoom in on the person in question.
"Check for a pulse." Derius instructed and a moment later the shambling individual fell over from the force a Kishock harpoon rifle putting a round into his head. "Looks dead to me." Derius stated shrugging his shoulders.
Wrex just rolled his eyes, the first chance they had to get some answers on what's going on here just got his head blown off. No matter, he wasn't working for any of these pyjaks, his concern laid with trying to figure out who or what had taken the planet, not with trying to regain control over it. And then Wrex got his first clue.
"Boss. The bloke from earlier is back up again." That wasn't a red flag, that was a giant blood red bill board written with big blocky letters 'get the hell away!'
It is often said that the easiest way to tell the difference between a Batarian soldier and slaver is to look at the guns they're carrying, if they're carrying a Kishook rifle they don't mean to take you alive. A Kishock 'harpoon' is a five inch long hollowed spike, if it doesn't kill you in a instant than it'll bleed you dry in a few moments, Wrex couldn't see someone walking one off.
"You shot him didn't you!" Derius snapped into the feed tersely.
"Yeah. I can tell that much based on the fact that he doesn't have a head anymore." The sniper replied with a hint of fear creeping into his features.
"Oi you Vorcha dogs! Go over there and drag it back here now!" Garm snapped pointing at the headless corpse in question. Wrex opted to stick around for a bit longer, the first clue that he needed was coming to him of its own volition after all.
Leaning into a wall the surroundings disappeared into smoke and disappeared into some place more... sterile. When the Krogan were 'uplifted' they were taken away from the radioactive ruins of their home world of Tuchanka and onto a Salarian world, now no longer impeded by the harsh realities of their home world Krogan could be born by the thousands, one of the many examples of mis-management that his people had suffered through. The damned lizards never bothered to consider what his people would do after the Rachni had went extinct.
"I t'ndid tcepxe siht yltesnoh."
Wrex spun around pulling out his shot gun and training it on the voice that was speaking to him, or at least he would've if he still had it, but it looked like it had turned to smoke earlier too. Tall, taller than Wrex himself, with a slender golden scale like armour covering the body.
"Who the void are you!" Wrex demanded crossing his arms in lieu of holding an imaginary shot gun to threaten the other figure with.
"Thgir. Uoy t'nod dnatsrednu em." The other figure's head twitched for a moment. "Do you understand what I'm saying now?" Wrex's universal translator identified the language the figure was speaking as Kharsum, the voice was smooth like a Asari speaking.
"Yes." The changes in the scenery behind the other figure were subtle but noticeable, chiefly for the window where a plant that Wrex didn't recognise was blowing in the wind, they weren't on Adek anymore based on that alone, certainly not at the slave camp. "Where is this place?" Wrex could obtain a name, either of the person herself or whatever organisation she came from but those were just words without additional information to back them up, no what he needed now was to learn her capabilities.
"A hybrid mind palace of mine and yours." The figure in gold replied. "It makes speaking privately easier."
"Mind manipulation?" Wrex asked cocking a suspicious brow as he paced around looking at the place. "Met a Asari who could do that once, needed to get close to me to do that. So either I have lost my touch or you aren't a Asari." The woman's helmet disappeared, not a asari even if she did look like one, no blue skin and fur where the head fringes should be.
"Human is the name of my species, Dragoon the name of my unit, and Jane Shepard is my name." Not information that he had prioritised, but he had stashed it away anyway. "Who's the Shadow Broker?" Jane asked looking at Wrex suspiciously.
"No one knows." The Krogan shrugged his shoulders. "Values his privacy to a unhealthy degree. Doesn't really matter to me, I was paid to get information on you lot, not to keep his secrets." Which in turn led to the next question, which wasn't whether or not she was reading his mind. She could probably do that easy enough if she can bring him here. "Where'd you come from?"
"My species? A sleepy little planet called Earth. If you're looking for directions though, the region of space on the far side of the super structure near the planet." A pause and eyes widening in realisation. "A Mass Relay? So that's what it's called."
"I didn't know it connected to anything." Wrex replied crossing his arms.
"I sincerely doubt that it's connected to anything for over fifty million years." Shepard let out a snort of amusement at Wrex's statement. "As I understand it all of the Mass Relay's outside of the tiny little corner of the galaxy you guys are inhabiting have been destroyed." Now that got Wrex's attention.
"What destroyed them?" Wrex asked.
"I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise for you." Shepard looked like she was laughing now. "But by the sounds of things you guys already know of their handiwork." The Salarian B movie, which by the sounds of things was anything but. Shepard looked less amused all of a sudden, perhaps picking up on Wrex's thoughts.
"So. The other mercenaries were hired by the Batarian government. You're not associated with them I assume?" Shepard asked brow cocked.
"The number of Krogan left in the galaxy are few enough to call us endangered. If possible I would like you to spare Garm and his men, if for no other reason than to make him say that he owes me a favour. But no, I do not consider him or his men to be friends." With that the link was severed, Wrex was back where he was in the exact position that he was in as he looked over at when the Vorcha had wrestled to the ground. Wrex wasn't sure what he was expecting, a disguised android that was some how still functional, a wounded turian with a spike lodged in his head. Certainly not a headless flesh and blood Turian with each of it's writhing limbs being held by a Vorcha.
"It can't be." Jona was looking at the writhing corpse like she couldn't believe what she was seeing. "It must be some kind of cybernetically enhanced organism." Wrex pulled out his shot gun, a great Graal Thrower, he got a feeling that if he did come to blows with the aliens then he'd need at least enough fire power to puncture a Thresher Maw's hide.
"If you'll excuse me." Wrex had picked the nearest exit and started walking towards it.
"Where are you going!?" Garm growled at Wrex's back.
"The good thing about not being part of the Blood Pack is that I do not need to tell you that." And then Wrex did a biotic charge and got the heck out of dodge, and it was good thing too, on account of a nearby platform collapsing.
"What the...?"
Six figures wearing golden scaled armour were standing on the top of the platform looking down at them.
"Doesn't look like much to me." One of the more muscular figures jumped off of the platform, fell six stories, and landed producing a small shock wave of smoke in the process. "Surrender or be destroyed." The figure demanded using a synthesised voice, speaking in Kharsum. A hail of gun fire was the response as the various individuals got into place. The Eclipse mercenaries waved their omni-tools, the turrets and guns of the other mercenaries glowed with the light of special effects being added, at the same time Jona fired a blue ball of light at the Dragoon in front of her which then expanded into a singularity. The Dragoon was lifted a couple of inches into the air, he should be floating freely but he was just too heavy.
"Skool ekil eht Scitoib ew erew dlot tuoba. T'nseod kool yrev evisserpmi." The figure was now speaking in a masculine voice, in a language they had never heard of before. The sniper responsible for blowing the head off of the Turian from earlier fired a flaming harpoon at the Dragoon, which was then pulled into the Singularity and triggered an explosion. Moments later the Dragon walked out of the smoke and fire unscathed and brushing himself off. "Llew taht saw nuf." The heavily armoured creature cracked his fingers. "Ym nrut!" And then he charged them. Slugs were fired and bounced uselessly off of armour, releasing fire, ice, electricity, warp all to no effect, just more detonations as the specialised ammunition crashed against each other. Garn took the initiative, charging forward glowing with biotics and tackled the Dragon from the front.
"Gib s'eno adnik gnorts, adnik ekil a Amelog." The Dragoon sounded kind of impressed as he grabbed hold of the Krogan by his wrist and squeezed, pulling the grasping arm away from him through the use of sheer brute force. The intense pain awoke something in Garn as he used the other arm to punch his opponent away, shattering his arm in the process as his body glowed slipping into a bloody minded blood rage.
"Pots gniwercs dnuora dna tuc sih smra dna sgel ffo!" A slim Dragoon on top of the platform shouted.
"I thguoht ew dedeen mih evila!?" The blood raging Krogan slammed into the Dragoon, carried him over to the nearby wall, and slammed him through said wall.
"S'taht yhw I t'ndid llet uoy ot tuc sih daeh ffo." The Slim Dragoon replied face palming herself.
The Dragoon Garn had just taken for a ride slammed his hand into the opponents face, sending a shock wave of energy through his neurons, before then following up by whipping out a large oversized shrieking blade and cutting off each of his limbs.
"GRRRAAAHHH!" Luckily the heat being produced by the blade vibrations cauterised his wounds. Though even the loss of his arms and legs didn't compare to the humiliation he just suffered as his opponent walked back out, dragging Garn like a sack of potatoes.
"If any of you are feeling particularly attached to your limbs right now I would recommend surrender." The owner of the Merciless synthetic voice echoed out as Garn was thrown to the feet of the other Krogan, still blood raging, still helpless to do anything about his fate. The Krogan had started to back away in fear, except for Wrex though, who was just recording the battle with his Omni-tool. "As for the rest of you." The Dragoon turned his synthesized voice to address the other mercenaries. "Asari, Turians, Batarians, Salarians. This is the place where members of your respective people were taken and worked into a grave, and you all are here to defend it to your last breath if necessary. You disgust me." Gun fire opened again, the turrets and the bravest of the mercenaries attempting to take down the monster in front of them, others fled back to their drop ship attempting to flee. The Dragoon on the ground whipped out one of his rifles and fired a single shot. The round tore through the hull of the ship grounding it in an instant.
In the mean time the Dragoon seemed to grow disgusted with the antics of the mercenaries and left to rejoin the others, a hoard of undead moving in from the surroundings as the mercenaries desperately opened fire once more.
Review Section: To all future Guests reading this, if you click on the part of the review box that says 'Guest' then you can leave behind a actual name to remember you by.
Guest Who Writes Long Winded Text Blocks: As much as I want to believe that there's a couple of people out there who like my story enough to write such a... detailed and in depth... advice section I don't, and I would appreciate it if you didn't dump wiki articles into my review box. I am well aware of the Council's blatant incompetency and corruption and if the past two chapters haven't done a good enough job of bringing that to light already then I haven't done a very good job as a writer.
Guest Who Offers Constructive Criticism: Thank you for your constructive criticism, I've rewritten part of the first chapter, but I don't believe in blindly dumping exposition into a room where everyone should already know what is being talked about. I have that scene planned out already.
Saif Omar: I thank you for your genuine words of praise. As for your questions I do intend to answer all of them in due time. But first please enjoy more of the Batarians getting the snot kicked out of them.