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Arc 1: éveil, Chapter 1
Wolfund
{Verified Historian}
- Location
- France
Welcome to those of you that came here to read this story by curiosity or by design. For those that dislike strange and complex story construction perhaps it would be best for you to return here when arc2: Doute, will be out and well on the way. For the others, I invite you trying to find the logic behind the arc1 construction.
Arc 1: éveil.
Chapter 1, Taylor,
Chapter 2, Daniel,
Chapter 3, Director Piggot,
Chapter 4, The Warrior,
Chapter 5, The Vanguard,
Chapter 6, Admiral White,
Chapter 7, Jana,
Arc2: doute.
Arc 1: éveil. A.N. a friend warning. Things get... graphic at one point.
Chapter 1
"The stars they look warm... and inviting... waiting for us, isn't it?"
Someone spoke softly in my ears, a man, as my mind was lost in the limbo of half sleep.
"Places to be explored. Knowledge to be had. Riches to be made..."
I felt his breath on my neck making my body shiver with fear as the heavy weight on my eyelids kept them shut.
"But, we will not always be welcome. Those who came before may not be willing to share... It is the way of things, it is... inevitable."
What was happening? I remembered waking up, breakfast, going to school then nothing? What happened? Did I get kidnapped?
"Dark times are coming. There is something out there to protect humanity against."
I was cold, no, I was freezing from head to toes, as what the voice just said sunk inside my brain word after word. Battling against the drowsiness I slowly managed to move my lips and a half-formed word slipped out.
"Wua?"
There was silence. For a second. For an eternity.
"I am so sorry Taylor."
I screamed a purely animal wail as everything I could be aware of becoming pains and the world faded around me.
It was water entering my mouth that woke me up and as soon as I understood that I was underwater I tried to swim. I flayed my arms around trying to find the surface and get some much-needed air as quickly as I could but, I couldn't see anything in the darkness and I could have swum deeper for all I knew. My head finally broke the surface and I inhaled air in one giant gulp, my relief was so intense I couldn't stop the smile from rising to my lips.
I was terrified, I didn't know where I was, how I got there, who was the man from before and if he did this to me, I was feeling weak, my arms and legs were on fire, and the water around me felt warmer than what water should ever felt in the middle of winter.
I couldn't see very far and everything was bathed in a blood-red light coming somewhere above, nevertheless, I saw what looked like a pier or a beach in the distance and I ungracefully swam in its direction using whatever strength the adrenaline rushing through my veins gave me. When I finally felt solid steel under my feet relief seized me, and I took a few shaky steps before falling to my knees, raspy cough to get the water out of my lungs and my body trembling like a leaf as much as in exhaustion than in fear.
Then I heard a noise a strange whining sound in the distance, I started to turn around but barely a few seconds later there was a loud crashing noise and the ground shook strongly enough to send me sprawling on the ground with a dull thud, leaving me moaning on the ground. There I still managed to turn my head to get a good look at whatever made that I quickly regretted that decision as I felt my pulse quicken and my eyes widen.
Its height was more akin to that of a mountain than anything else, I could barely perceive the top from down there. A purple body having a vague resemblance with that of a cuttlefish or maybe a squid, with a main bulky and large body sharpening toward the top. Five, mile long and massive, legs supporting it above the ground. All of it made in a gleaming purple alloy with blue light coming from spots between metal plates.
The only word reasoning inside my mind again and again, and again was Endbringer. But, as I was hyperventilating I could hear something else, another word, pronounced with much more dread starting to grow... and with it came other things, a jumbling mess of things.
It was a single word. A simple word. Mom had always loved words. I love you, mom. My mouth opened for the first time of my own consent and of it came, the word. Hardly anything more than a whisper said with a shaky voice.
"Reaper."
And I realized my terrifying mistake when the Reaper turned its undivided attention towards me, its massive legs shaking the ground as he turned to face me. And He responded, by blasting a sound, like a foghorn, so loud it physically pressed me against the ground like an entire building just fell on me and I could feel it gripping my mind.
"Reaper. A label created by the Protheans to give voice to their destruction, in the end, what they choose to call us is irrelevant, we simply. Are."
His voice was artificial without any kind of emotion, booming and powerful. It enveloped me in a cold cocoon of sound, I could fell its pressure on my shivering body.
I heard footsteps close to my right and in an Alexandrian effort, I managed to turn my head and slightly open my mouth to whisper a pathetic cry for help to the thing walking towards me in long strides. It wasn't human, body built strangely with legs bend in ode shapes, three-fingered hands and a head more akin to that of a raptor than of a man. My eyes lingered on his cybernetic arm and again my mind suddenly supplied a name. Saren.
"You have no idea what stands before you."
He spat the words like my very presence in this place was an affront to him. His eyes were crazed with blind faith.
"You are out of your depth."
Another voice said from another angle I could barely see at the edge of my vision, a voice I already heard just before all this happened but this time it was as colder and contemptuous, it was a man's voice I was sure of it, then why couldn't I shake the feeling that it was mine?
"Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh, you touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding. "
I pathetically whined in pain on the ground as the Reaper spoke once more, vaporizing any will to move I had. Saren and the not me had continued walking imperturbed by the Reaper and were now standing above me, walking in circles as they continued to spoke, like vultures waiting for me to die.
"You are bacteria, germs."
Saren dismissed with a wave of his hand. When he walked out of my field of vision, the man/not me replaced him, tall, going in his sixties, greying hair, face covered in machinery, a suit, and cybernetics blue eyes. He pointed an accusing finger at me.
"There are choices that are coming that you are not equipped to make."
Then he disappeared out of my field of vision and Saren was here again while the reaper continued to speak uncaringly and commanding.
"There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension."
"If we work with the Reapers... if we make ourselves useful..."
Then he walked out and the man came back, and I saw him change before my eyes as he spoke.
"My goal is to save Humanity, at any cost."
His hair growing, curling and darkening, his suits adapting itself to the body of a woman and his voices became strikingly familiar. I would have screamed in terror, I could not even do that apart whine and cower as I stared at the same face I stared at every morning in the mirror.
Mine.
"We have no beginning. We have no end. We are infinite."
I could feel each and every one of his words pounding my mind like hammers, relentless, uncaring.
"I am forging an alliance between us and the Reapers, between organics and machines. My way is the only way any of us will survive!"
Saren said, arms wide open, inviting... Soon he was replaced with... Her... She walked with confidence, arrogance, her words dripping content.
"When we learned there was more to the galaxy than we imagined. That our place in the universe is more fragile than we'd like to think. They were scared of what we'd find. Terrified of what we might let in."
I started to cry uncontrollably. I wanted to be home.
"We are each a nation - independent, free of all weakness."
Suddenly Saren was on me, I saw dark spots on the edge of my vision as my heart shot up against my chest. He spoke to me like to a child.
"Organics and machines intertwined, a union of fleshes and skills, the strength of both, the weakness of Neither!"
"You cannot grasp the nature of our existence."
The woman didn't come back in my field of vision but I heard her just behind me, her voice hard and with it, there were flashes of memories. NO, IT IS NOT ME!
"Since that discovery we've advanced more than the past ten thousand years combined! The reapers will do the same for us."
Saren gripped me by the throat lifting me up until I was looking at his eyes. I clawed weakly at his arms as he strangled me.
"Do not mire yourself in pointless revolt."
"We are legion."
He tossed me aside like a ragdoll. I crashed onto a pile of corpses, dead eyes fixed on me and mouth agape in wordless screams. I threw up. Promptly a hand grabbed my hair and violently pulled me with it.
"Don't let idealism blind you."
"The time of our return is coming."
The woman coldly said, letting my hair go, I didn't have any time to catch my breath as I was kicked in the stomach and fell off the pill, crashing and rolling as I went down before splashing in a pool of water. No, not water. Blood.
"Do not sacrifice everything in the name of petty freedoms."
"Our numbers will darken the sky of every world."
I heard Saren voice as he walked quickly towards me, even as the Reaper drowned on and on. I barely managed to crawl a few centimeters away when I felt his foot on my back pushing me down into the blood. Then I was lifted up by my hair again, limp.
"They're just trying to control us. Think about it: If they wanted all organic life destroyed, they could do it. There would be nothing left."
It was horrific, to look at your own face so... mangled... so...
"You cannot escape your doom."
I wanted it to end.
"I believe in them completely. Join us!"
I cried.
"Control is the mean to Survival!"
I was going to die.
"Is submission not preferable to extinction?"
It was inevitable.
"This is the way Humanity must evolve."
It was the only logical conclusion.
"There is no other logical conclusion."
"Organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation, an accident. Your lives are measured in years and decades. You wither and die. We are eternal, the pinnacle of evolution and existence."
I felt it. I was giving in. My will was fading away. I was alone. I've always been alone. Nobody would miss me, nobody would help me. I was going to die, terrified, trapped in my own body as what was left of my mind would be eroded away. I was just a fifteen years old girl.
I didn't want to die...
"Before us, you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We are the end of everything. "
I saw war. Peoples, families, flying for their life and relentlessly cut down by husks. Kilometers tall skyscrapers blasted away by the red beam of Reapers main weapon. Soldiers fighting desperate battles and last stand to give only a few more seconds of life to others. Fleets of spaceships throwing themselves in the paths of Reapers hoping against hope to slow them down. Children geared for war, looking at their world on fire with dead eyes as Reaper walked slowly toward them. Bodies and peoples pushed inside giant pools and quickly dissolved or transformed into new husks. Brothers fought with each others, as indoctrinated slaves turned against old friends, selling them to the Reapers. The entire galaxy screaming for help, for anyone, as one by one each world fell silent until only the silence was left.
"There is no war. Only the Harvest."
... but, it was inevitable.
"Our enemy had a single goal."
A whisper at the edge of my mind, spoken softly, sadly.
"The extinction of all advanced organics lives."
I grasped it. With the strength of a drowning man.
"All evidence of the Reaper invasion had been wiped away. Only their indoctrinated slaves were left behind, abandoned."
Hoping, against hope.
"You must break a cycle that has continued for millions of years. But, to stop it you must understand. Or you will make the same mistakes we did."
I felt a warm and fatherly embrace on my mind.
"Perhaps there is still hope."
"This is our destiny, join us and experience a True Rebirth."
Saren's voice cut through it like a hot knife would through butter. I choose to ignore him even as he started to beat my body black and blue, clutching the smallest tiny sliver of hope as more whispering voice came forth.
"There's hope Jack! Stop thinking for once and feel! I'm not giving up."
A woman's voice, who... Eva? Is that you? but you're...
"I love you, little owl. I always have and always will."
Mom? Mom, I'm sorry!
"Shepard's right. Humanity is ready to do its part. United with the rest of the Council, we have the strength to overcome any obstacle."
Anderson... Captain Anderson... I know him too, a good man. They're...
"When the Reapers come, we must stand side by side. We must fight against them as one. And together we can drive them back into dark space!"
They're right. I can't give up. It's what they wanted me to do. All of them. Emma, Sophia, Madison, the Reapers. They wanted me to forget who I was, to force me to fight against what I believed.
"We are the pinnacle of evolution, immortal, unfathomable, perfect."
Saren's voice was nothing like before, sounding like a machine more than someone alive, and the one who had my face was snarling, hate in her gaze as she gripped my head in her hands, her fingers lingering on my face.
"I AM the pinnacle of our species."
She shoved her fingers in my eyes. I howled in pain and tried to shove her away from me as her nails were thrusting inside my eyeballs making them pop and she continued scratching the bones behind them. I fell to the ground, clutching empty eye sockets.
"Your mind will be mine."
Tendrils pressed themselves on my mind, digging. Trying to assert their hold on their prey. It was so easy to just... give in. I was so... tired of the pain.
"Don't let them win! Don't let them control you! Break their hold!"
A woman, a very specific woman. No power of any kind, apart from sheer will. A force of nature that moved the entire galaxy against the Reaper and won. I remember as I was there on the Citadel speaking with her and when I shoved a bullet through my guts. I followed her example. I fought back, screaming, kicking, punching whatever was around me despite the fact I couldn't see a damn thing.
"You resist but you Will Fail."
The Reaper started to move, towards me, I could felt it.
Suddenly someone was at my side, putting my arm around his too wide shoulder, helping me walk away from this place.
"What's the point of advancing a species to its physical peak if you sacrifice intelligence?"
His voice was younger, more alive and sure of itself, surprised I mumbled.
"Saren? Is that you?"
"Enough. I am an Arterius but, I am also sworn to defend my people. I have a duty to Palaven."
"You exist because we allow it."
I could hear behind us dozen and dozen of feets pounding on the ground. The younger Saren let me go and pushed me forward.
"I wish I could stay to see what happens but, I have to take care of a few things."
Before I could say anything, a hand grabbed mine and I was drawn away. In the distance, behind me, I heard gunshots and growls. The hand was strange, shifting between an old man hands, to young effeminate ones.
"We're at war."
I heard the strange mix of my voice and an older man's voice superposing themselves as... she, he spoke. The gunshots suddenly fell silent and the growls grew in intensities.
"No one wants to admit it, but humanity is under attack. Blaming it on fate and burying their heads in the sand. It is easier and more convenient."
We stopped, I felt her, he strapping something to my right hands before pushing me forward. I heard the sound of fighting just a few meters behind me and felt something trying to grab me. I kicked it as I started running away uncaring of the fact I was blind. If I stopped I was dead, If I ran into something sharp or fell to my death I was also dead but, I had to try, I had to fight, to not go down easy. Times and times again something tried to grab me or made me fall on the ground, each time despite the pain I fought back like a possessed woman before running away as fast as I could.
"And you will end because we demand it."
The only things that kept me going were hope and will, despite my blindness, my face covered in blood, my heart beating madly in my chest and my body on fire under the effort.
"Your words are as empty as your future."
But, now I could hear other voices, in front of me, growing closer and closer after each footstep. I used them to find my way, the air became less cold and warmer, the light on my skin filled me with energy and no longer undermining it. I felt the growl behind me slowly dying down and pushed away, nevertheless I continued to run until a hand on my torso stopped me and a woman I knew very well spoke.
"However insignificant we might be."
She passed behind me, enveloping me in a motherly hug for a moment. My adrenaline filled body started to fail me. I felt my legs grow weak again and the pain, where my eyes once were, was increasing.
"We will fight, We will sacrifice and We will find a way. That's what humans do."
She let me go, gently pushing me forward, I didn't want to. I wobbled on my legs, once, twice then something broke around me, like I passed through a panel of glass. I managed to take another step before my body finally gave up.
As consciousness abandoned me I heard the opening of a door, hurried footsteps and worried voices.
A.N.
Now that I put that out there I'm feeling better. This had been in my "in progres" folder for... quite a while. Now i'm also working on my other story and when I will be able to have enough time I will return to my quest, for them I wish to be able to write everyday and I cannot do such a thing right now.
I could do slight edit to this in the next few hours/days but nothing major. adjusting a word here and here or correcting error.
Arc 1: éveil.
Chapter 1, Taylor,
Chapter 2, Daniel,
Chapter 3, Director Piggot,
Chapter 4, The Warrior,
Chapter 5, The Vanguard,
Chapter 6, Admiral White,
Chapter 7, Jana,
Arc2: doute.
+*+*+*+
Arc 1: éveil. A.N. a friend warning. Things get... graphic at one point.
Chapter 1
"The stars they look warm... and inviting... waiting for us, isn't it?"
Someone spoke softly in my ears, a man, as my mind was lost in the limbo of half sleep.
"Places to be explored. Knowledge to be had. Riches to be made..."
I felt his breath on my neck making my body shiver with fear as the heavy weight on my eyelids kept them shut.
"But, we will not always be welcome. Those who came before may not be willing to share... It is the way of things, it is... inevitable."
What was happening? I remembered waking up, breakfast, going to school then nothing? What happened? Did I get kidnapped?
"Dark times are coming. There is something out there to protect humanity against."
I was cold, no, I was freezing from head to toes, as what the voice just said sunk inside my brain word after word. Battling against the drowsiness I slowly managed to move my lips and a half-formed word slipped out.
"Wua?"
There was silence. For a second. For an eternity.
"I am so sorry Taylor."
I screamed a purely animal wail as everything I could be aware of becoming pains and the world faded around me.
*+*+*+*
It was water entering my mouth that woke me up and as soon as I understood that I was underwater I tried to swim. I flayed my arms around trying to find the surface and get some much-needed air as quickly as I could but, I couldn't see anything in the darkness and I could have swum deeper for all I knew. My head finally broke the surface and I inhaled air in one giant gulp, my relief was so intense I couldn't stop the smile from rising to my lips.
I was terrified, I didn't know where I was, how I got there, who was the man from before and if he did this to me, I was feeling weak, my arms and legs were on fire, and the water around me felt warmer than what water should ever felt in the middle of winter.
I couldn't see very far and everything was bathed in a blood-red light coming somewhere above, nevertheless, I saw what looked like a pier or a beach in the distance and I ungracefully swam in its direction using whatever strength the adrenaline rushing through my veins gave me. When I finally felt solid steel under my feet relief seized me, and I took a few shaky steps before falling to my knees, raspy cough to get the water out of my lungs and my body trembling like a leaf as much as in exhaustion than in fear.
Then I heard a noise a strange whining sound in the distance, I started to turn around but barely a few seconds later there was a loud crashing noise and the ground shook strongly enough to send me sprawling on the ground with a dull thud, leaving me moaning on the ground. There I still managed to turn my head to get a good look at whatever made that I quickly regretted that decision as I felt my pulse quicken and my eyes widen.
Its height was more akin to that of a mountain than anything else, I could barely perceive the top from down there. A purple body having a vague resemblance with that of a cuttlefish or maybe a squid, with a main bulky and large body sharpening toward the top. Five, mile long and massive, legs supporting it above the ground. All of it made in a gleaming purple alloy with blue light coming from spots between metal plates.
The only word reasoning inside my mind again and again, and again was Endbringer. But, as I was hyperventilating I could hear something else, another word, pronounced with much more dread starting to grow... and with it came other things, a jumbling mess of things.
It was a single word. A simple word. Mom had always loved words. I love you, mom. My mouth opened for the first time of my own consent and of it came, the word. Hardly anything more than a whisper said with a shaky voice.
"Reaper."
And I realized my terrifying mistake when the Reaper turned its undivided attention towards me, its massive legs shaking the ground as he turned to face me. And He responded, by blasting a sound, like a foghorn, so loud it physically pressed me against the ground like an entire building just fell on me and I could feel it gripping my mind.
"Reaper. A label created by the Protheans to give voice to their destruction, in the end, what they choose to call us is irrelevant, we simply. Are."
His voice was artificial without any kind of emotion, booming and powerful. It enveloped me in a cold cocoon of sound, I could fell its pressure on my shivering body.
I heard footsteps close to my right and in an Alexandrian effort, I managed to turn my head and slightly open my mouth to whisper a pathetic cry for help to the thing walking towards me in long strides. It wasn't human, body built strangely with legs bend in ode shapes, three-fingered hands and a head more akin to that of a raptor than of a man. My eyes lingered on his cybernetic arm and again my mind suddenly supplied a name. Saren.
"You have no idea what stands before you."
He spat the words like my very presence in this place was an affront to him. His eyes were crazed with blind faith.
"You are out of your depth."
Another voice said from another angle I could barely see at the edge of my vision, a voice I already heard just before all this happened but this time it was as colder and contemptuous, it was a man's voice I was sure of it, then why couldn't I shake the feeling that it was mine?
"Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh, you touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding. "
I pathetically whined in pain on the ground as the Reaper spoke once more, vaporizing any will to move I had. Saren and the not me had continued walking imperturbed by the Reaper and were now standing above me, walking in circles as they continued to spoke, like vultures waiting for me to die.
"You are bacteria, germs."
Saren dismissed with a wave of his hand. When he walked out of my field of vision, the man/not me replaced him, tall, going in his sixties, greying hair, face covered in machinery, a suit, and cybernetics blue eyes. He pointed an accusing finger at me.
"There are choices that are coming that you are not equipped to make."
Then he disappeared out of my field of vision and Saren was here again while the reaper continued to speak uncaringly and commanding.
"There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension."
"If we work with the Reapers... if we make ourselves useful..."
Then he walked out and the man came back, and I saw him change before my eyes as he spoke.
"My goal is to save Humanity, at any cost."
His hair growing, curling and darkening, his suits adapting itself to the body of a woman and his voices became strikingly familiar. I would have screamed in terror, I could not even do that apart whine and cower as I stared at the same face I stared at every morning in the mirror.
Mine.
"We have no beginning. We have no end. We are infinite."
I could feel each and every one of his words pounding my mind like hammers, relentless, uncaring.
"I am forging an alliance between us and the Reapers, between organics and machines. My way is the only way any of us will survive!"
Saren said, arms wide open, inviting... Soon he was replaced with... Her... She walked with confidence, arrogance, her words dripping content.
"When we learned there was more to the galaxy than we imagined. That our place in the universe is more fragile than we'd like to think. They were scared of what we'd find. Terrified of what we might let in."
I started to cry uncontrollably. I wanted to be home.
"We are each a nation - independent, free of all weakness."
Suddenly Saren was on me, I saw dark spots on the edge of my vision as my heart shot up against my chest. He spoke to me like to a child.
"Organics and machines intertwined, a union of fleshes and skills, the strength of both, the weakness of Neither!"
"You cannot grasp the nature of our existence."
The woman didn't come back in my field of vision but I heard her just behind me, her voice hard and with it, there were flashes of memories. NO, IT IS NOT ME!
"Since that discovery we've advanced more than the past ten thousand years combined! The reapers will do the same for us."
Saren gripped me by the throat lifting me up until I was looking at his eyes. I clawed weakly at his arms as he strangled me.
"Do not mire yourself in pointless revolt."
"We are legion."
He tossed me aside like a ragdoll. I crashed onto a pile of corpses, dead eyes fixed on me and mouth agape in wordless screams. I threw up. Promptly a hand grabbed my hair and violently pulled me with it.
"Don't let idealism blind you."
"The time of our return is coming."
The woman coldly said, letting my hair go, I didn't have any time to catch my breath as I was kicked in the stomach and fell off the pill, crashing and rolling as I went down before splashing in a pool of water. No, not water. Blood.
"Do not sacrifice everything in the name of petty freedoms."
"Our numbers will darken the sky of every world."
I heard Saren voice as he walked quickly towards me, even as the Reaper drowned on and on. I barely managed to crawl a few centimeters away when I felt his foot on my back pushing me down into the blood. Then I was lifted up by my hair again, limp.
"They're just trying to control us. Think about it: If they wanted all organic life destroyed, they could do it. There would be nothing left."
It was horrific, to look at your own face so... mangled... so...
"You cannot escape your doom."
I wanted it to end.
"I believe in them completely. Join us!"
I cried.
"Control is the mean to Survival!"
I was going to die.
"Is submission not preferable to extinction?"
It was inevitable.
"This is the way Humanity must evolve."
It was the only logical conclusion.
"There is no other logical conclusion."
"Organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation, an accident. Your lives are measured in years and decades. You wither and die. We are eternal, the pinnacle of evolution and existence."
I felt it. I was giving in. My will was fading away. I was alone. I've always been alone. Nobody would miss me, nobody would help me. I was going to die, terrified, trapped in my own body as what was left of my mind would be eroded away. I was just a fifteen years old girl.
I didn't want to die...
"Before us, you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We are the end of everything. "
I saw war. Peoples, families, flying for their life and relentlessly cut down by husks. Kilometers tall skyscrapers blasted away by the red beam of Reapers main weapon. Soldiers fighting desperate battles and last stand to give only a few more seconds of life to others. Fleets of spaceships throwing themselves in the paths of Reapers hoping against hope to slow them down. Children geared for war, looking at their world on fire with dead eyes as Reaper walked slowly toward them. Bodies and peoples pushed inside giant pools and quickly dissolved or transformed into new husks. Brothers fought with each others, as indoctrinated slaves turned against old friends, selling them to the Reapers. The entire galaxy screaming for help, for anyone, as one by one each world fell silent until only the silence was left.
"There is no war. Only the Harvest."
... but, it was inevitable.
"Our enemy had a single goal."
A whisper at the edge of my mind, spoken softly, sadly.
"The extinction of all advanced organics lives."
I grasped it. With the strength of a drowning man.
"All evidence of the Reaper invasion had been wiped away. Only their indoctrinated slaves were left behind, abandoned."
Hoping, against hope.
"You must break a cycle that has continued for millions of years. But, to stop it you must understand. Or you will make the same mistakes we did."
I felt a warm and fatherly embrace on my mind.
"Perhaps there is still hope."
"This is our destiny, join us and experience a True Rebirth."
Saren's voice cut through it like a hot knife would through butter. I choose to ignore him even as he started to beat my body black and blue, clutching the smallest tiny sliver of hope as more whispering voice came forth.
"There's hope Jack! Stop thinking for once and feel! I'm not giving up."
A woman's voice, who... Eva? Is that you? but you're...
"I love you, little owl. I always have and always will."
Mom? Mom, I'm sorry!
"Shepard's right. Humanity is ready to do its part. United with the rest of the Council, we have the strength to overcome any obstacle."
Anderson... Captain Anderson... I know him too, a good man. They're...
"When the Reapers come, we must stand side by side. We must fight against them as one. And together we can drive them back into dark space!"
They're right. I can't give up. It's what they wanted me to do. All of them. Emma, Sophia, Madison, the Reapers. They wanted me to forget who I was, to force me to fight against what I believed.
"We are the pinnacle of evolution, immortal, unfathomable, perfect."
Saren's voice was nothing like before, sounding like a machine more than someone alive, and the one who had my face was snarling, hate in her gaze as she gripped my head in her hands, her fingers lingering on my face.
"I AM the pinnacle of our species."
She shoved her fingers in my eyes. I howled in pain and tried to shove her away from me as her nails were thrusting inside my eyeballs making them pop and she continued scratching the bones behind them. I fell to the ground, clutching empty eye sockets.
"Your mind will be mine."
Tendrils pressed themselves on my mind, digging. Trying to assert their hold on their prey. It was so easy to just... give in. I was so... tired of the pain.
"Don't let them win! Don't let them control you! Break their hold!"
A woman, a very specific woman. No power of any kind, apart from sheer will. A force of nature that moved the entire galaxy against the Reaper and won. I remember as I was there on the Citadel speaking with her and when I shoved a bullet through my guts. I followed her example. I fought back, screaming, kicking, punching whatever was around me despite the fact I couldn't see a damn thing.
"You resist but you Will Fail."
The Reaper started to move, towards me, I could felt it.
Suddenly someone was at my side, putting my arm around his too wide shoulder, helping me walk away from this place.
"What's the point of advancing a species to its physical peak if you sacrifice intelligence?"
His voice was younger, more alive and sure of itself, surprised I mumbled.
"Saren? Is that you?"
"Enough. I am an Arterius but, I am also sworn to defend my people. I have a duty to Palaven."
"You exist because we allow it."
I could hear behind us dozen and dozen of feets pounding on the ground. The younger Saren let me go and pushed me forward.
"I wish I could stay to see what happens but, I have to take care of a few things."
Before I could say anything, a hand grabbed mine and I was drawn away. In the distance, behind me, I heard gunshots and growls. The hand was strange, shifting between an old man hands, to young effeminate ones.
"We're at war."
I heard the strange mix of my voice and an older man's voice superposing themselves as... she, he spoke. The gunshots suddenly fell silent and the growls grew in intensities.
"No one wants to admit it, but humanity is under attack. Blaming it on fate and burying their heads in the sand. It is easier and more convenient."
We stopped, I felt her, he strapping something to my right hands before pushing me forward. I heard the sound of fighting just a few meters behind me and felt something trying to grab me. I kicked it as I started running away uncaring of the fact I was blind. If I stopped I was dead, If I ran into something sharp or fell to my death I was also dead but, I had to try, I had to fight, to not go down easy. Times and times again something tried to grab me or made me fall on the ground, each time despite the pain I fought back like a possessed woman before running away as fast as I could.
"And you will end because we demand it."
The only things that kept me going were hope and will, despite my blindness, my face covered in blood, my heart beating madly in my chest and my body on fire under the effort.
"Your words are as empty as your future."
But, now I could hear other voices, in front of me, growing closer and closer after each footstep. I used them to find my way, the air became less cold and warmer, the light on my skin filled me with energy and no longer undermining it. I felt the growl behind me slowly dying down and pushed away, nevertheless I continued to run until a hand on my torso stopped me and a woman I knew very well spoke.
"However insignificant we might be."
She passed behind me, enveloping me in a motherly hug for a moment. My adrenaline filled body started to fail me. I felt my legs grow weak again and the pain, where my eyes once were, was increasing.
"We will fight, We will sacrifice and We will find a way. That's what humans do."
She let me go, gently pushing me forward, I didn't want to. I wobbled on my legs, once, twice then something broke around me, like I passed through a panel of glass. I managed to take another step before my body finally gave up.
As consciousness abandoned me I heard the opening of a door, hurried footsteps and worried voices.
*+*+*+*
A.N.
Now that I put that out there I'm feeling better. This had been in my "in progres" folder for... quite a while. Now i'm also working on my other story and when I will be able to have enough time I will return to my quest, for them I wish to be able to write everyday and I cannot do such a thing right now.
I could do slight edit to this in the next few hours/days but nothing major. adjusting a word here and here or correcting error.
Last edited:
- Location
- Everett
There's some punctuation issues in here, but all in all, it's intriguing. I shall watch.
- Location
- Following The Apocalypse
Holy Shit. I reeling from reading that. I felt a dozen different emotions throughout this. you are an amazing writer. I really want to know what exactly just happened, what did Taylor just get, is Earth Bet in the Mass Effect universe? So Many Questions!
Night_stalker
Slava Ukraini!
- Pronouns
- He/Him
This seems interesting.
Arc 1: éveil, Chapter 2
Wolfund
{Verified Historian}
- Location
- France
Arc 1: éveil.
Chapter 2
Strange how his feet always managed to make him return to the same place even after all those years.
He sat at the edge of the pier, feet dangling above the sea and arms resting on the lower bar of the railing. He stayed like that for long minutes, his visible breath the only thing proving he was truly alive, staring at the horizon.
The sky above was clear, not even the hint of a cloud, apart from a singular golden speck barely discernable high above. The sea was calm as far as the eye could see, a sea of oil as his grandfather would have said if he was still alive.
He had to come here. It was... necessary.
He couldn't stay in the house anymore. The silence there was... suffocating. A reminder of what he lost. The cold other side of the bed. The lack of footstep in the stairs in the morning. The absence of the sound of pen on paper in his daughter's room late in the night. The dust that started to appear in places recently occupied.
Staying in his house after his wife died was a burden but, with his daughter gone too, it was akin to living in the middle of gravestones, each one dedicated to their dreams for the future, all of them dead and gone.
That fateful day he was in his office at the Union, doing whatever, probably reading contracts or something else, a pretty normal day since Annette died.
Then there was a sudden flash of red light coming from the City, it was gone so fast he remember frowning as if he had imagined it. A second later, he was proven wrong when the sound of a massive explosion reached his ears, the building shook and the windows shattered inwards under the strength of the blast. He remembers it like it was but a few hours ago.
He doesn't exactly remember what happened after that, nor how he managed to find himself in front of what once was Winslow High yelling in the face of an officer, nor how he found himself in his daughter room later that day, sitting on her bed elbow on knee and head in hands, hoping against hope that she was okay. Things had become... nebulous in those moments.
But as the days passed without any good news, when he failed to hear her open the front door or her voice calling for him in the living room, he had to accept the truth. That his daughter would not come back. Since that realization, he found himself numb to the outside world, not even capable of being angry even if he wanted, his strength having deserted him.
"I knew you would be there Daniel."
A voice cut right through his internal speech. Alan Barnes leaned against the railing a meter away from him.
"It's strange, isn't it... that even after all those years we are still drawn to this place when things become..."
His voice broke, silence fell only disturbed by the strangled sob of his friend.
"How is Emma?"
Alan response was cut by heavy breath over a wavering voice.
"They... The doctors... They don't know... If she will wake up again. They say she was lucky to be alive... and one of the first Panacea... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Danny."
Daniel glanced at Alan who was openly sobbing, head resting on the railing, body shaking and hands over his head.
He didn't know what to do, he wanted to be angry, he wanted to get up and punch him, screaming like a madman at his face, yelling how fucking stupid it was for him to sob and tell him he was sorry when his entire family was Alive when meanwhile his daughter and wife were dead, while he had all the money he wanted for his family while he had to count every fucking cent.
But he just couldn't. All strength had long since vanished from him, so he just stared blankly at Alan before replying.
"I know."
His voice comes out hoarse with disuse and dehydration. He didn't have anything else to say so he returned gazing at the horizon.
He wondered what he should do.
The only thing that managed to keep him going when Annette died was his job and now even that seemed hollow. He realized he should have spent more time with his daughter, but those realizations are always so easy when the other one is gone.
He should have spoken more with her, to find what troubled her so much in the last few months. He should have taken her out more often to reconnect with her. He should have taken some days off to take care of her.
He should...
He should...
He should have been there.
But he was not.
And now she is gone.
And now he is alone.
He wondered if he should laugh. But, there was another question at the tip of his tongue, mayhaps some sort of morbid curiosity.
"Alan? Do you know what happened at Winslow? I don't remember what I did..."
He looked at Alan, the puffy and tired eyes of his friend had a hint of incredulity in them.
"You... you don't remember?"
"Nothing."
Alan opened his mouth in surprise before he started laughing. It wasn't a pleasant one, hollow and born of grief more than amusement.
"You lost it, that's what happened Danny. I don't know how as you were already punching your way through the cops when I arrived. You're lucky they had other things to do than arrest you when I managed to calm you."
He hummed, so that's what happened.
It was the third time he broke his self-made oath. The first was when he was talking to a mayor's aide. When he told him that the revival projects for the Docks were canceled and there would only be layoff and no new jobs for the weakening Union. The second was also the first, only and last time he truly lost his temper with his wife, less than a few hours later she was dead. And now he lost his temper the day his daughter died...
It was strange how each time he lost his temper marked his failures in life. His job at the union as more akin to screaming in the desert, his wife was dead because he had screamed at her and his daughter had been... killed and once again he lost his temper.
He wondered if his oath was a curse he inflicted on himself, and if now he was free of it, now that he didn't have any family of his own anymore...
Maybe...
He suddenly remarked that while he continued to monologue in his head, Alan had continued speaking and was now yelling, balancing back and forth hand gripping the railing until his articulation were white.
Strange, from both Alan had always been the calmer one. At least more than himself and his father's temper Daniel pondered.
"... and they don't fucking know what happened? You believed that? You seriously believed that? I'm a fucking lawyer! My job is to lie and know when people lie! She's lying to us! They know! They know what happened to our daughters and who is respo..."
He muted Alan again and looked at the horizon once more.
The sky above was clear, not even the hint of a cloud, apart from a singular golden speck barely discernable high above. The sea was calm as far as the eye could see, a sea of oil as his grandfather would have said if he was still alive.
And he continued to wonder how strange it was that his feet always managed to make him return to the same place even after all those years.
He never brought Taylor here.
He should have.
And now.
He cannot.
A.N.
And here it is. New chapter, a completely new take on the old version and also closer to what I wanted to show at first but never managed too. Update will range between once a week to once every two week if I manage to do the v2 of All quiet on Earth but, i'm not against taking more times to write since I prefere to put something good than rushing things.
Chapter 2
Strange how his feet always managed to make him return to the same place even after all those years.
He sat at the edge of the pier, feet dangling above the sea and arms resting on the lower bar of the railing. He stayed like that for long minutes, his visible breath the only thing proving he was truly alive, staring at the horizon.
The sky above was clear, not even the hint of a cloud, apart from a singular golden speck barely discernable high above. The sea was calm as far as the eye could see, a sea of oil as his grandfather would have said if he was still alive.
He had to come here. It was... necessary.
He couldn't stay in the house anymore. The silence there was... suffocating. A reminder of what he lost. The cold other side of the bed. The lack of footstep in the stairs in the morning. The absence of the sound of pen on paper in his daughter's room late in the night. The dust that started to appear in places recently occupied.
Staying in his house after his wife died was a burden but, with his daughter gone too, it was akin to living in the middle of gravestones, each one dedicated to their dreams for the future, all of them dead and gone.
That fateful day he was in his office at the Union, doing whatever, probably reading contracts or something else, a pretty normal day since Annette died.
Then there was a sudden flash of red light coming from the City, it was gone so fast he remember frowning as if he had imagined it. A second later, he was proven wrong when the sound of a massive explosion reached his ears, the building shook and the windows shattered inwards under the strength of the blast. He remembers it like it was but a few hours ago.
He doesn't exactly remember what happened after that, nor how he managed to find himself in front of what once was Winslow High yelling in the face of an officer, nor how he found himself in his daughter room later that day, sitting on her bed elbow on knee and head in hands, hoping against hope that she was okay. Things had become... nebulous in those moments.
But as the days passed without any good news, when he failed to hear her open the front door or her voice calling for him in the living room, he had to accept the truth. That his daughter would not come back. Since that realization, he found himself numb to the outside world, not even capable of being angry even if he wanted, his strength having deserted him.
"I knew you would be there Daniel."
A voice cut right through his internal speech. Alan Barnes leaned against the railing a meter away from him.
"It's strange, isn't it... that even after all those years we are still drawn to this place when things become..."
His voice broke, silence fell only disturbed by the strangled sob of his friend.
"How is Emma?"
Alan response was cut by heavy breath over a wavering voice.
"They... The doctors... They don't know... If she will wake up again. They say she was lucky to be alive... and one of the first Panacea... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Danny."
Daniel glanced at Alan who was openly sobbing, head resting on the railing, body shaking and hands over his head.
He didn't know what to do, he wanted to be angry, he wanted to get up and punch him, screaming like a madman at his face, yelling how fucking stupid it was for him to sob and tell him he was sorry when his entire family was Alive when meanwhile his daughter and wife were dead, while he had all the money he wanted for his family while he had to count every fucking cent.
But he just couldn't. All strength had long since vanished from him, so he just stared blankly at Alan before replying.
"I know."
His voice comes out hoarse with disuse and dehydration. He didn't have anything else to say so he returned gazing at the horizon.
He wondered what he should do.
The only thing that managed to keep him going when Annette died was his job and now even that seemed hollow. He realized he should have spent more time with his daughter, but those realizations are always so easy when the other one is gone.
He should have spoken more with her, to find what troubled her so much in the last few months. He should have taken her out more often to reconnect with her. He should have taken some days off to take care of her.
He should...
He should...
He should have been there.
But he was not.
And now she is gone.
And now he is alone.
He wondered if he should laugh. But, there was another question at the tip of his tongue, mayhaps some sort of morbid curiosity.
"Alan? Do you know what happened at Winslow? I don't remember what I did..."
He looked at Alan, the puffy and tired eyes of his friend had a hint of incredulity in them.
"You... you don't remember?"
"Nothing."
Alan opened his mouth in surprise before he started laughing. It wasn't a pleasant one, hollow and born of grief more than amusement.
"You lost it, that's what happened Danny. I don't know how as you were already punching your way through the cops when I arrived. You're lucky they had other things to do than arrest you when I managed to calm you."
He hummed, so that's what happened.
It was the third time he broke his self-made oath. The first was when he was talking to a mayor's aide. When he told him that the revival projects for the Docks were canceled and there would only be layoff and no new jobs for the weakening Union. The second was also the first, only and last time he truly lost his temper with his wife, less than a few hours later she was dead. And now he lost his temper the day his daughter died...
It was strange how each time he lost his temper marked his failures in life. His job at the union as more akin to screaming in the desert, his wife was dead because he had screamed at her and his daughter had been... killed and once again he lost his temper.
He wondered if his oath was a curse he inflicted on himself, and if now he was free of it, now that he didn't have any family of his own anymore...
Maybe...
He suddenly remarked that while he continued to monologue in his head, Alan had continued speaking and was now yelling, balancing back and forth hand gripping the railing until his articulation were white.
Strange, from both Alan had always been the calmer one. At least more than himself and his father's temper Daniel pondered.
"... and they don't fucking know what happened? You believed that? You seriously believed that? I'm a fucking lawyer! My job is to lie and know when people lie! She's lying to us! They know! They know what happened to our daughters and who is respo..."
He muted Alan again and looked at the horizon once more.
The sky above was clear, not even the hint of a cloud, apart from a singular golden speck barely discernable high above. The sea was calm as far as the eye could see, a sea of oil as his grandfather would have said if he was still alive.
And he continued to wonder how strange it was that his feet always managed to make him return to the same place even after all those years.
He never brought Taylor here.
He should have.
And now.
He cannot.
+*+*+*+
A.N.
And here it is. New chapter, a completely new take on the old version and also closer to what I wanted to show at first but never managed too. Update will range between once a week to once every two week if I manage to do the v2 of All quiet on Earth but, i'm not against taking more times to write since I prefere to put something good than rushing things.
Last edited:
Animapower
Wise Fool
- Location
- At the tea party
Minor typo. You have my interest.
Wolfund
{Verified Historian}
- Location
- France
Last edited:
Arc 1: éveil, Chapter 3
Wolfund
{Verified Historian}
- Location
- France
I think I'm going to let the A.N. there for now on. Also I while continue responding to comment in this robotic VI way, mostly because it's very fun to write and I don't want to give spoiler.
I took an immense amount of pleasure writing the first half of this chapter, far less the second one, for reason that will soon be apparent. For those who remember interlude 16, you will find this chapter both similar and different, and you are right, it is something I wanted and hopefully will create the desired effect on you.
I am not against a rewrite of the last part later on, but, know that no information will change only the delivery form while, if it ever happens of course (probably not before arc1 entirely out and 2 completely planned and outlined) It was not the best but, at least, the less worst choice I had. Hopefuly it turned out okayish
Since the next two chapters are short and I don't want to make you wait a week for something that short they are going to be put online with only a few hours in between.
And btw, no beta for this chapter for the grammar error. and those that are still here were beyond my capacity to find sorry in advance i'm trying my best.
I took an immense amount of pleasure writing the first half of this chapter, far less the second one, for reason that will soon be apparent. For those who remember interlude 16, you will find this chapter both similar and different, and you are right, it is something I wanted and hopefully will create the desired effect on you.
I am not against a rewrite of the last part later on, but, know that no information will change only the delivery form while, if it ever happens of course (probably not before arc1 entirely out and 2 completely planned and outlined) It was not the best but, at least, the less worst choice I had. Hopefuly it turned out okayish
Since the next two chapters are short and I don't want to make you wait a week for something that short they are going to be put online with only a few hours in between.
And btw, no beta for this chapter for the grammar error. and those that are still here were beyond my capacity to find sorry in advance i'm trying my best.
Arc 1: éveil.
Chapter 3
Director Emily Piggot finished the last of her coffee, quietly taking in the literally otherworldy nature of the task ahead of her. Said Task was laying quite innocently on her pristine desk, in her new and hopefully temporary office, a single folder containing absolutely everything they knew related, directly or indirectly, to the Incident.
The slight breeze, coming from the open window of her new office, didn't disrupt the folder and already barely managed to make the ficus leaves moves.
Where before they would have been stack upon stack of mainly handwritten report, thanks to Shatterbird's capabilities to destroy anything silicon-based, she could now see the walls and floor of her office, they were a dull metallic grey like the rest of the Rig and they still smelled a little stale but, each passing day made the odor of coffee more and more present.
She looked at the city on the shore, frowning when, for the hundred times, its color seemed to bend and shift due to the forcefield protecting the PHQ. It was exactly like looking at an oversaturating TV. Anyone at any given time that would look at the city from within this shielded bubble would see a slightly different tone than anyone else, a slightly different shade of blue, brown or grey... A whole deconstructed because peoples couldn't see it as a whole anymore but as Their own version of a whole.
Not so dissimilar from how the parahumans looked at the world. She thoughts. Para Humans, Paranormals Humans, Humans with capabilities beyond the scope of everyone else, most had to view the world like she was now, differently, off-tone, like one giant theme park to do their bidding.
The break down of order, and the crawling emergence of chaos.
It was left to people like her to remind them that what they saw, biased as it was by their "prowess", was not the real world, not their little wonder whole or petty kingdom, that there were hundreds of thousands of people trying to live normal lives without someone in skintight bodysuit ruining their day.
Especially here in Brockton Bay, with its already abnormal number of parahumans, if you could call anything where parahumans were concerned "normal" anyway.
Still, it was quite strange for her that her normally crowded office was so empty of the row upon row of paperwork born from various origins: archives, profiles, timelines, investigation reports, maps of gangs territories. But all of those were, for one, still being put into order by some interne and secondly, they were being redirected towards the office of Deputy Director Renick.
Orders had come from High above, she had to delegate everything else and only concentrate on the Attack until every scrap of information had been found. She scoffed, after years of scrapping the barrels for funds left over by the other departments, she was now quite literally drowning in it, as funds, personals, and parahumans were dropped on her lap.
And it only took Brockton Bay to live through the first case of Orbital Bombardment know to man. She mused to herself. And only because we are the closest thing that can know how to deal with it. She added sourly after a moment.
She pushed the button on her coffee machine resting near the windows so that it would replenish her cup. As she waited in front of the machine she wondered if General Shirazi had been in the same position than hers in the wake of Behemoth first appearance, drowning in money and personnel threw at him with a card "please help" pinned on top.
Slightly amazed she didn't have to navigate trough mount and valley of paperwork to find her way to her desk, who would have throned in the middle of her old office like the Raft of the Medusa, she sat behind her desk and opened one of the lower drawer containing her laptop and booted it up. Usually, she would be quite taken with paperwork but her new orders had gutted that familiar state of being so much she could actually indulge herself some professional curiosity.
She entered her passwords and answered the personal questions that Dragon's subsystem posed to her. What is your favorite musician? When was the last time you saw your sister? Unnerving- All those information that Dragon's algorithms could dig up on her from the numerous emails, photographs and surveillance footage since she had started her job as a PRT a little more than a decade ago. It was slight trepidation that she typed in, Chet Baker and June 21 of last year.
Sobering thought that she didn't see her sister in so long but, she couldn't just take a few days of rest, despite the nagging of her doctors, and abandon her post. She was needed here, people counted on her, her family was secondary in front of her duty.
She typed the words "Behemoth" and watched the list of result, as expected from an Endbringer the list was rather long, organized as a timeline filed with simulation, movement report, possible sighting, anti-Endbringer weapon testing, all rhythmed by the list of casualties and damaged reports from Behemoth attacks.
Emily skimmed through all of those until she found what she wanted to see, the first few entries.
The very first was inconspicuous enough, a simple call for aid after an earthquake wrecked the Marun Field region in Iran. A simpler time then, where, in a world already walking on its head, there was still a certain modicum of sense. A panicked radio call for help from the military units on relief duty. The fear and despair tangible in their voice while in the background the barkings orchestra of guns and the roar of Behemoth could be heard.
She understood them beyond the language barrier, as she was once in their position, sometimes she would still dream of the sputtering of her own radio as she was running through a maze of houses on the outskirts of Ellisburg, the cries for help of her fellows just before they were torn apart. It had gotten better with the years but, never had it quite gone away, always there at the edge of her mind.
The initial damage report, mentioning radioactive fallout that would impair the capacity of the oil field for months if not years until it was safe enough to work. Time proved the radioactivity and the damage caused by the battle rendered half of the oil field improper to exploitation. She pondered what would time say about the crater in the middle of the city in a few years.
She sipped her cup of coffee, letting her eyes wander from one file to another concerning the appearance of Behemoth... Such an apt name, she contemplated... Behemoth, the beast God created so that only He could capture and kill to prove the futility of questioning god reasoning, no man could hope to fight against it and live, so great was its strength.
She looked past her screen, at the Folder on her desk. It sported a single word on a purple folder.
Charon.
She pushed a button on her desk.
"Carol, call everyone to reunion room 3."
"Yes Ma'am"
It was time to work.
*+*+*+*
She looked at each person sitting around the table, either capes or not, in turn. All the costumed capes were on the left side of the room while all the uniformed humans were on the right side, both sides looking comically incompatible with each other.
They came from all other the country and beyond, prt officer military, scientist, tinker, thinker, parahumans team leader. Around forty people sat in the room with her. Most on loans and would soon return to where they came from after a few days or weeks. She knew, at least, that the outnumbering heroes would make the gangs pause, for now, buying the much needed time the city needed to recuperate. A shame she couldn't use the occasion to root them out of the city.
She let the silence stretch on for a minute and almost let it reach uncomfortable level before starting.
"Colonel, where is the count as of now?"
she asked toward the national guard colonel that was, for the time being, placed under her command. The balding man had not be overjoyed to be placed under the PRT for the next few weeks but was professional enough to keep it under wrap when they both were in front of other peoples. He searched his papers before responding.
"The last tally was putting the number of injured up to twenty-four thousand four hundred and twenty-six, with still one hundred and forty-seven still in critical condition, the capes medically inclined are actually working to bring this number to zero. The number of casualties as of now..."
There was an almost imperceptible waver in his voice as he continued.
"... is at four hundred and nine and it continues to go up as we dig up new bodies. The vast majority of the deceased and injured in critical condition are the student in attendance at... Winslow High. There is still sixty-three students and two teachers missing, most of those were reported very close to the impact by various witness."
She didn't follow up when the Colonel fell silent, letting the assembled peoples in the meeting room slowly digested the news. For those who had assisted to Endbringers battles and lived long enough to tell the tales, it was a grim acceptation, faces were closed off, fist balled, Armsmaster teeth ground together... other who never faced such situation had horrified faces, let out a quiet swear or tried to hold it together quietly.
The Impact had been so violent that it created a crater 16 foot deep and 65 large, anyone near it would have been simply erased.
In a way, Emily considered, it was a good way to go, one moment there, another not there, so quick that there would be no pain, no time to be afraid or regret. In another she also knew that for some families, they would never accept that their children were gone without any bodies, they would rage against her, demanding the release of a body that had simply ceased to exist, for them there would never be a closure.
She picked up the remote that sat in front of her and clicked a button. The screen on the wall opposing to her light up and Dragon face appeared on it. A few nods of welcome were exchanged between Dragon and a few peoples present before Emily spoke again.
"Dragon, walk us through the incident."
She nodded and her face moving to the top right corner while the the rest of the screen was now occupied by a map of the Americain north and south continent.
"Three days ago, at exactly fifteen minutes past ten in the morning, A beam of red light touched the left side of Winslow High. The beam was visible only for 0.167 seconds before vanishing and could be seen in a radius of two thousand and five hundred miles..."
She looked around the table noting the astonished expression of the less informed around the room as the map displayed the known radius for all to see and they were still sorting trough newer reports that pushed that boundary further. She herself had been astonished when she heard the news the first time, behind closed doors.
The map zoomed on Brockton Bay, showing a picture from before the Impact, as Dragon spoke an animation showed exactly what happened in slow motion, if she was honest with herself Emily wasn't comfortable with just how precisely constructed this animation was, it was more like looking at the real impact happening from above than at a computer simulation.
"... The beam itself vaporized anything exactly under the point of impact leaving a crater 16 foot deep and 65 large in its wake. furthermore, I calculated that the energy released by the impact needed, to create such damage to the immediate area and the city at large, to be of the same wield than a 26 kilotonnes bombe."
Armsmaster stood up from his chair and continued after Dragon stayed silent.
"The beam that had been fired upon..."
"What? Fired upon?"
And was quickly interrupted by one of the scientists, Emily could, simply by how his beard furtively moved, that he hadn't appreciated the interruption.
"Later. The beam fired upon Brockton Bay had been theorized to have been incredibly small in diameter as it was going at light speed, probably faster. No buildings withstood the strength of the blast in a radius of one hundred meters, at four hundred the buildings still sported structural damage and there was a fallout of fragments in a three hundred yard radius around ground zero."
The simulation on the screen faded away, letting the assembled personnel see pictures of the Broadwalk, the PRT HQ and a skyscraper in Downtown. All windows blasted away. She herself had been lucky to not have been in her old office, especially when she saw some shards of glasses were planted on the opposite side of the room like so many daggers.
"And as you see no windows in a radius of three miles were capable of resisting the force of the blast, 94% of the injured came from injuries due to shards of glasses moving at high speed. The damages are estimated between ten to fourteen million dollars."
As he fell silent and sat down, Emily let those pieces of information sink in for a few seconds before she took over. She could see on the face of some doubt creep in over the fact that apart from the unusually powerful red flag poll it was at first glance only a "local" event, especially those that came from other countries.
"The chaos of the moments after the explosion was accentuated by the sixty-six prt agents and forty-two civilians injured on the PRT HQ site, even more, when Armsmaster reached out to us with the news that Miss Militia had been instantly blinded by the beam, immobilizing Dauntless, who was her partner in patrol, had to take care of her. All of that notwithstanding the appearance and, still, passive attitude of Scion that only added to the confusion."
She didn't like parahumans, she was wary of them. She was even more wary of one as bizarre as Scion and quite uneasy to know something would make the golden bizarro boy, that out punched Behemoth, pause for days.
"Further news also showed that the wards had been caught in the event, sporting a few minor injuries of their own. Shadow Stalker was missing at the time, later found buried under a wall at Winslow High in her civies, she is recovering. "
Hopefully, that would ingrain some sense of modesty in the troublesome teen head, but she sincerely doubted that. Teenagers capes were full of hormones and power, not a good combination when she could already see how their adult counterpart acted most of the times.
She nodded at Dragon, who started the animation again, this time stopping it when the Beam appeared.
"At first I believed it to be a tinkertech bomb and I acted on that belief according to protocol. The most important personnel of the PRT HQ were evacuated on the Rig will troopers secured the site. Every able capes were mobilized and we reached towards New Wave for support as well and they secured the proximity of Winslow High, helping the relief effort when the threat of a trap was ruled out. Fourteen hours later Director Costa-Brown received a call from the Australian embassy informing us that they maybe had information relevant to the explosion."
As she finished she nodded at Dragon who took over for the last part, the shocking one and the reason why there were so many people from every horizon assembled here.
"The biggest of those two planetary bodies is Pluto, the most distant planet from our sun in the entire solar system, orbiting around it is Charon a satellite believed made of ice."
A photo of Pluto and Charon appeared on screen, two white speak one five times as big as the others.
"This is what Charon looked like four days ago. And this..." This time the larger speak was fine, but the smaller one looked like a fly smashed on a wall. "... is what appeared on the Telescope of the Australian Astronomical Observatory."
Gasps of horror and disbelief resonated around the table, Emily understood them as she wasn't in any better shape than any of them when she heard the news.
"WHAT THE HELL?! THEY BLOW UP A FUCKING MOON?!" Morningstar, a Canadian thinker screamed.
But at least she didn't scream at the top of her lung like a lunatic...
"It was our first thought as well, even if not said with such conviction..." Dragon continued nonplussed by the interruption. "... Unfortunately, careful high-resolution pictures made with our very few tinker tech satellites revealed that wasn't the case."
A new picture throned on the screen. This time the silence was deafening.
The moon was blown up, fragmented in thousands of pieces, very large chunk floated amidst a fine band of white and brown powder.
And at the very center a small, tubular and dark form, not unlike a tuning fork, was clearly defined on the white misty background.
"The Object is named Charon-U1 and after calculation, it is sitting approximately at the same place than the center of the moon itself."
People looked at each other, incapable of speech, stunned. A shock, unlike any others. Emily knew that the people inside this room, plus a dozen more outside where the only ones that knew of this for now, because its implications were beyond what the people outside could endure right now, not with S class threats running around, not with the Endbringers casually rolling over cities. But, she knew that wouldn't be the case for long, at one point or another someone will look up towards the tiny white dot and wonder why the hell it wasn't there anymore.
She cleared her throat, turning the sole attention of the room towards her.
"Now, ladies and gentlemen. We have four objectives. One, studying the impact on Brockton Bay and any lasting effect. Two, study by whatever means the Charon object and find a way to know if it is a parahuman powerful enough to teleport a ten kilometers space station inside a moon, or an object encased in ice for what we believe is four and a half billion years. Three find if it will happen again and how do we protect ourselves from it."
She took a long, measured breath.
"And lastly. What do we say to the public?"
The febrile semblance of order shattered and the room descended into chaos.
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- Location
- Everett
Welp, i'm lost. I'm still gonna follow this story, as I really want to see where it goes, but I am so lost.
- Location
- USA
So we're going the full fusion route. I always enjoy these kinds of Mass Effect crossovers.
With Earths parahuman heroes knowing the Mass Relay exists at some point in the story we will be crossing it. This can be good or bad, good because we can potentially get some help or evacuation from an industrial power that doesn't have to worry about Endbringers, bad because there are Reapers out there and the Council will throw a hissy fit about Dragon.
With Earths parahuman heroes knowing the Mass Relay exists at some point in the story we will be crossing it. This can be good or bad, good because we can potentially get some help or evacuation from an industrial power that doesn't have to worry about Endbringers, bad because there are Reapers out there and the Council will throw a hissy fit about Dragon.
- Location
- Following The Apocalypse
Ok, did Taylor act as a conduit for an orbital bombardment from another universe? Did she facilitate the fusion of universes? Why would the Reapers take such an interest in her? Is Taylor still alive?
This, and many other questions will be answered (maybe) in the next installment of Three Headed Dog!
This, and many other questions will be answered (maybe) in the next installment of Three Headed Dog!
Arc 1: éveil, Chapter 4
Wolfund
{Verified Historian}
- Location
- France
Short one ain't it? both chapters 4 and 5 are quite short (just short being 1300 words together), both were incredibly hard to do properly. Next chapter in, only, a few hours. We're finally getting to see the other side of the fence.
And yes I know my grammar and spelling are not up to a good enough standard that's why I write in english and not in french, to better myself, i'm on the other hand reaching the point, again, where I can't see error at all.
And yes I know my grammar and spelling are not up to a good enough standard that's why I write in english and not in french, to better myself, i'm on the other hand reaching the point, again, where I can't see error at all.
Arc 1: éveil.
Chapter 4
*+*+*+*
The entity floats above one of the host gathering place, a city, and it remembers. Everything is stored, dating back to the very beginning.
Back, from the revolution in the choked space of a gray planet to now. And this wasn't something it, its counterpart and their ancestors ever encountered.
Constant.
Not like the stars or worlds they encountered. For, no matter how many layers they shifted through, always such things existed, in different states indeed but always here. They were older, they existed no matter what...
But, this time something was wrong. For, no matter how many layers it shifted its attention towards, it could still feel the presence of the object no matter the state of this planet. The only thing that changed Twas the size of the ice world surrounding it. It was something made, created, yet so incredibly old to be like planets, stars, and moons.
Constant.
Never before such thing even registered as a possibility, in its, the counterpart or their ancestor's minds. Never before had they found anything, not a trace or even a clue of such thing. As cycles had passed by, they had the shared belief of being the only ones capable of reaching and travel through the stars. The numerous creatures they encountered during their numerous cycles were too limited by themselves to do such in more depth than just exploring the outer atmosphere of their worlds. And yet, the contraption was a direct contradiction.
Curiosity.
it passed the last few planetary rotations above the city. Expanding some of its limited energy trying to decipher the object, to view the future, to perceive it from all angle. Yet it could not predict it, too many unknowns and not enough data. The object was not of this world, not of any others they had visited before and it couldn't extrapolate enough to understand it. For now.
Unknown.
It was but another occasion to regret the passing of its counterpart. The counterpart is supposed to be the passive figure, the thinker, the planner, the one better suited for such task than himself the warrior, the protector. But, the counterpart is not here anymore, it is dead. Yet again, it felt a passing emotion before crushing it. This body could emulate the host species to better relate to them, yet it stayed a simulation all the same.
So the entity stay above the city carefully observing the object for many others planetary rotations. Both the creatures and hosts came and took a closer look at the extension, the former in their mechanical contraption, the later with the use of their shards. It discards the firsts of its mind and gives only a token of attention to the laters, they shard grows this is good, yet so futile now that the cycle was broken.
Motivation.
The entity grows bold at the lack of reaction and decides to expend more of it's precious remaining energy, seeing all the layers at the same time. It decides to interact with the object. It cycles through an ever-expanding number of layers. Most are useless for the ice was too deep and too far away. It then concentrates on the very few where the object was already free of it. It probes and pushes against the object. Surely it could decipher the object? Crack it open and discover its secret. Yet he could not. The object stays unknown.
Deception.
And in one reality in a spasm of frustration, the entity violently reach out toward the object, trying to reap it apart and discover the inside. Contact with the layer and tendril was instantly lost, the entity retracts all of itself in surprise, economising energy as if threatened. After another handful of planetary rotations the Warrior scan with precaution its surrounding. Nothing. When it finally reaches the lost layer, it discovers nothing but a quickly expanding cloud of gas and floating debris. A frown marred its golden face.
Concern.
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Arc 1: éveil, Chapter 5
Wolfund
{Verified Historian}
- Location
- France
As promised, the second chapter of this short grouped update, still short but more words would have been unnecessary, worst they would have hampered it.
I tried to implement the coma thing, I think there is progress... Hopefully. And I reread it four times to find any weirdo typo I could have overlooked previously.
Anyway, let the FUN BEGINS
I tried to implement the coma thing, I think there is progress... Hopefully. And I reread it four times to find any weirdo typo I could have overlooked previously.
Anyway, let the FUN BEGINS
Arc 1: éveil.
Chapter 5
*+*+*+*
The automated systems allowing the Network to work properly periodically sent reports to the Vanguard. The vast majority of those were activation reports and maintenance requests. Ascended input was never fully needed to acknowledge such menial task.
As such when the Vanguard received an input from the automated system maintaining the Relay Network, he only dedicated a subroutine of itself to treat, analyze and respond. His immense mind being dedicated entirely to a far more annoying issue.
Organics of the last cycle had managed to perturb and block his remote access to Relay 1. It wasn't the first time such things had occurred. But, each had always been a glaringly tedious task to undo. Annoying and futile attempt to stave off the inevitable.
Pathetic.
His progress was, ironically enough, stalled by the Ascended own processing operations during the last cycle. They had done their job too well and now the Vanguard was left searching for the few scraps they had overlooked, for clues on how to undo the organics last act of spite, without needing raw brute strength.
A despicable loss of time.
Meanwhile, the subroutine treated the error report for an activation, surcharge and emergency shutdown of Relay 6424. Deciding that such behavior warranted an immediate response the subroutine took direct control over a commander drone. Its previous code was erased, and a new one created instantly, to better suit its new mission.
Taking the necessary vessel and drones, the controlled commander departed from its station. The ship took Relay 7 to enter the wider galaxy, jumping from Relay to Relay until it reached the closest one from the malfunctioning Relay 6424. There it would use its FTL drive to close the final gap between it and the Relay. The journey would take months to accomplish, but time wasn't an obstacle. It Ignored organics attempts at communication and hacked their ships, creating expanding catastrophic errors that would result in their destruction later on.
If the Vanguard had put a more attention towards the report and the subroutine doing, perhaps things would have been done differently. The travel length could have been different, more or less drone send out, or maybe not even done at all. But he was too much focused on resolving his current issue to turn more attention to this more mine one. As the drone ship entered FTL, the subroutine relinquished direct control and let the new coding do its part. It classified the report as being cared for and forwarded such to higher subroutines who forwarded it above themselves.
At the same time, the Vanguard long ranged sensor detected the approaching vessel of the local species. He lowered is power-output allowing himself to start drifting, appearing as a long-lost wreckage. Now he just needed to wait for their pitiful mind to be filled with curiosity and greed.
When the subroutine information finally reached the main part of the Vanguard mind, he only distantly acknowledged it. The organics had started to scan his massive body; he could already feel their pitiful mind gleeful of such find.
Nazara, the Vanguard, knew it would be a long and tedious task to found what he needed.
He let the organics approach him, staining his presence.
But for him Time was nothing.
He reached the organics minds...
After all, what was Time before Eternity?
... and squeezed.
An Annoyance.
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- Location
- USA
Sounds like in all their time Zion and Eden never found a species with Mass Effect tech. Anyone else find this odd?
Also, apparently the Reapers exist in every reality Scion can access. This is concerning.
Also, apparently the Reapers exist in every reality Scion can access. This is concerning.
Keep in mind, the Reapers are stuck in working in one galaxy and only stick around for however long a harvest is.
I don't think the entities even stick around one planet long enough for them to get advanced to the point of being harvest-bait.
- Location
- USA
Well correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the entities were ALSO stuck to one galaxy.
I'm aware the Entities don't stuck around long, but never once finding even an interplanetary society? Or one that is nearing the discovery of their equivalent of the prothean cache on Mars?
They are not stuck to only one galaxy, in fact Zion and Eden came from another galaxy altogether and Earth was their first stop in ours.
- Status