Authors Note: So this is my first story. Not the first one I've written, but the one that really...
Hunters of Death: Prey (Mass Effect/Godzilla/Pacific Rim Fusion Fic)
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Chapter 1
Authors Note: So this is my first story. Not the first one I've written, but the one that really made me the writer I am today, in a lot of ways. Hunters of Death: Mass Effect/Pacific Rim was my first 'real' fanfic, the one where I did research, tried to learn more abut writting, discussed plots with the fans. It holds a special place in my heart.
Until I hit a wall, and stopped working on it in favor of other projects. But now I'm back, and I feel comfortable restarting it. Thanks to @Sithking Zero for his help with many of the concepts and ideas behind this new universe, he's a brilliant person all around.
I posted a timeline on the original thread for this story, but I suggest ignoring it if you want to read this story, as it was mostly made as a reference point for myself. What is important is that the Earth of this Mass Effect is one that has interacted with Kaiju, aliens, and superhumans for decades before things like Reapers, aliens, and biotics came into the picture. And there are a lot of changes because of that.
Namely, Godzilla. Godzilla exists, and he is the King.
Of course, the biggest change is the fact that the EDF has fought aliens for decades. The first species they met from the Mass Effect side of things were the Elcor, and they gained a pretty strong relationship with the Turians. But the Earth Defense Forces, the canon organization in charge of Earth's defenses in this story, have fought off the Simeons, Xillians, Precursors, Seatopians, and other threats from the Godzilla universe. Mutants, magic, ki, and psychic abilities are one in about six hundred million, but they do exist.
Anyways, those are the basic changes. I won't be updating this story too constantly due to different issues with internet and power in my life, but I'm hopeful that me and my sisters patreon will help us to change that one day, so hoepfully I can keep your attention until that day. Until then, here's the new chapter of the reboot, and I hope you guys like.
Oh, one more thing. This is a giant robot vs giant monster story. No talk about things like Square-Cube law should ever be applied to these monsters. Rule of Cool sits right next to Physics on the scales of the laws governing the galaxy. That is all.
From the Memoirs of Raleigh Becket:
You know, the fact we've faced so many alien invasions over the years is pretty crazy. Makes me wonder sometimes if Earth's continents are shaped like a sign saying 'free to invade' in alien languages and I never realized. This Simeon guy I know, Laktu, says it's a compliment. But all Simeons are battle nuts anyways.
Makes me wonder sometimes. We've beaten back the latest invasion. The Precursors are probably somewhere out in the multiverse. But Gipsy's explosion destroyed their Kaiju nursery, or whatever it was. The Breach is closed. And we can beat them back this time. We know how to close the Breachs. Better than that, we have the world on our side. No more redistributions of EDF funding. The Jaeger Program has all the money it needs.
But now politics are getting into it. The last surviving countries are getting obsessed with Jaegers, and maser cannons are being made in factories all over the world. I've heard that new Gotengo-class warships are getting built. And none of it is to deal with Kaiju. Monster Island is at peace. We haven't heard from SCALE in months. Even Godzilla is still missing.
And the Breach is closed.
So why is it that now, when the world should be at peace, we're all getting ready to kill each other again? The EDF is the only organization that isn't getting pulled in to it. Herc is making sure of it.
But I'm worried. All the nations that were on the Pacific Rim are acting like the others left us to dry while we dealt with the real shit. And that's kind of true. But protests, uprisings, and straight up riots are starting over it.
A few anti-alien organizations are popping up. SCALE mostly, telling us that allowing Xillians and Simeons to join in the population, even breeding with us, is 'unholy', 'traitorous', and wrong. That the fact the Breach Kaiju were alien created is proof.
Never mind that SCALE has made a few Kaiju of it's own. But it looks like a few thousand idiots are ignoring the Gigan fiasco.
Honestly, I'm just tired of it. I talked with Nick and Miki last week. They're still watching over Zilla, making sure the big lug is safe. They're tired of it too. But Nick said something to me.
"When push came to shove, we won. Even when those dickhead politicians decided a wall would defend them better than guns and soldiers, in a world with Rodan, who can fly, and Anguirus, who's smashed through walls like that in his sleep, we won. Humanity is going to be stupid. And that's fun. Those of us who are smart, strong, and determined enough, will just drag the others along. It doesn't matter the species, rank, or even size. Stacker said it best. 'When the last trumpet sounds and the Beast rises from the pit — we will kill it.'"
As Nick said that, Zilla roared somewhere in the distance. Like father, like son I guess.
I take comfort in those words. Humans, Simeons, Xillians, the Shojibon, and even the Kaiju who've allied with us like Mothra and Zilla. When the dumb and ridiculous try to drag us down, well? We'll just get used to weight.
------
Jane Allwill, Musings on Mars Discovery of Prothean Ruins
It may be hypocritical of me, considering I'm descended from Aliens, but I'm kind of getting tired of all the alien races we've discovered over the years. Thankfully these new ones are apparently dead though. Been extinct for centuries. Left some good stuff too apparently. The nerds found element zero deposits, and a few blueprints on how they used the stuff.
Probably the first time I've felt thankful for SCALE by the way. Those idiots somehow got a hold of the stuff way back when, used it to improve their ships. Combined with our current space tech, I'm guessing our ships are going to get a hell of a lot better. Those guys are still assholes, but at least they did something.
I'm worried about these Protheans though. Old Simeon and Mysterian files we found talked about them, but only in brief. We don't know anything about them really, just that they were powerful, ancient, and died. I'd guess the Protheans were killed by Ghidorah, or even the Breach Kaiju, but we really have no actual idea. It's like someone was going around destroying as much data as possible on their extinction.
Spooky is what it is. When we think of these Protheans, it's hard to avoid thinking of the other guys we've met. Granted, I say we, but even my ancestors were Xillians. The leaders, they came to Earth to use humans as a food source, since they apparently realized human beings were in protein or some shit. Of course, after they got their asses kicked, my great-grandparents and others were allowed to emigrate to Earth, where it turned out pigs are perfect for the Xillian diet. Means there aren't many Jewish or Muslim Xillians of course, but that's just the way it is when your diet requires certain things.
And then there's the Simeons. Those guys are total war nuts, lovers of combat and military might. They came to Earth to try and populate after their idiot leaders accidently picked to live on a planet whose sun started to go all black hole on them. After getting their asses kicked, the EDF let them start a few colonies here.
The list goes on. Precursors, Nebulans, Mysterians, Millennians, Kilaaks, Mutango, even the Seatopians if you count them despite the fact they lived under the Pacific Ocean. Each have stepped to the plate, got they're asses kicked by the EDF, Kaiju, and Mothra, and either died off or joined us. We've gotten good at that, punching aliens into being our friends.
So how is it that the Protheans are complete mysteries? We have no idea why they died, what they looked like, how their society worked, hell, all we've got is that they apparently invented the mass effect principles. And that really isn't much when you think about it.
I've got our EDF resources looking into it on the down-low, but it's becoming harder to keep things secret these days. Earth is still getting torn apart, politically speaking. Bunch of morons are acting like the old days. The Earth Defense Force is supposed to be the worldwide military force, but that's a load of shit. We're the most powerful, sure. Our Jaegers are better than ever, Kiryu is getting upgraded all the time, new Gotengo's are flying around, Monster Island is there as a last resort if we need Kaiju support, and Mothra is still fluttering around if shit gets really hairy.
But new armies have risen up. America basically owns Canada and Mexico now, and those three are playing ball with the EDF. China, Japan, and Australia are also backing us.
But Africa was nearly untouched by the threat, and some warlords have SCALE backing them up. Parts of South America are pulling away from us, and a few Simeon colonies there have become the real power in the region. Europe is pretty much telling the EDF that we can suck it. United Nations is pretty much the biggest lie ever. Here we are, one step further into understanding the universe. And the rest of society is losing its damn mind.
The EDF is still the strongest military unit in the world, with Jaeger Program and Gotengos as our vehicles, G-Force as our special forces on the ground, and HEAT as the greatest collection of eggheads, nerds, and super-genuises in the solar system. We aren't held back by racism, we don't let old prejudices take hold, and we have no ties to any nation. Our one and only mandate is the protection of the innocent.
I had a politician try and tell me about 'responsibility' once. Fuck him. I'm EDF. My responsibility is stamped on my heart, and I will fulfill it.
Whatever killed the Protheans, they aren't ready for Earth.
------
Layena Artoss, Report to the Thessia Security Council after her return from Palaven-
In the old days, Tuchanka was thought of as the world of giant monsters. When I was young I would dream of visiting the ruins of the planet, but I was always scared of the stories I would hear. Klixen, Varren, and even Thresher Maws. I even heard a rumor about a monster called Kalross, so massive she could make cities shake. Tuchanka was the world of monsters.
Until we encountered the humans. When stories first spread, we thought it ridiculous. These humans claimed their world had encountered aliens before. And that these aliens often controlled monsters of their own. They explained that their planet had a long history of fighting such beasts, called 'Kaiju', and that their own planet produced such beings, created through mutations, or even magic.
For six months, the human species warning were ignored. Such creatures were physical impossibilities. While rumors persisted of the humans massive robotic suits, no one could believe in something that physics simply couldn't support. Creatures weighing in at thousands of tons? No biology in existence could support such being in the numbers and shapes humans claimed.
Then King Ghidorah attacked Palaven. For fourteen days, the beast killed millions of turians. Soldiers, tanks, and ships were sacrificed in droves. The Palaven Defense Forces, the greatest army in the universe, was shattered in the wake of the tyrant. In the wake of the attack, the survivors would forever speak of the beast. Glowing golden in the horizon. Three pairs of eyes, glowing red as its massive form treated skyscrapers like stalks of grass to be trampled. The recordings of its cry, like the giggling of a lunatic cutting at meat, can send the more traumatized into panicked terror.
He flew across the landscape at speeds that rivalled the fighters that attacked him. Only the most powerful mass-effect propelled weapons pierced his skin. His attacks, later explained to be 'gravity beams', tore apart frigates and cruisers alike with ease. Worse, they had the ability to interfere with mass effect fields. More died from the explosions of drive-cores than in the first two days of the attacks. Many ships FTL Drives turned against them, forcing them to fight out of range of Ghidorah's attacks.
In a horrifying twist, Ghidorah began to eat the turians. Men, women, and children, devoured by a Laughing Kaiju. There were reports of people losing their very souls to the beasts power. Some don't believe it. I know better.
In fourteen days, King Ghidorah caused more damage to Palaven than millennia of war.
King Ghidorah's attack changed the face of the galaxy. And Mothra made us hope again.
No one knows how she got there. Theories abound. Some say the sensors were damaged by Ghidorah, or were simply focused on tracking him. Others claim Mothra appeared through more supernatural means.
All that is known is that she came.
Beautiful, floating above the cities of Palaven like a multi-colored angel, she attack King Ghidorah. As the golden heads of Ghidorah waved about and his giggling cries filled the ai
For ten hours, Mothra and King Ghidorah fought. Though she fought bravely, Mothra would have lost. The Tyrant Kaiju was too powerful, and his laughing cackle said he knew it. But she held. And when Palaven came to aid her once more, having used her to hold off Mothra long enough to gather a defense, they came with humanity aiding them.
Humanity came prepared. When they understood that King Ghidorah had attacked another planet, they put aside old rivalries, and brought their greatest weapons.
The Jaegers. Massive metallic robots, piloted by two pilots. I do not know the specifics of their construction. I only know that they are some of the greatest weapons ever devised.
But humans knew it would not be enough. With so little time, they could only bring three of the Jaegers. So they brought something else. Something that was going to be shipped to a museum.
Kiryu. A metal monstrosity formed around the bones of a Kaiju, Kiryu was their trump card.
There, on the ruins of Palaven's greatest city, Palaven's fleet, Mothra, the Jaegers named Ascendant Beast, Sonic Shadow, and Ulterior Motives, and Kiryu, fought against King Ghidorah. The footage of the battle circulates to this day.
King Ghidorah died, taking with him millions of turian, human, and asari lives, the pilots of the Sonic Shadow and Kiryu, and the skepticism of a galaxy.
The Kaiju are real. Floating amongst the stars, coming from portals beneath Earth's Pacific Ocean, and created by the radioactive energy around us. The legends we once debunked, the monsters in the stories of all planets, have a name now.
The humans call evil spirits, 'Demons.' King Ghidorah has reminded us of the truth of that word. The truth we know as children. There are dark things in the universe. And their joy, is our despair.
The Kingdom of Monsters has been established. What sane creature would want to live in this world?
- Layena later committed suicide. Research found that many who were psychically sensitive, and didn't have the luck to interact with areas 'cleansed' by Mothra went insane after the Ghidorah Attack.
------
May 25th, 2161: Hong Kong, China
Hannah Shepard pumped her legs as fast as she could, hands clutching two smaller ones as she ran through the streets she had called home for almost a decade.
The streets of Hong Kong were usually so beautiful. Big buildings with pretty lights, the smell of food in the air as it sizzled in the carts, and amazing structures built after the end of the Breach War.
Now though, all that beauty had been replaced with something else. Of course, the Crystals that were tearing apart Hong Kong were still beautiful. Massive constructs that sparkled in the night, jagged edges slashing through the air with a strangely soothing sound, like a gentle whisper in the wind. They were purple, green, red, a thousand colors that reflected the world around them.
That beauty was ruined by the effect of the crystals on the city. People screamed as the building around them were torn apart. Spikes grew from the ground at random, impaling, slicing, and killing millions.
As Hannah ran, she saw a young woman screaming as the floor she'd been standing on was suddenly a carpet of foot high spikes, her feet and legs torn apart. The woman fell over, and Hannah tore her eyes away as the woman landed fast first on the carpet of lethal spikes.
One section of the market was completely under the control of the crystals. Corpses hung on the crystals like horrific ornaments. Blood dripped from the skies above as people in the stories above died. Men and women simply ran.
And Hannah Shepard cursed. She was a soldier, a women who had killed more people than most had ever met. She'd piloted a Gotengo through a Batarian battlecruiser for crying out loud.
And she was completely useless to protect her children.
She looked down at the pair she was pulling along. One was her son, John. He had black hair, and intense blue eyes for his age that seemed to shine from his cherubic face. He had an unusual amount of focus for a child his age on most days. Today, he had tears running down his cheeks, his stuffed dog toy clutched to his chest as he clutched tightly to her left hand.
Running next to John was his twin sister. Unusually, she had red hair and green eyes. Doctors had explained that she had an odd genetic condition that was responsible for the coloring, nothing harmful, just unusual. She was crying silently, tears pooling in those beautiful green eyes. Still, she ran, pumping her legs with her brother and mother.
"We'll be okay!" Hannah yelled over the sound of screams and crystals slashing through flesh, bone, and stone. "We just need to reach the spaceport!"
"Mom!" John screamed suddenly.
Hannah turned to see what had scared him. A crystal, shaped like a massive sword, shone in the light as it fell from the sky. In one horrific moment, Hannah saw it come towards them. Hundreds of feet of shining stone. She leaped to the side, pulling her children along. A sudden pain flashed from her right arm.
------
When Hannah awoke, it was seconds later. The pain in her arm was incredible. Fear filled her when she realized she couldn't see her children.
"John!" She cried out, her voice cracking. "Jane!"
She rose up, ignoring the pain once more. A flood of relief filled her when she saw John. He was standing next to the massive blade of crystal that had come down on them. "John!"
Her son turned, crying audibly. "Mom! Jane's over there!"
The relief in her body left her entirely. "What?"
"She couldn't jump far enough! She's over there!"
"No, no, no." Hannah rose up. John gasped, staring at her right arm. She looked at it.
The arm was gone. Slashed off at a point above the elbow. Blood poured from the wound.
That was when Hannah realized what had happened. As she'd jumped, the crystal blade had sliced her arm off. Leaving her arm, and Jane, on the other side of the massive wall of crystal.
"NO!" Hannah ran to the wall, punching it. She screamed, a horrifying cry that tore at her throat. "JANE! JANE!" Over and over she punched the wall, uncaring of the blood pouring from her arm. The crystal cracked beneath her left fist, slashing into her skin. She didn't care.
"Mom." John stared at his mother as she went crazy. Then he heard something, and turned around.
A group of people in military armor.
"Hey, over here!" John called out. Hearing him, the men and woman, seven in all, ran over.
"Come on, the spaceport is closing!" The woman in charge yelled.
"My sister!" John pointed at his mother, who had fallen to her knees, screaming and crying in rage. "She got stuck behind that thing!"
"…" The look on the soldier's faces shook John to his core. All his life, he'd admired soldiers. His mom was one. He thought they never lost.
They looked like they'd lost now.
"Corporal?" A man asked the woman in charge."
"…Sedate her. Bring her with us." She said at last.
"Yes Corporal." He moved forward, ready to put his words to action.
They'd underestimated Hannah's focus. When he walked up, taking a syringe out of a pouch at his side, Hannah grabbed his neck and twisted around, slamming him into the ground.
"Ragh!" She ripped the assault rilfe on his back away, and started shooting the crystal wall. "Fuck you!"
Simple words. But they encompassed every emotion inside her. Fuck the monster who'd attacked. Fuck the crystal that thought it could separate her from her baby. Fuck these soldiers. And fuck herself for failing her children.
"AAAAAHHHHHH!!!" The crystal wall began to shatter under her attack. For a moment, John thought she was going to do it. She was going to win, save Jane, save everyone.
Then the soldier she'd knocked down jammed the needle in her leg and pressed the plunger.
Hannah staggered. She kept firing for a moment. Then she fell to the floor.
"Take her!" The Corporal got to a knee and picked up John, uncaring of his tears, of his reaching out for Hannah, for Jane. She simply strode off.
------
Urdnot Wrex cursed as he ran, using every language he'd ever learned to show his displeasure. He'd come to Earth on vacation. Heard about Kaiju, and had gotten curious about them. More than that, he'd heard about a race of people as soft as the Asari or Salarians, who'd survived on a planet even more brutal than Tuchanka.
"Careful what you wish I guess." The old Krogan growled.
All around him, the buildings of Hong Kong had become a shining hell of stones. Blood filled the air, and it was only his tough armor and skin that prevented him from being as dead as the poor bastards around him.
Still, he ran. Pumped his legs, pushed himself to the limit. The spaceport was only a few blocks away.
That was when a massive wall of crystal fell in front of him.
"Fuck!" He roared out, hopping back. A look around showed the wall went out for hundreds of feet in either direction. After some thought, he began to run to his right, moving along the wall. He smashed through a few spikes, and had a dead human land on him from high above, but simply soldiered on.
"Humans are lunatics to live here." He decided as he continued to rush forward. Then he smirked. "Kind of like 'em."
He was still running when he saw her. He almost ignored her. Just one more body in a pile really. But it was the size of the body that gave him pause. He didn't like to act it, but he had a soft spot for children. The genophage killed off so damn many after all.
And the sight of such a small body on the floor made him stop.
He leaned down beside her. She was lying on the concrete, a wound on her head. At first he thought the blood had soaked her hair entirely, before realizing it was actually that color. He reached down hesitantly to poke her, utterly confused as to what to do with the situation.
That was when she rolled over slightly, revealing what was in her hands as she unconsciously held it to her.
"…Huh." He reached down and pulled it from her arms, looking it over. "An arm."
It was a well-built arm. Human, with strong fingers and muscles, and some calloused knuckles.
"Wonder where the owner is?" Wrex said softly. He heard a sudden noise and spun around.
The crystals were growing again, headed right for them.
Urdnot Wrex looked down at the human child before him. And made a decision.
He picked her up in his arms, and started running.
------
"Hong Kong is lost." A soldier said in a forelorn voice.
They were sitting inside a shuttle as it began to float above the city. John sat next to his mother as she lied down, the sedatives keeping her asleep on the small cot she'd been given.
"Don't say that." Another soldier said. "Reinforcements—"
"They aren't ready for this kid." The soldier said. He shook his head, stepping to look out the same window John was. In the window, one could see the crystals continuing to grow over the city he'd been born in. And at the center was the monster. John had never seen a Kaiju in real life. He would never forget this one.
It had taken over the Hong Kong Shatterdome, cracking open the dome like an egg and building a crystal tower and fortress there. It floated over the remains of the building on waves of psychic energy.
118 meters tall, dwarfing the buildings around it. A tall, reptilian body that was a uniform purple-gray color, and stood on two legs as it floated above its throne. Its palms and belly were red as it clawed at the air. It had a yellow crystal on his chest and sprouting from its forehead like a horn, both glowing with power that pulsed in the rhythm of a heartbeat. More crystals sprouted all over its body. On its knees, tail, spine, arms and two massive ones on each shoulder that seemed to release constant bursts of electricity.
"SpaceGodzilla." The soldier said in a primal fear. The name, so ridiculous on the surface, was said with the sort of horror one would save for the sight of rampaging deity. "Uber-Class. We haven't seen something so powerful in decades… Hong Kong is gone kid. That's that. Now we just pray Earth isn't next.
As John watched, the beasts eyes glowed red, and it opened its mouth.
"▄▅▄▅▂▂▃▃▄▄▅!"
The sound it released echoed against the air, against the crystals, seeming to slam into John's very mind. Everyone on the shuttle screamed in horror. A horrific maw opened wider, and the roar seemed to echo over and over, layering on itself, pressing against the very soul. A bright light came into life in its mouth, and it aimed at the shuttle. The ship twisted to the side as the pilot tried to dodge, but it was too late.
At that moment, as a monster prepared to kill him, John Shepard wished. He wished the way only a child can, for a savior.
And yet, he did not close his eyes. For even at his young age, he knew that if death came, he would never give it the satisfaction of looking away.
As SpaceGodzilla roared, something else answered.
"BVWOOOOOM." Everyone in the shuttle went silent at that noise. Like a horn calling out for salvation. SpaceGodzilla's cry, once so triumphant, petered out. The massive crystal kaiju turned in the direction of the call, distracted.
One of the buildings enveloped in the crystals was a museum. The sound of the crystals shattering filled the air as something broke out of the museum. It landed in the fields of crystals, the sharp stones useless against it's body.
"Jaeger." John whispered.
"Holee…" Everyone on the shuttle rose from their seats as the pessimistic soldier stepped forward to stare outside. "That's…"
The Jaeger had wide shoulders armored with massive steel plates, and slim hips, giving it the appearance of a football player covered in metal as it rose into a fighting stance. It had a blue color scheme, but with red and white stripes all over it that seemed to glimmer in the light reflected by the crystal city. Its head, angular, built to resemble a fighter jets, gazed at SpaceGodzilla with yellow windows in place of eyes. As the Jaeger's arms rose, John could see the giant number 34's painted on each upper arm, and the image of a woman painted on its chest in the center of a red circle. The woman was dressed in black scraps of cloth, and seemed to smirk as she leaped.
There wasn't an earthling in existence that would have failed to recognize the Jaeger. As it rose, the massive red circle on it's chest that began to glow and spin like a turbine engine clinched it.
"Gypsy Danger." The pessimistic soldier whispered.
"I thought she was destroyed!" The younger soldier yelled. He removed his helmet, revealing the black furred, primate appearance of a Simeon.
"It's the replica from the museum!" A woman, a civilian, yelled out as John pressed his face against the window.
"They made a replica that worked!?" The pessimistic soldier said disbelievingly.
As if to punctuate his statement, Gipsy suddenly moved. The replica moved her arm into firing position, like a Wild West gunman preparing to fire, and her left hand shifted into a cannon. A blue glow came from the cannon, followed by a massive blast of force.
SpaceGodzilla roared, diverting the attack with psychic force, only to be forced to do so again and again as Gipsy continued to fire. The Jaeger ran forward, left hand firing, and held her right hand outwards. SpaceGodzilla's crystals began to float upwards, aiming to stab into the Jaeger.
Gipsy's right hand clenched. A whip of blades fell from a port in her hand, then solidified into a sword. With one hand firing, the others slashed out at the crystals coming towards the Jaeger. Gipsy's call, that loud horn of salvation, blasted out once more, and SpaceGodzilla released another bass-filled roar.
The shockwave of the Psychic Monster and Steel Titan slamming into each other shook the air. Blue plasma and purple beams flew through the air, blades and crystals slammed into one another, and psychic waves of power flew through the air.
The last thing John Shepard saw as he held his mother's remaining hand, as the shuttle took those on-board to safety, was Gipsy Danger II punching a Kaiju in the face.
------
"Hey, kid." A gruff voice was followed by someone pushing at her shoulder. Jane mumbled, rubbing her face against the hard surface she'd been using as a pillow. "Need my leg back at some point."
The tiny human yawned cutely, showing the gap where one of her front teeth had fallen out. She looked around blearily.
The shuttle she was on had seen better days. The haptic interfaces that glowed around the ship flickered at random, the seats were made of a material that was nearly threadbare, and the metal on the walls and railings was degraded. In the windows outside, the strangely beautiful image of a crystal landscape could be seen.
The men and women on the ship were a rough sort. Armored up, scarred, carrying weapons, and of various species. A Vorcha was piloting the ship, his movements almost hectic as he tried to keep the ship in the air. A human woman in red armor was holding hands with a rough looking man with eyes slitted like a cats and oddly feminine features. A Simeon in bright blue armor was cradling a massive rifle, staring at the crystal landscape as though it had personally offended him.
"You awake?" The gruff voice reminded Jane of a bear she'd seen… somewhere?
She looked up, confused. The face looking down at her was unfamiliar. His forehead was a massive red plate of armor, with some slash marks deep in the carapace. He had red eyes set into a brown scaled face. Jane curiously raised her hand to touch his cheek, stroking the smooth scales there. His eyes widened, but he didn't stop her.
"Huh… brave kid, aren't you?"
"…Where am I?" She said softly. She rose up from where she'd been lying down on his armor to look about in confusion. She lifted a hand to touch the bandage that had been wrapped around her head, the unfamiliar itch of medi-gel doing its work confusing her.
"Hong Kong. Headed off to a safe zone I guess." He scoffed. "Probably going to leave you with your parents and head off to Omega after that. You know your parents contact info?"
Jane opened her mouth. Then she closed it, shocked. "I…"
"What, you don't know?" He asked. "What about their names?"
The look she gave him made his stomach fall away. Confusion and heartache filled her tiny features.
"Aw, crap." He looked at her head again. "You don't remember anything."
"Fuck!" The Vorcha who'd been piloting screamed, startling his passengers. "The damn thing is on the move again!"
The shuttle dived downwards, then to the side, the ailing anti-gravity of the shape fighting against the wild movements.
"Is it coming for us!?" The human woman in red armor yelled.
"Yes!"
As the Vorcha screamed, a bright beam of purple light flew past the window. The shuttle became unbearably hot, and the light of the beam on the crystal landscape was almost blinding. Jane screamed, clutching at the nearest thing to her.
Wrex growled as the child grabbed at his arm. "Can we dodge it?"
Even as he spoke, the right window revealed the threat. SpaceGodzilla stared at the shuttle with his bright red eyes. He strode forward, crystals rising into the air around it like a vanguard, eyes trained on the shuttle.
"The fuck is he after us for!?" The feminine man yelled.
"It's SpaceGodzilla." The Simeon man growled. "He doesn't care how small the target is. He turned Hong Kong into a butchery for fun. Trust me, he'll kill us for the hell of it."
The beast roared once more, the sound impacting on the ears and mind like a sledgehammer. Jane stared back. At that moment, she knew it saw her. And it laughed, a growling, cruel cry of amusement, while energy swirled around it.
At that moment, as a monster prepared to kill her, Jane wished. She wished the way only a child can, for a savior.
And yet, she did not close his eyes. For even at her young age, she knew that if death came, she would never give it the satisfaction of looking away.
"I thought that Jaeger was—" Wrex stopped speaking. Beyond SpaceGodzilla, in the bay of Hong Kong, he saw something.
Jane looked up at the Krogan. He seemed mesmerized. She looked where he was focused.
As SpaceGodzilla, laughed, something rose from the ocean. A voice that hadn't been heard in 154 years called out. And the world changed.
"SKREEEEEEEONNNNNK!"
When people described the cry, they would say it had deep undertone accentuating the shrill roar. But that was not the truth. No one could truly describe the cry. Like a demon, like a dragon, like a triumphant king.
The last would do. For in the end, all knew what the roar meant.
The King Of The Monsters had returned.
"Gojira." The human woman said in horror.
"Godzilla." The Simeon said in a respectful whisper.
"Fuck." Wrex said simply.
The monster was shorter than SpaceGodzilla, and stood on two legs as well, his sauropod limbs smashing concrete and crystals as he strode forward. He had massive spikes on his back, waving like great fins all the way to the tip of his tail, the long limb smashing into building with uncaring ease. Water glistened on blue-gray scales covered in burns and scars telling the tale of many, many old battles. His arms, massive and strong, pulled back as the monsters huge chest began to fill with air.
Jane watched in awe as Godzilla's spines lit up a luminescent blue, and an echoing sound filled the air. Then he opened his mouth.
SpaceGodzilla's beam had been purple lightning, and it's very presence seemed to attack the world.
Godzilla's beam was a brilliant blue that illuminated the world, like flame and laser combined, and slammed into SpaceGodzilla's chest with the boom of jet breaking the sound barrier.
The Crystal Kaiju screamed in rage, red eyes blazing and jaw snapping as he was forced back. Godzilla roared, his yellow-orange eyes glowing with power, and rushed forward with incredible speed despite his gargantuan size.
The King of Monsters and the Lunatic Clone slammed into each other, claws lashing out, teeth biting, beams of power burning at skin and crystals snapping against skin.
"That Jaeger is on it's way!" The Vorcha cried out. "I'm getting us out of here!"
"Do it!" Wrex barked.
The last thing Jane saw as she held onto her saviors arm, as the shuttle took those on-board to safety, was Gojira blasting a Kaiju in the face.
Until I hit a wall, and stopped working on it in favor of other projects. But now I'm back, and I feel comfortable restarting it. Thanks to @Sithking Zero for his help with many of the concepts and ideas behind this new universe, he's a brilliant person all around.
I posted a timeline on the original thread for this story, but I suggest ignoring it if you want to read this story, as it was mostly made as a reference point for myself. What is important is that the Earth of this Mass Effect is one that has interacted with Kaiju, aliens, and superhumans for decades before things like Reapers, aliens, and biotics came into the picture. And there are a lot of changes because of that.
Namely, Godzilla. Godzilla exists, and he is the King.
Of course, the biggest change is the fact that the EDF has fought aliens for decades. The first species they met from the Mass Effect side of things were the Elcor, and they gained a pretty strong relationship with the Turians. But the Earth Defense Forces, the canon organization in charge of Earth's defenses in this story, have fought off the Simeons, Xillians, Precursors, Seatopians, and other threats from the Godzilla universe. Mutants, magic, ki, and psychic abilities are one in about six hundred million, but they do exist.
Anyways, those are the basic changes. I won't be updating this story too constantly due to different issues with internet and power in my life, but I'm hopeful that me and my sisters patreon will help us to change that one day, so hoepfully I can keep your attention until that day. Until then, here's the new chapter of the reboot, and I hope you guys like.
Oh, one more thing. This is a giant robot vs giant monster story. No talk about things like Square-Cube law should ever be applied to these monsters. Rule of Cool sits right next to Physics on the scales of the laws governing the galaxy. That is all.
From the Memoirs of Raleigh Becket:
You know, the fact we've faced so many alien invasions over the years is pretty crazy. Makes me wonder sometimes if Earth's continents are shaped like a sign saying 'free to invade' in alien languages and I never realized. This Simeon guy I know, Laktu, says it's a compliment. But all Simeons are battle nuts anyways.
Makes me wonder sometimes. We've beaten back the latest invasion. The Precursors are probably somewhere out in the multiverse. But Gipsy's explosion destroyed their Kaiju nursery, or whatever it was. The Breach is closed. And we can beat them back this time. We know how to close the Breachs. Better than that, we have the world on our side. No more redistributions of EDF funding. The Jaeger Program has all the money it needs.
But now politics are getting into it. The last surviving countries are getting obsessed with Jaegers, and maser cannons are being made in factories all over the world. I've heard that new Gotengo-class warships are getting built. And none of it is to deal with Kaiju. Monster Island is at peace. We haven't heard from SCALE in months. Even Godzilla is still missing.
And the Breach is closed.
So why is it that now, when the world should be at peace, we're all getting ready to kill each other again? The EDF is the only organization that isn't getting pulled in to it. Herc is making sure of it.
But I'm worried. All the nations that were on the Pacific Rim are acting like the others left us to dry while we dealt with the real shit. And that's kind of true. But protests, uprisings, and straight up riots are starting over it.
A few anti-alien organizations are popping up. SCALE mostly, telling us that allowing Xillians and Simeons to join in the population, even breeding with us, is 'unholy', 'traitorous', and wrong. That the fact the Breach Kaiju were alien created is proof.
Never mind that SCALE has made a few Kaiju of it's own. But it looks like a few thousand idiots are ignoring the Gigan fiasco.
Honestly, I'm just tired of it. I talked with Nick and Miki last week. They're still watching over Zilla, making sure the big lug is safe. They're tired of it too. But Nick said something to me.
"When push came to shove, we won. Even when those dickhead politicians decided a wall would defend them better than guns and soldiers, in a world with Rodan, who can fly, and Anguirus, who's smashed through walls like that in his sleep, we won. Humanity is going to be stupid. And that's fun. Those of us who are smart, strong, and determined enough, will just drag the others along. It doesn't matter the species, rank, or even size. Stacker said it best. 'When the last trumpet sounds and the Beast rises from the pit — we will kill it.'"
As Nick said that, Zilla roared somewhere in the distance. Like father, like son I guess.
I take comfort in those words. Humans, Simeons, Xillians, the Shojibon, and even the Kaiju who've allied with us like Mothra and Zilla. When the dumb and ridiculous try to drag us down, well? We'll just get used to weight.
------
Jane Allwill, Musings on Mars Discovery of Prothean Ruins
It may be hypocritical of me, considering I'm descended from Aliens, but I'm kind of getting tired of all the alien races we've discovered over the years. Thankfully these new ones are apparently dead though. Been extinct for centuries. Left some good stuff too apparently. The nerds found element zero deposits, and a few blueprints on how they used the stuff.
Probably the first time I've felt thankful for SCALE by the way. Those idiots somehow got a hold of the stuff way back when, used it to improve their ships. Combined with our current space tech, I'm guessing our ships are going to get a hell of a lot better. Those guys are still assholes, but at least they did something.
I'm worried about these Protheans though. Old Simeon and Mysterian files we found talked about them, but only in brief. We don't know anything about them really, just that they were powerful, ancient, and died. I'd guess the Protheans were killed by Ghidorah, or even the Breach Kaiju, but we really have no actual idea. It's like someone was going around destroying as much data as possible on their extinction.
Spooky is what it is. When we think of these Protheans, it's hard to avoid thinking of the other guys we've met. Granted, I say we, but even my ancestors were Xillians. The leaders, they came to Earth to use humans as a food source, since they apparently realized human beings were in protein or some shit. Of course, after they got their asses kicked, my great-grandparents and others were allowed to emigrate to Earth, where it turned out pigs are perfect for the Xillian diet. Means there aren't many Jewish or Muslim Xillians of course, but that's just the way it is when your diet requires certain things.
And then there's the Simeons. Those guys are total war nuts, lovers of combat and military might. They came to Earth to try and populate after their idiot leaders accidently picked to live on a planet whose sun started to go all black hole on them. After getting their asses kicked, the EDF let them start a few colonies here.
The list goes on. Precursors, Nebulans, Mysterians, Millennians, Kilaaks, Mutango, even the Seatopians if you count them despite the fact they lived under the Pacific Ocean. Each have stepped to the plate, got they're asses kicked by the EDF, Kaiju, and Mothra, and either died off or joined us. We've gotten good at that, punching aliens into being our friends.
So how is it that the Protheans are complete mysteries? We have no idea why they died, what they looked like, how their society worked, hell, all we've got is that they apparently invented the mass effect principles. And that really isn't much when you think about it.
I've got our EDF resources looking into it on the down-low, but it's becoming harder to keep things secret these days. Earth is still getting torn apart, politically speaking. Bunch of morons are acting like the old days. The Earth Defense Force is supposed to be the worldwide military force, but that's a load of shit. We're the most powerful, sure. Our Jaegers are better than ever, Kiryu is getting upgraded all the time, new Gotengo's are flying around, Monster Island is there as a last resort if we need Kaiju support, and Mothra is still fluttering around if shit gets really hairy.
But new armies have risen up. America basically owns Canada and Mexico now, and those three are playing ball with the EDF. China, Japan, and Australia are also backing us.
But Africa was nearly untouched by the threat, and some warlords have SCALE backing them up. Parts of South America are pulling away from us, and a few Simeon colonies there have become the real power in the region. Europe is pretty much telling the EDF that we can suck it. United Nations is pretty much the biggest lie ever. Here we are, one step further into understanding the universe. And the rest of society is losing its damn mind.
The EDF is still the strongest military unit in the world, with Jaeger Program and Gotengos as our vehicles, G-Force as our special forces on the ground, and HEAT as the greatest collection of eggheads, nerds, and super-genuises in the solar system. We aren't held back by racism, we don't let old prejudices take hold, and we have no ties to any nation. Our one and only mandate is the protection of the innocent.
I had a politician try and tell me about 'responsibility' once. Fuck him. I'm EDF. My responsibility is stamped on my heart, and I will fulfill it.
Whatever killed the Protheans, they aren't ready for Earth.
------
Layena Artoss, Report to the Thessia Security Council after her return from Palaven-
In the old days, Tuchanka was thought of as the world of giant monsters. When I was young I would dream of visiting the ruins of the planet, but I was always scared of the stories I would hear. Klixen, Varren, and even Thresher Maws. I even heard a rumor about a monster called Kalross, so massive she could make cities shake. Tuchanka was the world of monsters.
Until we encountered the humans. When stories first spread, we thought it ridiculous. These humans claimed their world had encountered aliens before. And that these aliens often controlled monsters of their own. They explained that their planet had a long history of fighting such beasts, called 'Kaiju', and that their own planet produced such beings, created through mutations, or even magic.
For six months, the human species warning were ignored. Such creatures were physical impossibilities. While rumors persisted of the humans massive robotic suits, no one could believe in something that physics simply couldn't support. Creatures weighing in at thousands of tons? No biology in existence could support such being in the numbers and shapes humans claimed.
Then King Ghidorah attacked Palaven. For fourteen days, the beast killed millions of turians. Soldiers, tanks, and ships were sacrificed in droves. The Palaven Defense Forces, the greatest army in the universe, was shattered in the wake of the tyrant. In the wake of the attack, the survivors would forever speak of the beast. Glowing golden in the horizon. Three pairs of eyes, glowing red as its massive form treated skyscrapers like stalks of grass to be trampled. The recordings of its cry, like the giggling of a lunatic cutting at meat, can send the more traumatized into panicked terror.
He flew across the landscape at speeds that rivalled the fighters that attacked him. Only the most powerful mass-effect propelled weapons pierced his skin. His attacks, later explained to be 'gravity beams', tore apart frigates and cruisers alike with ease. Worse, they had the ability to interfere with mass effect fields. More died from the explosions of drive-cores than in the first two days of the attacks. Many ships FTL Drives turned against them, forcing them to fight out of range of Ghidorah's attacks.
In a horrifying twist, Ghidorah began to eat the turians. Men, women, and children, devoured by a Laughing Kaiju. There were reports of people losing their very souls to the beasts power. Some don't believe it. I know better.
In fourteen days, King Ghidorah caused more damage to Palaven than millennia of war.
King Ghidorah's attack changed the face of the galaxy. And Mothra made us hope again.
No one knows how she got there. Theories abound. Some say the sensors were damaged by Ghidorah, or were simply focused on tracking him. Others claim Mothra appeared through more supernatural means.
All that is known is that she came.
Beautiful, floating above the cities of Palaven like a multi-colored angel, she attack King Ghidorah. As the golden heads of Ghidorah waved about and his giggling cries filled the ai
For ten hours, Mothra and King Ghidorah fought. Though she fought bravely, Mothra would have lost. The Tyrant Kaiju was too powerful, and his laughing cackle said he knew it. But she held. And when Palaven came to aid her once more, having used her to hold off Mothra long enough to gather a defense, they came with humanity aiding them.
Humanity came prepared. When they understood that King Ghidorah had attacked another planet, they put aside old rivalries, and brought their greatest weapons.
The Jaegers. Massive metallic robots, piloted by two pilots. I do not know the specifics of their construction. I only know that they are some of the greatest weapons ever devised.
But humans knew it would not be enough. With so little time, they could only bring three of the Jaegers. So they brought something else. Something that was going to be shipped to a museum.
Kiryu. A metal monstrosity formed around the bones of a Kaiju, Kiryu was their trump card.
There, on the ruins of Palaven's greatest city, Palaven's fleet, Mothra, the Jaegers named Ascendant Beast, Sonic Shadow, and Ulterior Motives, and Kiryu, fought against King Ghidorah. The footage of the battle circulates to this day.
King Ghidorah died, taking with him millions of turian, human, and asari lives, the pilots of the Sonic Shadow and Kiryu, and the skepticism of a galaxy.
The Kaiju are real. Floating amongst the stars, coming from portals beneath Earth's Pacific Ocean, and created by the radioactive energy around us. The legends we once debunked, the monsters in the stories of all planets, have a name now.
The humans call evil spirits, 'Demons.' King Ghidorah has reminded us of the truth of that word. The truth we know as children. There are dark things in the universe. And their joy, is our despair.
The Kingdom of Monsters has been established. What sane creature would want to live in this world?
- Layena later committed suicide. Research found that many who were psychically sensitive, and didn't have the luck to interact with areas 'cleansed' by Mothra went insane after the Ghidorah Attack.
------
May 25th, 2161: Hong Kong, China
Hannah Shepard pumped her legs as fast as she could, hands clutching two smaller ones as she ran through the streets she had called home for almost a decade.
The streets of Hong Kong were usually so beautiful. Big buildings with pretty lights, the smell of food in the air as it sizzled in the carts, and amazing structures built after the end of the Breach War.
Now though, all that beauty had been replaced with something else. Of course, the Crystals that were tearing apart Hong Kong were still beautiful. Massive constructs that sparkled in the night, jagged edges slashing through the air with a strangely soothing sound, like a gentle whisper in the wind. They were purple, green, red, a thousand colors that reflected the world around them.
That beauty was ruined by the effect of the crystals on the city. People screamed as the building around them were torn apart. Spikes grew from the ground at random, impaling, slicing, and killing millions.
As Hannah ran, she saw a young woman screaming as the floor she'd been standing on was suddenly a carpet of foot high spikes, her feet and legs torn apart. The woman fell over, and Hannah tore her eyes away as the woman landed fast first on the carpet of lethal spikes.
One section of the market was completely under the control of the crystals. Corpses hung on the crystals like horrific ornaments. Blood dripped from the skies above as people in the stories above died. Men and women simply ran.
And Hannah Shepard cursed. She was a soldier, a women who had killed more people than most had ever met. She'd piloted a Gotengo through a Batarian battlecruiser for crying out loud.
And she was completely useless to protect her children.
She looked down at the pair she was pulling along. One was her son, John. He had black hair, and intense blue eyes for his age that seemed to shine from his cherubic face. He had an unusual amount of focus for a child his age on most days. Today, he had tears running down his cheeks, his stuffed dog toy clutched to his chest as he clutched tightly to her left hand.
Running next to John was his twin sister. Unusually, she had red hair and green eyes. Doctors had explained that she had an odd genetic condition that was responsible for the coloring, nothing harmful, just unusual. She was crying silently, tears pooling in those beautiful green eyes. Still, she ran, pumping her legs with her brother and mother.
"We'll be okay!" Hannah yelled over the sound of screams and crystals slashing through flesh, bone, and stone. "We just need to reach the spaceport!"
"Mom!" John screamed suddenly.
Hannah turned to see what had scared him. A crystal, shaped like a massive sword, shone in the light as it fell from the sky. In one horrific moment, Hannah saw it come towards them. Hundreds of feet of shining stone. She leaped to the side, pulling her children along. A sudden pain flashed from her right arm.
------
When Hannah awoke, it was seconds later. The pain in her arm was incredible. Fear filled her when she realized she couldn't see her children.
"John!" She cried out, her voice cracking. "Jane!"
She rose up, ignoring the pain once more. A flood of relief filled her when she saw John. He was standing next to the massive blade of crystal that had come down on them. "John!"
Her son turned, crying audibly. "Mom! Jane's over there!"
The relief in her body left her entirely. "What?"
"She couldn't jump far enough! She's over there!"
"No, no, no." Hannah rose up. John gasped, staring at her right arm. She looked at it.
The arm was gone. Slashed off at a point above the elbow. Blood poured from the wound.
That was when Hannah realized what had happened. As she'd jumped, the crystal blade had sliced her arm off. Leaving her arm, and Jane, on the other side of the massive wall of crystal.
"NO!" Hannah ran to the wall, punching it. She screamed, a horrifying cry that tore at her throat. "JANE! JANE!" Over and over she punched the wall, uncaring of the blood pouring from her arm. The crystal cracked beneath her left fist, slashing into her skin. She didn't care.
"Mom." John stared at his mother as she went crazy. Then he heard something, and turned around.
A group of people in military armor.
"Hey, over here!" John called out. Hearing him, the men and woman, seven in all, ran over.
"Come on, the spaceport is closing!" The woman in charge yelled.
"My sister!" John pointed at his mother, who had fallen to her knees, screaming and crying in rage. "She got stuck behind that thing!"
"…" The look on the soldier's faces shook John to his core. All his life, he'd admired soldiers. His mom was one. He thought they never lost.
They looked like they'd lost now.
"Corporal?" A man asked the woman in charge."
"…Sedate her. Bring her with us." She said at last.
"Yes Corporal." He moved forward, ready to put his words to action.
They'd underestimated Hannah's focus. When he walked up, taking a syringe out of a pouch at his side, Hannah grabbed his neck and twisted around, slamming him into the ground.
"Ragh!" She ripped the assault rilfe on his back away, and started shooting the crystal wall. "Fuck you!"
Simple words. But they encompassed every emotion inside her. Fuck the monster who'd attacked. Fuck the crystal that thought it could separate her from her baby. Fuck these soldiers. And fuck herself for failing her children.
"AAAAAHHHHHH!!!" The crystal wall began to shatter under her attack. For a moment, John thought she was going to do it. She was going to win, save Jane, save everyone.
Then the soldier she'd knocked down jammed the needle in her leg and pressed the plunger.
Hannah staggered. She kept firing for a moment. Then she fell to the floor.
"Take her!" The Corporal got to a knee and picked up John, uncaring of his tears, of his reaching out for Hannah, for Jane. She simply strode off.
------
Urdnot Wrex cursed as he ran, using every language he'd ever learned to show his displeasure. He'd come to Earth on vacation. Heard about Kaiju, and had gotten curious about them. More than that, he'd heard about a race of people as soft as the Asari or Salarians, who'd survived on a planet even more brutal than Tuchanka.
"Careful what you wish I guess." The old Krogan growled.
All around him, the buildings of Hong Kong had become a shining hell of stones. Blood filled the air, and it was only his tough armor and skin that prevented him from being as dead as the poor bastards around him.
Still, he ran. Pumped his legs, pushed himself to the limit. The spaceport was only a few blocks away.
That was when a massive wall of crystal fell in front of him.
"Fuck!" He roared out, hopping back. A look around showed the wall went out for hundreds of feet in either direction. After some thought, he began to run to his right, moving along the wall. He smashed through a few spikes, and had a dead human land on him from high above, but simply soldiered on.
"Humans are lunatics to live here." He decided as he continued to rush forward. Then he smirked. "Kind of like 'em."
He was still running when he saw her. He almost ignored her. Just one more body in a pile really. But it was the size of the body that gave him pause. He didn't like to act it, but he had a soft spot for children. The genophage killed off so damn many after all.
And the sight of such a small body on the floor made him stop.
He leaned down beside her. She was lying on the concrete, a wound on her head. At first he thought the blood had soaked her hair entirely, before realizing it was actually that color. He reached down hesitantly to poke her, utterly confused as to what to do with the situation.
That was when she rolled over slightly, revealing what was in her hands as she unconsciously held it to her.
"…Huh." He reached down and pulled it from her arms, looking it over. "An arm."
It was a well-built arm. Human, with strong fingers and muscles, and some calloused knuckles.
"Wonder where the owner is?" Wrex said softly. He heard a sudden noise and spun around.
The crystals were growing again, headed right for them.
Urdnot Wrex looked down at the human child before him. And made a decision.
He picked her up in his arms, and started running.
------
"Hong Kong is lost." A soldier said in a forelorn voice.
They were sitting inside a shuttle as it began to float above the city. John sat next to his mother as she lied down, the sedatives keeping her asleep on the small cot she'd been given.
"Don't say that." Another soldier said. "Reinforcements—"
"They aren't ready for this kid." The soldier said. He shook his head, stepping to look out the same window John was. In the window, one could see the crystals continuing to grow over the city he'd been born in. And at the center was the monster. John had never seen a Kaiju in real life. He would never forget this one.
It had taken over the Hong Kong Shatterdome, cracking open the dome like an egg and building a crystal tower and fortress there. It floated over the remains of the building on waves of psychic energy.
118 meters tall, dwarfing the buildings around it. A tall, reptilian body that was a uniform purple-gray color, and stood on two legs as it floated above its throne. Its palms and belly were red as it clawed at the air. It had a yellow crystal on his chest and sprouting from its forehead like a horn, both glowing with power that pulsed in the rhythm of a heartbeat. More crystals sprouted all over its body. On its knees, tail, spine, arms and two massive ones on each shoulder that seemed to release constant bursts of electricity.
"SpaceGodzilla." The soldier said in a primal fear. The name, so ridiculous on the surface, was said with the sort of horror one would save for the sight of rampaging deity. "Uber-Class. We haven't seen something so powerful in decades… Hong Kong is gone kid. That's that. Now we just pray Earth isn't next.
As John watched, the beasts eyes glowed red, and it opened its mouth.
"▄▅▄▅▂▂▃▃▄▄▅!"
The sound it released echoed against the air, against the crystals, seeming to slam into John's very mind. Everyone on the shuttle screamed in horror. A horrific maw opened wider, and the roar seemed to echo over and over, layering on itself, pressing against the very soul. A bright light came into life in its mouth, and it aimed at the shuttle. The ship twisted to the side as the pilot tried to dodge, but it was too late.
At that moment, as a monster prepared to kill him, John Shepard wished. He wished the way only a child can, for a savior.
And yet, he did not close his eyes. For even at his young age, he knew that if death came, he would never give it the satisfaction of looking away.
As SpaceGodzilla roared, something else answered.
"BVWOOOOOM." Everyone in the shuttle went silent at that noise. Like a horn calling out for salvation. SpaceGodzilla's cry, once so triumphant, petered out. The massive crystal kaiju turned in the direction of the call, distracted.
One of the buildings enveloped in the crystals was a museum. The sound of the crystals shattering filled the air as something broke out of the museum. It landed in the fields of crystals, the sharp stones useless against it's body.
"Jaeger." John whispered.
"Holee…" Everyone on the shuttle rose from their seats as the pessimistic soldier stepped forward to stare outside. "That's…"
The Jaeger had wide shoulders armored with massive steel plates, and slim hips, giving it the appearance of a football player covered in metal as it rose into a fighting stance. It had a blue color scheme, but with red and white stripes all over it that seemed to glimmer in the light reflected by the crystal city. Its head, angular, built to resemble a fighter jets, gazed at SpaceGodzilla with yellow windows in place of eyes. As the Jaeger's arms rose, John could see the giant number 34's painted on each upper arm, and the image of a woman painted on its chest in the center of a red circle. The woman was dressed in black scraps of cloth, and seemed to smirk as she leaped.
There wasn't an earthling in existence that would have failed to recognize the Jaeger. As it rose, the massive red circle on it's chest that began to glow and spin like a turbine engine clinched it.
"Gypsy Danger." The pessimistic soldier whispered.
"I thought she was destroyed!" The younger soldier yelled. He removed his helmet, revealing the black furred, primate appearance of a Simeon.
"It's the replica from the museum!" A woman, a civilian, yelled out as John pressed his face against the window.
"They made a replica that worked!?" The pessimistic soldier said disbelievingly.
As if to punctuate his statement, Gipsy suddenly moved. The replica moved her arm into firing position, like a Wild West gunman preparing to fire, and her left hand shifted into a cannon. A blue glow came from the cannon, followed by a massive blast of force.
SpaceGodzilla roared, diverting the attack with psychic force, only to be forced to do so again and again as Gipsy continued to fire. The Jaeger ran forward, left hand firing, and held her right hand outwards. SpaceGodzilla's crystals began to float upwards, aiming to stab into the Jaeger.
Gipsy's right hand clenched. A whip of blades fell from a port in her hand, then solidified into a sword. With one hand firing, the others slashed out at the crystals coming towards the Jaeger. Gipsy's call, that loud horn of salvation, blasted out once more, and SpaceGodzilla released another bass-filled roar.
The shockwave of the Psychic Monster and Steel Titan slamming into each other shook the air. Blue plasma and purple beams flew through the air, blades and crystals slammed into one another, and psychic waves of power flew through the air.
The last thing John Shepard saw as he held his mother's remaining hand, as the shuttle took those on-board to safety, was Gipsy Danger II punching a Kaiju in the face.
------
"Hey, kid." A gruff voice was followed by someone pushing at her shoulder. Jane mumbled, rubbing her face against the hard surface she'd been using as a pillow. "Need my leg back at some point."
The tiny human yawned cutely, showing the gap where one of her front teeth had fallen out. She looked around blearily.
The shuttle she was on had seen better days. The haptic interfaces that glowed around the ship flickered at random, the seats were made of a material that was nearly threadbare, and the metal on the walls and railings was degraded. In the windows outside, the strangely beautiful image of a crystal landscape could be seen.
The men and women on the ship were a rough sort. Armored up, scarred, carrying weapons, and of various species. A Vorcha was piloting the ship, his movements almost hectic as he tried to keep the ship in the air. A human woman in red armor was holding hands with a rough looking man with eyes slitted like a cats and oddly feminine features. A Simeon in bright blue armor was cradling a massive rifle, staring at the crystal landscape as though it had personally offended him.
"You awake?" The gruff voice reminded Jane of a bear she'd seen… somewhere?
She looked up, confused. The face looking down at her was unfamiliar. His forehead was a massive red plate of armor, with some slash marks deep in the carapace. He had red eyes set into a brown scaled face. Jane curiously raised her hand to touch his cheek, stroking the smooth scales there. His eyes widened, but he didn't stop her.
"Huh… brave kid, aren't you?"
"…Where am I?" She said softly. She rose up from where she'd been lying down on his armor to look about in confusion. She lifted a hand to touch the bandage that had been wrapped around her head, the unfamiliar itch of medi-gel doing its work confusing her.
"Hong Kong. Headed off to a safe zone I guess." He scoffed. "Probably going to leave you with your parents and head off to Omega after that. You know your parents contact info?"
Jane opened her mouth. Then she closed it, shocked. "I…"
"What, you don't know?" He asked. "What about their names?"
The look she gave him made his stomach fall away. Confusion and heartache filled her tiny features.
"Aw, crap." He looked at her head again. "You don't remember anything."
"Fuck!" The Vorcha who'd been piloting screamed, startling his passengers. "The damn thing is on the move again!"
The shuttle dived downwards, then to the side, the ailing anti-gravity of the shape fighting against the wild movements.
"Is it coming for us!?" The human woman in red armor yelled.
"Yes!"
As the Vorcha screamed, a bright beam of purple light flew past the window. The shuttle became unbearably hot, and the light of the beam on the crystal landscape was almost blinding. Jane screamed, clutching at the nearest thing to her.
Wrex growled as the child grabbed at his arm. "Can we dodge it?"
Even as he spoke, the right window revealed the threat. SpaceGodzilla stared at the shuttle with his bright red eyes. He strode forward, crystals rising into the air around it like a vanguard, eyes trained on the shuttle.
"The fuck is he after us for!?" The feminine man yelled.
"It's SpaceGodzilla." The Simeon man growled. "He doesn't care how small the target is. He turned Hong Kong into a butchery for fun. Trust me, he'll kill us for the hell of it."
The beast roared once more, the sound impacting on the ears and mind like a sledgehammer. Jane stared back. At that moment, she knew it saw her. And it laughed, a growling, cruel cry of amusement, while energy swirled around it.
At that moment, as a monster prepared to kill her, Jane wished. She wished the way only a child can, for a savior.
And yet, she did not close his eyes. For even at her young age, she knew that if death came, she would never give it the satisfaction of looking away.
"I thought that Jaeger was—" Wrex stopped speaking. Beyond SpaceGodzilla, in the bay of Hong Kong, he saw something.
Jane looked up at the Krogan. He seemed mesmerized. She looked where he was focused.
As SpaceGodzilla, laughed, something rose from the ocean. A voice that hadn't been heard in 154 years called out. And the world changed.
"SKREEEEEEEONNNNNK!"
When people described the cry, they would say it had deep undertone accentuating the shrill roar. But that was not the truth. No one could truly describe the cry. Like a demon, like a dragon, like a triumphant king.
The last would do. For in the end, all knew what the roar meant.
The King Of The Monsters had returned.
"Gojira." The human woman said in horror.
"Godzilla." The Simeon said in a respectful whisper.
"Fuck." Wrex said simply.
The monster was shorter than SpaceGodzilla, and stood on two legs as well, his sauropod limbs smashing concrete and crystals as he strode forward. He had massive spikes on his back, waving like great fins all the way to the tip of his tail, the long limb smashing into building with uncaring ease. Water glistened on blue-gray scales covered in burns and scars telling the tale of many, many old battles. His arms, massive and strong, pulled back as the monsters huge chest began to fill with air.
Jane watched in awe as Godzilla's spines lit up a luminescent blue, and an echoing sound filled the air. Then he opened his mouth.
SpaceGodzilla's beam had been purple lightning, and it's very presence seemed to attack the world.
Godzilla's beam was a brilliant blue that illuminated the world, like flame and laser combined, and slammed into SpaceGodzilla's chest with the boom of jet breaking the sound barrier.
The Crystal Kaiju screamed in rage, red eyes blazing and jaw snapping as he was forced back. Godzilla roared, his yellow-orange eyes glowing with power, and rushed forward with incredible speed despite his gargantuan size.
The King of Monsters and the Lunatic Clone slammed into each other, claws lashing out, teeth biting, beams of power burning at skin and crystals snapping against skin.
"That Jaeger is on it's way!" The Vorcha cried out. "I'm getting us out of here!"
"Do it!" Wrex barked.
The last thing Jane saw as she held onto her saviors arm, as the shuttle took those on-board to safety, was Gojira blasting a Kaiju in the face.
wertsir
Knower of the Unknown
- Location
- Lost in A Deep Fog
I always loved that quote.
For those who don't know, the full thing goes:
I thought about using the full quote, because it's so damn appropriate, but Stacker in this universe would say something more along the lines of, 'We've been doing this shit for more than fifty years. The Breach Kaiju aren't a threat, they're just what we get on Tuesdays.'
GameDragon
Too Hot To Handle
- Location
- Challenger Deep
Holy shit. At one point, I expect Godzilla to fight a reaper.
THINGS I AM NOT ALLOWED TO DO AS A JAEGER PILOT
Sithking Zero
High Priest of the First Church of The Deputy
- Location
- Here
THINGS I AM NOT ALLOWED TO DO AS A JAEGER PILOT:
- I am allowed one (1) Super Robot Reference per fight, unless you can justify it. Any more than that and you will be docked a month's pay.
- Attack on Titan. No.
- Breach Kaiju cannot be tamed. Stop trying to bribe them with food.
- You are in charge of a hundred-thousand-ton war machine that is the man-made equivalent of a hurricane. Drinking while on duty is not permitted for any reason.
- Challenging mech pilots outside the cockpit is permitted. Challenging them to a game of chicken while in the cockpit is not allowed.
- The debates over which Kaiju would win in a fight stop. Now. The Krogan ambassador thinks we're getting a little obsessive, and that should tell you EVERYTHING about why this needs to stop.
- The King Ghidora puppet is to be dismantled from the Turian Quarters immediately. Nobody thought it was funny.
- Simeans are no longer allowed to scale the sides of buildings. Yes, Ensign Oogowa should be congratulated her boyfriend finally proposed, but we would like to discourage that in the future.
- Recreational drug use is strictly prohibited while on duty for any reason. It can be transferred through the drift, and we do not need a repeat of the time Ironsights Balboa abandoned the fight to go searching for a 7-11.
- The Prank War is fine as long as it does not affect shatterdome operations. The beehive in the cockpit does, in fact, impact Shatterdome Operations.
- A reminder to all Xillians that sunglasses are not covered by medical insurance. And no, your outfits cannot be black leather, that's what uniforms are for.
- We in the EDF do try for cultural diversity, but the Krogan tradition of slaughtering a live varren in the break room is no longer allowed.
- Psychics are to use their "Outside Voices" at all times.
- If the thought of it makes you laugh for more than five seconds, you are not allowed to do it.
- Advertising space is not to be sold for your Jaeger.
- Unauthorized modifications to your Jaeger are not allowed and must be done through proper channels. While we are impressed that you somehow fit a Maser Lance onto your unit, operational planning requires knowing about these things before the mission starts.
- While you are allowed one super robot reference per fight, you are not allowed magical girl references. We should not have to explain this one.
- If you have phobias, please talk about them to the base counselor. You fight Kaiju. A daddy-long-legs should not reduce you to gibbering terror.
- You are here to cancel the apocalypse. You are not here to schedule root canals.
- Sexual conduct involving the Jaeger is not permitted.
- Teabagging dead Kaiju falls under the purview of rule 20.
- Sexual intercourse in the cockpit of a Jaeger falls under the purview of rule 20.
- Mutation is everyone's concern. Do not keep them as pets.
- Mad Science is not an excuse for stupidity.
- Attempting to get Kaiju to ingest recreational drugs is not allowed for any reason. Would you like to see what happens when Zilla gets the munchies?
- The appropriate response to Kaiju remains is to call in a biohazard team. It is not "Eat that and I'll give you a hundred credits."
- The following weapons are not to be asked to be fit to Jaegers: Beanbag Launcher, Potato Gun, Chainsaw Nunchaku, Sack Full Of Doorknobs, Windows 98.
- There is no "Stun" setting on Jaeger Weapons. If you fire it, things die.
- Theme songs for Jaegers are not allowed.
- Thruster Packs for exo-atmospheric use is all right. In atmosphere is on a case-by-case basis.
- The following weapons are added to the list of unacceptable Jaeger Weapons: Rubber Chicken, land mines, fully operational Denny's restaurant, blow darts, Port-A-Potty Gun, The Twilight Series
- Baking Soda Volcanos are fine. Jaeger-scale ones are not.
- Profanity in your Jaeger Name is not allowed.
- Do not encourage the Jaeger Cultists.
- Do not encourage the Kaiju Cultists.
- Sale of Kaiju parts is not allowed.
- Sale of Kaiju fluids is not allowed.
- Sale of live Kaiju is especially not allowed.
- The response to an insect infestation is to call the Exterminator. Jaegers are not Exterminators.
- The standard greeting for new life forms is not "Damn it, what now" or "Fuck off, I'm busy."
- The worlds of "Fishing Pole" and "Breach Portal" are not allowed to intersect.
- Godzilla. Antagonizing. No.
- The "Pulse Check" is to be used to determine if an enemy Kaiju is dead. Not a friendly one.
- "Watch This" should never be said.
- The time to go to the bathroom is before you enter the cockpit, not after you've been bolted in.
- Radiation does not give you superpowers. Remember your anti-rad meds.
- Testing for Drift Compatibility should never be done while hooked up to a war machine the size of the old Space Shuttle.
- Stop antagonizing the mech pilots.
- The appropriate response to being told that something is a bad idea is to listen as to why. It is not to scream "I'll fucking show you" and then do it anyway.
- Attempts to get on the list will result in immediate expulsion from the EDF.
- Just because Raleigh Becket did it, does not mean you can. Put the boat down.
Author's Note: This chapter goes into the day to day life of John and Jane as teenagers, as well as introduces some of the people important to them. That said, not every character will show up later. We all have friends we made as teenagers who we just don't see anymore for whatever reason, and we also have friends who will be there the rest of our lives. So too do John and Jane.
However, this chapter also goes into some big things that are a part of this shared universe. The great thing about these franchises is that I can include almost anything and not be crazier than the original canon. But I also don't want to go overboard. So I'm trying to balance. Have something absolutely insane, but also possible within the realm of each canon. Hopefully you guys enjoy this.
February 19th, 2172 CE: Station Serizawa, Orbiting Shanxi
John Shepard woke in a start, looking around frantically. His familiar surroundings confused him for a moment. But only a moment. As a spacer kid, he'd long since gotten pretty good at remembering whatever new location he was sleeping in was. But oddly, sleeping in the same place for months tended to get confusing. Weird.
He slowly took stock of his surroundings. The room was almost bare, made entirely of steel and plastic. On a dresser next to him was a photo laid out on its face, a knife, and a necklace with a crystal imbedded in steel. Next to the dresser was a bag full of his clothes.
John felt a hard object next to his leg. On looking at it, he found his padd. It was still on. He lifted the padd up to read the passage in question.
"SCALE forces still in underground war with Batarian Hegenomy." He scoffed, tossing the padd aside. No wonder he'd fallen asleep.
He slowly rose out of his bed, stretching as he moved. At seventeen, John was on the cusp of growing into his full size. Already he was taller than most men, though nothing on the Turians he often interacted with. This caused a bit of a problem on most stations, as they were built with space in mind, but he was used to it. Still wearing nothing but his boxers, he strolled over to the bathroom, leaned against the sink and turned on the water to splash his face.
"Inquiringly: John," He smiled just a bit at the sound of his old friend outside the door. "Are you up yet."
Long used to the monotone sound of an Elcor, John splashed his face, enjoying the chill of liquid pouring down his face. While ships and space stations tended to get very chilly, there was no denying the enjoyment of cold water on skin. "Yeah, I'm just cleaning up! Be out in a bit!"
"Cheerily: See you soon." The steady beat of massive elcor limbs pressing against the floor echoed for a moment as the alien left his place outside John's door, leaving the teenager to clean up.
John looked at himself in the mirror. With his shirt off, it was easy to see his pale skin, a product of living on sunless stations since he was seven. He was getting a tan again thanks to recent changes, but it was a slow process. His bright blue eyes seemed to glow, and he ran a hand across his short black hair.
Once he finished showering and cleaning up, he put on a black shirt and shorts, perfect for a workout. The crystal now bounced on its chain as he walked, shining with an odd light as it rested in its metal setting. On entering the kitchen of the quarters he called home, he was greeted by three people.
"John," His mom stepped forward from where she been reading a padd, wrapping him in a hug. He smiled at her, kissing her cheek. He took a moment to look at her hands as sshe went back to reading.
Hannah Shepard was a striking woman. With hair so black it was almost blue, eyes the same color as John's, a trim, muscular figure, and strong facial features, she would never be seen as pretty. She was something far more dangerous, made of the sort of beauty that seemed to challenge men and women to meet her standards.
Her right arm only added to her dangerous allure. Colored blood red, and obviously armored for combat, the metallic arm moved with fluid dexterity to trace its fingers along the surface of the padd she was reading from. A small blue orb glowed just under the shoulder of the arm, like a power source of some kind.
John looked from his mom to the other occupant at the table. Of course, there was no way he could miss him. Elcor tended to stand out.
"Hey, Hades," John patted his friend on the shoulder as he walked by.
Even for his young age, Hades was big, towering over even the largest bulls among his people, a testament to the training and workout program he'd been a part of for years. Hades, named after the Olympian of Death and Wealth, was sipping from a juice box placed on the table. He wore a simple black shirt and pants, and seemed to be enjoying his juice.
At the oven, flipping eggs with intense concentration, was an Asari woman. Well, a girl really.
She wore a purple dress in the style of her people, which went well with teal appearance of her lightly scaled skin. She was the shortest person of the room, and also the youngest. John walked over and poked the tentacles on her head mischievously.
"H-Hey!" She squeaked, slapping his hand away. "Stop it!"
John smiled at the shorter youth, which responded with by pouting. Her purple eyes were full of annoyance, but she quickly smiled when she found that he wasn't being malicious. "How'd you sleep?"
"Good." John looked over the eggs, then nodded as he decided they looked delicious. "How about you, Ashira?"
"All right," She shrugged. "It was cold though. How do you get used to it?"
"It's in the blood," Hannah said behind them, not looking from her padd. "That and practice."
Hades took another sip of his juice. "Curiously: What time is class today?"
"Should be in about an hour." John lifted an arm, taking a look at his omni-tool's watch function. "Yep. We better start eating."
"Shifu doesn't mind if we're late anyways," Ashira moved the eggs around, then placed them on three plates.
"Well I need to get as much learning in as I can now, remember?" John took a plate for himself and began scarfing down food.
Ashira frowned. "Oh yeah. Military service… Do you have to go?"
"Soon as I'm eighteen," He mumbled around a mouthful of eggs.
Hannah hit the back of his head with her flesh arm for talking with his mouth full, not even looking up from her padd. He grinned at that, and obediently swallowed his food.
"Lucky," Ahshira crossed her arms and pouted. "It's not fair humans get to join the military so early! I have to wait thirty years to join my military!"
"Sarcastically: It must be so hard to be immortal."
John choked on his eggs at both the joke and Ashira's cute attempt at anger. At sixteen, the girl was a baby in the eyes of her society. She was lucky enough to be allowed to go to an EDF school. Joining the military was just not in the cards for her.
"Where's Samuel?" He asked his mom, trying to change the subject.
"Already working out." Hannah flipped the page on her padd. "You know Samuel."
"Hm." John ate another bite, already focused on what was coming for the day ahead.
February 19th, 2172: Omega, Afterlife
Jane growled as she rose from her sleep. She looked around her room for a moment. Clothes, bullets, and pieces of trash lay all over the floor. She struggled away, looking around. After a moment she growled again, reach for a pair of pants. She gave the bathroom a glance, then sniffed her armpit. Wincing slightly, she put the pants down and walked over the bathroom.
A knock came from the door as she was showering. "Jane!?"
Jane brushed back a lock of her red hair, blinking a bit of shampoo out of her eyes. "Showering, dad!"
"Hnn," The gravely voice at the door somehow echoed. "I have a hunt today. You're coming with me. Eat a protein bar or something."
Jane blinked, shocked. As the sound of footsteps leaving filled the air, the teenage girl grinned under the deluge of water from her shower.
"Yes!"
When she entered the living room, she was dressed in full armor. Like her father's, her armor was colored a dark red, with a stripe of black on the arms and legs.
Wrex looked up at the sight of his adopted daughter entering the room. He looked her up and down for a moment.
Jane was shorter than himself, but still taller than most of her species females. She had a small scar on her chin, a trophy from when she'd killed her first fully grown Krogan a month ago.
Pride filled Wrex at the sight of his tough little daughter. To think, it seemed like only a few days ago she'd been just a toddler, walking around awkwardly on her pudgy limbs. But he knew from the moment that toddler responded to a Varren barking at her with a headbutt instead of crying, that she was something special.
It was strangely adorable, the sight of tiny human blinking at a barking varren, only to frown in determination, rear her head back, and smash her forehead into the animal's face.
He threw back those fond memories to appraise her from a more professional standpoint. "Armor looks good. Biotics?"
Jane raised a hand, watching it glow briefly. "All fed up and ready to go," She gave Wrex an excited smile. "Are you really bringing me on a hunt!?"
He grunted. "You need to stop smiling like that. It's creeping me out."
She put her teeth away, trying push away her giddiness as she stared aeagerly at the massive Krogan she called her father. "Sorry. I'm just—"
"Yeah, I know." Wrex grabbed an assault rifle, a brand new piece that had been resting on the table. "Early happy birthday by the way."
He tossed the large weapon at Jane, watching as she caught it. "No good going on you're first hunt without a good weapon."
Jane just barely kept from squealing as she stared at the weapon, as excited as a little girl getting a pony. It was the same color as her eyes, built with a curved top, and had an M-7 on the side.
"It's a Lancer." Wrex noted. "Old human weapon. Has an omni-bayonet on it too."
Even more excited, she pressed the button on the side, watching as a orange blade slid out of the micro-fabricators built into the bottom of the blade.
"Fires both mass effect rounds and plasma. Plasma uses more power, but it's useful for burning through armor," Wrex watched her stare at her new gun. After a moment, he opened his mouth, then hesitated. He shuffled awkwardly before speaking again. "So what do you thi—?"
Jane rushed forward to wrap her armored arms around his body. As she squeezed him tightly, he stared down at her awkwardly. Slowly, a fond smile came to his face. She twisted her head to look at him, smiling.
"Thanks, dad."
After a while he pushed her away, but not without a pat on the head. "You're welcome, brat."
He turned away to grab a shotgun off the table. "Now come on. The Queen has business with us."
Jane nodded firmly. As she followed her father, she attached the assault rifle to her back like he'd taught her, letting it fold into its smaller form. Then she patted her side.
There, at her waist, was a knife. If anyone had taken it out of its sheath, they would have seen that it was made of a bright crystal.
February 19th, 2172 CE: Station Serizawa, Orbiting Shanxi
John, Ashira, and Hades had been living on the station together with John's mother for almost a year. But they'd been friends for longer than that.
Hades was actually born on Earth. The son of an elcor businessman and his wife, he'd been given the name Hades as a respectful nod to the planet of his birth and it's myths. He'd come to the station to continue learning under his Shifu, who had moved away from Earth to the station by request.
Ashira's story was similar. Her mother and father, both pureblood Asari, had moved her to the station in order to help her develop her biotic talents. Thessians were not exactly cruel to pureblood children, but the stigmata was bad enough that Ashira's parents felt it best.
And finally, John. He'd only been detected as a biotic last year, and had been fitted with L3 implants immediately. He moved to the station as well, roomed with his mother, Hades, and Ashira, and had trained to develop his skills ever since, in preparation for joining the military like his mother.
So it was that the three of them began walking together to the gym in the center of the station. The station was one of the largest in existence, a four kilometer long beast that was shaped like a broken sword welded onto an anvil. Created to act as a defense platform/training academy, Station Serizawa was renowned for being horrendously huge, state of the art, and very big (It could not be overstated how freakishly huge it was).
Humanity had a well-deserved reputation for creating big things after all, and they weren't willing to give it up.
The gym they stepped into fit that esthetic design. It was a massive space, big enough to hold several space shuttle if need be, and have room for a few Krogan tanks. On the left side as they entered the room was a large window displaying an incredible view of the planet below. In truth there was no window, only a very good holograph, but it was a real time view of the planet of Shanxi nonetheless.
Going from the window all the way until it took up the middle of the room, was a thick green mat. Made of a revolutionary material, the mat was made to absorb even the strongest of blows, allowing students to fall as much as necessary without grievous injury. On the right side were sets of workout equipment. While the room was almost empty, one of the occupants was bench pressing what had to be around seven hundred pounds of weight. When the weightlifter in question noticed the trio enter, he let the weights down and rose to give them a fanged smile.
"Sam," John said with a nod.
"Guys," Samuel was a Simeon, one of the more militant races that were a part of the Earth Defense Forces. Like many of his race, he was covered in thick fur, a dark brown forest of clean and well groomed hairs. He had a face similar in structure to that of Earth's gorillas, though more capable of displaying complex emotions than Earth primates. He stood to his full height of eight feet. Of the group, only Hades had more muscle mass, and even the large elcor was shorter than Samuel.
"Shifu is taking a call," Samuel nodded towards the back room, where a window showed a man walking back and forth. John walked towards the room in question, the others falling into step beside him. The door was open, allowing the others to hear the tail end of the conversation.
"Yeah, stop by any time," The man chuckled. "I'd love to finally meet Kolyat, see how he's growing… be safe," Hanging up, the man smiled at the youngsters gathered at his door. "Sorry about that. Old friend."
"No problem, Shifu." John said with a smile.
The man he called shifu, or 'master', wasn't very impressive. Chinese by birth, he had thick black hair braided into a ponytail, a modestly muscular build, and wore a simple t-shirt, flowing pants, and martial arts slippers. He was young, and shorter than John by a few inches. He once laughed when a student compared him to Bruce Lee in appearance.
The students stepped away from the door and walked over to the mat. Each removed their shoes, bowed, and stepped onto the mat, though Hades settled for simply nodded his head before moving his titanic form. Standing in a line, they waited respectfully for their shifu to follow.
"Now, as I understand it, two of you will be leaving soon." Their Shifu looked between John and Samuel, who shared grins. "The EDF will be glad to have you."
"Thank you, Shifu." Samuel bowed respectfully. "I'm sorry to leave you so early in my teachings."
"Same." John chuckled a bit. "Especially since I haven't been here long."
"Believe me, you both will do well." Their shifu sighed. "Sadly, the battlefield is the only place to truly polish the skills I have taught you. As much as I have pushed you within these walls, it will be nothing compared to the tempering wrought by the fires of war."
He waved a hand idly. "But enough philosophical bullshit. Let's start the lesson." He lifted a hand so that his palm faced the ceiling. In a flash of light, ice slowly swirled into existence over his palm, gathered into a single spike.
"Chi," He nodded to Hades. "Biotics," Ashira, then John. "And psychics. Each of these is simply energy, and the expression of it. While each has different places in the world, never see yourself as the better of others because of your abilities. Appreciate your powers, practice them, and perfect your skills. But remember that death comes to all men eventually. Death is the great equalizer. Nothing in this universe is truly immune to it. Rather than despair, simply take heart in it.
"Of all my teachings, this is one I'd like you remember the most. Do not fear death. Fight it off, save others from it. But do not fear its inevitability. When she comes to you, I want her to look you in the eyes, smile, and tell you that you fought well."
He clenched his fist, and the ice floating above his hand shattered. "None of is truly better than others. And Death, though inevitable, is not be feared. Remember that, and no enemy will ever truly be able to defeat you. You will be the mountain that they shatter their bodies upon."
He clapped his hands. "Now. Ashira, you and Samuel will spar. Hades, I'd like you to work on your chi magic. Fire, in this case. John, you and I will spar as well. I'd like to see about perfecting your biotic charge. I'll be damned if you can't beat out most Matriarchs before you leave my tutelage."
John smiled at that thought. As he did, Hades backed away from the others.
An Elcor roaring is not a sound many know about. To most, the only sound they could produce was the monotone, slow speech they were famed for.
Hades' bellow of noise shook the room. Samuel responded with his own roar, a blast of joyous glee. John and Ashira, despite having far less powerful lungs, still let out cries of their own, no less powerful for their lack of volume.
An aura of fire came to life around Hades. He aimed at a well-blacked spot on a back wall, and the fire coealesced into balls of fire before launching forth one at a time.
Samuel charged Ashira, still roaring as he launched a fist as large as her head at her stomach. A biotic barrier worthy of an asari seven times her age stopped him his tracks. She slammed a palm into his chest, sending him back with a wave of biotic force. Rolling as he hit the floor, he punched the air before him. A telepathic blast of power hit Ashira, and sent the tiny girl flying. She spun in midair, stopping her flight by enveloping herself in biotic power. Gritting her teeth in concentration, she flew towards Samuel, who roared in challenge before rushing to meet her.
As Hades practiced on his own and Samuel and Ashira sparred, John face his master.
"So Shifu, when do we start?" John said cheerily.
"…John," His master's serious voice took John off guard. "I'm going to do something from my past. Use an ability I haven't used in hundreds of years."
"Hundreds…" John stared at him shock. "But that's…"
"This world, John, is full of far more impossibilities than Kaiju, aliens, and psychic powers." He chuckled. "Well, I suppose you are used to such things. They are a confirmed part of history now. But in my time, such things were impossibilities. The world is ever changing John. And I feel that change is coming again. This universe is going to face things that will make most men falter. You and Samuel are joining the EDF. I sense that this will bring you both into contact with those changes."
He shuddered, before smiling at his confused student. "So, John. I will show you something impossible. From the days when the land of the Jade Empire knew me as the Spirit Monk, and when I brought about a change of my own."
A bright orange glow filled the room. And John's eyes widened. He took a step back, shocked beyond all belief.
"F-Frog!"
It had brown, mottled skin. Long fingers sharpened into claws. Feet with saurian talons. A mouth big enough to swallow a whole pig, and a pink tongue that seemed to have no end in length. It wore armor across its calves, and its waist was wrapped in a pale white cloth embroidered with odd symbols. Brown eyes set under a ridge of bone blinked at John. When the beast spoke, it was with his master's voice, if far more… demonic.
"Toad, actually." The creature chuckled. "This is my lesson, John. Survive me, and do so for every day that you are here. And you will be ready for every impossibility of this universe. Now. Prepare yourself!"
With an enormous leap, the creature came at him. John, still shocked, yelped when the toad demon slammed its belly into him.
"What the fuck!?" Samuel yelled in the background.
"Continue your lessons Samuel. You're next."
Paling in horror, Samuel, Ashira, and Hades ignored what they were doing and instead watched as John rolled to his feet, enveloped his fist in biotic power, and charged the toad demon that was his master. The toad blocked the blows with speed impossible for its size.
"Good attack, but you need more speed. Be careful now. This one of a hundred forms that I'll be testing you with, so you'll need to beat this one quickly."
As John dodged a long tongue, he felt his prospects of reaching eighteen without breaking every bone in body dwindle.
February 19th, 2172: Omega, Afterlife
Walking up the steps to Aria's throne was a daunting prospect for most. In fact, it tended to be the most terrifying part of most people's day.
Aria was Queen of Omega. Reviled by many, contested by few. But the undisputed Queen of the place often called the Citadel's dark sister. There were few within the hallowed out asteroid of scum and treachery that would have felt anything but daunting fear and hope that they would leave with their lives intact.
"Auntie Aria!"
Then again, few people were Urdnot Jane.
Aria, dressed in the white jacket and black undersuit that were her 'business' uniform, turned to look at the redheaded young girl walking towards her, and gave her something that would have shocked those who knew her.
A genuine, heartfelt, smile.
"Jane." She rose from her couch, extended her arms out at the girl walking towards her, and enveloped her in a hug. Another asari noted the hug from where she'd been dancing, and started to walk over. Aria pulled away from Jane to smile again, though it was the more dangerous type she was famous for. "I hear the old asshole is taking you on this job."
Wrex cocked an eyebrow, unoffended (He'd once heard something about pots or kettles or whatever, and quickly got distracted trying to remember how it went).
Jane smiled then.
Aria's guards, a group made up of two krogan, two asari, three batarians, and four turians, all situated around the stair that lead up to Aria, and all long since used to the violence and carnage that came with living on the most criminally infested station in the galaxy, shuddered at the sight of that smile.
It looked far too much like Aria's.
As the two gave each other a smile carrying all the promise of a blade tracing along skin, another asari came up the steps, the guards separating for her. "Jane, Mom?"
The two turned to see the young asari walking over to join them. She was wearing the dancers uniform asari had made famous throughout the galaxy, and she filled it very well. Of course, not a single man who knew who she was related too would have taken more than a glance at the incredible curves of her chest and hips, face that was a mix of cute and dangerously seductive, and eyes that seemed to gleam in the lights of Afterlife's neon lights.
"Liselle," Aria flicked her eyes to her guards. They all pointedly kept their eyes front, allowing Aria her soft moment.
It was a testament to Aria's power that even when she was fawning over her favorite girls, she was still the most terrifying person in the world.
"What's up cous?" Jane and Liselle hugged, only for Liselle to wince.
"Ouch. Seriously, don't hug anyone while wearing full armor." Liselle tapped Jane's chest piece with her knuckle, a loud clink following. "Why are you wearing this anyways?"
"I'm going on my first hunt!"
Liselle blinked. "Really?" She looked at Wrex. "Isn't seventeed young for that, even with humans?"
Wrex shrugged. "She comes from a planet of giant monsters, and her species responded by making giant fucking robots. I figure she can handle one asshole or three."
"It'll be fine," Jane patted Liselle's shoulder, then looked at Aria. "What's the job, Auntie?"
Aria sat back in her throne. Wrex moved to stand next to his adopted daughter, towering over her. Liselle sat next to her mother, watching in interest.
Aria motioned with a hand. Immediately, a turian man sped over and handed her a padd. "A SCALE operative is on the station, apparently trying to offload something. Normally I wouldn't mind. But he has apparently decided to do so in such a way that I can't help but notice." She pressed the padd, and turned it towards Jane and Wrex. Liselle leaned over to look as well, only to drew in a gasp.
"Is that?"
"Kaiju." Jane starred at the image of an arm the size of a truck being transported through a cargo bay, carried by a gravpad. An arm with dark green screen. Only the forearm, but massive. "Looks familiar for some reason."
"Knowing SCALE, it's probably a Gigan clone." Aria said, referencing the strange obsession SCALE seemed to have with the cyborg assassin. "But that doesn't matter. What matters is that these idiots decided to bring a Kaiju sample on my station, and not only didn't tell y people about it, but decided not to pay the 'tax' for transporting goods on Omega."
Jane winced. As much as she loved the woman she'd adopted as her aunt when she was eight, she knew full well only the stupid or the crazy would attempt to cross her.
"I'd send my guys I, but I figured this would be a good test for you." Aria threw the padd to Wrex. "Your job is go to the location, kill anyone standing in your way, then blow up the arm and anything else in there. That warehouse is already a wreck, and it's on good real estate. The Eclipse have been looking for a new place to build one of their mech workshops, so I'm going to sell them whatever you leave behind."
Wrex looked over the padd. "Hmm. James Rechenkov?"
"Fake name," Aria waved a hand dismissively. "Not that it matters. Just send a message Wrex, and I'll give you both my usual payment for such jobs. Understood?"
Neither Urdnot saluted, but they did nod. With that, they turned and left the room.
When they were gone, Aria felt Liselle's eyes one her. She ignored her, simply leaning back in her chair and listened to the music. Liselle continued to look at her. While Aria was not a cruel mother, she'd long since taught her daughters to respect her, and part of that was speaking only when it wasn't rude.
When Aria felt enough time had passed, she opened her eyes to look at her daughter. "You have questions, Liselle?"
"Yes, mother." Liselle leaned in. "I don't understand why you sent out Jane. Wrex can do the job himself, and Jane is so… she's so young."
Aria chuckled. "Young to an asari maybe. But on her species homeworld, she'd be only a short year or so from joining the EDF. Besides, Wrex asked me very politely," She smirked. "That's something I like about Wrex. He's rude, and not a good negotiater. But he'll be whatever Jane needs him to be. And if that means bowing down and asking me to pretty please let his human daughter in on a job, he'll do it."
"Mom…" Liselle said softly.
"Oh calm down." Aria scoffed. "Wrex has done good work over the years. And Jane has been trained by the best liars, cheats, and killers in the galaxy. SCALES agents will die, and they will be back for you and your sisters to baby before you know it."
With that, Aria grabbed another padd and made a notation. She was transporting eezo to a small rebel faction on Thessia, and the final payments hadn't come in yet. She'd been hoping for that, as she really preferred Thessia to remain under it's current rule, and now she had the excuse she needed to crush the rebels without risking her reputation as a businesswoman.
She simply had to torture a few of the negotiaters. Disgusting business, as nothing screamed so horribly as her fellow asari, but worthwhile in terms of how much money the whole thing would make her.
So Aria sat in her throne, the lives of several thousand people in her tight grip, her daughter next to her, and her empire nice and healthy.
It's good to be the queen.
------
Author's Note: So that's the chapter. If you guys have any questions, please let me know, and please read and review.
However, this chapter also goes into some big things that are a part of this shared universe. The great thing about these franchises is that I can include almost anything and not be crazier than the original canon. But I also don't want to go overboard. So I'm trying to balance. Have something absolutely insane, but also possible within the realm of each canon. Hopefully you guys enjoy this.
February 19th, 2172 CE: Station Serizawa, Orbiting Shanxi
John Shepard woke in a start, looking around frantically. His familiar surroundings confused him for a moment. But only a moment. As a spacer kid, he'd long since gotten pretty good at remembering whatever new location he was sleeping in was. But oddly, sleeping in the same place for months tended to get confusing. Weird.
He slowly took stock of his surroundings. The room was almost bare, made entirely of steel and plastic. On a dresser next to him was a photo laid out on its face, a knife, and a necklace with a crystal imbedded in steel. Next to the dresser was a bag full of his clothes.
John felt a hard object next to his leg. On looking at it, he found his padd. It was still on. He lifted the padd up to read the passage in question.
"SCALE forces still in underground war with Batarian Hegenomy." He scoffed, tossing the padd aside. No wonder he'd fallen asleep.
He slowly rose out of his bed, stretching as he moved. At seventeen, John was on the cusp of growing into his full size. Already he was taller than most men, though nothing on the Turians he often interacted with. This caused a bit of a problem on most stations, as they were built with space in mind, but he was used to it. Still wearing nothing but his boxers, he strolled over to the bathroom, leaned against the sink and turned on the water to splash his face.
"Inquiringly: John," He smiled just a bit at the sound of his old friend outside the door. "Are you up yet."
Long used to the monotone sound of an Elcor, John splashed his face, enjoying the chill of liquid pouring down his face. While ships and space stations tended to get very chilly, there was no denying the enjoyment of cold water on skin. "Yeah, I'm just cleaning up! Be out in a bit!"
"Cheerily: See you soon." The steady beat of massive elcor limbs pressing against the floor echoed for a moment as the alien left his place outside John's door, leaving the teenager to clean up.
John looked at himself in the mirror. With his shirt off, it was easy to see his pale skin, a product of living on sunless stations since he was seven. He was getting a tan again thanks to recent changes, but it was a slow process. His bright blue eyes seemed to glow, and he ran a hand across his short black hair.
Once he finished showering and cleaning up, he put on a black shirt and shorts, perfect for a workout. The crystal now bounced on its chain as he walked, shining with an odd light as it rested in its metal setting. On entering the kitchen of the quarters he called home, he was greeted by three people.
"John," His mom stepped forward from where she been reading a padd, wrapping him in a hug. He smiled at her, kissing her cheek. He took a moment to look at her hands as sshe went back to reading.
Hannah Shepard was a striking woman. With hair so black it was almost blue, eyes the same color as John's, a trim, muscular figure, and strong facial features, she would never be seen as pretty. She was something far more dangerous, made of the sort of beauty that seemed to challenge men and women to meet her standards.
Her right arm only added to her dangerous allure. Colored blood red, and obviously armored for combat, the metallic arm moved with fluid dexterity to trace its fingers along the surface of the padd she was reading from. A small blue orb glowed just under the shoulder of the arm, like a power source of some kind.
John looked from his mom to the other occupant at the table. Of course, there was no way he could miss him. Elcor tended to stand out.
"Hey, Hades," John patted his friend on the shoulder as he walked by.
Even for his young age, Hades was big, towering over even the largest bulls among his people, a testament to the training and workout program he'd been a part of for years. Hades, named after the Olympian of Death and Wealth, was sipping from a juice box placed on the table. He wore a simple black shirt and pants, and seemed to be enjoying his juice.
At the oven, flipping eggs with intense concentration, was an Asari woman. Well, a girl really.
She wore a purple dress in the style of her people, which went well with teal appearance of her lightly scaled skin. She was the shortest person of the room, and also the youngest. John walked over and poked the tentacles on her head mischievously.
"H-Hey!" She squeaked, slapping his hand away. "Stop it!"
John smiled at the shorter youth, which responded with by pouting. Her purple eyes were full of annoyance, but she quickly smiled when she found that he wasn't being malicious. "How'd you sleep?"
"Good." John looked over the eggs, then nodded as he decided they looked delicious. "How about you, Ashira?"
"All right," She shrugged. "It was cold though. How do you get used to it?"
"It's in the blood," Hannah said behind them, not looking from her padd. "That and practice."
Hades took another sip of his juice. "Curiously: What time is class today?"
"Should be in about an hour." John lifted an arm, taking a look at his omni-tool's watch function. "Yep. We better start eating."
"Shifu doesn't mind if we're late anyways," Ashira moved the eggs around, then placed them on three plates.
"Well I need to get as much learning in as I can now, remember?" John took a plate for himself and began scarfing down food.
Ashira frowned. "Oh yeah. Military service… Do you have to go?"
"Soon as I'm eighteen," He mumbled around a mouthful of eggs.
Hannah hit the back of his head with her flesh arm for talking with his mouth full, not even looking up from her padd. He grinned at that, and obediently swallowed his food.
"Lucky," Ahshira crossed her arms and pouted. "It's not fair humans get to join the military so early! I have to wait thirty years to join my military!"
"Sarcastically: It must be so hard to be immortal."
John choked on his eggs at both the joke and Ashira's cute attempt at anger. At sixteen, the girl was a baby in the eyes of her society. She was lucky enough to be allowed to go to an EDF school. Joining the military was just not in the cards for her.
"Where's Samuel?" He asked his mom, trying to change the subject.
"Already working out." Hannah flipped the page on her padd. "You know Samuel."
"Hm." John ate another bite, already focused on what was coming for the day ahead.
February 19th, 2172: Omega, Afterlife
Jane growled as she rose from her sleep. She looked around her room for a moment. Clothes, bullets, and pieces of trash lay all over the floor. She struggled away, looking around. After a moment she growled again, reach for a pair of pants. She gave the bathroom a glance, then sniffed her armpit. Wincing slightly, she put the pants down and walked over the bathroom.
A knock came from the door as she was showering. "Jane!?"
Jane brushed back a lock of her red hair, blinking a bit of shampoo out of her eyes. "Showering, dad!"
"Hnn," The gravely voice at the door somehow echoed. "I have a hunt today. You're coming with me. Eat a protein bar or something."
Jane blinked, shocked. As the sound of footsteps leaving filled the air, the teenage girl grinned under the deluge of water from her shower.
"Yes!"
When she entered the living room, she was dressed in full armor. Like her father's, her armor was colored a dark red, with a stripe of black on the arms and legs.
Wrex looked up at the sight of his adopted daughter entering the room. He looked her up and down for a moment.
Jane was shorter than himself, but still taller than most of her species females. She had a small scar on her chin, a trophy from when she'd killed her first fully grown Krogan a month ago.
Pride filled Wrex at the sight of his tough little daughter. To think, it seemed like only a few days ago she'd been just a toddler, walking around awkwardly on her pudgy limbs. But he knew from the moment that toddler responded to a Varren barking at her with a headbutt instead of crying, that she was something special.
It was strangely adorable, the sight of tiny human blinking at a barking varren, only to frown in determination, rear her head back, and smash her forehead into the animal's face.
He threw back those fond memories to appraise her from a more professional standpoint. "Armor looks good. Biotics?"
Jane raised a hand, watching it glow briefly. "All fed up and ready to go," She gave Wrex an excited smile. "Are you really bringing me on a hunt!?"
He grunted. "You need to stop smiling like that. It's creeping me out."
She put her teeth away, trying push away her giddiness as she stared aeagerly at the massive Krogan she called her father. "Sorry. I'm just—"
"Yeah, I know." Wrex grabbed an assault rifle, a brand new piece that had been resting on the table. "Early happy birthday by the way."
He tossed the large weapon at Jane, watching as she caught it. "No good going on you're first hunt without a good weapon."
Jane just barely kept from squealing as she stared at the weapon, as excited as a little girl getting a pony. It was the same color as her eyes, built with a curved top, and had an M-7 on the side.
"It's a Lancer." Wrex noted. "Old human weapon. Has an omni-bayonet on it too."
Even more excited, she pressed the button on the side, watching as a orange blade slid out of the micro-fabricators built into the bottom of the blade.
"Fires both mass effect rounds and plasma. Plasma uses more power, but it's useful for burning through armor," Wrex watched her stare at her new gun. After a moment, he opened his mouth, then hesitated. He shuffled awkwardly before speaking again. "So what do you thi—?"
Jane rushed forward to wrap her armored arms around his body. As she squeezed him tightly, he stared down at her awkwardly. Slowly, a fond smile came to his face. She twisted her head to look at him, smiling.
"Thanks, dad."
After a while he pushed her away, but not without a pat on the head. "You're welcome, brat."
He turned away to grab a shotgun off the table. "Now come on. The Queen has business with us."
Jane nodded firmly. As she followed her father, she attached the assault rifle to her back like he'd taught her, letting it fold into its smaller form. Then she patted her side.
There, at her waist, was a knife. If anyone had taken it out of its sheath, they would have seen that it was made of a bright crystal.
February 19th, 2172 CE: Station Serizawa, Orbiting Shanxi
John, Ashira, and Hades had been living on the station together with John's mother for almost a year. But they'd been friends for longer than that.
Hades was actually born on Earth. The son of an elcor businessman and his wife, he'd been given the name Hades as a respectful nod to the planet of his birth and it's myths. He'd come to the station to continue learning under his Shifu, who had moved away from Earth to the station by request.
Ashira's story was similar. Her mother and father, both pureblood Asari, had moved her to the station in order to help her develop her biotic talents. Thessians were not exactly cruel to pureblood children, but the stigmata was bad enough that Ashira's parents felt it best.
And finally, John. He'd only been detected as a biotic last year, and had been fitted with L3 implants immediately. He moved to the station as well, roomed with his mother, Hades, and Ashira, and had trained to develop his skills ever since, in preparation for joining the military like his mother.
So it was that the three of them began walking together to the gym in the center of the station. The station was one of the largest in existence, a four kilometer long beast that was shaped like a broken sword welded onto an anvil. Created to act as a defense platform/training academy, Station Serizawa was renowned for being horrendously huge, state of the art, and very big (It could not be overstated how freakishly huge it was).
Humanity had a well-deserved reputation for creating big things after all, and they weren't willing to give it up.
The gym they stepped into fit that esthetic design. It was a massive space, big enough to hold several space shuttle if need be, and have room for a few Krogan tanks. On the left side as they entered the room was a large window displaying an incredible view of the planet below. In truth there was no window, only a very good holograph, but it was a real time view of the planet of Shanxi nonetheless.
Going from the window all the way until it took up the middle of the room, was a thick green mat. Made of a revolutionary material, the mat was made to absorb even the strongest of blows, allowing students to fall as much as necessary without grievous injury. On the right side were sets of workout equipment. While the room was almost empty, one of the occupants was bench pressing what had to be around seven hundred pounds of weight. When the weightlifter in question noticed the trio enter, he let the weights down and rose to give them a fanged smile.
"Sam," John said with a nod.
"Guys," Samuel was a Simeon, one of the more militant races that were a part of the Earth Defense Forces. Like many of his race, he was covered in thick fur, a dark brown forest of clean and well groomed hairs. He had a face similar in structure to that of Earth's gorillas, though more capable of displaying complex emotions than Earth primates. He stood to his full height of eight feet. Of the group, only Hades had more muscle mass, and even the large elcor was shorter than Samuel.
"Shifu is taking a call," Samuel nodded towards the back room, where a window showed a man walking back and forth. John walked towards the room in question, the others falling into step beside him. The door was open, allowing the others to hear the tail end of the conversation.
"Yeah, stop by any time," The man chuckled. "I'd love to finally meet Kolyat, see how he's growing… be safe," Hanging up, the man smiled at the youngsters gathered at his door. "Sorry about that. Old friend."
"No problem, Shifu." John said with a smile.
The man he called shifu, or 'master', wasn't very impressive. Chinese by birth, he had thick black hair braided into a ponytail, a modestly muscular build, and wore a simple t-shirt, flowing pants, and martial arts slippers. He was young, and shorter than John by a few inches. He once laughed when a student compared him to Bruce Lee in appearance.
The students stepped away from the door and walked over to the mat. Each removed their shoes, bowed, and stepped onto the mat, though Hades settled for simply nodded his head before moving his titanic form. Standing in a line, they waited respectfully for their shifu to follow.
"Now, as I understand it, two of you will be leaving soon." Their Shifu looked between John and Samuel, who shared grins. "The EDF will be glad to have you."
"Thank you, Shifu." Samuel bowed respectfully. "I'm sorry to leave you so early in my teachings."
"Same." John chuckled a bit. "Especially since I haven't been here long."
"Believe me, you both will do well." Their shifu sighed. "Sadly, the battlefield is the only place to truly polish the skills I have taught you. As much as I have pushed you within these walls, it will be nothing compared to the tempering wrought by the fires of war."
He waved a hand idly. "But enough philosophical bullshit. Let's start the lesson." He lifted a hand so that his palm faced the ceiling. In a flash of light, ice slowly swirled into existence over his palm, gathered into a single spike.
"Chi," He nodded to Hades. "Biotics," Ashira, then John. "And psychics. Each of these is simply energy, and the expression of it. While each has different places in the world, never see yourself as the better of others because of your abilities. Appreciate your powers, practice them, and perfect your skills. But remember that death comes to all men eventually. Death is the great equalizer. Nothing in this universe is truly immune to it. Rather than despair, simply take heart in it.
"Of all my teachings, this is one I'd like you remember the most. Do not fear death. Fight it off, save others from it. But do not fear its inevitability. When she comes to you, I want her to look you in the eyes, smile, and tell you that you fought well."
He clenched his fist, and the ice floating above his hand shattered. "None of is truly better than others. And Death, though inevitable, is not be feared. Remember that, and no enemy will ever truly be able to defeat you. You will be the mountain that they shatter their bodies upon."
He clapped his hands. "Now. Ashira, you and Samuel will spar. Hades, I'd like you to work on your chi magic. Fire, in this case. John, you and I will spar as well. I'd like to see about perfecting your biotic charge. I'll be damned if you can't beat out most Matriarchs before you leave my tutelage."
John smiled at that thought. As he did, Hades backed away from the others.
An Elcor roaring is not a sound many know about. To most, the only sound they could produce was the monotone, slow speech they were famed for.
Hades' bellow of noise shook the room. Samuel responded with his own roar, a blast of joyous glee. John and Ashira, despite having far less powerful lungs, still let out cries of their own, no less powerful for their lack of volume.
An aura of fire came to life around Hades. He aimed at a well-blacked spot on a back wall, and the fire coealesced into balls of fire before launching forth one at a time.
Samuel charged Ashira, still roaring as he launched a fist as large as her head at her stomach. A biotic barrier worthy of an asari seven times her age stopped him his tracks. She slammed a palm into his chest, sending him back with a wave of biotic force. Rolling as he hit the floor, he punched the air before him. A telepathic blast of power hit Ashira, and sent the tiny girl flying. She spun in midair, stopping her flight by enveloping herself in biotic power. Gritting her teeth in concentration, she flew towards Samuel, who roared in challenge before rushing to meet her.
As Hades practiced on his own and Samuel and Ashira sparred, John face his master.
"So Shifu, when do we start?" John said cheerily.
"…John," His master's serious voice took John off guard. "I'm going to do something from my past. Use an ability I haven't used in hundreds of years."
"Hundreds…" John stared at him shock. "But that's…"
"This world, John, is full of far more impossibilities than Kaiju, aliens, and psychic powers." He chuckled. "Well, I suppose you are used to such things. They are a confirmed part of history now. But in my time, such things were impossibilities. The world is ever changing John. And I feel that change is coming again. This universe is going to face things that will make most men falter. You and Samuel are joining the EDF. I sense that this will bring you both into contact with those changes."
He shuddered, before smiling at his confused student. "So, John. I will show you something impossible. From the days when the land of the Jade Empire knew me as the Spirit Monk, and when I brought about a change of my own."
A bright orange glow filled the room. And John's eyes widened. He took a step back, shocked beyond all belief.
"F-Frog!"
It had brown, mottled skin. Long fingers sharpened into claws. Feet with saurian talons. A mouth big enough to swallow a whole pig, and a pink tongue that seemed to have no end in length. It wore armor across its calves, and its waist was wrapped in a pale white cloth embroidered with odd symbols. Brown eyes set under a ridge of bone blinked at John. When the beast spoke, it was with his master's voice, if far more… demonic.
"Toad, actually." The creature chuckled. "This is my lesson, John. Survive me, and do so for every day that you are here. And you will be ready for every impossibility of this universe. Now. Prepare yourself!"
With an enormous leap, the creature came at him. John, still shocked, yelped when the toad demon slammed its belly into him.
"What the fuck!?" Samuel yelled in the background.
"Continue your lessons Samuel. You're next."
Paling in horror, Samuel, Ashira, and Hades ignored what they were doing and instead watched as John rolled to his feet, enveloped his fist in biotic power, and charged the toad demon that was his master. The toad blocked the blows with speed impossible for its size.
"Good attack, but you need more speed. Be careful now. This one of a hundred forms that I'll be testing you with, so you'll need to beat this one quickly."
As John dodged a long tongue, he felt his prospects of reaching eighteen without breaking every bone in body dwindle.
February 19th, 2172: Omega, Afterlife
Walking up the steps to Aria's throne was a daunting prospect for most. In fact, it tended to be the most terrifying part of most people's day.
Aria was Queen of Omega. Reviled by many, contested by few. But the undisputed Queen of the place often called the Citadel's dark sister. There were few within the hallowed out asteroid of scum and treachery that would have felt anything but daunting fear and hope that they would leave with their lives intact.
"Auntie Aria!"
Then again, few people were Urdnot Jane.
Aria, dressed in the white jacket and black undersuit that were her 'business' uniform, turned to look at the redheaded young girl walking towards her, and gave her something that would have shocked those who knew her.
A genuine, heartfelt, smile.
"Jane." She rose from her couch, extended her arms out at the girl walking towards her, and enveloped her in a hug. Another asari noted the hug from where she'd been dancing, and started to walk over. Aria pulled away from Jane to smile again, though it was the more dangerous type she was famous for. "I hear the old asshole is taking you on this job."
Wrex cocked an eyebrow, unoffended (He'd once heard something about pots or kettles or whatever, and quickly got distracted trying to remember how it went).
Jane smiled then.
Aria's guards, a group made up of two krogan, two asari, three batarians, and four turians, all situated around the stair that lead up to Aria, and all long since used to the violence and carnage that came with living on the most criminally infested station in the galaxy, shuddered at the sight of that smile.
It looked far too much like Aria's.
As the two gave each other a smile carrying all the promise of a blade tracing along skin, another asari came up the steps, the guards separating for her. "Jane, Mom?"
The two turned to see the young asari walking over to join them. She was wearing the dancers uniform asari had made famous throughout the galaxy, and she filled it very well. Of course, not a single man who knew who she was related too would have taken more than a glance at the incredible curves of her chest and hips, face that was a mix of cute and dangerously seductive, and eyes that seemed to gleam in the lights of Afterlife's neon lights.
"Liselle," Aria flicked her eyes to her guards. They all pointedly kept their eyes front, allowing Aria her soft moment.
It was a testament to Aria's power that even when she was fawning over her favorite girls, she was still the most terrifying person in the world.
"What's up cous?" Jane and Liselle hugged, only for Liselle to wince.
"Ouch. Seriously, don't hug anyone while wearing full armor." Liselle tapped Jane's chest piece with her knuckle, a loud clink following. "Why are you wearing this anyways?"
"I'm going on my first hunt!"
Liselle blinked. "Really?" She looked at Wrex. "Isn't seventeed young for that, even with humans?"
Wrex shrugged. "She comes from a planet of giant monsters, and her species responded by making giant fucking robots. I figure she can handle one asshole or three."
"It'll be fine," Jane patted Liselle's shoulder, then looked at Aria. "What's the job, Auntie?"
Aria sat back in her throne. Wrex moved to stand next to his adopted daughter, towering over her. Liselle sat next to her mother, watching in interest.
Aria motioned with a hand. Immediately, a turian man sped over and handed her a padd. "A SCALE operative is on the station, apparently trying to offload something. Normally I wouldn't mind. But he has apparently decided to do so in such a way that I can't help but notice." She pressed the padd, and turned it towards Jane and Wrex. Liselle leaned over to look as well, only to drew in a gasp.
"Is that?"
"Kaiju." Jane starred at the image of an arm the size of a truck being transported through a cargo bay, carried by a gravpad. An arm with dark green screen. Only the forearm, but massive. "Looks familiar for some reason."
"Knowing SCALE, it's probably a Gigan clone." Aria said, referencing the strange obsession SCALE seemed to have with the cyborg assassin. "But that doesn't matter. What matters is that these idiots decided to bring a Kaiju sample on my station, and not only didn't tell y people about it, but decided not to pay the 'tax' for transporting goods on Omega."
Jane winced. As much as she loved the woman she'd adopted as her aunt when she was eight, she knew full well only the stupid or the crazy would attempt to cross her.
"I'd send my guys I, but I figured this would be a good test for you." Aria threw the padd to Wrex. "Your job is go to the location, kill anyone standing in your way, then blow up the arm and anything else in there. That warehouse is already a wreck, and it's on good real estate. The Eclipse have been looking for a new place to build one of their mech workshops, so I'm going to sell them whatever you leave behind."
Wrex looked over the padd. "Hmm. James Rechenkov?"
"Fake name," Aria waved a hand dismissively. "Not that it matters. Just send a message Wrex, and I'll give you both my usual payment for such jobs. Understood?"
Neither Urdnot saluted, but they did nod. With that, they turned and left the room.
When they were gone, Aria felt Liselle's eyes one her. She ignored her, simply leaning back in her chair and listened to the music. Liselle continued to look at her. While Aria was not a cruel mother, she'd long since taught her daughters to respect her, and part of that was speaking only when it wasn't rude.
When Aria felt enough time had passed, she opened her eyes to look at her daughter. "You have questions, Liselle?"
"Yes, mother." Liselle leaned in. "I don't understand why you sent out Jane. Wrex can do the job himself, and Jane is so… she's so young."
Aria chuckled. "Young to an asari maybe. But on her species homeworld, she'd be only a short year or so from joining the EDF. Besides, Wrex asked me very politely," She smirked. "That's something I like about Wrex. He's rude, and not a good negotiater. But he'll be whatever Jane needs him to be. And if that means bowing down and asking me to pretty please let his human daughter in on a job, he'll do it."
"Mom…" Liselle said softly.
"Oh calm down." Aria scoffed. "Wrex has done good work over the years. And Jane has been trained by the best liars, cheats, and killers in the galaxy. SCALES agents will die, and they will be back for you and your sisters to baby before you know it."
With that, Aria grabbed another padd and made a notation. She was transporting eezo to a small rebel faction on Thessia, and the final payments hadn't come in yet. She'd been hoping for that, as she really preferred Thessia to remain under it's current rule, and now she had the excuse she needed to crush the rebels without risking her reputation as a businesswoman.
She simply had to torture a few of the negotiaters. Disgusting business, as nothing screamed so horribly as her fellow asari, but worthwhile in terms of how much money the whole thing would make her.
So Aria sat in her throne, the lives of several thousand people in her tight grip, her daughter next to her, and her empire nice and healthy.
It's good to be the queen.
------
Author's Note: So that's the chapter. If you guys have any questions, please let me know, and please read and review.
Chapter 3
February 19th, 2172: Station Serizawa, Orbiting Shanxi
John stared out at Shanxi, his eyes panning the massive expanse of land below him as he stood in the hallway outside the gym. His muscles burned. Bruises kept screaming every time he moved an inch or more, which made his staring more of a wincing affair than he would have hoped for.
"I know how you feel," turning around, John smiled at the sight of Samuel slowly walking towards him, primate features twisting with pain. "That hurt like hell."
"I'd have thought a Simeon could take more damage than a human weakling," said John jokingly.
"Oh please. He took it easy on you; he probably used the real stuff on me."
"Really now?"
"…Hopefully. Because damn did that hurt."
"For a purpose," Shifu walked up to them, taking a spot in between Samuel and John. "I told you both. You are going off to war soon. And I feel that sending you out improperly trained would be beyond irresponsible of me."
Samuel scoffed, looking down at Shanxi. "You know I'm prepared. I'm a Simeon. We're made for this."
John nodded in agreement. Samuel may have been young, but he was a Simeon Spacer. He'd lived on warships where combat was a necessity for his entire life. If anyone was ready.
"You may be ready," Shifu said softly. "But so is every Krogan, every Turian, who goes into battle. They too are from species that claim death as their ally. And yet, young Krogan and Turian die every day. Young Simeons die every day."
Samuel looked over at Shifu. Shifu looked up at him, their eyes meeting. "Do not forget today, young one. Do not forget the day a human suddenly became the most terrifying opponent you ever faced. For that is war. The weakest of attackers, can surprise you with a bullet between the eyes. I will not have a student of mine die from something I could prevented. If you are killed by anything less than a planetary explosion, I will be severely disappointed."
The tall Simeon nodded, his massive bulk bent slightly as he considered his teachers words.
"And me?" asked John.
"I think explosive decompression will be enough to avoid my disappointment," Shifu said wryly.
John smiled at the dark joke. "Not that. I'm going into the Jaeger Program with Samuel."
"Oh?" Shifu smirked.
"…My mother told you already."
"I don't turn into giant monsters on a whim, John," said Shifu. "I wanted you both to know that terror. The terror of facing a beast that is ready to kill you, that will reveal odd attack patterns at random, that refuses to die. Just because Godzilla hasn't attacked a human city in decades doesn't mean monsters with similar ferocity don't exist. And I won't have you unprepared for anything less than the King of Monsters himself."
"You think we might end up fighting him?" Samuel asked. He sounded hopeful.
"…I pray you do not," Shifu shuddered. "There are beasts stronger than Gojira. King Caeser, King Ghidorah, Hedorah," he looked at John. "SpaceGodzilla."
John closed his eyes. For a moment, a world of crystals surrounded him. A wall of bright white stones, beautiful and horrible, cracked under the assault of a woman screaming as she punched it.
When John opened his eyes, Shifu and Samuel were eyeing him. Shifu nodded.
"All of them are powerful. But none have his will. Gojira will tear down the world, will kill everything around him, if it his wish to do so. Because of his will."
Shifu nodded. "Samuel. John. If you ever face such an opponent, remember that there are two ways to survive. One, is to retreat," Samuel scoffed. "And the other way, is to be stronger in your will."
"…Did you ever face a choice like that?" John asked.
"Yes," answered Shifu.
"What did you pick?" asked Samuel.
Shifu smiled. "Well…I've never run from a fight. Not in hundreds of years."
John shook his head. "Hundreds of years…Are you really that old?"
"I eat my vegetables."
"…Grown by who, Biollante?" Samuel said incredulously.
As Shifu laughed, John looked back at the planet below. Soon, he'd be off to war. And these days of peace would be over.
For now though, he'd enjoy being a teenager.
------
February 19th, 2172: Omega, City Streets
The red aircar bounced almost constantly as Wrex piloted. He looked over Jane.
The redheaded teen was gazing out at the Omega landscape. Bright neon traced across her freckled features as the air flew. He watched her pursing her lips soflty, then looked back in front of him.
"Nervous?" asked Wrex.
"No," said Jane.
He felt a surge of pride at the simpleness of her reply, the lack of fear in her voice.
"Just curious," She looked over at him. "What do you think SCALE is doing here?"
"Who cares? They pissed on Aria's territory. So we kill them."
"Yeah," Jane smiled softly.
"Anyways," Wrex sighed, looking at the building they were flying towards. "Lets ram our way inside and kill anything that moves."
"Yes, dad," with that, Jane pressed a button on her omni-tool. Orange lights coalesced around her, turning into large shields floating above her armor.
Wrex did the same even as he tilted the aircar towards the building. A large warehouse that looked as if it had been roughly stapled into a rock wall, with a simple landing pad, it wasn't a very pretty building.
As the aircar began to speed toward the building at incredible speeds, those inside began waving their arms, trying to get Wrex to pull up. When they realized he aimed to slam into the windows that lead into the main building, they panicked.
Wrex felt his barrier pop into place. Then they made impact.
The aircar slammed into the windows, shattering them with ease. Loud curses and yells came from all around as the aircar hit the ground, plowing the concrete away. A trench was created when the aircars speed kept it moving, grinding away the material. The aircar sustained dozens of dents, scratches, and gouges on its red surface, and the glass defending its occupants cracked. Slowly, it came to a stop.
SCALE agents rushed into the room. The area was a cargo hold, though empty of all but a few stacks of crates. The agents took up position behind those crates.
SCALE preferred to dress their agents in bright gold armor. It was gaudy, and shone brightly in the gloom of the room as they took positions. The one in charge slowly pointed at the aircar.
The canopy of the aircar exploded outwards. The twenty egents in the room started firing, ignoring their leaders calls for fire discipline.
Urdnot Wrex came out of the aircar charging. He roared. On Earth, a lion's roar can be heard from ten miles away. The average Krogan roar is even louder.
Wrex was not the average Krogan.
Even as bullets slammed into his barrier, he fired his Claymore shotgun, taking the head off a SCALE agent. Another one fired his own shotgun, shattering Wrex's barrier. Wrex responded by rearing his head.
"RUAAGH!"
*Splat*
The sound of a human head exploding against a Krogan skull filled the room.
"His barriers down!" the SCALE leader cried. "Concentrate fire and—"
A biotic attack hit him. For a moment, he was airborne. Then he was slamming into a wall. He had enough time to lay on the ground, shocked, before bullets entered his chest. The SCALE agents left, eighteen now, looked at the perpetrator. She stood on the aircar, reloading her pistol as her omni-shield glowed around her, a devil may care grin on her face.
"Watch those shields fellas!" Jane cried with a dark chuckle. She hopped off the aircar, rushing towards the SCALE operatives.
"Get her!" one of the agents cried.
Jane laughed, hopping behind crates as she switched from her pistol to her shotgun. "You heard him boys! Get me! Ignore the big ass Krogan charging you!"
One or two of the SCALE operatives may have had time to blink at the last statement. That ended when Wrex slammed into one with more than half a ton of force. Wrex roared in joyous anger as he trampled his enemies under foot. His Claymore roared once more, turning one mans hips from golden armor to a tangled mass of organs. As his shotgun cooled, Wrex punched another man in the face, and threw another into the distance.
Jane joined him, her laugh child-like and eerie. She came out from cover and fired the shotgun in her hand. Spikes flew out of the Graal, impaling someone in the face and killing him. A SCALE agent threw a grenade at her. Seeing the glowing disk flying at her like a Frisbee, she quickly caught it in a biotic bubble, throwing it back.
When it exploded, it sent Wrex back a step, as he'd been too close to the epicenter. He scowled at the sight of his barrier falling, forcing him to depend on his natural armor.
"Jane!"
"Sorry dad!"
Wrex sighed, grabbing a SCALE agent who'd tried to stab him with a knife. "Kids these days, right?"
The SCALE man choked on the massive claws choking him to death.
"See, that's how I feel sometimes," Wrex squeezed, snapping the mans spine.
Jane finished off the rest with a technique she'd learned from her aunt. First, she surrounded one of the SCALE agents in a warp field. As the biotics began to tear apart the man down to the cellular level, she gathered more power in a ball around her fist. Her shields failed when an accurate assault rifle burst hit her, and she winced at the feel of two bullets slamming into her midsection. Still, she kept her focus, and launched her attack.
"Heads up dad!"
Wrex winced when he realized what was about to happen. "Poor bastards."
The biotic Flare slammed into the warped SCALE agent. The explosion that followed shook the room. For a moment, it seemed like the area where the agents had stood was nothing but blue-white fire. Wrex tossed in two incendiary grenades, adding a hint of red to the tableu.
Seconds later, the lightshow ended, leaving naught but ash.
"Hmm…" hummed Wrex as Jane walked up to him. "Aria?"
"Warp and Flare," Jane said brightly. "Like it?"
"Could use more headbutts," He sighed at the crestfallen look on her face. "Come on girl. It's time to kick some more ass."
The two headed deeper into the facility.
------
February 19th, 2172: Omega, SCALE Offices
"It appears Aria sent her pet bounty hunter in," a man said softly. He was a tall, skinny human. He was balding, and wore the golden tunic all SCALE officials wore, with a purple sash over the tunic and black pants. He watched his screens and frowned, bright blue eyes hovering beneath dark eyebrows. Wrex and Jane could be seen rushing into the facility, firing their shotguns as they ran. "I wonder who the girl is?"
He stopped the footage, ignoring the sounds of explosions in the distance. He zoomed in on Jane, eyes panning over her face. "Hmm…Young, for a killer. Pretty too," he sighed. "Well, too violent for my tastes," He clicked a button on his console. "John, send in the mech units. Two of them."
"Sir? I thought they were for dealing with the experiment?"
The man chuckled. "John, the experiment will have to be moved. I'd rather not waste time with moving the mechs when we could be moving the experiment instead. Have them kill or distract the bounty hunters."
"Yes sir. But do we really want to evacuate?"
"Aria T'Loak has tried to kill me. I would rather have some light years between us. So that way, I can go from being terrified, to merely extremely paranoid."
------
February 19th, 2172: Station Serizawa, Orbiting Shanxi, Shepard Apartment
John sat in his living room, showing his omni-tool to the others. Ashira sat next to him on the couch as Hades stood watching the screen. Samuel was in the kitchen, filling a massive bowl with every bit of food he felt worthy of attention.
"So that's what that was," Ashira mused as she watched the small animal on the screen hop across the ground. It stared at the screen, bright eyes curious, and cheeks puffing up cutely. Then, suddenly, it squeaked, a high-pitched sound that seemed to beg for warmth and affection.
"It's so cute!" Ashira cried happily as she watched the small toad squek happily.
"Confused: That is not what Shifu looked like," Hades noted.
"Yeah well, he really didn't look like any toad in existence beyond basic shape," John noted. "So I just grabbed the most popular video about frogs and toads I could find, and this was it."
"I like it better than Shifu's version," Ashira shuddered, then looked at Hades. "Do you think he'll teach you that? That was Earth magic, right?"
"I hope not," Samuel came in with a big bowl of something that could arguably be called food. "Otherwise I'd want to learn too, and I'm not willing to sacrifice my good looks so soon."
"Jokingly: What good looks?"
John and Ashira grinned as Samuel smirked at Hades. They sat together, watching the odd clip of a frog squeaking. It was oddly hypnotic.
Soon however, John looked around. His friends were looking at his omni-tool. Ashira was leaning against him in a friendly manner. Hades was standing behind him, face quivering slightly as the massive Elcor watched the screen. Samuel was scarfing down his meal as he watched.
His friends. They'd be separated soon. Ashira would spend decades training. Hades would go to Dekuuna one day to continue his lessons in the Elcor martial arts. And Samuel would be going to the military. But who knew if they'd stay together? They might be sent to different divisions, different planets.
That was the problem with growing. Giving up all the things that you loved for the sake of the future.
John pushed his thoughts away. For now, they were together. And that was enough.
------
February 19th, 2172: Omega, SCALE Offices
The trouble came when the SCALE operative started truly pulling out the big guns.
Jane was laughing one moment as she charged through a series of offices, shooting the soldiers in her path as Wrex treated an office desk like a hammer. The offices were faily standard. Metal desks and partitions, keyboards imbedded in the desks to access the holographic monitors, and a few water coolers, a standby of the twenty-first century. She trode down an alley, her father in another part of the offices as she fired her shotgun.
A biotic warp slapped into her omni-shield, shattering one of the plates on her shoulder. A bullet followed, digging past her armor to slam into the flesh. More bullets slammed into her, throughing her back.
"Fuck!" she spit out. A SCALE agent in the standard gold armor lowered his hand, still glowing brightly with biotic power, and fired again and again. Jane fell back behind a metal desk, rolling as she moved. While the metal desk couldn't block mass effect propelled pellets, it did make it harder for opponents to target her.
"Fuck," Jane said softly as she felt the pain in her shoulder. Her armor would keep her alive, but she'd need some medigel soon.
But first, the biotic who had attacked her.
At least, that was her plan. Then a grenade slammed into the desk in front of her.
Eyes widening, Jane leaped. The explosion sent her flying, and shrapnel managed to shatter her shields, leaving her to roll to her feet with bruises under her armor and cuts on her face. She threw her own grenade, forcing her opponents back. As she did, Jane found her frustration peaking.
"You keep fighting like your dad," Aria's voice came to her mind, "but you need to embrace a more… elegant, style of combat. You're damn good at taking hits. But you need to learn to be creative."
Another grenade forced her out of cover as she frowned. Aria was right then, and she was right now.
Jane peeked out of cover. Five men, three women, all moving down the aisles. Two were coming closer to her, while three more hung back and another three tried to flank her.
"Creative?" Jane smirked. "Okay auntie."
She leaned out of cover and used her biotics to launch one of the men coming towards her into the air. As he was Pulled screaming through the air, his friends fired at Jane. She took the shots on her shields, watching the golden figure flying through the air coming down towards the ones flanking her. When he came close enough, she launched a Flare.
The man who she'd biotically pulled, and the three flanking her, died in a biotic explosion.
The other man who'd been coming towards her screamed in anger, probably enraged that his friends had been killed. Jane shut him up by spinning out of cover and slamming the butt of her shotgun into his jaw. He stopped screaming, dazed. Jane followed up by switching her shotgun for a pistol. Then she grabbed him by the shoulder, spun him around, and charged the three left, using the insensate man as a human shield.
For a moment, the three she was charging seemed to freeze. Then the biotic one launched a throw at Jane's hostage.
Jane leapt to her right as her hostage flew backwards, slamming into a desk. As she did, she threw a grenade.
The three left over had enough time to look down at the blinking disk. Then it exploded.
Jane spat to the side as she watched the three men died. Then she pointed her pistol at her former hostage as he struggled to his feet, firing half a clip into his chest.
"…I think I learned something new today," She smiled at the thought, then rushed to meet her father.
------
Like Jane, Wrex was rushing through the offices. And getting frustrated.
SCALE was retreating. They were also sacrificing soldiers in the name of that retreat. Wrex had killed dozens of men by now, and as many women for that matter. He'd been forced to switch to his assault rifle to be able to engage at medium range, the desk he'd been using as a bludgeon having shattered a while ago.
The plan had been simple. Go in and break shit. Easy enough, and he was doing it well. It was why he'd stocked so many damn grenades.
But it was getting boring now. It had been a bit interesting when they broke out their own biotics, but those were only able to do so much before Wrex ended up pushing through. His gun blazing, bullets bouncing off his armor, mouth open in a roar, he slammed through walls, stomped on heads, and generally made a nuisance of himself.
Wrex slammed his way into the next room, feeling confident.
A fist the size of a tire slammed into his chest.
Wrex, despite his massive weight, flew through the air for a moment. He took the time to judge the room around him. Another large cargo hold, but empty, with metal floors and walls, and two large doors that opened up into space. He twisted in the air, eyes widening as he realized his chestplae had a massive dent in it. And his chest hurt like hell as well.
What the hell could do that?
He got his answer when he landed, struggling to his feet.
Jaegers. Very small, and but still big, Jaegers.
Or mechs he supposed. Wrex wasn't an expert of Jaeger design, despite his human daughter.
What mattered was that two giant robots were turning to face him as he rose to his feet.
One green, and about ten meters tall, with a body shaped like a tank that started walking around. Its feet were massive trunks, and its head looked like the helmet of the Scale operatives. An enormous cannon was peeking up above its head, and large arms slowly swung as it moved with incredible slowness.
The other was red, and far smoother and more elegantly shaped, like photos of Asari Jaegers Wrex had seen before. It was about a meter shorter than the other one, and its head was shaped like a wedge. It carried a single shield on its arm, and moved with fluidity that the other Jaeger didn't have.
"Time to die Krogan!" A loudspeaker on the green one yelled out.
Wrex spat a bit of blood onto the clean floor, raising his shotgun. "Better men have tried. And bigger monsters too."
The red one burst forward. As it leaped toward Wrex, several jets opened on the shield itself, pulling the massive red mech forward like a charging Vanguard.
Wrex leaped aside, and the red mech smashed into the doors of the cargo hanger with enough force to dent them outwards. A small gap opened in the doors, and the room started venting atmosphere through the small opening. Wrex fired his claymore at the red mech before it could turn, and threw a grenade before rushing towards the green mech.
The green one hunched over, and its cannon started firing shot after shot at Wrex. The Krogan zigzagged desperately as he charged, roaring as explosive rounds tore into the ground. The long lifetimes of experience he'd accumulated in war let him dodge the first ten shots long enough to reach the door he'd originally entered through. The eleventh one tossed him off his feet, and sent shrapnel into his back, slicing through his armor.
He grunted in pain as he was thrown through the door, but quickly got to his feet, letting his Krogan physiology take over to heal. He ran forward, and the red one crashed in through the wall. Desk went flying as the giant robot reached out for the sprinting Krogan, metal bent and shattered, glass was torn apart, and the world seemed to explode around Wrex. Another explosive round tore up the ground at Wrex's feet. The red one rushed after him, uncaring of the devastation it was causing.
Wrex roared, in anger, in exhilaration, and ran, with two mech's on his heel.
------
Somewhere in the building, Jane lifted her eyes at the sound of the explosions.
"Dad?"
John stared out at Shanxi, his eyes panning the massive expanse of land below him as he stood in the hallway outside the gym. His muscles burned. Bruises kept screaming every time he moved an inch or more, which made his staring more of a wincing affair than he would have hoped for.
"I know how you feel," turning around, John smiled at the sight of Samuel slowly walking towards him, primate features twisting with pain. "That hurt like hell."
"I'd have thought a Simeon could take more damage than a human weakling," said John jokingly.
"Oh please. He took it easy on you; he probably used the real stuff on me."
"Really now?"
"…Hopefully. Because damn did that hurt."
"For a purpose," Shifu walked up to them, taking a spot in between Samuel and John. "I told you both. You are going off to war soon. And I feel that sending you out improperly trained would be beyond irresponsible of me."
Samuel scoffed, looking down at Shanxi. "You know I'm prepared. I'm a Simeon. We're made for this."
John nodded in agreement. Samuel may have been young, but he was a Simeon Spacer. He'd lived on warships where combat was a necessity for his entire life. If anyone was ready.
"You may be ready," Shifu said softly. "But so is every Krogan, every Turian, who goes into battle. They too are from species that claim death as their ally. And yet, young Krogan and Turian die every day. Young Simeons die every day."
Samuel looked over at Shifu. Shifu looked up at him, their eyes meeting. "Do not forget today, young one. Do not forget the day a human suddenly became the most terrifying opponent you ever faced. For that is war. The weakest of attackers, can surprise you with a bullet between the eyes. I will not have a student of mine die from something I could prevented. If you are killed by anything less than a planetary explosion, I will be severely disappointed."
The tall Simeon nodded, his massive bulk bent slightly as he considered his teachers words.
"And me?" asked John.
"I think explosive decompression will be enough to avoid my disappointment," Shifu said wryly.
John smiled at the dark joke. "Not that. I'm going into the Jaeger Program with Samuel."
"Oh?" Shifu smirked.
"…My mother told you already."
"I don't turn into giant monsters on a whim, John," said Shifu. "I wanted you both to know that terror. The terror of facing a beast that is ready to kill you, that will reveal odd attack patterns at random, that refuses to die. Just because Godzilla hasn't attacked a human city in decades doesn't mean monsters with similar ferocity don't exist. And I won't have you unprepared for anything less than the King of Monsters himself."
"You think we might end up fighting him?" Samuel asked. He sounded hopeful.
"…I pray you do not," Shifu shuddered. "There are beasts stronger than Gojira. King Caeser, King Ghidorah, Hedorah," he looked at John. "SpaceGodzilla."
John closed his eyes. For a moment, a world of crystals surrounded him. A wall of bright white stones, beautiful and horrible, cracked under the assault of a woman screaming as she punched it.
When John opened his eyes, Shifu and Samuel were eyeing him. Shifu nodded.
"All of them are powerful. But none have his will. Gojira will tear down the world, will kill everything around him, if it his wish to do so. Because of his will."
Shifu nodded. "Samuel. John. If you ever face such an opponent, remember that there are two ways to survive. One, is to retreat," Samuel scoffed. "And the other way, is to be stronger in your will."
"…Did you ever face a choice like that?" John asked.
"Yes," answered Shifu.
"What did you pick?" asked Samuel.
Shifu smiled. "Well…I've never run from a fight. Not in hundreds of years."
John shook his head. "Hundreds of years…Are you really that old?"
"I eat my vegetables."
"…Grown by who, Biollante?" Samuel said incredulously.
As Shifu laughed, John looked back at the planet below. Soon, he'd be off to war. And these days of peace would be over.
For now though, he'd enjoy being a teenager.
------
February 19th, 2172: Omega, City Streets
The red aircar bounced almost constantly as Wrex piloted. He looked over Jane.
The redheaded teen was gazing out at the Omega landscape. Bright neon traced across her freckled features as the air flew. He watched her pursing her lips soflty, then looked back in front of him.
"Nervous?" asked Wrex.
"No," said Jane.
He felt a surge of pride at the simpleness of her reply, the lack of fear in her voice.
"Just curious," She looked over at him. "What do you think SCALE is doing here?"
"Who cares? They pissed on Aria's territory. So we kill them."
"Yeah," Jane smiled softly.
"Anyways," Wrex sighed, looking at the building they were flying towards. "Lets ram our way inside and kill anything that moves."
"Yes, dad," with that, Jane pressed a button on her omni-tool. Orange lights coalesced around her, turning into large shields floating above her armor.
Wrex did the same even as he tilted the aircar towards the building. A large warehouse that looked as if it had been roughly stapled into a rock wall, with a simple landing pad, it wasn't a very pretty building.
As the aircar began to speed toward the building at incredible speeds, those inside began waving their arms, trying to get Wrex to pull up. When they realized he aimed to slam into the windows that lead into the main building, they panicked.
Wrex felt his barrier pop into place. Then they made impact.
The aircar slammed into the windows, shattering them with ease. Loud curses and yells came from all around as the aircar hit the ground, plowing the concrete away. A trench was created when the aircars speed kept it moving, grinding away the material. The aircar sustained dozens of dents, scratches, and gouges on its red surface, and the glass defending its occupants cracked. Slowly, it came to a stop.
SCALE agents rushed into the room. The area was a cargo hold, though empty of all but a few stacks of crates. The agents took up position behind those crates.
SCALE preferred to dress their agents in bright gold armor. It was gaudy, and shone brightly in the gloom of the room as they took positions. The one in charge slowly pointed at the aircar.
The canopy of the aircar exploded outwards. The twenty egents in the room started firing, ignoring their leaders calls for fire discipline.
Urdnot Wrex came out of the aircar charging. He roared. On Earth, a lion's roar can be heard from ten miles away. The average Krogan roar is even louder.
Wrex was not the average Krogan.
Even as bullets slammed into his barrier, he fired his Claymore shotgun, taking the head off a SCALE agent. Another one fired his own shotgun, shattering Wrex's barrier. Wrex responded by rearing his head.
"RUAAGH!"
*Splat*
The sound of a human head exploding against a Krogan skull filled the room.
"His barriers down!" the SCALE leader cried. "Concentrate fire and—"
A biotic attack hit him. For a moment, he was airborne. Then he was slamming into a wall. He had enough time to lay on the ground, shocked, before bullets entered his chest. The SCALE agents left, eighteen now, looked at the perpetrator. She stood on the aircar, reloading her pistol as her omni-shield glowed around her, a devil may care grin on her face.
"Watch those shields fellas!" Jane cried with a dark chuckle. She hopped off the aircar, rushing towards the SCALE operatives.
"Get her!" one of the agents cried.
Jane laughed, hopping behind crates as she switched from her pistol to her shotgun. "You heard him boys! Get me! Ignore the big ass Krogan charging you!"
One or two of the SCALE operatives may have had time to blink at the last statement. That ended when Wrex slammed into one with more than half a ton of force. Wrex roared in joyous anger as he trampled his enemies under foot. His Claymore roared once more, turning one mans hips from golden armor to a tangled mass of organs. As his shotgun cooled, Wrex punched another man in the face, and threw another into the distance.
Jane joined him, her laugh child-like and eerie. She came out from cover and fired the shotgun in her hand. Spikes flew out of the Graal, impaling someone in the face and killing him. A SCALE agent threw a grenade at her. Seeing the glowing disk flying at her like a Frisbee, she quickly caught it in a biotic bubble, throwing it back.
When it exploded, it sent Wrex back a step, as he'd been too close to the epicenter. He scowled at the sight of his barrier falling, forcing him to depend on his natural armor.
"Jane!"
"Sorry dad!"
Wrex sighed, grabbing a SCALE agent who'd tried to stab him with a knife. "Kids these days, right?"
The SCALE man choked on the massive claws choking him to death.
"See, that's how I feel sometimes," Wrex squeezed, snapping the mans spine.
Jane finished off the rest with a technique she'd learned from her aunt. First, she surrounded one of the SCALE agents in a warp field. As the biotics began to tear apart the man down to the cellular level, she gathered more power in a ball around her fist. Her shields failed when an accurate assault rifle burst hit her, and she winced at the feel of two bullets slamming into her midsection. Still, she kept her focus, and launched her attack.
"Heads up dad!"
Wrex winced when he realized what was about to happen. "Poor bastards."
The biotic Flare slammed into the warped SCALE agent. The explosion that followed shook the room. For a moment, it seemed like the area where the agents had stood was nothing but blue-white fire. Wrex tossed in two incendiary grenades, adding a hint of red to the tableu.
Seconds later, the lightshow ended, leaving naught but ash.
"Hmm…" hummed Wrex as Jane walked up to him. "Aria?"
"Warp and Flare," Jane said brightly. "Like it?"
"Could use more headbutts," He sighed at the crestfallen look on her face. "Come on girl. It's time to kick some more ass."
The two headed deeper into the facility.
------
February 19th, 2172: Omega, SCALE Offices
"It appears Aria sent her pet bounty hunter in," a man said softly. He was a tall, skinny human. He was balding, and wore the golden tunic all SCALE officials wore, with a purple sash over the tunic and black pants. He watched his screens and frowned, bright blue eyes hovering beneath dark eyebrows. Wrex and Jane could be seen rushing into the facility, firing their shotguns as they ran. "I wonder who the girl is?"
He stopped the footage, ignoring the sounds of explosions in the distance. He zoomed in on Jane, eyes panning over her face. "Hmm…Young, for a killer. Pretty too," he sighed. "Well, too violent for my tastes," He clicked a button on his console. "John, send in the mech units. Two of them."
"Sir? I thought they were for dealing with the experiment?"
The man chuckled. "John, the experiment will have to be moved. I'd rather not waste time with moving the mechs when we could be moving the experiment instead. Have them kill or distract the bounty hunters."
"Yes sir. But do we really want to evacuate?"
"Aria T'Loak has tried to kill me. I would rather have some light years between us. So that way, I can go from being terrified, to merely extremely paranoid."
------
February 19th, 2172: Station Serizawa, Orbiting Shanxi, Shepard Apartment
John sat in his living room, showing his omni-tool to the others. Ashira sat next to him on the couch as Hades stood watching the screen. Samuel was in the kitchen, filling a massive bowl with every bit of food he felt worthy of attention.
"So that's what that was," Ashira mused as she watched the small animal on the screen hop across the ground. It stared at the screen, bright eyes curious, and cheeks puffing up cutely. Then, suddenly, it squeaked, a high-pitched sound that seemed to beg for warmth and affection.
"It's so cute!" Ashira cried happily as she watched the small toad squek happily.
"Confused: That is not what Shifu looked like," Hades noted.
"Yeah well, he really didn't look like any toad in existence beyond basic shape," John noted. "So I just grabbed the most popular video about frogs and toads I could find, and this was it."
"I like it better than Shifu's version," Ashira shuddered, then looked at Hades. "Do you think he'll teach you that? That was Earth magic, right?"
"I hope not," Samuel came in with a big bowl of something that could arguably be called food. "Otherwise I'd want to learn too, and I'm not willing to sacrifice my good looks so soon."
"Jokingly: What good looks?"
John and Ashira grinned as Samuel smirked at Hades. They sat together, watching the odd clip of a frog squeaking. It was oddly hypnotic.
Soon however, John looked around. His friends were looking at his omni-tool. Ashira was leaning against him in a friendly manner. Hades was standing behind him, face quivering slightly as the massive Elcor watched the screen. Samuel was scarfing down his meal as he watched.
His friends. They'd be separated soon. Ashira would spend decades training. Hades would go to Dekuuna one day to continue his lessons in the Elcor martial arts. And Samuel would be going to the military. But who knew if they'd stay together? They might be sent to different divisions, different planets.
That was the problem with growing. Giving up all the things that you loved for the sake of the future.
John pushed his thoughts away. For now, they were together. And that was enough.
------
February 19th, 2172: Omega, SCALE Offices
The trouble came when the SCALE operative started truly pulling out the big guns.
Jane was laughing one moment as she charged through a series of offices, shooting the soldiers in her path as Wrex treated an office desk like a hammer. The offices were faily standard. Metal desks and partitions, keyboards imbedded in the desks to access the holographic monitors, and a few water coolers, a standby of the twenty-first century. She trode down an alley, her father in another part of the offices as she fired her shotgun.
A biotic warp slapped into her omni-shield, shattering one of the plates on her shoulder. A bullet followed, digging past her armor to slam into the flesh. More bullets slammed into her, throughing her back.
"Fuck!" she spit out. A SCALE agent in the standard gold armor lowered his hand, still glowing brightly with biotic power, and fired again and again. Jane fell back behind a metal desk, rolling as she moved. While the metal desk couldn't block mass effect propelled pellets, it did make it harder for opponents to target her.
"Fuck," Jane said softly as she felt the pain in her shoulder. Her armor would keep her alive, but she'd need some medigel soon.
But first, the biotic who had attacked her.
At least, that was her plan. Then a grenade slammed into the desk in front of her.
Eyes widening, Jane leaped. The explosion sent her flying, and shrapnel managed to shatter her shields, leaving her to roll to her feet with bruises under her armor and cuts on her face. She threw her own grenade, forcing her opponents back. As she did, Jane found her frustration peaking.
"You keep fighting like your dad," Aria's voice came to her mind, "but you need to embrace a more… elegant, style of combat. You're damn good at taking hits. But you need to learn to be creative."
Another grenade forced her out of cover as she frowned. Aria was right then, and she was right now.
Jane peeked out of cover. Five men, three women, all moving down the aisles. Two were coming closer to her, while three more hung back and another three tried to flank her.
"Creative?" Jane smirked. "Okay auntie."
She leaned out of cover and used her biotics to launch one of the men coming towards her into the air. As he was Pulled screaming through the air, his friends fired at Jane. She took the shots on her shields, watching the golden figure flying through the air coming down towards the ones flanking her. When he came close enough, she launched a Flare.
The man who she'd biotically pulled, and the three flanking her, died in a biotic explosion.
The other man who'd been coming towards her screamed in anger, probably enraged that his friends had been killed. Jane shut him up by spinning out of cover and slamming the butt of her shotgun into his jaw. He stopped screaming, dazed. Jane followed up by switching her shotgun for a pistol. Then she grabbed him by the shoulder, spun him around, and charged the three left, using the insensate man as a human shield.
For a moment, the three she was charging seemed to freeze. Then the biotic one launched a throw at Jane's hostage.
Jane leapt to her right as her hostage flew backwards, slamming into a desk. As she did, she threw a grenade.
The three left over had enough time to look down at the blinking disk. Then it exploded.
Jane spat to the side as she watched the three men died. Then she pointed her pistol at her former hostage as he struggled to his feet, firing half a clip into his chest.
"…I think I learned something new today," She smiled at the thought, then rushed to meet her father.
------
Like Jane, Wrex was rushing through the offices. And getting frustrated.
SCALE was retreating. They were also sacrificing soldiers in the name of that retreat. Wrex had killed dozens of men by now, and as many women for that matter. He'd been forced to switch to his assault rifle to be able to engage at medium range, the desk he'd been using as a bludgeon having shattered a while ago.
The plan had been simple. Go in and break shit. Easy enough, and he was doing it well. It was why he'd stocked so many damn grenades.
But it was getting boring now. It had been a bit interesting when they broke out their own biotics, but those were only able to do so much before Wrex ended up pushing through. His gun blazing, bullets bouncing off his armor, mouth open in a roar, he slammed through walls, stomped on heads, and generally made a nuisance of himself.
Wrex slammed his way into the next room, feeling confident.
A fist the size of a tire slammed into his chest.
Wrex, despite his massive weight, flew through the air for a moment. He took the time to judge the room around him. Another large cargo hold, but empty, with metal floors and walls, and two large doors that opened up into space. He twisted in the air, eyes widening as he realized his chestplae had a massive dent in it. And his chest hurt like hell as well.
What the hell could do that?
He got his answer when he landed, struggling to his feet.
Jaegers. Very small, and but still big, Jaegers.
Or mechs he supposed. Wrex wasn't an expert of Jaeger design, despite his human daughter.
What mattered was that two giant robots were turning to face him as he rose to his feet.
One green, and about ten meters tall, with a body shaped like a tank that started walking around. Its feet were massive trunks, and its head looked like the helmet of the Scale operatives. An enormous cannon was peeking up above its head, and large arms slowly swung as it moved with incredible slowness.
The other was red, and far smoother and more elegantly shaped, like photos of Asari Jaegers Wrex had seen before. It was about a meter shorter than the other one, and its head was shaped like a wedge. It carried a single shield on its arm, and moved with fluidity that the other Jaeger didn't have.
"Time to die Krogan!" A loudspeaker on the green one yelled out.
Wrex spat a bit of blood onto the clean floor, raising his shotgun. "Better men have tried. And bigger monsters too."
The red one burst forward. As it leaped toward Wrex, several jets opened on the shield itself, pulling the massive red mech forward like a charging Vanguard.
Wrex leaped aside, and the red mech smashed into the doors of the cargo hanger with enough force to dent them outwards. A small gap opened in the doors, and the room started venting atmosphere through the small opening. Wrex fired his claymore at the red mech before it could turn, and threw a grenade before rushing towards the green mech.
The green one hunched over, and its cannon started firing shot after shot at Wrex. The Krogan zigzagged desperately as he charged, roaring as explosive rounds tore into the ground. The long lifetimes of experience he'd accumulated in war let him dodge the first ten shots long enough to reach the door he'd originally entered through. The eleventh one tossed him off his feet, and sent shrapnel into his back, slicing through his armor.
He grunted in pain as he was thrown through the door, but quickly got to his feet, letting his Krogan physiology take over to heal. He ran forward, and the red one crashed in through the wall. Desk went flying as the giant robot reached out for the sprinting Krogan, metal bent and shattered, glass was torn apart, and the world seemed to explode around Wrex. Another explosive round tore up the ground at Wrex's feet. The red one rushed after him, uncaring of the devastation it was causing.
Wrex roared, in anger, in exhilaration, and ran, with two mech's on his heel.
------
Somewhere in the building, Jane lifted her eyes at the sound of the explosions.
"Dad?"
GameDragon
Too Hot To Handle
- Location
- Challenger Deep
Well. That escalated quickly. Bravo.
Since I put it up on Spacebattles, thought I'd share the inspiration for the robots here.
First, the Mark 3 Mjolnir Armor from Halo
And a design by a fantastic artist on deviantart named Rettag, who makes incredible robot designs.
I chose each design as part of the story. The second, to show how robotics has evolved over time in the Hunters of Death universe. Cherno Alpha, while badass, was a lot more rough in design than her counterparts, such as Striker Eureka and Gipsy Danger, and I like the idea of that continuing. As such, more advanced mechs, no matter the size, have the fluid, smooth appearance that you see above. However, there is still a place for the robust, simple, and tough designs of old, which the Mark 3 Mjolnir Armor does a good job of showing. It might not be as fast or have the bells and whistles, but it does very well in backing up it's faster cousins.
In this way, I hope to make the designs of the robot tell as much of a story as the actual writing. Sadly I'm not a good artist, or I would have drawn the actual robots I came up with, but those two above are near perfect representations of what I was thinking. Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.
First, the Mark 3 Mjolnir Armor from Halo
And a design by a fantastic artist on deviantart named Rettag, who makes incredible robot designs.
I chose each design as part of the story. The second, to show how robotics has evolved over time in the Hunters of Death universe. Cherno Alpha, while badass, was a lot more rough in design than her counterparts, such as Striker Eureka and Gipsy Danger, and I like the idea of that continuing. As such, more advanced mechs, no matter the size, have the fluid, smooth appearance that you see above. However, there is still a place for the robust, simple, and tough designs of old, which the Mark 3 Mjolnir Armor does a good job of showing. It might not be as fast or have the bells and whistles, but it does very well in backing up it's faster cousins.
In this way, I hope to make the designs of the robot tell as much of a story as the actual writing. Sadly I'm not a good artist, or I would have drawn the actual robots I came up with, but those two above are near perfect representations of what I was thinking. Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.
So while researching for my ME fics, I found out the new trailer came out. Not only is it awesome, but they (accidently?) referenced that whole Mass Effect/Avengers crossover from back in the day. I'm also intrigued in the enemies that were created in story.
As for relevance to this story, some of the research I've done into the various armors and mechs in the new game pose interesting questions about what may be possible in the new world I've created.