Protoculture Effect (Robotech/Mass Effect
- Thread starter Cyclone
- Start date
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
I find it absolutely fascinating how the most ludicrously impractical (yet awesome) throwaway lines can capture almost everyone's attention. Rather than, say, the plot-pertinent point of Shepard -- being flawed and actually human rather than a paragon of morality -- having to work with a species he hates from the bottom of his heart due to Mindoir and Elysium (frankly, if he didn't hate them after that, I'd be concerned for his sanity in general).
The kind of development cycle it would take to make a Cyclone for krogans means the Reapers would probably be defeated by the time they could be fielded. And that's with actual funding. The krogan body structure and physiology is so different that they would be pretty much starting from scratch, as very little of the existing Cyclone design could be incorporated into it at all.
The kind of development cycle it would take to make a Cyclone for krogans means the Reapers would probably be defeated by the time they could be fielded. And that's with actual funding. The krogan body structure and physiology is so different that they would be pretty much starting from scratch, as very little of the existing Cyclone design could be incorporated into it at all.
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
Funnily enough, I do have some dialogue worked out where she explains just that. I just haven't figured out where and when to use it yet.Cody Fett said:
Harry Leferts
Suave Shadow Cabal Kaiju
Since it's been over a hundred years since the Cyclone was invented, are we going to see some civilian varients? Like what SteelFalcon has on his site?
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
...I want to see this thing, just because the artwork must be awesome.cartolis said:
It wouldn't be right for there to be a Skull Squadron without a Sterling. And yes, there is a Skull Squadron.FanboyimusPrime said:
Only paramilitary stuff, mostly built on the VR-099 Tornado frame. Police, emergency services, that sort of thing. Heavy industry and other truly civilian applications would not have a need to have both modes.Harry Leferts said:
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
Almost certainly. At the very least, they'll have things like the power loader from Aliens, and that's probably a really cheap model.VhenRa said:
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
AMP suits are probably pretty close to what you'd find in the heavy industry.RedWolff said:
In the OTL, Ashley was a Gunnery Chief, not a Gunnery Sergeant. We're looking at two completely different ranking systems, which differ more in the enlisted/NCO ranks than in the officer ranks because the ME canon enlisted/NCO ranks are compressed into six grades instead of nine. OTL Gunnery Chief is an E-5, while a Gunnery Sergeant in this 'verse is an E-7. From what I understand, she's actually quite young to have made E-7 at her age.
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
That is... a very good question. One I am disinclined to answer at this time because I have yet to decide myself.RedWolff said:
Badly. Very, very badly.RedWolff said:
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
Who says they haven't? It just hasn't come up in the story in even enough of a tangential context to justify a codex entry. Besides, for the Citadel species, fighters are not nearly as integral a component of their fleet structure as for the Sentinels. Improving their point defense is where more of their focus went.RedWolff said:
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
The Spartas veritech hovertank is an excellent mecha, and don't think I've forgotten it. I just have no place for it. I went with the Mako for the story so far because the role they needed it for was that of an APC/IFV, a role any veritech would be absolutely horrible at.
The Spartas's most definitely was not made irrelevant due to Cyclones. Cyclones are excellent for what they are, basically enhanced infantry or possibly a newer incarnation of dragoons (soldiers who rode horses for transport but fought on foot), but they lack the firepower of larger mecha.
Upon analysis, the Spartas hovertank is good for many roles, although it is not a true tank. It's a good reconnaissance in force vehicle in transport mode, a decent mecha line fighter in battloid mode, and in tank/gladiator mode, it's clearly optimized for anti-aircraft and indirect fire support. These are all roles that are still relevant on the modern ground battlefield and cannot be fully absorbed by Cyclones or Makos.
The reasons its descendent hasn't shown up yet are twofold. First, there's no place for it within the scope of this story so far. Second, I can't really visualize it.
BTW, thanks, RedWolff. The discussions you've started here have helped kick start the muse on the half-finished chapter that's been lurking on my hard drive. I'm about 75% done with chapter ten as it stands.
The Spartas's most definitely was not made irrelevant due to Cyclones. Cyclones are excellent for what they are, basically enhanced infantry or possibly a newer incarnation of dragoons (soldiers who rode horses for transport but fought on foot), but they lack the firepower of larger mecha.
Upon analysis, the Spartas hovertank is good for many roles, although it is not a true tank. It's a good reconnaissance in force vehicle in transport mode, a decent mecha line fighter in battloid mode, and in tank/gladiator mode, it's clearly optimized for anti-aircraft and indirect fire support. These are all roles that are still relevant on the modern ground battlefield and cannot be fully absorbed by Cyclones or Makos.
The reasons its descendent hasn't shown up yet are twofold. First, there's no place for it within the scope of this story so far. Second, I can't really visualize it.
BTW, thanks, RedWolff. The discussions you've started here have helped kick start the muse on the half-finished chapter that's been lurking on my hard drive. I'm about 75% done with chapter ten as it stands.
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
Theoretically, the roles they would be used for in transport and tank mode would make an open cockpit either one with a purpose (better field of vision) or irrelevant (artillery does not belong on the front lines). Of course, it's also worth noting that they're wearing full body armor at all times.
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
Heard that before. A very plausible idea, considering that even the hovertanks had trouble getting the bioroids to stay down. Contrast that to the relatively thinly-armored mecha fielded by the zentraedi, which is what the Southern Cross would have been prepared to fight.Vianca said:
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
I'm aware of the vibroblades. I'm aware of just about every Cyclone variation out there, actually. The vibroblades were in fact never used on-screen; their existence is only known through supplementary material.
I have plans for Virmire. I will say no more.
And you're right regarding the fold drive's speed advantage over eezo FTL. However, relay jumps still beat even a fold drive, being instantaneous.
I have plans for Virmire. I will say no more.
And you're right regarding the fold drive's speed advantage over eezo FTL. However, relay jumps still beat even a fold drive, being instantaneous.
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
Don't be so sure about that, Vianca. Especially the last part. Fold drives can't be used safely in gravity wells, remember?Vianca said:
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
Ah.
I fail to see how folding the Omega-4's matching relay out of the galaxy accomplishes anything worthwhile. I really do. By the time anyone can get there, they're in a position to neutralize the Collector threat anyway.
And you're both assuming the Reapers have no backups. This is... flawed thinking, at best.
I fail to see how folding the Omega-4's matching relay out of the galaxy accomplishes anything worthwhile. I really do. By the time anyone can get there, they're in a position to neutralize the Collector threat anyway.
And you're both assuming the Reapers have no backups. This is... flawed thinking, at best.
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
That's my point. By the time you get through to the other side of the Omega-4 relay in ME2, you are ready.Vianca said:
Short-term solution at best, but let's not forget that no one knows of the Reapers yet. Not even Shepard.Vianca said:
And you're going to somehow do both of these things in the middle of a lawless territory where everyone wants you dead? That's... an interesting suggestion.blackmamuth said:
Do you have any idea how hideously expensive that would be? Why would anyone bother with the expense?Vianca said:
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
The destruction part, yeah, that's easy, if you don't mind starting a war with everyone else in the galaxy on your way there. Those are pretty drastic consequences, so why would they do it?MS-21H 'Hawke said:
We know the Collectors are behind the attacks and that they're coming through the Omega-4 relay. They don't. And that's completely ignoring the fact that the aforementioned attacks haven't happened yet and canonically are on colonies that specifically chose to leave the Alliance. It'd be like if, in the early 1800s, someone started abducting American townspeople, and then expecting the Royal Navy to risk pissing off France and Spain to stop it based on information they don't even have.
Plans, yes. But so far -- even assuming the events of ME2 go unchanged from the OTL, which it certainly won't -- there is absolutely no reason for them to think they should do it. As far as the Alliance will know by that point in time, destroying the Omega-4 relay will accomplish nothing except piss off a lot of people.blackmamuth said:
Apparently not.Keiran Halcyon said:
12
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
Heeere's chapter ten (finally)!
* * *
Kilika was a Special Intervention Unit commando. She was a soldier, a sniper, and a spy. And when the Hegemony needed it, an assassin. She was trained in stealth and intrusion, to kill quickly and efficiently with rifle or blade with equal proficiency.
She was most definitely not trained in demolitions.
The review of her skillset ran through her mind as she considered the massive threat looming before her. From second-hand reports passed on by the Turian Heirarchy, the Batarian Hegemony knew about the so-called "mecha" the humans used. A great many engineers and military theorists tried to envision what those machines -- and what fighting them -- would be like.
As she looked up at the colossus towering over her, Kilika strongly suspected that it would be an awful like what she was facing right now.
Her thoughts were broken as something large, heavy, and angular crashed into her, knocking her aside just as the colossus opened fire with its secondary guns; at this close range, its siege pulse cannon was uselessly unwieldy. She shook her head and frowned at Commander Shepard, who had tackled her out of the way.
"Hey, I owed you," he said. "Now, move!" He shoved her, and she stumbled away as the geth colossus unleashed a siege pulse. Shepard made it two steps before it struck the ground behind him and sent him flying.
The commander's world went black.
* * *
"-mander, do you copy?" Kaidan Alenko's voice screamed in his ear.
Shepard's head was ringing as his HMD -- scratch that, part of his HMD -- came into focus. He shook his head clear and realized he was lying face down in the dirt, and his face plate had been shattered, only some of it remaining in place and functional. He rolled over onto his back and noted that he was a considerable distance from where he had been, drag marks in the snow showing where someone had pulled him behind the cover of the Mako. The fact that the Mako was on fire and apparently abandoned did not put his mind at ease.
"I... I copy, Lieutenant," he said.
"I don't know how long I can hold this thing in place, sir, and I can't get a fix on it with my particle guns."
Shepard looked up and saw the geth colossus wrestling with the battloid-mode Thor. It looked like a stalemate, and the small arms fire coming from ground level didn't seem to have much effect. He frowned, then climbed onto the Mako. The particle cannon was slagged, its barrel melted, but that wasn't what he was looking for. He popped the hatch and dug around.
Disc grenades were similar to tech mines. They had a small eezo core and an encrypted receiver that gave its user a limited ability to control it with an omni-tool after throwing it. The eezo core also allowed the grenade to hover at a set altitude before detonating.
What he intended to do with it required nothing quite so fancy.
Scooping up the grenades, he charged the two wrestling titans, firing his thrusters and hopping up onto the colossus's back. He attached one of the grenades to the colossus's armor, fixing it in place, then slid back down and detonated it. The colossus let out a shriek, an alien sound that resembled nothing so much as a cross between tearing sheet metal and electronic feedback. It shook, trying to dislodge the Cyclone-clad human clinging to its back, but he managed to fire his thrusters and then grab hold of the breach he'd made in its armor.
He tossed the other five grenades into the breach, let go, and detonated them while he was still in freefall.
"That's it," he said, breaking the silence that followed. "From here on out, we're carrying demo charges on every ground mission."
* * *
Shepard was hard-pressed to keep his feet steady as he boarded the Normandy. For once, he decided, he wasn't going to try avoiding the post-mission physical. That colossus had rung his bell but good. Reconfiguring his Typhoon back to hovercycle mode, he paused to pull his helmet off. His hair clung to his head, glued in place by a mixture of sweat and something else.
He heard a gasp. "Shepard!"
He looked up and frowned. "What's wrong, Tali?"
"You... you're bleeding," the quarian said, pointing a hesitant finger at his forehead. "It... it's green."
"Huh?" he blinked and ran a gloved hand across his forehead, noting the green smear that appeared on it. "Oh, that." He shrugged. "That's easy enough to explain. I'm one quarter invid. On my mother's side."
"Oh."
"Yeah," he said with a shrug. "Invid have an uncanny knack for making different biochemistries work. The asari can eat their hearts out."
"Huh?"
"Sorry," he said, shaking his head. "Human idiom." He winced and stopped shaking his head. "And possibly a concussion."
* * *
Shepard stirred. It took him a moment to recognize where he was, the Normandy's medical bay. He looked around, trying to identify what had awakened him.
"Kaidan," he greeted the lieutenant. "How are you feeling?"
"Shouldn't I be asking you that, sir?"
Shepard sat up, then paused, letting his head clear. He looked at Kaidan and pointed out, "I'm not the one who nearly got eaten by my worst nightmare, Lieutenant."
Kaidan was too disciplined to flinch, but Shepard could feel the flare of dark energy. "I'm fine, sir."
Shepard considered that, then let it slide. "What did you find down there, anyway?"
"Looked like an independent survey or salvage team," Kaidan said. "Wounds showed signs of geth weapons fire. The geth, in turn, were trashed by the thresher maw."
Shepard sighed and nodded carefully. "Understood. Listen, Lieutenant, Doc says I'm off-duty while I recover from this concussion. I know it's going to be rough, new XO and all, but I trust Jane -- that is, Commander Hunter -- and I'm going to be relying on you to keep the crew from doing something stupid. To ease the transition, as it were."
"Will do, Skipper," Kaidan said. He had to give the commander credit; he certainly recovered quickly.
* * *
"This is not how I wanted to take my first command," LtCmdr Jane Hunter commented idly as she leaned against the railing near the CIC's command post.
"I get the feeling you knew the commander, ma'am," Kaidan said.
"Yeah," she nodded. "Back in the Academy, we were tight: me, John, and Jimmy Farmer."
"The Three Musketeers?"
"Hardly," Jane snorted, shaking her head. "More like the Three Terrors. We hogged the simulators and rode the training mecha to the breaking point. We just kept pushing the envelope."
"Wait," Kaidan frowned. "Wait, wait, wait. The Three Terrors? Of the Great Futility Raid?"
"Do not speak of that ever again," she warned him with a glare.
Kaidan snapped to attention and saluted. "Yes, ma'am!"
"Prep your fighter," she added. "You'll be providing the ground team with air support."
"Yes, ma'am," he said, turning to leave. He was halfway to the mecha bay when the thought struck him. Jimmy Farmer? he thought. It... no, it couldn't be. The commander would have mentioned that, wouldn't he?
For her part, Jane was looking over the readings distastefully. They were in orbit over the planet Maji, and there were signs of geth activity, which mean sending a ground team to investigate. John didn't play by the same rulebook as most Spacy officers, and neither did she. They were Special Operations Command N7 operatives, which meant that, unlike most Spacy officers, they got their hands dirty. Add in John's new status as a Spectre, and it was inevitable that he would take a more hands-on approach than was typical in the Spacy, which in turn led to the concussion that kept him confined to Medical.
Still, it left her with a headache. The ground team was short a team leader.
She couldn't, in good conscience, go and lead the ground team herself while John was still in Medical; that would be dereliction of duty, even if it technically fell within regs. The ground team itself, with its multi-species composition, required a delicate touch, which eliminated most of the regular Marine officers. Gunny Williams was a capable NCO, but with the batarian involvement and her own personal history, she was out of the question. John had benched her on the Casbin and Antibaar missions for that very reason.
Kaidan was a good officer, but his file indicated he was most comfortable in the cockpit of his fighter, and she was left wondering just how badly Akuze had really affected him. That left Taylor as the only remaining officer or senior NCO with experience dealing with the ground team John had assembled. Taylor got along well enough with Vakarian, bonding over the Mako, which was now undergoing repairs, but she wasn't sure he could deal with the krogan without getting his head bitten off, nevermind the batarian.
She could bench John's unconventional multi-species team and send a squad from the Normandy's regular Marine detachment -- it was an option she was seriously considering -- but the fact was, John's mismatched ground team was simply better than any regular Marine squad. If she had her druthers, she'd send an N7 SOC squad... but she and John were the only N7s on board. The best they had was an N5 Marine Force Recon team.
In the end, she decided, it would be Taylor's decision. If he felt he was up to it, he would lead John's ground team.
* * *
"Lead that crazy crew?" Jacob blurted out. "Uh, no offense, ma'am."
"None taken, Lieutenant," Jane said. "I needed your honest opinion on the matter. Dismissed."
She had certainly gotten it. She just hoped the Force Recon team could handle it. They were good -- anyone willing to drop into a combat zone from low orbit had to have a pair -- but the team was small, and they didn't know what forces the geth had on Maji.
* * *
"Hey, Skipper."
John looked up as GySgt Ashley Williams entered the sickbay. He'd read her file, and it made him glad to have her aboard, potential psychological consequences of Eden Prime notwithstanding. "Shit hot" -- which she had to be to make E-7 in only nine years -- didn't begin to describe it: She'd aced her fit-reps every time, and she had only one black mark on her record, namely the heavy losses her unit had taken at Torfan. The inquiry board had deemed those losses unavoidable, however, and she'd even received a medal for her actions during the incident. Still, he was a bit worried. She was pushing herself hard, and it wasn't going to be pretty when she finally burned out.
"Hello, Gunny," he said. "What brings you here?"
"Just checking up on you," she answered. "Getting a bit antsy lately, lot of time on my hands."
"You know why I benched you, Ash," he said, answering the unspoken accusation.
She ground her teeth and looked away. "I don't get it, Skipper. Why are we kowtowing to these... these aliens?"
John cocked an eyebrow. "You have a problem with aliens, Ash?"
"What?" the NCO blurted out in surprise, looking back at him in shock. "No, sir! Karbarrans, invid, zentraedi, quarians, I've got no problem with any of them. Hell, I'm at least half zentraedi myself, and my grandmother's a Praxian. But turians? Asari? Batarians? We were at war with these people not that long ago, Commander."
"Are you forgetting how we met the zentraedi and invid, Gunny?" he asked, somewhat bemused.
"But we won those wars, sir," she pointed out as she started pacing. "We established ourselves; we earned their respect. We haven't really had a chance to do that with the Citadel races, and Parliament has us begging at the Council's table for scraps instead of standing on our own and showing them what we're capable of. We're better than that, sir, and we deserve a chance to prove it."
John had to admit, Ash had a point. The Relay War had lasted three years and ended inconclusively. A lot of bad blood lingered from that, leading to the cold war that followed. Even with projects like the Normandy to try and bring them together, things remained strained between the Citadel and the Sentinels.
"I understand, Ash," he said gently. "Believe me, I do, but we're not going to get far if we insist on kicking everyone's asses first." He paused, then added, "Okay, it would probably work with the krogans and maybe the turians, but probably not anyone else. As for the batarians... we have our orders."
She growled in frustration.
* * *
The mission to Maji had been completed without much incident, though the Marines had taken a few casualties. The geth had been fairly heavily entrenched, with everything from armatures and rocket troops to fixed gun turrets, but the heavy firepower Kaidan's veritech carried made short work of them. Shepard himself had recovered enough to be cleared for bridge duty as they approached the fourth and last site of suspicious activity: Rayingri, in the Gagarin system. A garbled distress call had been received from the batarian outpost there.
From his position at the galaxy map, John considered who to send. They still had the KSS Ashar shadowing them and LT Kilika was still aboard. He rolled his neck around, then looked at his XO. "Hey, Jane, how would you like to stretch your legs a bit?"
"I was wondering when you'd figure it out," she said dryly. She had already run through the same reasoning over Maji; besides John, she was the only one even remotely capable of leading the oddball squad he'd recruited.
"All right," he said with a chuckle, waving her off. "Go on, get outta here. Make sure you take Lieutenant Kilika with you."
* * *
Kilika followed the human woman to the research outpost. She was armed, as always, with a sniper rifle, a machine pistol, and her knives. The knife blades were mass effect compressed alloys, and small mass effect generators in the hilts adjusted the blades' mass on the fly, allowing her to wield them as though they were light as a feather while striking with the weight of a full-grown man behind each blow.
"This is Lieutenant Kilika, Special Intervention Unit," she radioed again as they approached. "If anyone can hear me, please respond."
No answer.
"Commander." That was the other human woman, the medic. "Those things near the building. We saw those before, on Eden Prime. The geth were using them to turn people into... into zombies."
Kilika did not know what a zombie was, but she felt her insides knot up. This couldn't be good.
"Understood, Corpsman."
They continued on in silence, entering the underground research facility, only to be confronted with a horror the batarian commando couldn't have conceived of.
They had once been batarians, that much was obvious, but their bodies were twisted and broken, yet they moved with an unnatural speed, twitching and jerking in a mockery of life, and their eyes and mouths glowed with an unholy blue light.
"Put 'em down, people." Hunter's voice was tight, controlled, hard. She had barely given the order when Kilika drew her machine pistol and opened fire -- it was too tight for her sniper rifle -- and when it beeped a complaint, she holstered the overheated weapon and charged in, blades flashing.
She was SIU. She knew most efficient ways to use her blades to kill just about species known to batariankind, but it was her own people she was most intimately familiar with, and she used that knowledge to deadly effect. Between that and the gunfire from the rest of the squad, the room was clear in seconds.
Kilika turned and frowned. One of the... creatures... was dragging itself feebly across the floor toward her. Or more accurately, toward the body lying at her feet. Its legs had been blown clean off, and it was leaving a trail of its own insides behind. It should have been long dead from blood loss... but then again, whatever these things were bleeding, it wasn't blood.
All four of her eyes widened in shock and disgust as the lone survivor started tearing off parts of the body in front of her and stuffing them in its mouth. The blue glow seemed to grow brighter, and she could see its guts slowly stitching themselves back together as it fed. She took two steps over and crouched by the pitiful looking creature. She stabbed down with both blades, then scissored them, decapitating it, and the blue glow finally died. She took a closer look at the body and reached out to touch it, then snatched her hand back when she realized it was trembling.
"Who would do this?" she demanded, looking up at the humans. "They were researchers!"
It was then that one of the doors leading out of the room slid open, disgorging more of the twisted cannibals. Kilika turned, drawing her machine pistol again, and opened fire from where she crouched. Behind the creatures were geth, led by a pair of grey-and-yellow destroyers, but Kilika held her ground. She locked down her emotions and stuck to short, controlled bursts to keep her pistol from overheating.
She needn't have bothered, as a swarm of Recluse-D micro-missiles soon rendered the point moot.
Kilika stood up, looking down at what had become of the researchers stationed here. A hand touched her shoulder, and she shrugged it off. Taking the hint, Hunter backed off. Good. She needed no comfort from a human.
This... this could not go unpunished.
* * *
Kilika was a Special Intervention Unit commando. She was a soldier, a sniper, and a spy. And when the Hegemony needed it, an assassin. She was trained in stealth and intrusion, to kill quickly and efficiently with rifle or blade with equal proficiency.
She was most definitely not trained in demolitions.
The review of her skillset ran through her mind as she considered the massive threat looming before her. From second-hand reports passed on by the Turian Heirarchy, the Batarian Hegemony knew about the so-called "mecha" the humans used. A great many engineers and military theorists tried to envision what those machines -- and what fighting them -- would be like.
As she looked up at the colossus towering over her, Kilika strongly suspected that it would be an awful like what she was facing right now.
Her thoughts were broken as something large, heavy, and angular crashed into her, knocking her aside just as the colossus opened fire with its secondary guns; at this close range, its siege pulse cannon was uselessly unwieldy. She shook her head and frowned at Commander Shepard, who had tackled her out of the way.
"Hey, I owed you," he said. "Now, move!" He shoved her, and she stumbled away as the geth colossus unleashed a siege pulse. Shepard made it two steps before it struck the ground behind him and sent him flying.
The commander's world went black.
* * *
"-mander, do you copy?" Kaidan Alenko's voice screamed in his ear.
Shepard's head was ringing as his HMD -- scratch that, part of his HMD -- came into focus. He shook his head clear and realized he was lying face down in the dirt, and his face plate had been shattered, only some of it remaining in place and functional. He rolled over onto his back and noted that he was a considerable distance from where he had been, drag marks in the snow showing where someone had pulled him behind the cover of the Mako. The fact that the Mako was on fire and apparently abandoned did not put his mind at ease.
"I... I copy, Lieutenant," he said.
"I don't know how long I can hold this thing in place, sir, and I can't get a fix on it with my particle guns."
Shepard looked up and saw the geth colossus wrestling with the battloid-mode Thor. It looked like a stalemate, and the small arms fire coming from ground level didn't seem to have much effect. He frowned, then climbed onto the Mako. The particle cannon was slagged, its barrel melted, but that wasn't what he was looking for. He popped the hatch and dug around.
Disc grenades were similar to tech mines. They had a small eezo core and an encrypted receiver that gave its user a limited ability to control it with an omni-tool after throwing it. The eezo core also allowed the grenade to hover at a set altitude before detonating.
What he intended to do with it required nothing quite so fancy.
Scooping up the grenades, he charged the two wrestling titans, firing his thrusters and hopping up onto the colossus's back. He attached one of the grenades to the colossus's armor, fixing it in place, then slid back down and detonated it. The colossus let out a shriek, an alien sound that resembled nothing so much as a cross between tearing sheet metal and electronic feedback. It shook, trying to dislodge the Cyclone-clad human clinging to its back, but he managed to fire his thrusters and then grab hold of the breach he'd made in its armor.
He tossed the other five grenades into the breach, let go, and detonated them while he was still in freefall.
"That's it," he said, breaking the silence that followed. "From here on out, we're carrying demo charges on every ground mission."
* * *
Shepard was hard-pressed to keep his feet steady as he boarded the Normandy. For once, he decided, he wasn't going to try avoiding the post-mission physical. That colossus had rung his bell but good. Reconfiguring his Typhoon back to hovercycle mode, he paused to pull his helmet off. His hair clung to his head, glued in place by a mixture of sweat and something else.
He heard a gasp. "Shepard!"
He looked up and frowned. "What's wrong, Tali?"
"You... you're bleeding," the quarian said, pointing a hesitant finger at his forehead. "It... it's green."
"Huh?" he blinked and ran a gloved hand across his forehead, noting the green smear that appeared on it. "Oh, that." He shrugged. "That's easy enough to explain. I'm one quarter invid. On my mother's side."
"Oh."
"Yeah," he said with a shrug. "Invid have an uncanny knack for making different biochemistries work. The asari can eat their hearts out."
"Huh?"
"Sorry," he said, shaking his head. "Human idiom." He winced and stopped shaking his head. "And possibly a concussion."
* * *
Shepard stirred. It took him a moment to recognize where he was, the Normandy's medical bay. He looked around, trying to identify what had awakened him.
"Kaidan," he greeted the lieutenant. "How are you feeling?"
"Shouldn't I be asking you that, sir?"
Shepard sat up, then paused, letting his head clear. He looked at Kaidan and pointed out, "I'm not the one who nearly got eaten by my worst nightmare, Lieutenant."
Kaidan was too disciplined to flinch, but Shepard could feel the flare of dark energy. "I'm fine, sir."
Shepard considered that, then let it slide. "What did you find down there, anyway?"
"Looked like an independent survey or salvage team," Kaidan said. "Wounds showed signs of geth weapons fire. The geth, in turn, were trashed by the thresher maw."
Shepard sighed and nodded carefully. "Understood. Listen, Lieutenant, Doc says I'm off-duty while I recover from this concussion. I know it's going to be rough, new XO and all, but I trust Jane -- that is, Commander Hunter -- and I'm going to be relying on you to keep the crew from doing something stupid. To ease the transition, as it were."
"Will do, Skipper," Kaidan said. He had to give the commander credit; he certainly recovered quickly.
* * *
"This is not how I wanted to take my first command," LtCmdr Jane Hunter commented idly as she leaned against the railing near the CIC's command post.
"I get the feeling you knew the commander, ma'am," Kaidan said.
"Yeah," she nodded. "Back in the Academy, we were tight: me, John, and Jimmy Farmer."
"The Three Musketeers?"
"Hardly," Jane snorted, shaking her head. "More like the Three Terrors. We hogged the simulators and rode the training mecha to the breaking point. We just kept pushing the envelope."
"Wait," Kaidan frowned. "Wait, wait, wait. The Three Terrors? Of the Great Futility Raid?"
"Do not speak of that ever again," she warned him with a glare.
Kaidan snapped to attention and saluted. "Yes, ma'am!"
"Prep your fighter," she added. "You'll be providing the ground team with air support."
"Yes, ma'am," he said, turning to leave. He was halfway to the mecha bay when the thought struck him. Jimmy Farmer? he thought. It... no, it couldn't be. The commander would have mentioned that, wouldn't he?
For her part, Jane was looking over the readings distastefully. They were in orbit over the planet Maji, and there were signs of geth activity, which mean sending a ground team to investigate. John didn't play by the same rulebook as most Spacy officers, and neither did she. They were Special Operations Command N7 operatives, which meant that, unlike most Spacy officers, they got their hands dirty. Add in John's new status as a Spectre, and it was inevitable that he would take a more hands-on approach than was typical in the Spacy, which in turn led to the concussion that kept him confined to Medical.
Still, it left her with a headache. The ground team was short a team leader.
She couldn't, in good conscience, go and lead the ground team herself while John was still in Medical; that would be dereliction of duty, even if it technically fell within regs. The ground team itself, with its multi-species composition, required a delicate touch, which eliminated most of the regular Marine officers. Gunny Williams was a capable NCO, but with the batarian involvement and her own personal history, she was out of the question. John had benched her on the Casbin and Antibaar missions for that very reason.
Kaidan was a good officer, but his file indicated he was most comfortable in the cockpit of his fighter, and she was left wondering just how badly Akuze had really affected him. That left Taylor as the only remaining officer or senior NCO with experience dealing with the ground team John had assembled. Taylor got along well enough with Vakarian, bonding over the Mako, which was now undergoing repairs, but she wasn't sure he could deal with the krogan without getting his head bitten off, nevermind the batarian.
She could bench John's unconventional multi-species team and send a squad from the Normandy's regular Marine detachment -- it was an option she was seriously considering -- but the fact was, John's mismatched ground team was simply better than any regular Marine squad. If she had her druthers, she'd send an N7 SOC squad... but she and John were the only N7s on board. The best they had was an N5 Marine Force Recon team.
In the end, she decided, it would be Taylor's decision. If he felt he was up to it, he would lead John's ground team.
* * *
"Lead that crazy crew?" Jacob blurted out. "Uh, no offense, ma'am."
"None taken, Lieutenant," Jane said. "I needed your honest opinion on the matter. Dismissed."
She had certainly gotten it. She just hoped the Force Recon team could handle it. They were good -- anyone willing to drop into a combat zone from low orbit had to have a pair -- but the team was small, and they didn't know what forces the geth had on Maji.
* * *
"Hey, Skipper."
John looked up as GySgt Ashley Williams entered the sickbay. He'd read her file, and it made him glad to have her aboard, potential psychological consequences of Eden Prime notwithstanding. "Shit hot" -- which she had to be to make E-7 in only nine years -- didn't begin to describe it: She'd aced her fit-reps every time, and she had only one black mark on her record, namely the heavy losses her unit had taken at Torfan. The inquiry board had deemed those losses unavoidable, however, and she'd even received a medal for her actions during the incident. Still, he was a bit worried. She was pushing herself hard, and it wasn't going to be pretty when she finally burned out.
"Hello, Gunny," he said. "What brings you here?"
"Just checking up on you," she answered. "Getting a bit antsy lately, lot of time on my hands."
"You know why I benched you, Ash," he said, answering the unspoken accusation.
She ground her teeth and looked away. "I don't get it, Skipper. Why are we kowtowing to these... these aliens?"
John cocked an eyebrow. "You have a problem with aliens, Ash?"
"What?" the NCO blurted out in surprise, looking back at him in shock. "No, sir! Karbarrans, invid, zentraedi, quarians, I've got no problem with any of them. Hell, I'm at least half zentraedi myself, and my grandmother's a Praxian. But turians? Asari? Batarians? We were at war with these people not that long ago, Commander."
"Are you forgetting how we met the zentraedi and invid, Gunny?" he asked, somewhat bemused.
"But we won those wars, sir," she pointed out as she started pacing. "We established ourselves; we earned their respect. We haven't really had a chance to do that with the Citadel races, and Parliament has us begging at the Council's table for scraps instead of standing on our own and showing them what we're capable of. We're better than that, sir, and we deserve a chance to prove it."
John had to admit, Ash had a point. The Relay War had lasted three years and ended inconclusively. A lot of bad blood lingered from that, leading to the cold war that followed. Even with projects like the Normandy to try and bring them together, things remained strained between the Citadel and the Sentinels.
"I understand, Ash," he said gently. "Believe me, I do, but we're not going to get far if we insist on kicking everyone's asses first." He paused, then added, "Okay, it would probably work with the krogans and maybe the turians, but probably not anyone else. As for the batarians... we have our orders."
She growled in frustration.
* * *
The mission to Maji had been completed without much incident, though the Marines had taken a few casualties. The geth had been fairly heavily entrenched, with everything from armatures and rocket troops to fixed gun turrets, but the heavy firepower Kaidan's veritech carried made short work of them. Shepard himself had recovered enough to be cleared for bridge duty as they approached the fourth and last site of suspicious activity: Rayingri, in the Gagarin system. A garbled distress call had been received from the batarian outpost there.
From his position at the galaxy map, John considered who to send. They still had the KSS Ashar shadowing them and LT Kilika was still aboard. He rolled his neck around, then looked at his XO. "Hey, Jane, how would you like to stretch your legs a bit?"
"I was wondering when you'd figure it out," she said dryly. She had already run through the same reasoning over Maji; besides John, she was the only one even remotely capable of leading the oddball squad he'd recruited.
"All right," he said with a chuckle, waving her off. "Go on, get outta here. Make sure you take Lieutenant Kilika with you."
* * *
Kilika followed the human woman to the research outpost. She was armed, as always, with a sniper rifle, a machine pistol, and her knives. The knife blades were mass effect compressed alloys, and small mass effect generators in the hilts adjusted the blades' mass on the fly, allowing her to wield them as though they were light as a feather while striking with the weight of a full-grown man behind each blow.
"This is Lieutenant Kilika, Special Intervention Unit," she radioed again as they approached. "If anyone can hear me, please respond."
No answer.
"Commander." That was the other human woman, the medic. "Those things near the building. We saw those before, on Eden Prime. The geth were using them to turn people into... into zombies."
Kilika did not know what a zombie was, but she felt her insides knot up. This couldn't be good.
"Understood, Corpsman."
They continued on in silence, entering the underground research facility, only to be confronted with a horror the batarian commando couldn't have conceived of.
They had once been batarians, that much was obvious, but their bodies were twisted and broken, yet they moved with an unnatural speed, twitching and jerking in a mockery of life, and their eyes and mouths glowed with an unholy blue light.
"Put 'em down, people." Hunter's voice was tight, controlled, hard. She had barely given the order when Kilika drew her machine pistol and opened fire -- it was too tight for her sniper rifle -- and when it beeped a complaint, she holstered the overheated weapon and charged in, blades flashing.
She was SIU. She knew most efficient ways to use her blades to kill just about species known to batariankind, but it was her own people she was most intimately familiar with, and she used that knowledge to deadly effect. Between that and the gunfire from the rest of the squad, the room was clear in seconds.
Kilika turned and frowned. One of the... creatures... was dragging itself feebly across the floor toward her. Or more accurately, toward the body lying at her feet. Its legs had been blown clean off, and it was leaving a trail of its own insides behind. It should have been long dead from blood loss... but then again, whatever these things were bleeding, it wasn't blood.
All four of her eyes widened in shock and disgust as the lone survivor started tearing off parts of the body in front of her and stuffing them in its mouth. The blue glow seemed to grow brighter, and she could see its guts slowly stitching themselves back together as it fed. She took two steps over and crouched by the pitiful looking creature. She stabbed down with both blades, then scissored them, decapitating it, and the blue glow finally died. She took a closer look at the body and reached out to touch it, then snatched her hand back when she realized it was trembling.
"Who would do this?" she demanded, looking up at the humans. "They were researchers!"
It was then that one of the doors leading out of the room slid open, disgorging more of the twisted cannibals. Kilika turned, drawing her machine pistol again, and opened fire from where she crouched. Behind the creatures were geth, led by a pair of grey-and-yellow destroyers, but Kilika held her ground. She locked down her emotions and stuck to short, controlled bursts to keep her pistol from overheating.
She needn't have bothered, as a swarm of Recluse-D micro-missiles soon rendered the point moot.
Kilika stood up, looking down at what had become of the researchers stationed here. A hand touched her shoulder, and she shrugged it off. Taking the hint, Hunter backed off. Good. She needed no comfort from a human.
This... this could not go unpunished.
Hypocrite, much? Kilika, that is.Cyclone said:
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
Remember them? Sure, but only whatever they learned about them from the Earthers. The Mass Effect species never met any of the Robotech species before the Relay War.FanboyimusPrime said:
Thanks. I knew something felt a bit off with that line.Cody Fett said:
Thanks.Captain Gloval said:
Whoops. I guess I'll need a codex entry for the invid in this chapter, huh? Here:bullethead said:
Codex: Invid
The invid are perhaps the most important species in the Sentinels Alliance, crucial to the production of the Flower of Life and protoculture which allows the Sentinels exclusive access to robotechnology. Little of their history is known to outsiders, beyond the fact that they were driven from their original homeworld by the Haydonites long before Zor initiated first contact between the invid and the Tirolians. During the rise of the Robotech Masters, the invid's adopted homeworld of Optera was razed, and the invid split between the Regent and the Regess.
First contact between Earth forces and the invid occurred in late 2030, after the end of the Second Robotech War on Earth, when forces under the Regent's command engaged Expeditionary Force units in former Tirolian space. In 2031, the other half of the invid under the Regess successfully invaded and conquered Earth, one of the few planets known to be able to support the Flower of Life. The Regent and his forces were subsequently defeated by the Sentinels Alliance, and the Regess was later convinced to depart Earth during the Expeditionary Force's final attempt to retake Earth in July of 2044.
During the Fourth Robotech War which followed -- the Haydonite War -- the Regess's invid would return to assist humanity against the Children of Shadows and actually join the Sentinels Alliance originally formed to fight the Regent's invid in the 2030s. Since then, despite tensions with the other Sentinel members, the invid have remained a staunch ally of the United Earth Alliance, even interbreeding with humanity on a number of occasions.
I was taking a risk with Kilika, and I knew it, but I figured this was one big way I could go off the game script. There will be others. Particularly at the climax of the first game's events, and I'll definitely be derailing the second game's events quite a bit also.Herald said:Sheppard's part Invid? Most interesting... and now I want to see a fight between a Karbarran and a krogan.
I quite enjoy Kilika also and this story is one of the main reasons I want to see a female batarian companion for ME3. Sadly, thats never going to happenbut one can dream...
Not really, no.Knightowl said:My question is. Is Sheppard Invid Royality?
I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request.RedWolff said:
Eh, she's an assassin, yes, but at least she'll kill you clean and quick, not... this.Iceblocks said:
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
Maybe I will write the prequel some day. Maybe not. Depends on if the muse is inspired, but what pretty much pisses everyone off is that the war was cut short before it could come to a decisive conclusion either way. The turians bombed civilian targets like they did in the canonical First Contact War, but Shanxi had fortifications for the civilians as well; it wasn't the first time they've fought a war against a fully militarized society that doesn't understand the concept of civilians, after all. This is one of the reasons why the turians took two years to take Shanxi and why General Williams didn't have to surrender. Another reason is that the orbital defenses held a lot longer than in the canonical First Contact War (something I mentioned earlier). Earth retook Shanxi in the third year of the war, but before they could blitz into turian territory, the Citadel Council and Sentinels stepped in with a cease-fire. It should be noted that the Relay War was largely a war between the United Earth Alliance and the Turian Heirarchy. The other Sentinel members were not involved, and neither were the other Citadel nations. Not to say that members of the individual species weren't involved, mind you. Asari commando mercenaries, salarian freelancers, Karbarran mercs, etc. were most certainly involved.RedWolff said:
As for the other Sentinel member species, it should be noted that there are two Alliances in question here, the United Earth Alliance and the Sentinels Alliance. The Normandy is a UEA ship, not a Sentinel ship. Members of the other Sentinel species generally belong to their own independent military forces rather than Earth's. There's one Karbarran present on the Normandy, Chief Engineer K'Dar, but he's the exception rather than the rule.