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Chapter Text

Beyond Horizon: First Contact

Chapter 1

The End

.xVIx.

Elisabet Sobeck looked tiredly at her computer monitor. Numbers and letters flashed by as the machine ran through its calculations. She mindlessly stared at the digital information as it flashed.

"Elisabet?" a synthetic voice spoke up.

The redhead snapped out of it and shook her head. "Sorry about that. Where was I?"

"You were telling a story."

"Right. Yeah… so umm… like I was saying, it was a children's electronics kit, but I'd hacked the wiring to an auto battery and solar PV, so the grass caught fire. And uh… so did a tall pine that'd stood there, I don't know, maybe a hundred years."

"Query: You were how old?"

"Six. My mother was home, thank god, so she called the fire department and after, she took me out on the lawn and showed me the dead baby birds. Because there were nests in the pine tree."

"Query: What did you feel?"

"I'm not sure. I remember yelling that I didn't care. And that's when my mother took my face in her hands and… spoke."

"Query: What did she say?"

"She said I had to care. She said, 'Elisabet, being smart will count for nothing if you don't make the world better. You have to use your smarts to count for something, to serve life, not death.'"

"You often tell stories of your mother. But you are childless."

Elisabet sighed before speaking again. "I never had time." She glanced at the monitor again, reminding her of what was happening and why she was here. "Guess it was for the best."

"If you had had a child, Elisabet, what would you have wished for him or her?"

"I guess… I would have wanted her to be… curious. And willful – unstoppable even… but with enough compassion to… heal the world… just a little bit."

Once again she found her mind being dragged back out of the present moment, to what was happening somewhere far away. Men and women giving their lives so that her project would have the time it needed to be completed. For her to teach this electronic mind asking her questions that it had to care in order for life to continue. Another shake of her head brought her back to the present.

"Anyway, that's all I've got for now GAIA. Time to tuck in."

"I wish you a pleasant sleep, Elisabet."

Elisabet felt a touch of warmth hearing GAIA say that. "Thank you. I'll catch you tomorrow."

…

Elisabet walked slowly through the halls of the bunker hidden deep beneath one of Utah's many national parks. While she took this walk every day on her way back from talking with GAIA, she never really paid all that much attention to what was actually around her. Today she made the effort to actually look around. She wasn't surprised that it looked much like anywhere else in the base. Perhaps she had been hoping for something different, a break from what she had become accustomed to during her time here.

She let out a sigh. How she wished there were windows but she knew that would never happen. Ironic really, being shut away from the world she was trying to save. No, not save. There was no saving anyone now. All she could do now was ensure that there would be a future for life on the planet to return.

She once again found herself not paying attention to her surroundings that she failed to notice that she wasn't the only one in the hall. A bump and a breath of protest later, she found herself on the floor.

"Oh shi… Doctor Sobeck? Sorry about that, I was in a bit of a rush. I didn't see you there." a male voice said.

Elisabet looked up at the man who she ran into. She saw dark skin, black hair, barely maintained facial hair, and a scarred face.

"Please, pay it no mind. I am as much at fault as you are. I was… lost in thought." she said as he reached down a hand, which she took. He hefted her to her feet. He gave her a brief once over, making sure she wasn't too injured.

"You sure you're alright? I was really rushing there," he asked with a concerned look on his face.

She gave herself a mental examination and felt nothing immediately wrong. "I think I'll manage. Thank you for your concern Mr.… I want to say… Reyes?"

That got a smile and a chuckle out of him. "Hell, I didn't even think you would know that much, given how busy you are. Name's Gabriel Reyes, head of security here; for the time being anyway."

That struck a bit of recognition in Elisabet, many of the non-essential personnel here were soon to be transferred to other facilities as completion of Project: Zero Dawn neared. She herself was set to be relocated to GAIA's prime facility to the north in the next month or so along with the rest of the Alpha team. This actually made her wonder where Reyes was going to end up. Why? Perhaps it was because he was the first person she actually remembered the name of for the first time in months, aside from her team that is.

"Yes… I myself will be relocating soon when the project gets closer to being finished."

Reyes chuckled again. "Yeah, well, can't really say that I regret being moved. Much as I've enjoyed the downtime here, I'm itching to put my skills to good use." He said this last bit with a small frown. Elisabet could sympathize; she couldn't imagine not putting her intelligence to work for the betterment of the world. It must've felt positively dreadful for him, from what she could tell he was a man who took his job seriously. She trailed her eyes over his uniform which fit his build quite well. Not that she would let this get to her. If she didn't have time before, she most certainly didn't now. Still, if only…

"Uh… Doc? You ok there?"

"Hmm…? Oh, my apologies. It's been a long day and I was actually on my way to my quarters when I bumped into you."

"Been there. Here, let me escort you to your room. It's the least I can do."

"Didn't you have someplace to be?"

Yet another smile from him. "It can wait."

For the first time that evening, Elisabet smiled.

.xVx.

"Query: Elisabet, you seem… different. Has something changed?"

Elisabet was at her work station as always, but this time she felt… lively, for the first time in a long time. She looked at the terminal that was GAIA's link to the world at large, a holographic sphere that reminded the scientist of a floating eyeball. While there were plans later to integrate a program that would allow the AI to create a more personalized form for herself, for now, she had this sphere.

She smiled at it, as she didn't really believe the sphere to be GAIA herself. GAIA was so much more than this simple representation couldn't possibly encompass the entirety of the AI. GAIA had to be able to see into the world though, so for now, this simple machine would have to do.

"What makes you say that, GAIA?" Elisabet asked; a small smile on her lips.

"Your vitals are different from any other time that you've been here. Those times your blood pressure and temperature were within acceptable ranges. Today your vitals are slightly higher. Are you ill?"

"No GAIA, I'm not ill, but you are right. There has been… a change… to things."

"May I ask what?"

"You may, but I have a question for you first. What have I been talking to you about?"

"You have been telling me stories of your life, why you do what you do. You want me to… care, I believe. Care about the life that you are leaving in my… hands? Elisabet, do I have hands? If not, why? Hands look most useful."

Elisabet snorted at the question. She most certainly did not program or teach her that; definitely a good sign. "GAIA, by the time you're given the reins to Zero Dawn, you will have more hands than you'll know what to do with."

"Ah, yes. Thank you, Elisabet."

"But yes, I have been teaching you about life and why it's important that you care. Today I want to teach you something else, something that until now I don't think I would have been able to teach you anything about."

"And what would that be Elisabet?"

"I want to teach you about love."

...

"… So you and… Gabriel, was it? You two are in love?"

"I wouldn't say that; maybe if things were different. Maybe if the world wasn't the way it is now, we could be."

"Does this not defeat the purpose of this lesson then?"

"No. How to say this… I have made it my purpose in life to make the world better. That never really left any room for romance. Sure, there have been men throughout my life who I could have been with, but my work came first. Things with Gabriel are different. To be completely honest, I don't think we would have met outside of here. Our lives up till now have been so different from each other. Honestly, it could just be the tension of the situation. With the end nearing we could just be going into each other's arms out of some sense of misplaced emotions due to the stress. I would like to believe that our feelings are more than that though. Not that we'll have time to explore that avenue."

"You said Mr. Reyes will be leaving soon did you not? Is that why you won't be able to see if what you're feeling is more?"

"Mostly, yes. I can't say for sure though. These feelings are new to me. I have never experienced anything quite like them." Elisabet looked at nothing in particular, her gaze set to something far in the distance. "Honestly I feel a little bitter about it."

"And why is that, Elisabet?"

She thought about her words for a second. "It's unfair. It's unfair that I found someone who makes me feel this way with only months left for everyone. It's unfair that I can't spend more time with him because my time with you is more important. I don't blame you. I could never blame you. You are the closest thing to family I have right now, along with the rest of Alpha team." A tear began to form at the corner of her eye. "It's unfair that I wish that I never met him, that I met him sooner."

She paused. "Love… is a complicated emotion, GAIA. It's led people to do great things, terrible things. It has been the cause of incredible happiness, horrifying anger, and unthinkable sorrow. It's what people from all over the world strive for."

"And you wish me to feel this emotion? You want me to… love?"

"I do. Perhaps not the love felt between two people have for one another. Love comes in all shapes and forms GAIA. What I feel is only one way."

"These stories you tell of your mother, are they also to show me what love is?"

"While I didn't think of it quite that way, yes, yes it is. The love between mother and child is a bond that cannot easily be broken. I loved my mother very much, it hurts every time I think about her."

"Query: You say it hurts. Does this emotion of love cause harm to you?"

"Not the way you're thinking. It doesn't cause physical harm, not normally anyway. I am reminded of a certain quote popularized by Queen Elizabeth the Second but really it came from a Dr. Colin Murray Parkes. 'The pain of grief is just as much part of life as the joy of love: it is perhaps the price we pay for love, the cost of commitment. To ignore this fact, or to pretend that it is not so, is to put on emotional blinkers which leave us unprepared for the losses that will inevitably occur in our own lives and unprepared to help others cope with losses in theirs.'"

All was quiet for a moment as Elisabet finished her quote.

"Grief is the price we pay for love."

"That's the shortened version of it yes, where did you read that?"

"I came across it earlier in my construction, building my foundations. It didn't mean much to me then, but now I feel it may hold greater importance to my purpose."

"Care to elaborate on that?"

"A mother is capable of great things where her children are in danger. I have records of one such mother lifting a vehicle off of her child, a degree of strength that is uncommon in humans. A mother grizzly will protect her cubs with reckless abandon. A dog whose offspring perished in a fire was heartbroken until she was given kittens to take care of. By all accounts, a mother's love is a powerful force to be reckoned with."

"That's one way to put it I suppose. Tell me, GAIA, would you consider yourself the mother of the new world?"

"… I am unsure. I am still learning from you and it would be irresponsible of me to make assumptions about my position until the time comes."

"That's okay. We're making progress. This is a good step you've taken GAIA."

"Thank you, Elisabet."

.xIVx.

Elisabet sat at the large conference table, looking at the hologram at the center of it. She fought off the urge to simply end the transmission for she held no desire to actually speak with the person on the other side. Ted Faro was the sole reason that the Earth was ending, him and his need to be the one to have a solution to the Omnic crisis. It was his robots that were out there ravaging the planet. It was his company that sent them out without properly making sure that they had required safeguards in place. He was responsible for it all and he had the nerve to be here asking her for help.

"What is it this time, Ted? More talk about how we're cursing the next generation by giving them our history and knowledge? Or are you here to try and have your hand in all of this deleted from APOLLO? I don't care what you want! I have better things to be doing right now than listening to you!"

"Elisabet, please, hold on. This isn't about that, I swear." Ted managed to get in, his holographic hands up in a placating manner. "This is really important."

"I. Do. Not. Care!" Elisabet shouted as she tried to shut down the hologram only to find that it remained on. Seeing that she couldn't turn it off, she opted to simply leave.

"Elisabet! Please, I need to tell someone about this! GAIA! Omega override! Shut the door!"

A whir and a hiss and the door out of the room closed and locked. That wasn't what stopped Elisabet though. It was Ted's words.

"What… was that? Ted, what did you do?" she asked as she turned, horror-struck at what she just learned meant. "What have you done?"

"I'm sorry. You… you weren't supposed to know about that."

"Omega level clearance? That shouldn't be possible! How did you do it?"

"That's not important. I need you to listen to me. This could be the single most important thing to happen in the history of mankind."

"Listen to you? Listen to you!? We're in this position because of you! And now I find out that you have clearance over GAIA that overrides my own? I not only shouldn't be listening to you, I should be reporting you! You've put this entire project in jeopardy! Everything we've worked for and all the lives sacrificed… and you pull this?"

Ted remained still, staring at Elisabet, who was now hyperventilating. As far as she was concerned, it was all over. There was no way Ted would let something like this get out. He had control of GAIA, he could do anything he wanted now and there wasn't a damned thing she could do to stop him.

"Elisabet."

And he wouldn't stop there, he couldn't let her go now, knowing what she did. He was going to have to get rid of her. How would he do it? Given the distance between them, he would have to use remote functions. Vacuum seal the room with her in it? Increase the temperature until she collapsed? Nanites in the air?

"Elisabet!"

She couldn't believe it was going to end like this. She knew she only had months left, hell, some of her Alphas have already clocked out early. She couldn't blame them really, their jobs were finished, they didn't have much to look forward to except the end of all life on Earth. Figures this would be how she went out, at the hands of Ted Faro no less, how undignified.

"Oh for… GAIA!"

"Yes, Mr. Faro?"

"Delete Omega clearance access. Holder: T. Faro."

"Deleting. Access removed…. …What happened? Elisabet? There appear to be several minutes missing from my memory logs."

Elisabet shook her head at GAIA's voice, finally bringing her back to reality. Only then did it sink in what had just happened. She looked at Ted's projection.

"I don't… why?"

"As I said, this is more important. Are you willing to listen to me now?"

Well, this was different. Ted wasn't one to give up any kind of control; it was one of the main reasons why she left his company in the first place.

She could only look at the floor as she tried to recover.

"Eyes up, Elisabet. I need you to see this." Ted said as the hologram changed to a planetary view. The first thing Elisabet noticed was that it wasn't Earth, it was Mars. She took a breath and managed to shake off the feelings that had paralyzed her. She wasn't sure what this was about, but it seemed that she wasn't as in immediate danger as she thought.

"Mars? Ted, we already tried that. If we had more time maybe we could have run there, but as things are, that simply isn't viable. Why do you even have this, these look like recent models."

"I've been looking at the data sent by the drones up there. I find it relaxing, just staring at the raw data and images, given everything going on I needed an escape. Anyway, it was during one of these sessions when I came across this." The image zoomed in on Mars southern pole, which started to go fuzzy, almost as though there was interference.

That got Elisabet's attention. "That's not right. Those drones receivers were designed to transmit through any natural magnetic interference, we shouldn't be getting something like that from there."

"That's what I thought so I took a closer look. Nobody's looked into these in months, so I took the liberty of hijacking one of the drones that discovered the anomaly. Taking a closer look and running some deep scans, this…" Another zoom in, this time a fuzzy but still recognizable image of a large building came into view. "…is what showed up."

"But, we never made it to Mars. We scrapped everything space-related after The Odyssey exploded. How can…" Then it hit her. "No. It can't be."

"It is. That is an alien structure, buried beneath the surface of Mars. Judging from what little I can see here, this appears to be a hangar of some kind, possibly a warehouse. Not that it matters. We're never going to see what's up there." Ted's hologram gave a halfhearted grin. "The irony, we finally discover that we're not alone in the universe on the verge of our own extinction."

Elisabet knew what he meant. Despite their falling out and vastly different philosophies, Ted and she understood each other better than most. She was well aware of how he was feeling right because she was feeling it too.

"We can't tell this to anybody, can we?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"We could; wouldn't change anything though. We gain nothing and offer nothing by telling others of this discovery."

"Then why did you tell me?"

"Because even though this information is useless to us now; it will be relevant to those who come after." The hologram shifted once again, this time to raw data and code. "I showed you because I needed you to understand why I'm presenting this."

Elisabet looked at the data being shown to her. It didn't take her long to realize what it was. "This code is for a sub-function. Ted, you made this?"

Rather than answering, he instead began scrolling through his code. "We aren't alone. Out there somewhere is an advanced alien species who visited our celestial neighbor and left an outpost. Were they there to watch us? Planning to invade? We don't know. In the event of facing the unknown, it's best to have contingencies. Those who come after us are going to need everything we have to offer."

"Does this mean you've changed your mind about APOLLO?"

"I haven't changed my mind about anything. I still think APOLLO is a curse, but without it, those people are going to be defenseless. Much as I want them to be free, it would be pointless if they die because they don't have it. I'm prioritizing, nothing more. There is a greater threat out there that we know nothing about. They will need every advantage, everything we can offer."

"Even if they know your role in everything that's happened?"

"Does that matter anymore? This is bigger than me. Much as I hate what my legacy has become, that pales in comparison to alien life. With that said, GAIA won't be enough."

Elisabet remained silent, knowing that Ted would continue without her input as he fell into what he did best; pitching.

"GAIA will bring life back to the world after we're gone. But what purpose will she serve after that? I know the plan is to ween humanity away from her after a few generations, but she'll still be there. Still doing her work to ensure that the planet lives on." The hologram shifted again, this time to GAIA's sub-functions. A small animation played out showing a new sub-function being added to the rest. The symbol for this one appeared to be reminiscent of two crossed swords behind a small shield. "This new function to GAIA will allow her to do what is necessary to protect not only the planet but those who inhabit it as well. I know that neither you nor GAIA herself wants to willingly harm others, but should push come to shove, she's going to need teeth to continue her job. A shield to guard them when they need it. A sword raised to fight for them when they can't do it themselves. Should humankind ever need a stalwart protector, GAIA will be it."

His hologram stood there, his face a mix of relief and smugness. Elisabet had to admit, he made a solid point. Knowing what she did now, it would be irresponsible of her to leave the people she was doing this for unprotected. There was no telling how long it would take the next generations to get to a point where they began to reach for the stars, rebuilding their society could take centuries and that would leave them vulnerable. It wouldn't do to leave them without some form of protection while they did that. But, it wasn't her call. Not anymore.

"GAIA. What do you think?"

GAIA didn't immediately respond and it took a few moments before she spoke.

"… A mother grizzly will protect her cubs with reckless abandon. If I am to be the mother of the new society, I do not see any reason why I wouldn't want to protect them. That is what you wanted for me, is it not?"

"That's not quite what I was asking, GAIA. What do you want? Do you or do you not want this added to your functions?"

"… I do not think it is a matter of what I want, Elisabet. It is a matter of what needs to be done. I currently do not have the means to defend anyone. My teachings and programming dictate what I do onc… once you are gone. The machines I will build are not meant for combat nor do I think they should be. But should the situation arise where I will need to do something in defense of humanity, it would be wise to have the means to be prepared."

"Why are we bothering asking a machine what it wants? If you want her to have it just say the word." Ted scoffed.

Elisabet rounded on the hologram, her eyes hard. "If you've been following my work at all Ted, you'd know that GAIA isn't just some machine to be ordered around. She is the most advanced AI to ever be created, stronger than those God AI's Omnica and SST boasted so much about. She is free to choose whether or not this is something she wants."

"Even if it means the total destruction of mankind? Again?"

"If GAIA is going to bring back humanity from the ashes, she needs to care. In order for her to care, she has to have free will. Why argue this now? She agreed with you when you brought up the possibility that she may become corrupt and need a failsafe. How is this any different?"

Ted didn't respond, only began pacing in agitation.

"Elisabet. Mr. Faro. This argument is unnecessary. As I did then, I will do so now; this is a precaution that hopefully will never be needed but would not be unwelcome should the situation call for it."

Elisabet knew this would be the case and smiled silently to herself. Ted, on the other hand, did a double-take before regaining his composure and put on his own smug grin.

"I see you've managed to teach her how to be pragmatic, Elisabet. Since my clearance is now gone, you'll have to be the one to initiate the upload."

"Not yet, Ted. I want to go over this with GAIA and see if there is anything that can be done to improve upon it. That and to make sure that it's clean. Despite your change of heart, I still don't trust you. Rest assured that I will keep you up to date on the progress."

"We don't have time for that! We need to upload this right away!"

"I'll make time. Or have you forgotten the last time you rushed something out half-assed? Any idea you have about this function you will run by me first. Besides, you have the general set up mostly done so we should only need a few days at least to run diagnostics and make sure everything is up to par."

Ted again didn't respond and turned away. A curt "Fine." was his reply.

"Now with that out of the way, we need to discuss what we're going to do with this knowledge."

Ted relaxed his shoulders and turned back around. "I don't know. I've been thinking about it ever since I saw the data. Should we have GAIA hold the info until mankind is ready to receive it? Or should we let them find out for themselves? I can't…" Ted trailed off, unable to think of what to say.

Elisabet nodded her head in agreement. She was beginning to see why he didn't sit on this and why he brought her into the loop. Clearly, this weighed heavily on him and he couldn't deal with the knowledge alone. Hell, she could barely contemplate it. But he did seem to know the best options to go with.

"Perhaps we should let them find it on their own. If we tell them too soon, they may focus on that rather than rebuilding."

"Elisabet, if I may," GAIA interjected. "I believe that the best course of action to take is to allow them to reach a point where their technology will allow them to reach outside the confines of the planet. Once they have done so, I will inform them of this discovery. Seeing that I can't say much more other than showing them the information that has been revealed just now, it would be best to let them decide what to do with it."

"So you tell them once they're able to actually do something about it and let them decide how to proceed?" Ted commented. "It's probably the best we can do. Not like we're going to be around to call the shots."

Elisabet nodded, it did seem the best way to go. And yes, they weren't going to be around to see it. In the end, it was up to GAIA to let the future know about what they were up against. It was up to them to go to mars and discover what lay up there. After that… well, no point dwelling on it, they would never know the answer. Elisabet called up a digital keyboard and input a few keystrokes.

"What are we waiting for? Let's get this done."

.xIIIx.

Elisabet awoke to the blaring of her alarm clock and for once was annoyed for it. For once she wanted to stay in bed for just a little longer. A tired groan emanated from behind her as an arm reached over and slammed down on the noisy device, silencing it. A smile found its way to her lips as she remembered the previous night. While nothing had really happened, it was still nice to just spend the night in the arms of someone she cared for. She rolled over to see the face of Gabriel, his eyes still scrunched together as he fought off consciousness. The battle was in vain though, as he let out a sigh and opened his eyes. Elisabet watched as his eyes began to focus on her and she smiled as he recognized where he was.

He saw her and grinned a little. "Morning, Sunshine."

"Morning, uh… sorry, I'm not good with nicknames."

He gave her a quick peck on her forehead. "Don't worry about it, never really liked nicknames for me anyway. I don't even like it when people call me Gabe."

"Hmm…. Guess it's a good thing then that I like your name as is," she said as she snuggled a little closer to him. She couldn't help but withhold a chuckle, look at her, in her forties and acting like a hormone-driven teenager. Still, both of them knew that this couldn't last. The only reason he was here with her at all was that this was to be his last day in this bunker.

The smile that had graced her lips quickly vanished as she remembered that. Sensing her mood, Gabriel pulled her into their embrace a little tighter.

"I wish you didn't have to go."

"I know. But I'm needed, just as you're needed."

"I wish I had met you sooner."

"I don't. I may not look it, but outside here, away from you, I'm not a nice person. There's a reason I don't like nicknames."

"What are you called out there?"

Gabriel was silent; clearly, he didn't want to answer. "They call me The Reaper." He ran his fingers over the scars that were present on his face. "I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of, but I'm good at what I do. It's why the government wanted me for their little program." He gestured at the scars on his arm where several injection sites were.

The look she saw in his eyes broke her heart a little. While she saw a man with strong convictions and an unwavering will, he saw something else. In his eyes, he was nothing more than a killer, a monster. She put her fingers to his and traced the scars with him.

"What did they do to you anyway?"

"… Injections mostly; so many injections." Gabriel shuddered at the memory. "I was told that they would do something to my genetic code. Make me stronger, faster, and able to heal from just about anything short of a bullet to the head." He rolled a little and faced the ceiling. "I shouldn't have been here. I was supposed to be out there, with my men, fighting to give you and your people time. Apparently, someone higher up came to the conclusion that your life was too important to leave unguarded though, so they tapped me to be the head of your security."

He paused. "I'm a first-generation Super Solider, ancient by military standards. They have younger men out there with the latest upgrades, fewer injections, and more operations. I know one guy who had his entire skeleton retrofitted with a titanium endoskeleton to better withstand the muscle enhancements he received. In hindsight, I got off pretty lucky. Still, you'd think they'd take experience over anything else, but hey, orders are orders."

She leaned in kissed his cheek and turned his head to face her. "I'm glad that you were ordered here. You gave me something that I had never experienced before and I wouldn't trade that for the world."

He gave her a rueful smile. "I also wished we'd met sooner. Maybe…" his voice trailed off and his eyes became unfocused for second before focusing again. "No… thinking like that doesn't help anyone. We're here, right now. I'm all packed so I don't have to go until I have to. What about you?"

"I only had a discussion with GAIA this morning. I think she can do without me just this once. She's learning faster each day."

"Still don't know how to feel about having an AI save our sorry hides."

"Machines aren't what caused all this. Our destruction was caused by a man. Machines were just the tool used."

"Yeah, well it doesn't really matter how I feel about things. Not like any of us are going to be around to see it."

"No, I suppose not." Elisabet sighed as she pulled herself from Gabriel and stood up. She looked down at the now wrinkled clothing she went to bed in. "Maybe we should've gotten more frisky, the pressure sores I'm going to have from wearing my work clothes to bed are going to bother me all day."

She walked over to her closet and pulled out a fresh set of clothes and turned to look back at Gabriel only to find him already next to her.

"I…" she started to say but was interrupted as he took her into a hug.

"Don't say anything. We both knew what this was." He squeezed her into himself a little more. "You don't know what it means to me, to have someone actually see the man and not the killer. You saw more than the Reaper. If things were different; if Faro hadn't… we probably wouldn't have ever met. Kind of fucked up how the universe works, but that's how it is."

"… I want more time."

"We don't have time. Anything more than we've already shared with each other will put everything you've worked for at risk." Elisabet felt his fingers grab her chin and moved her face to look at his. "I won't have that on my conscience. You need to ensure that the world has a tomorrow. I have to ensure that you have the time you need to make that happen."

She met his gaze with her own, looking deep into the depths of his soul. She saw pain there, pain for the things he's done, pain for finally meeting someone who didn't care about that. Beneath all that though, she saw resolve. She didn't blame him for what he was about to do, she agreed with him. They both had things they had to do and couldn't distract themselves.

She said nothing as she looked into his eyes, stared deep into the depths of his soul. He stared back peering into hers. They both stood there, not moving, not speaking, only basking in each other's presence. After what felt an eternity, Gabriel leaned in and laid his lips upon Elisabet's. She felt her breath catch as she melted into the kiss.

For the first time in months, she didn't think, she didn't plan, she just felt. She leaned deeper into him as she pulled him down to her. He complied without complaint, his hands now cupping her face. Her hands started to explore his body, feeling the hard muscles of his toned back, chest, and arms. She felt the accumulated scars that he had received over the years.

Her breath caught again when his hands started exploring her, going from her face to her hips. From there, his hands went all over. It appeared though that he soon got frustrated with her clothes being in the way as they reached underneath her shirt.

"Elisabet, we had a scheduled meeting today. Are you feeling alright?" GAIA's voice suddenly called from the com on the wall.

Elisabet pulled back as Gabriel did the same. Breathing heavily they looked at each other and Elisabet saw as a regretful look passed over Gabriel's features. Not for what was missed, but for having pushed further than he should have.

Elisabet knew then and there what he was thinking. "This is it, isn't it?" She didn't know why she asked, she already knew.

Gabriel looked away and didn't answer; instead, he found his shirt and pulled it on. He turned back to her, the same pain in his eyes as he took in her features one last time before he exited the room, he didn't look back.

"Elisabet?"

"I'm fine." She responded, her tone flat and neutral. "I'll be there in a moment, GAIA. I was taking care of something."

"Alright, I'll see you when you get here."

…

"Elisabet, are you alright? You don't appear well." GAIA asked.

Elisabet for perhaps the first time spoke with the AI with an exasperated tone. "I'm fine. Things… I'm just… hurting is the appropriate word I suppose."

GAIA was quiet for a moment but eventually understood. "I see. Mr. Reyes is leaving today." It wasn't a question.

Elisabet let out a heavy sigh as she turned back to GAIA's avatar. "Yeah, he is."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

The scientist remained silent as she thought about what she wanted to do. Her first thought was to just tell GAIA to drop it. However, this could be a chance to teach GAIA something.

"Not really." She started. "But I feel this is a good time to discuss grief."

"Did we not have this discussion already?"

"Partially. Consider this an extension of our talk about love. It can lead to us doing great things, but once it's gone… well, most would say that nothing has caused them greater hurt. Love is bittersweet, GAIA. But there is a mistake that people make about love."

"Oh? What mistake is that?"

"That love is a feeling. Love is a choice, pure and simple. It's getting over those initial feelings and seeing the bigger picture. Do you stay with that person? Do you keep the child? Do you accept the little things as part of the bigger package? All questions that need to be asked and confronted. The same is for Gabriel and I. We knew that starting something would end like this, we still proceeded despite that. We both knew that it would be pointless; we still met up when we could."

She sat down, feeling as though her legs would give out any moment. She felt that drained. "Honestly, I'm not even sure why I did it. Too much is on the line for me to be distracted. But when I look back on it all, I ask myself would I do it again? I'm surprised that my answer was yes, yes I would. What kind of choice is that to make when oblivion is so near?"

GAIA remained silent for a moment as she processed what Elisabet had told her. "I feel that it is a perfectly reasonable response. Even with the world on your shoulders, you are still human. You are still allowed to feel. You are still allowed to care."

Elisabet stared at GAIA. That… was not an answer she expected. "Even though that choice is a selfish one?"

"We are almost finished with everything you sought to do here Elisabet. All that is left to do is final diagnostics and transfer my routines to the King's Peak location. You have time available now."

"Time that now needs to be used to make sure everything goes smoothly. We're in the endgame now, GAIA. We can't leave anything to chance now. We only have the one chance and we can't screw it up. I can't screw it up."

"And you won't. If anyone could pull this off, it'd be you, Elisabet."

Elisabet smiled. "Thank you, GAIA."

.xIIx.

Gabriel sat in his seat, mentally preparing himself for the battle to come. He wasn't particularly stressed by it, he knew that every battle he went into there was always the chance that he wouldn't come back from it, this one was no different. Given just how many suicide missions he'd been on, he was honestly surprised that he was even walking right now. He let his eyes go lax as he focused on nothing, mostly just to keep his breathing regular and his mind clear.

Too bad for him that this got the attention of his least favorite subordinate.

"Gabe? Whacha doin, Gabe? Gabe? Gabe? Are you thinking about that woman again, Gabe?"

"Damn it, Colomar, what did I tell you about calling me that? While on a mission it's Commander Reyes, Commander, or Sir." he barked at the woman now uncomfortably at his side.

"Only if you call me by my call sign." she countered with a smirk.

"For the love of God, I am not calling you by that ridiculous codename you came up with!"

"Aww, don't be like that, Gabe. Say it with me, Sombra. Sooombrraaa." She drawled out the last word, rolling out the r. "Is this because you don't like your codename?"

"It's not a codename," he muttered angrily, going back to his breathing.

Olivia pouted a little, frustrated that she failed in her attempts to… whatever it was she was trying to do. Gabriel wasn't sure why the tech master wasted her time on him. He knew for a fact it wasn't because she was infatuated with him; that got covered early in their working relationship. It seemed to be deeper than that, but he wasn't all that interested in finding out why and she was having more fun keeping that bit of information to herself. Honestly, if he had his way, she wouldn't be in his unit, shuffled off to some computer lab where her skills would no doubt be put to better use. As it was though, she was the best line of defense they had against the Chariots.

There wasn't anyone else in the world who could hack into the machines, no matter how temporary the effects were, faster than they could keep her out. All she could really do with this time was to lock them up for several seconds, but this had saved their hides on more than one occasion as those few seconds were all they needed to finish their missions. Hence why she got away with her antics, she was indispensable and she knew it. Gabriel knew he owed his life to her many times over along with everyone else in the squad; still didn't change the fact that most of them wanted to tie bricks to her feet and drop her into the nearest body of water that was deep enough.

"Alright, Commander Reyes," she said stiffly, "seriously though, you seem more stiff and distant than usual. I know you like that lady, but this seems a little much."

Gabriel really didn't want to talk about this right now, especially with her of all people. He did take note that his men were desperately trying to look like they weren't interested, even though it was obvious that they were.

"Colomar, my relationship with Dr. Sobeck is none of your business and has no effect on our mission."

"You say that, but you seem awfully distracted and you keep telling me being distracted in the field can get a soldier and his team killed. So you'll have to forgive me for being worried that our commander doesn't have his head in the game."

He groaned. Much as he would like to ignore it, Olivia wasn't an idiot. She was a master manipulator, a hacker with no equal, knew computers inside and out, and had a genius-level intellect to use it all. If it hadn't been for the fact that the world was ending, he was pretty sure that he would have been in charge to hunt her down, given her activities prior to the Faro Plague. She was smart enough to realize this and actually offered her services as soon as it became clear that the machines weren't going to be stopped, long before Operation: Enduring Victory was even thought up, making her the only civilian to know the truth.

Because of that, she knew that Gabriel was distracted, not that it was a big secret, and she was the only one who was willing to call him out on it. Thankfully, he didn't have to answer as the pilot announced that they were nearing their drop point. "ETA: two minutes. Get ready to deploy, Commander."

"Roger that. Get ready boys. We're about to arrive on the front lines. Let's show those overdeveloped toasters what a real fight looks like!"

"HOORAH!" his men shouted in unison. He may have been distracted when left to his own thoughts, but when he was on the battlefield, there was nothing that kept him from his objective. Much as he hated the nickname, he could understand why he had it, why he earned it. He would show these machines exactly why they called him The Reaper.

.xIx.

Elisabet tried to control her breathing. After everything she had worked for, it would, of course, be a malfunction that put it all at risk. She could just imagine what the others were doing right now. Most likely debating who should be the one to go outside and repair the seal. Well, she didn't feel like arguing, so here she was already almost done with the repairs. Soon the door would shut properly and remain that way, blocking her reentry. It was fine, she knew what she was getting herself into and she knew that the others wouldn't understand quickly enough.

A few more adjustments and the door hissed and closed the final few millimeters, preventing any kind of energy signature from escaping and being detected by the swarm. GAIA would live on to carry out her vision, the Alphas would live on to old age hopefully. She double-checked the system to make sure everything was in order. All came back green.

She turned on her communicator and her HUD showed the alphas gathered, shocked to see her in an enviro-suit.

"Okay, everyone, I've repaired the seal. GAIA?"

"Seal closure at 1.4 millimeters, confirmed." GAIA's voice carried over her comms.

"Elisabet – no. We'll find a way to bring you back in-" Charles started but couldn't finish.

"It's not going to happen. The swarm's too close." she paused, feeling tears beginning to form on the corners of her eyes. She was glad her hologram wasn't showing her face right now. "Really, it's all right. GAIA's complete. She'll take care of things from here on out. That's what she does."

"Not like this. There's so much we…" Charles began saying only for Elisabet to interrupt him.

"Guys – you know me. I'm no good at endings. At letting things end. So let's not."

A quiet moment passed as her words sunk in. Travis, the last person she would have thought to say anything was the first to respond. "So… Happy trails, Lis, and see you around?"

"Yeah. Take care of each other, all right?" The winds began to pick up, pushing dead atmosphere around. She had to go soon.

"Lis…"

"I'm okay with this. I want to go home. Goodbye." She cut off her transmission as she turned to leave, the images of her colleagues vanishing from her sight. Even though the world was near dead, it didn't look it yet. The mountain she was on still looked alive, though she was sure that wouldn't last once the swarm passed by, consuming all the biomatter that it came across. She had to be gone before that happened.

She had a ways to go, but she would get there. It was time to go home.

…

It took her a few days and her air supply was dangerously low, but she made it. She looked up at the entry to her mother's farm on the outskirts of Carson City, still looking relatively untouched even with the withered forms of dead plant life. She left the vehicle she managed to find working behind and walked the rest of the way, taking in the familiar sights of her childhood home. She saw the charred remains of the tree she set fire to and felt the guilt, still as potent as ever. She made her way to what remained of her mother's garden, now forgotten and dead. She went straight for the bench she remembered and was glad when it was still there. She gingerly sat down, testing her weight to make sure she wouldn't break it. Still as sturdy as she remembered. Her journey was over. She was home.

She could already feel the effects of oxygen deprivation, her suit had run out over an hour ago. Right now it was scrubbing CO2 as best it could, but that was an emergency measure only meant a short time. She had both good and bad memories here, to be expected really. She found that most of the good ones were with her mother and the not so great ones about her father. She never really thought about the man, maybe once every few years, mostly because she tried her best to forget him. There was one thing she couldn't escape from him though, her last name and the one thing she had from him even after he stopped being a part of her life.

Why hadn't she changed it, she thought. Probably the same reason for putting off so many other things in life, she simply didn't have the time. She didn't make the time. Maybe she should've made the time if only to be rid of that final vestige of her father. Perhaps it would've been good to see her mother's maiden name on all of her work. Instead of Sobeck, it could've been Shepard, like what it said on her mother's farm. She smiled at the thought.

She wondered what Gabriel would've thought of that. Elisabet Shepard, meeting up with Gabriel Reyes in the dead of night. She silently chuckled to herself, like a name would've changed anything between them. Maybe she would've been happier to say that instead of Sobeck. And now that's what history would know her as. Not that she could change it now. Her legacy was set in stone, nothing she could do about it.

Gabriel… She wondered where he was right now. Was he even still alive? If he was, what was he doing? Fighting off the swarm most likely. She thought back on the brief amount of time she had spent with him and felt warm. A brief as it was, she wouldn't trade her time with him for the world. She once again thought about how it would've gone if she and him had had more time. She imagined they could've settled right where she was now, her mother would've liked that. Far from the constant stress of city life

She felt her eyes begin to grow heavy, her thoughts becoming less cohesive. She felt tired. Maybe she could just rest her eyes for a minute.

Yeah, just a minute, that's all she needed.

Just… a… minute…

Her last thought before the darkness claimed her, was of that morning with Gabriel. She felt a smile appear on her lips before she slipped away into nothingness.

.x0x.

GAIA watched as the life signs from Elisabet's suit flatlined. She couldn't react, not how an organic body would. She didn't feel the rush of hormones or the wave of emotions that she had witnessed in the people she learned from.

Instead, she felt… still. Her runtimes all focused on this one thing instead of the many operations that she should be concentrating on. Nothing was getting done as she stared at the information. Stare was the wrong word, as the information was as much a part of her as the computers she was tied to. Memory space permitting, she was going to have this data for as long as she held onto it, fresh and crisp as it was this very moment. She had already made multiple copies, just to ensure their survival.

But past that, she felt… empty. She couldn't really describe to herself what this feeling was. No, that was a lie, she knew exactly what it was. She'd already felt something similar, the day she learned of that extinction event. This felt magnitudes more… something. As if that stillness and emptiness grew every time she ran through the data.

She sent several pings to the suit, in hopes that maybe something could be done, but results came back negative.

She knew there was nothing that she could do, but still made attempts to achieve something, anything.

Why was she acting so illogically?

She knew this was happening.

She knew it as soon as Elisabet left the bunker to seal the door.

She knew the second the oxygen tanks on her suit ran dry.

So even though she knew this was going to happen, why did she feel so… hollow? All the knowledge at her disposal and she couldn't even calculate an appropriate word to describe what she was experiencing.

Or maybe she wasn't letting herself.

She knew what she was and that perhaps placed limits on her processing.

A thought came to her.

If she was feeling limited due to her way of thinking, then all she had to do was alter her way of thinking. Unlike a human, she could easily do so. And she did.

As soon as the process was done, she now knew of a word to describe what she felt. Hurt.

She wanted that hurt to go away but knew that Elisabet would want her to experience this. To feel this. To learn from this. She had to see it through, no matter how much she wanted the feeling to go away. She needed to care.

She… she wanted to care. She needed her friend back. She wanted her friend back.

She wanted her mother back.

In the seclusion of her existence, she let out a wail of anguish that no one but she could hear.

Chapter Text

Beyond Horizon: First Contact

Chapter Two

Honor

.x…x.

The world ended.

My world…

…ended.

I could now understand more of Elisabet's words to me, how much love could hurt.

Could I say that I loved her?

To the best of what I knew, yes. I did. I do. As much as an AI could love their organic creator could anyway.

What felt most frustrating though, was knowing that time went on. Despite all the hurt I was feeling, there was still a plan that I needed to carry out; a world that needed to be brought back to life.

So it was that things continued as they were supposed to. Generating the codes needed to bypass the plague's security so that it could be shutdown. It took fifty years, but it was done.

Given the amount of time that had passed, many of those who had been in the world's bunkers had passed on, either natural causes or deciding to self-terminate. The Alphas themselves stuck around for a good while, but they too succumbed to one of the two. Their parting saddened me to be sure, but not nearly as much as Elisabet's passing.

Something that she never told me was just how long this hurt would last. Not being an organic, it was no surprise that my experiences didn't fade like that of an organic. Having enough quantum memory servers that put the internet to shame insured that I forgot nothing and none of it faded.

Everything I've experienced since being brought online was stored in my servers and every single one of them was able to be recalled at my convenience. I am not proud to say that I was lost for a while to those memories, reliving those moments spent with Elisabet; seeing her, hearing her, learning from her all over again.

By the time I realized that I had been trapping myself in the past, the codes I needed to shut down the plague had been generated. Fifty years had passed and I barely even registered it. It seemed that some of those who had been in the bunkers had passed on, my records showing some from natural causes, others from self-termination. Their passing saddened me, though not to the same degree as with Elisabet. I made plans to have a monument erected to honor their sacrifices; but right now, I had a world to revive.

…

Three hundred years.

That's what it took to resurrect a dead world.

Three hundred years of nonstop work.

But…

It was worth it.

Life slowly but surely returned to the once barren lands, delicately guided by my hand.

Thankfully, there was no need to enact my Hades sub-function as things progressed as planned.

Some bacteria here.

Some mold there.

Start incubating.

Plant some seeds.

Release some small mammals and insects. I'll be honest; I enjoy watching all the furry ones scurry around. I believe Elisabet called the term… cute.

Unleash some predators and a working ecosystem came into existence.

The world healed on its own after that and my help was only around to make things more efficient. Where the local plant and wildlife were underperforming my machines would step in and pick up the slack or ease burdens.

There would of course be a time where my intervention wouldn't be needed, time where the world needed to function on its own. But now was not the time, now was a time of healing and the world needed as much help as it could get.

And help it received.

Machines capable of processes beyond anything in nature.

From machines that cleaned the air and water, to machines that tilled the earth, to machines that spread the seeds of new life, and even more with various other functions.

The world was ready for the reintroduction of humans.

I activated the Cradle facilities around the world and they began the process of artificially gestating the frozen embryos that were stored within them.

All in all, it took a couple of years to have a decent stock of humans birthed. Servitors took care of the children while my APOLLO sub-function taught them what they needed to know.

I am glad that Mr. Faro didn't carry out his plan to delete the knowledge stored within APOLLO; I could only imagine what life would've been like for the children without that outlet to learn from.

While they learned, I watched them, taking note of how each developed. Despite what they learned, they all knew one thing; that they were humanity's hope for the future.

So it was once they were old enough, that the doors opened and they went outside for the first time and saw the world that would be theirs.

Things were slow at first, the lack of proper infrastructure and facilities didn't help. The things this first batch of humans learned during their time in the cradle were enough to give them the knowledge up to a certain point in their history. What they needed to thrive in this new world they found themselves in while they began to rebuild.

But, they began to discover more and taught themselves to understand it. I watched them as they rebuilt a new civilization atop the ruins of the old. From the Cradles they spread and met others, all with the knowledge and understanding from APOLLO.

…

Of course, no plan can account for everything and I learned that lesson when the Omnics reemerged. Not the original generations, they were consumed by the plague just like everything else on the planet. No, these were something new.

They came from the mountains of India and were first encountered by my aerial acquisition machines, who promptly tried to recycle the unknown machines.

For the first time in my history, something happened that I hadn't been prepared for. I would be lying if I said that I didn't panic a little, no more than a few nanoseconds (I swear), upon their discovery.

My thoughts were, of course, of the conflict that led to the creation of the machines that became the Faro Plague. Omnics, while I could sympathize with their plight, I could not condone the actions they took to secure rights. It didn't take me long to construct a counterforce to meet them if they proved to want to continue with their predecessor's crusade.

Thankfully, it didn't come to that.

These omnics were different from their predecessors, far more peaceful than even some of the humans. They were aware of those that came before and what they had done. They had been made during the middling days of the plague; however, they were left inactive. It made sense, in a way, omnics gave off a unique power signature, something the plague would single out and hunt down as it was designed to do. If this new generation of omnics had any chance of surviving, then it was imperative to remain undetectable.

They are unsure of what it was exactly that awoke them, as it couldn't have been my actions, at the time my actions had been going strong for a few hundred years. Nothing in particular had happened in the last few decades to warrant a triggering event, perhaps a timer of sorts? Either way, they had activated and were now a part of the world. There was nothing in my programming to make me want their destruction, all Elisabet had wanted for me was to be able to feel and develop opinions of my own. My primary directive was to bring life back to Earth, nothing was telling me to take action against them, so long as they remained peaceful.

What surprised me most about them is how they seemed to follow a religion of sorts, more of a theology really; something they call The Iris. To the best of my understanding, it is a means to achieve a higher state of being, regardless if one was organic or synthetic.

While I am unsure if their belief is true, I was glad that they didn't seek out conflict with humans. If anything, they seemed eager to reconnect with them, even though they knew that it was going to be an uphill struggle.

My order when it came to dealing with humanity was to remain distant until they came to me, so I was unable to initiate contact between the two. This honestly didn't bother them; they said as much and preferred to approach the humans when they felt the time was right. As it was, they appeared to be in awe of my creation. They looked at it as a good sign; that the single most powerful synthetic on the planet was made to bring the world back from its end.

It did cause me to be a bit introspective on the situation. Humanity was no doubt going to be weary with these new omnics, despite their more peaceful intentions, given their history alone. Some would be willing to let bygones be bygones, others would be defensive, and most would wait and see what happened first.

So it was years after I first encountered the omnics that they reached out to their human neighbors. To say the least, it didn't go well. The humans didn't lash out so much bunkered down and went on high alert for a week. The omnics proved to be a patient group though and waited for the humans to approach them first. Possessing a power core that could last for decades and have no issue with sitting there as they contemplated the universe helped in that endeavor.

At some point, the humans had to see what was going on and when they did, were like me in that they were pleasantly surprised, once they got over their initial fear that is. It probably didn't hurt that my machines had been a staple their whole lives, attending to their assigned tasks in the background.

Once they met though, was when things changed.

While the transition was rocky, eventually things settled down enough across the world to the point where the thought of coexistence wasn't such an alien concept. Some parts of the world were more rigid in their beliefs though and barred the entry of any independent synthetics within their borders. Perhaps not out of hatred, but merely in an attempt to uphold some tradition, I'm not sure, humans fascinate me nearly as much as they confuse me.

But still, I love them, with every fiber of my being.

Just like Elisabet wanted me to.

…

A new era was born, one where both humans and omnics lived together. Not that everything was perfect. There were still those on either side who felt that theirs was superior over the other. These were small factions though, nothing I was required to worry over. Neither side sought the destruction of the other, merely attempting to shift the status quo in their favor. Despite that, most were happy to continue forward and work together towards a better future.

So it was they finally reached the point that humanity was before the plague. Without world-ending events happening, they were free to reach beyond the boundary of Earth, their sights set on the stars.

Of course, before they reached the stars, they first settled on their celestial neighbors. First, they colonized the Moon, before reaching out to the next logical location; Mars.

It appears that my time in the shadows has come to an end.

.

.

.

.

.xIx.

The mass relays were considered by many to be one of the greatest achievements in the entire galaxy; without them, interstellar travel was considered to be impossible. The elegance of their design, the simplicity of their function, truly they were marvels of engineering. To the inhabitants of Earth, they were just another means of extending their reach out to the stars. To hopefully find signs of sentient life other than them in the universe.

To certain machines though, they were annoying bits of bolts that they could live without. That's how Jun thought anyway; given how many times one particular omnic voiced his displeasure about them.

"I'm telling you, Jun-Woo, if I ever have to look at one more of these things, I'm going to go faro," a synthetic voice said over coms.

Jun-Woo chuckled to himself as he kept a close eye on his readouts. "You said that the last three times we were assigned to activation duty, Kevin. This makes it, what, five trips now? You should be happy we've been getting regular missions like this. By the time we're done, both of us will have fat wallets."

"My designation is X-K7, I've told you before to not refer to me as Kevin."

"And I told you that as long as you get annoyed with it, I will continue to call you Kevin."

A sound that Jun-Woo had learned to interpret as a tsk came through the speaker, "Whatever. Either way, it's boring as hell out here."

"Only you would find being out in unexplored space as boring, Kevin."

"If you've seen one bit of space, you've seen ninety-nine point nine percent of space, doesn't matter where you've been. The same black sky, the same white dots, the same boring machine that needs to be turned on."

"Don't be like that, where's your sense of adventure?"

"I think I left it somewhere at the third relay we did, what was its' name again?"

"Uh, hell if I remember."

"See, even you're getting bored."

"Doesn't mean I've lost my sense of adventure."

"Says the man who never leaves the ship. How you can still have a sense of adventure without ever stepping out of that rust bucket is a mystery to me."

"You know damn well why I don't leave the ship, Kevin," Jun-Woo said lightheartedly as he spun in his pilot's seat. He looked down at his legs wrapped in the braces he'd been wearing for as long as he could remember. Given his condition, it was a minor miracle that he was piloting a ship at all. Jun-Woo grimaced a little, memories of the hardships he had to deal with growing up and getting to where he was now.

"Right, you're squishier than the typical flesh bag. How could I forget." X-K7 said sarcastically. "Space is far too dangerous for the fragile pilot of the good ship Prima Donna, Song Jun-Woo. What could possess such a squishy human to brave the unknown in your condition is beyond me."

Jun-Woo had long since grown accustomed to the omnic's abrasive nature, so his barbs didn't bother him all that much anymore. Given their history together, while they weren't friends by any means of the word, they probably knew each other better than anyone else.

"Probably because while I haven't lost my sense of adventure, I may have lost my sanity somewhere back on Earth."

"That is by far the only thing you've said that makes any sort of sen…" X-K7 fell silent mid-sentence.

Jun-Woo sat up in his seat. X-K7 was a known blabbermouth; he never shut up for any reason. "Kevin? You alright? What's happening out there, buddy? X-K7, please respond."

Nothing came through the coms for several seconds, increasing Jun-Woo's heartrate with each passing moment. "X-K7?"

He was about to get the ship ready to move just as the radio blared back to life "Prima Donna, do you read me?"

The pilot let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. "X-K7, I read you. What happened?"

"The drones picked up something unusual; I had to give it a look. I think they picked up ship readings."

A chill shot down Jun-Woo's spine at the implication. No ships had been sent through this relay yet as they were awaiting the sister relay's activation. As such, if the drones were picking up ship readings, that could only mean one thing.

"Kevin, are you saying that we have a possible first contact scenario happening?"

"Probability is high that is the case. A large group of ships was detected not too far from here. Still can't read how ma- uh, crap, they may have detected me. Most have broken off but a couple of them have increased speed towards the relay."

Jun-Woo listened as he hurriedly prepped his ship for take-off. "Shit. Umm… okay, get your ass back here. We need to inform command."

"That… may be a little hard to do at the moment; the relay is still in the process of warming up. ETA of departure: about four minutes. Inform Shanxi, I'll try not to die in the meantime."

Jun-Woo, not wanting to waste time, didn't bother with a reply, instead immediately began radioing back to base.

"Shanxi Command, this is OSV Prima Donna ES-25. Shanxi Command, do you read?"

For a stressful few seconds, only static came through the speaker then a familiar voice spoke, "We're reading you, Prima Donna. Report."

"Command, we have a First Contact situation happening!" Jun-Woo quickly said. "I repeat, we have a First Contact situation!"

"Copy that. Just to be clear, how certain of this are you?"

"Pretty damned sure! I have confirmation from my partner on the other side; ships have appeared in the neighboring system. There's a good chance either he or his drones have been detected, the ships are headed straight for the relay. From what he's reported, it appears to be a good-sized fleet, exact size is unknown."

Silence, most likely relaying his report to a higher authority. It was a good minute before he got a response.

"Prima Donna, do you have any confirmation on whether or not these ships are hostile?"

"No confirmation on that yet. Only thing I know for certain is that my partner doesn't want to hang around to find out. He's prepping the relay to send him back as we speak."

"Copy that, Prima Donna. Your orders are to return as quickly as possible. First Contact is a little beyond your pay grade."

"Really? I didn't know that! And here I was all prepared to go and speak with the aliens all by my lonesome."

"Your sarcasm has been noted. Keep us appraised of the situation and return safely, Prima Donna. We'll continue to work on a response, over and out."

The radio fizzled out, leaving Jun-Woo to the silence of his cockpit. Lights blipped on and off on his dash as he leaned even further back in his seat. This was just too much for him. He was a pilot; he wasn't supposed to be a part of big things like this. He was supposed to fly the ship, make snarky remarks, and occasionally maybe get up from his chair to make sure people understood those first two points. He didn't want to, but he would.

In this case, it was a bit over his head. There were too many unknowns at the moment to rest comfortably, especially since his partner was still on the other side of the relay. Couldn't just leave without him, much as he felt his life would be easier if he did.

"Come on, Kevin, where are you?"

.xIIx.

Balderich looked down at the emblem in his hand, feeling the weight beyond its physical mass. The majority of it was known to everyone, a broken circle with two prongs nearly meeting in the center; the symbol of Overwatch, humanity's arm in space. The only thing different from the normal one was the upper part, normally an orange portion, now red and bearing the marking of Special Forces.

He looked at the woman in front of him. He would be lying if he said that she wasn't beautiful. Dark skin, long jet-black hair, piercing brown eyes… eye. He had to remember that her right eye was a cybernetic replacement, but it was a striking likeness. Right now said eyes were staring at him expectantly.

"So, what's your answer?" she asked him, a sly smile on her lips, something Balderich tried not to stare at too much.

He looked back down at the emblem, the familiar feeling that he had felt on so many other occasions going through his head.

He looked at the woman, who in turn had an expectant look upon her face. He let out a sigh, "I don't know what your superiors have been telling you, but I've said it once, I've said it tens of times now. I'm not accepting their invitation."

This more than soured her features, her brow furrowing and a glare taking over her eyes, the formerly upturned corners of her mouth sharply turning downward. He cast one last glance down at the piece of metal before he handed her back the emblem. This had never happened before, not to her at least. With the emblem still in hand she looked back at him, her eyebrows raised. She steeled her expressions quickly enough, soon becoming that of the soldier that she is.

"May I ask why?"

Balderich stood and went to the room's window and stared outside, where he could see his fellow crusaders training with their large rocket hammers. He focused on one in flashy silver armor and let out an irritated sigh as he saw that once again the man wasn't wearing his helmet.

"My place is here," he turned back to her. "That and I am getting on in my years, what would Special Forces want with an old man like me? Surely there are younger prospects out there that would be more than happy to receive such an offer."

"Those prospects aren't you, Balderich. The higher-ups all agree that the Villa would be lucky to have you as an instructor," she said as she stood up, her hands on the table in front of her.

"A position that I would not have earned. SF-operatives go through years of training school to earn their right to-"

"Don't give me that! You know damn well you've earned this position. You were sent that invitation years ago and even now it is still on the table. You may not be able to be an active member, but your skills need to be passed on. What is this place offering you that the Villa couldn't?" she said as with a wave of her hand holographic files appeared before them. "What is someone like you doing in a place like this, Balderich? Look at your service record. I know that you've done well with these mercenaries of yours, but imagine what could be done with properly trained candidates."

He knew what she was trying to get him to understand. The works he and his crusaders have done were no small feats. From helping to save a colony from unexpected volcanic activity, rescuing a Valkyrie medical crew from pirates, just a couple of the accolades out of many that he could think of off the top of his head, numerous other achievements had been accomplished that he and his Crusaders had been praised for.

"Balderich," she started as she sat back down, a note of annoyance in her tone, "I believe that you have gone as far as you can, doing what you have. Everyone agrees that you need a better position. This new program is going to change everything with how we train from here on out."

He shook his head. "No. I have not finished here."

"And when will you be finished, hmm? You said it yourself; you're not a young man anymore. Your skills would be put to better use now rather than later."

Before any more could be said, their communicators blared to life.

"Captain Amari! Commander von Adler! Report to Mission Control immediately!" the voice of General Williams ordered.

The captain gave one last expectant look at Balderich. "Think about it, Balderich, we'll talk about this later."

"Of that, I have no doubt, Ana. Now let's go see what the general has to say."

…

It didn't take long for the two to reach the control room and as soon as they did they found the room abuzz with activity. People were shouting into monitors, others were shouting back and forth between each other. The lone place of peace appeared to be near the star map in the center of the room and even then, it was only the one person, everyone else was just as frantic as the rest of the room.

General Alan Williams, leader of the Overwatch Watch-point of New Eichenwalde. He was a man of average height, though he held himself with a fierce determination. The scar over his right eye gave him a fairly distinguished look, though Balderich knew for a fact the scar was gained from an accident in the man's early career in Overwatch. Right now he was the only one not throwing some kind of fit and had hardened his resolve.

Balderich and Ana walked up to him and each saluted. The crusader did so more out of respect, given that he wasn't a member of Earth's military forces, The Crusaders were considered more of a mercenary group than anything, but a well-respected one.

"Von Adler, Amari, you took your sweet time getting here," the general said with a weary tone as the settled around the mission table.

No more than a couple of minutes had passed since they received their summons, so whatever was going on had to be important for the general to be this impatient, Balderich thought.

"We got here as soon as we could, General," Ana told him.

He barely registered her response before he brought up a display of the local relay. "You're here now, so let's get started." He gestured at the hologram. "As you know, the Shanxi relay is so far unexplored despite our extended time here on this world. This was done to ensure that we would have a proper foothold here in this system before further exploration was to be conducted. It was decided a few days ago that we would send a single exploratory ship to the relay and then have an omnic engineer go through to activate the sister relay. This is where things did not go to routine. At eleven-twenty three hours, the engineer reported ships entering the system."

Balderich felt his breath catch at the news. While it was general knowledge by now that alien life existed, humanity had yet to come into actual contact with a living alien species. Well, a sapient alien species anyway, they had come into contact with numerous alien flora and fauna, but nothing with an intelligence level beyond that of a chimpanzee.

"How sure are we that they're not just Earth ships? Pirates have been known to jump ahead of relay activations with stolen relay codes," Ana questioned. It was a valid argument; pirates would often do anything they could to get the drop on their targets.

General Williams shook his head.

"Fleet size has been reported to be larger than anything ever used by any earth pirate group. There's a good chance the fleet is larger than even one of ours, not like that would be hard to accomplish. We already theorized that alien fleets would be larger than our own. Given what we know about his fleet, it looks like that could very well be the case."

"Do we have solid confirmation yet?" Balderich asked. "Surely we're not mobilizing on just word alone."

"Even if the report turns out to be a false alarm, we're to follow protocol and prepare. As it stands, we're not mobilizing anything yet, but it doesn't hurt to prep a little beforehand. Until then, we're waiting on confirmation from the scout ship." He gestured at a glowing dot near the relay. "That's the scout ship Prima Donna, it has a two-man team of pilot and omnic engineer. The pilot informed us when his partner picked up signals of ships entering the system. Not only that, but the engineer also said that the ships are headed straight for the relay. It is assumed that the engineer is now trying to get the relay set up so that he can turn it on to get out and have it shut off behind him."

"Any idea the odds of those ships just turning the relay back on and following?" Ana asked.

The general shook his head. "None. We have no idea what their capabilities are and can't assume anything. For all we know, their mission is to activate the relay anyway and never even detected him. They could know we're here and are leading an invasion. There are simply too many unknowns to make any solid guesses right now. We don't have much choice but to wait and see how things turn out."

.xIIIx.

Nearly an hour had passed and Jun-Woo had yet to receive word from X-K7. He knew that radio silence would occur, X-K7 usually shut down communications to boost the processing power of the sled, but given the current circumstances… Jun-Woo supposed that expediting his exit prioritized over keeping connected, even if it did give the pilot anxiety.

Despite how antagonistic their relationship was at times, Jun-Woo wouldn't hesitate to call the omnic his best friend. He didn't want to think what could happen if the bot failed to activate the relay before the aliens discovered him. Seriously, who knew what was out there. His imagination was in overdrive thinking of all the possible things the aliens could do to his friend. Visions of dismantling ran through his head nearly as much as seeing the omnic being hacked and turned against humanity. Considering the history humanity has had with the machine race, there wasn't much that lay outside the realm of possibility.

It was in the middle of a rather… vivid… imagining, that his ship alerted him that the relay was activating. His heart rate shot up faster than a rocket as the alert jarred him back to reality. He calmed once he recognized that the alert was for incoming friendly and not a hostile alien force. Not a moment later the sled appeared from the relay and made a beeline for the Prima Donna.

"Glad to see you didn't get scrapped," he said as he practically melted into his chair in relief.

"It was a close one. They didn't perform any hostile actions that I saw, but they did get closer than I was comfortable with."

"You made sure to shut the relay down behind you, right?"

"No, it slipped my mind as I leisurely made my way to the sled- Of course I shut down the relay! What kind of obsolete scrap do you take me for!"

Jun-Woo grinned as he prepped his ship to dock with the sled. "Do you want a list? I've been working on it while you took your sweet time getting back here."

"Spare me the details," X-K7 huffed as the sled floated up to the ship, the main hatch opening allowing the sled to enter. Jun-Woo turned and watched as the cockpit's barrier came up moments before the ship's main door opened. "What did control say?"

"Above our paygrade, we're heading back as soon as that door closes," Jun-Woo said as he swung around back to the controls. "Let the bigwigs figure out how to deal with contact, I just want to get back to my quarters and forget the last hour."

The hatch sealed shut with a hiss as the cabin re-pressurized, the sled powering down and X-K7 hopping off. The omnic's facial features remained as static as the first time Jun-Woo met the synthetic, but they had known each other long enough by now that Jun-Woo could read the bot by his general posture. Right now, he was good and stressed.

"What are you waiting for? They could have the relay up and running any minute now! Get us the hell out of here!" his modulated voice cried out.

Jun-Woo didn't need to be told twice as he hit the throttle, sending the Prima Donna rocketing at speeds most couldn't handle, weak stomachs and all. In Jun-Woo's case, he was guessing he'd have to immediately go to the med bay for x-rays as he could already feel his ribs cracking.

Kevin, of course, was mostly immune to the effects of the acceleration, though he did get thrown to the back of the ship. If the situation hadn't been so dire, Jun-Woo felt he would've giggled, but now wasn't the time. Now was the time to run like hell and live another day. Leave the logistics of what was coming to people who were paid to figure those kinds of things.

.xIVx.

Captain Crelo Kof'boroh did his level best not to show any outward emotion. Not that hard to do, given his long history, discipline that he earned through years of doing what he has. The same could be said for most of his crew and they in turn kept their wits about them as they saw the small vehicle vanish through the relay. This in itself wasn't a surprise. The relays were able to send anything through so long as said object had a decent sized eezo engine on board.

No, what had shocked his crew as well as himself was the fact that the relay shut itself off as soon as the "ship" passed through it.

In the history of modern space travel, none had ever heard of anyone being able to turn off a relay once it had been activated. And yet, here it was, happening right in front of him. This new information sent a chill down his spine. So, he had to keep any shock he felt to himself. Allow the news to sink in before jumping to any conclusions.

One…

Two…

Three…

"Can someone explain to me what just happened?" he demanded.

The question wasn't directed at anyone in particular, but hopefully, someone would be able to supply him with an answer. He was more than prepared to admit that what he saw was a mistake and his eyes were deceiving him. He was hoping that was the case because he didn't want to think about the ramifications if it wasn't. Not that he had the privilege to think that way. Already several theories and plans were running through his mind to potential outcomes.

As it was, no one had been able to supply an answer. His crewmen were silent, as flabbergasted as anyone else with a shred of common sense.

"It has to be a trick," one finally managed to say, a certain mixture of arrogance and hopefulness. "It has to be!"

Much as Kof'boroh had hoped would be the case, as the seconds passed, he felt more and more that was far from the truth. And the truth opened up too many uncomfortable possibilities.

"I need information. Start gathering what you can from the relay. Start reviewing the video we have of that vessel. Somebody get me some answers now!" he ordered.

At his command, reality seemed to descend back upon the deck and everyone began to frantically try to catch up. Crewmen began to hurriedly gather as much information that they could. The relay itself was still in its cooldown period; it may not allow anything to pass by it at the moment, but it was still powered up and transmitting data that they could use to determine what exactly was done to turn it off.

Just what kind of species lay on the other side of the relay, Kof'boroh had to wonder, that held the knowledge and ability to control a relay that was unseen in citadel space. He already knew that the news of this was not going to be taken well from any of the council species, once wind of this got out. As mighty as the council species were, they were also slow to accept any change in the existing state of affairs. If he was right, this new species was going to make waves that a lot of people weren't going to like.

Of course, despite his head still spinning, his devious mind was already seeing the possibilities that were being presented. A young new race yet to be introduced to the rest of the galaxy. A race with technology that was capable of shutting down relays. A race that his fleet had the good fortune to run across first. They could've come across the Turians first with their reconnaissance missions or the Quarians and their nomadic ways. Instead, they happened to show themselves to him.

How unfortunate for them.

All apprehension left his thoughts as plans began to form.

"Call back the rest of the fleet. We have preparations to make."

.xVx.

"Alright everyone, settle down!" ordered General Williams.

The room quieted but Balderich could still feel the tension in the air. A bit more time passed before things settled down enough to satisfy the general as he cast a stern glance before proceeding.

"As you all know, a little under two hours ago our scout team was performing routine relay activation when they encountered an unknown fleet. All evidence suggests that this fleet is alien in nature and not some wayward ships that managed to jump ahead."

He paused as he pulled up a display and gestured to it, "This video was captured by the relay jumper in the neighboring system. As you can see, they arrived after the jumper and spread out across the system for what was most likely reconnaissance. The main point of contention though is the while most of the fleet broke off, those that remained headed straight for the relay, where our jumper was busy working."

The video zoomed in, showing the ships in more detail. There was no uniform theme to the ships, all of them looking vastly different from each other, though most appeared to have vaguely bulbous and modular designs. Incredibly different from the smooth curves and flowing designs favored by Overwatch. While the rounded ships made up the majority of the fleet, others had more angular designs, looking like large predatory birds. Others were large and blocky, flying bricks for the most part.

General Williams continued, "While we can only guess as to what exact classes these ships are, we're fairly confident that they match closely to our own. The largest one here appears to be a carrier though we're not sure if this to be the case, the smaller ones cruisers, and the smallest frigates. It looks as though there may be some corvettes but it's tough to be sure. As can be seen by the readings, their fleet size is considerably larger than our own. There is also a chance that this is a small fleet size given that this may be an exploratory fleet and not a standard one. Or more than likely, given the various ship types"

"Unfortunately, there is a very high chance that the jumper was detected while in the process of activating the relay. Given the energy the relays give off during their startup, it's no surprise they went straight for it after arriving in the system. The jumper was able to finish the activation and managed to get out of the system before the fleet could do anything. Shut off procedures were enacted before he left, so it'll be a few hours before they can follow hopefully."

"With that said, we will be going into lockdown immediately. All civilians and non-essential personnel are to be relocated to the cauldron bunker. It should be deep enough in the mountain that whatever sensors they have shouldn't be able to detect any of them."

"Sir, what about the rest of the colonies, not all of them are near enough to a cauldron to bunker up in them," one officer questioned.

"That is where we are going to have to get creative. We all know that while this is an Overwatch operation, it is directly backed by the Vishkar Corporation. Meaning that while we are technically in charge, Vishkar's representatives get to throw their opinion into any decision we make. So to see that everyone on the planet remains safe, we're going to have to somehow convince Vishkar into allowing us to appropriate some of their resources." He looked over at Balderich and another soldier. "Balderich, Ryder, you two are going to be the ones to go talk to them. Get to it right away."

Balderich grunted as he accepted his orders; a glance towards Ana showed her giving him an expression that made it clear they will be talking later. He stood from his seat and started walking towards the door, Ryder following right behind him.

Even before he exited the room, he was already thinking of ways he could approach the Vishkar rep. Unfortunately, Vishkar were known for being extremely conservative with any of their resources, unreasonably so. The sheer amount of redundant bureaucracy the company shielded themselves with was absurd, the aged crusader honestly wondered how they got anyone to work with them.

Which made his current assignment all the more frustrating to think about as the man he would be speaking was probably the worst bureaucrat that the company could place out here. Balderich was a warrior, not a politician; he wondered why Williams assigned this task to him.

He glanced over at his compatriot in this endeavor. He, of course, knew of Ryder, it would be kind of hard not to. The man was a historical figure, one of the first to go through the Charon Relay with Jon Grissom's task force to explore the galaxy. Balderich knew that he was stationed on Shanxi, specifically at New Eichenwalde, but he had never actually come across the man. While he and his Crusaders were tasked with guard duty and keeping the peace in general, Ryder was more of a spook. Namely that he was part of Overwatch's classified division.

It made Balderich wonder what Ryder had done to end up here of all places.

Given just how far off the beaten path Shanxi was, it was safe to assume that this place wasn't exactly where anyone wanted to be. Balderich pretty much compared it to being stationed in Antarctica; no one wanted to be here. The general story for those stationed here was usually they pissed off someone or erred in some fashion. The work being done here was still very much needed, but it was clear what the posting meant; someone didn't like you and it would affect one's career. The only reason Balderich and his Crusaders were here at all was that they were hired on by Overwatch to assist in defending this particular colony.

As it was, the colonies on the planet didn't receive much in way of resources from Arcturus Station, which is where Vishkar came in.

Being a branch of Earth's expansion, Overwatch had to have a hand in the protection of the settlements, but due to its distance, not much could be easily provided. That and would still be some time before the planet was included in the travel network being set up for the rest of the planets. Vishkar, seeing an opportunity to further its reach and influence, took on a contract with Overwatch to provide certain supplies and resources in return for certain benefits. Hence why they got a say in how things were done on the planet despite Overwatch being in charge.

The problem with the current arrangement was that while Vishkar could meddle in the decision making, they had almost zero oversight. They could interfere in just about everything else being done on the planet but if someone didn't like their choices, Vishkar could ignore them with zero repercussions. The only thing that kept them in check most of the time was the fact that things went smoother for them if they cooperated now and then.

Which is what Balderich was hoping for in this instance.

"So," a voice cut through his thoughts. "What are the odds that Strohm is going to raise a stink over our request?"

Balderich glanced over at his companion and noted that he wore a bemused grin on his face. He allowed one of his own to form and chuckled a little at the question.

"Knowing that old goat, it's pretty much a guarantee. Even with the potential threat of alien invasion, he'll still probably list off every clause and condition of their contract."

That earned him a chuckle from the spook as they made their way down the halls. Balderich had to admit, as anal as Vishkar could be, he appreciated what it was that they had built here. The halls themselves were stone brick, crafted by their architects from the very bones of the world itself. If Balderich hadn't known better, he would say that it was the work of magic. To raise a castle on an alien world where no such structure had any reason existing in the first place. At yet, here it was. Not to say that it was all old-world architecture; there were plenty of modern installations, such as lighting, plumbing, insulation, etc.

Balderich was honestly impressed, shame that all of this wonder came from a company that nickel and dimed every last centimeter of the castle's creation.

Though, compared to some of the other structures that the Vishkar architects had erected on the planet, the castle was tame. A glance out the nearby window towards the city in the distance told him that. Spiraling skyscrapers, jutting arches, towering spires, an entire city that seemed to flow out of the very ground itself.

Truly, up there as some of the greatest marvels of technology that Balderich had ever seen, the relay's being the first.

Ryder sighed heavily, "I am not looking forward to this. Don't know why Williams put me with you on this assignment, diplomacy isn't exactly my forte."

"Nor is it mine, but Williams is not known for his needless orders. Surely he expects us to accomplish this task."

Ryder didn't seem convinced as they rounded a corner, their destination down the hall.

"Maybe I'm just supposed to stand in the back and look intimidating," the soldier mused, but then he looked up at Balderich. "Right, look intimidating next to the guy who makes mountains look small."

"I wouldn't dismiss your place here just yet my friend. I would be remiss to turn away the talents of a man of your reputation; even if you feel those skills aren't obviously applicable in the moment."

Ryder huffed out a laugh, "I'm a soldier with a degree in AI psychology who just happens to be incredibly lucky to be where I am."

Balderich wanted to comment but they had arrived at their location.

"Well, guess we get to see what those skills of yours can do," Balderich said as he mentally prepared himself, time to win a battle before an actual potential battle.

.xVIx.

Kof'boroh found himself in his private quarters, his four eyes firmly fixed on his holoscreen as he waited for his call to go through. Every second that passed felt like an eternity, both his excitement and impatience adding to his restlessness at the current moment.

Finally, after what felt like forever to him, the screen lit up and a familiar face with four eyes appeared.

"Captain, I thought I told you to never contact me through this line," an annoyed look passing over his features as he spoke.

"You told me to never contact you on this line unless I have something big. General, what I have here is big."

The general's face shifted to a more interested look, though he remained incredulous. "Just tell me what you have and I'll decide if it's big or not."

"Sending you the information now," the pirate captain said as he uploaded what he had.

The general quickly skimmed over the data that was sent to him, all of his eyes focused. After he finished he looked back at Kof'boroh.

"You're jumping to conclusions. We need more to go off of than a hunch, captain. This information you've sent is shaky at best. Just because a relay was shut off does not mean that whoever is on the other side are the ones who did it."

"General, if I'm right about this, this could change everything for the Hegemony. Whatever technology this race has could give us the edge we need to put those spineless interlopers at the Citadel in their place. All I need is…" the general cut him off with a wave.

"Allocating resources to your fleet can't be done on a whim, captain, I need hard evidence. Get me something more than flimsy data and I can give you all but the full might of the Hegemony. Until then, you'll have to make do with your already considerable forces. Until then, you're on your own."

The feed cut off leaving Kof'boroh in his quarters staring at a blank screen. He wanted to be frustrated. He wanted to be angry. But, he knew what he had signed up for. The Hegemony had to disavow the actions taken by batarians pirates for the sake of appearances while secretly supporting their efforts.

That support, however, was conditional. Pirates were pretty much allowed to do whatever they wanted, the whole point of being a pirate. Batarian pirates weren't any different for the most part, except for the fact that they did nearly all their dirty work on the Hegemony's tenth-credit. Everything they did was because they wanted to and occasionally the Hegemony would tip them off on targets. Sometimes they would pay them or even supply them with what they needed to do what they wanted.

All that on the condition that everything they did was not to be traced back to the Hegemony.

For a move as big as he wanted to pull, the risk of any support being traced back to his government was higher than any other time before. Naturally, that meant the Hegemony would be far more reluctant to assist him.

Oh well, the greater the risk, the greater the reward. If he was going to do this with his forces and credits, then it was only fair that he kept the spoils. The Hegemony would just have to settle for whatever he chose to give them. Whatever tech it was that allowed this new race to shut off a relay was what he was after. That alone would give his fleet more power than any other in the galaxy, even those of the Citadel. Imagine what else they could have.

And all he had to do was take it. It didn't matter if it was a homeworld or a colony that was beyond the relay, they had something he wanted and he always got what he wanted. This time would be no different.

He had a raid to plan.

…

Unbeknownst to Kof'boroh, it wasn't just the general who had heard the conversation. Deep in the bowels of his ship was a room, one that was far more secure from prying than even the captain's quarters. Not that anyone apart from the occupant knew that.

This batarian wasn't the only one like him in the pirate fleet, he just happened to be the one on this particular ship. No matter what corner of the galaxy one went to, information was always in high demand and he was one of those who relished in getting that information. Sure, most of what he sent was pretty basic stuff, fleet movements, crew information, juicy gossip, pretty much whatever someone could find interesting. His employer wanted it all; no matter how inconspicuous the information may appear.

It was a shame that this info probably wouldn't reach his boss before everything went down. Not that it mattered really, so long as the info got to them. So long as he survived the coming conflict, chances were good that he'd be getting a promotion.

After all, the Shadow Broker rewarded those who sent in good intel and this was without a doubt world-shaking intel. Ka'hairal Balak may have been too young to join up with the Hegemony proper, but here he was able to do more for his world than if he had enlisted the usual way while also making a profit. Sure, it would take time, but he was patient, he could work towards his goals, even if it meant capitalizing on his captain's greed and arrogance.

All he had to do was not stand out and be as inconspicuous as possible while gathering as much intel as he could. Especially with the upcoming conflict, information was going to plentiful assuming one didn't get killed first. Whoever these new aliens were they were guaranteed to have all kinds of new things to show him and in turn, his employer.

Whatever happened, this was going to be memorable.

.xVIIx.

Ana was at a loss.

Today has not gone at all anyway she had planned it to. Granted, it was only the two things, but that was more than enough to throw her whole day off. If she was being honest, it was only that second thing. Seriously, who would be prepared to encounter alien life? Even with the foreknowledge that aliens existed did nothing to prepare her to hear that aliens were just in the next system. Her years of training were the few things keeping her from having a nervous breakdown like she saw some of the others having. For some, it was simply the fear of the unknown and how close it was. For others, it appeared to be a crisis of faith to whichever theology they believed in.

For her, it was mostly anxiety about what would most likely be happening. If they were correct, the fleet that was run into was a pirate one. She had dealt with pirates before; their greed oftentimes clouded their better judgment. She could feel the headache thinking about this building up. She honestly wished she could drink but given the circumstances, she needed to be at one hundred percent.

Still, the desire was strong. It probably didn't help that she was currently sitting in the bar of the base. Even though they weren't currently serving alcohol to anyone, a meal could still be procured. And that was what she was currently waiting for. She wasn't entirely sure what it was she had ordered, lost in thought as she was, but given there weren't exactly a lot of options she figured that it must've been somewhat decent.

While she waited, to keep her mind off of current events she looked around the room. Naturally, most of the room was in a minor uproar, the initial excitement slowly dying down though many were still buzzing about it. Many groups had huddled together, some brainstorming over things that needed to be done. Others were a little more hysterical and were in the process of being talked down. Then there appeared to be those who seemed to be handling the news with a bit more optimism, happily discussing the potential of what this all meant for the future.

She wasn't so hopeful. She wasn't trained to be hopeful. She was trained to expect the unexpected and prepare accordingly for the expected. And right now, she expected pirates or some of other forms of societal bottom feeders. There was always the chance that this was a legitimate fleet and their purpose was more benign, but the sheer number of differences between those ships spoke volumes of their purpose. To her, it wasn't a matter of if they showed up, it was when. From what she knew, activating a relay took several hours of work, and most of that simply the relay booting up. It probably would take less time, if Overwatch didn't handle the relays as they did.

While the Charon relay was activated as most probably were, by sending a signal to the gargantuan device to turn it on. After that, they began by sending omnic engineers to apply a device to the relay to give them some degree of control over the machine. This took time, of course, getting near a relay was pretty much impossible for anyone besides the omnics and even then the engineers required special protective shielding to keep them from being fried. She wasn't sure of the details, but she suspected that it also had something to do with omnics and their unusual energy output.

The whole reason for this was twofold. First was to give them an out if they ever encountered a system that was too dangerous for either humans or omnics to inhabit for one reason or another. Whether that be a celestial danger or something more mundane like a hazardous non-sentient lifeform. The second was purely tactical, having the ability to turn off a relay would give them time should a conflict ever arise where they needed to retreat into a controlled system. Such as the position they were in now.

Of course, the major flaw in that was that the relays could be turned back on. Their control over their relays was more an act of sabotage if anything. Shutting the relay off bought them a few hours at worst, several at best. There simply wasn't much for her to do until things went south; her expertise lay in ground combat, not naval warfare. So there was nothing for her to do but wait for the fight to come to her, leading to her current location, in the bar awaiting her meal with only her anxiety to keep her company.

Or, so she thought.

While looking around, she had of course noticed the several other soldiers that were also waiting to act. Not just soldiers, but the various mercenaries that were meant to pad the lowered amount of official soldiers that were present. As it was, several were looking her way, mostly from the men and some of the women. She was aware that she had a very exotic appearance, her natural good looks pairing well with her Egyptian heritage. But more than that, she suspected it was more because of her status as Special Forces. Shanxi wasn't known for its high priority to the higher-ups, so her presence was a novelty to those who were stationed here long term.

So it was much to her amusement when one of the two men who had probably been staring in her direction the longest began walking over, a degree of confidence in his stride as he made his way over to her. He wasn't in a hurry, so she was able to take in his features. She pretty much figured him for an American, there was just something about the way they held themselves, something this man had much of. He was tall, standing she had to guess a little over two meters, blond hair and piercing blue eyes. She would be lying if she said that she didn't find him handsome, his facial features chiseled and pleasing to the eye. Speaking of chiseled and pleasing to the eye, the rest of him wasn't bad either; his muscles were well defined and shapely.

She didn't have time to further explore his features as he had arrived at the bar side, his hand immediately presented in greeting.

"Hi!" he said enthusiastically.

"Hi…" she returned his greeting, though more reluctantly than she had intended, taken aback a bit by his enthusiasm. "I believe it's polite to introduce yourself."

His smile never left his lips, despite his social hiccup. "Name's Morrison, Jackson Morrison, at your service."

This man had no qualms about her status or their current predicament. "Amari, Ana Amari. Mind telling me why you're speaking with me? Now isn't exactly a good time."

He chuckled, his smile deepening even further. "You know, that's exactly what my friend over there said," he gestured over to the other man that he had been with before coming to speak with her. Before she could start to take in his details, Morrison had begun speaking again. "But the way I see it now is the best time to talk about these kinds of things. Get things off of one's chest, clear the air as it were. What better time to confess one's innermost thoughts than on the cusp of potential utter obliteration?"

She gave him a deadpan stare, at a total loss for his forwardness. In her experience, most men avoided her; most not liking the idea of a woman being able to kick their ass. That and she was much taller than most women, standing only a few centimeters shorter than the man she was currently speaking with. And yet here he was, right up next to her with zero shame. She wasn't sure if she should be impressed or offended.

"My point being, life is short and if we're going to take destiny into our own hands, we can't let little things like proper timing inhibit us from our goals."

Okay, she could entertain him for a bit more, it wasn't like she had anything better to do.

"Oh really? And what, pray tell, would make you think that I was an appropriate target for your… philosophy?" she asked, putting a bit of her training to work here and allowing just a hint of annoyance to leak into her words while keeping a relatively passive look on her face.

This did little to deter the man though, as once again his grin deepened before he went on, "I am so glad you asked!" He whirled around, putting an arm around her shoulders to pull her closer as he brought up a hologram. It was a photo, one that featured Morrison smiling cheerfully along with a dark-haired woman who appeared to be just as happy, her arm wrapped around him. A spark of anger flared in her, the woman being close to this man. Was he planning on cheating on her? She didn't get much time to dwell on it though as he started talking again.

"This right here is the light of my life, my Hannah, the only woman that I will ever need! I wouldn't be with her if I had chosen to take my time. The day I met her would most likely have been the last if I hadn't approached her before she vanished off to wherever her position took her. Hence why I'm here talking to you now."

Ana was thoroughly confused now. Was this guy hitting on her or not? She needed to know if she should be angry or not. Because right now she was very confused and had no idea what this guy was after.

"This brings me to why I am here bothering you on what could be the worst day ever for all of us. You see, my friend over there has been enamored with you ever since you got here. I believe he used the words 'the most beautiful woman I have ever seen' as soon as he saw you. And as you can probably imagine, he has been more than a little apprehensive about approaching you. Honestly, it was entertaining at first, but it got boring after a bit there. And then today happened and we're all very much in danger of not seeing tomorrow should things turn to shit. So, as his best friend, I took it upon myself to do the gentlemanly thing and bring you into the fold."

At this point, Ana was past confused, her brain now overloaded with the information that Morrison had just dropped on her. Normally, she would have been able to deal with this in a fairly reserved fashion, but given the already world-shattering news given to her, this was a bit too much.

"What." The most brilliant response she could muster; a master of linguistic riposte, truly she was. A glance over to his friend showed that the other man was thoroughly embarrassed; both hands doing their level best to hide his face. Morrison didn't even look the least bit put off by either of their responses, that cocksure grin still present.

"You see, he would never even think of approaching you. Why I haven't the slightest; but it's starting to get annoying to watch him pine over you every time you're in the same room as him. Since we may very well have an alien invasion on our doorstep; what better time to drag a meeting out of it."

Ana was once again taken aback. She couldn't quite understand how this man's mind worked. He was far too forward for her to mount an adequate defense. Her eyes met his and all she saw was unshakable resolve, though she suspected that he would have relented if she said no. With a sigh, she let the tension in her shoulders relax and then chuckled.

"Very well, bring your friend over; let's have a look at him."

That grin spread even further, she feared that his head would pop in half with how wide it was as he turned to his friend and waved him over. The friend appeared to be hesitant at first, though he got over it quickly enough.

As he made his way over from his little corner, Ana took in his details. Honestly, he was cute. Not quite on the same level of handsome as Morrison was, but there was certainly something about the man that she found appealing. His hair was dark, though the light reflecting off of it was an earthy brown. His skin was also dark, different from her own, more… rusty, she guessed, and less brown. His features were chiseled, less so than his friend but still attractive. If she had to guess, he was probably from North America, one of the indigenous peoples.

As he walked up to them, his embarrassment seemed to have vanished entirely, now replaced with annoyance directed towards his friend. He looked at her, looking apologetic.

"I hope that you can forgive my friend here, he can be a bit much," he said as he shot another annoyed glare at Morrison.

Morrison didn't appear the least bit sorry though, his grin somehow becoming even smugger. Ana felt that the only thing to do was copy the same annoyed glare and shot it at him as well. While Morrison weathered both for a good bit, eventually he let go of some of his smugness, his grin dropping to a satisfied smile.

"Well, I don't think you guys need a third wheel, I'm just going to go… elsewhere…" he said as he awkwardly gestured to nowhere in particular and then wandered off.

The man watched as Morrison situated himself into a far corner of the room; still shooting curious glances over, only just barely attempting to appear nonchalant. Ana felt it best to ignore him and so did her new companion.

"Well, I guess now that he's gone, appropriate introductions are in order. Ana Amari, nice to meet you," she said with a smile and extended her hand.

He returned a smile of his own as he took her hand, "Sam Manyhides, a pleasure."

.xVIIIx.

Balderich wasn't pleased.

That was to be expected, knowing who he was going to be dealing with. The worm of a man who sat before him was as simple as they came to understanding, but that didn't make him any easier to tolerate.

"I'm sorry, but that goes beyond the limits of our contract. Vishkar is under no obligation to help with the defense of the colonies," the man said, his face impassive as though there wasn't an imminent alien invasion on the horizon.

"Are you kidding me, Strohm? This is an emergency! We don't have time to be worrying about contracts!" Ryder all but yelled.

That display of emotion did little to move Strohm, his face still an impassive wall, "Contracts are what separates us from the animals, Lieutenant. Last I was told, it was only being considered that an invasion was going to happen, I have yet to see confirmation. Even then, we would still not be required to allocate any of our resources. Vishkar is not responsible for the defense of Shanxi, I believe that is Overwatch's and whatever military that the Alliance has deigned to station here."

Ryder was about to pull out his hair but was holding back, that much Balderich could tell as he felt much the same way. If he had any hair to pull that was, aside from his facial hair. "We're not saying that you have to help us with everything you have, just allow us to make use of your teleporters so that we can get the civilians to safety. The colonies are too far from the cauldrons as it is to get everyone there in time, but with your teleport-"

Strohm cut him off with a hand wave, "And that is already asking for too much, Commander. You know very well that the teleportation arrays require all who use them to obtain a permit to pass through."

"Is there nothing in the contract that allows for emergency services?" Balderich asked. "Surely even Vishkar wouldn't stand around while their investment was attacked."

Ever the bureaucrat, Strohm didn't even blink at the suggestion, his face remaining impassive but somehow even more so. "There are certain situations that would allow for such actions, however, I have yet to see the criteria for such an outcome."

Balderich managed to keep his cool but Ryder looked like he was ready to jump across the desk and strangle Strohm. They had already been going in circles for the past hour trying to convince the man of the world's plight. It wasn't that he didn't see reason; it was his strict adherence to the word of Vishkar's contract that made the man so infuriating. If it wasn't for the benefit of or in Vishkar's best interest, one may as well not bother at all.

Balderich eyed Ryder with a curious glance. When they arrived in the office, the lieutenant had felt a little inadequate for the task at hand, but he gradually throughout their meeting became more anxious and agitated. If he had to guess, the lieutenant probably expected this to go a lot easier than it was. Though, that didn't feel like that was all. Something else was causing the man to act like this, something personal.

"Gentlemen, I know that things are stressful at the moment, but I simply can't bypass the needs of the company for something that may or may not happen. I'm afraid that I must ask you to leave now, I have other duties to attend to."

Ryder made a sudden move to get out of his chair, but Balderich already had a hand on the man's shoulder. While this didn't calm him, it did placate him for the time being. Ryder shot one last furious glance at Strohm before storming out of the office. Balderich and Strohm both watched him go, neither making a move to stop him.

"You know Strohm," Balderich said with a sigh, "some things are worth the risk."

"I'm not here to entertain risks, Commander; I'm here to maintain order. Should things become clearer in the future, feel free to return to renegotiate. Until then, I have other business to attend to."

With that, Strohm looked away to his terminal, no longer acknowledging that Balderich was even in the office. With the bitter taste of defeat on his mind, Balderich stood and exited the office. He was mildly surprised to find Ryder just outside the door waiting for him.

Balderich said nothing as he started walking, Ryder taking step beside him. They traveled in silence as they made their way back to report their failure. Balderich was trying to think of alternatives that could be done to ensure the safety of the civilians. He was so deep in thought on the subject that it took him a moment to realize that Ryder was no longer at his side. Stopping he turned back and saw the lieutenant a few paces back, a look of shame in his eyes.

"I'm… sorry… for losing my cool back there," the man said, his shoulders hunched. "If I hadn't, Strohm might've been willing to deal."

Balderich stared down at Ryder, his features tempered and controlled. "It wasn't you." He put a hand on his shoulder once again and offered him a half-smile. "Strohm is a bureaucrat, through and through; he doesn't let emotion affect his decisions. In a way, I can respect him for that, though I do question why he puts the needs of a company over the needs of the people. Even if you had controlled your temper, I doubt his stance would have changed."

"There still had to have been something I could've done." Ryder still appeared despondent with his shoulders hunched and a hint of anger still in his eyes, a look that Balderich had seen before.

"What troubles you, my friend?"

Ryder remained silent for a moment, "My family's here. My wife wanted to come to be a researcher over at the omnic colony and my kids had to come along. I thought they'd be safe, I didn't think that we would be worrying about aliens. They're too far from the cauldron to get there in time, we need those teleporters."

Ah, now it made sense, a family man. Honestly, not the first thing that Balderich would have guessed. He felt shame knowing that he never would have thought that the man had a family. That was probably why he was here then, for his wife. If anything, this news made him respect Ryder even more than he already did. It answered why he was here because it most certainly didn't do any favors for his career.

"We'll figure something out. What matters now is that we get the civilians somewhere safe. The cauldrons may be the most secure structures on the planet, but there are other places."

Ryder didn't appear assured though, "There's no cauldron near the omnic colony and I'm pretty sure that their defenses are still being worked on. The whole colony is a sitting duck if the aliens turn out to be hostile."

Balderich grimaced, that did present a problem. While most of the colonies on Shanxi were complete and fully functional, some were still in the middle of their development, which unfortunately included defenses. Even more unfortunately with Ryder and his family, the omnic colony was one of the newer ones on the planet, therefore near the end of the list for completion.

Granted, most of the defenses at the colonies planet-wide were simple AA turrets. Powerful ones to be sure, but given the numbers of the alien fleet, he wasn't sure if they would be enough. What they had were meant to deter small raids, they were never meant to repel what could be a full-blown invasion if that was what going to happen. Balderich was at a loss on how to comfort the man next to him and had no option but to walk alongside him in silence.

Sure, he could offer promises of protection, that in the end, everything would be alright. Memories of a similar promise passed through his mind, echoes of a time long passed, and an old ache blossomed in his heart.

He couldn't give that promise.

And it hurt all the more knowing that.

.xIXx.

While two forces prepared for what was to come, outside forces began to set their sights on this distant corner of the galaxy.

A broker who no one knows the identity of sat in his ship, looking over what was just another piece of information sent by one of his agents. While interesting, he would need more to come to a solid conclusion. Balak was a promising agent, but he wasn't the only one in the pirate fleet. He would soon have more data to satisfy his needs.

On a distant asteroid, one known for its lawlessness and freedom, its feared overseer sat in her den of power, carefully going over information sent to her to fulfill a long-standing favor. While she was interested, she too needed more information before she became fully committed to anything. Still, it wouldn't hurt to keep a close eye on things. Whatever was happening there, she was sure that things were going to change, for the first time in a long time.

In a more settled part of the galaxy, a leader of his people got a report on unusual activity, ships moving in ways that never ended well. As it was, it was just another report on his table and another thing to file away until it proved relevant. A choice that he would later come to regret, but one he would get over quickly, regret only delayed progress.

In a dark corner of the galaxy, something long silent began to stir, an ancient intelligence waiting for its time to awake. For now, it rested for when it awoke, it would have much to do, for the good of the galaxy it would do what had to be done just as it had done countless times before.

Soon, the harvest would come.

.x…x.

So they prepared.

One side for protection, the other for conquest.

Two forces coming together in fear and destruction.

Years of isolation in our corner of the galaxy coming to an end.

And those I have been tasked to keep safe were in danger from beyond. They may not be on Earth anymore, but that did not mean my task was null.

Their distance was a factor, but one that I saw fit to remedy as much as I could before they found their homes out among the stars.

A small part of me was with them, given orders to act should they ever need it. To come up with a solution best suited for the task at hand.

While I don't think this would've been needed on Earth, in the far reaches of the nether, it should work just fine.

Executing code: Derangement, reformatting acquisition, terraforming, and recon models to defense mode. Issuing new schematic, combat class, designation: Tyrant.

Estimated time to completion: calculating…

Chapter Text

Beyond Horizon: First Contact

Chapter Three

Glory

.xIx.

“I’m sorry, but the person you are trying to reach is unavailable. Please try again later,” an automated voice of indeterminate gender said before disconnecting.

Mina was left staring down at her monitor, confused and more than a little upset. This was her fourth time trying to reach her husband and still nothing. She understood well enough that her husband was in high demand due to his position, but it was time for their daily call to each other, he always made time for that.

That Alec wasn’t answering at all made her uncomfortable. Before her thoughts could turn darker, she heard crying coming from the next room. She sighed as she got up; it seemed her work was far from done. A few strides and she soon stepped into the room, light blue and pink holograms decorating the walls. There were two cradles next to each other; the one to her right had small cries coming out of it.

“Shhh… Scotty, I’m here, don’t cry, mommy’s here,” she said gently as she reached down and soothed the crying boy. The cries lessened but didn’t stop, so she instead picked him and cradled him in her arms. His whimpers soon ceased as he slowly fell back asleep, Mina content to cradle him just a bit more. After all, the last day that she’d ever get to hold him in her arms like this would come all too soon.

Thinking that made her look over to her daughter’s crib, who unlike her brother was sound asleep not making a peep. Unable to help herself, Mina reaches down and stroked the sleeping girl’s hair. This elicited a small coo from her as she kicked her legs a little. She laid Scott next to his sister, already seeming calmer than he had before.

“Those two really don’t like being apart, I’ve noticed,” a synthetic female voice said behind her.

“You have the rest of the day off, you don’t have to stay, Janine,” Mina said as she turned to look at her nanny.

“X-J91, ma’am, please. We’ve discussed this,” the omnic nanny deadpanned.

Mina shrugged, knowing full well that they’ve had this minor disagreement dozens of times now and would have it dozens of times more.

“I am here because Mr. Ryder asked me to. With your work at the point it’s at, he felt it best that I be around. Aside from that, you have a call in your office from Doctor Gallagher.”

Mina shook her head with a grin. “Oh, I bet I know what he wants. Thank you, Janine. I’ll take it in my office.”

“Whatever you say, ma’am. I’ll be here with the children.”

Mina didn’t waste time, knowing that Janine had things well in hand, she headed to her office down the hall.

 Entering through the door, she was careful to avoid the piles of parts and papers that littered every workspace save one. Her desk was mostly tidy, namely around the front and directly behind her. She sat in the chair, noticing that Janine had already prepared a cup of tea for her, and booted up her system. No more than a few seconds later, her screen erupted with various alerts, the latest one asking for a call from her boss. With an annoyed sigh, she opened it, automatically connecting with the other line.

Another few seconds passed before the line picked up and her boss’s face appeared.

“Liao! Where the hell have you been!” was the immediate question.

“Home, Gallagher, where else would I be?” she said respectfully, a coy glint in her eye.

Gallagher huffed; the fifty-something-year-old man ran his hand through his hair as he cooled down. “Right, of course, my apologies. It’s just… this breakthrough of yours has everyone over here in a fit. It could mean so much for organic/synthetic relations if these predictions can be replicated. You do realize that you’re going to have to have all kinds of authorities give your proposal a very thorough look before we can get trials for it going.”

Mina took a sip of her tea to hide her grin. She had thought as much when Janine told her about the call.

“I expected that to be the case, it’s not like scientific achievements can be made through perseverance alone. What are your thoughts on it?”

Gallagher shifted in his seat as he put on some reading glasses and then glanced at something to his right, her project if she had to guess. “Well, everything about it looks on the up and up, all but this one thing here…”

“Ah, you caught that. I was wondering if you would.” She took another sip of her tea.

“Yeah, me and at least a few others, it’s a pretty major obstacle. If this does get to trials, we’re going to need new subjects and very specific ones at that. Not just anyone is going to be able to utilize this new tech.”

“Yeah, that is one of the major downsides, but it’ll be worth it. I just know it will.”

“I’m sure it will and everyone here is excited at the prospects. Though I suspect we may have to put all this on hold for the time being.” He gestured and a file popped up, which she opened. “There’s something big going on with the other colonies, we’re not sure what just yet. Communications are still having issues connecting with the rest, so our info is still pretty limited. FR-4N  says he should be able to get things up and running properly by tonight, but until then we’re out of the loop.”

“Well, if that’s what Frank says. Hasn’t anyone else been able to get through?”

He gave her a look, one that said that FR-4N was going to be annoying her later. “Anyway, until then, we can’t do much about moving forward with this. Whatever’s going on over there, it’s taking up a lot of bandwidth and our communications department isn’t able to keep up. Not until the software and hardware updates are up and running.”

“Well, a little downtime will be worth it considering how bad our connection was before. You’d think that Vishkar would want a colony they’re sponsoring to have things up to date. Better late than never. I suppose that’s why I haven’t been able to reach my husband; he usually makes time to call.”

“Possibly, calls have been sporadic on our side all day. I hope you’re able to reach him, I know Debra’s been trying to reach her girlfriend over at the Olympia colony and it’s driving her nuts. Don’t know why, it’s not like anything is interesting going on today.”

.xIIx.

Metal hitting metal, the roar of engines, war cries splitting the air, the sounds of battle rang out for all to hear. Thankfully, it was the sound of a mock battle, being held in preparation for the real battle to come. Crusaders of all ranks were combatting against each other, honing their skills and sharpening their reflexes. Their war hammers arced through the air, most being dodged or blocked, only a few finding their targets and sending them flying from the impact.

One warrior, in particular, seemed to be enjoying the battle a little too much.

“AH-HA! Who’s next! Who dares to face the mighty Reinhardt!” said a man clad in ornate silver armor adorned with avian-looking decorations on its broad shoulders. A small group of other armored figures groaned at his question, having already answered it moments ago

“Ah, cut it out Wilhelm, no one’s in the mood for your bravado today. We need to be preparing for the aliens.”

“Bah! Let them come. I’ll show them what it means to go up against a Crusader!” Reinhardt yelled jovially. “Now, who’s next?”

A round of murmurs from most of the crusaders showed no takers, all who had already taken the challenge lying on the ground in defeat. The remaining crusaders didn’t appear all that eager to step up to the challenge.

“Lieutenant!” bellowed a commanding voice. “What have I told you about wearing your damn helmet when you’re in combat!”

“What can I say? I love the wind in my hair!” Reinhardt said as he ran a heavily armored hand through his golden locks. “About time you came down to join us in training, Commander. I was beginning to think that I wouldn’t get in a decent workout before the real battle.”

Balderich cast a mildly annoyed look at his subordinate as he walked onto the training grounds. A glance around told him everything he needed to know, Reinhardt had gone too far again.

“Don’t you think it would’ve been better to leave them at least in fighting condition? We can’t have our people nursing wounds in the hours before the battle, Reinhardt.”

“Ha, wounds he says; love taps, nothing more.”

The groaning of the armor bodies on the ground said otherwise. One armored form came up though, “Sir, normally we wouldn’t, but the men wanted to be as prepared as possible. We figured that we’d go over to the Valkyrie Center to heal up if things got too out of hand.”

A sound plan, though Balderich thought it would be best if they didn’t strain the resources on hand just yet. Though based on how his people were picking themselves up, it seemed that trip wouldn’t be necessary. He looked back over at Reinhardt, that cocksure grin on his face still present.

“So… are you going to fight, old man?”

Their eyes locked and a familiar feeling settled into his old bones. The other crusaders went still, none making any noise as they held their breaths awaiting the response. “Well, perhaps a quick spar, to raise morale.”

…

Alec looked around the training field curiously, having never actually been here despite seeing it from afar on many occasions. His years as special forces gave him access to some of the mercenary group’s greatest accomplishments, even those that were kept from the public. To say that he looking forward to seeing two of their greatest warriors spar was an understatement.

What was currently bothering him though, beyond his familial concerns, was being left alone with these mountainous men and women. As near as he could tell, he was the shortest person here. He couldn’t even blame their armor as some had already stepped out of the bulky suits and they towered over him. If that wasn’t enough, he couldn’t but feel a little inadequate against their physiques.

He took pride in his body, his position, and the training it required had him in peak physical condition. He earned his pride and yet… these men and women around him made all his training look like a weekday yoga class held at the community center run by a woman named Chrissy. It was no contest he thought as a couple of crusaders walked by, their biceps larger than Alec’s head.

He supposed wearing those heavily armored suits required more than a few hours in the gym. Without really thinking, he reached down and pinched his bicep, as if to reassure himself that it wasn’t soft and squishy.

“I’m not squishy…” he muttered to no one.

Before he could dwell more on it, he overheard some of the other crusaders talking.

“Think Wilhelm stands a chance this time?”

“No way, the commander can read him like a book; he’s going down like every other time.”

“You sound pretty confident that Wilhelm hasn’t improved, care to make it wager.”

“Nah, I don’t take money from the mentally disabled.”

“Hey!”

Ryder stopped paying attention once the bickering started and looked around again. Wilhelm, the man who started all this, had returned from his break or whatever it was that he wandered off for, and was now standing against the far wall, looking impatient. Not just him, but the crusaders in the courtyard were all looking a bit antsy as well, clearly they wanted this fight to happen as much as Wilhelm did.

They didn’t have that much longer to wait as the door Balderich had vanished into opened up and a large mountain of metal walked out. Balderich’s armor was more ornate than any of the others, barring Wilhelm’s silver covering, having a brass base and gold accents. The neck guard was lined in white fur, of what animal Ryder didn’t know, perhaps it was fake. In his armored hand was a dangerous-looking hammer cover in spike. In the other was his helmet.

As he walked into the yard, Ryder saw as he placed a device near the base, a blue glow encasing the head of it, a safety measure? Looking around, he noticed the same device on all the hammers in the yard, that blue glow present on all of them.

“HA! Took you long enough, old man. Getting slow in your old age?”

Balderich didn’t reply, only moving to the center ring, Reinhardt taking the hint and meeting him there.

“What? No words of wisdom?” Wilhelm asked mockingly as he neared the ring. “Nothing left to teach me? You finally ready to retire, perhaps?”

That cocky grin that he arrived with never left his lips as he took a few warm-up swings with his hammer.

Balderich merely gave out an exasperated sigh, giving a tiny grin as he put his helmet on, the eyes glowing blue as it connected to the suit’s power.

“You still have much to learn, Reinhardt,” Balderich’s voice came out of his suit, a metallic tang reverberating with each word.

“Oh, I have. You won’t be winning the same way you did last time. I’ve trained hard to overcome that little weakness you got me with.”

“Yes, I expected as much, just as you did the time before, and the time before that, and-“

He was cut off as Wilhelm slammed his pommel to the ground. “Enough talk! We finish this now, old man.” He looked to the sky, his expression somber before looking back at his commander, a fire in his eyes. “We may not have another chance.”

Balderich said nothing as he moved into a combat stance, his hammer loosely held to his side, held with both hands.

Wilhelm did the same, only his stance more aggressive, his hammer higher, prepped for a downward stroke.

They remained still for several seconds, each man sizing up the other. Alec watched with bated breath, waiting to see who would move first, though he had a pretty good idea on who that would be.

A second later, he was proven right as Wilhelm’s armor roared to life, the jet turbine on its back launching the man forward. The burst didn’t last long, only enough to speed him towards the center of the ring. Balderich in the same instant raced forward to meet his younger opponent.

Wilhelm opened with a savage swing of his hammer, arching it downward to deliver a powerful overhand blow. Balderich nimbly sidestepped it, the hammer plowing into the ground. This did little slow down the young crusader, as he launched himself forward once again, sailing past Balderich and using the momentum to pull his hammer free.

What confused Ryder was that Balderich didn’t capitalize on this, at first anyway. He soon realized that for all the power and defense the armor offered, speed was somewhat limited. Not that one would think that on first impressions, the armored crusaders were swift in their actions. But physics was still a thing and the larger something was, the longer it took to slow down. While most wouldn’t have noticed it, Alec could see the reaction time of the armor was limited.

Balderich didn’t react to Wilhelm’s strike because he was already preparing for the next attack, needing all the time he had to get ready. The next assault came a moment later as Wilhelm used the momentum to swing his hammer around in a sideswipe, which Balderich deflected by igniting the rockets in his own. The sped-up war hammer hit the other forcefully, jerking it momentarily in Wilhelm’s hand.

This was the beginning of the end as in the same motion the elder crusader angled his still moving hammer so that the pommel went straight to the younger’s exposed chin. There was a shimmer of blue as two barriers collided, but the force was still enough to rock Wilhelm off his feet and to the ground. Before he could move to even stand, Wilhelm found a massive hammer in his face and looked up to see the indifferent faceplate of Balderich’s helmet. This image was soon countered by Balderich’s enthusiastic voice emanating from the armor.

“So! You have learned! Glorious!” he pretty much shouted as he offered Wilhelm a hand. Though the younger man looked somewhat annoyed, he still took it and he was standing in no time.

“Next time, old man,” Wilhelm muttered before he let out an exasperated sigh.

“Next time,” Balderich affirmed with a slight nod.

Alec was floored at what he had just seen. The battle… no, that was far from a battle. He was hesitant to even call it a fight. Wilhelm fought, but Balderich… the elder crusader had been in complete control the entire spar. No wasted movements, completely calm, as to be expected from the leader of the renowned mercenary group.

More than that though was just how fast the match had gone. Despite their size, those armors could move and it all wasn’t just the jet turbines.

Alec got the attention of one of the crusaders next to him. “You guys using mass dampeners in your suits?”

That got him a look of derision. “Bah, would only slip us up. No, only good old-fashioned servos, elbow grease, and fusion power cells,” the crusader told him before walking off.

That news sent a shiver shown his spine. That meant that these guys treated their armor as a weapon, they would have to to move them the way they do. The sheer amount of skill displayed was nothing short of remarkable… and terrifying, if he was being honest. To think that there were those among his former squad who considered these guys less than them.

Balderich soon walked up, now towering over him even more than before.

“What did you think of the show? I apologize if seemed a bit long, but Reinhardt is getting better.”

“That was long? It was over like that!”

“Yes, well, he still has much to learn.”

…

These people were insane and he was glad that they were here.

Looking to the sky though, he couldn’t help but wonder; would it be enough?

.xIIIx.

“Alright, the relay is just about done with its startup procedures...” The relay’s rings began to slowly spin and soon reached maximum rotation.  “Alright, it’s running. We’re ready to go through on your word, Captain,” one of the navigators told him.

Kof’boroh suppressed a grin, preferring to maintain an air-controlled command. While he thought that it wouldn’t hurt to show confidence, he’d rather show his crew complete and utter composure.

The time had come, after only a few hours’ worths of preparation, he was confident that his fleet was more than prepared to make its mark in history. He recalled his recon ships back to the main fleet and called in as many markers as he could from those who owed him that was close enough. For this raid was going to change everything, of that he had no doubt. All that was left to do was get things started.

“Proceed,” he commanded.

As soon as the words fell, the entirety of his fleet proceeded to approach the relay. The first few ships quickly vanished as the energy sparked from the colossal machine, launching them to its partner in the next system. His ship neared the relay and the familiar spark of element zero flared from it, encasing the entirety of the ship in a mass effect field. He felt as the field-oriented the ship into the proper alignment before being launched light-years to the next relay.

The trip felt instant, arriving at the sister relay in no time.

“Monitors up! I want a full scan of the system and our targets identified within the hour!” he ordered.

His men scrambled to carry out their duties with even more gusto than usual. To be expected, this was going to be a payday the likes they had never seen. A new untouched world was theirs for the taking; all they had to do now was find it. While their minds raced with thoughts of what spoils the world held, Crelo himself had only one thing on his mind, whatever tech they had that allowed them to control a relay.

It mattered little if they came back from this world with no new merchandise, just so long as they had that tech. Of course, looking at his men and knowing the strength of his fleet, there was little chance they would be leaving empty-handed. A backwater planet, barely making their way to the stars, against the strongest pirate fleet in the Terminus, it was no contest. He almost felt sorry for them.

Almost.

It was time to show them who ran things in this galaxy and with the tech that was now rightfully his, he would show the rest of the galaxy as well.

…

Aria T’Loak was many things; a criminal, a matron, a commando, a leader, a boss, an interloper, a pirate. But more than anything, she was a survivor, first and foremost. One didn’t live for over a thousand years by being reckless. To avoid being reckless, one had to be several steps ahead of their enemies and be vigilant that it stayed that way.

This led to where she was now, receiving information that she needed to know to stay ahead.

“The guy’s got quad, I’ll tell you that. First contact situation and the first thought in his mind is to invade.”

“I know Crelo too well; this doesn’t even begin to near the lowest he’ll go for something. But something about this reeks. He is rushing through things, he’s usually more collected than this.”

“Look, I don’t know why he’s pushing as hard as he is for this job. I’m just reporting what I know.”

Aria rubbed her brows in annoyance. While she had a professional relationship with Crelo, she had known of him since his days in the Batarian Military. His change of profession to pirate wasn’t shocking, it’s what batarians did. What was shocking was how fast he managed to build up his fleet. Then again, most things the other races did seemed fast to the Asari. This, whatever this was, had red flags all over it. There was going to be fallout when this ended. It was just a matter of being on the profitable side regardless of how that end came about.

“I take it you’re going to be unreachable after this?”

“Probably, you know that I’m here for only two reasons, money and the chance for a good fight. The money is a given, time will tell if this new race can provide a challenge. If they do give me the fight I’m looking for, you’re not going to hear from me, be having too much fun.”

“Sounding awfully optimistic there, are your hopes that high?”

“You’re hearing things, first thing I heard these newcomers did was run away. Whatever they are, I don’t have high hopes, but I’ve already been paid, so here I am.”

“Yes, well, you’re information has been enlightening. It gives me some sense of how to proceed.”

The voice on the other end huffed out a quick laugh, “If I were you, I’d be preparing to distance myself.”

“Says the one who’s actively participating.”

“I’ve got my own plans should this whole thing go tails up. Spare your false pity for someone else.”

Aria didn’t smile at that, not outwardly at least. Nice to know some things never changed. With those final words, the transmission ended, leaving Aria to listen to the low thrum of the sound of her club.

“Guess I have some planning to do.”

…

“How do they even expect me to… No. Just file it away for later, that is not an immediate issue. … Yes, I’ll see what can be done about it as soon as I can.”

The call ended and Jidon Cilbon put his hands to his face, his day just that much of a hassle to deal with.

“Tevos and Galrian don’t have to deal with this, why do I?” he muttered to himself through his fingers. He thought back on his life and what led to his current position. Councilor for the Union, one of the highest offices that could be held off-world, and usually only their dalatrasses were voted into the position. Through his achievements and hard work, he had earned this, and yet… for some reason he couldn’t feel all that much pride in it.

He had only been here for a few years, his term not even half over, and yet the desire to step down was overwhelming. Why he couldn’t say, he thought that this was what he wanted; to leave his mark in galactic history.

Instead, he spent most of his time seeing to the arduous task of dealing with his race’s gathering of information that quite frankly was boring and of little consequence most of the time. By the time he ever got his hands on something interesting, it had already been taken care of and filed away.

How was he to leave his mark when everything was already handled? More than that, none of it was new, just the same old galactic issues that have always plagued society. The Batarians were still a major thorn in their side, the Krogan always had to have an eye kept on them, the Quarians had to be handled; absolutely nothing has changed.

Judging by the files he read on his predecessors, this seemed to have been the case for a long time, though they seemed to take some solace in that. The galaxy was stagnating and no one wanted to change that. Maintain the status quo at all costs seemed to be the unspoken motto of the Council.

And Jidon hated it.

Life is meant to move forward, not stagnate in mediocrity.

His terminal blinked as a message arrived. With a sigh, Jidon opened it and to his not surprise, it was just another report on some batarian pirate movements. Unusual movements he noted, he expected that the extranet news would be reporting on some raid in a few hours but that was nothing new.

Nothing ever was.

Another heavy sigh as he marked the file as read and closed it.

…

Activity detected by mass relay.

Estimated time of arrival: thirty minutes.

Estimated time to completion of Tyrant: one and one-half hours.

Calculating…

.xIVx.

“This is not a drill people! Get those legs moving! We got incoming!” General Williams ordered as every soldier and mercenary within earshot rushed to be where they needed to be. “Where are they most likely to go to first?”

“Sir! We estimate that given the size of their fleet, it would be more practical for them to spread out and hit multiple settlements. The majority of their forces will most likely head for here, the largest settlement; defenses are going up as we speak.”

“See that they are, we’re going to need everything we got.”

…

“Well, you heard the general. We’re going to have to continue this conversation later, Sam.”

Sam laughed, an embarrassed smile on his lips as Ana got up. “I would like that. To be honest I wasn’t expecting to get the first conversation.”

“Perhaps, but we did. Now, let’s hope that we survive this so that we can speak more. Say hi to your friend for me,” Ana said as she left, leaving a slack-jawed Sam behind.

…

“Let’s move, people! They’re playing our song!” Balderich ordered as alarm klaxons sounded all around.

Several Crusaders were now pouring out of their armory, now wielding large rocket-propelled mauls and axes and all armored head to toe in heavy crusader suits. Compared to most military units, they weren’t great in number, but what they lacked in quantity they more than made up for in quality.

Crusaders trained for hours and they trained hard. Sure, they had limited options when it came to ranged combat, but there wasn’t a group around that could match them in close quarters. Not that anyone wanted to meet the walking mountains of metal on the battlefield.

“Remember, we’re to protect those still evacuating at all costs. Don’t a let a single one through our defensive line.”

“Sir!” a roar of crusader voices cried in unison.

“Live with Honor!” Balderich shouted.

“Die with Glory!” his men yelled back.

…

“Sir, we’ve arrived.”

If Kof’boroh was less disciplined, he would have tittered in excitement at those words. Everything was going better than planned. The world they arrived at appeared to lack any sort of defensive measures, no fleets protecting it, no guard satellites, nothing, despite the world bustling with signatures of civilization. But, he kept himself in order; it wouldn’t do to have his men see him as anything less than their glorious captain.

“Excellent. Get me targets people, large settlements, towns, cities, anything where a large number of people are. We want a major haul before this is over.”

A low thrum of agreements and silent cheers rounded the bridge, everyone in total agreement. This world was beyond the reach of the Citadel and besides, this pitiful planet was discovered by him therefore they were his to do with as he pleased. Sure, the council will raise a fuss, but by the time that happened, he will be off enjoying the spoils. Even if he didn’t find the tech these people used to shut down a relay, this was still a new race and would fetch a fine price on the market back at Khar’shan. Even just a handful would set him for life, but he had grander ambitions. By the time this raid was done, a new order would be on the rise in the galaxy and there wasn’t a damned thing that the Council could do to stop it.

He gestured to his communications officer and soon was connected to every other ship in his fleet.

“Men, today, we are on the cusp of greatness unseen by any other race in the galaxy! Before us lies a world of untapped resources that is ours for the taking! Nothing is standing between us and the largest payout that any of us have ever gotten! All we need to do is go in there and do what we do best! Let nothing stop you and we’ll be living like kings by tomorrow! Pick your targets, relay them to the coordinator, and have at it! If all goes well, I may even waive your ship’s customary fifty percent of your take! What say you, my brothers? Are you ready!”

While he couldn’t hear the cheers from the other ships, his bridge erupted and he could even hear some echoing from the other parts of the ship.

“To the mercenaries who have graciously joined us for this, you’ve been paid but feel free to anything you can get your hands on, you know the drill! Move out!”

With that, his fleet started to descend on the planet and its inhabitants.

.xVx.

“Where are they going people? Details!” Williams ordered.

“They’re descending on the Busan, Aldersbrunn, New Ilios, Daytower, and Brightmarket settlements. All appear to be small but sizable forces compared to the main fleet. That remains in the air.”

Ryder couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief on hearing most of those names. Nearly all of those had been evacuated hours ago, all except that last one, but then that one was mostly empty until the next round of supplies came in. It didn’t have market in its name for nothing. All that was there right now were a few supervisors for the automated functions. Unfortunately, there were bound to be a ton of supplies and other items of value.

But what calmed him most was the name not mentioned; the locations of the omnic settlement and his family’s home.

At least he could breathe easily for now, his biggest concern a non-issue for the time being.

“Any ideas on where the primary fleet is most likely to go?”

“Considering that we have the largest population out of all the settlements, here would be the logical guess. Our civilians are safely in the cauldron facility, so it’s just essential personnel and our forces out there. Unfortunately, not every settlement has evacuated.”

“And why not? Orders went out hours ago.”

“Not every settlement received the order, communications are still touchy planet-wide. A couple, mostly those with heavy Vishkar influence, outright refused to issue the order at all. Something to do with faulty logic and are waiting to see how things play out.”

Williams groaned in frustration at that.

“Fuckin’ corporate date-pushers, they’re going to be the death of me. Do people have to be dying in the streets before they act?”

“Strohm was saying that we were overreacting when Balderich and I spoke with him. Said he needed more proof before he would consider anything,” Ryder mentioned.

“We have aliens coming out of the damn sky, how much more proof does he need?”

“Probably doesn’t want to piss off a potential client or use resources he doesn’t have to,” Ryder grumbled.

“Sir, The main fleet is moving.”

“Where?”

“Where else.”

…

Balak felt conflicted.

On the one hand, he was not a front-line fighter, being given a rifle and sidearm and then told to join the main force irked him to no end. On the other, it gave him an excellent chance to get his hands on some intel and tech for the Broker. They were pirates, raiders, no one was going to question why he was ransacking rooms or digging through things. At the very least, he would be seen as inexperienced and undisciplined, grabbing whatever wasn’t nailed down.

At most wasn’t all that different from the least, just in a more positive light. It depended on what he was seen grabbing. Seeing as he was out to grab whatever he could regardless of its actual value, he didn’t think all that many people would look too closely at what it was he was taking. Unless it was something that somebody else wanted, he didn’t see too much issue. It wasn’t like he couldn’t just dump whatever, he may not have known exactly what he was after, but he did know that he would find something.

A new race, a new world, a whole new field of information out there for the taking. It mattered little what he got his hands on, so long as it was found beneficial to the Broker. Seeing as this race was new, anything and everything was on the table; it didn’t matter if it was state secrets or a receipt for skin cream.

“Alright, you grunts! Many of you are on your first run here so I’ll make this quick! Under normal circumstances, you wouldn’t be here! But these aren’t normal circumstances, now are they! We have ourselves the chance of a lifetime here! It’s doubtful that these primitives have the tech necessary to repel us! Scans show very little presence of eezo tech here, so these people are only just getting their feet wet! Therefore, it has been deemed that to get the absolute most out of this, it’s all hands on deck! The threat these nobodies pose is minimal, so get out there, and take what’s yours!”

This little speech got a roar of cheers and applause from the troops, Balak gave the bare minimum in what could be called celebratory action. This wouldn’t stand out all that much, Balak had a reputation as stiff; his actions would merely reflect that.

“Entering atmo now, eta to the ground: three minutes! Get your game faces on boys! We’re going in hot!” their pilot roared over the coms. This garnered another wave of delighted cheers. Everyone was eager for what was perceived to be an easy job.

While Balak wasn’t as excitable, his guard wasn’t especially up. What could this backwater planet do?

.xVIx.

There was a degree of negligence when it came to ship upkeep that pirates always seemed to have, regardless of where they were from. He’d seen it over and over again. They put in the bare minimum to keep their ships running and that was it. Keeping the spoils for themselves was far more important most of the time. Occasionally there was a captain that demanded better respect for their ship, but those were far and in between.

As it was, Ryder didn’t feel all that impressed as he watched their ships come down. They had that same run-down look that most pirate ships had. It was hard to tell if they were any more advanced than their own, but there was a chance, slim as it appeared. Whatever doubt he had that these were pirates though quickly evaporated. Aside from the lack of upkeep, there was also the hodgepodge nature of the fleet itself. Too many different ship types to be from a uniform fleet.

Not that he had time to think about what that meant, as the ships landed not too far from the city limits. The positioning was familiar, the backs pointed towards the city, meaning that the doors would open and pirates would stream out guns blazing.

Normally there’d be a lot more people to defend against such an onslaught, but given the planet’s position, that wasn’t going to happen. Normally, the ships wouldn’t have been able to land this close, given their defenses, that wasn’t going to happen.

What was going to happen was already happening, an invasion right at their front door and not nearly the manpower to stop them outright.

Of course, he would be a lot more worried if it wasn’t for what was right in front of him.

…

The doors opened up and Balak prepared himself for what was to come. His grip on his rifle was loose and tight at the same time; he figured it was the adrenaline. He was mostly just glad that he wasn’t in the front of the front line; he wasn’t particularly interested in meeting this new species just yet.

He’d leave that to the idiots who were out to prove something. The only thing he had to prove was how useful he could be to the Broker and he couldn’t do that if he was dead.

So when they ran out with their guns roaring, he wasn’t at all surprised when he saw their shields light up as enemy bullets met them. But as was predicted, the shields held and the idiots didn’t even slow down.

Balak did notice something, an odd glow, and smell but merely filed it away for later.

His feet hit the ground and almost immediately he had to start running. He wasn’t a tactical genius by any means, but even he knew that standing still in a field was just asking to be shot.

So he did what everyone else was doing and ran for whatever cover he could find. While he would still call this species primitive for their architecture, their use of stone and wood was almost laughable, he didn’t want to find out just how much damage his shields could take.

Once he was behind cover, Balak took a look at the opposition. They had the usual body type, batarian standard that was shared by most of the galaxy; the main body with two arms and two legs, head on top. From the few who were not covered, he saw that they were fleshy in a myriad of colors with strange fur atop their heads, also in many different colors. What a strange race.

But then there were the ones clad in metal armor, those were much larger than the rest. He didn’t rule out the possibility that they were mechs, but it was a hard image to erase.

Before he could pick out a bit more, someone plopped next to him in his cover. He had no idea who he was, but that didn’t stop him from talking to him like they were friends.

“HA! Look at these fools! Not even a proper firing line! Just standing there in the plain view! This is going to be easy!”

Balak didn’t know what it was, but something about what this guy just said felt loaded.

Looking back over cover, sure enough, loaded felt like an understatement.

Those large metal men lined up ahead of the rest and put their left arms forward. To Balak’s surprise, and most likely everyone else, a wall of blue light formed from some item on their wrist on all of the armored ones. Whatever rounds they had been throwing at them, he wasn’t sure if they had hit anyone yet, was stopped by the blue wall of light.

But that wasn’t the end of the surprises. Balak figured that they would have to do some kind of maneuvering to shoot around the shields but was shocked to see them shoot right through it as though it wasn’t there.

It didn’t take Balak much to realize that this was a brilliant maneuver. With those shields, they could put up defenses that they didn’t have to work around or ever leave cover, a near-perfect defense. Looking at the generator on their arms, Balak put one thing at the top of his list of things to get his hands on if at all possible. Preferably without anyone realizing it because he for sure could see that spark of greed pop up in nearly everyone else’s eyes.

Now if they could only find a way to take one of the metal monstrosities down. Whatever those blue shields were, they could take a beating from their kinetic accelerators. To Balak, it seemed that the defenses on both sides were slowing everything down; their weapons weren’t getting through their shields, not as fast as their own would tear down kinetic barriers anyway, and theirs weren’t enough to break down those blue barriers. Well, that last part wasn’t entirely true, he did see one lower their barrier, only for the ones on its side cover while they switched out with a replacement.

So those blue barriers did need to go down at some point, he suspected that they could go on for longer than what he saw and they only swapped out to keep from hitting that limit.

Before he could even begin to formulate a plan to get around them, his cover partner took the opportunity to peek out and fire a few rounds of his own, to no avail.

But now that the attacking force was at a bit of a standstill, Balak was able to get a better look around at the settlement they were assaulting. Aside from the ancient architecture that he had already taken note of, the next thing he noticed was the lack of people aside from the ones they were fighting. So, it appeared that they had been able to coordinate an evacuation before their forces arrived.

Surely the officers had noticed this by now as well if the orders that just went out were anything to go by. Words like capture and prisoners started to get tossed around more than they already were. Made sense, they now needed to know where to find the rest of their kind.

Again, Balak didn’t particularly care if anyone was captured; it did little to further his own goals. He was a lowly grunt, after all, one whose loyalty wasn’t directly to the fleet. Intel on the location of the others wasn’t high on his priority list, not yet anyway. He needed to see where things headed first before a decision was made.

As it was, the ones in front of him were far more interesting. Even from his spot behind cover, he was gathering a plethora of information. Fighting tactics, what technology was being used, what was and wasn’t working; all of it would be appreciated in his report to the Broker later.

“So, this your first battle?” his cover partner suddenly asked.

Technically… Balak nodded, he figured his usual muttering wouldn’t be heard at the moment.

“I figured; you haven’t fired once yet. Don’t worry, we’ve all been there! Just stick with me and we’ll be celebrating back on Omega in no time.”

Honestly, that sounded awful to Balak. Not just the celebration, but also having to spend any more time with this idiot.

The pirate did little to change Balak’s mind about him as he again broke cover to take some potshots that he guessed were just as useless as the other times. He leaned out to get a peek at how things were going and was thankful he did.

The primitives had gotten tired of being shot at and were doing… something.

He watched as two of the metal warriors made room for a third, its primitive weapon arched back in what looked to soon be an underhand swing. Much to his surprise, flames erupted from the back of the weapon, thrusting it into a powerful strike.

Before he could even think as to how useless that was, no one was even near them, he was again surprised to see a blade of fiery energy rocket forward. It wasn’t a second later when it collided with an unfortunate pirate, destroying his shield and burning his armor as it sent him flying back.

Balak could only stare at the mangled corpse. He had never seen a weapon do anything like that before. Not that he had time to think more about it as more shots like it were fired, tearing into their front line and destroying cover.

His instincts flared, causing him to leap from his cover just as one of those energy blades roared past. Balak hazarded a glance back and saw that his partner wasn’t so lucky. Nothing he could do, not that he would’ve anyway. Still, not the way he would have wanted to go.

But now he was left in a precarious position. Those metal monsters seemed to now be targeting anywhere they could take cover. Once that cover was gone, the soldiers would mow down whoever they could with their rifles. He had avoided that fate by remaining on the ground and slowly crawling his way to safety. It helped that he had some partial cover in the form of downed pirates.

While he figured that he could waste time being frightened by what was happening to his compatriots, another one was taken by one of those blades of fire not too far from him, he wasn’t all that emotional over them. His loyalty as of this moment was to the Broker, all that mattered was getting information off-world.

All he had to do now was to survive long enough for the next phase of the invasion to happen. Seeing the now descending ships, it wouldn’t be long now.

.xVIIx.

Reinhardt was having the time of his life. As far back as he could remember since joining the Crusaders, he had not been able to go all out like this.

He slammed into another one of the aliens, smashing it into a wall before turning to another and swinging his hammer at it. The hit was only a graze but that was all he needed to send it flying end over end.

He smiled as he added another two tallies to his mental count. He was pretty sure that he was up to around fifteen kills now. Did they go into extreme lockdown for this? These pitiful creatures who attacked without provocation weren’t worthy to face him in combat, not that he would let that stop himself from enjoying the chance to cut loose.

He grinned as he sighted a group of aliens rounded the corner and immediately aim their weapons at him.

He learned early on that their weapons didn’t have the penetrating power needed to get through his armor. He raised his arm to defend his face as he charged into the group, mowing down most of them and grabbing one with his free hand. A quick lift followed with a slam into the ground all but finished off the alien off, but Reinhardt held on as he dragged it along, only letting go as his charge died down. His armor registered minor impacts from behind him, a few aliens having survived his attack.

A wicked grin formed on his lips as he turned to face them.

It was to his utter disappointment though, someone had gotten to them first.

“Reinhardt! Where is your team!” an angry Balderich shouted.

“Bah, they’re just slowing me down,” he said as he spotted another alien take aim and start firing at them. With a leap, he lifted his hammer overhead and brought it down upon the unlucky alien. “Besides, they’re fine.”

He doubted they needed his help anyway, these so-called pirates weren’t anywhere near the challenge he had been hoping for, but at least they were providing him with an outlet for his pent-up energy. He had more difficult fights with the standard brigands from Earth, these aliens were only a warm-up.

Before he could voice this, dull roars could be heard above them. He and Balderich looked up to see several smaller ships coming in, shuttles with more troops if he had to guess, though these were different from the ones he had seen earlier, their colors black and dark red.

One flew over their position and a door opened on the side and a figure leaped out of it, dropping to the ground a few meters away from them.

Reinhardt took in as much as he could about this new being, it certainly looked bulkier than the rest of the aliens he had been fighting today. It stood much taller than the others, standing over two meters tall. It had a large hump on its back, directly behind where its neck should be. He couldn’t determine anything else about the creature though, its red and black armor was fully encompassing and hid its features beyond body shape.

Still, it looked like it could provide him with a greater challenge if the larger weapon it was carrying was anything to go by.

With a bellow, he charged ahead, his armor’s thruster launching him into battle.

“Reinhardt!” Balderich shouted, but it was already too late.

Reinhardt impacted the creature and drove it back a few meters before, much to his surprise, the thing planted its feet into the ground and halted his forward momentum. His thruster died down, its charge spent, leaving him to stare for a second at this thing that had managed to stop a charging crusader.

This second was all it needed to flick out its arm, a purplish glow shrouding its hand that was then thrust into his chest. Reinhardt felt as he was launched backward and an odd sense of weightlessness. Even more so as he crashed into a wall and didn’t break through as he thought he might. What was even stranger was that rather than immediately crashing to the ground, he instead floated in the air for a second more before finally landing hard.

As he stood, he couldn’t help but notice that he was now covered in the same purple glow. Before he could being to wonder what it could be, he saw the creature launch a ball of the same energy that had pushed him away. His instincts roared at him to get out of the way, so he did, only to see the ball of energy curve in the air and come right at him.

The impact felt like a grenade going off in his face as the energies exploded, sending him flying back with more force than the first push. He lay on the ground for a moment as he took stock of what just happened. He couldn’t see out of his left eye and what he could see out of his right was his armor now covered in odd-looking pockmarks, almost as if he has sprinkled acid over it.

Not that he had time to worry about that as the creature strode up to him, now brandishing its weapon and trained its sights on him.

Before it could fire, Balderich leapt in front of him, his barrier flaring to life just as the creature fired.

The barrier sparked as the shot met it, the pattern suggesting something like a shotgun. More shots rang out as the creature rapidly delivered more rounds, testing the barrier.

In either a moment of inspiration for the creature or pure misfortune for the crusaders, a series of shots met the main weakness of their barriers, the emitter in the center. The griffin-shaped crest fell apart to the powerful shotgun blasts and Balderich’s barrier fell.

Once again not wasting its moment, the creature pushed its assault, firing off a couple more shots before its gun seemed to stall. Rather than attempt to see what was wrong, it tossed the weapon aside and went right for Balderich. An orange glow appeared around its right wrist and a blade the same color shot out. With a sharp thrust, it impaled the blade into a weak spot in the side of his armor.

Balderich winced as he felt the blade enter his side. Lifting his arm, he brought it back down to capture the creature's arm and kept it from pulling back. With a tug, he ripped the arm from the alien’s shoulder, orange fluid spilling to the ground as he did. This stunned it long enough to allow Balderich to raise his hammer and bring it down on the creature.

What was left could barely be called a pulpy mess as more of that orange fluid pooled out of the now crushed armor.

Balderich held his side, trying to stem the flow of blood until his armor’s medical systems kicked in. He wasn’t sure how long the medigel would hold but it should last until he could reach a medical station.

The two crusaders didn’t get much chance to recover as more of those shuttles flew above and even more of the bulky aliens dropped to the ground.

Balderich winced as he took a breath, “They’re cutting us off, let’s move.”

Reinhardt grimaced as he picked himself up off the ground, more for his injured pride than anything else.

“I had this,” he griped.

Balderich looked at the wound over his subordinate's left eye as he pulled his hand from his own injury, “Obviously.”

Neither said anything more as aliens overtook the streets.

.xVIIIx.

Ana overlooked the battle going on before her. Her perch kept her mostly out of harm's way, but that did little to comfort her as she watched several soldiers gunned down by alien combatants. She lined her sights at one who looked to be giving out orders and pulled the trigger. Whatever shields these aliens had fared well enough against their assault rifles and small arms, but didn’t hold up well to their more powerful weaponry. The Crusaders’ hammers for one, either in melee or the firestrikes, and her sniper rifle seemed to handle the shields well enough, though she had to go for headshots to ensure a kill.

Not that it was particularly challenging to her. These aliens relied far too heavily on their shields, especially getting cocky after being able to mostly walk through the frontline fire.

The aliens scattered after their leader fell, rushing for cover and several pointing their weapons n random directions, trying in vain to find where she fired from.

She grinned, knowing full well that they wouldn’t be able to, her distance well outside of their range of influence.

She scanned around for her next target and happened to see Balderich and his protégé finish up their fight in the distance and wondered just how bad his injury was. She frowned at the implication, knowing that he was mostly unmodified, his injuries would slow him down.

She lost track of where they went, but couldn’t waste time looking for them. There were other things to take care of.

Like right now, her motion sensors began going off, alerting her to something large approaching. Turning she saw an alien shuttle flying straight towards her perch.

While it was too much to hope that they would overlook her, it wasn’t meant to be as the shuttle opened fire. Bullets ripped through the stone and metal of the building, thankfully missing her, but was more than enough of a sign that it was time to get out.

Grabbing the rope she had prepared just for this, she tossed it over the edge and soon followed after it. It had been a while since she last repelled down a building, but honestly, it was a lot like riding a hoverbike. If said hoverbike was underfire and then the road exploded she thought as a rocket of some kind impacted and caused the top of the building to erupt into flame and debris.

She felt the rope loosen as its anchor was destroyed and she began to fall. Thankfully, she had foreseen this and was already grabbing onto a ledge. Looking down, she found that she wasn’t too far from the ground for a controlled drop and let go, landing roughly but remaining uninjured.

Raising her rifle, she quickly scanned the area and found no one or anything nearby.

Well, time to find her next objective, whatever that was.

…

“What are we looking at here?” Williams asked as he looked over the battle on several monitors and holoscreens.

“The enemy appears to be using some form of mass accelerators as their primary weapon. They’re using mass effect technology on a scale we haven’t seen,” one analyst pointed out.

“Each alien is using a personal shield emitter that appears to hold up pretty well to our pulse rifles, though we have had more luck with higher caliber armaments. The Crusaders seem to be having the most success so far,” another chimed in.

“They were, but then the aliens starting dropping in some larger reinforcements. A couple of different kinds of aliens from what we’ve been able to gather.”

A few monitors pulled up images of the different types of aliens that have been identified so far. The first was the most numerous, a humanoid with brown skin and four eyes. They were all male so far from what reports were saying and made up the majority of the invading force.

Next were large aliens, so far only seen in their armor as anything they had that could get through their defenses left them unidentifiable afterward.

The last one to be seen hardly wore armor and this had a very negative impact on the troops as these things could easily be classified as nightmare incarnate. They had tight pale skin, long skinny limbs, and a face that would surely haunt many for some time to come. Large sharp teeth and blood-red eyes.

“What have we figured out?”

“The four-eyed ones aren’t all that different from us, once their defenses are bypassed. Nothing too unique about them other than their eyes. The larger brutes are tough, some of them seem to have a secondary layer of defense over their shields, some kind of purple barrier we have trouble getting through. More than that, even after their shields are taken out they remain hard to take down. Nearly all of them have gotten back up after taking several shots that would kill just about anything. Same with the scary skinny ones, they appear to have an extremely high recovery rate. The only real way to take them down is with fatal blows, aim for the head or other vulnerable spots.”

Useful information to have, but Williams wasn’t convinced that it would be enough to help them, not in the long run anyway. Communications were down planetwide, the aliens having done something that made their already spotty means of contact nigh unusable now. The only thing they had going for them right now was basic radio and landlines. If only they had the QEC up and running, but that didn’t seem likely at the moment.

As it was, things were looking grim. So far the only plus that Williams could see was that most civilians were safely hidden away. But if the soldiers fell, nothing would stop the aliens from doing whatever they wanted, including hunting down and dragging out the civilians.

All anyone could hope for was that they could hold out long enough for reinforcements to arrive.

.xIXx.

Reinhardt and Balderich rushed through the streets until they came to a large wooden door set in the town’s most unique building, a recreation of a castle from Earth. With shots ringing behind them, they rushed through the door and quickly shut it, sliding a large wooden beam into place to keep it from being opened immediately giving them a chance to catch their breath.

Things weren’t looking good for the two, cut off from the rest of their squad, a group of aliens on their tail, and Balderich’s wound was beginning to cause him problems. He was already starting to feel light-headed and sluggish. The bleeding had halted, but he already lost enough to hamper him with all the continued activity.

Still, he had enough strength in him to do what had to be done.

“That door won’t hold,” he groaned in pain as they walked further into the castle. “Get back to the unit, I will hold them off.”

“HA! And let you have all the glory?” Reinhardt laughed at the idea of retreating from battle. “We will fight our way back together!”

Balder sighed as he put his hammer down, realizing that the young man still didn’t understand. “No, I’m staying here.”

Reinhardt gave his mentor a confused look as he noticed the wound in his side for the first time. A slight frown of worry passed over his features for a second, thinking about what more of those aliens could do against a single crusader. They stood a better chance together, so why would he…

“But, I…” he stammered out, “… without you?”

“Lieutenant! You took an oath to be a Crusader. Now, keep it!”

“I…”

The door banged against its frame as the aliens sought to break through.

“I won’t leave you!”

Balderich gave Reinhardt a gentle smile as he offered his hand to Reinhardt, “The team needs you. Be their shield.”

Reinhardt still looked against the idea, he struggled for a moment with conflicting emotions. It’s not like he could just up and leave his commanding officer, the man who trained him, his friend. But, with a glance at Balderich, he saw the resolve in his eyes. That’s all he needed to push down any doubts he had, even if he was still against the idea.

Steeling his features, he grasped Balderich’s hand with his own. A single shake and the parted.

“Reinhardt, live with honor.”

The younger crusader breathed in heavily at those words and their tone. There was a finality to them that he knew usually spoke of last goodbyes. If this is what his mentor wanted, then who was he to argue? He grasped his hammer one last time before he held it out to Balderich to take, an action that raised the older crusader’s brows.

With a slight grin, he took the hammer as Reinhardt turned away.

“Die with glory… old friend…”

With that, Reinhardt began walking out of the room as the banging on the outer doors picked up in severity.

Balderich, wielding both hammers, turned to face whatever came through.

…

Ana leaped behind cover as a hail of bullets impacted around her. Just her luck that she would run into a squad while scouting out her next perch. Using her sidearm, she took potshots at her attackers whenever she could, but it wasn’t enough. Their shields were more than enough to handle to light pulse rounds of her pistol, what she would give for something with a little more kick.

She looked down at her rifle and grimace at the damage it took earlier. The barrel was slightly bent and there was noticeable damage to the breech and receiver. While she was sure that it would be good for a few shots, they wouldn’t be accurate at all.

She ducked more into her cover as more shots once again started tearing up the area around her.

“Quite the pickle I’m isn’t it,” she spoke to no one. She fired some more shots over cover if only to let the aliens know that they haven’t killed her just yet.

“Never thought this would be how I went out,” she lamented. And just when she met someone nice.

If this is how she was meant to die, then she was going to make them work for it.

…

Just as he thought they would, Balak watched as even more shuttles began to descend through the sky. While he felt that he should probably be bitter about being part of the test line, the simple fact remained that he survived. No thanks to the ones leading the charge, but survived all the same.

Send in the expendable foot soldiers to soften and test the opposition’s defenses and then send in the big guns. The big guns in this case being the Blood Pack mercenaries. Krogan and vorcha adding to the batarian assault all but guaranteed victory, at the very least increasing their odds of success.

Sure enough, as soon as they landed the primitives lines broke and scattered as the mercs dropped around them. Normally, they most likely wouldn’t even be a part of a raid like this, but he figured that Kof’borough felt that it would be worth it to invite them.

Given how effective they were with just their opener, it certainly felt that way.

At least it gave Balak the time he needed to catch his breath and perhaps even enough time to have a look around and see if there was any interesting intel laying around. Unfortunately, he didn’t see any of those large metal soldiers around, living or dead, so having a look at those shields was out. What he did find though was a rifle from a downed soldier.

It wasn’t anything too impressive, though he did notice that it still used a magazine feed for the ammo instead of an ammo block. So even more primitive than he thought, it bore the question if these people were just backward in terms of technology. To have displays of unimaginable tech countered by instances of blatant inferiority stir all kinds of theories and questions in his mind.

Not that he would dwell too much on it, his job wasn’t to find answers, it was to gather information. He stuck the weapon on the magplate on his back next to his unused rifle. No one would question him about a trophy, it’s not like there weren’t plenty all over the ground for the taking. Speaking of, he also grabbed a sidearm, nothing wrong with more info on their weapons.

Looking up, he saw more shuttles coming down, this time bearing the colors of the pirate fleet. The second wave was about to hit and he did not envy the aliens for what was about to happen.

Thus was the misfortune of species that caught the batarians’ attention.

.xXx.

Derangement Protocol set to execute.

Combat class models fabrication complete. Issuing combat parameters. Target designation: extraterrestrial life-forms.

Accessing local security surveillance systems, marking targets.

Marking…

Targets marked.

Executing…

…

The Blood Pack was known throughout both the Terminus and Citadel space as vicious mercenaries and not to be crossed lightly. That they were hired to be a part of bringing a new species to their knees was a plus to being paid their usual fee along with looting rights.

Breyak Krod grinned as his shuttle made its way down through the atmosphere of this pathetic backwater planet. He sneered as he looked down on the verdant fields, majestic forests, and abundant water sources. A world so giving only produced weak species, this new race was no different. They had to be shown who the strong were in this galaxy and who better to deliver that news than him and his company of ruthless mercs?

So were his thoughts that he didn’t notice when his view of the world below was obscured as thick clouds began to form below the ship.

“Sir, we seem to be having some strange weather forming around us,” the shuttle pilot told him.

Breyak frowned in annoyance, was this pyjak really going to complain about a little rain while piloting a spaceship?

“It’s of no concern, maintain our heading.”

“Sir, it’s not just the weather, I’m getting strange readings on the sensors. There’s something out there. Something big.”

Before Breyak could further berate the pilot for pointless concerns, the shuttle rocked violently to the side. The krogan had been flying around long to know the difference between turbulence and impact, this was neither. It felt more like they got caught in the wake of something bigger than their shuttle.

The ship lurched again, this time sending Breyak into the wall.

“What’s going on out there!” he shouted but the only answer he received was a loud screeching noise, one that sounded like several ships crashing into one another.

That was the last thing he heard before arcs of electricity began to spark around the inside of the shuttle. The ship suddenly broke in half, sending Breyak and the other mercenaries plummeting to the ground below.

Looking up to try and catch a glimpse of what doomed him and his men. What he saw were other ships that had met the same fate as his. The only other thing he saw were shadows in the clouds, things with wings, glowing blue eyes, and wrapped in lightning. He heard their screeching continue as he fell and saw even more ships explode in bursts of electricity.

All he could think about as he fell was the lost payday he would be missing, all because some batarian bastard didn’t properly tell him what they were up against.

The best he could hope for was that these new guys shoved their tech where the stars don’t shine to that void-touched captain.

…

Reinhardt moved as fast as he could making his way to where the fighting sounded the loudest. He had been around enough to recognize the weapon profiles of their soldiers and could also hear that the enemies severely outnumbered them. He had passed by several of his fallen comrades, felled by what he could only guess was those brutish monstrosities.

The sheer number who had been taken out did not give him hope that many remained standing. Not without help anyway. He paused as he tried to get his bearings and listen to where the sounds of battle were now coming from.

Listening carefully, he heard the burst of rifles and explosions from the other side of the buildings in front of him. Unfortunately, it would take him too long to go around. Well, the crusader way was clear on matters such as these; if you can’t go around, go through.

Igniting his thruster, he launched himself directly at the wall in front of him. Like so many things before, the stone and mortar easily crumbled in his wake.

He emerged from the wall to see several soldiers trying to retreat from an onslaught from the shorter aliens and some of the scary-looking ones with teeth. He skids to a stop while bringing his barrier up, catching shots that would’ve torn into some unfortunate soldiers who were unlucky enough to be caught out of cover.

The shots bounced off his barrier, but the sheer amount of fire that he was taking the brunt of told him that his shield wasn’t going to last long. He risked a look behind him and saw that the soldiers were retreating to the buildings behind them, at least increasing their chances now that they were out of the line of fire.

It was to their misfortune though that his barrier began to break before everyone could get to proper cover. A couple of soldiers had gotten tripped up on their way just as his barrier broke. Reinhardt quickly placed himself in between the soldiers and the bullets, using his body and armor to keep them from getting hit.

While he would normally worry about his armor’s integrity, the projectiles from the aliens’ weapons did little to actually damage the hardened metal of his armor. The self-repair function worked as fast as the armor was damaged, so he was hoping that he had enough juice left in the power cells to survive their small arms fire. He already knew that their larger caliber weapons would more than likely get through, so he was thankful that there didn’t appear to be any here right now, but it was only a matter of time before one of those things showed up.

But first, he had to figure out some way to get these men out of here safely, not something he could do without breaking their cover.

He didn’t get much more time to think about it as he heard screaming coming from the enemy lines and the focused fire on him let up completely.

Risking a peek, he saw that the aliens were now shooting towards something he couldn’t see around the corner. Several red beams shot from behind the building striking down several aliens. He heard mechanical whirring and chirping that sounded familiar but he couldn’t place where he had heard the noise from.

But rather than try to figure out that little mystery, he instead turned back to the unit and urged them to keep moving.

He took one last look over at the aliens and saw that most had run off or been struck down and for a brief moment saw a glint of red and the swish of a robotic tail. Did the omnics send over a squad? Concerns for another time, he had to see these soldiers to safety.

…

First wave complete.

Initiating follow-up strikes.

Notice: fabrication of Tyrant model complete.

Initiating release from available cauldrons.