Mass Effect: Ripples of Change

Disclaimer: I don't own either Naruto or Mass Effect.

Speech
Thought/Comms
(AI Speech)

AN/ Still alive, just busy.

Chapter 2

-Mr. Uzumaki, to the Command Deck-

Sitting upright, his decidedly unsatisfying pillow falling from his face, the man swung his legs off his cot. "I guess it's go time. Time for the milk run?"

(I don't know) the small blue woman offered, seemingly concentrating on something else. (I didn't say anything, but there's been a lot of chatter for the last few minutes.)

"O-kay." Standing, he leaned over the small projection. "Poke your nose into anything I need to know?"

Looking rather affronted by his insinuation, (Poking my nose around?) she scoffed. (Please, I'm a professional,) nose upturned with an air of slighted superiority before throwing away the farce with a subtle, but serious smirk. (But, no, I've only had my ear to the ground, as it were. Just passive, nothing active.)

Rubbing his neck in thought, "Alright, then. Hop aboard and we'll see what all this is about." The AI's miniscule avatar shimmered, her form narrowing into a slender beam before fading. A moment longer and his omni-tool flickered, soon followed by a presence in the back of his mind.

(Ahh, just how I left the place,) her voice echoing smugly. (Spacious.)

"Sure, keep it up," he mentally grumbled, securing his boots and throwing on his reinforced button-down, a black and grey shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. (Think a rough version of the uniform top from ME3). Assured that his knives were still secure, he was down the hall and in the elevator less than a minute after the message.

Four minutes post-message...

After getting off the lift, he was prompted from the elevator to the Communication's room. Nodding to the guard at the door, "Anderson's expecting me." To which the Alliance soldier keyed the door, letting him in.

"Uzumaki." Barely over the threshold, and already in demand. "What kept you?"

Cocking a brow at the very tense commanding officer, "You have an elevator that takes two minutes to get from one deck to the adjacent deck. Give me stairs, I'll be here faster." Eyeing the rest of the room, he was confronted by familiar faces. Besides Anderson, Shepard stood frowning at a console, leaving…

"Oh. Nihlus."

"Uzumaki. Still pimping yourself out?"

Not bothered by the obvious condescension, he shrugged it off. "It's honest work. And at least I can tell my employers to suck vacuum," smirking. The Turian's mandibles twitched, but that was enough. He could see he'd gotten to him with that one. He'd almost got a smile out of Nihlus for that one.

Coming to a stop alongside the redhead in the room, "Shepard."

"Alright, pay attention. You, too, Uzumaki," Anderson barked, targeting the blonde. "The situation's changed."

In the old days…the old days…he might've let loose a "Good change, bad change" retort, but time and experience had wizened him up to the fact that the change was almost always bad.

Striding between them back to the console, he pulled up a video file. "This came in less than ten minutes ago."

(If you haven't played the game, look up the footage on YouTube)

There wasn't much out of the ordinary for your usual combat footage, besides the fact that Eden Prime wasn't supposed to be a battlefield. Hell, it was considered a prime, rural farm planet. Most of the questions revolved around the jumbo metal monstrosity, like a giant armored claw descending from the clouds.

Yeah, that kind of image tended to linger.

Anderson turned an eye on Naruto, "Uzumaki, I called you in on this meeting to ask if you've seen or heard anything about…this, whatever the Hell it is." Uzumaki was more tied in to the underworld than anyone else currently available for consultation.

The blonde unabashedly shook his head. "Not a thing, Anderson. And that's the kinda sight that turns heads, too." The picture alone, a frozen still of the colossal…ship, sent a chill down his spine.

"Damn." Shaking his head, "I've already informed Shepard, but this mission was originally an in-and-out procurement job."

"And for that you called me?" Naruto retorted, a little baffled.

"No, I called you in 'cause when I talked to you last you whined your ass off about being bored."

Shuffling awkwardly, "I, uh, I don't whine." Both Nihlus and Shepard shared muted smirks at his discomfort.

"Sure. Anyway, I was also planning an offer of a slot here on the Normandy," revealing a bit more of the hand he hadn't been able to play. "But that'll have to wait. The item we were sent to pick up? It's a Prothean artifact." That actually got a reaction from the blonde.

"Really? Huh, don't see their toys lying around too often."

"Those "toys" tend to advance cultures forward by hundreds of years," Nihlus chided. "That's why securing it was and still is such a priority."

Naruto cocked a brow at the Turian.

"But this attack changes things," Anderson reiterated. Looking to the redhead, "Shepard, your orders are still to retrieve that artifact, but, with what we can gather, expect heavy resistance." Shepard nodded.

"I didn't take this job for the scenery, sir," she affirmed. "And Uzumaki?" Anderson's gaze shifted to the blonde.

"I still want you to coordinate. He'll be your hand on this mission. He'll take orders from you."

Naruto offered a crooked grin, "Don't worry about me, I can be a good boy," winking broadly at her. Nihlus groaned.

"Will I have to shoot you?" she asked lightly, to which he grinned roguishly.

Not phased in the slightest, "Ooh, foreplay."

"Alright, that's enough," Anderson dismissed, shaking his head at the young man's antics before checking his wrist, adorned by an antiquated analog wristwatch. "We hit orbit in less than ten minutes. Shepard, I need you and your team in the hangar to be dropped two minutes short of that." Nihlus, taking the lead, strode out of the room at a fierce pace, followed soon after by Shepard with a salute to Anderson.

"So…easy mission, huh?" Naruto asked Anderson now that they were alone.

Immediately catching the underlying meaning, Anderson sent him a knowing, if strained, grin. "Well, that is how it always goes," he offered with wry humor.

"I gotta tell you though, Anderson, something about that ship creeps me out. And I've seen things."

"I know what you mean, and it's not just you. I've got a bad feeling in my gut."

Taking a last look at the frozen image, he turned on his heel. "Oh, well. Guess if this is gonna be an interesting day I'd best dip into my private stock," leaving the ship's captain behind.

(I know what you're going to ask, but "No" I don't have a clue either,) Cortana offered.

"Yeah, well, I've got that feeling," he sighed, slipping on the relatively skimpy bit of torso armor. It was, in essence, a skin-tight, armored shirt, a bit of armor-weave fabric with plates attached, cascading down his torso back and front. Something light that wouldn't hinder his movements too terribly. If he was going to a planet with a harsher atmosphere, he might've chosen differently, but, given the earth-norm planet, he went for speed and comfort over all-around protection. And, on his back, in the area twixt his shoulder blades, a currently inactive kinetic barrier generator.

While he dressed, Cortana ran systems diagnostics, but everything checked out fine. As close to fine as she could get the tech to meet her rather high standards.

Disengaging its lengthy form, his sniper rifle compacted. Hefting it over his shoulder it mag-clipped snuggly into place, joined by an assault rifle on his left, and a pair of pistols on his hips, one to a side.

"Okay…Let's go have fun with the rest of the kids."

(Play nice.)

Normandy, Hangar

"If you're going to be on my team then you'll need to start with more armor," Shepard appraised rather matter-of-factly. "An asset is no good dead." She was not liking the fact that he was wearing the bare minimum for protection. Kinetic barrier generator or not.

Readjusting his weapons, the blonde man shrugged. "I've got some heavier stuff already. But since we're going to an O2 rich world, I shouldn't need all that stuff. I've got basic plating and heavy weave throughout what I got on. So I'll be fine."

Kaidan shook his head. "I'd think you'd at least want your shields on, or a biotic barrier."

Naruto cocked his head to the side at the lieutenant and his companion. Jenkins, an overeager soldier that he couldn't help but shake his head at fidgeted with his rifle, eyes flitting around behind the visor of his helmet. "Nah, makes me feel tingly. I turn it on when I think I'm gonna need it." Shepard inwardly rolled her eyes. "I'm good at avoiding fire, so don't worry about me, kiddies." That jab got a few annoyed twitches.

Shotgun primed, Nihlus stood at the bay doors. Head craning back, just enough so he could send an eye their way, "Don't give it too much thought, Commander. Uzumaki's a canny thing. I'd be surprised if he had the common decency to die from anything less than a grenade in the face." By and far, the nearest to levity anyone had heard from the Turian Spectre. Though, given the small bit of history between the two, it was mostly ribbing between Nihlus and Naruto.

(Y'know, he's got you there.)

Quite to the opposite of the intent, he took pride in that statement, even if it was still an understatement of the truth. Pointedly tossing a mental shrug Cortana's way, Naruto scoffed aloud, "Oh, please. You're still sore about-"

But Shepard cut him off. Armored finger poking him rather harshly in the sternum, she leveled him with a fierce expression of seriousness, green eyes narrowed and burning into him. "Regardless, while on my team you'll wear better armor than that. Understood?"

Visibly thinking it over, he cracked off a sloppy salute, grinning amusedly. "You betcha, boss-lady." A gesture loaded to the brim with friendly sarcasm.

Shepard was getting that feeling again. The one that told her it would be a less stressful day if she knee-capped the blonde and left him on the ship, preferably with a gag in place. Shaking her head at him, "Alright then, weapons check."

Retrieving his sniper rifle from over his shoulder, he passed its collapsed form to her before pulling out his other weapons. "I'm fully proficient," he explained, as she examined the rifle in her arms, expanding it for a better look.

"Is that a Titan?"

He nodded. "Mark III," giving it a creepy, loving caress. "My baby."

Kaidan peered over, intrigued, if a little wierded out. He preferred shorter range weapons that he could tie in with his biotic abilities, a heavy pistol and an assault rifle, but he could still see the craftsmanship. "Nice. Where'd you get it?"

Slinging it back into place, "Black market. Cost me almost an entire payday." Pulling out his assault rifle and shotgun in his left and right hands respectively, he showed them off as nothing all that much better than what the rest of them carried, and far cries from being as good as the sniper rifle he possessed. Replacing them, he offered up his sidearm, a Kessler.

He'd done a number of jobs, many of which paid quite well, but most of his money went into a tidy nest-egg. Besides obtaining decent enough weapons, information, and a small apartment between missions, the only thing he'd put money into were the necessary mods for the sniper rifle and the parts needed to produce a top-of-the-line omnitool, both of which to accommodate Cortana.

He was thankful that all he'd had to do was pay in that latter department. The tech needed for his omnitool, the projector, and even the earlier version of the linkup to the rifle video feed had all been with outside help from a…specialist.

Rannut, a Salarian scientist who'd retreated into a voluntary exile after the latest poor reception of his take on what he considered the evolutionary connection between virtual intelligences and artificial intelligences. And that'd been the whole reason Naruto had sought him out. Finding Cortana had been…a surprise. And even with his years, he had almost no expertise in the fields needed to help the shattered AI.

Rannut was old, for a Salarian, somewhere in the latter quarter of his lifespan. And not much of a people person, either. When he'd first contacted him about Cortana, no names mentioned, mail source-code scrambled all to Hell, the old Salarian had been rather dismissive, only warming up as more and more information was given.

After some further very discreet communications, testing the waters to see if the brainy tech would help or if he could even be trusted, he'd come to the reclusive Salarian's home-slash-lab, as it tended to go with most of the Salarian scientists he'd met.

Rannut had been fascinated by the AI. Mostly on a historical level though. Salarians found most things fascinating if you spun it right. Her own matrices created via a cloned brain template, the interesting complexity of her program for a human AI program, and her current state of disarray. The Salarian was practically drooling at the chance to "look under the hood" as it were.

It hadn't been as simple as just that though, to restore the construct. Rannut had hardly slept for that first week, all just to stabilize her condition. And from there it took months of work to restore her, bit by bit, often retracing steps as some "pieces" needed to be put back in place more than once.

Then it was that he remembered her first lucid moment. Just a brief moment in time, where she'd ceased her crazed blurtings to comment on how…goofy…the blonde man looked after sliding out of bed and into the lab to check on things. To be fair, he was well aware that he could sometimes look rather…haggard on awakening. But still, that comment had been a start, and, as the days passed, she slowly began to reassemble herself.

She still remembered everything that'd happened, including his finding of her and bringing her to Rannut, but she later chose to deal with those on her own.

With time, she grew steadily more whole. What followed after was an eagerly received update. Rannut had claimed, explaining to the newly whole AI, mainly because Naruto was lost from the start, his intentions to correct what he considered atrocious errors in her programming. Primarily in rectifying limited data processing and storage directly linked to her lifespan. In severing that limitation in her programming, she was freed from the once more looming "madness". And from there, the world once more began to open up.

It was in that laboratory that she had related her story to the two. A life meant for a great purpose, changed abruptly to adapt to circumstances of the time, and her descent into madness.

What'd intrigued Rannut was the mention of a "partner", and the near symbiotic relationship they shared. It was only due to months and months of time spent around the aging Salarian that he'd shared a secret or two of his own. In some cases he was vague, like talking of his…lengthy lifespan…and on other, more relevant topics, he tried to be as descriptive as possible.

And so he told him about the side-effect of that incident that'd happened so long ago, at the very start of his journey, when his mind was stabilized by the seal.

Granting him a mindscape.

The idea of a partner, a companion, one that wouldn't necessarily age, much like him, appealed on a level he'd not experienced before, having gotten more or less used to the comparatively ephemeral world around him. Similarly, Cortana agreed, feeling not just deeply indebted to him, but also eager to get out and see what she had been missing while…unbalanced.

From there, Rannut seemed aflame with an eerie passion, but he delivered nonetheless. Granting him an outlet of sorts to allow Cortana residence within his mind.

Rannut had also refused to allow them to leave, more like been incredibly resistant to do so. Not without first updating Naruto's omnitool to help the pair.

Most recently, after a "checkup", the nutty Salarian wanting to see how they were doing "paired", he'd had the oddest feeling that the Salarian was almost…proud of their coexistence and his aid to the pair.

Though he still got the occasional scrambled mail from him, requesting updates on their "mutual coexistence". It would be some time still before either learned the truth behind the hopes that sole Salarian had for them.

The ship didn't touch down. Instead, it held steady a meter off the ground so they could drop from the hatch to the grass below. The moment his boots hit ground, Naruto felt his body relax. Situation aside, he felt a lot calmer on terra firma than on a ship.

He had never been willing to test out just how resilient he was in a vacuum. Screw that.

"Comms up," Shepard barked in a hushed tone. "Alright, while we're in these hills it's rifles and small arms. A-game, people. Uzumaki?"

"Hm? Yeah, I gotcha."

"Good, but the moment we hit clear real-estate, feel free to go for long-distance support." If they encountered resistance, better to have a gunny in the wings to lessen the load on everyone else. She wasn't too bad herself, but she would give him the chance to prove himself before deciding to take the job for herself.

Lips twitching into a small grin, he nodded.

"Alright, people, eyes open and safeties off. Let's move."

Three minutes later…

Damnit all to Hell!

The mission had barely even started and already they were down a man. Leaving the small outcropping of rocky hills, there'd been a brief bout of exposure before Jenkins, eagerly up front, had been mowed down by drones. It hadn't taken a minute for them to return the favor. Alenko with his sidearm, and she and Uzumaki with their assault rifles and the drones had been shredded. But the damage had been done.

"Those were security drones, they shouldn't have attacked us. Likely enough they were hacked, which I am not liking," Shepard surmised sourly, lips pulled into a tight grimace. Hand resting on Kaidan's shoulder, the Lt kneeling before his deceased comrade, "We'll see to it he gets a proper burial," she assuaged, before reminding him that there were important things still to be done. "We'll come back for him when this is over. But right now we need to keep moving." Omnitool lighting up on her arm, she marked their location for recovering Jenkins after the mission.

Kaidan didn't like just leaving a comrade behind, even a dead one, but he understood. The mission was still at hand. "I understand, Commander." One last look to his short-time friend and he brought his firearm back up to bear, his biotics flaring up into a barrier around him. Jenkins had had his shields up, and he'd been nearly cut in half. Hopefully, his biotic abilities boosting his shields could prevent that from happening a second time. He wouldn't be surprised again.

"Come on, kid," Naruto urged, giving him a solemn shoulder-pat. "Fight now, mourn later." It was weak, but he got an appreciative smile back.

Harsh bursts of weapon's fire rang against the rock walls. Just as audible were the occasional sounds of shots ricocheting off of metal. "Look sharp," Shepard barked, assault rifle at her shoulder, Kaidan much the same with his own weapon. "Uzumaki?" The rock walls cleared, leaving them at the opening to a deepening valley surrounded by an enclosure of stone.

Her comm clicked to life a second later. "Hold on, getting into position, Shepard… Human contact…and half a dozen geth bearing down on them."

"A survivor." Next to her, Kaidan tensed, ready. "Uzumaki, thin the herd, we're incoming."

"Got it."

"Let's move, lieutenant," she snapped, rounding the corner at a brisk jog.

Already from their elevated position, she could make out a pink and white figure bolting their way about four or five hundred meters out, occasionally turning to send a volley of bullets back at the silvery mechanoids in their wake. Geth. When Uzumaki had said it just seconds ago, she'd wanted to be able to disprove it. Now she felt that aching discomfort for the future.

A muted "K-POW!" and the leading geth was lifted briefly off its feet before crumpling lifelessly to the ground, its comrades disregarding it.

"If you want her to live, I suggest you start pulling your weight commander," crackled the sarcastic voice of their resident specialist over her comms. "K-POW!" And another geth fell, its head equally mangled. The whole time the survivor had been running towards them, unknowingly being the popular opinion, they'd been closing distance as well. The roughly five-hundred meters had closed to just under two-hundred. And, as luck would have it, their survivor took that moment to duck behind a sizable boulder to try to establish a defensive position. "Mow them down," Shepard ordered, her rifle sending its own parting gifts to the remaining geth. The LT did the same with his handgun, but added to its effect by sending out a biotic overload at his mechanical targets.

And, from his position up in the rocks, Naruto proved his accuracy.

In the veritable hail of gunfire, it took less than a minute to bring the remaining geth down. Laying low against the boulders as they stalked toward her position, the two alliance soldiers closed in on the woman who'd been chased down by the geth. The ready assault rifle and dented armor showed full well that running hadn't been the only thing she had been doing.

Clearing the area one last time, "Any more surprises?" she asked Naruto.

"Clear for now."

Weapons relaxed, dropping to their wielders' sides. "You okay?" the commander asked.

"Thanks for the help. I didn't think I was gonna make it." Spotting the N7 insignia against the black body armor, the pink-armored individual went rigid, standing at a crisp attention. "Sir, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212. Ma'am, are you in charge here?"

A quick, slight upward jerk of her hand to dismiss the stiff posture, "Easy, Williams. Are you wounded?"

The gunnery chief relaxed, shoulders sagging a little. "I'm alright, ma'am. Just some scrapes and burns, nothing serious. Wish I could say the same for the rest of my unit. They weren't so lucky."

"What happened here?"

Helmeted face turning to the LT, she looked off in thought for a moment before wave after wave of frustration crossed her face. Turning, she started pacing back and forth over a three-foot stretch. "Oh, man. We were patrolling the perimeter when the attack hit," gesturing off into the distance. "And then communications went down. We didn't even get the chance to send a distress call."

"Your squad?" It would be a big help if they had support, with how this mission was going.

"We tried to double back, but it was an ambush. We held our position, but the geth overwhelmed us… My unit was massacred, and I end up running for my life. Thanks for the save by the way."

"All in a day's awesome work."

The gunnery chief spun on a dime, assault rifle poised just centimeters away from being able to clear Naruto's sinuses. Fortunately, Shepard was quick on the draw.

"Stand down, Williams. He's with us." The pink-armored woman spared him the briefest of glances before lowering her rifle.

"The sniper," she surmised, relaxing. "That was some good shooting."

Naruto smirked broadly. "Keep it up and you'll have me blushing."

"Onto more pressing matters," Shepard interrupted, getting a nod from the blonde.

"Yeah, geth."

Curiosity playing its small part, Kaidan knelt down next to the sparking metal corpse. "I thought the geth didn't leave the Veil, not in over 200 years." He knew about the geth, most people did, but few had seen them. Since they'd booted their creators from their home system, they'd secluded themselves away within the Perseus Veil.

"That's the official story."

That was news to Shepard, and she was fairly well "in the know". "And what's that mean?"

"The geth have actually been popping up in the last few years." That got their attention. "Mostly information gathering, from what I hear. It's mostly rumor. That's why the Council hasn't made anything of it. But this... Open attacks? This is a step up for them."

"They must've come for the beacon." Ashley openly glared down at the lifeless machines, gloved hands creaking as she clenched the grip of her rifle. "My whole unit," she growled, a little bile coming up in the back of her throat.

"It wasn't your fault, Williams. There was nothing you could have done."

"Well, that's not true," Naruto offered blandly. But it served its purpose in getting a rise out of the substantially smaller pink-armored woman.

"What'd you say?"

"Well, as I was saying, there was one other thing you could've done," and he lowered the boom. "You could've stayed and fought against the geth that killed your unit. You would've died, and we wouldn't know what happened." His rebuttal had a far greater sobering effect than had been expected. Shepard had almost thought she'd have to box his ears for that remark, but had been surprised with the coda.

Still…for his bluntness…

Ashley sunk her fist into his gut. Her knuckles ached beneath her armor for it.

He'd only been bent over just a little by the effect, but straightened right up after. "Feel better?"

"…I'll feel better after these metal bastards are scrapped." But there was substantially less shake in her voice, and her breathing had become less ragged. "The dig site's just over that ridge," pointing up the slope from where she'd fled minutes prior, towards some unidentifiable, tall, thin structures.

"We could use your help, Williams," Shepard offered. "You know the territory, and we could use another gun."

"Aye, aye, ma'am." She rattled back, priming her rifle in her eagerness for some well-deserved anger management.

"I saw what looks like a small camp over the ridge."

Ashley nodded. "It's a small research post. Nothing much."

"But there's still a chance that there could be other survivors." It was very optimistic, but Shepard could really use some good fortune in their favor.