The Unsung Hero: Redux

Chapter 2: Reveille

A/N: Yes I know I have been absent for a long time and that a lot of other Crysis/ME fics have popped up in my absence. Some of them are good, some of them I don't agree with how they were written. That doesn't mean I'm going to lose sleep over any of it or work harder on my own. Whether they were inspired by my work (or the lack thereof) is not a big deal in the long run either. I write as a side hobby, when video games have no appeal and when the urge to write comes up. When it does though, I have gotten very particular over what I write. Sometimes taking all night to get a few paragraphs just the way I want. Even then there are some things in this chapter that could be done much better, whether it be through a different medium all together or just being done by a better writer than I.

Of course, I do appreciate all the favorites, follows, and reviews my work gets. The only thing that has irked me over summer has been people asking how my writing is coming along. I have said it multiple times before, and I'll probably end up saying it even more in the future. My writing progresses at its own pace, and I cannot even guess when I'll have new material done. I have a life outside of this site that comes first.

Next, I have anonymous reviews enabled so that anyone can review. If you have serious questions or concerns about my fics that you'd like answered, please create a profile so I can answer them as I will not answer anymore questions from reviews in chapters from this point on. Only reviews with serious questions will be replied to as well. I simply don't have the time anymore to answer every single review I get. I am also going to be attempting to forgo the use of Author's Notes from here on out as well aside to give details like the following.

Background music:

- Normandy Scenes: Uncharted Worlds - Mass Effect OST

- Therum Scenes: Open Water - Kerry Muzzey - Trailer Music 2

As always, Enjoy!

Loud dance music is blaring in what seems like the most popular bar and dance club on the Citadel. In the middle of it all was an Alliance lieutenant who was busy dancing with a few women. A few meaning the seemingly prerequisite Asari, a human woman could have very well been a model out for a night on the town, even a Turian female had managed to surround him. Every side of his body was being touched by a member of the opposite sex, keeping time to his own dance moves. The group all moved together fluidly, each of them reading the others moves as the women took turns grinding themselves on the various sides of the lieutenant's body.

Just as it seems as if it couldn't get any better, a distinctive trumpet tune begins to build up behind the club's music, gaining in intensity as it did. No one in the club noticed, save the lieutenant who immediately slumped his shoulders and groaned loudly as the trumpet's tune became earsplitting.

Sunday January 5th, 2183 04:00 local

SSV Normandy SR-1, Crew Quarters

Systems Alliance Orbital Dry Dock, L5 point

Earth, Sol system, Local Cluster

"Damnit, right as I was getting to the best part." Flight Lieutenant Jeff 'Joker' Moreau groaned as his fellow crewmen had already gotten out of their beds and were prepping for the day. Rubbing a hand over his growing beard, he absent mindedly thought how long it would be before some REMF made him shave it off. He laid in his bed for a moment, waiting for the last crewman to leave. Once he was sure he was alone, he pulled his footlocker out from underneath his side of the bunk while staying in bed. Opening it up, he grabbed two devices. Looking like hollowed out prosthetic legs that were cut in two, he set them up so that the bend in the devices knees were over the bed. Taking a deep breath or two he swung his thin sheet off, revealing his scrawny legs, and gingerly swung them over and into the devices.

"Activate." A single word from his mouth activated the devices. They closed shut on themselves and sealed while conforming their interior to the shape of Joker's legs and feet. These devices were essentially a stripped down version of a powered exoskeleton armor, repurposed for medical use. In Joker's case, they were to provide the support needed to his body to be able to walk properly. Born with Vrolik Syndrome, his bones were no stronger than glass and as such he needed the extra support the devices provided to get around without risking injury at every step.

As he gingerly stood up, making sure the legs and feet were functioning properly, he slid on his usual duty uniform. Standard issue shirt, pants, socks, and shoes all but the first a little larger to account for the slight bulk the devices made. Grabbing his omni-tool from his footlocker, he pulled up the schedule for the day and walked out to the mess hall. Being on a brand new starship for her shakedown run entailed a lot of paperwork and red tape to be gone through, but scanning through the schedule Joker saw that the departure time had actually moved up.

"Huh, guess we're not waiting for a new crew to show up after all." Joker muttered to himself as he lined up to get some breakfast. Of course there wasn't a line for breakfast since most of the crew were down in the cargo bay doing morning PT, led by Lieutenant Alenko. There was however, two people already seated and eating their meals. The Turian Spectre who had stayed behind from the rest of the Turian crew, Nihlus if Joker remembered right, was calmly eating some kind of grey meat while reading something on his omni-tool on the far side of the mess hall near the med bay. Closer to the Mess area and his back to the line was a human male in his duty uniform. The short buzz cut, slightly pale skin with numerous scars told Joker it was Commander Shepard. Having gotten his food tray without incident, Joker appraised his options for who to sit near.

Let's see... The Lion of Elysium, N7 Infiltration Operations Agent extraordinaire, versus Spectre, Turian bad-ass able to go above the law whenever he wants.

Lion it is.

Setting his tray down in front of the Commander, Joker began to sit.

"Move to your seat portside five inches before you sit." Shepard breathed out as he continued to work his way through a huge plate of food. It was stacked with double helpings of everything the kitchen staff had made. Not questioning the Commanders reasoning, Joker did as he was told.

When he sat down, the Commander spoke softly again. "Talk as low as you can but try to eat at a normal pace." Shepard managed to say between small bites of food, always having a bit of food in his mouth, tucked into his cheek.

Joker awkwardly started to eat his own breakfast. Once he had a large bite in his mouth, he tried copying Shepard. "Sfo... Whazz... Da... Tig... Idea?"

Joker could see Shepard's mouth curve upwards on one side in a slight grin as he continued eating. "I'm pretty sure our Spectre friend has been keeping tabs on me. Seemingly every room I've been in since we've arrived on the Normandy, he's been there as well." Shepard stopped to take a drink of juice before continuing. "I had to adjust your seat so it would block his line of sight at me. Thus far he hasn't moved an inch, nor has he activated any listening devices to hear what I'm saying yet."

Joker stopped eating, "How do you-"

"Classified beyond your pay grade Joker, trust me." Shepard interrupted. "Ignore everything else right now, how are you feeling about flying the Normandy as she was intended to be finally?"

Joker paused his eating, "Man, you would not believe how stoked I am to finally truly connect with this beauty. We ran a compatibility test last night before rack time, and the BMI readings were so in tune, it was like the Normandy was anticipating my next maneuver!" Joker's excitement caused him to talk louder, which he realized too late and gave Shepard an apologetic look.

"It's alright Joker. The Spectre already moved positions anyway. He can see me now and is probably doing some lip reading to get what I'm saying." Joker looked down at Shepard's plate and saw that where once it was stacked full, it was now nearly empty. Before he could even open his mouth, Shepard got up, "I'll stop by the cockpit later to see how you're handling the interface, right now I have to go get suited up."

Joker sat there dumbfounded for a minute, before he turned around in his seat to view Shepard who was walking down to his Executive Officers cabin. "Hey Commander!" Joker called out, causing Shepard to pause slightly, "Why aren't you down at PT with the rest of the crew?"

Turning towards Joker slightly, Shepard replied with a smirk, "Because my early morning PT is something that would give you nightmares."

"Huh..." Joker thought for a moment before calling back, "You'll have to forgive me for calling bullshit on that Commander."

Shepard just shook his head and went to his cabin, and Joker turned back around in his chair. As he did, he could have sworn he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. Glancing toward the Turian Spectre showed that the agent hadn't moved, so Joker went back to his breakfast concentrating on the day's events to get him past it's blandness.

Sunday January 5th, 2183 07:23 Local (04:20 Earth Standard)

Therum, Knossos System, Artemis Tau Cluster

University of Serrice Prothean Dig Site

Pain. Pure, unadulterated pain. Like any sapient creature, I cried out. I could feel my eye lids open and blink, but all there was was darkness. Putting aside the thought of why a fully enclosed helmet of some sort is a good idea, I tried to gauge where the nerve wracking pain was coming from. My chest hurt with every breath, and my right arm also hurt like hell. Everything else just seemed like it was put through some kind of extreme fight. Trying to move my arms and legs revealed that whatever covered my head also covered the rest of my body as I was having a difficult time moving those limbs. With those immediate concerns taken care of for now, I began to think about the other pressing matters.

Where am I? How did I get here? What happened to me?

Flashes of mechanical beings coming at me, weightlessness, and fighting for my life caused a headache to flare up. I could see I had some kind of combat training as I did fairly well up to a point, using some kind of large rifle until it's ammo supply ran out. Even then I used it as a bludgeon weapon. The last flash was of everything exploding around me, having trouble breathing, and one of the mechanical beings crashing into me.

Setting those thoughts aside, I realized something else, perhaps even more important that everything else.

"Who am I?"

Liara woke with a start as she heard the man before her cry out in pain. She immediately regretted falling asleep in the uncomfortable chair as her neck promised a day's worth of soreness from her head hanging down to her chest all night. Rubbing her neck to soothe some of the pain, she looked over the man before her. His eyes were open and his breathing had picked up, but made no other moves beyond fidgeting his arms and legs.

Getting up as quietly as she could, Liara made her way to the prefab's door intending to go get Alice. When she reached the door, she stopped for a moment and looked back at the man.

"Who am I?"

Those three words hit Liara like a biotic throw with no barrier to defend with. Goddess... Does he really not know who he is anymore? Moving back to the man, she kneeled down beside him. Taking a deep breath to steel herself, she waved a hand in front of the man's face. His eyes didn't move at all in reaction, but it seemed like he could hear her.

"Is someone there? Hello?" The man's voice was filled with confusion, and Liara took pity on him.

Grabbing his closest hand with her own, she replied in what little human standard she knew.

I could hear someone moving near me, but I still couldn't move or see for that matter. With no other option open to me I did the only thing I could. I asked for whoever they were to confirm their presence.

"Is someone there? Hello?"

A moment after, I felt someone take a hold of my hand with their own and reply, "Yes. Here. You safe." While not the best at human standard English, the feminine voice did seem to have a natural calming effect on me.

After Liara had taken the man's hand and answered him as best she could, she could see him visibly calm down. Just then Alice came in, still in what appeared to be her underwear.

"What's going on Liara?" She asked, to which Liara just shook her head.

"I don't know. I fell asleep in the chair last night, then I was woken up by his cry of pain. He hasn't moved, but he's awake and speaking. He also seems like he's blind as he didn't react when I waved my hand in front of his face."

Alice came closer to the bed, activating her blue hued omni-tool as she did. Waving it over the man, she waited for it to process the scans. A moment later she kneeled down by the man's head, and spoke calmly.

"Can you hear me?"

"Yes, I can." The man replied, his eyes darting around to find the source of the voice.

"Alright. My name is Alice and I know you must have a lot of questions, but right now the armor you are wearing is slowly booting up. It's linked to your nervous system and it is why you can't see anything just yet. It's slowly bringing your body back up to speed. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Good. When Liara found you, you were badly hurt. Your suit is taking care of those injuries which is why you're in pain. Now my friend and I are going to step outside for a moment. When you regain your sight just call out for us. You should gain the ability to move shortly afterwards. At that time I'm sure we'll answer any questions we can." With that Alice stood up and tapped Liara on the shoulder to go. Liara squeezed the man's hand before letting go and heading out.

Sunday January 5th, 2183 04:59 local

SSV Normandy SR-1, Cockpit

Systems Alliance Orbital Dry Dock, L5 point

Earth, Sol system, Local Cluster

Joker took a deep breath as he settled into his chair. Doctor Chakwas had spent the last fifteen minutes hooking up various sensors to him to monitor his vitals while he was linked to the Normandy and it's flight VI. While Brain-Machine Interfaces were finally becoming a standard in the Alliance in regards to omni-tools and other basic items, the BMI that Joker would be using was only entering its second stage of flight testing. He had previously been on the flight team that tested it on the Alliance fighters, where it performed beyond all projected estimates. The next logical step for Alliance R&D was to see if the same interface could be used on ships of heavier classes. When the fighter stage of testing had finished, work on the Normandy's internal systems had just begun, so she became not only the test bed for the latest in stealth tech but also for BMI tech. Not only was Joker connected to the Normandy's flight systems, but every analysts station also could interface with their users. The processing power of the Normandy's VI suite combined with a team of highly skilled data analysts and its stealth tech afforded it unparalleled reconnaissance abilities.

In theory anyway. Joker thought. Each individual data station on the CIC deck is capable of BMI, true 'torture tests' had yet to be done. For now, since the Normandy would be running on a skeleton crew there was not enough people familiar enough with the interface technology to even try such a test. This flight would only have Joker and six analysts in the interface, to join in at a later time, while the other dozen or so CIC crewmembers either monitored those 'jacked in' or double checked the data.

With his station all set and Chakwas giving him a thumbs up, Joker began his preflight checklist.

"Engineering reporting all mission critical systems green. Executive Officer reporting all crew accounted for. Requisitions Officer reporting all material accounted for. Activating Normandy VI suite."

There was a pause as all the lights in the ship dimmed by a fraction before returning to their original levels as a soothing female voice came over the PA system.

Welcome to the SSV Normandy SR-1 crew. I am your ship-base VI designation V47L-1Y. All BMI stations are green and ready for use.

"... Ship VI logic and data streams running green. Initiating Helmsman's station neural interface." With that Joker removed his ball cap, leaned all the way back into his chair, and closed his eyes. The high backing of the chair molded around him as soon as he did while two strips of curved metal wrapped themselves around his forehead and joined together.

SSV Normandy SR-1, Neural Interface

Joker's eyes opened up and he found himself in a white dreamscape. Looking around him, everything was white for as far as he could see.

Cracking his knuckles, Joker brought up his omnitool."Alright, Neural Interface sandbox loaded. Bringing up SSV Normandy Flight controls." Around him, a cockpit reminiscent of old air-breathing jet fighters appeared. As he got comfortable, the view around the cockpit changed to that of all the Normandy's sensors combined into one image. It was all just text floating in space about the center of mass of the object it pertained to, or outlines of the object if it was in range of the LADAR sensors.

Looking around, Joker scoffed. "Screw that." Instantly, the landscape around the jet cockpit changed to be that of what Joker would see if he simply looked out the observation window in the real cockpit. Space as it was meant to be seen.

Joker smiled, "Much better."

SSV Normandy SR-1, Cockpit

While Joker was 'jacked' into the Normandy, Lieutenant Alenko monitored his actions. Preflight checklists that normally would have taken over twenty minutes were done by Joker and the Normandy VI in less than five seconds. Right as the ship's clock hit 05:00, Joker's voice came over the PA and the comm channel to the Earth Orbit Port Authority.

"SSV Normandy is requesting permission to leave the dock Port Master."

A moment later came the expected reply. "Request granted Normandy. God Speed."

With that, the Normandy's four fusion power plants firing up to maximum output could be felt as a subtle vibration in the floor and humming sound. As Kaiden looked around the cockpits observation windows, he could see the dry dock arms slipping by. Checking his own data terminal, he could see Joker was keeping the Normandy at exactly at port speed with no assistance from the VI. In fact, all VI assistance was disabled for the time being.

"Uh... Joker?" Kaiden began, opening a line into the neural interface. "Why are the VI assistance modules disabled?"

Kaiden got an exasperated sigh in reply. "I am not letting this beauty's shakedown cruise be handled by a VI. Besides, taking the Normandy through to the Charon relay is the best way to test out the interfaces capability."

"The Captain won't be very happy to see that you changed how the interface's test was going to run."

That elicited a brief laugh. "Trust me. I'm the best pilot in the whole Alliance. I've done enough relay jumps to be able to do it by feel rather than rely on what a computer spits out."

"So, the age old question returns." A flanging voice came from behind Kaiden. "Which should be trusted, an organics gut instinct or a computer's hard math?"

Kaiden had to hand it to the Turian Spectre. He had come up into the cockpit without making as much as a sound. "Isn't that the point of this shakedown run?" Kaiden countered as he turned his seat around to look at Nihlus. "To find some equilibrium between organic and synthetic thinking processes to better them both?"

Nihlus seemed to contemplate Kaiden's words for a moment before answering, "That and much more Lieutenant."

Just as Nihlus turned to leave, a slight beep at Kaiden's data terminal drew his attention. "We have cleared high Earth orbit."

No sooner than did Kaiden utter those words than the fusion plant temperature climbed almost instantly to maximum safe output. Thanks to inertial dampeners and mass effect fields, what would have been enough force to flatten everyone inside the Normandy to the nearest wall was just a mild push sternward.

"Setting cruising speed to point five c. Estimated time to Charon relay jump is 13.9 hours. Estimated arrival time to Arcturus Station is 26 hours."

"Adjust that speed Lieutenant." Captain Anderson's voice came over the cockpit PA. "We have clearance to proceed at best possible speed to Arcturus."

"Aye-aye Captain." Joker replied, which was followed up shortly by "Course calculation complete. Mass effect core online. Beginning acceleration maneuver." Before Kaiden or any others had a chance to even look out an observation window to admire the blue shift aura that encompasses any ship travelling beyond the speed of light it ended. "Acceleration maneuver complete, preparing deceleration." To those main acclimated to travelling on starships, they could feel the subtle thrum of maneuvering thrusters firing to orient the Normandy so it's engines were now facing the direction they were going. Another brief and mild push on everyone's bodies, this time towards the bow, and the Normandy had slowed itself down to approach speed.

"All hands secure for relay transition. Transmission sequence and calculation complete. Approach begun. Transition in three... Two... One..."

Sunday January 5th, 2183 09:35 Local (05:05 Earth Standard)

Therum, Knossos System, Artemis Tau Cluster

University of Serrice Prothean Dig Site

I don't know how long I sat there motionless, as I just zoned out listening for any clues as to where I was. It was oddly relaxing, not being able to move or see with only my hearing to tell me anything. Just as I heard the two women from before start to make their way back to me, something began to appear in front of my eyes

:/ Suit and user diagnostic complete

:/ MitchellR_ memory scan complete.

:/ CRYNET SYSTEMS SUIT OS 3.1415-N1.5 self paced acclimation program loaded

:/ Executing...

Very slowly, whatever was blocking my vision before removed itself as the darkness slowly bled away. Along the edge of my peripheral vision I could see some kind of heads-up display but that wasn't important right now.

:/ Optical acuity calibration required.

:/ Program executing. Please focus your vision on the targets.

I followed the commands, as while I could see something other than black now, everything else appeared like I was looking through a set of opaque and warped lenses. The targets which appeared before my eyes moved all around, changing size and precision as I followed with my eyes as best I could. When I completed that, another message popped up.

:/ Optical acuity calibration complete. Adjusting to 20/20. Adjustment complete.

:/ Unlocking nanoweave musculature.

:/ Maximum nanoweave output 1%

With that last message, the weight that I felt holding my arms, legs, and head down disappeared.

Only 1% output? Huh... Wonder what this nanoweave stuff can do... Whatever it is...

Taking it easy, I simply raised my hands to the front of my face. As I did, I could see everything around with me amazing clarity. With my hands in front of my face, I could see that I was indeed wearing some kind of full-body armor. Flexing my fingers around, I could feel a sense of power behind the suit reacting to the motion, as if it was being held back. Curling my hand into a fist, I squeezed, feeling and hearing the sound of organic and synthetic muscles flexing.

"Unreal..." I muttered. Feeling confident, I sat up slowly. Now that I could clearly see my surroundings as well as the rest of my body. The armor I wore looked like someone took sections of the human muscle structure as a base for a synthetic muscle and threw in metallic connectors at key joints and impact points. It was then that I noticed that I could feel the texture of the bed I was sitting in despite the armor.

Testing a theory I had developing in my head, I swung my legs over the side of the bed, and gripped the metal railings that made up the frame. Cool to the touch.

"Neural integration at this level?" I breathed out.

"Impossible right?" A feminine voice broke my thought process. I was so absorbed in the discovery of what the armor I wore could do that I didn't register the sound of a door opening. Quickly turning my head toward the owner of the voice, I quickly made a threat assessment.

Brunette, fair skin tone, green eyes, roughly 5'5", maybe 120. No visible weapons, hands open, no body armor of any type... Interesting.

"And you are?" I asked still having not stood up from the bed, while the woman in question was still by the door.

She walked towards me, slowly and carefully. "My name is Alice." Her voice had a slight accent that I couldn't place but could swear I had heard before. "I was one of the people who brought you here an-"

"Where the fuck is here anyway?" I cut her off, causing her to become flustered a bit.

Regaining her composure she answered, "We are on the planet of Therum, presently underground in an ancient ruin where my partner and I have been working on an archeological dig. A different one was found the other day, and we were asked to go check it out. My partner found you, brought you to me, and we brought you back here to recover."

As she spoke, I couldn't help but get the feeling that she was hiding something. She was acting too casual about me.

"Alright, so that's what's happened thus far but I want to know what you know about this suit. Now."

My demand caught her off guard for a moment, but just a moment. "First you tell me what you remember."

I looked at her straight in the eyes, before I stood up. I was a full head taller than her, so when I walked right up next to her, she was having to tilt her head back to hold my gaze. To her credit she didn't flinch.

"Not. A. Godamned. Thing."

Sunday January 5th, 2183 06:00 Ship time

SSV Normandy SR-1

Systems Alliance Arcturus Station

Themis L5 Point, Arcturus, Arcturus Stream

Thanks in part to the in-system FTL jumps, the Normandy arrived at Arcturus by 05:05 ship time. Now nearly an hour's worth of loading equipment and supplies, the ship was ready for the next leg of it's journey.

"Everything is loaded and ready to go Captain Anderson." Shepard informed via omni-tool as the Normandy's cargo bay door closed and sealed. With the zero g loading done, Shepard could now undo his helmet from his standard issue Onyx armor. The armor wasn't what he was used to wearing, but being amongst regular infantry and navy personnel required some sacrifices.

"Good. Admiral Hackett informed me that he got R&D to send something our way for you. Said you'd know it when you see it."

At that Shepard looked around the cargo bay. While the majority of the crates had yet to be taken care of, they were all separated out by where they needed to go; Mess, Quartermaster, Engineering, Medical, etc. At the very end of the stacks, leaned up against the new Mako tank was a crate that was about the same height as Shepard.

"Got it in sight Captain." Shepard smirked. "You may need to issue a memo to the crew about what Hackett sent me. Pretty sure what they'll be seeing me wear is classified beyond their current clearance."

That elicited a chuckle from Anderson. "Understood Shepard. Don't hurt yourself getting it on."

"Aye-aye Captain." Closing the comm link, Shepard walked over to the crate. In the center of it was a palm scanner. Undoing the seal around his wrist, he slipped off the Onyx glove and placed it on the scanner. A moment later, a beep sounded followed by a hiss of hermetic seals coming undone. Grabbing an end, Shepard swung the cover open to reveal what was inside, letting out a long whistle in the process.

"Christmas has come early."

Sunday January 5th, 2183 010:07 Local

Therum, Knossos System, Artemis Tau Cluster

University of Serrice Prothean Dig Site

One hundred and sixty years. Of all the things Alice told me that was the hardest thing to take. Even being told the armor I'm currently wearing is a semi-organic nano-composition driven by an advanced DNA based computer that was not quite sentient, the human home planet being invaded by aliens (whose tech was 'borrowed' over a hundred years prior to the aliens awakening/invasion), humanity's spread to the stars with the help of more borrowed alien technology, as well as another violent encounter with aliens. None of that trumped the huge span of ti-

:/ Temporal transition162 years, five months, two weeks, and four days. Physical displacement... approximately 2,500 light years

I barely glance at the text that displayed in a corner of my vision, not wanting to put any more weight behind its meaning. Everyone I may have known and loved have been dead and buried for over a century. No one who could possibly help me remember who I once was. At best, any relatives I had are now scattered by four to five generations of marriage, birth, adoption, death as well as being spread amongst the stars. For all intents and purposes, I am alone.

:/ Chance for natural memory reclamation:... Unknown

:/ Chance for memory reclamation with emotional anchor point:... Approximately 50%

I don't know how long I was lost in thought, but I snapped out of it when Alice waved her hands in front my face. While her facial features had remained stoic the entire time, I could see in her eyes the concern.

"You alright solider?"

I scoffed and rolled my eyes, "Think about what you just asked and who you directed it at." I held my arms out wide to emphasize, "How many people can say that they traveled over a century and a half into the future with no memory of their own past?" I turned around, my back now facing the door and Alice. "In case you're wondering, the suit's already calculated it out. It doesn't know when or if my memories will come back naturally, whereas if someone could have been an emotional anchor point I would have had a chance at least."

"Don't be so defeatist." I could hear her walk up behind me, then felt her put a hand on a shoulder. "You'd be surprised what a century and half of medical science can do."

As she was talking, I heard the sound of the door sliding open. We both turned around to see someone walk in. As I looked the new comer over, I knew that I had never seen anyone or anything like it- no. Like her. I also knew that she was an Asari, all of whom were essentially blue hued alien women capable of incredible feats through something called biotics. The Asari, who had come into what I could only assume was a storage room, held all of the body language of someone who was out of their depth. Her small stature, when compared to mine, along with what appeared to be some kind of scientist full body suit instinctively said she wasn't a threat in a conventional sense.

Nothing's been conventional thus far though, and how do I know all this without having even seen a picture before!?

Once the Asari realized I was analyzing her and met my gaze, she let out a small squeak then began saying something I couldn't understand.

"Aad Amin tua aul n'nir?" While soft, the Asari's voice made the language she spoke almost lyrical.

"Neh tua naa Liara. Feith nesh." Alice replied in a near similar matter, her own voice making the language flat. "Let me introduce you real quick." The switch for Alice between language was almost seamless. "This is Doctor Liara T'Soni. She is my boss, here on the site anyway, and is the one who originally found you."

"Tha-aresh." Doctor T'Soni spoke, bowing her head slightly in greeting. "Amin ilod llie naa eithel."

This is going to be fun.

"She said hello and hopes you are doing well." Alice translated for me.

"As good as I can be Doctor T'Soni. I thank you for everything you've done for me thus far." I replied, sincere for the most part. "I hope the two of you can teach me how to speak the required languages in this brave new galaxy of ours. Otherwise, I'm in for a -GAHHH!"

:/ Wireless devices accessed. Firewalls and encryption subverted.

:/ Accessing language files from Intra/Extra-solar information network

:/ Processing...

:/ Vital language files found. Compacting and transferring.

After Alice went in by herself to talk to their mystery guest, Liara paced around the small area. Between the communal tables set up between the habitation prefabs, the laser mining drill that was used to remove most of the rock from the Prothean tower thus far, and the ramps that led up to where she had left off the other day. She had so many questions to ask of the man, but didn't know where to start. Eventually she found herself standing right next to the door, eavesdropping in on Alice and the man's conversation. Alice was rehashing things that she had gone over with Liara, with some details added here and there.

Goddess... That all but confirms his memory loss. What kind of traumatic event happened that could have caused something of that scale to occur? Emboldened to learn more, Liara brought up her omni-tool, a spare Savant II she kept for emergencies (it was a graduation gift from her mother when she received her doctorate) to replace her Cipher III, and began researching.

Hmmm... Let's try 'human memory loss'. Having earned her doctorate, Liara was used to having to sift through large amounts of information quickly to find what she was truly looking for. She was able to keep some of her attention on what Alice and their guest were saying, and when the mention of an 'emotional anchor' came up Liara pounced on it. Quickly typing in 'human retrograde amnesia' + 'memory recovery' + 'treatment', she got surprisingly few results back. One did catch her eye though and prompted her to enter the prefab.

As she opened the door, she saw that their guest had turned around and walked towards the back of the prefab. Alice had a hand on his shoulder in what appeared to be a reassuring gesture. Not two steps in the door and the two of them turned to look at her. Liara looked at Alice, meeting her eyes quickly before looking at the man behind her. His own eyes, a curious combination of light brown and green, seemingly scanned her whole person. Yet Liara could still see confusion behind the cold calculation of a solider trying to identify a threat.

Taking a short breath, Liara chose to speak in her native tongue of High Thessian rather than the more common trade language she and Alice normally conversed in. "Maybe I could be of some help."

"I don't think so Liara." Alice replied, surprising Liara. While the galactic trade or basic language was expected to be known by every species, it was rare to encounter individuals who would take up High Thessian. While it is most common language amongst asari, it is famed for its intricacy as completely different dialects, nuances, and other language roadblocks can pop up even just kilometer away on Thessia or other primary asari worlds. While Alice's own High Thessian was good, it was stilted slightly.

After grinning slightly at Liara's shock, Alice continued, "Give me a moment," then turned back to talk to their guest. Liara activated her omni-tool and brought up her translator implants 'real time' function. While a fraction of a second behind, it allowed her to understand what Alice and the man were discussing.

Liara found herself hearing but not listening to what Alice was saying, her attention focused on the man before her. If she were to stand right next to him, he would probably be able to use the top of her head as a head rest. Then there was the rest of his physique, which obscured by the armor he wore, was undoubtedly honed to perfect his performance in the art of war.

Right now though he's a soldier without a purpose. A blank slate.

As the man thanked her in his native language, Liara was able to pick up a phrase or two she already knew, but was caught up in his voice. It was not quite a bass, but neither was it an tenor. As he began to ask if either Alice or herself would be able to teach him some of the galactic languages, Liara smiled a bit.

That smiled turned into a gasp of horror as he cried out in pain and fell to his knees grasping his head. Quickly stepping forward, both Alice and Liara grabbed onto him before he fell face first on to the floor.

"What's going on Alice?"

"I don't know, it could be a result of his injuries, his memory returning, the suit being damaged somehow. I just don't know!"

Both women were too concerned with the status of the man between them to notice that both of their omnitools were beginning to heat up slightly. While they managed to get their guest to lie down on his back, he was still holding his head and grunting with pain.

Liara looked to Alice as they kneeled on either side of the man. "Is there truly nothing you can do?"

Alice, who had been looking at the man turned her gaze towards Liara. "There is something I can do, but I don't know if I should. The consequences could be disastrous for everyone."

"What is it? Tell me!" The desperation clear in Liara's voice.

"I can transmit an emergency signal via extranet that will bring an entire Alliance fleet down on us within a matter of hours. The signal is only meant to be used in the event of our digs coming across an active Ceph Stage One or Stage Two stronghold. That fleet will not allow any sort of Ceph presence to survive, and they will fire an ungodly weapon of mass destruction upon this planet, ensuring nothing on this planet will survive." Alice grimaced, there were only a dozen or so people inside the Alliance that even knew of the fleet's existence, let alone the weapon at its heart.

"Is there any other way?" Liara pleaded, partly for the preservation of the Prothean ruins, but also for their own lives.

Alice shook her head. "Not for something that will get people here as soon as possible. The only other means I have is an extranet dead drop that will take a few days for it to be noticed, decrypted, before action can be taken."

Liara didn't even hesitate, "Do it. He needs more help than we can give him right now."

Alice nodded in understanding, and began to activate her omnitool only to realize it was already up. "What the hell?" Running across it's display were numerous lines of code with a loading bar at the bottom. "Something has hacked into my omni and is getting something from the extranet." Alice tapped a few of the holographic keys, "Perfect. I'm also locked out. Let me see your-" Stopping in midsentence, Alice noticed that Liara's omnitool was also hacked. "Wha-"

"Files compressed and transferred. Beginning user language assimilation. Estimated time of completion... One Earth standard day."

The ominous voice that came from the armor their guest wore had several factors. Synthetic first and foremost, clinical and uncaring tied for a close second. The good thing now, was that the man wearing the armor was once again quite, no longer groaning in pain.

"What does that mean Alice?" Liara was beyond confused. There had been several attempts in the past , before humanity showed up, at implanting the knowledge of a complete language via cybernetic and neural implants as a means to lower the language barrier and allow the Asari diplomatic corps more time to train their people in how to transfer even just the tip of galactic basic language skills to new people or species. However the users almost always ended up with some sort of mental illness, their brains unable to cope with the raw data of an entire language.

Alice on the other hand, seemed to ignore her and was working on her omnitool. Liara recognized the look on the human woman's face as one she had when she was completely lost in a dig or research, and waited to see what would come from it.

A few moments later, Alice's eyes bugged out. Wide eyed, she stuttered , "A-all o-of them? It can't be possible."

"What's not possible Alice?"

Swallowing some spit, Alice turned her omnitools display towards Liara. "All of the languages of known Citadel races. The nanosuit used our omnitools to download every known language translation program and assorted files from the extranet, compressed them all down, and is now effectively installing it in our mystery guests head."

"But that's... More than..."

"Several exabytes of information? Yeah I know, but the nanosuit used the human body like wet ware and was able to achieve unprecedented file compression. There is almost nothing like it now except for possibly the Geth and their neural network."

"Goddess... To think your people had this kind of technology a century and half ago." Liara thought for a moment before continuing. "Why then does humanity not have it now?"

"Uh... It's complicated." Alice sighed, still fiddling with her omnitool. "The short story is that the men who created the technology in the first place were thrown out from their own company, which had managed to effectively rule the entire world in the 2020's through the 2040's, and said company ended up killing and destroying all samples of the technology in their search to replicate it. Now we've come close in some regards, but I doubt we will ever be able to get what we once had."

"I guess what my mother said once is true. 'No matter the species, there will always be those who will do anything to reach their goal.'"

"Yeah, the universal application of 'human nature' can be a bi- Yes!" Alice cried out, excited for something that popped up on her omnitool display.

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing! I noticed that there was still a connection between my omnitool and the nanosuit, most likely the nanosuit's computer communicating with the VI suite. IN any case, I've been poking into the framework of the suit's data and got this." Alice said, extending her arm so Liara could see what was on the display,

:/User ID: USAF Captain Ryan Mitchell

Sunday January 5th, 2183 06:30 Ship time

SSV Normandy SR-1

En route to Arcturus-Prime Relay

After transporting the storage locker to his room, Shepard had spent a considerable amount of time in there. Huh, Hackett must've sent him some new gear. Good, kid's earned it. As soon as the door opened, a message popped up in the lower right corner of his eye.

Briefing room. 5 mins. -A

Smiling to himself, Prophet dismissed the message and looked on as Shepard walked out from his XO cabin. The latest iteration of the N7 Aegis armor was a sight to behold. The standard issue armor for the Alliance, the Onyx, was already a technological marvel for most Citadel weapons manufactures. Citadel armories had the ability to include features such as thicker ballistic weave, or mechanized joints. However those came at a cost. The Onyx incorporates those two qualities into one with the rhinoweave. Similar to the fabled nanoweave of the early 21st century, rhinoweave is essentially synthetic muscle fibers that are several times tougher than any other kind of ballistic weave while maintaining a relatively light weight. All the while drawing power from the environment around it, including that of the wearer or the static discharge of a soldiers barrier generators. Add in the armor's ability to adapt its color scheme to match its environment, and it is nearly every soldier's dream armor with enhanced strength, durability, and concealment.

The Aegis though is an entirely different beast. Typically it is purpose built for each N7 according to their requests and mission specialties. This results in no two armor sets being alike, but allows for maximum field capability for the operatives. Only rumors exist of the Aegis' true capabilities, such as Ceph based energy shielding, personal cloaking, or even a fully realized AI integrated with it to assist the wearer.

Based purely on the aesthetics of Shepard's Aegis, Prophet could immediately figure that it played directly into his Infiltration Operative standing. Enhanced muscle control, extended power cells for longer cloaking, noise and EM dampening, full heat insulation/adaptation, BMI-VI suite tied directly to Shepard's nervous system for on the fly hacking via omnitool as well as spotting calculations, naturally the typical N7 nanite suite, and finally enhanced data gathering spectrum. Prophet smirked slightly, the younger operative having the helmet's face plate retracted so no one would question who exactly it was that was wearing the smooth armor. While it looked to be closer in line to the standard Onyx Light armor, it was even smoother and showed more of the Rhinoweave bundles. That was where the casual observer would be mistaken. The armor plating that was on Shepard's Aegis was made from highly refined coltan-titanium, which also covered critical joints. Between the alloy armor and skeleton was carbo-platinum, a material nearly impossible to remove once in place. Finally, below the Rhinoweave and coltan-titanium frame was the last line of defense. A multi-faceted ionic electro-active polymer liquid armor layer protected the wearer from anything that got past the Rhinoweave as well as handled distribution of medigel.

For all intents and purposes, Shepard could take the entire crew of the Normandy down and no one, save Prophet, would be able to stop him. For all of that though, Prophet was standing right in front of Shepard cloaked as he had walked out from the cabin. Either Shepard hadn't noticed, activated his enhanced vision suite, or simply was brushing off Prophet's presence. Prophet hoped it was the last one, as he followed Shepard up the stairs and into the briefing room to find a certain Turian there waiting for them and no Anderson.

This is going to be the start of something big.

Micro-Applux OtOS - Sunfire [Ver. 23.42.112.a]

C:\Users\Admin xnet ping ARC-SysAll Theta.231s.122.539.A700

pinging ARC-SysAll Theta.231s.122.539.N700 with 32 bytes

32 bytes from SysAll.N7Dept (ARC-SysAll Theta.231s.122.539.N700): 0 245 600ms

32 bytes from SysAll.N7Dept (ARC-SysAll Theta.231s.122.539.N700): 1245 601ms

32 bytes from SysAll.N7Dept (ARC-SysAll Theta.231s.122.539.N700): 2 245 603ms

32 bytes from SysAll.N7Dept (ARC-SysAll Theta.231s.122.539.N700): 3 245 602ms

4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% loss

C:\Users\Admin xnet link ARC-SysAll Theta.231s.122.539.A700

Connecting to ARC-SysAll Theta.231s.122.539.A700…

Connection Established. Local N7 key accepted.

C:\Users\Admin\N7\charybdis\fleetresponse\firepowe r

File Access Approved

Alliance Charybdis Fleet Firepower

The species known as Charybdis, colloquially as Ceph, is one of the most threatening species ever encountered by mankind. The effects of the Ceph warships main weapon being activated for a period of around three seconds before its destruction by the Archangel satellite resulted in the stagnation (and near reversal) of the climbing global average temperature. This is of course discounting the material loss from the Stage 1 and Stage 2 incidents which has been calculated to be in the trillions of credits after adjusting for inflation and exchange. After the discovery of the mass effect and the relay system, the chances of running into the Ceph again only became a matter of when.

To that end, a select group within the Alliance Admiralty has managed to set aside enough from every budget cycle to devote to a single fleet whose purpose it is to wipe out any possible Ceph incursion before it can even get past Stage 1. To accomplish this, their ships are equipped solely with the infamous PAX and SIX rounds. While use of these rounds has been looked down upon by the Council, their effectiveness in both space combat and ground support far exceeds that of traditional mass accelerated slugs.

PAX: Plasma Accumulator rounds (aka Plasma Asskicking - eXtermination rounds) operate very similarly to an incendiary round. The round itself is simply a container for fissile material. When fired, a nuclear reaction is started, with product being a high temperature plasma. Upon contact with either a kinetic barrier or hull, the casing is shattered allowing the plasma to escape and wreck havoc on a hull or ground target.

SIX: Singularity Induction rounds (aka Single Insane eXplosion rounds) operate on the same principle as the Citadel races disruptor torpedoes in that it creates turbulent gravity waves to destroy its target. The only downside to the SIX round is in its cost, as it requires the use of two mass effect cores. The size of which is normally used in Citadel fighters. Many armchair generals regard this as non-critical, as the round is more likely to hit its intended target than the slow cumbersome disruptor torpedoes which could be shot down by GARDIAN anti-missile laser fire.