Massive Disaster 5-5 (Patreon)

The sound of Anderson clearing his throat was enough to get the attention of both Shepard and Zedd both, the redhead standing at attention while brown eyes flicked over to the rockslide rumbling throughout the room.“...lozenge?” Anderson didn’t even bother flinching at the joke, the redhead to tha captain’s right narrowing green eyes Zedd’s way on the man’s behalf anyway. “No, thank you.”“Just offering.”

The medbay was silent for a few seconds, Kira keeping her eyes off the Alliance marines in the room as Zedd noticed she suddenly found her fingers very interesting, nails bearing chipped polish the same blue as her hair, eyes and veins.After what felt like a good minute more, Anderson finally raised his gaze, the captain looking from Zedd to Shepard and coming to a rest on the unconscious twin behind the glass. “The Commander,” his head tilted to the woman at his side, “confirmed what my marines on the ground saw.” “...and?” Victors stared back at the older man, blinking as slowly as the captain worked his jaw.

“And the intervention your team supplied during the Geth assault was… decisive. More than that, in fact,” Anderson continued on, expression easing up just a bit. Still tired, but the man looked like he was at least trying to smile.

Which was odd.

“I saw the footage of you holding the line out there. Without you and your team taking down so many of the Geth and those…” Anderson shook his head. “Those Husks, we’d have a good many more out there dead. Civilian and marine lives both, in your hands.”

…yeah, sure. “We were just covering our own asses out there.” One hand waved its way in front of Zedd’s face as he pushed the compliment away. “Nothing much more than that.” Eyes firmly off Nina’s as she looked his way, Zedd just shrugged before he opened his mouth again. “The VCA had a pending offer with the Eden Prime Council. Eden Prime alone would have doubled the numbers in the VCA.”“And I assume taking away one of the System Alliance’s most culturally significant colonies, that…” Anderson shook his head, “That had nothing to do with your choice, of course.”“Of course, captain.” Zedd smiled at the captain’s stone face. “Business is business and business is business. Do I think the Alliance is full of chest-pounders without balls? No doubt, hasn’t changed since I was seventeen, but this had nothing to do with my personal feelings. An attack on humanity is an attack on our potential assets. No need to mistake ROI for charity here.”

“Woooow,” Jane’s voice was a low dry drawl, more like fresh wood than sandpaper but still harsh enough to strip paint. “I thought you were just in it for the money. Who knew you were a politician, too?”The CEO blinked her way. “What are y-”“Protecting assets… c’mon, the Captain’s not an idiot and neither am I.” Green eyes locked on to Nina for a split second, before jumping back to him. “You were protecting civilian living spaces. Hell, I saw you take a blast for that one. That in the quarterly budget too?”

If it was, he would probably have to deduct a couple thousand credits for the amount of Panacea, he’d have to inject in his ribs to make sure nothing was cracked. Enhanced body came with a much higher resistance, and it didn’t stop at just the negatives.Zedd clicked his tongue, mouth already half-open when Nina cut in again with another squeeze to his bicep. “The two aren’t mutually exclusive, Commander. The Victory Cooperative Accord is built on the principle that prosperity and security are intertwined. Dead colonists don’t sign contracts.”

“We also saw how you did, not just what you did,” Anderson pressed, the man clearly building to something like he always was. “The footage from your biotic, and your own… abilities, Mr. Victors.”

“‘Abilities’,” Zedd snorted loud enough to surprise himself, one hand over his mouth. 

“C’moooon, Anderson… you’re not going to act like you didn’t know already.” Even without the glasses hiding his eyes, it wasn’t too hard keeping his face blank. This had been a conversation he’d been expecting from Anderson since his teams had taken to the extranet. It was only a surprise it was happening now. “The VCA invests heavily in human potential, and we believe in pushing boundaries. You know exactly what I’ve been up to, considering I put it up on the extra for everyone to watch. Not my fault if they applaud my special effects team for it.”

A motion from inside the glass box cut the tension, every head in the room snapping to the side as John Shepard made his first movement in over an hour.

“Lieutenant?” The doctor in the room was on him immediately, gentle hands proving they were more than firm as they pushed the struggling marine back down on the bed. “I need you to relax. Do you hear me? Relax. You’re safe.”

A pair of blue eyes snapped open, a hard gasp tearing its way out of the N7’s throat.

Zedd had seen a lot of things since he’d woken up on that ship headed to New Abraham. Fear was a common one. Panic, a close cousin to fear, was also not an unfamiliar look. Hell, he knew up close the slow dawning realization a man wore on his face when he realized the math wouldn’t work out in his favor. 

This…

This wasn’t that.

This was more terror than he’d ever seen. Ancient, primal, absolute lizard-brain terror.

“Th-they’re coming…”  John tried to sit up, thrashing against the restraints and the doctor’s grip as his voice rasped its way free from his throat.

“John! John! Talk to me!” Jane was at the glass, palms pressed against it, the calm mask cracked to nothing. “I’m here!”

“Lieutenant, I’m going to need you to relax,” Chakwas soothed, trying (and failing) her very best at holding the big man back. “You’ve experienced a significant neurological shock.”

“The beacon!” Eyes wide and staring at something that wasn’t in the room, John just gasped out loud again. “E-extinction. Over and over. Extinction! Just… wiping out everything. A cycle… it never ends…”

The glass slid aside with a hiss of air as Jane Shepard rushed in, John not even looking at her as he gripped the sides of the bed until his knuckles whitened. “Saren… He’s working…w-working with them. He was there, w-with the Geth… they’re just puppets.”

Saren.

Anderson’s face went grey at the name, lines around the captain’s mouth deepening as Jane grit her teeth.

Saren Arterius. Zedd didn’t need to think about it to know who exactly that was and why he knew. The Spectre who supposedly hated humanity more than he hated bad aim. A Spectre going rogue? Using Geth? Attacking a human colony?

It would have been wrong to smile, he knew that. 

Over a thousand dead today and so many more injured; it would have been so very wrong, but he almost couldn’t help it. One of the Council’s own perfect movers and shakers caught with their hand in the cookie jar, putting his own head on the chopping block. A Spectre I could kill myself.

Anderson straightened up, looking from John’s sweating, trembling face; the captain looking as grim as a man could get. “My man is the sole witness to a clear act of war by a Citadel Spectre against a human colony. The Council will bury this. If they won’t discredit the claim, they’ll sweep the whole thing under the rug to avoid a larger crisis with the Hierarchy.”

Zedd raised an eyebrow. “And what are you going to do about it? It’s not what you know, it’s what you can prove.”

“I intend for the truth to come out.” There was steel in Anderson’s tone, the old man’s face as hard and unyielding as his voice. “The Citadel will hear this. They need to hear my man out. But I’ll be walking into a political firestorm and our ambassador will be fighting me every step of the way. He wants stability. He wants to play nice.”

Anderson paused, the man swallowing nothing as he kept those hard eyes on Zedd. “I need allies in this. Even the Alliance might not want to push this.”“Captain Anderson, I…” Kira stepped forward but a hand from Zedd had her go quiet, barring her way. “Like I said, no balls.”“Politics is not the same as business, Mr. Victors,” Anderson talked past his point, but the twitch in the man’s lips told Zedd he didn’t quite ignore it. “But you do have resources. You have technology that the Alliance still has yet to decipher to any real degree. And you, Mr. Victors, it is known that you have a reputation for… getting things done.”

Anderson took a breath. “Come with us to the Citadel. Stand with humanity. Your presence, as the de facto leader of those independent colonies, would force their ears. They can ignore a soldier. They can ignore a captain. They can’t ignore a corporate leader with a private army and the media’s ear.”

Zedd tilted his head to the side, face half-blank as he still fought the smile that was pushing past his lips. “And stick my neck into the Citadel’s noose? Why in the fuck would I risk that, Anderson? Give me one good reason to do that. You know the Council is pretty much calling me a terrorist in every way but the word.”

“Because if you help me,” Anderson took a single step his way, “No one will touch you while I am around. The Alliance Admiralty Board can bring up the issue to me after the fact because I will personally guarantee your safety. I give you my word, son, no matter what the Council tries, no matter what warrants they might want to invent, you are exempt from all of them as long as you help us bring that Turian down.”

Nina’s eyes went wide, the golden ticket clear and obvious. 

It was a hell of a card to play.

Zedd clicked his tongue, unable to deny what she was clearly seeing. Full protection. Immunity. Forcing the Council to see us to rub it in their face. Granted, he didn’t need legitimacy from the triple twats that apparently ran the galaxy, but…

But…

But if Zedd stood there in the Council Chambers, got them to call one of their own a traitor? If he got the Alliance a win and personally took down a Spectre and blew a hole in his head? Even the Alliance would have to listen to me.

Brown eyes flicked from the Captain, to the Butcher of Torfan, and over to the Hero of Elysium, the man still gasping on the bed, haunted by a nightmare Zedd still didn’t even understand yet.

Saren. Taking down a Spectre and rubbing the Council’s nose in their own mess.

The smile finally broke as he extended a hand.

“You’ve got yourself a deal, Captain.”

– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –

5k Words (100 FP)

5k Words (100 FP)

Tied End (100 FP) - Eliminate someone that bore a grudge.

Captain Obvious (100 FP) - Sleep with someone who’s been giving you obvious signals for over a year.

Hitting the Hitter (600 FP) - Order the successful elimination of a SPECTREEast Terminus Trading Company (400 FP) - Create a governmental authority under you.Angry Pirate Man (500 FP) - Create more than one team of superhumans.E Unibus Pluram (500 FP) - Grow your governmental authority to over 300 million people.

5k Words (100 FP)

Independence Day (500 FP) - Survive your first Reaper attack.

5k Words (100 FP)

Forge Points: 200

ROLL: Woden's Blood (200 CP) [Uber] {Magical - Small Scale}: "An unrefined sample of the world shaking substance used to catalyse the transformation from normal human to superhuman weapon, containing eight portions. Each portion can, with proper knowledge and technology, be refined to be used as any one unit of catalyst of the basic activation sequences. Alternatively the entire eight portions can be refined for use in one of the Special Activations. Replenishes once per month. Acts as a highly lethal contact poison to any person without the potential to receive Activations. Using an unrefined portion of Woden's Blood on a person with the potential to receive further Activations grants half a Physical and Halo Activation each and has the chance to horribly deform the recipient."

ROLL: No Capes (200 FP) [The Incredibles] {Skills - Clothing}:

"They snag on things, get caught in turbines, generally get in the way, and not many people can even pull the caped look off... Too much trouble to be worth it. And likewise, you can pick up on the weaknesses in designs extremely quickly, able to remove them or simply attempt to cover all your bases when you create something. Never again shall you create a suit that will fall short or hinder the wearer."

FAIL: Engineer | Erudition (800 CP) [Halo - UNSC] {Knowledge - Future Tech}: "Yet by understanding the nature of computer systems, wouldn't it be prudent to understand the technology those systems command? After all, what if you found yourself needing to recalibrate a Magnetic Accelerator Cannon or repair one of the dangerous Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engines that makes faster-than-light travel possible? What if you found a cache of human weaponry that could be used if someone managed to repair it? While you don't have the skill to create something as complex as a Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine, you'll know your way around it just like much of Humanity's 26th Century technology. You might even figure out how to make small improvements to the technology if you had the time to sit down and look it over. Hopefully the Covenant give you that time.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Ever since the rise of Dr. Catherine Halsey, many were on the lookout for who might become the next intellectual prodigy. Someone who was able to perform as well as she could, someone who could help turn the tide of the war. With this, that someone is now you. Your cognitive capabilities are on par with the good doctor now, making you exceptionally well-versed in nearly all modern human sciences while holding specialties in at least a few fields. Of course, thanks to that you are also rather exceptional at reverse-engineering technology, which allows you to do such things like obtain working knowledge of the mechanics behind Covenant technology and even begin to understand the 'hows' behind some of the mundane pieces of Forerunner technology currently littering the galaxy. Perhaps you could eventually reclaim them."

FAIL: Pandora's Child (600 CP) [Campione] {Crafting - Artisan}:

"Ah, the Campione, the unrivaled humans that managed the impossible: to slay a deity by themselves. They are Pandora's adopted children and the owners of a few advantages. Now, you're one of them too. As a Campione, you gain an allaround stronger body, grant you a natural talent to understand any language, an increase in mana that would make even the most untalented into a rival for a Paladin and a natural Magic Resistance that rivals the Gods themselves, making all mortal magic basically useless against you and greatly diminishing the magical attacks from Gods or other Campione. Also, your body will become near ageless, also having an accelerated healing and gaining magic senses if you didn't have them before. All in all, you could say that it improves everything about your body, not to mention that you also gain [Authorities] from any God you slay. Don't get too lazy because of this, I must warn you, many Campiones have fell after relying too much on their natural advantages, since there are ways to go around them."

ROLL: Paraphysician (600 CP) [Trinity: Abberant] {Crafting Biotech}: "Rashoud facilities around the world are ready to take in newly-erupted Novas and teach them how to use their powers. Training typically involves biofeedback exercises, practical lessons within shielded labs, and a crash course in quantum physics. After joining Utopia you continued your studies and acquired several degrees, eventually becoming a licensed Paraphysician.

Through observation and testing you can develop ways to quantify and categorize the mechanics of how individuals access superhuman powers. While you won't instantly understand the hows and whys behind a power, it's easy for you to create training methods to ease and speed the development of these powers and design chemicals and equipment to mitigate any side-effects that those powers may have.

As a side note, you've mastered the skills of Dormancy and Attunement to a degree that most Novas never will and can easily teach these skills to other Novas."

ROLL: Building IN SPACE (400 CP) [Starbound] {Knowledge - Future Tech}:

"Without a homeland, humanity has to get by with settlements and space stations, and you know how to build the latter. From the orbital mechanics needed to keep it in orbit, to the process of hiring people to help run it, you know everything you need to know to build and keep your space station running efficiently."ROLL: Xenospecialist (200 FP) [Gears of War] {Knowledge - Reverse Engineering}:

"The problem with fighting and violence is that it's no place for an egghead, and as a result valuable information could be lost to a wayward grenade before study. You've taken it upon yourself to bring that knowledge back, and as such you have an easier time understanding alien language and technology. It won't give you instant knowledge, but as you study further you will find it becomes easier to comprehend."

ROLL: Guardian Angel (600 CP) [Overwatch] {Crafting Biotech}:

"Doctor Angel Zieger, also known as Mercy, was renowned as an unparalleled medical genius even in her teens, being recruited to the medical division of Overwatch before she was even 18 and becoming the head of a hospital even before that. Her medical skills have literally brought the dead back to life and her technology is so advanced that it seems like magic. There is no one in the world able to even compare to her in her area of expertise. No one, that is, save for you. Your base medical knowledge is encyclopedic, your hands are almost mechanically accurate when performing surgery. Your technology is advanced to almost impossible standards, including things such as a staff that can engage a healing stream to rapidly regen people from a distance. Your knowledge may even allow you to slow the rate of aging."

ROLL: Black Market (600 CP) [Ben 10 0.1] {Mundane - Large Scale}:

"What, did you think it was all about cars? It's great as a hobby but you've got to make some money. To do that, you've got some connections. Whether it's some secure communication channels or meeting places, you've got your fingers in the criminal underworld of the universe. If you need to buy or sell something off the table these are the guys you want to call. If there's some kind of commercially available weapon, gadget, or vehicle of dubious legality you need to get and have its IDs removed, they can do it for pretty reasonable prices. They're not so good at finding super rare or unique items, but just about everything else is fair game. Just as well, if you need something to disappear or be sold, they'll take it off your hands and you will never see it again for a pretty substantial amount of cash. Pretty weirdly loyal for criminal underworld types too...as long as you don't sell them out or give them trouble, they'll be happy to do business with you wherever, whenever."

ROLL: Seed of The Singularity (600 CP) [Generic Cyberpunk] {Time}:

"They say that the future begins with an idea, but that's not true. It begins when you make an idea reality. You're not just someone that is content to fiddle the technology that's already there, you're one of the minds that could shatter everything we thought we knew. Your ability to innovate and invent is awe inspiring, doing the work of years in scant months. What you piece together in your lab to test a concept would count as a production model to anyone else, and your actual finalized designs are nothing short of pure brilliance. This applies just as well to actual discovery, burning through fields of testing and examination with incredible speed. Your work alone could build the entire future if you had the resources, and if you can survive the people who would kill for the things you can make."

FAIL: Reverse Engineering (400 CP) [Worm] {Knowledge - Reverse Engineering}: "While you still possess an amount of scientific knowledge beyond the curve of modern society, your base technical knowledge is far less than other Tinkers. This is however because your power lets you reverse engineer the principles and workings of anything you can get your hands on, and then apply that knowledge and understanding to your own work.

Just seeing a device and watching it function gives you a vague idea as to how it works, and examining something means you can derive the hows and whys as to its functions. This requires time and effort on your part, in addition to the time and resources it'll take to actually implement this new knowledge, but as long as you put in the necessary investment you can always understand virtually any new technology.

Your Tinker abilities will continue to expand as you gain access to new technology and knowledge, with potentially no upper limit as long as you can keep gaining samples to work with."