Chapter 3: Breaking the Blitz

It was going to be Mindoir all over again

This was all that the colonists could think as they ran left and right, trying desperately to find loved ones and safe haven simultaneously. Bullets, biotics, and tech grenades were flying everywhere as the pirates killed, maimed, and terrorized their way towards Elysium's largest settlement. They had destroyed the dry-docked Alliance frigate, the SSV Saratoga, on arrival, and the remaining forces, on shore leave, died all too quickly. There was no hope for Elysium. 

A child, possibly six or seven years old, was running with his mother, but he dropped his toy. Not understanding the severity of the situation, he turned around to grab it, only to run into a batarian slaver. His mother moved to make the ultimate sacrifice, hoping her son would escape, when the batarian's entire body lit up like an eezo core, with lightning arcing between all four of his eyes. he was dead before he hit the ground. 

And he wasn't the only one; the entire front line of pirates was suffering the same treatment. As the raiders began to take notice of their dying comrades, they too received shocks until only two batarians and a krogan remained. 

Stunned, and looking for a source, the trio of pirates demanded that the source of their current problem show itself. The batarians didn't live long enough to regret it as a bright blue ribbon of electricity blew clean through each of their heads and left scorch marks on the ground. Turning to the source, the krogan and the terrified colonists looked up to see the local power grid technician literally wreathed in blue arcs of lightning. 

"Impressive, human! But a few sparks won't kill a krog-urkak! The krogan never finish his bragging; as the strange man leapt off the pre-fab house he was standing on, and smashed the ground in front of the krogan with massive discharge on impact. It sent the krogan flying.

At least until another man slammed into the warlord at dizzying speeds, pile-driving the 800 pound beast and finishing it off with a stomp that caved in its skull. Just when they thought the day couldn't get any weirder, an eight-foot tall green suit of armor walked up and asked their technician to escort them all to safety.

What were these guys?

This was not what they had signed up for! Elysium was supposed to be the proudest moment of their lives. It was meant to be the greatest blow to humanity in the entire Skyllian Blitz! They had gone over the battle plans, and there was nothing indicating that they would suffer any kind of significant loss. Now they were losing men almost as fast as they were losing ground. And they were losing ground at a horrific rate. To a single human at that.

No, this was no human. Humans died when you shot them in the head. Humans died when you shot off  their head. By the Hegemony! Humans died when you shot them, period! Humans did not regenerate faster than krogan. Humans didn't have arms that turned into knives and cudgels and Protheans knew what else. Humans didn't casually lift a guy in Skirmish Heavy Armor, the best of the Batarians State Arms, clear off the ground, rip them in half, and... eat them?! And those eyes. Those weren't the eyes of a weak, greedy human. They were the eyes of a hunter, a predator. And they, the ones who had assaulted Elysium, were its prey. They had to withdraw and regroup before it finished carving through the - too late. 

It may as well have been raining blood and metal as Alex Mercer, Blacklight Virus strain DX-1118C, Codename ZUES, shredded through his ninth wave of pirates. They had gunships, but those were still being prepped for deployment. He could easily handle them, but he had promised Cole some action. The boy-scout knew the colony the best, so after thoroughly demolishing the pirates closest outpost so Cortana could signal the Alliance. That left Mercer to do what he did best.

Hunt, kill, and consume. 

Spotting a sniper in his 20/20 peripheral vision, Alex shifted to his whipfist and "sniped" back. Using the momentum of the retracting whip, his allowed it to spin him around, shifting to blade in the process, and mimicked a razor-sharp tornado that ended the lives of the ten closest pirate thugs. Of course, this whole time he was being shot, but the bullets used in this territory were useless against him. Being a fraction of the size of 21st century ammunition, these little shavings of metal were hardly noticeable against his decentralized nervous system, and did far less harm than regular bullets. This territory's "mass effect" phenomenon was fantastic shit in his opinion, but stopping power. Not that it mattered. Small arms fired had never, on any territory, possessed the stopping power required to truly harm him. These pint-sized rail guns were no exception. 

A whirring sound reminded him that gunships would be a bit different - and general pain in the ass - if they managed to his him. Apparently the pirates had finished prepping the heavy armor. He let out a roar. 

"Why the fuck is it always gunships with me?!" He had a bad experience on Retronuke Earth when corned by three Enclave vertibirds. He killed them, but one was packing mini-nukes. 

Before he could show the pilots just how screwed they were for ruining his mood, the sky darkened, and thunder drowned out all other noise. Alex stopped and smirked.

"Today's forecast," a guttural voice behind him droned, "Showers of sparks, metal, and dumbass pirates, with  a one-hundred percent chance of electric ass-kicking." 

And in a display of power that Humanity had once attributed to the wrath of the divine, Cole MacGrath, the Conduit of electricity, bent the weather to his will. Lightning came crashing down from the black clouds, devastating the airborne attackers. Within seconds, all three gunships had exploded in the sky, falling to the ground as burning wreck. There had once been a time when this would have exhausted Cole, but no longer. As a means of entering regions with no electricity to keep him going, Cole had gotten an implant on Retronuke Earth. The small device inserted on his lower back was basically a miniature power plant. It couldn't sustain a lightning storm for hours, nor could it provide the energy to instantly heal serious injuries, but it gave him a portable reserve for lengthy fight or long time off the power grid. He didn't know the details, and when the Auto-Doc at Big MT started to explain, Cole immediately left the room in search of a beer. The best part external forces, from frying it, while his Conduit nature prevented any kind of sickness. Lead-poisoning was another disease he was immune to. 

Several bullets flew past his head, andCole quickly raised a polarity wall. The idiots continued to shoot at his electric shield, and Cole felt the familiar buzz of radiation. "Bastards are modding their ammo with radioactive chemicals!" It made sense; a poisoned target usually sucked resisting death or enslavement. This just pissed Cole of more, and with his free hand, he tossed several shock grenades at the pirates. The resulting explosions were quite satisfying. 

The explosion that landed six feet from his position was definitely not. As Cole got his bearings, he realized that there were four tanks approaching, along with one more gunship.

"Where the fuck did they get Grizzlies?" Alex yelled to no one in particular. Then he heard something that made his damn day.

"I don't know what the fuck you guys are, but this is the end of the road for you!" A voice screamed from the gunship. "You've failed anyways freaks, since you never noticed the other soldiers approaching from the south! You will die here, and I will reap the rewards personally from our great leader upon my return!" 

Alex and Cole looked on in silence for several seconds, and then they both burst out laughing. Unable to contain his rage, the pirate field commander started yelling again. "What is so fucking funny you freaks?" 

Alex instantly stopped laughing, and he looked up at the gunship with a completely manic grin on his face. "You think we didn't notice the small fucking army you sent? They have a quick death at the hands of a born killer waiting for them! You don't believe me? Contact them and listen to their dying screams!" 

"Very well? I'll call your bluff. You've only bought another ten seconds of life, anyway." Came the reply, but it sounded much less confident than before. He pulled up the visual display from his gunship's mobile command control. What he saw was terrifying 

An eight foot machine - he thought it was a machine - was running and gunning at breakneck speed. With a shotgun in each hand, and a flawless trigger discipline this metal monster was in no danger of its guns overheating as it alternated between the left and the right hands. The pirate commander kept needing to change helmet cameras. as whichever one he was viewing would stop transmitting once the green freak took aim. The worst part was that he knew his men were shooting it. He saw the countless bullets his the machine, but they didn't seem to do more than let it know who to shoot next. The finest weapons in Terminus space weren't even scratching this inhuman killer! 

The gunfire started becoming and more infrequent, and there were soon only two left: a batarian and a turian. From the turian's helmet camera, the pirate commander saw the green giant pull out a Devlon Industries Stinger and place a bullet in each of the batarian's eyes with ridiculous timing and perfect aim. Then it reached behind the view of the turian's visor cam. The pirate commander didn't need to see to know that it was for the turian's fringe, or that it was going to mercilessly snap the poor bastard's neck. He just sat there, unable to accept that over fifty Terminus fighters had died at the hand of... 

Of what? What were these monstrosities?

"What are you!?" he yelled. He never expected his own gunship's comm. system to respond. 

"A monument to all your sins" responded a female's voice. "The Chief and I hate terrorists and we really hate aliens, so you just made our day. This is the end of the road for you and all your efforts at terrorizing the Verge. Alliance ships are coming to deal with however many of you we leave alive for them. Before you point out that they couldn't have heard a distress call when you vessels are blocking all channels, you should know that your encryption algorithms royally suck." 

Before he could get anything more out of the voice, the gunship lurched violently. Looking outside, he saw that the hooded human who yelled at him earlier was tethered to the ship by a black tentacle where his right arm should have been. With a yell, he launched himself off the ground and retracted the tentacle, "reeling" himself in. The gunship was now swaying violently in the sky, and he glimpsed down at his Grizzly tanks reduced to scarp, with ribbons of lightning streaming out the last one and into the other human, completely shutting it down. 

A shattering sound alerted him to the fact that the hooded human had ripped off the side of his gunship, and he was now casually climbing in. There was a look in his eyes that just seemed... wrong. The creature before him tore a hole in his chest, and the pirate commander felt himself disappearing. The last thing he saw before dying was a sky full of Alliance ships 

The Blitz had been broken.

As Alex Mercer consumed the pirate commander, he slipped into a familiar experience. He began sift through names, dates, places, and other information. Every experience that made up this batarian pirate, named Rusahk, was now a part of Alex Mercer. Alex had laughed earlier because the field commander of the witless SOBs had saved him the trouble of hunting him down. He had practically handed over the name of their next target on a sliver platter: 

Elanos Haliat, the instigator of the Skyllian Blitz would face the wrath of the Supernovas. 

...right after they managed to explain to the thousands of Systems Alliance witnesses what the hell had just happened...

Cole and Alex shared a look, and then ran like hell for a way off the planet.

"Sorry Chief!" Cole yelled over his shoulder. "You joined the Alliance, not us!" 

"He's not the only one" chuckled someone who had appeared right in front of them.

The two Supernovas came to a halt, and looked with utter fury at the last person they ever wanted to see on any territory. 

The man saluted mockingly at the pair, then said, "Staff Lieutenant Jack Ryan. Alliance Navy. You two have to come with me..." his eyes shone with amusement.

"Would you kindly?"