Chapter Text
Following her family's tradition, Ashley enlisted in the Alliance Navy as a marine after high school and was assigned to the Recruit Training Depot in Macapá, Brazil. Thanks to her steadfast endurance and aggressive instincts, she was promoted to squad leader. Subsequently Ashley is promoted again to platoon guide after her effective tutelage of the less skilled members of her training unit. Her platoon had logged unanimous positive feedback on her leadership and fellow soldier praised her focus on team-building exercises and "tough but fair" discipline.
Just two days before the attack on Eden Prime, Ashley and her fellow soldiers from Unit 212 was assigned by the unit's commanding officer with a recon mission to defend an unearthed Prothean beacon. However, despite being a nominal squad leader, Ashley wasn't given command on the mission, with leadership duties being relegated to Sergeant Donkey. Ashley interpreted this as the commanding officer's prejudice regarding her Williams heritage, and she was correct when he admitted it. However, the abuse of command did not stop there. Unlike the rest of the squads in Unit 212, Ashley's 6-man team Dog Squad was ordered to go to the mission site on foot.
During a long journey, while the Dog Squad was resting at a local house, the family's wife informed the team about a strange creaking noise she had heard. Her husband tried to convince her that it was just wood creaking in the wind. However, the wife tried to convince Sergeant Donkey that it wasn't just wood creaking, but some kind of creature, as she had also lost several chickens from their coop. Although the other team members suggested that it was probably just local fauna, Donkey volunteered to find the creature, also bringing Ashley with him the night before the attack.
“Williams, hang back a sec.”
“What do you want?”
“Just wanted you to know, I think you should be leading this mission. The liutenant is an ass.”
“The liutenant is the same as all the officers. He thinks because my grandfather surrendered at Shanxi I am gonna do the same thing. And he is an ass.”
“You know the squad doesn’t think that about you. You got the biggest balls of anyone in our whole platoon. And you keep your head straight when things go crazy. You stick around, eventually somebody’s gonna recognize that.”
“You still trying to get me to sleep with you?”
“Sure, but it doesn’t mean I don’t mean it.”
“Who knows Donkey, maybe one day we’ll both got get lucky.”
“Luck is for the lonely, Ash. We are a team. We have got each other.”
“And this team is got a long haul ahead.”
“Ha! We always get the shit jobs, chief, you know that---We are DOG SQUAD! Arrooo!” Mimicking a howl, Ashley rolled her eyes and was about to reprimand him for possibly scaring off their "hunt."
SKKREEKKK
Only a shrill, somewhat hoarse or hissing sound was heard first.
Both guns were immediately unsheathed from their backs, their engines humming with the barrels pointed toward the forest.
"What was that?"
"Shut up, Donk. I think you startled it, or you just attracted it."
Ashley squinted to see what was in the shadows. She heard something moving with many legs. She couldn't remember any animal on this planet making a sound like that. Or had she ever heard anything like it, other than old recordings from when the Rachni were still around? It gave her a slight chill if those alien bugs were still alive.
Among the shadows, she saw what looked like red orbs. She thought they were lights from civilian homes, before some of the red orbs moved from the ground up into the trees. "Williams. Did you see that?"
"...Good thing you did. Turn on your light."
Carefully making their way into the forest, they lit their way with the flashlights from their guns. At first, it was just ordinary forest floor, until Donkey stepped on something sticky enough to grip his soles tightly.
"Ashley!" Donkey whispered, but loud enough to be heard. Ashley turned to see what had happened to immediately realized the problem. A thick, white web hidden among the bushes had entangled his right leg.
Ashley crouched down to cut the web, but her wrist accidentally brushed against some thick strands and her hand became stuck in them. She was shocked to find she couldn't free her wrist.
"Ashley, are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Don't move too much. Whatever this thing is, it could trap a donkey."
"Har, har, har. I'm laughing."
With her left hand, she more carefully cut the webbing, which was secured to her right hand and then around Donkey's leg. She was about halfway through before something fell behind her.
With practiced reflexes, Ashley grabbed her gun before spinning back. On the ground illuminated by her flashlight, a headless chicken fell from above.
"Uhm... Ash."
Using his flashlight, Donkey illuminated the canopy above. His eyes widened in shock and fear, which also appeared on Ashley's face as she followed the light.
Giant black spiders the size of adult man, with numerous red eyes that reflected the light of their flashlights, were watching them from the main branches of trees that had been covered with the same web that had ensnared Donkey's legs.
Tatatatata!
The shots from Ashley's gun scared the giant spiders away instantly, but the sound of their footsteps could still be heard. Their repeated, high-pitched sounds, which sounded a bit like a distorted leaking fire hydrant, made the two soldiers panic even more.
"Come on, Ash, hurry!" Forcing himself to calm down, Donkey pointed his flashlight at any dark spot where he heard the loudest noise. And every time he did, he saw a giant spider. They looked a bit like tarantulas, though their numerous eyes were unlike any spider he had ever seen. First of all, instead of being pitch black, their eyes glowed red. When the flashlight hit their faces, the spiders retreated into behind the trees. But they never left the area.
"I'm trying, Donkey!" Her hands cut the web carefully, but she did it as quickly as possible without accidentally touching it or snagging the blade on the several strands the size of nylon rope.
Tatatata!
This time Donkey shot a giant spider behind a tree right next to them whom escaped. Not a single bullet hit its body.
“Activate your shield!” As soon as Donkey activated his shield, Ashley used a lighter to burn the burning web to ashes in seconds.
“Move! Move! Move!” The two soldiers ran back to the barn, almost screaming. Under the night light and stars, their silhouettes could be seen running out of the forest. When they returned, their comrades had gathered on the road.
“What happened?!”
“Was there an attack?”
Donkey, out of breath, tried to explain, but Ashley grabbed his shoulder and whispered, "Keep this a secret and send the footage to their lieutenant, leave this to them." She explained that this incident could cause mass panic, which would disrupt the beacon retrieval mission and endanger their team, who would be made scapegoats. Although reluctant to keep it a secret from his fellow soldiers, he eventually relented, as there were no reports of missing people other than a few chickens, so he simply claimed to have been frightened by some gas bags and opened fire.
Meanwhile, as expected, the Shanxi government panicked when they saw the video of the giant spider. However, when they picked up their phones, they discovered that their connection to the outside world had been cut off.
This happened the night before Lethal Company arrived.
X-X-A-X-X
From one calm afternoon with only one worthy to bring in the bar is a group of very weird people with heavy implications having done genetic makeup, to a sudden invasion, Kirk praise himself to calm himself in less than a minute.
“Command center! Do you copy? I am Kirk Mason from Beetle Squad. We are currently in Canary Town which have been invaded! What do we do?”
But he has been done this for five times after leaving the group they escorted at the city border and between shooting alien robots that keep falling down from the sky like goddamn falling stars. They just fall as blocky metal before the edge separated and a humanoid alien robot present themselves as death to any living things they encounter.
“Rumsfeld! Do you copy? What’s going on there?!”
Static is just what they get from his other team members.
“Shit! They must be jammed us!”
Closing his now useless communication channel, Kirk lifts his gun and joins Desmond, Rose, and whatever what the remaining police force here in distracting the alien robots from shooting the civilians. Not that ever give them chance to save all people by shooting all earthbound hostiles as they need to avoid little drones shooting that also joined in the fray not long after and even the falling reinforcements of these invaders, as one almost pulverize one of the police into meat jam who standing just a meter away from its landing crater.
Meanwhile, two frigate-sized ship are currently floating above the town. Each continously dropping more troops into the burning city below as the result of rampant plasma bullets.
“What about the people from other streets?!”
“We don’t know! We just suddenly lost contact with other forces before the city alarm blared!”
One of the police or armed guardian of this town anwered before ducking his head behind his ruined patrol car he and other, including Kirk and Rose use as cover. In fact, many of their vehicles that the armed guard came the moment they heard scream were shoot down, with some instantly exploding as the lucky bullets hit the fuel tank.
“Sir, I don’t think we won’t have chance to save all civilians still hiding in the building!”
“Then let them be as we clear the street for them!”
A grenade is pulled out and thrown to a particulary large alien robot with three glowing red dots instead white flashlight like its smaller kin.
“But sir! We almost run out of ammo!”
“AMMO!”
Rose throws her own ammo reserve to Desmond who take cover inside a building and shooting from window near their own cover.
“Dammit! I know! We are totally ambushed and isolated here!”
The street that built to be functioned as a market and was once full with sellers and people going home from work in afternoon to buy fresh harvest now has become a pandeonium of burned flesh of their own people, both civilians and fighters, and scrapped metal of the invaders. Simple wooden-made crate broken and its content spilled on the ground. Occasionaly, the ship above shoot at other place below it which caused an explosion and rumbling noise of falling building from distant. Sometimes, it is another metal block that falls from the sky and make a hole to a house’s roof. Soon, Kirk heard a man scream from inside. He grits his teeth as he had seen the same occurrence happening several times during initial invading troops deployment. That’s why he ordered his subordinates to shoot those on the street and those that showed up at the window or opened door to draw their attention to the street instead ramshacking the house to find the hiding civilians, while at the same time to shelter just a few civilians who happened to be near them at the begininng of this pandaemonium.
“Second wave!”
There. Up at the sky. They had tried to shoot rockets to that ship, yet all that it got just a shimmered biotic shield. It aims its several large barrels downward, although, it is not bullet or bomb it going to drop. It is more of those alien robots and drones.
Perhaps for every shot that it aimed at five different streets, each contain ten of those metal blocks from its ten barrels with their aim obviously the buildings to provide initial covers while slowly encroaching them with their endless killing machines. The impact of their platforms destroying the roof and even wall of the house made of stone bricks and cements.
“CIVVIES! TEN O’CLOCK!”
Shouts from an armed guard inform them of two civilians—a woman and her child in a carrier—running toward them from a door out of which a metal killer emerges.
“Shit! Protect the civvies!”
Bullets fly toward the large metal construct with three glowing eyes. Although sparks fly from its body, it still lifts its pulsating gun to aim at the fleeing mother and child.
“No!”
A blue energy bullet fires toward the woman, who just lost her husband to the monster while trying to create an opening for her and the baby to reach the armed garrison. The soldiers outside watch in horror as the projectile is released.
“Himmelsstab.”
The moment the energy bullet leaves the killing machine, a pillar of white light descends from the sky, engulfing the construct and the projectile, erasing everything within the radius into nothingness.
“W-WHAT IS THAT!”
Rose covers her eyes, which burn from the sudden brilliance as she tracks the machine through her rifle scope. For three seconds of blinding light, the pillar holds, until it finally thins and dissipates like a string connecting heaven and earth. Where the machine stood, only a crater remains. The woman and her crying baby are safe, though they are in shock from their proximity to the annihilation; fortunately, they instinctively shut their eyes when the light became unbearable.
A moment of silence passes until a single clap startle everyone. They turn around with weapons raised, yet find no one behind them.
“Up here, people. Nah, better.”
They aim upward to see a figure suspended in the air. He is not falling, nor is he flying using technology; he is floating. It is the boy from the group Kirk escorted earlier, though his attire has shifted significantly.
The speaker is a youthful anthropomorphic rabbit-human hybrid with short, tousled white hair, prominent white rabbit ears and striking red eyes. He wears a dark, high-collared shirt underneath a long, white trench coat with a vibrant purple lining in dark trousers held by a belt with a goldbuckle and a dark pouch attached to his hip.
After the outfit, his accessories are a pair of blue lensed googles above his head, a gold circular pendant on a chain around his neck, dark fingerless gloves and sturdy black boots.
“Hm... let’s see… Noah has taken over the eastern half of the town, so that means…”
Looking up, RedEye aims his index finger toward the Geth dropship still hovering above him. Its weapons track him immediately.
“Matahari dah nak chow belah barat tu.”
His floating tome lands on his open left hand, and electricity surges from it through his body to the index finger pointed at the sky. Several rotating ritual circles, filled with intricate symbols and patterns, manifest in front of his fingertip.
Black clouds suddenly form seven kilometers above the planet’s surface. A rumble of thunder echoes before—
“Judradjim.”
Hundreds of bolts rain down from the darkening heavens, striking every Geth exposed on the streets. Even those peeking from windows are hit; the thunder pierces their heads before their bodies can react.
The rain of lightning does not stop there. From the center of the city to the west, the dark clouds pulse with blue energy, clearing more streets of the monsters.
With the job done, Red floats back toward the direction of Shepherd, ignoring the soldiers and police officers who remain frozen in shock below. After all, he arrived without a greeting, he struck without permission, and he leaves without a goodbye.
X-X-A-X-X
“Hmm… show off.”
Looking out the window toward the west, where a magical storm manifests, Noah stands on the other side of town. She has just met the first group of survivors: thirty people total, consisting of twelve adults and eighteen children from a nearby daycare. The twelve adults include seven civilians—the daycare caretakers who were watching the children while their parents were at work—and five police officers. Apparently, the robots moved so quickly that the police had no chance to escort these people to one of the two eastern town shelters. They had to hole themselves up in this police station; otherwise, the Geth would have targeted the children as easily as taking candy from a baby.
“Who are you?” One of the officers aims a weapon at Noah as she suddenly enters through the observation room door. It is a door she has just locked, yet this woman has bypassed it. Not with hacking skills or bullets, but with pure brute strength. The lock is ruined; sparks had exploded from it when she forcefully opened the door with a casual twist of the knob and a shove.
“Noah Reine. An explorer. A biologist. A zoologist. An archaeologist. Whatever studies has nature as its primary or secondary focus. An occasional 'Nameless.' Member #16 of the Genius Society. A member of the Heavenest Imperium. And the composer of 'Geniuses in the Universe.' Noah Reine, at your service.”
Placing her right hand with a thud against her chest, she bows slightly, signaling to the people that she is approachable.
“Alright. Now that the introductions are done, Noah needs to borrow your cameras for a while.”
She has a city to save. While she prefers ruins reclaimed by nature, her conscience will not allow her to stand by while people—especially children—are in danger. She never expected to find so many children in a police office, but she refuses to let even one die. Even though she feels uncomfortable around them—haunted by a film she once watched where a child’s false accusation led to a teacher’s tragic end—she cannot walk away. She needs to gain a visual on the entire city quickly before joining the others.
Click!
Unfortunately, she zones out during her internal monologue, giving the policewoman a chance to press a gun barrel against the back of her head.
“Stand back from the controls, ‘insect girl.’”
Noah sighs.
“At least give Noah a proper callsign, or at least be less discriminatory. Out of all Noah’s titles, that is what you choose to call Noah? Based on visual observation? Please don’t tell Noah you haven’t developed spacefaring technology yet or that you still categorize people based on their skin color.”
Noah inhales deeply before exhaling, releasing a cloud of pheromones. Now, she simply waits for her backup—or "thugs," to be more accurate.
“If Noah were you—which Noah certainly hopes Noah isn't—Noah would lower the gun. There are children here.”
The policewoman does not flinch, which earns her a mental nod of approval from Noah. Still, the woman’s breathing is slightly strained, so she is unlikely to pull the trigger immediately.
Click.
Something touches the previously closed door handle. The knob rotates.
The policewoman, uncertain of where to aim her weapon, moves to stand behind Noah, while her companions unholster their guns and point them toward the door.
The door opens.
Two seconds later, the civilians scream in terror as they recognize what is standing in the doorway.
They are black, slender creatures with no visible eyes, only elongated heads and mouths full of sharp teeth. Their arms are thin and end in sharp claws, and their long tails, tipped with wicked points, swing behind them like snakes.
Xenomorphs. Five of them: two are on the floor with one which just opened the door; two are clinging to the walls like geckos; and the fifth is hanging upside down from the ceiling, watching them.
“I-is that the ‘Alien’!?”
“F*ck! How!?”
“H-human, do you know what that is?”
“That’s a 20th-century human nightmare, Salarian!”
“N-no! Please! I’m pregnant!”
The civilians descend into a cacophony of chaos. The children cry at the sight of the panicked adults, while the police officers stare, wide-eyed, struggling to believe that a fictional nightmare has just walked through their door.
The shock is immediately replaced by panic as they open fire on the door when a clawed hand causes a metallic clink against the floor.
The Xenomorphs retreat behind the walls, except for one that suddenly dashes forward, positioning itself in front of Noah. Noah remains a hostage to the policewoman, but now, the sharp tail of a Xenomorph is pressed against the back of the officer's head. The creature has, in a flash, taken the policewoman hostage as well.
From its tail, acidic liquid drips, sizzling as it hits the floor behind the policewoman, filling the silence of the room before another airstrike from the Geth cuts through the tension.
“Noah repeats: If Noah were you—which Noah certainly hopes Noah isn't—Noah would lower the gun, lady. There are children here. And apparently a pregnant woman too, Noah just heard that. Oh, there she is.”
The air in the room remains thick with tension as the policewoman, shaken, slowly holsters her gun while showing both hands in a gesture of surrender. She walks aside, the tail behind her head lowering as she retreats toward her companions, whose weapons remain hot from their desperate volley of fire.
“E.T., what now?”
The policewoman stares at the door, now destroyed beyond repair by her own team’s gunfire. Absentmindedly, she looks up at the vent, where she spots several pale, spider-like legs jutting out. Whatever creatures are hiding in there—surely related to the cinematic monsters they just encountered—do not seem to be breaking in, or perhaps they are simply waiting.
“…E.T.?”
“She doesn’t seem to want to kill us or use us as hostages,” the officer murmurs, though her voice trembles. “Be on guard; this corner of the room is our last perimeter.”
The policewoman turns her attention back to Noah, who has returned to her seat in front of the console. Beside her, the Xenomorph sits, allowing the girl to pet it as if it is a damn puppy. Caught between the sudden invasion of unknown forces, the desperate need to hide from airstrikes and the street sweep, and the bizarre sight of a bug girl accompanied by fictional nightmares, the officer feels overwhelmed. She has dozens of questions, but with innocent lives at stake, she remains trapped in the belly of this beast.
Meanwhile, Noah flexes her fingers until her joints pop and begins operating the unfamiliar console. Without hesitation, the Genius taps a sequence of random buttons, quickly deciphering the interface to seize control of the security cameras hijacked by the invaders. And before the Geth realize their hijacked system and their own eyes are compromised, Noah links the monitors to nearly 1,500 cameras and 100 lens of the Geth to focus on a massive, open area where the invaders gather at large number.
“Alright. Visuals acquired. Get ready for the Ark lands, people!”
A holographic panel manifests in front of her. With a cheerful grin, she rotates the security chair before stopping, swiping the displayed list from top to bottom.
- [Animania]
- [Alex’s Mobs]
- [Alex's Caves]
- [Naturalist]
- [Critters and Companions]
- [The Midnight]
- [Jurassic Saga]
- [Unusual Prehistory]
- [Ice and Fire: Dragons]
- [Mowzie’s Mobs]
- [Creatures and Beasts]
- [Legendary Monsters]
- [Giant Bug Mods/Addons]
- [The Erebus]
- [Lycanite’s Mobs]
- [Xenomorph Types]
After stopping her own finger before selecting more destructive mods like [Kaiju Calamity], she turns to the various monitors in front of her as the menagerie of beastly pandemonium descends upon the invading forces. Wherever Noah’s gaze lands through those hundreds of digital eyes, reality itself begins to bleed; space rips open, leaking incomprehensible characters and inverted colors that the Geth sensors cannot process.
The invaders’ confusion is short-lived as the anomalies disintegrate and reassemble into rifts, tearing open the space between lines of swirling, distorted color that converge upward in a wash of image noise. From each of the dozens of spatial rifts, silhouettes emerge from the static. More and more appear until the first one lets out a deafening roar, finally alerting the Geth that they are no longer the invaders—they are the prey of something that has breached reality itself.
X-X-A-X-X
"Now." Noah turns her chair to face the people who have been hiding in the room with him.
"Noah, I hear someone is pregnant. Do you want Noah to help induce labor now?"
"... What!?"
"Just to make a profile that attracts the world's attention. Imagine the story your child will have, how he is born in the middle of an alien robot invasion and a Genius helps him come into the world."
"Lina, don't mind her. We-... Lina?" Lina, the wife, seems to be considering it.