Turok

Chapter 3

By: BigToFu

Dashing Across The Stars

Not even waiting for the lights of the teleportation to fade, I took off in a mad dash toward my cockpit. Those damn frogs, the Salarians, had seen the speed of my ship and came in force to try and steal everything. Bouncing through the automatic doors to my cockpit, my hands flew across controls, my ship powering to life, shields activating and weapons thrumming with power.

 

"Ent, you're on sensors. Alita, plot me a course out of here."

 

My ship was powerful and I could take all fourty, but my people were on board and they didn't sign up for this fight. Also, it was far too soon for me to whip it out and dick-slap the Citadel. I only had one craft and no military might to help enforce the fact we will not be fucked with. Okay, the king of the big stroke walk would have to wait for later.

 

"Guardian, flight control is refusing to open docking clamps."

 

Okay, was not expecting that but fuck'em, Aria could send me the bill. Without a second thought, I pushed forwards on the controls even as a side turret popped up and shot the docking clamps. Shifting the control, we pulled to port ripping the docking clamps off of Omega station.

 

Ignoring the sight of ripped and shredded metal bits, I finished pulling us out and hit that boost juice. The world shifted sides, upside down, and even did a spiral as I had us shoot outside of the firing range of Omega and the guys of the few ships in the System watching things going down. From the way some were acting, it was clear the Salarians had bribed people.

 

"TUROK! What is this about a bounty on your head?" Sheena called panic and frustration tinting her voice as she ran into the cockpit. A hologram image of my profile with a bounty on my head hovering over her omni-tool. 

 

"Not now Sheena," I called back even as I split the throttles and had us pull a loop around a heavy cruiser, their guns missing all the shots. Dropping one of my more scaled up emp warheads, I made sure to get us out of dodge even as the ship started to list to the side disabled from the electromagnetic pulse.

 

"Keelah," Sheena whispered and I could hear others stepping up and gathering around the door.

 

"I know I know," I called back dodging around another few ships, wagging the ass end of my Milano even as I dropped another emp bait.

 

"Guardian, we are being hailed." Ent called out and I had to think about if I even wanted to answer that.

 

Performing another lazy roll, I figured why the hell not. "Sure, put them on."

 

The screen flickered for a moment before it was replaced by a salarian with a scar over one eye.

 

"I don't know how you got that ship suit rat, but I'm commanding you to hand it over, NOW!" THE salarian commanded with a growl.

 

"Listen, frog I don't even know who you are, and this is the terminus system," I quipped with a shake of my head. "And you can't even give me a reason why in the nine hells of why I should listen to you."

 

"That bounty is the only reason why you should listen to me, only I can talk to those who placed it to remove it." The Salarian stated, face calm and but clearly trying to talk me into selling my ass. 

 

"Yeah, I'm not into pegging from anyone and so that's gonna have to be a hard no." I said then head snapping over to Ent, "trace?"

 

"Back ship, lower right," Ent answered and the face of the salarian on the screen shifted into a very ugly thing.

 

“That's a solid copy,” I replied, already changing course and heading in for the kill the Milano’s particle cannon at 75% charge. I put us into a spin, Sheena gripping the back of my captain's chair as the world outside the windows spun. 

 

The Salarian screamed something off screen but I paid it no mind as I unleashed a full broadside of three torpedoes into his ship on passing. The explosion was very impressive, and what was even more impressive was that Alita called out with a plan at the perfect time. 

 

“Hyperdrive coordinates set,” Alita called out, my own computer confirming the jump point and the destination being on the other side of the galaxy. Alita had really taken her time to scroll through the data that Aria had given us. 

 

Even as I dumped the charge from the particle cannon into the hyperdrive power banks, I noticed that we would come out near the Rosetta Nebula. This wasn’t bad per-say since it was on the far end of the terminus systems. It was just too close to Geth space for my liking and I had no clue if there would be any class M planets. Shaking my head at that line of thinking since I knew that I could just terraform the planet. Yet, that would take too long even if I had all of the technology for it. We needed a planet within the next six months to a year and not five or six years from now. 

 

With a grimace on my face, I sucked it up since we would also be close to the Traverse which I could just take over later. Blowing two more ships up with my torpedoes, I took the open space that was given, blue, green, and purple lights flickered around the outside of the hull before we jumped into a combination of slip-space and hyperspace. 

 

As much as I loved hyperspace, things still created hyper-wave shadows along the quantum frequency, but the slip-space drive cared nothing for any of that as it allowed us to phase through the material world. When you combined the two, it allowed us to travel at hyper-speeds through the galaxy while still being able to phase through planets, suns, and any other various things that cast a major hyper-wake shadow.

 

A sigh and a grimace graced my features before I relaxed into my captain's seat and stared out the window for half a beat. Then, I sat up, slapped my face two times, and took a look at the sensors that Ent was sharing with me. From what I could see, the surrounding five systems were all clear, but it wasn't as detailed as I would like them to be. Honestly, I shouldn’t be complaining since I had the best sensors available, but it wasn't the best that I could make. And that was exactly why I wasn’t as happy as I could be. Alteran sensors had the distance, but Star Trek had the detail that I wanted.  Putting a note for that so I could do it later, I swiveled my chair around to take in the stunned Quarians watching me being a badass Captain. 

 

Putting a smirk on my lips, I tilted my head at them, “So, enjoyed the show?” 

 

Sheena hissed at me like a cat that got her tail stepped on, shame. Man, I wanted to poke this kitty cat with a lot more than just my words. 

 

“I don't know where to even begin Turok,” Sheena started, hand motions all over the place. “This ship, that battle, those missiles, this clearly isn't eezo-based FTL, and who the hell is Ent?”

 

With a hum, I got up from my seat and held out a hand for Ent to leave his cradle. The Quarians watched as he turned into motes of light and entered my body. Ignoring them, I pushed my way through the door and had Alita bring up the rear forcing them to leave the cockpit area. Sheena spluttered, but I ignored her as I walked everyone back to the medical bay. 

 

It was time that they got the damn cures, I’ll be damned if I keep looking at helmeted faces. Turning around, I started to go through the motions and explanations and I could see the look of shock on all of their faces. And being the leader that she was, Sheena went first, trying not to chuckle at her chipmunk cheeks while she fed on the extra calories rations. Time went quickly and it was easy to see her body react like a time-lapse video as the regeneration kicked into gear and she filled out nicely. I could tell when the secondary puberty hit her as she started to complain about the itch before I noticed that one arm was longer than the other. Then the same thing happened with her legs and with the medical scanners, we would watch the changes happen in real-time

 

The suit she was wearing couldn’t handle the sudden changes so I had to put up a screen so Sheena didn't have her tatas out for everyone to gawk at. Even as I was watching the medical data, time swiftly passed and the curtains were pulled back as Sheena stepped out with only a hospital gown on. 

And she was hot, super fine with sculpted brows, full lips, high cheek-bones with expressive eyes. She stood at an easy five feet ten inches and from the model, she had gained nearly an entire foot of height and about thirty pounds. All that weight was a combination of muscles, body fat, and bone density. I said nothing as she walked over to the wall screen that was showing a mirror image of her. 

 

A tear leaked down her eyes and her brother and the rest went in for hugs. The moment was allowed to breathe and Sheena pulled herself together while the rest finally decided to take their Gen1 shots and get cured. I had things to do, no reason to intrude on their little happy moment, so I turned around and left. I had things to prepare. 

---

[Citadel Space ]

 

Salarian Councilor Member Valern Office

There was a double chirp from his center console drawing the attention of Valern. Looking up from what he was working on, Valern turned towards the center console in the middle of his desk and entered the password. 

 

With the activation of his personal computer, Valerns eyes rolled over the text on the screen, his mouth snapping shut at the information he was reading. The target was shown to be using unknown technology while escaping into FTL without leaving an eezo trail. Even the weapons and shields were advanced tech, and the clear signs of teleportation used were all unknown to the STG. 

 

It was all very fascinating and the readings that the STG was able to pick up and send him were breaking new light on multiple fronts. It was all so fascinating and Valern was happy to see all of the new data. Eyes narrowed, Valern looked closer and made a notation on the times. From what he was seeing, Valern was certain that something was wrong with the time notations. Even the fastest ships took at least fifteen rotations from the closest human colony to Omega and this Turok did it in less time. 

 

He was last seen escaping from the ships sent to System Alliance nine hours before he reappeared on Omega. That would need investigating, also the same for the energy signature found in the Quarian's apartments. There was also that strange energy signature that was found at the site of Turok destroying a Blue Sun location for Aria. 

 

Hmm, maybe they should try another approach, yes, the STG would need a new lever to apply pressure. Quarians, Valern would need to keep a close eye on them. Valern would order a closer eye to be kept on the Quarian sector of the Citadel. 

 

The STG would do as they please, but Valern would wait for this prey to show itself. And the best bait were those already on the Citadel.

Turian Councilor Member Laiel Sparatus Office

 

Clicking his mandibles, Spartacus replayed the video one more time as the ship known as the Milano flew circles around those pirate freighters. The maneuverability, the weapons, and its FTL were on display.  It galled him to admit it, but Sparatus was certain it was all better than was his Turian Hierarchy. He would need to secure this cache of technology for his own use. With a quick few taps at his terminal, Spartacus sent the video and its accompanying data to the Hierarchy. 

 

If they could get this technology from whoever had it, things would change and maybe put them on the same level as the Asari. His mandibles clicked at the thought of those damnable ridgeheads. He would have to put out feelers, but Sparatus would bet his last credit chit that they already had information on this mysterious technology.   

[Two Months Later….]

 

Looking herself over in the mirror in her bathroom, Sheena could say that she would never get tired of being able to look at her own face and features in the morning. For so long her own flesh had been alien to her as the suit was all she had known her entire life as her appearance. Yet, all that had changed with a chance meeting with a Quarian that was most certainly mad. 

 

Arriving out of nowhere and calling himself Turok, he came into her life like a whirlwind; rescuing not just herself and her friends but also her brother who had gotten in way over his head. Trailing her finger over her lips, Sheena looked down at her three digits and made a mental note to ask Turok why he had five. Turning away from the mirror so that she couldn’t indulge in her reflection anymore, Sheena got ready for the day by finishing her morning routine. Walking out of her quarters, Sheena read over the tablet with the data coming in from their latest M-class planet discovered at the rim of the current galactic star charts.  From their earlier arrival, the computers noticed that there were three others within the system and they all took that as a sign.

 

Walking into the mess hall, Sheena looked up from her tablet to find her fellow adventurers standing at the port side window and looking down and over the planet. Up on the far wall was the current progress of the probes that went out and down planetside. Just remembering their last visit planetside sent a shiver down her spine. Her brother and two others had been able to talk Turok into letting them down on the planet even though they had not sent the probes. What they did was just take atmospheric readings which all came back positive. Turns out that was a bad idea for multiple reasons because after they had landed and started to explore the planet, they discovered that the reason for so little animal life was because the fauna was carnivorous. Which became obvious when vines started to shoot out of places and try to wrap them up to be eaten. 

 

Sheena had to suppress the shiver at the memory of Turok yelling, “nope, all of the nope,” and then the staff he always carried burst into flames and transformed into a massive hammer. Then it was a running battle to get back to the ship. That was the last time they went planetside without sending down a probe first. The other seven planets they found didn't work out one way or the other, but they had hope for this system. Before they had arrived at their current location, Turok had tried three more times and each time various things kept them from claiming a planet. 

 

The second planet that they wanted to land on had everything perfect except for when things turned to night. That was also another situation where Sheena was thankful for such a ship because the insects that came out at night drained the blood of nearly everything in the area. Then had proceeded to ding the hull of the ship in their attempts to get in before the shields went back up and disabused them from trying anymore. So yeah, the second planet attempt was also a bust because of the ravenous insects. 

 

The less said about that planet the better, but it wasn't like the third planet was even any good. A grimace showed on Sheena’s face at the thought of the third planet, its hollow core and massive monsters that dwelled beneath the surface and fed on the radiation which was amplified by crystals. Sheena could admit that if she never saw the planets with her own eyes, she would never have believed any sort of report or retelling of the story down the road. With a shake of her shoulders, Sheena dismissed that though, because that was then and this was now. And as she looked around, she liked where they were right now. 

 

Right now, they were on the middle planet in what the humans called the Goldilocks zone and had multiple probes down there checking the water, soil, rain, radiation and so many other different facets of life that she knew that the Admiralty never took into consideration. 

 

She knew because she was there not just ten years ago when they had tried to set up a colony and got run off because the Turians claimed the planet after the fact. Then got mad at her people when it was discovered that the planet had an acid rain season. With a shake of her head to dismiss such negative thoughts, Sheena looked over the star charts once more and marveled at them being about three lightyears out from the Mass relay. This placed them right on the edge of what a ship could do with their eezo FTL drives.  Sheena found this funny because, with the ships and hybrid hyperdrives that Turok fielded, they would be over two hundred lightyears from a Mass Relay and still get to the center of the galactic core with no issues at all. 

 

Now that she really thought about it, things were rather sad because it was now distinctly clear to her how stagnant eezo had made the rest of the universe. Here she was on a ship that could go from one end of the galaxy to the other all because one man refused to accept the answer ‘no, that's impossible’. None of that registered to someone like Turok as he worked and toiled as a man possessed. She could openly admit she was impressed how Turok was churning out tests, newly discovered tech, and throwing up impossible things day after day with no end in sight. What she could agree with her brother about was that someone had messed up within the Fleet because there was no way someone as talented as Turok should have been allowed to go on a pilgrimage with his skills, talents, and intellect. 

 

Her attention was pulled from the mystery that was Turok and Sheena smiled at her brother as he sat down. They had taken their pilgrimages together, but somehow along the way, he just had worse luck than she did. With his food tray down, they shared a brief hug and Sheena didn’t want to admit how great it felt. They all shared the same condition and when she looked it up, turns out the Quarian people had a long road ahead of them. The cure would be only the first step, and the largest would be healing the psychological wounds her people suffered while living their entire lives within a suited coffin. 

 

Even now, months after getting the Gen1 treatment, Sheena found it hard to look at her vac-suit. She didn’t have a panic attack like the others, but it was still hard for her to put it back on. A compromise was for everyone to wear bodysuits and even then, everyone was still very tactile. Once more Sheena grimaced at the thought of being touch-starved was an actual psychological condition and the entire Quarian people were suffering from various stages of it. Even now, she was experimenting with undergarments and her current wear was something called silk from Earth. The replicators were showing their utility and beyond. 

 

Her brother finished preparing his meal and gave her a smile, “So, Sheena, what are you working on this week.”

 

Pausing in her motions, Sheena smirked at her brother, “When the scans come back, I'll be looking into finding out if the local fauna is edible.”

 

“So you think that this is the one?” Filo asked with a little hope tinting his voice. 

 

The chopsticks that Sheena was balancing between her fingers stilled as she looked at her brother, chewing slowly. Shenna thought about how she really felt but also noticed that the others within the mess hall were also listening in, so instead of ruining the mood, she smiled. 

 

“Yes, I do think that this will be the one, we have already visited so many planets on the edge of the rim, they all can’t hold hostile life.” Was the answer that she gave her brother. Unfortunately, she did not feel the same, she had already stopped believing a long time ago. 

 

Her brother bounced in his chair excitedly, “It has to be, Turok has already spent fifteen hours so far exploring and scanning the planet.”

 

Leaning over, Sula'Ceerol nar Nurah tapped on the table, “I heard he was asking if anyone wanted to join the science teams.”

 

“Ohh, I wonder if he would let us all go down in a shuttle again this time,” Filo spoke and everyone could hear the wistful tones in his voice. 

 

Cato'Zumos nar Fiko sat his tray down two chairs over and grumped, “I’m more interested in all of his technology, this would do a lot of good back on the flotilla. 

 

Pushing down the urge to smack him, Sheena tried not to growl at the moron as she now felt that her appetite had left her, “You know damn well why we are here and not back at the flotilla, Turok explained everything up front, and even asked if anyone wanted to be dropped anywhere.”

 

“Hmm, I keep imploring you to rid yourself of such shameful thoughts my friend,” Mim'Wirrel nar Feedir stated, his voice a deep and even rumble. 

 

Cato grunted and went back to eating in silence, before Sheena could say anymore, the main holo-tv in the mess hall activated. Across the planet that hovered above their heads, the lines of text shifted and now it broadcast for everyone to see. Okay, this changes everything, now she just wanted to know what took so long and why was this planet selected. 

 

The mess hall went silent and then their omni-tools chirped as the data was uploaded onto Quarian’s new network. Instead of running off like some of the others, Sheena settled in to read over the information instead of going to harass Turok for a ride down to the planet. What Sheena found was that the planet was very diverse in not only its biomes but also its fauna. There were even two different yet also distinct mega faunas that were located separately. 

 

Before she could ignore the land mass, she had to check the status of the predator's situation and found that this planet carried feline types. This means that they would also need to be on guard when visiting the jungles since felines like to hunt a diverse range of prey. Or they could just figure out a solution to deter the animals. One of the upsides though was that they were cute even if they were deadly, and she was not happy about those foot-long fangs. 

 

Foro'Saasal nar Vadolor placed her plate down before walking over to Cato and grabbing him by the scruff of the neck, “Sorry, sorry.” Then Foro left with her brother, a hand on his ear tugging him along behind her. 

 

Ignoring the byplay, Sheena got up from her location and headed towards the CIC which was on the same floor as the cockpit. Taking the lift at the end of the hallway, Sheena went upwards and got out at the little inlet before the CIC and cockpit. Walking into the CIC, Sheena found Turok standing over the table, the world below them reflecting as a hologram above the table. And standing at the table, Turoks hands moved back and forth, blueprints and various things flicking in and out of focus as he worked. 

 

What stopped her in her tracks and took her breath away was the city that hovered over the holo-table. The numbers stated that the city was rated for fifty million with mega buildings located at various points. Following the mega buildings was the transportation network able to take people from one side of the city to the other. There were even teleportation spots for those who would like to pay a little extra for the far faster speeds. The spaceport was located a distance away and every main location carried a triforce-style set of ZPM reactors. And to wrap it all up, every main point across the city had shield emitters in each location. 

 

Her eyes watered a bit, and for the first time in a very long time. Sheena had to admit that she was a believer.

[ Turok ]

Standing over the table in the CIC, my hands flew across the holograms, mass effect fields responding to my touch as I adjusted a lot of my plans for the upcoming endeavor.  Time was swiftly running out and from what I could see of the System Alliance communications, I had roughly one month before they sacked Torfan. That little slaving colony the Batarians had set up to launch their pirate raids from. 

 

My hand swiped across the table clearing out the images while sending my plans and blueprints to the drones. Then, I placed my open palm on the top of the table and raised it up. Holograms of the molecular forge, replicators, and fabricators rose up and I got to work combining them while also modifying the constructor bots. It wasn’t that hard to combine the systems. I wanted to save a lot of time with drones moving things around if I just used energy fields to stabilize projects as they are being built. The molecular forge created exotic elements, the replicator created the common parts needed, and the fabricator put it all together for me. With a hum, I got to work stripping down the drones and building them back up and into real masters of the forge. My little EVIE bot grew from three feet in height to well over twenty with little mechanical arms and appendages reminiscent of Doc-Oct. 

 

Minutes flowed by then hours as I worked, and I continued as I shifted through completed projects to the next. As I finished a project it was sent to the queue for creation. Everything from planetary shields, satellites, planetary defenses, weapons platforms, and multiple teleport points across the city being built down below. With the main system defenses and planet defenses slated to be built, I turned my gaze toward the fleet that my people would need to get across the solar systems. The Milano was a solid jump point for the design of my ships, and I would keep them styled like birds of prey. 

The Milano and her sister ships though would only go to Guardians, everyone else had to work with the standards that I came up with and I had just the right design. The UNSC had a perfect ship in the Super Carrier Infinity, but that was just a carrier and troop transport. I put two of those for creation in the zero-G shipyards. Then I turned my attention to what I knew about Romulan and Klingon ships. They had the right style but were missing weapons and proper drive cores. Yanking out the warp drives, I installed a slip-space array and a hyperdrive. Then, I changed the materials that the hull was made of into a combination of durasteel and hyper titanium before then adding in more torpedo bays, teleportation pads, and expanded medical bays along with crew quarters. 

 

My new heavy attack Warbirds could be crewed by anywhere from eighty to one hundred; yet fly with the grace of a small starfighter. Hell, since I decided to rip out the damn warp cores, I went crazy and built a massive ZPM in the engine bay, then made it so you could see the artificial singularity pulling energy from subspace. Each of my ships was packing so much power you could supply an entire planet. 

 

We barely had over twenty million Quarians left alive and a lot of those were not soldier types at all, so I was building everything in mind to last. For my ships though, I had to build things that could be crewed by a hundred or fewer. If things went the way I wanted, then I would be able to build up a proper military force along with the population using smart applications of vat-grown Quarians.

 

Sitting back in my seat and feeling the stiffness in my fingers, I released a long-suffering sigh while popping my knuckles in relief. With a wave of my hand, I sent my designs off so the computer could crunch the numbers and get back to me. With a small huff, I turned and picked up the hot cup of caff as I watched the holo-table. Above the table hovered multiple loading bars for various projects, the lead of them all was the new construction bots. Since I no longer had to play things by the books and undercover in System Alliance space, I had the fabricator, molecular forge, and the replicators working at full capacity since I didn’t have Jane looking over my shoulder taking notes. 

 

Granted, she only understood half of what she was witnessing along with my fudging the data on her omni, but I had played it very safe when I first started out. Now though, if I was to do it all again, I could have built the Milano within four hours or less. All that changed in the two months that I have been traveling from world to world. In between the trips I was able to build up a solid foundation and now it was all being put to work. 

 

As I watched the city of my people being built, I heard the doors swish open. I didn’t even have to look back to know that it was Sheena who had walked in. She stopped at the sight, the model of the city hovering over my holo-table. Then without saying anything, Sheena stood over the table and just watched everything take place. 

 

Her breath hitched, and then she breathed, “It’s beautiful.”