Turok

Chapter 4

By: BigToFu

[ One Month Later…]

Standing in my armory, I geared myself up as I prepared for the upcoming struggle of life and death. The planet had been secured along with the system. Now, it was time to show myself to the wider galaxy. Luckily, the System Alliance was gearing up for a full-on assault on the Torfan mining facility and rid this sector of the terminus of pirate activity. In the corner of my vision, I watched as my ship came around the moon from its south side, the night at our backs.

Stepping into the equip-frame, I released a slow breath as the lasers worked their way up my body. All along the armor frame were little mechanical waldo arms digistructuring my armor right over my ballistic undersuit. Stepping out with my armor fully equipped, I checked the full range of motions as the HUD flared to life. The ship linked with my suit and I could read over a thousand life signatures within the mining facility. Looking up and off to the side, I could see the approaching Systems Alliance ships. I could see them, but they couldn't see me with my stealth activated which blocked us from both visual and sensor signals.

Since they were on the approach, I gave the signal, then watched from my omni as Alita ported downwards to the moon below and started her side of the mission. The goal was for her to infiltrate the facility and locate the slave pens. Alita would tag them with IFF tags so they could be teleported up and stored in the teleporter's DHF. This would allow us to double-check the signals going out so none of their neck explosives would go off. It was a solid plan, and with myself and the System Alliance causing chaos from the front. Alita would sneak out the back with everyone she could get her hands on. Then Alita would teleport herself back out and meet me on the ship. Standing over the table with a hard gaze, I watched as the timer ticked down, Alita's GPS dot on the map racing across the land before meeting the mining facility.

With my hands raised over the map, I made a pinch and then a draw motion to zoom in some more. The map exploded upwards as the scanners on my ship fed multiple data points on what was happening below. Motion from the side drew my attention towards Sheena as she traced a finger over the hologram, her face set with a serious look.

Looking up, Sheena's face shifted into a frown. "Turok, the humans have accelerated."

With a grunt, I shifted my attention to the edge of the hologram and noticed the uptick in speed. It was clear that the System Alliance had finally made up its mind on their attack vectors. Taking my time to think about what I wanted to do here, I let a little time pass before I came to a solid decision. Holding a hand out before me, I swiped it across the holo-table and made a call.

"Shepard?"

"Hey Jane, it's Turok," I began but was interrupted.

"Turok, I'm kinda in the middle of something," Jane spoke up cutting me off and I didn't stop myself from the eye rolls.

"I gathered that, and that's why I'm calling," I replied with a sigh, "You wouldn't happen to be on one of those Alliance ships approaching Torfan would you?"

The line went cold for a moment, then Jane broke it, "How do you know where Alliance ships are?"

Now I sighed hard and started to send Jane some data while answering her, "I'm in Torfan and I could see you on my long-range scanners, you're still too far out for the mining facility to pick you up, but that's not why I called."

"Putting aside your scanners being able to pick us up, why did you call?" Jane asked with a huff, and I could hear her walking at a clip.

"Well, I don't know how you plan to assault this facility because I'm looking at four heavy AA emplacements, along with a few heavy pirate shuttles," I answered while sending the data over.

"Shit," Jane cursed and now I could really hear her picking up pace as she ran. "Make a hole!"

"Make a hole!"

"Make a hole!"

"Make a hole!"

Man, I loved the military: certain things were so damn simple, they didn't even second think about making a way for Shepard to get through.

There was the sound of shuffling on Jane's side of the communications before I heard her voice again. "Sir, I have priority information on our target."

"And where did you get this information, Shepard."

"Sir, apparently I have a contact in orbit above the location and they spotted us on their sensors sir," Jane spoke quickly and to the point.

"Hmm, and do you trust this contact?"

"With my life sir," Jane said and I felt a little something warm in my heart. "He's had my back during the Blitz and hasn't given me a reason not to trust him, sir."

Things went silent for a bit and then the person in charge spoke up again, "Alright, let's hear this information you have."

"Sir," Jane answered and I didn't even have to be there to know she shared out my scanning data.

"Hmm, those are some big guns. Sheppard, is your contact willing to work with us on this?" The person who was clearly in charge stated, then things shifted and I could see down into a command room. Guess Jane put me up on the big screen. Checking my own data points, I noticed the shift in receiver points. The lady didn't even skip a beat, "I'm Colonel Kay of the System Alliance in charge of this battle group and this is Major Kyle in charge of the ground force, you are?"

Raising a hand, I pounded a fist on my chest over my heart, "Turok, Guardian of the Quarian people, and my associate here is Sheena'Fenar nar Taetalir."

"Alright Turok, any reason why we can't see your ship?" Colonel Kay questioned, and all I could do was smile at her.

"No one will be able to see or even detect my ship unless I want them to," I replied with a smirk, "But that's not what you should be worried about."

"Yes, these AA guns you shared with the Lieutenant." The Major spoke up from his location.

"Yeah," I replied, then turned to my table and started to input commands and data to share some realtime information.

"They don't look like much, but from these energy readings, they are more than powerful enough to cause issues," I replied, then brought up the clear overlapping lines of fire. "From the way things are at the moment, you can either land on the dark side and work your way around, or I can take out the cannons from stealth... Unless you want to lose 30% of your attacking force."

There wasn't much to say since the charts and data were there for her to read along with anyone the Captain trusted enough to take advice from. I wasn't about to get into a political pissing match so I tried to keep as much about the situation as I could paint by the numbers.

"Fine, so what can you do about it, doubtful you would just break cover to warn us off," Colonel Kay pushed and it was clear she didn't like the odds.

Swiping a hand across my holo-table, I brought up a plan with my torpedoes and sent them along with attack vectors. Then I made a motion to the green dot on the outskirts of the mining facility. "My original plan was to just have my asset locate the slaves and port them out, but with the armada. We can knock on the door with these." With that, I brought up the images and stripped down the specs of the proton torpedos. "Once you hit the range, I'll knock out the guns and we can assault the facility together."

"That is acceptable," Major Kyle answered, then shared a look with the Captain.

"Good, and just so you know, they have a few mecha's below from the energy signatures I was able to pick up," I replied, then turned on a heel so I could get into the cargo bay and load myself into Ion. Sheena could handle the coordination from here on out, but I also had an order of things for her to follow. When I arrived at my cargo bay, I found Ion sitting inside his cradle with a full battle load out.

The massive fuck of Splitter rifle shot superheated plasma-charged rounds courtesy of the hydrogen fusion power cell located in the stock of the weapon. Underneath the main battle mech was a combination grenade replicator launcher because no way in hell I was going to run around with live rounds where anyone and their mother could snipe from the distance. Magnetic grips all along the frame for weapon mounts but a few extra bits in the hands for what I called vortex shielding, because who wouldn't want to pull a Neo and catch live rounds out of the air? Dual-sided shoulder-mounted rocket launchers along with their own replicator cores because unlimited rockets go brr. In one of the open slots along the back, I had my own special brand of gravity hammer that would make even Master Chief proud.

Walking over to my Titan mecha, I gave him one last look along with Eva, my engineering drone, and got in after all of the green cleared.

It was time for TitanFall.

[ ALITA ]

Sliding down the cliff side, Alita kicked off the wall, turned upside down, and then kicked her leg out, throwing her body in a little twist. Landing smoothly along the pipe that leads into the mining facility, Alita gave her HUD a glance before dashing forward. Checking her sensor readings once more, Alita jumped down from the pipe that she was on, down fifty feet into a commando roll, and posted with her back up against the south wall. Turning around, she ran a hand over the wall until the hidden metal slats rubbed against her fingertips

With a smirk on her lips, Alita firmed her stance, then with a twist. She used the force generated by her motions, through her body, and into the metal panel frame. The decompression from the vibrational forces was swift as it was brutal, the panel popping outwards from its location and right into her waiting hand. With a smile, Alita stepped into the shaft, then closed the grate behind her. A few turns, a quick climb down, and a couple of dead Batarian' later, Alita found herself outside of the area marked slave pens. With the flex of her forearm muscles, the blade extended outwards and drew back into her gauntlets before Alita flipped off the now cooling body and over towards the wall next to the security card access.

Sending out her clean sweep program, Alita smiled as one of the slavers' wrists beeped as her program located the keys to the slave pens.

Once she had the access key, Alita then proceeded to crack the code on their credit payment encryptions and emptied out their accounts. It wasn't much, but a few thousand from the hand of some slavers were still credits well earned. Waving her omni-tool over the access panel, her ears were hit with a double beep before the door opened with a swish.

"What the…"

Two guards standing on the other side of the door reacted to the very short and petite woman, but they never got their weapons up. Alita stepped into the personal space of the left guard, a fist breaking the armor protecting his left thigh, breaking the bones. This put him down from the reaction of his pain receptors even as she lashed out with a kick towards the other, a blade flash forging on the edge of her heel, removing his head from his body. The one she was currently in the process of breaking never got the chance to call for help as Alita finished twisting around and brought a thigh around his neck, snapping it right after.

Rolling off the body, Alita took off at a dash, up the side of the wall, over two cages, and then down onto a guard that was trying to make a call asking for help.

"Send, argh!"

Nanowire slipped out from the underside of Alita's gauntlets, the force of the nanowire whip cracked and took off the arm from another Bantarian slaver.

*BRRT!*

A few rounds splashed off her shields forcing Alita to kick things up another gear as she flashed a step forward. The slaver never saw it coming as an electromagnetic punch, blowing his back out along with a few of the slave cages. Jumping upwards, Alita crawled along the ceiling before then dropping down onto another group of slavers. With her localized jammer active, Alita went about eviscerating all of the slavers within the complex. Crouched on top of one of the slave pens, Alita checked her HUD and found that there were no more guards within the local area. With the radar saying that there weren't any more enemies around, Alita released a few drones before jumping down from her perch.

Jumping down, Alita looked around and noticed the wide eyes and scared looks of the slaves. With a smirk on her lips and a strut in her steps, she walked to the nearest slave pen and gave the fifty people inside of the pen the side eye. Checking them over she only found ten Quarians, twenty humans, a few Turians, and some Asari to round out the rest of the numbers.

With a shake of the head, she approached the cell, "Alright, rescue is here, now take one and pass the rest around." She stated before pulling a large box out from her digistruct space. Inside the large box were transponders for direct teleportation out of the mining facility.

"We..we can't."

"The.. the bombs."

With a sigh, Alita's tail flicked lazily behind her as she gave them a pout, "I wouldn't be here if we didn't already have a fix for that. Now, take one and pass the box around."

Leaving them with the box, she went and did the same to the other three cells. Once she was happy with that, she turned around and found that nearly half of the damn slaves didn't have a transponder. Her gaze turned flat as she looked them over, with a snort. Alita activated the transponders teleporting the others out of the slave pens. All of the Quarians vanished except for two, every human left except for one, and more than half the Turians and Asari were left. In the corner, there was even a plucky little Salarian muttering to himself at high speeds.

Turning a glare onto them, Alita spoke. "You can either take the transponder and teleport out or you can die since you have no armor."

Alita didn't give the human a choice though, she walked over, pushed a transponder down his shirt, then used her command code override to activate the device. Turning away and ignoring the others, she collected the rest of the transponders and placed them back into her digi-space. Pumping upwards and taking to the rafters, Alita crouched down outside of a vent when her omni-tool beeped. In bright clear green letters, it read. Stand by for TITANFALL… The smile that split her face knowing her Commander was on the way, was brighter than the star that illuminated this system.

[ Turok ]

Sitting inside of Ion with my arms crossed, I had my eyes closed while jacked into the cybernetwork with the neural plug that came with my helmet. It was a new experience but with a little training over the last few months on my planet, I had just enough to get used to it. Lucky for me, I had more than enough technology bases covered for me to improve and take it beyond this reality's general understanding. Now, I could jack into the network while still being aware of my surroundings even as it applied a battlefield overlay for me to use. Now though, I was using it directly for something else as I smiled at System Alliance for getting into range.

Sheena had handled the Colonel fine and I was now just waiting for the signal. Four proton torpedoes were primed and ready since I didn't want to use any of my big guns here. I wouldn't call Naquadah a miracle material, but it was clean and packed a mean fucking punch. They were also the super material that I created for my drones. The same drones from Stargate Alteran technology tree capable of coring Wraith Star ships made them the top dog of an entire Universe for thousands of years. I had a full bank of genTwo-type drones and I could only use maybe four. And I was going to use those damn drones and keep people wondering what the fuck they were.

The countdown hit once the System Alliance ships got within a hundred thousand kilometers of the moon. Or in American, it was a little over sixty-two thousand miles from the moon. Things kicked off as the railguns powered up, but they never got any rounds off as the Milano launched all four banks of torpedoes. Heat signatures bloomed along the rear end of the shuttles down below, but I didn't let them get more than a hundred feet off the ground. Six drones out, one per ship, and they never saw it coming as the drones streaked out, and slammed into the ships. Cored from one side, out the other, and then did the same action two more times before the ships went critical and exploded.

Smiling savagely at the display of carnage, I slammed the metaphorical button for the drop within the network, then braced myself. Stand by for TITANFALL!

Smirking, I tried not to squeal as the computer announced the thing, because awesome was awesome. Gravity vanished for a brief heartbeat or two, then I was free-falling as the cargo bay doors of the Milano opened up and dropped me and Ion. My eyes flew open along with the activation of my Titan's optical sensors. Colors, sensations, and things far outside the scope of the human mind flooded my senses and I was lucky to have my implants to filter it all into something I could absorb. Even now, the sense and taste of data was something I had not expected, or even the ability to see lines of code as they create solid pathlines through the air back to their network nodes. With just a thought, I could reach out and just touch or grab a data line and have it completely under my control, astounding.

There was nothing like it as I hit terminal velocity in Ion; crash landing after a brief fifteen seconds. Dust, dirt, and debris kicked up something fierce as the entire front half of the facility's courtyard shattered from my landing impact . With a deep chuckle, I got out of the creator that I made, right as the doors to the mining facility opened up and a set of shit mechs came pouring out.

Ohh, this was going to be damn easy, my booster activated and I strafed left, my right shoulder-mounted rocket launcher came up and unleashed an anti-proton rocket. My left hand came forward and a smoke grenade dropped between myself and the squad of shitty mechs. As I settled in behind the cover, I got a few notifications on my HUD. Alita found the slaves and teleported them away, Sheppard was now on her way to the surface of the moon. And last but not least, four of the mechs were blown up while the rest took cover, but my scanners were top-of-the-line and I was able to track them all.

Aiming my shoulder launcher upwards, I fired off two more rockets even as I dashed out of cover, my splitter rifle going to work. Hot plasma rounds shot forward punching holes into anything unable to defend itself against hot plasma. One, two, then the third went down all within the span of moments, since I didn't have a jammer up it was easy to tell they were trying to coordinate themselves, but I was giving them no choice as I sowed chaos amongst their ranks.

I fluttered in and out of the smoke, they chased after me, only to get shot up with my splitter rifle or a rocket to arc over the smoke and get those hiding in cover. Giving my HUD a quick check, I smirked at the details and pulled back even as I piped more smoke and used a Z pattern to retreat. As an extra fuck you, I even left behind variable timer emp smokes, for the added kick.

Pulling out a rectangular-shaped piece of tech, I threw it down and turned my back to it as a shield wall made of hard light hologram Mass Effect fields sprang to life. All powered by their own miniaturized reactor, those little peashooters they called mass effect rounds couldn't even scratch the paint job. Standing behind my fortified force field, I gave the System Alliance mechs a hand signal and waited for them to rally on me. My HUD updated and marked them as green, but I could locate Shepard with the name tag that hung over her head.

"Alright, alright, boys and girls, drop your socks and grab your crotch," I hit them with a bombastic flow, turned around, and had the fortress shields break up as I covered different positions as we pushed the line.

More and more of the shit mechs came pouring out of the mining facility and it was clear to see where they were just using mining exo-suits as combat suits near the end. Once we had pushed the line to the massive double doors, I had a final count of at least fifty bodies all over the place. Standing off to the side, I watched as the Major and an EOD talked about how to get the double doors open since the access panel was short-circuited. They had first used a biotic, but they didn't have the juice to pull or shove the doors. Once his nose started to bleed, no other biotic was pushed to pop the cork on the doors and we found ourselves stuck on the outside.

The panel window of the mech standing at my side opened up and I could see Jane giving me a look. Shifting the weight of Ion, I peered down at her, "What?"

Jane didn't say anything, but I could notice the edge of rage simmering behind her eyes. Then it dawned on me, this was where she got the title Butcher of Torfan. With a mental nudge, the cockpit of Ion opened and I undid my buckles and perched myself on the balls of my feet.

Jane looked at me, then turned her gaze towards the massive doors that were keeping us out of the mining facility. "Do you have anything to get those doors open?"

Staring at her, I mulled over the repercussions of helping her get into the pirate's lair, then I got a ping. Alita had completed her mission and was moving toward the servers to get me a copy of everything. She had also placed a side note about how a few ex-slaves didn't want to get transported out. She of course being the smart woman she was, didn't allow the Quarians to stay. I would have to work with this.

"I can, but there are at least a hundred feet of kill zone between us and the far wall that controls the space," I replied with a grunt, then held up a hand with the relevant data showing. "Multiple cover points and overlapping fields of fire."

Jane didn't even flinch, "You don't seem worried, which means you have something, are you willing to share?"

"For you, yeah, sure," I replied with a shrug of my shoulders, "But you need to understand that if we do this, it's going to be a slaughter."

Shepard got out of her mech and went to the Major that was in charge. I didn't even need my suit's advanced microphones to know what was happening. Jane was selling the man a mission plan and she wanted to lead it. Jumping down from my titan, I guided Ion into position and stood at the ready, my staff in hand. I gave it the command to mecha shift into a bow, then gave Jane a hard look before I pulled out an extra overshield from my subspace. The device was round like a hockey puck and stuck to her armor with magnetic clamps.

"Shepard told me your plan," The Major grunted at me, his gaze hard as steel.

"It's the only one we have, and it's not one I look forward to," I replied, looking the man directly in the eyes.

The Major grunted, "And you don't have any more of those fancy shields?"

I of course had a few, but I was looking to do this with my gun bunny. Plus, I wanted to see how ruthless Shepard was going to be. So, I gave him the only answer I had, "No, didn't think I would run into anyone else out here."

"So what was your plan for the slaves," The Major asked and I could feel the sarcasm. "Protect them with your body?"

This time, I shook my head, "My infiltrator already excavated ninety percent of the slaves."

Everyone within the area that was close enough to hear me, all stopped in their tracks and now the Major was no longer as dismissive of me. Ignoring him, I pulled out a Sweet business for Jane, this was about to be a bullet storm of the highest order. What Shepard didn't know was that she was wearing an Amp shield, which would boost all of her shots. Then reinforce that ten times over with the advanced energy field manipulation I could bring to the table.

The look Jane gave the carriable Gatling gun was disturbing, to say the least, and I was happy she didn't have any time to get down and dirty with it. Getting into position before the double doors, I took a half runners stance, checked my weapon, and waited for Jane and Ion to get in position.

The arrow I had noticed was a shatter shot, then would follow that up with arc energy, and then other lethal arrows would follow. Pulling out a bubble shield projector, I gave it a check before prepping it to slam at my feet. Jane took up a position at my back, and I had the Ion prepare himself. This was one of those moments I wish Alita was here because Jane and I were about to pull an iconic Halo Legends dash.

"Ready," Jane spoke up with a pat on my shoulder pads.

My reply was a nod and then I gave Ion the commands. The giant titan collapsed the Splitter rifle he was carrying, then both empty hands glowed a blue before the doors buckled from the force of biotics applied. If the human body could be mutated to produce biotic effects, then nothing stopped me from recreating the same thing with technology. Plus, biotics still fell underneath the category of energy fields and knowledge cascades were a thing that I would abuse to the end of my dying days.

Breathing deep, I let it out slowly, then slammed the bubble shield down into the ground as Ion yanked the massive doors out. The double doors went flying overhead and crashed far off into the distance, the ground shook, but we couldn't pay attention to that as the bubble shield was lit up with live rounds coming out of the mining facility. The reading for the power of the shield rapidly fell in my HUD even as Ion popped smoke for us.

That was the signal as Jane and I took off at a sprint, the arrow I was holding fired off, split, and took out a group of slavers. Jane tore into the left side, the Sweet Business that she was using turning everything she pointed it towards into mulch. A quick few arrows followed up my first, then an arc arrow to take out the stray slaver standing on a balcony. Down the middle of the killing floor, we ran, nothing able to even make a dent in our shields. Except for the rocket heading towards our path, breathe, notch arrow, loose.

BOOM!

Jane shifted from following at my left to running at my side. It was maybe a two-minute run, but like I had warned Shepard, it was a slaughter. I spun, two arrows notched, aimed, and let loose with nary a thought, two down.

The angles shifted and I had a trick shot arrow ready and launched, it hit the container, off the wall, and into the head of the pirate. TRICKSHOT!

The follow-up to that was a driller arrow that got me a multi-kill along with three explosive arrows, man I was in the flow and on fire. Jump flip upside down took out two more with another pair of arrows and I finished off the group of guys with a trick shot that was just straight disrespectful. He came around the corner like he was SWAT FORCE FIVE, the arrow went through his open legs, bounce off the back wall to the roof, and into the back of his skull as he made for the door to aim and shoot at us.

He's lucky the shot didn't take him in the ass, but dead was dead.

And all while this was happening, Jane just fed everyone breakfast, lunch, and dinner full of lead. Then we got to the end of the open cargo area and found some of the slavers trying to escape. Pulling out a foam arrow, I let it fly and watched as it blocked the door that the slavers were trying to run through. Jane went off to the side to handle the control panel while I made like the kool-aid man and ran through the foam and into a massive smelting forge area.

Without a second thought, I dived behind cover as one of the massive vats of melted something tried to pour its contents on what I used to be. Everything and their mother pounded the location I took cover behind. With a roll of my eyes, I pulled out a special arrow and shot it into the door frame of where I came from. A shield popped into place to protect the doorway allowing me to focus on the upcoming fight.

Standing out of cover, I held a hand up before me as I caught all of the rounds fired. The magnetic vortex shield built into my gauntlets put in work as I pulled a move straight from the Matrix. Adrenaline sang in my veins as the ground around me shook, buckled, and reacted to everything thrown at me. Holding my hand up above my head, I kept the vortex active as everything was sucked up into the magnetic maelstrom. Since I knew that everything was being recorded, I decided to take some advice from Megamind. It was time to be super, and the best way to be super in the eyes of the masses was PRESENTATION. With a plan in mind, I stepped out from behind the cover.

"I AM TUROK, AND I HAVE COME FOR MY PEOPLE!" I roared nice and loud, my programs hacking all of the communications units inside of the Torfan mines. All across the facility, my voice and image echoed.

The Batarians shared a look, then called back, "We don't even know who you are!" A Batarian slaver called back.

"LIES!" I snarled, brought my hand down, and thrust forward, that ARC energy that I have been building up turning into an absolute monster of a storm blasting outwards and ripping him to shreds along with his friends. I held the constrained arc energy storm in place even as everything was shredded along with the cover. Then I jumped upwards over the cover as they scattered away from their position. Raising my hands above my head, the arc flowed from my body. The storm I carried was heavy beyond measure, and I was alright with that because I had a place to put it.

Then I brought it down like the hammer of justice and roared. "I am the hammer that falls on all those who prey upon the Quarians, the shield of my people. The Guardian that knows no limits. The one who shall right the wrongs that were done to us." Standing up, I breathed deep, then bellowed so loudly, the room shook and a few slavers fell onto their ass. I roared my words to the cosmos and Titan arc energy lit up the place like I was Thor himself with the hammer.

Author Notes. The back half of this is a little rough and needs some cleaning up, but Ill do that later, wanted to make sure that a chapter got out.

Authors Notes - Removes the - for the internet links

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