Hey Fan Fictioneers,

I would like to inform you all that I am in fact still alive. I'm sorry for the really long wait since chapter 4 but I was held him with life and writing blocks and inspiration was a little low. Thankfully I was able to fit in enough time to get this out to you all. Once again feel free to leave any constructive criticisms and comments. I do this cause it's fun and your comments make it all worth it. So with out further ado...

Please enjoy...

Chapter 5:

Contact and Combat

Orokin Cruiser 'Tabellarius', Edge of the Terminus Systems, Interstellar space,

"Oh man, This is heavy. First contact and it's with a technologically advanced race that got fucked harder than the Quarians with the Geth." Commented Shepard. The conversation that they had with Exodus proved to be ever informative. Garrus stood silent taking in the magnitude of the Orokin's losses, while Mordin's note taking never even hinted at slowing down. So much information was to be had. The tech, the culture, the history, but what had Mordin really intrigued was what the cephalon had referred to as the void. Though as endless as Mordin's note taking seemed it suddenly came to a halt.

"Hold on... Intrigued by your mention of this void. What is it?" He asked.

"Ah yes, the void. Well there is no real way to describe it. It's an alternate plane of existence. parallel but separate from our own. It radiate energies exponentially more powerful than anything discovered thus far but it is, of course, also dangerous beyond compare."

"Parallel Plane of existence? That falls into multiverse theory, presumed false, rather interesting to know it's not. Opens plenty of research opportunities. Please tell me more." Said Mordin adopting a thoughtful pose.

"Why of course, It has been a long time since I have spoken to anyone. It is… Nice. So about the void, it's- Hold on!" The cephalon interrupted himself, his voice suddenly a mix of both confusion and worry.

"What's going on?" Demanded Garrus adopting a battle stance at Exodus' sudden tense attitude.

"This isn't… It can't be correct. These readings are not right. Running systems diagnostics…. By the void it's-" Exodus began rambling on as he ran diagnostics, but was interrupted when the portal across the hall suddenly burst to life, golden gears beginning to grind together. A golden haze filtered into a starry black film appearing over the mechanism. For Shepard and his crew, it was a beautiful sight, that is until unknowns walked through. Twenty soldiers, decked in heavy blue armor and carrying yellow looking guns. The armor was rounded and blobby and, for all the grace these strange soldier moved with, it looked incredibly bulky. The guns were large and heavy looking. An ugly amalgamation of blocky parts and rounded industrial design and now all these poorly designed guns were now pointing directly at the squad. These strange soldiers lined up side by side and aimed their assault rifles down the hall, lining up their iron sights with the yellow glow coming from the eyes of their blank white face masks. Shepard and his crew replied the only way they could possibly do so in a situation like this. They raised their guns as well to form a nice stand off between a Shepard, a Turian, a Salarian, and some twenty odd unidentified soldiers.

"Grineer!?" Shouted the cephalon.

"What?" Asked Shepard.

"The grineer are clones used as somewhat of a slave caste in the Orokin Empire. They were strong, aged fast, and were very hard workers, set to do the heavier construction based jobs within the Empire." Before Shepard could respond, suddenly disturbed by this cephalon's casual referral of the grineer to slaves, Another voice resounded from across the hall. However, unlike the heavy guttural language that these Grineer were using, this deep voice, both soothing and intimidating, was speaking in the flowing Orokin language that the cephalon had kindly shared with Shepard and his crew's translation software earlier.

"Now, now, it has been a long time since we have been referred to as slaves, cephalon. And… What is this we have here? I don't recall ever seeing anything like the armor you have on, and your alien allies there definitely hint at quite the discovery on my end. Who are you exactly?" By this point Tyl Regor had pushed through his line of troops for Shepard to see him. Silence reigned in the hall, as Shepard and Regor stared eachother down. Shepard knew this would not be an easy fight. This new Grineer towered over him by at least a foot, and the heavy axe and shield he carried looked like it was more than just a cosmetic item no matter how barbaric it seemed. He had no doubt that the person across knew how to use his weapon. Plus he looked to be of some rank, if the more ornate blue armor with two horns adorning his helmet was anything to go by. Regor wasted no time studying the group as well. The man taking point looked like the leader and was very much like one of those Corpus members in appearance. He might have mistaken his for one if it was for the fact his armor was unlike anything he'd seen before. The two aliens by this man's side, however, was what caught his attention. It Would seem this was a first contact situation. That was good. Regor relished the opportunity of acquiring new knowledge and found the idea of other races for the Grineer to subjugate fantastic. As Regor took a step forward the three raised their rifles once again.

"I'd ask you the same thing." Demanded Shepard.

"Ah well, my friend, the name is Tyl Regor. I am the leader of this little exploratory group. Both a loyal soldier and a simple lover of the sciences." Mordin perked up at that,

"Scientist? Interesting to see someone with your appearance holding title like that."

"Well, looks can be… deceiving after all but alas I'm a lover of the sciences indeed. I do in fact hold many specializations in the field of biology and bioengineering."

"Ah another biologist I see. Solus, Mordin Solus, Good to see others taking interest in the subject. These are my companions, Commander Shepard and Garrus Valkarian" The two nodded and lowered their rifles slightly.

" It is a pleasure… Now, I'm in a good mood for this day has been very educational. you three have proven to be very interesting but unfortunately… I need this ship. Therefor, I shall extend some courtesy. I would like to ask you to leave please."

"That sound lovely, but unfortunately we found this place first and I can't trust you just yet. Especially not with a ship like this so close to our borders." Said Garrus entering into the conversation. Regor sighed,

"I was hoping you would cooperate but I guess it was not meant to be." As if on cue Shepard and his crew were subdued before the even knew it. Three Dekar Manics, in their black Uranus camo decloaked behind them and had their claws ready to tear open the necks of Shepard and his crew within mere moments. Shepard and his squad struggled to escape but were all surprised by the strength these soldiers had. Mordin however, using his agility instead a trying to brute forced the Manics and thanks to his skills as an STG operative slipped out and shot the Manic in the knee. After taking the first shot the second broke through. Falling to one knee the Manic was helpless against the point blank shot to the head the followed, before he even hit the ground Mordin turned towards the other Manics only for Regor hilt smash him in the Head. Mordin was out cold. Shepard and Garrus now helpless were soon subjected to the same treatment.

"Pitiful... Take them away, and someone get me that cephalon." Said Regor, as he began commanding his units to and fro.

With that Shepard and his crew were knocked out and dragged through the portal…

Normandy SR2, Edge of the Terminus Systems, Interstellar space,

Joker sat in his chair panicking. This was supposed to be a simple exploration mission. Now Shepard, Garrus and Mordin were gone, all comms with them had been suddenly cut off after the portal they found opened and their apparent first contact went south. They could be in deep thought and that wasn't good. Shepard was too important to be lost like this.

"Miri, we may have a massive problem here. Is the Shuttle ready to go? Cause I need it ready to go!" Miranda's voice came on over the comms,

"What do you mean problem?"

"Shepard… He's gone."

"What do you mean he's gone?"

"I think we might be dealing with a hostile first contact."

"Shit!" Down in her quarters, Miranda began to pace back and forth. "I'll have a second squad set up we don't have time to call for backup if the situation is this bad already.

"Alright, I'll radio the hanger and have the shuttle pilot prep the insertion."

"Good, keep me posted on any further developments." With that Miranda cut the line and got to work getting her squad together. Within twenty minutes she had a squad prepared in the hanger. She stood there in her skin tight combat suit with her M4 Shuriken ready to go, net to her on the shuttle was Jacob his suit more armored than Miranda's but was still light enough to allow him easy movement. He was currently cleaning his M-27 Scimitar. Grunt, standing up across from the two humans, unflipped the safety of his M-300 Claymore heavy shotgun.

"It's nice to see others appreciating the strengths of the humble shotgun." Said Grunt nodding to Jacob.

"What can I say. They're reliable, and powerful guns. As a close range biotic it complements me nicely."

With a low grunt Grunt nodded towards Jacob before going back to his own gun.

The shuttle doors opened soon enough and so Miranda, Jacob and Grunt found themselves going into the golden halls of the Orokin Vessels. The rescue group scoured the halls until they came to a large hall. The squad took a long look around admiring the ornate design of it all.

"This vessel is amazing. I don't want to know how much it would cost to build a ship like this." Said Miranda.

"I don't know. I don't like the feeling this place gives me." Replied Jacob on edge.

"Bah! All this fancy design is useless! A ship is a ship I'll admire it when I know it can actually fight like a proper vessel should!" Grunt would have continued on his rant about the uselessness of the ship architecture, but something caught his attention. He smelled something off as they arrived at yet another ornate door.

"Wait! Somethings up get-

Grunt never finished his sentence as the door opened with a Snap-Hiss. Suddenly Grunt found himself face to face with a soldier of some kind. Unlike the lighter looking blue armored squadron of of soldiers behind the front soldier who already had their blocky yellow rifles raised. The one face to face with grunt held stark differences. He stood as tall as grunt, about half a foot taller than the rest, and held a white launcher of sort with white armor bulkier than even many armors used by the krogan. "Stap, Goons dan nu. U Cam Whit Uss!"

At the sound of Miranda and Jacob cocking their guns Grunt could only smile…

Lua, Plato, Origin System,

Amel ran down the halls of Lua, his quiver out of arrows as empty as the void energy reserves of his Loki warframe. How he ran out of arrows and energy already was beyond any of the other Tenno in his squad. The distinctive humming and clicking sounds of sentient movements were getting, louder they were gaining on him. He turned the corner and slid into another hall hoping his mastery over stealth would be enough to conceal him. The four sentients, two battalysts and two conculysts, all casually turning to face Amel made him realize otherwise.

"Heyyy Guys" he said with a nervous giggle before continuing, "Can't we just talk this over".

The sentients stayed silent for a second before open firing. Amel just barely managed to dive behind cover, his previous location consumed in the radioactive fire of the two battalyst's cannons.

"Fuck, there goes peaceful conflict resolution. Time for plan B." Amel lifted himself from his cover taking aim with his Akstiletto, the acid filled HE rounds would be guaranteed to at least do some damage, especially with the gun's high rate of fire. The triggers pulled before any of the sentients could react.

CLICK...CLICK...CLICK...CLICK…

"Aw shit!" Amel pulled out his Rakta dark dagger and charged at the machines but before his attack could connect, a fiery inferno engulfed the sentients. Elanna walked up behind Amel and, in a humorous voice, said,

"Figured you could use a hand, that situation looked a little... hot"

"I might have been working up a bit of a COLD sweat." Replied Amel, his tone sarcastic.

"You suck"

"I try… anyway do you know where the rest of the squad is?"

"I do but maybe we should take care of this problem first." Said Elanna point towards the now recovering sentients.

"I'm out of ammo…" Deadpanned Amel

"What? How do you even? Nevermind… Just watch. I got this in the bag." and with a seductive sway of her hips Elanna stepped up to the sentients and unloaded her Ingis on the squad. The vicious flames licked away at sentient armor but effectively only did superficial damage.

"Hmm interesting… That didn't work." She stepped back slowly and, her voice simply a nervous squeal at this point, said "RUN!"

And ran away they did, as they avoided the symphony of rapid fire sentient artillery…

Meanwhile,

"Anton… Are those explosions?" Said Alexis as the Excalibur Umbra and Mesa duo navigated the crumbling hallways of Lua's Orokin ruins. They had arrived in search of Clem and to follow up on his intel of the Grineer exploratory group.

"Sounds like Elanna found Amel then." Said Anton. He had sent Elanna to search for Amel after he was separated from the squad when a hallway had collapsed on them.

"Should we go check it out?"

"Nah, I trust they've got this covered on their end."

"I'm going to check."

"What? Wait! Alexis Come on!" Anton complained. He really didn't feel like deviating from their objective any longer than they already had. Of course, however, Alexis completely ignored Anton's cries. Anton could only sigh and follow.

"It's a good thing I'm supposed to be squad lead." He muttered under his breath.

"What?"

"Um... nothing!"

They didn't walk long before a nearby opened with a distinctive Snap-Hiss allowing the 15 grineer soldier being lead by a heavy desert camo armor clad napalm and two taller heavy machine gunners.

"Tenno! Git Dem!" Cried the napalm.

What followed was nothing short of a blood bath. A blast from the napalm's incendiary missile launcher was deftly dodged by Anton as he quickly ducked under and rolled forward out of the missile's course. By the time the missile exploded upon contact with the walk behind the two Tenno, Anton had already used his suits first void ability, dashing forward through the fold of the void and gutting the napalm along with three other grineer lancers in the same amount of time it took Alexis to gun down the two heavy gunners and three grineer lancers with her Aklex Prime. A split second later and Anton's Nikana prime was already fully unsheathed, it's golden blade quartering grineer troops and cutting bullets out of the air with grace and fluidity. In the same time it took Anton, with his mastery over the reverse grip stance of blind justice, to cut down half the remaining grineer soldiers, exactly three seconds, The rapid barking of Alexis' Aklex prime never ceased. By the end of those three seconds, eighteen grineer soldiers lied at Anton's feet in a veritable pool of blood either diced up or lacking large chunks of head thanks to high caliber pistol fire.

"Well… That went well" Said Anton while sheathing his blood soaked blade after flicking the blood off, "All this blood's gonna be a bitch to clean off my warframe though."

"You're the one who loves using a sword with like the closest range fighting style ever. I mean what'd you expect."

"Don't insult my baby" replied Anton as he began to caress his Nikana.

With a sigh Alexis just shook her head.

" I swear, for an ultra badass god level warrior, You're such a child sometimes."

"Cause you don't have your own quirks, gearhead. The amount of times I've caught you ogling over engineering schematics is testament to that."

Alexis was about to resort but Amel and Elanna running up to them broke her train of thought. Even Anton's was surprised their random appearance. Although the two Tenno's surprise might have been less attributed to the arrival of their two squadmates and more to 8 sentients they had chasing them.

"A little help here" Yelled Amel his voice barely audible over the sound of explosion.

"Dude how did you even- Anton began, only to be cut off by Elanna now cowering behind him.

"Less talky, more fighty please!"

Anton and Alexis sighed as they equipped their unique weapons

By this point the were surrounded. Alexis could only say one thing,

"Well fuck"

The fight was brutal to say the least. Simply put it was roughly ten minutes of mostly running and hiding coupled by sustained attacks from the squad. Anton's exalted blade, A powerful one handed saber created entirely out a concentrated void energy made short work of the sentient troops. Alexis' Regulators overloaded the sentient's adaptability with their absurdly high rate of fire, incredible accuracy and void charged ammo. By the time the two Tenno's energy had run out, Elanna had already joined back into the fray her void reserves recharged by the energy module Alexis had given her. Amel had also joined back in and thanks to his now available radial disarm, the remaining sentients were helpless against the Tenno who exited their warframes to deliver a sustained assault using their concentrated void beams to overwhelm and destroy the sentients, unarmed and weak to the voids deadly energies. After taking a few minutes to absorb the oro of the sentient units to ensure they did not regenerate and take a breath after such an intense battle, the squad, now reunited and all patched up, made their way towards the original objective. After running down the halls for a few minutes they turned a corner and, coming face to face with another grineer, all raised their weapons. They stopped and froze in their tracks however, when the trooper, shaking in fear at the thought of his almost horribly painful demise, raised his hands in the air, jumped up like a frightened cat and yelled,

"CLEM! CLEM!"

A/N:

Yes... I have a thing for cliff hangers. In other news longest chapter to date (Yay!). Hope you enjoyed this new chapter and stay tuned for the next episode of Dragon ball- Uh I mean Orokin Effect.