-------
Meeting Shepard again was a novel experience for Seraphiel. The only thing she could compare it to was when one of her siblings visited her, and even that was a little different. Even if it happened sparingly, she’d always known she could meet her siblings again someday. With Shepard, and those others she’d gotten close to in other universes, she’d assumed she would never meet them again. Especially if they were mortal. She had said goodbyes when possible. She also always tried to keep a bit of distance, knowing that they’d soon be parted. She made friends and even lovers of course, but always with the expectation that it was temporary.
Having all of that turned on its head with this meeting was new and exciting. It was also plenty confusing. When you say your goodbyes to someone, with full expectation of never meeting them again, the reunion can be a little awkward, especially when you’ve already moved on. Still, she enjoyed it. Unlike meeting new people, it was much easier to just reacquaint yourself with someone you used to be close to, even if they had changed to an extent.
It also helped that Shepard didn’t have too many expectations on what happened now. It would’ve been a little awkward if she’d expected them to just pick from where they left off, particularly since they'd spent more time apart than together. In that way, the situation felt a little like two former lovers who'd broken up due to reasons not up to them reuniting after decades. Some of the old spark was still there, and they could both feel that some of what they had could be rekindled if they so chose, but things were also different. They were different. And the situation was very different. That didn't mean nothing would happen, but it also didn't mean something would. For now, they were simply enjoying each other's company.
“Stop grinning like a fool.” Seraphiel chided the Human woman.
“I can’t help it. You look so silly in that paper gown.” Shepard couldn’t help the grin of amusement. The Seraphiel back in Shepard’s old universe would’ve been extremely unlikely to be caught in this kind of situation. Back then, Seraphiel had been an endless font of power and supremely controlled and skilled, a consummate professional. The similarities only made the differences that much more obvious.
"Hardly my fault. They couldn't fix my armor while I was wearing it." Seraphiel defended herself while gesturing towards the faculty working on various projects, one of which was her damaged armor. Her armor didn’t require a lot of work, but there were many other projects as well.
There were a dozen smiths, tailors, engineers, and other artisans in a single dedicated workspace, combining their expertise on a hundred separate work orders. She was sitting down in a waiting area to the side, which only had a separate changing area and a handful of beds for students that might have been injured along with their equipment, but not badly enough to need the infirmary. There was also a large gathering of chairs for those waiting for their equipment to be fixed, only a few of which were occupied. A few others wore similar disposable gowns to her, while others were in normal clothing, mostly along for company like Shepard.
Speaking of, the presence of a relatively famous Champion was gathering some attention. "You seem popular." Seraphiel pointed out.
"The mid-level Champion fights tend to be more popular than the high-level ones because they're easier to follow along and understand. Our fights might need to be slowed down for the general populace, but at least we still fight relatively normally, instead of using some obscure powers like the highest-ranked Champions.” Shepard shrugged while explaining. “And just for the record, half of those looks are still for you. You manage to make that paper gown look rather fetching all things considered.”
"Hmm. Some of them might actually be wondering who I am since I'm not in my Draenei form. They haven't seen me fight." She pointed out. Not everyone present knew every competitor, but there was one thing she had to admit about herself, which was that she looked memorable if nothing else.
“Speaking of, why do you even bother?” Shepard asked.
“Surely you’ve heard that Angels aren’t exactly popular?” Seraphiel pointed out.
"Yes, but that hasn't stopped you before." Shepard retorted, remembering how Seraphiel hadn't hidden her background even when she was the only Angel in the entire universe.
“I was just keeping discreet until I can protect myself.” Seraphiel simply explained. “I’m not very secretive in general, but I’m not reckless to the point of stupidity either.”
“Yes, you are. Normally at least. Though I suppose how this case might be different.” Shepard nodded in agreement. “I could see how the current situation would-“ Her words were suddenly interrupted and she seemed to be listening to something.
At the same time, Seraphiel suddenly had to take hold of the bed she was sitting on to support herself, as a wave of unease and nausea rushed through her. It was like being hit with an extreme and unpleasant bout of déjà vu. The feeling was familiar, but she couldn't quite pinpoint why. While similar, she got the distinct impression that these feelings might have been akin to, but not the same as something she’d felt in the past. It was like an echo of the past, twisted and distorted. The familiarity worried her though. Even if she couldn’t quite pinpoint the feeling, she didn’t associate it with anything pleasant.
"What?" Shepard asked with apparent confusion, listening to someone else. "You're serious? Well, your nickname is Joker, so…" The one-sided conversation came to a sudden end as even Seraphiel heard a metallic screeching sound, coming from several sources at one, clearly signaling the sudden interruption of electronic communications. "Joker? Joker!" Shepard repeated a couple of times.
“This is bad.” Seraphiel jumped up from the bed and went for her armor. “I don’t care if you’re done, I’m going to need that.” She stated to the older Elven man working on the armor. The man simply hit the armor one last time to make the dent as unnoticeable as possible before nodding and handing it over.
"We're being attacked," Shepard announced, loudly enough to let everyone hear. The faculty members working in the area seemed surprised but reacted quickly to gather the essentials, while the students seemed mostly to go into shocked inaction, staring at her.
Seraphiel used the chance to slip behind the small privacy screen and into her armor while calling out to Shepard. "Did you get any details on the attackers before the line went out?"
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Not too much. Joker managed to mention something about countless enemy vessels but not much else.” Shepard called back. “Whatever it is, our communications are being jammed, as you noticed.”
“Mr. Moreau is alive then? I can’t imagine you’re still flying around in the Normandy.”
“He is, and the new ship is also named the same. Amusingly, he got a pilot Class that gave him a lot of Vitality. Also, his previous medical condition was easily dealt with thanks to the magic and technology of this universe.” Shepard explained.
Seraphiel stepped out from behind the screen, now fully armored. "Well, the electronic interference isn't exactly promising. We should probably prepare to evacuate, just in case."
The current world they were on was a minor resource world that just happened to be centrally located between the different academies. Even the arena was brought and deployed here magically. The world's defenses were not great, most of the population being miners and farmers. That being the case, even if the students weren't yet a major military asset, the headmasters and some of the faculty certainly were. It wasn't the first time the academies were attacked during an event like this.
“Yes, let’s.” Shepard went to the front of the room. “Alright people! We’re going to move towards the hangars in case there’s a need for evacuation. Keep behind me, but try to keep up!” She declared, and the others seemed to acquiesce to her command, which wasn’t all that shocking. Shepard could take control of a room at worst times, not to mention when she really chose to. Likely had quite a bit of Charisma. Some of the faculty were holding weapons like they knew how to use them, although it was obvious combat wasn’t their chosen vocation.
As they quickly started moving through the open hallways, Seraphiel applied her Blessing ability to everyone present, causing even Shepard to look at her in surprise. The [Royal Blessings] could be turned into a simple percentage-based improvement to stats. Which meant it could be made to work based on the target's stats, not her own. That made it useful even to someone over a thousand levels higher than her, even if the improvement wasn't major.
In return, she felt a similar but much stronger Skill affecting her. It didn't feel like any holy power. Instead, it seemed like a power some sort of leader-Class would have, except with the caster being ten times her level, which meant her stats suddenly more than tripled. "Two can play that game." Shepard grinned before moving out with her weapon ready.
They hadn't made it far until the entire arena shook. "That didn't feel like an orbital weapon or magical impact," Shepard commented.
"No. I'm pretty sure something just hit the arena. Either falling from orbit or quite literally hitting it, like with a fist or a weapon." Her senses weren't yet quite as extensive as they used to be, but they were sharp. And she had plenty of experience with impacts.
"We might want to hurry then," Shepard stated firmly, her gun trained in the direction they were going. The gun was clearly magical instead of being mechanical. Seraphiel could tell that it likely drew on Shepard's biotic abilities instead of firing bullets.
Their group managed to pick up some stragglers on the way, mostly participants of the tournament. Some were armed and ready, while some were clearly here just to watch and have a good time. They got relatively close to the hangars before suddenly a wave of small skittering creatures burst from an open doorway. Shepard didn't waste any time and sent a wave of force at the tiny critters that seemed to be made of carapace and teeth. The sheer power of the wave splattered everything it came into contact with, the enemies clearly not being a match.
"Tyranids!" Seraphiel shouted in recognition, realizing now why she recognized the bad feeling, and why she hadn't done so before. The Tyranids had the power to adversely affect psykers, but this universe didn't work with the Warp in the same way, which meant the effect was different, if still there.
Several more impacts hit the building somewhere. “We’re going to have more company soon.” Shepard deduced. “Move it!”
They quickly moved past the broken doorway, and Seraphiel noticed a new wave of the skittering creatures coming. She deployed her [Fortified by Light] to burn all the incoming creatures with holy fire at the same time, which didn’t have too strong of an effect despite her additional stats since she’d sacrificed the more offensive effect of the [Hallowed Ground] for more protections by combining it with [Bulwark]. However, the effect got a lot stronger when she activated the new Skill that she’d taken with the empty Skill slot, [Avenging Wrath] which was just a straight damage boost to all her Skills. She also channeled psionic lightning at the incoming enemies, frying them with the arcs of lightning coming from her fingers.
“I’ll handle the back!” She called out to Shepard, as the others streamed past, noticing she didn’t require assistance. Hundreds of little critters died in seconds, stemming the tide, but she knew this was just the beginning. The Tyranids were sending the smallest and weakest of their swarm in first to locate targets and to swarm any weak targets of opportunity. A lot more and a lot stronger enemies were coming and soon.
[Congratulations! [Avenging Wrath] has leveled up from 60 to 61!]
[Congratulations! [Energy Control] has leveled up from 120 to 121!]
[Congratulations! [Fortified by Light] has leveled up from 73 to 74!]
The tiny critters weren’t great for experience, but better than nothing. They weren't really meant to fight anything serious anyway. That did bring up an interesting question though. How did the Tyranid level? They were basically creatures working under a hive mind. Did they level like magical creatures and animals? Or was it just the hive mind that grew in level? Or were some of the individual organisms intelligent enough to have their own levels? An interesting question for another time.
As the group moved past the doorway, she set up a simple but durable barrier that would take at least some time for the little critters to claw through and rushed to follow the others.
They made their way into the hangars where all the students were boarding any ships that were able to take them, while some of the ships were taking off as they became full. The rest of their group scattered to join the other boarders while Shepard grabbed her arm. “Come on. Normandy’s there.” Pointing at a vessel that outwardly looked somewhat similar to the ship they’d been on board in the past, but the vessel was quite different in construction.
She could sense the magic radiating off the ship, and many of the materials used were not available in the previous universe. The function was quite similar though, as the two of them rushed up the loading ramp at the bottom-aft of the ship and ran through the vessel towards the cockpit. Many people had already taken refuge inside, clogging up the cargo hold.
The two of them made it to the cockpit, where the familiar, if older Jeff "Joker" Moreau sat at a very comfortable-looking leather seat, while the form of what could only described as a female android sat in a similar seat beside him. "Joker, take us up! EDI, what the hell is going on?"
“Aye, Commander! I mean Champion.” Joker managed to slip in a slight joke for old-time's sake.
The female but clearly artificial voice of the android responded while the human-like but clearly not made of flesh fingers danced across displays. “The enemies entered the system only ten minutes ago and made a direct line towards the only inhabited world in the system, meaning us. The headmasters are engaging the enemy in orbit, but there are trillions of life forms entering the system, and they simply can’t kill the enemy fast enough, even if they aren’t personally in danger. An evacuation was ordered and is beginning, but the enemy creatures are entering the atmosphere in large numbers, and I don't think we have too much time."
"My brother is out there," Seraphiel muttered.
EDI looked at her and seemed to suddenly do a double take, which was especially odd considering she was a genuine AI. "Seraphiel?"
“Not now. The students? How are they?” Shepard barked, as the ship started lifting off.
“Yes Champion. Most have already made the ships, though few have managed to lift off yet. They’re all mixed up in different ships and are going to be a pain to sort out later, but I haven’t heard anything about dead students yet. The arena has some protections in place. The headmasters have managed to keep an open evacuation corridor so far. Even if the enemy is too numerous to wipe out, the headmasters are powerful enough to keep their surroundings clear. Though the fact that the enemy is managing to push against so many powerful beings is surprising, to say the least." EDI explained.
"There's some sort of suppression effect going on," Shepard explained with a frown. "I can feel that my highest-ranked Skills are somehow weaker than they should be. I believe the headmasters are having a similar problem."
"It might also be a numbers problem." Joker pointed out. "I managed to get some readings before that became impossible. I've never seen so many enemies in one place."
"Show me." Seraphiel prompted and was handed a pad with the numbers and images. "Ah, we're dealing with a tiny splinter fleet."
“That’s tiny?!” Joker asked in shock.
"It's not always about size Jeff." EDI joked.
"Haven't dealt with Tyranids before, have you?" Seraphiel realized. "For them, this was tiny tens of thousands of years ago. I can't even imagine what they're like now. In fact, I'm somewhat surprised there aren't defenses in place for something like them. I was told locust races are a relatively common problem."
“They are.” Shepard nodded. “Though usually they aren’t seen in these kinds of numbers. As for the Tyranids in particular, I heard something about them being mostly confined to the general area of the universe they came in with. I suppose the gods didn’t feel that was necessary anymore.”
“Oh.” Seraphiel realized something. This new universe was rather used to war and struggle, but so far everything she’d seen had been relatively light-hearted. They might be used to war, but not on the scale of that particular universe. Something like the Reapers she’d fought together with Shepard had been a problem, but not even close to the scale of a problem as the Tyranids. If that universe was suddenly getting active for some reason, things were about to take a darker turn.