7 Ch 5: New Weapons

As the Normandy flew through the nebula towards the Relay, Eitri walked up to Shepard.

"Can you call the people you want on the ground teams to a meeting? I think it's time for them to pick their new guns. Let's meet in the cargo bay near the Mako in 10 minutes. I have some prep work to do." Eitri said.

"Okay. Please tell me you aren't going to dump a bunch of guns in my cargo bay." Shepard said.

"Nope, just creating a portal to my weapons closet and tidying up." Eitri said, turning into Limbo and walking to the elevator.

Ten minutes later, Shepard had gathered everyone into the cargo bay, but found it empty.

"So, what did you want to talk to us about, Shepard? And why in the cargo bay?" Garrus asked.

"Eitri said he wanted to get you all your weapons. He said we should meet here. I swear, if this is some kind of prank, I'll-" Shepard was cut off as a rift opened in front of them and Eitri in his Limbo walked out. Wrex and Garrus drew their weapons in caution.

"Good reflexes, though honestly shooting me with those wouldn't really do anything." Eitri said.

"Eitri?" Garrus asked, lowering his gun.

"Yup. This is my warframe, Limbo. When piloted by a Tenno like me, it grants them control over the Rift, the space between dimensions. I can create portals to it, send things in and out of it, and basically manipulate space and time in it, given I have enough power. It's also where I keep all my stuff. Come on in! But please don't touch anything unless given permission, as many of the items in there are extremely dangerous." Eitri said, gesturing theatrically to the rift.

Nobody moved, apprehensive about entering the portal in front of them. After about half a minute, Wrex got restless.

"I was trying to be polite by letting the rest of you in first, but it looks like you all are chickens. Buck buk!" Wrex said, wiggling his arms mockingly as he stuck his head in the rift for a couple seconds then pulled it out and looked at Eitri.

"What the fuck is that?!"

"Are you talking about the guns, the ship, or the other stuff?"

"All of it! How the hell does this fit in the ship?"

"It doesn't. Different dimension, remember?"

"Good enough for me. I'm going to go 'browse the selection'" Wrex said, hopping through the rift.

"Nobody's calling me a chicken" Garrus walked into the rift.

"Come on, everybody in. We don't have all day." Eitri said.

Everyone else went into the rift, with Shepard trailing behind.

"What did you need to prepare if you had the things ready?"

"I needed to anchor the place to the Normandy. That way, it will act as a sort of junction between other places I anchor. Found out I could do this a while ago, but didn't use it for some reason. Probably since I didn't think I would be sent to another universe." Eitri said, following her in. "Also, I needed to move the beacon out of the battle simulator. I had put it there because it wasn't being used, but the squad will probably want to try out their guns in a fight."

"You have a battle simulator?"

"Purchased it from a sadistic Cephalon who had me scan enemies mid battle for data to compile into data soldiers that fight each other in a bigger simulation. Sometimes I would enter it to train against endless enemies. Mine is a lesser one that can spawn less enemies, but I can choose the enemies from a list of everything I've collected enough data on. In this universe, that means the husks and the standard Geth unit. I can also change the scenery and layout of the simulation with something Ordis has scanned, like the path he took on Eden Prime." Eitri said as they entered the rift.

(AN: I combined the Captura mode and the Simulatrix to make a holodeck/danger room kinda thing.)

"Whoa…you weren't kidding about the ghost ship." Shepard said, looking past the racks of weapons at the large ship that had what could only be called a ghostly aura around it.

"Yup, the Tempestarii, the terror of the Origin System. My pride and joy. I'll give you a tour later. Now, let's get you fitted with a new gun." Eitri said, walking over to the weapon racks and the rest of the group.

When he walked up to them, he saw that several of them had taken guns off the racks.

"Hey! Didn't I say not to touch anything?" Eitri said loudly, startling everyone and making them look like kids caught with their hand in a cookie jar. "I'm only joking. But seriously, Tali, the gun you're holding so haphazardly fires grenades that turn into tiny temporary gravitational vortexes with a destructive radius of 5 meters."

"Eep!" Tali squeaked, nearly dropping the synoid simulor she was holding. Eitri transferred out of his warframe and dashed forward to catch it.

"Whoa there! Sorry, probably should not have said that while you were holding it. The process is a little more complicated than just shooting it anyway. So Tali, what kind of weapon are you looking for?"

"Probably a medium range weapon that would help me disable enemy electronics." Tali said.

"Then the Fulmin should do well. It has two forms, one which is silent and fires a head-sized sphere that travels a short distance and passes through enemies, acting as an EMP while also electrocuting them and burning them, while the other requires you to take the suppressor off and acta similar to the Geth rifles. As for the pistol, the Arca Scisco should work well. It's basically a mini sniper rifle that can scan and find enemy weaknesses." Eitri said, handing her the scisco.

"Thanks?" Tali said, a little overwhelmed by Eitri's explanation.

"You're welcome. Now Wrex, I had a bit of trouble thinking what you would want, but I think I figured it out. This," Eitri said, walking over to another rack and pulling off a cannon, "is a Kuva Zarr. It launches 3 cluster bombs and can basically carpet bomb a room. It also has a flak cannon option that is basically an armor piercing shrapnel shotgun. For a pistol, I'm actually thinking of something from the melee rack." Eitri walked over and picked up what looked like a box with a handle and an energy blade attached to it. "This is a Stropha. It is what we call a gunblade. It shoots an energy blast and has an energy blade that cuts most things."

"You're quickly becoming my favorite human." Wrex said, picking up the zarr and stropha.

"Garrus, what kind of guns do you want?"

"I'm more of a sniper. Got top of my class in marksmanship." Garrus said with a hint of pride.

"I got the perfect weapons for you then. This is the Lanka, it's basically a handheld railgun with an additional electric shock. It's slightly more powerful than Shepard's Vectis Prime, but it is what we call a 'charge weapon.' You have to hold the trigger for an entire second for it to reach its full power when fired. You can hold a charge as long as you want though, so you can keep it charged while you aim for a weak spot. As for your secondary weapon, this is a Tenet Spirex, an extremely accurate rail pistol that fires explosive rounds. The blast isn't too big, but it hits like a car."

"Thanks. I'll have to test this out later." Said Garrus

"You'll get your chance later in the simulation. Now Kaiden, what kind of weapon are you looking for?"

"Probably just a shotgun of some kind and a pistol." Kaiden said.

"Okay, then the Corinth Prime would probably fit you. It's a high- powered shotgun that can also fire an energy bomb that creates a shockwave that will knock down most bipedal enemies. As for your pistol, the Prisma Angstrum should do fine. It's not as much a pistol as a tiny rocket launcher, but you'll be using it for long range anyway."

"Umm, thanks?"

"Don't mention it. Now Ashley-"

"Is this… a bubble gun?" Ashley interrupted, showing Eitri the Kompressa.

"It is actually. Made it for a fellow Tenno, the youngest by far. She was 11 when she became a Tenno, and the rest of us managed to preserve most of her innocence until we were sent to war. It shoots bubbles that stick to solid surfaces and explode in a blast that freezes and corrodes the enemy. With the amount it shoots out at a time, it's actually pretty good for close and mid- range crowd control and priming an enemy for destruction."

"That's… actually pretty cool. I'll use this then. What else do you have? I prefer something that fires fast and hits hard."

"Then the Tenora Prime would probably be best for you. It's not the fastest and needs to wind up, but once it starts you can almost fire indefinitely. Also, it can fire a charged shot similar to Garrus' gun, just with a focus on impact instead of piercing."

"That's good enough for me."

"As for your pistol, Shepard, I'm actually giving you two, the Tenet Diplos. They are dual pistols that can lock onto enemies and fire homing rounds. I've modified them so that the bullets are explosive, but not so much they can't be used as close range guns. They're supposed to explode after penetrating a certain distance for maximum damage. They can also be fired as standard submachine guns."

"Thank you. Why do we only have two again?" Shepard asked.

"Well, these guns don't fold, except for the diplos, which snap together in a box when not being used, so carrying more would be cumbersome and inefficient. Anyway, let's get you guys used to your new arsenal. Ordis is over at the simulator preparing for some combat scenarios."

"You know I'm the commander of this group, right?" Shepard said.

"I know, but I can't with good conscience let you guys into the field with these without ingraining the full capabilities of your weapons. These are all powerful weapons with their own abilities, and you can kill yourselves easily if you don't know what it can do. Luckily I added failsafes that prevent explosions from occurring within a certain range."

"Fine. Why did you give me this rifle on Eden Prime if you didn't think we could handle it without training?"

"The Vectis is pretty similar to your sniper rifles in its use, and it doesn't fire explosive rounds due to its piercing ability conflicting with it. Let's go guys, and Tali, please remember what I said about judging before meeting."

"I know, I know. I said I'm sorry, you know." Tali said.

"I know you did. I'm just reminding you to judge Ordis on his personality before making assumptions based on his robotic body."

The squad followed Joey to what looked like a terminal. Shepard noticed Ordis hovering over it and a nearly repaired prothean beacon next to it.

"This was where you put the beacon?" Shepard asked.

"Yeah, it was the best place I could think of. Ordis, you finished upgrading the simulator?"

"I have succeeded, Operator. I look forward to seeing - THE NOOBS BEING CRUSHED- how your friends fare against our normal enemies. As you requested, I have set it to simulated disability mode. " Ordis said.

"Hey, I resent being called a noob. I'll have you know I was thinking of becoming a pro gamer before I got shipped to biotic school." Kaiden said jokingly. "And what do you mean by 'normal enemies'?"

"Sorry about Ordis' outburst. He developed Dissociative Identity Disorder due to the trauma of being a scholar drafted as an Orokin Era soldier who was forced to put down resistances. He developed a blunt and sadistic persona over his 30 years as a soldier under an abusive leader that sometimes appears nowadays to give its opinion on a conversation." Eitri said. "As for my normal enemies, he means the Grineer, the Corpus, the Infestation, and the Sentients. Each has different weapons, units, and defenses. The simulator creates terrain and enemies using hard-light projections and upon taking what would be considered crippling damage, the part crippled will be frozen and unusable. You 'die' when you can no longer fight. First up, you'll be running through one of the first missions I went on after waking up: sabotaging a Grineer toxin injector in the last forest on Earth. You will be facing four types of enemies: the Grineer Lancer, the standard unit with the durability and strength of a fully armored krogan armed with a high-speed low accuracy machine gun; the Scorpion, a faster, less armored but more agile female Grineer with a grappling hook to pull in enemies and chop with her machete; the Shield Lancer, a heavy shield-toting Lancer with a powerful pistol and an axe; and the Ballistica, an agile female Grineer sniper. Ordis will be playing the role of dispatcher using recordings from when I did the mission."

(AN: the Grineer Lancer canonically has 1000kg armor that doesn't seem to have any kind of augmenting mechanism, so they're probably as strong or stronger than a krogan)

"Wait, why would the Grineer want to kill the last forest?" Ashley asked.

"They wanted a new place to put some of their endless supply of clones. The Grineer after the fall of the Orokin were essentially locusts mixed with termites. They would swarm locations and take everything they could use and burn the rest. When they found an undefended settlement, they would round them up and drain their Kuva, their lifeblood, to give to their Queens to extend their lives. They got about a year's worth of Kuva for every 12 healthy adults they drain. All to be given to two former Orokin we called the Worm Queens with rapidly decaying clone bodies that still get replaced every 100 or so years thanks to their diseased souls rotting their bodies from the inside out."

"Your universe proved the existence of souls?" Ashley exclaimed.

"The Orokin used to transfer their souls into other bodies all the time before I was born in order to live for even longer than their genetic immortality would allow. There's even a Halloween horror story the Orokin parents would tell their children about it. Cephalons like Ordis also are evidence of souls since their entire personality, memories, and emotions transfer over to a digital form without a brain or hormones. But we can talk about this later. For now, you'll be fighting the Grineer while completing 2 objectives after I show you all how to use your weapons' abilities."

Eitri then spent about a half an hour showing how to use each of the squad's new weapons on projections of Geth. He then pressed a couple of keys on the terminal and a map of the sabotage mission appeared.

The rest of the squad charged in, easily clearing through the tight passages with explosives and overwhelming force. It was when they got to an open area that things started to go bad. Ashley got distracted shooting a Ballista when a Scorpion caught her with his grappling claw and pulled her off the platform and to her 'death.' Kaiden got distracted with Ashley's 'demise,' allowing a shield lancer to bash him off the platform as well. The two appeared outside the simulation confused.

"What the hell happened?! Why are we outside the simulator?" Ashley said.

"Well, both of you fell to your 'deaths,' Ashley because no one noticed the scorpion on the other side of the ravine, and Kaiden because he got distracted and got smacked off the side of the platform by a shield lancer. When I said they had the strength of a krogan, I meant it. I had you brought out so you could watch the rest." Joey said.

"We were overrun and outnumbered! How were we supposed to fight them?"

"With your minds and superior firepower, duh. Grineer in general have the intelligence of a Vorcha or lower. Most of the ones who are smarter realize they are horrible people and try to defect. This happens in one on about a hundred thousand Grineer, though most die in the attempt. The ones who don't try to defect become engineers and generals. I haven't even brought out the strongest enemies like the Heavy Gunners, the Bombard or for Void's sake, Eximus." Eitri shuddered a bit at the mention of Eximus.

"What are Eximus?"

"Sometimes, we'd come across elite units upgraded with more armor and some form of elemental power. They are a pain in the ass."

By this time, the squad had destroyed the first objective and went towards the toxin injector. They set the injector into overdrive and set down their defenses. Shepard had Wrex and Tali focus on two of the entrances while she covered the last one with her Diplos and her biotics. Garrus was in charge of providing cover fire and sniping any Ballistas that appeared.

The squad held the position until the injector overheated and fused itself into a useless wreck. They started charging towards the extraction point. When they reached the extraction point, the simulation ended and the squad appeared in front of Eitri and the others.

"Congratulations on beating the easiest difficulty of one of the easiest missions in this simulator. You killed 80 enemies in total, but lost 2 squad mates in the process. Kind of impressive since none of you have the benefits of a warframe or a Tenno. You managed to adapt after being flanked on both sides and losing your members." Eitri said.

"What are you, my drill sergeant?" Garrus muttered.

"What do you mean by benefits of being a Tenno and a warframe?" Shepard asked.

"Things like superhuman durability, speed, maneuverability, and strength, along with unique powers and three dimensional maneuvering we utilize quite a lot."

"Then why don't you show us how you'd complete this mission?" Ashley said.

"I'd love to, but Jenkins is looking around the cargo bay for us. Looks like Joker found something." Eitri said, looking towards the portal.

"You're just avoiding it!" Ashley said.

"He actually isn't" Shepard said, looking out of the portal. "Why can't he see us?"

"Jenkins seems like a cool kid, but I don't know if I can trust him with one of my guns. I have a feeling he'd shoot it on accident and hit one of the more… volatile items in my collection and kill everyone."

"Like what?" Shepard asked.

"Like one of the thousands of antimatter fuel rods I took from the Grineer."

"The thousands of WHAT?!" Tali squeaked.

"I have enough stuff in here to make several ships stronger than that publicity stunt the Council has around the Citadel. Void, I have the wreckage of a 2-km Corpus Galleon I punched a hole through with my railjack and an orokin derelict I cleared out and took in case I wanted to settle down in my own city sized space station."

"Wait, how did you fit those in here?!" Garrus said.

"Once again, we're in a different dimension I have complete control of. You guys seriously didn't notice the giant ship wreckage and the gaudy Citadel sized tower behind my ship?"

The group looked behind The Tempestarii and realized there was indeed a wreckage and a giant white and gold tower behind it.

"Huh, must've missed it due to the excitement of getting new guns and the giant ghost ship in front of it." Wrex said.

"That's fair. Now, let's go see what Joker found before Jenkins has a panic attack." Eitri said.

The group exited the Rift in front of a shocked Jenkins.

"What the f- How the hell- What?!" Jenkins stuttered in shock.

Eitri walked out last behind Shepard and closed the rift. "A good magician never reveals his secrets," he said with a smirk. Shepard stifled a smile at the joke.

"What the hell?!"

"So, what did Joker want to tell us?" Shepard asked.

"We picked up a distress transmission on Edolus, one of the planets in the Artemis Tau cluster. Joker's suggesting we investigate in case it's our doctor." Jenkins said.

"Good. We'll take the Mako. It fits eight, with two being the gunner and the driver, so everyone can ." Shepard said.

"I'll provide aerial support in my archwing. You can take other people." Eitri said.

"Okay. Everyone else with me in the Mako. Garrus has gun, Kaiden and Tali is in charge of repairs, and Wrex… you're emergency fire support. I'm driving." Shepard said.

"Jenkins, tell Joker to prep for drop. Everyone, get to your stations."

""""Yes, ma'am!""""

(Edit: I looked up the Mako wiki and it fits 8 instead of 4, so it would be able to fit the whole ME1 squad plus Eitri, so I decided to change the last bit. Eitri provides aerial reconnaissance and support while the rest of the team in the Mako, leaving one empty seat for an extra passenger)

(AN: As of this edit, Styanax is no longer free. For those who missed it, I'm sorry you missed getting it)