Mass Effect

Massive Shock 2: Infinite Mass

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.

"What the horrors of war are, no one can imagine. They are not wounds and blood and fever, spotted and low, or dysentery, chronic and acute, cold and heat and famine. They are intoxication, drunken brutality, demoralization and disorder on the part of the inferior... jealousies, meanness, indifference, selfish brutality on the part of the superior."

~Florence Nightingale~

A/N: Welcome to the unofficial beginning to Massive Shock 2: Infinite Mass! This is a teaser opening to Massive Shock 2, and it really has nothing to do with the story line of Massive Shock 2, but it'll give you a good background. This chapter zero is about Shepard, the true hero of both Mass Effect and Massive Shock.

I'm going to do something different. Something that's not been done before, as far as I know. I'm taking everything Shepard could be, and making that my Shepard. He's got one origin, the Colonist origin on Mindoir, but many war stories. He's a ruthless badass, a sole survivor and a merciful war hero. As a result, he's unique. He won't be completely Paragon, and he won't be totally Renegade. But he won't exactly be Renegon, nor Paragade. My Shepard will seem to lean towards Paragon, but he'll do things that will seem Renegade, or even act as a Renegade in certain situations. He's unique. You'll see how. And here you'll get to see why.

I wrote this, some time ago, because I felt my Shepard needed a reason to be special and I needed to show you why. Also because I knew I'd have to delay the release of Massive Shock 2 by a little and I didn't want to just leave you guys high and dry for a while. So here you go a little refresher and something to (hopefully) keep you satisfied for the epic return of Massive Shock.

Note: This is a HUGE chapter. I recommend reading it in multiple sittings to prevent tedium and general boredom and disinterest. Though I worked really hard on this, so it really should be neither tedious nor boring and I'd hate for you guys to get bored by it, simply due to the fact you read the whole thing in one sitting. This chapter is 60 pages. Please take periodic breaks. Oh and it's pretty angst. Just saying. Have fun and enjoy!

Prologue: Shepard, Origin Story

Colonist: Coldest Fire

11:12 AM April 8, 2170

Johnny Shepard stands, in the backyard of his family's farm. Johnny smirks at the thought of that blurry line called a fence way off in the distance as the boundary to his family's land.

To him, the last star in the galaxy was the limit to his backyard. He smiles at the thought.

Johnny Shepard: the galaxy is his backyard.

Johnny laughs quietly to himself.

This has been his family's land for as long as he could remember, since before he was born actually. Johnny's grandfather first purchased this land when Mindoir was first colonized. And Johnny's glad he did. He couldn't have asked for a more beautiful place to grow up. The sky is starry all the time, like the sky at night on Earth, but the gas giant Mindoir orbits reflects enough light to light the planet without making the sky blue. The gas giant is so close. When he was young, Johnny used to think he could pluck the rings of it out of the sky and give them to his former crush, Suzy Townsend, for her birthday.

Johnny sighs and leans back against the porch.

"Hey, Johnny!" Johnny's girlfriend Amy shouts running down the field toward him.

Johnny smiles and sits up. She runs through the tall grass, her pale yellow dress catching gently on the vegetation. She holds her shoes in her hand, above the grass so she won't drop them and have to slow down to pick them up and delay feeling her first love's touch. One of the straps holding up her dress has fallen past her bronze shoulder and sits ignored. Her long bright auburn hair flows in the wind and Johnny thinks he can see her emerald eyes sparkle from here.

Amy finally reaches him and she stops and leans on her knees, breathless from running, and in the bright sunlight there's a light shine of perspiration on her golden tanned skin. He places a hand on her waist and kisses her full slightly pale lips.

She sits down next to him and rests her head on his shoulder. He holds her tight and close to him with a hand on her waist.

Amy looks up at him and smiles in happy confusion. "Why are you smiling?"

Johnny's eyebrows furrow. "I'm not smiling."

"Yes you are!" She protests. "What do you mean you're not? You're totally smiling."

Johnny thinks for a second. "Well I'll be damned… I am smiling, aren't I?"

She nods. "Yeah. You're lucky you have a nice smile."

Johnny smirks. "Oh really?"

She nods. "Yeah. It's nice because you smile more in your eyes than in your face. And you smile so much in your face so you'd be surprised to see how much you smile in your eyes. I love your smile."

Johnny smiles. "I love you."

She kisses him instantly.

"Johnny?" Johnny's mother calls from inside the house.

"Yeah, mom?" Johnny calls back pulling away from Amy.

She comes out and wipes her hands, wet from dishes, on her apron and she smiles at Amy. "Hi Amy! Johnny. Have you been practicing?"

Johnny rolls his eyes. "I have… just not today."

She feigns distaste. "Johnny, Johnny… What am I going to do with that lazy ass of yours?"

Johnny smirks. "Maybe give me easier jobs?"

His mom feigns deep thought. "Um. No. Go find your father and practice, alright?"

Johnny stands with a sigh and readjusts his grey hooded sweatshirt. "Yes, mom."

His mother reenters the house and Amy stands up next to him. "Can I come and watch?"

Johnny nods and takes Amy's hand. "Of course."

He leaves his "Backyard" and walks around his large two story house toward the barn. He opens the large metal door and shuts it behind him after he walks in.

Inside the barn, if you could call it that, a small gym and fighting ring occupy one side of the barn, while the other side is occupied by a large well-stocked workshop, which is where his father works. In effect, it's less of a barn, and more of a workshop but if you call it anything else other than "The Barn," Johnny's father, Andrew Shepard, would beat you down on your ass without a second thought. And, in effect, this could be considered unnecessary, gratuitous, and pointless assault but on Mindoir the rules are a little different. More specifically the rules are a little different in the Shepard household. This is why Johnny wouldn't want to grow up anywhere else. Anywhere else isn't as much fun.

Johnny nods at his oldest brother, Garret, who spars in the boxing ring with Johnny's other older brother, Eddy.

Sometimes Johnny resents being the youngest of three sons, but he relishes being the best looking. Johnny laughs quietly to himself at the thought.

He walks over to his father. "Hey dad, mom wanted you to help me practice."

Johnny's father, a huge man who resembles his sons uncannily save for having the body of a lumberjack, with beard and gut to match, and for the grey stripes of hair mixed in with the black atop his shaggy head, stops building the dog house and looks up at him. "Sure, son. Let's get started right away."

Johnny joins his father in the center of the room and removes his sweatshirt. He tosses it to Amy who catches it and holds it close to her chest, smiling with pride.

"Alright son, I know you're still pretty new at this, and I know you don't have an amp yet, but let's see what you got. I want you to hit me with as much biotic energy as you can muster." Johnny's father says, puffing out his broad chest, much to his surprise.

"You sure, dad?" Johnny asks nervously.

"Don't question the opportunity!" Eddy shouts, stopping his assault of Garret to watch.

"Yeah! Just get him!" Garret shouts, leaning on the edge of the ring.

Johnny hops up and down and shrugs off his self-doubt. "Okay… If you guys say so."

He clenches his fists together and focuses everything he's got. His biotic aura starts to waft off him like smoke and flames. After he feels he's got everything he's got in him out, he throws it all at his dad, a bright blue ball of energy.

The ball of energy hits his dad on his chest and explodes, tossing him off his feet.

Johnny grimaces in worry. "Dad? You alright?"

He wheezes. "Yeah! Just a little winded. That was quite a punch, good work for not having an implant. I could hardly move a cup without an implant."

Johnny shrugs. "Just comes naturally I guess."

Eddy and Garret applaud sarcastically.

"Bravo!" Eddy shouts with a wry smile. "Now if only you could fight like that in the ring!"

Johnny smirks. "You want to test that?"

Eddy straightens and flexes his entire array of upper body muscles. "Let's go, bro."

Johnny strips off his shirt and tosses that to Amy too. He vaults over the edge of the boxing ring and Garret hops out. Johnny and Eddy start sparring, displaying their mastery of their father's style of CQC combat. It is definitely a style honed over the years, and it is definitely a soldier gone farmer's style of fighting. It's a healthy mix of grapnels, throws, counters, holds, and takedowns along with plenty of fighter style punches, elbow and knee strikes, and high kicks. The style was actually designed to allow one to combat multiple people at once in the most efficient way possible. That is to say: Kill each person ASAP, thereby lessening the number of people you still have to kill.

A good creed to guide your life by, if you'd ask Johnny's father.

The fighting is rough and both combatants are tireless, throwing high kicks following into a roundhouse, moving into a grapple and take down or series of strong jabs. Their style is almost identical, and each fighter has the same strength as well: The ability to assess and exploit the other's weakness.

This proves useless in this situation as each fighter has the same weaknesses, or rather the lack of weaknesses. The fight is spurred on by both Garret and Amy, both being neutral parties in this situation.

"Stop!" Johnny's father suddenly roars.

Everyone falls dead silent. Nobody's heard him sound so serious, or angry. What did they do wrong?

Garret frowns at him. "Dad, what's-"

His father shushes him and turns his ear to the door. After a second, they all hear it. A mechanical screaming?

Johnny's father runs to the barn door and throws it open, effortlessly. The mechanical screaming becomes clear now. It's an alarm.

Johnny takes his shirt and sweatshirt back from Amy and pulls them on hastily. "Dad, what's going on?"

"Andrew!" Johnny hears his mother scream.

Johnny's father hurls himself from the barn and sprints towards the house.

"Johnny!" Amy cries in fear, grabbing her boyfriend's arm.

"Garret!" Johnny's father shouts as he sprints toward the house. "Shut the barn!"

Garret instantly starts closing the barn door but Eddy tries to stop him.

"We have to help him!" Eddy roars. "We have to help mom!"

Garret growls at him. "We'll help him by doing what he says, dammit!"

Eddy turns to Johnny. "Johnny! Tell him-"

A loud gun retort sounds out and blood sprays out from Eddy's abdomen.

He looks down and lets out a breath he'd been holding. He gasps and touches the wound. He stares wide eyed at the blood that pours down and stains his jeans. His vintage jeans.

Johnny reacts quickly and pulls him into the barn. Garret closes the door and bullets start to strike its exterior. Garret throws down a barricade over the door and runs to Johnny's side.

"I don't know what to do!" Johnny roars in panic while applying pressure to the wound.

Garret nods. "I'll handle it, get dad's gun and get onto the loft."

Johnny nods and grabs his dad's rifle and runs to the ladder. He's not up more than two rungs before he feels a hand on his wrist.

"Johnny, don't." Amy cries to him, she's crying so much. She's crying so much her eyes look three times their original size. She's crying so much tears actually fall off her face and onto her chest and dress. "Please don't leave me." She presses her head against his hand. "Please… I need you."

Johnny frowns and he know this is going to hurt him so bad. "Garret."

Garret places his bloody hands on Amy's shoulders and pulls her away from Johnny.

"No. Please. I need you."

Johnny doesn't respond. He just climbs the ladder. He feels something tear inside of him.

"Eddy!" He hears Garret shout from down below. "You got to keep that tourniquet tight!"

"I-I-I'm t-trying. M-M-My h-hands are sh-sh-shaking so m-much." Johnny hears Eddy say through hyperventilation.

"He's in shock Garret!" Johnny roars as he crawls toward the open window to the farm. "Elevate his legs!"

Johnny looks down the iron sights and looks for a target. There are lights, gunshots, and screams coming from the house. With a flash of blue light he sees a figure fly out of the second story window. The figure hits the yard with an audible cry.

The figure gets to his feet and brushes off his black armor. Johnny sees he is batarian. Slavers.

Johnny scowls and lines the sights with the batarian's head. But he hesitates. He has never killed anyone before, just wild game.

The batarian groans and stretches his back.

This was a person. Someone with problems and a life. Is it so simple? To decide whether or not someone has the right to live or die?

Suddenly two figures are thrown out into the yard, in front of the lone batarian.

Four more walk out behind the figures, which Johnny now recognizes as his mother and father.

Johnny draws in breath sharply.

"I can't…" He whispers to himself. "I'm sorry I can't be like you, dad. I can't kill someone. I can't kill another person. I-"

And then he decides that, batarian slavers are not people.

And he feels something tear in him.

Because one just shot his father in the back of the head.

"Johnny?!" Garret shouts from below. "What was that? Johnny?!" If Johnny can hear his mother's cries, so can Garret. "Johnny!" Garret roars. "Johnny! Tell me what happened!"

Johnny blinks to clear his vision of tears. He takes a deep shaking breath. And pulls the trigger.

One falls, blood spurting from his neck.

He pulls the trigger.

Another falls, blood pouring from one of his eyes.

He pulls the trigger.

Dirt is kicked up next to his dead father.

He pulls the trigger but his weapon malfunctions and won't fire.

Bullets start flying into the barn and Johnny ducks to protect his head.

"Fuck!" He curses, beating his father's rifle. "Work dammit!"

It stops talking back and the overheat meter is gone again. Johnny instantly whips it out and shoots at another batarian, clipping him in the shoulder.

He sees another dragging his mother to an open topped truck. Johnny growls and bares his teeth and points his rifle at that one.

He shoots him in the back, causing him to topple over.

"Run, mom!" Johnny roars out the window. She sprints, running toward the barn. "Come on…"

A batarian, Johnny thought was dead raises a pistol.

"NOOOO!" Johnny roars and the gun retorts. "No! No! No… Dammit! No!"

Johnny jumps to his feet and shoots the batarian in the face. And Johnny's backyard, Mindoir, goes quiet. But no, not all quiet.

His world screams. And he feels something tear inside of him.

"Johnny!" Garret roars from below. "Johnny! What happened?! Johnny, you fucking answer me! Johnny! Goddammit, answer me!"

He props the gun up against the sill of the window and walks slowly to the edge of the loft. He looks down at them, and he just shakes his head. He just shakes his head. No, he pantomimes. Just no.

Garret bows his head and rocks his bleeding brother. Eddy stares blankly at Johnny. He closes his eyes and tears roll down his face.

Amy just stares at Johnny.

Johnny goes down the ladder. He turns around, eyes averted, his hands bury themselves deep in his pants pockets.

A long silence stretches.

"What should we do?" Eddy, the man with the least time on his hands, asks nobody in particular.

A long silence stretches.

"I don't know." Johnny mumbles.

An engine roaring from outside makes them all jump to attention.

"Garret!" Johnny whisper-shouts. "Garret get on your feet!"

Johnny drags Garret to his feet. Garret wipes his face and steels himself.

"Garret, there's more coming! We need to get out of here!" Johnny growls at him.

Garret nods. "What should we do?"

"The tunnel, remember we used to hide in there until dad closed it up?" Johnny nods at the boarded up hole.

Garret nods. "I remember. It leads to the basement. We can try to get across the field to your parent's house, Amy."

Amy just nods. She looks so scared.

Garret nods and walks toward the ladder. "Johnny, start working on getting that tunnel open. I'll slow them down."

Garret climbs the ladder and Johnny rushes to the boarded up tunnel just as there's a banging on the barn door.

"Open up, you rotten punks!" A slaver roars from outside. He sounds like death. "We have you surrounded! Open up and we won't kill you! I said-"

He's interrupted by a loud gunshot from Johnny's dad's rifle. Assault rifle fire follows.

Johnny grabs a crowbar and easily pops the tunnel door open. "Garret! I got the tunnel open! Garret! Garret?! Garret!"

Blood drips over the edge of the loft. Amy covers her mouth with her hand.

"Garret, goddammit!" Johnny cries. "Garret! Answer me!"

There's a banging on the door and a bright light starts cutting through the door.

"Johnny!" Amy cries.

Johnny grabs her hand and kisses her. "We'll be alright." He grabs her waist and eases her into the tunnel. "I'll be right back. Don't worry."

"No please!" Amy cries, clutching at his hands. "Please, I'm afraid of the dark, please don't go! I don't want to be alone!"

While Johnny consoles her, Eddy watches the bright light make its way up the door, trailing a glowing red slice in the metal. Eddy coughs and looks over at his dad's workbench. He spots some things taped underneath.

He drags himself to it and takes them. One frag grenade and a pistol. Eddy coughs and gasps and drags himself back against a pile of crates so his back is against it.

"Johnny." He calls weakly.

Johnny looks up then back down to Amy. "Amy, I'll be right back, okay?"

"No please!"

"Dammit, Amy!" Johnny roars at her. "I need to help my brother!"

She sobs and drifts away from him slowly.

Johnny feels something tear inside of him, in his heart. But he turns away, from the guilt, the regret, the feeling of helplessness and walks to his brother.

"Come on Eddy, I'm getting you out of here." Johnny says reaching for him.

Eddy shoves the pistol in his face. "Get in the tunnel."

"Eddy…"

"In the tunnel." He lowers the pistol, coughs and nods at the door. "You're almost out of time. And stop crying."

"Eddy, please. I need you."

"No you don't." He pulls the pin on the grenade and keeps a hold on its lever. "You don't need anybody anymore. We don't have anybody anymore. Go. I want this. I'd just slow you down anyway. And stop crying. You have to be strong."

"Eddy!" Johnny cries.

Eddy shoots the pistol next to Johnny's foot making him jump backwards. "Go!"

Johnny stumbles back. He doesn't even know he's doing it. He feels something tear in him and he jumps into the tunnel. He closes the boards over the entrance and watches through the cracks.

The cut out of the door finishes and it falls forwards into the barn. A batarian steps in and is welcomed with a bullet to the brain.

A second comes in, this one with his gun raised. He is shot in the neck and he dies.

Two more jump in but are both tagged by a barrage of shots before they let out more than a few shots.

But those shots hit home. Three more bullet wounds cover Eddy now. But he can't feel them. Eddy releases the lever on the grenade and tosses it into the entrance and raises his pistol.

The explosion follows and something blocks the boards so Johnny cannot see. All he can do is listen and wait in the pitch darkness, Amy shaking and breathing erratically next to him. It is silent for a while. Just Eddy's coughing. Then voices, angry shouts and bellows. Then the sound of a circular saw. For minutes that feel like hours, Eddy screams over the sound of a saw. And for hours that feel like days after that, he makes choking and gasping noises as batarians beat him mercilessly. Somehow he holds on. Finally there is only the sound of Eddy's choking noises, his gasps for air, and his sobs.

Finally, Johnny rams his shoulder against the boards and they topple over both the debris blocking it and the boards themselves. Johnny climbs out of the tunnel, one which they didn't take more than two steps into, and he walks into the destroyed barn.

Eddy coughs and wheezes and gasps and chokes. His arm is cut off. His leg is cut off. He's mutilated, beaten, burned. But he's alive.

Something once strong tears in Johnny. He now knows batarians are not people. They're monsters.

Johnny kneels next to his brother. Eddy looks at him with the only one frost blue eye he has left. Johnny places a hand on his brother's face.

"Where's the pistol, Eddy?"

Eddy looks down at his disembodied arm, not a few feet from his body.

Johnny takes the pistol from the arm's cold and stiff grip. Johnny repositions himself so he's face to face with his brother. He strokes his cheek and places the pistol to his brother's forehead.

"Johnny." He gasps, blood sloshes from his mouth and his speech is impended from the lack of his tongue and many teeth. "Don't cry."

He's starting to convulse, like the effort to say those words was too much cognitive effort for his damaged brain to handle.

Johnny's tears drop onto Eddy's lap. He moves the pistol and kisses his brother on the forehead.

He puts the pistol back in place and pulls the trigger.

"I love you, bro." Johnny whispers to his brother's mangled lifeless ear.

He walks quickly back to the tunnel. He can hear them coming. They heard the shot.

Johnny jumps back into the tunnel and pulls the boards back over the tunnel entrance. He shoves the pistol in his pocket and grabs Amy's hand, fumbling with it a little in the dark. He turns to the other end of the tunnel and sees nothing but darkness. This makes his shiver but he takes a few steps forward and he starts to run towards the darkness. He has to drag Amy along, her feet seeming to fail her. He doesn't say anything, just keeps moving. After ages, he hears smashing behind them. They found the tunnel. He finally sees a dull light at the end of the tunnel and Johnny starts to sprint towards it, still dragging Amy along but she's at least trying to cooperate now, the promise of light and an end to choking darkness too good to let up.

They reach it and they can hear batarians coming down the tunnel towards them. Johnny kicks open the boards blocking their exit and drags Amy into the basement. He wastes no time and drags her upstairs, through the ransacked house, and out the backdoor. He drags her down the field, both running as fast as they can to the house in the distance.

"Johnny!" Amy shouts desperately. "Slow down, please!"

"We can't!" He sounds so desperate. The night sky is orange and black with flames and screaming.

He just keeps dragging her down the field. But she gets real heavy all of the sudden.

She fell.

Johnny kneels next to her, without letting go of her hand.

She'd been shot.

He didn't even hear the sound of the gunshot, all he can hear are screams and the blood rushing through his ears.

Blood pours from the wound in her chest. "Johnny…"

"I'm here." He's crying.

"Don't cry, Johnny." She places a hand on the side of his face.

"I can't help it."

"I know. Johnny?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm scared. I don't want to be alone. Do you think it'll be dark? I'm afraid of the dark."

"You won't be alone." Johnny was fully aware of the ring of batarians closing in on him. "I'll be there with you soon."

"Johnny…"

"Yeah?"

"Why didn't you protect me?" Something tears in him. "Why didn't you stay with me? Johnny?" She starts to gasp and panic and convulse. "It's dark! Johnny! It's…"

Amy's hand falls from the side of his face.

He holds her close and rocks her back and forth in his arms. She's still so warm.

A hand grabs his collar and tries to pull him away from her. He holds on tight.

A rifle butt hits him in the back and the face but he holds on tight. Someone tries to tear Amy away but he holds on tight.

Finally they're forced apart. He's thrown into a ring of 10 batarians, kicking, spitting, cursing, batarians.

That's when Johnny feels that thing that's been tearing, snap.

The dark ground gets really bright blue and he pounds the ground with his fists and the kicking and the spitting and the cursing stop.

Johnny looks up and sees the 10 batarians around him are dead, torn apart.

Johnny sits down and faces the main colony, the city, and watches it burn and scream. And there's nothing he can do about it.

He hugs his knees to his chest, and rests his chin on his knees. He's being watched. He fights sobs, looks away from Amy's cold eyes, wide with something. Fear? Anguish? Sorrow? Pain? Maybe Hate?

Without looking at her, Johnny reaches his hand out and places his hand on her face. He pulls her eyelids shut and watches the city burn.

And what does he look at the city with? Fear? Anguish? Sorrow? Pain? Maybe Hate?

All of the above?

That's it.

Johnny stands and picks up a pistol. He decides, there, that there's nothing left to live for. That there's nothing else to fight for, not anymore. So he walks across the field, seeking to traverse the 37 miles to the capital of Mindoir. Seeking death.

He had not more to do, however, than to look in any direction, because death was everywhere. And in a world like that, why even try to look for hope?

But like looking for a light in utter darkness, all you need to know, is which direction it's coming from.

"Hey! Kid!"

Johnny looks up slowly at the man running down the field toward him. He's wearing an Alliance uniform. One of the men stationed at the city, no doubt.

"Kid! Where're you going?" The soldier asks him, still from a ways away.

Johnny looks down at the pistol in his hand. He blinks and tosses it into the grass. He looks back up at the soldier as he reaches him.

"Kid, we got to get to safety." The man says, breathless. "The slavers! They're… they're doing something to the people! They're… putting things in their heads, it's horrible. Don't go to the city, that's their main base."

Johnny frowns. The man frowns back and looks up and down Johnny's blood covered form.

"Kid… You… You're alright?"

Johnny looks back at the city. "No. Follow me."

Johnny starts walking toward the city again.

"Wait! I just told you! The slavers are freaking torturing people there!"

Johnny turns back to him. "Yeah. We have to go help them."

The Alliance soldier groans. "Listen kid, I know you're… eh, new to this? But that's a stupid idea."

"Really?" Johnny turns right around and walks right up to the soldier. "I don't know about you, but everyone I've ever loved were killed in the last… oh… 6 hours or so? So I think I'm done with stupid things, I think I'm thinking clearer than I ever had before in my life. I think that it would be stupid to just try and wait this out like the Alliance soldier in front of me thinks. My name is John Shepard, I was born on Mindoir…" John pauses and shakes his head to fight off tears because he knows he can't cry. "And I think I'd like to die here too. Follow me or don't but I'm going to try and help people."

John starts to walk down the field to the orange glow on the horizon, the capital city. Soon after, he hears footsteps behind him that continue to follow him.

John smiles.

End of Part 1…

A/N: Please take a break. I'll wait… … … … … … … … Okay, here we go. No but seriously, take a break.

6 Years Later…

War Hero: Last Stand

5:47 AM October 19, 2176

Class N3 2nd Lieutenant John Shepard sits very still, watching the sunrise on Elysium.

"Hey, John." John's friend, Matt Cervantes says, sitting down next to him and handing him a cup of coffee.

"Thanks." John mumbles staring into the cup of coffee.

"Hey man, what's wrong?" Matt asks him, placing a hand on his back.

John shrugs. "I don't know… I think it's the sunrise."

Matt frowns and looks at the sunrise. "The sunrise? The sunrise is putting you down?"

John shrugs again. "I have a theory about why but I'd rather not talk about it. It makes me sad but I like watching it."

"So… you like being sad?"

John smiles. "I guess so."

"There ya go." Matt says smiling and patting John on the back. "I got a smile out of the man of steel."

John grins and continues to stare at the sunrise.

"Whoa." Matt mumbles.

John looks at him. "What?"

"Never seen you smile like that before. I mean that right there is a real smile. So all the smiles you've been smiling up until now have been lies." Matt narrows his eyes at John.

John laughs loudly and lays his assault rifle across his legs. After a while of pleasant silence, Matt points at the sky.

"Hey, check that out!" Matt says with a smile, pointing at the sky. "A meteor shower!"

John squints at the sky in confusion. Red streaks of light cross overhead. John frowns and gets to his feet.

"Those meteors must be big…" Matt mumbles. "They're getting awful close…"

John scowls in realization. "Those aren't meteors…"

Matt looks at John. "What are they?"

John turns on his rifle and holds it tightly. "Batarian drop pods."

Suddenly a number of the pods start striking the area nearby making the earth shake and dirt rain from the sky. Matt and John hit the ground and protect themselves on instinct. A loud roaring, the sound the wind makes in your ears when it rushes past, alerts John to look up at the sky.

A fiery red pod comes straight at them. John, fearing for his friend's safety, grabs the back of his shirt and hauls him out of the way as fast as he can. The pod collides with the ground, collapsing part of the cliff face and sending Matt and John flying through the air. The pod stops right at the edge of the cliff and a hatch on the back explodes off the pod.

"Fan out! 25 meter spread! I want this outpost cleared for a march to Illyria by sundown!" Shepard hears a batarian roar to a group of interspecies soldiers.

The group starts moving in separate directions, two of them are headed for Matt and John who stay low in the brush.

John picks up a rock and takes aim carefully. He hurls it straight into the batarian landing pod, his movement obscured by the tall grass around him. The rock lands inside and bounces around, announcing its presence with an extremely loud banging.

The soldiers whirl around and walk back to the pod. They all gather around the entrance, just like John wanted. He unclips a grenade from his belt and tugs the pin out with his teeth. He lobs it into the crowd of black armored soldiers.

"Grenade!" One roars panicked. "Haul ass!"

They all turn tail to haul ass out of there, but they each take no more than a few steps before the grenade sends them all flying into the air. John sprints forward and raises his rifle at the prone bodies, just in case. All are motionless. He signals Matt forward.

Matt, who was on leave, is unarmed and unarmored. He quickly scoops up an assault rifle from one the corpses and makes sure it's functioning.

"That was pretty badass, bro." Matt comments approaching John from behind.

"Don't call me that." John grunts in response and stares out at Illyria, Elysium's capital city.

"What the fuck is going on here, anyway?" Matt asks, likely not expecting a true answer. "This seems a little large scale for a pirate attack."

"It is." John responds. "This is probably backed by the batarian government."

"Why?"

"We're in 'their' territory." John responds sarcastically, actually air-quoting for emphasis. "They want it back. Simple as that."

Matt scoffs. "War isn't simple."

John instantly nods. "I agree. We need to find Commander Dunn. He'll know what we should do."

Matt nods and follows John back towards the nearby Alliance outpost.

They reach it quickly but they then realize the gravity of the situation. Scores of squads of 5-10 black armored soldiers charge at the outpost, weapons raised and firing at the outpost. Alliance soldiers desperately fight back, but they're already being overwhelmed.

John curses and hides behind a rock nearby.

Matt places a hand on his shoulder. "What should we do, John?"

"Let me think…" John rubs the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "The counter measures… where are the controls?"

Matt looks doubtful. "That'll be tough man, they're all inside the outpost."

John raises a hand to his ear and presses his comm. "Commander Dunn! Commander! This is Lieutenant Shepard!"

"Reading you, Lieutenant! Good to hear you're alright John. Cervantes with you?" Dunn's gruff voice growls back.

"Yes sir." John responds. "Sir, we can't get into the base, there's too many pirates. I suggest using the countermeasures, sir."

John hears Dunn sigh. "Don't you think I thought of that? They're malfunctioning. And you know that the mortars are still broken from Cortez's late night shenanigans from last week. And we can't fix the problem with the counter measures seeing as how we can't even take two steps out of the outpost; those pirates have us pretty much boxed in… I need you to do something for us son."

"Sir?" John already knows what he needs to do.

"I need you to reconnect a broken coupling. It should be at the cliff-side, one of the pods must've hit it."

John nods and looks back toward the cliff-side. "I think I know where it is."

"Good. We'll keep a finger on the button. Don't go and get yourself killed, son. We're counting on you in here. God-Speed."

John lowers his hand and turns to Matt. "Stay here, Matt. I'll be back soon."

Matt looks reluctant but nods.

John charges down to the cliff-side, about a quarter mile away. He reaches it quickly and runs up to the drop pod. It's big, and heavy looking, and John's not quite sure how he's going to get it out of the way.

It's pretty much hanging over the cliff-side…

John runs around and removes the grenades from each pirate's belt. He attaches them all to one belt, creating a grenade belt of 12 grenades. John takes a bootlace off one pirate and daisy chains it through the pins of the grenades. John places the grenade belt at the base of the pod, underneath it slightly. He pins one side down with his foot and yanks the bootlace like the ripcord to a lawnmower. The pins all pop out and John hauls his ass away.

He dives behind a rock and covers his ears. There's a huge explosion and rocks fly like missiles overhead and the dirt showers like water. John gets up to look at his handy work, just in time to see the pod topple over the edge of the cliff.

He smiles and walks over to the crater where it was. Out of the dirt, there are two ends of a thick electrical cord, sparks dancing at where they should meet.

John grabs the ends of each and pulls them together. With some effort he manages to bring the cords together and mash their distended wirings together. There's a large spark and a bright light from behind him. He keeps his hold on the cords to make sure the countermeasures continue.

Suddenly there's a bright light and a terrible pain that shoots through John's body, making him convulse and howl silently with pain. And he falls unconscious.

Many Hours Later…

"John?" John feels his shoulders being shaken. "John! Wake up!"

John opens his eyes and frowns up at Matt. "Matt, what's going on?"

"We thought you died, man. You didn't come back after the countermeasures fired. I see that they fried you pretty good though."

John sits up and looks down at the cords.

Matt frowns at him. "Well… I got some bad news. The battalion left the outpost. They were ordered to abandon it to protect the city."

John buries his face in his hands. "Great…"

"I stayed behind to find you. I pulled the ol' 'I'm on leave so I don't have to listen,' card." Matt grins. John notices he's fully armored now.

Matt helps him to his feet and John brushes himself off. He picks up his rifle and walks side by side with Matt back to the outpost.

They cross the killing fields, burnt blackened bodies of the pirates, twisted and mouths agape with endless agony. The pair enters the abandoned outpost, a neat line of covered corpses near one wall, Alliance, no doubt.

John walks up to the first in the line of corpses and stares down at the covered face.

"John?" Matt says after a while. "You alright?"

John looks up. "Fine."

No emotion in that statement. Matt looks away and enters a nearby building. John looks back down at the corpse, once Matt is gone.

He doesn't move the sheet, doesn't kneel, pray, doesn't even drop his gun. John just stands there, staring down at the corpse with the orange plastic sheet draped over it. The face underneath. John can tell the corpse is looking at him.

There's a particularly strong wind and the sheet is blown back.

The man's face?

That is war.

A bullet through the face, below the left eye is what killed him. His left eye is red and black and more blood than eye, the original color would be unidentifiable if not for his right eye, blue. The cheek is gone entirely, torn away from the force of the bullet. His teeth, cracked and his tongue hanging out between them. His eyebrows are neat and arched and compliment his boyish appearance. Or they would. His nose is halved, the right side is immaculate and the left blends into the large hole that was this boy's cheek. His hair is pressed against his face with blood and there are little pieces of bone in his hair.

And his eyes. He just stares. The eyes are right at John. Like they've always looking at him.

It's like he is alive and he looks at John and he wants help and he can't talk because he's biting his own tongue and he wants to tell John that everything will be alright and how he's got to be brave and that he wants help and that he's dead and that there's no use crying about and how John should stop crying because he can't cry and John has to stop crying because he's not supposed to cry and John has to be strong and John shouldn't cry anymore because there was nothing he did and he's got to stop crying, there's no use and John has to stop crying, even though John couldn't protect him. He couldn't protect anybody.

John is not supposed to cry.

"John." Matt says from across the body. He quickly covers the corpse again but John can still feel his eyes. "John, stop crying man."

John just keeps looking back at the corpse and he sobs.

Matt places a hand on his shoulder. "John. I know. I understand."

There's a silence. The sound of death. The music played by the dead. The Symphony Mortis. A sound most familiar.

John takes a deep breath. Death has no hold on him. "Thanks, Matt."

Matt nods and leads John away from the corpses. Suddenly, John gets a transmission.

"Lieutenant Shepard? Do you read?" John recognizes the voice of Commander Dunn.

John retains his military discipline and raises a hand to his ear. "Yes, Commander. Reading you loud and clear."

"Thank God. Son… I wish we'd taken you with us, but the brass ordered us out. Son… I'm sorry to ask this of you. But I have a mission that I need you to do. You're the only person who can do this."

"Sir?"

"Lieutenant, the pirates battle fiercely for Illyria, but we're holding them back and we're steadily cutting down their numbers. But we've detected numerous drop ships entering orbit with a payload armor and reinforcements. The drop ships are leaving their payload just south of your position." John looks north, toward Illyria. "Son… you're all that stands between them and us. My men are stretched thin, to the point where we can't do a goddamn thing to help you. The pirates will converge on your location within the next 6 hours. We need you to do all you can to slow them down as much as possible so we have the time to wear down the pirate's numbers around the city and regroup. … Good luck, son. I'll see you on the other side."

The transmission cuts and John lowers his arm and cradles his rifle.

"What was that about?" Matt asks John.

John thinks a second. "Urgent documents are needed in Illyria." John rushes into the main office and picks a random datapad off of the desk. He turns around and hands it to Matt. "I got orders from Dunn to have you deliver this to him. Confidential, his eyes only."

Matt frowns at the datapad. "But… what about you?"

"I'll hold this position." John smiles, a real one, this time. "Don't worry about me."

Matt reluctantly nods and gets a vehicle from the garage and starts to drive down the road to Illyria.

John gets to work.

Later…

John sits on the wall, holding a pack of cigarettes in one hand and his assault rifle against his shoulder. He'd never smoked before, never thought about it, had never really considered it. But he'd heard they're good for stressful situations.

John takes a cigarette out of the pack and places it between his lips. He then takes the rifle and fires until it overheats. John quickly presses the tip of the cigarette against the heat sink of the rifle and it lights.

John replaces the cigarette in between his lips and takes a drag. He breathes the smoke out and surprises himself when he doesn't cough. He sniffs and tastes the flavor. It tastes gross.

John reaches over and turns on the radio, switching it to the Alliance Comm channel.

"Alliance Marines and Illyria civilians are standing strong! Do not falter! And we will not fall!" The radio roars at whoever is listening.

John takes another drag and puts the cigarette out on the ground. He gets to his feet and picks up the sniper rifle leaning against the wall next to him. He looks down the scope at the plume of dust in the distance. He checks the countdown timer on his omni-tool. 3 minutes left.

In the last 6 hours, John's fortified the outpost as best he could. He managed to repair the automated mortar and he jury-rigged the power coupling by the ridge, hopefully allowing him to use the outpost's countermeasures to his discretion. He'd laid down weapon emplacements in strategic locations around the outpost as well as barricaded the entrances and road. Not to mention the…

John frowns as he hears a distant mechanical humming.

John kneels and braces the sniper rifle against the edge of the wall. He looks down the scope at the line of vehicles just coming over the hill towards him. The first in the line is an open topped car with a mounted gun on the back.

John takes a deep breath and aims at the gunner leaning against the edge of the railing looking bored. He pulls the trigger and a spray of blood spurts from the gunner's head before he falls off the back of the car. His corpse is run over by the cars following and the driver of the lead car looks around alarmed.

John takes aim and shoots the driver in the neck just above his collarbone. He grabs his throat and the car swerves to the side off the road. The convoy starts to spread off road and move faster. Looks like they got the idea.

Not this one though. John ducks down and opens his omni-tool. He detonates the explosives he'd lined the road with and covers his ears.

There's a series of deafening explosions, 30 of them total. John crawls along the wall to the mounted gun nearby. He takes it and starts to fire at the cloud of smoke, not really looking for a target.

This whole time they haven't gotten one shot off at him.

"Batarian ground forces are dwindling! Hold nothing back!" The radio yells.

Shell shocked pirates start stumbling out of the cloud of smoke and John immediately picks them off with a burst from the mounted gun.

Suddenly an armored APC shoots out of the cloud of smoke and the cannon on top starts to fire at John's position.

John ducks down and crawls over to the anti-armor Sub-Light Speed cannon that sits on the edge of the wall ready and waiting to be fired.

John gets into the gunner's seat and shoots the APC as it passes the outpost, splitting it in half and sending both pieces flying off the road only to burn in a huge cobalt blaze.

John gets out of the gunner seat and opens his omni-tool as he runs over to the mounted machine gun again. He sets the mortar that he'd repaired firing on the road and grabs the grips of the mounted gun again.

Then the dust from the explosions clear and hordes of pirates charge at the outpost like an army of insects. The mortar takes out small groups of them at random while John passes the line of bullets he's firing back and forth over the charging pirates.

When they're too close to the walls of the outpost. John momentarily activates the outpost's counter measures. Tall pylons shoot out of the ground around the outpost and arc walls of electricity between them, frying anyone trapped within them.

John then sees a missile flying at him from somewhere in the vast span of corpses and pirates. He dives out of the way and the missile hits the machine gun, destroying it.

John grabs a grenade launcher from the line of weapons sitting against the wall near him. He starts firing randomly at the pirates running at him. When he runs out of ammo he reloads the grenade launcher with the stack of grenade clips sitting next to him.

The pirates die by the dozens but they still charge.

"Incoming Transmission: 'This is Gavin Ericsson of SSV Agincourt. We're coming to aid you, hold strong, Elysium!'" The radio relays the static clouded transmission.

John runs out of ammo completely and he drops the grenade launcher and picks up his assault rifle. He fires in bursts, picking off single pirates that make their way towards him. He activates the counter measures but something goes wrong, maybe they've malfunctioned, because they simple shoot out of the ground but no electricity arcs between them.

The pirates start making their way toward the outpost's open gate in the wall. John leaps from the wall and rolls as he hits the ground. Dirt gets scooped into his armor but he ignore it, and almost savors it's feel as he slides behind a wall of crates he stacked in front of the gate.

He takes the shotgun off his back and starts shooting the pirates as the get close. The shoot back but run at the same time so their aim is pretty much crap. John's shotgun overheats and he drops it and grabs another one that's sitting nearby in the crate of guns he'd placed there earlier.

He keeps fighting and the mortar keeps firing and the pirates keep charging.

Then the mortar malfunctions and John curses as it stops firing. But then he realizes that its automated targeting system just ran out of targets. Everyone is dead.

"Pirate forces have disbanded! The battle is won!" The radio yells.

John stands slowly, his shotgun hot in his hands. The battle is won. John looks down at himself. His dark blue armor is scuffed, scratched, gouged, and covered in bullet holes. But he himself, other than a bullet graze where his forehead meets his scalp that he didn't notice until now, is uninjured. John touches the graze on the corner of his forehead, near his temple. He looks at his gloved hand and rubs the dark blood in between his fingers.

John drops his shotgun on the ground and he turns to walk back into the outpost. But a bullet strikes the back of his leg and pierces his armor. He grunts and curses and drops to his knee. He looks over his shoulder at the lone pirate, badly burned from napalm, a sniper rifle held in one hand. His right arm is nearly melted away and he drags his right foot behind him as he walks toward John.

He is a batarian.

John gets to his feet and climbs onto the short wall of crates that stands between him and the last pirate.

The pirate raises his rifle but John throws his hand up and hits the pirate with a biotic push that throws him off his feet. John tries to step off the top of the crates but a pain from his leg makes him stumble and fall onto his stomach. John gets to his feet and limps toward the prone batarian who is also starting to stand.

The batarian gets to his feet, hopping slightly on his good leg, using the rifle as a crutch. He raises it again.

John draws his pistol and shoots the batarian in the arm. The batarian gasps in pain and drops the rifle. John shoots him again in the stomach and again in the chest and in the neck and in the hip and in the shoulder and in the diaphragm and in the leg and the batarian falls gasping and coughing.

John walks up to him, still shooting the batarian all over. He stands over the body and shoots him in the stomach and in the chest and again in the neck a few times and finally in the face.

The batarian lies dead, blood dribbling from his wounds. He lies so still and John stares for a second. He drops his pistol onto the corpse and looks at where his face used to be and you can still see two of his eyes, the top two. They're open slightly and they look at John with the deadest stare he'd ever seen.

John breathes very quickly and he wheezes for breath. He realizes his chest plate which has been hit so much it concaved, is restricting his breathing. John turns around and starts to limp back to the outpost, stripping off his armor as he walks.

John reaches the wall of crates and he throws them out of the way and steps over some of the corpses that made it almost to him. John walks over and sits down, with his back against the mortar in the center of the outpost. John's uniform is covered in dirt and blood and he realizes he's more injured than he'd initially thought. Adrenaline will do that.

He has a gunshot wound through his left bicep, straight through. Another in the side of his abdomen, on the left most side of his body. There's another in his leg, where the last pirate shot him. And there's the bullet graze on his scalp.

John is thankful his armor auto-injects medi-gel into him as needed. He sighs and rests his head against the mortar and closes his eyes.

Later…

John feels someone shaking him. He opens his eyes with considerable effort.

"He's alive!" An unfamiliar voice, behind a bright light shouts. "Get a medic over here now!"

John blinks at the light.

"Hey man, don't go to sleep. Stay with me, Lieutenant." The voice says, shaking him more. "You fought off all these guys on your own? Damn you're a badass."

John smirks and closes his eyes.

"No! Open your eyes!" The light slaps him. "Open your eyes come on!" John feels hands on him, moving him around, laying him down. "You're a hero man. Don't you die now. Wake up!"

End of Part 2…

A/N: Please take a break. Drink something. Blink, at least.

One Year Later…

Sole Survivor: Last Man Standing

10:43 AM May 4, 2177

Highly decorated Class N5 1st Lieutenant John Shepard stands at the entrance to the colony at Akuze. The colony sits at the bottom of a deep valley that used to be home to a river, long since dried. So the ground here is very flat and hard and dry and the reddish dirt sticks to your boots. Since the Skyllian Blitz, since he got his Medal of Honor and his Star of Terra, and all those awards and all those commendations and all that recognition, the Alliance has been sending him from mission to mission, station to station.

Now at least they're giving him something easy. Or at least sort of easy. His mission was to find out what happened to a pioneer team that was setting up a colony here on Akuze. Now he knows.

The colony is completely destroyed, something just decimated it. Buildings are smashed to pieces or torn apart and some are even melted in places. The pioneer team is nowhere to be found and the ground in and around the colony is unusually soft for such a rocky planet. Not to mention the massive crater in the center of the colony.

Something doesn't sit right with John.

"Shepard, Cervantes, Toombs! Get over here." Commander Dunn calls as he walks out of a mostly intact building while removing his helmet. The battles he's been in have had their wear on him. His hair is grey despite only being 40 years old. His face is wrinkled and defies his actual age. He has a scar across his nose as well as many smaller ones over his face. Yet he is still the strongest man John has ever met.

"Sir, something's weird here." Sergeant Matt Cervantes points out the obvious.

Dunn frowns. "Son, I should promote you to captain."

"Huh? Really?" Matt smiles excited.

Dunn nods. "Yeah, Captain Obvious."

"Bravo. You actually got my hopes up." Matt applauds sarcastically while John and Toombs laugh.

"Sir, what did you find?" Corporal Chris Toombs asks. "Anything?"

Dunn shakes his head. "Nothing. I have no clue what happened here."

"Could it have been attacked by pirates, sir?" John asks.

Dunn shakes his head again. "Not likely. There're no signs of explosives being used, and I 'm not sure what else could take these buildings apart."

"What about the crater?" Chris asks. "Maybe… I don't know… maybe a meteor?"

"That's stupid, but plausible. Though I don't think so." Dunn looks at the crater and points to the destroyed buildings around it. "See how the buildings are around the crater? If it was a meteor they would be blown out away from the crater."

"Well what could it be?" Matt asks rhetorically.

Dunn shrugs and starts walking back to one of the two M35 Makos. "Don't know… honestly? I'm not sure I really want to know. We were ordered to find out what happened to the pioneer team and we know they were wiped out. Now let's get out of here. We need to get back to the rendezvous point 9 clicks south of here."

He felt uneasy about all of this, but on some level John was glad to be out of here. It spooked him.

John climbs into a Mako with Matt and 3 others. John climbs up to the front seat and starts the Mako. He waits for Dunn's Mako to get going, he then starts following it south towards the rendezvous point with the ship.

John loses himself in his thoughts. Recently he'd met someone he couldn't really stop thinking about. And it confused him. A few weeks ago, a new bunch of marines were assigned to his unit. One caught his eye immediately. She was shorter than the others, only slightly though. Her hair was brown and long and always immaculate and she had green eyes and bronzed olive toned skin, full attractive lips and a slender figure. Something about her caught his eye. Was it her looks? No, something else. That defiant look she gave when given an order. Like she wanted to tell the superior person that she'd surpass them. Then who'd be laughing?

The path in front of him is completely flat and rusty brown sediment is kicked up into his windshield by the leading Mako but John could still easily see where he needed to go.

John was too nervous to talk to her. She came to talk to him once, to talk to him about him. She talked about how she knew who he was and she talked about how she admired him and how he was a hero and how she had watched the award ceremony when he got his Star of Terra and about how she wanted to hear everything he had to say. And all he could do was ask about her. This bored her, so she left and he hadn't talked to her since. This was just a few days ago. She's probably sitting up in the ship, bored to death.

John sighs and clears his windshield of red dust again. He checks the distance now, only about 3 clicks away.

He hadn't forgotten her name, though. Sofia. She has a name you can taste when you say it. Sofia. You can taste it on your tongue and on the roof of your mouth like a fine wine even after you've said it. Sofia. Sweet like cookies and jam. Sofia.

"John! Look out!"

John sees something that looks like a huge blue pipe of some sort in the path of his Mako. John hits the jump thruster jets and his Mako leaps over the piping. From his place in the sky, John sees Dunn's Mako swerving in between other piping that just appears out of the ground. Now John can see the piping is moving. It's actually some kind of huge earthworm.

The Mako hits the ground and the strong suspension and shocks on it make the landing very gentle for the occupants.

"What the fuck is going on?!" One of the marines screams.

"Get on the fucking turret!" Matt screams at him from the passenger seat next to John.

John doesn't look away from where he's going. But he's gotten so turned around with swerving that he doesn't know where he is or where Dunn is. Suddenly something hits the side of the Mako which sends it rolling to the side. John spins the wheel trying to get it in control. And the Mako rights itself, settling on all six wheels again.

"Gun it! Go, go, go!" Matt screams from the seat next to him.

John goes petal to the metal and starts swerving out of the way of the huge worms.

Suddenly, a section of one appears right in front of him through the dust. John instinctively hits the jump thrusters and his Mako flies straight into the air.

Just when he expects the descent the Mako rumbles and stops. It tilts and spins around and all the occupants and tossed around in their seats. The Mako abruptly starts to plummet toward the ground, faster than is possible of its own gravity. One of the creatures has a hold on the Mako.

It hits the ground back first and John hits the back of his chair hard. He winces and opens his eyes. His eyes widen at what he sees. A hideous creature, like a huge worm with tentacles and talons like a praying mantis and a huge maw. It hovers above the ground, high in the sky above them. And through the cracked, dusty windshield, John can see a hunger in its bioluminescent form.

And then it lunges at the Mako, its great maw stretching even wider and a huge tentacle like tongue stretching out of its throat. John screams and raises his hands in horror. The thing swallows the front of the Mako but it cannot eat the rest .

The walls around John start to sizzle and drips of viscous saliva seep through the quadruple armor plating. Then the talons of the creature pierce the center of the Mako, behind John and it tries to tear it in half to consume. All John can do is grit his teeth and hold tight onto his seat.

The creature then pulls the Mako out of its mouth and throws it onto the ground. And with a deafening boom, John is knocked unconscious as a piece of the Mako strikes his head.

Later…

John blinks his eyes open and he stares at the inside of his helmet. The visor is shattered and he can smell the air outside, telling him there's a breach in his helmet. He smells blood and dirt and electricity.

John coughs and tugs his helmet off his head. It comes off in pieces and a few hang off his back from an air tube attached to his armor. John coughs again, more roughly this time and tastes blood. He looks around to try to find where he is.

He is still strapped in his seat, but it's far from its proper place and he lies on his side near a hole in some unrecognizable part of the Mako. The hole is blocked by a marine's corpse, impaled through several pieces of distended metal. To his right, a dead marine stares back at him. John looks to his left and finds only Akuze dirt. The Mako must've been torn in half when it hit the ground. Outside is silent.

Then it suddenly isn't. "Help! No!"

John's eyes shoot up at the hole in the Mako. Past it he can see a huge crater, out of it, the glowing tentacle like tongue of the worm beast licks the edge of the crater.

Corporal Chris Toombs struggles in vain as he is dragged by the tongue toward the crater. "No! Help me!"

John tries to get up but he remembers he's strapped in. That's when he notices and feels the long metal pipe that impales him. It passes through the fastening device, making it impossible to unstrap, and it passes straight through him into the backrest of the seat. John gasps and grabs the slippery bloody pipe.

He looks up at Chris Toombs, who is not alone. He sees Matt Cervantes holding his hands and trying to pull him out of the beasts grip. And he sees Commander Dunn shooting the tongue with an assault rifle.

Then John has to watch as the head of the creature bursts from the crater. It whips its tongue, throwing Matt to the side and knocking Dunn off to another. It raises its praying mantis like talon and stabs Matt. The talon drives itself into the ground and it lifts out. Matt stays on it, blood spraying down the talon. The talon nearly spans his whole torso, mid chest to lower abdomen it nearly splits him in half. At least he died quickly.

Unlike Dunn.

John watches in horror as Dunn is covered with a huge glob of the creature's acidic saliva. The viscous saliva pours over him and has a texture like some gelatinous goop so it covers him from head to toe. The saliva starts to smoke and sizzle and John can still hear Dunn through that coating of spit.

Dunn howls in pure agony as he is eaten away from every inch on his body. From the soles of his feet to the tips of his fingers to the hairs on his head. Dunn is melted. And he doesn't stop screaming until the acid pours into his bloody empty eye sockets, long after his skin has melted off.

Dunn's corpse, so horribly destroyed, collapses to the ground.

Toombs screams in sorrow. John struggles against the straps and the pipe and the pain to help his friend.

The creature howls and straightens its huge form, swinging Toombs straight into the air and keeping a hold on him still with its massive tongue. It shakes Matt's corpse off its talon, making it fall into pieces and fall to the ground.

Toombs screams one last time. "Someone!" John can even hear him from this great distance. "Please! Help-"

His terrified voice disappears into the earth. And Akuze is silent.

John can hear his own breath. He's breathing so fast. He has to get to the rendezvous point. Warn the ship. Tell them what happened.

John looks down at the pipe in the seat. He doesn't know how the hell he's going to get out of this. He has but one idea.

John takes his side arm and with a shaking hand presses it against the bar, near to his stomach. John fires a shot and it pierces the pipe. But the vibrations caused by the bullet hitting the pipe and going through it makes it so excruciating John gasps in pain and coughs some blood.

John grits his teeth and shoots the pipe again. This time it was even more excruciating. John howls in pain and cries slightly.

He looks down at the pipe. "Just one more. Come on John."

John shoots the last bit of pipe off it and it wasn't nearly as bad as the last two times.

John grabs the top half, the half still attached to the ceiling, and he bends the long pipe out of the way. He grabs the small bit poking out of his stomach and tries to pry it out. But the blood on it makes his hands slip. John scowls and grabs the fastening device of the seat and he lifts that off the piece of pipe instead. He tears it in half and takes the straps off himself. John then lifts himself off the pipe and rolls away from the pipe. He joins the corpses next to him, resting a hand over his back and his head on his shoulder.

John pants and coughs and wipes his mouth. He looks up at the corpse and pats it on the back. "Sorry about that. I'll come back for you."

He crawls over to the hole. He won't be able to move this with his own strength. John builds up what strength he's got and uses his biotics to clear the hole of the corpse and the pieces of metal.

John crawls out of the hole and he gets to his feet slowly. He can hear the wind whipping over the valley floor. But everything else is silent.

John closes his eyes and bows his head.

Nothing can go right for him. Can it?

John starts to stumble toward the rendezvous point, but he hears something. Someone.

"John… God, help me." John looks over slowly at the marine lying next to the other half of the Mako. He raises his arm to John and John can see his armor is practically torn to pieces.

John hobbles over to him and kneels next to him. John flips him over onto his back and takes his helmet off. The marine's torso is cut badly, and his lungs are likely filling with blood.

"Liang, you're going to be alright. Ted! Open your damn eyes!"

Specialist Ted Liang opens his eyes and coughs out a mouthful of blood. "John. John… it's so… so beautiful. I wish you could see it."

John blinks tears from his eyes. "Dammit Ted! You stay with me! I'm getting you help!"

John scoops Ted Liang in his arms and starts to carry him south toward the rendezvous, less than a kilometer away. John's body screams in protest, pain from everywhere. But Ted is dying.

John struggles faster, jogging, somehow the distance to the rendezvous point. He feels blood flowing down his stomach into his pants and boots but he keeps going, pain driving him now, knowing that if he can get there that he can stop and rest and the pain can stop.

John gets to the rendezvous point, marked with a tall signal beacon.

John places Ted gently on the ground and activates the beacon and a bright light flashes at its peak.

John gets down to his knees next to Ted Liang, who stares at the sky.

"John…" Tears flow down his cheeks and mix with the blood on his face. "John, it's right there John." Ted Liang points at the sky. "John it's so beautiful. It's so quiet and so peaceful. So beautiful. Can you see it John?"

Every ounce of struggle is out of Ted's voice. He's truly found his end.

John shakes his head. "What're you talking about Ted?"

"It's right there John." Ted Liang points at the sky, at nothing. "John it's right there. It's so beautiful."

"Where Ted?" John looks up. "Where is it?"

Ted Liang points again, for a second before lowering his arm again. He points at a star. That's when John remembers a conversation he had with Commander Dunn at this very spot.

"John." Dunn points at the starry sky. "Can you tell me which one that one is John?"

John looks at the star he's pointing at. John shrugs and shakes his head.

Dunn smiles a wrinkly tired smile. "That's the Sol system. Earth, John. Home."

That's when Dunn looked his youngest.

"That's not home to me, sir." John says.

"John…" Ted's tears flow like rivers into oceans of blood. "I'm going home, John."

John feels the wind kick up around him and he can hear a humming and a bright light shines from above.

John feels tears build up in his eyes again. "Ted, don't go. I can't lose everyone. I don't want to be alone again. Don't! Ted! Don't leave me here alone!"

Ted smiles a smile so small it shows more in his eyes than on his face. "You're not alone John. You'll never be alone. I'm going home John. I'm… I'm finally going… home."

Ted smiles a true and real smile. And he dies, with a smile eternally in his dead eyes and on his dead lips. Utter bliss in his last moments.

Comes with dying, sometimes. And in John's opinion? It's worse to watch.

"Lieutenant! John!" He recognizes the voice, the ship's skipper. "Lieutenant! What happened."

John stands, holding Ted Liang, the man who died happy. John walks with the corpse in his arms, toward the ship. The skipper stares at him, horrified at what happened.

John stops next to him and looks at him. The skipper's eyes go wide. For all the time 1st Lieutenant John Shepard had been on this ship, no one knew him or what he'd really been through. But that look he just gave the skipper, expressed exactly what John felt. Tired.

John shakes his head and sighs. "They're dead, skipper. All of them."

"What happened?" The skipper asks horrified.

"I don't know sir." John places the corpse of Ted Liang on the edge of the ramp to the ship. "But I'm all that's left."

John drops to his knees and bangs the edge of his head on the edge of the ramp and he screams. He pounds on the red and brown earth with bloody gloved fists and he screams.

He screams for everyone, for everything.

John starts to sob and he is fully aware of the ring of people around him. He feels hands on his shoulders they pull him to his feet and take him inside, away from eyes. John's head bowed and his sobs uncontrollable. He gasps out words, spelling a poem of death and blood and horrors.

The hands lead him into a dark room, the crew quarters. They take him to a corner and John collapses, still sobbing. He didn't want to walk anymore.

The hands cradle him and hug him and shush him and try to comfort him. But John keeps crying and he struggles out of the hugs and the arms and he ignores the comfort. He wants to hurt to feel that pain that driving pain.

The hands lift his chin and John sees the defiant green eyes of Sofia. Of course it would be her, to see the hero in his weakest moment. Sofia pulls John into her, pulling his face into her breast, like a child. She has to take his hands and wrap them around her and she has to hold him because he doesn't hold back.

"John, don't cry."

John feels rage then. He throws her off of him. "No! Fuck you!"

He destroys a metal table with biotic blows. He ruins the bunks with his bare hands and biotic power. He strips panels off the walls with sheer power, and any glass in the room shatters and the floor panels crumple like old paper and the lights explode and John squeezes his hands into fists so hard that blood floats out into the force field of negated gravity. And he screams so loud. He howls with rage and power and fear and sorrow and grief.

"John!" John's glowing fiery blue eyes shoot at Sofia. She is huddled in the corner, protecting her head, eyes defiant. "Stop!"

John's fire of rage, the color of the biotics that tear the room apart, the fire that burns him that tears him apart, dies into embers.

John, the man whose world fell silent, collapses and dreams of his home. Mindoir. The world that burned.

End of Part 3…

A/N: Phew… What a dose of emotion that one was. Please take a break. Drink some tea in front of a fireplace on a cold night. Feels awesome. Take a walk on a rainy day while listening to the saddest songs you got. Feels great. Take a break however you know best how. Please, for your own health!

One Year Later…

3:14 PM November 18, 2178

Ruthless: Caverns of Blood

The drop ship rumbles and rattles.

Highly decorated and recently reinstated Class N6 1st Lieutenant John Shepard sits with his head bowed and his eyes closed and with his rifle collapsed and standing in between his legs. The drop ship shakes violently and one of the 55 other people in the drop ship pukes into a bag making the room, which already smelled of hot metal and sweat, smell like sick.

This is the Alliance's revenge for the Skyllian Blitz. And it is John's revenge for Mindoir.

This is the Siege of Torfan.

Ten battalions, each separated into 1,000 contingents, each of 52 men, with each contingent separated into 26 pairs of teams, labeled with a letter of the phonetic alphabet, attack this sector of the moon of Torfan. The batarian-pirate forces are dug in deep in subterranean bunkers covering the moon. There's a huge mass accelerator missile base in the middle of the moon, all the tunnels lead there, with a few caverns here and there. That's where everyone is headed. The plan is for the teams to drive the batarians back through their own tunnels to the missile base where they can be easily bottle necked and eradicated.

Major Kyle has ordered a take-no-prisoner's initiative. That sits just fine with John.

"When we hit the ground!" Major Kyle shouts over the roar from the drop ship as it enters the thin atmosphere of Torphan's 3rd moon. "We storm the tunnels! Stick to your pairings! Remember your training! And you will survive! Keep in constant radio contact! The batarians have home front advantage! That does not mean they will win! They're untrained, poorly equipped criminals! We have the advantage!"

What advantage? John squeezes his eyes tighter as his brow furrows further into a scowl. He's seen the intel reports. His N6 rank and security clearance got him a firsthand look at them. Here's what they know: Nothing. Alliance Intel has no precise estimate on the number of hostiles. They have only a rough, rudimentary layout of the tunnel system. And they have no limit in the funding for this mission. And this is why they can afford to throw 52,000 men at a bunch of batarian criminals. Criminals backed and supplied by the batarian government. The grunts don't know that. They're going in expecting no resistance, acting as some sort of glorified galactic police. John expects no quarter, no surrender, and no mercy. He will offer none in return.

A hand grabs John's hand and pulls it away from his rifle. His partner in the battle, Sofia, stares up at the ceiling, not looking at John. Her defiant eyes shine bright and defiant of fear behind her helmet. John's general stoic expression softens a bit and he gently squeezes her hand. She squeezes back, much tighter.

John looks back down at the metal grated floor of the drop ship. Was he ready for this? More death?

This was the Battle of Torfan. This was real war. Was he ready for this?

"John." Sofia's voice says through a channel they'd set up to communicate with each other and each other only, her hand shaking his a little to get his attention. "John, are you okay?"

John looks at her. "Fine."

The yellow tinted visor of her helmet makes her eyes look even greener somehow. "Are you sure? I mean you've only been back 2 weeks."

John blinks at her. "I'm cleared for duty."

Sofia shakes her head. "So says the doctor. Did you clear yourself? That's most important. PTSD is a hard thing to overcome, many don't overcome it at all. You're back within a year. I'm not so sure John. After what you've been through?"

"I can push through it." John responds, frowning at her.

She shakes her head. "You always say that. Can you push through this? I was there, there with you when you were pushed past you limit. It's an ugly sight, John. I just want to make sure you're ready for this."

"It's too late now." He responds, looking away from her.

"No, it's not. You've had time to recover but not nearly enough. You fell and you fell hard. You can't deny that." Sofia shakes his limp hand to get his attention again.

He looks back at her, his face still stoic.

"John, you never talked to me about it." Sofia narrows her eyes at him. John takes a sharp breath. Her eyes, how can she get them to say so much? That she won't accept no for an answer.

"I don't talk about it." John responds. "I can't."

"Why? Why did that make you go down so hard?" Sofia asks almost angrily.

John looks down at the barrel of his rifle. He blinks and furrows his brow.

"John. Let go of my hand, you're hurting me."

He lets go of Sofia's hand immediately. And places it back on the rifle.

"John?" Sofia says after a moment. "John, you need to be brave."

He looks up at her. She makes him so angry sometimes. He loves her so much, why can't she see that he doesn't want her to think he's weak. But she knows he's weak.

John shakes his head. "That's no question. Don't slow me down."

Sofia places a hand on his knee. He can't feel it because of his armor. John takes the hand and throws it off of his knee.

"Leave me alone. Just follow my lead." John mumbles before turning back to his contingent's channel.

The red light illuminating the cabin of the drop ship switches to yellow.

Major Kyle gets to his feet. "Alright! This is it! When that light turns green, we're going to hit the ground in 10 seconds. The second it turns blue, you're out the door! Get me?"

"We get you sir!" The entire squad shouts in unison based on muscle memory.

The yellow light switches to green and Kyle sits back down and latches himself in.

"This is it! Brace yourselves! We're hitting the ground in 4, 3, 2, 1-" As if on cue there's a deafening boom from outside the drop ship and it jerks, jolts and shakes violently. The guy who puked earlier pukes again but all over the ground and his armor. There's a hideous screeching and then another boom and all shaking stops.

John feels his restraints release. He stands and readies his weapon and stands in line.

The green light changes to blue and the door to the drop ship falls open and the marines are bathed in a bright white greyish light.

They start charging out of the pod and John quickly follows.

He finds himself on the surface of Torfan, the grey moon full of holes. Many other drop ships litter the cratered expanse around him and the marines carried within charge toward some holes marked with flashing red and green lights.

There's one directly in front of their drop ship, not 10 yards away. John charges at it and Sofia is right beside him. They run into the large tunnel and are bathed in darkness. He and Sofia activate their shoulder mounted armor lights and the hall is illuminated by numerous Alliance soldiers walking around slowly with their weapons ready.

The squad comes to a split in the tunnel and everyone stops. Major Kyle runs up and looks left and right.

"You two… and… you two." Kyle says pointing out two pairs of people then pointing at the left tunnel. "Go down that path and radio back."

The two teams start running down that path and they make it no more than 20 yards before there's a huge explosion right at their feet and the tunnel starts to collapse over their heads. The collapsing ceiling starts to move towards them.

"Move! Fall back!" Kyle roars and the teams fall back toward the tunnel entrance.

John grabs Sofia's hand and drags her down the right tunnel just in time. If she had tried to fall back with Major Kyle, she would've been crushed like a few other marines.

John drags her down the tunnel and they sprint away from the collapsing ceiling. John sprints as fast as he can and Sofia runs right next to him. He doesn't stop running and he feels huge chunks of the ceiling falling behind him. Finally the rumbling and earth shaking stops and the ceiling stops collapsing.

John slows down and leans against his knees panting heavily, Sofia mirroring him.

"Damn that was close." Sofia says breathless.

John just nods and breathes heavily.

"Teams, sound off!" Major Kyle's static clouded voice says through the comm. "Alpha Team is full and accounted for."

"Team Uniform is all together." John says when his letter in the alphabet comes around. The problem is that teams Charlie, Hotel, Golf, November, Papa, X-Ray, and Zulu are all unaccounted for.

That's 14 marines dead or missing. There's 19 teams of two left. 38 marines left.

"Is that it? That's everyone we have left?! We've been on the ground 20 goddamn minutes!" There's a slight pause. "Wait, where's Team Uniform?"

"We didn't fall back to the entrance we went down the right tunnel." Sofia responds.

"Good." Kyle says sounding relieved. "Uniform, I need you to find an alternate entrance to the surface nearby. Send us the coordinates and we'll meet you there."

"Aye, aye Major." Sofia responds, shutting off her comm. "John, you heard what we need to do?"

John nods and straightens. "Let's move, be wary of traps."

Sofia and John start walking down the dark tunnel. They can see a light at the end but it's impossible to tell how far away it is exactly.

"Wait." John whispers. "Shut off your light. If we want any chance of survival we need the element of surprise.

Sofia nods and shuts off her armor light. She places her hand on John's shoulder to ensure that they don't get separated. She draws her pistol and points it forward, and John does the same with his assault rifle.

He leads her down the hall, taking careful low steps to feel out any obstacles.

But they get to the end of the tunnel without a problem and the light seems to come from around a bend. There're voices around the corner. John stops Sofia by placing a hand against her stomach. He presses his back against the wall and he leans around the corner to look carefully.

John sees a squad of batarians formed up with their commander pacing in front of them.

"Take no prisoners!" The batarian commander yells. "This is not Mindoir! This is not Theara! This is not Yanthau! We're Black Bind! We're shooting to kill."

John's eyes are wide. He recognizes their armor, black with red chains painted on it. John's breathing becomes harsh and angry.

"John?" Sofia whispers. "John are you-"

John roars and spins around the corner. He sweeps his assault rifle across the room with one arm while holding the trigger. At the same time he's throwing his left arm back for a biotic attack. And simultaneous to all this, he's leaping over a desk to attack his enemies.

John lands with a roll. He stops on a knee, his biotic attack ready. He slams his fist into the ground and there's a biotic explosion the throws the batarian slavers every which way.

John rolls again and shoulders his rifle. He fills a single batarian with a full tempered burst from his assault rifle. He tosses the rifle aside and draws his pistol he shoots three others in the head. The commander of the squad is getting to his feet. John charges and rams his shoulder into the commander's torso, slamming him into the wall with enough force to shatter bone. John smashes the commander's face with the bottom of the pistol. He feels hands grab him and throw him back.

John stumbles, falls and does a backwards roll and faces his new enemy, another batarian. He charges at the batarian who is raising a shotgun at him. John ducks under the shotgun just as it fires. Some of the shot hits the top of his helmet but John ignores it. He grabs the underside of the gun and pulls it over his shoulder. He reaches his other arm over and grabs the batarian's arm.

John then pulls the batarian off his feet and flips him over his shoulder. John keeps a solid grip on the shotgun the whole time and he manages to wrench it out of the slavers grip. John tosses the shotgun aside and grabs the batarian's collar. He bends down and punches the batarian. Seeing the effect his armored knuckles have, John hits him again. John smiles for the first time in over a year and hits him again.

There's a loud gunshot from behind him and someone falls on John's back. John instinctively flips sideways, landing on top of the attacker. John rolls straight to his feet but realizes the final batarian is dead already. He looks over his shoulder at Sofia who has her shotgun out.

She looks at him, eyes furious and defiant behind her visor. John's growls. He picks his pistol back up and shoots the coughing batarian he was hitting in the face.

John removes his helmet which is damaged and useless now. He tosses it aside and grabs his assault rifle. He starts to continue down the tunnel.

Sofia catches up to him, her helmet now off, her hair immaculate. "John! What the fuck was that?!"

John glares at her. "Initiative. What do you want from me?"

"A goddamn explanation! That was downright stupid! Why did you attack 7 armed batarians alone! John!" Sofia grabs his shoulder to stop him.

John spins around and pushes her against the wall, slamming his fist into the wall next to her head. Pieces of moon rock break under his fist and fall onto her shoulder. Sofia looks at him, eyes confident and defiant as they stare into his.

"They were there." John says his voice filled with a tone that is hate incarnate. "On Mindoir. They were part of the gang that killed my family and burned my home. They did such horrible things. They killed everyone. The ones they didn't kill they took. Mindoir was never the same because of it."

Sofia shakes her head. "John, you can't let this cloud your judgment. I know you're angry. I know you're hurting. Remember Elysium and the Skyllian Blitz! How you let nothing hold you back, not even your emotions or your feelings. That's a true leader, John. Someone who can look at the bigger picture. You need to do this, complete this mission for all the marines fighting and dying here, not for you. Do it for the greater good."

John breathes away his anger through his nose. "You're right. I'm sorry. Thank you."

Sofia smiles at him. "Don't mention it."

She then slaps him across the face. He looks at her shocked.

"That was for being stupid. Now let's go."

John's face softens and he starts to walk with Sofia again down the tunnel. This tunnel is thankfully lit by lights strung on the ceiling.

They reach another bend. John holds up a fist and Sofia stops.

John peeks around the corner. It leads directly to another bend. John quickly rushes to it and peeks around that corner. There's another long tunnel, with one nearby that connects to the surface.

John turns on his comm. "Major Kyle! Major Kyle, this is Team Uniform, we found an alternate entrance."

"Thank God, Lieutenant!" Major Kyle responds. John can clearly hear heavy gunfire in the background. "We're under heavy assault from batarian pirate forces! We've lost Teams Juliet, Tango, and Lima and half of Sierra!"

Another 3 teams. Another 7 marines. 16 teams left. 31 marines with them.

"We're sending you the coordinates, Major." Sofia says opening her omni-tool.

"Sir, do you want us to help you guys out?" John asks him.

"No, keep going! We need to makes some goddamn headway here! We've still got a kilometer of tunnels to cover before we hit the missile base! Uniform, keep going! We'll catch up!"

"Roger." John turns off his comm and turns to Sofia. "Ready? We have a lot of ground to cover.

She nods and together they jog down the tunnel.

Later…

John combat rolls into cover and immediately he blind fires over cover at the cadre of batarian pirates, some armored in Black Bind armor. Sofia uses the suppressing fire he lays down to move forward to cover behind a crate across the hall. They've been fighting like this for hours and still no sign of Major Kyle. John pokes out of cover and kills two more batarians with bursts from his assault rifle.

Sofia leans out from behind the crate and shoots a batarian with her shotgun. She then rolls and stops on a knee and shoots another then. She rolls again and stops behind cover next to John.

"Shit, John!" She says breathless. "I'm exhausted. I don't know how much longer I can keep up!"

John shakes his head. "I still can't get in touch with Kyle!"

Sofia curses and shoots another batarian with her shotgun. The last three start to retreat down the tunnel.

John runs up to the entrance of it and throws a powerful biotic shockwave down toward them.

The shockwave tosses them off their feet and they all land on their stomachs or faces.

Sofia sprints forward and shoots one in the back of the head. John rushes forward and snaps his neck. The third batarian is already dead, likely from the shockwave. John goes back into the other tunnel and sits on a crate. Sofia joins him.

John takes his military issued energy drink and takes a long drink he hands it to Sofia who drinks it as well. She lowers the canteen with a sigh and hands it back to him.

John replaces it on his belt and he turns his comm on again. "Major Kyle, come in… Major Kyle, this is Team Uniform, come in… Major Kyle we are almost to the missile base… Major Kyle, sir, come in."

There's still no response so John sighs and turns the speaker off to preserve battery life.

Sofia nudges his arm after a moment of silence. "Hey."

He looks at her. "What?"

Sofia smiles. "Cheer up, we're almost done. And look!" She gestures to the room around them. "No major injuries. And we're almost to the missile base."

John shrugs. "Yeah, I guess."

There's suddenly some sound from the tunnel they came from. John leaps to his feet and points his assault rifle down towards the darkness. Sofia kneels next to him with her shotgun pointed down the tunnel as well.

They can see 5 bobbing lights making their way down the hall toward them. They reach the light of the small cavern Shepard and John are in.

John breathes a sigh of relief when he sees they're Alliance marines from his contingent.

They freeze in place and raise their weapons but almost immediately lower them.

"John! Sofia!" One marine, Corporal Steven Yeung says enthusiastically. "Jesus it's good to see you two."

"Steven!" Sofia hugs him. "Guys where's everyone else?"

"All dead." Sergeant Tom Opus says with a shake of his head. "We're all that's left."

"Even Major Kyle?" John asks horrified.

Another marine, Private First Class Talia Simone shakes her head. "No, he… he couldn't handle all the deaths under his command. He broke down and ran off into the tunnels. We've lost contact."

John shakes his head in disbelief. Major Kyle was such a steely leader and such a strong biotic. How could this happen.

Of all 26 teams, all 52 men, it has been reduced to 7 marines.

"John, sorry but you're the highest ranking member here." Opus says with a pat on his shoulder.

John sighs. "Teams, sound off. Team Uniform is all together."

Simone and Yeung stand side by side. "Team Foxtrot holding together."

Opus and Specialist Jason Alderman stand next to each other. "Team Oscar, all accounted for.

Then the lone marine removes his helmet. He looks so tired. "Master Sergeant Jack Jenson, of Team Sierra. Reporting."

Opus pats him on the back and Jensen tosses his helmet aside.

John takes a deep breath. "Alright. Jensen and Foxtrot I want you to scout ahead in that tunnel." John points with is rifle. "Oscar head back and find a good place to get a signal, we need to report our progress… and out losses. Uniform will search this area for useful supplies."

The teams split, Foxtrot and the last of Sierra moving down the tunnel toward their objective, Oscar heading back to find signal.

Sofia and John start rummaging through crates, looking for supplies. John manages to fine several grenades and a powerful thermite based plastic explosive. John takes this ordinance and puts it on his belt and he sits on the ground. Sofia turns to him and she throws up her arms.

"Nothing… I see you found some heavy ordinance." She sits next to him and leans her head against the crate.

John shrugs. "We probably won't even end up using it. Too dangerous in here. But I couldn't hurt, right?"

She nods but remains otherwise silent.

After a short restful silence John looks over at Sofia who is look at him.

"Can I ask you something, John?"

He nods.

"Were you scared? Going into this mission?"

John thinks for a moment. "No. I was angry."

Sofia looks away and nods. "I was scared. This is my first active engagement."

"You're handling yourself damn well." John compliments.

Sofia smiles humorously. "Thanks, I think… What's it like? Being you?"

John frowns. "I don't get what you mean?"

"What's it like being a hero? Being a legend?" She looks at him.

"Legend?"

She nods. "Yeah. You're legendary. You're the man who killed 300 hundred plus batarians at Elysium. And those are the confirmed kills. You're the man who thresher maws can't kill. You're 1st Lieutenant John Shepard. Badass."

John sniffs. "I don't like it."

"Really?"

He nods. "Yeah. How would you like to be described like that every time someone says your name? It sucks. I grew up on a farm; my ambitions were never really set to fame. This all just kind of happened. And it was all horrible." He looks at her. "They call me, 'hero'. I call me, 'mass murderer.'"

"You don't have to be so black and white about it."

"There are too many shades of grey."

Sofia smiles. "I like you, John."

"Thanks." He mumbles, staring blankly at the wall.

She smiles and turns his head to look at her. "Oh farm boy. Just shut up."

John frowns.

She kisses him. He can taste her now. Taste what Sofia really tastes like. Sweet like cookies and jam.

There's suddenly a shout of alarm. John's eyes snap to the tunnel that leads to the missile base. Jensen sprints out of it and gunfire follows him. He dives behind a crate and John and Sofia join him.

"Jensen! What happened?" John yells at him over the gunfire.

Jensen looks at him horrified. "John, they-" He stops himself and takes a breath and swallows. "We found some slavers and they spotted us! One yelled something about 'Thralls' and a bunch of these people: humans, asari, a few turians, they ran out of these disgusting cages at us. Screaming… God they were screaming. Yeung went down and I don't know about Simone I just ran. I-"

There's suddenly a screaming of horror and the gunfire ceases. John and Sofia rise up and see Simone run into the room with something attached to her back.

It's a hideously emaciated man, wearing shabby clothing. He's got metal apparatus grafted to him in all kinds of manners but the significant one seems to be the large bomb on his back.

"Get him off! Get him-" Simone and the emaciated man vanish in a red haze with a loud boom and a cloud of dust.

John's eyes are wide. Then out of the dark tunnel a woman, approximately his age maybe, comes out of the darkness. She's filthy, wearing shabby clothing, and hideously emaciated.

Her head is shaved and John can see a metal frame work and tubing coming from her skull. John recognizes it immediately.

It's the Black Bind's unique form of mind control and assimilation. Violent cranial implants they drill into you. It forces you to obey. They used them on Mindoir. He'd seen a lot of them in the main colony while he was leading the fight against the slavers.

John's heart falls from his chest. Could it be possible?

No, it's not possible.

John steps over the crates and Sofia's protests are muffled with memory as he approaches the indoctrinated woman.

He stops in front of her. "Suzy? Suzy Townsend?"

She smiles at him. Such a familiar smile. So innocent. 6 years. It's been 6 long years. How had any people from Mindoir survived that long under the batarian's control. Look at what they did to her.

God… Those monsters.

Suzy lunges forward and bites John on the neck and she tries jamming a knife into his armored belly but she's too weak to push it in through his armor. Even so, he still stares slack jawed and horrified at the dark in front of him.

Then Suzy's head explodes from a gunshot. From whose side? John doesn't care. Her blood covers his face and torso.

John feels that rush in him again. That hate, that anger. John roars and charges into the dark.

"John!" Sofia curses and chases after him. "Goddammit, not again."

A batarian Black Bind slaver shoots John a few times with a pistol as he charges but John's shield absorbs the damage.

John jumps and drop kicks him in the face and the batarian flies backwards over the railing and into the incredibly deep pit of the multi-tiered cylindrical missile tube. John draws his pistol and grabs the fallen slaver's discarded pistol from the ground.

He wields one in each hand shooting in opposite directions at the batarians and thralls running at him.

He rolls onto his side and fires both pistols akimbo at one hall. He rolls over and shoots at the other. He then spins around, rising into a stand without using his hands at all. He just keeps shooting.

A thrall, he'd missed somehow, jumps onto John's back and starts beating him.

John quickly forms and explodes a biotic barrier and the thrall is launched into a wall. He bounces off of it and into the missile pit.

John drops the overheated pistols and starts throwing waves of biotics at his enemies. He takes out his shotgun and shoots a few slavers before his gun overheats. He uses a preloaded Incinerate mod on his omni-tool to set another batarian aflame. John takes out his assault rifle and fires it to its heat sink's capacity.

Now out of weapons, John draws a knife and starts cutting throats and gouging eyes. Eventually, even after taking a few bullets, John stops because he's out of enemies. He retrieves his weapons and realizes Sofia is walking up to him, her weapon out.

She slaps him again. "Why are you so stupid?! Don't you listen to me at all?!"

He shakes his head. "You listen to me! I'm your commanding officer!"

"Yeah! And you just practically abandoned your men to go on some ridiculous rampage!" She shakes her head. "We just lost Foxtrot. Can't you think for just a second? We have 5 people left! That's way too few! Not to mention most of us are injured most of all you."

John looks down at himself, only now noticing all his injuries. He's sustained several bullet wounds to non-vital areas, scratches on his neck and face, along with an innumerable amount of cuts and bruises. But John doesn't feel a single one. His white hot burning rage makes him numb to the pain.

"Come in! Come in! This is Admiral Pearce! Any contingent commander in the missile base, come in!" John's comm says.

After a second of silence John turns on his comm. "Admiral Pearce, this is 1st Lieutenant John Shepard of the 21st contingent. What do you need Admiral?"

"Thank goodness!" The Admiral says sounding truly relieved. "Lieutenant we have a dire situation. The slavers are falling, but a few of them are launching the missile, their last act of defiance, I suppose. If the missile leaves the base you're in, it'll be moving far too quickly for any of us to stop it. Lieutenant I need you to stop that missile any way you-" The Admiral stops suddenly. "No! Shit! Lieutenant, that missile is launching now! I thought we had time! Do something right fucking now!"

The ground starts shaking violently and John runs over to the railing. He leans over it and looks at the missile rapidly rising towards him. It's huge and must have enough ordinance packed in it to level a countryside.

John has only one idea of how to stop it. He backs away from the railing, stripping weapons, deciding to keep his pistol.

He takes the grenades off his belt and quickly jury rigs them to the plastic explosive charge.

"John? I heard the transmission, please tell me you're not about to do what I think you're going to do." Sofia says looking at him in concern and defiance.

Opus, Jensen and Alderman all run into the room together. Their eyes snap from Sofia to John and back again.

"John what's going on?" Jensen asks.

"Missile's firing. I'm going to stop it." John says attaching the volatile explosive to his belt.

"Oh, don't even." Opus sighs.

"It's been good guys." John smiles. "I'll get out of this alright. I always do."

The top of the missile appears in their view.

"Get clear!" John shouts as he charges forward, knife in hand.

He jumps and lands his feet on the railing. John springboards off of it and he stabs his knife into the as hard as he can side and reaches for another hand hold. He takes the explosive off his belt and looks down at the thruster system, then up at the warhead.

John slaps the plastic explosive onto the side of the missile. He hopes that it's close enough to the bottom of the missile to throw it off course.

John pulls the pins on one of the grenades and he leaps off the side of the missile. He crashes into the wall of the missile base. He starts to fall but he rotates around and catches the edge of a level. He climbs up and over the railing and he lies on the ground a second. There's a huge explosion and the missile hits the side of the missile tube.

It falls apart and starts to fall back down the tube.

John curses and starts running down the tunnel directly in front of him. He doesn't know where he's going but he's trying to get the hell out of here.

A bunch of unarmed batarians in Black Bind armor, who are bound are lined up along a wall up ahead. They spot John running towards them and they start shouting at him for help.

John, instead takes out his pistol and shoots a few, leaving the rest to die in the explosion. He has no love for them. Why the hell would he? They showed no mercy, why should he?

There's a distant boom and the tunnel starts to shake so violently, John stumbles. The lights in the tunnel flicker and black out and John is bathed in darkness.

He keeps running though, charging down the dark tunnel. Some pieces of the ceiling fall off, but he keeps running. He spots a distant light ahead, a sure sign of a way out. Pieces of the ceiling fall onto John from above but he keeps running.

John sprints towards it, running like he's never done before. Finally he reaches the light, which turns out to be a collapsed part of the tunnel that leads to the surface. John clambers up the huge chunks of jagged rocks. He reaches the top and pulls himself out of the tunnel. He rolls over onto his back and he sighs in exhaustion.

The tunnel he was in suddenly collapses entirely next to him as some violent earthquake reaches him. John sits up quickly and looks around. Around him, the entire tunnel network of the batarian pirates starts to collapse into the ground. A massive sinkhole appears and a huge portion of the ground around it collapses into it. John sits right at the edge of it.

"John!" John hears Sofia say. "John please tell me you got out of there. John!"

John turns on his comm. "I'm alright. I'm sending you my coordinates." John does so and he switches to the Admiral's public comm channel. "Admiral Pearce. This is 1st Lieutenant John Shepard, reporting: Mission accomplished."

"Son, if you were here right now, I'd give you a drink and a cigar straight from my personal stash." John smirks. "Good work, we have your coordinates. We're coming to get you and your men. Rest, son. You did it."

John lets his arm fall to the side. He suddenly hears footsteps rushing toward him. Paranoid as he is, John points his pistol at the people. But it's just Sofia, Jensen, Alderman and Opus.

Sofia slides on her knees to him. "John! You're a fucking mad man!"

John smirks. "I know."

"Jesus Christ you're an idiot." Opus compliments sitting next to him.

"You should get a medal for that!" Alderman shouts ecstatic.

Jensen who is sitting a short ways away scoffs. "Or a court martial." Everyone, except John, looks at him confused.

"Jensen, what do you mean?" Sofia frowns at him.

Jensen smiles the most tired smile any of them had ever seen. "John Shepard. Butcher of Torfan. John, don't you realize? All the marines in the tunnels? They had captured all the batarians and the thralls and they had em just sitting around when the evacuation call sounded. If I had to guess, close to none of the marines took their prisoners with them. You just killed… oh… I'd say a good 3,500 people easy."

John is staring straight up at the sky.

After a long pause, in which everyone stares at him, waiting for a response from their hero, John says simply this: "I know."

Then he smiles and tears run from his eyes.

End of Part 4…

A/N: Congrats! You just finished Massive Shock 2: Infinite Mass's 60 page prologue! Applause for yourself! Please take a break from reading for a while, now. It's good for your health. The sun, that is. Seriously, go outside. I know you've read this all in one sitting (LIKE I SAID YOU SHOULDN'T), but no matter, go on, take a walk. Walk your dog. Make happy things happen.

Take a freaking break!

60 pages can be a lot of reading, so I'll stop talking now. But before I actually stop talking, I have a few business things to talk about.

So… Alright I have news that you guys should know but I don't know how to put it exactly right yet. So until I figure out how to say it right, I'll keep it to myself. But it's good news. At least for me. I mean it's a good thing, but it has long standing repercussions that'll actually interfere with my writing. For a long time.

I'll tell you guys what it is later, when I figure out how to say it right.

Massive Shock 2 will be posted on schedule, the first chapter being released on January 3, 2013. I'll warn you now that the first 2 chapters of Massive Shock 2 are pretty dull, because it's sort of just a canonical retelling of the first Citadel visit of Mass Effect 1, with a look into how Splicer's actions have changed the game. Literally.

Oh, and check out my profile and give me your input on the poll. I'd like the story to be more reader friendly, with the readers having more of a voice in the story's development. Help me make an educated decision and answer the poll on my profile if you have a minute to spare. Thanks.

But I'll let you get to that when you get to it.

Oh! One more thing before I turn you loose. All Massive Shock asked for this year for Christmas its birthday is a hug, a kiss, good company, and a review! Show your support of my personal project, that is one year old today, by telling me what you thought of the prologue!

So until next time.

Mockingbird79

Logging you out.