DESTROYER
CHAPTER 1: No Hope
"Until the fleets return, you are the last line of defense. The Earth is ours! And if they want it they'll have to go through us to get it." - Admiral David Anderson
The shuttle was cramped. Cold. Like a night wind conjured by death himself. it was seclusion. From the chaos just inches away. And that chaos was Earth. A few months ago they came. The Reapers. Arriving from the black reaches of space like demons. They had decimated Earth with sheer force. No tactics. No strategy. Just unrelenting power that most of us could only dream of. People are told Earth fell in a few days. Wrong. It fell in a matter of hours. We lie to give people hope. Hope for a future we may not have anymore.
I gaze around at the team in the shuttle. Four of us. All N7's. Trained to be the best. Trained to succeed where all others fail. Except against these monsters. If someone had to ask me now "How do I beat the Reapers?" I'd respond with "You don't. You keep fighting and they keep coming until you run out of ammo". The warriors I see around me are clad in our trademark black with the red stripe running down their left shoulder.
I look down to the seat in front of me. Kathy sits there, cradling and inspecting her Mantis rifle. I immediately search for my rifle on instinct. I feel out. The Typhoon machine gun is still strapped to my back. I notice the upward gazes of a few of my comrades then back to their own thoughts. One gaze I follow. David. He stands opposite me in the shuttle. He looks to the door like he's prepared to hurl himself out of it. I can't blame him. He'd die on impact. But thats the easy way out. We're not allowed that pleasure. That leads my gaze to Ray. He sits, holding that picture of his wife and kids in his hands like always. When the Reapers came they were on a different continent. he never got word from them. Part of me wants to tell him that war is war and we all lose someone. He'd probably chop me up with that huge sword strapped to his back.
I hear the enigines begin to slow descending into an idle hum. Thats our que. I don't even wait for the pilots good luck. I just pop the door and leap out. The grounds a foot below us. I land with a metal thud. I'm followed by two, much softer footsteps and another metallic clank. I pull the Typhoon off of my back, the weapon hums and clicks as it extends into shape. I check the immediate area. A street. Alliance vehicles everywhere. Desolate and burned. Rubble lines the cross road ahead like a wall around a slaughterhouse. No bodies because the reapers will have taken them already.
I signal to the team, and the shuttle takes off. A moment passes then it's gone. If I was flying that I'd be out of this area too. It's a hell hole. I begin to walk forward as does the team. Ray walks just ahead of me holding a Pirahna shotgun. That thing looks even meaner with the scars he gives it. He rushes into cover behind a divider between the two lanes of traffic. I take up position behind an alliance barricade, probably set up when the Reapers arrived, and turn around. David and Kathy are behind a similar barricade a little way down the street. Kathy moves her head up over the cover like a predator observing prey. I give her the nod.
She ducks back in and David comes out. He walks up next to me taking cover alongside me. Then I look over to Ray. He looks out into the crossroads. He nods. David begins walking toward him. I see him run a little at then end. Desperate to feel the warmth of cover. I hear a small collision between the cover I'm in and Kathy. I notice the collapsed section of a building and see it making a convienent ramp up to higher ground. A vantage point where she can pick off Reapers with her eagle like vision. I gesture in that direction. She understands and goes. Then I whistle to the warriors in front of me. They get the message. They back out of cover. Ray facing forwards, David facing back. Covering every angle with his Vindicator.
I see them disappear up the ramp. I open up my omni-tool and press the first button on the wheel. My visor flashes from blue to red. Devastator mode. I feel safer. My shields shatter, then power up once more. Stronger. My hands lock to the Typhoon. it's not going to leave my grip. I walk up to the cross roads and look out into it. The rubble partially blocking my view causes me to vault the pillars infront of me. I look to my left. A bridge left suprisingly intact except for its front wall being ripped open like something tried to claw it's way in. I already know what did that. Brutes. But in the opening I see the three Soldiers I came here with. Kathy is set up on the bridge, proned and with her bipod deployed. She looks down her sights towards me. Ray and David stand on either side, all of them waiting for something to happen. Waiting for me.
Then we heard it. The metallic screech of a billion souls pleading for death. Coming our way. I turn away from the bridge. The street has collapsed there and in the ditch that is left by it they run. At us. Husks. Humans converted to machines. I hate this part.
"Come and get me!"