Battle of Earth, London.
He loved the smell of smoke, explosives, ozone and blood or the in other words, the smell of battle, gunfire, war cries and explosions being his favorite sounds. The feel of rubble and corpse being smothered under his feet made him lust to add another corpse. His blood quivered with anxiety for his next challenger to arrive. All seemed to be slowed as he waited for something to kill. Yet he could not help but marvel at the sight before him.
Krogan beating and shooting away at Reaper abominations, the glorious melee that followed as husks and their like were swept away by the raw strength of the krogan. Heads exploding into red mist from sniper fire, the salarians might be cowards, but they're good snipers. Then rumble of explosion fired by the Alliance armored company just made this heaven for Grunt.
He took one bold step off the heap of cannibal corpse he was standing on, as if he had discovered new land to conquer, a very pleasing concept to Grunt. He basked in magnificent of his warriors. His warriors, he could not be more proud of Aralakh Company. He had dreamt of a battle like this for so long and to finally have it happen. For Grunt, it was utter ecstasy.
He saw his next opponent, six husks, a major disappointment compared to what else he had fought today. He charged in, enjoying the scent of battle blowing across his face. He fired at closet one with his eviscerator, leaving a hole in its chest where grayish slime began to leak and flexible tubes now hanged.
He swung his arm out, hitting two husks like a oversized club, sending them flying into the air, to only have their skulls crush on landing. Their disgusting muck of what use to be a brain painting a fresh coat of gore onto the ruins. What this building once was now impossible to tell, as the roof and most of the walls were gone. And it was blanketed with piece of remains of what usef to be living creatures. Now they were made into abominations by the Reapers.
He did same with two more husks, sweeping them away like how a child tosses his toys when he is no longer interested. Leaving the last one alone, still charging at him as it could not consider the foolishness of its action any more, just a puppet to the Reapers. Grunt head butted this one, causing it to slam it the ground in front of him, snapping its back with a satisfying pop. However this was only momentaneous satisfaction as his blood was already asking for more, and he would never consider denying it.
He looked for new enemies. The closest he saw were two marauders who were doing a poor job of hitting the rampaging krogan in front of them. However they had their backs to him and to kill them this way would be too easy, so he shot in between them to get their attention, which it most certainly did. They peppered his armor with their rapid fire, but this only led to Grunt chuckling as he heard the sound of shots being deflected by his armor. He almost pitied them, almost.
He began running at them, spending a shot at point blank at ones face. Leaving nothing but empty space as the shotgun left nothing of its head. He smashed into the other one like a full speeding mako, causing it to slam into the wall behind it, giving the wall what Grunt would consider a beautiful coat of blue blood on the wall behind it.
He now reached for heat sinks on his belt, but to only find there were now more heat sinks. He was out of ammo. He felt inconvenience as something as simple as ammo stepped on his parade. He brought more ammo then he ever carried before for this battle and he saw it as a testament to his might to have killed so many things to use up all his ammo.
He grabbed for the phaeston the marauder he just killed was carrying. He tested in on some unlucky cannibal who was just the closest thing for Grunt to unload a clip into. By doing so, littering it with holes as its flesh and armor collapsed at the repeated beating it was receiving from over eager Krogan wanting to test a new toy. It was nothing to his assault rifle he brought into this battle, but that gun was currently logged deep into the back side of a brute, so it was unavailable.
He then felt something trying to scrabble unto his hump, like a small child. Yet this must have had greater claws as it made the sound of chalk on black board trying to scratch his armor. He reached behind him to see what the pest was. A puny husk had apparently jumped on his back but did not know what do beside scratch, making a terrible nuisance for Grunt. He threw on to ground hard enough to kill, as horrible crack of bones braking indicated. However Grunt did not stop there. He raised his foot and slammed it down as hard he could on poor the creature's skull, with only a fine paste and broken bone being the only evidence there was ever a head there.
Then a sound caught his attention over the cacophony of war. Gunshots, but not ordinary guns, ravager guns, he could recognize their distinctive sound from anywhere and sent a chill of excitement through him. A chance to face the old enemy was impossible to resist. He saw them, three on top of a large pile of rubble. It was a quite a distance away, but that only meant to Grunt he had to start running now. He cast aside enemies and sent them flying as he charged towards the ravagers, their attention on the other krogan below. It made impact easier as he hit the side of the one on the right. He grabbed its gun and twisted around the front of it, snapping it off with the sound tearing flesh and metal. He continued with his spin, now using its momentum to add force to the end of the ravager's gun he was wielding like a club. He curved it to hit under side of the second ravager, popping bloated pustule and ramming it back from the inside. He kicked that one aside, knocking over the recently made corpse. The last one tried to turn to meet the new found threat, but was too late as it just ran itself into the thick skull of a rampaging krogan. Grunt's head butt all but rendering the ravager helpless, as it skull was crushed, like so many others today.
He stood on top of his recently conquered hill, letting the acid of the ravager's blood burn his armored feet. It gave a view of the battle of krogan and Reaper abomination that would leave most flabbergasted. However Grunt only smile as he saw Krogan rip limbs of the abominations and reduce them into nothing more than a nuance. He could not help but feel joy at the scene before him.
Then suddenly he felt tugged away as something slammed into him. Air was rushing across his face much faster than it should. His feet were not touching the ground and a great pressure could be felt around his abdomen. He looked to down to see what could be causing this to find a giant claw around him. And attached to that claw was one of those mockeries of krogans that the Reapers made. He tried to wrestle out but could not. He tried to reach for his gun and found nothing. He saw where the brute's destination was and realized the urgency of his situation. He was headed for a solid concrete wall that would be thick enough not to crash through. It was going to smash him into the wall in the hopes of killing him. This could not happen. He struggled to find a way out, but all seemed for not. He could head butt him for he was too far. There was nothing to grab on it to cause it pain. It seemed this was the courier of his death and a wall his death. This could not be, this was not a proud death of warrior. Helpless in the arms of your enemy, waiting for death, he could not comprehend this.
Then suddenly something was coming this way. It was big and red, like a great tidal wave. What was this wave and what it do to them he wondered. And as it swept of over him he found himself in mid air as he thrown into the air, as his focus for all his hate in last couple of second was reduce to dust. He hit the ground and rolled for a bit. He finally stop once coming in contact of what must have been vending machine, as cold liquids started pouring over him. He then looked up to find once great tower of metal and destruction fall. He felt pride now for his battle master.
It had all gone to hell or at least that's what Jacob Taylor thought. The left flank had fallen, leaving Shepard the brunt of giant wave of Reaper creatures. That is if he wasn't dead already. He seen it from the distance. Harbinger came down like a mad god and started blasting. He couldn't see what he was shooting at, but it was hard for him to imagine anything surviving such a creature's wrath. Although if anyone could survive it, it would be Shepard and just by judging him by his time with him, it seem like nothing could stop him.
He just hoped Shepard could pull it off because things were bad over here. Although a lot of the big abomination moved over towards Shepard's position, that didn't mean his location was not covered in husks. And all the forces here were dead too. It was just him, a squad of Alliance marines holding out in a pub, and some vanguard he hadn't seen for awhile. He guessed he finally died too.
He was currently at the edge of a rather deep crater made by one of those phalanx missiles going off when the Reaper guarding the beam shot it. He looked down at the little pub the marines were holed up in to see dozens of husks charging at it. Limbs flying as shots were sprayed into the mass of what once been people. From his experiences he knew they wouldn't last if some heat didn't come off them.
He jumped out of the crater and starting charging at the blob of claws and flesh machine combinations, ignoring the pain from the shot in his shoulder as he went. He checked his belt to find what he was looking for. "Last one left" he mumbled to no one in particular.
He pull the pin and threw the lift grenade as hard he could into the largest group of husk he could find. With a boom, two dozen or more husk were lifted up into the air as if they were dust. Then they fell, making splat sound as wet gore made contact with the ground. He smiled at his work.
As he turned his head to right to see if more husks were coming, he saw something worse. Five marauders came strolling in unopposed, taking position in a leveled building, nothing more than concrete and rebar rubble.
He quickly came to the conclusion if they were allowed to take position; the marines would be done for. The marauders could launch surprising fire, keeping the marines pin and allowing the husk to creep up for the kill. He had seen enough death today and wanted not more. He had to stop those marauders. What were the chances that those men had love ones waiting for them, maybe even children and spouses eagerly waiting for their arrival. Not one more family will be ruined on his watch.
He whipped out his pistol and put two shots in one of the marauder's head, collapsing its shield. He quickly threw a biotic pull while ducking for cover, the turret of a mako being the nearest thing. This drew the attention of the marauders and they start firing at ruin piece of tank, creating pinging sounds as metal met metal. He quickly looked up to see the marauder who shields he broke floating in the air harmlessly. He quickly ended it with a few shots.
He stood up from his cover to place a few more shots with his pistol, when he heard a disturbing sound that every solider feared, the clicking of no ammo. His barriers flared with incoming shots and he quickly took cover again. He pulled out his shotgun and made a plan that could only be called foolish at best.
He charged into them, hoping his barrier would hold. It was only a few meters, but it only took one bullet to knock him out. His barriers flash at constant stream of bullets. He tried to reform it with all his concentration, but it was fading. However he could see he was almost there. Then it finally broke, but it was too late for the closest marauder as Jacob put the barrel of his shotgun through its shield fired within the shield, creating a vast hole in it's abdomen. It crumbled to it's knees and then face first into the ground.
The next one tried to smack him with the butt of its gun, but he was a little quicker. He raised his foot and brought it down on its knee, giving Jacob a reassuring crack of bone snapping. It buckled forward, about to fall head first when Jacob grabbed its arm with his new found momentum, he spin it around him and finally throwing it at its nearest comrade, both crumbling in pile of limbs. He fired shots from his shotgun at them until he was satisfied that they were dead.
He turned to meet the final one, to only find gun moments from his face and this time he did not have time to react. So he just looked into the glowing eyes of what might have been a proud turian once. However this stare did not last long as the things head then evaporated into red mist and the sound of a sniper shot. He turned to see where it came from and saw one of the marines holding a sniper in one hand and giving him a thumbs up in the other. The thumbs turned into pointing as the marine yelled out "banshee".
Although that was not enough for Jacob as felt something slash across his back. He fell to his knees and as he fell face first into the dirt, something strange happened. He saw a red wave in the distance and next thing he knew it washed over him.
He could not feel his legs and he could feel a warm torrent go down his back. "Is this it, am I going to die here" he asked himself. He answered back no. He could not die here. He had to return to Bryn and his child. He would not abandon them now, not ever. He had to do better than his own father. He would not
leave his child alone with all the blights in the world. His last thought before unconsciousness was him holding a new born baby in his arm.
"Rally to me students, let's drive these bastards back" Jack hated everything that wasn't one of her students right now. The marines they were sent with turned out to be all a bunch of pussies and were either running for their lives or dead. The only allies, which were of use to her, were some vorcha she saw running around from time to time. However they could only serve distraction at best, worst they lure enemy to them because of drawing attention too close.
And now her students were dying. She was seeing them fall around her. It started out all right. They were tearing the monsters apart and with such enthusiasm that it made her heart swoon with pride. Then Jezebel's head was blown apart and then Tommy got smashed by one of the big ugly ones that look like a krogan. They were being swatted like flies around her and no matter how much she tried, they were dying.
One by one her students came running towards her, entering the little ruined coffee shop she was now holding up in. She did a head count as quick she could so she could enter the fight and hopefully have to monster shot at something that could handle them.
When she was done she could only count eight students. "How could this of happen?" she wondered. She had over two dozen students before hand and now only eight. However an answer did jump into her mind, and more specifically a name.
"Shepard" she growled. If it were not for his suggestion, they would be helping setting up barriers and providing support rather be in the front lines of things. Like she originally thought and now that she listened to his suggestion her students were dying. She should have listened to her instincts.
Now the only thing she had or even cared for was dissolving in front of her. What else did she have beside these students? She had no family, nowhere else to go. She would just end up in the same place Shepard had found her most likely. Her students accept her and she had felt comfortable around them and a need to protect them. "Damn, why this had to be so complicated?" she asked herself, not really sure what these feeling were. Although she knew one thing, this feeling felt right and she had to protect her students.
She launch a biotic pull that pulled two of those batarians things and as soon as she did, a student named Vlad threw a biotix throw to send them flying. She loved it, how they all worked together as one giant wrecking ball. It only amplified that warm feeling she got whenever she killed something.
It was also nice to see Vlad working so well in the team now. He proved to be the hardest for her to reach out to. He came from some aristocratic family in Russia and was stubborn, arrogant and selfish. She considered killing him on several occasions, but she later found a weak spot. He was actually very ashamed of his biotic powers because his family didn't approve and disowned him. After a very extensive talk, he came around to see his power as blessing and she turned him in quite a deviant to his old self, something she was proud of.
"Hey look, it's Rodriguez" out of the rubble and smoke Rodriguez came running like a bat out of hell. She was covered in blood and unarmed. It also appeared she was holding on to her side like she was wounded and a limp became noticeable too.
Then what was chasing after her made itself know from the smoke. A great brute came charging at an even greater pace. And as if time slowed down, it picked up Rodriguez with it's great claw and slammed her down to the ground and let go. It was done and it took little notice before moving it attention to crowd of biotics hiding in the coffee shop.
Jack felt her blood boil with rage at the site and with battle cry that would terrify even a banshee, she charged beast. The beast unaware of the increasing blue glow around the anorexic looking woman, it charged her as well. A rage equal to when she originally broke out of prison was building within her; she couldn't stand these deaths of those she cared about, the first people she ever cared about. And just before they met for furious destruction, Jack slide under the beast and with a perfect view of it's armored belly. Yet armor did not matter as the biotic potential now riveting in the young woman's fist became truly remarkable. As fist met armor, a boom rivaling that of artillery shells going off was released. The brute was sent flying into the distance, only to be utterly destroyed in it's landing a few blocks away.
With the brute of the way, Jack took her side beside her dying student, not wishing to accept reality. She set up a barrier around them, muting the sound of screaming, gunfire and explosions around them.
If Vlad was her hardest student, than Rodriguez was her easiest. Originally she hated her for her upbeat attitude and gift for biotics. She was just such a goody two shoes it disgusted her. She teased her out of spite, but yet she would always bounce back with something clever. And she was the first to show trust in her and truly listen to her advice. To say the least, she had warmed up to Rodriguez and to say she was one of her favorite students would not have been too far from the truth.
She cursed Shepard's name for toying with her emotions, for making her confused, for working with Cerberus and now for getting her students kill as a red wave washed over her.
He had to admit this was the absolutely the most brutal fight he had ever been in. It was even worse when he had to break out off that batarian prison. He went into this with bunch of tanks and apparently green ass marines, but now only he stood before countless hoards of husks, marauders and cannibals. It seemed like all the Reapers were doing everything but sending themselves to kill him. He would have felt a little honored to be held at such regard that they had to send so much to kill him, but he was too tired for that right now.
At least he had Jessie with him. He really hoped that salarian was still alive so he could thank him more properly, and it was always funny to see salarians drunk. Intoxicating salarians would have to wait though as currently a bunch of abomination with only his death on their minds were chasing him.
Zaeed climbed a flight of stone steps in what appeared to be a plaza. The marble used its construction would have been quite impressive if it was not covered in blood, ash and bullet holes. There was a large slab of black stone, taller than a person and seemed to have the names of people on it. If he had to guess it was some sort if memorial, but right now it look like a damn good piece of cover.
As he took cover behind it, a chorus of bullets hitting marbled, announcing danger was a foot. He heard feet clawing their way up the steps and Zaeed had not illusions on to who it would be. He fired some pot shots in the direction he just came from and went back behind the memorial. He was assured destruction followed by the sounds of flesh ripping and being eviscerated as devastation was brought to the body. But he heard a set of feet to close to his position. He took aim for where his opponents head was going to be with the butt of Jessie and swung. He was correct as Jessie's butt slammed straight into the lower jaw of husk, crushing its head against the butt of the gun and the side of the memorial. Zaeed quickly took cover again.
He had always figured he go out in much more spectacular way then this. It didn't look there was much hope for him as it just seemed more kept coming. Gunned down in the streets of London was not how he figured he would go. He had thought about buying a ship and loading it with explosives and driving it to Omega as a way to go out, this seemed meager by comparison.
He peeked out and quickly aimed at one of those batarian things. He fired four shots, but did not get to enjoy view of armor be ripped of its face followed by the last two bullets reducing its face to something similar to poor shelters cafeteria food.
He didn't want get bunkered down where he was because it meant someone was more likely to flank him. He saw a waist high marble wall and made a sprint for it. However it his haste he didn't see the spot was occupied. A cannibal got up in front of him and released a torrent of bullets that broke his shield and grazed his left arm, rending the armor there and causing a trickle of blood to flow. Zaeed made it pay in blood for the transgression by firing Jessie at it until she over heated, reducing the cannibal to nothing of its mutated form.
He hoped over the wall and took position there only to find of some poor marine body there. Zaeed decided this was a perfect time to resupply and found some unused frag grenades and a mantis sniper with half a clip. He had lost his own sniper when it cracked in half when he used it like club on some Reaper turian things head. He also wasn't a fan of frag grenades himself, but he was lacking in his preferred inferno grenades.
However he heard behind him more shuffling of feet. Forty blue shiny eyes returned his gaze as two dozen husks were now charging towards him, mere seconds from impact. And to further cement his approaching doom, a hurricane of bullets started hitting his cover. From the sound of the guns firing, he estimated over a dozen individuals shooting at him. He made his plan of action in moments.
He threw three frag grenades he just recovered at the location for which the gun fire was coming from. The sound of the grenade's detonation signaled to him to move; he had spotted what looked like local business, maybe a restaurant, for which he could run to and get some breathing room.
He started to run, ignoring the burning of lactic acid in his legs from all the running he had done today. Just as he reached the door to the building he turned around and fired Jessie relentlessly at the husks. One by one they were torn done as limbs gave way to the momentum of the bullets, being knocked back and even removed completely in some occasion. Jessie released a furry Zaeed had never seen from the old girl. She should have overheated twice over by now. Out of worry for the antique gun he stopped firing ever so briefly. One husk remained and as Zaeed turn to meet the threat. When he pulled the trigger on the gun that made him the fierce man today, he heard a sound that he never wanted to hear again. He listen cry/hiss whispered from his gun, instead of the bark of destruction followed by a deadly rain of bullets. Nothing was coming out of Jessie's barrel no matter how hard he pressed the trigger. He started uttering "no no no" repeatedly, as if it were chant to make the unpleasant truth go away. Jessie had died once again.
The husk was in mid air at leap for Zaeed. It slashed at Zaeed's right arm, at the section without armor. Pain fountain threw his arm as the blood did in the air. He wanted to look his killer in the eye before he died. But as turned to look at the husk, something strange happened. It a matter of moments the creature of flesh and machine, ready give him the final blow, was reduce to ash.
Zaeed brain tried to process everything that had just happened. His body felt hot with emotions and weary. At one moment he was sad, but then was confused why he was not dead. It then hit him like lighting. "He did it, he actually did it. The lucky bastard actually pulled it off. At the realization, his confusion turned to laughter. He laughed and laughed as of the universes funniest joke was told to him. The ache of his joints finally gave as he collapsed into a pile of rubble. He only stopped laughing to enter a well deserved deep sleep, in the heart of London, in a pile of rocks.
Author's Note: I have started this project a while ago to bring peace to my weary soul that has had a shadow of depression over it ever sense I first got to the ending of Mass Effect 3. I tried to analyze it to bring sense of it and closure, but that did not work. So I turn to a place I never thought I would turn to, fanfiction. There I was given some peace for a while by reading some better ending stories featuring MShep/Tali in them. But that only worked for so long. Later I began to become annoyed with everyone else's depiction of Shepard. I wanted my own Shepard to have his own story. I had been imaging it for months now and now I am writing it. Be smart with your critics and give me lots of them as I know my writing is not perfect. Hell, this is my first time writing anything like this. I am more use to writing research papers and arguing over a thesis and evidence. So this also a test in writing style and whether I can write at all, so I might change writing style from time to time. Also I will be changing point of view a lot through the story and might write in some OCs. Enjoy the rest.