My first Mass Effect 2 Fanfic, so please be gentle. :) Nor is English my first language, so expect errors.
I do not own Mass Effect, Bioware does that.
Spoilers are very likely so read at your own risk.
"Something on our scanners."
EDI's voice made Rachel Shepard look up, determination steadfast on her face.
"Please tell me it's what we have been searching for," she said, as she used both hands over the console screen, moving around several pages of data about the planet and the current mission they were on.
"It is a distress call from a Cerberus research team. Must be the crashed ship that you've been ordered to find."
Shepard glanced at the pictures of the planet on the screen. It looked exotic enough with its red jungles and beaches but there was a warning in the data files about it. A Citadel recommendation to avoid it because it was filled with dangerous wildlife. Definitely not the best planet to crash on.
"Let's get this over with then," Shepard sighed. As much as she hated Cerberus, it was in her own interest to help them out for now. Besides, she did owe them her life. As much as she hated to admit it. Visiting dangerous locations was part of the job and frankly… it couldn't be much worse than Tuchanka or a Collector ship.
"Tell Thane and Garrus to get ready and meet me down at the hangar," she said as she stepped away from the console, heading towards the elevator to get her armor and weapons.
It wasn't long until she headed down to the hangar herself, armed and ready. As expected, the two alien team members were already by the shuttle. Garrus was checking through his sniper rifle, while Thane stood with his hands behind his back next to the shuttle. Both looked at her upon her approach but said nothing. These days she rarely went anywhere without them. She trusted their skill in battle, and prefered to have the two snipers watch her back more than anyone else. There was of course more personal reasons behind it too. Garrus was a close and trusted friend who saw her as more than just a Commander. Same went for Thane, although he was these days more than just a friend. His presence was soothing on her and she liked having him nearby. Their time together would be short as it was without her running off on missions constantly.
Shepard tilted her head to them both, a silent gesture for them to get ready and enter the shuttle. The usual norm was that she would brief them on the shuttle down to the brown-red planet. The shuttle took them down to one of the beaches right outside a massive jungle. Shepard jumped out first, looking around, before focusing straight ahead.
"Shepard, the crash site should be just 200 meters straight ahead," EDI's voice was heard in their communication channel.
"Got it," she replied, as she pulled out her assault rifle, making a gesture for the others. Thane and Garrus both took out their sniper rifles. Right now, she preferred it if everyone held their weapons ready, considering the planet's story.
With her in the lead, they started to move into the lush jungle they had landed at the edge of. The jungle was unlike those of Earth. Everything was either brown or dark red. The trees themselves were short with thin trunks, but they had massive, dark red leaves. There were no real signs of any bushes, just various sized trees. The ground was covered in brown sand and seedlings from the trees. In short the place was very omnious and quiet.
"Here I thought nothing could match the Collector's ship," Garrus muttered, as he looked to the sides casually. Shepard frowned, stepping to the side to put her gloved hand on a nearby trunk. Unlike trees she knew, these seemed to have their sap outside on the trunk. She removed her hand, with some effort since it had gotten stuck to the tree, before spotting the small insects and other plants stuck in the sap. Some of them seemed to be… half melted into it.
"As if the animals of this planet weren't dangerous enough, even the trees seems to be carnivorous," Shepard frowned, looking ahead of them. Despite the clusters of trees, there were small walked up paths heading in every direction. Probably used by animals. "Keep an eye out," she said out loud.
She walked on ahead, following the path that led right forward. Despite the terrain, those 200 meters were easy to cross but they ended in a cliffy area that contained no trees. Orange, sharp cliffs stretched upwards and according to the scanners, the crashed ship were just on the other side of them.
Climbing over them proved to take some effort but there were a lot of cracks to place feet and hands in so after just a few minutes, Shepard could peer over the top cliff. She could hear the rustling sound of Garrus and Thane reaching the top as well, all three looking down at the crashed ship. There was debris all over the area below them, although it looked as if the pilot had tried to steer the ship in between the cliffs. Whoever had been in it could very well have survived the crash. Yet there were no signs of anyone around them.
Shepard moved over the top off the cliff before sliding her way down to the ground, finding it a lot easier to head down than up. She went inside the ship, checking it out but finding nothing that stood out or could help them. Thane went to shut off the distress beacon, while Garrus looked around, using the scope of his sniper rifle to be able to get a better look.
"No signs of any survivors," Thane said, the ridges above his eyes moving into a frown.
"A lot can happen during one day," Garrus pointed out, as he lowered the weapon, looking over at the Commander.
"Scout out the area. Carefully," she ordered, not missing the questioning look. "There must be something around here."
What had to be over 30 minutes of looking around the ship and the very small sheltered valley the cliffs created, Shepard started to think that this was futile. They had found nothing, no blood, no signs of any survivors. No footsteps had left the ship area.
Just as they were about to give up, something actually did happen. A large shadow passed over them, large enough to put the entire valley under slight darkness for a few seconds. There was no sound and it had passed as quickly as it had arrived.
"What was that?" Garrus said in slight alarm, looking upwards, his keen eyes trying to spot whatever had caused the shadow but the sky was as clear as ever.
Something suddenly impacted with the cliffs they had climbed earlier, throwing pebbles and smaller rocks all over the place. Shepard winced, raising her arm over her eyes to shelter them from some pebbles, before she managed to gaze upwards, spotting the cause of it. The brown creature now perched on the cliffside was almost in the size of a Thresher maw, with large bone-like jaws filled with small but sharp teeth. A pair of long, thin wings that seemed to barely hold together served as front arms as it balanced on the rocks, peering down at them. A long tail swirled behind it, rimmed with sharp spikes.
Even though the bone armor didn't protect all of its body, the size alone told Shepard that it wasn't a creature they could fight, nor did she want to take the risk. The biggest problem was that she didn't know what it was. She had no way of knowing how it'd react to aggression or fleeing, or what could be its weakness. At least Krogans or Humans she knew the weaknesses of.
Her mind worked on a way out for which couldn't be more than a few seconds although it felt minutes. Seconds of thinking with no result. The creature let out a shrill roar, using its powerful hind legs to kick off from the cliff, tearing loose a large chunk of it. Instead of flying upwards though, it dove right down towards them, pulling up its legs in front of it.
Everyone moved to the side as the creature's feet slammed down among them, creating a cloud of dust on the impact. The cloud drove everyone to temporary blindness and coughing, while the creature's sharp growls was heard through it.
Shepard cursed in between coughing, feeling like an idiot for being so startled. Now they were separated by a cloud of dust, unable to see each other and with a raging, bloody dragon amongst them. She saw Thane's figure dash past the creature's back, before its long tail landed right behind him, causing him to tumble down to the ground, rolling several meters from the impact.
The dust was settling quickly though and before Shepard could reach Thane she saw him get up on his feet, his full attention on the creature. Just like her, he hadn't started shooting at it and she wasn't sure if it was cause she hadn't said anything or if he simply thought the same as her regarding the creature's reaction. Although it was quite obvious now it was hostile, despite their intentions. The creature lifted one foot and put it on the ship wreckage, before rolling it backwards towards them. It caught a surprising speed, forcing Shepard to dive to the side, rolling up to a kneeling position afterwards.
She winced as she spotted Garrus further off, equally surprised by the rolling ship. The creature had spotted him as well, jaws and throat trembling in the low, vibrant growl it let out, entirely focused on him. Shepard frowned; she had no intention of getting anyone killed while under her command and she swapped to her own sniper rifle, taking aim within moments.
Only the creature's head and chest seemed to be covered in the boney material so she took a shot to its thin but scaly throat. Scales were rendered asunder at the edge of the throat and it lifted its head, shrieking in surprise but otherwise it didn't seem particulary injured.
The instant afterwards, it faced her in the scope, red eyes looking for the source of its pain. Before Shepard could aim and pull the trigger again, a pair of strong arms grabbed her waist, pulling her to the side abruptly. She landed on her side, just as the creature's tail impacted to the ground where she had been kneeling earlier, stirring up more dust.
"Thanks," she mumbled, recognizing Thane as he released his grip around her waist and he nodded to her, though the concern was clear enough in his black eyes. How he always managed to spot every slighest danger in time amazed her really. Not that this was the time to be dazzled by the Drell's actions or curse the lack of her own, as she got back up on her feet. Thane pulled out his sniper rifle once she was steady and shot towards the creature, since it seemed to at least distract it.
"Get the hell out of there!" Shepard called towards Garrus. Now was his chance while the creature was being fired at.
"We're barely causing it damage," Thane said quietly, lowering the sniper rifle briefly to glance at Shepard. Shepard moved to activate the communications channel, gesturing for Thane to keep the creature occupied while Garrus made a run for it, which he was. She could see him dart between the fallen rocks to get out of its way, while Thane made sure to time every shot just as the creature thought the pain over and tried to resume its attacking position. Clearly it wasn't used to its prey fighting back.
"EDI, we have engaged one of the... larger native animal forms. We could use an extraction," Shepard shouted into the link, while keeping an eye out for the battle.
"Shepard, according to my scanners you're facing a Nuelthak. Highly aggressive and dangerous. A shuttle extraction would most likely result in disaster."
"This is already a disaster," Shepard frowned, though she suspected EDI was right. That thing would tear apart any shuttles trying to reach them.
"The Nuelthak have difficulties hunting in dense forest areas. I'd recommend trying to lose it in the foliage," EDI continued, before Shepard cut off the communication in order to focus on the situation.
"Right. We need to head back to the jungle," Shepard told Thane and Garrus who had just arrived, looking unhurt. "That thing can't follow us there."
"That means climbing back over the cliffs, Commander. Past it," Garrus said, the mandibles at his jaws flexing once.
"I know, Garrus," Shepard replied sharply, looking towards the Nuelthak. Thane was still shooting at it, not really aiming at any particular area anymore since the shots made no real damage to it. It still stood in the same spot, winching and roaring at the steady assault of weapon fire, especielly when shot in the face.
"It'll have to do. We'll have to climb and shoot at the same time," Shepard said, or rather ordered as she put her hand on Thane's sniper, lowering it to stop him from shooting again. One swift gesture later and they all three dashed back to the part of the cliffs they had climbed earlier. Thanks to the Nuelthak's landing, they were much smaller than before, making the climbing less difficult and slow.
They took turns in shooting, causing the Nuelthak to roar louder and louder, clearly seeing where they were going with this. The prey was escaping and it didn't like that. It unfolded its wings, roaring but stopped abruptly as one of Garrus's bullets hit it straight in its mouth. The effect was so strong that it reared back and turned to the side, coughing wildly towards the ground as if trying to spit up the foreign object and failing.
"Now! Go, go!" Shepard roared as she heaved herself up over a part of the cliff. A few precious seconds were spent on climbing as they reached the top, and Shepard turned around to shoot at the Nuelthak again, only to end up seeing it race towards them. It didn't need to climb the cliffs, one heave upwards with its wings and it landed literally on top of them. This close, Shepard could see the numerous claws along the wings' back, and the bone hard scales on its chest, hear its frustrated, loud breathing.
Shrieking loudly the Nuelthak swooped its left wing at them, knocking off both Garrus and Thane from the cliff, both tumbling down in a clutter of dust and pebbles, luckily in the direction of the forest though.
"Shit," Shepard growled through her teeth, lifting her assault rifle and letting lose a whole thermal clip into the belly of the creature. It only served to make it aware of her position, landing one foot way too close to Shepard, inches from her legs.
Back down at the ground Thane and Garrus came to, the latter getting up on his feet first.
"Shepard?" he called out, looking around before his attention came to the Nuelthak above. Realizing what was going on he started to shoot at the animal with his assault rifle while moving forward, even screaming something to get the Nuelthak's attention away from Shepard.
Shepard rolled out of the way from the Nuelthak's feet before heaving herself up to the next part of the cliff. The Nuelthak was again distracted by bullets, sliding a little and had to retort to using its wings as arms. Unfortunately the sliding meant that its head sided up along with Shepard. She paused, staring again into its eyes, this time only a meter away. Large reptile eyes, emotionless.
"Siha!" The voice woke her up from the almost trance as she looked ahead again, grabbing hold of the rock in front of her, digging her fingers down into the cracks. She spotted the shade of green in front of her and heard the nearby pistol empty clip after clip to keep the Nuelthak at bay while she climbed. Thane was moving, she could tell as much, both he and Garrus trying to attract the attention of the creature, trying to help her and putting themselves at risk.
Seeing its prey slip away, the Nuelthak roared in fury. The wings moved forward with uncanny speed as the whole bulk of muscle and bone threw itself forward. Shepard felt it as slow motion as one of the wings lashed out towards Thane, at the same time as the Nuelthak's jaws locked around her chest and waist. She wasn't sure what was worse, the crushing force of the teeth and jaws around her or Thane falling backwards, his blood splitting the air after the wings' course.
"Thane!" she cried out, moving her hands to the edge of the jaw that was keeping her in place in a desperate attempt to get close, hammering at its skin. The Nuelthak lifted its head, the growling from its throat making Shepard's head vibrate, causing her to grimace. She spotted Garrus on his way up, the shock on his face too clear with his eyes wide open.
"Help him," Shepard called to the turian, still caring little for her own situation, although she was still punching the Nuelthak's jaws. Part of her was surprised it hadn't just clipped her in two already. Garrus hesitated, though he didn't need to act on it since Thane was moving on his own.
The Drell moved to a sitting position, left hand clutched over his chest. He grimaced as he stood up, the ridges in his face clenched together by pain before he dropped his hand and reached for his pistol instead, again firing at the Nuelthak with his eyes clenched together in focus and pain. His chest had a broad, bleeding gash across it. The Nuelthak let out a sharp growl but refused to drop Shepard to the ground. Instead it kicked off from the cliff, wings flapping unsteadily before flying off.
Garrus's mandibles were clutched to his cheek in tension, as he tried to aim after it but at this distance he could very well end up hitting Shepard. With an anxious expression he lowered the weapon, not sure he could believe what had just happened.
"Damn!" he exclaimed suddenly, turning to Thane as he sheathed the weapon. He linked to the Normandy via the com, glancing at Thane as he did so; the Drell had returned his hand to the wound on his chest. Telling the rest of the Normandy that Shepard was as good as dead wasn't going to be easy. It just wasn't possible to imagine her going down like this. Judgning by the expression on Thane's face, he didn't believe it possible either, as he gazed towards where the Nuelthak had disappeared.
Well, that's part one! Obviously enough the Nualthak doesn't exist in ME, hope it wasn't a too silly creature. .