The mission had gone completely wrong. PFC Jamie Matthews had been on a mission with Badger Squad to destroy a Strogg munitions facility, when him and his squad were ambushed by them during the infiltration. Half of the squad was killed, while the other half was captured, including him. He had heard scary things about the Stroggification Facilities, things too horrible to describe. He was frightened beyond belief. He prayed silently to himself, thinking about his parents.

During the initial invasion of Earth by the Strogg, my neighborhood was hit hard by the Strogg. I was the only survivor. When I came of age, I joined the SMC in hopes of getting revenge against the Strogg bastards who killed my family. This was supposed to be my first combat mission, but it was cut short. Turns out my wish was going to be less than successful, considering I was going to become what I had come here to kill. Irony is a bitch.

I couldn't tell who else had been captured. My vision was too blurred to see anything of detail, but I could tell at least three other men in my squad were captured. I blacked out not soon after.

When I woke up, I was half-naked on what looked like an assembly line. I was on some sort of medical rig, unable to move even though I was not strapped down. They must have paralyzed me. I came up to a big machine, which someone was in at the moment. When the machine was finished, there was no harm done to the man in front of me from what I could tell.

I was moved into the machine, bracing for the worst. The machine closed in on me, and scanned me with some sort of medical lasers. I was relived when I emerged from the machine unharmed, and continued on the assembly line. I saw the next stop on my trip wasn't going to be nearly as painless as the last one.

The next station was stabbing people in the chest with a giant hypodermic needle.

"Jesus Christ, help me." I thought to myself.

After the person in front of me received his injections, I was moved into position.

"Oh dear god..."

The needle plunged into my chest, as I yelled at the top of my lungs. It felt as if someone had just shot me for a moment, then the pain dissipated at the steroids started taking affect. I knew the pain was still there as blood poured out of the wound in my chest. And after that painful experience, I was moved along the line.

The next station looked even more horrifying than the last one. A giant saw blade was cutting off people's legs. Cutting off their fucking legs.

"Oh god, someone please help me!" I yelled with no avail.

As the person in front of me was finished with his forced amputation, I moved up on the line.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" I yelled as the blade descended on my legs. The pain I experienced next too extreme to describe. It was the worst pain I had ever suffered in my life. As my legs were cut off, they were at the same time seared shut to stop the bleeding. I blacked out mere seconds later.

When I woke up, I looked at where my legs were supposed to be and felt like I was going to throw up. I was approaching a machine slamming down on a man's chest and pinning him with a giant spike. Once again, it was my turn.

When I was in position, a set of mechanical arms put cybernetic limbs in place of my old legs, then the metal slab slammed down on my body, and a big spike welded down multiple vectors of the slab, feeling like a million bees were stinging me in the same place with each weld.

When the slab lifted, I saw that I had a Strogg hard suit fused to my body. I looked at my hands, seeing them filled with cybernetics and armor. I could feel my "new" legs now, shaking them slightly. It was both cool and horrifying at the same time, seeing my limbs replaced with this shit. It reminded me of those old sci-fi movies I used to watch as a kid, except it was the real thing and hurt like hell.

The next stop on the ride was a big metal rod with a red light on it stabbing people in the forehead.

I was up next.

I was moved into position as my head was restrained to keep me from fighting. The rod got closer and closer, and then quickly stabbed me in the forehead. I felt like my brain was on fire for a split second, then the pain vanished. I started seeing the text on the control panels in a language I could understand, and I could understand the Strogg voice over the intercom.

"What the fuuuuuccckkkk..." I thought as I passed out once more.

When I woke back up, I was suspended in a tank of gel-like substance. I still couldn't move, but I could see what was going on. A giant device was scanning the tanks. When the device scanned the tanks, the occupant stopped struggling and went limp.

That must be the final phase of the trip.

I prayed silently to myself one more time, thinking about my parents one last-

And like that, the power suddenly failed. Everything went dark.

WARNING. POWER FAILURE DETECTED. I heard the facility repeat over and over. I realized that I suddenly could move again. I wasn't going to wait around for the power to restart, so I came up with a plan.

I bashed the tank over and over again with my knee until the glass finally broke open. The gel spilled out as I made the hole bigger, and I crashed onto the floor, coughing up whatever the fuck that stuff was. When I regained my composure, and looked around the room. I could see nothing. It was at that moment, I felt a tingling sensation in my head, and then I could see in the dark.

"Wow, they must have given me some kind of night vision." I thought as I looked around the room.

I was surprised when I heard a loud SMASH. I turned to the source of the sound, and saw someone else had broken out of their tube. It was then I remembered there were three more men with me. I ran over to him, checking to make sure he was OK.

"Hey! Are you alright?" I asked.

"Yeah, *COUGH**COUGH* I'm fine. Who are you?" He asked in a gruff voice.

"PFC Jamie Matthews. Who are you?" I asked quickly.

"Jamie? It's me! Ricky! Ricky Stone!" He yelled.

"Wow, they got you, Ricky? I thought they killed you!" I said, perplexed.

"Yeah, they caught me trying to hack a door to you guys after they cut us off. I never saw them coming." He said with a hint of shame in his voice.

"Can you see?" I asked.

"Yeah, I can now. I have some sort of night vision." He told me.

"Same here." I said as he turned to look at me. We both jumped when we saw each other. Ricky was filled with plugs and hoses, and he had been covered in the same hard suit that I was in.

"I looked like shit too, don't I?" He asked.

"You look like shit, man." I said with humor in my voice.

"Right back at you." He said, rubbing the back of his neck

"Come on, let's see who's left." I said, directing my attention to the two tanks behind us. We found CPL Joe Peterson and Tech Kiva Hamilton were still suspended in their tanks. We broke them out of their tanks and helped revive them.

"Uhh, someone please tell me I just have a nasty hangover or something..." Kiva asked, clutching her forehead.

"Sorry, Kiva. As much as I wish none of that happened, it did." I responded with sadness in my voice.

"Damn. So I'm guessing I look as ugly as you right now?" She asked, staring at me.

"Yep, pretty much." I replied dryly. Damn, she used to be beautiful, now her hair is gone and she's filled with cybernetics. Her armor was slightly different, probably to accommodate her physiology. Fucking Strogg.

"Did anyone else survive?" Joe asked the three of us. He looked like the rest of us, except he was taller than all of us by a head.

"No, we were the only ones I saw being dragged away." I responded sadly. "I think the rest of the squad is dead."

"A squad of 20 heavily armed SMC marines were cut down to four remaining half-stroggified members? This really sucks." He said, slumping against a wall. "Everyone is dead, even the Sarge. Dammit!" He yelled, punching the floor.

"Hey, don't give up hope now! We need to get out of here! The Strogg are going to be here soon. We need to find some weapons, and find away out of here." I said confidently.

"Even if we make it out of here, we're just going to get shot by our fellow marines if they see us." He replied dryly.

"Well, unless you want to hang around here and get captured by the Strogg again, I suggest we get moving." I said, holding out my hand to him.

"Yeah, your right. Lets go. Jamie, you take the lead. I'm not leadership material." He said, grabbing my hand as I hoisted him up. Just like that, the power came back on.

NEUROSIGHT REGISTRATION DISRUPTED. DEPLOYING TACTICAL UNITS." The intercom bellowed.

"Come on, we need to find some weapons!" I yelled as we ran to the door. I was surprised to see it open for us. Kiva was ready to hack it, but she didn't need to now. We must be registered in their system. We left the room, and entered the Stroggification Facility.

...

We came into one room, to find five marines dead.

"They must have been sent here to disrupt this facility. They have some good gear on them." Ricky said, looking over their corpses.

"Look at this! They found one of those Hyperblasters!" I said, grabbing the rifle, finding out the thing weighs a ton. I decided to give it to Joe, since he was the strongest.

"Thanks!" He said, hefting the weapon with little effort.

I found a Railgun with four extra clips it and a blaster. Ricky found a shotgun with a clip upgrade, and took two grenades. Kiva picked up a Machine Gun and six mags to go with it, along with a PDA. In addition to his Hyperblaster, Joe grabbed a Gauntlet from the backpack of one of the soldiers. The relative silence in the room was broken when Kiva yelled "Dammit!" at the top of her lungs.

"What's the matter?" Ricky asked her.

"I can't connect to the Network with my login! I've entered my ID five times, and I still can't get on!" She yelled, clenching her fist. "The Stroggification process must have fucked up my bio signature!"

"Wait, they modified us genetically too? Let me see that thing!" I said, grabbing the PDA and entering my ID.

"Dammit! I can't log on ether!" I yelled, handing the PDA back to Kiva.

"Come on. Maybe we can access the Strogg network from a terminal." Kiva said.

"Sounds like a plan." I said as we took off.

Author's Notes: This is a secondary story I'm writing to practice writing combat sections. The next few chapters will be heavy on combat, and will be focused on escaping the Stroggification Facility. Mass Effect will be my flagship fiction, but I will write for this story when I need to take a break from Mass Effect. This is GIR, signing out.