The fighting was too much now, as the ninth wave of the bastards make to rush our make shift barricades, chill winter air biting at our armour, the main stay of Reapers backed by Collectors and indoctrinated Geth and Cerberus forces. My arms are weakening as I throw another fireball, overload another shield on yet another Atlas before watching my drone be torn apart by yet another burst of Prime fire. A gust of snow and tracer fire glances my visor, marring it and melting the composite, the inside of the helmet appearing to blacken infront of my face as the scorch spreads slowly across the left of the visor. I duck form the hell storm of hostile fire and tear the useless helm off and immediately grimace at the lack of HUD, tightening my grip on my Omni-blade and raise my Executioner pistol, quickly blowing out the pod-glass on the nearby Atlas, sending shards of orange glass pinging off the floor before replacing the heat sink preventing my weapon from melting. An explosion knocks me aside, strong hands pulling me into cover and I shiver as the cold starts nipping at my ears. The Geth unit assigned to us stares at me, the white bulb with the slight purple tinge bright in my eyes.
"Carter-Corporeal! Operating status?" It shouts, its voice taking a tone that sounds alarmingly close to concern as I wince from the pain of the light in my eyes, noting it dimming in response.
"Amazing, having a great time thanks mate, amazing. Time." I pull off another shot as it throws an auto turret in front of us in time for it to distract the Banshee with downed barriers, dropping it the ground with a muffled thunk, metal meeting snow covered metal.
"We are detecting a high percentage chance of sarcasm, Carter-Corporeal. We recommend focusing attention onto your western flank, Kian-Ghost and Rendian-Ghost have moved east and are providing distracting fire with a rate of seventy-six percent efficacy."
I curse at this, the implication that this pounding similar to my memories of the headache of waking up after being trapped within the core of Firebase Reactor is only a quarter of the joint force out there hitting us. The Geth units dull white platform reaches out and hands me a thermal clip, which I quickly load into my pistol before snapping another shot out, managing to miss a closing Dragoon and clip the Atlas behind it, the shields soaking up the damage like some kind of joke. Then a miracle occurred, a pair of explosions ripping the crowds of eager opponents out of the door ways, bursts of assault rifle fire supporting my tech bursts and Geth`s shotgun blasts. The Turian Ghosts had returned from distraction duty, meaning the wave must nearly cleared, the area almost secure. The last Banshee fell at the door, sustained fire and bursts dragging it down.
"You fight like shit, Carter." One says, turning. The Geth stands and looks at me inquiringly, then at the Turian, it`s little face plates twisting into an expression recognisable as confusion.
"Never had it this bad Kian. I came from a Silver rated area, not even supposed to be down here." I manage to bite off, applying medi-gel to the cut on my forehead from the jolt of the helmet being hit. I hadn`t noticed till it started dripping in my eye, the crimson droplets invading my vision as I turned to look at the Ghosts.
"Then why are you here?" He said, putting more emphasis on the A of "are" then humanly possible.
"Carter-Corporeal sent to support Geth unit-L98 combat collective after transfer from Gold area Delta Eight Niner, Alliance Firebase Jade. Combined unit expected to perform eight-six percent more efficiently with support of Carter-Corporeal." The Geth monotones the entire sentence, likely citing the briefing it was given before download. The Turians just stare as command radios in, something about a drone that needs escorting across to the landing zone. We stand up, running to the activation point as fire starts almost immediately, the signal from command a beacon to local Reaper forces. The fire we take is insane, the Turians firing another pair of their rockets into the crowd as we move, luckily all the hostiles pour from our old hiding place, giving us a small measure of cover as the Ghosts pick of the Hunters coming around to flank us, their Avenger sniper rifles out and firing as we back away from the mass of reinforcements. Each shot shatters shields and cloaks, sending parts and white blood pouring onto the floor.
The confirmation of the drones collection is a notice of evacuation, just as the last enemy falls to Geth`s rapid shotgun blasting before it could rip my face off (the Banshee had charged into me, knocking me down as the tall Asari husk reached down to tear into my chest plate`s brand new crack with a manic grin). The last moments of the battle slow and become painful, every second seeming like five as burning tech blasts, biotic orbs and bullets fly overhead, the landing pad being overrun by the joint strike force of Reaper attacking us. I watch as Rendian screams, a Brute lifting him up and slamming him into the cover above me sending meat and guts flying all over me, something looking horrifyingly like a heart landing on my knee with a dull plop as shards of windscreen go flying past, cutting into my face and neck and scratching at my armour.
The shuttles arrival is almost too late as I fire my last rocket, clearing a seconds respite to turn and run, leaping for the shuttle already moving off. Geth grasps me, holding onto my wrist and pulls me up with Kian`s help, the Turian staring at me as I close my eyes and let them guide me in. I`d open my eyes if it wasn`t for the streams of blood pouring down it from the shrapnel that had past my face. The cold shivers are replaced with an astounding amount of numbness as Geth`s fingers trace the wounds of my face with the other hand on my suits hip as he redirects my medi-gel flow to my face, sealing the wounds. I hear the door click shut, the straining mechanisms finally finishing their task. I pessimistically wonder if the door will be jammed when we get back to the Lion, the jarring of atmospheric exit shaking the shuttle.
"Kian-Ghost, I require water and a sufficiently clean item of cloth." I hear the platform ask, just before I pass out.
Waking up is always the worst part. The fighting is a grim form of fun, intense, consuming and entirely distracting; during battle you cannot find time to wonder or worry without dying (a rather quick end to said concerns) and therefore you focus and kill. It is methodical, cathartic almost. But then there is always the moment of waking. Sometimes it happens when you are fully awake already as a slow return of your other senses and emotions, reminding you of all that has occurred and been done in a moralistic light, instead of just survival. Sure that person you blew the brains of was a threat, he had a gun to your head! But what does that matter to your mind once you wake again and remember he was just a scared kid, no older than nine and had seen his parents butchered hours before. The fact it was a mercy killing? Unimportant, it doesn`t matter to your mind that the Reaper were coming and he had no hope of surviving because you will imagine to your dying day how you could of saved him.
But sometimes your less even worse off because you can`t run, drink, get laid or start a fight. You can`t get doped, drugged or dropped. Because sometimes you wake up in every sense. I know this when I open my eyes, the lids heavy and the pupils contracting from the bright medical light above me, try to lift my arm and find it bandaged and look down to see I`m restrained to the bed. I grunt out a call to a nurse. I`m not alarmed by my restraints; they are standard protocol for unconscious patients during space faring battles. The nurse walks over, a grim look in his eye. I wonder what happened to the other one as he approaches, his face worn and scarred and the eye covered by a white patch. He passes me a glass of water and unties me, helps me stand and disconnect the helmet clamps above my head. The system is designed to be tied to the suit they put me in case of air loss, allowing them to quickly clamp them down to our heads to prevent us being spaced. The suit itself isn`t my own, that set likely already down at the armours station. I go to ask status when the ship shudders, gravity fails and the lights go out all at once, just before a shock wave sends my flying into a wall (the process surprisingly slow with the sudden lack of gravity. No emergency lights come on, but unsurprisingly I find a flare at my hip from the standard inventory of a patient suit in a battleship. I light it, finding the nurse floating with what is clearly a broken neck inches from my face, his expression limp, and blood floating in the air between us. I hope it's his as I push towards my helmet and click it on as I float again across the room, turning on the magboots and walking off the wall onto the floor. I seem to be the only one awake, the other patients still unconscious and tied to their now floating beds. I strip out the nurses flares and push him down to the floor, then walk out of the door just in time for another shudder to slam my head into the door frame.
Waking up is always the worst part. I can feel light on my eyelids, but this time I don`t bother waking them. I groan as the face of the broken nurse floats across my mind, Rendian`s still warm heart falling onto my leg, a world burning after we bombed it into oblivion for a moments respite from indoctrinated Salarians and another hundred abominations. I feel my own heart beating weakly in my chest, my skin warm with a cool breeze flowing across me. I can feel cold fingers on my arm, dirt on my back. The realization of being topless, without socks and with someone's hands on me suddenly jolts me awake and I sit up rapidly, immediately regretting it as my vision swims uncontrollably, the light nearly sending me into seizure and only just managing to lean away from the hand to empty the bile from my throat, the foul liquid burning without food to dilute it and emptying onto a brown mess with green specks that might just be grass. I hear a faint whirring and my ears start ringing as I cough the last of the crap of my throat.
Then I feel strong hands pulling me up, holding me against warmer steel and tracing my back with blunt, almost tube like fingers. It finally clicks there not enough of them and my eyes clear enough I can see the carapace in front of me.
"Geth…" I mutter, almost as question, other sounds coming in as the ringing fades, cheering, celebration and voices of several races. The surreal environment makes me cling to the platform, wondering if this is all a dream.
The harsh, painful ring of his voice confirms it's not. "Carter-Corporeal. We have self-designated as Horse." I look up, a confused expression pasted across my face.
It takes the best part of a day to explain everything between us, work out what is going on and what to do. The first and foremost thing that`ll stick with me for the rest of my days is the Reaper landing nearby and it not shooting us, but actually talking in the voice that we`ve all heard for years in training vids. Commander Shepard. You explains what has happened, how you have now assumed direct control over the Reaper`s and started repairs of all vital locations across the galaxy. The EMP though the relay that took out the Lion was a side effect of that. The weirdness ramped up throughout the day after that, the Shepard-Reaper going to assist in repairing the systems relay apparently. Search and rescue continued, make shift accommodations springing up everywhere around the ship (which had been towed planet side by yet another Reaper shortly after Shepard took control). The entire thing passes in a blur, only a few moments of lucid memory remaining afterwards; the memory of burying the captain of the Lion, helping set up a tent and the cross beam nearly breaking my other arm, having Horse`s name explained to me (Kian thought Horse and Carter was a brilliant joke after seeing him carrying me out the ship, although very few other Turians got the joke) and finally, in a bizarre twist, ending up falling asleep on Horse, listening the low mechanical whirrs of his internal motors.
I wish I could say that was it, we lived happily after in a budding green world and everyone got on. But that would be bullshit. The ships reactors leaked, so the first thing we did in the morning was evacuate and move out into the nearby valleys. The walk took most of the day before we had reached a safe distance, and it would be years before the relay would be rebuilt and we could make it home. Each day was a trial, the Reapers only able to help so much. By the time me and Horse made it back home we sure as hell wasn`t the weirdest couple that had formed over the isolation period. As our tiny network of relays came back online to connect us to a few neighbouring areas we hit delay after delay as the Reaper carried us planet to planet, spending months and sometimes even more years traveling back to Earth. I fought my last battle at the age of twenty-eight. I got home just shy of forty to find my family nearly gone, most dead during the battle, my dad of cancer and a cousin from a collapse during rebuilding. By the time I arrived only my Mum and little brother were left, and he wasn`t so little anymore. surprisingly though, the gathering of races on Earth had wiped the racism out of her, even if she did argue about if you even could have a Geth boyfriend. I didn`t matter in the end.
Now I`m reading and finishing writing this little recollection of memories, on my way to Rannoch. Horse tells me it`s nice there, the other Geth will help us get a little help with the aid of the Quarians and we can settle down. Farming had been nice the last few years, I figure we can continue that trend. Hell, Horse seems incapable of being bored. Mum`s coming with, the kid stayed behind to join the engineers and help put Earth back together. The relays are mostly up though. He`s a good kid, he`ll visit. I just hope that you see this commander, that you know you made the difference. Without your efforts, we'd be all ash now. We heard from an Asari who talked to a Reaper what you did, checked it with some others and even asked our own on the way here. That was one of the worst moments, finding out just how you took control and saved us all.
Thanks, Shepard, for giving us all a reason to wake up. I think we`re here, Horse seems excited. I best go. Ex-Corporeal Carter, signing off.