A/N: Right, this is my first Mass Effect Fanfiction on this site. First, there'll be a few references to other games, such as CoD and Halo, Including the Thrust jump, Wall running and the slide from Black ops 3, and the SRS 99 Sniping rifle from Halo 4 (Which, in my opinion, is the better version). Second, the protagonist is, in fact, a Female Turian and I will change the cover picture when the drawing gets done, hopefully in the next few weeks….
Thanks, and don't forget to leave a review…. Peace out people!
An Australian Writer
Chapter One: Betrayal.
Two years have passed since Commander Shepard had died. They were the longest two years of my life, fighting Merc's here on Omega with Garrus Vakarian and Lantar Sidonis and a team of various Aliens with different specialities. Anyway, my name is Destina Natarian; I'm a Turian Infiltrator with training in Assault rifles, specifically, the M96 Mattock the unmodified version that doesn't use thermal clips. I also had a custom sniper rifle made by Haliat Armory on Palaven, It was also designed on a fictional sniper from a Human Game called Halo and being a Spectre, I got it for a greatly reduced price. Per shot, My Rifle packed four times more power than a Widow, with greatly reduced thermal clip usage.
"Garrus, Where is Sidonis? I can't find him, you seen him at all?" I asked the taller Turian standing near the balcony overlooking a bridge and a main walkway that went behind the buildings across the way.
"I don't know. Haven't seen him all day, why?" He asked me as he turned to look at me. Garrus and I had been together for almost a year now, when he came to support me a few months after Shepard died.
"I have a bad feeling. It could be nothing; then again it could be serious… I just don't know, not yet anyway." I replied.
As if on cue, a certain voice came over the radio. Being near Garrus, I could hear that it was Sidonis. I faintly heard that he needed help and was sending a waypoint to him, then nothing. I saw Garrus' Omni-tool light up, indicating that he received Sidonis' Waypoint, which he then forwarded to me. I cocked my Pistol and held it down at my side.
"Huh, I guess it's nothing, then." I said to Garrus.
"Hey! Don't discount your gut feelings; they've never led you astray before" he said as he kissed the top of my head.
"Stop that! You'll mess up my face paint." I jokingly said and returned the kiss. "Come on, let's see what Sidonis wants" I said to him.
"Alright, let's go." He simply said.
I looked at the Batarian who was toying around with something, "Hold down the fort while Garrus and I see what Sidonis wants, Radio in if anything seems outta the ordinary, got it?" I told him.
I got his answer in the form of a mumble, something like "Use my name" and Batarian for Bitch or something or other. I just rolled my eyes and walked out the lobby of the building.
When we got out of earshot, I said to Garrus, "Fucking Batarian! Arrogant son of a bitch!" as I tugged on the shoulder of my Armor, which was coloured a Deep Purple with Deep Red highlights, similar to my face paint colours. Garrus just had his Blue and Silver C-Sec Heavy Armor, the Blue sort of matched his face paint, and the silver complimented his monocular visor.
"He's a pain in the ass, but we have to deal with him. That is, until either he dies, or leaves on his own terms. Which one will come to fruition first?" He wondered aloud, as we both put on our helmets.
"I could shoot the fucker, save us all the trouble of dealing with the prick?" I suggested, jokingly. I wouldn't shoot him, not until we had a new guy who was good at security, hacking (you know, that type of thing), until that time, we all had to deal with him.
"Heh, let's just see what Sidonis wants first, then we'll shoot him" he jokingly said. But, unbeknown to most, Garrus cared about our squad, and that's one of the reasons of why I love him. It was also his humour that I liked.
When we almost got to the way point, we split up, I cloaked and walked close to the building beside me and would let out a Sonic Pulse every now and then, just to see if it was a trap or not. For a while, as we approached the way point Sidonis had sent us, there was nothing, no-one anywhere near us.
"Something isn't right Garrus, it's too quiet". I told him, as I switched the song that was playing my helmet. I walked a little further down along the wall, then de-cloaked at the corner of the building.
"Are you sure?" He asked me, turning around to look at the rooftops, in-case they were using Sound Absorbing Stealth Armor.
"Yes, I'm absolutely fucking sure of that! I've been sending out a Sonic Pulse every fifty meters for the last five minutes, while you've been looking like an idiot" I said sardonically, giving him an equally sardonic smile.
Suddenly, both of our radio's crackled to life with the voice of the Batarian, "Garrus. Destina, we need your help back at base, it's …" then, nothing but static.
"Ah crap… That sounded bad. Let's get going back!" he said. I nodded a followed at a brisk pace and distance behind.
I had to place a call to Aria to tell her what was going on, after I found out what was happening. She'd allowed a Spectre to operate here to mess with the Merc bands that were getting a little too big for her taste, so she wanted some of their numbers culled, to even out the playing field, so to speak. I had also asked her to store some Rocket Launchers and extra Snipers, Assault Rifles etc.
We ran back to base as fast as we could, Garrus had to mantle jump over things, whereas I just ran along the wall, thrust-jumping over the occasional gap and resuming my pace. When we got close to the base, I dropped off of the wall. I clipped my Carnifex to my thigh and pulled out my Mattock and armed it with Armour-Piercing ammo, which also upgraded Garrus' rifle. I turned off my music, which had been playing for the last half an hour and walked in ahead of Garrus and froze.
The floor was covered in blood; it was fucking everywhere, on the walls too. I looked around and saw Garrus leaning over the Batarian who was, remarkably, still breathing. I walked over to the Salarian, who was also still breathing (He was our explosives expert, who might've served time in the STG), and knelt next to him. I pulled out my med kit and went for the Medi-Gel that was designed for Levo-Amino Acid based Species, such as Salarian's, Krogan and Human's.
"No, too badly injured, wouldn't survive anyway. Useless." He rasped. He slid his M6 Carnifex over to me, "Won't need weapon in Afterlife. Kill Tarak, Jaroth or Garm with it, whichever one will…do" He told me, just before he died.
I thumped my fist against the floor and growled, partly in anger and pain, and looked towards Garrus and the Batarian. He looked towards me and shook his head. "Damn it, looks like we're the only ones who survived" I said.
My left mandible twitched in anger, "Find anything out from him? I got nothing here." I asked as I stood up, with the Salarian's pistol in my right hand. "Blue Suns, Eclipse, and the Blood Pack. All attacked at the same time, in a coordinated attack plan. Any Intel you could add?" he asked.
"Yeah, all three Bosses have joined forces to stop us. This will be fun. Anyway, I've got to make a call… Get us some heavier firepower" I said and made my way upstairs, and turned left into the bedroom where a vidcomm was. I brought up my Omni-tool and typed in the number that would put me in contact with Aria T'Loak. I waited a few seconds for her to pick up.
"What is it?" She sternly said.
"Dump the attitude, Aria. I need my weapons cache and I need it ASAP" I replied.
"Huh, Straight to business today. What happened?" She asked.
I growled, "Tarak and the other two made their first move together not too long ago. Wiped out the entire team, they'll make their move in the next few hours to days." I answered. Suddenly, I heard my Omni-tool signal me.
"Huh, speak of the devil…. GARRUS! WE HAVE MERC'S MOVING UP THE STREET!" I shouted to him and then I heard a large explosion and raining glass.
"Ha. Not my Fault, But I'll take it anyway." Garrus shouted from the ground floor.
I turned back to Aria, "Can you send someone with my Weapons? Preferably sometime soon" I asked
She shook her head at our antics, "Fine, I'll see what I can do. I might even send someone you know your way. No promises." She said and turned off the comm channel.
I shut off my end. I wonder what she meant by someone I know, everyone I knew was either dead or missing. I jogged out of the room and along the hallway to the front of the base, placing my Mattock on my back and pulling out my sniper. Garrus was right behind me and after we got into the room, he sealed the door behind us. "Just in case some idiot sneaks in and tries to kill either one of us." He said.
I moved a chair towards the window and extended the Bipod. I rested the bipod on top of the window sill and sat down in the chair and watched Vorcha, Batarian, Turian and Human soldiers moving up the main walkway heading to the bridge. I pulled the trigger on the rifle, and felt its recoil a few microseconds later. The rifle was designed to spin the rounds up to three thousand RPM, then launch them down a meter long barrel, where they flew downrange in excess of Mach Six where it slammed into the target sending it flying.
I fired again and watched the Thermal Clip spin away from me. I set my feet up on the window sill, with the rifle's Bipod between my feet.
For the next two and a half days, Garrus and I rotated shifts, like any good sniper team, just harassing the combined force of mercenaries marching to their imminent doom. After this period of endless sniping and merc's falling, they started taking anyone with a gun and armour to try and flush us out of our little hidey-hole. Basically, they were running into a kill box, with no cover and no escape.
During the second night, while Garrus was watching, they had made up a large, entrenched network that we could still see down and pick off commanders ordering their subordinates with a nice, clean albeit overpowered headshots.
By the afternoon of the third day, whilst I was resting and stretching my shoulder (From the large amount of recoil from my custom rifle). I heard my Omni-tool's Communicator activate and I answered it to see that it was Aria.
"What's up Aria?" I asked.
"Put simply? You have an old friend on the way. I won't say who they are, but you'll get your weapons. I also added a few extra weapons for you. Needless to say, you'll have a ton of fun with them. Just don't blow up any buildings, Okay?" She said and then she cut the connection.
I shook Garrus awake, "Hey, We have assistance inbound. I don't know when they'll get here, but we'll have extra people and extra weapons to fight these shits off" I told him.
He got up and picked his Sniper up off the couch, and crouched down beside me after I had moved the chair back to near the door. I looked down the scope and saw a familiar insignia on a familiar Female Human, followed by a familiar Salarian and an unknown Krogan.
"It can't be. She's supposed to be dead!" I said under my breath, which Garrus heard. I marked her with an infrared laser, which then Garrus saw who I meant.
"Spirits, it is her. Who's the Salarian and Krogan?" he asked me, before firing a concussive round at her, to get her moving again.
"I don't know about the Krogan, he looks a little smaller than Garm or some of the others I've seen lately. But the Salarian is a Doctor Mordin Solus, Ex STG. Worked on the Krogan Geno-phage Modification project. I helped him establish his clinic in the Gozu district, on the other side of Afterlife. Other than that, nothing else is known. STG is surprisingly well classified, even for a Spectre." I said, all off the top of my head.
"Now, that's why I love you, you spill useless Intel in the middle of a firefight." He said jokingly, He was lucky I was shooting Vorcha; otherwise I would've shot him. With training rounds, for obvious reasons.
"What the Hell is that Krogan carrying? Weapons? Ammo? Something else entirely?" he though aloud.
"You don't have to sit there and guess, I know what it is. Heavy weapons, Thermal Clips, that sort of thing." I said; which got me a questioning look from Garrus.
"I had a friend store them for me, just for a situation like this. This is why I placed that call the other day, and received one a few minutes ago." I explained and slid my helmet on, which Garrus then copied.
"Movement. Across the barricade and the bridge. Shepard and her team are moving with them; watch your fire around them." I told him.
He cocked his head, "Doesn't help that I pinged her with a concussive shot, does it?"
I gave him the 'No, it doesn't' look from under my helmet, which he couldn't see. So I just shook my head.
He got up and hid behind the pillar, whilst I just stayed crouched where I was. I clipped my rifle to my back, and pulled out my Mattock.
Then the fun began and I reactivated my Armour Piercing ammo upgrade. I shot the guy with the M4 Shuriken in the head and watched him fall as Garrus shot the guy with the grenade launcher in the head also. Then Shepard shot the guy's below the balcony that was firing at us, which then provoked the "She's working with Archangel!" response from the other Merc's.
As Shepard and her team moved into the building, we moved to the area facing the interior of the building and started shooting at the various merc's who made it in, but were cut down by accurate and fast firing weapons fire. Under a minute later, there was only one mercenary left, and Shepard's team entered the room.
"Archangel? Spectre?" she asked us. I nodded, Garrus indicated for one second, without taking his attention away from the pillar where the mercenary was hiding. The last thing the idiot did was stick his head out, the BAM, lights out. I put away my DMR, and pulled out my rifle, keeping it pointed down towards the ground.
Garrus stood up and started to undo his helmet, and I copied. After about four seconds we both had our helmets off. Shepard's jaw hit the floor, Mordin gave me a knowing smile and the Krogan set the 'Armoury' on the floor in front of the couch.
"Destina? Garrus? What the hell are you two doing here?" she asked in disbelief. I shook my head and looked towards Mordin.
"Nice to see you, Mordin. How's the Clinic?" I asked him. "Nice to see you too, Shepard. We both thought you were dead. I even spent three weeks looking for your body to give your mother something to bury on Elysium" I added.
"Good. Clinic was besieged by Blue Suns Merc's, Plague and Vorcha." He said.
"I heard about that. What caused it? And who's the Krogan?" I asked them.
"My name is Grunt, tank-bred by Warlord Okeer. What's in the bag?" he asked with child-like eagerness.
"Well, Grunt, it contains Heavy weapons, Spare Assault rifles, Ammo and other miscellaneous items. A friend had added some more goodies for us to enjoy." I explained to him and walked over to it and opened it up, showing the rocket launchers that weren't there when I had it stored. "Huh, that's what she meant by 'a few extra weapons'". I said to myself low enough so no-one would hear. Grunt knelt next to me as I pulled out the rocket launcher, he was smiling like a kid on Christmas who gotten that bike he asked for six months previous. I handed it to him and showed him how to work it. I placed all the weapons on the couch, including the extra launchers, heavy weapon ammo, extra M7 Lancers, and miscellaneous other weapons.
Garrus walked over to the balcony after talking with Shepard, I handed Mordin an Assault Rifle, which he gladly took. I picked up my sniper and walked over to Garrus and crouched between him and Shepard. I peeked over the window sill and scoped in on some Eclipse Mechs.
"Hm, Looks like Eclipse Mechs. Take a look." He said to Shepard, as she pulled out her M98 Widow and aimed down scope at the Mechs and shot one in the head, causing it to explode.
"You're right. One less now though" she said.
"Yes, let's get ready." Garrus said.
I zeroed in on one and squeezed the trigger; that was followed by a ringing 'ting' noise and an echoing 'crack'. I levelled four Mechs with one shot and continued firing until they'd run out of Mechs. Jaroth then sent out his rocket troopers and engineer's.
I crouched back down behind cover and let everyone else fire at them, whilst I laid my rifle over my thighs. I brought up my Omni-tool, hacked the loud speakers and played my 'Disturbed' Playlist which started with 'Indestructible'. It took a few seconds to start up, and I peeked out of cover again, after reloading my rifle, and then began firing to the beat of the song, decimating Jaroth's forces within a few seconds of peeking out.
The rounds, and their shockwaves, did so much damage to their shielding/barriers, their assault turned into a 'turkey shoot'. (Them being the turkeys). Garrus just looked at me, I returned with a 'what?' look.
"Destina developed an enjoyment of Human music, namely Heavy Metal." Garrus told them.
Shepard looked my way and said, "I noticed."
I shrugged it off and looked towards the barricade; I saw Jaroth and something moving over his shoulder.
"Uh, what the hell is that?" I asked no-one in particular.
"Ah, YMIR Mech. Very dangerous, but not in this case. Reprogramed before we joined forces." Mordin answered.
"Huh, Thanks, I guess." I said as I scoped in on Jaroth and pulled the trigger. The Bullet missed him by an inch, but his shielding was destroyed and armour compromised. "Fuck. I missed." I said.
"Hang on, there's something wrong with that sentence." Garrus mused. "Shut up!" I said.
Grunt fired a Rocket at the Mech, but missed. It slammed into the barricade and blew a giant hole in it.
"At least there's more ammo for this thing." He said as he tossed the empty tube to the side and picked up another. I just shook my head and watched the Mech tear through its own forces. A few minutes later, the YMIR was destroyed and we all resumed firing. A couple more minutes passed of non-stop firing, when Jaroth appeared. He'd changed his armour and I, once again, shot at him. This time, I took his fucking Salarian head off and watched it bounce a few meters away from his headless corpse.
With all the Eclipse Mercenaries taken care of, we regrouped and had a breather. I ate a snack bar while we planned our fall-back strategy.
"I say we take our chances and run the gauntlet, if anyone has a better ide-" I said before being cut off by an explosion in the lower level.
"Ah crap! Well, they had to use their brains eventually. They've breached the basement and garage. You'll need to cut them off." Garrus hurriedly said.
I handed him my rifle, "You might need this more than me and they'll need me. Mordin? I need you to stay here with Garrus, keep him covered." I told him. I kissed Garrus, "I'll show them where to go and we'll seal the shutters. Radio if you need any help, okay?" I told him.
He nodded and crouched into cover, whilst I walked down the hallway with my rifle drawn. I showed them the way to the basement/garage level.
"Right, Garrus? Which one first?" I asked.
"Uh, the one down the stairway in front of you. Hurry, they're making their way in now, they're Blood Pack troops and I think Garm is leading them." He said.
"Well, Shit. That's not good. I suppose I'll have to kill him. Last time Garrus and Garm tangled, Garrus let him go, like a wimp." I said to Shepard and into the radio.
"Hey, his Vorcha showed up out of the blue… What would you have done?" He asked me.
"Well, I would've shot him in the face with my rifle and cut his head off with my Omni-Blade!" I told him.
"Wait, the Omni-tool has a melee setting?" Shepard asked me.
"Yeah, they do. Tell you what, get Garrus and me out of here in one piece, I'll show you how to activate it and we'll both tell you what happened here. Deal?" I said.
"Deal", she replied. I got down on one knee and aimed down sight down the hallway and nodded to Shepard, which she then pushed to button to activate the shutter control. Ten seconds and forty rounds later, the door closed. Next, we moved onto the Garage.
I stayed towards the back, giving Shepard and Grunt covering fire, which was accurate and relentless. A minute passed and Shepard had the shutter closed. "Shit, Garm and his personal troops have breached the lower door and are pressing onto Mordin and I. We'd also like some help, if it's not too much trouble." came Garrus' response.
"Alright, I'm heading back. Can you two take care of the last door whilst I deal with Garm?" I asked them. They both nodded and I clipped the rifle to my back and switched to my machine pistol and ran up the stairs, taking two at a time, and ran to the door.
I ran through the door and slammed into a Vorcha and cut it in half with my Omni-blade. I charged at Garm's personal guard and ran them through with the blade, before using them as a shield and throwing them aside. I used my thrust jump to climb in the window facing the atrium before charging at Garm. Garrus fired my sniper as I charged and stripped Garm of his barriers and armour before I plunged the blade into his side and used my weight to throw him to the ground. I pulled out my dead friend's Carnifex and shot him in the head two or three times. I shut down my barrier after the fight to vent built up heat.
I saw Shepard and Grunt enter the room and I said, "Now, that is how you kill a Krogan."
"Good job, they hardly got through to me. You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Garrus asked Shepard.
"Who? Me?" she said. "Yeah, I always liked killing Merc's, remember Elysium?" She said.
"Well, that looks like all of them. For now, at least." I vacantly said, my eyes focused on something moving outside the window. Suddenly, a Gunship appeared and took everyone, including me, by surprise.
"This ends now Archangel and Spectre!" said Tarak via the use of the crafts loudspeaker. He increased its altitude a foot or two. I threw Garrus out of the way and took the ensuing barrage of fire. I spun away from the hail of bullets and motioned for Garrus to slide my sniper to me, which he did. I picked it up, leapt out and fired at the gunship. I destroyed it's shielding in one shot and cracked the canopy with a second opening the way for a rocket.
The gunship decreased its altitude and fired a couple of rockets into the room, Garrus tried to push me away, but I threw my rifle at him and took the brunt of the explosion. With my barriers down, I was thrown into the pillar and fell to the room below, breaking a few ribs when I hit the couch below the window. The last thing I heard was Garrus' shout and another explosion, this one louder than the two rockets and a loud crash and the sound of glass exploding, then I blacked out.
When I came to a little while later, I was lying on my back. I couldn't breathe properly, I was coughing up blood; I couldn't feel the left side of my chest either. Garrus looked into my eyes, with a pained look too. Mordin's hand was pressed against the left side of my face and he was talking to Shepard, who, I assume, was calling in for an Evac. I was only conscious for a few more minutes, long enough to see a Cerberus shuttle come.
When we boarded the shuttle, I slipped into unconsciousness.