Well, here is chapter two. This one took me a bit of time, but i think it works pretty well. Still not completely comfortable with my fight scenes, but for now its the best i can do. if any of you have any advise for me, i would greatly appreciate it.
Just one side note: Please look at the poll on my profile page. i have two that i could use some feedback on, but the main one is currently posted on my profile. Thanks!
Enjoy the chapter!
They had walked through Zhu's Hope, or what was left of it, for a while now. They had found a few people doing certain jobs that certain members of the group could help with. There was a blonde woman who was working at a monitoring station next to some rather large pipes. She had barely given Shepard the time of day when he tried to speak to her, merely saying she was trying to get the colony's water supply going again and that they should go speak with Fai Dan, the apparent leader of the survivors. Kaiden offered his help, with the Commander's permission, having experience with certain technologies of this sort. She accepted, though she was far from thankful, having him check along the pipes for any damages while she worked the terminal.
As they walked away they found another woman working on what appeared to be a power generator. When she turned around to see who was walking by, Shepard decided to ask if she needed any help. They found her to be more welcoming, if a bit gruff, than the previous woman. Hearing that the generator needed new power nodes, a model that the Normandy wouldn't have, Shepard agreed to keep and eye out for any as he tried to help with the Geth attacks. Before they left, moving deeper into the colony, Tali said that she might be able to help the woman with making the generator use what was left of the power it had been using. It had taken some persuasion from Tali to convince the woman that it was possible before she accepted the help.
They began walking through part of an apparently disabled freighter that some of the survivors were using as cover and a medical station when they met a man who explained the food shortages that the colony would suffer if the attacks kept up. When the man mentioned that they could hunt varren for their meat, Garrus spoke up, saying he was a good shot and might be able to help with the hunting. Shepard explained to the man that Garrus could help while he went to see Fai Dan, as everyone else in the colony had been telling him to do.
With the group of three, Shepard, Wrex and Ashley, they walked out of the freighter and found two people, a woman in basic armor and carrying an assault rifle, and a man whom Shepard assumed to be Fai Dan. The man noticed them approaching and said, "Ah, Commander! My name is Fai Dan. I'm glad they finally sent someone to help us."
The woman next to him spoke up with obvious irritation, "You're a bit late, aren't you?"
"Arcelia!" Fai Dan whispered to her, then turned back to the Commander, saying, "Sorry, Commander. We've all been a bit on edge since-"
"Watch out!" the woman, now known as Arcelia, shouted after having looked over her shoulder. Shepard looked in the same direction as she shouted, seeing multiple geth coming from a door behind her and Fai Dan. "We've got geth in the tower!"
Shepard and his team immediately got out their own weapons and began firing into the doorway to keep the geth from pushing forward. This time, Shepard had gotten out his assault rifle, taking cover at the corner where Fai Dan and Arcelia were behind him. He noticed Ashley had done the same, taking cover behind a barricade a little ways back from the door and that Wrex had out his shotgun and was positioned right at the door, firing at any geth close enough.
When Shepard's assault rifle overheated, he turned towards Fai Dan and Arcelia, saying, "You two stay here. I'll have one of my team come here and help cover the door. We'll go in and clear the tower."
Without waiting for a response, Shepard called Garrus on the radio, knowing that he was closest. "Garrus! Come over and meet up with Fai Dan at my current location. Cover this door and don't let any geth through! Wrex, Williams and I are going past it towards the tower to try and clear these things out of it."
"Understood, Shepard. I'm on my way," Garrus said over the radio.
Shepard prepped a grenade and looked to his two teammates, saying, "When this thing goes off, Wrex, take point. Williams and I are right behind you."
Saying they understood, Shepard leaned out and threw the grenade into the door. Right after it went off, Shepard ran towards the door, firing at any geth he could aim at from around the big krogan in front of him. After the first three went down, Shepard noticed another group of geth charging down the stairs. Both Ashley and Shepard took cover to the left, at a space that would have lead under the stairs, while Wrex merely backed up towards where they were, standing in the open and firing his shotgun.
"Wrex, get into cover!" Shepard called out while firing his assault rifle.
"No room, in case you didn't notice," Wrex said, prepping and firing a Carnage shot, taking out another geth and pushing another back with the blast, "I can take the hits, Shepard. Also," Shepard noticed Wrex suddenly was glowing blue from biotics. When the initial light faded, Wrex remained incased in a slightl blue glow. A biotic trick that Shepard had hoped to learn one day, a biotic barrier. Wrex looked at the two humans in cover for only a brief second, Shepard swearing he saw the krogan smirk, and continued what he had started to say, "I got this."
Shepard smirked a bit himself and leaned out of cover, firing and taking out the shields of two geth. Said geth quickly fell to Wrex's shotgun. Shepard felt Ashley moving away from cover and stepping around Shepard and Wrex, firing her own assault rifle at the remaining geth. After another few moments of gunfire, the geth coming down the stairs were all down. Once Shepard had made sure Wrex's barrier had held up to the hits he had taken, he took point with Ashley behind him and Wrex bringing up the back.
When they reached the top of the stairs, the found a lone colonist behind a stone piece of a broken pillar. Before they could get to his cover to help him, however, a geth shot him from the doorway to the right, across from the cover. Shepard immediately jumped over the piece of pillar, checking the man's pulse while Ashley and Wrex stayed in cover next to the door. Shepard looked to them and shook his head negative, staying in cover to avoid the geth fire now directed at him.
Thinking on how to quickly deal with the multiple geth past the door without any of them getting shot through their shields, Shepard put away his assault rifle and brought out his pistol. After a moment, Shepard called out, "Williams, when I say 'go' I want you to provide suppressive fire. Wrex, cut across the door and cover the other side. I'll fire into the center." He heard Ashley say, "You got it, Commander." Taking a quick breath, Shepard said, "Go!"
Giving a moment for Wrex to cross the doorway, Shepard leaned over his cover and found three geth, one of them heading towards the right of the door. He aimed at the first geth and fired two rounds into its head, three into its chest plate. He moved to the next one, again hitting it in every critical area without a single miss. But by this time, his shields were almost down and he had to go back into cover. He heard a type of roar that he could only assume was Wrex just before a loud bang of something impacting something else.
"All clear, Commander," he heard Wrex say, sounding out of breath. Shepard stood up from his cover and noticed Ashley standing next to the door and Wrex on the other side of it, stepping away from a dark corner where Shepard could only just make out the outline of a geth platform slumped against the wall it was slammed against.
Shepard walked through the door and looked to his left, noticing another door and a hallway just to the right of that. He turned to the team and said, "Lets check and clear the rest of this area."
Wrex nodded, but Ashley spoke up, asking, "Commander, how do you do that?"
He looked at her for a second before asking, "Do what, Chief?"
"You never missed a shot on those geth just now. I mean, I've heard of practice in the gun range, but I've never heard of that good a shot," she said, indicating Shepard's accuracy with his pistol.
Finally realizing what she was asking, Shepard said, "It's a focusing trick I learned early on with the Alliance. My instructors said I was a natural with handguns and had me put into advanced training programs. Even got to toy around with some, at the time, prototype thermal clip guns," he finished with a smirk, turning towards the door ahead of them.
"Thermal cli-" Ashley started before moving to follow her Commander, "You got to shoot thermal clip weaponry during the test phase? How'd you pull that off?"
"Guess I impressed someone on the range," Shepard said nonchalantly with a shrug, but unable to take the smirk off of his face at his luck and the Chief's reaction.
As they reached the door, Shepard heard the sounds of geth moving about in the next room and pulled out his shotgun. He held up his hand for Wrex and Ashley to stay behind while he looked along the curved wall of the room. He found a few broken slabs of stone to take cover behind and, moving closer as quietly as he could, he noticed a ramp, leading to a raised area in the curved room. He also noticed a large number of geth. Luckily, they hadn't noticed them yet.
Shepard stepped back into cover against the curved wall, thinking of any way to help them out in this situation. While at first he was only hoping to keep things in their favor, he noticed Wrex trying to get his attention from the corner of his vision. When he looked at him, Wrex pointed behind Shepard in an upward angle. Shepard looked up behind him and noticed what Wrex was trying to tell him: there was a geth drop-ship currently resting on top of a hole in the roof of the room they were in.
That's just great, Shepard thought, That is going to complicate things.
Shepard made note of the two grenades he had left. He thought of his abilities as well as the abilities of his current team, or at least the abilities that he knew of. He took another quick glance at the soon to be battlefield and at the geth that he could see. He took all of this in and thought of the best way to handle the problem. After a moment, Shepard quietly went back to Ashley and Wrex.
"Williams, how good are you with a sniper?" Shepard asked in a whisper.
She thought for a second before answering, "I'm not first in line for special ops, but I'm not picked last either."
Shepard nodded, saying, "Good enough. Here's the plan: Wrex and I will use our Carnage attacks with our shotguns and take out the closest Geth while you, Williams, will use your assault rifle on any other geth nearby. Our goal," Shepard said, pointing towards direction of the ramp that lead to higher ground, "is that ramp and any cover that's at the top of it. When we get there," Shepard turned back to Ashley, "I want you do get out your sniper rifle and take out any and all geth you can. Wrex and I will cover you. Wrex," said krogan looked right back at the Commander, "When we get there, I want you to use your assault rifle for suppressive fire. I'll stay with my shotgun for any geth that get too close. You got it?"
Wrex responded, "Got it, Commander," and when Shepard looked at Williams, she nodded herself, gripping her assault rifle. Shepard made his way back to where he was before, Wrex and Williams right behind him. Shepard prepped his shotgun for a Carnage shot and then held up three fingers. Then two. Then one.
Shepard stepped out from their cover and fired his Carnage shot at the first and closest geth to them. Said geth quickly fell to the ground, nearly blown in half. As Williams began firing her assault rifle, Shepard heard another Carnage shot go off and saw another geth fall. The three of them made their way to the ramp, shooting at the geth and doing their best not to take too many hits from the geth's return fire.
When they made it up the ramp, Shepard took a quick glance and saw that they had two slabs of stone to use as cover that would set them near the back wall. Turning back around, Shepard had to use a biotic throw on a geth that was walking towards them while firing. His throw pushed it back against the geth behind it, distracting the pair enough to let the group get into their cover. Shepard found himself staying behind his cover on the left by the wall in order for his shields to recharge while Wrex merely put up a biotic barrier and kept firing his shotgun. Looking over to his right, Shepard saw that Ashley now had her sniper rifle out and was preparing herself to use it.
When his shields had recharged, Shepard prepped his shotgun to fire another Carnage shot. He called out, "Wrex!" right as he popped out and fired at the closest geth, giving Wrex the time he needed to change from his shotgun to his assault rifle. As he began firing, Wrex suddenly looked right and began firing at the lower section of the room. He then backed up, blocking Ashley's aim for a second, muttering, "Shit. Got a destroyer trying to flank us!" Wrex finally made it back to where Shepard was in cover, taking cover himself while Shepard stood up and aimed his shotgun at the ramp, waiting for the destroyer to make its way up.
Thankfully, their current setup was ideal for the situation. While Wrex needed time for his shields to recharge, Ashley was able to distract or take down any geth that might take advantage of Shepard's currently exposed position. As soon as the destroyer made its way up the ramp, it too started to take repetitive shots from Shepard's shotgun. After it took cover at the ramp, Shepard took cover as well, Wrex taking his place and taking out the destroyer as soon as it leaned back out of cover.
Before the destroyer even hit the ground, the group heard what sounded like crashes towards the other end of the room. Shepard peeked over his cover and saw that those crashes were the geth drop-ship launching more of its kind into the room. Shepard swore mentally before charging yet another Carnage shot and took aim at another destroyer that was on the upper section, luckily taking it out before it got any closer. Back in cover, Shepard thought quickly of the situation, trying to think of a better way to handle things.
"Sniper to the right!" Ashley shouted. Shepard reached up and pulled Wrex down into cover. A second later, a smoke trail from a sniper rifle appeared where Wrex had been standing. The krogan turned around and faced Shepard, saying, "There's still a good many left. Got a plan?"
"Still working on it," Shepard replied as he heard Ashley next to them, saying, "Sniper's down."
Leaning forward to look around Wrex, Shepard said, "Check for any other snipers. Wrex," he said, leaning back and handing the krogan one of his grenades, "Throw this at the largest group that you see when I give the signal."
Shepard then put away his shotgun and pulled out his pistol. He heard Ashley say, "Found one more sniper, but I got it covered." He waited until he heard her fire her own sniper before giving Wrex the signal. As soon as Wrex moved to throw the grenade, Shepard took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Exhaling, Shepard stood up and fired at any geth he saw, never missing a target. The grenade Wrex threw took out one geth and two others shields. Shepard quickly shot the two of these first. He then saw another smoke trail of a sniper and found the geth Ashley had destroyed. Nearby were two others. Shepard had shot down one of them before his shields going down brought him out of focus.
Back in cover, he looked and found Wrex being knocked over onto his back by a geth destroyer that had snuck up on their flank and was now right in front of them. Thinking fast, Shepard held tight onto his pistol while running into the tall and dark geth, his body glowing blue with biotics. He managed to knock the geth onto the ground while falling on top of it. Shepard grabbed the geth's gun with his left hand and pushed it to the side, trying to get it out of the synthetics grip while at the same time bringing his right hand, with his pistol, to aim point blank at the geth's upper body. As he continued to fire, the geth twitched, letting go of the gun Shepard was trying to push away. Shepard heard the sound of his gun overheating and stood up from the barely-moving destroyer. Looking at its 'face', Shepard's fist went blue with biotics one last time as he punched the still glowing face-light, shattering it.
Hearing a sound, Shepard looked up to see the geth drop-ship flying away from the building. He turned around and found Wrex standing up and Ashley scoping the room with her sniper to confirm the room was clear. When she was sure, she said, "All clear, Commander. We should probably report to Fai Dan, let him know."
Shepard nodded to her and said, "Lets check and make sure they didn't leave behind any surprises, then we'll head back. Check the far end, Chief."
She nodded and walked towards the far end of the room, switching her sniper rifle for her assault rifle. Shepard walked towards Wrex and asked, "You alright?"
"It'll take more than a punch from a geth to bring me down," Wrex said with a nod.
Shepard merely smirked, saying, "So that wasn't you I saw getting up from the ground just now?"
Wrex gave him an amused grunt before walking past him. Shepard merely shook his head before turning round himself to see if Ashley had found anything.
No real breaks in this chapter, but i feel pretty comfortable about it. What about you?
I personally i like the idea of introducing thermal clip weaponry in this way. For some, in order to write out this story, its difficult to think of a way to explain the change from unlimited ammo to thermal clips. I plan to have an explanation of how thermal clips are better than unlimited ammo later, but for now this just kinda introduces that idea. What do you think?
As always, Comment about anything, i dont care if its a flame or a thumbs up. Just getting others input would be nice.
until next time!
-halfbreed