Here's part two. From now on in, the story will be told from third person perspective, unlike the prologue.
Disclaimer: I still don't own a thing you see here.
Chapter Two: The Army of two
It would not be incorrect to say that Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams was going though what many would call a 'shitstorm'. Getting shot at by a group of synthetic invaders would certainly qualify. It was amazing how quickly things changed.
It all started a few days ago. Things couldn't have been more normal; farmers farmed, kids went to school, hard working adults went to their jobs, and scientists… did whatever scientists did. It was the same as it always was on Eden Prime. There was very little for a marine to do other than practice shooting.
Then they dug up that Prothean beacon, and everything went chaotic.
Suddenly everybody and their second cousin claimed to be some kind of expert on Prothean technology and tried to get their grubby hands on the beacon. Things got so bad that Constant sent out several marine deployments to keep away undesirable elements from the beacon. It was a change of pace Ashley welcomed whole heartedly.
Then the geth showed up, and everything went down the shit tubes.
She remembered sitting in the barracks with Nirali Bhatai when the attack happened. People were suddenly screaming and shouting 'There's something in the sky!' Ashley didn't get to find out what was in the sky; for as soon as she was geared for battle, a sudden high pitched... sound... rang out in her head. The pain was unimaginable, and in a few seconds, she found herself slipping into unconsciousness. When she awoke a few hours later, she found herself wishing that she stayed unconsciousness.
The area around the dig site looked very much like the battleground it was. There were corpses everywhere, both marine and what appeared to be synthetics. To her horror, all of the bodies of the marines were those of her regiment, the 212. She never even got to gain her bearings, for soon the remaining synthetics opened fire on her position. She was out gunned and out manned by such a large margin that she had only one option: retreat.
Making sure her flank was secure, she began to move as quickly as she could away from the dig site, using the surrounding environment as cover. As much as she wanted to make these synthetic assholes pay for what they did to her fellow marines, staying here would only get her killed. She had to get to safety, and try to hook up with any surviving marines. Hopefully someone high ranking had survived; surely they would know to do.
Her musings were broken when she realized that she wasn't being followed. It only took her a second to think of a reason why.
The beacon! They want the beacon!
It wasn't all that difficult to assume that the synthetics weren't all that overly concerned about one surviving marine when a prize like the Prothean beacon was at hand. Things just went from bad to worst.
Now that she was out of immediate danger, Ashley crouched behind a large group of rocks and tried to open up a com on any of the marine radio links. Unsurprisingly, they were silent. That either meant that com's were down because of the attack, or because there weren't any marines left to keep them open. Maybe both.
Ashley shook her head; such thoughts wouldn't help her out of this mess. As she lifted her Hahne-Kedar heavy assault rifle, she prepared to move out. She took one step out of cover... only to find herself facing two squads of the invading synthetic assholes. Shit! She dove back into cover, just as gunfire erupted all around her.
As Ashley took a few calming breaths, she ran the implications of what just happened. The synthetics had managed to sneak up on her without showing up on her helmets radar display. They must have some kind of radar cloaking technology. That meant she was going to have to fight relying on her eyesight alone, without the tactical advantages of radar's enemy position system. God give me strength she thought.
She stuck her rifle out and fired a few short bursts to her left. She wasn't trying to hit anything, just force the robots to take cover and stop shooting at her. When the enemy fire stopped, she took her chance. This time exposing her head and shoulders, she brought the weapons sight up to eye level and fired. She managed to get in enough shots to overpower two of the robots shields and take them down, while the remaining two of the robot's squad dove for cover behind a few concrete blocks. For a moment Ashley felt satisfaction at taking two of the bastards down, but that soon gave way to a disturbing piece of insight: there were eight synthetics that ambushed her, yet all she saw were the four before her.
Where the hell are the other four?
The answer came when a sudden movement to her right caught her attention. Two of the remaining six robots had flanked her when she took her chance to return fire, and now they had her dead to rights. She was exposed to them, they had their weapons trained on her, and her own rifle wasn't even pointing in their direction. It was a proverbial turkey shoot.
No, she thought. NO! It couldn't end like this! Not like this! Then it happened.
There was a muffled pair of sounds, but instead of coming from the robot's rifles, it came from behind her. And then the two synthetics heads exploded in a shower of sparks and weird gray goo.
As the robots fell lifelessly to the ground, Ashley just stared in utter shock. What the hell just happened? The answer came quick; she had backup. A fellow marine!
A few more suppressed sounds ranged out, and then all became silent. Ashley decided to stick her head out to see what happened. Four headless robots littered the ground, both their cover and shields destroyed. Now that was impressive; despite their shields and cover, whoever had been firing had managed to get head shots in. This guy must be one hell of a marksman. Good thing he's on my side. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts she didn't notice her savior standing right behind her.
"You shouldn't be so inattentive to so your surroundings you know."
The sound of a strange voice made her jump around, but it didn't happen so smoothly for Ashley. She ended up tripping on her own feet and landing flat on her ass. Her sudden surprise turned into embarrassment, and she looked up to mumble an apology. Her voice died on her lips.
Standing before was someone unlike any marine she'd ever seen. He looked to be in his mid twenties, but that didn't tell her much, as humans today looked twenty-ish well into their forties and fifties. He stood about six foot two, and had a lean muscular body. The gray armor he wore only help accentuate his body type. More interesting were the markings on his armor; the markings on his shoulders identified him as an officer, and she didn't miss the N7 sign on his left chest pad. This guy was special-ops!
But what was most interesting was his facial features. The guy had no color to his skin, he looked like a ghost! That wasn't to say he was ugly, quite the opposite in her opinion. He was clearly Eurasian, his ancestry so perfectly mixed you couldn't tell if he was one or the other. He had white hair, which fell sightly long around his head- she'd seen Japanese and Korean actors with the same hair style.
But what was stopped her voice was his eyes; his blood red eyes that seemed to bore holes through her.
"Um", she stammered out, "who are you?" His answer was spoken in a drab monotone.
"I am Lieutenant Commander Takashi Shepard, Alliance Special Air Service. Who are you?"
Takashi hadn't been expecting anyone to still be alive out here; the geth were certainly thorough. So when he stumbled upon a lone surviving marine surrounded by geth, he took the opportunity to help out, if only to get information about what was exactly going on here. Taking out the geth had been a simple matter; these low level grunts hadn't known what hit them. With them out of the way he had made his way over to the lone survivor.
So far, he was unimpressed. This silly woman in pinkish-white armor didn't seem able enough to make head or tails of her situation. Though she had just probably been run threw the ringer, so he could cut her some slack.
"Well?" he said. "Who are you?" The confused woman finally seemed to snap out of her stupor at his question.
"I'm Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212 sir" she replied.
"I see" Takashi began. "So do all Gunnery Chiefs on Eden Prime sit on their rear ends in the middle of a combat zone?"
At the comment, Ashley seemed to remember her position, and hastily stood up in a somewhat dignified manor. "Sorry about that sir, you just startled me is all."
"Where is the rest of your squad?" Takashi asked without preamble. He already had an idea about what exactly happened, but it didn't hurt to make sure.
"They're all dead Commander" she answered with a heavy tone. "We were at the dig sit when the attack happened. I was... knocked unconscious, and when I came to, I found my entire unit had been wiped out." A painful look came across her face. "I wanted to stay and protect the beacon, but their were too many for me to take on, I had to retreat. But the robots followed me and-"
Takashi held up a hand to interrupt her. "Enough. You said you were guarding the beacon?" At her nod he continued. "Which way is it?"
Ashley pointed behind her. "It's just beyond this ridge." She paused. "Why do you want to know?"
"Because I'm going to retrieve it" was all Takashi said before heading off in the direction she pointed out. Ashley, for her part, looked at him like he just lost his mind.
"A-are you crazy" she exclaimed. "There has to be a whole platoon of robots guarding that thing!"
"That means nothing to me." And with that he was off. Williams had given him exactly what he needed: the exact location of the beacon, and what defenses the geth had put up around it. Now that he had that, he really didn't care what happened to her. Maybe she would find a place to hide. More likely she'd get shot by the geth. Either way it didn't matter. Just one more dead marine to join all the other incompetent fools who couldn't defend the beacon from synthetics who could barely hold a rifle.
But Ashley Williams didn't run and hide, nor did she stay to get shot. She ran to catch up to him, and matched him in stride. "Well then I can't let you go alone" she explained. "Two fools stand a better chance than just one."
Takashi let out a small huff in response. I've seen her kind before,he thought. On Torfan her type were always the first to die. But she had survived thus far, so maybe she would prove him wrong.
It had been a good day for the krogan mercenary Namorda. Tasked with leading a platoon of geth to retrieve the beacon, he had felt the rush of battle run through his veins as he took the lives of all the foolish humans that dared to impede his progress. Now it was different; the local marines were dead, and from what his superiors reported, all the marines on the planet had been killed.
He had just overseen the the removal of the beacon when one human female ran away from the camp. While Namorda loved combat, one weak female wasn't worth his attention, so he sent a few geth out to get her. He was beginning to regret that decision; for until they returned, he and his 'men' were stuck here to wait for them.
And so Namorda busied himself by watching the geth take dead enemy soldiers and impale them on those weird spikes of theirs. The krogan couldn't help but chuckle. The Alliance would sure be in for a surprise when they came here later. A planet full of zombies wasn't something one encounters everyday.
Whatever the two Alliance marines had been expecting, this wasn't it. Instead of finding the beacon, all they found was an empty research area with geth seemingly impaling dead marines on metal spikes. Hidden behind cover, they both took the opportunity to orient themselves with the situation.
For Takashi, the sight left him a bit confused. Like why would a krogan be working the geth, and why were they taking the time to impale their victims on those metal spikes? The sight raised more questions than answers for him.
For Ashley, it just pissed her off. She looked ready to jump out there and unleash all kinds hell, regardless of the consequences. Thankfully, she had enough presence of mind to realize what a stupid idea that was.
"What the hell is this?" she asked her companion. "Some kind of fucked up psyche warfare?"
"It could be," Takashi answered. "However I'm not an expert on synthetic intelligence, especially with matters of the geth."
Ashley looked stunned. "Geth? As in the Perseus Veil geth?"
"Indeed, however I do not know why they would choose to come out now."
"What do you mean you don't know?" Ashley said. "They're obviously here for the beacon."
"Yes, but why? They haven't been outside the Veil in over two hundred years, and judging by what they did to the Quarians they obviously have no love for organics. Why would Prothean technology- organic technology- interest them enough to attack a Human providence?" Takashi shook his head. "Things aren't adding up."
"But it does," Ashley countered. "They don't have to like organics to appreciate Prothean tech. All advanced technology is based on it. That beacon could contain knowledge of all kinds of insanely powerful technology."
Takashi frowned. "Key word in that statement: 'could'. It could contain knowledge of advanced tech. Or it could contain Prothean cooking recipes. The central question is why would the reclusive geth come out for something that could be valuable."
"Perhaps the geth know something about the beacon we don't" Ashley offered.
"Or there is something bigger going on here than any of us realize" Takashi finished for her. "Regardless, this situation provides us with an opportunity."
Ashley gripped her rifle. "You have a plan?"
"Do you have grenades?"
A few minutes later, Takashi found himself at the top of a ridge overlooking the dig site. With four grenades from Williams, four of his own, and a couple taken from overlooked marine corpses, Takashi was ready to enact his plan.
Using telekinesis, he discreetly moved the fourteen grenades in position all around the camp. There were around thirty geth down there, so he made sure the grenades were positioned to take out at least two each. Gripping his atomic knife in his right hand he let lose the explosive hell.
The sight was something to behold. Fourteen grenades all going of at once caused quite a big boom. Of the thirty two geth, thirty were caught in the blast and obliterated. All that were left were those who were to far way for Takashi to bother altering fight paths. That's were Ashley came in. While the remaining two turned to see the explosion, Williams burst out of cover to mow them down. And then all that was left was one shocked and awed krogan. That's where Takashi made his move.
He leaped from his high perch and swooped down on the stunned krogan like an eagle after it's prey. While in mid fight, he created a rapidly shifting mass effect field around his atomic knife. While sharp, it would need an extra 'umph' to cut threw the krogan's tough hide. The krogan looked up, just in time to see Takashi bury his blade into his neck. Then, with a savage stroke, Takashi ripped his blade across the alien's jugular, shredding everything. The krogan fell to it's knee's, trying in vain to stop all the dark blood from falling out. With his free left hand, Takashi pulled out one of his pistols, and shot the krogan in the head at point blank range. The alien's brains splattered the ground, and it fell over dead.
And just like that, the dig site was clear.
"Damn, I didn't know you were biotic" Ashley said as she walked over. "Wish you kept him alive though. We could have asked him were the beacon was taken."
"I doubt he would have talked" Takashi answered as he put his weapons away. "We would only have had time for field interrogation, and krogan don't respond well to that. Trust me."
"So what know?"
As if in response to Williams question, Takashi's omni-tool chimed, signaling he was getting a call. He raised it to his face; he knew who was calling.
"Shepard" Nihlus' voice rang out. "Are you at the dig site?"
"Yeah, but the beacon's been moved" Takashi answered him.
"Well that would explain why all the geth in the area are suddenly heading towards the spaceport. We need to get it out of their hands before they ship it off planet."
"Meet you at the spaceport?"
"First one gets bragging rights." And with that, The communication ended
"Who was that?" Ashley asked.
"Nihlus, my partner" Takashi answered her. "How far is the spaceport from here?"
"Constant Interstellar? Quite a few miles from here; we're on the outskirts of town, the spaceport is in the city itself."
"Looks like we need to find us a ride then."
For Nihlus, this was one mission that would stick with him for the rest of his life. Finding out it was the geth that that launched the attack was one thing. Geth beyond the Vail? It was surreal. What was more surreal than that was the fact that the geth were seemingly lead by what appeared to be organics. Krogans, turians, even asari.
He found this out when he snuck aboard a geth transport ship. After a short flight, the same ship landed on a space pad, one that now housed the beacon. Waiting for his chance to make a move, he watched as the geth were order around by the various species. Geth, who hated organics, suddenly taking orders from them? Something was seriously wrong with all this.
Having seen enough, he decided to take them on without waiting for Takashi. He couldn't risk them taking the beacon away. Drawing his sniper rifle, he went to work.
While Nihlus was busy mowing down the beacons security, Shepard and Williams were making their way to the spaceport. After clearing the dig site, Ashley led the way to the area designated for the scientists to park their cars. After a little hacking by Takashi, they commandeered a small sedan and were on the local highway towards Constant Interstellar.
While Takashi focused on the road, for both debris and hostile, Ashley busied her self with checking her newly acquired rifle. Trading in her Hahne-Kedar G554 Heavy Assault Rifle for a powerful M20 machine gun had been Takashi's idea; according to him, where they were going it would serve her a lot better. She wasn't much used to using such a weapon, but seeing as how he was more experienced in such matters, she didn't really argue. She was just happy to be away from that damnable dig site.
Before today, Ashley had never been in real combat. Unlike her companion, she didn't get a chance to fight in the Skyllian Wars; she got stuck with guard duty on relatively safe colonies and provinces. She never had to experience seeing fellow soldiers get gunned down by enemy fire. So to see her entire unit wiped out, and then watch as they were mutilated by the geth... It was almost enough to make her want to find a rock she could crawl under and never come out. Just so no one could see her cry. Almost.
She was a marine, through and through, and she wouldn't let something like this stop her. She owed her fallen comrades that much. She would get the beacon back, and teach these synthetic assholes why no one crossed humanity and got away with it.
"I'm assuming that's it." Takashi's voice broke her out of her ravine, and she looked to see what was what.
About a mile away was an enormous multi-tiered complex. "Yeah, that's it" she replied in a subdued tone. What got her down was not what she saw, but what she didn't see: the trademark skyscrapers of Constant. In a flash of insight, she realized they must have been destroyed in the initial attack when she was knocked out. Her low morale sunk even further. With the sun setting, and night almost upon them, they should have lite up the night sky. Instead, their was nothing but emptiness. Though there was something odd about the way the destroyed city looked...
For Takashi, the city was only a stray thought in the back of his mind. His attention was now focused on the spaceport; specifically what defenses the geth had put up. From what he could see, there were a few sentinels keeping vigil; most of the defenses seemed to be composed of automated turrets. This was not totally unexpected, and he had a plan in place to deal with it. He stopped the car.
"Williams, let's go" he said as he hopped out the car. "We'll walk the rest of the way." Not giving her a chance to reply, he drew his N4 and moved forward, staying to the shadows. Ashley, after taking a few seconds to right herself, followed dutifully behind him.
"Why are we walking?" she asked.
"Because," Takashi answered, "If we go any further in that car they'll make us. Not to mention they have snipers and turrets to take us out at long range. Staying in that car would be suicide."
Ashley squinted towards the complex. "Snipers and Turrets? We're over a mile away and in the dark, how would you know that?"
"I have very good eyesight." And with that, Takashi moved towards the complex. "Stick close, and stay to the shadows."
It had been bloody work, but Nihlus managed to finally remove all resistance surrounding the beacon. The geth had been easy enough to kill, but the organics had been smarter and put up more of a fight. In the end it didn't matter; they died like everyone else. Such lowly mercs could never stand a chance against a Spectre.
Standing next to his prize, he raised his com-link to contact Takashi when a sound drew his attention and his rifle. Combat adrenaline soon gave way to shock at who was standing before him.
"Saren..." he said cautiously.
"Nihlus" was all his fellow turian Spectre said in response.
"What are you doing here Saren?" Nihlus asked as he lowered his rifle. "This isn't your mission."
Saren gave him a warm smile. "The Council thought that you could use some help on this one."
Nihlus turned to look at the missing city. "Yeah, I wasn't expecting the geth to be here. The situation's bad."
"Don't worry" he heard Saren say. "I've got it under control."
Before he ask what Saren meant, he heard a bang and felt a flash of pain in his head.
And with that, the consciousness of Nihlus Kryik left this plane of existence, forever more.
For some strange reason, Takashi felt a cold hard shiver run through his body. Somethings wrong. Very wrong. He shook the feeling off, he had a job to do.
From his position atop a highway exit overlooking an entrance to CIS, Takashi had a perfect place to pick off the five geth sentries placed to watch guard over the area. Williams was a few feet away, ready to fire on his command. Before the sniping could begin, there was the matter of the turrets to deal with. Takashi was prepared.
Back at the dig site, he took the time to restock his grenades, and modify them. Instead of regular fragmentation, these would let out an electrical pulse that would fry hardware systems. It was tactically sound; they were fighting synthetics after all.
The plan was much the same as before: Takashi would telekinetically throw four grenades at the four turrets. As those went down, Ashley would take out the sentries on the street, while he would shoot the three on the balcony overlooking the street. After that, they would move in the spaceport and begin what could be a long search.
With the grenades in place, and his rifle locked on his first victim, Takashi let loose. The effect was instantaneous; the geth turrets exploded in a shower of sparks. With them out of the way, the SAS commander fired on the stunned geth. Two fell headless instantly, while the third took cover under the balcony's railing. Not that that would save it. He simply fired into the stone were the geth took cover, and was rewarded with the sight of said geth's synthetic blood splattering the back wall. A quick look confirmed that Williams managed to down her two targets. All to easy.
After taking a few seconds to make sure the path was clear, the two soldiers lept from cover and made their way into the spaceport.
They found the large terminal to be much the same as the rest of Eden Prime: filled with blood, mostly destroyed, with nary a body to be found. At least they knew why now.
"So" Ashley began, "where do we look now?"
Before Takashi could answer however, gunfire erupted all around them, most of it being deflected by their kinetic barriers. Both instinctively took cover behind a large metal column. A quick peek revealed their attackers: twelve turians, fully armored and ready for battle.
"Turians!" Ashley exclaimed as gunfire hammered her position. "We're being attacked by turians?! What the fuck is going on here!"
Good question, Takashi thought. But such things could be pondered later, for now they had to survive.
From what he saw, the turians were operating in four squads of three. Not to mention they were firing controlled bursts to keep the humans pinned down, while they maneuvered into position. He and Williams would have to strike back fast, before they were over run.
While Williams traded fire with the enemy, Takashi waited patiently for his enemy to make their move. When a squad of three took up position to his right, he acted.
Above them was a sun roof instead of a proper roof. Reaching into his biotic power, Takashi made a sharp upward motion with his hand. The three turians suddenly skyrocketed upwards with such speed and velocity, that they went crashing threw the sun roof and into the distance. That took care of three of them.
Their remaining nine comrades watched stunned, clearly not expecting to run into a biotic. Ashley took advantage, and fired on two hostiles. Their shields gave way, and they slumped over dead. That shocked the remaining seven back into action.
Takashi took the initiative, and made a biotically assisted leap over to another column. Now with better position, he aimed and gunned down the third member of Ashley's targets. Six left.
The turians, were being pushed on their heels, and Takashi took advantage. With four turians in his line of sight, he let loose his biotics again, this time in the form of a telekinetic blast. Everything, from chairs, to random objects, got blown away in the blast. The four unfortunate turians caught in the biotic 'push' felt their chest cavities and limbs be completely demolished, and they managed to cry out before succumbing to death.
The final two would soon join them; Takashi's blast blew away most of the cover- they were exposed. An advantage he and Williams exploited whole heartedly. The turians fell to the ground, their bodies riddled with slugs. After taking a few seconds to make sure the coast was clear, Ashley made her way over to Shepard, who was now standing over a few of the dead turians.
"Holy hell sir!" she exclaimed. "What are they feeding you, and where can I get some?"
Takashi didn't seem to be paying attention to her, instead focusing on more important things. "I wouldn't have thought that this mission could get anymore complicated, but it seems I was mistaken."
"Yeah, why would turians be here?" Ashley agreed. "You think they're with the geth?"
"Probably, but they could be a separate faction simply interested in the beacon. It's not likely, but you never know." He paused. "But the more important question is why they're with the geth. Krogan I can understand; they'll do anything for a good fight. But turians?"
"I guess you were right: something big beyond just the beacon is going on here." Ashley shook her head. "You get the feeling we're in way over our heads?"
"Maybe" Takashi replied as he removed the silencer from his gun and attached a 'bayonet' grenade launcher. In these enclosed spaces, such a attachment would be invaluable. "At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Protheans themselves showed up to attack us. Regardless, we have a beacon to find." He was about to walk away when he saw something flashing on one dead turian's omni-tool. It seemed someone was trying to send a communication.
"What it is it?" Williams asked.
"I think I found a way to track where the beacon is." Takashi brought up his own omni-tool and began to run a trace. Within a few seconds he had a location. "Williams, where is Space-pad 21G?"
"Hold on." Ashley ran over to a spaceport map to see where both they were and where the space pad was. "It's a couple terminals over. We'll have to take a tram to get there though."
Takashi gripped his N4. "Then lets go. We wasted enough time on these fools as is."
"Yeah, whats next? Zombies?"
The trip through the terminal had been uneventful. Aside from the occasional dead body, there wasn't anything to be found. It seemed the geth abandoned their positions and decided to pack up. That didn't bode well for the mission; if these geth left with the beacon... bad things would happen. It wasn't until the marine and the SAS officer reached the tram terminal that things reached a new level of crazy.
"The trams are down!" Ashley cried. "I don't believe this!"
"I believe it" came Shepard's deadpan reply. "Give me a few seconds, I'll see if I can get the trams up and running again." Opening a nearby console, he went to work.
Ashley meanwhile preoccupied herself by looking at the spikes the geth had set up. The entire hallway had been lined with dozens of corpses dressed spikes. It was disgusting. "How long till you get that thing up and running?"
Takashi remained focused on the console. "One second... got it. One's coming now."
"Good. Those spikes are giving me the creeps."
Just then a series of low moans reached their ears. A quick look down the hallway confirmed what was the cause: the corpses on the spikes suddenly removed themselves and where making their way towards the two Alliance soldiers.
Takashi's eyebrows went up. "What the fuck?"
Ashley's response was bit more enthusiastic. "Space zombies!"
Takashi raised his rifle. "Kill them all."
The two soldiers opened fire; Ashley going full automatic to the chest, while Takashi choose to fire more conservatively, going for head shots. They were mowing the walking corpses down, but they just kept coming. Soon, both their weapons began to overheat, and the zombies inched ever closer.
"Grenades" Takashi ordered. "Blow them to bits."
Ashley threw a grenade into the heart of their ranks while Shepard choose to let loose several with his launcher. The ensuing explosion was nothing short of deafening, but the remaining zombies continued unfettered.
"They just keep coming!" Ashley exclaimed as she resumed firing her cooled down weapon. "Where the hell's that tram?"
Takashi just stepped forward. "Move" he ordered Williams. I grow tired of this.
"Sir?"
Shepard raised his arm and reached into his biotics. Rapidly shifting mass effect fields agitated the molecules in the air, causing them to heat up. When they reached critical mass, Takashi snapped his fingers and unleashed his attack: a huge stream of fire raced towards the zombies.
The end result was spectacular: the remaining zombies had been caught and consumed by the biotic flames, and all that was left was a melted hallway, piles of goop that used to be zombies, and one awe struck Ashley Williams.
"Is there anything you can't do?" she asked after they entered the leaving tram. "Are you secretly Superman?"
Takashi ignored her, looking out the trams window. From here, he had a good view of Constant. Or what was left of it anyway. Somethings not right.
Ashley joined him at the window, and a somber look covered her face. "This place used to be so beautiful. Now it's gone."
A lone series chimes from his omni-tool drew Takashi's attention away from the window. Apparently, there was a massive amount of element zero going off. So much that his omni-tool couldn't register it all. "Somethings giving off massive amounts of power." When he got no response, he looked up to Williams. Whatever he was going to say next died on his lips.
Ashley's face had gone completely pale, her mouth agape, an expression of fear on her face. A quick look look at the window showed why. And for the first time in years, Takashi Shepard's face showed actual emotion: shock, and no small amount of wonder.
"My God."
The city of Constant was no longer a bombed out shell, for something had just taken up residence there. Something big.
What could only be described as a massive purple metal... squid... had suddenly appeared in the city ruins. The thing was several stories high; it dwarfed everything around it. It had to be at least several kilometers long, and that wasn't taking account of girth. But the most defining feature for Takashi was the two red like eyes in the middle. They seemed to be staring right at them. Right at him.
"W...what is it?" Ashley whimpered.
Takashi never got a chance to answer, for soon a loud high pitch... sound rang out in their heads.
"No!" Ashley cried out. "Not again. Not again!"
As Takashi fought to stay conscious, he watched as the thing lifted in to the air and skyrocketed into space. Just like that, the sound was gone, leaving two suddenly weary Alliance marines on the floor.
Taking a few calming breaths, Takashi gained his bearings and returned to his apathetic self. "I think we found out what caused the city to suddenly go boom. That... ship... must have caused all that when it landed."
Ashley didn't even seem to be paying attention, instead focusing on taking deep erratic breaths. Within moments, the tram reached their stop. Takashi stood up, gripped his rifle, and looked down at Ashley.
"I've got a mission to complete. If you want to stay here and gather yourself that's fine." With that, he exited and moved forward.
He wasn't all that surprised when Williams soon stepped in stride with him. "I told you," she said, "I'm not letting you do this alone."
Asari huntress Dialla watched as the geth rigged nuclear munitions all around the terminal. The beacon was useless to Saren now, and he ordered it destroyed. Unfortunately, conventional weapons had proved completely ineffective at destroying the beacon. So now they were trying their hands at using bombs of the nuclear variety.
Dialla sighed. The sooner this was done, the sooner she could return to Matriarch Benezia's side.
Her thoughts were interrupted as the sound of gunfire came to her ears. So you've come Shepard. She prepared for the fight of her life.
She would kill him, and avenge her fellows.
Considering all they been through today, Shepard wasn't all that surprised to find the remaining geth setting up nuclear explosives. Geth, mysterious aliens, zombies, why not add nuclear bombs to the mix.
Fortunately, the geth left only a few behind to rig the charges, and it had been a simple matter taking them out before they could finish. Soon, Shepard and Williams found themselves a few feet away from the beacon. However, neither was focused on it.
Ashley looked at the lone asari standing guard. "An asari? Figures, considering."
Takashi had eyes only for the corpse near her. Nihlus. Did the asari kill him? If so, he would tear her apart.
"Williams, secure the area. I'll handle her."
The asari raised an elegant eyebrow. "You underestimate yourself human."
"Not really." He nodded towards Nihlus' corpse. "You kill him?"
"Tell you what" the asari said with a smile. "If you defeat me, then I'll tell what happened."
Shepard closed his eyes and sighed. "So be it."
The asari began with a quick biotic push, but found that Shepard could easily block such attacks. A few other simple biotic moves didn't work, so she moved in to engage him hand to hand. No human can take a huntress in hand to hand combat.
A few seconds in and Dialla found the impossible to be happening. No matter what tactic she used, Shepard had the perfect counter. And she was getting frustrated; for while his face showed nothing, his eyes had a mocking light in them. She threw a savage punch at his head.
Takashi grabbed her arm and twisted, snapping the bones in her arm. When she cried out in pain, he took the opportunity to shove and twist his knife in her gut. She fell over, and quickly used her biotics to stem the blood flow. However, she soon found Takashi's pistol pointed at her head.
"You're beaten" he said. "Tell me who killed Nilhus. What is all this about?"
Dialla smiled. She had underestimated him, and made a foolish deal because of it. But she would honor her promise. "Saren" she said. "Your friend was killed by the Spectre Saren." Before he could open his mouth, she added "And that's all you'll get from me." That would be all he needed anyway.
"Very well" was all he said before he pulled the trigger, blowing the asari's brain out of her skull.
Ashley looked on from afar. "Glad to see that bitch got what she deserved." She then went to stand by the beacon.
Shepard went over to Nihlus to prepare the body for transport, when it suddenly spontaneously combusted, leaving only charred remains, and one stunned SAS operative. Must be some kind of Spectre self destruct mechanism. He radioed the Normandy to inform them of the mission status.
Ashley, however, was preoccupied with the now glowing beacon. "It wasn't doing anything like this when they dug it up" she said aloud. "Something must have triggered it." Her monologue was broken up when the beacon suddenly glowed brighter and began pulling her in. "Shit! Help!"
Takashi broke away from his connection and reached out to her biotically. Soon, he found himself in a tug of war with the beacon, with Ashley as the prize.
It soon became a 'good news/bad news' situation. The good news was that he managed to get her away and out of the beacons range. The bad news was that the beacon had somehow ensnared him. And he was now to close to get away.
Oh hell, he thought. And then he ceased thinking. All that was left was indescribable.
While he was only inside for a few minutes, it felt like hours to him. Thousands upon thousands of images flashed across his mind, burning themselves into his psyche. And just like that, the beacon exploded, flinging him away like a rag doll.
Ashley ran to his side. "Shepard! Shepard, are you alright?"
Takashi weakly looked into her eyes. "This has been one fucked up day, hasn't it Williams?" And with that, Takashi slipped into oblivion.
So ends another chapter. Drop a review if you please.
