Marxman Effect Redux

A/N: I hope you enjoyed the last chapter because Revan and I sure put a lot of work into it.

Also the reason this chapter is so late (this and chapter 3 were actually done a long time ago, about a week after the first one) is that they've been sitting on my hard drive for the last half a year or so but I had both forgotten to send the early versions to Resurgentclone and after I did I felt that I had to change many of the scenes to better suit my tastes.

So yeah, I take responsibility of this and hope that it was all worth the weight.

Also, for future reference: The Toolgun and Physgun are one the same thing, this is simply done for the sake of convenience when building things.

Chapter 2 – New Objective: Survive

POV: Main Character (1st Person)

Taking cover behind the living room couch, I motioned with my finger for Jane to be quiet.

She was visibly nervous about the situation and probably worried sick about what might have happened to her parents.

Couldn't say I blamed her, the thought of killing another living being had been pretty hard to imagine back in the old days, but over time I had pretty much became numb to the sight of dead bodies.

Let's just say, when you surf the Internet enough your mind becomes used to pretty many, normally shocking, things.

Blood, gore and weird fetishes would be just a few that come to mind, especially on sites like 4chan.

Back to the matter at hand…

Since I saw Shepard had already armed herself with a pistol, I decided to get myself a weapon as well.

But the problem was that I hadn't actually ever fired a real gun before, my tour in the army was only supposed to start next year.

So… I'm about to go into a firefight with no knowledge on how to even properly fire a weapon… great.

I just hope I won't dislocate my hand.

Using the TG to produce myself a Colt Python revolver from the Murderthon 9000 weapon add-on pack alongside a container of ammo, hoping that the large caliber rounds would be powerful enough to pierce the hardsuits of the slavers. As I began loading the six-round cylinder with .357-caliber ammo, Shepard observed at what I was doing with a mixed look of dumbfound and curiosity.

"What are you doing?" She whispered to me.

"Arming myself." I answered in an equally quiet tone.

"With that old piece of shit? Are you crazy? You won't even…"

The conversation was cut off as one of the Batarian slavers on this floor entered the room through the hallway door. Luckily he didn't notice us.

As he closed in on our location, I got ready for what would likely be one of the many victims that would come as a result of my presence in this universe.

It's not something I looked forward to, but I knew it was inevitable I would take a life at some point. It is better get it out of the way and become the proper psychopath that every good soldier is when they are in a firefight.

Popping out from behind the sofa, I got into what I thought would be a good firing stance as I spread out both of my legs out a bit and took aim at the Batarian with the revolver's iron sights.

We looked at each other for about half a second before he raised his weapon, at which point I had to fire to avoid my untimely demise.

Squeezing the trigger of the revolver, I tried my best to control the immense kick and partially succeeded since I didn't actually dislocate my arm but my hand still hurt a bit from the recoil.

The bullet that I fired had landed successfully on the Batarian in the close quarters of the room and had blown a neat hole in his chest, having ignored any shields he might have had and punching straight through the lightweight hard suit he was wearing. His body fell limply on the floor like a sack of potatoes, shattering the wooden coffee table as he did so.

For some reason though, I didn't feel anything particularly different within myself. After all, that guy would have likely died anyway after Shepard went on her rampage in the original timeline and ended up killing a lot of the invading Batarians all by herself, being completely covered in the blood of her foes by the time the Alliance finally arrived, at least according to the backstory of the actual game character, so I basically did him a favour by offering him a quick and painless death by gunshot to the chest.

I shook my head to clear the weird thoughts out of my head and focused on taking out any of the deceased slaver's friends that might come in through the doorway in front of us.

"It came from downstairs! There's someone there!" Came the shouting of the voice from before.

And soon another one of the slavers came into the room, he was dispatched by combined fire from both Shepard, and me but unlike me who used only a single shot from my revolver on the guy, Shepard kept firing on the corpse until her pistol overheated.

Probably to make sure that he was dead, but it seemed pretty overkill after his head had already been turned to an unrecognizable pile of red mush before she stopped firing to cool down her weapon.

Soon after the corpse of the second Batarian had fallen on the floor, a single mass accelerator peeked from around the corner and blindly fired a long burst into the living room, which forced us into cover to avoid getting our heads blown off by a stray bullet.

Unfortunately for me, his spraying actually worked and a single round went through the couch and as a result, my left side, luckily it was a mere flesh wound and didn't actually puncture any vital organs.

My cry of agony of course caused the slaver who was firing to victoriously taunt me.

"What's the matter little shithead? It hurts, doesn't it!?" He snarled at me and kept firing, meanwhile I had already patched myself up with a medkit.

Soon after though the firing stopped and the beeping of the overheat warning rang out and just then another member of the slaver group carefully stepped in through the doorway.

But I had a surprise for him, while they were blind firing and attempting to hit us, I spawned myself a sticky bomb from the before mentioned M9K weapon pack.

Pulling the pin from the explosive I threw it over the couch and it stuck to the wall behind the Batarian inside the room my arm was hit by one of his pals that was behind him and I had to quickly pull it back after the throw.

"Missed me! Try again asshole!" He said while chuckling darkly at me, I simply grinned sadistically in response to his obliviousness of the danger as I began patching up my hand.

As for the slavers…

Well, they didn't even have time to come regret their decision to ignore the health hazard that was the blue explosive stuck to the wall, as its timer rapidly ticked down.

The sound of the explosion the sticky made as it went off deafened me completely because my ears were unprotected, but I eventually made up the courage to peek over the ruined couch (which by now had caught on fire), to see the extent of the damage.

The whole section of the house a few meters ahead of us had been badly burnt and the wall that one of the slavers had hidden behind had been completely blown inwards and he now had jagged pieces of metal, wood and other materials jutting from his chest while he attempted to desperately choke for air. He was missing large batches of skin on his face alongside one of his arms

The other Batarians that were in the room with us when I threw the bomb had been completely obliterated and turned into nothing more than several unrecognizable lumps of flesh and blood that now decorated the remaining walls.

Shepard couldn't help herself and simply opted to puke on the floor when she saw the scene. Can't say I'd blame her, the scene in front of us was truly a gruesome sight.

But for some reason I wasn't even gagging, I didn't really think anything of the gore, blood and remains of body parts that were scattered all over what remained of the two rooms.

As I began stepping out from behind the couch, I couldn't hear anything, probably because my ears were still ringing.

And that is of course the reason why I never saw it coming when one of the Slavers, who was wearing a rather heavy looking set of armor and wielding a shotgun came down the stairs from the upper floor and opened fire on me, luckily his first shot missed and I was able to jump behind the kitchen counter before his second shot passed right where my upper torso used to reside.

"Come and face me you coward, you'll pay dearly for killing my men!"

The man who I assumed was the leader of the Slaver band yelled to me as he kept firing his shotgun, chipping my cover away piece by piece.

He probably had an upgraded heat sink because he had to have fired like ten shots before the gun actually even overheated, and by then the kitchen counter was already filled with fist-sized holes that made it look more like Swiss cheese than proper kitchen furniture.

"Jane! I could use some help over here!" I yelled, hoping that she would come to my aid. Otherwise I was pretty much dead because I didn't really have any ideas on how to take the armoured menace down without distracting him.

And she did, opening fire with her pistol on the Batarian's back while he was busy trying to take me out.

But even as Jane's pistol overheated, the Batarian officer's shields seemed to hold steady and they were soon already back up.

Still, the trick had worked and she had succeeded in drawing his attention, which gave me an opportunity to line up a shot on the bastard's head.

I took a proper firing stance and set my iron sights on the back of the Alien commander's head and held my breath.

"You two have proven to be too much trouble, at least I'll have your bodies so I can take your heads as trophies and…" His yelling was cut short by the sound of my revolver going off as I squeezed the trigger.

The gun released a mighty bang as the .357 round left the chamber and headed straight for its target.

As it hit, the bullet once again ignored the shields and this time took a nice big chunk off the left side of the Batarian's head, spreading blood, brain matter and bits of his skull everywhere from the exit wound it made.

His body stood still for a while, the brain still processing what was happening even though it was missing a large section of itself.

And then he collapsed on his knees and fell to the ground on his stomach, unmoving as a pool of blood formed under what remained of his head.

I breathed heavily as I lowered the gun in my hand and began walking down the hallway, past the corpse and over to Jane, who seemed to be crouched in the corner, crying by herself.

Now, what people would likely do in this kind of situation is something among the lines of: "Hey, it's okay... I'm right here for you." And repeat that for the next ten minutes while hugging the one who is depressed and crying about all their life problems while the one comforting just listens.

But as it has probably already been noticed, I'm always the exception to every expected social rule in the book, this one included.

So what did I do?

I said.

"Get the fuck up your sorry ass Shepard because I'm sure as hell not carrying you! And if you decide to sit around in a corner and hope you die, then I WILL FUCKING LEAVE YOU THERE! Do you understand me!?"

That caused her to visibly jump back in fright.

"Your parents are still out there! You can't afford to break down now if you still wish to see them alive! So get out there and let's go find them!" I finished my angry rant, not wanting to put up with her sobbing.

Shepard looked down at the floor for a moment, but she actually got up after that with a more determined look as we went past the destroyed front door, but not before she had looted the shotgun, the shield generator and the advanced Omni-tool from the recently deceased Slaver's corpse.

And as we walked outside, we could see the rest of the area that comprised the Shepard family farm was eerily quiet, aside from the fires that had been started by the pillaging slavers and were still brightly burning in the rest of the farm buildings. In addition, anything of value had been looted and all the farm's workers had been either taken by the slavers or executed on the spot.

We stopped at the front gate since I had to use a medkit to better patch up the wound in my leg and reload the Python while Shepard was silently mourning the loss of everything she had in her old life, her friends, her home, her future…

Her family…

Man, now it's making even me a bit teary eyed, must be that thing called empathy creeping in.

As I was coming up with a plan on what to do next, Shepard approached me and sat next to me on the grass by the front gate.

"Do you really believe we can find them? Can we find my parents?" She asked me as she looked towards the main part of the colony that was located somewhere in the distance.

I thought about it for a moment, tapping my chin as I did so.

"Well, considering that it will take the slavers at least a day to gather all the colonists in one place before they leave, I'd say yes. There is a slight possibility that if they weren't killed they might be among the other people that those bastards are gathering for shipping off world." I said as I browsed through my selection of equipment in the workshop.

"We won't be able to save everyone…" Jane quietly mused.

"And that's a fact we have to learn to live with, you can't always save everyone but as long as you do your best, that's all anyone can ask of you." I said while spawning myself a pair of binoculars to observe the road ahead of us leading towards the main colony.

It was an unpaved dirt road that was filled with holes and bumps, not really ideal for walking, especially with the shoes that I have.

So, I produced myself a pair of good quality sneakers and tried them on, they fit perfectly so I tied up the knots and took a few experimental steps on the grass.

As I was about to motion for Shepard to get ready to move, I had the brightest of ideas on how we could speed up our trip towards the main colony that was likely still several kilometres away from here, at least I thought it would be, I'm not expert in the field of geography.

I was going to build us a car.

Using the Toolgun to produce a hull from which to build upon, I kept adding more and more things until about a few minutes later I had built us a makeshift form of transportation.

It comprised of a single steel superstructure to which the remote controlled wheels were attached, on top of it was a single large iron bathtub with two seats inside it with a roof on top and walls around it for protection. There were also several thrusters in the back to give us a boost if needed and a camera in front and a monitor inside the bathtub through which we could see what was going on outside.

It was by all accounts an abomination of a car, the whole thing looked like it would collapse at the first bump it would drive into. It didn't seem like a very safe vehicle either, but as I didn't know how to drive any conventional motor vehicles and most likely neither did Shepard, this was the fastest way for us to travel.

Jane had observed me work on the thing with amazement, as I produced the parts, welded and adjusted them in place and finally gave them a paintjob as a cherry on the top.

At some points she actually gave some commentary about where to place the different parts.

"There it's finished." I finally exclaimed as I stepped back to observe my work.

"It looks like a piece of crap, I'm still skeptical it will even work." She said, offering her own two cents.

"I find your lack of faith disturbing." I said with my best Darth Vader expression.

Shepard raised an eyebrow, totally missing the reference I made.

I just shrugged and got inside the vehicle and sat on the front seat so I could see that we did indeed go towards the right direction.

I waited until Jane had secured herself on the back seat the best she could and I used the Toolgun's keyboard tool to move our makeshift car forward.

And it did take off, frighteningly fast.

I actually had to concentrate all my efforts on controlling the damn thing so we wouldn't crash into the nearest tree.

Because having a car with no seatbelts was a bad thing to have if you drove into a tree on your first try.

"This is starting to seem increasingly like a very bad idea to be honest!" Shepard yelled to me as she held onto the tub's sides with dear life.

"Have a little faith in my abilities Shepard, it's not like this is my first time driving such things." I shouted back.

It wasn't technically a lie, I had built many similar things back when I still played Garry's Mod and they usually worked without a hitch.

At one point there actually came an uphill climb that I drove into at full speed with assistance from the thrusters in the back and we both screamed in fright as we probably flew at least fifty meters before doing a rough landing onto yet another field of grass.

The whole trip had taken us less than ten minutes, quite a lot of time saved compared to walking, and we had finally arrived to the edge of the small colonial settlement where all the colonists were most likely assembled for off-world deportation by the slavers.

At least I thought they would be, I could be wrong.

Yeah, not a nice scenario to think about considering the stakes but what can you do, I'm not exactly an omniscient and omnipresent being or anything.

Well, mostly not I do have the general picture of what happens in about ten years in the future but that's pretty much it.

I'm just some guy with a powerful tool that I only actually know how to partially use. This thing doesn't exactly come with an instruction manual after all!

"Remind me to never get into one of your home-made cars again, that whole ride was a nightmare." Shepard said as she slowly and with shaky legs got out of the makeshift vehicle.

"Well we made it to our destination a lot faster didn't we?" I defended my creation.

"Yeah, yeah. Come over here, we gotta come up with a plan of battle before we enter into the city itself." Shepard said with a determined look on her face, using her Omni-tool (which I forgot she even had) she projected a map of the settlement for both of us to see and use.

"Okay, so we are somewhere over here." She said, pointing with her finger to zoom in on a location on the west side of town. "…and the town centre is here." She continued by pointing towards what I assumed was the central square of the colonial settlement.

"Now, since you happen to have that 'Tool Gun' of yours it would be useful for you to get to the highest place available, which in this case is the top floor of the apartment building near the main square. Set up a sniper's nest there." She said, pointing to a large multi-story building located about a hundred meters northwest from where we expected the colonists to be.

"And what are you going to do?" I asked her while I produced myself a VKS silenced bullpup anti-materiel rifle, loaded a new magazine and pulled the straight-pull bolt back to load the first round.

"I'll come in from the north side of the city and take out any slavers that I come across. I need you to cover me when I advance towards the town hall." She explained further, drawing a planned path on the projected map with her index finger.

"One question if I may… how the hell do you come up with this stuff?"

I asked with intrigue, since to my knowledge she too didn't have any military training, she only got it after she had left Mindoir and joined the Alliance military as a marine.

"My dad… was in the Alliance as a marine officer, a lieutenant first class to be specific. He taught me pretty much all the basics about the military to prepare me for the time when I would eventually join up." She said a bit saddened by the memory but she hid it well by quickly putting on her game face again.

"But enough talking, let's move out." She said and I was about to protest, but her stern glare silenced any attempts to do so and I simply opted to stand up like she did.

"Oh and Matt, here. Just so we can keep in touch." She said as she threw the Omni-tool she had picked up from the Batarian officer back at the farm to me.

I barely caught it in time and almost dropped it to the ground, Shepard simply laughed as she took off in a sprint towards the city.

I didn't even have enough time to tell her that I had no clue about how to use an omni-tool but she was long gone before I could even open my mouth.

"She's gonna get herself killed with that attitude." I thought out loud as I began jogging at a steady pace towards the apartment building that I could see in the distance.

After reaching the city limits and going through the first few streets, I noticed that most of them were empty except for several corpses of the colonists, men, women, and even children. Entire families had been slaughtered and their bodies left behind to rot by the attacking Batarian forces.

For a normal and healthy human mind the sight of so many bodies would be absolutely sickening, but I just simply didn't care. The deaths of these colonists are insignificant in the bigger picture and we probably couldn't have saved them in time anyway, so there's no use in dwelling on past events because they are just that, the past.

And everyone knows you can't change the past, firstly because it would create a paradox that would simply right itself and history would still go the way it was supposed to be no matter what you did.

As I was having my deep inner monologue, I failed to notice the laser dot that was zeroing in on my head until it momentarily blinded my right eye.

That caused me to pause for a moment before I dived behind a wrecked skycar that was in front of me, which gave the Batarian behind the sniper rifle enough time to fire a single shot which severed a small chunk off from my left ear.

I loudly exclaimed my feeling of pain my releasing a series of curses and quickly got my Tool Gun out to produce myself a medkit that I used to both stop the bleeding and numb out the burning sensation of pain in my earlobe.

As another shot passed over my cover, I unfolded the stock of the VKS and checked that the scope was working properly.

But then I got the most brilliant of ideas.

Taking out the Tool Gun once more, I checked to see if a certain spawn menu was there.

And to my surprise and relief, it actually was.

Now that I had the NPC menu to use, I decided to exploit it to its fullest potential.

Which came in the form of spamming waves of mindless but still armed and dangerous friendly NPC units like:

The Combine Overwatch from Half-Life 2

A whole bunch of B1 Battledroids

And lastly, Imperial Storm and Scout troopers

Each of them, armed with their respective weapons pretty much decimated the Batarian sniper's position.

And just to make sure he was actually dead, all the Overwatch troops threw their grenades into the house the guy was located in, and as an end result the small building collapsed in on itself.

I clapped my hands in excitement of this spectacle after staying in cover for the duration of the brief firefight.

I could basically use all the NPCs provided to me by the workshop to clear myself a way to the apartment building without having to do anything myself.

It would allow me a chance to rest my legs for a bit and take a breather from the walking every once in a while.

"Alright then people, listen up!" I began as all the NPCs turned to look at me.

"I want all the street cleared of these four-eyed bastards all the way to the nearby apartment building! Am I clear?" I said with a raised voice.

They seemed to understand as there were several affirmatives being shouted from within the group.

"Good, then get to it!" And without another word they got to work marching down the street and clearing it of any resistance.

I followed behind them, listening to the sounds of battle coming from the front of the group as they engaged the slavers; and I kept spawning new soldiers as I saw the ones at the front being felled by enemy fire.

In the end, the whole way to the apartment buildings had been cleared of any hostile troops in less time than I had even expected.

"The streets have been cleared, sir." One of the Stormtroopers informed me. "We are ready for new orders, just give us the word."

"Good, your next objective is to clear out the apartment building of hostiles, and set up defensive positions on the roof and inside."

"Understood, we'll get right to it." He acknowledged and went out to carry the order alongside the others.

As one of the Combine troopers kicked the door in, a shotgun wielding counterpart of his stormed into the building and was able to blast one of the Batarians inside with his SPAS-12 Shotgun before the combined fire of several mass accelerators wielded by the other slavers gunned him down.

As the faceless trooper was felled, his comrades followed in his wake and mercilessly gunned down the remaining slavers with a surgical precision and without a regard for their own wellbeing.

The rest of the floors were cleared out by the combined effort (pun very much intended) of the two elite armies while the slow moving battle droids simply opted the follow at the back of the group and execute any survivors that were left behind in their wake.

This pattern went on until they had reached the top of the building where the scout troopers began setting up their long-range blasters alongside the Combine snipers and battle droid assassins.

"The apartments are clear, Sir. All hostiles have been purged. Sharpshooters are in position and we are waiting for further orders." The very same stormtrooper from before informed me.

"Excellent, your final orders are to hold this position and take out any hostile aliens you can spot, but try to avoid killing any of the human civilians. Got it?"

"Understood, sir." He acknowledged and went to carry out his orders, while I began to descend the stairs to reach the street level

"Sorry Shepard, but you're too valuable to die in a badly planned out rescue operation." I thought out loud as I reached the ground level of the building and began heading through the streets again, already hearing the first shots being fired by the rooftop snipers.

And the subsequent death screams of the Batarians that followed.

Continuing to make my way towards the town hall itself, I could hear shouting and gunfire coming from amongst the Batarian troops that were nearby as they advanced towards the apartment building being defended by what was most likely both numerically and technologically superior force.

Their counter offensive was doomed to fail, but it didn't bother me.

That just gave me the chance to continue to head towards the town hall unhindered while they were busy attempting to take down all the NPCs that I created.

Turning around a corner to head through an alleyway and rest for a bit, I sat down on a stack of metal containers and began to take off my shoes and massage my tired feet.

I set my gun on the crate next to me and with the safety off so it would be ready should I need it to dispatch any intruders.

Finally finishing untying my shoes, I took them off as quickly as I could to expose them to the cool outside air.

I released an audible sigh as the cool evening air soothed my aching legs with its touch and helped ease the pain caused by the continued blistering in my legs.

I also emptied a bunch of rocks that had gotten inside the brand new pair of sneakers during the walk into the heart of the colony for some odd reason.

After resting for about five minutes by my own estimates, I put the shoes back on before I was stopped by a voice coming from behind me.

"Stop right there. Hands up where I can see them." Came the unknown masculine voice, as I was about to pick up my gun and leave.

"Okay, okay. I don't want any trouble." I said as I raised my hands up to show that they were indeed empty.

"Shut up and turn around, slowly." He ordered.

I did as he said and turned to face the owner of the voice.

He was a pretty old looking guy, his hair was all gray and thinned out, but holy shit was he tall, like really tall.

His tanned face sported a series of scars and scruffy stubble of a beard on his chin; he had a pretty hardened look on his face as his eyes scanned me.

"Hmm.. I can see that you're no stinkin' Batarian for sure, what's your name boy?" He asked me.

"I'm Mathias and I'm here with my friend Jane to help rescue her parents and the other colonists from the slavers." I explained.

"Jane? Jane Shepard? That little lady always seems to be getting herself into trouble. But anyways, I'll try to help in any way I can to get things back to the way they used to be."

I was silent for a moment before replying.

"Well, you could help by telling me how many colonists there are and where they are being held at? It will significantly reduce the time Jane and me need to get to them."

He was thoughtful for a brief while before answering the question-

"Well, there were about seventy or eighty of us, give or take by the time I had escaped, the rest had either been' executed or not gotten caught yet. We were all gathered around in a warehouse of sorts, I can't remember the street name and I didn't exactly have my Omni-tool with me to check it, so that's pretty much all I know." He answered.

"Well, considering that most of the Batarian forces are being diverted towards the apartment building it will be much easier to free the colonists."

"Apartment building? You mean those were friendlies shootin' from the rooftop and not those four-eyed freaks of nature?" He asked me.

"Yup pretty much, it's safe to get out of the town just as long as you stay clear of the area near the apartments since that's where all the fighting is, at least for now." I explained to him.

"Well, thanks for the tip boy, I'll be sure to take your word for it." He said as he turned to leave.

"Wait! I didn't catch your name!" I yelled after him.

"Just call me ol' Tim, that's what most folks around here call me." He said before walking around the corner and disappearing from sight.

I was simply left standing there for a moment before picking up the VKS and proceeding to walk out of the alley, continuing on the same path as before towards the town hall to rescue what remained of Mindoir's population.

Just for the heck of it, I decided to see how the Omni-tool worked, so I tapped the screen and it opened up to a small orange menu, which showed all the programs that the thing housed alongside all the notifications, like a smartphone would have.

One of the notifications caused me to raise an eyebrow though, another one even more so.

'Notification: you have four missed calls.'

'Notification: your new issue of Fornax has arrived'

Scratch that last one, I'm just going to pretend it was never there.

But four missed calls already, how did that happen?

Oh, it seems my sound system was muted.

I turned the sounds back on and checked the list of missed calls; they were all from an unknown number, most likely Shepard.

She must have thought I was dead or something since I wasn't answering.

So to ease her worries, I decided to call her back.

And the answer came with an added spice of gunfire in the background.

"Finally! Matt, I need your help, like right now! I've got a bunch of snipers pinning me down with at least a whole squad of their ground troops closing in on my position and I could seriously use some help!" She yelled into the mic, a bit too forcefully in my opinion.

"Okay, what's your location?" I asked her, calmly.

"I don't know, somewhere on 3rd street, I'm currently hiding inside a house with nothing but my shotgun, the pistol was destroyed by a lucky shot from the sniper and my leg is also bleeding from multiple places because one of the bastards managed to land a burst on it with his rifle." She explained with a grunt of pain before firing again.

"Okay, I'm on my way. Try not to get yourself killed out there." I said before cutting the call short and beginning my sprint towards the designated location on the map.

I had just reached the intersection that connected the 4th and 3rd street after looking at the Omni-tools map function before I came under fire from what I assumed to be a hostile rifle squad.

My shoulder was pierced by one of the rounds as I got into cover behind a pile of debris from one of the buildings that had collapsed likely due to orbital bombardment.

Patching it up once more with my endless supply of medkits, I used the Tool Gun's camera function to spawn a video camera onto one of the buildings overlooking the street to get an idea where the enemy was located in, the live feed of the street showed all six of them taking cover behind a destroyed car.

Perfect, this gave me an opportunity to test out another one of the NPCs.

Time to unleash some chaos in this bitch.

Using the TG's spawning function once more, I produced something quite terrifying to those who had to face one.

A Chaos Marine from Warhammer 40K, one of Khorne the Blood God's followers to be precise.

And he was armed with a fucking chainsaw sword.

When I looked around the corner, I could see that the slavers had a mixture of surprise and fear painted on their faces as the Chaos Marine turned towards them.

"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!"

And then he charged towards them, swinging his mean-looking sword as he did so.

The Batarians tried in vain to fight back, overheating their weapons as they tried to penetrate the thick armor of the red menace.

And they all seemed to know it was over as the Chaos Marine's sword revved to life and they simply attempted to run in panic.

But alas, they were not fast enough as one by one, they were cut down and sawed into bloody pieces by the Khorne's servant's blade, blood gushing from the remains of their bodies and flowing all over the pavement.

And the red-clad marine seemed to revel in it as he raised his sword in triumph after ripping the skull out of one of his victims' heads with the spine still attached to it.

After I counted that all of the Batarians were indeed dead, I pressed the undo button on the touchscreen of the Tool Gun, removing the chaos marine from existence and causing him to disappear into thin air.

That's one problem solved.

I then continued on my way towards my destination, the rest of my trip going uninterrupted.

As I listened, the gunfire coming from the direction of the apartments had already quieted down, which meant either one of two things.

Either the combined forces that I produced to defend the apartments drove back and killed the attacking Batarians.

Or they were wiped out themselves.

I seriously hope it's the former, because otherwise I might have a lot more enemies to deal with.

As the sound of several gunshots coming from around the next corner reach my ears, I know I'm nearing Shepard's position, a glance at the map confirms this fact since the status bar showing current location switches from 4th to 3rd street after I turn around the corner at the intersection.

From what I can see, the Batarians haven't noticed my presence yet as I peek over the small truck I took cover behind.

As I set down the bipod of the compact anti-materiel rifle, I look through the PSO-1 scope to see that there is indeed a full squad of Batarians getting ready to breach the door of the house I assume Shepard is in.

But there's also a pair of snipers located on the rooftop of the building on the left side of the street.

This meant that I had to choose whether to take out the breaching team first or the Snipers, the other one would jeopardize Shepard's situation, the other mine.

In the end, I chose to take care of the most immediate danger to myself.

Taking aim with my shaky stance at the nearest one of the Batarian snipers who was standing crouched while his friend was standing, I tried steadying my breath but since I didn't remember reading any kinds of guides about this particular subject, it was basically just regular breathing and holding your breath when firing.

So that's what I did, I took aim at the bastard's head, which didn't seem such a hard target from just one hundred meters away.

Especially when you had a scope that magnified your vision by eight damn times.

So, I held my breath and squeezed the trigger slowly…

And then I fired.

The gun released a muffled thump instead of a loud bang due to the rifle having one long-ass integral suppressor as the bullet left the end of the barrel and headed for its target.

It didn't hit exactly where I had been aiming, which was his head, but it was still a one-shot-kill since the 12.7mm round pierced the side of his throat tearing it to pieces in the process and passing through the other side unhindered, actually hitting the shoulder guard of his friend who was standing next to him, tearing his arm clean off and causing him to fall towards the ground below, screaming in pure agony and panic before he fell flat against the pavement and broke his neck.

The rest of the slavers noticed the bodies of the two snipers hitting the ground soon afterwards and they all instantly scrambled for cover, still not knowing where the shot had come from

I calmly pulled the bolt back and forward, completing the cycling sequence and chambering a new bullet from the 5-round box magazine.

So I steadied my breath and looked through the scope again, attempting to find a new target, which was pretty hard since all of the slavers were now behind solid cover and I wasn't sure if the weapon had enough power to penetrate through both concrete and a hardsuit.

But it seemed to be my lucky day since one of them was actually stupid enough to peek over his position behind what looked to be a pick-up truck.

And that was his last mistake.

Holding my breath once more, I took aim at the unsuspecting enemy and squeezed the trigger again.

"There! He's…" He began to yell, pointing at my general direction before he was silenced by a bullet going through his forehead, passing through the brain, and finally exiting through the back of his head in a shower of blood, skull fragments and grey matter, half of his head missing after the heavy rifle round had done its job.

His comrades began blind firing every which way in an attempt to hit me but they failed to land a single shot on me.

One of the shots though grazed the hood of the truck that I was taking cover behind so instinctively I got back down to avoid getting hit by a stray bullet.

As they stopped firing, I decided to change my position just in case another one of them had seen me.

So I folded up the bipod and ran through the street to a new position about fifteen to twenty meters further from my targets.

My new cover consisted of a metal fence surrounded by various plants that worked as a divider between two of the houses.

It was filled with holes that gave me a good spot to peek my rifle through.

As I looked through the scope to observe what was going on at the street, I could see several of the remaining slavers advancing on my position while the rest of them went back to the house Shepard was in to continue with their breaching operation.

A bad move on their part.

I aimed down the scope again and centred the sights on the slaver nearest to my position, the look on his face didn't tell much since I was not very well versed in alien facial expressions but I assumed he was somewhat nervous after seeing the damage my weapon had made to his three other comrades.

As I moved the sights towards his upper chest I held my breath once more, calming myself down as I took the shot.

There was no shout, only a grunt as my target looked down on his chest to see the fist-sized hole that had been made where his other lung used to be and he silently fell on his knees as blood pooled from the sides of his mouth.

His friends though were as alert as ever and began firing where they thought I was firing from and soon their bullets began landing uncomfortably close and I had to abandon my position, retrieving the VKS from its deployed position I took out the Python and prepared to engage the two remaining slavers as they came around the corner.

As soon as the first slaver popped into my field of vision, I released several .357 rounds towards his direction and was able gun him down after two of the bullets pierced his armour through the upper chest area.

He fell against the car behind him and slid down to the pavement, dead as a doornail.

His pal came in next, and opened fire on where he thought I would be, but I had already gone prone against the ground, firing the remaining rounds and succeeding in taking him down by hitting him thrice, once in the throat and two shots passing through his lower head, around the jaw area.

He fell to the ground, gurgling as he choked on his own blood. He eventually fell silent after a few moments due to blood filling his lungs and a lack of oxygen in his systems.

I decided that now was probably a good time to reload my weapons, after all, I had probably already wasted half my rifle magazine and a full six rounds from the revolver taking down… five of the slavers by my own calculations.

So, I inserted a new five-round mag into the ammo chamber of the VKS, discarding the old still half-filled one by throwing it to the ground, also emptying the spent cartridges from the Python's cylinder and putting in new rounds in their place.

One of the things games taught me was that you don't have to cock the bolt back if you replace a magazine that still has rounds. Can't remember what the exact reason for that was but I don't really care at the moment, there were still several slavers remaining and I had to take them down before they killed the future hero of the galaxy.

Speaking of which, I could hear an explosion going off in the distance, which probably meant that the slavers had breached Shepard's position.

I had to hurry.

Picking myself up from the ground, I sprinted towards the building in the distance as smoke rose from the remains of its front door and gunshots could be heard from the inside as the firefight began between Jane and the remaining slavers.

As I slowed down my pace when nearing the house, I could see the bodies of the slavers I had downed when I first arrived to the scene, the blood leaking to the ground was still fresh. There were also a few others that had most likely been felled by Shepard due to the large gaping wounds coming from various parts of their bodies that indicated use of a shotgun.

Then another gunshot rang out and another until it eventually escalated to a full-blown shootout inside the building.

I peeked through one of the windows to see three of the remaining slavers having Shepard pinned down by the stairs leading to the upper floor.

I decided to end this in a single swift blow, so I used the TG to spawn a single M67 fragmentation grenade, which appeared in my hand not a second after.

I proceeded to pull the pin from the grenade and cooked it for about two seconds before throwing it into the midst of the final group of Batarians, Shepard already knew what was going on and followed my example by quickly diving down to shield herself from the explosion while the Batarians dumbly looked at the green ball of death before one of them realized the danger and was about to open his mouth to warn the others.

But it was already too late as the explosive device went off, producing a blast wave that sent hot pieces of shrapnel flying everywhere that tore up the bodies of the three remaining Batarians and killed them as a result.

A minute went by, then another and then I heard footsteps coming from the upper floor as the battered and bloodied body of Jane Shepard walked down the wooden stairs.

"You… Sure took… Your fucking sweet-ass time." Shepard said as she bit her lip in pain while holding a hand on her wounded left side.

Compared to me, she was absolutely torn up; scratches, wounds and dirt all decorated the exposed skin of her arm as her sleeve had been completely torn off probably by an explosion.

"Had to take out those snipers and a few of their pals before I could get to you, here let me take care of that." I said as I spawned a medkit to treat the wound on Shepard's side.

She hissed a bit in pain after I applied the green gel into the wound, but the effect was almost instant as the bloody tear sealed up and as a result it looked like there was nothing there in the first place.

"That thing of yours sure is pretty... AH! Useful…" She said as I patched up the rest of her wounds the same way.

"It has proven to be quite so during my travels, I still haven't figured all its functions but it has proven time and time again to be an invaluable asset to me." I replied to her, somewhat lying while holding my poker face as I always did during conversations.

That earned a slight laughter from Shepard.

"If that isn't an understatement, I don't know what is! Matt do you even realize how powerful you are with that kind of thing?"

"I'm not so sure about that, any tool is only as good as the person wielding it and I'm still not completely familiar with this thing." I answered analytically.

Finishing up with the gashes that she had received on her face, I stepped back to see how it all worked out.

All the damage seemed to have been repaired including the three holes that had occupied her leg before my arrival to the scene.

"So, I don't suppose you have any bead on the location of the colonists?" Shepard asked me.

"Actually I do, I met a guy who called himself ol' Tim or something, he was one of those who managed to escape after being captured and said the remaining colonists were being held in a 'warehouse of sorts' as he explained it, he didn't know an exact location but we at least now know that they aren't located at the town hall." I explained as I searched the corpses of the Batarians for anything of value and ending up finding what looked to be a small remote from the one in an expensive looking armour.

"Well, that actually does help narrow down the search a LOT since the only shipping warehouse is the one across the street." She excitedly said as we walked out of the door.

"You mean that one right there?" I asked, pointing a finger towards the house, which had the two broken bodies of the Batarian snipers that I had taken down laying in front it.

"Yup, that's the one. Let's just hope there aren't any more surprises inside."

We walked around to the side of the building where the fire exit was located at and walked up the stairs to the roof of the building.

It was a precaution in case the surviving Batarians were waiting by the large front doors for us to just walk in before gunning us down.

After quietly entering through the roof, we walked down the stairs leading to the main hall.

And to our great surprise, the whole place was clear of any Batarians.

The whole place was just filled with shipping containers, and as we came down the stairs to the ground floor to take a closer look something unexpected happened.

There was a banging sound coming from inside the containers.

"They are locked inside the containers, quickly! Get them open before they all suffocate in there!" I yelled to Shepard and we both quickly got to open the containers by pressing the green release button on the side of them, which opened up a hatch on the side from where the grateful colonists quickly got out.

"Thank you! Thank you so much! We thought we were all done for after they stuffed us into these crates!" One of the colonists exclaimed her gratitude by hugging me.

Some of them actually cried in joy at the prospect of not having to becoming nothing more than mere property to be traded for the highest bidder.

"Lady, could you please get off me." I said gently pushing her off me. "We still have to get those collars off." I said while I checked my pockets for the remote I had picked off the corpse of that one Batarian back at the house.

It had several buttons, one of which was red and had an icon representing electric bolt and was likely the one used to electrocute the slaves if they got disobedient.

The next one was black, which had a closed lock icon, seems pretty self-explanatory to me.

And the last one was green with an open lock icon, also pretty self-explanatory.

So I simply pointed the remote at the assembled colonists and pressed the green button, as a result their collars simply fell to the ground and they were freed.

After every one of them had been freed we marched triumphantly out of the front gates.

As we got outside, my Omni-tool started beeping, same with Shepard.

I opened it up to see that a notification about an incoming voice message. It was being broadcasted on an open channel.

"This is the SSV Einstein to any surviving human colonists on Mindoir, if you are hearing this message please respond, we are here to help you."

Seems like our rescue has arrived.

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