Chapter 2
Well, glad to see i got off to a good start at least. again, i apologize for skipping ahead, but i'm impulsive. Sorry.
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"They're massive!" Anderson exclaimed as he ran ahead on the building, with me carefully following behind. Geth weren't meant for this level of balance, and my feet continually slipped.
"And those are only the average sized ones!" I yelled ahead, remembering Sovereign.
"That's average?!" Anderson looked back at me with shock.
"Yup!" I called out, as i leapt across the gap between platforms.
"How do you stop something like that?!" Anderson asked, as he glanced at the reaper ahead.
"That's what i'm hoping to find out!" I yelled, as we crossed a rooftop. vaulting over a vent pipe, i saw a pair of blue-lighted husks making their way up the wall. And, out of the corner of my eye, i saw a little boy running into the building, with several husks chasing him. Instinctively, i lifted the gun, shooting two of them in the head, while the third dissapeared into the building.
"Shepard! What are you shooting at!?" Anderson asked, looking at where i was shooting.
"There... was a boy. He was being chased by Husks. I shot two of them, but the third one followed the boy into that building." I said, pointing at the two husks and the building.
"I didn't see a boy." Anderson said, looking confused.
I gave him my best confused look, not certain if i had simply imagined the boy. No matter. I would examine my processers later. For now, we had to move.
"Husks! Take em out!" Anderson yelled, jumping down the ladder and taking cover. I followed suit, shooting one of the husks, before running out of ammo.
"Looks like we'll have to do this the hard way." I sighed as i hauled myself over the vent, and ran over towards the husks. With a simple bash of the butt of my pistol, they both fell dead, their necks snapped under the force. A third one crawled up the balcony, and i took this as a chance to test out the omni blade i had modified into my omnitool. Grabbing the husk by the neck, i sent the flaming blade straight through it's brain. i threw the husk aside, just in time to see a reaper aiming for the building. i ran, skidding across the surface, and took cover next to anderson as the building exploded. As the building was engulfed in flames, i knew there was no way the child survived. Feeling slight guilt, i walked over to the building beside Anderson, stepping inside. i spotted a door, and made my way over to push it open. Suddenly i felt a hand grab me by the chest and try to pull me through the door. Struggling, I managed to punch the husk, and sent the omni blade through it's chest.
"Good work." Anderson congratulated, and i grunted a thanks while pushing the door open. "through here!"
As i was about to step into the room, i heard a faint whimpering. Scanning for the sound, i found it was coming from a nearby open vent. Crouching down, my light lit up the vent a bright blue as i saw the same child from earlier curled up in the vent.
"You- how did you survive the reaper?" I asked, confused.
"I hide, misses. i crawled into the vent as the big blue men came looking for me." He whimpered.
"We need to get you someplace safe." I said, stretching out and grabbing the little boy by the arm. He began to struggle as my three fingered hand tightened on his arm.
"Allison! Over here!" Anderson said, watching me through the doorway.
Suddenly, the weight on my arm dissapeared. I turned to see that the boy was gone. Curious to suspicious, i pulled my arm back, and went to Anderson.
"Gah! This is a goddamn mess. Every minute these machines are here, thousands of people die. We should have listened to your warnings earlier." Anderson grunts, lifting the rubble. Taking a piece of rubble, i threw it over the edge of the floor.
"You listened, at least. And you did what you could. It's the Alliance's fault they didn't listen, not yours." I said, lifting a large metal beam and crawling under it.
"I'm an Admiral of the alliance. i'm responsible for preparing for situations like this." Anderson argued. "No matter. We need the other races for any hope of saving these people."
"We have make them realize that the Reapers aren't going to stop at Earth. We may not have been able to save Earth, but the least we can do is save the other races." I shook my head in concern, as we balanced along the wall on a thin strip of metal.
Suddenly, a giant shaking, nearly makes me lose my balance, until i feel Anderson's hand on the back of my neck, pulling me back up.
"Thanks," I said, catching my breath. "I guess i owe you one?"
"more than one." Anderson said fondly.
Dropping down, i spot some ammo on the ground. Grabbing it, i toss one of them to anderson, and reload the other.
The two of us step out of another broken glass window, and out onto another balcony.
"Kaidan, we're headed to the normandy, what's your position?" Anderson checks on the radio, with me running alongside him.
"We've made it to the normandy, but we're taking heavy fire-Oh god! They're gonna take out that dreadnought. Evasive manuevers!" Kaidan's voice crackled over the radio as we were suddenly plunged down a steep hill of rubble. Banging against the rubble, i landed face first onto a platform, my processors confused and shaken. Remembering Anderson, i looked over to see he was picking himself up, one of his pauldrons ripped off, and his uniform rather battered looking.
"I'm fine. Let's find a radio and signal the normandy to come pick us up." Anderson waved off my concern as he looked over to me.
Keeping an eye on him, i jumped down to see a pair of soldiers, one of which was stuck with a beam crushing his leg.
"You two alright?" I asked, bending down next to the soldier.
"You- You're shepard, right? The geth that came here a few months ago?" The soldier asked, looking fearful.
"Yes. And you know Anderson, i presume." I signaled to anderson, who crouched down next to me.
"Yes-" The solder was cut off as the sound of reaper troops got louder. "Oh, god, they found us! Can you do something?"
"Certainly." I said, deploying a drone over to the reaper troops, whose faces reminded me grusomely of Batarians. Taking the pistol, i carefully aimed and fired one of them in the face, whose head exploded. As the body dropped, the other troops decended on them. I took the oppertunity to take out two more, and anderson took out the last one.
"We need to get to a radio to signal our ship." Anderson said, turning back to the soldiers.
"Our ship had one, but it's flooded with those... things." The medic visably shuddered in horror.
"We'll take care of them. For now, you need to get your friend someplace safe." I ordered him, as me and Anderson lifted the beam off of the solder, who cried out when we lifted. The beam dropped onto the platform, and we crossed.
Rounding the corner, we found the area did indeed have more of those batarian things. Charging in, we fired at them, drawing their attention away from the radio. Quickly selecting my targets, i lined up each shot and fired, taking out at least 4. Anderson finished off the last 2. Upon approaching the radio, i spot and assault rifle, and immidiately modify my programming to accomidate it. a few tweaks to my aiming sensors, and it was as if i had used the gun my whole life.
Anderson worked with the radio, with me covering him from more of those batarian-things. Finally, Kaidan's voice crackled to life on the radio.
"We've reached the evac point. You can pick us up from here. Anderson out." Anderson said, reaching for his gun as more of the batarians showed up.
"I hope they get here soon!" Anderson yelled, shooting at the batarian husks.
"You and me both!" I yelled, ducking out of cover to throw out a drone. One of the husks came close, and out of desperation, i threw on my cloaking device, backing off. Targeting the batarian's eye, i fired, reveling in watching the face explode.
"Cavalry has arrived!" Joker's voice crowed as the Normandy flew by, dropping bombs on the remaining batarian husks. I crowed with joy, before running up to the area where the normandy's docking bay opened to James, my main guard, and Kaidan. Jumping across, i landed on the ramp, and turned to help Anderson on. Except he wasn't looking at me. Turned around, behind him were a pair of shuttles evacuating civilians.
"I'm not going." Anderson said at last. I felt dissapointment well up.
"You saw those men out there. There's a million more like them and they need a leader." Anderson argued.
"I need you to help me talk to the Council. You know they'll never believe me on their own."
"Go to the citadel. Talk to the council. At this point, they'll have to listen." Anderson said firmly.
"What if they don't listen?" I argued.
"Then make them listen. Now go! That's an order!" Anderson ordered.
"I'm not in your military anymore, remember?" I chuckled.
Anderson pulled something out of his pocket. Dog Tags.
"Consider yourself reinstated. Commander." Anderson threw the tags at me.
I caught them, gawking at them for a moment. "i'll be back for you. And i'll bring every fleet i can." I turned to walk away, then added "Good luck, Anderson. Keelah Se'lai."
Anderson smiled at the phrase, then said "You too, commander."
I watched as Anderson walked away, towards the shuttles, but again, in the corner of my eye, i saw a familiar white sweatshirt. I looked towards the shirt, to see the same boy from earlier, alive and surprisingly unharmed. He seemed to look around, before meeting my eye, and seemed to smile, almost as if he knew something. He quickly turned to see a reaper decending on the shuttles. Imidiately, he seemed to switch back into scared boy, and ran to the shuttles, where, i noticed suspiciously, nobody seemed to give him a second glance. Again, he met my eye, before the shuttle door closed, but this time, simply nodded. The shuttle took off, and before it could even get away, the reaper's beam destroyed both shuttles, leaving nothing but ashes and large debris in it's wake. I watched, unable to do anything, and felt pity, and surprisingly, anger. The bay door closed, and i walked away towards the elevator, feeding off the pity and anger. The two emotions fused into Palladium strong resolve, and I knew that I would drive off the Old Machines, or be deactivated trying.
And that, ladies and Gentlemen, and all species, genders, and origins, is the second chapter, of my ME3 Shepard's story. And hopefully her tech will last as long as Buzz Aldrin, and his Grandchildren. Though I imagine if Shepard and Legion get a good ending out of this, I'm afraid all children will end up starting their journey, on a floppy disk. Anyway, rate, review, comment, and play nice in the comment section. Till then, enjoy a picture of chibi legion with the words Shepurd-Commandur!