Just Another Wasteland
AN: Hi everybody. Seeing as the four reviews I got for this story were generally positive I decided to continue and see where this would go. Some of you noticed that my LW's back story is very similar to Plague's story from The Wildcard, yes I did in fact draw a lot of inspiration from there for my start mostly because he did a lot of things I wanted to do but things should diverge from Maltavis' story but credit where credit is due if you haven't read his story yet you really should. Enough of my pointless blathering time to move on.
Disclaimer: While I would love to write for Bioware and Bethesda that sadly has yet to become a reality so I can still claim no ownership over their material... Yet
JAW/JAW/JAW
The search for Saren was unfortunately slow going after rescuing Dr. Liara T'Soni From the Geth that had trapped her in the Prothien ruins on Therum. Shepard had been sweeping the Artemis Tau Cluster for any more signs of Geth activity when the Normandy picked up a distress beacon in the Sparta system. Upon locating the beacon and the team of dead Marines that had apparently responded to the signal before them the ground team was assaulted by a Thresher Maw and barely managed to destroy it. A field search of the bodies revealed them to be under the command of Admiral Kahoku. A return trip to the Citadel having already been planned to deliver an in person report to Ambassador Udina and restock on supplies Shepard went ahead and delivered the news about the Marines passing to the distraught admiral. Not long after Shepard received a message from the admiral about a rogue splinter cell code named 'Cerberus'. The first human Specter was tasked with verifying and if necessary cleaning out these supposed Cerberus strongholds. It was on another by then routine raids when he met 'The Wanderer'.
Shepard POV
"Okay team we should be closing in on the Cerberus base just over this ridge. Gear up and get ready for anything, I don't need to remind you about what we ran into last time do I?" Shepard asked getting a cringe from several of his ground team remembering those mindless Krogan berserkers they ran into last time. Wrex had been especially enraged to see his brothers stripped of what little pride they had left. As the Mako began cresting the hill a message from Joker rang over the intercom.
"Commander are you at the base yet?" Joker asked a confused tone in his voice.
"Not yet Joker. Why something wrong?" Shepard asked slightly worried.
"I'm not sure commander. It's just that we usually don't start hearing Cerberus distress signals until after you've started your assault, but a couple of minutes ago their radio's went live calling for assistance. The signal was coded but from what we managed to gather an experiment of theirs managed to get loose and it's tearing the place apart. Be careful in there it sounds worse than those Asari spliced super biotics you ran into a while back." Joker responded the worry edging it's way into his voice.
"Understood Joker. Thanks for the heads up. Keep in orbit we should be in and out fairly quickly. Shepard out. Alright team you heard that, Cerberus' little games have finally started biting them in the ass. I don't want any heroes in there. We assess the situation and determine the best way to move in this thing might not be hostile. If so we may be able to get information out of it." Shepard concluded as they reached their destination the partially hidden entrance to yet another underground facility. The team consisting of Kaidan Alenko, Ashley Williams, Tali Zora Na'Raia, Liara T'Soni, Urdnot Wrex, Garrus Vakarian, and commander James Shepard himself stepped out of the Mako and made their way inside. After an annoyingly slow ride down the lift the team quickly cleared the entrance way of threats before setting up standard formation. A makeshift barrier was set up several feet behind the door where Garrus would hold up with his sniper rifle to provide cover fire. Tali had hacked into the computer network and had projections from all the facilities cameras up and was monitering the base for any traps while Kaidan used Tali's link to take control of any turrets or automated defenses he could locate. Shepard and grunt positioned themselves directly to the sides of the door shotguns ready and biotics primed to charge in Ashley positioned to move in and act as a suppressor keeping the enemy distracted while the heavy hitters did as much damage as possible.
After Tali informed Shepard that most of the cameras in the room had been damaged and she could only see small parts of the room Shepard gave the signal and Tali quickly opened the door to the main chamber .Stepping through the door the team was greeted with a very unexpected sight. The room had been painted red with the blood of butchered scientists and soldiers alike. Most of the bodies were less than identifiable to put it lightly. Most of what they saw weren't so much bodies as random piles of parts spread all over the room. Standing in the center of the carnage was a single blood covered blond man holding a female soldier over his head from the front plate of her armor. On his back was a rifle he seemed to have looted from one of the soldiers further in. The most unusual thing however was the sight of his right arm. The flesh had opened up to reveal that it was robotic with two main plates slid apart allowing a foot long blade to extend from inside of his arm* which he was using to threaten the woman.
"Now this is the last time I'm asking. Where the hell have you assholes taken me!" The blond 'monster' of a man demanded. The soldier finally managed to find her voice and all but yelled out her response.
"Base number 559373, Zone 332475, Amaranthine, Fortuna System, Horse Head Nebula!" She yelled out giving as precise a location as she could the mans response however was less the pleasant.
"Bullshit! The Horse Head Nebula is Fifteen Thousand light years away from earth! If your gonna lie at least make it believable!" The infuriated man yelled before driving his blade through her throat and out the back end severing her spinal cord in the process before throwing her to the side. The blade retracted as his arm quickly made it's way to his back where he retrieved his looted rifle before leveling it at the ground team and turning his head to look at them. "Who are you?" He asked his burning golden eyes betraying his wary curiosity. "If your armor is anything to go on your not with these vermin," He said using his head to gesture towards the bloody mess around the room ", so I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt. Do any of you know where the fuck we are?" The golden eyed man asked sighting down the barrel again to to double check his aim in case the team was hostile. Signaling to his team to lower their weapons which the stranger reciprocated.
"My name is Commander Shepard of the Systems Alliance Navy, I'm a Specter." The commander began trying to gauge the unknown mans reactions. Unfortunately the man either had no clue what he was talking about or he had one hell of a poker face so he moved on to a different tactic. "We can get you any information or help you want lets get you out of here and cleaned up and we'll see about getting you what ever you need." Shepard tried, offering the man safety an information and hoping to get what he could in return.
"And why should I trust you? How do I know your not some merc's trying to haul me off to another lab to be poked at?" The blond accused taking up a more aggressive pose but keeping his gun lowered slightly. Attempting to use logic to placate the situation Shepard decides to point out the obvious.
"Well I guess the best argument for our side would be the simple fact that were you're only way out of here. Chances of another ship passing by here before you wind up starving to death are slim." The strangers harsh glare turned contemplative for a moment before he finally lowered his gun completely and loosened his posture.
"Fine then lets go. Just remember the last idiots who tried to capture me now look like this." The stranger said pointing once again to the bloody mess he had made of the Cerberus operatives.
"Fair enough," Shepard said holstering his Shotgun and stepping further into the room to begin the routine base stripping. "We'll be leaving in a moment just need to collect what we can."
"Not that I don't appreciate the view," Ashley quipped eying the strangers sizable 'build' "But I'd suggest getting something to wear. Not exactly safe out there for bear skin exposure." She pointed out. The stranger for his part moved on to searching for some intact armor that was more or less his size and the rest of the team started gathering up what they could. Tali, Kaidan, and Garrus were gathering data on what ever they could find while the others stripped any weapons, armor, upgrades, and supplies they could occasionally calling the tech specialists to hack open a container or two. The search was fairly routine until Tali managed to hack into the restricted files and located the gathered data on the golden eyed blond they had found. A quick skim led her to come to a basic conclusion this man was more augmented than any other human she had ever herd of. Mutations, implants, augmentations, enhancements, and that was before Cerberus got a hold of him after that they started pushing him trying to see how far they could push his physiology before he finally broke down, Cybernetics, major genetic rewriting, muscular enhancement surgery, neural rewiring, and other insane things trying to, as the head scientist stated, create the "Perfect Human".
Stepping into the Mako, the stranger in a new set of salvaged Cerberus guard armor, Shepard made the call to Joker.
"Were done here joker ready for pick up. Your never gonna believe what we found down here."
"Roger commander, Normandy in bound to pick up site. ETA less than five minutes see you soon."
JAW/JAW/JAW/
Micheal's POV
Back on the Normandy the ground team had gathered in the meeting room with their new tag along who was trying desperately trying to hide his confusion behind a mask of contemplative boredom. He'd been in space surrounded by aliens before but that wasn't exactly a pleasant experience for him, and now here he was on a different kind of space ship crewed by mostly humans with some aliens he had never seen before and they were staring at him waiting for him to speak. Opening his mouth the Lone Wanderer decided to start with simple vague information.
"My name is Micheal Connors, I was born on earth in the D.C. area of the United States. My early years were fairly calm nothing you'd call extraordinary. When I was nineteen I left home and started traveling that's when things got interesting. Attacks by raiders, scavengers trying to kill me for what ever I might have had at the time you know the simple life mostly. Met some interesting people learned from a few killed some others. Then one day I stumbled into something I wasn't supposed to and woke up in that hole being poked by some egg heads with a thing for asking how much something hurt on a scale from one to ten. One day they forgot to tighten one of my restraints and boom I met all of you." Micheal concluded getting a critical eye from the others.
"The human is good at making nothing into a long story. I'll give him that." The lizard looking thing said turning to the grey thing with three fingers and head spines who chuckled and nodded his agreement.
"Well I like him. I think he could be very useful in the future." The human woman said giving him another appraising once over.
"You just liked the eyeful you got of him planet side." The Asian looking dark haired man quipped back.
"Whats the matter Alenko feeling insecure, worried you wont 'measure up'." The woman retorted.
"Alright that's enough. Lets get our friend settled in and we can get to the introductions later." The commander ordered before standing up and ending the meeting right there. Everyone got up and moved to their regular stations leaving Micheal to explore the ship on his own.
"Before you go Micheal. We found this in a crate labeled research materials and thought it might belong to you." Shepard said handing the Wanderer a box. Inside were his old suit and duster combo and pipboy. Nodding his head in thanks the man left to put on his familiar armor.
JAW/JAW/JAW
A few hours later found Micheal standing in front of a window looking at the view of that endless starry void. Walking up behind him Ashley Williams took up a space next to him and looked out with him.
"It's beautiful isn't it." She commented trying to strike up conversation the the blond man.
"Cold, empty, inhospitable, and lifeless. Beautiful as it is. Its just another wasteland." The man said looking to Ashley with a sad light glowing just behind his expressive Golden eyes. The only emotion that could be seen on the mans face at all. He then turned and left leaving here standing there dumbstruck at that odd outlook on space.
AN: Done and it only took me a few months to do. That conversation is where I got the idea for the title. So what do you think. Thoughts, opinions, down right hatred, all are welcome. I'm taking suggestions for Perks for Micheal. Any suggestions are welcome. Till next time this is wiwuno signing out.
*(Cyborg Perk)