Shepard's group hurried across several ruined streets, but found no Geth along the way. Understandable considering the state of things on this planet, the synthetics tended to be very thorough, he had seen similar things occur wherever the Geth roamed. He kept a mental note on how far they had gone, and were now crossing the fifth street when a loud exclamation from Mordin pulled his and Grunt's attention. "You found something?" he inquired.
"A native. Kalinin we could call them. Dead. Fairly recent victim." The Salarian sighed as he began to scan the body.
Shepard went to stand on the other side of the body.. it was obviously male, an adult. Remarkably similar to Humans in appearance. Bullet wounds covered the body. He assumed this individual died instantaneously. The person appeared to be wearing a flak jacket which contained several primitive weapons and tools. Shepard made the assumption that this might be the natives' battledress. Shepard picked up the discovered weapons and examined them.. mostly knives, and shuriken. "No sign of advanced weapons?" the Commander wondered.
"None." Mordin replied before his scanning tool came up with something unusual.. "Strange. This species possess a second circulatory system. Separate from the other. Detecting faint signs of energy." he continued, sounding perplexed.
A far-away explosion caught their attention before Shepard could ask of what Mordin had just discovered.
"Let's study them after we save the survivors!" Shepard switched the topic and urged the others to move when a large cumbersome projectile suddenly vaulted high into the air. It only took a second to see that it's in fact the top of a building, including dirt that flew up along with it. Not an ordinary building in any case, more like a part of a bunker.
"It looks like they've broken up the bunker." Grunt chuckled at the scene.
"Quite. Literally." Mordin whispered as they crossed the current street and ventured across the bridge close by.. the only remaining one along the river that trailed through the city. The bunker top had long since crashed by the time they got halfway there.
"Here's hoping we're not too late." Shepard groaned as he continued to rush forward, the others trailing behind, especially Grunt who paused to look over an Armature that had gotten crushed by the falling debris by pure dumb luck..
"I got a hunch they aren't as helpless as they seem." the Krogan muttered to himself, tightening his grip on the shotgun before quickening his pace again to catch up with the others.
"A bit much, ain't it?" Konan muttered as she watched the roof vanish into the distance and gradually fell out of view, a small thunder being heard from the large structure hitting the ground.
"The whole world have gone to hell, who cares about going overboard at this point?" Onoki replied gruffly. The others stared at the wide open ceiling in a comical manner..
Hidan sneered as he leaped halfway up the improvised slope, what remained of the upper parts of the structure after the roof's most lifting farewell... too impatient to wait any longer.
Pain's foremost thought was to stop Hidan.. but his attention turned elsewhere.. "Ready?" he asked the youngsters, particularly the Jinchuriki.
"A-almost." Hinata grit her teeth, she was still merely at stage one.. but mustered all three tails. One soldier pill and a short rest aren't nearly enough to regenerate enough Chakra to go all the way. Naruto also held himself at stage one.. but arrived at eight tails before he stopped to join Hidan in one great leap to where he stood, followed by the Hyuga in short order.
"Come on, might as well get this started before our guests lose their patience." Kisame added in before he formed a series of hand signs.. and it wasn't necessary to ask what he had in mind as the jutsu activated and allowed the missing-nin to spew out a vast amount of water that carried him out of the bunker.. the water following at his beck and call.
"He got a point.. all of you, hit them fast and hit them hard, move out!" Nagato called out, all Shinobi present disappearing, each with a puff of smoke.
Several distant explosions could be heard as they eventually arrived at the location of the bunker only to see a completely unnatural flow of water which not only moved uphill, but also climbed from the ruins below as if it had a mind of its own.. Shepard and the others could hardly believe their own eyes.
The synthetic voice of EDI pierced his communicator.. "Heat signatures vanished."
"Are we too late?" Shepard asked, looking in the general direction of the path where the odd water poured towards.
"... Accepting new scans, heat signatures detected, one click north of your location." EDI stated.
"That quickly? Interesting." Mordin mused.
A massive explosion appeared from the horizon, great enough that the team felt the shock wave coming from it mere moments afterward and bright enough that they covered their eyes just as the flash hit them.
"W-what the?" Shepard exclaimed in surprise. But recovered within seconds, his pace breaking into a run as he began moving in the direction of the explosion.. his comrades quickly following suit.
They crossed the distance between them and the designated Kalinin with all speed .. a full blown battle seemed to be occurring up ahead. The sheer intensity of it made Shepard believe that entire armies are clashing before them just out of sight. The elements seemed out of place, behaving in an absurd manner, fires bending.. water swirling and breaking laws of physics to the left and right. Buildings shattering under great earthquakes. The trail that was left in the wake of the mysterious natives' maddeningly clear.. wrought with destruction, showcasing a force that no longer have anything more to lose, littering the streets with the bodies of Geth in the process. Some had been destroyed in particularly creative ways.
It was then that a platoon of Geth entered their view, bringing their weapons to bare against Shepard's group... and at something unseen. But before they could open fire, countless objects that looked like nothing but paper to the Commander's eyes pierced through the Geth wholesale, cutting down every single one of them in short order, collapsing their barriers and then sliced them apart, in some cases limb by limb.
Confusion had overcome them momentarily at what they just beheld, but Grunt quickly shrugged it off and rushed forward, raising his weapon. "H-hold it.. damn it, back him up!" Shepard barked, and followed the Krogan in turn. Grunt arrived just past the corner and brought his shotgun up and got hit by a flurry of paper pieces that bounced off his kinetic barrier. "Cease fire!" Shepard called out as they joined up, gazing at the native who now stood before them.
Correction, the being hovered before them. The native hovered few feet above ground, and half of her body seemed to be missing. Indeed, the woman before them looked as if she's made of paper entirely. At first, Shepard thought of this as some sort of hologram used to distract enemies until he noticed the woman's genuinely surprised expression as she scrutinized the team before her, especially the Salarian and Krogan.
"W-who are... what are you?" the woman asked with a loud voice, obviously ill at ease.
The woman's voice sounded unintelligible to the Commander at first.. but his translator was fast at work.. which took surprisingly little time deciphering the language she spoke.. it seemed to have much in common with Earth's Japanese language. Shepard held up his hands in caution.. "Don't be alarmed, my name is Commander John Shepard. We just recently found out that you've been under heavy assault from the Geth, we are here to rescue you." he replied, speaking through his communicator, which translated his words to the native in turn.
"Rescue...? Geth? Is that what those monsters are called? No, this must be a trap." Konan spoke, shaking her head as if to clear her head from some form of trickery. The woman pulled away, the paper that made up her form dispersed and vanished into the distance.
"Unsurprising. Near-extinction can foster paranoia among survivors." Mordin concluded by his own observation.
"Follow her, we need to convince them to leave with us." the Commander ordered and they moved to pursue, hoping for better luck with the next encounter.
"What is it?" Onoki blurted out at Konan while he pulverized another armature with his Atomic dismantling technique from the cover of a half collapsed wall.
"We got strange beings coming up from behind, might be decoys." Konan announced as she hurried past, trying to reach Nagato further ahead.
"Decoys?" the old Tsuchikage muttered as he turned his attention south.. "Never seen them do that." he glared into the distance. "Might as well see it, if it is true." the old man took a few steps.. "I'll just go check it out, if you don't mind, right? ... Right?" he asked, looking in Konan's direction only to see she had already moved on. "Never mind." he muttered to himself.
Once he again turned south, a number of Geth infiltrators appeared from crags in the terrain, rushing towards the elderly man.. "Oh no you don't." Onoki groaned as he formed another set of hand signs in retaliation. But did not even get as far as activating the technique as the Geth came under fire from an unseen force, all shot down in a barrage of projectiles. "Wha- who's there?"
Shepard and his comrades had shot down another set of Geth along the way, the Kalinin did not appear to be as thorough as the synthetics. An error the Geth tried to use to their advantage as they attempted to strike at them from behind, but not if the Normandy shore party had any say in it. It was when an elderly male's voice called out that Shepard ordered the lowering of his comrades weapons as they stepped out of cover and entered the view of the old man in front.
Surprise was evident, but instead of going away.. his wise eyes looked the arrivals over.. "Too life-like to be decoys and machines.. though I sense no Chakra." the figure muttered in observation.
"I'm Commander John Shepard of the SSV Normandy. Me and my team have come here to rescue you and your people." the Commander announced clearly.
"Pah, should of come over a few months ago when many of our people still lived." the Tsuchikage replied in a harsh manner.. "Got a few young folks with me, but that's it."
"Then tell them to stop fighting and come here, the sooner we can extract you the better." Shepard told him, glad to meet someone who managed to keep his mind straight.
"Urrrh." the old man coughed.. "Can try, but this was meant to be a last-stand, don't know if they'll come." he said as he picked a knife from his pocket and placed a tag on its handle before hurling it up in the air.. As soon as the tags timer ran out, a flare appeared in the sky.
"Might as well invite the Geth to join us with that.." Grunt offered his thought.
"Yes, but maybe they haven't invented technology capable of long range communication yet."
"We do possess such things.. but scarcity of resources leave us little choice." Onoki noted gruffly as he stood and waited until a figure familiar to the old man appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.
This newcomer wore a robe very similar to the one the woman earlier was wearing.. but to Mordin's clearly disturbed expression, his tool informed them that no life-signs could be detected from the this particular being. Its dead and yet it still moved. But Onoki wasn't even fazed as he approached Nagato's Animal Path.
"What is it, Onoki?" the Path asked, its face becoming greatly perplexed at the sight of the group that stood with the Tsuchikage. "What are..."
"Apparently, they want to rescue us..." Onoki replied.
"And where would they rescue us to? The world is no more." The Path replied, unbelieving.
"We have a ship that can travel to other worlds." Shepard informed them simply.. to both natives obvious confusion. "But we need you to hurry up and make a decision. Our comrades up there won't be able to distract the Geth fleet in orbit for long."
The Path seemed even more confused, but looking to and fro the beings that stood with Shepard... he decided that the stranger offered them a window of escape.. and if it could save their lives. Might as well, what did they have to lose?
"Very well... wait here." The Path replied, but did not even budge one inch to the aliens' confusion. The Tsuchikage shrugged and motioned for the team to wait.
...
"Water release: Water shark missile Jutsu!" Kisame hollered, launching the Water style technique at a small number of Geth that just attempted to ambush him. The synthetics tried to evade, but the projectile struck and destroyed them in short order.
He pulled his blade, Samehada, from his back and sought to rip apart an offending machine with it only to have one of Nagato's Paths interrupt him as it suddenly landed besides him.
"What is it?" Kisame asked, once he had disposed of his immediate opponent.
"Stand by for summoning, Kisame." the Path replied as it grabbed hold of Kisame's arm. The Shinobi was puzzled, but decided not to argue.
...
Hidan wasn't far away, hacking and slashing through the ranks of machines in short order, picking down those infiltrators first and foremost, offering the softest target for his scythe. "Take this you fuckers, I got more than enough for everyone!" he announced gleefully, but was brought to a halt from being grabbed from behind.. "What the hell?" he yelled.
"Be quiet, stand by!" Asura Path insisted.
...
A platoon of Armatures suffered their violent defeat as a large number of Kunai suddenly carpeted the area, followed shortly by a series of violent explosions as the tags attached to the weapons detonated.. the machines could not muster a response before they were all gone. Tenten was about to unleash another barrage when Preta Path appeared before her and placed a hand on her left wrist. The girl stopped as she gazed back at the Path in confusion.
...
Two orbs of destruction filled the horizon, and it was impossible not to know where that came from as Hinata and Naruto deployed their respective Bijudama against the formations that had begun to move into the area. The blasts were effective in clearing away most of the nearby forces despite constant reinforcements. Such situations can prove tiring for the Jinchuriki however, especially Hinata, who never sported nearly as much stamina as Naruto, aided by the Kyubi. Not even after she was given the Sanbi. But at the moment when a dozen Armatures got through the devastation and about to unleash their next volley, Deva Path appeared and pulled them both to him with Bansho Ten'in.. grabbing their wrists once they came close enough.
"H-hey, what gives?" Naruto yelled. Hinata only let out a gasp.
...
"Might as well." Nagato notified the still confused Konan as he went closer and took her hand.
...
Animal Path folded its hands and thrust them to the ground. Shepard's perplexed team watched the motions.. and was taken aback as smoke burst out of the ground.
"What was that?" Shepard exclaimed, coughing at the smoke and marveled once it cleared away.. revealing a larger group having appeared before them in an instant. A strange group by all accounts, especially two of the teens that were surrounded by a strange aura, but at a second glimpse, it was nearly gone.
"How in the...?" Grunt began to ask when Nagato interjected.
"Questions later. Time for you to prove that you can offer us the escape we seek." Nagato said, straight to the point.
"Alright, this way." the Human said as he took an immediate turn towards south.. Mordin and Grunt were both quick to follow. But the majority of the native survivors seemed very reluctant to follow, and did so only once Onoki and Nagato urged them onward. The ground rumbling beneath their feat telling clearly of the approach of hostile battle formations. So at the urgings, they did pick up the pace significantly and managed to overtake the Normandy shore party very quickly. The extended group navigated through the ruined city with artillery shells starting to hammer down across the area. The shells were for the most part extremely inaccurate. Having no spotters present due to EDI's earlier interference.
"Joker, what's your status?" he called into his communicator, dialing the Normandy.
"The status is that this sucks, we have sustained minor damage and our ship are close to overheating. I suggest you wrap things up down there fast or we're all done." the helmsman replied summarily.. "Weapons systems are damaged, only operating at half of its capacity. Tali is struggling to keep the reactor stabilized. And EDI's at her limit. She's devoting all of her attention on keeping the Normandy's systems away from the Geth.
So they had to hurry and fast. But fortunately it wasn't far away now. The Kodiak appeared in their sight. "All on board, quick, we don't have much time." Shepard urged the natives onto it.
"Um, where are the animals?" Tenten asked, confused at the prospect of entering a metallic carriage with no wheels nor beasts of burden.
"We don't need that crap." Grunt replied as he shoved her into the shuttle before getting on himself. The limited space within the shuttle got very cramped very quickly.
"Just a moment, make room." Nagato noted as Animal Path made yet another summon.. Naraka Path appearing out of the smoke, carrying a large sack. Which Shepard assumed contained something important. "Now we got everything." Shepard pulled his attention away and closed the shuttle door, and with a jerk, the craft lifted off to most of the occupants' complete surprise and darted towards the skies with all speed.
The natives landed in one large heap. They had never experienced riding anything like this.. "W-what is this?" Naruto asked, completely bewildered as he tried to shove Hidan off him.
"We're f-flying." Hinata spoke softly as she stared through the window, watching as their distance from the surface grew at an alarming speed.
"I can't believe this thing can fly." Konan added in her astonishment. The surface vanishing beneath a thick layer of clouds, and even those were vanishing quickly beneath them as they rapidly approached the outer edge of the atmosphere.
"Joker, we're out. Lock on to our signal and intercept!" the Commander quickly informed.
"Already on it, sir." Joker answered, the Normandy exiting the battle above, leaving behind several shattered wrecks, showing that the ship's crew had been very productive to this point.
Hidan could not help but swear loudly as the larger ship came at them at a speed which could be best described as unsafe.
"Hold on!" Shepard hollered and the shuttle was quickly caught by the Normandy, the Kodiak setting down quite nicely inside the hangar with the help of its mass effect fields.
"Alright, they have gotten on board. EDI, get us out of here, anywhere that ain't here!" the helmsman quickly gave the order.
"Affirmative, stand by for jump." the AI announced on the intercom to the whole crew.
The Geth fleet pursued the lone ship, launching torpedoes, opening fire with all guns at their disposal.. every projectile chasing the Normandy, but thanks to Joker's expertise, all but a few of the shots missed the craft cleanly. But as soon as the third barrage almost reached them, the FTL safely activated and made the ship vanish from the planet's orbit as it safely escaped.
Although mass effect fields largely make sure that the crew does not feel the acceleration.. a few of the Shinobi came stumbling out of the shuttle, a little dizzy. Hidan managed to stay upright for only a couple of steps before he collapsed... Naruto and Tenten crashed into the floor the moment they got off. The others however managed to keep themselves on their feet. Being the first time on a space ship, it felt a bit overwhelming.
Kisame reached down and helped the two grounded young-nins back on their feet while Hidan was left to pick himself back up.
Shepard moved to the elevator alongside Grunt, practically switching places with those coming out of it. Those people revealed to be Doctor Chakwas and Jacob, both having come down to check up on Shepard and the others.
The Doctor was about to check the shore party, but her attention soon turned to the Kalinin.
And Hidan was less than enthusiastic at the prospect of getting checked up, she brought up a strange glowing tool around her left arm pointed in his general direction and repeated the motions with Naruto, who still relied on Kisame to remain standing. "Alright, all of you to the infirmary."
"I'm fine, just a little dizzy." Naruto groaned, cracking a smile.
"I'll be the judge of that, to the infirmary now!" Chakwas insisted firmly, gesturing for Taylor and Mordin to help the newcomers to the elevator and up.
The contraption itself felt painfully slow, and nearly tortured a few of them, Tenten in particular disliked the damn thing. "Can't this piece of junk go any faster?" she angrily asked. It was her as well as the others first time on an elevator, and so far it did not impress them. Only Onoki seemed fine with it.
"How can you stand this, old fart?" Kisame whispered incredulously, crouching down to the same height as the old man. A feat that took some doing.
"Be a good example, you brute. We're in a completely new environment that we know next to nothing about. Impatience could kill you." Onoki replied calmly.
After what felt like a really long time, the group were ushered out and lead to the infirmary a short distance away while curious crew members watched the newcomers.. "Those the new aliens? Looks pretty Human to me." one of them asked only to receive Kisame's attention.
"And what the hell are you looking at, runt?" he growled menacingly at the stares he had to endure before following the rest of the group, grumbling in annoyance.
"Great, we got more aliens. And one of them happen to be Jaws, nicely done!" Joker chuckled at the sudden population expansion on board the ship.
"There's nothing to joke about it, Joker." the Commander replied sternly.. "They're the last of their kind."
"Fine, don't bite the jokers head off. I got it." the helmsman replied in an apologetic manner. "So what will our next destination be?"
"Illium for starters. The needs of the Kalinin require that we go to the Citadel immediately.. but I have a feeling that they will need to get used to the current situation first before we subject them to further-"
"Not so fast Commander, once this jump's complete. We need to halt and bring the heat radiation gear on line. Push her any harder now and we'll be in trouble." Tali interrupted them through the intercom.
"Thank you for the heads up. We'll be at the relay in just a couple of hours." Joker replied accordingly.
Shepard nodded.. "Carry on." before he turned, heading back to the elevator. Deciding that it was time to go and get some rest.
Garrus was heading out to take a break. As much as he enjoyed working, he could not go about pushing himself too hard. If there's nothing more to do at the moment, there would be nothing more till later.
"Hmm?" he hummed as he got to the break room that was smothered right between the infirmary, Lawson's office and the gun controls behind him. His attention diverted to the windows that allowed onlookers to peer into the infirmary where those Kalinin all sat at the moment, subjected to various tests to make sure they are all in good health. Some took it well, understanding doctor Chakwas' intention for what it is. However, one appeared to be in a particularly foul mood. The Doctor focused her attention on Hidan because of the visibly sewn cuts. They looked severe, but not recent in any case.
"Get the hell off me already, I feel fine!" Hidan shouted at her and came only a few inches from forcing the Doctor away with a full force shove if it wasn't for Naruto restraining him.
"Calm down, man! She's not going to harm you!" Nagato berated him.
"You calm down! There is nothing wrong with me!" Hidan replied hotly.
"Of course, there's only a couple hundred screws loose in you're head." Kisame chuckled, not helping the situation at all. Tenten, Hinata and Konan were mostly doing spectator work, watching the whole situation as it developed. Onoki had fallen asleep in the corner of the room on a bed. He had been confirmed to be at good health despite his very advanced age, and decided to take his first nap in days of almost constant work and fighting.
However the efforts to calm Hidan down proved fruitless, he fumed even more from Kisame's comment. "Get the hell off me!" he told Naruto in a fit of anger.
"No, not until you calm down!" he protested.
Garrus watched the man's unreasonable anger issues with disgust, and was about to walk away when he suddenly found Hidan staring back at him. "What the hell are you staring at, ugly fuck?" Hidan roared as he struck the window, which cracked from the impact and sent fragments through the neighboring chamber. The Turian stepped away as it occurred. The windows were made from armored glass.. He couldn't believe someone could actually damage it with just his bare hands, and yet this one did.
Chakwas was about to bring a strong sedative when the man struck the window panel with such force and gasped at what had just happened. Hinata got on her feet and hurried to the doctor, took the sedative and rushed over to Hidan. And before he could react to her presence, she had pierced the syringe into the base of his neck and emptied its tranquillizing contents into his body.
The man quickly began to sway dangerously where he sat as the drugs began to work.. "The... bi..." he muttered before he fell off the bed and hit the deck. Hinata paused for a moment before she knelt down and checked on him.. the Doctor had brought her strongest sedative, and it did not disappoint.
Chakwas finally managed to gather herself by that time and instructed the teens to lift the man back onto the bed so she could do a more thorough scan of his scars. 'Such physical strength. Is it common to all Kalinin?' the Doctor thought to herself, hoping that there would be no similar violent episodes from now on. She looked up at Garrus, who still stood outside in a temporary state of shock.. but he was starting to come to, after which he would leave for his break as he originally planned.
Eventually, most of the Shinobi got the permission to leave, the examination complete. They were allowed to move around in the crew's quarters. Plenty beds stood available for them to use that weren't already occupied by the regular crew of the ship. With that gesture, the only ones who remained in the infirmary but herself, Hidan and Onoki. She brought the scanner on line and started probing Hidan. At first she only wanted to take a closer look at those scars. And what she saw, horrified her. The scars circled around his entire body in several places, and had been sewn shut quite thoroughly for the string to be this visible. The scanner provided his internal biometry.. the scars encompassed several internal injuries as well to her horror, including his organs and even the skeleton. "What in the world happened to him?" Chakwas whispered in disbelief... it was as if the man had been blown to pieces and then sewn back together. Though it wasn't the only abnormality she found. The scanner revealed the second circulatory system he possessed, her instruments detecting some form of unknown energy moving through it. She accessed and read the quick report Mordin provided her with, but she never imagined it would be this extensive. These veins were barely a fraction of the size of blood veins. And coiled all around the body and around organs instead of forming any actual connection. She appeared to be completely at a loss at what kind of function this system actually performed. She'd have to inquire later, but for now:
She keyed the intercom and linked to the ship's lab. "Mordin, it's Chakwas."
"Yes? What?" she heard the Salarian ask, apparently busy.
"I need you to get down here, better take a look at this." she gasped as the energy in Hidan's system began to pulse.. the man already showing signs of waking up. The sedative about to expire. 'Already?' She closed the link after getting confirmation from Mordin and called for guards to restrain the patient. "Hurry."
