I stare down the Commander, trying my hardest not to lash out verbally. "What the hell are you talking about Shepard?" I demand, my voice betraying the confusion that I'm feeling.
She shoots me a savage glare. "You heard me; the Geth didn't kill the Turian. His wounds are inconsistent with plasma weaponry. The only people we know to have visited the spaceport are you and the colonial militia. Do you think a bunch of amateurs could take down a Spectre? Not to mention they're all dead." She deduces, and I notice Alenko's hand shift towards his pistol.
I shake my head and continue to look at her defiantly. "Are you really that damn paranoid Commander? I know you don't like us in Intelligence but what do we stand to gain by assassinating a Council Spectre?" I ask angrily.
She takes out her assault rifle and aims it squarely at me. "That's what you're going to tell me, unless you want to breathe through a new hole in your head." She threatens.
Alenko stiffens as I rapidly bring out my handgun and aim it at Shepard, coupled with the flaring of my biotics, it causes him to draw his own weapon and aim it at me. "Commander, stand down. I didn't kill the damn Turian!" I exclaim in frustration.
The standoff continues until I hear movement behind a bunch of crates. I whip my pistol around, just stopping myself from firing as a human emerges.
He quickly raises his hands in surrender. "Wait, don't shoot, I'm human! Your friend is telling the truth, he didn't kill the Turian!" He screams.
I make a silent prayer and Shepard quickly interjects. "Then who did?" She demands harshly and the man visibly recoils.
He's practically shaking as he speaks. "My name's Powell, I saw everything. Your Turian friend was talking with another Turian, he responded to the name Saren. Your friend seemed to relax and let his guard down, then Saren shot him in the back, just killed him." He says hurriedly, hardly pausing for breath.
Shepard stiffens. "Did you see where he went?" She asks, in a slightly less aggressive tone.
He shakes his head. "No, but I saw where the Geth took the beacon. They transported it using the tramline; it's on the other side of the spaceport." He explains and we nod.
Shepard nods. "Got it, let's move people!" She orders.
I let out a breath that I didn't even realize I was holding and move up with the squad, it's the same formation as we previously used with Ashley and I at the front, with Kaiden and Shepard bringing up the rear. Suddenly, my radio sparks to life and I hear a voice.
"Svenson, its Shepard. I'm sorry about accusing you of killing Nihlus, I was wrong."
She doesn't even look at me, or acknowledge me after sending the message over radio. She probably doesn't want the others knowing that she even apologized. We head down the stairs towards the tram line and suddenly, all hell breaks loose.
An explosion next to me sends me flying into the railing on my left, I feel the air get pushed out of my lungs upon impact and it causes Alenko to get knocked onto his back. I fall to the ground and my breathing becomes laboured as I struggle to get oxygen into my lungs. I see Ashley and Shepard firing at a group of Geth at the other side of the walkway with their assault rifles. Suddenly, a huge Geth, bigger than any I'd previously seen fires four rockets at our position. Shit! I quickly raise a barrier around us and all four of the projectiles slam into it with overwhelming power, each hit sends a painful shock up along my spine.
I pull myself up against a barricade and try to recover; I then notice the visor of my helmet has a huge crack running along the middle of it, obscuring my vision. Looks like, I don't have any more use for this. I rip the helmet off my head and throw it over to the side; the cool air on my face is a welcome feeling after the heat and the rush of battle. I spin around the corner with my pistol; every squad member is focusing their fire on the big guy.
Shepard points at Alenko. "Alenko, hit that thing with an overload and I'll do the same, Svenson, try and lift it with your biotics! Ashley, I want you to keep hitting it with as much fire as you can put down range!" She orders and we all nod.
Alenko and Shepard both open up their Omni-Tools and hit the large Geth with simultaneous overloads whilst Ashley is still firing controlled bursts at it with her rifle. Its shields eventually drop, but I take three hits to my own shields by the other, smaller Geth surrounding it. I still remain out of cover and draw on as much power as I can to lift the behemoth with my mind. Slowly, it starts to climb in the air and I feel fatigue beginning to take its toll, I can feel the blood trickling out of my nose. I grunt and continue anyway, eventually my squad focuses weapon fire on the Geth, and the killing blow is struck by Alenko. He uses his biotics to viciously slam down the large synthetic, causing it to crumple and explode violently into hundreds of pieces. I fall back behind cover as the squad mops up the remaining, smaller Geth forces.
I wipe my nose and close my eyes for a second.
"Don't fall asleep on the job kid, it'll get you killed!" The voice causes me to jump back onto my feet. Lieutenant Anaheim? No...She's dead Asher, let it go!
I walk with the squad to the controls for the tram-line and lean against the railing. Why am I hearing Anaheim's voice again? I thought I'd put those ghosts behind me after my first lone wolf assignment. I place my pistol back on my hip and stare up into the burning red sky, how can this be happening? Am I awake, or am I asleep? I shake my head as the tram begins to move.
I feel a hand on my shoulder; I turn to me left and see the Commander looking at me with a gentle expression. "Stay with me Svenson, I need you at your best." She says softly and I'm stunned into silence. I simply nod.
What the hell was that? Why has her attitude just completely shifted? I dismiss the train of thought as I can see the other side of the spaceport in the distance. It takes us seven more seconds to come to a standstill and I notice a shape, accompanied by a familiar beeping that puts me on high alert.
I point at the large device in front of the stairs next to us. "Demolition charges, the Geth must have set them up to destroy the colony!" I shout and Shepard nods.
She points at Alenko. "Alenko, disarm this one. I'll take Svenson and Williams and sweep the area ahead, see if we can find any more of them." She commands.
Kaiden salutes. "Yes ma'am." He responds and goes to work on ending the device in front of him.
Shepard takes the lead and charges up the stairs, with Ashley and I following closely behind. I instantly take in the details of the area, multiple pieces of cover that separates us from Geth fire on the other side of the spaceport, connecting us to that side is a single bridge with one crate on it and the Geth are dug in on the other side. I count four regular troopers, one white trooper and another that's holding a...shit! Sniper!
I push Shepard to the ground as the red laser paints her armour. "Sniper!" I shout.
The Geth changes its target and fires at me once, I take a glancing blow that rips through my shields and causes the shot to tear through the very edge of my abdomen. I give a shout of pain and fall behind a crate; in this time my suit has already started dispensing medi-gel to the wound so that it can stem the bleeding. I hear several bursts of rifle fire from our side and as I turn out of cover with my pistol raised, I see the sniper and another trooper slump the ground.
Ashley looks down at me. "Asher, you okay?" She shouts, concern lacing her tone.
I stand up with a grunt of effort. "Yeah, I'm fine, let's get these bastards back." I say grimly.
She nods and switches to her sniper rifle, mimicking Shepard who had done so a moment earlier. Ashley fires a shot at the white trooper who we had determined to be some kind of Shock Trooper. Its shields break, but it is undamaged...until Shepard nails it in the head with a shot from her rifle. In this time Alenko had finished disarming the first bomb and rushed past us to diffuse the second one. I see one of the remaining three troopers as I spin out of cover and feel a thud, I fire at it with my pistol and I manage to bring its shields down with three shots, my fourth penetrates its head and fifth slams into its chest, causing it to fall to the ground, inactive.
Alenko and Shepard overload the final two, leaving them vulnerable to the combined gunfire of the entire squad that rips them to pieces. Before I know it, they both sprint off in different directions, looking for the last of the demolition charges.
I walk over the bridge slowly and lean against the wall, it's weird, and I feel really lightheaded all of a sudden. Shepard walks over to me, presumably having diffused the last of the demolition charges. I smile at her; however she does not return it. In fact, she looks at me with an expression of horror. I look down at my stomach and see that blood is practically leaking from my armour and it seems like my medi-gel stores have been depleted as the bleeding isn't stopping. I cough and slump to the ground, my eyes looking into the angry red sky of the planet. I cough again and blood covers my hand.
I can no longer hear very well and I try to think, when did I get hit like this? Then it hits me, I spun out cover to engage the remaining three troopers, I felt a thud then. It must have been a round hitting me.
I hear muffled shouting and what sounds like Shepard.
"-Need a med-evac now! Alenko, try and stabilize him, Ashley come with me to the beacon!" She shouts and they both disappear.
Alenko then grips my hand and applies medi-gel to my stomach however, it only barely stops the bleeding and I begin to feel darkness taking hold of me.
He squeezes my hand tightly and I'm brought back slightly. "Hold on Svenson, we've got a medical team coming. You're going to be okay." He says reassuringly.
I feel myself slipping away even further as black spots enter my vision, growing larger and larger. Eventually, the darkness takes me...
Corporal Asher Svenson
Date: 5th November 2180
Location: Uncharted Moon
I load my ammunition block into my assault rifle and fix my helmet onto my head. The familiar sound of the helmet pressurizing is a welcome sound and the HUD displaying my vital signs and those of my team lights up across my vision. Our objective is to disable the anti-air defences of the Batarian pirate base on this moon. We've been deployed from the SSV Kokoda as an initial strike force, once we disable the guns they'll call in the cavalry. Everyone from Bravo Six is here in the shuttle with me.
Bravo Six-One- Lieutenant Samantha Anaheim, a beautiful yet tough woman with shoulder length blonde hair and ocean blue eyes. She's slightly taller than me and has an extremely muscular tone. She completed her training as an Infiltrator and has recently been recommended for the N program.
Bravo Six-Two- Operations Chief David Ashcroft, a no-nonsense old school marine. He doesn't talk much unless he absolutely has to. He's a huge man standing at around six foot and six inches, built like a brick in terms of muscle mass. If there's a weapon that exists, he can fire it. He's also the team's demolition expert.
Bravo Six-Three-Sergeant James Reeves, a confident, loud mouthed biotic who has an uncanny ability to find trouble and then smash his way through it using his mind. We're about the same height, his hair is long and unkempt, making him look more like a caveman than a soldier, and his superiors always give him a hard time about it.
Bravo Six-Four- Corporal Jane Ramirez, an incredibly gifted sniper who hardly ever misses her target. I've only ever seen her miss once and that was when she did it on purpose, she's very short and nobody in the squad misses a chance to tease her about it, she then reminds them that she can kill them from any distance. Her hair is fairly short and kept in a pixie cut with green dye run through it.
Then there's me. Bravo Six-Five, Corporal Asher Svenson . I'm a newly recruited addition to Bravo Six; they needed a new Vanguard after their last member got killed in a firefight. It was definitely a morbid way to join up. I'd only finished my training as a Vanguard three weeks prior to this. I've only completed two operations with them so far.
Suddenly, gunfire starts to impact the shuttle, causing it to shake and rock intensely. I'm thrown against the side and if it wasn't for my helmet I'd probably pick up a concussion. Anaheim moves to the shuttle pilot purposefully.
She bangs the side of the shuttle. "What's going on here Davis? There wasn't meant to be any resistance!" She demands and suddenly I'm thrown to the floor of the shuttle by an explosion.
The pilot shouts back. "We've taken a hit from a rocket, we're going down hard!" He shouts and before I know it, we slam into the ground hard and I hit my head, knocking myself out.
I cough repeatedly and open my eyes; I'm staring up at the starry sky of the moon. We must've been shot down on the way to our LZ. I turn to my side and see the shuttle is indeed in flames and twisted into an almost unrecognizable shape. The flames cast a ghostly shadow over the ravine that we'd crashed in and the smoke limits visibility to near zero. My visor has a crack in the plastic layer which limits my vision, thankfully the second layer of the visor hadn't cracked or I wouldn't be breathing right now. I turn to the other side and my blood runs cold, I see a squad of Batarian pirates sweeping through the wreckage. Ashcroft, Reeves and Ramirez are all scattered around beneath their feet. One of the pirates raises his rifle and places a burst into the head of Ramirez, killing her. Ashcroft leaps to his feet and tries to plunge his knife into the chest of her killer, only to have it ripped from his grasp and plunged into his own throat. He falls to the ground and begins to bleed out. Reeves swings his arm outwards and uses a throw to launch the pirates away from him, they're sent sprawling to the ground in a heap however, a sniper that was hiding behind a rock fires two shots at him, the first penetrates his barrier and the second rips through his skull; killing him instantly.
I know I'm next and I accept my fate, but then I hear the familiar crack of high powered rifle. I open my eyes and see the Batarian sniper fall to the ground, lifeless. Then, a grenade explodes on the group of pirates that are still on the floor from Reeves' biotic attack, it kills them all. I look to my right and see Anaheim limping towards me, she stows her sniper rifle onto her back and towers over me.
She extends her hand. "Don't fall asleep on the job kid, it'll get you killed!" She says.
I accept her hand she hauls me to my feet. "What's the plan now LT? We have no support and once the pirates stop getting reports from the dead recon team, they'll know we survived." I say grimly.
She nods. "That's true; we have to distance ourselves from the wreckage of the shuttle. We'll go the long way around to reach the generators that power the AA guns, which should take us away from their patrol routes. After that, you'll have to sneak over to the while I provide overwatch. Take the charges from Ashcroft and put them to good use, you'll need to beat feet out of there quick to escape." She explains and I nod.
I take a deep breath. "Okay, let's do it." I say nervously.
"Doctor, Doctor Chakwas, I think he's waking up!" I hear a familiar voice shout...
AN: Hey guys, another chapter in record time for me. I'm really enjoying writing this as you can probably tell. This chapter you got to see the end of Eden Prime as well as managing to get some insight as to what happened on the SSV Kokoda that changed Asher and made him the Alliance Operative that he is now. Thanks for all the support guys, any reviews are appreciated. Once again, thank you, please rate and review. Peace and Love to you all. Also, I will be putting a poll up on my profile that will help determine something big in the story, so check that out if you can.
Masterdude94: Yeah she is, there's a reason for it though that will be explored later. Thanks for the Review!
General-joseph-dickson: She is indeed but like I said the reasons why will be explored thoroughly later on, surely the Lioness of Elysium can't be a heartless renegade for no reason right? Thanks for the Review.
Fullbreaker: Thanks for your review.