Ok, Chapter 3. I hope you're enjoying the story so far. I've enjoyed writing it and reading the reviews a couple of people have left. So i thank you guys for that.
Disclaimer - Just like yesterday, i don't own any of the rights to Mass Effect, the characters or story lines.
Chapter 3:
From space Korlus looked exactly like it did on the surface, a dull, brown world covered in wreckage and trash. The second planet from the star Imir, it had no orbiting satellites and the atmosphere was thicker than that of Earth. If the Krogan wasn't here then there would be no logical reason to ever step foot on this glorified land fill. If you ever had any doubts about visiting Korlus, then the fact that the planet rates number 2 in the terminus systems for murder per capita should give you an indication.
The team had gathered in the mission control room when Joker had announced they had reached a stable orbit around the planet. Jack was standing the other side of the table to Miranda and Jacob, glaring at them. Mordin was fiddling with his omni-tool and not really paying attention to the conversation between Shepherd and the others. The door opened and the team looked up to see Garrus entering the room.
Shepherd was the first to speak up. "Garrus"
"Shepherd" replied the turian.
"A bit late aren't you?" Miranda said, looking back to the commader
"I was finishing some...err...calibrations" Garrus smiled as he spoke, moving in and taking his place next to Shepherd. During the past couple of weeks it had become apparent to everyone on board that Garrus was the second in command.
"Alright everyone" Shepherd barked "We know the drill. We go in to the south side of the compound, make our way through and find Okeer. Scanners have picked up several other signatures, including Batarian and Turian. It is possible the Blue Suns are here, we keep it quick, simple and clean. Everybody understand?"
"Yes Sir" the entire crew sounded at once.
"Good. Jack, Jacob, you're with me. Garrus, Miranda and Mordin will be in team two. I don't expect to need you on this one but stay in the second shuttle just in case" Shepherd was standing tall and barking out commands with confidence. He knew the stakes of every mission, he'd been there enough times. "Everyone to the shuttle bay and gear up. Wheels up in ten minutes."
The crew shuffled out of the briefing room and into the elevator in the CIC.
The shuttle hit the ground with a light bump and the side door unfolded. Shepherd, Jack and Jacob stepped down onto the ground. The air was breathable but the smog was thick. Shepherd had insisted on full helmets or breather masks for the mission crew. They'd landed in a wide open street, around 200 yards ahead the road bent off to the right. All around there was debris, broken ship pieces and busted up brickwork. Sharp spikes of rusted metal protruding from all angles. The trio moved forward at a steady pace, staying close together in formation, checking around them for movement.
A voice shouting over a loudspeaker could be heard in the distance, though the message was not clear enough for Shepherd to hear. They rounded the first corner and saw a couple of soldiers wearing full blue armour. Shepherd recognised them immediately as the same Blue Sun mercs he had fought on Omega and the prison ship. He raised his fist to indicate to the other two to stop. He spoke quietly knowing the comms would pick his voice up even at a whisper.
"Two targets, 30 yards, we've got the drop on them"
"Roger that Commander, i've got the one on the right" Jacob responded sharply
"Ok, i'll take the one on the left on my mark...three...two...one...mark" Shepherd squeezed the trigger on his M-3 Predator and watched as the soldiers dropped together. "Good shot Taylor". He moved up towards the cover the mercs had been hiding behind and peered over, as he lifted his head a shot pinged off of the metal barrier he was crouched behind. "CONTACT" he shouted instinctively, ducking back down.
Jack and Jacob dived for cover as the area lit up with gunfire. Shepherd holstered his Predator and went for his assault rifle, in a single movement he unfolded the gun, crouched up from behind cover and placed three shots into the chest of a Batarian mercenary up on the walkway above them, he heard it scream in agony before slumping to the ground motionless. He ducked back down into cover and called over the radio.
"Jack, three contacts, two oclock high." He shouted
The biotic moved out of cover behind the rock column she was behind, her body covered in a transparent blue wave, her face constricted with anger as she let fly a ball of blue energy, perfectly between the three soldiers. The blue glow that was seen around Jack was now around the enemy, their feet lifting off the ground and circling the singularity between them. In unison Jacob and Shepherd stood up and unleashed a hail of bullets into the now helpless mercenaries. The singularity faded and the bodies of the two Batarian and one Turian soldiers dropped unceremoniously to the ground.
Regrouping and reloading the assault crew gathered by a terminal which Shepherd concluded should open the large rusted door at one end of the small enclosure they were in. He hit the door release button and the door creaked loudly before opening.
"Enlisting is just the beginning. You must earn your place in the mighty army we are building. I Jedore, will start the Blue Sun rule over the Terminus systems, and then the galaxy. You have to fight to be a part of that future." the voice from before was now loud enough that it could be heard by the Normandy ground party.
Shepherd led the team through the now open door and into the next large courtyard area. On the ground to the right a wounded mercenary sat propped up against the wall. Swearing and blubbing in agony.
Shepherd approached the man, gun still in hand and grabbed the soldiers hair, yanking his head back so he could look him in the eye.
"What are you doing here!?" he shouted at the man
"I...i've been shot" he stammered
"Not you, the Blue Suns!" He spat back, raising his pistol to the mercs forehead
"Jedore...she wants the Krogan...she wants his army...please, don't kill me, i just wanted the credits. I did it for the credits" he began to cry uncontrollably.
"If i were you, i'd find a way to leave your boy scouts club and get out of my way" Shepherd raised his omni-tool and administered some medi-gel to the wound on the mans chest. "Alright you two" he said, standing up and looking at Jack and Jacob. "Move out".
They started at a brisk jog towards the source of Jedore's Voice.
After a few minutes they had reached the entrance to what looked like a frigate, hollowed out, stripped for parts and left to rust on the planets surface. The loudspeaker announcements were still coming in frequently. Inside the abandoned ship gunfire and screams could be heard.
Shepherd approached the door, it was locked.
"EDI, we're going to need another way in" Shepherd said, holding his hand to his right ear.
"Scans indicate that this is the only viable entrance given the time restraints for saving Doctor Okeer" While EDI was relaying the message to Shepherd, Jack had started interacting with the lock mechanism on the door. As the AI finished her sentence the door slammed open and the two guys turned to see Jack standing inside.
"Don't worry EDI, we're in" he took his hand away from his ear and hurried inside. "Nice work Jack" he nodded at her as they ran by her and up the first flight of stairs. When they reached the top, the room opened out. On both sides of the party walkways ran along the walls to the far side. There was a wall running around the centre of the chamber ahead of them making a straight run across the room impossible.
"You two go left, I'll go right" Shepherd called out
Jack and Jacob walked slowly to the left hand side of the room, as they reached the wall a sniper shot rang out, Jack ducked into cover but Jacob was too slow, a second shot hit him in the centre of the chest, throwing him backwards.
"Jacob's hit!" Jack called out as he hit the floor
"How bad?" Shepherd called back
Jacob's shield had been completely taken out but it had stopped the bullet penetrating his armour.
"Shields gone, but i'll be alright" he winced, crawling for cover
Over the top of cover Jack searched for the source of the shot and fired off a few rounds in the general direction. Jacob had made his way behind a small box and was waiting for his shield to recharge. Another shot hit the ground next to his leg as he struggled to fit all of his body behind the tiny crate.
"Stay down Cerberus" Jack snapped at Jacob
Once again she looked up over her cover, this time she caught a glimpse of light bounce off of a scope in the distance. Jack held her breath, waiting for the target to reappear. As soon as it did she threw a biotic warp at him, followed up with 5 shots from her Predator.
Jacob unfolded his sniper rifle and rolled out of cover, using Jacks suppressing fire as cover to find aim. His scope traced her blue ball of energy all the way out to the Turian sniper taking aim at the biotic peppering him with shots. He was breathing heavily, unable to control the sway on his crosshairs. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and focusing back down his scope.
"GOT HIM!" Jacob yelled, seconds after the Turians head had turned into a blue mist.
Jack turned and nodded at him as they started off for the other end of the room. Small arms fire was heard from up the stairs. As they realised Shepherd could be in trouble their jog turned into a sprint, they rounded the corner and rushed up the stairs. Shepherd was crouched behind a large metal outcropping by the wall on the next floor up.
"You shouldn't run off like that commander" Jacob yelled, sliding behind a pillar.
"We need to get to Okeer. I'll apologise later. We need to make sure he's alive" Shepherd barked back. He stood up and fired several shots towards a group of mercenaries that had gathered by the stairs to the top floor. He flicked a switch on his assault rifle and launched a concussive shot right towards the middle of the group. As it impacted several body parts were sent flying, the gunfire stopped. Jack let out an instinctive laugh as she saw the exploding soldiers.
Shepherd clicked his rifle back to regular ammo and shifted out of cover. "Remind me to start with that next time" he laughed as they approached the stairs to the lab.
The warlords lab was quite dark, the only lights coming from orange terminals and the white lights in each of the Krogan tanks. It was brown in here, everything on this planet is brown Shepherd thought to himself. As they made their way to the centre of the room he saw movement on the right hand side, by the window.
A deep voice bellowed out from the figure. "Here you are!, I've watched your progress" the figure stepped out of the shadows. It was a Krogan, noticeably older than most of the Krogan Shepherd had come across.
"You must be doctor Okeer, you don't seem particularly caged" Shepherd replied
"I'm not imprisoned in the way you assume commander Shepherd, Jedore has been threatening me to provide my experimental rejects while i work towards perfection. She is demanding more and more for her army, she grows impatient." He walked over to the large window and stared out. "But now is the time to shed the shackles of the Blue Sun mercenaries. You must kill Jedore, she will stop at nothing to get her hands on this" He pointed at the last remaining Krogan tank. "He is the perfect Krogan, in every way. With this, this grunt, i can cure the genophage and free my people!" the last few words were hard to distinguish as he roared loudly as he spoke.
"Okeer, we'll get Jedore, do you know wher..." As Shepherd was about to finish his question the glass window smashed into a million pieces. Bullets began to rain into the room. He dived into cover below the window. His shield beeping, it had been hit by a few stray shots.
"Jacob, get him out of here." Shepherd shouted.
"I'm going nowhere without my work" Okeer growled. Shepherd knew all too well not to argue with a Krogan.
"Fine, then we need to kill these guys" Raising his head above cover he fired a few shots from his rifle, not at anyone in particular, he couldn't actually make out any Blue Suns, they must have all been in cover. "Ground team to Shuttle two" He called.
"Garrus here, are we a go commander?" The turian replied, Shepherd had learnt to judge his tones of voice over the past few years. He was raring to go.
"Get Miranda to fly, i need you sniping from the side of the shuttle"
"You got it Shepherd, eta 2 minutes" The comms clicked off.
In all of the confusion the team hadn't noticed the door at the far side of the room was now open, a couple of mercenaries had quietly entered the room. One of them, a Turian, unfolded a rocket launcher off of his back and aimed at Shepherd and Jacob, both crouched by the window.
"ROCKET! JUMP!" Shepherd shouted as he leapt from the window down to the floor two stories below. His armour absorbed most of the impact but he had landed on his wrist, which was now throbbing. "Shit, shit, shit" he called. Looking around he saw Jacob climbing back to his feet. Where's Jack!?. He looked back up at the window. Jack was standing on the ledge, a biotic bubble protecting her from the bullets flying at her.
"Jack..." he said over the comms "...just drop, i'll catch you" he continued
"I can't. They'll get the Krogan" she replied.
"They'll kill you. We can't do this without you."
Jack hesitated. She couldn't think straight, a thousand things rushing through her mind, but the biotic shield around her was fading. She leaned back and fell, bracing for impact.
...
She landed in Shepherds arms, they both let out a sigh of relief as he lowered her to the ground. Just then the comms signal began to crackle again.
"Commander..." it was Okeer. His voice barely at a whisper. "It's too late to save me, but the tank, he must survive. Finish what i have started. You understand the Krogan better than any human."
Shepherd looked up, he could see the Cerberus shuttle approaching. "Don't do anything stupid, we can still get to you". As he finished the sentence he heard the familiar sound of a Krogan bloodcry coming from the lab above him, followed by several shotgun rounds being discharged.
"NO!" Shepherd cried. He started running for the stairs to his right.
The shuttle lurched to a stop, level with the lab window. The door opened, Garrus was stood ready, sniper raised. Five shots rang out. Five lifeless bodies hit the floor.
"It's clear commander" he muttered "Eight Blue Suns and a Krogan are down"
Shepherd reached the rear entrance to the lab, sure enough, lying on the floor were eight blue suits of armour and Okeer. He'd taken down three soldiers before being overrun. Shepherd knelt down beside the dead warlord. "We won't let you down doctor" he whispered.
Jacob was standing at the foot of the tank. "What are we going to do with this guy?" he asked.
"He comes with us." Shepherd replied, walking to Jacobs side. He reached up his right hand to his ear. "Ground crew to Normandy, we lost Okeer, but we've got a package that needs extraction"
Joker chimed in on the comms "Aye, Aye commander"
Shepherd folded his rifle and placed it on his back. "Lets get off this shithole"
Authors Note: So, we finally get a bit of action going in this story. As i said, it's not exactly the same as the game and i like Shepherd to be a very serious soldier in the heat of battle.
I will probably be looking over this one making a few changes to make sure im happy with it. Apologies for the length of it. As always please let me know what you think.
I always felt that Okeers death wasn't fitting for a Warlord so i gave him a slightly better send off. Hope you enjoy.