Here's chapter 3 for you guys. Hope you like it. Review and rate as usual.
And as usual, guest reviews REALLY piss me off. PLEASE have the common courtesy to log in.
That goes double to the flamers. If you're gonna flame for no reason, then at least have the balls to do so via a signed review. Or are you too afraid that I'll give you a piece of my mind that you'll end up choking on?
Sorry. The guest review feature really pisses me off and I hate not being able to disable them.
"Shepard-Commander, observations of human combat tactics indicate your people are most efficient when each unit has a designation. We believe you should assign one to both platforms accompanying you for optimal combat effectiveness." The smaller of the two geth turned expectantly towards Shepard as the shuttle's lone human occupant punched in a descent course and leaned back in the pilot's seat.
'Hmm, ignoring the fact that they've been watching us, I suppose it is right. Names would help.' As the shuttle rocked gently from entering the atmosphere of Freedom's Progress a pair of green eyes sparked with humor.
"Prime unit, from now on your designation will be "Optimus." And then, well, what's unique about you?" Turning towards the smaller of the units Shepard fought a smirk as the prime unit leaned back appearing... pleased.
"This is a LTSR platform, there are currently 1,832 programs active within our internal network." The ship gave off a small beep to inform its occupants they were four minutes from landing. As he tapped a button to resume manual control Shepard smiled.
"Mark chapter five, verse nine: "My name is Legion, for we are many." I don't think a better metaphor could exist." A brief moment passed before the platform nodded.
"We acknowledge this as an appropriate metaphor. We are Legion, a terminal of the geth." Smirking to himself Shepard dropped the shuttle onto a soft tuft of grass atop a small hill. Stepping out of the shuttle the lone human turned and accepted his weapons from the newly designated Legion.
"We examined your combat records from the Alliance." Shepard grinned as he took the M-5 Predator pistol and strapped it to his hip before slipping his M-15 Viper into place on his back and extending his M-8 Avenger into combat mode.
"Thanks. It's nice to have familiar weapons. Standard five meter spread, data is priority one. Survivors, are secondary."
"Acknowledged."
"Acknowledged."
Smiling slightly to himself at the irony that his once greatest enemy was now possibly his greatest ally he moved slowly forward enjoying the fact that his mind was now part machine as many small windows popped into his vision informing him of his body's new features and capabilities.
Shepard had barely moved twenty feet when he stopped, motioning to his companions to do the same. With a slight furrowing of his brows he envisioned a link between himself and his two companions. Almost instantly he felt two more presences in his head. Each one a collection of smaller presences.
"Do you hear that?"
"Affirmative. Probability is high that this colony isn't as deserted as evidence would suggest." Shepard nodded slightly at Legion's words before cutting the connection and signaling to continue as silently as possible, and he was quickly glad he had done so as they turned a corner and something flashed out of sight. Narrowing his eyes he ran through a spectrum of filters as if by instinct and instantly found what it was.
"There's seven LOKI mechs, five FENRIS mechs, and four rocket drones. Legion take the drones, Optimus the FENRIS, I'll handle the LOKI." With nods of their ocular sensors the two machines moved around the corner each one systematically disabling their targets even as Shepard engaged a cloak, flicked his Avenger to full auto mode, took aim, and fired three bursts of seven rounds each.
PaPaPaPaPaPaPa!
PaPaPaPaPaPaPa!
PaPaPaPaPaPaPa!
With the last pinging shot three LOKI mechs fell to the ground and the remaining four moved to regroup. Which was exactly what Shepard wanted as he flung a sabotage charge at one of the remaining just as Optimus tossed an incendiary grenade at three of the FENRIS mechs resulting in a large explosion that blended perfectly with the rhythmic PING PING PING of Legion's sniper rifle.
"Legion, Optimus, take cover." Smirking to himself Shepard flicked both hands, readying a double incineration blast and took careful aim at the machines being rounded up by his hacked LOKI.
With a smirk Shepard flung both balls of flame towards the rounded up machines and shouted in glee when they went up like a pile of fireworks.
"All hostiles terminated. New orders Shepard-Commander?" Legion cocked its sniper rifle and tilted its head expectantly.
"Yes. Those mechs shouldn't have been active, much less hostile. Someone else is here. I want a sweep of the area. Report back when you find something." The two machines quickly nodded before going in different directions, leaving Shepard to head forward on his own, casually switching to his Viper as he walked up to a sealed door.
'Odd. I've yet to see one that's sealed." Closing his eyes Shepard felt himself fall into a large black void and looked around then down, noticing that all the geth code he'd been granted earlier, was now fully assimilated into his body. With a smirk he reached outwards in the void and latched onto the bunch of voices he recognized as Legion.
"Shepard-Commander, we see you are learning to fully utilize your new abilities. Your learning rate is surprising." The robotic monotone reverberated from the walls of Shepard's mind but he paid it no attention.
"Legion, does the spectrum of filters my new eyes have include x-ray?" The geth's reply was nearly instant, as if it required no thought to answer.
"No. Hardware limitations meant that only a certain number of abilities. You will be retrofitted with a form of living armor when we return to Rannoch, and we will constantly update your hardware to fit your needs and wants. Until such time, you should be able to adjust the thermal filter to suit your needs." With that the connection was cut and Shepard opened his eyes to glare at the door.
Mentally pulling up his thermal filter he then opened his left omnitool and began tweaking the filter, sending a small thank you to the Alliance's Shadow Legion program for the side course on visual filters. With a final tweak he looked up and saw a sheet of blue, symbolizing the door, and behind that, four dull yellow blobs hovering over a green blob.
"Shepard, we have discovered a shuttle. The make appears human and is highly advanced. We are following the thermal trail left by its occupants." The commander gave a mental acknowledgment to Optimus before spinning the dials on the door's locking mechanism, hacking the weak security program and cracking the door open... only to come face to face with three Mattock assault rifles and one Katana shotgun, a very familiar Katana shotgun.
"Tali?" The suit was different, but the mask, the shotgun, the posture, was clearly that of Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya. The quarian girl, had clearly grown a good bit in two years, filling her suit out quite nicely. With a slight smile Shepard placed his rifle back on his back and held his arms open.
"Shepard, what was the nickname you gave me and only ever used when it was just the two of us?" Lowering her weapon by a margin the young quarian waited with baited breath, praying she wasn't dreaming.
"I called you Talz. And you told me if I ever called you that in front of anyone else, you'd neuter me. My turn Tali. What was it you called me when no one else was around?" Shepard watched as the young woman lowered her weapon and crossed his arms.
"I called you Shock. Because you couldn't ever go for more than an hour without discharging static electricity. Though you never did tell me if it was from your constant tinkering with electronics and engineering trinkets, or your biotic abilities." Her voice trailed off towards the end before she rushed forward into his arms hugging him with her full strength. The other three quarians looked to the ground and appeared to ignore the scene, but Shepard paid them no mind, instead wrapping his arms around the girl he'd cared for since first meeting.
"It's okay Tali. I'm really back." The young engineer looked up at him through her mask, her eyes sparkling even more than normal.
"But how Shepard? You were dead." A small smile graced the man's lips.
"I'm not fully organic anymore Tali. I've a lot of synthetic hardware in me. Nearly a fifty fifty split. The geth rebuilt me. But not the ones who aided Saren. They have factions just as organics do. They showed me video footage Tali. Of what really happened during the war." The reaction wasn't what he expected. Her eyes flashed a variety of degrees before she leaned into his body.
"Shepard, they brought you back. I'm willing to let them explain."
"Tali this is bullshit. You've clearly forgotten what we came here to do and are thinking of betraying your people for a reproduction of a human?" The tone of the marine was oily and thick, and Shepard found himself with the urge to spit after hearing it.
"I'm not going to allow this to stand Zorah. You'll be brought up on charges. An'ara, Ju'kel, with me." The second male quarian quickly followed the first, but the female hesitated before speaking.
"No Prazza. I'm not a marine, you don't give me orders. I work for Tali. And if his story is good enough for her, it's enough for me." The girl walked over and stood beside the still embracing Shepard and Tali with a stern stomp.
"Fine. I'll just put an end to you both, then the geth's little puppet." Raising his rifle the quarian marine went to pull the trigger, but never made it as a bullet pierced his helmet and melted his brains.
"Shepard-Commander, Creator Zorah, are you both safe?" Standing in the open doorway, cocking its rifle was Legion. Only it wasn't the same geth Shepard had seen earlier. Now the platform's optic sensor was glowing red and the head-flaps were narrowed.
"We're fine Legion. Nice shot." Shepard noticed how neither Tali nor the other two quarians moved. Well, the second soldier did move. He dropped his rifle and raised his hands, his red envirosuit flashing in the lights.
"Ju'kel'Reegar, please don't shoot." With a twist of its head Legion collapsed its rifle and its optic sensor returned to blue.
"Reegar, relation to Kal'Reegar, Captain within the ranks of Creator Migrant Fleet Marines?" A small smile graced Shepard's lips as the marine nodded.
"He's my twin brother. I'm not cut out for disregarding orders like he is. I get too nervous. Please don't kill me." With a sigh Shepard released his hold on Tali before stepping forward.
"We're not gonna hurt you. Tali, why were your people here?" A smile formed on his face as she began fiddling with her hands like she always did when she talked to him.
"One of our people, Veetor, was here on pilgrimage. He decided he wasn't cut out for life on the fleet and chose to set up a small establishment here. He sent regular data bursts to the fleet, useful things. Asteroids we should mine, planets with fuel to spare, that sort of thing. He did best out here because he was skittish. We want to see him safely returned home." With a small sigh the Commander rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Let me have a minute here Tali. I think I can shut down all the defenses and use the surviving sub net to locate him." Without bothering to wait for a response Shepard followed his instinct and held his hands up, allowing a blue holographic sphere to project between them. Every twist of his fingers activated a different function. He smirked as he began writing a strong yet simple virus to shut down all security.
"Shepard-Commander, we advise against viral attack. This colony appears to be largely pre-fabricated structures. If you take down the defensive subnet, we will be forced to physically remove any remaining obstacles to obtain the missing creator. If the creator is in shock, the effect of seeing a cutting torch breaking through his sanctuary, could be catastrophic to his mental health." Legion's voice was soft and gave the Commander pause before he nodded and lowered his hands.
"So I have over a thousand geth complaining that I'm being too high tech. The irony." Legion nodded in a very humanistic manner as the three quarians gave small laughs.
"Okay Tali, get your remaining people ready. Legion, I want you to join up with Optimus. It sent a message concerning a shuttle it found. Find the occupants." The sound of military hardware being readied filled the room before Legion gave a nod and headed back out.
"Alright, Tali, I want you on my left, An'ara on my right, Ju'kel, you take the rear and make sure nothing creeps up on us." Smiling softly to himself Shepard extended his sniper rifle and overlaid a filter over his vision, one set to detect electro-magnetic anomalies, such as those produced by hostile mech platforms.
"Let's move out." Moving as one unit the human and three quarians walked through the prefab and Shepard tapped the release on the far side door, only to slam it shut again at the sound of fifteen engines roaring overhead.
"Omni-tools active. We've got some sort of drones out there. I want overloads overlaid with sabotage charges." Flicking his left arm to activate his own device Shepard opened the door after glancing to make sure his companions were ready.
Boom! A black rocket detonated right beside the Commander forcing him back inside and melting the left side of his armor along with cooking the exposed flesh of his arm, revealing blue synthetic muscles flickering with multi-colored lights.
"Shepard!" Tali move to help him but froze when he held his hand up.
"No Tali. Stay here and stay down." Growling low in his throat Shepard placed his rifle on his back and allowed biotic energy to flare along his entire body. Only instead of the usual blue, it was a rich purple with flickers of acid green, yellow, red, and electric blue. Charging out the door the human brought both his hands together as he jumped before slamming his fists into the ground, discharging a massive EM field that engulfed all the drones and burnt them to a crisp.
"All clear." With those words Shepard walked forward and knocked on the door of the last unchecked pre-fab.
Ooooh! Cliff hanger.
So, after seeing that end on a cliffie, how many of you want to string me up by my toes? :D
Lots of love,
Andros
