My Mass Effect: Andromeda Story

by Hell-Knight54

So this is a first person point of view from myself into the world of Mass Effect. Instead of ruining my one of my favorite trilogy's of all time I thought. How about I challenge myself. To see if I can make Andromeda Heavier. Scott-Cora, Peebee-Jaal, (maybe) Drack-Lexi, a bonus romance I have planned but keeping on the low. Q and A in the comment section as usual.

4. Chapter 1: Welcome to Andromeda

I own nothing.

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I never had a single dream when I was under. I started to wonder if I as dead. Is this death? Blackness and nothingness...well...It's peaceful until...A bright light came for toward me. It was blinding and unavoidable as I went toward it. I woke up as if I had a nightmare. I at first it was hard to see due to my vision being blurry from the cryo side effects. I couldn't believe who was in front of me and it was none other than an aged Alec Ryder with grey hair and aged skin. "Deep breaths Schmitt, Deep breaths. Looking young as ever." He joked however his tone didn't match his expression. He seemed sad to see me.

"Ryder? What the fuck?" I coughed while trying to inhale deeply as he instructed me too. It was like learning to breathe again. I had to get my bearings. Honestly, it felt like someone hit the reset button for a moment. Even my memories took a second to reprocess. "What the fuck is going on?" I finished as I sat surrounded by cyro pods some with people still in it. What the hell? I thought this was experimental? Did this become a main stream thing? Perhaps punishment.

"Is everything alright?" An elegant voice said from behind Ryder. "I'll handle this one...alone." Ryder said to the voice behind him. I could barely focus on what was going on. It felt like having a really bad morning and everything was slow. My thought process and motor functions were completely off. Everything felt rough and pissed off for no real reason. "Alright. I'll take care of your children then." The voice finished followed by footsteps. Children? Alec Ryder has fucken kids? I rubbed my face and touched the full beard that I forgot I even grew during my stay at Citadel, caught me off guard to be honest.

"Schmitt...I have...A lot of explaining to do." Alec said with a sigh as he sat beside me. I narrowed my eyes at the ground in that instant. "I'm sorry about Hatsu...I know...It's still fresh...Isn't it?" Alec sounding like an actual human being for a change this calmed me down a bit and everything came flooding back. Some part of me wanted to punch Alec but...what good would it do me? It's been YEARS so...Where do I go from here? What do I do?

"Yeah...For the most part." I sighed remembering the events of years ago but to me they only felt like mere months. During my stay at the Citadel, all my physical wounds healed fantastically but the mental scars.

"So you are aware. I managed to pull you out of salarian hands for...A little adventure." Ryder quietly explained as he handed me a cup of coffee. "Cream and sugar, right?" This wasn't like Ryder...To be this personal. Then again after all that what happened. How can he not? His two best friends just snuffed out of his life with the snap of a finger. This MUST be a damn dream. I rose my eyebrows in surprise at the cup and took it. When I tasted the coffee, I realized it was just the way I liked it. Who is this man? Alec Ryder NEVER got my coffee right and I would always gave him hell for it. Jokingly of course. The atmosphere was so hard to pinpoint that we didn't know what to say to each other. One failed to protect himself and his teammate and the other failed to capture the enemy. It was like neither one of us could look each other in the eye. We both failed which was rare on both our parts.

"Thanks." Was all I could muster at first. I thought about the adventure part. What the hell has he gotten me into this time. Come to think of it...might be what I need. "So, What kind of adventure did you get me into this time?" I sighed looking at the cup slightly seeing my own reflection. I barely recognized myself anymore. My eyes turned cold and harden and face was stiff. I felt just the way I looked. Like a old tired wry veteran. I'M ONLY 27!

"No. Nothing like Shanxi. But...I NEED your help...WE are with on this adventure...to Andromeda." Alec sighed looking off into the distance like he usually does at first then started to build up the anticipation of this "mission".

Once he said Andromeda my eyes darted wide as if it was the wake up call I needed. It was like as if Hatsu himself said the words. He always fucken spoke of wondering what it was like in the galaxy next to us but we didn't have the tech to make the jump. Hell, we would be long dead to make the trip. "Wait...Andromeda...As in the galaxy next to the Milky Way." I deadpanned as I shot daggers at Alec accidentally out of shear surprise. I shook my head until Alec had a uncharacteristic smirk across his face that made my eyes go wide. "No fucken way."

He chuckled for a second as he nodded embarrassing. "Yep. I did all of this in the memory of Su. It was his dream after all." Alec grinned in a grim way again which made me just run my hand though my hair in disbelief. Hatsu was one of the first people I know to talk about going to the galaxy next door. My response was he was crazy and we need to focus figuring out the milky way first. I understood Hatsu point of view for leaving the milky way since according to him. "It feels like some people just don't fit, ya know. Maybe if the odd balls grouped up and left to do something insane like how the those "crazy cowboys" that went west for a new beginning during the expansion of America or the colonization of America. No restrictions, No rules of old just make it up as we go and make something new. When new odd balls emerge from that then they can go to the next galaxy so on and so forth."

"Fucken A, man. Hatsu must rolling in his grave, kicking and screaming." I looked around at the fancy newer tech which was...cleaner then I ever seen before. I could tell it was newer tech. Must be brand new from the looks of everything. As if it was fresh from the factory or something.

"I know he is." Alec let out a hefty chuckle. "So, the gig is to colonize Andromeda. Along with the Turians, Quarians, Salarians, and Asari, and also the Krogan. "

I let out a feint smile realizing how big of a operation this truly was. Talk about a retirement plan. "I take it this is my retirement plan? Huh?"

Alec out of the blue gave me a friendly jab to the shoulder. "Our retirement plan. I know you were looking forward to leave the Alliance after the mission. This is my way of making it up to you...the both of you." The "old man" corrected me. I slumped and looked up at the ceiling in disbelief. It was like everything was a distance away now. I had the ability to breath again. Taking heavier breaths then before as I rubbed my face making sure this was some fantasy, daydream or dream. "I'm here with my kids...I want you to look after them just in encase if I..."

I sighed with a hint of chuckle behind my tone. "I get it. I get it." I know how dangerous this could be and he was always the skeptical type and always had a back up plan. I guess it was me. Then again it was always me. Glad somethings NEVER change. Even though this isn't my first rodeo dealing with time jumps. This time...It felt...OK. What happened back in the milky way left a bad taste in my mouth. This time...maybe it will be different. Alec Ryder was always looking out for me. Truly, a good friend despite my bitching and throwing a fit. I could never be mad at him to be honest.

"You're not going to try to kick my ass for pulling halfway cross the known cosmos? That isn't the Schmitt, I know." Alec said chuckling to himself as if he was relieved to hear.

"That Schmitt died on that Relay. I don't know...after spending time on the Citadel...something changed." I said staring at the floor in hindsight of everything. Which was true. I got to experience something no one has ever done before especially from my stand point. A big fan that got to sit on the real citadel where real life aliens walked among me. Despite the hateful looks, I was fine with it. It was like experiencing nothing I felt before in my entire life. I guess you could say. If I died. I'd die a happy man.

Ryder laughed. "That short fuse which seems to grown with age. But, I'm going to need that fuse short again, Second Honey Badger." That statement reminded me of the old squad. How I got that damn nickname. "Lazy Honey Badger." or "Badger" for short when I was a part of Ryder's squad.

"Second? What the fuck is that?" I questioned giving him a confused look at the term "second."

"I'm the Pathfinder and I choice you to be my second in command. Kids call it "Second" for short." Alex explained which I rolled my eyes at the short-term meaning. "Sounds fucken dumb if you ask me." I retorted which made me think of his "kids". Which made me realize...what happened to mine.

"Say...Alec. Do you know what happened to mine?" I somberly spoke as I set the coffee and cuspid them together under my chin. I was hoping...damn near praying that she made good choices. I didn't want a renegade daughter turning her back on everything which would cause ruin to the galaxy. It would destroy me on the inside to be honest.

"You would be proud. She became the first human Specter. Though she ordered the alliance to sacrifice lives to protect the council...She may have a temper like yourself but she always did what was right." In that moment I need to know more. Apparently she has a short fuse my like her "old man" but she never judged or acted on them. Just vented her frustrations out loud. Alec mentioned that he met her ONCE when they were repairing the citadel after the "Battle of the Citadel". It out of shear coincidence She is a spitting image of her mother but wore dark red lipstick and had her hair in a pony tail. Other then that, Alec said it was talking to my clone. From what I hear she didn't kill Wrex and surprisingly enough wasn't seeing anyone, the first time around which was that part that caught me off guard. After spending a decent of time with her, Alec then explained what happened to me and why it went that direction once SHE brought it up. In short, her reaction was not that shocking. She thought of me as a dead beat dad and a coward, a disgrace to the Alliance. Once she learned the truth...she had many mixed feelings on the matter. Before they went their own way. She then admitted to Alec this point forward her only goal was to make her father proud of her. This brought a tear to my eye.

Alec then admitted she was always hanging around a certain Turian which gave me the proudest smile. If anyone would date my daughter...I'd be him. Yeah, He's a fucked up but at least he will never gave up on her and stuck by her side. That's all I could ask for. A paragon with a dash of renegade. The only thing I can do...is follow my own daughter's example. Well, Try to. God damn it, am I proud of her. Alec then gave be a rough brisk pat on the back. "Don't be crying on me now." He joked in a Alec Ryder way.

"Enough about my kid...How old are you kids? My age? Better not be. I swear, I won't hold back on them clueless fucks." I admitted truthfully while finishing the coffee after soaking in the pride of being Specter Shep- Schmitt. At some point, She even changed her last name to Schmitt. I don't know why, but by doing so it pissed off alot of humans but gained the approval of council and non-council races. This was due to the fact humanity left me in the history books as a bastard, which doesn't surprise me. The council and non-council races put me in their history books as the human, humanity needed to become. I have zero fucken clue how this happened but it happened. She was a survivor just like her "old man". Specter Seras Schmitt or if you're anal about it. Commander Schmitt. To me had a nice ring to it and kinda made my ego skyrocket.

Alec laughed "I don't want it to be easy for them just because their my kids. Those two twins of mind need a good boot in the ass expectantly the boy. There going through the wake-up process now. We should get to the bridge. I'll explain the rest on the way." Alec said patting me on the back as I finished my coffee and set it down on the floor. I stood up and walked with Alec despite the fact took me a second to get used to be moving around again. We walked into the what appears to be the main medical room with a bunch of bright lights that angered my headache, some empty beds except for one which was a petite woman with short, boyish blonde hair sitting there getting checked up by a male doctor. She had a rocking body but I could tell she wasn't my type just by looking at her. She stood straight up like a hardcore soldier at all times with a stern face. She was beautiful but I think our personalities are going to clash.

"Wait? He shouldn't be moving so quickly. We need to test his connection with SAM." A concerned asari said extending her arm at me almost stopping me dead in my tracks. Man, I would let her read to me everyday with the sound of her voice. She was elegant and proper in her stance with a fine body but that's asari's for you. I never seen a ugly asari to be honest. Their typically slender while being thick in all the right places but never have completely the same faces like humans. Each is asari is borderline perfect one way or another. Their markings are always different. Some looked like hardcore metal chicks and other's would look like a proper lady.

"Lexi, He will be fine. Trust me." Alec reassured her. She still had a mom like expression toward me which I just gave her a blank sour face like I no clue what she was talking about. "Huh?" I said dumbfounded by what she said.

"The AI in you're brain..." The asari answered clearly which nothing processed in my brain. "What?" I only questioned internally again. You know what...I am not going to even get into it. "That's great, look kid. Can I play catch up with Alec?" I said facing Alec in a 45 degree angle and pointing in his direction looking like I don't care at all about what she was talking about. Great now I have a AI in my head...wait...didn't Alec have that...nooo...you know what he can tell me later. I'll rather not spoil the fun for him because he is going to talk my ear off about everything about it even though I am just curious how he got it in my brain while cryo.

She sighed. "So...you're this honey badger I been warned about."

"Negative. I'm a meat popsicle." I quickly retorted before Alec had to give a harsh elbow to my gut to prevent me from getting into more anymore trouble with my mouth of mine. I could tell the asari wasn't amused yet confused at the quote from Fifth Element. I am a movie/video game/anime junky so it's to be expected from me. Muttering under her breath as she wrote something on a fancy plastic looking clipboard. I could barely hear while Alec grabbed me by the back of the neck and escorted me out of the medical room. The woman with blonde hair gave me ugly glares of disapproval of my attitude.

"Could you please not be a asshole to the alien races." Alec said with a heavy sigh, as if he was saying "now is not the time for my jokes" kinda tone as I was guided by Ryder out of the Medical room into the big room with two set of stairs heading to a door way. "Yeah, Yeah." I waved as he forced me out the door with a tired expression. I was still waking up and feeling a bit run down. This was a lot to process.

"As I said we are colonizing Andromeda in short. I am the one who leads the Human expedition teams. Turians, Asari and Salarians have their own teams. However..." Alec started but then I cut in. "Let me guess, No word? How cliche." I figured then moaned with distaste of the classic "no word" cliche shit. Happens every fucken time and they always announce it as if it's surprising. Alec instead seemed more relax as he just gave a small smile. "It's good to have you back."

"God, Did time make you a big softy." I said rolling my eyes at the his appreciation of me being back around fixing all kinds of problems.

Alec chuckled. "You gotten soft as well." We walked though a small corridor to the train. It was heading directly toward the bridge from the location on the touch screen Ryder touched. The tram was smooth as butter as we coasted to the bridge. Alec ended up sitting down at the end of the row of seats on the right hand side of the main console. I was lost in thought until Alec noticed and watched me for a bit. "Penny for you're thoughts?" He finally got around to ask which snapped me from my thoughts of the past.

"Well...You know this whole thing is long march though hell, right?" I sighed looking at the whole "colonization of Andromeda" which Alec put his cupped his large hands together placed them behind his head as he leaned back in his seat as he looked up at the ceiling of moving tram.

"Of course. The first couple of years are going to get extremely rough. This is going to be our most difficult change yet." was all he said which made it clear that he wasn't going to tell the kids since it would only scare the piss out of them and had to give them hope. I personally didn't blame him because who would want panicking kids with guns. The shear thought gave me a sick feeling just as the tram stopped and the doors shot open. "Well, we are on the express elevator to hell...going down." I HAD to do the mimicking tone of the movie I testing Alec to see if he watched it.

"Aliens, 1986." Alec pointed at me which cause me to grin from ear to ear. "Ha!" I shouted. "Good movie, eh?" A lot of people don't watch the classics anymore since a good chunk of them...were remade.

Alec just lightly, chuckled. "It's the most loved horror movie by turians." Alec informed flicking his a finger toward me. "Huh?" I responded scratching at my bearded chin. "They ended up making their own adaptation." Which peeked my interest and noted that I would have to give it a watch.

Alec ended up standing up with a small smile and patted me on the back as the exited the Tram. As we roamed though the ship to the main doors to the bridge. We entered and a short asian woman was standing further ahead looking at scans of a planet. There was this hologram of the planet that we are heading toward. "I'll go talk to the captain. Just wait here." Alec said as he walked with great haste. From a scale from one to ten, it was a ten in department of seriousness just by the quickness of Alec's moments.

Before we knew it, the entire ship shook as if we smashed into something. Hard. "We got major damages in sections 4-6." One technician reported out loud. "What the fuck was that?" I boomed. Apparently shit is getting real already...great. Alec and the captain started running around to technician to technician on the bridge giving out orders. I just stood there dumbstruck. I don't know what the fuck was going on. Shortly after things calmed down a bit it turned out we hit some raw dark energy just floating in space. That blonde hair woman from earlier showed up looking at me with a surprised look as if she didn't expect ME hanging around. "You are?" she asked as a young man who was a splitting image of Alec when he was younger walked up behind the blonde woman.

"The second." I said turning back to the two kids. "Who the fuck are you?" I acted like a complete Sargent with my arms cross and not so friendly tone and expression.

"No need to be hostile. Were on the same side." The younger image of Alec protested putting his hands up defensively. "I'm Scott Ryder and this is Lieutenant Cora Harper." He said introducing the pair. SHE'S A LIEUTENANT? SHE DOESN'T EVEN LOOK 25! WHAT THE FUCK?! HOW EASY IS IT TO RANK UP NOW A DAYS!

"Michael Schmitt. By the way, I'm fucking with you. I'm not as high strung as you're pops, ya nit wit." I cracked a smiling to ear to ear at Scott trying to hide my rage toward Harper's rank. Then again when you survive a practical suicide mission like I did, anyone could rank up quickly. It's how I did. "You sure look like you're dad though. Reminds me of the old days, when I followed him...The irony." I had to admit. Scott just awkwardly smiled as he was clueless of what I was talking about. Cora gave me look as if she didn't like nor trust me from the get go. I couldn't fucken resist it but the fact her ass was notably large, however I could tell that she had a rod jammed up there as well.

The captain and Alec were arguing about something which caught everyone's attention expect me. "Solid ground sounds pretty good." Scott said admitting to the conversation that I wasn't even remotely paying any attention to.

"It's not good enough." Alec said looking at Scott with sternness of a father. "Yes, Sir." Scott instantly shot. This caused me to be completely embarrassed for the kid. Sometimes it's better not to say a word, kid. I thought to myself as I fiddled with my "Initiative" outfit. WHEN did they put me in this? It's fucken hideous. Maybe they threw it on when they installed that AI in my brain before coming out this way. Just kept me in sedated by my guess. I don't remember wearing this ugly ass outfit.

"Habit 7...New Earth...It was supposed to be in the green zone. Perfect for colonization." Alec said toying with some holographic planet and enlarging it. Ohhh. Look at the new toys. Hatsu would have a field day since that guy was so easily amused by gizmos. Mostly because he would try taking things apart to see how they worked.

"After six hundred years you expect shit not to happen. Sounds like a lot of hopeful wishing to me." I said truthfully with a cold shrug at the thought they would expect freaky space shit wouldn't happen in six hundred years. I mean that's common sense. I got a cold look from everyone in the room for speaking my mind. Alec was the only one who just ignored my banter.

"Who knows...It might not be as bad as we think?" Scott said being hopeful as he could be. I knew he was praying everything to be fine...Hell, everyone was. I was the only one expecting the worst. After Shanxi and other events in my life...How could I not.

"We got to make sure that planet is safe harbor. Harper, Schmitt doesn't know his way around yet, make sure everyone should be awake. Prepare two shuttles. Planet fall in thirty." He was brief as he usually was during crisis situations. I could only imagine him during Shanxi...trying to save my dumbass. Ryder walked off as Cora gave an "Aye, Aye." Fucken hell. People acting like some military op or something. I understand the seriousness of this but fuck where is the humanity. God I miss Hatsu right now. He would be making so light of the situation, he would crack some dark humor. I mean dark humor.

"So, Badger? You been around Alec longer then anyone. Was Alec always this stubborn?" The Captain asked with a small smirk while crossing her arms at me. Cora and Scott were confused on who she was referring too. She looked like she knew all about me because of hanging out with Alec and by her tone she sounded like a captain that wanted a full background check on everyone on board before departing.

"Oh boy, yeah. You should have seen the fights between us. But don't get me wrong does care in his own weird way." I admitted looking at the dark matter floating in space that oddly relaxed me instead of made me shiver with fear. Like looking at something you know will be trouble or dangerous just as long as you didn't fuck with it. Cora and Scott gave me odd looks and were baffled by knowledge of Alec.

"You know my dad?" Scott asked confused while turning to me wide eyed as Cora gave me dagger like glares. She was suspicious of me and it was clear as day. I completely understand from there point but they don't know any better so it's best if I just ignore their glares until I have a reasonable time to sit them down and explain everything despite how completely insane my life has been. Oh god. Where do I fucken start? How should I go about this? God damn it...fucccck.

Completely switching gears. "Yeah, I'm not surprised he didn't mention me. That's a whole another tale. ANYWAY. We got a job to get ready for so mind showing me to the armory." I said wrapping an arm around Scott's neck like a headlock practically dragging him with me. Scott was a bit shorter than me as he tried pull me off of him but my surprise in strength despite being skinny I am. Cora on the other hand didn't like my slacker like attitude going into the mission and when I mentioned this as a "job", she gave a look as if she noted something like I'm a hired gun in which I completely am. It was only during a mission to that switch flip and be completely serious. I try to be relaxed as I can and when I can.

Scott guided me to the armory as Cora followed still giving me suspicious looks behind my back but I didn't care. The others were already gearing up as I began to put on the "Hardsuit". The Initiative standard armor like everyone else which was fucken uncomfortable as fuck. Not so much the armor but the environment suit would make you're bits and pieces settle in very uncomfortable ways. Cora and Scott were talking together about something. I tried not to look at anyone when they got naked unlike everyone else who glared at all my cuts from training with the old man, few small light burns from the days jamming out with Hatsu who always gets way into Slipknot that he ends up setting me on fire at some point, and "that" scar from the relay that still looked...was just barely done healing. I knew everyone was mostly staring at that wound and wondering if I was even "ok". It was the ugliest scar I had. Just catching a glimpse of the reflection from the mirror in the inner door of my locker caused flashbacks which made me to pinch my eyes shut and lean against my locker. I seethed hard as I punched the locker next to mine with enough force to cause a dent around my fist. At first, I thought I broke my hand from the numbness. All the memories were still floating around my head, haunting me still. It even triggered my anguish from my first mission "Schmitt...You're not doing so hot...You ok?" Cora asked walking up rather concerned. Truthfully, she was more concerned with everyone's safety then my own.

"Yeah, I'm fine...Just bad memories, is all." I babbled while grabbing a helmet which was practically right behind me to my left. I was geared next to Fisher. Nice dude. Prefers experience of Alec than anyone else choices. From what I learned in the short amount of time, I've met him. He is the kinda guy I'd hangout with in small doses for now.

Cora shyly, handed me something. "I was supposed to give you this. It's a update to you're omi-tool. It has a scanner on it." I looked at it and removed my old relic and equip myself with the latest model still struggling with my own personal pain. "So, What's the deal? I was supposed to be the second until you..." I slammed my locker door before she could finish.

"I'll explain that whole situation later." I tried to be calm as possible without being a dickhead or anything. THAT FAILED. Cora looked as if I was hiding something, but it was fear in her eyes. I know those eyes. "OMG, He's a psychopath!" they screamed. My eyes turned cold. "Trust me when I say this...I'M still trying to wrap my mind around this shit. Whenever things calm down then I'll let you ask all the questions you want." I ended the conversation bitterly which Cora seemed more scared of her life then figuring out whats up with me.

"Alright. Deal." Cora said meekly right before SAM reported though my omi-tool. "Pathfinder Ryder is requesting everyone to be armed."

"At least someone's thinking clearly." I thought to myself as Cora, Kirkland, Greer, Fisher, Scott and myself headed to the shuttles. I walked to the weapon cabinet and grabbed the stander issue side arm and looked at it with blank look and attached it the magnet on my left hip for now. The weapon weighed as heavy as a Glock but the grip felt closer to a M9. A darker part of me wondered what it could do but I just suppressed it.

"So, Another boring day at the office, huh?" Cora joked as if she was trying to break the ice with Scott and myself since Greer, Kirkland, and Fisher went ahead.

"Hell of an awake up call. I wish I could hit the snooze." Scott chuckled. What the fuck is up with these kids are they lazier then I am? These two would have been eaten alive by some of the commanders I seen back in the day. Then again I did sooo...

"Makes me wonder of vogues across the sea and stars to guide their way." Cora mused over the thought.

"Yeah, then die of scurvy, starvation, thirst and whatever unknown diseases at the time. How romantic given our situation." I rolled my eyes at the pair. Now, I see why Ryder wanted ME along. These kids have their heads up so far up their god damn asses they make me look like a good soldier. FUCK.

"Come on, Schmitt. Where is your sense of adventure?" Scott patted me on the back rather hard. Oh, this little shit.

"Despite the losses, they made it...So can we. Perhaps we will see a dragon?" Cora teased at Scott in a super flirty way. It took me a second as I stood in the middle of the two to process that these two are super sweet on each other and I was the third wheel. Oh god it's like when Hatsu met his husband all over again. I couldn't help but keep quite and listen. I was heavily annoyed with this kind of thing. I'm not a people person so I tried walking ahead but NOPE. FUCKING NOPE.

"Never know." Scott teased back. "Say Schmitt. What was you're rank in the Alliance and how you so young if you knew my father from back in the day?" Well, Scott is a quick one alright much like his old man, I guess I could answer a few questions.

I sighed. "Ok, fine. I suppose you deserve that explanation." This when both of them turned to me in the middle and let me lead the small pack walking a bit slower to the shuttles. "You know that mass relay incident with those...turians?" I said acting as if I had to recall the aliens names were. I had to play it off. I knew they were turians and have way more knowledge of what happened back in the milky way then them. I can't wait til I don't have to act anymore. The bonus of jumping years into the future again. Fresh start this time, I won't know what will come next. Kinda exciting for me.

"Wait, are you talking about the First Contact War? That was back in 2157? In the milky way that was 30 years ago?" Cora cut in not believing what I'm saying. Not surprising what so ever.

"Yep, Ask the "Pathfinder" to confirm. Anyway, I was on that relay but what you know is bullshit. I was gunned down and left for dead by traitors inside the Alliance. My best friend wasn't so lucky. For me, I managed to barely keep myself alive as the turians picked me up, did emergency surgery and sent to the Citadel for recovery but I hit a snag. Since I was part of a team that was technically activating dormant relays, I had to choice between Turian prison or Cryo prison that was still in it's experimental phase, as I was told. As you can tell...you know what path I chose." I responded almost robotic as if I was speaking to my higher ups then I turned to the two of them who fell behind. "My rank is unnecessary. Hell, I'm the reason why Alec survived the first two stages of the N program years prior. Though it wasn't called the N program at the time. They just gave us a number. I made it to 5 of 7 before they turned me toward a shadow program in assassination, espionage, and other colorful things. It was Alec who managed to have the program shut down because it turned people into killers and elite criminals. I was one of the lucky ones." This is when I realized I was talking TOOO much was Cora and Scott looked at me as if I was way out of their reach in skill as a pure soldier. I sighed stopping in my tracks which in turned caused both Cora and Scott to stop.

"So...you are "The Bastard of Humanity"?" Cora responded with pure surprise. Oh, Gee. How could I have known they would call me that. Scott on the other hand wasn't as fearful but more sympathetic. I scratched the back of my head realizing I was talking too much and wanted to slam my head against the wall.

"Turians regarded you as the better human who understands what it means to be a soldier. Supposedly word spread that you were actually kind during you're stay on the citadel. Salarians claimed you were more tactical with you're choice of words. Asari said you were kind to turians, even the children who ran up to you." Scott pointed out then realized my reaction. "I grew up on the citadel and my dad always told my sister and I that we shouldn't believe "The Tales of the Bastard of Humanity" since he was more of a boogeyman." Scott also added which made Cora turn to him in surprise with this information. I'M THE FUCKEN CRYPT-KEEPER of this generation! What they have some horror puppet tell tall-tales of me like "Tales From the Crypt"?

I was frustrated by the fact that I just became some kind of spooky, boogieman. Some part of me wonder why am I even helping humanity out. They fucked me over too many times to count. For some strange reason I just work better with aliens then my own kind. "Let's go...I don't want to keep you're old man waiting as it is..." I started to walk with a slow walk of pure defeat. Cora was overwhelmed with the information I just spewed and tried processing the information meanwhile Scott agreed to keep it under wraps until the time was right as did Cora of coarse.

We all reached the hanger bay where one older man was loading up one of the shuttles. By this time we were all bit more relaxed and realized we have bigger fish to fry then my personal bullshit and mental issues. Yeah, granted I'm a broken, piece of shit but the fact that I still try to stand up and keep moving despite it all...it has to count for something right? Honestly, I felt tired, worn out and my body ached after years of putting myself though the ringer.

"Dr. Carlyle, Shouldn't the Ark need you on standby?" Cora asked as we approached. I was still trying to gather myself mentally then physically. Physically, I felt sore and rough around the edges but could still give a decent fight, only if I had to. I didn't like the situation due to the small fact that I was trained in stealth then anything else. Need me to sneak into a country undetected then fine, but it will take me months to do so. I am more of a cautious fellow that liked keeping my tracks covered and be unnoticeable. Ryder was always head first and heavy gunfire situations which I lacked in. The main reason why I never advanced further in rank because I didn't possess all the necessary skills of a overall soldier or leader for that matter. Alec was calmer and better with politicians then I could ever be. 90% of the time, I'm cold to people who sit on the side lines and bark orders and push their ideals on everyone. Fact is sometimes you got to do ugly things for the right reasons. The right way is always the hard way.

"If that is home. I would be happy to knock on the front door." He sounded chipper for a older fellow. He seems like the kind of guy who isn't afraid of getting his hands dirty. I might like this medic. I seen too many medics freeze during combat then get taken out first because of it.

"That's all fine and dandy. We don't know who our fucken neighbors are." I finally piped in which caused everyone to go quite. "That's what I thought."

Dr. Carlyle looked at me with a wide grin. "Ah, Schmitt. I heard rather interesting tales about you. So, are they true?"

"Yup, sadly they are." I said trying not to toot my own horn any further then I already did. Carlyle just chuckled. "Well, Good to see you're doing well, considering." He said offering his hand which I just responded with a firm grip as I shook it. "Woah, Strong grip." He responded shaking his hand.

"Button it up. We leave in five." Alec asserted himself to be known and heard like he normally does before a mission. He went to Scott where they were privately having words. I sighed sitting on a container that was laying about.

"Hey, sorry for before." Cora looked apologetic from my left as everyone gathered around near Alec waiting for his infamous speeches. She seemed much more relaxed but sad in the eyes, now I explained my situation. It was all over her face that she must have felt bad about being skeptical about me. I don't blame her. Some young dude coming out of no where, not being told that she was loosing her position give that Scott mentioned she was a Lieutenant. So, I'm guessing she was the "Second" on paper until I just showed up out of the blue, taking away her position.

"Look, just relax. You have nothing to apologies for. You were skeptical and that is good instincts, ya got there." I said being completely truthful causing Harper to form a soft smile, within seconds her glance it seemed kinda looked distracted toward Scott direction. Given that his backside was facing us. I glanced over at Scott who was almost finishing up his talk with his dad, then looked back at Cora who seemed that she was checking him out then anything else. "Wow..." I muttered raising both eyebrows causing Cora to snap her attention to me with a bit of a blush and a stupid, surprised expression on her face. "What?!" She asked in a shocked, nervous expression.

"It's so clear you got a thing for him." I said in a deadpan as I slouched forward, placing my hand under my chin while propping my elbow on my knee. I gave a bored look at everyone who seemed like they never been in life fire combat. I fucken hate combat situations but this? Jumping on a planet that is unknown and didn't look good at ALL! FROM FUCKEN ORBIT! I would rather go through Shanxi then this fucken suicide mission. Hell! WHY DIDN'T I JUST FUCKEN GO TO PRISION AND GO ON A SUICIDE MISSION WITH MY DAUGHTER NO LESS, NOW I HAVE TO DEAL WITH THIS FUCKEN GARBAGE! DON'T FUCKEN TELL ME THIS IS CANNON TO THE MASS EFFECT UNIVERSE! I screamed internally and started grinding my teeth.

"Are you ok?" Cora asked giving me a powerful, confused and modified expression that caused me to snap my train of thought. "No, Not at all." I said with a huff and then gave a frustrated look because, well fuck it. "If you knew who my daughter was...You will probably not believe that I'm the father." I said then letting out a deep exhale that felt good to say since...Well, lets face it my daughter is a much better person then I am. How the fuck could I live up to that. I'M the father, for fuck sake.

Cora gave a deep look of sympathy in that moment, from what I saw in the corner of my eye at first. "Well, Who?" She said curiously.

"Seras Victora Shepard." Was all I said for Cora to go dumbstruck. "Y-You can't be serious" She spoke as if she didn't believe it herself.

"YUP" I said with a loud popping P as I stood to my feet and started to stretch my body awake. "Couldn't believe it myself, honestly. I am proud of her though." I said lowly in between stretches. I started with my left and right leg first and worked up my way to my lower back then arms, shoulders and neck. I was a cautious fellow so I got limber before a mission and started to focus on survival.

Cora just watched my ritual stretching and setting my mindset just as the private moment between Alec and Scott was over. Alec started his infamous speeches talking about how everyone else was dreamers like him and yada, yada. I causally strolled my way to Ryder just as he grin-fully glared at me. "Schmitt, you lead second team." and that was all needed to hear from Alec, truthfully. My mind was in survival mode. Not only that, I needed to step up my game. No more bullshit, lets do my daughter proud. "As Hatsu would say, Today is a good day to die anyway." I said with a wide eyed, shit eating grin at Alec who just couldn't hide a stupid grin. Everyone was confused. "I love being knee deep in shit, simply because I like the smell." Alec shot back at me as if he couldn't help quote our crazy ass friend. Everyone else was confused out our shout to our late and dear friend. Hatsu Takahashi, the craziest friend one could ask for.

On board the shuttle I stood behind young African man with a British accent who was chatting it up with Scott, I just listened. Liam Kosta was his name. That is all I payed attention to after that. Normally shits like him and Scott, I don't get to know until I see how they handle being knee deep in shit. No offense to them but...shit can happen. Not trying to be a dick ether.

Right away I knew the planet didn't look good at all, which should say something. I'm crazy but this would make Hatsu go "Why the fuck are we doing that?", truthfully. The planet looked like it was tearing it's self apart. That dark energy that was flowing though space was skechy as fuck. I knew touching it would lead to my demise but...even I wouldn't mind knowing what the hell it is or where it came from. Around the time, we entered the atmosphere there was violent lighting storm cloud that tore half the ship apart. Liam was almost completely thrown out, but Scott just about saved his life as the ship was spiraling out of control. Before I knew it I was ripped out of the ship anything Ryder grabbed my arm thinking it was something to hold on to and sent us out flying into the storm. THIS IS HOW I FUCKEN DIE! YOU'RE SHITTING ME. During the fall we let go of each other as we fell to our deaths. We were spitting distance away from each other.

My helmet was flashing warning signs like crazy as I fell planet side faster then I liked. SAM activated my jump jets for me without realizing it breaking my fall, greatly. I landed not too far away from Liam who was running over to Scott who was slow to pick himself up. "Son of a mother fucken asshole." I barked picking myself from the dirt slowly. OW, OW. THAT FUCKEN HURT LIKE A BASTARD! Nothing I could tell broke as I was on one knee. Just bruised as fuck.

"Couldn't say it better myself." Ryder commented with a bit of a laugh as he walked over to help me to my feet. "Say, "Old Man" What do you think?" Ryder pointed at the floating rocks and mountains...MOUNTAINS! I looked out into the planet that had GIANT LANDMASSES FLOATING IN THE FUCKEN SKY! THIS IS JUST? WHAT!

"Hey, Junior. I think we are neck deep in shit." I said with a huff of surprise of the situation. "I think I can taste it, truthfully." I said with a disgusted face.

"Is this hell?" Liam said observing his surroundings of mountains and large sized rocks floating in the sky with electricity shooting though the air. On the ground everything was much clearer. "We better get to higher ground...or something!" Liam added with ergancy of the situation. YEAH, YEAH. Let me soak this in because. This view is once and a life time. Huh, Floating mountains.

"I see my fair share of action but never anything THIS crazy." Scott said looking around at the "Grass" and surroundings. "Hey, Schmitt. I know you seen crazy. What about this?"

"Since crazy shit like this is kind of the regular for me. But, floating rocks and non-stop electric storms...Kinda fucken new." I smiled to myself at the oddly beautiful look of it all. Those instincts were screaming at me to get off this planet NOW. The planet was going to shit and couldn't have a fucken clue why. Perhaps those alien buildings in the distance? They looked embedded in the ground. Huh?...Who the hell knows or cares. Getting off this rock is top concerns if it was up to me.

"Really? You're shitting me." Liam scoffed at the first part of what I said. "So, you're the one in charge. So where do we go?" Liam asked looking around in confusion to where to go from here.

"First, Let's try to meet up with the others. I bet my bottom dollar that Alec is heading there." I said pointing in the direction of a massive structure that was a bit away. From direction of where we were headed it seemed that was where Ryder was heading anyway, according to my omi-tool's map.

"How'd you guess that?" Liam questioned at my quick analyze of the situation. Is this guy really going to annoy the shit out of me? God damn kids. Listen to me...I sound like the fucken old guys now that I use to make fun of for being so high strung. What comes around goes around, I guess.

"Trust me, I know Alec better than most people." I started to walking with a pep to my step, down the only direction we could go. Down the way a bit we noticed a seeing a busted device that was our tech. From the looks of it..."Well, Fuck..." It was smashed to shit. From the looks like it fell hard into the earth.

"That's a QEC. That explains how we have no connection to SAM." Scott said following right behind my heels as he checked over it thoroughly while Liam watched the road. Checking both ways.

"QEC? Sorry, I don't speak techy." I waved the small amount of smoke away from my helmet's view as I keeled down to take a closer look at this QEC.

"Quantum Entanglement Communicator. It's what connects us to SAM. Too bad we can't fix it." Scott said typing away at his omi-tool as he started to scan some of the planet life. "I wish SAM could explain some of this." He added lowly.

"Kid, you rely on tech way too much." I said pulling out my M-5 Phalanx pistol. Before we left, SAM gave me the schematics and details saved onto my omi-tool by Alec's request since he knew I always like to know what I'm using. That AI is fucken fantastic. I realized as we slowly walking down the path, the only path. "We got to go. Where wasting time." I said knowing we were burning time since Alec isn't going to hesitate to move on. It's like a mindset you can't truly escape from. Maybe, Hatus was right...Sometimes to put not think about the torment of previous missions is to keep moving forward.

"This guy sounds old..." Liam whispered to Scott which I heard. OH, this son of a bitch. I'm soo going to kick his ass when we get back. Then again...I would have said the sammme thing when I first started the alliance.

"What was that!" I barked acting as if I didn't really hear what he said. I clearly did but I just wanted to keep him on his toes. I bet ya that Liam could be a hell of a soldier, BUT he needs step up. It took me a while to get that though my head, so he's got has a head start.

"Nothing. Right behind you sir." Liam countered rather quickly as he acted like he was coughing or something. These kids will learn the hard way...one of these days...I sure did...

"Oh, Safety tip. Don't breathe the air. Found out the hard way." Scott brought of matter of factly. Huh? what the fuck did he do take off his helmet. Or could he have cracked it? It looks fine. I made a mental note about Scott's helmet since who knows what could go wrong. Murphy's Law after all is my mantra. Scott and Liam caught up as I waited for them pretty bitterly.

Once they caught up I could help but to ask "You ok?" we walked. I was focused on my balance while stepping over rocks to higher elevation making sure I don't trip and fall. This place was fucken uneven and broken up. I don't know what caused damages of this magnitude, so I'm fucken sure I don't wanna hang around any longer.

"Yeah, Just a small repair to my helmet. Not sure if I can take another bump like that." He added as we walked until we arrived at a electric field of some kind, it was further ahead while Liam and Scott was talking. Ah shit! Electric bolts came down and continuously shocking the large puddles of water. This entire planet is going to shit! ALEC WHAT IS THIS IMPORTANT FOR!

"What the hell is this?" Liam thought out loud at the phenomenon of this planet. Mountains are FUCKING FLOATING! I just...what the fuck?

I let out a deeply annoyed sigh. "We have to push though. Keep your feet out of the water and you should be fine." I said thinking realistically. "Or stay here and be Ben Franklin, you're choice." I added which I heard a giggle from Liam and Scott right before I went full head of steam though the Lighting Zone or LGZ. The run was like a fifty-yard dash trying to avoid puddles and the other rocks that was like conductors or some shit. I ran a route that kept me out of the water as much as possible. Luckily, I made it with zero problems. As did Scott who just followed me but I heard I heard a few grunts from Liam. We ran into a cave like entrance that shield us from the LGZ.

"Well, I'm not running through another LGZ again." I said not realizing I spoke my thoughts out loud while trying to catch my breath since I was almost a human lighting rod a few times. God damn was that a sprint from hell. My side which got shot, ached like a son of a bitch. I was hard to keep moving, but apparently I'm well enough to do this fucken suicide mission. Then again, fuck it. If I die, I die.

"LGZ? What does stand for?" Liam questioned chuckling while taking in deep breaths as well placing his hands on his hips and bending over slightly. Opps, Spoke out loud again...

"Lighting Zone...I don't know. I just make shit up as I go." I couldn't help but to laugh at my own stupid thinking. I was always like this. Just being creative and make up small sayings and abbreviations that makes shit simple.

"LGZ. I kind of like it." Scott admitted as if he was still good to run another fifty yards of electric shock fest. What the hell, did you teach him Ryder. He seems like a pro? Did that bastard give him some N training? Sneaky fuck. Scott stood with a shit-eating, grin on his face with a thumbs up. This guy is a fucken nerd, though. Bah, who am I kidding so am I.

"Ok, LGZ it is." Liam finally broke down accepting the term as he walked beside me on my left side, just as Scott took up my right.

I looked ahead to see glowing...mushrooms guiding our way to the other side of the small cave. It was no longer then the LGZ behind us. I wonder if you trip balls if you eat them? Perhaps poisonous? Eh, Wouldn't surprise me. Everything so far is deadly.

"Check to make sure your gun's working. Who knows what creepy crawly is lurking in this tropical paradise." I said before aiming at a small lonely mushroom shooting it clear off its stem. Scott shot a canister that exploded, and Liam just gave me a thumbs up about his little SMG. We reached the clearing to see out into more of the planet of floating mountains. I couldn't resist but to give a loud, sniff at the thought of how much this planet is fucked.

"Look off into the distance. Here be dragons...I wish Cora could see this." Ryder said as big ass, flying monsters flew though the sky. I couldn't really see it well with the sun blocking my vision, but they were gorgeous from what I seen. Their small wings flopping with delay in between each flap but it was rhythmic.

"Awww. I'll make sure to tell Cora you were thinking her the whole time." I said nudging Scott on the shoulder. Liam was chuckling to himself at my teasing. From the sound of it Liam was trying to hold in the laugh but it slightly slipped.

"It's not like that..." Scott said defensively looking at me annoyed. This kid doesn't know it but he's fucken smitten with Cora. His face all flustered.

"Don't you dare tell me that you weren't looking at her ass." I laughed out loud teasing the poor kid who was getting embarrassed. "It's cool. I don't give a fuck, what you do." I openly said as I patted him on the back and pulled him away from the "skydragons". "First, We got a job to do." I said giving him a brisk, heavy slap on the back that he seemed surprised of my strength of a tap as I walked past.

"He's not that bad. Here I was expecting an asshole." Liam said walking up to Ryder behind me. This gave me a small smirk out of the fact.

"No, He's not...but he's still an asshole." Scot said sourly at first but then there was a short pause then was matter of factly at the last part. This forced a great big grin on my face. Good, that will keep them on their toes.

"Over here! High ground. Might be a way up." Liam yelled since he ran up ahead, given my order. I vaulted over a large rock blocking the path. "Careful dude. Don't fall now." I causally remarked to Liam who sighed at the sight of the harsh terrain starting to form in front of us.

"I'd rather fall then struck by lightning." Liam fired back at the remark as I was now stepping over the rock with little problem. I walked up to Liam.

"Pfft, Fuck that. What if you fall and potentially survive. Just laying there feeling nothing but constant pain until you die from starvation, thirst or just simply run out of oxygen. I would rather take my chances with the lighting." I said looking at Liam who was NOW was horrified at the reality of it all. "Ugh...how about neither..." He seemed more wide eyed at the whole situation at this point forward.

"Good choice." I sniffed.

Scott was right behind us catching up as he took the time to observe his surroundings with more focus then before. I noticed Liam was the forward, moving one. Relentless on moving forward and hated backtracking. Scott on the other hand copy me in every way. It was kinda annoying and yet unnerving. It felt like he looked up to me or something for knowing his dad better. Like I was the older brother or some shit. I got over it it, pretty quickly.

"With our luck, you might do both." Scott quipped as he jogged to catch up to us.

"So, I feel like a complete idiot for asking...How do you use your jump jets? SAM saved my ass back when we were falling. I never got the memo on the new tech." I was embarrassed to ask turning to the younger soldiers. They both looked at each other confused then looked back at me.

"Jump jet tech has been around for the past ten years." Liam chuckled awkwardly. "Where have you been?" This cased me to winse as I looked at Scott who also winced at his choice of words.

"All I can say is...I been on cold storage since beyond the past six hundred years. Ok, if you explain then I'll explain my story when we get back to the ark, safely. It's long, confusing, and Pathfinder Ryder can verify." I said truthfully magnetizing as I picked up the newer Avenger. Clip and all. Not that overheating bullshit. Rookies always ended up overheating quickly and the result didn't end well with them... I magnetized the rifle to my armor on my back on my right shoulder. It fit nicely but the added weight was pretty big for me. I usually only carried two primary rifles during big missions but for some reason. Just this pistol alone feels enough for me.

"Okkk." Liam sounded weirded out by my explanation. "All you have to do is look direct at the jump jet's symbol on your helmet, and it will do it for you." This made me feel like a complete retard since I now just noticed it when he mentioned it in the bottom corner of my helmet just out of my view. Gowd, damnit.

"WOW." I said feeling like a fucken idiot. "Now, I feel like a fucken idiot." couldn't resist expressing my thoughts to the whole class. With a dumbfound expression of my own stupidity.

Liam laughed and patted me on the back. "I felt the same way when I found out." Which made me to start laughing as well externally, but internally was deeply annoyed by this guy. Yeah, I am nicer to Scott because he is kinda like...fuck,...a little brother.

After the small moment, Scott nodded to me to take the lead. It was easy to use. Like they said all you had to look directly at it for it to activate. Its location wasn't like it was like you would accidentally activate it since you would have to focus on it for it to engage.

"Niffy." I commented as we jumped and crawled our way up the landscape. It was a lot of fun and the adrenaline boost was intoxicating. It was way easier then the old days. It would have taken us DAYs to find Alec but this way it may only take hours.

"So, how did my dad find you, Liam?" Scott asked as we climbed up the large rocky formations. Made me think of the time Alec too me rock climbing. I swore I never do it again and here I am... with his son. God things come full circle.

"I was a cop. Crisis Response." Liam responded to the question rather quickly. A cop? Huh? What? I that explains why these guys aren't military...their civies. NOT what I was expecting. I was expecting trained professionals. Strike again Alec. "We should all get a beer sometime, I'll tell my story once Schmitt tells us his."

"I WAS military, let's leave it at that for now. We should focus on getting off Planet Zeus first. Don't ya think. By the by, I don't drink anymore." I said as I was the first to approach a ledge, knowing full and well that I am going to need a running jump. The whole thing was kind a fun if you ask me. I got use to the jump jets rather quickly. "Why not?" Liam asked foolishly.

Sighing in a uncomfortable way. "I was a alcoholic...it got...very bad...after my divorce." I explained as best as I could. Liam paused which Scott shook his head at Liam then Liam quickly apologized. I told him not to sweat it. How could he have known. It was BEFORE he was even born.

We all took turns jumping the gap and all three of us made it cleanly with little effort the first time. The second-long jump was almost skeptical. I was the first one to jump but had to grab onto the ledge to pull myself up. Once I made the jump. It was easy for Liam and Scott since I pulled them up onto the cliff.

We made it to the top finally as Scott helped Liam up, I was sternly looking at the structure and black smoke or some creepy shit coming out the top the structure. "What is that." Liam asked dumbfounded at the structure.

"Look Fisher!" Scott said which caught even my attention, but I noticed Fisher was trying to hide while holding on to his leg leaning against the other half of the crashed ship. I looked around seeing an alien I never saw before. They had white bone like armor covering their skin reminding me turians a little bit, but their heads and faces were fucken goofy looking. I pushed the two kids to the ground. "Look!" I whispered quietly as I could as I pointed in their general direction.

"What was first protocol again?" Liam asked lowly. And here I thought my question was dumb. Jesus christ. "Don't fire, unless fired upon." I was having flash backs to the relay. Some part of me thought that these kids would betray me, but I had to fight the paranoia away.

"You two cover me. Understand. This isn't my first clash with new aliens." As I said that, Liam looked at Scott confused which he muttered "It's a long story." I moved the M-3 Predator from my left to my right hip. "You two stay out of sight. Got me. If they appear clearly hostile then cover MY ASS." Thank god, Hatsu gave me pointer's at drawing a side arm. That crazy son of a bitch had the fastest draw I ever seen. How does the same shit happen to the same guy twice? I now understand how John McClane felt in Die Hard 2. "Take cover and keep you're guns aimed at them if shit goes sideways."

"Yes, Sir." Liam and Scott both said in unison. They both seen the fear yet calm in my eyes. I didn't hold back the seriousness in my tone either. They acted as if I was Alec and took it just as serious as I did.

They crawled to take better angles trying to see as many as the could without being spotted. Their white uniforms were a dead giveaway so it was hard for them to get good positions. Only Scott managed to snuggle with the earth to get a good spot. Fisher was yet to be spotted too, which was a good thing.

I stood up taking a deep breath because it could be my last. I was ok with that though. I put my hands up as Ryder and Costa watched me from their positions aiming at the aliens as I walked forward slowly.

One of the aliens shouted something that didn't translate, which was expected as the other one ran over toward me. It kept repeating the words to the point, I realized this was going nowhere quick. The other alien spotted Fisher and started to approach him making me feel awkward. "Schmitt. They don't' seem friendly." Liam whispered over the radio.

Right when the other alien went to aim his rifle at Fisher. I knew...these guys were hostile. Everything Hatus taught me about drawing a side arm came back to me in a flash. I could hear his voice in the back of my mind saying one thing. "Remember...Never Hesitate. Just react." I remember the position of each alien in front of me first.

Like a wild west gunman, I drawled my side arm fast as lighting and shot the alien next to Fisher, just as quickly I turned to the alien in front of me shooting him directly between the eyes. If it wasn't for my adrenaline kicking into overdrive...I could never do that again. I could see brownish-green blood fly though the air from where I was standing. Their bodies went limp and crashed to the ground. So, head shot is a instant kill...good. No signs of shields or anything so that's a win.

"Holy shit! Schmitt! Where did you learn that!" I could hear Liam's jaw hit the ground. Scott ran over to Fisher to check on him. I wiped the moister from the outside of my helmet.

"So much for making peace. Thanks for saving my ass, Schmitt." Fisher said to me which I was trying to calm myself. My hands were still shaking from the adrenaline. Taking some deep breaths as I sat down on a rock.

"Yeah, Anytime." I responded with a sigh looking around the nightmare around us. Fucken hell this is going south. Deep breaths...Deep breaths...Calm down...we're not done yet.

"This isn't how first contact was supposed to go." Scott remarked looking at me at my choice.

"Tell that to them. They were going to kill Fisher if Schmitt didn't act so quickly." Liam said backing me up on my choice to shoot. He gave me a nod that he had my back. "So, where is everyone else." Liam asked Fisher.

"Kirkland and Greener went for help." Fisher responded as Liam tried lifting him to his feet, whom only cried out in pain. "My leg is busted. Go on ahead. See if you can find. Kirkland and Greener." Fisher seethed.

I noticed Scott was scanning one of the aliens. "So, what do you got?"

"It's hard to make sense of any of it without SAM. So far, Their DNA based, armor is like bone, and genetics' are all over the map." Scott reported as he scanned the aliens.

"Life sure did take a turn." Costa replayed.

"Kirkland went that way while Greer went the other." Fisher said pointing in the direction of two different directions.

"Shit, they spit up? Just fucken great." I scoffed feeling rather aggravated by the two going two different directions like a bunch of jackasses. Spitting up is the worst idea. Yeah, covering more ground sounds great but when it's a uncharted world then you're asking to die. That's like splitting up at Camp Crystal Lake and not expect to discover Jason stalking you're ass.

"Well, Let's check on Kirkland first." Liam suggested. "He can't be far." I nodded in agreement since he went beyond the crash site.

It was a bit of a track to hunt down the two missing men. "So, Schmitt. Where did you learn that move back there?" Liam had to ask which made me sigh.

Scott was quick to see a blank, pained expression at the question and the hesitation as well. "Liam...I think now is not the time." Scott nudged Liam who realized that I stopped seeing me relive the moment when Hatsu taught me that little trick. "Oh sorry. Back at the ark then?"

Yeah...whatever. We went over the hill beyond the crash site. It was about a ten minute walk until we happen to see Kirkland surrounded by the same looking aliens as before. Their appearance was exactly the same. No difference from what I could tell. He was surrendering? "Shit, Shit, SHIT!" I cursed under my breath as we took cover behind the rocks. Apart of me was curious to see how this would go, but deep down there was something about these guys that felt familiar. Like I seen this kind shit before but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Their movement was robotic, yet organic.

"I surrender!" Kirkland plead begging for his life while throwing his hands in the air to signal he was no threat of any kind. That changed until a single shot rang out and Kirkland dropped dead. It went right through his helmet.

"They shot him!" Liam cried out not believing what he just seen.

"Then let's take them out!" Scott but before Scott could say one word, I was already reliving my old memory again. The first mission memory. In that moment, I froze as Scott and Liam shot two of them without hesitation or remorse. The few remaining hid behind whatever cover they found. I never froze before because all I could remember is seeing HER getting shot in a similar fashion. Even back then...I didn't hesitate in shooting my attacker. I froze simply at the uncanny memory matching what was happening today.

The three remaining splits into two groups. Two of them had their focus on me pinning me down behind whatever thick metal that was sticking out of the ground. Fuck, Fuck, Fuck! I though as I started counter firing back taking small damage to my shields but forcing the two to hide behind cover behind rocks. I just gave Scott time to get an angle on one of the two and shot him in the eye. The alien's body went flying backwards from the force of the shot. One down, two to go. The second one was surprised by the shot from Scott that gave me just enough of time notice the alien's leg was sticking out. "Liam!" I said was I shot the leg with my last few rounds. The Alien fell out of cover when I hit the Alien in the leg for Liam to light him up from a much better angle. Just as I reloaded. I noticed the third one and final one aiming at Liam. I had a clear shot and I took it. Shooting the alien about three times in the chest area, yet still wouldn't go down until I put a round into the skull of the Alien. "God damn these bastards are tough." I couldn't help to bark loudly.

Once everything was calmed down. "I can't believe this is happening." Scott let out a deep sigh from the action as he scrambled to Kirkland to check his vials.

"No vials. They just killed him..." Scott sighed at Kirkland's body sounding remorseful and sad.

"He surrendered. Why kill him?" Liam questioned at the sanity of these aliens. I could understand questioning it, but the answer was clear.

"Would it be different if they landed on earth armed to the teeth." Ryder countered causing Liam to see his point.

"No, if they surrendered it would be a different story. As a former N5. I can tell you that we have rules and respect of life. Clearly these bastards don't even understand those two ideologues." I added to the conversation. "We'll make sure to collect his body." Liam gave me strange looks as I reviled, I was a former N5.

"Then peace isn't an option..." Scott sadly summed up as he looked at me with remorse.

"Then let's get to your old man and find Greer. No detours. No stopping until we get everyone we can off this fucken planet." I growled just thinking about how much this planet is pissing me off more and more, as I go. Liam and Scott both nodded to my final statement.

As we walked up the hill in the direction of where Greer went. "Schmitt, you are probably a better shot then I am." Scott said attempting to hand me Kirkland's M-8 the new model of the M-7 I was used to. "Naw, you keep it. I can handle myself with my side arm for now. I would rather have a sniper in my hands. I was a recon specialist after all." This caused Scott to chuckle.

"You and me both but you're the former N5. Lead the way." Scott snickered then admitting that he too was a Recon Specialist, but I had seniority.

"If you say so." I quipped wiping the dirt from my helmet as Scott and Liam were in tow behind me. Just as we approached the top of the hill a loud screeching nose cried out. It was defiantly alien but no real language.

"Did you hear that or was it just me." Liam asked out loud making sure he wasn't the only one who heard that.

"Wish I didn't." Scott whispered meekly as he raised his guard, expecting anything. At the top of the hill the path way went in between two large rocks that would be prefect for a ambush but nothing was around. "What-" Liam started to say until a large creature on all fours that had the same bone as armor like that aliens jumped on top of me like a wild dog going for my throat. The beast was as heavy as a horse as I fell on top of me almost crushing me. I managed grab on to the head of the beast as it snapped it's jaws for my throat. I barely could hold the bastard back since it was stronger then I was by far. I managed get my right foot under it's snapping jaw and lifting it just high enough for me to activate my Omi-Blade and start stabbing it's bone like armor a few times until it tried get away from me. The monster was STILL way too strong for me and STILL had fight in it yet. The same color blood pored all over my helmet causing me unable to see. All I heard was few pop shots until it felt like a three-hundred-pound man fell on top of me. I was fucked up from the beast ramming me into the dirt and was in major pain but nothing was broken.

"SCHMITT!" Scott cried after the small wrestle with the beast. "Liam! Help me get this thing off of him." Scott hurried to my aid as they rolled the monster just enough for me to wiggle free. My suit was covered head to toe in the Brownish-green blood. "For fuck Sake!" I snapped whipping the blood from my helmet.

"That was BULLSHIT! FUCKEN BULLSHIT!" I snapped at the monster giving a kick or two. Liam handed me a rag from his little belt, just so I could see clearly out of my helmet.

"Did that thing just...cloak?" Liam pointed out that had my mind asking way too many questions.

"We according to my scanner. There are no signs of Tech. It's organic." Scott was surprised by the abilities of this beast. I was like the size of a small black bear.

"So, you're fucken telling me everything about that THING is biological?!" I questioned out of fear, horror and dumbstruck all mixed into one. I call hacks. Bullshit!

"Yeah, Weird." Scott reply looking at this scanner looking inquisitive . "We GOT to press on if these things are running about." Scott added realizing the danger everyone might be in now.

"Yeah, No kidding." I said shaking off the surprise of that beast thanking every religion that those damn claws didn't get to me or else I'd be dead.

When we got to the top of the hill, we start going down the other side. "God damn bastard, I swear to fucking Christ! I'm going to beat Alec over the head with a bag of rusty hammers. Pulling me into this shit..." I murmuring to myself at the frustration of dealing with a small bear that has CLOAKING abilities. Bullshit. BULLSHIT!

"Geez Schmitt, Calm down." Liam started to laugh at my temper.

"I will be calm...When I get off this damn rock." I seethed in anger with my body bruised. My body ached from head to toe, I'm not going to lie to myself. My temper was now coming out. I was beyond annoyed or agitated. This was just me...pretty pissed off. When I snap...oh god save that poor soul.

"LOOK! Flares! Over there!" Scott said pointing as three bright red flares shot up into the sky. At least we got a location. It doesn't look too far. Maybe two hours at the most.

"We should hurry." I said wiping the blood from my gloves turning the white rag into the dark brownish-green color. My suit was stained and thank god I couldn't smell, let alone taste the blood. I do NOT want to know what that goo taste like.

We came across this large crevice and large alien, hexagon shaped, flat pillars rose from what looks like the center of the planet. "What is this? Gods of the underworld?" Ryder joked at the pillars coming from the ground.

"We will figure that out later. First we need to find Greer. From the looks of the planet, I don't think time is on our side." I said looking down the crevice that seemed like you would fall to the core of the planet.

The hexagon pillars were sturdy and made from tech that no one seen before. What the fuck is this shit...The Tech seems alive yet...this whole planet is freaking me the fuck out the more I discover. This isn't what I imagined discovering new worlds would be like. This seems like a horror story.

I looked at our two options. If we cut across then we would reach the flares but if we go down following the pillars, then we might find Greer. "We are heading this way." I said as I jumped my way down.

"Why are we going this way? Flares are this way." Liam asked brown nosing my choices.

"I want to see what's going on down here? Couldn't hurt to peek." I said shrugging.

"This is how YOU get jumped by a large cloaking creature." Liam pointed out which I just turned to him and stared at him with "don't you go there" eyes. "Ok, you're the N5." He added. OH HO, this motherfucker is asking me to whip his ass.

We jumped platform to platform until we reach as low as we could go. Liam pointed across one small gap toward a cave. "I wonder if another beast lives in there?"

"Can it!" I boomed looking over my shoulder at Liam who chuckled but was the only one who jumped at my voice.

Scott, Liam and I jumped into the small gap and entered the cave. It looked like how the planet should be. Almost perfectly preserved from the planet that was going to hell and back. "Now, this looks like the golden world my father was talking about." Scott said looking at the grass and giant weird looking..."tree".

"So, this is what this planet was supposed to look like? What happened?" Liam questioned to himself looking around at the planets doing scans of the small planet life.

"A lot can happen in six hundred years. Like that black energy floating through space. Maybe it's all connected." I said scanning the tree. Scott was the only one who seemed interested in my point. "Well, That kinda makes sense. If you really think about it. That black energy sliced though the hull of Ark Hyperion. Who says it can't slice though a planet?" He peaces together which made me rather perplexed that he was even on the same wave length because Liam was slower grasp the idea.

"What does the Data say?" Scott asked as I scanned the tree.

"Polyploidy lifeform, photosynthesis detected...same goes for Chloroplasts and Cellular mutation." I said from what I read from my omi-tool. I don't know genetics worth a fuck and even I could tell it was all over the fucken board.

"So, it's an Alpha Tree but what happen to his friends?" Liam joked then realized looking outside the cave at the planet doing its...thing.

"Perhaps, Schmitt has a point about that black energy. Maybe it damaged the planet and our result is the chaos outside." Scott said doing scanning of his own of the large plant as he walked around the tree getting a good full examination of it. Liam took samples as I had my hands on my hips looking at this "tree". What the fuck is going on?

"Woah, Got a dead bug here!" Scott said when he walked to the other side of the tree. "Perhaps the aliens set it? Doesn't look like our tech."

"Perhaps their starving?" Liam questioned.

"Maybe, maybe they are studying these things like we are." I theorized since none of this makes any form of sense. Maybe if we keep looking around, we would get more answers. "Right now, I don't trust those fuckers at all. They give me a bad vibe." I said truthfully as I shivered at the thought of those aliens. I was only speaking how I feel about those things, there was something about them that was...off.

"Well, they sure don't play nice with anything. This thing has been dead for a while now." Scott added causing Liam to rub the water marks off his helmet. Just as I thought. These things don't seem to hold any value toward life. Just cold and robotic in a sense. No facial expressions, reactions or emotions at all.

"Looks like a way out." I said pointing down the path opposite of where we entered. "Let's go. One mystery at a time." I calmly said as we walked out of the cave back into the crazy planet with floating mountains and boulders.

Ah good open murderous lighting to remind myself I could die at any moment. I thought looking at the lighting flicking throughout the landscape. "A path to the left." Liam said as we came to another fork in the road.

"Well, Let's go left. Hopefully Greer is nearby." I hoped out loud as Liam nodded in agreement. "I'd hate to die out here." Liam said truthfully.

We started walking up the hill finding weirder tech, but it matched the tech from the rifle of the aliens. Looks like they have a camp nearby. As we walked up the small trail, we began to hear radio static.

"Static? But it sounds like a pattern?" Scott statement sound more like a question. "Could it be Greer?" I pointed out which the pair gave me a look of strong possibility.

We hustled up the hill causing the signal to get only stronger. "It's getting stronger." Scott pointed to our right toward the cave. Holy shit what is up with all these caves. Is this planet Batman or some shit? Just as we got closer. We heard a voice. "What do you want!?"

"That's Greer!" Liam whispered as we edge ourselves into the cave. Shit, Not another one.

"Bah, Fuck it." I whispered to the others who were already ready for a fight. The three of us rose out of our hiding spots since again we had the drop on them and gunned the two aliens down with little effort with Scott having a M-8. The aliens had no time to react. I just gave overwatch just in case of any nasty surprises like a certain damn cloaking beast might be hanging around.

"Thank god, I was tapping my mic, hoping someone would come." Greer admitted as he got off the ground to his feet. "Where is everyone else?" He was quick to notice two people missing.

"Kirkland was killed and Fisher has a fucked up leg back at the shuttle." I said approaching Greer who seemed nervous yet, good to go.

"He is going to need help." Liam pipped in which made Greer nod and start gathering everything around him. Wow, Captain Hindsight over here.

"I'll gather what I can and go to Fisher." Greer was quick to agree on the plan and sounded almost guilty for leaving him behind.

"We will find Alec's shuttle and getting the fuck out of here." I said pointing at Greer who was now finished gathering whatever he could.

"I second that." Greer agreed as we all exited the cave went down the path we came until we spit up with Greer to head toward the flares. Now it was time to ditch this POS of a planet.

"Now we know Greer is safe, where too next?" Liam had to ask looking at me almost excitedly.

"We get to those flares." I said walking toward a funny looking oval wall. Is that a door? That was when my questioned was answered. It WAS a fucken door! About a whole patrol of those aliens came out. "Heads up!" I said running behind cover.

"Looks like a whole patrol!" Scott pinged as he unloaded and killing one of them running straight toward us. We had the high ground as we picked off ones that gave themselves away, just enough for a shot. I only saw two running toward the left. I used one of the Alien's crates in front of me to hide behind. I instinctively got behind something, kinda hoping none of them noticed me. I wasn't even sure where the hell they are or how many. "There right on top of Schmitt!" Liam barked as I peeked over the crate to only have bullets fly overhead. SON of a BITCH. "Schmitt! Stay down!" Liam said as he threw a frag grenade over my head and a large explosion sent two bodies flying over the crate I was pinched up against. Well, Fuck.

"Looks like we save your ass this time." Liam smiled offering me a hand back to my feet.

"Yeah, Thanks. I wasn't expecting that." I admitted as I grabbed his hand and used his weight to lift myself up. "Nice arm." I complemented looking over where the explosion marks were, and it was a bit too close for my liking. "But a bit to close, Eh?" Liam just laughed at my last statement. "At least you're still alive." Liam could help but to respond.

"SOS, Anyone out there!" A static voice started to say it was kind a familiar. That was until we got a bit closer and it was Cora over the com.

"Shit! Double time!" I snapped as we started to sprint toward the flare's location since it must have been Cora who launched the flare.

"Cora, we read you." Scott said speaking over the radio.

"The shuttle needs repairs and we're surrounded!" Cora said as gunshots rang in the background of the radio feed.

"MOVE!" I shouted as we climb the terrain toward the navpoint that Scott set up for us. It was a hurdle and a half to be honest as we just now reached the second shuttle. It was fairly open, but the shuttle had a good defensive nest set up. I took some shield damage as we gathered into the nest that Cora barely set up. Those aliens were already on top of us as they seen us coming.

"Where the hell have you guys been!" Cora shouted at us like a pissed off older sister. "They been doing a good job pinning us down!" She had to add.

"Oh, you know. I though you would want some Ice Cream." I smartly threw back at her giving suppressing fire at anything that moved. They were truly surrounded. "I got one!" Dr. Carlyle shouted during the fight.

"What did you three do to piss them off so badly?" Cora snapped at us.

"I didn't do SHIT!" I barked back at Cora. "Other than kill a few of them." I whispered to myself.

"WHAT WAS THAT!" Cora yelled at me which made me make a awkward face. "YOU HEARD ME!" I shouted. I wasn't going to kid myself. I knew she heard me and wasn't going to back down from what I said. Fuck these clay-faced pieces of dog shit. If they wanted a fight then I'll give them one.

They pressed hard, but we held them off with ease. We had the advantage since these guys didn't rock shields. Considering I only took two out while the rest were taken out by Ryder, Cora and Liam. Considering I only had a side arm I would gladly accept that. Once everything calmed down for a moment that gave me a second to take a breather.

"At least you guys made it back in one peace." Cora admitted looking at us then she gave a relaxed expression seeing I was doing ok...considering...I had to ball up my fist and release a few times as my adrenaline was working overtime. I did it to remind myself I'm alive and the pressure of my balled up fist was a good way to remind myself. The other was the pain that my body was in. I knew I was black and blue all over from that beast earlier.

"Where is my dad?" Scott seemed concerned.

"He went to scout ahead while we fixed that shuttle." Dr. Carlyle answered causing me to scoff.

"Sounds like him. Always going alone and being a hero. You take a man out of N7, but you can't take the N7 out of the man." I said waving my hands as I holstered my sidearm.

"There is weapons and ammo by that crate." Cora said pointing which I instantly walked over to see what gear they had. I wanted a rifle hell a M-7 would be fine but was sitting on top of the crate was something that felt like it was calling to me. A M-97 Viper sniper rifle. It was like destiny was calling my name. Normally, I wasn't one to believe into such fickle nonsense, but I was just gravitated to it, considering the situation.

"Hellooooo. Nurse." I mimicked Wako and Yako from Animanicas while getting comfortable with the rifle which Cora, Scott and Liam all gave me the weirdest look when I made the reference. I could tell they had no clue where it was from. I didn't care.

"We got a drop ship incoming!" Cora said as one of the aliens uber ugly ships came flying to drop troops off on the other side of the small stream in front of the small "camp" or nest. It looked like a green turd flying around to be honest.

"They got balls to try a air drop" Liam commented the aliens which I noticed that these guys don't fear death. Just countless soldiers diving into the wood chipper without hesitation. Slowly I noticed myself becoming weary of these guys. Reminds me of extreme religious fanatics. The Aliens were exposed during the air drop which bothered me even further. It was like a helicopter just no doors. The more and more I thought about it. The more these aliens began to creep me out.

I positioned myself to the far left of the camp behind the crates. The rifle was long as a 30-06 hunting rifle. Truthfully, I last time I shot a viper was back in boot camp. I got 28 out of 30 hit targets but I needed 27 out of 30 to be issued one. It was my go to weapon as a Assassin since I sniped my target from crazy angles and distance.

Two, maybe three took cover behind rocks on my side which I was being more observant then anything. I peeked around corners to see where they hid first before making a move. I was more of a defensive fighter then an offensive one, mostly because I tend to get reckless when I am on the offensive. Largely, when I have a combat knife in hand. Believe it or not, I'm better then Alec when it came to hand-to-hand combat since I learned more types of martial arts then mastering them. I leaned just enough backwards placing the rifle on the container, as I looked look down the sights of the barrel. My memory was my strongest attribute by far. I had a strange nack for hitting targets behind cover, just by estimation. THANK YOU, CALL OF DUTY MODERN WARFARE. Except, I can't shoot though solid rock. I took a knee and rose out from cover, I was half to an 1/16th of a inch away from an alien's head suppressing Scott. I made the small, quick adjustment and fired blowing the aliens head clean off. The recoil reminds me of a 30-06 which I could handle. I wouldn't dare try using a widow since only biotics can handle those massive fucks. Rumor was, the Widow was a futuristic model of the Barrett .50 Cal. In the original design it was way to powerful for normal humans to even fire since it shattered their shoulder blades to pieces. Once, it's recoil tore a man (my sizes) arm right out of the socket. After that it just collected dust until it could be used.

"Nice shot!" Scott said being thankful I was covering his ass. That's what I do now, I cover my allies and make sure that first mission never happens again.

"HA! Lighting struck their shuttle!" Dr. Carlyle barked happy at the sight of the shuttle being stuck by lighting. It crashed in the distance causing a small rumble beneath my feet Liam wasn't too far away from Dr. Carlyle and watching over him as the battle intensify. Bullets screaming everywhere. Our only advantage was our shields. Those two covered the far-right side.

"We got another one coming in!" Cora sternly said making sure everyone was aware. Scott wasn't right next to her as they covered the center thus making me the odd man out. This is usually my luck anyway.

The drop ship didn't waste any time dropping the soldiers, but I also noticed something dropped behind the rocks that send chills down my spine when I heard that damn howl. OH NO, YOU FUCKEN DON'T!

"Are those dogs?!" Cora shouted noticing the animals roaming the area and coming from the same direction of the drop ship from over a hill that they could easily climb.

"I don't know but they have some weird cloaking ability." Scott admitted which Cora responded with "You're shitting me."

"Hey, Schmitt...Your friends are back." Liam joked.

"FUCK YOU, ASSHOLE!" I barked shooting another alien in the chest once then twice to finally put it down for good. THOSE FUCKEN GOD DAMN MONGERALS ARE ATTACK DOGS! "NOW, I HAD ENOUGH OF THIS MOTHERFUCKEN PLANET!" I said as my temper started to get the better of me. Those damn things made my anxiety rise through the roof. I noticed small trace of movement creeping toward me. It was like a small outline of those fucken animals. I fucken HATED those things. I got ya. I aimed down the sights on the center of the outlined and fired wounding the animal causing the cloaking to disappear. It was finally reveled for me to shot it again, but in the head cracking open his bone-like headplate. I need it to reload by this time. I ended up taking out those fucken beasts as my top concern. The other's didn't even have time to react as I hunted them down in the midst of the

"Remind me again, not to piss Schmitt off." Liam sounded nervous at my psychic, paranoia of those camo dogs-things.

"How many fuckers are on this damn planet!" I yelled as another drop ship but with only three of those grunt fuckers on this one. Except, The one in the center was huge with a big fucken gun! This dude was fucken huge. I'm talking 6'11 and looks like he has to weight about 300 pounds and they look kinda mobile for their size.

I didn't bother to move myself to the front lines to deal with that big son of a bitch. I never seen this fucker, nor wanted to know what that fucking big gun does. I don't plan on sticking around to see what it does neither. I shifted over to my left out of cover and shot the big one in the head. NOTHING! "THAT BIG ONE HAS SHIELDS!?" I barked as realizing the fact it has shields right away. It turned to my direction, the barrel of that larger alien started to spin up...Like a MINI GUN!? The massive gun's clicking noise revved up and fired like a mini-gun! I got low to the ground as possible, but worse I was on my side. The container and rock formation took a fucken beating. Lucky for my dumbass, I lived.

"SCHMITT!" Cora snapped as she opened fire on an exposed grunt thinning the numbers slowly with her combat shotgun. I don't know exactly what was going on but all I know is...I'm ok? I realized what was going on so I snapped myself with the rifle. I aimed down the sights to see the big one distracted by Cora, Liam, and Scott with...IT'S SHIELDS DOWN! I noticed as it flinched from a shotgun blast to the shoulder and it was STILL STANDING! FUCK THIS ASSHOLE! I quickly aimed down the sights and once I saw the head I pulled the trigger with no remorse and without second thought. It's head blew open like a watermelon as blood flew up in the air.

"SHIT! SCHMITT'S OK!" Scott was startled at first and looked at me with a big stupid grin. I started to walk over to the rest of them feeling like hell. I was hurting all over and almost DIED! Holy shit, what a day. I was out of breath? God am I out of shape...

Out of anger Costa continued firing at the big one despite it being dead. "Come down! You're wasting fucken ammo!" I snapped at him making him come to his scenes. "These assholes KILLED Kirkland!" Costa replied still hurting over the fact Kirkland is dead. This kid needs to control that temper...yet, who am I to talk.

"We can't lose our cool, Liam." Scott said taking our side as I looked around the area. Liam just shot the body with a few more bullets. "Now, I'm good."

"I managed to get the QEC up and running. So, coms should be working." A female soldier said that I never caught her name. She took a round to the gut though which caused me to have flashbacks again. GOD DAMN, THIS FUCKEN PLACE! Images of holding my side the pain of that mission. I had to calm down.

"SCHMITT!" Cora said hitting the side of my helmet. I looked at her stunned and focused on her. Damn, she was pretty. "The Pathfinder is trying to get a hold of you." I grinned my teeth a little as I activated my coms. "RYDER! YOU MOTHER FUCKER! YOU DRAG MY ASS ACROSS THE FUCKEN DARK SPACE FOR THIS BULLSHIT! WHEN WE GET BACK, WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A LONG CHAT!" I let loose at Alec who let me rant at him for a bit. It didn't help that I might have PTSD...god damn it. She was right...I am loosing my shit. I think Alec knew it too, due to tone in my angry voice. I wasn't scared of the fact I was going to die, just...I was afraid of everyone getting killed again. I won't allow it...not again.

"Schmitt...I know...Bring Harper, Scott and Costa with you. We won't be able to get off this planet with those storms. I may find a way to fix that." Ryder said somberly at first. It was his way of apologizing sincerely before telling me how he has more "plans". Great more fucken plans. Plan this plan that. Every plan has gone to shit so far. "SAM is sending you the navpoints." Alec finished as if I gave him a guilt trip.

"Wow...What was that about?" Liam asked as all of them were surprised how I talked to Alec and how Alec "apologized".

"I never heard of someone speaking to my dad like that." Scott said looking over at me with a stern look as did everyone else.

"We have a job to do." I spoke lowly, walking toward the way we arrive from since it was the same direction as the Navpoints.

"So? Explain later...Gotcha ya." Liam awkwardly followed in tow with Cora and Scott. The entire trip was quiet as we went to meet up with Alec. SAM gave us updates about the incoming storm, but everyone stopped commenting and joking around since I killed that vibe by flipping out on Alec. All the important data, I need to know was in my face. A small mini-map that SAM connected to my omi-tool. All the data that we gathered was uploaded to SAM which he could give the basic information of the planets and animals of the planet. There was also a mini-map of the surrounding area that SAM gathered together.

Once we caught up with Alec who was observing a whole mess of those Aliens. He wasn't too far off just on a hill near the same way we took out that patrol. "Who are these guys?" Cora asked as she snuck up behind Alec as she observed the aliens roamed the area below us. Their infrastructure was pretty impressive considering hanging off the side of a rock formation. Lots of cover too. Except where I'm sitting.

"Visitors just like us. There not native to the planet. I discovered one of their labs not to far from here." Alec said giving me that "look" like I was being lazy again.

"Alec, I'm in no fucken mood." I said very bluntly causing Alec to sigh. He didn't press the matter because I knew what he was going to say. "I should be looking out for things like that." as he would tell me. "Besides, Our team is more important."

"You are right but-" Alec start to say and stopped himself from finishing that statement.

"What's the play." I asked not looking away from the aliens and remembering where they were all standing.

"It's that dark energy that the Hyperion hit. It's affecting the whole planet. Interfering with that." Alec started to explain as he pointed to the top of the tower in front of us. There stream of dark energy coming out the top and I was internally screaming for not realizing it sooner.

"Wow, Schmitt was right." Liam was dumbstruck as Alec looked over at me with a approving look. He made a grunting like noise to Liam's statement. "It was the ONLY possible conclusion." I said with a shrug when Cora looked surprised.

"The tower is caught in a feedback loop causing the interference. Hence, disrupting the entire climate with undirected energy." SAM would explain in layman's terms. I need me a SAM because most of the technical shit is fucken confusing. I stared at the tower feeling like something bad is nearby or going to happen. How did I not notice this though...It's so fucken obvious that this tower was the main problem. It's literally connected to the peak of the tower. I could have been here like a half hour ago. Fixed the problem, gone back to the ark, bitch out Alec for dragging my ass across dark space and finding a comfy quiet desk job and happy life a quiet life. Like, I planned MONTHS ago before I got thrown into the shanxi mess and now THIS FUCKEN SHIT! Oh well, it is what it is.

"If we get in there and shut that thing down." Alec said but then Scott finished. "Then the lighting goes away..." Alec turned to Scott with a nod. "And the shuttle can get us out of here in theory."

"Alec...I swear, you're going to be the death of me." I said lowering my head and shaking it. Alec just chuckled. "Good to have you back, Schmitt." Alec said looking over his shoulder at me. I just gave him the middle finger. "Only if Hatsu was here...or else I wouldn't have to do this." Alec said before setting off bombs destroying the lightning rods. There was a brief pause as the thunder clouds began to build and the aliens looked up the the sky like a bunch of idiots instead of taking cover. Lighting came down and took out the first wave of aliens. Wow Ryder, you sneaky little spit fuck. This is something I would have done so I wouldn't have to work as hard.

Alec and the rest started the attack right after. I sat on the hill now realizing...Alec IS going to be the death of me since I got to run into a LGZ. Messing with alien tech that no one knows about and I'm just sitting here as everyone is now...down there...GOD DAMN IT!

I jumped down pulling out my side arm instead of my rifle since it's going to be close and personal. "SAM load combat profile." Alec said that caught my attention as I caught up with everyone. What? Load combat profile? Alec...what the hell did you do. I couldn't help to ponder as I covered him. I stayed at the flank just to be sure one one sneaks up our people or they get left behind. Alec had point, Cora covered right side, Scott the left and Liam the center as overwatch to everyone. We formed a diamond formation but more spread out, yet close enough to watch each other's backs. We tore through their defensive lines like a knife through butter. Mostly Alec since he seemed...more like a superhuman. Its reaction skills were good, but this was fucken insane. This isn't the same Alec Ryder I fought with before. Then when he said "SAM, biotic amp interface mode". That is when I started to be freaked out by SAM. What kind of connect does he have with his AI? The others just think he was just this good and I am the only one who realized what the difference.

Sweeping across the aliens structure built over the tower's base to the top where apparently Alec is going to find his answer. Along the way, Scott, Cora and Liam are now questioning his "profiles" and they were starting to be questioning of it. Alec put them off as usual saying it "Was a little help from SAM". When we reached the so called "Answer". Then, He wants us to hold off waves of these Alien bastards we pushed though so he can decipher the language. This was way to evident now for anyone to see that this guy was beyond a normal human. He was pretty much single handedly taking out these aliens. I got a hand to hand combat kill in by throwing one off the side of the alien's structure, down to the misty floor below and two other side arm kills. The kids were really working hard to keep up with Alec and sometimes myself. These kids were in much better shape then I was. I pushed too many pencils these last 2 years since I have been rarely seeing the field.

"Ok, where do you want us?" Liam asked me as Alec was decipher causing me step up leading the newbies. "Alright. Scott and Liam left side. Cora and I will take the right. Only if you HAVE to, then get up in their damn faces. IF they push hard then drop back BEFORE they get too close. Don't be a hero. We can't afford one side overwhelmed or this whole thing goes to shit." I said like a snappy Sargent that caused everyone to move into their places.

I pulled out my rifle covering the higher walkway while Cora covered the bottom. Right after we got into our positions, the aliens came toward us firing like mad men. They were poorly trained by military standard. Everyone made damn sure not one of them got by us and watch each other's backs and covering each other very well. I'd say we made one fucken hell of a squad with just the four of us. I had to admit for kids...their fucken gooood. Then again these fucken heathens are just throwing bodies at us as if they don't even matter at all...it's so fucked.

When the aliens strangely retreated at the same time as the decipher was finished. "Damn, the door is jammed. Schmitt! Give me a hand." At first, I was hesitant, but Cora said she would take care of things out here. I grabbed a part of the door and lifted upward with Alec. "Put you're back into it!" Alec said quickly as he realized I was assisting him. "That's how you blow you're back out "old man"." I joked lifting with my legs rising the door up a few notches. "So, how do you expect to shut this bad boy down?" I said in between grunting as I pushed the bottom of the door way to knee level.

"I don't know. SAM only deciphered a part of the language." Alec admitted lowly. "Oh great. This keeps getting better and better. I swear to god, you're going to get me killed one of these days." I said shaking my head at these crazy ass ideas of his. I think Hatsu rubbed off on him over the years. This is the shit you don't do without repercussion. Come on, Alec.

"Relax, Schmitt. I'm just going to have a little conversation." He mused as he started to walk over the threshold of the large alien building. "With Who? Fucken Tron?" I was growing more agitated and dumbfounded, the more I had to listen to his responses.

"I think its automated...Come on, these are the moments that make it all worth wild." Alec said getting excited by SOMETHING. "What! To get me killed?" I said shaking my head while following Alec to along corridor with a blue glowing triangle in the background. At the center was a big blue orb floating around. When we got closer, I realized that that Triangle wasn't some background prop but an interface with a wavy blue tech at the center, not some orb. Alec raised his hand and Omi-Tool activated causing a stream of red smoke tech connecting with the large blue triangle interface. Once the connection was finished small amounts of smoke rose from the ground the triangle broke its formation. I was so mesmerized the entire experience that I expected something to happen, but nothing did. Huh? Not one booby trap? A big large beam roared through the sky above us. I turned around walking to the door seeing the atmosphere was starting to clear up. In the matter of moments. What the hell? What is this tech?

"You got to be fucken kidding me...It worked." I jabbed while jaw could've bounced off the floor. "You crazy, son of a bitch. You did it." I added looking at the new age Bionic man.

"And you didn't die." Alec joked punching me in the shoulder. "You motherfucker. When did you grow a sense of humor?" I laughed.

"Well, after being around a asshole of your stature. And Su's insane way of thinking. You tend to grow one." Alec laughed making me think about Hatsu which made me smile. For the first time something...gone...right. I thought but I felt a rumble at my feet coming from behind me. I turned around as did Ryder to only get hit with a wave of smoke or air. It hit us backwards with so much force it felt like I was hit by a wave from a monsoon. I slid across the platform, but I barely managed to grab on to the ledge as Alec tumbled over the edge. FUCK! I though as my hand slip and I was already plummeting below. My jump jets just barely broke my fall but at a cost...My helmet was broke. I started to suffocate. Closing my mouth giving me extra time as Alec stood over me realizing that I was going to die. "Called...It" was all I managed to say until out of nowhere Alec took my helmet off and gave me his. "Breath...Schmitt...I'm..." Was all he said when everything went back.