Mass Effect: Survival

Ch3

When i came to it was with a killer headache. What can one expect after being choked by an alien that has some kind of super grip. I knew that the alien could have killed me, her punches were strong enough to dent the metal plating underneath me. SAo it isn't a stretch to imagine her crushing my throat.

As i staggered up from my prone position I noticed that my H&K was still standing where i put it. I walked over to it and slung it across my shoulder.

As I was still alive and not in a cell, I knew that the blue alien was the last one on the shuttle, so I didn't bother with checking over the rest of the shuttle looking for enemies.

Instead I went outside to check the damage the shuttle had sustained. The alloy might be some night indestructable thing by human standards, but usually crashing into a stone building leaves its mark.

So i found myself stepping out of the small shuttle and immediatelly regretting it. As it was july it was almost 30 degrees outside and in warm weather bodies decompose fast. The result of me leaving the two dead aliens right infront of the shuttle door was a smell so horrible I thought that i was going to puke.

Judging from the smell I had been passed out for atleast a day or so. The changes in the city were obvious. The gunfire that could still be heard after i woke up from the crash was gone. Replaced by total silence, only the ambient noises of a dead city and the occasional flyby by alien gunships and shuttles.

I stopped breathing through my nose and moved to the damaged front left thruster. When i got to it, I could clearly see the problem. The thruster was warped and scorched, and it was missing the lower half of itself.

'Nothing i have is repairing that.'

I gave up on even trying to repair the thruster as i had no experience with alien thrusters, nor human ones for that.

Knowing that i could not hijack the shuttle I went inside to check for any supplies as the Invading forces usually got supplied by the same ships as this one. And boy did i Find stuff.

The transport was not transporting weapons and other supplies to troops but it was transporting human made armor, weapons and cultural artefacts like literature, paintings and such. All the weapons and armor were pretty banged up but all human armors are modular, with only the basis of the suits not interchangable. So when i saw a Spectre Medium variant armor, exclusive to the best human spec-ops soldiers, with only a few more serious dents and scrapes on it, i grabbed it. The helmet was a no-go because the guy was killed with a headshot, and it was filled with dried brain matter, not to mention the fist sized hole going through it.

Thanks to all human armors being modular i could pick up the T-model assault helmet from another armour set that was so full of holes that it looked like a pincushion.

'These must have come from the SAS boys attacking the AA guns, poor bastards.'

There were other, better armour variants around but they all were either in the wrong size or were too damaged to even attempt recovery.

Shifting through the crates of looted human weapons, armor and ammo, I found the single newest human rifle around, M41A rifle is one of the last rifle series released before the aliens breached the orbital perimiter. The gun was designed to compensate for the power of the shot with volume, shooting 10×24mm caseless rounds that are armor piercing and caseless. The rate of fire is better than what the aliens guns have and the explosive tips are made to bring down shields fast. Add on the small rocket launcher mounted on it and you get a very mean weapon. The gun is so rare that only the best of the best are issued with these babies.

There was no doubt, I picked up the M41A and set my older H&K down. The gun had served me well. When that was done I hurried over to one of the ammonition containers and, without even bothering shifting through it first, pushed it sideways, so that the clips would come pouring out.

I picked up a backpack from the pile of equipment and started stuffing them full of the clips I needed. Each clip had to be checked for previous uses, didn't want to have a 30 round clip when thinking i had a 99 round clip.

In the end of that scavanging run I had 20 clips and 7 grenades for the gun and about 600 or so open rounds along with empty magazines that I will need to load into the gun when in a safer place. Because sitting in an alien shuttle crash site for too long is not a good idea.

So I took the stuff, drank most of my water reserve and got to the shuttle door when suddenly, an idea struck.

'Why don't I boobytrap the shuttle'

I quickly grabbed a few surplus grenades from the stash and tied the pins together with a tripwire. Then I attached the grenades to a bench next to the door with another piece of rope and opened the door halfway. Once that was done i tied the tripwire to the half open door so that it was not lax and jumped out. Using the looted omnitool to close the door I scribbled on the door of the shuttle the sign for explosive ordinance so that any friendly forces could avoid it and took off.

I ran out of the apartment building and into the streets, looking to put as much distance between me and the crash site as possible. I immediatelly regretted running out because i pretty much collided with an asari patrol. Both sides were staring at one another, shocked about the others sudden appearance. The three asari in the patrol were frozen solid. I was the first one to get over the shock and react to the aliens. I dived behind a burned out car on the wrecked street and it seemed that as soon as i moved the asari did too. All of them glowed purple and drew their guns. Just as i got my whole body behind the car a mass of bullets soared over by head and impacted the car. The volume of fire so great that to peak out would be to die. To get out of my position i took out a grenade, a flashbang to be precise, and threw it over my cover. The asari were not wearing helmets so i knew it would work. I darted out of cover and ran for the nearest alleyway. the map of the area allready in the helmets HUD, reinforcing my thoughts of it belonging to an SAS soldier attached to the 8. army.

The effect of a flashbang is greatly reduced on asari because of their lack of ear lobes and Eyes that recover from a flash quicker than humans. So it was no surprise that I felt bullets pinging off of my armor and other objects in the alleyway only 40 or so seconds after the grenade detonated.

I jumped behind a big green dumpster, knowing that a single stray shot to the neck area would mean death. The dumbster was only good for obscuring their line of sight on me, because the smaal rounds started penetrating the container as soon as I took cover behind it. Nonetheless the thing managed to slow the shots down enough to make them ineffective against my armour.

Leaning out of cover, i gave off a couple of bursts. Just to keep them from advancing and giving them a chance to shoot me point blank. The asari i fired at looked surprised when her barrier dropped, but before i could take out her shield, I was forced back into cover.

I understood that there was no point in staying behind the metal container that was becoming an imitation of swiss cheese, with all the holes. I put my gun over my holy cover and fired blindly until the magazine clicked empty. Rising up, I ejected the empty magazine mid run and put in a new one from my equipment pockets. The run was over fast as i crashed into a rusted metal door shoulder first. The door shook but did not fall like i hoped.

Instead of having a quick exit strategy, i now was out in the open without any cover. Pulling a grenade from my belt, I tried tossing it over to the enemy, only to finally have my luck running out. A shot penetrated the lighter elbow plating on my right hand just as i had pulled the pin.

"AAAAGH"

My hand went limp, the primed grenade falling out of my hand. Although the pain was excrutiating, I still had the countdown until a gory death going on in my head. Time slowed down as i tried saving myself.

1...

I looked around panicing, trying to see where the grenade had fallen.

2...

Isaw the grenade, lying infront of my right foot. Collecting my strenght, I gave the explosive a strong kick like I was kicking a football back in school. The grenade flew away from me at full speed towards the other end of the alley.
3...

"BOOOOOOOM"

The grenade exploded, pulling down the wall of one of the buildings in the alleyway, traping me with the asari with only my left arm combat capable. I pulled out the smg i got from the dead asari in the apartment and started spraying away at the aliens.

I fired in short bursts, trying to control the recoil of the unfamiliar gun while backing off behind a piece of the wall that had come down. Suddenly one of the asari stood up, finally understanding that i could barely aim with the gun, and threw a blue orb at me.

I tried dodging the orb, only to have it adjust its trajectory, and impact my chest. The blue orb thing warped the metal of my chestplate, making me wince in pain when the warping metal tore into my skin.

Another one popped up and threw another one of the blue balls. This time a smaller albeit faster one. In that moment, I made peace with myself, knowing that i was not going to survive the orb that was no doubt going to eat through my armor and kill me.

It was a complete surprise then when the orb impacted me and threw me against the wall, making me feel as if some truck had hit me. As i was starting to get up and raise my gun, my whole world turned blue, and i could not move anymore. The only thing i could do was move my eyes. All other motion felt like I was trying to lift a cruiser with my bare hands.

So there I lay. Helpless. Immobile. Waiting to be shot and left in the alleyway to rot. When one of the blue chicks comes up to me, holding a bundle of rope, the rope having a noose knotted on to it.

The woman had a sadistic smile on her face. She was petting the rope like it was a puppy. One of the others looked indifferent but the second one looked disgusted.

"My My, what do we have here girls? A real live human, and a soldier as well. Oh this day keeps getting better and better." the one with the rope said in a sickly sweet singsong voice, slowly stepping closer.

"Thats enough T'Vanas, just because they are barbarians does not mean that we need to torture them. Just get it over and done with." Said the third. While looking completely calm and unremorseful, she pulled out her pistol and shot me almost point blank in the leg.

Any mercy I was hoping from any of them vaporised, they were going to hang me. A very slow death by anyones standards. I couldnt do anything even when the blue barrier that was keeping me from moving fell and one of the blue women started dragging me towards a lamp post that was still relatively intact.

The indifferent one set me down in a leaning position and watched over the other two as they set up the Noose and went to find something to drop me from.

I was groggy, the world infront of my eyes was swimming like i was drunk and my thoughts became slow. But even then, there was one thing in my mind, I had to take down as many of them as i could. As i remembered i still had a couple of grenades on my bandolier. If i could detonate them, I could take all four of us out. But right now I had only one of them near me, so i had to wait. Why not pass the time with a little chit chat.

"Wh-why are you doing this" The bloodloss was slowly getting to me, I knew it.

The asari looked at me, surprise clearly written on her face. "What do you mean why, your people brought this onto themselves when you burned Tamaris and the cities of Serrice and Armali."

The only thing i could do is chuckle at that and mutter to myself "So old Hackett is still kickin'. Why am i not surprised."

The surprise on the asaris face was replaced by anger at my chuckling as she apparently did not like me laughing over the destruction of one of her peoples colony worlds and two cities. She lashed out and kicked me in my shot arm.

"Arrrgh. Was that necessary, you bitch"

"Why would you laugh over billions of people dying?" Was her quick answer to my question.

"Look around you. What do you see? Ruins, corpses and broken dreams, it's all that is left of my people, and it's your peoples doing. So hearing that we atleast gave you a blody nose is like music to my ears."

The asari luckily didn´t hit me again and just settled to sitting on a burned out tank turret that was slightly rusty. She activated her omnitool and started doing something on it.

Feeling my body starting to numb and having difficulties breathing, I removed my helmet. Taking a captule off my belt i cracked it open and poured its contents over the wound on my arm and repeated the process with the wound on my leg. The wounds started sealing themselves and i noticed the asari watching in wonder. She was just starting to ask a question when the other two returned from a derelict shopping centre with a shopping cart. The asari left to guard me snapped to a more alert stance and adopted a neutral look.

"D'riare, get that stinking bag of flesh up." Shouted the one called T'Vanas to my guard who dragged me up, although alot more gently than before. The shopping cart was placed upside down and i was pushed onto it by two of the asari and hauled to my feet by the third.

I had them right where i wanted them, all clustered together and too busy to notice a quick hand movement. So I darted my hand to my grenade bandolier to pull the pins when i got a glowing knee to my groin and a noose around my neck.

T'Vanas chuckled "Do you think you are the first to try that boy. I've had many hangings and many have tried this, but i let them have their false hope of going out with a bang because it keeps that spark of life and hope in their eyes alot longer when they suffocate."

Having my hopes crushed by this evil bitch of an alien was not new to me, after all this was not my first hanging, although last time I had no grenades on me.

The three asari pulled me up and tied the other end of the rope to the tank turret D'riare was sitting on before and gathered for the spectacle that was my hanging.

Preparing for it i repeated what i did last time, I sucked in alot of air as inconspicuosly as possible and Tensed my throat muscles. Then, Suddenly, I felt the cart dissapearing from under me and the sudden choking that I was doing. I struggled, as any person would, but eventually the pain subsided and my struggling grew weaker and weaker by the second.

After a few more seconds the asari walked away, leaving me to hang, they had a patrol to finish. As soon as I safely could i reached out my hand and pulled the knife from its sheath and started cutting the rope, putting all the strenght left in my body into it and cut the rope, dropping me down with a heavy thud and finally allowing me to breathe again.

Then i started using reserves that i didn't even know existed and dragged myself below a slab of concrete that formed the ceiling of an arteficial cave/shelter thing, snagging my helmet as i went. Then i crawled into the cave and passed out.