Chapter 4: Going Loud

"When in doubt C-4"

-Mythbusters

Something was wrong. Not that the entire planet being invaded by huge 2km tall aliens wasn't wrong but something closer to do with the place he was in. Anderson just couldn't put his finger on it though, no matter how hard he focused. It almost seemed as if the problem was purposefully evading his attempts to figure it out slipping from the periphery of his consciousness to be lost in the chaos of his subconscious. He would figure it out though he always figured it out in the end, that's how he became the man he is today.

Gunfire was everywhere, all of the squads were regrouped in the wreckage of an alliance warship that had crashed in the shipyard. Unfortunately they were surrounded cut off from teams three and four, from what Mason had seen there was no end in sight of the Reapers. It seemed as if every Reaper in the city was here attacking his team, fortunately it seemed there were only husks and cannibals easily dispatched but their ammo was finite, it was just a matter of time until it ran out.

"Jackson!" Mason roared over the gunfire. "Take your squad to higher ground let us know where they are weakest. We have to fight our way out of here."

"No need for a squad sir. I'll use my cloak." Jackson replied as he shimmered and disappeared from view.

Not a minute later Jackson reported in "I've got good news and bad news sir. The bad news is we're completely surrounded no way out at least thousand maybe more. The good news is I found the ship's communication array I'm going to try to use it to request support from any marines still in Vancouver."
"Do it! See if Anderson can spare some air support while you're at it."

Suddenly there was a blast of static across the radio and Jackson's voice "Attention any remaining Alliance forces in the Vancouver area. This is Fire Team Alpha on a priority mission in need of immediate and all assistance possible. We are pinned in the shipyard under heavy fire from Reaper forces, coordinates to follow."

After the coordinates the message immediately repeated suggesting it had been put on a loop. Mason was maintaining fire on the Reapers put they continued to slowly gain ground, every few seconds Reapers would fall for no apparent reason except for a sudden expulsion of brain matter suggesting that Jackson had taken up a sniping position on top of the ship. Then the first bad news came in from Larry "Out of thermal clips anyone got spares?"

Taking a quick count Mason realized he was down to just three which would amount to 60 shots, the other members reported similarly low numbers. "Everyone fall back into the wreckage try to funnel them in. Jackson get down here and switch to your M16 and pass out your thermals."

As they backed into the wreckage they took their time with their shots making each and every one count aiming for the head as much as possible. Jackson's antimatter rounds made quick work of every enemy almost always one shot one kill. Even the normal FMJ rounds fired by everyone else were very effective completely bypassing any shields present on the enemies. Time ticked by agonizingly slow each second seemed like a week. Inevitably the fire became less and less effective as everyone switched to their pistols. Suddenly a booming noise, Mason instantly recognized it as a Mako battle tank's main cannon, could be heard outside the ship and the Reapers slowly stopped coming in all eventually only a dozen are so remained and were quickly dispatched by, slowly the team made their way back outside the craft and saw a most welcome sight.

Waiting for them was eight Mako battle tanks and an entire platoon of armored marines, everyone in the group except for Jackson lowered their weapons. Mason glared at him "Stand down Jackson, that's an order."

"Not until I see their eyes sir. You can always tell if they're indoctrinated by their eyes."

"I said stand down!"

Slowly Jackson lowered his gun but kept it in his hand instead of holstering it like the rest of the squad.

"Who's in command here?" Mason asked.

A hatch opened up and a man swung out of the tank, instantly Jackson's gun was up and pointed at the man.

"I said STAND DOWN!" Mason roared.

The rescue squad had also raised their guns all of them pointed at Jackson. Jackson's men had also raised their guns but lowered them when Mason told them to. Everyone was on edge, the man that had come out of the tank looked unconcerned and approached Jackson with an air of superiority.

"Well, well, well. It must be Christmas morning and nobody told me. Good to see you again subject 117, it has been far too long"

"Not long enough, see the bullet to the knee didn't slow you down any."

"Modern medicine is amazing isn't it."
"Just what the hell is going on here? How do you too know each other?" Mason asked.

"Sorry sir. This is Colonel Charles Whitcomb." Jackson replied.

"It's actually Major General now, and you are going right back to the lab where you belong."

"No way in hell. I'd die before I go back there again."

"That works for me, an autopsy would provide the same results as having you alive."
"ENOUGH!" Mason was rapidly tiring of these two "We can discuss this later right now we need to get the QEC and get back to base. Kill each other later."

Jackson slowly lowered his gun "I'm not going anywhere until the Reapers are dead, after they're gone we can settle this like men."
"Works for me. Mason you have tactical command since you know where we're going. We rounded up what's left of Vancouver's military assets and a few civilians, unfortunately the Reapers rounded up most of the civilians and moved them to camps around a Sovereign class Reaper. There's nothing we can do for them it's time to bug out, Vancouver is lost."

"Of course sir. Let me get on the horn with team three and see if they secured the QEC and saved team four. Are you to going to be okay until I get that done?" Mason said the last part directed solely at Jackson.

"Sure, unless all the Reaper's just disappear." Jackson answered his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Satisfied that the two weren't going to shoot each other Mason moved off and started to contact team 3, while Mason and Whitcomb moved off toward their respective teams. Both teams were sizing each other up, making plans, finding the closest cover, just waiting for a fight to break out.

Slowly but surely the teams relaxed around each other and formed a perimeter around the crashed ship and passed out ammo to those who needed it but Jackson and Whitcomb maintained their distance from each other. It was tense but the two could work together. Eventually the whine of shuttle engines could be heard coming in low and fast, a little too late to provide support but at least they wouldn't have to hoof it home.

"Okay everyone listen up! Teams three and four have secured the QEC and are going to extract on a shuttle. Load up the shuttles with as many people as possible they will take you back to base make sure to cover the primary objective. Jackson, Whitcomb, and I are going to take the tanks and any other vehicles across no man's land. The shuttles need to stay low and fast as possible, there will be no fighter support for them understand." The shuttle pilots nodded and started to load the few civilians and wounded, while everyone else loaded into the vehicles.

Despite the fact that the Reapers now owned Vancouver there was very little resistance to their withdrawal from the city. They ran into a few packs of Cannibals and Husks no more than a hundred strong that were quickly dispatched by the tanks and jeeps combined fire. "Charles what's going on? When I left Vancouver yesterday morning there were at least a dozen Reaper ships all around the city. Where did they go?" Jackson inquired with complete disregard for rank and common courtesy.

"So now you wanna talk? What happened to putting a bullet between my eyes huh?" Whitcomb replied sarcastically.

"Don't tempt me." Jackson answered with his hand on his pistol. "We have to work together for now might as well get used to it."
It was a hollow threat and they all knew it inside of the tank a round would likely travel through the target and ricochet around killing all of them.

"No idea. After they rounded up the bulk of the civilians they flew off apparently they took most of their ground forces with'em. Some clearly headed off world but most along lower flight paths. My guess is onto other cities." Whitcomb said with a hint of sadness "Never even got the chance to blow'em up proper. All that's left is the internment camps and a few big Reapers."

"Damn. They're moving faster than I thought possible, I figured they would be here at least a week." Jackson got lost in thought for a minute. "If we destroyed the few remaining Reaper's you think they would send reinforcements?"

Mason and Whitcomb looked at him like he had lost his mind. Mason was the first to recover "The biggest ships in the Alliance fleet could barely even scratch the bigger Reapers and you think we can do better with a few hundred marines?"

"You remember those antimatter rounds I showed you?" Mason nodded "Well there is more where that came from a lot more. I estimate three to four tons of it in storage under the base. If we could-"

Whitcomb interrupted him. "Hold your horses there. You're telling me that my new HQ is on top of an antimatter storage facility? You really are bat shit crazy."

"It's not on top of one, it is one. It was originally built to manufacture and store antimatter, they finally ceased production after making some treaty with the council but the stockpile remains. Also it's not your HQ it's mine I'm just loaning it to you understand."

"Whatever don't get your panties in a twist. You know maybe I can do the autopsy in your own HQ, how's that for some irony."

This time Jackson did pull his pistol, Mason quickly grabbed it from his hand. "I'm tired of this, I feel like a fucking babysitter. General what did you mean whey you said that Jackson belongs in a lab?"

"I meant just that. This thing is United States Marine Corps property and since the USMC was absorbed by the Alliance that means he is now Alliance property."
"The USMC was folded into the Alliance in 2150 that would make him at least 50 years old, he barely looks half that if you ask me."

"That's why we want him in a lab, his actual age is unknown but the according to his USMC records he was born just before the turn of the 22nd century, however we have reason to believe these records are falsified. He has sustained a whole host of injuries during his tours of duty, most of them minor, but the most notable injury was in 2123 when his tank detonated a massive IED everyone was killed except for him and he was out of the hospital barely two days later. The scary part is he was right above where the mine went off."

"Yea after that the Marine Corps asked if they could perform some tests to see why I healed so fast. I refused, they were not happy about it. I had to kill eight MPs to escape, spent the next couple decades on the run. When the Alliance was founded I joined them under a false name, unfortunately when the USMC joined the Alliance someone who knew the old me found out and sent this stupid cocky Captain and his platoon after me wound up killing the whole platoon and left the captain alive with a warning."

"Didn't work, I got promoted and was tasked with tracking him down. Never had any luck until today, all this time he was right under my nose."

"Shepard worked with Whitcomb for a few years before Elysium. Shepard once tracked me down and we actually had a nice conversation, he's a good man. Understood when I told him my side of the story knew I just wanted to help humanity, offered me some intel on some nasty crime lords in Mexico I hunted them down in exchange for Shepard feeding Whitcomb false information. After Cerberus rebuilt him he contacted me again for help against the Collectors, I had to refuse for… personal reasons."

Sensing there was more to the story Mason mentally noted to ask more later. Whitcomb decided at this point to interrupt Mason's thoughts "So that's how you did it. Fucking Shepard was the one hiding you all these years. Should've known that guy really is too good for humanity."

"Well for two enemies, you seem to be getting along just fine." Mason replied.

"We used to be friends, if you can believe that. Same rank and battalion before this shit storm started." Jackson answered "Only reason I spared his life when he first came after me."
"I still hate your guts for killing my platoon." Whitcomb answered.

Jackson just nodded and got a sad look in his eyes when the driver interrupted. "Sirs, were approaching no-man's land I suggest you strap in I'm going to punch it."

Everyone except Jackson strapped in, while Jackson elected to hold on to the suicide handle. They spent the next ten minutes, red lining the Mako's engines hitting nearly 120kph1 they bounced around on every little bump in the dirt. Finally they arrived in the woods were shuttles were waiting to airlift the Mako to the HQ. Anderson was waiting beside the shuttles fully decked out in full combat gear with a squad of marines, he did not look happy.

1: About 70mph

AN: I got to work all weekend but I updated all the chapters and new content will be upload next week. Feel free to R&R.