Sorry for such a delay guys. Christmas break made me a very lazy person. I got my PC rig built which I really could use some help in introducing on how to mod Oblivion. It's all new to me and I can't seem to get anything to work besides the Unofficial Oblivion Patch.
Also, I just want to say I really appreciate all the feedback I've gotten on this again. The sheer amount of responses is humbling.
Okay so back on topic. A bit of a heads up on this chapter, I apologize if anyone has a problem with it, but I created a Geth design for this chapter. I just needed something more opposing than a Collossus. So I took some liberties on that. But enough of me wasting your time. Please, read.
If the blasted sun wasn't already a pounding headache as it was (or being the one to give that to everybody) the inside of Six's helmet was hot enough to cook a breakfast worthy of a Krogan atop of.
He had just walked inside one of the Quarian holdouts that dotted the site the Marines and Tali had set up shop at. It was like someone had thrown a bunch of quarry blocks atop one another and laid down some wires and machinery and called it home. It was dark in many areas as well, which was probably for the best considering how it burned to be outside, especially in the sun.
Six detached his helmet and took a deep breath of air. He had been granted some respite after fighting against the Geth for a good fifteen hours now off and on.
Originally, when Kal'Reegar had offered the Spartan some time to collect himself he refused. Six had this growing paranoia that at any minute now the attacks would intensify in both numbers and rate. But from what he could tell from the firefights they encountered so far is that the Geth weren't actually coordinated an offensive yet. More like they were throwing everything at them as fast as possible, given their location in accordance to where they'd been holed up.
Fortunately, Kal and the other marines had a plan for that. They had brought along with them a good mess of automated anti-air turrets. Unfortunately, due to the size of their ship the turrets had to be dissembled to all fit in the confined space aboard the Car'voia. On the other hand, Quarians are natural machinist, mechanics, and the like. So reassembling the defenses was going along nicely.
That didn't do much to put the stressed Lieutenant's mind at ease. Spartans weren't meant for defense, as Frederic-104 once told him on an operation he had the pleasure of partaking in "Spartans aren't designed to be holed up in a bunker taking heat, we're the ones that should be bringing the heat to them." Nonetheless, Six knew the importance of his current objective and would never find the reason or the rationale to complain… ever.
He dropped his helmet to the floor before he leaned up against one of the stark gray walls or concrete slab. He slid down until his hindquarters were against the rocky stone flooring very much like the wall. As a matter of fact exactly like the wall.
"Hey, umm, Six is it?" a semi-tuned voice of a Quarian female could be heard to his right. Six looked over to see the asset, Tali'Zorah held a bottle in her right… claw? She stared at him with a quizzical look that wasn't quite noticeable by the white silhouette of her eyes through the veil of purple haze.
His response let her know she was right, "care for a drink?"
Six smiled slightly seeing the bottle of sure relief in front of him. "It's water right? Water I can drink?"
"Yes, it's sterilized, and has your name on it. Or number really." She couldn't honestly believe this guy was referred to with such an odd alias.
"I appreciate that Tali, thank you." He extended a hand reaching for the bottle as Tali handed it to him. Six then popped it open and took small sips knowing it was more thirst quenching than downing the whole bottle at once.
For a moment, Tali stood awkwardly not sure what to do next. Six sensed what she was thinking and offered, "Tali, if you want to sit down and just relax that'd be fine. I suppose you have some questions for me? Unless there's something you should be doing."
"Oh, yes, well the current scans we're running are going to be a while so I guess I have time." Tali walked over another step towards Six and sat down next to him.
Six took another sip from his water (that couldn't have tasted better right now) before he opened his mouth, "So, let's hear it."
The Quarian took a short breath before speaking up, "right, umm… well why are you called Six?" she found this question to be as good of a jumping-off point as any.
Before the Lieutenant opened his mouth he made a mental note to watch his words. This really wasn't a time to tell anybody here who he really was considering no one was likely to believe him. Now that he thought about it, it was a miracle that Shepard didn't believe he was something out of an insane asylum placed on the Purgatory for the sake of the galaxy's well-being.
So he would choose his words carefully, "I was apart of a special force called Noble Team. I was Noble Six. In our last mission, all but me and Noble Three I can speak for being dead carrying out that mission."
"Oh… my, I'm sorry to have brought that up, must be painful to think about."
"Its fine really, you didn't know and it was a while ago."
A moment of silence hung in the air before the mechanic continued, "So… why keep the name? Or the alias I mean."
Six took a draft of the water from the bottle before he answered, "Just a matter of respect mostly, we were out fighting for a good cause. They gave their lives trying to carry it out. The least I can do is keep a part of my time with them with me, even if it is just something as simple as a number."
"Well, what did you do exactly?"
"Well honestly Tali, I'd really rather not get into that, maybe after this mission is over?"
"Oh… umm… okay," She didn't really expect to not get the answer considering how open he was before about all of this.
Six saw the unease her minor but identifiable amounts of body language was giving off. So the man sought to get the conversation rolling again, "Anything else you'd like to know?"
"… Yes actually. What is it that Shepard needs me for so much that she sent you and…"
"Grunt,"
"And Shepard said that'd be easy to remember. Anyway, what is so important that she sent you two for?"
"Well it's a matter actually of what my legacy – Noble Team – knew. We kept ourselves - and the teams like us – … distant from the rest of the galaxy's technology. My suit has all this information stored away, but due to a fry in my systems not too long ago it's on lockdown."
"Lockdown, that's kind of a rare function to have in a suit."
"Yes, well we felt it necessary to have a system in check to make sure someone didn't steal any of the information. Thing is, the lockdown was also supposed to make my suit explode. I don't know what hit it but I think that system got fried or just un-triggered. That's where you come in, no one else know how the tech in my suit was built, at least those that are still alive. So we're looking to you for help."
"And by we, you mean Cerberus," Tali remarked with disgust.
Six took another gulp of his water down, "I heard there was bad blood between the two of you. I'll just say now that while I regret that there is, I have nothing to do with it."
"Yes but, do you trust Cerberus, or obey the Illusive Man?" Tali was being rather persistent.
The Spartan took a deep breath before continuing, "Listen Tali, I hardly knew what Cerberus was. Noble team operated in a very isolated part of the galaxy. All I know is that Shepard got resurrected by them and I'm working under Shepard. Shepard doesn't trust them and I respect Shepard's judgment. But I don't know them well enough to honestly hold a grudge either. I hope you can respect that."
The mechanic was quiet for a little while before she sighed and said, "Alright, guess I can understand that. Though I have to admit, your story is sounding rather… odd… about Noble Team and all."
"Again, I can take the time to explain it once we get done here and on the Normandy. For now, you'll just have to trust me."
"Sure… anyway about this lockdown thing you were saying?"
"Right, well besides the fact that I can't access the information stored away in my suit, I'm afraid of taking off anything but my helmet in fear of triggering the explosion function in some way. All I can access is my heads up display and energy shield. Anyway, that leads us right back to where you come in. Because of this, we found it best for both Grunt and I to ensure your survival. And while we're at it, the survival of your fellow Quarians."
"Sorry I don't mean to sound like I wasn't listening, but would you mind if I saw your helmet?" Tali pointed to it with one digit, "perhaps I can get a grasp on it now?"
"I'd prefer if you didn't mess with it really but," The Lieutenant reached for his helmet lying on his left as he passed it over to Tali, "there you go. Just keep it in one piece for now."
"Sure thing," She shifted the gear in her hands as if looking at every inch of it would determine something for her. Something concealed. And every move she made with it showed a level of curiosity but at the same time, respect for the hardware.
As the Spartan observed her for a little while in her actions, she took him back to times in the UNSC where he made conversation (always professional of course) with many beautiful women enlisted or as an officer. Knowing his place, he had never lead on to anything to them and would never dare to dream of anything more. However, he did sometimes spare himself a few glances. He may have been a Spartan, but a part of him was still very much human.
He was in a way hating himself for looking at Tali in that kind of way right now. She was an alien, she had clawed feet and hands but everything else said "human." It didn't hurt that her entirety was covered in a form-fitting suit that emphasized her hourglass waist. If she was a human, she would be considered… healthy.
After that he pulled away his eyes and just looked out into the room. Considering his history with aliens, it was a big surprise he didn't gun down every single one he saw. But there were obviously so many things that set aliens in this universe apart from the one he called home.
Tali began to stand up handing him his helmet back, "Well it was nice chatting with you Six, but I best be going now." She looked down at him, nodding to each other before she casually walked off.
Six just then took this time to lean his head back up against the wall and let his body relax. It felt good to be on the break that Kal practically forced him into. With a chilled bottle of cold water, a nice conversation with some good company and a rather dark and cool place to just let his joints and muscles loosen the energy gradually returned to him.
He didn't know how much later it was when he heard the footsteps surely belonging to a Quarian were coming down the hall at a rather hastened pace. The Noble opened his droopy eyes to see it was Kal, shaking himself awake as the Quarian approached.
"Sorry Six but we've got trouble inbound, and lots of it." Kal held a M-15 Vindicator Assault rifle in his hands, he removed his right hand from the equation as he reached out to give the Spartan some assistance in getting off the floor.
"What kind of trouble?" Six dropped his helmet back over himself as it sealed in place reconnecting with the rest of his armor. The HUD started coming online as numbers and symbols flashed before him indicating something about the systems he never took the time to understand himself. But as his shield, health, ammo count, motion sensor, and the works came online he felt satisfied and in a way safe knowing it all still worked just as it should.
"We've got Geth inbound, lots of them."
"Any ship count?" Six grabbed his M-96 Mattock Assault Rifle and Scimitar Shotgun, the two began heading down the hallway going outside.
"Sensors indicated about seven drop ships; even worse, our sensors were being screwy with us for the last half hour. We just got them working again, and the ships are seven minutes out."
Six didn't respond, but Kal continued, "but it gets worse, thing is, The Geth are bringing along something they don't use that often, a Walker."
"Walker?"
"It's a twenty-foot tall 2 legged Geth with some pretty heavy guns atop of it. I didn't think they'd try to use them in such a cramped space. It's one of the reasons we chose this location to set up at. Either they're getting desperate, or they just don't care. Considering it's the Geth, it's safe to assume the latter."
"How much firepower would it take to bring one of these things down?"
The two approached the end of the hallway, Kal reached over to the door panel and "They've got shield strength that's built to take a serious beating. I've honestly never seen one that wasn't taken down by luring it into a trap. Problem is, they're not easy to trick either."
Six looked around the site and pondered for a moment. There were some options he was considering, wondering at the moment if the same trick would work on the Geth twice by jumping the crane. But given the description of the Walker, that approach didn't sound viable.
"So this thing is being deployed by a drop ship? We could just focus Ay-Ay fire on that ship."
"Problem is it ain't coming in by Ship, it's climbing over the dig site in this area as we speak."
The Noble's chest sank a little bit finding his options being stripped away before him as the clock ticked onward towards the arrival of the next attack. That's about when his eye fell onto a massive stone block just standing upright. The thought sprang to his head on what he should do.
"Kal, I hope you have some drilling tools."
"Plenty, what have you got in mind?"
The Lieutenant pointed at the nearly thirty-foot tall block of stone, "If we can drill a hole in that, we can conceal some explosives inside. Lure the Walker into place and crush it flat."
Kal took a second to register it, "Sounds like our best shot. Let's hop to it, and fast."
Six found a comfortable position on top of a raised platform, he lay prone with his Mattock in hands, and he had added a bipod to it, not satisfied with the slowness of a sniper rifle considering the sheer amount of synthetics they'd soon be up against.
The plan – as he relayed earlier to Kal – was quite simple. Once the Walker shows up, lure it into position, detonate the charges concealed within the block and make a timber that would even give Yogi Bear a run for his money.
But while the plan may be simple, the execution of it would prove difficult. This was going to be the most amount of Geth they would've fought so far at once.
Speaking of which, the sounds of Drop ship engines was humming in everyone's ears. They were here ready or not.
The two AA's setup and functioning began taking shots bringing down the first one before it could land. Behind it however was three more which quickly dispatched their Geth by dispersal pods not even needing to land. Marines ducked and rolled out of the way as some came falling in their direction. Six took aim at the first one he saw and used his reflex trigger finger and accuracy to pop three shots at the 'head' of a standard synthetic. The shields flared up and dissipated in the first two shots followed by the third puncturing the very eye of the unit as it dropped like a rock.
The sheer numbers of the machines was enough to strike some serious fear into the hearts of the Quarians. Grunt however was not a Quarian, and although he didn't have Six at his side he could see that the human was offering him plenty of fire support as he fought his battle the Krogan way; charging head on.
His first target was a much larger red Geth that was currently in the sunlight. Grunt charged him with the Claymore in hand. He shot the autonomous robot taking out it's shield before he kicked it hard in the chest sending it back staggering. Its head lowered just enough to use the armored barrel of his shotgun as a club smashing the circuitry of the unit into oblivion.
Grunt then saw two standard Geth behind the same barrier, he launch a concussive shot to disarray the pair before he stowed his shotgun leaving open for a two-handed vault over the barrier that freed up his feet to kick them both back. He stomped on both in a rage that came so natural to the Krogan, leaving them both for scrap.
In this time the other three drop ships had arrived dropping their forces. One of the automated anti-airs had taken out one of the air craft at a convenient time over the site. Unfortunately for Six, he could see it's trajectory was heading right for his position.
Six got to his feet in a flash and noticed the Quarian behind him that hadn't taken notice of the impending death as he shot at a synthetic's cover. Six extended an arm out and grabbed him with his superior strength tucking the surprise alien to his side like a Quarterback with a football. With the Marine in hand he jumped off the platform just before the drop ship impacted behind them. The drop was eight feet and with the Quarian in his grasp he couldn't roll when he hit the ground to absorb some of the impact. Rather he did his best to hit the ground running to absorb some of the impact. His leg's still felt a massive jolt in the reverberation. He stopped running as soon as the shock went away and then took the alien still at his side and positioned him upright.
"Thank you Six, I had no idea."
"That's why I grabbed you, c'mon let's not waste time though." Six already grabbed his Mattock from it's sling and rejoined the fight, the Quarian joined in with him.
Kal buzzed over the radio, "We got men down, I repeat, Har'ree and Fotar are down."
Another Quarian buzzed in, "Are they wounded, can we get to them?"
"… No… they're gone…"
The silence over the radio that followed was almost punctual in a way. Going from bad to worse, the sound of a massive synthesized roar could be heard in the distance followed by the shaking ground beneath them as the mech took a step.
"The Walker is approaching the vicinity! We need to take out as many of these Geth as we can before it gets here or we're going to be in some real trouble!"
Grunt and Six were already working on such, as they felt another step from the massive machine rock the infrastructure as it clear. The Spartan took point to provide support to the Krogan out on the field still engaged in close quarters combat. He didn't care about conserving ammo now as he pulled the trigger like a cowboy. Unleashing as many rounds without any hesitation out to put down the synthetics as fast as possible no matter how many rounds it took.
Another synthesized roar and it was apparent the Walker was right on top of them now. Six took his eyes out of the Mattock's scope and peered around to find his eyes landing on something far more than he imagined.
The Walker was simple in design. It had two legs that were clawed to scale over many surfaces and bent in the middle. Its head rested about 9/10th the way up the legs rather than on top of them giving it some overhead.
Its head was like an oval with a snout, on the snout rested two twin hulking canons. Its surface like most Geth was a glossy white with black appearing from exposed circuitry and the like.
It first took notice of Kal because of the missile launcher he had in hand as he stood atop a catwalk overpass that led from the crane to the far canyon wall where Six had been earlier
"Oh shit," Kal sensing what was about to happen quickly turned around to jump off the side.
The Walker took its first shot, two massive red beams of energy firing one right after the other at the overpass. Kal just missed the blast radius and rolled as he hit the ground to absorb some of the impact.
The Walker seemed very pleased about its superior positioning at the opposite end of the site above the rest, having a perfect bird's eye view of them all.
No, we have to get it lured into the trap, Six smashed his hand into the button to relay over the radio. "Everyone! Target its feet with everything you got!" Hoping this would somehow lure it down not having had the time or thought process earlier to plan for this scenario.
The Walker didn't move for a little longer, it took a shot at some of the other Quarians whose cover was blown away and their vital signs listed them unconscious. The Spartan ran out and provided cover fire downing more of the infantry Geth before hauling the two marines back to safety.
One Geth in particular had seen the indication in the local network that the Walker was climbing down into the site. It stepped to the side as the hulk of a machine took its place on the ground, firing off more rounds at the Quarian force.
In the Geth's viewfinder, he spotted a distinct individual in armor unlike the rest, this very person had just shot a few blasts at it an staggered it on the left side of the head reeling it off to the right.
The Geth regained its balance by catching itself with two hands on the side of a massive stone block. It's sensor's spotted something out of the ordinary; a freshly drilled hole with a little red light flashing deep within. It reached an arm in for the device realizing as it pulled it out what exactly he was looking at.
Six had just realized what was going on, "Oh snap…"
The Geth sent out a code alerting the other Geth of the situation. The Walker was just about to step back.
Six smashed on his Radio, "Grunt! Make sure that thing doesn't move, now!"
Grunt without responding back suddenly dropped his fight with other Geth and charged the Walker's legs. He stood between the two of them, limbs stretched as he held them from moving. The Quarians offered cover fire, grasping how dire the situation had just become.
Six popped a round to down the Geth that had grabbed the charge (which had tried to run away from the fight with it to avoid the hazard). He then charged the position, shooting Geth that got in his way. His shields – and Grunts too – taking a serious pounding despite the cover fire.
Grunt felt his arms ache in agony as the Walker fought against his grip. But failure couldn't be an option. His arms felt like they were about to be ripped from his body as the machine's horsepower worked against him. He applied more of his own force to counter, the two in a constant battle.
Six saw the charge had been dropped a little ways off, he vaulted over some cover and kept his head low as Geth Plasma flew over his head. He slid down and snagged the charge off the ground. His backside was to the earth, still holding the Mattock in his right hand and the charge in the left. He pointed the Mattock at a Geth who was giving him trouble and popped it in the head. Getting to his feet, he took the charge in his left hand and angle his throwing arm to pitch it into the hole once again. Whipping out the detonator from his belt, he signaled to Grunt who immediately let go of the Walker, yelling out in pain for a moment before they both ran back to the Marines.
Six wasted no time as he hit the switch. The blast from the charge took away a grunt chunk of one side of the block. It swayed towards the Walker breaking the rest of its restraints on the way; giving into the swaying and fell forward.
The stone tower crushing the Walker was truly a sight to be held, and when it hit the ground the sheer BANG noise was so loud Six could've swore his ears were permanently damaged to some degree. The dust kicked up blocking the view of the other Geth still on the site. Not knowing how many were left or how many might've hopefully been under the stone now.
Six turned his attention to his friend, who had his hands on his knees panting heavily. He noticed the Spartan was paying him some care as he put a hand on his shoulder.
"You okay Grunt?"
It would do no good to say he felt weak; then again, he didn't feel the energy to virtually do anything. He just stood there breathing heavily.
"Keep your fingers on the trigger boys, we're not done yet!" Kal ordered out. Six whipped out his Scimitar Shotgun from its sling before he looked at the hunched-over Krogan.
"Sit the rest of the battle out, we got this." He just knew that despite Grunt's pride, even he would agree to this as he nodded to Six.
Five minutes later, Six was standing over the battlefield picking up weapons and thermal clips where he could find them. Geth 'corpses' were being tossed off the edge of the cliff. The only thing being truly spared from them was Walker. It was a rare opportunity to get a hold of parts from such a machine, so Tali was actually inspecting the parts herself and seeing what was there that she hadn't already seen.
Six took a seat next to Grunt carrying a jug of water in his right hand as the Krogan looked at him. Six nodded and Grunt took the jug from him silently thanking him with a nod of his own.
"Great work Grunt, I have no idea what we would've done if you hadn't been there."
Grunt laughed in his hoarse tone, "I'll be honest, I may be the perfect Krogan but you can't argue against a machines torque. A little bit longer and my limbs might as well ripped from my body."
Six bumped him on the shoulder, "But you're strong Grunt, be proud of that."
"Believe me, I am."
The pair sat in silence for a little bit when Kal approached them and took a seat next to Six when he offered.
"Do we know when the next round is coming?"
"Nope, but we're not sticking around as is."
Both the Spartan and the Krogan shot a glance at the Quarian confused by his words.
"What?"
"We're leaving this position, traveling underground for a while. We don't want the Geth to have a total fix on where we are so we're going to relocate for a few standard cycles.
"So we're running?" Grunt interjected. He fully understood the reasoning for the move but the core concept remained true. He took a few gulps from his jug as finished saying that.
Kal took it in stride and responded, "True Grunt, but after that Walker I'd hate to see us try to fair against any more of them. Or if something somehow worse shows its ugly head. We're going to run out of tricks soon enough."
The three shared a very brief laugh over that, Six was curious about the moving prospect so he took this time to ask away.
"We have the AA's set up and it'd be dumb to leave them here, on top of that how are we going to get our excess gear around?"
"Don't worry about that, we brought carts from the Car'voia to load all of that in. And all of the tunnels in this area are simple rectangular fashion with ramps. It'll be easy to get the goods around."
"Works for me, I could use a break from this blasted sun anyway."
"I'm surprised you haven't come down with that human illness, what was it called… umm… Cancer?"
Six shot him a glance through his helmet, 'all of this technology at their disposal and the Human race still dealing with that in this Universe? They hadn't just fixed that with some gene therapy? "Well, I've been fortunate not to." Six lied in the figurative sense.
"Well," Kal hoisted himself up off the ground, "We'll be packing up in thirty minutes or so. Hope you don't have Claustrophobia, we're not sure if the Geth have been setting up down there or not and the place will very likely be dark as hell down there. I hope you're up to it."
"Believe me Kal, I've been through much worse than anything we've been through so far and probably what we'll be facing while we're here. I'm ready for whatever this place has to throw at me; the real question is is everybody else?"
Kal took a moment before responding, "If they're not yet, they will be."
Alright that's the new chapter, and I'm going to apologize ahead of time on this. I am currently in the works of one-shot story that I hope to flesh out.
And I might get a little distracted when I get Battlefield 3 for my PC as well as Witcher II. But I'll try to update soon. I'm actually rather excited about the next chapter.
Let me know what you think. I mean, it may be canon-breaking (kind of) and was probably a bit too much like Star Wars but the Walker was cool right? -crickets- oh...