Lair of the Shadow Broker Part 3
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The air around the Spartan seemed to shimmer slightly, but before he could pull the trigger, John was knocked clear from the ground. The glass pane behind him shattered under the sheer impact, before his back slammed onto the deck below.
"Damn it," muttered John as he tried to recover.
WHUPMH!
John convulsed violently as he felt something heavy land on his stomach. His shields were drained considerably. The air in front of him shimmered again, and slowly, something faded into sight. The alien on top of him was colossal in size, its dense muscles tensed as it pinned downed the Spartan. Slowly, the behemoth ape like creature leaned forward, and snarled. Droplets of saliva splashed onto the Spartan's reflective gold visor.
"Demon!" the crimson red armour, black beast growled.
"Hey Baby Kong," John taunted, "want a banana?"
The Supersoldier quickly wiggled free from the Chieftains' grasp, dropped a cooked frag, and launched himself away from the hulking alien. He then raised his weapon and fired three shots, but the rounds just bounced harmlessly off the Jiralhanae's shields.
"You will not kill me Demon!" he roared.
BOOM!
The grenade went off with a violent explosion; specks of molten thermite riddled and melted the deck, causing smoke to curl up from the red hot holes.
Stumbling for only a moment, the Chieftain quickly recovered and growled. The Brute quickly raised his Gravity Hammer and brought down to bear on the Spartan. The melee weapon collided onto the decking and sent out a shockwave which threw the Spartan like a ragdoll onto the far side of the room.
John bounced once on the deck and dropped his shotgun, before slamming into the wall. His shields drained even further. Black dots swarmed his vision before dissipating slowly away. The collision had jarred him greatly, and if it wasn't for the hydrostatic gel layer, he would be suffering from internal bleeding.
The Supersoldier pulled himself up from the ground, and unslung his SCAR. He quickly squeezed the trigger and sent lances of Ion beams down range. The weapon roared like a violent discharge of electricity as its rounds splashed across the Chieftains shields.
"Rah!" he roared, "kill the Demon!"
Five Brutes began to appear out of thin air, their violet indicated that they were Ultras.
The Spartan swore again. How the hell did the Shadow Broker get his hands on six Brutes? He quickly ejected the spent clip and slapped in a fresh cell into his weapon before firing again. The Ultras then raised their Spikers and unleashed a hail of superheated spikes at the Commander.
The Chief quickly strafed right as the spikes smashed onto his shields are impaled themselves onto the wall behind him.
John's enhanced vision noticed the yellow tint in the eyes of his aggressors. He had encountered these kinds during the war, drug enhanced Brutes. They were a nightmare to deal with, especially when they went berserk.
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Jane watched in shock as the Chief was bull rushed out of the room, she then heard a dull thud as he landed on the deck bellow, followed by explosions and gunfire. She wanted to go aid the Spartan, but right now, she needed to deal with the Shadow Broker.
The monstrous alien roared as he snapped his desk in two, and threw both halves at her and T'Soni. Shepard quickly dive tackled her friend out of the object's trajectory. The furniture shattered as it collided into the bulkheads of the ship, showering Shepard with chips of alloys.
The Commander quickly vaulted over a bulkhead and took cover behind it. The Shadow Broker roared again and unslung his Revenant. He wielded the weapon with one arm, but the customisation and his sheer strength negated the recoil, thus accuracy was barely affected.
The Spectre then rose from cover and fired her Mattock at the Shadow Broker, draining his shields. However, the Yahg began to retaliate with disturbingly accurate fire, forcing Jane into cover again.
Liara then flanked the Broker, and unleashed a whole clip from her Locust SMG before unleashing a torrent of warp biotics, weakening the Broker's armour. The Yahg growled and turned to face the Asari as she moved back into cover.
"You think you can kill me Asari?" the Broker roared.
Shepard took the window of opportunity and unleashed another heavy warp blast, causing the Broker to stumble back, allowing Jane to fire a few more rounds. But he took a defensive stance and engaged a protective barrier around him. It seemed to be drawing power or attracting currents from the flow of energy above.
Liara fired upon the Broker's shields, but her rounds just ricocheted harmlessly off the white misty barrier.
"The shield's kinetically sensitive," said the Asari as she holstered her weapon, "energy and projectiles are bouncing off."
"Then we do this the hard way," smirked Jane as she cracked her knuckles.
Shepard quickly rushed the Broker, she grunted as she put in every ounce of her cybernetic enhanced strength into her punches. A wet sickening thud emanated every time her fist connected with the Broker's face.
The Yahg stumbled back and growled, noticing that the alien was off balance, Jane charged him again, except he had recovered faster than she had expected. An orange light-based riot shield from the Broker's Omni-tool crackled to life as it took shape, by the time Shepard had launched herself into the air. The massive alien instantly swatted her aside like a ball, causing Jane's back to crash onto the reflective grey deck.
The Commander quickly rolled away from her position and behind cover as rounds from the Broker's Revenant carved searing red holes into the tiles.
The Broker then raised his shield to protect himself while being able to fire at the same time, forcing the Asari Scientist and Spectre to rethink their stratergies.
"Liara, keep him busy," ordered Shepard, "I'll flank around to the right and hit him with my Arc projector."
"Got it."
T'Soni rose from cover again and projected a number of biotic blasts at the Broker, causing him to stagger under the sheer force. Shepard on the other hand, kept low, and sprinted from cover to cover behind the nodes that had adorned the room.
The Spectre aimed her Arc Projector at the Yahg and charged up her weapon. It gave a light crackling sound as a lance of electricity shot out and splashed onto the Broker, then arced onto another node, damaging it considerably, before hitting the Broker again. The Yahg stumbled, and turned to face Shepard.
"I will kill you!" he roared, "the Great Journey cannot be denied!"
"Professional detachment to overzealous fanaticism," Jane growled, "the hell, are you indoctrinated by the Reapers!"
Rounds began to chip away the node Shepard to shelter behind.
"The Reapers are nothing compared to those who came before!"
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John dropped his SCAR. There was no way in hell that he could take on five berserking Brute Ultras in this confined space, and his shotgun was too far away.
The Spartan quickly switched to his M7SC and Energy Sword, he wielded in SMG in his left hand, while holding the blade in his right.
Rapid dull thumps and unhuman roars resonated throughout the room. The Supersoldier twirled his blade, leaving blue wisps of plasma trailing in its wake. He quickly charged at the Brutes while firing his SMG until the clip was empty. He could feel the adrenaline course through his veins as his vision began to narrow, and everything moved in slow motion.
The magnetically accelerated rounds crashed and sparked across the lead Ultra's shields, draining it considerably, but not collapse it. John quickly discarded the empty weapon, and slashed upwards at the first Brute.
The superhot blade caused the shields to flare and fail, while melting the armour. The Brute roared in pain as the plasma blade managed to cook some of its flesh while the molten alloy continued to seep through the wound. John delivered a swift punch through the Ultra's head with all his might, causing the helmet bend, and shattering the Brute's skull. Blood and brain matter seeped out of the Ultra's head and ooze down the helmet, while bone pierced its skin from the inside. The once berserking creature came to a grinding halt like a potato sack, allowing the Spartan to leap over him.
The other Ultra's changed their direction and swung their weapons wildly. An Ultra on the Spartan's right brought the blade down upon John, who sidestepped, a clean miss. The Chief then slashed at the Brute causing its shields to spark and fail, he then delivered a sidekick into its stomach, crushing the torso armour plates, causing the alien to double over and heave out blood. The Spartan then stabbed the Brute clean through the back, causing the violet armour plates to bubble and glow red. The second Ultra didn't get a chance to scream before John jerked the blade upward violently, bisecting the neck and head into two.
The remaining three Ultras charged the Spartan again, but the human Supersoldier was faster. He heaved a frontal kick into the lead charger and performed a backflip. The shocking force caused a concussion, causing to Brute to stagger. John landed swiftly, and bull rushed the incapacitated Brute with surprising speed, and impaling the Covenant Warrior with his blade. The Brute gasped for air as searing heat burned through his body. The Alien knew that it was going to die, he decided that he would go out… with a bang. As he was slammed against the wall by the Spartan, the Ultra reached into his pouch and armed two plasma grenades as it bear hugged the Supersoldier.
John realised what the alien was doing, but it was too late. The first two grenades exploded, causing the Spartan's first layer of shields to fail, and the rest of the Brute's grenades to detonate. A blue fireball of plasma engulfed the Spartan and caused his own grenades to ignited, but thankfully not blow up.
The Spartan was thrown back by the force of the combined blast; however his energy blade had been deactivated and clattered at the feet of the burned and mangled Ultra. Both his shield layers had failed, and were at critical and he could taste blood in his mouth. The alarms droned inside his helmet as a status report appeared on the lower side of his blood smeared visor. Some of the thermite from his frags had melted through his armour and burned his flesh.
His HUD began to project a frantic readout:
Shield generator is critically damaged
Armour integrity severely weakened
Biofoam injectors are offline
External Repairs required.
John managed to clear his vision, but swore again. The Chieftain, who had been staying back, had finally made his move. The hulking warrior instantly brought his Gravity Hammer down to bear, but the Chief rolled away just in time. But the shockwaves still picked him up, and threw him into a wall on the far side of the room, damaging his shield generators. With his shields offline, the hydrostatic gel layer had the task of both absorbing the impact from the shockwave, the impact from the collision, and the Spartan's deceleration.
John swore again as he hit the ground chest first, black dots began to swarm his vision. Blood began to seep out of his mouth. He tried to move, but his body cried out in protest.
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Jane assaulted the Shadow Broker with another barrage of biotic attacks. Liara then projected a singularity field on top of the Broker, quickly draining his shields and breaching his armour.
The Yahg attempted to recover by reactivating his shields again. Seeing this, Jane rushed forward to unleash a barrage of punches. But this was a ruse, the Broker quickly smashed Jane aside, sending her flying through the air, and colliding into Liara.
The two rolled before coming to a halt, and recovered. Liara looked up towards the flow of energy overhead, and then looked back at Shepard.
"If you can get him to bring up his shields again, I've got an idea."
Jane nodded. She brought up her Mattock and squeezed the trigger in quick successions, draining the Broker's shields. The Broker then returned fire; Shepard then took cover, and ejected the thermal clip from her Mattock, before unleashing another barrage of rounds.
Liara then assaulted the Broker with another wave of biotic attacks, causing him to stagger and bring up his shields.
Shepard then rushed back in, and just like she had expected, the Broker brought down his shields. He then swung his riot shield at the Spectre, who had seen it coming, and rolled under his attack.
"That trick doesn't work twice ugly," yelled Jane.
The Broker roared again.
"Liara now!"
Confused at what was going on, the Yahg turned to look at the Liara. The Asari quickly used her biotics to shatter the glass ceiling above the Broker, causing the flow of energy to cascade onto his monstrous body.
The Shadow Broker struggled to get free, but failed; he gave one last roar of defiance before the charge built up in his body and exploded, turning him into nothingness. The Shockwave from the explosion threw Shepard back a few feet, but caused nothing serious. Liara quickly walked over, and gently extended her hand to help Shepard up. Jane was only too grateful and accepted the kind gesture of her friend.
As the Spectre gathered herself together and brushed aside a stray lock of her brunette hair, Liara began to pant. The shock of the end of a long journey had finally come to an end for her.
…
The power began to fluctuate, Feron began to look around, the lights flickered, and then the Drell was gone.
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The Spartan managed to pull himself back up, but then a searing pain shot through torso, followed by an intense sensation of his insides being lacerated. John looked down at his chest plate; a couple of needler shards had shattered and dusted his feet slightly, but where the thermite had burned through, wisps of violet curled up slowly from the holes.
John felt the same pain wrack through his body again as another round slammed into him. He looked up to see a Brute wielding his shotgun. The Ultra pulled the trigger again, but was rewarded with an empty click.
Seeing an opportunity, the Supersoldier charged forward and launched himself at the Ultra. Over half a tonne of mass collided into the Ultra, causing the Brute's shields to fail. Having pinned down the alien, the Spartan quickly unsheathed his knife and plunged it deep into the alien's throat, causing blood to spray everywhere. As the Spartan yanked out his blade to engage the final Ultra, he could hear the Brute gurgling and choking on its own blood.
The last Ultra, John vaulted over to get to his energy sword. He gracefully leapt through air, and dive rolled to his weapon. The Spartan picked up the hilt, and the blue blade crackled to life. He quickly slashed the Ultra twice, the first time to drain the alien's shield completely, and the second time to cut it clean in half.
The Chieftain, was now alone, the mighty alien griped his Gravity Hammer and roared.
"Now it's my turn Demon!"
The two sprinted towards each other, but with John being the faster one, he quickly rolled behind the Chieftain, and slashed at the Brute's legs. The alien then turned around and kicked the Spartan, who in turn sidestepped and caught the beast's legs. John then used his strength to shove the Brute into the air and onto his back.
A dull thump emanated as the Chieftain landed back first, and dropping his Gravity Hammer. The Spartan quickly grabbed the fallen weapon and bought it to down on the Brute. A sickening thwack was heard as the Hammer drained the rest of the Brutes shields and crushed his chest. John could hear the ribs snap as the alien roar in immense pain. But the monstrous alien was in no means defeated. The Covenant Warrior then used his free arm to swat the Spartan aside. The Chief stumbled from the impact and drop both melee weapons, giving the Chieftain enough time to pull himself back up.
"Your head will be mine Demon!"
John then took a low fighting stance and held his palms facing towards the Brutes. It was the signature stance of fluid Chinese Martial Arts.
The Chieftain rushed forward and threw quick successions of punches at the Spartan, who either swatted them aside or dodged them completely; however it forced the Supersoldier to be on the defensive.
The Chief needed to turn the table on his foe, and moved in low and fast. He quickly kicked the knees of the Chieftain, making the Brute lose his balance and stumble. John raised his stance and began to throw heavy but fast punches at the alien's shoulders, he was soon rewarded with a wet popping sound as he shattered or dislocated the Brute's right shoulder. Either way, his right arm was out of action.
The Chieftain then pushed forward and threw left handed punches, but the Spartan was faster, and caught the heavily developed arm. He then punched the Brute's left shoulder repeatedly, causing it to shatter.
With both arms out of action, the Chieftain went berserk out of desperation. He ignored the pain in his shoulders as he kicked the Spartan into the wall, and rushed over to pick up his Gravity Hammer.
John quickly shook his head as he recovered from the kick. He swore silently. He knew his body was near its limits, and without Biofoam or painkillers to keep him stable, he was going to drop soon. The Chief looked up, and swore again, before he felt thunderous force slam into him, and propel him across the room.
His vision began to swarm with black dots again; he began to cough out blood. The Spartan then glanced down at his armour, and noticed that blood was slowly seeping out slowly. The nanites in his blood stream were working overtime to stop the bleeding, but the constant physical attacks were reducing their efforts.
John had to finish this Brute quickly, and too his relief, his discarded SMG lay not too far away. He quickly reached over and slapped in a fresh mag for the weapon, just as the Chieftain began to charge, with his hammer held high.
The Spartan unloaded his entire clip into the alien's chest, slowly down the Brute's momentum. The Supersoldier then sprinted towards the Chieftain and crashed into the alien. John unleashed a hail of devastating punches directly at the Brute's bullet riddled chest; a wet thwack could be heard every time the hits connected. And to add further insult to the injuries, the greatly weakened armour plates would be bent inwards and cause more damage to the Chieftain.
The alien began to stagger, allowing the Spartan to unload his final attack. He quickly launched himself into the air and kicked the Brute's head with all his might. The Chieftain's head shot off into one direction so quickly that his neck snapped. The head dangled lifelessly, and finally, the body crumbled into a bloodied heap.
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The communication console then began to pulse red. Communiques from the Shadow Broker's Operatives rushed through. Liara just stood there, her eyes glancing across the screen.
"Shadow Broker, this is Operative Murat. We had a momentary connection failure. Can you confirm status?"
"Operative Shora, requesting update. Are we still online?"
"Shadow Broker, I've lost our feed. We are online and awaiting insutructions."
She then closed her eyes and bowed her head, having made her choice; she walked forward, and pressed the button.
"This is the Shadow Broker;" she said calmly, "the situation is under control. We experienced a power fluctuation while upgrading hardware. It disrupted communications momentarily. However we are back online. Resume standard procedures."
The doors then hissed open as Feron ran into the office with his weapon pointed at Liara, clearly he retrieved the pistol from a fallen operative.
"I want a status report on all operations within the next solar day. Shadow Broker out," Liara finished.
The console then faded back into a cool blue.
"Goddess of oceans," gasped Feron, "It's you. You… how?"
"Well, everyone who's ever seen him in person is dead, so…" explained T'Soni.
"…You're the new Shadow Broker," finished Feron.
"Is taking over as the Shadow Broker really a good idea?" asked Shepard.
"It was either that or lose everything; his contacts, his trading sources. Those will really help us. With the Shadow Broker's information network, I can give you… I can…" Liara's voice began to break and become hoarse as she fought back the tears.
"I'll, uh, check the power systems," said Feron, seeing his cue to leave. He slowly limped out of the office, still nursing his injuries.
Liara began to sob uncontrollably. Jane then placed her hand comfortingly on her friend's shoulder.
"It's over. It's finally… for two years…"
Jane quickly hugged Liara again.
"It's all right," she comforted.
Liara then wiped away the remaining drops of tears, and collected herself.
"I spent two years mourning you and Feron. And now I've got you both back," T'Soni said happily, "I… Let's see what we've got."
She turned back towards the console.
"No safeguards or user restrictions. It's like he never anticipated anyone but himself being here. And it's all ours," Liara smiled.
A crunching sound of glass quickly alerted Shepard; she looked back at the shattered window and gasped.
"Shit, I nearly forgot about you Chief," her voice was filled with genuine concern.
The Spartan staggered, the pain, the toll was near unbearable. He collapsed to his knees. The air seals popped with a hiss as he bent his head forward slightly and eased off his helmet. But his hands began to shake, it was a sign that his body was failing.
Jane then swiftly moved her hands to ease off the helmet and place it gently down, as she was doing so, she saw the Spartan's name inscribed on the underside of the helmet.
"John," she whispered, "your name is John."
Shepard gazed at the heavily blooded face, his pale skin made the blood look even redder than it actually was.
The Chief nodded, his breathing became more laboured as his eyes began to roll back.
"Hey John, stay with me."
Shepard quickly retrieved a salve of medi-gel and applied it to the Spartan's visible wounds. John managed to gain some semblance of consciousness, but he was slowly fading, his pulse was dropping to abnormal levels.
It pained her to see any of her teammates in bad shape, but it absolutely gutted Jane to see such a powerful soldier on the verge of death, and so heavily beaten.
"We need to get him back to the Normandy for treatment," said Liara, "even if it's a Cerberus funded ship."
"Joker, bring the Normandy in, get Chakwas ready, the Chief's been hurt bad."
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