Crysis is the property of Crytek and Electronic Arts

Mass Effect is the property of Bioware and Electronic Arts


Welcome to the Future: Chapter 7

After Kasumi had been hit, Shepard, Garrus and Grunt had fallen back to the tunnel's mouth to cover Mordin while he checked on Kasumi. Fortunately, her armor hadn't been breached, and her vitals were steady. But Shepard could only wonder how long that would last. The Ceph were putting incredible pressure on them as they seemed to just crawl out of every crevice imaginable, firing on them with bolts of plasma and shards of ice, and it was taking the entire ground party working in unison just to stay alive as they fell back.
They were burning through ammo like water through a hose, but escape was only a few hundred feet away. They just had to get there.

"Jacob, Miranda, get down here, now!". From the way Shepard practically barked the order, Garrus could tell that her composure was starting to slip.

"We're on the move Commander, ETA one minute!" Jacob reported breathlessly.

Thankfully, while the Ceph's strange weapons were powerful enough to rapidly drain their shields, only a few of their attackers were actually armed. The majority simply lunged towards them through the thin air, as if hoping to crush the intruders with the weight of their number. That said, the Ceph were a serious threat even when unarmed, a fact that they saw first hand when one slipped past them and crashed into Kasumi, sending her headfirst into a wall with sufficient force to take her out of the fight.

Despite the situation, Shepard and Garrus coordinated their movements with a calm fluidity that neither of them actually felt. When she reloaded, he stepped forward and kept a steady stream of accurate fire from his Vindicator rifle. When he reloaded, she threw up a barrier with one hand, blazing away with the Shuriken machine pistol she held in the other. They did so wordlessly, trusting in their own skills and knowing how best to work together: a testament to the many fights they had survived alongside one another.

Grunt was another matter entirely. It was clear early on that the armed Ceph were focusing a lot of attention on the young Krogan as he blazed away with his shotgun in wild abandon. The powerful flechettes launching from his weapon all but guaranteed he'd hit something, and woe to any of the unarmed Ceph that got within arm's reach of him. Shepard hadn't had much time to get a 'feel' for the Tank bred Krogan, but on his earlier missions he seemed composed and relatively controlled…for a Krogan anyway.

Now he was like a force of Nature and Shepard couldn't help but be awed and worried at the devastation he wrought. As the situation grew steadily more desperate the young Krogran grew more aggressive and gleeful, shouting taunts and insults which the Ceph responded to with highly accurate return fire.
Twice his shields had failed and twice he had refused to take cover, choosing instead to keep firing while he trusted the sheer bulk of his armor to protect him. And sure enough, while the once pristine white plates of his suit were starting to blister and blacken as the Ceph's energy weapons took their toll, the suit remained functional and Grunt remained uninjured.

That wouldn't last long, if he didn't get himself under control. And he was starting to fall behind…or more accurately he was staying well forward of the team as the Ceph continued to close in on him. Shepard looked to her right and she could see Garrus hesitating to engage the targets bunching up near the tank-bred Krogan for fear of hitting Grunt in the tight corridors.

A recipe for disaster if she didn't get a handle on this situation.

"Grunt, get your ass over here! We need to get to the shuttle, and you're slowing us down."

"I am a Krogan! I am not going to turn and run from a bunch of squishy! Flying! Jellyfish!"

That did it. Grunt had just disobeyed two direct orders, and Shepard wasn't the type to give someone three chances. When Grunt's shields failed a third time, she hit him with a pulland dragged him in to cover next to her and Garrus.

"What are you doing! These weaklings are no threat to us. Why would you retreat from them."

"It's not the ones attacking us that I'm worried about, Grunt. It's the one's running the equipment backstage. I don't know how well Krogan handle cold weather, but I'm guessing that getting snap frozen will still be enough to ruin your day."

Grunt, living up to his name, responded only with a grunt. Still, he fell into line, and didn't give Shepard any more trouble.

The tunnel straightened out then, meaning that cover was in short supply. The quickest and easiest thing to do would have been to take advantage of the lack of gravity and use their suit thrusters to simply fly down the length of the tunnel. Unfortunately, with Kasumi being barely conscious, someone would have to carry her with them, slowing them down and making themselves a target.

The only option left to them was the slow, painful approach. Shepard held up a biotic barrier, providing cover to the others. Grunt and Garrus took out any Ceph that came too close, while Mordin carried Kasumi over his back. Together, they made their way down the tunnel, bleeding ammunition and shield capacity all the while.

Things got easier when Jacob and Miranda rejoined them. Jacob took over the job of carrying Kasumi to the shuttle, allowing Mordin to fire back at the Ceph. Miranda projected a barrier of her own, allowing Shepard to throw a biotic shockwave down the length of the tunnel, blasting the squid-like aliens back the way they had came. That gave them all the time they needed to ascend the ladder at the end of the tunnel and return to the surface. Shepard was the last one out.

"Joker, come in Joker!"

"I hear you commander, sounds like a heavy firefight down there. I thought this was a search and rescue mission on a dead world, what's going on?"

"Joker we have confirmed Ceph presence. I say again, confirmed Ceph presence. We are extracting now. As soon as we are airborne, I want you to start putting fire down on this installation. Turn the whole thing into plasma. Utilize our entire Javlin stockpile if you need too. Leave nothing intact, do you hear me?"

"Ce…what? Did you just say Ceph, Commander?!" Came Jokers startled reply but Shepard knew he was already swinging the Normandy into action as he prepared for a bombing run.

"Shepard, I am detecting increased seismic activity closing in on your position, enemy reinforcements are no doubt inbound."
EDI seemed to go quiet for a moment, as if something had managed to spook the AI.
"
I am also reading radiation and thermal spikes several kilometers below the surface which are increasing in intensity. The patterns of radiation and thermal blooms are consistent with the Ceph Lithoship first encountered at the Ling Shan archipelago in August 2020. The Ceph are no doubt bringing this installation fully online."

Shepard closed the hatch to the shuttle and pointed at Jacob manning the controls. The man sure didn't need to be told twice and the shuttle lifted off the ground with a jolt and shot for orbit like a startled quail hauling ass for its life. Which left Shepard in a bit of dilemma.

The last thing the galaxy needed was to deal with a resurgent Ceph threat now that the threat of the Reapers hung over everyone. It left her with only one alternative.

"Joker?" Shepard said as she removed the claustrophobic helmet. Her hair was matted to her head with sweat.

"Moving into attack run now commander." Normandy's pilot replied with deadly seriousness in his voice.

"Shepard, at the depth the Lithoship is buried, the amount of sediment, coupled with the Lithoships own armor and shields I calculate only 20% chance of doing any significant damage to the Ceph Lithoship. Even using our entire stockpile of Javelin torpedoes there is little chance we will strike a crippling blow."

"Then I'll make sure that every hit is on the same damn spot!" Joker snapped in annoyance.

"The calculation was made on that assumption, lieutenant Moreau. Never the less, even if you hit the same 'spot' with all of our ordnance, it would do little good. The Lithoship is too well fortified for our weapons to penetrate. Even a Frigate as heavily armed as the Normandy stands little chance of making a difference. We simply do not possess the firepower."

"There has got to be something we can do! I mean if the Normandy can-"

"There is something that we can do, but it will require some time to implement."

"Yeah? What's that?"

"The Normandy's antimatter stockpiles are stored within a number of commercial containment units. If we load one or more of these containers into one of our secondary shuttle, we could use it as an improvised explosive with considerable yield. This would however, sacrifice several million credits worth of materiel, and greatly reduce our fuel reserves."

"... Shepard, did you hear that?" Joker's voice was unsteady, uncertain.

"I heard it, Joker. Do whatever it takes."

"Roger. I'll send word to engineering."

"Must protest this action Shepard," Mordin spoke up. "Study of Ceph technology represents potential opportunities. Confirmed Ceph presence validates Alliance claims of hyper advanced alien race. The threat must be studied in detail. Countermeasures gleamed."

Shepard gave a small tired smile. Any other day she'd probably agree but the Ceph were a major threat that Humanity had barely survived by the skin of its teeth. She would not condemn a Galaxy to that fate if she could help it.

"You're free to disagree with me Mordin. But my orders stand." Shepard stated with an air of finality.

Mordin seemed about to protest but then thought better of it and held his tongue.


43 minutes later, Shepard was back aboard the Normandy and the secondary shuttle-turned bomb was on its way down to the surface. The Normandy had been steadily pounding the Ceph installation with its mass accelerators and Javelin torpedoes, but ceased fire as the shuttle closed in. With EDI guiding it remotely, the shuttle flew into the open chasm that now marked the location of the installation.
Just before EDI lost contact with the shuttle, she detonated the explosive charges that had been rigged to the two antimatter containers that sat in the shuttle's crew bay.

As the container's storage fields died, approximately ten grams of antiprotons were released from the artificial micro-singularities that held them in place. Secondary, tertiary and quatenary storage systems kicked in one after another, but the Normandy's engineers had carefully sabotaged them to allow what happened next.

The antiprotons rushed out to fill the vacuum within their storage chambers, and made contact with the interior walls. For the briefest moment, NK386 was host to a miniature re-enactment of the birth of the universe.

Six thousand miles away, looking out from the Normandy's starboard observation deck, and through the dust cloud thrown up by the previous bombardment, Shepard could barely see the light from the explosion.


Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait.
Thanks to JonHarper for a huge amount of help with this chapter.