HOLOCAUST
CHAPTER TEN:
FROM ASHES PART ONE
June 5, 2186
1549 hours.
Cabin, UT-47A Kodiak Combat Shuttle, Descending upon Colony New Hope, Eden Prime.
The Reaper War, Alliance Space Campaign: Liberation of Eden Prime.
Captain Marcus Lee Shepard, Second Lieutenant James Vega, Second Lieutenant Imogen Keeling, Shadow Broker Liara T'Soni, Master Thief Kasumi Goto, Military Advisor Garrus Vakarian, EDI.
Marcus quickly checked his weapons, to make sure they were loaded and working. His mattock seemed to be in perfect working order, and while he did enjoy the punch the heavy rifle packed, it simply didn't compare to the geth pulse rifle he once had; he missed that rifle almost as much as he missed Tali. Checking that his modded scope was in place, he holstered his rifle and then picked out his recently purchased claymore shotgun, courtesy of Aria. He smiled at the size of the weapon, and how he was the only person outside of the krogan species that could lift and fire the weapon without dislocating their shoulder; and it was worth it, as the heavy shotgun could reduce entire bodies into pulps of red ichor with just a single shell. Being krogan made, this was not surprising.
Watching his human brother switching through his many different weapons caused Garrus to stir, mandibles creasing in amusement, "You just couldn't help yourself, could you Marcus?"
The human gave the turian a quick glance, a grin splitting his lips, "Damn right. I'd have bought Tali one, if she could have lifted it."
"Nothing beats a claymore heavy shotgun as an anniversary gift for your wife. Although I'd imagine she'd get no end of joy out of making a certain turian wet himself in fear simply by mentioning it," Garrus seemed to cringe at the memories of Tali threatening to bring out her shotgun every time he tried to tease her.
Kasumi was in on the action pretty quickly, the young thief finding quite alot of mirth from the situation, "Luckily for you, Tali wouldn't be able to fire that without breaking a few bones in her arm, so you're safe; for now. Although I'm sure she doesn't need the claymore to scare you; her shotgun was clearly enough."
"She has her shotgun, but I can buy a pet spider," Garrus grinned, "Let us see who wins that battle."
"Well, Garrus will be dead, and the spider will be nonexistent mush after Tali's done trampling it," Marcus added.
"Too true. So...forget the pet spider, then," the turian sighed, shaking his head, "I just can't win. But...I do have more kills than her! Why? Because I have a sniper rifle! That's why."
"If you're going to have a fight about which is better, than you better gather your allies. Tali has her krogan uncle, along with her krogan baby brother," Kasumi added, laughing.
"I have Thane...maybe Zaeed, if enough money's involved," Garrus countered.
"Krogan, Garrus. Krogan," Marcus repeated, waiting for it to sink in, but the turian didn't seem to get the point. It was at this point, James came to the rescue.
"Don't be such a bravuconeria, Scars. I've fought with a krogan, and those tough sons of bitches, especially if there is two of them, will soak up all your bullets before you're able to kill 'em."
"Not if I aim for the crest," Garrus pointed out, "But I would never do that to Wrex or Grunt. It'd be unfair."
"Tell that to Wrex's biotics," Marcus mumbled, enjoying this immensely.
"I'm rooting for Team Krogan here," Cortez called out from the cockpit.
"Oh come on, does anyone appreciate the sniper rifle here?" he turned to look at Keeling, practically pleading with his best impression of puppy-dog eyes, although he failed, and ended up looking more intimidating then cute.
Keeling shrugged her shoulders, seeming to not care, "I'm a CQC specialist, although I don't use shotguns, I use assault rifles. Sniper rifles are useful for long range, shotguns for short. But any CQB specialist worth their position can sneak up behind a sniper's nest and take them out, and any sharpshooter intelligent enough to realize his or her position will be flanked, will relocate. In the end, neither wins, but both do. It just depends on the situation."
"Lieutenant Keeling's analysis is correct," EDI surmized, everyone turning to look at the synthetic. James and Keeling had been initially edgy at seeing Ex-Eva's body moving around, but when they found out it was EDI, they calmed down, with James even commenting that she now 'sexy hot robot home' in Eva's body. Joker's response had been one of absolute shock and thrill, commenting that he was 'no longer sitting next to a naggy pawn AI that doesn't get jokes yet, but next to a naggy pawn AI that doesn't get jokes yet...in a sexy robot body!' So no worries on Joker's part. Kasumi was weirded out, but seemed to get used to it. Overall, EDI's corporeal status was accepted well among the crew, "Which makes this entire debate irrelevant. In any event, only the circumstances or environment will prove or disprove either side's assertion."
There was a dull silence for a while, until James decided to speak again, "Okay then. But who cares! Team Krogan WINS, putas. Even the pilot agrees," then he spoke deliberately louder, making sure the pilot could hear him, even if he wasn't talking to him directly, "Even if he doesn't know shit about combat, sitting in that little pilot seat of his!"
"At least I didn't trash it!" Cortez retorted, and James merely laughed.
"I am confused. I initially believed this was a logical, serious debate. But the increase in humurous fractures in the facial structure of everyone around us, and the humorous vocal noises, imply some comedic tone I have not recognized," EDI observed.
Garrus held back a chuckle, leaning in and whispering into Marcus' ear, "'Humurous fractures in the facial structure?' Either EDI doesn't get the humor, or she just insinuated I have a fractured face." Although they didn't hear Garrus' jokes, almost everyone laughed at EDI's misunderstanding; even Keeling seemed to crack a little smirk.
"I will have to file this under 'things to understand about organics,'" EDI stated, and the shuttle returned to its previous state.
The mission had been quite a different turn of game; instead of fighting a Reaper occupation, they were fighting a Cerberus occupation. As soon as the Normandy had arrived in system, their stealth had rendered them invisible to the large Cerberus fleet in the system. Deploying in their equally stealth capable shuttle, they had deployed to the surface, honing in on Colony New Hope, where a Cerberus Destroyer seemed to be hovering, one which EDI had quickly identified as the CAW Tennessee. The ship was holding a stationary orbit over the colony, acting as a quick response vessel; they'd have to hope Cerberus didn't get that desperate for air support.
And so the shuttle quickly descended, Cortez getting them as close as possible without being spotted by Cerberus troops. They landed at the edge of a cliff face, where the hatch shot open and the squad proceeded to deploy, Marcus staying behind to give Cortez his final orders, "I'll call for extraction as soon as we've secured and identified this prothean artifact."
"Copy that captain," Cortez replied, nodding as he kept his eyes focused on the controls before him, "I'll do a couple of sorties around the colony until you call for pickup. I'll remain above the clouds, so they don't spot me."
"Good man," he gripped the man's shoulder one more time before turning and leaping out of the shuttle, unholstering his rifle before he came to impact the ground. The kodiak gave a final roar of its engines, before it then ascended and shot off into the atmosphere, moving to hide above the bright white clouds. As he turned, he surveyed the planet's surroundings, remembering his first time here when geth had invaded. He had visited this planet three times during his travels now, and three different colonies.
I visited Colony Euphoria three years ago when I was on the Normandy SR-1, and that was to fight off a geth invasion; this was effectively where my entire journey began. Then a year ago, I was lured to Colony Ohio as part of a Collector plan to abduct my crew. And now I'm here once more to secure a prothean artefact, and to liberate the planet from a Cerberus occupation. First geth, now Cerberus. This planet doesn't get a break, does it?
He turned away from Eden Prime's beautiful landscape and scenic views, and turned back to his squad, who were waiting in formation for him. Keeling had taken point, body pressed against one of the buildings and her Valkyrie heavy rifle out, scanning the area ahead. James was crouched behind her, helmet on and Revenant hefted on one arm. Garrus was lazily hanging back, waiting for Marcus with Liara, who's omni-tool was open and scanning the area, Kasumi, and EDI.
As Marcus approached, Liara turned towards him, deactivating her omni-tool as she did, "Eden Prime. This is where it all began, wasn't it?"
"It certainly was. Its where I first encountered Sovereign, the geth and heard of Saren," he sighed, breathing in Eden Prime's fresh air, "The nostalgia would be complete if Kaidan were here. He was here with me, along with Jenkins and a turian spectre named Nihlus Kryik..." he shook his head, sighing at the memories, "Both of them are dead now; both died on this very planet on that very day, one betrayed by Saren and one gunned down because I gave him a command without correct knowledge of the enemy. But...this is also where I...well..."
"Met Ashley," Garrus finished, "We know, Marcus."
"Yeah," he replied back, the memories not so enlightening anymore. What would Ashley be thinking right now if she were alive? 'Let's kick some Cerberus ass, skipper.' Yeah, that sounds like her. Then she'd recite some of her father's poetry. He had lost two men that fateful day three years ago but in reality, he had lost three the moment he recruited Ashley: gone in a blaze of nuclear fire. It was either her or Kaidan; but what would have happened if I had saved her instead?
"Yeah...those were the times. Saren and his geth launching their campaign to bring back the Reapers," Marcys recollected, and then his mind settled on a very particular, unsettling memory, "And where I encountered the prothean beacon, and got my vision that warned us of the Reapers. And now it seems that Eden Prime's colonists are under attack...again."
"I remember hearing the reports about the geth attack," Garrus recounted, shaking his head and clenching his mandibles in anger, "I was busting my ass to find evidence against Saren, but in the end it just proved worthless. I'm glad you turned up; otherwise we'd all be dead by now, or close enough. There I was, strapped in by bueracracy while Saren was out blasting that same bueracracy apart with an army of cold, emotionless killer machines."
"You always did prefer a straight up fight," Marcus quipped.
"And you're always so good at helping me find them," Garrus retorted.
Liara, deciding the banter had enough time to thrive, stepped in, rubbing her temples, "Cerberus has hit this place hard," she motioned to the smoke and fire in the background, and the destroyer that loomed over them, grimly reminding them of the Cerberus fleet in orbit, "Whatever they found here was worth a major offensive; meaning this prothean artefact must be more than a simple artefact. There are survivors of the colony all over the planet, and some of them actually seem to be putting up resistance, but...they killed everyone near the dig site. None of the members of the ExoGeni team survived."
Marcus raised both his eyebrows at her, impressed by her knowledge, "You knew all of that just by a scan of the area?"
"Scanning? No, I was contacting my agents in the resistance," she snorted, smirking up at him, "I'm a very good Shadow Broker."
"I'm glad you're on our side," Garrus noted, and all three of them shared a laugh. After a bit, they got back into full business mode, Marcus pushing past them and moving towards where Keeling and James were stationed, speaking as he did, "But as it is, we're about to engage a Cerberus occupation in full-scale combat over an artefact of a nature we don't understand or can discern. Did any of your contacts have a clue of what this thing is?"
"None. ExoGeni were in the middle of digging when Cerberus invaded," she informed him, "But from what my contacts can discern, they observed that Cerberus seemed to immediately continue digging after the surrounding area was secured, meaning they really wanted whatever was done there dug up in a hurry; I don't think they plan on staying. If anything, their fleet in orbit is merely to make sure any attempts by the Alliance to liberate the colony are halted before they can stop them digging it up."
"Not that the Alliance can afford the ships to do so," Marcus contemplated, "Very well. Liara, give us the navpoint to the dig site, and we'll head over there; kill any Cerberus soldiers that get in our way. We can't afford to be making this silent, and we need to secure this site quickly and efficiently," he arrived at the forward position, dropping low next to Keeling and speaking in a whisper, "Lieutenant, what have we got?"
"Area ahead looks clear of hostiles. But my HUD is picking up twelve plus hostiles at the edge of my motion tracker though; seem to be moving in a standard patrol pattern. I haven't seen any aircraft of any description, so our eyes will probably need to be kept on the skies to make sure they don't get the jump. The Destroyer won't fire us and it can't launch an airstrike; it would risk damage to the dig site and of any collateral damage, although knowing Cerberus, the former is more probable. The buildings are packed tightly enough that we'll get plenty of cover, and the dig site, according to T'Soni's recent navpoint, indicates a distance of 400 meters to the dig site. We might encounter a bit of resistance, but nothing we can't neutralize. Just waiting for your go, Captain."
"We'll split up and hit from both sides," Marcus declared, "Keeling, you take James and Liara and hit from the left. I'll take Kasumi, Garrus and EDI and hit from the front; we'll divert all their forces into a chokepoint, and you can hit the rear and crush them."
"Solid copy captain," Keeling replied, turning back to look ahead. She raised a closed fist and thumped it against her chest, before unclenching it and shooting it forwards, motioning for them to push forward. And within that instant, Keeling was gone, moving at a fast pace, legs bent and weapon raised as she moved, James taking up position behind her, and Liara, after nodding at the three left behind, pulled out her SMG and quickly followed suit.
Seeing that they were gone, Marcus turned back to his team, nodding to the three of them, "Okay squad, let's move it out. Garrus, you're our sniper; find a position and keep to it. If it gets too hot, just relocate. But I want you to be our eyes, you got me?"
"Read you clear Marcus," Garrus nodded, pulling out his Reaper sniper rifle and quickly moving over to a nearby ladder. Just as the turian began to climb onto the top of the bunker, he turned back to Kasumi and EDI, "You two are with me. Garrus will provide sniper support, we'll draw them out. Kasumi, you're stealth recon, you move on ahead. EDI, I don't quite know your abilities, so give me the summary."
EDI nodded, although the gesture was awkward and clasped her hands behind her back, "I possess some basic technological abilities; you could classify me as a 'combat engineer,' much like Tali. I have recently downloaded an incineration ability, much like Professor Solus', and an overload ability, much like Tali's. However, this synthetic platform possesses unique combat capabilities not present in other platforms, not even geth."
His interests peaked he nodded, "Continue."
"I possess a program labelled 'Defense Matrix,'" she explained, and then her eyes went blank for a second, staring into nothing. But it only lasted for a microsecond, and then a loud grinding of gears and the sound of metal slamming against metal was heard, and they all watched as numerous bits of armoured plating, previously detached, spun into place, encasing the synthetic in grey, steel armour. At that moment, EDI looked at them again, "As you can see, it reinforces my forward armour plating by 60 percent. I can even take a different hit from a missile and only lose 30 percent of my integrity. It also gives an added boost to my kinetic barriers, however minute."
"I wish I had something like that," Kasumi commented, hands on her hips as she admired EDI's makeshift armour, "Yet again, I'm a thief."
He ignored that snarky comment and moved to ask her what other abilities she had when she seemed to read his mind, and spoke once more, "I have one final ability unique to his unit. Decoy, it is called. It allows me to deploy a holographic representation of myself to fool the enemy." As an example, she turned away from them and one crackle of energy later, what appeared to be a clone of EDI erupted from her body, mindlessly sprinting forward. Eventually it ran into a wall, and simply stood there. After a moment, it crackled, and then winked out of existence. She turned back to them, and Marcus was practically grinning.
"I'm starting to like your new platform EDI. I can't remember Legion being able to do that," he shook his head, "But I should have sent you with Keeling. Kasumi already fits in as a combat engineer, and Keeling's team doesn't have one at all. Damn it. I just hope you know what you're doing EDI; I don't want Cerberus hacking that mech."
"My firewalls are at maximum. It would take your wife three years to crack through the encryption, and the entire geth consensus, all united, two minutes."
"You had me at 'my wife can't do it,'" he chuckled, "If even Tali can't crack it, I have nothing to worry about. Come on, Garrus is probably wondering what's-"
"-keeping you?" the turian finished for them, "I most certainly am; Keeling's in position and waiting for your orders. Says she has the back of the 'Cerberus bastards' in sight and she's ready to kick some pro-human, xenophobic ass. Her words, not mine, although I do find them quite enlightening. It shows alot about her personality. I think Ashley and herself would have gotten along nicely."
"Indeed," he grinned, motioning to the narrow alleyway behind a few bunkers nearby, "Come on, we'd better get moving. Cerberus isn't going to wait all day, and we've got a dig site to investigate."
The first human spectre took point, his AI and master thief compatriot taking up position behind him as they moved forward, clearing the empty alleyways of the colony. They continued on ahead, but before they reached the Cerberus position, the smell of...death, reached their nostrils. As he sniffed, he knew he wouldn't like it just from smelling it, and when he turned the corner, he could feel Kasumi behind him spinning back around and making disgusted grunting sounds. Even he narrowed his eyes at the sight.
A pile of human bodies lay just infront of them; dozens of them, all of them long dead, either torn apart pieces or riddled with bullets. An odd looking animal, something Jenkins had said were called a 'gas bag,' currently hung around it, seemingly interestes in the smell of rotting flesh. It was horrible; some of them wore civilian garb, and some wore the stand-outish grey uniform of ExoGeni employees. All of them murdered...and then Cerberus just dumped their bodies here and left them to rot.
He saw a human male's head poking out, and as he got closer, he felt that he recognized it. And when he kneeled down and turned the man's head over, lifeless eyes meeting his, his eyes widened, and he quickly dropped the head and backed away, even more repulsed then he already was. Powell. That was his name. I met him three years ago; when I was at Colony Euphoria. Bloody lazy shithead had been taking a nap on the job when the attack hit, and was responsible for stealing munitions from the Alliance 212 garrison. And he just happened to be here...and this time his luck didn't hold out it seems...
He turned away, and saw that Kasumi was refusing to turn around, while EDI seemed to survey the pile with a look of calm, unable to comprehend the emotion of 'disgust.' She turned towards him, features calm as she spoke, "Cerberus was responsible for this. I have found numerous foot prints and handprints that correspond with that of recent Cerberus body armor configurations."
"As if we needed those to find out who did it," Marcus dryly noted, "There's only one faction capable of such barbary. Of such disrespect."
"I see it," Garrus crackled over the comms, "And Cerberus will pay for every drop spilt. The Illusive Man has alot to answer for here. Not as much as the Reapers do, but alot. The man who claims to 'stand for human ascendance' sure has no qualms about killing innocent human civilians, hypocritical bastard."
"Only further proof that he's indoctrinated. A Reaper puppet. And Cerberus along with him," he sighed, turning to march away, "Come on, we've got a mission to do. At least we'll get to kill some of the assholes who did this. Maybe link up with some resistance members, if there's any left in this colony."
They moved on, and quickly turned left, coming across the men Keeling had been talking about. There was an open courtyard, littered with numerous crates stamped with the Alliance or ExoGeni logos, while a bunker overlooked the entire area, a staircase leading up to it, extending diagonally from the right. And in the courtyard and staircase, was a squad of Cerberus. At least eight assault troopers stood in the courtyard, avenger and vindicator rifles in hand and moving back and forth with methodical precision, their patrol patterns meticulous and repetitive. The squad's centurion stood in his bulky armor at the top of the staircase, mattock heavy rifle held tightly in his grip and standing perfect vigil over the yard. He also saw a single combat engineer, leaning against a wall, arms crossed and looking over data on an omni-tool, turret strapped to his back. The other two he didn't recognize, but seemed to have a helmet enveloped in a large orange visor, and held no visible weapons. I didn't encounter that on Mars...possibly a unit we haven't engaged before...
He commed his radio to both teams, "All combat teams, we have eight assault troopers, one centurion, one combat engineer present in the courtyard. We have two plus hostiles of unknown classification; unarmed, but looking mean, over. Could be a possible commanding units, over. Proceed with discretion; Vakarian, keep an eye on them. Keeling, please confirm you see the bogies."
A moment, followed by a response, "We read you, five-by-five. Hostiles identified and tagged. Vega will deal with them; T'Soni and I are ready to proceed; we've picked our targets and are ready to fire."
"Vakarian here," Garrus declared, "Keeping those two bogies in my peripheral and have my scope set on the centurion. Ready to engage on your command."
"I know what I'm going to do," Kasumi winked, before disappearing into cloak, "See ya later, Shep." And then she was gone.
EDI raised her SMG, armor reinforcing with a clang, "Ready Shepard. Firing solution acquired."
Raising his own rifle, he took aim at the combat engineer and gave the order, "All teams, hit hard and fast. Permission to engage is granted. Kill with extreme prejudice."
And the courtyard was awash with combat.
Garrus' sniper rifle was the first to bark across the field, the round splitting through the centurion's visorless helmet and spraying viscera and black blood all over the door behind him, body thumping to the ground. True to their cybernetic enhancement, Cerberus reacted swiftly to the attack, immediately turning towards the source.
Then Keeling and Liara rounded the corner, SMG and heavy rifle laying down fire upon the eight vulnerable assault troopers in the middle of the yard, immediately dropping three and forcing the rest into cover. Marcus' mattock coughed twice, and took down the shields of the combat engineer as he drew his Hornet SMG, before sending another round slamming into his gut, and the final one straight through his skull, ending the threat he posed. Revenant fire could be heard, and one of the bogies turned to the source, while the other mercilessly approached Keeling and Liara.
Kasumi appeared behind cover and they heard a trooper cry out, before his body then appeared, body slumping forward against a crate. Reappearing, Kasumi ripped her knife out from the back of his skull, and quickly disappeared again. Garrus' rifle barked again, ending the life of another trooper.
"Fall back! Get to cover!" one assault trooper barked, his synthetic voice never ceasing to irritiate Marcus. One trooper tossed a frag grenade at them, but Marcus merely rolled to the side, and EDI rushed forward with unbelievable speed and agility, reaching the trooper and ramming her SMG into his skull with blunt force, causing him to fall forwards before she slammed her foot into the back of his skull, killing him.
"Dios mio!" James exclaimed, and Marcus turned to his position upon the sound of it, "I'm falling back! These bastards are bloody biotics!"
True to his word, Marcus watched as James steadily retreated, the Cerberus soldier moving forward with what looked to be biotic whips, biotic energy encased in bendable energy that could be used to whip, grab or flay the enemy. And James was currently fleeing from one as it continued its relentless assault of dark energy, and the other one moved towards him. And the way it was attacking James and then relocating, it reminded Marcus of something.
A Dragoon.
Letting his own biotics pulse over him, Marcus raised his rifle and moved to meet the enemy dragoon charging him, watching as Keeling signalled Liara to go deal with the second one pursuing James.
His mattock roared in his hands, shot after shot meeting the kinetic barriers of the charging dragoon, the shock trooper in question dragging his tendrils of dark energy behind him as he prepared to unleash his full might upon the spectre steadily emptying into him. Just as the kinetic barriers of the soldier seemed to drop, Marcus' mattock spat out the empty clip and screeched its discontent at his repeated pulling of the trigger. He quickly holstered the weapon and with speed noone could match, slid forward as the dragoon lashed forwards with his whips, missing by hairs breadth as Marcus closed the distance, quickly standing up and then slamming his helmet into the dragoon's, stunning him.
Clenching his fist, he drew all his biotic might into the punch as he hooked the trooper across the face, visor shattering from the impact as his head shot right and was thrown backwards from the force. Marcus moved to continue the attack, but small shockwave sent him staggering away, giving the dragoon time to stand back up and continue its assault. Dumb as hell however, it attempted to repeat its whip attack, which ended badly for it when Marcus simply picked him up biotically, and then slammed him back down onto the ground, head first. A loud crack was heard, the dragoon's head snapped at an impossible angle, and the entire shock trooper's body went limp, collapsing to the ground with a thud.
Taking a heavy breath, he drew his mattock again and moved to assist the others in taking care of the second dragoon, when he heard a loud synthetic roar, and turned to the source, watching as said soldier came flying through the air to land in the midst of crates nearby, scattering them as he hit the ground with enough force to break one's spine. To answer his question of who did it, Liara appeared, using her biotics to launch herself up and through the air, and then glide to land next to the befallen dragoon much like Samara had done when he first met the asari. But this gliding wasn't graceful; it was fast and full of anger, and even now the asari's features were creased in anger as she landed next to the groaning dragoon, who tried to fight her off with a weak biotic push, one she prompty ignored and then picked him up with her biotics, hovering him just infront of her.
With a barely audible grunt, she shifted back and then slammed the dragoon's face into the concrete three times before letting go, letting its body collapse in the growing pool of black blood that was now growing, body limp. Taking deep breaths, she looked up and met Marcus' gaze, features becoming calmer once she saw his expression. The Liara three years ago would have seen such an act barbaric and terrifying; it would have left her in tears...but the modern Liara had just committed that barbaric and terrifying act.
She's changed, alot. She's grown up. She's no longer that shy archaelogist; she's the Shadow Broker, and she knows your every secret, and combat has shaped her into a killing machine.
He nodded to her, and turned to the rest of the group, who was mopping up the final thralls of the Cerberus resistance. When the last assault trooper fell, the squads regrouped and reloaded. Sighing, he shook his head as he spoke, "Those biotic shock troopers...the Dragoons...we have to keep an eye out for them. We almost got ourselves killed because we didn't know they were biotic."
"Their presence also proves that Cerberus has no end of surprises," Liara noted, shaking her head as she took in one final breath, "There may be more variants we don't know about. For example, I don't think we've encountered any snipers yet."
"You hear that, Garrus?" Kasumi quipped, "You'll have cybernetically-enhanced competition."
"I'll be sure to send them an invitation," the turian replied dryly, "Maybe they'll be kind enough to buy me some dextro beer before they die."
"Stay frosty people. Cerberus will have heard the gunfire and will definitely be sending reinforcements. Let's just hope they mistake us for the resistance. That mistake might just give us an edge; they'll send less troops to deal with that," Marcus observed.
"Or none at all, given they had a full squad here, plus the two dragoons," Kasumi added, "Maybe they'll just assume the squad will take care of it, and their radio silence just means they don't need assistance."
"An excellent point," EDI complimented, "Considering the intelligence of the average assault trooper here, they are no smarter than the original commandos Cerberus had before their militarization. There is a 15 percent chance of reinforcements being sent."
"I'm liking those odds so far," James said, rubbing his neck as he loaded a fresh clip into his LMG, "Better than having to deal with more of those dragoon bastards and their biotics."
"Let's get moving," Marcus ordered, "Incase we're wrong."
{Loading...}
June 5, 2186
1604 hours.
Excavation Area, ExoGeni Research Dig, Colony New Hope, Eden Prime.
The Reaper War, Alliance Space Campaign: Liberation of Eden Prime.
Captain Marcus Lee Shepard, Second Lieutenant James Vega, Second Lieutenant Imogen Keeling, Shadow Broker Liara T'Soni, Master Thief Kasumi Goto, Military Advisor Garrus Vakarian, EDI.
"You ever find any dinosaurs when you were digging around, Bluey?" James asked suddenly, breaking the silence that had enveloped as they crossed through the shadows of the bunkers, coming close to the dig site. Cerberus resistance, just as Kasumi and EDI had surmized, Cerberus had assumed a resistance hit-and-run, and did not think to send reinforcements; that, or they deemed protection of the dig site more important. As they moved, Utopia burned brightly in the sky, its radiance painting yellow all over Eden Prime's surface, and making it look as beautiful as ever. Eden Prime was a beautiful colony; they had recovered from the geth attack, they would recover from this.
Liara, sighing at Vega's seemingly stupid question, "No, dinosaurs and other fossils would be paleontology. I'm...was...an archaelogist. I studied artefacts left by sapient species, specifically the protheans," she explained, rolling her eyes, and then turned to meet James' eyes, "The two fields are completely different, and-" she cut herself off, noticing the marine's smirk. Sighing again, she turned away, "-you were joking."
"Seems the jarhead does know somethings," Marcus commented, smiling at Liara's embarassment and flushing cheeks, "And he just managed to trick the Shadow Broker, of all people."
"See, I'm bright," James added, chuckling.
"When you want to be," Keeling remarked, "Give you a shuttle, and everything becomes FUBAR, especially if you put an escaping shuttle in the mix."
"Oh give me a break, will ya!" James mockingly snapped, "I've got enough of that shit from Cortez already!"
"And we'll continue to give you shit for it for as long as it provides us comedic relief. Buckle in James, its going to be a while before that dies off," Marcus replied, turning around, grin still present until they rounded the corner. Then it dropped right off his face and his military training kicked in, snapping into a crouch and raising a fist, signalling his squad to follow his movement. Keeling noticed immediately and dropped, followed by James, and then Kasumi and Liara. EDI took a second to analyze his gesture, file it away in her memory core, and then mimicked the rest of the team, rather awkwardly, as seemed to be her style at the moment. She's new to the battlefield of ground warfare. She'll get used to it; she's an AI. She does it faster than organics do.
He made a 'danger imminent' hand signal in front of him, and Keeling dropped prone and began to crawl forwards to get a better position. To see what Garrus saw from his angle, he quickly contacted the turian over the comms, whispering so they didn't draw attention, "Garrus, what do you see?"
"Alot of movement, that's for sure. Looks like Cerberus brought the whole damn party to that dig site," the turian noted, whistling in the odd turian fashion, "From what I can see, they've got at least a platoon of assault troopers, and three centurions leading them. I see four more of those dragoons, and what looks to be six combat engineers standing watch over...well, spirits to be damned, now we know what those packs on their backs are. Portable turrets. They've got six covering every possible entry way. They must have done it in response to our little attack. I see something large and white at the actual dig site, but its hidden by a bunker. I can't get a good look."
"Solid copy. Fill us in on their movements, and do not fire until I give the go. If you absolutely have to, aim for the centurions. Cut their command off at the head."
Not waiting for a response, he turned back to Keeling, who was now comfortably positioned next to a mispositioned crate, eyes down the sights of her valkyrie, "How about it, Keeling? What do you have?"
"Well, we've got a full squad of guardians. Finally thing is, they seem to be using a testudo tactic," she observed.
"Testudo?" Liara asked, confused.
"Its an old tactic that was used over a thousand years ago by a human military power at the time called the Roman Empire," Marcus explained, "Turians remind me alot of them, especially in the way of names and their military structure; Romans were very militaristic, and while they did copy off the Greeks alot, they were brilliant in their own way. Cutting to the point, they have a formation called a testudo, or tortoise. Its basically where they all heap together and heap all their shields together to create this single, impenetrable barrier to protect themselves from arrows; it allowed them to move quickly, keep themselves protected from enemy fire, and to close the distance. Given that guardians have the conventional shields like Romans, and not the kinetic shields we have, it makes sense. And it would be super effective. The fact they're in it now suggests they know we're coming."
"But they don't necessarily know who we are," Kasumi added, "Remember Shep, they might think we're resistance. What they know is that their is a slit in their shields that they need to see through, and, expecting just rebels, will think their aim too crappy to worry about. Unfortunately for them, we've got a team of crack shots and a thief who knows stealth. That testudo won't be a threat."
"What she said," Marcus stated, grinning as he turned back, "Anything else, Keeling?"
"Yeah," she stated simply, "They have a bloody Atlas guarding the site. I think that's what Vakarian was referring to."
"An Atlas mech?" Marcus asked, surprised. Cerberus really has come a long way if they got their hands on an Atlas mech; those damn things are expensive and military grade. Last time I encountered one was on Korlus, when Jedore had that Blue Suns custom painted one; back when I was recruiting Grunt a year ago. Luckily for us back then, Jedore was nothing but an incompetent merc, and all I had to do was close the distance. But that mech is controlled by a trained soldier loaded with cybernetics to increase reaction time; and closing the distance with close to a company of Cerberus troops surrounding it is going to be very difficult. We're going to have take it out long range.
"I brought a Cobra missile launcher," James told them, unholstering a bulky looking stream-line white ordnance launcher that looked alot like the asari Disciple shotgun in design, "It only has two rockets, but it should be enough to take care of it."
"We'll clear a path, give you time to line up a shot; but we're going to have to split up again. We can't make this a frontal assault. We need a pincer movement; to trap them. Garrus will provide sniper support like before, and Keeling will take James along with EDI this time, to flank around the back and hit them hard from the rear, while Liara and Kasumi take the frontal assault. Everyone clear?" Seeing their nods, he gave a brief nod himself, "Then let's do this. Take that dig site people; do not let Cerberus keep it."
With a final nod, Keeling got up, and James and EDI followed behind her, disappearing behind a bunker nearby, while Marcus equipped his mattock, checked the scope, and then turned to Kasumi and Liara, "Precision shots. We'll be dealing with the guardians you two, so I want you to make sure you make your shots count. Kasumi, testudo relies on the shields to be amassed up front; they'll be completely uncovered at the back; think you can sneak around and cause some mayhem?"
"That's like asking a soldier 'can you shoot?'" the thief remarked, smirking as she suddenly disappeared into thin air, the only thing giving away her location being the distortion of the air around her form, "You guys take them from the front, I'll make them quiver."
Nodding, he motioned to Liara and they wheeled forward, keying his comm, "All units, push forward. You have permission to engage. Same as before; take no prisoners!"
This time it was the sound of Team Two opening fire that opened the engagement, the sound of synthesized cries of surprise being heard as a combination of Locust SMG, Valkyrie heavy rifle and Revenant LMG fire rained down upon the surprised Cerberus troops. Even as Marcus watched down the sight of his scope, he could see the stationary Atlas mech, covered in the gold and white colors of Cerberus, and its golden hexagon painted on its shoulder, assault trooper operator in the cockpit, turning towards Keeling's team, slowly bringing one large foot after the other. The Atlas was a bulky vehicle, and its two massive legs made the ground shake with every footfall. It had a large glass cockpit, meaning the pilot could easily be sniped once you broke the not so thick glass (last time it took just under eight SMG bursts to break it, and that was point blank) and it was very slow and cumbersome when it came to movement, speed and turning. But, like the YMIR mech, its armament more than made up for it; it packed heavy armour that was essentially bullet proof can could alot of punishment, and possessed a heavy machine gun on one arm, and a gas-operated heavy cannon on the other; able to semi-automatically fire 30mm high velocity explosive ordnance shells with rapid succession. And, as Marcus took notice, Cerberus had added its own modification; a rocket launcher located just under the heavy cannon, which undoubtably would be able to deliver a payload of rockets every once and a while to deal with armoured vehicles. But, he digressed. Seeing the Atlas turn, he also watched as the turrets guarding that side opened up, tearing into the cover that Team Two was using, but quickly changed targets when they saw what they thought to be EDI charging blindly at them; high velocity armor-piercing rounds tearing into it before it then crackled and died.
Spinning the corner, Marcus took aim at the lead slit in the guardian testudo, and fired. He heard and practically felt the round hit dead center, the shield leaning backwards as the guardian wielding it fell backwards into one of his comrades, opening a gap in the formation, but his comrade quickly filled the gap, bringing his shield down to cover it. However, it was clear Kasumi had made her move as some commotion could be heard, and the formation seemed to halt in its advance. Not long after, Kasumi reappeared next to him smiling, "I took down two of them; that should confuse them alittle."
"And this should annoy them," Liara added, bringing her biotics to bear and reaching a hand out, a biotic tendril latching on to one of the shields and then ripping it away, the guardian unable to hold on and simply letting go, leaving him completely vulnerable, with just his Talon heavy pistol to protect him, and he quickly opened fire, but didn't last long before Kasumi poured fire into him and ended his life. Following Liara's example, Marcus wielded his biotics and both of them began methodically tearing the testudo apart as they ripped away shields and killed their wielders. By the time the formation finally fell apart, most of the guardians were dead, and the rest falling back, only to be killed by precision kills from Team One. The guardian squad dealt with, his team pushed forward, reloading their weapons as they saw two dragoons disengaging from the rear front and moving to engage the new threat.
To Marcus' surprise, Garrus' supporting fire was completely absent from the battle, and he began to get worried. Something was wrong. He holstered his rifle and activated his omni-blade, simultaneously grabbing the nearest dragoon and dragging him towards him, using the dragoon's momentum to impale him on an awaiting omni-blade. With the dragoon dead, he tossed his dead body away in time to see the soldier dealt with in equal measure, and the three found themselves confronted by one of the six portable turrets the combat engineers had deployed, and quickly fell into cover as it tore into them.
"We've got three more hostiles, right flank!" a centurion called out, "Charlie squad, move and back up the right flank. Yuri, you know what to do! Concentrate fire on them while we deal with the left!"
He said Yuri. As in a singular name. As in...oh shit! He turned to Liara and Kasumi, "Switch cover! Over to me!"
They rolled towards him just the sound of a rocket could be heard, smoke trailing behind it as it slammed into the crates they had been using as cover, blasting them apart and sending debris flying everywhere, most of which pinged off their armor. The destruction revealed the Atlas, standing infront of the dig site, its left arm pointed at them and now retreating, having released its payload. It then switched to its right arm, bullets racing up to feet the ground as it fired at them, forcing them further into cover as the rounds chewed up crates and the like. Still not seeing any sniper rounds flying through the air, he commed Garrus, anger filling his voice, "Vakarian, where the fuck are you! We've got an Atlas on our ass, and no sniper support! Give me a fucking sitrep!"
"Sorry Marcus, but I'm sorta trying to play tango with a few Cerberus snipers. Thank you for jinxing me Kasumi," the turian deadpanned, sounding hurried and tired, "I think I'm going to call these bastards my 'Nemesis',' because they sure are fast as hell. They also seem to be the first females I've seen in their military; all of them are female, and seem to be carrying Widow sniper rifles; you can probably see why I don't want to get hit. You saw what Legion could do with those mean rifles."
"Snipers? Well that's just brilliant," he deadpanned, "How long until you think you can be ready to support us?"
"I've taken down three of them, just a matter of finding this last one, and I should be free," Garrus joked, the sound of a rifle firing, followed by the unmistakenable sound of a Widow answering back, followed by turian cursing, "Damn it; I missed. I'll get back to you."
"Copy that," Marcus replied, turning back to his team, "Garrus is out; says to tell you Kasumi that you jinxed him and he's now got a few Cerberus snipers to play hide-and-seek with, so he's going to be busy. We're going to have to take care of them ourselves."
"Well this is going to be fun," Liara snarkily commented, "Especially in terms of that Atlas. Only James has the ordnance to deal with it."
"Not true," Marcus grinned, eying the mech, "Liara, give me the best biotic barrier you have," he ordered, and then proceeded to detach his entire bandolier of frag grenades from his chest, counting at least fifteen in each socket. Good, more than enough. I hope.
"Just what are you planning to do?" The asari asked skeptically, narrowing her eyes at him.
"The usual. Just about to run an extremely crazy tactic that will ultimately be successful," Marcus replied, before turning the corner once more, only to be forced back behind it by a raking of fire from the approaching Atlas, which had apparently decided to leave its stationary position and steadily approach them, ground shaking with every step.
"Sometimes I wonder if you possess any sense of sanity," Liara questioned, shaking her head with a weak smile, "Fine, just be careful."
"I always am. Liara, give the barrier now," he ordered, and just as she formed the dark energy sphere around him, he charged at full sprint directly at the Atlas, and was surprised at just how quickly it has closed the distance; it was literally one meter infront of him when he began his sprint. Seeing him coming, it slowly made to raise its leg to crush him, but he slid under its body, coming out behind it. He turned back towards it, and managed to avoid the automated sentry turret nearby to leap onto the mech's back as it moved to turn around, finding a one-handed grip on the fuel tank on its back, allowing him to climb up and onto its 'head.' He could hear the soldier cursing as he tried to swat Marcus off, but the joints wouldn't rotate that far, and clearly weren't designed to do so. Grinning, he grabbed the grenade belt, and found a steel handle for builders to hold on to, tying the grenade bandolier around it. The Atlas, having given up trying to remove him, decided to take out as much of his squad as possible before expiring, and headed for Liara and Kasumi's position. He shouted at them to run, and he primed one of the grenades before leaping off, rolling behind a nearby crate just as the explosive detonated.
Heat flushed over him, and he turned in time to meet the brilliant flash of all fifteen grenades detonating in succession, the explosion managing to completely detach the arm wielding the heavy cannon, but not destroying the Atlas. Luckily for him, he knew this; he had positioned it on that arm on purpose, and he watched as the arm also erupted into flames, all the rockets and heavy ammo inside it also detonating, the wave of heat and destruction overcoming the Atlas, and sending it toppling onto the ground, where it crushed the crates underneath its monolithic weight, the debris shattering the cockpit and eviscerating the driver, slicing him to bloody ribbons. With the Atlas utterly destroyed, Cerberus had lost its main advantage over them, and his team managed to recover enough to begin pushing back.
Kasumi easily dealt with the two sentry turrets on the right flank, so it was a simple matter of hacking the other four. Kasumi, annoyed that she had to compete for control with the combat engineers, was immensely relieved when Marcus focused his fire on said engineers, gunning them down with little effort and allowing Kasumi to seemlessly gain control of the turrets and turn them on their original masters, their automated targetting systems pinpointing the Cerberus IFFs in their armor and opening fire. By the time the battle was over, every centurion and assault trooper left had been torn asunder by their own turrets, and with that done, Kasumi prompted them to self-destruct, and they all simply combusted into flames and debris. The team linked up, regrouped and reloaded, and examined the scene before them. It was carnage; the wreckage of the destroyed Atlas lay behind them, and corpses lay all over the field. Keeling, feeling the need to lift the tension, gave a cough, followed by a light chuckle.
"Well...they definitely know we're here now."
A few moments later, Garrus caught up to them, rifle in his hand and breathing tightly. Once he reached them, he nodded to them, sighing, "Well, thank the spirits you took care of these guys. Those snipers were a piece of work."
"Finally met your match?" Marcus quipped.
"Bastards were damn accurate, it was almost robotic. But they missed; every shot," Garrus added, grinning, "Mostly because I'm just too good for them. I was faster, and when I hit, I hit. But I'll admit, those snipers are pretty damn accurate; better watch for them in the future, especially since they all seem to use Widows. Get hit by one of those, and you're pretty much dead. Shields just don't matter."
"We'll take that into consideration. Good job," they all turned to the dig site, and Marcus sighed, turning to Keeling and James, "You two, stay here and keep watch. You so much as hear a whisper or a shuffle and I want to hear about it. The rest of you, with me. Liara, you take point. You know more about this than anyone. Stay sharp, people."
They moved up ahead, and came to stand upon an elevated platform looking down into the massive hole ExoGeni had been digging. As they looked down, they found the hole to be kilometers deep; they couldn't even see the bottom. Kasumi whistled loudly, kicking an abandoned omni-tool emitter down into the hole, and they all watched it fall; they never heard it land.
"That hole must be miles in depth," Marcus noted, looking at Liara, who had run a scan of what seemed to be the controls to a massive drill, to which the platform was the caretaker for, "What do you have? Do you know the depth?"
"5 kilometers deep," Liara ascertained, and Marcus watched as Kasumi sat on the edge of the platform, dangling her feet over the edge and continuing to whistle, while ignoring Garrus' snarky comments about 'accidentally falling off.' She simply poked her tongue out at him and continued to do as she liked. EDI stood at attention, simply awaiting new orders. He noted this all in the time it took for Liara to continue, "And its finished. According to these readings, we're two minutes too late. Cerberus finished the excavation, and reached the...prothean facility beneath."
"Damn it," Marcus cursed, but before he could continue, Liara spoke up, disspelling any negativity he might have felt at the revelation.
"However, from what I can gather from this data, it seems Cerberus deployed a science team into the facility to find any relevant technology they could use, only to find something that completely surprised them. Something none of them could have expected and...would make history," she frowned, and continued to look through the data. He watched her features change with every passing word, and then she seemed to freeze, eyes widened in pure shock. He had seen that face before; it was the face he had seen when she saw Feron caged up in the ex-Shadow Broker's Base a year ago, before breaking down into tears. But she didn't get tearful, she merely began frantically typing into the terminal, inputting multiple commands as she muttered to herself, and he managed to make out the same repeated sentences over and over again, "Not possible. Its simply not possible. It can't be. Fifty thousand years..."
"What is it Liara, talk to me?" Marcus asked, confused by her rapid fire denials. What's got her so worked up?
She seemed to ignore his question, turning towards him after inputting her final command, and he felt the wire beneath them shudder, but it began to move; something below was ascending. She turned back towards him, shock and denial still in her eyes, and it was worse than before, "I'm bringing up whatever's done there. We need to check to make sure the data's correct, but luckily for us, Cerberus was unable to extract it before we arrived and obviously are waiting for heavier equipment to extract-"
He grabbed both her shoulders, shaking her as he looked into her eyes, "Damn it Liara, what did they find!?"
She simply looked at him, and they heard a beep on the terminal, one Liara quickly turned to assess, but not before stating very simply, "Something that shouldn't even exist in our time period."
Marcus knew she wouldn't say anything else, and simply waited until she had brought up whatever was done there. A door in the middle of the platform slid away and the source of Liara's confusion and shock was presented before them; a pod, gleaming blue and grey, sealed up and the glass completely opaque. Everyone looked at it in confusion, and the pod's sudden appearence even peaked Kasumi's interest, who quickly got up and approached them. Even EDI seemed curious, looking down at it, and beginning her own omni-tool scans of the pod in sync with Liara's.
Liara seemed to reach the same conclusion as she had before, and seemed to take a step back, as if in awe, "So its true...that pod really does contain...oh by the goddess...after fifty thousand years..."
"Liara, you're going to tell us right now what is in that pod," Marcus growled, sick to the death of the secrecy and cryptic shit his asari friend was pulling, "Because if you brought up some ancient prothean time bomb for us to gawk at, I will personally pick it up and throw it at the nearest Cerberus asshole I can find." His voice was full of warning; he either got an answer or not.
She turned towards him, a half smile crossing her face, "I...Shepard, we've just made the greatest discovery in fifty thousand years. The pod...it contains..."
Finally composing herself, she forced the words from her mouth in rapidfire, but they all comprehended them well enough, "Shepard, the pod contains a prothean! A real, unmodified, unhuskified, living prothean!"
To say Liara's shock and awe had now spread like a contagion would be an understatement; Kasumi simply squealed in excitement, Garrus and Marcus went slack-jawed, EDI remained completely unamazed, and Keeling and James...well, they weren't even present.
"But...how?" was the first question out of Marcus' mouth, "A living prothean has been sitting under Eden Prime for fifty thousand years? Are you sure its not just a skeleton, or a ghost?"
"Shepard, my omni-tool detected his brain activity. Its still active at a subconscious level, which means he's dreaming. And yes, I confirmed its a male; protheans don't appear to be monogendered. Dreaming can only mean he's alive. How he's alive after fifty thousand years, you ask?" she walked over to the pod, a blue hand gliding over its glass surface, "Remember those stasis pods you talked about finding in the Archives on Ilos? The ones that were supposed to sustain them?"
"Cryo-pods. They put the protheans in cryo-sleep, and it was supposed to preserve them for fifty thousand years until they could awaken," Marcus recapped, confirming her assumption, "That's what was meant to happen, until Vigil started cutting power, and they all died."
"Exactly. But the prothean facility below still has power," she braced against the pod, overwhelmed by the potential of such a find, and he couldn't blame her. It seemed the archaelogist who was fascinated by protheans was finally coming out in their asari friend once more, "Which means his stasis was preserved, and he's still alive! I'm just glad we got here; such a find shouldn't fall into Cerberus hands."
And he's a living prothean! "That also means he could help with building this superweapon; he might know where the Catalyst is! Shit, he might even be able to provide us with prothean battle tactics to which to base ours off of and improve on," he turned to the pod with a sudden determination in his features, "Liara, we need to crack this pod open now. We need him awake and up to date."
Before he could think further on that, her eyes snapped up to his and shook her head, "No! The stasis is still in operation; if you forced open the pod now, the exposure would kill him!"
"We need him out of the damn pod, Liara. We need to know what he knows," Marcus growled, pointing at the pod, "So unless you know how to open the pod, we at a crossroads right now. We need this asset extracted and safe from Cerberus hands. The last thing we need is what could possibly be the last prothean alive being indoctrinated by a bunch of terrorist fuckwits lead by an insane leader."
"I have been working on locating a source for the stasis' power since you brought the pod to bear," EDI explained, and all of them turned towards her instantly, "Cerberus' science team knows that to unlock the stasis, you must have an understanding of the prothean language and mathematics. Since they lacked this, they looked for alternatives, and found two nodes which they hope would be emergency overrides for the stasis mode. They have them stored in two bunkers across from here, deep in the heart of the colony, where most of the Cerberus forces here seem to be based. They are currently attempting to hold off a renowned offensive by Eden Prime resistance members."
"If those nodes are the only way to unlock this pod, then we'd better get moving," he extended his rifle, nodding to Liara, "You stay here, and watch the pod. If Cerberus reinforcements arrive, you'll have Keeling and James watching your back. Garrus, Kasumi, EDI; you three are with me. We're going to find those nodes and override this damn stasis if its the last thing we do. We'll assist the resistance anyway we can, but I must make unlocking this pod a priority. Okay, let's double time it people."
"We're literally minutes away from making the greatest breakthrough in history. This one's for the books. So let's look like big fucking heroes while doing it."
{Loading...}
June 5, 2186
1626 hours.
Recreation Center, Main Colony, Colony New Hope, Eden Prime.
The Reaper War, Alliance Space Campaign: Liberation of Eden Prime.
Captain Marcus Lee Shepard, Master Thief Kasumi Goto, Military Advisor Garrus Vakarian, EDI.
The grenade was primed, and he quickly tossed it over his cover, relocating to another position as he did so. He heard the explosion, followed by the sound of shouting as he slid into cover next to EDI, mattock held firmly within his grasp. He peaked over his cover, risking a look at the location where his grenade had landed; now littered with lifeless corpses, either shredded by the shrapnel or the explosion. Fire pinged off his cover and he quickly ducked back behind the crate, turning back to his AI companion, "EDI, give me a ratio of how many we're facing."
"We are engaged in combat with a company of troops, captain, from what I can see visually," EDI observed, quickly popping out of cover to exchange fire with the enemy before ducking back down, "At most, we are facing eighty-two men in total; two more than a full company. Alliance companies consist of 150 men, but Cerberus companies consist of maximum 80. We're facing a full force here. It is likely that this company will only be a portion of the full battalion Cerberus will have defending this particular colonial site. Alliance battalions are 800 men, while Cerberus battalions are 300 men."
"A full battalion? If its only three hundred men, then we've put quite a sizable dent in them already. And we're facing eighty-two of them right now," Marcus grunted, hearing the lovable sound of a sniper rifle firing again, taking with it, hopefully, another Cerberus life. They were currently locked in a struggle with the Cerberus company, one EDI had indentified as the Cerberus 24th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Fourth Army Group, of which Cerberus had four all up. One army group split into four field armies. A field army was made up of four corps'. A corp was made up of two divisions. A division was made of five regiments. A regiment was made of seven battalions. A battalion was made of four companies. A company was made of six platoons. A platoon was made of two squads. A squad was made of four fireteams. And, of course, a fireteam consisted of three men. So that was alot of men; the Alliance still outnumbered them, but Cerberus still had a sizable force to compete with, and that wasn't even counting their navy.
The company before them packed so much firepower, that he had been eventually forced to call Liara, Keeling and James into the fray for backup; Liara leaving the pod hidden in a bunker concealed by crates. It wouldn't hide it forever, but it would long enough for them to find the nodes and override the stasis.
This company had almost everything packed with them; all they lacked was an Atlas, something Marcus was thankful they wouldn't have to fight again. Instead they seemed to have entire squads of assault troopers, with a centurion leading both squads, all six platoons, and one for the company; all up, that was nine centurions. The snipers Garrus had referred to, the ones they were now calling Nemesis', had taken up position at the first node bunker, enjoying the advantage of a wide open padio, which his team had to cross to reach the bunker, and the Nemesis' could just drop them from long range. Guardians held the flanks, securing every single doorway in each portable home, making flanking impossible. Every platoon seemed to have its own dragoon, and they were constantly being hammered by biotic attacks. Combat engineers had set up sentry turrets along the battlefield, riddling their positions with fire while they sat behind them, keeping their shields steady and making sure they weren't hacked, especially by Kasumi. They had learnt unbelievably fast, and Cerberus now had the upperhand over them, something they were enjoying very much.
Another sniper round, and the loud, familiar sound of lead hitting flesh could be heard, and it was answered by the equally terrifying Widow, followed by a turian curse, "Damn Nemesis' know where I am now; relocating."
He heard the sound of something rolling along the ground, and turning, he saw it was a smoke grenade; only centurions used those, and used them as a screening for a mass infantry assault. He grabbed EDI's arm and pulled her inside the portable home, before going prone and sighting down his scope, waiting for the enemy to charge forward.
And they did; an entire squad in fact. They assaulted their previous position, but Marcus was ready, and aimed straight for the centurion, his weapon barking as he thumbed the trigger repeatedly. Shields were chewed up, and soon the centurion found himself dead on the ground, riddled with bullets. But the squad learned quickly, and all 12 assault troopers seemed to switch rotation, turning fully to face him and all opened fire with their assortment of avenger and vindicator rifles. His shields quickly depleted, and he rolled out of the way, cursing as a stray round lodged itself deep into his barrel, ruining the weapon. Cursing his bad luck, he dumped the heavy rifle and unholstered his Hurricane SMG, aiming directly at the doorway as EDI deployed her hologram, and then both made their escape as Cerberus flooded through.
"Our position has been compromised!" Marcus shouted into his comms, "We need suppressive fire on the right flank; coming through! We have an entire squad! Repeat, 12 plus hostiles, all standard troopers."
"Copy that, ready to light 'em up," James affirmed, and Marcus rolled through the doorway as a shot clipped his side, growling at the pain that suddenly shot up his back. EDI suffered a shot to her own back, but due to her reinforced armor, it made no difference and she quickly helped her captain up, retreating to a safe position just as James arrived, Revenant raised and trigger pulled, a stream of heavy incendiary rounds pounding through the hallway.
"Its like playing ponyata!" James exclaimed as they watched numerous bodies drop from the stream of fire, the Cerberus squad beginning to retreat. They continued to fire at James, but when it became clear their efforts would be moot, they began to fall back, leaving them at half strength. Not that it mattered; they had a full company left to reinforce them, and his team were gaining no ground.
Reloading, James turned back to Marcus, who finished applying medi-gel to his gunshot wound, "You okay, loco?"
Looking up from his finished work, he nodded, gritting his teeth through the pain, as N7 had drilled into him back at boot camp. He remembered his drill sergeant's words clean as day. If you can't even take a fuckin bullet, how the fuck do you expect to kill anything? Man the fuck up, slap some bloody gel on it, and get back in the fucking fight. A pussy who lies down groaning in agony isn't an N7, and he definitely ain't a soldier; we expect the best of the best from you. You want the turians to laugh at us? You want the asari to mock us? Do you want the salarians to think you weaklings? Show them what the fuck humans are made up of; show them we don't give a fuck about their slimy opinions, and that we shall show them how much we love our beloved Corps. You were marines yesterday, but today you are an N7. You are the best of the best, and I shall make sure you live up to status. Drop your purses and welcome to hell. N7 Drill had been hell, and Marcus had survived it, and even now, he just grinned as he met James' eyes, despite the desperate situation.
"If I can't take a bullet Vega, I don't know I managed to kill so many Collectors, Geth, Reapers and Cerberus. Maybe I really do owe it all to Garrus," he joked, "Its just a flesh wound; I'll walk it off. But it could get worse if Cerberus keeps us pinned like this. We need a game changer, and we need it now."
"I'm all ears loco," James replied, shrugging as he wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead, "But I ain't seeing anything that could possibly bring us out of this unbloodied. Cerberus has all their flanks secured, and the path directly ahead is a killing field; snipers and turrets and everything. We'd be totally fucked if we tried a frontal."
"You're not telling me anything I don't already know," the spectre replied, "I need options, not bloody recounts," he growled his last sentence, unable to keep the frustration out of his voice. In a lighter voice, he turned to EDI and sighed, comming Keeling, "Lieutenant, you better have some good news for me, because its all bad on this end."
"Share the festivities," she dryly exchanged, the sound of gunfire almost overpowering her voice, "We're being hammered from all sides, and these bloody dragoons are really starting to piss me off. Its like wack-a-hole; go to take a peek at the enemy, and the next thing you're doing is dodging biotic whips just to make sure they don't behead you. Liara's holding them off, but that won't last. I need them gone; or this pressure's just going to cave us."
"We'll see what we can do on this end. Shepard out," cutting the line, he slammed his fist against the crate, cursing, "Damn it! If Tali were here, she'd have those turrets tearing them a new one by now. Grunt would be beating those guardians to death with their own shields, and Wrex would be smashing those Nemesis' skulls in. And Jack? That biotic powerhouse would have cleaned these bastards up all by herself. What about Legion? I'd like to see those Nemesis' play 'whose the best sniper' with him. Nothing beats geth precision."
"The old squad was the best we had. A bloody rolling death machine. Our own personal blitzkrieg," he sighed heavily, shaking his head, "This squad isn't nearly the same. No offense James, but I don't even know you or Keeling fully. EDI having a body is a new thing for me, and I haven't had Liara properly under my command for three years. That leaves just Garrus and Kasumi, and that isn't a cohesive fighting force."
"Not much can be done about that," James stated, oblivious that he was stating the obvious.
"No fucking shit!" Marcus snapped back, "And the problem is that while I'm sitting here, gloating about a superior team that isn't even a team anymore, Keeling, Liara and Kasumi are getting absolutely decimated! I need a plan, now! Something that involves a bloody miracle, because I can think of nothing for it but a frontal attack towards Keeling's position. We need to force them back so we can regroup and coordinate. 'United We Stand, Divided We Fall.'"
"I may have just found your miracle Marcus," Garrus called out over the comm, "By the spirits...and well timed too. Its like they heard the word 'miracles,' looked at their script, and realized it was their moment to shine."
"I don't need witty remarks, Garrus," Marcus growled, "Just give it to me plain."
"Seems the Eden Prime resistance has regrouped and is launching a counterattack. I was going to snipe those two Nemesis' over by the bunker, but they just came out of nowhere, at least platoon sized, and just attacked them out of nowhere. They're both dead now, and Cerberus is going to have to split their attention to deal with the rear flanking movement. And if we're lucky-" a moment passed, followed by a chuckle of victory, "Marcus, I recommend you hit the left flank with everything you have because you've got a limited opening. They've repositioned their guardians to deal with the threat and have left their flank totally exposed. You need to push forward now before they close it again."
"Copy that!" Marcus growled back, leaping up and practically sprinting towards the bunker that had originally been occupied by three guardians before, "Move people! We need to get through that door NOW!"
They practically rushed through, and before the guardian could realize what was happening, Marcus slammed his omni-blade in the space of his back, twisting the blade before ripping it out, lifting up the shield with one hand and approaching the other two guardians, deflecting their shots. This allowed time for James to arrive and he simply charged up, ramming his LMG into the slits of their shields and going full auto, likely reducing their heads to unrecognizable mush. With the trio dead, Marcus dropped the commandeered shield, activated his omni-shield, and charged forward, hitting the Cerberus left flank.
It was bloody chaos; Garrus, coordinating with Keeling, managed to loosen their pressure on their position, allowing them a fighting retreat. The retreat soon became a flanking however when Cerberus realized their left was disintegrated, and sent their guardians to plug the gap, obliviously making the same mistake before, and allowing Keeling, Liara and Kasumi to swing around the right and cripple their flank. With Garrus sniping them, team two hitting the right, team one hitting the left, and the colonists crushing the rear, the company was trapped and had nowhere to go. Victory was certain upon the left collapsing.
Marcus kicked the last assault trooper off of his omni-blade, blood sizzling and popping on the orange energy of the blade, and dripping to the ground in boiled drops. Deactivating it, he turned to survey the battlefield. What had been a certain Cerberus victory had quickly turned into a complete rout, and eventually total decimation of the company; Cerberus did not surrender, and fought to the last man, the mindless creatures they had been engineered into. The dragoons took some trouble to take down, but they eventually, and the rest of the company fell with it. As it stood now, the entire area was just littered with corpses, black blood and red running through the grass, as some colonists had fallen in the counterattack as well. It was a bloodbath.
It is good that war is so terrible, lest we grow fond of it. Could have used a man like General Lee right now; he'd know what to do. Although he'd probably wonder what a Mako was. Or what all these aliens were. Marcus laughed inwardly at that, and then regrouped with his squad, approaching what appeared to be the leader of the colonists, a man named Reginald Wheatley.
"Sir," Marcus respectively greeted, taking the prooffered hand and shaking it firmly, "Your arrival was timely. We wouldn't have been able to hold out much longer."
"All we had to do was follow the gunfire," Reginald remarked, smiling lightly, "Although I am confused at just who you are. I see two soldiers in Alliance colors, so we initially suspected Alliance forces. But now we an asari, a turian, a hooded woman and then you? Just who and what are you?"
"Captain Marcus Shepard," he introduced, clasping his hands behind his back, "Alliance Marine Corps, established N7, Alliance Navy and member of the Special Tactics and Recon branch of the Citadel. My two colleagues are indeed marines, but the rest are my friends and comrades. They helped me stop the geth three years ago, the Collector abductions a year ago, and are now helping me put a stop to Cerberus terrorism and Reaper subjugation across the galaxy. I hope you don't mind our intrusion."
"Galactic Society Saving Service," Garrus muttered to Liara, "Saving people since 2183." The asari giggled, smiling with a nod of agreement.
"We remember you. I remember you," Reginald stated, suddenly in awe of the man before him, "You were part of that Alliance team that landed in Colony Euphoria during the geth attack. I should know; I was there. I saw you; although you were a much different man back then."
Am I really so popular that I must constantly be running into people I know or have seen me? Is the galaxy getting smaller or something? He nodded, smiling warmly, "I did everything I could to save the colony then Mr. Wheatley, and I will do everything I can to kick some Cerberus ass, but my priority must be to secure that prothean pod from the ExoGeni site."
"There's always another motive," one colonist shouted, "Its never about us!" His objections were almost identical to that of Arcelia Silva Martinez, a rent-a-cop he met on Feros during the old days.
Reginald turned to him, silencing the crowd with a single glare before turning back to Marcus, sighing, "I apologize, most colonists, as you know, aren't very big friends of the Alliance; not since the abductions. I just find it ironic; the very people who had been protecting and fighting for us then are now the ones occupying our land and butchering our people. But at least it isn't abduction. But just what could that prothean pod be to be of any value? ExoGeni were digging it up until Cerberus came along, and then the bastards came along and continued it. What's so damned important about it? First Euphoria with its damned beacon, and now this?"
Best to give them the full story. No need to sugar coat it. "The pod seems to contain a living prothean, frozen in some kind of stasis mode for fifty thousand years. We did not know this until we dug it up, and neither did Cerberus; we both assumed prothean technology was part of the rush to dig it up. We were wrong. This is far more valuable," he stated, continuing despite their looks of disbelief and skepticism, "If he's awoken, not only could he fill the historical gap that fifty thousand years has left, but he could also provide us vital intel on his people's war with the Reapers and how they were defeated. He could win the war for us, and all we have to do is wake him up."
"Then why don't you?" Reginald asked, seemingly finding the answer obvious.
"Because it isn't that simple," Liara declared, all eyes moving to her, "The stasis mode is still active, and if we opened the pod, it would kill him due to the exposure; the thaw has to be done slowly and methodically, not instantaneously. Cerberus found two nodes that can override it."
"That's the reason we were fighting this company," Marcus added, pointing to the bunker they had been defending, "One is in there."
They all looked at it, and continued doing so even as Reginald turned back, slowly nodding, "Very well. But we must ask one thing; what is the Alliance doing to liberate us?"
"Nothing. The Alliance can't afford any fleet action or marines, especially this close to Reaper territory, and with their state after the Fall of Earth, they're in no position to engage Cerberus in open battle. We're it."
"Forgotten about," the same colonist stated again, "Just like Feros. Just like all the colonies the Collectors abducted! They were ignored and abandoned, and now we're being abandoned to."
"But that doesn't mean I won't liberate this colony," Marcus declared, suddenly remembering that he had an army.
"What?" Reginald laughed, "Just you lot? I don't care how much of a invincible hero they make you out to be, but this colony is occupied by just one battalion, and that's not counting the two regiments occupying the planet, and the fleet above us. Hell, we have a destroyer hovering right over us. Unless you have an army, this colony is staying Cerberus."
"Oh, but I do. Its not, but I can change that," Marcus declared, smiling, "I recently managed to recruit the entire Blue Suns, Eclipse and Blood Pack organizations, and the Queen of Omega controls all of them, waiting for my command. What if I told you, that with one communique, I could have them deploying in full force to kick out the Cerberus invaders?"
Reginald narrowed his eyes skeptically, "Ignoring the fact that these are mercenaries we're talking about, what about the fleet above?"
"A distraction. As the tactical commander, you'll leave that up to me, but trust me, we'll find a way to drive them from orbit to engage a threat they can't ignore, and my frigate will cripple the destroyer, only our forces to deploy and retake the planet. When Cerberus' fleet returns, they'll have two Alliance fleets waiting for them, and will have no choice but to pull out."
Reginald hesitantly nodded, "Very well, captain. Unlike the Alliance, you didn't abandon the colonies; you were out there, saving us. You're a trustworthy man, and we're going to trust you on this. We can only hope that you deliver."
"Your trust is well placed, Mr. Wheatley," he turned and began to approach the bunker, motioning Kasumi ahead to hack it while the colonists take up defensive positions around the area to ward off any Cerberus attempts to retake lost ground. Marcus all the while marched the steps, Kasumi already hacking the lock by the time he reached the top, Liara quickly at his side and Garrus, Keeling, James and EDI forming up behind them.
"This encryption is pretty lame when you don't have a combat engineer constantly changing the frequencies and patterns," the thief mused verbally, tapping a button on her omni-tool that immediately caused the haptic interface to flash and for the door to slide open, revealing its interior. Turning to them, she bowed in an overly dramatic manner, grinning all the way, "Welcome to the Mad Scientist's lab; were undoubtably weird stuff is guaranteed to find a home."
Marcus moved in first, scouring the small room for any signs of resistance; there was nothing, no life. Holstering his rifle, a mattock he had taken from a dead centurion, he examined the room; it was a box shape, and had numerous consoles around it, obviously portable ones brought by the Cerberus science team. Upon further investigation, they found the node; it stood out like a sore thumb, the smooth, sleek, blue and green design of it standing out amongst the imperialistic design of human terminals. It hummed with energy, pulsing blue every five seconds, and looked completely exposed. A large vidscreen hung above, only static barring its display; upon further observation, they could see the screen hooked up to the node.
"Obviously Cerberus tried to access the node and understand it," Liara noted.
"Static was their answer," Garrus concluded.
"Its only because they couldn't understand the prothean language," Liara retorted, accessing the terminals to see what data they collected, "They extracted data from it, what appears to be...biological...mental...data, but couldn't comprehend any of it because its in prothean."
"But none of us can rea-" Garrus then stopped himself, eyes falling upon the back of Marcus' head, "Actually, scratch that. There is one person in the room who can read prothean."
Marcus nodded, looking at Liara, "Remember the cipher back on Feros, Liara? The one Shiala gave me? Remember how it gave me complete understanding of how to be prothean, and how to speak and understand their language? I'm the only one who can make sense of this data."
"You're right," Liara stated, standing away from the terminal, motioning to the node, "Then by all means, Shepard, process the data. Tell us what it means."
"Uh...how?" Marcus asked, rubbing the back of his neck and feeling a bit dense.
She rolled her eyes, motioning again to the node, "Simply touch it. All prothean technology seems to be hardwired around touch."
He nodded, and slowly moving forward, eying the small device. It reminded him of a smaller version of Object Rho, and that was not a fond memory. But he pushed the thoughts away, knowing that to find the override, he had to sift through the data to find it. So he hesitantly reached a hand out, first removing his armoured gauntlet and then the glove beneath, before letting his skin touch it, and his whole hand press against it.
In that instant, he blacked out, and for a few moments, it was the beacon visions all over again. But this was slightly different; slightly less epilepsy inducing, and more sturdy, more structured and less random. He heard screaming, and he saw what looked to be the head of a prothean, jaw opened wide in a perputual scream frozen in time. A Reaper airhorn sounded, and the image seemed to still itself, showing an image of a dense forest, a Reaper Destroyer marching across it, red beam of death cutting swaths right through the forestry, likely killing dozens of protheans below, a prothean city itself standing tall in the distance, skyscrapers glimmering as fire consumed them. And as quickly as the image presented itself, it was gone, more screaming, being heard, and then once more, darkness consumed him.
Suddenly, he was awake, but he was not back in the bunker; he was in some vast, underground facility; the ceiling was a dozen meters above him, and large observation windows to his right showed a city on fire, Reapers trudging along it, spreading death as they moved, fighters engaging them and exploding in the sky. Smoke engulfed the sky, choking the planet in death, and screaming echoed throughout the plains. The interior was dim and yellow in color, but that was pretty much all he could make out of it. But what caught his eye was the city outside itself. It was prothean. Just where the hell am I?
Fire crackled all around him, and he found himself slowly moving back as shapes moved towards him and somehow, he knew exactly who they were. Nakar. Pilat. Traka. Aelus. Culet. They were his troops, his men, and somehow he knew who they were, without even meeting them. They were prothean soldiers, running towards him in a retreating fashion, and suddenly Marcus found himself wielding an unusual weapon, a rifle he presumed; it was long, elongated, sleek and had the typical blue and green design of prothean architecture. He raised it, a three-fingered hand gripping it as other figures came around the bend, more numerous than the others, and at least company sized; and when they came into range, this time, Marcus did know who they were.
The Collectors.
The weapon gave a thrum, and and a steady pulse of green light, much like that of the Collector Particle Beam, shot out from its barrel, impacting a Collector drone squarely in the chest and killing it instantly. He timed his shots; taking aim and taking down each Collector with precision, but eventually the enemy force became too great, and he had to start falling back. One Collector, a captain, raised another type of odd weapon, and fired, and it gave the same sound of a Collector Assault Rifle, although it sounded nothing like it; bullets of high velocity hitting Aelus in the back of the knee, and causing him to fall forwards, his weapon, one that he instantly recognized as a prothean particle rifle, of the same type he was currently wielding, sliding from his grip as the captain finished him off.
He lowered his weapon, and his hand shot forward, biotics shooting forth as he grabbed the Collector and tossed it aside; unlike most biotics however, this prothean's biotics were bright green. He continued his assault, and both three-fingered hands shot forth this time, unleashing a green biotic tidal wave that knocked the entire Collector horde pathetically aside, along with a few other types of husks of species he recognized once more; Densorin. Wait, what the fuck is a Densorin? How do I know t-Then it hit him. Liara's words.
...what appears to be...biological...mental...data...
Mental data. This is a memory.
His men formed up behind him, helping him continue the defense as the Collectors and huskified Densorin pushed their attack, seeming to come in unstoppable hordes. A particle rifle fired from within the horde, hitting Nakar square in the shoulder, causing him to cry out as it seemed to ignore his kinetic barriers, and he fell onto his back, stunned from the attack. Marcus heard the man's thoughts, and he knew the battle was lost, so he launched another biotic shockwave at the closing enemy, opening what looked to be the prothean equivalent of an omni-tool, and watching as the holographic form of another prothean, the hologram being bright green, appeared before him. Just like all the other prothean soldiers, Marcus noted, they all seemed to wear somekind of sumarai type armor; bright crimson armor that covered their entire body save for their head and everything below the knees. They looked exactly like Collectors, but with multicolored skin; their head crest was grey, while their face was the same color as humans, and seemed to have canine teeth, six eyes, and a small, almost non-existent nose. Combine that with their triangle-shaped head, and the protheans were a very unique race indeed.
When he spoke, it was an air of authority, and Marcus guessed the man who's memory he was witnessing was the commanding officer of this unit. When he spoke, it came off as having a very thick jamaican accent, and it surprised him heavily, "Victory, seal the doors!"
"Acknowledged," the holographic prothean, which was obviously a VI, named Victory responded, this one's accent sounding more along the lines of a cross between German and/or Russian, "Sealing the doors. You have ten seconds to get inside." Then the sound of metal moving could be heard, and Victory winked out of existence, allowing him to kneel down and grab hold of his wounded comrade, his squad providing covering fire as he dragged him behind the closing blast doors. He watched the Collectors reach the door just as it sealed shut, the prothean commander taking a deep breath, as he whorled to face his squad. Then his eyes seemed to glare past them, right at the destruction behind them; flames licking at the massive corridor.
He seemed to frown, as if in vehemence, before beginning to pace, speaking as he did, "How many have we lost?"
Victory appeared out of nowhere, hands clasped behind his back as he eyed the commander, "Reaper forces have destroyed approximately three hundred thousand lifepods."
He whorled back to face the VI, and moved in his face, anger and fury in his voice, "A quarter of OUR PEOPLE!?" after a moment, he calmed down, turning around, shaking his head, "How am I meant to retake the galaxy in fifty thousand years if we can't even get a million soldiers into stasis without dying?"
"The Reapers will continue to advance. We must persist," Victory insisted, "For the Empire."
"For the Empire," the commander seemed to return, and then suddenly an explosion rocked the facility, the prothean turning towards it, not even needing to know what caused it, "Where?"
"Portside bulkhead, northern side," Victory responded, winking out.
"Then all forces advance to the North!" he shouted, beginning to sprint at full, brandishing his particle rifle once more, "This base cannot fall!" And then all went black once more, and Marcus felt himself returning to the world of the modern times.
As if waking from a deep slumber, his eyes shot open, finding himself back inside the bunker. He found Liara and Garrus crouched next to him, obviously startled by his sudden awakening and the rest of his squad lingering nearby.
"Shepard, you're awake!" Liara exclaimed, "You did it. Don't know how, but the node made a loud beeping sound before saying something in prothean. I guess that means it worked."
"I saw it Liara. I saw them," Marcus explained, "The data wasn't just biological information, it was a memory, and the cipher allowed me to see it. I saw them fifty thousand years ago, during their fight with the Reapers. I saw the weapons they used, what they fought...how they were losing. The technology Liara...it was definitely superior to what we have. But I also saw the Collectors. They were fighting the Collectors."
"You saw the protheans during their war with the Reapers?" Garrus asked, fascinated, "What was it like?"
"What you'd expect," Marcus glumly stated, sighing heavily, "Completely hopeless."
They continued to the next node in the next bunker, and once again he found himself in the boots of the unnamed prothean commander. But unlike before, he was jump started into the hectic chaos of combat. Now was calm; the distant sounds of combat, destruction being unleashed by the full power of the Reapers nearby, and what Marcus swore had been the distant voice of Harbinger. He watched as he walked across the empty corridor, one of his men at his side, weapon holstered on his back and the rest of his squad waiting ahead. Without warning, the man next to him spoke.
"I never thought the Empire would fall," the prothean stated hopelessly.
He stopped, and suddenly wheeled on him, slapping him across the face. The prothean held his cheek, and the commander seemed to scold him, calmly, none of the anger he had before showing out, "It won't," he motioned to the facility around him, and Marcus suddenly realized it looked alot like the Archives on Ilos. This is the facility we just dug the pod out of.
"We will sleep here until the Reapers return to dark space," he told him, hand gripping his shoulder, the soldier suddenly forgetting that his commander had slapped him, "And then we will rise again, a million strong. And then we will prepare the next cycle; the Empire will be reborn."
"For the Empire," the soldier chanted.
"For the Empire," the commander returned once more, and they turned towards 12 opened pods; all of them waiting for their occupants. He turned towards the soldier next to him, "Go and get into your pod; within minutes, you will wake up again, in a world free of the Reapers," he patted his shoulder, and the soldier was quickly jogging off, the commander not joining them for some reason as he made to move away, Victory appearing at his side again, "Victory, broadcast the stasis readiness signal to all lifepods once they are safely stored away, and not before."
"And what of the refugees who have not yet reached the bunker?" Victory pondered, and the commander seemed to stop and ponder these words. With regret, he looked back up at the hologram and sighed.
"Their sacrifice will be remembered in the rebirth of the Empire," the commander simply stated.
Wow, these protheans really loved 'the Empire.'
Suddenly, another explosion rocked the base, and they both turned to watch as Collectors charged inside and charged at him again. He readied his particle rifle, anger crossing his features. Victory disappeared, and so did Marcus view of the memory as it began to fade away once more, and the darkness finally took hold.
After waking up, he was informed that both nodes had deactivated, and Liara's readings of the pod showed that the stasis had been overriden and they could now open the pod. So without further delay, they had made best speed back to where they had kept the pod, moving into the portable where it had been stored. The colonists gathered around the strange object, and were still watching even as Marcus stood next to the pod, Liara typing in the commands into the pod to open it.
Everyone took a step as a hiss escaped the pod, hatch decompressing as it slowly opened, revealing its occupant. Everyone leaned over to get a closer look, but only Marcus got a clear view of the prothean below him, lying down. The prothean was not yet awake; eyes still closed and in a deep slumber. He wore the crimson red sumarai armor that Marcus had seen the other soldiers wearing, and had three-fingered hands and three-toed feet. Will there ever be a species that has five-fingers and toes like the asari and humanity? Why is it always three-fingers? He had six eyes and, just like in the memory, was the perfect image of a Collector before its transformation into the abomination that it was. Then, they heard the man take a deep breath, and every step another step back, all except Marcus, who remained standing firm, hands clasped behind his back.
For the first time in fifty thousand years, a prothean was waking up.
Liara moved closer, and gasped, eyes widened in awe as she looked at the object of her passion of her archaelogy, "Goddess..."
After a moment, he did not move. But after a few more seconds, Marcus noticed one of his fingers twitch, followed by a shuffle of one of his feet; he was regaining consciousness. His mouth twitched, momentarily baring his canine teeth, before his lips spread in a grimace; or what they took for a grimace, anyway. And then, like something from a movie, everything had twitched, ending with his eyes opening, one by one.
It took some time, he imagined, for his vision to gain focus, and he took a look around. His eyes scanned the room...and then landed on them. He did not say anything, he merely stayed frozen, looking at them as if they were some kind of weird alien monsters. Strictly speaking, we should be alien to him. The asari hadn't even achieved spaceflight when the protheans roamed the galaxy. As the prothean stared at him, Marcus also noticed his eyes; instead of the milky white of the eye, these were golden yellow, and their irises were two black dots merged together horizontally, giving him a very alien-like appearance.
Then after a second, the strings that held the tense silence were cut, and the prothean frowned at them, before brimming with green biotic light.
Before anything could be said, the prothean launched a small shockwave in their direction, sending his entire squad collapsing onto the ground. The colonists seemed to tense, but Marcus held his hands up, telling them not to do anything, "Do not shoot or harm him!"
The prothean, grunting, weakly got up from his pod, and stood one leg after another onto the other side. His legs wobbly from his long stasis period, he fell onto all fours, shaking his head to relieve himself of the sensation he felt. He stood again, and this time moved towards the portable doors, moving back and forth like some had drunken too much.
"Let him through!" Marcus ordered, and the colonists parted, watching as the prothean passed through the open doorway and practically bolted outside. Marcus, having recovered from the ancient commander's meek biotic strike, got to his feet and sprinted in pursuit of the soldier, Liara quickly behind him, followed by the rest of the team, the asari shouting at him.
"Be careful! He's confused! Fifty thousand years of stasis; he hasn't experienced our cycle! Everything around him, including us, will be completely alien to him! He might react hostilely."
Marcus nodded, and arrived in the doorway to a odd sight; the prothean commander, particle rifle in hand, something he apparently hadn't seen previously, stood stoicly in the middle of the field, staring blankly at Eden Prime's background. He seemed completely awe...and in complete confusion.
The prothean stared meekly at the area around him as Marcus quickly, and quietly, approached from behind, his squad staying put, except for Liara. Confident the prothean wouldn't understand her, she spoke, "Remember, its been fifty thousand years for us..." Marcus arrived behind him, reaching out his hand to touch the man's shoulder to urge him to turn around.
"...but for him, its only been..."
"...a few minutes!"
Suddenly, Marcus was shoved back into the memories of the prothean commander, the one he now identified as the one in the pod, shouting the words into the face of Victory, more flames licking at the structure all around them as the VI looked stoicly back at him, hands clasped behind his back in his usual fashion.
"There is no other option," an explosion rocked the facilty again, debris falling from the ceiling above them, "The bunker is falling. You must get to your pod."
The commander was having none of it, waving his hand in the VI's face, "There are pods online! Those soldiers are still alive!"
As if echoing his previous words on purpose, the VI merely responded calmly, "Their sacrifice will be remembered in the rebirth of the Empire."
The commander snarled at the VI, but knew he was right. Sighing, he nodded his head, holstering his particle rifle on his back, shaking his head at the dead bodies surrounding them; Collector and Prothean alike. Marcus, suddenly comprehending it fully, was watching the total destruction of the prothean species.
Victory spoke once more, "General Amarak has confirmed last stand strategy," the VI recited, "Preparing neutron bombardment. All surviving troops are ordered to get into their lifepods immediately."
Snarling, he nodded, rushing over the open pod that lay waiting for him. As he did, he spoke, "How many soldiers survived?"
"Around four hundred thousand," Victory declared, "All of them within their pods."
He merely grumbled to himself, opening his pod and laying down in it, "How am I meant to retake the galaxy with only a quarter of our planned forces left..." he shook his head, watching as the pod began to recede into the wall with the other pods, hatch closing and hissing with compression.
"Beginning neutron bombardment."
He closed his eyes as the pod shook violently, shaking with the facility's decimation and purging, and opened them moments later as the shaking stopped, as if having survived an earthquake.
"Neutron bombardment completed...Commander Javik. The facility is secured."
"What's left of it," the prothean named Javik retorted angrily.
"Further adjustments may be necessary," Victory declared, "The purge compromised the facility."
Frowning, Javik spoke, "Clarify."
"Sensors are damaged," the VI explained, "Automated reactivation is not an option. You will remain within stasis until a new culture discovers this bunker. This may lead to a power shortage, due to the length of the Reaper campaign, and the evolution of the primitives in this galaxy."
Primitives? Gee, thanks.
Javik seemed to get angry at this, and growled once more, "Do NOT shut off more pods! I need the few that are left!"
"Power needs will be triaged appropriately," Victory responded, and this seemed to calm Javik down, as he immediately lay back down, relaxing his stance, "You will be the voice of our people." A hiss could be heard as the stasis began, and Javik began to fall asleep, but not before mouthing his final words for fifty thousand years.
"I will be more than that."
And then, just like the rest of the memories, Marcus was flashed back to the present, but this time it wasn't him who stumbled and fell to the ground, but the prothean he now knew as Javik, falling to his hands and knees once more as he recovered from the memory flood, his particle rifle falling to the ground, unneeded. Marcus, surprised, simply let his hand flop back to his side. Liara spoke, voice full of worry.
"Shepard, are you alright?"
"I'm fine Liara," he responded, halting her approach by raising his hand, "But I don't think Javik is."
"Javik?" Liara asked, confused, "How do you know his name?"
"When I touched him, I saw his memory of his final moments before entering the pod. I heard his name mentioned. He was a commander, like me," Marcus explained.
"Amazing," the asari merely observed, fascinated by this.
Suddenly, Javik spoke, "Izk oap italq pek?"
Why can't I understand him? I have the cipher. Then he remembered his translator in his omni-tool, and accessed the tool responsible and disabled it, turning back to Javik, "Could you say that again?"
This time, he understood him perfectly, "I said, how many are left?"
Marcus looked at him with pity, shaking his head, "As far as we know, just you."
"Taaza qu pe ja lo?" Liara questioned, and Marcus sighed, trying to rub his temples, but realizing his helmet was off and quickly removed it, clasping it under one arm as he turned back to Javik.
"You can understand me?" Marcus asked. Javik didn't seem all that distressed by his loss, but simply lay there, crouched, looking at Eden Prime's landscape.
"Yes," the prothean responded, before feeling the need to explain himself, "Now that I've read your physiology, your nervous system. I've read enough to understand your language."
Marcus turned to Liara and Garrus, both speaking in their alien tongues, his translator disabled and no longer able to translate what they were saying and motioned to his omni-tool, showing them his translator was disabled. Both of them nodded, and remained silent, as Marcus turned back to Javik, gulping as he asked, "So...you somehow were reading me, while I was seeing..."
The prothean nodded, coming to stand, this time more fluidly, as he now got over his original grogginess, "Our last moments. Our failure."
Sick of looking at the prothean's back, Marcus moved to stand next to Javik, who immediately moved his head to look at him, six eyes glued to his two, "Your people did everything they could. They never gave up, never stopped fighting. And that's the kind of fire I could use right now. You know what the Reapers are."
Javik nodded, conceding, "I was supposed to come back to raise back the greatness of my people's Empire, but that is now longer a possibility. My people are gone, and I am all that's left. And my mission has failed anyway; we were to be reborn before the Reaper's return, so as to facilitate preparation for their coming. Now they are here, and you are no more prepared."
Cortez's voice suddenly came through the comm, "Captain, whatever you did down there got Cerberus interested; all their forces within the colony are converging on your position, and that destroyer knows you're here."
Marcus nodded, telling Cortez to return to the Normandy. He looked up to talk to Javik, only to see the prothean looking at his squad, shaking his head, "First I see a human, now I see three, a turian, and an asari," he seemed to look disgusted, hell, even shocked, "I'm surrounded by primitives."
Ignoring that little jab, Marcus turned back to Javik, "Its not safe here, and we have Cerberus forces narrowing down on us. Will you join us?"
"What is this Cerberus you speak of?" Javik asked, "Is it your name for the Reapers in this cycle?"
"No, they are a pro-human terrorist organization that recently became militarized, and we believe is indoctrinated by the Reapers."
"Ah," Javik seemed to acknowledge, as if familiar with the term, "Your cycle has them as well. Every cycle has a treacherous splinter faction of separatists that are indoctrinated. Ours was the Yuala Tor. They betrayed us and fought against us in civil war. The Reapers used them to weaken us and divide us, much as they are likely doing with your Cerberus," he shook his head, nodding, "Yes, these Cerberus seem to be nothing but puppets of the Reapers. You fight them, yes?"
"For three years, we have been," Marcus replied.
Javik nodded, apparently satisfied as he leaned down and picked up his particle rifle, brandishing it, "Then we will see if this cycle is worth fighting for, or if it is already doomed, just like those before it."
Marcus held out his hand for the man to shake, but he simply looked at it, shook his head, and then walked away, sighing heavily. Soon, however, he stopped, turning back to Marcus and moving over to him, removing his omni-tool and accessing it. Before Marcus knew what he was doing, he gave him back his omni-tool, "Send this upgrade to your asari and turian, along with your soldiers."
"What is it?"
"An upgrade to your primitive translation software," he declared, "If you were prothean, all I would have to do is touch you, and you would understand everything; that is how we taught our children. We had no need of your 'schools.' However, since I must refrain to using your technology, this translation software is upgraded so that they may understand me. Unit cohesion would falter if one could not understand commands."
Marcus glared at him, his voice a warning, "I am in command here, Javik. You may have been a Commander fifty thousand years ago, but right here and now, I command this unit, and I will not have you undermining that authority."
"As a Prothean, I respect authority," Javik growled, turning to walk away, "But you have yet to have shown me that you have earned it, and therefore, I will only follow your commands, and hope you are the fighter this cycle is asking for. For when we exchanged thoughts, I saw some of your personality. I saw who you are. You have fire, this cycle needs that. People think you are the last hope for this cycle; let's hope you are right," and with that, Javik was gone, moving to join his squad. Shaking his head, he merely pushed ahead, and linked up with his team, who all looked at their odd new squad member.
"Javik is a part of this squad now," he announced, "And together, we're going to kick Cerberus out of this colony."
"Keelah. A living prothean. Its quite a shock."
- Tali'Shepard pav Rannoch.
"You found a living prothean? I find that hard to believe."
- Reia'Inas pav Earth.
"You'd believe it if you were there. He was real, and boy did he enlighten us on many things. First things first, he showed us that our views of a great, moralistic and chivalristic Prothean people were completely loaded with shit. In the end, he showed us that the Prothean Empire was the exact opposite; it was bordering on fascist, was overly militaristic, highly imperialistic, cunning, and overbodingly condescending. And if it wasn't that that annoyed you, then being called a primitive or 'human' every five minutes didn't help either."
- Marcus Shepard.
A/N:
Holy shit, this was longer than expected. Aren't you happy this is TWO parts, and not one! That would have been hell to write, upload and read!
Anyway, Part 2 will be up later, hopefully. But with my holidays coming to an end, it isn't likely to be soon, more like later. As you already know, Part 2 will be the retake of Eden Prime; you wanted your war assets used, well, this is just a taste of what I'll be doing with them. I never believed Shepard would just gain these assets and then they'd sit on their ass for the rest of the game until needed at the end; this is a war, and your forces are always constantly fighting. Which means they don't sit on their ass; they participate. Which means we get to see Marcus leading legions of Blue Suns, Eclipse and Blood Pack into battle. Sound cool? Fuck yeah! I can't wait to get writing it!
Next Chapter's contents:
1. The Battle for Eden Prime: Javik, Blue Suns, Eclipse and Blood Pack combat, along with some Aria and her mercs. There will be snippets from the orbital battle between the Alliance and Cerberus as well, if I can fit them in.
2. Conversation with Javik. Conversations with Cortez, Samantha, Keeling and James (if I can fit them in! If not, next chapter!)
Until next time! (Where are you!? I got ONE review last chapter! Come on guys, if you're reading this, review! Live me some feedback! I need to know I'm appreciated!)
Keelah Se'lai, troopers!
