Micro Effect #11: Loyalty 101: The Krogan
Author: Ignorant One
Length: 2710 Words
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Mass Effect or Mass Effect 2, except for the plot points in my original material. I don't own anything else.
Authors Note: Alright everyone! Special thanks to a lot of people here! I'm going to start categorizing the mentions here so people don't skip the Author's Note and pass up these people who give me the motivation to keep writing!
Story Alerts: MineSweep100, GaiaWolf, Sharem, LordCthulu, Captain Uccisore, Bushes283, Xysnei
Story Faves: MineSweep100, GiaWolf, Sharem, Xysnei
REVIEWS!
A VERY special thanks to the following people who reviewed!
LordChtulu! (Seriously bud, Lolz. :D )
Sayle! (Thanks for the repeat reviews, it's good to see regular readers. )
MineSweep100 (Glad to see that I have a new follower…excellent…world domination will soon be next- oops…)
Sharem ("What? Am I funny to you? Do I write funny? Tell me, what kind of funny am I? Do I look funny? Am I "hah-hah" funny? Or am I "Clown" funny? What? Am I a clown to you? You think I'm a clown? "~The Good Fellas ….that was a reference to it. Lol. It was a sick movie, and I hated watching every minute of it, but that scene was the only thing I could like about it. Anyways… I am VERY glad that you think this is one of the funniest stories you've read on this site! Although I could probably find funnier…maybe I'm just too critical on myself. :P )
Alora Gale (I know, eerily familiar, right? Lol! Great to see repeat reviewers! :D )
Xysnei (Glad to see new reviewers!)
Thanks to everyone who has been reading this collection of stories, I will continue to write and get stuff out to you! If you have a suggestion, tell it to me in a review, and if I think I can work it out, I will try my best to get it done!
Also, sorry, but that last chapter did not turn out how I wanted it to turn out. It was crap, and I apologize to the people who had to read that last chapter in order to get to this chapter. So I made this one fun and cooler!
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"O'ley Shit!"
It seemed like Tuchanka's scarred surface vibrated in anger as the three members of the SSV2 Normandy's stumbled around in the Keystone's damaged but functional 'arena'. The ground trembled and shook for a couple more moments as the surface team stumbled around in awe as a giant worm-like creature, easily ten stories tall, shot out of the earth and gave an ear-piercing shriek. That sense of amazement was quickly replaced with an acute mixture of anger, terror, and something else none could properly describe without being there. Grunt was just excited as hell. "YES!! Bring on pain! I will crush you into the earth like the worm you are! This is why I am here, Shepard, a powerful enemy!"
The Krogan's comments brought him out of some horribly realistic flashbacks; since Akuze, every Thresher Maw the Commander encountered put him in a place he really didn't want to be. With the giant worm of certain death looming just fifty or so meters away from him, it put him in a bad place. A bad place that made him completely different than who he normally was; the memories of the other thirty-nine Marines he was with flooded into his vision. "Shepard! Shepard!! The Standard Operating Procedure for fighting a Thresher Maw on foot requires that we get the fuck out of here! You know, pickup sticks and run the fuck away?! The only goddamn problem is that we don't have any fuck'n where to run! Commander, are you even listening to me?!"
Zaeed ran from out of his cover and grabbed Shepard's shoulder plate; the mercenary gave the Commander a good shake. "We need to get out of here! I was paid to fight the Collectors, not get eaten by some goddamn worm!"
….peh-toowey. "Oh fuck me-!"
It was terrifying yet sobering to see the hired-gun get pasted to a concrete column by one of the Thresher's acidic loogies; the acid completely ignored the man's kinetic barriers. The force of the glob mixed with the softness of the concrete knocked the elderly man unconscious, but luckily his armor and face-plate held the acid off. With a quick sprinkling of water from one of Shepard's wrist hydration nozzles, the caustic material was neutralized in area where it looked like the armor wouldn't hold. Well, Zaeed was now out of the fight, and Shepard really didn't feel like wasting a medi-gel on him to bring him back to the world of the waking; he didn't need the man to tell him how dangerous the situation was because he knew how dangerous the situation was. For all intents and purposes though, Grunt looked like he was having the time of his life, uselessly shooting at the Maw with a shotgun that couldn't even touch it with a barrel choke if it tried.
Although, Shepard had to give the Krogan credit, because every time the phlegm of death would even come close, Grunt managed to perform some type of acrobatic dodge roll that looked like it used to reside in some old video game. "Hah! You can try to kill me, beast of the land, but you will never succeed!!!"
Deehow. Shepard sighed, again with the shotgun. If the creature had a health bar floating above its head it would still be untouched, unfortunately, this wasn't a video game, it was real life, and there was no way in telling how much damaged the Thresher Maw had taken up to this point. Oh well, if Grunt was going to shoot like a maniac might as well at least let him hit something. "Grunt! Switch up!"
With only two weapons, the Krogan gave out a disapproving growl as he slid the shotgun against his back and withdrew his Vindicator battle rifle and began to spit out accurate three round bursts. Through his Widow Anti-Material Rifle's scope, Shepard could see that Grunt's shots were actually chipping away at the monster worm's armor. Good, at least the Krogan was contributing to his own rite of passage this time; those Varren on Grunt's side kept getting through and generally tried to bum-rush the Commander's sector of fire. Luckily he didn't assign Zaeed a sector to watch for the purpose of picking up slack should either the Commander or Grunt need assistance. The Soldier was a constant surge of Adrenaline that let him kill Varren with amazing precision, while Grunt was more than happy running over whatever creature got in his way. More than one of the 'galaxy's vermin' snuck past the Krogan.
Huuuuuaaaaccchchhhhkkkk…..petoowey. Shepard winced as the glob clipped Grunt on the side of his head, the force of the acidic glob lifting the heavy Krogan off of his feet and spinning him like an extra in a martial arts film. The force of the acid didn't look like it could have knocked the large reptile out, but the giant rock the tank-born's cranium collided with definitely looked like it could. It was almost hilarious, and in a deep, dark corner of the Commander's mind there was a tiny portion of himself laughing its ass off; however, there was another portion that broke loose and worked its way to the surface. Akuze flooded his vision, the images of his fellow marines, people he spent years training with and bonding with, were being split apart, consumed, or dissolved as a Thresher Maw not unlike this one rampaged.
The screams and anguished cries rung in his ears, and he grew angry. The Commander's eyebrows furrowed as he glanced at the unconscious forms of his team members, Grunt and Zaeed looked to still be alive, but if this Thresher Maw had its way, none of them will live through the four minutes still left on the timer. The Soldier stood up from his cover and back-pedaled away as acid began to dissolve the small pre-fab crate he was using. James Shepard steeled himself as he primed the charging handle on his Widow and activated the Tungsten Penetrator application. This wasn't going to become another Akuze, and he would be damned if he lost the men under his command. Grunt and Zaeed were going to come out of this alive, and the Krogan was going to be able to hold his head high among his peers. In order for that to happen, this giant worm was going to have to die.
There was only one unarmored portion of a Thresher Maw, or at least an area that wasn't as armored. That was the maw of the Maw. The inside of the worm's mouth was the one weak point.
Commander James Shepard charged forward at storm speed, the thirty-nine kilogram anti-material rifle doing little to slow him down in his anger fueled state. He was determined, and he was going to succeed. The Thresher was going to fall with one shot, and when Shepard reached the concrete barricades that separated the higher and lower ground, he leapt up into the air and used the barrier to catapult himself even higher into the air. Time dilated to seventy percent of normal as the adrenaline surged through the Soldier's veins. This was it. James had one shot, because at nearly eleven feet up in the air, if he missed, there wouldn't be enough time to recover from the fall and make it to cover before the Maw would retaliate.
Do or die.
The glowing red crosshairs slowly slid to the roof of the Thresher's mouth as it roared in what seemed like slow motion. A squeeze of the trigger sent off a chain reaction that would have cleanly dislocated the man's shoulder if it weren't for the recoil absorbing Recoil-Tek shoulder plates. A hunk of steel similar in size to a grain of sand fired from a weapon at a tenth of the speed of light had the ability to maim and kill. A hunk of tungsten equal in weight of three grams fired from a long barreled rifle at a tenth of the speed of light had the ability to punch through even the strongest kinetic barriers and four inches of the best ablative armor money could buy. The Thresher Maw had neither, but what it did have was a number of redundant nervous systems and a natural armor that was nearly two feet thick in some places.
The roof of its lightly armored mouth was not one of those places, and Shepard could watch as the soft flesh exploded as the slug pierced through and caused massive damage. Much to his surprise the beast's large left eye exploded outward, which hinted that the round ricocheted around the monster's relatively small brain case and exited out the eye-socket. He did it! A one shot kill on a Thresher Maw! He hoped to God that they were somehow recording this because this would have to go into some kind of Marksman's Hall of Fame or something. Killing a monster worm with a precision sniper rifle while falling from eleven feet up in the air?
Speaking of falling… slow motion had its advantages and disadvantages. Falling slow motion was definitely one of the disadvantages. Shepard saw the ground, and from his vantage point it looked very hard…and kind of rocky where his trajectory was taking him. He knew it was going to suck, but there was nothing he could do about it. It didn't hurt his body too bad, luckily his face was there to break his fall, and thanks to the rocks he didn't skid too far.
After recovering, the man had the pleasure of watching the Thresher collapse into the arena not thirty feet from him. The large worm's body hitting the ground caused his legs to tremble as the vibrations coursed through his body. Acid leaked out of the Maw's mouth and onto the ground, the dirt bubbling and hissing in protest as the caustic fluids slowly melted the minerals. Shepard ejected the spent heat sink and slid a fresh one its place as he walked over to place the barrel against the worm's only remaining eye and pulled the trigger. With such close proximity, the slug caused the fleshy orb to explode, and the round cleanly punched through the back of its head. He pulled up his visor and spat on it before giving it the bird.
When he turned around Grunt had already regained consciousness and pulled himself off of the ground. "Shepard! I saw your shot! Truly you are a worthy Battlemaster!"
Shepard just nodded and gave the Krogan a pat on the shoulder. "Did you ever doubt me? C'mon, let's go grab Zaeed and get the fuck out of here. I'd like to speak to Wrex and give him a piece of my mind for throwing a damned Thresher Maw at me."
As they brought the mercenary back to consciousness, a dilapidated Kodiak landed not far from the arena, and the trio was quick to get as close as possible; two of the three members hoping that it would be the extraction craft. However, all parties were disappointed to see the purple armored Krogan, what was his name again? Uven? It didn't really matter, because as soon as the pussy Krogan started yammering about having Grunt join a clan where he couldn't hold any power, or even breed, Shepard was quick to vaporize his skull with his Widow. He couldn't ask Grunt to suffer through a life-time cock-block, and besides, that dude was just plain pissing him off. He quickly ejected the spent heat sink and pointed it at the closest crony. "Anyone else here want to die? I just killed a Thresher Maw and decapitated your Clan Leader. Does anyone else here have any visions of grandeur?"
The five other Krogan slowly put their hands up and backed away. "No? Good. Get back on your craft and spread the word: this is what happens when you try to undercut clan Urdnot."
The drop ship was quick to take off, and Grunt let out an inhuman roar of delight as he embraced Shepard. "Thank you, I could not have asked for a more supportive Krant!"
By the time they got back to clan Urdnot's base, word had spread extremely quickly, and Shepard couldn't tell if Wrex was impressed or jealous, but however, on a technicality, the credit for the kill went to Grunt. Being a Krant meant you fought for the honor of your fellow Krogan, and any honor and prestige you gained was automatically transferred to the retainers of those Krant; Grunt's name soon quickly spread all across clan Urdnot's channels and within the blink of an eye had become center-piece of conversation. After hours of joyous celebration, hearty Thresher steaks, and heated discussions, EDI contacted the Commander through the 'dining hall's' speaker system. Every being in the room quieted down as the AI spoke; its voice echoing throughout the chamber.
"Attention away team."
Shepard held his hands up in the air to quiet the few murmurs that circulated as he picked his helmet off the table and keyed his helmet com. "Yeah, EDI, we're listening."
"The slaying of the Thresher Maw has generated a sizeable number of breeding requests for Grunt."
A chorus of roars reverberated around the chamber as fellow Krogan pounded on Grunt's shoulder plates; they were happy for their newly christened brother. However, they were quick to quiet down as EDI continued to speak. "And there has been one breeding request from the female camp for Commander Shepard."
The room fell deathly silent, but nothing could stop a large grin from creeping up the Soldier's face.
"Bitch'n."
Authors Note: This one was probably one of my favorites to write!! I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing. I am kind of surprised that this chapter was such a balanced mix of comedy and seriousness. I really liked it, and this one is SO much better than my last one, at least in my opinion! If you read this please review!!!