In the deep dark recess of the Osun System, there lay the prison ship, Purgatory. housing thousands of inmates, whose reputation so notorious and so ruthless not even their own homeworld would dare imprison them. So there they were sent, kept in tight lockdown for the rest of their lives, under constant watchful eye of the guards 24/7. Batarians, Humans, Turians, Krogans, you name it, they have it. and some tens of kilometres away, the stealth Frigate, christened the Normandy SR-2, speeding towards the prison barge.
Commander Shepard was sent to seek an inmate out, and seek the inmate he did. His team was prepped and ready, and so were the auxillary team, the humans or Terrans as they preferred to call themselves, from an unknown region of space. He did not trust them yet, but time may tell where their allegience lie. His new squad member, Lieutenant Swash, or as the Pigs would call him, Ghost, slid the helmet over his face and tugged at his combat knife, doublechecking it was secure. They had T-20 minutes before contact with the Purgatory, so Shepard started the conversation, the wide hangar bay seemed to echo his words as he faced Master Sergeant Franklin Toretto.
"So...we're gonna need to build this trust thing sooner or later, and I'd like to do it now, lwts start with the basics, where are you from exactly?"
The War Pigs tensed and looked at one another, Falks, with a sigh slid his reflective visor,
"Well, boys, we knew this day was gonna come, alright, but, where we're from, it's not a pretty place to be in, at the moment."
The others present craned their necks, curious and confused by what the mercenary meant.
"Your Earth is run by them HSA, Alliance guys, ours...well, they're run by the United Earth Governement,"
That got the others quite a bit of a shock, sure they were not from this galaxy, but what they're suggesting is they're from,
"Another dimension?" Voiced Miranda out from the back. Falks shrugged,
"Maybe, Ah' don't really know much, never got ta' finish school, 2 months here, damn place makes no difference, I can tell a bit of our heritage and whatnot. I remember some history lessons from my middle school back on Tarsonis,"
The other War Pigs this time were startled at their IC's relevations, "Shit, boss, you was from Tarsonis, dayum, you must've been rolling in them dough. And why you ain't neva' tellin' us?"
Falks shrugged again, Shepard had never heard of this Tarsonis, but judging from Franklin's subordinate's reactions, he concluded Tarsonis must've been those kind of capital worlds where only the rich and powerful of society lived.
"Ok, so, here's a bit of the craziness starts, during the 22nd Century-" Garrus leaned in, "Um, not to sound rude but maybe you're mistaken, the humans here refer to this time and age as the 22nd Century,"
Falks grunted, annoyed but continued nontheless,"Well, Mister Vakarian, not to sound rude, but we're from the early 26th Century, twenty-five-oh-two."
More astonished faces and gasps of disbelief.
"Them UEG guys packed up our ancestors into these huge colony ships, they were criminals, mostly, some religious crazies here and there, Political opponents, ya' name it, so, they were loaded into 4 big colony ships, and sent em' flying away, many many lightyears, if I'm not mistaken from Earth."
Shepard asked, this time trying to quell the need for answers badly,
"Wait, wait, wait, your ancestors were dissidents, and the government sent every last one of them thrown to some godforsaken place, and they used the situation as part of a colonisation experimment?"
Falks, scratched the stubble of his chin with his armored hand,
"Hmm, I'm not sure, was never good in school, only miltary school, so, as I was saying. They crashed landed, on Moria, Tarsonis, my homeworld, and Umoja, the 4th one crashed though, damn shame all hands lost when they did. But the plan worked for them Earth boys, in a way, our ancestors however got cut off from Earth, so tried establishing their own governments, that's when we called ourselves Terrans, problem was, Koprulu Sector, the godforsaken place we were stuck in, had very little resource, either you had it and became filthy rich or you ain't got no valuable resources and ya' spent ya whole life either in the Corps or some whack job dirt farmer for the rest of ya life, and the next generation will endure, same after the other, we became nomads, foraging sollonoid crystals and vespene gas, an alternative to metal and fuel by the way. So, Tarsonis was ruled by the Confederacy Of Man, founded by powerful guys known only as the Old Families, powerful and mighty...tyrannical, course the Morians and Umojans got themselves governemnts and us 3 been hostile to each other ever since, some wars here and there, mix around black ops shit going on and rebellions,ya know? course flash forward tah' the 2490s and we got ourselves first contact with aliens, known as Protoss. Scary sum bitches Ah tell ya, bigger than Krogans, don't give me that look, it's true, they're ten feet tall, implanted with cybernetics and shit, making them move fast. Real. Fuckin'. Fast. they got shields that make ya' latest Kinetic Barriers ancient, and most of their army are...well, robotic, AI controlled,"
Some of the passengers were unnerved at what the Pig unveiled before them, that another race were not only highly advanced yet they used AI extensively without fear of an uprising such that the Quarians had which led to the Morning War and their deportation from their homeworld, there are however, others, such as Miranda who are intrigued by these enigmatic Protoss, shame they weren't sucked into this...universe, reverse enginnering their tech could have given Humanity a jumpstart another 2-3 centuries, and put itself on the pinnacle of the galaxy's superpower.
"First contact was Chau Sara, a Fringe Wolrd, or Outer Colony as you would say it, they burned it to the ground, all hands on the colony lost. But strangely, they warped out before our boys could have a go with them Xenos,"
Garrus clicked his mandible in anguish, "Just like that? They slaughtered innocents with orbital bombardment, no call for parlay, or...anything?"
All the War Pigs nodded, unnerving Shepard who found it kind of creepy.
"Yeah, Mar Sara was the sister world of Chau Sara, so, them being closest to Chau Sara, they got their panties in a bunch and got every swinging dick into the Colonial Militia, us War Pigs were at the time Confederate Black Ops, second only to the Ghosts, my squad was tasked to deliver a strike package, Apocalypse Class Nukes to an uncharted backwater planet thought to be under Protoss control, them high yield bombs would crack the planet open and giv' em a message, "Greetings Motherfucker, here's from us Terrans to you,"
Shepard pressed on about their mission objective, "Nukes, you used nukes? you people high or something using WMDs on unknown vectors, much less on another species! That's the same as committing genocide!"
Falks could only grin, "Hmph, at that time we couldn't give a rat's ass if we exterminated them, they were a threat to us, the moment they burned Chau Sara without so much as opening communications, and besides, we've been using-" There was a bump, the entire ship shook as the docking tubes from the Purgatory connected with Normandy.
Joker pinged shipwide over the intercom, "Docking tubes prepped and ready Commander," The teams gathered their weapons and gear, Shepard and the surrounding crewman were still craving to hear more of the mercenary's tale, but it had to wait, at least till they secured Jack safely onboard.
"That's quite a story there, I'll look forward to hearing more after this extraction," Falks nodded towards the ramp which was opening, "Sure, c'mon Commander lesgo' this Jack ain't gonna extract herself."
The interior of the Purgatory screamed of bleak in the walls, as had all the other prison barges Shepard had seen on the extranet, but at least this one was clean and tidy, to the point where he could declare the ship sterile. A few Blue Suns on guard duty would stare at Shepard and exchange glances, sometimes shift their gaze over to his team and Falks' The armored forms known as the War Pigs sent chills running down their spines, many of their mercenary brothers had fallen prey to the Pigs' devastating Terran Gauss weaponry, a few Suns had even trained their rifles onto each Pig and everyone else on their side, ready to drop them should the situation turn awry.
Shepard gripped his M-8 Avenger tightly, even though he looked calm and collected on the outside, his instincts were screaming and rattling at him to take cover and cut the surrounding Blue Suns down..in...out...in...out...okay, okay steady, steady, deep . breaths...i'm fine...whoo... someone or something tapped his shoulder causing his anxiety to return and he felt himself stiffen for but a short while, it was the Ghost, Lieitenant Nijax Swash, new guy, "Commander, are you alright?"
John cleared his throat before shaking his head casually, "I'm fine Swash, thanks for the concern,"
He stole glances on Falks, his team and him on low alert, occasionally would look around, studying the interior like he and his team was. Garrus and Miranda were at the front, so they didn't know what was going on. Shepard resumed walking, the thrum of electronics and engines running, compounded by the loud stomping of boots, the whirring of hydraulic servos and humming of a power supply was almost getting to his head. There was a checkpoint there, and a lone Turian Blue Sun on manning the checkpoint.
Score one came to the guard that spoke to Shepard, if he was surprised that he was conversing with a supposedly dead person, he sure as hell wasn't showing it.
"Welcome to the Purgatory Shepard, your package is being prepped and you can claim it shortly, as this is a high security vessel, I'll have to ask you to relinquish your weapons as per standard security protocol,"
The Commander stood his ground, "Not gonna happen," The Turian mercenary in turn, stood firm to protocol, "Purgatory is more than secure and well defended against any form of breakout plus hundreds of contingencies, we-" "Everyone stand down!" all eyes fell upon another Turian who donned a similar set of Blue Suns Armor, he was unarmed at the moment, the pistol on his holster sitting beside his thigh comfortably, he walked down the steps and addressed Shepard and his...compatriots,
"Commander, I am Warden Kuril and I run the Purgatory, I ask that you relinquish your weapons as per standard procedure, we will return them to you once the transaction is complete, my, my, my, what have we here? War Pigs? heard all about you from the various platoons, those descriptions they gave sure aren't lacking,"
Falks snapped his visor open, a heartwarming smile plastered on his face, "Pleasure to meet you, Mister Kuril, Franklin Toretto, 3rd War Pigs Division." They shook hands before Shepard stepped in between them, "I hate to break this lovely conversation but didn't we came here for something else other than just a chat?"
Kuril nodded his head, "Yes, of course, Commander, follow me," The guard in question wanted quickly raised his objection,
"But sir,-".
"Let them proceed, our facility is more than secure to handle 7 armed guests. As we speak Jack is being brought out of cryo, as soon as the funds clear, you can be on your way. If you'll follow me to the pickup Commander."
Shepard nodded his head towards the door, "Right let's go, team, stay close." As they passed through the door they were greeted with the shifting of gears from machinery, the cursing and screaming of the inmates and the other guards respectively. A few Turian Suns rushed past them from behind mumbling something about a situation in Cell block 6. The warden Kuril turned and addressed Shepard once again, "Cell block 2, as you can see, we keep a tight control over the population." A few War Pigs shifted uncomfortably with their Impalers, one of them pinged Shepard,
"Ma'am, can we make this quick, Mike here's getting mighty uncomfortable with this place, says it reminds him of New Folsom too much," John wondered for a moment what New Folsom was, but dismissed it quickly, answers can come later, "Hold fast trooper, we'll be outta here shortly once we have Jack try to clam him down a little,"
"Aye, Commander."
Shepard then resumed conversing with Warden Kuril, he had quite a shock when ice filled her gut when the warden disclosed to her both unashamed and proudly that the prisoners would be sent back home at an unspecified time and place should the respective government fail to or refuse to transfer the monthly fee on time. As Miranda had stated, outright extortion, but the Turian didn't really care retorting that his methods may be considered extreme by some but his motives are pure. Questions flew forward from the Commander that is until they reached a junction where Kuril had to excuse himself to confirm the transaction from Cerberus, though more likely he just wanted to get away from Shepard's questions, they headed down a corridor to Outprocessing past, the interrogations room and the supermax wing, on the way there, they had to ignore the heartwrenching cries and pleas of the desperate and pitiful prisoners, until finally they reached the supermax wing, inside, were a row of benches and a lone technician accessing a terminal, without so much as stealing a glance, the techie pointed out where outprocessing was, Falks gave his thanks before joining Shepard.
"Here it is, now lets just-" When Shepard opened the cell supposedly to conatain Jack, it was empty,
"Eh, what the fuck?" one of the Pigs exclaimed in anguish, "Took the words right out of mouth," smirked Garrus.
The intercom buzzed, "My apologies Shepard, you're more valuable to me as a prisoner than a customer, drop your opens and proceed into this open cell. You will not be harmed." The other War Pigs, took this betrayal too serious, "Fuck no!" spat one, and other curses, Falks too was yelling explicit contents at Kuril and his mother, Garrus steadied his rifle and watched in amusement at the Pig's shenanigans, Miranda gave a soft hmph! as if expecting this to happen, John Shepard flicked the safety of his Avenger,
"You don't wanna go down this road, Kuril," no need to turn this whole thing into a gigantic Turkey shoot, as far as he was concerned, the only targets to him were the Collectors and the Reapers.
"Activate systems!" growled Kuril and all hell broke lose. A squad of Blue Suns guard rushed in from the only entrance of the supermax wing, only to be cut down by the heavy gauss weaponry the mercenaries wielded, hostile kinetic barriers simply ceased to exist as the custom hollow point depleted uranium spikes ripped, punched and shattered through the barriers, armor and flesh and the fallen fell with bloodcurdling screams,
"Damn, that's brutal," mumbled Garrus as a poor Batarian Blue Sun sawed in messy pieces by a War Pig, Miranda kept herself at the back of the fight, observing the Pigs in action, they kept bantering with each other back and forth, which was amusing at best yet they put up a good fight, a stray round impacted on her shoulder, luckily her shields absorbed the mass accelerated metal, cursing under her breath, she sprayed with her Tempest SMG, forcing more Suns that had entered the fray to dive for cover. Shepard rolled the cooked grenade under the bench, 3 Blue Suns who were using it as cover had no time to get clear and were flung to the walls with shrapnel embedded in them, his HUD marked a Sun picking him as a target, he swing his Avenger around for a shot but as fate played a cruel joke on him, it needed a new thermal clip.
"Die!"
screamed the guard as he squeezed the trigger, a gunshot followed and said guard exploded in blood, bone and gore, Shepard cringed slightly before thanking Garrus,
"What? wasn't me!" he replied above the din as he slapped a new clip into his Mantis Sniper Rifle.
"Target down," rasped the Ghost beside him, Shepard nodded before neutralizing more hostiles. When finally the last guard fell, the team broke out of cover and hurried to the door, "We need to get Jack out of cryo!" said Garrus.
The intercom pinged again and the Warden sounded pissed, "Reinforce processing now! Shepard is loose! I repeat Shepard is loose!"
They cut through more Suns as they made their way to Jack, as they did so, Shepard learned more about his new teammates, Lieutenant Swash apparently was armed with stealth cloaking tech, coupled with his deadly marksmanship skills, he was no doubt qualified to be one of the deadliest snipers in the galaxy, the War Pigs were no pushovers neither, their power armor could actually tank mass accelerated rounds and it has saved their skins often when the kinetic barriers were overloaded. Shepard cringed in disgust when he noticed a Blue Sun Legionnaire get literally sawed in half by Mike, one of the War Pigs brought along.
"Enemy frag!"
Warned another War Pig, he jumped out of cover, a feat Shepard thought impossible due to the clunkiness and cubersome size of their power armor, Mike pulled both Shepard and Garrus out of the way, seconds before the explosion destroyed a large chunk of their previous cover."Thanks!" yelled the Turian as he began moving into a new cover."2 hostiles left, trooper and Heavy!" reported Garrus, wanting some payback, Shepard crowned the Heavy, just miliseconds before she could fire up her biotics, the trooper, morale broken threw his gun aside, and yelled from his cover, "I surrender! Don't shoot me please!" John motioned to Falks and one of his Pigs to secure the guard, once they did so, Shepard began questioning,
"Tell me the truth and I promise you won't be harmed, where's Jack's cell?"
The guard-now-turned-prisoner pointed out, getting to her would be difficult, as she's special case, Warden Kuril had assigned 3 YMIR mechs to guard against her, however, he managed to mention a security console before Garrus smacked him unconscious. Falks was meanwhile prepping his fireteam to move on the Commander's orders, "How much left?" he nodded over to Corporal Samuel, who used an armored index finger to skim through his magazines strapped to the sides of his suit.
"3, of em' full. I'd say we're holding good here but circumstances can change, we should have brought more mags just in case, then again, boss, it was supposed to be a simple pickup,"
Falks nodded before slipping his visor back, the thrum of his power pack ringing in his ears, the Commander rapped on his shoulder plate, getting his attention.
"We're moving now, by the way, anything I should know off?" hinting that he had been listening on their conversation.
"Yeah, we're runnin' low on ammo, this was supposed to be short and simple, not a goddamn turkey shoot, but don't ya worry about us, our Impalers pack a shit-ton of spikes so it should last throughout this entire mission."
Shepard wondered what he meant by 'spikes', was it a term for their ammunition where they come from, or the real pointy spikes? one more thing to ask once we get off this ship. Damn I'm too eager to jump the gun. thought the Commander bitterly as he had not gotten to know more about his new allies, instead, he flung his team with them into combat, too eager to watch them in action. More Blue Suns hindered their path, but it was pointless trying to stop THE Commander Shepard from completing his mission, Swash, the Ghost showed his prowess by single handedly clearing the security room filled with at least 2 dozen hostiles, Shepard and his squad just stood at the entrance, flabbergasted and in awe at the Ghost's dance of death, he moved fluidly with grace no human not even the Commander himself could do, and he was armed with only a silenced C-7 stinger pistol and a 15 inch serrated combat blade, when he was done, not a single hostile was breathing, Shepard took a few seconds to recover before grabbing Swash by the scruff of his suit and sharply pulled the Ghost,
"That was the most reckless thing I have ever seen! You are part of MY squad, you follow MY orders and you do not get in fights without MY blessings, if you do that again, you can stay here and rot with the Blue Suns and the prisoners, you get me, Operative?"
Falks had a good mind to intervene, yelling at a Ghost was a one way ticket to heaven, or hell and Falks does not want to lose his walking paycheck,
"Uh, Commander, you might wanna"-
"Yes Commander, I understand." spoke the Ghost coldly, biting back his anger at the same time. Shepard turned to Falks, they locked eyes for a short while before the Commander tore his gaze and rallied Garrus and Miranda to take point, Lieutenant Swash reloaded his C-10 before re-joining Shepard.
"That went well, boss," spoke Corporal Imlay over the comms, the War Pig Sergeant shook his head and formed his fireteam up behind Shepard's squad, Shepard's actions were beginning to bite the entire team back in the ass, true they finally saw what she looks like, but now they were caught in a deadly crossfire between scared-out-of-their-wits Blue Suns and thousands of the galaxy's most dangerous criminals, Shepard knew about having to deal with the prisoners but this was just ridiculous! His team turned out deadly effecient in the art of killing however, anyone who turned their gun onto them were swiftly dealt with, and finally they even managed to kill the Warden himself, having their boss dead, the remainders of the Blue Suns decided to leave the station via dropships, now most of the resistance are the local population.
"EDI, status of Jack?" growled the Commander as hostile fire peppered at his cover, they've been running into nothing but waves of armed prisoners and it was beginning to piss Shepard off. The feminine voice of the Normandy's AI replied monotone as always,
"Her current location is the same as ever, the docking bay where the Normandy is which is 52 meters away from your position."
Once the last hostile was dead, the 6 man-team began quickening their pace, this Jack had led them on a wild goose chase throughout the Purgatory, "Eyes on Jack!" reported Mike, "You don't say, War Pig?" retorted Garrus, past the broken bodies of unfortunate guards, there was Jack, pacing back and forth growling and snarling at the Normandy, for reasons unknown. Before he could call her out, a lone Batarian Blue Suns trooper lined his shot on her, without a moment's notice Shepard crowned the Sun with his enhanced reflexes courtesy of Cerberus.
Kuril was right about Jack at least, she is truly hate and anger in physical form, she eyed his armor for a short while before snarling venomously, "Cerberus!" before spitting a few feet away from herself.
"I work with Cerberus, I don't work for them, I am Commander Jonathan Shepard, I-"
Jack shook her head hard, "I don't give a flying fuck about what your name is, you're Cerberus and that's all I need to know, now give me 3 good reasons why I shouldn't tear you apart right here, right now?"
Miranda tried using authority on her, but, all she got from Jack was, "Wrong answer, Bitch!" She came charging after Shepard, growling as she does so, causing him to stumble backwards, her body laced with biotics intending to cause grievous injuries to him, most likely to kill him, when the others tried to shoot her, Shepard got them to stand down, he looked up and saw Jack right in front of him her arms launching a powerful Biotic attack right in his face, something swiftly grabbed his arm and yanked him aside from harm's way.
"Swash!" he cried out, Garrus and Miranda could do nothing but stare helplessly as the Ghost was consumed in a fiery blue explosion that rocked the entire prison barge, and flung every soul present aside like rag dolls, Shepard was the first to recover and to his utter amazement, was Lieutenant Swash, encircled in some kind of shimmering aura, blue biotics engulfed the invisible shield, but the occupant was unharmed. Jack quickly broke off from her attack, "What the fuck!" the Ghost cocked his head to his side, before egging her on with an outstretched hand, giving in to her rage.
Jack did so and charged headlong with her fist glowing blue, Shepard wanted to break them away from each other but Falks had stopped him from doing so, only telling him to watch. And so he did.
It was like watching an old Kung Fu movie from the 21st Century, 2 highly skilled opponents duking it out with each other, though one was Biotic the other was Psionic. Jack swung her left fist and tried to hook the Ghost but her biotic charged fist found air and she felt herself being lifted in the air, to her horror she saw the Ghost simply waved his hand up in the air, her body following the direction of it like some puppet,
"What the ffuu-" was all she managed before the Ghost slammed her up and down, up and down, up and down before he tossed her a few feet away from him. Jack sat herself right before launching a series of Biotic shockwaves, the Ghost did the invisible shield thing again but it did not hold against a full frontal Biotic attack, especially from Jack, the Ghost this time was slammed against a wall, the sound of something broken echoed loudly.
The Biotic wasted no time in letting her opponent recover and tried giving him a double tap, as she got real close to the Ghost, he suddenly sprang up with a long nasty blade in his hands, like that would ever stop her, she allowed a small evil grin before launching a Warp right in his face but the Ghost did something totally unexpected, he formed a fist with his right hand and her Warp attack stopped altogether, it instead began gathering itself on top of his fist and was encased in a Psychic field, making it appear like a glowing blue orb, a deadly glowing blue or. Realising what was going to happen, Jack jumped out of the way before the Ghost returned her Biotic attack mixed with his own, the orb crashed against the wall behind Jack and caused a small explosion, overturning some benches and utterly wrecking a vending machine.
The Ghost stood over the insanely powerful woman and lifted his right hand, with Jack's body following suit against her will, though as she kicked, clawed to get free of whatever the Ghost was doing, until she was levitating a good one meter in the air, earning astonished gasps from Shepard and his original squadmates, Swash balled his right hand and began choking Jack a-la-Darth Vader style.
"Enough, Lieutenant that's enough!"
Yelled Shepard as he raised his M-8 Avenger at Swash, ready to maim him. the Ghost spared a glance at Shepard, that was before a biotic charged fist slammed home in his face, he crashed onto the floor, no bones broken luckily but that hit sure did a number on him, anyone else would have been dead but Swash had kept a psychic field around himself, similar to Protoss psionic shields only much much weaker, but definitely reliable especially at times like this. Jack coughed a few times and slowly stood up, trembling as she did so, the Ghost did the same minus the coughing. Never before had an opponent managed to threaten her like this, she was supposed to be baddass! But this opponent was different, he is definitely NOT biotic.
"What the fuck are you?" she snarled as she wiped blood off her lips, The Ghost charged, he tackled Jack and was rewarded with a biotic slam, Jack jumped on top of the Ghost, ready to deliver the killing blow but found the wind knocked out of her as the Ghost kicked her in the gut and pivoted her body over him thus buying time for himself some time to tackle her once more, both now locked in a fight for dominance, in the end, Swash came out victorious as he held the blade against her throat but found himself staring at her hand glowing blue ready to deliver another powerful Biotic attack.A close encounter of the mexican standoff, between Biotic and Psionic.
THWACK!
Jack crumpled to the floor unconscious, standing behind her was Garrus, with his trusty M-92 Mantis Sniper Rifle by his side. "And I thought that fight would never end," he helped the Ghost up before commenting on their fight, "That was the most epic fight scenes I've ever had the pleasure to witness, how did you do all those-" Garrus felt something heavy collapse onto him as the Ghost swayed gently and fell onto Garrus's arms, unconscious.
"Need some help here!" cried the Turian.
A/N: Hell yeah baby, I'm done! Whoo! Thanks guys for hanging in there and supporting me with your PMs, I had a writer's block trying to write the fight between a Biotic and a Psionic, eventually I decided to make them both equally matched, and had to actually delete and rewrite alot of stuff just to perfect the ending, I decided to change it due to the fact it was more awesome(er) than the original. Sorry Bioware, copyright's all yours and all, just let me have this small ending. :3
Shepard is Paragon. Just so you know.