Chapter 11: Reconciling
September 19th, 2552:
Seven minutes after Sunset.
Tali asked Kat to wiggle the arm's fingers a little. The synthetic motors fluctuated and moved together as the torch cut away at potential trouble spots. Before long, Kat's fingers were responding twice as fast. She closed her robotic hand into a fist. With the maintenance a success, Tali closed up the arm.
"Wish there was time to see how fast I'm on the draw now with this arm," Kat voiced as Tali finished up.
"Cortana took a bit longer than I thought, sorry," the quarian apologised humbly. "But it should be at least twenty percent improved. Just try not burn through too much ammo out there, okay? We're gonna need to make shots count eventually."
"You just worry about getting Keyes and your own people off that ship," Kat responded. "I'm sure it's alright anyway. This experience has taught me that you quarians know your cybernetics. Hell, you could probably teach the UNSC a few things."
Tali nervously chuckled at that.
"To be honest, most of the designs were improved upon by the geth." She elaborated. "In fact, many of my additions to the arm were ideas I got from studying geth parts from new models."
"Either way, if it keeps me in the fight, I'm glad to have someone with a bit of expertise aboard," the Spartan III responded back. "Thanks again and watch your back out there."
"You too, Kat, and I mean that especially in regards to the Major," Tali warned grimly.
Kat just nodded and placed her helmet on her head. She looked over Tali's shoulder to see Commander Shepard coming up from behind her.
"Bring'em home, sir," Kat called out as she waved both him and Tali off.
"That's the plan!" Shepard replied as she ran to her own Pelican.
Kat boarded her dropship and Tali followed Shepard back to theirs. The Master Chief was already waiting there with the rest of the rescue team.
"Thane just reported in," Shepard began as they approached the Pelican. "Most of the ways in are heavily guarded, but he's seen a weak spot along the plateau's edge. Biggest problem is some scattered turrets, but even though it's supposedly the best way in that doesn't make it easy. There are a lot of elites in the area from what he's seen. He should contact us when we hit the ground with further intel."
"I hope he's staying out of sight." Tali casually added.
"You know Thane," Shepard assured her. "He's a professional about these things. Plus lives are on the line, he won't hit them unless we tell him to."
That was good to hear. Thane had been pretty reckless on Reach early on. It was nice to see he was back to his old self. Tali reasoned it was most certainly due to the fact the lives of Joker and Jack were in play. If he went off the handle, they could die. Knowing Thane as she did, he couldn't live with himself, no matter how short that time actually was, with that on his conscience.
"I'm gonna approach along the plateau walls," Foehammer spoke aloud through their radios. "It should mask us from them sensors a bit. We can't all have nifty stealth drives."
"That'll be fine, Echo 419," Cortana assured her. "Once we're on the ground your job is done until we secure our entry."
"Let's just hope the prisoners have been able to hold out," Chief said as they all climbed into the Pelican.
Tali just laughed under her breath.
"Trust me," she began with a brash tone. "With Jack on board, the only reason that ship isn't crashing is because they're smart enough to keep her in her cell. She's fine, it is Joker I'm more worried about... especially if he's in the same room as her."
It sounded like a joke, but in truth it wasn't. She really was concerned about Joker being stuck with Jack for this long. She wasn't good in enclosed spaces and she tended to wreak a lot of collateral damage. Ancestors willing, he was keeping his head down in there.
She had been shoulder checking, punching and slamming the barrier for hours now. She had long since stopped trying to get the collar off. From the sound of her previous attempts, the shocks had become increasingly painful whenever she touched the thing. Apparently, her new plan was to just keep pounding away with what little biotic power she could muster in the slim hope that just maybe the barrier would give out from all the abuse.
Joker had no such delusions. He doubted Jack fully believed in her plan either, but she needed something to hit. All the barrier did was crackle and spark a bit. If it was the wall she had been hitting, her hands would be bloody and broken by now. The only other thing to hit in here was him and, well, Joker was just happy she wasn't. He hadn't said anything out of fear that she'd in fact turn her attention to him. He hoped she would calm down before too long, but she had kept it up longer than he thought she would.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity of listening to swears, groans and random bursts of rage induced incomprehensible gibberish, Jack finally stopped. She let her arms drop to her side and then plunked herself down in her own corner diagonally opposite to Joker's. After about half a minute of listening to her heavy breathing, Joker finally got the nerve to speak up.
"So... did you get it all out of your system then?" He asked her as politely as possible.
"Shut it, wiseass," She grumbled at him.
"Friendly as ever," Joker replied back in his usual acerbic tone. "Good to see that being back in prison hasn't changed your wonderful personality."
Jack's frown deepened upon Joker's words. She balled her fists and looked at him with a scowl.
"I said shut it," she ordered him. "I don't need to hear your shitty stand-up routine you try to smooth talk everyone with."
"This is just conversation, Jack," Joker told her, still in his mocking tone of voice. "If you actually talked to people you would know that. You make little jokes, you lighten the mood, you converse a bit, you socialise. It is the one thing that's consistently normal about most of the crew."
"Yeah, whatever," Jack grimaced at him. "You wanna talk? Talk with yourself. You love your own voice so much already. Just leave me out of it."
Jack looked away and the cell fell silent once again. It stayed that way for only a minute, however, as Joker took Jack up on her advice and began talking again, this time with someone he knew wanted to listen.
"Hey Joker, how are you doing?" He asked himself. "Oh I'm fine, I guess. I'm a prisoner and everything, but I got my own corner, kinda comfy actually. I'm getting a bit sick of looking at purple though. It is kind of a drab colour. Tali manages to make it work though. Oh yeah, she does, but this shade is so dull looking. Way too bland, in my opinion."
Jack groaned slightly at the pilot's decision to take her advice literally.
"You got any other problems, Jeff?" Joker asked himself once more. "Yeah, my cell mate is kind of a loner. She doesn't enjoy my company despite my wonderful qualities. It's kinda depressing really. Now my only choice is to talk to you."
Jack grumbled a bit under her breath as her brow furrowed. Joker continued talking to himself.
"What? You have a problem talking with me?" Joker suddenly asked himself, sounding a bit dejected. "It's nothing personal. You're just kind of a blabber mouth, that's all. Really, it's not that I don't enjoy your company me, but sometimes I need to get out a bit. And I would talk to my cellmate, but she's not in the best position now."
Jack's eye twitched in annoyance as she cupped her hands over her ears, trying to block Joker out. It was futile though.
"What's her problem then?" Joker asked himself. "Well I think she has issues with prisons, she destroyed the last one she was in. So she's kinda going through a rough time now. Maybe she just needs her space. So I figure I'm just gonna give her it, and when she wants to talk she'll talk. I mean, it's alright to be scared of confined places especially since-"
"I am not scared!" Jack shouted at him furiously. "And damn it, don't you ever shut up!"
Joker feigned offense at the remark.
"Excuse me, I'm having a private conversation with myself here," he told her while pretending to be annoyed. "Now if you want to join in you'll have to be a tad less rude there."
Jack put her head back and roared in frustration. Joker wondered, for a brief moment, if he was really that infuriating. He eventually admitted he probably was, but that didn't mean he didn't have good intentions. He was just trying to get her mind off their predicament.
"Look," he began again in a more serious tone. "I'm just trying to help you out here a bit. You've been trapped in jail and everything with a ton of assholes and I'm just trying to make your stay a little less grim this time around."
"I am not scared," Jack reiterated angrily. "I'm pissed off that we're in here. That's it. Personally, I'm surprised you haven't been trying to get the fuck out of here like I have. You've been here longer."
Joker chuckled at the idea.
"Yeah, that's smart," he said sarcastically. "The brittle bones guy busts out of his cell, takes on who knows how many eight-foot aliens with plasma guns, fighting through a ship he's unfamiliar with, so he can get to an escape ship he probably won't be able to figure out how to fly. And I'm gonna manage all that, without even a gun. I'll get right on that."
Jack looked away for a second, probably realising Joker's point. She still turned back with another suggestion.
"Well you could help me break this collar off so I can bust us out of here," she stated flatly.
"Uh, tech isn't my territory. That would be Tali or Legion you're looking for," He replied back with an incredulous look. "If you're really lucky you'll get EDI, but all you got is me. Trust me here; you don't want me anywhere near that collar."
Jack sighed, her irritation palpable at this point. She placed her head onto her knees and placed her hands over her head.
"Well what then?" she demanded to know. "We just lie down and die? I don't do that shit."
"No, we just wait for Shepard," Joker replied innocently enough. "He'll show up with the crew, drop the cell doors and we'll practically just walk right out of here along with him. He's probably on his way here to save us now."
Jack huffed at him.
"To save you, you mean," she declared. "You're the pilot. He has to come for you. He probably thinks I'm dead. He'll probably come, but I'll just be the damn door prize compared to getting you back."
Joker looked at her in utter disbelief. How could she say something like that? Joker thought at this point she knew the Commander better than that.
"Oh come on, Jack," he said to her, laughing at the very notion of Shepard not caring about finding her alive. "The Commander cares just as much about you as he does me. He's coming for both of us and not just because we're important to the crew. I mean, yeah, you're always angry half the time, you barely spend time with us and you're pretty nasty when you do, but you're still his friend."
"Please," Jack snuffed at him. "I have no friends."
"Oh that's not true and you know it," Joker replied with a little smile. "I mean, you and Miranda are getting along better."
"That's me tolerating her genetically perfect ass," Jack argued in return. "I'm not her friend, I just know I can work with her and not feel sick about it."
Joker shook his head at it all, not believing a single word.
"You can't possibly think that after everything we've been through," he informed her. "I mean, we've put everything on the line for each other. We've been through a suicide mission, the death of a planet, countless firefights..."
"So I can trust you all to have my back, great, I'll put the tea on," she grumbled at him return. "That doesn't mean we're friends. Hell, I should technically hate you all for the shit I've been put through lately. I save all of humanity from stupid bug people and I'm rewarded with being stuck in a universe where it's getting plasma beamed to death by other fucking aliens. That's karma for ya, a fucking lie."
"You're not seriously blaming the Commander for that are you?" Joker asked with a doubtful look.
Jack exhaled loudly, it was a sigh so much as a release of pent of aggression.
"Fine, I don't hate you for that. Not your fault." She admitted growling. "But I'm serious about not having friends. Friends complicate shit. Even if you trust them, you can't really depend on them. Not forever. I mean, let's say we do get home? What you think is gonna happen? We just fly up the Alliance and we all go home with big fucking ass grins on our faces and medals on our chests?"
"Well, maybe not yours, since you're only wearing that Marine armour because someone forced you too I bet." Joker chuckled.
Jack held in her expected groan and continued.
"We're gonna have to split up, Joker," she told him with a sneer. "The quarian has her fleet and the Justicar is gonna have to get back to fucking up bad guys elsewhere lest her code decides we all need to die. The geezer is gonna find another contract, the Krogan is eventually gonna go back to Tuchanka, Lizard Lips is an assassin with probably a big ass target on his head from some sort of law agency out there. None of us can stay. So why make friends with each other if that's how this all goes down in the end?"
Joker wasn't blind to the truth Jack was telling him. He knew that was likely to happen. Even with all the good they had done, there were going to be a lot of questions when they eventually went back to the Alliance. The others had obligations of their own and they couldn't stay forever. He was fine with that. That was how life worked. You couldn't always expect those close to you to remain around you twenty four seven. He had long accepted that they'd be separated, but he knew one way or another they'd all come back together somehow.
With Jack, however, that was apparently a harder truth to accept and handle.
"Is that why you hang out in your little space under the engine room?" He asked her. "You're afraid of getting close."
"I'm not afraid of anything," Jack insisted once more. "I just don't want a bunch of people acting like we're all the best buddies in the entire world when we're all planning to just move on in the end. I'm realistic."
Yeah, that was pretty much a "yes" as far as Joker was concerned.
"If you really think all that, why did you stay on after the Collector Base?" Joker enquired. "You could've left at any time, any planet and any system."
"Like I got some better place to be?" She asked back.
Joker just sighed, he wasn't gonna get her to open up. It would take someone with a lot more patience than he had. But he still had something to say.
"I get you may not want to care about us," he told her unassumingly. "But don't think we don't care about you. Shepard would go to hell and back for any of us. You don't always have to be in that bubble you've made for yourself. People care, Jack. I just want you to know that."
At the very least, Jack seemed to have calmed down a bit. Who knows, maybe he got her to think about things a little. Either way, once Shepard showed up, she'd realise he was telling the truth. Joker just hoped it was soon, he really was getting sick of this shade of purple.
Kowalski checked his magazine one more time before popping it back in his gun and cocking the pin back. He had double checked and triple checked all of his equipment in a similar fashion. The Covenant had caught them all off guard last time. He wanted to be ready for them this go around. He wondered if this was the same kind of paranoia that fuelled Agley's own equipment checks. Then again, he wasn't packing several magazines more than the usual regulated amount like the more jumpy Private was. Kowalski just wanted to be ready, Agley wanted to overcompensate.
Ellingham passed Agley with a glower, looking on almost in disbelief at how much he was carrying. Doubling back, Ellingham began pulling off the extra pounds of grenades, magazines, guns and the spare flak jacket Agley had piled onto himself.
"Are you in basic again, Ags?" He asked somewhat annoyed. "We're rationing everything, remember? Even if we weren't, you take all this shit into combat. You're gonna fall over flat on your face."
"I'm not running out of ammo out there." Agley tried to argue.
"You won't, not as long as you pick your shots," Ellingham assured him. "Seriously, did you forget everything from basic when that bug pulled you into the rafters back on Reach? How many times did he break your skull against the wall again?"
Ellingham pulled off a battle rifle and an extra pistol that Agley was carrying alongside his other two weapons, a shotgun and a DMR.
"You do not need an extra gun either," Ellingham added. "Stick to your Primary, your Secondary and your sidearm. Honestly, it's like I'm back in kindergarten here."
"My nerves are shot, okay. I haven't slept since this morning. Is that what you want?" Agley asked pleadingly. "I didn't know what to take, I was in a rush when they called, so I just grabbed what I could carry. I wasn't gonna take everything, honest!"
"You're lucky I caught you making a fool of yourself," Ellingham told him, as he pulled off the flak jacket at last. "If Sergeant Taylor saw half this crap on you he'd flip. Just remember your training and don't pretend you're some kind of commando. You're a Marine. Start acting like one again."
Ellingham pushed his hand into Agley's chest. The private looked down shamefully as Ellingham brought all the equipment back to a storage space. He joined Kowalski soon after.
"You were a little hard on him, don't you think?" Kowalski asked him.
"I'm sick of him crying constantly," Ellingham replied back, still fuming. "We've all had it rough. Even Ramirez, the rookie, is handling his shit better. I don't care if he was carrying all that just because he didn't know what to take with him. He's dragging what's left of this unit down."
"He's scared, dude," Kowalski tried to explain. "That stuff with the drones really screwed him up somehow. I don't know why, but it did. I agree that he needs to get it together, but he's still part of the team and he still volunteered for this along with the rest of the squad. He's got our backs."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Ellingham responded, sounding rather scornful.
To Kowalski's relief, Sergeant Taylor showed up at that very second alongside Corporal Pearson. That put an end to the conversation that was steadily growing uncomfortable. Agley straightened up himself, keeping his DMR out and ready. Ramirez soon found his own way over to the group as well, holding a standard assault rifle.
"You have an idea where we're going, Sarge?" Kowalski asked Taylor, hoping to put the Agley situation further behind him.
"Nothing yet," he admitted, still wearing a slight smile on his face. "But I was given one of these."
Taylor held out his arm and, right before their eyes, it was encircled by an orange holographic device. It instantly earned the mandatory 'oohs' and 'aahs' from the rest of the squad.
"One of them omni-tools the Normandy guys wear on themselves," Ramirez voiced aloud in astonishment. "Is it true it's got a knife in there?"
Taylor showed rather than told, hitting a command that popped out an orange blade for all to see.
"Hell yeah," Ellingham grinned broadly. "We're getting some badass gear now."
"All the squad leaders within ODSTs, Marines, Army, they're all getting these," Taylor explained "I think they're trying to use them to better coordinate the teams, faster flow of information and all that. Plus it's got some kickass functions. This one has overload, burns through shields. It's what gives the Normandy team their edge."
"That ain't all we got either," added Pearson proudly as he reached for his back. "Check this beauty out."
Pearson pulled out a gun that looked like a bullpup style battle rifle, but not of any design Kowalski could recognize. Putting together the piece quickly, however, he figured it out.
"I saw the scary old guy from the Normandy use that thing," He pointed out.
"Yeah, it's called a Mattock," said Pearson. "Semi-Automatic, but damn accurate and packs a punch. Plus, a devastator rounds ammo augmentation mod was added in. One switch flip and this baby will eat elite shields for dinner. Kind of like that funny looking pistol you've been carrying around, Kowalski."
Kowalski looked down to his side arm, he had forgotten he was still using that Carnifex he had been given back on Reach. He had just come to accept it as another pistol, another gun in his arsenal.
"I take it if they're giving us the inter-dimensional stuff we're going someplace that's bad," Ellingham suggested.
Taylor was looking behind Ellingham as he spoke, noticing something he didn't.
"You may get your answer," He said. "Look at who is up in front."
Kowalski turned to see an ODST Major stepping up onto a series of boxes. Near him was a Spartan in light blue armour and Garrus Vakarian. They weren't climbing up on the crates like the Major, but they took positions beside him.
"Who's that?" Ramirez asked aloud.
Kowalski was grateful for the rookie's question, he didn't want to look ignorant or anything.
"Major Antonio Silva," Taylor answered. "He runs the ODST battalion detachment that was stationed on the Autumn. They put him in charge despite the fact he isn't a Colonel yet. He took this place with just his own group of troopers. Makes sense he's being put in charge of this operation."
"So why's he with a Spartan?" Pearson asked. "Last time I checked Drop Troops and Super-Soldiers didn't mix."
"Well, Colonel Holland is in charge," Taylor reasoned. "I guess he's more comfortable with a Spartan coming along."
Silva whistled hard, sticking two fingers into his mouth and blowing. Every Trooper and Marine suddenly stood at attention as he addressed them all.
"For those who don't know me, I am Major Antonio Silva of the ODSTs," he began. "These two beside me are Garrus Vakarian of the Normandy and Spartan B-320. You may call her Lieutenant Commander or Noble 2. And tonight, we're all going to become best friends, or die trying."
'That was a rather grim way of saying things,' Kowalski thought.
"As you all know," the Major continued. "We were forced to vacate the Autumn in quite a hurry. Since then, the Covenant has moved in to the hulking wreck. They can have the pile of junk as far as I'm concerned. However, we still need to get some of our stuff out of there. So, we're going to politely march in and take it back."
Kowalski should've known this raid was about supply recovery. With so many soldiers here, they'd need the extra supplies, especially if they intended to hold out for any extended period of time. At least he knew what to expect now. Maybe they'd be able to make off with a tank. That would be nice.
"Now, the Covenant are most certainly going to have a defence set up now. So we are going to split our attack into two forces," Silva continued to explain. "I will lead Team One, comprised of the bulk of my ODST squadrons. We will draw enemy fire in one direction. When they are sufficiently distracted, Team Two, headed by the Lieutenant Commander, will attack from the opposite side, flanking them. Once we have a perimeter secured, we will head inside the ship, grab what we can and extract our asses back home."
A simple enough plan, but Kowalski wondered how long it would last. After all, Silva didn't seem to know what kind of defences they were facing.
"We're going to be uploading mission specs to your squadron Commanders constantly," Silva assured them all. "First and foremost will be the inventory manifesto. The items on this list are things to look out for, vehicles, med-supplies, weapons, ammo, food stores, the works. Keep your Commanders informed of what you find so they can inform us. The omni-tools will keep us all in constant contact with one another. It should help coordinate our efforts in extracting as much as we can before we're forced to pull out. Review it quickly and get to your Pelicans."
Everyone looked over their copy of the manifesto which had just been sent to their squad leaders' omni-tools. Kowalski's squad gathered around Sergeant Taylor to see what they were going to be looking for. Most of it was either tanks, warthogs and ammo, but the top priority was rations. They weren't going to last long without food after all.
"Think there will be time to pick up personal affects?" Pearson asked. "We kinda left in a hurry and I didn't empty out my footlocker. My driving shades were in there."
"Assuming it even survived the crash, I doubt we'll have the time," Taylor informed him. "Let's worry about how we're going to get most of this stuff home and where we'll find it. Covenant could've moved most of it to make way for their own supplies."
"Man, are they gonna be surprised when we show up there," laughed Ellingham. "They probably aren't suspecting us to go on the offensive so early."
If nothing else, Silva's confidence in the plan and Vakarian tagging along with that Spartan gave Kowalski some much needed confidence. However, he was concerned about them being all on the same page. ODSTs and Spartans didn't work together all that well, he'd seen it on Reach. Maybe Garrus had won enough respect with them now, but he couldn't be sure.
The thought made him think back to Agley and Ellingham's argument from earlier. He looked to Agley, who was listening to things intently. Regardless, Kowalski could see Ellingham giving him the eye now and then. To be fair to Ellingham, everyone had already voiced their own displeasure with Agley once before, even Kowalski. He just hoped that, when push came to shove, Agley would prove he was still a Marine.
The Pelican touched down on the edge of the plateau and everyone quickly piled out. The Normandy's shuttle landed a few feet away, letting off more of the rescue team. Thanks to some quick recon, they had both managed to find a blind spot in the Covenant's ship's sensors as well as disguise their IFF signals as other Covenant dropships. It was the only way they could've gotten here without getting shot down.
Staff Sergeant Parker shouted out to his Marines as they set foot onto the ground.
"Hit it Marines," he ordered. "The Corps ain't paying us by the hour!"
Shepard exited with Tali and Kasumi right behind him. At the same time, Miranda, Mordin and Legion exited the shuttle and rushed over to them as the Pelican took off.
"Jacob radioed before on our way in," Miranda said to Shepard. "The Pelicans are on their way to the Autumn's crash site now. I've informed EDI to keep the Normandy close-by in stealth mode, just in case we need her."
"Good," Shepard said with a nod. "If we're walking into a trap we might need the extra firepower. Plus a way to quickly extract everyone if things get bad."
As they kept moving up they saw one Marine staring up at their target. The Truth and Reconciliation hovered high above, blocking out the star-lit sky and part of the massive gas giant the ring orbited. It certainly made their task seem all the more daunting.
"I'm starting to wish the Corps did issue me wings instead of a rifle." He said to himself aloud.
Shepard lightly tapped him on the shoulder as he walked past him.
"Hey, don't worry," he assured him. "I've faced bigger, way bigger. We'll be fine."
The rest of the Marines rushed up to their ready positions in the rocks, prepared to move in on command. Meanwhile, Shepard and his team assembled alongside the Master Chief and Spartan-058. They had gotten into Covenant territory without anyone spotting them, but that didn't change the fact that the enemy expected them. Cortana confirmed their suspicions.
"I'm detecting Covenant stationary guns in the next pass," she informed everyone. "Not a precise count on troop number, but there's definitely at least two squads worth of them, if the motion tracker is accurate."
"Which means an Elite for each," Linda added with a slight grumble. She looked to Shepard and asked, "Do we have eyes on them?"
Shepard quickly contacted said 'Eyes.'
"Thane, we're here, are you near our position?" He requested.
"I've been here for hours," Thane assured him. "They've set up two sets of guns, each cover the other. One of them is facing directly on your entrance route."
"Do you have a visual on their operators?" Shepard asked.
"I have better shot on the gun to the far end," Thane informed him. "The one facing you is a bit trickier."
Shepard nodded and looked to Chief.
"Our best bet would be to take out both guns simultaneously," he suggested. "We keep them out of action and they won't be killing any Marines when the shooting starts."
"That leaves the elites," Tali warned. "What do we do about them?"
"Leave them to me," Linda spoke up. "I'll take them out before they realise what's happened."
"Do we have a good place to set up a Sniper's perch from here?" Shepard asked.
Cortana quickly piped up with the answer.
"There is high ground to the right of the entrance to the pass," she notified him. "We can use the foliage and rocks up there as cover and pick off the gun operators."
A good plan, but they'd still need to get through what was left of the Covenant once the elites and guns were down. That would be the Marines' job. Shepard decided to give them a little extra help.
"Miranda, Mordin, you two hang back with the Marines until they move in," Shepard ordered them. "Legion will go with me and provide additional fire support. Tali, when you hear the shooting start, send in Chiktikka. Don't let her open fire unless she has to. We need her in position to flank them."
The squad nodded in acknowledgement and that seemed to be good enough for Cortana.
"Let's do this quick and clean then," she said. "I'll inform the Sergeant to hold back until the Covenant return fire. That should give us enough time to thin the ranks for them."
"Let's move then," Shepard agreed.
The team moved into their positions. Cortana informed Parker to stay put for the moment while everyone else got set up on the high ground. Below them, they could see more rocks and boulders blocking their field of vision. The guns were the only two things out in the open, raised up on their own high ground. Within the pass itself the elites patrolled, jackals at their sides while many of the grunts were either standing nearby the guns or sleeping against rocks.
"For every grunt awake there is always five more asleep just before an engagement," Cortana noted aloud. "I'm serious about that, I've done the math."
"They're not our problem," Chief reminded her. "I got a lock on one of the gunners. He's near the first gun facing the entranceway."
"I'm a bit more concerned about the back end of the area facing the cliff edge," Linda pointed out.
Shepard looked over to where she was pointing. It was past the second gun at the back of the pass. The cliff edge was a narrow strip of rock that led to the next pass. He could already tell what her concern was.
"If there's anyone nearby they're gonna rush in to protect their friends the second they hear gunfire," he reasoned. "Thane, keep that area covered and let us know if you see anyone moving up through there."
"On it, Shepard," Thane promised.
"Legion, you have the second gun," Shepard informed the AI. "If you have the shot, take it."
"Acknowledged, Shepard-Commander," replied Legion.
Chief had already lined up his shot on the first gunner's head, a grunt in red armour. At the moment the little alien was scratching his rear end, casually unaware of anything wrong. He didn't want to take the shot just yet, however.
"Linda, do you have the solution on one of the elites?" He asked.
"I have it," she said confidently to him.
"Alright," Chief said exhaling. "Everyone fire on my mark."
Chief levelled the crosshair over the grunt gunner's left eye and pressed his finger against the trigger just lightly enough to feel it begin to resist.
"Mark."
Chief pulled back the trigger the rest of the way. The rifle shot resounded throughout the pass as the bullet sliced through the air. The high velocity round punctured the grunt's eye socket. After a brief second where he remained standing, the alien collapsed face first into the dirt.
The second gunner at the far end of the pass met a similar fate. He was flung back into the bushes as Legion's round cut into the center of his forehead. The elite nearby looked back for a brief second, but would never get to fully process what happened. Linda's round easily punctured through the elite's shield and exited out the front of the alien's head. The bullet even caused the elite's blue helmet to go flying off as well. The way the bullet had entered his skull forced him to fall forwards, his body twisting as the bullet's exit from his forehead forced his head to return to its proper facing position.
Before the elite's body was even cold, Tali sent Chiktikka into the pass. The little drone quickly sped into the rocks, hiding from the Covenant still patrolling the area. Kasumi joined the drone, activating her cloak and sneaking into the enemy lines. Shepard watched it all unfold with cautious optimism.
Despite the noise the rifles made, the Covenant were still trying to assess what had just happened. Many of the grunts were heavy sleepers, apparently so deep in their dreams that the noise didn't faze them. The lone elite left, two jackals by his side as he patrolled, looked back briefly to see what had happened. His dead comrade was hidden in the grass behind a large rock that blocked his view and the dead grunt gunner was obscured by the hedges. However, he was still dangerously close to the first gunner that Chief had killed.
As he approached the body, with two of the jackals by his side, Linda zeroed in on him. She put her crosshairs over the alien. His red armour meant he had stronger shields, but they wouldn't last long against precise sniper fire. She aimed at center mass, although there was a jackal blocking her view a bit. She decided it didn't matter. The bird's skull would hardly be an obstacle. The second jackal would escape unscathed of course, but at least the leadership for the remaining Covenant would be decapitated.
Linda let the bullet fly and it sped across the open terrain. It slashed deep into the jackal's skull, exiting cleanly out one end before puncturing the side of the elite. The shields died instantly and the jackal collapsed into a heap. The elite looked down to see a terrible wound in his side. By the time he saw the gushing blood, however, it was too late. Linda fired another shot a half second after her first. It sliced into the elite's neck, puncturing a critical artery and guaranteeing his death.
It also guaranteed that the second jackal would realise where the shots were coming from. She turned to the high ground and cried out a high pitched screech. He opened fire on the high ground above as he raised his shield to protect himself. Linda ducked back into cover as the plasma fire came hurtling towards their position.
The remaining grunts and jackals suddenly found themselves under fire. They focused all they had on the high ground, leaving their rears exposed. It was the perfect opportunity for Chiktikka to make her move. Tali sent the drone into the fray proper now, manoeuvring her through the rocks towards one of the Covenant. The grunt took a full energy blast to the back, seized up and collapsed onto his side.
Chiktikka's attack caught the attention of the Covenant nearby. Jackals moved to block the drone's way, their shields absorbing Chiktikka's energy blasts. The brief reprieve allowed everyone on the high ground the chance to return fire on the enemy. It forced the Covenant to fall back into cover and took their attention off the entrance to the pass completely. It was then that the Marines poured into the pass, adding their own fire to the fight.
"Let'em have it!" Sergeant Parker cried out.
Bullets ripped into the grunts as the Marines overtook them. Those who survived began to fell back to the opposite end of the area. The jackals were forced to follow as their enemy encroached on their positions.
The grunt's retreat wasn't completely out of fear though. For one of their number, it was a show of initiative. Despite being a rare act, Cortana quickly spotted it immediately.
"Chief, one of the grunts is headed to the turret," she warned, placing a marker over the alien's head. "Take him out!"
Chief located the target, scrambling towards the turret in a last ditch effort to turn the tide of this fight. He would never make it. Chief fired a single shot into the alien's back. It hit at the back of his neck and the little grunt fell dead on the ground. Now there was nothing to stop the advancing Marines.
At the head of the group was Miranda, as Shepard expected. Using her biotics, she picked up one of the Jackals and then slammed him back hard into the ground, the concussive wave of energy knocked a nearby grunt off his feet. She quickly finished him off with two pistol shots to the back before he got up.
"Keep your heads low, Marines," Parker called out over the firefight. "They ain't tough, but their guns still hurt like a bitch!"
While Chiktikka continued to put pressure on the retreating Covenant, her quarian operator stayed close to Professor Mordin. One of the jackals was firing on them as he walked back with his shield. Two grunts were nearby, taking cover in the rocks as the two pushed forward.
Mordin used the situation to their advantage, firing off a cryo-blast from his omni-tool. The attack hit the jackal's shield, leaving the bird-like alien behind it unharmed. However, the two grunts had been caught in the blast radius and were now easy pickings. Tali took aim with her pistol, shattering the bodies of both frozen Covenant.
The jackal still seemed determined to fight on and charged up his plasma pistol in hopes of frying both Mordin and Tali's shields. It was then Shepard dropped down from above, landed behind the Covie and delivered a powerful biotic punch to the back of the jackal's head. The jackal's gun discharged into the air as his face ate dirt. Shepard didn't give him the chance to get back-up and fired a round point blank into the alien's back.
"Bout time you got into the fray," Tali joked. "We were about to win this one without you."
"You had it well in hand," Shepard joked right back. "I just like saving you."
Tali rolled her eyes, but giggled a little all the same. Miranda, who had overheard the conversation, however, was not as amused.
"You know, there are better times you two could do this," she informed them as she took cover nearby behind a rock.
"You know me, shameless." Shepard replied with a snark.
The discussion was then suddenly interrupted by Legion.
"Shepard-Commander," it shouted aloud. "We are detecting alien heat signatures moving in on this position!"
Shepard looked to the forward pass, taking cover with the others.
"Thane, you got eyes on?" He asked the drell. "We may have incoming."
"Nothing yet... wait!" Thane responded. "There are three coming around the ridge now."
Shepard looked as one elite flanked by two grunts rushed up the pass towards them, firing their plasma weapons at the assorted Marines. Thane quickly zeroed in on them, firing one shot that took out one of the grunts. The elite however tucked and rolled away from the next shot the drell fired. He aimed his plasma rifle up into the rocks and fired a barrage.
"He spotted me," Thane said through gritted teeth. "I'm relocating."
At least Thane had taken out some of his support. They would need to catch the elite off guard, however. He now knew there were snipers about and was keeping himself in cover. There were still a few stragglers the Marines were mopping up. They would need to deal with this new development fast before he somehow organized them.
"Kasumi," Shepard called out through his radio. "Please tell me our Ace is in play here."
"Relax, Shep," Kasumi's chipper voice replied. "You know I got your back."
The second gun turret suddenly moved, aiming towards the elite and his grunt behind the rock.
"I also got his," she declared.
The turret suddenly began firing, even though there was no operator inside. Before long Kasumi appeared, firing off plasma blasts at the unsuspecting elite. The grunt took the full brunt of the assault. Riddled with plasma blasts he fell dead almost instantly.
The elite's shields held up and he rolled away from the turret's fire. He tossed a plasma grenade at the turret and Kasumi bailed out as the blue ball arched towards her. Her cloaked activated once more as she hit the ground and the grenade fell into the turret's seat. The explosion sent the gun hurtling off the side of the cliff.
"Kas!" Tali shouted out over the comm, greatly concerned about whether the thief had escaped the blast.
"I'm okay!" Kasumi's voiced quickly replied. "My ears are ringing a bit though."
Tali breathed a sigh of relief. However, while Shepard was glad Kasumi was okay and she had taken out the last grunt to boot, they still had an elite to deal with. He had gone back to ground and was keeping a steady stream of fire on their position. One alien, by himself, was holding back the entire advance. There was a reason these guys were the Covenant's frontline fighters.
"I'm gonna go in from the side," Shepard said. "Chief, Legion, give me cover fire. Five-Eight, stay on the cliff edge pass. Nothing else gets through."
"Nothing will," Linda promised.
Shepard moved through the rocks, past Marines trying to force the elite out of his cover with sporadic fire. The Covie was dug in well though, and even outnumbered he was still holding his own. As Shepard got closer to the flank, Legion and Chief opened up on the rock he was using for cover. It pinned him down and kept him more focused on the sniper threat once more. Shepard had a clear shot from across the way now, the perfect moment to charge right into him.
He propelled forward, biotic energy trailing from him as he sped forward. He caught the elite in the chest, forcing him back into wall of stone the rock touched. The Commander now pulled out his shotgun and prepared to fire point blank into the alien. But the elite had recovered quickly enough to duck away from Shepard's shotgun blast. He charged forward himself and knocked the Commander to the ground with a thud.
The elite now aimed for the Commander's head, but his while his body was still within the protection the rock provided, his charge had positioned him forward enough that one could see his trigger hand. It was enough for the Master Chief. He fired a single round and let the bullet cut clean through the elite's wrist. The alien dropped the gun, screaming in pain, as Shepard levelled the shotgun at the elite's head and fired.
"Good save, Chief." Shepard quickly thanked the Spartan over the radio.
"Wasn't all me. Cortana helped me get a good bead on the enemy, sir." Chief replied.
"A little something Ms. Zorah programmed into me," Cortana quickly clarified. "An improved target systems program she apparently made on Reach as I recall. I've been waiting for a chance to use it."
Shepard made a mental note to thank Tali for mothering over Cortana so much for the past few weeks. However, that would have to wait, as a new development appeared. A gang of grunts quickly rushed down the cliff edge pass, waddling their way into battle. One of them hefted a plasma grenade high into the air.
"Heads up!" Was what Shepard believed his translator picked up from the little alien.
The grunt loosed the grenade soon after, but the explosive wouldn't get far. A thin smoky trail careened into the deadly wad of plasma and caused it to explode. The airburst was so close to the three grunts that the power of the blast forced the trio to fall clean off the side of the cliff to their deaths.
Linda loaded a fresh magazine into her rifle as the plasma cloud dissipated.
"I'm counting that as three by the way," she informed the Chief casually.
"Fair enough," he replied.
Even Miranda was impressed by the shot.
"Maybe I should've paid more attention when my father took up skeet shooting," she reasoned aloud.
"Garrus is going to be so jealous when he hears this," Tali added with a chuckle.
As Shepard got himself to his feet, he heard something else coming up the cliff edge pass. It sounded like the clacking of jackal feet. He got his pistol ready, wondering how many more of these Covenant were coming their way.
But as they rounded the bend, one of the jackals tripped and fell on his face. The second, surprised by what had just happened, stopped in his tracks and tried to shield his friend. Instead, Kasumi appeared beside him and delivered powerful slash to his head with her omni-blade. The jackal collapsed to the ground beside his friend and Kasumi fired a round into the downed enemy, ending the threat for good.
"Still your Ace, Shep?" Kasumi asked as the Commander walked over.
"Always, Kasumi," Shepard replied smiling.
The Marines finally pushed up, a little high on their victory.
"Hey, we did it!" One said "We're right behind you, Chief! You too, Commander!"
It was nice to see their confidence in the mission boost a little in any case.
Chief was the first to get up to the Commander, followed swiftly by the others.
"No more incoming Covenant signatures detected," said Legion. "Further Covenant presence, however, detected further up along the plateau. Estimated seventeen meters until new contacts encountered."
"How do you know that?" Tali asked with an inquisitive look.
"Interception of low frequency inter-communication between Covenant detected," Legion explained.
But Tali's question wasn't so much about the method but the means.
"I mean, how are your scanners able to detect the Covenant so early?" She asked.
Legion looked apprehensive about the question for a mere moment, but finally relented.
"We are boosting our systems with the assistance of program DOT," He explained. "We believed it would be beneficial to the mission to supplement our capabilities with each other."
Tali slapped the forehead of her visor in a disgruntled fashion, a frustrated groan exiting her lips.
"Legion! We had this conversation! Just today in fact! I thought you had put DOT back in her storage unit!" She shouted at him angrily.
"The Covenant attacked before we could properly reinstall her," the geth tried to explain. "We had no choice but to remain with her."
"You had plenty of time on the way to Alpha Base to do just that!" Tali barked at him. "Now you're telling me you've been interfacing with each other all day? Legion, we went over the risks of this!"
DOT's voice suddenly interjected through Legion's voice box.
"Chief Engineer Tali'Zorah, we apologize," she dutifully responded. "I suggested to Legion that we remain connected. After the successful recovery of several lost Marines and Troopers using our connection, I deemed that it would be more beneficial to the current mission if we remained interfaced."
"Good intentions or no, DOT," Tali started as she glared at the two AI. "The fact is you are both putting yourselves at risk remaining this way. Geth hardware is not designed for AIs of your nature and the two of you being connected in such a way is having a serious effect on both of your neural functions. Not might have an effect, it is having an effect."
"We have not encountered any malfunctions," Legion argued. "I think you are vastly overestimating the effects of this interfacing. We remained connected to assist in the mission. Why do you find my actions so disagreeable when they have done nothing but benefit us?"
Tali just glared at Legion harder. The Geth soon understood the meaning.
"We just referred to ourselves in the singular," it presumed.
"Twice," Tali elaborated. "It's getting worse, Legion. The more you do this, the more your systems are going to be corrupted by it. It needs to stop."
Shepard put a hand on Tali's shoulder, trying to calm her.
"We can't exactly send him back now, Tali." He told her. "They're here now and it does seem like them interfacing is giving us an edge. Maybe we should just make the best of it."
But Tali wasn't having any of it. She looked back to Shepard, who could already tell her answer to his suggestion.
"We can do what's best for both of them so they don't start glitching out in the middle of a fight," she declared adamantly. "That is what could happen as they both lose their ability to distinguish their programming traits from one another. I'm not going to let them purposely hurt themselves."
"Organics hurt themselves on a regular basis as we have observed frequently," Legion disputed. "Most of said actions occur to elicit a social interaction of some kind. We do not see how this is different from..."
Tali looked back to Legion, still fuming.
"I don't want to hear it," Tali informed him. "Organics also keep bad habits from getting worse if they think there is a problem. And that's what I'm doing right now for your own good."
Tali stretched out her arm and activated her omni-tool.
"Transmit DOT to my omni-tool," she told Legion. "She can still help out, you can still talk to each other, but you will not interface directly or constantly anymore."
Legion looked at Tali, looking rather confused and put back.
"Creator Tal-"
"Now," she demanded, cutting off the geth before he got further.
Legion looked around, but quickly decided not to argue anymore. The geth opened up its systems, accessed Tali's tool and uploaded DOT into it. Tali then checked quickly to see she was inside and then calmed herself.
"I'm doing this because I don't want to see you or her get hurt, Legion," Tali tried to assure the synthetic. "I hope you see that. If I thought there was no risk I wouldn't be bringing this up so much."
Legion didn't say anything back to her, it just walked away, its single eye closed slightly and its plates drooping weakly from its head. As Tali watched the geth walk past her, she sighed and shook her head glumly. DOT spoke up from her Omni-Tool.
"I never wished to cause so much distress." She said. "I only wished to help."
"I know you didn't mean to, I know you both didn't mean to." Tali assured her. She sighed inwardly at the moment, taking in everything she said. "Legion should've told me about this earlier though. I guess they reasoned I'd react like this."
"Do you really think if they keep interfacing this will get worse?" Miranda asked sincerely.
"Legion's systems are becoming less adept at distinguishing from DOT's data stream," Tali explained. "The fact Legion's glitches are becoming more frequent and that DOT was even able to access the platform's voice box itself, not just speak though Legion's omni-tool, is proof of that. The more time they stay together in the same space, the more difficult it will be for the systems to figure out which runtimes and which streams are being processed."
Seeing that some of the group didn't seem to fully understand, Tali used an analogy to better illustrate it all.
"It's like running two different incompatible software programs on the same server with no split hard drive to distinguish the two," she attempted to explain. "It is going to get messy, there are going to be more bugs and you're going to increase the risk of a crash even more. I'm not going to let that happen to either Legion or DOT."
For Shepard, it seemed like an amazing amount of concern from Tali, especially considering it was all centered on Legion. They had gotten closer, but this just seemed very different. Shepard thought of asking where it was all coming from, but he didn't wish to pry too far in. Besides, they still had a job to do, as Cortana reminded them all.
"We need to keep moving," she reminded them. "The Captain won't wait forever. Although I would like to see your data later, Tali, maybe I can help."
"I'd appreciate that, Cortana, for Legion's sake at the very least," the quarian replied graciously.
"Alright then," Miranda said nodding. "If that is settled, let's get moving. We still have a pilot to save."
"And Jack," Kasumi quickly reminded her.
Miranda bit the bottom of her lip.
"Yeah, of course, that goes without saying." She quickly added, slightly exasperated.
The group moved up with the other Marines, leaving Chief with Shepard.
"You get a lot of drama like that on the Normandy?" The Spartan asked him.
"Sometimes it's worse," Shepard admitted.
'Guns-pointed-at-a-synthetic's-head-in-the-AI-Core ' worse, but he didn't say that aloud. He just hoped the rest of this mission would be devoid of that now that the problem was gone.
Varvok had planned on using his time to prepare for Shepard's arrival, but the relocation of a significant number of his men had become a greater concern. The Covenant was able to order them where they pleased, but they couldn't keep him from checking in on them. He tried to get an assessment of what exactly the Covenant were trying to accomplish, what these excavation sites were about. Unfortunately, his men could only provide him with more questions than answers.
"Our site's radio got hit, so they couldn't call in," Explained Sergeant Kreka through the transmission screen. "Funny thing is though, once we helped them fix it, the Sangheili in charge forced us out. He didn't even say thanks. I'd just say it was typical, but he looked more frantic than angry."
"What about the other units?" Varvok asked him. "Any similar problems encountered on their end?"
"One team says their Sangheili commanders weren't around," Kreka answered. "The unggoy and kig-yar said they had gone after the machines, pushed deeper into the facility and forced everyone else to keep watch on the higher levels. They haven't heard back from them, but the Covenant are apparently sending in replacements in case they aren't coming back."
Varvok couldn't believe a bunch of machines, no matter how advanced, could so easily get the best of a squad of Sangheili. Even outnumbered, they couldn't have all been killed so easily.
"You think they were trapped inside somehow?" He asked the Sergeant. "Maybe the machines triggered some kind of lockdown."
"That's probably what the replacements are going to find out," Kreka surmised. "Meanwhile, over here, they're not even letting us near the excavation entrance. Whole place is off limits. They told us it's because we aren't a part of their faith and crap, but I can feel it, sir. They're antsy, like they're waiting on something."
"Perhaps further clarification of their orders," Varvok suggested. "They may have changed due to the current events."
Kreka shrugged a little and looked away from the camera.
"Maybe," he grunted.
Varvok raised an eyebrow at the remark, but continued pressing on other matters.
"I haven't heard from Teams Six and Seven," he told Kreka. "Have they gotten in touch with you?"
"They got sent to the same site, but the last thing I heard from them was that all communication was getting blacked out from their location," Kreka stated. "It seems that once the sangheili over there got in contact with command, they were ordered to go dark."
But why? They had been trying to get updates from all sites and now they were being ordered to go dark. That didn't make any sense. His mind wondered if the purpose was to keep the men in that location from contacting him. But why would the Covenant want to cut them off from him? Was this their way of reasserting that they were in charge? Varvok didn't know, but he sensed Kreka had an idea. The way he was speaking, the suspicious air in his voice, everything seemed off.
"Sergeant," he began. "I can tell something is on your mind. Do you have an idea about what is going on there?"
Kreka looked around him quickly before he answered.
"Frankly sir," he started cautiously, his voice lowered. "This place gives me the creeps. The sangheili look on edge and you don't see that often. Nothing gets to them, so that's got me worried. They're hiding something from us, sir. Something they don't want us to know about. Maybe they found something down in those bunkers they're digging up, maybe not, but the point is they're not telling us the whole story."
A few hours ago, Varvok would've told Kreka to relax and remind him of the mission, maybe even assure him things were going to be okay. But that was before the Covenant had made it clear what they thought of him. Given the evidence Kreka had given him, he admitted to himself that something did indeed feel wrong about all of this.
"Sometimes you have to trust your instincts," Varvok told him. "Keep an eye on your men and on the sangheili. I'll see if I can get you back here. For now, comply with the Covenant and keep clear of that excavation site. If something in there has them spooked we want no part of it. Tell the other Squad Commanders, just to be sure."
Kreka just nodded in compliance.
"Good luck on your end, sir," he said as he signed off.
Varvok couldn't help but be suspicious about all this. Maybe it was Zek and his pirates still in his head, but he couldn't shake the bad feeling he had. He just hoped his men would stay out of harm's way until he got there. For now, he had to stop Shepard. With any luck it would gain him enough favour with the Supreme Commander that he'd be able to gain more clout in this operation. At the very least, he'd be able to keep the blasted Covenant from stealing his command away again.
They had to trek about a mile in after they landed. The Pelicans could've been spotted if they got closer. They soon arrived at the staging area, a series of rocks overlooking the Autmun's crash site. The ship had crashed near a sea side cliff, its' nose leaning off the edge. Most of the ship's girth was resting on the ground, so the ship was more than likely stable enough. It appeared to be, for the most part, intact. That was no doubt owed to UNSC engineering.
For that reason alone, it was little surprise the Covenant had so quickly taken up residence in the ship. They obviously had no intention of using the weapons inside. No, they were only here to make sure no one who wasn't Covenant got inside. The heavy defences they had set up around the perimeter almost certainly assured that would remain the case. Breaking in would not be as easy as they had hoped.
Garrus watched the Covenant defenders through his scope. They had coverage over every major chokepoint. He spied a number of Jackals up high on the bulkheads of the ship, acting as snipers. There were Ghosts parked at the near back of the inner perimeter, their elite drivers standing by to go at a moment's notice. The real concern Garrus had, however, were the turrets. They were spaced appropriately apart, giving the Covenant a lot of coverage over a wide area. Despite underestimating humans, they weren't taking any chances.
There had to be a weakness in the defence though. After a good while of checking, he believed he had an idea. He went to confer with Kat about it. He would've gone to talk to both her and Silva, but he was away on his own little recon mission for the moment. That, and Garrus had a feeling the Major wasn't in the mood to talk to aliens anyway.
At least Kat was willing to listen.
"Are you sure?" She asked him.
"We're going to get slaughtered if we stick to the original plan," he reiterated. "A pincer movement could still work, but if we try to charge them we won't last long. We need to get close enough to take out the majority of their gunners, remove their coverage, but without eliminating the element of surprise. If they believe we're already inside their lines then they'll put more focus on trying to expel us first. That would allow a second team to hit them while their back is turned and really get inside their ranks."
"Sounds risky as hell, Garrus," Jun expressed as he twirled a bullet in his fingers. "We may get spotted before we're able to get into position."
"It's better than charging forward and risking one of the pincers failing because the plasma rakes them," Garrus replied. "And as long as we stick to our cover we should be okay."
"Problem," Zaeed spoke up. "How do we convince the good Major? He isn't exactly fond of you, given how he keeps giving you the damn eyes every time you get close to him."
"We can figure out a way to persuade him," Garrus assured the old mercenary. "We work with Shepard after all. We must've picked up a few pointers from that silver tongue of his by now."
In all honesty, however, Garrus wasn't so sure he had much of a chance at convincing Silva. A part of him hoped that his concern for his fellow ODSTs would win out over his obvious prejudice. He thought about asking either Jacob or Zaeed to suggest the plan to him, or at least have Kat back him up on things.
"We'll try and talk to him," Kat told him. "But we should hear what he thinks of the situation first."
They soon saw they wouldn't have to wait long to find out. Major Silva, along with Lieutenant McKay and Sergeant Buck, was moving up towards their position higher in the rocks. He passed by several Marines, ODSTs and Army Troopers on his way up. They were all laying low in the rock, waiting for the inevitable signal to start moving in.
Silva soon hunched down beside Garrus and Kat, looking a little flustered.
"They seem to have the place covered pretty tight," he stated. "We're going to have to alter our plan a bit if we stand any chance of breaking their lines."
Garrus inwardly breathed a small sigh of relief. If he was already open to changing tactics maybe he wouldn't make much of a stink over his new plan.
"I agree," Kat quickly concurred. "Those guns seem to have every angle covered and the snipers on the ship's bulkhead will make things even more difficult for us. Do you have a suggestion?"
"We have rocket launchers," Silva pointed out. "An opening barrage would knock out most of the turrets on one flank. My ODSTs could then move in during the confusion and your team will then hit them from your end. A small change, I'll admit, but effective enough that we won't have to worry about close to half the guns."
Garrus admitted that it could work. Silva's strategy was certainly less risky than his plan. However, it wouldn't deal with all the guns. Team Two would still have to charge in with a mostly full array of turrets pointing in their direction. The facts of the matter didn't slip by Kat either.
"You're asking my team to take on the bulk of the guns while your ODSTs move in for the first blow," she pointed out to him. "You may kill half their turrets, but that won't help out our flank. I think a simultaneous strike on their perimeter defences would prove more beneficial."
"I imagine you'll be able handle the extra work, Lieutenant Commander," Silva stated. "You are built for it after all."
There was a brief but painful period of anxiety as Kat looked at the Major. She then turned to Garrus.
"Vakarian here has a different strategy. One I think can work in tandem with yours." She began.
Garrus silently grumbled.
'Way to put me in the hot seat', he thought to himself.
"I was thinking," he started trying not to sound too unsure of himself. "We could get Team Two close enough that we're practically within their perimeter already and launch a surprise attack. We'd be able to kill most of their gunners on our end before they notice what had happened. We wouldn't have to rush forward on either side in a lighting strike attack."
"And how would you get close enough that they don't notice you?" Silva asked sceptically.
Garrus breathed deep and pointed out towards the ship and the large gash it had left in the earth.
"We can crawl along that gash," he elaborated. "Then we could use it as a makeshift trench. It would provide us sufficient cover and we'd be in perfect position to line up shots on the Covenant defenders."
Silva eyed the gash with a glare, shaking his head all the while.
"That is going to take you a lot of time to pull off," Silva informed the turian. "We'd be left exposed after our first strike waiting for you to pull off yours."
"Then maybe Team Two should initiate first contact," Kat suggested. "Then your men could fire those rockets and destroy the remaining turrets."
Silva looked at Kat like he had just been insulted.
"You're asking the ODSTs to be the second ones into the fight?" He asked, seemingly in disbelief.
"No," Kat replied coolly. "We're informing you of a better way. Your men won't be any less important to our success just because they go in second."
Despite his discomfort, Silva did look like he was thinking the idea over in his head. At the very least he was starting to consider it. Thankfully, McKay finally spoke up to ease the concerns that held him back from giving the go ahead.
"Sir," she began. "I think it could work. I've gotten a good look at both sides. I could probably point out a few of the turrets in Team One's way to them. We wouldn't have to waste as many rockets."
"Romeo is a pretty good shot too," Buck suddenly spoke up. "I can add to their firepower if I go with them, take out a few extra Covies too."
Silva finally relented with a curt nod. With ODSTs working on both ends of the assault, he seemed to have been placated enough that he warmed to Garrus' strategy.
"Alright," he said. "But you better get moving, Lieutenant Commander. The longer we're out here the more dangerous this situation gets."
"I'm aware of that," Kat assured him.
Silva left Buck and McKay behind to organize his men. It had all gone over better than Garrus expected and even better, Buck was coming along now.
"Hope this plan of yours turns out okay, Garrus," the Sergeant told him. "I'd hate to think I just volunteered for a suicide mission."
"I volunteered for a suicide mission and I'm okay," Garrus shot back sarcastically.
"That's debatable," Buck joked back at him. "Just get us close to those guns and we'll put them out of commission."
He knew he could count on Buck, but McKay was a different story. Garrus barely knew her, save for the fact she was Silva's right hand. It was a bit of a surprise to him that she had volunteered. Garrus didn't like acting paranoid, but he couldn't help but wonder the reason why. Kat felt the same way.
"You realise while you're working on my team you'll have to follow my lead, Lieutenant," the Spartan informed her. "Do you take issue with that?"
"None ma'am," McKay replied instantly. "We have a mission. That comes first before anything."
"I honestly wonder if your Major feels the same way," Kat told her, crossing her arms.
McKay seemed a bit bothered by the comment, but not entirely surprised. Without breaking her military stance, she coolly replied to Kat's statement.
"Major Silva is a good man, but he sometimes let's his opinion cloud things," she admitted to her. "Try to understand, however, he has a particular idea of how the military should work. That and despite being in command of the Battalion he was not offered the position of Lieutenant Colonel. War brings out the worst in people and institutions, including bureaucracy."
Garrus imagined Shepard could relate to that. Despite running his own ship he still hadn't been promoted to Captain. Then again, he wasn't in the Alliance anymore, so it was somewhat out of their hands for the moment. Shepard never seemed to have let it get to him though. Never once did he complain about not being called Captain. And that included the time before Tali started calling him that on and off. It was a quarian thing he supposed, one that felt a bit weird to him. It was either that or a girlfriend thing, which still felt weird.
Garrus, realising his thoughts were drifting, went back to listening to McKay.
"Despite what you think, Silva is an incredible Field Commander and I'm proud to serve alongside him. That does not mean I always agree with his assessments," the Lieutenant confided in them. "I have no grudge against Spartans, never have. You've saved countless lives in this war and that's something to be admired for. The true measure of a soldier, I feel, is not in the battles you win, but the people you protect in doing it."
"Good philosophy to live by," Jun chimed in, before turning to Kat. "We should really get going though."
Kat nodded, but turned one last time to McKay.
"For what it's worth, Lieutenant, I appreciate the sentiment and agree with you," she assured her. "If my own Commander was here, he'd feel the same way too. Now then, let's get in there and get our stuff back shall we?"
McKay seemed relieved at the acknowledgement from the Spartan and smiled slightly. Kat walked off with everyone else behind her. They'd gather up the rest of the team and move out. Garrus kept his eyes on Kat, however. She had let her thoughts drift a little herself back there. Now more than ever he was glad to be here. He'd have to wait to talk to her though. They still had guns to clear.
The jackal on top of the small ridge opened up on the group below. Everyone was forced to duck to cover behind the large dead tree along the path or the series of rocks scattered about it. Thane eased his crosshairs onto the top of the Jackal's head and fired. The bullet shot down and hit the top of the bird-creature's head. He fell over the side of the ridge and down onto the ground below, frightening a grunt that he landed near.
At least the Master Chief had taken out the gunner on the edge of the ridge on that first shot. A jackal firing behind his shield was considerably less dangerous than a fully automatic plasma hose. That didn't mean they could relax, however. Thane's position on top of the cliffs gave him a perfect view of everything down below. There was a second gun for one, as well as a small compliment of elites trying to direct the firefight. He would have to pick his targets carefully.
He had already decided the second gun would be the first to go, as it was lined up with the team's route deeper into Covenant territory. Shepard could handle the grunts and jackals below for now and none of the elites were currently a problem.
He set his sights directly below him instead. This would be an easy kill, as the grunt was too focused on what was about to come around the bend to be mindful of all his surroundings. Thane lined up the shot perfectly and fired. The grunt's head was split down the middle by a shredder round. The turret was no longer a threat.
However, as he pulled back the scope's magnification, he saw a threat he had missed. One of the elites had been hiding in a small alcove between the ridge and his cliff. From out of the shadows, he rushed forward towards the charging ground team. He fired into the Marines rushing forward, nailing one of them in the back. He fell forward, the space between his shoulder blades smoking.
Thankfully, the Master Chief honed in on the incoming plasma shots and quickly opened up on the elite. He peppered the alien with rounds, but they just bounced off the shield. The elite dodged and ducked subsequent incoming fire. He closed the distance with the Spartan, only to receive a powerful blow to his jaw courtesy of the stock of Chief's rifle. The elite tried to recover and aimed to the pummel the Spartan with his own weapon, but the Chief caught the arm before it could swing down fully.
Thane kept an eye on the whole scene through his scope, hoping to catch a moment where he could shoot the elite without harming the Spartan. Chief continued to punch the elite in the jaw, his plasma weapon discharging in the air. The elite remained resolute regardless and managed to kick the Spartan away at last.
However, as he was pushed away, Chief grabbed at the plasma rifle and pried it from the Elite's grasp. It was of little consequence for the alien, he pulled out his plasma pistol as a back-up. He was able to get off a shot first, but Chief rolled away the second he touched dirt. The plasma blast only hit a bush and Chief fired a furious volley from the plasma rifle at the elite. The Covie shuddered at every hit. With his shields dwindling, he made a run for it.
Thane still had him in his sights though. He fired a shot at the elite and the bullet hit him in the back hip. It cut through the alien's shields, wiping them out, and wounded him gravely. Chief wasted no time in using the moment to his advantage and fired another burst from his assault rifle. The Covenant officer was hit center mass and collapsed dead to the ground.
"Nice shot, Thane," Chief said through his radio as he ran back into the fight.
"I was trying to aim for the square of his back," Thane informed him humbly. "I may need to fix the sights on this gun. Thank you for the compliment though."
He could already see the remaining grunts and at least two jackals making a hasty retreat around the ridge. The Marines were in hot pursuit, Shepard close by with the rest of the team. Thane kept a close eye on them, he wasn't about to let his guard down just because that elite was dead. If anything, it made him more wary of the elites still on the field.
Miranda fired her submachine gun into the fleeing crowd, only for a Jackal to turn and block the incoming shots aimed at him. The Normandy's XO easily made one of her pull attacks loop around the side of the alien, forcing him into the air. A few seconds later, she followed it up with a warp attack, detonating the biotic energy surrounding the target and killing him.
By now the rescue team had split up considerably within the area. Most of the Marines, Sergeant Parker included, went off after the grunts that were fleeing towards the turret guns. If any of them made it back to those turrets it would most certainly become a problem.
Thane would've selected any one of the front runner grunts as targets, but the situation was already well in hand. Both Linda and Legion had rushed to the top of the ridge and were providing sniper fire on the fleeing grunts' flank. Miranda was also with the Marines on their push, firing her heavy pistol into the backs of the fleeing aliens and tossing out warp attacks to further slow their dash for the turrets. Together, they kept the little gas suckers from reaching their goal, cutting them down with ease. No sense in wasting bullets on that.
Meanwhile, two elites had regrouped on the top of a small hill that overlooked the whole area. They had the high ground for the moment and they were using it to their full advantage. They had a jackal up there with them, providing what little cover he could afford on the mostly barren hill top. The nimble little bird was doing an adequate job keeping up with the incoming shots to say the least.
Eventually, Shepard had enough and let loose a shockwave that tossed the jackal into the air. The elites dove out of the way before they could get caught, but the momentarily lapse in their fire allowed Shepard to get up close, Chief closing in as well. Both Tali and Mordin moved in
Mordin had scooped up a plasma pistol from the ground and fired a charged bolt at the Chief's elite. The alien's shields fell, but that didn't necessarily carry over to him. He tried to fire back on Mordin, only for the Chief to body-check him to the ground. Chief aimed his gun to blast the alien's head off, but the Elite caught the rifle in his hand and pushed it up. The weapon discharged into the soil instead. Chief then decided to just kick the alien's head in before pounding his fist into him for a final blow.
Tali had sent Chiktikka forward to help out Shepard. The elite, however, was able to manage his time between the two foes. Shepard fired off his shotgun once again, only for the elite to roll and the blast to miss. When Chiktikka got up behind the elite, the alien fired down into the drone before it could get off a shot.
Thankfully, Chief had dealt with his elite by now and offered some assistance by firing two shots from his sniper rifle that dropped the Covie's shields down and broke his avoiding streak. Chief then tossed Shepard a plasma grenade off his dead elite, inactivate of course. Shepard caught the explosive, primed it and then let the elite rush forward, firing his plasma rifle. Shepard dove to the side and turned in the air to throw his grenade at the elite's back. It stuck onto the alien's left shoulder blade, but the elite didn't stop. He kept running towards the Chief, who fired every round in his assault rifle in hopes of stopping the alien cold.
Thane was about to shoot the elite, but soon found that unnecessary as well. Mordin threw a neural shock attack that froze the alien in place. As insult to injury, Tali fired a blast from her shotgun that forced the alien to roll down the hill away from them, before unceremoniously exploding.
"Think that was a little overkill?" Cortana's voice chimed in over the team's open channel with the Spartans and the Normandy squad.
"Maybe a bit," Tali admitted.
"Better to make sure the enemy stays down," Mordin suggested.
"Works for me," the Chief added.
It all looked pretty much like a successful skirmish, but Thane remained vigilant. He looked on ahead to the path on the ledge that would lead to the next section and saw three grunts running across it. They had their weapons trained on Shepard and Chief's position, but Thane wouldn't give them the chance to get off a shot. He fired once, taking out a grunt through the eyes. His body went limp against the wall of the cliff, stopping his compatriots in their tracks. He switched targets, fired again and caught the next grunt through his mouth. He collapsed onto the ledge. The final grunt tried to retreat, but Thane tracked him up the path and let off another shot. He caught him in the back of the neck. He watched the alien fall off the side of the ledge and into the abyss below.
"Your way is clear, Commander." He informed Shepard.
Shepard looked on Thane's handiwork and congratulated the drell jubilantly.
"It's good to have you watching our backs, Thane," he told him. "Meet us at the next defensive position. We're over halfway to the gravity lift."
"I'll see you there," Thane promised. "Keep your heads down until I get to you."
As always, a little patience, a little skill and a little luck were all a professional sniper needed. The Covenant were putting up a tough fight though, and once they got inside that ship hovering over their heads all bets would be off. He hoped Jack and Joker could hold out awhile longer. Something told Thane that the next pass, along with the gravity lift itself, wouldn't be so easily taken.
Garrus kept his body close to the ground as they crawled forward along the gash in the earth. It was slow going, but it was their best bet at not getting spotted by the Covenant. Everyone was maintaining the same level of silence, no chatter, no nothing. Not until they got in position. They weren't about to get spotted this close to the Covenant turrets. Garrus himself could hear the idle chatter of a few grunts and their elite overseers. That was how quiet, and how close, they were.
Regardless of the risky strategy he was employing, he had full confidence in their ability to pull it off. Samara and Jacob were on the biotic angle, they had plenty of well trained marksmen on the team, Kat was coordinating things, he had a trusted friend in Buck and Grunt was, well, Grunt. All of that made him pretty confident.
Buck and his team weren't the only familiar faces along for the ride. When they were rounding up Troopers and Marines for the mission, Garrus spotted a familiar face within the Trooper ranks, Corporal Ann Sanders. She had been among the Army troopers that had assisted him in getting to the Autumn with that fragment of Cortana when Reach fell. He knew she had gotten aboard the ship before the planet fell, but he didn't expect to find her on mission. She, and what was left her squad, had been folded into Holland's division. Needless to say, she was happy to see the scarred turian again.
"I saw you were on this one," she had said to him. "Didn't think we'd run into each other again, but hey, small ring world."
She seemed pretty eager to get cracking on this mission, telling Garrus she still wanted some payback for being stuck running from the damn Covenant since Reach. When she started hearing rumours about a counter-attack, she jumped at the chance to join. Garrus was glad to have her, another friendly face among the group made him feel more at ease.
In good time, they eventually made it as far along the gash as they could. They were now within a good distance of the enemy perimeter. Not close enough to be spotted, but not far enough away that they couldn't get a good bead on their targets. Garrus quickly checked the positions of the turrets, scanning the defence lines carefully.
"I'm kinda wishing Legion was here," he stated. "They could've pinpointed these targets for all of us."
"Can you see some of the snipers from here?" McKay asked.
Garrus looked up on the bulkhead. Sure enough, he could pinpoint a few of them, but there were a number who appeared to be out of sight, blocked by the massive bulk of the ship.
"At least the ship offers some additional cover from sniper fire," he reasoned.
"We should still keep an eye on them," Jun warned. "If the ones that can potentially see us notice something is wrong, we're toast."
"With any luck, Silva will be ready to start firing those rockets before that," Kat rationalized. "Until then, we pick the targets and we take them down. Tell the squads to fan out along the gash. We need to get a decent amount of coverage. We're practically on their backsides sitting here. If they want to engage us properly they'll have to come out of their protective little layer of defences. By then, Silva will have started his attack and then we can make our move."
The word spread down the line and soon every sharpshooter and rifleman was set up and had their eyes trained down the firing line. They had to be careful they weren't picking the same targets, they wanted to hit as many of the gunners on the first barrage.
It required a lot of communication. Luckily, Kat was on hand to offer, double checking each of the critical turrets that were in their sights. The omni-tools the squad leaders had been supplied were of great help as well, properly transmitting covered sectors and intel among the squads. Everyone kept informed of what Covenant were in the area and specific targets to watch out for after the first shot was fired. It would still take awhile before they were all ready to start shooting.
Garrus kept his eyes on his target for over ten minutes while everyone got prepared. He kept watching the grunt adjust himself in his seat, strain his neck now and then to see over the massive gun in his face and even scan the area around him regularly to look on the others gunners in his section. It was peculiar to look this long at the little methane breather. Garrus had gotten use to them being the fastest to die.
Those ten minutes gave Garrus a lot of time to think about his target. It was all he could do. For him, it felt like a new experience. He had always been so confident in pulling the trigger countless times before. Even with other gas suckers he hadn't hesitated and that wouldn't change.
Regardless, he could see in his target's eyes how he didn't want to be here anymore than these Marines did. He looked cold, he looked tired and he generally looked ill at ease sitting in that turret of his. Most of his targets were monsters or scum, he had never thought he'd have targets that he could empathise with somewhat. But he couldn't deny what he felt, his crosshairs shook every now and then and his breathing had grown heavier.
It was a shame Garrus kept to himself, but wondered if anyone felt the same way. He doubted many of the Marines cared much by now about these enslaved methane breathers. Maybe Silva had a point when he said they didn't belong on this mission.
In the end though, the lives of these Marines versus the life of an enemy trumped everything else in his book. It would just be another thing added to the long list of regrets that he unfortunately had built up over the years. C-Sec, the failed entry into the Spectres, family issues, lost chances with girls, Sidonis, Carter, he'd live with it all because he had to. Just like Kat would have to.
He wondered; did she feel bad about killing these little aliens as much as he did? He only took his eyes off target for a second to give her a quick glance, an attempt to read her. Hard to do when she was wearing a helmet that covered her whole face. Kinda like someone else he knew.
Garrus shook the thoughts out of his head. This was no time to be going over that, but he couldn't help it. Not with Carter still on his mind, what with his wish to speak to Kat about it.
'This is why sniping is so much easier when it's done without thinking too much into it,' he thought to himself.
Finally, Kat informed the sharpshooters.
"You have the solution. Fire when you're ready," She ordered.
He knew this was it and as expected he did not hesitate. Garrus held his breath, waited for the gunner to sweep left, aimed for the grunt's eye and pressed down on the trigger. Half a millisecond later, the grunt fell clean out of his seat, lying dead on the ground in a pool of his own blood.
Garrus' kill was the first of many. Gunners dropped like flies around the area, the grunts operating them falling onto the dirt. If the first shot didn't hit, the follow up raked the turret with fire. Some lucky gunners abandoned their weapons after hearing the first barrage miss them. They did not know where the shot had come from, only that they were a sitting duck. The grunts were cowardly, but they certainly weren't stupid.
The elites along the defence line were not pleased by the retreating gas breathers. One of them scooped up a fleeing gunner by his scrawny neck and started squeezing. Seconds later two shots punched into the elite. One dropped his shields while the other blew off his head. The elite's body collapsed and the little grunt ran free.
Garrus brought his head up from the scope, he had probably only brought that little Covie a few extra minutes of life, but at least a Marine's bullet would be quicker than suffocation. He quickly put his eye back down along the gun, as there were other targets to pick out.
Not every turret had lost its gunner or been abandoned, some had survived the initial barrage. The bullet had either missed or bounced off the gun. They were frantically searching for where the gunfire was coming from. Some elites were even taking initiative to re-man the guns, rather than waste them trying to rally the grunts. The sharpshooters would need to keep up the pressure to drain the defenders' resources.
One gunner spotted the Marines' position in the gash and began opening up. Everyone ducked their heads low as plasma fire scorched the earth over their heads. All save for Samara who wasn't being suppressed by the plasma at the moment. The asari let loose a powerful throw attack that sped across the open ground and slammed into the top of the gun. The attack toppled the gun over onto its back, its three tripod legs stood up in the air as the grunt gunner inside crawled out of the useless weapon.
Samara dropped back down into the cover of the gash alongside the other Marines. Their krogan super-soldier, Grunt, was not far from her. Garrus asked Samara to keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't run off before it was time. He was staying put, but that didn't mean he was patient.
"Do we get to charge them now?" He asked grumbling, reloading a thermal clip into his assault rifle.
"We wait for the Major to make his move," Samara reminded him. "Attacking now will lead to our slaughter."
"Or theirs," Grunt snorted. "I can take them all on."
"I don't think Shepard would approve of that potential strategy," Samara argued.
Grunt sighed heavily, knowing she was right. The thought of him disappointing Shepard was probably the only thing holding him back. He popped up once again to fire full auto into the enemy lines. He kept his gun near his hip as the bullets flew from his barrel. It was a furious display, but he came back down growling again.
"We're still too far away," he bellowed. "I can't hit anything!"
Samara shook her head, Grunt was always so over eager to shoot and he was no marksman. He preferred getting up close rather than shooting at a distance. It wasn't that he couldn't aim, it was just he didn't have the patience for it. Samara looked to the Marines nearby to see how they were doing. Those with the fully automatic rifles were content to put down suppression fire, but that wasn't what Grunt did. Samara looked to Kowalski who was nearby, firing away with his DMR. It was then she came up with an idea.
"Do you mind trading weapons, Private?" She asked him.
Kowalski looked at her confused.
"I don't think I get the question," he admitted.
"The krogan needs to learn some basics on marksmanship," she elaborated. "I think he'd benefit using a different gun."
Kowalski shrugged and handed over his DMR. Samara then took Grunt's Avenger Rifle and handed it to Kowalski. She placed the DMR in the Krogan's hands.
"Look down the scope, actually aim for once and then shoot," she informed him. "You'll find it a lot more satisfying."
Grunt looked sceptical, but followed the Asari's instructions. He popped up, looked down the scope and found a jackal running along the perimeter, his shield over his head. Instinctively, he went for the legs, firing a few bursts at them. The jackal plopped down to the ground in a heap and another burst of bullets finished him.
"Hey, this is a lot more satisfying," Grunt grinned broadly. "I'm actually hitting stuff. Still would prefer getting close enough to beat them into the ground though."
Samara rolled her eyes, at least he wasn't complaining as much. As for Kowalski, he seemed fine with the Avenger. Specifically because of the inferno rounds modification attached to the weapon. One of the stray shots hit the methane tank on one of the gas breathers in the Covenant ranks. The explosion took out a nearby Jackal to boot.
"You seriously need to share more of these guns with us," he said cheerfully to her.
"You will need to ask Shepard, possibly Miranda as well," she informed him with a slight smile. "For now, we have a battle to win."
Kowalski's squad mate, Ellingham, was also near two Normandy crew members, Jacob Taylor and Zaeed Massani. The old merc was firing away with an Incisor sniper rifle while Jacob fired away with his Vindicator. Their current target was an elite and two grunts taking cover behind one of those large purple boxes the Covenant always had scattered about their field bases. As Ellingham recalled they were like little gun lockers where the Covies stored their plasma guns. Currently, the elite was firing away with two plasma rifles in each hand, although he remained behind cover regardless.
"Bastard is dug in," Zaeed observed with a grimace. "If we were just a little closer I could probably force him out with a damn grenade."
"Just keep shooting his position," Jacob told him. "We gotta keep him from getting on those turrets again."
"At this rate I'll run out of thermal clips before we even reach the bloody ship." The old mercenary growled. "There has got to be a better way."
Another barrage of plasma bolts flew over their heads and they ducked down into cover as the bolts sailed over them.
"I wish he would keep his head out of cover long enough for us to actually take him down," Jacob admitted.
Ellingham stuck his head up, hoping maybe he could snag a peak at the elite as he stuck his head out again. Maybe he could help Jacob and Zaeed take him down. Instead he spotted something else. Moving up through the darkness, a Ghost attack vehicle sped closer. It pulled up close to the dual-wielding elite's cover.
"Hey," he said, catching the attention of the two Normandy squad members. "I think they're gonna use that Ghost as cover."
They both looked up out of cover to get a look at what Ellingham was pointing out. Sure enough, they saw the ghost just hover out of harm's way, getting ready to move in.
"Well that's not good," Jacob noted. "Zaeed, think you can kill the driver?"
"Sure, but wait till they get out into the open," he suggested. "Then we can take down his friend when he comes out."
Jacob nodded and turned back to Ellingham.
"Think you can lend us a gun?" He asked.
Ellingham just nodded and readied his weapon.
The Ghost moved out onto the field and it began firing wildly on the gash as it did. The Covenant behind the cover moved out with it. Ellingham fired on the Ghost's fins, trying to direct the driver's attention towards him so Zaeed could take the shot. The tactic apparently worked and the driver moved the ghost towards Ellingham's fire. The Marine ducked down as plasma shot over his head.
The Ghost kept strafing as it hovered forward, but the driver's head was exposed enough for Zaeed to get a shot off. Zaeed fired a three-round disruptor burst from his Incisor. The bullets burned the shield away in two shots and the third connected with the elite's head, killing him instantly. The ghost dropped dead in the middle of the field, the roaming cover it provided ended.
The grunts tried to bolt for safety, but Jacob and Ellingham had them both covered. They fired several bursts at them before they reached a nearby turret. As for the dual-wielding elite he made his own separate run, trying to get to the seat of another turret. He most likely felt the Ghost wasn't his safest bet seeing as how his friend had been gunned down. However, Zaeed had a lock on him. As the elite strafed towards the turret, Zaeed fired several bursts at him. Eventually, enough shots connected to rip apart the elite's shields, but he still kept running.
"Speedy bastard," Zaeed growled.
He took aim one last time, leading the target. Just before the elite got to the turret he fired one last barrage and sent him cartwheeling into the dirt. Zaeed didn't celebrate though.
"Wish that Major Silva would attack already," he glowered. "We're busting our asses here."
"He'll attack soon enough," Jacob assured. "He won't keep his fellow Marines and ODSTs hanging, even if a Spartan is commanding them."
Zaeed's concerns were slowly being shared by that said Spartan. Kat was with McKay, helping to coordinate sharpshooters to take out some of the guns on the far side of the defensive line. It wasn't easy from their position, but they had to at least try and assist Silva when he made his move.
Other than that, Kat was just trying to keep the guns clear of new operators. The fewer turrets remained active when they went in, the better off they would be. Kat kept searching for grunts and elites trying to make runs for their vacant guns. McKay assisted as best she could.
"One grunt making a move on turret SE7," Kat warned, typing commands on her omni-tool to the squad leaders.
McKay fired her DMR, taking down another grunt moving for a second gun.
"We seem to be pulling in a few more from the other end of the line," she noted. "I'm guessing we're becoming a nuisance by now."
"I have confirmed kills on some of the turrets on Silva's side," Kat informed her. "I'd say you're right. I hope Silva appreciates it."
"He will, he probably just won't admit it," McKay explained. "Don't let his pride fool you though. He's there when you need him. Just give him a few more minutes."
Kat hoped McKay was right, she did not intend to stick it out much longer here. It would be only a matter of time before the Covenant decided to just charge out and overtake this position. They had the numbers to do it.
Suddenly there was a shot that threw up dirt in their faces and both of them dropped back down into the gash.
"Damn, snipers are zeroing in," Kat grumbled.
As she said that, one of the Marines took a shot to the shoulder and collapsed into the gash beside them. Seeing that prompted Kat to get on the radio.
"Jun, I want you to clear out those snipers up top, now!" She ordered.
Over by his position Jun complied and began scanning the bulkhead up top. He noticed another sniper, an ODST in blue, joining him in the search, scanning the bulkhead himself.
"So," the ODST suddenly said. "Spartan, huh? You don't look as tall as they say."
"Different model," Jun explained, sounding a bit uncomfortable.
"Oh really? They give you extra cup holders or something?" The ODST joked.
Jun didn't laugh and he was already annoyed by the Shock Trooper's bravado. Then again, he suspected that he wasn't trying to get him to laugh.
"You can call me Romeo by the way," he said.
"Jun," the Spartan replied. "You see a sniper?"
"One actually," Romeo answered. He suddenly fired his weapon. "Now I see none."
Jun scanned the bulkhead some more and spotted another jackal gunning for the gash, beside him was a second.
"I'm seeing two, seven feet west of one of the second grid," he explained. "I'll need you to take one."
"I could take both," Romeo suggested.
"Just take one," Jun told him sternly, he had no intention of getting into some kind of competition here.
Romeo shrugged slightly, but obeyed. Whatever obvious hostility he was trying to cover passed and he followed the Spartan's lead. He placed his crosshairs over the target further up and Jun the lower one.
"On my count," said Jun, "one, two, three!"
They both shot at the same time and the two jackals fell from their dizzying heights. Romeo looked to Jun.
"Not bad," he said. "I think I still could've killed them alone."
"Just look for more," Jun insisted.
Romeo followed his lead again, but Jun still felt annoyed by his constant presence.
A few feet down the line, Buck and Dutch moved down by Garrus as he took another shot on the Covenant positions.
"What are you two doing down here?" He asked.
"Word from the Spartan," Dutch explained. "Said there was increasing activity in this grid and asked for a few extra guns."
"Well she ain't wrong," Garrus admitted. "The Covenant seem to be massing around here. I think they're getting organized. I keep seeing a few squads probing the open field, trying to find weak spots. They'll definitely attack soon."
Plasma bolt flew into the dirt nearby and Dutch returned fire with his assault rifle.
"That looked like turret fire," Buck observed. "Hope it's not operational for long."
"We're all trying our best, but with so many targets it's hard to keep track," Garrus explained. "Silva better be ready soon or we aren't gonna last long."
"Don't worry bud, a guy like the Major probably just wants to wait for the last moment," Buck explained. "You know, the glorious big damn hero rescuing troops in distress and all. He won't be late."
Another barrage of plasma struck dirt and this time all three of them opened up on the direction it had come from. Eventually the grunt inside the turret flopped out from the combined focused fire.
"I'd like to see him show up now, to be honest," Garrus grumbled. "He was chewing me out over the prospect of us taking too long after all and I'd-"
Before he could say anything else, Garrus heard a large series of explosions erupt from the far side of the Covenant line. The massed Covenant suddenly pulled back, half of them moving towards the explosions. Garrus watched as destroyed turrets skidded across the ground, pieces flying off. A number of ghosts tried to take off towards the incoming attack, only to be destroyed themselves by rockets colliding with them.
Well, at the very least Garrus couldn't call Silva a hypocrite.
"See," Buck said, his open hand outstretched ahead. "Big damn hero moment."
"Finally!" Came the uproarious bellow of a krogan further down the line.
As to be expected, Garrus watched as Grunt and several Marines were the first to go over the top and charge the Covenant positions. Pretty much everyone else followed suit. Kat had said they would charge in the second Silva attacked, so there was no need for an order to move in.
"Well, time to storm the field I guess." Dutch shrugged.
"And me without my bugle," Buck added. "Coming with, Vakarian?"
"Like I'd miss this," Garrus chuckled.
The three of them stood up and went over the top themselves. They fired into the Covenant lines they rushed forward. Garrus switched to his Vindicator and sprayed rounds on the turrets, making sure they stayed off limits to the Covenant.
The on rush of humans didn't deter all the Covenant, one of the elites charged forward, his plasma rifle blazing. He didn't get too far before a biotic attack pulled him into the air where Jacob fired off a few rounds into his torso and kept moving.
Before long, the group had breached the enemy line, Grunt bulldozing over a turret as he arrived. Garrus fired on the retreating Covenant as the elites went to make a final stand. He could see the ODSTs from Silva's group already moving in. They just had to finish off the defenders here and then they could start gathering the stuff needed. Garrus only hoped Shepard was doing as well on his end.
The elite didn't seem to notice anything. He was too busy on his patrol of the area. That would make him easy to pick off. He wondered if the Covenant knew they were in the area by now. Surely the firefights had been heard. The elite looked like he was on alert, but it appeared that no alarm had been sounded. Regardless, every Covenant in the area would hear the next shot.
The bullet shot out and cut deep into the elite's shields. He turned briefly to see a second bullet catch him in the forehead.
"Nice follow-up, Linda," Chief congratulated.
"I just wanted the kill," Linda half-heartedly joked.
Cortana quickly informed the others.
"The Master Chief and Five-Eight have the flank! Sergeant, move everyone you have on your end up the middle. Shepard, you can move forward now and join up with us now."
Shepard and his team stood over the dead bodies of two jackals that Kasumi had dealt with stealthily to allow Chief to get into position. Once he heard the call, he and the others moved up towards the flank, ready for the final push towards the gravity lift.
Legion was one of the first up to Chief's position and spotted a turret in an alcove. A grunt was running towards it, but didn't make it far before the synthetic put it down with a shot from its Widow.
"Flank secured, moving up," it stated simply.
Legion moved to a small tree covered hill to take up a sniping position. Other members of the team also split up.
"Miranda, go down the center with Mordin and Tali to assist the Marines," Shepard ordered. "Linda, help out Legion. Kasumi, do your thing."
Kasumi nodded and then disappeared behind her cloak. Shepard really didn't need to tell her anything else anyway. He then looked to the Chief.
"There's a pathway up there past those trees, we can use it to get some height on the Covenant," He suggested.
"I was thinking the same thing, Commander," Master Chief agreed. "Let's move."
The biggest problem any of the attackers faced were the two jackals situated on a stone bridge. They fired down on the teams as they pushed forward. However, with the Marines coming in from the middle entrance and Miranda leading the team down below, they were overwhelmed with potential risks. Eventually, they let their guard down enough for Legion to plant a bullet in one of the jackal's backs. The second raised his shield to defend from the next shot, only for Linda to put a bullet in the back of his head.
Chief and Shepard kept moving up the path to the left and ran into some potential stumbling blocks. There were two turrets aiming down into the valley below. One was on their side of a large gap and the second was on the other side. Anyone who wasn't Covenant was walking into a meat grinder. The Marines had already been forced to take cover.
Chief unloaded on the nearest turret, killing the operator. That left the second turret. Shepard quickly took up his assault rifle and strafed the second turret, killing the operator. The grunts began running down the hill to escape, but Chief took control of the plasma turret on their side of the gap and began firing on them as they tried to fall back. When they were nothing but smoking corpses, Chief turned his attention to the grunts below.
The Covenant were in complete chaos, but it became apparent the fight was not so easily won. Cortana quickly alerted Chief to the new threat.
"Detecting incoming Covenant dropship," she warned. "It's landing behind us."
Chief looked up to see the dropship zoom overhead, heading directly for their original point of entry.
"Flanking attempt," Chief reasoned. "It looks like we've finally alerted the ship."
"I'll take over here," Shepard told him. "You go back and keep them from stabbing us in the back."
Chief left the turret and Shepard took his place strafing the remaining grunts.
Chief hooked up with Legion just as the dropship began unloading. The ship's gun began shooting at the trees, forcing both Spartan and synthetic to go to ground.
"They appear to greatly dislike our presence," Legion observed.
"Well I don't much care for them either," Cortana chimed in dryly over the radio.
Charging up to their position was a blue armoured elite. He fired away at them with his plasma rifle, while his cadre of grunts picked up the rear. Legion and Chief hid behind the trees and waited for the plasma barrage to end. The dropship took off at last and quickly, sniper fire began ringing out across from their position. The Covenant immediately backed off, seeking cover from the attack.
"Saw you were in a bit of trouble." Linda said through the comm.
"Appreciate it," Chief told her. "Keep them scared while me and Legion deal with them."
Master Chief cocked his assault rifle and rushed into the fray, firing like mad at the assorted grunts. Legion assisted, popping out a drone to help the Spartan. The elite kept in cover behind a series of rocks before dashing towards the alcove. Chief knew where he was most likely headed. He probably saw the turret on his way in.
They quickly finished off the grunts with little trouble and made their way to the rocky outline of the alcove. Chief barely stuck his head in when a flurry of plasma bolts tried to hit him.
"Damn," he said, "he got to it."
"We shall send in the drone." Legion suggested. "Its suicide function will cause it to explode under the gun, rendering it useless."
"If it can get through that fire," Chief advised. "I'll draw his attention while you send it in."
Legion nodded in response. Master Chief rushed forward strafing at the turret. The gun fired back at the Spartan, not noticing the threat rolling towards it. The drone got under the turret just as Chief reached the safety of the other end of the alcove. Once in position it exploded and sent the turret toppling backward.
The elite crawled out unharmed, plasma rifle in hand. He shot at Chief's position, keeping his head down. Legion popped out of cover, geth shielding activated, to draw the elite's fire. The hits to his shields forced the Covie to fire back on the synthetic and allowed Master Chief enough time to prime and toss a plasma grenade. The explosive latched onto the elite's face. He tried to pull it off, but it was already too late. The elite vanished in a puff of blue fire and smoke.
The Master Chief didn't spend long admiring his handiwork.
"Let's get to the others," He told Legion and Linda.
They went back up to find Shepard's Team and the Marines firing into the next pass. A squad of Covenant were inside, blocking their way to the gravity lift.
"No use shooting men," Parker told his Marines. "Chuck in every grenade you got into that hole!"
The Marines followed Parker's orders and chucked every frag grenade they had on them into the pass. The following explosions shook the earth as the screams of mutilated Covies filled the air. When the smoke cleared, something stumbled out of the pass. It was a lone elite, bleeding, battered, half his arm gone, but he was still standing tall.
"Do these bastards ever just die?!" Miranda screamed at the top of her lungs.
The Elite bellowed at them all in defiance. He raised up his plasma rifle to fire on them. It was then, from on high, that Kasumi appeared out of thin air, omni-blade drawn and stabbed the elite through the back as she landed. Amazingly it didn't kill the elite, he shook her off and he turned to fire on her instead. That was when Shepard, who was also down among the Marines now, unloaded on him with his heavy pistol. Finally, the alien fell to the ground.
"Poke him with a stick to be sure," suggested one Marine aloud.
Kasumi did one better and just shot the corpse in the head.
"Maybe I should add an electrical shock function to this thing," she said as she eyed her omni-blade.
"Save it for later, Kas," Shepard told her politely. "We need to get to the grav-lift."
"My readings detect it's just beyond this pass," Cortana chimed in through the radio. "I imagine the Covenant have a warm reception waiting for us by now though."
One Marine just scoffed at the notion.
"Pft, bring'em on!" He announced. "We're the fucking Marine Corps plus a pack of alien badasses. We'll be fine."
"That's the spirit, Marine." Parker congratulated. "Don't get cocky though, the Covies treat them ships like church. We're already too close for comfort. Imagine what it will be like when we get aboard."
"Everyone just stay sharp and don't be a hero," Shepard added. "We'll make it through this alive."
He then contacted Thane.
"Thane, I want you down from your sniper's nest as soon as you see us engage the enemy," he ordered him. "We cannot delay getting inside that gravity lift and we're gonna need you down here to handle their final line of defence."
"Understood, Commander," Thane agreed.
With that, everyone walked up the pass, stepping over the dead Covenant corpses as they went.
Lat 'Ravamee was disgusted with the lack of response from his ground teams. It could only mean they had failed to stop the humans from getting this close to the gravity lift. Apparently, the False Shepherd's followers were a lot more dangerous than he originally expected. Perhaps Orna should've left those extra batarians aboard.
Nothing he could do about it now. Besides, even if they did get inside, they'd be easily cornered. He still didn't want that to happen though. Luckily, they had a few more tricks left.
"Move squads to the gravity lift," he ordered his men. "I want them ready for deployment. We will not let the humans get aboard this ship. And have some of our recently enlightened crew on stand-by. If they can't stop them, then it will be up to us."
"Yes, Shipmaster," complied one of the elites.
Lat relaxed a bit, the humans may have made it this far, but that meant nothing. They had simply been lucky in their brazen rescue attempt. In the next hour they would all be dead or with their friends. Either way, they would fail and the False Shepherd would be dealt with at last.
The giant pulsing purple beam shone up into the belly of the Truth and Reconciliation. No matter where you were within the depression it was situated in, your eyes were drawn to it like a moth to a flame. The gravity lift, the closest thing Shepard had seen so far to something akin to a teleport pad. He wondered how easier it would be to insert and extract squads if the Alliance had something like it back home. He'd have given it more thought, were it not for the several Covenant Shade turrets surrounding the lift along the ridge surrounding the depression.
Chief had taken out the first gunner with his sniper rifle and ran up to take charge of one of the turrets. He used it to clear the second one across from them and then proceeded to fire on the rest. The Marines took charge of the center fight, Sergeant Parker coordinating them. Meanwhile, Linda ran into the trees on the ridge to help snipe a few more of the shade turrets. Shepard brought his team further along the ridge to surround the gravity lift and attempt to secure it. He imagined the Covenant wouldn't let it go so easily.
Many of the Covenant tried to fall back to the lift, even the elite in charge. That seemed suspicious considering how often he had seen them stand their ground. He probably knew something they didn't, although Shepard had an idea what that was.
They exited the trees and found another turret taking aim at them. Legion drew the gunner's attention, activating their platform's extra geth shielding to protect itself from the incoming barrage. The gunner only got off two shots before Tali swooped in behind and fired a shotgun blast at point blank range into the back of the gas sucker's head.
"Legion, take the gun," Shepard ordered. "Keep it focused on that pad. We're going to have company."
Legion followed and plopped himself down into the turret. Already the other guns had been silenced, but Shepard wasn't prepared to call the fight over just yet. They still needed to get up into that ship after all, and the pad was far from secured.
The Master Chief seemed to agree. He abandoned his turret to chase after the fleeing Covenant, who were now making a stand near the gravity lift. Linda was already picking off jackals as they fell back. There was no sense in killing the grunts as the Marines were doing that well enough on their own. The real problem was that elite who was keeping covered behind one of the pylons along the edge of the lift pad. Chief couldn't get a shot. Shepard saw someone who could though.
Sliding down from the rocks above was a certain drell armed with a powerful sniper rifle. Thane positioned himself to the flank of the elite's backside and fired a few shots. The bullets caught the elite's attention and he tried to get to better cover. Chief saw his moment and fired a single shot as the elite raced across the lift pad. He caught the elite in the head and the alien fell dead.
"Everyone, stay sharp," Shepard ordered. "They weren't retreating. They were just waiting for back up."
Just then the gravity-lift's light shifted slightly and a squad of Covenant floated down towards the pad. Every Marine and Normandy crewmember on the ground had their guns trained on their position, ready for their landing.
"Legion, open up on them!" Shepard ordered.
The synthetic obliged and fired a stream of plasma at the gravity lift pad. The grunts were the first to die from the onslaught, surprised by their own weapons being used against them. The jackals fared slightly better, their shields protecting them from the barrage. They only lasted so long though. The constant stream of bolts short circuited the shields in a few seconds and after that they were unable to withstand the assault.
The elite managed to pull back in time, but with none of his squad left it mattered little. Luckily for him, a second squad of Covenant soon descended and, even with Legion still blasting away, a number of them managed to avoid fate of their first wave comrades. Two grunts, two jackals and one elite made it off the pad in one piece. They began running for the far end of the pad and then looped up the ridge. They began firing on Legion's gun.
Linda shifted her focus of fire to the second team of Covenant who quickly took shelter in some rocks on the ridge. Shepard led the rest of his squad towards their position to flush them out, while Chief moved to takedown the remaining elite from the first wave.
He moved around the back of the pad, keeping his gun up at all times. He couldn't let the alien get the jump on him. Thanks to Cortana, that was impossible.
"Detecting movement behind that next pylon," she warned. "He's waiting for you."
Chief said nothing but stepped off his original straight forward path. He moved across the pad and around the pylon to the right of him. He moved slowly towards the edge and when he was close enough he threw himself forward. He found the barrel of his gun staring down at the back of the elite's head. The Covie turned just in time to see the Spartan knocking him in the face with one blow of his rifle's stock. The elite stumbled backward and he fired a full torrent of bullets straight into him. The elite's shield died under the stress and before long his face was perforated with lead.
Chief didn't stay long to view his handiwork. He moved to assist Shepard in cleaning up what was left of the Covenant in the rocks. He found much of the work already done, as Miranda was slamming a grunt into the ground, Mordin was freezing and then shattering a Jackal, Tali was pulling the trigger on a second downed jackal. Shepard had also finished off the elite. The Covenant officer was lying at the Commander's feet with a large shotgun wound was in his chest.
"Handled that pretty quickly," the Spartan observed.
"My pilot and crewmate have waited long enough," Shepard told him. "I want inside that ship. I'm done with distractions."
The gravity lift suddenly fluctuated once again, earning looks from everyone almost immediately.
"Looks like we have one last distraction, Commander," Cortana warned.
Descending from the ship were two massive figures, but no one could seem to pinpoint what they were. That is until they dropped down. They were huge towering creatures. Chief recognized them as Hunters at first, but something was wrong.
They had a giant bulbous hump on their blacks, glowing with blue energy. Their helmets were different, sporting a red mechanical eye in the center of them. They also only possessed a single arm, the other half of their body consumed by a fleshy tumour. In that one remaining arm, a gun was grafted on, but it was different from the traditional plasma cannon. This one appeared to sport flaps along the barrel, the use of which was unknown. But no one doubted what these creatures were.
"They made another Hunter-Husk variant!" Miranda shouted aloud in disbelief.
"I don't suppose these ones are any easier to take down than the ones that Garrus described meeting," Shepard wondered aloud.
One of the humpbacked monsters aimed his gun at the assorted group, but instead was distracted by plasma fire coming from Legion's turret. The plasma seemed to just bounce off some kind of shield that surrounded the beast and it turned to fire on the geth instead.
"Legion! Get out of there!" Tali shouted out to the synthetic fearfully.
Legion did just that, jumping out of the turret just before a tremendous ball of energy slammed into the turret, destroying it easily. Miranda instantly recognized the look of the blast.
"That looks like a Scion's attack," she observed. "But I don't remember them possessing barriers."
"Looks like they upgraded the design a bit," Shepard told her. "Everyone, scatter. We can't get caught in that thing's blast radius."
The team split up as two more volleys from the Hunter Scions flew at them. Tali, Miranda and Shepard went one way, Mordin and Chief went another. The two beasts pursued both sides groups, firing barrage after barrage of their energy blasts.
Chief and Mordin regrouped with Thane, who had taken up cover behind a rocky pillar along the edge of the cliff. He tried firing at the husk, but the barrier stopped his rounds cold.
"Those are some pretty strong barriers," he observed. "I'm not sure my warp attack will be able to take them down in time."
The pillar rocked with a blast of energy. Cortana quickly piped up.
"The blasts seem to be plasma in origin, but they're held in suspension by what appears to be a biotic barrier of its own," she explained. "That makes the potential danger of the already lethal fuel rod gun triple exponentially."
"I thought you couldn't give something biotic powers," Chief recalled. "You have to be born with it."
"True," Mordin acknowledged. "Reapers have shown advanced knowledge of biotic barriers, however. Possibly created a barrier generator of some kind. Allows husk to generate biotic field in absence of host's natural affinity."
"So where would they put that?" Thane asked, as another blast rocked the pillar.
Chief looked out briefly onto the field and spied the large hump on the husk's back once more.
"My guess would be in the large glowing growth he's carrying around," Cortana suggested, speaking Chief's mind again. "Maybe if we destroy that sack we can take out its only means of attack, perhaps even kill it if we're lucky."
A lot of good that did them if they couldn't shoot it, that barrier would stop anything and it appeared to be recharging pretty fast. They needed to get rid of the thing's protection first before they could shoot its weak spot.
Chief also noticed Shepard's team pulling back with Linda. A few Marines tried to assist, getting close to the husk. Instead, the creature shoved its gun into the ground. There was a shockwave of energy as the gun's flaps pushed themselves into the ground. Suddenly, a biotic field threw the Marines down on their backs. The husk then walked over and simply stepped on one of them before shooting the other at point blank range.
"We need to put some distance between us and that thing," Chief told the others. "Let's make a run for that alcove."
Chief ran out first, the other two following close behind. He fired his assault rifle at the monstrosity pursuing them, but again it only seemed to piss it off. Suddenly there was an explosion behind it, stopping it in mid-charge. Chief looked to see Kasumi had appeared behind the husk. She threw another grenade at it, but it did about as much damage as the first one upon exploding. The husk thrusted his gun into the ground, but Kasumi was quicker and managed to flee before the shockwave hit. She dove to the ground and quickly activated her cloak once more.
At least she was safe, but the husk was still on the loose. As they got to a new source of cover, Cortana spoke up again.
"Wait," she said anxiously. "When that thing sent out that shockwave, I detected a large amount of expended energy. I believe it is similar to when the Commander executes that Nova attack we saw him use earlier today. This husk must be doing something similar."
"His barrier would be down," Mordin observed. "No obstruction of potential weak point."
"Inform the Commander," Chief told Cortana. "We need to get these things to use up their barriers for us so we can put them down. See if Kausmi can help out again."
A plan was quickly formed and put into motion by both of the teams. Shepard kept pulling back, leading his husk in, while Tali and Legion readied their drones. Meanwhile, Kasumi dusted herself off and made her move once more. She appeared behind the hunter creature and stabbed it in the back hard. The husk turned, it had already prepared its gun to do the shockwave once more. Kasumi bolted away, vanishing under her cloak, as the monster put its gun into the earth and expunged its shields.
Chief, Thane and Mordin made their move right then, and fired everything that had into the creature's hump. Bits of tangled and mangled flesh fell from the monster's back, but Chief wasn't sure if it was enough. As he began to see bits of machinery emerging from the beast's fleshy sack, he primed a plasma grenade and tossed it at the monster. The grenade stuck to the creature's back. Seconds later, it exploded, a surge of energy coursed through the monster's body before its own head blew up as well as its gun. The husk collapsed dead to the ground.
Mordin observed the corpse with a curious eye.
"Possible self-destruct protocol embedded in barrier generator," he observed. "Keeps Reaper tech from being salvaged."
"Or that's just an added benefit to them overloading the thing with too much power," Cortana suggested.
"Perhaps," Mordin admitted. "Tend to give Reaper tech more credit than deserved at times."
Over with Shepard, Tali and Legion had released their drones and in response to them getting to close, the husk slammed his gun into the ground. The barrier dropped around him and Linda jumped out of the trees to fire several well aimed shots at the alien's backside. The powerful sniper rounds blew off the creature's hump and then destroyed the barrier generator beneath it all. Once again, the husk violently exploded and fell to the ground.
"What are the chances there are more of those things around?" Tali asked as she approached the body.
"Most likely number, plenty," Miranda surmised. "But at least we know how to deal with them now."
With the threat passed, the gravity lift was theirs at last. Despite the casualties inflicted upon them, Sergeant Parker's Marines were still good to go. Cortana called in Foehammer to reinforce the team and everyone gathered near the lift for the second stage of the journey. Not everyone would be able to make the trip, however.
"I'll stay here with the other Marines and wait for you to get to the hanger," Linda informed the Master Chief. "Foehammer will fly us up and we'll reinforce your position."
"Just stay safe until you're back inside with us," Chief informed her. "There are still Covenant out here."
Linda nodded and Chief joined the others on the pad.
"Once we're inside, I'll be able to lock-on to the Captain's Command Neural Interface," Cortana told them all. "He should be in the ship's brig and both Joker and Jack would likely be nearby."
"How exactly do we get this lift to pick us up again?" Parker asked sincerely. "I don't think that part of the plan was clear."
"I can access the gravity lift's command codes remotely," Cortana assured. "I should be able to reverse the pull from here."
Parker just shrugged and looked to the Marines he assembled on the pad. They looked shaken, tired, and not feeling as pumped as they had been seconds before. The sight of those husks seemed to have disturbed them. Both Shepard and Chief could see it. Parker did too, but that wasn't a concern.
"Suck it up, Marines," he ordered them. "We're halfway home by now. Remember, the Captain is counting on us."
"Yeah, no pressure there," chuckled one Marine in an attempt to ease his comrades' worries.
Chief looked to Shepard's assembled now as both he and the commander stood in the center of the pad.
"You think your XO is right?" He asked. "That there are more husks on this ring?"
"I wouldn't bet against it," Shepard informed him. "The Covenant have really embraced this husk conversion tech. I'm kinda wondering how much of it is Reaper influenced and how much of it is their own."
"It's probably somewhere in between," Cortana suggested to him. "Right now, let's focus on getting our people home. I'm reversing gravity lift now, hold on."
One by one, the group began to float up into the sky. One Marine offered a cheerful, 'Yeeeeehaaaawww!' as he rose upward. Everyone else was a little more reserved. They had reason to be. As interesting this sensation of weightlessness was, it was merely a pleasant prologue to the real start of this mission.
AN: Nothing much to add here, except I really like how I was able to keep this chapter considerably short. Hopefully it makes for an easy read for you all.
Anyway, in non-fanfiction related news, I'm currently backing a very kick ass kickstarter. It's called "World War Kaiju." it's a comic with a fantastic premise. It takes place in a world where the atomic bomb does not exist and the weapon used to end the Second World War was a giant lizard named Fat Man. This literally monstrous weapon sparks a Kaiju Arms Race, one that will inevitably lead to World War Three. Its alternate history at its most awesome and it could really use your help. Check out my profile page for more details and do consider backing the project because it deserves to be made.
With that, it's onto the next chapter and my second time writing the Normandy crew boarding a Covenant Battlecruiser. Let's see if I can make this one more awesome than the first go around. Shouldn't be too hard with the Master Chief along for the ride, I'd have to try really hard to screw that up. Ha. It's already finished so look for it within the next few days.
