Author's Note: Twenty five chapters. Honestly, I can hardly believe that I've written that much on two stories now. This chapter has some lovely ass-kicking moments from krogan, elcor, and the Normandy squad, so I hope everyone enjoys it. I know, it should have been posted up on Friday, but I spent the end of the week and weekend with some massive writer's block, so I read all of Hybrid Theory, the best self-insert I've ever found (it's in the Ranma 1/2 section if your're interested, but try not to hold that against it).
Want to leave a review that grabs my attention? Swing by the Aria's Afterlife forum, here on FF, and check out the "How to Review" thread.
Shepard dove behind a planter box. Or, some blithering part of her mind continued, it would be a planter box if it was actually filled with plants. Instead it was filled with years of refuse and garbage then smothered in the blood and viscera of at least two different species, giving it a most pungent aroma of death and hopelessness. A beam rifle went sizzling along the top of it, missing her completely and breaking that utterly morbid train of thought.
"They seem to be bringing heavier resistance," Garrus shouted as he thumped down next to her. She just nodded, reaching to her belt for her grenades, only to fumble at the empty magnetic attachments before glancing down. Wordlessly, she held a hand out, palm up, to the turian, who shot her an annoyance filled glance. "I'm a sniper, Shepard, I don't carry grenades." He popped up, taking a Collector's arm off at the elbow before dropping back down.
As Shepard started to peek over, intending to warp or shockwave – she hadn't decided which quite yet – she saw an incoming grenade being lobbed their way, and instead hurriedly gravity slammed it back towards their opponents. She wasn't sure if it landed at the feet of the same marauder who threw it, but the resulting explosion was gratifying to watch anyway. "Maybe you should start," she chided Garrus cheerfully, firing her pistol wildly at an elcor husk.
"With stress and worry: We are about to be flanked," Wax shouted, turning his miniguns on the nearest alleyway, cutting down four Collectors before Wipe Out turned her flamethrowers on the yahg. "Desperately: I can see more elcor husks coming our direction," he continued.
"Firmly: Hold the line," Cowabunga said, his own miniguns spitting down the alleyway as the first came into view. "With inspiration: Gnarly, use your rocket launchers on the buildings, we can block their path." The other elcor moved forward, three rockets no bigger than Shepard's fist shooting halfway down the alley before slamming into the side of one store, shattering the wall. But the rubble, while an annoyance, wasn't anywhere near enough to slow down the elcor husks or their yahg escort. "Annoyed: Stop trying to blow it up and blow it up!"
Several of the krogan were pitching in, hurling their own grenades down the alley, the enclosed space amplifying the explosive force as razor-sharp shrapnel, cryogenic particles, plasma flares, and good old-fashioned rock fragments filled the air. "And that is why I like carrying grenades," Shepard said.
"Shepard-Commander, if we cannot block or eradicate those forces in the next thirty point five seconds, there is a ten percent chance of our escaping this passageway alive," Legion said, accepting a nasty burn to one shoulder pauldron from a Collector beam weapon before his sniper rifle detonated its head. Three of the Gatatog immediately dropped behind their own cover, muttering quickly in krogan.
She watched as Jack and Jondam executed a perfect synchronized attack, the adept yanking up the last three marauders in a singularity as Jondam hit them with a cryo freeze, then detonated the singularity, sending the frozen corpses flying backwards, cracking their armor and most of their exposed skin as they hit the wall beyond.
Focusing on the charging yahg in the alley, she caught the ripple of a cloaking field, hitting it with a warp, marking it on her HUD with a flick of her tongue. Garrus and Legion both fired at the nearly invisible enemy, the turian taking it in one knee while the geth hit its heavy assault rifle, sending the weapon spinning behind it, crushed under the lumbering feet of the husked elcor. "Fuck, there's got to be twenty of them," Shepard whispered to herself. Only the narrowness of the alley, barely wide enough for a yahg to move past an elcor if they both pressed up against the wall, was saving them. The lead husk was already spitting out bullets from the minigun implanted where the lower half of its chest used to be.
The same Gatatog who had gotten himself burned suddenly raced into the alley, jinking back and forth as the elcor tried to fire at him. Several rounds blew apart his shields as he ducked past the wounded yahg, and she could see the bursts of blood as the heavy rounds punched through his body. "I am Gatatog Orid, and I'm your escort to the belly of Kalros today!" he roared, diving underneath the elcor. The bayonet on the end of his shotgun ripped open the elcor's guts, then he was diving past to the next one, spilling gallons of flamethrower fuel.
"That is one crazy-ass krogan," Garrus said in admiration, picking off the last Collector blocking their path. "Do we wait for him to turn around and come back?" The lead husk suddenly jerked as one of Legion's shots took it in one eye. All the rest of the krogan were clustered at the corners of the building, or actively moving crates and a dumpster for better cover.
Before Shepard could make up her mind, a massive fireball erupted from the middle of the husk column. They could see yahg burning in the middle, even as they turned their weapons on the building walls around them, desperate to escape the inferno. The husks continued to lumber forward slowly, but the massed firepower finally stopped the first one a meter from the end of the alley.
"Respectfully: The path forward is clear," Tandem said, his own miniguns spinning slowly. "We should move before the next batch of reinforcements can catch us."
"Right," Shepard said, a little numbly. The yahg hadn't managed to make it out of that blaze, so there was no hope for Gatatog Orid. It was a little odd feeling sorry for him after the way she'd mostly written off the whole Gatatog clan after meeting Uvenk. "Right," she repeated more firmly. "Let's go. Those stairs are only a hundred meters away."
They lumbered forward, Jondam often racing forward to scout with Jack or Urdnot Brant by his side. Reaching the stairs, everyone moved inside. It was wide enough for two elcor to go down side by side without bumping the walls, and in a hurry most of the krogan could probably even squeeze between them. As they got inside, Duck Dive turned around, pulling out an elcor-sized welding torch. "Unsure: Should I close the doors to prevent them from following us, or leave them open to facilitate our retreat later?" she asked.
Shepard looked at Jondam, who hesitated half a second before nodding. "Close it," the salarian ordered. "Melt it at the doorframes, it will hold longer." Duck Dive nodded back, already tracing the flame across the top of the door, joining together the frame and the door as the metal dripped together. "Four stories down, then one kilometer to Afterlife," Jondam continued, taking the lead again.
They walked down the stairs cautiously, Duck Dive pausing to seal every door out. They made it three stories before human and turian husks started popping up, charging them from below. Of course, that gave the krogen a perfect line of fire, backed up by Cowabunga and Floater firing their miniguns over everyone's head. Reaching their floor, the two of them, flanking Khel Ucard, stepped down far enough for everyone else to exit, maintaining the fire rate, blowing away the husks continuing to pour in from the lower levels.
"One thing worries me," Jondam said as they ducked into cover, taking down a squad of batarians as everyone moved into the wide thoroughfare.
"What's that?" Shepard asked. "Like I didn't have enough to worry about," she added under her breath.
"Vorcha are among the most resilient members of Omega's population. They made up nearly a quarter of the beings here. We've seen human, turian, batarian, elcor husks. Why are there no vorcha husks?" He didn't wait for an answer, moving forward with Brant and Jack both, pausing behind an overturned aircar to look around the corner they needed to take, out towards the main cavern and Afterlife. "Never mind, question answered."
"Fuck me sideways," Jack muttered, her eyes wide.
Shepard dashed up to meet them, peeking around the car. Her own eyes went wide and her blood chilled as she looked up ahead. They stood a dozen wide, at least three times that deep. Ranks of husked vorcha, skin turned gray and silvery with red and blue lines of light tracing over their body. In perfect unison, the entire front rank inhaled sharply, and then the entire mob unhinged their jaws. "Blood!" The shout came from nearly a hundred throats, echoing between the garish neon signs and rattling their bones.
Without another word of warning, the vorcha husks raced forward, all semblance of order and discipline broken as they reverted to mob behavior. The four of them ran from the car, racing for the safety of their companions and lines of massed firepower. Jack looked back, lifting a hand and sending a shockwave slamming into the car, flipping it three feet into the air to crash into the first line of charging husks.
The thoroughfare here was wide enough to fit half the elcor side by side, and with a little creative climbing, Gnarly and Close Out were firing their rockets over everyone's head, blasting holes in the charging ranks.
"Badassfully: Git some. Git some," Grommet said, his railgun shots blowing straight through two vorcha before finally being stopped by the feeble shields of a third.
"I will handle this-" The familiar voice came from further down the road, and was suddenly cut off by another crack from the railguns. Shepard paused a moment to see Harbinger's would-be host falling from the sky in pieces.
"Dismissively: I have heard enough from you," Grommet added.
"With concern: My fuel reserves are at fifty percent," Duck Dive said.
"Then pick up these bastards and throw them," Ucard shouted, his massive pistols a blur as he fired almost as fast as he could pull the triggers, each one leaving a vorcha husk headless. "You're nothing but cheap imitations! Krogans are the real thing!"
"Less talky, more shooty," Ashley admonished them, slinging her assault rifle as it overheated, falling back next to Garrus and Legion as she pulled out her sniper rifle. With three snipers now working, the Collectors flying in along the ceiling were dropping onto their troops below almost without getting off a shot.
One moment, there was a bloodthirsty horde charging at them, and then there was silence. Even with the VI-run noise dampening, Shepard's head was ringing. Part of that, she was sure, was from pushing her biotics much harder than normal. The shockwaves she and Jack had been launching had each thrown a handful of husks into the air, easy picking for the miniguns and slowing the charge.
"Alright, keep moving. Krogan, if any of these bodies so much as twitch, put a bullet in their eyes," Shepard ordered, holstering her pistol long enough to shake out her hand. "We've still got most of a kilometer to go, and they haven't even brought out the big guns yet."
"Curiously: Our unfortunate husked brethren do not count as the big guns?" Floater asked, moving forward on three legs as he attempted to reattach an armor panel.
"They haven't brought out the asari or krogan husks yet, and that cavern is big enough to fit a harvester." All of the krogan turned to look at her. "I don't know if they have harvesters here, but I'm just saying, it's possible."
"Shepard, you're a regular font of cheer and goodwill," Garrus muttered. "What the hell is a harvester?"
"Giant flying creature on Tuchanka," Brant explained. "Tough sons of bitches. They store bladders of hydrogen gas that they can breathe out and ignite, and they tend to carry around klixen to soften up whatever they want to eat."
"Just how giant is giant?" Ashley asked nervously.
Gatatog Prak pointed from one neon sign they were passing, then up ahead to another one thirty meters away. "That's the wingspan. The body's only about half that long." He grinned with pride, motioning to the bizarrely rippled plates covering his hump. "Got to fight in a krannt that faced one. We lasted ten minutes before it gave up and left hungry." He chortled at the memory. "Well, mostly hungry."
For the first time since they boarded the station, Tali spoke up. "Are you telling me we're going into that cavern to face a dragon?" she exclaimed.
Shepard blinked as she considered it. Thirty meter wingspan, breathes fire, how did she never put together that they were, basically, dragons? "Um, possibly."
"I've read that book, Shepard," the quarian said menacingly, swapping mods on her shotgun. "If he," she pointed at Jondam, "starts climbing the walls and hissing about his 'Precious' then I'm going back to the Normandy." Wipe Out and Surf's Up chuckled, along with Khel Ucard, but all three of the humans looked blank. Tali sighed heavily. "It's a sad day when a quarian knows more of your culture than you do."
Just then, an unearthly shriek echoed down the corridors. Shepard's pistol was up instantly. "And those would be the asari. Whatever you do, don't let them get close to you. They can pierce right through heavy armor." Thus warned, everyone drew slightly closer together, continuing their steady march towards Afterlife.
Two more wails echoed, one after the other, and then the first banshee came into the open from a side corridor. It was only five meters away, the biotic barrier already shimmering under massed minigun fire. Ulluthyr Dorn, however, ignored Shepard's warning, stepping closer with each blast of his shotgun, even as the banshee floated forwards. "Damnit, Dorn, back off!" Shepard shouted at him, but either he couldn't hear over the gunfire, or just ignored it.
His last shotgun blast tore out a chunk of flesh from the banshee's hip just before the vicious talons grabbed him by the head and the hump, jerking sharply. All of the krogan winced at the sucking, tearing sound of the main protective headplate being pulled away. The banshee's body was jerking under the impacts, but she still had time to reach down with one blue-blood-stained hand, plunging it through the skull all the way to the elbow. Ulluthyr Dorn jerked spasmodically for a moment before falling to the ground. The banshee followed it a moment later.
Remembering the second wail, Shepard whirled around, tracking her HUD instead of the corridor. "Floater, look out!" she shouted, and the elcor was already turning when both hands smashed into his side. Armor plates heavy enough to protect vehicles shredded like foil as the banshee raked her talons down the length of his body, and everyone scrambled to get around Floater to try and aim safely.
With speed not usually seen in elcor, Floater's arm shot out, grabbing the banshee by the ankles, whirling her around and smashing her into the floor. Then up, over, and back into the floor again, whipped back and forth as he used her body to pulverize the rock floor. "Dismissively: Puny husk," he said, stepping backwards to give Jondam the chance to set her on fire.
Looking over his shoulder at the damage done to his armor, Floater paused. "Afraid: Incom-" The rest of it was cut off as a brute slammed into his side, the bulging muscles bursting through the already weakened plates, spraying blood everywhere. One giant hand yanked outward, internal organs dripping obscenely as Floater toppled to the ground.
It hurled the handful of organs at Ashley even as she dodged aside, but one piece of intestines whipped around, catching her hip and sending her tumbling to the ground. Both Shepard and Jack strained, dropping it in a field of nearly twelve G, still barely enough to slow the beast as it swung ponderously at Khel Ucard, the pistol-packing krogan dodging nimbly and popping both shots into its kneecap.
"Adjusting for additional gravity," Legion informed her needlessly. But his next shot punctured one of the brute's eyes. Garrus' follow up shot, barely half a second later, punched in right behind it, liquefying whatever brains the beast still had. It lumbered on its feet for a few seconds longer, swinging blindly, then fell heavily. "Shepard-Commander, more forces are headed this direction. We must move with all possible speed." It looked at Cowabunga, dipping faceplates in an expression she recognized as sorrow. "If we move at elcor speed, we will be caught."
She looked over at Cowabunga, face bleak. "Bravely: Do not be afraid for us, Commander. Proudly: We are elcor fighters. We are the best of the best. With gung-ho fervor: We are the Big Dekunna Kahunas, and we will not surrender to cybernetic wash-outs like these!" All eleven elcor trumpeted a war cry, echoing through the tunnels and daring the Reaper and yahg forces to come.
"We'll be back for you, Cowabunga," Shepard promised, holding in tears. "Soon as we gain control, we'll be back for you." She turned to run down the corridor, surrounded by lumbering krogan, with Garrus instantly by her side.
"The brutal calculus of war," he said grimly.
She glanced up at him, pistol back on her hip as she pumped her legs. "Why don't this seem hard to you?" she gasped out.
"Turian boot camp includes forty kilometer runs every week. Runs, plural, I point out." He was grinning inside his helmet, she was sure. "This is a light jog."
"I hate you right now," she panted out. "Also, I failed calculus," she added a few breaths later. He just laughed more, and they broke out into the main cavern.
Every skidded to a halt as they saw the forces arrayed against them. A dozen yahg, four brutes, and at least forty mixed turian, batarian, and human husks. But everyone's eyes were drawn to the harvester, flapping wings fifty meters wide to stay aloft, and the banshee that sat astride its neck.
"Commander Shepard, how nice of you to join us," Aria called out.
"How about you shut up and die?" Shepard shouted, cutting off the broadcaster to continue gasping for breath. She had covered half a kilometer in just over a minute, in full armor, and was still in better shape than Tali or Ashley.
"Now now, Shepard, that's no way to talk to my queen," Saren said as he stepped through the crowd of husks. "Join us, Shepard. Join the only cause worth fighting for."
She snorted, and pointed her pistol at him, even as her eyes and tongue designated targets on her HUD for everyone else. "Join the side fighting for the extermination of intelligent life? No thanks, I'll pass."
"You cannot hope to succeed, Shepard," Saren said warningly, his hand already dropping to the pistol at his side.
"That's where you're wrong. I'm not going to fail. I'm not even going to tie. I'm going to kick the Reapers so hard whoever's living in the next galaxy over knows about it." She narrowed her eyes, targeting carefully. "I will never give up, I will never surrender, and I will never be Indoctrinated by the likes of you and your jumped up stripper over there."
She pulled the trigger, and the battle was on.