From the Ashes

by erttheking

Even after seeing their world burned, Humanity was able to stand up again, and push beyond their pre-war status and reach the heavens. But how will a hardened Humanity handle life among the stars? And how will others react to this aggressive newcomer?

34. A Mother's Wrath

Chapter 34

A Mother's Wrath

Author's Note: Well, there's not a whole lot to talk about here. I think it's time we finally let Matriarch Benezia finally let loose, in case the title didn't give it away.

XXXXX

"It should be right around the corner," Norman said, his pistols at the ready, the other drawing their own weapons too. "Let's do this."

"I don't think I like how this is going," Benezia said softly.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"Can't you see it?" Wrex asked, "at the very most we're about sixty seconds away from where we're heading and we haven't run into anyone yet."

"He's right," Shiala said grimly. "They're probably going to try and ambush us. Keep your guard up, a well trained Asari Commando only needs one good shot to end a fight."

"Mother...what should we expect? Liara asked, looking at Benezia with concern.

The Matriarch softened at her daughter's expression. "Most likely only a few commandos, Iallis lost most of them after you were safely in Coalition custody. She'll probably have some hired help to make up for her low numbers and there's not doubt that we'll run into some Geth up here. My advice, pick off the enemies that pose the lowest threat early on, because when an Asari Commando is going all out on you, the last thing that you need is someone else shooting at you."

"We're coming up on it now," Norman said, holding both of his pistols out in front of him. The team rounding another corner, slowing their pace as they did. For a moment, they hesitated. The hallway was empty, save for a single door on the right. "Seems clear," Norman said, walking forward. "Maybe they decided to run for the shuttles."

"Maybe," Benezia whispered. She slowed to a stop, staring off blankly into space. Then, without warning, she thrust her palm upward, sending a blast of biotic energy up to the ceiling. It hit Iallis, who had been holding herself up by pressing her limbs against the sides of the wall. She let out a gasp as Benezia pulled her down, causing her to slam into the ground, knocking all of the air out of her. "Hello, Iallis," she said icily.

"NOW!" the commando gasped out. As she did, the door burst open and two Asari Commandos burst out, several Geth and Krogan in tow. Iallis attempted to get to her feet, but before she could, a biotic foot slammed into her stomach. She was sent flying across the hallway before smacking into the wall with a cry of pain.

"Shiala, take care of the others. She's mine," Benezia hissed, walking down the hallway towards Iallis, even as the hostile soldiers opened fire, a handful of bullets impacting on her barriers.

"Yes ma'am!" Shiala shouted, extending her hands in front of her and projecting a biotic barrier, absorbing the brunt of the bullets.

"Nice barrier!" Wrex shouted out, firing a blast from his Claymore, the pellets tearing through one of the forward Geth, shredding it.

"Compliments later!" she shouted, "I can't keep this up forever! Shoot!" Norman stepped out from behind the barrier, firing both of his pistols at one of the Krogan mercenaries. Several shots hit it in the chest, but the Krogan merely snarled and started firing at Norman. A few shots hit Norman's barriers before he fired another shot, this one hitting the Krogan directly between the eyes, killing him instantly.

Before the alien's body had even hit the ground, a Warp flew from one of the commandos, hitting Norman directly in the chest, shattering his barrier. "SHIT!" he shouted, diving behind the barrier that Shiala was projecting, narrowly avoiding a shot from the commando.

"Yeah, that's how the Asari fight," Wrex said, firing his Claymore and taking down another Geth.

"If you're done messing around, could you please kill them?" Shiala hissed, a hailstorm of bullets hitting the barrier in front of her, "this isn't as easy as it looks."

Liara whipped around the barrier, squeezing off a dozen shots at one of the Geth troopers, managing to down it. With flash reflexes, the other Asari Commando fired at her, draining her barriers within seconds, forcing her behind the massive barrier that Shiala was generating. "We're not going to get anywhere with those commandos shooting at us like that," she panted.

"Wrex go out on the right, Norman to the left," Shiala hissed, beads of sweet running down her face as he outstretched hands began to tremble. "Hit the commando on a right with a Warp, then shoot her before she can recover." Norman looked like he was about to object, but shut his mouth as both he and Wrex popped out on either side of her barrier, sending out balls of biotic energy as she had ordered them to. The barriers on the commando were drained from the overwhelming force, and as she raised her rifle to fire back, Wrex fired another blast from his Claymore, sending her limp body flying through the air.

The remaining commando hissed in anger and turned to face Wrex, firing her rifle, but as she did, Shiala dropped her barrier and drew her own rifle, firing on her. Liara and Norman also raised their pistols and opened fire on the commando. The combined assault proved to be too much for the Asari, and she fell to the ground, dead. "All right, the rest will be easy compared to those two!" Shiala shouted, "keep firing!"

While this was happening, Iallis scrambled to her feet as Benezia coldly strolled forwards her. She drew her assault rifle and aimed it at the Matriarch, but she idly flicked her hand and biotic energy enveloped the rifle and it was sent flying out of her hands. "Looking fine Benezia," Iallis hissed, her heart hammering as she did, "I thought your wardrobe always had a nice cleavage window, did you decide not to dress up like a whore in front of your daughter!?" As she spoke, she threw a punch at Benezia, biotic energy wrapped around her fist.

Benezia, however, neatly sidestepped it and returned the favor, slamming her own fist into Iallis' stomach, causing her to smack against the wall again. "Iallis, please," Benezia said coldly, "enough with the taunts, you're embarrassing yourself."

"Fuck you, bitch," Iallis swore throwing a Warp at Benezia, only for the Matriarch's barrier to block the attack, weakening only slightly.

"You really are acting like a rookie," Benezia said, disgust evident in her voice. "You think that if a tactic works once on one person, it's infallible. Taunting to make someone reckless? Maybe on a teenage Krogan, but I'm a one thousand year old Asari Matriarch, I never would have made it this far if I didn't know how to control my temper. Don't get me wrong, I'm still VERY angry!" she shouted, elbowing Iallis in the stomach as she charged her again, knocking the breath out of her and causing her to fall to the floor in pain.

""Goddess that felt good," Benezia remarked. "I really shouldn't enjoy this sort of thing...but then again you were the one insisting on acting as if you got off to the thought of torturing my daughter. I can't exactly feel guilty about hurting you in a fight. Now then, why don't you just surrender and make this easier on yourself. I imagine that you have a lot of information that will prove to be helpful to us."

Iallis glared at Benezia, realizing that she was outmatched. "Surrender...fuck you bitch," and without another word, she reached down and grabbed a pistol at her side and pressed it against the side of her head. Before Benezia could do anything, a loud bang filled the room, and Iallis' body fell the the ground, a massive gaping hole in her head.

Benezia watched, half with disgust half with anger as the body hit the floor. She let out an irritated sigh. "You'd rather kill yourself than face interrogation? Either you truly believe in Saren's cause or you are a fool. Most likely a little of both." Sighing again, she bent down and reached for Iallis' arm, pulling her omni-tool out of the armor. "Still at least she's dead and we have this. On the whole this is a victory."

Turning around, she walked back to where the others were, just in time to see them gun down the last Geth. "Ah, I see that you are finished hear. Well done."

"Thank you Ma'am," Shiala panted, resting her hands on her knees, "but you should know that your daughter handled herself very well. Quite a few of those kills are because of her."

"Really?" she said, looking at Liara and beaming ever so slightly. "I will be certain to keep that in mind for the future. But that will come later, now that Iallis and the last of my traitors have been dealt with, we should report in and-"

"Uh...Benezia," Norman said, looking through the door that Iallis' reinforcements had charged out of. "You might want to take a look at this."

"What is it?" she asked, walking forward and stopping in front of the door. "Oh...oh Goddess," she whispered, entering the room as she spoke, the others right behind her. There were in the main storage area, countless metal crates surrounding them, but one thing in particular caught their eyes. A massive see through container, with a giant insect the size of Fawkes.

"Is that the Queen?" Liara said, sounding slightly nervous.

"Looks like it," Shiala said, "what should we do with it?"

"That's a no brainer," Norman said, raising both of his pistols. Before he could fire off a single shot, he felt something bump into his back. Reflexively, he craned his neck to look at it. His eyes widened as he saw one of the Krogan that they had killed earlier limping by them, dragging its right foot, as if it had forgotten how to use it. "What the fuck?" he whispered, noticing that the Krogan's massive wounds were still bleeding and by all rights it shouldn't still be alive.

The Krogan continued to walk like it was being controlled by a poorly trained puppeteer before stopping in front of the Rachni Queen's case. "You...you are different from them," the Krogan said, it's mouth not matching the words that it was saying.

"It's talking to us?" Wrex said. "Don't remember hearing about the Queens doing that, and when I was a kid the Rachni War veterans never shut up about how they knew everything about the Queens."

"Different? What do you mean by that?" Shiala asked.

"The others...took the children away from us. They never heard our song...they are beyond saving now."

"That's why the Rachni went feral?" Norman said, looking at Benezia, "they took them away from their mother?"

"It sounds like it," Benezia said warily.

"It is...much like that time long ago, when a sour yellow note fouled our song. We could not control ourselves...we ordered the children to fight...they all perished. We lost them then too."

"Wait a minute," Liara said, "is she talking about the Rachni Wars? Did she just say that the Rachni were forced to fight?"

"Liara, it's cornered, it's trying to save it's life and it's spinning bullshit stories," Norman said.

"I'm going to have to go with him on this one," Wrex said, "just let me shoot it with my shotgun, one shot should do the trick."

"Wait," Benezia said, holding a hand up. Slowly, she walked forward, stopping in front of the glass, looking directly at the Rachni Queen. "What happened during the Rachni Wars?"

"We...we do not know," the Krogan responded, not turning to look at her, "the sour yellow note came...came from a strange device on our homeworld. Many of my mothers were contaminated...they...they killed those that weren't."

"She can't exactly prove that," Norman said.

"Actually, she can," Benezia said, "Rachni Queens have genetic memories." She looked directly at the massive insect. "I would like to enter your mind. If what you say is true, then...things will change vastly. It will affect what we do with you."

The Queen hesitated before replying. "If it ensures the safety of the future children...I will allow it."

"Thank you," Benezia said softly, reaching out and touching the container, one of the Queen's tendrils directly opposite her hand. "Embrace eternity," she said in a deep powerful voice, her eyes going black. Within seconds, Benezia found herself pulled into the mind of the Queen. Thousands of years worth of memories flew past her all at once as she focused on a particular set of memories, the Rachni wars.

She stiffened as the Queens thoughts filled her mind. She saw legions of the children moving forward, invading entire planets, slaughtering armies of Asari, Salarians that were trying to stop them. She gave the commands, ordering genocide after genocide. But at the same time she was not herself. She was restrained in a glass cell, watching herself ordering the children to their deaths. She screamed as loud as she could smashing against the cell but to no avail. Her strength slowly left her, her assaults growing weaker and weaker as she saw herself continuing to order the children to fight, even as tides of Krogan rose to meet them, beating them back, killing the other Queens. She lay motionless on the bottom of the cell, watching helplessly as her race died.

Benezia gasped deeply as she pulled her hand off of the container, stumbling backward and nearly falling over. "Goddess," she whispered, clutching her heart, feeling as if it was about to burst out of her chest."

"Mother!" Liara called out, running to where Benezia stood, "what is it?"

"She...she's telling the truth," Benezia said. "Something was controlling the Rachni Queens during the war it...Goddess, I can't even describe the feeling. It was a violation, having your own body turn against you."

"We...do not know what happened," the Krogan said, "but we harbor the races that fought us no grudge. They...lost many of their kind as well. If you release us...we will live in peace and isolation."

"I still think we should just kill her," Wrex said. "Maybe she found a way to trick you Benezia, Rachni are far older than either of us and they've got the combined memories of generations. They might have found a way. Besides, if she attacks again, my people aren't going to be around to stop them this time."

Benezia said nothing as she reached up and pressed a finger to her ear. Unbeknownst to any of them, a single damaged Geth lay in the corner of the room, recording everything that they had said and transmitting it.

XXXXX

"Ok, here we are," Jane said, her team streaming into the lab of Peak 7. It was filled with research equipment and several terminals, many of them humming gently. It was also completely deserted, but a few Rachni corpses were strewn across the floor.

"How come no one is here?" Volker asked, slowly looking around the room with his Theta energy pistol at the ready.

"Remember what that Salarian that we took prisoner said?" Jane replied. "The main enemy commander routed her forced to the cargo area to try and salvage this mess. They probably decided that the lab wasn't enough of a strategical position to bother keeping some soldiers here." She turned to look at Tali. "I'd rather not get rushed again by Rachni, so I'm going to need you to make this quick. Get everything that you can off of these computers."

"I'll do what I can," she said, hastily activating her omni-tool and heading towards the nearest terminal, typing furiously.

"Jenkins, Volker, Sheryl, I want you three to stand guard. If anything hostile comes down the hallway, don't hesitate to open fire."

The three nodded as they headed to the doorway, their weapons at the ready. "Well, I thought I was ready for anything after the Geth," Garrus sighed, looking at Jane. "And yet the second planet we stop on we end up fighting a race that was supposed to be dead. It was bad enough with the Geth, at least we knew that they still existed, but the Rachni were supposed to be history. Is this going to be a recurring thing with you people?"

"I certainly hope not," Jane said. "I'd rather just find Saren and put him in front of a firing squad with no more drama."

"You're not the only one," Garrus said. "And I get the feeling that a lot of other people want the same thing to happen too, even the Council. After all, they may not like the Coalition, but even they can't advocate what happened at Eden Prime without pissing a lot of people off."

"Here's hoping to that. A lot of people in the Coalition aren't happy with the Council right now. They were angry after the First Contact War, but Eden Prime makes it look petty by comparison. The body count was a least ten times bigger, it was premeditated, and it was with an army of synthetics that are mainly known for nearly wiping out another race. There's a lot of anti-Council feelings right now."

"Do you think that anything will come out of it?"

Jane shrugged. "I'm no politician, I couldn't tell you. I-" Jane was cut off as her COM unit beeped, Garrus' too. "Yes?" she said, pressing her finger to her ear, Garrus doing the same.

"Sis?" John said. "Benezia just contacted me and told me to get you and Garrus on the line, she said she had to tell us something."

"Captain," Benezia said, sounding out of breath, "agent Vakarian. I...I found the Rachni Queen."

"Really?" John said, sounding surprised.

"Good," Garrus said, "if you did you should probably kill it to make sure it doesn't-

"Vakarian...I can't do that," Benezia said.

"What!? Why not?" Garrus demanded.

"The Queen...it spoke to me. It said that it had been forced to attack the Council during the Rachni Wars. I even joined minds with her in order to confirm her story and...Captain she was telling the truth. Something on the Rachni home world brainwashed the Rachni and forced them to wage war on the rest of the galaxy. I saw it with my own mind. Her children are only attacking us because Saren's experiments turned them feral."

"I...are you sure about this?" Garrus said, his wides widening slightly in shock.

"I am certain. I touched her mind with my own. It is impossible for her to have fooled me. She promised that if we let her go, she will live in peace and isolation, she bears no ill will to any races of the galaxy. I believe that freeing her is the right decision, but seeing as how I represent only the Republics and not the Council or the Coalition, I didn't believe that it was my choice to make alone."

"I...I don't know," Jane said hesitantly.

"...it kind of sounds like we should let her go," John said.

"You were convinced rather quickly," Benezia remarked, sounding rather surprised.

"Well...you said that you looked into her mind and saw that she was telling the truth, she isn't a threat and the Rachni Wars weren't he fault. There really isn't a lot of room to argue."

"Still," Garrus said, biting his tongue, "this is a rather large decision to make, even as a Spectre...maybe...maybe we could try and contact the Council, or at least the Coalition."

"Somehow I doubt we'll have the time," Benezia said, "feral Rachni are still crawling through this base. We need to make a decision now."

"I...oh the Hell with it," Garrus swore. "I always hated red tape, I must be going insane if I honestly considered willingly throwing myself into that. You've got my backing Benezia."

"This...this is a big decision to make," Jane said hesitantly. "If I could contact Admiral Anderson this would go so much more smoothly."

"I know Shepard, but you need to make a call now. We can't stay here long and if we leave the Queen, she'll either get crushed by the fall or butchered by her own kids," Garrus said.

Jane bit her lip before taking a deep breath. "Very...very well Matriarch. You have my backing as well."

"Thank you," Benezia said softly. "First my daughter and then this? Goddess it's going to take awhile to pay you back." And with that, the line died.

"You made the right call sis," John said comfortingly before his COM line disconnected too.

"Christ," Jane said, looking around the lab. "I'm a soldier, I didn't sign up to decide the fate of the galaxy, I signed up to protect the Coalition that's it. Order my men, make sure they stay safe while getting the job done. Not make a call for the entire galaxy." She sighed. "I take it we can't just keep this a secret from the Council?"

"That would probably blow up in your face if they found out later down the road," Garrus replied.

"It's not the crime that kills you it's the coverup," Jane muttered, "unwritten law of politics. I suppose that you're right. This is going to be ugly, we royally overstepped the chain of command on this one. We weren't nearly qualified enough to make that decision."

"We did everything that we could," Garrus pointed out. "Benezia got some pretty hard evidence that we did the right thing, and a Matriarch, a Spectre and a Captain all agreed on the same decision. I'm nervous I won't lie, but I don't see how we could've handled that situation any better."

"I suppose you're right," Jane grumbled. "Still, this is going to hurt like Hell."

"Done!" Tali exclaimed, deactivating her omni-tool. "Most of it is encrypted, but I got everything in here."

"All right," Jane said, "we're done here."

"What was that all about?" Sheryl asked, looking at Jane. "I could only hear your side of the conversation."

"I'll explain back on the ship," Jane said, putting her finger to her ear. "I've got to tell everyone to get back to the garage. And to give the order to drop this place."

XXXXX

Roger let out a slight groan as he sat with his back to a terminal at the end of the narrow tunnel, the terminal being the anchor control. "Fuck this is boring," he swore. "Maybe I should've gone back up there and stood guard for the Rachni just to make something happen, it would've made these a Hell of a lot more fun and..." he trailed off as he noticed his cybernetic arm out of the corner of his eye.

'The fuck am I saying?' he wondered, reaching out and grasping it with his organic hand. 'That's asking for it...you remember that Mom and Dad were scared stiff last time. And Alice...she kept looking at me like she was going to start crying. Don't put your little sister through that again Roger, your parents either. They're pretty much the only ones that you can count on.'

He sighed as he looked up at the ceiling. 'Maybe I should think about throwing in the towel,' he thought. 'The military career had it's benefits, but they've all dried up. Alice's operation was paid for and I'm almost done paying off the medical bills for my cybernetics. I should probably head back to Moriea, Mom and Dad said that their door would always be open to me, and after everything that happened on Earth they wouldn't blame me for wanting to quit.'

'Yeah...yeah I think I'll do that. If I couldn't count on those cunts to cover my ass, I doubt I can count on anyone else, no point in sticking around playing Russian Roulette longer than I have to. When my term of service is over, I'll take my papers and walk. Dad worked in the mines for decades, he's still working there, and if he can do it, so can I...probably should see this to the end though, at the very least.'

Roger's hands tightened into fists as memories of Eden Prime filled his head. The screams of civilians as they were gunned down, the smell as fields filled with ripe crops were set on fire, piles and piles of bodies. 'Yeah, Moriea could be next, and I'm not letting that split jaw cocksucker hurt them. The least I could do is finish what I started back there and rip Saren's fucking head off. Then I bow and exit left. Heck, maybe if this ship does manage to track down Saren, maybe I can convince the Coalition to give me enough cash to move them off of that rock and somewhere nice, like Remus, Titan, maybe even Mars.'

A slight smile crossed his face. 'That...that'd be nice. No more having to worry about assholes getting me killed...just the ones trying to sleep with Alice.' His grin widened with a slightly mischievous look to it. 'Oh yeah, she's going to start dating soon. I can't afford to miss that, what's the world coming to when a guy can't give death glares to his little sister's boyfriend?'

"Roger," Jane's voice said over the COM lines, "are you there?"

"Yup, what is it?"

"Benezia has taken care of the enemy commander and my team managed to clear out the lab. We're done here."

Roger frowned. Jane's tone sounding a little odd, like she was depressed or maybe nervous. "The Hell is wrong? You sound like you just saw your dog get run over."

"Something...something happened with the Queen. Something none of us could have ever seen coming. It doesn't matter right now though, we're done here. Both teams are heading back to the garage. Set the lab to fall, fifteen minutes."

"Got it," Roger said, getting to his feet and lowering his hand. "Well Peak 7...you were boring as fuck and I'm kinda glad that I'm the one that gets to smash you on some rocks," he said, reaching out and punching in the code that John had sent him. As he did, a green holographic image of an Asari appeared to his right.

"Hello, this is the anchor control VI. You appear to be accessing the main release. Are you sure that you want to release the anchor?"

"Yeah I do," Roger said

"Are you certain? I must remind you that doing so will send the main lab plummeting into the depths below us, which is approximately 2.13 miles deep. Chance of survival if in the lab are estimated to be 0.0034%. Are you sure that-"

"I'm sure," Roger growled, typing into the panel again.

"You have set the timer for fifteen minutes. Are you sure that this is the time that you want to-"

"I'm sure!" Roger said, sounding rather agitated as he raised his voice before punching one last command.

"You have pressed the main command button. Doing this will set the timer off and once this is done, it cannot be reversed in order to prevent intelligent threats sabotaging it. Are you sure that you want to-"

"I"M FUCKING SURE!" Roger shouted.

"Very well," the VI said, "the countdown has now started. Peak 7's lab will be disconnected from the anchors in fitted minutes. Please evacuated to avoid certain death. Thanks you for choosing Noveria for your vital research projects. Thank you and have a nice day."

"Fuck's sake VIs are annoying," Roger swore turning and starting to head back down the hallway. He had only taken five steps when he heard something clang above him. Stopping he looked up at the origin of the noise, feeling rather puzzled. He squinted at the ceiling, but couldn't see anything. He was about to start walking forward again, when he saw something large shuffle through the grates on the ceiling. His stomach turned upside down as he realized exactly what he was looking at.

"FUCK!" he swore, drawing his assault rifle and aiming it at the ceiling, spraying bullets at it. The Rachni squealed in agony as it struck downward, causing the grate to fall out, leaving a massive hole in the roof. It was about to jump down when a burst of bullets flew directly into its cerebral cortex, causing it's body to go limp and fall to the ground. However, another Rachni emerged from the same hole, dropping down and letting out a shriek as it charged Roger.

"SHEPARD! WILLIAMS!" he shouted into his COM unit, putting his organic hand to his ear while he continued to aim and fire his rifle with his cybernetic arm, it being powerful enough to resist the recoil. "You better be fucking dead up there!"

"What? What happened?" a voice shouted, Roger not sure who's over the sound of his rifle firing and the Rachni screeching.

"The fucking Rachni are down here! They're coming out of the fucking vents! You-" before he could say anything else, one of the Rachni's tendrils flew forward, aiming directly at his head. Desperately he leaned to the side to dodge it, but it still scrapped the side of his face. There was a loud crack as the side of his helmet split off from the force of the impact, a gash appearing on the side of his cheek too.

Stumbling back and gritting his teeth in pain, he put both hands back on his rifle and fired on the Rachni, it shrieking and charging again before the bullets slamming into it finally killed it. "Shit," Roger swore, his head pounding in pain as he reached up and ripped off the rest of his damaged helmet. He didn't doubt that while it had taken the brunt of the blow, he had still most likely gotten a concussion, but more importantly, his COM unit had been destroyed along with the helmet.

He started forward when a third Rachni dropped down from the ceiling. "Oh fuck off," he hissed, firing again at the Rachni and managing to down it much more quickly than he had been able to kill the others. However, as he did, he heard rustling underneath him, followed by a loud clanging noise that sound like metal on metal. His stomach dropped as he wheeled around and saw that a fourth Rachni had burst out of the grates and was already charging at him, the distance between them already minimal. His organic eye widening in horror, he aimed his rifle at the insect, but he was only able to get a few shots off before it reached him, it's mouth opening wide before snapping down like a bear trap.

Roger felt an overwhelming and sickening pain tear through his body, loosing his balance at the same time and falling over, landing on his back. Tilting his head up, he sawing the Rachni viciously chewing and swallowing something, but didn't waste time trying to make out what it was. Letting out a bloodcurdling shriek he aimed his rifle at the Rachni and fired it until it overheated, the massive insect being riddled with bullets until it finally died.

Panting, he pulled himself into a sitting position looking at the dead Rachni. Pain still tore through his body, and he looked down to see the source of the agony. His stomach nearly dropped out of his body. One of his legs had been reduced to nothing more than a bloody stump, the rest of it had been torn off by the Rachni. He bit his lip as he realized just how painful it was. "I'll...I'll bleed out at this rate," he whispered, looking at the blood that was pooling around him. "I need to...wait."

He looked down at his cybernetic arm, the rough outlines of a plan forming in his head. Reaching down to the side of his arm, he turned the setting on the plasma cannon down to 30% before wrapping the palm of his head around the stump. "Come on...come on," he said to himself, his hand shaking slightly as he reached for the trigger of the cannon. "Come...ON!" he roared, pressing it. Blinding pain tore through his stump of a leg and a pang of nausea filled him. He inhaled deeply for a second before doubling over and vomiting all over the floor.

Wiping the sick away form his mouth, he looked down and saw that his plan had worked, his leg had been cauterized. "So, I won't bleed to death," he said weakly, the edges of his vision going a little black, "guess I get to live for a few more minutes. There...there's no way in Hell I can get out of here in time with this thing," he said, looking at his stump again, "but...fuck it I'm not going to just give up," he hissed, reaching out and grabbing one of the grates in the floor, using it to pull himself forward.

He was about to repeat this process when another panel on the ceiling dropped down and three Rachni streamed out of it, screeching. "Fuck," he said weakly, aiming his rifle at them and opening fire, managing to down one of them quickly before the other two began to scuttle along the tunnel, aiming for him. Roger grit his teeth and he continued to fire at the Rachni in front, finally managing to kill it, but as he did, his rifle overloaded. He dropped the rifle and raised up his cybernetic arm, flipping the setting back to 100% and firing five shots of plasma at the last Rachni, hitting it in the face with all of them and causing the insect to collapse to the ground, dead.

"Shit," he mumbled, reached down and pulling out the spent microfusion cell. His vision was slowly going black as he fumbled to grab another microfusion cell, but he fumbled and dropped. "This?" he whispered, "heh, didn't...didn't know that I was such a pussy. T-thought that I was a little t-tougher than this," he said, trying to force a smile on his face, but even as he did, tears began to stream out of his organic eye. "C-crying now?" he whispered, "w-what's wrong with you? Man up." Even to himself his words sounded empty and hollow.

He looked back at the new hole in the ceiling and saw five more Rachni streaming out and heading for him. He watched them weakly, feeling helpless to stop them and wondering if he should close his eyes as they closed in on him. But just before they reached him a massive roar filled his ears and a torrent of lasers flew through the air, shredding through the Rachni. "What?" Roger said weakly, trying to look around.

"Come on you son of a bitch," a voice said, and Roger felt himself being lifted up into a fireman's carry.

Her craned his neck, barely making out the face of the person that was carrying him as his vision continued to darken. "W-Williams?" he whispered.

"Who else would it be?" the Gunnery Chief said.

"I...but...why?"

"You're a complete asshole and a jackass, but you're still a Coalition soldier, I'm not going to just leave you there to die like this. I-" she stopped as she turned to look at him, seeing a look of pure shock and disbelief on his face, along with the tear streaks. "What's with that look?"

"I...I..." Roger said, trying to speak. That was the last thing he remembered before darkness completely filled his vision and he blacked out.

XXXXX

Author's Note: Have I ever told you that sometimes I have scenes planned out in my heads for months before finally getting around to writing them down? Roger loosing his leg was one of those scenes. I've been wanting to write that for a long time and I'm REALLY glad with how it came out. Now then for the part that I've been wanting to writing even more. The follow up. More on that next chapter

Also, I'm not sure what time this chapter is going to be out, but on Saturday, me and some friends from the Escapist are going to playing a co-op Halo Reach campaign. Sadly there isn't enough room for anyone else, but one of them has said that she will be recording the play through, audio and all. I'll try to keep things interesting with what I say and try to get you a link to the video once it's up. We're doing this to celebrate Halo 4 coming out and we're going to be doing stuff like this for a couple of weeks with all of the co-op Halo games.

P.S. Also, to remind myself of the days Bioware didn't suck, I have downloaded Knights of the Old Republic onto my computer. I haven't played it yet but I'm looking forward to it. After all, people say it's the best game they've ever made.