Chapter 36

Miranda Lawson flew herself down to Earth because she didn't want anyone else to know exactly where she was going. The location she was trying to find was not on any of the maps. It was a rustic farm house a few dozen miles from the nearest town on the eastern seaboard of North America. It was surrounded by trees and had only one winding dirt road leading to it. It was exactly the type of place the Reapers had ignored when they had invaded earth. Miranda looked for a place to land on the farm land but there was none big enough for a shuttle, it was all being used to grow something. She finally found a clearing in the woods to the north about half a mile away from the house and landed her shuttle there. She then made the trek through the woods. There was no clear path so it took her about half an hour and she was pushing tree branches vines with barbs on them out of her way the whole time. All the while taking swipes mosquitoes and other bugs. At last she reached the farm land and was greeted by a not so friendly voice.

"Leave now Human, I own this land and do not wish to speak with anyone." The Prothean said. It was strange seeing Javik the way his was. Miranda had only met him briefly a few times before but seeing the Prothean in very large human civilian clothes standing in the middle of farm land was odd none the less.

Miranda was not going to be deterred at that point. "Wait Javik I am here because Shepard needs your help." She called out.

This got Javik's attention and he took a few steps closer to get a better look at the human woman. "You are the female known as Lawson. Shepard thought highly of you. I will listen to what you have to say but I will not promise to go with you. Shepard made it clear when we last met that I didn't owe him anything and since I have found peace living a simple life here, I do not wish to leave." Javik said gruffly and then fixed Miranda with a gaze that unsettled her. She couldn't put her finger on what it was about the Prothean looking at her that she didn't like so she decided to push past it.

Miranda then went on to explain everything they knew about what the Hannar and Cerberus were doing and she finished by informing him that they were about to make a military strike against the Hannar. Javik just stood there, He was completely unreadable and Miranda's story didn't seem to have any effect on him. It was a whole minute after she finished talking that he chose to speak.

"So you want me to go to the Hannar home world and play god." Javik said at last. "I will not do that. My people played god once before with your races and it ended with us destroyed. I will not pretend to be something I am not."

"I am asking you to undo the damage you already did!" Miranda said and there was anger in her voice. "You don't have to play god all you have to do is tell the Hannar that this isn't what you want. They are only doing this because they think it's what your people want them to do. You will not be playing god."

"It is the same thing Human. The Hannar worship my people as gods and nothing will change that so if I go to them I will be worshiped. I don't wish to be worshiped." Javik said harshly.

Miranda was about to respond when suddenly there was a loud noise and a gust of wind that nearly knocked them to the ground. They looked up in time to see a white shuttle pass over head and then begin hovering about fifty feet above the opposite end of the field.

"Are they with you?" Javik demanded.

"No, I came alone so that no one else would know where you were." Miranda answered puzzled. It had taken her a long time to piece together enough information and to find the patterns that led her to Javik and she was sure she had covered her tracks well when she went down to see him. She wondered who the new people could be. A second latter her worst fears were confirmed. The door to the shuttle opened and a group of armored troops jumped out. They used the rockets on their boots to slow their decent and they landed in the tomato patch.

"Those look like Cerberus troops!" Javik said shooting an accusing glance at Miranda.

"They aren't with me. They must have tracked me somehow. I only brought a pistol with me, we need to find cover!" Miranda yelled back.

"Cover me I need to get to my house, I still have my old riffle there!"

Miranda then brought up a barrier to protect herself and began firing her pistol as Javik dashed off to her right. He made a bee line for his small farm house as Miranda kept shooting. She couldn't hope to take down any of the Cerberus troops at the long range with a pistol but she did distract them, all six of the terrorists began closing in on her.

Miranda took as second to look around weighing her options and trying to figure out what her odds of making it out alive were, she didn't like them. There were four centurions and two phantoms arranged in a semicircle closing in on her with the Phantoms on either end. They all had heavy shields and weapons and if any of them got in close she would be in a hand to hand fight with highly trained killers. The Phantoms were her biggest worry because of how fast they were. There was also the fact that if she brought down her barrier to use one of her other biotic skills she would be hit by bullets from six different weapons so she had to take them down with her pistol and she only had two extra clips for it.

There was no cover to speak of anywhere so as risky as it was Miranda decided that she needed to close the distance so that her pistol would be effective. She also decided that she needed to take out the Phantoms first. She didn't want one of them coming up behind her and stabbing her in the back with their sword latter in the fight. With this in mind she began to run at the Phantom that was on her left hand side. She closed to within about fifty yards and then began firing. The Phantom easily dodged her shots. Then the other woman pulled out her sword. Miranda knew she didn't have much time so she did something unexpected. She charged head first into the Phantom and just barely missed being stabbed by the sword. They both fell to the ground with Miranda on top and before the Phantom could react Miranda pressed her pistol to the woman's chest and fired three times. All three shots went straight through her heart and came out the other side burying themselves in the soft soil. The Phantom was dead.

Miranda then looked up just in time to see a centurion close in on her and start to fire. Miranda rolled to her left off of the body and the bullets missed her. She then empty the rest of the clip in her pistol into her enemy's shields but it didn't seem to have any effect. Miranda decided she had to switch tactics. Trying to hold out wasn't going to work. Her barrier and her ammo would not last forever. She would have to risk getting hit and use offensive biotics. She quickly reloaded her pistol and then saw that all five remaining enemies were about twenty feet from where she was. What she was about to do was very risky and if she screwed up she would be dead. She took a deep breath and then made her move.

Her tactic in attacking the first Phantom had brought the other five terrorist closer together. They had closed ranks to take her down and at that moment they were close enough that if Miranda timed it just right she could hit them with a single biotic attack. As they continued to close she quickly brought down her barrier and let loose with a heavy throw field. All five of the Cerberus troops were knocked back about ten feet and they were all on the ground. In heavy battle armor it was hard for them to get up so that was when Miranda attacked. At close range she emptied a clip into two of the centurions and they dropped to the ground dead. That was when Miranda's luck ran out, one of the centurions hit her in the right shoulder, she fell backwards crying out in pain. The bullet had gone right through her and she struggled to get back up but the Troops were closing in on her. She tried to bring up a barrier but she was too weak.

Then suddenly the remaining Phantom seemed to be consumed in energy and was vaporized. It was Javik, he had found his pulse riffle and was charging at the two remaining Cerberus troops.

"STOP DESTROYING MY TOMATO PLANTS!" The Prothean yelled. He grabbed the one trooper by the head and twisted it off with his bare hands. Then before his partner could react he closed in on him, twisted the sword out of his hand, and used it to run the last Cerberus trooper through. Javik then looked up just in to to see that the Cerberus shuttle was leaving. He then ran over to Miranda would was laying in the dirt in a pool of her own blood.

"Are you badly hurt Lawson?" He asked as he bent down to look at her wound.

"I think so." Was all she could say through the pain. "They will come back with more troops." Javik nodded that he understood this. "My shuttle landed in a clearing in the woods." Was all she managed to say before she passed out from the pain.

Javik thought he knew which clearing she meant so he picked up the human female and began to walk slowly in that direction. Javik sighed to himself it seemed that it didn't matter if he liked it or not he was about to be at the center of important galactic events once again. Still he didn't care what happened he wasn't about to repeat his people's mistake of playing god again. He would find some other way to deal with the problems that were facing him.

Okay that was chapter 36. Sorry again for the wait but I got busy. Well I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for your support.

Well that was easy, I just had to delete a whole section of this chapter so it is now much shorter and correct some spelling mistakes in order to make it work. Thanks for reading. :)