Ty:
I drove my format strike into the wall and smiled as it started to disintegrate. "Yeah, third time's the charm!"
To spite my efforts, the wall immediately healed itself and I was left with a bunch of snickering behind me. I turned away from the door and walked over to the bench in the cell. The girl with the long hair and Irish guy were both watching me the entire time. Part of me hoped it was because my persistence was inspiring them but the logical side of my said it was because I had been attacking the door for about an hour without any fruition.
After about ten minutes of being in this cell I had figured out that this is what Saren had meant about showing me what happened. Though, the reliving part of it was really getting on my nerves. My hand reached down and felt the thing in my body, just thinking of it made me get a cold sweat. It wasn't what I remembered back on Freedom's Progress but it was still worrying.
"How did I get this thing out of myself?"
Saren appeared next to me, leaning on his knees. "I'm sorry you have to go through all this again."
"Yeah, sure you are." I wished I could punch him but I figured that would make me look like an idiot to the people around me. "So, what is the deal? Am I just here for a ride along or is there meaning to me being able to move and act?"
"Well, it's simple really, you are here for the ride but I couldn't get your brain to let you remember unless you had control."
"So, it's like that tower scene in Fable 2?" I asked, thinking back to a time where I felt like a ride along to a story.
"Yeah, no matter what you do in this. It's your memory. You can't break your own mind of your own will." He stood up and looked at the door. "Speaking of breaking minds."
The door opened up and three collectors walked in, two holding rifles and another a small switch. He pointed at one of the twins and I before stepping out and expecting us to follow. I didn't move for a couple seconds but immediately regretted it when he pressed the button in his hand. Pain spiked through my body and it felt like the thing in my gut was moving and squirming horribly.
He let go of the button and gave us a wave again to which we both begrudgingly accepted. They lead us down the hallways and through a couple giant rooms where millions of the collector bugs crawled the walls, blocking out the exits and not letting a single piece of the ceiling show.
"So, what do you think they'll be doing to us?" The guy next to me asked.
I shrugged in awe of the amount of bugs circling us. "I don't know, man. What's your name?"
"What?"
"Most of the time, I know peoples names that I go into life threatening circumstances with. I'm Ty."
"Wait, can't you do that whole thing where you shoot that stuff from the zeroes on your body? We could just-"
"Think ahead man. If I did that then we'd be swarmed by all these stupid bug that are surrounding us. Unpredictability is nice but not even I'm head strong enough to do it here and make it out." It was hard to believe I was admitting that there was nothing I could do.
They had us by the balls, so to speak and it was too tight of a grip to get loose. We finally stopped in a center platform in the room and he was taken to the opposite side of me. Our The collectors began circling us with strange machines that seemed to be scanning us. One of them stopped right over my hip for a second. I figured they were done but something shot out of the machine and pierced my side.
The needle began to pull blood from me and down the pipe into the machine. It was after it finished drawing a pint of blood that it stopped and the collectors stepped away from me and started walking over to the guy. One of their octagonal columns came up behind him and they strapped him to it.
He yanked and pulled at the omni-chains but nothing worked for him. The collector that extracted my blood walked over to him and put the machine on his chest. It zeroed in on his chest and stabbed forward. He gasped in pained horror as I could only guess my blood was pumping into him.
"Hey, guy, what's your name?!" I called at him, trying to get him for focus on something other than the stabbing.
The pain made him squirm but they wouldn't let him break the needle. "I'm… I'm Roger."
"Roger, I don't know what they are doing but you gotta let them just do it. It'll hurt but your are making it worse." My words got through to him but only a little and he stopped fighting a bit.
They drew away from him and he let his legs drop and just hung by the chains. "That's… Ugh, it feels like… my heart's gonna… Explode."
"Not yet." Harbinger possessed one of the collectors and got between us but looked at me. "Ty, you maintain a power that you humans do not deserve. We will-"
"Ah, blow it out your asshole you exoskeletal shell head!" I said, moving forward only to have the sensation of the thing in my gut moving again. "Like you are gonna keep me here for long."
"No, we know you will escape from our holdings. Defying odds seems to be your specialty." He raised his hand and the column behind him rose higher and higher into the air until it was thirteen meters off the ground. "That's why we are just going to create a replacement."
The guy hung high and moved in ways that one could consider disgusting, almost like his body parts were trying to break away from him. It almost looked like the work of someone who was really bad at Gmod. He started stretching and pulling for a while, ever twist and turn of his body brought a new level of agony to his screams. Then, when it finally started to settle, a red zero appeared in the center of his chest.
His body finished it's grotesque movements and froze for a second, probably adjusting to the new settings before red light shined from his mouth, eyes and nose. Zeroes popped up all over his body and I could only think of the vorcha. Still, I couldn't move from the spot I was in, no matter how hard I fought it. Everything was going wrong right now and there was nothing I could do
He erupted into a brilliant burst of red light that sent out a wave of energy from his body. As it hit the room around us everything started being wiped away. I put my hands up in front of my face, waiting for the inevitable but nothing hit me. Not even a tickle.
My eyes hesitantly opened to see I was completely alone in the room with nothing to stop me from leaving. Could it be a trap? I bet it's a trap.
I sighed and started meandering forward, fully expecting something to happen and there be a big 'gotcha' moment. At the end of the bridge, I started being able to walk straight since the pain in my stomach had was definitely all a little too convinient.
"And this is how it always happens." Saren said, leaning on a doorway ahead of me. "All you keep wanting to do is save the day. Especially after Tali-"
"Shut the fuck up!" I said, not realizing how much watching the guy explode upset me. "This isn't my choice to be here now and it wasn't the first time. If I'm going to ride this thing out, I'm doing to try and take in everything. there has to be a way to make the suicide mission easier."
"Heh, since when have you had it easy. No, from what I remember, you trying this shit just made it more difficult…" He sneered a bit standing up and taking a more military stance. "God, being in your head is starting to get to me."
"Maybe it's that assimilation thing you were so keen on before." I took a couple turns that I remembered, retracing my steps as best I could. "Maybe you really are becoming part of me. Fully."
If a turian's face could get pale then his came the closest I'd ever seen. "No… that can't… Oh god... "
"Welcome to my fucked up mind buddy. Room for two." We got to the door and I started looking around to open it up. "By the way, what he did, Was that an absolute purge?"
"You mean stretch? Yeah, that was something close but not entirely. Almost like a… and I know you're going to laugh at this but a bug scan. Specifically targeted at anyone that has come into contact with corrupted code."
I stopped what I was doing and put my hand to my chin. "Hm, that explains some of the collectors there with us but not all of those swarms or some of the other ones just guarding the bridge."
"Don't you remember the visions of infecting the collectors? You did insert corruption into all of them just… not enough to make them like you." He leaned on the door, waiting for me to do something.
"So wait, are you saying I have the ability to implant corruption?" I asked, scratching my head.
"Yes and no." He points at his head. "There is something in here that is affecting your abilities. Changing you as a person and it's not me. We'll cross that bridge when it's time. For now, let's continue on with the memory."
He raised his hand and snapped his fingers sending a burst of pain through my gut that put me on the ground. If he was hiding the pain from me the entire time to get me moving, I didn't know. There was no fighting it however as dark circles crept in from the corners of my vision until I felt myself let go.
Shepard:
John looked on at the massive influx of Geth heading toward him and gripped his rifle. He wasn't going to give up any ground nor was he afraid of the army that challenged him. He was the savior of the Citadel and the Geth slayer. If anything, they should be running from him.
He pulled out his handgun and held it in his right hand before drawing his shotgun and holding it in his left. "Miranda, shields."
"Got it, Shepard." She agreed, readying her omni-tool.
Looking out at all the Geth, a normal marine would have been daunted, scared, maybe even have turned tail and ran but not him and now now.
John sprinted into the mass of Geth and slammed his shotgun barrel into the head of the nearest Geth destroyer. He lodged it right in the Geth's head and pulled the trigger, covering him in the white coolant fluid that runs through the bots veins. His hand slipped the shotgun back into his belt and grabbed the bastard by the cords and used him as a body shield.
He charged at its buddies, letting it get blown apart instead of him as he let his adrenaline take over, making time's grip to loosen and slow down. He raised his pistol and methodically began blowing the heads off the other Geth, before throwing what was left of the shield at the last one standing. It was knocked to the ground, and as it struggled to get up, he slowly brought his boot down on its head. There was a crunching noise before the metal gave out and it burst like an overripe melon, sending its white synthetic blood everywhere.
All that was left was the prime and lucky for John, it was out in the sun. Behind it, a large explosion erupted from the area where Grunt and Cody had been searching. The young Krogan came stomping through the fire, roaring in a passionate rage. He then turned to the Prime and charged it, ramming his shoulder into its right leg. The Geth fell back from his hit and right in it's ass. He then grabbed it by the shoulders and bit down on its neck, ripping the wiring out to the head and making the light go dark. It then fell into a unflinching lump on the ground.
Grunt let out a blood curdling roar and then looked at Shepard, his bloodlust was still going. John only had one chance to take down Grunt and he knew it. The two charged each other and the marine leaped into the air, smashing his fist into Grunt's forehead. The krogan dropped to it's knees and held his head in pain.
"Argh, Shepard!" Grunt yelled in pain.
He grabbed Grunt by the collar and made him look him right in the eye. "Listen up, you charge me again, your ass is getting put in the ground."
"...Don't just stand there looking like a target then."
"Are you saying I look weak?" He said in a threatening manner.
"If there's the right lighting, kinda."
"That's...fair point." He dropped him on his ass again. "Alright, give me a sit rep. How you all lookin'?"
Cody walked out holding one of the explosives in his hand and a rifle in the other. "Pretty good so far. Found this."
John took it and strapped it on his belt. "Alright, let's go plant these and keep moving."
Grunt grumbled as he got up and Miranda just stood for a second, composing herself before she took off after them with her usual confident stride. The four of them got to the pillar with in seconds and John took one of the explosives and stabbed it into the fallen pillar. He then pulled the other one off his belt but stopped before shoving it in. An explosive charge could be useful in a pinch and he didn't want to just waste it on something that would be fine without it.
"EDI, do a calculation real quick and tell me if we could bust through this with just one explosive." He called into his ear piece.
There was a slight pause before EDI's overtly feminine voice came over the comm. "By my calculations, it would be possible to break through with just one explosive but two would be preferable. One explosive could easily create a hole large enough for you and the other humans to squeeze through but the changes of it being big enough for a krogan to go is 0.00013%."
John thought about it for a second but ultimately decided to keep the explosive. "Lets try one and see if that works. If it doesn't then we can use the second to widen the hole."
The four backed away from the pillar and John hit the igniter sending the charge out and blasting a hole in the pillar. Upon further inspection, they found that is was just big enough for Grunt to squeeze through but only because he was smaller than a normal Krogan. After passing through, they walked into a new room that was covered in dead Geth and weapon parts.
"Everyone fan out and stock up on supplies." John commanded before moving to a weapons table with plenty of Geth assault rifles. After a quick inspection, it was assumed they none of them work but between all the guns you could have a working one. He went to work pulling parts from each of the guns and connecting them to the least damaged one until he finally had the gun in working order.
John pulled his avenger off his back and sat it on the table and chose to take the new assault rifle instead of his old one. One it was on his back and he scavenged some thermal clips, it was obvious that the others were done with their looting as well and they continued on to the next area through the exit. It lead into a big room that was in lockdown with both sealed doors and shutters. Luckily, there was a control panel that the commander walked over to and his the release button prompting the door to unlock and the shutters to open.
The team dove in all direction as a Geth Colossus shot came flying into the small bunker. "Is everyone alright?"
"Totally." Cody answered, sounding out of breath.
The four of the belly crawled to the door and then down a small ramp where there was enough cover to stand up and not worry about being shot by heavy munitions. As they came down the rest of the ramp, there was a quarian, clutching his side and firing off tons of rounds from a frying rocket launcher before ducking back in cover.
John moved it toward the quarian staying well in cover until he was right next to him. After that he waved his team to move in and the three of them started laying down a blanket of covering fire to allow him time to gain information from the soldier.
"My name is Commander Shepard of the Normandy SR2. We're here to help."
"Shepard!?" The soldier thought for a moment then nodded. "Heard you were dead a while ago but Tali did mention you were up and kicking again. How'd you know we were in trouble? Did one of the defense squad up top get the distress beacon working?"
John shook his head. "No, we came here in an attempt to recruit Tali for a mission of galactic importance. Your men up top were dead when we arrived. Crushed by a falling pillar."
"Damn!" He said, hitting the wall next to him with his fist and clenched fist. "Well, I guess I'm going to need your help. We need to take out that Colossus to get to Tali."
Hey guy, I'm back after a bit of an hiatus. I wasn't happy with my writing style a few months ago and I decided to take some extra time to read some books and absorb some classic authors writing style to incorporate into my own. That, and I wanted to try writing a RWBY fic for once and it's been a smash hit with the community over there. I'll have a chapter for it out later this week for those of you wondering.