Author's note: Hey guys! Thanks for all the reviews and new favs and follows! Got some great combat for you guys here today.
Enjoy! And as always, R&R please!
...
They are set upon twice more by ambushes before they reach the spaceport, they encountered two more of those plasma beam rifles. Jack took a shot across her right forearm, leaving a burn across her skin, thankfully it appears minor as they press on.
Arriving at the spaceport Shepard finds it disturbingly empty. The collector ship finally coming into sight freezes her momentarily in shock, memories flashing across her vision. She shakes her head as she radios the Normandy,
"EDI, come in, this is Shepard." They make their way across the spaceport to the central gun.
"Commander, We read you." EDI comes back across the coms.
Looking over the specs on the screen of the cannon she sighs, "Good, I need you to give me a patch for these cannons, maybe if we can get them online we can stop that ship from taking off."
"If you can establish a connection I can get the guns back online, it will take approximately fifteen minutes to upload the repair patch."
"I think we can manage that long." Shepard takes another look around the still empty spaceport, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end has her on edge. She steps up to the back of the gun, pulling down the access panel to expose the holoscreen behind. She scans her omnitool over the screen, initiating the hack and giving EDI access.
"Ok, you should have a stable connection now." She steps back from the screen and turns to look around the spaceport again, her nerves still on edge. "Look sharp." She tells her squad, "I"ve got a bad feeling about this.
Garrus finds cover on a platform along the edge of the port, overlooking the gun station. Kasumi moves to the far side, leaving Jack and Shepard to defend the middle.
"Patching initiated." EDI tells them over their coms, "Fifteen minutes until the guns are operational. Commander, you have incoming hostiles"
Shepard looks back from the direction they entered the port. They hear the strange clicking, whirring noise of the collector's speech, interspersed with low moans and growls. A horde of husks swarm into the port, like those on Eden Prime, followed by a squad of collector troops,
"Look alive people." Shepard tells her squad as she releases a drone in front of the oncoming fray. She draws her rifle in lieu of her pistol this time, feeling the need for the extra firepower. She fires three shots into the flanks, taking down two husks, her third shot pings off the barriers of a collector.
Her team all release shots and their powers on the enemies coming at them, Jack with her biotics, Garrus his sniper, and Kasumi vanishes, using her cloak to get up close to the husks. Shepard takes headshot after headshot on the husks, and keeps the collectors pinned back into cover.
Suddenly one of the collectors she was fighting shields start glowing, it rises into the air to hang suspended a moment before lowering down. Its eyes glow an eerie purple, its whole body shimmers with a golden glow.
"Shepard." It speaks to her in a strange deep echoing voice. It's so uncanny it is almost entrancing. So much so, she doesn't even realize she's lowered her rifle. Something about it knowing her name, speaking almost directly to her has her mesmerized, "This is what you face, the forces of nature bend to us, and our power is unmatched."
Jack watches as Shepard takes a faltering step forward, almost in a daze, her rifle held loosely in her hands pointed at the ground. "Hey, Shep!" When she doesn't seem to hear her, Jack grabs her arm, "Snap out of it." She yells at her.
Shepard falters a moment, seeming to come to herself, she shakes her head, and raises her rifle again.
"That's it, get back in the fight." Jack snaps at her, using her biotics to slam two husks together and throws them back against three collector troops, knocking them to the ground, and tripping up the glowing one.
That one seems to leer at Jack, refocusing on Shepard again as it stands up. "You cannot resist us, this is what you face. This is true power."
Shepard takes another hesitant step forward, her rifle grip going slack again. Fear begins to grow in her heart, the gaze of the Collector general keeping her transfixed.
"Oh for hell's sake." Jack growls, she shoves Shepard hard to the ground. Turning back she swings her arm, glowing with the blue fire of biotics, and hits the collector general with a hard slam. It stumbles to the side, breaking eye contact with Shepard.
She shakes her head hard again, swearing profusely at her lapse in concentration. Pushing her fear to the back of her mind, she levels her rifle on the collector with the glowing eyes, unleashing hell with an incinerate and firing her rifle full bore on his head.
"That's more like it." Jack crows as the combined fire from both her biotics and Shepard force him to his knees.
"This body does not matter, the flesh is only a vessel. Evolution cannot be stopped." One last shot from Shepard pierces through its forehead, sending the body crumpling to the ground, the strange glow fading. Its last words echoing in Shepard's head. The voice both familiar and alien, the words resonating in her.
Shepard doesn't have time to ponder over the collector's words before a strange, massive monstrosity rounds the corner as the last of the husks fall. "Gods aboveā¦" She breathes out in shock.
The creature floating towards them resembles an old earth scarab beetle, its four long arms hanging low under it. One glowing eye releases a beam of blue white plasma at Shepard and Jack.
The two women dive away, in opposite directions from each other, as the beam sears the ground where they'd stood moments ago.
"What the fucking hell is that thing?" Jack gasps, rolling to her feet and throwing biotic warps at the creature. They spark against its shielding.
"Keep it up." Shepard orders as she continues her roll to a knee, releasing an overload pulse and firing an entire thermal clip into the hide of it; the bullets bounce uselessly off the creature's hard shell. One more overload from her, and a warp from Jack has its shields crackling as they start to fail.
"Hit it with all you've got." Shepard yells into her coms. She ejects the spent heatsink from her rifle and fires full bore again, directly into the eye of the creature. Garrus lets loose with his sniper, it cracks loudly, the shot puncturing the hard shell and causing the thing to release a high pitched screech.
Kasumi appears under its belly, firing her pistol into the soft underbelly. Her bullets rip into its flesh causing another ear piercing screech before she dodges away, vanishing again.
The monster collapses to the ground, Jack lets out a whoop of triumph. Is is short lived though as a massive biotic burst and EMP blasts from the creature, knocking Shepard and Jack to their backs, sending sparks from their weapons as the EMP fries the heatsinks.
"Shit," Shepard swears as she pushes herself to her feet, only to have to dive away again as another white hot plasma beam fries the ground where she was. The overheated air washes over her as she gasps and rolls out of the way.
Jack throws herself to the side and holsters her pistol, foregoing it to use both her hands to send biotic punches into the renewed shields of the creature, causing them to spark and flicker.
Jack's onslaught has the creature turning its attention towards her as Shepard recovers to her feet and holsters her now useless rifle, she grabs the beam rifle from her back. Praying it wasn't affected by the EMP she holds it in both hands and presses the trigger.
The bright yellow gout of plasma shoots out in a beam that penetrates the creatures shields, causing them to crack again before it rips into its hide. Garrus' hits the eye once more with a high concussive shot. It ruptures, spewing out liquid and slime and sending the creature tumbling to the ground.
Shepard advances on it, never letting up on her fire until the creature stops screeching. It shivers once, before going still.
