…
Sean's POV
Oddly enough, Jack and I were walking at nearly the same pace, and stance, as we both made our way to the comm room. Now that I had time for it, I allowed myself to be pissed off.
We quickly walked in, seeing that Shepard was already waiting for us. I actually pushed past JACK of all people so I could have the first crack.
"Shepard, what the FUCK?" I shouted loudly, leaning forward to get her full attention. This surprised her, and caused her to take a step back despite us being light-years away. "I thought we had a truce with Cerberus!"
"What the hell are you talking about?" She said loudly, regaining her composure. "I already talked to him, and he agreed to lay off!"
"Not according to the now deceased warden of that prison!" I said, pointing to the back for emphasis. "He tried to collect on a CERBERUS bounty while we were there to pick up Jack!"
"That bastard." Shepard said, burying her face into one of her hands. "Listen... I'll have a "talk" with him about this later. In the meantime, can I speak to Jack?"
I silently scooted to the side for her to be seen in the projector, as she crossed her arms to take a look at Shepard.
"So you're "the" Commander Shepard." Jack said, looking unimpressed. "I thought from the things I heard about you that you'd be built like a brick shit-house and covered in gold."
"Well... she's a character." Shepard commented, crossing her arms too. "Covered in tattoos and wearing a leather strap to hide her dignity. Classy."
"Ah... the hero of the galaxy can be a smartass too? Impressive." Jack said, looking at her with a smile. "Let's get to the point. If you want me on your team, Shepard, then give me access to what files Cerberus has on me."
"I'll give you full clearance." Shepard agreed, as another voice popped up in the background.
"Shepard, you can't do that!" Miranda Lawson said, stepping into view.
"Who's the skank?" Jack asked, looking annoyed.
"That's Bitchy McThunderthighs, leader of the Cerberus cheerleader squad." Allen said with an angry smile, looking over at us with a can of lemon-lime soda in his hand. This caused Jack to laugh unnervingly loud, as she quickly regained her composure. It also made Miranda angry.
"If I find out who said that, I will vent you in deep space." She said with anger, as she stomped out of view. Shepard was still standing there, with a slightly more amused look on her face.
"I'm starting to like you people." Jack said with another angry smile, as she looked at us. "So... the files or not?"
"You will get your files, Jack." Shepard said with a calmness, as Jack walked out of view.
"And while your at it, Shepard, give us clearance as well." I said with a little less anger, as I looked her hard in the eyes.
"I'll fix this Sean, don't worry." Shepard said, as the line went dead.
I walked out in silence as I went back to my room. I candidly tossed my helmet on the floor, as it skid across the cold floor. I took off my armor, and locked the door so I could take a shower. As the hot water rolled off of me, I leaned against the stall's wall in thought.
"When is this going to stop?" I thought, as the memories of Cerberus pain and suffering rolled through my thoughts like the water before me. I knew what the answer was, and even though I wanted it as much as the next person, I knew that many other people deserved to do it so much more than we did... like that poor Alliance woman that they had been experimenting on... or all those people they have killed to keep themselves going.
It would end when The Illusive Man's head lies impaled on a steel pike.
As befitting a Macbeth-style death would be for someone like TIM, I knew it would have to wait.
"Just promise yourself that if you EVER get the chance... you will kill him." I thought to myself, as I dried myself off and put on a robe.
Afterwards, I came to the briefing room to find Tali and Allen at one of the vending machines. Allen made his selection, as another can of lemon-lime soda came out.
"See? There it goes again." Allen said, crossing his arms as he stared at the vendor.
"Are you sure you didn't make a mistake?" Tali asked, holding the can.
"I don't make mistakes like that, especially when soda is involved." Allen answered, banging his fist on the machine.
"You could have hit the wrong button?" Tali asked, sounding amused.
"No, I asked for Orange, and it gave me Lemon-Lime. Again." Allen replied with anger, staring down the machine once more.
"Allen, the vending machine isn't going to make a mistake." Tali said, sounding incredibly amused. "It's not even hooked to a computer."
"It's that bastard, John. He knows I like Orange." Allen replied with certainty, looking in the general direction of maintenance.
"So... you think John has some sort of... plot against you?" Tali said, on the verge of bursting out laughing.
"Yes, he would do something like this." Allen said, finally making Tali explode out into laughter.
I walked past them, pressing the button for Orange, as one can of it came grinding out of the machine.
"Here you go." I said with a blank expression, as I handed a dumbfounded Allen the can. This caused Tali to start laughing even harder, as she grabbed onto a chair to keep herself steady.
After things had calmed down, I grabbed my lunch and plopped myself into a chair. Suddenly, the emergency lights flashed green, meaning we were getting a priority call. I left my food there as I quickly bolted down the hallway, going down a floor and entering the comm room. Shepard was already there, waiting in full gear.
"What happened, Shepard?" I said, stopping right on the projector.
"I've just received intel from TIM detailing a possible attack on a Human colony on Horizon." Shepard said with heavy athority in her voice, as she sent us her data. "I want you to get down here as quickly as possible to help us try and stop them. Our science expert, Mordin Solus, has developed a counter-measure to keep their "Seeker Swarms" away from us."
"We'll be there soon, Shepard." I said, as the connection went dead, and I rung in the ship's intercom systems. "All hands, all hands, meet me in the conference room. We're going Collector hunting."
…
15 Hours Later
After I finished briefing everyone on the current situation, we all modded our armor with the specifications Mordin had sent us. We all got to work preparing the ship and our gear, as we neared the planet.
I decided to do something I had planned on doing for a while now. I removed the heavy shoulder pads on my suit, as I slipped on a large, heavy duster. The mag strips for holding my weapons poked out the back of the jacket, allowing me to use them without any "connection issues". When I looked in the mirror, I had to crack a large smile.
I now looked completely like an NCR Veteran Ranger.
"No better time to try it out than now..." I said to myself, as I pulled a medium-sized case out from underneath my bed. Inside was a Smith & Wesson Model 500, a gift from Allen for my 21st birthday. This puppy fired .500 S&W Magnums, which are the pistol equivalent to 50 cal. rounds. I had to say... Allen was thoughtful.
"All the guns nowadays fire bullets the size of sand... lets fire something the size of my thumb instead." I thought with a smile, as I loaded the five-chambered gun and put more ammunition into my pocket.
The ship shuttered as we went back into normal speed, meaning we were close to the colony.
"Attention everyone, we are nearing Horizon." Sydney said over the intercom, as I quickly walked out of the room and headed for the hanger bay.
Once I had arrived, I found Thomas, John, Jack, Tali and Weigman waiting for me. Sydney was already in the cockpit, warming up the shuttle.
"So we all know what's happening, right?" I said, grabbing onto one of the overhead railings.
"Yeah, we go down and wait for the Collectors to arrive." Thomas said with raised eyebrows, as something in the cockpit started beeping loudly.
"Uh... we might need to re-think that plan." Sydney said, shutting off the alarm. "It seems like they've already arrived."
"Show me." I said, as the screen inside the ship showed an image of a massive Collector Cruiser sitting on the surface. "OK, everyone get strapped in. We're getting down there."
We took off from the ship, entering the planet's atmosphere.
"I'll land us on the outskirts of the colony so we can avoid being immediately detected." Sydney said, as the clear plains rolled by. As we got closer to the colony, It became easier to see the brown clouds of Seeker Swarms infesting the colony.
"Alright, is everyone ready?" Sydney asked, as we hit the ground with a loud thump.
I looked to everyone as they all nodded at me.
"Open the hatch." I said, as it popped open and the loud buzzing noise of the Seeker Swarms ringed in my ears. Luckily, my helmet could filter out the noise.
We walked through the outskirts, where farming vehicles and boxes of equipment were lying without the people to use them.
"The fucking place is deserted." Jack said, looking in all directions. "Where did everyone go?"
"The Collectors must have taken them somewhere else in the colony." Tali observed, looking at the Collector ship. "We need to find them."
We moved farther into the colony, finally seeing some infrastructure, when a louder, different buzz started ringing in the air. Shortly afterwards, ten bug-like Collectors flew over one of the embankments, landing a fair distance away from us.
"Let's do this!" Jack shouted, taking the shotgun we had given her and blasting away at two of them.
I drew my 500. and aimed it at the Collector closest to me. Since I knew these smaller guys were unshielded, I knew the result would be satisfactory. I fired the heavy revolver, instantly blowing a hole directly through the Collector's skull. The recoil surprised me, but I had felt worst.
I took aim at another Collector, who managed to graze me with it's rifle. Because of this, I instead hit this one in the chest, as the round blew through. It died quickly.
The firefight ended quickly, as John took down the last one with a Force Gun. The Seeker Swarms actually started dissipating, moving back towards the ship.
"Sean, are you alright?" Tali asked, as I rotated my burned shoulder around.
"Yeah, I'll be fine." I said, standing up straight. "It'll take more than that to kill me."
All of the sudden, a familiar whine of a Kodiak Shuttle could be heard getting closer, as a Cerberus marked one bolted through the air above us.
"Looks like Shepard finally arrived." I said with a grunt, putting my 500. away and instead taking out my Pulse Rifle. "Let's see if we can't fight our way to the center of the colony before she does."
As we made our way in further, we were attacked again by more Collectors, who were being backed up by several Husks as well. We took care of them quickly, Jack taking out most of the Husks with her biotics. We walked into a new section of the colony, where it was distinctly more city-like. There was much more detail, things such as recently abandoned shops and houses. In front of us was a dead Husk.
"These things look like the husks that Saren used." I said, examining the corpse.
"Saren got that technology from Sovereign." Tali replied bitterly.
"Wait, are you saying these bugs turned the colonists into this ugly thing?" Jack asked, nudging the body with her foot.
"No, Saren impaled his victims on giant spikes to turn them into husks. I don't see any of them here." Tali explained, looking around. "The Collectors already had the husks. They must have taken the colonists alive for something else."
As we moved on, we saw that colonists were still in this area, frozen in place like statues, as well as an abundance of pods ready for them to be placed in. It was eerie, especially since there was otherwise no sign of the Collectors being in this area.
"Everyone keep your guard up, they could be anywhere." I said, as I signaled for everyone to spread out. I went down the side through several inter-connected buildings, seeing more frozen people. Their eyes darted around at us, but were otherwise unable to move.
As we got closer to an area where more industrial equipment was being prepped, the buzz of Collector wings could be heard nearing us. From all sides.
"We've got company!" Weigman shouted over the comm, as three of them smashed through the window and landed right in front of me.
I took two of them down before the third fired at me with it's rifle. This one had a beam rifle, so I dived for cover as the weapon burned away at the metal wall. I charged my biotics, as I flew out of cover and disintegrated the Collector's rifle. Just as quickly, I closed the gap and stabbed it quickly with my arm blade.
Not even five seconds afterwards, a loud explosion went off not too far from John's position, tearing apart one of the prefabs. A few more gunshots and the area was quiet again.
"Status!" I ordered, as everyone except John rang in. "John? John!"
I quickly dove through the plate-glass window, running inside the smoking prefab to find John lying on the ground motionless.
"John!" I said in panic, as I scanned him with my omni-tool. Luckily, he had a concussion, most likely after a heavy piece of debris hit him in the head. "John's down, I repeat, John is down."
"Is he alive?" Weigman asked, jumping inside the building.
"He's got a concussion, but otherwise he's alright." I answered, as I hailed Sydney's shuttle. "Sydney, we need a medi-vac, John's down."
All I got was static, as I cursed loudly.
"What's wrong?" Weigman asked, hefting John over his shoulder.
"We can't send long-range communications while these swarms are out here." I replied, as I looked at the Collector ship. "We need to get rid of that ship before we can get him out of here."
"I'll stay here and watch him while you and everyone else move ahead." Weigman offered, as I nodded silently. "Everyone, Weigman will be staying back with John until we can clear up this interference. Meet up at the end of this section and we'll keep moving deeper."
As I ran to get there, I could already hear the faint sounds of gun fire and biotics going off. When I got a visual, I found Jack, Thomas and Tali were already there firing at the large mass of Collectors and Husk that had gathered here. I avoided fire as I slid along the ground to where Thomas had taken cover.
"Is John alright?" Thomas asked, poking out of cover to take another shot.
"He got hit in the head by some debris, but otherwise he's fine." I answered, looking over the wall to get an assessment. There were at least a dozen Collectors out there with, with Husk in the front charging. Tali and Jack were taking quick work of the Husk with their shotguns, but didn't have the range to take on the Collectors without any cover to move up. "Is this the only cover between us and them?"
"I double checked, and there's nothing." Thomas answered, taking another peek. "It's a damn firing squad out there."
"Of all the days I chose not to bring my BFG…" I said, shaking my head. "You think you can take them?"
"Not really, every time I take one out another comes to replace him." Thomas said, stepping out of cover and firing at another Collector, blowing it to bits. "And I really don't want to waste all my heat sinks."
"What are we going here?" Jack asked over the gun fire. "Are we just gonna sit here all day?"
"Jack, can you make some sort of… shockwave with your biotics that can disrupt them?" I asked, looking at her hard.
"I thought you'd never ask." She replied with a smile, as she started charging her biotics. She jumped out of cover, as a blue wave destroyed the cover, and the Collectors behind it.
"Move up!" I shouted, as I ran towards the garage area with everyone in tow. "Tali see if you can get us in there."
More Collectors finally started coming after us, as the three of us defended Tali ask she hacked the door.
"It's open, everyone inside!" Tali shouted, as the heavy door slip open. We moved inside and closed the door right on a Husk that had been gunning for us, reducing the affected side to mush.
"Alright, hold up." I said, as I opened my communicator. "Weigman, are you and John alright out there?"
"We're fine for now." He answered, with an odd quiet in the background. "I moved him to an industrial freezer since the gunfire started getting louder. We're staying in here for now."
"If anything else happens, call us." I said, looking around the garage. "We're underneath what I think is their Colonial Administration building."
"Sure thing." Weigman reassured, cutting off the line.
We went up an emergency ladder, finding another maintenance hallway. This led out to a office-like area that contained cubicles and computers, complete with scattered papers. A window on the other side of the room revealed a much more open, enclosed area that went down a few floors, with a fountain in the middle.
In this area at least twenty Collectors were still hard at work loading people into those pods. They had already cleared this part of the building, from the looks of things.
"Alright, this is what we'll do. Thomas, you stay here and watch them down there. When fighting starts, you bust the window and fire on them." I started, looking hard down at the Collectors. "Tali and Jack, you follow me down there and we'll stop their little collection in this area."
"We're right behind you, Sean" Tali said, as we silently jogged down the stairs. When we had reached the bottom, we moved along the edge of the building until we were really close to their position.
"Open fire!" I shouted, as I unloaded on the Collectors with my rifle, and Tali and Jack did the same. Thomas could be heard smashing the window a distance away as loud shots vibrated through the air. The battle was over quickly, with all the Collectors down on the ground. "Good work, everyone!"
"-amn it, can anyone hear me down there?" Sydney's voice suddenly said loudly, finally piercing through the jam.
"Sydney, we can hear you now." I replied, quickly bringing up my comm. "Whatever must have been causing the interference must be gone now."
"All those swarms just bugged out and went back into thatship." Sydney explained, causing me to reflexively look up out the glass dome above us to see we were actually a lot closer to the ship.
"Listen to me, Weigman is with John, and they both need a pick-up." I explained, pinging their location.
"Wait, those cannons around the colony are starting to fire at the ship." She said, as loud booming sounds started vibrating in the distance.
Shortly afterwards, an even louder shrieking sound went off, as a Scion flew through one of the walls, landing in the fountain. It was fucking ugly.
"What is that thing?" Tali shouted, as we all started putting everything we had into it. After Thomas put a few rounds into the top of it from his vantage point, it went into its repair mode, sending out waves of energy and water in the process.
"Watch out!" I warned, as it emitted its larger wave and sent scenery and pods alike flying. It fired a larger "beam" up at Thomas's position, sending him flying from the window. "Thomas!"
He grabbed onto a wire as he fell, but then lost his grip as he luckily fell into the deeper part of the fountain.
Out of panic, I ran out of cover and started unloading in its backside with my Pulse Rifle. It veered around to face me in anger, as I only now realized I had no cover.
I was pleasantly surprised to see a round blast directly through its armor, as it fell over and began disintegrating. I finally saw Thomas, who had emerged from the fountain covered in water and holding a smoking Black Widow.
"Hey… you should come in… the water is nice." He said weakly with a smile, as he fell onto his ass back into the water.
"You alright?" I asked, offering him my hand as he accepted.
"I think so..." He replied, getting back on his feet and holstering his rifle. "I think... I took the re-entry a bit roughly though..."
"Sydney... any idea where Commander Shepard is?" I asked, noticing a similarity in these events.
"She's at the primary colony transmitter, directly north of your position." She answered, pausing. "John and Weigman are on-board."
"Thanks." I thanked, cutting the line as I signaled everyone to follow me.
We were stopped halfway there as the Collector ship bugged off, blowing huge clouds of dust everywhere, and us off our feet.
"Well... that actually feels better now." Thomas said, standing back up straight.
"Your just going to ignore the Collector ship that took off?" Tali said with a bit of disbelief.
"I never said I was ignoring it." Thomas said, flexing his neck.
When we finally arrived, we found Shepard with Garrus and Mordin, who were working on the transmitter. There were a LOT of Collector corpses scattered around the area, and the Scion they had killed was still disintegrating.
"Hey!" I shouted, waving over at them, getting their attention.
"You three?" A recently scarred Garrus commented, leaning backwards in surprise. "When did all of you get here?"
"Before you did." Thomas answered with a smile. "Its been a while."
"These humans, one quarian... you know them?" Mordin asked very quickly.
"Yeah... the only one I don't know is... Jack?" Garrus asked, pointing at her.
"What's it to you, cragface?" Jack asked with crossed arms.
"Ah... so how have things been going with you, Tali?" Garrus asked, turning from Jack to face her instead. "You and Sean still have a "thing?"
"Thanks a lot." I said, as Shepard stopped to look at us.
"How many of them did you save?" Shepard asked with seriousness prevalent in her voice.
"Not enough." I answered, shaking my head. "We think we managed to save most of them, but almost everyone was gone in administration."
"Damn it." Shepard said, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "Well... at least we did out best."
"What do you mean "your best?" The engineer from the other garage said, running up to us. "Half of the damn colony is on that ship!"
"We managed to save people, which is the least I can say for all the other colonies in the Terminus." Shepard replied to him with an angry scowl. "You should be happy you're here and not on that ship."
"We all did what we could, Shepard." Garrus said, looking hard at her.
"Wait... I know that name." The mechanic said, looking off at where the ship used to be before looking back at us. "Yeah sure, I remember you. Some sort of big Alliance hero."
"Commander Shepard, captain of the Normandy, the first human SPECTRE, savior of the Citadel." Ashley Williams said, walking calmly out from behind several crates. "Your in the presence of a god, Dylan, back from the dead."
"Of all the good people we lost and you get left behind. Figures." Dylan replied bitterly with folded arms. "Screw this, I'm done with you Alliance types."
As Dylan walked away, Ash walked up to Shepard and looked hard at her. She eventually cracked a smile, offering a handshake.
"We thought you were dead, Commander." Ash said with relief in her voice, ash Shepard accepted her handshake. "We all did."
"It's been too long, Ash." Shepard said with a smirk. "How have you been?"
"That's it?" Ash said with surprise creeping into her voice. "You show up after two years, and you act like nothings happened?
"I would have followed you anywhere, Commander, I thought you were gone, I thought..." Ash continued, getting emotional. "You were more than our Commander. Why didn't you try to contact me, why... didn't you let me know you were alive?"
"I was out for two years. You'd moved on with your career and you life, I'd re-open old wounds." Shepard sincerely explained, looking carefully at her.
"I moved on, an yet here you are, pulling me back in." Ash said with sadness, as she stared at the ground. "And now we have reports about you and Cerberus."
"Reports?" Garrus questioned, looking over at Ash. "You mean you already knew?"
"Alliance intel said Cerberus could be behind the missing colonies." Ash explained, looking harder at Shepard. "We were tipped off that this one could be the next to be hit. I went to Anderson, but he wouldn't talk, but there were rumors that you weren't dead. Worse, that you were working for the enemy."
"Our colonies are disappearing, and the Alliance has turned their back on them." Shepard said with certainty. "Cerberus are the only ones willing to do anything about it."
"Bullshit, I know what Cerberus is like." Ash shot back, anger oozing back into her voice. "They talk about putting humans first, but at what cost? I wanted to believe that you were alive, I just... I didn't expect anything like this... you turned your back on everything we've stood for."
"Ash, you know me! You know i'd only do this for the right reason." Shepard reasoned, stepping closer to her. "You saw it yourself, Collectors are targeting HUMAN colonies, and their working with the Reapers."
"I'd like to believe you Shepard, but I don't trust Cerberus." Ash said defiantly, waving one of her hands. "And it worries me that you do. What did they do to you? What if they're behind the missing colonies? What if they're the ones working for the Collectors?"
"Ashley, can't you see what's happened?" Tali reasoned, walking up. "You're so focused on Cerberus that you're ignoring the real threat."
"You're letting how you feel about their history get in the way of the real facts." Shepard added, trying hard to reason with her.
"Or maybe you feel like you owe Cerberus because they saved you." Ash defied, getting a sadder tone. "Maybe it's you. Doesn't matter. I still know where my loyalties lie. I'm an Alliance soldier, it's in my blood.
"I'm going back to the Citadel, I'll let them decide if they believe your story." Ash finished as she started walking away.
"I could use someone like you on my crew, Ash." Shepard offered one more time. "I'll be like old times."
"No, it wouldn't. I'm no fan of aliens, but Cerberus has a history of being extremist. I'll never work for a group like that. Ash said with finality. "So long, Commander. Good luck."
And with that, Ash walked away as Shepard stood there in silence for a few seconds.
"Joker, send the shuttle to pick us up." Shepard said with a neutral tone, as she tapped the communicator on the side of her head. "I'm done with this colony."
All I could think of was how little of a chance Ash was giving her. Things were bad in the game, but here I could feel the tension in the air. Don't get me wrong, I completely agreed with her about Cerberus, but she really was giving Shepard no chance.
Out of instinct, I eventually decided to go after her. Shepard actually looked at me with surprise as I opened the large door and went after her.
"What do you want, Sean?" Ash said with an obvious sadness in her voice.
"It's funny how you see all of us out there supporting her, and you don't even stop to consider if we're helping her and not Cerberus." I said with anger, following her as she walked.
"If you are helping her, then you are helping Cerberus." Ash denied as she kept walking. "I thought you, of all people, would understand."
I don't know why, but something in the back of my brain decided that it has had enough of this. I grabbed Ash by her armor's collar, pushing her into a wall as I could feel the veins inside my neck pulsing.
"Me, and all of my friends have been shot at, chased by, imprisoned by, and TORTURED by those fucking Cerberus bastards over the course of TWO YEARS, and you don't see ME denying Shepard of her former friendships because of that affiliation!" I yelled with a much anger as I could, while Ash looked at me with surprise, and a little bit of fright. "You are an absolute BITCH to think that Shepard has turned on both the Alliance and those around her after everything we went through with Saren!"
With that I let her go, as I walked away in rage.
"Sean..." Ash said very quietly, until she turned to look away after I looked back at her.
She didn't say anything else to me as I called Sydney's shuttle in and I walked back into the main area. By this point, Shepard and her team were already gone, and Sydney was just now pulling up.
"Let's get out of here." I said, quickly jumping onto the shuttle. "I'm sick of everything."
…
A/N: And that there is the Horizon chapter. I hope it was filled with enough action to keep everyone interested, and that you enjoyed the total outcome.
Please remember to fav my story, and to leave a review!
This is GIR, signing out!
