Happy New Years everyone! A new chapter is finally here, and on January 1, 2021 nonetheless. I honestly didn't start working on this chapter after my authors note, only started it a couple weeks ago, so apologies for how long i took. This one was a bit of a challenge for me, as i had to make everything up along the way, and couldn't really rely on Mass effect 3 for it. So i really hope you guys like it, even though it might be kind of short. But anyways , here's Chapter 12 of the Noble Effect

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Noble Effect

Chapter 12

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Six stood inside the shuttle, standing in the middle of several turians. The 3 shuttles were headed to their next objective, or as close as they could get to it. He mentally prepared himself for the mission. Him and the turians failure meant that an entire planet would be destroyed, the Krogans would be eliminated from the war, which meant no support for Palaven, which meant no turian support for Earth. No, he would not fail this mission.

"Noble Six, did Commander Shepard brief you on our objective already?" asked Lieutenant Victus. Six turned to face him.

"I overheard your discussion with her before we left. Cerberus has a bomb on the planet, and we need to relieve them of it," said Six.

Lieutenant Victus nodded. "That's the gist of it. But unfortunately, there is more to it than that," he said.

"What do you mean," asked Six.

Victus sighed, clearly struggling with the truth. "The bomb… is turian," he said, as he looked down.

"What do you mean it's turian?" asked Six. "I thought you said Cerberus was in control of it."

"They are in control of it, but they didn't make the bomb. We did," said Victus, looking down at the floor of the shuttle. "But that doesn't matter. Regardless of who made the bomb, we need to get to it and disable it before Cerberus detonates it."

Six felt the shuttle start to land. They had arrived at their LZ. He felt to shuttle shake, as it took fire from outside. He looked at Victus just before they got out. "This conversation isn't over Lieutenant," he said as the shuttle door opened.

The Turians ran out, with Victus leading them. Some were killed by Cerberus sniper fire as soon as they stepped out, others were able to make it to cover. He ran out at the end and saw that one of the other shuttles had been shot down. It burned on the ground a few meters away from them. Didn't look like there were survivors. The other surviving shuttle landed and the other turians poured out, about half a dozen of them. They were immediately fired on by Cerberus forced.

"Noble Six, get to cover!" Victus yelled.

Six saw that Victus and a group of turians were pinned down inside a trench, Cerberus advancing on them. He quickly started firing at the Cerberus troops, covering the other turians that were trying to get to cover as well. Another turian went down, a sniper round piercing through his head. Six saw an ATLAS mech land right behind the Cerberus troops. He ran to get to Victus and the other turians. Once he made it to cover, he made a quick headcount. There was him and Victus, along with 13 other turians. So a total of 14 turians out of the 24 that were on the shuttles

"We need to do something about that ATLAS!" yelled Victus, returning fire to the Cerberus troops who were trying to advance on their position.

Six got up out of cover and fired his Vindicator, emptying the clip, making every shot count, killing multiple Cerberus troops. The ATLAS turned to Six, and fired a missile. Six quickly activated his bubble shield, covering him and the turians around him. The missile detonated on impact, destroying the shield but saving their lives.

"Victus, tell you're men to be ready, I'm going to get their attention," said Six.

Victus threw a grenade over the trench, trying to damage the ATLAS, but to no effect. "How are you going to do that?" he asked, as loud as he could over the sound of gun fire.

Before Six could respond, a Cerberus troop had reached their position and tried to catch them off guard. He stood right over the turian next to Six, but before he could fire his weapon, Six pulled him down into the trench, and snapped his neck. He turned back to Victus. "I'm going to attack the ATLAS and take it out. The second those troops see me attack it, they're going to focus their fire on me," he said.

"How do you know you'll even make it to the ATLAS? All it has to do is fire a rocket at you, or stomp you when you get close to it. And if those troops fire at you, you'll be out in the open," said Victus.

"Trust me, it's not the first ATLAS I've taken on my own," said Six. "My shields can withstand enemy fire for a while, and my armor is strong enough as well. When they all start shooting at me, have all your men start firing on them. You'll have the upper hand as they'll be distracted with me."

Victus stayed silent for a moment, pondering this idea. Then he looked at Six and nodded. He turned back to his soldiers. "Men hold your fire, reload if you need to. When I give the order, I want you to unleash all hell onto those Cerberus troops, not on the mech, on the troops, understood?"

"YESSIR," said all the turians in unison.

Six took his opportunity and jumped out of the trench, and ran straight towards the ATLAS at full speed. The Cerberus forces immediately started firing at him, but they weren't fast enough to keep their aim on him as he moved too fast. The mech fired a rocket at him.

Time slowed down for Six as the rocket came toward him. He slid under the rocket, barely avoiding it, and got back up in time to see another one coming at him. He sidestepped easily and smacked the rocket out of the air, right towards the Cerberus infantry. The rocket impacted, sending several of them flying in the air, and blowing two of them to bits. He turned to face the ATLAS again and kept going.

He heard gunfire behind him, and turned to see the turians taking advantage of the distracted Cerberus troops. Turning his attention back to the ATLAS, he barely avoided another rocket, and this time he got close enough to the mech to slam into it full speed. The mech stumbled, giving Six a chance to climb on top. He tried to use the same strategy he had used before. Reaching the top of the glass and pulling out his energy sword, but before he could strike, the ATLAS used its claw and pulled Six off, throwing him to the ground, making him drop his energy sword.

Six got up to reach for his pistol, but the ATLAS tried to stomp on him. Six quickly rolled out of the way, and the mech tried to grab him with its claw. Six held the claw from closing, pushing against it. With one final effort, he pushed hard enough to break the claw, surprising the ATLAS pilot. Six took advantage and jumped on top of the glass again, and this time used his brute strength to punch through the thick glass and pulled the pilot out. He threw the pilot onto the ground as the mech fell over.

Six walked off and grabbed his sword off the ground. He saw the turians had taken care of the remaining Cerberus forces. He walked towards Victus and his men and noticed the pilot of the ATLAS was trying to crawl away. One of the turians made sure he didn't by putting a bullet in his skull.

"Nice job with that ATLAS Noble Six," said Victus. "I've never seen anything like that before, and you saved my men's lives in the process."

Six just nodded. "How far is the objective from here?"

"It's not far, just a couple hundred meters," replied Victus. "When we get there, we're going to have to fight our way through to get to the detonator in order to defuse it. Once we do, we have to hold out until Commander Shepard gets there."

Six looked at Victus' men. There was a total of 9 turians left, including Victus. He just hoped it would be enough to punch through the enemy. "Alright Victus, this is your mission," he said. "We move on your order."

Victus nodded. "Alright men let's move out." The turians started moving at a decent pace, head towards a large, ruined building. Victus was in the front, and Six was bringing up the rear. Then Victus said something to one of his soldiers as they approached the building, then moved to the back with Six.

"Noble Six, the objective is on the other side of this building. Once we get through, we'll have our hands full, but first, we need to finish our conversation from earlier," said Victus.

"Go ahead then," said Six, moving in behind the turians, weapons at the ready.

"Like I said, the bomb is of turian design, but it's not recent," said Victus.

"Then when is it from," asked Six.

"It was placed on the planet at the end of the Krogan Rebellion," replied Victus. "After the damage they caused on the rest of the galaxy, the Council wanted to be sure they wouldn't rebel again. The bomb was insurance, that in the case that the krogan decided to rebel against the galaxy again, the bomb would set them straight," he said.

"Or in this case, blow up their planet with them on it," said Six.

"Correct," replied Victus.

"So it wasn't enough that your council decided to neuter them forever, but they also planned to completely exterminate them if they ever showed any sign of rebellion?" asked Six.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures," said Victus. "You may not agree with our methods Noble Six, but we were at war. The krogan were multiplying incredibly fast and taking planet after planet. If we hadn't done what we did, this galaxy would be ruled by the krogan."

"You forget I'm a soldier as well, Lieutenant," said Six. "I'm not saying that I'm against what your people did, but maybe the bomb was a mistake. After being neutered, they wouldn't have the numbers to rebel anymore. Now that same bomb that was meant to keep the galaxy safe, is threatening it's existence." Said Six.

Victus pondered this for a moment. "You may be right Noble Six, but what's done is done. Now we need to deactivate it, and save the krogan from extinction," he said.

Another turian came to them from the front of the line. "Sir, we're just outside the objective zone," he said. There's a large Cerberus force there, and it looks like they've dug the bomb up already." Victus cursed under his breath. "Thank you Tarak, get back to the front and tell the men to get ready. We're going in," he said.

The turian, Tarak, nodded, and ran back to the front.

"Let's get this over with, Victus," said Six.

Victus nodded and walked to the front with Six.

"Men, listen up," he said. The turians all stood at attention and looked at him. "I know, we've all suffered a lot already. We have lost dozens of brothers trying to get to where we are now, and I know that most of you still feel that we should've just aborted the mission. But we are turians. We are soldiers of the great Turian Hierarchy. You might think we're wasting our time and our lives trying to save the krogans, our enemies. But we must look past that, past our hate towards them and see the bigger picture, the real enemy. The Reapers," he said. "Right now, while we are here, the Reapers are on Palaven's front door, killing our brothers and sisters. But our new Primarch, my father, will not let that happen. If we don't defuse this bomb, then not only is Tuchanka gone, but so is Palaven. But I promise you, that if we go out there, and kill every single bastard wearing Cerberus armor, and deactivate that bomb, then the Krogan will go to Palaven themselves, and help us crush the Reapers, and avenge all of our fallen brothers and sisters. So, my fellow turians, who's with me? " yelled Victus.

The turians cheered and loaded their weapons. Six turned around and saw that Cerberus had noticed them and were starting to alert each other. Victus faced his men one last time, before charging out to fight.

"With me now, now with me!" he yelled and ran, out followed by his men. "For Palaven!" the turians yelled.

Six switched to his pistol and ran out after the turians. Cerberus troops started raising their weapons, but Six was too fast. He started firing his weapon, each shot hitting their mark, putting holes in the middle of Cerberus foreheads. The turians ran to cover, firing their weapons and hitting their targets. They had the element of surprise, the Cerberus forces were in disarray, trying to rally their troops.

"Push up!" yelled Victus.

Six grabbed his Avenger off his back and moved up, shooting at anything that moved. The turians moved up behind him, pushing the Cerberus forces back. He looked up to his left, and saw the objective. The bomb. "Victus I have eyes on the bomb. Looks like they left it there to engage us," he said.

"Copy that Six, keep moving up," replied Victus.

Six popped out of cover, only for his shields to be drained, forcing him to get back to cover. He saw the turian next to him, get up and immediately go down, a bullet piercing through his head and out the other side. "Sniper! Everyone get down!" he yelled. Another turian went down, then another. His shields were back up, so he peeked out of cover and saw that Cerberus was advancing. The snipers had them pinned down. They were up on top of a small ruined building. He saw another turian go down, taking a round to the abdomen. Six ran over as fast as he could and activated his bubble shield. There was only him, Victus, and 6 turians left. They were about to be overrun if those snipers didn't get taken care of. Multiple Cerberus troops were about to be right on top of him, getting closer to his bubble shield as it took another sniper round.

"Incoming!" he heard one of the Cerberus troops say, just before he was blown to bits. Then he saw two of them go flying about 50 feet backwards into the air, and another one's head get shot clean off. He heard another sniper round go off, much closer this time, and saw one of the Cerberus snipers fall off the building, then the other. He turned around behind him and felt so relieved when he saw their reinforcements.

"Hey Six, miss me?" asked Shepard as she, Garrus, and James walked out of the building that Six's group originally came from. She pushed up, activating her strange holographic armor around her, throwing her blue levitation devices around, blowing up Cerberus and sending them flying all over the place.

Garrus walked over to Six as his bubble shield went down, still firing his sniper rifle. "Garrus, he took a sniper round to the abdomen, you should take a look," said Six, talking about the turian next to him.

Garrus put down his rifle and examined the wound, as the turian groaned. "He'll be fine, it's just a flesh wound," he said. "Let's finish these bastards off so we can get the hell out of here."

Now that was something Six and Garrus could agree on. Garrus stood back up and starting firing his sniper, popping off the remaining Cerberus troops, while Six advanced with his Avenger, alongside Shepard, James, and Victus and his remaining turians. Together, the team eliminated the remaining enemies and manages to clear the area. At the end of the fight, only Victus and four out of the 24 turians that were on the shuttles were still alive, and one of them was injured, but still fighting.

"Nice job team," said Shepard, as she walked over to Six and Victus. She patted Six on the shoulder. "Good to see you again Six," she said softly.

"Likewise ma'am," he replied.

"Commander we appreciate the help," said Victus. "For a moment there I thought we were about to get overrunned." Then he looked at Six. "You've got a hell of a soldier fighting for you Shepard," he said.

Shepard just smiled. "Trust me I know what he can do. We saw that wrecked ATLAS back there, it's not the first one he's taken down on his own," she said. "Will you be able to defuse that bomb Lieutenant?"

Victus walked over to the bomb with his men, setting up a perimeter. "Cerberus set up a firewall around the trigger mechanism to slow us down," he said. "I need to create a bypass. That'll take time. But like you said; no trigger, no explosion."

Shepard jogged over, with Six right behind her. "Are you sure you can disarm the trigger?" she asked.

"Yes, it's old tech, but I know what to do," replied Victus, as he turned to look at Shepard. "Buy me a few minutes , Commander."

"We'll make sure you have the time," said Shepard"

"Understood," said Victus, as he started typing away at the console. "Starting bypass." He looked back at Shepard one more time. "And thank you for making sure I get this chance again."

"Just make it right soldier," she replied.

Suddenly, one of the turians went down, blood spurting from the back of his head. Then another. "Sniper!" Six yelled, throwing down his bubble shield, protecting himself, Victus, and the last two surviving turians, Tarak and the injured one.

"Commander!" yelled Victus.

"Focus on the bomb! We'll handle Cerberus," said Shepard, as she Garrus and James jumped off the platform to engage the incoming enemy. Six was about to jump down as well, but Shepard stopped him with a raise of her hand. "Six you stay up there, protect Victus at all cost," she said.

"Ma'am, I- "

"Don't want to hear," interrupted Shepard. "Just do as I say, because if that shield goes down, he could go down with it."

"Copy that Commander," said Six as he returned to Victus and readied his weapon. "Alright Lieutenant, this is it. Go as fast as you can, because once this shield goes down, the only thing standing between those snipers and you is your men and me," said Six.

"Just give me as much time as you can Noble Six," replied Victus.

Six looked at the two remaining Turians. "Just the three of us left. While the shield is up, help me locate the snipers, because once the shield is down, we're going to fire on his position, copy?" said Six.

"Copy," said the two Turians. The three of them got up over cover and started scanning the ruined building in front of them, as quickly as they could. Another sniper round hit the shield, then another. It was turning red, about to go down. Then Six saw the glare. The reflection of a sniper scope. Just in the nick of time, as the shield took another round and disappeared. As soon as it did, Six started firing his Avenger at the position where he saw the glare. The turians did the same, firing wherever Six was. They needed to keep the sniper busy until his shield had recharged.

Too late, it fired another round, hitting Six directly on the chest, draining his shields. He almost went to cover, but if he did, the other turians would be the targets, and they wouldn't survive a shot like that. The sniper was taking longer to fire again than before. That meant they were keeping him pinned down.

"Lieutenant, how much longer?" asked Six, reloading his weapon as his shields recharged.

"Almost done," yelled Victus.

Six looked down at Shepard and saw they had their hands full with multiple Cerberus troops and another ATLAS mech. He had an urge to go down and help, but he knew he had to protect Victus. He returned fire at the sniper, and another shot went off, this time a few feet above his head. They must've hit him for him to miss like that. The two turians and Six emptied two more clips into the snipers position before they stopped firing. The sniper didn't return fire anymore, but to be safe, Six activated his bubble shield around them and Victus again. He looked down at his team and saw they had taken care of Cerbers, along with the ATLAS mech, which had been blown to bits.

"Commander! Firewalls down! I'm in!" yelled Victus.

Finally, thought Six.

"Spirits!" yelled Victus. "Cerberus hacked the trigger mechanism. It's set to detonate."

"Disarm it," yelled Six.

"No time," replied Victus. "I have to separate the trigger from the bomb, now," he said as he stepped away from the console. "Cover me!" he said as he started climbing up the bomb.

Six walked towards him, staying below him, taking out any Cerberus stragglers who were trying to get to him. He saw Victus kept climbing higher, until he disappeared over the top. Six took out another straggler, keeping them away from the bomb, while the two turians watched out for more snipers.

Then he noticed the bomb start to move, the legs giving out. Victus must of done something right. Then he noticed Victus start to climb down the side, but stopped, and ripped off a panel, pulling out some kind of tube. The legs of the bomb were starting to give away, almost making Victus fall off as he hung on for dear life. It was about to fall, right back into the hole Cerberus pulled it out of.

"Victus!" yelled Six!

Victus looked down at Six, and said one last thing to him, just loud enough for him to pick it up. "Victory… at any cost," he said, as he pulled out another tube, and he fell off, the bomb coming down with him, back into the ground. Six ran forward and jumped, barely hanging off the edge. Victus fell past him, back first. Six reached out, and just barely, grabbed the collar of his armor, almost pulling him down as well. Victus slammed into the wall below Six, as the bomb fell right past them both. He pulled Victus right up, using all his strength, just in time as the detached part of the bomb impacted the ground below them and blew up.

Six stood up, Victus next to him. "Thank you for that Noble Six," he said. "You've saved my life twice now today."

"Just doing what needs to be done," said Six.

Shepard walked over to them, along with the surviving turians.

"Nice job Lieutenant, you made your people proud today," she said.

"I'll make them proud when we drive the Reapers from Palaven and win this war," replied Victus. "But thank you Commander. And thank you Noble Six, for everything."

Six just nodded, like he always did.

"You need a ride? We have a shuttle coming to pick us up," said Shepard.

Victus shook his head as he walked over to his men. "That won't be necessary Commander, we have a shuttle of our own coming for us," he said. "I hope we meet again Noble Six. It was an honor to fight by your side."

Six smiled underneath his helmet. "Until next time Commander," said Victus, as an Alliance shuttle came down on their position.

Six and his squad walked to the shuttle, and he felt glad to be back with his team. "C'mon Six," said Shepard, smiling at him. "Let's get the hell out of here and back to the Normandy."

"This war isn't over yet, Commander," said Six.

Shepard just smiled at him , as the shuttle doors closed . "It's good to have you back."

Alright well, i hope you all liked that chapter.

As you guys know, im leaving to bootcamp towards the end of next month, so this may be the last chapter i upload for a while.

But I will try my best to at least get one more out before i ship out.

This may not have been my best chapter, but i appreciate you guys for still supporting my story.

Dont forget to drop a review,

I wish you all a happy new year, and i'll see you all next time.