Mass Effect: Broken Cycles

by Shadowmane2001

When a Cycle repeats itself enough time. Aberrations appear. Commander Shepard is one such Aberration. But there is another, from an Ancient Race planted so many millions of years ago. A race that did not fall to the Trap of the Reapers. And now the last survivor of their experiment is on a headlong collision with Shepard. A being they called GUYVER. F/Shep 85% Paragon 15% renegade

5. Chapter 4, Acclimatizing

Note

When I started this story, I originally intended for it to be a Stargate SG1 crossover, having written the interaction between O'Neil and his team, as well as Mayborne. However I could not figure out how to include the guyver in the Stargate universe without it ending up a near total curbstomp for SG1's enemies which no one wishes to read about. This chapter is taken from a number of notes and excerpts a scene I had pieced together from various interactions I had written out. Heavily rewritten. Please enjoy. I just hope I haven't gone too far on what is in the story chapter below. But I did want to get the readers a peek inside of David's head, so to speak.

The next chapter which will take a while involves mostly Shepard's POV of the below events and the following aftermath.

If you want a visual image of what the plasma rifles look like, go to nexus mods website and look up the Aquila Laser Rifle for fallout four and picture it in pure white. With a similar bolt speed to star wars blaster bolts.

I want to thank Iron Wolf22 for helping me on this.

I had intended to make this chapter longer, but I figured getting it too long would be counterproductive. As for the timeline after Shepard wakes up, she recruits Zaeed, Mordin, Garrus, Katsumi, gets reinstated as a SPECTRE, after which she encounters David. For those interested in what My Shepard looks like, If you have the Legendary edition, Her code is at the bottom of this story. Also I am playing Mass Effect legendary, along the same lines this story will progress.

Mass Effect: Broken Cycles

Chapter 4

Reflections

'Five days.' David thought, 'I have been on this ship for four days. And despite the facts Shepard told me of this Cerberus, I don't feel uncomfortable under her command, or around these people." Which was an amazement to him. He'd always had issues with command, such as General West.

Recalling that made him instantly push it away from his mind, forcing himself to focus on other things. It had become reflexive the last few days doing what he could to forget the trauma he had been through. Focusing on the events of the last few days, leading up to what would be his first real mission, apparently to recruit someone named Jack out of a prison facility. The Bio-booster he had thankfully gave him a near perfect recall allowing him to review what happened when he was getting onboard Arcturus station, and the total fiasco that turned into.

888888

"I still don't know how in the hell you convinced me to not have my armor active." It was a statement, not a question.

"Several reasons, One in order to get on the station we will need to go through decontamination and scanning. Cerberus most likely has moles in the military here that would leak whatever scans they take of your armor. Two it is most likely gotten around by now what it looks like, and they might try to detain you."

As they moved to the decontamination chamber David looked around at the box-like area with Shepard in front of him, Garrus behind and to his right, while Mordin was behind and to his left. Almost serving as a guard to a prisoner. He could see that in the walls were bars of light that began sweeping over them with intense lights as he could feel the sterilization field, as well as the automated voice telling them, "Standby for Decontamination, scanning in progress."

It took a few moments before the scanning was complete allowing the doors to open up. On the other side he could see several armed guards with weapons in their arms and ready to lift them while David tensed nervously at only four people. One person, the station commander or head of security, flanked by a young man, tall and lanky, a woman with blonde hair, and a Dark skinned man who looked like a professional weight lifter. Bald, but with a very calm demeanor. There were several guards in the corridor.

"Commander Shepard," He said formally, eyes roaming over David himself, narrowing at the box he carried in his arms. "Brigadier General Jack O'Neil, Arcturus Station Commander, beside me is Captain Samatha Carter Head of Sciences, Doctor Daniel Jackson head of Xenobiology, and Chief of Security Commander Christopher Judge." What struck him as odd was that the commander wasn't dressed in a formal uniform, more a casual outfit consisting of Camouflage fatigues. Not some tight fitting crisp ironed uniform. West though, he would have given this man a dress down on not maintaining proper adherence to dress protocol, regardless of whether he was this man's commanding officer.

"So you're this Guyver?" Before David could process a response. "Yes, I know about you, and your armor. So can I assume that the armor is in the container, and that you're handing it over to us for research?"

Looking into his eyes David's reply was curt and sharp. "No, it contains Chronos Phased plasma pulse rifles. My armor is stored in a subspace pocket easily accessible, once bound to a host it can not be separated. No you may not study it, I have no intention of letting you turn me into a Lab Animal, and if I have to, I will fight my way off this station." The eye contact was never broken between the two of them. A number of emotions flashed in O'Neil's eyes. So fast he almost couldn't make sense of it. Shock, surprise, compassion, incensed, and finally outrage.

"A subspace fold? That's impossible." Carter said, "Can you summon it here and now?"

"I could." he said looking at Carter, then looking to the sides of the corridor that had a window on it, "Not here, unless you want to risk an explosive decompression. It's pretty explosive when it appears."

"That would kill us all, including you." The head of security said.

"It also acts as a space suit. So I would be fine." David said ready to take a step back to the airlock where the Normandy was.

"Admiral Hackett assured me there would be no attempts to keep us here by force." Shepard voiced at once.

O'Neil turned his head to Commander Shepard when she spoke, then back to David himself as he saw those eyes, not an ounce of anger in them, but concern. Genuine concern, and for some reason that made him more uncomfortable. He felt like a deer staring into the headlights of an oncoming car, just before he could start retreating, the chief of security spoke.

"Our scans were unable to penetrate the container you are carrying. Before we go any farther we need to ascertain that it is not dangerous to the station. Would you allow us to inspect the contents before we proceed."

"I can open the box and show you. But don't handle them, Chronos designed them with failsafes. Handle them wrong, they blow up in your hands, take them apart incorrectly, they blow up." This caused the General to look at him,

"Chronos? I thought you were from the Ouranus."

"The Ouranus left my world over a hundred thousand years ago. Chronos was a group that rose up taking over my world, putting it under a totalitarian thumb."

David was able to see the pieces click into place for O'Neil. "And to resist them you used this... Armor of yours to fight them?"

"Yeah, and in the process they captured my friends and family, killing them."

It was at this point O'Neil changed his tactics, David had to figure through the eye contact O'Neil had realized he was close to bolting back to the Normandy. During his battles with Chronos after X-Day. In order to move effectively, David had to learn to read people's intent through their eyes. And if the situation warranted it, David would have summoned his armor risking their lives to ensure his freedom.

"Alright, let's take a look, and make sure nothing hazardous is in there." O'Neil said. "Then we'll get you to the weapon's area so you can show us how they work, take them apart, and allow us to study them."

Looking between the four of them and then Commander Shepard, David saw Shepard nod as he began to command the chest to open, the top of it was like an Iris that started to retract despite the rectangular like structure that allowed Commander Judge to come over as he used his omni tool to scan the box and then turned to his commanding officer, "It is clean O'Neil." After which David closed it up once more.

"Alright let's go." O'Neil spoke as they headed down the hallway. David found himself being led by Commander Judge, as he quickly found himself beside Captain Carter and Doctor Jackson. Instantly being assaulted by questions, by both Captain Carter, and Doctor Jackson.

"How is your armor able to access a subspace fold?"

"Do you know the odds of two branches of humans having the exact same language?"

Thankfully saved by O'Neil. "Daniel, Sam. Leave the kid alone." David could see in the reflection of the window on the walkway O'Neil, Shepard, Garrus and Morden were behind him with it appeared Shepard and O'Neil, side by side when O'Neil caught him off guard by his next question.

"Tell me son, how old are you?" David had not expected that question, but it infuriated him. Not for being asked his age but that this total stranger would address him in such a familiar way. Rather than bite the General's head off David, firmly but politely spoke.

"You have not earned the privilege of addressing me in such friendly terms, Brigadier General O'Neil. I would appreciate you not referring to me as such." this was not the time for a hard sharp answer.

"Touchy." Daniel said.

"You have no idea." David said curtly.

"Indeed." came the reply from the security officer as David carefully listened to the movement behind him once they got out of the airlock walkway. He could hear Shepard and O'Neil, Watching the man in front of him as he focused his attention on the conversation. They were doing their best to keep their conversation soft. But he was able to pick up some of their conversation, mostly thanks to the harshness of O'Neil's voice.

"Shepard, this kid should be in high school worrying about his grades and getting it on with girls. Not on a Cerberus ship, and sure as hell not going into firefights. He needs psych help even if what he says is true."

"Tell me... I don't know." Her voice was softer, it made picking her words up harder.

"Look you know... anyone hurt him... convince him to stay, not with those damn terrorists."

"Easier... done."

Finally moving through the halls he could see a number of people around the area as well as a few non human species. Asari, Turians, A couple salarians. Unable to make further sense of what Shepard and O'Neil were saying, he focused on his area seeing the strong heavy construction as the group headed into the station he noticed that many windows to other areas had blast shield slots on both sides, as well as security checkpoints. After maybe five minutes and a cramped elevator ride, they ended up in what appeared to be a hallway as he could hear the occasional gunshot. This led them to a location that had the word, 'Firing Range' on the side. Entering into the range it looked like a typical firing range he would have expected.

"Clear the range!" O'Neil called out as loud as he could as lights went from green to red moments later and several people who were getting ready, or were in the process of using the firing range began to stop, clearing their weapons, setting them down and stepping back as he went over to a table. Setting the box down David Spoke.

"Chronos uses a short range IFF signal from gloves their soldiers wear to operate the rifle, try to handle one without the gloves it will explode in your hands." pulling out one of the many pairs of gloves as he broke the zip tie on a pair bit before he continued watching Captain Carter come up to start recording what he was doing. "All gloves are part of a set, attempt to mix and match, say goodbye to your hands if you try to use these weapons."

Finally pulling out one of the rifles he looked over the long three and a half foot long rifle. It had a cylindrical barrel with three emitters in the front of it, that came back to a body which held a scope, with a guarded handle and trigger, and shoulder stock. Taking hold of a tool he set the rifle down on the table as he used the dentist like drill, and seemingly at random he began to remove screws, "The tool vibrates slightly when you are over the proper screw to unsecure. Take it apart in the wrong order, it will fuse the weapon solid."

He explained before he was able to start getting the casing off. With access to the interior of the weapon he began to remove plate screws seemingly at Random before he was able to start taking out the individual components, laying them out on the table, as Captain Carter was recording him. Once the weapon was in it's base components he pulled out a power pack, and a charge strip. Laying them down beside the components

"This is the battery, sixty shots in burst mode, or twenty shots in sniper mode." he explained, "A universal recharge, plug it into a power source, and it will charge up to twelve at a time." And then he took a rifle out of the box along with several power packs and the rest of the rifles laying them down on a seperate table along with a pair of gloves for each one. In total there were six rifles. One disassembled, five on the table. After waving his hand at the container, which caused it to vanish in front of everyone much to their surprise. Captain Carter ran her hand through the space with her Omnitool.

"Incredible, it literally just dematerialized. How was that possible?" she asked David, which only caused him to roll his eyes at her, picking up one of the rifles and several power packs on a belt before heading over to the firing range despite the tense nature of the soldiers here.

"General O'Neil, with your permission I will demonstrate the fire power of these rifles."

"Permission Granted."

Heading to the firing stand he put the belt on the table in front of him taking a power pack as he saw some targets appear down range as he slotted the powerpack as they started flashing and then in a sudden flashing of random targets, the computer said, "Green are non hostiles, Aqua are hostile." And then he heard the computer state, "Simulation beginning."

Leveling his rifle as it started, David sighted down the scope as he watched random targets pop up, more or less what he matched with what the cardboard targets used in SANDLEWOOD. Then as he watched for the Green and Aqua targets. When he fired Red bolts leapt from the end of his weapon, unlike kinetic weapons these had no recoil allowing him to swing the weapon hitting various targets, as at the end of the long corridor came the impact of the rifle as it left a visible hole in the far end of the shooting range. Shot after shot was fired, as targets popped up with a mix of Aqua and green sixty rounds later he ejected his power pack tilting his rifle to the right as the pack sprung out and he slapped a new pack in quickly.

"Simulation complete. Non hostiles hit thirteen, non fatal injuries, hostiles hit fifty-seven. Thirty-two confirmed kills, twenty-five incapacitations." was the score. As O'Neil called out

"Let's get some shielded LOKI's out there. Let's see what sort of damage these can do to kinetic barriers and hard targets." At the end of the shooting range, what appeared to be several flaps which lifted up to provide cover of various heights and sizes, some side passages also opened up. He could see some movement through his scope and as the target range activated several humanoid machines came out surrounded in what appeared to be a shimmering barrier.

Laying down fire he fired off a round as he targeted the center of mass, punching holes through the chest armor. It caused Captain Carter to call out, "Sir, it's cutting through the Kinetic barriers like it wasn't even there." Shots sped out down range as he wasn't able to get all the targets before switching to the sniper mode, and fired through a narrow piece of cover as the now blue bolt ripped through the cover as he began taking shots down range, sadly not all of the pieces of cover were thin enough for him to shoot through. So he was only able to shoot those who came out of cover. But the damage from the single shot was evident, the low powered shots punched through the armor frying the internals, the sniper shot was powerful enough to punch clean through the armor plate and out the other side.

One of the few ground weapons David had concerns of was the Chronos plasma weapons in sniper mode, a lucky shot to an area of his body that did not have the armored plates of the Guyver protecting him, could penetrate his armor, thankfully it was slow enough he could dodge, evade and close the distance to neutralize the attacker, still Chronos seldom had a single sniper after him after they took over the world, despite their heavy use of zoanoids on the battlefield. Once all 30 were destroyed and he had set the weapon down moving away from it, he heard a sudden clapping. "Outstanding!"

"Colonel Maybourne!" Came the sharp angry shout from O'Neil. "What in the hell are you doing here?"

Standing in an immaculate uniform with several soldiers at his side, weapons, out and tense as well. "Brigadier General O'Neil, You have new orders from Alliance Command from Earth."

Handing O'Neil a padd he looked at it and then narrowed his eyes in genuine anger. "You went over my head, you had no..."

"I had EVERY Authority. You were about to allow known Cerberus operatives free access to this station, a known terrorist organization, instead of arresting them on sight. For all I know you are a member of Cerberus yourself." He said smugly. "As of this moment you are relieved of command, under section C397-1 suspected collaboration with an enemy of the state. Corporal, if O'Neil or his friends attempt to interfere... Shoot to kill. Sargent Thompson, secure the energy weapons."

"Yes Sir." As the man stood at attention pointing his assault rifle at O'Neil, he was joined by two other men who began to push them off to the side away from the now sealed weapons racks. A fourth man came over with a heavy looking case and began to start gathering the Plasma rifle he had laid out into the case. He already knew where this was going, standing there stoically he narrowed his eyes when Maybourne looked at him and spoke with a soft smile, as his eyes betrayed the sheer giddy joy he had over this situation.

"Don't worry son, you're safe. No need to panic or do anything stupid. My men and I are here to help you." Maybourne had no idea what was about to go down.

Turning to Commander Shepard he spoke, "Commander Shepard. Hero of Elisyum, First Human Spectre, Savior of the Citadel Council, Cerberus Collaborator. Tell me is there anything of you that is even remotely loyal to the Alliance left?"

"I never stopped." From the hostility Shepard voiced she was no friend of this man.

"Good, then you will order your ship to stand down, prepare to be boarded, and be searched stem to stern for the alien armor that this young man brought aboard your terrorist ship. If you don't I will order your ship boarded by force and everyone shot and killed on sight."

"The armor's not aboard the Normandy." David finally said. Making Maybourne look at him confused. "It's right here. Bio-Morph!"

And with that David extended his will forcing the Guyver to appear around him as his entire body was suddenly charged with energy. From inside him an energy field was generated in the form of a protective barrier. A shell of energy that pulverised the bulkhead he was next too, as the armor appeared behind him. He could feel his body swell up as the armor encapsulated him. The shock of the explosion was all David needed. Lunging forward he slammed his left shoulder into Maybourne's chest, not as hard as he could have but this sent him flying back into two of his escorts. Turning to his left as the guards holding O'Neil and his people were just turning their weapons on him Captain Carter and Commander Judge spun around knocking the soldiers off their feet, and weapons out of their hands. O'Neil turned and punched the man holding him in the face, staggering him backwards. Before a swift disarming motion pulling the rifle out of his hand and hitting him in the back knocking him to the ground.

"David..." Shepard roared. As the other two soldiers lifted their weapons, David turned to the left spinning around as he began to charge up his head laser, and just as he was about to fire it across the throats of the soldiers Shepard's order came, "Don't KILL!" The tone of voice, the force of the command, instantly made David retarget as the head laser lashed out at their weapons. The beam sliced through the air at their rifles and sliced them in half, the two halves came apart in their hands he lunged forward grabbing them by the armored chests, hoisted them up and said,

"Good night." and then threw them into the bulkhead at the far end of the room hard enough to daze them. Turning to face Maybourne who was struggling to catch his breath David popped out one of his sonic swords, and moved on his guards who were struggling to get up and with a swipe of his arm his sonic sword sliced through their heavy assault rifles. As their front ends fell off to the ground, clattering as the soldiers eyes went wide. Grabbing hold of them after retracting his blade he tossed them across the room as easy as throwing a baseball. Getting hold of Maybourne by the collar of his uniform, lifted him up then slammed him against the wall. His hand let go of his uniform as the colonel tried to issue an order and then grabbed his throat choking off his words.

Turning his head to Shepard. "They'll live. Brigadier General O'Neil, would you kindly order your forces to clear the hallways, en route to the docking hatch while the Colonel here escorts us to our ship?"

O'Neil looked at Maybourne While David kept hold of his throat when Maybourne drew a weapon from behind his back and felt the barrel pushed into his side. Just before several shots were fired, casually he reached down taking hold of the gun from Maybourne yanking it out of his hand he held it up, before crushing between two fingers. Dropping it as he looked to Maybourne and spoke firmly.

"Don't do that... again." At which point David stopped choking him, allowing Maybourne to take several deep gasping breaths when David left off of his windpipe who spoke between coughs.

"You can't escape, that door is sealed, codes are locked. It's made of battleship armor reinforced with kinetic barriers and mass effect fields. You are not getting through that door. So you may as well surrender."

"Sam unlock the door," Commanded O'Neil,

"I order you to stop, you have been suspended from duty captain, this is a court martial offence!"

Moving over to the door despite Maybourne's protest she began to try and access the lock and after a few failed attempts she said, "I can't sir, my codes aren't working."

Dropping Maybourne, casually walked over to stand in front of the door as he looked it over. Able to see the gravity fields and the barriers around it. The generators in the walls and deciding his Megasmasher would be unusable, he focused entirely on the area beyond the door, and sensing no one out there, he spoke, "Let me try my codes." Lifting his hands up which caused Captain Carter to scramble away from the door as David held his hands up and together as he commanded the gravity controller to channel energy into his hands, drawing on dark matter as he rotated his hands so that the black ball of compressed gravity waves could form.

"Pressure... " he called out, pulling his hands back shaping the energy so that it would explode out and away from them, not unlike a shaped charge. And thrusting his hands forward finishing his command, "CANNON!"

And with that, the black ball launched itself towards the sealed door impacting the barriers, distorting the energy fields to the point they were useless upon impact with the doors, came the massive blast of gravity which pulverized the door's electrical bonds at the atomic level, blowing out a four foot hole in the middle of the door. He made a mental note that the materials used were much tougher than Chronos, if that had been one of Chronos blast doors it would have been at least a 8 foot circular hole.

As the dust and smoke disappeared David had once more walked over and grabbed hold of Maybourne speaking "I will tear my way through this entire space station, killing everyone I come across to get back to the Normandy. I just proved you can't contain me, now order your men to stand down and let us pass so I don't risk killing them." David commanded as Maybourne sneered,

"Those men have given their oaths to die in defense of the Alliance, and so will I!" At that point David listened to him and knew this man only cared about what he could get out of this situation, and lifting his hand back getting a good scan of his skull strength, the space around his brain, and the strength of his vertebra, and finally with a calculated focus slammed the palm of his head into Maybourne's forehead knocking it back with a hard snapping jerk impacting the wall behind him causing his brain to rattle in his head while as blood poured from the small wound on his forehead.

"One severe concussion, that should keep you out of our hair for the time being." letting go of him Maybourne slumped to the floor, "Brigadier General, why don't you escort us back to our ship while your friends here tend to Maybourne. Unless you would like to try holding me by force as well."

Looking up at him he could see O'Neil cast a glance to the doorway he had just blown open. And finally O'Neil walked over to Maybourne pulling out his omni tool and slicing into his comm. Moments before O'Neil's voice was heard over the intercom. "This is Brigadier General O'Neil. Colonel Maybourne and his men have been incapacitated, I am giving a direct order. Clear all corridors to docking way 4, I repeat clear all corridors from the armory to docking way 4."

"Alright kids let's go."

"Let's take a route away from any external windows or hatches. Don't want an accidental blow out." David spoke harshly. Making O'Neil nod.

As they moved through the corridors with O'Neil in front of them David could see plenty of people through the bulkheads, well at least he thought he saw. The materials here were dense enough it impaired his ability to detect the bioelectrical fields, combined with the electrical wires inside made it hard for him to determine exactly how many people were really around them. Keeping track of Garrus, Mordin and Shepard, she finally asked, "O'Neil, what the hell happened. Admiral Hackett spoke to you giving you a direct order for no funny business. How did Maybourne get in contact with the Joint chiefs? Much less get enough information on David and what we were bringing to get their approval."

"I don't know, but I intend to find out. While I was waiting for Admiral Hackett to contact us, I gave Maybourne an assignment that was supposed to keep him out of our hair. I didn't tell him and he could have only found out if he was A, hacking into our communications, or B the orders he got are forgeries delivered by someone else. Even if he had been listening to us, factor in the time it takes to even reach one, much less three of the five he needs to over rule the orders of Fleet Admiral Hackett. That should have taken far more than the forty-five minutes it took for Admiral Hackett to give his instructions. We only took fifteen minutes for those weapons to be shown off." That was when O'Neil turned partially and pointed at David when he realized that he was explaining this in a hopeful attempt to make it clear that O'Neil had nothing to do with this, "Thanks for those by the way, You're sure that Cerberus didn't get any scans of them Shepard?"

"Yeah I am positive." Shepard said as they began heading to the doorway that led to the Normandy.

When the door opened up David stopped O'Neil looking at the windows seeing some energy flowing through the frame. "O'Neil, are there blast shields that you can order closed over those windows?"

O'Neil turned to look at David still in his armored form as he used his Sonic sword to suddenly slide through one of the frames on the door cutting out a depression as he said, "Just so you don't try and blow the windows." Causing O'Neil to speak sharply. David could sense people moving around behind them.

"You are paranoid, you know that?"

"Considering what has happened here, I think it's warranted. Shepard to Normandy open up the hatch, put an atmobarrier in place." Looking to David she asked, "You are sure that armor of yours can survive in a vacuum?"

"Yes Commander," he replied.

"Garrus, Morden get on board, I'll join you afterwards. David.."

"Shepard, I'll be fine." He cut her off. Garrus and Morden momentarily hesitated then bolted down the passage into the hatch of the Normandy and once they passed through the barrier Shepard nodded to O'Neil, as she stormed across rapidly. Once she had crossed the barrier instantly an energy barrier appeared in front of O'Neil and David even filling the cut out sections, with several soldiers storming out behind them through doors with weapons pointed at him. At the same time, the windows in the docking way had been blown out evacuating the atmosphere. The voice of Maybourne was heard behind him, with an aura of command evident despite the pain he was in.

"Nowhere to go unless you want to take a walk through Zero G and Zero atmosphere," David looked to O'Neil,

"Sorry about this O'Neil." Before he turned grabbed O'Neil and tossed him down a side corridor out of the line of fire, before pushing through the barrier into the vacuum of space. This was a new sensation as he felt a tightness on his chest not in the same way that he felt from being underwater. That was external, this was as if his chest had puffed up. The discomfort was only momentarily noticed as soon he detected numerous incoming rounds of fire from behind as he ran as fast as he could using the gravity orb at his waist to keep him on the floor. While the armor penetrating rounds punched into his armor he was not in danger of being injured unless he stood there and just let them pepper him relentlessly. He learned from the weapons of those Shepard called Blood Pack were more potent than normal he was used to. Getting inside the hatch the Normandy pulled off as the external hatch closed and began to seal and pressurize. He could sense the ship almost ripping away from the arm it was attached to.

His armor was intact, but pockmarked from the rounds they fired. The indentations were pushing out the rounds, healing themselves, it was the first time that he actually felt the exoplates of his armor impacted and affected by fire arms. The weapons were more advanced than what he was used to and sure that sustained fire would penetrate his armor. He could sense the ship suddenly twisting and turning in some wild moves no doubt to evade a number of pursuers before the inner hatch opened and he moved inside with it sealing behind him. The bullets lodged inside him were being destroyed by his body, he heard a voice say, "Hitting the Relay in five." And as that came he tightened his grip on a support bar as the ship a few seconds later began to be attracted through the Mass relay and he could feel as if gravity and mass itself was being inverted, as a field wrapped around and then moments later shot through into FTL speeds.

Shepard and Morden came up to him as Morden was able to get a full scan of him. "Remarkable. Biological scans are fascinating, unable to discern where the host begins, and armor ends. Actual physical transformation. Remarkable."

"David are you alright?"

"Yes Commander I'm fine. Look I could have the back of my head blown off and I would be fine after a couple of minutes." And despite his protests David ended up in medical care after the removal of his armor. A thorough examination by Dr. Chakwas confirmed that he had no injury and no trace whatsoever that he had ever been shot.

"Shepard, the armor stores my DNA, my memories, my personality and my consciousness, or soul if that is what you want to call it. It also records what my body is at the moment. I could have my head blown off. The armor would auto summon, and after a while it would completely reconstruct my head and brain. Or could have the back of my head bitten off. And the armor would completely heal me in time. With one major dangerous side effect."

"Side effect?" Morden asked.

"Hyper protection mode. In the event the Host looses consciousness, or if mentally incapacitated such as being killed. The armor itself assumes command and control of the host's body. If the host is killed while not wearing the armor, the armor auto summons on the host. In this state the eyes glow red and the bio-booster enters into a defensive mode, and anything approaching it, attacking it, trying to hug it will be considered a threat. The armor will then react with hyper lethal intent to protect me. There is a safe point of thirty seconds before the armor would assume control assuming you don't start screwing with my body. Giving you a chance to get clear. If you can't, the only thing I can suggest is not approaching it or acting in anyway that is possibly aggressive."

Looking at him Shepard stood in disbelief. "David, what you are saying is impossible. There is no way anything could do that."

It was at that point He realized the only way Shepard would realize the truth was for him to blow his own head off. Noting the firearm on Morden's waist, he stood up and moved away from Shepard before taking hold of the firearm off of Morden's coat much to his surprise. "David!" Shepard called out before heading in the direction of the elevator running into Miranda.

"Where are you going?" She demanded to know.

"Down to the cargo hold to prove to Shepard this armor renders me effectively immortal. By blowing off my head."

"David, please I believe you," The panic in her eyes betrayed her other emotions. When he turned to face her, eyes full of fright.

"Shepard. We can do this one of three ways. One we do it my way and we head down to the cargo hold for a demonstration. Two, I blow my brains out right here, three you try to stop me, I summon the armor, incap you all, go down to the cargo hold with you all in tow, then blow my brains out."

"David you don't have to do this to try and impress us." She said but when Shepard realized her words had no effect on him she began calling others. And before long they were in the elevator David still holding the weapon. Once they reached the cargohold David walked out,

"Look on the bright side. If I am wrong you can go back to that station and hand them the inactive armor." Moving out David took a sharp one hundred eighty degree turn before he brought the weapon to the side of his head...

That was the last thing David recalled before he regained consciousness in the cargo hold, standing in front of Morden, Garrus, Miranda, Chakwas, and Shepard. Kasumi, Zaeed and Jacob were looking down into the cargo hold with a look of sheer horror on their faces from the upper platform through the window. Looking around David could see what appeared to be Morden's gun knocked off to his right and to his left turning his head he could see blood, bone and brain matter splattered over one of the containers down here.

It took a moment for him to process the scene. "Have I made my point clear concerning my durability." Allowing his armor to leave him he turned his head to the side where the bullet would have exited. "I just blew my fucking brains out, and not a mark Shepard."

Dr Chakwas began to approach him as she held up her omnitool scanning his head. "Shepard there is no sign of any trauma. If I had not seen it and recorded it. I would never have believed it."

"Unbelievable, Correction, Believable had seen it. Miraculous, far beyond Prothan technology."

"By the Spirits Shepard. This kid's unstoppable."

Approaching Shepard he explained. "I have been burned, decapitated, ripped in half, and had ninety percent of my body destroyed. Each and every time it has resurrected me. It won't let me die."

Looking into her eyes Shepard's concern seemed to be replaced with a horrified look in her eyes, which then turned to absolute steel. "Very well. If you are still wanting to fight the Collectors and Reapers, you are going to do it by my rules. Your armor is powerful, no nigh unstoppable no one here will argue that. But you are going to learn how to fight conventionally just like us. You know exactly what it can do, we won't argue that fact with you. And it is a considerable asset on the field of battle when heavy fire power is genuinely needed. Jacob Taylor, is going to educate you on the use of armor including a helmet, kinetic shields, and standard weaponry. Your armor is only to be utilized when I give the order. Am I understood?"

Listening to her as her tone of voice reminded him of a much nicer version of the vulgar General West. Placing his feet together hands behind his back assuming a formal military stance David spoke. "Permission to speak freely but with respect Ma'am?"

"Granted."

"I will follow your orders concerning the utilization of the armor, shields, and weapons as you dictate. I understand the tactical advantage of keeping my armor as a secret to be used when the shit hits the fan, but if I have to make a judgement call on using my armor is for the best, even if it is against your wishes, I will. Otherwise I will respect and follow your orders Ma'am." Something about Shepard told him, she wasn't stupid, she was smart, savvy, and commanded respect, just like West. Just not as big of an asshole.

Having turned to leave she reached the elevator before stopping. "Oh one more thing, You do anything crazy like that again, I'll maroon your ass on a planet."

Considering that she had just experienced a mind blowing demonstration. David began to look around the area when he heard Miranda call for Bio clean up and storage ordering Chakwas to preserve the Brain matter. "Also see if you can get me a cot and a footlocker down here."

"Please." he added after a moment or two before he began to take stock of some of the area. Eventually he found an area just outside the main elevator door to it's left when getting off that he could set up into what might be a good bunk area. Pushing one of the crates to the side of the wall he wasn't concerned with the fact he was near an airlock. Moving them around to make a little bit of an enclosed area with a makeshift doorway to the bulkhead he found it relatively decent. Maybe twelve feet by eight feet. Enough for a small bedroom. Only thing it was lacking was a roof, but beggers could not be choosers.

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A few hours later he had ended up in the armory summoned there by Jacob Tylor, "That was one hell of a show you pulled."

"Oh you think that's impressive, wait till you see the armor respond to perceived threats."

"I have a feeling that is something I would rather pass on." he replied before David took a look around the place, looking out the window, and the armory table. It had to him what appeared to be machine tools but also weapons laying on the tables as Tylor explained, "Alright Shepard wants you in armor,"

"Light armor please." David turning to look at Jacob continued, "Anything bulky or restrictive runs the risk of being flat out destroyed when I summon my armor."

He took a few moments to process it before asking, "Which means anything like restraints..."

"Won't hold me."

"Is there anything that can stop you?"

"Nothing I intend to tell you about."

Tilting his head to the side David watched Jacob finally cross his arms. "Mr. Taylor," Edi said, "Kassa Fabrications developed a variation of their Light Colossus Armor." Looking over to one of the view screens he saw something that was similar to a wetsuit pop onto the screen. "The Kassa Hotshot Light Armor is designed to be worn under most cloths and business suits, fitting not unlike the body suit Mr. Jackson arrived on board with. While it offers protection against mostly light arms, the built in shield system is as strong as their Light Colossus armor. Designed around protecting Business owners and VIPs with discretion in mind. It can easily be fitted with special boots and gloves with a helm attachment for limited EVA."

Looking it over as David thought about it, it seemed tight almost like spandex, before asking. "And how comfortable is it, I don't want something that will constantly chafe."

"Designed for private security, the Hotshot armor is designed to be temperature regulated VIA omni-tool and constructed on a material not unlike silk. With assistance from Professor Solus, there could be a fifty percent increase in shield strength with minimal adjustments."

"Thank you EDI, I could wear that with no issue Mr. Taylor." came the reply

"Construction will take at least a day to complete." Jacob said. "But in that time we can get you trained with some firearms."

Looking over at him David just stared at him, "You do realize that these weapons are a step down from what I am capable of right?"

"Most of what I saw on Tosal Nym most of what you can do relies on getting into Melee, there are any number of weapons that can take you out at a distance." Jacob Taylor went over to the armory locker and pulled out a large Sniper rifle. "The M29 Incisor. Fifteen rounds, three shot bursts fired so fast there is no muzzle climb. Combined with armor penetrating ammo mods. This can tear through just about any target shielded or not."

David was about to say something, but he felt it wasn't out of the realm of possibility he could seriously underestimate the weapons he was faced with. So swallowing his pride, he took to checking out the various weapons. Settling using two weapons. Submachine guns and assault rifles. In particular the M-12 Locust, and the M-96 Mattock. It was very different from the weapons he was used to with clip fed ammo. These thermal clips, simply held in a reserve and ejected. Combined with the fact they were universally compatible, confused him.

The rundown he was given was effectively they were similar to Railguns. Ammo was carved off blocks, reduced in mass, and then accelerated down the barrel. And the only limiting factor was heat generated so the heat sink or Thermal clip was ejected. Still he had inquired about built in heat sinks. Learning apparently that was old technology, and that the Geth used thermal clips on their invasion over two years ago, added to that such weapons were vulnerable to attacks that could overload it's heat system, making such weapons obsolete for the most part.

David could only shake his head as he was given the rundown of the Geth, causing him to stop Jacob from explaining it. Claiming, "I'll read about it later." still the weapons did not have quite the recoil he was expecting. With no explosive bolt the handling of the weapon was a lot easier. The training simulation was enjoyable, not unlike a Virtual reality video game. The weapons had practice rounds installed, effectively the weapon dry fired. Producing the same kick as if it was firing a live round. Moving down into the cargo hold Jacob had run him through several simulations. That involved him ducking, dodging and weaving through holographic cover shooting down targets.

His defenses were similar to the stock shields of the armor that Jacob started to manufacture for him, in all it was not unpleasant. David's style was aggressive and violent. Closing the distance, using body shots over head shots. If the target wasn't dead by the time he got there he would smash them over the head with his rifle. Jacob equipped David with an Omnitool that allowed him to fabricate a blade on his right or left arm for stabbing. Something he preferred over bashing a target's head. Once his first round of training was over Jacob could only shake his head, commenting that David was behaving more like a juggernaut, closing when he should be hanging back. Needing to rethink things even asking Garrus for help and advice.

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My shepards ID code from MAss effect Legendary

7L1.Q9G.M17. .66Q.1DA.712.566.41J.2GH.111.1