A/N: Sorry for the long wait but like I said I'm focusing on my other story before I work on this one. However, I will be posting chapters here and there when I can but don't expect them to one right after the other. If anything they may be a month apart but I will be posting chapters here and there.
Thank you to everyone for taking the time to read this.
Ghost Recon and Mass Effect belong to the people who own them.
Two
In the forests of Eden Prime the wreckage of the Rhino gunship lay mostly in shape, one of the wings was mangled that it couldn't be called a wing anymore while the other broke off during the crash. The rear of the gunship was completely torn off and separated from the main body. Sparks flew from the exposed wires and broken terminals, smoke rose from the flames that went unnoticed as smoke from the colony outpost a mile away also rose in the air.
The wreckage appeared to be void of life.
Six figures emerged from the direction of the colony outpost but these figures were not human or any of the species in the known galaxy, instead the figures are machine in nature, the Geth. Their bodies are similar to that of a quarian but that's where the similarities end, the geth have a single "eye" along a flaps on the side of the head that serve as communication panels, they also have mechanical tubes and wires running along their bodies.
The geth ground troops quickly surrounded the burning wreckage of the gunship and preformed a thermal scan of the wreckage to see if any there are any survivors. However, the heat from the flames rendered the thermal scans useless.
/PROBABILITY OF SURVIVORS…BELOW 20%/
/SEARCH WRECKAGE FOR SURVIVORS/
/CONFIRMED/
Three geth units advanced on the wreckage while the rest remained where they stood, weapons trained on the wreckage. The three geth units entered the wreckage one by one and began a search for any survivors when they didn't find any they lowered their weapons and began searching the flight terminals for any data on who sent the gunship. The sound of something clattering against the floor distracted the geth, one of the geth units saw the object in question and went to pick up the object. Examining the object reveled it to be cylindrical, turning the object showed a picture of a happy face and a red light that changed to green.
The wreckage exploded along with the three geth units inside, the remaining three quickly surveyed their surroundings in attempt to find the enemy only to be shot in the head immediately destroying them as their bodies dropped to the ground where they remained motionless.
Thirty minutes earlier
Wolf leaned back in her chair and rubbed the back of her neck while breathing a sigh of relief that she's alive. A groaning sound could be heard behind her, turning in her seat Wolf saw Sis holding her forehead with her right hand while leaning her head back.
"Alright Sis?" Wolf asked her teammate as she unbuckled the flight harness keeping her restrained in her seat.
"Have a massive headache," Sis groaned back also undoing her flight harness when Wolf passed her to go the hold.
When Wolf saw that the rear half of the gunship was gone she felt dread in her stomach as she worried for her teammates Oden and Preacher.
"All call signs report?" Wolf said over the comms, when she all she heard was static she felt a hand on her shoulder turning around she saw Sis. Like Preacher, Sis didn't wear a helmet instead she wears a light grey boonie hat along with a tan scarf that she uses to hide the bottom half of her face. Since Sis specializes in long to medium range engagements she wore a light combat vest that offered protection but didn't hinder her mobility.
"They'll be alright," She comforted Wolf. Wolf nodded before grabbing her weapon Sis followed suite and together they exited the wreckage and took a knee outside to gather their bearings and take stock of what they left. The sound of leaves rustling drew the attention of both Wolf and Sis as they aimed their weapons in the direction of the sound. Emerging from the forest is both Preacher and Oden looking none the worse for wear.
Wolf nodded at the both of them as they walked over to her and Sis. Both Wolf and Sis made room for them as they got closer and took a knee, all four teammates formed a circle and covered all directions with their weapons.
"I can't raise anyone on comms," Wolf explained to the group. "Preacher?"
"Got to be a high tech jammer if it's able to cut all communication with the Inferno."
"What's the play, boss?" Oden asked.
"We continue the mission," Wolf replied checking over her rifle. "Even if there's one of us left."
"Got it," all three of her teammates replied before Wolf rose to her feet.
"Wait," Sis said drawing the attention of her teammates. "I'm picking unknown signatures coming from the east."
"How many?" Wolf asked.
"Six."
Wolf exhaled before looking to her squad, "Let's see who shot us down."
After taking position behind some trees twenty feet from the crash site just in time as six figures emerged from the forest foliage and advance on the crash site. From Wolf's perspective she saw six drones advance on the crash site. Wolf gestured to Oden to prime a remote grenade when she saw the three of the drones go into the wreckage, when she saw them lower their weapons she nodded to Oden.
Oden threw the grenade right into wreckage and waited for his teammates to line up their shots. When Wolf gave the signal he pressed the button on the small detonator and watched as the wreckage went up in flames just as the three drones went down from headshots. With the hostiles down Wolf gestured for everyone to move forward, everyone advanced slowly while keeping their weapons raised and an eye on their surroundings. Slowly they approached one of the drones.
"These don't look like any drones I've ever seen," Sis said when they stopped over the "dead" drone.
"Do your thing, Preacher." Wolf said as Preacher took a knee, set his SMG on his back, and pulled out a cable from his gauntlet that he uses whenever he hacks. Inserting the cable into a port he found on the back of the "neck" and opened a connection, however most of the data has already been wiped which confused him. Even when a drone is equipped with a memory wipe it would take a while for all of the data to be wiped.
"Anything?"
"Nothing," Preacher told Wolf as he closed the connection and removed the cable from the port. "All of the data has been wiped," he said as he grabbed his SMG from his back. "I know of only one group that could do a fast memory wipe upon death." Everyone looked at him, "the Geth."
"The Geth haven't been seen ever since they pushed the quarians out of their home system." Sis said.
"I'm just telling you what I know," Preacher said to Sis. "Not even Eclipse can do a fast memory wipe upon death with their drones."
"How certain are you?" Wolf asked Preacher.
Preacher looked at Wolf, he knew she wasn't questioning him she trusted him just as much as the others. "100% boss."
Wolf sighed, "Alright so we're fighting geth." she looked to her team, "that changes nothing. Our objective remains the same." Wolf now looked at Sis, "how far are we from the colony?"
"A mile to the east."
Wolf nodded at that and gestured for the others to rally on her as she led the way to the colony.
Spec Ops Dreadnaught Inferno
"Any call signs report in," the comms officer said. "I say again come in. Nothing ma'am," the comms officer said to the Captain overlooking his shoulder to the screen.
"Keep trying to raise them." the Captain said before she left the comms station. Captain Nora Adams had a gut feeling that something is wrong and she learned to trust her gut in situations like this, shortly after entering atmo the Inferno lost all contact with Wolf Squad since then they've been trying to reestablish contact.
Taking a breath Nora went to her command platform overlooking the rest of the crew on the bridge. Leaning on the railing slightly as she waited for any response from Wolf Squad.
"Ma'am I got something," one of the crewman on the bridge said to the Nora. It would seem she didn't have to wait long as she looked in the direction of the crewman.
"What do you have?" Nora asked the crewman from the command platform.
"Looks to be a video message, ma'am."
"Play it," she told the crewman who immediately did. A large holo screen appeared in the center of the bridge. The footage began to play for everyone to see.
Gunfire could be heard as a rifle barrel came into view along with a marine who passed by the camera. A female marine wearing white armor with pink highlights could be seen running towards the camera.
"Get down." The marine said as she pushed the person holding the camera on the ground just in time as rounds flew past where the person was standing. The marine then fired her rifle, shell casings flew out of the rifle as the marine continued to hold the trigger down. The camera then shifted to show the battlefield where dust could be seen flying in the air as rounds impacted in the dirt. An explosion kicked up dirt.
Then the scene once again shifted this time to show a marine holding the camera. This appeared to be the squad leader.
"We are under attack. Taking heavy casualties, I repeat heavy casualties." The squad leader said as he held the camera while looking over his shoulder.
"We can't…," an explosion off camera cut off what the squad leader was about to say. "get evac." The squad leader managed to say as gunfire and explosions happened all around him. "They came out of nowhere. We need…" a bullet pierced the squad leader's chest causing the camera to fall out of his hands as the now dead squad leader fell.
The camera was then picked up to show a marine firing his rifle then stopping as a mechanical groaning could be heard. The marine then stared off into the distance with his mouth open in disbelief. The scene changed to show what appeared to be a large mechanical hand coming out of the clouds, red lighting flickered in between the fingers. The scene then changed to show more explosions before it ended with snow filling the screen.
Nora remained silent after the video was done playing, everyone one the bridge stopped what they were doing to listen and watch the footage. "Back the footage up," she told the crewman who began to rewind the footage until Nora told him to stop.
The image on screen showed the massive hand like object emerging from the clouds.
"What is that" Nora asked herself and it's a damn good question. One nobody knew the answer too and weren't sure if they wanted to know.
"Status on the Normandy?" Nora asked one of the crewman on the bridge.
"Twenty minutes out, ma'am." The crewman told her.
"Forward this to the Normandy." Nora told the crewman who nodded, "they need to know what they are walking into." Nora then looked back to the comms officer, "anything?" the comms officer just shook her head and went back to try and raise Wolf Squad. "Helm?"
"Yes Captain?"
"Get us to the dark side of Eden Prime's moon," she ordered.
"Yes, ma'am."
Nora activated the intercom for the bridge, "from here on out we are going dark. Activate the stealth systems."
The dreadnaught Inferno began to move towards the dark side of Eden Prime's moon. Immediately after the ship began moving the stealth systems for the ship activated, a cloaking field enveloped the ship rendering the Inferno invisible along with the heat emissions being hidden. The Inferno is now invisible to all scans.
Eden Prime – Colony Outskirts
Wolf and her team made it to the outskirts of the colony without breaking a sweat. Stopping on a small cliff the overlooked the colony giving them a partial view of the colony and of something else in the distance.
"What the hell is that," Wolf said to herself as she collapsed her rifle, placing it on her back and pulling out binoculars from one of the pouches on her back. Zooming in she saw what had to the largest structure she had ever seen in her life (minus the Citadel). The structure looked black and six supports that dug into the earth keeping it upright. After viewing the structure, she passed the binoculars to her teammates except for Sis who looked through her sniper scope. Their reaction was similar to hers, disbelief.
"What is that?"
"No way that's a ship."
"That's a huge bitch."
Oden was the last to comment as he handed back the binoculars to Wolf.
"That's got to be what's jamming our connection with the Inferno." Preacher said as he continued to look at the large structure in the distance.
"Boss, base of the structure." Sis said still looking through her sniper scope. Wolf looked at the base of the structure as Sis suggested and found more of the geth herding some of the colonists into the structure via a ramp.
"Didn't think the geth took prisoners," Sis said when she lowered her sniper rifle. Wolf lowered the binoculars and held it in her hands as she thought about the situation.
"Something isn't right," Wolf said as she brought up the binoculars once again to see the geth finish loading the colonists into the structure. "Machines don't take prisoners. I don't see how it benefits them."
"You're right," Preacher said standing next to Wolf. "It doesn't make sense."
"We're getting off track," Wolf said as she once again brought up the binoculars. This time she viewed the colony trying to spot the beacon. "We need to find and secure the beacon." She said as she tried to find it but the building and structures blocked her view.
"Got it," Sis said looking through her sniper scope. "Marking the beacon," a golden diamond soon appeared on the HUD of everyone. Wolf looked in the direction of the marker and quickly spotted the beacon.
"It's at the space port," Wolf said while still looking through the binoculars. "Looks like we can use the tram to reach it."
"But?" Oden asked/said.
"The tram is on the other end of the colony," Wolf said as she put away the binoculars and grabbed her rifle, unfolding it. "There is also the problem of geth between us and the tram."
Oden cracked his neck, "What's the play boss?"
Wolf switched the safety off on her rifle, "stay out of sight and move quick. Don't engage unless you have too." Wolf then turned to face Sis, "you're on over watch. Call them when you see them."
"Mmmhmm," Sis said as she began to walk away from the group to find a vantage point. The moment Sis turned around two small drones detached themselves from the back of her vest and began to recon the colony, highlighting enemies.
"Let's go," Wolf said to Oden and Preacher as Sis went to find a vantage point.
Wolf, Preacher, and Oden entered the colony and slowly made their way through the colony. Shortly after entering the colony Sis reported that she found a good vantage point and is already set up. The team passed by burned out building, bodies could be seen still smoldering from the fire. The team ran into little resistance from the geth and what patrols they ran into they took cover and waited for them to pass.
When they entered the colony square everything changed. The first thing Wolf noticed when they entered the colony square is spikes, lots of spikes and human colonists impaled on them.
"What the fuck," Oden said what everyone was thinking when they saw the state that some of the victims were in. Some of the impaled colonists are different from the other, they appeared blueish grey and black in certain areas. Metal tubes intertwined with flesh and jutted out in certain areas, the bodies are also skinnier almost like all of the bodily fluids were drained from the corpses and the eyes were now replaced with circuitries that glowed white. Their hands now looked like claws, in the end they weren't human anymore.
Wolf lowered her rifle when she approached one of the spikes and looked up to see a female colonists impaled through the stomach. Blood trails could be seen running down the spikes and fell on the ground staining the green grass red. Wolf looked into the lifeless woman's eyes, "who would do this?" she asked.
Preacher walked over to one of the spike impaling one of the changed colonists. When he approached the spike it began to lower along with others that held the changed colonists. Everyone quickly raised their weapons worried that they triggered an alarm. Once the spikes finished being lowered everything went to shit, the changed colonists pulled themselves off the spikes and began to advance on Wolf and her team.
"What the hell?" Wolf said as she aimed her rifle at the changed colonists and slowly backed up until she was back to back with Oden and Preacher, each one of them aiming their weapons at the changed colonists. "Nobody fire."
One of the changed colonists soon charged the trio. Wolf was the first the pull the trigger, she felt the rifle kick into her shoulder and saw the shell eject and land on the bloodstained ground. The bullet pierced the changed colonist in the head causing the body to go limp and fall to the ground. This seemed to the catalyst that caused the other changed colonists to charge the trio.
"Fire!" Wolf ordered her team. Black blood soon joined the red on the ground as the changed colonists fell to the bullets Wolf and her team poured into them. When the last of the changed colonist fell everyone reloaded their weapons and began to aim at the impaled colonists in case any more attacked.
"What the fuck," Oden shouted just loud enough for his teammates to hear him and no one else.
"I don't know, Preacher?" Wolf asked still keeping her rifle trained on the impaled colonists.
"That shouldn't have been possible," Preacher said. "Medically speaking corpses don't just get up and attack."
"So… we're dealing with zombies?" Oden asked.
"I wouldn't go that far," Preacher looked over his shoulder to Oden. "They're more like husks of the colonists."
"Whatever they are now doesn't matter." Wolf said bringing a stop to the conversation between Preacher and Oden. "They're hostile and attack on sight."
"Boss, you got incoming." Sis told them over the comms, "looks like the gunfire attracted the geth along with more of those husk things."
"Direction?" Wolf asked.
"Northeast."
Wolf gestured for Oden and Preacher to take cover, "thin the herd." Wolf told Sis as she took cover behind a crate.
"With pleasure."
The sound of a sniper rifle going off could be heard along with the mechanical squeals of the geth as they "died". When the emerged in the square they were immediately fired upon by Wolf and her team with Sis providing covering fire. Wolf and her team had the advantage due to cover and a clear line of sight while the geth and husks didn't, some of the geth used the building for cover only to be shot through the wall by Sis.
"You're clear," Sis reported when the last geth fell.
Wolf and her team got out of cover and reloaded their weapons, the bodies of geth and husks littered the square along with the bodies of the impaled colonists. The once green grass is now stained with the blood of the colonists, geth, and husks.
"We have company," Sis said before a ship flew over the colony and disappeared behind a hill to the north.
"The Normandy?" Wolf asked Sis.
"Yup, looks like they did an air drop over the south side of the colony."
"Marines?"
"Nope, single person. Turian by the looks of it."
"Show me," Wolf asked Sis as a window appeared in the right corner of her HUD. The footage recorded from Sis' sniper rifle scope showed a lone figure jumping of the Normandy cargo hold, zooming in reveled the figure to be a turian. Closing the window Wolf huffed, "Where's the Normandy?"
"Just dropped off a three-man squad in a clearing to the north." Sis reported, "Alliance's golden girl is leading the squad."
Wolf checked to make sure that her rifle is loaded before turning to face her team. "We're moving out. Check your corners and watch your six," she told them.
"I'm changing position," Sis told Wolf over the comms.
Wolf took the lead as she began walking in the direction of the tram station, Oden and Preacher following her. They walked over the bodies of the geth and husks as they left the square. Soon after they left the square they heard gunfire to the north which meant that Shepard and her squad ran into the geth.
Wolf's team didn't run across anymore geth or husks which was good for them as they seemed to be intent on slowing Shepard's team down. They did however run across more impaled colonists that have yet to be changed into the husks. There seemed to be a break in the gunfire before it resumed again.
Oden was walking behind Preacher when he stepped on something soft, looking down Oden saw that he stepped on a teddy bear. Bending down to pick up the stuffed bear Oden inspected the bear and saw the left side seemed to be covered in soot that could only be left over from a fire. Looking to his right he saw a burned out building with a lot of bodies, among them is the body of a child. Oden walked over to the building and set the stuffed bear down next to the doorway, after setting the bear down he felt a hand on his left shoulder.
Turning around reveled Wolf with her right hand on his left shoulder. Even though Oden couldn't see her face he knew that she is also having trouble dealing with the sight, after everything they've seen they still couldn't handle the sight of a dead child. Wolf gestured for Oden to follow as she turned around and resumed walking towards the tram station.
Checking the holo map showed that the tram station is close by. The sounds of gunfire grew closer too, it seemed that Shepard has the same idea of using the tram.
"Boss we got a situation here." Sis said over the comms.
Wolf held up her fist, the sign to hold. "What's up?"
"We got a turian at the tram station."
"Doing what?" Wolf asked confused.
"Nothing. He's just standing there looking around."
"Patch me in," Wolf told Sis. Soon enough Wolf is seeing what Sis is seeing through her scope and indeed the turian in question just stood in the middle of the tram station looking around. The turian wore grey armor, his left arm is a prosthetic, and his face is bare which is odd because usually turians had tattoos on their face to indicate which family they belonged too. His eyes glowed blue way too blue to be normal which meant that he had them replaced with cybernetics.
Wolf noticed a movement behind at the bottom of the stairs as did Sis because she zoomed in. Another turian emerged from the bottom of the stairs and slowly advanced up the stairs. Unlike the other turian this one wore black armor with red highlights in certain places and he has white tattoos on his face, he also carried a turian assault rifle. Arriving at the top of the stairs the black armored turian aimed his rifle at the grey armored on before lowering his rifle and spoke. Luckily Sis' sniper rifle is equipped with a microphone so they were able to listen in.
"Saren?" the black armored turian asked the other turian clearly surprised to see this Saren. Saren turned around to face the turian.
"Nihlus," Saren spoke the other turian's name before walking towards him.
"Keep your eye on the one called Saren," Wolf told Sis while the two turians talked.
"Don't trust him?" Sis asked, Wolf didn't answer as she continued to listen to their conversation.
"I wasn't expecting the geth to be here. The situation is bad," Nihlus said as he looked at the smoke rising in the distance while Saren walked behind him.
"Don't worry. I have it under control," Saren said as he drew his carnifex and aimed it at the back of Nihlus' head.
"Take him," Wolf ordered Sis when she realized what he is about to do.
Nihlus was looking at the smoke rising from the colony and is unaware of the pistol aimed at the back of his head and would've not known until Saren yelled in pain soon after a gunshot could be heard in the distance. Quickly turning around Nihlus saw Saren holding his right hand, more specifically the bloody stump that used to be his right hand. Four geth units quickly appeared from the tram, Nihlus quickly took aim them thinking they shot Saren.
"Kill him," Saren ordered the geth distracting Nihlus for a moment as Saren ran towards the tram while the geth opened fire. Nihlus took a round in the shoulder when his shields gave out but he managed to find cover behind some crates.
"Don't shoot me."
Looking to his left he saw a human male wearing worker overalls and a black cap that covered his head. The human held his hands up in surrender.
"I'm not going to harm you," Nihlus said attempting to calm the frightened human male which seemed to work until bullets began to ricochet off the crates they were using for cover.
"We're going to die!" The human male yelled as he held his head in his hands. Nihlus grabbed his pistol and began to return fire, he managed to get at least one of the geth before his pistol overheated.
"We're not going to die," Nihlus told the human male when he got back into cover as he waited for his pistol to cool down. The geth stopped firing and he heard footsteps approaching which meant they were advancing on them, 'this is bad' Nihlus thought to himself. Just then three loud gunshots echoed in the distance, shortly after the sound of something hitting the ground could be heard.
Nihlus risked a peek over the cover and saw that the remaining three geth were now on the ground with their "heads" missing. 'Spirits' Nihlus thought to himself when he saw the bodies. He would need to thank Shepard for saving his life.
A/N: Going back and re-playing the first ME I realized something. How did the Normandy pick up a distress call from Eden Prime? This bugged me because if Saren and Sovereign wanted to keep their little operation a secret then wouldn't Sovereign jamm all communication on the planet preventing anyone from calling in help.
I guess the Normandy could be equipped with anti-jamming tech that allows them to cut through the jamming signal and allows them to pick up the distress call from Ashley's unit. But Sovereign is at least a couple of million years old so I'm sure the Reapers have the best jamming tech in the galaxy. Also the stealth drive that the Normandy uses actually came from the Inferno.
One other thing in this story humanity isn't going to be OP, instead their just more advanced than the other species in the galaxy. They will be using Mass Effect technology but they don't rely on it like the rest of the galaxy. Humanity also still uses bullets, clips, etc… they don't see the need to switch to weapon that overheats after continuous fire when they could just change clips and keep firing.
Thank you once again to everyone who read and liked this story. (Throws confetti in the air)