Amber could feel the strain of her power armor as she pushed the finale crate into position.
"Well, that's the end of that."
Amber took a step back and admired her work. She was in Normaday's cargo bay. The Courier wasn't a fan of how cramped the spaceship felt in some of the rooms shed been in, so it was here that she was staying. To make things a little better for her, she pushed a few of the big orange crates together and made a nice little corner to give her some privacy. She also put in a cot and a makeshift workbench, along with a few tables to hold her things. ED-E was with her floating lazily by her bed as he waited for instruction.
Amber walked off to the side in her little corner and hit the release of her power armor and exited the frame. She stretched and arms and legs for a bit to work out the kinks. She had been fighting in that thing for longer then she liked. Walking in that thing for a few hours tends to make her body stiff. Amber had no idea how those Brotherhood of Steel guys could wear them all day and not feel like this. Looking down at herself, she was still in her elite riot gear, only without her duster. That thing would get caught in her power armor, and took it off whenever the Courier had it on. Ever since she found the riot armor in the Divide, she didn't want any other kind of armor. Walking over to ED-E, Amber opened up his storage unit and pulled out the armored duster and threw it on.
She then glanced over at the power armor suit. Amber was going to have to find some way of getting materials to build herself a power armor frame. They were rare enough in the Mojave and around New Vagus. She searched the whole desert and only came across them in the Brotherhood Bunker in Hidden Vally, the Enclave Remnant Bunker by Jakeups town, and the Lucky 38, where she and her friends built a few from the ground up. Veronica said it was due to the Brotherhood that the area around New Vagus was devoid of racks because they took them all, jerks. Because of that, whenever set of power armor she got, she had to take it somewhere to get it repaired instead of doing it herself.
Amber then began to organize her space. First, she took Lucky and Ranger Sequoia from there holsters and sat them on the table. Then setting down Blood-Nap and the Cosmic Knife, followed by her War Club that Amber got from the Dead Horses. Next, she then pulled Red Glare off her power armor, and carefully set it down, and repeating it with her custom Anti-Material Rifle.
ED-D then flew in next her and opened his storage compartment and allowed Amber to draw All-American and Elijah's advanced LAER, setting them down as well. While he was there, she also grabbed her riot helmet too and placed it down next to Lucky.
With her weapons laid out, she began an inventory check on her remaining ammunition stores for everything. So far, she still had a bunch of the hand loaded ammo for her .357 and the 45-70 Gov't. Lucky and Ranger Sequoia. The fighting had brought her her .50 cal stores down a bit as it took more than one to bring down some of the mercs that came after Garrus. The Match Hand Load rounds she made did the trick against the average grunts and below. Anything more significant, and it felt she was dealing with armored super mutants. Then she only put a few Microfusion cells out. She used them more for making explosives more than using them for the LAER. Amber considered the advance laser rifle to be a backup weapon more than anything but may have to pull it out more often. Even with the upgrades from the sink, it still felt like it was underperforming to some extent. Mainly how the weapon needed more maintenance than any other weaponry she ever owned. Perhaps now that she was in a new world, she could get some new materials to replace certain things in it, like performing for more prolonged durations between respiratory periods?
Looking at her only heavy weapon, she was going to need some material to build more rockets. Sure she had enough to take down the Powder Gangers all over again, but she needed to find a way to stay supplied. Maybe these Cerbures guys could help satisfy her need for raw material? She then pulled out the eight mini-nukes and set them down in two rows of four. These she hasn't gotten the chance to turn into Fat Mines.
Not for lack of effort really, just lack of duck tape.
Shepard told her what his mission, about fighting the Collectors. She asked him about some details, and he laid out everything. These Collectors had been going about abducting human colonies, and they sound like a tough foe. The legion did something similar in Arizona when they took it over, but she doubted that they wanted slaves. But Amber agreed without a second thought about joining the party. She was attracted to noble causes.
With all her supplies out, she pulled her weapons cleaning kit, took Ranger Sequoia, sat down on the cot, and started cleaning. Her mind wandered back to the conference room earlier. Shepard and the two Cerbures operatives had asked her a few questions. It had not been the first time she had been at the opening to an invention of joining a faction. House and Caesar being the two to come to mind.
The female Courier had always been a good judge of character, or she likes to think she does. The vibe she got off from Shepard was something else. He radiated confidence and leadership that would put Kimble and Oliver to shame. Everywhere he walks, they nod their heads at him with respect instead of rank. It was similar to what she saw with the Dead Horses that look towards Joshua Gramm.
He also called himself a 'Council Spector' and an officer of the 'System Alliance.' Both of which meant little to her as they were unrelated to her at the moment. But she filed the information for later when she has the time for more research. Then there is the organization the three were a part of, Cerberus. The origination itself gave her a bad feeling. Miranda had told her that Cerberus is organized to advance humanity in a more significant role in the galaxy over the other races. It wasn't bad per se until the Commander dropped the bomb that the organization would do anything, including doing questionable means to do so.
She felt less sure about her staying onboard the Normandy.
That said, when asked, she withheld a lot of information about her origins. They didn't need to know just yet on where she came from, doubly so if they even believe Amber's story anyway. How many people cross universes in this day in age? Sure she can probably believe it. Talking brains in floating jars, ghost she-bears made of fire, need she say more? So far, only Garrus knew about her, and she'd stopped by his spot in the forward gun battery to ask him not to reveal her past without her permission. He agreed to it after some convincement but assured her that Shepard could be trusted.
Amber also didn't lie about things she did give out about herself. Told them that she was a former courier that became a privet contractor that took jobs whenever she saw fit. She'd been roaming for a while taking down slavers, and Garrus found her one day. When Miranda asked about my gear, I told her it was things she had found on her travels. Needless to say, she didn't like her answers.
Then a thought crossed her mind. It's a little quiet.' I'm in another dimension! I wonder what music they have?'
Dropping her cloth, she lifted her pip-boy and looked for any radio frequencies.
The pip-boy screen showed hundreds.
Clicking the first one, a series of loud beeps and blares came forth that made the Curour wince like she was hit with a sonic blast. Switching it off relieved the pain in her ears.
"This could take a while..." she said dryly as she started flipping through radio channels.
Back in the debriefing room, Shepard and Miranda were having a chat of their new addition on board.
"Look, Miranda, I understand you have reservations about this, but it is my decision," Shepard said firmly. "I can see Amber can be a great addition to the team." Miranda wasn't thrilled by it, and it showed.
"It's not her skills I'm douting Shepard, it's her loyalty. We do not know her. We barely know anything about her, and she doesn't show up on any record. Nothing!" She pointed out firmly. "Not even Cerbures holds any information on her. It's like she didn't exist at all, and everything she has on her doesn't make sense!" Shepard was a little surprised by Miranda's output. In the short time that he'd known the women, she tried to be the picture-perfect of collected calm.
"What do you mean she doesn't exist?" Shepard clarified.
Miranda just walked over and stood in front of him. "I've had facial and voice recognition program running nonstop for any information about this women and came up with absolutely nothing. No job history, photo I.D, birth certificate, nothing. She is not on any networks that Cerbures has access to, and we have access to many."
Miranda shook her head in irritation. "It's like she doesn't exist. Everyone leaves a data trail at some point in their life, and she doesn't have one. And then their's her weapons and armor."
"Chemical propelled firearms and heavy power-assisted armor," Shepard shook his head at the idea. "Not something I thought I find working together way out here. But that alone doesn't mean she's untrustworthy. That's why I'm planning on taking her out for the next couple of missions. I need to see how she fights and hands situations."
Miranda gave a small irritable look before nodding. "Very well, Commander. This is your mission. I will put it in my report and see how this will turn out." Miranda then left the conference room.
Shepard frowned as his XO leaves. She was going to report this to the Illusive Man. He was somewhat grateful for Cerberus bringing him back, but that meant little in the way of trust between them. For actions in the past spoke louder than words in the present to the Commander, and for that, he trusts them as far as he could throw a Krogan.
He would assume that the lack of a past that they couldn't find would be of interest to Cerberu's intelligence. Wouldn't blame them, he to was interested in how she kept under even their radar.
Amber withheld a bunch of personal information from them, which she has the right. Shepard could only hope that his actions to her would gain trust over time and open up to them.
With that, he left the conference room and headed for the elevator. EDI said that Amber was down in the shuttle bay, making herself a living space. Hitting the commands to the control panel for the bay, he waited for the slow descent of the lift.
Shepard felt his eyebrow tick. If there was one thing they did right that was original to the first Normandy that Cerberus copied, it was how slow the damn elevators are. He wondered if they were like that by design or there was something faulty in the construction. He would have to ask one of the engineers later about that.
The elevator doors opened, and he walked out. Looking around, he saw a couple of containers were moved. Walking over, Shepard saw a little walk in and spotted the set of power armor that belong to the Courier. Making his way closer to the armor, he saw that it was unoccupied. That was when he heard music coming from further in.
That was when he saw the person of interest. Amber was sitting on a cot with her big revolver in hand and her hand messing with a strange metal device strapped to her arm. She hadn't noticed him yet as he took in more of what the Courier was wearing as it was like nothing he'd seen in his life.
She had on an old dark green duster with green arm guards, knee guards, and shoulder pads with white stars on them. Her chest plate had an ammo bandolier going from her right shoulder crossing down under her left. Overall. It was like crossing modern-day battle armor with men cowboy clothing. Plus, there was seeing it on a woman was a little off-putting, and even though he was standing for only a few seconds.
'Knock' 'knock.' Shepard knocked on one of the containers.
Amber looked up and saw Shepard the doorway to her little "room."
"Commander," Amber greeted.
"Courier," Shepard nodded.
"Need something?" She asked before closing the cylinder of the revolver.
"Just coming to check up on you. Saw that you made a little home for yourself back here." Shepard then walked over and looked over her weapons. "Wow...I don't even know half thing things on this table. While the other haft looks like they should be in museums or movies." That made Amber giggled.
"I've used weapons of all sorts in my life. Those in front of you are just the ones that are the most memorable and helped me out in a few jams." Amber replied as she stood. "So, what's up?"
"You have a moment to talk?" Shepard asked.
"Sure." Amber shrugged her shoulders.
"When going out on missions, how can I best use you in combat?" Amber found his question wasn't unreasonable. He would be leading the missions, so why shouldn't he know what she could do.
"Well, Commander. In combat, I prefer fighting my enemies at long range but not afraid to fight up close when I need to."
"I figure that with you football tackling a Krogan with a bowie knife and a wooden club," Shepard said in a joking manner.
"Not my best moment..." Amber looked away when she said that before turning back. "I'm also a bit of a mad bomber if you can't already tell. Anything explosive related you need, I can handle for you. When going out and facing a bunch of pirates, raiders, or slavers, I'll give you a variety of explosive flavors."
"Explosive flavors?" Shepard said with a raised eyebrow.
"Fragmentation, fusion, what's your fancy?" Amber asked playfully. Shepard shook his head, but his smile never left his face. Then he looked at the assorted items on the tables.
"Did you really find all these in your travels?"
Amber walked over and picked up Lucky and handed it to Shepard.
Shepard took and examed it. "Wow. Feel's like I'm holding a piece of history in my hands. Where did you get it?" He asked as he ran a finger over the ejection tube where the silver plate with the word "Lucky" was engraved.
"Found her early in my travels after my last job as a Courier went south. Saw her at the bottom an old floor safe in the gift shop of a closed casino/hotel."
"What were you doing in an old casino?" He handed back the pistol.
Amber hesitated before answering. "Tracking down a guy that stole a package from me at the time. Got the package back in the end."
"Must have been a pretty important package."
'Major understatement.' "With the job done and receiving a bonus for my actions in the end. I decided to hit off and worked for myself."
"Well, you like your doing well for yourself. Why do you use so much outdated weaponry?" If Shepard thought Amber would be offended by calling her weapons outdated, she didn't show it.
"Railguns, missile launchers, energy weapons, rolling pins, a weapon is a weapon, Shepard. The real difference between each of them is the skills of the individual that uses them. Think of the best assault rifle you know and put it in the hands of a veteran soldier that seen plenty of combat and make him face five mercenaries. That vet isn't going to play around and will play it smart. Take a young punk with the same weapon in the same situation, and the outcome is going to be something different."
"Based all on skills of the individual? I can see that. Go to train hard if you want to be the best." Shepard nodded. "Is that why you use these?" He asked.
"The ones you see here have been with me in many fights. People who pitted themselves against me lose because they either underestimate me or they're stupid, or they're overconfident."
Shepard nodded in agreement. He was the same as he took down many enemies over the years because his foe's always underestimated him. Whether it was that they thought he was a weak human or a dumb soldier that can be taken down no problem.
"So, are you satisfied with what we have here? Do you need anything?"
"Mmm... I was going to ask you later but now that your here. I'm going to be coming up short on supplies to make my bullets pretty soon. Any way you think you could help me out with that?" The women asked.
"Make yourself a list and had it to Jacob Taylor. He runs the ship's armory and could help you if you need something weapon's related."
"I'll go to him later with a shopping list. Was there anything else?"
"Our next stop, we're getting our next member, a Krogan Warlord. I'd like you to be with the ground team when we go in. I need to gauge your skills on how well you work with others and see you in action myself."
Amber nodded with his reasoning. She was unknown to him and needed to know if she can work with others as a team. "That's reasonable. I'll get with Jacob and see what he can do for my needs. When's the mission?"
"Will be there in three days at the most. Grab what you need to take with and meet over by the shuttle over there." He pointed at the Kodiak that was lifted above the ground.
"Huh...well, good to know. Anything else, Commander?"
"I do have several more questions I would like to ask you, but I'll leave them for later...although," Shepard glanced to the side to look at the row of mini-nukes. "I have to ask that if you have anything extremely volatile that you bought on my ship? I do not want anything going off while we're away on mission."
Amber smiled and raised her hands in a confronting manner as she saw what he was glancing at. "Don't worry, Shepard, all my explosives are inert until they are physically activated by me, or someone that would be stupid enough to mess with my stuff."
"Still...I ask that the rest of the crew don't come over here unless I'm already here." She asked him.
"I'll be more conformable if they were in the ship's armory. But I will relay your warning to the crew." Shepard agreed.
"Welp!" Amber said as she holstered Ranger Sequoia on her side. "I'm hungry and been wondering what you guys have in the way of food around here. So if nothing else, I'm going to the mess." Shepard watched as she picks up one of her satchel charges and plants it on the inside of her door.
"What are you doing?" Shepard asked the women as to why she was arming an explosive on his ship.
"I don't trust leaving my things unattended on around some of your people," Amber replied in a blunt tone. "You yourself may be deemed trustworthy, but can I say for certainty about the rest of your crew?" Shepard didn't answer after a few seconds to which made her point. "This charge is keyed into my signal. As long as I'm within several meters of this, it won't go off no matter what or who is around. If I'm not around and someone comes by my stuff...well, hope your ship as plenty of cleaning supplies."
"Well, that..." Shepard dryly started to say before he was cut off when Amber drew her gun and pointed it at random area of the bay.
"That goes for you as well, Mcsneaky pants!" She shouted randomly in the direction her gun aimed at.
Shepard was could only blink in confusion as he was starting to question the women's state of mind before surprise took hold, and his resident thief appeared. Another one of his recent additions of the crew, Kasumi Goto, emerged from her tactical cloak deactivating, standing up with her hands in the air.
"What? Kasumi? How did you..." Shepard stuttered.
"Aw, you found me. How did you know where I was?" The Japanese descendent thief asked.
"You're not the first individual I've dealt with in the past that uses stealth tec." She replied as she holstered her weapon before walking into the elevator and sending her up.
Kasumi looked over at Shepard. "Where in the galaxy did you find her, Shepard?" The thief thumbed over to the elevator.
Shepard only replied with a sigh. "Picked her up when we got Garrus. What else do you want to know?"
"I want to know her secret to finding so many sweet historical weapons that she gots over there."
"...Your not the only one."
"Mmm...not bad." The Courier commented as she finished her third helping of food the mess Sargent gave her. That man had been surprised when she kept coming back for more of his food. Some of the crew that was there eating with her just looked at her in disbelief as she ate. Amber didn't get why. She found the food to be great. It didn't nearly have as many preservatives as some of the prewar food back in the wasteland. It was like a freshly cooked meal. Something that she only got when she found the right ingredients to make something for herself and her companions.
"Thanks for the food Sargent," Amber said as she handed the man her tray.
"Not a worry, ma'am. Come back at any time. I always have something on the stove ready if you're hungry." Gardner replied happily.
Amber turned away and exited the mess before entering the elevator before bunching in the up button for the ships C.I.C.
When she got to the command deck, she took a left and went to the ship's armory. Standing over one of the tables of weapons was the man she was looking for.
"Jacob Tayler?" She asked the man of African descent. The man turned to look at her a friendly smile appeared on his face.
"Hey, Amber, right? What's up?" The operative greeted.
"I was told to come to you for things regarding materials."
"Okey, anything specific?" Jacob clarified.
"I need raw materials and some components to make some of my ammo. Specifically for some of my heavier weapons. Can you help me out?" She asked.
"If what the footage I saw from you in action is by anything to go by, sure I'll help you with anything." He then shook his head in disbelief. "Never thought I see old firearms like the ones you have stand up against modern-day armor as well as yours did."
"Maybe they shouldn't have been walking around like targets at a shooting range." Amber shook her head in frustration. "They relied on there shields and armor to protect them, but look at what that has gotten them." Jacob nodded his head in understanding.
"I get that. I'm a biotic, but I don't solely rely on them like many others due. So, what are the materials that you need for this anyway?"
Amber then began listing all the ingredients that made up ammo's from the primers for her 50. to the conductors she needed to make her rockets. She found that Jacob to be a lot more reasonable then she thought. He was confused about some of the components the Courier required to make her rockets and gave her alternatives. She would make a few later to test them out. Guess cherry bombs aren't that big these days in weapons.
Jacob gave her a rundown on the universal power cells they use for their heavy weapons and thermal clips. The concept of thermal clips felt like a let down rather than a boost. Ammo turned out to be not a problem as the concept of ammo blocks held water in firefights in the Courier's eyes. But then he told her weapons without thermal clips have nowhere to disperse their heat and are incapable of firing. That concept of never running out of ammo just flew out the window for her, and her opinion of mass effect weapons felt like a letdown. These guns were fancier than anything the Brotherhood, NCR, or prewar America could create. In the end, she just told him to get the materials she needed to make her ammo.
"Alright, that should solve my problem for my ammo," Amber said tiredly.
"Question, Amber," Taylor asked. "That armor you got on now. You don't have a hard suit under it, do you?" Amber honestly didn't know what he was talking about and shook her head no. "Thought so, here." Jacob walked over to one side of the and picked up a small set of armor and handed it to her. "I got you this. It's a light hard suit that biotics use to keep us fast on our feet. Figure that you can wear this under the armor you've got. It is also very flexible in function, you can take the mag locks you use for holding the guns and place them on that sweet coat you got you. Plus, it also has a set of kinetic barrier belts to put on."
Amber took the armor and laid it out on a nearby table. It was like a cross over between the MKII stealth suit from Big Mountain and that red spacesuit she found in the REPCON rocket test site. A bit of armor on the chest and knees. The outer layer felt like some kind of kevlar weave along the rest of the exposed area. On the backside were three amber lights shaped like rectangles, one on each shoulder blade in a vertical line and one horizontal along the beltline. She remembered from Shepard's armor that he had weapons on each of these areas. Meaning those were the mag locks that Jacob spoke of. Lastly was the insulated helmet. It was similar to some of the mercs they fought against on Omega.
"This is doable, it will take some time to integrate everything into my armor, but it's something I can work with." Amber finally said. "I should be ready in time for the next mission."
"I can help you put it all together if you need to," Jacob offered, but Amber shook her head no.
"Thanks, but I maintain my own equipment, thank you. Nothing against your skills buts how I learned to take care of both myself and my things over the years."
"Fair enough."
"Also, do you by any chance have a spare Omi-tool? Mine got damaged and had to discard it," she lied.
"No problem," the man said as he picked up a silver wrist bracelet and handed it to her. "Here."
"Thanks."
Putting the Omni-tool on and tucking the armor under her arms, she left the armory for the elevator to head back to her little living area. When hitting the cargo/shuttle bay, she walked over and found that her satchel charge hadn't gone off. Deactivating her explosive, she went to work on incorporating the new armor to integrate it with her riot armor.
"Alright, time for an upgrade." Amber declared before getting to work.
Happy N7 day to all that are reading this duel update on "The girl with the big iron on her hip" & "The Summer Reaper."
Thank you all for sticking with this story and my other story and hope you engoy the crazyness that comes out of my mind in future chapters.
Helljumper206-See you all over the web!