Hello again, everyone, and welcome back to my Gears of War/Mass Effect crossover.
Thank you all for your wonderful support and feedback. I greatly appreciate it.
As always, leave a review, but most importantly, enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Gears of War or Mass Effect franchises. They are the respective properties and trademarks of BioWare, Electronic Arts, Microsoft Studios, Epic Games, The Coalition, etc. Any material original to the franchises belongs to their respective developers and publishers. Any material not original to the franchises is of my own invention. I do not own any music listed in each chapter. Any music listed belongs to it's original composers and/or artists.
Feros
ExoGeni Local HQ
February 9th, 2183
With that in mind, the team began to move out, weapons at the ready. It wasn't long before they ran into trouble. Rounding the corner, they came out onto a ledge that led to a one way drop to the floor below. Looking down, Marcus and the others spotted a pair of Geth, both of which were bowing towards some kind of glowing orb in the room.
Shepard, spotting an opportunity, opened fire with his shotgun. Since both Geth had their barriers disabled, they quickly went down without, their chassis' sparking as they collapsed. "All targets down," he told the others.
Looking up, he spotted what Tali had talked about earlier. In front of him, just past the walkway, was a large, metallic claw that was firmly grasping one of the support beams in the room, perhaps for this part of the building. Cables and hoses were everywhere, yet neatly arranged so that even an engineer could make sense of the mess. "Just like I thought," Tali observed from behind him. "We'll have to find some other way to get rid of the docking claw. We don't have the ordinance required to destroy it."
"I like their docking style" Wrex noted. "But we can't cut the power if it's coming from the ship. Hopefully, Baird's idea works out."
"It'll work. Just wait and see," Baird reassured him.
Marcus, who was looking around, noticed something off about the room they were in. For one thing, he noticed that the Geth Shepard shot had been bowing to that orb, as though they were worshiping it. In addition, he could tell that the structure the Geth had erected around that orb was almost done so with religious reverence. "What the hell is this place?" he asked. "Some kind of fucking church for machines?"
"The Geth blur the line between organic and synthetic life," Tali explained. "It's natural to assume they seek guidance from a higher power."
"Well, if that's the case, then I'm more than willing to send them to their fucking maker."
Ouch, Shepard thought. Harsh… but quite fair, I have to admit. Shaking his head slightly, he and the others continued to move forwards, weapons ready as they advanced through the building. Most of the building here was confined to a narrow, long corridor that snaked it's way through the building. As they moved along, he spotted interference on his suit sensors. "Company," he told the others. Rifle ready, he leaned out of cover to look into the room ahead.
The room ahead was a small, four way intersection between three corridors, as well as what appeared to be an exit. Two of the corridors were on one side of the room, while the one they were in, and the third one, was on the wall closes to them. The exit was covered up by a kinetic barrier curtain, while the three corridors were unblocked. A number of Geth units, though, were inside the room, a mixture of Geth Troopers, Saboteurs, a couple Sappers, and a Juggernaut from what Shepard could tell.
"Marcus?" he asked.
"Go it," Marcus nodded, pulling out a grenade. Twirling the chain the grenade was on, he mentally calculated the trajectory that the grenade would take, before letting go of the chain, pulling the grenade pin at the same time. Said grenade flew through the air, bouncing off the barrier, before detonating. The Geth hadn't expected that, as the grenade ripped part the two Troopers and Saboteurs in the room. "GO!" he shouted.
"Guess who, motherfuckers?!" Cole shouted, jumping into the room and firing his M-15 at the Juggernaut. At the same time, Baird moved in, firing the M-35 Fusilier at the Sappers that were jumping around. He scored a lucky hit on one, downing it before it could cause trouble, while the last one attempted to sabotage his handgun, to little avail. He destroyed that one too, firing his handgun in a Mozambique Drill fashion.
"All clear!" he reported a second later.
"Good work, people," Shepard told the others. Looking around, he said, "We'll have to split up to investigate all of these hallways. Marcus, Cole, Baird, you take the one on the far side of the room. Garrus, Tali and I will take the one closest to us."
"You got it," Marcus nodded. With that, the Gears went into one corridor, while Shepard and the others traveled into another corridor. Rounding a nearby corner, they walked up a stairwell before entering a long room of some kind. The room was well lit, courtesy of a hole in the ceiling that allowed sunlight to stream through. In the back, Marcus thought he spotted a server bank, as well as what appeared to be a computer console of some kind. Unfortunately, some Krogan were in the room as well, but none of them had spotted them yet.
"Got any ideas?" Baird asked.
"Say, that Torque Bow you've got," Cole suggested. "You can blow them up with that? How many rounds you got left?"
"Around twenty," Baird replied after doing an ammo check. "How much ammo you got for that Lancer, Marcus?"
"Around 280 rounds left," Marcus reported. "Cole?"
"160."
"OK… Baird, use the Torque Bow to neutralize the Krogan. It'll give us the oomph we need, without causing collateral damage." Nodding at that, Baird pulled the weapon out, taking aim before firing the heavy weapon.
One Krogan jumped as the bolt stuck to his armor like glue, before blowing it in half. That caused the other two to whirl around, only for Baird to rapidly pull the trigger of his Torque Bow. Two more bolts flew out in rapid succession, with one smacking into a Krogan's chest, while the other tore into another one's head. Two more explosions rang out in short order, with all of the Krogan down.
"Too easy," Baird snickered.
"Like shootin' fish in a barrel," Cole nodded.
"Either way, I'd rather have that than a bunch of Krogan charging at us," Marcus nodded. Moving up towards the server bank, he asked, "Baird, can you pull any info from this?"
"Sure I can," Baird nodded. "Talked to a person with Jeong and the others, Gavin Hossle. Apparently, he was working on a project as a freelancer when the Geth came around and caused a ruckus. If we get this back to him, he might get us some more credits, which'll allow us to get more goodies."
"Hhmmm… nice work," Marcus nodded. It took them around a few minutes to download the information, and Gavin's project. Once that was done, they began to move out.
At about that moment, Shepard contacted them over the comms. "Marcus, you there?"
"Affirmative," Marcus replied. "What is it?"
"Can you regroup with us? I think we found just what we were looking for."
"Roger. On our way." Closing the comm, he said, "Let's move out, boys. Shepard just found something."
"Hopefully it's what I saw earlier," Baird nodded as they moved out.
. . .
Once they retreated down the flight of stairs, they turned and entered the corridor that Shepard had taken his half of the team through. Moving along, Marcus could see Geth platforms that were lying on the ground, their internal components destroyed. Impressive, he noted. If I was a Locust and I came across Shepard, I'd be worried. He'd have made an excellent Gear.
It was then that they came across another room. From what Marcus could tell, it was used as a small landing bay for any shuttles that ExoGeni had. In addition, a number of computer terminals were present as well, including a few Geth terminals. Sticking through the landing bay was another claw for the Geth ship. Any other observations of the room were impossible, due to the fact that a large piece of rubble, likely the landing pad, was lying on the ground, effectively cutting the room in half. Only a walkway on the right side of the room crossed the debris and to the other side.
Baird, when he saw where the claw was, began to snicker. "Robotic dumbasses," he chuckled. "They obviously forgot to check for that hangar shutter that's plainly in view. Somebody needs a little 'recalibration.'" He continued to chuckle at the stupidity that the Geth had shown.
"Hey, a computer ain't perfect," Cole shrugged, though he too was having a little fun. "Maybe them Geth forgot to have their equivalent of coffee in the morning." At that, all three of the Gears shared a chuckle with each other.
"Maybe," Marcus shrugged. "Baird, can you hack these consoles?"
"Ppffftt. Oh, please. A child could break through ExoGeni's cyber-security; not so sure about the Geth terminals, though. I'll do what I can."
"Good," Marcus nodded. Spotting Shepard, he asked, "What's goin' on?"
"We found something in the back here," Shepard explained. "It's better if you come see for yourself." With that, Marcus moved up the walkway and towards the other side of the room.
Other than a few more Geth terminals, Marcus spotted what looked like a control panel for what he assumed was the hangar bay shutter. From what he could tell, the door was designed to operate within a 10-20 PSI pressure range. Too much, and the system would shut down, too little and it wouldn't have enough power to cut through the landing claw. "Controls?" he guessed.
"Yep," Shepard nodded. "I was thinking of having Baird figure this out, but I'm up for a puzzle or two myself. Speaking of which, where is he?"
"He's currently hacking into a few Geth consoles," Marcus explained. It wasn't all the truth, but it was better than lying. "He'll be with us shortly."
True enough, after a couple minutes, Baird came on over, a happy look on his face. "Heh, I was worrying over nothing. Those Geth terminals were difficult, but I was still able to crack them. Good to see that I've still got it. Now, what do we have here?"
"The controls for the shuttle bay," Shepard decided. "I was going to go ahead, but I need to know how much pressure we need for the shutters to snip that claw in half. Can you figure that out."
Baird was silent as he looked at the claw, then at the safety instructions for the controls. "Based on the system's limits, as well as the structural integrity of that claw, I'd recommend around thirty five PSI. Too much more, and the system'll reset to prevent a catastrophic failure."
"You got it," Shepard nodded. Walking up to the control console, he began configuring the system to see if he could get to that recommended number. After a couple minutes of working the puzzle, he was exactly at the number required. "I've got it," he reported. "Everyone ready?"
"We're ready!" Marcus nodded. At that, Shepard practically smashed the button that would close the shutters. What happened next was nothing short of catastrophic for the Geth.
Turning around, Marcus was just in time to see the shutter for the window move fast, smashing into the docking claw behind him. There was a moment where nothing seemed to happen, then, in a bur of motion, the shutter cut through the docking claw like a pair of tin snips cutting sheet metal.
Things rapidly escalated from there. The severed docking claw fell to the ground with a loud CRASH, with the building beginning to violently shake. Outside, the useless claw dangled from the ship, while the other claws struggled to maintain grip on the building. Metal groaned and cables snapped as the ship began to succumb to it's own mass, and the planets gravity; the ship slid downward, as though a giant hand was pulling at it. Then, with a series of loud popping and snapping sounds, the Geth ship tore free from the building, falling to the ground at high speed.
Within a few seconds, it smashed into the ground at the base of the skyscrapers. The entire ship was flattened by the force of the impact, with the Geth programs inside screeching as they were destroyed. Seconds later, the ship exploded, destroying itself while sending a pressure wave throughout the building. The building obstinately remained standing, a proud testimony to the Protheans and their engineering prowess.
"What the hell?! What did we just do!?" Marcus shouted as the shaking came to a stop.
"We did it!" Baird shouted. "We fucking did it! We took down a Geth ship!"
"WHHOOO!" Cole shouted jubilantly. "Oh yeah! The Cole Train ten baby! Um… lemme see… Geth: nothin'. HAH!"
"You must've been quite the football player in your day, Cole," Shepard observed.
"I was a Thrashball player," Cole corrected. "I still am. I just gotta keep in good practice."
"This is my kind of mission," Wrex beamed. "Kill a bunch of Geth and then end things with a huge CRASH!" He did a high five with Cole as he said this, with the two chuckling.
"I just hope those Geth bastards got what was coming to them," Tali nodded.
"They certainly did," Baird nodded. "We just squished a bunch of Geth like they were a bug. I honestly thought that wouldn't work. Glad to see that I was wrong."
All of that was cut off when Joker came in over the comm. "Normandy to shore party!" he called out. "I repeat, Normandy to shore party, come in! Are you reading me? Come on, people, talk to me!"
"Is that you, Joker?" Shepard asked. "What's going on out there?
"We're in lockdown right now, Commander," Joker replied. "Something's happened with the colonists. They're banging on the hull, trying to claw their way in here. They're freaking out!"
That's worrying, Shepard thought as he walked around. Still, the hull of the Normandy's rated for resisting military grade starship weapons. The colonists can't do any real damage, aside from scratching the pain. Keying his transceiver, he said, "They can't do any real damage, Joker. Just sit tight. We're coming back."
"Uh, roger that," Joker remarked. "We'll, uh, just hang tight here."
Hearing that, Marcus frowned. "Aw, shit," he groaned.
"I knew that there was something off there," Baird growled. "Then there were those people coughing in that tent. Who knows what they fucking had."
"I agree," Marcus nodded. "Shit's about to hit the fan."
"Either way, we have to go now," Shepard decided. "This place is gonna be crawling with Geth in a minute. Stick together and we'll get out of this place alive."
With the building having been cleared out, they were able to get to the exit in short order. Lizbeth had taken her chances, as she was at the entrance as well. "Commander!" she beamed. "The energy barrier is down! We need to get out of here! I don't think this place is safe!"
"Hold on a minute," Shepard interrupted. "I want answers. You knew more about the Thorian than you let on."
"Yeah, like how they were experimenting on those colonists with those spores," Baird frowned. "Your partners pulled a lot of nasty shit back there."
Lizbeth, upon hearing this, turned pale in color. "I – I was afraid," she stammered. "I wanted to stop the tests, but they threatened me, told me I was next! When the Geth attacked, I stayed behind to send a message to Colonial Affairs. I tried to tell them where to find the Thorian, but the power cut out before I could send the message. I – I didn't want this to happen to anyone!"
That confirmed what Shepard and the others knew: that Elizabeth Baynham had tried to do the right thing. In a rare show of sympathy, Marcus walked over and hugged her for a moment. "Relax," he whispered to her. Stepping back once she did so, he said, "We know that you tried to do the right thing. Not easy, given what they were threatening to do to you."
"I-I know," Lizbeth nodded. "I-I just couldn't sit back and let that go on. Someone had to do something about it."
"Which is why we're glad you chose to do so," Shepard added. "The galaxy needs more people like you."
"I… uh… thanks."
"You're welcome." Looking at Lizbeth, he added, "I'll do what I can to help the colonists if you tell me where the Thorian is at."
"The Thorian is under Zhu's Hope, but the entrance is blocked. The colonists covered it with the freighter just before the attack."
"Smart," Baird noted. "Even if the Geth eliminated the colonists, they would have to get the freighter out of the way." A moment later, he asked, "We also saw some people that had some kind of odd disease. Any ideas on that?"
"N-no," Lizbeth frowned. "It just started to happen some time ago. We did what we could, but our medicines weren't strong enough. We were going to get stronger ones when the Geth attacked." That caused Baird and the other Gears to frown even more.
"Either way," Shepard noted, "We still have to get to the colony. Why are the Geth after the Thorian? What could Saren want with it?"
"Well, it does have unique mind-controlling capabilities," Lizbeth suggested. "That's what ExoGeni was interested in."
Joker chimed in over the comm moments later. "Normandy to shore party. Come in."
"What is it, Joker?" Shepard asked.
"We're getting a lot of Geth comm chatter. Looks like they're headed your way."
"Thanks for the heads up, Joker." Turning to the others, he said, "You heard the man. Move out."
"I'm coming with you," Lizbeth added. "I might be able to help. Undo the mess I helped create." Nodding at that a moment later, Shepard and the others proceeded to get into the Mako.
Once they were inside, they began driving back to the colony. "Uh, oh," Baird frowned when he looked at the screen at his seat. "I'm seeing a lot of hostiles, Shepard. I think we pissed the Geth off."
"Garrus, get ready to hammer those Geth," Shepard ordered. "Tali, make sure the Mako's systems remain fully operational. Marcus, make sure Lizbeth survives the trip. I don't want her dying on my watch."
"Got it," Marcus nodded. Moving through the shutter doors, they quickly found out what the enemy resistance was. Two Geth Armatures, and four Juggernauts were present, all of them firing their weapons as soon as the had line of sight. The Mako's cannon roared as Shepard worked to dodge as many projectiles and missiles as he could.
While he was good, he couldn't dodge them all. Marcus felt the vehicle shudder as a missile smashed into the barriers. Moments later, he heard Tali shout, "Barrier's are down! We're taking damage!"
"Got it," Shepard replied. "Garrus!"
"Working on it," Garrus replied. "Little nathacks are tough!" Firing the cannon again, he nailed the remaining two Juggernauts before targeting the Armatures. The vehicle shuddered as a plasma bolt splashed over the armor, melting layers of armor into slag before ablating them.
"Armor at 75% integrity!" Tali shouted. "Baird?"
"I'm working! Get off my back!"
"GARRUS!" Shepard shouted as more fire came their way
"Got it!" Garrus shouted, firing the cannon again. This time, one of the Armatures fell down dead, while the other one lost it's kinetic barriers. Moments later, another cannon blast rang out, with the other Armature falling dead too. "All contacts down!" he shouted.
"Baird, status report?" Shepard asked.
"We took some fire, but the systems are OK," Baird reported. "Tali and I are currently working on getting the armor back into working order. Still, that was too fucking close! We nearly lost the vehicle! Remind me to design an actual Main Battle Tank when we're done chasing down Saren and his Geth!"
"Deal," Shepard nodded. With that, they continued driving onward. Fortunately, there was no more resistance up ahead, as they entered the skyscraper with no trouble.
As soon as they did, Shepard heard the comm light up. "… anybody," came a voice, which he recognized as Juliana. "Is there anyone else picking this up?"
"Get away from the radio!" another voice, Jeong's, shouted.
"What was that all about?" Lizbeth asked, confused.
"That's your mother," Marcus replied. "Shepard, I think something's happening where they're at. We'll need to investigate."
"We'll get there soon," Shepard replied.
Moments later, another comm signal came out. "… this is Juliana Baynham of Feros Colony. Please, help us!" Moments later, the comm gave out, just as the reached the bottom of the ramp.
"That's my mom!" Lizbeth shouted. "Stop! Stop the vehicle!" Stopping the Mako, Shepard watched as Lizbeth, in record time, burst out of the vehicle and began running towards the entrance to the room where Juliana was at. Marcus, doing his duty, immediately ran out, weapon ready in the event there was trouble.
Getting out, Shepard and the others followed the two. Moving along, they could see Jeong and Juliana, while the guards were more agitated than usual. "You can't do this, Jeong!" Juliana shouted.
"Everyone, shut up!" Jeong shouted. "Uh… let me thing!"
"What's going on?" Lizbeth asked.
"Don't know," Shepard replied, "but it's not good."
"You won't get away with this, Jeong!" Juliana shouted anger in her voice. She rushed towards Jeong, only for one of the guards to grab her.
"Get her out of here!" Jeong ordered. Before the guards could do so, Marcus fired his rifle. One of the bullets smacked into the guard's arm, shattering the bones inside and tearing up some of the muscles. The guard screamed in agony as he fell to the ground.
"STOP RIGHT THERE!" Marcus shouted, his gruff voice booming in the room. As he shouted this, Lizbeth ran forwards.
"Lizbeth!" Juliana gasped, running away from the guard, who was now prone on the ground, towards her daughter.
"Damn it!" Jeong snarled. "Come out where I can see you! All of you!" Shepard, hearing this, got up, though the Gears kept their weapons trained on the guards all the while. "Shepard," Jeong growled. "Damnit! I knew it was too much to hope the Geth would kill you. I found out some interesting facts about you in the data base. I know what happened on Akuze. This doesn't have to happen like that."
No, it doesn't, Shepard thought. Raising a hand, he said, "We can talk this out. Nobody needs to get hurt.
"You don't understand," Jeong countered. "It's not that easy. Communications are back up. ExoGeni wants this place purged."
"This is a human colony, Jeong!" Lizbeth protested. "You can't just repurpose us!"
"It's not just you!" Jeong bit back. "There's something here far more valuable than a few colonists."
"You want the one unique thing that Feros has," Shepard countered. "The Thorian."
"The what?" Juliana asked, confused.
"It's a telepathic life form living under Zhu's Hope," Lizbeth explained. "It's taking control of the colonists here. ExoGeni knew all along!"
Now Juliana's face flashed with rage. "You won't get away with this!" she snarled.
"So you say," Jeong growled, "but no one's going to miss a few colonists!"
At that, Marcus' temper finally flared. "You fucking asshole!" he shouted. "All you care about is profits, while there are people that are dying out there! I won't let you kill anymore civilians, asshole! Drop your weapon, or I will kill you!"
Jeong, finally snapping, shouted, "If that's what you want? Then come on! COME ON!" Raising his handgun, he fired at Marcus, only for the round to bounce off of his barriers.
After that, all hell broke loose. Shepard was about to pull his handgun out when Marcus, Cole and Baird let loose on the guards. Lizbeth, Juliana and the others threw themselves to the ground, while Marcus and the Gears tore into the guards with wild fury. In just a few seconds, all of the ExoGeni guards in the room were dead, their insides liquefied by the pressure waves generated by the HESH rounds. Jeong, in particular, looked like someone had put him through a meat grinder, as the exec's body was lying on the ground, with parts of him having been blown off.
"As if things aren't bad enough!" Juliana gasped as she got up. "Now we're shooting each other in the back!"
"I-I'm so sorry," Lizbeth began to sob. "I didn't want this to happen! It's all my fault!"
"No it's not," Juliana countered. "You did good work by trying to get the truth out."
"Now we have to help the colonists," Shepard frowned. "I don't want to kill them if I don't have to, but I might not have a choice."
"Damnit," Baird frowned. "If only we had something like a knockout gas grenade."
"Hey," Juliana gasped, her eyes widening. "I've got just the idea!" Walking away, she pulled something out of a crate, before walking back to Shepard. She held what looked like a modification for a grenade. "What's that?" Shepard asked.
"It's a nerve gas that we can use to neutralize the colonists non-lethally," Juliana explained.
"Like a gas grenade," Lizbeth nodded.
"Releasing clouds of nerve gas doesn't seem like a good idea."
"It's not like it's weapons grade. The insecticide we use in the labs contains trace amounts of Tetraclopine, a neuro-muscular degenerator. If their nervous systems are already weakened, it should act like a paralyzing agent."
"Risky, but it might work," Tali observed.
"It'll definitely work," Baird nodded. "That way, they can go to dreamland, and leave the rest of us the fuck alone."
True, but it might be the only way to spare them, Shepard thought. Besides, it shouldn't adversely affect normal human beings, though I'm having Dr. Chakwas do a checkup on everyone just to be safe. A moment later, he said, "If it means sparing the colonists, then I'm all for it."
"Here, take this," Juliana beamed, handing Shepard the modification required. "We'll stay put until the all clear."
"Sounds good."
(Author's Q&A)
jack hopper: Thank you for pointing that out. I corrected the error, thanks to your feedback.
edboy4926: Thank you. As for that, I have a plan in mind.
tymaxion: I definitely agree. As for Jeong, as you've no doubt read by now, he's gotten his just desserts.
THATs1I3ntGUY: Interesting. I'll definitely consider that. The HOD will still be coming around, though. It might even get a few upgrades to make it more suitable for cracking armor.
Just a Crazy-Man: Thank you.
Guest: Wowzers indeed.
ZombifiedTeen: Thank you. Getting their characterizations right was difficult, but not impossible. It helps that I actually played all of the games, except for Gears Tactics and Gears 5. I partially grew up with the franchise. Even read some of the books.
Guest: True. If that's the case, what kind of anti-orbital defenses would you suggest?
Chronus1326: Thank you for your kind words. Feel free to share ideas with me as well. I'm all ears for new ideas.
MarauderPrime12: Thank you.
Blaze501st: True. I'll address that in upcoming chapters. Still, I'm very happy to see that you are enjoying the crossover thus far.