Here we go folks. Enjoy and don't forget to review. I love reading the reviews! Either positive or negative I love them.
Almost 900 followers! And I expect to surpass that number after the chapter. Seriously, I love y'all. Never expected this at all; thought in all honesty that I would get maybe 300 followers. Y'all are the best!
Also, I'm now on the West Coast so in accordance with how I've uploaded in the past I will be uploading at around 10pm on this side of USA. May Freedom Reign for all of you. The 2nd Amendment should never die.
*TorchWynne POV*
Since we picked up Grunt it's been about three weeks and nothing has happened regarding the main storyline of the game. No real sidequests or loyalty missions done. Not that we didn't do anything. We were constantly mining for materials and taking some odd missions every now and again. Sometimes going to check out small distress beacons sent by both Systems Alliance and Cerberus; with everything we found going to the SA. None of those quick missions were anything of not though and were in general jokes of missions. In other words the last three weeks had been pretty boring for myself.
I kept busy training and doing what I could around the ship to help but they had it all covered. At some point I tried to convince Tali while on a call with her for us to recruit her onto the ship. She said she couldn't yet, she still had a mission to complete for the Flotilla. I accepted that deciding it wouldn't be good to try and force her into something that could hurt her reputation.
Moving on from that I had talked to Iris a few times and she was, as I assumed, soaking up all the information my mentors could give her without a problem. It made me incredibly proud to hear and see it but she wasn't going to actual school. As much as school is complete and total BS she still needed a general knowledge of the things school would share. This opinion turned into almost an hour long debate between my mentors and I until Miss T'Kari suggested that they could homeschool Iris. I vehemently agreed as soon as she put the notion forth. The rest didn't take long before they were on the same boat as myself.
That was just about five days ago now and I haven't talked to them outside of messages since then. Which was fine with me, as long as we were still able to talk. As for everyone else of the crew of th Normandy SR-2 it's going well. Everyone seems to be at least able to work well together in the field. For off the field I definitely could see the tension in some people. Especially in Jack against Miranda.
Those two worked incredibly well in the field which was really surprising to me but off of it they just could never get along. They argued about the simplest of things and constantly looked ready to slit the others throat. Their little episodes when they went at it weren't helped by Zaeed whenever he was around them. The cat calling as they were in each others faces, while funny ish the first time, definitely wasn't every single time following it. It got to the point where he was about halfway through a cat call the last time they were in each others faces and they both put him into a stasis at the same time. He stood in the hallway, still as a statue, for well over four hours the stasis ended.
Aside from that incident with Zaeed the ones to break up their little spats was usually Shepard, with me doing it intermittently when Shepard wasn't there. Bringing that up I found that Shepard was a lot less forceful then I was when it came to stopping them from ripping the plane apart in a chick fight. He calmed them down and made them separate from the other. I basically slapped them upside the head and told them each to calm down before I ended the fight. Regardless if it's forceful or not it has worked every time so far.
Now, that being said the relationship between Miranda and I has improved to be somewhat cordial. I don't think she likes me one bit but we have an understanding that mission is above both of us. Still, it hasn't stopped either of us from poking at the other and getting under their skin. Miranda was surprisingly solid at it; the current score between us was 6-4 in my favor but all of her four were good ones.
As for Jack our relationship had improved a lot. She was finally starting to completely turn the corner for being a functioning part of the team. Not to mention that we worked out together just about every single day. I taught her as much as I could in terms of shooting with her new pistol but most of my teaching came from our sparring sessions. From patience in dealing with an opponent to needed aggression and all the moves and techniques I could give to her.
As for actually learning everything that I taught her it wasn't the smoothest of processes. She wasn't a very quick study, especially with years of muscle memory already built in, and she got frustrated easy if something didn't work for her. It boiled down to me having to be incredibly patient and having to mix and match techniques for her to see which ones would work the best for her. It wasn't an easy process but I got it done.
If I wasn't teaching her better ways to shoot and fight I was teaching her about hand signals. She did give me some pushback on them for why she had to learn them but a simple explanation later and she was learning them. You never know if someone got into your comms and the better you can communicate silently reduces the risk of things going sideways, plus if you need to be stealthy you have to know the signals. Again, she wasn't the quickest learner out there but she had at least most of them memorized by now; a massive improvement.
Moving on from Jack the others generally avoided me except for Grunt, Shepard and Garrus. Zaeed I would catch sometimes looking from afar but not doing anything else. Jacob gave me a wide berth in general but would ask for help with testing out weapons. Kasumi constantly tried to steal my stuff but hasn't succeeded yet to my knowledge. Miranda was just in passing insults and questions or when we went on those quick missions. Mordin just called me in every few days and asked to go through tests with me. He still hasn't told me what they're about but since he was polite about it when asking I let him perform his tests.
As for the ones that would actually interact with me, outside of training, I saw Garrus the most. Either in the shooting range, bar or mess hall. Whenever we were near the other we always made sure to ask the other if there were any updates from Omega. For Garrus' side there hasn't been any problems at all except for a few of the guards being busted as druggies. They've been sent to rehab but won't be able to be a guard again for at least six months.
My side of things has been smooth sailing for the most part. It was rocky for the first week from what I've heard just from chain of command and figuring out everything that was going on. They've since calmed it down and are back on track with being the best of the best of Omega. We've since continued to expand from Omega and now have almost weekly jobs on Illium and even a couple on the Citadel last week. Almost all of those being protection gigs except for one on Illium; sabotage a warehouse with Red Sand. Operation was a complete success. In other words, it was on the up and up.
I saw Shepard around on the shooting range, sparring ring and in the bar sometimes. Though there have been a couple times I've noticed him come back up from the engineering level and I could only wonder what he was doing down there. Then again he had been making his usual rounds of talking to everyone around the ship like he did before. Had to hand it to him, he cared for everyone on the ship.
Then there was Grunt. His maturity threw me off and still does if I'm being honest. He still has the childlike simplicity he had in the games but not close to where it was. He's more ruthless and less likely to go off the rails but he was still trying to figure himself out. Regardless he knew how to fight but definitely had to work on the taking orders part. He was 10 times worse than Jack at taking orders; well that's a lie. If anyone but Shepard or myself issued the orders he wouldn't follow it at all but he would follow it like it was gospel if it was Shepard or myself who gave it.
For the first two weeks I had no why he also listened to me. Shepard I understood since he was the one to wake him, the first to talk to him and the Commander of the entire ship but I didn't understand why he followed my orders as well. At the end of that two week mark he told me and it was kind of surprising.
Just like how Okeer had imprinted things about people, places and everything else that he should know he also highlighted a few select people. All the head honchos of the entire galaxy; the Council, the Primarch, President of the Systems Alliance, Council of Matriarchs, the big Three Mercenary leaders (Blue Suns, Blood Pack and Eclipse). That was the bulk of them but Okeer specifically highlighted Shepard and myself at the end.
Grunt told me that of all the people that Okeer imprinted into him the only ones that he actually respected on any level were both myself and Shepard. Myself more than Shepard because Okeer didn't know Shepard was alive. After he told me that he immediately challenged me to a sparring match.
I'm proud to say that I won against him but it wasn't clean. Meaning that about a minute into the fight I knew I couldn't win the fight cleanly so I made an opening and kicked him in the balls. From there it was all me and I won the fight; regardless he wasn't happy that he lost. Saying something about honor in the fight. I remember whirling around and marching up to and getting in his face after that.
There is no honor in a fight Grunt. The only thing that matters is that you live and they die, everything goes. The ones that stick to their honor die quick.
He hadn't enjoyed the quick dressing down but his head cooled quickly. Said there was wisdom in my words and disappeared for a full day after that not leaving his room. This matured Grunt was hard to read at times for me. Like a young adult; he acted either surprisingly mature or immature to the point of near absurdity. It wasn't a fun rollercoaster to be on around him but he listened to me so it wasn't as bad for me as it was for the others. The only other thing I would mention about Grunt was that he refused to call me anything but Red Eyes.
So yeah, that's been the last three weeks for me. Training, helping Jack train and occasionally sparing with Grunt. Being a, possibly, living experiment for Mordin. Chilling with Garrus and Shepard when the time allowed for it. And finally calling my two best girls and making sure that they knew I still cared. Got some nice pictures out of Tali the other day and some cute ones from Iris while she was out seeing the rest of the Citadel with Frank and Miss T'Kari.
I will say though that for the past three weeks there was one thing I was disappointed in. The throwing knives didn't work on live targets, apparently it only worked on really weak shielding which sucked in my opinion; especially since Jack had gotten good with them. It would've been cool to add to Jacks' repertoire but it is what it is. I found out when she was curious on one mission and decided to try it out on one of the mercs we faced; after it didn't work she killed him with her biotics and walked away.
Still, even though it failed I would still help her with it every few days or so. When I asked why she still practiced it she simply stated that I should fuck off and mind my own business. At that I just assumed she did it because she was proud of it; she had to actually work to get good at it.
At the moment I was at the shooting range with Jack on my right and Garrus on my left. We were all talking about random things, anything that came to mind. For example we had just spent the last 10 minutes talking about whether a Batarian or Asari were more stuck up; I picked Asari but both Jack and Garrus went with Batarian. Now, we were talking about which place had better food; the Citadel, Illium or Omega.
"Omega has the best, no question," I stated as I lined up a shot and punched a hole through the lightswitch of the target.
"It was also where you could get sick the easiest," Garrus shot back. "The Citadel has the best food."
"But everything is over priced. And the stuff that isn't is either so cheap you don't trust it or it's artificial," I responded I was going to continue but Jack jumped in this time.
"Illium. It's fucking fufu in most places and overpriced as all hell but at least the cheap stuff never disappoints. Their food trucks never fucking disappoint," that I had to agree with. Illium food trucks literally never disappointed me. There were a couple on Omega that disappointed. Now, that being said the food trucks were just big air cars, not actual food trucks.
"I've only been once, I can't really speak for Illium," Garrus said as he lined up a shot and fired. "That being said the food I had was solid. Not great."
"I think you might just be picky Garrus," I chuckled out.
"When you look as good as I do you can't just shove whatever you want in your mouth," he stated striking a pose in full view of both Jack and I.
"Booo!" we both responded as he struck his pose. He laughed it off and packed up all of his gear. He patted me on the shoulder and asked me for drinks later. I gave him an affirmative nod and he left. When he did it left Jack and I together alone as we kept firing at the targets.
We fell into a comfortable silence as we continued to fire. It was nice that there was nothing else but the steady rhythm of gunfire, never thought I would say that. Still, it was strangely relaxing. A steady thump and there was nothing else to worry about, it was just me and the target and the whole world didn't mean anything to me.
I don't know how long I stayed in my own little world but it had to end. Surprisingly by Jack as she barked out my name next to me. She was leaning against the railing that separated our lanes for the range looking at me. A question written on her face but I didn't hear it so I just made a 'repeat' motion with my hand. She rolled her eyes before responding.
"What's that around your neck?" looking down I guess she meant the rosary, was she really that out of touch or did so little know about Chirstianity outside of the SA?
"A rosary. For my religion," she scoffed at that.
"You, religious? HA! Aren't religious people supposed to be pacifits?" I stared at her in silence for a few seconds astounded at her words. Did she actually not have an education? I'm pretty sure the Crusades are still talked about to this day.
"You never got much of an education did you?" I asked innocently but she seemed to be offended. Her demeanor instantly changed to hostile and she got off the wall staring me down biotic sparks around her closed fists. Her conscience won out though and she calmed down after a few deep breaths.
"No... Cerberus wasn't looking to teach me anything beyond how to hate and how to kill," she stated closing back in on herself as she leaned back up against the divider.
"Wanna talk about it?" she scoffed before answering.
"No. I ain't no fucking bitch," ah, still hasn't expanded her vocabularly that much no matter how much better she's gotten. I shook my head before starting to pack up my stuff.
"If you ever decid to be a 'fucking bitch' and talk abou what happened you know where to find me," I gave her the finger quotes as I talked and finished up packing; I only brought my Mattock today.
"Nah, ain't ever gonna happen," she stated as I walked by her to the exit. I stopped for a moment and couldn't help myself so I took a shot.
"That's what you got Shepard coming down to you for then?" her eyes widened for a moment before narrowing. He shoots he scores, that was an easy shot though; he always made the rounds on the old Normandy so I assumed he would here too.
"How'd you know?" she growled out not changing her stance on the divider.
"He always makes the rounds, how do you think he inspires such trust in us? He's our commander but he's our friend first and foremost," She looked taken aback for a moment or two before she turned away and went back to her lane without a word. I told her I'd see her later and left the range going back to my room.
I checked over my Mattock and then went over my armor to make sure everything was in good condition. It, of course, was and it was really just a tactic to keep myself busy. However, when it was done I made a call to Tali and got sent straight to voicemail. A bit of a bummer but I assumed she was on another mission and left a message for her when she could answer.
With that done I took a shower and headed to the bar. Garrus, Shepard, and Miranda were there taking drinks already. Walking up to them I grabbed Garrus' drink and slammed it back before he could do anything about it. He punched my shoulder at taking his drink, to make it up to him I started to make my around the bar to get to the drinks but Kasumi appeared in front of me. She had a drink in each hand and offered the gave the first one to Garrus before offering me the second one; only to disappear. Should've seen that coming.
Making my own drink, one Kelli had taught me called a Clear Krogan Rage. It consisted of Tequila, three squeezed limes, half a shot glass of pickle juice and hot sauce. I got some extremely concerned looks when I finished creating my concoction and put it into a glass*. As I took the first sip of my drink everyone continued to give me concerned looks but there was no reason too. It was a good drink.
When I didn't react at all everyone went about their drinking but Miranda made sure to stay well clear of my drink. Like it had personally offended her or something and considering her upbringing, it just might've. Either way we spent our time drinking and talking as a group, word spread fast too as we were soon joined by Dr. Chakwas, Mordin and Zaeed. A couple minutes after they arrived Grunt did as well and with me behind the bar I instantly got the big guy a shot of Ryncol.
He took it like it was no problem so I made him a Clear Krogan Rage but instead of tequila it was Ryncol. Again, he slammed it but coughed for nearly a full minute afterward. I made him another and he learned his lesson and began to sip it, apparently he enjoyed it.
From there it started to get a little hectic for everyone but it was just the stories that we shared. Garrus held nothing back with his days on C-Sec and there were a couple times I was laughing so hard I was crying. Shepard was much the same with his days before being an officer which brought the question to the group as to how old Shepard actually was.
It began a debate and it boiled down to whether we would count the two years he was technically dead. After almost 10 minutes of arguing we decided that we would not. With that decided we came to know that Shepard is 28 years old. Which made me feel really weird as I was now only a year younger than him. Before I could really delve into that though the door opened again and Jack walked in. Instantly Miranda and her exchanged scowls and everyone quieted down to hear what would happen.
"Princess," Jack stated coldly as she walked up to the bar.
"Loony," was Miranda's response and they both decided to completely ignore each other.
With that seemingly the end of it I poured a drink for Jack and made another for myself. Everyone spent the rest of the night and into the late morning exchanging stories and drinking. Mordin and Dr. Chakwas even jumped in a couple times with their stories. All were entertaining and Mordin was surprisingly funny when I could understand his fast talking. Throughout the night though I caught glimpses of everyone sizing another up maybe looking for a night of fun. Thankfully no one did anything and everyone eventually made their way back to their own rooms.
The next morning did not bring a hangover but what it did bring was a ship wide announcement from Shepard for the ground team to get to the briefing room immediately. Knowing I needed to wake up I popped a dip in before grabbing a cup and heading to the briefing room. As I was on my way I ran into Garrus who held a steaming cup of coffee in his hand.
We exchanged nods as we walked together and went into the conference room. Besides Shepard and Mordin we were the first ones into the room and would be the only ones in there for another few minutes before the rest began to trickle in. Grunt and Jacob were the first ones after us quickly followed by Jack and Zaeed, then Miranda and Kasumi to finish it off. Once everyone was in Shepard started his brief without any preamble.
"Horizon," he stated clicking a button and a hologram of the planet popped up on the table. "It went dark roughly an hour ago and we have good intel this was the Collectors. Mordin's countermeasure is ready and we'll be saving as many of the colonists as we can. That is the end goal of this Op, save as many as we can."
"That's all well and good Shep but their ship smoked yours the last time they fought. I'd rather not see that happen first hand and then be at the Collectors mercy," Zaeed ground out in his gravel tone but I had to agree with him, it wasn't something I wanted to imagine dealing with.
"There's AA batteries at the colony, we'll have to activate them to make sure they punch a hole into the Collectors ship. As for getting in we'll be performing an orbital drop in the Hammerhead and insert on the edge of the colony. From there we'll push through the colony to the controls for the AA system," Shepard then looked to Mordin and nodded his head.
"From research that has been done on attacks and footage from surviving Quarian they won't load up the colonists until all threats are eliminated and all humans are taken. Should still be a few left either fighting or hiding by arrival time. Add to that, colonists will be placed in pods before they are taken to the ship. Do not bother opening or helping them, they are meant to hold bodies and not harm them; they will be safe there.
Countermeasure will protect everyone from swarms so that we don't join the colonists in their pods. Will need access to everyone's armor or shield generators before planet fall to install countermeasure. Safe process, just extra program in system," Mordin finished. I immediately asked my question before anyone else could voice theirs.
"How will it protect us?"
"Emits frequency that makes user invisible to swarms. Tested multiple times on swarm subject in lab; works every time. Nothing to fear," didn't make it the most believable when he had to say it multiple times but that's expected with Mordin.
"Anything else Shepard?" Miranda asked.
"Expect to see some husks on Horizon. They are what the Reapers turn humans into and are not pretty at all. They can rip you limb from limb if they get close enough but are generally weak and unshielded. Kill them any way you like, just don't let them get close. As for the Collectors we have no real intel on fighting them at all. Treat them as trained and experienced enemy soldiers with good weapons. This will not be easy people, any other questions?" when he got only shakes of the head and silence as he answer he continued.
"Okay, you're all dismissed. Get your amor and shield generators to Mordin ASAP, we arrive at Horizon in two hours," and with that we all piled out of the room.
I hustled to my room and grabbed my armor bringing it to Mordin. I was the second one to do so as Shepard's gear was already being worked on. I calmly waited for Mordin to finish with Shepard's gear before giving him mine. While he worked on my gear I wondered around his lab and just looked.
I found a couple files on the terminal with me as the subject line. I tried to understand what the files were talking about but I honestly had no idea. All the technical jargon was way too advanced medically for me to make any real sense of it. I was going to download the files to get time to understand it but before I could Mordin stated that he was done with my armor and that he would happily discuss the files after the mission. I planned to hold him to that but for now I took my armor and left.
Making my way back to my room I put on my armor and equipped myself with my entire arsenal. This was Horizon and I did no plan on going through this mission without being the very definition of prepared. Took me only a few minutes to get ready and when I was I went to the cargo hold and jumped into the Hammerhead. Taking shotgun this time instead of the turret.
Garrus would arrive only a few minutes after myself and take the turret. Shepard was next to arrive and after he arrived everyone began to trickle in, including Mordin, with Zaeed being the last one to arrive. When he arrived we all began to periodically check our equipment and only a few minutes later Joker announced over the PA system that we would be at the drop zone in two minutes. When he mande the announcement the cargo door began to open, all we saw were clouds and nothing else.
When we hit the drop zone Shepard shout us through the opening and we fell. It wasn't like we were flying in any way shape or form, we were gracefully falling at best. Hitting a jump every couple thousand feet as we descended from the upper atmosphere was the best of feelings. It didn't help that the closer we got to the ground the more jumps we did.
By the time we reached the half mile mark we were hitting a jump every 100 or 150 feet. Caused the time it took to get to the ground a lot longer but I preferred that than to becoming splat on the ground.
Those few minutes as we got to the ground after the half mile mark were some of the longest I've ever experienced. The lurching of the Hammerhead wasn't something that I would ever like to experience again in that type of situation. Either way, when we landed and took off towards where the colony was I was happy that we were no longer falling. Shepard's driving wasn't much better but it was good enough.
As we approached the colony we could see the Collector swarms swirling above the whole of the colony. We even saw it shoot down one before coming back up mere moments later, guess someone got caught. That did give us hope though, we had made it in time; there were still people we could save. Plus, their ship was currently parked a mile or two outside the colony, perfect spot to get hit by the AA guns.
After a couple more minutes of driving we came upon the entrance to the colony. It's entrance was completely decimated and packed with debris, there was no way we were getting through it. Shepard seemed to have the same idea and parked the Hammerhead in front of it and ordered everyone out.
We made a circle around the Hammerhead looking for any movement but found nothing. Eventually, when no Collectors showed up Shepard took point with myself and Grunt beside him with Jack right behind us. The rest of the group scattered in the middle behind us with Garrus taking up the rear in his usual sniping spot.
Once in our spots we pushed forward to the side and jumped a rocky outcropping before finding a hole in the wall. Going through the wall we got our first look at the outskirts of the colony. Out here it was mostly construction equipment and a few houses that definitely weren't completely finished.
The first thing I noticed when we entered the place was that it was eerily quiet and my paranoia was going crazy. Immediately hitting a pulse I saw that we we were surrounded and outnumbered, 26 to 9, as did everyone else. As everyone readied themselves to fire into the trap we all lined up shots on where the pulse said targets were and I pulled out a grenade. Thanking my lucky stars that the Shadow Broker hadn't told them I could do that.
Getting a nod from Shepard I tossed the grenade at one of the construction machines. It hit right right next to the edge behind the corner, right were I had been aiming, and went off. There was no scream of pain or shout of shock but we got to see a Collector's body parts spew above the equipment and all hell broke loose.
Bringing my mattock back out I zeroed in on a collected peeking out of the corner and put three shots into its head. The first one pinged off making the collector stumble out of cover a step, the second one cracked the outside of its head and the third punched through its head and out the other side. That told me one thing, any smg wouldn't be worth shit against them.
I relayed the information to the group and they few that were using SMG's switched to their heavy pistols. We then continued to kill as many as we could as fast as we could. The collectors moved fast around the area are weren't afraid to get creative in their attack patterns. It was exciting in a way.
Charging out of cover out of one of the buildings under construction one of the Collectors came at us screaming in an unintelligible language while firing wildly. I barely spared the collector a look before looking away, Grunt had him in his sights. When Grunt fired off the carnage round though the Collector blew sky high and the shockwave all put us on our asses. Looks like they're okay with suicide bombers, never would've guessed if I'm being honest.
Getting back up from the shockwave I fired at the closest Collector that seemed to be pushing to melee range. I got him with a few shots to the head before he got there and it gave everyone the time to recover. Even with the Collectors getting closer all of us were back up and ready for the fight.
From there we began to push them back to each other and when they were in position for me a singular grenade took care of most of the remaining Collectors; six of the nine because they were so bunched up. With that done and most of the remaining dead Grunt and Jack charged at the final three. A combined shotgun shot from each into one of them eviscerated one of the three and they literally ripped the other two limb from limb. One with biotic power and one with Krogan strength.
"Clear!" I shouted out after hitting another pulse just to be sure. At my words Shepard gave the order for everyone to regroup.
"EDI, were's the AA controls?" EDI's response came through our radio's.
"It is in the center of the colony Commander. The heavy Collector presence there has been thinned as they are now on their way to you."
"Thank you EDI. Wynne, take Jack, Grunt, Zaeed and Kasumi along this route to the center," he said bringing up the schematics of the colony. "I'll take the others the other direction and we'll pincer the AA station. Got it?" I gave him a nod of my head and turned around to my group .
"Kasumi, you'll be the scout. Don't engage if you don't have to; wait for us to engage and cause havoc; Grunt and Jack you two will be on point with Zaeed and myself behind you."
"You know how to treat a Krogan Red Eyes," Grunt growled with a smile as he pounded his chest. Jack had a bloodthirsty grin on her face and her eyes were full of determination.
Looking to Kasumi I gave her a nod and she cloaked and became our scout. Jack and Grunt followed her the way we were meant to go taking a surprisingly cautious pace as we moved forward. Not that I was complaining, we still moved at a good pace we just weren't running like I expected to be. I attribute that to me curbing Jack's attitude and Grunt's maturity. Either way, it was only a few minutes before Kasumi radio'd in to us.
"I've got eight Collectors here and too many husks to properly count," I heard her whisper. At her voice over the radio we stopped our advance.
"Where."
"In the clearing, you should be close," looking around I spotted a door in front of us that looked to have a beyond it; we were only 10ish feet away from it.
"You have anything to distract them?" I asked as I made orders to the others to stack up on the door. Grunt would be first through followed by Jack and then myself and finally Zaeed.
"Oh yeah, just wait for the bang," I heard the mischief in her voice.
"Okay, we're on you… and Kasumi, don't fuck with the Husks; they're a bad match for you."
"Aww, you do care about me," she joked back and I just released a sigh but didn't respond.
I made sure to give a grenade to both Grunt and Jack telling them to throw them at the husks while we waited at the door. Just after I had given them the grenades there was a loud bang on the other side of the door and we all rushed through the door. Jack and Grunt throwing the grenades into the group of disoriented husks. While Zaeed and I poured fire together on three consecutive Collectors killing them before they could react.
From there we got lucky as once the Collectors began to ruturn fire they were out in the open and there was no cover for them to run to. All five of us focused fire on the remaining Collectors and killed them in a matter of moments but that was a mistake. By the time we had finished the Collectors the husks were now upon us.
Their numbers had significantly dwindled from the two grenades but that didn't deter them. They charged us with reckless abandon moaning and screaming in a way that I never thought possible. It was chilling but I pushed it out of my mind and focused on the one important thing at the moment. Killing them before they could get to melee range.
Switching between targets as fast as possible after punching holes through the heads of the husks I knew that we would eventually have to go to hand to hand. Even with Grunt and Jack eviscerating the husks with their dual Claymore shotguns as they closed in. It still wouldn't be enough to hold them back. Hell, even when Jack sent a Shockwave through the hoard they were barely slowed but it did allow me to get another grenade off into the group.
Still, it wasn't enough and eventually they got to melee range and the first one was greeted by the butt of Grunt's Claymore to it's face but it barely staggered the husk. That was all the time Grunt needed though as he blew off the husks head but the one that was behind it jumped over the fallen husk in front of it and wrenched the Claymore out of Grunt's hands. That had me paling a little bit, just how strong are the husks.
"Kasumi, Zaeed! Back up, fire over us!" I roared as one of the husks ran between Jack and Grunt, and ran straight at me; Jack had been engaged by a husk but was using her biotics to keep it at a range.
I was able to get a shot off and put the bullet through the husks forehead but like with Grunt before me there was one right behind it. Jumping at me I took my augmetic off my Mattock and punched the husk across the face. It staggered for a moment but that's all I needed. Lunging with my augmetic out in front of me I gripped it's face and drained it.
Now, let me tell you. If Morinth is the S tier of drains the husks was the very definition of an F tier. It was such a dirty high that I honest to god felt like I was on the verge of puking everywhere when it finally ended. I was retching most of the way through the drain but there was one thing that gave it an upside. When I finished draining the husk I felt stronger than I ever have in my entire life; like I could take on the world.
I didn't the opportunity to think about it though as another husk charged me and reacting on instinct I threw a punch at it with everything I had. When my fist connected with its face the husk was literally atomized. Shredded down to its last molecule as it disintegrated in front of me.
Pushing the sight out of my mind another husk rushed me and jumped at me. I didn't have time to block it as it grabbed onto me and tried to bite into my shoulder. My armor plating stopped it dead in its tracks and it gave me enough time to grab its face with my augmetic and drain it. Again, I felt like puking at the drain but the power also returned; if I had to guess this must've been what crack felt like it was soooooo addicting even with it feeling terrible.
Throwing the husk away just as anothe one got to I drained it as well as tried to get to me. Tossing it away like a discarded toy as another charged me I dodged the first swipe of it's hand putting my Mattock away in the process and grabbing my ax in my human hand. Dodging a second swipe I slammed my ax into its side and it gave me the opportunity to drain it and I did.
After that husk another came my way and I did the same process draining it at the end of the confrontation. With that one though I felt full, like I had to release all the power I had built up. My head began pounding like no tomorrow and I was filled with indescribable Wrath. Tossing the husk away I grabbed the face of the next husk uncaring as it pounded it's hands into my side as I did so but it was already too late for it. Throwing that one away the pounding in my head increased to the point that I could barely see in front of me.
On instinct though I knew what I needed to do. I switched my ax to my augmetic and charged forth into the fray of husks. Knowing it was a stupid move for me to do and would definitely cost me I just didn't have a care in the world. The Wrath was in full control and I could barely see anything in front of me as I charged the husks.
Slicing with the ax and punching the husks as hard as I could with my real hand. The only reason my hand wasn't breaking was because I was using the bottom of my palm to punch them. Looking like a deranged viking/samuri in the process no doubt as I charged into the husks.
It wasn't long before the surrounded me and from all sides they were attacking me. I could hear someone screaming my name in the background but I didn't care. The only thing that mattered to me at that moment was killing all the husks and draining as many as I could. I fought for I don't know how long. They just kept coming and kept beating down on me but I wouldn't go down.
Eventually I felt something crack but I didn't stop. I couldn't stop; I was unstoppable. Hacking, slashing, hitting, kicking, headbutting and draining. The whole time barely being able to see in front of me the pounding in my head was so profound. It was a cacophony of action and reaction the whole time but I couldn't be stopped; I never would be stopped. Until I was.
I felt something hit the back of my head and I fell down onto my face. Trying to get up I felt more husks surround me and start being into and tearing at me and for a moment my mind registered that this might be it. But I rejected that reality, I rejected the possibility of failure. I had Tali I needed to get back, Iris still needed a good father, Frank still needed a good son, Shepard needed someone to watch his back and the Galaxy needed a man willing to fight for it.
Imbuing myself with my own WRATH I shoved myself upwards to my feet uncaring of the attacks coming from all sides. Once on my feet I jumped up and curled into a ball and let everything out screaming as I did so.
"FUCK OFF!"
In a flash everything exploded outwards around me and I landed on my feet*. As I landed on my feet I felt nothing anymore and even the injuries I undoubtedly got weren't there, only adrenaline. Standing there my vision began to come back to me it was hazy at first but after a few moments cleared up and I was able to see everything around me.
The very earth I stood on was scorched beyond recognition in a five foot radius around me. There were no more husks alive and all I saw around me were the atomized remains of the few that had been closest to me. Looking up I saw a husk flying upwards and I was captivated until it splatted on the ground dead.
When it did I observed the area and took in the fact that there were husks imprinted into the buildings surrounding the clearing. Literally imprinted into the buildings with broken bodies and astronomically dead. Mangled beyond recognition and there were a few spots on the buildings that had husk colored gore on them.
Turning to where the others were I saw them all lying on the ground looking up to me with shock evident on their faces except for Grunt. He looked to be in complete awe of me; like I was the second coming of Krogan Jesus. The others obviously had shock on their faces but it was marred by the other emotions.
Kasumi, her hood blown back off her head looked completely and utterly terrified. Zaeed looked like he was contemplating an early retirement upon looking at me. Jack though, she looked shocked, terrified, relieved, impressed and utterly confused all at the same time. Pushing the looks out of my mind I put away my ax and brought my Mattock back out.
Even with the blood I could feel seeping out of my body all over and the fractured bones all over the fight wasn't done and I wasn't out of the fight. Walking over to them I reached out my hand to Grunt who was the closest and hoisted him up. Doing the same with the others I dusted them all off before tending to their wounds.
I left Grunt alone for the most part at his insistence but I cared for the others. Jack had a few cuts and slashes that I needed to apply a liberal dose of medi-gel too. She wasn't in bad shape but if I left the wounds alone it would be a problem. It didn't help that she shied away at first but after a moment let me do my work to help her. Before long she was back to 100 percent and ready to fight.
Zaeed and Kasumi only had a few minor cuts and bruises and it was easy to take care of them. I used as little medi-gel as possible on them before going back to Grunt and again he tried to push it off which resulted in a staring match between us. It was one that he lost but he demanded that he not be treated with medi-gel, the scars would be good for him he said and I acquiesced.
After he was done I treated myself and with all the medi-gel I had used on Jack I used as I used as little as possible on myself. I didn't know when it would come in handy later. As a result I had gauze and patches on my left calf and thigh, one on my right forearm, and wrapped around my right shoulder. Plus a little dab of medi-gel between my stomach and hip where my armor didn't reach. Once it was done I brought out my Mattock and looked back to them.
"Let's move."
There you go folks. I know you enjoyed the ending but hopefully you enjoyed the whole chapter. Best wishes.
*1: I've made this drink before (Clear Krogan Rage called a Clear Americans Anger irl) and it's pretty good in all honesty.
*2:when Starkiller uses his repulse in the games. Best description for it would be from The Force Unleashed II trailer. Watch it if you want to get a better idea if I didn't do a good enough job for y'all.