Haestrom, Geth controlled territory, 2185
The Spartan sluggishly climbed out of the stoney crater, the violent touchdown having disoriented his senses and undoubtedly leaving his body with fresh new bruises. By a great stroke of fortune, his pistol and M5 were still secured on his maglocks.
Neither Max nor Kimbra expected the landing zone to be made of stone, and subsequently they were not prepared in the slightest. But fortune seemed to favor them in spite of such things. Perhaps Johns luck had rubbed off on him, Max wearily thought to himself.
As Max quickly regained control over his faded senses, he heard Kimbra speak.
"Spartan, we have contacts moving towards us quickly, forty meters out." She informed the soldier with haste.
That grabbed the Spartans attention. True to the A.I.'s word, a multitude of contacts pinged red all around the Spartans motion tracker, quickly encircling his position.
Soon enough the sound of shuffling metal legs found the Spartans ears, and the contacts appeared in his vision over the miniature crest in front of him. Any doubt the Spartan once held over the Geth being automaton-like in nature completely evaporated upon laying eyes on the machines.
They stood tall and large, with sporadically spread thick rope like wiring encompassing their limbs. Their hands bore three long fingers, as most extraterrestrials tended too. Their legs were bowed backward, disturbingly similar in shape and form to the Sangheili's. The color scheme on their metal frames was a simplistic silver, the same as their rifles. Their weapons were uncannily similar in design to their own drop-ships, as if make shift replicas with barrels and stocks.
And of course, all said rifles were centered on the Spartan.
Max observed the Geth which encircled him, and despite seeming ready too, they had not opened fire, staying firmly planted in their perfectly symmetrical positions. It was most peculiar, a foreign dilemma which the Spartan was most unaccustomed too.
He decided to rectify the problem.
In one fluid motion, the Spartan unlatched the M5E shotgun off his back and into his armored arms. The machines clearly noticed this, their rapid identical response shifting them even closer to the Spartan. Little did they know, such a decision only worked against them in a beautifully manipulative manner.
Spartan's adorned in MJOLNIR armor were capable of phenomenal feats, ever since the line of armored exoskeletons first came into fruition. And such capability was amplified even more so due to Kimbra's presence within his neural-link.
However, even more masterfully crafted and placed between the armored plates and wearer lay perhaps most deadliest part of the powered assault armor.
The Reactive Metal Liquid Crystal Layer, perhaps more of a miracle than a technological marvel, was arguably the most important part of the armor. But certainly the most lethal.
Flawlessly enhancing the speed of the wearer, the amorphous layer of crystalline synthetic liquid heightened a Spartan's already augmented speed and reaction time by a factor of two, and their titan strength immensely.
The atmosphere was deafeningly silent, the closest Geth not even two feet way. Aside from their occasional spastic twitches they were still as the stone they stood on.
"We have 17 encircling us, all armed and weapons trained on us. You know what to do Spartan." His A.I. companions voice whispered.
Max slowly dipped his hand into the pouch on his left leg, sleekly pulling out a standard issue M-9 grenade, his finger resting on the primer.
Wasting no time he pushed the primer of the explosive, rolling the explosive behind him into the dots of hostile red on his HUD.
And then he felt the tingle, and the world became trapped in ice, and the landscape his to shape.
The Spartan quickly rolled out of the center, simultaneously pumping the shotgun he held.
One shot to the nearest Geth put the automaton out of commission, it's now lifeless shell shoved to the stone with violent force. He repeated the action several times, the Geth platforms having had barely reacted.
Finally the grenade exploded, shrapnel and flung stone tearing the machines apart. Max quickly dispatched the surviving few, using his newly acquired carnifex pistol to finish his staggered adversaries with a few well paced shots.
Looking at the sidearm, he was surprised by its power. It broke through their meager shields like a hot knife through butter, and crumpled the Geth's plating with ease.
"I love you already Spartan. Our objective is about seven hundred meters out to the north, marking it on your HUD now." Kimbra quickly informed Six.
He took off sprinting towards his objective, his mind focused, centered. He felt the comforting sense of purpose and urgency once more, and all thoughts of confusion and dread were gone. Pushed back to the deepest caverns of his mind.
He felt Alive
Another squad of Geth stood in his way down the small inclined hill, Guns trained on the rapidly closing in Spartan. They fired their pulse rifles with precise accuracy befitting of their machine nature, but their weapons did little.
The sprinting super soldier's shields appeared around his body, the yellow barrier of strong, energized particles protecting him and the armor itself from damage.
Six soon closed the gap between himself and the Geth.
A powerful fist to the first machine half way severed its flash light like head from it's frame with a violent metal screech and it promptly fell. The other Geth quickly back peddled away from the Spartan whilst firing, seemingly frightened by the display of brutality in front of them.
The Spartan took the carnifex off his mag lock and gunned two down before it ran empty, the thermal container popping out with a dissatisfying pop. Switching to his shotgun once more he finished off the remaining machines with a few well placed shells, but not before they managed to break his shields.
More of the machines from afar fired upon his position, their precise shooting forcing him into cover behind a wall of stone. They slowly advanced upon his position whilst keeping the Spartan suppressed with perfect cooperation among one another. As his shields quickly recharged, he thought of what to do.
With his last remaining frag grenade he tossed it at their feet, using it to scatter the group. They knew what the green explosive had in store, and only one unfortunate Geth was unable to avoid a shrapnel filled demise. Turning the corner of the wall he sprinted toward the disrupted unit, wiping them out with a flurry of fists and bullets.
Seeing the area was clear, the Spartan calmly reloaded his weapons and continued on the path forward.
As the Spartan continued his sprint through the old stoney ruins he entered a patch of sunlight, and immediately his shields started to drain at a slow but steady pace. He was about to inquire but was beaten to it
"Spartan, Solar output has overwhelmed this planets magnetosphere. Prolonged exposure will drain your shields quickly. Stay in cover and shade as much as you can." Kimbra voice quickly spoke, informing her Spartan before he asked.
He said nothing, just continuing along the path. The area ahead was clear, except for one peculiarity.
A suited body lay lifeless on the ground ahead, a device in its lifeless, three fingered hand that warbled out a static noise.
"A Quarian soldier. Male, from the looks of it."
"What is the device saying?" The Spartan inquired.
"Quarian language. Someone's attempting to get in contact... From what I gather, some of this fallen soldiers comrades may be alive. I know for certain their commander is still alive. He is the one speaking through the radio." She answered.
"Would you be able to translate my voice through the helmet comms?"
"Not yet, that will require another software update. Keep moving, by the time you reach him or his soldiers, it should be ready." She answered briskly.
"If they survive." Was all Six said in return.
The Spartan marched on, and it didn't take long for him to reach another watched a large, ancient pillar suddenly fall in front of the entrance to some kind of interior complex. Which happened to be exactly where his goal lied ahead.
A cluster of red appeared on his HUDS motion tracker, and he had little time to consider the turn of events.
As he sprinted to cover he saw his motion tracker go blank, and before he could react he was blindsided, violently thrown across the courtyard, the Spartans helmeted head crashing into wall of stone and metal with traumatic force.
Shocked yet still conscious, Six recovered to his feet and looked upon his assailant, and was for the first time, impressed by his synthetic foes. The Geth that blindsided him was a Goliath, at least twelve feet tall, wide, and sporting an almost chrome like paint scheme on its metal frame.
Six felt anger swarm him, both at himself and the Geth for its transgression against him.
With a series of unintelligible electronic sounds and chirps, the giants smaller comrades rallied to it, proceeding to rain down fire with their pulse rifles upon the Spartan's battered position and pierced his shields. But he was in no mood for retreat. Six was never fond of staying still.
With inhuman speed and rage, Six pressed the offensive, brutally destroying the machines pump after pump, shell after shell, fist after fist, not once faltering until the towering platform was all that remained.
The giant of a machine hurled down a metal boot from above the Spartan, intending to crush Six under it self.
With no small deal of effort he caught the appendage and held it, temporarily forced down to a single knee.
After a short battle of pure brute force between the two adversaries the Spartan shoved the Geth off of himself, forcing the machine off balance. As it attempted to recover Max calmly reached into the pouch on his thigh, pulling out a hilt of silver.
Max activated the weapon, the blade glowing into existence as the ionized gases formed their deadly plasmic shape.
The Geth had recovered, and once again stormed the Spartan merely staring it down. It's determination was admirable, machine or not.
In one deft motion Six struck with the blade, separating legs from torso in an unsettlingly clean manner.
All the legless synthetic could do was sputter on the ground, defenseless as it it was put down, the Spartans blade severing it's head clean off.
Six's motion tracker shot back to life as soon as it's head hit the surface. It appeared it was the source of its malfunction.
Turning his attention to the blocked doorway, and contemplated a solution.
"Any ideas Spartan? Nice work by the way." Kimbra asked in a nonchalant manner.
Six did not reply, merely pulling out a plasma grenade, and delicately setting it under the large stone obstacle.
Taking a few steps back, he unholstered his carnifex and fired at the blue explosive. The stone pillar was devoured, consumed by the super heated explosion in blue and purple flame.
"I don't like to admit it but this, this is scary." Garrus said to Shepard as they happened upon another squad of mangled platforms.
They were both in amazement at the spectacle before them, yet they kept trudging on through the old colony, though everything was just more devastated Geth, as if a symbol of the dead relic planet their corpses laid on.
"It's kinda like a really messed up trail we're waking on. Follow the Geth brick road." Shepard said jokingly, the antiquated reference being lost on her Turian squad mate.
A massive explosion rang out in the distance, causing them to quicken the pace, yet neither couldn't help but notice a disturbingly mutilated geth prime as they ran by, its head and legs cut clean off.
The duo ran into a room, this time the Geth corpses were accompanied by Quarians as well.
"Big firefight... tore each other apart" Garrus said out loud, stating the obvious.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" A familiar voice spoke from a terminal close by.
Sure enough it was Tali, her holographic form just as she remembered it from before.
"Tali, it's Shepard, are you safe?" She said to the hologram, concerned for her old friend.
"Shepard? I'm not complaining but you show up at the strangest times! What are you doing in the middle of Geth space?"The engineer asked in bewilderment at the sight of her.
"I heard you needed help, so I came as soon as I could." Shepard answered sincerely.
"Thank you for coming Shepard, it means a lot to hear you're voice. Kal'Reegar and what's left of the marines got me into the observatory. From where you are, it's through the door and across the courtyard. I got the data needed and I'm safe for now, but I've got a lot of Geth outside." Tali said, surprisingly calm in spite of her predicament.
"Just hang tight, We'll be there soon."
"Yeah, can't do much else anyway. Just make sure to ke-. Theres lots of gunfire and explosions outside. I don't know what it is but you'd better hurry."
Sure enough Shepard could faintly hear them too, knowing what the cause likely was.
"Understood, see ya soon." And with that She and Garrus took off running through the door.
Sure enough the sound of roaring pulse rifles and explosions filled their ears even more, rounding the corner to the most astonishing sight the Spectre had laid eyes upon since Sovereign
Across the vast courtyard was the one she knew as Six, a vortex of black and blue moving fluidly across the battlefield, the weaponry she and her squad thought primitive being used to devastating effect upon the Geth.
Shepard thought it a miraculous sight to watch as what was left of the Geth were methodically decommissioned, seeing her hastily inducted member curb stomp a platform out from under his armored boot.
To see such unrestricted violence be unleashed upon a foe should have been a pleasing sight, but in that moment, Shepard once again feared who she had brought onto her crew.
After a few blasts from the large shotgun he held there was naught but one hostile left. A colossus, the hulking spider-like enemy, dead in the center of the courtyard.
Provoked by the fall of its allies it turned its attention away from attempting to crack open the observatory door. The main cannon charged to a gleaming blue haze, ready to fire upon the one who had decimated it's platoon. Shepard quickly unlatched her rifle, worried for the mans safety. She has seen what those machines could do, and she would rather not see it happen again.
Before Shepard could get off a shot she saw the man actually sprinting towards the giant machine at a speed no man should reach.
Firing upon it with his Carnifex as he ran, he quickly crossed the vast gray expanse, completely disregarding any cover along the way. It was akin to watching a cheetah dash on the plains of the Savannah, effortlessly. Once within reach, the Spartan leapt as if gravity itself feared to hinder the whirlwind of chaos that was the Spartan.
He deftly landed on the arachnid like platform's neck with surprising grace, and unsheathed a combat knife from his shoulder. With no time wasted he plunged the blade into the eye like weapon atop it's neck, shattering metal and circuitry within.
Until that moment she had failed to notice the blue orb the soldier held in his hand, not until it was rapidly shoved inside the newly created wound.
As easily as he vaulted atop it he jumped off the colossus, the azure orb he had planted now glowing bright as a star.
A few moments later and it's whole neck was encompassed, shrouded by the cloud of plasma so fiercely scorching that once gone, nothing remained of the the platforms neck, eviscerated entirely.
Shepard was speechless, the normally stoic and collected woman amazed by the sheer display of destruction wrought by one man.
As the now lifeless giant fell, Six made for the observatory door.
From the steps below, the sound of a Quarian made itself heard
"Hey, I sure hope to hell he's with you!"
As the colossus toppled over behind him, Six quickly made for the objective.
Clearing the courtyard of the synthetics had been quite the battle, the Spartans only regret being that it had ended so fast.
The last surviving marine had attempted to speak to him before hand, but Max was not interested. The wounded Quarian only able to watch as he walked past and engaged the Geth.
Once more Six pulled out the energy sword from his thigh pouch.
Once activating the blade, Max punctured the thick red door of the observatory, carving a crude entrance.
A few moments later and it was done, Six kicking in the entrance with ease. He looked around for the one known as Tali. Turning a corner he found what he sought, though not under ideal circumstances.
The purple suited alien stared him down the barrel of a pistol, looking... scared, Max thought to himself.
"Who are you?"
Hi. It's been a while. I know. Sorry.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Have a good one.