Have fun! Hope y'all enjoy it!
As anyone today knows, Asari live incredibly long lives. If we do not get killed, a full millenia is possible for us. So when I say that to be considered a true Legend by Asari in general is a feat that next to no one accomplishes I mean it. To do things that would stand the test of time through generations for us is an accomplishment that maybe 40 Asari have ever achieved and for the non-Asari less than 5.
Now, saying that, everyone in Shepard's group was and is deserving of legendary status within their own respective races. What we all accomplished was something I don't think would ever be able to be done again. However, you've read all my books on the rest of Shepard's group; the final entry, this entry, is for Aedon Wynne otherwise known as The Torchbearer or Red Eyes. The only other one of Shepard's group besides Shepard himself who the Asari consider to be a Legend.
You have all heard his name at some time or another and of his accomplishments. Earth and Rannoch being chief among them but those stories are for a much later chapter. This first chapter will be about the mission that, for better and worse, truly made him a household name. Where the mythos of The Torchbearer and Red Eyes began.
-Excerpt from The Chronicles of the Normandy, Book 12 by Liara T'Soni
POV: AedoTorchbearer
Fluttering my eyes open I was greeted with the stark white ceiling. Blinking a few more times and looking away from the ceiling I made to get my bearings. The very first thing I noticed was that I was in only a medical gown with no sign of my armor or underwear. Next was the IV going into my arm. Did they perform surgery on me? That got most of my attention and in my groggy state I didn't notice anything else.
Groggily pushing myself up from laying down I made to grab the IV only for a hand to stop me. The grip was damn near iron and when I looked up from the IV Dr. Chakwas was staring at me. Her eyes held the same resolve as usual but there was also relief in them. What the hell happened while I was out.
"How long?" was my simple question as she slowly released my wrist.
"6 Days." Okay, what the hell.
"Why was I out for 6 days?"
"To put it simply, you were unlucky and lucky at the same time."
"That is not simple at all ma'am," Dr. Chakwas was silent for a few seconds before nodding her head.
"Alright, that racni pincer that was stuck in your leg?" I nodded my head along with her. "It had a neurotoxin leaking into you and the fact you kept it in you allowed a good amount toxin to go into your body. Hence the unlucky part."
"And the lucky bit?"
"The fact that you kept it in you is the lucky bit too actually," I cocked my head in curiosity and she began to explain. "Since we had the original source of the neurotoxin we were able to make an extremely effective antidote to the poison. Hence, the fact that you aren't dead."
"How did that even happen? I didn't feel anything at all on the way back."
"It was never designed to attack a human's immune system. Make no mistake though, it still would've killed you but the fact that it wasn't meant for humans is also probably the reason you aren't completely paralyzed."
"Who was the toxin originally for?"
"Krogan. According to Wrex it was a rare trait with rachni, very few actually had poison. Those that did were terrible to fight as the poison would instantly paralyze a Krogan for months if not outright kill them."
"I'm one lucky bastard then."
"Indeed," she then started to go over my vitals and took a sample of blood. Once she was done she continued. "By the way, we extracted the rest of the poison from the pincer and preserved the pincer for you. Think of it as a trophy, courtesy of Wrex."
She gestured to the small table next to the bed and sure enough there they both were. The pincer was in one of those jars you would see organs in from the movies and the poison was in just a regular vial. Black in its essence, it did kind of remind me of death. Damn, I really had been lucky.
"How much longer do I have to stay here?" I asked as I sat up and began to try and get out of the bed. It wasn't hard as nothing was physically wrong with me at the moment at least. Just groggy.
"A couple more hours. I want to make sure there's no lasting effects from the poison while you're awake. If nothing pops up you'll be free to join the mission that's coming up."
"And that would be?"
"I'm not in the know about that. All I do know is that we're heading to the Asgard System."
Now, why does that sound familiar… I'll find out eventually. If it's registering with me it's got to be something relatively important at least. Though, nothing was coming up for me. So, with nothing else to do but wait since I couldn't be released I went straight back to sleep. What a nice nap it was too for the instant it lasted me.
Opening my eyes again Wrex was leaning over me looking down at my face. When our eyes met he let out a huff and backed away revealing Shepard and Tali with him; Garrus was there too at the foot of the bed. None of them really said anything as they saw me open my eyes but gradually there were smiles from them.
"Good to see the doc wasn't lying," Wrex spoke first receiving an indignant snort from Dr. Chakwas behind him.
"I miss anything?" As I asked, Tali moved past Shepard and made to grab my hand but stopped. I assumed it was because there were others around and ignored the hesitation. It was her choice after all. Either way we spoke.
"You made me lose a bet," Tali's betting now. Fantastic.
"How so?"
"I bet you'd be up in five days."
"I won," Wrex said with a deep rumble. I smiled and pushed myself up, groaning along the way.
"We have a mission?" I went straight to business. Shepard straightened up at that.
"Yes. An asteroid that was being worked on near the far side of the Asgard System has made a drastic change and is on a collision course with Terra Nova. It's still about 2 days before impact but the crew isn't responding and we're on the way to find out what's happened and to reverse it."
"How long before we get there?"
"7 hours."
"Let me guess too, they aren't evacuating the planet so they don't cause a panic?"
"Bingo," Garrus butted in there and I, nor Shepard, minded.
"I got 1000 credits saying it's Batarians."
"Pirates," was Wrex's only word.
"Now that's just unfair. If it is Batarians they'll disavow them and call them pirates."
"Which is why I'm saying they're pirates."
"Fair."
"Moving on," Shepard cut in. "It doesn't matter what they are or what's happening there. Our job is to go in, fix the flare's trajectory, eliminate all hostiles and save who we can. Clear?"
"Clear," all of us responded.
"Good. Official debrief in 4 hours."
Then he left with Garrus close on his heels. Wrex wasn't too far behind either but Tali stayed and sat next to my bed in silence. Neither of us said much of anything but she did put my hand on mine and I squeezed hers. Looking at each other there was an unspoken agreement between us. That we didn't know what this was, what we wanted or anything about the future; but for now we would enjoy each other's company. Honestly, that was all someone like me could ask for.
She would leave after another hour of enjoying the silence between us and the small contact. When she did finally leave Dr. Chakwas came over and did another series of tests. She went over their results at her computer and after a couple minutes came back over to me.
"You're free to go young man. Stay safe."
"I will ma'am," standing up from my bed I noticed that my armor and underwear were nowhere to be seen. "My clothes and armor?"
"In your locker."
"Well, I guess whoever sees me sees me," and then before she could say anything else I grabbed my souvenir and the vial and left the med bay.
Walking out of the Medbay the first person to see me was some engineer below Adam's eating at the mess. He didn't do much besides raise a curious eyebrow before I walked past him to the elevator and he noticed that my ass was indeed out. I heard a cough and a sputter behind and I wanted to laugh but held it in.
The next person to see my ass was Ashley. She came out of the elevator chewing on a ration bar and gave me a quirked eyebrow. We walked past each other and she didn't make a sound. Though when I got into the elevator she was still standing there.
"Nice ass."
"Thank you," and that was that.
Nothing else happened on my way to my locker besides walking past Wrex and him letting out a deep chuckle seeing me in the gown. Quickly getting into gear I put on my Predator armor. It had been redone and the leg plate repaired, not as good as new but good enough. Grabbing my omni-tool and turning it on I opened it up only to receive an alert immediately.
Looking at the alert it said that there were schematics. Looking at them I couldn't really understand them at all but it did seem like it was some type of integration system for a set of armor. Deciding that I would talk to Tali about it after the mission I stored the schematics away. When I did put it away a not appeared in its place from Ceelo.
To answer your question after I escaped the schematics attached will provide that answer. I don't expect you to understand them but Miss Zorah will certainly understand them. Be careful who you share it with regardless, it could very easily reshape the balance of the galaxy.
Now, it never really seemed that you cared about what happened to get me exiled but I feel that it is about time I told you. What happened -
I closed the note there. When I do finally find out what Ceelo did to get exiled I wont read it over any damn note. When I find out it will be straight from him and no one else. We will sit down and he will explain everything that he did. Why the Quarians would give up someone like him, he will explain it all and no one else.
Bringing back up the schematics I looked them over and they still didn't make sense but there was a lot of wiring to do with it at only the most insulated parts of a suit. Whatever it was, it was obviously revolutionary if Ceelo was telling me to be careful with it. I had no idea but whatever it ended up being it was available to us because of me. Without me here I doubt it would have become known.
Erasing those thoughts I opened up my locker again and grabbed my AR. Spending the next couple hours cleaning it and doig general maintenance along with changing the ammo block. I still had a couple hundred left but I wasn't about to take any chances with this mission coming up. Still, I made sure it was as clean and effective as it could possibly be for the mission. After the AR was the Breaker pistol, didn't have to do much to it as it never really got much use anyways but you had to make sure just in case.
With that done I also grabbed my 1911 and made sure it was ready. Balak was going to be on this mission and I'd be damned if he wasn't going to end by my hand. I loaded it with regular hollow point rounds but also had the mag of the specialized rounds with me. Might get the opportunity to find out just how effective they are. I really need some extended mags for this thing either way.
With my weapons all situated and ready I laid them out on the table before going over to Ashley's workplace and grabbing my bandolier. She had been working on it since the mission to get Toombs and it was ready now, or so I assumed. My assumption was correct as it laid there in its glory waiting to be used. Grabbing it I threw it over my armor and checked how it felt; the final verdict was an A+ rating.
Taking it off I put it along with the rest of my gear, besides my armor, into my locker. With everything in there I grabbed my helmet that was there and looked into it's ruby eyes. It stared back into mine and it seemed for a split second that the thing had a mind of its own. Knowing that Sam was in there that could very well be the case. Besides, who wouldn't want your equipment to want to watch your back?
Good to have you back Pilot.
"Good to see you too Sam."
Do you know the mission Pilot?
"Brief is in a couple hours Sam."
I am impatient.
"You'll get your time. Calm down."
The briefing went exactly as usual and when it was all done we got prepared for the mission. Honestly, the exact same way as we always did; gear check and then get into it. Which left all of us in the Mako waiting for the drop point.
While we waited and sat in the Mako there was surprisingly next to no tension for the mission. We knew that whatever was happening could kill millions but we all believed that we had enough time. Not saying we didn't but to go in this confident somehow never really paid out in the end for me. Go in expecting the absolute worst and then you'll never make a mistake.
Right now we were getting the countdown and one it ended we shot out the back of the Normandy free falling to the surface of the asteroid. Said asteroid was absolutely massive to boot, nothing on a planet but it was massive nonetheless. Plus it was moving at a considerable pace judging by how far we missed our drop point by; almost a mile and a half.
Landing was a lot rockier of an affair than expected. Because we missed our drop zone by so much we landed in a hilly area of the meteor. That being said it just resulted in some bumping around in the Mako and nothing bad, all superficial.
Once we were all set up Shepard punched in the coordinates to the closest flare and we were off. Silence reigned in the Mako as we made our way there and about halfway to the flare our comms with Joker went out. For now we assumed that it was because of our proximity to the Flare.
As we approached the flare we saw a communications beacon on top of the hill we were coming to. Driving up to it Shepard gave Tali and myself the order to get out and examine it. Doing so we walked up and I let Tali take the lead on this one.
"This is Batarian," there was a symbol of a Batarian pirate gang on it so that was just stating the obvious.
"Anything besides the obvious Tali?" she swiveled her head and gave me a deadpan look before turning back around. Seeing an opportunity to work smart here I opened the comm channel so Shepard could hear her assessment.
"It's a smart set up. Piggy backs the original signal allowing no signal to get outside the designated area while still appearing active. If we hadn't gotten that frantic call I don't think we would've known what was happening until it was too late," well that's quite fortunate.
"You get that Shepard?"
"Loud and clear. Any suggestions you two?"
"Let's just piggyback onto it. Either way they'll find out we're here, might as well gather intel from them while we do so," I suggested and Tali jumped in on that.
"I can isolate areas too. Recreating its jamming effect as we go after the flares so they won't be able to warn the others once we take a flare."
"Do it, when you're done get back in the Mako and we'll be off."
Shephard's reply was immediate and once the words were out of his mouth Tali set to work. I just watched her back in case there were any Batarians in the area. None came and it only took her a few minutes before she was all done and we made our way back to the Mako. Once in Shepard shot off down the mountain towards the first flare.
As we got closer and the turrets noticed us Tali implemented the jamming sequence and we were all alone. As the turrets began to fire Shepard had to get a bit creative with his driving as usual in order to avoid the turrets. Regular one and rocket ones so it wasn't a walk in the part. About halfway through his maneuvers I felt like the kid from The Other Guys as I just slid around the Mako the entire time. It was mostly to keep myself entertained and it wasn't like it was disrupting anyone, all I was bumping into was Wrex and the wall.
After hitting Wrex seven times all the turrets were out. It worked out in my favor too as when it ended I was at the wall and away from Wrex who was giving me the stink eye. I shrugged and threw open the back of the Mako.
Jumping out with Wrex and Kaiden hot on my heels we immediately stacked up on the door. The rest got out behind us and stacked up accordingly; while they did that I hit a pulse and hacked the door so when the signal was given it would open. The pulse revealed that on the edge there were about 15 signatures inside with only one near us. That lone signature being situated in a corner.
Receiving the tap on my shoulder from Shepard I flew open the door and put my gun right on where the life sign was. Not seeing anyone I cleared my corners and moved forward to the signature. Getting close to the signature there was a locker where it was. Checking back with anyone near me Garrus was there and he gave me a nod. Putting my AR away I got out the Breaker pistol and reached out with my free hand and grabbed the handle.
Ripping the door open I saw a frightened guy in engineering clothes who looked about ready to yell out. Throwing a finger up to my lips I shushed him and the scream that was in his throat died and came out as a strangled gasp. He looked between us frantically but didn't do anything more.
"We're here to help but I need you to stay here until we clear the place. Can you do that?" I spoke to the man trying to be as reassuring as possible.
The man nodded and receded back into the locker as I closed it. Turning back to the others Shepard gave us a nod and we formed back up on the door leading to the open area. Shepard gave me a nod and I hit the pulse again. Same as before 15 signatures came up with 6 directly in front of us.
Tapping his head as a signal to follow his lead Shepard stepped through the open doorway and fired at the first thing he saw. Which happened to be a Varren and unshielded it dropped from the shot to the head. The rest of us followed and the fight started in earnest.
Being the second in behind Shepard I fired at a Batarian nearest me near a stack of crates. My first two shots hit center mass but he jumped in cover quickly. Still, the crates he used as cover were damn near within touching distance of us and Wrex hopped over them. The Batarian tried to hit him with the butt of his rifle but Wrex stopped that real quick and then blasted him point blank with his shotgun. The Batarian didn't get up.
As he was the closest to us the ones on the far end of the straight away started peppering us with shots. We stayed in cover for a couple seconds before Liara was able to get them caught in a singularity. As they floated up I hit them with an overload and they exploded outwards from the singularity. The one on the right flight straight into the top of the tank near them and wrapped around it. His back was definitely broken. The other one flew to the left and out of sight behind the abundance of crates by us.
That took care of the ones in our immediate line of sight and we moved up with the crates to get a look at the rest of them. My shields got pinged a few times as I moved cover and my head was almost taken off by a sniper on the stop rampart. It seemed that I had been bait however as he took the shot Kaiden hit the man with a throw and he flew back into the wall.
From there we had to slowly go around the entirety of the floor while watching our backs by the crates and looking at the ramparts for more snipers. I, personally, was having none of that and rushed at the Batarian on the far right under the rampart.
The others gave me covering fire as best they could but I still got my shields pinged a few times bringing them down halfway as I made my way to the batarian. He poked his head out a second before I got there and lit me up breaking my shields just as I tackled him to the ground.
His gun went scattering away as I tackled him. He tried to defend himself as best he could but I was fully mounted on him and slammed my rifle into his arms a couple times before they broke. Didn't stop him from trying to defend himself but a few slams to his head and he was out of it and his shields were broken. A single shot to his head from my pistol and he was painting the floor a bright red and dull grey.
Standing up from him with my shields fully back another batarian rushed around a crate at me. He made to tackle me but I fell backwards with my feet up and threw him out into no mans land. He was pelted by everyone including me and never even got a chance to get up.
After that I grabbed a grenade from my bandolier and threw it at a batarian near the stairs. It blew his legs off and he was screaming in pain and shock in perfect line of sight for me. I decided not to finish him off and wait. It panned out as one of his buddies came to try and help him. He got 5 straight shots to his head and dropped on the fifth as it punched through his shields into his head and killed him.
Moving up then towards the stairs I snuck past the few Batarians left on the floor and made my way up the stairs. Getting to the top of the stairs there were two Batarians up there and one had a cracked helmet. Readying my knife I got behind the cracked helmet guy and stabbed it straight into the back of his skull. He dropped like a sack of potatoes and his buddy to the left was never the wise.
Well, he wasn't any the wiser until my Breaker pistol was nestled against his temple inside his shield radius. His head snapped to look at me and got a bullet through his skull in return. Snapping his head backwards from the force. From there I had the high ground and it was easy pickings. I didn't have to kill them, just had to make them aware of me and they panicked letting everyone else deal with them.
When we were sure they were all dead I hit another scan and it showed only one signature, the one in the entrance, the engineer. With that confirmed Shepard sent all of us but himself, Tali and Liara back to the Mako.
Going back to the entrance I got the engineer out of the locker and told him it was all clear. He sighed in relief and asked what he should do. I told him simply to sit tight as best as he could and wait for the all clear. Unless he knew something important then he would just be a liability. He looked a bit miffed at that but nodded his head in understanding.
Once that was done I went out to the Mako with the rest and waited for Shepard and co. We got the info of their arrival via seeing the flare turn off. After that we waited only another minute before they were back with us. As we left a woman's voice cut into our comms.
"Did you just turn off the flare?" Shepard didn't respond immediately thinking it was maybe it was a trick but she asked again in a more hushed and frantic tone. It was enough for Shepard to answer her.
"Yes."
"Oh thank god. Someone's here and helping us. I was barely able to escape the main base with my life, the rest of my friends got caught and trapped by Balak, the Batarian in charge."
"Anything you can tell us about him?"
"Nothing besides the usual Batarians. He hates humans and wants to kill everyone on the planet we're heading too."
"Okay, just keep your head down as best you can. We're coming," Shepard said in his usual reassuring tone.
"Okay… okay. Be careful though, the flare closest to the one you just turned off has a minefield."
"Vehicle or personnel?"
"I don't know, just be careful and don't get caught. They aren't kind," and with that she terminated the connection.
Shepard just sighed and booked us to the next flare. It was about a mile away and with the amount of boosts Shepard used it was no surprise that we made it there in almost record time. Sliding to a stop at the top of the a hill looking at the flare we saw the turrets in the distance but they didn't activate to shoot at us. Not taking any chances though Shepard slid the Mako back a bit so it was in a divet away from the turrets line of sight. Doing that we all got out and made our way to the entrance of the facility controlling the flare.
Going down the hill we made it about halfway down the hill before we noticed a couple of soldiers outside the facility. Unfortunately they also noticed us and we were completely out in the open. We fired on them as best we could suppressing them but it wasn't all that successful. We got lit up and they were able to send one of theirs inside so they would be prepared for us.
Still, we got lucky and no one got their shields broken and hit. We were able to kill the few outside before they could all get in but the damage had already been done. As we finished up killing the last one outside we stacked up on the door and got ready to head in.
I didn't need any prompting from Shepard and hit the pulse right away. We had 18 signatures inside and 6 of them were right on the other side of the door. Looking to Shepard for orders he pointed to Garrus and myself and then gave a few signals.
Nodding in understanding for his signals Garrus and I backed off from the door while Kaiden moved behind Wrex. Grabbing a grenade from my bandolier I handed it to Garrus and got ready. Kaiden looked at each of us and gave a sharp nod before the door flew open. As it did Garrus and I threw our grenades through the door. As soon as they exploded Wrex and Shepard were through the door. Kaiden and myself were quick to follow and the rest followed suit.
Now, I don't know what the batarians on the other side of the door were expecting but it definitely wasn't that. They were completely thrown, literally and figuratively; Garrus' grenade had landed at one of their feet. We surprisingly made relatively quick work of them even with all the advantages on their side. Hell, 2 of the six didn't even get a shot off.
That being said, those two didn't get a shot off because of Tali. Stepping past them and looking down at them I noticed that their weapons were glowing red hot. Looks like she had stolen Ceelo's program, good for her. I gave her a thumbs up at seeing it and she gave me one back.
Stacking up at the door I peaked around only to a hail of gunfire to whizz past my head. Everyone saw that and we exchanged glances, then looked directly at Wrex. He chuckled and then sprinted around the corner firing every which way. We followed suite and ran through the door. Liara firing off a singularity at the far wall catching 3 batarians in one go. Both Tali and I hit the singularity with an overload killing the ones caught in it.
Pushing up from there we systematically hit the Batarians set up from every angle we could get. That being said they were set up extremely well and we didn't get much of a chance until I saw a terminal by a set of crates. Diving towards the crates regardless I got into cover at the terminal and hacked into it.
"Going dark everyone," finding the controls for the facility I shut off all the lights and hit a pulse. Staying there for another couple seconds I established a connection with the terminal so I could hack back into it from anywhere in the facility.
As soon as the lights went off the internal visor of my helmet shut off and lit up green for me. Though I did have to tell Sam to make sure external lights from the helmet were off. Hitting a pulse for the others I stalked forwards towards and took out one of the Batarians with a single shot through the face from half a foot away. He had apparently been trying to get to me before I got the system off.
Still, I got a hell fire of bullets for firing my gun making myself a target; they pinged helplessly off my shields as I dived into cover. From there I continuously sent out pulses for the others as I stalked the Batarians on the floor making my way to the stairs. Killing three more on the way there with my knife I walked up the stairs as silently as possible.
Getting to the top I checked the rampart right to left and saw three up there with me. All looking down at the floor trying to make out anything they could. They never noticed me and the first one died with a knife through the lightswitch; the next when I snapped his neck. Unfortunately, the snapping sound told the last one he wasn't alone. He whispered to his buddies trying to get their attention but the dead tell no tales.
He started to panic and raised his gun to fire. I didn't want him to get the chance so I rushed him, slapping his gun away from me in the process. Once it was away I punched him across the jaw, grabbed the back of his head and slammed it into the railing. With him dazed I reached down to his waist and threw him over the ledge. He landed with a resounding crack of something important breaking.
With control of the ramparts I reestablished my connection to the terminal. Not before opening up the radio channel to the team though, "And let there be light!"
With one last pulse before the lights turned on the Batarians got light only to see themselves completely surrounded. They never even got the chance to surrender before they were gunned down.
Moving to the room with the controls I opened it up and waited for the others. Never got to as only Shepard walked up the stairs as everyone else had been sent back to the Mako. We didn't talk at all as I got to work on the terminal to turn off the Flare. It was a bit more complicated than expected but it didn't take me longer than 2 minutes to shut it off. Once it was done I nodded to Shepard and we made our way out.
We saw no one on the way to the Mako but that voice from earlier did jump in. It gave us some info on the next flare which really boiled down to that apparently Balak's second in command was there. Something that we would have confirmed by Tali upon our arrival to the Mako. Apparently it had been on the radio chatter we had hacked.
We were on the home stretch now.
Sorry to do y'all like this but part 2 comes next week. Also, the excerpt part at the beginning of the chapter will only happen in very select chapters so don't expect it to be a consistent thing.
Review to help me get better. I want to write the best possible story for y'all.
Btw, thank y'all for all the support. 35k views.