I've seen a lot of shit in my long life. A lot of it borderline unbelievable but each time I had to push through because that was the job the Council gave me. To be the best of the best at any one point in time. Something, that for the majority of my career, I excelled at. On the flip side of that there became very few things that scared me in any way, shape or form.
It made me a better operator for the Council in many ways but let it be known that there is exactly one thing that truly scared me. Aedon fucking Wynne. That being said I never feared him before our Suicide mission. He was always an exceptional soldier but he could still fall to superior numbers or tactical superiority. Not after this, he ascended to untouchable in my mind after that mission.
That mission when I saw him in all his glory it was the first time in my life I have ever been genuinely terrified of another being. What he did, how he did it, how he survived and what I saw are all things that have been burned into my mind and will never leave. Aedon Wynne. It was also there that I realized why the Geth called him an 'Anomaly'. It was the only word that truly fit him.
-Excerpt from The Chronicles of the Normandy, Guest Author Tela Vasir
POV: Aedon Wynne
After Shepard left the cargo bay the Vatican's soldiers and myself spent a little bit talking. Mostly to get an idea of what they could do and more about them in general. They were, understandably, short on their responses about themselves but went into detail on what they could do in combat. It was mostly what you would expect from an elite team; demolitions, scouting, sniper, close quarters, hacker and leader. Didn't know how Shepard would use them but they would probably be tied to my side for the mission.
They already knew this and agreed with the idea. They were sent to help me and me alone afterall but they would help the mission if asked. Which was something that definitely would be the case. To which they took in stride and decided to stay in the cargo bay for while we waited.
Leaving them I made my way to Mordin's room. How Dashi seemingly drained me in the last fight was still bothering me. It just didn't make any sense at all, she sent out nothing at me and just drained me out of nowhere. With that in mind I walked into Mordin's lab to see the Salarian typing away at his terminal in his own world. He did hear me enter though and looked up at me.
"Ah, Aedon. Help you with something?"
"During my fight with Dashi she drained me out of nowhere," Mordin's head cocked to the side.
"No Reave?" I shook my head.
"Not that I could see or tell. It happened out of nowhere," as soon as the words were out of my mouth Mordin gestured for me to go over to the side. Once there he grabbed a couple of tools and scanned my whole body. Finishing up scanning me he went back to his terminal and imputed the results into it. A minute or so later he was finished and looked back to me.
"Low level Reave. Probably at beginning of fight touched you starting it. Continuous drain on biotics and stamina while refilling her own. Very hard to use, very hard to continue for the whole fight. Once she fully activated it is when she used an actual Reave on you from the low level one."
"Huh, doc could you send me your Incinerate program? I want to get one," he responded by immediately sending the program.
Nodding my head and thanking him I left to go back to my own room. Once there I started doing maintenance on all my weapons to pass the time. Taking my time it was about an hour later that it was all done. Well, it wasn't but Tali came into the room immediately taking off her mask and sitting on my lap.
She grabbed my face with her hands and looked down at me meaningly. Knowing exactly what was going on I smiled up at her and she took that as an invitation to bend down and kiss me. From there it rather obvious what happened but I did make sure to take the time to lock the door to our room.
Several rounds later we were lying on the bed together and completely naked. Tali was asleep on my chest as I soothingly rubbed her back and her hair that cascaded down it. She had beautiful hair that just seemed to shine at all points of the day. It was an absolute shame that she was confined to her suit, her beauty didn't deserve that. That being said once this war was over she would be out of it. It was just a matter of time now before all Quarians were out of their suits. Wonder how that'll go.
Continuing to stroke her hair and back my thoughts drifted everything I planned on doing after this war was over. When the Reapers were all dead what would be on the agenda for me? There were a few enticing ideas of hunting down more criminals and staying in charge of my mercenary outfit but they didn't make me feel warm. Thinking about staying with Tali and just being happy on Rannoch did though. Maybe start a garden and just relax. Profit from all the vids they'll definitely make of us. Yeah… that makes me feel warm. And with that thought I passed out.
We woke up with our arms wrapped around each other to the sound of someone banging on the door to our room. Untangling myself and going to the door I opened it to see Shepard there. He told me that we would be hitting the Relay in two hours and to start to get ready before walking away. With that information we each took a shower before grabbing our gear.
Getting dressed and checking over all my weapons to make sure they were in top condition. They, of course, were but for this mission instead of packing the regular rounds for my 1911 I put in the special rounds. It would limit me from using the pistol all that much but with the added firepower it was worth it. Still had seven shots left overall and needed to make them count.
Once all my gear was on my person and ready I wanted to check something and made my way to the brig. Going inside my fear was confirmed when the Asari scientist was still there. She gave me a sickly smile and a small wave of her hand. Not the one she still had, she literally grabbed the one that had been cut off by me, decomposing, and waved it at me.
Making eye contact with her through my helmet I shook my head at her before leaving her there. It was a pity that she had somehow survived but then again the Collectors were only going after humans. An Asari wouldn't be on their list of people to take, even when boarding the Normandy.
Either way, after leaving the sociopath to her devices I went down to the cargo bay. The Architect and his men were quietly going over their weapons and armor in complete silence. Occassionaly sending sign language signals to each other talking silently. Wanting to join their conversation but deciding against it I took up a post on one of the crates in the bay and waited.
Waiting there in silence was peaceful if a bit stressing. There was no doubt in my mind that we would make it through this but the only question was if we would do it unscathed. The amount of things that could go wrong here was astronomical. Still, we had to do this and we would make it work. We were the best group anyone could ask for this mission. Three Specters, a holy spec ops team, the best mercenaries and assassins, a genetically perfect Krogan, a superpowered biotic, the best Quarian engineer, the best thief, a genius Salarian doctor and a Geth. If we failed then no one could pull this off.
At the ten minute mark before we were slated to hit the Relay Tali came down to the cargo bay and gave me a kiss for good luck. Smiling back at her she made her way back to the Eezo core of the ship where she would be monitoring it during the flight to the Collector base.
Continuing to sit there the rosary and coins in my pocket starting burning themselves into myself. It wasn't exactly painful but it was a bit uncomfortable. Reaching into my pockets and grabbing them I brought them out. The Rosary, as usual, was emanating determination and for the coins they were all burning up but only one was emanating anything. It was the one that had emanated Power. It was burning so much it was almost glowing in my hand.
The Vatican's soldiers saw the coins and rosary as well but said nothing about it. Instead they brought their own Rosaries and started to make their own silent prayers. Looking over at them as they began I gestured for them to join me. They did so without saying a thing and we held a silent prayer together. It was nice.
As the minutes stretched down my nerves started to threaten me. Holding them back with mediation and deep breaths I held steady as we got closer and closer to the Relay until Joker's voice blared over the ships PA system. The countdown starting at 10 and slowly creeping down until he said zero and we hit the Relay.
After hitting the relay we immediately went into evasive maneuvers. For what reason I didn't know but it was easy to tell from the way the ship was moving about. The gravity of this prevented anything from really flying about but that didn't mean it didn't shake the ship. However, the Vatican soldiers and myself calmly sat and waited for it to be over. There was literally nothing we could do about the maneuvers.
So we sat on our crates with our guns in our hands and waited. We felt the tell tale signs of the ship being hit as it shook around us but never once did it feel like the shields of the ship were close to going out. Again, it would've been obvious to us if they had as the ships systems would've sent out warning noises.
A few seconds after the rumbling of the ship happened there was a different kind of shaking going on. One that was pure and simple recoil from the massive guns that we had installed on the Normandy. Over the next thirty seconds or so the rumbling of the recoil would go off several times while the ship shook from being hit until it finally ended. Whatever Joker had been fighting was now dealt with.
Relaxing a bit on our crates we continued to wait for the ship to land. As we did so though something came barreling through the roof of the cargo bay, the emergency shutters immediately closing behind it. As whatever it was came down towards us all of us instinctually dived for cover.
Popping up out of cover I saw what looked like a giant metal eye. Deciding not to think to hard about it I squeezed the trigger on my Mattock hitting it right in the middle of its 'face' only for its shields to activate and deflect the shot. Its focus now on me allowed the six Vatican soldiers to unload on the thing from all angles pounding it relentlessly. As they did so it let out an inhuman shriek and tried to fire what looked like a biotic bullet at them. Each time it switched targets everyone else would harass it quickly bringing down its shields.
When its shields did finally drop all of us unloaded on the mechanical eye pelting it from all sides with our guns. Several Carnage and Concussive rounds came from the Vatican soldiers as well ripping chunks out of its armor. The mechanical eye was barely able to do anything as we ripped into it. The onslaught lasted all of thirty seconds before it dropped to the ground giving out sounds that had to be moans of pain.
Walking up to it I grabbed a grenade off my bandolier and stuck it inside the machine through one of the many holes in its head. Heading back to cover a single motion with my arm and the soldiers did the same. As soon as everyone was in cover I detonated the grenade and the mechanical eye was nothing more than a smoking heap of metal. With that done a quick message to Shepard was all that was needed telling him that the cargo bay was clear.
Once that was done all of us sat back down on the crates we had been sitting on and continued to wait. It didn't take long for the galaxy to throw our relaxation out the window though as something finally punched through the shields of the Normandy. I couldn't tell if it was major damage but from the way the ship was rocking whatever thought we had of peaceful landing were out the window. Looking at the soldiers we all came to quick and silent agreement as we instantly made our way to and into the shuttle strapping ourselves down in the seats.
It wasn't a moment too soon either as once we strapped ourselves in we felt the Normandy land. Landing being a nice term for crashing but it is what it is and after a scant few moments the landing was over as the Normandy stopped moving. Unstrapping ourselves from the seats of the shuttle we all got out and began to wait for others at the cargo door.
A minute or two later everyone piled out of the elevator. Every single one of the ground team had survived the initially flight to the Collectors base. Something that gave me immense relief. We would need everyone for this.
With everyone here we each silently readied ourselves as we approached the cargo door and it opened. As the doors opened we got the first look at the inside of the Collector base. There were tubes going everywhere around us as we looked around. On the walls of the base in front of us and all around us there were thousands if not millions of pods that housed humans. We couldn't get to any of them at the moment though with them being far too distant for us to touch.
"Dr. Chakwas has a tracker on her*, paranoid as she is thanks to a particular influence. Our goal is to get to her and the crew then blow this place sky fucking high. Watch each others backs and don't try to be a hero; I plan on bringing everyone back from this," was what Shepard said as he walked down the ramp with the rest of us following him. Grunt currently had the bomb strapped to his back.
Following Shepard off the ramp we made our way out and moved towards the giant open doors to our left following the tracker. Stepping through them they immediately closed behind us once everyone was past the threshold. Looking to our left there was a hollow tube that looked to follow the path we needed to go.
"Tali, you're up," she offered no argument and went over to the tube opening the entrance and entering.
As soon as we did so we heard the tell tale sign of Collector wings buzzing towards us. Nothing needed to be said by anyone as we prepared and stepped forward towards the Collector onslaught. They came down in drozes, I don't know how many but it was too many to count. However every time they were in the air they were easy targets and we took care of them in quick order that way.
For the ones that did make it to the ground they were trickier as we pushed forward. There was plenty of cover for them to hide behind and charging them wasn't really an option with the amount of Collectors swarming us. Plus the fact that the farther we pushed in the more would come from behind us. We were literally being pinched the whole time but we kept moving forward as it was our only option.
"Shepard! I'm stuck, you have to hold them off!" Tali shouted through the mic to all of us. As soon as the words were out of her mouth we all understood exactly what we needed to do.
Dropping into cover behind anything that we could find we did everything in our power to do what we could. Shots came from damn near every direction as the Collectors began to swarm us. The only reason they didn't in my mind was because of our biotics. Miranda, Jack, Tela, Kelli, Jacob, Shepard and Myself did literally everything in our power to crowd control the Collectors as they came at us.
By the time Tali was able to move on Jacob were borderline biotically exhausted and Miranda and Kelli weren't fairing much better. The three Spectres weren't doing all that bad but we were at 75% at best. Still, once it was done we shot forward with Grunt and Vrul leading the charge breaking through the line of Collectors that had formed.
It was tactically stupid to do this but it was our only real option at the moment. As long as we didn't get separated we would be fine. With that in mind each and every one of us stayed as close together as we possibly could as we charged forward through the Collectors. We all made it together and continued to push forward following Tali in the tube.
As we continued to push forward more and more Collectors began to swarm us and it was at this point that I truly did love and hate the fact that I didn't need to reload. Loved it because as everyone else was reloading I didn't have to but I hated it for the exact same reason. Mostly because whenever anyone needed cover as they reloaded I was the one that had to do it.
Which, no matter how good my shields were, led to them breaking. This, in turn led to me being shot several time and aboslutely none of those times was pleasant. The first one was just a graze on my left leg as we reached the second point that Tali got stuck. Next time, in the same place, it went straight through where Dashi had stabbed me with her sword reopening the wound. After that, when Tali was able to move again, as we pushed forward another shot went straight through my left calf which made each step painful.
Pushing the pain down as always I focused on the mission in front of me and hoped not to get shot again. Which ended up being a false hope, obviously, as I pushed forward with the rest of the group towards the giant doors which Tali was now trying to open. Planting myself by the doors as soon as they opened I backed myself through the entrance only for my shields to break again and for a shot to slam into my helmet knocking me down.
It didn't do anything besides give me a headache and possible concussion. Though it did leave me dazed on the ground as the others rushed into the entrance. Once everyone was in Tali began to work fervently to close the door behind everyone. Something that seemed to be a loosing battle as the Collectors began to swarm the entrance.
Which is where we got the first appearance of the husks in this place. They charged past the collectors and straight towards the entrance. Getting up as they charged through the opening I opened fire on them as they went through along with everyone else. The bullets cutting them down mergin with everyone else's. Though for the ones that did push in far I drained them with every opportunity, the biotic power in me increasing each time from the drains.
Eventually as we held off the husks and Collectors swarming us Tali was in the process of finally closing the door. However, with only a foot left it jammed and she, along with a few others started to try and push the damn thing. Fucking panic could only make that possible and before I could shout anything at them I saw a rocket coming at them, and at Tali.
Reacting instantly I was there next to her raising my hand creating the Wall and catching the rocket in it. Sending it straight back only after it left did the door finally close. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as we were able to escape without anyone dying. Unscathed was a different matter though as literally everyone was hurt in some way, except for Tali.
Taking a breather in the room it divulged into two paths in front of us. Looking around at everyone we were all weary and already tired. Splitting up wasn't something we wanted to do but from what we could tell both paths led to an objective. One to the place were we would plant the bomb and the other to where the crew was. Looking to Shepard we waited for his decision.
"Grunt, Jack, Vatican, Garrus, Tela and Aedon. You're with me, we're going to plant the bomb. The rest of you are going after the crew. Once you have them get back to the ship and make sure it's ready to bug out. Everyone got that," everyone nodded their heads at his orders and made to get ready to go.
As we waited the next couple of minutes to recuperate ourselves we went to our respective doors. Though as the time of our rest waned down Tali started to walk over to our side. Seeing her walk towards us I met her in the middle taking off my helmet in the process. She took of her mask and brought me into a heated kiss.
"Don't you dare fucking die on me," she snarled as she pulled back from the kiss. I ran a hand on her cheek before giving her a smile.
"Never," she gave me a quick peck on my lips before putting her mask back on and walking away. An action I imitated as I walked back to my group.
Barely a minute later we hit the switches on our doors and started pushing through. Almost immediately we were swarmed by the bugs that the Collectors used to immobilze people. Jack, without prompting, activated her biotics and created a bubble for us to be safe. Grunting to herself we began to steadily push forward through the swarm.
As we began pushing through regular husks, the exploding kind and the new kind that sent shockwaves at us started to come at us. Planting myself in front of Jack I made sure that none of the shockwaves reached her as that would definitely be the end of us if she lost concentration. So when I wasn't shooting I was absorbing the shockwaves that were coming at us and if any husks made it through everyone's shooting I drained them.
It was slow going for the most part as we pushed forward through the storm. Each second we continued to push I could see the strain on Jack mount as she held the shield for us. Sweating bullets as she held the shield for us. We did our absolute best to keep everything off of her as we pushed forward.
Eventually, after a lot of close calls and a lot of spent ammunition we finally made to a safe heaven covered by a corridor. It opened into another area though and we could see another swarm already approaching us. Sighing after barely a 30 second rest Jack nodded at the rest of us and we continued our march into hell.
As we went I continued to stay by Jack's side absorbing every shockwave that came our wave and either killing or draining any husk that made it past the others. It was an absolutely grueling task as we went through another pass that finally came to a head as Jack fell to a knee breathing deeply as she held the shield in around us.
"Keep pushing Jack. You got this," I whispered to her as she fell to a knee. She silently looked up to me and nodded before standing back up and the bubble expanded as we continued to push forward.
We made it another 100 plus feet down the pathway completely exposed before Jack finally gave out. She put her all into it but with the distance that we were pushing, almost an entire mile at this point she just couldn't do it anymore. I honestly don't think anyone in the galaxy would have gotten anywhere near where she got to but she eventually fell down in exhaustion.
When she did I charged forward shouting out a war cry trying to get the attention of everything around me and it worked. The Collectors, swarm and husks in front us all focused on me instead of the others. Charging forward and letting out my war cry I put away my Mattock and brought out my knife and ax slashing at everything close to me.
Each swing of the ax and stab of the knife killed a husk or Collector with the Swarm just being collateral damage at that points. That is until they overwhelmed me and lifted me off the ground. They kept trying to penetrate my shields but could do next to nothing with their minimal strength but with how many of them there were it was a loosing battle. They were slowly but surely breaking their way through my shields and in a last ditch effort to avoid being immobilized I brought all of my biotics into me and let it explode out.
The entirety of the swarm around me was reduced to ashes but as a side effect I was sent falling straight down with nothing to stop me. As I fell uncontrolled I slammed into several pillars and jutting edges sending me spinning until it finally ended. Ending with me slamming through the roof of something and landing onto a path and passing out.
Waking up after I don't know how long I pushed myself up only to see dozens upon dozens of husks and Collectors approaching me. Snarling I put away my ax and knife and reached for my Mattock only to realize that it was gone. Sighing I brought my ax and knife back out and bellowed a challange to the husks and Collectors in front of me. A bellow that they answered as they charged me.
Charging forward with my weapons in hand I hacked and slashed everything that got close to me. Using my newly acquired Incinerate Program as much as I could in the confined area of the path. It was pandemonium of fire, slashing, inhumane screaming, shouting from myself, slams of my ax and biotic abilities.
Even when the Collectors joined the fight in front of me none truly stood a chance against me either being drained or killed. The only ones that really made a difference were the onces that went through a 'Assuming Control' from whoever the fuck was controlling them. Most of those I focused on killing regularly instead of draining. That wasn't the case with all of them though.
Of the few Controlled Collectors that made it through and I drained each time was an experience. The visions I got from each of them along with the ending time where I would see Harbinger were concerning. Harbinger each time would get closer and closer to me almost snaking his tentacle like paws around me but each time I resisted. I WILL never be a SLAVE. I am myself, I am my own person and NO ONE will control me. No matter what.
Still, no matter how much I believed that it all came to a head eventually. With the amount of husks and Collectors they were throwing at me and the controlled Collectors it wore me down until eventually a controlled Collector was able to grab my face as I was finally coming down on strength.
The visions they showed me were truly horrifying. From scorched worlds to people who should've been friends fighting each other. It showed the inevitability of the Reapers but there was a little voice in my head that refused to accept this path. Break free! I couldn't give in. Even with everything that they were shoving into my brain and Harbinger literally showing up and demanding that I submit, I wouldn't.
"There is no path that you succeed. You are destined to fall to us, it is the only path that could truly preserve life and it is through your species death that this can be accomplished," I heard Harbinger speak to me and for a second I believed him. That second was quickly abolished by my sheer fucking anger and spite. I don't give a rats ass what anyone thinks, to be a slave to anyone is to be a slave. Something that I will never accept.
"Go fuck yourself MOTHERFUCKER!" I screamed as I broke out of the trance ripping the Collectors hands off of me head and stabbing them through the neck with my knife before kicking them away from me.*
This seemed to aggravated the rest of the hord as more and more husks poured out of every direction and charged me. I slashed, kicked, punched, stabbed and used every biotic and tech ability that was at my disposal but at the end it was all for naught. Eventually, through sheer fucking numbers, they overwhelmed me.
The first to get lucky was one of those new husks that shot me into the ceiling of the place with its shockwave as I was taking care of a couple other husks. Landing flat on the ground I was able to push myself up onto my knee before every other husk in the immediate area piled onto me. Still, there was no quit in me as my ax and knife moved almost on their own killing everything that got close to me.
Again though it didn't matter as I was on the ground and completely in the open. Something that was capitalized on as they piled onto me and stabbed me with their husk claws through almost every single hole that my armor had. That is until one was able to get their claws into the hole that Dashi and the previous shot earlier had made.
From there they began to pull ripping the muscle and tissue from my arm and in an instant of anger I brought every ounce of biotic energy I had back into myself. Something that resulted in the strongest explosion of biotic energy I've ever had so far.
Break Free by Of Mice and Men
Everything within 100 feet of me was eviscerated to ashes and beyond that everything up to 300 feet was thrown like ragdolls away from me. Looking towards my right arm I realized that everything beyond the top most portion of my bicep was gone. Taken by the husks when I shot them away from me.
Sighing in what could only be shock I reached into my med back and grabbed a tourniquet. Applying said tourniquet to make sure I didn't lose any more blood I got up onto a knee and spotted my knife lodged in the fist of my right arm a few feet away. Grabbing the knife and putting it back into its sheathe without paying attention to anything else. As soon as this was done I noticed what must have been several hundred husks and dozens of Collectors slowly making their way out of tunnels and openings in front of me.
Knowing this wasn't a good spot for me I resorted to the failsafe. Reaching inside the first aid bag I grabbed an inhaler with the hybrid drug and inhaled it. The world turning a tinted red instantly. Then I grabbed another inhaler and the world turned even more red until I grabbed the final inhaler that was in my possession and inhaled it as well.
I could literally feel the blood overflowing out of my eyes, nose and mouth but it wasn't on my mind anymore. My mind was solely focused on what was in front of me with all the husks and Collectors ready to fucking kill me. Knowing that I would need a little more power just in case I reached into my right pocket with my right hand and grabbed the coin that was burning with power. It had almost burned a hole through my pocket.
As soon as it was in my hand I slammed the coin into my chest and felt absolute power over take me. The world around me changing into only a battlefield meant for the biggest of fights against anything. Every motion in front of me was instantly analyzed by my eyes despite the power of the drugs that I had just taken.
It was at this moment that I realized I had reached into my right pocket with my right hand. Looking to my right arm instead of a stump there was something else. My right arm was now a glowing purple/blue with golden highlights as it stayed there in all its glory. Fuck it, switching my ax over to my now completely biotic right hand I reached into my left pocket with my left hand.
Doing that with my left hand I now noticed that my biotic power was rolling off me in droves. Literally tearing into the ground within a 10 meter radius of me in all directions. It was weird but at this point with all drugs pumped into me and the coin it wouldn't be that unlikely to just be a hallucination.
Pushing that out of my mind and grabbing the rosary with my left hand I pulled it out and quietly wrapped it around my augmetic hand before activating my Torch construct. The Collectors and husks still slow on the approach but they seemed to think that I was on my last legs. NOT FUCKING LIKELY! They wanted to make this an agonizing kill but there was no way that would happen with me still on my feet. Even with more and more husks and Collectors coming from all sides. You can all go fuck yourselves!
"Dear Lord, I am not afraid of this battle. I am not afraid stepping forward for I know that you are here with me. You will never leave the side of your faithful children and I know that as much as this fight is mine it is also yours. Watch over me and if you choose for this to be my last act know that I did it not only for you but also for the love of my life and the rest of the galaxy as well. Amen."
Then, with my eyesight doused in red and my thinking overcome by rage, I charged forward against the abyss of husks and Collectors in front of me. And they charged right back.
I ain't gonna lie. Writing that last bit felt like I was writing a Dark Souls character before they damn near kill themselves for a power up only to one shot the boss.
*1: yes, it 100% was Aedon's influence. Also, I never really liked how you kinda just find your crew in the game so I made it kinda believable.
*2: He is screaming this at the top of his lungs.
Quick quote: GIVE ME ALL THE SMOKE - Aedon Wynne.
Btw, if y'all thought that shit went hard wait until next week. I told y'all the end of ME2 would go HARD.