Survival of the fittest chapter 17
Aki looked around the training hall and frowned, half her recruits were missing.
She nodded to a blonde who stood on the mat in front of her "where is everyone?"
"tests"
"ahh" she held her hand up, "looks like I'll cancel this morning"
They grumbled in disappointment "it's still on later though yeah?" a guy toward the back asked
"absolutely"
Aki gathered her bag and stepped out of the training hall nodding to the recruits as they went their separate way's.
she stopped in her tracks…
The floor begun to shake beneath her feet.
She heard the screams, saw the giant form emerging from the skies and was rooted to the spot, she watched it descend its deafening roar making her ears throb…
"what the fuc-"a huge beam of light emerged from the skies colliding with the building behind her, decimating it, fire spewed from the hole more and more beams attacking, more reapers landing.
She looked around the panic bubbling.
She felt her legs wobble slightly, was this happening?
Her eyes widened as the hall behind her exploded, her mind racing- MOVE MOVE MOVE.
She snapped out of it, rolling as huge chunks of debris shot outward, she ran forward noting the woman and child cowering a few feet away she hurled the massive stone chunks away with her biotics, "run!" she roared. I need to find Jane!
Aki began to run now willing her queasy stomach to subside.
Aki rounded the corner husks and reaper forces were already running rampant she was unarmed, her armour and weapons back in her room.
She looked to the building she was housed in and shook her head, it was burning like everything else, no choice she had to keep moving.
Aki clicked on her comm as she ran, static bursting "fuck-" she threw a singularity at the reapers closing in on a group of civilians finishing them off with a shockwave, the biotic explosion throwing them against the walls, "you need to get to the shuttles!" she yelled at them over the reapers roars, they immediately headed off.
She kept running heading for the spaceport, dodging and ducking over the shrapnel from every reaper blow, the enemy forces were coming in heavier now, swarming the area.
Aki turned hurling a biotic fist into a husk lurking at her side, she grunted rolling as more debris fell, a huge chunk of glass ripping through the air too fast.
She shattered it with a biotic shockwave quickly covering her eyes, she felt the splinters as they ripped across her arms and face slicing flesh, the blood was hot as it trickled down her forehead, she blinked rapidly trying to clear the blood from her eye.
She kept going stopping at a pair being surrounded by reapers.
Aki ran into help, she tossed the husks out the way, the pair were fighting relentlessly, one hurling as many as he could out the way with waves of biotics the other ripping through flesh with his machine gun… "you okay?"
"shit" the smaller of the two breathed
"thought we were goners there"
"try and find cover" she nodded to them "this is about to get worse"
"sure thing" they looked to each other and headed off.
Aki followed the destruction torn between her sense of duty to wounded civilians and service men and her need to find Jane.
She inhaled deeply and looked to the path leading to the service shuttles; the civilian port behind…
Aki frowned, her internal struggle settled and turned on her heel heading back through the building, she fought her way through the husks which had begun crawling out of the debris dragging wounded soldiers, she came upon a gathering of cannibals- unarmed and outnumbered.
She glanced at the rubble- saw a break and made a dash for it skirting around enemies, she heard shouts, approached the voices and immediately began to attack, she was tired… her head thumped, with each blow of her biotics she felt her head react violently, she hadn't needed to depend on them this much in a while.
She noted the group of 6 and came in to help defend.
She threw up a shield and motioned to the service men noting one of her own recruits injured the blood dripping from a wound on her shoulder, "I'm here to help" she assured them
"LT colonel" she nodded as she tossed Aki her spare gun.
Aki dropped her shield and begun firing, with the help of the others they managed to subdue the attack.
She looked to the civilians and inhaled deeply "we need to get you guys out of here"
"My mommy" she looked to the girl hiding behind her recruit, her face splattered with blood, "I don't want to leave without her"
"she's my kid sister" the recruit explained placing a hand atop of the girls dark hair
"is there a chance-"
"none" the recruit replied curtly "debris"
"okay- lets move"
Aki turned to the kid, noting how her sister was injured, she leant down and motioned for the girl to get on. The child hooked her arms around aki's shoulder, legs around her waist.
"let's get out of here"
Jane and Anderson made their way along the catwalks…
"Major, you read me? I'm patching in Shepard," Anderson said on his comm.
"We're almost to the Normandy. I've got Lieutenant Vega with me but we're taking heavy fire," Kaidan replied.
"Hold on, we're almost there," said Anderson.
"any contact with aki?"
"none"
Shit her mind screamed.
They picked up the pace as they cleared the catwalks and made it down into the next building, time was of the essence.
"Husks! Take them out!" shouted Anderson.
They shot down the husks as they climbed the building… Jane was more disturbed by that than she should have been… this was a nightmare.
Jane noticed something else moving in the corner of her eye, a little boy, the same one she saw playing earlier he was running into the building below, all by himself. Where are his parents? Jane frowned it seemed a lot wouldn't be lucky after today's attack
They made their way down to the adjacent building taking out more husks. A nearby Reaper sent out it's deadly hum as it sent its beam towards the building the building to imploded, jane felt her stomach-ache, that poor boy. They made their way into the ruined building, Jane heard a noise, she turned around and noticed the little boy was here, hunched down within an air vent.
Jane frowned softly approaching the vent and kneeling to his level, "Hey, it's okay," Jane smiled to the boy, how on earth did you survive?
The boy scooted further away clearly terrified, "Everyone's dying." He whispered.
"Come one, you've got to get out of here. Take my hand." Jane prompted, she couldn't leave him here alone
"You can't help me." He whispered again
"Shepard!" Anderson shouted. "In here!"
Jane looked at Anderson and nodded once before she turned back to the boy, he was gone.
She sighed heavily as she stood back up and ran after Anderson, poor boy. They walked around the fires, moving debris as they cleared a path for themselves.
"This is a goddamned mess," Anderson grunted as he shoved a metal beam out of the way, "Every minute these machines are here, thousands of innocent people die. I won't be responsible."
"I understand how you feel but you're not responsible for the ones that die. We fight for the ones left standing when this is all over." Jane stated determined
"Yeah, maybe you're right. They hit so fast…I thought we'd have more time."
"We knew they were coming." Jane stated anger brimming
"And they still just cut through our defences. We need to go to the Citadel, talk to the Council. "
"The Citadel? The fight's here." Jane snapped.
"It'll be everywhere soon enough. You said it yourself, the Reapers will destroy everything if we don't stop them. The Council has to help us."
"You sure about that?" jane scoffed
"No, but you were a Council Spectre, that has to count for something."
They were walking along a thin ledge when the building suddenly shook, causing Shepard to lose her balance she gasped, felt her feet slip.
"Gotcha!" Anderson shouted as he grabbed her and pulled her back to gain her footing again.
"Thanks, I owe you one," she sighed as they continued her heart thudding loudly.
"More than one," he replied, that's true.
They made their way through the building and were back outside on the catwalks.
Anderson got on his comm, "Major Alenko, we're in sight of the spaceport. ETA three minutes."
Kaidan responded his comm clicking, "We've made it to the Normandy. Taking heavy fire…Oh, God! They're gonna take down that dreadnought! Evasive manoeuvres!"
"Major? Kaidan? Damn it! They're in trouble," Anderson said.
There was an explosion in the near distance…the shockwave hit the catwalks…causing them to tumble down several levels below.
"Normandy, we're going to reroute. Do you copy?" asked Anderson. "Normandy, come in!"
The communication received back was static. They continued their new route and came across a couple of Alliance soldiers who were bunkered down. One of them had his leg pinned down by debris.
"You two alright?" Jane asked.
"Get down! They'll see you!" one replied.
Jane looked up and scanned across the way, Cannibals; synthetic-organic creatures derived from Batarians and mutated by the Reapers. They had large guns held in place by human corpses that served as one of their arms. Horrific!
She quickly took cover…firing rounds as she dipped up and down from cover.
"Nice shot!" Anderson yelled. "Finish them off!"
She took out the last of them and re-joined Anderson and the soldiers.
"What happened here?" Anderson asked them.
"Our gunship was shot down…we barely made it."
"You have a radio? We're trying to contact our ship."
"No. There's one in the gunship, but it's gonna be crawling with those things."
"Stay here, son. We'll get you out of here," Anderson said the determination lacing his features.
Jane and Anderson lifted the debris as the other soldier dragged his comrade free of obstruction.
"Come on, let's get to that gunship," Anderson nodded to Jane.
"I'm with you," Jane ground her teeth following after him, finally she was back at it, back doing the stuff that matters… back saving lives.
They fought their way to the ship, taking out everything in the way, "Normandy, this is Anderson. Do you read me?"
"Admiral, what's your location?" Kaidan replied eventually
"By a down gunship in the harbour. I'm activating its distress beacon. Send support. We've got wounded down here… Major? Damn it! I lost the signal."
"Let's hope that beacon does its job," jane frowned, "I hope aki's okay" she whispered
"And fast…we've got company!" Anderson said as he pointed up to the pods that started to crash down near them each containing a huge group of Cannibals.
Jane grabbed a nearby assault rifle and ran for cover, kill them all! She snarled unloaded a round of ammo at the approaching Cannibals.
"Hope they get here soon!" yelled Anderson over the gunfire
"You and me both!" shouted Jane emptying her clip, "fuck I'm out" she swapped to a handgun and continued
"Running out of ammo!" Anderson yelled
"Same here!"
The final bullet in Janes clip exited the back of a husks head…. That was it… panic enveloped her.
"Calvary has arrived," Joker said on the comm Jane looked up and saw the Normandy fly overhead, her saving grace, firing at the Cannibals below, taking them all out.
"About time!" Anderson grinned
"Let's go!" Jane yelled as she ran towards the Normandy, which had begun circling around trying to get as close as it could, Joker using his skills
Jane and Anderson ran down the docks, the back ramp of the Normandy opening revealing Kaidan and James. Jane ran faster and jumped with all her might, she grunted audibly, barely landing on the edge of the ramp – Kaidan grabbed her by the waist and pulled her into him, her world exploded… Kaidan.
"I gotcha," he murmured, "Welcome aboard, Jane."
"Thanks," she replied as she pushed unwillingly away from him and turned around looking for Anderson.
He was at the edge of the docks not moving…
"Shepard!" he shouted.
"Come on!" Jane yelled out to him.
"I'm not going. You saw those men back there. There's a million more like them, and they need a leader."
"We're in this fight together. If you are staying, then so am I!" Jane yelled.
"It's a fight we can't win. Not without help. We need every species and all their ships to even have a chance at defeating the Reapers, you said so yourself - we need to stand together. Talk to the Council, convince them to help us."
"What if they won't listen?" she pressed, lost, why was he doing this? She needed his help.
"Then make them listen. Now go! That's an order!"
"I don't take orders from you anymore, remember?" Jane frowned
Anderson reached into his pocket, he pulled out a set of dog tags and threw them at her, jane caught them her eyes filling.
"Consider yourself reinstated…Commander," he said sadly, "You know what you have to do," Anderson reminded her.
"I'll be back for you and I'll bring every fleet I can. Good luck," Jane ground her teeth "I promise"
"You too, Shepard."
Jane walked up the ramp panic setting in… there was no news of Aki, she was still down there but this… what she had to do rested so many lives on her shoulders, she felt her chest tighten as the Normandy started to fly off, Anderson saluted Shepard and then ran back down the docks to help the rescue shuttles that were starting to arrive on the docks.
Jane looked off in the distance focusing on three shuttles deep in her heart she hoped to spot aki climbing on board… she hoped that with every fibre of her being that she was okay. Civilians were running towards them tailed by Alliance soldiers who were helping the wounded climb aboard, she frowned noticing the same little boy from before running towards one of the shuttles still gripping his toy.
In the near distance a Reaper approached screaming….
Jane felt the panic settle into her chest, the shuttles needed to get out of there fast! She looked back at the boy, he ran into the shuttle as fast as his legs would allow the door shut and it began to take off.
Two shuttles had made it into the air, the reaper quickly decimating them into a fiery mess.
Jane closed her eyes and hung her head; this whole thing is shit! she sighed with tear filled eyes before forcing herself to move, she walked to the ramp panel and closed It defeated.
Joker flew the Normandy up and out of the city as many more Reapers descended upon it.
When they made it out of Earth's atmosphere, they could see smoke and fire across the planet.