Alright, second chapter here we go!

Enjoy!

And yes, I don't have anything else to say. Sue me.

Oh, and Merry Christmas.

Unknown Location - Around local evening, judging by the position of the sun

"Those guys just don't know when to give up, do they?" I commented as BT punched another of the beetle monstrosities into a pulp while I used my grapple to grab another and stab its vulnerable underbelly with my Data Knife.

"Agreed. Their species must be part of the apex predators of this planet's ecosystem and not used to face a superior opponent." BT replied.

"That, or they just think they can win because they outnumber us." I added.

In the thirty minutes since we had set off, that was the fourth time we had encountered a group of those giant insects. From what we had seen, they seemed to live underground or in hives made of stone. BT's analysis had revealed that they were able to secrete an acid strong enough to slowly melt stone from their jaws, which honestly just made them more horrifying in my eyes. Fortunately, they weren't able to spit said acid.

Thank God for small mercies.

Another punch from the Titan and the last of the insects was reduced to paste on the ground. Cleaning my knife, I quickly climbed back on his shoulder.

"Ethan, our destination should come in view just after we cross this hill." BT informed me as he started moving again.

It didn't take long for BT and I to find what we were looking for once atop of said hill. In the distance, probably less than half an hour of walking from our position, was a city of moderate size that didn't appear to have anything out of place. Looking around, I deduced that whatever this place was, it probably was the only one on the planet because I didn't see any roads, towns or other cities as far as my eyes could see, aside from a few houses not too far away.

"You get anything, BT?" I asked my partner.

"Analyzing. Human presence confirmed. I'm detecting minor military installations but none of them match any organization in my database. Readings also indicate traces of an unknown element present in a few select places inside the city." The Titan answered.

I frowned slightly. 'Unknown element'? That seemed awfully familiar... "Anything else?"

"I'm not detecting any Titan. Also, those people seem to be using a mean of communication that isn't recorded in my database." he added

"I've a feeling we truly aren't in Kansas anymore..." I dryly said.

"'Kansas'? I am not familiar with the term."

"Just an old quote from something I've read, BT." I replied. "Come on." I urged. "We don't have all day. I'm tired, hungry and in need of a shower. Perhaps all three can be remedied tonight, with a bit of luck."

Suddenly, BT stopped and turned his optic monitor upwards. "I am detecting multiple signals of the unknown element coming from orbit. Considering their speed and trajectories, the signals appear to belong to some kind of ships."

I raised my head to look at the sky. Indeed, there were several shining dots that were descending into the atmosphere toward the city.

"Wha-"

I was cut off as an alarm started to blare from the city. I resisted the urge to hit myself for jinxing us once more as I put my helmet back on.

"Out of the frying pan and into the fire..." I muttered. "BT, can you hack their communications? See if you can get anything useful?"

"Affirmative." There was a pause before the Titan continued. "The city officials are warning all citizens to flee from their homes and get to safety. The city is about to be raided by something called 'batarians'."

I froze at that word. 'Batarians'. Batarians as in the alien species with four eyes, cocky as hell, ugly as fuck and, most important of all, that claims slavery as part of their 'cultural heritage'. The 'unknown element' BT had spoken off was probably the Element Zero and the unfamiliar method of communication Omni-tools.

We were in the freaking Mass Effect universe.

Internally, I swore. What year was it? Which planet were we on? And why, for all that is holly, did Fate and Luck decide to send us here?!

I shook my head, snapping into focus as my soldier's mind took over. The city was about to be assaulted, and I'd be damned I did nothing to prevent it!

"BT, get us there, quickly! We must protect those people!"

"Copy that, Pilot." BT replied before his hatch opened and his hand picked me up before putting me in the cockpit. "Protocol Two: Uphold the Mission. Our mission is to prevent the civilians from being harmed and neutralize any hostile forces."

"You got that right, big guy!" I said as I quickly made a quick systems check of the HUD and Neural Link. Everything seemed to work, fortunately. With that, I made the Titan bring up the 40mm Tracking Cannon in his hands and started to run.

Things were about to get hectic.

I just hoped that there wasn't any Alliance vessel anywhere near this planet. Because if there was... well, BT and I were pretty much done for.

Fezis Gof'ragan, leader of the batarian Space Pirates, grinned at the prospects of today's prizes. This colony was very isolated from any human military installation, being in the Terminus Systems, and although it had only one city to its name, it only meant that all the loot would be in one place. He and his men had monitored that colony for a long time, waiting until it was ripe for the taking and out from the human military's watchful eye.

And now, after a six months long wait, he had received the all clear from the Hegemony to pillage it.

He could already hear them, the cries of his to-be slaves as he implanted the control chip in them, as he would force the women to pleasure him in front of their husbands and children, as he'd make them fight each other to the death for his own entertainment. Just thinking about it made him tremble with excitement.

But first came a just as exciting part: the hunt.

He turned to his men, pleased to see them just as excited as he was. "Alright, boys! Remember, we want them alive! Cripple and maim if needed, but try to avoid damaging the goods too much, eh?"

They all cheered, clearly eager. Fezis was about to give a speech about their ancestors when the ship's pilot interrupted him.

"Fezis, sir! You have to see this!" the man sounded quite nervous.

Fezis grumbled, having lost his speech moment, before joining the pilot. "What is it?" he barked.

"I got something on the radar, sir! It's moving! A-and it's big!"

"Spit it out! What is it?!" He raised his voice.

"S-scans say it's a mech! B-but there's no way it can be that big!"

Fezis blinked. A mech? Maybe some kind of prototype the humans were developing on this colony in secret? If that was the case, then he had really hit the jackpot. The Hegemony would be pleased if he brought it back. Perhaps he would even be named fleet captain!

"Get me a visual." he ordered and the pilot fiddled with his console for a moment before the image appeared on screen. Fezis' four eyes widened. "What in the Gods' names?"

The mech was huge, indeed. Its height easily surpassing the houses around it. It was dark grey in color, with some of its parts being orange, and it held in its hands the biggest rifle Fezis had ever seen. There was also two pods mounted above its shoulders, but what-

"We got locked on! We got locked on!" The pilot shouted in panic a second before a myriad of missiles shot from the mech's pods. "Brace for evasive maneuvers!"

Fezis felt the ship veer to the side and quickly grabbed hold of the passenger seat as the pilot tried to escape the deadly projectiles.

"Shit! I can't lose them! Brace for impact!" he warned a moment before explosions started to shake the ship.

That was the moment Fezis started to fear for his life. "Open the doors! We'll jump!" he shouted to the pilot.

"We're varren meat if I stop even for a second!" More impacts rocked the ship. "Fuck! Shields won't hold at this rate!"

"Do somethi-"

Fezis didn't even get to finish his sentence before another series of impacts made the ship tumble. The last thing he saw was two missiles heading for the cockpit before the explosion engulfed him and his delusions of grandeur.

"Salvo Core Offline."

"One down, nine left to go." I breathed as I watched the batarian ship blow up. "BT, I'm leaving the crafts on the west side of the city to you. Make sure none of them leave this planet." I said as I opened the hatch and jumped down.

"Copy that, Ethan. Good luck on your end." The Titan replied.

I turned and smiled behind my helmet as I gave him a thumbs up. After a second, BT responded with the same gesture and I went on my way, quickly jumping on one of the nearby buildings' wall and started heading off toward where the nearest batarian ship marked on my HUD. The nine ships left had landed in a circle pattern to surround the city, which made things both easier and harder for us.

Thanks to the jump kit and grapple, I could cover a distance that would have taken me at least ten minutes to cross in less than three. My hints for finding my targets were relatively easy: follow the screams, laughs and gunshots.

Before the batarians could even become aware of my presence, I was upon them. My Data Knife slid inside the neck and into the brain of the alien forming the rear guard and he collapsed to the ground without a sound. Grabbing the assault rifle before it fell too, I fired three point-blank shots into the head of the nearest one before letting go of the weapon and carving a bloody river on the throat of the one beside him with my knife as he and the seven other batarians turned around.

The one seemingly in charge of the group barked something I didn't understand and I grabbed the body that was about to fall to use it as a meat shield just as the batarians fired. The kinetic shields activated and I grabbed the object on the batarian's belt that I identified as a grenade before priming it and throwing it at the others. It exploded with the intensity of a flashbang, stunning them.

In the couple of seconds it took for them to try and fire blindly at me, I moved. Grabbing the shotgun from the other batarian's limp hands and throwing the body onto one of its alive fellows, I fired the grapple at the top of a wall on my right and hung there, waiting for the idiots to overheat their weapons. The fact that they were shooting their friends in the process just made things easier for me and two fell under friendly fire. It didn't take long before the guns started smoking and no fruther shots came out despite fingers pressing the triggers rappidly.

I jumped down, my feet slamming into the group's leader's head with a loud cracking sound that told me his neck was broken. I pointed the shotgun at the nearest one beside me and fire twice, his head exploding in a shower of gore as a result. Sighting another, I fired another three shots and he dropped to the ground, dead. Feeling the gun becoming burning hot in my hands, I let it fall to the ground, drawing out my Data Knife once more. The last two died in less than ten seconds, their blood staining my blade.

I looked around for any other hostile, and was surprised to find a woman hugging two children, a girl and a boy, to herself and looking at me in awe from the ground a dozen of steps from the batarian leader's corpse. I could only guess that they had been hidden from my view when I'd spotted the aliens.

"Are you alright, ma'am?" I asked gently as I approached them, sheathing my knife.

The woman startled, before nodding. "Y-yes, we are. Thank you, sir. Are you with the Alliance?"

"...Not exactly." I answered. "I'm sorry, but this is no time for discussion. Can you get yourself and your children to safety?" She nodded again. "Then, please do so. I must deal with the other batarian forces in this city. BT," I contacted my friend as I turned away. "how are things going on your side?"

"I have destroyed another ship and neutralized its troops." The Titan replied. "Currently engaging hostiles."

Indeed, I could hear batarians shouting and guns firing in the background.

"Got it." I acknowledged as I looted two of the batarian corpses for their shield emitters and weapons before tossing one of each to the woman. "Here, in case you need to defend yourself." She seemed afraid at the sight of the weapon for a moment before her eyes narrowed in determination and she picked it up.

I fixed the other shield emitter on my suit. Although the body armor could sustain a decent amount of gunfire, I didn't know how it would fare against Mass Accelerator rounds and it was better to be safe than sorry. Securing the assault rifle on my back, I also picked up the shotgun I had previously discarded before looking at the woman once more. "Good luck." And with that, I fired my grapple and was away.

I never heard the boy let out a muttered "awesome" before I disappeared between the buildings.

I quickly found the ship the squad I had taken down had used for transport just outside the city. Activating my cloak, I sneaked inside and quickly checked for any prisoners. Finding none, I stealthily made my way to the cockpit, where I found the pilot seemingly trying to call someone with his omni-tool, probably his friends that I had killed. Swiftly, I grabbed his neck and chin with my hands and snapped his head at an unnatural angle. As the body went limp in the seat, I drew my Data Knife and jammed it into one of the console's ports. I would have BT analyze the collected data once the city was safe.

I left the ship intact, knowing that it might come in handy later, and went onward to find my next targets. Along the way, I glimpsed a few human bodies lying in pools of their own blood, with small arms and the rare assault rifle beside them, alongside a couple of dead batarians. Probably the local militia who'd tried to fight back against the raiders.

The next group of batarians was in the process of fighting a few armed civilians when I spotted them. Taking the high ground on the top of the building behind them, I took out the assault rifle and fired a burst of mass accelerator rounds at the closest batarian's head. The shields fell with the first five shots and three others ended his life.

It seemed that, with the death of their fellow, one of the aliens had enough and barked something to his friends before cocking back his arm to throw a grenade. Not caring about subtlety, I unleashed a hail of rounds on him, breaking his shields in an instant and making him drop his grenade with a shout of pain as he fell to the ground. The other batarians tried to scramble away from the explosive device but weren't quick enough and the detonation sent them flying.

I dropped from my position, switching the rifle for the shotgun, and quickly dropped those who were still alive with timed shots in order to prevent the weapon from overheating.

"What happened?!" I heard one of the civilians exclaim.

"I don't know! Seems like one of them blew himself up!" Was the reply from another.

"Come out!" I said clearly. "It's safe, for now."

As the smoke cleared, three men took cautious peeks from their cover, only for their jaws to drop as they saw me standing among batarian corpses. That, coupled with my Pilot Suit, must've made for a pretty impressive and/or intimidating picture.

"Shit, who is this guy?"

"Whatever, he's human. That's enough for me." One of them said before stepping from the wall he was hiding behind. He looked to be in his forties, his hair was starting to grey out and there were a few wrinkles on his face. "Thanks for the help, whoever you are. We owe you our lives."

I nodded. "You can repay me by making sure to get yourselves to safety. My partner and I are going to take care of those raiders."

The man's eyes widened. "Son, there must be still be dozens of those four-eyed bastards! You can't honestly tell me that you think you can do this by yourself!"

"I've faced worse." I replied honestly. "And as I said," as if on cue, there was an explosion on the other side of the city and we turned our heads in that direction. "I'm not alone." I looked at him. "If you really want to help, loot those guys' shield emitters and weapons and try to make sure there aren't any stragglers left."

He nodded, somewhat hesitantly. "Alright, we'll do that. Watch yourself out there and good luck."

I held in a snort. If only he knew. "I try to make my own luck." I responded as I turned and prepared to fire my grapple, but paused. "One of the batarian ships is ten minutes north from this place, just at the edge of the city. I leave it to you." And with that, I fired my grapple and flied away.

From what I could see on my HUD, BT had already taken out three fourths of the ships on his end. That meant they were still three of them in total. There was no doubt in my mind that, as things were, the rest of the batarians were either deeper into the city or were trying to double back to their ships after realizing they had lost contact with two thirds of their numbers. Either way, they probably had already gotten at least few prisoners and there was no way I was letting the slavers get away with them.

"BT, there is a good possibility that the last three ships have human prisoners inside them." I told my friend.

"I have deduced the same from seeing the aliens try to abduct civilians. I shall do my best to disable instead of destroying." The Titan replied. "Analysis suggests that the aliens will try to escape soon. We must hurry."

"Yeah, I know."

Distracted as I was, I nearly missed the flash of blue in the my peripheral vision and was just able to bounce of the wall I was running on to dodge a blast of energy that hit the spot I was standing on a second prior. Twisting, I spotted another squad of batarians, with one of them glowing blue and one of his arms extended toward me.

'Biotics!' I realized instantly and activated my cloak. Righting myself, I landed as quietly as I could on the ground and took cover. I heard a batarian bark something and the dots on my radar started moving in my general direction. Before they could get too scattered, I threw one of my frag grenades at them. There was a sound of confusion from some of the batarians before it detonated and I moved, drawing my MK5. The smart pistol quickly locked on the forms of five wounded but still alive aliens and fired just as many shots as I pressed the trigger. As one of those who hadn't been much affected by the blast turned his weapon on me, I double jumped on the wall beside me, avoiding the first volley, and fired my grapple at him. The batarian let out a scream as he was yanked toward me, letting go of his weapon in the process, and I jumped to meet him, shotgun at the ready, before blasting his head into red mist.

As I landed, my gaze was immediately drawn to the blue shield surrounding the last three. I wasn't an expert about biotics, but I could make an educated guess from I did know and say that the Barrier must have cost some serious power.

The batarian biotic dropped the shield and drew a shotgun as the two others aimed their rifles at me, but didn't shoot. They probably didn't know exactly what to expect and decided to play it smart. As for myself, I considered my options. There wasn't much distance between us, but I'd be dead way before I could engage in CQC. At least, the biotic, judging by his grimace, had nearly fried his implant in creating that barrier, so that was something in my favor. That meant that I had to conserve my distance and kill at least one of them before they could react.

'The kinetic shields should be able to buy me a couple of seconds, but that won't be enough. I need somethi-' A line suddenly appeared on the left top side of my HUD and I quickly read it. 'Holo Pilot Online. Perfect!'

The next moment, I moved. Darting for the batarian on the right as sent a hologram toward the one on the left. Visibly shocked, it took a second for my three foes to start firing. By that time, I had already taken out a Pulse Blade and thrown it at my target. The kunai-like weapon sank into the batarian's throat as I brought up the assault rifle and fired at the other non-biotic alien as I continued to move. Realizing too late that he'd been duped, he tried to run for cover but the volley of mass accelerator rounds tore through his shields and into his body before he even took a fourth step.

It was then that, with a cry of rage, the last batarian rushed at me while firing his shotgun. I charged at him too and the moment my shields broke, I crouched and slid toward him, dodging another spray of shots. Before he could do anything, I somersaulted, kicking the shotgun away from him and drew my Data Knife before plunging it into his heart. The alien looked at his chest for a second before coughing blood. Muttering something in his language, he slumped against my hand, dead.

I pushed the body away and cleaned my knife before taking back the Pulse Blade from the throat of the other. With fight over, I quickly made my way to the ship's location and once again cloaked as I entered it. This one, however, already had a few people inside cages. I was about to head for the cockpit when I heard a distinctly female scream coming from another part of the ship. Forgoing stealth, I sprinted through the ship and quickly spotted a door with a red lock on it. Another scream came from inside the room and I jammed the Data Knife in the control panel. A couple of seconds later, the lock turned green and the door opened to reveal a naked woman bound on a table and a batarian with his pants down to his ankles leaning down on her.

Although I knew what to expect, I froze for an instant. The next, fury coursed through me and I stepped inside before giving the would-be rapist the mother of all haymakers, sending him to the ground with a cry of pain. My shotgun found its way into my hands and I blasted the alien with three shots, spraying blood everywhere.

I took a couple of steadying breaths before turning to the woman, who was looking at me in a mix of awe, relief and fear. Slowly, as to not appear threatening, I took my knife and cut her restraints. Next thing I knew, she was throwing herself at me and clutching me like a lifeline as she sobbed uncontrollably. As softly as I could, I picked her up and trekked back to the cages I had seen earlier.

"Marie!" One of the prisoners, a man with similar light brown hair as the woman, threw himself against his cage as he saw her in my arms. Probably her brother, judging by the resemblance between the two.

"She's fine." I said, picking one of the coats lying on the floor and draping it around her form. "The stress made her fall asleep, is all. I stopped the bastard just in time." Carefully, I laid her down against one of the ship's walls, having to slowly pry her fingers off me before going to open the cages, starting with the supposed brother.

"Thank you. Thank you so much." he nearly cried and I simply nodded before moving to the next cage as he made a bee-line for his sister.

Once all of them were free, I directed them outside of the ship in case more batarians might come back to it, and told them to hunker down somewhere safe until it was over. This got me another round of tearful thank-yous. I was about to usher them away when my coms flared to life.

"Ethan, we have a problem." BT said.

Instantly, I fired my grapple to the nearest rooftop and looked around to find my Titan partner a few hundred meters from my position. "Lay it on me, BT." I said as I started making my way to him.

"The last of the enemy forces have retreated to the remaining ship with human prisoners and are about to take off." He explained. "Trying to disable the ship this situation presents too much risks for the hostages."

Indeed, I could see the batarian ship rising in the air. Thinking fast, I fired my grapple once more and slung myself into the skyline. "Then we have only one chance to do this right. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"A throw is our only option." The Titan agreed as he caught me and cocked back his arm for his trademark fastball throw. "Calculating. Brace yourself."

"I trust you. Ready when you are, buddy!"

With a mighty heave, BT flung me at the ship. Just as before, his throw was perfectly calculated in order to bring me right above the batarian ship as it continued to ascend and I landed feet first on top of it.

'Now, to get inside. How am I going to do this?' Then, another line appeared on my HUD. 'Phase Shift Online. Talk about lucky timing.'

'You know it.'

I rolled my eyes at Luck's voice and clenched my left fist. The world turned grey and I floated in the air for a split second before clenching my fist again. The colors came back and I was suddenly inside the ship, right in a Batarian's face. The alien's four eyes widened as he opened his mouth and I quickly side stepped into him, my left hand grabbing his mouth as my I punched him in the solar plexus with my right, cutting off his scream before it could even begin. Not giving him any time to recover, I moved my arms into a chokehold and broke his neck.

Looking around, I realized that I was in what was probably the engine room. Not seeing any other batarians, I checked my HUD for the ship's display and located where the cages were from my position. Cloaking, I swiftly and stealthily made my way there. Still invisible, I opened the door and jumped inside the room as the four batarians who seemed to be standing guard turned.

As two of them started speaking in their native language, I slipped between them unseen until I was behind the one the furthest away from the door. Drawing my Data Knife, I covered his mouth with one hand and stabbed him repeatedly in where the kidney would be for a human. Fortunately, it seemed to also contain a vital organ as the batarian bucked weakly against me before his body went limp and his weapon clattered to the floor.

That made the other three turn and shout in shock before they leveled their weapons at me and fired. Using the corpse as a meat-shield, I fired my grapple at the one closest to me and yanked him toward me and into the wall behind, knocking him out. Then I threw the corpse at one of the last two before sending a hologram at the other. He seemingly hesitated, not knowing which one to shoot and that was all I needed to draw my shotgun and shoot him twice, destroying his shield with the first and ending his life with the second.

Shots impacted my own shields and I rolled to the side to see the last still fighting batarian firing at me with his assault rifle as he pushed the body I had thrown at him aside. Activating my jump kit, I jumped on the wall on my left, jumped again to avoid another hail of gunfire and twisted so that my feet would land on the roof before launching myself at him. My right knee met his face at full speed, making him stagger back, before I spun into a reverse roundhouse kick him, sending him skidding on the floor, unconscious.

"Always wanted to do that." I muttered satisfactorily to myself. I heard a groan and looked at the batarian laying in a heap at the feet of the room's far end wall. Before he could truly wake up, I walked up to him and took my assault rifle before firing three point-blank rounds into his head, proceeding to do the same with the last one still alive.

Relaxing slightly, I looked around to find fifteen or so people looking at me in awe and held in a chuckle. I was used to those kind of stares from the other riflemen in the Militia but it still felt weird.

Quickly, I opened their cages and spoke before any of them could. "Take their weapons and stay here. You'll be able to defend yourselves more easily if one of those bastards come by while I go and take control of the cockpit."

"Alone?! That's too reckless!" One of the men shouted.

"He's right. There's at least twenty of them on this ship." Another one agreed.

I gestured to the alien bodies on the floor. "You saw what I just did. Trust me, twenty won't be too much of a problem. More importantly, do one of you know how to fly this thing or do I need to keep the pilot alive?"

A woman with short blond hair timidly raised her hand. "Um, I-I do. Sir."

"Good." I nodded. "Once the fighting is over, make your way to the cockpit and do your thing. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some clean up to do."

With that, I exited the room. The shooting had probably sounded the alarm and I had no doubt the batarians were aware that something was wrong. Logically, they would group up in an easy to hold position near the cockpit and wait for us attackers to come to them. I looked at the ship's layout. There was a bottleneck like corridor just before the one leading to the cockpit. They'd be there, no need to think twice about it.

Admittedly, my options were limited. I still had one frag grenade on me, but I doubted it would be enough for such a fire fight. My cloak would be useless once I'd be close enough for them to see the slight color shift in the environment and phase-shifting would result in me free falling back in the sky. As for Holo Pilot, it might cause them to overheat their weapons before they realized the trick, but I would not be able to take them all down before they could fire again. I had switched my magazines for the MK5, but eighteen shots wouldn't be enough, moreover if they still had their shields.

One option was to use Holo Pilot, throw my frag grenade once their weapons were overheated, empty my MK5 and charge in hoping for the best. Brilliant, but too risky.

'Thankfully, I have he perfect tool for the job.' I thought as I tapped the disc-like object on my tigh.

An Aped Wall Emitter. A device capable of creating a protection of fifteen seconds against incoming shots from the front and which empowered my own gunfire. In a bottleneck corridor, what more could I have asked for?

Quickly, I moved through the ship and, upon nearing the intended trap, cloaked. Sure enough, here they were, all eighteen of them, weapons at the ready and hiding behind a makeshift barricade of crates. Stepping back out of their line of fire, I uncloaked and sent a hologram marching forward. One of the batarians shouted and a true flood of gunfire started colliding with the wall beside me. I could hear other confused shouts and then, almost suddenly, the shooting stopped.

Moving out of cover, I cocked back my arm and threw my last frag grenade strongly enough that it would end up behind the barricade. The moment it detonated, I grabbed the Amped Wall Emitter and threw it in front of me before I drew my MK5. A curved and wide, slightly taller than I was, orange wall made of transluscent honeycomb patterns sprang up in front of me, blocking incoming gunfire as the smart pistol locked on ten moving forms and I pulled the trigger. Ten times the small weapon bucked in my hand, its bullets, amped by the wall, being more than enough to drop each of their target, even with their shields still active. I shifted my aim, and it locked onto two more of them half a second later. I fired once more and they went down without a sound.

Swiftly, I switched my pistol for the assault rifle, aimed at barricade and waited. Sure enough, a lightly wounded batarian jumped out of a cover with a war cry a few seconds later to charge at me, but a dozen of amped mass accelerator rounds dropped him before he could even cross half the distance. I waited again, and the Amped Wall deactivated. Keeping my aim steady a few seconds more, I slowly crouched and grabbed the emitter before clipping it to my waist. The thing could be recharged and there was no way I wasn't taking it back unless if I could help it. Then, I began to cautiously advance, switching the assault rifle for the shotgun.

It was then that five still alive batarians sprung from under their fellows' corpses and aimed their weapons at me.

"Oh shi-" I cut myself off as they started firing and quickly sent a hologram forward as I dashed for one of the still standing crates. My shields broke and I felt a few shots impact my body armor as I got to cover. Bringing up the shotgun, I popped up and aimed at the first alien I saw before firing twice and going back under cover. The sound of a body hitting the ground told me I had one less foe to worry about.

'At this range, trying to engage in a firefight will only make my situation worse.' I analyzed my situation quickly. 'And in that case...!' I drew my data knife and a pulse blade before cloaking and bursting out of my cover. I flung the throwing blade at the closest batarian and my aim was true as it buried itself between his four eyes. Not stopping to confirm the kill, I activated my jump kit and flew at the next one, slamming my knee into his jaw. He dropped like a puppet with its strings cut and I grabbed his body to shield myself from the incoming gunfire of the other two. Moving forward, I dropped the body once the shields broke and jumped on the wall beside me, wall-running for the dumbfounded alien and planting my knife in his neck. The last one opened fire desperately at me and when his gun quickly overheated just short of breaking my shields, he threw it at me. I casually batted the weapon aside before drawing the shotgun again and fired twice, killing him.

And then, there was silence.

I took a couple a breaths, took back my knife, cleaned it and calmly made my way to the cockpit. I opened the door to find a terrified pilot holding a pistol at me with trembling hands. The batarian screamed before firing at me and I grabbed the hand holding the weapon before I twisted his arm, forcing him to drop it with a cry of pain. Swiftly, I spun him around to force his arm into a submission hold.

"Alright, buddy. I'm going to make this easy for you: put me on speakers and I won't toss you out of the airlock, deal?" He nodded frantically. "Good. Now get to it." I pushed him toward the console.

The alien fiddled with it for a couple of seconds before he nodded again and gestured to the console. I fixed him with a stare for a moment, but he only shrunk on himself before sputtering something in his language. I marched to the console and said clearly, "The ship's safe now, you-" I crouched, dodging the sloppy slash the batarian attempted with a hidden knife, before shoving the shotgun in his gut and shot once. "Sorry about that. As I was saying, you can come up."

A couple of minutes later, the young pilot woman the others of the now ex-prisoners came inside the cockpit, all armed, before they relaxed upon seeing me.

"Damn, you really did this all by yourself, didn't you?" One of them whistled.

"I told you I could do it." I retorted and turned to the young blond woman. "Alright, miss. Take us back to solid ground, if you would."

"Gladly." she said before taking the pilot seat and started to fiddle with the console.

A few minutes later, we were touching down just in front of the city and, from what I had seen, a whole crowd of people. As we made our way to exit the ship, I started to wonder what BT and I would do. We were an unknown variable with technology no one in the galaxy possessed and that everyone would be happy to kill us for. Add in the fact that I had no identity, no money and that BT was an AI... Well, I'd be surprised if we didn't end up on some people's 'most wanted' list. The Shadow Broker in particular would be very tricky to handle but perhaps, if I played my cards right, I could get the Yahg to leave us alone.

Anyway, my priorities, once I'd have found out where and when I was, would be to get a transport ship in which to hide BT's chassis and getting off this planet before the Alliance would get here. After that... we'd see.

"Sir?"

"Hm?" I blinked out of my thoughts and looked at the young woman who had flown the ship. "What is it?"

"I... I just wanted to say thank you." she looked down. "If you hadn't been there... I'd rather not think what might have happened."

I smiled slightly under my helmet before landing a hand on her shoulder. "Don't think about what-ifs. I stopped the worse from happening, but learn from today and make sure it doesn't happen again. Because if it does after I'm gone, then what I did will have been for naught."

"Wise words." Another voice said and I turned to find a man with spiky black hair and a goatee approach. His deep blue eyes bored into me as he stopped a couple of steps away. "We will take them to heart, I'm sure. My name is Hektor Salvail, Governor of this city, and on behalf on this colony, I thank you for stopping those batarian raiders. We owe you a great debt."

I waved my hand in dismissal. "I only did my job, sir. More importantly, I must ask, how important are the casualties?"

"Unfortunately, over forty people died trying to defend their families. There are many wounded, but most of them will be fine with a couple days of rest, I was told." he answered. "It doesn't appear there are any stragglers in the city, but I have some men making rounds, just in case."

I nodded. "That's good. Have you contacted the Alliance?"

"We did. However, we are far away from any of their stations, so it will take probably at least a day or so before they come." He shook his head in sorrow. "We knew establishing a colony in the Terminus Systems would be dangerous, but I didn't expect that we would be targeted by raiders so soon."

I blinked. So we were on a human colony in the Terminus Systems? "I'm guessing that explains your lack of defenses?"

Hektor nodded. "We had hoped that we would have the time to stabilize our economy and trades before having to invest in security. Perhaps ask for the Queen of Omega's protection if she deemed us valuable enough."

That didn't surprise me. From what I knew, if you could get Aria's support, there was much less risks of you being a target. Omega's golden rule was also that of the Terminus Systems, albeit to a lesser extent.

"Ethan."

I looked to see BT walk toward us and I saw that people started to look nervous as the Titan drew closer. "Hey, BT. How are you holding up?"

"Power levels will soon become critical but I have not suffered important damage. However, my ammunition count is running low. I recommend limiting ourselves to Close Quarters Combat until we can resupply." My friend replied.

I crossed my arms and hummed. "That might not happen for quite some time, BT. As it is, we're going to have to lay low for a while."

"Acknowledged."

I turned back to Hektor, who was looking apprehensively at the Titan. "I would like to ask you a few questions, if that's alright with you."

The man jumped slightly before facing me. "Certainly. I will answer to the best of my ability."

"Thank you." I nodded. "Now, I'm sorry if this is kind of a weird question to ask but...

What's the date and where are we?"

And that's it for the second chapter. Quite packed with action and I hope it was alright.

As always, I accept all kind of reviews aside from baseless flaming.

Oh, by the way, after deliberating the issue with myself, a couple of friends and my cat, I decided to move this story to the crossover section.

Anyway, this is MidnightFenrir, author of "Effect of a Titanfall", signing out.