With the Legion armed and ready, the heroes of the multiverse stood in Mother Base's vehicle bay, preparing for their assault on the Geth Headquarters.
Standing at the head of the gathering alongside Shepard, the Boss cleared his throat. "Now, I hope all of you are ready for what is to come. This will be the largest battle any of us have participated in since coming to the Final Destination, and it will no doubt be one of the hardest."
Shepard then wheeled out a whiteboard from within the main keep that had a rudimentary drawing of the Geth's Main Base. In its simplest form, the Geth fortress was a single, massive Skyscraper where the Geth maintained their mainframe, surrounded by 4 square blocks of Prothean skyscrapers converted for use as defenses, as well as the production and storage of Geth platforms and vehicles. Surrounding these buildings was a tall, heavily fortified, defensive wall that lined the perimeter. Multiple defensive turrets and Anti-Air guns were spread out throughout the base as well, making any attack on it extraordinarily difficult.
"We will be spitting up into three teams." Snake began. "The first team will be the Armored division, codename Fireteam Tortoise. This will consist of myself piloting Metal Gear Zeke, Sev and Johnson in the AT-TE, Rylanor, and the Pelicans piloted by Thane and Sarah. Our job is to blitz through the defensive wall and be the primary distraction, as well as taking out any Anti-Air to allow the Pelicans to perform strafing runs."
As Fireteam Tortoise gathered together, Boss then moved to the next squad. "Once we break through, everyone else will move in together on the warthogs to reach the main Geth skyscraper. Here you will divide into two separate squads. First, Shepard will lead Fireteam Viper into the Geth skyscraper so the AIs can hack in. Viper will consist of her, Galen, Six, Gray Fox, T3, and Church. Fireteam Komodo, led by Tassadar, with Cayde, Wynne, and Pyrrha, will hold the entrance so Viper doesn't get overwhelmed from behind." The Boss then looked to the Legion. "Any questions?"
There were no questions, but before the Legion had the chance to divide into their individual teams, Rylanor stepped forward.
"Boss, Commander, I wish to speak to our Legion before our departure to impart words of inspiration." Rylanor boomed out.
Shepard and the Boss shared a glance, before Shepard shrugged saying, "Uh, sure Rylanor go ahead."
Rylanor stepped before his new allies, his very presence both inspiring and terrifying. "Brothers and sisters! Retribution is at hand! The enemy thinks they can break us! Through fire and iron, with demons and fodder, but they will be found wanting! For we are the warriors of His name! Let fury guide your weapons! Let vengeance be your song! We are the Legion of the Damned, and our enemies shall fall!"
There was silence as the Legion looked up to Rylanor, both filled with awe but also confusion.
Church was the first one to speak, holographically elbowing T3 saying, "Man I love this guy."
Satisfied that he brought up the spirits of his fellow warriors, Rylanor stepped off to the side to allow Shepard to close the briefing.
"Thank you, for the words of inspiration Rylanor." Shepard said, taking the event in stride as she then moved to address the team. "As the Ancient of Rites has said, we shall not falter here. We may not be going to face Chaos now, but this is the first step we take in the liberation of Haven, of the Final Destination. If we fail here, there will be no one else to stop Nihilus and his forces of Chaos. We are the last line, the only line, between letting that monster go free into the multiverse. Our worlds may never know of our actions, nor of our sacrifices, but we fight not for glory but because it is what's right! We come together to defend all of our homes, all of our universes. Together, there is no enemy we cannot defeat, no threat we cannot overcome. And together, we shall hold the line!"
The Legion let out a cheer, raising their hands and weapons into the air before moving to their respective dropships.
The Legion flew low in formation towards Ilos, bringing their full might with them. Both pelicans the Legion owned were flying, carrying not only the legionnaires within, but straining as they carried the AT-TE and Rylanor within their tail's magnetic clamp. However as the two mechs maxed out the capacity of the Pelicans, the Legion was forced to attach the warthogs to Metal Gear Zeke using towing cables.
Luckily, the Legion wouldn't have to fight in such an awkward formation, as they chose to land a few kilometers away from the base to deploy their forces. Sev took up his position piloting the AT-TE while Johnson climbed into its rear mass driver cannon. Fireteams Komodo and Viper each piled into their respective warthogs, a tight squeeze as teams of 4 and 5 sat in vehicles designed for 3.
Now ready for combat the Legion pushed forward, tensely traversing the few kilometers of dead city left in silence.
Once the outer walls of the Geth outpost were in sight, Snake pressed down on his communicator and declared, "Legion, begin operation, now!"
With that, the heavy armored mechs of Fireteam Tortoise moved first. Rounding the corner of an Ilos skyscraper, Rylanor appeared in the sights of the Geth defensive wall. The Geth reacted instantaneously, rocket and plasma turrets all activating and swiveling towards the cyborg. The attacks splashed off of Rylanor's chassis, singeing but not damaging the dreadnought.
Rylanor's assault cannon spun up and loosed a torrent of projectiles towards the Geth. Several slower Geth platforms above the wall were shredded in an instant, while others quickly ducked behind their fortifications. From behind Rylanor, Metal Gear Zeke appeared, charging up its shoulder mounted Railgun. Boss quickly fired the hypercharged projectile, which slammed into a rocket turret, destroying it instantly. While Zeke was still armed with nukes, the Legion wanted to use the Geth Base after taking it over, and radioactive fallout would be counterproductive to that point.
As Snake charged up another blast, the final and slowest warmachine, the AT-TE lumbered into view. Sev opened fire with the walker's front facing laser cannons, joining Rylanor in suppressing the infantry, while Johnson aimed the walker's mass driver cannon right for the main gate.
"Eat lead you goddamn flashlights!" Johnson roared as the mass driver did as well. The projectile slammed into the blast door, denting and cracking it, but not destroying it.
It was then that the Geth began their counter attack. Swarms of flying Geth drones flew out of the base in the dozens, harrying the larger walkers, forcing Johnson into cover so as to not get burned alive by plasma. Meanwhile the larger rocket turrets fired off another salvo. The missiles slammed into Metal Gear Zeke, rocking the Boss within and causing several alarm lights to begin flashing.
As Snake recovered, Zeke's railgun dinged as it finished charging while Snake began to bark out orders once more. "Rylanor, take down those drones! Johnson, I want those AA guns disabled, now!"
"Command received!" Rylanor boomed as he rotated his massive form, changing targets from the Geth along the wall to the flying drones above. With precision that only a Space Marine could have, Rylanor's assault cannon shot down drone after drone relieving pressure off of the sergeant.
No longer in danger of getting cooked by plasma, Johnson was able to retake the controls of the mass driver and aim it right for the closest anti-air tower. A single, well placed shot to the weaker armor at the turret's rotating base was enough to break through and destroy it. Almost simultaneously, Snake fired off his railgun, slamming into one of the missile turrets, destroying it as well.
With the defenses weakened, Snake yelled out another command. "Lyons, Thane, I want an airstrike on the main gate!"
"Roger Boss!" Both pilots responded as the Pelicans flew forward at low altitude, no longer under threat of being shot down.
As they approached, both Pelicans fired a salvo of missiles that slammed into the Geth's main gate. The rockets from Sarah's pelican hit first, rocking and straining the gate itself. Thane's follow up strike was enough to blast the doors off its hinges, creating the opening the Legion was looking for.
"Komodo, Viper, go go go!" Boss shouted, and the firetimes immediately obliged.
The two warthogs floored their acceleration pedals as they shot forward. The vehicle's speed and agility kept the surprised Geth from getting a lock on them, while their rear mounted chainguns tore through what infantry they could see. The warthogs got through the ruined gate in seconds, making a beeline right for the primary Geth mainframe.
Behind the gate, the Geth had held several Colossi in reserve, but they were too slow to catch the smaller warthogs. Before the massive armatures had a chance to turn and pursue them, Rylanor and Metal Gear Zeke followed through the gates. It didn't take long for the programs within the Colossi to designate the mechs as a higher priority target, and moved to engage. At the same time, another wave of drones were deployed to reinforce the breach. The easy part of the siege was over. Fireteam Tortoise had blitzed through the defenses and the other two teams were on their way. Now all they had to do was hold the Geth's attention until T3 and Church could accomplish their mission.
Shepard gripped the steering wheel of her warthog with white knuckles as she zoomed towards the Geth's main skyscraper. Behind her, the chaingun roared as Six quickly shot down as many Geth platforms as he could. Galen and T3 crowded the rear bed as well, while Gray Fox sat in the passenger seat, the two melee fighters spinning their swords as they deflected incoming projectiles.
Geth infantry and drones tried to slow their advance, but the Legion would not have it. Those that weren't cut down by the torrent of chaingun fire were swiftly destroyed by the myriad of other magical and technological weapons the legion had at their disposal. Polarity, the Force, Arcane magic, Psionics, and more were hurled from the vehicles, blowing apart Geth with every strike.
With Fireteam Tortoise keeping the bulk of the Geth force distracted, the other two teams were able to reach their destination without any significant delays. Dismounting, Shepard and Fireteam Viper gave a nod to Tassadar as they sliced through the outer door of the Geth's main hub.
"This is Viper. We're moving into the main facility." Shepard reported over her comms as she pushed in.
"Roger Commander." Snake curtly responded, no doubt currently busy piloting Metal Gear Zeke against the Geth.
"We'll make sure no surprises come at you from behind Red." Cayde-6 cut in, his revolver already popping off in the background.
Not wanting to fill the air with any more comms than necessary Shepard gripped both hands on her Geth plasma shotgun. The two melee specialists of the squad, Galen and Gray Fox, took point leading the fire team with their blades drawn. Shepard stood in the middle, ready to move in or provide ranged support where needed. Lastly Six and T3 hung back, the former carrying his DMR in his hands and his gravity hammer and BFG on his back, while T3 could provide the electronic warfare support.
Reaching the end of the entrance hall they were traversing, Church, who was currently riding within Six's armor systems said, "Alright, from what I've been able to gleam from Geth communications, we're coming up on the first room of the Hub, some kind of mass data server."
"Probably where they keep the majority of their Geth VIs." Shepard added on. As they reached the metallic blast door leading to the server, Shepard called out to the AI once more. "Any eyes inside?"
Church's holographic form appeared next to the commander, shaking his head. "Haven't quite cracked the Geth's jamming program yet. Best I can tell you is that there's something inside waiting for you, but I have no idea what or how many numbers."
Shepard grunted. "Better than nothing. Alright Viper, assume the worst case and that whatever is behind this door is ready to chew us up and spit us out. Galen, Fox, ready to breach?"
"Roger Commander." The two swordsmen replied.
With a nod of her head, Shepard overcharged her biotic barrier and yelled out, "Breach!"
Starkiller and Gray Fox dashed forward, lightsaber and HF blade humming as they cut through the blast door and moved in, the rest of Fireteam Viper following suit. Inside, the room looked far more like an alien cathedral than a server room. The room was a long hall itself, with a tall vaulted ceiling, supported by several buttressed pillars. All along the walls were "windows" that held storage drives stacked atop each other, humming with power and storing exabytes of data at the minimum.
What was more interesting than the architecture however, was the amount of Geth within. As the Legion burst in, so did the Geth inside burst into activity. Within the center of the cathedral-like hall stood a Geth Armature, the four-legged walker unfolding itself. On its flanks were 4 red colored Geth Primes, each heavily armed with multi barreled Spitfire machine guns. And on the far side of the room several snipers took up position while the frog-like stalkers leapt from pillar to pillar.
"Fox, Galen, hit the primes! Six focus on those snipers! I'll take the big guy!" Shepard barked and wordlessly her men obeyed.
Sliding behind a pillar buttress for cover, Shepard fired off two plasma bolts that slammed into the armature, before being forced to hunker down by the walker's return fire. Meanwhile Gray Fox and Galen swiftly moved forward, each taking on two Geth Primes a piece. As the swordsmen approached, the Primes ramped up their machine guns, which began spewing plasma at an insane rate.
Both their blades began moving even faster to deflect the attacks, but Galen knew that not even they could keep up with the rate of fire the Geth Primes were outputting. So rather than running straight into a line of death and smashing right through, Galen decided to approach the problem more like a Jedi.
Swiping his hand, Galen grabbed a hold of one of the Geth primes in front of him and rotated it, forcing it to aim at one of the Primes shooting at Gray Fox. The prime was not ready for an attack from behind, and was shredded by the friendly fire. Galen then flung the Prime he was holding backwards, smashing it against the rear wall. Now both he and Gray Fox could advance since they only had to contend with one machine gun instead of two.
Cutting the distance, both Galen and Gray Fox were able to get into melee with the remaining Primes. Both Primes attempted to rifle butt their attacker but both swordsmen were too agile, and twirled around the melee attack. Their swords then flashed forward, slicing apart the Primes as their blades burned through both the kinetic barriers and armored limbs, systematically taking them apart.
Meanwhile, Shepard turned to T3 as she swapped from her shotgun to her power axe. "T3! Overload!" She shouted, pointing at the armature.
With a doot of compliance, T3 rolled out and sent out an Overload that smacked into the Geth Armature, the electrical explosion weakening its kinetic barriers. Using this as her opportunity, Shepard powered up her biotics and biotically charged the armature, catapulting herself at the walker. Breaking through the kinetic barriers, Shepard slammed into the armature, causing it to stumble back. Landing on the ground in front of Armature, Shepard then raised her power axe and swung it right for the legs. With two slashes, Shepard hacked the two front legs of the armature, causing it to collapse forward. The armature now immobile and at her height, Shepard swung her power axe for a final execution stroke, decapitating it in one fell swoop.
As Shepard killed the armature, Six focused on clearing out the mobs that harried them from a distance. Six's DMR barked out, destroying Geth head after Geth head, focusing on taking out the jumping stalkers above them first. Six was killing them at a rate that surprised even himself, as Church was able to mark and track each of the Geth platforms as they appeared, making it far easier for Six to gun them down.
While Six fired though, he didn't notice a pair of nearly invisible forms displace the air behind him. Church was only barely able to notice their movements on the motion radar, which thought they were too small to be a threat. Being able to process data and interpret time much faster than a human, Church ran a quick scan at the disturbance and quickly realized that it was two cloaked Geth infiltrators sneaking up on Six.
"Six! Bubble shield now!" Church called out as he swapped Six's armor enhancement to the bubble shield.
Without question Six activated his bubble shield. He trusted Church to have his best interest in mind. When the barrier activated, a series of plasma bursts exploded behind him as the infiltrators de-cloaked and attempted their ambush.
As Six focused on maintaining the bubble shield, Church called out again. "Don't worry, I'll get them off your back."
Church's holographic form then vanished, blinking next to one of the Geth Sniper platform Six had shot. While it wasn't any robot platform he was used to, Church knew that all robots eventually boiled down to 0 and 1, and was able to start interfacing with the unit. Soon enough, the platform's flashlight head blinked on once more as Church assumed direct control over it.
"Fuck yeah I'm corporeal again!" Church called out as he raised the Geth's sniper rifle and aimed for the infiltrators.
Pulling the trigger, the first shot went wide, landing several feet above the infiltrator's head. "Fuck sorry!" Church yelled. "Just gotta recalibrate!" Readjusting his aim, Church fired another round, this one seemingly even more off course than the first.
But while Church didn't kill anyone with his shots, his attack did draw the attention of the infiltrators, who switched targets to the AI since they seemingly couldn't break through Six's barrier. That second of target reacquisition was enough time for Six to drop the bubble shield, raise up his DMR and put down both infiltrators.
With all hostiles in the room wiped out, Church dropped the Geth platform he was possessing and returned to Six. "Man, I can't help but feel a little let down by that. Even with an alien body I still can't shoot for shit."
Six shrugged and responded. "Your accuracy will need more work, but you provided a useful distraction. Good work."
"Oh, well thanks. You too?" While Church had developed a good working dynamic with Carolina, he was still figuring out how to read Six, and was a little surprised by his tacit approval.
"Come on, we're wasting time here." Shepard interrupted as she moved to the next set of doors. "Church, how far is the central processing unit?"
"Should be past the next hall. This hub is radial in structure, and we've almost reached the center." the AI responded.
"Roger. Alright Viper, last fight wasn't too bad, but the Geth will throw everything they have to protect this processor."
As Shepard said this, Fireteam Viper entered the hub's central processing unit. It was a tall, circular room, filled with massive cooling towers that periodically hissed to release heat, all leading to a single spire in the center of the room. The spire appeared to be some kind of control tower that extended all the way to the top of the roof and beyond.
However, Shepard was incorrect in her guesstimate of the Geth's defenses here, as only a single squad of troopers patrolled. Viper wiped out the trooper so fast it couldn't even be called a fight. Pushing to the control tower, T3 and Church wasted no time interfacing with it.
"Ok T3, focus on holding back their cyberdefenses, I don't wanna get swarmed with anti-virus while I'm in here." After a few seconds passed of Church silently interfacing with the Geth consensus, he spoke once more. "Ok I'm in. What do you want me to do Shepard? This code is familiar enough for me that I can start rewriting them, but I can also open up communication and talk to them if we want."
Shepard paused for a moment to think before deciding. "Start the overwrite Church. Anytime we waste debating with the Geth is a chance one of our allies gets killed."
"Roger that Commander." Church nodded. "Alright beginning overwrite now. It'll take some time before this finishes since I'm pretty much brute forcing my way through each… individual… Oh my God." Church trailed off as he stared at the central spire in shock.
"Church? Church what's going?" Shepard immediately asked.
Church was too flabbergasted to immediately respond, and when he did it was barely above a whisper. "The Geth aren't the only thing in here."
Before Shepard could question any further, the white lights the Geth used to illuminate the room shifted to a deep red hue, and an unforgettable, deep, bassy, electronic bwwoooom filled the air. It was a sound Shepard would never forget.
"A Reaper." Shepard murmured out in horror.
As the electronic roar ceased, it was replaced by the raucous sound of machinery as the command pillar seemed to retract into the ground. Fireteam Viper had to step back as both the ceiling and the floor below began to open up, revealing massive circular blast doors that slid apart, not unlike the opening of a missile silo.
The electronic bwwoooom boomed out once more as Fireteam Viper watched as a Reaper Destroy rocketed out and into the sky. And this wasn't just any Reaper Destroyer, Shepard realized, and she recognized the specific one that flew out. It was the same Reaper Destroyer she talked to on Rannoch. This meant all of the Geth here were the same Reaper controlled Geth she fought during the Reaper War.
Immediately Shepard put 2 fingers to her communicator and shouted out. "All teams be advised. It isn't just the Geth here! The Geth are being controlled by a Reaper, and he's headed outside!" She then shifted her focus to Church, who's hologram had reappeared with the rest of the squad. "Church, are you still able to rewrite the Geth with that thing there?"
Church appeared to be far more frantic than Shepard had ever seen him before, and smaller multicolored holograms started to appear and disappear around him. "I'm still in the system and converting Geth, but that Reaper is trying to shut me down. And he's a lot faster than me or T3. You guys will need to take him down unless you want us to start crying out, 'Exterminate all the meatbags.'"
Shepard nodded. "Alright. If you have to focus more on defense, we don't need you two getting overwritten." She then turned to the rest of Viper. "Alright team double time! We have a Reaper to kill!"
No one had time to respond as the rest of Fireteam Viper began sprinting out the way they came, leaving Church and T3 to continue their hacking. They reached the entrance of the hub just in time to see the two pelicans fly in for a bombing run against the destroyer. But the missiles only seemed to splash over its obsidian armor as the destroyer charged up its main weapon. From its core the Reaper fired a red beam of not laser, but molten metal fired from a magnetohydrodynamic cannon traveling at a fraction of the speed of light.
Thane jerked his control, pulling off a barrel roll and dodging the stream of molten metal. Sarah however, was slightly slower to react. While the Sentinel had twisted her controls enough that she avoided a direct shot, the beam still clipped the wing of her pelican, destroying that wing and engine completely, sending her in a spiral downwards as she crash landed on Ilos.
"Damn it!" Shepard swore as she dove into cover behind a Warthog currently occupied by Cayde and Pyrrha. Cayde was popping shots off at nearby Geth with his revolver, while the huntress manned the chaingun. Shepard then began yelling into her comms once more "It has to drop its kinetic barriers every time it fires its main weapon! That'll be the only time it's vulnerable!"
"Shepard! How did you kill these things in your world?" Snake yelled, maneuvering Zeke and firing off a shot from his railgun that exploded along the Reaper's hull.
Despite the absurdity of the situation around her, Shepard couldn't help but chuckle as she shot two approaching Geth. "Orbital bombardment!" she shouted back over the comms.
After taking the hit from Zeke's railgun, the Reaper fired off another beam that the Boss was barely able to dodge as he retreated. As the Boss put distance between them, the Reaper seemed to lose interest in mech, and instead slowly turned to face the Legion's infantry on the ground.
Shepard's eyes widened as she realized it was looking at them, and she immediately jumped into the Warthog's passenger seat shouting, "Cayde! Go, go, go!"
Cayde immediately jumped into the driver's seat and floored it. Shepard heard the second warthog's engine flare as well, but she didn't have time to check on the rest of her allies as a beam of molten metal slammed down right for her. Cayde swerved the warthog, the vehicle's uncanny agility allowing them to spin and drift behind an Ilos skyscraper, which took the blunt of the blow.
"Gods Shepard!" Pyrrha cried out as she uselessly unloaded the chaingun at the Reaper. "Is this what you had to fight on a daily basis!?"
Shepard laughed as she fired off her shotgun. "Hey, you were the one who said you wanted to be more like me! So here you go!" she joked back.
Pyrrha looked down at Shepard in disbelief, then back up at the Reaper. Before, Pyrrha would've been nervous and scared at the very prospect of fighting such a terrible thing. But the blessing of the Lady now surged through her, and she only thought of the glory and honor she would bring by destroying it.
Drawing her sword from her back, Pyrrha said, "Cayde, drive us closer! I want to hit it with my sword."
Shepard turned back to the huntress, jaw dropping in confusion, while Cayde barked out a laugh. "HA! You are off the fucking chain!" He then swerved and drove right for the Reaper, while he stuck his left hand out of the window and began firing off shots with his revolver, the Ace of Spades.
As the warthog sped for the Reaper, Metal Gear Zeke flew forward and launched a salvo of missiles against it, trying to get its attention. The Reaper turned and began charging its main weapon to fire at the bipedal mech. However as it charged up, a ball of pulsating green energy slammed right into its eye, creating a massive explosion that knocked it down. Shepard glanced and saw a small distance away peeking from his own cover, Noble-Six had finally gotten a chance to use his BFG, as the oversized energy weapon smoked in his hands.
The power of the Bio-Force Gun was enough to send the Reaper toppling over. Seeing an opportunity, Rylanor then charged forward. Finding that his assault cannon didn't do much against the Reaper's hardened exterior, Rylanor flexed his power claw and began digging into one of the destroyer's massive legs. The far-future technology behind the power claw was able to rend the armor and circuitry of the leg apart, allowing Rylanor to tear the entire limb off.
Angrily, the Reaper let out another electronic howl, pushing its mass effect core to overdrive as it reduced its mass and began to fly upwards. As the Reaper continued to gain elevation, Rylanor was forced to let go, and the Reaper shot out another laser of metal that slashed across the dead city of Ilos.
The beam was aimed first at Metal Gear Zeke, not scoring a direct hit but a glancing blow that damaged the mech nonetheless. Alarms began blaring within Snake's cockpit, telling him that the nuclear armament on Zeke was compromised. Biting back a curse, Snake pulled Zeke out of the fight for repairs, not wanting to lose everyone with an accidental nuking.
From there the Reaper then guided his fire down to the Legion below him. The attack hit Rylanor, blasting the ancient dreadnought back and disabling him, before going for the more exposed infantry.
The Legionnaires still on foot scrambled once more, running into buildings and out of line of sight. Tassadar led the older Wynne into a nearby skyscraper, but the Reaper caught sight of them, and began charging its beam to bring the entire building down.
But right before it could fire, the familiar blue bolt of the AT-TE's main cannon slammed into the Reaper's eye, interrupting the attack and sending it crashing out of the sky. The Reaper landed with a mighty impact several dozen meters in front of Shepard's Warthog.
Still alive and very angry, the Reaper slowly began to pick itself up as Shepard jumped out of the Warthog's passenger seat and shouted, "Hey tall, dark, and ugly! Remember me!?"
The Reaper's red eye swiveled and focused on the commander, narrowing as it saw her. Then it spoke with a deep, electronic voice that shook Shepard's bones. "SHEPARD!"
As the Reaper stood it began to move for the commander, its red eye charging up for another attack, this one focused directly on her. Shepard however, was unperturbed by its actions, as she switched from her shotgun to the Fat Man on its back. The Reaper moved closer and closer, almost standing above her. But before the Reaper could fire, Shepard smirked as the familiar silhouette of Pyrrha Nikos flew in above her, leaping right for the Reaper's eye.
With a mighty battlecry Pyrrha threw her Force Weapon Miló right into the eye of Reaper. The disruptive energy field around her sword protected it as it began shredding its way through the internals of the Reaper's eye. The magnetohydrodynamic cannon of the Reaper exploded, tearing apart the entire front of the Reaper and forcing it back.
With the Reaper on its back foot, Shepard took aim with the Fat Man and said a simple line. "Keelah Se'lai." as she loosed the miniature atom bomb.
It seemed that many of Shepard's allies had the same idea, and opened fire as well. The mini-nuke was joined by the familiar green pulse of Six's BFG blast. Beside her, Cayde's revolver burst into flames as he fired all of the rounds into the Reaper. Meanwhile Johnson and Sev fired off a volley with all of the AT-TE's weapons, and Thane followed up with one final bombing run.
Not even the Reaper was able to survive the sustained fire from so many sources, all focused on the massive gash in its hull where its eye once was. The multi-colored explosion that followed was nearly blinding as the Reaper burst apart, finally dying.
Everyone stared at the subsequent mushroom cloud as ash, embers, and tiny pieces of Reaper debris fell from the sky. Battered and bruised, Shepard couldn't help but smile at the sight of the Reaper's death. It was not something she saw often in her universe, so she would savor every moment of this.
At least, she would savor it until she and the other Legionnaires found themselves surrounded by the Geth, who had seemingly taken shelter during the fight between the Reaper and the Legion. Shepard dropped the Fat Man and pulled out her plasma shotgun, leveling it at the synthetic platforms, ready to fight.
However, Shepard held off her fire as she quickly realized none of the Geth around her had their weapons raised. It was then that a light-blue armored Geth sniper walked up to them, with T3-M4 by its side.
"Hey guys!" The platform spoke with the unforgettable voice of Church. "Guess what!? I got the Geth under our control! They're happy to be freed from the control of the Old Machine and ready to kick its butt. Where is it, anyway?"
Church then looked past Shepard and saw the burning carcass of the Reaper. "Ah. Well hey, good work team! Mission accomplished."
Shepard only smiled as she patted Geth-Church on the shoulder. He was right, the Geth were rewritten, and now they had an army at their backs. Now they just had to rest and repair, and soon they would be ready to take the fight to Chaos itself.
A/N, 1/2/21: I hope everyone had a good holiday!
Review Responses:
Huntervsredspy: Ah yes. So I will say this, in an earlier outline I had originally intended to put Arotorias into the story, and that was in fact why I put Aldrich in on the enemy side. But as I rewrote parts of the outline, I had to cut parts and characters that I thought didn't add enough to the story. Artorias was unfortunately one of them, partly because there are little to know canon sources on his character, as well as the fact that in terms of abilities, he overlaps with multiple characters in the Legion already. Sorry!
Nilochrisou: Good ideas, but I think I've mentioned this before in a previous chapter, there'll be no more additions to either side. We're getting pretty close to the final battle and the story's cast is crowded enough as it is. Sorry!
Guest: Tex would've been fun.
MarauderPrime12: Thanks!
Brother Bov: Ah I could, but it would be a little bit of a spoiler for those who aren't that far in yet.
Spicerkody3k: I was actually not aware he did at the end of that game, as I still need to play it haha.
Anyway, I hope you all had a good holiday, stay safe, and I'll see you in the next one.