"Shepard….Shepard, that was is red! There aren't supposed to be new ones! Why are there new ones!?" the dual toned voice yelled over the din of battle.
"Probably not anything good," Tali answered dryly as her shotgun ripped apart a set of her own shambling blue husks.
The ground rumbled as pulses of dark energy pulsed through the ground, erupting every yard. Husks and debris alike blew apart as the energy traveled.
"The fuck!" the human...Jack...spat as she covered herself in a biotic shield just as the energy reached her. In a testament to that power, she was forced back a step. "That's supposed to my gig, you ugly blue motherfucker!"
Rifle fire ripped into the strange husk that had sent the shockwave. The husk that was only superficially humanoid. It's right shoulder bulged out grotesquely, a giant mass of pulsing light and thrumming power that forced the creature, whatever it had been before becoming a husk, was wiped away months, years, decades, centuries...maybe even millennia, into the groaning, shambling thing it was now.
The mass rounds, aided by the biotic energy of the rifle's wielder, shredded the creature, throwing it over the railing it had been leaning on as support as it fired its awful weapons. "I may be on the older side of the spectrum," the asari clad in read spoke, her voice a near monotone, sounding at once bored and faintly amused. And an under layer of deep sadness kept hidden by centuries of training. "But I do not feel myself to particularly unattractive."
"Did...did you just make a fucking joke?" the tattooed convict turned to stare at Samara.
Biotic power ripped free from group of husks, particles ripping apart, breaking down and being drawn in to Samara's shield, strengthening it. She turned, gazing at Jack with a dead blank stare. "No."
"Pff," Jack laughed with a shake of her head, a casual wave of her hand sent a half dozen over the railing after the first. "You bitch. Careful, I might end up liking you."
"There are worse things," a ghost of a smile slid across Samara's lips. "Perhaps I could teach you how to reign in some of your abilities."
"Oh god, no," the Cerberus agent laughed from a higher platform. Power surrounded her as well as she lifted a husk nearly to the ceiling before smashing it down into more of its fellows, crushing them all to near paste. "The last thing the galaxy needs is Jack with control. Think I might prefer the Reapers."
"Come on!" Garrus cried, seemingly offended. "Can we please acknowledge how there are different husks? Like...what the hell does that red one do?"
"I'll check," the massive krogan nodded as his right arm swatted away a knot of husks. His left swung out, doing the same. From above it almost looked like the krogan was swimming through the monsters, even ignoring the ones that clung to his back.
"Wait-" Tali started, but it was too late. Grunt reached his target just as the glowing husk in question reached him. Then it exploded.
Red energy blew out with such force that there was a visible shockwave. The explosion paid no head to its allies as nearly a dozen husks were incinerated or blasted apart.
"Grunt!" Jack called out with uncharacteristic concern. Smoke, dust and debris obscured vision, red crackles of bolted, like lightning, in the cloud.
"*Caahh* *Caah*," huge heaving coughs wracked the young krogan as he stepped out of the slowly settling cloud. He waved his hands in front of his face, trying to push the dust from him. The front of his armor, knees to face, was covered in black scorching, almost comical compared to the shining newness of the back of the suit. Red static coursed over him as he looked up to his companions. "Looks like they blow up."
*The image freezes. It seems to blur for a moment as the top half seems to rip away from the bottom, moving in an almost fast forward of unrecognizable images. The bottom half breaks up as it partially rewinds, itself coming apart and flashing through random seeming frames of children, husks, the battle, Shepard-Commander. A flash of Static. Then nothing.*
AN: It's so hard not to explain my actions sometimes. I get a bit giddy and want to gush, but that would be spoilers! I have plans within plans, my lovelies.
Also, I just went through and read the whole work again from the beginning, and holy shit! I didn't realize it had gotten so long! Writing it feels like I might be stretching it out too much, what with everything I am trying to do. I mean...there is still so much story to do still!