Hi guy's sorry for the delay, but there has been a lot going on. One of the main things is that I'm going to Japan in September. That, let me tell you, takes a lot of planning so I've been focused on that. I'm also working on some story ideas for after Kira's story is finished. So my time has been taken up by a lot of things. Anyway enjoy :)
The Normandy flew into the Omega 4 relay, just like last time there was an effect on the mass effect drive but was negligible. It soon exited the jump into the ancient ship graveyard. The ship then moved to one of the wreckage hulls and locked onto it. With the saturation new to Shepard, Ashley took command of the mission. She jumped at the chance and began to send out drones to get a good look at the station. Or at least what was left of it, as expected part of the original station was still around.
It was surrounded by a habitat field, something that keeps the atmosphere inside an orbital structure. The intent of the field was to create orbital habitats for unliveable mining worlds. It was purely theoretical, but now it didn't seem like that anymore. Liara was quite excited about the prospect of orbital cities like the Citadel, but not the Citadel.
Jun'li looked on in amazement at how this structure could have been made. But her mind was already on the tactical side of things looking up and down it for weaknesses and places where problems could arise from. Every soldier in the room was also doing the same.
"EDI, what did you find," Ashley asked.
"As we suspected, part of the old Collector base survived and the clone is hiding somewhere inside," the AI said as the hologram of the base rotated in the war room.
"Thermals?" Garrus asked.
The central part of the hologram turned red. "This part of the debris has a higher temperature than normal. It consists with the Shadow broker's growth vats when active. I have also detected high amounts of Reaper technology. Not enough for a Reaper, but similar husks," the AI said with her tone becoming angry as she talked.
"I'll face the clone," John said, "The rest of you should focus on finding Miranda, and other survivors if you can,"
"I agree," Ashley spoke up. "I will give us a good distraction to find our objectives. That heat source is the biggest target on their back and where everyone will be. But we need to use the Raven to get in close,"
"Raven?" John asked.
"A side project of Tali's during the Reaper attack, a Kodiak with stealth capabilities," Ash smiled. "But it has some problems like the stealth systems failing, or life support going off-line. But for this distance we won't have a problem,"
"We take the side, less noticeable," Jun'li said as she looked in closer and pointing to where the field was not present. "We move in silently,"
"Looks like the best option, less chance of detection," Wrex chimed in. "Which sucks, but needed in this situation,"
"I will go with mate to face copy," Jun'li the said.
"No, I will face him. If I hadn't died, none of this would happen," John said with a hard look. "Not to mention that since he is me, no one else can take him down,"
There was a slight nod from everyone, except for one.
"How will you get there?" Ashley asked.
"Kodiak,"
"No, you are bad driver as it is John," she said turning to him with a hard look. "This place is a death trap for a bad driver!"
"I'm not that bad!" he defended.
"Yeah you are," Wrex spoke up. "That time we jumped off that cliff? I thought Krogans could not get whiplash," he said rolling his head remembering the incident.
"And that's not counting all of the times you flipped that Mako over," Garrus said.
John just looked at everyone with an odd look trying to find a good excuse, but nothing came to mind. "Fine, who will take me?"
"I will," Jane said stepping forward. "From the sounds of things, I'm the better pilot,"
"Well then," John said, "Let's do this,"
OOOOO
The Kodiak flew into the junk yard along with the Raven but soon separated as they approached the station. Jane, at the helm, was close to Joker's level of skill but not as good. John doubted that anyone could match Joker in terms of still and reflexes.
"So, you have a clone?" Jane asked.
"Yeah, I heard it from Miranda and her sister," John said. "When I was still being remade, they created a clone so that if I needed a new lung or something they would take it from him and give it to me," he sighed. "But when my development went well he was no longer needed so Miranda moved him to one of her old projects which was no longer required,"
"Project Replica," his sister said.
"Yep, from what I understand it was a cloning experiment to try and replace major figures in the alliance so that we would have a more militaristic human dominated galaxy,"
Jane said nothing but nodded. "Yeah, they didn't like aliens that, much did they?"
John said nothing and just looked over to her wondering what she was thinking about. He knew she was a member of Cerberus, but how long was she with them? And did she agree with them? He made a note to talk to her later. The ship flew in low and fast entering the atmosphere filed. That's when the soldiers began fire at the ship. It did little as the ship moved fast. The door opened and John jumped out. As he did he activated his jet back and descended slowly. This was good and bad, good in terms of he could target the enemy soldiers with ease, bad because they could do the same thing.
As he descended more soldiers came from and makeshift entrance before targeting him. The soldiers looked like a cross between a standard human soldier and a husk. Most of them had human armour on from the waist down but their torso was a mix of coal black veins with blue lights. On their other side they had human armour on, but the lower arm had been replaced with a weapon of some kind. Looking at the outline, John assumed that the weapon was the revenant assault rifle. Or at least a form of one.
As he landed he dived into cover before starting to pick his targets carefully. Since he was alone he needed to prioritise his targets and take out the ones that could be a problem. He had plenty of ammo to spare, but if he ran out he had a special something to take them out.
OOOOO
The Raven moved in quick without being detected. The ship was a prototype made only for the Normandy and her crew. The concept and materials were given the crew so that they could make it. Tali was the main engineer along with Adams, Gabby and Kenneth with Kasumi helping out with the stealth materials. It took them a while, but soon they managed to make the Raven. A one of a kind stealth transport ship. The Raven moved in to the lowest part of the station and landed. Ash was the first one out and checked the area, thankfully it wasn't patrolled. She indicated to the rest to exit.
Garrus, Wrex, Jun'li and Liara jumped out of the craft and looked around weapons up. Wrex gave a sniff of the air trying to see if there was anyone else around.
"Smells like we are alone," he said
"Good, you and Liara stay here. Keep our exits safe. Garrus, Jun'li with me," Ash ordered with everyone giving a nod.
The team of three then moved off deeper into the station.
OOOOO
As the fighting on the main platform continued the clone walked out with a smile on his face looking forward to this encounter. He cocked his weapon as he walked out into the open.
"HOLD YOUR FIRE!" he yelled and the attack stopped. "John Shepard! I was expecting you!"
John exited his cover and got a good look at his clone. It looked just like him but was covered with those black veins. Only his face was not covered, but his left eye was replaced with a glowing blue one. He also wore N7 armour, but that too was covered in the black veins.
"Well here I am," he said. "Now what?"
"Now… you die!" the clone said before bringing up his weapon and fired.
Reacting fast, John activated his shield and held it up in front of him. The rounds impacted his shield but it held. As soon as the weapon stopped firing he deactivated the shield and stood tall he then drew out a device and activated it. The device extended into a an omni sword.
"You want to fight?" John asked. "Bring it!" he taunted.
OOOOO
Garuus fired three rounds in rapid succession taking out three of the replica soldiers. Ash and Jun then moved in firing their assault rifles into the rest of them. It seems like the replica soldiers had no shields, just very weak armour. This made them easy targets for the three to take out. Especially for Garrus who could take them out with ease. He focused on taking out the more specialised replicas. While they were easy to take out, their numbers were problematic.
Ash moved forward up a corridor fast. Her heightened senses allowed her to sense the replicas coming and take them out quickly. She moved on ahead of the other two who followed her closely. Jun wasn't used to how fast this form of combat was. Thankfully the nanites inside of her were compensating for this, helping her adapt as she moved and fought.
Ashley then kicked down a door to a large room with several replica tubes on one side of the room. On the other there was a series of medical equipment pieces with someone laying on a table.
"Miranda," she called and ran over to the table.
Miranda was strapped down to it with something over her mouth preventing her from speaking. As soon as Ashley got the first restraint off Miranda grabbed the mouthpiece and took it off.
"Look out!" she said before a loud bang sounded making Garrrus and Jun to take cover.
Ash turned to look at where the explosion came from and her stomach fell as soon as she saw who was standing there. It was her, or at least with a gross variation of her. It wore armour similar to her old white and pink armour with the black veins covering parts of it and parts of her body. She also had six extra arms and 'hair' that moved around. Each end of the 'hair' ended in a glowing blue light.
"Miranda…" Ash began to say but the XO spoke more quickly.
"I did not clone you," she said shutting down the marine.
Ashley nodded and moved so that her clone and her looked at each other.
"So, the 'original'," the clone muttered. "Good, now I'll be able to rid the galaxy of you,"
She the brought up a grenade launcher and fired at Ashley who dived out of the way. The clone focused on Ash allowing Miranda to get her restraints off and join Garrus and Jun.
"Where's John?" she asked.
"Main platform, fighting his clone," Garrus answered as he handed her an SMG.
With the focus on Ashley the team moved away form the fight. She didn't mind as it was expected they would do if she was targeted. She moved away from the clone down into several corridors until she made it into the hanger. Smiling, she made her way up onto the walkways. The clone was slower than the marine but not by much she soon entered the hanger and began to fire at the marine.
The shot missed the marine but made her lose her footing and fall. In turn Ashley fired a few rounds at her clone who move out of the way behind a gunship. The clone smiled as Ash moved up further getting into better cover.
"That won't help bitch," the clone roared. "You are mine,"
"So are you," Ash muttered as she aimed and fired.