"We have to go back," Miranda said as she looked to Garrus but he just shook his head.
"Can't, the raven needs to sync the stealth systems. If we go back, we'll get targeted. This is up to them now," he countered as the ship headed towards the Normandy.
Mrianda gave him an unimpressed look before looking to the station. Weather she liked this or not, this was up to Ash and John now.
OOOOO
The fuel tank behind Ashley's clone detonated sending her flying into a pillar while her grenade launcher flew out of the hanger bay and into space. Seeing this Ashley dropped her rifle and walked away from the gunship looking at her clone as she recovered. She then drew two combat knifes from her thigh holster and took a fighting stance. The clone looked at her with a death glare.
"You bitch," she said as moved to a better position.
Ash said nothing just charged. The augmentations from her clone made her ready for the attack but her lack of experience using them showed. Ash jumped and the multi limbed cloned who tried to swipe at her which the marine slashed at before kicking herself away from the clone. Three of her 8 limbs landed on the floor making the clone scream in pain. Black blood leaked from the wounds before they closed up.
The marine turned to look at her clone and took a combat position again. "You maybe me, and have more arms. But you lack my experience, emotion and skill," she said almost taunting the clone.
"DIE!" the clone screeched as she changed in.
Multiple limbs may prove an advantage, but when you don't know how to use them, they are a hindrance. That added with anger made the clone very easy to predict. All Ashley needed to do is remain calm and watch as her clone made her move. The clone came in for another strike this time the movement came in fast catching Ash off guard and sent her backing up. The arms hit her in the side of her ribs before she tried to sweep under the marines' legs. But Ash reacted quickly and moved back quickly.
Training with Jack had its attitude despite her attitude at times. Moving in she managed to take off two more arms before making an attack to the torso which the clone dodged with ease. But instead of waiting Ashley moved in fast. Something happened, she felt like she moved faster, swifter. As the clone landed, she came up from the side and managed to cut the armour and slashed the clone across the chest. The clone gave a banshee like screech as she backed up.
But Ash wouldn't let her as she dived at the legs cutting them. The flesh of the clone was weak, almost like a husk. It was easy to take apart. The clone was weak.
"What's happening?" the clone asked. "I should be healing!"
"Reaper tech…" Ashley began as she removed the head of her clone. "…was almost destroyed when the Crucible fired. So, with it being destroyed, the surviving parts will be weaker,"
The light from her clone vanished and Ashley sighed with relief before braking out into a run in an unknown direction. Reaper technology was more or less still around, the replicas were evidence of that. But the problem was that without all of the Reaper tech then after a while it's going to fall apart and grow weaker. She remembered that as when she was with New Olympus, they tried to experiment with the tech but it all began to break down after a while. As it turned out parts of the tech was needed in order to keep it stable.
She ran though the corridors trying to find her way though. Her scouting instincts kicked in as she moved and navigated her way though, as well as what she remembered of the place. She needed to find the generator room now and set it to detonate or at least push it so that it would fall into the black hole. Knowing that John could handle himself, she moved with a purpose.
OOOOO
The clone moved with a speed that John couldn't match. But he was fine with that, this wasn't meant to be a full-on fight, he just needed to keep the clone distracted enough so that the rest of his team could find Miranda and the generators. But if the clone realised that or managed to get a good hit on him, then it wouldn't matter either way. He needed to focus on the here and now, in this fight was where his mind should be. Focusing he lunged at the close with speed and momentum.
This turned to be a mistake as the arm of the clone began to shake and it began to morph and change into a blade. The clone then moved in fast with a slash managing to cut John's face from the right cheek to the left temple. Blood flowed from the wound, while it healed fast it didn't heal. Wiping the blood off his face he repositioned himself. It looked like the clone found the nanites and injected himself with them.
That was the only explanation for the pain he was still feeling. The attack must have had some nanites floating around so that it would do more damage. But due to his own nanites inside of his body they must have conflicted with each other creating the scar. They essentially cancelled each other out.
The clone said nothing and just charged in fast. John dogged and used his sword to try and cut off the arm but only managed to get a piece of armour off. But doing so made the clone wince in pain. The armour had fused with his body, making it apart of him. Both were somewhat matched. The only questioned remained, who was better? The copy or the original? They slowly moved around each other before moving in for the attack.
The clone made a sweeping motion as she moved in but John jumped over the motion while slicing at the clones back. That made him recoil in pain while the clone made his own and slam his fist into John's gut. Grunting in pain, the commander moved back before he blocked the following attack while kicking the clone in the gut and followed up with a kick to the face. But the clone was unphased by it and followed in with another slash attack.
Instead of blocking it, John activated his boosters and 'flew' back a few feet. But he didn't have time to recover as the clone jumped in with speed and momentum allowing him to cut the commander again. This time, his side blead a bit but the wound was quickly healed by the nanites. That would most likely leave a scar.
OOOOO
Ashley's navigation skills paid off as she reached the generator room. It turned out to be several reactors from ships mixed in with Reaper technology. That was good meaning that the structure of it was going to be weak. There was something about Reaper tech that requires something in order to operate. Some core component, that used to bind the technology together was missing and was likely destroyed when the crucible fired. At least that was the assumption, but no one had shown otherwise.
Grabbing the charges from her back pouch she moved over to the biggest reactor and placed three charges on it before moving around the room placing charges on the best place for secondary explosions. This place needed to destroyed, and she was planning to make that happen. After setting them she ran out.
"Joker I'm setting the timer for 6 minutes," she said over the radio. "How's the Raven?"
"The Raven has finished it's sync and ready to go," the pilot replied.
"Good, get a M60ME on it, we are going to need it,"
"Understood," Joker replied before the radio cut.
She continued to run finding her way with ease by following the sounds of fighting and cheering. Given the sound it was easy to follow and, on the way, she grabbed a sniper rifle and checked it. Most Mass effect weapons these days were made from the ground up as most of the technology for the already made weapons was destroyed. Either the tech was partly Reaper, or the Crucible took out more than just the Reapers. But the weapon she held wasn't built from the ground up. It was left from one of the marines who died and covered with the black and blue wires of Reaper tech.
Checking it, it still had a heat sync in, still cold. Smiling she moved up further until she reached the main platform where John and the clone were fighting. Soon enough she came out onto a platform higher than the main platform. Dropping onto her stomach she aimed the rifle at the clone. 3 minutes before the charges detonated, she breathed in, watching waiting as John fought the clone. It was clear that it was an even match. Or at least it looked that way given how they fought.
That's when she noticed the scar on his face. It took all of her willpower not to pull the trigger. 1-minute left and the Raven came flying in. The door opened and the machine gun open fired with Miranda at the gun. Ashley then took her shot just as the first of the charges detonated. The round hit the clone in the leg removing it making him bleed the black blood of the Reapers. As he fell John removed his head before running to the Raven.
Ashley jumped off the platform and ran over to the Raven as well. Jumping on the Ship then took off as the asteroid began to blow. The Replica threat was now over.
OOOOO
Zhu's Hope, now named to Thorian's bastion, had changed since the Normandy came. The towers that housed the people were now arcology's (cities within one massive building) with a few million in one arcology. But the main one, Thorian Nest, happened to be the 'holy ground' for the Thorian cult. After the Crucible fired, many worlds were left to their own devices. Zhu's Hope, was no acceptation. But during the rebuilding something did happen. While the Thorian was 'dead' it wasn't fully 'dead' as it left a seed behind.
Now that seed controlled the cult. In the chamber that used to house the Thorian several people of several different races where brought in. But they were not willing. The place had been converted into a temple of sorts; it had an image of what the Thorian looked like before Shepard took it down. Several altars had been erected around the monument with cuffs on them to keep people in place. Two humans, one asari and one Turrian were locked onto the alters by the cult. They were gagged so that they couldn't talk or scream.
The Prophet, Shiala, walked in. The outfit she wore was a tight-fitting dress with long strands shaped as tentacles flowed behind her. Her 'tentacle hair' had grown into something akin to shoulder length hair. Tattoos on her face were also in the style of the Thorian. She walked up so that she was in front of the icon and the cultists left. She then turned to look at the people on the alter and smiled.
"The Thorian thanks you for your sacrifice," she said before pulling off her dress so that she was naked and turned again.
Kneeling down she hung her head and closed her eyes. The people on the alters could only watch in horror and surprise as her 'hair' parted and tentacles emerged from the back of her head. They moved into holes in the ground around the icon. Suddenly four large tentacles emerged from the floor with the flat ends moving so that they hovered over the sacrifices before coming down on them. Sounds of eating then echoed in the temple and soon the tentacles retracted leaving nothing but empty altars left making Shiala smile.
OOOOO
John walked into the War room of the Normandy only to find the other Warlords holograms up. As he walked in, they looked towards him.
"Ahh commander," the Article salarian said as the Commander took his place. "We've been told that your clone is gone,"
"Yes," John replied a little annoyed that the Warlords decided to do this now before he could get everything sorted.
"Good, which that sorted and the area of the pervious Warlord's territory under your control, we have all agreed to the details of the legislation," he said. "Commander Shepard, if you would please add your signature,"
John nodded and placed his hand on a pad. "Supreme Commander John Shepard, Article code 14 alpha 1," he said before the pad went green and his signature was registered.
The other Warlords did the same thing but with a different code. Once it was done the holograms shut down and it was over at last. But now there was still that cult to deal with.