Ah, yes; 'BioWare'. The video game company that lets you decide the ending. We have dismissed this claim.
Dig Site Alpha, Therum, Knossus System, Artemus Tau Cluster, June 15, 2183
Author's Note: The Armature got an upgrade. With the motherfucker of all mechahellbeasts; the Cyberdemon of Doom. Remember Spider-Brain?
Thank you Mick Gordon for making one totes awesome soundtrack with the new Doom game. Totally wrote this chapter to "Rust, Dust, and Guts"
And now back to your regularly-scheduled crying as you reload from a Critical Mission Failure.
"FUCK!" Commander Jane Catherine Shepard shouted as she dove to one side, abandoning her cover from behind a pre-fabricated cargo container as a bolt of blue-white plasmic fire slashed against the side of the container, piercing right through to the other side as the bolt splashed upon the ground, spraying droplets of superheated slurry all over the ground as the resulting lump plastically congealed into an oozing mess. The Lion of Elysium rolled back up on her feet from her dive to look at the cover she had been using, shocked o see that the plasmic bolt had went in-and-out through the container, and the resulting ring around the new holes were so hot that the metal was warped and molten.
A singular shot would easily kill.
"Scatter and defend!" The N7 called out as she fired three quick rounds towards the fifteen meter-tall walking artillery piece as she saw two metal pieces in the torso area slide away to reveal two multi-barreled weapons as the revolver-like contraptions spun up at a high rate of speed for perhaps half a second before a torrent of round began to blister through the area as Jannie dove again towards a small outcropping of basaltic rock, hearing rounds peppering everywhere around her as her Armax Arsenals' Predator H-Series Battle Armor's Augmented Reality Display on the inside of her helmet's viewer showed that her shields were nearly fucking shot with less than a second of being under fire. Holy fuck, I could have easily been killed! It was actually hard to kill something quickly with modern weapons and technology with the advancements of armor, shields, and programmable materials. To be considered an elite lethal combatant required more than just awesome weaponry; rigorous training, superior tactics, and a mind that analyzed and adapted were all healthy requirements. But now she was facing something about as lethal as a small warship. This was well out of her expertise. "Snipers! Wear out its shields!"
"My damn rounds are just ricocheting off!" Staff Sergeant Ashley Madeline Williams cried out in frustration as Jannie switched to a PiP view from her personal drone, Ghost, to look over her cover without exposing herself. The Lion saw that the Armature had pivoted to engage Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, who fired at the enormous mech with his Korogish Graal Hunting Shotgun with a snarl, and Jannie saw what Williams meant; the round just deflected off the shields instead of piecing through at a slower, weaker force, completely bouncing off! Fuck, this thing had starship shields! "We need something bigger, Skipper! A lot bigger!"
"Vakarian! Can your Widow dent it?" Jannie asked over her SquadCom. There was no use being subtle with a fifteen meter Metal Gear-thing trying to melt them or blast them into molecules. The torrent of the chain guns echoed through the bowl of the Dig Site once more, sounding like a giant ripping a sail in half as the big game hunter ducked behind his cover and moved from the immediate position to escape being fried by that plasma cannon.
"Negative, my rounds bounce too, even a straight shot." Detective Garrus Kaaldor Vakarian replied, his tone disgusted at the revelation. The Armax Arsenals' M-98 Widow Sniper Rifle was one of the most powerful sniper rifles in the galaxy! And it was bouncing its shots? "Switching to High-Impact Velocity Rounds."
"My grenades aren't even going through!" Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko called out as the Explosive Ordinance Disposal Officer fired round after round from his Milkor M32 SuperSix MRML Grenade Launcher. "I just went through six HEAT rounds. Loading Flak." Damn, between Wrex's behemoth of a shotgun, Vakarian's mammoth sniper rifle, and Alenko's grenade launcher, that was practically all of the heaviest ordinance her ground team had!
"Ghost! I need scan and analysis. Find me a weakness!" Jannie called out as she reached behind her back and tapped Bastila, the hoverturret disengaging from her back and powering up into a ready-state, the contragravity pad underneath keeping it afloat as the main-and-secondary weapons systems booted up. "Go get 'em, girl!" The assault turret floated away to starboard as it began peppering the Armature with its duel coaxial machine guns while sending a pre-fab rocket from its launcher into the fifteen meter tall platform, Bastila moving in a strafing pattern as the Armature reoriented to engage the turret. Jannie noticed something about the mech, a design flaw. "The head doesn't pivot! The whole body has to turn to engage with its cannon and machine guns! Disperse in a circular fashion and attack the flanks and rear. Keep eyes on whoever is baiting the front!"
The N7 queued up her Kassa Fabrications' Polaris OmniTool and selected a Hack App, loading a simple Trojan virus into a protein chip that was immersed in piezoelectric OmniGel before firing it from her Polaris towards the behemoth Geth. She suspected that the powerful shields were modulated for the frequency for Eezo-accelerated firearms and munitions, sub-light rounds, and other magnetically-accelerated means. But an OmniTool fired with pressure, not Eezo or magnetics, and fired much slower. Jannie smiled when the Hack Tag went right through the shield unimpeded and struck the shell of the armor. Well, supersonic weaponry worked past the shields. Pity it didn't do shit to the armor.
"Jane, analysis complete."
"Talk to me, Ghost." Jannie moved from one piece of cover to another, getting behind a cargo container that had an Alliance Red Cross on the top of the door. Huh, a Clinic? She would worry about that later.
"The 'Armature' has denied all software intrusion, but I was able to analyze its hardware." The VI suite informed her as Jane locked her heat dispersal bolt forward on her Saber and checked her PiP screen to see that the walking tank was facing away from her. She rounded the corner of the cargo container and fired all eight shots in quick succession at the Armature's back, the rounds bouncing off its shields. "The hull's shielding is reinforced carbon nanotube interlaced with diamondglass and iridium-reinforced steel."
"Fuck, that's ship armor." Shepard realized, knowing what the Turian Hierarchy normally used for their Birds-of-Prey Corvette-Class vessels. "What else?" Jannie asked as she locked back the heat-dispensing bolt on her Saber. How in the fuck were they suppose to pierce ship armor with weapons meant for personnel?
"Suggested power analysis rates the power core at one point two one gigaWatts." The Lion felt her jaw drop at that. That… was the same power a Corvette generated on patrol operations! They were basically fighting a fucking ship on the ground! "A majority of energy consumption is based upon the main cannon, which has only fired once so far, suggesting a long cooldown period in between each shot."
"The drone is right!" Niki'Raan nar Tombay replied, the Migrant-Fleet Marine prospects' tone excited. "It fires once ever two standard Galactic minutes!" That was two and a two-thirds Terran minutes, if Jannie remembered correctly. That meant if they kept hitting the shields, the Armature wouldn't have the necessary power to use its plasmic cannon. Or it would have to drop its shields to fire. And the way those chainguns kept engaging, they had to be near their heat management limit unless the Geth had some way to shunt thermals while firing. The ground team had the Armature surrounded, engaging from the sides and rear while whomever the unit was facing kept mobile to avoid the chaingun fire and the possibility of the plasma cannon. Bastila was firing rockets as fast as it could, one every ten seconds, while its duel machine guns fired staccato from one to another to keep up the volume of fire without overheating. "Captain, I notice that the leg actuators aren't armored at the base of the hull. If we clip one of those, we might score a mobility kill!"
"That would make this significantly easier." Agent Zevin Raeka replied as she fired another triple-burst from her Kassa Fabrications' M-55 Argus Battle Rifle. The Salarian female clicked her tongue in disappointment as her rounds simply bounced off the shielding. The not-Dalatrass queued up her own OmniTool on her left arm, selecting something, and Jannie saw what appeared to be a globule of OmniGel launch itself like a football at the Armature. Not only did it pass through the kinetic shielding, when the globule impacted and cracked against the hull, it splashed into a magma-like slurry onto the hull. Shepard watched as the plasticity fluid superheated the armor, making it glow red.
"Zevin! Was that thermite?" The N7 called out as she watched the slurry continue to leak down the side of the main torso unit, neither dispersing or cooling down. It was the first indication of any kind of effectiveness.
"Chlorine trifluoride." The Salarian Agent announced as she scampered towards different cover, behind what appeared to be a piece of industrial equipment. "That hull is meant to disperse explosives. A slower thermal reaction works, like plasma or napalm."
"That I've got." Wrex chuckled over the SquadCom as the Krogan moved forward from his defensive position, pulling out what he called a Nakmor Arms M-490 Firestorm; a heavy weapon that had a cylindrical tank sticking out of the bottom. The Lion watched as the Krogan charged forward, sprinting at a speed three times faster than any Human Being as he practically barreled his way underneath the fifteen meter mech and aimed upward with the weapon in his hands. Jannie watched as it began to geyser out sticky flames upon the main hull of the Armature near where Raeka had initially hit the Geth unit, laughing as he set the platform on fire. Whatever he was using was sticking onto the hull as flames bloomed from the liquid slurry, looking like molten lava. "Now this really IS a firefight!"
"Jane, I have captured the shield's frequency modulation." Ghost spoke up from over Jannie's left shoulder as she watched Bastila continue to strafe and pepper the walking tank, its rockets splashing against the shields uselessly. "Intrinsic electrical field drain commencing."
"Suck that puppy dry, Ghost!" Jannie called out as she fired at the same spot where Wrex had set the Armature on fire. Her rounds still bounced off. "If anyone's got thermal or electrical munitions, use it with my compliments!"
"We've got that covered!" Specialist Niki'Raan nar Tombay called out as she continued to fire with her Adas ESD Rifle, a singular finger-thick arc of electrostatic discharge connecting from weapon to platform sparking back and forth. "We're using power cells at a prodigious rate, though!"
"Ghost! Link the energy drain program with the Quarians' power! Juice them!" Shepard called out as Lieutenant Alenko began firing grenades at the Armature, the rounds exploding off the shields but the contents passing right through, a splash of superheated slurry cascading over one of the legs, using incendiary rounds to try and melt through the armor. Jannie moved from cover to cover as the tank-like mech began to engage her position with its volley of chaingun fire, rounds striking against the side of the Clinic cargo container at such a blistering rate-of-fire that some began piercing through after a few seconds. Those damn things had to be firing at something like twelve shots per second. Each! A separate grenade impacted against the hull of the Geth, a dispersal concussive round fired from Staff Sergeant Williams' Heckler and Koch M320 Variable Munitions Launcher. It was added by a conic blast of electrical fury from Tali'Zorah nar Reyya's Reegar Carbine EME Shotgun, several arc fluxes linking between the weapon and the Geth. Another thermite charge exploded against the head of the Geth as Raeka launched her OmniGel round at the platforms' main sensor suite as Detective Garrus Vakarian put another Widow round towards the unit, and clipped the servo that connected hull to the front port leg. The tank actually staggered.
"HIT!" Ash whooped out, her tone jubilant. "Its shields are down!" Jannie was still behind her cover as rounds perforated the basaltic cover she had taken cover behind as the murderous chainguns still tried to fill her full of holes, the rocky outcropping being chipped away by its blistering rate-of-fire. She looked at her PiP from Bastila's point-of-view on her Augmented Reality Overlay on the inner portion of her helmets' visor to see the hit score.
"Either we're winning or its powering up that main cannon!" Jannie reminded her ground team, remembering one point two one gigaWatts as a power consumable. She had no idea how much it took to run the armored platform, how much it needed for its shields, and likely how much its emergency systems were trying to counter what her team was doing to it. But one point two one gigaWatts was a hell of a lot of power. "Keep going for that joint, Detective!" A look to Bastila's PiP overlay showed her what Jannie feared; the 'flashlight' was growing brighter, and it was pointing right at her position.
"Skipper! Bug out, now!"
Jane just fucking sprinted it, not bothering with finesse or tactical advantage as she felt more than saw the blast of plasmic death coat her position as the N7 executed a baseball slide to another cover position, some utility equipment vehicle meant to move around heavy objects. Great, she was hiding behind a forklift. A quick double-check of the basaltic cover she had previously occupied showed the rocky outcropping melting as everything around it in a three meter area was slagged with superheated slurry. Holy fuck that's a gun. A second slower and she wouldn't even have been organic sludge.
"Commander?" Kaidan's voice was almost panicky. "Your back's on fire!"
Well… shit.
"Hold still." Agent Raeka announced as, much to Jannie's horror, fired some OmniGel-encapsulated round at her, striking her in the back with noticeable force. The Lion grunted at the impact as a spray of Bose-Einstein condensate supercooled subatomic particles showered the back of her armor. "Fire's out." The Salarian sounded amused.
"Thanks." Jannie replied dryly. "Cortana? Damage assessment."
-Seventy-four percent of your backpiece has melted into ineffectiveness,- the feminine-sounding VI software management suite announced. -Thirty-eight percent of your tasset has melted into ineffectiveness. Twenty-nine percent of your port-side cuisse has melted into ineffectiveness. Seventeen…-
"Just give me a wiregram and percentage overlay, Cortana." Jannie was a little horrified at the damages she had sustained as the ARO showed her a semi-opaque icon of her armor with separate percentages for each component of her armor. It sounded like she had practically been gooified, and the percentages confirmed it. What she took that to mean was that her armor was likely combat-ineffective now. "Are environmental seals in place?"
-Negative.-
Well, she guessed the fire wasn't the only reason why she was feeling so hot. Jannie was now exposed to Therum's environment and its sixty Celsius heat. Wonderful. Waitaminute, the not-Dalatrass fired something cold at her…
"Raeka! Can you fire that cold blast thing at some of the thermal damage at the Armature? Rapid thermalization can crack metal much faster that heat can melt it." Considering that the hull was made out of synthetic diamond pieces integrated with iridium-laced steel molded together with reinforced carbon nanotubes, fire just wasn't going to cut it.
"A theory I can work with." The Special Task Groups Agent spoke out as Shepard peeked over her forklift to see the Salarian firing another OmniGel-encased round at the mech, striking where Wrex had poured heavy plasma slurry upon the torso. The round struck the glowing metal dead-on, passing right through the shields as the metal supercooled and the stress of rapid thermalization caused it to crack, a resounding popping noise echoing throughout the dig site bowl as a chunk of hull splintered off of the torso and fell. "Detective? Introduce yourself."
"With great pleasure." The Turian's flanged voice replied as a Widow round went through the shields of the platform and struck through the fist-sized hole created by the rapid thermalization. One of the legs shuddered as it began to jerk, its movements no longer smooth and coordinated. "Raan? Can you tag the interior of that hole?"
"I need it to stop moving for a moment!" The Quarian Pilgrim exclaimed, her tone excited. Jannie knew instantly what the RRU Sniper had in mind.
"Wrex? Make a bigger hole."
"Now we're talking." The Battlemaster chuckled as he raised a fist that seemingly wavered with heat, glowing faintly blue, activating his Biotics as he threw what appeared to be a cascading wave of force right at the hole before pulling out his Hunting Shotgun and putting a sabot round right at the damage. Whatever Wrex had used Biokinetically had weakened it further as the Graal round snapped more of the metal off, turning a fist-sized hole into something Jannie could stick her helmeted head through.
"For the Homeworld!" The Marine-hopeful shouted as Niki'Raan loaded a tag into her Adas ESD Rifle and fired it at the Armature, the metal connectivity tag firing right through the shields and into the damaged section of the hull. "HIT!" her tone was jubilant as the N7 watched the Quarian moved towards Tali'Zorah, ducking into her cover. "Cousin! Link with my tag!"
"Handshake successful!" The Quarian Engineer replied as both Pilgrim girls lifted their respective weapons and fired, the Reegar Carbine EME Shotgun and Adas ESD Rifle firing at the same time, several arcs of rapid ionization connecting as bolts of lighting arced between the Quarian weapons and the Armature, piercing inside.
The effect was instantaneous.
The Armature shuddered completely as it stopped moving, jerking once before it began to list to starboard, the mobility legs losing their ability to hoist the platforms' weight as it buckled and fell over, the flashlight dimming into darkness. It laid upon the ground, unmoving and unresponsive.
"Ghost? Analysis." Jannie called out as she stepped away from her cover, her Saber aimed at the mechanical platform, taking no chances.
"Power core reading is at zero Watts, Jane." The drone replied a moment later as it hovered over her left shoulder. "Zero carrier signal."
"Holy shit." The N7 let out a deep breath as she took a knee, feeling the sweat that was rapidly drying on her forehead from Therum's heat, beginning to truly feel the environment of the planet now that she wasn't in active combat. At that temperature, she'd likely couldn't drink water or electrolyte-rich fluids fast enough to keep herself hydrated. "Detective? I need a munitions and consumables report. Lieutenant? You, Zevin, and the Quarians go look for extra Power Cells. Sergeant Williams, I'm going to need you to look at my back." She hadn't noticed it before, but now that the fighting was down, she could feel the burning, itching feeling crawling along her back. "Yeah, pretty sure I got scorched. Meet me in the Clinic to my Starboard, might as well use it." Jannie felt a stab of guilt and regret at the mention of the Clinic. All she wanted to do was clear that damn dig site and find Sara, but she wouldn't be saving anyone being reckless, taking more casualties than necessary. It was already too late for the majority of the Marines of Red Platoon, Betelgeuse Company, but she wouldn't be saving anyone if she got herself or someone else killed out of impatience.
Jannie entered the Clinic with a pain in her heart as she turned on the main lights, seeing the OLED screen lights turn on a soft glow that illuminated the interior of the cargo container as Staff Sergeant Ashley Williams entered right behind her, closing the Clinic door as the air conditioning kicked in. The redhead pulled off her helmet and felt the cool relief caressing her heated skin, the interior of her armor having already reached forty degrees Celsius.
"Damn, Skipper, that Geth did a number on your back." Ash clucked as she looked at the Commanders' back. "I can probably get your armor resealed in a jiff, but it's a combat loss, I'm afraid. That's pretty sweet armor, too. How long did it take to make it look like Master Chiefs'?"
"About a week or so." Jannie admitted as she began undoing the chest piece and backpiece of her curiess, grunting at the fact that she had to break off whatever melted materials had fused them together. She frowned at the sight of the backpiece, seeing that it had almost melted through, and the rest look like slag. Ash was right; it was a complete write-off. "I've got two other armors back on the Normandy, but this was my heavy armor. And yeah, my favorite." She winced as cool air touched her combat undersuit and seeped to her back, where it felt raw and hot. "Find me some burn cream. Should be in… that locker there. Near the top, alphabetical according to type." Williams nodded once slowly, obviously understanding why the N7 would know where to look. Not every Clinic was organized the same, but one look at the locked locker filled with controlled pharmaceuticals and another that wasn't locked had been an easy guess. As for the organization skill, Jannie knew who owned the Clinic.
Jannie took her backpiece to a nearby examination table and found a spare canister of common-grade OmniGel, the carbon nanotube programmable material able to seal up her armor, though by no means would it be combat-grade protection, even for light armor. Attaching the canister to a port on her hip, Jannie activated her Kassa Fabrication Polaris OmniTool and queued up an armor patch program, scanning her backpiece's dimensions and began spraying it with the programmable material to adhere and seal the breaches in her armor.
"Found the burn cream, Skipper." The Soldier called out as she brought out several packets, as well as a few other items in hand. "Grabbed some anti-inflammatory meds and some pain-relievers as well. Well-organized drug locker. Hers, isn't it? The Angel's?"
"Yes." That was all the N7 could trust herself to say. GodGodGod PLEASE let Sara be okay! "Give me a moment to finish spraying my armor, and then you can slather my back." Jannie tried not to notice how bad her back itched and burned. Blisters at the very least. Doctor Chakwas would have better back on the Normandy, as well as a full-suite nagging session on-hand. Naval Surgeons were like that. Shepard continued to spray the OmniGel over the backpiece of her Armax Arsenal Predator H-Series Armor, seeing the OmniGel congeal and harden against what was still in existence, making at least a physical barrier. Cortana would be able to provide a hardware assessment and account for how much damage to the internal systems was done, but there was no fixing that out on the field. She'd have to make do for the time being. "There. Give it a minute to let the Gel adhere and fix properly."
"Alright, Navy. No courtesy dinner and a movie for this date. Lose the top like it's shore leave." Ash was smirking a little too much as her brown eyes twinkled in humor, and Jannie just snorted, unable to stop her own grin as she undid the electromagnetic bindings of her combat underarmor and slipped her arms out of the sleeves as she pulled the shoulders down to reveal her torso and Navy-issued sports bra. "Oh. Oh fuck." The tone and words from Williams said it all.
"Bad?" Jannie asked, trying not to wince. The pain was centered from her right shoulder and going down to her back. She had been hit with plasma, and some of it had either splashed onto her armor, or the heat had been bad enough to cause a molecular reaction anyhow, generally in the form of inflamed flesh and blistering.
"It's… not good." Ash replied, and the Lion turned to see the woman wincing. "Looks like one huge fucking blister, Commander, with a bunch of weeping ones surrounded by red skin. It's… probably going to permanently scar." Unlike guys, girls didn't want to be known for their scars.
"Perhaps it'll match with my bullet scars." Shepard replied dryly, knowing that Ash was doing her best to let her down gently. "Go ahead and pop the worst ones and apply the cream. Slap a couple of dry dressings on it and we'll Charlie Mike. I am not exfill'ing out on a MEDEVAC."
"Understood, ma'am. Just…" A gentle hand went onto her left shoulder, and Jannie saw Ash looking at her with concern. "Don't get yourself so hurt that Sara blames herself, Commander. I know how that guilt feels, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone." Damn, Eden Prime was still heavy on Williams' mind. No surprise there. Jannie reached up with her right hand and placed it on top of Ash's on her left shoulder, wincing slightly from the pain as her skin on her back moved with the gesture. Still, it was worth it to see the Soldier's dark face lighten up slightly from the sympathy and comfort. Yeah, Jannie knew that guilt, too. From Elysium, in fact, remembering that stab of fear she felt when she realized what thirteen-year old Sara Ryder had done, jumping Citadel and going to wartorn Elysium to find her. Sara had saved her life, but she could have easily been killed or captured in her efforts. Lieutenant Alenko had a point, Goddamn it. She'd have to apologize later.
"Do what you can for my back, Ash. And… apprish." Shepard thanked the Soldier, glad that she had saved this Soldier, this sole survivor. Fierce and dedicated, Williams was a credit to the Systems Alliance Colonial Army and then some. She deserved this mission, the hunt for Saren, and this mission deserved her. Shit was tough, and yet Ash rolled with it like a true professional, a woman dedicated to cause and crew. Jannie had known many Sailors and Marines in her years of service, and she'd be hard-pressed to come up with a better example outside of Special Forces than Ashley Madeline Williams, and even including a few N's, to boot. Carrying a Kowloon's worth of grief and rage, and yet able to carry it on top of her duties and responsibilities well. Jannie winced a little as she felt a small prick into the tender flesh of her back, sucking in a little breath at the pain.
Hold on, Sara, Jannie told herself as Williams pressed her fingers onto what was likely a back-sized blister upon her back to make it weep out fluids, I'm coming, kiddo.
I promise.
Twenty minutes later, the Normandy's ground team was entering into the confines of Dig Site Alpha.
Commander Jane Shepard was taking point as her hoverturret Bastila floated by her side, its weapons and sensors scanning as her drone Ghost scanned the topographical dimensions of the Dig Site, attempting to access any friendly networks and computers for any correlating information that she could use as Jannie held her M-99 Saber Battle Rifle at the ready, stalking down the downward sloping tunnel that lead towards the dig site proper. She didn't know the layout of the Dig Site itself, but what little Sara had Chirped gave her an idea that the entrance tunnel lead towards a massive cavern that was the base camp for the expedition, where she would likely find the tents for the two teams there, both Serrice and Oxford University. Ryder had given her an idea what the evacuation plan was in case of attack; the civilians would be gathered and led towards a lift that would lead the civilians deeper into the Prothean Site, giving them access to another tunnel that had cavern with a 'skylight' for shuttle extraction. Either Sara and her Marines were will the civilians, or they were in a choke-point.
The ground team hadn't encountered any more Geth since the first dozen or so outside the dig site.
"No dataware signals detected, Jane." Ghost spoke quietly through its modulated vocalizer, the volume kept low for reconnaissance purposes. "Advisory, unknown if low-powered unit will be discovered by sweeper scans or data access until confirmation."
"Noted." That was a nice way of saying Ghost didn't know if there was a Geth unit bunkered down behind a rock somewhere, only semi-active until it was time for an ambush or the Geth Gods delivered a signal. "Everyone, keep frosty. You see a toaster, bore its chest open to make sure." Hell, it wasn't like they were actually 'alive', were they? Besides, according to Niki'Raan nar Tombay and Tali'Zorah nar Reyya, the platforms were merely vehicles for the Geth, their consciousness really just being adaptable programs and software. Destroying a hardware platform didn't even kill them, just denied them a usable asset. Fuckers. "There's a lift in the back, through the main cavern and past a catwalk. Keep eyes open for any Systems Alliance personnel or civilians. Eyes and weapons up, folks." Jannie moved forward, escorted by Bastila and Ghost as her Saber swept and cleared the forward arc in front of her, her footsteps soft and sure as she moved in an isosceles stance; leg bent slightly while leaning forward from her hips and keeping her back straight to reduce recoil and instability. She flitted through the cavern, spotting the Expeditionary Camp, two different sides down the 'road' that led down the middle. Ah, no mingling; Sara had mentioned that. "Ghost, sweep the camp for organics and synthetics." The personal drone floated away as it went to the port side camp while the redhead continued down the path that bisected the camps, heading towards where she thought the catwalk would be.
"I'm detecting no life signs, Captain." Tali'Zorah was somewhere in the middle of the column, having raised her Armali Council Nexus OmniTool, sending her own OmniGel-encased contragravity utility drone she called Chatika vas Paus. "Negative replication signals detected as well. You can't look for energy output in a powered-down Geth unit, Captain. You look for computing cycles."
"Ghost? Change and adapt perimeters for search detailing calculations and Quantum computing." Jannie told her own drone. "Thanks, Tali."
"Huzzah." That almost had Shepard pause, hearing the Turian war cry coming from a Quarian vox. It was almost… comical, especially when Detective Garrus Vakarian grunted at the sound, hoisting his ERCS M-15 Vindicator Battle Rifle onto his shoulder, the two plus meter tall Turian scanning the area as he queued up his Cipritine Armory Nordash OmniTool and scanned as well, likely with some C-SEC-oriented program, or even a specialized one from Rapid Response Unit.
"Place smells clean." Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex called out, his unhelmeted head swiveling back and forth as his eyes moved independent to one another, covering a wide arc on both sides at the same time. The big game hunter insisted on going without a helmet, and now Jannie understood why; he used his sense of smell much like a dog did. "Nobody's been here in many hours."
"Assuming does nothing to promote a long life." Jannie replied, though she guessed it was somewhat nice to know that the Krogan could sniff stuff out like a hound. Their drones and OmniTools could be hacked or interfered with, but no Geth would be messing with an olfactory sense. What she did not was that there were several Geth bodies up ahead, hardware platforms laying in crumpled heaps. These weren't ambushers. "Got some enemy KIA ahead."
"There are seventy-four platforms, Jane. No computing cycles detected, and each have suffered battle damage." Ghost informed Jannie, the drone retuning to the group from the starboard side of the camp. "There is no recent trace of organic presence detected."
"The most recent I am picking up is at less than twenty-one hours." The RRU Sniper supplied, his Nordash OmniTool's scanner obviously keyed more towards investigations, probably to detect blood traces and DNA. Jannie was actually pretty impressed. "My guess? Your Angel sent the message at first sight of something wrong. It would fit; the transmission was cut during the datasend."
"She probably sent the only distress signal, and she sent it to someone she knew would do something immediately." Jannie realized what that all meant. The Marines on Therum weren't caught completely unaware, but they knew they were likely outnumbered. Sara had sent a quick message to her knowing that 'Auntie' would take care of the rest; reinforcements and rescue operations. Perhaps the emergency signal beacon that was installed had been cut off by the Geth, so Sara had tried something they hadn't expected; a low-encrypted quick Chirp on the low-bandwidth. The Geth had cut it off, but not in time. Sara had bought the Marines and the civilians at the Dig Site the only chance they would have with her quick-thinking.
"Good work, kiddo. Proud of you." Jannie whispered as she moved forward, her weapon trained on the fallen Geth as she was flanked by Urdnot Wrex and Staff Sergeant Ashley Williams, the both of them hoisting their respective light machine guns. "Move and sweep, and double-check for Blue Screen of Death." Jannie ordered as she kept her Saber in her right hand as she drew her laser-sighted Alliance Offensive Firearms Initiative M-5 Phalanx Combat Pistol in her left as she moved forward, putting a round into the chest of each Geth she approached. Williams was doing the same with her ERCS M-3 Predator Combat Pistol while Wrex had his own elegant solution; he merely stomped upon the chest of each Geth he passed by, cracking the chassis with his size fifty-four boot, much to Jannie's amusement. Damn that looked cathartic.
"I could have just fried them, you know." Tali'Zorah offered over the SquadCom, suggesting her Reegar Carbine EME Shotgun.
"We can afford the ammo blocks, Zorah, but Power Cells are in finite supply." Shepard reminded the Quarian, who nodded her purple-adorned helmet in understanding. The Reegar, and Niki'Raan's Adas, were rather frightening weapons to behold, and would be more useful when they found numerous live Geth, not putting down zero-signal platforms. "Remind me to get you physical munitions weapons as well as extra Power Cell carrying cases for deployments." Hell of a way to have a learning curve, but Poppa Bear always said that every battle had a lesson to be learned. Jannie wasn't pleased that they had to hit the ground running, but so far she was pretty damn impressed with her eclectic, cobbled-together crew of multi-species origins. When the finished up with Therum and healed up, she'd have to get some ground-time to mesh them together to be even more effective, but right now she had the goods. That was half the battle. "The lift should be up ahead. Look for any signs of deployment, defenses, or… or bodies." Seventy-four platforms had been taken down in a group, most of them having been shot, but there were a few that looked battered instead of pierced by bullets.
Biotics. Sara had been here.
"Let's move, people." Jannie tried not to wince visibly as she shoulder her Saber, her back stinging from the earlier injury that was currently medicated and dressed, but it still stung like a son of a bitch. Thankfully, Staff Sergeant Ashley Williams knew her trade well. The Colonial Army hadn't skimped on its Soldiers, thankfully. "Keep those drones tight. They'll probably be the first thing the Geth hack." Tali'Zorah and Agent Zevin Raeka both had drones out, the Quarians' a fully-functional utility drone that provided some sort of electrical discharge for defensive purposes, while the Salarian Agents' was an OmniGel-crafted reconnaissance drone with a suicide protocol for exploitation. Damn, that shit was scary. Jannie wanted one. Ghost and Bastila might get jealous. Well, as jealous as programs could get.
They left the main cavern and found three tunnels leading 'south', but thankfully Jannie was able to see a catwalk that spanned over a chasm, connecting to a rock face and traveling along its length. The N7 saw more Geth bodies at the entrance to the tunnel; a choke point. The first seventy-four bodies had been taken down by Marines holding the choke point, using the narrow passage to give them maximum coverage, likely having four firers at a time. Then when the opposition got too great, they abandoned the position and used the narrow entrance as a killzone, using the entrance as a fatal funnel to take out what appeared to be another four dozen Geth units. There were more platforms decorating the path and catwalk ahead, another two dozen or so. Someone had fought and fought hard to slow the Geth down and ensure maximum casualties on the enemy's part.
They hadn't run into one friendly casualty yet in the interior of the Dig Site yet. That was good.
Jannie stalked down the catwalk with tactical efficiency, her Saber scanning as Ghost obediently hovered over her left shoulder, Bastila attached to her backplate for the time being. The rest of the team trailed her in a singular column, their weapons of choice in their hands and whatever toys they wished ready dish out in case they encountered the Geth. The catwalk was longer than Shepard suspected, bending with the rockface it was attached to, but it led past a chasm in which a lift was connected to the end of it, likely either the shortest distance or the safest route one could take to the bottom of the Prothean ruin. More Geth platforms were upon the corrugated alumnisteel grating of the catwalk as Jannie approached the lift, seeing a physical mechanism that would take them up and down.
"Pilgrims? Double-check that elevator and make sure that the Geth haven't fucked with it." The Commander ordered, knowing that would be exactly what she would have done. Both Tali'Zorah and Niki'Raan moved towards the alumnisteel conveyance as the rest of the ground team pulled security. Jannie was a little bothered by the fact that the Geth hadn't left more units at checkpoints or to pull rear-watch, especially after destroying the entrance guards and that Armature of theirs. The loss of the walking tank platform should have roused the troops… unless the mission was more important, and within reach. "When we reach the bottom," Jannie looked to her team, "we'll need to double-time it."
"You think that the Geth are too close to their objective to pull units away to stall us." Detective Garrus Vakarian realized, and honestly Shepard shouldn't have been surprised that a veteran cop would get it. He probably saw similar to this with criminals on the Cit.
"That would be about the only time I would risk it; when the prize was almost at hand." The N7 replied, Sergeant Williams nodding in agreement. "Check sectors of fire, but we push through." They had done something similar on Eden Prime, foregoing other possible objectives and potential rescues to recover the derelict Prothean Beacon that had been in the Constant Spaceport. Jannie knew that Ash didn't take it well knowing they could have been saving lives instead of collecting a fifty-thousand year old relic, but she had been a Soldier long enough to know that denying the enemy the win might have been more vital. When the Beacon's security field had activated when Williams had gotten too close, Jannie had recklessly grabbed the Colonial Army Soldier and pulled her out, taking her place. The N7 hadn't wanted to lose the last remaining member of the Eden Prime Colonial Army 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry after all they had been through. Ash blamed herself for the loss of the Beacon. Jannie blamed Saren and the Geth.
"Elevator is clean, Captain." Tali piped up, the Quarian Engineer giving a nod of her purple-tinted helmet and headscarf, what she called a reilk.
"No explosive components detected." Niki added, the Quarian Marine-hopeful nodding her blue-tinted helmet and headscarf in the same fashion.
"Good. Let's hope it still works now."
Me and my big fucking mouth. 'Gee, I hope this deathtrap still works'. Famous last words, anyone?
The elevator got stuck about ten meters above the bottom of the chasm in which the Normandy Ground Team was riding down to, and Commander Jane Shepard wasn't amused. At all.
"I got this." The Krogan Battlemaster spoke up as everyone shifted to let the big game hunter Urdnot Wrex towards the conveyance door as the one ton Krogan leapt out with a hearty laugh, falling to the distant ground with a loud thud, landing on both feet rather gracefully, Jannie noted. The Krogan unlimbered his Cipritine Armory Phaeston Heavy Automatic Rifle, scanning the chasm floor with those creepy independently-moving eyes of his, no doubt, as he gave the air a test with his nose, sniffing it out. "Clear. Come down, and I'll catch you."
"It's a three-story drop, Wrex." Shepard reminded the Krogan below them.
"I'll catch you squishy mortals, no worries." The smug tone of amusement was enough to send Jannie's teeth grinding as she chanced it, taking a step off the platform and falling, falling, falling until she felt… lighter? The Krogan indeed caught her one-handed, smirking toothily as he set her down in a gentlemanly fashion. "See?"
"Biotics. You used Biotics to slow me down." The N7 realized. She had noticed him using them only once before, but then again only the Asari seemed to have some physical cue when they engaged their Biokinetic force, turning more bluish. Neither Scott nor Sara seemed to have ever conjured some blue corona around themselves whenever they used their own Biotics, and Jannie had seen Scott use his Biotics quite a great deal playing for the Presidium Predators for the Amateurs BiotiBall League back on the Cit, 'Aunt Jannie' vidcording all of Scottie's games and watching them.
"If you tell anyone, I'll kill you." The Krogan replied in a grumpy voice as he looked up at the remaining ground team members. "Might make the Turian squeal, though. That's always good for a laugh."
"Only if you wish to piss off the sniper with the really powerful gun." Jannie replied as she shouldered her M-99 Saber, making Wrex grunt. "Let's get them down so we can crush some cans." She was trying not to sound too impatient, but when she looked down the route the chasm would lead them to, another cavern, her heart skipped a beat as she thought of Sara. God, kiddo, why couldn't you have stayed a Cit paramedic? That had been a civil argument a few years back when little Sara Ryder told her Auntie what she wanted to do next with her life. Sara had a full-ride scholarship to no less than four different medical-oriented Universities, to include the Citadel University and John Hopkins on Earth! Instead, Sara wanted to be a grunt. A medic grunt, true, but a grunt. Six years at the finest fucking school on the Citadel (and likely the Goddamn galaxy) as the only Human Being to have ever passed the rigorous academic admissions examination.
The Presidium Academy of Education was one of the most venerated educational institutions in the galaxy, and anyone who was anyone sought to have their kids go there. As Jannie understood it (from Sara, no less), the past three Turian Primarchs had attended, more than half of the current Quorum of Dalatrasses that essentially ran the Salarian Union, a good many influential Matriarchs donated heavily into the institution, and something like the past thirty or so galactic Councilors had attended the prestigious Academy. Its alumni included mega corporation leaders, cluster-spanning politicians, media moguls, decorated military heroes, acclaimed artists, and influential activists. Sara graduated near the top of her peerage, not only earning high grades in her educational requirements, but also in the competition-styled peerage against her contemporaries at the Academy.
And then she went and became a grunt.
Jannie pulled local security as Wrex helped the rest of the ground team to the bottom of the chasm, even Detective Garrus Vakarian (after threatening to drop him with a 'har har har' while assisting him downward). It made the N7 miss the jump packs that N's generally had on-hand during SpecOps missions, contragravity microthrusters that would help boost jumping, landings, and moving faster upon the battlefield. Honestly, she should requisition some for the whole team. It just seemed silly to do without. Ground team secured and on the same level, the Commander moved forward at a fast pace in the isometric stance drilled into her since the Military Academy, her M-99 Saber at the ready as Ghost scanned ahead of them for any threat or note-worthy intelligence.
"Captain? I'm picking up data spikes." Tali'Zorah chimed up, her vox being kept low for noise discipline. "Minor strength. Battle formations, I think. Range is about fifty meters."
"Ground team, prepare for assault." Jannie detached Bastila from her back, the hoverturret floating above the ground as it activated its weapon systems. "Ghost? Go passive and scout ahead for enemy positions and fortifications. Everyone? Bring the pain and set lasers for fun." She pulled out from her Modular Package on her left thigh her Smart Attenuated Combat Optic Group Scope, a software-driven targeting system that could correct deviations of minute-of-angle upon an identified target… regardless of their position. The next thing she did was lock back the heat dispersal bolt and pulled off the upper receiver cover to expose the internal mechanism of her M-99 Saber as she pulled out the Shaver mechanism for a custom-crafted shaver that she herself had made, made to shape a round into different aerodynamic shapes for better predictable flight. Inserting the custom shaver, Jannie reinstalled the receiver and attached the SACOG on her Saber, smiling as she installed what she called her Operative Package. Her prior N Team had a different name for the hand-crafted SACOG Scope and custom-made ammo block shaver combination that Jannie had built herself.
Jannie double-checked that everyone was armed and ready as she watched her helmets' ARO display populating with wireframe figures to represent the Geth, the N7 being able to 'see' them through walls. There were red wireframes that looked to be lying on he ground; 'deceased' Geth platforms. The blue ones were active, and Ghost populated the number totaled at a hundred-and-fifteen. Holy shit that was a lot of Geth.
"Cortana? Link and populate ARO diagram to friendly users." Jannie told her armor's VI, the digital female figure set at the bottom left of her sight nodding in compliance. "This is going to get messy, so I'm leading off until the Geth figure out what we're doing. Tali, keep eyes on the data spikes and tell me when they adapt. Stay put right here until I give the order." Jannie lifted her rifle and began speaking tag numbers representing the blue wireframe Geth representations to Cortana, who tight-beamed the information to Ghost.
"How are you going to hit them from here? They're behind a wall and around a corner." Detective Garrus Vakarian asked, sounding mystified.
"I can curve a fucking bullet." Jannie smiled as she began to fire.
Eight rounds were fired in quick succession as Commander Jane Shepard pulled the trigger of her Alliance Offensive Firearms Initiative M-99 Saber Battle Rifle, firing at an apparently empty space in front of her with no targets. Each round was extracted from the ammo block of the rifle, normally just a pre-determined packet of NiFe MuMetal that was calibrated to the target based upon auto-targeting software, the weapons' on-board software management suite, and environmental conditions. Too small a round, too light, or not fast enough, and it would be useless. Too large, too heavy, or too fast, and it might not even cause enough damage. There was a complete set of highly-evolved mathematics involved in modern-day weaponry, to make an efficient weapon that could handle as many scenarios and situations as possible, to achieve maximum amount of damage with as little collateral as possible, and to prevent hull breeches or isolation chamber breeches for safety purposes. All of this data was collected, cataloged, and collated in a weapons' management software suite to 'shave' the perfect round for the target; maximum efficiency.
But a bullet could only go straight… unless someone went and cheated.
The custom-made ammo block shaver that Jannie had created had come as an idea to her after watching some old Earth action flick called 'WANTED'. The movie, while lame, had an exotic concept in which assassins could 'curve' bullets by retardedly swinging their arms while firing a pistol to project a flight arc in which a bullet sailed in a semi-circular fashion to strike perfectly at a target behind objects, walls… whatever. While that was impossible, it was theoretically possible to make an object curve if said object were designed to be aerodynamically appropriate for such flight. That was principle of heavier-than-air flight, actually.
So Jannie went an invented an ammo shaver that created exotic shapes; bullet planes, as it were.
Each round, tagged by her Saber, linked with Cortana and Ghost, minifactured each bullet based upon the projected arc of travel that went around a rock wall, executing a starboard curve to strike upon a target. Each round was uniquely-shaped depending upon the individual's position, distance, degree, and azimuth, microgrades of indentions, fins, and aerodynamic sweeps ingrained into each round to fly upon the mathematically-projected path. She still had to aim, of course, and the SACOG was what she had to create in order to do so, detailing an ARO digital pathway in which she would have to aim her weapon to fire upon what was essentially empty space in her eye, but the perfectly-projected flight path for each round. Jannie aimed at eight red dots with her SACOG sights, and fired eight times in rapid succession before locking back her heat dispersal bolt.
Eight rounds shot forth from her Saber, and they began to curve.
Each round flew forth at subluminal speeds, each calculated to reach the target at a set perimeter determined by the modulation of the round, the distance, the environmental conditions, and the conditions of the enemy. The rounds were extracted from a block of Nickle-Iron, each sized appropriate for maximum effectiveness against defenses and to cause damage. All of this was managed by the on-board software management suite on her M-99 Saber, like it was with any other modern firearm. Any weapon whose suite had been damaged or sabotage simply had a hunk of ceramic and plastics. Yet for her Operative Package, the custom-made shaver also included indentions, grooves, stabilizing fins, and spiraling twists to aid the rounds' flight to the target. Each was a marvel of aerodynamic propulsion, curving along a calculated arc of travel by means of shape and projected energy as the round traveled around the radius that had them head down the chasm, curving around the corner in a perfectly circular forty-five degree curve, and flying right towards their designated targets.
Within four seconds, four Geth units dropped due to permanent malfunctions from an unknown, unobserved shooter.
The N7 locked her heat dispersal bolt forward as she fired eight more times, the calculations having already been performed by Ghost upon four more Geth targets as Jannie took down the next set of observed wireframe individuals she could see through her ARO displaying on the inner curve of her helmets' visor, aiming at the projected reticles that defined the proper aiming point for her Saber, while the rounds themselves traveled in lateral arc towards their targets, and Jannie locked back her bolt as four more wireframe units went from blue to red, from standing to on the ground. That was eight.
"GawDAMN." Staff Sergeant Ashley Williams breathed out, her helmet's vox putting it out, and Jannie's' picking it up. "I want one."
"So do I." Special Reconnaissance Agent Zevin Raeka added, her tone almost dreamy.
"I get first dibs." Detective Garrus Vakarian insisted, and it didn't sound like anyone was going to argue with the RRU Sniper.
"Make your own. Like I did." Jannie replied as she locked her bolt forward, Ghost and Cortana having already done the calculations for the next four Geth units closest, but the reticles were becoming more spaced apart, more erratic. That was the downfall to the Operative Package; it really only worked on static enemies, which was why she didn't use it all the time. Against a moving enemy, the tracing curve would either miss, or calculations would never keep up. Likewise, a dispersed enemy would be out of a cone of acceptance, the projective curves unable to target. The amount of a curve was projected only between thirty-two and a half degrees to forty-seven and a half degrees in a minute-of-angle corresponding with distance. It could do minor curves between zero and fifteen degrees, but every 'shift' in the protracted angle needed verification of calculations, and the custom-made shaver couldn't make a shallow curve round and a full curve on top of it, swapping back and forth. Her design, while amazing, had its limitations. Well, it served its purpose of hitting an enemy without exposing oneself in a variety of situations. Eight more shots were fired as three more Geth units were struck, the M-99 Saber rounds impacting against the kinetic-dampening shields before the second round went through and pierced metal chassis to 'kill' the platform.
The fourth unit, illuminated by wireframe, juked out of the way.
"Captain!" Zorah shouted out in warning. Adaptation.
"Advance!" The N7 shouted as she moved forward, her team moving right behind her into a line, rounding the corner that lead into a cavern where the route presented a basin of earth and dirt, littered with Geth. Her team moved to either side of her in a line, standing shoulder-to-shoulder as they took a position of assault, weapons discharging as one. The noise of so many weapons going off at the same time inside the cavern was deafening as a N7 Hurricane Submachine Gun, a M-15 Vindicator Battle Rifle, a Phaeston Heavy Assault Rifle,a Milkor SuperSix MPML, a M-76 Reverent Light Machine Gun, a M-55 Argus Battle Rifle, an Adas ESD Rifle, and a Reegar Carbine EME Shotgun fired with full prejudice, added to by the several different drones and their unique munitions programs as the Normandy Ground Team engaged the Geth. Dozens and dozens of rounds were expended in the first fifteen seconds of the assault as Geth Trooper Units wilted under the devastating fire, units barely lasting seconds against such munitions as rounds, explosives, and electrostatic discharge ripped through the clustered ranks of synthetic foes, bringing low hardware platforms. Whatever the Geth had been up to, her ground team had interrupted as one half of the remaining Geth were orienting to face the Normandiers as the other half were continuing with their original objective.
The Geth were fighting someone else.
Jannie continued firing her Alliance Offensive Firearm Initiative N7 Hurricane Submachine Gun, locking the heat dispensing bolt back and transitioning to her M-5 Phalanx Combat Pistol as her Hurricane cooled down, the enemy thick enough that only moderate aiming was necessary as she engaged a heavier platform with the powerful handgun, using the infrared laser sight to deliver accurate rounds quickly. She took down the heavier unit that they called Destroyers in five shots, ratcheting the heat sink slide back on her Phalanx before locking it back into place to put rounds into a Shock Trooper armed with a Geth-styled shotgun that fired some sort of energy pulse charge that fizzled shields.
"An Alpha Prime Unit!" Niki'Raan nar Tombay called out, and Jannie's ARO updated with the sight of a Geth unit that was heads and shoulders taller than all the other units. She had faced one on Eden Prime, and it had been a mean mother to bring down. "It's the command and control unit! Bring it down, and the rest won't get updates or commands!"
"I got this." The big game hunter called out as the Krogan known as Urdnot Wrex lowered his bony headplate and charged forward, battering aside smaller units with his arms and his head, seemingly unperturbed that he was rushing straight into a three-sided firefight as he reached the gigantic hardware platform. Wrex gave off a bestial roar as his hand clutched at the unit, grabbing it by the neck support and the hip actuator, lifting it up over his head before the half-tonne Krogan brought it down onto his knee, cracking it in half. Wrex let the unit drop to the ground as it tried to move away from the big game hunter, trailing useless legs as the Krogan pulled out his Korogish Graal Hunting Shotgun and put a high-velocity round through its chest. And then its head.
The Geth froze in place.
"Take the advantage!" Jannie hollered out as she pulled out her M-99 Saber Battle Rifle with the Operative Package still attached as Ghost began compiling targets and tagging them to Cortana, who then collated it to the rifle. The Operative Package wasn't the best choice in a stand-up firefight, but with the enemy right in front of her and seemingly stunned? It would be a turkey shoot. The Lion of Elysium fired her rifle as quick as she could pull the trigger, sending eight aerodynamically-shaped rounds to eight separate targets as Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko began firing wide-angle blast grenades from his Milkor MPML while Staff Sergeant Williams sprayed Reverent fire in wide arcs. Tali'Zorah's Reegar Carbine was devastating, arcs of ionization lacing towards a dozen units, turning the area into a web of electrical fury while Niki'Raan attached some OmniChip to a Universal Power Cell and hurled it as far as she could in the middle of the Geth position, the Power Cell detonating catastrophically, taking out three Destroyers and one coined a Juggernaut, along with half a dozen smaller ones. Detective Garrus Vakarian had switched to his M-98 Widow, operating the powerful sniper rifle with quick precision, each shot lethal while Agent Zevin Raeka programmed something into her OmniTool and raised it, a dozen microrockets flying out to burst at random targets.
"Ghost! Give me something to hack!" Jannie called out as Bastila continued to lace the area with machine gun fire as Jannie sent another volley of curving bullets into targets, bringing down ones with weakened shields. Wrex was still in the middle of the fray, having picked up a Hunter model and using it as a club, swatting Geth units left and right. Well… whatever worked.
"Geth explosive packages are unprotected, Jane."
"Brute Attack DDoS, Ghost! Detonate!" The N7 called out as she looked to the Krogan in the middle of battle. "Wrex! Frag out, big time!"
Everything in front of them blew up. Magnificently.
Jannie hit the deck as shrapnel and Geth pieces pattered everything in the cavern like steel rain, a readout of her shields indicating that a few pieces were deadened by her kinetic shields dropping enough to warrant dropping to the ground and making herself as small a target as possible. Everyone else beside her had likewise done the same as dozens of explosions went off simultaneously, like a detonate-in-place or a cook-off. Plumbs of smoke and dust choked the area as Jannie lifted her head up before getting onto a knee and raising her Saber at the ready to scan for survivors.
It looked like every Geth was carrying a grenade… and every grenade went off.
"Damn, Skipper." Sergeant Williams whistled appreciatively, the Colonial Soldier getting up on her feet along with the others. "You really know how to throw a barbecue, don't you?" The cavern floor was littered with the pieces of Geth units, most of them blasted in half from where their grenades were stored at their waists, and more than a few had fallen victim to multiple simultaneous explosions, not much left save for the chest chassis and sheered metal limbs.
"When I throw a party, I throw a party." Jannie quipped back as she stalked forward, looking for survivors. "Wrex, you okay?"
"Nothing a few bottles of Ryncol won't cure." The Krogan replied, having moved just enough out of the wide blast radius to still be standing, though there was some obvious light scorching to his armor as he casually wiped off a few pieces of Geth off of his armor, without concern at all. "Besides, that was an impressive fight. Great finale, too." Great, she had the Krogan's seal of approval, evidently.
"Eyes up and open. We weren't the only ones the Geth were fighting." Shepard had seen the Geth firing further down into the cavern, where a tunnel exited towards another direction. In front of the tunnel was some pre-fabricated defensive barriers, small equipment containers, and a few pieces of construction equipment built into a semi-circle around the entrance; an obvious defensive position. There had to be dozens if not hundreds of Geth platforms that hadn't been active when her ground team arrived, a good many of them meters from the position, enough to where they made a small hill. Someone had fought back, and fought back hard.
"Gunny? That you?" A voice called out.
A feminine voice.
A familiar voice.
"Sara!" Jannie called out after she disengaged her helmet, a broad smile growing on her lips as she moved forward, mag-locking her M-99 Saber to her chest as she saw from behind what appeared to be a laser drill someone stand in Sirta Foundations' Phoenix Light Armor, a medical variant of it where the chestpiece strongly suggested that the owner was in fact a woman. The helmet came off, and for the first time in just over two years, Commander Jane Shepard saw a face she had been hoping to see once more, alive and well.
Sara Elaine Ryder.
"Auntie!" The Angel wasted no time stepping around the laser drill as that youthful face broke out into a grin as she ran right into the Lion, colliding into the redhead as their arms embraced one another fiercely, Sara choking off an escaped sob as she held onto Jannie in a near death grip, drawing a ragged breath as Jannie held her close, feeling her tremble even through her armor. God? THANK YOU, the N7 thought to herself as she held the Angel of Illyeria, the Lion of Elysium feeling that fear recede. Sara was still alive. Thank God she was still alive. "You came! I… I didn't know if my message…"
"Shhh, it's okay, Sara. You did well." Jannie saw eleven figures slowly creeping out from the defensive position that Sara had been holding; six Marines, three armed Turians, and two Asari. Their faces were clearly surprised from the heavy intervention on their behalf, but no one was about to argue over it. For the moment, everything was well. After seven long years of owing a personal debt Jannie never thought she would ever get a chance to repay, she had come to Sara's aid. Jannie didn't give a fuck how many Geth she would have to plow through to get off this hellhole.
This time, the Lion would save the Angel.
Author's Note: Awww, a happy chapter ending! But we're not off of Therum yet.
Scott Michael Ryder - Like Sara, Scott is getting an update. BiotiBall is something like volleyball, basketball, and Biotics, according to Cerberus Daily News wikia. Scott was the only human on his team, much like Sara was the only human on her Skybulance when she was with the CitEMS. This is the first real mention of Scott that I've had save for Sara's letter to him back in Chapter 1 and the picture in Chapter 4.
1.21 gigaWatts - So totally stole this from 'Back To The Future'. Great Scott!
Biotic Blue Corona - Really, that was just a physical cue for the game for the player to know awesomeness was being used. Since most energy isn't apparent on the visible spectrum, Biotics don't 'glow' when using their Biokinetic force. There will be an apparent mirage, but that's it.
For the Alumni of the Presidium Academy, I simply looked up the Times 100 and took at look at the jobs they held.
WANTED - Yes, I stole the bullet curve out of the movie. Physically, all bullets curve downward from gravity, and have a minute-of-angle due to aerodynamics and the nose-shape of the round. Theoretically, one could make a custom round with a certain shape for a 'predictable' flight path that might not be linear (you can do this with an arrow), but the barrel grooves and spin might be an issue. Low-velocity rounds (such as black powder) can curve laterally and diagonally, but those were spherical rounds and they weren't predictable. Swinging your arm in an arc and firing a gun has a term; stupidity. So I created the implausible scenario of perfect-world conditions with a math-heavy smart scope (a 'Smart' ACOG) with a shaver that can shape a round to curve in the arc needed. So, bullet curve. Because hey, in 2183, we probably will have some freaky shit. WHERE'S MY GODDAMN HOVERBOARD!
Told you Jannie likes her toys.
SACOG - I used this in A Fox Amongst The Wolves, but it got no playtime. Basically a Smart ACOG (a real-life 3x combat scope for the M4 mounted on Pictinney Rails) with digital displays and software, I actually borrowed and credited it from NickBana1989's Tech-Heavy MExGITS story Ascendance. So… here it goes again. SACOG, NickBana, GITS: Ascendance, read.
I delve a little into Mass Effect weaponry; all weapons have software drivers (hopefully without updating drivers, subscriptions, or renewal fees. Wouldn't that be a bitch?) that calculate the size of the round, the speed, the kinetic force, and the impact. Guns do not go off blindly, though they will fire if you pull the trigger. If you fire at, say, a hull, the round will be limited so as not to cause damage. Likewise, firing at an enemy will maximize casualty efficiency, not necessarily a fatality (and the Codex actually supported this in the first game). I know I went off the reservation in the Peacemaker Series with caliber weapons firing in the grams, and I had fun with that. This will be a little closer to canon, but I can 'change' it due to targeting perimeters. Because Garrus is carrying a mammoth of a sniper rifle, and who wants to hear that it fires little flecks of metal?
Zevin Raeka has a power I stole from Dragon Age: Inquisition; the Energy Barrage/Seeker Swarm ability that Jondum Bau also used in Where The Law Stands TallARC III: Libera Nos A Malo, VIII. Basically, an OmniTool flash-forges a dozen golfball-sized OmniGel shells filled with chemicals for propulsion and explosives. Magic Missile, anyone?
Brute Force Attack (hacking) - A complete and forceful invasion of a computer's system. Usually 'hacking' by getting a password by systematically eliminating all possible passwords. 'Password Generators', 'Dictionary Finders', and 'Alphabet Readers' are all Brute Force Attack Programs IRL. Yes, people don't magically just 'hack' shit in my stories. Actual hacking occurs.
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) hacking - A 'Denial of Service' is an attack in which a system is clogged with requests meant to slow down or shutdown a processor with data or requests of data with a singular computer. This type of attack can wreck websites and servers. A Distributed Denial of Service is when multiple computers are used, making it faster and the attack more effective. It sadly works very well, and is popular with hacktivists today.
I know that Hollywood loves to show explosions with great fireballs and whatnot, but grenades do not really produce fire. Generally, you will see a cloud of smoke, dust, dirt, and burnt material in the area, like a puffball of destruction, not a mini-mushroom cloud or a ball of rolling fire. Now something can be set on fire, and the fire can be pushed around and out, but a grenade itself is a massive overpressure effect with the addition of shrapnel to maximize casualties. Yes, there is a quick burst of flame, but that isn't usually seen since it's over quite quickly.
Wrex clubbing everything to death? +2 Renegade. +2 Krogan.