Me: I'm back, black and ready to write!
Delta: Bout time, you've blazed pretty far past where we are in the game, I thought you'd forget.
Me: Bitch please, I've played it enough to memorize every important part. Plus I've enjoyed having the Genesis DLC Comic, makes the galaxy more malleable to my choices.
Delta: Whatever, ets start and I better get some better armor, the ODST-lookalike security armor from Freedoms Progress is crap compared to the Collectors.
Me: Yeah, yeah…
Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or Halo, I just own Delta, the plot and a few negligible OC's. This is technically not a crossover but I will reference Halo and AC. Just a heads up.
Also, forgot to point this out but Shepard is a Paragon and Soldier.
A Change of Pace
So we got Garrus and he is uninjured. I still don't know whether or not I should reveal my semi-long term precognition to Shepard. I'll think about it later, right now I'll just see what sort of things I can change without disrupting reality or basically screwing shit up in this galaxy. Mordin's recruitment mission won't have anybody important to save or help, aside from Daniel some other humans and a batarian, so I'm not gonna change anything. I look to my left seeing Garrus walk out of the briefing room and head towards me, standing in the armory. He stops in front of me suddenly, with a curious look on his face as his mandibles flare slightly in a, grin, I think.
"So you're Delta. Odd name, but I hear I have you to thank for not letting Tarik use his gunship on us. You have interesting ideas, but it seems you have the skill to make them work," he says.
"Hehe, thanks, Miranda has the same view basically but she's, well, a lot more skeptical and way more reluctant to trust me with much." I reply.
"Well I'll see you later then. Shepard says we're going to get a Mordin Solus after I finish organizing my post. Hope it's not too hard to get to him."
"If it's a mission for Shepard, things tend to get hectic don't they?"
"Yeah, besides, Solus is in Blue Suns territory. They wont be happy to see me."
"Yeah, we'd better get this over with. I should get prepped."
"Last question, what do you do here anyway? You don't seem to have any special skills."
"Not as far as the ship is concerned, no, not I am working as Jacob's assistant here in the armory."
"Well I better head to the gunnery bay and set up, Shepard wants to get Solus and finish with Omega as quickly as possible."
"I'll come with, I feel thirsty so I'll stop by Gardner for a drink." I followed Garrus to the elevator and we both rode down to the crew deck. Once there we parted ways as Garrus went to the right side to say hi to Chakwas and head to the gunnery bay. I went to Gardner and got a rather large cup of water. After I drank the cup and returned it to Gardner I went to the crew tables to fiddle with my omni-tools. After a few minutes Garrus left the gunnery bay and came over to me so I stood up and we went to the Elevator. As we waited Miranda came beside us and stood stiffly betraying the negative feelings she had for me, even if her face remained neutral. After a few minutes of waiting we boarded the elevator together and waited five more minutes to reach the CIC. We hurried over to the airlock and saw Shepard standing there with Jacob, all armored up and ready to go. I went over to the locker and quickly donned my armor. I wonder if I can get some personalized armor components. I'll check Omega's shops, maybe that turd Harrot has something I'd like, or maybe I can buy something from that batarian shop. I don't mind the ODST shoulder plates, but I'd prefer to change the body, leg and head armor though. Maybe get the visor from Harrot, then a capacitor chestplate from the batarian. That sounds good, meanwhile lets go get Mordin shall we? As soon as the decontamination process is done we all leave the ship, and head towards the quarantine zone.
"Sorry maam but no one is allowed inside the quarantine zone."
"But looters will take everything from my apartment, besides, I'm human and the plague doesn't affect humans."
"I already told you, I'm not allowing anyone inside." The Turian guard looks pretty mad.
"So no one can go in or out until the plague subsides?" asks Shepard.
"Finally, someone who can hear. Yes, this district is cut off until the plague runs its course."
"That's unfortunate because I'm looking for a Salarian named Mordin Solus."
"Oh yeah, that guy. He started a free clinic in here a few months back. Blue Suns didn't like it though, so no doubt they've tried to muscle him around a few times, if he hasn't given up by now. Good luck to him, I say."
"What's your purpose being here?"
"I'm stuck here keeping people in or out until the blue suns and vorcha have finished fighting and the plague is done, then I go in and clean up the mess."
"Seems to me you're going to be stuck here for weeks. You need this problem solved now. That's what I do, solve problems."
The Turian guard considers this for a few seconds. "Yeah, sure, go on in."
"You're letting them in but not me? You son of a bitch."
"You don't have a grenade launcher lady."
"Or a team of armed soldiers," I add. Jacob chuckles but the woman turns her glare on me. I depolarize my helmet around my mouth to show my smile and shrug. She leaves after seeing this, and I suspect she flipped us the bird.
"A deadly plague that affects Turians but not humans? Why can't we go anywhere nice?" What about Virmire?
"If you don't want to come you don't have to."
"I can deal with a little illness if you need me Shepard." With that Shepard nods and guides us through the door into the quarantine zone. We walk down the stairs and find no resistance.
"Maybe we wont have to fight much with the Blue Suns and Vorcha fighting each other," I say.
"If anything we'll have to fight quite a bit, the vorcha are scavengers, a second class species to the entire galactic community. This is more about reputation and pride to the Blue Suns than just some territory and money," states Garrus.
"I agree, a second class species stealing long owned territory from them would be rather discrediting to the Blue Suns." Miranda decided to throw in her two cents as well.
"Great, a lot of battle. I call dibs on first strike."
"Nope, that automatically belongs to me."
"(mumble) …goddamnit Shepard."
"I heard that." She replies, some mirth in her voice. We finally reach the bottom of the stairs and see two Blue Suns mercs standing at the far side of a hall. I take out my Vindicator and aim, as Shepard draws her Mantis rifle. She aims and takes out one of the mercs with a clean headshot, as I fire my Vindicator at the second one, a few bursts taking out the shields and then a well-placed headshot finishes him. I look to my left to see Jacob standing with his pistol drawn, having been the one to get a headshot. Miranda and Garrus stand behind us with their weapons lowered, waiting for Shepards next move. Shepard goes over to the mercs bodies and takes a thermal clip for her sniper, I do the same for my rifle after replacing its half spent clip. Shepard then quickly hacks a bank terminal by the wall and we all get a nice surprise. Apparently Shepard's not the only one who gets credits after hacking a bank terminal, granted I got about 500 less but, now I can afford a few things. If I have to decide between the chestplate and the visor though, I think I'll get the chestplate. Better shields after all. Anyway, we turn towards the corridor leading into the district and see a batarian just barely sitting up. Shepard walks over to him as his four glassy eyes gaze at us unfocused, before recognizing the person, or rather species of the woman in front of him.
"Typical. My life is nearly over because of this plague and you humans don't have the decency to let me die before you steal my possessions."
"Hey, are you okay? Is there something I can do for you?" Shepard says this as she reaches down towards the batarian. In response he ever so politely pulls out a rather large looking pistol and points it at her face.
"Stay back human! Your feigned pity is the final insult! I hope (cough) I hope you (hacking cough)…damn…damn you-"
"Here, this wont cure you but it might make you feel better." Yeah Shepard, slap some alcohol on that bitch. Er, medigel. Anyway the batarian puts his gun away and looks at Shepard in a new light.
"You have helped me human. Perhaps I was wrong" Sounds like an iffy perhaps batarian.
"Do you think you can make it to Mordin at the clinic? Maybe he can help you more."
"I thought I would try earlier but it seemed too dangerous. The Blue Suns don't like him and he even has military mechs stationed at his clinic."
"I'll try to get help for you when I get there."
"Thank you human, my time is almost up, but at least you have given me a light in the darkness." The Batarian sits back down and we continue down the hallway. We come across a large mezzanine looking area with a second floor on the right. There's a blockade at the other end, fortified by Blue Suns guards pointing their guns at us. I duck into cover behind some tables as Shepard and Garrus set up their snipers on the second floor. Miranda and Jacob are behind some tables beside me, turned over to serve as better barricades. I pull out my Vindicator and peek over cover for targets. The guys shooting from the blockade are almost impossible to hit for me from my position. That's why I always took the second floor when I played this level, cuz as Shepard me and Garrus would snipe the Blue turds so easily. As Shepard is doing right now. I see some more mercs come out of the hallway behind these guys and start firing at Shepard and Garrus.
"Wait, duh." I say this as Miranda and Jacob look at me while I activate my infiltrator techs cloak. I quickly move to the right side of the mezzanine and take position at the pillar beside the mercs barricade. I switch out my vindicator for the Eviscerator shotgun and wait a few seconds for my targets. They come, the two shotgun wielding Turians are headed for me so I grin and stand in their way. My cloak wears off now but that's fine since my shields are good, and I'm so close to them my shotgun is almost point blank in the lead turians face.
"Hey, how you doin?" I push the barrel closer and pull the trigger, watching as bird-brains head explodes. I immediately turn to the other one slightly surprised at the human but stiff in shock at his buddy's death. I fire on him, taking out his shields and some health before my gun stops. So I pull out my predator pistol with my right hand and shoot him in the head as my shotgun folds up in my left hand. Putting both weapons back I draw my Vindicator and shoot the last merc, hiding behind the barricade. Shepard and the team catch up quickly, and Once Shepard sees my thumbs up she shakes her head with a smirk and heads towards a door to the far right of the area. We follow her as she bypasses the lock and heads down the stairs into an apartment with two humans hiding in there.
"Thank god, we thought you were mercs." This came from a middle aged white man with some wrinkles and a white suit. Beside him stood a woman with a green suit, looking to be the same age range as the man.
"What are you two doing here? This whole area is dangerous!" says Shepard.
"I told him we should go to that salarians clinic, he would help us." This was the woman.
"Please, a free clinic, on Omega? Get real." Bitch please, the woman's right. And they have mechs to help keep you safe too, provided you don't try to kill them yourself.
"Listen, you need to get to the clinic, it's the safest place in this whole neighborhood, and there's no way out of here anyway."
"Well, fine but what do you expect us to do? The Vorcha are fighting the Blue Suns for the territory and we don't even have pistols."
"I'm going straight through the middle so I'll be under a lot of fire from both of those groups and I can't take you with me. But I promise you this, I will do everything I can to make a clear path for you to travel through to the clinic."
"Alright, you go ahead and get started, we'll wait a few minutes after you leave before we head out ourselves. Thanks."
Shepard nods and turns back to head up the stairs and continue through a few hallways. Garrus starts to cough suddenly as Shepard and I turns towards him while Miranda and Jacob watch him discreetly, Miranda albeit more discreetly than Jacob.
"Ooh, that can't be good." I smile at Garrus' joke but look at Shepard as she starts to worry a bit. We all decide to pick up the pace.
We pass several rooms and hack a few PDA's with money,(money money money money. Moooneyyyy) then come across another two-leveled area with a giant pillar structure in the middle and an apartment to the left, in an alcove. Two Blue Suns Mercs are fighting some Vorcha and a couple Krogans, I guess they made the Vorcha their krantt or something. Anyway, the door opens almost directly behind the mercs so Shepard shoots one with her pistol and look at the other one. I lunge to the guy and grab his head, one hand on the back of his head and the other positioned at his chin. I turn the head to the left before quickly jerking it 180 degrees to the right and am rewarded with a loud crack. I crouch behind cover and draw my BR, uh Vindicator, before looking over and shooting towards the Vorcha. I hit a couple explosive canisters as Garrus overloads the third on, bathing the Krogan and their vorcha krantt in flames, killing almost all the bare Vorcha but burning off the armor of the Krogan and, well, armored Vorcha. The rest of the team easily downs the remaining few vorcha as the two krogans charge us. I sidestep one and the team, shoot the other so he stops mid charge. I look at the krogan that rushed past me and as he turns I pump my Eviscerator before shooting him with the whole clip. He goes down after a pistol shot from Miranda to the head.
I turn to Miranda with a slight scowl "You stole my kill." Miranda just looks at me with slight surprise before glaring at me and turning to the commander.
"Shepard, that is the most unprofessional and immature soldier I've ever seen."
"Hehe, I never said anything about being a professional soldier 'Ms. Lawson'" Seems my sarcasm pricked a nerve.
"Wait, you're not a soldier?" asks Garrus.
"Nope, never have been. Always entertained the idea and practiced the techniques, but never fought in the army or killed someone."
"You fight like a trained killer, but you say you've never killed anyone before. Don't you feel any remorse or guilt?"
"I am certainly capable of it. Here however, I find it difficult. I believe every person and creature has a right to live, but that right remains intact so long as they don't try to take someone else right away from them. I would feel remorse if I caused the death of an innocent man but if I shoot a person who tried to kill me, or someone else who is innocent, all I would feel is the recoil." Everyone looks at me strangely, but I can tell they understand to some degree. At least they understand I'm not crazy, or emotionally devoid. With this Shepard nods and turns to the alcove, heading into a room. In the room we find a bank terminal and a case of resources before we turn towards an apartment door. Inside we see a dead Turian and two humans rifling through the apartments storage containers. Ah, the looters.
"What are you doing here?" Shepard questions a little angrily.
"We didn't kill him if that's what you're thinking, the plague did." One of the looters replied.
"We're just helping ourselves to the stuff he doesn't need anymore." Replies the other with a smirk. I want to wipe that smirk off his face right now.
"Shepard can I wipe that smirk off his face?" I ask. Everyone turns to me, to which I shrug in a 'what' fashion. They all turn back to the looters.
"I want you to stop this understand?" demands Shepard.
"Well its either we get this stuff or the Blue Suns do." Says looter 1.
"Not another thing taken or room raided." Shepard commands in her 'do it or die' voice.
"Okay, okay, we'll just stay here then. We won't take anything else, promise." Looter 2 assures her.
Shepard turns and we walk to the clinic, which is now a short distance away. I walk beside Jacob, both of us on Shepard's left with Miranda and Garrus on her right. I wonder what happened when I snapped hat guy's neck. I've never been taught that move, yet I did it pretty well. Now I have this weird nagging feeling in the back of my head. I feel like I'm missing something, but I don't know what, I don't even have a clue. That feeling only comes when I have a mental checklist and I forgot something on that list. Wonder what's giving me this feeling, maybe we forgot a bank terminal or research or something? I gotta find out before this nags me to death and distracts me from the mission and Shepard. Like now, when I have thought all the way to the clinic. We walk inside, ignore the guards warning about causing trouble, pass by the mechs and go to the back room where we hear Mordin give some instructions to his aide. He talks a bit faster in real life, btu I don't care about the medicine names. Shepard walks up to him as he turns towards us.
"Are you Mordin Solus?" she asks. Mordin looks at her and waves his activated omni-tool in front of us.
"Human. Refugee? no no no, armored and have guns. Mercs perhaps, no discernible markings, not Blue Suns or Eclipse. Bounty hunters perhaps, looking for someone, looking for, me.
"Do you ever take a breath Dr. Solus?" Shepard rubs the back of her helmet as she chuckles slightly.
"Oh sorry, I'll. Try. To. Slow. Down. No no no, can't do it. Slows thought processes too much."
"I came here looking for you Dr. Solus, I need you to help with an important mission I'm on."
"Important mission? How important? Who sent you?"
"Ever hear of a group called Cerberus?"
"Crossed paths on occasion. Interesting to see the Illusive man willing to work with aliens."
"You know the Illusive Man?"
"Guess TIM's not as illusive as he'd like, huh?" Mordin turns to me with a little smile as Miranda glares slightly. "If Miranda's face freezes in a glare I take full responsibility." Shepard smiles and shakes her head at this while Garrus looks slightly confused for a second. He shrugs it off as a human saying he doesn't know. Jacob chuckles lightly and turns away as Miranda looks at him.
"Anyway, crossed paths on occasion while worked with STG."
"Well Mordin I need your help on my mission. We're trying to take out the Collectors and stop them from attacking human colonies."
"Can't, too busy here, have to distribute plague cure, although, think interests may be similar. Plague engineered, vorcha incapable of doing so, suspect being used by Collectors."
DDDDDDDDmmmmmm… AH BLUE VORTEX! Oh wait…
"Vorcha have shut down environmental control center. Must get there and turn fans back on before whole district suffocates! Here, the cure for the plague, and bonus in good faith, weapon recovered from Blue Suns merc. Also last thing, assistant, Daniel, left some time ago, hasn't come back." Mordin says quickly in a frantic undertone, which translated from Salarian to human means-something, something, struggle, slow the fuck down!
"We'll keep an eye out for him," Shepard says before turning back and jogging out the clinic. We follow her and stay close as we run up some stairs into a place with cover and Vorcha. Let the fights begin.
We've reached a hallway with two closed doors and one stairway upwards behind a doorway. I open the door on the left to see what's inside. I see two batarians with shotguns and one batarian holding a human male by the collar. This is probably Daniel.
"Please I work with Mordin Solus at the clinic, you've go to believe me, I'm trying to help you!" yep definitely Daniel. Shepard takes out her pistol and takes cover beside me at the doorway.
"We know you're spreading the plague human. We found the phials in your bag with the plague virus."
"Those phials contain the cure for the virus you've got to believe me!"
"Look out." Says one batarian, pointing his shotgun at us. We all have our pistols drawn and pointed at them. The batarian holding Daniel up drops him but points his gun at his face.
"Not one more step human or he dies."
"Listen to me, I know you're scared. Of the vorcha, the plague, but he didn't do anything. Think about it. Why would he go deeper into vorcha territory to spread the plague, they're immune.
"She's right it doesn't make sense." Says one batarian.
"Fine, if we let him go, will you let us go?" say the leader.
"Sure."
"Let him go," they all put their guns away and we lower ours. "Now us?"
"We had a deal." Shepard simply states.
"Human nobility, I didn't know such a thing existed."
"Willful ignorance is so useful sometimes isn't it jackass." I say this. Everyone detects the venom in my voice and the batarians decide not to push it, so they leave quickly.
"You okay Delta?" Shepard turns towards me with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm fine, I just hate it when people judge anothers characters and morals on stereotypes and propaganda. Things don't change do they? Same irrational hatred, just more people to foster it and more outlets to release it." I sigh. "doesn't help any that their species culture promotes and is dependent on slavery." That grinds my gears to no end. If I had a choice the Hegemony would BURN! And I'd take the offer to light the pyre.
"Thank you, I thought they were going to, you know." Daniel says this as he walks over to us, picking up his bag.
"You should get back to the clinic, Mordin needs your help" replies Shepard.
"I will, thanks again!" Daniel says as he walks hurriedly away.
"Lets go put in that cure" Okay Shepard. So without further ado we leave the room, grabbing a few thermal clips, and head towards the control room. We go up a stairwell and through a door, ending up in the control area. It's a large rectangular platform with several support pillars and two square raisings in the middle of the path towards the control console. On both sides there are two more platforms leading to the rooms that control the fans and ramps that lead from the central platform to those ones.
"You no come here. We stop machine, break fans. Whole district choke and die, then Collectors make us strong." Says a Vorcha who ran up to us.
"Why do the Collectors want this?" asks Shepard.
The Vorcha roars in reply saying, "You die now!"
"Weapons free!" yells Shepard, squeezing off a shot into the mouth of the Vorcha we talked to. I smirk and run up to the square raised parts, crouching behind one as I pull out my Carnifex and I look at the reticle through my HUD as I aim for the tank of a flamethrower vorcha moving towards us. I squeeze off a few rounds and watch the tank catch flame and the vorcha flail. He only gets the tank half off before it blows him apart and I turn to see the rocket vorcha aiming at me.
"yipe" I duck down behind cover as the rocket sails towards me and impacts against my cover. I look back over to see Jacob and Miranda take down a couple Vorcha as Shepard and Garrus kill the rocket Vorcha and his spotter buddy. Shepard then heads over to the main console and inserts the cure inside.
"Alright Garrus, you come with me. Miranda, take Jacob and Delta and get the fan on the left. Garrus and I will get the one on the right," Shepard commands.
"Yes Commander," replies Miranda, slightly angry. Yeah, you're going to have to get used to me Miri, if not now then soon. Shepard nods and heads right as Jacob and I follow Miranda left. We get to the ramp and a few vorcha and a Krogan greet us ever so kindly. I shotgun a Vorcha's face as we backpedal from the Krogan and Vorcha guns. I pull out my Vindicator, and shoot the Krogans armor off at a distance while Jacob stays close and shotguns him. The Krogan charges him and Jacobs is sent sprawling back, squeezing off a final blast from his shotgun, which takes off the krogans armor. With this, Miranda lifts the Krogan into the air and starts showering him with fire as I do the same. The Krogan then falls down hard but alive, until after a word from my Eviscerator. I look back from the dead Krogan to Jacob to see him getting pulled up by Miranda. I switch back to my Vindicator and move towards the door to the fan. Miranda and Jacob catch up and Miranda pushes my behind her a bit.
"You don't really expect me to let a child take point do you?" she says haughtily.
"Aww, you really do care."
"I care about not letting some new kid screw up our operations."
"You sassy bitch." At this point the Vorcha interrupt our friendly, in no way derailing, conversation as Miranda unleashes biotic power and lifts all three, including a flamethrower trooper. I smirk and fire at the tank, and within a few seconds the flamethrower is blown, along with his two buddies, into little bits and pieces. "I always loved fireworks."
Miranda groans frustratedly and goes inside the room to turn off the fan. Jacob seems amused but disapproving. Oh, right I'm antagonizing his ex-GF. I guess I should lay off if just for the sake of my homie. We hear the fan activate and head back as we hear a second fan activate. We all nod in relief that the job is done and jog back to Shepard, who leads the way to Mordin's clinic.
"Virus receding, Vorcha retreating, atmosphere stabilizing, well done Shepard, thank you." No prob, Mordin.
"And thanks for me too, I fit wasn't for you those batarians would have killed me." No shit Sherlock, Humans and Batarians don't mix well, even without a killer virus one species is coincidentally immune to.
"Yes, heard you let them go. Would've killed them myself." Daniel you got something on your face it looks like a frown, oh wait.
"How could you say that! You're a doctor you believe in helping people!"
"Yes, many ways to help. Heal the sick, execute dangerous people, either way helps," Mordin raises a hand and places it on Daniel's shoulder, "Think about what I said." Daniel leaves the room and Mordin turns to us.
"Smart kid, bit naïve. Will leave him clinic when gone. Ready to depart Shepard."
"I'm going to look around for a bit," Shepard replies. She goes around, gets credits, resources, research data, couple power cells, the usual stuff. Son we head back to the Normandy and go through the airlock before heading for the briefing room. Miranda and Garrus head down the elevator while I stay on the CIC facing Mordin's lab.
"Hello Delta," I recognize that chipper voice.
"Hi Kelly, how are you?" I respond.
"Oh, uh I didn't think we met already."
"We didn't, but I heard about you from Jacob."
"Ah okay. So I hear you are not a professional fighter." Did Miranda tell her? Probably, a kid appears out of nowhere and fights just as good as an N7 soldier, then claims not to have any prior battle experience. Miranda's always had the worst doubts and opinions about me, and I know she's not racist because she dated Jacob, so it makes sense she'd ask Kelly to talk to me.
"Well Kelly my answer to that depends on who asked you to try and conduct a secret psychiatric review of me." The girl seems rather surprised. I wouldn't have figured it out at all if I didn't know, well, everything beforehand. Hehehehe, precognition has its perks. "My moneys on Miranda, by the way, so what do I win?"
"Well you're right, it was Miranda who asked me to talk to you, but that's all."
"Don't bullshit a bullshitter Kelly, I don't need a psychiatric workup or test or whatever she wanted. If you want to have a friendly chat, I'm all for it, but don't talk to me for the sake of writing a report to judge whether my mind is stable or not." It's fun being a'most fully grown, I'm still as tall or taller than every woman I've met, and I think I still have a few more inches to grow too. "I'll talk to you later Kelly, I have some business with a Salarian scientist to attend to."
I walk away from Kelly and into Mordin's lab. I see him behind his desk typing furiously as Shepard leaves him with a nod of her head. I watch as she walks by me with a small smile, giving a small wave as she passes. I wave back and turn towards the Salarian.
"Delta, how can I help?"
"Just wanted to say hi Mordin. Although I am curious, just what areas of science do you study?
"Many areas, chemistry, biology, physics, are personal specialties but am skilled in all fields."
"Interesting, do you think you could help me with a few things? I want to mess with some of my equipment, try and improve it but I don't think I'll be able to do anything really good without your help."
"Of course, will be willing to help, interested in seeing what you come up with for ideas."
"Thanks Mordin, I'll come to you when I have a good idea." I smile and wave goodbye as I leave Mordin's lab, heading for the armory to grab some shuteye. I went from boring-ass college history to fighting mercs and Vorcha to recover Garrus and recruit Mordin. I think I deserve a nap.
Me: Halo integration and influence begins next chapter. This mission dragged on longer than I thought it would. Until then, Peace.