Me: Hello again faithful readers. And curious ones. And doubtful ones. And SI-hating ones. Yeah, this is an SI. (sunglasses slowly float down over his eyes) Deal with it.
Delta: (Is currently in a full body cast. He can barely move his head and only does so to catch the pair of sunglasses floating down over his eyes) Mmf.
Me: So, I bet you'll all be pleased to know that with Urdnot Wrex's assistance, the Krogan Football Tournament is halfway to possible conception. Any Krogan wanting to join the football tournament is required to go through a 1-week training course on Throwing and receiving the ball. And a 4-month course on blocking, defending, waiting to tackle, and ball-holders running TO THE ENDZONE! NOT into the enemy team!
Change of Plans
Oh man a date! What am I gonna do? What am I gonna wear? How am I gonna stall? Shepard's not supposed to be here for another 5 days! I could stall, 1 maybe 2 before seeming rude and uninterested. After that though I'd need some kind of excuse. And something plausible too because the latest sickness that came up on Omega didn't affect humans. This place is a cesspool of decay and filth otherwise but Morinth knows I live in some floor above hers at the very least so she also knows I'm not in the disease prone areas. My ships gone too so I can't very well go away on a mission. But she doesn't know that. So I need to find somewhere to hide for a few days, wait until Shepard gets here, talk to her, hint that I'm hooking up with Morinth, and then Shepard and Samara can come in guns and biotics blazing to "save" me from the Ardat-Yakshi threat. Sweet, this plan could really work! Now to find out where I am going to hide…
At that point a beep and swishing sounds out behind me. I turn to look, expecting to see Jacob, Kasumi or even Zaeed come through the door. Instead, I see 5 Avenger rifles pointing at me, each one held by a Blue Suns soldier and one guy wielding a shotgun and hard-light armor striding through the door. The soldiers slowly circle around to my back, the last two slightly out of my line of sight while the squad leader is standing in front with a cocky smile. Well…this throws a wrench into my plans.
"I'm guessing you guys weren't invited to the party?" I ask tentatively. Armor guy just chuckles and swaggers up to me.
"No" He responds. "But you are." In a fluid motion he swings the butt of his shotgun up and I half blackout as it connects with my chin. I do black out when he hits the back of my head.
"Ugh" I mutter, stars dancing in my vision though it remains mostly dark with some blurry colors. I close my eyes almost as soon as I open them, overtaken by nausea and pain. Oh my god, it's like my first hangover times ten! I spend maybe ten minutes just lying on the floor and groaning in pain. I open my eyes once more and am relieved to find that the light doesn't hurt anymore and the nausea's gone down quite a bit. I try to sit up and feel it flare but I stamp it back down. Geez… Alright, let's stay calm Delta. You've been kidnapped, that much is obvious. Who did it? Ah, right, Blue Suns. Why? Well, revenge seems the most likely motive since I doubt they do this to haze all their desired recruits. Or maybe they do… probably safer to assume it's for revenge though so lets go with that. Revenge for who? Vido would be the most recent and high-priority case. If that's the case though It was really Zaeed who killed him though, so they'd probably have kidnapped him too. I killed the Blue Suns commander who was piloting the Gunship during the attack on Archangel, and then used said gunship to mow down the mercs who tried to cross the bridge so there's that. But no one should have seen me even enter the gunship with him, and the only guys to see me before that were Jaroth who died, and Cathka, who I killed personally. Doubt anyone stationed on Omega would care about some of the Blue Suns they've likely never met on other planets though.
At this point I stop my thinking to look around my containment cell. It looks like a regular jail cell, though there's a tempered glass barrier between my cell, the adjacent cells and the walkway for the guards to patrol. I stand up slowly, and stagger towards the bars, grunting as my legs scream to be released from the sudden work. They probably have a sedative in me… or I got tasered at some point. I stop just before the bars and grab them, seeing a guard walking near.
"Hey-HHKK" I jump back, twitching and curling up as my body spasms, my hands tingling from the electricity. So that's why my legs felt tasered before.
"Oh, hey, be careful." The guard drawls lazily, a half-restrained smile on his face. "The bars are electrified. Don't touch them or they'll zap you."
"You don't-Hnnng- s-say?" I respond, gritting my teeth as my body slowly recovers.
"What you don't believe me?" He responds. He opens the door of my cell in the glass barrier, walking through and grabbing my leg. I try to kick him though my body is either unresponsive or acting erratically and he yanks on my leg, pulling it into the bars again. I kick off them to try and avoid it but another jolt of electric pain shoots up through my limb. "GAHHHH!"
"See? What'd I tell you?" He says, standing up and backing out of my cell with a full sadistic smile and locks the door again. Soon as my arms and legs stop twitching and my heart calms down I sneer, lying on the ground and inching back from the bars of my cell. That bastard dies first! If I ever get out of here… I look around, growing more depressed as I realize the scope of my situation. Shepard's not going to be on Omega for another…5 days, maybe 4? Assuming I was knocked out for half a day. Jacob, Kasumi and Zaeed are the only other ones that know or care about me enough on here to start looking if I turn up missing. Usually I check up on them each morning, so hopefully they notice it soon. Damn, what am I gonna do? I lay down, staring at the ceiling. Soon enough I drift into an uncomfortable sleep.
I open my eyes to a weightless feeling. I look around and there's nothing around me, just an expanse of white in all directions. I slowly turn to look forward and jump in surprise.
In front of me is, well, me. But, buffer. Stockier. Bigger legs, thicker arms, larger chest. Harsher face. His eyes are lukewarm but have a cold, analytical glint. I get the feeling he's just though of a hundred ways to take me down if I showed myself to be a threat.
"Uhhh…Hi." I greet him, both curious and apprehensive.
"Hello." He sounds like he's been smoking for a while. His voice is gruffer, deeper, sounds like the voice of a strict drill sergeant whose been lacking in sleep recently. My voice sounds like a whiny teenager's compared to his…
"So… Who are you?" I ask "My name's *****, but most people call me Delta." I stick my hand out to him.
"I am Delta, the first and last of the Delta Company Spartan 3 project." He responds. He shakes my hand firmly but restrains himself. And I'm glad he does because even restrained it feels like he's barely keeping the shake from being painful.
"I'm going to take a wild guess and say you're a bit confused right now." I venture.
"…To be honest I am. Last I remember being conscious I was looking for a Forerunner artifact in an asteroid field. I don't remember ever taking off my armor." Wait, that's the last time I saw… Aww crap.
"You're the Spartan from my dreams!" I blurted out. I immediately regret it as he stares at me suspiciously and kind of weirdly. "Uh, er I mean, my blackout dreams! I have dreams when I black out, and they usually show you, and when I wake up I get new information like the armor specs and-I should not have said that…" Now he looks really suspicious. On an impulse I turn and try to run, float, something but am instantly tackled. My arm is forced up my back and held against the lower part of my shoulder blade painfully.
"What armor specs?!" He demands.
"The Mjolnir armor series general specifics! I had schematics to your armor and used it to build my own suit but I kept it as private as possible!"
"How can you build your own suit? This suit is designed for special military personnel, not civilians! How did you even get this information?" He twists my arm up slightly more.
"From you!" I yell out in pain.
"LIAR!" Even more of my arm bends unnaturally. I think the joint will disconnect soon.
"I'm telling the truth! Verona downloaded classified data into the unused sections of your brain! I saw it in my dream and when she started I woke up during the process then passed out again from the pain!" My arm is loosened slowly until his grip is nearly gone. I snatch it away and slide forward then twist, keeping him in sight this time. Not like that'll change much. I only have very basic martial arts training, and combat experience. He has decades of both over me, and likely Shepard too. He just stands there, staring at me.
"I don't know much… A lot of it has been guesswork, and even more has just been wingin it… But if you're here after touching a Forerunner artifact and I'm here because of a Prothean one, I might not be so far off." I say.
He keeps staring at me after a second before his eyes calm down, his body relaxing as he takes a seat cross-legged, "Who are you and what do you know? From the beginning."
I sigh, thinking this will take a while but it's unavoidable. I take a seat the same way, rubbing my sore shoulder. I began my story "Well, it all started on a hot day in LA…."
"…So now what I think is this. The Protheans and the Forerunners are brother races. It's also likely the Forerunners came after or from the Protheans, and because of this the Reapers took it as their responsibility to end the Forerunners along with the Protheans. My main supporting evidence for this is the difference between Forerunner glyphs and Prothean text, and the fact both races' seem to have humans be their favorites. Both are similar to each other and seem to be different dialects instead of entirely different languages. As for the human thing, well the Forerunners DNA-locked their technology, and then put their DNA in humans. Meanwhile over here the only Prothean Cipher we have could only be copied into a human's mind. So because of that, I think the Protheans and Forerunners are trying to merge their universes to make a soldier capable of stopping the Reaper threat in both, or at least help."
After a moment of silence he asks, "So what's your reason for being here? I could be supplanted with information about Mass Effect technology and upgrade my own alliance's defenses and weaponry with more authority and ease than you. I'm an official Spartan while you're a cheap knockoff. No offense."
"None taken. Yeah, I'm a cheap knockoff of a super soldier. Even then I'm good enough to still be considered Hyper-lethal to this universe. I guess because I'm creative I can make it work enough to be considered close to the lower tiers. Still, there's another factor in this that makes me more valuable than you. Information." I hold up my hand. "And yes, I know you're smart, you know more than me and you have a much more in-depth understanding of practically every subject of science that I know and some that I don't but I have information about the future."
"How is that possible?" He asks, brow raised.
"Back in my world your Universe, Halo and this Universe, Mass Effect, are two greatly renowned and well accomplished video games adore by millions. In both those games these Universe's future can be glimpsed at by playing the game. All my success with Shepard thus far is only because I've practically memorized the elements contained in the best possible path each mission had and I've been working to add the elements Shepard missed or didn't have time to get."
"That's a pretty powerful ability…" He mutters.
"Yeah, it would be if I could use it without limits. But sadly there are some. I can't really change a lot. At first I thought I could change everything but there were too many things holding me back. For one thing, even though I knew Tim was going to become a big enemy later on, I couldn't just go to his base and kill him mainly because I didn't know where he was for the first 8 months I was here and secondly because much as I hate to admit it, we need him. And I can't just say I'm from a different dimension and lecture everyone on what they're doing right, wrong, and how to change everything so their inevitable death doesn't happen. Then I'd just be like that Hanar on the presidium that constantly preaches about their god. Or even worse, get sent to a Sanitorium. I hear the food's crap and you don't get donuts, ever. I can't imagine such a hell…
"You might need one regardless of how you've approach this." S-Delta says, resting his cheek on a fist. I ignore his comment and continue.
"Anyway, my goal to change everything almost immediately became a struggle to see if I could change anything. My best bet was riding alongside Shepard and trying to work from her shadow. Then I got that data dump from Verona, which hurt like all the circles of hell, but also gave me the information I needed to implement as much progress as my growing ranking allowed. Apparently, I had begun to make a name for myself, first with Shepard, then with Anderson through Shepard and through Anderson, the Alliance military and the Council. I gave them schematics for more powerful shielding arrays and equipment, more efficient energy generators, stronger ballistics tech, and if all goes well I might actually be able to buy a factory and manufacture Sentinels. My current prototypes all look like bulky Beldum. I'm gonna make a sentinel prime model that looks like Metagross." I sigh. "Though that can't really happen if I die here... damn Blue Suns."
"Die? Die where? And who are the Blue Suns?" He blinks then asks, straightening.
"The Blue Suns. They're a Merc group, whose boss my squad and I had recently killed. They kidnapped me a while ago and now I'm just sitting in one of their jail cells, well, talking to you."
"Then we need to escape." He says, standing up and staring down at me with a no-nonsense look.
"We? I'm the only one stuck in the cell man. You're still in your own universe." I remark, standing as well. At the edges of my vision I see the expanse of white shrink, a darkness starting to grow over it.
"Maybe…But I feel like I'll be able to coach you through it." Delta claps me on the shoulder as the darkness speeds up its consumption of the white.
"You sure man?" I ask, nervously.
"I think so." He says. Suddenly the darkness finishes its job, swallowing him up as well.
I open my eyes, seeing the ceiling of my cell bathed in light from a nearby fixture and sigh. I cast around in my mind for a second but don't feel anything unusual or painful. Guess he really couldn't stay. With a sigh I stand up and walk slowly towards the front of my cell, keeping a good distance from the bars to avoid getting electrocuted again. Looking again I realize something. The tempered glass barrier isn't in front of the bars but against them, the door the only part of the glass that has a moveable section. The rest coats the outside of the bars so Guards can lean against a cell and not get electrocuted. I see a cart down the hall with a Guard pushing it, another one walking with him as they chat. Apparently its meal time.
Good, drop back on the floor and pretend to be asleep again. Hurry!
I pause for a half second in surprise but comply, quickly posing myself as laying down on the floor again, though a little closer to the door than before. I feel my legs shift slightly.
Better positioning for a jump. I'll guide you through it.
How are you still here?
I told you I'd stay.
I struggle to contain the smile trying to creep onto my face. It stops fighting to get on as I hear the click of a lock opening and the door swinging open. The cart Guard walks in, carefully halfway inside the cell with his eye on me while he lowers the food slowly to the ground. I wait a second before lurching up with a kick, knocking him back into the bars he had so carefully avoided. He yells out while being electrocuted before his body spasms cause him to lurch forward towards the ground. I'm already Up and running, sliding through the open door into the second guard. I rip the rifle out of his hands and smash it across his helmet's faceplate. As he recoils I slam the butt into his stomach then down on his neck, snapping it. He drops and I whirl the gun around, looking for anyone else. No one's nearby; which is good for us. I grab the outside of my cell door, pulling it open and dragging the body inside. I kick the other guard back into the electricity while stripping the armor off the second guy. I dress in the Blue suns armor and make sure both are dead, shoving them against the bars until their hearts stop if they aren't. I slide back out of the cell, close and lock it then pull the cart up. I turn on my radio but take out the mike. Now that I have access to their transmissions this should go easier. At least I'll have a headstart since no alarms have been raised yet. Checking the former guards omni-tool a find a small map of the complex. It's relatively small, seems like a bypass ing base. Only two stories aboveground and one area belowground, which is the jails. Mess hall is the largest room on the first floor aside from the soldier's barracks. The second floor holds the main office area and officer's rooms along with the personal armory. The Guard even wrote a note saying he took my phalanx and Omni tool chips to Dave to put with the rest of the shit in the armory. Well, at least now I know where my stuff is going to be. Now to just get there.
Relax. Try not to look like you're in enemy territory. That'll get us some time.
Right. Let's just go upstairs, grab my stuff and then hopefully sneak out. I can't wait to have my camo back.
I go up the lift, landing at the first floor. I try to relax as much as possible while looking somewhat alert. I let my gun hang at my side and walk towards the stairs. I see a couple of the mercs towards the left but avoid looking at em. Hopefully the fact my helmet's on doesn't alert them. So far so good. I've reached the captains hall. There's the bedroom at the far end of the hallway, left door, with the armory the door just across. I walk over as quietly as I can and press the button for the armory door to open. Just as it does and I step inside I hear a swish behind me.
"What are you doing?" A woman asks.
I turn and look at her. She's not wearing armor, just a blue camo shirt and cargo pants. Odd.
"I found…" I fumble for a second, checking my pocket and pulling out, oh lucky me, a flashbang grenade. "This, on the prisoner."
"That's impossible we did a complete search on him."
"Even a cavity search?"
"Yes, I oversaw it myself." Well that's embarrassing. And now I feel horribly violated.
"Well I don't really know what to say. Guess he had a bad lunch. I found it on him when we were giving out the food." She seems to eye me critically. I can't just close the door on her, and I can't change until she leaves or my cover's blown wide open.
Kill her. Quickly and quietly.
Think we could?
I'm certain I could. She's skilled, I can tell that much but she's not skilled enough.
Lead the way.
"How about I handle the processing. You go back to your post." She says, stepping up and holding her hand up for the grenade.
"Understood ma'am" I say and as the grenade hits her hand my hand suddenly chops to the side, aimed at her neck. She was either expecting it or has fan-fucking-tastic reflexes because she dropped the grenade, ducked and rolled back towards her room. The Spartan doesn't give her as much quarter as she had hoped for, lunging forward and tucking low into a drop kick that slams into her chest and knocks her against the wall. She gasps out in pain and my hands close around her throat. She grabs them and struggles to pull them off.
Damn, you're good.
And you eat too many donuts. God it's like I'm back in the body I had halfway through basic training. How have you even survived this long?
Having a team to cover my back, the element of surprise from absurdity and dumb luck I suppose…
In a few seconds her struggles have lessened enough for him to snap her neck. We stand from the dead body, and look around quickly. I drag her into the armory and close the door behind us, grabbing the flashbang grenade. I briefly look at her face and notice that when her brows aren't furrowed in suspicion and she isn't trying to kill me, she actually looked pretty attractive. Not a 10, but definitely someone who'd turn a few eyes on the street if she walked by. That thought only lasts a second before I turn back around and search through the armory. Pretty soon I find my armor and weapons. All of them. Those fuckers took ALL of my shit!
This is your suit? It's not even complete, and it's bulkier than the mark 1s!
Just watch. I say, picking up the front and back of the chestplate and setting them over my torso. I fasten them together, secure the metal clasps and fold the protective plating over each one. I put on my gauntlets and greaves the same way then pick up the helmet. As I don it the metal-kevlar weave flows out from each main part, guided by nanobots to cover my joints. The protective metal plating of my graves and gauntlets extend then set against their previous resting area until my entire arms and legs are covered. My chest armor extends and separates, forming the semi-separate cod-piece over my thighs and sensitive area.
See?
Huh. That would be incredibly useful. Fully armored in a manner of seconds and more compact than ever. You could even store it in a reinforced suitcase.
I turn and open the armory door, checking the hall quickly. Seeing no one I activate my camo and turn invisible, smirking to myself as I sneak out he front door of the complex. Once outside I continue until I reach a taxi stand and take one back to Afterlife.
Well, that was interesting if nothing el-…
What?
…Did you say….can barely hear…
Oh no, you're going already?! You can't not yet!
I can't stop it Delta….I'll see you again…I promise. What the hell! Man that's bullshit! He could help me so much in the middle of fights! He can drive my body better in combat than I ever could!
I groan and lean my head against the cab window. Just in time, Afterlife shows up and I've just decided I really need a drink. Soon as the cab touches down and my chits are transferred I hop out and walk into the club. I sit at the bar order a rum and down it without a second though soon as it arrives. The bartender shakes his head and refills my glass almost immediately. I reach for it but soon as I grab it someone grabs the shoulder spins me around and punches me in the gut.
"Ow! Damn! As if it wasn't bad enough…" I look up with a glare and my complaints die in my throat as I see the angry face of Shepard, flanked by Samara and Garrus.
"What the hell Delta!" She demands. Garrus is frowning at me and Samara's eyes are glazed over for a brief second like a flash of memory. Probably knowing Morinth is so close and seeing this behavior is reminding her of a similar time she had with Morinth.
"I just got back and your first response is to punch me. I just wanted a drink." I say.
At this she punches me again in the stomach and grabs me by the back of my collar plate to drag me with her. I think I've said it before, but scary Shepard bionic strength is scary.
She drags me out of Omega and down an alley where some Vorcha loiter. They back off as much as they can upon seeing Shepard angry and dragging a metric ton of armor and person. Shepard barely pays them any mind and instead drops be against the wall and crouches with her finger in my face.
"You have been missing for five days! Jacob, Kasumi and Zaeed have been looking for you for 3 of them and the rest of the crew has been searching for the past two! We just finished our search and were going to ask Aria for the 30th damn time if she's seen you! Lo and behold, there you are, at the bar drinking as if everything's fucking fine!" She seethes, glaring holes through my head. I suddenly feel very small and am beyond surprised. 5 days? I must have been sedated or something for most of that, right? My re-telling with Spartan Delta didn't take that long. Did it?
"Oh…oh damn, I didn't know it was that long. I thought they had me for 2 days at most!" I say, looking up at Shepard. Her glare diminishes somewhat though she still seems cautious about forgiving me entirely.
"Who had you?"
"Blue Suns mercs. It felt like two days had passed only, so I guess I was sedated for most of it. But I just managed to escape the complex. It was a small base, I think they had a higher up who wanted revenge for Vido and they were holding me til he was available for pickup." When I'm done I hear Garrus mutter 'Damn Blue Suns'.
"It fits. Zaeed had suspected the Blue Suns as well when they first found out he was abducted." Samara says to Shepard.
Shepard nods, her anger diminishing rapidly. Yay, she's not mad at me anymore. Geez I can hardly believe I was gone for 5 whole days…wait, five days? "Ahh damn…" I mutter, rubbing my face.
Shepard turns back to look at me, still crouched "What's wrong?"
"I had a date with an asari girl named Morinth. This might be a snafu in that…"
I pretend not to, but I notice both Samara and Shepard's eyes widen at the name. They certainly can't be thinking it's a coincidence. Besides, Shepard's seen enough of my luck to know what the situation most likely is.
"Permission to leave Shepard?" I ask her, pulling my legs back underneath me so I can stand.
"Uh, permission granted. Just let me know where and when you're going somewhere, alright?" Keep tabs on me in case I am going with Morinth. Good, this is actually turning in my favor.
"Will do Shep." I say, turning and jogging off towards my apartment building. "Later you guys."
Let's see if Morinth is willing to continue our date plans.
Delta: Pull! (A football snaps into the air in a perfect bullet. It nails a Krogan far down the field in the arm and drops to the ground. The Krogan clutches his arm in obvious pain but makes no noise) YOU CALL THAT A CATCH?! DO IT AGAIN! And stop whining, you sound like you're a quarian with a cold! (He grumbles for a second before slowly and slightly turning around)
Tali: Delta….
Delta: Oh, uh Tali. Hows it going?
Tali: What have I told you about the Quarian insults?
Delta: …That you have a shotgun?
Tali: (pumps her shotgun) Bingo.
Delta: (Runs, occasionally yelling out as shotgun blasts hit him)
Me: Well that's going to be fun to watch. Until next time readers-
Delta: TALI STOP IT THAT HUUUURTS!
Tali: SLOW DOWN! IM TRYING TO SHOOT YOU!
Me: … (shrugs) PEACE!