Welcome back! I would first like to thank everyone who followed or favorited my story. It means alot to me. I would also like to thank everyone who gave me advice, and also the people who reviewed giving me feedback. I realize I messed up big time with the formatting. I apologize for that. I plan to familiarize myself with it more, so that I can make my story legible. Also everyone wondering about Lorent's full backstory; I will reveal it as the story progresses, and he is more acquainted with the entirety of the crew. That way I feel the reader can connect with the main characters of the ME verse. Maybe, I don't know. Anyway! Onto the chapter! Thank you for reading!
Lorent followed Shepard through the small cargo bay of Normandy. James stomped behind them, yelling for Shepard as he followed. Shepard looked back for a second, but continued his path to the end of the cargo bay. Lorent stopped, watching a James passed by with a huff. He watched as James yelled at the Commander again.
"Hey! Where are we going? Where's Anderson?"
The Commander looked back at James,then turned around yet again. Walking towards the console at the end of the cargo bay. This time responding as he was in stride. "We're leaving" He then walked to the orange console, looking down at it in thought. James not relenting, continued his questioning.
"Leaving?" James said rounding on Shepard as he stared down at the console. The woman stopped what she had been doing, turning around to address the Commander as well. "What's going on?" she said. Lorent noted her voice was that of a North American. He watched as the Commander was metaphorically cornered by his subordinates. He looked towards the woman, addressing her first. "Anderson ordered us to the Citadel to get help." he finished looking back to James.
James didn't seem to like that answer, as he stepped up to the Commander. "Bullshit, he wouldn't order us to leave!"
Shepard turned to face James, trying to calm him down. "We don't have a choice. Without the help of the council, this war is already over." James shifted on his feet for a moment, then replied immediately. "Forget it, just drop me off-" He didn't get to finish his statement, the commander stepped up to him, pointing his right arm at him. "Enough! Don't you think I would rather be out there fighting?" He paused, looking back and pointing to the direction of Earth. He turned back to James, his face was contorted between a look of sadness and anger. James stared back at him, his face seemed like he wanted to argue, but he did not interrupt the commander as he continued. "We're going to the Citadel. You wanna ride, you can catch one back from there." Shepard looked back at the console, finished with James.
James threw is arms in the air with dissent, shaking his head and turning around, walking back towards Lorent. He looked up at Lorent, seemingly about to question his fortitude. Before he could, a voice came on over the comm system. "Commander." the voice said. Shepard stopped his tapping on the console, looking around as he replied. "Joker… Is that you?" Shepard said with what sounded like relief.
The voice, now identified as 'Joker' replied instantly. "Alive and kicking… well not kicking, as I would most likely break my tibia in the process." Lorent raised his eyebrows behind his helmet. While James turned around, facing the commander yet again. Joker continued with his statement. "Umm, anyway. Admiral Hackett has an emergency transmission for you. Patching it through to your console now." And on cue, a distorted video feed of the Admiral came through, most of the audio being garbled. "Shepard- sustained heavy losses, Re- force was overwhelming.- No way to beat them conventionally…"
Shepard lowered his head. Addressing the Admiral. "Admiral Anderson has already ordered me to the Citadel, to get the support of the Council." The Admiral shook his head. "First, I need you- alliance outpost. Doctor T'Soni -und a way to b- Reapers… Only way." Shepard gave him a salute. "Yes sir." The tired Admiral nodded."Will b- in cont- soon. Hackett out." The feed died with a black screen.
Shepard looked around, and called out on comms. "Joker, set a course to the Mars Archives." Joker came back on the comm immediately. "Mars? Sounds like a great time. Setting a course for the red rock!" Joker said with his usual, humorous tone.
Shepard in the meantime had walked over to a small makeshift armory. Looking over the various armor sets and weapons that laid scattered across the table, he picked up an M-5 Predator. James looked to Ashley. "This is loco." Ashley turned from James and looked at Shepard. Somewhat agreeing with James' statement. With a Reaper armada in the Sol System, it was near suicide to stick around.
"What does he even think we will find there?" she said crossing her arms, and raising her right eyebrow. Shepard turned around, his face filled with grim determination. "I don't know yet. If it has the potential to stop the Reapers… It's worth investigating." he finished, James didn't seem that convinced, Ashley seemed to nod slowly, still in deliberation over the entire situation. Lorent had already made up his mind. A way to stop the Reapers without wasting thousands of lives, seemed to be the only option. From his understanding, the Reapers serverley outclassed the Alliance, and whoever this 'Citadel Council' was. He had a sinking feeling that this Humanity had better relations with Xenos than his own.
He stopped that thought immediately. The very premise of working with aliens made his spine quiver. Aliens had taken everything from him, he would be damned if he would be cooperating with any. Abolishing his own thoughts, he looked to the Commander, who was in the process of strapping on a chest plate. It had a white 'N' and a red '7'. Lorent mused that must be some sort of Spec-Ops unit.
Lorent had not moved from his position since the ordeal began, so he decided to make his way over to the group. The second he took his first step, a deep thud reverberated throughout the cargo bay, catching the attention of everyone that had been gathered at the end of the hold. The woman seemed to tense as he approached, the deep thuds he made while walking were not helping her in the slightest. As Lorent took his final steps, he stopped about three feet away from the group, looking at the Commander, who in turn looked back at him.
"Spartan, I almost forgot about you… as impossible as that seems given your…" He paused looking for the right words. "Stature. Now; I don't suppose you heard all of that right?" Lorent nodded. "Affirmative commander, I understand the situation. I am ready to exfil on your word." He replied. His monotone and almost synthetic voice unsettled Ashley. She did not trust this so called 'Human' one bit. She had enough to deal with Shepard being possibly Cerberus, and now a monolithic-being claiming to be Human and here to 'help'. His arrival right before the Reapers wasn't helping either. So she decided to try and neutralize the threat before it could hurt them.
"Excuse me. But what the hell is this thing? It shows up right before the Reaper invasion, and we're supposed to believe it's here to help? I mean look at it! It's bigger than a Geth Prime!" That word again, was that some unit classification of a hostile species? He mused while Ashley continued. "How are we supposed to trust that thing? It could be a new sentient Reaper unit for all we know!" Lorent had enough. Willing his Helmet away, creating a series of 'chinks' and 'clunks', interrupting Ashley before she could finish. His helmet folded down into his neck guard, revealing his pale and scarred face, his luminescent brown eyes, while they shone with an ethereal glow, seemed cold and calculating. Like a predator stalking its prey.
Ashley unconsciously shivered at the man staring down at her. She instantly regretted opening her mouth. 'Why the hell did I say anything at all!' she thought to herself. Her face remained blank, not displaying any kind of emotion, while Lorent's cold impassive visage dissected her every move. The moment lasted about five seconds, but it felt like an eternity to her, until he finally said. "Satisfied?" Ashley noted he sounded much younger, and incidentally more Human without the helmet on. She slowly nodded. He didn't display anything acknowledging her, his helmet just reassembled around his head, the lights running down the sloped armor plates blinking red as the helmet stopped assembling.
With his helmet back on, he turned to Commander Shepard. "Commander, what is our ETA for Mars?" Shepard continued putting on his armor, looking up at Lorent as he went along. "About an hour with Sub-Light speeds. We can't afford going FTL, we need to reach the relay as fast as we can after this mission, so we must conserve our Eezo. So in the meantime, you can tour the Normandy. I'll have Joker send for you once we are in orbit." Shepard directed his full attention back to his armor. James took a few tentative steps towards Lorent. Looking up at him, he gulped. "Umm… Hey big man. I can show you around the Normandy." Lorent turned around, looking down at James, giving him a nod. James smiled, and turned around. Heading to the set of doors at the hall behind them. Lorent followed him, unsure if he could fit through the door. To his surprise, the door was wide enough for him to squat his way through. As he made it through, James was waving at him, in what appeared to be an elevator.
After squeezing his way around the Normandy with James for about forty minutes, he had explored everything it had to offer. He noted the lack of crewman aboard. He assumed most didn't make it off of Earth. He also was surprised to find a ship born A.I, although nowhere near as advanced as the UNSC's Smart-A.I. She had a dry personality, and seemed completely rudimentary in comparison. James was surprised when had no reaction to 'EDI'. That was her name, but apparently A.I are highly illegal in 'council' space. When he replied that A.I's were commonplace where he came from, James had inquired as to where he came from. Lorent gave him a "Classified" in response. Lorent didn't want any more aliens to be able to attack the UNSC or her colonies.
They were heading back to the elevator, when the comm system whined. "James, Shepard needs you and the Spartan to report back to the cargo bay ASAP. We just entered Mars' orbit." James smiled. "Time to get this show on the road big man." Lorent didn't acknowledge him, stepping into the elevator. "Right… Not a big talker." James stepped into the elevator as well, pushing the button for the cargo bay.
Down in the cargo bay, Shepard was with Ashley. They were both in their hardsuits. Shepard was armed with an M-8 Avenger, and folded down on his hip was a M-5 Predator. Ashley had an M-15 Vindicator cradled in her arms, while sporting a M-7 Phalanx on her hip. They were currently discussing the upcoming mission. "Why aren't they responding to our hails?" Shepard said looking at the console. "Something doesn't feel right here, Shepard… Maybe it has something to do with our new 'friend'" she said crossing her arms. Shepard let his body slacken on the console, sighing in annoyance. "Again, Ashley? That man saved me and Anderson's lives back in Vancouver, as far as I'm concerned, he is part of this crew."
Ashley hummed in response, leaning back against the wall. Only to push off of it as the door to her left opened, James striding through it. The Spartan crouch-walked his way through the door. As soon as he cleared the doorway, he stood back up to his full height. He looked at Shepard and Ashley, making his way over to them.
"How did you find the Normandy, Spartan?" Shepard asked him as he walked over.
Lorent stopped at the wall she was leaning on, causing Ashley to step back a few paces. Lorent noticed it, but didn't react to it. Replying to the Commander. "Fine, sir. What's the status of the mission?"
Shepard stopped typing on the console, turning around to face the Spartan. "Straight to business. I like it." He grinned. While Ashley just huffed in annoyance. "We aren't receiving any comms traffic from the base. But a Reaper presence hasn't been detected either. We believe something else has happened, we just don't know what yet." He paused. "A roving sand storm has made any imaging near impossible. So we will be arriving in a Kodiak shuttle, and we will have to inspect on foot." Shepard finished.
Lorent sat there and pondered on the parameters of the mission. He didn't like going in with no information, even his most vague HEADHUNTER ops had some sliver of information. He viewed his HUD, checking the optical camouflage, when it read green, he closed it. Looking back down at Shepard. "Commander, I can go ahead of you and recon the area. My armor is equipped to help me be able to infiltrate." Shepard raised his right eyebrow, shifting on his feet. "I don't see how. I think whoever is down there would be able to see a thirteen foot tall black suit of armor." Lorent simply activated his optical camouflage, instantly becoming nothing more than a shimmer of refracted light.
Shepard instantly spun around, searching for the Spartan, only seeing an empty cargo bay. He turned around to where he last saw him. Focusing on where he had been standing, he saw what appeared to be a shimmer, a distorted area of light. Lorent then deactivated the emitter, causing his armor to reappear in seconds. Shepard nodded in approval. "Impressive. I couldn't even see you… even so, we can't afford two trips with the Kodiak. We don't have the time." He expected him to relent, only to be shocked by his next words.
"This armor is suited for orbital insertion, if we are pressed for time, I can reach the surface via orbital drop." He stated calmly, as if it was a common occurrence. Ashley choked. James just muttered something about being crazy. Lorent ignored the reactions, he focused on Shepard. "Are you insane!? I won't allow you to kill yourself just for some recon!" Lorent frowned under his helmet, but kept his cool. "I have been orbitally inserted in over sixty successful operations Commander. I am perfectly capable of surviving the drop and being combat effective." Lorent said with a mechanical tone, as if he was just a machine. Shepard shook his head, and relented. "Fine, we don't have time to argue. Report to the airlock, as soon as your ready, Joker will jettison you. Good luck Spartan." Lorent nodded and headed for the airlock in the upper levels of Normandy.
As soon as he was out of sight, Ashley and James both rounded on the Commander. Ashley spoke first. "What the hell is wrong with him? Why would he willingly volunteer to drop from ORBIT! This doesn't feel right Shepard." She cast her eyes downward, worrying whether or not the Spartan would be behind all of this. James just simply stated. "el hombre esta loco" Before walking towards his armor and weapons. Shepard just looked at the door Lorent had just disappeared through, shaking his head. "I believe he will be fine. I saw him doing some pretty death defying stuff down in Vancouver. That armor he has is like nothing I've ever seen before. We just have to hope he can make it." With that said, Shepard made his way over to the Kodiak. Ashley followed soon after, along with Vega.
Meanwhile in the airlock…
Lorent had made it in under two minutes, an impressive feat considering how small the Normandy was. The very few crewmen aboard steering very clear out of his way. Cutting his musing short, he checked his armor's seals. Satisfied it wouldn't be compromised, he commed the pilot. "This is Spartan A-219 to Joker. I'm green for jettison. Over." There was a choking sound on the other end of the comm, and glass breaking? Lorent was about to repeat his last, but Joker cut him off. "I see. Planning on being a crater in the ground?" Lorent just banged on the wall, causing a deep reverberation that shook Joker's seat. "I see. Standby for jettison. Make sure to tuck and roll!" Joker said before the door on the airlock began to beep, a red light flashing constantly. Lorent readied himself, the light turned green. And the door opened, immediately sucking him into the void.
He was slowly drawn into the planet's gravity well. He watched as the dead planet became more clear, he saw nothing but red crust for kilometers around each side, unlike the UNSC's Mars, which was heavily industrialized, holding the biggest shipyard in UNSC space. The Alliance's Mars was not even touched from what he could see. He saw a giant patch of red clouds roving from the East. He figured that must be the storm that the Commander had mentioned. Once he had his fill of the view, he used his EVA pack to propel him forward, he began to feel heat as he entered the upper atmosphere, the flames licking his armor as he continued his decent. He made it into the lower atmosphere in only a few seconds. He tilted his body forward into a controlled dive, the winds whipping across his armor. Lorent could not hear it, only a muted thumping around his helmet. Once he reached five thousand feet, he turned on his comms. "Commander Shepard, I have almost reached the surface. I will alert you as I come within one click of the Archives." Shepard sounded surprised and replied. "Alright Spartan, we'll await your word."
The last few hundred feet to the surface were spent in silence. Lorent flipped into a pencil dive, activating the gravity emitter. It slowed his decent tremendously, but he was still falling at a high rate of speed. Preparing for a hard landing, he tensed his muscles in his legs, ready to do a rough tuck and roll. His HUD beeped as he made contact with the ground, red dirt exploded upward as the 1200 pound Spartan hit with a fraction of the force of an Onager. Lorent tried rolling forward, but his armor put too much strength behind it, sending him flying off of the tall mound of dirt he had landed in, and sprawling to the crust fifty feet below, leaving a sizeable imprint.
Lorent blinked, trying to focus. He only saw darkness. He tried flexing his arms and legs. They jolted his response. That was good, as he had not broken anything. He brought up his HUD menu, checking the suits integrity. To his relief, it was completely intact, and his reactor hadn't been damaged. Satisfied he was combat effective, he pushed himself out of his imprint in the crust, slowly kneeling. Then standing up to his full height. He scanned the horizon around him, nothing but red patches of dust swirling in the wind, and mounds of rocks and dirt. He shook his head, turning on his nav marker. He was pleased to find he was only a scant two kilometers from the Archives. With everything in check, he began to sprint at full speed, outpacing a M12 LRV by a factor of 2, and leaving a large contrail of red dirt that plumed behind him.
When he hit the one kilometer mark, he began to slow down a bit. He commed Shepard. "Commander. I am one click outside of the Archives." He waited for a response, it took too long for his liking. He had a feeling comms were being jammed by the storm, or whatever has control of the Archives. Turning off his comms, he brought the LR20 out, cradling it as he began encroaching on what he guessed was the outer perimeter. It appeared to be void of any life, Human or Reaper. Neither boded well to him as he kicked the front gate. The gate immediately caved in, tossing the thing well over forty feet away, causing a metal crash as it collided with some sort of vehicle. Lorent smacked his helmet in frustration. 'These new augmentations are proving to be more difficult than I had thought.' He eventually made his way deeper into the compound, finding signs that indicated a fight had occured, blood had seeped over numerous containers that littered the compound, some vehicles had been completely burnt out, leaving a charcoal black husk behind. He activated his optical camouflage, creeping forward to the next gate.
He bent the last gate away, this time taking care to not accidentally send it it had been bent far enough, he entered the last compound, he saw that the Archives stood at the end. He also noticed the signs of fighting were incredibly more fresh than the last, he even found a few corpses that still appeared warm on his thermal vision. Suddenly he heard a voice cry out, he went into a crouch. Working his way to a smoking Mako, he pressed himself against the armor. He shuffled to the end of the Mako, looking over it. He saw what appeared to be four individuals in yellow armor, armed. They had yellow highlights running down their armor, their helmets sporting no visor, only a red sensor array. Lorent was sure these were the hostiles who had assaulted the Archives, but he needed confirmation. He turned on his comms again, trying to raise Shepard. Though before he could, he heard a muffled shot. A body crumpled to the ground, his augmented hearing picked up the four individuals moving to the area the body had dropped. Standing back up to look over the Mako; his eye twitched in anger. He saw a young woman, lying dead and unarmed. Her hardsuit punctured right below her abdomen. Her eyes hung open in shock. Lorent also noticed the symbol of the Alliance on her shoulder.
He didn't hesitate, bringing the LR20 to bear, sighting in on one of the troopers head. The scope blinked red, indicating it was on target. Lorent pulled the trigger. The larger brethren of the Type 2's HLJP crossed the small distance in less than a millisecond, impacting the side of the troopers head, cracking his helmet open, and burrowing into his skull. Once the hard light dissipated, the plasma rapidly expanded throughout the troopers head. He was already dead, so he didn't scream as the field of plasma expanded, then exploded in a redish purple plume of smoke, showering his fellow troopers with the remains of his once whole cranium. Before the troopers could react to their comrades death, Lorent had leaped over the Mako, clearing it by twenty feet. He landed on the back of one of the troopers, instantly crushing his amor and torso into a fine red past. The third trooper had managed to fire a shot, though it sailed wide over Lorent. He responded in kind, slotting a HLJP into the troopers head.
The last trooper began to fire wildy, each shot missing Lorent by a wide margin. The trooper's weapon eventually overheated, but before he could reload a fresh thermal clip, he found himself being lifted into the air. He began to kick and scratch whatever had lifted him off the ground. Whatever had him in it's grasp slowly began to reveal itself. There was a shimmer, and then a monolithic suit of black armor was revealed. The trooper looked down, realizing he was well over five feet off the ground. Then he slowly looked at the 'face' of the demon. Only to be met with an armored carapace, the lines on it pulsing a blood red. He tried kicking it on the chest again, but to no avail. The Demon's grip was vice like. It seemed to appraise him for a moment or two, just holding him firmly in its grasp. But then it spoke. "Who are you affiliated with? How many of you are here? What is your objective?" It asked with a mechanical tone. Something akin to a cheesy sci-fi vid. But this thing was very real… And very angry. The Cerberus Trooper answered as he had been trained to. Information was their Sword and their Shield after all. "Cerberus Assault Trooper G2445." The Demon did not like that response, evident by the fact it's grip had increased in pressure. "One more time." It said with a tone that could make the most morally unethical agent shiver. Alas, he didn't relent. "Cerberus Assau-" Was all he could say before his neck was crushed in the hand of the Demon.
Lorent dropped the mangled trooper, musing with his own thoughts. 'Cerberus? Some sort of organization? Obviously not friendly with the Alliance. Maybe it's a insurrectionist group of some kind.' He couldn't analyze the morsel of information any longer as his comms chimed. "Spartan? Can you hear me?" The Commander's voice came through, a thick layer of static accompanying his voice. Lorent heard him perfectly fine, replying. "Affirmative Commander. I am in the final compound, I have a visual on the Archives. Be advised, I have encountered enemy combatants. Identification Cerberus." Shepard responded frantically. "Cerberus!? Are you sure Spartan?"
Lorent glanced at the dead troopers, then replying. "Affirmative Commander, engaged four. Three were KIA. Attempted to interrogate the last. He was terminated after two attempts of information gathering." Shepard remained silent for a few moments, but eventually came back on. "Roger that. We will be there shortly. Hang tight." With that the comm line closed, leaving Lorent to muddle around the desolate compound. The winds whipping around the dust, causing the tiny particles to plink off of the broken metal, creating an eerie sense of foreboding.
Lorent discarded the LR20, replacing it with the Type 2, setting it to fire a lance. He snapped up the rifle, slowly walking around the compound, ready for an encounter to come knocking. Unknown to him, he was being watched, on the hill overlooking the Compound; three squads of Assault Troopers lay in wait. The leader of the group seemed to be feeding a video feed of Lorent pacing back and forth, he then spoke to an unseen person. "We don't know where it came from, it ambushed Gamma squad, killed them in less than six seconds." A voice on the other end of the feed hummed in thought, eventually replying. "Try to take it alive. I have a feeling it will prove invaluable for this war." The voice finished, ending the feed. The Cerberus troops went into action immediately, slowly progressing down the hill, the leader holding up his hand, pointing his finger to the left, then to the right. The two squads went to flank Lorent, while his squad pushed up directly to him.
Lorent heard the shuffling of feet across the crust in the compound. Some sounded like they were on his flank, while the most prominent ones were coming from his twelve. Raising the Type 2, he stalked forward, stopping when he saw the silhouettes of four more of the men in white armor. He was about to fire on them, until the leader came forward. His hands were raised, as if he meant no threat to the Spartan, Lorent knew otherwise. However he kept his finger from pulling the trigger, for now...
The leader had encroached fifteen feet away from him. He raised the Type 2, indicating 'That's close enough.' The leader seemed to get the message, stopping in his tracks. His arms slackened down to his sides, in a relaxed manner, as if he had nothing to fear. He then brought up his left arm, creating some sort of orange display around his forearm. He tapped on it for a few seconds before he closed it. He looked at Lorent, finally speaking. "Our Leader requests your presence. You are to surrender immediately. And hand over any tech you have on you."
Lorent scoffed at this."And if I refuse?" he challenged. The man didn't flinch, only replying. "We kill you, and take everything you have anyway. So what will it be?" As he finished his statement, the two squads that had flanked him began to come closer. He heard the distinct sounds of weapons being loaded. He activated his pulse array, giving him an accurate count of the troopers surrounding him. He counted twelve in total, four on his left and right, and four to his front. After he had an accurate reading, he brought the Type 2 up. Targeting the leader's head. There was a high pitched whine, and then a blinding iridescent beam. The leader couldn't even attempt to dodge it. The beam cut through his armor like a hot knife through butter, leaving his head a mixture of molten slag, and bone fragments. This all happened in the span of a second.
The rest of the troopers moved to react, but their movement were as if they were suspended in a thick syrup. Lorent had entered into the fabled 'Spartan Time'. His new augmentations seemed to increase his speed dramatically, as he had closed the gap between him and the soldiers in front of him in a mere second. He struck the trooper on the left with a reversed elbow, caving in his helmet, and sending him flying back. The other two couldn't react as he spun around, delivering a vicious back hand to the one on his right, nearly ripping off his head, as he flew into a destroyed Mako. The last one was sent flying back after he received a reverse roundhouse kick to his sternum, causing an instant death.
Time seemed to revert back to it's normal flow, as Lorent turned to face the remaining hostiles. He raised the Type 2, changing it into HLJP. He sighted the troopers on his left. They appeared to be in shock, as they hadn't moved yet. Not wasting the opportunity, Lorent sent a flurry of shots at them. They all hit center mass, causing an eruption of gore from the chest cavities of each trooper. As he turned to face the last squad, his shields began to flicker, dropping slowly, but not enough to warrant any worry. The squad had opened fire on him, the grain sized pellets doing negligible damage. He didn't open fire, instead he activated his gravity well emitter. He pointed his right palm at the squad, causing a distortion, similar to that of a stasis field, causing the troopers to stop firing abruptly. They were suspended in the air, twirling about as if they were weightless. Then they were flung back. Each trooper died as they impacted the ground, the sheer force rupturing their internal organs, their brains shutting down immediately.
Lorent deactivated the emitter. Bringing his weapon to bear, he examined all of the corpses, making sure they were dead. While he continued to roam, a loud 'whoosh' was heard. Looking up, he saw the blue and white Kodiak from the Normandy descend onto the compound. It's stabilization thrusters sputtering, as it hovered over the ground. The door on the side of the drop ship slid open, dispensing the three alliance personnel. They made their way to Lorent, who had stood with his weapon at the ready. Just incase Cerberus tried another ambush. Though nothing happened as the group reached Lorent. He lowered his weapon, looking to Shepard.
Shepard, however, looked at the carnage that was strewn about. Pieces of the Cerberus troopers laid scattered across the dry dirt, most of the bodies being unidentifiable. He saw a dead trooper with his neck and armor compressed into nothing more than a pencil. He grimaced as he imagined being on the receiving end of such strength. Ashley just shivered, trying and failing not to stare at him… It, without fear. 'Not even a Krogan in blood rage would be capable of causing so much carnage to their victims.' Ashley thought, thankful her full helmet blocked any smell from permeating her nasal cavity. James shook his head, muttering a Spanish prayer as he walked by some of the bodies.
Shepard recovered from his stupor, looking up at the Spartan. "Good work, Spartan. You saved us a lot of time. Hopefully Cerberus hasn't been alerted yet. But knowing them, we will have to assume the worst." He paused, looking to the Archives. "Let's get going." He took point, leading the rest of the group to an air lock. Fortunately, everything seemed to be in working order, providing them with an unhindered access to the Archives. Before they could progress however, Ashley spoke up as James and Shepard removed their helmets.
"So what was that Shepard?" she asked crossing her arms, staring down the Commander as he took off his helmet.
"I don't know what you're talking about Ashley." He looked towards James, who seemed to understand his silent plea, who added onto his statement. "The Commander has been monitored ever since he has been on Earth. There is no way he has communicated with them." James huffed in annoyance, while Ashley didn't seemed convinced, but left it alone for now. Lorent was very interested; If the Commander had ties with Cerberus, then this entire operation could be compromised. He decided to just listen and observe, try to dig up more information.
As the group left the airlock, they entered what appeared to be a storage area. There were bodies that laid haphazardly across the floor, most of them Alliance personnel, and a few Cerberus bodies. Lorent deduced it must have been a surprise attack, and that Cerberus had some inside help, as they appeared to be some terrorist cell. Taking on a galactic power so close to their homeworld would be suicide, without inside help of course.
With that in mind, he swept the room with his thermal vision, finding all of the bodies to be of some warmth. They must have not been dead that long. He and the rest of the group halted after they heard a metallic bang from up above. Turning their attention to it, a ruckus was heard from the ventilation shafts. Lorent scanned with his thermal, finding one feminine figure being pursued by two armored male figures. He noted the female had a lower body temperature than normal, but disregarded it. He raised the Type 2, readying himself as the first shadow began to tumble out of the shaft. Landing on a generator, she rolled off. She cast a singularity at the troopers behind her, causing them to hang helplessly in the air as she finished them off with her pistol. She turned to to the group. Lorent was immediately on edge, as she was most definitely not Human. But she looked like a Human Female, only difference was her blue hue, and the crests that ran along to the back of her neck.
"Shepard? What are you doing here?" she asked, running to Shepard.
Shepard ran and met her, embracing in a passionate kiss… Lorent's mind did a backflip. He quite literally couldn't process what he had just seen. He was rendered completely mute. Verbally anyway.
Shepard broke the kiss, speaking with her. "Hackett sent me. He said you found a way to defeat the Reapers." She nodded. "Yes, I found a design for a weapon. Massive in scale. But my estimations say we can build it. Cerberus has the Archive room locked down, and they vented the atmosphere in one of the levels. The readings are back to normal now." She looked Shepard in his eyes. "How bad was Earth?" her tone was solemn and somehow sympathetic. Shepard sighed. "Earth was a mess. We were totally unprepared. Millions of confirmed civilian casualties, and we lost most of the fleet." She gasped and whispered. "By the goddess… I'm so sorry Shepard." Shepard gave her a sad smile. "It's ok Liara. If you truly found a way to beat the Reapers, their deaths will be avenged."
Liara nodded solemnly. Believing that if anyone could could make this a reality, Shepard would be it. She looked past Shepard, seeing Ashley made her smile. She politely scooted pass Shepard, making her way to her old friend. She found herself suddenly knock on her ass. She had walked right into some metallic object. She held her hand to her forehead, shaking the dizziness off, looking up to see what she had hit. Her breath hitched in her throat. Standing over was a monolithic being clad in midnight black armor, with no discernable visor. Only a sloped faceplate, with angry red lights adorning it. Backing up quickly with her hands, she hastily stood up. Preparing a biotic attack until Shepard grabbed her arm."Woah! Liara, he's on our side!"
Liara looked back to Shepard, then back at the being. It looked on over the situation impassively. She slowly dissipated the biotic fields that had been gathering around her hands. Regaining her friendly composure, she took a step forward and raised her left hand."Hi, I'm Doctor Liara T'Soni. Any friend of Shepard's, is a friend of mine." She gave the being an Asari smile, hoping to charm her way back from almost attacking it. The being didn't seem to move at all, just staring at her. It eventually moved, but it took a rough step past her and moved to the door that lead to the Archives.
Liara looked at Ashley, dropping her hand back down to her side. "What the hell was that about?" She asked. Ashley just shrugged."I haven't known 'him' that long. He showed up right before the Reaper attack on Earth. Hasn't said much." Liara just raised a quizzical eyebrow. Looking to James for a more informative answer. James just shrugged. Sighing she looked to Shepard, who seemed to be thinking. He looked at her, his blue eyes calming her down tremendously."He's Human. He showed up before the attack like Ashley said. He tried warning us, but he was too late. We can trust him. He helped me and Anderson in Vancouver." He paused, placing a hand on her shoulder."But he's not important right now. We need to get to the Archives before Cerberus can get what they came for." Liara just sighed. "The main entrance is through that door." she pointed to the door Lorent stood in front of. "It's been cut off from the power. Cerberus did it. That's why i had to use the ventilation shaft."
Shepard seemed to lower his head in thought, he turned to Lorent who was facing the door. "Spartan, can yo-" He was interrupted as Lorent had struck the door. His arm had moved so fast he couldn't even see it. Only hearing a loud metallic 'bang' as the four inch blast door was ripped out of the wall, and sent careening down the hall with a series of smaller 'bangs'. He turned back to Shepard, his body now back to it's normal stance. "Door is clear." he said plainly. Shepard and the others simply had their eyes widened by the feat, Liara especially was flabbergasted. 'By Athame!' she thought internally. Shepard thought back to the Husks that tried to attack the Spartan back on the roof. Shivering, he shook himself out of his stupor. "Alright. Looks we have a clear passage way. Let's get a move on." he shouldered his Avenger, moving to the corridor. The rest eventually followed suit, Lorent filled in behind them. His height not restricted as it seemed it was a cargo tunnel.
As they moved deeper into the site, they had stopped at a security terminal. Liara had dug through the network feed, finding footage of a supposed Doctor shooting an Alliance security officer in the back of the head. She was deeply disturbed by the revelation."Goddess, how long has Cerberus been planning this?" She stepped back from the terminal, her hands clasped on top of her head as she bared a look of utter disbelief.
Lorent thought back to his idea of this being an inside job. Putting the Commander in a bad light. He decided to wait until they reached the Archives to act upon the revelation.
Commander Shepard walked up the door that lead to the Archive Room, activating his omni-tool and hacking the door. It slid open with a silent hiss, but a series of loud weapon discharges ended the silence. Mass Accelerator rounds pinged off the doorway, narrowly missing Shepard as he dove out of the way. He stacked up against a pillar, peering down the corridor. He saw a security turret and a squad of Assault Troopers who had their weapons sighted on the Corridor. Gritting his teeth, he looked back at his squad who had yet to enter the corridor. "There's a security turret down there, we can't move through without getting chewed up." He looked to Lorent, the Spartan had a new weapon at the ready, it was smaller than the one he had used in Vancouver. "Spartan, can your shield take the firepower?"
Lorent walked to the corridor, peering down through it. He saw the weapon emplacement on the ceiling. The weapons he had encountered so far didn't seem to do that much damage to his shields, though this one was significantly larger than the handheld variants. Though he was sure that the armor and his shields could take the punishment. With his decision made, he looked back down at Shepard, nodding. "Affirmative, the hard light shield should be able to take the fire. You can stack up on me while i move through."
Shepard smirked, giving the rest the signal to stack up behind Lorent. Lorent crossed his arms in front of him, causing a rectangular dull orange shield to form. He then stepped into the corridor, mass accelerator rounds immediately began to pound his shield. Causing them to flatten or shatter in some cases. He turned back to the assorted squad. "Moving." He said before walking briskly down the hallway, the rest following him. Making sure to stay behind his bulk. The march didn't take long, his long stride covering the distance in seconds. Once they cleared the hallway, the squad fanned out to find cover, Shepard and Ashley went left, while James and Liara slid into cover on the right side. "Now what Shepard!" Liara yelled over the deafening sound of the auto cannon. Shepard responded immediately. "We deal with the Troopers! The Spartan will handle the cannon, now go!"
Shepard popped out of cover, his Avenger coughing out a flurry of pellets, striking down one of the troopers in the burst. Liara casted a singularity, the ball of dark energy drawing in two of the assault troopers as they screamed. The ball exploded outwards, leaving them dismembered and bleeding on the metal deck.
Lorent had dropped his hard light shielding, activating one of his hard light blades, he jumped at the turret. It peppered his shields with bullets, but not causing them to drop before he swung his arms downward, slicing it in half. Causing it to drop to the deck uselessly as it sparked and smoked.
He landed on his two feet, his knees didn't even have to bend to absorb the fall. Looking around, he saw that the squad had eliminated the remaining troopers. He made his way over to Shepard. He seemed to be in another argument with Ashley.
"Look at that thing Shepard! That could be you for all i know." She turned away from him, looking down. Lorent investigated the corpse that seemed to have sparked the argument, looking down he found that the trooper had been altered, in looked vaguely reminiscent of the Reaper ground forces he and the commander had encountered. He looked at the Commander, using his suits biometrics scanner to analyze the commander. It came back normal, albeit with a few cybernetics that seemed to be here and there. He was perfectly Human.
"Lieutenant-Commander." His monotone almost synthetic voice startled her, she turned around slowly, looking up at the thing. It unnerved her, it's armored carapace sent chills down her spine. It spoke again, this time a bit more forcefully. "What is your quarrel with the Commander?" it basically demanded from her. "What does it think it's doing? What does it know about anything?" She thought to herself. "Commander Shepard here-" She pointed at him. "Has had ties with Cerberus, he was brought back from the dead by their hand. I have ever-" She was abruptly cut off by him as he spoke. "Commander Shepard was reinstated by the Admiral, he has operational authority. You are wasting time by constantly arguing with him. We have a mission to complete, i suggest you stow your questions until this op is over."
His cold mechanical voice rang out in the room for a bit, until he stomped past her. Leaving a bewildered Ashley, and a slightly amused Shepard. Though he didn't show it. "He's right Ash. We can talk after the mission." He jogged after the Spartan, leaving her to ponder. "What the hell does he know. He… It doesn't have the right to question her!" She looked back, watching as his giant form moved to the tram entrance. "I will find out what you are… Spartan."
Sorry for the wait. I have been taking care of stuff for my future college, i went down for the weekend to visit my friend, and got drunk quite a bit too much. I had planned to finish it when i came back, but i was drained. I decided to end it here, next chapter will finish up the Mars Archives, then we will get to the Citadel… That will be really fun/challenging to write. May throw some quad heavy Krogan in there… But anyway, thank you for reading! And thank you to lordarcheronvolistad on DeviantArt for letting me use the armor and the picture! You should check him out, he has a lot of Ancient Humanity artwork.
P.S i plan on re-writing my first chapter, this was originally a short story for my friend, so the intro was very short. I will do a complete re work of it soon.