Mass Effect: The Man Who Saw Tomorrow
I would like to emphasis that this is very much a Mass Effect 2 novelization, with some twists and turns, and differences in between. Thanks! - AThousandSuns
Chapter I: This Hell, it's Home
The world was an ocean— a void without shallows. It toiled and churned in waves of murky blue as shadows danced around in his peripheral, like figures behind a cascading waterfall. They spoke in inaudible tongues that echoed in the sea he sank deeper into.
He felt cold and the fingers of his left hand ached as if they were still there, though he knew otherwise. His eyes opened, and he was blinded by florescent light. The voice that spoke, did so through a cloud of dust, but slowly, his voice cleared through and through, and shortly after, he began to understand.
"Reaction to light—" Another voice, a woman's voice.
"There— on the monitor, something's wrong." She said worryingly.
The gloomy depths cleared slowly— as if he were floating to the surface. He forced his eyes open this time and saw the lights above, dancing through waves— they stung and hurt, and he struggled to keep his eyes from shutting even just a sliver.
"He's reacting to outside stimuli... he's showing an awareness of his surroundings." The man leaned over him, he could see his eyes, pale blue. "Miranda, I think he's waking up."
The woman— Miranda, stood over him as well. She leaned down with a scowl and held his eyelid open to shine a flashlight into his only eye.
She cursed and stepped away, "Damn it, he's not ready yet! Give him the sedative."
Snake lifted his left hand, only to see it missing, the bionic prosthesis he was accustomed to, gone. The woman placed a hand on his forearm and chest, and pushed him back onto the bed.
"Big Boss, don't try to move. Just lie still."
His chest suddenly flared and his body seized. His heart constricted. It felt as if a hand gripped it tightly and refused to let go.
"Damn it, he's slipping into cardiac arrest!" Miranda shouted. "Prep the defib! Try to stay calm, Boss."
It all began to fade away. He sank further and further, back into the deep, dark ocean.
Their voices were trapped above water.
He heard an angelic hum then, a woman's voice through the ringing in his ears. A song of sorrow and regret. He could barely see her in the waves above.
His chest heaved and a shot of electricity shook him to his core.
He could not breathe. He was going to die if he did not.
Another shock erupted through him. Out of his entire body, his left hand hurt the most. His fingers that were gone, clenched and tightened.
Another shock and his body fell loose. His locked muscles relaxed and he found his breath again.
He breathed through the knot in his throat and found he had not the strength to stay awake.
"Heart rate dropping... stats falling back into normal range." Wilson wiped his brow and sighed a breath of relief.
"That was close... we almost lost him." Miranda's voice echoed in his head as she looked down at him, shining the light into his eye once more. "I told you your estimates were off. Run the numbers again."
o - o - o - o - o
He broke the surface of the ocean, and he saw the night sky above. He saw the clouds float in the midnight above, and the blinking luminescence of celestial objects dead millions of years ago, shone back at him.
She hummed sweetly behind him, letting him know she was there.
He turned to face her— her skin was bright under the bright moonlight and she stood with a hand on her hip and a tender smile— one she reserved for him in their moments alone when she thought he was not looking. He swallowed hard, his heart a quake in the empty space of his chest. His feet settled in the Afghan sand beneath.
She ambled to him, one foot before the other in a delicate saunter. She did not speak, and he did not either. They never needed to— not really, they understood each other almost perfectly.
Forever ago, she had wished they shared a common tongue, so that she may confess to him her real feelings, but he was glad they did not. He did not speak to anyone, not really anyway, not anymore.
She understood his language. Even better than he himself.
She raised a hand and it laid on his shoulder with the lightness of a feather. The warmth of her hand on his bare skin was a jolt like a bullet fired from a rifle.
He averted his gaze, staring at her boots shyly. He felt her other hand touch his cheek then. Her fingers traced the shape of his jaw, and lifted his chin to force him to meet her icy stare.
When he did, his stomach twisted in a fit of regret; in ache and in yearning.
She smiled at his bashfulness, his eye never fixating on hers for long. She hummed and tilted her head, pulling herself closer.
He could feel her breath on his lips. He wanted to reach out and wrap his old worn hands around her in a sweet embrace, but still he remained, afraid to move. He shut his eyes and breathed in her scent.
She smelled of rain and mist; of a forest after a storm, earthly and green. She smelled of perfection.
"Quiet..." He whispered.
He missed her... God, did he miss her. Straight until the day he died, he thought of the speechless sniper, from her icy stare to that reassured feeling he would have, knowing she peered over his shoulder through the lens of a scope.
He remembered their one chance in the rain... a moment of rest where he felt young and innocent again, and did not feel the weight of the world slung onto his back.
The woman kissed his cheek delicately, her lips soft and wet, warm and inviting. She leaned into his ear and exhaled a whisper.
"Wake up..."
o - o - o - o - o
The room lurched and an explosion thundered with it.
He woke sore and tired, and he felt another tremor shake the room hard enough to upset his empty stomach.
A voice boomed from an unseen intercom.
"Big Boss, do you hear me? Get out of that bed now, this facility is under attack!" It shouted with desperation.
Big Boss; Venom Snake, opened his eye slowly. His vision was a blur and blinded by the lights overhead. The room shook again and adrenaline began to route through his veins with familiarity.
He sat up sharply, his back popping in several places in response. His chest was tender and his head weighed a hundred tonnes. He looked around as his sight began to come into focus.
He was in an infirmary, he could tell by the smell— sanitation and stale.
"Boss, I know you're tired, but I need you to get moving. This facility is under attack." The voice said again, he recognized it as a woman named Miranda, though he could not remember meeting any Miranda before.
He slipped his legs over the side of the gurney with a groan. His joints and bones weak and in pain.
"There's a pistol in the locker on the other side of the room, your prosthetic arm is there, hurry!"
He pushed himself off the table and promptly fell onto the floor, when his legs buckled under his weight. His stomach flipped and he heaved dryly. It took a moment to before he willed himself onto his bare feet and to rush to the locker as fast as he could.
The first thing he noticed was himself in the mirror, he looked just as he did last he remembered— his sun-kissed brunette hair was long, streaked with grey, and was pulled back into a loose tie. His beard was peppered with with grey also, and his right eye was hidden behind his titular eye patch.
He noticed his prosthetic arm first in the locker and slipped it on like a worn glove. He next saw a pair of hospital scrubs and pulled them on.
Lastly, he picked up the pistol, gripping it tightly in his shaky hand.
It was of foreign design; larger than any pistol he had ever held, but weighed little more than a .45 caliber handgun. It read Predator Mk.7 on the side and it did not look loaded, and proved so when he tried to squeeze the trigger, the gun beeped in response as a light flashed red.
"We'll find some ammo along the way, now, head for the door!" Miranda's voice echoed.
He moved to the large bulkhead feeling every movement he made pop a new joint somewhere in his body. He peaked out around the large bulkhead and marched through, gun poised.
"Someone's hacking security, they're trying to kill you." Miranda informed as he passed through the archway.
He was greeted by the sight of a dead man, curled on the floor outside the med-bay.
"Check and see if they have a thermal clip on them. It'll look like an oversized battery."
Snake crouched down and turned him over. He saw the expression of fear petrified on his face, a small group of bullet wounds littered his stomach, chest and face.
He patted him and found a few of what he assumed were the thermal clips. The Predator operated much like a normal firearm it seemed, and he only needed a moment to figure out how to slid the thermal clip into the bare slot of the pistol. The handgun sprang to life with a whir and a green light, locked and armed, ready for combat.
"Good, head through the next door and take a right, be careful though; someone hacked the mechs and they're attacking anyone in sight."
Snake rounded the next corner.
"Look out! Three mechs on the stairs!" Miranda shouted as bullets fired over his head.
He ducked behind a nearby crate and listened as bullets crashed against the other side. Their firing pattern was systematic, firing three shots per burst.
When their shots became irregularly timed, Snake popped out and fired. His rounds pierced their vulnerable heads, resulting in combustion. Their bodies scattered about in bits of plastic, metal and circuitry.
He stood and took a breath. He would be lying if engaging an enemy did not strike him with flair of comfort. He was a soldier, the battlefield was his true home.
"Age hasn't slowed you down one bit, Big Boss." Miranda's voice spoke over the intercom. "Move up to the next level and take another right through the doors. We need to get you to the shuttle bay."
He jogged up the steps and moved through the next room. Three more mechs appeared and he quickly dropped them with the same method as before.
"Nice work. Go straight and take another right."
He moved to the next corridor and an alarm blared in the room beyond. An inferno raged behind the glass separating the corridors.
Two people stormed out of the flames, firing rifles into the blaze.
Snake ducked to the side, behind the edge of the panel and looked into the closed off area curiously. A grisly shadow appeared through the encompassing fire; tall and wide, mechanical and emotionless.
He watched as gunfire peppered the glass when the shadow gunned down the shooters, their blood smothered the window in a display of putrid horror.
The silhouetted mech stood still, its head danced back and forth as it scanned the now empty hall. When satisfied, it turned and disappeared back into the inferno it emerged from.
Miranda's voice came in over the intercom. "Don't waste any time, I can't keep the mechs distracted for long."
Snake nodded and jogged down the corridor, past a set of doors and into a dark warehouse with a bridge. He proceeded down the lift and moved across the hall through another set of doors.
"Boss, you're doing great." The intercom became static as Miranda spoke. "Can you...ar me? I'll meet...uttle bay... mechs closing—" Her voice cut off completely, lost in the overwhelming static.
He was on his own. Alone in a facility he was unfamiliar with, wearing nothing but scrubs and armed with just a pistol.
He sighed inwardly when he was reminded of the last time he woke in a hospital under attack. He strode past an office room and proceeded to the next bulkhead. The floor was cold on the soles of his feet and his bones ached from the brisk air. Another eruption in the distance shook the station viciously.
There was a muffled scream from the top of the stairs ahead of him, and Big Boss shrunk his form. He stealthily peeked around the railing above him in time to watch another giant mech crush a mans head against the window.
Snake ducked, feeling its red eye inspecting the stairwell. A beat passed before he heard its thunderous steps fade into the hallway. He moved past the window and the next door over before he entered another area.
He could hear gunfire as he hugged the wall of the tunnel. Ahead, he saw a large hall with a wide gap in the center. He edged around the corner to see a dark skinned man firing at the mechs across the corridor.
The man fired blindly over the guard rail. "Damn it!" He shouted, and popped out the thermal clip of his pistol before loading another in its place. He looked around and noticed Snake. "Hey! Gimme a hand!" He shouted, standing and firing at the mechs again, destroying one as it reloaded.
Snake considered before he ran over in a crouch, shooting at the mechs as he did so. He ducked behind the railing beside the soldier.
"Big Boss?! What're you doing here? I thought you were a work in progress!" The man shouted over the gunfire. He fired a few more rounds over the rail.
"Doesn't matter for now, let's take out these droids before they take us out!" He stood and fired his pistol.
Snake nodded and joined in, taking pot shots at the mechs as more appeared. The dark skinned man glowed strangely as he made an uppercut motion, and one of the mechs flew high into the air, to which he shot it through the chest twice. They continued to mow down the mechs until the hall became quiet.
With a sigh of ease, the man stood and held a hand to Snake. "Jacob Taylor, head of security."
Snake eyed his hand and after a moment, Jacob withdrew it.
"I'm guessing you're pretty confused, but we should try to get out of here first. I'll watch your back, you watch mine?"
"Where am I?" Snake asked.
Jacob frowned. "It's... complicated, it's not 1997, that's for sure."
The creases in Snake's brow furrowed in underlying aggravation.
Jacob rubbed the back of his neck, "Uh... Look, maybe it's best we get you out of here before I tell you anymore, we have to get off this station." He suggested, "You can trust me, Big Boss."
He eyed the dark skinned soldier suspiciously. He did not try to kill him yet...
He eased his stance and gave a curt nod.
"There was a woman's voice when I woke up." Snake informed.
"It was probably Miranda, she's the ranking officer for this station. We'll rendezvous with her at the shuttle bay, follow me."
Jacob slapped a new thermal clip into his Predator and moved to lead the way.
They passed through a bulkhead and hooked an immediate left to a corridor with another door down the far end. Blood stained the floor and the walls were blackened with gunfire.
"What happened here?" Venom Snake asked moving around the blood to save his bare feet.
Jacob moved quickly, his eye trained on the door at the far end, "Damned if I know. I was getting ready for some shut eye then— bam! Bunch of explosions. Next thing I know, every damn mech in the station starts shooting at us."
They came to the bulkhead and paused in their steps, "My guess is it had to be an inside job. You'd need top security access to hack all the mechs station-wide."
Jacob counted down from three with his fingers before he pushed through the mechanical doors. Big Boss followed.
"Contact!" Jacob shouted.
Four mechs stood and waltzed into view, opening fire on the duo.
They both ducked behind the nearest cover and Snake peeked around the corner to fire three rounds into the chest of the nearest one.
Jacob lifted another high into the air and let off a round, destroying its head.
He winced and gripped his ear, "Ouch! Wilson, yeah loud and clear! It's Jacob, I'm with Big Boss. We're under fire by mechs just outside the service tunnels!"
Snake shot two more slugs into one of the floating mechs, bits and debris dispersed throughout the air.
"Roger that Wilson! Stay on this frequency." Jacob shouted over his Predator. It was only a moment before the last mech hit the ground with a thud, its body writhed until deactivation.
The soldier stepped out with a sigh, "Clear." He popped his thermal clip and reloaded another. "That was Wilson, our medical tech, answers directly to Miranda. We'll rendezvous with him at the network-command station."
Snake nodded and reloaded his own thermal clip, copying Jacob's action.
"It's not far off, follow me." Jacob hopped over the air duct and led to the next door. "This must be a nightmare for you. Waking up in the middle of a firefight like this."
Snake shrugged, "Last time was worse. There was more fire." He said, his handgun poised ahead of them.
Jacob smirked. "I can only imagine. Bet you've got some pretty intense stories. Network-control is just through here." The bulkhead opened to reveal a room thick in emergency lighting, and corpses, as well as destroyed mechs, lay scattered about.
The man on the ground before them let out a cry of anguish. "Jacob! Down here. Bastards got me in the leg." He shouted through gritted teeth.
They approached and Jacob bent down to inspect the man's injury. "Round went right through, I'm applying some Medi-Gel."
Big Boss watched as Jacob applied a thick gelatin into the man's wound with mild curiosity. The wounded man exhaled and his seethed breathing eased.
"What are you doing here?" Jacob asked.
Wilson staggered to his feet with a curse between his lips and leaned against the barricade he was hiding behind for support, "I thought I could shut down the security mechs, but whoever did this fried the whole system. Completely irreversible."
Snake eyeballed the man as he spoke, his lip twitched and he kept a firm grip on the gun in his hands. Something was not right...
"Why do you have security mech clearance? You were in bio wing." Jacob asked, suspicious as well.
Wilson looked between the two men, anger and shock written on his face. "Weren't you listening? I came here to try and fix this! Besides, I was shot! How do you explain that?" He stood as straight as his leg would allow, as if to demonstrate.
"It doesn't matter." Big Boss said, "We need to get out of here."
"You're right, Boss. We need to find Miranda, we can't leave her behind." Jacob agreed and stepped to the bulkhead.
Wilson stepped unevenly after them. "Forget Miranda! She was over in D Wing, the mechs were all over that sector. There's no way she survived." He said dismissively.
Jacob spun around. "A bunch of mechs won't drop Miranda. She's alive." He voiced angrily.
"Then where is she? Why haven't we heard from her?" Wilson pushed past Jacob, "She's either dead or she's the traitor!"
Snake shushed them both. He could hear a low whirring on the other side of the door.
Jacob squinted before realization dawned on him.
"Find cover!" He shouted and dove behind the nearest cover.
Snake and Wilson did the same as the doors burst open and several mechs stomped into the Network-Control Room and opened fire onto the trio.
"We're gonna be overwhelmed!" Wilson shouted over the gunfire.
Snake looked over his cover and noticed the canisters in the center of the room, a giant fire warning labelled the entire side. He popped out quickly as the mechs reloaded and fired into one of the canisters.
An explosion rang throughout the Network-Control Room, enveloping the mechs in the fiery blast, and when the gunfire ceased, Jacob lifted his head and inspected.
"Clear!" He shouted.
Snake stood and joined Jacob at the door with Wilson behind.
"That was clever thinking. Let's get out of here" The medical tech said.
Jacob inspected the corridor beyond, "It's not much farther to the shuttle bay, my money's on Miranda already being there." He whispered, taking point again.
Wilson grunted as they moved out of the Network-Control Room. Jacob raised his left arm, and an orange hue filled the room. Some sort of computer device appeared, and the soldier operated it with efficient ease.
Snake assumed it to be a technology similar to that of his iDroid, data collected on some sort of interface. It made him curious as to what year they were in. He had said it was not 1997... How long was he in a coma for? How many more years did he miss while asleep?
The lights flickered with another explosion somewhere in the station.
"We haven't got much time before this place is space junk. Double time it!" Jacob said, leading them down another flight of stairs. They hit a right and then a left at the end of the hall, before they entered a loading bay.
"Hostiles!" Jacob shouted, moving behind the nearest pillar.
Wilson fired blindly over a guardrail, "That's the shuttle bay entrance there!" He gestured to the doors on the far right side of the loading dock.
Snake stepped out and pressed forward, firing as he walked.
His shots hit against the chest of the nearest mech, knocking it over the barrier and into the deep chasm of the station before he ducked behind a crate and reloaded.
"Move!" He shouted, and Jacob moved with him as a concise unit, covering and shooting systematically between each other.
Their medical tech was behind them, shooting like a wild cowboy from behind his pillar until they destroyed the last mech, its head exploding into a large shards of bits and pieces.
Jacob stood with a sigh of relief, "Clear. And not a moment too soon." He called, walking toward the shuttle bay entrance.
Snake followed him as Wilson jogged awkwardly ahead.
The tech reached the bulkhead firat and tapped away at the panel on the side of the door, "C'mon, we're almost—"
The bulkhead opened, and a woman stood before them, dressed in a white and black skin suit. Her face was that of suppressed rage when she stepped into view, and she stared at Wilson with icy eyes.
Wilson's mouth gaped, and he took a step back as he raised his hands defensively, "Miranda?! But you were—"
She raised her pistol and blew a hole through his head. His body hit the ground with a heavy thud and crimson pooled over the cold alloy of the floor.
Jacob ran over with his face in disbelief, "What the hell are you doing?!" He shouted as he flipped Wilson's corpse over, eying the damage.
Big Boss trained his weapon on the woman cautiously.
She glowered at him unfazed, "My job. Wilson betrayed us all. He sabotaged the security systems, killed my staff, and he would have killed us too." She said with cold demeanor.
Jacob stood and shook his head. He did not appear convinced, "You sure about that, Miranda? We've known Wilson for years. What if you're wrong?" He asked.
She smiled a smile that told no lies. "Jacob... I'm never wrong. I thought you'd have learned that by now."
He exhaled, "I dunno... we should have brought him with us— to see what he knew."
Miranda turned around to the large shuttle and touched a panel, its wide door slid open, "Too risky. I've put too much time and effort into bringing Big Boss back to life to let him get killed here and now."
Snake raised a brow. Back to life? So then... he really did die after his battle with Solid Snake.
"You really think Wilson was capable of that?" Jacob asked.
She shrugged, "Not anymore."
He scratched the back of his neck, "Alright. What's our next move?"
Miranda stepped into the shuttle, "We leave." She called to him.
Jacob nodded and waited for Big Boss to follow him.
Snake lowered his pistol and with a suspicious step, joined him and Miranda, taking the seat opposite them, the handgun still in his hand.
The door shut and the shuttle sprang to life, and he felt his stomach hop as the ship flew through the shuttle bay and out the wide entrance of the hanger bay.
He looked out the window, and to his astonishment; outer space stared back at him.
They were in space. He rose from his seat and peered out the window, his hand on the wall as an astral sea of black and shining lights scattered the endless ebony wall.
"Quite a sight, huh?" Jacob asked, watching the older man.
Snake looked out the window once more before sitting back in his seat, "What the hell is going on?" He asked.
Miranda spoke whilst tapping and sliding her other hand over the same holographic interface that Jacob had, "Before anything, we need to ask you a few questions to evaluate your condition. You were frozen for a long time."
"Frozen?" Snake asked, thoroughly confused. Had he been dead, or frozen. Which one was it?
Miranda looked up, a squint in her eye, "You didn't know you were frozen?"
He shook his head.
She lowered her arm, dismissing the orange screen with a curious gaze, "What was the year you last remember?"
"1995."
She and Jacob exchanged a look.
"The last thing you remember is Outer Heaven? Not the Zanzibar Land Incident?" She asked.
Snake shook his head. "Outer Heaven, the place where I died."
They exchanged another look before Jacob sighed and leaned forward, "Alright, look... According to what intel we could recover; You were found clinically dead in Outer Heaven; Africa, in 1995. Your body was recovered by the La-li-lu-le-lo; the Patriots, and placed in cryogenic stasis. But years later Big Boss resurfaced in Zanzibar Land, and you were put down by The Legendary Soldier; Solid Snake, again."
He felt a pinprick of pride in his gut. Legendary Soldier? Solid Snake had proved to be better than the Legend himself? He knew that Solid Snake was not his son, not really in any sort of capacity... but in the mind of Big Boss, he felt a flair of pride for the boy.
Eli could not have put Big Boss down. What he saw in David during their battle, was a desperate will to live, to go home the survivor, and live. With Eli, he saw in him only ego, and a rage that blinded him. A savagery and immaturity in him that drove him to inferiority.
Jacob continued,"All information on you after that disappears. Our assumption to your reappearance is that of a body double, acting in your name and appearance, pretending to be you in order to use your influence for his own means. But that persons body went missing and remained hidden from any or all records we could find. We recovered your cryo-capsule in America, two years ago; Seventeen levels below where some building called the Pentagon was, and brought you to where you woke up."
Miranda interjected, "You were the basis of our project, codenamed; The Lazarus Project. We were to bring you back to life, as you were before your clinical death."
"Boss," Jacob paused, "You've been asleep for a hundred and ninety years."
"..."
The only sound that echoed around them was that of the low hum the shuttle emitted. Venom Snake leaned forward and ran a hand over his beard, unable to find words. He was shocked, sure... but it didn't strike him as hard as he assumed it would. Maybe it was because he had woken from a coma years later before. Or maybe it was because a hundred and ninety years didn't seem real enough. Though, it did explain how they were in space, wielding weapons far more advanced than he had ever seen.
After a moment, he looked between the two. "... 2185?"
They nodded, and Miranda crossed a leg over the other, "Boss, we need your help. The Patriots are gone now, but there is something far worse happening. The whole galaxy is at stake." She said, "We'll rendezvous at the nearest Cerberus facility, our leader the Illusive Man, would like to speak to you."
Big Boss leaned back and stared out the window. The galaxy? A hundred and ninety years into the future? He had been positive his mission finished after his battle with Solid Snake. It ended in failure, but his role was complete nonetheless. The phantom would finally walk on to the other side, a warrior's death... And that he would get to see her again...
His head rested back against the hard wall, it vibrated against his cranium, reminiscent of the gunship he missed dearly. His bare back and feet were icy against the cold metal of the shuttle and he shuddered as the cold touched his bones, grounding him in reality.
He wished he knew what had happened to Big Boss. It could not have ended in Zanzibar Land... he must have survived, though the voice in the back of his mind spoke otherwise.
Solid Snake was an excellent soldier, and when he had fought him he was far more talented than any normal rookie. He was not green, and after their battle in Outer Heaven, the boy had become a real soldier. He had been hardened, his resolve tested when Big Boss was the enemy. Snake pondered curiously what had become of Solid Snake then, if he lived a life free of combat after Zanzibar Land, or if he fell into the bitter life of battle that he was destined for.
His eye fell shut, and he lost himself in the vibration of the shuttle.
Jacob eyed the older man as he slipped into sleep across from them and leaned back with a sigh.
"We really should ask him some more questions." Miranda said, closing her omni-tool and leaning back also. The man in front of her was a conundrum; she looked over body; from the jagged shrapnel in his forehead, to the prosthetic on his arm, and to the scars that covered his face. The man should be retired or dead, about a hundred and ninety years ago with the way he looked. But he proved himself capable still, armed with only a pistol and nothing else.
"Let him sleep, Miranda. The man had one hell of a wake up call." Jacob countered.
She yielded and shut her own eyes, "The Illusive Man will be satisfied with his performance at the very least. Just as; if not more talented than Commander Shepard was."