Mission 4 – Noveria
The commander gave the six another look over, "I've spoken to the board of directors, I've read all your reports, and we agree these so called S-Geth are something not to be ignored. For that reason, we have called you back for one last mission."
He dimmed the lights and a screen went up in front of them.
"Intelligence has found a stronghold of the S-Geth, a 'base-of-operations' if you will. We sent a drone in to get some information for us; it hasn't returned. The information it set out to get is vital, and we want you to escort it to an upload location. We're not going in to destroy them yet, not until we know what we're dealing with, but your reputation shows you like to make a scene. Your operation is simple, acquire the drone any way you can, we'll do the rest."
"Do we know anything about this stronghold?" Kappa asked.
"It used to be a Cerberus stronghold, got blown up five years ago. We thought it was untouched, but we were wrong. You're heading to Noveria; I believe two of you know that place quite well…"
"I can't believe we got another mission!" Delta remarked.
They were on the ship, flying through the battering clouds and making their way to the landing zone. Noveria was cold, not even the heat on board the ship could keep them from shivering.
"It looks different," Mu suddenly said through glances of breaks in the cloud.
"You two have been here before then?" Kappa asked.
Zeta nodded, he was shaking slightly more than everyone else, "Long time ago."
Kappa nodded, "This is an S-Geth stronghold. We know how tough they are, everyone be on your guard at all times, communication will be key," he looked to Zeta, "We live off each other… or we die."
The Vanguard nodded.
"If we get this done, I'll buy the drinks," Delta laughed.
Only ten minutes later, Kappa sprinted behind Zeta, who flipped and sent a Biotic Slash forward, destroying the S-Geth shooting at them.
Mu flashed into existence behind a rocket trooper and sliced it in half, whilst Eta crushed another with biotics. Delta was placed with his shield in front of Alpha, who tore into the oncoming horde with both his typhoons.
"Zeta, one behind us!" Delta shouted.
The Vanguard charged from one side to the other, knocking the S-Geth Hunter away. Delta removed his shield and incinerated it.
Mu flipped over and crouched behind some crates, "Grenade, Kappa."
He threw, and she sent off an electric slash, exploding them.
"Nice," Kappa remarked.
The drone moved forward, sliding slowly over the battlefield; it had a while to go yet to the upload location.
"Eta, on your six," Zeta said. He sent another biotic slash from his sword as Eta loaded the three enemies with biotics, each one exploding.
"Pyros coming in," Kappa shouted.
"I'll distract them with the shield," Delta said.
He jumped out and smashed his shield into the ground as Kappa threw a grenade into them.
They focussed their fire on the shield, which quickly exploded out of Delta's arm.
"Get back Delta, they'll burn you alive," Kappa warned.
"Ice them," Mu said, "then incinerate, and then energy drain."
Two simultaneous explosions ensued.
"Why didn't I think of that?" Kappa said.
"Drone's almost in the room, we should be able to jump behind the consoles for some cover," Zeta observed.
There were two consoles, so they decided to split up.
"It's a nice day at least," Zeta said, "Nicer than the last time I was here."
Mu and Eta crouched with him, "See if you can get anything from these consoles, Mu."
She loaded her omni-tool and started hacking the computer.
"We have some breathing time, how's everyone doing?" Kappa asked.
"Alpha's got plenty of ammo left," Delta said, "I'm fine."
"We're fine," Zeta said, "Eta looks ready to blow up."
She was surging with some sort of black Biotic power, "I-I'm under c-control."
"I hope so," Kappa said, "I'm gonna take a look."
He got out his sniper and placed it on the console; he saw nothing at first, "Seems clear."
A sniper-shot echoed around the area; there was a pause.
"Did you get it?" Zeta asked.
"He's been hit!" Delta shouted suddenly.
"Carry on, Mu," Zeta said, and teleported over to the other console, Eta following him.
Delta sat against the desk looking at Kappa's fallen body, stunned.
"Don't just sit there!" Zeta shouted, "We need medi-gel."
Eta took hers out to hand to the vanguard, who was looking over Kappa's body to find where the bullet had hit him.
"Head," Delta whispered.
Sure enough, there was a hole in his helmet. The bullet had taken out his shields and sliced straight through.
"H-he's dead," Eta said.
"He can't be!" Delta cried, "We need him!"
Zeta put the Engineer's body back on the ground, not believing what he was seeing.
The drone moved forward into the room, edging slowly forward.
"We have to leave him," Zeta said, "We have to carry on and finish this."
"We can't do this! Not without Kappa, we need to be at full strength," Delta said.
"There's no going back," Mu said from over the other side of the room, "They know what we're up to, this will be our only chance, else they'll destroy the drone."
"Look at me, Delta," Zeta said, grabbing the Sentinel, "We have to do this. We have to be extra careful, and work together more than any time before, but we can do this."
The Sentinel looked at Kappa, and nodded slowly, "Back on the cargo ship, I lost people. I swore I'd never lose a comrade again."
"This wasn't your fault. It couldn't be helped; the drone's getting there, so we have to move," Zeta said, "Have you got anything, Mu?"
"Sigma's a research facility," she said.
"We have to report back to ASA that we're a man down," Delta said.
No one wanted to announce Kappa was dead, but it was Zeta who reported.
"S-S-Geth," Eta suddenly said.
The team jumped behind cover again. The drone moved very slowly, it was halfway through the room.
"Can you make it travel faster?" Zeta asked Mu.
"Not without deleting data off of it," she replied.
"Then we're gonna be stuck here for a bit, I want as many high-powered explosions as you can muster," Zeta said, "Let's get through this and get out! The upload point's just outside this room!"
Eta and Zeta started launching biotics out of the room, Mu sent off electric slashes, and Delta started incinerating. Alpha resumed his open fire.
Rockets bombarded the doorway from the outside, a few managing to enter and explode all around them.
"Shields down," Delta said, he ducked out of battle.
One extra lack of fire allowed two almost invisible hunters to enter the room, heading for Alpha. Zeta teleported and slashed one with his sword, and started slicing the other. Before it could hurt Alpha, the vanguard had it on the floor, dead, however bullets shattered his shield and bought him to the ground.
"Mu, get Zeta," Delta said, "Eta, keep the door covered."
She exploded in all directions, and tendrils of black biotic smoke washed over her. They surrounded the door, causing anything to come in to be primed for an explosion, which she happily threw at them.
Mu flashed invisible and pulled Zeta's body to one side, helping him up.
"You're not dying too," she said to him.
"Thanks," he breathed, "Where's the drone?"
"Just past Delta; three feet from the door."
"Any cover outside?" he asked.
"There are a few ledges we could use, a small crate. It's open both ends though."
"Could really use a grenade right now," Delta remarked.
"Don't start thinking like that," Zeta replied.
Eta was burning brighter than ever before. The Biotics were clearly having a strain on her.
"Eta, calm down," Mu said.
The Adept didn't seem to hear, she just continued throwing as much as she could.
They didn't notice the stairway at the other end of the room, from which two S-Geth Primes walked out from.
The blasts shattered Zeta's, Mu's and Eta's shields, and they fell to the ground like rocks.
"Primes," Zeta said.
"How many?" Delta replied. From his and Alpha's position, they couldn't see.
"Two," Mu said.
"Rocket them?"
"We can stop them, save your rockets for the way out," Zeta said, "I've got a cryo-upgrade on my gun; if I shoot them, Mu can detonate them. Eta, you can explode them with biotics anyway can't you?"
"Y-yes," she sent out a dark cloud of biotic smoke to them which began to eat through their armour.
Alpha and Delta covered the entrance they had come in from. Outside there were large groups of S-Geth rocket troopers and normal troopers, but they weren't causing too much hassle.
The first Prime's shields went down, but the team were tiring. The drone had just reached the doorway.
"We can get outside now," Zeta said through firing.
"Delta and Alpha go first, we can get out easily," Mu suggested.
"Come on, big guy," Delta said to Alpha.
They carefully made their way out of cover, attempting to dodge the flurry of rockets that cascaded into the room from the previous doorway. Delta launched his shield into the ground as Alpha moved outside. When it was clear, Delta quickly retracted the omni-tool and rolled outside.
All of a sudden the ground shook enormously, they were toppled to the ground.
"What was that?" Delta asked once the facility had stopped shaking.
"Felt like a meteor strike," Zeta replied.
"Something's landed where we came in," Mu said.
"Could it be reinforcements?" Delta suggested.
"I don't want to wait to find out," Zeta said, "Get outside."
The two found suitable cover outside, and Zeta teleported through the wall, reappearing in front of Delta.
Mu suddenly appeared out from her tactical cloak, "Eta's gone the opposite way, she's taking out the Primes."
"You're joking?" Zeta said.
They looked in and saw Eta smashing the large robots; they could feel the heat of the biotics from where they were stood. Explosions shook the walls of the facility, and the Primes faltered.
"She's actually doing it!" Delta observed.
"Probably needed us out of the way," Mu said.
"She's burning up though, look at her," Zeta said.
From Eta's suit came lines of bright lights, long streaks seeping out from her very skin. The room filled up around her with S-Geth troopers, each one shooting, but each bullet being deflected by some biotic force.
Zeta got out his sword, ready to send in a Biotic Slash that would explode the entire room.
"You'll kill her," Mu said, placing her hand on his.
"She can't fight off that many!" Zeta said.
Suddenly, the wall to Eta's right blew up, sending the Adept flying into the opposing wall. From the hole came the largest S-Geth they had ever seen. Pure black in armour, with pointed features much like Alpha's suit, it looked like nothing they had ever seen before, not even the large S-Geth from the last mission could stand as tall as this one did.
"I guess we know what landed now," Delta said.
As Eta began her assault again, it quickly grabbed her body in one large metal hand, and crushed her with little effort.
Delta, Zeta, Mu and Alpha stood and stared, the world around them became nothing but a blur, their eyes focussed on one thing only.
Eta's body, still flashing and glowing, fell to the ground. A slow, painful act that lasted longer than it should have, as if gravity wanted them to endure it. The room had become filled with black tendrils of her biotics, undisturbed as her body fell through them. Her head cracked against the ground, and the entire room, with everything inside of it exploded in a massive biotic rampage that swept through the S-Geth, burning them alive, their armour liquefying, their circuitry frying; each one exploding as the biotic wave lashed not around or over them, but through them.
"Duck!" Delta roared as the blast swept over them. He placed his shield up, but it was instantly rocketed away as the explosion reached them. His arm shattered as he fell, a scream of pain erupting from his helmet.
Each of their shields shattered, their suits burning, they lay dazed on the ground, lucky to be alive.
Noises came from overhead, as long streaks of fire fell through the sky, heralding the arrival of more S-Geth, much like the large black one that still stood over Eta's body, wreathed in biotics, but still alive. As each one landed, the ground shook, the facility rattled, and the team knew their chances of escape were diminishing fast.
But there was still hope, the drone was almost there.
"It's like some… S-Geth Destroyer," Delta breathed, his voice now tarnished and ripped.
"If it survived that blast, we can't kill it," Mu said quietly.
They struggled to their knees with great difficulty. Eta's explosion had almost ripped through their bodies. They were burned and bloodied; and there were S-Geth rounding the corner.
Delta and Alpha sat a little away from Mu and Zeta.
Delta launched his missile into the large black S-Geth, but still it did not die.
"…Too strong," he breathed, he was failing, blood flowing freely from his suit.
"Stay with us Delta!" Zeta shouted as best he could, he had a gash across his chest from which blood was seeping.
"Would have thought ASA had given us more missiles," Delta said, "I can't get up. It's over."
Zeta and Mu were suddenly felt themselves being picked up by the standing body of Alpha, he threw them into the upload location, and then threw Delta on top of them.
He fell to his knees again, obviously wounded, and looked at them, pointing to the mass of S-Geth on their right.
"We'll rocket them," Zeta said.
The Soldier looked at them and nodded, he grabbed Zeta and pulled the vanguard close to his helmet, the black tinge giving nothing away of what lay beneath, and then, in a very mechanical voice, said, "Run."
Before they could reply, Alpha pushed himself up and ran off to fight the S-Geth Destroyer. They saw him jump into it and tackle it to the ground, a metallic crash echoing around the room; they rolled away out of sight.
Zeta and Mu aimed their missiles at the horde of S-Geth in the distance, only infantry, where the other destroyers had gone they couldn't guess, maybe they were on their way, but they fired both rockets and cleared the area.
A small click sounded behind them as the drone finally finished its journey and began uploading.
Mu suddenly laughed quietly and tapped Delta's shoulder as he was sprawled over them, not moving, "Hey Delta, we did it," she said.
The Sentinel, lying over Zeta's legs, suddenly looked around, as if he couldn't see.
"Zeta, Mu… I think I figured it out," he said, very quietly.
"Figured out what?" Zeta asked; his voice also weak. His gashed chest rose up and down painfully as more blood fell from his body.
"I did some researching. Sigma… was the one who created Alpha, I think. It's a research company. They hid him at a biotic reactor, Eta guarded him, and she blew up the facility, but made it out. I had to retrieve him and protect him from Cerberus hands. The cargo ship… it came to Noveria to pick up… two lost people," he paused, breathing heavily, "That was you two… Kappa… he must have been the protection… that wasn't there… when I arrived. I saved Alpha… from Sigma. Sigma… they must have changed… to Geth."
The Sentinel started laughing quietly, though it sounded more like coughing, "I saved you both."
Zeta paused and nodded, "Yeah, you did good."
"I saved… the galaxy… from Alpha," Delta said, "Hey… Zeta… Mu?"
"…Yeah?" Zeta choked as a cry reverberated through him, he shook all over, enamoured by Delta's persistence.
But there was a long pause, "Don't fight anymore. Stay with me."
They sat for ten, undisturbed minutes. Noveria was quiet. The S-Geth were elsewhere, out of sight. They had no idea what had become of Alpha; there were no noises of fighting anymore. Snow fell from the clouded sky, the rain of meteors had ceased. Through gaps in the clouds, Zeta could faintly see the stars beyond, the freedom of space, calling out to him.
Delta's head slowly rolled away, and Zeta gave out a long sigh, he didn't know how much blood he'd lost, but could feel the effects.
"Mu," he started, "I'm so sorry for what I did to you."
The Infiltrator lay slumped on the railings. She looked battered and bruised, her white suit stained with smoke and blood. She slowly looked at him, the silence stretching on between them, "I'm not mad. Not anymore; it was my own doing."
Zeta looked up at the sky again, his helmet slowly coating with the gentle snowfall, "We're right back where we started."
She sighed, "Do you think we'll get off this time?"
He coughed, "No time for an evacuation; we just won't make it."
"We have to tell them about the Destroyers, the drone wouldn't have made any record of them," Mu said.
"There's only one way out," Zeta said.
Bleeding badly, they moved stiffly to look over the edge, to the snowy mountains below.
He held her hand, and slipped Delta off him. The Sentinel gently gave way; he had gone to join the others, wherever they'd gone.
"We'll tell the world, Delta," he promised their fallen friend, "You'll be the hero you always wanted to be."
Mu looked him in the eye, holding his gaze; they both took a deep breath.
And then they fell.