Chapter 50: Rituals
The road to the ritual site was fraught with so many potholes, strewn rubble and detritus it was enough to discomfort even the most experienced of travellers. Not even the inertial dampeners of the tomkah were enough quell the feeling of nausea, but any as any soldier would Shepard pushed her queasiness aside. Besides there were other far more important things to dwell on.
Shepard tried to tell herself not to feel guilty about not feeling guilty.
Really the pyjack were nothing more than vermin. Same as rats and mice back on Earth. Same thing. And besides it was not as if their deaths were a total waste. Dead pyjack became varren-chow. However there were fractions of moments when Shepard saw the disappointed frown of her wife whenever a pyjack was killed. But they were infesting the food stores - that could not stand. Cute or not the little chrome monkeys had to go.
And in the little creatures' extermination the Spectre gained the companionship of a white-blue striped varren named Urz. Shepard had fed some of the vermin meat to the fishdog and suddenly the hound was the Spectre's best friend. Now he was following on her heels as a pup. Both Jack and Grunt were impressed the beast not only seemingly imprinted on Shepard but now was as a loyal follower as any on the Normandy.
"Sa'what, you gonna to bring your new pet back to the Normandy?" Jack asked.
A bit of a befuddled look crossed the Spectre's face. "To be honest, I haven't thought that far ahead. The ship doesn't seem a proper place for a hound."
"Why not? Krogan ships carry them all the time." Grunt protested.
"Yeah and they smell like a fucking kennel that hasn't seen a shovel since God invented time." Jack groused.
"You've been on a krogan ship?" Shepard asked not keeping the surprise out of her voice.
"Been on lots of ships. A crew I was running with hit a Blood Pack frigate. They liberated something from some out world asari colony. The Blue were paying a pretty penny to get it back; trick was they wanted the Blood Pack to live. Not cuz life is precious shit but so they had to live with the shame of being bested by a bunch of squishy mammals.
"Hit the ship but fuck the reek of it nearly knocked us on our asses. Same kinda stench that comes up from that fighting pit in the Urdnot camp. You want the Normandy smelling like that, be my guest but I ain't sticking around for it. Doubt the others will either. Sure fire way to start a mutiny."
"Bah, you squishy types will always find something to moan about." Grunt dismissed the humans out of turn. Having a loyal varren at your side was worth some inconveniences. They should know that. Maybe seeing the hound fight on the field would change his battlemaster's mind. "Train the beast not to shit all places. One place. Then send a minion to clean it up. It's what vorcha are for."
"Alas the Normandy is decisively out of vorcha minions. But housebreaking is something that can be done." Shepard placed her hand upon the varren's head. "How bout it boy? Think you can be housebroke...or you know shipbroken?"
The blue-and-white striped fishdog gave a playful yip that Shepard took as an affirmation of consent. The Spectre patted him on the head. Now all she had to do was to think of a way to install positive reinforcement conditioning on the beast's mind. Were she an asari in truth and not just slightly altered by the gestalt Shepard could have installed a thought in the hound's mind of where it was permissible to defecate when on the ship. Perhaps some corner of the shuttle bay that could be cleaned up by some maintenance VI like the one that maintained the fish-tank.
Hmm...perhaps...Samara can be of some help there. Going to have to ask her if I'm keeping the mutt. Having a hound at her side did pose a threatening image. Goddess knew she faced more than a handful of creatures on the battlefield, and they were always fierce and swift and a bitch to contend with. Having one at her side... well...
A dark smile formed on the Spectre's lips as she imagined Urz tearing the throat out of some fracking Collector or other minion of the Reapers.
"It's settled then, come Urz. Let's see what you can do, eh?" the Spectre stroked the smooth scaled head to the fishdog. Wishing just for the moment it was covered in fur like some earthen dog. All the same Urz responded the same way as its Earth counterpart, its tiny stub of a tail wagging, this mouth slathering and the strange 'smile' hounds tend to gain when they please their masters.
Grunt nodded his approval. A battlemaster like Shepard should have a war-hound at her side. 'Mother' should. It was the proper way. She may not have the countenance of a krogan but Shepard had all the bearing of a female clan leader. Formidable, dominating, powerful, forceful. Like Urz, Grunt had no issue following at her heels.
They now stood on a two-tiered concrete precipice of the ritual site overlooking battleground so stained with the blood of fallen krogan the earth was permanently dyed orange. Pillars along the keystone were pockmarked with bullet holes, acid spray and slash marks of blade and claw. The rebar infused concrete and sheet- metal pillars offered minimal protection at best.
On the either side of the precipice were broad stone stairs leading down to the horseshoe shaped arena. Below were more corpses like the one near the keystone platform only bone remained and those bleached white by the harsh Tuchanka sun.
Even as the sun was peeking over the horizon the washed out yellow sky the heat was rising. By mid-afternoon it promised to be a real scorcher, fortunately the hardsuits had been acclimatized. Even so Shepard could feel the sweat trickling down her spine. Jack looked like she was already roasting, but she gave no outward complaint. As for Grunt he simply looked anxious, impatient and overly excited, not unlike a kid waiting in line without the Fast-pass for his turn at the massive rollercoaster ride. His blue eyes sparkled, in his eagerness. He was nervous and impulsive.
He wasn't the only one. Urz paced back and forth yelping growled barks in urgency. The hound could smell the excitement in the air, smell it in the combatants, in the very ground at their feet.
*First the krogan conquered Tuchanka...and mastered a natural world only we are fit to hold,* the shaman's voice echoed from speakers concealed by the ironworks.
Shepard turned at the grinding moan of stone and metal coming from a monumental structure behind them. The mammoth skeleton of what was once a skyscraper housed what at first appearance looked like an old-fashioned drill. It was in-fact the keystone. The cylinder rose like a piston and slammed hard back into the ground. The impact tremor rolled throughout the arena reverberating under their feet.
They had no clue what to expect at first, only to 'adapt and thrive no matter the situation.' The first wave would be a test for what was to come. She needed a true battle plan if they were to win. Shepard was extremely good at off-the-cuff, out-of-the-box thinking. Adapting to situations. The immediate area gave good base coverage what with the high walls and mounds of detritus but it would not be enough.
"Varren!" Grunt identified the threat, taking up his shot gun before Shepard could do the same. At her side Urz snarled, ready to take the fight to interlopers.
"Jack set up a singularly. Left side. Do it quickly." Shepard did the same with the right. "Keep them in place, deploy shockwaves keep them from gaining ground. Grunt hit the center of the packs; keep them from formulating their attacks. Keep them dispersed.
Almost as soon as the singularities were in place, the pack surged forth, frothing at the mouth, eager to taste blood. And they would have it. Swift, agile, with strong forequarters and stronger jaws, there were fierce opponents.
The pack split hitting both sets of stairs, the first became entrapped within the singularities. Those that followed were not deterred by the death of those leading the charge. The varren rushed only to run headlong into twin rushes of powerful shockwaves although be it one of them was generated by Shepard's blade. The slash was equally effective. The twin assaults of dark energy tore the through the creatures like a brutal storm front. They scattered, knocked off their feet, tossed to the wind like so many dried leaves. Of the six that rushed them only three survived.
Without a word both biotics focused their minds and wills summing pockets of mass effect energy into warp bubbles. Their bubbles collided with one another into a greater force, crushing the remaining three—snuffing their lives.
The shockwaves bought precious few seconds for Grunt and Urz to seize the panic in the right flank. Urz rushed the pack with unflinching courage. The eruption of krogan laughter, followed by the thunder rack of shotgun fire was telling enough of the fate of the splinter pack.
Too soon to pull another biotic attack Jack and Shepard unholstered their firearms, the former the M-6 Carnifax hand cannon, the later her new favored Kassa Locast SMG. One of them dodged passed Urz leapt up to take Grunt. He was massive, the alpha male. He latched onto the young krogan's arm—locking his jaws. Grunt instinctively began bashing in the head of the male but to no avail. The beast would not let go, three more made to charge—emboldened by their leader's actions. One was shot directly between the eyes by Jack.
An experienced pit-fighter Urz took the throat of his wild counterpart, ripping it open, and gorged upon the hot flesh; blood stained the white muzzle to pinkish-orange. The team's combined attacks left the last for the Commander. She opened fire with her SMG on the center of mass—the red and black stripped varren's mid-section. The body shattered in a mass of blood, bone and muscles.
The wave ended.
Grunt let out a wildly loud whoop of pleasurable bloodied joy. "That was fun!" he bleated like a child at a fun park begging to go again on the ride they just got off. "The way you two smashed them with the biotics—glorious!" he slammed his fist into his palm.
The Spectre smiled at the young male's enthusiasm.
"Yeah well that's why biotics are so fucking bad-ass." Jack smirked. "All the power of dark energy, mass effect fields…" she twiddled her fingers in the air "in the palm of your hand. It's why we biotics win every time."
"Let's see ya do it again. Come on Shepard. Hit the keystone." Grunt practically demanded.
"Hold your position, soldier!" Shepard snapped authoritatively. "Only a fool runs headlong into battle without a strategy. Hitting them as hard as you can first isn't much of a plan. Stop and think! You are krogan; your strength is your krant. You are part of my crew, my team one day you will be leading your own. Perhaps your own company.
"We faced a small fraction of opposition. I get your blood is high for our victory but don't let the rush control you. This was a fracas nothing more but if you are to lead a team you must insure that team is five-by-five after battle, even in the smallest skirmishes. You have not done so. In fact you didn't give a single cursory glance to your team mates-your krant."
Grunt looked abashed. So caught up in the blood-letting he forgotten about those who stood at his side.
"There is a human military saying: 'If you got'em smoke'em, if ya gotta piss do it now,' When you are at war and forced to march dozens of kilometer a day there's another saying my first Commander told us: 'Never run when you can walk. Never walk when you can stand. Never stand when you can sit. Never sit when you can lay down. Never lay down when you can sleep.'
"It means when there is a lull in battle you take the respite. Fuel up; take stock of ammo and of meds. Steady yourself for the next wave of battle, make sure your people are sound enough to face the next wave. If you don't the next battle is lost. And that is all on the leader and his or her choices."
"Make sure everyone's combat ready." Grunt surmised then repeated well known words. "Strength of your krant is your strength."
"Yeah dumb-ass. If this was a pop quiz you just failed."
"Then drink your juice and chow down on your protean bar little biotic." the krogan demanded. If he failed in the eyes of Mother he failed in the eyes of the shaman, perhaps in the eyes of the clan leader, Urdnot Wrex. Shepard was right, he failed his krant. —Only a fool abandons his people for the eagerness for blood. He could not afford to let it happen again. He could not fail Shepard again.
Shepard nodded slightly, thinking. 'Good boy.' She then looked to Jack proud the young woman got it as well. After seeing to Urz, spot checking that he was hale and hearty the Commander turned towards the keystone to activate it only after she witnessed Jack take a swig from her canteen just as she did.
Biotics were indeed powerful, perhaps one of the most powerful sources of energy and natural weaponry available to sentient kind. But all energy needs a source of fuel. Fortunately for biotics that was easily sourced in the way of high electrolyte protein drinks and energy bars.
Shepard felt her own body refreshed with taking another swig of her canteen. Only then did she strike the keystone. Just as before the shaman's voice echoed thought out the compound.
*Then the krogan were lifted to the starts to destroy the fears of a galaxy, an enemy only we could chase to their lair.*
Oh frack…rachni…I hate fighting those things. Shepard drew in a breath. Blood warriors were the worst. Thank the stars she never had to battle the queen.
"Rachni!" Grunt boomed in an almost orgasmic glee, even as the vibrations of the keystone echoed deep beneath the earth. "Perfect!"
"Fucking rachni here? Where the hell did the shellbacks get them?" Jack groused. "I hate spiders!"
"I doubt they breed them here Wrex would never allow it …." Shepard frowned not liking the idea. She had seen too much of that on Peak 15. It didn't end well. Then she heard the screeches. The throat that made such bellowing did not belong to the spiders.
"If not rachni then what?" Grunt practically demanding as if Shepard had all the answers. "What made that sound?"
The answer came not from the Spectre but from the air itself. All around them the dirt stirred into small cyclones of detritus and dust making nearly impossible to see. Then came the true death knell, a chittering screech. Far overhead the whooshing beating of leather wings.
"FUCK! Harvester!" Jack bellowed. "Fuck me."
"It's gonna drop crawlers!" Grunt announced almost disappointingly. He wanted rachni—the old enemy. The worm neck at least would pose a true threat, one the krogan whelp was eager to test his metal against.
"Klixen." Shepard automatically corrected. The insectiods were nearly as bad as the spiders. The difference was that rachni were intelligent, the klixen were animals. In fact they possessed no brains at all but a collection of nerves connected to a ganglia. Even still a horde was a horde. And when it swarmed in overwhelming numbers it was very bad.
Klixen were arthropods with ruby colored ridged chitinous exoskeleton that was molted every few months to allow for growth. They had twin spiked appendages protruding from the rear of their abdomens not unlike the tail of a scorpion. And like the scorpion they used these scythe-like appendages to pin down their prey in order to tear them apart or more readily spew their toxic digestive justices in order to suck it up into their cylindrical stomachs.
As for the worm necks, it was a name given to the creatures for their appearance not because they were in any way related to a worm. The beasts possessed long segmented sinuous necks covered in plated chitin not unlike another type of wyrm of legend. The massive arthropods on reflection were very like the fictional draconian counterparts for they did indeed belch a secretion that upon contact with air ignited in flames. The flames the creature spewed however more akin to napalm than simple flame-thrower. This was especially so when in contact with the skin or krogan's shelled hump or even the hide of a thresher maw. The gel was nearly impossible to remove not unlike hot tar and even more difficult to extinguish once it had adhered to the flesh and ignited.
Harvesters and klixen had a symbiotic rather than parasitic relationship, not unlike aphids and ants. Where you found one you'd find the other. Instead of milking the crawlers however worm-necks used their 'parasites' as their primary weapons. A volley of klixen to hunt down and kill the prey and the harvesters would swoop in and take what they wanted of the carrion. Fresh kill or scraps it was all the same to the insectoid minions-meat was meat.
"Don't matter the name Gotta kill'em before they get too close or they explode when they die. And that shit burns forever if it gets on you. Kills your shields." Grunt said, slamming armor piercing rounds into his shotgun.
"Yeah I know. This aint my first gun fight little turtle-boy." Jack said. "Faced a few of them when I was running with another crew. Nasty as shit. All fire breathing and crap. Those damned harvesters took out a couple of our gunships. Then the crawlers came, like god-damn sharks in the water going for blood. Took out half my crew that survived the harvester crash. Not a fun day. Aint gonna be fun now." Jack turned to the Commander, "Shepard just so you know if I die here in this shit-hole I'm haunting your ass for the rest of your fucking life."
"Noted." came the Commander's answer. "I'll make sure you both make it out of here."
"Speak for yourself, painted human." Grunt was actually laughing. "Bringing down a worm neck will be grand!"
Jack opened her mouth for a retort that never came.
"Pay attention." Shepard snapped drawing the gaze of her companions. The last thing she wanted was for the two to spiral into an argument. The cry of the harvester came again far closer this time. This was no warning challenge. This was the song of the hunt. It had circled once to get the lay of the land and the prey's location, now it was the time to weed out the weakest of the four.
"Keep focus. Keep your barriers up, Grunt make sure your shields are active. Jack you and I will keep singularities in place. We have to tear through them with shockwaves, slashes, and flares. When the harvester comes, you and I hit that thing with a stasis-warp. Grunt you and Urz keep the klixen off of us. Use the omni-bow to lay trip wires. It will buy time. Do it now!"
Grunt moved to obey without question littering the ground below the platform in a spider's web of orange-glowing tripwires. After raiding Hock's armoury, Shepard had made sure everyone on her flagship team had the bow-casting abilities installed on their omni-tools or rather she had asked Tali and the engineering team to make it happen.
"Stasis-warp? What the hell is that?" the tattooed woman shot a glare to the Commander.
"Something Matriarch Benezia showed me, by using it on me," came the answer as Shepard went about to lay several more of the tripwires near the entry points the varren had used previously. "It worked against a fraxon shark. It will work against any harvester. Just as it sounds, a warpfield and a stasis field at the same time. Jack, you're powerful enough, you're an L5 for crying-out-loud, you can do it. Just concentrate. It is not entirely impossible to think of two ideas at the same time. Just accept the whole idea and dual reality of Schrödinger's box. It's quantum-based physics with biotics but you can do it, Jack. I know you can. Just make sure to keep your barriers up."
"I know about my god-damned barriers, you don't have to keep nagging me about it, Shepard." For the snippy remark Jack received only a look that screamed volumes. Abashed not unlike Grunt moments ago the younger woman activated her biotic barriers.
Jack didn't want to admit it but the Spectre was right, keeping your barriers in place was absolutely critical. It was just the high praise preceding the warning made her uncomfortable. The ex-con was not accustomed to such acceptance, all this pure belief in her, not one that didn't come with a price tag. Shepard's only price tag to keeping you alive was: Make sure you play nice with the team…
'You are only as strong as your krant…your team. Make sure your people are sound enough to face the next wave. If you don't the next battle is lost. And that is all on the leader and his or her choices.' Shepard's words echoed in her hindbrain. Guess I just failed the pop-quiz too. She was only looking out for her people, fuck it. Ain't gonna say sorry. Treating me like a fucking know-nothing kid. I know to keep up my….
"Sorry Shepard, you're right." The younger woman groaned at herself for speaking the words she wanted to stifle. The words appeased the Spectre's ruffled feathers as she was awarded with the minimal of head nods from the raven haired woman. HEY! Thought you weren't gonna say sorry. Her sarcastic side chastised her, into which her hindbrain said. Shut the fuck up, the Commander was right. She knows this military shit. Doesn't hurt to pay attention to all her fucking lectures. Been keeping us alive so far. She's just look out for us. The sarcastic side rolled its inner eyes. You didn't just think that mushy stuff did you? The hindbrain didn't answer it was too busy basking in the fractional glow of praise the N7's forgiving head-nod had given her. Stupid hindbrain.
"Got concussion rounds." Grunt said feeling a bit left out of the conversation. This was after all his test, not the thin tattooed human's. He should be the star. Maybe Mother was punishing him for failing that small test of making sure the krant was five-by-five. "Put a dent in them good." He sure as hell wasn't going to lose out, now. He'd gain back Shepard's praise and favour. Just wait and see. He'd make her see he was worthy of her attention. Of her praise.
"Good idea. Use warp ammo or cryo rounds as well. Don't even bother with incendiary rounds." Shepard advised "We have to neutralize that harvester or we'll be swimming in klixen."
The harvester swooped low, like a bomber it dropped its payload on the enemy. Not nuclear bombs but a swarm of crawlers, every bit as dangerous. The biotics flung up singularities as they had with the varren; giving the companions a bit more cover. The deterrent worked, the klixen were unable to storm the platform. Many fell to the tripwires, their bodies exploding on impact.
Grunt leveled his sights on the body of the swarm and fired a volley of concussion shots from his claymore knocking the insects back into one another. The first target exploded taking four others with it.
"Great shot," Jack complemented the young krogan and to her surprise she meant it.
"There's the beastie." Grunt pointed at it with the muzzle of his gun toward the circling harvester. "Do what you're gonna do Shepard. What you're best at." He turned back to keeping the crawlers away from his battlemaster. Giving her and the other female time.
The flying menace swooped low once more ready to drop another play-load. It landed with a THUMP near the platform, its mouth opened in a great ear-piecing bellow of defiance and challenge.
Urz answered in kind and rushed the massive creature. His mouth slathering, his teeth longing to latch onto a throat, to taste blood. He rushed, leaped up but was caught short. The harvester lashed out with its wing and batted the varren away like a scrap of crumpled paper. Urz let out a crying yelp and tumbled back to earth.
The beast turned started pumping its wings to take to the air…
"Now!" Shepard ordered taking advantage of the momentary distraction.. Jack needed no further prompting. Just as before they synchronized their attacks, not shockwaves or slashes but stasis-warp fields.
Jack wrapped her mind around the whole idea of two very different powers working at once. She couldn't think of it like some dump cat in a box living in two realities at the same time. Her brain didn't work like that. She wasn't an egg-head and science was never her strength. Instead the ex-con thought of a bit of fruit caught inside some Jell-O that was then shoved inside a water-balloon. The fruit was the worm-neck, the stasis field the wobbly bit of the gelatine and the water balloon was the warpfield. She could visualize it. And just as suddenly as she pictured the metaphor Jack was able to conjure it. She stretched out her hands as if throwing a fast-ball and hurled the dark energy mass at her target
The Spectre did the same but instead of a stasis-warp field, at the last moment she turned the concentrated power of dark energy into a stasis-singularity. The energy levels were so high that all the forces were unified, evolving into a cascading effect, like shooting one pool ball and setting an entire pool table into motion.
The massive beast beat its wings furiously, frantically trying to maintain altitude but it was to no avail. It could not escape the psionic telekinetic powers playing tug-of-war over its body. The dark energy vibrated, pulsing becoming polarized at the subatomic level.
Just as the native Thessian shark had been caught by surprise by the voraciousness of the biotic attack the harvester bellowed its pain and then it was suddenly silenced. Its roaring rage, the screeching cries of agony became muted by the stasis field around it. The singularity colliding with the warpfield coiled around its body, constricting it like a python. Its body became contorted bending in ways it ought not to go.
While the women battled, Grunt was faced with insurmountable odds against seemingly unstoppable mindless monsters. The arthropods engaged by the discord of its master mind being torn apart. They became frenzied.
Grunt bellowed his own challenge, filled with battle rage. He surged forward unable to contain his wrath. The first crawler to meet him its head erupted at point-blank range of the shotgun. Grunt's adrenalin surged in his veins allowing him seconds to escape the fallout of its death. The crawlers next to it were not so fortunate.
Grunt used the butt of his rifle to bash the skull of one, stunning it then to another and continued to run into the swarm. He became a one krogan battering ram all on his own. The klixen flood continued to surge forward, it did not stop Grunt's assault; his utter rage was as hot and fluid as the arthropods' blood.
As the krogan battled he littered the battlefield with grenades. The crawlers might be immune to their own pyroclastic blood but the munitions were not. As the visceral remains coated the grenades they erupted in a grand display of fire and geysers of blood, taking out the horde of creatures.
Amongst the roar of joyful-orgasmic laughter of a single krogan warrior was the yips of an equally blissful varren hound tearing into its prey. The fishdog instinctively knew better then to go directly for the thorax of a crawler. Not unlike like a mongoose harrying a cobra, Urz dashed around, dodging in and out taking chucks of the arthropods' legs, ripping them from their bodies, leaving the insects unable to move and bleeding out.
Pushed to near exhaustion the biotics were unrelenting in their attack. The harvester trashed wildly in the air against the invisible enemy that held it, against the pain and torment, against the creatures that glowed. Then suddenly it all ended. It was ripped quite literally apart. Its body was torn into pieces like an action figure destroyed by the hands of a petulant temperamental child.
Shepard and Jack fell to their knees, panting heavily. They looked at one another then burst out laughing— by the heavens they were still alive!
"That was fucking intense!" Jack burbled still trying to catch her breath.
Sam allowed herself to actually giggle, it had been intense, and enriching sensation, just like the moment she and Shiala had killed that fraxon shark back on Thessia.
"God, I need to get laid." The younger woman said candidly.
"Don't look at me," Shepard said rolling over from her knees to her ass, she took her helmet off as she did so. Her retort earned her a playful swat on the arm from the ex-con one the Spectre simply laughed at.
"Wasn't asking you dumb-ass. Just making a statement."
Loping up to his master was the familiar white and blue stripped varren, Shepard patted her armored thigh "Come'ere boy." she was pleased he had survived being flung aside by the harvester.
'If you're being attacked by a bear and it goes after your dog, you'll sacrifice it in order to save your life. No matter how much you love it, it's just a dog. It isn't the same.'
Ash's words echoed in Sam's mind, and she had done just that. She had willingly sacrificed Urz's life when he attacked the harvester in order to take advantage of the distraction.
"Good boy! She praised, Urz let out a contented bark as slumped down against his mistress. "Who's a good boy then huh? Taking out all those nasty crawlers with Grunt?" she scratched behind his jaw causing the hound to bend its forepaws down, its tongue lolling out if its mouth and its hind-quarters wagged by its tiny stub of a tail.
"Know how you feel." Grunt joined in on Jack's earlier commentary. His armor was coated in blackened blood, scorch marks and shrapnel scarring. "More hungry than horny." he admitted. "Anyone got a sandwich?"
The two women looked at one another then back to the young male then burst out laughing. "Here big guy." Shepard reached to her utility belt and tossed her team-mate of the remaining two energy bars she had left. The other she unwrapped and started to consume, half of which she fed to Urz.
The fishdog devoured in one gulp. "Ooh… dog-slime." Shepard scrunched her face in disgust as she wiped her gauntlet palm on the hound's flank.
Grunt didn't even bother to unwrap the bar from its blue foiling before he bit into it. A second later he spat out the wrapping then shoved the rest of the bar into his great maw, barely chewing before he swallowed.
"Stuff tastes like shit." he complained.
Jack was gulping down her protean juice, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand then said. "What, you actually ate shit to know the difference?"
"Very funny little painted human. Drink your mucky juice."
Jack flipped him a rather friendlier version of 'the bird' but took his suggestion and guzzled down nearly half of her canteen. She had never used her biotics in such a way before. There was a lot to be said for asari way of doing biotics, they never seemed to tire. 'Course none of the blues she had ever faced in battle in the past had used that kind of combination before. Maybe it was one of those matriarchal things. Something that comes with age like so called wisdom and shit.
"Shepard that trick you did with the singularity, you get that from your Blue's mom too?" Jack had to know.
The Spectre was silent for a moment before answering. "No. It was something that came from the thorian…from the Cipher—the memories of the prothean biotics. They had a few tricks like that when they were up against creatures perverted by the Reapers back in their Cycle. You saw one of them on Horizon. The tsunami." She paused in her narrative "To be fair that one came from the vinculum."
"Heard about that. Some prothean uber computer tried to rewrite your brain or something like that right?" asked Grunt. "Turn you into a prothean."
"Something like that." Shepard answered evasively. She distracted them from having to speak more by petting the hound's chin. She'd rather not dwell on moment when she had nearly lost all she was, who she was due to the mistake of taking Vigil with them and following his plans. She had forgotten as they all had that the VI's prime directive was not simply to warn the next Cycle of the Reapers, but to preserve prothean knowledge by any means necessary. Had it not taken the lives of all the protheans in the cryo pods to preserve its own memory banks?
Of course if it had not done so, Shepard would not have known about the trap that was the Citadel or the fact that it was a super conductor for the greatest of all mass relays, one that reached into dark space—to the Reapers. Thanks to Liara however Vigil's repurposed geth body was nothing but slag now. The damage the vinculum had done to the Spectre's mind causing the Cyan Syndrome to assert itself had been averted and reversed, in no small thanks to asari neurological medicine.
"Your biotics are powerful. Even better than hers. And Cerberus tampered with her to turn her into an L5." Grunt tossed his head towards Jack. "Those prothean things do the same to you?" he asked rather indelicately.
Jack got the distinct impression the Commander had no wish to talk about what happened to her with the old prothean gadgets. Hell she didn't want to talk about what Cerberus did to her. Just as Grunt was about to ask another question perhaps indelicately she kicked his foot and shook her head. Hopefully the dumb-ass turtle-boy would get a clue and shut that great maw of his.
He did.
The team was rested enough to face the next wave. But what possible creature could top a harvester and a swarm of klixen?
After putting her helmet back on, Shepard paused for a moment before doing anything else and looked at the pillars of the platform that gave the team their refuge. This time she didn't just look eye-level, she looked up and up. And saw the scarring. These weren't scorch marks made from dying and dead klixen. Or harvesters. They were acid marks. Scarring she recognized.
"Of course…it'd have to be that." she muttered darkly more to herself than to her companions
"Be what?" Both Jack and Grunt said in unison.
"What is the biggest-baddest land creature you know of? Something a krant would love to throw themselves at? I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count. And I'll give you a little hint. It isn't an arachnid."
Grunt looked up at the pillars, the same one that drew the Commander's gaze. Without hesitation he reached up and traced the pillar's 'scar.'
"Thresher maw." he answered.
Shepard nodded her head and echoed the word. She wasn't the only one to do so.
"A thresher maw?! You gotta be shitting me" Jack shook her head. "You're telling me your buddy Ol' Wrexy is expecting us to kill a thresher maw? Without a Mako and big ass guns?"
"I think he expects us to survive the attack, unlike those poor sods." Shepard pointed the krogan corpses that had littered the battle ground. At least now she knew what had truly killed them.
"Grunt I know you haven't but Jack have you ever faced thresher maws?"
"No." came a swift answer. "Try to avoid their nesting sites. Ain't hard if you know what you're looking for."
"Indeed." Shepard nodded. Their lairs were always large nearly perfect circular craters, always flat with exceedingly high rocky walls. Definitely not hard to miss-unless of course you're lured there by distress beacons. It had happened to Corporal Toombs' company on Akuze. It happened to Admiral Kohoku's team. Hell it happened to Shepard's team when they went looking for Kohoku's men. Every such trap had been laid by Cerberus; because fracking TIMmy knew that the Alliance would always answer distress calls, especially if it were their own people. It wasn't only military regulations; it was the law of the Earth Systems Alliance as well as the asari militias.
"The thing to remember is they are incredibly fast, very powerful and their natural armour plating makes then nearly impervious to normal weapons fire. It took the Mako's 155mm mass accelerator gun and coaxial-mounted machine guns to take it out. It's immune to most forms of combat, biotics and tech attacks. However high caliber cannons will destroy them."
"Well we don't have any those big ass guns here." Jack spat.
"No" Shepard shook her head. "We don't. But we have other means." she pointed to the heavy weapons each of team carried on the backs of their weapon racks. "Grunt you have the ML-77 missile launcher, Jack you're carrying the M-920 Cain. It will have to be enough."
The scientists on the Victory that had created the prototype heavy weapon had nick-named the Cain, the nuke-launcher. The M-920 uses graphite rods as neutron moderators, but they require frequent replacement to sustain power. Fortunately, the omni-tool can refabricate most heavy weapon ammunition into graphite rods. The amount of charge-up time is understandable as the weapon is a juggernaut capable of unstoppable destructive power. Not unlike the psychotic-biotic wielding it.
More importantly it was very effective against armour, shields and barriers making it perfect against a creature as great and terrible as a maw.
The same could be said for the particle weapon developed by the Collectors with is high damage ratio and its very efficient destructive capabilities against armour and barriers. It sure as hell as punched a hole in the side of a dropship. It would with the maw as well.
"They all carry a hell of a punch and are capable of doing massive damage. It will put a few dents into a maw's hide. Especially if you target its mouth or eyes. They have sensory organs on their heads that are particularly vulnerable."
"Always go for the eyes." Jack said. "Nails them every time."
The N7 nodded. "Precisely. Another thing: Maws grow in excess of thirty meters above ground, twice that size beneath the surface. What we see isn't all there is. The body of an adult maw never leaves the ground only the head and tentacles erupt from the ground to attack. They feed by absorbing significant qualities of solar radiation and survive best on planets, asteroids or moons with little or no atmosphere. Making them extraordinarily hearty.
"Then what are they doing here on this armpit-world?" asked Jack.
"The atmosphere before the Shroud would have been ideal for them." Came Shepard's answer. "They also consume minerals and ores from the ground itself and use it in some bizarre photosynthesis. It's what sustains them, all that mineral and ore; it covers their exoskeleton giving them added protection. It's part of the reason they are so strong."
"How do you know all of this?" Grunt asked.
"After my team did mop up on Akuze and we found no survivors, at the time we didn't know Corporal Toombs had been the only one to survive Cerberus's trap, I did a bit of study on them. More so after my team from the first Normandy encountered one of them in the same sort of traps that took out Admiral Kahoku's men."
"Fucking Cerberus." Jack snarled. "I god damn hate those mother fuckers."
"Indeed." Shepard nodded in agreement. She took a secondary look at the pillars and scaffolding and frowned a bit. "Once the maw attacks these won't last long against the acid strikes." she patted the concrete surface. "But it will have to do. Keep moving between them. Make sure it can't get close. Don't get pinned down. The metal scaffolding will hold out better than the cement but not for long. Just watch your cover when it starts spitting acid…I shouldn't have to tell it's far more dangerous than the blood of a klixen.
"When we engaged them before the Mako got hit a few times from the acid shots, it took our shielding right down. We had to scramble behind some boulders to make repairs. Good thing we had a lot of omni-gel on us at the time. Of course by that time we recovered enough to reengage the damned thing went back the ground.
"We had to bait it back out, find a spot where the maw couldn't reach us and hit is with a volley. Every time it spat acid we hit the jump jets to avoid the incoming attack. Then we actually found a sweet spot where it couldn't reach us and we laid down heavy fire and took it out. We perfected the tactic over the eight we battled when on the hunt for Saren."
"So of the eight how many on foot did you kill?" asked Grunt.
"None." came a truthful answer.
"None? That's just great." Jack supplied a sardonic response.
"It can be done. If we're smart about it." Shepard looked at the corpses that were drawing the eyes of her companions.
"Yeah bet they thought that too." Jack snorted.
"Probably. But we've got a weapon they didn't have or rather didn't use."
"What's that?" Grunt asked curiously.
"Ingenuity. If they did, they wouldn't be lying there." Shepard looked earnestly at each of her people. "Trust me. I will see you through this. Jack give me all your zip-ties, you too Grunt."
"My what?" The tattooed woman shook her head. "Do I look like a maintenance worker to you or a fucking guard? For one thing my butt-crack doesn't show when I bend down."
The Spectre scoffed. "You're wearing an Alliance military issue belt. You're telling me you didn't check out all the little pouches to see what was inside?"
"Ah…" the younger woman scratched the back of her bald head. "Hadn't gotten around to it."
Grunt just hurumphed and handed his commander the Kevlar fibered zip-ties, which Shepard added to the ones she already had in hand from her own pouch. A moment later, Jack added hers to the stash but not without a jest.
"Tell me you're not gonna try and arrest that thing? I don't think it listens to Spectre authority."
"Nope. But I've got an idea." Shepard lashed three of the zip-ties together then went towards one of the klixen carcasses. "Grunt give me two of your rockets. They have a higher yield than the lift-grenades we have. Though I will need any you have left, you too Jack."
"You're making a bomb?" Asked the young krogan clearly impressed.
"Something like that. I also need the gauntlets off the dead krogan, and the chest plate as well. It will give the munitions casings that much extra protection before the blood of the klixen meets the acid of the maw. Then…."
"BOOM!" Jack almost squealed in delight. "I love it!"
Shepard smiled behind her helmet's faceplate. Hopefully she whispered to herself. They watched as she swiftly worked creating the make-shift bomb.
"Not like we have a trebuchet around here. How you gonna throw it…" Grunt stopped feeling rather stupid. Of course biotics didn't need siege weaponry to throw massive arcane missiles at an enemy, not when they had full command over mass effect fields.
"Okay I have to ask, how on earth did you think of this one?" Jack folded her arms over her chest watching the Spectre toiling.
"I'm actually pretty good at thinking on my feet. I once used grenades stashed in a helmet to take out an Eclipse Sister's gunship back on Illium. The helmet got sucked into the intake port." She made the universal sign for something blowing up. "As you said Jack. Boom! Same principle here, only a lot bigger. May not kill that giant worm but it will do a lot of damage. Weaken it so we can hit it with a barrage of missile fire and a volley of slugs the Cain and the particle beam."
After Shepard had finished zip-tying the dead krogan's discarded armor to the missiles she swiftly shoved them inside the open cavity of the arthropod's abdomen mindful not to get any of the still wet blood on her armour. She then used one of the nearly destroyed cuirasses and wedged it into the hole in the chest making sure the hidden munitions stayed in place. After that she used a biotic lift to place the carcass-bomb into place for easy deployment once the maw reared its massive ugly head.
"Can't you just do that tsunami trick you did on Horizon against the Collector bugs?" Grunt asked
The Commander shook her head. "Like I said the maws are practically immune to biotic attacks. It wouldn't work and I'd just be wasting a hell of a lot of energy. We have to do this with weapons fire."
She took assessment of her people once more. "Keep frosty and you'll make it back. Take positions Grunt take the left flank, Jack the right, I'll take point. Remember keep in cover, make your shots count." drawing in a steady breath, Shepard struck the keystone for a third and final time.
*Now all krogan bear the genophage, our reward, our curse. It is a fight where the only goal is survival!* the shaman's voice reverberated off the walls of the arena. As before the massive piston rose into the air and came crashing down causing the earth to tremble once more.
The impact tremors seemed louder this time, stronger—deeper. A second vibration the world shivered beneath their feet. This was no calling… it was a quake. Shepard recognized it almost immediately. The shaking always preceded the appearance of the maw.
"Eyes alert! It's coming!" she warned.
The tremors were enough to nearly knock the companions off their feet had they not been quick to brace themselves against the platform's pillars Before Shepard had always been in the gyroscopic interior of the Mako and had not felt the trembling as deeply as this. She felt as if her teeth were shattering and her bones shivered to splinters.
They looked past the entry point of the other beasts, looking up and around them for the tell-tale sign of the maw.
It was Urz that spotted it first. Or rather smelled it a half second before he let out a warning bark, Shepard spotted the iridescent teal tendrils shoot up from the ground. They writhed around like serpents.
"What the hell, I thought you said they were huge." Jack said trying to take aim on the writhing tentacles.
"They are. Those are the secondary sensory organs, like the feelers on ants. It's hunting for us."
"Feelers?" Jack did the mental math trying to figure out just how massive this thing was to have feelers that stretched four meters. "You said thirty feet above ground?"
"Yes. Twice that below." the feelers slipped beneath the Earth.
"Oh shit, Shepard. We're taking this thing out on foot. No biotics?"
"What are we waiting for? Let's kill this thing!" Grunt raised his shot gun, moved out from cover.
"HOLD!" Shepard barked. "Back in position soldier! You do not break cover until ordered to do so. You do not engage the enemy unless ordered to do so. This is your rite of passage but you are still under my command. I should not have to remind you of this. Now move!"
Grunt's defense of his actions died on his lips, once more a failure. Once more he had disappointed Shepard. With a krant his actions were allowable. Acceptable. But not with Shepard. She was right. He had disobeyed his battlemaster's direct orders. That was something forbidden within a krant, not without probable cause. And he had no cause.
The rumbling continued, it would be any heartbeat now before the beast breached the surface of the earth not unlike a whale breaking the surface of the ocean waves.
Shepard turned to him and shook her head "The feelers are not just for sensing where the prey is. It's a lure and you fell for it." Shepard hand reached behind her back for the Collector's particle beam. The unique heavy weapon that had quickly become Shepard favored choice of big guns.
"Bet just like those poor bastards did." Jack pointed to the dead krogan littering the ground.
"They fell because they were weak. They should rot in the sun." Grunt rumbled.
"Just like you were about to before Shepard stepped in."
"THERE!" the Commander's announcement broke over the team. A geyser of dust shot out into the air, the tremors was worsening. A shadow rose over the platform and rose and rose. Twenty…twenty-five…thirty feet. Just as the Commander had warned.
"Stay in cover. Short controlled bursts. Fire at will!" She said taking her position at the point of their three person pincer formation. Jack on the right opened a volley from the Cain. She managed two shots before they were followed by Grunt's missiles. Two controlled shots each just as ordered.
The bulbous head reeled back as its upper torso was pelted with explosives. The roar was half rage, half pain. A glop of sticky green acid hurtled towards the companions, landing just shy of Grunt's position.
Shepard took the tiny moment offered her. Her body shimmered in the cyan glow of biotics. Before anyone could blink she hoisted the klixen carcass off the ground and with all her strength hurled it at the maw with sheer raw force of dark energy. The 'cannon-ball' tumbled into the air over and over whistling as it whooshed to the great and terrible target.
The maw turned opened its mouth only to have the body of a klixen fly into it. Proportionally it had to be like swallowing a bug when you were on a motorcycle. It gagged once but swallowed the alien package—whole.
At the same time Jack and Grunt let lose a second volley, each targeting the great glowing blue eyes. Again the maw thrashed his great head and vomited out another stream of acid, directly where Shepard was positioned. She tucked into a forward shoulder rolled to the left, scrambled feet and darted for new cover.
Pain rippled tore through the beast, rage consumed it. It spun its head, around shuddering. There was muffled clash of thunder and the beast nearly toppled over. The klixen 'pipe-bomb' had just gone off. The maw retreated back under the ground with a scream.
A heartbeat. And another.
"Is it dead?" Asked Jack
"No." came both Grunt and Shepard.
The earth spat out rubble, dirt and unnameable detritus and the maw rose up once more. It offered no challenge this time. A massive globule ball of acidic mucus sailed through the air towards the trio. It hit the platform, sizzling the stone, several of the carcasses of klixen and varren and narrowly missing Grunt. The krogan had fallen back just as the head appeared.
Jack instinctively fell back to her biotics. Her whole body glimmered in cyan. Rage fueled her heart, just as it had that day on Purgatory when she took out the heavy mechs within seconds. She stretched out her hands and formed a well of dark energy, growing it larger and larger.
Shepard's cerulean eyes widened in shock as she realized Jack was summoning a tsunami. She had just enough time to throw a barrier bubble over herself, Grunt and Urz before the reave pulled their life force from them. In one gust of effort Jack threw the ball of pure mass effect forces into the chest of the maw. The tide of power washed over the creature's torso, whip-lashing its head back. Had it been a lesser beast the neck would have snapped.
For a moment the whole body of the maw glowed a brilliant blue. Shepard had never seen such a thing before.
"Shepard use your own!" Grunt demanded. "HIT IT!"
The maw lunged for Jack, the pincer rose in the air only to slam down where the convict was stationed. One struck the pillar, the other almost directly upon the young biotic. The concrete weakened by previous battled began to crumble and fall. Jack weakened by the strain of the tsunami only managed to fall back and skitter crab-style just out of reach.
Shepard stretched out her hand, not for the maw but for her comrade. Jack was hoisted into the air and 'yanked' towards the Commander.
The thresher maw would not be deprived; it raised its massive head once more, ignored the great hole in its chest where the klixen bomb had torn it open and vomited out a flood of acid. It splashed onto the platform taking two more pillars with it. The pincers around its mouth opened wide…It was then Shepard realized what Jack was trying to do. The chest cavity was open!
It was open!
The hide may be impervious to biotics but not its innards. "Grunt! The chest, go for the wound in the chest!" the Spectre ordered.
Jack was too weak to protect herself and Grunt from another biotic tsunami. Right now the young woman was running on pure adrenaline taking aim with the last of the grenades, but there were clicks. The gun was dry. Hearing the distinctive sound Shepard tossed her the Collector particle beam then rushed out from cover, her body glowing as brilliantly as ex-con's had been seconds ago.
With all her strength, all her power Shepard stretched out her will and yanked at the internal organs within the maw's exposed cavity. She met resistance but she continued to pull. Using every reserve she gave a great and all mighty 'yank.'
Then there was rain. Green, burning rain. No not rain, thresher maw blood. It was locked in death thralls but it had not yet realized it was dead. The maw defied even that.
"I am krogan!" Grunt roared in an answering challenge. "You will tremble before me!"
The krogan rushed the dying creature, ignoring the wild wicked tentacles crashing into support beams and scaffolding. He dodged past the pincers slamming down relentlessly, without direction, creating pitfalls in the earth and concrete. He ignored the whirl of dark energy swooshing past him as rushed his target.
Shepard continued her biotic assault reaching further and further into the worm's body reaching for the beating heart.
Jack fired the particle beam at the face, going for the vulnerable spot: the eyes, mindful not to hit the krogan cloaked in blood rage charging for the worm's torso. Grunt had all but run out of missiles when he had obeyed Shepard's order to target the chest now had only his small arms: the Claymore and assault rifle.
Blam
Blam!
BLAM!
Each round hitting target-the worm's massive mouth. The mandibles crushed down again. But pain made the creature's aim awry. Grunt vaulted up into the air, using the maw's own pincer as a stepping stone and latched onto one of the feelers around its bottom jaw. He coiled the feeler three times around his forearm as a tether and braced his feet into holes left by previous volleys and took aim.
Shot after shot came, then the thermo clip empty, he dropped the shotgun to the ground and went for his M-15 Vindicator battle-rifle. Still tethered to the beast's face, Grunt locked the stock of the rifle into his shoulder and opened on full-auto into the massive wound.
As Shepard had with shark all that time ago, Grunt's body was pressed up against the maw's carapace so tightly he was out of reach of its mouth and more importantly its acidic venom.
This was his test! His glory. The blood rage surged into his veins thundered in his heart until its notes were the only thing he heard. The crescendo of death urging him to destroy his enemy.
"Grunt! GRUNT!" It was Shepard's voice. Calling him back, pulling him back.
No not now! He had not disappointed her, he could not have failed! Not Now
"Hey big guy I think it's dead." she said through heavy breaths. He turned and saw that she was smiling.
Only now did the young krogan realize that he was far closer to the ground than he was previously. He turned back to the maw and saw the steady stream of blood, the mincemeat of the face and the coiled mountain of entrails spooling out from under the monumental slab of flesh that was once the maw' thick neck.
It was dead?
IT WAS DEAD!
Grunt let out a great whoop of absolute pleasure. It was dead.
"HA!" he barked out a joyful laugh. "It was a good fight!
"Hey you might want to take one of those mandible thingies as a souvenir." Jack suggested jovially "Would if I were you. Shit brave thing you did jumping on its fucking face like that. Insane too" she laughed "You always collect the crazy ones, Shepard?"
The Spectre tilted her head and looked at the tattooed woman. "Yep. Wouldn't want things to get boring now would we?"
"Shit." Jack shook her head. "So you what having a normal day is sort of an alien thing for you."
A shrug. Another lopsided smile "Yep."
Shepard turned to Grunt, and clapped him on the back. "You did good." She knew he needed to hear a positive reinforcement, especially after breaking cover for the second time, effectively disobeying her orders. Now was not the time to chastise him for such a thing. He needed this moment. Any competent commander knew better than to steal the thunder from her soldiers after such a hard won victory. This was after all his Rite of Passage.
He had more to prove than just to those of clan Urdnot that he was pure krogan. He had to prove it to himself. Despite his boasting, the young male had not felt as if he had earned his strength. It had been given to him. It was something Grunt lamented over. Now he knew he had the strength—his own this time not something of Okeer's construction.
The N7's praise however didn't not fully reach the other human. Her tone took on a very serious edge to it. She got directly into Jack's face, deliberately invading the other woman's space. "Next time you use tsunami, you will inform your team-mates. You're not on your own now Jack. And you're not just watching out for your own ass. You have a team for that now.
"If I hadn't placed that barrier bubble over Grunt, Urz and I we could very have been killed. The tsunami as you just felt requires a lot power, it has to come from somewhere. I told you it leaches that power from the life around you, friendlies included.
"For the most part I am proud of what you accomplished here. And targeting the maw's chest was insightful but the way you did it…" Shepard shook her head. "It can't happen again. It Will Not Happen Again. Upon return to the Urdnot camp you will return to the Normandy."
Jack opened her mouth to protest then snapped it shut. She half expected Shepard to say: 'You got something to say inmate?' All she saw was the same disappointment glowing in those expressive blue eyes that she had shown when she looked at Grunt after their first wave.
"Shepard…" Jack started. Stopped then started. It hit her, the tsunami -it could have killed the only person that believed in her…thought she was worth a damn. …FUCK! SHIT! Out of the same inspirational blood rage to kill the god-damn monster she could have just fucking murdered Shepard.
FUCK
Jack slammed her fists up against the side of her head. She had only thought of the power, the best high she had in a long time. It surged through her like nothing else and when she released it god she actually came—it was so fucking good. The warmth fuelling her. She forgot the cost. She forgot what The Queen of the Girl Scouts told her. That the tsunami draw from the life around the biotic to unleash unholy hell on the victim or victims. The tsunami was an area of effective biotic power with devastating results. The more lives the wave took the more powerful it was when unleashed.
Taking the essence of the maw was the greatest rush; Jack had felt in a very very long time. Hell not even hate-sex with the Cheerleader with a cute ass and heavy tits compared. But shit…she didn't think…she just did…like when she crashed the ship into that fracking hanar moon. But what she did….
"Shepard…"
"Draw a line under it, Jack. It can't happen again."
"It won't"
A head nod.
It was all it took.
"So how's the head?" Shepard's tone was normal laced with concern.
"Fucking killing me."
Shepard nodded. "Check in with Chakwas. Let me see your eyes."
Shit….not CS…. Not now….not with all the shit I've been through. Just as Jack reached for her visor a roar sounded overhead that did not belong to a beast.
The roar grew louder as the shuttlecraft drew nearer, passing over the carcasses of the thresher and harvester, stirring up the field of battle, kicking up dust and rock.
"We have company." Grunt announced needlessly. The smile on his face could have split his head in two. "Good! I want more!"
"Bring it on!" Jack was grateful for the distractions though her words were a lie. All she wanted more than anything was to fall on her bunk and sleep for a fucking century. Her head pounded, every noise was a shank in the back of her skull. But hell it got The fracking Queen of the Girl Scouts to look away.
Jack didn't need the heat of Shepard raining down on her. Not that it wasn't deserved, she really fucked up but she'd make things right again. She had to. The things buzzing around inside her, it kept feeling like bugs. Like the DTs when she jumped on the wagon and cut the heavy shit. Had her shaking, fucking bugs in and out of her head, in her skin. This fight ...was making it almost worse. Grunt fucking had to have come in his armor every wave. Shepard was right, the reave of the tsunami nearly killed the ex-con. All that power wasn't coming from the thresher.
Some of it came from Jack...it drained her making her feel as if she had nothing left, now this?! This shuttle coming in- Jack was in no fighting condition. And the bugs... They were growing thicker...More of them. Made it hard to think. If only the pounding would stop.
Jack watched the green shellback emerge from the shuttle. He ignored the humans. "You live after a great battle. Varren packs and crawlers are nothing. Easily defeated. But having your alien biotic minions take out the harvester, smart. Better still you took out a thresher. No one has killed a thresher maw in generations, not since Urdnot Wrex."
Shepard smiled at that. Good ol' Wrexy. Of course he took one out. There was no krogan that was as badass as Wrex on or off the battlefield. Grunt the guy practically everyone saw as her son was a very close second. Something to tell the girls when they get a little older Uncle Wrex and Arda, 'adopted big brother Grunt 'and the psychotic-biotic took out a thresher maw on foot. Such as their bedtime stories would be.
"My strength comes from my krant." the younger krogan looked deliberately at Shepard and to Jack. "My power is in them. My power is in myself. I earned that today!"
Uvenk's gaze briefly set upon two human women then back to the tank-born. He moved past the detritus of the battle and the corpses of the varren, klixen and the harvester. "This will cause discussion. I wonder, you say you are pure? No alien meddling in your construction? Just warlord Okeer?"
The bugs crawled. "FUCK you, you scanky-ass-piece-of-shit-shellback! Grunt goes and proves his fucking ass against the big bad worm and a bunch of other monster shit and now you want him in your fucked up Mickey-Mouse club and make him drink the fucking Kool-Aid? Grunt tell me you aint buying his load of vorcha shit and calling it a fucking banquet!"
Uvenk turned to the young male, utterly ignoring the ex-con's outburst. "Grunt. It's Grunt isn't it? An appropriate name. A simple one, one that suits you, one of a pure soldier, who knows his proper place in the order of things. You will command much respect now."
Shepard would not be so ignored however. Her voice the edge of a blade and as sharp. The tone of pure unadulterated command. Taking a half-a-step forward, keeping her eyes on the others surrounding Uvenk, Shepard commented. "Now that Grunt, one of my men has proven himself, you seem anxious to recant your earlier protests. You speak very well, Uvenk. You have the political savvy of the Citadel Council. Some may go as far as to think of your actions as dubious."
Uvenk's sneered at the grave insult given him; he could not ignore such a slander, not in front of his men and retain face. He had not of course forgotten the power of the human female's head-bash. Or it's political and militarily repercussions that a mere human had bested him. It could not be forgiven, nor would this.
He felt the eyes of his men on his back watching, waiting-expecting him to do something, to avenge the insults. "Some. Not the important ones. Grunt, your strength is artificial, but it is a tolerable loophole." Uvenk continued
"A what?" Grunt snorted despising this male already.
"A reason to accept you." came Uvenk. "You are a mistake. But your potential could tip the current balance of the clans. A reason for the clans to accept you..."
"Oh get this shit! Suddenly this 'product of a syringe'" Jack pointed over her shoulder with her thumb towards her krogan team-mate "is all rainbows, cock-sucking butterflies and mother fucking unicorns, cuz we put down a worm-neck and a thresher. You gotta be shitting me! You're a complete fucking asshole!"
Uvenk once again utterly diminished Jack's power by ignoring her presence altogether. Grunt however would not allow this to pass. "You spit on my father's name? On Shepard's name? She is as Shiagar!" Grunt's words were more acidic and filled with angered venom than maw spit. "And now you stop ranting because you see my strength?"
Uvenk didn't even register Grunt's angered accusations or the tinder box smoldering within the younger krogan. "...with restrictions, you could not breed of course, or serve on an alien ship." with this he blithely looked to Shepard. "But you'd be clan in name."
The sheer gall of this male astounded Shepard. His arrogance, his audacity was without measure. How dare he? How dare he! His perversions of what made a clan were ludicrous. 'Clan in name only.' Shepard knew this would become blood very soon.
The ever loquacious Jack spat. "Grunt tell me you aint buy his fucking shit? Fighting and fucking it's what you turtle-boys are all about and he's saying you can't do either."
"No one was speaking to you human! Uvenk snarled finally growing very tired of her impertinent interruptions.
"Yeah well I wasn't fucking talking to you. I was talking to Grunt." Jack spat back. "Grunt knows what's what; you're just fucking using him."
This time Shepard took a step forward. "The choice is ultimately his but if I know Grunt, your answer is coming at muzzle velocity."
"You do know Grunt." the young warrior boasted. He took his assault rifle and leveled it at the old battlemaster's chest, he didn't wait, he just fired.
Shepard had not focused her entire attention on the clan leader during the verbal tit-for-tat but upon the Gatatog clansmen. She noted their positions, their weaponry both heavy and light—whether or not they had biotics within their ranks. They had none. All the better.
As soon as she heard Grunt's shot fired Shepard targeted not Uvenk, for Grunt had the older male locked in hand to hand combat but rather his second. A large male with a crest newly colored blue-green. Uvenk's son. Withdrawing the blades both omni and durasteel, Shepard summoned the power of a biotic slash. Like a shockwave the dark energy tore through the younger Gatatog's shields rendering them inert. Not even a breath latter the N7 dashed forward in a charge. Her body pulsed with power—the charge became a shadow strike. Both blades driven deep into the krogan's hardsuit. Killing him.
Jack utterly sapped of her own biotic energy because of the ill-conceived tsunami was left to the devices of her firearms. She could barely concentrate for the pounding in her skull. The sudden migraine made it hard to focus; her vision had sparkling lights on the fringes within the corner of her eyes. Every noise was a thunderstorm between her ears. Krogan were not the only ones to bloodrage.
The young woman screamed all her fury, her frustrations, she screamed at the pain in her skull, at the bugs crawling around inside her head into one vicious battle cry that had even Uvenk turn his head towards the tattooed human for a split second. That precious second cost him the advantage he had been maintaining over the tank-born.
Grunt lashed out. The blow sent Uvenk reeling back with two broken ribs despite the protection of his hardsuit. When he landed, his head crashed against the cemented ground. With a roar, Grunt tossed Uvenk away from the others, then leapt up onto the battlemaster's chest, pummeling the broken male, slamming his forehead again and again into the other's face.
One of Uvenk's minions grabbed Grunt by his plates and yanked his head back to expose his throat. A blow to the jaw, followed by another to the esophagus knocked some of the fight out of the pure krogan. As Grunt folded, Uvenk's rescuer an orange plated male loomed over him, the butt of his rifle raised, waiting for an opening, or for his master to rise up.
Orange-plate thought he was alert, but the warrior never saw the blow that got him—only an explosion inside his head and his own blood staining the battlefield. Orange-plate went down. As soon as he fell Urz was on him tearing into him, shredding his lower jaw from the rest of his face
Uvenk monetarily freed rose, cursing and spitting and sized the open opportunity. He leapt onto Grunt's back and wrapped his powerful arms around the krogan's throat. Gritting his teeth until they cracked Uvenk squeezed.
Grunt spun and spun again, his eyes bulging, and he purpled for lack of air. Through the blood-haze the young male was weakening—from the choke hold—yet he fought on relentlessly, fueled by adrenaline, too pumped by bloodlust to stop now. He teetered on his feet but remained erect. His vision blurred but not before he saw the harvester's corpse and dove backwards onto gaping wound left by the biotics attack, directly onto the exposed ribcage. He slammed his body down with such force the jagged spiked bones were driven deep into Uvenk's back, impaling him on the spot.
Blood burbled out of older male's maw in thick ginger bubbling foam. His body writhed like a bug on the end of a stick-pin. Grunt thumped forward to his knees gasping for air. He didn't stay down long. He rose up, quickly assessed the gore littered battlefield and his team mates. Shepard had just dispatched what seemed to be a younger version of Uvenk.
On the ground near where Uvenk had jumped him Grunt saw an orange crested male the one who had grabbed him before now had no face, the combined handy work of Jack's shotgun and varren teeth.
Jack was ducked down against one of the pillars on the upper platform. She was holding her own but it wouldn't be long before her armor's shields were dropped. Still bereft of her biotic powers Jack was unable to raise a barrier or an annihilation field or any offensive biotic strike. Now she was pinned down seething, unable move from cover long enough to target the son of a bitch holding her there.
Grunt didn't think, he charged at the helmeted male, his M-15 Vindicator battle-rifle filled with cryo rounds at the ready-raised and firing. "Now see the power of a real krogan!" He bellowed defiantly.
The rounds froze the krogan in place; he wobbled under his own weight and crashed to the corpse riddled battleground. Pissed she had been effectively a prisoner behind the barricade, Jack popped up and fired not one or two shots but three darts from the omni- bowcaster.
Grunt saw the familiar orange glow and backed away almost immediately. Krogan's redundant organs and phenomenal rate of regeneration made them exceedingly hard to kill. All of those benefits would make an end to the Helmet-head. As soon as he was freed from the being frozen he'd set off the explosive trip wires pinning him to the ground like a strange alien version of Gulliver. Thus came the end of the last of Uvenk's' clansmen.
Unlike the moment after the varren wave of his trials, Grunt checked on his team mates, not forgetting the lessons Shepard had taught him, her words still echoed in his head.
'You are krogan; your strength is your krant. You are part of my crew, my team one day you will be leading your own. Perhaps your own company….I get your blood is high for our victory but don't let the rush control you. … If you are to lead a team you must insure that team is five-by-five after battle, even in the smallest skirmishes. You have not done so. In fact you didn't give a single cursory glance to your team mates-your krant.'
"Hell of a way to go." Jack said coming over to Helmet-Head or rather what was left of him which wasn't much. Orange blood splatters coated nearly everything from the ground the bodies of klixen, varren and harvester, unidentifiable chunks of meat and bone littered the area. One such bone was now in the mouth of a very self-satisfied varren.
Shepard witnessed Grunt apprising the team and smiled behind her visor. She was proud of 'her boy.' He seemed to grow a few feet taller, prouder and far more confident. On this day he earned his strength. His power.
Even Jack seemed to feel far more confident. As well as she should. They had destroyed a harvester and thresher maw and defeated an enemy of clan Urdnot. Gatatog Uvenk's demise would cause ripples throughout the clans. To serve as both a warning for those opposed to Unification and a hallmark of clan Urdnot power.
Not bad for a day's work. Not bad at all. Even Shepard stood that much taller, invigorated by what was accomplished. And hell if she wasn't feeling a little something what Jack had earlier- but Liara was not around to help alleviate that small issue.
"You all right there Painted-one?" Grunt asked.
"Alive." came the answer, though Jack was far from alright. Her head was still pounding madly, fuck getting laid; she wanted to sleep for a month.
"Shepard?"
"Five-by-Five Grunt." The Spectre climbed over the detritus and stood at the young male's side. Smiling at the question, he had learned. She was exceptionally proud of him, not simply for the outcome of the battle and how he handled himself but because he gave a pause to see to his team...his krant.
"Hell of a fight." Jack said
"Glorious!" Grunt smashed his fist into the palm of his hand. "You are built like a stick, little painted-human. Easily broken but you fight well. Almost as good as Shepard."
"Aint too shabby yourself turtle-boy. So how 'bout we blow this popsicle stand and get ya inducted into a real clan? Isn't that we went through all this shit?"
Grunt nodded. "Today I have proven am pure krogan. I am worthy of krant and clan."
"You did indeed. You're more than a product of a syringe, Grunt. They all see that now." Shepard said before she hit the keystone for the final time.
It would not take long for the clan's tomkah to arrive and ferry them back to the Urdnot encampment.
"So what happens to the shithead over there?" Jack pointed with her chin to Uvenk's impaled corpse.
"He will rot in the sun. He is meat to be wasted. Tonight the clan will feast on thresher maw and worm neck." came Grunt's answer. They were making their way down the tunnel where they had first come into arena.
"Ugh. count me out." Jack shook her head, her face scrunched up into a wretched expression. "Rather eat those frigging MRE's Shepard's so fond of."
"PFT, you eat thresher maw it will put chest on your chest, maybe you won't be so much twig anymore." Grunt tossed back. "You have no meat on those bones."
"Hey my bones and meat are just fine." Jack shot back.
By now their transport had arrived and the young ex-con was climbing into the main hold along with a smirking Shepard and a krogan who was shaking his head.
"If you say so."
Jack turned sideways so that she could prop her legs up on the two seats next to hers. "Yeah I do." She had almost added 'Ask the Cheerleader. She hadn't complained yet about my scrawny ass.' But stopped dead short of uttering the words and outing herself that she was fooling around with a Cerberus loyalist. Fucking headache was making her loopy. 'Cuz right about now she wouldn't have minded cuddling up to that rack and sleeping for the next week. The ex-con didn't even mind that knowing smirk on the Queen of the Girl Scouts face that screamed: 'my kids are finally playing nice together. They're making a team.'
Yeah... well maybe there was something to this teamwork shit after all. Maybe.