MASS MISCALCULATION
Episode 4- It's a bughunt! (Also drells)
Shepard sighed as he left the cargo bay and the pacing krogan. The thing had agreed to serve him as part of the crew, but... but it was just so... Shepard didn't know what to call it. He was just kidding when he called him 'Grunt', and he actually took that as his name! 'Ah, well...' Shepard thought as he rode the elevator to CIC, 'At least we can get back to doing what I do best'
The elevator doors swung open as Shepard walked out. He was about to step up to the galaxy map when Kelly stepped in his way. "Hey, Shepard" she said in her usually cheery demeanor, "The Illusive Man is waiting to talk to you, something about a colony, also I don't know if this is important but I saw Aaron head into the armory, so... yeah, you might wanna check on that" Shepard nodded, but then his eyes widened as he whipped his head towards the armory door.
"Oh, son of a-"
"...Bitch..." Aaron sighed as he tossed another assault rifle away. Aaron was now digging through the armory locker, Jacob Taylor reviewing some weapon schematics. "C'mon, where the hell is it?" Aaron asked himself as he tossed away the twelfth avenger assault rifle that was in the locker. "Make that thirteenth rifle. Jeez, it's like these are the only guns anyone uses. If this ship is ever attacked, I will laugh if everyone I see carry's an avenger rifle" Jacob looked over from his desk and sighed.
"You know I have to pick all of those up when your done, right?"
"Well, Jacob, this is important, so suck it up"
"Did Shepard even give the okay to do this?"
"Uh, well, um, t-the thing is, er, oh, found it!" Aaron shouted as he held the launcher up. Jacob was about to protest upon seeing the gun when Shepard suddenly ran through the door.
"Aaron -pant- don't -pant- blow us up..."
"Jeez, Shepard, you look like you just ran a marathon. What's the haps?"
"-Pant- CAIN, -pant-"
"Oh. You ran because of that? I'm not gonna fire this in the ship"
"Wait, really?"
"Shepard, I may have been the guy that swallowed a hanar, which is really dumb since I don't eat, but I realize this thing would destroy the ship, and while I would survive that, you all wouldn't, and if you all died, I'd be eternally bored again, so yeah... plus I just need to borrow it for a second"
"For what?"
"Well, I found out awhile ago that the O.M.G could not only turn into different and fully upgraded guns, with infinite ammo, but, and hold on to your boots, it can scan weapons and turn into them. So basically, I'm gonna scan this CAIN so I can forever carry around a better CAIN with infinite ammo"
"Aaron, I can't just let you-"
"Too late" Aaron said as he whipped the O.M.G out and turned it into a scanner, a thin beam of blue light sweeping over the CAIN as it was scanned. When he was done, the O.M.G turned into an device similar to the CAIN, save for the yellow parts turning purple, the nuclear symbol now a Saints fleur, and now sporting three barrels. Aaron was laughing heartily as he tossed the original CAIN away and held the Saints CAIN in the air. "Oh-ho-ho, if ever there was a weapon of mass destruction in my life that equaled the power of the weapon I now hold in my hand, no-one ever told me" Shepard sighed and held the bridge of his nose.
"Why can't you ever listen?" he asked through gritted teeth.
"Eh, my therapist said I have a problem with authority"
"Aaron, you need to promise me, for the love of god, that you will only use that weapon when I give the okay"
"Aw man, why?"
"Aaron, a regular CAIN is already too much firepower, and uses too much ammo, I personally don't like it, why do you think I put it behind all those rifles?"
"I'm not picking those up" Jacob called from his desk.
"Yes, you are" Shepard snapped, before he said, "As I was saying, a regular CAIN is too much firepower. A CAIN with three barrels is, well... look, I know you have your moments, and we might actually need it one day, but can you please not use that specific weapon unless ordered too?"
"-Sigh- fine, fine, I won't use the awesome nuke gun"
"Okay, I'm glad we could come to a compromise. Now can you just go to your room, I need to talk to the Illusive Man"
"What room?"
"Um... your room"
"You never gave me a room" Shepard sighed and held the bridge of his nose yet again. In all the confusion, they'd forgotten to give him a room. "...Do you need much space?"
"All my stuff is in my apartment, so my only worldly possessions are a gun that turns into other guns, a blue laser katana, these sunglasses that turn into armor, and my cloths that don't come off. 'Though, if we ever head to Illium, I got a terminal and a few other things I wanna get out of my apartment"
"I will ask EDI to look for a suitable room for you, but for now, I need to talk to the Illusive Man, I'll find you if I need you" and with that, Shepard walked out of the armory. Aaron glanced at the pile of discarded weapons and flinched.
"I need to... do... something... seeya, Jacob!" Aaron waved as he sprinted out of the armory, his running tossing the weapons around. Jacob looked at the cluttered mess and sighed.
"Why me...?" he asked no-one in particular.
"Ugh, I wonder what'd be faster, this elevator or a ladder" Aaron wondered as he rode the elevator down to engineering. When the elevator opened, he immediately veered to the stairwell as soon as he saw the two engineers at their own respective terminals. "Ugh, what is with this loud rock music? If I had eardrums, they'd probably- oh... hi, Jack" Aaron said upon seeing the criminal biotic sitting on a bed, listening to loud rock music. "So... I'm just gonna go..."
"What's the hurry?" Jack asked as she stepped in his way. "Well, I just thought that we might have been on bad terms, considering I, ya know, froze ya, and-"
"Save it Aaron, we're cool"
"Okay, but before you try to kill me, you should know that- wait, what?"
"You heard me, we're cool"
"...Okay, explain yoself"
"Shepard told me how I... might have overreacted, so you had to do what you had to do. So were cool"
"Ah, cool. But shooting you in the leg might have been a bit much"
"Yeah, I kinda socked him for that one"
"Heh, nice"
"Yeah... hey Aaron, you doing anything right now?"
"No, I'm hopelessly bored, why?"
"Well, I'm not doing anything right now either, and I heard that your someone that tells interesting stories, so..."
"Sure, I'll tell a story. Ooh, I got this great one about this one vorcha-"
Ten minutes later
"-But apparently throwing a vorcha in the presidium would have poisoned the water supply, dextro amino's, what are ya gonna do, so I threw him in a giant meat grinder. Unfortunately it turns out the meat was used as a dish for a some turian hierarchy party, wound up poisoning everyone there, so... yeah, whoops" When Aaron finished telling his story, Jack burst out laughing while he sat down on the bed.
"Man Aaron, I heard you were a crazy bastard, but I just figured that people were just telling lies"
"Nah, I'm a bonafide badass. Now, if you like that one, than I got this one story 'bout this one volus that-" Aaron was cut off as the form of EDI appeared from one of the consoles jutting from the wall.
"Aaron, I was informed you were located here. Shepard has requested your presence" EDI droned.
"Um, can I ask why?" Aaron asked.
"Shepard has been informed by the Illusive Man that the colony of Horizon has been attacked by the collectors. We've been tasked with intercepting the-"
"Save it ping pong ball, you got me at 'collectors'!" Aaron yelled as he ran to the elevators.
"Okay, Aaron, I realize that your anxious, but is this really necessary!?" Shepard yelled over the loud dubstep music blasting from Aaron's dubstep gun. As soon as he had heard of the collector's he had dashed to the dropship and was now heading to the colony with Garrus and Shepard. "Okay, okay, fine, I'll turn the music off" Aaron said as he deactivated the dubstep gun, set it aside, then pressed the small button on his glasses, activating his armor.
"So, as long as we're waiting, anyone know what these collector's look like?" Aaron asked, his voice slightly muffled by his helmet.
"I've only seen video evidence of a few collectors" Shepard said.
"And?"
"Expect insect-looking targets"
"Oh, a bughunt. How fun" Aaron remarked as the dropship touched down on the ground. The door opened and Shepard stepped out, followed by Garrus, followed by Aaron, who looked up at the giant, insect-like ship hovering in the sky. "Huh, weird. Whoa who- wait a second! That's the same ship that blew up the first Normandy!"
"Yeah, and now they're gonna pay" Shepard remarked, loading a thermal clip in his avenger rifle. Aaron nodded and looked up, cringing at the sight of the swarm of bugs flying overhead. As Shepard called Mordin over the comm to ask if some armor upgrade would work, a bug flew down and landed on Aaron's shoulder.
"Aaron, watch out!" Garrus shouted, but Shepard sighed.
"Don't worry, these things use a poison to paralyze people, and Aaron's not even organic, so he should be fine"
"Is that why you didn't give him the armor upgrade that render's us invisible to these seeker swarms?"
"Eh, I figured we might as well test it out. It was Mordin's idea"
"I might as well be invisible…" Aaron muttered, walking forward as he looked at the seeker on his shoulder. "Hey, little guy. Wanna live with me? Ooh, I'll name you after that one ant from that one movie who tragically died after carrying the shrunk kids across the lawn: Anty" After stinging him a few times and seeing that it was failing to paralyze him, the seeker flew off. "Anty, come back! No!" Aaron cried as he reached for the seeker.
"Are you done?" Shepard asked as he walked past him.
"Yeah" Aaron said, regaining his composure as he continued walking. Eventually they came upon the main colony: complete with people's bodies littering the streets.
"I thought collector's did things clean?" Aaron asked upon seeing the bodies.
"They do, look at their eyes. They're paralyzed" Garrus said, pointing to their eyes. Sure enough, they were darting from left from right.
"Ugh, creepy. You'd think that their eyes would hurt after awhile from not blinking. Hey, could we at least manipulate their bodies so they're in a more comfortable position? 'Cause this is pretty- son of a bitch!" Aaron shouted suddenly as a yellow beam shot seemingly from nowhere and shot his left arm off, causing him to drop his O.M.G. As blue pixels were repairing his arm, Aaron looked up to see what he assumed to be the collector's flying in. Literally flying in. They had small wings jutting from their backs that retracted once they landed. Their bodies were very insect in nature, with brown, chitinous skin, and having a pyramid-shaped head with four yellow eyes and no other facial features… not even a mouth. They had brown, insect-like rifles in their hands which shot yellow bullets, and were chittering among themselves as they shot at them. Garrus and Shepard ducked into cover and Aaron unsheathed the lazor razor as his left arm regenerated. "Okay, where's the bug that shot my arm off!?" Aaron shouted, then saw a collector sporting a different weapon than the others. It aimed the gun at him and fired, a yellow beam coming out. Aaron dodged the beam and leaped at the collector, landing behind it and chopping it's arm off. It squealed in pain as Aaron reached for his O.M.G, but saw it was still on the ground. Sighing to himself, he lifted the weapon with telekinesis and tossed to himself. He caught it and formed it into a pulse rifle, picking off collector's left and right. "'Short controlled bursts' he said. Short controlled bursts don't do shit- oh… hey, they're dead!" Aaron called. "Yeah, I shot most of them" Garrus said from behind him. Aaron screamed and whipped his body around, seeing a smirking Garrus behind him.
"What? I thought that since you did that to me, I could do that to you"
"As I recall, you shot me when I did that"
"Yeah, but you can regenerate, I can't"
"Okay, fine, were even" Aaron said, then saw the struggling collector on the ground. "Oh, this guy cut my arm off. Wanna smack him around with me or- hey!" Aaron yelled as Shepard walked up to them and shot the collector.
"We've got work to do. C'mon" Shepard waved. Garrus wordlessly followed, and Aaron sighed and followed, before saying,
"Okay, can I just say that I'm only gonna count that as half a kill? Which brings your kill count for this mission up to 0.5! Oh wait, what have we here?" Aaron asked as he saw one of the collector particle beams leaning against a crate. "Did one of them just leave this here? Huh, weird. I'm scanning this" Aaron said as he started scanning the weapon with the O.M.G.
"Aaron, I don't think that's a good idea" Garrus called from ahead. "Relax, I just wanna see if this is gonna look like what I think it's gonna look like" Aaron called. When he was done scanning, he gave Shepard the particle rifle as the O.M.G formed into a black collector particle gun, with purple lights. "Huh. Thought it'd look like a M-333. This is still cool though, I guess"
"A what?" Garrus asked. Aaron was about to answer when he heard chittering and saw another squad of collector's flying towards them.
"Story for another time, we got bugs!" Aaron called. He fired the Saints particle gun, a purple laser firing and hitting a collector, disintegrating it. "Man, Boss would be all over this thing" Suddenly, one of the collector's convulsed as cracks started to appear along it's body. It glowed orange and fire came from the cracks, it's eyes glowing as a droning voice echoed through Aaron's head, "ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL"
"Um, that collector's all scary… and on fire now…" Aaron said as he fired his pistol at it… only for the bullet to bounce off. "…And has a barrier…"
"PITIFUL. THESE ATTACKS ARE POINTLESS"
"And talks smack..."
"Just kill it!" Shepard shouted, firing at the collector. It looked at the commander and the droning voice rang out, "NEUTRALIZE COMMANDER SHEPARD"
Shepard continued raining down assault rifle fire on the possessed collector, which seemed to have no effect. "YOU ONLY DAMAGE THE VESSEL, YOU CANNOT HURT ME"
Garrus lined up a shot with the possessed collector's head and fired… with seemingly no effect. It glanced at Garrus. "TURIAN; YOU ARE CONSIDERED… TOO PRIMITIVE"
"Oh my god, shut up you egotistical fireant!" Aaron shouted as he shot a fireblast at the possessed collector, only for the fire to bounce off.
"YOU WILL NOT STOP ME" it droned as it charged up a pure black ball of biotic energy. "I WILL SHOW YOU TRUE POWER" it droned as it threw the ball at Aaron. It slowly flew towards him, a sickly orange/yellow hue around it, and Aaron laughed.
"Oh, are you serious!? It's coming so slow! Oh, it's almost to me! Almost… almost… Jesus, this is taking forever, and…" Aaron grabbed the collector biotic in midair and absorbed it, dark energy seeping into his body. Aaron shuddered and chuckled. "Man, usually I don't get that much eezo except off of hundreds-of-years-old matriarchs. If I got that much energy off of a attack, can't wait to absorb the collector" he looked at said possessed collector. "Just what exactly are you?" Aaron asked.
"WE ARE HARBINGER" it answered as it charged up another ball of energy.
"Well, Harbs, let's see how you handle this" Aaron chuckled as he charged up two balls of dark eezo, hued by blue energy. He tossed one ball at the same time as Harbinger tossed his, and the two balls battled for supremacy, only for them to explode. Aaron threw his second ball and it hit Harbinger's chest, exploding and dropping his barrier. "Okay, that was supposed to kill you, so you took that pretty well"
"WE ARE UNSTOPPABLE"
"We shall see" Aaron said as dark eezo started arcing from his fingertips.
"Uh, Aaron, what are you-" Garrus asked, but Aaron raised a hand.
"Hang on, your ruining the moment, I'm gonna do something"
"Wait, your not-"
"Yep" Aaron answered as he shot dark lightning in the air. After a few moments, a bolt of black lightning hued in blue came down, electrocuting Harbinger. The possessed collector started to disintegrate into ash but called out in it's droning voice before it died, "I WILL FIND YOU AGAIN" Aaron shook his head and killed the rest of the collectors with the particle gun. He turned to his squadmates and said, "Okay, can I just say that Harbinger guy counts for three kills?"
"Are you okay?" Garrus asked. Aaron shrugged.
"Eh, it's not the first time I've made lightning rain down from the sky. I'll be fine, it just drained a lot out of me"
"At least you got the glowing collector"
"And all the other one's. But Harb'll be back"
"Huh?"
"He's possessing collectors, using them as vehicles. What's to say he won't be back to possess more? He'll be back"
"Got the door open!" Shepard called from ahead of them.
"What door?" Aaron asked.
"While you and Garrus were talking I was trying to open this door in our way"
"Ah. You get it open?"
"Aaron, I just said- oh, just come on" the door Shepard opened led into a building. Shepard was currently talking to an old man-a surviving colonist- and Aaron was waiting to leave the building.
"Man, bugs and some possessing force, what's next, zombies?"
Deep in the collector base, the collector general-Harbinger- was reviewing the battle footage. Harbinger had to admit, when it had first heard of Aaron, he was genuinely impressed… he had destroyed the reaper vanguard in a span of a few mere minutes, and with a sword, nonetheless. Something that could do that warranted further observation, but after what he learned the actions of what Aaron was doing, he lost more and more interest. He was reckless, that much was for certain, violent, wasteful, an utter waste of space. Merely a virus among bacteria. But now that he had personally faced him, he learned of two things- his ability to perfectly absorb element zero was not a myth, and through the scans of various seeker swarms, he wasn't an organic- in fact, Harbinger wasn't sure what he was, something like him shouldn't even be possible, the way he just regenerated his wounds, he was basically nigh invincible. But, unlike his previous thoughts, he wasn't organic… he wouldn't need to be destroyed. If he was synthetic, he could be convinced to join the reapers. Not that he wouldn't be destroyed anyway, he was too much of a miscalculation to allow to live… but he could be useful in the long run. Aaron would either help the reapers… or be destroyed. As for Shepard, he was merely what the humans called 'lucky'- he should have been destroyed long ago. Harbinger would focus his priority on Aaron now.
"ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL"
"Me and my big mouth, where's a chainsaw when you need one…" Aaron muttered as he blasted a husk away. As soon as they had exited the building, they were swarmed by what Shepard and Garrus had called 'husks'- corpses of humans outfitted with cybernetics. Basically, in Aaron's mind, they were gray zombies with blue lights all over them.
"So Aaron, you have any of these in your old world?" Garrus asked as he blew the head off a husk.
"Nah, just regular zombies. Although when I fought those, I was still human and I had a chainsaw"
"Sorry I asked..."
"Eh, don't be. Oh, ew!" Aaron shouted as he blasted a husk in half with his shotgun. The upper halve of his body remained upright, using it's hands as support. It seemed like it was staring at Aaron as it's lights faded out of existence.
"SURROUND THEM. SWARM THEIR POSITION" Aaron looked up to see Harbinger leading the assault of husks.
"Hey guys, glowworms back! I got him!" he called as he shot a freezeblast at Harbinger- which had no effect. "Huh. I thought if fire didn't work ice would at least have some effect..." Harbinger started charging up another dark biotic, the droning voice saying, "YOUR ATTACK IS AN INSULT. MY ATTACKS WILL TEAR YOU APART" he sent the biotic at Aaron, which reached him instantly. It hit him and he was flung around as a maelstrom of dark energy tore him apart.
"PRESERVE AARON AND SHEPARD'S BODY'S IF POSSIBLE" Harbinger looked to see Aaron's sword sticking out of the ground. He went over to it and picked it up. He didn't know what to make of the sword: The design was primitive, but the technology that was used to create it... No-one in the galaxy had this technology. "RECOVER AARON'S WEAPONS. PRESERVING AARON'S BODY A PRIORITY" he felt someone tap his shoulder and he turned around... only to be staring down the barrel of a shotgun.
"'Sup?" Aaron asked as he fired the shotgun multiple times. Normally this wouldn't have any effect due to Harbinger's barrier, but being only a few mere inches away, the shotgun pierced the barrier immediately and Harbinger was blown to the ground. Aaron walked over to his sword and picked it up. "Great, now I need to sterilize this thing..." he looked over at Harbinger and smirked, plunging the sword into it's body. "You know, it would go alot easier for you if you just gave up the colonists"
"THIS BODY DOES NOT MATTER. THE PAIN IS IRRELEVANT"
"Eh, true. In that case I can do this" Aaron finished, chopping Harbinger's head off, his body dissolving into ash.
"Aaron, you alright?" Garrus called.
"Yeah, dandy as a- what the hell is that?" Aaron asked, pointing to the big husk stumbling towards them. It was bigger than the others, and it's right arm looked... off. It aimed it's arm at Aaron and fired, a wave of energy traveling across the ground towards Aaron. "Oh, son of a biiiiiiiitch!" he yelled as his body was flung against a wall. "Jeez, I'm still healing from that last attack Harbinger did, how am I supposed to- huh?" Aaron looked at a section of his side to see the blue pixels healing him turn red and stop healing him. "Well crap, my healing needs to recharge. Last time that happened was on that job on Omega... one of them anyways" Shepard killed the massive husk, it's body exploding.
"Aaron, your, uh, things..." Garrus said, pointing to his side.
"Yeah, they need to recharge, just give 'em a minute" he said, the blue pixels turning blue and once again healing. They continued walking into the colony when Garrus asked,
"So, you ever afraid you'll run out of energy?"
"Not really, with all the eezo I absorb, pretty sure I can't run out of energy"
"That big husk hit you pretty hard"
"Yeah. What do we call those things?"
"I was thinking bricks. They sure hit like 'em"
"First off, that's terrible. And I was talking about those" Aaron said, pointing to the six-foot tall eggs in front of them. They were brown, same as the collectors, with the front of them being red, and the silhouettes of humans visible.
"So that's how they do it. They put you in stasis, then they lock you in these things" Shepard deduced upon seeing the pods.
"Hey Shepard, come look at this" Garrus called, pointing to a dead husks body. He walked over and while they were talking about the husks, Aaron shivered as he looked at the pods. They reminded him too much of the pods they put him in on Zinyak's ship. Aaron would rather die than see what happened to his people happen to this world's. "If these collector's or Harbinger think that they're gonna be the next Zinyak, they got another think coming. Wish Boss was here, he'd give these collector's Hell for what they're doing. Ugh, I can worry about worrying about him later, I got this to deal with"
THIRTY-ONE MINUTES AND FOURTY-TWO DEAD HUSKS LATER
"EDI, can you get these guns online?" Shepard asked the AI over the comm. The group was now at a field holding the colony's defense AA guns, and if they wanted to even have a chance of driving the collector ship off, they were gonna need to activate the guns.
"How many waves of enemy's are we gonna have to-"
"ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL"
"Fuck, I'll get back to you on that" Aaron said as he started working on killing Harbinger, Garrus picking husks off, and Shepard killing collector's. Aaron stamped into the ground, creating a shockwave that flung Harbinger into the side of a building. He then formed a RPG and fired three missiles at it, causing Harbinger to get blasted through the wall. "IMPRESSIVE, AARON. BUT IF I MUST TEAR YOU APART, I WILL" Harbinger flew out of the building, but Aaron leaped in the air and grabbed the possessed collector, flinging his body on the ground, and used death from above to land on his head, imploding it as his body dissolved into ash.
"So Shepard, how are those guns coming?" Aaron asked in a nonchalant manner.
"EDI says they're almost done, I just have to- uh-oh" Shepard pointed to the horizon, and Aaron looked to where he was pointing to see a giant, bug-like husk flying towards them, a hundred human husk heads visible inside of it's mouth.
"Yep, that's something to warrant concern. Welp, time to bring out the big guns" Aaron proclaimed, forming the Saints CAIN and warming it up.
"Aaron, we don't need that, put it away!" Shepard yelled.
"I can't hear you over the sound of this thing warming up!" Aaron called back. Garrus and Shepard looked at each other before they turned around and started running as far away from Aaron as they could. "Okay, warming up, warming, warming... almost there... that thing is getting really closer... hey, it's done!" Aaron took aim at the giant husk and smirked. "Okay, if this is anything like the time I fired one nuke, I'm gonna guess this is gonna be like that times three" he fired the CAIN, and three purple slugs came out of the barrels and zoomed towards the husk. They hit it and exploded, blinding Aaron in white light as the husk was disintegrated, and he was blown back. When Garrus and Shepard looked behind them upon hearing the thundering boom, they saw nothing but white light heading towards them, and were engulfed in it as the explosion came towards them.
When Aaron opened his eyes, there were swarms of collectors raining towards them, Harbinger among them. Garrus was unconscious and Shepard barely conscious. Harbinger walked towards Shepard and said, "YOUR MINIONS HAVE FALLEN, SHEPARD. YOU COULD HAVE BEEN USEFUL. BUT YOU GREW ARROGANT. YOU WILL COME TO REGRET YOUR RESISTANCE" he put his foot on Shepard's throat. He attempted to remove the offending foot, but that just forced Harbinger to press down harder. "I KNOW YOU FEEL THIS. YOU WILL KNOW PAIN, SHEPARD. YOUR INTERFERENCE HAS ENDED" he raised his rifle and aimed it at Shepard's head, but was stopped as Aaron ran up to him and jumped on his back.
"No-one calls me a minion! Not even Boss!" Aaron yelled as he started absorbing the dark eezo from Harbinger. It turned to ash as Aaron's body glowed black hued with red energy. Then everything went black.
When Aaron opened his eyes, he was floating in a black, infinite space. The only thing he could see was a hologram of a reaper, and the voice of Harbinger ringing out. "AARON. I WISH TO SPEAK TO YOU"
"Five minutes ago you wanted to kill me"
"YOU ARE NOT BACTERIA"
"Um... what?"
"WE WILL PURGE ALL ORGANICS. WE ARE THEIR DESTINY"
"You say that like I'm not in your category of genocide"
"I KNOW YOU ARE NOT ORGANIC. YOU ARE NOT OF FLESH, BUT SYNTHETIC"
"You don't know what I am, do you?"
"IRRELEVANT"
"Heh, okay, continue with this, grand, maniacal scheme of yours"
"YOUR ATTEMPTS AT TAUNTING ME ARE POINTLESS"
"Okay fine, whatever, continue"
"WE WILL PURGE ALL ORGANICS, SO IS THE GREAT CYCLE. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE PART OF THE MASS GENOCIDE TO BE. FIGHT FOR THE REAPERS, OR BE DESTROYED"
"Uh-huh, well Harby, you present me with a tough choice. Hang with a bunch of cold, merciless squids who I know are gonna betray me in the long run, I mean, c'mon, that's how it always goes in the movies, or when I find out exactly what you are and I find where you currently are, I can just kill you"
"YOU WILL NOT BE GIVEN A SECOND CHANCE. THE ORGANICS CANNOT BE SAVED"
"Don't need a second chance, bitch"
"THIS EXCHANGE IS OVER"
The darkness receded as Aaron opened his eyes. He was leaning against a wall and, for some reason, he had omnicuffs over his wrists. "Man, cops never learn, I always break out of these things... damn, these aren't handcuffs, how do I break out of these?" he heard voices and looked over a boulder to see Garrus leaning against a wall, a pissed-off (also known as normal-looking) Shepard, and a human woman with black hair and blue armor Aaron had never seen before.
"Ashley, do you really have to arrest him?" Shepard asked.
"Yes, I do. You're lucky I don't arrest you for aligning with Cerberus"
"C'mon, I know the guy's a psycho, but he's our psycho" Garrus added.
"Save it Garrus, my mind is already made up. Do you know what kind of atrocities that... that thing has committed? How many Alliance soldiers he's killed?"
"He gave a brief description..." Shepard muttered.
"And his weapons. There's no way I'm letting him even walk away alive without them. You saw what the sword could do to a reaper, or whatever the hell that thing was. Do you know what those weapons could do for the Alliance? Or his biotics?"
"Look, you have to understand, it doesn't work like-"
"Oh I understand perfectly, Shepard. I'm not about to let a terrorist organization like Cerberus make off with him or these weapons" Ashley proclaimed, holding up Aaron's O.M.G, a deactivated lazor razor in the other hand.
"You realize, that once Aaron wakes up, he won't stop until he gets those back, right?" Garrus asked.
"I'm not gonna let him. The omnicuffs negate biotics, he won't be able to do anything without my say-so" Aaron shook his head and ducked behind the boulder, using electric telekinesis to remove the cuffs. He then snuck up behind Ashley and tapped on her shoulder. She turned around and Aaron snatched the O.M.G. from her grasp. "Oi. My thingie" Aaron said before he pistol whipped her with the O.M.G., knocking her out. He ripped the sword handle from her grasp and then looked at his two squadmates, throwing his arms up. "So you were just gonna let her take off with my stuff? The hell..."
"We were stalling her, why do you think that were still here?" Garrus asked.
"Fine, 'thank you for stalling her while I got out of my stupor', I'll put it on a card later. What happened anyway?"
"You absorbed all the eezo from Harbinger, you weird black and blue electricity thing turned black and red, you went psycho on all the collectors and killed them, then you passed out and Ashley came along" Garrus explaned.
"Huh, weird"
"Aaron, I'm not usually a, ah, expert on this, but you seem a bit... off. Did anything happen while you were unconscious?"
"No, nothing, it's cool. So... we should go before soldier bitch over here wakes up"
"Yeah, let's go" the three started walking back to the dropship, and Aaron turned to Shepard. "So who was that chick anyways?" he asked.
"Ashley was an old squadmate back when we were trying to stop Saren and save the Citadel"
"Hey, you know, whenever someone's trying to kill me, they never think on thanking me for killing that reaper"
"The Alliance fleet would have blown it up"
"Suuure, you keep telling yourself that, Shepard"
"Well, maybe if you weren't practically a space pirate, people would actually think to thank you"
"Yet they never will because I'm the best damn space pirate this side of the milky way. Hell, the entire galaxy, screw part of it"
"-sigh- I should never have recruited you"
"But now I'm here, and we get to go on some mondo-suicide mission past the omega relay. Which is suicide for me too considering if you all die I'll be stuck there"
"Huh, never thought of it like that. You really know how to brighten a day, Aaron"
"...So, curious, what happened with the collector's and the colonists?"
"They got away with them"
"Damn... well, we'll get 'em back, right?"
"Actually, we're going back to recruiting"
"Oh. Well... are we going to Illium?"
"Don't know, the Illusive Man stopped sending me dossiers after he sent me on Horizon, so I should know once we're back on the Normandy"
"Okay, but if were heading to Illium you gotta tell me, 'cause I got something I gotta do"
"By that you mean get some stuff out of your apartment?"
"Oh hey, look, the dropship, let's go!" Aaron shouted as he ran inside the dropship, Shepard and Garrus following behind. Soon the dropship took off from the ground as it flew back to the Normandy against the golden horizon of the sky.
"So, this is my new room, huh?" an unarmored Aaron asked EDI as he surveyed his new surroundings. When asked what room Aaron wanted, and upon Aaron saying he didn't want much, he was given one of the spare standard rooms the regular crewmembers got. Really, the only things in the room were a desk and a bed, and the room itself was incredibly small. "Shit, I'm gonna have to get rid of this bed to save space"
"Is the room not to your liking?" EDI asked through her consol.
"No, I like the room, it's just I don't really sleep, so... I kinda just wanna save space by tossing the bed"
"It is to my information that a bed is usually comforting to those using one, especially while resting or during inter-"
"Okay, goodbye you damn miniature space needle!" Aaron shouted as he frantically waved his arms around, dispelling EDI. Aaron sighed and leaned against the wall. "...I need a drink. Oh wait, I can't get drunk... man, being a virtual being can be a bitch sometimes" the door to his room opened and Shepard walked in.
"Aaron"
"Shepard"
"...So... this is your new room"
"Yeah, I need to get rid of the bed, but other than that, it's a pretty nice room"
"'Nice?' the only thing in here is a desk and a bed"
"Desk is all I need, don't need the bed"
"But what if you have a woman in here and-"
"So did you find out if we're going to Illium?" Aaron snapped, stepping closer to Shepard.
"As it turns out, yes, we are going to Illium"
"Hell yes!" Aaron shouted, fist-pumping the air.
"But..." Shepard interrupted"
"Damnit"
"I can't just let you or any of the crew wander off on their own. It's against regulations. Especially you since everyone wants to kill you"
"Yeah, but it's not like we're heading to the Citadel where everyone's a pompous prick and wants to kill me, this is Illium! The 'people that want to kill me' ratio is alot lower. Like fifty/fifty"
"Not everyone's a pompous prick"
"Okay fine, everyone that lives near the council. And most of C-sec. So can I go"
"I just can't do it. You're not on shore leave"
"-Sighs- okay Sheppy, let's cut to the chase, who are we picking up at Illium?"
"An assassin drell named Thane and a matriarch asari named Samara"
"-winces- okay, I'm really cool with one of those and not cool with one of those"
"Oh boy, here we go..."
"Shepard, basically all asari matriarchs who follow that damn code nonsense want to kill me. Apparently absorbing asari for eezo warrants me to be named a demon or something like that. Point is that bitch is gonna try to kill me the second she sees me. So here is what I'm gonna put on the table: I go get Thane with a squad of my choosing, while at the same time you go get the asari. So, you know, win/win"
"Aaron, I dunno..."
"You wanna get those human colonists back sooner or not?"
"Fine, on two conditions"
"Name 'em"
"I get to choose your squad, and every time you call me 'Sheppy' I get to shoot you"
"Dealeo, so who do I get to hang with while I get my old buddy?"
"Grunt and Miranda"
"...Son of a fucking bitch, why do I gotta work with the bitch?"
"Hey, a deals a deal"
"That was before I knew that I had to work with the Cerberus bitch..."
"Just bear with her. I know she can be a pain at times, that's why she's going with you"
"... You were just waiting for this moment, weren't you?"
"Yes. Yes I was"
"Okay, I'll get Thane with Grunt and Cerberus bitch-"
"Miranda"
"Miranda... and in return, whenever were in Illium again, I get to go get my stuff"
"Okay, let's shake on it" Shepard said, with him and Aaron shaking hands once the deal was concluded.
"Ah, Illium. A actually pretty decent planet. Not too fancy for my taste like the Citadel, but not a cesspit like omega. And brimming with deadly mercenaries. Mostly eclipse, but you see blue suns around. Grunt my man, when were done getting my old buddy, there's this bar down the way that has the best music and probably sells ryncol"
"Probably?"
"Well, I don't drink since I can't get drunk, so I really wouldn't know. You can ask, though"
"Boys, you'll have time to get intoxicated later, right now we have a job to do"
"Bitch, I'm leading this mission, and were still walking to the this Liara's person's office, so if I wanna make some small talk, I'm gonna make some damn small talk"
"Call me a bitch one more time..."
"Yo bitch, we're here" Aaron said, pointing to an asari at the counter of Liara T'soni's office. Before Shepard had left with Jack and Zaeed to recruit Samara he had told him that Liara would likely be informed as to where the assassin would be. So here Aaron was, bickering with Miranda, but at least they had made it to the office. Aaron walked up to the counter which was manned by an asari. "Hey, uh, Shepard called ahead, said to let me through to see boss lady..." the asari smiled and nodded, opening the door. "Thanks" Aaron said as he walked through the door. Liara was another asari, currently at work on a terminal. Apparently she was also a former member of Shepard's squad back when he was fighting Saren.
"Aaron" she said coolly.
"Liara" Aaron said.
"...Still mad about making you kill those people?" Liara asked.
"You said, that those people knew where the Shadow Broker was, and we both got reasons to kill that guy. Point is you made me kill five dudes who didn't know anything about the Shadow Broker"
"I told you that only one out of the five people would have what I needed"
"'And no normal human would be able to kill all three before they get away', but I'm not human and I managed to do it, and it turns out none of them had shit on the Broker, so if I wanna be pissed at you for making me commit wholesale slaughter without a legitimate reason, I'm gonna be pissed"
"I don't see you following that same logic when you're killing Alliance soldiers or mercenaries"
"Yeah, well that's different, they knew they were gonna die eventually anyway, especially if they were gonna try to kill me, I just quickened their inevitable deaths. The five people I killed on the other hand didn't have any reason to die. Besides, I found out who the real one was anyways, did some digging"
"Oh? And who is it?"
"Her" Aaron said simply, opening the door and shooting the secretary behind the desk in the shoulder, the secretary rolling on the ground in pain. "Anyway, there she is if you want her, still mad about the other five. Ugh, but enough philosophical nonsense, we've both heard enough speeches about what's right and what's wrong, you know why I'm here" It's true that after the entire Harbinger ordeal Aaron had had enough with the philosophy. He just wanted to get working with Miranda over with. Plus he wanted to catch up with Thane.
"Right, the assassin. Well, if you wanted to catch up with him, you're not too late. He arrived on Illium a few days ago with the intent of assassinating an asari corporate executive Nassana Dantius. Thane contacted an asari named Seryna, who has an office in the cargo transfer levels. If you want any chance of catching up with him, it'll be through her"
"Okay, thanks. Gigantor, Bitch, we're moving out, come on" Miranda sighed as they walked down to the cargo levels, Liara grinning evilly as her secretary squirmed on the floor. Eventually Aaron groaned once he saw the asari they were looking for. "Look, Miranda, my head hurts from all the bullshit I had to go through with Liara, can you please handle this?"
"After the way you've been treating me you just expect me to-"
"I said 'please'"
"...Oh, fine" Miranda went to go talk with the asari and Grunt and Aaron went over to a bench to talk. "So... why 'Gigantor'?" Grunt asked.
"Well, you are, you know, giant, kinda in the name, dude"
"Don't call me it again"
"Jeez, you, Shepard, and Miranda are dissing on the names I give you"
"So, Miranda asked if there was any blood samples of you from when you woke me up"
"Uh-huh, and what'd you say?"
"Piss off"
"Aw, still mad that I punched you into the wall?"
"Grrr..."
"Okay, okay, I'll lay off, sheesh... bitch probably wants samples of me for the Illusive Man and Cerberus. Man... if only they knew..." To be honest, not many people knew that Aaron was of another world. He made sure of that... mostly so people like Cerberus, the council, Alliance, and best of all, the Shadow Broker could go insane as they tried to figure out where Aaron had originated from. In truth, the only people that knew that he was from a different planet were Shepard, Tali, Garrus, Mordin, Thane, and Chakwas. Few even knew he was a virtual being. Harbinger knew, but Aaron didn't think the thing suspected he was from another universe altogether. Or maybe it did. It claimed that compared to anything else in the galaxy it was infinitely greater, so maybe it was either an infinite boast or maybe it was fact. Aaron didn't really care. He was still going to kill Harbinger the next time he saw it. Aaron shook himself from his thoughts when he saw Miranda coming back. "Miranda. What'd you learn from the purple chick?" Aaron asked.
"Well, if you must know, apparently Seryna used to be head of security for Nassana"
"Bitch Thane wants to kill, go on"
"...Yes, well she found out that Nassana routinely engages in assassinations of business rivals and government officials, as well as the death of her own sister. She confronted Nassana for it and was fired because of it"
"Ouch..."
"Which brings us to Thane learning about Nassana's security from Seryna"
"Yep, that's Thane, learning security from the head itself"
"Okay, so if we want to catch Thane, she said that he's likely going to go to the penthouse of tower one of the Dantius towers. Thane will likely go through the second tower, which I might add, is still under construction"
"So, are we gonna have to hail a taxi, or..."
"Sernya will provide transport to the tower"
"Okay, lady gives us a lift, we go to the tower, kill like, I dunno, a hundred and five dudes consisting of mechs and eclipse mercs, and Miranda, if it's not too much, prepare some medi-gel, we might need it"
"Why?"
"Well, a person like Nassana will likely be paranoid about killer's given her profession, I see it all the time, and if the tower's under construction, it's likely she'll send mechs to clean up the worker's for fear one of them could be the assassin, and I hate seeing people die for no reason, so were gonna save them. And when I say that, I mean we're just gonna heal anyone if we see them, we're not going out of our way, so get the medi-gel ready" Miranda nodded. It was a proficient yet bold objective. As for Aaron knowing Nassana would be paranoid, well... she had to admit that it was an intelligent assessment, especially from someone like him. She had always figured Aaron to be of the brutish, mercenary type, but he was actually fairly intelligent. She had to wonder if he just feigned his punkish ways to hide his true intelligence.
As for Aaron, he knew Nassana would be paranoid about assassins. He always dealt with people like that when he was rolling with Boss and the Saints. And Thane was definitely someone to be paranoid about. Because he always got his mark. In Aaron's opinion it was a waste of time, it's likely Thane'd already killed her by the time they found him. Yep, people like Nassana are always paranoid that someone's gonna kill them.
And they're right.
"The robot dog runs towards the group of awesome fellows, it smashes through the window, batter Aaron lines up the hit, the FENRIS mech jumps, batter batter batter, swing bitch!" Aaron shouted as he hit the dog-like mech with the flat side of his blade, using it like a bat and sending the mech flying into the other mechs, causing a chain reaction of explosions and killing the mechs. "And that, ladies and gentlemen..." Aaron started, turning his armored form to his squadmates, "Is how we will get to the district semifinals. By using robots for baseballs and swords for bats" when both of his companions cocked their head in confusion, Aaron sighed. "It was a joke. Which is now ruined now that I've said it's a joke. Can we just continue onwards, we got Eclipse coming up" they both nodded and Aaron picked up his dubstep gun which was currently playing baseball music, switching it to the dubstep setting. Soon all three started walking forward. As soon as they arrived they saw FENRIS and LOKI mechs assaulting and killing salarian construction worker's- just as Aaron had predicted would happen. Eventually they came upon a wounded salarian. "Miranda, give him mdei-gel and get any info you can out of them. Grunt, C'mon, we've got bots and mercs to clip. Bitch, join us when you're done with him" she did a double take, but then nodded and crouched by the salarian. Grunt pounded his fists together as he and Aaron walked down the hall towards a big, U-shaped room.
"So, do you really think there will be as many mercs as you said?" Grunt asked.
"Eh, most likely, why?"
"Been too long since I killed someone. Lot of pent-up stress lately"
"Man, you and Gat would have gotten along just fine..."
"Gat?"
"Yeah, toughest son of a bitch I know, Boss was even scared of him. Guy took a shotgun to the knee and from what I heard a sword got stuck in him and even after all that he kept on killing. Had a thing for knives. And killing people"
"Sounds like a worthy challenge"
"Dude, Gat would cream you, he'd cream anyone"
"Don't see how, he's just a human"
"Yeah, but he's one tough, if not the toughest, humans. You know what, screw it, guy practically is the toughest"
"I always thought the humans considered Shepard to be the best among them"
"Man, Shepard ain't got shit on Gat. Sure he's got all that fancy shmancy spectre training and whatnot, but Gat, well... it's Johnny Gat, there's really not much to say, he'd mop the floor with 'ol Shepard"
"Do you happen to know where he is?"
"Um... no, I don't. Thought he was dead, told differently, I... don't really wanna talk about it. And we gots mercs to kills" Aaron said, pointing to the numerous mechs and eclipse mercs in the U-shaped room.
"Finally, a challenge!" Grunt laughed as he charged them with his claymore shotgun. Aaron shook his head and sighed.
"You just don't charge in, that ain't cool. Well, it's murder time" he muttered as he unsheathed his lazor razor.
After healing the salarian and extracting the proper information from him, Miranda entered the room Aaron and Grunt entered... only to find Aaron leaning against a wall, a smirking Grunt, and a bunch of dead mercs and mechs. "Busy, were we?" she asked. "Eh, you know, just doin' what we usually do" Aaron answered. She nodded and they went up to the second level... only to find everyone there dead too. Miranda looked at Aaron and he shrugged. "You were taking a long time" he answered.
"Impressive. There are vanguards here"
"Weren't really a problem" Grunt answered.
"Also, there were two more salarians locked in that room over there. We let them go, but they said someone that wasn't eclipse locked them in there. My guess is that it was Thane making sure they weren't caught in the crossfire, which means that we're on the right track. So basically, I guess we just keep going forward" they heard a ding from the elevator and Aaron formed the RPG. "What are you doing?" Miranda asked.
"Classic spy movie scenario. Door opens, bounty hunter dudes pour out, kinda simple"
"It could be more workers"
"Fifty credits says they're not. Hundred says at least one's a krogan" before she could respond, the door opened, revealing a krogan bounty hunter and two eclipse engineers. "Told you" Aaron said as he fired a missile into the elevator, killing the occupants.
"Nice going, you blew the elevator up..." Miranda muttered.
"Oh. Whoops. Well, looks like I'm going up the fun way"
"What do you mean?" Miranda asked.
"Well, I can just run up the walls, probably actually alot faster than fighting through waves of enemies"
"You can't just leave us here!" Miranda yelled.
"Look, I would love to take the stairs, but I don't want to, and Grunt I know you might be peeved off at me for leaving you behind like this but I'm not about to haul your lizard ass up the entire tower, so go back to the Normandy and tell Shepard I took you as far as I could!" Aaron started yelling as he cut through the top of the elevator and started running up the shaft.
"...Son of a bitch" Miranda muttered.
"Running, I'm running, I'm running up a wall..." Aaron sang as he busted outside of the elevator shaft and on the outside of the tower. Once he saw he was outside he started running up the side of the tower. Eventually he saw a bridge full of eclipse mercs. "London's bridge be fallin' down, baby!" Aaron yelled as he severed both ends of the bridge with his sword, causing the entire thing to fall down. "Huh. So... that was anticlimactic. Anyway, to Nassana! Assassinations, ho!" Aaron yelled as he sprinted towards the stairs to Where Nassana's penthouse. He ascended the stairs and entered the penthouse to find Nassana... along with a whole lot of eclipse mercs. Pointing guns at him. "Um... I suppose you wouldn't shoot me if I were to give you vital information about the assassin that wants to kill you?"
"That being?" Nassana asked.
"Bitch, I'm not gonna tell you, guy's a friend" she nodded to the mercs, and they opened fire on
Aaron... only for the bullets to harmlessly pass through him as blue pixels healed him. Thermal clips clattered to the floor as all the mercs looked at him in shock. "Yeah, that's usually the look mercs give me before I kill them. How do you think I've gotten as far as I have?" Aaron asked as a vent fell behind the mercs. A drell in a black drenchcoat fell through, snapping one merc's neck, moving on to the next and punching him in the throat, killing him and shooting the rest. He grabbed a struggling Nassana and shoved his pistol into her gut, shooting it and killing her. He put her body on the desk, but Aaron put a hand on his shoulder before he could do anything else. "Look, Thane, I know the entire praying thing is important to you, this brother don't judge on religion, but if you could just hold off on that for now..."
"Aaron. What do you require?"
"Um, you know, suicide mission, led by the great Shepard, recruiting peeps for the misson. Thought you'd be interested"
"I am. What is this mission?"
"Collectors and omega relay. 'nuff said"
"Very well"
"Okay, look, what is it gonna take to- wait what?"
"I'll go on the mission"
"...Okay, that was easy"
"Anything to make the universe a little brighter. And this will certainly make the universe slightly brighter. And you especially should know a mission involving death doesn't concern me"
"...That disease that comes with old drell age coming up?"
"Yes"
"...Damn, man... well, glad to have you aboard... your gonna have to find some other way down, 'cause the elevator's shot. Find the Normandy, it's in the Nos Astra docking bay. Seeya, Thane" Aaron waved as he jumped out the window, gliding towards the ship.
"So, is Thane acquainted with the plan?" Aaron, now unarmored, asked Shepard as they walked out of the briefing room.
"Jacob doesn't trust him, being a gun for hire and all" Shepard answered.
"Understandable, being a soldier and all. What about the Justicar?"
"She's still making her way here. Should be here in a few minutes"
"Godammit, please tell me we have something else to do here so I can get my stuff"
"You have to talk to her eventually"
"Yeah. Or I can avoid her for the duration of this mission. That's always an option"
"Okay fine, look, Miranda has a... personal problem I have to deal with here. Family issue, you know how it is"
"Is now really the best time to be worrying about that?"
"Hey, every member of the team has a personal problem I need to solve. I'm afraid if I don't then they won't be properly ready for the mission"
"So we're coupling solving everyone's problems on top of recruiting them?"
"Hey, if you don't like how I work, then you can leave. I should kick you off anyway for abandoning your teammates like that"
"Hey, not my fault the elevator broke. Er... okay, yeah, that one was my fault"
"You can't just leave your team like that. Don't ever do it again, if I ever even let you lead a squad. Am I clear?"
"Crystal"
"Now, if you want to get your stuff, the Justicar's gonna be here in five, you should leave" Aaron nodded, before his eyes widened and he ran out of the Normandy towards his old apartment.
A/N- So... I guess I owe an explanation why this chapter took three months to make. Okay, I am deeply sorry, and I guess that entire new years revolution thing is shot through the window... anyway, I put an explanation in the comments, albeit a month later than I said, but I'll explain it again: Basically I wrote half the chapter and my laptop blew up, so then I wrote half the chapter on an old dell and that blew up, so I had to get a new laptop, and that took awhile, so... yeah, if you want an explanation, there it is. But I had a lot of time to make some improvements to make up for it!
Story now includes gray lines! Probably. I don't know if they'll show up. Guess we'll find out.
Poll on my profile! Need votes!
Feel free to private message me at any time!
Okay, I'm gonna go. Next chapter to hopefully come soon! Cya!
