MASS MISCALCULATION
Episode 5- Loyalty mission: The Infiltrator
"Now if I check accordingly based on the correlation of the position of which my apartment was I will find that it was around here... somewhere... aw man..." Aaron muttered as he walked around the streets of Illium, lost as he did not know where his apartment was. "How could I have forgotten where the place is? I've lived there for like- oh, wait... oh come on, really!?" he yelled as he looked up to see the building he had familiarized himself with multiple times right in front of him. "So... yeah, I'm an idiot. Okay, so last time I was here I, uh... oh screw it, I'm jumping through" he said finally as he jumped up several floors, almost to the top, and ran up the wall, coming to a penthouse and smashing through a window into the penthouse apartment. Inside the apartment were many items some people would call 'antique'- in reality these were just random items he 'procured' from a collector that looked to be about from his time in his old world. He of course had stuff from this world to that he bought, he just had the antique's to make the place feel more homey. "Alrighty, so now I just need my terminal... bag..." he got a duffel bag that was conveniently leaning against a wall and went to the bedroom, stuffing his terminal in it. Trying to think of what else he could put in his room on the Normandy to make it feel more at home he got a old Chinese sword hanging from the wall he also stole from the antique collector and an old school alarm clock. Not being able to think of anything else to bring with him, he jumped out of the apartment as he ran back towards the Normandy.
When he came back to the purple Normandy, he saw it was getting ready to depart, so he hurriedly ran through the airlock before it closed. He looked to his left once he entered the Normandy and saw Joker's finger's flying over the control panels as he piloted the ship. "Yo, Joker, how's it going?" Aaron asked as he walked over to him.
"Huh? Oh, hey Aaron. Nothing much, you know, still got glass legs"
"Okay, morbid joke, see why the call you Joker..."
"Yeah, that's not really why they call me Joker"
"Huh?"
"The reason they call me Joker is because back in flight school... look, I grew up on ships, parents were with the Alliance, moved around alot, so I guess it was only a matter of time before I went to flight school. So when I was in there I busted my ass off so I could be the best damn pilot at the school. Near the end of graduation I was better than the flight instructor's, and everyone knew it"
"Wow, impressive, so the name...?"
"Well, as you can imagine, I worked myself to the glass bones..."
"Oh great, more morbid jokes..."
"...I never really smiled, not with how much I worked. Anyway, one of the instructors one day, she called me 'Joker' as a joke because I never cracked a smile, and the name stuck"
"Bet you were smiling at graduation"
"Oh believe me, I was"
"Well, I know how you feel. Back in school I was always picked on for trying too hard to get good grades. Boss was always saying, 'Aaron, getting a 4.0 grade average ain't gonna get you shit in life.' Guess he was right since no-one in their right minds would hire me now, but still, good to know I at least had options"
"Whoa wait, what the hell? You got good grades?"
"Well I'm no lawyer or brain surgeon, but I got a good I.Q. I remember my high school years, I was writing reports, Boss was either reading Jane Austin or reading magazines if you know what I mean, watching movies, playing games, pretty much anything but schoolwork"
"And you didn't do any of that?"
"Well I played games and watched movies, but not when I had to do school stuff. Parents kinda drilled how I should get a good education in me. Anyway, I passed high school, so did Boss... barely... anyway he kinda got a job at dead-end job as a clerk in some store but got fired upon threatening to hunt down his family while punching his brains out"
"Ouch. And you?"
"Alot of colleges wanted me, I got some scholarship money, but Boss was my friend since childhood, so... I mean he was a dick at times but he was a good guy that knew right from wrong, we pretty much always agreed on something. So I was walking him towards a different store that was hiring when there was a shootout with a few gangs, we were saved by some people from a gang called the Saints, one thing lead to another..."
"And your parents were okay with you joining a gang?"
"They, uh... died around my last year of high school"
"Double ouch. Sorry, Aaron"
"Eh, don't be. If I had a credit for every time a cripple made me feel bad I'd have, like, seven credits. But I hunted the bastard that killed them once we joined the Saints"
"What happened with him?"
"Found out where he lived, sent a guy named Johhny Gat to his house. 'nuff said"
"Doesn't sound so sadistic"
"This is the same guy that helped the Boss come up with the idea of putting a girl in the back of a monster truck"
"Okay, he sounds pretty damn psycho"
"Yeah, well the guy deserved it, you don't do what he did to my parents and then get away scott free in court, so if I wanna send Gat over to his house to torture him with knives and do whatever else the hell he did to him, I'm gonna"
"So what else did he do?"
"I dunno, I was listening over the phone and I hung up after it came to nothing but the sound of squelching, but when he got back he gave me a bunch of bags full of organs, so I got the gist of it. Can we get back to my life before it went all virtual?"
"I'm not following"
"Ask Shepard"
"Gotcha. You ever wonder what it's be like if you got a normal job?"
"Hell no. I'm not saying going to college is bad, it's just some paper-pushing job didn't really fit me, and running into the Saints was the best thing that ever happened to me. It gave me purpose. Plus Boss joined the second he was offered, and I couldn't just abandon him, Dude'd be lost without me"
"Isn't he lost right now?"
"I'm gonna be honest with you, I was in a coma for ten or fifteen years, I don't really remember, two separate coma's really, and while I was unconscious he kinda learned to take care of himself. By the time I woke up again dude was made, he didn't really need me any more"
"And you'd still be there for him?"
"Well the guy was my best friend, so yeah"
"Well Aaron, talking to you about our individual lives has been fun, but, you know, kinda gotta fly the ship so... wait, what's with the bag?" Joker asked, pointing to his bag.
"Just some stuff from my old apartment I got for my room. Where do you sleep?"
"In a dinky little cabin like everyone else. Except Shepard. He gets a big fancy bedroom for being the captain. Now, trying to fly..."
"Huh. Interesting. Hey one more thing, is the justicar Shepard recruited anywhere?"
"Samara? Nah, she just spends most of her time in her room in the observation deck meditating by the viewport, so no, she doesn't really move much, why?"
"They kinda think I'm a demon since I drain asari the way I do, so they kinda put it in their code to kill me on sight. So yeah. Real thrilled about her. Because she's gonna try to kill me the second she see's me. Where are we going anyway?"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Damn, just wondering"
"Some backwater planet. No-one lives there but we got a distress signal from a ship that had Jacob's Dad on it, so were going there to rescue him and the crew"
"Cool, Space Lost, just remember to look out for giant monsters"
"Yeah, sure, flying..."
"More mission's so people are ready for the mission I guess. Hey, how'd Miranda's mission go?"
"Can you please leave? If you really wanna know you can ask her yourself"
"K, bye"
"Seeya, Aaron" Joker waved off as he swiveled in his chair. Aaron picked up his duffel bag and walked towards the elevator, muttering, "Yeah, I'm gonna talk to that bitch about how her day went. Not gonna happen"
Aaron's room
"Well that's more like it! It's still a piece of shit, but it's a room..." Aaron muttered as he finally booted up his terminal. He had finally set his room in order and had moved around most of the furniture. And by that he moved the bed to the far side of the room next to the wall. He had also sent dark eezo electric pulses over the room to destroy any Cerberus bugs he knew were hidden in the walls. The Normandy was currently on the uncharted planet where Jacobs Father was and Shepard had chosen for Jack to go with him along with Jacob, so with nothing else to do upon Aaron setting his room in order, he was now streaming the extranet. With a bored look on his face, he was about to log off the terminal and go interrupt Garrus from his calibrations when he got a message from an unknown individual. Sighing, he opened the message, his eyes going left from right as he read the message. When he was done, his eye's widened as he finished reading the message. "Son of a bitch... well, looks like we're going back to Illium..."
A few hours later
"The hell do you mean we can't go back to Illium!?" Aaron yelled as he confronted Shepard about the message. As soon as the dropship arrived, he had ran up to Shepard as soon as he was unarmored was now in Aaron's room.
"Look, I'm not about to go back to Illium because you forgot your toothbrush or something" Shepard answered in a irritated tone.
"One, that doesn't even make any sense, my teeth can't rot. Two, you've been going all around the galaxy helping people with their problem's to get them ready for this big suicide mission, well if everyone gets a 'Loyalty Quest', this is mine"
"You couldn't have done this while we were on Illium? Someone like you could easily do this"
"-Sigh- look, I only found out a few hours ago, and I might... actually...-incoherent mumbling-..."
"I'm sorry, what was that?"
"I might... actually... –mumble- help –mumble-"
"Speak up or I'm not going back"
"I need your help, okay?"
"-Chuckle- what?"
"Godammit, don't rub it in..."
"You need, my help?"
"Yes, I need the great Shepard's help, but mostly because you're a good shot..."
"There a story behind this?"
"Yeah, but it's a long-ass one"
"I have the time"
"Okay, well a couple months ago I went to a Cerberus research center I found out about. I'll admit, it was mostly just to screw around with them, I was still mad about the apartment..."
Three month, one day ago: Cerberus research station "The Barn"
We cut to the middle of space as Aaron is flying towards the Cerberus station, with his voice narrating overhead: Apparently the research station here was dedicated to the experimentation of various alien species in the pursuit of the advancement of technology: Mostly weapons and biotics. Anyway, when I first read about it, I didn't really think much of it at first, sounded just like another research station I've sacked in the past. But apparently they developed this weapon, the M-333, which was built off of, 'reversed engineered tech gathered from a hyper-lethal vector found to be abducting human colonists'. By now I'm pretty sure they found a collector particle rifle and reversed-engineered it. Point is there was only one prototype and it was currently in-use by a Cerberus infiltrator by the name of Randall Ezno. From what I read the guy was one of the best infiltrators, tested experimental tech, and was chalk-full on biotics. But I didn't really care about that, I just wanted the gun, I mean it was a freakin' laser cannon! So And as it turns out Randall had just recently kidnapped a turian target, and the hierarchy sent a team to get him back, so the base was kinda on alert at the moment. So as long as my dark eezo was on, it would jam anything that tried to find me. So unless someone looked out a window, I was good. Plan was to kill Ezno and take the gun. Oh, how plans change.
Aaron landed on the hull of the 'Barn', cutting a hole in the hull and crawling in. He found a ventilation shaft and started crawling, eventually reaching a room with two human male scientists working on terminals. He stabbed them both through the chest with his sword and looked at the terminals to see a recording from the video cameras. It seemed to be footage of a man with graying hair and blue glowing eyes and facial scars in infiltrator armor running down a hall. "Huh. Footage says this is about thirty minutes ago. Must be the Randall dude. Well, let's see where he probably went so I can pop his ass..." the camera angle switched as he saw a room full of tables. At the end of the room was one isolated from the previous, a woman strapped to the table as three syringe machines painfully injected her hundreds of times, a man in weird goggles standing next to the table, grinning sadistically and a hand on his chin. The door on the other end of the room with tables opened, Randall running out to the window of the room with the woman, the man leaving, and Randall shouting, "INALI!" and banging on the glass. The door Randall came from opened and a dozen mechs swarmed in, Randall yelling and ripping the mechs apart with biotics. When the mechs were dispatched Randall got on the comms and began talking with an unknown person before looking sadly at Inali and turning around to leave. "Jeez. I guess no-one ever told him what Cerberus does to the people he capture's. Then again, I guess they barely tell anyone that doesn't approve of their methods. Dammit, where'd he go...?" Aaron wondered as he cycled through camera footage, watching as Randall fought through the entire base. He was currently at a security checkpoint, with an OGRE mech being dispatched to stop him. "Hm... OGRE mech? The fuck's an OGRE mech? Oh... that's what the fuck a OGRE mech is..." he thought as an advanced mech was raised from a platform as Randall entered the checkpoint in space, infiltrator helmet donned. "Crap, he's tough, but I don't think he can take that thing. I should probably help..." he ran through a door and sprinted down a hall until he found a window, cutting through to the outside and running to Randall's position.
"Pin him down!" a riot trooper yelled, firing around his riot shield as the OGRE mech pinned Ezno down. Currently, he was pinned behind a crate and unable to do anything due to waiting for his biotics to recharge. He was killing the riot troopers just fine but he couldn't do anything about the OGRE mech. Just when the ogre mech was charging up a red ball of energy, something that could flush Ezno out of cover so the mech could finish the infiltrator, until a blue blade pierced through it's head, disabling and causing it to explode. Randall killed the last riot trooper and aimed his mattock rifle at Aaron. An armored Aaron chuckled and raised his hands.
"Whoa whoa whoa, I just saved your ass and you aim a gun at me?"
"What are you doing here?"
"Um, well funny thing, I sorta came here for you"
"What?"
"I need the laser cannon thing"
"And I need it right now. So get lost"
"Okay, if you know anything about me, you should know that a mattock and any other gun you got won't do shit against me. So unless you got a reaper laser in your pants I suggest you chill the fuck down and listen to me"
"...What do you want?"
"Okay, I want the laser gun, you need the laser gun, I saw what the director did to that Inali chick, and that was pretty messed up, so I'm gonna offer you something: When I was flying here I saw a bunch of geth ships flying here, so in a hour of two your gonna have geth up your ass along with Cerberus, and if your gonna try to kill the Director, he probably ain't here anymore, and even if he is, he you aren't gonna get close to him"
"Plan was to get a shuttle and leave, but first I got to get to the relay station"
"I'll ask why on the way, but how about I help you get there and in return I get your M-333?"
"...You better not slow me down"
"Pretty sure it's gonna be the opposite way, Enzy" Aaron chuckled as he walked past Randall, Randall sighing and walking along with him, pointing to a door in front of them.
"This will take us to the X-1 research wing. We need to get through it to get to the station" Randall explained.
"Goddammit, I hate elevator's" Aaron muttered as he got in with Randall.
X-1 Wing
"So this place is terrifying... and yellow" Aaron said as he eyed the bloodstained halls of the X-1 wing. Randall had mentioned that a friend had hacked into UDI- the A.I. that controlled the facility- and released all of the test subjects from their own respective cells who promptly murdered the scientists that tortured them, the majority of subjects being asari.
And krogan.
So far it was a pretty terrifying.
"You had to let the krogan out too. Nothing like 'roid-raging krogan barreling down a hall. Hell, for all I know they are on steroids" and speak of the devil, a krogan appeared at the end of the hall, charging towards the pair. Aaron and Randall fired their shotguns, dropping the krogan.
"Krogan are out! They're armed!" A scientist yelled before another krogan shot him. Aaron cut him in half with his sword, and bisecting a third.
"Nice one" Randall commented, lowering his weapon as they walked down the hall.
Eventually the Director's voice sounded over the intercom: "Inali performed alot of procedures, you know. The first time she worked on a live turian... she sobbed. Mmm... still finished though"
"The hell is wrong with this guy?" Aaron asked.
"I don't know, we can worry about him later. And it looks like we got company" Randall said, pointing to a group of engineers and asari test subjects. "Watch this" Randall smirked, activating a cloaking device and turning invisible and sneaking behind the two groups as they tried to kill each other. He de-cloaked next to both groups, shotgun pointed at an asari's face. "Peek-a-boo" he chuckled as he killed three asari and Cerberus engineers with the shotgun. Three krogan came through a door and he took out a strange-looking gun, firing a blue laser out as he killed the three krogan. Aaron whistled.
"-chuckle- wow. Dude, that was sick! But I have to ask, where did you get an invisible-thingie?"
"I test prototypes, remember?"
"Oh yeah" Aaron shrugged as they continued walking.
Eventually the Director's voice came back on: "The second time was perfunctory, but, in her usual style, flawless"
"What does 'perfunctory' even mean anyway...?" Aaron wondered aloud as they continued walking past doors, eventually coming to another room with more Cerberus troops and test subjects in battle. "Hey, you wanna see something funny?" Aaron asked.
"Yeah" Randall answered. Aaron stomped his foot down, sending a shockwave that flung everyone into a the wall. Aaron pulled out the dubstep gun and let it loose on everyone, killing them with the sonic gun.
"You seriously have a gun... that shoots music?" Randall asked, chuckling.
"Why not? It's I'm already a big middle finger to anyone I see, might as well add insult to injury"
"I see" Enzo nodded. They exited a door and walked through a few more doors. When Randall opened one door, a scientist was in it. "Light's out" Randall said, startling the scientist. He hit him with his mattock, and Randall was about to shoot him, but then shook his head, letting him live by walking away and closing the door.
"Why'd you let him live?" Aaron asked.
"Wouldn't be right to just kill an unarmed man. I'm not a monster like the Director"
"Yeah, I guess... speaking of which, shouldn't his voice come on right about..."
The Director's voice rang out: "The third? She was looking forward to it"
"Your lying" Randall spat.
"Am I, Randall? You should know, we are nothing but not adaptable" the voice cut out and Aaron shot the speaker with his pistol and put a hand on Randall's shoulder. "Hey, don't listen to that prick. He's a crazy man with a microphone, he'll say anything"
"I guess..."
"speaking of pricks..." Aaron muttered, pointing to the room full of Cerberus troops. They took cover as they fired at the pair.
"Inali cried out for you. You couldn't save her. You couldn't save shit!" One of the trooper's sneered.
"Aaron. Stand back" Randall growled. Said virtual being took cover as Randall unleashed his biotics. Blue energy flooded the room as the troops were lifted off the ground and thrown every which-way, the sound of bones breaking being heard as tangled bodies littered everywhere.
"Damn dude, when your mad, your mad" the next room wasn't any better, with Cerberus, subjects, and auto turrets. "Well, I saw your power, here's mine..." Aaron stated, dark eezo arcing around his body as he sent black and blue electricity around the room, arcing to everyone and frying their brains.
"Great, your a bug zapper too" Randall muttered.
"Respect the power of zappin'" Aaron snapped.
Eventually they came to a completely empty room with a console in the middle. "Too quiet..." the voice of a volus said from the intercom.
"The hell was that?" Aaron asked quickly.
"That 'friend' I mentioned earlier, a volus hacker working for the Alliance"
"Ah great, a military chump"
"-breath- Aaron, why are you –breath- here?"
"I got my reasons"
"As long as –breath- you don't kill Randall" Said biotic pressed a button on the terminal, causing GRAD turrets to fold from the ceiling.
"Smooth, Randy!" Aaron shouted as he took cover.
"Shut up, I didn't see you do anything!" he yelled as he took a black incisor sniper rifle out, sniping the turrets.
"Which door, -breath- which door..." The volus muttered, while a door opened, a trooper and a riot trooper coming out. "That door, -breath- that door!" The volus yelled, causing Aaron to kill the two soldiers with his sword and him and Randall to run through the door. They killed two more krogan and a few mechs as before they came to a walkway leading to a elevator.
"To the pissy elevator!" Aaron yelled as they ran in and the elevator hummed to life, lifting off to the next area.
Aaron and Randall arrived in a arena-like room when they came out of the elevator, a couple hundred feet wide, with the Director's voice ringing out, "Found you, Randall"
"X-1 security cage protocol override" UDI droned out.
"Fitting that you should find yourself here" the Director chimed.
"Your insane. Shut up" Randall snapped.
"Really? That's the best one-liner you have? My god..."
"Does it really matter?"
"Ah, Aaron. I don't know why your here, but you'll make a fitting subject. The Illusive Man's wanted you so long for those biotics inside of you, and I don't blame him- so many interesting biotics in you"
"Yeah, good luck with capturing me. No-one's really been able to do it yet, and a bunch of troops on a security guard's salary ain't gonna cut it!"
A pod in front of them opened, and inside was a monstrosity which Aaron didn't even want to describe. It was a krogan- barely- and was about ten feet tall, arms bigger than a tree trunk, and implants all over it's body.
"Uh-oh" Aaron and Randall said at the same time. "So... I guess that's what the X-1 wing was dedicated to making- a poor imitation of Godzilla..." Aaron said, taking aim with his RPG. Randall took aim with his M-333 and asked, "So how do you want to do this?"
"I suggest we shoot the shit out of it before- aw, fuck..." Aaron said as X-1 shot his arm off via a blue laser coming from a conduit on it's arm and the RPG sliding across the floor. X-1 tossed a few blue disks at Aaron's feet, which he stared at, cocking his head to the side before they exploded, sending him flying in the air. "Son of a bitch, every time I play frisbeeeeee...!" Aaron yelled as he fell down, X-1 catching him and throwing him across the room. He hit the wall and slid down, X-1 sending a blue biotic shockwave towards him, hitting Aaron and causing him to make a dent in the wall. By now his vision was swimming as he saw Randall cloak and run up to the mutated krogan, blasting him with his shotgun at point-blank range and destroying one of the conduits on his hands. X-1 looked confused before he turned around and started fiddling with the conduits on his wrists. Randall tried shooting him, but it had not effect. A large blue circle lit up on X-1's back which Aaron saw, and he threw his sword, plunging it into the device, causing it to explode. The krogan roared and fell to the ground, getting back up and banging his fists on the ground, continuing to roar.
"What do you think of X-1? He's our oldest subject" the Director said from the speakers.
"Come down from your executive suite and ask me in person, Director" Randall shot back. X-1 roared and banged his fists down again, causing a cage to come down, trapping Randall with X-1.
"Oh, shit" Randall and Aaron said at the same time. In the cage, the krogan attempted to bash Randall with it's fists. Said infiltrator avoided the fists, and saw three blue lights light up on it's chest. He shot them and saw it's shield drop. X-1 noticed to and dashed towards Randall. He dodged out of the way as X-1 bashed through a section of wall, creating a hole in the cage. Aaron got up and sent a fireblast straight at the face of X-1, blinding it momentarily. Randall saw his opportunity and ripped Aaron's sword out of the Krogan's back, causing it to squeal in pain. He jumped on it's back and threw it over X-1's shoulder, shouting, "Aaron, catch!"
Aaron nodded and jumped in the air, catching the sword and hitting the ceiling. He jumped off the ceiling as fast as he could and just as Randall jumped off of X-1, Aaron landed behind the monstrosity, his sword slashing down. At first, nothing happened. Then a vertical blue line appeared across X-1, before his body fell apart as it was cut in half. Aaron laughed and walked up to Randall. "-chuckle- man, I managed to do the same thing they did in... damnit, what was one movie called?"
"I don't know, and you weren't too bad yourself" he then spoke up to the ceiling, "Sorry about your pet, asshole"
"Idiots love to bury gods" the Director answered back, before saying, "He was primitive... but one can develop a certain affection for beasts. No matter- Inali is a much more promising subject" the connection cut and Aaron ran over to the wall and picked up his O.M.G before he snapped his fingers, saying,
"'Underworld', it was 'Underworld'! The scene in the end where he chops the dude's head off, what I did was like that!"
"Aaron, can we just get the hell out of here?" Randall asked from inside an elevator. "Yeah, whatever..." Aaron said, running over to the elevator. The doors hissed shut as the elevator lifted off.
The elevator eventually dropped them off at a hallway leading outside. "You must get to the relay and contact the Alliance- fast" the volus said over the comms. "Show me the way" Randall answered. "One more thing, -breath- I've been monitoring radio chatter for keywords..."
"Let me guess, geth?" Aaron piped up as he opened the door at the end of the hallway, which lead out into a walkway into space.
"Yes" the volus answered, then the comm died. "Huh, guess you were right" Randall shrugged.
"Bitch, I said I saw them coming when I was flying here, of course I was right" Aaron snapped, before he asked, "Wouldn't it be faster if we split up?"
"What do you mean?" Randall asked.
"Well, any minute geth are gonna be here any minute, so I'm just saying it's faster if I go towards the relay while you find us a shuttle off this rock, that way we'll be done twice as fast"
"I don't know... how do I know you won't just destroy the relay and betray me?"
"If I wanted to do that, I would have stabbed you in the elevator. I don't betray homies" he bumped his fist with Randall before said biotic asked the volus over the comm, "Volus, where do I find the nearest shuttle?"
"It should be in the hanger bay, I'm sending a waypoint" Randall turned his head back towards the elevator, and he nodded. "I'll radio if I find a shuttle"
"Alright, take care of yourself, oldy"
"Come on, I'm not that old"
"You can tell yourself that to make yourself feel better later, just get out of here" Randall nodded once again and turned around, heading back to the elevator, but then stopped and threw him an earpiece. "Use this in case you run into trouble" Randall said before he entered the elevator. Aaron turned around and saw a dozen Cerberus troops aiming weapons at him.
"Well, fuck" he said, before he saw a geth dropship fly overhead. "Double fuck..." Aaron mumbled.
Randall
Once the doors of the elevator opened, Randall took cover as two geth troopers came out from a door. Fortunately, a GRAD turret folded from the ceiling, killing the two geth. Randall destroyed the turret with his rifle and saw that nine oculus mechs were being deployed. Four were dispatched via his salvo biotic and four more mechs were lifted into the air via his lift biotic and quickly destroyed with his shotgun. The last mech was killed when he grabbed it with his leash biotic and killed by flinging it against the wall. He holstered his weapon and walked down the hallway, the Director's voice ringing out, "The new recruits gossip about me. About my eyeglasses. They consider it an affection. Of course, they are right. It humbles me to think how far we've come. Of the ability of man. Without technology these teeth would rot from my face"
"Keep talkin', lunatic" Randall spat as he blasted a screen with the Director's face on it with his shotgun. Down the hall there were two krogan prisoners fighting more mechs, which Randall dispatched using his M-333, a large blue laser cutting through everything. He kept walking and peeked his head over the corner of the next hallway. A pair of geth troopers were walking down it, which he sniped with his incisor rifle. He walked over their corpses and came to a locked door. The door opened, a geth juggernaut aiming a geth shotgun at him while it stared with it's one lighted eye, flanked by two troopers. Randall cloaked and snuck behind the geth, sending a salvo to kill the two troopers, and sending a bioticly-charged punch towards the juggernaut, flooring it and finishing it with his mattock. He tried to walk past it, but the synthetic tried to weakly grasp his foot in a vain attempt of killing him. He sighed and blasted it with his shotgun. "Everyone dies" he said as he continued walking down the facility when he came upon the red glare of a sniper's laser. He dove behind a crate as a slug went off next to his head and used his own sniper rifle to finish the Cerberus operative. Three troopers were running down the hall and he shot an explosive barrel next to them, killing the soldiers. A centurion, clad in red armor, was slowly walking down the hallway, randomly blasting a shotgun. Randall sighed and shook his head before he cloaked and went out of view. The centurion tried to find Randall, but then the barrel of a shotgun materialized and the centurion found himself staring down it: Ezno had walked right up to him cloaked. "Hello" he chuckled before he pulled the trigger. The centurion slumped to the ground as he died, and Randall continued on. He eventually heard the voices of two guards: "So how'd 'Blasto' go?" one asked.
"Is that even real? I mean, a hanar spectre? Come on..." the other said. Randall interrupted their conversation with two shotgun blasts, then saw he was on the upper level to the hangar, with a shuttle being near the main airlock. A trooper engaged thrusters in his boots and rocketed over to Randall's side. Ezno killed him before he made it all the way over. He killed the two sniper's on the other side of the bay and made his way down the stairs. Now on the main level, the shuttle was on the other side of the hangar bay. And it was here that all hell broke loose. An OGRE mech flanked by a dozen troops and six riot troops came from a elevator in the middle of the hangar, and the doors on the side. And to make matters worse, a dropship arrived at the main airlock, dropping off a continuous supply of geth troopers and juggernauts. Randall yelled in frustration as he was pinned down by enemy fire and radioed for Aaron, pressing two fingers on his comm unit, yelling, "Aaron, I'm in a little trouble, could use some help!"
"I got my own problems, Ezno! –blast, screams- find a way to deal with it!" Aaron yelled over the come, then cut the link. "Goddamnit!" Randall shouted, then the OGRE mech fired a red ball of energy, the ball landing near Randall and a ball of dark, red energy expanding, forcing Randall to leave cover. He engaged cloak and fired the M-333 at the mech, dropping the shields. He then fired his incisor at it's eye, firing and crippling the head. He then sprinted into cover, charging a trooper while heading into cover next to a Cerberus fighter ship, sliding into cover as he took aim with his eviscerator shotgun, taking out both arms. Out of control, the mech started stomping it's own allies, and the infiltrator focused on the geth before him. The geth in turn took cover. He sent a storm biotic out first, a giant blue ball of eezo forming, flushing the geth out of cover and killing two troops. He lifted three off of the ground and killed them with his mattock, then fired a salvo biotic, killing two troops and on juggernaut. With three juggernauts walking towards him, he cloaked and bioticly punched one's head off, shot another in the head with his shotgun, then slinked behind one. The last geth was killed by a another new piece of tech Randall had, but hadn't had a chance to use yet- a blade forming from the omnitool. The orange blade formed as he plunged it through the juggernaut, killing it. The OGRE mech and the Cerberus troops had long since killed each other, the giant mech exploding and one more trooper remaining. He dropped his weapon and raised his hands- a sign of surrendering. Well, it was here Randall had a choice:
He could either spare one of the troopers that had been trying to kill him a no less than a minute ago.
Or he could just not bother with the trooper and pull the trigger, it would be better that way.
...In the end Randall decided that he still held on to the belief that he was still better than the Director, but he didn't want the soldier to complicate things, so Randall knocked him out with the butt of his white and yellow mattock rifle, then started walking towards the shuttle. He put two fingers to his ear, saying, "Volus, I'm at the dropship. Status?"
"You need to escape and get your intel to the Alliance, -breath- Aaron managed to activate the relay but he's in trouble, -breath- good luck"
"Dammit..." Randall said before running to the shuttle, powering it up and taking off.
Hopefully Aaron hadn't run into too much trouble.
Aaron- fifteen minutes ago
"gwagh..." the Cerberus trooper groaned as his dying body slid from Aaron's blade. As soon as Randall had left Aaron was assaulted by a small team by Cerberus troops... which Aaron had quickly killed. He then continued along the walkway before he saw a red dot on his shoulder. He looked up to see a sniper aiming at him from a platform ahead. Aaron jumped up in the air, forming his cyborg pistol smg and killing the sniper from midair. He landed and a dozen troops came flying from the building behind the platform via rocket thrusters in their boots. "Oh come on, now there's Cerberus flying in from the sky!? Man that's bullshit!" Aaron shouted as he switched to his assault rifle, picking the Cerberus troops out from the air. When the last one fell, he holstered the O.M.G and continued following the walkway towards the comm relay. Eventually he came to a circular platform with a sniper's nest in front of him, and another to his right, with crates popping up all over the platform. Two sniper's appeared in the sniper nest in front of him and one in the side, while more Cerberus troops were flying in. Aaron dropped the sniper at his side with his own sniper rifle and took cover, forming the RPG and blowing up the sniper nest in front of him. A centurion flew in and Aaron sprinted up to him, cutting his arms off with his sword and shooting him through the head with his pistol. A trooper yelled and tried to club Aaron with his mattock rifle, but Aaron just sighed and grabbed the rifle and then the trooper's helmet, then started to squeeze.
"No, please! Don't!" the trooper screamed, but it was too late as the helmet cracked, all of the oxygen leaking out of the suit as Aaron tossed the body away. He sprinted up to a pair of soldiers and shoved his fist through one's chest while shooting the other in the chest multiple times with his pistol. Four more troops flew in on the opposite side, Aaron forming the Saints ball bouncer gun, aiming it at the group of soldiers and fired, two purple balls of energy firing from the gun, hitting two troopers and then bouncing to the other two soldiers, the force of the balls hitting them killing the troopers. His work finished, Aaron holstered the O.M.G yet again and continued along the path.
Eventually, he spotted the comm relay, a massive machine on a platform ahead of him with a spire jutting out of it, and two consoles at each side, with a third one in the center. Aaron put a finger to his ear and activated the comm unit Randall had given to him, saying to it, "Yo, volus, I'm at the comm thingie, so what I just hit the two buttons at the side then hit the one in the middle?"
"Yes, but remember that the sequence-"
"Hit the two buttons at the side then the one in the middle, got it" Aaron said as he turned the comm unit off. He kept walking forwards until he looked up, the platform above. Suddenly a dozen Cerberus assault troopers popped out from cover behind the crates- they had been hiding behind the crates, waiting for Aaron. Aaron in turned just laughed and pointed at a centurion, asking, "Okay, I just want to know, how long were you hiding behind those crates?"
"Shut it, terrorist!" the centurion barked.
"-chuckle- I-i'm the terrorist? Well, I guess it takes one to know one..."
"You know, if you give up now... we'll still torture ya, but if you live we'll do it less the second time 'round" the centurion sneered.
"Yeah well, I know your lying through your teeth, so I guess I should be quaking in my boots now. Oh, if only I had some... some buffer power that engulfed my body in fire. Oh wait, I totally do" Aaron attempted to activate his fire buffer, but nothing happened. He tried again, but nothing still happened. A few of the troopers snickered and Aaron sighed. "Well, I guess fire really doesn't work in space. I guess that kinda makes sense, all things considering, but at least I still got this" Aaron said, activating his electric buffer, his body being imbued with blue electricity. His body glowed blue as he sprinted up to the soldiers faster than they could aim. They attempted to shoot him, but any few slugs that managed to find their way towards him were blocked by a shield that had appeared before him. Any trooper he was near was stunned with electricity, and he started killing them with his bare hands. He threw one in the air, jumped up with him, slammed his body into the platform, then landed on his head, smashing it. He sprinted up to another and threw his body against a wall, the force killing him. A third one was killed when he uppercutted him, kicked him in the spine, then smashed his head with his foot. A clump of three troopers came together and started shooting him, and he formed the RPG and aimed it at them. Before he fired, he got a call over the comm, and answered it while he aimed the RPG.
"Aaron, I'm in a little trouble, could use some help!" the desperate voice of Randall yelled from the other side from the comm.
"I got my own problems, Ezno!" Aaron yelled, before he fired the gun, the blast killing the troops, before he said, "Find a way to deal with it!" the comm cut out as the rest of the troopers were killed as the electricity fried their brains. The only one left was the centurion who was struggling to keep consciousness as Aaron picked him up by the throat. "You... you aren't...human... you can't be..." he groaned as the electric buffer cut out. Aaron chuckled. "Nah, I haven't been human for awhile now" he said before he bisected him with his sword. He dropped the body, the body really just merely floating, and Aaron continued to the comm relay, activating the two buttons on the side and activating the main central console. When the comm relay activated, a large green laser shot up into space, indicating that the comm relay was activated. "Well, I guess I just need to help Randall find a shuttle then we should be good to-"
"OGRE mech en route" the electronic voice of UDI Rang out, a circle below the platform opening as an OGRE mech raised from the platform. "Ah, fuck me, every time..." Aaron muttered. And to make matters worse, geth dropships swooped in and started dropping geth down. "Well great, I was wondering when you guys would show up" Aaron muttered. The eye of the OGRE mech charged up, a yellow beam firing from it. Aaron dodged the beam but was stopped when a geth juggernaut ran up to him and punched Aaron, sending him flying into another geth trooper. A second geth trooper came and each one held Aaron's arms as the OGRE mech fired a plasma gun at him, green balls of plasma hitting his chest. Aaron growled and used dark eezo to electrify one geth and threw it into the other geth freeing him. Aaron threw his sword at the mech, impaling it into it's eye and blinding it. As more geth kept falling in, half focused on the OGRE mech while more and more assaulted Aaron. A juggernaut grabbed Aaron from behind and held him in place as more geth started dog piling him. He sent a stomp out, scattering the geth, and throwing a few onto the OGRE mech. Said mech, finally having enough, blew up, throwing Aaron's sword towards him. Aaron caught the sword and grabbed the head of a geth that floated next to him, cutting it in half and throwing the lower half away, using the upper half as a shield as he started picking the geth off with his assault rifle, but more geth kept pouring in. When Aaron was starting to wonder if he should just cut his losses and run, a Cerberus dropship suddenly flew into view, the cargo door opening and the voice of Randall ringing out, "Aaron, get on!" Aaron nodded and dropped his geth shield, jumping towards the dropship. He flew through the cargo door and it closed as Aaron sprinted up to the cockpit. "Punch it!" Aaron yelled as he squeezed the chair Randall was sitting in, causing it to creak. He loosened his grip as Randall nodded, pressing a few buttons as the dropship flew away. Aaron sighed and sat in the chair next to Randall, staring out the rear viewport mirror as he watched the Cerberus research station fade from view. He stayed still for a moment, then laughed, shaking Randall's seat as he continued laughing, saying, "Homie that right there, was the shit! Man, I haven't seen someone pull my ass outta the fire like that since my days with the Saints! Or that one time in seventh grade, but that's a whole different story all-together"
"Stop shaking the seat!" Randall yelled, causing Aaron to immediately stop, before he asked, "The Saints?"
"Well... damn, I guess your trustworthy enough, I guess I can tell you. Where are we going, 'cause this is gonna take awhile"
"Well, we're not gonna get anywhere in a Kodiak dropship, so we're going to that desert planet. There we can wait for the Alliance to pick us up"
"Yeah, I have the sneaking suspicion that won't go as smoothly as you think, but since we've got awhile before we get to the planet... I guess it can't hurt to tell you about me" Aaron said, and then during the duration of their trip to the desert planet, he began to explain how he was from an entire different world, how aliens had blown up his Earth and finally how he was being disintegrated then sent to a different dimension by accident. As soon as he was done explaining, Randall whistled as he finished. "Wow, that... that's pretty incredible"
"I know, I think one day I should write a book about it, I'd make a fortune"
"So, you're not even human?"
"Best I can explain I was turned into virtual dust then I shot that weird-ass cube thing and got ported here"
"And the very first thing you did was kill a reaper"
"Well I had to leave some kind of first impression, plus what would you have done?"
"The same thing I guess"
"Exactly, so don't blame me for showing off at a appropriate moment"
"Guess so... hang on, I have a call... it's the volus" Randall started landing the ship as he talked to the Alliance volus, Aaron thinking to himself, "Damn, there's no-way the Alliance isn't going to try to kill me. I'm gonna have to kill them... well, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it" the dropship touched down and the two stepped out onto the desert surface into shoddy shelter. It was daytime and Aaron sighed. "You couldn't have chosen to wait on a beach or something?" he snapped, before the comm crackled to life as the voice of the Director came through, "You think your the only one I've shown my light on? Your just a prototype"
"Ah great, this dick again?" Aaron asked, before he heard a distorted voice call out, "Randall..."
"Inali" Ezno gasped.
"Behold: Perfection" the director said, before a form dropped in front of them. It looked insect in nature, but had a human shape... a female one to be precise. The face looked like that of Inali, and red lights shone across her body, indicating heavy cybernetic implantation.
She wasn't even human anymore.
"INALI!" Randall cried, aiming his rifle at her. Aaron pointed his own rifle, and red energy started to crackle around her as she rose into the air.
"Long live the new flesh!" the Director praised as Inali fell back on the ground. Aaron shoot her but her barrier blocked the bullets, and she sent a salvo at him, three red biotic rockets hitting him and tossing him against a crate. "You think the Alliance can save you? Save the human race?" the Director asked. Inali rose into the air again and cloaked. Randall tried to find her but couldn't. He was too confused at the moment. Confused at what had happened to Inali. Angry at the Director for what he had done to her. Inali decloaked, standing in front of Randall, and with a red biotic charge, charged into him, knocking him into Aaron. "This is what happens when you give someone power and tell them they're the good guy" the Director chimed. Rage filled Aaron as he heard these words. He didn't have any right to say these things. The Director was insane, that was obvious, but something was off. He'd figure it out later, right now he had to put Inali out of her misery. He threw a fireblast at her, disorienting her, then he sent a flurry of dark eezo-fueled fists at her, sending her against a wall and dropping her barrier. Finally, he sent dark eezo up into the air, calling it down in the form of a lightning bolt on Inali, dropping her armor. "This. Isn't. Over. Taking direct control" the Director spat, Inali's body convulsing as her blue eyes started glowing red, and lifting Aaron and Randall with a lift biotic.
"Stop!" Randall yelled, shooting her with the M-333. From the sound of his voice, he didn't want to hurt her, but with what she had gone through, they didn't have a choice. The blue laser kept hitting her as Aaron ran up to her, stabbing her with his sword. She coughed as she keeled on the ground. "NOOO!" Randall screamed, running up to her. She coughed again and looked up at him, her eyes blue again and speaking in her distorted voice, "Randall... Randall... finish it..."
"I... I can't. Forgive me" Randall said, shaking his head. Aaron put a hand on his shoulder.
"Randall, look at her. Your gonna let her keep going like this? It isn't human"
"Neither are you"
"That's not the point, it wouldn't be killing her, it'd be putting her out of her misery"
"Then you do it!" he yelled, then eyed a Cerberus fighter, and reasoned that Inali must've come in it. Aaron aimed his pistol at Inali's head and sighed.
"Sorry" he said as he pulled the trigger. The Director's voice chimed in, "I thought you said you were going to shoot ME, Randall"
"I'm coming for you, Director. But first I've got some intel to share with the Alliance. Your research won't mean much once they've finished looking up your skirt. Every. Classified. Detail" Randall snapped.
"N-n-now, listen-"
"No, YOU listen. You've made me what I am today. You've given me this body, these powers- you've seen what I can do. Cerberus has grown arrogant, unchecked. No. More. I'm coming for you, Director"
"Wait-"
"Comms off"
"Rand-" the Director's voice cut off as Randall switched off the comms. Aaron walked up to Randall. "It's done" he said, before he added, "You know, giving the Alliance that data is a bad idea"
"Why?"
"Sure, they could go public with the data. Or classify it and use it for research data. Trust me, giving them that data ain't gonna do shit against Cerberus"
"Then what do you suggest?"
"I suggest you hold on to the intel, might come useful. I would go to Illium, it's a nice place to be a merc, find out where that bastard lives, and when you do, call me over the extranet"
"Are you sure this is a good idea?"
"Better than not putting holes in that bastard, homie" they bumped fists, then Randall held up the M-333. "You said the only reason you came was for this, so-"
"Keep it. You'll need it more than me"
"...Thanks" they looked out on the horizon. "So how exactly am I supposed to find the Director?"
Randall asked.
"Well, you happen to have that Cerberus intel, you could always hook up the Shadow Broker" Randall shrugged, and they went back to looking at the horizon of the desert planet, waiting for the Alliance to come.
Normandy- present time
As Aaron finished his story, Shepard stood there with his mouth agape. "So, what happened?" he asked after a long moment of silence.
"Alliance came, we killed them and went back to Illium. I helped him get set up as a merc and we kind of went our separate ways. But apparently Cerberus found him and sent a team of infiltrators. These aren't just your run-of-the-mill troopers, either, these guys are trained to take people like Randall. So We need to help him, which is kind of where you working with Cerberus gets complicated: We'll go to my apartment and get some blue suns armor I have stashed there, that way they don't know it's us, we get to Randall's position, and save him"
"Why do you have Blue Suns armor?"
"I thought that I'd need it one day. Hey, I wasn't wrong"
"Aaron, it's not like I don't sympathize with you, but we can't just-"
"So we get to some random planet for Jacob, but we can't go back to Illium for my thing?"
"-Sigh- fine, but this is the last damn time, Aaron"
Illium- Aaron's crib
"Aaron, it's not like I object but... really?" Garrus asked, gesturing to the blue suns armor he was currently wearing. They were now on Aaron's apartment on Illium, and Aaron had opted when asked for his input to bring Garrus along... mostly because he needed someone that could shoot straight. And now that he, Aaron, and Shepard were clad in blue suns armor, no-one would recognize them. "Hey, I don't like it either, but I don't see how else we're supposed to help him without red-flagging Shepard. I'm not even gonna be able to use my guns... speaking of which, Garrus, birthday present for you" Aaron walked over to a black weapon hanging off the wall and took it off, giving it to Garrus. The weapon unfolded into a large black sniper rifle. "...Okay, I'll bite, what is this?"
"Basically it's a sniper rifle only spectre's can use. Prototype tech, not even on the black market. It's one of the most powerful anti-material sniper rifles in existence, coupled with a black paint job. Meet the black widow" Garrus whistled and then actually hugged the black widow. "I love it. Thank you"
"Okay, you creeping me out, Garrus" Aaron said, shuddering, than taking a revenant machine gun off of the wall. "Guess I can use this, inaccurate as hell, but also expensive as hell"
"Do I get anything?" Shepard asked.
"No. Now, Randall's position is at an abandoned apartment building, so were gonna take a taxi there, help him out, pretty much see where it goes from there. Should be fun"
A/N- Okay, now for you critics wondering why I did 'Infiltrator' even though it doesn't happen 'till ME3, well... I didn't know 'till it was too late basically. So If you want an explanation, there it is. Anyway, here's a chapter, plenty of action but in terms of progression in the story, well... to make up for most of this chapter, at the end of the next chapter, I've got major surprise. At the end. And at the next chapter. So see you all in a week or two. Cya!
