MASS MISCALCULATION
Episode 7- The boys are back in town
Saints Universe- before Aaron's insertion into 'Mass Effect' universe
"Why is it no-one ever listens to me, I told him this would happen, but nooo, no-one ever listens to Kinzie" Kinzie muttered to no-one in particular as she blasted zin troopers away with her alien rifle. Back on the Saints stolen ship, as soon as Boss had freed Gat from the virtual simulation, he had taken their only giant robot in order to save him… and the rest of the Saints had immediately become under attack by zin.
"Man, where the hell's Boss!?" Pierce shouted as he stepped next to Kinzie and started blasting away zin.
"Took out only suit of power armor and went to save Gat!" Kinzie shouted back.
"Robot!" Matt yelled as he stood next to them blasting zin.
"We don't have time for this, where's Aaron!? That playa can get shit done!" Benjamin King asked as he emerged from the lower level and put a zin trooper into a headlock.
"He's in the simulation!" Matt yelled, grabbing a zin shield and firing from behind it.
"Is this really the best time for him to be in there?" Keith David asked as he snapped a zin's neck.
"Hey, a time to learn is better at a bad time than never!" Asha yelled as she ripped her punching bag from the ceiling to beat a zin to death with it"
"That doesn't make any sense! Wait, if we're all here, than who's guarding Aaron?" Shaundie asked. She looked over to the vertical bed Aaron was in only to see one zin hooking it up to a portable machine while another was cutting the bed out of the floor.
"Shit, stop 'em!" Pierce yelled, but was then punched in the gut by a zin soldier, who was quickly shot by Ben. The remaining zin quickly started to thin out as the two zin that had messed with Aaron's bed carried him off, the doors to the cargo bay of the invading ship closing and flying off. Shaundie yelled in frustration and hit the wall, Kinzie coming over and putting a hand on her shoulder and saying,"Hey! Cool it, he's gone"
"How am I supposed to just 'cool it?' We lost Aaron again!" she yelled. Suddenly there was a knock on the cargo door and Kinzie went over to a button and hit it, opening the massive doors and revealing the giant robotic suit Boss wore, and riding on it's shoulder was none other than Johnny Gat… naked and covered in red slime due to just escaping from one of the nutrient pods, but nonetheless alive and unharmed. Then the top of the mechanized suit opened, revealing the form of Boss jumping down, clad in a blue zin crewmember suit like everyone else on the ship wore, and his usual sunglasses.
"Guys, I'm back- whoa, what happened?" Boss asked upon seeing the numerous zin bodies.
"Hate to tell ya this playa but, well… the zin nabbed Aaron while you were gone" Ben said as he walked into the cargo area.
"What? How!?" Boss yelled, suddenly infuriated. How could he have lost aaron again? For the third time? But before there anyone could answer, there was a groan, and Boss looked behind a crate to see a wounded zin soldier shot once in the midsection.
"Oh, you spikey motherfucker, get your ass over here!" Boss yelled, grabbing the zin's shoulder's and slamming him against the crate, causing the zin soldier much pain.
"What do you want from me?" the zin solder asked, wincing due to the enormous amount of pain he was feeling.
"Your gonna tell me right now where the hell they took my friend" Boss said, punching the zin on the side of his head.
"Okay, okay! Look, all I heard was that Zinyak was gonna virtualize his body and then kill him in the simulation, that's all I know, I swear!" Boss yelled and shot the zin soldier through the forehead, his body sliding to the ground.
"Kinzie, is there any chance that we can save Aaron?" Boss asked, walking up to the ex-FBI hacker.
"From what I saw they hooked him up to a portable router so he would still be plugged into the simulation while they cut the bed out, and by now they've probably virtualized him and done god-knows what to him"
"Damnit! Look, maybe, maybe we could-"
"Kinzie put a hand on his shoulder and said, "Boss, Aaron's gone, there's no changing that. But Zinyak would want you to go charging off to rescue him, then you would die to. So how about, instead of running off to your death, you just help us get revenge on Zinyak for what he did to Earth and revenge for Aaron?"
"-Sigh- revenge for Earth and Aaron…"
"Good, now we need to formulate a plan. Head to my old warehouse in the simulation, we'll all meet up there, put a plan together, then you can rip Zinyak's head off"
Two days later
After formulating a plan, solving a light dilemma where Kinzie was kidnapped and then building a key in the simulation, the Saints were finally ready to enact their plan against Zinyak. All the Saints were gathered in the cargo hold, Boss being on the catwalk to say his dramatic speech to spur them:
"I know over the years you've heard this speech a bunch of times…" Boss started, but was interrupted by King who said, "Heard it? Bitch, I wrote it"
Boss continued, "But we need to remember why we do what we do. And today the stakes are even higher. Earth is gone. It's not coming back and nothing we do today is going to change that. But one thing we can do is get revenge. And you better believe we're showing this motherfucker humanity isn't dead because we're still alive. This isn't about hope, or faith, or even about winning. Kinzie's right, those things died on Earth. This is about will. This is about saying I don't give a shit how many times you knock me down, if I'm still breathing I'm standing right back up, and you know what? You can hit as hard as you want 'cause when I hit back I'm gonna lay your ass out, bitch! It's our time now. Let's get this shit started" All the Saints cheered and and got into position around the ship, Kinzie going up to Boss and saying, "Here's the deal: You're gonna need three teams to help you defeat Zinyak. The first team will help you get the key into the mainframe. The second will help you overload the simulation. The final team will get you into the zin mothership so you can get to Zinyak"
"Alright, sounds good" Boss replied, shrugging.
"All right, figure out who you want to help with the key and we can get you all loaded into the simulation" Boss nodded and went over to Gat and Ben, Gat saying, "Yo, King and I are down with whatever you need. Shit, it'll be just like old times"
"And don't worry, playa. Gat and I have had our differences in the past, but it's just that: the past" Ben added.
"You two ready? Time to do this and show that Zinyak motherfucker who's Boss" Boss said, gesturing to the simulation beds. They all closed their eyes as they entered the beds, their minds being ported into the simulation.
Simulation
The 'key' was a giant device loaded into the back of a pickup truck, with Ben and Gat at the wheel, and Boss arming himself with an alien RPG and climbing into the back of the truck, Kinzie saying over the simulation's loudspeakers, "The key is loaded up. Climb on and make sure it doesn't get destroyed"
"Relax, Kinzie. I've done this before" Boss said as the truck drove off, zin vehicles in pursuit.
"Only if this fails, we could all die" Kinzie retorted.
"Listen up, Kinzie, I've got this"
"I'm serious. If we screw this up, we won't get another shot at bringing down the simulation, we won't get an opening into the zin mothership, and we won't be able to locate and go after zinyak himself!"
"I've got this, Kinzie. You just focus on the rest of the plan"
"As long as the key doesn't get destroyed, like I said"
"For fuck's sake, Kinzie, I said I got this" Boss said as he blew up a couple of vehicles.
"How you holdin' up back there?" Be asked from the driver's seat.
"Ride could be smoother" Boss replied as he shot down three more zin vehicles.
"Oh sure, let's slow down and let the zin catch up to us so the ride's a little more comfortable and safe!" Gat replied as he shot at zin through the window with a .45 pistol.
"I was just saying!" Boss shrugged as he continued shooting zin, until Ben said, "They got the highway blocked"
"Go around!" Boss yelled as he dodged lasers from the zin vehicles. Ben did so, and Boss commented, "Nice! Let's keep going"
"All right, we're rolling" Ben said as the pickup truck sped down the highway. Eventually Gat asked, "You need any help back there?"
"Isn't it exciting enough up here with me?" Ben asked.
"The Boss is getting to blow shit up while my biggest problem is avoiding bad roadwork" Gat sighed through gritted teeth.
"If anything's happens to this key, Kinzie is gonna have both our asses" Boss commented as he blew a tank up, only for another one to appear and take it's place.
"Oh come one, what would Kinzie do?" Gat asked in an incredulous tone of voice.
"Unplug you while you sit in here jacked into the simulation for ruining our only hope of stopping Zinyak" Kinzie replied over the simulation's speakers.
"You wouldn't" Gat replied suddenly.
"You wanna bet?" Kinzie asked, a hint of amusement in her voice.
"For the love of god Gat, don't argue with the crazy lady" Boss yelled. Two zin UFO's popped in and as Boss tried to shoot them, Gat yelled, "Those assholes set up another roadblock!"
"Get ready. I'm gonna blow it" Boss said, switching to the hood of the truck and was now facing the roadblock, aiming at three zin cars and a tank. After a few shots from the alien RPG, they blew up, Boss running back to his original position at the back of the truck and said vehicle continuing to speed down the highway.
"Any other surprises, Kinzie?" Boss asked as he continued blowing up zin cars.
"None that I can see. Should be a clear shot from here" the hacker replied.
"Look folks, we need to get this thing off the truck and into the system fast" Boss said to his two drivers.
"No problem, playa" King replied. After five minutes of driving and blowing vehicles up Kinzie called, saying, "Just a little bit farther to the tower"
"Oh I'm sorry, but this highway wasn't cleared for heavy loads. Ha ha ha ha…" the voice of Zinyak said over the simulations speakers. suddenly the truck disintegrated, propelling all three Saints forwards.
"What the hell!?" everyone shouted. Boss got up and threw a fireblast, being in the simulation giving him powers, and asked, "Shit, what do we do now?"
"your going to have to use you telekinesis to get the key to the tower" Kinzie replied.
"don't worry, we're with ya" Gat replied. Boss picked up the key telekinetically and sprinted towards the tower at super speeds, Gat and Ben sprinting along with him, also having powers. When they reached the syndicate tower a red field came over the door, Kinzie coming on and saying, "Damn, they put up a force field!"
"I believe I can hack through the shield" CID, the basketball sized and shaped robot said as he appeared next to the Saints.
"You heard the robot, don't let anything happen to them!" Boss shouted as he bore a alien rifle and started shooting zin and eventually murderbots, robots with miniguns on their arms.
"King and I got this. You just get that field down, CID" Gat called as he crushed the head of a murderbot with his foot, ripping the minugun off and using it to mow down zin soldiers. Boss was suddenly surrounded by zin, but he stomped his foot down, creating a shockwave and dispersing the troops.
"Are you close yet, CID?" Boss asked as he continued killing zin.
"Please do not rush me, unless you would like the field to overload and electrocute you all" CID replied with his monotonous voice.
"You mean 'Us all'" Boss corrected.
"Only all of you would end up dead if it overloaded. I already shielded my exterior from the shields frequency before I began my hack. Hence, why it is taken me this long"
"Can I kill this floating piece of zin scrap already?" Johnny asked in a heated voice.
"Just do it, CID" Boss sighed, taking cover behind a wrecked vehicle with the other two Saints as they continued picking zin off. Eventually CID called, "The shield is now down" as the red field collapsed.
"You guys got this? CID and I are going in" Boss said, picking the key up with telekinesis and walking it into the tower.
"You just get the key in there, Boss. We'll handle these assholes" Gat called behind him.
"Once you get inside, I'll be cut off from communication, so listen to CID, he'll know what to do" Kinzie called.
"Got it, Kinzie. CID, let's move!" Boss called.
"To watch this simulation destroyed, gladly" CID monotonously said as he floated besides Boss.
"See you afterwards" Ben called. Boss and CID entered tow tower, and inside of it was a red vortex leading into the system. Both Saints stepped inside, Boss, CID, and the key disintegrating as they were teleported into the system.
Inside the system, the key floated under CID as it unfolded into a longer key, a green laser shooting out one end and a blue one shooting out the other.
"Wait. That's a key?" Boss asked, cocking his head to the side.
"I will harness the system's energy to fuel the power cells in the key" CID said.
"Don't let me stop ya" Boss nodded as he bore his two gold-plated .45 pistols, then asked, "Is this gonna take much longer, CID?"
"The energy is being regulated. Opening breakers should increase the power"
"Of course it would" Boss sighed, looking at the three breakers on the platforms ahead of them.
"What is up with there always being three things?" he asked.
"Three is the optimal number for powering many different systems in Zinyak's simulations"
"Hey, that almost sounds true"
"Then would you believe it is actually just an arbitrary number that sounded good at the time to the system creator?"
"Yeah, that sounds about right" Boss nodded, jumping to each of the three breakers and using his stomp power on each one, killing any zin shooting at him along the way. When he was done, he called at CID, saying, "All right, that's it"
"That tickles" CID commented.
"Ooookay. I'm gonna focus on killing these guys while you focus on that" Boss said, shuddering as he killed more zin with his pistols. After he stomped his foot down again, sending a dozen zin down into the void of the system, CID called Boss, saying, "A suppression field has shut down the power output. The field must be removed"
"Ah, shit. On it" Boss said, looking at the two suppression devices and jumping to one, killing the zin guarding it, ripping the circuits out of the suppression device, and then moving on to the next one. After he destroyed the second one, CID called out, "Power now restored. Continuing to channel energy" Boss then saw tanks starting to spawn, as well as UFO's and more zin troops. He inwardly swore, going as far as to jumping on the tanks and ripping the cockpits open, shooting the drivers within, and using freezeblast to knock the UFO's out of the sky, while shooting the zin troopers. This was Boss's regular routine for a few minutes until CID called, "The server is protected by a force field"
"Why is zin engineering so stupid?"
"Correct"
"Wouldn't it be better if these shields weren't protected by three easily-destroyable objects?"
"I do not understand"
"We should be good, CID"
"Now you are just talking crazy" Boss shrugged as he set to work on destroying the three tall, red crystalline structures powering the force field. When he was done, two wardens, large black and red creatures charged with guarding the simulation spawned, immediately trying to kill Boss.
"CID, you wanna hurry up?" Boss yelled as one of the wardens threw him dangerously close to the edge of the server.
"I am coming for you, Zinyak. Today your simulations come to an end, and only I will remain" CID droned.
"Uh, we should probably go" Boss said as he freezeblasted both wardens.
"do not ruin this moment for me" CID snapped. he inserted the key into the server hole, the system starting to malfunction, random explosions going off everywhere and numbers appearing.
"Alright, where do we start, Kinzie?" Boss asked.
I'll unplug you from the simulation, you need to get out now" Kinzie said, the speakers now clear.
"That would be a good idea" CID said suddenly.
Ship
When Boss came out of the simulation, he was flanked by Kinzie who said, "Good job. Remember, Steeleport's breaking down inside the simulation right now. Whoever you take with, I should be able to open portals into their personal nightmares, but don't worry, whatever comes through will be on your side" Boss nodded and went over to Pierce and Shaundie, Shaundie saying, "don't worry, pierce and I can handle anything going on in there"
"All right, it's going to look a little weird in there, just remember that's normal"
"Like… like, wait a minute… hold on… like, how weird…?" Pierce stammered.
"Guess we'll find out" Boss said he, Pierce and Shaundie entered they're assigned simulation beds.
Exploding simulation
In the simulation, all the citizens of Steeleport were glitching out, numbers would randomly appear everywhere, and to top it all off, the random explosion would go off at their side.
"So what happens when this place comes down?" Boss asked Kinzie over the simulations speakers.
"Not sure. The data may get corrupted or it may simply reset. Either way it should overload some of the zin ships systems directly"
"So we could be doing all this for nothing?" Pierce asked.
"Well, it's certainly going to mess with the zin enough to give us a shot at taking out Zinyak. Of that I'm ninety-nine percent positive"
"That still leaves one percent…" Boss muttered.
"Just covering my bases in case something goes wrong" a car exploded next to Shaundie and she shouted, "Kinzie didn't say anything about shit exploding!"
"I knew she was holding out on us" Pierce said matter-of-factly.
"Focus you two, remember the plan, we have to get to the portal thing" Boss said, pointing to the floating platform on the other side of the city. Both Saints nodded, all three sprinting towards the platform. When they reached the platform it was swarming with zin.
"Looks like the zin pinpointed their weakspots and got them reinforced" Boss guessed.
"Then do what you guys do best" Kinzie said.
"Don't make me do all the work, Pierce" Shaundie joked as she blasted a zin away.
"Heh, like I'd let you take all the credit" he said, throwing a zin off of the platform. After they killed about ten aliens Kinzie spoke up, "Okay, that's better. Activating the portal now, but it's going to take time. Make sure the zin don't destroy it while I establish the link" they all nodded and continued killing zin, Pierce asking, "How is it we always get into situations like this?"
"What, riding against crazy enemy factions intent on trying to kill the Saints while causing mass amounts of destruction in the process of saving ourselves and the people around us who don't get caught in the crossfire? Yeah, I was wondering that too" Shaundie commented.
"Actually, I meant us defending shit while Kinzie works her hacking magic" Pierce corrected.
"Oh…" Shaundie shrugged, shooting a UFO out of the sky. They kept defending the blue portal, killing numerous zin, until finally, Kinzie said, "Got it. You should start seeing…"
"Saints flow!? Damnit, not again!" Pierce screamed as Saints flow people jumped out of the portal.
"Yeah, but in overcoming your nightmare, they're now on your side" Kinzie explained.
"Let's go to the next portal" Boss said.
"Hold on, someone's gonna have to stay in order to make sure this portal stays open" Kinzie explained yet again.
"Pierce, this is all you, I am not sticking around with your crazy can-people" Shaundie said, shuddering at the sight of the soda people.
"Just promise you won't get yourself killed. We'll see you on the other side" Boss said as he and Shaundie sprinted away.
"The second portal is over by the arena" Kinzie said. On the way, Shaundie commented, "To be honest I thought you were exaggerating about Pierce fearing Saints marketing" Shaundie said as she and Boss sprinted up a building in order to jump to the next platform containing the portal.
"Could I make up something that rediculous?" Boss asked.
"Okay, good point"
"Honestly, Shaundie, I worry more about what we'll find when Kinzie links up your portal"
"Actually, I'm rather curious about that too… but at least it'll be friendly" Kinzie commented.
"Hold on, you don't know?" Shaundie asked.
"Well, to be fair, you had two parts of yourself in that simulation. I'm really not sure which one this'll acess"
"As long as it's not dozens of different versions of me. Look, I've had more than enough of psychological introspection" the two Saints then jumped on the platform, and were immediately swarmed by zin, which again they began killing."Kinzie, go" Boss said after ten zin died.
"Starting linking sequence now" Kinzie responded.
"What do you think'll happen to my younger self when this whole place crashes?" Shaundie asked Boss.
"I'm pretty sure Kinzie can copy her somewhere" he answered.
"Oh, well, that's good…"
"Why are you even worrying about it? She's not exactly real…"
"Yeah, but she's kind of like having a younger sister around"
"Yeah, no don't let Kinzie be hearing that, it'll break her heart"
"Whatever, she has Asha to latch onto now" after another minute of killing zin, and a warden that popped in, Kinzie called in and said, "There we go…"
"If I was seeing Veteran, it wasn't enough…" Shaundie commented upon seeing the gang of black-suited men popping out of the portal and start killing zin.
"You sure your good with these guys?" Boss asked.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. Boss, Go and open that last portal and kick Zinyak's ass"
"Gonna kick it for all of us. So, one more portal, right?" Boss asked Kinzie as he started sprinting towards the last portal.
"Yep, and it's working. The whole system is working overtime just to keep from falling apart"
"Hey, this thing better not spit out those boring-ass people from that little town me and Aaron were trapped in"
"What? Oh god no! You think I'd want to see that place any more than you would?"
"Heh, well… maybe you miss wearing that little thing you had on… that whole situation…"
"Finish that last sentence and you'll be missing a few limbs when you wake up. And don't worry, I'm linking the last one to someplace special"
"Hey, don't tease me now" Boss said as he jumped to the final portal. When he got to it, for the third time, he began killing the zin there, only this time protecting the portal was a bit more difficult considering he left Shaundie and Pierce behind.
"Kinzie, hurry it up!" Boss yelled.
"Looks like they're throwing the kitchen sink at you"
"Whatever's up your sleeve, it better be good" Boss grumbled as he brought out a purple razor lazor and began to cut the zin apart, said zin disintegrating whenever they were killed by the blade, being in the simulation.
"Oh, it is" Kinzie said, getting back to work. And after two minutes of constantly killing zin to protect the portal, Kinzie spoke up, saying, "You may want to get clear of the portal. No, really, get clear of the portal" Boss shrugged and jumped to the building next to the floating platform, then asked, "Okay, what's so- well fuck me, it's Paul!" Boss said as the giant form of Paul, the giant soda can monster, came out of a portal onto the floating platform.
"Told you!" Kinzie shouted in triumph.
"Kinzie, remind me to give you a raise" Boss said as Paul gave the Saints leader a thumbs up, Boss giving him a thumbs up back.
"Well, it's working, but the simulation is shutting down"
"Isn't that what we want?" Boss asked, confused.
"Yes, except it's collapsing faster than anticipated and if you don't get out soon your mind will get trapped inside so get moving"
"Just make sure the others get out" Boss said as he started jumping and sprinting towards the gateway to take him out of the failing simulation"
"Already done. They were both close to exits" Boss nodded as he glided towards a gateway, a blue doorway that leads out of the simulation, but when Boss tried to enter the gateway it wouldn't let him in"
"I'm at the- aw, shit!" he shouted upon realizing he couldn't get out via that gateway.
"It closed on me! You'll have to try another one!" an increasingly-worrying Boss nodded as he sprinted to the next one… only for it to be locked as well.
"No, no, no, shit! That one's gone too, just keep moving!" a now panicking boss was screaming as he sprinted towards the next gateway, saying, "I'm moving! I'm moving!" when he got to the next gateway, it was fortunately unlocked, and he managed to enter the gateway and leave the exploding simulation as the whole thing was brought down.
Ship
When Boss came to the first thing he asked was, "Did it work?"
Kinzie replied, "It did, but we bought ourselves a short window, we need to move"
"Right, what's the plan?"
"We kill a lot of aliens" Gat said as he tossed the Boss a alien rifle.
"I like it" the Boss said with a devious look on his face.
Zin mothership
After dropping them off, Boss, Asha, and Matt were now sneaking into the zin mothership, with Kinzie speaking over the comm, "To get to Zinyak's throne room you'll need a space suit and some weapons for destroying the ships outer defenses. The schematics show an armory not too far in. I'd head there and see what you can find"
"Alright people, let's go!" Boss said as they continued on. As they went through the halls of the mothership, Boss noticed that some sections of the walls were blowing off and asked Kinzie, "What the hell, are you shooting at us, Kinzie?"
"No, why?"
"Things are exploding all around us" Matt said.
"There's a lot of power being rerouted to fixing what we did in the simulation. Guessing it's causing surges throughout the ship" Kinzie explained.
"So, the ship isn't gonna blow up then?" Boss asked.
"Well, I can't guarantee that, but most likely your fine"
"Oh, brilliant…" Matt sighed as he continued to shoot zin. Once they cleared out the soldiers they came into a large room that had a door at the end of the hallway which lead into the armory.
"How much are we taking from the armory once we find it?" Asha asked.
"Just look for something that'll help us" Boss said as he opened fire on the zin.
"So whatever they labeled 'key to Zinyak's lair?'" Matt asked.
"Shit, if you find that, take it" Boss smirked as he smashed a zin's head against the wall.
"I doubt it will be that simple" Matt muttered.
"Matt, your not helping!" Asha shouted.
"I wouldn't mind a robot" Boss said.
"A robot wouldn't help you in space. What you need is-"
"Power armor, yes, I know"
"Actually, I was going to say a space suit and a REALLY big gun" Boss nodded and the three Saints continued down to the armory door, until Kinzie came in on the comm and said, "You should be coming up on the armory now"
"All right, I see the door" Boss said, but when he tried to open it, it wouldn't budge.
"Door's locked, Kinzie!" he said.
"Damnit, this door override is on a closed system. You're on your own for this one"
"Good thing I'm here then. Asha, keep me covered" Matt said as he ran over to a terminal and started typing away on it.
"Do it, we got your back" Boss said, and Asha killing any zin that got close to Matt, or any zin they saw in general. After a minute Asha asked, "What happens when we get to Zinyak?"
"We kill that motherfucker"
"Is there any more to that plan?"
"Killin' is it's own plan"
"Right… Miller, how close are we!?"
"Not quite a walk in the park, but I'm getting there… and door's opened, and here's some bonus explosions" Matt said as the door unlocked, explosions riveting the room.
"Cheers, Matt!" Asha cheered.
"Once I load up, you two get back to the ship" Boss ordered.
"You mean I don't even get a peak inside? Damn…" Matt grumbled as Boss ran into the armory. When Boss ran in, the only thing he could say was, "Holy shit…"
"It's a robot, isn't it…?" Kinzie asked over the comm.
"It's power armor…"
"No. Way" Kinzie gasped.
"Aw, hell yeah. This is what I'm talkin' 'bout" Boss said, sliding a finger over one of the suits of alien power armor on display before he went into a room, the doors closing as mechanical arms put on a suit of power armor. Once the armor was on, Boss sprinted out of the room, and saw that the armor gave him all of his powers from the simulation. A door opened, dropping straight down into Zinyak's lair, thousands of meters down, and Boss said, "Let's finish this" before jumping down.
"Okay, now all you need to do is make it through the ship's infrastructure, take out all it's defenses, and thereby clear a path for us to get to Zinyak" Kinzie said over the comm.
"No problem. You got the crew?"
"Yep, everyone's on board. We'll be right behind you as soon as you clear a path" as Boss was falling down the shaft, big red lasers began coming out of the wall as Boss neared them. "Your coming up on the defense grid, touch those beams and you'll be fried" Kinzie warned.
"What the fuck? Death lasers!?" Boss shouted as more giant red lasers appeared, Boss dodging them.
"We're almost to you" kinzie spoke up.
"Hold up. The way through is closing" Boss said as the doors to Zinyak's throne room were closing.
"Damn, they activated the blast shields, you'll have to land and find a way to override it"
"With what?"
"You have power armor, so it's gotta have some weapons and powers built in. Use them"
"Good thing I spent so much time practicing with super powers in the simulation" Boss muttered as he landed on the blast door. Zin on the platform looked at the armored being before them in shock, but than began firing on them, Boss shooting them with plasma blasts, the plasma guns being embeded into the arms of the suit. Boss looked around while he slaughtered the zin, saying, "Nah, I don't see a control panel"
"Try to find a power conduit and use your suit to overload them" Kinzie instructed. Boss opened a door and saw a dozen zin behind it. He raised his arms and fired blue balls of plasma, which exploded, killing any zin he saw. Eventually he found the two conduits, red devices on the wall, and shot them with his suit blasters, destroying them and causing explosions to happen around him.
"This is certainly causing a reaction…" Boss muttered. He sprinted back to the blast doors, a explosion causing a ship to fall on the doors, blowing them open. "Alright, think that did it" he said, jumping through the exploding shaft to the throne room.
"Yep. You should be clear to get to the throne room now. We'll keep following and meet you there" Kinzie said.
"Aw, Zinyak, looks like somebody fucked up your ship" Boss smirked, amusement in his voice.
"You can come for me, but you don't stand a chance" Zinyak warned.
"One shall stand, one shall fall"
"Why throw away your life so recklessly, Saint?"
"That's a question you should ask yourself, Zinyak. Can you get me into his throne room, Kinzie?"
"Honestly, I can't find a way to open it up"
"No problem, I got this. Hey, Zinyak! I'm comin' for ya!" Boss shouted as he smashed through the floor, dropping into Zinyak's throne room. Said zin emperor was sitting on a big golden throne in the middle of the room, a silver goblet in his hand and a zin servant next to him.
"Quite the entrance" Zinyak said as a red CID unit zoomed in on Boss, acting as a camera for the entire zin empire to watch.
"I figured you had a flare for the dramatic" Boss commented.
"Oh, you know me so well"
"I'm really gonna miss these bonding sessions when I kill you"
"-Chuckle- look at you… Mercutio to my Tybalt…"
"Don't be too excited. Tybalt dies at the end"
"I'm surprised you knew that" Zinyak said, taking a drink from his goblet.
"I didn't. Kinzie told me over the radio" Boss explained.
"-Sigh- well, at least your honest"
"Always. That way you know I'm not lying when I say I'm gonna rip your goddamn head off"
"-Chuckle- you're adorable. Zinjai!" Zinyak called to his servant.
"Yes, your excellency?" Zinjai asked, taking Zinyak's goblet.
"Is the empire watching?" Zinyak asked.
"Of course, your excellency" Zinjai said, bowing then walking away. The golden throne sank into the floor as holograms popped up, all of the zin empire watching. Zinyak rose from his throne.
"Humanity is dead, my friend. The time has come for you to follow suit" Boss's response to this was simply to run up to Zinyak and tackle him to the ground, and started punching him repeatedly in the head. Zinyak grabbed his arm and threw him off, Boss rolling out of the way as he tried to smash him with his arm. Boss the kicked Zinyak but Zinyak kicked back, sending Boss ten feet away from him. They both got up and Zinyak pressed a few buttons on his arm, teleporting away. Boss looked around in confusion until he heard mechanical whirring, then looked up to see a giant, fifteen-foot tall red and white mech fall from the ceiling, complete with gun arms and evil red eyes.
"You finally ready to end this? Let's go" Boss said. The mech responded by simply stomping it's foot, sending boss flying across the room screaming. He hit the ground and got back up, Zinyak yelling over the mech's speaker, "Once I kill you, my whole empire will see the futility of humanity's last stand! Here and now I show the zin empire once more why they serve me!"
"They never had a choice who to serve. Not 'till now" Boss said as the mech flew over to him and try to squash him by landing on him, but missed.
"Please. I have conquered countless worlds. Only your pride makes you think the Saints could defeat me"
"Zinyak, this isn't pride… this is wrath" Boss growled. as he started blasting the mech with his suit's arm cannons, the mech doing the same. While the plasma blasts from the mech did considerable damage to Boss's power armor, forcing him to jump from platform to platform, Boss's blue plasma blasts weren't doing much damage to Zinyak's mech suit. It was doing damage, but not much.
"There is no universe in existence where you could defeat me! Killing you will be my greatest triumph!" Zinyak yelled as he was pelted with plasma. "By all means, continue this futile attempt" the alien emperor taunted as was hit with a fireblast. Unfortunately this did even less damage than the plasma blasts, causing Boss to growl in frustration. "Do not think you are gaining any ground here, Saint" Zinyak spat as he tried shooting Boss, but to no avail as he was too fast. "It seems you will die alone, in the cold, emptiness of space" Zinyak taunted as he kicked Boss away.
"C'mon Zinyak, can't you do better than that?" Boss asked as he reoriented himself midair, landing on his feet on a platform.
"You think you're winning, don't you? Oh, how amusing" Zinyak chuckled as he deployed a force field around the mech in the center of the throne room.
"Seriously? Your going to pull that shit right now?" Boss sighed.
"I do hope you like my latest creations. They're very… friendly" Zinyak laughed as exploding CID units came after Boss.
"One bullshit trick after another…" Boss muttered.
"Reading's on those C.I.D's are showing high amounts of explosives inside. I would not let them get close" CID said over the comm.
"Yeah good to know, but my main problem is that shield" Boss dryly stated as he began jumping from platform to platform again, trying to avoid the CID's.
"Those C.I.D's seem to be able to pass through unhindered. Perhaps throwing them back would work" CID suggested.
"I'll give it a shot, but I'm still gonna need that shield gone"
"Very well. I will attempt to find the power sources to the shield"
"Keep me updated" Boss said as he plucked the exploding C.I.D's from the air via his telekinesis and threw them through the shield at Zinyak, the robots exploding.
"Clever. But ultimately futile" Zinyak taunted yet again.
"All your tricks won't save you" Boss taunted as he kept throwing the exploding robots at Zinyak's mech.
"We'll see about that" Zinyak said as he remotely detonated the C.I.D's, the mech huddling down to repair itself as zin troopers swarmed in from above.
"Having some technical problems?" Boss asked.
"No, my dear Saint, I am not the one with the problem. You forget… I have an army at my command"
"So I'm too much to handle by yourself?"
"And deny my people the enjoyment of aiding their beloved leader? I think not"
"Then your people need a new leader" Boss said as he started killing the zin minions, but the more he killed, the more and more zin dropped in, until CID called, saying, "I have succeeded in unlocking the shield generators. Disable them and the shield should go down"
"Bad news for you, Zinyak" Boss taunted as he went to the first generator.
"Don't expect it to be easy for you" Zinyak taunted back as murderbots dropped down with the zin, and they kept shooting Boss, preventing him from disabling the generators.
"Well, fuck…" Boss muttered as he began the blast the zin forces away with his suit blasters, but he began to become overwhelmed.
"Hey, Saints! I need backup! Kinzie…? Johnny…? Keith…? Anyone…?" Boss asked as he tried jumping to the next generator, but was overwhelmed with zin there as well.
"To paraphrase the writer William Shakespeare: All that lives must die, even a Saint"
"Ah I'm getting a little packed here" an increasingly worrying Boss said as more murderbots dropped in. As more and more murderbots and zin kept dropping in, Boss was about to lose hope when sections of the wall exploded, the Saints coming out on flying zin bikes.
"Sorry we're late!" Kinzie said as she and all the other Saints started blasting the zin"
"Time to get this shit started!" Pierce yelled.
"We're here, Boss!" Shaundie said.
"Don't worry, we got your back!" Gat assured as he took on all the murderbots.
"What is this intrusion!?" Zinyak demanded as the Saints flew in.
"That's what I'm talkin' about!" Boss cheered as he blasted away the zin along with the Saints.
"Get the fuck away from the Boss, assholes!" Gat yelled as he blasted the zin preventing Boss from destroying the generators.
"Draw their fire!" Asha ordered.
"No problem!" Pierce held a thumb up as he blasted the zin away with Gat.
"And now for this fucking shield…" Boss muttered as he got to work on destroying the generators. Once he had destroyed the generators, the shield drop and all the Saints opened fire on the mech, destroying it. Zinyak was sent flying across the room and hit a wall, sliding down it and hitting the floor. He tried shakily getting back up when Boss yelled, "Zinyak, I'm comin' for you!"
"This changes nothing!" Zinyak yelled as he failed to get back up.
"Wrong. I'm about to change everything" Boss said as he punched Zinyak in the head and threw him to the ground, savoring the moment, saying, "These are your last moments, Zinyak"
"The legacy of the zin empire will continue to live on" Zinyak panted as he tried to crawl away, but Boss grabbed his legs, throwing Zinyak over his shoulder. Boss then walked up to Zinyak and repeatedly stomped on his head, then grabbed his head and began to pull on it. "You can kill me, but my people WILL avenge my death! Then your ra-" Zinyak was cut off as his head was ripped off, his spine hanging from the severed head, Boss proudly displaying the decapitated head for all to see, Boss screaming, "Then die so I can bring some fucking democracy!"
All the C.I.D units watching turned from red to blue, the holograms doing the same as all the zin watching stood with mouth agape as they saw their emperor decapitated, then bowed down to their new leader. The throne rose from the floor and Boss shrugged, throwing Zinyak's head away as he sat down, all the remaining Saints gathering at the base of the throne.
"You got to be fucking kidding me…" Shaundie sighed, holding the bridge of her nose.
"'Keep what you kill'. It's a classic" Kinzie explained.
Boss got up from the throne and asked, "So do I get a manservant or what?"
The form of Zinjai popped up from behind the throne and he bowed, saying, "Excellency, I'm Zinjai, your personal steward"
"Alright ZJ, I need you to level with me. How technologically advanced are the zin?" Boss asked.
"In our experience, we are the most advanced culture in the known universe" Zinjai explained.
"Zinyak told a friend of mine that he could restore Earth. Was he lying?"
"A half truth, your Excellency. Earth has been atomized, there is no undoing that. However, time travel would allow you to see Earth again before it's destruction"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa… time travel?" Boss asked, stunned.
"Zinyak was fascinated with Earth culture, he made it a point to go back and build a menagerie of his favorite humans"
All the Saints looked at themselves in surprise. "Don't tease me, your Excellency" Pierce smirked.
"Let's go on a field trip" Boss said. Before he could move though, Zinjai stopped him, saying, "However I would ill advise against that"
"Why? ZJ, don't you see? We could see Earth before it got blown up! We could see Oleg, and Zimos, and Angel even though he played those dick moves by making me play and traffic and giving me a bunch of scratches when I had to drive that tiger around… hell, I could see Aaron!" Boss said, shaking Zinjai's shoulders.
"That's just it, your Excellency, if I recall that while Zinyak was in power, he managed to capture one of your Saints, Aaron"
"Yeah, he killed him, didn't he?" Boss asked, getting closer to Zinjai's face.
"He tried, but Aaron managed to escape from the simulation and destroyed the trans-dimensional cube, a prototype meant for traveling to different universes, just as his entire body was turned to virtual dust, the resulting explosion from the prototype sucking Aaron's virtual simulation form into another dimension"
"Holy shit, are you saying Aaron's still alive in another universe!?" Boss all but screamed, going back to shaking Zinjai's shoulder's.
"Y-y-yes, b-b-but-"
"Boss, stop shaking the dude…" Pierce sighed.
Boss stopped and Zinjai continued, "As I was saying, changing history while someone's is in another universe would mean you would be changing events in another universe that could never possibly happen, thereby rendering the quantum flow of time there to be shattered, while changing events here with Aaron gone would tear apart the fabric of-"
"Zinjai, I don't understand a word your saying" Boss said, shaking his head.
"He's saying that if we change time while Aaron's in another universe we're gonna screw both universes up" Kinzie explained.
"Ah fuck, well can't we just bring Aaron back from the dimension he went to?" Boss turned to Zinjai.
"Well, we have made an effort in locating the universe Aaron was teleported to, and have even developed a way to teleport you and your Saints to that dimension. The only drawback is, I'm afraid, that we know nothing about the universe or it's inhabitants. For all we know, he arrived in a prehistoric Earth, or a highly advance Earth, or maybe not even Earth"
"Talk about going into uncharted territory…" Matt muttered.
"Boss, I know you miss Aaron, I do to, but is it really worth going to some random dimension for him? Hell, for all we know he wound up in Hell!" Shaundie yelled.
"I would crawl through hell and back for Aaron, the guy grew up with me, and I'm not about to leave him stranded in some random alternate dimension, especially if it is Hell. ZJ, We're going to that save Aaron, so ready the thing that'll send us to the alternate dimension and get me a set of this power armor painted purple, 'cause gray ain't my color" Boss said, gesturing to his gray power armor.
"Yes, your Excellency" Zinjai said, walking off.
"A'ight, Matt, I wanna go with as much firepower as possible, so find a way to put CID in the robot-"
"Power armor" Kinzie corrected.
"What-fucking-ever! Put him in the suit, if we're bringing the Saints, I'm bringing a giant killing machine and not a metal basket ball"
"On it!" Matt said as he got on a flying bike and rode off.
"Pierce! remember that spare set of glasses we have in the ship?"
"Yeah, that pair of glasses that looked like your old pair, why?"
"Get 'em, we'll need them"
"Sure" Pierce shrugged as he went out the same way Matt went.
"Okay, the rest of you, were gonna need guns, so go to the armory and get some guns"
"What if some zin try to stop us?" Asha asked.
"Asha, I just became their Emperor, I'm pretty sure you'll be okay"
"Okay, where's the armory?" Ben asked.
"Oh, uh… ZJ, where ya at!?" Boss yelled, causing Zinjai to pop up behind and say, "Here, your Excellency"
"Ah jeez, don't scare me like that. Wait, what about my armor?"
"It's been done"
"Wow, you work fast. I just might need to make you my chief of staff" When Pierce cleared his throat, he stammered, "Er, I mean, Vice Emperor" when Keith David cleared his throat, Boss yelled, "Alright already, just show them where the damn armory is, I need to load up on power armor" a second zin walked in and gestured for Boss to follow him, which he did while Zinjai showed the Saints to the armory. After riding up a few elevators and crossing a few halls, Boss and the zin came to the room where he had first acquired the power armor.
"Emperor" a zin working on one of the suits of armor greeted.
"'Sup? So what, I just do what I did last time?" Boss asked.
"Yep, just step in the suit assembler and it'll do the rest" Boss nodded and stepped into the circular room, the doors closing as the suit was put on him. When the doors opened, Boss was wearing a suit of power armor that was identical to the suit he was wearing before, save for this suit was purple with a gold trim was a blue Saints fleur in the middle of the chest.
"Nice, the iron Saint" Boss commented upon seeing the new paint job.
"Now do you want to go to the trans-dimensional portal they're working on?"
"Show me the way" Boss said. The zin nodded as he was led to the room, any zin they passed bowing.
"Hey, uh, zin dude"
"Zinny" the zin corrected.
"Zinny, why does everyone we pass bow down to me?" Boss asked.
"Well, your Emperor, and when Zinyak was in charge, if you didn't bow to him you get put into the simulation where your worst nightmares come to life"
"Rough, but I don't like it when dudes bow down to me, it doesn't feel right"
"Well, tell them to not bow down. You are Emperor now"
"Right… yo, random zin, I don't like it when you bow down to me, just get on with whatever you have to do, then take a coffee break or something" the random zin around him started murmuring to themselves before they shrugged and got back to whatever they were doing. Eventually Boss and Zinny arrived in a small room with many control dials that had a window into a larger, circular room, which had the Saints in the usual jumpsuits they wore on the ship but now in purple, and with alien rifles, but which were now painted purple with blue lights.
"Damn Zinjai works fast…" Boss muttered as a zin gave him a alien rifle and pistol and he got next to the Saints in the room.
"So, we just got the same rifles we been using but in purple?" Boss asked.
"Yeah, but these one's come with a fission generator that split atoms taken from the air for energy and nanobots to repair the gun, so basically it doesn't run out of ammo" Kinzie explained.
"Cool" Boss said.
"Still overheats…" Pierce muttered.
"Wait, aren't we forgetting something?" Ben asked. Then large doors at the side of the room opened, Pierce and Matt Miller riding on the shoulders of the giant blue and white mech suit, the former two clad in the purple jumpsuits and weapons.
"Yo, CID! That you in there?" Boss asked.
"Yes, it is me. It's refreshing not to be a floating ball that can't do anything but act as a basketball-size shield" the mech replied in CID's electronic voice.
"Well, we're all here, I say we get this thing started" Gat said as he readied his rifle.
"If you'll all just stand still, I will start the machine up, and you will all be teleported to wherever Aaron was sent" Zinjai said over the microphone.
"Hey, I just thought of something, how are we gonna get back to this dimension?" Matt asked.
"That… is a very good question, ZJ! How are we gonna get back here!?" Boss yelled.
"Oh… well, I suppose you'll have to hope that the dimension your going to has the technology to send you back here" Zinjai replied.
"Oh you jive-ass motherfu-" Boss started, but was cut off as a blue ball of light instantly formed and engulfed the Saints, then disappeared, along with the other Saints.
"…They're gonna be okay, right?" Zinny asked Zinjai.
"I hope so" Zinjai replied.
"…You know your dead if they manage to get back"
"I know… I guess I do deserve whatever I get for pulling the wool over there eyes like that, but I will admit it was worth it to see the look in their eyes"
"they are coming back, right?"
"Well, the time displacement in each dimension is different, a day here could be a year there, or it could be the other way around. They could come back in a day or two, or in thirty years, we didn't really bother to look that little tidbit up when we found out where Aaron was"
"Your so screwed if they get back, Zinjai" Zinny chuckled.
'Mass Effect' dimension: during Aaron and Randall's raid on the Director
It was a normal day on the Citadel, full of bustling people of all species in one of the many wards, this ward being particularly busy due to it's city-like structure and denizens. That is to say, it was a normal morning… until a giant blue explosion appeared in the middle of the city ward. All of the bystanders screamed, and then stopped as soon as they saw that the explosion did nothing to harm them. Then they saw the numerous armed individuals standing in the center of where the blast was, one of the individuals being a giant mech, and they ran away, screaming.
Once the Saints got over the experience of teleporting to another dimension, they took stock of their surroundings, marveling at the giant buildings, then at the fact they were in space upon seeing the outside of the Citadel.
"Holy Shit! This place is huge!" Pierce said upon seeing the fullest of the massive space station.
"Yeah, it must be as big as the zin mothership!" Kinzie beamed.
"Guys, remember why we're here? Looking for Aaron?" Boss asked.
"Oh yeah, badass with the blue hair, got it" Pierce nodded. Boss took a few steps forward when he suddenly heard something familiar.
"You guys hear something?" Boss asked.
"Yeah, sounds like that song you used to listen to all the time, 'Power'" Shaundie said. They all looked up to see a boombox-like object falling down from above and across the Citadel, a figure falling after it… an all-too familiar figure…
"Damnit guys, that's Aar- hey!" Boss shouted as a slug from an avenger rifle pinged his shoulder. He looked to see a turian in C-sec armor aiming said rifle at him, with a mix of humans and turians in C-sec armor flanking him.
"Guys, we got bird things and… wait, are those humans?" Gat asked.
"Uh, why ain't they killin' each other?" Ben asked.
"Guys, different dimension, they probably didn't blow the Earth up here" Kinzie said. They all nodded in understanding before they started firing at the C-sec officers, killing them by the dozen, CID firing rockets into the buildings. After about five minutes of killing Asha said, "Boss, we don't exactly have a lot of breathing room here, I suggest we get out of here"
"Yeah, good plan, Gat we're bouncing!" Boss yelled to a Gat shredding a C-sec turian with two knives. He pulled them out and said, "Look what the zin made for me!"
"Yeah that's great but we're leaving!" Boss said, then remembered the reason they were here in the first place. Aaron would likely investigate this carnage and he needed to leave something behind to let Aaron know the Saints were here. Something like…
"Pierce, leave my glasses on that pile of bodies Gat made, I need to let Aaron know we're here!" Boss yelled. Pierce nodded and reached into a pocket, pulling Boss's glasses out of it and placing it on one of the turian C-sec bodies and moving out with the other Saints. They maintained the pattern of running and shooting anybody they saw until they ran into a docking bay, a small frigate in sight.
"Kinzie, if we get in that thing, do you think you can fly it?" Boss asked.
"I don't know, maybe!"
"Saints, get into that… thing! It looks like it fly's!" Boss shouted, all the Saints agreeing and running into the airlock, CID running into the large cargo bay. When they arrived in the small frigate they immediately heard guttural yelling as a krogan charged towards them, Gat standing in the way and punching the krogan, then took his knives out and stabbed the krogan.
"Great, now we got giant fucking lizards!? What's next, weird blue chicks?" Pierce asked.
"We can discuss it later, Kinzie, get this thing flying if it can!" Boss said, pointing towards the cockpit. She nodded and ran into the small terminal-filled room, immediately typing away at the terminals.
"You sure you can fly this thing?" Boss asked.
"Boss, if I can fly a zin ship I'm pretty sure I can fly this thing, which I think I can do, but the only thing I can do is use a pre-determined flight, so we're only gonna be able to go to wherever that lizard dude wanted to go"
"Better than no-where, plus I see more of those blue-armored people trying to get into the airlock, punch it!" Kinzie nodded and attempted to take off, but for some reason the ship wouldn't budge.
"Boss, there's something holding us, I can't take off!" Boss looked out the window to see two, blue suction cup-like arms attached to the ship, anchoring it.
"Damn, uh, Gat, ya got anything that can help with this!?" Boss asked.
"Yeah, here!" Gat said, throwing Boss a Saints-colored alien RPG.
"Wow, this'll work, thanks!" Boss said, running to the airlock and opening it, using the RPG to kill any C-sec. He then aimed the alien RPG at the two anchors and fired, destroying them.
"Okay, we're good, get back in here!" Kinzie called. Boss ran back inside as Kinzie closed the airlock and the cargo bay doors, the ship lurching forwards as it flew off towards the mass relay. Boss sighed and sat in a chair next to Kinzie, dropping the alien RPG, Gat scooping it back up.
"Man, Aaron's dropped into a crazy place, huh?" Boss asked the hacker. Before she could answer the elevator opened, a angry krogan coming out, but was quickly killed once Gat plunged a knife into his forehead.
"Hey Gat, can you check the other floors, kill any more lizards you find?" Boss asked. Gat nodded and went into the elevator as the doors closed.
"Alright, as I was saying, there's a terminal connected to the extranet, which is basically galaxy-wide internet, so if you want to look something up, look it up there"
"Can I at least ask what the hell that thing is?" Boss asked as the mass relay came up.
"Oh, that's a mass relay. Basically from what I looked up it somehow jumps ships all over the galaxy, it's how everyone gets everywhere" Kinzie explained as the ship went through the mass relay, shooting the ship into space.
"Man, I feel weird all of a sudden…" Boss groaned.
"Me too, apparently that's common for fist-time users, look I gotta fly this thing, just look some stuff up on the extranet"
"Okay, fine" Boss sighed as he looked into the terminal and typed in 'Aaron' in the search bar. The first thing that came up made the Boss burst out laughing.
"P-Pierce, come in here, look at this!" Boss said. Pierce walked in and asked, "What?"
"Just look at this!" Boss laughed, pointing to a picture on the terminal, that picture being the words 'Aaron was here', each end of the sentence having a Saints fleur, the whole thing painted purple save for Aaron's name, which was blue.
"Damn, you think our Aaron did that?" Pierce asked.
"Had to have been him, I'm pretty sure he's the only guy crazy enough to do something like that" Boss said.
"How we gonna find him, anyway?" Pierce asked.
"Man, he's gonna have to find us at wherever… hey Kinzie, where we going anyway?" Boss asked, turning to said ex-FBI hacker.
"Um… someplace called 'Tuchanka'" she answered.
"Damn, that's sounds cheerful…" Pierce muttered.
"Well, wherever it is, let's hope that Aaron will find us there. I ain't abandoning him, no matter what" Boss said, a determined look on his face under his helmet.
Normandy- Aaron
After leaving the site of the Saint's massacre, Shepard and Aaron immediately went back to the Normandy, Aaron immediately running up to EDI and asking, "EDI, please tell me you at least have a clue on where the Saints went!"
"I do not know what you referring to" EDI droned.
"Damnit look, have any unusual ships left port, anything like that?"
"There was a ship that left despite being unauthorized, surprisingly it got away"
"Do you know where it went?" Shepard asked upon his entry into the cockpit.
"I managed to hack into the ships mainframe and managed to determine that it was a small frigate of krogan making a supply run to the Citadel"
"Double damn, they must have high-jacked it, do you know where they went?"
"I managed to pull a pre-determined flight pattern from the ships memory banks, it is most likely that they will follow it"
"Alright, so where are- ah, shit…" Aaron sighed upon the information that it was a krogan vessel clicking in.
"They are going to Tuchanka" EDI explained.
"Fucking hell, had to be the one place where everyone wants to kill me, and if they agitate Gat… Joker, plot a course for Tuchanka, were going there!"
"Hold on, Aaron in case you've forgotten this is my ship, I don't like it when people order my helmsman around" Shepard warned.
"Okay look, you want people to be ready for this big suicide mission, right? Well, the Saints, let's just say there is no-one more qualified then them, so if you were to recruit them…"
"No" Shepard deadpanned.
"Fine, if you wanna tell Grunt that the krogan have just become extinct and it wasn't the genophage's fault, you can"
"C'mon, a band of mercenaries can't kill an entire planet full of krogan" Shepard said, shaking his head.
"Oh believe me, they can" Aaron assured.
"…Can they really help with the mission?"
"Yes"
"…Damnit, fine. Joker, you know what to do" Shepard said after a long pause.
"Aye aye, commander" Joker said as he swiveled in his chair and lifted the ship off and steered it towards the mass relay on a course for Tuchanka.
Tuchanka
As the Kodiak dropship flew towards clan Urdnot's clan settlement, Aaron noticed that there was a small frigate crashed into the ground, and the screaming sounds of pain were louder than usual. So when the dropships's doors opened and Grunt, Shepard, and Aaron walked out, the first thing the krogan greeter did was just point them towards the clan leader and not try to kill Aaron, which surprised the virtual being. So after walking down the long hallway that connected the landing area to the settlement, every krogan they passed giving Aaron a nasty glare, they finally saw a krogan in clan leader armor sitting on a stone throne, waiting for Shepard. Once Wrex saw Shepard, normally he would have warmly gotten up to shake his hand. But the sight of Aaron made his blood boil.
"Shepard. Why is he here?" Wrex asked, pointing to Aaron.
"Still mad that I beat you in our fight and gave you a concussion?" Aaron asked.
"Still mad you stole a majority of the krogan's ryncol" Wrex said, crossing his arms.
"Oh, that. I was kind of hoping you would forget about that… anyway, we're here because the crashed frigate may have had some people in it…"
"If by group of people you mean complete maniacs and a giant mech, then yeah, those are the people your looking for"
"Giant mech? Eh, I'll figure it out later, what happened?" Aaron asked.
"What happened is that the ship crashed, and a group of humans came out with guns I've never seen before, only one was armored, and there was a giant mech, too. As soon as a krogan harassed the one human with the weird blue glasses he cut him apart with two knives, then they killed everyone in there way and stole a truck"
"Yep, that's them" Aaron nodded.
"Well if you can get to them, I'd appreciate it. Hell, I'll even drop the charges of you stealing all that ryncol if you get them off this planet"
"For real?"
"Well, my tribe will forgive you, all the other one's will likely still shoot you, but at least here you'll be slightly good. But your not off the hook for giving me a concussion"
"Do you know where they took the truck?" Aaron asked.
"Just follow the tracks and carnage, it's not that hard to follow" Aaron nodded and turned to Shepard, saying, "Shepard it'll be faster if I just sprint, a truck and anyone with me will just slow me down, I'll radio for pickup when I can"
"Fine, but while your gone I'm gonna get Jacob and were gonna do Grunt's… thing… to kill time" Shepard said. Aaron nodded and turned to the vehicle bay, seeing the tracks and carnage, and sprinting as he followed it.
Twenty minutes later
After following the tracks to a large opened field, Aaron heard shouts and gunfire. He ran to the top of a hill and saw his old friends, the Saints at the bottom of the hill, along with the ten-foot mech suit and Boss in power armor… fighting a thresher maw.
"Oh, ya gotta be kidding me, why didn't they just drive away?" Aaron asked himself, then saw the krogan truck they stole, melted by thresher acid.
"Ah, that explains it. Welp, looks like I gotta pull Boss's ass outta the fire again" Aaron chuckled, cracking his knuckles and pressing the button on his sunglasses, making the modified zero-Saints thirty armor appear. He then held his blue lazor razor, and then though about using the O.M.G, but decided against it. Using a sword would be cool. With this in mind he crouched on the ground and jumped hundreds of feet in the air as he glided towards the maw.
"Damn, this thing just won't drop!" Gat grunted as he kept firing at the giant worm, although it seemed like whatever they were doing had no effect. Just as the Saints were about to try and cut their losses by running, they saw a figure flying through the air, blue sword in hand. He jumped on the thresher's head and began stabbing it, but that only caused the worm to try and dive underground. Seeing this, Aaron called on the dark eezo within him and discharged a majority of it into the air, making it come down in the form of black and blue lightning, hitting the thresher maw and forcing it to hit the ground, thrashing about. Aaron jumped off of the maw and infused his sword with dark eezo, turning the blade black, the edge remaining blue, as he sprinted at the thresher maw, running straight into it's screeching mouth as he cut right through it, and cut it apart from the inside out, then jumping out through the back of it's head, then for good measure sent a dark eezo-infused blast into the hole in it's head, the eezo-blast exploding and causing a chain reaction withing the thresher maw, causing it to explode.
The Saints lowered their weapons and marveled at the figure, Matt asking, "Who are you?"
"Wait wait wait, hold up a second, are you…?" Boss asked, causing Aaron to chuckle and put the now blue blade on his shoulder, deactivating the armor to reveal a smiling Aaron.
"'Sup, Boss?" Aaron asked his old friend.
A/N- and then I ended the chapter here, much to many of my readers outrage! I know you all want the chapter to continue, but it's not like I'm gonna stop writing this, not when it just got to the good part, and because I didn't want to keep you guys waiting, I got this chapter out in three or four days and even made it a little longer, or five or six days of the site has another error and doesn't accept the file. But guys, I'll be honest, after writing this chapter in such a short time, I'm taking a SMALL break, then I'll write the next reunion chapter. Jeez, 11,00 words, you guys are lucky my hands are already claws from playing so many videogames, so typing is easier on me.
