A/N- The time has cometh, it is time to hit the Derelict Reaper! First though we gotta blow something up Saint style…
Only thing stopping me now is a neglected loyalty mission I forgot!
MASS MISCALCULATION
Episode 15- Saint luck fail
Surprisingly, Shepard decided to come along for this one. Aaron didn't know why, but he assumed it was to dissuade any Cerberus misdoing's. One would think that job would be left to Miranda, but apparently becoming a dick fried Shepard's brains a little… hell for all Aaron knew that was the reason he was a dick in the first place.
Across from Aaron was Johnny. Aaron chose him because Gat had been restless lately. His exact words were 'hadn't killed enough shit lately'. Apparently beating Grunt senseless had it's limitations in terms of enjoyment.
And finally there was Jack, who was the whole reason they were doing this in the first place. Apparently this is where the experiments for 'Subject Zero' in order for her to get strong biotics took place. It was a place with terrible memories. She wanted to wipe those memories off the galaxy.
Sharpening one of his knives with another knife, Gat asked, "So I get that you want to blow this place to Kingdome Come, but a nuke? Really?"
"Gat, are you of all people saying it's overkill?" Aaron asked with a smirk.
"No, I'm just saying we're in the future, you'd think they would have come up with some sort of super-bomb that wouldn't irradiate us. Or at least a detonator we could press from orbit, instead of being at the edge of the damn blast radius. If I grow a third arm or some shit I'm going to be pissed"
"We have the technology to throw asteroids at planets. Unfortunately with that money we'd be able to have resurrected Shepard three times over, so it wasn't in the budget"
"How the hell do you throw a asteroid at something?"
"I dunno, something about a lot of thrusters or something, I never looked into it… just don't tell Boss about it, the last thing we need is him asking Kinzie how to do it and then giving the Saints a bad name because he got pissed and dropped one on someone. Someone being a colony of civvies"
Shepard scoffed. "He would never be able to possibly do that"
"I don't know man, we're talking about a guy who jumped out of a plane once. Than jumped back in because he forgot to kill someone. Than that didn't work so he jumped out again. And he had to catch Shaundie twice while killing guys on the way down. And that's when he first got to Steeleport"
"Shut up about that plane" Gat snapped. Aaron winced. Apparently he was still sore from that day, with the whole being abducted and spending years in a 2-D sidescroller reliving Aisha's death over and over again thing.
Aaron hummed. "Come to think about it after that the first thing Boss did once he hit the city was steal a giant bomb. What'd he ever do with that thing anyways?"
"I don't know. He was going to use it to blow up that tower, but he saw more value in keeping it intact. He never really believed I died 'till he saw my body. In the end I guess he was right. If I really had died though I would have been pissed that he spared that French fuck's tower"
"So what, he just put the thing in cold storage?"
"Guess so"
Jack chose this time to speak up. "Can I ask when the hell this all happened?"
"A long time ago, Jack. Wish I could have been there too, but I was in a damn coma still. Ah well, past is past, though, can't change it" Aaron sighed. "Least not until we get back to our own dimension and Boss screws around with that time machine. I really hope he knows what he's gonna do with that thing, because if he accidentally tears the fabric of reality apart I ain't bailing his ass out"
"We're touching down now" the pilot called from the cabin. The team nodded as the Kodiak hit the landing platform, the backdoor opening and the squad piling out. It was from the platform Aaron finally got a good look at the facility. It was raining and dark outside, with heavy vegetation spanning all around them from wild trees to random plants and vines. Being shut down for years the facility had seen better days, with the complex showing wear and tear everywhere, not to mention a lot of windows being broken and even paneling to the walls, vines and other plants growing into the building. Walking to the entrance, the group dried off as Jack went over to a bunch of small, stacked boxes made of dark grey metal. Aaron assumed from the size that they were for supplies. He was wrong.
"I remember these" Jack muttered. "They used to ship the kids in these. Most of the time they came out a starved and crying mess. Sometimes they didn't even come out alive at all"
"Jeez, who would keep kids in these things?" Gat asked. He was a killer, sure, but he wouldn't do something like this.
"Well, that's Cerberus for you. They'd so anything to make humanity better" Aaron explained. The group, sans Shepard, shuddered as they moved on through the facility. Along they way Jack explained more about her life in the facility and even found a few still-working audio logs. Apparently numerous experiments pertaining to improving biotic abilities were tried on the children. Nothing was new there, except for the fact that they only tested them on the children to see if it was safe or not for Jack to have them. Apparently they went to great lengths to keep her alive while at the same time making her a guinea pig.
"That's bullshit" Jack swore. "I'm the one who suffered the most, and they knew it" continuing on they ran into a small varren problem, but the pair were quickly put down by Shepard and a couple of pistol shots. Jack noted that the varren were in a small fighting ring. Jack commented she used to fight other prisoners there. She also noted that the window to her 'old room' turned out to be a one-way mirror, which explained why no-one ever saw her pounding on the glass.
Going down a flight of steps they encountered a peculiar sight. "Dead varren" Shepard noted. Indeed there were a pair of dead varren, shot down. "Anyone see something wrong here?"
"Yeah, I didn't kill them" Gat said.
"He means we didn't kill these ones" Aaron corrected.
"Right. Which leaves the question on who shot them?" that question was answered when they entered a square room… filled with vorcha. "Bloodpack" everyone thought. The vorcha were short work, but Jack went into a swearing spree on why they were here.
"Jack, calm down. We'll find out, let's just- c'mon" Aaron said. Jack still looked angry, angrier than usual, but she complied. A few vorcha showed up here and there but they made short work. However they than came into a room with a large catwalk and a angry krogan pacing back and forth, surrounded by vorcha, the krogan yelling at someone at the other end of the comm unit, something about salvage. He immediately killed the comm though upon seeing the four-member squad.
"Humans? Great, last thing I need is more humans, especially ones with ridiculous eyewear" he muttered.
"What's that exactly supposed to mean?" Gat asked, bringing one of his knives out.
"I'm just saying, you humans are either too weak you can't even stand sunlight or your naïve enough to think you look worthy of a challenge just because you have expensive glasses on. Either way it's dumb"
"Hey, I resent that" Aaron grumbled.
"Whatever" the mercenary said dismissively, whipping a pistol out and attempting to shoot Gat. The Saint smirked while holding his knife up to his face and, much to the surprise of the squadmates, actually deflected the small bullet, the grain hitting various objects and surfaces while rebounding everywhere, everyone's head following it.
"Wait, we already did this shtick, didn't we?" Aaron asked no-one in particular as the bullet finally stopped as it hit a pile of debris on the ceiling, causing it to go loose and fall down… right onto Shepard's head, knocking him out cold.
Aaron glared at the body. "…Meh, that's what he gets for not wearing a helmet. Jack, Gat, do yo guys's thing" nodding, they got to work, Jack throwing multiple biotic shockwaves that tossed a dozen vorcha and the krogan to ground level. Gat made short work of the vorcha with nothing but a pair of knives, the krogan laughing heartily as he cut down the last one.
"Hah! It's been decades since I've seen a human do that! Seems I underestimated you, human!" unsheathing his own knive, a large, segmented krogan blade, he charged a Gat. The Saint just shook his head to the side and connected the krogan's blade with one of his own knives, using his other one to stab hit wrist. The overgrown lizard hissed in pain as he dropped the knife, Gat letting go of his own weapon while still embedded in the krogan, Gat grabbing the krogan's knife in mid-air and stabbing it right through the browplate.
"How…?" the krogan asked in a low voice, disbelief written on his face.
"Eh, I blame the small arms. Don't know how you guys do anything with those things" with that, he twisted the knife, ending the krogan, than pocketed all three knives.
Jack chuckled when she saw the bodies, Aaron cleaning up the rest of the vorcha on top. "Damn, I've seen crazy shit, but I've never seen a guy do that to a bunch of vorcha and a krogan"
"Eh, it's a gift" Gat explained. "So, what's happening with Shep's body"
"-Sigh- I'll carry the dick. Chakwas can look at him when we get back, but we gotta blow this bomb first"
Picking up Shepard's unconscious body, he followed the two into Jack's old room. Apparently she wanted the epicenter of the explosion to be at the center of her misery. However when they got their, they met a man. Apparently he used to be a test subject here, like Jack. He hired the salvage team because he wanted to actually restart the project, he figured all the research and pain must have been for something. Currently he was in the biotic hold of a very angry Jack. "Aaron, what do we do with him?" she asked coldly.
Aaron in his opinion didn't like the guy. This project could never unearth anything good, and even if it did the price wouldn't be worth it. If he did let him loose, well… he was likely insane, he'd most likely try to start somewhere again, or hurt someone in a bout of insanity. Besides, unless he made it to a ship, Aaron doubted the man could outrun a nuke. "Screw him, he isn't worth the air" was his answer.
Jack grinned as she biotically slammed him into the ground, with enough force to kill him. She calmed down after that, and decided to look around in her room, lamenting on things that ranged from a old, upturned desk to a bloodstain on a wall. However eventually she decided she had had enough lamenting.
Flipping the safety cap up in down, Jack's thumb hovered over the detonation button as she looked down.
"Jack, we'll get out of range soon. Now or never, girl" Aaron reminded.
"Yeah, yeah… just savoring the moment" Aaron nodded in understanding, then banged on the wall separating them and the cockpit, signaling the pilot to hurry up as the bomb went off behind them, the dropship barely making it from the explosion. With that, Jack finally got to kiss her goodbye to Pragia. In the form of a middle finger to the crater. Gat and Aaron could relate.
Jack was somewhat stable now… well, as stable as a overpowered psychopath could be, but at least she had closure now… sort of. Truth is she had a more sordid past than some of the Saints. But hopefully now she could move on.
However the pressing matter now was Shepard. Apparently that hit to the head put him in a coma, and while Chakwas said he would awake soon, Miranda had approached the two in the med-bay with urgent news.
"We can't stall anymore, we need to hit the derelict reaper. Now" it wasn't a suggestion, either.
"Remind me, why the hell are we going into a long-dead nightmare factory?" Aaron asked.
Miranda groaned in frustration and held the bridge of her nose. "The Omega relay leads to the collector homeworld. No-one can pass the relay without a reaper IFF. And there happens to be a Cerberus science team on a dead reaper-"
"Which most likely has the IFF we need, I get it. I don't really trust you people around that thing, but I ain't got a choice I guess. So who gets to lead the mission"
"Since Shepard is out" Miranda sucked in air between her teeth and turned around. She really didn't want to admit this… "Since you have… proven… to be affective at it in the past, this makes you eligible to… lead the mission"
"That really did kill a piece of you saying that, didn't it?" Aaron asked dryly.
"More than a piece. Just don't screw up, damnit" she said hotly, storming out of the med-bay.
Aaron looked over at Chakwas. "You might want to test her for stress. She seems to have a lot lately"
The doctor swiveled in her chair and shrugged. "You constantly antagonizing her doesn't help, you know"
"Alright, fine, I'll stop with the whole 'calling her a bitch' thing. But you know she had it coming, she's been after me from word go"
"Maybe she just thinks you 'Saints' are a danger"
"And what do you think?"
"Well, personally I did have lengthy discussions with Benjamin, talked about that book he wrote, seemed like a nice person"
"Well we're not cold-blooded murderers. Actually, scratch that… point is we only murdered in self defense. Most of the time. But thanks for not pointing us out to be monsters" he rubbed his chin. "You know Boss wants to restart the Saints in this universe, you know until we find a way back to our world. If we find a way back. Anyway Boss wants to give the other three merc gangs a run for their money, be the best gang in the galaxy"
"And you think you can?"
"We literally did in our universe. Well, on Earth at least, than there was the whole Zinyak thing… but he had the most powerful empire in the galaxy and Boss ripped his head right off and took it over, and I wasn't even their most of the time, so if we can do it once we can do it again"
"But you realize you'll have much more competition?"
"Yeah but compared to zin tech this universes doesn't have anything on us, besides it wouldn't be the first time we defied odds. Just, you know, the thirtieth"
"Well, good luck with that" she swiveled in her chair again as she examined Shepard's medical documents.
"You know the Saints could always use a medic. You like Ben, so…"
"Thanks, but unfortunately my allegiance is with the Alliance. And it wouldn't do well with my conscious if I helped gangsters"
"Well it's not like we'll end up like those other three merc bands, we're better than that"
"I know. I really need to get back to Shepard now"
"I understand" Aaron glanced at his body. Before he left though he had one question. "Hey, do you know why Shepard turned evil? Some Cerberus bug or something like that?"
The doctor shook her head. "No, nothing of that sort. I did fine unusual brain waves, but other than that nothing. I'd need a comparison with someone with a similar affliction do give a explanation"
"Well if I run into anyone with 'abnormal brain waves' you'll be the first to know"
"Good to know" nodding, Aaron opened the door, but before he left Chakwas looked at him. "And take care of Ben for me. He seems like a good person who tried to make up for the past. Don't let it go to waste"
"Sure thing, doc" Aaron and Chakwas smiled at that as the virtual Saint left, only to be met with the helmeted faces of Boss and, surprisingly, Ouroboros in front of him.
"Guess who wants to go with you on this one?" Boss asked.
"Garrus?" Aaron guessed, holding an innocent smile.
"What the- no, us!" Ouro yelled, than chuckled.
"Why you guys?"
"Well Boss said he wanted to hang with you. Apparently hanging for you is killing stuff. And I haven't even been on a mission yet, and playing with Urz only goes so far"
"Alright, fine. But if your going with us your gonna need these" he ran towards his quarters real quick and came back out, two smg's in their hands. He gave them to Ouro who tilted his head to the side.
"What model is this?" he asked.
"N7 hurricanes. Grabbed them off that spectre who ambushed me on Tuchanka. The logo got removed and it got spray-painted jet black, so I thought you'd like them"
"Well, I do need new guns. Tossed the old ones away, considering they were Cerberus guns. Thanks, Aaron"
"Yeah, sure thing. They were good guns and I didn't want them to go to waste rusting on that planet"
"I'll put them to good use" the ex-Cerberus assured.
"Okay. So, we set to go?"
"I had a bunch of drinks, so I'm good" Boss said.
"…I'm gonna hold you to that, buddy. Ouro?"
"Ready as I'll ever be"
"Okay. Time to go to a old, dead, giant killer robot. So what's the worst that could happen?" after a long pause they all groaned upon hearing what he just said.
"Dude, seriously"
"Now you've done it"
"Okay, sorry! Sheesh, so a lot can go wrong. But how much wrong?"
"Aaron, I already made this mistake once when in the simulation, fun story, we ever get CID back online he can tell you, he was there, but seriously, don't go there"
"Fine, fine. Let's just go"
As the Normandy approached the reaper the three-man squad had a feeling of dread come over them. The ship was rocky at first but then it smoothed out, Joker said something about mass effect fields of the reaper stabilizing them.
"This thing's been dead for how long?" Boss asked as he readied his alien rifle. They were in a droship heading towards the reaper.
"A very long time. Reapers got very advanced tech"
"Zin advanced?"
"Not that advanced, but their tech probably lasts longer. Also they got robot zombies, so there's that"
"Huh. Maybe I'll bring some back, give Zinny something to do"
"Who?"
"No-one" Aaron shrugged dismissively as he readied a kalash assault rifle.
He looked at his squadmates and explained the situation. "Okay, so here's the deal. 'Corrdin to Miranda we need a reaper IFF to go through the Omega-4 relay. This thing happens to have one, but she said the science team here went dark, so we gotta assume the worst. Which means something will likely want to kill us"
"Any idea what?" Ouro asked.
"Joker said he detected geth. The kicker was it was only one small ship, nowhere near enough to take out a armed science team" Ouro gulped. He lost his voice because of geth experiments, now he talked like one and people could only understand him through a damn radio. He'd never forgive them for that, or all the other experiments.
"So we're not going on another robot killing spree like we did when we got Tali?" Boss asked.
"Either the geth figured out quantum science and got really creative with spacing or it was a couple really good geth. For all we know they aren't even the problem and them being there is just a coincidence, maybe to harvest tech, they worship the damn things apparently for all I know. Guess we'll find out when we get there" the Kodiak docked with the airlock and the door opened, the three flooding out. They entered a small research outpost, Cerberus from the looks of it. The only problem was that the place was completely empty. Not a soul in sight.
"Anyone else creeped out by this?" Boss asked.
"Yeah, no foolin'" Ouro agreed.
"Tell me about it; no blood, no bodies, not even a disturbance of the equipment… guess we can rule geth out, we would have saw some sign. Or at least a white blood stain" Aaron noted.
"This remind you of anything though? Something that can attack and leave no trace?" Ouro hinted.
Aaron put a hand to his chin, humming. "Think collectors did this?"
"Why not? They're reaper slaves, and the reapers probably didn't like us poking around in one of their dead for technology"
"Yeah, but Harbinger doesn't even know we're here, does he?" Boss countered.
"Yeah, your right… well, we aren't getting any answers, c'mon, let's try and find out what happened" Aaron instructed, leading all three forward. With a lax of clues, the only thing they really had to go on was a few audio logs they found scattered around. But they did prove enlightening. From what the pieced together the science expedition was continuing as normal, but some of the scientists complained of headaches and a constant 'ringing noise'. In the next one two men were arguing about their wives, apparently they thought they had the exact same one, one of the men thinking they saw some 'gray thing' in the wall. The last one just showed a man in the middle of a crazy rambling, talking about 'ghosts in the machine' and 'gods among men'. Wasn't looking good in terms of the scientists' survival, but the trio could care less about them.
"So Aaron, you've been here longer than me, what do you think?" Boss questioned upon the three watching the last video log.
"I got the perfect answer for that one. Ouro, explain"
Ouro sighed and facepalmed. "If I had to guess I'd say indoctrination. They showed all the signs, plus if the reaper can still maintain a functioning mass effect field it's likely the indoctrination feature still works"
"Yeah, you notice how a lot of the stuff in here is intact?" it was true, they eventually found themselves on a myriad of catwalks that spanned the reaper, giant cables and machinery spanning down tunnels they couldn't even see the end of. The strangest part though was, unlike the appearance of the reaper on the outside, which was maimed and scorched, the inside was still a eerie dark blue, with most of the machinery still looking in pristine condition.
"Remind the poor confused awesome dude what 'indoctrination' is" Boss still hadn't had enough time to go through all of this universes history.
"It's like really slow mind control" Aaron explained.
"Ah. Well, let's keep moving" he said, the other two nodding as they headed onward. The fact there was literally no sounds whatsoever only added to the creepy ambiance, with the abandoned research machinery not helping the mood. And Aaron could have sworn he saw something moving on the catwalks above them, almost like something was following them.
Walking along, Boss let out a groan of anxiety and nudged Aaron's shoulder. "So… what do you think happened to the research team?" he nervously asked. Apparently the dark was getting to him.
"Dunno. Most likely went insane. Maybe they killed themselves. Maybe the killed eachother. Maybe there's a group of them hiding behind one of these crates with wrenches and syringes and stuff waiting to ambush the people traipsing on their 'holy god'"
Boss let out a fearful squeak and Aaron chuckled. "Dude, relax. We've fought a lot worse than insane scientists with bone saws if it does come to that"
"I know, I know. Damn silence isn't helping" he muttered. He looked around nervously again and noticed multiple long, metal spikes protruding from the wall. "You know what the deal with the spikes are, at least?"
"Dragon's teeth" Ouroboros answered. "They're basically nightmare factories. Impale a dead, or living, person on them and nanites flood their system, flushing their fluids and replacing them with cybernetics. In layman's terms, they turn people into cyborg zombies"
"But they prefer dead bodies, right?" Boss pleaded.
"Oh no…" Ouro said spookily, "they try to impale live people on when they can. The adrenaline from being impaled spreads the nanites faster"
"Okay, seriously guys, you can stop trying to freak me out now! I swear, it's that haunted house me and Aaron used to go to all the time all over again!" Boss shouted, speed-walking to catch up to the two when they sped up. After a minute he thought he heard shuffling and looked behind him, doing a double take. "Heeey, Aaron… those zombies-"
"Husks" he corrected.
"Right, corn shells… they don't happen to have gray skin, do they?"
"Uh-huh"
"And have blue cybernetic shit all over them, along with blue, soulless eyes…?"
"Yes, Boss"
"And shuffle around like a zombie and make this funny little swinging motion with their arms when they run at someone?"
"Yeah, why is this important?"
"Because a dozen or so of things fitting that description happens to be running right at us from behind!" Boss yelled in a panicky voice.
Aaron's and Ouro's eyes may as well flew from their sockets they widened so much, and they both turned around to find, sure enough, a large group of husks swarming their position, the shells now making their trademark moaning sounds. "Oh fucking jeez!" Aaron screamed, whipping the kalash out and spraying it at the horde, Ouro and Boss doing the same with their weapons. Ouro heard moaning behind him and looked to see more husks pulling themselves up from behind them from the edges of the catwalk, the infiltrator switching to incendiary rounds on his smg's and turning to fire at them, dealing a heavy incinerate out. It finished off the group, except for one strange husk which, unlike the others, had red cybernetic lights and skin. And was on fire. Experimentally Ouro shot it to death, but unlike simply falling over and dying like the rest this one exploded upon death.
"What was that!?" Boss screamed.
"Watch out for the red ones, they explode!" Ouro warned.
"Seriously!? They have exploding ones now!? Damn!" Aaron swore. The finished off the straggler husks on Ouro asked, "You know these things are vulnerable to fire, right?"
"Yeah, and?" Boss and Aaron questioned at the same time.
"Well, you both happen to have the handy power to shoot fireballs out of your hands. And wreath yourselves in fire to set things close to you on fire. Including your bullets, and these husks"
The two Saints looked at eachother for a moment before facepalming eachother. "Next wave" Aaron promised.
"There's more of these things?" Boss gloomily asked.
"Most likely. You know you didn't freak out this much on Aripice" Aaron reminded.
"Yeah, well those zombies died a lot easier. And they didn't have those damn weird lights that slowly go out after they die. Plus I got slightly infected by that virus, so I kind of have a piece of them in me"
"Wait, you got infected by that stuff?" a alarmed Aaron asked.
"Yeah, gasmask got a leak, but I got it fixed before I got too exposed. That stuff was pretty weak so you needed to be infected by a lot of it, otherwise your body fought the stuff off. Besides, that happened years ago, I'm pretty sure if I was going to turn zombie I would have by now. Although for some reason I sometimes get weird dreams about brains…" he mused.
"…Moving on…" Ouro muttered, gesturing for the two to follow him as he moved on. However what they found at the end of the small catwalk was not pretty.
At the end of the catwalk was around a dozen dragon's teeth, the base leading off into a chasm below. Around three or four bodies were impaled on them. The wore science lab coats with Cerberus insignias on them.
Aaron shuddered. "On the bright side, we found out what happened to the science team…"
"Are you kidding me? This indoctrination mind control thing can drive you to impale yourself on one of those things?" Boss unbelievingly asked. He couldn't believe this. Sure, he'd seen some messed up things as a gang Boss, from drugs to illegal sells of women, but this… this was just plain sick.
"Either that or they turned on themselves and threw eachother on the spikes. Either way their swiss cheese" Ouro summed up.
"…That's not gonna happen to us, is it? Please say no…"
"Relax bro, indoctrination takes weeks, and we'd have to constantly be on the reaper. Soon as we get off we'll be good"
"Phew… hey wait, I just thought of something… how many scientists were their actually?"
"…couple hundred" Ouro nonchalantly answered. Upon saying this all three looked at eachother. "We're boned" was their response.
To make matters worse, the reaper suddenly shuddered, slightly off-balancing the three. "And to add to all our problems…" Aaron grumbled, getting on the comm. "Joker, if you tell me that the shudder we just felt was the reaper preparing to blow up in fifteen minutes or some shit like that your ass is glass grass when we get back"
"No, but it might come to that" Joker's voice said over the comm.
Aaron grunted in mild agitation. "Okay fine, Houston, what seems to be the problem?"
"Well, it's weird but… it's the core. Of the reaper"
"Joker, this thing indoctrinated the scientists and turned them into husks, something happening with the core is the least weird thing that's happened so far"
"Yeah, well the core's gone haywire, and the mass effect fields combined with the gravity of the brown dwarf means the Normandy can't exit?"
"Houston, we're having a problem with translation, try english"
"-Sigh- the ship can't leave with the strengthened field"
"Okay, now I see the problem. So, what are we gonna do about it?"
Boss and Ouro were checking their weapons when they heard Aaron sputter and glanced over at him. "You wanna run that one by me again? Okay, just making sure. You want us to what!? Joker, we got hundreds, not tens, not dozens, hundreds of husks coming in seamlessly endless waves towards us between us and that thing! And we're still looking for the IFF!… well what if we reach it before the IFF?… yeah, I guess we could circumvent it than circle back to it, but still! What happens when we blow it?… to quote Mordin, 'that's pretty problematic', Joker. How long would we have before it sinks into the thing?… 'Not much time?' You sure there's no other way?… Ah well, not the first time we've been on a time frame, Boss said when he went to kill Philippe he armed a bomb to blow the building first and THEN went in to kill him… without disarming the bomb"
"We all make mistakes once in awhile, Aaron" Boss growled.
"Yeah, well your just lucky you set the bomb for fifteen minutes, Boss. Anyways, Joker, we're going along with this convoluted plan of yours, see you soon…. Yeah, I just used the word convoluted, why?… Well I've been reading a dictionary lately…. Well the long rides on the Normandy get boring, I gotta do something to entertain myself, and sleeping for weeks on end only goes so far…. Joker, I need to go, we got to get the IFF…. We're talking about this later. Out"
Ouro walked up to Aaron. "Something wrong?" he asked.
"Eh, sorta… apparently the reaper core is on full blow now, and the mass effect field coupled with the brown dwarf under us is making it so the ship can't leave. Only way to leave is to… well, blow the core up"
Ouro outwardly groaned and cradled his head in his hands while Boss scoffed. "So we blow the core and get out of here. Big deal"
"Boss, you realize once the core is off this thing will be pulled into the brown dwarf under us, right?" Aaron checked.
They were there for a whole thirty second before Boss slowly nodded. "Oh… will that kill us?"
"If we get off this thing fast enough, no. But until we blow it we're safe" Aaron explained.
"Yeah, safe… in a husk-filled reaper that's probably trying to indoctrinate us as we speak" Ouro pointed out.
"Pssh, we ain't gonna be here long enough to be mind-jacked, and I think we can take these things, right Aaron?" Boss asked.
"What Boss said, now we should probably get moving. We still need to get that IFF. You know, the thing being the only reason stepping foot in this thing?"
"Yeah, yeah…" Boss waved off dismissively as he took point in leading the group onwards, going to another large catwalk into a larger portion of the reaper. They stopped when they heard two gunshots and the corpses of two husks flying out into the open. Aaron ran over to where the shots came from and briefly glanced a figure walking away on a catwalk above them.
"You see anything?" Boss asked as he kicked one of the husk bodies.
"Yeah, there was something walking away… probably who shot them"
"That's great and all, but- look out!" Ouro shouted, shoving Aaron to the side as a biotic shockwave ripped by him. He glanced to the side to see a new wave of husks making their way towards them, a scion in the back.
"I really hate those things" Aaron grunted, jumping in the air and taking his sword out. The scion fixed it's distorted eyes on him as he hit the ground and rolled right in front of it, stabbing it right in the blue glowing point in it's midsection. With a grunt of effort, Aaron tossed the abomination over his shoulders, right into the group of husks. A explosion of biotic shockwaves resulted, sending the husks flying as they were picked off by Boss and Ouro.
Continuing in their search for the IFF and the core, they pressed onwards, exploring more of the reaper. They only thing that kept gnawing at the group though was the utter silence in the ship. Sure a husk or two would charge them occasionally, but other than that the ship was dead silent. It got to the point where Boss looked behind him in search of husks just to entertain himself. Ironically two husks did pop up behind him, and by the time he turned around they were inches away from him and he yelped girlishly. That is until two shot to the head put them down.
Boss held his armored chest and sighed deeply. "Oh man, don't do that to me world… thanks, Aaron"
"Uh… that wasn't me" Aaron admitted in a confused voice, turning around to where the shots resonated. His mouth, and the mouths of the other two when they followed his gaze, dropped slightly at what they saw. On a catwalk above them was a geth, although unlike others this geth's chassis was black, with a antennae of some sorts sticking out of it's left shoulder. It was holding a regular widow sniper rifle and, interestingly enough, had a large hole blown in the right side of it's midsection, various blue-lighted wires sticking out, a piece of familiar N7 armor patching the hole up. The geth looked at the three and fins of some sort flared up from it's elongated head. "Apparently this thing has mechanical eyebrows" Aaron thought as the geth spoke one simple, yet confusing sentence in a mechanical voice.
"Aaron-Saint" with that, the geth ran off.
The squad themselves each had a dumbfounded face, although thanks to their helmets, Boss's and Ouro's looks couldn't be seen. Aaron chose to speak up first. "So… any of that make any sense to you guys?"
"Nope" Ouro answered simply.
"So, they don't normally talk? 'Cause I thought they just made that weird wiring sound" A confused Boss asked.
"As far as I know that's the first ever talking geth. Ever" Ouro muttered.
They remained glued there to the spot for several moments before Aaron shook himself from his stupor first. "Guys, we can question the talking robot later, we got a IFF to get" they both nodded as they continued the search. Boss nudged Aaron.
"Hey Aaron…" he whispered, "You think we could probably… put CID in that thing?"
"Huh?" Aaron asked.
"Well I'm not saying out-right go kill it so we can put CID in it, but… you know, if it tries to kill us we can maybe… rip it's hard drive out or something and put CID in?"
"There's four flaws with that" Aaron pointed out, holding a finger up. "Number one, CID would have to be moved to the geth's hardrive, since the one he's in now is from another dimension and won't fit in anything, and even if we could rip the drive out intact Kinzie would have to take awhile to purge the geth data out, it could corrupt CID. You know how good hackers geth are" he held up another finger. "Two, I don't think it wants to kill us, considering it did shoot those two husks that were behind us" and third finger went up. "Three, even if we could do that I think everyone, especially Tali, would freak out to see a geth walking around" the fourth and final went up. "And finally, as much as I'm sure CID wants a new body, I doubt he'd appreciate getting put in one with a giant gaping hole in it"
Boss shrugged. "Hey, better than nothing. Plus what else are we going to do with CID?"
"Well, awhile back when I was terrorizing Cerberus I did run across something… we can talk about it later, we got husks" speak of the devil, the tell-tale signs of husk moaning followed.
"Godammit, I hate these things" Boss muttered.
With a final deafening moan the last of the husks so far fell. It had been a grueling fight- waves upon waves of dozens of husks hit them, but they managed to hold them back. They had some trouble with two scions near the end of the waves, but a quick round with the Saints particle gun, courtesy of the O.M.G., put them to rest. Their next obstacle… a unlocked door.
"As if that's the most challenging thing we've faced so far" Aaron deadpanned, opening it. The other side of the door revealed a white hallway about ten feet long… and a terminal to the side, a tan computer-chip looking thing sitting atop it.
"…Wat dat?" Boss asked after a second.
"That… would be the IFF. Hmph, thought it'd be shinier" Ouro said. He made a move to grab it, but Aaron stopped him.
"Hold it homie, this don't sit right with me. We fight through small army of cyber-zombs and the thing we came for just happens to be just sitting there? In the open? Unguarded? Behind a unlocked door? Just for us to take it?"
"Apparently" Ouro confirmed. "Sometimes life throws a curveball"
"Nah, don't buy it" Aaron snapped, going in alone and approaching the chip slowly. Slowly, ever so slowly, he reached over to the chip, afraid it would explode as his hand neared it.
Boss facepalmed. "For god's sake Aaron, I'm pretty sure the universe gave us a freebie on this one"
"Just hold on… a… second…" he groaned, gingerly dragging out the time it took him to slowly pick the chip up. He immediately backed back up to the other two, afraid the terminal would blow up. But interestingly enough, nothing happened.
Aaron stood there dumbfounded, holding the IFF up to his face, a queer look on his face. "Are you kidding me?" he grumbled to himself. "Like that? We just get it like that? No giant husk monster, or some countdown to some bomb, no alarms, nothing… not even a small wave of husks? We just get it? Like that?" Than he screamed at the top of his lungs, "That's fucking baloney!"
"Aaron, what is your problem?" Boss asked, groaning inwardly.
"My problem!? Boss, here's my problem. Every moment in life something bad happens when good things happen. 'Ooh, got to go on a yacht, oh wait, turns out there was a bomb and got put in coma. Friend becomes president, oh wait, Earth gets blown up. Get super powers, oh wait, separated from my friends and get sent to another universe'. How about when you got to go kill Philippe and on the way you got to see a bunch of naked clones and pink tanks and the junk of a giant Russian dude!?"
"Dude, chill out, I'm sure something bad will happen in the next few minutes. We still need to find the core"
"You really think so?" Aaron asked hopefully.
"I know so! Now come on! We have a curveball to find!" Boss shouted triumphantly.
"Never thought I'd actually see someone hope something bad would happen…" Ouroboros muttered under his breath.
"Alright Boss" Aaron said with vigor, "let's go get that core! And maybe run into a hundred husks! Would be weird if that didn't happen! In fact I'm sure it'll be awhile before we find that core anyways, it could be anywhere"
"True that!" Boss said. The group hustled over to the end of the hallway.
Aaron chuckled. Maybe he did overreact at how easy getting the IFF had been. Something is sure to go wrong now. "I mean, come on, it's not like the drive core is going to be right one the other side of this door, conveniently next to the exact thing we're looking for equally unguarded and unlocked -" Aaron held his tongue as he saw what was on the other side of the door. There was a giant blue ball of eezo, spinning around in some kind of chamber, that would occasionally be enveloped in metal, the geth from before working at a terminal of sorts, streams of orange energy running from each of it's fingers to the terminal.
Aaron was actually stuttering in place. considering what he and Boss liked to call 'Saint luck', this kind of thing was supposed to be impossible. It couldn't be this easy… yet it was. Maybe it worked as a double-negative, the 'luck' knowing they would expect that and was trying to confuse them by making it easy. Luck was a dick like that.
"…Aaron…?" Boss whispered.
"Yeah?" Aaron hoarsely groaned.
"My brain hurts…" the leader of the Saints complained.
"So does mine, buddy… so does mine…. Can I freak out now?"
"Sure thing"
"Okay. -Deep breath-, BUUUULLLSSSHHIIITTT!" Aaron screamed at the top of his virtual lungs, running in a dead sprint towards the geth. He was stopped however when he hit a invisible force which knocked him down.
"Seriously? The only thing you sent to guard this thing was a piece of glass?" Aaron asked weakly. "Saint luck, you suck…"
The geth regarded Aaron briefly, but chose to go back to whatever it was doing, unknown to it a trio of husks climbed from below and lumbered towards the construct. In a flash, however, he turned around and shot them with a pistol, turning around just as quick and working at the terminal. When he finished, much to the confusement of the group, the window that Aaron smashed into lifted into the ceiling. The geth turned around only to see of the husks it shot before behind it. It must have survived the gunshot. Before the geth could do anything, the husk smacked it hard enough to send the machine to the ground, it's lights winking out. The drive core kept spinning as more husks poured in.
Aaron got up, shaking the stars from his eyes that had been floating there since he hit the window. "Okay, so let me guess, blow up the core while endless husks pour in?"
"Yup" Boss nodded.
"-Blissful sigh- well, looks like things are back to normal" Aaron's grin turned into a frown. "Okay, let's get serious. Boss" he held his hand out.
"Hah, alright" Boss chuckled, grabbing the fist. They entered a bro hug, activating their own fire buffers, Ouro facepalming upon seeing the two wreathed in fire.
"Really?" he asked.
They both stepped away from eachother. "Hey. It's a sign of respect, nothing else" Boss explained.
"What he said. Okay, Ouro, work on the core. Me and Boss got the husks" Ouro nodded as he continually shot the core with his smg's, while Boss and Aaron charged head-on into the pile of husks, beating them up. Of course, for them beating up the husks involved a lot of throwing the husks, impaling their chests with their fists, and burning them alive. It was fun for the first few minutes… it started to get tedious however as five minutes set in"
"Ouro, what is taking so long?" Aaron asked as calmly as he could, burning a group of husks alive.
"You try killing this thing with smg's!" he yelled back. The guns might as well have been pea shooters against the core.
"Alright, time to improvise" Aaron grunted, taking the Saints CAIN out and aiming at the core, going as far as to infuse the three slugs with dark eezo. The core opened, showing the glowing blue ball, and Aaron grinned, pulling the trigger as three black and purple CAIN slugs went right through the core, the resulting explosion happening behind it, the core being utterly obliterated, pieces of it crumbling to the depths below. Boss killed the last husk, strangely they stopped coming once the core blew up, and the trio stared at the deactivated geth.
"What do you guys think?" Aaron asked.
"I think we should scrap it, can't risk it" Ouro bluntly said. No-way they could trust a geth, especially near EDI.
"Wait, there's still one more empty slot in the character selection menu. I wanna fill it with someone" Boss said. Ouro and Aaron gave him confused glances. "Look. Either way you cut it, we either get a geth homie who saved us so most likely wants to ally with us, or we get a new skin for CID. Win/win"
"Whatever, but your carrying it" Aaron said dryly.
"Sweet!" he said quietly, moving to pick it up before they heard a shudder. They looked towards the ruined hole to see the entire wall give way, space visible. The sudden decompression threatened to suck the now four into space, Aaron grabbing onto the geth and magnetically attaching himself to the ground with dark eezo, Ouro grabbing a railing, however Boss was unfortunate as he was sucked out, screaming as he was forced into space.
"Boss!" Aaron screamed, reaching out for his friend. Ouro grabbed his wrist once he regained his balance, stopping him from following Boss.
"He'll be fine, c'mon! We got to get back to the ship!" he ordered. Aaron stood his ground, but begrudgingly nodded as he followed Ouro out.
Latching onto the side of the reaper had been easy for Boss, the thing was freaking huge after all. The only problem was dodging explosions the reaper was expelling from everywhere as he sprinted along the side of the reaper back towards the dropship.
"Damn damn damn damn damn!" he shouted, dodging a extremely close explosion. "Super damn!" He was about to risk a attempted flight when he saw the dropship, Ouro floating onto it while Aaron tossed the geth in, popping a few strangler geth. Boss chose this moment to glide directly into the dropship as it's door closed and it flew off towards the Normandy, the reaper falling into the brown dwarf.
"-Pant, pant- Aaron, don't ever make me do that again…" Boss panted as he got up. First time he had ever super sprinted past explosions… in space.
"Sure, Boss. Glad you made it" Aaron said heartily, patting him on the back.
So the mission had been a success, they got the IFF, got rid of the reaper, and even killed a bunch of husks. All and all a good day. Now they just needed to figure out what to do with the IFF. One question remained though, a question Ouroboros chose to ask.
"So… what do we do with the geth?"
A/N- And you all know what's going to happen next chapter. Well, maybe. I think most people can guess. Anyway it never rubbed me the right way the IFF was sitting right there, and plus it didn't even look like reaper tech, it looked like something you'd find in dead space. So you got a little rant in there as well… hope you liked it.
Anyway, remember, don't be afraid to review! Your critic is always appreciated!
…I got nothing else, so I guess I'll talk about this. A few people asked about that 'inFamous and Fallout: New Vegas' crossover I talked about awhile back. Which I wanted to write along with this but you all wanted me to solely focus on this. I will say I will work on it after this story is done, but I have to work on something else before that. But I isn't spoiling anything about it, I will say it will feature… a OC! -Fanfare plays in backround-… what, it's important. If you have questions, ask me, but really I'm finishing this story first. With extra care, I might add!
So, time for my outro. Cya.
