A/N- -Deep breath- okay… while my iPod charges so I can listen to music while making the chapter let's take a minute to reflect. This is a really important chapter, the turning point! So lemme stall ya'll a bit with a emotional speech.
I never imagined I'd make it this far. I remember thinking when I first made this story, 'God if I make it this far it'll be miracle'. Fun fact when I first made this I wasn't planning on bringing the other Saints in but then though, 'this wouldn't be much of a Saints Row fic with one Saint OC'. Just a li'l tidbit. For months I pictured the day to coming to this point. I never would have got this far if it wasn't for the emotional boosts I got whenever someone favorite'd this story or me, and the reviews. So thank you all for this.
Anyway on with the story! About to go through the Omega-4 relay, rescue everyone… but first one more chapter full of missions!… Just kidding, we're really doing this now. So without further ado…
MASS MISCALCULATION
Episode 18- Cya, homes
Well, the time had come. In Aaron's words, 'it's time to do our actual damn job that we were recruited for'. Most of Shepard's team was in the docking bay loading up on their guns and performing maintenance, except for Legion, Tali, and Jacob, the former and latter of the three having to help out in engineering with the entire crew being taken.
And the Saint?
Boss thought it prudent for one of his motivational speeches in Aaron's room. Again.
Stepping in front of the group with his helmet off and held in his arm, he cleared his throat, taking his glasses off with his free hand. "I know over the years we've endured a lot of shit" he started, "Vice Roys, other gangs, Misako, Julius's betrayal, cops, SWAT, government, Syndicate, Morningstar, Deckers, Luchadors, STAG, zombies, giant clones, robots, that one director that almost killed me in a movie shoot in a damn floating movie prop, terrorists, Zinyak, and now a completely new universe full of aliens and a bunch of other gangs. Point is we've been on a crazy roller coaster so far, with a actor no less when I became prez"
"Yo" Keith said, flipping up a piece sign.
"Not to mention the rest of you who went through all this crazy shit with me. Aaron, Shaundie, Ben, Gat, Pierce, Kinzie, the useless cartridge containing CID… Matt and Asha would have been here too, but these bug assholes thought it'd be real funny to go off and kill them" he stomped his foot. "The only reason that we've been going along with Shepard and his bullshit ways was to get even, and tonight- maybe today, I don't know the time- Whatever the hell time it is, could be lunch for all I know, we get to get even. We're going through that relay to hit them where it hurts. I ain't gonna lie, it's gonna be brutal, they got advanced laser guns and a Harbinger dude that can posses them to jack them up with powers. and possibly cyborg zombies" Pierce shivered, remembering the scion. "But fuck them. Seriously, fuck 'em. We've faced zombies before, we got past them. I'll admit bugs are a new thing, but we conquered a entire empire of laser-wielding aliens with nothing but a ship and Kinzie's hacking magic, and with our relentlessness. So no, we ain't gonna die there, we're too awesome to die. We've been through too MUCH to die. Worst case scenario someone on Shepard's end screws up and we get stranded. Hopefully his team won't die-"
"Better not after all the loyalty stuff I did for them…" Aaron muttered.
"And hopefully that helps, thanks. But we are going to win this, for Matt and Asha. We're gonna tell these bug creeps that you can't knock a Saint down and expect him or her to get back up and knock you down with him! We're gonna show these nasty-ass bugs they messed with the wrong crew and squash them all! Who's with me!?" All the Saints released a war cry and held up their zintek rifles and pistols while Boss nodded in approval. "Alright then. Saints, we're gonna go through any hour now. Get ready" they all nodded and left, the only two left in the room being Aaron and Boss.
"You know, if you would have told me in highschool a short summary of my life up until now I would have kicked your ass into an insane asylum. But seeing as I literally am living that, I'm just gonna go with it" Aaron stated, taking his sunglasses off showing his blue eyes and chuckling softly. In all honesty he would have though he would have died in a gutter at this point, killed in a gang shooting. But look where he was now, a virtual being in a gang of the most awesomest gang members in the galaxy. Or universes.
"Yeah, pretty crazy. And I thought all the crazy shit would have stopped happening after I took the zin over and found out about time travel. Don't see how it could get crazier than this"
"Gat gets sucked into hell and kicks all the demons' asses?" Aaron guessed.
They both released a hearty laugh at this. "Yeah, don't jinx it" Boss warned, looking serious. "So, where's Shepard about now?"
"Dunno" Aaron shrugged. "Bangin' Miranda in his cabin? I don't know what the dude does in his spare time. Anyway, I wanted to show you this" Aaron reached over and grabbed his terminal. "This is my PT, or personal terminal. It has all my accounts and personal information and stuff, along with forty-two billion creds. Figured that should be enough to get our Saint empire started. Again. Also there's schematics on how to build CID a new body"
"Wait, seriously?"
"Yeah, while raiding a Cerberus research base one time I stumbled upon this project for making a perfect infiltration robot thing, I dunno, the prototype was apparently this chick bot named Eva. I left her alone, mostly 'cause I though 'what damage could a highly advanced synthetic do', you know? So now we can build him a super robot body. One that isn't a useless floating ball"
"And you tell me this now?"
"Well we were a little busy with preparing for the mission, and I wanted it to be a surprise. Surprise"
Boss took the deactivated terminal in shaking hands, putting the small, multiple-wired chip in a pocket in his suit. "Damn man, that's a pretty hefty thing. You actually trust me with this?"
Aaron put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm going to be honest with you. When we were first into the gang together… you were completely lost without me, was clueless without me, couldn't do anything unless I was five feet away. Jesus, you were even too shy to talk unless I was there"
"Oh, well thank you too"
"BUT I went into a coma, came out and… well you were a different man, man. You were… grown up, independent, probably the most badass person I've ever see next to Gat, taking on entire armed forces by yourself. One of them having lasers. Then a alien empire. To be honest that'll probably happen a lot here… well I had this feeling of that you wouldn't need me anymore after hearing stories from the other Saints. But, you're my bro. Figuratively. If you were my biological brother though I wouldn't choose anyone else"
"Yeah, well, learn and adapt" Boss admitted. "If we're being honest here dude, I'm still lost without you. Me running the Saints while you were under was just a lot of improvising and dumb luck. Point is we make a brotherly pair, we can't work without one another"
Aaron smiled. "True dat" they fist bumped.
"So, don't you have a quarian girl to talk to?" Boss questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"Tali?"
"C'mon Aaron, you have a thing for her"
"Not much, these cloths don't come off so-"
"Dude, I ain't talking about boning her. I mean, I don't know, talking? I ain't romantic type, ju- we're about to go on a fucking suicide mission, she needs emotional support dude"
Aaron hummed in thought. "Yeah. I guess. Cya when we're blasting bugs?"
"Cya for bug blastin'" Boss confirmed, nodding his head. "…One time?" he pleaded.
"Fine" Aaron sighed. They both bro hugged, activating their electric buffer while yelling "ELECTRIC BROS!" before turning it off and stepping away. "I'm going" Aaron said, stepping out.
Boss sighed. "Yeah, that was pretty stupid…" he murmured. Out of nowhere Urz jumped up and pinned Boss to Aaron's bed, trying to bite his face while Boss screamed for help.
Up in Shepard's cabin, said commander was typing at his terminal… naked. He looked over to his massive bed and saw a naked Miranda sleeping in it. He laughed darkly to himself before he got the messaging application on his terminal up, a system for setting up sending emails back and forth from someone.
In this case, Anderson had managed to get him a private conversation with Admiral Hackett.
The admiral's email read, 'Shepard. You know, technically I should be trying to arrest you right now for working with terrorists'
'Over what, the extranet?' Shepard typed back.
'You didn't let me finish. I know you have good reasons, your judgment never faltered in the past. So, what do I owe the pleasure?'
'What if I were to tell you I'm on the same ship with one of the most infamous space pirates ever, along with a ragtag team of would-be mercs and someone with a very special suit of power armor'
'…You better not be shitting me'
'No, I'm not. I want them gone and under Alliance hands. I'm going to say this right now, I've recruited them and a small team to go through the Omega-4 relay'
'WHAT!?'
'I know, I know, we're going to stop the collectors. Noble goal, eh?'
'Council would have a field day with this'
'Well Council doesn't know, do they?'
'No, they don't. Damnit Shepard, what's your end goal here?'
'I already told you, I want that punk kid dead or under a scalpel. Same for his buddy's and the armor. I don't expect his little group to come back from the relay, except maybe him and the one with the armor. They got one guy as tough as a krogan, but he doesn't look like he'll make it, Gat I think his name was… well it doesn't matter. How much firepower could you send at them?'
'What are you talking about?'
'I finish with the mission, they get exhausted, I dump them somewhere, say a small colony no-one will miss, you send ships after them, boom'
'Shepard, that's not going to work'
'The galaxy will see this as a huge favor, you know how much they hate him. The Council would condone this. Think about it'
'…I can send three cruisers and a dreadnaught. That's it'
'Good. Kill what's left of them and salvage what you can. Any colony in mind?'
'I got one, yeah. You'd better hope you know what your doing. I'll send the coordinates for the colony, tell me when it's time. Hackett out'
And with that, the transmission cut out, Shepard smiling smugly as he deactivated the terminal. Aaron would never know what hit him, and he'd be revered as the hero for bringing that menace to justice. He heard a stirring behind him and smirked evilly. He could prepare for the mission later, for now he had… other priorities to attend to.
Tali was hard at work calibrating the drive cores of the Normandy when somebody poked her shoulder. She turned around to see Aaron, with the sunglasses on, grinning at her. "Yo" he greeted.
"Oh, hey Aaron" she turned away from the terminal. "What do you want?" she asked.
"Nothing, really. It's just that we're about to go on a suicide mission, so… moral support?" he offered.
She sighed and went back to the terminal, holding her helmeted head in her hands. "To be honest, I don't know if we're going to make it out of this"
"Pretty sure we will" Aaron assured.
"You don't know that" she snapped. "It just figures, I finally solve my life crisis and now I'm probably going to die in the next couple of hours… Keelah, I don't know what I'm going to do"
"Well, there's me" he leaned in next to her. "You got me to talk to"
"I don't know what you like about me so much. I'm just some random quarian, I'm not special in any way"
Aaron hummed. "You remember the first day you met me? Just fell into the universe, killed a reaper?"
"I remember you were arguing with a salarian and almost chopped his horns off"
"I did, but that's not the point. I would have been lost in a world I didn't know existed, but then you found me, lead me to Shepard before he turned into a dick, well things took off from there"
"Wouldn't you still have became a space pirate?"
"Heyeah, but it would have been a lot more confusing on the 'ol psyche. Well, it's because of you I wasn't lost. And you were the first person in this world I ever told about my past, look I just want to say thanks. I'm not good with romance or anything like that. So, thank you for setting me straight, we're going to survive this, good luck"
"Well, uh… thanks, I guess" Tali blushed slightly behind her helmet as Aaron slowly nodded.
"Right, so… seeya later, we'll get through this, until then" with that, he sprinted to the elevator, letting out a huge sigh before fist-pumping the air in victory.
As the Normandy approached the omege-4 relay, everyone, including the Saints, were tense. This was uncharted territory they were heading into here, so they needed to be at their A-game. So while Aaron was chatting with Boss in the cargo bay surrounded by the other Saints Kinzie approached him with a large, disc-shaped doohickey.
"Aaron, there you are, I've been looking around forever trying to find you. Here, I made you this"
Aaron awkwardly took the large, metal dish. "Um, thanks. What is it?"
She smirked. "Well, I thought we'd need some extra firepower when we get to the base, so I made this out of some scrap metal and a little help from Tali. Smart girl, could use some hacking tips… anyway, it's a fine attuner for the dubstep gun, it'll make it a lot more powerful"
"And I'm supposed to lug this big thing around with me?"
"Nah, it only has a one-time use, after that it'll burn out. Just screw the end on when you want to use it"
Aaron had a questionable look on his face. "Um, how much more power are we talking here?"
"A LOT, like… a lot a lot"
"'Cause that tells me so much, Kinzie. I'm not so sure about this, last time I used something made by you-"
"Oh come on, the napalm almost worked"
"I almost got killed my a wrestler named Eddie!"
"Fluke, it was a fluke! Just trust me on this, okay?"
"Fine, fine… this blows up and launches me into space though your ass is grass" she nodded just as the intercom came on, Joker's voice ringing out.
"Attention all crew members… well what's left of you. We're about to go through the relay, so hang tight. Here goes nothing…" Aaron and Boss looked at all the other Saints in the room.
"Well, do or die time" Boss noted grimly.
"Hey, don't worry man, we got your back" King assured.
"Yeah Boss, we'd follow you to hell and back, ain't nothin' gonna scare us away from helping you. Especially a bunch of bugs" Gat added. "Now why do I feel a weird feeling when I talk about following someone to hell?"
"We're with ya, homes" Pierce said.
"Yep" Shaundie agreed.
"Okay then. You guys might want to hang onto something, we're going into the middle of the galaxy at FTL here" Aaron reminded. All their eyes widened as they held onto anything bolted down as the ship went into FTL. All their bodies were being jarred as the corrupt relay took them to their destination. After what seemed like an eternity the travel ended and the Saints breathed a sigh of relief. They wall looked out the window to see where they were, and the scenery was not pretty. A giant, orange endless void, filled with the wreckage of thousands of ships that had tried to venture into the Omega-4.
"Damn… this place is a graveyard" Keith noted .
"No kidding, look at this place. Someone would probably pay a fortune for salvaging rights to this" Kinzie said in awe.
"Probably? Look how old these ships are, a museum would pay a fortune for these things" Aaron corrected. After about two minutes or staring alarms on the ship were ringing. "Great, what now- oh what the fuck" Aaron swore as he saw giant, metal eyeball-like drones start swarming the Normandy, red lights in the center of them charging up and firing red laser at the ship.
"Oh, this is bad!" Ben shouted, reaching for his gun, along with the other Saints.
"Yeah, good thing Shepard pitched in for that shielding upgrade… good God I hope he pitched in for those upgrades…" as Aaron pleaded, one of the eye's managed to hit a soft spot, blowing a hole in the cargo bay.
"Shit, breather masks, now!" Boss ordered. The Saints nodded as they put breathing masks on, save for Boss and Aaron, and immediately opened fire on the eye drone.
"Damn, this things just won't go down!" Pierce yelled as he dodged a laser from it.
"Tell me about it!" Boss yelled. He got frustrated with the ball and switched to the plasma launchers in his arms. The eye quickly took notice to that, and focused in on Boss.
"Oh no ya don't!" The floating drone swerved a bit to the left to see Aaron vault up towards it, his sword black and blue from the dark eezo. He performed a downward slash on it's red optic, causing a slit to open and reveal the insides. The eye had enough of this and flew out the hole in the docking bay.
"Wuss!" Aaron called after it, than saw the ship heading towards two narrow pieces of ship debris. "Oh damn, Joker is not- you guys might want to brace!" as soon as he said the Normandy attempted to squeeze through the debris, the armor scraping badly against the old ships as most of the eye drones blew up trying to follow it.
Kinzie popped up immediately. "Whew! Well, looks like the armor upgrade came in handy. Also, wuss is back"
"Huh? Oh, for the love of…"Aaron grumbled as the eye bot he slashed before came back from the opening it made earlier.
"Screw this" Gat said, hopping onto multiple crates to get eye-level with the eye. He then took his two knives out, jumping at the drone and embedding his knives in the slit, hanging off the hilts. The eye drone flew away as the other Saints looked through a window as the drone Gat was hanging off of was flanked by two more drones. The Saints watched in horror as the drone Gat was hanging onto went between two narrow pieces of debris, causing sparks to fly in all directions as the entrance got narrower and narrower, the two drones following. An explosion ensued, and they all thought the worst when they saw a miracle happen. Coming out of the smoke, Gat was riding one of the eye drones, and holding his arms to the side with each knife in hand, a eye drone impaled on each knife, he was essentially dragging two more with him. With great effort, he threw one of the drones at another oncoming one, causing them to explode. To finish off the one he was riding on, he took out a disk grenade, shoving it in the slit on the drone, and jumped off, still dragging another drone impaled on the other knife. Another intact drone appeared and shot a laser at Gat, but he dodged, beating the intact drone with the impaled drone, the explosion sending him through the hole in the Normandy's cargo bay. Not deterred, he slid on his feet, grabbing his alien pistol off a crate and whipped around, sliding backwards as he aimed at the eye drone with the grenade in it, firing once and hitting his mark, causing the drone to explode.
He stopped sliding once he reached where the awestruck gang was. Gat's response was to simply pick up his alien rifle and ask, "Don't we have bugs to kill?"
"Gat… that was the most badass thing I've ever seen" Boss and Aaron said at the same time. After a moment of stunned silence, the door to the cargo bay opened, Garrus stepping in, wearing his helmet.
"Shepard said you might need help with the eye drone things. Where are they?" he asked.
"Um… they're gone, Garrus. Gat took care of it" Aaron explained.
"Oh. Well in that case- oh spirit's…!" he cursed, looking outside into the ship graveyard. The Saints followed his gaze and met with the sight if the collector base in the distance; in reality it didn't look much different than the collector ship, just larger in appearance, and more stationary. Speaking of the collector ship, said vessel was leaving a giant hole in the base, on a intercept path with the Normandy.
"Well that's not good" Boss summed up.
"…Shepard got the thanix cannons, right Garrus?" Kinzie pleaded.
"No, he didn't think we'd need them" Garrus said.
"Damn, Shepard's cheap-ass will be the end of us! -Sigh- I'll take care of it" Aaron announced, grabbing the amp Kinzie made for him and heading towards the hole in the wall.
"What are you doin', homey?" Pierce questioned.
"Meh, the usual" Aaron summed up, jumping out the hole and gliding to the top of the Normandy. He magnetically clamped his feet to the ship and formed his black dubstep gun, screwing the amp on the end and turning the dials up, the gun humming with energy.
"Don't blow up, don't blow up, don't blow up…" Aaron silently pleaded as he took aim with the gun, pointing the weapon at the collector ship. "Well, here goes nothing. FEEL THE WUBS!" Aaron screamed at the top of his lungs and fired, a giant stream of white, purple, and blue energy coming from the end of the dubstep gun. Being in space, no-one heard what Aaron yelled or anything coming from the beam. However, once it hit the collector ship, loud dubstep music played throughout the entire ship, affecting all the collectors within. A sort of hypnosis had overwritten them, causing all the insect-like beings to stop what they were doing immediately… and dance where they were standing, all the drones doing various forms of breakdancing, the robot, or just flailing their limbs wildly. One was spinning on it's head. However, eventually the sound waves became too much for the bugs, and one by one their heads started exploding, the collectors chirping in pain until there were none left, the entire ship left dead.
As the ship laid still, Aaron unscrewed the now burnt-out dish from the dusbstep gun and threw the gun ahead of him into the space, gathering dark eezo into both of his hands and into two blue and black spheres and joined them together, making one giant sphere while pointing it at the now dormant ship.
"Harbinger!" he shouted, "we're here for payback, bitch!" with that, he fired the large dark stream, guiding it so the beam cut the ship and half while making a sizable hole in the base. Feeling drained, he dispersed the stream, the two halves of the collector ship now drifting away from eachother. The ship was no more.
Watching through one of the numerous cameras outside and inside of the base, the collector general watched with great distaste as Aaron easily just destroyed it's ship. Harbinger underestimated this… Saint. At first he had thought he was some error in the great plan. But now… no, he would not let some former organic, ignorant, weakling like him interfere with the reapers, even if he was some unexplainable and unforeseen anomaly in the plan.
He watched with greater distaste as the Saint flattened the burnt disk that was the amplifier and throw it like a frisbee at the camera, losing feed. If Harbinger believed the organic sentiment of sighing in disappointment, he would, but ultimately saw no point in it.
He had so much potential, too. No matter.
"ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL"
As the Normandy flew ahead, it caught up with the dubstep gun Aaron threw, and he caught it, and went back into the cargo bay.
"Okay, you all better have seen that, because I will NOT do that again" Aaron said, catching up with the Saints.
"Believe me, we saw it. Show off…" Boss muttered under his breath. Before anyone could comment they heard the ship shudder, Garrus swearing under his breath.
"Uh, what's going on? That's sounds bad!" Pierce noted in a panicky voice, attempting to go to the elevator.
"Joker must be making a emergency landing, we took a lot of damage" Garrus reasoned. "It might be bumpy, just hold on" the Saints did as he said, waiting as the Normandy roughly touched down on a outward extension of the base.
All the Saints and Garrus were on the floor groaning, when Shepard commanded over the comm, "Everyone in the briefing room. Now. That's an order"
"Hey fuck you too, buddy…" Shaundie groaned as she picked herself up. "How longer do we have to listen to the guy?"
"We can stop at the end of the mission" Aaron answered. "Alright, everyone okay?"
"We're fine, Aaron" Boss stated. "Alright, you heard the commander, let's file into the briefing room"
If everyone was tense before, they were at their peak now. They were at the collector base, the home base. Go in, find a way to destroy it, mission complete. Only problem was the overwhelming odds they would likely face. But it was a suicide mission after all…
The briefing room was packed with both teams as Shepard squeezed through. "Okay, EDI managed to get us a map of the place" he explained, a green hologram of the interior layout of the base appearing from the table. Kinzie whistled when she saw the intricate designs. "So here's the plan" the commander continued, "is we push ourselves through the main brigade, going through the center, through the entrances where we landed" a red line was formed, showing their path. "Only problem is the collectors will lock all the doors. I talked with Mordin and Miranda, and we agreed the airvents will be the only unlocked place. Someone will need to be in their to reach the main doors and unlock them while another team runs a distraction to divert a majority of the main forces while a secondary team unlocks the airlocks for the vent hacker to proceed while fending off collector forces. If the team doesn't unlock the airlocks in time, residual heat will build up in the vent. Layman's terms whoever is in the vent will melt if the team isn't fast enough" everyone gulped at that.
"Practically a suicide mission" Jacob summed up. "I'm in"
"Not unless your tech savvy your not. We need someone who's good with tech to do this quick enough" Miranda explained.
"Which would leave Tali, Legion, Kasumi, Ouro… or Kinzie" Aaron summed up.
"Ooohh no, you are not sticking me in a oven tube!" Kinzie objected.
"Please" Boss pleaded.
"Okay, fine" Kinzie relented.
"I can offer my Saints to help with the distraction force. But I'd have to lead the team, I don't trust anyone but Aaron with them, and he needs to be on the team helping Kinzie" Boss added.
"That's fine, I suppose" Shepard grumbled. "In that case, me, Aaron, and Miranda will lead the team assisting Kinzie. The rest of you will be running distraction op, lead by, -groan- Boss"
The camera panned to Aaron. "Aw man, I gotta work with the Bitch…"
Camera pans back to Shepard. "Deal with it, my squad, my selection. Everyone okay with the plan?" Everyone nodded. "Alright. Move out!"
Everyone was now ready. The Normandy was abandoned, save for Joker and EDI who were working on restoring the ship. Kinzie, Aaron, Miranda and Shepard were going through one opening in the base, while the rest of Shepard's team and the Saints went through a different opening. If all went to plan, the teams would meet up at the rendezvous point, provided Kinzie got the doors opened.
"Yo Aaron! Good luck!" Boss called from the other side of the platform.
"Same to you, bro!" Aaron called back.
"You putting your armor on!?"
"Nah, it's too good a occasion! I'll look more badass without it! Stay safe!" Those were the last words they exchanged before the teams went their separate ways.
"Oh my GAWD, it's hot in here" Kinzie complained as she moved through the vents. "If I melt in here I'm going to kill someone"
"Don't worry, we'll get to the airlock valves in time" Aaron assured. The three-man squad moved through the chitin-esque interior of the base, hitting multiple valves, following the tube, room after room. The distraction squad had already encountered heavy resistance, but the collectors were likely met with overwhelming force, if what the radio was sounding like.
"That's how we Saints fight!" Boss yelled from the other side of the comm, explosions ensuing.
"That's right, you mess with two of us, you mess with all of us!" Gat reinforced, slicing noises heard from the other end.
"Okay, at a roadblock. Need help" Kinzie announced. Aaron nodded and went to a green holographic panel, hitting it and causing it to go red, the airlock in the vent opening. "Kay, thanks, Moving up"
"Well that was easy, the others had a few collector guards" Aaron noted.
"Yeah, well thanks for jinxing it. collectors" Shepard announced as soon as they entered the next large room, collectors flying in, one of the glowing orange.
"YOU HAVE BECOME A NUISANCE, AARON. BUT YOU CANNOT STOP US" Harbinger boomed as he and the rest of the collectors landed and opened fire on the squad.
"Hey guys, another airlock!" Kinzie shouted over the gunfire.
"Little busy at the moment!" Aaron shouted back, forming a purple lmg and firing into the group of collectors.
"DEAL WITH SHEPARD. AARON WILL BE DEALT WITH PERSONALLY." Harbinger ordered, rounding in on Aaron.
"Think you can take me!? C'mon then!" Aaron challenged, bringing the blue laser katana out. The possessed collector attempted a biotic charge on Aaron, but he expected this and slid under him on his knees, slashing upwards and cutting Harbinger in half.
"YOU KILL ONLY WHAT CAN READILY BE REPLACED. EXPECT ME SHORTLY" Harbinger warned as his drone turned to ash.
"Clear!" Miranda called as she killed the last collector with a warp.
"That's right you greasy-ass punk! You ain't grabbin' my face now, are ya you zombie motha fucka!? YOU AIN'T GRABBIN' IT NOW ARE YA!?" Pierce yelled from his end of the battle, laughing maniacally as laser shots sounded from his end. From his story Aaron assumed he encountered a scion. Following that thought he hit the airlock button.
"Man, it was getting hot. Thanks" Kinzie gave a thumbs up as they proceeded.
The next area was actually more of the floating platforms, connected. And like before Harbinger and a squad of collectors flew in, another squad coming from the opposite end.
"THIS POINTLESS SKIRMISH MUST COME TO AN END, AARON. YOU CAN CHANGE NOTHING" Harbinger droned.
"You just don't shut up, do you?" the Virtual man exclaimed, ditching the lmg for a minigun. Shepard responded by firing a concussive shot at Harbinger, stumbling him while Miranda widdled his shields down with warp shots, a fire blast from Aaron incinerating the possessed drone.
"THIS IS NOT THE END…"
"Yeah yeah, whatevs" Aaron brushed off.
"Uh, guys? Getting a little hot in here… not gonna lie, I'm seeing steam" Kinzie said.
"Got it" Aaron confirmed, mowing down the collector forces with his minigun and sprinting to the airlock button, unlocking it.
"Man, that's a load off. Alright, last airlock, then I'll reach the doors" Kinzie explained.
"Bugs to the left, bugs to the right… Garrus, get that one! Damn, feel like I'm in a ant hive or something…" Ben muttered from his end.
"Got one! You see that one Boss!?" Ouro asked.
"Yeah, good work kiddo. Aaron, why didn't you tell me this guy was this good? I mean damn, I'm impressed" Boss admitted.
"Well I thought you wouldn't like him" Aaron answered, putting a chokehold on a collector who tried to jump him, snapping it's neck.
"Hey, he denounced from Cerberus, right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Eh, just wondering. Mordin, burn that one! Gotta go, meet up with you later!"
"Alright, dawg" Aaron cut the transmission as they entered the largest room so far. One squad of collectors lead by Harbinger flew in, another coming from the other end, and husks climbing up from the sides. Aaron formed a sniper rifle and shot Harbinger's wings before he could even land, causing him to fall to his death.
Shepard switched to his shotgun and started blasting the husks away one by one. "Kinzie, you doing good?" he asked.
"My cloths are smoking, if that tells you anything" she panted. In all honesty she wasn't looking that good.
"You'll live. Move-urk!" Shepard grunted as he was picked up by Harbinger, having possessed another collector.
"A POINTLESS EFFORT, SHEPARD" Harbinger said, choking the commander. The general raised a fiery fist in a attempt to end him, but someone tapped his shoulder from behind. He looked over his shoulder to be met with the barrel of a pistol, which promptly blew one of his eyes out. He dropped Shepard and tried to grab the pistol, but a blue blade cut both of his arms off.
Aaron then kicked Harbinger in the face, causing him to be tossed over the edge of the platform. More and more collectors started flying in, and Aaron got a little worried.
"Boss, there's too many of them, we need to fall back!" Shaundie shouted over the radio.
"I agree, this is a fight we can't win. Retreat is necessary" Thane said.
"Ergh, fine! Ruin my murder spree… Aaron, Kinzie, how we doing?" Boss asked.
"I'm burning alive, in case you were wondering!" Kinzie screeched. If one were to look closely, they would see small flames erupting from her cloths, and Aaron needed to hurry.
"Shit, forgot about the airlocks!" Aaron cursed to himself, sprinting over to the button and hitting it.
Kinzie sighed greatly as the heat was lessened and she put the fires out, than rushed to the end of the vent, jumping out into a room that connected to the rooms the two teams were in. She immediately went to a panel in the wall and ripped it out, hacking into a terminal in the back. The door on the left opened first, Boss and the rest of the Saints and Shepard's team on the other side.
"Move, move, get in!" The leader of the Saints shouted, yellow lasers whizzing over his head, he and the rest backing into the room as they fired at the collectors beyond. The door closed just as the one on the right opened, Aaron, Miranda, and Shepard on that side, dozens of collectors firing at them.
"In, now!" Shepard ordered, the trio scrambling into the room, sweat forming on Kinzie's brow as she attempted to close the door. A collector took aim at her and fired a rocket, the projectile nearing closer and closer to her, but the large doors closed just as it got to the edge of the entryway, exploding on it's surface.
"Damn!" she yelped, falling on her back, "too… too close. My god, I almost died of that heat…"
"Get up, we need to move out" Shepard ordered, pointing to a corridor ahead. All the Saints and even a few members from his own team glared at him, but they forcibly shrugged it off and followed him.
They ended up in a large cavern, the pods collectors used to store humans lining the walls.
Jacob walked up to one of the pods, a woman with brown, short-cropped hair within. "Hey, I think this is one of the colonists from Horizon" he said. As if by magic, the woman's eyes opened right after he said this, and she started screaming, clawing at the pod and trying to escape. Everyone looked at her in confusion, but those stares of confusion turned to horror as her skin started to melt, her legs likely dissolving as her body was lowering and lowering. Her screams grew quieter and quieter as her hand melted in a last ditch effort to escape.
"Holy hell, did you just see that?" Boss shakily asked. Being a Saint, he'd seen some messed up stuff, up to what Zinyak was doing, but melting people… even seeing that shook him, and if it shook him he didn't want to know what the other Saints were feeling.
Aaron shook his head and yelled, "guys, they're melting people! Get these pods open, get 'em out!" Both group's eyes widened as they hastily ran to the pods, prying, smashing, or in Grunt and Gat's case, beating the pods open. When the last one was opened, Aaron was surprised to see doctor Chakwas fall out, and upon closer inspection, all of the Normandy crew was there. A groan caused him to look away at one of the opened pods that were away from the group, a figure with black, bangy hair falling out, wearing black lipstick and nail polish.
A figure with the same suit as they rest of the Saints had.
"Oh my god… Boss, get over here, it's Matt!" Aaron gleefully yelled, running over to the hacker's side. Boss turned around and did a double take, running over to join with him.
"Matt, Matt, you with us? Say something man!" Boss pleaded, shaking his shoulder as Aaron helped him up.
He groaned and opened his eyes. "Ur, Boss…Aaron? Where am I?" he asked groggily, getting on his feet as the two Saints let go of him.
"Matt, we're on a time crunch here, so I'm going to make this brief: you got captured on the collector ship and they were about to melt you down into goop, but we stopped them" Aaron explained.
Matt rubbed his eyes and looked around the dark cavern. "Oh. Wait, I remember now, those swarm things dragged me away and put me in one of those pods… bloody hell, I remember watching people getting melted. Wait" he looked at Boss. "Where's Asha? I don't see her here. Was she taken too?"
Boss rubbed the back of his helmet, while Aaron and the other Saints looked down. "Oh don't tell me…" Matt pleaded.
"Matt, I'm sorry, but Asha, she… she didn't make it. The one that possesses the collectors, Harbinger, he… punched her breather mask out and tossed her into space. It killed her" Boss informed, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Oh… oh no…" Matt moaned, hanging his head. Aaron understood why he was so upset. After he fled Steeleport he went to England and joined MI6, and Asha was his handler for years. They grew a close bond as partners, became best friends, and now she was dead.
Matt looked back up. "I'm-I'm fine, guys. Really. I can mourn later, alright? Where are we anyways?"
"In the collector base. At the center of the galaxy" Aaron said.
"Oh. Wait, what?"
"Shepard!" Boss called, interrupting Matt. The commander walked over. "Okay, what's the deal, what's happening?"
"As far as I know, the crew is okay. From what Chakwas said people were being melted down and pumped through the tubes above" he gestured to the large, metal tubes decorating the ceiling. "The plan is to have them make it back to the Normandy while we head deeper into the base, Mordin will escort them there"
"You might need more than Mordin, Matt, you want to go with?" Boss asked.
"Normally I'd say no, but I'm not feeling that well. Sure, I'll go, but I'll need a gun"
"Well damn, here" Pierce said suddenly, popping up out of nowhere and giving him a collapsed collector rifle. "I picked this up, but it wouldn't work for me. Maybe you can get it to work"
"Pierce, they're DNA locked, you lovable moron. Actually, hang on, let me try something" Aaron muttered, grabbing the rifle from Matt's grasp and running dark eezo through the gun, the blue and black electricity causing the gun to fizzle before the lights turned from yellow to green, and the gun un-collapsed. "There, should work now" the virtual man said, giving the gun to Matt.
"Wait, you could have done that all this time?" Shepard questioned.
"Well I didn't know it could work. And no, I'm doing it again so Cerberus or the Alliance can get a working one. Last thing you guys need is this kind of tech"
"But you'll still have it! And your's seriously going to deprive the human military this technology!?"
"Hey, were gangsters, last thing we need is amping up the power of people trying to kill us. Plus it'll spite people that we have better tech more"
Shepard grumbled before he motioned them back to the group, explaining the plan. "Okay, so Mordin and Matt will-"
"Wait, how'd he get a working collector gun?" Miranda asked.
"I unlocked it for him. And no, you and Cerberus ain't getting one. End of discussion" Aaron snapped.
Miranda huffed while Shepard continued, "as I was saying, they'll guard the crewmembers as they make it back to the Normandy. For us, we'll be following those tubes, they'll likely reach wherever the melted humans go, and give us answers for why they're doing this. EDI said the only open route is a large tunnel leading to the other side of this cavern"
"The only problem" EDI informed, "Is that I am detecting a high concentration of seeker swarms. Too many for Mordin's countermeasure to take effect. The only way to circumvent this is to have a biotic maintain a field big enough to transport a squad to the other side"
"So, who gets that job?" Aaron asked.
"Theoretically any biotic could do it" Miranda stated.
"I would be able to if someone hadn't drained my biotics" Morinth grumbled.
"Hey, we already discussed this" Aaron scolded. "So how about Jack? She's pretty powerful in terms of biotics"
"Eh sure, I'll do it. It'll need to be a pretty small squad, though. A three-way should do it" she explained.
"I detect a secondary route next to the tunnel, that is relatively swarm-free, however the end is barred by a locked door. The team in the swarm-infested tunnel will have to reach the end and unlock it for them before they are overwhelmed by collectors" EDI summed up.
"Okay, Boss, you and Tali will be with me, I'll need someone to hack the door. The rest of you will go along the secondary tunnel and provide a distraction, like last time"
"Cool, I'll lead the distraction team. Should be a breeze" Aaron offered.
"Okay. You all have your orders. Let's move"
Everyone made a gesture of agreement and moved out. Aaron waited for the Saints but didn't see them, and looked back to see them surrounding Matt.
"Man, it's great to see you again! We thought you were dead homes!" Pierce exclaimed.
"Yeah, then I would have been bored. It's no fun when you don't have a hacking rival, the aliens in this universe suck at everything when it involves hacking" Kinzie said.
"We're glad your back, Matt. We thought we lost you" said Shaundie, patting Matt on the back.
Aaron chuckled softly upon seeing this. Back in the past the Saints were just some gang. Now…now they acted like a family towards one another. Loved eachother like brothers and sisters. In a way they were a family.
"Family I never had…" Aaron whispered to himself. He never really did get over the deaths of his parents. But now he had them. His brothers and sisters and purple.
"What'd you say?" Gat asked.
"Uh, nothin', nothin'… let's go guys, we got a distraction to run" Aaron stuttered quickly, motioning the Saints and Shepard's team to follow him.
"Okay guys, the fields up. Let's hurry up, I can't keep this thing up forever" Jack snapped at the squad. Boss, Shepard, and Tali had entered the enormous tunnel mentioned in the plan, black clouds of seeker swarms flying all around the bubble Jack was keeping up.
"Alright man, we'll make our way to our end, most of the collectors should focus on us. Just get ready to open that door, I don't want to get bottle-necked in here" Aaron radioed from his end.
"Got it" Boss said, readying his zin rifle. The other two readied their weapons and Jack moved onwards, pulling the bubble with her. It was a smooth walk until Jack needed to stop for a bit, a squad of collectors flying in, but was mowed down by gunfire.
"Well they know we're here now. Jack, you okay to move yet?" Boss asked, looking over his shoulder at her.
"Yeah, I'm good. Let's go" walking forward, Jack pressed onwards by dragging the bubble, although Boss noted she had a slightly less upward posture now.
"Harbinger, incoming!" Shepard barked, firing a concussive shot at a glowing mass approaching, but missed and hit a collector beside him.
"TEAR SHEPARD APART. TAKE THE SAINTS ARMOR" Harbinger commanded, pointing to the bubble.
"What is with my armor everyone wants? Oh yeah, heh, it does this" raising his arms, Boss fired plasma balls from his hands, nailing all the collector's and Harbinger, dropping them like flies.
"Those things are way overpowered" Tali noted.
"I know" Boss smirked, then opened the comm channel, "Aaron, how you doing?"
"Being shot at if that's what you mean! There's a lot of these guys! I lost count at fifty! Also, tell Shepard his team is doing REALLY well. Your doing well guys!"
"Thanks, now can you focus on the collectors!?" the voice of Garrus snarked out in annoyance.
"Fine. Killjoy. So, how you doing?"
"We're not getting that much resistance, really. Few collectors and husks here and there"
"Cool. Uh-oh, praetorian. Gotta go!" Aaron signed off, Boss nodding to Jack to keep moving. Husks started climbing up from the sides again, but Shepard and Tali had their shotguns ready, blasting them before they pulled themselves all the way up while Boss kicked them in the face, causing them to fall to their death. The group crossed a corner and saw a light exit, the doorway leading to the door the others would come from. The only problem it was at the end of a very long walkway, and to make it worse dozens of collectors were far behind them, but catching up, and Jack was panting while visibly exhausted while she tried to keep the field up.
"Man, this is going to be a long-ass walk. Jack, hustle, we gotta move!" Boss encouraged, putting a hand on her shoulder as he helped her limp-run towards the opening, Tali and Shepard firing at the collectors behind them for covering fire. They were mere feet away when Jack fell to the ground, and a round from one of the collector's managed to bounce off Boss's armor and graze her shoulder. That one small wound enraged her, causing to turn around as biotic energy flared around her, Jack screamed as she pushed a giant biotic field in front of her, the field blasting away all the swarms and killing all the collectors, She smirked as she walked away nonchalant, Tali running past her and getting to the door the other team was at, gunfire heard on the other side.
"Hey Boss, any minute now would be appreciated!" Aaron yelled from the other side.
"I'm working on it, I'm working on it… there, got it!" Tali cried triumphantly, the door opening as Aaron and the rest of the Saints and Shepard's team pouring in, collector gunfire raining in after them. Tali quickly closed and locked the door, Aaron showing a few holes in his stomach, which quickly healed.
"Alright, we're here, now what?" Gat asked, speaking the question on everyone's mind.
"EDI, what's the plan?" Shepard asked, holding two fingers to his ear.
"I advise that only a three-man team proceed to the central chamber. The collectors have congregated outside of the door the secondary team came through, and are preparing a breach. The rest of the teams will stay behind and hold collector forces off while the three-man teams proceeds to the objective" the AI explained. "Also, Mordin and Matt came back with the crew safely. They are currently on the Normandy and Matt is helping with repairs, along with the engineers"
"Alright, good" he cut the connection, Shepard hopping up on a ledge so he could be viewed by both teams. "Okay, here's the plan. I'm not going to like it, but Boss, Aaron, your going to need to come with me, there's likely going to be heavy resistance in the main chamber, I'll need both of you"
"Got it" Boss said, he and Aaron hopping up to join his side.
(A/N- Now's a pretty good time to be playing the 'Suicide Run' song)
Shepard glanced to the rest of the teams. "Everyone else is to stay here and hold off the collector reinforcements. I'm not going to lie to you, it's not going to be pretty" he started pacing, "the collectors have proven to be a brutal enemy, but we've beaten the reapers before" he pounded his fist together. "It doesn't matter how big the enemy is, or how numerous. We beat the odds with Saren and the geth" the Normandy team nodded in agreement, Grunt pounding his fists. "Where we're going is the answer to why the collectors are doing this, and we're going to crush them for what they've done, regardless of the answer. But I need you all the hold the line here" he pointed at the squads, "they think they can push humanity around like this? Look where we've gotten. We've done the impossible and are knee-deep in the collector base. So let's finish this" everyone cheered at this. "Aaron, Boss, c'mon" the bother smiled as they went with him, the teams taking defensive positions.
Riding on a platform on a large, floorless cavern, the trio saw squads of other collectors riding on floating platforms towards them, aiming their guns. Harbinger was among them.
"YOU WILL NOT PROCEED. THIS ENDS NOW" he boomed, throwing a dark warp at them.
"Hey, we've gotten this far haven't we!?" Aaron shouted, catching the warp and infusing it with his own energy, throwing it back at him and causing the entire platform to explode. Aaron grinned at Boss. "Let's do this"
"Hell yeah" Boss said, jumping to one of the platforms. Aaron glided to on of the walls, horizontally wall running as he charged up a dark stream, continuously firing a laser that killed any collectors or husks in it's way.
Boss landed on a platform and uppercuted a collector, sending it into the air, which forced Boss to jump up and suplex it, snapping it's neck and killing it. Another attempted to punch him, but Boss merely ripped it's arm off and used it to bat a few collectors off the platform. Harbinger possessed a collector and sent a wave of dark biotics as him, but Boss saw this and vaulted over it, appearing behind him. Harbinger turned around but was too late as Boss kicked him hardly in the groin, causing him to fly thirty feet in the air, Aaron air-dashing towards him and bisecting him with his sword. The virtual Saint landed next to Boss.
"Back to back!" Boss barked, holding his two alien pistols out. Aaron complied, forming a lmg as the two Saints went back to back, spinning around and shooting any opposition they saw.
Shepard was slowly walking from platform to platform, taking out the revenant he retrieved from the collector ship awhile back, thermal clips littering the ground as he mowed down husks and scions alike, even managing to kill a couple of possessed collectors with it. He vaulted over cover and crushed the head of a downed husk with his boot, sighing in satisfaction as he saw the platforms littered with corpses. A collector tried to sneak up on Shepard, but he swung his arm up and hit it with the back of his fist without even turning around, a omni-blade materializing and aiming between it's eyes, Shepard thrusting and stabbing it.
Lowering their smoking guns, the two Saints looked around at the carnage they caused. "Aaron?" Boss asked.
"Yeah?" he asked.
"Please tell me we have some way of recording that" Boss pleaded.
"I'm sure Kinzie can get something out of the camera in your helmet" he assured.
"Sweet" Boss said, nodding his head in Shepard's direction as he walked up to the two.
"Good work" he commended, "reckless, but good. The central chamber is ahead, let's go" pressing a green dial, Shepard put two fingers to his head while the platform floated onwards. "EDI, what can you tell me about this thing? Where are these tubes going?"
Aaron was gazing up at the tubes as EDI explained, "I've taken multiple scans while at the same time with the assistance of Kinzie and Matt hacked into several data caches revolving around the colonists. As far as I can tell, the colonists are melted down, and the fluids pumped through these tubes, into a structure where it is synthesized to form bio-mechanical parts"
"So, it's turning people into… parts? Parts for wha- holy mother of God…" Boss gasped when the platform came around a bend, showing the source of the tubes and seeing where they pumped the colonists.
"The fuck… that just… that just isn't right… this is how they make them…?" Aaron stuttered upon seeing what was before them.
"I can't believe it…" Shepard muttered upon seeing what the other two saw.
"It's a reaper, Shepard" EDI eerily said. Indeed, what they saw before them as the platform connected to other platforms and the main console to the base. Hanging above them was what looked like a massive, giant, metal human skeleton, but only hale finished. The upper half looked like it had details missing, while it didn't even have a lower half. The head looked like a typical skull, with two mandibles at each side of it's spiked, vacuum-like mouth, two inactive eyes on the right side of it's face, one on it's left. The thing even had teeth and a upside-down heart shaped hole for a nose. The tubes connected into four vats of red liquid as it was pumped into the reapers back.
Put a cloak and hood on it, and they would be looking at the physical manifestation of an actual grim reaper.
"Is this how it's done? This is how they make reaper's!? they melt an entire species down and turn them into, into this!?" Aaron screamed, gesturing to the mechanical abomination.
"Correct. And of the hundreds of thousands of humans they processed so far, it is not even halfway completed" EDI explained.
"How many… would they need?" Boss nervously asked.
"Millions. Possibly billions. This wouldn't even be a full reaper once constructed. It would just be used as a core for a mass-produced chassis of sort, forming the reaper starship. An example being Sovereign's design. It is likely sovereign's core was a reaper version of it's old species and then fitted into a reaper ship. I assume the same is said for all reapers"
"Damn, so they melt a species down, make one of these things with the man-goo, than stuff them into a reaper suit to be used as a core. It's horrible, but efficient. Guys, we have to bring this all down, we can't let them do this. It's messed up" Aaron said.
"From the records, they do this to every species. It seems they attempted to build a prothean-reaper, but their genetic makeup wouldn't allow for the synthesis of the conversion of the organic-to-synthetic process, hence the secondary solution; their subjugation"
"This is just sick" Shepard said, shaking his head. "EDI, we need to bring this thing down. How do we do it?"
"The four tubes pumping the genetic material into it double as a support. Destroying the tubes will bring the reaper-larvae down" EDI instructed.
All three nodded. This reaper was unacceptable. They couldn't just sit idly by while millions or even billions were killed just to make one mass-murdering ship to add to the reaper fleet. So with added fervor, Aaron formed another dark stream, using the laser to sweep past the tubes, destroying them all and causing fires to erupt around the larvae before it fell into the gorge below.
Aaron let out a heavy sigh. "Phew, it's gone. It's gone guys"
"We still have to blow this place, bro. They'll just kidnap more people and try to make another" Boss explained.
Before anyone could respond, Joker contacted them through comm. "Uh, guys? I know some heavy shit is going on over there, but, uh, the Illusive Man is here, and he wants to talk to you guys. Patching him through"
"Right now?" a incredulous Shepard questioned. "Fine, patch him through"
Aaron and Boss looked at eachother and frowned. Why would the Illusive Man contact them right now? The mission was almost over, they knew what to do, what did he want?
A hologram of the Illusive Man popped up on Shepard's omni-tool. He turned to face Shepard, a smile on his face. "Ah, Shepard. Outstanding work, I knew I made the right choice in-"
"Whoa whoa whoa whoa, hold up, how the hell are you talking to us?" Aaron asked. "We're literally in the middle of the galaxy, surrounded by black holes and exploding stars that would surly cause interference, yet here you are contacting us with a video hologram to boot" Aaron crossed his arms. "So if you can do all that through a omni-tool, what the hell was the point of the QIC?" when no-one answered, he groaned in frustration and threw his arms up. "Whatever. TIM, whatcha want man? We're kind of pre-occupied here"
Illusive Man frowned before he continued, "as I was saying, the technology in this base will surely be a boon to the coming war. As such, I don't want you to destroy the base. I'm sending EDI specifications on modifying a core point in the base to send out a pulse; this pulse will exterminate any life in the base, but leave the structure intact"
Aaron stepped up to the hologram. "One, that makes about as much sense as you being able to talk to us right now. Two, we ain't-"
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Shepard asked, cutting Aaron off.
"Shepard, humanity has been striving for their rightful place in the galaxy since the first contact war, this base will allow us to do so! And we need this base, you said it yourself, the reapers are coming. We need the technology here" the Illusive Man had a gleaming look in his unnatural eyes. One both Saints didn't like.
"…Fine, I'll do it. Your right, we will need this technology. I'll rig the core, don't worry" Shepard assured. Aaron and Boss did a double take on this. They didn't expect him to actually agree to this.
While Shepard was pulling up the core node and attaching the frequency to the pulse, Aaron nudged Boss. "Hey, uh, we're not going to let him go through with this, are we?" he whispered.
"Hell no, but what can we do?" he wondered.
"…Mutiny?" Aaron offered.
"Fuck it, our partnership with him was over once the mission is complete, and we're almost done. Hey Shepard!" Boss called. Aaron rolled his eyes. They were really doing it, they were really mutinying against Shepard. But they had no choice, they couldn't let Cerberus of all people have access to this technology. For all they knew they'd try to make their own reapers out of other alien species, and since they had the IFF to the omega-4 relay, they were the only ones access to it.
Shepard grunted in annoyance. "What is it-" he stopped dead once he got up and turned around, only to see Boss pointing one of his alien pistols at him, and Aaron pointing a black-plated .45 Fletcher at him as well.
"Mutiny, bitch" Boss summed up.
Shepard scoffed. He should have seen this coming. "Really? After all I've done for you, this is how you repay me?"
"What you've done is be a asshole to us, insulting us every which-way!" Aaron snapped. "And that's not even why we're doing this! We can't just let you give this base to Cerberus!"
"I should have known you Saints would betray me" Shepard growled. "All of you are nothing but lowlife gangster who's had nothing but lucky breaks in life"
"That's a damn dirty lie" Boss growled back, stepping forward. Unknown to them, a metal groaning was heard, Aaron looking behind him and seeing something that caused his jaw to hit the floor.
"Uh, guys…!?" Aaron tried calling to them, but the two were currently to distracted with yelling at eachother.
"You don't have a freaking clue what the Saints have been through! The people we lost! Nothing about our lives have been 'lucky'!" Boss argued, pressing his gun to Shepard's forehead.
"Hey, Boss, you really need to-"
"I don't care what your pathetic group has been through, your worse than the mercs in my opinion. No coordination, no skill…"
"How about I show some skill buy crushing your spine with my foot?"
"Both of you! We have a serious problem!" Aaron screamed, pointing behind them. Both Boss and Shepard quit their banter and humored Aaron by looking behind them, only to look in horror as a giant, metal hand reached over the platforms and grabbed them, pulling the unfinished reaper larvae up, it's three eyes and a light on it's chest glowing a evil red as it glared at them with evil malice.
"Oh, that's just perfect…" boss groaned, hanging his head. He glanced at Shepard and hissed, "we'll finish this later" then looked at Aaron and asked, "what do we do"
"I suggest we kill that thing and - oh come on, now of all times!?" Bringing a rocket launcher out, Aaron fired upon a trio of collectors flying towards them, an explosion killing two but one landing safely, Harbinger possessing it.
"YOU CANNOT KILL THE LARVAE, AARON. WE WILL STOP YOU" Harbinger vowed, throwing biotics towards the group. They took cover as more arrived, Aaron sprinting over and grappling with Harbinger.
"It's over, Harbby! Once we kill that thing, it's all over!" Aaron grunted, trying to push Harbinger back.
"WE WILL STILL COME. THE CYCLE WILL CONTINUE"
"Whatever, we're still stopping this!"
"WHY WASTE THE HUMAN LIFE? WE WILL PROCESS HUMANS TO BUILD ANOTHER. YOU WOULD JUST BE KILLING HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF HUMANS"
"They're dead either way since you'd just kill or enslave the extras! It's lose/lose! So screw you, your logic is fault!"
"YOU HAVE SO MUCH POTENTIAL. WHY WASTE HELPING ORGANICS? THEY WILL JUST BE PROCESSED"
"Unless I stop you. Which we will"
"EMPTY THREATS VOICED BY DESPERATE ORGANICS. THEIR MEMORIES ARE PRESERVED, THEIR MINDS JOINED WHEN WE CREATE OUR BRETHREM. WE ALLOW ORGANICS TO BE REBORN, WITH NO PAIN, NO REGRET, NO DEATH. WHAT ALL ORGANICS STRIVE FOR, THE PERFECT 'AFTERLIFE'. YOU BETRAY YOUR OWN KIND BY DENYING THEM THEIR 'RAPTURE'"
"Religions a cold, calculating machine like you wouldn't even understand" Aaron smirked. "So if reaper AI's are made of the millions of minds of organics, wouldn't that mean that their minds are organic?" Harbinger tried to push Aaron back, but Aaron responded by grabbing him by the throat and lifting him up, in the same manner Harbinger had lifted Aaron up on the collector ship before he killed Asha. "Face it, your logics flawed. You only continue with this because you don't want to admit your wrong"
"I AM THE ONE THAT LEADS THE MASSES. THE CATALYST GUIDES US"
"Who?" Aaron questioned, shaking Harbinger.
"WE DO NOT KNOW HOW A BEING LIKE YOURSEL CAME TO EXSIST. A BEING LIKE YOU IS IMPOSSIBLE. BUT WE WILL NOT LET A MERE MISCALCULATION TO THE TO THE CYCLE STOP US. THIS EXCHANGE IS OVER" Harbinger finished, aiming his hand at Aaron as a dark warp charged. Aaron looked at the proto-reaper and saw a large, red laser charging in it's mouth. Aaron saw his opportunity and threw Harbinger in it's path, his body absorbing the large laser that was fired from the reaper's mouth, disintegrating him. The larvae ducked under the platforms while Boss ran up to Aaron.
"Aaron, I don't know what we're gonna do, man! Our guns aren't hurting that thing!" Boss explained, ducking down as the reaper appeared on the other side of the platform, slamming it's fist down and causing one platform to fall.
Aaron thought for a minute and said, "I got a dumb idea. But it'll work" with that, he ran towards the reaper, blue blade out. The reaper attempted to slam it's fist down on Aaron, but he blocked the massive fist with the blade, kicking the hand away with the force of a stomp power. It attempted to swat him with the other hand, but Aaron used telekinesis to stop the hand mid-air, forcing it back. Aaron then leapt up, holding the sword above his head as he soared towards it's chest. With a mighty roar, he stabbed the sword into it's chest, and started to do the impossible; he started draining the reaper dry of it's element zero reserves.
"He's not…" Shepard gasped.
"Oh yeah he is! Get him Aaron!" Boss cheered, throwing a fist up.
Rapidly, the larvae's eyes started to dim more and more, blue and black electricity arcing all over it's body as it flowed into Aaron, and with one final yell, Aaron jumped away from the reaper, it's eezo reserves depleted as it fell into the depths for the final time, Aaron hopping back to Boss and Aaron safely, the collectors flying away.
"Well, that was aweso- AAGH!" Aaron screamed, clutching his head and falling down as black and blue electricity arced over his body wildly.
"Aaron!?" A worried Boss yelped, running over to his side. "What's happening!? Man, answer me!"
Of course Aaron knew what was happening. Mordin warned him of it long ago, if he ever absorbed a source of eezo bigger than his own reserves his body would glitch out and go into overload as it tried to cope. Aaron didn't think there was a source big enough, but apparently a baby reaper was good enough. He knew there was a risk of absorbing it, but he didn't know it would hurt so much!
While Aaron was writhing in pain, the platforms started falling. Before the one they were on started descending Shepard snuck up on Boss, stabbing an omni-blade through his power armor, causing the wound to spark as blood leaked through.
Boss punched Shepard away as he shakily stood up, the powers granted by the power armor failing as the hunk of metal started to weigh more and more. "You son of a double-crossing bitch!" Boss screamed, shooting his alien pistol madly at him.
Shepard vaulted behind cover as the platform fell. "I'm not the one that performed mutiny!" he yelled back.
Aaron tried to get up, but as soon as he got on his feet, a platform fly at high speeds towards them, slamming into Aaron and carrying him away. "Aaron!" Boss screamed, trying to reach him, but another platform hit the one he and Shepard was standing on, causing them to fall.
(A/N- Play 'End Run' now)
When Boss came to, he was under a small beam, laying on the ground. he pushed the beam off of him, getting up slowly in his malfunctioning armor, being severely weighed down. Shepard was already up and on the radio, but turned around and started running away. Boss looked behind him and saw a large cloud of seeker swarms heading towards him. Adrenaline fueling him, Boss forced himself to run away from the swarms, the armor still weighing him down, but he managed to fight through the exhaustion.
Harbinger's voice boomed from behind the cloud.
"HUMANS. THIS CHANGES NOTHING. YOU ONLY SAVE WHAT CAN BE BROUGHT UPON BY THOSE INFINITELY OR GREATER"
Colletors opened fire upon them, coming from all sides as both humans saw a cliff in front of them, Normandy flying in front of it.
"THAT WHICH YOU KNOW AS 'REAPERS' ARE YOUR KEY TO SALVATION THROUGH DESTRUCTION" harbinger voiced, dozens of collectors coming up behind them, running in front of the cloud.
The airlock to the ship opened, Joker along with Gat and Shaundie leaning out, firing their guns, alien lasers and avenger shots giving the two covering fire. Shepard managed to leap safely through the airlock, but a few platforms in front fell, giving a wide gap for Boss's jump.
"God…damn…this…is…heavy…" Boss panted as he feebly jogged to the edge, attempting to jump to the airlock.
Shaundie's and Gat's eyes widened when Boss's fingers grazed the bottom of the airlock, falling down. It looked like he wouldn't make it when a 'whoosh' was heard and a arm came out of nowhere, grabbing Boss's outstretched hand. Boss looked up and to his surprise he saw Aaron, his sword black and blue and stabbed into the side of the Normandy as support, one arm holding on to the sword while the other hung on to Boss. He looked like he was still in pain from the overload, electricity still arcing over his body. With a huge grunt of effort, Aaron threw Boss into the airlock.
Boss expected Aaron to jump in after him, but to his and the others great shock he leapt back onto the platforms connecting to the base.
"Aaron! What the hell are you doing, c'mon! We gotta go!" Boss called, he and the other Saints waving at him to get into the ship.
Aaron looked over his shoulder, and took his sunglasses off, a pained look in his eyes. "Guys, I can't let Cerberus get this base, it'll mean bad news for all of us. I have to detonate it remotely… I'm sorry"
Boss realized what Aaron meant and ripped his helmet off, throwing it on the ground. "NO! No, you are not killing yourself to blow this damn place up! We'll find another way!"
Aaron grew angry. "You think I want to do this!? There is no other way! I'm sorry…" he put his glasses back on. "Cya, homes" with that, he bore his sword as he charged into the collector masses.
"No, Goddamnit Aaron! Don't do this! Let go of me!" Boss screamed as he attempted to go after Aaron, Shaundie and Gat holding him back.
"Boss, we don't want to lose him either, but he made his choice! We need to leave now!" Shaundie urged.
"Yeah, it's killing me leaving him, but it won't do any good if we die too!" Gat explained. Before Boss could protest Shepard hit the airlock door, the door closing as the Normandy sailed off.
The collector general, having the same design as the collectors but had a bigger, more insect-shaped body, skittered around on the floor, having to listen to Harbinger's mental beatings, a holographic image of a large reaper visible among the green screens it watched the other collectors from.
"YOU HAVE FAILED US. WE WILL FIND ANOTHER W-" Harbinger was cut off as a blue and black blue cut the general's head off, the severed and multi-eyed appendage rolling to Aaron's feet. He glared up in spite at Harbinger's hologram as the cuttlefish-like hologram closed up, the hologram deactivating. Not wasting his time, using his overloaded energy Aaron teleported to where Shepard had set the pulse setting. He lifted the core node up, looking at his fist. "Damn… Mordin better have been right about this…" he muttered to himself, before he shoved his fist in the core, screaming as he flooded his dark eezo into it, before he was consumed by a large explosion.
As the Normandy flew away from the base, blue and black explosions echoed and blasted throughout the structure, chunks being disintegrated as the ship flew by. When it reached outside the base, the entire structure was consumed in a blue and black explosion, the shape of a blue fleur expanding from the base as a large explosions occurred, finally destroying it. The Saints were only able to see this explosion with the feeling of dread washing over them before the ship went into FTL.
The mission…Boss didn't know whether to call it a success or failure. They discovered the intention of the collectors, and stopped them by blowing the base up, ensuring Cerberus wouldn't get their mitts on it. As a bonus they rescued the entire crew and even Matt, and no-one on Shepard's team had died.
As for the Saints… they had lost one of their most treasured members. They were all devastated, but Boss was the most out of all of them angry and in mourning. Even some of Shepard's team lowered their heads, Tali included, and a few others like Thane and Grunt, hell even Samara. Now Aaron couldn't cure the Ardat-Yakshi. He had made quite a few friends on his journey.
But Boss's way of mourning was trying to beat the shit out of Shepard while the Saints held him back, Shepard's team holding Shepard back. Boss's armor, being damaged, was stored safely, so currently he was without it.
"This murdering bastard just killed Aaron! He killed my best friend! He was like a brother to me, you fucker!" Boss screamed, a tear seen in his eye. If Shepard hadn't ruined his armor, he could have grabbed Aaron before he sacrificed himself.
"Maybe if you hadn't committed mutiny he'd still be alive!" Shepard shot back.
"Maybe you should all calm down!" Surprisingly, Joker was the one to speak up here. "Yeah, he killed himself, that's tragic, I get that. But he also did it to blow that base up! I can't be the only one that agrees that was the best option!" The Saints and even Shepard's team nodded.
"Fine" Ben said. "But this mutha fucka just killed our playa. We can't let him walk away from that"
"Well you'll have to" Shepard sneered. "I talked with the Illusive Man. He was… less than pleased about what Aaron did. He short-sighted, but… point is me and him want you Saints gone. We're approaching a human colony in the traverse soon, Genesis. Once we get there, I want you all gone. Immediately"
"Fuck you to" Pierce spat, walking towards the elevator. The other Saints glared at Shepard harshly, than joined Pierce in the elevator, heading to Aaron's room.
Once the door slid closed Jack noted, "that was a pretty dick move you did, Shepard"
"You know they're not going to forget this" Miranda reminded.
"I don't care" Shepard snapped. "They can rot in hell for all I care. Besides, they're nothing but lowlifes, what can they do?"
"They're WARRIORS" Grunt defended. "I've seen them fight, they're more than worthy. More than you are, even. Only a coward stabs one in the back"
"Aaron was more than some overpowered gangster, he had a kind soul!" Tali added. "He helped the quarian fleet on multiple occasions, he helped me! In fact he and the Saints helped us more than you ever did!"
"I don't need to hear this!" Shepard yelled at the top of his lungs, causing everyone to flinch. "He's gone, and that's that. I don't want to hear any more of it, or I'll consider it mutiny. Do I make myself clear?" Everyone nodded. He smiled sickly. "Good. I have a message to make. I'll be in my cabin if you need me" with that, he entered the elevator, the squad looking at eachother, questioning their commander.
The Saints had held a vigil of sorts in Aarons room, each drinking their preferred poison as they gazed upon his few belongings like precious artifacts. After a few hours of mourning, they reached Genesis, Boss carrying all of Aaron stuff as the Saints departed. The Saints all agreed if anyone would to handle his stuff, it should be the one who he was closest to and knew most. So as the Saints and a whining Urz marched off the ship, Aaron's stuff, and CID, being carried in a case by Boss, the broken armor in a separate case by Kinzie, the entire Normandy crew stepped out to say goodbye.
"I'd say we'd miss you, but that'd be a lie. Get lost" Shepard ordered, pointing deeper into the colony. For some reason the buildings seemed abandoned, and there was no activity going on in the small village. It almost seemed deserted.
"We'll kill you for this, Shepard. Mark my words, we will kill you for this" Boss swore, glaring at him through his own sunglasses.
"Sure you will. C'mon team, let's-" Shepard was cut off as Ouroboros walked away from the team and joined the Saints side.
"I'm going with them" he explained.
"What!? But you're Cerberus! You can't go with them!" Miranda argued.
"Oh, yeah. I quit. Bitch" the Saints smirked at this.
Randall was next to walk to them. "I'm going to. Aaron was the one that got me here, and these people are half as good as him, I'm pretty sure my life is with them"
Shepard shrugged. "Suit yourself. More lives wasted if you ask me. Where are you going…!?" Shepard loudly hissed as Grunt stomped past him and went to the Saints side.
"These people… I've seen them in action. Especially this one" he tilted his head to Gat. "They are warriors, they are strong. Stronger than you. You are just a warrior overtaken by madness and greed, something my people strive to avoid. I want nothing to do with you. Gat is… a preferable person to lead me. I would be honored to have me join you"
"Uh…sure" Gat said, shaking Grunt's hand, then headbutted him. Grunt smirked at this than chuckled lowly.
To Shepard's shock Jack joined them as well. "You know what, you guys seem like you know how to party. And you seem way more interesting than Shepard and his moral grounds with red tape"
"I'd like to join, too" Morinth said. Her mother tried to reach out for her, but she retaliated by saying, "I want to be free now, explore the galaxy, and have fun doing it, without the threat of being hunted by my own mother. I don't blame you, Samara, for what you did, but I want to be with them"
"I… I understand" Samara smiled sadly, encouraging her to go on.
Morinth joined the Saints side, adding, "I may not have biotics anymore, but I promise I won't be a burden"
"Hell, we never had freaky space magic, and we did fine. You'll fit right in" Pierce assured.
Zaeed walked over to join them. "Bollocks, screw it. Merc life only gets you so far. You guys have been successful, from what I hear. What's the pay?"
"Whatever you want" Boss assured.
"Then I'm in" with that, Zaeed joined them.
"Will you be stealing stuff?" Kasumi asked.
"Pretty much" Keith summed up.
"Yay! Ooh, I usually work alone but Kinzie and me have been getting along greatly! Plus that Matt kid looks pretty cute…" Matt nervously chuckled as Kasumi sauntered over to them, and he whispered to Kinzie, "your friends with a thief!?"
"Hey, what can I say" the hacker shrugged. "She knows her stuff when it comes to hacking, plus we get along so well. But I think she's after you~" she sang out.
"Bloody hell…" he sighed.
Boss chuckled when he saw the new additions to the Saints. "Well well well, Sheppy, looks like half your crew just mutinied. What are you going to do about it?" He asked, a vengeful smile on his face.
Shepard angrily glared at what remained of his crew. "Well!? What about the rest of you!?"
"To much work to do, need to get back to STG. Sorry Saints" Mordin apologized.
"I don't think my Dad would appreciate me being a criminal. I would if I could. Sorry" Garrus explained.
"Not that I'm tempted by the offer, by I can't have a bounty over my head. Can't" Jacob said.
"Like I'd be caught dead working with you…" Miranda grumbled.
"My disease hinders me, Saints. I would, but I'm afraid soon I will need medical attention. good luck in your endeavors" Thane said, bowing to them.
"With my Father dead, the Fleet will need me. I can't. Keelah se'lai, Saints" Tali prayed.
"The geth require our services. Further interaction… not possible. We apologize" Legion apologized.
"Wow, your entire crew hates you. That's really something" Boss jived. Everyone but Shepard cracked up at this.
"Fine. Those of your that were not brain dead enough to go with them but enough to make me mad, let's go back. The rest of you… your dead to me" with that, Shepard stormed off, what was left of his crew begrudgingly following him.
"Up yours too, buddy! You barely even helped us anyway!" Jack yelled to him, throwing the middle finger up to him. Once the Normandy lifted off and flew away, Boss looked at the others. "Thanks, guys. It's helps you being here, it really does"
"No probs" Kasumi smiled.
"So, now that that's over with… how do we get out of here?" Keith asked. That question was answered when Alliance ships had just exited FTL, and were slowly approaching the colony.
The Saints and their new members saw the ships from orbit. "Aw shit, he sold us out" Pierce summed up.
"'Course he would. Boss, what's the plan?" Gat asked.
Grunt pounded his fists while everyone else readied their guns and cracked their necks. Boss lowered the case and held up the two zin pistols.
"We do what we do best, people. Fuck shit up while looking like badasses doing it"
A/N- Dang, almost 14,000 words. Longest chapter ever! And probably most emotional. Can you guys please review on this one, I want to know peoples reactions to it.
Anyway, Shepard and the Normandy is gone, the Saints are made, and them team has been split, and now Alliance are here. How will they get out of this?
So now, it's going to focus on the Saints growth. And if any of you have any Mass Effect OC's you want me to insert here, I'll take them, regardless of race or… anything really. Just PM me if you want to put someone in the gang. As for Aaron… I say nothing.
He he he, man, this chapter… we did it people! ME2 is done with! Now for… 2.5, I guess, than 3. Oh yeah.
Well, you know what I say now.
CYA!
