Galactic Fallout

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Chapter 5 - Strange encounters -

The sword created faint clicking noise as it entered its sheath, the only other sounds being the low whistles of the wind blowing through the craggy rocks and ancient ruins that scattered the barren earth.

And standing amongst the desolation was Michael, his eyes fixated on the freshly decapitated Deathclaw right in front of him. He had taken down this one, and two other monsters, in a space of a minute, all in an attempt to save what he had thought to have been some scavengers. But as he had gotten within range to fire off a shot he had realised his mistake, however outlandish it might have seen at the time.

The Scavengers were not human, hell they weren't even ghouls or super mutants, they were aliens.

In truth it he wasn't caught completely flat footed by the revelation as he was fairly certain whatever the falling rock had been had to have been extra-terrestrial in origin. But the fact that they were aliens placed more weight on himself due to his past experiences with such events, making him tense up at the mere thought of them.

But by the time he had spotted them he had already shot the leading monsters head off and dragging all the attention to himself. Still he couldn't complain that it had been bad, all the attackers were dead and he wasn't hurt, but that still left the issue of the survivors.

"Ahem"

Michael felt his whole body go ridged, whoever or whatever these things were one of them was now standing only a few feet behind him, and it was clear it was trying to get his attention.

Michael's only response was to scratch his arse.

It coughed again, its soft sounding "ahem" sending his body into a ridged shock, with the mere sound of the alien bringing back painful memories.

Thoughts of sterile white corridors and the cries of abducted humans pounded into his skull only to mix with the various flashes of inspiration that would suddenly appear and disappear in an instant. All of this gave Michael an incredible large and painful headache.

"Rea uoy irghallt" said a voice from behind him once again, its soft fluid tone trying to coax Michael to turn around.

Letting out a sigh Michael only muttered "Oh God why" to the world as he turned around to face the alien creature behind him. However whatever reservation he had he could not argue he was immediately taken aback by her, and there was no denying it was a, by the way she looked. What was immediately apparent was the aliens blue skin and sweeping head crest that looked like a line of tentacles, but apart from that she seemed almost human. She had large bluish eyes and facial markings, or maybe tattoos, that looked like freckles and eye brows, what was especially surprising was how attractive Michael immediately thought, before crushing the thought down in his head. On top of that was her humanoid body, with her standing around 5'8 and clad in a green and white jump suit, with the green covering her lower body and left arm, while the white half encased her right arm and upper chest. And what a chest!

'No bad thoughts' Michael swore as he repressed another impulsive flash in his mind, quickly taking a step back in response. He was really glad he wore a scarf otherwise he would have gone bright red.

"nthka uoy rfo oyru lehp"

Michael stammered unsure of how to respond, this had not been what he had been expecting. Scavengers were one thing, aliens were another, but this, this was insane.

"Liara I wouldn't get to close" Tali warned as she began pulling herself to her feet, "it could be dangerous."

"I am sure he is perfectly safe" Liara called back to her friend, not taking her eyes off their saviour, "I mean he wouldn't just attack us out of spite".

Tali let out a half-hearted laugh that adequately summed up the situation. Liara knew this was insanity, this… Well 'person' had just sliced up two off the massive creatures that were now littering the floor around them, only after blowing the head off an additional third. And now she was trying to make small talk with a stranger that she was fairly confident could not understand her. Tali had been sceptical to talk him, and she was fairly certain it was a him from the shape of the alien's body. And while, whoever he was, had been contemplating the fallen monsters she and Liara had discussed what to do, which was very little. They couldn't run Tali needed a patch for a suit on top of medicine for the wound, all of which was only available, as far as they knew, in the various crates still scattered around their wrecked camp. Still both had been worried that Jailruss had managed to make off with the last of it, and now confronted with a rather brutal attacker, both she and Liara agreed to try and talk to it first before making any sudden moves.

However in truth the Asari was clutching at straws, they had lost their ship, their beacon was over a hill which may be populated by more of the same creatures that attacked them and she was fairly certain from atmospheric readings that in all directions there was radiation as far as the eye could see. If they left they would die, and right in front of them was a guide, or at least Liara hoped he could be a guide. Because while he seemed tough enough she was still not sure they could trust him, I mean he kept his face covered, if it was at all male.

The alien muttered something to Liara, causing her to break from her momentary day dream.

"Erm… I am thankful for your assistance" Liara said hesitantly giving a bow, "I am Liara T'soni"

The strange person tilted his head and let out another series of words that made even less sense.

"Oh dear" the Asari sighed realising the magnitude of the language barrier "Liara T'soni" she repeated, tapping her chest with her hands.

The alien shouted out the same words he had said prior, causing Liara to let out another sigh of desperation; this was going to be more complicated than expected.

"Liara T'soni"

The alien in response repeated the same words again and again to her, causing the Asari Doctor to moan, was this part of his species habits or was it really finding it hard to understand her name.

"Liara T'soni"

"Michael Reading" it repeated now touching his chest.

Letting out another sigh Liara closed her eyes and turned away from the strange person before it could respond. Although it was clothed head to foot, it seemed to lack the ability to understand what she was trying to tell it.

"Tali do you have any idea what it is saying" she asked calmly now facing the Quarian.

Tali response was a little haphazard as she was holding a series of medical syringes in one hand and some memory cloth under her chin. "Maybe his name" was her only reply as she slowly shook a bottle then sprayed her exposed blood covered leg.

"His name…" Liara began before feeling herself gets shunted away as 'Michael' barged past.

'Woah, this aliens dumb' Michael thought as he once again tried to spell out his name. He had been trying to tell her who he was for a while now, before she started telling him her name. Although 'Liara T'soni' still could mean thank you in her language, hell to Michael it might as well be screw you for all he knew.

Either way when she had turned around to her friend he had seen smoothing that had made him drop into one of his many 'autopilot' moments.

The other alien had been standing, or balancing depending on how she had been wobbling, a few feet away from them. She had pulled one of her bow back lags up onto a crate and was now spraying it with some strange aerosol, for who knows what reasons. Inspecting her in a similar to the last alien, Michael was once again surprised by her humanoid form and was confused even further by the clothes she was wearing. To him it looked more like a space suit than actual clothes, with a deep black colour scheme along with the occasional dash of purple cloth and silver metal held together by bracers and belts. Although like the priors clothes it was form fitting hugging her lithe and thin form, while hiding her head under a purple hood and grey helmet, topped with a large purple visor and blue flashing mouth piece.

And that was when he saw it, her wounded thigh with its long slashing gash in her upper half of her right leg that she had raised onto the crate and was now spraying with that strange can.

From their Michael had seen she was hurt and probably needed help, never mind the repercussions or the issue he needed to help, it was the right thing to do.

"Hey, no, get off" Tali shouted as she began to back away from the strange alien who was now in front of her. "No I said…" Tali began before seeing 'Michael' bend down and begin to examine her leg, a gloved finger hover just over her exposed mauve skin.

In an act of surprise Tali raised her hands to cover her leg, while trying to hobble away from this new lifeform, but only slipped and fell backwards over a crate, landing painfully on her bottom.

Letting out a groan Tali could hear Liara's voice calling her. "Tali are you alright" she asked her standard tentative care in the way she spoke.

"Yeah sure, don't try and help me or anything" Tali groaned and she tried to pull herself up only to find a similar gloved hand in front of her face. Looking up the Quarian saw 'Michael' as he had called himself holding out and outstretched hand for her to take, she was briefly wondering why so many species in the galaxy had five fingers, before taking it and gingerly standing to her feet. Taking a deep sigh as she steadied herself she felt Michael place another hand on her shoulders as if to steady her causing the young women to tense up. "Err… thanks" said hesitantly, knowing the full reason she fell over was due to 'Michael' anyway.

After she regained her balance, Tali looked towards the masked figure; his head tightly wrapped up in cloth, and slowly tried to explain her situation.

"Look I am fine ple… p-pleas… p-ple-eas…" the Quarian suddenly lurched forward feeling her whole body lurch forward as she felt her nose explode and some gunk woosh out and smash across her screen.

"Oh ancestors, its everywhere" she cried before activating a cleaning routine on her helmets interior. Just as quickly she turned towards Michael and pushed him slowly away with a hand, a firm tone coming from her modulator, "I am fine" she shouted her angry tone causing only defining silence to follow.

Raising his hands Michael slowly edged off, backing away from Tali and slowly turning away from her.

"You okay Tali" Liara asked, stepping up beside her friend and looking down at her with a warm smile.

With a begrudging moan Tali replied "Yeah, sure" she said spraying her leg once again before slapping the patch over leg and sealing it with Omni Gel. "Just feeling a little groggy"

"Are you sure you will be alright?"

"Yeah just a graze" Tali lied, "trust me it is not bad"

Liara let out a low hmm as she looked back down at the Quarian, "Tali are you sure you don't need any more protection"

"What about you, you can't expect to run around a radioactive desert in a jump suit" Tali replied trying to take her mind off the pain in her leg.

"Well…"

Taking a deep sigh Tali tilted her head up to look Liara in the eye. "Take some armour off the bodies you will need it more than them, you can get changed in the pod"

"What?"

"Just do it"

"Move, move, move!"

The heavy footsteps of the entourage sprinted up the hill, the sand under their feet spilling away as the dune they climbed collapsed out from them under them; only the voice of Garrus calling out to them, was keeping the troupe focused under the star lit sky. Under the moon lit sky the shapes of two mechanics could be seen sprinting past the sniper, a Salarian named Rentola and a Drell whose identity escaped Garrus at the time.

Firing into the darkness the former C-sec agent fired one, two, three rounds towards the formless shapes running at them, as he counted the last of his men to sprint towards them he felt a pang of guilt for those they had lost. Out of the six survivors only four remained after landing in what appeared to be a derelict building. One had been another mechanic and the other scientist but they were the first to fall to the attacks, one disappearing in blood curdling screams, and the other being torn to shreds by these new enemies.

"Move it now, their gaining on us!"

As the Turian shouted this, the faint outline of some humanoid creature began sprinting, almost crawling, up the slope behind them. Garrus caught its blank milk white eyes in the darkness, its arms swinging randomly as he shun his guns torch on it, blowing the pasty skinned thing backwards a few yards, the sniper round eviscerating its upper torso.

Kicking it in the face the creature tumbled down the hill and out of sight, hitting some planks of broken wood on the way down.

"Gralk, Vorral form a perimeter, give these two time to gain some distance"

The last of the group turned around and began firing blindly into the darkness, the four eye Batarian's quickly altering their aim when one of the ugly beasts spilled out from the blackness and into their torches gaze. Garrus himself used the two twin's lights to spot for the attackers. However as one of these aliens blown apart by the force of their weapons another would instantly take its place, clawing their way out from behind rocks, and from inside the odd ruin they had crashed in, slowly growing in size and tenacity.

As he capped another two in the head Garrus briefly wondered what they were, even animals learn to keep their distance, these things just kept coming and seemed undaunted by the two dozen of them already dead.

More and more of these strange creatures began to pour out of the darkness and Garrus with the two Batarians would cut them down, slowly slicing them apart with precision aiming, but with each fresh kill they got a little closer and pretty soon they were on them.

Raising his arms in defence, one of the Batarians began to wrestle with one of the monsters, trying to stop whatever it was from sinking its saliva covered mouth into his face. "Gah, where do they keep coming from?"

The twin however let out a cry of laughter as he blew another two back with a huge concussive blast. "They remind me of that one Vorcha chick Gralk, ya know the one you went out with?"

Nailing the strange humanoid in the head, Garrus watched its body fall to the ground lifeless, freeing Gralk from its hideous face.

"Yeah real funny Vorral" the other twin spat, kicking the corpse away from him, before unloading into three more that had just decided to come running out of the darkness.

Garrus looked up hearing a cry from behind and turned to look at the Drell yelling at him. "Garrus we have a problem"

Dashing to his feet Garrus turned to give the two Batarian's a nod before running to the origin of the cry. As he ran he felt his feet padding on what looked like ordered wooden planks, laid out along the sand, with strips of metal running down either side. Whatever these were though had to wait, he thought, as he continued to charge up the hill until reached the top. Skidding to a halt the Turian felt the gut wrenching tug of gravity almost send him hurtling over the cliff into the emptiness bellow.

"This is bad" the Salarian stated, looking off into the distance, "we can't make that jump" referring to the massive gap that separated them from the opposite side of the canyon.

Quickly checking the distance himself, Garrus noticed that the opposing cliff edge was lower than this one, a set of similar wooden planks just visible through the sand, a large red container precariously hovering over the edge. It was a large gap, but it was not insurmountable.

"You can make it"

"What?" spat the Salarian once again, "are you insane?"

"You first!"

"No way" replied the Salarian, stepping away from the edge, some rocks breaking away and tumbling into the void bellow.

Looking back at the two twins, Garrus noticed that the creatures were once again surging for an attack. Setting himself into a crouch position, Garrus fell into the zone and quickly sniped another two of the monsters in quick succession, their wrinkled and mangled bodies hitting the floor quickly.

"Okay you" Garrus said now glaring at the Drell, "jump!"

Without hesitation the Drell took a few steps back before breaking into a run and leaping over the gorge.

Hands swirling, legs kicking the yellow green alien swung like a madman with each of his limbs until he felt ground under his feet, his leg buckling on impact and giving way. Dust rose suddenly as he began to roll onto his side and skidded to a halt, looking back up at the massive gap he had just cleared.

Holding down the trigger once again the Turian turned to the Salarian again as he nailed another gaunt faced creature "Okay now you" Garrus ordered.

"No!"

"What?"

"It's suicide!"

Wincing at the sheer stupidity of the Salarian, the Turian looked at the two twins before jabbing his finger at both of them. "Okay, you two, time to jump!" He yelled over the screams of the fresh wave of attackers.

"Kay boss" shouted one of them, who holstered his gun as he began to steadily climb the hill, his twin not far behind.

"Your insane" the Salarian yelled as the two whipped past and charged over the edge in a colossal jump.

"Got it" grunted one of the Batarian's who had clamped his arm down on the large metal box on the far side.

"Shit, shit, shit" yelled the second who had misplaced his jump and was now hurtling towards the rocks below the bridge.

With a grunt and a heave Gralk stretched out his arm and seized his brother wrist "Got ya Vorral" he grunted as he slowly tried to haul his friend up. However it was not that easy.

The cracking or rocks and grinding of metal their ears, as the metallic container they had managed to reach slowly began to creak over the edge, balancing precariously on a tiny sliver of dirt, the back lifting up and the front dipping deeper and deeper into the gorge.

With panic shouts the two Batarian's both began to clamber as fast as they could, one grabbing onto an old rusty ladder their faint echoes of their "No's" radiating through the canyon

Garrus could only watch as the brothers climbed higher up the container that dangled over the former bridges edge, gradually tipping further as the two Batarian's climbed high and higher up it.

The final crack singled it however and the first brother's yell broke the air, as Garrus watched Gralk lose his grip as the container began to now drop to a steeper incline, slowly sliding over the edge until it finally just went.

"Son of a…" was the last words from the Batarian as he hit the floor of the canyon, quickly followed by his screaming brother who was immediately crushed by the collapsing metallic crate he was still clasping onto in desperation.

"Vorral, Gralk" Garrus shouted after them, with some hope of survival but bittersweet remorse in his tone.

However as he stared after his two men the Turian was seized from behind by two pale, gamy arms, their five fingers trying to dig into his skull. Grabbing the wrist of the creature Garrus threw it off and into the canyon, its weak frame giving way to the combat honed Turian.

Spinning on the spot Garrus holstered his rifle and seized his pistol, letting off three rounds that sunk deeply into three of oncoming creatures. Two of them went down, but the third leapt at the former C-sec agent but as it did it instantly burst into flames.

Garrus stared at the Salarian who edged closer to his side, his right hand glowing with a green holographic interface.

"Nice tech, where'd you get it" the Turian muttered, the heavy tone carrying the question 'why get that out now!'

Now shoulder to shoulder with the Turian, the Salarian grunted at him as he let off another wave of flames incinerating another attacker. "Its new technology, can't say much more"

"Well whatever it is its making them think twice"

What Garrus said had truth, upon seeing the flames the strange humanoids had run back into the darkness and could be seen staring at them, their silhouettes heavy against otherwise pitch black night.

"Come on" came the yell from the far side!

"Shut up Feron" shouted the Salarian across to the Drell, "it's to…"

"Oh by the spirits" Garrus sighed, as he made the decision right then and there, "I wish you luck."

"Wha….?"

Grabbing the Salarian by the scruff of the neck Garrus took him quickly up and over his head, carrying him aloft almost like a pro wrestler would do before dropping them onto his knee. Rather he threw the poor Salarain over the lip of the cliff, seeing him fly half way to the lower cliff side, but gradually beginning to fall.

Whipping out his pistol Garrus fired a single concussive blast at the poor mechanic who was hit in the back of the neck and was catapulted to the far side of the trench with a sickening thud.

Not waiting to see any response, Garrus then charged off down the hill. Seeing him run at them the silhouettes in the darkness, leapt out, their clammy almost rotting hands tried to seize him and pull the Turian down. Swiping them away and kicking the leader back Garrus skidded to a halt before breaking into a running sprint toward the cliff. Salarian's and Drell were lighter than most species, hence why they made the jump, Batarians and Turian's however, well Garrus was hoping that there wouldn't be a repeat performance from earlier.

Breaking at the lip Garrus felt the air under him as he began to kick madly to reach the other side, as Rentola and the Drell stared wide eyed as the Turian slowly sank out of view and down into the canyon.

For a second, the two survivors said nothing, not only had over half of them died in the last hour, but now their team leader had disappeared down into the hole in front of them.

"The boss is not going to be happy" the Drell muttered to himself as he slowly left the Salarian and walked towards the edge.

As he did though a two fingered hand reached up and grasped the dusty rocky floor, gripping it tightly as a second arm came into view. Wasting no time the Drell seized the hand and pulled Garrus up, who began to crawl steadily away from the edge, panting as he went.

"Well… well… we… of by the spirits" the Turian managed to say through his short breaths, rolling onto his back and letting out a moan. Four people in three hours he thought, four people he was meant to protect. Was finding evidence really worth all of this?

A buzz from his com link caught his attention though dragging him away from his self-imposed suffering. "H-hello… he%lo… doe* %…. anyone…. #* ead me."

"Garrus here, who is this" the Turian managed through his pained breaths.

"Garrus, of thank the goddess" came a familiar voice as the interference cleared, "its Shiala, I have been trying to reach anyone from the crew for the last hour, where are you what's your status?"

Garrus took a single long look at the canyon before responding.

"Poor" came his reply, "…poor."

Authors Notes

So hey sorry for the late update, I had University and this may be the last one for a while I am afraid.

However I would like to hear your opinions where you would like to see this go, I like ideas and any that may help me improve my story will be much appreciated.

Also I would like to dedicate this chapter to Monty Oum, may he rest in peace, I know this story it is not rooster teeth related in the slightest but I was a big fan of his work and his creativity and it saddens me that he has died. I wish his family luck in these hard times and I hope rooster teeth can carry on and finish the work he started.