IseriaDweller [[ Achievment Unlocked - Was doin it before it was cool ]] First review of Therapy at Muzzle Velocity
I just wanna say thank you for your kind words, and to everyone who took the time read and review this fic. Also, the people have spoken, and majority rules for the Technological Yeoman. Kelly will walk the path of the paragon, but that doesn't mean we have to ignore all of the Renegade Action popups. Nice people like Kelly, deserve to be the pouty baddass once in a while.
Kelly picked out a small metal band that she recognized to be an OmniTool. She didn't really know too much about tech, but she did recognize the word Savant on the side. It was, at the very least, the same brand name tool that Commander Shepherd had given Tali. Sifting further through the pile, Kelly picked up a heavy pistol. The weapon was still in its compact form, but that didn't stop the Yeoman from frowning.
Kelly had a strong distaste for guns. A quality of the small redhead, that was probably going to get her killed this time. Kelly turned the weapon about in her hand, and carefully probed for a way to unfold the pistol. "Aw shucks… who am I kidding." She murmured to herself. She couldn't use one these to save her life.
Literally.
Kelly grew up on a farm on Eden Prime. The toughest thing she had to do was shoo away the neighbor's cat Mr. Mittens when he got into their trash. But still… she should keep it. If she managed to escape, then maybe someone else did too who knew how to use it.
Kelly secretly wished she could have an awesome past like Blasto. Whereas his parents were killed when his ship crash-landed on the nuked out world of Tuchanka, and he was taken in by a Krogan Warlord, and his life mate who happened to be an Asari Justicar. Blasto's tentacles were only a foot long when he killed his first Thresher Maw for Pete's sake!
"UUUUGGGHHHHhhhhhh" One of the husks moaned from the top of his Dragon's tooth. Like a shoplifter in a crowded market, Kelly quickly stuffed the compacted pistol into her pocket and scurried toward the door.
[[Achievement Unlocked – Armed and Fabulous]] Successfully arm your Yeoman
OmniTool aglow, Kelly wandered through some sort of hallway which was easily the width of a 4 lane Highway, and tried to figure out her new Omnitool."Let's see here… Mode… Options…"
She just needed to keep herself alive, long enough for Commander Shepard to come to the rescue. She had absolute faith in him, and knew he'd be coming for her at any time. The team of specialists he'd recruited was nearly unstoppable, and at any moment they'd all come bursting through that door, shooting the whole place up. It was just a matter of time…
Kelly frowned.
What's taking him so long?
XxxXMeanwhileXxxX
"We really don't have time for this Zaeed!"
"Well you better bloody hell make time Shepard!"
Zaeed and Commander Shepard squared off, in the eerily empty CIC of the Normandy. The main view on Joker's screen was alight with all sorts of readings ranging from barometric pressure, to known cataloged species of life on the planet below. Most importantly was the large red dot on the main view that EDI clearly marked as a Blue Suns base.
"Vido's sure as hell not gonna have the goddamned common courtesy of putting a bullet in his own fucking brain. So if you want me on your little suicide squad, you sure as hell had better hold up your end of the bargain."
"I'm just saying, a mission to save galaxy, as we know it, is probably not the best time to be trying to settle a grudge-"
"A grudge?A GRUDGE!"Zaeed practically foamed at the mouth. "Vido turned my men against me! Paid six of them to hold me down while he put a gun to my head and pulled the trigger! For 20 years…"
Shepard instantly regretted opening his mouth. Not because he was afraid of Zaeed, but because once somebody got him going he never shut the hell up. At least with Mordin, it was like getting the same volume of speech, just in fast forward, so it never really took that long. Shepard rolled his eyes, and focused back on the Merc.
"…It was all going fine, until he started hiring batarians. Cheaper labor, he says. Goddamned terrorists, I says…"
Yup… he was definitely locked into 'story mode'. Shepard ran a hand over his frustrated face, and tried not to sigh. He had like 2 other 'I want this guy dead missions' and god only knows how many 'reunite with my father/sister/son/whatever missions.
Oh, and let's not forget Tali's trail! Who knows how long it'll take to get through the quarian legal system. Shepard glanced back at the aging gun for hire…
"… I survived a gunshot to the head, and you survived getting spaced. People like you and…"
Oh , for the love of god, he's getting a 'we're not so different speech' speech. That's hit, it's time to speed this crap up. Some people like to say; that Vengeance was a dish best served cold.
Commander Shepard preferred to get his to go.
"EDI!" Shepard bellowed, uncaring of the look Zaeed was giving him for being interrupted "I want you to lock onto the refinery and fire the Thanix Cannon."
"It is highly ill-advised that we-"
"What did I tell you, about being second guessed on my own ship, by my own ship?" The Commander demanded. No reply came from the AI, However, the deck suddenly vibrated for a few seconds and everyone could easily see the bright blue beam streak from the hull, and down to the planet below.
The impact of the molten metal, which was moving at just a little under the speed of light, was both as utterly devastating as it was spectacular. The refinery, the whole nearby jungle, and even a few mountains that were unfortunate enough to be in that side of the hemisphere, were just simply vaporized. An ever-expanding fireball, and a giant mushroom cloud, marked its utter demise.
It put the entire CIC in a warm orange glow, making it look like a warm sunset on that one might find on Illium.
Zaeed, and everyone else on every deck that happened to be by a window, was rendered utterly speechless. The Commander meanwhile was gleefully checking off Zaeeds loyalty mission off of his data-pad.
"Alright! Now that's how Specters get it done!" Shepard tapped his Omnitool and opened a channel to Garrus, who was currently in the mess hall. "Hey Garrus, Sidonus is on the Citadel right?"
It took the turian a few seconds to respond as he suddenly realized he hadn't chewed his dextro-ration bar in over 15 seconds; eyes locked on the window and too mesmerized by the sight, (and implications) of the commander reinventing the definition of 'Overkill'.
"…You're not going to use the Thanix Cannon on the Citadel… are you?"
There was a long silence before the commander finally responded "…No?" Suddenly, Joker's voice cut in through the ship's intercom.
"Uh Commander, you better come see this." Shepard casually shoved aside a still stunned Zaeed (who for the first time in his life, had nothing to say) and joined Joker in the cockpit. Their pilot pointed at his main view screen, as EDI began to explain.
"The molten slug of the Thanix Cannon has penetrated the Crust, as well as several other layers of Zoyra and is having an adverse reaction with the planet's core. I'm detecting seismic activity and multiple volcano eruptions across the entire surface."
Even from orbit, they could see orange plumes of volcanic fire, and ashes, as it sprout at random spots on the surface. Shepard gulped as he realized that he might have caused a planetary apocalypse.
"I estimate a planetary implosion in approximately 1 hour."
"Oh, they are totally gonna blame me for this…."
xxXXxx
The Yeoman was just wrapping up her patented Kelly Chambers Happy Dance.
While Commander Shepard was adding 'Planet' (next to 'Space Station', Cloning Facility' and 'Reaper') to his list of shit-I've-destroyed, Kelly had found out how to activate her Omnitools Combat and hacking routines.
Even now, the glowing strips of yellowlight, which made up the Tech-Shields, made the red head look decidedly awesome, and more importantly offered a real means of protection too.
This gave her an honest chance at survival!
Kelly pushed another button, and squealed in delight as a small Combat Drone suddenly materialized in front of her.
"Hey there, little guy!" She cooed at the floating orb, which retracted from her in fear. Or so Kelly thought anyway. It was actually a programed VI response to keep the user from being electrocuted by their own attack Drone.
"Awwww. There's no need to be shy!" she reached out to the now cornered orb.
-ZAP-
"OUCH!" Kelly cried and retracted her hand. She blew on her still smoking finger, and decided that trying to pet a combat drone (or anything that was randomly arcing with electricity for that matter) was just simply a bad idea.
"I'm gonna name you Mister Zappy…" she said, while giving it a cross look.
Now that she had a means of surviving, she had to find a way off the base. If she stayed then they were more than likely going to find her. Kelly soaked up the environment around her, and saw terminals dotting the walls all around her.
"Well there's certainly no shortage of terminals" she said thoughtfully, while chewing a fingernail. She cautiously approached one of the more complex looking ones and looked at the holographic display. Everything was in Prothian. From the lines of random gibberish, Kelly deduced (by how detailed it looked) that this terminal might hold valuable information, which might lead to an escape from this place.
Or it could be Collector snack machine. Do they even need to eat?
Before Kelly could get to pondering if the collectors even had moths, she decided…
Wait a minute…. Did the collectors have mouths? Did they only live for a day like flies or something? That wouldn't really make sense then because from what she knew, Biotics consumed a lot of calories and-
The Yeoman smacked her palm to her forehead "Focus Kelly, focus!" she muttered to herself and activated her omnitool. She held it up to the terminal and waited for the little circle thingy to change into a couple of arrows, indicating that she synced signals.
Luckily for the Yeoman, she wasn't going to have to test her extremely limited computer skills. More than likely, they never actually expected anyone ever actually finding a way through the Omega-4 relay, let alone someone managing to escape, so it seemed that most of these computers were left unlocked.
The map, if that's what it was, appeared to be color coded. Most of everything appeared to be Yellow, while there were certain areas that were colored blue and one spot that was green. Though she wasn't, particularly positive where she was at, she made her best guess, using the red blip (which she assumed was an alarm triggered from her escape) as a reference.
So that put her next to one of the blue rooms…
Okay then.
No matter what, her top priority was finding a way off of this hellhole. What she needed was to find a hanger or, maybe some sort of communications array.
Good lord, she realized that she was going to have to start exploring the Collector base. That particular venture was so full of bad-idea, that it was practically fattening. Current luck trends suggested that she was probably going to stumble into a Collector breakroom, and get herself turned into Kelly-chow.
Oh god, that's not what they were doing with the people-paste they were making, were they? She turned to her new companion.
"You won't let them eat me, will you Mr. Zappy?" The Drone beeped merrily at her and Kelly smiled. She was deliberately talking to her companion to keep herself from wondering if the strawberry lotion she used, would add a fruity taste in Yeoman-stew. She decided that she should probably try to see what was in the blue room beside her. She turned and crept over to the large metal door, keeping an eye out for any danger.
She stepped up to the door, which was twice as large as the docking bay of the Normandy, and looked for a way to open it. As usual, that there was that holo display in the center but it was currently red. The yeoman could only assume that it meant that it was locked.
"Well this is hunky dory…" she said to herself, and gave the door a halfhearted kick. She powered up her Omnitool and searched for the Bypass program.
-kachink swoosh-
It happened so fast, she didn't even have time to react. The lock suddenly turned green and the door just opened. For a second, she'd thought that she'd gotten lucky, however though, that particular thought had died a horrible, horrible death as she found herself staring into four beady eyes of Collector. A Collector, which was now a freaking foot and a half away from her face.
Too scared to scream, Kelly back peddled away from the giant humanoid insect, only to trip over her own feet. She closed her eyes, and waited for the inevitable ending.
In that long moment she made peace with god and the fact that Kelly-paste would probably taste like liquid Spam…
But all she heard were footsteps.
She opened her eyes and saw that it had simply walked around her. With an open jaw, she watched as the very visage of her nightmare busied itself pushing a hovering pod. Two others were behind it, each doing the identical task of moving their own pods. They both even made direct eye contact with her, and simply regarded her as nothing more than a mere obstacle. Kelly numbly stood and peered into the room.
There had to be more than a 2 dozen drones milling about, each carried hunks of electronics that they had taken apart. Some were busy dissecting the junk on the table, while others were depositing scraps into their hover-pods.
None of them even cared that she was here.
Be it morbidly curious, or maybe adventurously confident Kelly walked into the room.
"This is frickin huge." The said to herself. The cavernous room held piles, upon piles, of gutted ships and hovercars. Kelly stood, in what had to have been, the largest junk yard she'd ever seen. If she had to guess, the Collectors were examining their technology, seeing if the reapers were in for any nasty surprises.
Kelly walked amongst the skeletal structures of what used to be Alliance Strike-Class Fighters, when a bright gleam caught her eye.
It was a fully intact Kodiak class shuttle! They obviously hadn't gotten to gutting it yet. Kelly squealed in delight, and ran over to her shining beacon of hope and hit the door button. Kelly had always been a fan of these shuttles as she thought that, with their stubby little thrusters, they looked sort of like hamsters.
Giant, flying hamsters.
Crazy thoughts aside, the Technological Yeoman plopped herself into the seat, and tried to make sense of the controls. She'd never operated a shuttle before, but that wasn't going to be a problem. She'd once watched Goldstein run through the procedures before, and with her perfect memory, she could bring up the process as if she were watching a training video.
Kelly stopped as realization dawned on her, as she was suddenly aware that she'd be leaving the others behind. The usually chirpy woman frowned, as she let her thoughts wander to them.
"I'm sorry…" was all she could say for those she left behind. She closed her eyes and concentrated.
-Sargent Gardner smiles and hands Kelly a tray. She beams at him when she sees a small bowl of Tapioca pudding, and knows he went out of his way to make her favo-
Kelly's eyes snapped open and she realized that her mind was betraying her. There's nothing she can do for them, she just barely escaped herself! "Concentrate darn it!"
-Ken Donally jerks awake, and realized he'd fallen asleep at the table in the crew lounge. Kelly and Gabby try not to laugh, as Ken has no idea that propulsion engineer drew a penis on his forehead-
Kelly couldn't stop them. She tried so hard to force the memories out of her head, but she couldn't. Just what in the hell could she honestly do? She was in a base full of Collectors! Before she could think about it, she hit the 'on' button to the Kodiak's main drive core. Panels and various displays informed her of the shuttle's condition. Everything was green across the board, her escape was only waiting for her command.
-Kelly looks up from her terminal on the CIC. She sees Hawthorn stealing a glance at her and quickly looks down at his own workstation in hopes that she didn't see him. Kelly smiles-
Could she honestly live with herself, if she just took off and left everyone to die? "There's nothing I can do!" she cried to herself. She was alone, frightened, and outnumbered by god only knows how many.
She was one person. One goddamned person.
Kelly looked down, and reached for the Throttle controls. But just as she put her hand on it, something, somebody once told her came to mind.
xxXxXxXxXxXxx
Garrus Vakarian is a methodical machine. He stands in the armory, gun in pieces, he oils and cleans. There is no spot goes untouched, no component the goes unattended, he readies his weapon.
No matter how hard he tries, he can still see their faces.
They haunt his dreams, each one a testament to his failures. Some of the best men he'd ever known; dead, because he wanted to go play hero.
The turian rebel looks up from his work when he senses another person in the room. He looks over and tries not to sigh. It's that little Cerberus female again. He'd only been on the ship for 3 days, and it felt like she was stalking him. Always managing to be in the corner of his eye, it was like she was waiting for something, and Garrus had a pretty good idea of what it was.
Shepard informed him, that she was the ship's psychologist. No doubt, she fantasies ideas of healing him of his emotional scars, and all that. Humans were funny like that; idealistic. The thought almost made him laugh.
Was he that bad once? Thinking he could make the galaxy a better place, one small piece at a time?
"Hello, Miss Chambers, you look pretty busy at that table there. Is there anything I can do to assist?" The turian asked as Kelly was pretending to inspect a shiny blue bar at the rifle table.
"Oh, me?" She asked nonchalantly "No, I'm good. I'm just making sure that this… part… works. You know, so it doesn't jam or something." She explained and made a show of carefully examining the object.
Garrus nodded "Well I'm glad to see everyone is doing their part. I can't begin tell you how many times I've had my meal malfunction on me in the field."
"Huh?" Kelly actually looked at the object for real this time. Sure enough, she saw the word 'Dextro' and groaned. The thingy she was 'inspecting' turned out to be Garrus's dry Dextro-Ration.
"Well this is awkward" she muttered and blushed further when Garrus chuckled. Her efforts were rewarded however, as Archangel waved her over and handed her a rag and some oil. Soon the Yeoman found herself standing beside him, polishing the barrel of a Mantis Sniper Rifle. It wasn't long before Garrus saw her staring at the side of his face.
"Does it hurt?" she asked. Garrus is a little touched at the earnest expression on her face.
"Sometimes" he shrugs "But I don't mind it though. It… reminds me of my own stupidity. It's what I get for thinking that I could change anything on Omega." Kelly frowns.
"Don't do that. You've done more to help than you'll ever know."
"Did I? Because the last I checked, people are still getting murdered on the streets" Garrus picked up the rifle's slide. With a rag he carefully cleaned every nook and as he continued "Those that are deemed less fortunate are still being sacrificed to untouchable people. Everything I did didn't even make a dent Miss Chambers." Garrus was silent for a moment. "You just haven't seen what I've seen."
The two were silent for another long moment. The Yeoman looked deep in thought, and Garrus was about to pack away his things, and bid her good day, when she finally spoke.
"Maybe you're right, maybe I haven't seen what you've seen... But that doesn't mean you've seen everything." Kelly brings up her Omnitool. "Before I was asked to work for the commander, I used to work in the Citadel." Garrus can see that she's brought up a video file "Technically, I'm not supposed to show anyone this… But I think you need to see it anyway."
After a few seconds, a video begins to play and Garrus can see a young Asari maiden sitting at a desk. A camera is pointed right at her and he can see the small scars that run along her face and neck. It isn't hard to tell that she was once the victim of abuse.
"You look tired." Kelly's voice wafts in from somewhere off camera. The Asari smiles sadly.
"I'm alright… some nights are harder than others though… Sometimes, I still dream I'm back on Omega."
"So how are you holding up?"
"I… I've got a job now. It's not much, I clean trays at a Salarian resteraunt." She smiles again, but this time it looks real "My boss is really nice though. And It pays for my apartment."
"Do you have any Goals in mind?"
"Yea… I wanna go to school… Maybe be a therapist. Like you."
"Like Me?" The maiden pauses to consider her response. Finally, she speaks.
"Archangel gave something that I never thought I was going to get on Omega." She works to fight back tears, then promptly refuses something off screen. Its clear she wants to be strong. "I got a second chance… I can't fight, I can't do what archangel does… But I still want to help. He gave me my life back, and I'm not going to waste it."
Kelly ends the video there, and looks to Garrus. Next to Krogans, and obviously Quarians, Turians were damn near impossible to read and Garrus was no exception. Kelly could never know what went through his mind at that moment.
She wondered If Garrus remembered the Asari. Kelly did, she remembered that case in perfect clarity. She, and several others, had been found on a batarian slave cruiser. Somebody had shot the crew, then alerted C-sec, where they promptly rescued the captives. Whatever went through his head, she guessed it was good, because his mandibles flared and his ruined face drew into a smile.
"Thank you… sometimes I forget that one person can-
XXxXxXxXxXxXX
"-make all the difference in the world…" The Yeoman says to herself. She looks down at the at the shuttle's controls. Her heart and her mind wage an internal war.
It's absolutely impossible.
They're trapped, they'll all die if you do nothing.
You're not a soldier. You don't even know how to fight.
How can you even consider abandoning them?
You'll die for nothing.
They'll die for nothing.
(((Paragon Action)))
With righteous fury in her heart, and tears sparkling in her eyes, she slams her fist into the power control button, and the shuttle powers down.
Kelly's made a lot of poor decisions in her life, and this is one that she refuses to make. She joined this crew to make a difference, to combat the invalids that refused to lift a finger to help anyone but their own status quo. The Council, The Alliance, hell even the entire terminus system was all out for themselves. If she can't even muster the courage to save her friends, then what the hell was the point to anything? Why was she even here?
Not this time. Kelly knows what she has to do. It has never been clearer.
If she dies, then by god she was going to die trying. They certainly weren't the specialists that made up Shepard's squad, but damn the crew looked out for each other. Somewhere along the way, they became family. Kelly chambers stood up.
She was really going to do this.
She was going to take on the Collectors…
"ouchy" she cradled her hand, and looked around for a medkit. She'd take on the Collectors, after she found some medigel. Hitting the power button like that really hurt her hand…
[[ Achievement Unlocked – I'm all out of gum ]] Complete part one of Therapy at Muzzle Velocity
(((Choice)))
Recruit The Pretender
Recruit The Custodian
Recruit The Maintenance Man
Recruit The Loudmouth
Alright people! We are rocking and/or rolling here. Here's the way it's gonna work. Much like the game itself, I'll offer choices here and there, and the ones you make will affect path of the story, and inevitably, how it ends.
Down below is the list of possible achievements. Like any game, it'll be impossible to get them all in one run, but that doesn't mean that we won't try, right? Oh yea, just be advised I'm uh… really slow at updating. I'm working on that.
-List of all achievements for the story-
The Pretender – recruit The Pretender
The Custodian – recruit the Custodian
The Maintenance Man – recruit The Maintenance Man
The Guardsman – Recruit The Guardsman
The Medic – recruit The Medic
The Loudmouth – recruit The Loudmouth
Limited Edition – Successfully escape the Collector pod
Armed and Fabulous – Arm your Yeoman
I'm all out of gum – Complete part one
You should stick to stamps – Kill a Collector
It was like that when I got here! – Cause over a 1000,000,000 credits worth of damage
You have 10 seconds to comply – Unleash a YMIR
Can I get it in pink? – Acquire the M-34 Infantry Fighting Vehicle
Collect that! – Successfully defeat harbinger
Gonna need more Raid… - Successfully defeat a Praetorian
Ah yes, Kelly… - Complete part 2
If they came to see me beg… - Beg shamelessly
DEE DEE! – Destroy the collector Science Facility
I hope that was a cone – Run over 3 Collectors with the M-34
Was doin it before it was cool – First Review of Therapy at Muzzle Velocity
The real deal – Gain the loyalty of The Pretender
My better half Gain the loyalty of The Maintenance Man
Brother where art thou - Gain the Loyalty of The Guardsman
Gone in 59 seconds – Make an impossible jump in the M-34
Surgeon General - Gain the loyalty of the medic
Prime Time! – Gain the loyalty of The Loudmouth
Through the cracks – Gain the loyalty of The Custodian
Girl's gatta eat, right? – steal the Collector's slush fund
Who flung poo? – Kill a collector by overloading a sewage pipe
Live Free, or Die Hard – Fre the Captives on the Collector base
Holy crap that does! – Survive a direct hit from Harbinger
The Proof is in the pudding – Find the evidence to prove the Reaper threat is real
The short straw – Send a Squad member to certain doom
30 silver pieces – One of your squad members becomes indoctrinated
The whole gang – Recruit all squad members
Everybody else was doin it… - Assault one of your squad members
Bow chicka bow-wow – Complete Kelly's romance scene
Dr Octogonopus – Use a Mass Accelerator Cannon
It ain't easy being cheesy – Use a one-liner, and look cool doing it
Shanked! – Score a kill with the Tech Knife
Rest well… - Lose a squad member
Slayer – Destroy the Human Reaper
Where you at? – Successfully contact the Normandy
Yippy Kayyay – Save the Normandy
Flawless Cowgirl – Manage to save everyone
Collective asses kicked – Force Harbinger to Release Control
I'm gonna sell it on E-bay – Keep the Collector base
All for nothing – only Kelly survives
Hope that was insured – Destroy the Collector base
Therapy at Muzzle Velocity – Say what needs to be said