"If I chose to, I could kill every person in this room and walk out unscathed..."
That statement was enough to stun the entire passenger load of the SSV Sprint Runner. All around him, The Pretender could hear their hushed voices utter things like, 'He's insane!' or 'That's a man on the edge!'. Nobody dared to make a move against him, and most avoided eye contact with him and minded their own business, hoping not to draw attention to themselves.
Everyone, with the exception of the person he squared off with.
Hilde Strife was a decorated officer. Her uniform, crisp and pressed, was adorned with patches, medals, and pins, that marked everyone of her achievements. It was clear to anyone that she was a veteran, someone who forged her place in her troop through the fires of adversity and hardship. She met his eyes with unwavering steel.
Like a real life western, the two found themselves in a mexican stand off.
However, Hilde's subordinate (she wore a similar uniform, though not nearly as decorated) began to sweat, and she stared at the man's pistol while she spoke. "uh... Hilde? Maybe we should just give this guy what he wants..." her eyes moved to the logo on the chest plate of his heavy armor "I think he's an N7 marine..."
"I don't care who the hell this guy thinks he is; he's gatta pay for his cookies like everyone else."
Everyone watched in mute fascination as a 14 year old Girl-Scout stood her ground against an Alliance Special Forces Commando.
"Are you really holding out on me?" The man in N7 armor said, and leaned in "I'll do anything to get the job done! Why I even learned to shove a gun in people's faces fro-"
"I thought I'd seen you before!" one of the other passengers said "You're that guy that was at the Eternity Bar. The one that screamed like a girl, when Commander Shepard shot him in the foot!"
The entire passenger ship burst out in laughter. Conrad Verner instantly turned a shade of red and began to rub the back of his neck. "Hey, that really hurt! I'm not really used to people shooting at me..."
"You're not a real marine?" Hilde asked in disbelief, and eyed the pistol that was magnetically clamped at his hip. Sure enough, the word 'Replica' was stamped in its side.
The Girl-Scout was not amused.
Being that Conrad was a full head taller than her, she reached up and grabbed Conrad, by his collar, and pulled him down to her level. "You listen, and you listen good..." The little girl stamped on his foot, and Conrad howled in pain. Unknowingly, she managed to nail the same foot that the Commander had shot days before.
"...This is not acceptable." she said darkly, and then proceeded to knee him in the balls. She kinda wondered if they can make a customizable patch for hitting Alliance Marines. (maybe the Terminus systems girl-scouts had that)
Fortunately, if not a little sadly, Conrad had grown used to everyone's laughter over the years, and it just didn't seem to sting as much as it used to...
Mercifully, for Conrad anyway, it was cut short when the light for all passengers to return to their seats came on and the voice of the Captain came came on over the PA system.
"Attention all passengers, this is your Captain speaking. There is going to be a slight delay in our arrival to the Sharinbak relay. We are detecting some unknown craft ahead, and in the interest of your safety we're going to detour around."
Conrad moped back to his seat, and noticed that everyone was pointing out their windows, apparently looking at some oddly shaped space craft that was off in the distance.
"Hey look, I think the nose of that thing is glowing..."
XxXXxX
Harbinger was not a happy reaper. Oh no, he was very irritated indeed. Since Nazarra's death, not only did he have to oversee the birth of the new Human Reaper, he also had to prep the rest of the Galaxy for their now very late arrival.
The entire operation had been one big cluster-fuck after another, and not a single of its objectives had been successfully reached. The rest of the Reaper armada was still trapped in dark space, Commander Shepard had evidentially use a Phoenix Down, or something, because he sure as hell didn't stay dead, and now this problem aboard the station was quickly getting out of hand.
The Prothean station's fire suppression systems had long since decayed from non-use. So when the escaped human had sabotaged the line, it pretty much had the worst possible scenario. He didn't really care, that the number of Collector casualties was rising, he could always make more, but he did care about the rupture in all of the human pods.
That was the big one. According to he could see, at least 4% percent of the vermin were now loose (which was a lot considering how many they had), and causing what could only be called a prison riot. From numerous angles, he could see them putting up a stiff resistance, mostly because the collectors were tying to capture them without actually killing them.
Now this entire debacle required his personal attention. So the reaper made a decision, and decided that these rats were simply more trouble than they were worth. They could always get more, and as soon as their Commander Shepard was killed, then they should finally be able to go on with their plans uninterrupted.
The world fizzled into existence around him, and he was now seeing it through the eyes of a drone.
"WE ARE HARBINGER" it announced, though it was completely unnecessary. Harbinger saw humans running in multiple directions away from his form. Picking one at random, it thew what could only be described as a flaming-biotic-warp. The human scum screamed as the warp aspect of his powers ripped him apart on a molecular level, before he erupted into flames.
That was satisfying.
All around him, the Protheans were doing their best to recapture the humans, and reduce casualties as much as possible. However, trying to be non-lethal was the very reason order had not been attained yet. The collectors only fired their weapons in self defense, and were relying heavily on the seeker swarms to paralyze.
"EXTERMINATE THEM. THEY ARE INSIGNIFICANT."
And as one, every single Collector raised their rifles (or particle beams) and began to fire into the crowds. And for good measure, he also sent a signal for all of the husks to be released.
With a quick look around, he saw that most of the scum in this area were surrounded. And probably wouldn't survive the onslaught in this area. He decided to move to another troubled spot and released control of the Prothean.
XXxxXX
Conrad Verner awoke to the sound of crunching glass, and heavy footsteps. All around him, he could hear he panicked screams of people, desperately trying to run. One by one their cries fell silent as they were run down and paralyzed by the low hum of collector swarms.
Shambling to his feet, The Pretender realized that he was in the crossfire of what looked like a massive prison break. He was suddenly aware of his pod that lay next to him. It lay in a shattered wreck, possibly from when it was blown off the wall from some massive explosion.
Where the hell am I? He thought to himself.
More screams, but this time it was added to the sound of gunfire. Acting on instinct, that only years of dodging gangs of REAL mercs could justify, Conrad ran and took cover behind a couple of crates. Contrary to popular belief, Conrad was not fooled by the logo on his armor. He knew darn well that he was not covered in safe layers of Kevlar, and tough ceramic plating. Hard plastic does precisely squat, in stopping bullets, and getting shot would in fact feel like getting shot.
Which as Commander Shepard has taught him, does indeed suck...
Luckily, most of the deck of... wherever he was, had pretty much descended into chaos. The Pretender put his hands on his head, and tried to re-orientate himself. He didn't know it, but he was still shaking off the effects of Shell Shock. Not to far off, a door opened and a bunch of husks came sprinting into the crowds, attacking everyone in sight. One of the braver men picked up a chunk of debris and brought it down hard on one of the red ones.
It exploded.
Killing itself, and its attacker, everyone else nearby -including Conrad himself- was thrown to the ground again.
"Come on, get up!"
Conrad was suddenly aware of a set of arms pulling him to his feet. Conrad only had a moment to get a look at his helper, and noted that she was female. Pretty, in a done-up sort of way, her perfectly painted eyebrows raised when she saw the N7 logo on his armor. "Are you a soldier?" she asked quickly. Barely heard over over the chaos.
"H... Hey, I know you..." Conrad said. "You're that Loudmouth lady, who alw-"
The woman abruptly shook him. "You have got to be kidding me! Now? I'm not to sure if you've noticed, but we're under fucking fire?" She hoisted him up to his feet, and continued to curse her luck, "I actually find a soldier on this fucking hell-hole, and he's retarded!" But before Conrad had a chance to try and protest, there was a sudden thrum of pure power, and one of the collectors started to twitch.
"I WILL DIRECT THIS PERSONALLY" the collector suddenly said, in a voice so loud that it almost sounded like it was coming from inside their own heads. The Loudmouth's eyes widened in terror, and quickly grabbed Conrad by his arm "This way!" She began to lead him to one of the blast doors.
"W-wait, where are we going?" The woman continued to drag him "You're no good as meat shield, if you're not close enough to block bullets!"
"WHAT?"
"Nothing!"
"But what about everyone else?"
"No time! We can't help anyone without a weapon!" as if to prove her point, a lance of light from a particle beam sliced a man cleanly in half.
They ran. Being that they had no idea of the layout of the base, they pretty much just chose a direction that wasn't going to land them in the clutches of a glowing super-collector and took off. They didn't get to far before that thing spoke again. Its voice seemed to resonate in their heads, making their teeth itch.
"THIS HURTS YOU"
Harbinger's flaming-biotic-warp attack came screaming in over their heads, nearly nailing Conrad as he dropped to his knees from the resulting boom. All around him, large shutters were slamming down around him and locking shut. It was pretty obvious that the collectors intended to end this little riot. The pretender looked up, and saw that The Loudmouth hadn't seen him fall as she dived into one of the doors. She slid into a wall and looked back triumphantly, only to see that Conrad didn't make it.
There the two made eye contact, and tried to crawl to each other. They were so close, but the heavy door slammed shut in between them. Conrad could only blink as he realized that his fate was pretty much sealed.
There was a loud, and almost tortured moan that wafted in from around the corner. The sound was enough to drive terror into his very soul.
Shadows. Shadows of something... something big, and bulbous moved across the walls, and continued to move in on him. They hadn't actually seen him yet, but he knew it was only a matter of time. That glowing Collector, the one that called itself Harbinger, was no where to be seen but it was a small comfort at best.
Looking around, Conrad Verner saw that he was surrounded by small sections of metal pipping and support struts had shaken themselves loose.
"uuuUUUUNNNGGGgggg..." He looked up, and saw a withered glowing face of a giant Scion husk come around the corner. It... It was something that his mind may never fully comprehend. A twisted parody of life, this... thing was a crime to everything that could possibly be called good in life, an abomination of cybernetics and hell.
Easily 12 feet tall, it was as if someone took a bunch of those glowing zombies that had helped carried them in and snowballed them together and put it on a set of legs. It had some kind of large arm... cannon thing... sticking out of its grotesque form.
"Oh... Oh my god..."
What was worse, was that it actually had more than one head, and all of them were looking directly at him.
Conrad picked up what used to be a valve lever. His makeshift weapon was heavy, but fit nicely in his hands. However this did little to reassure him as his mind already trying to comprehend that he was going to die.
XXxxXX
"Come on Ken, we gatta get behind cover!" Kelly said, before she yelped as a round whizzed perilously close to her head.
They ran for their lives.
Well... maybe not really run, but they limped really, really fast. Kelly Chambers barely weighed a buck ten with her hair wet, and now she was trying to support the weight of an injured 170 pound Scotsman and dodge weapons fire. This particular recipe did not equal speed, which kinda sucked because Collectors could not only run, they could freaking fly.
The duo rounded a corner as Kelly awkwardly dug into her right pocket, while trying not to let Ken fall, and pulled out the compacted pistol. "Here! Use this!" she cried as Kelly looked for some place to hide, or more importantly, an escape. Ken grabbed the pistol which unfolded readily in his hand. This was much to Kelly's annoyance, as she couldn't figure out how get that stupid thing to work earlier.
"Wait, I don't get it, are you supposed to push a button or som-"
"Shit! GET DOWN!" Ken roughly pushed her to the ground.
Dropping down as well, he was just barley fast enough to avoid a harsh peel of rifle rounds that would have undoubtedly killed them both. "Ken they nearly shot us!" she exclaimed. The Engineer blinked at her. "Well they're sure as hell not rolling out the red carpet for us! Get behind something!" Ken and Kelly scrambled in opposite directions, Ken took cover behind a nearby terminal while Kelly used a pillar, though it looked more like a cave stalagmite. They found themselves on opposing sides of the hallway, the yeoman was small but the pillar she hid behind was barely big enough for her.
"Ken, use the gun!"
shit shit shit... With his ribs hurting like they did, he highly doubted he was going to be able to aim accurately. But what choice did he have? It was kill or be killed, so he raised the pistol, pulled the slide to load a heat sink and...
what the...
"Kelly, throw me a heat-sink!" he raised his hand to catch the small item, but lowered it as he saw the look she was giving him. The Yeoman blinked at him "A heat-sink?"
"What are you daft? Yes, I need a heat sink!"
Kelly ducked as a rounded pinged so close to her that it actually caused her shields to flair. "I thought those guns didn't fire real bulle-"
"THEY STILL NEED FUCKING HEAT-SINKS!" Ken screamed. Dear god, she didn't have any heat-sinks. Had Kelly really survived survived this long, without even knowing how these guns even worked?
"You don't have to yell!" she said, sounding hurt. There were heavy footfalls of a Collector-freaking-Guardian approaching, which pretty much meant that they were screwed. Ken looked around for something that they could use. Maybe he'd luck out and find some super Anti-Collector gun, or maybe one of those big red Easy Buttons that would make Commander Shepard appear if pressed.
His luck was not meant to be, so he tried the one last thing he knew...
"Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there" he sang, then quickly added "With Commander Shepard..." Nothing happened.
"Ken, what the heck are you doing!" Kelly yelled, then squealed in fear as another round whizzed by.
"I don't fucking know, lass! We'r... "Looking down he saw a toolbox. Undoubtedly, they were probably servicing this terminal when all the explosions started. He opened it, and wouldn't you believe it, he actually found something useful.
An omni-converter! A small wrist mounted tool, that could convert pretty much any known substance into omni gel. Ken looked at the terminal he was hiding behind, and he had a plan.
"Kelly!" she stopped cringing long enough to look at him "I need you to distract that thing for me!" The Technological Yeoman looked at him like he was insane.
"Distract him? How the heck am I supposed to do that?"
"Yell, throw something, flash yer tits at him, I don't fucking care, just buy me a few seconds!" he yelled, secretly hopping that she did the latter, and lined the converter up with his pistol.
"I'm not flashing my boobs at him!" she yelled indignantly, but her eyes lit up as she realized that she had the perfect distraction and fired up her omni tool.
"Mister Zappy I choose you!" she said and her faithful companion materialized in front of her. However, Ken looked up at her in disbelief. No, please tell me she doesn't...
"Use Zap attack!" she cried, and Ken groaned. That had pretty much confirmed it. Kelly was obviously a fan of the ever popular Pokemon series. The hit video game, turned cartoon, turned move, turned elchor play, had pretty much exploded on the Citadel. The turians freaking loved it, and had since expanded the list to over 845,000 different godless creatures. All of them perverted parodies of life.
"Dahm it woman! Its a Combat Drone, not a damned animal!" the yeoman glared at him for a second and pushed the attack button on her omni tool. The combat drone, while non-lethal, proceeded to shock-the-shit out of the Guardian. While the Collector was undoubtedly thinking 'Don't taze me bro!' Ken worked the converter. Dissolving the pistol into a fine paste, he used the vacuum to suck it up, until the the gun was no more.
"What are you gonna do?" Kelly asked as she watched the readouts on her omni tool, two more Collectors had joined the fray and were taking shots at the glowing sphere. Despite its best efforts at evading, the Drone's health was down to 35 percent.
"I'm gonna blow this computer to hell, and make a smoke screen; then we're gonna make a break for it!"
Kelly looked back over and saw a the vent that she herself ha used earlier. She estimated that they were about another hundred meters or so away. With Ken limping the way he was, they'd never make it. Hell, even if it was just her, she still probably wouldn't make it. Her hundred-meter-dash times sucked in high school. Kelly looked over at the hand railing that guarded the ledge, and the yeoman realized the only way that they were going to escape these guys.
The entire collector base was huge but it mostly was cylindrical shaped, and designed more like a warehouse than a space station. That meant that lots of the decks were open to each other, and that there might very well be another level underneath them. Unfortunately, Kelly had no idea how far down that was.
Sadly, the plan was both as suicidal as it was stupid. Our heroes hoped to avoid a gruesome death by Gunshot, by jumping over the railing and... probably die by falling. But if it was any consolation, they might just survive the fall, and only shatter all the bones in their legs. So they'll get to live for a whole extra hour, until the collectors find their crippled bodies, and then shoot them.
...so... this basically was plan A.
Seeing that his converter was full, he jammed it into one of the ports of the terminal he was using as cover, and began to unload into it. It made a curiously satisfying noise, sort of like a can of cheese-whiz being emptied, as the computer began to smoke.
"When I give the word" Ken said as gel started to bubble out of the crevices of the terminal "we make a break for the it!" he said. The yeoman nodded, but her doubt was very much evident on her face.
"Now!"
The combat drone had finally 'died', and the Collectors raised their rifles at the fleeing Cerberus crewman. However, right about then the terminal overloaded, and exploded. The explosion wasn't lethal by any means, but it did throw a lot of bits of plastic and smoke into the air, causing the Collectors to raise their hands to protect their eyes.
But that momentary pause in gunfire was all that they needed. Kelly grabbed Ken, and together they made their way to the ledge. Ken's face contorted to horror, as he finally realized what she wanted to do.
"Are you fucking daft woma-"
"JUST JUMP!"
"OH SHITE!"
The Collector trio recovered from the blast, and were soon joined by more reinforcements. as they flew in they raised their guns and fired into the smoke cloud, absolutely obliterating everything on the other side, but didn't manage to land a single round on the Cerberus crewmen as they screamed and flailed like lunatics over the ledge.
And for one insanely long moment... as they were backlit by the exploding terminal, wreathed by a hail of gunfire, and undoubtedly plummeting to their doom, did Kelly wonder just where in the hell was Commander Shepard.
XxxMeanwhilexxX
Shepard stood proudly against the hot Tuchankan sun, and surveyed the handiwork of his latest adventure. 2 dozen dead Veran, a hand full dead Klixen, and not to mention most of the ritual testing ground that went with Grunt's Rite.
… Oh, and lets not forget the 200 metric tons of dead thresher maw, right behind him. Shepard laughed, and shook his head. Grunt's right of passage, into adulthood, had brought up fond memories of the commanders own 18th birthday party. Ironically, it was also the first time an elected official ever screamed the words 'political shit storm' at him.
The Commander sighed... good times.
Shepard had only been here two days and already he wondering if Tuchanka would be a nice place to retire. He was finding that this was probably the only place in the galaxy he could ever really truly unwind without having to deal with C-sec constantly riding his ass with 'boo-hoo, you can't pull out your weapons here' or 'boo-hoo, please stop hacking random terminals for their credits'.
Bunch of whiners, is what they are.
I mean, for god sakes, have you seen Krogan politics? You basically head-but the opposing party and scream "Your argument is invalid!". The commander never considered a career in politics, but at this rate, he might very well head-but his way into Krogan presidency in just under a year. Holy crap, Tuchanka freakin rules.
While entertaining fantasies of how awesome it would be to have a Krogan councilor, he heard the collective groans and weary footsteps of his squad mates as they approached.
"Ugh" he heard Miranda's weary voice "please tell me that we're done with this forsaken dirt ball."
"Guddamnit, Shepard. I'm being paid to fight Collectors, not go around and pick fights with Thresher-fucking-maws so the guddamned lizard can learn were babies come from." Zaeed's voice complained in from somewhere. The Commander picked up his Cain and walked up to them.
"Yea, yea, we'll get going... Hey Miranda?"
"Yes Commander?"
"How much food do you think a Varen eats a day?"
"Keela! Shepard, please tell me you're not thinking about trying to adopt one of those things, are you?" the quarian asked worriedly. She remembered how happy Shepard was when that former pit varen started following them around.
"...No?" he lied
While Shepard weighed the possibilities of a pet veran eating his hamster, a krogan shuttle flew low over head. Its markings clearly indicating that it belonged to Uvenk.
"Hah! Good I want more." Grunt said, as he pounded his fists together in anticipation. The shuttle landed nearby, and finally Uvenk and his krantt, all five of them, walked out.
Uvenk jumped up on top of a fallen pillar and looked down on Grunt and Shepard. "You live and you brought down the thresher maw. No one has done that in generations. Urdnot Wrex was the last."
Shepard shrugged "Meh. What can I say? We're equal opportunity ass-kickers."
Shepard's comment only caused the Krogan Pure Blood to grin victoriously, but focused on Uvenk first. He'd gloat later. "My krantt gave me strength beyond my genes. Which are damned good."
Uvenk leapt off the column and approached the both of them, eyeing them critically. "This will cause discussion. I wonder… you say you are pure? No alien meddling in your construction? Just the warlord Okeer?"
Shepard stepped up. "C'mon Uvenk, wanna give it a shot? Cause I'll tell you right now, your ass is grass, and we've got the weed-whacker."
Uvenk didn't rise to his baiting. "Not yet. This deserves… consideration."
Now Grunt was suspicious as well as wary. "Why? I'm not getting any more 'natural'."
"You are powerful. You are a mistake. But your potential could tip the current balance of the cla-"
Uvenk was cut off by a lout growl from Grunt. Uvenk, this varen, was spitting on his father's name. On Shepard's name. And now he's going to throw him some worthless spot, on his worthless clan? "RRWWAAAAAA-" The pureblood marched foreword, and got in the older krogans face. Tali readied her omnitool while everyone else geared up for a fight, the krogan all raised their shotguns.
"-AAARR- I AM TIRED OF YOUR DISINGENUOUS ASSERTERIONS!" Grunt roared and head butted Uvnek with enough force to cause everyone to wince. The Clan leader fell backwards, probably unconscious, more than likely dead.
Silence...
Nobody said a word.
The wind blew, a Krogan tumble weed blew by, and finally somebody coughed. Everyone was absolutely stunned into disbelief over what had just happened. Everyone, of course, with exception of Commander Shepard. He was elbowing Miranda, and proudly pointing at Grunt.
"I taught him that!" he whispered while wiping a fatherly tear out of his eye.
Miranda facepalmed.
"I swear they grow up so fast... one day you're flushing them out of their tank, and the next thing you know-"
"Commander" Jacob interupted "I'm really happy for you, and imma let you finish, but we could sure use some orders for all of these shotgun-weilding-krogan out here..."
"Oh right, I almost forgot about that!" Shepard paused, and weighed his options as he considered the best possible coarse of action.
"DUST THESE BITCHES!"
XxX
"I IMMEDIATELY REGRET THIS!" Kelly screamed as she clutched to Ken and fell. Honestly, in her heart, Kelly had hoped for for her luck to hold out, and that maybe they would discover some sort of catwalk or something. Neither one of them were at the correct angle to look directly down, but they watched the world around them accelerate 'up' at an alarming rate. At this point -unless they landed on a big friggen pillow- they were done for.
"I WAS THE ONE WHO SPILLED COFFEE ON THE CIC TERMINAL!" Kelly screamed. Ken snapped his head to the Yeoman's dying confession and scowled. He'd spent days replacing circuit boards and air drying Holo-Emitters, because somebody broke the rules about not bringing food out of the mess hall. "WANKER!" Ken managed before the world around them came to a sudden, and very messy halt.
XxxxX
I was on my way home! Conrad thought, as he hefted the broken lever like a major league baseball batter. That massive... thing... with its huge arm, and its tiny legs was waddling over to him, and he was trapped.
Somehow, he kind of felt that this was kind of his own fault for tempting fate; for thinking that his life couldn't get any worse. He was broke, humiliated, shot in the foot by Commander-fucking-Shepard himself, and to top it all off he'd been served divorce papers by his wife, electronically... from her scumbag boyfriend's omni-tool no less!
Conrad's life was a big pile of fail.
He'd failed at trying to do good. (that stupid undercover cop, wasn't a cop at all!) He'd failed at being a husband, and finally he failed at trying to impress Commander Shepard. All he wanted to do, was to bring a little bit of hope into the galaxy, like Shepard did. He wanted to, for once in his life, to do something he could look back on and be proud of.
He just wanted to be a hero... If only just for one person, for just one moment.
But now here he was. Lost. And trapped in this place that smelled of burnt flesh, and overworked machinery. And about to take on... what he could only describe as a 12 foot scrotum on tiny legs. The Scion lumbered foreword, then pointed its cannon like arm directly at Conrad. The Pretender watched the tip of it glow as it pumped eezo through its body, and thus began a mass effect reaction.
The Pretender lowered his makeshift bat as he realized that he was even going to fail at putting up a decent fight. Like a man condemned, he resigned hims... He suddenly stopped and looked around.
"What is that sound?"
He looked around when he heard it. Oddly enough, it sound like... screaming? It sounded human, and suddenly realizing that it was getting closer, he looked up.
"...aaaaaaaahhhhhhhHHHHHHHH-"
They came screaming in, like they were trying to recreate a scene out of the movie Armageddon. However, instead of a meteor the size of Texas, an awesome soundtrack by Areosmith and vaguely empty plot, it was... well, it was a set of red heads.
And they landed right on top of the Scion.
Sort of like popping God's pimple, the massive husk exploded with a wet slap that sounded like a soaked towel hitting pavement. Conrad barely had time to raise his hand in time to stop the blast of white goo as everything, within a 30 ft radius, was instantly painted white.
Feeling a little like an asari porn star, on the set of Fornax Studios, Conrad wiped the white sludge off of his face and carefully ventured foreword. He watched in bewilderment as the two redheads groaned and rolled over on their disgusting cushion.
"Holy crap! Are you guys okay?" The Scion had pretty much popped like a balloon. Conrad found himself peeling off slimy gray flaps of 'husk skin' off of our heroes, and saw that they were very much alive.
"oooohhhh..." The petite, red headed girl groaned "I think... I busted... my gallbladder..." Kelly groped around for her partner. She found his shoulder and gave him a weak nudge "Ken... you okay?" The Scotsman in question rolled over.
"Yeah dude, are you okay? That looked like that really hurt."
Ken finally opened his eyes, "...actually, I think the fall knocked my nervous system out of whack... I don't feel any pain at all!" The Maintenance Man smiled, then abruptly stopped. "Oh. Wait. There it is... oooooowwwwwww" he groaned.
"C'mon you guys, lets get you out of here." Conrad said, as he heard the sound of more husks moaning in the distance.
[[Achievement Unlocked – The Pretender]]
With The Pretender, Kelly now has access to Conrad's bypass kit that's built right into his suit. This means that Kelly is able to break into any shipping containers that she finds, and is able to stock up on heat-sinks, medigel, and any extra weapons that they find. This also unlocks the mission to aquire level 2 Assault weaponry. Though Conrad's armor is only a replica, it is able to hermetically seal itself, thus allowing him to be able to function in Level 1 Hazardous environments.
(((Choice)))
Recruit the Loudmouth (Bonus: level 1 weapons upgrade)
Recruit the Custodian (Bonus: level 1 weapons upgrade)
Aquire the M-34 (Bonus: level 1 weapons upgrade)
Aquire Level 2 Assault weapons