David Shepard came onto the Normandy bridge to find Joker already expecting him.
"You've got an urgent caller waiting for you, it's Anderson.". David nodded and took the message at his private terminal. Anderson's face filled the screen.
"Shepard, no time for talk, what did you uncover from Sovereign's remains?".
"Just some new armor and shield technology, and some shit that could upgrade our infantry weapons, we're already implementing all of it onto the Normandy, and are 93% complete.". Anderson let out a breath.
"Good, because Retribution Beta, three Collector ships and about twenty heretic Geth ships are on the edge of the Scorpio systems and are moving toward another multi-racial colony, Common Ground, we have thirty upgraded ships around that planet, but it seems as though the heretic Geth have some defense upgrades of their own, but it's the reaper and Collectors I'm worried about, can you get there in ten hours?". Shepard nodded.
"You can count on me, but what about Retribution and Retribution Omega?".
"We assume that they are also gearing up for an assault.".
"Alright, we'll stop Ret' B, Shepard out.". He closed the channel.
"Joker, get us to Common Ground yesterday!".
"Aye aye sir.". The Normandy left the dock and shot off toward the mass relay leading to the Scorpio systems.
Common Ground, ten hours later.
The Normandy came out of the mass relay ready for battle, in the distance, the two fleets were trading shots, the weapon and shield upgrades were helping the council ships to hold their own, even the Reaper's weapons took two shots to kill a ship, the Geth and Collector forces were keeping the council ships from focusing on Retribution beta.
Joker brought the Normandy up behind a Geth cruiser and fired the Thannik cannon, the ship had all of it's kinetic barriers focused on it's bow, so the sapphire lance of energy ripped the larger warship in half.
The bridge crew cheered and whooped as the Normandy circled it's kill three times before moving on to a collector ship, two Alliance cruisers were being tied down by this massive ship, but as soon as the Normandy's Thannik cannon fired, it's unprotected rear was severely damaged, the alliance ships made short work of the vessel before moving to assist the rest.
Shepard saw several Geth and Collector dropships break through and latch onto the orbiting station, which controlled the planet's orbital defense grid, Shepard pointed at the station.
"Joker, get me and a team on there and then get back to the fight.". Joker nodded and steered the frigate away.
David, Garrus and Kevin landed in the hangar, hefting the new breed of weapons, Plasmatically Charged Round, assault rifles and pistols. The three collectors and seven Geth in the hangar fired upon the small group, which fired back, the PCR rifles cut through the Geth shields like nothing was resisting them, the synthetics were dead in seconds.
The collectors were harder to put down but their shields were useless against the PCR weapons, in he corner, a Geth armature unfolded and stomped toward the group.
Three Collector scions dropped from the back of he armature, they glowed with biotic energy, and sent several bolts of energy toward Shepard and his group. Kevin dodged the first biotic attack and used his own, the first scion was thrown back ten meters and slammed into the armature, Shepard sidestepped the attacks directed at him and emptied a clip into the scion, collapsing it's shields and riddling the body with bullet holes.
Garrus was hit by the third biotic attack and was slammed into the ground, he lay there stunned as David and kevin took care of the last collector, the armature started to build up a charge for it's cannon.
The team fired from cover but the powerful shields of the armature held fast, it fired a ball of energy at Shepard, who ducked and let his cover block the shot.
Shepard looked around for his team, Garrus was crouched behind a heavy crate but Kevin was nowhere to be seen, David peeked over his cover and fired at the armature.
A black streak blurred across the front of the armature, it left a small disk in the forward right leg joint before disappearing into the mess of crates.
The grenade detonated and downed the joint's shields, Shepard fired precise bursts from his PCR AR-5B, the joint snapped under as the bullets cut away the metal fibers, the armature collapsed and shorted out.
"Damn, those things are hard to kill.". Kevin said as he jumped up from between the crates he had landed among after planting the grenade, Garrus chuckled.
"If you think that was hard, you should have seen us on , we had to take a colossus on foot, you haven't seen anything yet.". Kevin absentmindedly drew his katana and twirled it in complex patterns. Shepard contacted Joker for a status report.
"What's the situation Joker?". The voice on the other end sounded like it's owner was in a different world.
"It's uh, fine, the fleet is holding out quite well, Retribution B is being hit hard and it's support fleet is at 47%.".
"Good, we are heading for the command. Center, the station is crawling with Geth and Collectors, so it might be a bit before the defense grid is active again.".
"Great, just hurry.". The comm shut off and David shoulders his AR.
"Let's get moving!". The trio jogged through the primary hatch and into the main hallway. They heard shots fired from around the first corner and readied their weapons, a crewman was running from an enemy around the corner but when he reached the far wall a laser burst caught his back, splattering blood on the wall. Three collectors rounded the corner, Kevin glowed blue and a flash of sapphire energy obscured the aliens. When the light cleared the collectors were floating helplessly in the air, Shepard shot each one twice in the head, their blood leaked out the bullet holes and floated alongside the former owners.
David, Kevin and Garrus were already around the corner when the biotic attack wore off, dropping the bodies to the floor and splattering the free-floating blood everywhere.
Author's note: End of chapter 3, hope you enjoyed it, please review., chapter four will be out in a few days, after chapter four there may be a delay of several days before I even consider starting CH5, but I plan on seeing this through. Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to review, I have benefitted from your input. :)
DN24k.