El Mano: hey im back and im thankful for the reviews, I hope I get more. I hope those who view my story is happy with what im doing. Remember I don't own anything. Next chapter little spoiler at the bottom.

Chapter 4: Down and Dirty

"MAMA! Oh god it hurts! Ah!"

"Somebody shut him up!" Shepard yelled in her com, Her HUD lighting up her cold unfeeling eyes as she gunned down another bug thing. She ducked as another volley of death rained above her. The loud shockwaves and booms of the AAF towers had long since been silenced; the only sounds that assaulted her ears were the sounds of rapid fire, shouted and obscure orders and the screams of dying boys who shouldn't have left boot. She looked down at the screaming man crying for his mom, her eyes widened as she realized that it was Stevens. The boy who she sat next to on the way down. The medic applied more morphine as he applied pressure to Stevens bleeding stomach. Her eyes narrowed and out of her boot flew her trusty dagger, embedding itself deep into the oval head of the bug before being pulled down into the trenches with a small tug. Shepard wiped the green blood off the blade and stood once more; the trenches were doing their job, funneling the enemy and providing cover. The three men who covered her were also no more than boys but they held their own, two were civilians and the last was the last able bodied man of her platoon.

"Shit shit shit fuck" she whispered to herself, more of the bugs kept coming in a seeming less amount and all she could do was keep shooting. Suddenly something flew down beside her. She didn't have to look to know it was a grenade.

"GRENADE!" he yelled before the muffled explosion roared out and the feeling of guts splattered her back through her ceramic armor. She gritted her teeth. At least Stevens had proven her wrong; he didn't die screaming for his mom. She would personally give his mother his flag if she survived this death trap the council had gotten her into.

"FALL BACK! Get to the sheds!" she screamed into her mike, but all she got was static and less than she would like groaned replies. The four men piled behind her into the trenches running as fast as they could, the bugs were, if anything, nimble and agile and very close to killing their asses. She shot and reloaded as fast she could the comforting sound of her rifle calmed her so her shots always hit their marks. Halfway through the blood, guts and mud she caught a break and took out her grenade launcher and shot bouncing Betties to cover their escape, saving five rounds for their inevitable last stand. The gunfire had calmed down and all she could hear were the hard grunts of effort of her platoon and her own harsh breathing. She checked her supplies and realized she was on her last clip and only had the rounds of her grenade launcher. She looked at her weathered group and realized if they didn't get reinforcements soon- a massive explosion illuminated the sky as the frigate she arrived on suddenly decided that landing would be a good idea, oh I don't know three miles or so outside the city which had the ability to bury all of them in the rubble of the area they were trying get too. shit.

/masked man/

As the ship fell out of FTL flight he grinned, not that anyone else would notice. He tapped the comms and yelled "all hands report to all stations, we have some bugs to kill." The ship rang out in yells in response. "Jacob get the squad ready, we're going to do a tricky 500, with a side order of sliders and ranch dressing."

"Way ahead of you." Came the response in a baritone voice into the pilots' comms.

The man clicked four buttons handing the reigns of the ship to the onboard Ai simply known as EDI.

"Be Careful Operative-"

"yeah yeah don't get your electron servos all in a knot."

"I do not have the ability or the capability to do such things Operative-"

"EDI Shut Up"

"Roger that, Logging you out Operative-"

"blah blah blah" said the man mocking the supposedly higher intelligence that commanded the cyber warfare for the ship. The man jumped out of his chair and walked steadily into the elevator and down to the Hammerhead where things would soon get dicey; gracefully if not effctively avoiding the running personnel. He met Jacob outside the elevator and smiled at the black man who stood slightly over him. Jacob was a good guy besides working for their mutual employer, they got along quite well but there was always something he couldn't quite trust. Maybe it was because Jacob was the sort of guy who gets along with everyone and tries to just be the golden boy. Or maybe it's because he always calls the last bag of chips in this admittedly advanced citizen warship.

"all ready to go?" Jacob asked as he pulled an assault rifle off his back and tossing the armored man an unmarked rifle.

The man in black armor caught the rifle as he jumped into the hammerhead and into the pilot seat. Before starting up the beast. "Get in already and no heroics young Jacob."

The black man just raised a middle finger and rallied the three other men who were his go to squad.

Rico the demolitions expert, he was a Latino man who always spoke Spanish forcing his teammates to learn the language to understand every curse and rather rude gestures he gave to the rest of the crew. He was 5'5 and had short cropped black hair, a clean shaven face and a shot gun attached to his back as well as the hand cannon he calls Maria. He also was strapped with fifteen grenades and things that went boom. One time they were trapped in a cell. It turns out that the hair band wrapped on his wrist was actually outlined with c4 and the detonator was… swallowed and recovered during their stay. Long story short, all you need to break out of a prison is c4 and a lot of prune juice.

Then there was tank. Naturally he was the smallest guy of the group standing at 5'2. He was the local "I got a chip on my shoulder about my height so I will overcompensate by being the toughest baddest motherfucker with the biggest gun. He currently carried the heaviest equipment which included a rocket launcher, an improved heavy assault rifle, "liberated" from the honest hard working people of whomever the hell he stole it from and a large dagger attached to his hip. He had black hair, which he didn't care or worry about maintaining, and hard rough features that belayed the fact that he was only twenty six.

Finally there was…. Well he didn't really have a name he sort of was a last addition. He simply was referred to as smiley. Basically because he didn't smile. He was requested to accompany them by his employer. Tim for short. He was shady and distant. I hated him instantly. Ruined the mood but hey I needed to work with these people.

"Operative-"

"Goddamn it EDI what do you want!" the man yelled irritated at the fact that he had the engines all primed and ready to go.

"The alliance Frigate of one specter named Tera Shepard has been disabled and has crash landed three miles away from the last reported location of Commander Shepard. I recommend that you try to find Commander Shepard before the known hostiles find her." EDI concluded by logging out.

The man looked back at his crew grinning. "looks like we got a hot LZ boys."

The cheered and Jacob nodded before strapping himself in. The man pushed the controls and was out of his current ship and into the atmosphere of the planet below him as his ship started to engage the enemy ship, still hurt from its dogfight with the alliance frigate.

/

Shepard brushed off the debris and saw that her team was either crushed from rubble or they weren't around anymore. She checked her comms, and got no response. Suddenly a voice grumbled at her. "farewell little Earth monkey." (guess who said that.)

She scrambled behind a fallen pillar as the shots and chittering noises of the bugs became apparent. "Fuck this I ain't going down like a little bitch. I survived Earth. I Survived the Skyllian Blitz (sorry for misspelling), I survived Saren and I survived my ship exploding, I won't die because some little bugs think I should." She stood and shouted as she unloaded the last of her clip and picked up another gun of a fallen comrade and kept firing and fighting even as the guns ran out of ammo, as her adrenaline ran out and the edge of her knife became dull. Even as she was shot four times and her Medi-gel was running out. And even as she started to use a bugs arm to viciously kill its comrades.

Time was no longer an issue for her, the only things that mattered were the quesitons she asked herself. Was there no hope for her? Would she die on this pitiful planet and not even try to stop the Reapers like she promised Jeff in the darkest of nights so his death meant something? Would she not be able to visit his grave one last time like she should have before she got onto the fucking frigate that brought her here to die?

She fell down beside a broken pillar, trying to catch her breath and find something to kill with. A twisted piece of metal was dragged to her by her tired limbs and she held on to it tightly as she heard the steady advance of multiple feet marching toward her position. She pulled off her helmet letting her messy hair fall down and outlined her face. Her face, white from blood loss, didn't distract from her hard eyes. She would see him one way or another but she preferred to be standing when she did. She looked over her cover and saw fifteen left slowly advancing. She tightened her grip as she heard her last bouncing Betty rip through the torso of a now dead bug and stood up jumping over her cover with the metal raised high, the vision of death and goddess of war she was now, the last of strength being used to take out the bastards who would kill innocents and boys who should've been more interested in school and girls than facing death on a battle field. Everything slowed down as they raised their weapons. Hopefully she'd take one down before they mowed her down.

An explosion made her tumble and fall onto the ground as she lost the energy and the one mindedness to cause damage to the enemy. Her vision blurred as the bugs that were caught off guard by the explosion were mowed down by the sounds of shotgun blasts, assault rifle and some explosions from way to overpowered grenades and a missile launcher. All was silent in a brief moment as shouts of "clear" reverberated in the small formerly blocked off area. Suddenly she was turned over a black mask hiding the face of her rescuer, a familiar voice sounded through the mask.

"Never thought I would rescue you Tera."

The man turned as a black man tapped the man's shoulder making him turn and allow her to see the Cerberus logo on the armored man's shoulder.

The man turned back to look at her but he suddenly found himself looking at the sky and feel a dull throb in his head. He watched as she stood up shaking. Using the piece of metal she hit him with as a crutch. He also stood up clutching his head but holding a hand up to stop anyone from restraining her.

"I will die before some Cerberus lapdog takes me in." she growled the declaration with strength she did not possess and he knew she was almost done. He had seen the same face when they were done on Virmire. But he would be there for her like he always would be. He unclasped his helmet. "chill out, it's me."

El Mano: hopefully you enjoyed that as much as I did. I hope you review, please do it! I need it! Well I don't own anything and if there are any comments or criticism it is welcomed. Flames try burn all you want I wear fireproof underpants. Anyway see yas to the next round. Next chapter spoiler.

Chapter 5: A Bullet gets Bitten

….. you don't write, you never call, and all this time I needed someone or something to hold onto, but you were gone and now I don't know what to feel for you." She crossed her arms and looked out of the port observation deck.

"I never left." He smiled at her, his stupid but cute fucking smile was the same, it still had an effect for her and he knew it. But it wasn't to manipulate her; it was so that she could accept he was back. He walked toward her and uncrossed her arms and tilted her face to look into his own. He wiped a small fleeting tear from her cheek with his still soft thumb.

"I still love you."

"What if I don't?"

"Then tell me don't."

She didn't look away. "are you my…

Hopefully you liked that teaser come back for more peace out homies.

-El Mano