Chapter Two: The Silver Arm
After descending from the terminal via a similar elevator to the one from before they found themselves in a drastically different place. Shepard remembered the other townsfolk to be much less threatening and more humble than the crowd that stood before them. Here he could tell was the home of the true scum and villainy of the galaxy, nasty and foul men and women sat in groups or walked the streets in suspicious manners and tried to hide their concealed weapons and frail figures with large robes or coats. Shepard's rule still applied here, he didn't see any of them as a real threat because they were all out of shape, pale and thin and undisciplined. He was disgusted by their rotted teeth, poorly maintained cybernetics, torn robes and rusted weapons, and most of all, their despicable stare.
One of them approached the trio as they departed from the elevator, paying no mind to the peasants that scattered to random places after leaving the elevator. "Janice, looks like you got some new friends." The man was tin and bald, his eyes replaced with tiny green robotic eyes, all of his teeth and part of his tongue were metal, and wore a torn fur collared coat that reeked of urine. His voice was rasped and sounded faintly British to Shepard, "Am I going to have to report your friend for stealing Astartes property? Or have you finally decided to sleep around in the monastery?"
Shepard launched his fist into the man's face like a steel piston, throwing him back onto his ass a few feet back and landing in a small area of mud on the badly paved street. Blood gushed from the man's already crooked nose and mixed with the mud as it trickled down the side of his face, the man was out cold. Now with the entire block of shady characters gazing at him, Shepard made a gesture to all of them to try and attack him. All of them inched back slightly in fear of him and the two women at his side. Janice gestured to go to the left and the other two followed.
"The wastes aren't far, just about half a mile up this street." Janice stated, "Stay close, a lot of these folk are-" Gunfire interrupted her statement as flashes from gun barrels could be seen just a few blocks away. Shepard pulled his Revenant and sprinted down the street, the power armor increasing his speed tenfold. Miranda pulled the Avenger rifle from her back and followed Shepard, although not at superhuman speed. Janice mumbled something to herself and pulled a modified Hellgun from her waist, allowing it to expand and transform in front of her as the once compact gun became a full fledged rifle.
--
Giant white skinned monsters stared down the barrels of the guns of the scum and villainy type characters combating them. Each creature was so utterly large than the humans that it was simply no contest for the untrained criminal types. On the creatures backs were bony purple carapaces, and on their multiple pairs of arms dark red talons tore into the dozen or so humans trying to fight off the creatures. Shepard looked at one and the bright red blood spattered all over its mouth and arms, some of it was fresh, and some of it wasn't, but it truly scared him. Only one creature in this dark future was merciless enough or mindless enough to kill, maim, and then eat their victims out of sheer need for food: Tyranids. From the bulbous head and multiple pairs of arms he could tell they were what the Ultramarines call 'Genestealers'.
After inserting Jacob's special 'Boltgun' ammo mod, Shepard pulled on the trigger with all of his might and sprayed fire into the pack of Genestealers, each bullet shaking the rifle as they were launched from the chamber like miniature missiles. As goldenrod flames flashed from the barrel, Shepard let out a war cry as he continued shooting. One creature lifted its four arms and charged at the Commander, acid drool pouring from its mouth, its narrow minded brain only hungering for his flesh and guts. With the last few bullets Shepard brought the thing down and its once fearsome screams and roars fell silent. Miranda came up behind him just in time to see the white hot thermal clip fly from the side of the Revenant and onto the ground. She dove to catch it before it rolled into a sewer, being careful to only touch the cool base of the object. He was about to ask why she did that, but then he remembered that thermal clips, and even mass effect technology in general was either lost or obsolete in this time. Easily inserting a fresh thermal sink into the gun, the gold hologram circuit lines returned and shined brightly on the rifle, the picture of a two-headed eagle appearing next to the scope.
Miranda hopped up and began to glow an eerie blue, dark energy churning all around her as she charged up a massive biotic attack. With a feral scream she lifted herself into the air slightly and with the wave of her arm one of the Genestealers flailed about after a Warp attack pierced its hardened skin and gravely wounded it. The creature behind it opened its jaw and charged at her in retaliation, its three arms (Shepard shot one off, but it didn't seem to mind) ready to tear into her beautiful skin. Miranda drew her Carnifex in one hand and the Tempest in the other, firing both at once at the Tyranid as she strafed to avoid its lunge. This was indeed a feet given the drastic variation in recoil between the two guns. A few shots to its large head made caused enough pain to knock it down, the Tyranid fell forward and was knocked prone for but a moment. Janice came at it with her Hellgun aiming at its incapacitated form and shot bursts of laser fire into its skull.
Shepard figured this fight would have been much harder, he remembered that these creatures could easily overpower mighty Space Marines in combat. Many times he watched the vids from a Marine's HUD log as they picked up the mighty heroes and tore them to shreds, only to be stopped by a squad leader with a close combat weapon or bolter fire after the first squad had been slain. Then he looked around, dozens of bloody corpses of vigilantes and criminal henchmen had softened the creatures up for him and Miranda. And before the pack of monsters stood three mighty heroes, Shepard was once an Alliance soldier, and yearned to be considered one after his dealings with Cerberus. He was eager to tell the Illusive Man to go to hell and paint over every damn Cerberus logo inside and outside of the Normandy when it was over. Over time he even convinced Miranda to understand his perspective and even change her opinion of the organization altogether. Miranda was a good soldier herself, constantly being heckled by Shepard for her choice in weapons. But her extensive biotic powers and resourceful knowledge in technology made her a brilliant asset to the team. Janice was something else, under that model figure was a warrior with a deep determination and high resolve. He could see in her eyes that she was indeed a dauntless woman. The Tyranids were one of the greatest of many evils that threatened humanity, and could send many running with fear, but she gripped her worn rifle and stood toe to toe with the last of the Genestealers, making sure they would not touch another soul.
Moments later the last of the Tyranids fell, leaving a gory scene of death and blood in their wake. Shepard looked around for more, and then turned to Janice. "Where the fucking hell did those come from?" He screamed at the woman with frustration in his voice, but she stood there unaffected, "I may not know about your city or this world, but I know enough to understand that those things come by the thousands! Are you just going to stand there while the rest of them breed more and more until they overrun your planet?"
"They are overflow from the Wastes." Janice replied calmly.
"Explain. Now." Shepard pulled away and stood up straight, folding up the Revenant and putting it on his back.
"The Wastes is an expanse of abandoned city streets between here and the Fate Breakers' Fortress Monastery. It's also where the isolated remains of a tyranid nest are held. The Space Marines decided to go to great length to instead of going into the sewers and sacrificing hundreds of men to eradicate the last of the xenos, they isolated it. The Astartes use it as a 'rite of passage' for potential aspirants. Make it to the other side, and you probably will get a chance to become one of them."
"I'm guessing you want to take us to see the Space Marines on this world?" Miranda asked, wiping the dirt from her clothes.
"Indeed, the Fate Breakers are the main group heading the task of finding Grissom's device. They will be interested in what you have to say."
Shepard was about to reply when he noticed a large shadow cast onto the ground, he pulled out his rifle quickly and pointed it at the roofs above. Miranda and Janice looked up as well to see a single Tyranid dive down towards them. Janice and Shepard were quick enough to pull their weapons and open fire, but the creature had its sights on Miranda, who lifted her right arm to fire a Warp attack. The creature's jaw clenched down on Miranda's arm and basically swallowed the biotic attack as its lime colored teeth reached all the way to her shoulder, the resulting pain making her attack unstable and detonate inside its mouth. The Genestealer landed oddly but kept its grip on Miranda tight, the others hesitating for a second as they feared for the woman's life. Shepard only focused on the fact that it had Miranda it its jaw, and would do anything to save her. Sounds became muffled and his surroundings blurred as he angrily opened fire of the alien monster. Between the pain from the landing, the explosion it its mouth, and the gunfire, the Tyranid thought that what was in its mouth was enough for now. Quickly and violently shaking Miranda about, she flew from its grip and hit the ground hard. It retreated into the empty streets south of them and disappeared. Shepard chased the creature for about a block, still firing, but then Miranda gave out a long moan.
Shepard sprinted back and came to Miranda's side, her white suit now spattered with blood and covered in dust. He looked in horror at her mangled and mostly missing right arm, violently gnawed away up to her shoulder. She was fading in and out of consciousness, the pain was so great she tried her hardest to keep from screaming until she blacked out. "Where is a doctor?" He screamed at Janice, mostly unshaken by Miranda's condition. She wondered if helping them was the best idea, but then Janice looked into Shepard's eyes. She saw the unmistakable sense of a bond he had for the woman on the ground. This was only a bond between two lovers, one she used to have with another.
"This way, there is a clinic two blocks north!" Janice went to help Miranda up, but Shepard picked her up and held her tightly in his arms, caring not for the blood that would tarnish his armor. As he followed Janice, citizens peered out of high and low windows and doors, curious of the situation. She yelled a command to some as if she had been here hundreds of times and knew everyone by name. She ordered a man tinkering in a garage to get up and help, and two other people huddling around a fire on the sidewalk to get up and get a third person.
--
In a rundown promenade sat the workings of a not too busy medical clinic. Patients on the exposed beds were attended to by cyborg doctors for simple things like a cough or problems with cybernetic implants, while serious cases were ferried into sterile tents closed to the outside. At the promenade's center a fountain with a statue of the immediately recognizable figure of the Emperor, with robed servitors polishing the statue and the fountain itself while other servitors tended to the water purifiers to keep the water free of sludge and waste. On the lip of the fountain sat a mostly normal looking middle aged man with orange hair and wore a tattered lab coat, he sat looking a datapad until Shepard and Janice ran up to him screaming his name.
"Doctor Terrence! We need help!" The doctor saw the bleeding woman in Shepard's arms and without asking any questions got to work. He bellowed orders to many of his staff while some others came up behind Janice and Shepard. He was ordered to bring Miranda into a tent before he could hear what Janice was saying to the two men that approached her. "Good to see you again, Preston, Kenneth." She bowed slightly to the both of them. "I need you two to do me a favor." They both nodded eager in anticipation, "I need you to make a right arm for the injured woman the Astartes brought here."
--
Shepard sat outside the grey tent with his head between his legs. Staring at the ground and listening to the muffled voices of the people inside. He asked himself why he let her come with him. This was truly a dark and dangerous future, humanity was surrounded by traitors and evil aliens while slowly declining into its own anarchy. And yet he let her grab hold of him and pressed the button that isolated them from the past by thirty-eight thousand years. He pulled out the glass cylinder with the grey marble floating in the center. He thought that if they could leave at any time, why not send her back? He would most likely be trapped here but they could kill the Collectors without him. But after all of his thoughts of possible solutions to the problem at hand, one question burned in his mind. Did he love her enough to send her back alone, or would he risk her further harm by letting her stay?
"Sir, she is awake." A person peeked their head out from the tent and spoke to the Commander, forcing him to shoot up and walk inside. The same person hand him a cloth to hold over his face, as to not pass unwanted contagions.
Miranda was hooked up to odd looking machines that beeped and whirred, and her right shoulder was heavily bandaged and cleaned of blood. She looked up at him with a peaceful face and touched his armor with her fingertips, being careful not to move too much. "Hey… How are you?" He asked in a soft voice, kneeling beside her to be at eye level.
"That'll teach me to not to feed anything with sharp teeth again." She chuckled slightly, thinking of her lost arm.
"When we get back, Mordin will make you a new one." Shepard pointed at the bandaged stump, causing both of them to laugh.
"Coming through! Move it scrap for brains!" Two voices echoed from outside the tent, which parted as they came in. Two men rolled in a small cart with a polished chrome right arm, setting up shop opposite Shepard, which was conveniently on Miranda's right side. "You, Space Marine. Were opening up the wound again, so out." One of them stated. Shepard snickered and refused. They knew they couldn't force him so they moved him to the corner of the tent as the two men worked to attach the arm on the table to Miranda's right shoulder…