Chapter 14: Brigand Exterminators
The sun was high in the sky, the air was cool, and the city looked as foreboding and creepy as it ever was. To Shepard, it was a perfect day on an imperfect world in an imperfect time, just the place to be killing a band of barbarian anarchists. Before committing to the deed he wanted to make sure, he wanted to know if there was any way to convince them to surrender or rejoin the forces of the Emperor. These questions were met with stern faces and many a scolding, but they were not without merit. Shepard made a promise to himself and every other under his command that the blood of innocents would never be on their hands. He always looked for more peaceful alternatives, but now he was in the 41st millennium, where mercy and kindness could never be known to mankind's enemies. Quickly realizing this, Shepard became not only compliant, but eager to complete his task.
A long, winding road stretched vertically across the western part of the city. The sun beat down on the tar and asphalt road, kicking up heat waves that blurred many areas of into the distance. A renegade scout, hidden in one of the many buildings on either side of the road, peered into a pair of binoculars and looked to the road. Many of the buildings here looked to be offices or apartments, again having little similarities to standard Imperium architecture. The walls were plain the windows were boarded up or covered by dirtied, taut cloth, and all looked to be clean but empty. The heat waves obscured much, but coming into view in the center of the seaming miasma were three powerful warriors. First, the unmistakable form of a Space Marine, armor as black as night, came into view and began walking down the road. Then, the shape of a woman with a form fitting white uniform and black hair appeared to his right, the sun reflecting off of her metal arm. Finally an unknown being appeared to the left of the marine, its one eye glowing an eerie white. Fumbling with the binoculars, the scout dropped them onto the concrete floor he was kneeling on. Making only a minor sound, the young man yelped, but only after did he realize he was too far away for them to hear the sound. He reached for a thin but very long rocket launcher, which was already armed, and pointed it at the trio.
Legion's auto-senses picked up a glint of light from the rocket faster than the two humans could, "Incoming rocket projectile!" Yelling in his monotonous voice, Legion drew his sniper rifle and took cover behind a building.
"I see it." Shepard could clearly see the incoming rocket, and answered the synthetic casually when he plotted out the rocket's trajectory in his mind. "It's not very accurate, and not very fast either." He quickly drew his Carnifex sidearm and pointed it at the missile. Squeezing the trigger twice, the projectile exploded in a flash of light and fire dozens of feet away from him. He squinted, focusing on the targeting sensors in his HUD, he peered through the right lens and looked to an inconspicuous tower standing only a few stories taller than the field of smaller buildings surrounding it. Constantly shifting holograms focused on the silhouette of a man in one of the tower's windows, allowing Shepard to finally acquire his target. "Legion, open fire!"
Legion quickly leaned out from the building he once cowered behind and shot a single bullet from the extremely long bolt action rifle. Shepard had never seen such a thing before, coming to the conclusion that the rifle was created thousands if not tens of thousands of years after his time. The slug hit its target almost instantaneously, but instead of seeing the man's body drop out of view everything within fifteen feet of the man in the window violently exploded, nearly bringing the tower down with him. The impact made a swift and piercing sound and the unexpected event made Shepard turn away for a moment. When the smoke from the bullet cleared he saw a jagged crater in the center of the tower wall facing them, with no trace of the assassin but plenty of destruction.
"What the fuck was that?" Shepard screamed to Legion, taken off guard with shock and awe.
"We did as you commanded." Legion retorted.
"Okay then," Shepard approached him and took a deep breath, then lifted the sniper file in Legion's hands to eye level, "What are the exact details of this rifle?" He asked in a calmer voice.
"This is the CX-7824 Bolt Action Rifle, model upgrade Omega 12-B. Designated for use against vehicles and larger creatures. Using explosive duritanium slugs and triple-chambered acceleration technology, all projectile fired from this weapon are accelerated to approximately 8.14 to 8.20001 percent of light speed. Weighing exactly 108.40 pounds/49.17 kilograms, it can only be used by Geth or Krogan snipers without being ground-mounted. Protocol dictates we cannot say when it was created, but we can say the rifle was not created recently and it was created to combat the growing Ork threat."
"Orks?" Miranda asked, allowing the first thing to come to her mind were the creatures in Lord of the Rings. Shepard guessed she would think of them, remembering her face occasionally buried in one of the books when he stopped by her office on the Normandy every so often.
"They're a prime threat to humanity in the 41st Millennium. A very barbaric and almost cartoonish race of… well as far as I know they're plants. They reproduce like Thrasher Maws, just more quickly."
"Shepard Commander is correct, a single spore if put into direct contact of soil will over the course of a standard galactic year produce enough Orks to overrun a planet. What you may not know from the Ultramarines Video Logs is that the Ork threat began much earlier than the Horus Heresy. Even the Citadel races needed to take extreme precautions for centuries until the Eldar shared with us ways to sterilize worlds of Ork spores without having to damage the soil or the indigenous plant life. Humanity has unfortunately come to the conclusion that the only cure to such a thing is "Exterminatus"." Miranda could guess what that meant.
"Speaking of which, you have yet to finish our dialogue from earlier." Shepard waved his arm to Miranda to get the three of them to hide in the alleyway. "I can understand why you would not share the information with us in the presence of two veteran Space Marines, but now would be a good time to share that little tidbit of info you left out. You know, like your involvement with the Emperor, perhaps?"
"Now is not the time to share information. Several enemy humanoids on two wheeled vehicles are approaching our position at a speed of-"
"Great." Shepard pointed a finger at Legion's eye, "You're still going to tell me. Mark my words, before sunset you will tell me." Legion could understand this was not so much a threat as it was a request made overly dramatic through the quirks of human language. He heard a slight laugh under Shepard's breath as he turned away and leaped into the center of the two lane road, but his robotic mind gave it no further thought when the combat began.
Shepard could hear the sound of motorcycle engines, it was a heavy and rough sound, one he had some fond memories of. Since the bikers were only blackened shadows in the distance now, Shepard took a moment to try and recall the memory of such a time…
Shepard was a spacer kid, an Air Force brat by most standards, and most of his younger years were spent living on starships that his parents were serving on. But when Shepard was in his late teens, just before he signed up for the Alliance, his parents were stationed at one of the large stations in Earth's orbit. This allowed Shepard to travel to many places around the world in his free time, and his parents had more than enough trust in him to be responsible and safe when by himself. One summer he spent a few weeks exploring Manhattan and the five boroughs, a unique and welcoming place to those who had an open heart and mind. Spending the nights at his grandmother's apartment, he traveled far and wide, and met many people of all types, race, gender, social class, sexual orientation, and even those of varying criminal backgrounds. Thinking back, he wonders how he never got into trouble with some of the people he met. But it never crossed his mind that it was because of his curious, tolerant, and most of all friendly nature that left an impact on them.
He remembered a big and tall man named Louis Doyle-Jones, a man who loved women and motorcycles. Shepard, only seventeen at the time, had simply grown tired of walking around looking for interesting or peculiar stores and wanted to grab something to eat. Walking into the first place he saw, Shepard took a seat in a restaurant and bar which happened to be the (exclusive) hangout for a notorious biker gang, of course it was notorious to those who actually lived in that part of Brooklyn. Shepard politely sat himself at a table near the door, quite oblivious to the perturbed hooligans who saw not a quiet and polite teenager but a threat to their pride and honor as gang members. Shepard noticed that biker types must frequent the restaurant, but he was entirely comfortable with letting them do what they want. If they wanted to dress however they wanted, live however they wanted, then it's their business.
When a blonde haired waitress approached him, she attempted to warn him of the trouble he faced by sitting in the establishment. But by that time it was too late, two men quietly rose from their tables behind Shepard and grabbed him by both arms. Together they were both big enough to lift the teenage Shepard from his seat and turn him around to face a third man. This one was slightly thinner, but had a much less inviting expression, and a terrible smell. After cussing up a storm and a few suggested threats on his life, Shepard began to use his silver tongue and kind heart to persuade the man from doing any harm to him. It did not seem to work on the men holding him captive, but every other man and woman in the establishment was moved by his speech to varying degrees, and perhaps most of all was the gang's boss. When he rose from the table, for the first time Shepard saw someone with fire in their eyes. Towering over the pungent man both physically and psychologically, his approach alone caused the two burly grunts to release their grip on Shepard. He barked at them to get on their bikes and spread word of the pungent man, who's real name was Donny something, being demoted. This caused Donny to become furious and attempted to punch the boss. The punch never connected, and Donny was on the floor with a broken nose from a much faster and harder swing. The Boss yelled at his unconscious body that he beat up turians twice his size in the First Contact War. When the whole room broke into laughter, the boss introduced himself to Shepard and patted him on the shoulder with one of his enormous hands. The last thing Shepard remembers of that day was sitting down and having a pleasant conversation with the man, and the roar of motorcycle engines just outside as riders came to and from…
They could see the anarchists clearly now, riding on choppers made of scrap from tanks and surplus building materials left lying around. The riders were no different than the men who greeted the trio when they landed. Dirtied skin, horrible hygiene, tattered clothing, and utterly bloodthirsty, they flailed about clubs and rugged sabers as they drove down the thin road, eager to kill the trio of trespassing travelers. Shepard pulled his Eviscerator shotgun from its perch across his tailbone, noticing he had not gripped the weapon in quite a long time. Turning a knob above the butt of the gun, a fiery red hologram outlined the weapons edges, all leading to a small square icon of a bullet engulfed in flame.
"Legion, fire a shot into the right vehicle on my order. Miranda, focus fire on the driver and any passengers if they pass me." Shepard yelled, crouching slightly in a gesture readying himself for a sprint.
"What are you going to do?" Miranda asked.
"I'm going to crush those bikes into tiny pieces." He paused, "Fire, Legion!"
An explosion engulfed the third and largest of the motorcycles almost instantly after Shepard's order, but this time he planned on such. The sudden loss disoriented the other two vehicles and slowed them for a short moment, but no matter how thought out a plan can be one cannot plan for the unexpected. The head motorcycle accelerated and charged down the road, closing the gap between it and Shepard in seconds. Shepard held his ground and planted his two feet into the road, taking a defensive stance.
Intent on running him down, the bandit sped past the gunfire from both Legion and Miranda's weapons, and Shepard had no intention of firing his yet. The moment he took to look back on his fond childhood filled him with a renewed resolve. When the front tire was inches from his body Shepard brought down his right fist on it with the full force of a true Space Marine. Letting out a war cry in a bellowing baritone, the fist cleaved through the rusted piping, chains, wires, and other machinery located just behind the front wheel. This followed a small explosion, sending the crooked tire shooting in between his legs and a smoke cloud enveloped the signature outline of Shepard's armor. Without giving the chance to the biker to regain his senses, Shepard picked up the wrecked front of the vehicle with one hand and held it in the air like a sword. With a single violent shake of the ruined vehicle Shepard removed the driver, throwing him to the ground and cracking his shoulder blade when he landed. The man turned onto his back letting out a meager moan. Looking to the last of the bikes, Shepard threw the bike as if it was a throwing axe and thanks to his trained eye and careful aim, it collided with the last bike and incinerated both in an instant.
Shepard let out a sigh, letting all of his anger leave his body in a single moment, and when calm he pointed the shotgun in between the man's eyes, "Answer my questions and I won't have to stain the pavement with your brain."
The man laughed, first out of sheer bloodlust and lunacy, but then out of fear.
"Take a good, long look at us. Do we look like we're joking around?" Miranda walked over to the injured biker and squatted down to look him in the eyes. The man ignored her threat and instead looked at her endowments which took up so much of his view. A subtle hand went to touch her, but Miranda predicted he would try it. She took her Tempest submachine gun and pointed it directly at the man's crotch, "He doesn't have to kill you yet, I can make it as painful as possible before you die." The man put his hands at his sides.
"Why? Why turn your back on the Emperor? A man whose morality and intellect transcended the barbarism of a dying Terra? A mind so pure that he united humanity under a single banner and nearly destroyed all who opposed him? A man who stood against injustice with the virtues of faith and brotherhood? Why turn to your back on the one man who stood for so much only to return to the filthy piracy and tyranny that he fought and nearly died to liberate you from?" Shepard was growing angrier with every word that came from his mouth, but he took another deep breath to calm himself. Deciding to remove his helmet calmed his mind a little faster as he took in the somewhat fresh air.
"What right have you to patronize us?" The brigand choked from his mouth, fighting back the pain. Apparently he must have suffered more damage than intended, "This world is owned by a madman who lives in a sea of abominations. No help will ever come. What do we do? Die in fear of those creatures or live the good life preying on those too morally just to join us and too weak to stop us?"
"Oh, you're going to die anyway, so might as well pillage and steal from your former comrades. You make me sick." Shepard frowned and sneered at the man, pushing the shotgun further into the man's forehead to the point of pinning him.
"Are you going to answer his questions yet?" Miranda asked impatiently.
"I'll answer you're questions when you ask them."
Shepard smacked the man across the cheek with the shotgun for his smartass remark, "How far to your main base, and what's the defensive layout?"
"The gang's hideaway is up the road, about ten minutes on foot. They're well fortified with anti-vehicle batteries, but we're not outfitted to fight goddamn Astartes commandos!"
Shepard pulled his shotgun away from the man's head and pulled the man from the ground, holding the bandit's arm behind his back, "I don't know what crimes you have committed in your time hear, how many you've stolen from, how many you have slain, you could have done close to nothing and be guilty by association, I care not. But if you want to truly repent not just in the eyes of the Emperor, but in the eyes of your peers, you will run to their base and not look back or slow until you reach it." Shepard threw the man forward and let go if him completely. He stumbled at first but then did as Shepard told him to. The man ran and ran and never looked back.
An hour had passed, and now the trio was in the thick of fighting.
"Miranda, on my six! Legion, cover fire!" Shepard pulled away from the security of the fountain in the embattled square, now riddled with bullet holes and leaking water. His kinetic barriers recharged with a mechanical sound following blue waves of light that washed over his armor. He looked to the large museum building, with a huge flight of stairs leading to a stone front and half a dozen stone pillars that towered above the humans defending it. Magenta colored lasers fired from weapons from faraway silhouettes of assailants barricaded beyond the range of Shepard's Revenant Machine Gun. It was in this situation he relied on Miranda and her biotic might. She came up behind him, dual-wielding her two submachine guns and firing at her targets with lethal accuracy. She followed Shepard as he dashed from the fountain to a pillar at the bottom of the grand stairwell, his power armor shielding her from the lightning fast laser fire. In that time, Shepard switched out for his grenade launcher, holding it close to his torso as his back slammed into the ruined stone pillar. A small ammo count on his heads-up-display blinked yellow, noting that only a few projectiles remained in the heavy weapon's drum magazine, he sighed heavily, fogging the two gold lenses slightly. Just as Shepard began to bring the grenade launcher to bear on one of the two barricaded gunners, Legion's sniper rifle went off, reducing one of the battlements to a stain in a crater. This obviously caused some panic among the bandits, or at least that's what Shepard thought was happening. Figures of men scrambled about at the top of the huge flight of stairs for a few seconds, then the gun batteries stopped, and then there was a very short silence.
Human behavior is unpredictable.
The sound if a zealous war cry carried itself poorly down the stairs, but it was still audible. Shepard only then realized what was going on by the time he took a second look at the top of the stairs. Down came the last of the brigands, nearly twenty in all, screaming in bellowing tones, carrying axes and swords and pistols of all sorts, and each one was hungry for vengeance.
Shepard a small window of opportunity thanks to the vastness of the stairs, pulling away from the pillar to unload four explosive grenades into the crowd. The group made no attempts to dodge the ordnance, either out of stupidity or lack of sanity, what was clear was the trio's resolve to exterminate the crazed criminals. Eleven in all, they could have overwhelmed the trio in close combat, but at any range, their gap in skill the fight was one sided.
"Are you sure it's safe to leave the rest of them alive, Shepard?" Miranda returned her submachine gun to its perch on her waist and wiped her hands clean of dirt and dust, looking to the eight men tied up, sitting side by side on the museum steps. Legion carried the remains of the fallen bandits and lined them up by the fountain, covering their bodies with rags or tarps from construction projects nearby.
"Yeah, they're not going anywhere. And if the Imperium gets their hands on a bunch of low-life criminals charged with capital crimes, they can deal with them. I'll call Norman and tell his crew the survivors are here, if the battle doesn't manage to blow up the city." Shepard replied as he tinkered with his Carnifex hand cannon, attempting to clean out an obstruction in the barrel with a short twig, "And I need an ounce of Abraxo and a pipe cleaner."
"We have deemed it permissible to allow a change of weapons, if you wish Shepard Commander." Legion walked over to Shepard and Miranda as soon as Shepard voiced his frustration.
"Permissible to your protocol, I assume?" Miranda crossed her arms and put on a smirk.
"Using Metaphasic-gel and the collection of weapons gathered from the bandits along with your current inventory, we can create any of the weapons in your armory as of 2185." Legion replied.
"But we're carrying the most advanced weapons in our armory, save for maybe for maybe two weapons neither of us can use thanks to a swell thing called recoil. What can you offer us other than the chance to clean our guns? Hell, I don't mind that at all though." Shepard stated with an eager grin.
"Due to errors already present in space-time, or due to events we are not aware of, there are additions to your armory beyond your knowledge. If you wish to go ahead, then it would be best if you read these messages." Legion activated his superior Omni-tool and tapped a few floating panels. This caused Shepard's Omni-tool to beep twice, and then came to life. Shepard lifted his arm and pulled up a small viewscreen to peruse through the documents, leaning over to allow Miranda to see them as well.
"Hey, these are e-mails from the Illusive Man on weapons shipments to the Normandy…" Miranda was surprised at the documents' content, "I was told that order for the M-96 Mattocks were stolen by Eclipse… How did he?"
"Here's one saying Jacob ordered some Phalanx pistols... I'll have to thank him later.
"The Illusive Man ordered some Incisor rifles too? I'm impressed he chose those, they wouldn't have been my first choice."
"There's also e-mails for armor deliveries too, some dating before we jumped into the 41st Millennium. I suppose we forgot to tell him that we made the Power Armor."
"No, when we started this crusade you explicitly ordered to keep him out of this, and I'm sorry to say I was reluctant, but I kept my lips sealed."
"Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Legion set us up.
With both Shepard and Miranda now carrying either fully cleaned versions of their old weapons, or newer weapons, the trio began walking towards the city center, "Commander to Daedalus, come in." Shepard tapped his miniscule earpiece and contacted the Astartes Battle Barge not far from the planet. "We've cleared the rabble and are heading to the city center on foot."
"Commander Shepard, this is Epistolary Kuzon. We have a lock on your location. Make haste to the city center and we will contact you again when we can begin a tactical assault, Daedalus out."