Chapter 4: 'Revenge of the Sith', Much?
When I started writing this stuff out, I hoped people would like it… I never expected so many people to check them all out. It's a little humbling, to tell the truth. But now begins where these chapters will start taking more time to update. I'll start one more story before I focus much more on College. For now, the mission begins… With that one planet that reminds me of the aforementioned movie in the title.
"Remember, Shepard. You were a Human long before you were a Specter." Udina warned me.
"… Pfft Bwahahahahahahahahahaha!" Human? Yeah, right!
I've been around for centuries, been a hero, a villain, a messiah, a monarch, a soldier, doctor, criminal, assassin, the list goes on. And I wasn't really human when I did those things, so this won't be an exception. It saddens me quite often, but I try to bury that part of me down. I normally don't want to get all 'emotional' when I'm trying to do my thing.
Bad things usually happen when I do. And mostly when I'm angry.
Udina paled considerably when I busted a gut. He decided it would be wise to just walk away. I got a handle on myself pretty quickly once he was gone. Anderson stood there, mostly immune to my quirks having known me since he recruited me.
"Oh, it's fun scaring him shitless. I can already tell. Back on topic, I'm gonna start with finding Dr. T'Soni. Even if she doesn't know much about Benezia right now, which I'm pretty sure is the case, her expertise on the Protheans will probably give us a bit of an edge."
"Like I said, you don't answer to us anymore… despite the fact you never really listened to your superiors anyway. In fact, looking back on all of this Spectre business, is anything even different now?" Anderson asked. No, I still would have hunted Saren down. No one would have stopped me. They could try, and then they'd fail.
Epically.
"Only now that I'm legally allowed to be me."
We were already in transit. It wouldn't be long until we reach Therum. The others were adjusting rather quickly. Kaiden was writing reports, or writing in his journal. Ashley was keeping weapons in tip top shape. Garrus was beginning his road to constant calibration. Wrex was chillaxing like a baller. And Tali was permanently awestruck at the drive core.
Me? I was in my quarters, cleaning Bright Shadow feverishly. The blood from all the guys in Chora's Den just would. Not. Come. Off! And it was really annoying. This blade needs to be cared for at all times, even in battle. A couple of the others came in to check on me, then left once they saw how angry I looked while cleaning a very bloody sword.
I then remembered I could just make the blood disappear, then I face-palmed rather loudly and did so. I can be such an idiot sometimes.
"Commander?" Joker said over the intercom. "We're approaching Dr. T'Soni's last known location. Thought you'd want to get a team ready soon."
"Yeah, I would. I'm going to go get everyone. Once we drop down onto Therum, stay as close to our position as you can."
"I know what to do. This isn't the first pick up mission I've ever done. Sheesh!"
"You do understand how cramped we'll all be in that one tank, right?"
"Then I'll buy another one for you guys to use after this mission. For now, get in the gunners seat and shoot at anything with a flash light for a face. Okay, Garrus?"
I don't know what they have to whine about right now. With all of them in there, there's less room for them to thrash around once I start driving.
It might, might, be a bad thing that I never learned how to drive back home. I think they'll be fine. Mostly.
"YEE HAW!"
"SHEPARD! Do you have to keep using the jump jets?!"
"I think I'm going to be sick!"
"Look at all the Geth blood on this! It'll take hours to clean this all off!"
"RAM THEM SOME MORE!"
"KEELAH! WE'RE GOING TO DIE!"
Okay. I think I overestimated my driving skills.
Just a little.
"Aww man! I liked driving this. And now we have to go on foot."
"Thank God for that." Ashley sighed, completely relieved.
The road to the dig site, for all their screaming, went by rather quickly. Before we first reached the Citadel, I upgraded the Mako's main cannon. So whenever we reached a gate blocking our way, we made it go boom. And any Geth we ran over only slightly made thing slower, including the bigger ones. Things slowed down a bit once we had to get there on foot. But like I predicted, thing were much easier with everyone in the squad during this.
Nothing could get in our way. The equipment I bought them all was Spectre Master Grade. The Geth couldn't hurt them nor defend against them. And with me leading the charge, it was the like we were a hurricane.
When the Colossus dropped down to try and stop us, I was the one that took it down. I ran at it a gripped its eye. Placing my feet at each side of its neck, I pulled until the light and what looked like a spine came out. I then proceeded to use the spine like a whip against the remaining Geth.
"Am I the only one recording this right now?" I overheard Tali ask the others. "Because this is just too great not to do that."
"No, I'm doing it too." Garrus replied. "My visor is always recording combat. And this is definitely going on the extranet."
"Send me a copy once he's done." Wrex said.
"Ditto." The only humans said at the same time.
Once the carnage was finished, we descended into the site. The tube was very humid. The inside of the volcano was really a bad place to try and excavate. A few more Geth got in the way, but the others dealt with them quickly enough. Then, we reached the elevator.
"Okay, we are not going to all fit inside that." Was Kaiden's deadpanned response.
"Fine. You and Ashley get back to the Mako and get the Normandy here to pick us all up once we finish. The others and I will grab the Doctor."
Ashley looked uneasy that I was just staying with the three aliens on our team, but held her tongue. Kaiden simply gave a 'yes sir' and they went to grab the tank. Once they started to leave, the rest of us piled into the elevator.
And it then proceeded to break down once we were one level above Liara. You gotta love continuity.
"Hello? Can somebody help me? Please?" Came the Asari's voice as we closed in. Can you hear me out there? I'm trapped, I need help!"
"How did you get trapped in a floating bubble?" Was my response.
She sighed and explained it was a security measure she set off. She also had no idea her mother was working with Saren. We agreed to help her out of there and she warned us there was a Krogan around here trying to get here.
"You three, deal with those Geth down there. I'll get this force field down."
They nodded and went to decimate the machines. I walked over to the edge of the force field and thrust my sword into where the emitters should have been. The effect was instant, evidenced by the field starting to flicker. Liara was shocked and asked how I could do that.
I ignored her and moved my blade along the field until it could function no longer. The others had already come back as I finished cutting through. Liara was still wide eyed at the use of a sword cutting through very tough metal even as we disabled the bubble. We quickly got on the elevator and high tailed it to the surface.
Right where the Krogan we were warned about and his Geth were waiting for us.
"Surrender. Or don't. That would be more fun."
"It would be, wouldn't it?" I asked. "You know what else would be fun? Shoving just enough of this blade here into the soft skin around your head plate. Just, wiggling it until I can rip that thing off like a broken nail."
When I said this, the only two Krogan here felt truly horrified. The others were a little uneasy and the Geth didn't care. I used the unease to quickly pull out Machina and shoot right in the center of each of the machines' eyes. The Krogan got a hold of himself soon after and charged at me.
I wasn't bluffing earlier.
When he was on the ground crying, I decided enough was enough and shot him. It was more than likely that he was a more educated cloned Krogan from Virmire, the yellow skin was a key indicator.
On that note, I started thinking as we left the dig site. The subject of clones was something I had to carefully plan for.
I knew that if I died and was taken into Cerberus' care, a clone would be made that would eventually try and steal my identity. I still wanted to see this happen, as it would give me a chance to give someone who truly had nothing, absolutely nothing, a chance to make their own way.
There were two problems with that.
One was that I didn't plan to actually 'die' and stay that way for two years. I was planning on contacting some people of interest to give me shelter while I help them with some issues. After two years, I would then show up on Freedom's Progress and agree to a temporary alliance with the terrorist organization to stop the Collectors.
Second, my actual DNA. Existing in multiple realities as multiple people all at the same time can create serious differences in genetic structure. I knew for a fact that if I was cloned, the clone would not be a Multiverser. The power is not genetic. What I'm worried about is if he'd come out looking like this me, or other mes. Or would he be a mixture of all of my different lives. An abomination of some kind that would be put down.
I'd have to take some careful steps to ensure Cerberus doesn't find anything significantly out of place with my DNA. My… proxies, inside Cerberus would make sure of it.
"Good job, Commander. I really appreciate the fact that all that hot air coming from that volcano is going to cost a lot of shore leave time to clean off all the soot. Great job! Really!" Joker said while the ground team and Liara settled in the comm room.
"I almost starved down there, and your pilot is making jokes?" Liara asked, a little outraged.
"Just the way he always acts. Stick around a while and you'll get used to it." I told her.
"I see. It must be a human thing."
She wasn't experienced with dealing with members of the human race. She wasn't the best with dealing with anyone overall for that matter. We told her how we needed her help to track down her mother who was helping Saren. Like I had already known, she wouldn't know anything. She swooned a little bit at the fact a Prothean Beacon gave me a vision, which peeved both Ashley and Tali quite a bit. Thankfully, I got her to stop. We then sent her to Dr. Chakwas for a check-up. She really could have died if we took too long to get her.
We sent our report to the Council. They were wary of the fact that Saren's advisor's daughter was now on my ship, but backed down when I told them she was on our side. They were also pleased that the ruins weren't destroyed. I told them to warn any new archeologists that the area was very unstable and to take serious precautions around the site. And to remove the mining laser.
That thing would destroy the whole site if it was used.
"So, anyone got any good gossip?" Ashley asked the ground team.
They were all in the mess hall, eating, and the silence was starting to get a little unnerving. She might not particularly like aliens, but right now someone needed to say something. Anything.
"Not really." Garrus said. "The Commander's been helping me with calibrating the tank's guns. He said he was putting in an order to replace the thing with a 'Grizzly.' Apparently it's a much bigger tank."
"Nice." Kaiden said. "The thing will have enough room for all of us, will keep us all protected, and the best part? No jump jets. He can't keep on getting air time with it. He'll still be able to drive us up mountainsides, but overall we should be fine."
"Good." Tali said. "After that display of his driving skills? Ugh, I shudder to think how many times I would have to clean my mask."
"I thought the experience was quite fun, to tell the truth."
"You would Wrex. You were laughing the whole time, telling him to ram as many Geth as possible. It didn't help that he listened to you." Ashley told the mercenary.
"Light weight."
"I was wondering what anyone actually knew about the Commander." Liara said, finally joining the conversation.
Kaiden was the first to answer. "Not much is known by anyone, to tell the truth. He's got a reputation for doing impossible things. I heard there was a rumor some top Alliance brass suspected him of being a super soldier and tried to quietly apprehend him for study."
"Heard that one too." Ashley said. "He apparently used that sword of his to really hurt the guys sent to capture him. He then found the ones who ordered that and said, 'Don't even bother. I'll know.' Then there's every other rumor. No one can ever tell if it's true or not."
"There has to be something that's true." Tali reasoned. "We've seen him in action only a little bit and we know he can do some pretty incredible things."
"Yeah, but sprouting wings on Elysium, then flying above all the slavers while throwing fireballs doesn't really seem that likely. A couple new sources lost a lot of credibility when they said they saw that. The recording was chalked up as fake. Looks pretty awesome, though."
"The guy seems too tough to be human." Wrex added. "No one could single handedly take on that many enemies and never once get shot."
"Actually, I've heard he did get shot." Garrus said. "Right in the head too. He then yelled, 'That didn't work before, it's not gonna work now. Nice try though.' I don't know what to think about all this."
"It amazes me that no one can actually know anything about him." Liara said. Tali nodded, she was interested in knowing about Shepard too.
"He's walking mystery. We've heard Shadow Broker agents have tried digging up as much as they can on him, bugging him, stalking him, none of it works."
"Maybe we can gain some insight working beside him?" Tali said. "Just, get to know him."
Ashley saw promise in that, but knew it would be difficult. "We could try. But a lot of people, celebrities even, have tried too. Even tried to date him, and he'd always turn them down."
"Maybe he's gay." Tali blushed at Kaiden's suggestion. 'He's definitely not gay, if the way he stares at my hips is any indication.'
"Yeah, I doubt that." Ashley said. "I think I could try getting to him."
Liara and Tali were of a similar mindset. Tali was the only one who hesitated. She felt that Shepard was genuinely attracted to her, but was holding herself back due to the stigma most races have towards her people. 'I'll just see what happens.' Was what she decided to do.
Once all the girls left, only Kaiden, Wrex and Garrus remained. Joker joined them soon after.
"So," The pilot began. "Bet on who the Commander's gonna bang?"
The three stared at Joker for a few seconds. Then they started placing Credit Chits down.
"Duh." Was all Garrus said.
Well, I think this was a pretty good chapter, all things considered. I am getting feedback from people saying that I need to add more detail into these fics. I'll try my best to do that. I'm glad people are giving me actual advice on this. If my writing's still 'too dry,' please tell me so. I want to make sure this improves significantly as I write it. So comment, tell me how I'm doing, and have a good night.