Ashes Chapter 6

Back for another chapter; WARNING: This chapter may get a bit confusing at times, but trust me when I say it is vital for setting up the crossover, be patient! It will begin to fall together in a few chapters :P I would appreciate any feedback this chapter, positive OR negative. There have been a few minor errors throughout the fic thus far; I will try my best to rectify these mistakes. One of the biggest criticisms about Ashes so far was about Six's character, how she is 'too emotional'. I will try and write her better, but I hate writing people with no personality, so forgive me if she still cracks a joke or two :P Remember, this is my first attempt at writing in general, so constructive criticism would help greatly. Tell me what you like/dislike about the story so I can improve as the story moves along. Also a little confusion, I messed up in the story info labeling Shepard as (F), Shepard is MALE in this story. Anyways enough ranting, on to chapter 6…

All was dark. The tunnel just went on and on into complete and utter darkness. Shepard was curious about what they were about to discover, the glassed human corpse on the surface was big; perhaps one of the greatest finds of the century. What was in store for Shepard and his crew? More incredible finds no doubt, but what? More bodies? Lost technology? The possibilities were endless, but more importantly; who sent out the distress call? Shepard couldn't help but wonder if this was an old Prothean beacon, but then why were there glassed human remains? On top of that, how could any sort of beacon last ten thousand years? Either way, he was about to find out, one way or another.

The darkness grew until it became impossible to see his hand in front of face. Shepard reached for the flashlight in his helmet, but his hand could not seem to find its mark. After a few moments of fidgeting he finally heard a click and his flashlight sprung to life. It was pitch black, making his cone of light the only thing visible. The others silently took note and activated their flashlights. Five cones of light made the narrow tunnel generally well lit, though it wasn't much of a sight to behold, it was empty and bore no incredible architecture.

In the midst of this darkness, Shepard's radio flickered to life. "Shepa... is Joker. You are ge… deep, around… sand feet down." The radio began to break up, not a surprise considering how far underground they were. He predicted this before entering the tunnels, it just didn't concern him.

"More ships have been spotted in… atmosphere, the rest of… team will guard the dig site. Mordin Insists to… ay in his lab. He wants to examine the body…ound" It was hard to make out, but Shepard understood the gist of what he was trying to say.

"Roger that Joker, with the team guarding the dig site we should have no trouble. Take the Normandy up and finish with the Reaper IFF, we'll rendezvous once we've finished down here." Shepard ordered.

"… oger that Sh… " The radio turned to complete static.

Shepard sighed, Joker said that there were more ships in orbit. The Illusive man warned Shepard that others have picked up the signal, for all he knew salvagers or pirates could be honing in on the dig site. If that was the case, Miranda and the rest of his team would keep them at bay, but Shepard and his dig-team had to move fast.

Shepard cleared his throat to gain the attention of his crew. "We're gonna' have company people, multiple ships have been spotted in the vicinity. The rest of the team is guarding the dig site, but we have to work fast." Shepard announced. Nobody spoke up in reply, but they all nodded in approval.

He was weary; he knew that if the ships were in fact pirates or salvagers, they would use force to break past Shepard's team and claim the dig site and all of its finds. Shepard knew his team could hold them at bay, but he was not willing to risk a team member getting shot right before they flung themselves at the collector home world. This would have to be a quick mission, in and out as fast as they are able.

Suddenly, the carts came to a halt. They finally reached the bottom. With a quick hiss, the cart doors hissed open, Tali and Kasumi piled out without missing a beat. Garrus was a little slower trying to wedge his way out, Grunt had him pinned against the railing. After a few moments of this struggle, Garrus sprung free.

"Spirits, it's about time!" Garrus said, hands clenched to his gut as he gasped for air. Grunt just huffed and shoved his way passed the winded Turian.

Shepard just gave a slight chuckle before moving on. He turned forward, his cone of light was filled with dust, making it hard to see, but it was his only source of light through the overwhelming darkness. Up ahead was a hallway, surprisingly the walls were lined with pipes.

Shepard took point, raising his hand and giving the signal for his squad to follow, their compliance was in the footsteps he heard approach his back. The hallway seemed to have no end, the flashlights only lit so far; it was impossible to tell how far this tunnel could take them.

The team trekked on until they came to a strange looking door. It was mostly metallic, it looked heavy duty. It was cracked open just enough to sneak a peak in to the next room, but the opening was not big enough to fit through.

He searched around them, but it didn't take long for him to spot a strange looking control panel lined the wall next to the door, though many of the lights on the panel were out. Hell, there was no way of knowing if this door would even work. Shepard turned to face Kasumi.

"Kasumi, do you think you can get through this door?" Shepard asked then almost regretted asking, the door was ten-thousand years old after all.

Kasumi just chuckled. "Shep, I'm good, but I don't think I can hack ten-thousand year old technology" Kasumi replied in a sarcastic tone. It's not like Shepard expected anything different, It was a stupid thing to ask of her anyways.

Garrus gave a quizzical look.

"Maybe we should get some explosives down here and blow the door open." The Turian added.

Tali was quick to point out the flaws in Garrus' logic. "If we set of an explosion in a ten-thousand year old facility, the entire place may come crashing down. We have no way of knowing how stable this place actually is." She countered the Turians' idea.

Shepard was just about to express his opinion when a loud roar interrupted his chain of thought. Before he could even react, a loud smash could be heard coming from the door. Shepard and his team were baffled at what they saw; it would seem Grunt smashed his way through the door. The steel of the door bent inward, collapsing under the strength of the massive Krogan. Grunt just turned his head and scoffed.

"You aliens are way too soft…" He said with a growl.

The team just stood there in awe of Grunts raw strength. 'Well it's a good thing he's on the team'. Shepard thought to himself.

"Well that was... unexpected, but I'll take what I can get." Shepard said, still slightly in disbelief.

Shepard was the first to follow Grunt through the door, the rest of the team quickly followed. They found themselves in a rather large room, with metal grating lining the floors. Several old lockers filled the walls, as well as multiple consoles and controls. Shepard turned towards his team.

"Get these lockers open and see what you can find." His order was to no particular person.

The team split up in different directions, each taking their own locker to dump out. Shepard approached a rather rusted old locker, with an old style lock still holding it shut. This lock was worn out and weak, it wouldn't take much to break it. Shepard reached behind his back and pulled out his assault rifle. It only took one smack to the lock with the butt end of his rifle to break it off. The door made the worst sort of noise when Shepard went to open it, it was worse than a fork being scraped against an old style chalkboard. Ten thousand years of rust and decay wasn't exactly going to make the most pleasant of sounds. Dust shot out of the locker, forcing a violent cough from Shepard as his lungs filled up. He used his free hand to swipe away most of the dust, clearing his vision. Inside of the locker was a very old and ratty looking jumpsuit, upon closer inspection it would appear to belong to some sort of medical personnel. Shepard rifled through the pockets, only to find a small card. Shepard examined the small card; it had a picture of a man with short brown hair and thick glasses, followed by a small Bio:

Name: Dr. Michael Zimmer

Age: 34

Position: Chief of Medical Staff.

Shepard was surprised to see that this ten-thousand year old card had a picture of a fairly modern looking man, and it was written in English. This was impossible, yet he was holding proof right in his hand. A voice could be heard from behind him.

"Shepard, I've found something I think you should take a look at." Garrus brought to his attention.

Shepard turned to see Garrus holding an object. It would appear to be a chrome metallic weapon, like an exotic looking gun of some sort.

"I found it in one of the lockers. It looks like some sort of pistol. On top of that, it seems to be magazine fed, there are no slots for a Thermal clip." Garrus added with a hint of confusion in his voice. This was odd; the weapon appeared to fire traditional ammunition.

"Keep it with you Garrus. We should probably move on… Kasumi, how far are we from the distress signal?" Shepard asked.

Kasumi's Omni-tool lit up around her forearm. "We're getting close Shep, the source of the signal should be just down the next hallway in another room."

Shepard nodded. "We don't have a lot of time to waste; let's get to that distress signal"

Miranda took another breath from her re-breather, a quick burst of oxygen filling her lungs. She quickly pulled out her Phalanx M-5 pistol, they were going to have company.

Sand blew in literally every direction making it extremely hard to see oncoming hostiles; she would need to keep on her toes. She had ordered the team to entrench around the dig-site in defensive positions, covering all angles. A slight shiver made its way down her spine, for being in a desert mid-day, this planet was surprisingly cold. She felt a hand rest against her shoulder, it was Jacob.

"Legion has picked up movement coming straight at us, southeast from here. Orders Miranda?" Jacob asked.

Miranda sighed; she had hoped Shepard's team would be done in the ruins before more teams showed up to investigate. She turned to face Jacob.

"That complicates things, without radio contact we have no way of knowing how much longer Shepard will be. Don't open fire until we know their intentions, but keep them from the dig site at all costs." Miranda ordered.

Jacob nodded in approval and walked back to his position. Miranda followed him to the rest of the team, all bunkered down in case of an impending firefight. Legion approached Miranda.

"Multiple heat signatures approaching our position" He mumbled in his robotic voice.

She gazed into the distance, seeing multiple Humanoid silhouette figures approaching the dig site, as predicted. They were numerous, outnumbering the team at least 3-1. They looked armed, and in combat formation. Whether they would give up without violence was unknown, but highly unlikely.

"Hurry Shepard…" Miranda mumbled to herself.

The Phantom soared through the seemingly unending tunnel to the surface. Six could taste freedom, finally after god knows how long. This thing flew smoother than most UNSC vehicles, with a pelican or hornet turbulence was a constant factor. With this covenant vehicle you could barely tell you were in the air at all. The cockpit was quite roomy, about six times larger than the cockpit in a pelican drop ship. Multiple flashing lights lined the walls and control panel, and strange hieroglyphs showed up on the ships HUD, each representing different languages for each covenant race. Six understood most of them, but there was the odd word she couldn't quite make out.

Jordan made his way up into the cockpit and placed his hand on six's shoulder. He seemed quite nervous, understandable. He has probably never been inside a covenant vehicle before.

"Spartan? I… I think we're going to have company." Jordan informed her.

A bright blue light began to flash on a screen, with two smaller red dots slowly getting closer. Sure enough, Jordan was right. Two Banshees were hot on their tail. There must have been covenant in the base that they missed. By the looks of it they are not happy with Six hijacking their Phantom. The tunnel was narrow, it could just barely fit the Phantom, but two banshees would have no trouble moving around. Suddenly, a small green light shot from one of the red dots, and approached the Phantom at an alarming rate. There was no room to dodge in this phantom, they were sitting ducks.

"Hold on corporal!" Six warned Jordan. There was no question they were getting hit.

Jordan caught on quick and grabbed hold of the nearest solid object, hoping he could keep himself upright after impact. Then, in an instant, a loud bang could be heard. The Phantom shook after impact, jolting six forward a bit and sending Jordan to the ground. Six quickly recovered, instantly checking one of the screens.

"Shields still holding up, roughly 75%" Six said with a hint of relief. It would seem that they would need to hit them way harder if they were going to fry the shields, let alone shoot them down.

Jordan slowly got to his feet, brushing off the mild pain.

"Well that wasn't so bad, guess the covies know how to build their ships." Jordan stated.

Then, like a sort of beacon of hope, light began to fill the tunnel. They were almost out. The Banshees were still hot on their tail, firing their primary weapons in an attempt to halt their escape. It was doing mediocre damage at best. Six blasted the afterburners, sending the Phantom shooting out of the tunnel at increased speed. Finally, she was above the surface again. A sense of satisfaction rushed through Six, she let out a quick sigh of relief. In an instant she regained her composure, they weren't out of this. Not by a long shot. The Phantom shot into the sky, the pair of banshees in close pursuit. Another green light shot from the second red dot, but this time Six had room to move. Right before the moment of impact, Six swerved to the left, dodging the shot by the skin of her teeth.

"Corporal! Man the main gun and shoot these bastards!" Six ordered Jordan.

Jordan just gave her a daft look.

"You do realize I have no idea how to operate this thing right? I'm a tech expert for the UNSC, so I only know how to work UNSC equipment!"

"Figure it out! It's better than us getting shot down!" Six said, obviously frustrated.

"Good point." Jordan replied, a frown etched on this face.

Jordan left the cockpit and made his way to the main gun controls. There were commands on the computer screen, but Jordan had no idea what any of it meant. He gently grasped what looked like the targeting systems. It almost felt like he had to handle this weapon gingerly, like he would break it if he pressed the wrong button. A bead of sweat ran down Jordan's neck, he better learn this fast.

Back up in the cockpit Six was trying her best to avoid taking any more damage from the Banshees. Shields read at fifty-five percent and declining with every hit.

Jordan better get their weapons online, if they couldn't get them off of their tail, they may not even make it into the atmosphere. Six took a quick glance back at her radar, two more green dots crept up to they're position. Six grunted as she banked left as hard as she could, in an attempt to dodge the banshee bombs. Unfortunately she was unsuccessful with dodging the second shot. The Phantom shook up like a miniature earthquake as Six jolted forward. Pain shot through Six's neck, she took a moment to recover. Shields were still holding up, but only at 37%.

'Goddammit corporal, get those weapons online!'

Six thought to herself. They would not survive much more punishment…

Well there you go, another chapter This chapter was a bit longer than chapter 5, but chapter 7 should be even longer Thank you guys for sticking with this fic through my long update periods. Reviews would be nice, bad or good Credits to Kaimaler for beta reading.