Shepard rode in the front of a pelican with a younger pilot named joker. They were trying to get aboard the super MAC without being detected. A feat made both easier and harder by the two covenant warships busy dueling each other in the space nearby.
"Easy Joker, don't want them to see us sneaking a sucker punch in do we?" Shepard reminded the pilot.
"Hey, who spent a whole two months training to fly covert insertion missions here? And who saved your ass on tribute? Me? I thought so."
Shepard knew the pilot would probably flip him the bird if he wasn't busy with the controls. Joker was one of the best pilots he had seen, he was originally the pilot of a corvette during several outer colony battles, but he had time on longswords, pelicans, hornets, and essentially anything else with wings, or rockets. That skill had brought him to the attention of ONI, where he had apparently been trained for some secret project before being transferred to flying a pelican on a prowler.
Joker might have been a bit resentful of being stuck flying a 'big fat target' as he called it, but Shepard had reason to be grateful. His flying had saved his life on numerous occasions. Now he was hoping Joker could pull it off again.
"Never thought we would come back to Reach…" the ace pilot muttered under his breath.
Shepard assumed the comment had been addressed to no one in particular so he didn't respond. Instead he watched the co-pilots display, keeping track of the duel between covenant vessels. "That elite frigate is just about done for."
"Took 'em long enough, those CCS'ers pack a hell of a punch." Joker replied.
"You know the reports; the split lipped bastards are supposed to be a shit-ton smarter than the bravo-kilos." Shepard watched the frigate finally break up. A few escape pods and phantoms tried to make a run for it.
"How much is a shit-ton worth anyway?" Joker asked absentmindedly.
"About one and a half fuck-loads," Shepard replied without missing a beat. He saw the various escape craft run away into the debris field, followed closely by small ships launched by the brute ship. "We might have a problem, the Brutes are chasing down escape craft, and a couple phantoms are heading right towards us."
"Well damn, everyone hold on to your hats, this'll be a little rough." Joker announced to the commandos riding in the back.
Shepard brought up the controls for the nose mounted auto cannon and wing missile pods. Joker kept his course, until it became obvious that the covenant had noticed him. When he turned to face the first phantom Shepard was ready. He waited until the guided munitions had a lock and fired. Several dozen high explosive rockets arced out towards the first covenant dropship, blowing it apart. The second however had plenty of time to fire its own plasma weapons, melting and blasting large holes in the port wing of the pelican.
"Shit!" Joker began to wrestle with the controls, and they started spinning out of control. "Brace for impact!"
Shepard saw the side of the station get bigger and bigger each time the pelican swung around. He heard a crunching sound, and then everything went black.
ooooooo
Shepard reached up to try and massage away his hangover, only to find his hand bounce off some sort of helmet. His memory came back with a start, and he looked around. Joker seemed to be thrashing about in his seat; the door leading to the back of the pelican was sealed.
He hit the release for his restraints. They came apart with little trouble. He walked over to Joker, who seemed to be in the middle of a seizure.
Shepard noticed his radio was powered down and flicked it on, "I'm stuck, I can't reach my knife, and those brutes are about to get in here." Joker's frantic words came over the now open channel.
Shepard began to notice a few more things besides the headache; first, the pelican had crashed through an observation window and landed with the nose stuck in between two staircases. He heard something a lot more distressing from the back of the pelican, the deep throaty laugh of a brute, and the distinctive 'thunk' sound as a spiker round hit flesh.
Adrenaline hit him full force, the headache seemed to evaporate. His knife was in his hand before he even thought about it. He cut Joker's restraints and the two of them began to climb out of the broken canopy of the cockpit. He would avenge his dead teammates later.
The deep translated voice of brute cam from behind them, "Check the pilots you runt!"
Shit, thought Shepard, that meant one of them was about to come through, they wouldn't have time to get away. Thinking quickly he grabbed the small fire extinguisher near Joker's seat, and shoved the pilot through the canopy, where he landed on the ground with a thud. Shepard followed quickly, leaving the fire extinguisher wedged between a support and shard of the canopy.
He jumped down and helped joker up from the deck. He heard metal tearing behind them, Shit, I thought we had more time.
"Ah ha! I like it when my food runs away!"
Shepard spun around with his pistol in hand, and began shooting towards the cockpit. He saw the purple-white spider web showing that he hit the brute, but the alien wasn't his target.
On the fourth shot he hit the fire extinguisher. Fire retardant foam sprayed wildly through the cockpit, blinding the brute.
"Come on Joker," Shepard and the pilot started to run towards a nearby door, hoping to escape deeper in the station.
His hopes were nearly dashed as he heard a spike grenade stick to a nearby wall, and then explode. Joker stumbled and fell. In one smooth motion Shepard picked the pilot up and half dragged, half carried him to the door. He stepped inside and sealed the entrance using an ONI override code.
"Joker?" He asked the pilot, barely noticing the air being pumped into the hallway.
"Oh shit…" Joker felt his legs. "I can't feel my leg. Oooh… Fuck…" the pilots said that last statement as he looked down at his right leg.
Shepard looked to what had scared Joker. A piece of metal, likely from the spike grenade, was lodged directly in the center of the pilot's right thigh. Fresh blood stained his armor all around the wound.
"Biofoam," Shepard ordered the pilot, trying to keep him from panicking. He took the proffered canister from Joker. "Now, this might hurt." He pulled the metal shard from Joker's leg. Joker cried out in pain, both when he pulled the shard out, and when he sprayed the biofoam in.
Shepard ignored the pilot for a moment and brought the Biofoam canister up to the now fast bleeding wound, spraying the anti-septic sealing foam in the deep puncture wound. They didn't have time to wait the proscribed three minutes for it to set properly, so Shepard applied a little extra and stuck the bandage to the outside.
The brutes wouldn't be far behind, and a door would only hold them back for so long. Shepard manhandled Joker into a fireman's carry and set off down the corridor as fast as he could move, sealing the doors behind him. After only a few dozen yards down the corridor he had to set Joker down. The pilot groaned in pain as Shepard set him down.
"Ah! Watch it!" Joker looked down at his useless legs, "I have to say, that fire extinguisher, awesome, like straight out of a movie, but next time, could you use a grenade instead? More likely to kill 'em."
Shepard smiled, "I'll keep that in mind, and maybe next time I'll leave you behind so I don't have to listen to you bitch."
"Ha! You wish you could get rid of me this easy." Joker Grimaced, "Aw shit, you got any pseudo-morphine in that magic bag of happiness?" He pointed to the first aid kit attached to Shepard's side.
"Yeah sure, anything to shut you up," Shepard pulled out the syringe and stuck it in the designed slot for it on the armor's arm.
Shepard grabbed the back of Joker's armor and started dragging him through the corridors, heading towards the primary control room.
It seemed like they had lost their pursuers, or at the very least had left them far behind since they would have to break through a dozen or so sealed and armored doors. After another hundred feet of twists and turns they came across a small armory in a four way intersection. Judging from the signs, a pelican bay was to the right, and the main firing center wasn't too much farther to the left. Shepard grabbed a SMG and a shotgun off the rack and clipped them to his armor. Joker still had his sidearm, and that was probably all he was capable of firing at the moment.
He slapped the door controls leading to the fire control center. He was starting to feel tired, the adrenaline was wearing off, and he had dragged a two hundred plus pound soldier wearing armor through half the damn station. So it was understandable that he ended up backing straight into the barrel of some sort of gun.
"Shit."
Shepard took stock of the situation, if whoever had the gun pointed at the back of his neck was covenant, they would have shot by now. So that left another human. It could have been a survivor, but that seemed unlikely.
Whoever it was spoke in a voice that was distinctly female, and definitely not in English. So that left some long forgotten colony or a group of insane looters who had decided to cash in on the graveyards of reach. They didn't speak English which was exceptionally odd, as that was the trade language of the UNSC.
"Wha…? What's going on?" Joker stirred from his drug induced stupor.
The gun held to his back shifted slightly, and Shepard decided to go for it. He brought his head down to his chest and swung an arm back. The owner of the gun managed to hold onto the weapon, but the barrel was pointed in a harmless direction. Shepard flinched at the oddly high pitched report from the weapon, but continued spinning around and standing to his full height.
He found himself polarized facemask to polarized facemask with a lithe figure, who seemed to be wearing a skin tight enviro-suit. He didn't stop to think or admire the view but lowered his shoulder and charged. He picked up the unknown person and carried them into a wall. They loosened their grip on their gun and Shepard grabbed it out of their hands. He didn't exactly know how the oddly shaped gun worked, so instead he raised the gun up to smash it into the woman's head.
Instead he found himself unable to move his body, except for his eyes. To the side he saw a second woman, who seemed to be glowing with blue energy. What the fuck?
Then he found himself flying into a bulkhead. He slumped to the ground, stunned by the force of the blow. In front of him Joker managed to roll over on his stomach and pull his pistol. He fired a couple of rounds at the glowing woman; they bounced off a strange type of shield. The pistol was ripped out of the pilot's hands almost immediately. Joker drew his knife, but Shepard wasn't sure how much good that would do seeing as the pilot couldn't walk.
Shepard drew his own pistol, and took a tight grip. He was interrupted only by shouted orders over the intercom.
"Cease fire damnit! You'll draw the covenant right to you."
Shepard kept the pistol trained on the two unknown women, but he didn't fire. The one he tackled began to pick herself up and retrieve her weapon. The second glowing one seemed to be breathing heavily, but wasn't doing anything hostile. That's when he noticed the first one he attacked, wasn't human, however, she wasn't exactly yelling about 'feasting on his bones' so he held his fire.
Shepard heard Joker speak up from his position on the ground. "Who the hell just said cease… cea…" The pilot passed out. Shepard nearly hit himself; the morphine would be wearing off. The plug might still be in place but Joker would still be in some pretty serious pain.
That was the point where Shepard heard the heavy footfalls of brutes jogging down the hallway. "The pack will feast upon their bones!"
"Aw fuck…"
ooooooo
Tali'Zorah turned a corner with her shotgun and a tech mine at the ready, and found yet another empty corridor. After fighting those aliens she had expected to run into them again. Liara followed close behind, the faint glowing blue of a readied biotic power at her fingertips.
"Whoever is controlling the station seems to have our best interests in mind." Liara remarked.
Tali wasn't so sure, the way that door had slammed shut on that monstrous alien… She shuddered just thinking about it. "Then why haven't they tried to contact us? They obviously control the rest of the station." Another large cargo door opened to their right, revealing more dead bodies of different types. There where the green and black armored ones that matched the station around them, the defenders. Then there where the attackers, part of the same aliens that had attacked them earlier, they wore generally bright and shiny colors, made with no attempt at subtlety.
A new body was in among the corpses of reptilian aliens and short monkey-like aliens. "Liara, look here," The scientist came over to look at the find. It looked more like an aquatic predator, and had four separate mandibles, all covered in red armor.
"By the goddess, it's at least as big as a krogan." Liara remarked while examining the body.
"Or that thing we ran into earlier." Tali commented darkly.
Liara ignored the comment and continued on excitedly, "Look at the bodies of the defender's around it. It looks like they swarmed this one."
"I don't really want to look at the bodies; I want to get off this station." Tali could feel the hysteria creeping into her voice.
"We will, but we need to find a transport with FTL, maybe a com buoy to contact the citadel." Liara tried to reassure her. It didn't help that the scientist continued to examine the dead body.
"And how the hell will messing with that dead… thing, help us do that?" Tali let out an exasperated sigh and stalked off to the other side of the room, not bothering to listen to Liara's reply.
She sat down on the edge of a stand of shrubbery, it was all dead, but crackled as she sat down. She felt something under her, and leaned over to pull it out. It appeared to be some sort of data pad, pretty basic, no holographic interface, just a touchpad. Tali idly tapped a few keys. The small device lit up, so she used her omni-tool to try and interface with its wireless antenna.
What she found was disappointing, there was only one small text file on the device. Tali brought it up on the display, of course she couldn't read it, but something might be useful. It started out with a few lines of text, probably the equivalent of an extranet address, followed by several paragraphs of explanation, and a closing.
Tali sighed and stood up, leaning on a small square and empty pedestal, staring at the unknown data pad. She nearly jumped out of her suit when her omni-tool activated on its own and began flickering erratically. She jumped back, but her omni-tool was still working with a life of its own. Tali frantically tried to shut it off. Instead of doing anything she tried to make it do, a simple waiting icon appeared.
"Come on you bosh'tet!" Tali yelled at her omni-tool. Liara noticed her discomfort, and came over to see what was going on. The scientist couldn't do much to help, she wasn't as experienced with hacking computer systems as Tali, and Tali's firewalls had done absolutely nothing against this intrusion.
A small bar began to progress across the screen of Tali's omni-tool, labeled 'download in progress'.
As soon as the bar filled her omni-tool returned to normal. Every last bit of data on her omni-tool had been copied and downloaded to whatever computer system was in control of this station. Most of it was basic programs and data on the Geth, and a small terse 'guide to council space' written by another quarian returning from pilgrimage. The only thing she was worried about was the list of ships making up the migrant fleet, and the small description of each. Tali hoped her carelessness didn't just endanger the fleet.
"What could have done that to your omni-tool? Could it have been the people controlling the doors?" Liara was looking warily at the now faintly glowing pedestal.
"No, no organic could hack through an unfamiliar system like that. I think… I think we're dealing with an AI, maybe left aboard this station when the defenders were overrun. Maybe…" Tali paused to look around at the battle damaged walls. "Maybe it sees us as different than the attackers." She looked at the bodies of the defenders noting how they had a very similar body style to batarians, and actually weren't that different from quarians or asari at that. "Or maybe it has mistaken us for defenders and is attempting to help us out."
Liara looked shocked, "An AI, I thought AIs generally hated organics. Do you think these other races were attacking because the defenders had an AI?"
Tali started wringing her hands nervously. "Maybe, but the only problem is, with the data from my omni-tool it might not see us as allies anymore. It could try and kill us instead."
Almost on cue, the doors leading into the room slammed shut. The air and gravity stayed on for now, Tali was grateful for that. The two of them sat down and waited, there was not much else to do.
"Crap, I'm hungry." Liara reached for her pack, only to find that she had lost it somewhere along the way.
Tali checked her own small backpack, and the various pockets strewn about her person. If she stretched it out she actually had about two month's worth of dehydrated and compressed nutrient paste. She didn't think it would be wise to mention that to the scientist. "Maybe one of them had some rations of some kind?"
The asari looked dejectedly at the bodies around them. She didn't respond after a few moments though she cocked her head to the side, as if listening to something. Tali turned up the gain on her suits exterior microphone. At first she didn't hear anything, then the unmistakable sound of a station door opening, or shutting, then another one, closer this time.
Tali grabbed her shotgun and took up a position at the door nearest the sounds. She stood back a ways, partially hidden by a railing.
A loud sound, like someone dragging something heavy came from the door. It stopped, and soon after the door opened.
Tali kept still, watching. A figure was crouched near the edge of the door, by a keypad. It was one of the defenders, except it wore solid black armor. It was dragging a body by the armpits. The body wore armor similar to the other defenders. She froze up. Tali didn't call out or try and stop the thing. She just stood there until the person backed right up into the barrel of her shotgun.
That knocked her out of her shocked state. She took a tighter grip on her weapon. "Stop, I don't know who you are or if you can understand me, but don't move." She poked her gun harder into the alien's back to emphasize her point.
Another voice, this time from the apparently not quite dead body, spoke. Tali started to step back half a pace.
The alien in front of her whipped around. She pulled the trigger out of reflex, but the shot passed harmlessly by. The blank face of a helmet met her eyes briefly. In the next moment she found herself hitting a wall… hard.
She heard the sounds of several gunshots, then someone shouting, and then, nothing. Tali slowly opened her eyes and came to her feet. There was something of a standoff. The first alien had a pistol aimed at her and Liara, while the asari was shimmering with biotic power. Tali bent over and picked up her shotgun. The alien appeared to be glancing back and forth between her and Liara.
Tali was about to say something, or put down her gun to try and see if these people had some way off the station, when she heard something. The blood in her veins turned to ice as she recognized the deep guttural tones of one of the monstrous aliens. The black armored defender noticed them at the same time.
He turned away from Tali and Liara, picking up some sort of rifle from the ground. The soldier looked back at them, and gestured to the door. Then he took cover and aimed his gun into the now open corridor, oblivious to her shotgun pointed at his back.
Tali looked at Liara, "I guess we should help them. Compared to those others he seems almost friendly."
"I agree, at least they seem capable of reason." The scientist bent down to check on the wounded alien, who seemed to be passed out on the floor. The green armored man had a hole in his leg, filled with some sort of greenish yellow foam. It was starting to dissolve and come apart under Liara's touch.
Tali turned away from the scientist and the wounded, instead taking up a position in cover near the first alien. She readied a tech mine, the same one she had used earlier. The alien did the same with several small metal spheres, probably grenades.
An explosion came from down the corridor, to the far right of the door. A fragment of door went flying across their field of fire, followed by several of the monsters. Tali threw her tech mine into their midst. To her dismay only a few of them lost their tech armor. The others seemed mostly unaffected. The alien to her side threw several grenades into their midst. The rest of the half dozen lost their armor as well.
Tali and the alien began firing at the survivors. They were extraordinarily tough, taking multiple shotgun blasts, or long bursts from the alien's rifle. Tali fired the last shot from her current heat sink and ejected it. The alien reloaded his rifle as well. She peeked back over cover; almost immediately she wished she hadn't.
A massive alien wearing an ornate headdress and wielding some sort of giant hammer stood there. Its shields glowed a brilliant white. It gripped its hammer two handed and charged straight at them.