As Shepard slowly walked down the mining shaft, his feeling of unease grew. He waved his two companions to a halt and drew his pistol.
He eased down the long hall quietly, the area at the end of this tunnel was definitely a kill zone, if there was an ambush set up down there…
He edged up to the lip of the tunnel, his radar painted three red dots within its range, but the various elevations of the cavern meant they could be almost anywhere.
He carefully peeked out of the tunnel, and ended up face to 'face' (eye really) with a stark white shock trooper.
Neither of them moved, Shepard could pull his pistol up and take out the geth in only 1.34 seconds from this position, he was sure of it.
But, taking into account processing speed and their synthetic nature, this shock trooper could bring up its shotgun and blow out his guts in only eight tenths of a second.
If the troopers gun was out.
If its gun wasn't out, it would take approximately five seconds to get it out and fire.
Either way… why hadn't it attacked?
Because… because it didn't know whether his gun was out or not!
He could draw his pistol and fire faster than the geth could draw its shotgun, and if his gun had been somewhere else, could shoot the trooper before it reacted.
The Spectre and geth had run into each other, and a stalemate.
So… was its gun out?
The organic and synthetic both slowly looked down at the space between them.
There was Shepard's pistol in his hand, and the geth's empty hands.
The two of them met each others 'gaze' once again.
As the geth slowly reached around with its left hand to grab the barrel of its shotgun, Shepard raised his pistol to its eye. The white geth stood straighter, almost proud as it held its shotgun before it and its hooded head high.
"May you find peace," Shepard squeezed the trigger.
As the synthetic form crumpled Ashley and Wrex hurried up beside the Commander, "Sir! Are you alright?"
"I'll be-" he froze, then grabbed the Gunnery Chiefs arm and yanked her back against the wall of the tunnel just as a molten mass of metal flew through the air where she had been.
"Wrex."
"Hm?"
"Keep Williams here for just a second."
"Commander?"
The first human Spectre let go of her and ran out of the tunnel, the distorted blue of a biotic field surround him as he ran forward, the leapt over the railing.
"Commander!" Ash almost ran after him, only to run into the considerable bulk of the krogan.
"Damnit Wrex! He's going to get himself killed!" the amphibian sidestepped with the gunnery chief each time she tried to get around him, even as the sound of gunfire reached them.
The loud THOOM of the Commander's sniper rifle silenced her and the last of the gunshots.
"Okay! We're good. There's an elevator down here, three guesses where we have to go, and the first two don't count!"
Wrex looked at the Gunnery Chief for several seconds, "So… you thought that guy would get himself killed?"
She flushed with embarrassment as she followed the krogan down and around the grating to the lower level to join the Commander in the elevator and ride it down.
Shepard pulled out his sniper rifle as they stepped off of the elevator, shouldering the heavily modified piece of equipment as his companions drew their weapons as well.
"Sterile white… protheans sure build things homey."
A half dozen red blips appeared on the Commanders radar, "Oh look, the welcoming committee."
Shepard kicked the assault drone's fried husk aside, "I think I'm going to file a complaint, they didn't even offer to carry my bags."
Ashley shook her head as the three of them got into the second elevator of the day.
The doors closed and the elevator began to move, all was as right with the world as could be expected, till the metal box began to spark and shake. It finally groaned to a halt where it was supposed to, and the doors tried to open, emphasis on tried.
"Well… that's just great…" Shepard holstered his rifle, "I'll heave on the left, Ash take the right, you've got the middle Wrex."
The humans grabbed the sides of the partially opened door as Wrex squeezed in, crouched down, and put his armored hump under the upper part of the door.
Shepard raised a brow at the krogan, "Ooookay… on three. One, two, three."
The marines heaved, Wrex just stood up, and lo and behold, the door was open.
Shepard cracked his knuckles some, stepping out of the elevator and casting a glance back at his krogan companion, "I hate how you can do that."
All he got was a wry grin.
"Uh... hello? Is someone there?"
That got Shepard's attention.
He turned and hurried to the edge of the torn grating, glancing down he hopped off to the level below.
He turned, and there, behind the barrier, suspended in midair, was Liara T'Soni.
As he approached, she shouted out, "Can you hear me out there? I am trapped. I need help!"
He walked up, idly noting the thumps as his two companions followed after him, "Dr. T'Soni I presume...are you alright?"
The asari's voice was warbled some through the barrier and whatever was holding her, "Oh thank the goddess, I did not think anyone was going to come after me."
"Listen. This thing I am in is a Prothean security device. I cannot move so... I need you to get me out of here. All right?"
"I have been trapped in here for days, and the geth have been trying to get to me! Can you believe that? Geth, beyond the veil!"
Shepard stepped up to the barrier and lightly thumped it, unsurprised when his knuckles stung, "This repulsion field will make it hard... it's pretty strong, so how'd you end up in there?"
"When the geth started to come after me, I activated the barrier curtains, I knew they would keep the geth out…" the asari looked away, obviously embarrassed, "But it seems when I did, I hit something I wasn't supposed to," she began to get more frantic, "I was trapped in here... you must get me out!Please!"
"Calm down, we'll get you out, do you have any idea where to start?"
"There's a control in here thatdeactivate this thing… but... you'll have to find some way past the barrier...that's the tricky part, I don't know how you will get in here..."
"Don't worry, I'll figure something out."
"There is something else; there is a krogan with the geth. Please be careful, they have been trying different ways of getting past the barrier."
He smiled some, hidden beneath the seal of his suit, "Don't worry, we'll try not to get killed," with that he turned around and drew his sniper rifle, "Come on, I doubt we've seen the last of the geth here."
"Aye aye sir."
Shepard started to head down the grating to his left, but froze, his brow wrinkling as he looked out into the cavern below.
"Ash, Wrex, head on without me, but go slow… I think I'm going to soften up the opposition just a bit before I join you…"
The krogan and human glanced at each other before they headed down the walkway, drawing their shotgun and assault rifle respectively.
The human Spectre crouched, raising the scope to his eye and activating its zoom. He swept the area and counted…
One, two, three, four… five geth. Two troopers, a sniper, and two of those blasted shock troopers.
He keyed in the assassination protocols on his rifle, threw up a biotic barrier with a reflexive motion, sighted the hooded head of the further of the two shock troopers.
He took a deep breath and held it.
THOOM -THOOM
Shepard held his gun steady as his trigger hand flew up, opened the heat valve to let the super-heated air blast out, closed it, and returned to the trigger all in one smooth motion.
He swung his sights up onto the sniper as it locked onto his position and squeezed the trigger.
THOOM
He pulled his gun over and up as rounds began to thump into his kinetic barrier, the two troopers had moved closer together.
THOOM - - THOOM
His trigger hand flew once again, super-heated air blasted forth from the gun and the heat gauge on his H.U.D. plummeted.
He swung the gun down to find the final Shock trooper trading shots with his squad mates.
He squeezed the trigger and watched with satisfaction as the synthetics head ceased to exist.
He let out his breath, and lowered his gun.
I could not help myself, I blushed. That had been impressive.
I knew for a fact that there were at least five of those geth down there, and he had taken them all out in what I hypothesized to be ten seconds. That was an average of one per two seconds.
I blushed an even deeper blue when my savior had stood up and smiled back at her with some form of comment like 'Be right back.'
I could hardly move while suspended in this mass effect field, it was an effort to even move my head.
Questions raced through my mind. Who was that human? Why was he here for me? Why did he have a krogan with him?
The cavern shook, though I did not move in my prison.
It appeared I had another question: What was that?
As I mulled this over she could hear the whir of long unused machines coming to life, followed by the sounds of something metal locking into place.
I could hear footsteps behind me and wrenched my head over my shoulder to see, it was the human and his two companions, though I still could not see them well enough to get what he looked like, "Oh, how did you get in here? I didn't think there was any way past the barrier…" I trailed off.
I could see him shrug out of the corner of her eye, "I found a bigger gun, but we need to get you out of here before more geth arrive."
I let my head return to its normal position, "Yes, of course," I looked over at the console to my left, "That console over there should shut down the containment field."
"Hold on Commander, her mother is working with Saren, are you sure we can trust her?"
A definitively female voice, and she thought that I was working with Saren! "I am not my mother! I don't even-" I stifled the thought before it could finish, "I don't want anything to do with that turian bastard!"
My savior, the human, spoke up again, "I don't think she would have to hide from the geth behind barrier curtains if she was working with Saren."
My savior, a man I noted, now that he had walked to where I could see him better, moved over to the console. He activated it and seemed to search the display for a moment before touching one of the holographic buttons.
I suddenly fell to the ground and let out a small sound despite myself.
As I tried to stand I noticed an armored hand beside me, I followed it up to see that it was my savior, offering a hand to help me up.
I took it and let him haul me to my feet.
The krogan with him spoke up, "Any idea how we get out of this place?"
He was addressing me, "T-There is an elevator at the center of the tower, at least… I think it is an elevator. It should take us out of here, come on."
I walked with them back to the platform, my mind frantically working once more to understand why I was here... and now I had someone to ask. When they stopped on the platform, I spoke up, "I still cannot believe all of this... why would the geth come after me? Do you think Benezia's involved?"
The female human with my savior spoke up, "Saren's searching for the Conduit, think fast Miss prothean expert."
The Conduit? "The Conduit? But I don't know-?" The cavern shook, a deep rumble that I could feel in my torso.
"These ruins are not stable, that mining laser must have triggered a seismic event." I moved over to the console and began, carefully, keying in the sequence to set the elevator into motion, "We have to hurry. the whole place is caving in."
My savior seemed to key his com, "Joker, lock in on my coordinates and get over here. On the double mister!"
I could hear this 'Joker's' reply, muffled though it was, "The Normandy is secure and aweigh, ETA, eight minutes."
The female spoke softly, "It's going to be close skipper..." Soon followed by the krogan, "If I die in here, I'll kill him."
I ignored the paradox of this statement as the elevator started to rise, he was a krogan.
As the elevator rose at an agonizingly slow pace, I took a moment to actually look at my savior. He was clad in dull green armor, after a moment I realized that it was actually light Colossus armor in a different shade. His form was lean, almost thin; yet I knew he was stronger than his form would suggest, he had lifted me with apparent ease. I could not see his face, he had opted to seal his suit against the uncomfortable environment, but it meant that I could not see any more of his face but his piercing green eyes.
I surprised myself, I actually wanted to see this human's face… it was likely just a brief infatuation because he was saving me from the geth.
As the elevator ground to a halt and locked itself into place, the krogan I had seen stalked forward, accompanied by several geth.
Shepard sighed, as the krogan began to speak, "Surrender. Or don't. That would be more fun."
"We don't have time for this," the Spectre glared at the krogan, unsurprised when the amphibian refused to move, "Kill the idiot."
The krogan snorted, "Heh, I like your sty-"
Shepard had opted out of drawing his gun in favor of tossing a mass effect field into the krogans face, the backwash knocking the geth with him down as well.
As his companions scurried to get their weapons out Shepard palmed a grenade even as he tensed up his arm.
A the krogan and its lackeys tried to stand, the Spectre dropped a singularity right in the middle of them and watched with a sense of satisfaction as the imbeciles began to orbit the blue sun.
He launched a pair of tech mines into the tangle of bodies, followed by the grenade. He thumbed the trigger and watched the explosion spray them with thorium paste.
As half the geth burned into cinders, the singularity faded, and the krogan stood up; Shepard drew his pistol, and in unison with his two companions, unloaded into them.
When the last of them had fallen, Shepard walked up to the krogan and put several more rounds into his head.
He looked back at Wrex, "It's nothing personal, but your people have a nasty habit of getting back up."
The krogan smiled.
"Now come on, let's get out of here," Shepard had to raise his voice as he went on, the rumble of the collapse was getting louder and louder.
The four of them ran up to the barrier and jerked to a halt as it suddenly failed, a particularly large boulder landing just outside of the hall, sending gravel and dirt into the area.
Shepard was the only one in the group with his helmet sealed; he didn't need to cover his face from the dust. It was obvious that the cavern was collapsing, and fast.
"Come on! Move! Move! Move!"
He grabbed a hold of Ashley and Liara, almost throwing them forward, happy when his guess about krogan survival instincts was right and Wrex started sprinting out as well.
"Go! Go! Go!" Shepard ran after his squad and the asari, dodging rocks as the ruins collapsed around them.
A rock bounced off of one of the stone walls and smacked into Liara's shoulder, knocking her over.
Shepard didn't think, he stooped over and grabbed onto her, yanking her up off of the ground and running on.
The next thing he was consciously aware of was being stooped over outside of the mine, half supporting, half being supported by Liara.
All four of them were completely out of breath, dirty, with dents and scratches in their armor, and Liara with a bruised shoulder.
"Well… that was exciting, wasn't it?"
A.N.) Alright, after this chapter we're going to start to get more into why this story is named this way, sorry if it doesn't make much sense yet, but it will. And in case anyone starts wondering, this Shepard (You'll find out his first name later!) is a variation of a Sentinel. Swap out stasis for singularity and a bonus talent of sniper rifles and you've got the basic idea.
Oh, and Nvrmore, thank you very much. That's exactly what I'm going for. Though you misunderstand on a point, I've already beat the game several times and ways, this is just my take on it.
And thanks for the compliment Eilanne.