"James, repair the guard tower, Kaiden I need you to watch my back." Shepard shouted.
"You got it, Shepard." Kaiden said faithfully.
"Just make sure those husks don't touch me, it'll be impossible to fix this thing if I'm getting hit in the back constantly." James said.
"Just get on with it!" Shepard said before executing two husks with perfect head shots.
Shepard was glad there were currently only husks running around, they were easy to kill and didn't have any guns. Sure, the things looked like blue zombies but they were easy to kill so it wasn't terrifying at all, also they walked funny. Kaiden was doing a good job of covering him as well, his biotic and tech powers made him very well rounded for most situations which is why the Commander brought the L2 Sentinel on this mission. He still wished he hadn't had to sacrifice Ashley though. But wasn't the time to be mourning.
"On your six, Shepard!" Kaiden shouted.
Shepard instantly turned around to see a husk right near him, he activated his knife on his Omni-tool and stabbed the husk right through the skull, now he knew why Tom had two of these equipped when they went on missions, he should've gotten this earlier.
"Commander, I got the comm tower up and operational, we're good to go."
"Copy that James, Corinthus, can you hear me?"
"I copy Shepard, I'm contacting Palaven command right now, I should know who the Primarch is soon."
"Copy that, we'll make our way back to camp while assisting your men."
"The assistance is appreciated, Corinthus out."
"Alright boys, lets keep moving forward, we got to get back to the outpost."
"I got your back Shepard." Kaiden said.
"You can count on me amigo." James said.
It was fairly easy for someone like Commander Shepard to get back to base camp as all there was to shoot was husks, and his shotgun made short work of any of them that came too close. He was glad the he had invested in a bayonet attachment for it too, just in case they got too too close.
"Thanks for helping us out, those husks are big trouble when they swarm us." A Turian solider said.
"Don't worry about it." Shepard said.
"Shepard, come in I have important information from Command, how close are you to my post?"
"I"ll be there is just a second." Shepard replied. It was about a minute later they arrived at the Commander's post.
"I found out who the new Primarch is, it's General Victus.
"Good, I'm getting him out of here, do you know where we can find him?"
"He's ju-"
"I'll handle it General." Shepard would recognize that voice anywhere. He turned around to meet an old friend.
"Garrus!"
"Garrus sir, we've fortified this base as best we can." General Corinthus immediately snapped to attention.
"At east General, you've done a fine job defending this outpost."
"Garrus! I thought you'd be on Palaven right now." Shepard said.
"If we lose this moon we lose Palaven, and I'm the closest thing to an expert on the reapers so I'm...advising." Garrus mentioned the last part a little sheepish.
Shepard stepped aside so James could meet the Turian. "James, this is Garrus Vakarian, he's a hell of a solider and a good friend as well, he helped me stop Saren and the Collectors."
James shook hands. "Nice to meet you."
Garrus nodded. "Good to see you too Kaiden."
"I'm going to feel safer now that Garrus will be watching our backs." Kaiden said stoically.
"General Corinthus filled me in earlier, I know who we're after, and it's going to be difficult getting to his position. But I know him, I was fighting along side him this morning, he's popular with his troops and gets good results out of all of the missions he's commanded, but he's not so popular with Turian Command, he tends to play loose with accepted strategy."
"We won't be able to beat the reapers conventionally, if this man tends to play loose like that then he'll probably be a major help in the war." Shepard said.
Garrus nodded. "I trust him."
"Good I-" But Shepard was cut off by a call from Joker.
"Shepard, come in!"
Shepard inwardly groaned. "Can this wait Joker? We're currently in the middle of a warzone." Shepard asked, irritated.
"Uh, well Shepard we have a bit of a problem right now." Tom's voice cut in. "The Normandy is acting funny, it's shutting down some systems and powering up others, I'm doing the best I can right now. We can't even ask for help from EDI since she's offline, for reasons we don't understand."
"Hold down the ship for a bit, we're going to get our Primarch and get outta here, then I can help you two figure out this problem."
"Copy that Shepard, we'll make sure nothing explodes and or breaks while you're out of the field, I wish I was joking." Tom said.
"I doubt that'll actually happen, but I don't have time to discuss right now, Shepard out." He cut the comm. "Garrus, you said you were fighting with Victus this morning?"
"Yeah, he went to go secure a flank that was on the verge of breaking, but I know where his outpost was, just follow me and we should be there in a few minutes."
Shepard nodded, "got it, lead the way."
"I'll try to raise him Commander, but I'm having no luck so far."
James suddenly shouted. "We got an incoming harvester, it's heading for the airfield!"
Garrus, Shepard and Kaiden immediately ducked into cover as gunfire broke out in the outpost, targeting the harvester which veered off after a second since it couldn't take the heat.
"Let's go take care of what ever that thing dropped off, are you coming, Garrus?" The Turian cocked his sniper rifle. "Are you kidding? I'm right behind you."
"Good, now let's get to that airfield."
The airfield was relatively close by, and there was a small war going on, several Turians were shooting at Cannibals and another strange abominations that looked like harvested Turians.
"Take out those new weird guys first, they seem to be able to buff the Cannibals with armor plates." Shepard said before scoring a perfect head shot on one of them. This was quickly followed by another perfect head shot from Garrus.
James and Kaiden were going forward while Shepard and Garrus picked off what ever was left after their assault, they cleared the airfield relatively easily, but those new abominations made it slightly more difficult since they actually had shields, but they still were no match for 4 seasoned soldiers.
"Good work, now let's get back to the outpost." Shepard recieved a call from General Corinthus after he and co. re entered the base.
"Shepard, come in."
"I copy."
"We're still trying to raise the Primarch, but we've got bigger issues on our hands, their attacking the front barricade, and it they breach it we're done."
"I'll take care of it."
The front barricade was well fortified, but Shepard could see how if it was breached the reapers would be a very good chokepoint for the reapers take out the rest of the Turian resistance, that must be why they added a nice big turret to the top of the barricade, much to Shepard's delight. He loved any kind of gun that did a lot of damage and had a lot of ammo.
"I'll take the turret, you three can shoot them with your guns beside me, and also make sure none of those husks flank me."
Garrus nodded. "Sir yes sir!" Both Kaiden and James said before taking up positions, this was a good place to mount a defensive front too, they had the high ground and several metal boxes for cover against anything that had a gun or ranged weapon.
Shepard had a fun time shooting lots of husks up, although he had to remain professional, this was his job. He still silently delighted in shooting anything he saw to bits though, it was fun to see the husks get destroyed by his big gun. He was about to reload when...
"What the hell is that thing?!" James shouted as a huge abomination dropped from the sky, the thing looked so twisted that it would probably be a mercy to kill it at this point.
"Look out!" Unfortunately Shepard lost his balance when the thing smashed into the barricade and fell, but at leas the barricade it self was still holding.
"Alright, its time I break out the big guns, this thing needs to die, it probably be a mercy to kill it." Shepard said before breaking out the M-920 Cain, he had to pull rank twice to get it back, and both of those times it was more of pulling a personal favor then pulling rank since he was on 'shore leave' but at least he had it."
"Take cover everyone! I'm about to fire a miniature nuke!" Shepard shouted before the Cain fired, leaving a huge explosion. There was absolutely nothing left of the abomination, just a huge crater that reached all the way to the barricade.
"It's okay to come out of cover now, the beast is dealt with." Shepard said, putting the M-920 Cain on his back.
"I didn't even know guns could create explosions that large, where did you even get that gun from again?" James asked incredulously.
"It's something me and Tom made for Shepard, he enjoys those types of firearms." Garrus responded.
"Shepard, come in, we still haven't got a good radio link with the newest Primarch." Corinthus said.
"Ok, I'm going on foot, Shepard out." Shepard cut the link. "Garrus, take me to the last place you saw Victus."
"Ok, just follow me."
The walk to Victus was mainly uneventful, there were no reaper forces in the area. This was a welcome break for Shepard and co. since they had been shooting up husks for the past thirty minutes, although it felt like it had only been 2 minutes since they had been on this rock.
Sure, there were some husks, but barely any, there was nothing to do besides talk.
"...And the Krogan hate them both for it." James finished.
"We're going to lose this war if everyone isn't united, I'll get the Krogan to join us, no matter what." Shepard said.
"I hope you do, I fought with a Krogan before, they're tough, and we could definitely use shock troopers like them in this war."
"How are you going to do it Shepard? They hate the Turians and Salarians, how are you going to get them to cooperate?" Kaiden asked.
"I'll find a way to do it, but right now that isn't important, the outpost is up ahead." Shepard said, pointing to a broken gate that had several claw marks on it.
"Don't hold back, give it your best shot!" Shepard shouted before everyone charged through the gate. It was absolutely chaos inside, the reaper forces had destroyed the small barricades that the outpost had, and the soldiers themselves were on high ground. at least this gave them a welcome advantage.
The battle itself was mostly in the Turian's favor, but those two brutes that just got dropped would probably be a problem, but they wouldn't last, Shepard would take care of it.
"Garrus, Vega focus fire on that one beast, Kaiden, cover my back while I take out the other one!" Shepard shouted.
The beasts didn't last under the blistering fire power of Shepard and co. they were down in several minutes after a one sided gun fight with the reaper forces all being decimated by being shot on both sides.
Shepard walked up to the main command post. "Victus?"
The Turian Commander nodded his head. "Yes?"
"I'm Commander Shepard, I need you to come with me."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Is there anything else you can do?" Joker asked, frantically tapping buttons on his console.
"No I can't, I'm not like Tali, Joker. I'm way better then she is at actual programming and such, but I'm terrible at repairing things physically, and this kind of stuff is all of the physical work, which I'm not suited for, sure I could repair some of the corrupted code that there is, but that's just a small amount of the work, maybe 10% if we're lucky."
"Well, I'll get some of the crew to go down there when Shepard arrives, he's good at solving any problem, even if he isn't exactly suited for it."
"You're right, I guess it would be better to just wait for Shepard then to do anything rash, I'll try to raise him right now."
"Hello? This is Shepard here."
"How long until your mission is done?"
"I just got the Primarch, I'll send you my coordinates right now."
"Copy that Shepard, I'll get Joker to send the shuttle right away, we need your assistence as soon as you're on board since EDI is offline and we can't figure out at all what's going on down in her room right now."
"Send some of the crew in the engineering deck to check it out, but don't open the door until I'm there, Shepard out."
"Well that solves that, you're sending a shuttle right?"
"I'm doing it right now, I hope we get this problem fixed as EDI is more helpful that I let on."
"She practically flies the ship now that you unshackled her, how would I NOT notice? I'm a hacker/techie guy, I know what goes on in the cyber space on this ship, don't underestimate me next time."
"Yeah, and next thing I know you'll be a mechanic, and engineer, and an architect." Joker quipped.
"Shut up! May I remind you that your fornex collection is very easy to find right? Plus your password was seriously weak, 123456? Really?"
"I'm shutting up now!" Joker said.
"That's what I thought, watch it next time."
Thanks for all the support lately, it really boosts me, especially when I'm stress out after a boat load of homework. (Yes I do have homework, and a life, and yes, I actually can do homework and send out chapters weekly and STILL have free time afterwards, message me if you want to know how I pull off this balancing act which is somewhat stressful sometimes.)
Now for the reviews...
Yugi Uzumaki and Nautro Moto: That is actually really touching for me, thanks for the support since it really does empower me to keep updating this story, it's also nice to know that someone out there in the world cares about what I write.
general-joseph-dickson: Well I decided to another AI twist this time just like in my last story because I find that in most stories it's kinda boring until the rising action, this twist is just something to spice up my first coupe chapters. It may or may not play a big part in the end of this story, I've got big plans coming.
Guest: Yeah, I think Section is pretty cool too, I tried to make him a unique character and since there isn't a lot stereotypes for AI in fiction it makes him a pretty fresh character in this story, you'll get to know more about him later.
Thanks again for all the support guys, and remember, the more reviews I get, the more responding I'll be doing to said reviews, so keep em coming!