I'm feeling very inspired, thanks to you. My head is just filled with ideas. Expect the update frequency to be frantic.
I do hope for more reviews, though. Frankly, now I am feeling that I'm doing something wrong and I'd like to fix that.
This chapter is a lot more action-oriented than before, since I found writing about combat so fun. The chapter just kept growing as I wrote it, and turned out to be quite big..
Alarei, The Migrant Fleet
Few weeks ago
"Open and clear! Go!", heavily armored human ordered.
A large krogan nodded towards the human, and ran through the doorway, his hands holding a very large M-300 Claymore -shotgun.
Right after the krogan, the turian, clad in blue armor, followed the krogan, taking aim to the right.
After the turian, a bald human female, flickering with dark blue biotic energy, ran through, taking aim to he left.
Then a quarian female went through, shotgun ready, aiming to the roof.
Lastly, the heavily armored human went through, and he went to stand at the center of the ring formed by his squad mates. At the chest of the humans dark gray armor stood an abbreviation of N7, signaling Alliance Special Forces. His hands held a M-8 Avenger assault rifle.
"All clear, Shepard", the turian reported through the suit's radio.
"Roger that, Garrus", Shepard replied.
Whole squad lowered their guns, their eyes tracking the only door leading deeper into the Alarei.
"All right fellas, they're probably dug in deeper inside the Alarei", he continued, pointing towards the door.
"And we are running right towards their strong point", Garrus remarked with his renowned sarcastic tone.
"We've been through worse", Shepard assured him. "So stay sharp and watch your fire, could still be friendlies around".
"Now shut up and stack up", Commander ordered, nodding towards the door.
The krogan and the turian took positions closest to the door at the either side of it. The quarian and the bald human took their positions at their tail. Shepard took a position right behind the quarian.
"Tali, you picking up any geth life signs?", Shepard asked her.
Tali began tapping at her omni-tool.
"I'm picking up faint energy readings behind the door. Don't know if they're geth though".
"Could they be quarian?", Shepard asked
"No. I can't detect any organic life signs"
"All right. Garrus, ready the grenade"
"Gotcha", Garrus replied, taking a M 14 grenade from his belt.
"Grunt, try the door"
The krogan touched the keyboard at the door, but door merely beeped and stayed shut.
"Hmmh. Locked", Grunt growled.
"Tali, plant the charge and fast, they know we are coming", Shepard barked another order and Tali immediately ran from her position to set up a tech mine at the door.
It took her only few seconds to plant the mine and return to her post, finger ready on her omni-tool to detonate it.
"Jack, your barriers are up?", Shepard pointed his question at the bald human female.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not that dumb", Jack answered with her usual annoyed fashion.
"All right..", Shepard said after her confirmation.
"Breach, bang and clear! Go!", Shepard yelled, and all hell broke loose.
The mine exploded and the door toppled over through the doorway, landing to the ship's floor with a large crash.
The turian immediately armed the grenade and tossed it inside the room. The grenade exploded loudly, and then the krogan was through the doorway.
The geth immediately opened fire.
"Geth!", the krogan roared through the radio, the projectiles of the geth weaponry ricocheting off his armor.
He opened fire at the closest geth platform on sight.
The shot from his gun completely obliterated the lower half of the geth, leaving the platform crawling helplessly on the floor.
Garrus was now also through the doorway, and while running towards nearest cover on the right, he fired few accurate bursts from his M-15 Vindicator battle rifle towards the head of one geth platform. The shots ripped through its kinetic shields and the head of the platform exploded. The platform fell to the ground.
Jack ran to the same cover as Garrus, simultaneously slamming one geth to the room's roof with her biotics.
The rest of the geth concentrated on Garrus and Jack, pinning them down. Grunt however had just reached the center of the room, where the geth he had disabled crawled. Grunt let out a loud roar and crushed the platform's head with a powerful stomp. He took cover behind a pillar nearby him.
Finally, Tali and Shepard went through the door simultaneously, taking cover at the large desk on the far-left in the room.
The geth were now concentrating fire on Grunt, since he had managed to get most far.
"Orders, Shepard?", Tali asked the Commander who took cover right next to her.
Shepard took peek behind his cover, and saw about six synthetics, all grouped around the door on the opposite wall.
"Tali, use the drone to flush them out! Garrus, switch to sniper rifle! Jack, on my signal, advance to the next cover! Grunt, get ready!", Shepard barked his orders and the confirmations flooded the speakers inside his helmet.
Tali summoned the drone right at the left flank of the geth. It fired a burst of electricity at something behind the cover. Two geth platforms stood up to deal with the new threat.
"Jack, advance! Garrus, take out the right one!", Shepard ordered
Both confirmed, and Shepard could hear the sound of Garrus's M-97 Viper -sniper rifle going off.
"Headshot!", the turian yelled in excitement.
Jack jumped over the desk she was hiding behind, and took cover behind another desk more closer to the geth.
Shepard fired a burst from his assault rifle, and the projectiles flew right through the left platform's midsection.
Of the remaining four geth, two started firing at Garrus, and two fired at Shepard and Tali.
"Tali, hack one of those damn things! Grunt, Jack! Charge!"
Tali started to operate her omni-tool, while both Grunt and Jack started charging towards the geth, and even through the combat helmet, their roars could be clearly heard.
Grunt found his target first, and swung the butt of his shotgun right to the head of one geth. The geth's head came right off.
Tali's omni-tool beeped, signaling that the hacking attempt was successful. Suddenly, one geth platform began firing at it's former ally, tearing through it's shields in seconds, disabling it permanently.
Jack had now also found her target. She looked as if she was bursting from all the biotic energy around her. She pulled her arms back,roaring, and threw herself at the nearest geth. The force of the blow sent the platform flying against the wall behind it, crushing it.
Only the one hacked geth platform remained. It's body kept twitching and jerking, apparently fighting to regain control over it's friend-foe-system.
That fight ended abruptly, when Grunt fired his shotgun from point-blank range, obliterating the upper half of the platform.
The whole squad rose up from behind their covers, marveling at the destruction.
"Keelah", Tali muttered.
"The Admiralty Board is not going to like this", she continued ,apparently horrified, but a smirk could be heard in her voice.
"I've seen worse", Jack retorted, shrugging.
"Well, they can send us the cleaning bill later", Shepard said with the same humorous tone as Tali.
"Worms, hmph", Grunt snorted. "I want more!".
"Uh-uh", said tali abruptly, looking at her omni-tool
"What?", Shepard snapped.
"Grunt may be getting his wish. I'm detecting a lot of FTL comm-traffic. By the amount of signals the estimate is 20 platforms"
"20 platforms?", Garrus asked tiredly, sighing.
"I should have stayed on Omega", he muttered, again with his sarcastic tone, shaking his head.
"Well they better get here soon. I'm bored", Jack said.
Grunt kept slamming his fist to his palm, chuckling.
"Everyone shut up! And Grunt, stop chuckling, it's creepy", Shepard said , drawing everyone's attention.
"They are massing a counter-attack, and we are going to hold this worthless piece of cr-", Shepard stumbled in his words, as he saw Tali throwing a vicious look at his direction.
"I-I mean this beautiful ship, which we are going to give over to our nice quarian friends at the Admiralty Board". He glanced at Tali and saw her chuckling. A grin spread over his face.
"Garrus, take position as far away from the door as possible. We need all the sniping cover we can get", Shepard ordered.
Garrus nodded, walking towards the cover Shepard and Tali occupied during the battle.
"Grunt and Jack, take positions as close to the door as possible. We need to use your shotguns to their maximum effect", Shepard continued.
"Whatever", Jack said, again sounding disinterested.
"I will test their worthiness", Grunt said and nodded.
Shepard nodded in response.
The only one left was Tali, who looked around sheepishly, feeling like a kid who gets picked last to the sports team.
"Tali, come with me", walking towards far-left side of the room.
Walking after him, Tali asked: "Shepard, I do have a shotgun too, why didn't you send me with Grunt and Jack?"
"You'd rather spend time with them than me?", Shepard teased, with a smirk on his face.
"What? No...I...uh..."
Shepard's grin spread as he watched Tali squirm, and for once Shepard was glad that his helmet covered his entire face, for if Tali could see his smug grin, she would definitely punch him.
"B-but I do have a shotgun", she tried to steady her voice to get an answer out of the Commander.
"Yeah, I know..", Shepard said, now with a more serious tone. They had arrived to the top-left corner of the room, kneeing behind a large cargo box.
Shepard sighed, before continuing.
"..but you are worried about your father. You are distracted, you could get yourself hurt".
There was a moment of silence, then Tali crossed her arms, and tilted her head "Could get myself hurt?", her eyes started to narrow dangerously.
"So your saying that I will endanger the mission? That I'm some kind of burden for you to carry around?!", the volume of her voice started to rise.
"What? No! I di-", Shepard was interrupted by Tali's loud and angry voice.
"Why did you even take me with you if I'm so damn useless?!", she yelled.
"All right, I'm sorry! ", Shepard yelled back, yielding at the thunder of the young woman.
The quarian merely snorted, turning over to watch the still closed door. She supported her shotgun to the top of the cargo box, aiming towards the door.
Shepard took position next to her.
They were silent for a while before Shepard asked: "You still mad?"
"No", she snapped, still a little anger in her voice.
"Well, maybe a little", she continued, but now with a smirking tone.
He could feel himself smirking too, but his thoughts were interrupted by her voice.
"Their comms just went quiet. I think they're coming", Tali said abruptly, obviously nervous.
Shepard put his hand onto her shoulder. Tali looked into his eyes, and nodded.
Suddenly, a large explosion occurred. When the smoke cleared, the place where the door had been, was replaced by a giant hole.
"Well, the geth don't mess around", Shepard muttered.
5 platforms came through the hole, firing their rifles.
Grunt and Jack stood up at the same time from behind of their respective covers and fired their shotguns, blowing two of the geth to pieces.
A loud voice of a sniper rifle sounded, and suddenly one of the platforms was standing without head.
"Got a another one!", Garrus yelled, voice full of excitement.
Tali and Shepard opened fire on the last two geth, taking them out with ease.
Five more geth Troopers came through the door. All but one of the geth had been dispatched with ease, since Garrus' sniper rifle had jammed.
The one remaining geth had managed to reach the central pillar of the room, but Grunt had managed to tackle it, destroying it.
The geth decided to change tactics.
Suddenly, a large siege pulse flew through the hole, right into the positions of Grunt and Jack.
Both of them managed to dodge the blast, but were now pinned down by other continuous siege pulses.
"What the f-", Jack yelled through the comm-channel. "Siege pulse!?"
"Rah! Cowards!", Grunt bellowed.
Five more geth troopers came through the door, and with Grunt and Jack pinned down, the only casualty they suffered was from the sniper fire of Garrus.
Four of them moved towards the position of Shepard and Tali, who tried desperately to keep them away.
"Hand-to-Hand!", Shepard yelled as the geth came closer. Tali drew a large knife from her boot.
First of the geth reached Shepard, trying to swing him with it's metallic arm. Shepard duck under the blow and kneed the synthetic to it's midsection. The geth bent over from a force of the blow, and Shepard struck it to the head with the butt of his rifle.
"Can't get a clear shot with you in the way Shepard!", Garrus yelled over the comm, but the adrenaline rush of the hand-to-hand combat had almost completely dulled the Commander's hearing.
One of the geth had now managed to reach Tali, trying to swing her with the butt of it's rifle. Tali quickly jumped backwards to dodge the attack, then lunged forward, sinking her knife deeply to the crack between the platform's armor plates.
She tried to pull the knife off the synthetic, but it was now stuck. She did not notice another geth coming for her and the synthetic hit her on the shoulder, making her falling over to the floor. She was staring at the geth platform helplessly, as it raised it's rifle.
Only to see it drop again. She looked a little higher, seeing that the geth did not have a head. The body of the synthetic became limp, and it fell to the floor.
"No need to thank me", said Garrus smugly over her suit's comms.
The one surviving geth had gotten reinforcements: four Geth Hunters, equipped with cloaking devices.
Garrus's deadly sniper fire thinned their ranks again. One of the Hunters fell to the ground.
"Damn I'm good!", he yelled cockily.
The siege pulse cannon had now stopped firing, so Grunt and Jack ferociously charged the geth.
Jack used her biotics to rip one platform's head off, throwing it towards another geth. The platform hit by it's former comrade's head fell over with a large crash.
Grunt had apparently ripped an arm off one geth, beating the one-armed platform to death with it.
Shepard fired few accurate bursts, disabling one geth, and Tali had used her omni-tool to overload the another one's circuits.
Shepard breathed heavily, glad that it was finally over.
Suddenly he could hear heavy footsteps from the hole the geth has blasted to the wall.
A very large Geth Prime appeared through the hole.
"Ha! That is a worthy foe!", Grunt roared gladly.
"Concentrate fire on the Prime!", Shepard yelled at the comm, wishing to end the fight fast.
The whole squad fired ferociously at the Prime.
The sound of Garrus's sniper rifle sounded several times, but the projectile was always deflected by the Prime's kinetic shields.
"I can't do squat Shepard", Garrus said over the comm, but this time the excitement in his voice had worn off, only to be replaced by frustration.
"Tali, can you hack it?", he asked the quarian still next to him, desperately wanting to end the fight.
"No. The Primes use very advanced firewall systems. It would take hours just to break into it, let alone hack it", she answered, tapping at her omni-tool.
"Damn it!", Shepard snapped.
"What I can however, is drop it's shields", she continued smugly.
"Well, what are you waiting for?!", he yelled, starting to get angry at her games.
"Already done!"
Shepard quickly formed up a plan inside his head: "Jack! I want you to hit the Prime's legs with everything you've got!"
"The little shit has still those shields up! ", she yelled over the comm.
"Do as I say, damn it!", Shepard barked at her.
"Screw you!", she shot back.
"Grunt! Garrus! As soon as the Prime falls, we'll finish it off!"
"Finally!", the krogan growled.
"Gotcha!", Garrus confirmed.
Jack started to flicker with biotic energy, the flickering growing ever more bright and when the flickering was at it's brightest, she charged.
She hit her both hands to the knee joints of the Prime. Since it did not have shields to absorb the blow, the joints cracked under the force, and the Prime fell to the floor.
Shepard, Garrus and Grunt were already running towards the fallen Prime, and before it could react, the three men were on top of it, hammering it's head with their gunfire. The flashlight at it's head started to flicker ever more frequently, and eventually it died.
Shepard and Grunt stood over their fallen prey, marvelling the destruction they had left in their wake.
"Ha! That was a good fight!", Grunt roared, breaking the silence.
Shepard breathed heavily, listening carefully, making sure that the fight was now really over.
As the squad gathered around the dead Prime, he noticed that Tali had not come out of her cover. As he walk back the same way he had ran only few minutes ago, he saw her still sitting behind the cargo box, her back against it.
"Not so useless now?", she chuckled, but her voice was trembling. She let out a barely audible moan.
"Are you hurt?", Shepard asked.
"No, I'm fine", her voice was now steely and determined. She tried to stand up.
She yelped as she tried to shift weight to her right shoulder, and fell back to the floor, lowering her head.
"The geth may have hit me on my shoulder. I think it's dislocated", she admitted sheepishly.
Shepard crouched next to her.
"Can I,uh, take a look?"
She thought his words for a moment, then nodded.
He grabbed her arm with his hands.
"I'm gonna put it back to the socket, okay?", he asked.
"Yes. Go head", she said, closing her eyes and biting her teeth together, preparing herself for the pain.
" On three. One, tw-" he suddenly yanked her arm back to it's socket, without finishing the count.
She felt a spike of pain in her shoulder.
It was excruciating.
She screamed.
She could feel her consciousness slipping away, her vision becoming covered in darkness.
Then Shepard again appeared in her vision, and she could feel the darkness retreating.
"You bosh'tet...", she said weakly.
"I'm sorry, but it's even worse the other way", he answered apologetically.
"Are you going to help me get up?", she asked, tilting her head.
"Yeah, sure", Shepard said and he swung Tali's healthy arm over his neck, helping her up "Can you walk?"
"Yeah, I got it now. Thanks", she said, nodding.
The squad moved on through the hole in the wall, which lead to a long corridor. At the end of the corridor there was a another corridor, which leaded to the main core.
As they travelled forward, they saw a humanoid form laying on the floor, not moving. It was a quarian.
Update: Decided the split the chapter into two, so the next one is going to be about Rael.