A/N: Well I'm quite pleased with this chapter, just over 4,500 words. This chapter bounces around a bit, I wanted a little bit of pre-story but not a ton, so you get story bits around those several dates, some specific and some non. But this chapter gets all the way up to getting onto the Normandy.
So here goes.
Chapter 3: Getting up to Speed
I asked Vic where I could train and he told me where the gym was and that the marines sometimes have training skirmishes with special skirmish rounds. But the first thing I wanted to do was try out this Phalanx, the firing range was in the armory, which makes sense so I headed over there first.
I got a couple of thermal clips from the range master and stepped up to a lane. I set the target for 20 yards, not too far but this is my first time. I lined up the sights and concentrated. I squeezed the trigger once; the Phalanx gives a solid kick that I feel up through my arms. But my shot was only a bit off, I keep practicing for a while before deciding that's enough for today.
-1 Week Later-
I've been keeping up my practice, running, hand to hand, shooting, and combat maneuvers. I go to bed sore every night, but keep going because it's better to be sore now than dead later. There was one skirmish that I went to, grabbed a sniper to use for it, I "wounded" two guys and "killed" one before getting shot. Not bad if I do say so myself.
Work at the armory is pretty good starting to save up a good chunk of credits that I'm gunna use to build a custom suit of armor. Based it off of medium armor but removed the shoulder pieces, and the stomach plates and replaced them with overlapping plates for better flexibility with only slightly less protection, I kept the chest piece solid, also lightened the forearm pieces a little, but the most expensive part is gunna be getting as good a shield generator as possible. If I'm gunna lighten the armor for mobility, you can be dam sure I'm gunna beef up the shields. Been working on my technical skills as well and now have a minor overload ability, quite happy about that now I need to figure out how to get incinerate.
-December 31-
Well Christmas hit a little close to home, first time away from family, I was really off for a couple of days. Vic understood, I just told him I missed my friends and family and left it at that. He gave me an M-92 Mantis. I freaked out because I had seen how expensive they were, he just brushed me off though said he got it as a gift a while ago but never used it and gave it to me because I'd been borrowing a sniper for the skirmishes. I couldn't tell if he was lying or not, I thanked him profusely anyway. I'll customize it and try it out after the holidays.
Now for New Year's Eve I'm sitting with Vic in the barracks mess hall with a bunch of other marines, he's got a beer and I'm drinking a pop, it tastes like Dr. Pepper but it's some brand I've never heard off not surprising though. Vic and I are talking, about some upgrades I've got planned for that Mantis when Ash plops down at our table, we've talked several times and have become friends of a sort, well more like she's had it out for me ever since I sniped her in the first 5 minutes of a skirmish, no matter how much I tell her it was a lucky shot, now I'm paranoid she's gunna be behind me in every skirmish, and she usually is.
"Hi Ash what's up?" I ask knowing its a little odd for her to come seek me out.
"What's this I hear about you getting a new sniper?" she asks giving me a very sharp look.
I see Vic suddenly start a little at that, he knows what's going on between me and Ash, I mouth 'run away' at him and he quickly exits the table muttering something about restrooms. Ash saw what I did and looks at me confused for a second before realization dawns on her face.
"He gave you that rifle, didn't he?" The marine stares at me expectantly.
"Oh shit, think options options! Uhm runaway, no she'll tackle me, uh bluff, no she smarter than that, ah crap."
Just then I hear breaking glass and look to see Vic broke a bottle into the trash and is now mouthing 'RUN!' at me. I practically lunge away from the table and I'm safely hidden in the crowd of marines before Ash realizes what happened. It's an innocent game we play, I know she won't really do anything that bad, but Vic and I enjoy bugging her.
Vic finds me again a while later carrying two bottles. He walks up to me with a smirk plastered on his face.
"Thanks for the distraction back there." I say with a laugh.
"Yeah, the look on her face was priceless." He chuckles then hands me a bottle.
I look at the label, noticing its root beer.
"I know you wouldn't drink a beer underage or not." The old armory master smirks at me before opening his beer with a hiss.
"You know me too well." I laugh before opening mine.
We wait the last few minutes to midnight talking amicably, and then cheer when the clock hits midnight. It's synced to the clock in Time Square back on Earth, which means were celebrating in the middle of the day due to the time difference. The party goes on for a while longer but I move off and head to the armory, I've got a shiny new rifle to customize.
-2 Weeks Later-
"SUPPRESSING FIRE!" a marine shouts to his squad before opening up over his cover spraying randomly at the enemies' position 200 yards away.
I just smirk before shooting him in the chest, the round impacts with enough force to stagger him but not much else. He sulks off the battlefield dejectedly. I hear someone respond over the comm.
"Stupid new guy." I hear a few agreements; it's become a bit of a thing to keep your head down when I'm in the area. I just smile and reload.
"What's with all these new recruits anyway?" one marine asks over the comm.
"They're supposed to be extra security for the dig site." Another soldier responds.
"Must be something important if they keep bumping up our security here." The first marine replies.
I take a shot at someone hiding behind a fallen tree, the shot hits them in the arm. It's not a kill but they can't use that arm for the rest of the match. I hear a crunch behind me and instinctively roll to my right as a hail of gunfire lights up the area I was just occupying. If Ash is helping me with anything, Its my combat instincts. We've had a dozen encounters like this, with her usually shooting me after a minute of frantic dodging.
I end the roll on my back and pull the pistol off my hip firing a few shots in her general direction. It gives me enough time to scramble behind a boulder.
"I know your back there Jon, come out and face me!" The marine shouts at me
"I'd rather not." I reply sarcastically. I can see my squad in cover about a hundred yard away.
-Ash's POV-
"I've got him again." Slowly moving around the boulder, I quickly pop around the last bit and aim… at nothing?
"CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!" I look up to see him sprinting off toward the rest of his squad some of which have turned around to cover him, I raise my rifle.
-Back to me -
"SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!" I mutter as I make a mad dash for the rest of my squad, Ash is firing bursts of assault rifle fire that are coming way to close for comfort. I dive and land behind cover.
"Nice sprint mate." A marine next to me says with a hint of sarcasm.
I just grunt in reply and check my pistol, it's a good thing I've been running allot or I'd still be catching my breath from that, as it stands I'm a bit winded but quickly recover. I notice Ash got taken out by my squad mates, so I get up and start firing at the last few enemies with my pistol, 200 yards is the edge of my marksmanship with a pistol but I don't have enough time to aim the sniper effectively. About 10 minutes later the skirmish is over, and I'm giving all my borrowed armor, along with all the skirmish rounds I have left back to the quarter master. As I turn around Ash is staring me strait in the face.
"whoa!" I back up quickly holding my hands up defensively.
"You… You! AHHHRG!" She's fuming at me, and turns around throwing her arms up in the air. "I almost had you!" She growls turning around again.
I chuckle at her aggravation "Yes, but I'm not the one who shot you." I point out, she calms down a little bit and punches me in the shoulder.
"You're getting better, I'm almost impressed." She grudgingly admits.
"Holy shit, an almost compliment from the Chief!" I say with mock excitement.
"Yeah yeah, settle down you idiot." She chuckles. "You've been here for what almost 2 months now?" She asks looking to me.
"Uhmm, yeah something like that." I respond. "Why?"
"I remember when you first arrived, scared little greenie fresh off the shuttle." She's got a shit eating grin pointed in my direction. "You've pulled yourself together pretty quickly though."
"Thanks Chief, I've been working hard to get where I am." I reply. "Well I'm gunna go shower off see ya later."
"Yeah, your dead meat next time!" She replies pointing a finger at me before walking off.
- January 27-
Today was my birthday. I should have turned 17 years old today, instead I'm 19, and it's strange to think that a year of my life is missing somewhere; it's just gone, just like everything I used to know. I'm sitting in my little room feet up on the desk leaning back, music playing in the background, I close my eyes and lean my head back.
"Geth could attack any day now, all I ever hear people talking about is the dig site. Am I ready? Can I fight with the best of them and make it out alive?" These thoughts race through my mind, then the music changes to 'Indestructible', I smirk one thing hasn't changed, Disturbed is still great. I pull myself from my dark thoughts. "I can do this, I don't have to take on Saren alone, Shepard and the rest of the team will be there, I'll help save the galaxy, my galaxy, hmm dose that make this my home?" I let that thought drift off for another time. Strange that it didn't occur to me the music changed mid-song…
We had a little birthday thing in the armory today, Vic gave me an incinerate mod for my Omni tool, that saves me the time of trying to make one on my own, Ash gave me an Avenger II assault rifle, her position gets her a few perks. I got a few other small things from a couple of the marines, but I didn't make a big deal out of it.
I looked over my new stuff and mentally went over my arsenal, custom M-92 Mantis sniper rifle, custom M-5 Phalanx pistol, soon-to-be custom Avenger II assault rifle, weak homemade overload mod, stock standard incinerate mod, and my armor, which will be complete soon, with weak materials but I can remedy that later. I've picked up some pretty good gear in a pretty short amount of time, it could be better and I still haven't got a shotgun but, It's a hell of a lot more than I came here with. I sink into bed soon after and drift off to sleep.
A few days later…
"Stupid piece of crap, rassa frassa…" I grumble at the pathetic excuse for an Avenger on the table in front of me. "If he doesn't want to buy a new gun maybe he shouldn't have gotten this one run over." I continue to grumble, Vic is just chuckling lightly in the background… ass.
Suddenly a marine comes bursting into the armory." Were under attack!" He pants out in between breaths.
Vic and I immediately get into action. "Well what are you standing there for? Grab a rifle!" Vic shouts at the marine, shoving an avenger into his hands. "What are we under attack by?"
"Uh I don't know they were these white machine things!" the marine is a bit shaken and is panicking a bit.
I grab him by the shoulders and shake him. "Get ahold of yourself man! You're a soldier! So lock-N-load and lets go kick some ass!" I seem to have gotten through to him as he straitens up and cocks his rifle.
I look to Vic. "I'm gunna go grab my gear from my place and head out to help the marines."
"Alright, I'll help any marines who come through here, ammo and guns, if you need more come back here." He talks quickly pulling guns out and loading them then placing them on a table ready-to-use.
The marine and I quickly move out towards my house, I've only got my pistol on me, I need to get my armor on fast. We make good time and I direct anyone I see towards the armory, they can hole up there until help arrives. We get there and I quickly suit up, my newly finished armor shining in the low light. I strap on my other guns and pull out the assault rifle, pulling the action back and flicking off the safety, I then press the radio on the side of the helmet.
"Who needs help and where are you?" I ask over the comm.
"Jon? Is that you?" I hear Ash say over the sound of battle in the background.
"Yeah where are you?"
"Were half a click north of the dig site, hurry!" She breaks off and returns to the battle right after that.
"Ok, come on were gunna go link up with the Chief, just north of the dig site." I start leaving when my radio crackles to life this time it's the garrison commander.
"All troops fall back to the armory and barracks, repeat fall back!" I shut the radio off and continue out the door but the marine grabs my shoulder.
"We have to fall back that was the CO." The marine looks back towards the armory and then back to me.
"Aye, maybe you do but I'm no soldier, go on I'll come back with Ash and her squad." I push off and start moving towards Ash's location at a jog.
I pass a few groups of marines on my way, all falling back, I kill a few Geth but keep moving. I come up to a ledge overlooking a small pass. "Hmm this looks strangely familiar…" Right on cue Ash comes sprinting around the corner followed by two drones. She trips then kills them with her pistol, as the other two troopers notice her. I pull out my sniper and take aim.
-Shepard POV-
I open fire on one of the machines with my assault rifle, it goes down quickly with the help from the female marine. Just as I aim at the second its neck explodes at the base nearly shearing its head off. I do a quick scan for hostiles but there are no more here, so I head over to the marine who's looking up at the ridge. A man in some strange black armor slides down with a sniper in his hand, he nods to the marine then takes off his helmet and look over to us.
-Back to me-
I nod to Ash who has a relived expression on her face, then I take off the helmet and face Shepard. Ash salutes him.
"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams" Shepard nods to her then looks to me.
He's got his helmet on but it is a him. "Jonathon Knight, Private Contractor" Kaidan gives me a suspicious look.
"What's a merc doing on Eden Prime?"
"I'm not a merc I worked in the armory, you know not Alliance so I don't have to follow Alliance arms contracts." I reply holding his gaze.
Ash intervenes supporting my statement, the biotic just shrugs and looks to Shepard. He pulls his helmet off and I get my first look at-
"Commander John Shepard" I look at the default Shepard and for some reason think, "Thank god, I never wouldn't have gotten over it if he didn't look like Shepard."
"What's the situation?" He asks instantly taking command.
"My entire squads either separated or KIA, Jon what did you see?" Ash looks over to me.
"All the marines I met up with were heading back to the armory, Vic's there handing out guns and ammo." I reply, checking over my sniper and replacing the clip I fired at the Geth.
"Where's the beacon?" Shepard asks getting ready to head off again.
"The dig sites about half a click that way." Ash points back the way she came.
Shepard moves out nodding to me and Ash, the next thing we come up to is the dragon's teeth. As one descends releasing the cybernetic zombie, I line up the scope.
"Are they still alive?" Kaidan asks. I always thought that was kind of a dumb question, but then again what else can you say when confronted with a cybernetic zombie?
One of them charges towards us and Shepard cuts it down, I quickly plug another one in the chest with a sniper round. Ash and Kaidan finish off the other two, and we move on. The next area has a couple of shacks in it Shepard talks to the colonists in the first one and I direct them towards the armory. The second shack has that crazy guy in it, but when the lady says 'Maker' I just mentally shout "THIS IS NOT DRAGON AGE!" But the religiously confusing ladies not important, they head off towards the armory and we move on towards the spaceport.
CRACK
The shot echoes of the hillsides. "Nhilus…" just then Soverighn begins taking off, and is quickly gone from the planet. We move on stopping at the ledge above the spaceport. I scout the area through my scope.
"What do you see?" Shepard asks from next to me.
"Six Geth, and three uh zombie things." I reply after a second.
Shepard nods "Start shooting" is his only reply.
CRACK, one Geth falls, a hole in its back. CRACK, a husk rolls down the hill missing an arm, CRACK, another Geth drops his ruined rifle before falling over. CRACK, the last shot glances off the shield of the larger Geth, but I smile as they flicker out a second later. As I start reloading Shepard Kaidan and Ash make quick work of the remaining enemies. As we move down Ash comes up beside me.
"Nice shooting."
"Thanks, they're allot easier to hit than you are." I reply smirking.
Kaidan gives us a weird look. But Ash quickly clarifies.
"We had regular training skirmishes."
Kaidan nods at this understanding, but then notices the turian lying on the ground.
"Commander its Nhilus."
"A turian? You know him?" Ash asks.
"He's a Spectre, He was with us on the Normandy." Kaidan replies.
Just then that guy pops up from behind the crates everyone aims at him.
Ash seems mad that guys alive because he was lazy. I put a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, it's not his fault we've got Geth falling from the sky, point your anger at Saren not some lazy bastard." She loosens up a bit.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." She shrugs and we move on.
A brief firefight later were on the cargo train heading for the beacon.
"So, you two know each other pretty well?" Kaidan asks, Shepard raises an eyebrow in curiosity.
"What's it now two months now?" Ash asks me while reloading her Avenger.
I think for a moment. "A bit longer, I came here in December."
"Are you two uh… involved with each other?" Did he just ask if we were a couple?
I look at Ash who returns my gaze, before we both bust out laughing.
After a moment I regain my composure. "Let's just say, she's not my type, and leave it at that."
"Ditto, were friends but that's not something that would ever happen between us, trust me." Ash says still giggling a little.
Kaidan just shrugs. "You seemed pretty close, I was just curious."
"I got a good laugh out of it so no problems here." I say giving him a friendly smile.
"I'm more curious about your armor I've never seen anything like it." Shepard asks directing his attention towards me.
"I made it, I'm a weapons and armor specialist, plus I have a weird combat preference that doesn't fit standard armor types." I reply with a slight shrug.
"It looks like weird medium armor to me." Says Kaidan, shrugging.
"Well you're partially right, it's based off medium armor but is optimized for mobility and maneuverability, while still able to take some punishment, it's heavily dependent on strong shields to survive heated combat." I say rapping a knuckle on the chest piece.
"So, it allows you to rapidly change positions, but also be a combat factor when you can't bring the sniper to bear?" Shepard asks.
"Dam he's quick." I think to myself. "That's exactly it, I want to be able to provide good sniper support but still be able to give it to em' in a standard firefight." I say nodding to Shepard who looks a little pleased for figuring it out.
A few moments later we pull into the station, and there's a huge fucking bomb waiting for us. Ash's eyes widen, but Shepard immediately moves to disarm it.
"Cover me!" He shouts over his shoulder while opening his Omni tool to diffuse the bomb.
I keep my sniper out, judging its long range enough to use it. I aim down the scope and see a Geth duck behind cover. "Poke your head out you little bastard." It does, coming up to fire as I sink mass accelerator round into its more lightly armored torso, the high power round ignoring it's pathetic shielding. I pull the action back but a hail of gunfire forces me back into cover. Shepard's finished diffusing the first bomb and moves over to the second, with covering fire from Ash and Kaidan. I come up again and shoot a Geth sniper, near the back of the Geth formation. I duck back down and action the rifle again, as I look around my cover-
"OH, SHIT!" I dive to the side as a hunter bears down on me with a shotgun, I roll again barely avoiding another shot, and ram the sniper up just under its chest plate and pull the trigger. The round goes clear out the top of it's shoulder, trailing synthetic fluid.
"You alright kid?" Kaidan comes over crouching next to me.
"Yeah, I'm fine that was a bit close though." I say a little bit shaken, but I get back up and keep fighting, all the bombs are defused and all the Geth are taken care of a short while later. We move down the platform to the beacon, Kaidan radios to Joker and I check over my weapon before stowing it on my back.
Shepard and Kaidan start talking and I glance over my shoulder to see Ash activate the beacon, before I can react Shepard runs over and grabs her, I come up next to her when she lands. She gets up to help him but Kaidan holds her back. The beacon explodes a second later and Shepard goes fly-
"OOF!" Is all I get out as a fully armored Commander Shepard hits me like a wrecking ball, my head hits the ground and the world fades to black.
"Ouch" My body feels a little bit sore. I slowly open my eyes revealing a metal ceiling with a blue light pervading. I slowly sit up swinging my legs off the side of the table. Doctor Chakwas notices and comes over.
"How are you feeling?" The good doctor asks.
"A little sore, but I'll be fine, uh where am I?" I ask feigning Ignorance.
"Ah yes, your aboard the SSV Normandy, an Alliance ship." She replies.
I think for a moment. "Is Ash here?" I ask.
"The marine? Yes I believe sh- "The doctor is interrupted by Ash walking into the med bay, back in Alliance fatigues.
"Well looks who's up." Ash says, shit eating grin easily visible.
"Shove it Ash." I say, with a sarcastic tone.
She just laughs and stands next to me. "That was some pretty good fighting back there, I heard you almost ate a shotgun shell though."
"I heard they're full of energy and good vitamins." I say sarcastically, smirking at her.
The doctor cracks a small smile, but turns around when she hears the Commander moving. He groans and sits up holding his head. He looks around swinging his legs around to face us.
"What happened to you?" He asks looking at me with a puzzled face.
"Well when the beacon blew up you went flying and-"
"I thought you broke him for a second there you hit him so hard!" Ash interrupts excitedly, smiling as I facepalm.
"You've both been out cold for several hours." Doctor Chakwas says.
"So I landed on you?" Shepard asks.
"Yeah, it was not very pleasant." I state, shaking my head. "How are you though? That didn't look very pleasant from my end."
The conversation then goes around what Shepard saw, and then Anderson comes in.
"Good, you're both awake. How are they doctor?" He asks looking to Shepard then me.
"Well, Mr. Knight here is fine other than some scrapes and bruises, Shepard appears to be fine physically, but I recorded allot of rapid eye movement, consistent with intense dreaming." Doctor Chakwas states, briefly checking her data pad.
Anderson then asks to talk to Shepard privately, Ash salutes and walks out. I smile and wave over my shoulder on my way out followed by Doctor Chakwas. I follow Ash into the mess hall grabbing something to eat from the Vendetron, as I affectionately call them; they had some on Eden Prime so I'm familiar with how they work. Me and Ash talk while I eat and find out she checked back planet side and found out Vic and a bunch of others were all fine holed up in the armory. I need to call him when I have a second. But then Shepard comes out of the Med-bay with Anderson and informs us were headed to the Citadel.
"Here we go, we'll pick up everyone but Liara, and start saving people." I think to myself, Tutorial level completed.
A/N: And there you go chapter 3, this is my first time writing fight scenes so I would like some feedback on how I did with those, and I'm trying to cut out some of the exposition cut scene stuff, copying the games lines out feels wrong and boring, things are different with me there so the things they say will be different, obviously the important stuff will be there but our hero may be elsewhere or a non-participant in some of these conversations, like with the guy behind the crates. What can I say I'm the kind of person to stay out of a discussion unless I have something important to say.
Thanks for reading! Comments and critique are appreciated, the comments so far have been excellent so thanks to all who have faved, alerted, and reviewed!
Til' Next time ROCK ON!