A/N: Ok this is both part of the story and a cameo chapter for rex3cutor, he's not becoming an official squad member or anything he'll probably stick around for three chapters or so, and we'll probably meet him again in the future.
Well as long as I'm giving shout outs, Liege Lord always drops me a review and has given me some good ideas, So just felt it was time for him to get a shout out.
This is also the first chapter under the new title, so if you're confused this used to be called "A Sense of Feeling".
Chapter 12: The Bear
The next day was one of frantic preparation, Shepard briefed the crew on our new intel and set a course for Virmire. I was down in the cargo hold working on my Widow, I was quite pleased with myself. I had just managed to lower the recoil enough that it wouldn't seriously injure me, I had also added a reinforced plate to the right shoulder of my armor for extra protection. I still had no idea how it worked but I could shoot it.
I'm about to do some target practice when the comm rings.
"Ash, Kaidan, and Knight suit up and head up to the airlock."
"I wonder what that could be?"
I shrug and put my gear on grabbing the Widow as well.
"Not test like a combat test."
My modifications prevent the Widow from collapsing to its 'holstered' state, so I put on a rifle sling and hung it over my shoulder. Me and Ash take the elevator up together, and meet Kaidan and Shepard at the airlock.
"What's up boss man?"
He turns and looks at me noticing the sniper, but I mean come on its hard not to.
"We responding to a distress call, you got that thing ready for combat?"
"I'm about to find out."
"Perfect" He says somewhat skeptically.
"Don't worry boss it's not going to explode or anything, the worst that could happen would be it dislocating my shoulder."
He opens his mouth like he's about to say something, thinks better of it, and puts his helmet on. He fiddles with something on his Omni tool before my helmet comm crackles to life.
"Knight can you hear me?"
"Yeah"
"Alright this is a private channel, I'll use it when I need to ask about the' game' alright?"
"Yeah, makes sense."
He touches the comm on his helmet before going over the squad comm.
"We're responding to a distress call from a merchant freighter MSV Arkaden, it's under attack by pirates. Joker is going to dock us with the airlock on the opposite side of the pirates, we move in and wipe em' out got it?"
"Yes sir" Kaidan and Ash respond.
"Aye aye boss man." I reply they both give me weird looks to which I just shrug.
"Ok Jon what can you tell me about this?" Shepard asks over private comm.
"Nothing actually this wasn't in the game…"
"This is why I asked you not to tell me more than basic info, the timelines are similar but different."
"Yeah, you're right, makes me feel a bit better."
He nods to me and Joker brings us up next to the freighter.
The airlock opens and we move quickly into the ship. A chorus of 'Clear' goes over the comm, but the sound of gunfire is prevalent. We proceed towards the bridge cautiously but the pirates seem to be concentrated there. We end up at the end of a long hallway leading from a central room up to the bridge, the pirates are in cover at various points down the hallway and are firing at a few people behind a barricade on the bridge. Most of them appear to be crewmen with pistols, but one guy is wearing armor and firing a mean looking Revenant machine gun. Suddenly I hear a POONK and one of the pirates explodes.
"He's got a n3wb tube!"
"A what?"
I shake my head. "A grenade launcher."
"Interesting, get ready to hit them, Knight let's see how bad we can scare em'."
"With pleasure." I say bringing my Widow to bear.
There's a chest high crate conveniently placed here so I put the bipod on top of it and sight in on what appears to be their commander. I aim at the center of his back and pull the trigger.
BOOM!
The shot reverberates down the hall, the commander lurches forward with a massive hole in his chest. He's dead before he hits the ground. All the pirates turn and face us. I pull the action back as all the pirates try and get in cover from both sides. A brief firefight ensues, with the pirates being cut down in a deadly pincer and eventually forced back onto their ship. We head up to the bridge as they run for it.
When we get up to the barricade the one guy in armor is slumped against the wall holding his side, and a couple people are tending to him. The captain of the ship goes up to Shepard.
"Knight, see what you can do for him." He says gesturing to the armored guy.
I just nod and head over to him. As I approach I remove my helmet, I notice the guy has an emblem of a grizzly bear on his armor. "Must be a freelance merc."
He's wearing a black suit of heavy armor with a digital metro camouflage pattern. I can see how he lasted this long, the armor has pockets all over it as well as a bandolier, all though most of it is empty.
The two crewmen back away a bit and let me up to him.
"My names Jonathon Knight, I'm here with Commander Shepard."
"Thomas Schüppler, I'm a mercenary."
I scan him with my Omni tool and give him some medigel. He sighs audibly as the gel takes effect but I frown looking at the scan. I keep talking to him for a few minutes until Shepard comes over.
"What's up with him Jon, he gunna be alright?"
"At this rate no, this freighter doesn't have the equipment to take care of his wounds."
"Does the Normandy?"
"The Normandy could have him patched up in a couple of days."
"Alright Mr…"
"Thomas" He replies.
I take one of his arms over my shoulder and start shuffling him back to the airlock. I get him to Chakwas, and she takes care of him. A few hours later Shepard calls me up to talk with him.
We head into the med bay and see him sitting on one of the beds. Without the armor on I can get a good look at him now. He's… large, well-muscled and at least 6'3", Caucasian with short military cut brown hair.
Chakwas comes over and hands Shepard a data pad, which he looks over as we approach.
"You used to be Alliance?"
"A Corporal." He replies with a somewhat anxious look.
"But you were discharged?"
"I was on a weapons development team, a test went wrong and some people died, I said it must have been sabotaged, they agreed with me." He says monotone voice.
"It wasn't me though, after I was discharged I was contacted by Cerberus. They didn't want my talents to go to waste in the Alliance."
"You refused them?"
"I figure they must have sabotaged it to try and recruit me, I don't work for terrorists."
"That sounds exactly like something Cerberus would do." I reply.
Shepard nods in agreement. "So you decided to be a merc?" Shepard asks?
"Better than working for Cerberus, and I'm not like the blue suns or anything, I do honest work."
"I would say holding out against a band of pirates pretty much single handedly is more than honest work."
"I protect people it's my job."
"You're pretty good at it too." I say.
"Hehe thanks."
"You're a weapons tech too?" Shepard asks.
"Yeah four years at GSWT."
"Isn't that where you went?" He asks looking to me.
"Yeah, never seen him though." I reply.
"Not surprising he's 27, would have been a while back that he went there."
"Still got the pistol though, danm fine weapon." He says.
"Phalanx?"
"Hell yeah."
"Got me one too."
"A fellow weapons expert eh? Haven't had a decent discussion about weapons in a long time…"
20 minutes later we're down in the cargo bay discussing weapons. He has a tricked out Revenant machine gun with a bipod, holo sight, tactical light, laser sight, and a mean looking flash hider he calls 'the meat hammer'. I'm guessing it's because it looks like a meat tenderizer with a hole in it. Ouch. Besides that it has lots of internal performance modifications. He's also got a custom Viper sniper rifle painted black, and of course the Phalanx.
"That is not a sniper, that's, that's… a cannon?" He says staring at my Widow.
"I get that a lot, what it is for sure is amazing."
"Heh I bet I prefer the Revenant for most encounters though."
"Kill them with an ungodly amount of bullets?"
"Accurate, ungodly amount of bullets."
"Hehe, naw I just need one shot, one BIG shot."
We go about trading designs, upgrades, and other specs. He gives me the design for his under barrel grenade launcher, and I give him the design for my RPG. I've got several new upgrades I can perform now, so I've got the machine busy tooling parts. Shepard eventually calls Tom up to the briefing room, supposedly to talk to him about our mission. I decide to grab a bite to eat, and have a pleasant conversation with Liara about Asari culture, I in turn tell her about ancient human history, the Mongols, the Ottomans, Vikings so on and so forth. Most of the crew is in the mess hall eating lunch or relaxing when Shepard comes down with Tom.
"Alright listen up everyone, me and Tom have had a discussion about his predicament on our ship." He waits to make sure he has everyone's attention by now.
"Since we don't have time to drop him off anywhere he will be coming to Virmire with us as a temporary member of the ground team."
Kaidan speaks up. "How do we know we can trust him Commander?"
"I've had a long talk with him trust ME, we can trust him."
"Fair enough Commander."
"Any other questions?" Shepard asks.
Garrus raises his hand. "Can I look at your sniper?"
Shepard just shakes his head. "Get some rest people we arrive at Virmire early tomorrow morning."
Later in the cargo hold…
Garrus, Tom, and I are sitting around my station talking about guns. Well they are I'm doing work, putting in new mods, doing repairs, ect…
"So Tom where are you from?" Garrus asks.
"Germany" He replies.
"I've never heard of the planet."
"It's a country on Earth, Garrus." I say without turning from my work.
"Oh uhm what's it like in Germany? Is it different from most places on Earth?"
"Germany is a small country in the middle of Europe, in the south there are the Alps, and the Baltic Sea in the north, in between there are beautiful countryside's, and forests. Huge sprawls of farmland to moderns skyscraper skylines, it's got over 1500 years of history, in a wide range of effects, great poets like Goethe ,and Shiller, and the best beer on Earth." He says that with a smile. "But for me I love it best because its home, I haven't seen it in years though." He says the last part with a sigh.
"I'm from Michigan, it's flat, cold in the winter, and hot in the summer." I say jokingly.
"Heheh, when was the last time you were home?" he asks.
"About a year ago… seems like so long ago…" I reply sadly.
Garrus speaks up suddenly. "Home is where you go back to when you win, we can go home when the reapers are dead."
"True, We have to work together to defend our homes." Tom says.
"Yeah…"
Late in the ships night cycle…
I'm sitting at my bench in the hold, no one else is in the cargo bay. Tom went off and introduced himself to the rest of the crew after talking with me and Garrus. I think most of the crew accepted him well enough. I'm fiddling with some parts not really doing much of anything. I hear light steps on the floor behind me, I turn around and see Tali walking up.
"You should get some sleep Jon."
"So should you."
"That's where I was going."
"Oh, I'll go up in a bit."
"Ok, what's wrong?"
I let out a short laugh, "Damn she's good"
"Thinking about home."
"Aren't we all?"
"Heh, yeah at least you know where yours is." I reply jokingly.
She just shakes her head. "Come on Jon, I'm sure there's a way for you to get home."
"Maybe"
She puts a hand on my shoulder. "Til' then you'll just have to deal with this." She says gesturing to the Normandy.
"I think I'll manage."
"Come on big day tomorrow."
I get up and we head towards the elevator. "Yeah I hope Shepard has a plan, I haven't been able to think of anything."
"I've never known Shepard not work something out."
"True enough."
"What do you think of our new crew member?"
"Tom? He's a good guy, has some nice weapons too, he should be able to help us on Virmire."
"He was very nice to me, it good to know there are more good people out there than just the ones on this ship."
"heh, well good night Tali."
"Night Jon."
I slowly walk into my room and climb into bed. "Beginning of the end tomorrow, here goes noth- no I've got a little bit more than nothing now."
Here goes something.
A/N: Alright so that concludes the introduction for rex3cutor's cameo character, I gave him this cameo because he made and absolutely amazing 3D model of my M-12 Assault shotgun based off some sketches I had on Deviant Art, A link to his profile is on my profile page here, so if you want to see amazing 3D models of his revenant, viper, or my shotgun head over there, he's also got models for several other ME weapons so lots of good stuff there.
So next chapters Virmire, the beginning of the end for Resonance Effect, but more on that later for now thanks for all the faves and alerts and reviews and just for all the people who read this, you guys are the best!
-Jknight ROCK ON!