Target identified.
Weapons free.
One dead alien scumbag. The threat fell to the floor in a pool of his own green alien blood, moaning in pain.
A boot heel to the throat ensured the target was eliminated.
The Cerberus trooper known as Alpha 5 wiped off the blood on his boot on the Salarian's uniform, shouldered his weapon, and continued onwards.
The Krogan threat had to be eliminated. The female had to be killed.
One good shot across the valley would do it. One...Well, several hundred bullets would do it.
The trooper couldn't help but let a grin go across his face. A nuke would be the best way to kill it.
The Krogan would only be a thorn in the side of the new human empire.
"Alpha and delta squads. New orders. Approach sector 7. Unexpected resistance protecting Anti-aircraft emplacements. Recommendation: Immediate termination."
The trooper's head immediately snapped up, as his whole body rotated 90 degrees with his other squad members.
They moved quickly through the complex, opening a door into a small infirmary, empty of casualties, with a wide arena-like area beyond it. The trooper next to alpha 5's head exploded, sending the rest of the team scurrying like rabbits to cover. Alpha 5 popped up out of cover to see the shooter.
It looked to be a helmeted Turian, in cover in the middle of a bridge that spanned the arena.
What's a Turian Soldier doing on the Salarian homeworld? And why is he wearing bright red and orange armor? Alpha 5 wondered.
It didn't matter. They all had to go. Clean it all. It all must be cleaned.
5 shook his head. He made a mental note to talk with the medic about these voices in his head again as he aimed at the Turian.
A burst of fire knocked down his shields and the trooper ducked back down again. The Turian had friends.
Alpha squad leaned out of cover as one to suppress the targets, and let the engineer do his work.
Suddenly, a concussive shot from the Turian forced their Centurion, alpha 1, to lose his shields, and another attack set him on fire.
The Centurion screamed and flailed around, his rifle clanging to the deck as he writhed. He rushed about, blind and deaf to everything but pain. The screaming abruptly stopped when another sniper rifle shot mercifully tore through alpha 1's skull.
The combat engineer had taken advantage of the distraction, and worked his way to the side, to the lab on the left of the bridge.
The alien realized he was in trouble too late, and fired wildly at the well dug-in engineer.
Alpha squad pinned him down again, however. He would not escape.
The turret spread out its legs and raised itself to full height. Soon, one more alien would be-
The turret abruptly squealed and shuddered, its servos beginning to break down as blue lightning arched around it.
The engineer was barely able to fully look at his turret before it exploded, throwing him back against a wall.
"Shit, they've got an engineer!" Alpha 5 called out, and looked about, seeing a figure in the distance on the right side of the bridge.
It was a Human Engineer!
Traitorous scum.
The trooper's shields went down as an overload attack hit him, and he ducked his head down.
5 stuck his weapon out from behind cover, the tide turned as he now fired wildly without even looking to aim.
Alpha 3, the most senior member of the unit left, suddenly landed before him on his back, his helmet cracking open under the impact.
His eyes lolled lifelessly in their sockets, blood oozing from their sides.
Alpha 5 barely had time to look as he rushed away, seeking new cover; it was an Asari Vanguard, dressed in bright white armor and brandishing an M-5 Phalanx who had killed alpha 3, and now reached for alpha 4.
Her arm glowed with blue energy as she released a battle cry, and the arm blurred forward.
Instantly a dent was made in 4's chest armor, and he was knocked backwards into a pillar, moaning as he fell onto all fours.
Alpha 7 dragged 5 behind cover, but both were still mesmerized by 4's one-sided battle.
The Asari kicked him onto his side, and he cried out in pain, coughing up blood of several different shades; his implants had been damaged.
"Delta squad, where the hell are you?!" 5 yelled into his comm link, "We just lost half our team! We need reinforcements!" The survivors of alpha continued to pour on fire, knowing who they faced now. These weren't just common troopers. This was something else.
"Stay calm, alpha. What are you facing?"
"A fucking N7 special ops team! Send some help, now!"
"Copy that. Dispatching beta and are airdropping in a heavy mech. Delta squad is having some trouble, they'll be there ASAP."
Alpha 5 smirked at the mention of the heavy mech, his mood improved, Now we can take 'em!
Alpha squad circled up, defending themselves from the onslaught made by only three people, and lost two more men in the process.
There was the sound of artificial thunder in the sky, and an Atlas mech appeared. It came down with a loud whine of thrusters and a roar of wind, the light glinting off the canopy as it decelerated above the ground on the other side of the arena, to the right of the bridge from alpha's point of view and to the left flank of the Turian trooper.
A door to alpha's right flank exploded, and the troops of beta squad raced out to also flank the traitorous engineer and the asari bitch. Only a matter of time…
Suddenly there was a loud blast of air, like a thruster firing, coming from above, forcing all heads to swivel upwards.
Twelve glowing streaks were racing down from the clouds, contrails leading far up into the sky.
Three were headed for their position.
The Cerberus soldiers were hopeful; maybe they were a new type of reinforcements!
The N7 special ops team was fearful, knowing how bad their luck was and believing them to be more hostiles.
The streaks released jets of flame downwards, before there was a loud booming sound and pieces began to break off. It appeared that the objects were falling apart, but when all the fragments had blown away, and slowed even further, humanoid figures in blackened silver and blue armor were revealed as they crossed their arms and descended further.
The leader's armor looked like something out of some 20th century movie, Starship Fighters, or something.
Kinetic barriers of some kind shimmered when a fragment from the drop pods or whatever they had been using bounced off one of the other figures. The plating looked thick and tough, covering virtually all of a thick black undersuit. The chest piece looked like it could take a blast from a grenade launcher and wouldn't even scratch the A-1 emblazoned upon it. If the plating wasn't enough, the undersuit looked to be about as tough standard Alliance armor, and was being used as a secondary!
Several types of weapons bristled from limbs and the figure's back, but didn't seem active currently.
The other two figures looked equally well armored, if not more so, though they followed the same general shape as the leader. Their smallest weapons weren't as visible as those on the leader, but several large cannons and miniature missile launchers were clearly visible.
Their faces were featureless, except for several cameras and what looked like sensors mounted where eyes and noses should be.
Were they mechs?
However, the mesmerizing effect faded quickly, when the lead destroyed their Atlas.
One second he had been hovering above the bridge where the Turian trooper had been, then, in almost slow motion he jetted to his left, jets propelling him right into the Atlas' cockpit.
The pilot screamed over the radio as with one hand, the figure shattered the already-cracked window, reached in, and pulled the man out; the pilot was unceremoniously tossed into a column, stunning him as the foe stepped down, and pushed the mech with one hand.
The Atlas fell to the ground with a crash as the observers began to move again.
The N7 team cheered and pressed their attacks with renewed vigor, as the Cerberus units returned fire.
In the back of alpha 5's mind, as he ordered the troops now under his command to concentrate their fire, he wondered what had happened to the other two-
"Who's ready to have their ass kicked?" A gruff and deep voice asked loudly from behind him.
5 wasn't even able to turn before he felt a titanium foot sole drive its way into his spine, sending him flipping over his cover and face planting with so much pain.
He could taste blood in his mouth, and a deep indent in his tongue the shape of his molars as he struggled to rise.
"There's nothing I like better than making some other poor bastard die for his planet!" The same voice cried as unfamiliar gunfire echoed, and another trooper in white, black, and yellow armor landed atop alpha 5.
He struggled to raise his head, and saw two more of his friends die, blackened holes burnt into their chests.
Alpha 5's brain suddenly decided, "I want to live", and despite the modern mental conditioning, millennia-old primate instincts forced him to seek shelter within himself to fight another day.
In other words, he played dead.
XXXXX
Unit UMS-1584-FTB-C of the CNV Mako, or Thumbs, as his fellow soldiers called him, grabbed the rifle of the enemy soldier, and instead of yanking it out of his arms, twisted it to the left, breaking the human's wrist.
Thumbs had no need to kill this trooper now, his odor detector revealing that the foe had wet himself as he collapsed screaming to the ground.
Thumbs unfolded the power pistols hidden in his arms, and scanned the darkened room for targets. There was only one Cerberus soldier where thirty seconds ago seven had stood, and he aimed his submachine gun with a trembling hand.
Unlike his fellow Unmanned Marine Supplements(UMS's, where his nickname came from, thUMbS), Thumbs did not have a very intimidating voice; his voice module's synthetic biomechanical cells had rotted away when the case had cracked, and the replacement was from some domestic computer. The new voice wasn't that bad, it sounded fairly normal and according to sensors allies were more comfortable with it, but enemies didn't take such a neutral voice coming from a war machine very seriously.
However, vocal intimidation was not required, when Thumbs motioned, the engineer took his right hand away from his pistol, and carefully placed it on the ground; then went to his knees with hands on his head.
Thumbs stepped into the circle of light to collect the weapon, and crushed it in his hand, as he went into his memory files to bookmark his response to the situation.
One of the Cerberus fighters had shot Thumbs down during the drop and knocked out a thruster, separating him from his fireteam and sending him crashing through a ceiling into a mob of enemy soldiers.
A blast of energy from his head-mounted precision laser took out all the lighting in the room, before the killing began.
Thumbs pulled out a set of zip ties, an ancient but proven technology, and moved toward the engineer, crouching down with a creek of the metal underneath.
"Any surprises?" Thumbs asked rhetorically as he hogtied the POW; he could sense any weapon, and only found one device that could be one.
"None for you, unfortunately." The engineer spat, as the robotic marine carefully removed his omni-tool.
"Fortunately for me." Thumbs replied, and scanned the primitive device.
Curious, it had a miniature fabrication module built in. A possibility like that had never been considered by the CDF for their marine supplement units. It would have been extremely useful, being able to manufacture parts instead of relying upon a supply line.
Thumbs' communications demanded his attention, and transmitted tactical data to his navigational charts.
He rushed out to locate the Grakaan VIP.
XXXXX
As the jet of flame continued to arch across the pathway, the Yahg roared at them and turned in the opposite direction, rushing away.
"Careful, there goes the next Shadow Broker!" Commander Shepard gestured with a grin as he vaulted over the barrier to their left.
Garrus joined in, "Could've sworn he was muttering 'T'Soni' the whole time…"
Liara glared at the pair of them, "Not funny!"
"Warning: Quarantine failsafes have been compromised." A computer voice interrupted as Shepard leaped over the gap to the other side of the room, away from the flames.
"We've gotta hurry up and get to the female!" Shepard cried unnecessarily.
They moved quickly up the stairs, and gunfire began to grow louder as did the hovering of a shuttle.
"Shepard, Cerberus troops at checkpoint. Attempting to kill Krogan. Need assistance!" Mordin's voice was calm, and provided the maximum amount of info in the shortest length of time; though this was the first time there was a desperate hint to his tone.
As they rounded the corner, enemy fire tore into their shields, forcing the group to take cover.
Shepard flinched as a round nicked the corner of his wall, and shouted, "Light 'em up!"
As bullets flew through the air, the commander was unable to fire back for more than a second. They were pinned. He could hear the footsteps of the troopers moving towards the pod.
Shepard suddenly had an idea. One that he had thought crazy at first when Graham had gotten the ammunition manufactured.
"Mordin!" Shepard demanded, leaning left as a larger chunk was torn out of the wall, "Mordin, is that thing NBC protected?!"
There was a pause, followed by the salarian's classic speech, "Unknown. Identifying. Air filters, yes, active. Airtight shielding? Ah, readout on right side of control board."
Finally, after several seconds of murmuring, "Affirmative. Pod is fully sealed against nuclear, biological, chemical…"
The rest of his transmission was drowned out by the deep chunk sound of the commander's M-15 Vindicator's underslung launcher firing.
The Ceberus shuttle pilot had been desperately trying to get his idiot cargo to shut the damn door before some stray shot or grenade flew in to kill them all.
As usual, they ignored him, and instead of at least getting out to shoot, they just crouched in the hatch firing.
However, for once the pilot was proven right when he heard something like a package ripping open, and an awful smell filtered into the cockpit.
"What the hell…?"
His eyes suddenly began to burn, and he started to wheeze. On his next exhale he hacked and coughed until there wasn't anything left in his lungs.
"Help…" He squeaked in between breaths, and looked around to see the troopers aft in similar states of pain as they collapsed in the cloud of white mist around them. One man yanked off his helmet to vomit, and another was babbling that he couldn't see.
The pilot's instincts kicked in, even as the tear gas began to blur his vision, and he activated the automatic control to slam the doors shut, and turned on the air filters.
As more Cerberus troopers collapsed, and the shuttle drunkenly whizzed away, headed for the ground, Shepard motioned Garrus and Liara forward.
They had a neutralizer for this particular tear gas agent, but unlike their foes had activated their air filtration systems, and there was no need for it.
The Cerberus troopers did possess NBC equipment, but rarely activated the systems, thus they were completely unprepared for the gas until it was too late.
Mordin didn't even comment when he radioed, "Quickly, Shepard. Technician dead. Clear us through the checkpoint!"
The commander moved quickly towards the control panel, and asked as he typed, "Are you okay?"
"Containment shield is holding. Will try to repair, if necessary. Can't speak for Krogan health, however."
The powerful female krogan looked over, "I'm fine, commander."
"Females kept secret. Possibly a mole in STG. Could be indoctrinated," Mordin mused as he typed, "If no Krogan alliance with Turians, Reapers left unchallenged."
Shepard heard the sound of a gunshot, and looked to see Liara kicking away the smoking remains of a rifle from a Cerberus trooper on the ground, who put up his hands.
"We'll do more than challenge them." He replied, and input the final code that sent the containment pod upwards.
"Shepard, meet us at next checkpoint," Mordin pointed upwards, "Cerberus likely to target-"
There was a loud impact upon the pod, sending Mordin sprawling to the ground.
Mordin felt for his pistol. Missing.
He scrambled to locate it, found under piece of debris.
Hostiles to his right. In shuttle. Shield holding for the moment.
Shepard and team unable to respond, pinned down.
He picked himself up off the ground, and began typing again, as he shouted to his friends, "Hurry, next checkpoint!"
A Cerberus trooper reported loudly, "Copy all squads. I have the Krogan in sight!"
Screams. No more gunfire?
Mordin turned to see a figure standing on the roof of the dropship.
Human. Latin characters visible on torso.
Enhanced strength, based on ease with which Cerberus personnel pulled out and thrown off.
Wait. No visor. Cameras instead. Not just powered armor. Not cyborg, head too small to contain brain, torso unable to hold power source and major internal organs together.
Motions too mechanical. Eliminates most possibilities.
Could it be…-He inhaled sharply- an operational mechanical soldier?
Shepard's jaw dropped as he saw the figure, who in the blink of an eye, had just dragged several Cerberus troopers out of their shuttle, replaced them with explosives, and then leaped across the gap.
With a deep sound mixed with the explosion the silver and blue soldier landed upon the closed hatch the pod had once moved through.
The soldier scanned the area, the cameras mounted upon its face fixing upon Liara, Shepard, and Garrus, as they aimed their weapons at the unknown.
The head swiveled toward Shepard, in what looked like a double take.
Mechanically, the soldier spoke, as Shepard suddenly noticed the unique patterning of the silver and blue armor, and the faded identification on the shoulders.
"Cloud Defense Force Unmanned Marine Supplement, Unit 1584-C, Fireteam Bravo, assigned to the CNV Mako, reporting as ordered, Commander Shepard. Ready to provide assistance. I am currently unable to stand on ceremony, physically at least, for fear of enemy snipers."
The squad was struck silent. "I am also called 'Thumbs'. Sir."
Shepard replied slowly, as his brain took time to process the robot standing before him, "Thank you...Thumbs…Did Captain Kyle dispatch your team?"
Thumbs nodded, "Affirmative. Orders are to assist your team in protecting the VIP, and generally make life hell for Cerberus."
The team considered the robot's speech unusual, with its usage of personal pronouns, and human speech patterns.
Shepard thought tactically, ignoring the many other questions he had as he asked, "Do you know where the rest of your fireteam is?"
"Negative. Orders dictate immediate mobilization to the Grakaan VIP's position, but it appears they got held up in traffic."
Commander Shepard looked the robot up and down. Heavily armed and bearing the colors of General Graham.
"Shepard, orders?" Garrus asked nervously, finger on the trigger.
"Welcome aboard, Thumbs. Can you give us an idea of your capabilities?" Shepard asked abruptly.
The robot called Thumbs replied, "I am fully equipped with micro-missile batteries, a small artillery weapon, a tactical cyberwarfare suite, and enough small arms to level a building. My AI is also able to adapt to any kind of battlefield situation, and over my years of service I have apparently developed some kind of a personality." The deadpan snarker kind apparently.
"I like him." Garrus immediately said.
"The firepower would be beneficial." Liara added.
Shepard drew a "turn around" sign for Thumbs, and moved past towards the hole in the wall, that lead out onto a plant-filled balcony.
A blue and white shuttle whizzed by suddenly, pursued by a Cerberus gunship, followed by Wrex's gruff commands, " Shepard, get cracking!"
As they passed around the corner ahead, he added, "I'll try to draw some of their fire!"
A shot cracked through the air, and the pressure behind Shepard seemed to drop for a second, as a projectile flew into the shooter in the blink of an eye, detonating the Centurion's helmet in a bloody mess.
Thumbs fired two more micro-missiles at a passing dropship, sending it down in flames as Garrus and Liara fired at the troops ahead on the balcony.
Shepard targeted an enemy soldier, and with a battle cry, blue energy began to glow around him and he raced forward at incredible speed.
He glided across the corner, and slammed into a mass of enemy soldiers.
The Biotic Charge nearly killed the Cerberus trooper, and sent the other Centurion flying into a wall.
He fired an assault rifle burst into an engineer, who fell and knocked the weapon from his hands.
Undeterred, Shepard spun about to place two right between the eyes of another soldier with his sidearm.
"Shepard, last attack compromised security systems! Attempting to compensate!" Mordin reported.
Shepard slammed his knee between the legs of the last Centurion, "Hang on, we're trying to get to you, Mordin!" He pistol-whipped the already-humiliated foe.
A pair of blue energy beams cut into the last pair of troopers, who fell without screams; Thumbs jogged up, folding his power guns back into his armor.
"Commander Shepard, despite the humor displayed in humiliating the Cerberus officer, I suggest you use your sidearm. A shot to each kneecap will prevent them from doing anything, and is useful for an interrogation incentive."
Shepard shrugged self-consciously, "Yeah, I know. I just thought it looked cool…Let's move out."
"Why shoot them in the kneecaps? That's like shooting someone in the flesh of their leg, it'll hurt like hell, but they'll still be mobile." Garrus asked as they moved.
"Humans, Asari, and several other species do not possess Turian exoskeletons, Garrus." Liara explained, "If the kneecap is severely injured, it is physically impossible for them to get very far, they won't be able to stand up. I thought you would have known that!"
"You're right, I should have. And here I thought I knew all the human weak spots. That should have been obvious! I can be so oblivious sometimes." Garrus chuckled. "Would have been useful back on Omega. No wonder all the human mercs looked like they were going to piss themselves whenever I pointed my gun downwards."
They opened another door, and up another set of stairs, as rays of light filtered into the stairway through a hole in the wall at the top.
Before the hole stood a familiar Salarian, not Mordin, someone else.
He had a Cerberus trooper in a headlock, and with a loud snap, killed him instantly.
It was Captain- Major Kirrahe, the STG officer they had saved back in 2183 on Virmire. He held a deep respect for the crew, and Shepard specifically.
He took cover behind the wall on the right as gunfire hit the surface opposite.
They moved to join him, Thumbs clanking along behind them as Kirrahe ordered, "Commander, stay back! Hostiles just down that hall!"
"Is there an easier way around?"
Kirrahe merely smiled, and cocked his unfamiliar weapon, ejecting a spent thermal clip, "You could say that."
Without warning he turned and strode across the hallway, firing as he went.
The Cerberus troopers fired wildly at the unexpected resistance, and were surprised by all the glowing devices landing about.
One stuck to the middle trooper, who grabbed at it, trying to pull it off, but only succeeding in getting the other hand stuck.
His friend reached over to try and help just as the rounds detonated, killing every trooper in the corridor with fire and shockwaves.
"How do I not have one of those?" Garrus asked jealously.
Kirrahe examined the weapon, clearly he had not encountered it that long ago either.
An engineer rushed out to place a turret, and Kirrahe waved to the team, "Go, commander! I'll cover you!"
They heard the engineer tell someone over the radio, "Orion squad, your orders are to hold position and block access to the next checkpoint." His turret unfolded as he spoke.
"Looks like Cerberus got some upgrades!" Garrus called out as they headed for cover, and the turret began to unload on them.
Liara began to say "Taking them head-on may not be the best-"
The turret suddenly stopped firing. They could hear the combat engineer growl in frustration and punch the device as the gunfire died down.
It suddenly swiveled around and tore his head off with a burst of point-blank range fire.
As it killed another pair of troopers, Thumbs came around the corner, firing what looked like an automated grenade launcher with one arm and an old-style mass accelerator minigun with the other.
"Cyberwarfare, motherfuckers. RTFM." He still spoke in a deadpan tone.
Shepard took advantage of the distraction to send a biotic shockwave that shook several foes out of cover, and each was quickly eliminated.
"I think we got them all…" Liara said cautiously.
"To the next checkpoint. I'm sure Cerberus isn't done." Garrus determined.
Innocently, as Shepard passed a destroyed storage rack, he reached out and grabbed some valuable looking device. Everyone pretended not to notice his looting.
They found the next door to have an authentication system built in. The slow sensor took what felt like forever to confirm his identity.
As they entered the short corridor, Garrus commented, "Mordin was right. Cerberus must have been tipped off. They got here too fast."
"Every war has its traitors…" Liara said solemnly.
They retrieved a pile of thermal clips, and opened the next door.
The team heard a filtered voice say, "Get the hell off him!" as bullets chased a fast-moving Varren across the indoor park, that was dragging a struggling Cerberus trooper for a meal.
Before the rounds could even touch the Varren, its teeth sank into the trooper's neck. He didn't even scream.
The Varren was dead within seconds. The Cerberus troopers were still slightly human, apparently.
"There they are!" One trooper cried when they finally noticed Shepard's unit, "Careful! We've got live Varren down here!"
There were more troopers than usual in this room. "Looks like they mean business!" Garrus noted over the gunfire.
"More up top!" Liara pointed out.
"Find cover!" Shepard ordered, as incendiary rounds set a Centurion on fire.
Thumbs called out, "Stairs located! I'll try to get the drop on them!"
Despite the situation, Shepard couldn't help but snicker as the ED-209 impersonator clanked loudly up the stairs.
"I'm going up top to support him!" Liara called out, and followed Thumbs.
There was a burst of comm chatter from the Cerberus troops. Shepard still didn't know why they continued to use Alliance frequencies.
"This is Orion squad. We've trapped the female at checkpoint Two. We-Urk!" There was a crunching sound on the other end.
XXXXX
The Centurion's neck snapped as Sergeant Jack Haley twisted; the engineer to the right of his victim uttered a single gag as Specialist Dobbs' garrote squeezed the foe's throat shut, and the power armor's strength overcame the strength of the skin and bone.
Both Cerberus goons, one headless, went over the edge that the CDF infantry clung to with magnetic boots; as three Unmanned Marine Supplements killed three enemy troops apiece before they knew what was happening.
A final enemy, a rare female Centurion, had been brandishing her rifle at the Salarian in the pod, who had put up his hands; she realized what was happening just as the five enemy soldiers closed in.
It wasn't one of the Cloud soldiers that killed her, her head exploding outwards towards them.
The Centurion fell to her knees to reveal the Salarian placing his weapon back on his belt. His merciless approach matched the description. This was Mordin Solus.
"Friends of Clan Urdnot?" He asked.
Haley moved forward and flipped up his visor, "That's right. We're here to make sure the Grakaan get the cure they need."
The female Grakaan abruptly joined the conversation, her tone icy and compelling, and nearly made Dobbs jump back, "Where did you hear that name?"
"That is your species' name, right?" Haley asked, without fear.
She didn't respond for a moment. It was odd to find a human who didn't fear the Krogan, "Yes. It is. One that hasn't been used in a very long time."
"Can discuss mysteries later," Mordin interrupted, "Reroute emergency power and pass us through the checkpoint."
"Dobbs?"
"Sir!"
Once the power was reestablished, Haley hit a few controls, and before long the pod was ready to pass through the checkpoint.
"Sarge, unknown contacts approaching!" One of the UMS's suddenly reported.
There was the hissing sound of a door opening, and weapons were aimed down the hallway.
Four figures exited, one clearly human, one humanoid, and one who looked to be a descendant of an avian species. Asari and Turian most likely.
The fourth was more familiar, however.
"Thumbs!" Dobbs yelled, upon spotting the missing member of his fireteam.
The UMS following the unknowns perked his head up, and cried in reply, "Hey, Dobbs! Where the hell have you been?"
The CDF squad lowered their weapons as the apparently friendly unit approached.
"Where the hell have we been? Where have you been?" Dobbs countered, "We landed at the drop zone just fine! I looked away and you were gone!"
Thumbs shrugged, "You try landing right when you get shot out of the sky. I landed in a mass of Cerberus troops, had to kill them all, and my comms have been shot all the hell, so I wasn't able to talk directly to anybody. Lucky Commander Shepard here was able to help."
Sergeant Haley pulled up his mission briefing in his HUD as the commander nodded, "Yep, that's him. From what the Krogan tell us, you're a badass."
Haley grinned, "That's just about all they told us actually."
Shepard looked the CDF marine up and down. He wore incredibly heavy armor, quite stereotypical for science fiction stories actually, but looked like it could tear apart a Grizzly tank without even trying.
The clear material(Shepard couldn't even tell what it was made of) that covered the man's face when the visor was flipped up allowed for a clear view of the marine.
It was clear he had been through the same experience that General Graham had been, the marine's face hung off his bones, and dark old scars that ran from his chin out of sight.
His right eye seemed normal, but the left tracked mechanically when it moved with the other with the slightest hint of a hesitation, and there were surgical scars around the socket; some pink and glistening, while others were white and faded. He must have been one of the POWs who had been "harvested", as Graham had called it.
Shepard smiled back at the man's comment, "That sounds about right. I'm a Spectre with the Systems Alliance Navy, and this type of devastation is my workplace apparently."
" I'm Sergeant Haley, Cloud Defense Force, 14th Infantry, that's Private Dobbs, and the UMS's are our support. And you two?" Haley gestured politely to Shepard's friends.
"Garrus Vakarian, Turian Hierarchy."
"Liara T'Soni, Asari Republic."
"The Krogan didn't tell us much about many of the other species around here. Well, friends of Earth are friends of mine."
The servos behind him whirring signaled the pod rising, "Next checkpoint!" said Mordin.
"How many more are there?" Shepard asked.
"Just the landing area. Hopefully Urdnot Wrex still waiting."
The female krogan snorted, "Wrex can't keep his hands off a fertile female. He'll be there."
"I'll see you up top." Shepard reassured her as the pod disappeared into the ceiling.
There was a deep booming of artillery, and the commander whirled around to see Thumbs deactivating his shoulder-mounted recoilless rifle.
A nearby door was now a smoldering hole, with bits and pieces of yellow and white armor littered about.
"Hostiles eliminated."
"You know that was the next door up, right?"
"Well now we don't have to go through tedious hacking, now do we?"
"Touhe'."
Shepard's team moved through the destroyed door, while the other two fireteams used jump jets to move from a few other angles.
"We're almost back up top." Liara noted.
As Shepard mounted the top of the ladder, he heard Mordin over the radio, "Shepard! They found us! Under heavy attack!"
Instead of finding the pod completely undefended, however, he saw three figures, what looked like a human engineer, an Asari Vanguard (judging by the biotic shockwave she released), and a Turian Soldier.
They were wreaking havoc upon the Cerberus troops, but the Turian and the human were down to their sidearms, and the vanguard was only using biotic attacks
Cerberus reinforcements were arriving as well, judging by the smoke grenades detonated, and would soon be overwhelmed.
Cerberus wouldn't be able to have that luck however.
Six human and robotic power armor soldiers leapt over the edge of the balconies, as Shepard's team began to fire into the completely surprised Cerberus ranks.
They had no chance.
The Atlas' arms went limp with a moan of screeching metal as Dobbs yanked out the power core, and leapt off as its knees went out.
The crash shook the whole area, not even unnerving the team as they mopped up the resisting survivors, and captured those who didn't.
The battle with the infantry had been extremely one sided, lasting only several seconds, and the Atlas had fared no better.
"Shepard, I think you did it. Looks clear from here. Coming in now."
The shuttle eased in carefully and slowly, like a child unwilling to wreck their parent's car, so unlike Wrex.
Finally, when the satisfying "thump" of the shuttle hitting the ground came, Wrex relinquished the controls to a somehow calm Cortez with a grunt, and turned about, exiting the craft in typical Krogan fashion; tilting it slightly in the direction of his body weight as he hopped the short distance to the ground.
He held out his shotgun and made an up and down motion with his hand, pumping the action.
Wrex and Shepard closed the distance between each other and shook one another's hands, "You had me worried there for a minute," Wrex said as they turned towards the pod.
"Let's make this quick." Shepard said, eager to get off the planet.
The shimmering blue field faded to let the female Krogan out. Mordin extended his hand and smiled pleasantly- Before he was ruthlessly "suggested" to move aside by Wrex's forearm and death glare.
Wrex did the same motion, with possibly an even wider grin, "Let's get you out of there."
She looked at him as though he were an insect, then began to walk down out of the pod.
The female Krogan barely seemed grateful, walking right past Wrex's arm, and gave a glare that could have rivaled a thermonuclear weapon in power at Wrex's puzzled expression.
"There they are!" Three apparently suicidal Cerberus soldiers suddenly dropped in with their rocket boots, brandishing the usual submachine guns.
The female calmly looked from them, then back to Wrex, before wrenching his Claymore shotgun out of his hands and blasting the foes away in the blink of an eye.
She looked back at Wrex with a "Satisfied?" eyebrow raise, then shoved the weapon back into his hands, pushing the Urdnot leader back several meters.
"I can handle myself, Wrex." She said as she boarded the shuttle.
Wrex huffed, "Women." And followed her into the shuttle.
Shepard hesitated before entering the shuttle, then turned and moved back to the battered and beaten N7 team, "We appreciate the assist, you three. Are any of you wounded?"
The human engineer saluted, and replied, "Negative, sir. Nothing medi-gel won't cure. Thanks for the rescue, though. Our casualties could have been...worse…"
He stuttered, and went silent.
Shepard winced; losing people could be tough.
He asked, "Who'd you lose?"
The Turian grimaced and flexed his mandibles, "A Salarian infiltrator, Specialist Caezor."
The Asari added, "He said something about getting reinforcements, then he went missing. Cerberus must have gotten him."
The human pulled off his helmet, blood from his glove staining his blond hair; he put his hand to his mouth as the impact hit him, "Jesus, I told him not to go off alone...I told him…"
He looked on the verge of tears, as the turian came up, put his arm around him and gave the engineer's shoulder a squeeze.
Battlefield relationships were funny that way, especially with special ops. One didn't have to be afraid to show affection for a friend.
Shepard suddenly spoke, "Guys, I have good news for you. Caezor's alive."
At that their heads, once bowed, quickly perked up, and the Asari asked, "What? Where? How?"
"He was near our position when we were climbing up here. He was sniping when ordnance detonated and killed most of the guys around him. He took some shrapnel in the eye, so he wasn't in any state to respond."
At the gasps, Shepard quickly added, "It damaged the eye, but we got most of it out before it could do too much damage and his brain's fine. He's injured, but we think he'll live."
The entire team looked to be in tears of joy, now. The commander left them alone, and boarded the shuttle.
XXXXX
Codex Updated
Unmanned Marine Supplements- Throughout several periods in Concordiat history, human personnel could cost too much to use, or there were too few people to properly man military posts. Heavy automation was used to great effect in armored fighting vehicles, naval vessels, and similar positions to free up more personnel for other roles, the Unmanned Marine Supplements being one example of this. Used to support marine units on light naval vessels, these robots possess enough weapons to outshoot a pre-space infantry platoon.
They are equipped with several energy weapon systems, gatling-style railguns, a shoulder-mounted recoilless anti-materiel rifle capable of direct and indirect fire, and a precision guided micro-missile launcher. Their AI, while less advanced than that of their more powerful counterparts such as Bolos, are geared towards creation of arguably more human personalities with less emphasis on formality; for the purpose of creating empathy and reliance upon one between them and their human counterparts. Due to the initial limited population during Cloud's initial colonization, these units were used to great effect in the CDF Navy.