After.
Chapter Nine: Ringing
With shore-leave over, Shepard felt a sense of relief about being in open space once again. The only problem was that she had no clue where to go next.
"You're like a hyper child in an empty room," Joker teased, as she leaned on the back of his chair in the cockpit.
"I'm used to being busy. I've had nonstop missions over the recent past. Now what?"
"Commander?"
"Joker?"
"Lucky day – distress call on a planet we're slowly passing. Apparently mercs have decided to raid a random town."
"Trap?"
"Not likely. Though there seems to be a lot of Blue Suns down there."
"More than a normal raid?"
"Quite a bit."
"Eh – it's something to do."
–
"Garrus – concussive shot on the asshole with the rocket launcher on the bridge," she called, over the loud thunder of gunfire on both sides.
"My pleasure, Commander."
"Samara, warp those bastards that are getting close."
"Yes, Commander."
Shepard quickly leaned over a crate, firing her assault riffle at the nearest thug. He fell back quickly, as the head-shot scattered his brains.
"Fifteen!" she called out, as Garrus replied with, "Twenty."
She frowned, taking aim of several more mercs, firing at their heads in quick succession.
"Twenty-one."
"This seems a bit barbaric, Commander," Sarmara's soothing voice lightly stated, as she dropped a crate on top of a small group of mercs, with a simple twitch of her hand, before switching back to her pistol, "Though if I must play – eighteen."
The head-shot-counting game was always a nice distraction from the fact that they were brutally murdering people.
Grenades started falling over them like rain, causing their cover to be quickly eliminated. Shepard fell back, ducking down beside Garrus.
"How many of them are there?" he asked, switching to his sniper riffle, "Cover me."
"Maybe these are Geth with people skin over them. They just keep rebuilding and recycling skin," Shepard suggested, taking out several mercs that had gotten close with her shotgun. The recoil sending a pleasant vibration through her shoulders.
"That is...somewhat horrifying," Garrus replied, as Samara threw a group of seven off of the cliff to their left.
Seeing cover a bit further than from where she had been before, she informed Garrus of her intended action, before sprinting across the battlefield, sliding to a stop behind a metal junction box. To her left, a grenade went off, causing the woman to cover her face. It was a bit too close – causing her exposed ears to ring. She continued firing at every merc she could see – shouting orders over her radio at her squad – but unable to hear their response through the ringing.
As the ringing began to calm, she noticed that they were shouting at her. Glancing to her left, she noticed a heavy-mech. The woman licked her lips in surprise – unable to hear its approach until this moment. She turned to run, only to hear a quick beeping just underfoot.
She was thrown off of the ground from a rather powerful grenade – her hearing gone into a sharp ring yet again. Shepard hit the ground hard – pain erupting in several parts of her body. She tried to regain her composure, but the heavy-mech had already started firing missals at her, throwing her off her feet each time she righted herself. She shouted into her radio for Garrus and Samara's help – even adding that she couldn't hear their response. Gaz continued to run – her body screaming in pain. She couldn't separate herself far enough from the mech to get a single shot at it. Each time she tried, another shot hit her barely working shields. Her run turned into a limp as she watched a merc on the bridge aim his rocket launcher at her. She quickly raised his pistol, but another hit from the heavy-mech threw her to the ground. Her shields were fully gone – her breath silently raging in her throat, as the ringing continued to silence her world. She stared down at her hands, as she tried to crawl behind a crate. Everything kept blinking to black for a moment. And she wasn't blinking.
Another hit from the heavy-mech. No shields. Everything hurt. The missal from the merc on the bridge hit just in front of her, blinding her momentarily. She couldn't stop. She beat the Collectors. She beat Saren. Now a merc band was going to kill her? This was...pathetic.
She coughed as she crawled – blood hitting the long grass. Her hearing cleared to reveal the screaming of both Samara and Garrus – apparently able to see Shepard but unable to do anything. She attempted to crawl one more time, before she felt the heat of another hit. This time her world grew small. The only thing she could see was the blade of grass in front of her. The explosion had removed her hearing again. The darkness of her vision seemed to grow. Then something landed in front of her. It was spherical and blinking.
"Oh for fuck's sa-"
Everything went red.
Then white.
Then black.
The squealing ring of the grenade was the only sound.
–
AN: Shepard always seems to get by in the most intense situations without a single scratch. In ME1 she was in the med-bay once in awhile, but in ME2, she only really needed to enter the med-bay to drink with Chakwas. Anyway, I love writing action and felt like going for it. That ringing sensation of something really loud hurts. And it's creepy. Anyway – let's hope Shepard is okay...
Rated M for: Language, future sexual situations, violence, and so I can have freedom without fear of scarring a teen for life.
Oh – and I don't own anything ever.