M-Angel: Hey guys! I'm finally on the Feros Mission, which means a winner to my contest. I'm sad to say that there won't just be one winner. I got so many S/I entries that it took me awhile to decide.
Knight: *crosses fingers*
M-Angel: Sorry Knight, the Quarian Vanguard didn't make the final cut.
Knight: Ah, well. It wouldn't have been fair, anyway.
M-Angel: But 4 out of 15 did make the final cut! One of which make an appearance in this chapter. All four will be main characters. So enjoy!
Chapter 16: Feros
I'd just gotten out of the shower when I heard a voice at the locker entrance.
"Serena?" Came John's voice.
"Yeah, Commander?" I answered, quickly wrapping the towel around myself and hiding behind a locker unit. I peeked out from behind the locker and saw him with his back turned to me.
"We're headed towards Feros," He began. "I want you to go to Ash and gear up. You're on the ground team. I wanna see what you can do,"
"Yes sir." I said with some excitement in my voice. When I turned back to him, he was already leaving. I quickly got dressed in Alliance-issued clothes and headed down to the armory.
I smiled at Ash when I spotted her cleaning guns.
"Hey Ash!" I said, causing her to jump slightly. She chuckled and shook her head. "The Commandar said to come to you for some armor. I'm on the ground team."
She stood up and looked at me for a moment. "Well, ok. I just got a prototype armor that I was gonna try on, before upgrading the Commander's N7 armor, but since he didn't actually say what kind of armor to give you...," She paused long enough to walk over to the armour lockers.
"I guess you could test it out." When I spotted the armor I smiled at her. Ash had just become my favorite crew member, next to Tali that is.
As I headed to the elevator to get to the garage, Tali and Ash both flanked me. I hadn't been able to customize my armor, so for now it was a dull grey color with a medic patch on the arm. However I was glad that this prototype had some advanced shielding systems, along with automatic medi-gel dispensing. I had a feeling I'd need it on Feros. I stuck magnetic clasps on my back for my HMWSG Shotgun and BG-360 Assault Rifle. Plus a belt thats attaches to the armor that is made for grenades to be attached to it. Holsters on my hips held Karpov pistols. My medic pack is actually hooked right on my back under the magnetic clasps. I feel like I should be weighed down by all of this, but the armor had a crazy built-in exoskeletal network of servos that increased my strength. It displaced the weight evenly throughout the entire suit of armor.
"Tell me how the Draken Mark II does when you get back." Ash said. "It's made to carry five hundred pounds, but makes the user feel like they're basically carrying twenty-five pounds,"
As the elevator doors open to the garage, where the airlock is located, I feel absolutely jittery, as if this was my first mission. Luckily it wasn't. In the corner of the garage I see Wrex acting like he's bored. Probably is. I think as I spot Garrus finish cleaning his rifle once more, when John walked into the room.
"Let's go," He says, snapping everybody into action. "Garrus, Wrex, Serena, and Tali are joining us," He paused. "Ash, I want you and Kaidan at the ready in case we need you,"
"Sure thing, Skipper," She says smiling, and turns to me and hands me an eyepiece. "It'll help you until I get the helmet properly fixed with a HUD," She says, winking at me. My mouth drops at that causing John to chuckle. God… why is everybody flirting with me? My face becomes a bit red.
I hear Wrex burst into laughter. "Is it customary for human females to flirt with each other?" He asks John. "Because if it is, I'm in the wrong species," My face flushes even redder.
"She's all yours, Pressly!" John yells into the comm with laughter in his voice. The airlock slides open, and we all step out into the decontamination chamber.
"Zhu's Hope is an all-human colony that's been attacked by the Geth, which means Saren's probably here," John explained as the door opens up to show us Feros.
"We're here to find out what he's after by sending the Geth. The colonists have had a lot to deal with, so be nice, everyone," He says this while looking at Wrex, which gets a chuckle out of everybody. We then all march out into Zhu's Hope's spaceport.
The planet seems dreary and has a greyish, red color scheme to it.
Everybody noticed how empty the spaceport seems. Kinda reminds me of Resident Evil just before the zombies attack. I thought as a human figure appears and approaches us.
"Look...," I point at him behind John, who steps forwards to greet the colonist. Then I take notice of the crates that are lying around conveniently. Something's not right here. My hand trays to my left pistol and out of my left eye, I see Garrus take notice by going for his own pistol. My eyes continue to scan the spaceport as my mind goes back to what Thane has taught me.
"Stealth is merely the action of being where no one expects you to be. To counter stealth, keep an eye in every shadow, up every tree," A fist came towards my face, and I ducked before having to dodge a kick to my stomach.
"What about the other eye?" I asked going for a throat punch, which he dodged easily and came at me from behind. He knocked by legs out from behind me and threw me down onto the mat by the throat.
"Always keep the other eye on your primary target, because it can be just as deadly as the hidden enemies," He said, letting me go. I coughed and wheezed from having the air knocked from my lungs. He chuckled. "You have done well." he bowed and then left.
I'm brought back to the current reality by John's voice. "Who's Fai Dan?" He asks, sounding thrown off by this colonist.
I feel a tug at my mind and shake my head to get rid of the sudden foggy feeling.
"You okay?" Tali whispers to me, I just nod once.
"Our leader. Please, he's up the stairs past the freighter." He explains, his voice sounding disjointed.
"Alright...," John says, giving him a confused look, he takes a step forward but jumps back as gunfire sounds. The colonists head explodes, making a splat sound as blood shoots in all directions. Knew it! I thought as I go for cover.
I whip out both pistols as I spot a Geth Trooper. I fired on it as Shepard focuses on another. The recoil from the pistols is surprisingly low, allowing me to fire as fast as I can. The combination of running and shooting and ducking into cover doesn't exactly help with my accuracy very much. I duck behind another crate. The Geth Trooper falls as I take its shields down with one more shot and another shot to the headlight.
Another trooper focuses on me and begins shooting at my position. When it stops firing I stand up and shoot another barrage with my BG-360 Assault Rifle, until the shields fail, but I'm out on my first magazine on the rifle and duck back down, drop the empty magazine and quickly reload. I pop back out to finish it, just to see it executed by a sniper rifle shot. I turn to see Garrus smiling proudly. Damn it, that one was mine!
John goes to stand up, so I fire at the Geth, getting their attention on me. John dashes past me and into the next crate covering. John then glows brightly and uses a throw and push method as three Geth units are suddenly thrown into a wall and resemble nothing more than spare parts and scrap metal.
It was then that we heard a growl from Wrex. He ran out of cover, glowing bright blue and with a massive wave of his arms Geth went flying through the air and crashing against walls. A single Geth unit must've thought it could take him on while he was distracted. Wrex, however turned, still glowing with biotic energy ripped both arms out of the machines and promply beat it with its own arms to the ground and then sat on it.
Everyone was silent until Garrus chuckled. "That's one way to destroy a Geth,"
Wrex laughed as we all stood up.
John looks at me with a smile. "Nice job, you may be worth it after all," I frown, not quite understanding what he meant by that, but follow him towards the stairway. Just then there's a noise that sounds like something running away or...
That's when a Geth-like creature jumped in front of us, onto the walls. It begin firing at John, as another comes out spraying rounds at all of us. "Use biotics somebody!" I scream.
Wrex stops shooting with his gun as a bright aura surounds him and he pulls the remaining hopper geth creatures off the walls and throws them into the void below. "New rule." John says. "You see one of those things, those of us with biotics get rid of them."
"Deal," We all say at the same time.
Two hours later.
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" I scream as another verran jumps at me. I hear Wrex laughing beside me. Why John teamed me up with the Krogan Battlemaster, I'll never know.
"They smell your fear." he says as he uses his biotics to crush one about to jump at him.
"Oh really, I hadn't noticed!" I yelled at him as I shot another one with my shotgun.
"Find the alpha and we'll weaken the pack." He said growling in annoyance.
I hid behind another boulder and looked over it quickly. The alpha was snarling at the others, as if he was a general sending out his troops. I pulled out my assault rifle and a flash grenade. I fired the gun and actually hit and killed my target and then threw the grenade and scattered the rest.
"Nice." Wrex said. "Kill the leader, and scatter the pack,"
I was about to reply to that when I saw a girl running our way. "Please, help me!" She yelled at us. "They've killed all of them,"
She began crying as I took out my medic kit at the sight of all her wounds and the blood pouring from her shoulder.
"Who?" I asked as I began patching her up.
"Exo-Geni and Terra Ferma Scientists," She said. "They're killing everybody,"
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Angie," She said "Angie Saint Clair. I was working as a tech for both groups, but something's wrong here. Everybody has been acting weird and I can't understand why," She began crying harder.
I looked at Wrex. "Call in Shepard?" I asked.
"Hmph...I would take care of it," He said. I gave him a nervous smile. "Or we could call Shepard if you want 'em to live." Relief flooded me as I called Shepard for assistance.
After Shepard had arrived, he has called the Normandy for a pick up. I immediately took Miss Saint Claire to the medbay, where I took care of her minor cuts and the semi-serious wound on her shoulder. As she laid down to rest I filled in her medical report.
Shoulder wound seems to have been caused by a rifle bullet. Cuts on her legs had dirt and gravel in them, most likely caused by falling from the bullet wound. Cuts on hands suggest same. Cuts on arms were too clean for fall cuts, leaving myself and Dr. Carolyn Chakwas to believe she'd been attacked by an unknown assailant. Patient will survive. Has been given pain meds for the pain from the shoulder and meds to assist her in sleeping. I sighed as I finished my report. I then left medbay and walked into the crew beds and fell asleep in my bunkbed.
I woke with a start at my alarm, and promptly fell off of the top bunk, my face landed in somebody's discarded sheets. I groaned painfully as I lifted my head up, seeing Joker trying, badly might I add, to hold his laughter at bay. And then I spotted the offending alarm, or should I say airhorn, in his hand. My eyes narrowed at him.
"I'll give you a ten second head start before I hunt you down and kill you!" I snarled.
He laughed. "Sorry, Shep said to wake you. We hit the relay to the Citadel in fifteen minutes," He said as he hobbled out with his crutches.
I slowly sat up and looked down at myself and realized that I'd spent the night in dirty, sweaty, and bloodstained clothes. I take a wiff of myself and grimace before limping off to shower and dress. When I exit the locker room I sigh in relief when John announces a day of shore leave for everybody. I then make my way to the airlock along with the rest of the crew, when I spotted Tali walking towards the medbay. Thinking she needs help I rush off to my quarian friend. I lightly tap her shoulder causing her to jump slightly.
"Sorry Tali," I apologize.
She places her hand over her heart. "Yes, Keelah, you startled me...again," She says with mirth in her voice. "Shepard told me that I could change into a new suit in the now decontaminated medbay area,"
I nodded. "Mind if I stay watch over the door to make sure nobody goes inside while you're changing?" I asked with a smile.
"Oh! Yes, I didn't even think...," She trailed off as she entered the medbay.
It wasn't even five minutes after Tali had entered medbay, when I found myself staring at the lighted panels across from the medbay doors. That's when Kaiden showed up. I sighed when I spotted him. He was rubbing his head, hunched over and had his hand on the wall next to him. He grimaced when he saw me. "Please...move," He panted.
Sounds familiar… I sighed and shook my head, causing my hair to swish back and forth in my ponytail. "I can't..." I began.
He winced again. "Please, I..." He whimpered in pain.
"Look… Tali is in there," I said softly, not wanting my voice to causing him pain.
I watched as he slid down on the floor with his head between in knees. "I...okay," He mumbled quietly.
Feeling sorry for him, I sighed. I pushed myself away from the medbay doors and walked over to him, and knelt next to him.
"It's your L2 implant...right?"
He nodded. I sat down next to him. "Okay, close your eyes and I swear, if you tell anybody I was this nice to you...,"
"I'll count myself out from populating?" He asked.
"Yeah," I said as I laid his head in my lap. I began running my hands against his neck and scalp in circular motions. Slowly I felt him relax and as I rubbed the last of his stress and migraine away, I noticed his breathing was deeper than it had been a few moments ago. Did I just put him to sleep? I starred in wonder at him. Okay, maybe I need to give him a chance to prove to be a nice guy, and not like the Kaiden I know...er...knew. I sighed sadly, wishing I could see my Jeff again; but wishing never gets you anywhere in life...right?
I then spotted a man wearing an admiral's suit, going down the other corridor. I gently shook Kaiden.
"Hmm?" Was his reply.
"I'm sure your migraine is still there… but I think we may have a problem," I said lowly.
"How so?" He mumbled.
"I think I just saw Admiral Mikhailovich go down the other corridor, meaning...,"
"He'll be coming down here," He finished, as he slowly sat up and stood. "Hmm...my head doesn't hurt anymore," He said rubbing his neck. "Thanks,"
"You're welcome," I stood up and went back to guarding the medbay door as Kaiden went to leave I spoke. "Kaiden..." He paused in his steps. "About the other day...I'm sorry."
He sighed. "Truthfully, I deserved that asswhooping you gave me," He smiled. "Start over?"
I smiled. "Serena Elanna Lavargus." I said as I held out my hand for him to shake."Inter-dimensional time traveler and pseudo-civilian,"
He laughed. "Kaiden Alenko." He shook my hand. "Biotic Lieutenant in the System Alliance," He then spotted the admiral coming our way and stood next to me in front of the door.
"Move," The man said wanting access to the medbay.
"I'm afraid I can't do that sir," I said politely.
"Do you know who I am?"
"Yes sir...," I said. "But, again, I'm sorry to say I cannot allow you in there,"
"Why not!" He demanded.
"Because there's a quarian in there, both changing her suit and checking her wounds from a recent battle," I said.
"A Quarian!" He yelled. "Alone? Outrageous!" He then turned to Kaiden. "What do you have to say to this, Lieutenant?"
"The Commander gave her permission to do so, sir," He answered.
"Is that so?" He asked, seeming to get angrier by this answer before leaving us there.
The door to the medbay opened to reveal Tali, and it was obvious by her demeanor she'd heard us. She wrapped her arms around my neck.
"Thank-you!" She said, sounding as if she'd been crying or was on the verge of crying.
"Hey," I said, rubbing her back and then pulling away to look at her. "You're my friend and adoptive sister and nobody endangers my family," She nodded. I looked between her and Kaiden. "Well I don't know about you two, but I'm hungry and wanna have some fun,"
With that the three of us made our way off of the Normandy very quickly.
M-Angel: Review!
Knight: But not about how this was late! Please!
M-Angel: Yeah, that was pretty bad.
Knight: I'm sorry, guys. I got bogged down in run-on sentences. And an incredible, ridiculous, almost absurd amount of laziness, on my part. I'm sorry.
M-Angel: Don't worry guys. I'll kick his ass into shape.