Chapter 3: This is My Town

We were away from the Blue Suns. Just a couple thousand feet to go. The wind, heavy with soot and ash, pelted my face, almost blinding me. "Not one of my best ideas!" I yelled over the wind.

"This was a terrible idea!" Emilia shouted.

I always thought my life would flash before my eyes. Guess that expression was just an expression. I braced myself for the inevitable crash, closing my eyes. Then I snapped them wide open. Wait, my friend David used to tell me a trick about this. "Turn a long fall into a series of short falls, and you'll be all right." Then it hit me. "Emilia!" I yelled over the wind. "Grab anything you can hold onto! Or even land on something!"

She got the idea. Reaching her arm, she momentarily latched onto an old antennae jutting out from a crumbling building. It held for barely a second and snapped, and she was falling again. Something hit me in the back, and I couldn't move for a second. Then I realized I wasn't moving at all. My hands were gripped onto the roof of the skycar below me. I quickly activated my magnetized boots and kept one hand on the roof as I slowly crouched down. I looked up and Emilia grabbed my hand, almost ripping me off the roof of the skycar. "Cutting a bit close, aren't you?" Emilia yelled, staggering onto the roof.

One of the merc stuck his out the window, and stared at the hitchhikers they had picked up. I instantly reacted, kicking him in the face and knocking him off the skycar. I laid flat against the skycar and grabbed my pistol, sticking it through the window. I didn't know what I hit, but the opposite window shattered and I heard someone else fall out. Suddenly, the vehicle lurched forward and began dipping down. "You shot the pilot?" Emilia yelled at me. "You idiot!"

"I'll admit, it's not one of my best plans!"

The wind whipped at my face, and I could barely make out the outline of a building some hundred feet below. "We've got to move, now!"

"Where are we going to go?" Emilia shouted.

I felt a shadow pass us and then I knew where. "Take my hand!"

Emilia looked at me. "I'm not sure that's a good idea!"

"I think we can make it if we slide down that slanted building. It should slow us down enough so we won't get crushed on the ground!"

"No, I mean taking your hand isn't a good idea!"

"Damn it, just do it!"

I grabbed her hand and jumped off the skycar. Time seemed to slow down as we fell towards the side of the building. I activated my omni-blade and stabbed it straight through the wall. We slid down the side of the building, sparks flying all over us. And then I landed on my back against something hard. For a second, I didn't move, listening to the sound of the skycars fly by. "Emilia?" I shouted, and almost regretted it. It felt like someone had ran a knife down my throat.

"Somehow still here," her voice floated from the right. I looked over and she was leaning against a ventilation pipe jutting from the wall.

"I think we're safe here."

"Why did you say that?"

I looked above and saw a couple of skycars fly over, landing not ten feet from us. I grabbed my pistol, and it clicked empty. I've been hearing that sound all the time for the past few days. "Emilia! Throw me a clip!"

"I only have three left, James! Don't waste it!"

I caught the clip, and reached for my assault rifle, jamming the thermal clip in there. The mercs began to fan out, dozens of them moving several different directions. I ducked my head behind cover and checked my HUD. Approximately 38 mercenaries, and we're down to three clips. We don't even have enough bullets to shoot each merc one time. Shit…I think I still have one grenade left, but it's not going to do much on the side of a building. I looked around, and something cracked underneath my foot. There was a window right next to me. "Emilia! Let's take this inside!" She was already cloaking, sliding into the building. "Could have waited…" I muttered, and fell through the window.

The inside was a mess. Desks and chairs turned over everywhere, and trash and data pads littered the floor. There were only a few pinpricks of light coming in from the windows. I turned on the night vision on my visor, and I was set. I could hear Emilia next to me. "Think they noticed?"

Suddenly, the mercs crashed through the windows below us, and flashed their lights all over the rooms. I hid behind an office desk, trying to slow down my breathing. Something flashed across my omni-tool. I checked the message. "Stay down. We can take them out one by one, and we might not even have to fire a single shot."

Someone stepped next to me and grabbed his legs, pulling back and knocking him to the ground. I put my hand over his mouth and stabbed him with the omni-blade. He stopped moving.

Silence. The only lights were from the Blue Suns, and with all the clutter in the room, not much could be seen. I vaulted over another desk and slid behind a fallen pillar. I heard a thump from somewhere behind me, and I knew Emilia had taken down one of the mercs. I crouched, moving slowly through the darkness. A light shone on me and I dove towards the source, knocking the merc back. Bullets riddled the air above us as I held my hand over the Blue Suns merc's mouth. I slit his throat and moved on, this time on the ground. "Stay close," one of the mercs growled, firing a couple of shots against a desk. I looked up at the light and saw the merc, a batarian armed with blue tech armor. He was holding a shotgun, an M-300 Claymore shotgun. I reached for mine, and then realized that it had dropped somewhere along the way. Well, if I can get his—"

A sniper shot rang out, and the batarian's head exploded in a colorful burst of blood. I dove for the merc and grabbed his shotgun, rolling forward. The other mercs began shooting everything in the room and I tackled another merc, cutting him down easily. I butted another merc with my shotgun and carved a hole in his chest with one shot. Another sniper shot and one more merc bit the dust.

Suddenly, the walls above me crumbled and I barely managed to roll out of the way as a skycar crashed through, skidding towards me and stopping a foot away from my face. I smashed the window with the butt of my shotgun and the driver fell out, unmoving. "Emilia, get in!" I slipped into the driver's seat and drove the skycar forward, smashing through mercs and debris, and I heard someone dive into the backseat. I could see Emilia on my mirror. "Are you sure you should drive?"

"It won't be that bad," I grunted, smashing the skycar straight through a wall. The skycar shuddered and I felt something enter the vehicle. "Emilia, what was that?"

"Are you sure you want to know?"

A metal hook had pierced the floor of the skycar, latching onto the metal. We were slowly losing altitude. "Something's pulling us down!" Emilia shouted.

"I already figured that out!"

"Just thought you'd like to know!"

The skycar slammed into the side of a building, shattering the windows and spraying sparks everywhere. The passenger door ripped off and spun away. Rocks and shards of hot metal flew all over the skycar, pelting me. Finally, we hit the ground, hard. My door opened and I had to see cross-eyed to stare at the gun barrel. "Get out." I immediately slid out of the seat, standing up with my hands raised behind my head. The rugged-looking human pushed me aside, making sure to keep his pistol trained on me. Three others moved in on the scene, securing the crash site. Then Emilia was out of the car too. I looked at the one near me, and noticed a strange device on his arm, with three sharp and lethal-looking hooks on the end. That must be the thing that pulled us out of the air. Fires a harpoon, grabs the target, and reels it in. We must have been moving fast to break through that wall, and he managed to pick us out of the air like it was nothing.

"Any Blue Suns?" he spat, motioning towards the others with his harpoon gun.

"Don't see 'em," replied one. "Must've not noticed them go down."

"Good." He motioned to me and pointed at a door covered with trash and worse. "Get in."

The door, more sophisticated than it looked, was automatic, and slid open. More humans inside, with the exception of one turian. "Grant, I thought I told you to not bring in anymore stragglers," grunted the turian.

"These guys are different," said the guy behind me. "They got guns. And they know how to use 'em."

"I'll be the judge of that," a voice boomed from my right. I craned my head over the few dozen bodies in the room. His face was covered in dried mud and blood, with battle-hardened eyes that seemed to be sizing the two of us. Instantly I could tell he was the leader of this group, not to mention that he was at least six feet tall, towering over everyone else in the room. "Let them go."

The mere sound of his voice seemed to melt the people around us, and we were released. A man to his right walked up to Emilia with a grin on his face. "This pretty thing doesn't look like she could do much."

One kick between his legs, and the man was stooped over, loosing a stream of curses. Emilia gave a right hook to his face and he was down, twitching. The big man smirked, as if unconcerned with the scene. He looked over to someone behind us. "Grant, how did you find these?"

"We were doing a routine patrol, sir, when we ran into a Blue Suns group chasing a skycar. We kicked their asses and pulled the skycar down. We found them by the old office building."

"Interesting." The big man stroked his nonexistent beard, and then seemed to have come to something, snapping his fingers. "Bruce, escort these two to the back room. I need to have a word with them."

Another man appeared behind us, motioning towards a door to the left with a pistol. I complied; there was nothing else I could do. In the room there were two chairs and a table with a map strewn across it. The man, Bruce as he was called, stared pointedly at the chairs. We sat down.

Not a moment later, the big man from before entered the room, shutting the door behind him. Bruce left the room. The man put his hands behind his back, and paced around, thinking. He turned to us and spread his arms out. "You two present a unique situation," he said, his voice loud in the confined space. "We've stopped picking up stragglers from the city ever since the Blue Suns tried to muscle their way in our territory. But you two know how to shoot. From my reports"—he revealed a data pad from behind—"you escaped from the Blue Suns from an old car assembly plant some four miles to the east and fought off an entire Blue Suns platoon with a surprising low amount of equipment and ammunition by yourselves. We managed to salvage one thermal clip from your skycar, which was broken and useless anyway."

"I assume you want to know about your weapons? We are holding them at the moment, and they will be returned to you later. Back to the topic at hand. The Blue Suns have been more aggressive lately, what with the husks and Reapers floating around I'm not surprised."

He walked over to the map, which was littered with red dots and black triangles, with one star in the middle. "This is our camp here, and all the red dots are the Blue Suns." Red was dotted all around the star, and the triangles around the red. "The triangles are the husks and the like. They keep pushing in, and so do the Blue Suns. We don't try to kill all the mercs, we just knock them back enough so they'll have the numbers to sustain themselves. It works both ways; the Blue Suns also keep out the husks, which I think is worse. The Blue Suns are losing a lot of ground, and we have resources they need. They've surrounded us, but they know that this is my town, and it's not going to be easy taking me down. The only advantage they have is numbers, and that's something we don't have a lot of. We've been short on gunmen before, and this situation isn't helping. We have a lot of weapons: explosives, aircraft, guns; this part of town used to be an Alliance base before it was overrun. We just don't have the manpower to take them."

"So, in exchange for the shelter we can provide for you here, you guys can help fend off the mercs?"

I was silent, absorbing and processing this latest information. It's not like we have a choice in the matter. He never said it outright, but he'd kick us right back out on the street without a single thought if we didn't help. This operation he has here; he's clearly the leader, and everyone here obeys him not just because he's the smart one, it's because they're afraid of him. This seems more like a gang than anything. But it's the only choice we have right now. "All right," I said, nodding. Emilia looked at me. "We'll do it."

His face broke into a smile, but there was something wrong with it, as if it was a mask covering something else behind it. "Excellent choice! I know you'll do great. But first you'll have to prove your skills to me before I send you to the field."

"I thought we already made it clear we could handle ourselves," Emilia shot back.

He rubbed his bald head. "It's true, you've got talent, but don't take it personally if I need to verify myself first. You won't be fighting mercs, nor my men. Think of it like target practice, with live and moving targets."

What else it could be? "Who?"

"Husks."

"How are we going to shoot at husks? I thought you said the Blue Suns keep them out."

"They do, but occasionally a couple slip past them. We don't kill them, we just lock them up and keep them for target practice. They're harmless when they're in a steel box."

"Have any of them broken out before?" Emilia questioned.

"No. But we do make sure to keep them in check. It also reminds my men what's out there."

The door opened behind us, and two men wielding machine guns walked in. The turian from before was behind them. "Z! What do you need?"

"I thought it was time for the test," came his flanging reply.

He looked annoyed, but he seemed to let it pass. "Whatever. Just give me a report after you're done."

We were about to walk out when I stopped. "Wait," I said, turning around. "What's your name?"

He pondered my question for a bit, and then smiled, the same smile as before. "Marco. Marco Petrov."

The door closed, and he was gone. The turian shrugged and began leading us to another room. "Why does he call you Z?" Emilia piped up. The same question had crossed my mind as well.

"Because he can't pronounce my name, and it starts with a z," the turian responded, who had obviously answered this question before.

"What's your real name then?"

He didn't respond. I looked around as we walked. Almost everyone was carrying a weapon of some sort. The entire place seemed ready to respond to an attack at any minute. Security mechs constantly patrolled the halls, usually in pairs of two. Another human was sharpening an array of knives on a table. We passed a room with a firing range inside, classic red and white circular targets sliding along a wall. "Why don't we just test in there?" I asked.

"This test evaluates your survival skills as well as your marksmanship and tactical ability on the battlefield. Those mercs won't be moving in a straight line along a wall. We're here."

I turned around and we were there, a gust of wind blowing across my face. The door led to the outside, with walls surrounding the entire area. Rocks and metal debris covered the ground, with a jumble of rocks and metal in the middle. A collection of thermal clips rested in the center. "Your objective is to hold that bunker as long as you can. This is a survival type of mission where the husks have pinned you down and you have to hold the line until we decide it's enough. Your weapons."

Z handed us our guns. I grabbed the Claymore and Mattock, and then I noticed something about the assault rifle. I checked the sights on my Mattock and noticed it looked different. A holographic sight was sitting atop the normal iron sights on my gun, and the barrel looked shorter. The clip was also longer than usual. "You modified my gun?" I questioned, not unhappy but confused.

"Same here," I heard Emilia comment.

Z shrugged. "Our armory officer decided that your guns needed a bit of tuning. Whatever he did with them is probably for the best. He also mentioned that this comes with the sights on that rifle."

With that, the turian handed me a visor. I looked at it curiously. Kuwashii visor, by the looks of it. Huh. They gave me one of the older models. Not as well-equipped as the newer models, but it has a kill count feature and corresponds with my assault rifle. Not bad. I fitted the visor on my head, and began calibrating it. "Hey, Captain. We don't have time for that now."

I snapped back into reality, and I noticed that everyone was gone already, save for Emilia. She inserted a clip into her sniper rifle. "I'll take point here," she explained, gesturing towards the clusters of rocks below us. "I'll have a better chance of hitting them then you in that cover. You cover the back if they try to flank us."

I looked at the landscape. Tactically, we're in a better position to handle the husks if they swarm us. We're on higher ground, and we have cover in case they try to hit us from range. Plus, we have surplus ammunition. But they have a lot of cover to work with, and there will be a lot of them. If we get hit from all sides and if they get in close, it's going to be a lot harder to kill them all. "James! First ones up!"

I looked to the front and I could see the husks stumbling from somewhere out of sight. The husk in front was the first to go down, head exploding in a mess of fluid and metal. Then two, three, four, and more just kept coming. I fired a couple of rounds at the mass of husks, and they dispersed among the rocks. Suddenly, everything became slower and I moved my rifle faster than I thought possible. A husk passed through a space barely a foot between rocks and I put him down with two shots to the chest. I heard something to the side and another husk was in pieces. Something bounced off my shields and I looked ahead to see some of the bigger husks moving in. Their mouths were gaping as they spat acid at us. Some of the cover around us began to sizzle. "Take them down first!" I shouted over the gunfire. "I'll take the ones that get close!"

Then the husks came in en masse. Hordes of husks seemingly sprang from nowhere, and all I could hear was Emilia's gun going off every second. I didn't let up either; any husk that got within ten feet had its head blown off. Something slammed into me, and I hit the ground. Everything was blurry, but I could vaguely make out the outline of the husk that had hit me. I knocked the husk back with the butt of my shotgun and finished it off with one shot. I turned around and I tripped backwards firing my shotgun at the husk. "Shit! Emilia, you might want to turn around!"

She fired at something behind me, and I heard a husk groan in response. "We need suppressive fire! Keep them back!" Something grabbed me from behind and I landed on my back. The husk reared back to spit acid at me.

It's head exploded into pieces, showering me in metal and acid. I looked ahead and I saw that someone behind us was mowing down the husks. I looked back and Z and a couple other men were standing at the door. He nodded, and I stood up, dusting off my pants. "That was good," the turian said. "You held off four waves of husks. Not bad for the first time."

"You just happen to have all these husks?" I questioned, motioning towards all the dead bodies.

"The husks come in from the north through a break in Blue Suns lines. They stream into the waiting area, and we trap them as they come in. It works out fine." Something flashed on his omni-tool and he keyed in a few commands. "Your rooms are ready. Enjoy the break while it lasts; we won't have too many of those in the future."

"All right," said Emilia, following him back. "But what's the record for the number of waves?"

"Fifteen," Z replied, not looking back.

"Fifteen?" I said. "What team could have held off fifteen waves?"

"It wasn't a team," the turian said. "It was one guy. You've already met Marco."

We stopped at two doors at the end of a hallway. "Captain, yours in on the right. She's on the left. Get a good rest; you've got a mission tomorrow."