A/N: Hay everybody...listen I'm going to level with a lot of you right now. I know that a few of you are a little put off by the constant barrage of spelling and grammar mistakes in my story. And believe me when I say that I'm doing the best that I can to make sure that it is at a very bare minimum.
The truth is...I have Dyslexia...surprised? Probably not. Christ, it's a miracle that I can even type my pen-name without mixing up a few letters.
Honestly I didn't want to bring this up at all. I don't want you guys thinking I'm doing this for sympathy or anything else. I'm not like that at all, it's a part of who I am and I've come to accept it. But the number of reviews mentioning the constant errors has gotten bigger and bigger lately. And I really try hard to fix it, spell check, beta reader, hell I even write the chapters out on paper before attempting to type them. Usually I have to retype the same chapter several times before it looks halfway decent.
There is another reason I'm bringing this up...growing up with this I was treated like shit a lot. Name calling, bullying, teachers failing me because they didn't know or thought I was too stupid. I got a review yesterday from an anonymous saying I was a retard because of all the errors he found...that ain't okay with me. I hate it when people use that word, I've learned to ignore it, but you never use it against someone with ANY kind of disability.
Anyway...off topic here. Like I said I'm not writing this looking for a response. I don't want sympathy, pity or anything. I just wanted my readers to know why my writing sucks sometimes and that I'm doing all I can to make sure everything is as perfect as possible for you all.
I may have this disability...but it won't stop me from doing what I love. I'm an author at heart and it's my passion to be creative and share it with others. And I'm glad you all are enjoying my work.
Thank you for all your support. Now here is the chapter I promised you last time. (I own nothing)
Alexander 'Maverick' Drake
Luna Training Base - Sol System
July 25, 2183 - 09:00 hours
Seeing the moon up close wasn't as thrilling as Alex had originally thought it would be. After everything he had seen and experienced, the place just couldn't match up.
However the view of Earth from his spot at the Mako's navigation was another thing entirely.
"Now that's some view." said Jane as she drove them up and over a small ridge. "I can guarantee that most people don't really stop and think about how beautiful the Earth is until you see it like this."
"At times it's always good to look at the small things in life. It gives you something more to think about in a rough situation." said Alex as he had Prophet map out their route to the training base where the rampant VI was stationed.
"That sounded personal." said the Commander coming up to the base of a large plateau before driving the rover up the small incline.
The Post-Human shrugged, "Perhaps." he said as they came to the top of the plateau where three bunkers could be seen half a click away. "Warning: Stationary Guns Coming Online. Ordinance Incoming."said Prophet.
"INCOMING!" he shouted jerking the wheel to the right as two missiles exploded against the ground where they would have been.
"The VI must have rewritten the base's stationary guns to attack anyone who got close!" shouted Garrus from the turret as he tried to pick off the six heavy guns at a distance.
Alex pulled up his visor and sighted the six guns. One of them exploded from a well placed shot from the Turian in the gunner seat. "Shepard, if you can bring us in closer I think I can retake one of the guns and give us an advantage." he said taking out his omni-tool.
Jane spun the wheel to avoid an oncoming missile. "How much closer?" she asked twisting the rover in different directions so they didn't take a direct hit.
"Just another 10 meters." he said as he kept two of the guns within view.
When the Commander got within range, Alex fired up the hacking program Prophet had put together. "Connection Established." said Prophet as two wavelengths appeared on his HUD. "Unknown Connection Detected. Running Purge Sequence."
"Maverick? What's taking so long with that hacking?" asked Ashley from the back as she and Tali were jostled around with the Commander's driving.
"The VI is fighting for control of the guns. Just give me a second." he replied as he and Prophet worked together to overpower the VI's programming. 'Dammit, who knew EDI's primitive form was this formidable.' he through to himself as he managed to get the wavelengths to match up.
Outside, the guns on the bunker to the far right shuddered before turning and firing on the three remaining guns. One exploding as the remaining two targeted the hacked ones. Garrus swung the cannon around and fired taking out another gun as the two that had been hacked cleared out the last one.
"Garrus, target the hacked guns before the VI can regain control!" the nano soldier called over his shoulder.
The Turian targeted the guns and took them out quickly as Jane rolled up to the first bunker. "Alright everyone, activate suit seals. We're going out." she said snapping her helmet on and sealing it with the rest of her hard suit.
When the hatch of the Mako opened Alex immediately felt the weightlessness of zero-gravity for the first time. "Vacuum Detected. Oxygen Seals Enabled." he felt the nano suit pressurize around him from within as his foot touched down on the surface of the moon.
Jane looked at the vigilante as the rest of the team filed out of the rover. "You sure about this Maverick? You don't have to go alone." she said taking out her shotgun.
"I can handle it Commander. Stay in radio contact and let me know when you shut down the servers in your bunker, I'll let you know when I do the same." he said heading over to the bunker next to the one Shepard and her team was going into.
The team watched him stop at the door and quickly hack it before going inside. "You think he'll be alright?" asked Tali as they approached their bunker and she started hacking the door panel.
"I think we should be more worried about how much the Alliance will be paying to repair the damage he does." said Garrus chuckling.
"After the last mission, I wouldn't be surprised." said Ashley as the bunker opened and they stepped inside.
X
Alex surveyed the room that lead to the rest of the facility. Jane had told him that each bunker containing the VI's servers wasn't very big, but was equiped with a dozen security drones each to make sure no one attacked the servers or the staff that were there to maintain them.
Jackel in hand, the nano soldier crept through the reception area. Datapads and various pieces of equipment laid scattered across the floor confirming that people were attempting to leave in a hurry.
Pulling an overturned locker upright, Alex checked the pulse of a technician that was laying underneath. Dead.
"Maverick, it's Shepard. What's your status?" asked the Commander.
"Quiet so far. Though I have a feeling we won't be finding any survivors while we're here." he said leaving the dead man behind and heading to the door leading farther into the bunker.
"I have the same feeling. Let us know if your situation changes. Shepard out."
The door opened to a large open room with several pillars, power conduits and terminals set up. It was too easy.
"Cloak Engaged." Slipping inside. Alex activated his visor as multiple red blips appeared on his motion tracker. Over a dozen security drones hovered in the air around the room scanning for intruders. "Scanning...Assault and Rocket Security Drones Confirmed. Tactical Options Available."
An open assault on the drones would be a bad idea considering the closed in space. Even the nano suit couldn't hold up against so much firepower all at once. So the nano soldier decided to skirt his away around the drones toward the door on the other side of the room that lead to the server rooms.
His energy meter dropped little by little with each step he took the longer he stayed cloaked, so he timed his movements just right to avoid detection. Stepping around and over debris and a couple of bodies of technicians and a few Alliance marines that were trapped inside when the VI went rogue.
When he reached the door he made it inside and sealed it behind him when he suddenly became visible. "Energy Depleted." With his shotgun raised, he made his way down the corridor to a T-shaped junction. He went left first and entered the room at the far end revealing the first server room of the bunker.
"Shepard, I'm in the first server room." he said shouldering the Jackel and planting small demolition charges on the four servers.
There was the sound of gunfire over the comm line before everything went quiet. "We just finished moping up the last of the drones on our end. We're about to hit up our own." said the Commander.
Finished in this room, Alex left the room and headed for the next server room and doing the same as before. Once finished with the four servers, he looked up at the terminal in the room as lines of code scrolled across it.
Interested, he stood up and approached the terminal. Omni-tool activated as he started going through the codes.
After a few moments the lines of code stopped scrolling as a single line was highlighted. He smirked, "Hello EDI." he mumbled as he started hitting a few keys on his omni-tool. The code fragment copied to his personal data cache for safe keeping. "This will come in handy in the future." he said shutting down the device and taking out the detonator for the charges.
"Maximum Armor." he pressed the button. The eight servers contained within the bunker all exploded in a shower of sparks. The lights flickered through out the bunker before an alarm resonated all around.
Alex drew his Jackel and headed to the door. Pressing his back to the wall next to it before slamming his fist against the panel. It slid open just as three Assault Drones flew into the corridor in search of the disturbance.
Pulling a grenade from his pack, the Post-Human primed it before throwing it into the air in the middle of the three drones. The explosion sending them careening into the walls around them before crashing to the ground.
Alex rolled from the wall and moved down the corridor with his armor ability still activated. He made it past the three destroyed drones when Prophet alerted him. "Ordinance Incoming." He threw himself back as two small rockets struck the wall he had stood next to.
He moved around cover and fired three quick rounds into the Rocket Drone that had fired at him. The hovering machine shuddered when reach shot hit their mark, sparks shooting out of its frame before one last shot caused it to fall to the ground and explode.
Two more Assault Drones flew into the corridor and opened fire on the nano soldier forcing him back into cover. When the hail of bullets ended he leaned back out and emptied the rest of the clip into the machines and taking them out before reloading.
"Maverick, we've finished with the servers on our end and are heading back to the Mako. What's your status?" asked Shepard.
A rocket struck his chest, sending him crashing to the floor. Dropping his energy completely and sending his Jackel clattering away. Alex rolled back behind cover as the suit's energy slowly began to refill. "I'll call you back." he said taking out his Grendel and putting a three round burst into one of the drones causing it to spin out of control and crash into another destroying both.
The remaining four drones hovered just outside the entrance to the corridor, just out of sight so he couldn't get a lock on them.
Shouldering his rifle, he picked up his shotgun and put it away before taking out his omni-tool. He ran for the opening, charging the device with the nano suit's energy as he moved before sliding across the ground the last few meters.
He slid out of the corridor right under the four drones and fired a strong overload into the air that short circuited all the drones and dropped them to the floor lifeless.
"Energy Depleted." said Prophet as he got back to his feet. "Gotta work on improving that a bit." Alex said to himself as he headed for the exit.
"Ordinance Incoming." a missile exploded against his left side, burning the suit's surface and sending the nano soldier crashing through a terminal. Pain rippled through him as he crawled into cover, a lone Rocket Drone hovering not far away firing another shot in his direction.
"Prophet, status." He grunted as the pain in his side flared up.
"Suit Integrity 71%. Tissue Damage Detected. Repairs in Progress..."
Alex grabbed his left arm and cracked it back in place as the nanites in his body began to fix the damage. Drawing one of his Hammers with his right hand as he got up and emptied the clip into the drone. The heavy pistol rounds tearing through the machine's frame easily as it fell to the floor.
He quickly reloaded and moved toward the exit, cursing himself along the way. "I should have paid closer attention to the damn corners." he said taking out his omni-tool and applying medigel to take the edge off.
Even though the nano suit was the pinnacle of armed combat in the Crysis universe, the wearer was still Human. And as such prone to making mistakes in the field if not careful. And because of that Alex had been on the receiving end of a lot of stray rounds, explosions, and enemies that had managed to flank him.
He wasn't perfect, even with the nano suit and the nanites he was still just a soldier with flaws and weaknesses...no matter how hard he tried to overcome them.
X
The Mako pulled up next to the bunker as the team saw Alex walk out. Jane popped the hatch allowing him inside. "Everything go alright in there?" she asked as they began moving toward the last bunker.
The vigilante shrugged, "Nothing too bad. Two down, one to go." he said shifting in his seat next to her.
Jane caught him favoring his left side a little. He leaned a little farther to the left than he did when they first arrived, meaning something happened down in the bunker that he wasn't telling her or the others about.
"You sure nothing happened down there?" she pressed as they pulled up to the last bunker.
Alex looked in her direction. "Positive, Shepard. Nothing to worry about." he said with finality as they piled out. The Commander watched him go and shook her head. The man was as stubborn as she was, and with that she knew she wouldn't be able to get much out of him when he was like this.
Deciding to let it go, she approached the team as they stacked up on either side of the door. Tali hacked the controls and they piled inside weapons drawn. "The VI knows we shut down the two server locations. It'll most likely fortify its last two sets of servers well." said the Quarian as they stepped into the reception area.
Jane walked over to the door and hit the panel. The door slid apart revealing a wall of blue energy that rippled like water. "Kinetic barrier. The VI must have set them up to keep us out." she said to the others.
"Can it be hacked?" asked Garrus.
Tali approached it with her omni-tool and scanned it. "Unfortunately no. This was designed as a failsafe incase the base got overrun with hostiles. Made to keep those who were here safe until backup arrived." she explained.
Alex approached the wall of energy and looked it over a moment. "Maximum Power." he raised his fist and punched the barrier as hard as he could. The blue field immediately changed to a bright orange as the Spectre stuck it again where it vanished into thin air. "We don't have a lot of time for finesse. He have to shut this thing down before it does something drastic." he heading into the corridor beyond.
"He's right, let's move out team." ordered Shepard as they followed after.
The next door revealed another barrier that Alex brought down with his fists so they didn't overheat/waste ammo needlessly. The room after it was similar to the one in the last bunker in terms of size and design, but the furniture and equipment were in different locations.
However the was another thing that was similar.
"Drones!" Ashley shouted taking out one of the controlled Assault Drones as it came at them. The whole team opened fire as more of the machines came at them from all sides.
With the nanites still repairing his injuries. Alex kept his left side close to a wall or cover as he fought with the team. Giving the microscopic machines enough time to fix the damage properly.
Prophet had already finished repairing most of the suit damage which helped them all greatly. "Maximum Armor." he stood out of cover and pumped half of a clip from his Jackel into a Rocket Drone that was trying to lock on to Garrus from behind.
A few rounds bounced off of his back before he spun around and grabbed the Assault Drone that flanked him by the barrel of its turret 'head'. Quickly ripping the part from the machine and throwing it aside before resuming the fight.
Jane's shotgun overheated after taking down her third drone. Switching to her assault rifle she wasted no time taking out the last one as the team stood back up and assessed their situation. "The objectives are the same as the last two places. Find the servers, destroy them, and shut this VI down."
Everyone nodded as they began to head deeper in. Keeping sharp eyes out for anymore surprises the VI might send their way.
After taking down a few more barriers, the team made quick work of the first server room before moving on to the last one. The moment the door to the last room opened the team immediately went into cover as heavy machine gun rounds tore through the open doorway.
In the center of the room containing the last four servers and terminal was a YIMR mech. It's cylinder head swiveling from side to side searching for the hostiles it had detected.
"Alright...any ideas?" asked Garrus as he peeked around his cover next to Tali.
"We can't shut down the VI unless we take it out." said Jane as she thought of something. She looked at Alex before her eyes trailed down to the bow and small quiver of arrows he carried with him. "Maverick, can I borrow one of your explosive arrows?"
Confused, Alex took out one of the arrows and handed it to her. Jane shouldered her assault rifle and took the arrow, "On my signal, detonate it." without warning she spun around the corner and ran at the large mech.
The YIMR saw her coming and opened fire. But the Commander was too fast for it to lock on to her as she slid across the ground and jammed the arrow into its right knee-joint. "MAVERICK NOW!" she shouted diving behind cover.
Alex reached back and hit the detonator on his bow and the arrow exploded. Blowing the YIMR's legs apart and causing it to collapse on to the ground, It struggled to get up for a moment before collapsing back down, optic dimming until it went offline.
Jane stood back up and dusted her hands off as the team filed into the room. "That...was some crazy shit, Skipper." said Ashley grinning.
The Commander shrugged, "Sometimes you have to do crazy things to make sure everyone gets out okay." she looked at her fellow Spectre. "Thanks for loaning me an arrow."
"It was worth it in the end. That was pretty impressive Shepard." said Alex honestly. Seeing her do something like that gave him a little more insight into what the Commander was capable of in different combat scenarios.
"Let's take down these servers and get out of here. I think we overstayed our welcome." said Garrus heading to one of the terminals with his weapon raised.
"I have a better idea." said Alex kneeling by the dead YIMR with his omni-tool flared. After a few seconds the large mech started beeping loudly. "Everybody out!" he shouted. The team didn't think twice as the ran from the room. The vigilante sealing the door behind them as the mech overloaded and blew the room apart.
When the dust cleared the door reopened to show a completely trashed server room. All of the equipment was destroyed, wall charred black with debris wedged into a few spots here and there from the force of the blast.
The only thing still standing was the terminal that looked the worst for wear. The holo-keyboard and screen flickered on and off as data scrolled across it. It suddenly gave a loud chime as it displayed a screen covered in binary code before shutting down completely.
Jane nodded before turning to the group, "We're done here. I'll contact Admiral Hackett when we get back to the Normandy and let him know the mission was a success. Everyone back to the Mako; let's get the hell outta here."
As the team left. Alex cast one last look at the blank terminal before following after them.
X
Alexander 'Maverick' Drake
SSV Normandy - Alex's Room
July 25, 2183 - 12:10 hours
The debriefing had been short. Shepard got a hold of Hackett and told him that everything had been taken care of.
The Admiral was happy to know that the Commander was still helping the Alliance even though she had duties of a Spectre now. Jane had told him that the Alliance was there for her and she'd be there for them if they needed her no matter what.
Alex laid in his bed staring at the ceiling. Helmet off. Door locked and encrypted. With his omni-tool on with a few Breaking Benjamin songs playing softly in the background. Meeting EDI's 'younger' form had opened a huge opportunity to him and he took it, he only hoped that it would help them in two years when the Collectors make a appearence.
The nanites just about finished repairing the damage done to his left side. It wasn't serious, a dislocated shoulder and three broken ribs. Thankfully the nano suit took the brunt of it, even without the armor mode the suit offered a good amount of protection.
But after a while even the suit wouldn't be able to stop everything. Even nano soldiers could die on the battlefield if they weren't careful.
Taking a deep breath, Alex closed his eyes and tried to relax. They were heading back to the Citadel to stock up on a few things and take a little shore leave before going right back into the heat of things. They'd be there in a few days and Alex was looking forward to seeing Chellick and Reena again.
He hadn't been able to talk with his two friends for a little while now and it bothered him a little. The three of them had been through a lot and Alex considered them to be like family. And being out of the suit for a little while would make him feel better and less confined.
As he laid there the nano soldier couldn't help the feeling that something was going to happen soon. Similar to the feeling he had several times before when things took a bad turn.
Shrugging it off, he let himself drift off to sleep.
A/N: I'll be covering several other side missions later on. One of them will fit into a monumental plot twist. Before I go, I want to give you guys something to look forward to. So here's a small preview of Chapter 23!
Chapter 24: Alter Ego
Garrus stepped aside, "Alex, this is Commander Shepard."
Alex gave his best smile despite the situation and held his hand out, "Commander. It's an honor to meet you in person. I've heard a lot of good things about you around the station."
Jane shook his hand, but felt a huge sense of déjà vu. "Something wrong ma'am?" asked Alex concerned.
"It's nothing...I just feel like I know you from somewhere." she said confused.
Alex kept his face the same, but inside he was afraid. "She couldn't know...could she?" he thought desperately.
The Commander suddenly perked up, her eyes narrowing slightly at the scarred man before her. "I know who you are."