Here's the next chapter. Remember, I'm more 'liberal' then the game, for example, a scion is a type of reaper husk, like a brute. They can appear with marauders, cannibals,... but with no collectors in sight. I'm just sayin'.
And also, I'll just give you a short character list so you know who's who.
Tarnik Volinus = Turian 'ghost infiltrator'
Lina T'Mari = Asari 'adept'
Urdnot Motch = Krogan 'sentinel/soldier'
Ellen Woods = Human 'shadow infiltrator'
Captain Randall Stevenson = Human 'N7 destroyer'
Remember, it's not exactly like the game. Ellen only has rank N3. OK, now you can read.
Lieutenant Ellen Woods sighed inwardly as the captain was going over his pre-mission speech. Of course they knew what to do, they had already been debriefed. But she guessed it couldn't hurt to have a bit of a pep talk.
"This will be our toughest mission yet. But it's nothing we can't handle. We're about four-"
"Sir! We've got trouble!"
The shout from the cockpit made her feel uneasy. The pilot was young and inexperienced, so she was glad her instincts had kicked in when she pulled on her helmet and strapped herself in her seat, even before the captain could tell her.
An explosion rang from behind the shuttle. She hoped the pilot would get them through this. She checked her teammates. Tarnik was sitting next to Lina. Good thing they weren't officially Alliance, because they'd be discharged long ago for fraternization. They were both strapped down, but Motch was having some problems. Despite the dangerous situation, Ellen couldn't help but snicker inwardly as the krogan fumbled with the harness. Eventually he was able to fit in, though Ellen had no idea how.
It seemed just in time, for a few seconds later she heard and 'OH CRAP!' from the cockpit, followed by a crash that had her teeth ringing. Then she felt the shuttle dropping.
There was something horribly wrong. What just happened? Did they get hit? Just as she thought it couldn't get any worse, she heard a metal-screeching explosion as the cockpit was torn off.
Even with her helmet on, it took a few seconds to get her senses back. And then she realized they were going down without a cockpit, let alone pilot. They were probably all going to die, except probably not the krogan, but that didn't mean she could try to survive.
"Everyone, brace yourselves!" she shouted as she put herself in the best position possible for a flying vehicle crash. The shuttle spiraled a few more times before smashing into a glass greenhouse. Despite her best efforts, Ellen blacked out.
"Human? C'mon little runt, get up!" Before Ellen could react, she got a decent slap in the face.
"Ow!" Ellen opened her eyes and saw Motch standing above her. "You stupid asshole! Human bones aren't as strong as krogan's! I could have you court-martialed!"
"No you can't, you big baby. And it was for your own good. Now get up."
Ellen wanted to argue, but the krogan had a point. He was outside of the Alliance, so she couldn't really get him court martialed. And they had more important things to do now anyway.
She pulled herself up, but a bit too fast. A sharp headache hit her, but considering she was just in a shuttle crash, she counted herself lucky. Looking around, she saw she wasn't in the shuttle – someone must have dragged her out – and also that someone took off her helmet.
She was about to get it, when she thought about the harvesters.
"Wait. Where did they go?"
"Who, they?"
"The harvesters."
"Harvesters?"
Ellen couldn't believe her ears.
"You have to be kidding me… the huge creatures that attacked us!"
"Oh, they left. Probably wouldn't expect me to survive a crash… shows how stupid they are."
Ellen rolled her eyes, went to got her helmet and assess the situation. Motch went over to Tarnik, who was awake and helping Lina wake up as well. Why couldn't she get treatment like that? The shuttle looked relatively okay, for the beating she thought it took. Other than the fact that the cockpit was not there – wait a moment. The cockpit was gone. That meant…
"Tarnik, Motch! Where's the captain, where's the pilot?"
Tarnik just looked at her with a frown on his face and shook his head. Motch had at least enough of a brain to know not to say anything. It was bad enough as it was. Not that Ellen personally knew captain Stevenson or the pilot, but they gave them the best chances of surviving. Without them, they didn't have a leader or an escape route. Not only that, the captain was just transferred to check on her and possibly give her the 4th special ops rank. She had to laugh at that. It was funny how she could think of her salary in such a situation.
"Well, if the captain is gone, we'll need a new leader. I suggest Tarnik."
"Who, me?" Tarnik asked.
"Yeah, he shouldn't be leader. I'm obviously best for the job." Motch interrupted, again being totally oblivious.
"No, you aren't. Tarnik is: he has the most military experience out of all of us. He should know what to do."
"She does have a point." Lina added, getting to her feet. A short silence followed. Then Tarnik spoke again, accepting the new chain of command.
"Well, then, my first order is to get everything we can out of the shuttle. After that, we set a timed charge and get to the resistance rendezvous point. I assume the Alliance doesn't want the enemy to get a hold of one of their shuttles?"
"No, sir!"
"I'll also try to radio Alliance command. Communications are supposedly down, but we should at least try. Everyone get that?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Then let's go! Get any and all equipment you can carry. Preferably before they send ground troops to investigate."
Ellen got in and started taking what she needed: extra thermal clips, explosives, a second sidearm and most importantly, her katana. That was one hell of a weapon. You'd think in times like these, melee weapons were useless, but you'd be wrong. That katana saved her many times, and if they were on a mission behind enemy lines with no extra supplies, any weapon that surpasses shields and doesn't use any type of ammo is a good one.
She made one more check, took some packs of omni-gel and left the shuttle. Once everyone got all the supplies they could carry, Tarnik went in one last time to set the charges. Not to many, they might need some for the reaper devices, but enough to render all remaining equipment useless.
After they rounded their thousandth corner, her omni-tool notified her the charges went off and destroyed the crash site. She was glad she couldn't hear or see it, that would've attracted attention easily. Not that the latter was really possible. Benning's capital was a real maze and it was hard to keep track of where they were and where they needed to be. What made it worse was that it was a ghost town. All the houses were empty, no one was around and it was too quiet.
"It's time to do another check. Wait here." Tarnik suddenly said.
"Argh, you aliens are so stupid! If I was leading us, we'd have been at the rendezvous point hours ago!"
Tarnik ignored him and went to the service ladder they just passed. Hopefully he'd get a good view and get them to the resistance warehouse soon. As for Motch, Ellen just wished he'd shut up.
"What's your problem with him? He's doing the best he can and we haven't had to backtrack at all!"
"You aliens are just so weak. And you talk too much. You're so annoying that you're getting on my redundant system's nerves! I don't even remember why I'm doing this job."
"You were caught assaulting a human for no apparent reason, and the Alliance offered amnesty and payment if you would go on these missions."
"Oh, yeah. Heh, that was pretty fun. Still doesn't change the fact that you aliens are puny and annoying, or that I should be the leader."
"Fun?! You beat a man half to death and call it fun?"
"Please, Ellen, Motch, stop this!" Lina interrupted.
"No! I have had it with this krogan! He has got to learn some respect!"
"Respect? An insect like you? Yeah right!"
"Guys, I don't think that you should-"
"Stay out of this Lina. This is between Motch and me. If he doesn't shape up, I'll…"
"You'll what? Try to hit me?"
"That does it, I'm-"
"ENOUGH!"
During the argument, Ellen didn't even notice Tarnik come back. But here he was, giving both her and Motch a death stare.
"We have enough enemies without you two attacking each other. Now when I order you to stay focused on the mission and not antagonize each other, I expect you to listen. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, sir." Ellen said.
Looking over at Motch, she saw he didn't say anything yet. He was just looking at his feet, not willing to give up the fact he wasn't in charge. But apparently, Tarnik wouldn't take that as an answer. He moved in and slammed Motch against a nearby support pylon.
"I said: do I make myself clear?" his voice now eerily quiet.
"Yeah." Motch said as he pushed Tarnik back. "Now get off my hump".
And with that the krogan began walking down one of the big streets.
"Please tell me that's the right direction. I don't think he'd come with us if it weren't." Lina asked quiet enough so Motch couldn't hear.
"Yeah, it is. C'mon, let's go."
And with that the three went to catch up with the krogan.
About half an hour later, they arrived at the rendezvous point. It was a huge warehouse complex, only accessible through a retractable bridge. As with all the other buildings they had passed, it too was empty.
"Not that we weren't expecting this, but where's the resistance?" Ellen asked
"I don't know. They can't just be out on a mission. There's something wrong here." Tarnik said, then pausing to decide what to say next.
"The complex is pretty big. I think it's best to split up. Let's go in groups of two. I'll go with Lina and Motch…. No, actually, Motch'll come with me. Lina, you're with Woods."
Everyone nodded in agreement, Ellen all too happy that she wasn't paired with the krogan.
"We need to find out what happened. Keep your eyes open for any clues. My team will search floors 1 and 2. You search floors 3 and 4. Also, look for any usable supplies. This was their base, if they had to leave without warning, then they couldn't have moved everything. If they were attacked… well, just watch your backs and stay in constant radio contact."
"Yes sir!"
"Soldiers, you have your orders. Move out!"
Since the shuttle crash, Benning's sun had gone almost completely under the horizon. During their walk it had gone from above the buildings to between the openings and chasms and now it was getting very dark. Which was a problem, because the settlement's power had been cut. Ellen new it would be dark inside, and although they all had military-grade lights and night vision, she didn't want to take chances. She thought a warehouse-complex like this would have a generator, but when she tried to access the complex' network with her omni-tool, there wasn't any line.
"Tarnik, the power is down and it's pretty dark. I just tried accessing their network, but nothings online. If they have a generator, it would probably be on the lower levels. Try to find if they have one and start it up. I don't want anything jumping from the shadows."
"Good idea, I'll do that ASAP."
"Until then: Lina, turn on your flashlight!"
There were two small clicks as they both turned on their flashlights which faded back into silence. Ellen really didn't like this. It was way too quiet. The first part of the building for them was a long hallway, full of rooms on each side. All the doors were open, probably an automatic action just before a power outage. They still had to check each room before they could go on looking for survivors, clues or supplies. Or reaper troops. Each time Ellen expected the worst, hoped for the best, but found almost nothing useful. Once or twice there would be some supplies they could use, such as a box of thermal clips. Other times they would find a weapon or armor, not worth the burden of carrying.
Ellen was just about to search her fourteenth room, when she heard something behind her. She turned as quick as her reflexes allowed her, aimed her pistol and…
"Lina! For God's sake, woman, I almost shot you! Don't you know better than to sneak up on me when I'm just about to scan a room?"
She turned around, not about to quit her job.
"Sorry, Ellen. But Tarnik just signaled that he found a generator and will start it up as soon as he can."
As if on cue, the lights turned on one by one, like a wave of energy rolling through the hallway. Ellen just stood ready for anything that could be awakened, or alerted by the sudden change in brightness. Thankfully, nothing came – yet. Then she got a call – for the whole team – from Tarnik.
"Lina and Woods, when you're done, come down to level 1, in the huge storage room. They have some… nice equipment here."
"Explosives!" Motch suddenly interrupted "Enough to level the whole building and more. The thought of this going off… BOOM, hahahaaaa!"
"Thank you, Motch" Tarnik said with sarcasm. "Let's just finish our jobs then meet there. Let's see what we can salvage and take."
After that, the room scanning went pretty easily. With lights on, Ellen felt much more comfortable and was able to check the rooms at record speed. Everything seemed to be going fine. They finished up and got to the stairway. Now that Ellen thought about it, they hadn't checked the roof. They weren't assigned, but she had a strange feeling she should.
"Lina, you stay here. I'm going to check the roof."
"But, we were only supposed to do floors 3 and 4."
"Yeah, but I've got a bad feeling. You know what? Radio Tarnik, tell him what I'm doing. I won't take long."
Lina seemed to want to argue, but Ellen didn't give her the chance. She dashed up the stairs to check what was up there. When she found what was up there, she didn't know if she would've rather stayed below the roof. She radioed Tarnik immediately.
"She just dashed up there before I-" Lina was still explaining.
"Tarnik! We have a problem. A big problem."
"What is it? What's wrong?"
"Dragon's teeth."
"What?"
Dragon's teeth, on the roof. Too many to count. The reapers were here. I don't' think- I think they got the resistance."
"Damnit. I want everyone in the storage room. NOW!"
Ellen broke through the roof door and was with Lina at record speed. They rushed to the storage room even faster. When they got close, Ellen could already hear Motch's annoying voice.
"I don't see why you're worrying. So what if there are a few… what'd you call them? Dragon's trees? Whatever. So what if there are a few on the roof. Like those would scare me. Hah! I say, throw your troops at me anytime!"
"Oh shut up Motch," Ellen said "you talk big, but if I remember correctly, you spent last mission almost blowing us up you were so on edge."
"Woods!" Tarnik interrupted "save your petty arguments for another time. We could be in deep trouble."
"Yes, sir. What's the plan?"
"Plan?" Motch scoffed "I don't need a plan, I just smash everything in sight!"
"Motch! Shut it!" Tarnik commanded "We're going to load up as fast as we can on as much as we can. There are timed and detonation charges. Motch, I think there were some rockets and grenades in the corner. The rest we'll have to leave here."
"And after we finish-"
Ellen's sentence was cut off by a bloodcurdling scream. It was like nothing she had heard before, and seemed to creep into her very bones. It was coming from everywhere and turned her blood into ice. Whatever it was, was something horrible. And according to the alliance codex, she could think of only one thing: Banshees.
Motch was the first one to break the following silence.
"What was that?"
"Banshees." Tarnik replied "Very dangerous. We need to get out of here now. Get anything you can. Double time!"
Ellen never felt so exhilarated and scared at the same time. Sure she had been on missions before, but they had been relatively low-risk and they never went as bad as this one. And that banshee scream would haunt her for nights to come. That is, if there would be any nights to come for her. She strapped an explosive to her suit, but explosives had never really been her thing. So instead, she accessed the complex' network to find out what she could. Her best bet was to hack into the security camera feed. It was bad. On the streets leading to the main entrance was an enormous reaper force, with many husk-creatures she had never actually seen before. It was obvious they couldn't get out the way they came in.
"Tarnik! You need to see this." She said, sending the footage to his omni-tool.
"Spirits, they're already closing in. And this generator's a flare as to where we are. Anyone feel like fighting through this hoard?"
"I'm not sure if that's totally necessary. When I was up top, I think I saw something… Let me work for a moment."
Using her omni-tool, she used her best speed hacking skills, and then checked the roof for what she was looking for.
"Here it is! A maintenance bridge on the roof. Should I open it?" She asked as she locked the main door.
"Not yet. Try to sync it up to when we get there. We don't want to tell them our escape plan. Everyone have their stuff? We have to get out, now."
"But what about the leftover explosives?"
Tarnik took his omni-tool and made something the size of his hand. When he turned around, Ellen saw it was a remote detonator.
"The reapers will have a nice surprise waiting for them."
They all rushed out the storage room – even Motch seemed to be a bit scared. Looking at her omni-tool every other step, Ellen calculated it would take 30 seconds to totally open the bridge, which would cover a distance of 30 meters. That meant she probably had to open it now. Almost tripping up the stairs, she started the mechanism. She checked the cameras again and her heart nearly stopped. The troops were already getting through the main door. Not only that, but husks were climbing up the walls to the roof and there were troop ships flying overhead, probably ready to drop even more troops on the roof. Sadly, there were either no roof cameras or they were off line. Either way, she had no way of finding out what was already actually up there.
"Be ready to meet heavy resistance on the roof. Just get to the bridge, which is on the South side and across it as fast as you can. After that, we'll have to outrun the reapers and take down as many as we can."
"That's good." Tarnik continued Ellen's train of thought "I hope the explosion will be enough to take out quite a few reaper troops while distracting others. I'll detonate it once we're all clear. I don't think they know our exact position, so we might just get a small element of surprise when we go through that door."
Ellen saw they had already reached the roof exit. Like before, she got a bad feeling. Not that she could do anything about it.
"Uhh, Tarnik? The bridge is almost open."
"Well then everyone, get your weapons ready. Seeing the complexity of the situation, I might as well say it's been an honor serving with you."
Now Ellen's heart was really pounding, sending adrenaline through her body and getting her ready for the coming fight and flight. She grabbed her Carnifex, but that wasn't what she would primarily be using. Taking the katana off her back, she activated the high-temperature mode. With that on, she could slice through most things like butter. Looking over, she saw Tarnik had his modified Mattock, Lina with one of her dual SMG's and Motch prepping his rocket launcher. She hoped this would end well.
"Soldiers, good luck."
And with that, Tarnik opened the door and all hell broke loose.
A husk stood right in front of them, seemingly about to have come in. It was immediately killed by a headshot from Tarnik. Ellen rushed out the door to see way too many reaper troops between her and the bridge. Although it wasn't much better, she was still glad there were only humanoid troops. She ran up shooting at a cannibal to her left then cloaked before she could see if it was down. Running up silently to a Marauder, she stabbed him in the chest and shot him point-blank, bypassing any shields he had. Quickly rolling over it, she then threw the corpse at a nearby husk. Lina caught her eye, and she seemed to be in trouble. Normally, she would have guessed Tarnik was at her side, but she didn't have time to find out where he was. She cloaked again and headed to the group of husks and cannibals that were closing in on Lina.
She wouldn't use her gun for this group – her katana was all she needed. Using one of the most basic forms, she decapitated the first husk. Then she moved to roaring seas, slicing up more cannibals. By now the rest of the group noticed her, but the closest couldn't dodge her next strike. As in training, she then moved to coiled viper to take out the ones behind her, finishing up with a graceful, diving hawk to take out the last one.
"C'mon, Lina, get to the bridge!"
Lina threw two marauders of the edge and took off to the bridge. Ellen wanted to go too, but then saw a Harvester right above her dropping something big. She had just enough time to dive out of the way as it smashed down behind her. A low, evil growl told her it was a brute.
Turning around and stepping back, the brute locked eyes with her. The brute was about to charge, but Ellen had a plan. To antagonize the brute enough to actually start his charge, Ellen fired a few rounds at his head. Who knows, it might even stun him or something. But the brute just shook it off, reared back and then threw his body at Ellen. Before the one ton beast could get close, Ellen cloaked – God, she was glad she knew how to use it right – and as the brute kept running forward, she jumped up and landed on its shoulder. Before it could suddenly stop and throw her off, she lodged her katana along his neck, hoping to sever some vital structure. Sadly, she didn't hit anything big enough to stop it as it stopped, then started bucking like a wild bull. Ellen did her best to hold on, until she heard someone say "Watch out!" She was just able to see Motch fire a rocket at the brute. Dislodging the sword, she had just enough time and luck to launch herself up out of the soon-to-be blast zone of the incoming rocket. But she didn't get far away enough, for the blast stripped away all her shields. She started coming back down and was able to roll to break her fall. Getting back up, she saw the situation was getting worse. It seemed that even more troops had gotten on the roof since the start, and just hovering over the side of the building was a praetorian.
"Get across the bridge!" She shouted, now focusing only on crossing to the other side, which proved easier said than done. Getting to the bridge was easy- she only needed to cloak and almost nothing bothered her. But once she was there, her cloak switched off and the trouble began. Drawing her katana again, she focused on the three cannibals shooting at Motch, who was running across the bridge, not helping anyone like the coward he was. She came up behind one and sliced of its gun-hand, temporarily stunning it. Quickly advancing, she sliced the next cannibal in half. She then turned to kick the last cannibal off the side of the bridge, but it grabbed her foot with stunning reflexes. She tried to shake free, but it slammed her into the ground, knocking her gun and katana to the side. It aimed its gun-arm at her, ready to fire. The first few shots were easily stopped by her shields, but they would only last for about 2 seconds. She thought she was done for – she couldn't get her gun or katana in time without the cannibals shooting her to shreds.
Just as the cannibal was going to take its final shots, it froze with a glowing white barrier around it. Looking to her left, she saw what caused it.
"Lina! Thanks for the assist!"
Grabbing her katana, she finished the job. Then she and Lina took off over the rest of the bridge. Something felt wrong. There were no more troops shooting at them, where did they all go? They couldn't have….
"Tarnik, where are you?" She radioed.
No response. She tried again.
"Tarnik, come in!"
Again, nothing. She got to the other side of the bridge with Lina looking worried at her. They turned around to see what was happening. It wasn't good. All of the remaining troops that were on the roof were all moving to the further side, following Tarnik. Suddenly they got radioed.
"KZZZRST- The bri- KRRSZZT"
"What? Tarnik, do you read me?"
"Close – KZZSRT – bridge!"
"I think he wants us to close the bridge." Ellen said.
"But you'll be trapped!" Lina radioed, starting to panic.
" - leading them around – KRRRZT – my jet – KZZT – to escape – KRZZST – west buildings!"
"We have to close the bridge." Ellen said. Some of the husks had seen them standing and started coming to the bridge.
"But, we can't! Tarnik, he'll… he'll-"
"You heard him, he can jet across. There's no time to argue!" And with that Ellen ordered the clos command from her omni-tool. All they could do now was watch.
Tarnik was doing a good job at leading the reapers away, but he seemed to be making it worse for himself. The roof was big and had plenty of crates to hide behind, but there were just too many reaper troops. Tarnik did take down a few husks, but everyone knew that wouldn't be enough. Then he cloaked.
"Everyone, get out of here! I'm going to blow the complex!"
"What? You'll be killed!"
"I'll be fine! Now go!"
Motch turned around right away, but Ellen called him back. They wouldn't just leave him if they could help it. Tarnik's cloak wore off and they spotted him running to the buildings on the west of the complex. The problem was that the reaper troops saw him to, with the praetorian taking the lead.
"Tarnik, watch out!" Lina shouted in her radio, as the praetorian coiled itself up to pounce. The warning came just in time. Tarnik was just able to leap to the side, the praetorian narrowly missing him. Then he kept on running to the edge, but the praetorian was not so easily defeated. It planted its feet on the ground and made itself tall.
"It's going to shoot!" Ellen radioed.
But this time, Tarnik didn't have time to dodge. He ran to the edge, jumped off and then everything happened at once.
Ellen received a signal that meant the bombs would go off and the praetorian fired its lasers. The lasers hit Tarnik's side as the building exploded in an enormous fireball. Tarnik's jets started failing and he plummeted to the chasm below.
"Tarnik!" Lina shouted.
He fell with still some of his thrusters working, but not enough. Then he slammed into a wall, fell downwards and just grabbed hold of a railing. Ellen winced, and looked over at the remains of the complex. The whole building was still standing, if just barely. The praetorian looked wounded, but was getting up again. It then made a deafening roar, but that was its downfall. The weakened building didn't need any more incentive and collapsed into the depths below, bringing all reaper troops inside and on along with it. But their worries weren't gone. A few levels above where Tarnik was holding on, were more reaper troops, along with the banshee they heard earlier. Not only that, but what seemed like harvesters carrying more troops were coming in. Then Tarnik called them again.
"You have to go."
"We can't! There are troops above you, there's even a banshee!" Lina protested.
"Leave me! That's an order. Lina, I can take care of myself. I promise."
"Lina, we have to go. Harvesters are coming in."
It was obvious Lina wouldn't go, but then Motch picked her up like a sack of potatoes and started off. Ellen didn't have much of a choice but to follow him. Away from the banshee, away from the ruined warehouse complex, away from Tarnik.
Well, that was it! Hoped you liked it. Sorry it took so long, I just had a lot of schoolwork and other stuff. But hey, this is a super long chapter (at least for me). It's even longer than my first fanfic! Hopefully, the other chapters will also be this length. And as always: please review. Am I doing good? Should I put in more details/dialogues/fights or less? Just want to know how to write right!
Also: Shoutout to guest N7scavenger, for being the first person to review one of my stories! Yay!