A/N: Ok people, first thing's first, sorry about the wait. On the plus side, this chapter is twice as long as my previous longest chapter. I don't know if you guys will like this or not but to be honest I can see this happening for mission based chapters because I don't want to split it up.
World Cup note, if you are from Germany and I know there are a few of you out there (Niras91) so congratulations! What a goal too, extra time! Also, what the hell happened to Brazil? You lose two fucking players and your whole team just falls apart? You're supposed to be some of the most elite athletes out there and you played like a bunch of pouting children. Oh well, at least it got rid of all those band wagon assholes and all of the fair-weather-fans. It also spawned some funny videos, my personal favourite is the one where they showed highlights from the Germany/Brazil game and edited out the Brazilian players while playing sad music in the background!
Another thing, this one is important, especially if you're a writer on this site like me. There is a story on this site called Parallel Realities by: InHarmsWay. Long story short, this fic had a cool idea but was poorly written, not grammatically but story wise. The Shepard in this story is quite the Mary Sue, this of course ruins most stories. However, this is still his story, he wrote it and it belongs to him. The author EclipsePheniox has decided to write his own take on the story and called it From Another World, but it is clearly plagiarized. The only thing that has been changed around is names, that's about it. It's comparable to taking your buddy's paper in highschool and changing the order around, yeah it looks different but it's really the same thing. My point is, if you could report From Another World for plagiarism we could prevent this from happening to other authors. And that's it, if you do this then I thank you.
Now me thanking you guys even further. 199 reviews? 163 follows? 104 favourites? 19,000 hits? You. Fucking. Rock! To think this is (basically) the first writing that I have ever done that wasn't forced on me by the school system and it's getting this much attention, next to all of it positive is absolutely nuts! Seriously, thank you guys! Ya make me feel all warm inside, like a nice liquor! You guys are like liquor without the headache!
Now, enough mush, I have an image to uphold. On with the story!
Chapter 19
-The Goddamn Timeline!-
"Are you sure there are no shuttles?!" Art yells over the wind and yelled curses from Alex. "Like, are you positive?! Did you check the back or…"
"Are you shitting me?!" I yell back. "This is awesome!"
"What did you say?!" Art asks. "I thought you said this is awesome, but I must be hearing things because that would make you crazy!"
"I've always wanted to go skydiving!" I shout, looking out of the Normandy's gaping bay door into the ashy grey sky of Therum.
"This is not fucking skydiving!" Alex yells, taking a break from yelling. To yell some more.
"Sure it is!" I shout back. "It's just more awesome! Here, take some of this!" I shout as I slide my flask from one of my pouches and hold it out for him. Alex immediately takes the flask and hammers down a mouthful of liquor, Ashley takes note of this and walks over to us.
"What is that?!" she asks, pointing at the flask.
"It's water!" I shout innocently.
Alex's face twists and he gives his head a rough shake. "Fuck yeah!" he growls as he screws the flask together and hands it back to me.
Ashley shifts her weight to one leg and puts her hands on her hips, I can see her eyes narrowing through her visor. "Uhh, it's really good water?!" I shrug.
"It's fucking GREAT water! From freshwater mountain springs all the way from earth!" Alex growls out as he slams his helmet onto his head and starts hopping up and down, the liquid courage doing its job. "I fucking LOVE water! And I know I'm going to fucking HATE THIS!" he gestures at the open bay door.
"Want some water?!" I shout as I nudge the flask at Art. He shakes his head at me until a sudden gust of wind rips through the vehicle bay, causing everyone to take a step back to readjust their balance. Art looks out the bay door, the very same door he will have to jump out of in a minute.
"You know what?! Why not? Give it here!" he shrugs as he grabs the flask and unscrews the lid.
Art starts to take a sip when I hear Kaiden yell from behind me. "Is that alcohol?!"
I turn to face him and shake my head. "No, it's water!" I shout back, just as I do this I hear Art cough as the scotch burns his throat and makes his eyes water. Kaiden looks at me and crosses his arms, a scowl of disapproval on his face. "It's uhh, spicy water!" I nod quickly.
"Fresh, MOUNTAIN SPRING spicy water! The best kind!" Alex adds over the roaring wind.
Before Kaiden could say anything and alarm blared in the vehicle bay, Kaiden and Ashley immediately stiffening and march towards a set of lockers away from the open hanger. Wrex, Art, Alex, and myself follow after them in a less professional manner. Kaiden starts to toss out what looks like plated backpacks before holds his up in demonstration.
"This is an HARP." He says as he shows it to us. "It's a High Altitude Respirator and Parachute, this is going to get you to the ground safely. They connect to the back of your armor and a respirator attaches to your helmet so you don't suffocate."
"Suffocate?" Art cocks his head as he looks over the HARP. "You think it's because of the high altitude? I mean, the air is so damn thin up here you can't breathe it right?"
Alex lets out a worried moan when Art mentions the altitude, causing Art and I to raise our brow at him. "Maybe it's because the air is moving so fast you can't breathe it in, it just sucks it outta your lungs." I smirk at Art as we grab Alex and help him secure the HARP to his back.
"If you're lucky, the HARP will pluck you out of the air before you hit the ground!" Art says, smiling like a goof as Alex and me shake our heads.
"Come on man." I sigh at Art's pun as I wrap the hose over Alex's shoulder, snapping the mask to his helmet as Art starts to clip my HARP to my back. "You're better then that."
I hold my arms out as Alex and Art secure my HARP and I feel a shaky pair of hands place the hose over my shoulder and the respirator on my helmet, then I feel a steady pair of hands click in the clamps that the first forgot. "Thanks baby bird." I nod as I turn around to help Art with his HARP.
"No problem!" he chirps as he turns his back to me, I start to snap the connecters methodically as Art turn his head back to me. "I gotta ask, why do you keep calling me that?"
"Dunno." I shrug as I attach the respirator to Arts helmet before handing it over his shoulder. "Just fits I guess."
Art silently grabs his helmet and tucks it over his head as Alex speaks up. "Is this even safe? Where is the pull cord for the chute? How the fuck does this thing even work?!" he says in a panicky voice as he feels around the HARP. "What if something goes wrong?"
Art and I look at each other, not quite sure what to tell Alex, he's really freaking out about this. "You'll be ok, if the Alliance uses these things I'm sure they work." Art nods, sounding sincere.
"What if I don't make it? What if I miss and do a swan dive into some lava?"
Again Art and I look at each other, the silence making Alex even more nervous. Finally Art shrugs and turns to Alex. "Don't worry, I've got a wide selection of funeral marches on my omni-tool," he says simply, making me laugh and Alex go dead silent.
Another alarm blares and Kaiden opens up a com line with everyone. "-Dropping in sixty seconds, fall in behind me.-"
We all stack up behind Kaiden, just a bit before where the Mako once sat.
" -The HARPS run on three stages, they're all automatic so just enjoy the ride. Double check the man in front of you and activate their oxygen. Fifty seconds.-"
I start to check Arts oxygen on a small display on the side of the HARP and activate it, a barely audible hiss coming from his mask as he checks Wrexs oxygen. I hear a hiss in my helmet and am greeted with a crisp clean breath of pure oxygen, letting me know Alex is finished.
"-Thirty seconds!-"
I turn around and play with Alex's HARP, nobody is behind him so I have to do it. I can clearly see him shaking when his oxygen hisses through his respirator, I should say something. "Hey." I say, placing my hand on his shoulder. "You're gunna be fine man, here go in front of me, if worse comes to worst I'll catch you like I did before."
" -Ok, thanks. -" he nods as I move around him, I notice Art has turned around too and is cocking his head at me.
I ignore that and lean over Alex's shoulder. "Also I'll make sure you actually jump. If you hesitate I'll push you out of this ship like I pushed you out of that building."
"Motherfucker…" Alex sighs with resignation, sounding like he accepts his doom.
To my surprise Art speaks up. "-Okay, how many people have you pushed out of buildings? Seriously.-"
"What are you talking about?"
" -Fifteen seconds!-" Kaiden shouts as all of the lights in the vehicle bay go a deep red.
"-First it was your quarian friend, Lorin, now Alex.-" he lists off on his fingers. "-Is this a hobby of yours? 'Cause if it is, you should seriously consider getting a new one.-"
"I wouldn't call it a hobby…"
"-TEN!-"
"More like… a guilty pleasure."
"-NINE!-"
"-What the fuck is wrong with you?-"
"-EIGHT!-"
"Oh man, there's just… there's just so much."
"-SEVEN!-"
"-Clearly!-"
"-SIX!-"
"You of all people should understand why I'm a tad messed up!"
"-FIVE!-"
"-And why is that? Because I LITERATLY have no freaking clue!-"
"-FOUR!-"
"Well you kinda know, you know what you know,"
"-THREE!-"
"but you don't know that I know,"
"-TWO!-"
"that you know what you know."
"-ONE!-"
"-WHAT ARE YOU FUCKING TALKING ABOUT?-"
"-GO GO GO!-" Kaiden yells as the vehicle bay illuminates in a bright green.
"Who knows? I'M CRAZY!" I laugh as we charge towards the open bay door.
As we run I hear Alex start to wail like a siren, screaming in pure fear as we near the open air. I start to push him faster out of the Normandy as a cheer loudly, whooping like an animal.
The noise from the wind whipping around the vehicle disappears as the Normandy fades behind my vision, the grey sky stretching over the earth brown rocks that have streams of bright red lava rooting through it. Each one of us tumbling down until we flatten out in our freefall and start to make our way to the ground below.
As we fall my Omni-tool pings, a request for a vid-chat from an unknown number. Who the hell is this and why do they have the worst timing? I navigate my HUD and minimize the team chat and open up the chat.
"-Do I have you at a bad time Mr. Matticks?-"
"Well, Harper," I say as I look around at the clouds whipping up from under me. "It's not a great time, you've got about… oh I don't know, 35,000 feet?"
"-I'll make it quick then.-" TIM says, taking a drag from his cigarette. "-You were wrong.-"
"You're going have to really narrow that down."
"-There were unmentioned additions to Shepard's roster.-" he says, narrowing his cybernetic eyes at me. " -Do you care to explain why you failed to mention this?-"
"Well." I say, trying to think up something. "I'm not supposed to be here, interfering with all of this stuff. So when I do it causes a ripple, I saved Alex from an exploding building so who knows what he did with his new found life to bring these guys over too."
Harper doesn't seem convinced, slowly puffing at his cigarette as he stares at me. "-And Owens? What ripple did you cause that could reach out to Eden Prime?-"
"I have no idea." I say honestly. "It's not like I planned all of this shit, these guys are new and I have no idea what they could do to the timeline."
"-This makes them a threat.-" Harper says darkly as he smothers his cigarette on the arm of his chair.
"No it doesn't!" I snap. "They want to be here, if anything they'll be more of a help than a hindrance!"
"-It sounds like you're getting attached Mr. Matticks, which seems rather unlikely.-" He says, leaning forward slightly in his chair. "-No, I would wager you know something about them.-"
"I know something about everybody." I say vaguely. "They won't interfere."
"-For their sake, I hope not.-" he says, lighting yet another cigarette. "-Do you have anything more to tell me?-"
"Well, I'm at 10,000 feet so I'll make it quick." I say as I look down at the rapidly approaching ground. "We are on Therum to get Liara T'Soni. I'm sure we'll talk later Harper."
I watch as my Omni-tool fades away before looking down, spying Kaiden, Ashley, Wrex, and Alex. Wait, where the hell is Art? I start to slowly adjust my hands, angling the wind off of them to turn myself around but I still don't see him. I tuck my one hand closer to my body so I flip to look up and I finally see Art, he's about fifteen feet above me and is staring at me. Shit, did he see me talking to Harper? How the fuck am I going to explain that to him? Maybe he didn't even see it, god I really hope he didn't see it.
" -Alright, spread out!-" Kaiden yells as he starts to break off slightly from the group. "-The facility still has geth dug in, Shepard's marked with green smoke, the geth are in red! We're dropping into a firefight so try to land behind cover!-"
Shit, dropping into a firefight wasn't the plan. I thought Shepard cleared out this section, unless there are more geth than in the game. Either way, I'm about to be baptized in fire. My HUDs altimeter is dropping faster than I can read and once it reads 5,000 feet I see the red smoke marking the geth and the green smoke marking Shepard, tracer rounds and plasma dancing between them. Here we go!
The first to hit the ground is Kaiden and Ashley, hitting the ground in a combat roll as their HARP's fall apart. They quickly and fluidly bring their weapons to bear and open fire on the geth taking cover in the building opposite of the building Shepard has taken cover in. They quickly move to the left of Shepard's position under a small awning, taking cover behind a few crates.
Wrex hits the ground next, dust sent flying as he shrugs off the HARP. He stands up straight and whips his shotgun off his back and sends a volley of pellets into a geth who didn't take cover quickly enough. He laughs as he strides over to Kaiden, quickly pumping two rounds into a geth destroyer before taking cover. The destroyer's shields flutter out as it recoils from the shotgun blasts, but quickly corrects itself and returns fire before a sniper rifle round from Shepard's building decapitates it.
Alex is next, immediately crumpling into a ball as he presses his head against the ground and rocking back and forth. A burst of gunfire crashes against his shields though, waking him up and causing him to rip his assault rifle off of his back and sprint full force to the nearest crate.
I'm up next, only about a hundred feet from the ground. I feel three sharp tugs as the chutes go off, each one slowing my decent. I lower my mass as I hit the ground and my knees barely bend when I make contact, the HARP's seals all burst apart when I stop moving and the thing falls apart off of me. I draw my Lancer and start to fire at the geth as I hear Art drop next to me.
I run over to rest of Kaidens squad and peek around my cover, my HUD tagging the hostile geth. Suddenly my head is punched back and a purple haze fills my vision, I instinctually fall behind cover and heft my Lancer over the cover and let out a short burst.
Was I just shot? I… I think I was just shot, in the fucking head! "Fuck!" I shout as I shake my head around. Ok snap out of it, my barriers will protect me, just… just pretend this is paintball. You just can't wipe off paint and get back into the fight, you die.
Goddamn it, am in over my head? I shouldn't be here, Shepard can handle this on her own, she doesn't need me. But I can help people, I can make the outcome of the game better. Plus I'm already fucking here so there's no turning back now.
[That's right, you got yourself into this mess, stop being such a candy ass and fight!]
{Shepard said there are non-combat roles on the Normandy, you could always do that if you're afraid of fighting.}
I'm not afraid to fight! I've been fighting people my whole life. No, no I'm afraid of being shot. Have you ever been shot? It fucking hurts!
[That shot grazed your arm! Stop being such a suck and fight!]
{I hate to promote violence, but he's right.}
What? You're agreeing with him?
{I'd like to start by saying you are a very nice person, always remember that!}
The point, why don't you get to that.
{You are always nice to new people but at the same time you won't hesitate to be… hostile if they are rude or mean. You have a short fuse.}
That's not true!
[Yeah, it's more like a button. You're a huge pansy until someone is a shithead, then you go off on them! Do more of that! Jam that fucking button down and stay like that, you get more done that way!]
I'm not going to be a huge dick all of the time, it's just… I always try to be nice to people and if they're an ass I just, well, let them know it.
{Often with physical violence.}
That's not true, name one time I-
{A year ago someone tried to pick a fight with your friend Corey, what did you do?}
I told him to go away, calm and level headed as always. And when he didn't I… showed him the error of his ways.
{You hit him in the nose!}
He... it was gentle! A tap!
[Haha, I remember that! That was awesome!]
{No it was not! You broke that poor man's nose and sent him to the hospital!}
That asshole deserved it! I tried being nice! He-
{The point is, you never hesitate to speak your mind or get in a fight for your friends.}
You're right, I need to man up.
I shake my head and look around, Alex and Art on my left are firing over cover. Behind them is Ashley, Wrex, and Kaiden doing the same. Even though I can't see them, I can see the muzzle flashes strobing inside the building that Shepard, Tali, Garrus, Ian, and Dylan are in. Even though I can't call all of them friends right now, I know someday they will be.
The voices in my head that are slowly driving me crazy are right, I need to man up. Alright, time to kick some geth ass! I rip around my cover and aim down my Lancers sights at a geth but before I can fire several rounds bounce against my barriers.
"Fuck!" I hiss as I fall behind my cover. There are too many geth for me to even get a goddamn shot off. "Hey, is there any way we can go around them?" I shout into the team coms.
"-No.-" Shepard grunts as a sniper contrail slices through the air and into a geth's chest. "-There are three defensive turrets behind that door, we wouldn't be able to scale the rocks quick enough to get around them.-"
"We could." I answer. "Kaiden and I should be able to get past and breach into that building they're in and get them in a pincer, maybe even Wrex can come."
"Maybe." Kaiden rasps as he leans out of cover and fires three short bursts. "If we lower our mass we can run faster, how fast can those turrets aim?"
"-They're slow, but it wouldn't work anyway. You can't climb the next cliff fast enough.-" Shepard says calmly as another sniper rifle round rips through a geth trooper. "-You would need to take them out, and we don't have any heavy ordinance.-"
"-We HAD a tank.-" Garrus brings up.
"-Give it a rest mate.-" Ian sighs. "-I'm sure we've gotta coffee maker that could use some calibrations.-"
"Are you kidding me?" I laugh. "I'm a walking explosives locker!"
"What do you have that'll take down a turret?" Wrex grunts skeptically as he throws a biotic orb over his cover. I watch as it sails into a geth and hoists it in the air, Wrex smiling as he lets loose a handful of shotgun blasts into it.
I pull out a breaching charge and shake it in the air at Wrex, he looks at it and shrugs. "I've killed bigger with smaller."
"Alright, Wrex and Maverick are on me. Let's go." Kaiden orders as he charges out from cover and through the hole in the facility.
"Hold down the fort boys, we'll be back!" I chuckle as I storm after Kaiden with Wrex.
The three of us stop just before the burnt out turret and face the small cliff side, a faint mist of blue biotics hanging off our bodies as we scale the cliff quickly and with ease. We get to the top and start to crawl along the rocks, trying to be as quiet as possible and stay as low as possible. Once we reach the edge I pull out three breaching charges and pass them out to Wrex and Kaiden, leaving one for myself.
"Ok." I whisper. "They're armed, we just have to get them on the tops of the turrets."
"We're going to have to be quick." Kaiden whispers as he peers over the edge to look at the turrets. "Wrex you get the first, Maverick the second and I'll take the last one. Got it?"
Wrex and I nod, we each creep closer to the edge and prop ourselves in a runners take off position. We wait for Kaidens signal and when he gives it we spring into action, Kaiden and I leaping down the cliff and Wrex letting out a roar as he jumps from the cliff onto the building, leaping off of it and latching onto the side of the first turret.
I scramble towards the middle turret, noticing that the furthest turret has already started to turn to me. Without waiting I jump as high as I can, my fingers just catching the lip of the turret. I slap the charge onto the turret with my free hand and fall to the ground, as I do I see Kaiden plant his charge. By the time I hit detonate on my Omni-tool Kaiden is already on the ground. Each charge rips a hole in the turrets shell and sends a blast into the internals, putting them out of commission.
"Alright, good job." Kaiden praises as he moves to the wall of the building, the geth on the other side still shooting at the Normandy's crew. "Can one of your charges go through this wall?"
"No, they were meant for doors." I shake my head. "It'd just make a small melted slit in it and fuck up anybody standing on the other side, but I have an idea."
I walk up to the wall and look at it, judging by the other walls this should only be an inch thick. A warp builds on my hand and I start to trace a door onto the wall.
"How the hell…" Kaiden mutters to himself as he watches my use my biotics without gestures.
"Later." I shrug. "Get ready."
As the warp eats through the door I ram my fingers into the center of the makeshift door, warping myself a handle.
"Are you comfortable with close quarters?" Kaiden asks. "Wrex or I can be point."
"Please." I scoff. "I thrive in close quarters, as long as I don't get tired I'm good."
"We'll see if you say that once you've been shot." Wrex rolls his eyes.
"I'll be fine, hell I bet you I'll kill more then you." I smirk behind my helmet.
"I doubt it." Wrex says dryly, dismissing me completely.
"This isn't a contest." Kaiden interrupts. "How much longer?"
As if on cue, the warp finishes eating through the metal and the door lurches off the wall. I lower its mass and toss it to the side before rushing into the building ahead of Wrex and Kaiden. I'll show Wrex who's a whelp, I may not be trained in combat or fighting but when you mash biotics with a brawler… well, it doesn't end well for anyone in arms reach.
The first geth I see is further down the platform to my left and I don't hesitate to bioticly charge into it, my pauldron cracking its outer shell and crushing the electronics behind it. The geth falls limply to the floor as I turn to get a new target, I bury my pauldron into the next geth as I hear gunfire echo through the building. I quickly run around the corner and see a geth being launched back off its feet by a shotgun blast.
A geth shock trooper bursts in through the door and gets off three shots before an overload from Kaiden sends it into a sparking, spasming mess. I launch myself towards the geth and quickly take up the space it was once in, sending it crashing against the far wall. I smile to myself before I look out the door and my smile fades away.
At least a dozen geth have turned to face me, standing in the doorway, defenseless. A hailstorm of bullets shatters my barrier and I feel that safe feeling rip away as I hide behind the doorframe. I see Wrex take up position on the opposite side of the door and I turn around to see Kaiden behind me.
Kaiden doesn't have a position to shoot so I slam a warped hand onto the wall, in a few seconds that should give him a nice little murder hole to shoot from. I hear the load clang of footsteps beating against steel and I turn around to see a geth destroyer, its shotgun level with my head. Before I can even move, a red three fingered hand pulls the destroyers arm away from its torso and then a shotgun blast rips through its shoulder, severing it completely.
"Haha!" Wrex shouts as he swings the destroyers arm into itself, knocking it back out of the door. He leans out and fires another shot, the sound of synthetic polymers ripping apart muffling Wrexs laughter.
"Jesus fucking Christ!" I shout, nonchalantly firing my Lancer out the door. "That was crazy!"
"Talk about it later!" Kaiden yells as he starts firing, I guess that means my warp made the hole he needs.
"Ok." I shrug, reaching into one of my pouches and pulling out a grenade. I sync its timer for three seconds and arm it before tossing it out of the door. Once the explosion goes off I peek around the corner and fire my Lancer at the closest geth, my shots ricochet off its shields until they buckle. Once they do though, a sniper rifle shot rips through its neck. I follow the shot and see Ian perched on top of the building Shepard is in. How the hell did he get up there? Oh well, not important. What's important is he took my kill.
I look around at the other geth, there are only troopers left, probably five and one of them has no legs. There are scorch marks next to it so I guess that was my grenade. Kaiden Wrex and I start to fire at them when suddenly everyone rushes into the maze of crates, it happens so fast I can hardly keep track of who's killing what.
I see Shepard riddling a geth platform with bullets, another geth is taken out by a sniper rifle shot, and I see Alex and Art both rip the same geth apart with assault rifle fire. The last geth raises its rifle at Wrex but a Wrex is faster, his warp slamming into its chest with a noise that can only be described as a biotic slop.
The geth tries to wipe the warp off but it just starts to eat at its hands, I see no need in dragging it out so I build up a charge and slam my pauldron into the geth. But this time is different, my charge detonates against Wrex' warp and blows a gigantic hole in the geth's chest. Synthetic blood bursts in every direction, most of it covering me in a sticky white oil.
"Aww fuck!" I curse as the geth drops to the ground, glaring at the white blood all over me. My pauldron is now completely white, and the blood is splattered across the right half of my chest plate, I don't doubt it's on my helmet either. The upper half of my arm is coated in the blood and it's started to run down my forearm. "I got geth all over me!"
I hear a few snickers as everyone regroups among the crates, a few rolling eyes too and I bet a glare from Garrus.
"Is everyone ok?" Shepard asks as she holsters her sniper rifle. Once everybody nods, Shepard's starts to stride out of the base. "Good, we've got a lot of ground to cover let's get to it!" She says, sounding pretty cheery that nobody was hurt.
We all jog after her and Dylan falls in beside me.
"How was the drop?" he asks. "It looked pretty crazy from here."
"It was fucking wild man!" I exclaim as we jog. "35,000 foot freefall into a firefight! Some people didn't like it as much as I did though." I chuckle, looking at Alex who's jogging ahead.
"Oh yeah?" he laughs softly. "What happened?"
"He was freaking out." I say quietly. "I guess heights aren't his thing."
"So how's the covered in geth guts going?" he smirks. "I can smell it from here."
"I know! It fucking reeks of oil!" I practically shout.
"It looks cool though." He points out.
"You think?" I say, looking at the white splattering from my shoulder. "Actually yeah, it looks badass."
There is a few awkward seconds of silence as we jog, listening to the conversations being held between everyone else.
"Anywho…" he says slowly. "What's that logo mean? Are you a merc?"
"I am not a merc!" I snap sharply.
"Ok man." He says as he lifts his hand in defense. "I didn't mean anything by it."
"Sorry." I apologize quickly. "I've been getting that a lot lately and it's getting annoying. I'm actually and Icarus Contractor."
"Oh cool… what's Icarus?" he asks.
"We are a company dedicated to bettering people's future, I'm a Contractor which basically means I'm an Icarus special agent, or something."
"That's cool." He nods, but his nod freezes as he jogs. He looks at me again, his eyes drawn to one of my Icarus logos. "So umm, who's future are you trying to better?"
Why do these guys keep asking that? "Everybody's." I sigh. "If they need help we will try to help."
"Oh, good." he nods, but he still looks uneasy. "How do you afford to do all of that?"
"We have a very… dedicated and ruthless CEO who monopolizes companies, particularly ones that benefit the other branches of Icarus."
"Huh, how many branches are there?" he asks, even though I think he's making small talk just to be polite, but I can't know that.
"We've got a corporate one, a science division, and a military division."
"You have a military division?" he asks in disbelief. "What the hell do you need that for?"
"Shootin' stuff." I say simply with a shrug. "Blowin' up the stuff ya can't shoot."
"Makes sense I guess…"
"So how was Eden Prime?" I ask, changing the subject.
"Terrifying." He says in an almost hollow voice. "There were bodies everywhere, it uhh, it wasn't pretty."
"Sorry about that." I mutter, I forgot that to me Eden Prime was a game but he lived it. "I take it that's where you met Shepard?"
"Yup, after I helped Ash take out some geth we went after the beacon." He tells me. "It blew up though, sent me right to the med bay."
"Yeah I bet I-" I stop midsentence as my brain processes what he just said. He went to the med bay, why him, it should have been Shepard. Shit unless… "W-why umm, why'd it do that? What happened?"
I see him think for a second, probably trying to choose his words carefully. "I got to close to it and it zapped a vison into my brain, I can't make out what it means though. It's just a bunch of destruction."
What the fuck! How could I forget that he had the vision and not Shepard! It's the main part of his damn fanfiction! God I… this changes so much! I want to turn to Dylan and grab him by the shoulders and shake him, screaming YOU FUCKED UP THE GODDAMN TIMELINE! But I don't, I can't yell that, I have to sit here and pretend like I have no fucking idea what he is talking about! If he has the vision then Shepard has nothing, what if he dies and nobody has the vision? I guess Ian would still have it…
…
How!? How could I possibly forget all of this shit!? This stuff is paramount to the fucking story and I can't remember what happened in whose story! God fucking damn it! What else happened that I can't remember? I know Art fucks with the timeline at the end of Mass Effect 2 but that's years away, what does Alex do? Does he kill Shepard? HOW THE HELL SHOULD I KNOW?!
"Are you ok?" Dylan asks, sounding genuinely concerned.
I hang my head and sigh. "Oh yeah, sure." I lie. "I'm just, fucking, great. Fantastic really, fuckin' peachy."
"Ooookay…" he says slowly.
"Yeah, it is ok!" I say sarcastically. "Everything is ok! It's exactly how everything is supposed to be, for sure!"
"That's… uh, great man…" He says nervously. "Good…"
Dylan slowly makes his way away from me as I mutter to myself, probably to ask about my mental stability, which right now is questionable.
It took us about an hour to get to the next hot zone, luckily we were able to bypass most of the Armatures and the one Colossus by going over the cliffs. The next fight though, we can't avoid so we hit it head on. We all walk single file through the narrow path of rocks, the one where you have to ditch the Mako, and make our way up the small hill ant take out the geth on top of it. There were a lot more then I remembered though, there should have been three or four, there were at least seven.
I step over one of the dead geth and make my way behind everybody, stopping when shots started to go off. I run up the last bit of the hill to find Shepard, Garrus and Ian all firing their sniper rifles into the next quarry. The rest of the team has spread themselves out in the rocky formations conveniently jutting out of the ground, I decide to join them.
I rush down the path and slam against the cover that Tali's hiding behind. "Hey!" I nod as I fire my Lancer up at the geth. "How's it going?"
"We are in the middle of a firefight!" she points out as she fires a blast from her shotgun. "Augh, I can't get a shot!"
I look up at where she is shooting, seeing a geth peaking around a rock and firing at Wrex and Kaiden. I build a pull in my left hand and flick my wrist as I let it fly through the air. The pull launches into the air and hesitates before breaking downward, dragging the geth off the cliff. In no time it's filled with rifle rounds and shotgun pellets, dead before it rolls to a stop.
"Thanks." She nods as she pulls out her pistol and fires at the geth on the far cliff.
"Don't mention it!" I shrug as I join her. I pick out a geth and line it up in my sights, I pull the trigger and the first shot hits, the next one flies above it and the rest hit its center mass as I quickly compensate for the recoil. Just as the geth's shields break a sniper rifle round tears through its chest, I follow the contrail back to Ian's sniper rifle. He gives me a cocky two fingered wave, as if to say you're welcome. So I give him a tall middle finger to say fuck off.
We clear out the remains of the geth in no time, Kaiden, Wrex and I yanking them off the cliffs for the rest of the team to take care of and Shepard, Garrus, and Ian picking off the ones we miss. All and all, it went pretty smoothly. We make our way up and out of the quarry on the opposite side, walking towards the dig site.
Wait… isn't this where the Armature drops down? As we round the corner I see familiar scenery, reminding me that yes, this is the part where the Armature drops down. Great, now we get to fight an Armature and the regular geth, not to mention those hopper assholes.
We walk up to the dig site and I notice that Ian, Art, Dylan, and Alex are all creeping along like I am, waiting for the geth to attack like they should. I can't help but look up at the cat walk and notice the first hopper, it's hard to make it out but I can see it curled up in its stupid little ball. It unwraps silently, like eerily quiet and fluid, and is about to hop away until I catapult a pull at the thing.
It tumbles across the ground towards us and by the time it comes to a stop it's full of bullets. "Good eye." Shepard compliments without looking back, instead focusing on scanning the horizon for more hoppers.
"It's almost like I knew it was there." I answer casually, shrugging as we continue forward. "I guess I'm just naturally talented."
I hear a sigh from Art as he shakes his head at me, the rest of the crew having the same reaction to my self-compliment. What do they know?
Suddenly the roar of a ship vibrates through my body and we all look up to see a geth drop ship above us, turning itself to off load a dozen geth and an Armature.
"Take cover now!" Shepard yells as she charges up the hill, Garrus and Ian following her.
We all scatter like cockroaches as the Armature lets out a volley of machine gun fire from its flashlight head, pair that with all of the geth shooting at us and it's a veritable hornet's nest of gunfire. I end up taking cover behind the same crate as Dylan and Ashley, returning fire with them. I spy a hopper clinging to a refinery column next to us and I bioticly peel it off the wall so Dylan can get a clear shot, he makes short work of it and we move onto the next one.
"Let's go!" I hear Dylan shout in my ear as I break the shields of another geth.
"What?" I yell back over the deafening sound of gunfire, I turn my head to see that Dylan and Ashley have run around the refinery to flank the geth, shit I should go with them.
I charge around the refinery to see them at the other end, Jesus those two are fast! I run up towards them until something crashes into me and knocks me to the ground. I look up to see a geth hopper perched on my chest, its flashlight eye twirling as it focuses on me. Then the light goes red.
"Shit!" I yell as I shove the hoppers head up, a burst of plasma burying itself in the ground above my head. The hopper curls its legs to jump away but a wrap my arms around it before it can. "Where do you think you're going?" I sneer at it as it makes an annoyed electronic wail.
My arms are nearly ripped from their sockets as the geth takes flight, dragging me with it. "SHIT!" I scream as I lower its mass as well my own, the sudden weight added making its jump start to arc before it planned and we plummet to the ground.
"Gotcha bitch!" I snarl when we crash into the ground, sending dust everywhere. Then the geth does something I never thought it would do, it starts violently spasming its limbs around. "What are yo-" one of the hoppers arms smacks into my helmet, shocking me slightly. "Ow! Stop that! AHH!" I yell as the geth takes off, leaping fifteen feet in the air as it flails uncontrollably. "KNOCK IT OFF!"
The geth continues to spasm, shaking like its having a violent seizure. It continues to lazy hop along the ground as I hang on for dear life, the whole time it lets off a loud electronic screech. "SHUT UP!" I roar as we collide with the ground again. "STOP FUCKING MOVING!" I yell as another limb awkwardly smacks my face again. We start to skip along the ground in a dusty struggle as I scream at the geth and it wails back at me.
"Jesus Christ on a pikestaff, what are you doing!?" I hear Art yelling.
"IT WON'T STOP!" I cry out as the geth screams as it smacks us against the back of the refinery.
"What do I do!?" Art panics as the hopper flails around the ground, twisting its body desperately trying to get me off.
"SHOOT IT!" I yell, the hopper leaping lazily into the air again, stopping me from doing anything but hold on. "SHOOT IT IN ITS FACE!"
"I CAN'T!" Art screams, my panic catching hold of him as he desperately chases after the hopper and me. "IT WON'T STOP MOVING!"
"JUST FUCKING SHOOT IT!" I plead as we land in a cloud of dust in front of Art. "NOW!" I scream as I hold the hopper still as best I can. "SHOOT IT NOW!"
Art lines up a shot and unleashes a burst at the geth, but it violently spins its body like and alligator and all of Art shots connect with my barrier.
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!?" I scream angrily as the hopper smashes its hand against my head.
"I DIDN'T MEAN TOO!" Art yells back, his rifle fidgeting back and forth between me and the geth.
"YOU DIDN'T HIT IT ONCE!" I scream, trying to sound condescending as I ride the hopper around like it's a wiry bull.
"I'M SORRY!" he cries loudly as he tries to keep up with the hopper.
The hopper finally leaps straight into the air in a last ditch effort, spinning us uncontrollably but I hang on. When we collide with the ground I find that I'm on top of its back. "FUCKIN' DIE!" I roar as I rip my kukri from its sheath and sink it into the muscle like fibers on its neck, the geth wailing louder as it claws at the ground trying to get away. I ream on the knife as I pull it out, slicing through more synthetic tissue as the blade leaves its throat.
The geth's wail becomes more desperate, but its body seems to grow tired as the white blood spurts from the wound. Finally the wail starts to fail, its pitch dropping lower and lower as its light flickers out. I stay sitting on top of it, my chest heaving as I stare at the geth. Therum falls into silence as I hear a louder metallic death wail fades away, Shepard must have killed the Armature.
"Christ, are you ok?" Art asks as he offers his hand to help me up.
I freeze and my hand pivots to look at his hand, then it flicks up to look up at him. "You shot me." I croak, half angry and half dazed.
"Look, I'm sorry about that." he starts.
I ignore him and turn my head back to the dead geth hopper. "I asked you to shoot it."
"I couldn't get a shot, you two idiots were rolling around on the ground!"
"And you just, unloaded on my back." I say in disbelief, still ignoring Art for my own monologue.
"I said sorry!"
"Didn't hit it once." I mutter, shaking my head as I stare at the geth. "Nope, just me."
"Alright, that's enough!" he groans angrily as he lifts me to my feet. "It was an accident!"
"I don't think I can ever forgive you baby bird." I start to sob, pretending to be emotionally distraught. "I've never shot you, not once!"
"What the—? You threw crates at me for two hours!" Art yells as he raises his hands at me.
"I trusted you." I sob as I turn my head away from him dramatically.
"Oh, shove off!" He huffs as he waves me off, walking back towards the dig site.
I laugh as I jog after him.
We make our way into the dig site, dispatching the geth inside quickly and efficiently. We start to make our way to the elevator when Dylan suddenly speaks up.
"I ever tell you about the time my buddy Keith and I were at this Prothean ruin," he starts, doing a horrible impression of Ellis impression from Left 4 Dead 2, "and we had to fight out way through like five tons of geth and—Hey, wait a second—I guess that was you guys. Oh shit man, I can't wait to tell Keith about that one!"
Throughout his spiel, everyone starts to come to a slow pause, staring at Dylan like he has a third eye. Granted, nobody who's supposed to be here will get that but Ian, Alex, and Art might. I know I do.
"Dylan, is now the best time?" I ask, quoting the game. He cocks his head at this and is now staring at me.
"Okay." He says quietly, making me smirk.
We all slowly turn around and make our way to the elevator, slowly packing ourselves into it. Somehow there is enough room for everyone, not a lot of room, but enough. Once we get to the bottom we make our way out of the elevator and across the catwalks.
Three geth drones lift up on the far side of the room but the sheer number of bullets we shoot at them drops them back in seconds. We start to make our way into the next elevator when Wrex makes a note.
"Hmm, sterile white." He grunts as he looks around. "The Protheans sure build things homey."
"What, this doesn't remind you of Tuchanka?" I smirk as the next elevator slides open.
"Not by a long shot." He remarks.
"What do you think this place used to be?" Kaiden asks as we pile into the elevator.
"It could have been a prison." Dylan suggests.
"Makes sense." I nod. "Those rooms on the wall look like cells."
"You would know." Garrus mutters, making me turn and glare at him.
I'm about to snap back at him when the elevator starts sparking, screeching slowly to a stop before opening.
"Great." Shepard sighs. "Alright, let's go people." She says as she leaps down to the busted catwalk below.
I follow her next and then follow her even deeper into the Prothean prison.
"Uh… hello?" a familiar asari voice rings out. "Could somebody help me? Please?"
Shepard walks up to the barrier and I do too as the rest of the squad drops down onto our platform. I press my hand against the barrier and push against it, it's pretty damn solid for a see through barrier.
"Can you hear me out there?" Liara asks as Shepard beckons the rest of the squad over. "I am trapped. I need help!"
"I think she's trapped and needs help." I say dryly, still tapping at the barrier with my knuckles.
"Are you ok?" Shepard asks her, shaking her head at me. "What happened to you?"
"Listen. This thing is a Prothean security device. I cannot move, so I need you to get me out of it. All right?" she says, struggling against the barrier.
"We just need to figure some way past this energy field." Shepard thinks aloud.
I walk up to the barrier again and run my hand along it, the barrier gently pushing back on contact.
"It's a Prothean barrier curtain." Liara explains. "I knew it would keep me safe from the geth. But when I turned it on I-"
Liara is cut off as I build a throw in my hand and smash my fist against the barrier, as I do a loud biotic echo vibrates outwards with the ripple that floats across the barrier.
"Well that didn't work." I shrug as I watch the ripple fade away. Shepard glares at me as she turns back to Liara.
"The barriers impenetrable by force." She says. "You'll have to find some way past the barrier curtain."
"We'll get you out." Shepard reassures her. "Just stay calm."
"Just be careful." Liara warns. "There is a krogan with the geth. They have been trying two different ways to get past the barrier."
Shepard nods at this and walks away from Liara, scanning the surrounding area. She looks back at us and nods for us to follow, no doubt she sees the mining laser. Everyone starts to pile down the catwalks, I stay behind to look at the barrier some more, for whatever reason it fascinates me.
Suddenly gunfire bursts out and I snap to attention, quickly taking cover behind a downed I-beam. I see a dozen geth moving towards the mining laser that Shepard is moving towards, the geth going down quickly under the combined fire of the entire Normandy ground team. I take a knee and rest my Lancer on the railing, firing shots at any geth that presented itself.
As I shoot I notice a red beam trailing around the battlefield, a geth sniper positioned at the far end of the cavern. I let out a breath as I line it in my Lancers sights, careful to only fire one shot at a time. As I shoot though, the laser snaps to me with blinding accuracy and the railing a few feet in front of me explodes inward as the safe feeling of my barriers is ripped away, a pain erupting in my chest.
The sniper rifle round forces me off my feet, sliding me back into the barrier that I was so fascinated with. "Gah! Fuck!" I curse as my panicked hands feel around my chest plate, luckily only finding a deep dent above my right lung. The bullet must have been slowed by the railing, if it wasn't there I would probably be in a lot more pain right now.
"Are you ok?" Liara asks from behind the barrier curtain.
"Yeah." I growl as I force myself to my feet. "I'm fine."
"-Maverick, are you alright up there?-" Shepard's voice crackles through my helmet.
"I'm fine." I repeat, looking back over the I-beam to see the fight is over. "Just left a bit of a dent."
" -Ok, I'm activating the mining laser.-" she says, fiddling with the controls. "-Just as soon as I figure out this damn thing.-"
The mining laser suddenly roars to life and a huge beam of energy rips through the ground beneath the catwalk, after it dissipates I jump down from the catwalk and land next to the gaping hole in the ground.
"Got it!" Shepard chirps happily as she walks past me.
"No shit." Alex chuckles as we walk through the destruction.
After the short elevator ride up to Liara, she cranes her neck back to try to get a better look at the large squad standing behind her.
"How… how did you get in here?" she marvels. "I didn't think there was any way past the barrier!"
"We blasted through with the mining laser." Shepard states.
"It was just sitting there, we figured nobody would mind." Ian shrugs.
"Of course, yes, that makes sense." Liara nods. "Please… get me out of here before more geth arrive."
"I don't think the geth will be a problem." I chuckle. "They haven't got the best track record against us."
"They've got a good one against you." Wrex smirks, pointing to the dent in my chest.
"Don't forget the part where he tried to ride a fucking hopper." Art adds, folding his arms.
"I'm sorry, what?" Shepard turns around, her face twisted in confusion.
"Didn't help that it was jumping thirty feet in the air!" I explain desperately as everyone stares at me. "Or that you were shooting me the whole time!" I point at Art accusingly.
"What the hell are you two talking about?" Ashley asks.
"And the fact that Romeo and Juliette over here," I motion to Dylan and Ashley, Dylan awkwardly turning away when I make the comparison. "ran off to god knows where to leave me to the hoppers!"
"One hopper." Art corrects. "It's not like you fought off an army of the damn things."
"Yeah one hopper, and you." I sneer.
"Hello?" Liara interrupts. "Could you please get me down? The button for the containment field is over there."
Shepard walks over and reaches to the button to shut down Liaras bubble prison, still shaking her head at me.
"Not so fast Shepard." Wrex stops her. "How can you be sure she's on our side, her mother is working with Saren."
"I am not my mother!" Liara suddenly snaps. "I don't even know why Benezia joined Saren. I don't want anything to do with that turian bastard!"
"If she was with Saren I doubt the geth would be trying to kill her." Shepard says, reaching out to the console and deactivating the containment field. Liara jolts down to the ground with a thud, quickly brushing herself off as she gets to her feet.
"Any idea how we get out of here?" Kaiden asks as he looks around.
"My money is on some sort of tunnel." I say dryly. "For now I'd start with the elevator we came up in."
"He's right." Liara nods as we all walk to the elevator. "There is one in the central tower, it should take us out of here. Come on!"
As we walk onto the platform Liara walks up to Shepard who just so happens to be standing next to me, the rest of the crew is surprisingly spread out. It's funny, they each seem to have their own little cliques to a degree. Ian and Garrus are always together, Ashley and Dylan are the same, Art is with Tali, and everyone just sprinkles in with them.
"I still cannot believe all this." Liara says as she rubs her temples. "Why would the geth come after me? Do you think Benezia's involved?"
"I'd put money on it." I shrug. "She is connected to Saren and the geth, and also you. Saren and she must be too busy doing whatever it is they do so they sent the lackeys out to get you."
"But what could I offer him?" she asks, confused by everything that's happening.
"Saren is looking for the Conduit, you're a Prothean expert." Shepard points out. "He probably thinks you can help him find it."
"The Conduit?" she asks. "I don't know…" her voice trails off and everyone stops to look around, a deep rumbling echoing through the elevator.
"Well that can't be good." I remark sarcastically, looking at the small stones falling from the walls and bouncing off the floor.
"These ruins aren't stable." Liara concludes. "That mining laser must have triggered a seismic event."
"Way to go Shepard." I joke, bumping her with my elbow.
"We have to hurry, this whole place is caving in." Liara says calmly as she activates the elevator terminal.
Shepard's hand whips up to here ear and the palm of her hand glows as her Omni-tool activates. "Joker! Get the Normandy airborne and lock in on my signal! On the double mister!"
"Mister?" I cock my head at her. "What are you his mother?"
Shepard glares at me as Jokers muffled response plays in her ear.
I hear everyone around making comments on the situation, most of them are negative and a few threaten Jokers wellbeing. Once we get to the top Shepard notices the krogan walking towards us, and he has a lot more geth than in the game! Is that a juggernaut? Goddamn it.
Everyone silently spreads out, taking cover where they can as Liara Shepard and I stand in the middle of the elevator.
"Surrender." The krogan booms. "Or don't, that would be more fun!"
Shepard looks to me and gives me a subtle nod, I think she knows we aren't leaving with him still alive. "Is there a reason you're in my way?" she asks, her hand sliding subtly towards her pistol.
My hand makes its way into one of my pouches and I draw a grenade, readying it to throw into the mess of geth.
"The same reason you're here. The asari." He says as he walks forward. "Thanks for getting rid of those energy fields for us, now hand over the doctor."
To Shepard's surprise, the entire crew starts to tell off the krogan Battlemaster. A loud murmur of discontent echoing in the elevator, and as it starts to fade I take a step forward and add my two sense.
"Yeah, fuck you bud!" I call out obnoxiously, a stereo typical Canadian accent hanging on my voice.
"I'm with him." Shepard thumbs over to me. "We don't have time to be dealing with you. Maverick, protect Liara, everyone else, open fire!"
The room erupts in a torrent of gunfire, both sides unleashing hell. I see Liara huddle down behind a console, a few shots impacting the side of it. Shepard trusted me to protect her, so you bet your ass I will. I rush forward, hurling my grenade forward. It detonates and causes the juggernaut to stumble, three geth sent sailing by the blast.
"You can't stay here!" I yell as I grab Liaras arm and force her behind me.
I decide to take Liara to the right behind a large strut that supports the elevator, I crouch behind it and tuck Liara against it so she is surrounded by me and steel. "Stay down!" I yell as I peer over my cover and fire my Lancer at the juggernaut that has made its way across the room to attack the others.
I look back down to Liara and I'm surprised to see she is actually quite scared, she doesn't remind me of the Liara from the games. The last time I saw her, she was the shadow broker, she was strong, independent, and smart. Now though, she's inexperienced, afraid, and well, for a lack of better words, she hasn't developed. She hasn't gone through things that make her Liara from Mass Effect 3, she is still Liara from Mass Effect 1.
I can't be thinking about this now though, there are still geth out there and a krogan Battlemaster. I peek right around the corner and see a geth trying to flank Shepard and the squad, running towards me. My finger tightens around the trigger and my rifle spews rounds into the geth, its shields failing after a short burst and its chest gets chewed apart. The geth goes limp and falls to the ground, its flashlight flickering out.
I smile, finally I killed a geth with my rifle and I didn't have to ride it around like an idiot. My smile fades though as I hear heavy footsteps from around the strut and a deep voice rumbling.
"There you are!" the Battlemaster says from around the strut. Shit, Liara!
Without thinking I rush back around the strut and come face to face with the Battlemaster, he looks up just as my finger slams the trigger down and unleashes a torrent of bullets into him. But he doesn't move, in fact he smiles at me, amused by my efforts. He laughs as his barriers lap up the bullets and he steps forward and swings his fist in a wide haymaker. I duck under it and push forward, pressing my rifle right against his armor and keep the trigger down, sparks flying from the armor briefly before they're joined by orange blood.
I grind my teeth as I let out a yell, digging the rifle into the wound as it continues to burp out round after round. Then steam shoots out of the side of the weapon and my HUD blares a warning, before I can react my stomach explodes in pain and I'm hoisted several feet in the air by the Battlemasters fist. I hear him let out a primal roar as I collapse to the ground, I let out a groan as my hand grips my stomach and I feel a hand wrap around my neck. I feel my throat squeezed close as the krogan lift me up to eye level, my hands griping his as I try to pry them off of me.
"This is the problem with you humans." He growls as he pulls my back and hurls against the wall. My back slams against it and I slide down to my feet, stumbling forward before the krogan brings his shotgun to bear. He lets loose a shot into my battered stomach and I am forced back against the wall, somehow my barriers absorbing the shot before they fail.
Jesus Christ, I don't know how they stopped the blast but they did. I can't feel any new pain, just the pain from the punch. My barriers must be stronger than I thought.
"You spend so much time fighting from afar," he says as he walks forward and grabs me by my throat again, breaking my thoughts.
"You don't know how to fight when you're up close!" he roars as he swings me around and slams me against the strut, my feet swinging desperately to touch the ground. My eyes bulge left and right as I look for something, I don't know what. A low laugh vibrates from the Battlemasters throat as he squeezes the life out of me, but then my eyes spot my new kukri on my arm.
My right hand darts to the kukri and rips the blade from its sheath, then I pull it back and plunge the tip into the krogans eye. He lets out a scream and my feet hit the floor as air rushes to my lungs, I manage to look up as I cough to see the krogan grasping at the knife in his head. I wearily reach for my shotgun and swing it to the krogan, the Katana unfolding with the sound of ringing steel.
My finger finds the trigger as I hold the shotgun in my outstretched hand and I adjust my aim, but before I can pull the trigger the krogans hand lashes out and strikes my Katana from my hand. He lets out a ground shaking roar as he charges forward and slams me back against the strut, his elbow denting my chest plate as he pins me down.
With a horrible wet slink, he tears my knife from his eye and thrusts it at my neck. My hand moves before my brain can tell it to and a biotic pulse knocks the knife of course, sending it through my arm instead of my neck. I let out a cry of pain as I stare at the handle poking out from my arm, but my cry is stifled when the krogans fist slams my head against the wall with a loud crack. He pulls back to hit me again but for some reason, he violently flies backwards onto his back.
Urdnot Wrex stands above the Battlemaster, covered in synthetic blood. The Battlemaster tries to get up but he ends up pressing his head against the barrel of Wrexs shotgun, and with a click and a bang the Battlemasters head tears apart like a ripe melon. Blood and brains smear against the ground as Wrex folds the still smoking gun onto his back.
"Weak." He sneers in a low disappointed tone as he looks at the dead krogan. Without saying a word he jogs after Shepard who is now killing the last geth, it looks like it's time to go. I look around to see Liara where I left her, she's looking up at me from the ball she's curled herself into and I reach my right arm down to help her up, my left arm pulsating as my knife juts from my flesh.
"Let's go…" I say weakly, not knowing which injury to hold first. She grabs my hand and starts to pull herself up but ends up pulling me towards her, so she gets up on her own.
"We've got to move!" Shepard yells as she waves everyone to the door, squad mates jumping over dead geth as they follow her, Liara and I taking up the rear.
We navigate our way through the catwalks and ruble as quick as we can, each one of us desperately trying to reach the surface. Joker better fucking be there, I will not die on this shithole planet. We round the corner and start to run up a tunnel, I can hear the catwalk we were just on crashing down into the cavern below.
The doors to the tunnel fly open and the Normandy is hovering against another catwalk, it vehicle bay door hanging open. Shepard leads us up yet another catwalk and we all rush into the Normandy, loud explosions going off behind us as the door grinds closed.
The vehicle bay is unusually quiet, just heavy breathing as everyone looks around at each other, amazed we made it out alive. I notice I'm not the only one with an injury, Ashley is holding her side but luckily I don't see any blood, Alex has his helmet off and I can see blood running down from a gash in his head, Ian's limping as he walks up to Shepard, and Art has his hand pressed against his arm with blood trickling out from underneath.
Art notices me and pulls off his helmet, his hair falling out messily as he dons a huge proud grin despite his injury. He takes a couple steps towards me and I see him scowl as he looks at my arm, my kukri still planted into my bicep. I should probably get that out. With a sigh I make sure my tongue is clear of my teeth and I grip the blade, ok, I can do this. It's just like a band aid… one… two… THREE!
I let out a whimper and my knees shake as I rip the knife free, the pain reminding me of the turian outside of Saylems place. I don't even bother sheathing the blade, my hands to shaky so I just let it clang to the floor. I notice Art making a face as I unseal my helmet, something tells me he wouldn't have even tried to pull the knife out.
"Jesus Christ…" he curses squeamishly as I take off my helmet. I turn it around to see a huge crack running against the Icarus logo and around my visor, I can almost make out the krogans fist in the dent.
"I got punched in the face…" I smirk weakly as I let my helmet fall to the floor with my knife. "…by a krogan Battlemaster… and lived…"
Art smirks at me as I laugh quietly, his eyes drooping to the ground to look at my helmet as I press my hand against my stomach which is in searing pain. I look around the room and my eye catches Alex, he smirks at me and gives me a nod, so I smile back and give him a thumbs up. I turn back to see Art still looking at the ground but the pride is gone from his face, it's been replaced by confusion.
My eyes fall down to see what he's looking at, I see my kukri and my helmet and some things in between them. I catch something fall from one of my pouches and hit the ground and I realize what they are.
It's blood. Small droplets of blood leaking from my pouches. My hand leaves my stomach and I stare at my palm, the glove soaked with blood, my blood. I look back up to Art and I start to panic when I see him look at me, the confusion stricken from his face and replaced with concern.
I guess my barriers aren't as strong as I thought.
R/R
general-joseph-dickson: Thanks man.
OBSERVER01: Thanks, I thought the HALO jump was a nice touch. Jeez, prank Garrus? Probably never right now, I would never prank an enemy, they don't deserve my creativity!
ultimate idiot: Naw, that'd be a lame way to die.
Michae1ange1o: Mavs to proud to let people know about his condition, to him stuff like that is kept private. I can honestly say I would never hit a girl below the belt, if I had to I'd hit her in the face. Only if she hits me though, a good hit too. I got yer equality right here… Sorry, I had an argument with a feminist extremist the other day and it really got to me, that's great that you're proud to be a woman but you should probably focus on building women up instead of tearing men down. Anyway, I'm ranting. I actually liked what Herr Wozzeck did with Tali, it added a darkness that came out of nowhere and ripped away that pesky plot armour.
Lfan8: Thank you sir, glad you enjoyed it!
Nas4a2: Who wouldn't? I would do a HALO jump in a heartbeat! Well I hoped you liked it, and I will try my hardest!
CrimsonKnight117: Ahh the jinx, ain't it great? I hope it was fun, I thought so.
Endrius: It just seems logical I suppose, she's in a suitable area to spar and it's pretty much either her or Wrex. I'd take Ashley every day of the week, and thanks!
Spiritstrike: Wooo! Good to see a review! You would think Therum would be a quick pick up run yet they drop you a few kilometers away from the dig site, doesn't make much sense to me but hey, what can you do? Yeah, there might be a few more Mako's lost by the end of this story! Mav/Lorin is just fun to write, the way they talk to each other is how me and my friends talk to each other so that probably helps the dialogue. I can't wait to write MA2, tons of Mav/Lorin shenanigans plus new lovable OCs, I'm pumped! I doubt Garrus would let all of that slide, if he did he wouldn't feel like Garrus. Yeah, you'll have to put up with the angst a while longer!
DelVarO: Go big or go home baby! I was thinking of killing of Alex by the way of molten lava, but that's too bland… I'll have to think of a better way… ;) Don't worry, R/R is here to stay! I like responding to everyone, letting people know I'm acknowledging their reviews.
ForgottenPrince: Hopefully this one will take you a bit longer, she's a doozy! I will try!
Kaiya Smith: Nope, Murphy's law isn't one that bends easily. I didn't even think of putting a Dodgeball quote in there! Augh, that would have been perfect! Well well, speaking of Mav getting injured. What are you, a soothsayer? Who am I kidding, Mav gets injured every other chapter! SHHHH! Pipe down soothsayer! You're spoiling bits with your scarily accurate predictions!
Guest1: I haven't read Hero, I am Not. I'll probably give it a go though. I'm always looking for something to read. Thanks!
Guest2: I can't see myself killing off any SI's, just idle threats at DelVarO to make him nervous, nothing more. Having them work for Icarus would be interesting, though probably wouldn't do it because that's something specific to Maverick. Thanks man, I'll try!
RosoMC: Glad you're having a good time. Yeah there isn't much of a point in taking everything seriously, if you do it gets a bit boring if it's not done right. There are tons of great fics out there that are serious, I wouldn't want to take away from them. I didn't include Patrick Grayson because I had a tough time deciding to include four other SI's, I felt it'd be too much. I loved that fic but I just could find a way to do what I wanted to do and have his stuff work in too.
Niras91: I know what you're talking about, I went to collage for a year for mechanical engineering. Not only are all of the essays in your standard classes a time sink, but my main project had me spend over 250 hours on Inventor designing a fully functional robot. Fun, but tiresome and a time sink. Glad you liked the chapter, I hope you liked this one too! Please, the fact that I'm entertaining anybody is tanks enough, though cookies sound pretty good right now… anyway, good luck with your studies and thanks for reading!