Five Seconds

Chapter 14: Ammo

Authors Note: Hello any and all that still have this story on alert, it has been over a year now since the last chapter. This is the part where I make some excuse on why I haven't posted for so long, but quite frankly it was the difficulty of putting ideas down on paper and lack of motivation. However, to try and not leave something unfinished I will try to sporadically add a chapter or two when I can, but I wouldn't expect anyone to hold their breath on my account! This chapter starts after Loyalty Mission for Jacob to try and boost this along to the next chapter, although what occurs differently will be brought to light with a few look backs. The talk with Jacob will come along in the next chapter and I won't focus on Shepard's chat with each crewmate after each mission, to make things interesting I would rather focus on Daemon's talks with them while making a bond to each. Now after such a lengthy note…on with the story.

With the unexpected ending to the visit to Aeia wrapped up the crew would pour out from the shuttle. Of the four walking out of the shuttle, Shepard, Jacob, Miranda, and Daemon only Daemon was perhaps the more upbeat in comparison to the others, although not overly so. Having a hefty bag slung over his shoulder to which Miranda looked at with annoyance then anything, but it seemed to be a topic long since finished and in his favor. Jacob understandably a bit silent after the shocking truths in concern to his father and what truly occurred. Shepard seemed a bit worried for the soldier, but gave him his space. A look came to his face, one of determination as he started to walk towards the elevator, the rest of the group following right behind.

Daemon followed right behind the group as they stepped into the elevator, despite being quite pleased with him, Aeia had its own effect on him as well. Being the closest he'd ever been since he woke up on a planet that closely resembled Earth made his heart heavy, longing to see familiar sights, sounds…people. While everyone else seemed content to go to the Command deck he would suddenly press the button to go to the Engineer deck, he had to get it off his mind, and there was someone he had to thank after all after what happened on Illium after he was covered in Minagen X3 and was incapacitated. He had thanked Kasumi earlier since they shared the same room, instead of a carefree response he had come to expect from her he had instead been labeled with an 'I. O. U' saying he owed her a debt, what kind of debt she wouldn't say. No one in the elevator commented on his sudden change of heart, however Miranda would say, "You can leave the bag with me, I'll take it to where it belongs," She said in her calm tone, holding her hand out.

Daemon would just hold the bag away with her, his green eyes looking her up and down with a look of 'uh-huh' "I'll be holding onto these until either point has been made, but your offer is appreciated," he said, having little doubt in his mind she'd just toss his treasure out the air-lock out of spite. His suspicions were proven with the look that came in her eyes like a cat that ate the canary, stepping out he would turn left…taking a deep breath as he hoped he caught Jack in a slightly less psychopathic mood.

Jack had her pistol dissembled in front of her, the clip discharged from the gun she was cleaning the insides, not out of necessity, but rather to keep her mind busy from the fact that she was irritated. That was usually what happened when she was stagnate for too long, her skin would begin to crawl and she'd just start pacing, needing to get her fingers moving, to tear something apart. The best she could do at that moment was to take her gun apart. Guns in her mind were her only friend, the only thing in this world she could trust not to turn on her, everyone had secret agendas and plans, guns only had one function and that function resonated with her very well. Her concentration was shattered the moment she heard familiar footsteps on the stairs, her brow furrowing slightly as she gritted her teeth, what did he want this time?

He saw Jack at the table, sitting on a crate with her gun in pieces, he had done the same thing himself with all of his own weapons a few times already, mostly out of the necessity in getting familiar with this centuries weaponry. Despite how rather intriguing they were he was still quite disappointed his childhood fantasy of Star Wars laser pistols and light sabers had yet to be realized even in this day and age, though he kept that to himself.

"Hey," He said, walking over he would grasp a crate before bringing it over to the other side of the table, sitting down as he put his bag of goodies, the contents making a metallic 'clank' against the floor.

"Took you all long enough," she said, "How long does it take to look at a bunch of skeletons?" Daemon always noted she tried her best to sound disinterested in the conversation, like it was a chore she had to deal with then something to look forward to, yet she hadn't yet told him to fuck off completely…yet.

Daemon would pull off the armored gloves from his hands, setting them down to the side, giving them some air as he said "It takes a while when the skeletons are shooting at you."

That seemed to get her attention, watching her brow raise up, bringing those brown eyes to look up at him quizzically, "Fuckers were still alive after ten years? I missed some action then shit," she cursed.

"You did," He agreed, shifting on the crate, "But there wasn't much of any killing going on, if any at all in fact, a point of conflict between me and Miss Lawson."

"Well that's just fucking boring, why bother if they were trying to kill you?" she asked, seeming puzzled by this concept of avoiding pure slaughter it seemed, "It's stupid, and not as fun."

"Because…" Daemon started, taking a deep breath. He explained how nearly all of the men and women had been mentally compromised, a result of eating the local flora, causing them to mentally degrade until they were almost children, recalling their first encounter with the locals:

The group walked towards a pair of abandoned crates climbing up the slope, a woman popping up from behind. They froze for a moment as she came up to them shouting "You came from the sky?! The leader said someone would come, he delayed for so long…but he still has power!" They were all perplexed, Daemon included as the woman turned away, hugging her self, "Some have lost faith, the hunters will have seen your star, they will not let you help him!"

"What are you talking about?" Shepard asked, "I can't understand what you're saying."

The poor woman stuttered for a moment, closing her eyes as she said "I…I don't remember how to say it."

"Apparently this leader said help would arrive soon, but because of the ten year delay some of the crew have turned violent and will try and stop us from 'rescuing' him," Daemon said, blinking his eyes as Miranda, Jacob, and Shepard looked at him with a raised brow, the crazed woman nodding her head in agreement, "What? I thought it was obvious," he said.

"Our leader cast them out, exiled them, they fight his machines, they don't believe anyone will come an-"

"GET DOWN!" Daemon shouted, that tingle coming to the back of his head he suddenly grabbed the woman and pulled her down, the group rushing right behind him as bullets just started to fly from overhead.

"Agents of the Liar!" One of the 'hunters' shouted "He will not escape!"

"Take them out!" Miranda shouted, popping up from cover, her pistol aiming at one of the men.

"No!" Daemon would grab Miranda's arm, pulling her right back down, "We cannot kill them, they are not in their right minds."

"It doesn't matter what kind of state of mind they are in, they are attacking and we have to fight back Colonel," Miranda hissed, Daemon could see he pissed her off.

"You heard her, you heard the reports, these people have been poisoned by the food, they can barely form words, let alone fight," he looked over at Shepard, "We cannot kill them."

"In the end she agreed with me, between the four of us, our shields and biotics it was easy to incapacitate them without much harm," He said.

That explanation seemed to make sense to Jack, who had stopped in her tinkering to listen, making a soft 'tch' with her lips she would turn her head, "Killing a bunch of handicapped fucks isn't any fun anyways, no challenge…" he saw her eyes go to the bag, pointing a slim finger over towards it, "What's in the bag?"

Daemon would pause for a moment at that question, his eyes glancing over at the bag as the moment came flashing back into his mind.

The last of the group of hunters would fall unconscious after being slammed into the dirt by Jacob. The group approaching the groaning and limp figures, their rifles and guns scattered across the grass. "I don't think they'll be fighting again anytime soon," Daemon said looking over at the group, Shepard and Jacob seemed quite pleased, while Miranda remained cold stone faced about the ordeal. Bending down Daemon would pick up one of the old pistols, examining it, "For people stuck on a planet for ten years, they conserved their ammo extremely well."

"That's because these ones don't take thermo clips," Shepard said.

"What do you mean?" Daemon asked, his brow furrowing slightly as the Commander walked over towards him, picking up a rifle herself in the process.

"A few years back guns had a built in thermal system that wasn't ejected once used up, rather once it overheated the system would open up and vent the heat out, after a few seconds the system would close back up and ready to fire again," Miranda explained, idly kicking at one of the unconscious hunters.

This made Daemon stop for a second, the wheels spinning in his head, raising a finger up, mouth parting before closing again, the shocking…realization slowly starting to creep up on him "So…you wouldn't have to worry about running out of thermal clips…you had…no….ammo limitations…" he said, oh so slowly.
"Exactly, a person could fire the gun for hours, days, years on end really, but the cooling system wasn't deemed adequate so they switched it out for clips, the ammo never runs out, but now if you have no thermal clips you can't fire the weapon," Miranda said.

Daemon just stared, dumbfounded at this information, staring down at the pistol he had picked up with wide eyes "You're telling me….the military….gave up….unlimited ammunition…." He suddenly just covered his face, suddenly curling up on the ground.
"You alright Daemon?" He heard Shepard ask as he just sat there, the weight of pure stupidity, the times he would have killed for unlimited ammunition, the WARS to get hands on such technology in his time, and these people JUST THREW IT AWAY?!

He would suddenly just get up, and just not look at them, tossing his hands up into the air "No no no I'm fine, just fine, I am so glad I got to live to see technology make unlimited ammunition just to piss it down the drain cause life was so easy with it!" he would start to pick up the pistols and the rifles.

"You're being childish Colonel," Miranda said, "They gave it up in exchange for faster reload times, the person that could spit out more ammo was the victor."

"Perhaps you lot don't understand this," He said, stopping as he picked up a rifle, "But we couldn't afford to just spray ammo down the field, we had to be accurate or we would be screwed, does the word precision, mean anything to you?!" He said, probably taking them all aback, considering this was the first time they had seen him angry, irate even.

"Manufacturers said it made the shots more potent as well, if you gut those guns and put them in place of your own you'll hold us back," Miranda said with a cold stare.

"Yeah we'll see about that," He said, with an armful of weapons he would just trot back down the hill towards the crashed ship, he'd need a bag for this…UNLIMITED AMMO!

Daemon would reach in, pulling out one of the pistols in the bag, holding it out to Jack for her to take, watching as she took it in her grasp, perplexed as to why until she looked at it further "….Son of a fucking bitch," she said wide eyed, "These have the old cooling system in it, DAMN, did it piss me off having to carry those stupid clips."

"It was stupid right?!" He said, completely relieved that someone agreed with him, sighing as he rubbed his brow, "I'm going to see if I can get a few of these installed in my weapons, then I'm going to see if what those manufacturers claim is true," he had a feeling from her reaction that she wanted the hand gun, so he said, "You can keep that one."

"Fuck yes!" She said, throwing her hands up with a wide grin, the smile on her face actually making him feel warm inside, this was probably the happiest he'd seen Jack. However, a thought seemed to cross her mind before she stared him down, setting the pistol to the side "What's the catch," she said, suspicious.

His brow would rise up at that question; there wasn't really any reason in giving her it, nothing conniving anyways. However he had a feeling anything less than a good reason was going to cut it, so he said, "Consider it a thank you gift, for saving my ass on Illium," slowly starting to stand up, gripping the bag and slinging it over his shoulder.

For a split second he might have saw color rise to her cheeks before she jerked away, "I didn't go there to save your ass, I went to smear mercenary blood on the walls…" despite her words she didn't seem to give the weapon back so it must have been good enough, "Don't expect me to do it again."

"Fair enough," he said with a light chuckle, looking towards the stairs, "I'm going to head up to the armory, start gutting some of these guns, want to come with?" He asked, looking back over at her.

He thought he saw her think on it for a moment, biting down on her full red lip before she shrugged her shoulders lazily, "Not interested," she said, "But…if those little tests you do turn up well…I might steal one for my shotgun."

"Alright, I'll let you know what happens," He said, turning walking towards the stairs, looking over his shoulder at her "Talk later?"

"Sure," She said, already starting to take the old pistol apart right next to the other efficiently, the next thing she heard was the sound of his footsteps walking away. Stopping for a moment she would look up to where he used to be, drawing in a deep breath before brushing her hand over her bald head. "A gift huh?" She thought, it had been a long…long time since anyone had given her something, even if it was for some stupid reason, it made her feel something inside that she couldn't quite describe, like she had just beaten someone to a pulp, it made her feel…good. Shaking her head hard she tried to push him out of her head, now to get this puppy put in…

Authors note: So concludes this chapter, Next will be Daemons little bonding time with Jacob and continuing on towards Miranda's mission, after Jacob hopefully it won't be too dialogue heavy, but I can't make any promises, thank you to any that still stuck around to see this, I can't say when the next chapter will be out, but I'm hoping my motivation keeps up and I can put out another chapter soon. I will take any review, positive or negative; all I ask is for it to be fair and polite! Good luck to everyone and me included that are or already back in college.