Ahh... seems like I managed to cram this one out before school starts again.
Well, what is there to say... thinking, thinking...
Oh, right!
... no, lost it... darn.
Well, a recap then, of some events.
Kasumi seems to be getting well along with Padme and Chuchi, Ahsoka is one some mission involving drug-dealers, and clones are watching over her. Seems like she is on vacation. Also, I just found out I've been spelling Ahsoka's name wrong all along, a thing I'm probably going to have to go back and correct at some point.
Anna seems to be well on the way of forging a galactic superpower, with the Alliance gaining the Quarians. Maybe now the construction of the Goliath ships will proceed even faster? Heck, even I don't know that, it's up to realism to be the judge of that. The Council will probably be less than pleased to see that the species they wanted punished for toying with AI's are going to be taken in by Humanity now.
The Sidonis-Tara-Magnus trio is bound for some epic shitstorms and adventures when they ship out. Also, as we name their ship in the next chapter, this is your chance for giving your ten-cent on what the ship should be dubbed. Just remember, it's a Turian ship.
Thomas seems to be in the process of going full Avatar. Yes, I used that phrase. Well, how else do you descripe a state that involves going completely apeshit-badass, glowy eyes and spewing fire from your hands? I cannot overstress how difficult these scenes with him going emerald were to write. It's all about the balance between under- and overpowered, as well as being in control and having Roku in control. Dammit, there's so much spiritual crap going down as well, that I am fully expecting a few of you to start cutting me down for not explaining enough about it. I can only say, it WILL be explained, in depth even, but not now.
Tali, Nicolai, Boss, Scorch and Liara are still laid up in a hospital, so they don't get much screen-time for now. Though, it is tempting to imagine the father-daughter scene between Rael and Tali when he barges in through the doors.
Oh, also there is a great story called "The first war" on the site. I read it and had chills all the way through. There's a small cameo, just a mentioning really, of the story in this chapter.
Well, I think that's all for now. Enjoy and... "by fire be purged!"
Wrath of the Fire god
Coruscant, Galactic Republic Space
18:22
Walking through the streets of Coruscant was a different feeling than walking the streets of Earth, that much was certain. Not that Kasumi minded, not really. It was really just her kind of place. Lots of dark alcoves to hide in, tech to relocate and new things to see. Still, there was one thing this place didn't have.
Keji
Kasumi constantly wished she could track down that Hudson person, creator-god of everything or not. She couldn't remember the specifics Thomas had used when he hit her with a proverbial brick, but the core of it had been that he knew her mostly as a character in a game. Heh... he might be from somewhere else, but he really needed to get his head checked.
Still... from what she had been able to follow through the bugs she had set up on the Normandy, it would seem that the female Chief, Ashley Williams, had been doing a good job on getting his head straightened out. Now Kasumi just needed to see Thomas again, poke her tongue at him and say 'I told you so'.
"Ma'am, I still don't get why you insisted on walking back to the Senate. Taking a cap would have been more comfortable." Slammer said. Kasumi returned from her thoughts to look at her bodyguards. Not that she needed them, but she had to admit that it was strange in the funny way, finding out that the clones who had watched her at the dinner had been the same guys she had tricked on the ship. Best part was, they were still completely fine about it.
"Well, it's not thát far, you know. Besides, I'm not one of the soft, pampered politicians you probably have to look after all the time. How's the head Blast?" She said, looking from Slammer to the clone behind her. Blast sighed, giving her a smile;
"Ah well, it's nothing more than what I usually get on shore leaves, ma'am. All is forgiven" He said. Kasumi noticed that he seemed a little awkward with the inquiry, like it was an unusual thing that the clones were asked how they felt. Okay, so it was easy to generalize them, since they all looked pretty much the same, but still, they were human beings. And, she had to admit, rather good looking.
"Thanks. I have to ask, if you don't mind... why does your Republic use clones for soldiers? I can't imagine you lack for volunteers in the army." She asked, looking at the four clones. Fox, the leader and sergeant of the squad, let out a small huff of annoyance.
"That's a tough question, especially if you ask one of the civilians. Most people here on Coruscant aren't even aware of the war, beyond the occasional bulletin that this and that planet has been liberated. Because the Republic is using... well, us, instead of its citizens, they don't have to worry about things like retirement-funding and that sort of things." He said, not looking her in the eye. She couldn't remember having offended him, so it had to be the war he was annoyed with. Her mind took a few moments to process his words, leading to her face suddenly going from merrily curious, to confused.
"What do you mean, no retirement-funds? You're clones, sure, but aren't you still regular soldiers?" She asked. Fox looked like he was conflicted about answering. She couldn't understand why, and neither could she understand why they wouldn't be given retirement-funding.
"Miss Goto... I don't know how much you know of the war, of the Republic, of the Separatists... but we fight droids. And in the eyes of the populace, we ourselves are pretty much just droids as well. We're... not often viewed as human beings. Fek, I should not even be talking about this..." He muttered. Kasumi, having enjoyed the evening until now, lost all her good mood. How could this civilization, this place that priced itself with culture and moral high-ground... how could they view living beings like... mechanical things?
"Hey, cheer up, eh? We're not here to spoil the Ambassador's mood, Sarge. Change of topic, eh?" Blast said, coming up between them, placing a hand on Fox's shoulder; "Now, if the moody-time is over, how about we ask some questions, hmm?" He said, looking at Kasumi with that same, cheery and merry face he seemingly always had. Kasumi wanted to know more, about the clones, about why they were apparently treated like this, and why they didn't demand rights. Still, she decided to demand those answers from Ahsoka or Padme, whomever she saw first.
"Sure, ask away." She said, getting her tone back to the one people always affiliated her with.
"So, since you seem to be surprised we use clones. How do people fight wars in your galaxy?" The happy clone asked, gently shoving his sergeant out of the way so he could walk beside Kasumi. The ambassador frowned, not being sure how to answer the question.
"Uh... that's... a pretty big question." She said. Fox shrugged from his place next to Blast, keeping his eyes scanning the surroundings;
"So was asking why the Republic uses clones" He commented. Somehow, it seemed her question had spoiled his mood. Not that she had intended to do that, she was just naturally curious.
"Hey Sarge, it was my question first. No interrupting" Blast remarked, glancing at the leader. He then looked back at Kasumi, awaiting her response.
"Well... we don't use clones, first. From what I know, our armed forces are made up of volunteers and career-soldiers. Our navies are diverted into battle groups... our biggest ships so far are about a kilometer long... the army mostly uses small squads, I think... really, I'm not the best person to ask on military things." She admitted, letting out a small sigh as she breathed in the warm evening air.
"Oh... but the soldiers in your armies, what do they do when the war is over?" Blast kept on asking. It was, Kasumi realized, strangely youthful behavior from grown men.
"They go home, I suppose. Most of them have families, maybe even jobs waiting for them. Career soldiers just stay in the military, I guess, waiting for the next war. If they are injured in battle, they get maybe a medal, and if it's bad enough, they retire from the military, living on maybe a pension paid for by the army."
"So... they have lives outside the military? Sounds... like a strange thing. A good thing, but still strange." Blast said, his voice taking on a slightly dreamy tone, like he was dreaming himself away to the Systems Alliance. Kasumi suddenly realized just how much the clones would probably love serving in the Alliance instead of the Republic army.
But she still missed Keji. Maybe, just one more day, to see if there was anything important coming up, then she would go back home, to Keji.
Virmire, Hoc System.
Saren's base of operations.
20:49
Covering the area around the base, the circular plate of metal dug into the ground, was the army of geth troops and Reaper infantry meant to repel any army and amount of armor. Rockets, snipers and the hulking amalgamations of captured Turians and vat-grown Krogans, mutated Batarians and impaled humans, all were they ready to face down and slaughter the incoming humans.
As a form appeared over the ridgeline to the west, the geth platform looking over the low wall of concrete flapped its pedals, processing the new data streaming in from its sensory modules. Radars told it that there were just thirty-one human soldiers on the other side of mound of earth and stone, a result of tectonically active plates. There was also one Krogan, not under the control of the Prophet, a Turian that was not the Prophet, and a Quarian, an unexpected occurrence that would require a collected consensus to understand.
Examining... human...marine...singular organism, flawed.
Reaching consensus.
Consensus achieved.
Human of little threat in insufficient numbers. Single human of no relevance.
Focus on defending against incoming forces from south of base.
Tactics regarding remaining group of humans?
Ignore until threat is clear.
Affirmative.
It shrugged off the notion that it should be concerned as to the appearance of the single human, a white-and-blue armored human marine. The marine started running down the hill. The platform offered a 360° degrees vision that monitored the human as it ran down the hill towards the amassed geth and forces of the Old Machines.
"Shepard, how can you just send him down there alone? He's going to be killed." Lieutenant Lee Riley hissed as she aimed down the improvised scope of her Mattock, a weapon meant for precision over suppression. She was lying against the ridge, keeping only her head and rifle above the cover as she followed the young corporal's running with her eyes.
"Just keep watching and be on the lookout for anything heavier than a minigun." Captain Jane Shepard replied, resting the stock of her own rifle against her shoulder as she looked at Fisher, watching as she picked up speed from a simple walk to a full-on sprint.
"You better know what you're doing Captain..." Riley replied, but otherwise remained silent for the time being. Jane hoped she did, indeed, know what she was doing, and hadn't overestimated Fisher's abilities.
To a casual observer, it looked like a normal marine running downhill as Thomas started picking up his pace. He was nervous, scared too, if he was to be honest. Even with his powers, there was a risk this was a suicide run that could put the assault on the Omega 4 Relay to shame, seeing as he didn't have a small army of elite operative with him. Blast it, he would have liked to have Legion covering his back with that anti-material sniper rifle that geth had been so fond of in the game. Him, or Garrus, Thane or Zaeed...
Well, maybe not Thane, seeing as the Drell had broken Thomas's neck the last and first time the two had met. It was kinda a shame, really, that he would most likely give the poor guy a heart attack on top of the lung disease Thane suffered from. Fuck me... Roku, how are we even going to go 'ape-shit' mode?
"Embrace the power as you did on Valhalla. Open the gates!" The Spirit both roared and soothed at the same time, giving the man shivering sensations down his back, through the spine.
"So what, embrace eteeeeeee!" Thomas had to stop his own thoughts as he tried doing what Roku told him, mentally opening himself to whatever gates the Being was talking about.
The result was an immense feeling coursing through his body, starting from his heart before spreading outwards, from heart to feet and head, to hands and fingers. It was like a combination of an orgasm, getting a full-on third-degree scolding without pain, and getting electrocuted while being lowered into warm water. It was close to what he had experienced on Valhalla, but so, so much more powerful.
"First Gate: Fire!"
Roku bellowed through his mind, but without a sound made. The words 'first gate' would normally have caused Thomas to ask why there were gates, and then why they were named gates, even if that would have been answered by the first question. The next question could then have been 'how many gates are there?' and 'why do I learn about gates now, and not earlier?'
Those questions though, were put to the torch, in a very literal way, when his body erupted into the familiar green flames he had seen so often before. They had manifested at first, when he fought off the assassins on the Citadel. He had then used them over and over as the missions and events passed. He remembered how the events on Pragia had enabled him to use the fires of... Miranda had called him Demon, at the time, so maybe they were demon fire? He didn't know, but the description wasn't a bad one. Teltin had been his first real taste of just how powerful the flames were, as he had stood up to a rain of bullets and biotics with ease.
Valhalla, had been the next mark, the milestone that allowed him to see the combination of sword and fire, steel and flames. When Wrex had been in mortal danger, he had just activated them without even asking Roku for help. Strange, that it was only now he made the connection, that he only now realized that there was something like a, juvenile as it sounded, 'leveling up' in how he managed the fire.
Before he had reached the first ten meters in his full sprint, his body was fully encased in the emerald flames, and he could feel how his body was bursting with power, teeming with energy that was logically not allowed to exists. Everything became green-tinted, yet remained as it was, only sharper. Fuuuuuuuuck! Roku, this is going to give me the headache of the century, isn't it?
"More like the millennia. Any nosebleed yet?"
"No. What now?" Thomas asked, starting to reach for his sword. The part of him not tasked with running or talking to Roku, kicked himself for not having pulled the sword out before he started running. Thalosi Akame, indeed, but more like Thalosi Akashi , as it was himself that was to blame for thát one.
"There are three Gates. With only the first Gate opened, you will have power no man could ever aspire to possess. Still, your body would be vulnerable as before. Flesh must be made whole, and the mind transcend. The second Gate will allow just that, to become more than a host to fire." Roku said, more like tutoring than shouting. Didn't mean it made any sense to the human, who understood as much as that the second gate was better than the first, but apparently had a price.
"What would that mean?" He asked, tugging at his sword as he finally managed to pull it the last inches from the sheath. It practically didn't weigh a thing.
"...more power, but far, far more pain as well."
"Then no thank you. Gate one is fine with me." Thomas said, noticing that his legs had taken over running on their own, carrying him with great speed towards the amassed geth and husks lying in wait, entrenched at the bottom of the valley.
"It is your will, life and body. Time to enter the fray!" Roku bellowed, sounding almost like he was anticipating the events following, like he was enjoying this. Thomas didn't pay him anymore attention as the geth had started taking him seriously, and had started shooting at him. If he had to guess, he would say it was because he was currently a humanoid pillar of green flames with a giant sword, running towards them faster than a Mako could drive.
"Fear the power of the Fire god, pitiable machines!" Roku's voice sounded from Thomas's head, yet it didn't. It was both odd, and terrifying, as Thomas felt sure the other marines would be able to hear the Spirit, and... Fire god?
A burst of plasma-fire broke his train of thought, forcing Thomas to focus on the geth in front of him, as well as the horde of Husks running towards him, screaming and moaning while starring him down with their empty, blue eyes. To avoid feeling the pit of dread he always felt when faced with the mechanical abominations, Thomas started yelling. He cursed, swore and screamed as he closed the final meters between him and the closest of the Husks.
Time, seemed to freeze for everything but him as he felt the power fill him, push out the elements of him that demanded that he fled, that wanted him to weep and cry with fear as he stood in front of what had once been human. Instead, there came the purpose and the fire, the fire. It was rage, it was hatred and it was righteous fury that seemed strange, alien even. And yet, it was as much his own as the feelings of love he felt when sharing time with Ashley.
The blade carved downwards, its edge dragging a hiss of air behind it as the blade itself was lit on fire. It descended down upon the skull of the Husk, then trough it as the metals of the Reapers proved to be like butter to a heat-knife, melting away the second it was touched. The synthetic flesh boiled, warped and hissed as it was carved through. Within the same second as the blade struck, the Husk was carved through vertically, leaving the shell of a human to carry out a few spastic movements before being still.
Thomas continued, sending the blade through the next Husk. He cut through it at the chest, then kicked it aside before piercing the head of the next Husk, ramming the sword straight through its head before pulling the sword back again, cleaving through a Husk that was closing in from behind. The blade was then sent in horizontal arch, separating four other husks from their legs in a fluid swing.
Retracting the sword from the boiling grey body of a Husk, he raised it to eyelevel, looking at the stampeding monsters rushing his position. Not that he had one to begin with, but to Thomas it sounded more heroic than if he said he had just forgotten his ass and gotten himself surrounded. Not like that would be the first time he had done thát. Breathing in deeply, he gripped the hilt of the sword with both hands and renewed vigor, gritting his teeth for the coming onslaught. Rather than wait for the Husks to come to him though, he pulled the sword into a vertical position and charged forward, sneering grinding his teeth as he met the Husks head-on again.
The blade sailed downwards in a wave-like movement, cleaving through mutated and grey flesh with the same ease as it had been meant for. As all swords had been meant for since the day of their conception, all those thousands of years ago. With a mechanical, yet alien fluidity, he scythed his way through half a dozen of the technological abominations, the synthetic flesh and bone offering little actual resistance against the hardened alloys caught alit with unnatural fire. After a while, it almost became automated, his thoughts becoming a blur as he felt Roku assuming more and more control of his actions, himself only retaining the will of his targets and movements. Somehow, the spirit took care of the rest.
A bloodcurdling roar then made itself clear over the wailing and moaning of the husks. Without even turning, Thomas recognized the roar of the hulking, brutish creature that had once been a Turian and a Krogan. Now, it was a big, grey and black monster made of rotting flesh and metal, with one hand a big crab-like claw while the other consisted of three mutilated fingers.
"Fuck me..." He whispered, remembering just how tough it had been to kill one of those things before, even after it had been wounded and unaware. Now it was a prime example of a battle-ready monster, with no wounds and to top it off, it had spotted him before he spotted it.
The Brute charged towards him, flattening more than one of its supposed allies as the human forms around it were rendered stains on the ground under its stampede. Not wanting to see just how much kinetic force he could take, Thomas bolted sideways, managing to land more than six meters from where he jumped. Normally, this could have served him well back in High-School, to actually pass gymnastics. However, this wasn't High-School, as there were no abominations back then wanting to kill him. Of course, there was the food in the cantina.
A meaty fist connecting with his side caught him off guard, convincing him to stop reminiscing about his High-School years and actually get his job done. Setting off from the ground, Thomas became a flaming bolt as he sailed through the air, short as the distance might be. He ended up on the shoulders of the Brute, having to flail his arms to regain his balance after the jump. Needless to say, the brutish creature was not happy with having a passenger, and started turning and slapping at him with both arms to kill him.
"Whoiaa! Someone get a camera!" He yelled, plunging the blade into the back of the creature. Missing the spine, he failed at killing the thing right away, instead sending it into a wild rampage throughout its own lines. With him hanging onto the hilt of his buried sword as if for dear life, which it probably was.
"Shepard, what-" Riley started, then ended her speech as she observed the corporal catching fire. It was not biotics, even she could see that. At least, not any kind of biotics she had ever seen. She had suspected something was up ever since the same corporal had carved a tunnel through thirty meters of solid rock using only his own body as tool. Biotic Tier six her bare ass, there was more at play here.
"Fear the power of the Fire god, pitiable machines!"Riley almost dropped her rifle at the sound of a voice definitely not belonging to anyone she could see. It came from the young corporal, she could tell as much, but the sound, the voice itself, not to mention the words used... they just didn't add up.
"Well I'll be a pony..." Clarke muttered from next to her, holding up his Omnitool as he started recording the events transpiring below in the valley. The Corporal had just, as if being on fire wasn't enough, which it in Riley's eyes definitely was, proceeded to whip out the massive sword and set it on fire too, literally becoming something out of a comic book; "I figured there was something about the kid."
"Clarke, you... are you filming this?" Riley asked, trying to keep her voice from cracking over from sheer disbelief at what she was seeing. Fisher had gone from being on fire, to actually being a human-sized and shaped emerald flame, running with a speed even the N7's would be unable to match. Unable to actually aim down her sights, the lieutenant copied a rising number of the other marines, flipping down the binoculars on her helmet to be able to see what was going on.
"Are... you...shitting...me?" Clarke mumbled from her side as the corporal made contact with a large group of the humanoid mutants known as Husks. He simply vanished into the horde, only to promptly begin hacking and slashing his way through it, fire and steel going above the grey heads as the only actual proof he was there, until the Husks started simply caving in, falling apart with gushes and sprays of black ichors standing out like fountains as bodies were carved up, sliced through and cut apart.
It looked like something from a CGI-scene. Fisher, she remembered his name was Fisher, was now visible and was running and dodging claws and raking hands from the countless mutants around him. He was slashing his way through the horde, at one point even flipping over his sword, impaling a bloated mutant before ending up on the other side of it. As he retracted the blade, a long trail of black, thick blood stood out from the gash he had made in the mutant. The blade found a new mark in the body of a smaller husk, cleaving it from head to abdomen. Lee found she simply couldn't speak, only being capable of watching in a mixture of awe as the seemingly young, juvenile and unproven corporal slaughtered his way through more enemies than she bothered counting, even through the enhanced vision of the optics that came with the helmet.
"I call hacks. There's no way... he can do that. Not even fucking John Doe-1 could have... there's just no way." Clarke stammered.
In the months Riley had known this strange example of a man, she had never really seen him in disbelief. That he was now, was just another add-on to the pile of 'what-the-fuck's she was building in her mind. And for once, she didn't disagree with the N7. Not even the legendary John Doe-1 would have been able to carve his way through this many enemies without being at least wounded.
"Well... I suppose this saves me from defending sending him out there." Shepard muttered from the side, still looking down the sights of her rifle, only now with the same binoculars on as the others had. She too, was following the battle. Although, with the horrifying ease the...man? was having, it was less a battle and more of a slaughter. Jane Shepard's voice did stir Riley from her stupor though, and the young lieutenant whipped her face so fast towards the captain she could feel her airflow being momentarily blocked.
"What the... Captain, I know this could... be a...weird question to ask, but..."
"You are wondering just what sort of power that is? You are thinking 'shit on me, that ain't biotics!'?" The red-head said, not looking away from the battle going on beneath. Fisher was still merrily, if one could use that word, carving through the opposition, now with the geth actively firing at him as well.
"Is he some sort of experiment?" Clarke asked, beating Riley to it. To the surprise of both N7 and lieutenant, the captain sighed;
"Not really... it's difficult to explain. Hell, I'm not even sure I have the clearance to do it. You wanna know? Ask Hackett... or Admiral Fi...Admiral Cologne." Jane said, stopping herself midsentence. Riley first just thought this odd, then widened her eyes as she was hit with a sledgehammer-revelation.
"He... that corporal is the same guy who got himself blown up on Feros?"
"Yep, that's him." Shepard said. Lying next to her again, John'Shepard let out a snort.
"Crazy Bosh'tet. Didn't have the training back then, so we nearly lost..." He started, clearly thinking back to something he found entertaining in memory, but hadn't in the moment it happened.
"John." The other Shepard, the Captain, said with a reprimanding tone. They must have had some sort of understanding, Riley figured, because the Quarian instantly zipped it.
"Wait... then that would make him... the nephew of the Admiral?" Riley inquired, finally understanding why the name of the corporal had seemed so familiar. She had been in the Rec-room when that Udina fellow had given the interview about some young corporal who had distinguished himself on Feros, gotten himself blown to hell and then back again. Thát was where she had heard the name.
"Eh... yeah, I think that's it. But honestly they don't really... aw sheeit." Shepard cursed, cutting herself off as something on the battlefield got her attention. Riley, having been staring at the captain for the entire conversation, looked back at the battle going on below.
What she saw, was a hulking brute, a monster really, stampeding towards where she could see the corporal. The marine in question had stopped the slashing, instead seemingly focused on not being run over by the monster as it slammed into where he had just been, hammering its fists into the ground with enough force that she could see the ground shake slightly around it. Suddenly, the lieutenant had no objections against being so far up the hill while someone else took care of things. While they were creepy, she could handle the regular husks just fine. But when something that looked like a Krogan zombie had fucked a turian before giving birth with a nightmare as midwife, she wanted to be far away.
After he had jumped away, the corporal pulled off a jump that would have made any drill sergeant proud, landing on the back of the monster before plunging his sword straight into its back. Apparently that wasn't enough to kill it though. However, it was enough to send it on a rampage through its own ranks, with the marine riding its back like an idiot on a bull.
"Did he just... well fuck me." Clarke exclaimed, still recording the entire event as it unfolded. As the monster continued through own soldiers, Riley tightened her grip on the rifle she had aimed at the mass of geth and husks. It seemed wrong to just wait for one man to take care of things.
"Alright, he's far enough in. Open fire, but focus on the enemies that are not close to him." the Captain said. Weird, like she had been reading Riley's thoughts. Still, it did make sense, and the lieutenant obliged with a nod.
"Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! I'm going- to be- sick!"
Despite it being a truly unique experience, and something probably no other human or sentient being could ever claim to have done, Thomas was starting to really hate the idea of travelling via monster-back. Not only was it difficult to hold on to the damn thing, but each bump and turn also caused his stomach to churn around and give him nausea.
"Just kill the damn thing and be done with it." Roku said, sounding more stressed than annoyed. Thomas did as he was told, or at least he tried to. When he pulled the sword from the shoulders of the monster, he didn't get a chance to stab it back down as he was almost instantly thrown off. Managing to keep a hold on the blade, he impacted the sandy ground with a jaw-rattling thud, rolling and trashing across the surface for a few meters until he came to a stop. Fuck me... that really hurt...
"Fire is subject to gravity, so..."
"I've got fall-damage... right." Thomas finished for him, taking a hand to rub at his sore shoulder.
Most of his body was hurting, sore from overuse and the fall from the monster that was only now slowing down its trashing through own lines. Apparently, Saren's forces didn't appreciate being run down, as they had started cutting down the abomination with precise bursts of plasma. The brutish creature roared and howled in frustration as it started pounding the offending geth to scrap while said geth were turning it into a walking chunk of molten metal and boiling rotten flesh. It didn't take long before the damage seemingly became too much, and the abomination fell to the ground in a smoking, stinking heap of mutilated carcass and metal.
As soon as the monster was down, the geth returned their attention to Thomas, letting him know that, because they were so polite, the geth hadn't forgotten about him. The only reason why he wasn't cut down instantly was, aside from the fact that he was already down, because he was still on fire, leaving the plasma to dissipate as it hit the flames. As Thomas started rolling away and dodging fire from his place on the ground, he was vaguely aware that incoming projectiles were cutting down a few of the geth, forcing them to divert some attention elsewhere.
"Get on your feet!" Roku snapped, causing Thomas to wince as the angry tone felt like someone had just poked his brain with a red-hot iron. Each impact from the searing plasma caused his mind to receive what felt like a prickle with a burning needle. Protected or not, the pain was there.
Trying to avoid more pain, Thomas threw himself up from the ground, slamming the tip of the sword through the body of the closest geth firing at him, while kicking down one of the bloated creatures he somehow knew had been Batarians. Probably because their faces had four eyes, glowing with the same type of ghostly light he had seen in the nightmarish hallucinations. At least it wasn't one of his friends being transformed to a nightmare. As he retrieved the blade, it was sent straight to the next receiver, one of the Husks that had once been a human. Once more, the burning blade carved up the walking corpse, slicing it apart in a diagonal angle that caused the top-most part to slide off while the legs collapsed beneath it.
Before Thomas could retract the sword, his ears picked up a sharp whistling sound of something soaring through the air. His mind tracked the sound back to the last time he had heard it growing higher and higher. Eden Prime, right before he had been slammed through the air and into the same rock that Shepard was supposed to have used for cover and where the original team had first met Ashley. Turning to find the source, he only got a fleeting glimpse of the small, explosive missile before it impacted on his body, exploding on the barrier with enough force to send him staggering backwards, losing the grip of the sword.
Fuck, that's going to hurt... He thought, discovering that true to what geth usually did, there was a second missile following the first one. Thomas brought up his hands to ward up the missile, resulting in it hitting and exploding in the palms of his hands. While the barrier made sure he wasn't blown up, the force of the impact slammed the back of his hands straight into his helmeted head, jarring his head and sending him straight back on the ground.
With reflexes probably born from one of his matches with Ashley, Thomas turned the fall into a somewhat successful roll, ending up on his knee instead of on his back once more. Fuck... where's my sword? He growled, looking around for the blade. Currently, the only things he could see were geth and husks encroaching on his kneeling spot, meaning he would have to make do without the weapon. Figures, he was back to punching the bad guys. Just like on Teltin...
"Then there should be little issue with doing the same here. You will not even have to worry about killing huma- watch out!" Roku warned. Thomas snapped back into reality, just in time to ward off a biotic attack from a geth, a Juggernaut or Prime, judging from the height. He really neither cared or remembered what the difference in appearance was. As the attack made contact, Thomas expected to simply ward it, seeing as throws and warps probably caused the same amount of destruction as a blast from a shotgun. Instead, the biotic attack made contact with his upper arms, causing a burning pain to shoot through his body as bones were fractured and instantly started resetting themselves. Why the hell couldn't I block that?
"Fire is subject to gravity. Biotic attacks use gravity as main factor." Roku said, speaking like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Fuck! that hurts!Couldn't you have said that before?" Thomas snapped back, pressing against the glowing fists the geth had slammed down on him. Gritting his teeth in pain, Thomas expanded the fires around him, building up the same aura-like sphere he had used to carve through the tunnels. He was still not quite sure how he did it, but he was far beyond arguing with the results, seeing as the offending geth, as well as most enemies close by and the very sand he stood on, started melting from the heat.
"Too hot for you, huh, bitch?" He exclaimed, kicking at the molten head-piece of the red geth.
"It is too hot for you as well, on top of sustaining your body and the barrier. Focus the energy in points, not like that." Roku berated, forcing the sphere to shrink by himself. Thomas scowled, not understanding why he couldn't just burn them all to slag.
"Then how the fuck could I make the tunnel with no complaints from you?"
"There was no fighting at that time. There was no need to ward off attacks and reset bones, repair tissue or organs. Thát is how the fuck you could make the tunnel." The spirit bit back.
Thomas wasn't given the time to retort, as more and more geth diverted from the ranks of the defenders to attempt to kill him off instead. They were all facing what he was guessing was the direction the actual battle was going on in, meaning that the main forces had probably broken through somehow. The geth attacking him spurred him back into action.
Thomas swiped out, focusing the energy Roku seemed to be conserving, into the tips of his fingers and hands as he punched a husk that had tried getting a grip on his arm. It was the same movements he had used on Pragia, sure, so there was muscle memory to help along. The burning gauntlets went straight through the torso of the husk, eviscerating the upper body and leaving the tech-zombie itself to fall to the ground, soon followed by many of its friends as Thomas began clawing and punching his way through the masses of black and grey bodies as they appeared. This was actually going somewhat well.
A biotic punch, likely a throw or a warp from behind ,caused him to stumble forward, losing both balance and momentum. A second followed before he could turn to face his attacker, driving him fully into the sand again. Fuuuuuck... for someone with a god helping along, I think I'm spending too much time getting knocked on my ass!
"Right... there's a geth behind you. Cloaked, Hunter-class, biotic too. Two meters tall, marine of color and armed with a plasma shotgun. Better?" If it hadn't been for the direness of the situation, Thomas would have sworn there was a snort of annoyance or amusement in the spirits' voice. It was never really easy to tell with him.
"Gee, thanks for the warning." Thomas muttered as he struggled to get back on his feet. With something akin to a borrowed sixth sense, he rolled to the side, narrowly dodging a biotic pummel that went straight into the ground, sending up a small cascade of sand in the process. As Thomas ended up on his back, ready to get back in the fight, he looked up in time to see the geth Hunter raise up a glowing fist, if one could indeed call it that. Not having the time to do anything else, he brought up his hands to ward off the attack.
Except, the biotic haymaker never came. A loud tearing of metal, followed by the telltale Krakow of a sniper rifle, caused him to look above his arms. The geth had just lost most of its head, and now fell to the ground in a clattering heap. The young marine stared around him before being forced back into the fight by a bloated, disfigured and pissed off marshmallow armed with a gun. For some reason, this description of the mutated Batarian gave him small smile on his lips as he tore through it.
Ashley Williams pulled back the handle on her Mantis, allowing the weapon to vent the heat it had built up with the shot. Next to her, one of the marines whistled impressed.
"Damn... nice shot." He muttered.
"Mmm hmmm..." Ashley mused, looking back through her scope. Nobody was going to get the edge over her boyfriend like that. If it meant she had to pull off a long shot like that, then she was going to pull it off. Bloody biotic geth and their barriers. Couldn't stand up to a high-powered rifle, could they now?
As she looked upon the battlefield, Ashley could see the effects of Thomas's onslaught starting to become apparent. No longer were trenches filled with geth, waiting to shoot. Most of those geth had tried gunning down Thomas, only to be torn to pieces, molten in a display of firepower, or simply shot down by one of the longer reaching rifles the small force possessed. Ashley herself could lay claim to ten of those missing geth, with accurate shooting that got the job done in one shot. Unless it was one of the big geth, then it took three or four slugs to both penetrate shields and armor.
Still, considering that she could follow Thomas's progress on the ground below, she was relieved of some of her earlier worry. He didn't seem to have trouble taking down any enemy that came his way, and was currently in the process of tearing apart one of the brownish, bloated creatures that actually fired back when shot at. She remembered those from Valhalla, and how terrifying they had been up close.
Haunting eyes with ghostly lights
Agonized facial expressions stuck upon their shoulders and arms, like an abomination only the Devil could think up.
It was a strange thought then, she pondered, that is these Reapers really started to win and invaded Earth, the Devil would have to side with mankind. If nothing else, then to preserve his clientele. Her thoughts returned to the there and then as her rifle stopped beeping, signaling that it was ready to be fired again.
She breathed in, then out and looked down through the scope again. One of the big geth, a red one, was spinning up what looked like a Gatling gun. Seeing as it was aiming straight for the young marine who was still in the process of burning through the head of a husk, Ashley aimed straight above its head, breathed, then took the shot. The recoil jarred her shoulder through the armor, but her focus was on the geth.
There was a fraction of a second after she fired the rifle, then the slug impacted, tearing into the torso of the geth. It was staggered, stumbling to the side and its aim was thrown off. But it wasn't 'dead' yet. Waiting for the rifle to cool down, she sighted the geth down once more and pulled the trigger with only enough time to find it in her scope before firing.
The slug tore the flashlight out of the geth's head, throwing the mechanical enemy onto the ground with no chance of it getting back up.
"Scoped and dropped" She mused, then frowned as she realized she had just cited their Turian marksman. Well, considering the reason, she wasn't really upset about it. It was a catchy line, she had to admit that much.
Meanwhile...
Arcturus station, Arcturus Stream
17:47
The ceremony was dragging out, but for once Anna didn't really mind. She didn't have much more important stuff to be doing than making sure that she herself was present at the founding of the first real cross-species alliance Humanity had ever been part of. The Citadel didn't count, seeing how humanity had been pawns, not partners in that relationship. Suppressing a scowl at the memories of the countless times humanity had been 'shown its proper place', Anna looked at the Podium, where Admiral Zaal'Korris as the final admiral was signing the Declaration of Unity, a document worked out between the Prime minister, Stephen Hackett, herself, the US president, the Chairman of the UN and Donnel Udina. Even if she hadn't cared much for Udina at the start, she had to admit and give the man credit, that most of the best parts of the document was worked out by him.
Seeing the Admirals shake hands with Shastri, cementing the Alliance in the fullest of the term, brought a smile to her face. Having had an active and decisive role in forming the union, Anna had one of her proud moments, beaming with simple, honest joy as she oversaw the induction of the Quarian people into the Systems Alliance.
News cameras were all over the room, restricted to remaining behind the seats of the politicians who usually occupied the room. Now though, all the suits were standing at attention, watching with proud or solemn expressions as the founding was completed. Anna was amongst the military leaders of the Alliance, standing to the left of the podium while the politicians and civilian leaders were at the right.
Anna watched as the final Admiral shook hands with Shastri.
A stronger, better Systems Alliance had been forged today.
The cameras were transmitting to the entire galaxy.
The Council would no-doubt be pissed.
But Anna didn't care.
Anna was beaming with pride.
Virmire, Hoc System.
Saren's base of operations.
21:09
After what felt like hours, Thomas still found himself tearing apart geth troopers. An improvement was that somehow, the enemy had stopped being Husks and mutated Batarians altogether. There had only been one other monster aside from the one he had hijacked at the beginning, and he had managed to get behind it for long enough to tear out its neck. Odd, that it was so easy to destroy that particular part of the creature, considering how they waved their necks around in the air. A single really well-placed bullet could probably tear it apart with ease, and had he been able to find his sword, it would have been easier still. Probably...
Events had started blurring together, time and actions becoming a haze. Something he could see and feel, but not really sense. A thing that worried him was that small lines, like arteries, were starting to encroach on his vision. They were black, pulsating green every few seconds with a dull glow. It took some focus to look at the geth instead of the lines, worry growing as the lines crept forward, with less than a millimeter at the time.
He couldn't focus very well though, and he somehow couldn't reach Roku. He could hear some muffled sounds in his mind from time to time, but if they were words, he couldn't understand them. It was a funny feeling, like he was numb in the feet, but still not anyway. A small part of him was stating that maybe this was a bad sign, that maybe something was wrong. The main part of his mind though, had been narrowed down to one single thought: Destroy. Annihilate. Kill. Destroy. Annihilate. Kill. He just had that singular purpose now, to cleanse away the filth, the enemies before him.
A geth hunter decloaked right in front of him, aiming and firing its shotgun at his chest. He slapped the shotgun aside and punched straight through the torso of the synthetic. He didn't sense the mechanical scream the robot emitted as it fell to the ground. Didn't bother. He trudged through the sand with steps like they were programmed, not paying more attention to his surroundings than when he needed to kill something. It was like he didn't have to think anymore, didn't want to. He could just...let Roku do the thinking, the consideration for him. It was so much easier, warmer and softer, to just slip back, into the warm folds of the void while his body acted on its own. More muffled voices. Words, that weren't really words, but whispers. Each whisper was followed by just the slightest sensation of pain, like burning your hand on the stove. Burning...burning was no longer a threat. Fire, real fire, was good, pure and cleansing.
When one of the towering geth, a Prime, fired at him, he walked through it, punching his fists through the projectiles sent towards him. The plasma met fire, and plasma yielded, dissipating against temperatures too high for it to remain plasma, instead hissing away as gas. The geth kept firing at him until he was within a few meters. As it charged him with the intention of clubbing him down, his body yanked up a fist which punch cleanly through the arm holding the stock of the cannon, then grabbed the torn-off appendix and slammed it into the flashlight of the construct, shattering the glass and sending the platform to the ground with a synthetic wail. The green lines were now filling up most of his vision, making it difficult to see, yet he had no difficulties seeing his surroundings. Not that he wondered over it. He had just the one purpose. Kill. Cleanse. Destroy. Purge. Kill. Cleanse. Destroy. Purge.
He stepped down, into the low trench initially used by the geth themselves as cover, tearing apart any platform that came in his way. Only when a geth threw biotic attacks at him did he stagger, for a moment. He didn't sense the pain, didn't feel it when his bones repaired themselves after the biotic attacks. The marine's body, less and less under his active control, kept up the mechanical marching, burning away the enemies who wanted to test themselves against him.
Organic, or just living enemies, would have run, fled in terror by then. As the geth were not living, or shared fear of death with the organics they wanted to kill, they didn't run away. They stood their ground, circling around him as he emerged from the trenches into more open land again. Despite they attacking him with vigor, plasma bursts and biotic attacks, he didn't stop. Couldn't stop. His body was being pummeled by attacks, but he didn't feel as much as simply acknowledged it. With a slow certainty, the greenness finally filled up his entire vision, and Thomas finally felt. He felt himself falling, falling but without the tug of gravity or falling down.
As the last part of him was pulled from his body, into another state, the form of the marine pressed his palms together, forming a hand-sign with just the index-fingers pointing upwards, the rest intermingled in a half-connected fist. The geth briefly stopped firing. Showing as much curiosity as a synthetic could, they halted their firing for just a few seconds, then started firing in unison once more. As they shot at the marine, the marine parted his palms and pointed his hands, fingers gathered into two two-finger points, and unleashed a concentrated gout of fire that was compressed into a stream no thicker than a human wrist.
"It is time to end this little game"
As the fire went around, even the geth standing more than a dozen were carved up more than burned, as the concentrated fire melted straight through their bodies, completely cutting out the screams and wails of the synthetics as the heat short-circuited them before their programs could leave the platforms. As the torrent went around, the two-point fingers became an outstretched palm, five fingers on each hand pointing outwards like an open fist, ready to grasp or take its target. The flame widened into a broad blast of fire, completely removing the geth they pointed at. There were no screams, no flailing of mechanical limps as the platforms were turned into molten slag, the coolant-fluids evaporating instantly.
And it was over.
As the body of the marine stood still, arms outstretched with clawing palms, it was surrounded by a countless mass of molten piles of metal. Hundreds of geth had been turned into puddles of gray and silvery metal, while those who had been carved up or shot were so fortunate that their programs had escaped before the fire claimed them.
The arms went down, slack against the sides.
The emerald flames were doused, then died out completely, leaving the armor's scars visible. It was cracked where biotic attacks had gone through, and skin was visible through the holes in the enhanced armor. The last glow to die out was the pair of burning eyes, slowly becoming the same old, normal blue-green eyes.
Thomas's body slumped to its knees, then fell forward, collapsing face-first on the ground with no sound but the clatter of armored body hitting the sand. Hundreds of meters away, on the top of the ridgeline, a female marine had already started a panicked sprint down the slopes.
To cite Jane: "Aww... sheeit!"
Well, that was one of the most difficult scenes I have ever written... not sure how much more there is to say about it really. It took me the better part of three days to write, and I had to rewrite it more than once. On the bright side though, the Quarians are now full-fledged members of the Systems Alliance, their trial by fire having been the battle above Elysium, and their technological contributions being tech, technicians and over-all better understanding of ship-maintenance than the Alliance had before.
But damn, if this scene was animated, it would be the single most badass fight-scene I've ever seen.
Now though... I'll be my old, evil self and leave you guys on a cliffhanger.
3:D
See ya