A/N: I have a challenge for all my readers. Last story got 168 reviews and i'm looking to top that. I think we can do it, just remember leave a review. Also check out Forward unto Victory by HeirOfRohan in the command and conquer section. I promise you it's great.
2-25-2184 0944 hours (Citadel standard time)
Undisclosed Location
The Illusive man found himself chuckling, something which he didn't do often. Watching each member of the team decimate and intimidate the Cerberus soldiers brought him quality entertainment. Of course these 'soldiers' were ones that were deemed incompetent by his standards, and therefore were deployed simply as training targets for true soldiers.
"They seem to be advancing at a remarkable rate," The Illusive man said as he took a puff of his cigar. "I believe they will soon be ready for deployment."
General Morak just started at the Illusive man. "They may be deadly warriors, though I believe they have yet to prove themselves as a team."
"Time is not our ally in this war General. If they aren't ready in two months, then I believe all this effort would have been for nothing." The Illusive man sternly told the Prothean general.
"We cannot just send them into the fire without preparing themselves or else we are just wasting resources."
"General, Shepard and his team are more than just 'resources'. As of right now they are humanity's and by extension, the galaxy's greatest hope for survival. Ensure I do not have to repeat myself on this matter."
"Of course." With that, the general and the head of Cerberus each logged off from their respective servers.
'They must be ready for what's to come.' The Illusive man thought as he took another puff of his cigar.
So far progress has been promising, their team was complete and fully-armed. Now all that was left was to make sure they were capable of working as a team and General Morak would make sure of it.
'My plans are already in motion. Now all that is left is to put the final pieces in place.' Morak thought as he ordered the Prothean and Cerberus to advance. He turned his attention to the small camera in the mess hall, witnessing the team communicate with each other. He wondered what will happen in the upcoming moment, will their effort as a team allow them to prevail or will the diversity of so many personalities be their downfall? Either way, Morak was about to get his answer.
"So Joker, when are you get surgery for your legs?" Ramirez mocked Joker.
"About the same time around you learn to stop being depressed over women." Joker retorted.
"Hey at least I can please women."
"You forget Ramirez, the Normandy is my baby."
"That's right Joker. No one cares or flies her like you do." Shepard told him.
The three continued making idle conversation, burning through their food as they did so. Others were also chewing their food and were having different conversations. Shepard at that moment, seeing all these different people from different races, realized it was war that brought them together. War is what drove these soldiers to unite together for a common cause, survival. Shepard found it funny that it was war, not peace, that seemed to unify people.
"Hey Ram-" Shepard caught it before it even entered everyone else's as split situational awareness. The other members of the team caught it a split second after Shepard. In an instant, Zaeed's barely pubescent voice roared and cracked "GRENADE!" as the non-lethal flash-bang was dropped into the mess from the skylights.
Immediately, Shepard and everyone else on his side on the table jumped over as the table was flipped over to provide cover. Just then the grenade came mid-way between the ceiling and the ground, and detonated in a massive, blinding, deafening explosion. What would have been utter chaos in such an attack, instead was the result of months of solid, day-in, day-out training.
Shepard and his team switched from a 'casual' state of mind to a full battle awareness. In the few milliseconds between the flash-bangs detonating, and the several fully-armed and armored Protheans and Cerberus soldiers roping into the building, storming the doors, and removing their tactical cloaks, the team reacted in their own way that they knew how, attack and defend.
Garrus and Javik aimed their non-lethal side arms, at the enemy combatants. Liara, Samara, Miranda, and Jack were flipping tables to create cover, flinging dishes to create distractions and momentarily stun the enemies, and forming up in their squads to create unit cohesion.
A military-training evolution of paintball and tranquilizers, paralyzing paint rounds were exactly as advertised. It is paint, that when impacted on a target, it rapidly hardens and solidifies to the point of incapacitation, should they be hit in enough places.
"Ramirez! Stay on my ass, cover me! Shepard ordered, "Now we need to get weapons!"
"Alright." Looking around the room, Ramirez noticed someone was missing. "Hey, Shepard where-" he began, but was cut-off by an explosion on the side of the wall. Emerging in the chaos was none other than Grunt and in his possession were many weapons of all kinds. He immediately became the target of the enemy soldiers, probably because they saw him as the biggest threat.
Remarkably, Grunt was able to run towards Shepard's position and avoid being hit in the process.
"I guess that answers my question." Ramirez said as he picked up a non-lethal version of his favorite armaments. Everyone was also doing the same thing.
"Shepard-Captain, their creating a barrier field to create cover." Legion warned.
"Shepard what are your orders?" Jacob asked.
Shepard thought for a moment and decided that a crazy strategy was better than no strategy at all. "Kasumi, can you use your invisibility cloak to hassle them in their rear?" He asked her.
"No problem, Shepard." Immediately Kasumi activated her cloak and became invisible. It was then that she started to navigate the chaos that had engulfed the mess hall.
"Everyone else, assemble the tables in a circular formation in the middle in the room!" He pointed to where he wanted to set up, "They'll surround us, and that will make it easier for us to find targets!"
"That's a stupid plan. We should just charge them." Grunt called out.
"Grunt, we aren't all krogan." Ramirez told him. "I vote for Shepard's idea, anyone disagree?" Seeing no one disagreed, Shepard put his plan into motion.
"Okay! Move fast!" Shepard ordered, "Heaviest lifters first, take a hold of the table's supports!" He indicated the iron bars on the underside of the table, "Biotics, reduce its mass! The less distance we have to drag it, the better! The rest of you, maintain suppressive fire on the enemy! Watch your shots, and go for their weak spots."
"What weak spots!?" Ramirez sarcastically asked rather loudly, after shooting a Cerberus soldier in heavy armor in the head multiple times. Said Cerberus trooper was still fighting, which aggravated Ramirez. "Hey jackass why don't you stay down?"
Of course his response was a hail of paintball rounds. "Fuckers." He muttered as he ducked behind cover.
After fighting for a mere seconds, a series of explosions blasted in the Prothean rear. Balls of pink paint rained down on them as they were momentarily caught off guard.
"That's it everyone! Keep the heat on them!" Shepard encouraged his team.
Even Joker managed to hit a target. "TAKE THAT YOU ASSHOLES!" He screamed at them.
Minutes later, Kasumi appeared right next to Ramirez as they continued to shoot at the enemies. "I take it you are to thank for those explosions?" he asked her.
"I do what I can." she remarked.
People on both sides were calling out ammunition checks, enemy positions, tactical cloak shimmers, everything. Over all the noise of gunfire and shouting, Shepard couldn't miss the unmistakable 'clink' of a grenade slamming onto the ground.
"Flash-bang!" Shepard shouted, before he ducked his head down, clamped his eyes shut, and covered his ears with his arms. Everyone, but Mordin, Kaidan, and Liara were fast enough to do so, and as a result they were easily eliminated in their dazed state.
In Shepard's team in a weaken state, the Prothean and Cerberus soldiers advanced. One of them, a biotic, lifted Legion into the air and fired. Unfortunately the shot went right through the hole in 'his' armor and in an elevated position Legion fired his sniper rifle, hitting the same biotic that lifted him in the leg twice and in the neck once. Another Prothean soldier fired his rifle and managed to hit Legion in the waist as he descended to the ground.
"The bloody insects are advancing!" Shepard heard, muffled through the ringing in his ears, Zaeed's voice.
"They don't pass our tables!" Shepard ordered, breaking cover and sighting down a Cerberus soldier. He fired and instantly she went down.
The Protheans were few in number, but they had his training, his battle instincts, and his experience on their side. The Cerberus soldiers didn't, but most likely they were there to bolster the Prothean's numbers.
Garrus emptied his entire magazine into a Cerberus soldier in front of him, seven shots were what it took to deplete the man's shields, but the rest of Garrus's shots were absorbed by his armor. Looking to his left side, he saw Thane narrowly duck multiple paint ball rounds, by leaning back to where his back was perpendicular to his legs. After they had fired where he was once standing, Thane managed to eliminate several enemy soldiers from the ground, before getting back into cover.
'That reminds me of that one Earth-vid…..the Matrix I believe it was called.' Garrus thought as he saw Thane do something similar to what he had seen in the vid. In his distracted state, he didn't notice an enemy aiming at him. Just as the enemy fired, her round was blocked by a barrier from Nyreen.
"Pay attention!" She scowled at him.
"Right, sorry." he apologized. Together Garrus and Nyreen managed to take out six more troops between them. Biotic and weapons training seemed to complement each other as Garrus and Nyreen were demonstrating.
"We got them!" Ashley yelled, shortly before she was covered head to toe in paint for being exposed for too long.
"Keep firing and keep your heads down!" Ordered a smiling Shepard, as he ducked back into cover to reload, in order to avoid Ashley's fate.
Miraculously Joker hadn't been hit yet. This greatly surprised Shepard as he, along with pretty much everyone else, believed Joker to only be a flight lieutenant and nothing more. "Damn, Joker. I didn't think you had any ground training." Shepard said, blind firing at the Cerberus soldiers that were closing in on their position.
"What just because of my 'condition', that automatically means that I can't fight?" Joker asked a bit offended, shooting at a Cerberus soldier.
"Of course not, it's just that your obsession for an inanimate object is so great I never figured you would have time for anything else." Ramirez mocked.
"Screw you."
"Guys! Focus on the enemy first!" Shepard ordered them.
"Sorry, captain." They both said in unison.
To Shepard right's he saw Jack get covered with paint around her torso after she let her temper get the best of her. "FUCK YOU ASSHOLES!" She yelled as she sent a few tables flying towards them. The tables managed to prove effective in either forcing the enemies to take cover or be hit in the face and thus knocking them out.
At that instant, Shepard had an idea. Looking around he could see a few more minutes and the line would fall. They were immensely outnumbered and outgunned and therefore they needed a game changer. "Miranda, Samara, and Nyreen, when I say now I want you all to sent the tables flying in each direction. Everyone else, when that happens I want you to eliminate any dazed soldier. Am I clear?" he asked them.
They all nodded and got ready to pull of the stunt. When he was satisfied that they were ready, Shepard gave the order. "Now!" he shouted.
In an instant later, the entire mess hall was momentarily filled with tables soaring all over the place. Even the combatants that were taken out of the fight like Kaidan and Ashley had to duck in order to avoid being plastered by the granite tables. Approximately a quarter of the Prothean and Cerberus soldiers were able to find cover in the nick of time. The rest however, weren't so lucky and were met with the painful impact of hard granite smashing into their faces and bodies. They were easily picked off rather quickly and the remaining biotics attempted to create barrier fields for their teams.
"Shepard we are going to need something big and hard to take out those shields." Nyreen told him.
With a nod of his head, Shepard glanced over at their heaviest hitter, Grunt, and said "Grunt cut loose."
In response to his words, Grunt threw his weapon aside and shouted "I AM KROGAN!" He then charged at the enemy like a mad bull seeing nothing, but red.
The Cerberus soldiers immediately turned tail and attempted to retreat, only to be picked off by Garrus's impressive marksman skills. The Protheans were a different story, having survived the horrors of the Reaper war, they were not so easily eliminated. They held their ground, not intimidated by a rushing Krogan, and were effectively firing an impressive display of fire at the young, reckless Krogan. Grunt, after taking huge amounts of paintball fire, was taken out; but not before three Prothean soldiers were thrown from their cover by the strong Krogan.
"Well there goes our ace in the hole." Joker commented as he witness Grunt's elimination from the firefight.
"I'm not worried, after all we always have you ready to bail us out in any situation." Shepard sarcastically said.
"Hey that's when I'm flying the Normandy, not in ground combat."
"Well you could always be bait."
"Asshole." Joker retorted, firing his weapon and eliminating a Prothean soldier, however the same Prothean managed to take out Nyreen.
"Spirits, I was so close." Nyreen muttered in fustration.
Ramirez and Garrus took out two more Prothean soldiers, however they managed to lose Jacob in the process as well. There were only six Protheans remaining. "Garrus you take the ones on the left and I'll take the ones on the right." Ramirez offered.
"There is twice as many on the left." Garrus responded.
"Yeah I know. I can count." Ramirez told him just as a Prothean soldier came around their cover, directly behind Garrus. "Shit! Watch out!" Ramirez warned as he fired on the Prothean soldier and taking him out. However, Ramirez failed to see another one come up behind him and as a result was easily shot from behind.
"Damn it!" Garrus said frustrated that the enemy soldiers managed to flank them. He fired his sniper rifle and the enemy soldier fired his assault rifle. It was a display to witness, as the fire both men managed to cancel each other out, thus causing Garrus and the enemy soldier to be taken out almost simultaneously.
Getting back up, Ramirez could see Garrus was also covered in paint. "I'll admit Garrus, that was pretty impressive." He said, offering a hand to Garrus.
Garrus took it and now on his feet, said "Thanks. You weren't so bad yourself."
They then went to join the rest of the team that were eliminated. They could hear their reactions were mixed. Some were satisfied to simply have the time to do extra work, while others were enraged that they were taken out.
"Captain I recommend an all out assault." Javik suggested, levitating an enemy combatant and easily taking her out.
He looked around and saw only that three were remaining. It was then that he made his decision. "Javik, body slam the one on the right. Miranda, you and Samara levitate the remaining two."
They did as they were told, Javik body slamming an enemy on one of mess hall's support beams. The Cerberus soldier was easily incapacitated. Miranda and Samara levitated the two remaining soldiers and they were covered completely in pink paint as Zaeed, Shepard, Javik, and Kasumi unloaded all their remaining magazines on them.
A series of cheers and shouts came from the direction of the other team members. Shepard looked around and saw, the once white covered, mess hall was covered in various shades of red, blue, pink and purple.
Glancing at the remaining team members that managed to last the entire assault, Shepard told them "That is exactly what we do in a scenario like this." Raising his voice so that the losers could hear him, "Hopefully next time 'all' the team members will last the entire fight!"
Ramirez responded in kind by putting up his two middle fingers at Shepard, who laughed at his friend's reaction.
A clap was heard from behind him and Shepard turned to see General Morak. "You have done well and each of you should be proud. I take pleasure in having train you, however the current circumstances forces me to deploy you sooner than I would like."
"Exactly what circumstances are we talking about?" Shepard asked him.
"Two of our operatives were captured by a Quarian marine platoon. Their job was to retrieve sensitive Alliance material and technology. From what we've managed to gather, they are being held on the Quarian ship, the Aleria. Your mission is to rescue the operatives and destroy any research into human technology and retrieve whatever you can."
The news hit Shepard hard as he grimaced at the details of the mission. The General seem to notice Shepard's state. "Is there a problem, Captain?" Morak asked Shepard, his eyes narrowing indicating he knew Shepard was hiding something from him.
Putting a straight face on, Shepard said "No sir."
To all the crew members of the Normandy, Morak said to them, "The training ends now, agents. There is no longer a room for error. No more second chances. If you make a mistake now, you or one of your team mates will pay for it. Having said that, are there any questions?"
He stared at them for a moment, but none of them moved. A heavy silence settled over all the assembled, no doubt reflecting the meaning of what he had just said.
"Very well then, dismissed." He gave a salute, in which Shepard returned.
They gave a nod to the general and watching them banter as they left the room, Morak saw Ramirez approaching.
"How many tangos are we looking at?" Ramirez asked the Prothean general, while everyone left for the ship.
"Ah, my people have a saying in the matter." He responded.
"And what might it be?"
"Information learned is more valuable than information given." He answered with a slight smirk.
"So what you're saying is, you're not going to tell me?" Ramirez asked him, getting annoyed with all the riddles the Protheans were so commonly known for.
"You will find everything you need to know. Other than the ship's layout, you'll be going in blind. You won't know the enemies numbers, their guard rotations, their weaponry, or their capabilities. This is your job to find out. "
With an unsatisfied grunt, Ramirez jogged to catch up to the others. When Morak was sure all the members of the Normandy's crew was gone, he activated a personal com-link.
The Illusive man appeared on screen. "I still do not think they are ready," Morak murmured, not meeting the Illusive man's eyes, who was quite possibly the most dangerous man in the world.
He sighed heavily, resting his hands on the sides of his leather chair. "Not this same old argument again, general, please. They're as ready as they ever will be. I believe in them and so should you. I have no doubt in my mind that they will complete the objective, and we will be one step further on stopping the Reapers."
Morak looked up at him, unable to keep the reproaching look off of his face. "I can't help but feel that compacting all of these personalities on a small ship will eventually cause infighting."
"Don't worry Shepard is a natural-born leader. If anyone is able to lead them, it would be him."
"I hope you're right, for all our sakes."
With that said, General Morak disabled his communicator and watched as the Normandy took off in the void.
"May the father of wisdom guide them in their journey." Morak silently murmured to himself.
This might be an issue, or a chance to kick Gerrell's and Rael's asses for being dicks.