As I lay on the ground letting the conversation that Kaidan and Ashley were having drown into the background until It was nothing more than white noise, my mind was running at a thousand miles an hour. I have had dreams like these before, but this felt different, somehow it felt like more. More worrying was the fact that I had clear memories of where I was and what this was, but not who I am. My HUD had given me my apparent name but it just didn't seem to fit, it just felt unnatural.
I was brought out of my daze as Shepard began scanning me with her Omni-tool.
"His body readings are fine, slightly elevated heart rate but other than that he is fine." She was looking back and forwards between her Omni-tool and me, as I brought myself to sit up she let out another soft smile.
"Carolus I hope you don't mind me using your first name." She spoke softly clearly worried about my wellbeing, it was a nice change to Ashley's earlier demanding and threatening tone.
"No that's fine I…." I paused as I looked down at my arms, white 'blood" was clearly visible it was running down the lengths of my arms and dripping onto the ground beneath me, which was now soaked in the white substance. Shepard most have noticed my face and carefully placed a hand on my left shoulder.
"Are you okay? You blanked out on us for a while there." I quickly turned my head to the right and then to the left, the surrounding area was a mess, broken pieces of Geth lay scattered around with white puddles and splatter marks dotting the foliage and ground.
"Did. Did I do this?" I managed to mutter as I moved her hand off my shoulder.
"Mostly. We helped clean off a few of them but for the most part you gave them quite the surprise." She replied looking at me more quizzically. "Do you not remember?" I thought on that for a moment, I mean I do remember but it felt more like I was a passenger in my own body just an unwilling viewer to an act of pure ferocity.
"No. I mean yes I remember; it's just it didn't feel." I stopped myself not sure of what to say. This all just seemed so surreal. "I guess I am just not good with, whatever this is." I finally managed to answer as Shepard offers me a hand off the ground.
"Well myself and my fellow soldiers here will be making our way towards the colony proper, you are welcome to tag along." She yanked me off the floor and onto my feet. "I won't ask you fight with us if you don't want to. But we could use all the help we can get." Her face turned solemn. "We have already lost a good man today." She added rubbing the back of her neck and turning away to walk over towards where Ashley and Kaidan were talking.
I found myself just watching Shepard as she made her way over towards the two marines. Of course, she just lost Jenkins. She must be hurting; I can't imagine what I must feel like to lose someone who was your responsibility. Despite the pain she must be in she still put me and person she has never met before herself. It's strange thinking I must have done Eden Prime hundreds of times in the games and never so much as flinched at the death of a Jenkins, hell everyone knew his name was a joke, his fate was well understood from the moment you as the player spoke to him on the Normandy.
Neural implants overloaded. All non-essential neural operation processes closing down.
Biotics – Online.
Omni-tool – Online.
Neural Regulator- Offline.
Neural Network – Offline.
My brooding was cut short with the new notifications now being displayed quite clearly in my HUD. Neural Regulator? Neural Network? The hell are those? Again before I could finish my line of thought my left arm glowed orange and an Omni-Tool took shape. I looked over the display it had generated and saw a request from Shepard, she was requesting I join her communication network. Thinking my best bet of survival was sticking with Shepard because well she is Commander goddamn Shepard, I accepted and started making my way over to others.
"We still don't know what he is and you asked him to come with us?" The man I recognised as Kaidan asked Shepard as I made my way over. I saw him prepare to ask more but cut himself off as he saw me approach.
"I am in command Kaidan; besides he took care of those guys pretty well. We could use as much help as possible until we know just what is going on here." Shepard answered with just a touch of venom in her tone.
"Commander" I said as I joined the circle of soldiers. "I ugh would like to take you up on your offer." Ashley still looked angry to say the least. Clearly despite the events of earlier it seems she still didn't seem to accept me. "It has been a rough day, I appreciate it." She gave me a quick glance up and down clearly taking me in, since she hadn't really had the chance to do so in the firefight and my subsequent collapse.
"So Kaidan over here is my second for this mission." She said gesturing her head towards Kaidan. I extended my hand towards in an attempt to gain some basic level of trust.
"Hello Kaidan, I am Carolus." I leave my hand out for a few moments before Kaidan finally places his hand in my and returns a firm shake.
"Carolus, that's quite a unique name. I am Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko." We awkwardly stood there a moment before I withdrew my hand from his.
"So Chief Williams, as we were saying we are looking for the Prothean beacon that was dug up. Which way was it located?" Shepard asked clearly noticing the awkwardness between myself and Kaidan.
"Yes Commander, the beacon should still be at the dig site. Just a short way in that direction." Ashley responded gesturing with her rifle back the direction I had come from earlier.
"Alright, let's move out, Williams and Carolus can take point. Kaidan and I shall support you from the rear." Those words were somewhat surprising, is she using me as a shield? Had I misjudged her? I mean renegade Shepard's were down right evil at times. It would help if I could get her first name, I had played somewhere in the order of fifty-two different play throughs of the Mass Effect series, the year leading up to the third game's release I was averaging a complete play through every fortnight, the joys of having nothing but free time I suppose.
Enemies detected, systems damaged. Calculat….
My HUD was clearly damaged while earlier it had been providing me with great information, It was a life safer but just like that it was ripped away from me in the always annoying sound of static in my ears before finally fading out into silence.
"You hear us?" Shepard's voice crackled into my ears. "Carolus?"
"Ugh yea sorry my implants or Omni-tool seem to be a bit damaged. Just performed a reset." I replied finally realizing I hadn't pulled out my firearm. The assault rifle was pretty average, was the best way I could describe it from the fight earlier, so I opted for my pistol it seemed to pack a hell of a punch and it felt more natural to me. It felt strange to think that, as much as I tried to recall anything from before waking up all I could recall was all Mass Effect related.
"Try and pay attention, there is bound to be more of those things" Ashley cut in.
"Well in my opinion those things are Geth." No sooner had I finished my sentence but three Geth came from the dig site weapons blazing. "Me and my big mouth." I muttered to myself unaware I had left the comlink open.
"So you have a big mouth Carolus? Good to know" Shepard added as me and Ashley both took cover behind a small rock formation. I looked over my pistol quickly before popping out and letting out a few rounds at the nearest Geth, my shots tore through its shields leaving it vulnerable for the others who promptly took care of it. The remaining two Geth took cover and I used the opportunity to move closer making sure I kept myself as low to the ground as possible making myself as small a target as possible. As I reached the closest Geth I tried my biotics again, I imagined throwing the Geth across the ground and threw my right arm forwards and just like that a blue aura flowed from my body and a ball of the blue energy fired from my right hand and slamming it into a nearby rock. Before I could make sure it was down for the count, my barrier began warping as it deflected shots going from the other Geth now behind me. I mentally cursed myself for not paying attention to the fact that the second one could now shoot me from the safety of his rocky fortress without getting hit from Shepard and company.
I responded almost immediately spinning on my heel and letting loose with my pistol, my shots rang out until a loud beeping and a sizzling noise began blaring from my firearm, it had overheated but this was not as disastrous as it should have been as Ashley had moved up and finished it off after my shots and tore several holes through its midsection. Kaidan had made his way over to the Geth I had thrown earlier and put a few more rounds into it to make sure is was down for the count.
"I feel like I should say something like, I hope that's the last of them or How could this day get any worse." I let out a sigh as I turned back to the group.
"Don't say that!" Shepard yelled at me as she cut my legs out from under me with a swift kick to the back of my legs. I fell to the ground with a thud my armour absorbing the impact quite handly.
"Ouch. That was very paragon of you Shepard." I said in reply to my now rather unfortunate situation.
"Paragon?" She asked in reply clearly unsure as to what I was getting at. While that wasn't overly surprising given it was a reference from my world or at least my world when I was awake, I am still not sure exactly what this all is. "Williams is this the dig site? I don't see what we could call a beacon" Shepard stated as she walked towards the centre of the site.
"It must have been moved commander" The gunnery chief replied while looking over the now empty site.
"By who? Our side or the Geth?" Kaidan chimed in as he pushed his way past me as I picked myself off the floor. I get the feeling he doesn't like me much, I thought to myself as I brushed off my armour and began walking up the hill at the rear of the site. Okay knowing where to go is great, hopefully I can cut out a lot of useless chatter. I mused to myself over the fact of essentially knowing the future, I could be a god in this world, the thought sent a shiver down my spine.
"Change of plans Shepard" A voice that was distinctly different than my fellow humans. "There is a small spaceport ahead, I will meet you there."
"Roger that." Came the clear military drilled response from Shepard.
"Who was that?" I asked knowing full well by now that I had just heard the words of a walking dead man or rather walking dead Turian name Nihlus.
"An ally, he has moved ahead of us to secure the area." She replied
"By himself!?" I retorted knowing full well that it was his own idea and preferred method of action. Not waiting for Shepard's response I take off up the hill and around the corner. Could I catch Saren in the act now? Could I save Nihlus? It seemed so trivial to just allow myself to go through the motions, let Nihlus die fight alongside Shepard, kill some Geth, defuse some bombs and trigger a beacon. Why should I be content with that? Let's throw a wrench in the universe's plans.
"Carolus where are you going?" Shepard's displeasure was clear from her tone of voice coming through my comm system. I cut her off, I didn't have the time to explain what I was doing nor did I have the desire to tell her I knew the future and was currently attempting to change it, by hopefully shooting one indoctrinated spectre in the back of the head.
As I made my way through the burning landscape several Geth were in the process of mounting still living people unto those horrific spikes. Dragon's Teeth I thought to myself as I put a few shots into those closest to me, not stopping to see if I did any damage I kept running towards the spaceport. I heard gunfire coming from the Geth I had shot at but it wasn't aimed at me, Shepard and the others must have chased after me and are now having to deal with the ones I left behind.
As I reached the hill overlooking the spaceport I saw them, Nihlus was looking over the flaming wreckage and blasted area of the spaceport, and coming up behind him Saren. I had made it, now I just had to decide how to deal with the situation that I knew was about to unfold before me. I began running scenarios through my mind, do I just start taking shots at Saren hoping to force him to leave if not kill him? Do I let Nihlus die and then make a move? Sacrifice Nihlus to gain ground on Saren and end him before he can lead the Geth on a path of destruction? This was pointless I could argue what to do in this situation forever action was required. I steeled myself and made my way down the slope. I found myself clenching and unclenching my free hand over and over again as I began to quicken my pace, steadying my breathing focusing on what I needed to do. Saren is a trained spectre and one of the greatest agents that has ever existed and here I was a man who wouldn't remember his own name without the computer in his head, no formal combat training that I could recall and no idea how I ended up here, but I did know one thing. Saren needs to die.
I made my way to the spaceport pistol in hand I must have looked like a madman, here I was in full armour pistol drawn dried white 'blood' staining my body walking up to two of the most dangerous and well trained soldiers in the galaxy. Nihlus was the first to see me, while Saren had his back to me, he must have noticed Nihlus's puzzled look and turned to face me.
"So one of the humans survived." Saren quipped as he looked me over quickly reaching for his gun as he saw mine in hand. I brought my pistol level and prepared to fire. Once again I found myself a passenger in own body as went to pull the trigger. I was brought back to reality as a sharp pain shot through my right shoulder. I dropped my gun, the pain shooting through my body I grimaced as I looked up and saw Nihlus had shot me. I dropped to my knees struggling to breathe I looked down and saw a dark red liquid ooze from my shoulder and chest.
"Saren" I managed to say in between long gasps for air. Where I am hit? I thought to myself as I looked over my surroundings, everything was going fuzzy colours were fading in and out voices were just static. Nihlus lowered himself to my level, he was trying to talk to me but I couldn't make sense of it and then he just seemed to fall. I looked up and to my horror I saw my pistol, Saren was holding it my body began to react to the pain now shooting through my right side.
Medi-Gel applied, condition stable, secondary implants online.
"So it seems one of you survived." Saren was looking down on me his look of what I assumed was pride it was making me sick. "It seems my new partner failed to remove you. No matter this works out better." He tossed my gun at my feet and turned to leave.
"How do you know me" I wheezed out my response seemed to catch his attention.
"You don't remember what you're here for?" He looked towards the sky, this was my chance my feeling in my arm was coming back I reached for my pistol it was painful to move I was using huge amounts of concentration just not to wince in pain. "She told me you and your team knew about me and." He paused seemingly contemplating what to say next. "Lets just say I know a lot about you Carolus, still watching your shuttle explode in atmosphere was greatly satisfying, how you survived that. Well credit where credit is due but now you can help me." I cut him off I brought my pistol up and fired three shots. The first and second impacted on his barrier but the third hit home. He growled in pain as he clutched his face in one of his talons. Before I could fire again he seemed to pounce on me, as he began bringing his fists down on my face before standing and repeatedly kicking me. Every blow felt like someone was bringing a hammer down on me, my already damaged body began convulsing as the odd stream of blood dripped from my mouth. I had no idea how long his burst of rage lasted it felt like an eternity before he finally relented and threw me into the crates stacked up towards the spaceport.
This time the pain was too much, it seemed to override every thought in my mind and every intake of air felt like I was inhaling glass shards.
"Bastard." I managed to hiss between fits of coughing up more blood. "I'm not done with you." However even as I finished that statement I felt my body give out on me and everything just went limp.
Everything hurt, as I lay on the ground struggling to move I saw another person make a run for it only for his limp body to come crashing down next to me. His face was expressionless I recognized the body next to me as the dock worker who was running the smuggling ring in the game. I wanted to look away but no matter how I tried I couldn't bring my head away; I couldn't tell if it was because of the pain I was in or the guilt that because of me he was dead. As I lay there I forced myself to close my eyes and let the pain flow through my body.
Greeting all Lord Castor Here,
This took me a lot longer than I had intended. You see the thing is I had to fight like fifty ninjas...no scratch that fifty robot pirate ninjas from space...Okay their not buying it new plan!
Okay being a historian in training my life can and often does get lost in academic journals. Never fear however, I have already begun work on the third chapter, hopefully this one gets as much love as the first. Thank all of those who Favorited and followed this story, and to those who didn't and don't thanks for viewing anyway.
As always thank you TREBOR117, for proof reading this and dealing with my pestering. Go read his stories guys go do it.
PS. In the time it took me to write this chapter I got that one year older...My life is fading away arrgggghhhhhh.
CYA NEXT TIME!