Author's Note: Well chapter 2 and we continue with the Eden Prime arc. Most likely we'll get off of Eden Prime and get to the Normandy this chapter, if not well, there's always next chapter. So let's get this freak show on the road shall we?
As they approached the tram, Nihles and Kaiden overtook Ashley and Lovett, putting a short distance between them. Kaiden looks back at the duo noticing that there is a slight trickle of fresh blood dripping down his wounded shoulder. He shifts his gaze to Ashley and shakes his head at her when he had her attention. She gave him an 'I don't know what you're talking about' look and shrug and returned to watching their six.
He turned back to Nihles, shaking his head in exasperation. "So…I seem to have missed the story on how Lovett was injured." he commented, both stating a fact and wanting to know what had happened to their newest member. Nihles turned his head back just enough to regard Kaiden and Thomas further beyond. "He saved my life." he said simply in response. Kaiden was taken aback, he looked back at Lovett in surprise and tried to imagine him somehow saving Nihles. "How'd he pull that off?" he asked.
Nihles sighed "I fell into a trap." he replied. Kaiden looked at Nihles in surprise but he spoke before Kaiden could say anything. "I was working my way up to the Space Port when I came across an old friend and fellow SPECTR, Saren. I let my guard down and allowed him to get behind me. Next thing I know I hear a shot being fired from behind me, I spin around ready to confront whatever had spooked Saren when I find him on the ground wrestling with Lovett. After a moment Saren shoves Lovett off of him, shoots him in the shoulder and makes a run for it. That's when my training kicked in and I fired back but it was too late, none of my rounds made any difference. I then applied Medi-Gel to his shoulder and that's when your group showed up." he explained panning his gaze on the lookout for more Geth.
Kaiden was about to say something but was cut off when his shields suddenly flared in protest. "CONTACT!" he yelled diving for cover as the rest of the group followed suit as Geth that had been hiding in the Tram broke cover and attacked. Ashley roughly shoved Thomas to the ground and got behind cover, taking pot shots at the Geth firing at them.
While all this was going on, Thomas noticed a trio of Geth approaching from the rear. He looked over his shoulder to tell someone about the threat, but everyone was focused on the Geth in front of them. Knowing he would only get someone killed if he broke their concentration, he made a snap decision. He grabbed the pistol off of Ashley's waist with his good arm, causing her to turn to him. She was about to say something but a spattering of rounds slamming into her cover forced her down and she returned fire.
He fumbled with the contraption for a moment cursing the bastard who had invented the collapsingness of the weapons before pushing a button and the damned thing unfolded into a pistol. Knowing he doesn't have much time and with only one good arm he took shaky aim at the first Geth. The blast slightly startled him as did the recoil, causing his aim to go wild and the round to go sailing into the distance.
The Geth he had fired at froze for a second and that was all he needed. Now knowing how the weapon would handle, he aimed again and popped off four rounds at the lead Geth. The first two splashed harmlessly against the shields, the third dropped them and the forth somehow managed to find itself in the central processing unit in the chest. At this point the other two had taken cover and began firing back at him. Thomas shifted to a different side of the crates he was behind which gave him a good angle on the Geth farthest from him. He quickly popped out and let loose a quartet of shots, the first three killing its shield while the fourth punched through the light bulb that was its head. It flailed for a moment before dropping to the ground, its silvery-bluish fluid that posed for blood pooling around it.
He ducked behind cover just as the other one swept its fire from the other corner to his. Knowing that the Geth was expecting him to appear from the other corner, he popped out in the center of the crate only to catch a chest full of rounds. Blown back by the force of the impacts he lays on the ground and counts the number of hits. One had passed through the right side of his chest and the wound was leaking bright pink blood, most likely it got a lung. The second had passed through his upper arm and if the white splinters in the wound was any indication it either chipped or shattered the bone. The third passed through his shoulder just under the collar bone.
Lying in a rapidly expanding pool of blood, he could only watch as the final Geth unit approached him. It was only a few moments before Geth was standing over him. It regarded him for a moment, tilting its head side to side. It was raising its rifle when it was brutally cut down by a hail of fire that came from Thomas's right. The Geth dropped out of sight and was replaced with the worried face of Shepard. She turned her head to the right and shouted something but Thomas couldn't make out what she was saying, he had begun to hear ringing in his ears.
Shepard was in her zone, that place she went where all emotion fled from her and she was solely focused on what she was doing. Her task? Save one Thomas Lovett. She knew logically that he would probably be fine after a generous application of Medi-Gel, but for a full recovery he would need the facilities on the Normandy, maybe even a stint in a hospital. "Shepard, as much as I would like to stay and tend to Lovett, we have to get to that beacon." Kaiden said. Shepard looked up from where she had just administered the Medi-Gel to his chest wound, it taking on a light purplish color when it mixed with the highly oxygenated blood that poured out of the wound.
She stared at Kaiden for a moment, then almost reluctantly she nodded. "We move in five minutes." she said, the authority in her voice clear. Kaiden nodded as did Ashley who gave Thomas an odd look before they both went off to stand guard. Shepard stood, stretched, then walked over and plopped herself on a rock where she could keep an eye on Thomas, pulling out her canteen and taking a swig as she did so. "That was a stupid thing he did." Shepard looked up into the face of Nihles who had spoken. She was about to lay into him but he continued speaking. "And one of the most daring, not many people, Human, Asari, Turian, or Salarian would willingly engage a hostile unarmored and unshielded. Especially with three-to-one odds." he said, impressed. Shepard nodded without saying anything while she stood. She walked over to Thomas and bent down. "Can you hear me?" she asked.
Thomas, whose vision had begun to swim but was slowly clearing, nodded toward her. "We have to move you, it's just a short distance to the Tram where you'll stay until the mission is complete." she said. Thomas could only nod again. Shepard nodded then motioned Kaiden and Ashley over. "Get him to the Tram, very back car, Nihles and I will cover you." she said. With a pair of quickly spoken aye, aye Ma'am's the two grabbed an arm apiece and as gently as possible hauled Thomas to his feet. He grunted in pain, but otherwise stayed quiet as they moved toward the tram.
Once they were all aboard, Shepard, Nihles, and Kaiden moved up to the front of the Tram to get it moving while Ashley stayed back with Thomas. They got the Tram moving and were soon off to the Space Port proper.
It was only about 15 minutes later, and they arrived to a hail of fire raining down on them from a bridge above them. Taking cover and shooting back, Kaiden noticed something that made his blood freeze. "BOMB!" he shouted, trying to be heard over the din of combat. Shepard tore her gaze from the bridge to where Kaiden was looking and sure enough there was a bomb sitting right next to the Tram. "Kaiden take care of the bomb we'll cover you." she said, as she Nihles and Ashley concentrated their fire on the Geth that were closest to them, driving them back under the assault. Kaiden set to the bomb with a will and soon it was disarmed, but he was dismayed when he picked up more radiation signatures.
"Commander I count at least three more bombs spread out over the Space Port." he said as the group stepped off the tram. "Alright, Kaiden needs cover while he disarms the bombs, let's give him that cover." Shepard said as she ran off taking point.
As the main group began their task of disarming the bombs, Thomas sat in the tram trying not to pass out from the pain. The Medi-Gel might help close the wound and provide pain relief for a time, but that was slowly wearing off. He looked around, trying to see through the haze the pain had placed over his eyes. They cleared a little bit and he recognized where he was. He was at the Space Port proper, Shepard was due to get the first of three visions and the knowledge of an entire race here.
Thomas contemplated just sitting there and letting this part play out, in reality it would be damn near suicidal to try and move with the severity of his injuries. Already hating himself, he grunted in pain and slowly pulled himself up to a slightly standing position. Once he got his bearings and his head stopped swimming, he slowly made his way off the tram and passed the bodies of Geth and disarmed bombs. He had just reached the balcony area where he could see the entire team in front of the Beacon. Once again his body acted on its own before he could tell it no.
Shepard was calling for a pickup with a medical team standing by, Kaiden was marveling at the working Prothean technology, Nihles was watching the perimeter though his gaze was constantly being drawn back to the Beacon and Ashley was approaching Shepard. Shepard nodded and replied in the affirmative then turned back to look at the Beacon when Ashley approached and engaged her in a conversation. That's where everything fell apart.
Kaiden was admiring the Beacon when it suddenly lit up with a green aura. He started then felt something trying to pull him toward the Beacon. Shepard noticed Kaiden's predicament and ran toward him, grabbing him as he was about to be pulled into the air and threw him out of the way. Shepard was about to be pulled into close proximity to the Beacon when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her and yank her away. After hitting the ground she looked up at the bloodied figure of Thomas who had been pulled into the air by the Beacon.
(A few minutes earlier) He knew he should leave well enough alone, he had already fucked with the time line by saving Nihles but he just couldn't. Maybe it was the thought that he would finally be doing something worthwhile; not that joining the Navy wasn't worthwhile, but he'd actually be able to make a noticeable difference somewhere. Whatever it was it flooded his body with adrenaline and he moved. He vaulted the guardrail, landing on the platform below with a sickening crack that almost sent him down but he was too hyped up to worry about a broken ankle. He was half-way to the beacon when Kaiden was pulled away by Shepard and he sped up; somehow finding a pocket of extra energy.
Thomas blurred past Kaiden and Ashley who were on the ground, latched onto Shepard and heaved her around though it caused his chest to burn horribly and his arms to scream in protest now that the adrenaline was wearing off. With no energy to try and fight the Beacon, he could do nothing as he was hauled into the air and had his mind raped. It was pure agony, as the images of the Reaper's destruction of the Protheans was burned into his head.
He couldn't take it anymore, the pain in his head, the pain in his chest, his ankle, his arms, he screamed. It was a soul shattering scream that tore from his lips as he felt all of the pain he had accumulated be multiplied by a thousand-fold. After a few seconds the Beacon exploded, sending Thomas to the ground where he, mercifully, was embraced by the cold nothing of unconsciousness.
Author's Note: Well, that got interesting toward the end. In the original hand written text, Thomas's wounds weren't that serious. All three of them were flesh wounds, arms and shoulders. But when I started typing, well you see what happened, if you've read my Rosario-Halo cross you know I like to kick the shit out of my main character and well…you got a glimpse of that here. Don't worry I don't intend to kill him off, just get him a nice assortment of scars and shit. Well rate, review whatever it is you fucks do…holy shit I just made a rhyme. That is so cool, now if you have flames would you kindly roast yourself with them? Chow mother fuckers.