Chapter 5: Benning

It's been a long day for Shepard, and he finally had time to rest and enjoy himself now. Stretching out on a chair in his quarters, the commander had just finished having a hot shower, and was now about to read a book he had gotten as a present from an avid fan. It was called Commander Shepard's Guide to Stores in the Citadel. He was just about to bite into a candy bar he found, when his terminal started beeping.

"What is it now…" He groaned as he put the candy bar and the book on the table.

Shepard brought up the incoming transmission and there, as Shepard expected, Hackett was, staring right at him.

"Shepard," the Admiral said. "We're having some problems on Benning. Cerberus forces are attacking the civilian population. We need you to get in there to rescue the civilians and take out the Cerberus attackers."

"Benning is a human settlement. Why would they be attacking them for? Aren't they fighting for the greater good of the human race?" The commander asked, forgetting his annoyance at being interrupted.

"We don't know, Shepard. Just get in there are serve some justice."

"Alright then, sir."

"Good. Hackett out."

Shepard grumbled as he got up and walked off towards the elevator. "I guess that candy bar would have to wait."

Cortez flew Shepard, Liara, and Mason towards Benning, as they prepped up their weapons. There was fire and dead people everywhere. It was a horrifying sight, but seemed like nothing compared to Earth. There were also ruins of what seemed like a part of a large crashed ship near the settlement; the only visible, but faded word was Dawn, but it wasn't important now. Shepard and his team got their weapons out as Cortez dropped them off.

"Alright!" Shepard commanded. "Find survivors."

Shepard and his team walked on, exploring the bullet-riddled buildings. Many dead bodies were found around, but no sign of Cerberus just yet.

"Heh," Shepard huffed out. "They always appear unexpectedly when you don't want to see them.

"Over here, Shepard!" Liara called out. "I found survivors!"

Shepard and Mason ran over to where Liara was and found two survivors, a man and a woman, huddling in the corner. Their clothes were torn and dirty, and both shrank away from Shepard as he approached.

"Hi, I'm Commander Shepard, and I'm here to rescue you."

The survivors looked a little more hopeful, but as things go, Cerberus troopers started shooting at them and appearing from nowhere, even airdropping from shuttles. Shepard and the others got behind random chest-high walls as the shooting got more intense.

"Great," Shepard thought as he returned some fire. "Just when you least expect it."

One Cerberus trooper was a little more daring, and he charged out from behind his cover to try and take a shot at shooting one of Shepard's people. Mason saw this as an opportunity and used his magnet gun to slam the trooper back into one of his other friends, and sent them both flying off a railing at a breakneck speed to the ground far below. The other ones didn't dare take more steps forward, and just stayed back behind their covers, shooting at Shepard, mainly. Liara shot out one of her singularities, and caught a Cerberus trooper in its grasp, and brought him out from behind his cover. Mason also shot out one of his singularities, which pulled in the two Cerberus troops, and after a while, exploded, sending the Cerberus bodies flying.

"How does yours do that?" Liara asked Mason curiously.

"Umm… It's a little hard to explain. I'll help you with it when we get back to the Normandy."

Liara's face shot out an excited grin, as the team moved out with the survivors. As they climbed up a nearby staircase, more Cerberus troops dropped in out of nowhere once again, and the team had to hide behind the well placed objects. There were only three troopers, one centurion, and one guardian this time.
"Shouldn't be too hard," Shepard thought to himself.

The two teams exchanged gun fire for a while, nobody getting killed. This time, no one was advancing forward either, so no easy kills for anyone. Shepard threw a frag grenade to distract one of the troopers, and flew out of his cover with a dive, and shot with his avenger rifle as he flew. He was lucky and got one of the troopers between the eyes, dropping him like a sack of potatoes. After he landed behind another piece of cover, the grenade blew up, staggering the centurion, who Liara managed to kill with her shuriken pistol, while his shields were still recovering. The guardian went down easily; all Mason did was use his magnet gun and slammed the shield into the guardian, and knocked him right out. Shepard had thrown another grenade at the soldiers, taking out the remaining Cerberus troops.

"Lesson learned," Shepard cautioned his crew mates as they emerged from the chest high walls. "Cerberus troopers are everywhere."

They proceeded on, back to the landing zone where Cortez had dropped them off. Cortez was nowhere to be seen as Shepard and the others got there.

"Cortez! Where are you? We need extraction!" Shepard shouted out on the comm link.

There was a short pause before Cortez spoke. "Got a few AA guns, manned by Cerberus troops here. Might take me a while to get to you."

"Roger that. We'll hold out here till you get to us then."

Before long, more Cerberus troops appeared and started shooting at the team once again. This time, they brought more reinforcements. Bigger reinforcements. A Metal Gear Atlas airdropped from the sky near the soldiers. It sent one of the Cerberus soldiers flying off the building from the impact.

"Ha. Nice," Shepard thought out loud.

Helghast troops came out from the buildings as well. Quite a lot of Helghast troops. The Helghast and Cerberus combined fire wasn't letting anyone of Shepard's team shoot back, effectively pinning the team down.

"Ok," Shepard shouted to his team and the survivors over the gunfire. "This is going to be a little more difficult."

Shepard and the others leaned out at timed intervals and let out bursts of bullet fire, which took down troops that were reloading. Although they got some, there still seemed to be a lot of enemy soldiers around. The Atlas shot away at their cover with its missiles and rail gun, shaking the landing pad. Shepard shot a concussive shot out, knocking a Helghast soldier off his feet, and flying across to a wall, where he struck with a crunch. Other than those few lucky shots his teammates and him were landing, they still seemed to be at the disadvantage.

"Man," Shepard grumbled as a sniper nearly took his nose off. "I'm a main guy. I can't die here!"

Before he could lean out and shoot some more, the air was suddenly filled with explosions, killing a whole bunch of Helghast and Cerberus troops. Shepard looked up to see what was going on, when he spotted a green armored human launch himself from a nearby building, down towards the remaining soldiers and the Atlas. The man was very powerful, Shepard thought as he reloaded. He moved at almost lightning speed, and hammered most of the troops with his rifle, and seemed to kill them after launching them towards walls or cliffs. The Helghast and Cerberus troops immediately switched targets, sending volleys of bullets at the newcomer. The shots hit home, but seemed to be deflected by some kind of energy shielding.

"Woah," Mason exclaimed. "That guy is good."

Shepard felt a little jealous that that guy was doing much better than he could, but at least he was alive and moving. The green man ran up towards the Metal Gear Atlas, and jumped higher than a normal man could, up onto the cockpit. With one swift punch, the glass broke, and the man swung out his rifle and shot inside, spraying the pilot, the controls, and the seat with bullets. The Atlas groaned to a stop and the cockpit erupted into flames as the green man jumped off the suit. Shepard and his teammates moved out from behind cover and unleashed their bullets at the remaining soldiers. Shepard shot two Cerberus troops, and used his omni-blade to take care of a distracted Helghast soldier. Mason and Liara used a few of their singularities and shot away with their guns at other soldiers, who were trying desperately to bring down this newest foe. After a rush of shooting, killing, punching, and dying, Shepard, Liara, and Mason emerged victorious.

Shepard approached the man in green armor. He was a lot taller than any of them, and looked very intimidating as he walked away from the disabled Metal Gear Atlas. "Thanks for your help, uh…"

"Chief," the armored green man said, the light glinting off his dark yellow visor. "Master Chief."

"Ok, Chief Master Chief," Shepard said, mentally wondering what kind of name that was. "You're pretty good with a gun. And punching. How would you like to help the galaxy."

"What? Again?" Chief asked as he stowed his assault rifle on his back.

"What do you mean again?"

Before it could be answered, Cortez spoke up on the comm link. "Shepard, I'm approaching the rendezvous point. It seems the AA gunners are taking a break, cause they just stopped firing on my shuttle."

"Oh, those," Chief spoke up. "I took care of them on the way down here."

Shepard grinned as Cortez's shuttle got nearer to the landing zone.

"Thanks for your help, commander… We wouldn't have made it without your help. And of course, your teammates and the Master Chief here," the survivors said as they climbed aboard the Kodiak.

As Shepard and his squad mates got on the shuttle, he asked the chief again. "So, would you like to join us?"

"Sure. I've got experience with saving the galaxy. I'll help," Chief replied as he climbed aboard the shuttle as well.

As the shuttle flew back towards the Normandy, Shepard smiled to himself, pleased that he has gained another ally in his fight against the Reapers. And not just any ally. From the looks of it, he might have found one with the ability to finish the fight.

Project Eel - Benning