Chapter 15: Helghan II – Definitely not According to Plan

The camp was on fire as Shepard got back. He couldn't find Sev and Kowalski, but they were probably still alive. They had earlier barely escaped Pyrrhus as the Helghast retaliated for the assassination of their great leader. Only by luck, or as Shepard wanted to know, his own skills, they flew out on an ISA intruder just as a cruiser was shot down, creating a really big explosion, knocking down some intruders. Rico was left behind as he attempted to rescue another ISA unit, but Shepard didn't really bother. Rico was the one who shot Visari after all. They had escaped to a jungle, but when Shepard came back from using the jungle's plants to relieve himself, the camp was on fire. He went over to the nearest ISA soldier to question him on the circumstances. The Helghast had found them, and they were attacking the ISA camps. Sev and Kowalski had gone to a radio tower earlier, so Shepard decided to go looking for them. Liara, James, and Javik were also somewhere in the base, but Shepard would have to go looking for them later. He had to know if the radio link had gotten through to Alliance command. As he ran through the fire and flames, he encountered his first enemy. A Helghast in heavier armor stabbing an ISA engineer. The Hig had plates all over his body and a knife gadget on his right arm. The special Hig looked up at him and gave out a battle shriek. It dropped the dead ISA soldier and ran straight for Shepard. Shepard didn't know what to expect, so he backstepped and held up his rifle and fired. The Hig was almost upon him when the bullets were launched from his rifle. The Hig got a chest full of bullets at close range, tearing him up as he fell to the ground.

"That was a close one," Shepard said, pretending to wipe sweat from his head.

He ejected a thermal clip and kept going. He had to find his teammates. He decided the best place to go was the main camp, so he headed in that direction. All of a sudden, Helghast flamers stepped out from behind a rock and blasted fire at him. Shepard quickly got behind a yellow plant, but it soon burnt down to cinders.

"Agh!" he shouted as the fires got close to him.

His fingers felt like they were burnt, but he couldn't stop moving, or the fire would engulf his whole form. He did a backwards roll and landed on his back. He got out his rifle and shot at the Helghast. By luck or pure shooting skill, he managed to hit the gas tank of one of the flamers, blowing him to bits in that instant. The second looked to his destroyed comrade and shot out more fire towards the commander. Shepard got behind a rock this time. The flames were unable to penetrate the rock, creating a smile on Shepard's face. He pulled out a frag grenade and rolled it over to the flamer. The flamer looked down at the rolling object just in time to see if explode, taking him out.

"Got you, losers!" Shepard shouted as he jumped out from behind the rock and walked over to the remains of the flamers.

He began walking off, but decided to head back to help himself to one of their flamethrowers. Luckily, even if a person were to explode or disintegrate, their weapons would always remain behind, allowing Shepard to do a little 'shopping'. He picked up the gun and studied it. It had a tank in the spot where a magazine would be on a gun. He'd never used a Helghast flamethrower before, but he felt he would get better at it immediately. He walked on, searching for his teammates, or other ISA survivors. The main camp was just ahead as he followed the tents and equipment. He eventually arrived, taking in the battle going on. Helghast soldiers were popping up from different pathways, rushing towards the ISA force. There were turrets and snipers placed all around the camp, defending well against the Helghast. But how long could they hold out? Shepard didn't want to imagine losing, so he jumped down a hill and ran straight for one of the paths. Four Helghast troopers appeared around the bend, but Shepard burned them down with spray fire from the flamethrower.

"Yeah!" he shouted at them. "Get some!"

More kept coming as he spat fire at them. After killing about twenty soldiers, Shepard was almost out of gas.

"This could be bad."

Liara and Javik stayed at the back, providing biotic barriers for the soldiers whenever a missile was launched from the Helghast carriers. One carrier had leapt off the cliff and tried to get Sev, but Javik blew it up with a biotic blast. The protheans truly had outstanding biotic abilities. James just stood around them, taking out Helghast soldiers whenever he had the opportunity. Sev had acquired a sniper rifle and hung around some boxes, taking a few shots at Helghast soldiers as they ran in. Liara had seen Shepard run in to the camp earlier. He seemed to be focusing on something else and ran towards one of the entrances the Helghast were using and starting shooting at them. At least he was effective. A Helghast marksman lined up his sights to Javik's head, but Liara saw him and swooped him up in a biotic pull. He floated along until Sev got him with his own sniper. The shooting continued, raging on for a few minutes. As the bullets flew, smoke started enveloping the area, making it harder to see. Sev dropped his sniper rifle when the smoke got too thick to see through and pulled out his M82 assault rifle. Liara, Javik, James, and Sev stood together, ready for whatever the Helghast were going to throw at them. Shepard suddenly ran out and joined them.

"Commander!" Sev shouted, surprised to see him suddenly.

"Yo, team!" he replied. "Been taking out a bunch of Helghast until the knife ones started appearing. They stabbed a bunch of the ISA guys and dragged them away."

"Those are capture troopers, commander," James answered. "They don't have guns, but they have good capturing skills."

"I never would have guessed," Shepard said.

Helghast soldiers started walking out from the smoke. Shepard and his teammates started shooting at them, taking them out as they weren't behind cover. Many soldiers went down, but more kept coming.

"We got to find a better location!" Sev shouted over to Shepard.

"Get to the higher ground!" Shepard ordered, pointing up to the elevated area of the camp.

The team moved out, Shepard in front, and James at the back. Bullets flew around them, but nothing hit them. Every few seconds, his team would take out a few Higs as they made for the high ground. As they approached, they found more ISA soldiers holed up at the top. Captain Narville led them as they took out Helghast soldiers. Sev was glad to see Kowalski was still alive, shooting away at the approaching Higs.

"Commander!" Narville shouted as he saw Shepard. "Good to see you're still alive!"

"Always," Shepard smiled. "What's the plan? Any rescue coming?"

Narville shook his head. "We're on our own. Alliance command has agreed to get us in as prisoners of war, but they have no idea what the Helghast do to their prisoners. Those fools!"

"Really?" Shepard shouted angrily. "Did they know I was here?"

"Not too sure about that, commander," Narville answered.

"Probably not then!" Shepard shouted, outraged. "If they knew I was here, they'd send help as fast as they can! I'm the hero who defeated Sovereign and the Collectors! And now, Colonel Radec!"

More Helghast soldiers ran in, followed by a squad of capture troopers, knives ready. Shepard's gang took them out quickly, but they were really running low on thermal clips.

"We've got to find a way out!" James shouted as he blasted a capture trooper with his shotgun.

"We could always steal one of the Helghast dropships," Shepard recommended. "Anyone know how to pilot one?"

"We'll get to that if we can even get to one of those dropships!" Narville shouted over the gunfire.

Shepard smiled. "Leave that to The Shepard! Follow me!"

He threw his near empty flamethrower to the ground, and brought out his predator pistol and omni-blade. He ran for the nearest capture trooper. He used an adrenaline rush just as the trooper stabbed forward with his knife, slowing down everything else as he ran forward. He shot the capture trooper in the head and moved forward to stab another. He quickly pulled out his blade and made for the next trooper as the bodies fell slowly. He shot the next few and moved on as the bullets flew to their faces slowly. He soon cleared the attacking horde as he made his way to the overlord dropship with his adrenaline rush. His teammates followed closely behind, taking out more troops as they came out of the smoke. Shepard was the first in, jumping straight to the pilot's seat.

"You know how to fly one, commander?" Narville asked.

"Of course!" Shepard assured. "How hard can this be?"

Shepard started the engines and lifted off the ground, tilting slightly to the left, forcing the others to hang on tightly. He tried to straighten out the dropship, but made it do a three-sixty degree spin instead.

"Sorry folks!" Shepard shouted from the front. "But I planned that as a test. You all passed, so I'll be flying out now."

The others looked at Shepard, wondering if he was serious about that or not, but buckled in as to not get thrown around as Shepard flew out of the jungle. The ride was a little violent and unstable, but Shepard was at least able to keep the dropship flying. The jungle soon disappeared behind them as they entered a more mountainous area. Shepard didn't know where to go, so he kept flying straight, unless a mountain stood in his path. He flew around for a while before finally talking back to his crew.

"Where to?" he asked. "Does Joker know where we are?"

The Normandy flew silently around the planet Helghan. Joker left the cockpit to EDI and went down to get some coffee. For the last four days, he'd been hovering around Helghan, waiting for Shepard's next orders. So far, nothing's come. Joker found it strange. Usually, Shepard would radio in every once in a while to say something very egotistical about himself, but not even one word has been heard of the commander since he left for the surface. Joker always left the radio on, and suddenly, it picked up some chatter. Helghast chatter. Apparently, they had captured some ISA soldiers and were bragging about all over their planet on a non-secure channel. Anyone could pick it up. Joker had listened in on the whole thing. They were bringing them to some remote arctic base, which belonged to Stahl Arms.

"I wonder what they're planning," he thought to himself as he took a sip of coffee.

He quickly spit it out, realizing he had taken rifle oil instead. He quickly looked around. He wasn't in the mess hall. He was in the armory. Cortez was looking at him as if he'd gone mad. Thinking too much on the Helghan matters, he had walked into the armory, believing it to be the mess, and almost drank a cup full of oil.

"Oops," Joker said, pouring the rest of the oil back into the dispenser.

"Did you pick that up?" Shepard shouted to his teammates.

"Loud and clear, commander," Kowalski replied.

They had picked up some Helghast communications earlier. They were shipping the ISA soldiers they had captured to a Stahl Arms base in the snowy regions of Helghan. Narville suggested going to rescue them, but Kowalski and a few other ISA soldiers opposed it.

"It's like going into the hornet's nest!" he said. "But the hornets and bigger than you."

Shepard butted in. "We've got to rescue them. Then they'll know how awesome I am… I mean, then… we'll have more people in our war assets! Yeah, that."

"The commander's the hero here," Sev added. "So I guess we listen to him."

Kowalski shook his head. "Alright, fine. Let's save some people."

"Got it," Shepard said, accelerating the overlord dropship as they approached the base coordinates.

On the way in, several overlords appeared, making their way to the base as well. Shepard decided to blend in, flying his dropship to the middle of all the other ones.

"Alright, team," he told the others. "So far so good. We can just follow this convoy in and-"

An explosion blocked off the rest of his sentence. Shepard held the controls tight, keeping the ship on course as he observed the event. An overlord exploded into tiny bits as ISA intruders fly by. Some soldiers on the top fired missiles at the other dropships, destroying some, and damaging others.

"Uhhh…" Shepard voiced as he flew the dropship. "We've got ISA soldiers outside, blowing up the dropships. Captain Narville, if you could somehow radio them, I'm sure-"

An anchor-like piece of metal suddenly pierced the door. Everyone looked on as the door was yanked away by one of the ISA intruders. At the top, stood a face they'd thought they had lost earlier.

"Rico!" Sev shouted, surprised to see the violent man. "How'd you find us?"

"Heard on the Helghast radio's that they had ISA prisoners on the way to this facility," Rico told them. "They were a bit too excited with the news. Got a bit too careless with who could listen to their messages."

Shepard nodded. "Same here, Visari-killer."

Rico narrowed his eyes. "Really? I come all the way here and find you, and that's what you have to say?"

"Yes," Shepard responded. "I mean, you did kill him."

"Ok," Sev interrupted, not wanting to start a heated argument. "Doesn't matter what happened. There are ISA soldiers in there that need our help."

"He's right, Rico, we've got more important things to do," Shepard said, flying the dropship after the other ones. "Anyway, it was you who killed Visari after all."

"Listen-"

Sev cut in again. "Ok, let's keep going. We've got some rescuing to do."

Shepard had acquired a Helghast outfit from a Helghast trooper guarding an elevator earlier. He didn't like to put on helmets, but for this situation, he had no choice. If they were to successfully sneak into the base, they were going to have to go in silently. Shepard didn't care, as he would probably kill everyone, but the others might not be so fortunate, so he had to comply with the plan. Everyone got dressed in the Helghast outfits except Narville, Kowalski, James, and the other extra ISA soldiers that were still alive.

"Good luck, commander," Narville told him. "We'll acquire the rendezvous point as planned."

"Roger," Shepard said, walking into the elevator. "We'll find those prisoners and bring them back."

Shepard, Liara, Javik, Sev, Rico, and their new teammate Rico had found, Jammer, got into the elevator and ascended towards the facility. They had each picked up a Helghast StA-52 Assault Rifle to disguise themselves further, but Rico had decided to keep his M224-A1 LMG. Sev had told him to get the Helghast one, but Rico refused to leave his beloved weapon behind, so they let him keep it.

"Are you sure having an ISA weapon won't arouse any suspicion?" Sev asked as the elevator rode on.

"Yes," Rico replied, taking a look at his weapon. "No one's going to even notice."

Rico proved his point as the elevator stopped. He was the first out and the first to walk through the checkpoint, going through without any kind of suspicion.

"Wow, just… wow," Shepard said as they went into the facility.

They had seen the ISA prisoners being escorted through another door as they walked down a flight of stairs. Sev asked a trooper and learnt that they were being brought to a place called the Broadcast Room. Rico and Jammer decided that they should split off and create a diversion for the others to get through the guards to the Broadcast Room. They broke a steam pipe and started shouting, attracting the attention of just about all the Helghast soldiers in the room. Shepard and his team waited at the doors until the door guards got attracted by the gas and went over to investigate as well.

"Now's our chance!" Shepard told the others as they made their way to the next area.

They kept going on, turning around corners, opening more doors, being checked by some guards, and eventually, entering some kind of meat room.

"What's all this meat?" Sev asked as he took a look around the place.

Javik smelled the bodies and recoiled. "This is human!"

Shepard made a disgusted face as he recoiled as well. "Gross!"

As they discussed about the meat, the door to the other side of the room opened as a Helghast soldier walked out.

"Are you the executioners?" he asked them. "Of course you are. Why wouldn't you be? Go on in. The chairman is waiting for you."

"Right you are," Shepard said, walking past the soldier. "Executing time!"

The four of them walked into a big room with some machinery and cameras. In the front of the room, three ISA soldiers were knelt down in front of a camera and a strange looking gun. A skinny man with white hair stood in front one of the ISA soldiers, bending down as he talked to him.

"Hooper," he asked the soldier in front of him. "Do you know who I am?"

The ISA soldier called Hooper looked up and stared at the man's face.

"Huh," the man said, pulling out a pistol from his pocket.

He pointed it at another prisoner and fired. The prisoner dropped to the ground, blood pooling around him.

"We are prisoners of war!" Hooper shouted. "We have rights! You just violated the Stockholm Treaty!"

"Stockholm?" the man shouted. "What planet do you think you're on!"

"My planet."

The man turned around to the owner of that voice. Shepard stepped forward, picked up the gun on the stand, and ripped off his helmet.

The man's eyes grew wider. "You!"

"Yeah, me!" Shepard shouted, pressing down the trigger.

A stream of green energy shot out from the gun, aimed straight for the skinny man. He quickly pulled another Helghast soldier in front of him, forcing him to take the blow of the energy. His body convulsed as the energy hit him, and after a while, he exploded. The man ran from his position as Shepard shot again. He pulled more Higs in the way as he made for the exit. All the other soldiers in the room were destroyed except the man.

"Commander," Javik asked after the fight was over. "Shouldn't you have shot him before letting him know you were not Helghast?"

"Can't do that, Javik," the commander replied. "Heroes have to announce their presence before striking, for more impact."

Sev ran over and untied the ISA prisoners. "Hooper, you alright?"

"Yeah," Hooper said. "Thanks for coming to get us."

Shepard walked over to the ISA soldiers. "You can thank me for that. I flew the overlord."

"Uhhh…" Hooper said, lost for words. "Thanks, Commander Shepard."

Shepard smiled and walked towards the door.

He turned around again. "Well, now we'll have to find the skinny guy. What's his name?"

"Jorhan Stahl," Hooper told him. "CEO of Stahl Arms."

"So that's what he looks like!" Shepard said loudly. "Well, let's get after him!"

With that said, Shepard wheeled around and ran out through the door, leaving his teammates and the ISA soldiers in the dust. He ran through a large room, shooting at as many Higs as he could, taking a lot of them by surprise. While he didn't stop to kill them all, his teammates would run in and finish them when they were distracted with him running away.

"Get some!" Shepard shouted, as he continued his run, killing anyone who got in his way.

"So that's his plan?" Sev asked as they arrived at the hangar.

"Yeah," Hooper said. "And Stahl's not going to stop until every Alliance and ISA person is dead."

"We've got to stop him," Liara said. "We cannot let him destroy everything."

Shepard walked over. "I've already contacted Joker. He says he'll be coming in to pick us up, so we'll just have to hold out till he gets here. How's Narville's group doing?"

"They're already down at the rendezvous point," Sev told him, inspecting his rifle.

"And how about our Visari killer?" Shepard asked, trying to hold his laughter.

"Oh yeah," Sev remembered. "Rico pulled off his helmet halfway and started killing lots of Helghast troops, so they had to get out early. Rico said he acquired an Ice Saw and is on his way to the rendezvous point."

Shepard was puzzled. "What so important about an ice saw? We don't need to cut any ice or anything right?"

"It's a vehicle, commander."

"Oh."

With that topic cleared, Metal Gear Atlas's airdropped from the sky, ready to do battle. There were three in total, and to make matters worse, Helghast troops started pouring out of the building. Shepard didn't bother to count those, quickly getting behind cover and firing back at them. He leaned out and took out two Higs shooting at him. Javik used a dark channel, slowly spreading a wave of biotics, killing the Helghast troopers every few seconds. Liara and Sev provided support fire, holding most of the Higs at bay, taking out those who tried to get closer. The Atlas's blasted rockets at the covers Shepard and his team were hiding behind, but the covers held up most of the impacts. Shepard leapt over his cover and ran towards another, killing almost half of the attack force along the way. The Atlas's were the problem.

"I need you guys to draw some agro!" Shepard shouted over to his teammates as he shot out a few more Helghast troops.

"What's agro?" Sev asked, not knowing what that word meant.

"Just distract the enemy so that Shepard can move in for the kill," Liara told him.

"Ah."

Sev leaned out and held down the trigger, spraying his bullets all over the place. The Helghast in front of Shepard suddenly turned towards the rifle fire and focused on his teammates.

"Perfect," Shepard said to himself as he moved closer to the back of the first Atlas.

All the enemies were now focused on his teammates as they fired off a barrage of bullets and biotics. Some lucky shots would take out some enemy soldiers, but otherwise, the rest directed their attention away from Shepard. Arriving at the first Atlas, Shepard pulled out two grenades and stuck them in the legs. Moving on to the second one, he stuck his last grenade into a leg, and moved towards the third. Standing a safe distance away, Shepard fired at the third Atlas with the full force of his revenant, dealing significant damage to the Metal Gear. The engines started smoking by the time Shepard ejected a clip. The Atlas tried to stomp him, but he dodged out of the way as he pulled out his predator pistol. Aiming at the grenades he had placed earlier, Shepard shot two bullets, detonating both grenades, blowing up the Atlas's legs out from under them. Without legs, the Atlas's couldn't get up, immobilizing the first two. The third attempted to flatten Shepard again, lifting its foot to smash the commander. Shepard fired away with his revenant, destroying parts of its armor. The Helghast started becoming aware of Shepard's position and started shooting at him. Shepard dodged behind a piece of cover, ejecting another thermal clip. Two of the Metal Gears were squirming around on the floor, unable to get up. The damaged Atlas walked towards Shepard, hungry for revenge for what he did. Before it could move any closer, Liara and Javik combined a biotic blast, hitting the Atlas hard in the glass, breaking it into a thousand pieces. The impact sent the Atlas falling down, where Shepard finished it by shooting the pilot in the face as it attempted to recover.

"Eat that, Atlas!" Shepard shouted as he returned to his cover.

Sev had finished off the Helghast assault and walked over to the downed Atlas's and shot into the cockpits, breaking the glass and killing the pilots.

"Nice!" Liara shouted to her teammates.

Lights flashed down on them all of a sudden. Shepard looked up. The Normandy had arrived.

"Great timing, Joker!" Shepard shouted to his omni-tool. "All the enemies just died."

"Anytime, commander," Joker said over the loudspeaker.

The Normandy cruised silently over the frozen landscapes of Helghan. It was in stealth mode, running invisible to the Helghast as it made for the rendezvous point. Shepard and his team sat in the mess, waiting for the Normandy to arrive at its destination. Shepard had checked in with Narville and James earlier. They were heading for a scrapyard, where they could find an elevator to take them to a Stahl Arms space station. Rico had also called in earlier. Stahl was planning a big attack on the Alliance and ISA, mobilizing an entire fleet, ready to take off in a few hours' time.

"Well, it's time for Shepard to step in and save the day," the commander told his teammates.

"Of course, commander," Javik said.

Shepard turned to Sev. "Sev, I need you to rally up a small team and enter the station through the elevator."

"Ok," Sev replied. "But what are you going to do?"

"Well," Shepard said, pulling out a candy bar from the food box. "I am the hero of this story, so I'll find a dramatic way to enter the station and a dramatic way to deal with Stahl."

Sev scratched his head. "Whatever you say, commander."

The rest of the ride was silent like the craft itself, flying along the icy mountains, eventually arriving at a rocky terrain leading to a whole land of scrap metal.

Shepard walked over to the window. "Show time, Sev."

It came out of nowhere. Sev was leading the way when a huge metallic machine began to rise. A loud groaning of metal created a dramatic effect for the machine as it stood to full height. It was the tallest, biggest machine Sev had ever seen, standing taller than most buildings. It had a huge head, four 'spider' legs, and a gigantic rail cannon attached to one side of it.

"What is that?" he asked aloud as the machine started lifting one of its legs.

Rico ran past him. "Metal Gear MAWLR!"

The soldiers started firing at it, but did little in damaging the huge Metal Gear.

"We'll need bigger weapons!" Jammer shouted over their small gunfire. "The warehouses up ahead should have wasps we can use!"

Sev had heard about those before. The StA-X3 W.A.S.P Launcher was a Helghast weapon, capable of firing multiple homing rockets at many targets. It was heavy, but its damage was also heavy. It wasn't a weapon to be taken lightly. Literally.

"Well, let's get some then!" Rico shouted, the first to start running to the warehouse area.

The MAWLR began charging up its rail cannon, distracting Sev for a bit. The main ISA force being led by Captain Narville started firing at the huge Metal Gear, but when its cannon was done charging, it unleashed a devastating beam of petrusite, decimating a chunk of the ISA tank force, along with many of the ground soldiers.

"Keep moving!" Rico shouted, startling Sev back to reality.

He had to keep moving, or the MAWLR was going to take out the whole ISA force before they even had a chance to take it down. Shepard had flown off on the Normandy earlier, missing out on the action. He claimed that he had a plan and had to head to the station first. Whatever the commander was doing, Sev hoped he was doing much better than they were.

"Found it!" Rico shouted from within the first warehouse, walking out with the huge cannon of a weapon.

With the wasps, they might have a chance to take down the massive Metal Gear. Gunfire startled them as they took out more wasps. Helghast forces starting landing in overlord dropships, ready to buy the MAWLR time to take out the main ISA force.
"Take down the MAWLR!" Jammer shouted, blasting down a dropship with her wasp. "We'll deal with the ground troops!"

Jammer and the other ISA soldiers ran outside, shooting at the Helghast soldiers. Sev and Rico went out on the other side, locking on onto the MAWLR. They fired away with their rockets, blowing up a few turrets on the MAWLR's side. The damage barely phased the MAWLR as it started charging up its rail cannon again to fire at the ISA tank group on the left. Rico and Sev reloaded their thermal clips, but before they could shoot, the MAWLR destroyed the entire tank group.

"Rargh!" Rico shouted as he charged out of the warehouse like a barbarian.

Sev looked back to the MAWLR and realized something was different. Orange vents had opened on the cannon and head, likely to cool down the cannon before it could be used again.

"Why didn't I see that before?" he told himself.

Sev took aim while Rico blasted the MAWLR at random points, and fired. His wasp missiles flew up and straight into one of the orange vents. An explosion forced the MAWLR sideways as the vent fell away, destroyed. With less vents to support the cannon, the MAWLR wouldn't be able to use it. The MAWLR regained its footing and turned to find the culprit. It turned the cannon on Sev, putting a surprised look on the soldier's face.

"Oh dear," he said as he dodged back behind the warehouse.

The rail cannon fired, tearing away the entire warehouse in one hit. Sev was lucky enough that the blast missed him entirely. The shockwave blasted him forward, but otherwise, he escaped unharmed. Sev got up and wiped the dust off his face as he readied his wasp again. As the vents opened for the rail cannon to cool down, Sev aimed at one of them and fired. The missiles flew in a spiral towards the vent and exploded as they connected. Rico had also fired at another vent the same time Sev had, and two vents were blown off the MAWLR, forcing it to the ground.

"Yeah!" Rico shouted. "Eat that junk!"

The MAWLR stayed down for a few seconds while Sev and Rico helped Jammer and the others take out the rest of the Helghast troops. After the last overlord dropship blew up, The MAWLR began its slow ascend back on its feet.

"Raider command!" Rico shouted over his omni-tool. "This is Sergeant Velasquez. Requesting pickup from the warehouse area. We've got a MAWLR to finish!"

"What's the plan, Rico?" Sev asked as he walked over to join the violent man.

"I say we got on some Intruders and finish off this m-"

Rico's sentence was cut off as ISA Intruders flew in to pick them up. Sev and Rico got on one, while Jammer and the other soldiers got on another.

"Le-le-let's do this!" Rico shouted over the engines.

Sev and Rico's Intruder led the way as they flew to level with the MAWLR as it gained its maximum height. Its turrets turned to face the oncoming Intruders, blasting bullets into the sky. Some Intruders were shot down almost immediately, but the important ones got through and took out some turrets. Sev and Rico had picked up miniguns atop the Intruder. The miniguns were special, containing a thermal clip that would never overheat, enabling them to fire without stopping. Rico just held the trigger down, firing off a barrage of bullets at the MAWLR while Sev only fired every time he was sure he could hit the MAWLR. The Metal Gear groaned from the damage, but still kept going, aiming its huge rail cannon towards the ISA main force once again.

Sev kept shooting at the turrets to prevent them from shooting down more Intruders, but Rico just went berserk, shooting at anything that was a part of the MAWLR, even if it was ineffective.

"Take that!" he shouted. "My bullets will tear through your armored hull!"

"It's not working, Rico!" Sev shouted to him. "We've got to aim at something else!"

"No chance, Sev!" Rico shouted back. "I'm taking this thing down!"

Sev forgot about trying to convince Rico to shoot for the vital parts, so he observed the MAWLR on its own. Every kind of super powered creation always had a weak spot. The Intruder flew around the MAWLR, allowing Rico to shoot all over the MAWLR. It was then that Sev discovered a potential weak spot. A blue array of reactors were lined around the part attaching the rail cannon to the main body.

Sev pointed towards the ring of reactors. "Rico! Over there! Shoot those blue reactors!"

Rico took a look at those. "Nah, I'm fine with trying to blow the thing up through sheer force man!"

Sev just shook his head and opened fire. He detonated a few of the rings as the MAWLR finished charging its cannon. Petrusite blew out all over the cannon as the ring of reactors was destroyed. The MAWLR stumbled forward again as its cannon broke off, falling to the ground in a cloud of dust.

"Yeah!" Rico shouted over his hailfire of bullets. "Now that's what I'm talking about!"

The petrusite radiated over the MAWLR, turning it into a cloud of green energy as it fought to stand again. Surprisingly enough, the MAWLR managed to get up again, turning its remaining turrets on Sev's Intruder.

"Move!" Sev told the pilot as a thousand bullets flew through the air towards them.

They shot towards the turrets taking out some, while the rest continued shooting at them. With the green cloud of petrusite, they couldn't get close to the MAWLR, forcing them to shoot from afar, reducing their accuracy.

"The bridge!" Sev shouted to his berserk companion. "Aim at the bridge!"

"No man," Rico stubbornly replied. "We've got to finish this with brute force!"

"That doesn't even make any sense!" Sev shouted back.

"'Course it does!"

Sev aimed for the bridge while Rico shot at the body and turrets. The bridge was only protected by some glass, allowing Sev to shoot through it, killing a few of the controllers inside. The other Intruders joined in, aiming for the bridge. With the combined effort of the other ISA Intruders, the bridge personnel were dead, shutting down the MAWLR for good. They would never know if it were still functional or not, as an explosion ripped the bridge right off the body of the MAWLR as the giant metal gear collapsed in tiny explosions.

"Alright!" Rico shouted. "Raiders, this is Raider command! Regroup down near the elevator. We've got a job to finish!"

Captain Narville had lead the main bulk of the ISA force through the remains of the Helghast forces guarding the elevator. After the defeat of the Metal Gear MAWLR, things weren't so tough. They pushed through a barricade with one tank and shot up the rest of the Helghast with ease. Narville took a look around. They had lost a great amount of ISA troops to the MAWLR, but they had finally arrived here. After arriving at the elevator, Narville and Hooper watched the descend of the Intruders as they came back from their victorious battle. Sev and Rico hopped out from the first one, while Jammer and the other troops got off from the other remaining Intruders.

Rico walked towards the middle. "This is it? Sixty guys?"

"How did you know that, Rico?" Sev asked him.

He looked around. There was no way he could tell there were sixty people here in such a short time.

"There are no other ships here," Hooper cut in, saving Rico from having to explain all that. "The only way up is the elevator. We'll have to take it."

"We've got to stop this invasion!" Rico shouted to the others.

"There aren't enough of us left for a full attack," Narville told him.

"We've got to fight back!" Rico said, trying to convince the captain. "Even if we don't, I want to take out as many of them as I can."

Jammer walked in after checking out the station with her omni-tool. "They've got a communications array up there. We can warn Alliance command."

"Is that all we can do?" Narville said. "Where's the commander?"

Sev decided it was time he said something, and walked forward.

"The commander's up there somewhere. Waiting on us. We've got to keep going. We'd all be dead if it weren't for him, and that means something. Not just because he was a good friend to us, but because he goes on, no matter how small the chance."

He walked up onto a higher platform to boost his speech skill.

"We've all seen what the Helghast do to their prisoners!" he shouted.

"Okay," Rico said, unsure of the point.

"We won't be giving them any!" Sev shouted again, raising his rifle. "Everyone's getting out of here today! Jammer, which elevator will get you to the communications array?"

Jammer scanned around on her omni-tool and gave him the answer.

"You take Hooper and the other ISA troops with you," Sev told her. "Rico, Captain Narville, and I will take the other one. We'll try to regroup with Commander Shepard up there. We'll find a way to stop the invasion."

With that said, the ISA force got into their respective elevators, ready to finish this war, and to stop another one from happening.

Shepard stood in the cockpit of the Normandy with Joker and EDI as the Normandy cruised silently around the space station.

"So what's the plan commander?" Joker asked as he piloted the ship with great skill.

"I don't have one," Shepard replied. "Plans don't usually go as planned. We'll find an entrance or make one, then I guess we find this… Stahl, and bring him to justice. Whatever goes."

Project Eel – Helghan II

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