Chapter 16: Helghan III – Do Plans Even Exist?

Joker had flown near enough one of the viewing windows for Shepard to float out and cut a small hole to get inside the station. With an open path for the oxygen to get sucked out, Shepard had to keep his helmet on if he wanted to live, but as soon as he got out of the room and sealed the doors, he peeled his helmet right off and grinned.

"Time for some fun!" Shepard said aloud to himself.

He pulled out his revenant assault rifle and ran down the nearest corridor, waiting to meet some Helghast soldiers.

The elevator arrived at the space station, stopping at one of the docks. Sev lifted his safety bar and stepped out into the station as the other ISA soldiers began undoing their bars. The station was brightly lit, showing off the shine off the walls and floor. Glass panels outlined the sides, allowing them to look out into space.

"There's the fleet!" Rico shouted, pointing out of a window.

Thousands of Helghast cruisers hovered in space, awaiting their leader's signal. The fleet was leaving soon. All they had to do was head to the nearest Mass Relay to get to Alliance command.

"We can't let them stop the Crucible's construction," Captain Narville told the soldiers. "We'll have to stop the Helghast here, no matter what."

"That's right!" Rico added in, raising his LMG above his head.

"Let's get on with it!" Sev shouted, the first to reach the door. "It's time to finish this war!"

The door opened to a big room with a dozen spider drones in it. They started crawling towards Sev when he opened the door. He pulled out his rifle and shot down a few, exploding them when the bullets connected.

"Watch out!" he warned the others. "They're explosive!"

Soon after, the drones were destroyed, allowing the ISA soldiers to move on. As they traveled along the tube of a path, some Helghast soldiers popped out from behind objects, taking some of them by surprise. They managed to take out the Higs with minimum casualties, but they had lost some of the little they had left.

"We've got to keep pushing!" Rico told the others as he loaded in a new thermal clip. "Their lives would mean nothing if we failed here!"

"Rico's right about that," Narville said. "No matter the cost, we have to end this before they attack Alliance command. We cannot lose the Crucible. We will not let the reapers win!"

The group moved on, ready to take down all kinds of resistance that might stand in their way. The next obstacle was lickers. About ten lickers jumped out from vents in the walls, crawling straight for the ISA troupe. A lot of guns started blazing as the ISA fought to take down the lickers. They managed to kill some, but the others dodged the majority of the bullets, closing the distance between them. One licker slashed forward and got an ISA soldier in the chest, sending him against a nearby crate, his blood creating a path on the floor. Rico shouted a roar of rage and ran forward, gunning down six of the lickers with his LMG almost in an instant. Sev looked around as he loaded another thermal clip. Rico killed the last ones all by himself.

"Nice work, Rico," he told him. "At least your violence has benefits sometimes."

"Is that supposed to be a compliment?" Rico attacked.

"Uhhh… yeah."

There was no chatter for the next few blocks of their trip. More Higs showed up, but after a little firefight, they went down. Sev managed to revive a few wounded ISA soldiers with his medi-gel gadget as they fought through the vicious Helghast. As they ran on, a huge rumble drew their attention outside the station. The fleet had begun their movement.

"No!" Rico shouted. "We've got to hurry! We can't let them get to the Mass Relay!"

Sev suddenly received an idea. "We'll have to split up."

Everyone turned to him. "Rico and I will keep going. See if we can destroy the station. Captain, you take the others and get to the strike fighters. Try and get out there and stop the fleet."

"Got it," Narville told him. "That's a good plan.

"Right," Sev replied. "And we'll meet up with you later if we fail."

With all that settled, the force split up and raced for their objectives. They had even less time now, and they really had to hurry.

Chairman Stahl stood on the bridge of one of the Helghast cruisers. His soldiers had come to him before, telling him that the new Autarch, Admiral Orlock, was here to investigate him and his plans to attack the Alliance. Stahl had smiled, telling them to bring the Autarch to him. This was his chance. His chance to become the new leader of the Helghast. They would leave the space station once the Autarch got on board, leaving him no room to run.

"This is it," he told himself, rubbing his hands together.

Shepard stabbed a Helghast in the foot and pulled up, flipping him over a railing, sailing down a reactor pit. He had boarded one of the fleet ships earlier after he heard they were about to leave the station. He had told Joker to follow the fleet at a safe distance, just in case he needed a quick way out. A Helghast engineer was the first to see him, but got a few bullets to the face. More Helghast came in after, but Shepard dispatched them on the way out. His plan to infiltrate the station had failed earlier, as the fleet began to leave, so he didn't make another one when he boarded. He didn't want to look like a fool to himself again, so he just decided he would fight his way through the Helghast until he saw something he could do. A hunter smashed out of a wall to his left, knocking him down with a blast of rubble and force. He looked up at the hunter, rage burning in his eyes. He really hated it when enemies took him by surprise. He ran at the hunter with a barbaric roar and threw himself around the hunter, on its back. He grappled its neck with his hands and held on as the hunter tried to shake him off. He activated his omni-blade and stabbed in through the left cheek, angering the creature. Before the hunter could do something drastic, he plucked out a frag grenade and stuffed it in its mouth and jumped off. He used an adrenaline rush to get as far as he could before the hunter blew up, taking out a portion of pipes, releasing steam into the air. More Higs arrived, but Shepard took them down through the smoke before they knew what was happening. Shepard moved on, finally leaving the engine room, and arriving at a hangar.

"Wow," he said as he took in the whole picture.

There were thousands of Helghast strike fighters, docked and fueled, ready to deploy at command. Shepard smiled as he received an idea. He ran about the space crafts, shooting the crafts in vital areas that might stop them from working. He didn't have time to check properly, so he just ran around, shooting all of them before Helghast troops started filing in. Four Helghast engineers ran in to assess the situation. They saw the damage Shepard had done and split up, going about to repair the damaged space crafts. Shepard took the chance to run for the exit. One of them saw him on the way out, so he whipped out his omni-blade and stabbed him in the chest while he ran, smashing the engineer against the wall as he ran out through the door.

"Sorry," he told the fallen Hig. "But I've got no patience for sitting around."

He kept running, trying to find more things he could damage. As he ran, Shepard stopped abruptly before a signboard, with directions towards the bridge.

"Now that's somewhere I ought to go."

Sev and Rico had found arc cannons earlier, making the killing of Helghast soldiers so much easier. They could hit the Higs even when they got behind cover.

"This gun is awesome!" Rico shouted, having a killstreak of at least fourteen.

Sev blasted a Hig through a metal container, blowing him to oblivion.

"Yes it is," Sev replied, enjoying his time with the gun. "Yes indeed. Maybe you can call in an airstrike now. You have enough kills."

With their combined firepower, the Higs didn't pose any threat at all. Most of them died the second they appeared, but some were luckier, lasting five seconds before being vaporized.
"We should be getting closer to the control room!" Sev told his ally.

"Probably," Rico said. "All the doors at the side are locked, so I guess the control room should be straight ahead."

"Right," Sev agreed as they moved on.

They kept moving past many Helghast, but it seemed like nothing could offer a challenge to them. Rico had talked to Narville as they ran. The other ISA group had reached some strike fighters, but they were trying to figure out how to use them for now.

"Tell them to step up the pace," Sev told Rico. "We've got to stop that invasion!"

"Obviously," Rico told him as he communicated the notice to Narville.

The duo never had any problems with low ammunition, as ammo crates full of thermal clips sat around, all over the place, in convenient spots for anyone to refill. Eventually arriving at the control room, Sev and Rico vaporized the other Hig soldiers controlling the station, blowing them up with their arc cannons. Rico stayed behind to guard the doors, while Sev ran ahead towards the main console. He accessed the power systems through the console, and found access to the generators. He tapped away at the console, accessing the database to the gravity control. Finding it, he signaled Rico over.

"Rico," Sev told him. "I've got the gravity generator here. One push of a button and this station is gone."

"Do it, then," Rico said.

"Right," Sev agreed. "But I've got to set a time limit, or we'll never make it to the shuttles."

"Give it five minutes," Rico told him. "We can get anywhere in five minutes."

"Alright then."

Sev powered the deactivation, setting the countdown to five minutes.

"Go!" he shouted to Rico.

The two of them sprinted out of the room as fast as they could. They didn't want to be in the station when it went down.

Shepard looked out the window from the bridge as blue-lighted Helghast strike fighters flew by.

"Strange," he said out loud. "I thought Helghast things were red."

He walked back over the bodies of the soldiers and helmsmen he had killed earlier, and found a huge red self-destruct button in the middle of the main consoles. A timer of three minutes appeared as Shepard brought his fist down on the button. Shepard looked around as the alarms on the cruiser blared, signaling the self-destruct to the entire ship.
"Ok."

Without wasting anytime, Shepard ran as fast as his legs could carry him, right out of the bridge, and contacted Joker, ready for a pickup.

"Smash this wall down, Joker," Shepard commanded, as he put on his helmet.

The wall exploded, sending debris floating around slowly, as gravity kicked in. Shepard floated out to the Normandy as the side door opened. He did a kick to propel himself in. After the door closed, and the pressure stabilized, Shepard pulled off his helmet and made his way to the bridge to join Joker and EDI.

"Go, go, go!" Shepard shouted in impatience, rather than urgency.

The Normandy zoomed off to a safe distance as the Helghast cruiser started losing pieces, and not before long, the entire cruiser exploded in a ball of green energy.

"They use petrusite to power their cruisers?" Joker asked aloud. "That's a bad idea."

Joker pointed to the exploding cruiser as the green energy started snaking around. "That happens, commander."

Shepard tried to see what the trouble was. He still didn't get it. Until the petrusite started snaking towards the Normandy.

"Barrel roll!" he quickly shouted.

Joker performed a barrel roll and more evasive maneuvers as he dodged the petrusite. Bits of debris got hit with the petrusite, dissolving instantly. They flew around for a bit as the petrusite cloud got bigger. Eventually, it contained, allowing Joker to move forward towards the next cruiser as the petrusite stopped advancing. They had caught up to the blue strike fighters, watching a battle as the strike fighters shot their bombs at the cruisers.

"Ah, those must be the ISA," Joker told him.

"Join them," Shepard ordered. "We've gotta take out Stahl."

Stahl smirked as Orlock and his personal guard strolled in.

"Welcome… Autarch," he said as he steeled himself.

"You have the weapons?" the bald man asked.

"Of course, your excellency," Stahl said, rubbing his hands together. "They're right here. In this station."

"Good to know," Orlock told him. He turned to his guard. "Arrest this man."

His guards raised their rifles to Stahl's chest. The chairman, instead of flinching, stood his ground, and crossed his arms.

"What little you pay them, Orlock."

Orlock turned around, shocked to see two of his other two guards pointing their rifles at his first two.

"You'll pay for this Stahl," he growled at the chairman.

"Of course," he smiled. "But first… I'll need my Payday, too."

He turned to his associate. "Fire."

"You wouldn't dare!" Orlock shouted.

An explosion distracted Orlock from wanting to strangle Stahl. He looked outside to see Stahl's men fire on his cruisers. His cruisers fired back, but some kind of shield deflected the ray.

He pointed his finger at the cruiser. "You've developed energy shielding? When?"

"You're not watching," Stahl told him defiantly.

Stahl's cruisers fired petrusite missiles at Orlock's, destroying them within seconds.

Orlock's eyes trained on the exploding cruisers, not long until he felt a barrel of a gun point at his head.

"On your knees!" Stahl shouted at him. "Down on your -"

He never finished the sentence, as the battle-hardened Autarch ripped a knife from his belt and plunged it into the chairman's abdomen. Orlock's men tried to fight back, but Stahl's men gunned them down immediately, but they gave Orlock enough time to pick up one of the rifles and take them out. When he turned back to Stahl, the sneaky man had gone.

Orlock turned, searching for the chairman. "You can't hide forever!"

He walked about, careful to check his surroundings as he searched behind generators, machinery, boxes, and crates. He looked out a window as an ISA fighter flew by. He gritted his teeth as he saw it destroy two other Hig fighters. That few minutes he wasted bought enough time for Stahl to jump out behind him, just as he turned around. Stahl brought the steel pipe down on Orlock, but the admiral flinched, bringing up his rifle to defend himself, blocking the pipe. The shocked chairman paused for a while, allowing Orlock to counter, bringing the butt of his rifle up to the chairman's chin. The force of the blow knocked Stahl into the air and down on his back with a spurt of blood. Orlock readied his rifle, pointing it to Stahl's chest, ready for more trickery from the chairman.

"Wait!" Stahl shouted all of a sudden. Orlock stopped to listen. "You think our enemies… will give you time to rebuild?"

"Yes," Orlock said, before filling the chairman's body with bullets. He ejected a thermal clip after it reached its maximum. "Of course they will. I have no reason to finish them now. My plan requires more time. They'll go on different missions and come back for me later. I'll have plenty of time."

With that, Orlock walked off, leaving Stahl's lifeless body there for his soldiers to clean up later.

Orlock walked over to some other soldiers. "Prepare the fleet. We're moving out! Leave Stahl's army to the Alliance."

"Commander," Narville communicated over the omni-tool. "Most of the Helghast force is moving for the Mass Relay! We'll have to stop them there!"

"Got it," Shepard told him, signaling Joker to move off.

The Normandy flew after the nearest cruiser, but fighters intercepted them, blocking the way.
"Take them out," Shepard ordered.

Joker flew with amazing skill, avoiding the missiles and bullets from the Helghast starfighters. He kept moving forward as the ISA fighters moved in and took out the attacking Helghast fighters.
"Good work!" Shepard told the others as they fought back against the Hig strike fighters.

The Normandy fired its thanix cannon, blasting straight through a Helghast cruiser, destroying it as they flew through it.

Shepard contacted Sev and Rico through his omni-tool. "Sev, Rico, we've got to stop them from getting to the Mass Relay, but the ones fighting against them are blocking our way too. I need you guys to take them out."

"Got it," Sev said, as he voice appeared on the omni-tool.

All of a sudden, the main Helghast fleet disappeared, jumping through space with the help of the Mass Relay.

"No!" Shepard shouted, slamming the nearest chair. "We're too late!"

Joker looked at the console as he tapped away on them. "They're not headed for the crucible, commander."
"What?"

"They're going off towards the Eagle Nebula," Joker replied. "I think they're retreating, commander."

"Pffft," Shepard scoffed. "No way. They won't run for no reason."

Narville came back on the omni-tool. "Commander, the Helghast are retreating!"

"Wow," Shepard said. "Okay then. Take out the remaining ones then."

The Normandy and the ISA attack force continued its assault on the remaining cruisers of Stahl's fleet.

Jammer was next to appear on Shepard's omni-tool. "Commander, we got the word out before we evacuated. The Alliance knows, but the Helghast aren't going to the crucible anymore. It seemed like only this fleet was going to attack the crucible, but now, we're finishing them."

"Okay," Shepard nodded. "Then let's finish these Higs before they get to the crucible then."

With that command, the ISA fighters continued the fight, tearing through the fighters that came after them. The Normandy added in its fire power, taking out some cruisers as it flew for the flagship. Shepard watched as Sev and Rico's fighter flew around, blasting up groups of Helghast fighters with ease, and even taking down a cruiser with their missiles. After some minutes of fighting, Shepard and the ISA force arrived at the lead ship, just as its petrusite core started activating, releasing a green glow.

"They're going to warp using their petrusite technology!" Sev shouted over the omni-tool. "We've got to take out that cruiser!"

"Right," Shepard agreed. "We'll head to the front and attack from there. See if you guys can take out the core at the source!"

"Roger, commander," Sev replied.

The Normandy flew to the front of the cruiser and readied its thanix cannons again. Sev and Rico headed straight for the core, firing their guns at it, damaging some parts.

"Go!" Shepard shouted, as the thanix cannons fired, damaging the nose of the flagship.

The blast took out the bridge as it continued through the rest of the cruiser. Sev and Rico had taken out all the machinery around the core just as the thanix blast hit it. The explosion was tremendous, erupting in a huge green ball of energy, slowly coursing through the cruiser and towards the rest of the Helghan fleet. The engines failed as the cruiser started its plunge down.

"Move out!" Shepard shouted to all the other ISA soldiers.

The ISA controlled fighters and the Normandy flew out as the cloud of petrusite engulfed the rest of the fleet. It moved through the whole fleet, destroying every single one of the cruisers and fighters.

"What destruction," Sev marveled.

"It's not stopping there!" Rico shouted.

The petrusite, after decimating the fleet, and the station, moved on towards the next thing as the cruiser arrived at the atmosphere. Helghan. The petrusite engulfed the entire planet, turning it bright green as the energy wiped out everything visible on the planet's surface.

"We did it!" Shepard cheered. "We stopped the invasion!"

"How many people were down there?" Sev questioned. "That was unnecessary."

"I guess it was Stahl's fault for building something like that," Rico said.

"Yeah," Sev agreed. "I guess you're right. But that was a lot of innocent people down there."

"Well," Shepard suggested. "We could always help them. Maybe let them populate half your planet or something?"

"That… would be a really bad idea," Sev said.

"Sounds good to me," Rico said. "I mean, if they caused any trouble, we could always just kill them."

"That's also not a good idea, Rico," Sev argued.

"Okay, okay," Shepard added in before an argument broke out. "Doesn't matter. What matters is the threat of the reapers for now. If we don't stop the reapers, everyone is going to be destroyed anyway."

"The commander's correct," Captain Narville said. "We'll give everything we can towards the crucible, now that our war is over."

"Right," Shepard said. "And I could really use an ally to join my team to take down the reapers."

"Count me in then," Sev voiced. "I'll do everything I can to stop the reapers. We can't let all these deaths mean nothing."

"I'll help the war project," Rico said. "I'm sure they could use a LMG or two."

Shepard tried to contain his smile. "Alright then. Glad to have you guys to help out."

He turned to Joker and EDI as they piloted the Normandy. "Joker, get us out of here. We've got a brighter future and lots of work ahead. Sev can follow behind for now."

Admiral Orlock walked over to the bridge once they had safely arrived in the Imir system. Stahl had almost dissolved his ultimate plan, but now that the chairman was dead, he would only have to put someone loyal to him as the new chairman of Stahl Arms.

"Autarch," the captain said, getting his attention. "What shall we do now?"

Orlock straightened himself. "Keep the fleet here. We'll move out once the SAHROTAAR is finished."

"As you say, Autarch," the captain saluted.

Orlock took a good look outside the window as the Helghast drones worked on the construct. Once the SAHROTAAR was ready, Vekta was his, and nothing would stand in his way. Not even Commander Shepard. All who defy him will feel the full wrath of the Helghast.

Project Eel – Helghan III

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