Hey Peoples!
I AM BACK!... Again... yes I know, it was again really quick and I can not give you an explanation as to why, all I know is that 'the Force has been Strong in this one' and I can honestly saw that I like it. I wish I could write this fast all the time. it would be awesome. as long as it is with me I think I'm gonna try to write a few chapters for my other stories while working on this one. so here's hoping that I can keep up this pace.
Now; the NRBEC:
this chapter I think is a little on the long side... yah it is a good bit longer than I originally thought the chapters would get, but still... heh. :)
I beat Halo four. it was epic awesome. I have reconsidered my earlier thoughts on not including anything from that game, as of now, I would like to include it, but as that is a long way off from here lets just wait and see what happens. :D
another thing that I've come across since the last chapter is the realization that the Halo series shows us about, what, seven different races for the Kig-Yar. I do NOT like this. they should show us a little bit of consistency with the races of Halo. I mean. look at the Sangheili, Jiralhanea, and the Unggoy. For every game that they have been in their forms has been refined and smoothed over. but not the Kig-Yar, NOOOOooooo. every time that a new game comes out they give us a new species to take their place. so in order to allay any sort of confusion on their appearance look up what the Kig-Yar Skirmishers of Halo 3 look like. that is what the Kig-Yar of Our Legacy look like, because I like that version best. the others I will most likely bring in as new races just because they look so kool. like the Halo 4 Kig-Yar. They Look Like Freakin RAPTORS for Christ Sake. that is wicked awesome! but, as for right now, I'm only using the Skirmishers. Cause they beast, and awesome looking . {:D ...
YES I KNOW that there where two sub-species of Kig-Yar in the game, but I don't feel like including that into my story because I don't really like it And it was never actually used in game. every time you every fought them there would only ever be one type, I think that the gaming company decided to screw with peoples heads when they put that fact in the wiki. cause even 343 didn't follow that rule.
Those of you who have as of yet NOT played Halo four... Play it. Beat it. Love it. Learn the Ending! it tis awesome.
as of now, that is all I can think of on NRBEC. so here we will end it... for now... MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
without anymore interruption! ON WITH CHAPTER 10!
I DO NOT OWN MASS EFFECT OR HALO OR ANYTHING THAT WAS BIRTHED FROM THOSE GAMES OR THEIR CREATORS!
"Our Legacy"
Part Two: A Traitor In Our Midst.
Chapter 10: The Beacon
Date: January 31, 2681
Time: 1153 hrs.
Location: Eden Prime Surface, Sector 4.
"Ouch," Kevvek's shrill Unggoy voice broke out to shatter the silence in the area. "Looks like someone's had a really bad day."
"Really?" Came Ashley's sarcastic reply.
"Sorry, Ma'am." Kevvek's response was halted, "Just making an observation."
Kaiden rubbed his temples and raised a hand stall any more retaliation. "Cool it, Serge. Kev didn't mean anything by it." He looked to the grunt to his left with a stare that said, Dude, not cool.
Kev picked up immediately. Grunts may not be known for their tact, but usually they could take a hint. "Sorry, Sergeant."
The Sergeant just stared at him for a few moments then sighed as she shook her head. "No, Lt's right, I'm on edge. And I'm sorry about that." She looked down at the ground, taking in the destroyed Geth, Husks and deep purple blood trail on the ground and sighed. "It's just been a rough day..."
"Nah, it's all good Serge."
Kaiden silently thanked his lucky starts. This mission has been nothing but one bad turn after another and he wasn't looking forward to what he had to do afterward. There were two men that wouldn't be going home tonight. The last thing he wasted to add to that list was a blood feud between one of his crew and a Sergeant that seemed to have a certain dislike of aliens.
Kaiden sent his gaze over the Sergeant who had busied herself with examining the blue black corpses of the half dozen husks lying in the ground; he assumed she was making sure they were dead. No, he corrected his earlier thought of having to write a report explaining the reason two of their team won't be returning to duty. There are a lot of people won't be going home tonight.
He looked up and followed the trial to the corner that it arched around and disappeared behind. Then stood and followed it around the corner. Looked like whoever made the trail had been looking to put some distance between themselves and whatever those things were that attacked it. Maybe trying to find a place to hide. Or just trying not to let their body be found so the Geth couldn't turn it into one of those… Things. The thought made him angry. What kind of species turned the dead against the living. That was far beyond wrong. It was sick.
He looked back to his team of Six Marines and felt a pain at having lost men under his command. That had never happened to him before and he didn't like the experience. Those people had families. People to go back too, people who had called them friends and family and these Geth had killed them and God knows how many others. And for what… we don't even know why there here.
He knew he was running on possibly borrowed time so he shook the dark thoughts out of his head and gave an order. "Dreal!" the strikingly avian woman walked over to them from where she had been standing with the rest of their team. All her Feathers were covered by her armor and helmet. The only visible avian feature of her form was her small feathered face and beak.
When she neared them she asked in the rich voice of her race, "What do you need Lt?"
Kaiden nodded to the trail of blood on the ground and asked, "Can you tell if it's Danny?"
She stepped over to the smear and kneeled low to the ground and took a deep breath through her nostrils. Like all those of her kind she had a very keen since of smell. It was one of the reasons that their kind had earned the nickname vultures. Every living creature had a scent unique to it, and Kig-Yar were one of very few species that could discern this scent with only their nose. Some of them claimed that they could smell a good friend from over a mile away, but most could only differentiate scents from up to a few hundred yards. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer to his question or not but it was a moot point when she raised her striking face and nodded once. "Yah, it's him. Can't tell if he's still alive or not but the wound is almost an hour old."
Kaiden knew what that meant. Sangheili were hardy, but a wound bad enough to cause this much blood loss was bad. If he didn't get help very soon he would probably be dead in minutes, if he wasn't already… most likely he was.
Kaiden knew it would be better if his team stayed together, but there was no way that he could leave a man behind if there was the slightest chance of them being alive, especially if the enemy had seemed to vacate the area. If the Geth were still here then he would have just moved on, but as the case was…
He looked to Dreal and Kevvek. "You two get Garin… See if you can find him. If he's still alive get him, and yourselves, to the Space dock in one piece. If not…"
"We'll make note and meet back up with you at the Space dock." Dreal said for him. "Understood."
Kaiden nodded and pair left to get the large man.
After the Kig-Yar and Unggoy left them Williams spoke up, "Sir…" the Sergeant began, "With the amount of blood he's lost you know the likelihood of him still being alive is-"
"I am not leaving any more of our people to die out here, Sergeant." with that he ended the conversation that according to him never began and stalked back to the remaining marines.
"We're moving on, Dreal, Garin and Kevvek will catch up when they can."
None of the Marines said a word as they made their way through the compound to the tram station. They were all on edge after hearing from Sergeant Williams what she and the Spartan had meet up with at the dig sight and beyond. Those Husks were really not something that any of them wanted to pick a fight with. Especially since they didn't seem to die like every other humanoid in the galaxy. They were techno-Zombies, plain and simple.
Their travel to the tram station was rather clear and incident free save for the occasional Geth corpse. Most of them looked to have been dead for over an hour. Those that weren't had a large gash that looked as though they had been torn into by the tusk of some massive beast. Kaiden figured that this was done by the Spartan on his way through, attempting to clear the way for whoever made it through the ruins. Apparently he must not have been that busy. The Geth appeared to have moved on to their next target. Whatever that was, Kaiden didn't know, but he did know that it meant more innocent lives lost. And that he was not okay with.
It took another ten minutes for the small four man team to make their way to the main square in front of the Tram station. The road rose in a steady incline that tapered off into a plateau at the main square. As they ascended into the square they all stopped in brief amazement at what lay ahead of them. It was a veritable see of leftover body parts circling a small concession stand with a worn out sign that boldly stated Hank's Hotdogs in big letters over a large window where the orders must have been taken before this all started.
Kaiden was willing to bet a month's salary that someone had been eating there too as this all started. It must have been terrifying for the civilians on duty in the warehouses.
"That was a lot of Husks…"
Kaiden's mind was brought back to the scene by Sergeant Williams as she knelt and examined one of the arms that happened to be lying near their position.
"How many?"
"Maybe half of this place's workforce. But it looks like less if I had to guess…"
"Half?" Turc sounded a bit less than disbelieving.
"Less!?" Linda, the Blonde haired marine exclaimed, her eyes wide as she caught on to what the Sergeant had said and spun around and watched around the buildings for any sign of movement. "Where's the rest of them?"
"I don't know, probably hiding around here somewhere. Each time the Spartan and I came up behind the Geth we ran into a slew of these things. Seems that they use them as disposable infantry to hold area's that they've moved on from. We'll need to watch our step from here on out." She said as she stood from a crouch. "No telling how many of them are hiding in wait." She looked down to a Husk that seemed for the most part whole but looked as if it had been dropped into a deep fryer. Kaiden thought that the Sergeant looked like she recognized the face.
"They could be anywhere and there is no reason to believe that this is all the bodies they could find. We may as well assume that the Geth found the rest."
Linda looked back at the Sergeant over her shoulder. "How many would that make?"
"two hundred unaccounted for… Maybe three..." she answered as her face scrunched in thought.
Linda turned back to her watching. "Crap,"
Sergeant Williams looked like she agreed, "Really depends on when the attack hit though." She motioned back toward the compound behind them and continued. "The warehouse management rotate shifts every ten hours and the last rotation was barely four hours ago, right before the attack. If the Geth hit before the other workers left then it will be closer to three hundred."
"That's a lot of people to have working in a bunch of warehouses.…" Turc shook his avian head in disbelief. "Why need so many?"
The Sergeant looked at him for a little longer than was necessary then answered, "This system is responsible for most of the farming in this star cluster. And guess which compound stores all of the resources for those systems."
"Ah, I see…"
With the lesson of Outer Rim Resource Distribution learnt, the team moved on through the see of bodies. Ashley stopped for a moment by the edge of the circle and looked at the bodies again, "How in the hell did he do it?"
There was only one person that Kaiden thought she could be referring to. The Spartan. Alenko didn't know how he did it, only that he did. Most of the bodies were still steaming from whatever the Spartan had used to kill them. He had no clue what weapon would have enabled him to wipe out a whole army of Husks so easily unless he had somehow managed to get ahold of a tank. But he knew that he was definitely glad that the Spartan was on their side. He had never fought with a Spartan before but now that he had he'd really learned to appreciate the power factor that they brought with them into the field. They were absolutely invaluable.
As they made their way up the stairs and into the Tram station Kaiden wondered where the Spartan and Nihlus were. He figured that the Spartan had probably built a good fifteen to twenty minute start on them. If that was the case then the whole facility was probably safe to walk around in. but if that were true would the Spartan be waiting at the door or would he be prepping the tram for travel. Kaiden didn't know, but he had started to get a queasy feeling in his gut. Kaiden shook the thoughts away and focused his mind on the task at hand.
They almost made it to the doors before a sound fresh out of a nightmare reached up through the ground and straight through the air to clench his heart and mind in a thought numbing embrace. Then all around them the planet shook with the rage of an angry god. And the world around them was filled with a mile deep thundering roar.
Ashley Williams fell to the ground along with the rest of the Marines in the squad as the earth around them shook and wreathed beneath their feet and all of them shouted as they struggled to regain their footing and run for cover. All four pairs of eyes wide and searching for any threat.
Ashley had the inkling to look up and, when she did, was nearly struck speechless. Nearly… "Above us! It's taking off!"
Their curses and replies were drowned out though by the quaking of space as they all looked up and took in the sight above them. Of in the distance, far behind the Space-dock the towering dreadnaught that had stood there since they had landed groundside was lifting off. The massive black vessel shook the world with it's power as whatever sort of propulsion system it used to move struck the earth beneath it like the fist of God. And then it went up.
Impossibly fast it threw itself into the air and just like that, it was gone…
The shuddering in the ground under their feet stopped as it left their sight and their minds were no longer clouded by the unexplainable roar.
"What in the Hell was that?" Linda asked and everyone knew that she was referring to the ungodly roar.
"No clue." Ashley answered, "But that doesn't matter right now. What matters right now is that it's gone. And hopefully that means that the army is gone with it."
All of the Sudden Alenko brought his hand to the side of his helm as if he was answering a call.
"Copy, Normandy, This is Lieutenant Alenko. How are you getting through the net?" he waited a moment as if waiting a reply.
Ashley looked over to Linda and Turc who stood by them, still watching the area for any signs of enemy units. The Kig-Yar motioned up and said simply, "Our ride." Ashley nodded in thanks for the explanation.
"Affirmative, there was a Dreadnaught here a few seconds ago, but it left." Again he paused. "No, Sir, it was on the ground. It was here when we landed."…."It looks to be that way, Sir."…. Aye Aye, Captain, Alenko out."
He started barking orders the moment his call was over as a Nav point came up in Ashley's HUD, "Get to the NAV double time!". And everyone broke out into a run as the Lieutenant told them what he had learned on the call. "Alright, we have good news and bad news." Kaiden began over Team-Comm as the team ran through the double doors of the facility. "Good news is, the Calvary has arrived. Sixty Alliance ships have just jumped in from out-of-system and have engaged the remaining Geth fleet. The Geth are not doing well…"
"And the Bad news?" Linda inquired. Coming up behind Ashley and Alenko
"We need to get to Spartan-9001 ASAP. Donna's getting low life readings on him. Nihlus isn't showing up on scanners. Looks like he's dead."
Any more words were lost as they made a mad rush for the Spartan's location on their HUDs.
It took the team a couple minutes to track their way through the station. The tram that the Spartan was near was at the very back of the station, it was the one that lead to the private Space-dock that the Beacon had been sent to. The small team came to an intercepting hall and Kaiden saw the NAV was to the left, so the team swept to the left and stopped dead at the scene before them.
Holy- Ashley started thinking
"Shit…" one of the Marines, Ashley wasn't sure which, took the word right out of her thoughts.
Near the end of the hall at another intersection was a scene that none of them really wanted to describe. The wall had been blasted with something and most of the wall panels were missing, most likely blown into the tram lines bellow the hall. The holes where walls used to be were splayed with severed wires and broken electrical equipment.
The room looked like it had been blasted by a Thermal detonator. There were only two bodies, but they belonged to two people that really needed to be alive right now. Nearer to where the team of marines was standing, about half way down the hall was what was left of what Ashley recognized as a Turian from the vids she'd seen and from school. The body was black and missing most of it's left side. Burnt to a crisp from the destructive blast from what Ashley had decided was definitely a thermal detonators blast. The other body was that of Spartan-9001, who had been thrown into the wall of a T-intersection. Despite the damage to the room he looked relatively clear of burns. But where he had no burn marks, the right side of his chest was riddled with six thumb sized bullet wounds that seeped red blood that had gathered on the floor in a large puddle beneath him.
Ashley ran for the Spartan, ignoring the Turian for the moment. There was definitely nothing She or any of the Marines could do for him. But the Spartan still had a heartbeat, it was slow, but it was there.
Ashley made it to him first and slid to his side as she checked him for any other wounds as the Lieutenant barked orders to Linda and Turc to take up defensive positions on either corner.
"God, this is bad…" he didn't seem to have any other wounds, but the bullet holes in his chest would normally be enough to kill any normal man outright. How long could a Spartan last under the same conditions? "Looks like the bullet wounds are it. We need to seal these holes. Who still has medi-foam?"
"We're all out." Lieutenant Alenko said as he came to the Spartan's other side. "We used the last bit of our medical supplies patching ourselves up before you and the Spartan showed up at our garage. And even if we had some, those wounds are more than what Medi-Foam or Medi-Gel for that matter can fix. We need to get him to a Hospital immediately."
Damn it! If we don't get something into him soon he'll bleed out—that's when she remembered what he had used on her when healing her burn after stopping her fall almost an hour and a half ago. The hidden compartment! She thought as she reached to his thigh and slid her fingers down the armor on his leg, hoping to activate the hidden slot containing the possibly lifesaving medi-gel it hid.
She could have cried when a moment later a small compartment opened after swiping her finger over it with a barely noticeable Hisss and three ports here made visible from the place that they were hidden in. two of the ports were glowing dully while the last port wasn't glowing. She inhaled sharply as she recognized what this was. This wasn't Medi-Gel. These were Syringes filled with Med-Mites.
Hell Yes! She quietly exclaimed as she snatched one of the still glowing vials and pressed the button on it's top. Despite the technology that went into their creation, the injection was made to be as simple as possible. All one needed to do was press the button on the top of the clear cylinder then press the syringes into the skin of the subject as near to the heart as one could, that would ensure the most rapid reparations of the wounds.
"No, way. Are those Nanites?"
"Oh, Yes."
After the near immediate extension of the half dozen syringes Ashley pressed them into the bullet hole nearest to his heart. The Syringe injected the nanites into his body then Ashley returned the empty syringe to it's place in the slot in his armor. It sealed itself after the vial was returned.
Alenko sighed loudly, "At least we know he's not going to die. We'll have to wait for the rest of the team so we can move him to a room so he'll be safe till Evac arrives."
"Yah, but at least he'll be alive."
They all crossed their fingers waiting for the Med-Mites to do their magic and they all nearly jumped out of their skin when the Spartans Ice blue eyes snapped open and he turned to his side as a severe fit of coughing and retching fought to clear his lungs of blood and other fluids.
In less than a minute he had left a small puddle of blood and phlegm on the metal floor of the hall and he sat back up against the wall.
Ashley, despite the surprise, beamed inside and burst with a big grin "Spartan-9001, Good to see you're still with the living."
He looked up at the Sergeant and a strange look crossed his eyes as he smiled the same smile he had when they first met. "Yah, it's good to be here. Thanks for the save."
"Wait one second…" Alenko said staring at the Spartan like he had just sprouted a new arm. "I thought Med-Mites were supposed to knock out their target till healing was complete, how are you awake?"
"They are," 9001 answered, "But programming is a little different for Spartans. The Nanites wake us up as soon as we can move without killing ourselves without the need of an override from a Medical officer."
The explanation seemed to satisfy him.
With explanations out of the way the Spartan looked around at the gathered group. "Where are the rest of you?"
"Still alive," Kaiden answered. "I sent them to find Daniel, they'll be coming up behind us in a few minutes."
The Spartan nodded and stood up without even a little bit of the shakes. "Good. We need to move on then."
"I just spoke with the Captain, he said we should wait for them to show up then move on."
The large man stared at the charred corpse of the Turian that he had probably been alive the last time he saw him and his eyes narrowed. "Captain doesn't know we have worse problems than just an army of Geth."
That caught everyone by surprise. "What do you mean we have worse problems?" Ashley asked
"What could be worse than the Geth?" Came Kaiden's question to which the Spartan just looked at them with piercing eyes.
"It's still unclear exactly what the situation is, but suffice it to say… it is very bad. I'll need to go over it with the Captain first before I say anything else, but as for right now we need to move and find that Beacon."
Everyone looked at the Spartan for a moment as if questioning whether they should follow his orders, or the Captains, but Ashley had no such reservations. He had saved her life more than once today, and each time it was slowing him down to do so. She had no doubts that he knew exactly what the situation required.
"Aye Aye, Sir." She said as she gripped her rifle and followed after him.
The others made up their minds a few moments later when they too started after the pair. Alenko was on the radio with someone relaying what was going on. Most likely the rest of their ground team telling them to meet up with them at the Space-dock as was originally planned.
"Sir," Ashley began when she came up next to him. The other three marines a good several yards behind, outside of hearing range if she whispered. "I'm not doubting you know what's going on, but why the rush, if it is really as bad as you think, shouldn't we know what's going on?"
The Spartan just gave her a curious look then smirked. "Maybe." He looked ahead again and was silent. A few moments later he spoke up in a whisper. "Alright Serge. I may not be allowed to go spouting possibly classified information to people who do not need to know… But I like you, so I'll give you a chance to play catch up."
"What?"
His smirk lightened a little more. "Just answer one question… Who took out Nihlus and me?"
Ashley was taken aback by the question but she decided to play along for the moment so she thought back to the scene of the decimated hall. It couldn't have been a forward attack because if it had been the Spartan would have been able to take care of it. It wasn't blind optimism, it was a mere statement of fact. She had fought by his side for nearly an hour before they met up with the Lieutenant and his team. And it couldn't have been an ambush because his senses were so sharp he would have noticed something in the confining halls. And even if it had been one of those two, there would have been bodies surrounding the Spartan and Spectre. They wouldn't have been caught unawares.
That means that they must have had their guard down, but they would never do that unless it was for someone they knew- and then it dawned on her… "Yep, you got it." came the praising of a Spartan as he saw her eyes go wide in understanding.
"We've been betrayed" Ashley said eyes wide... it took a few moments for her to grasp the situation before she asked "Who did it?"
The Spartan just shrugged. "Don't know yet. But I do know that a Turian is in on it. And it was someone that Nihlus knew and thought of as a friend."
The massive man grew an angry look on his face. Ashley had to admit that with the two scars it made him look downright scary. "Wonder what he was thinking when the bullet went through his head."
That was the last thing said between the two as the pair boarded the Tram and waited for the others to join them. After they were all piled onto the Tram and off to the Space dock. They explained to the Spartan that the massive ship had left while he was out which after comparing times, they had deduced that he had been out for a little over 20 minutes. The tram took a little over five to get to the dock which turned out to be a three story open room building with catwalks bridging the gap of an open hole that ran from the roof to the bottom floor. Anyone on the top floor could lean over the rails of the catwalks and see straight to the bottom level and anyone on the bottom could do the same straight up [AN; anyone know what that is called?].
The floor below them was used for storage if the boxes and canisters were anything to judge by. And the floor above must have been were the dock was located. The entry floor had two large open rooms on either side of the chasm. There were two walkways that spanned the distance on the second and the third levels. Ashley had to admit that the miniature Space-Dock looked pretty fancy.
But the thought was fleeting for when they stepped off the Tram they came under immediate fire from a dozen Geth troopers and a big red. Most of them on their level. But there was one more things that got them all by surprise.
"Bomb!" Alenko Yelled when it showed up on his tracker. "Northwest Corner! Third Floor!"
"Got it." the Spartan said then bum rushed the Big Red standing at the railing and grabbed it mid turn by the crotch and neck plate then hurled it, head first, into the hole followed by two grenades. With Big Red dealt with he leapt to the nearest catwalk on the next floor four meters above and he was gone.
The Marines would have been dumbfounded if they had time for it. As it was, they still had ten angry mechs to deal with.
Ashley Dove for cover and fired blindly till the other three marines made it to cover. We'll he seems able to take care of himself. Up to us to get rid of these then. She rose out of cover and fired a dozen rounds into the nearest Geth unit. In seven it's shields buckled and collapsed. At twelve it's chassis collapsed and it fell to the floor. The Geth, while outnumbering the Marines three to one, were woefully outmatched by weapons and shields. In under a minute the rest of the mechs were disabled.
"I though the Geth had moved on from this area?" Turc asked while looking over several of the Geth units.
"They moved from the warehouses in Sector 4." Ashley answered, a little icily. "It's not that unbelievable that we could run back into them after traveling westward another five miles by tram."
She rolled one of the units over onto their back with her armored leg. "I'm actually surprised that there weren't more here."
"We're lucky there weren't." The Spartan said as he descended the stairs nearest to the group. "They seem to get smarter with larger numbers. And the big ones" he said motioning to the steaming hole where he had thrown the red one, "are really smart. Remember to take them out first if you can."
"Bomb?" Alenko asked.
"Taken care of. We need to spread out and find the Beacon. You three search upstairs, the Sergeant and I will take this floor."
Little more was said as the team split. Turc, Linda, and Alenko headed upstairs while Ashley and the Spartan moved on through a double wide door on the second floor.
The door led to the private storage area below the Dock. It was basically a large garage used to hold any craft that landed and needed repairs with a dozen small storage units on the walls.
They started searching the units two at a time. One of them held a motor cycle. A real live motorcycle. Not the hovers that everyone had started using since the 24th century, but a bike with wheels. Ashley hadn't seen one of those in forever. Her dad had one and he drove it every time he managed to get away from work and he had taken little Ashley for more than her fair share of rides. The happy memory made her smile.
Most of the others didn't hold a whole lot so it took little time to clear them. After checking those Ashley moved forward and took cover to the right of the last storage unit on her side of the room.
Alright, Ash. She thought to herself with relief. Check this last unit then Spartan and I can get back upstairs and into daylight. After all the time she's spent around zombies today she had gotten the feeling like she was in a horror movie. Almost to the point that she half expected a Husk to jump out at her at any moment screaming "Brains!"
She almost giggled at the thought but stopped herself. I've already lost my cool more than once today, there is No Freaking WayI'm going to scream like a cheerleader and giggle like a school girl in the same day. She was a Williams. And Williams were soldiers. Soldiers don't giggle and scream like a cheer squad hyped up on testosterone overdose.
She steeled herself then hit the door control and swung her rifle around to check the storage unit. It wasn't as empty as the others. Inside the storage unit were another dozen of those tripods. In the room with them were another dozen Husks.
"Shit!" that wasn't her… it was the Spartan over Team-Comm.
"Husks in Storage One!" Ashley yelled aloud into the comm as she opened fire with full auto, hoping that whatever the Spartan had to do could wait a minute. But as she dived away from the door she felt a sting on her right arm and sneaked a look to see what stung. She had a gash on her arm, it wasn't deep but it hurt like hell. The husk nearest to the door must have caught her on her right forearm with one of it's claws and cut a gash through her armor. She didn't think their claws were that sharp. But now she knew to stay away from those.
"Sorry, Serge you gotta handle them for a minute, we've got another bomb over here." His reply was calm and controlled.
The Husks turned toward Ashley, their empty eye sockets looked to her like they all thought she looked pretty tasty. Then they all shambled forward like a wave of limbs and teeth groaning and moaning all the while. Ashley fired hoping to cause enough damage to kill a few of them before they caught her and tore her apart.
"Spartan! I Need You Over Here!" She yelled as she dove behind a stack of crates to avoid the slashing claws of three of the husks. She fired as she moved.
"I am just a little busy over here Williams." Again, calm. It was starting to bother her now.
One of the husks had managed to almost slice her neck, but she batted it away and ran through the crates, firing at anything that moved. "These Things Are Gonna Kill Me!"
"Use a Grenade then." Infuriatingly calm.
"I'M OUT OF GRENADES!" she ran between two stacks of crates and barreled through two husks, knocking them to the ground. Thankfully it looked like they had gotten lost in the maze of crates and had stopped, waiting to a target for their moaning. It looked like Ashley was the target they were waiting for. Because they just stood back up and sprinted after her. Seems that these things don't really have any speeds except STOP and SPRINT.
"Then shoot their legs out from under them… It slows them down."
Oh, I hadn't thought of that… She stopped mid sprint and turned, firing low as she did. The rounds tore through the legs of the two husks that she had run into and tore them to shreds. It was almost humorous to watch as the husks tried to take another step and collapsed onto the floor without their legs. When they hit the ground they just laid there for a few seconds as if their brains had forgotten what they were doing. Then they looked up and started to claw their way toward her. But very slowly.
Well, Ashley thought curiously, wish I had known about that a few seconds ago. She smirked as she took aim with her rifle to tear the crippled husks apart but saw something in her peripheral vision and jumped backward as a husk flew through the space she had just been standing in.
Stupid, Stupid, Stupid. Ash told herself. There are another ten of those things still able to run.
She shook her head angrily and shot the legs out from under the one that had nearly taken her head off. After quickly checking to make sure she wouldn't get ambushed while she shot the ones on the floor she unloaded a few dozen rounds into each husks till they stopped crawling. Then she stomped them till they stopped moving. No reason for her to waist ammo.
Since they were stupid enough to stop moving when they lost their target it was actually pretty easy to take out the rest of them. As they collapsed Ashley wondered why she hadn't thought of shooting their legs before. The upper bodies of the husks, while still very much alive, moved much slower when they were no longer attacked to their legs. It was almost comical to watch them claw their way toward her. Almost…
She quickly found herself able to walk and still be able to stay ahead of the clawing bodies on the floor, whenever she found one that still stood, she would take off it's legs. She almost tripped when the thought occurred to her that she was mutilating bodies that belonged to people that she most likely knew or had met in the last three months. It made her regret almost laughing at watching the things crawl.
With the Husks ability to run taken from them they were relatively easy to kill. It was rather gruesome to her, but it was more than effective. Now she could take them out at her leisure. It took her less than a minute to kill them. After she had stomped the last one down. She collapsed in exhaustion against a large crate marked CARSONS CONSTRUCTIONand closed her eyes as she tried to calm her frayed nerves.
"Good Job Williams." If it was possible Ashley would have jumped out of her skin when the Spartan appeared before her.
"How in the hell do you Do that?"
The Spartan's face looked perplexed, "Do what?"
"The Ninja master shadow travel thing."
He raised an eyebrow in question as he offered a hand up.
She took it. "How do you move so silently? You were just, like, on the opposite end of the room. How did you get right next to me without me hearing you?"
He shrugged his massive shoulders and answered plainly "Practice."
Her turn to stare blankly. "yah, right." She motioned to him "your seven foot tall and you weigh what, a thousand pounds in that suit?"
An expression of hurt played over the man's face. "Ouch, now that just hurts, Serge. I will let you know Williams, that I only weigh four hundred and twelve pounds." Then he looked a little sheepish as he corrected, "Actually right now I'd say closer to six-twenty. But the armor adds another two hundred or so"
"That's what I'm saying," she replied exasperated. "How do you move so quietly despite all that weight?"
He just raised a brow and smirked. "I've had a lot of practice."
The answer was less than satisfactory but any retort was interrupted by the Lieutenant calling in over team comm. "Spartan, Alenko here, we've found the beacon. It's sitting out on the Dock waiting for pickup. But other than that the city has been… well, you'll just have to see for yourself."
"Understood, Alenko. Williams and I are finished down here and are on our way up." Nothing else was said as they ascended the stairs to the third floor and made their way out into daylight. Ashley had to admit to herself that it was definitely good to be out of the dark but the relief was short lived when she saw what the Dreadnaught left for them.
The placement of the private Space-Dock gave it a perfect view of Eden City. The massive city; said to be the Gleaming jewel of the Alliance's outer rim Colonies and the most greatly populated of the dozen Cities on Eden Prime was gone. The Great towers of glass and steel that made it look like a grouping of enormous gem stones were decimated. The entire city looked as if a bomb had gone off at it's center and nothing gave any credence to the thought that someone could have survived. All that was left of the once beautiful city was a ring of blackened and shriveled buildings that circled an enormous crater that was still burning.
Ashley knew what had happened. The Dreadnaught had landed right on top of the city, and when it left, the power of it's engines blew it into oblivion.
Eden city was gone.
"Wow,"
Everyone turned to the new voice and saw the other four marines of the ground team. Daniel was up on his feet and had been the one to Speak. "Daniel!" Kaiden exclaimed. "We thought you were dead."
The Sangheili didn't smile, he just shook his head in disbelief of what everyone was looking at.
"I thought so too for a second there. But luckily someone came around and patched me up." He said that last bit while motioning to his chest. His armor there had been burnt up and torn badly and there was a large gaping hole over his right heart but all there was underneath was smooth, if tough, black Sangheili hide. There weren't any visible wounds.
Then he pointed to the Beacon. "That what we here for?"
"Yep, call it in Lieutenant." The Spartan said as he turned around and walked toward the railing overlooking the destruction.
"Aye, Spartan."
Everyone else went about their business of securing the Dock for the Normandy to come in and pick up the Beacon so Ashley didn't really know what to do with herself. She decided to go take a last look at what had caused her and this small planet so much trouble. Okay, maybe that's a little much, she thought. The Geth probably didn't even know that it was here. But she had to admit to herself that the chances of the Alliance digging up a Prothean Beacon and the attack coming at the same time was really had to explain away as a coincidence. There had to be some connection to the two. Ash, just didn't know what it was.
Maybe I ought to ask the Spartan about it. He probably knows something I don't. well, he actually said that he knows things that I don't so maybe he'll be able to put it together... she didn't know what to think about it. As she neared the beacon it pulsed and started to glow.
What? She came closer to get a better look. "That's weird…"
She approached it and raised a hand to touch it. "It wasn't doing that when they dug it up…"
The change was instantaneous. One moment she was about to touch the beacon the next she felt some kind of pull on her body toward the device. O Hell NO. No more Alien voodoo for me! And she tried to jump away from it. She partially succeeded but only managed to make it a few steps away. Before she was grabbed out of the air and pulled back as if she were a pin being drawn to a magnate. Oh no…she thought. What did I get myself into now!
She leaned back and pushed with all her might to try and break out of the grip but it only grew stronger. She couldn't get out and she panicked.
HELP ME! It took her a second to realize that she didn't actually say anything. Though she had shouted, nothing came out of her mouth. So she screamed. And nothing happened.
She was pulled to just a few feet away from the glowing pillar when she heard it. Whispering. It was in her head, In her thoughts, and thrumming though her entire body. She didn't know what was going on, and she wanted it to stop.
Please, Someone. Anyone. Help Me!
And then came the Screams, the screams of an entire planet, no, a galaxy. Her entire world was devoured by them… then pain. Her entire world was swept into a cacophony of shrill noise and screaming as her eyes were filled with images that she didn't understand. Machine. Flesh. Blood. Fire. Suffering. Destruction. Misery. Betrayal. Death... At every thought, the Screams and pain worsened and grew into a sea of suffering and anguish that she couldn't do anything but drown in. Every time she tried to break the surface it just swept her under and filled her lungs and heart with the pain and the screams… And she Screamed.
Then it was over.
In a bone-jarring sensation of being lifted she was carried away from the storm and darkness into light and she could breathe again. And she did. With great Gasping lungful's she took the precious life giving air into her body. Each breath purged the darkness from her body and in the next second her world was back.
"WILLIAMS!"
She shook her head. "What happened?"
Her eyes could see again and she was greeted with the view of a very worried Lieutenant.
"I should be asking you the same thing! What The Hell Did That Thin-"
Whatever he was going to say next was broken by a roar. The voice of a man that was damned. And they all turned back to the Beacon and saw where the deafening sound came from.
And Ashley knew immediately what had happened. The Spartan had heard her scream and pulled her out of the things grasp, unknowingly taking her place in the horrible things torturous embrace. He floated three feet above the ground and his body was tensed. She could see the armor straining to hold against the straining muscles bunched underneath and could see the Kevlar tearing in places where the tension got to great and all the while he roared. His voice drowned out every other sound by full decibels. Ashley didn't think a human was capable of generating such a sound but then again, he had done a lot of things today that she had previously thought of as not possible, so it only stood to reason that this was within his abilities as well. But she highly doubted that he had ever used it before now. Then she saw a drop of blood fall from his ear. That flushed her out of her reverie
Ashley Screamed again. "SPARTAN!" as she ran to try and pull him out but was stopped by a strong arm.
"Sergeant, No! He pulled you out of it and it grabbed him. Leave it be. If anyone is able to survive what it's doing it's him."
"Lieutenant!" They were all screaming over Team-Comm. they couldn't hear each other otherwise
"We have a very bad problem!"
"What is it Turc!?"
He pointed back to the tram that was visible from their raised position on the Docking platform. "We've got bodies heading our way!"
Ashley turned with them to look at the seconds tram line next to the first. Off in the distance she could see a tram incoming full to bursting with Geth units. There were a lot of them.
"How many!"
"Looks like a full… no make that two full companies worth of baddies headed our way and a whole hell of a lot in our immediate vicinity. We must have pissed them off somehow!" Then the Kig-Yar looked up at the roaring floating man. "That or he woke them up!"
"How did they get so close without us seeing them!?"
"They must have some sort of Scanner Bloc-"
Turc was interrupted by an explosion. And the Roaring stopped. Everyone turned in time to see the massive body of the Spartan get thrown into a wall and drop to the floor. They turned and saw a dozen drones, larger then before, firing on the Spartans prone body from the place where the Beacon had been a moment before. The Geth destroyed the Beacon
"OPEN FIRE!"
The world erupted in gunfire as the dozen drones were destroyed in seconds. They only fired on the Spartan
Then Ashley understood.
They DID come for the beacon. That thing must have information that they needed to get and not allow anyone else to have. She looked at the Spartan and saw that his shields had fallen under the assault of all twelve of the drones. He had been burned by laser fire on his left side. But his armor held. So far… His bio-readings were everywhere. That wasn't good
She heard the Lieutenant yelling into the Comm she assumed that he was calling in evac. She saw he had his hands full. Then another dozen drones popped up over the railing and opened fire. So she started barking orders. "Surround The Spartan!" in the chaos of battle no one really bothered to question the order. In moments the Spartan was safe in a ring of armored flesh and weapons. The drones were dead seconds later. That was when the husks showed up.
In moments the small team of marines were surrounded by blinking red blips on their radar and the world erupted in the moans and screams of the undead as they saw first one arm, then two, then a head, then ten pulled themselves up and over the railings and fall onto the Dock platform.
"Shoot them as they pull themselves up, don't let them get up!"
Rounds tore into arms and legs as the creatures tried desperately to get themselves onto the platform but all was met in vain as the Marines rifles bore them back into open air without their arms to climb back up.
It looked like it was working till the red blips started coming up from behind the team.
"The second Tram has landed!"
Shit! This isn't good, if we're going to get out of this we need to get someplace defensible. Ashley looked around the Dock looking for anything to get them out of this mess. There was a landing pad on the right side of the dock that was suspended over empty air and was also a full twenty feet higher than the rest of the station. The only way to get access to it would be from the ramp that started on the far end of the Dock. That left the team two obvious choices for a defensible position.
They could either rush for the Dock Station and do their best to hold up in the top floor and keep the swarm of husks from overwhelming them from the two stairwells and the main door, while the Geth fire on them from below… or they could rush for the raised Dock platform and leave their enemies with only one route to assault them from. And with all the crates she could see up there it looked like cover wouldn't be a problem once they got there, but up to that point it could be a problem, what with them needing to drag the Spartans body along…
She decided on the later.
"Move for that platform!" Ashley shouted over the weapons fire and pointed to the Dock platform above the station.
Kaiden saw what she did and barked, "Garin, Daniel! Grab the Spartan and move! Double time!"
Everyone seemed to agree as they all moved as one. The Marines not dragging the Spartan were busy firing at anything that moved outside of their group. Their mad dash was followed by the dozens of Husks that had already made it up onto the main platform. Most were crawling as Ashley shot their legs out from under them each time she turned to fire. The other Marines caught on quick to the action. It the horde couldn't run, they couldn't catch them. It took the team what felt like an eternity to make it to the ramp then up the ramp to the landing pad. But once they did it became apparent that they had chosen well
The moment they ran into the cover of the boxes the Geth ran out of the Dock Station and the world once again erupted into weapons fire as the Geth began to fire on the elevated platform.
Thankfully the construct of the platform kept the Husks from being able to climb up from underneath of them, but it didn't look like that was going to stop them from trying to get to them. The husks had followed them up the ramp but it was narrow, so it was a simple matter to cut them down with concentrated weapons and only two people had to stay on it to keep it clear. But the Husks were relentless and didn't seem care that their troops were dying by the dozens.
For several minutes the sound of guns fire went uninterrupted and Ashley thought for the first time since she saw the horde trying to reach them that they may have a chance to hold them back. At least she did up until she heard a voice over the din, "I'm Out!"
Shit! It was Garin, his rifle clicked empty and refused to work anymore. The seconds he exclaimed that he had run empty a rifle was tossed to him from the Lieutenant. He had already resorted to throwing crates and hadn't been using his rifle anyway. But Ashley knew that the rest of them had to be getting really close to running dry. She herself had already switched to her pistol, and that showed only thirty-seven more rounds.
Thirty-six. She corrected when she blew the leg of a husks that had reached the second rise in the ramp. The round tore through it's leg and caused it to fall to it's left and off the ramp into the horde bellow. She fired off the last remaining rounds in her pistol making the best of every shot. She managed to kill seven mechs before her ammo counted blinked red. Empty!
We need more weapons! She thought angrily. Upset at herself for not thinking to grab more equipment that morning when she left for patrol. She sent a quick look to the Spartan who they had dropped behind a rather large crate marked for more building material. This place must have been bringing in material for the tram expansion. That would explain all the stuff from Carson's Construction laying around. She looked at the Spartans face and could see what looked to be tears of blood dripping from the corners of his closed eyes. The blood still seeped from his ears as well and had even started dripping from his nose. Ashley may not have been a medic but she knew that blood coming from the ears and eyes was a bad thing.
What the hell did that thing do to him? Liquefy his brain? If only he was up he would be able to get us out if this… then it hit her, His weapons! She kneeled by his side and started looking over every weapon she could see on him.
God, I am such an idiot. This guy is loaded!
She grabbed a weapon from his hip that looked a lot like some kind of blaster. Actually, it looked like those weapons the big reds were using. If that was the case then these would work perfectly. She yanked it off his side and grunted as she hefted it.
Wow, this thing is heavy. And in her experience with weapons, heavy normally was equal to power. So she thought she should try it out.
She hefted it up into the crate she had used for cover and laid it on top so she wouldn't have to hold it to fire. She pointed it into the horde of Husks below them and pulled the trigger. She nearly stopped when it did nothing but hum for a few seconds. But after that, it screamed and lances of orange energy flew from it's barrel into the sea of husks and shredded anything it hit for more than a second.
Oh yah… This'll work. She grinned as she held down the trigger and reduced a dozen of them to slivers of blackened bone and blue blood in a matter of seconds.
She heard a bark of laughter then the Lieutenants voice break over team comm. "And when we run out we always come running."
"What?"
"Nothing, just something Spartan told me when we first met." He was still laughing.
With the realization that they actually had an armory's worth of weaponry on the Spartan himself the fight turned to the Marine's favor. As it was, they had a very defendable position that gave them the high ground and good cover from enemy fire, all they needed was the ammo to make it last. Now that had it as well as six grenades from the Spartans belt.
It was easy for them to hold of the charges of the Husks and drones; they were easy to deal with now that they had fully stocked heavy weapons.
With the new weapons to beef up their defense the Marines managed to bush the Husks away from the ramp and back toward the railings. They just couldn't hold up to the steady fire of the heavy rifle that Ashley had trained on them. The other one, now wielded by Daniel, was holding back the synthetics since they had moved back to the nearest crates that provided decent cover from the relentless fire of his heavy rifle. It looked to her as if they had hit the home stretch, all they had to do was keep shooting till the Normandy came to get them.
The longer that the firefight went on the more Ashley's gut squirmed. Something about the whole situation didn't sit right with Ashley. She could pin down what it was until she started taking stock of how many Mechs were lying on the ground. But once she did it hit her like a ton of bricks. "Where are all the Reds?"
Her question was answered less than a second later when Garin shouted, "Big Reds at the door!"
Ashley turned her rifle to assist taking them out. The Red's shields and armor were a lot tougher than those of the smaller ones. They would have to concentrate their fire on them to make sure they didn't get to close. But when she saw the force streaming out of the doorway to the Dock Station her heart fell. That's not good.
In seconds a squad of a half dozen mechs, all Reds, sprinted through the doorway and opened fire on their position as another Geth stepped out of the doorway. This one was a lot bigger. And despite the fact that it was a mech, it looked pissed. It stood about eight feet tall and looked wider in comparison to every other mech Ashley had seen thus far and it's armor was a bright silver. This one even had a weapon in place of one of it's arms but where the little ones had an blaster rifle in place of their left arms. The big silver one had a full on cannon for it's right. And it looked more than willing to use it as it turned its large baleful red eye on the Marines hiding behind the crates on the raised platform.
"Momma's here!" Garin called out to the team. "And she does NOT look happy."
That was the understatement of the century. Ashley thought sourly. Then the massive Geth construct raised its massive cannon and fired.
A green orb charged at the edge of the cannons barrel till it grew to about six inches in diameter then it released and flew impossibly fast into one of the crates blocking the mechs view of the Marines. Luckily, no one was behind it. The spot that the orb struck was instantly vaporized. The rest of the crate steadily followed its first chunk into oblivion when the next rounds came in half second increments. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the cannon was set to rapid-fire.
WHOOM-WHOOM-WHOOM-WHOOM-WHOOM.
That is all that was heard as the Momma fired her cannon at what sounded to Ashley as about a hundred and twenty to a hundred and forty round a minute.
"How long till evac shows up!?"
"Two minutes!"
"At this rate this platform won't be here another two minutes from now!"
"I KNOW THAT!...With the type of rounds it's shooting it can't hold up that rate of fire for long! First Chance we get everyone target Momma!"
Their opportunity came only a few seconds later when they heard a loud beep. Which Ashley figured must have come from Momma's gun. Then as one the team stood and opened up with everything they had on the massive Geth construct. It seemed to take the punishment rather well as it didn't bother to slow its steady walk to the ramp leading up to the platform. It was already almost to the bottom of the ramp. There was only one problem with the plan. The Reds didn't like the team shooting their Momma. The large red units provided cover fire for the massive Silver one.
They managed to make it's shields collapse when Garin ducked down from loss of his shields. Everyone followed him down a few moments later when it charged it's weapon again and fired.
"We need to kill that thing before it makes it to the top!"
Ashley agreed but they needed to keep the reds from getting up and keeping them from shooting the big on. "Garin, Kevvik, Linda. Once it stops firing keep on it. Daniel, Dreal. keep fire on the Reds."
The roar of the heavy cannon stopped a few seconds later and the Marines started firing again. Kaiden and his team managed to knock it's shield down again and started doing damage to it's chassis, they lobbed a few grenades at it for some assistance in getting rid of it's armor. But it's armor was tough and absorbed most of the impact well. The grenades did little more than stagger it.
The reds on the other hand didn't take fire from their own weapons well at all. The orange lance of Ashley's weapon tore through their shields with little trouble. And a couple of grenades managed to destroy two of them. The other four focused fire on Ashley and she had to duck down when her shields nearly failed.
Then the Plasma cannon started firing again and a few more crates joined the first in atomization. The marines took turned firing from behind their cover at the massive Mech, but their rounds did little more than just keep it's shield from regenerating. The rounds just tore into the Geth's chassis and left scars, but they didn't penetrate. They couldn't kill it.
Wait… we don't need to kill it. Ashley realized. We just need it to stop shooting! With that idea in mind Ashley leaned over enough to get a peek at the cannon arm. It was armored the same as the rest of it's body, but since it was shooting at the other marines on the other side of the landing pad she could see that there were a few coiled wires and hoses that looked important.
Here's hoping. She lifted a pistol she had snatched from the Spartans side, took aim, and fired. One round was all it took. Without the heavy shields to protect it from being hit, the heavy round from her pistol tore right through a cluster of wires and hoses and the arm exploded and enveloped the entire right side of the massive machine in boiling plasma. With the explosion, every other sound on the dock died. It was as if the Geth couldn't believe that the little organics had managed to take out their Juggernaut. Even the Husks shut up. It lasted for less than a second, but when the plasma died the mechs entire right arm was gone, as well as a good portion of it's right side. But it was still standing… and it was staring right at Ashley with that evil looking red eye. And the fight started again.
She knew that robots weren't technically capable of feeling angry or upset. But the way that things eye met hers made her think it looked downright pissed. Seems her shot had worked a little better then she had wanted it to. Without it's cannon, the massive mech was left with only one form of attack. Charge… and it did. With great swinging strides it ran the remaining distance between itself and the platform then it lifted its remaining arm and swatted aside the crates that were blocking it's way like giant bags of marshmallows.
The other marines stood up and started firing as they backed away, trying to gain distance, but the mech just ignored them and moved toward Ashley. At least until a large crate slammed into the things right side almost making it fall over. The mech looked at where it had come from and saw Kaiden raising another crate with his biotics. It didn't like that. The mech reached out and grabbed the nearest thing to it, another crate, and threw it at the Lieutenant.
Kaiden dropped the Crate and erected a barrier over himself. It didn't stop him from being thrown by the crate, but at least it wouldn't kill him. At least, that's what Ashley hoped.
Ashley kept pushing herself away from the mech and firing, but it did no good as Momma mech came to stand over her and wrapped it huge hand around her neck then lifted her into the air till she and the mech were at head to eye level and Ashley knew right then, that this thing was going to kill her. Most likely quite gruesomely.
She could feel the synthetic muscles bunching through the armor around her neck. It felt like the thing wanted to crush her throat. It's grip tightened and her vision swam as her brain was choked of oxygen. For the next second she expected it to finish her and just close it's fist. Instead, she felt herself crumple to the floor four feet under her.
What?... her vision returned slowly, but the sight that greeted her was confusing… above her head. Was something grey and metallic. It blocked out the sun and the sky and it just sat there. Her brain caught up to what was going on when her hearing returned a moment later and she heard heavy fire from a dozen ship mounted cannons.
Ah, our ride has arrived. She looked up with renewed interest and realized that what she was looking at was the underside of a ship. A medium sized cruiser to be more precise, about a hundred and ten meters long. It floated about a hundred feet from the platform and had all it's heavy cannons firing on the horde of Geth and Husks around them. Then she felt herself being dragged and looked up to see Kaiden and Dreal pulling her to a bluish beam a few meters wide, a Grav-lift. She shook them off and stood up then ran for the beam only looking behind her to make sure that the rest of the team was following. No one else was there. They had already gone on board.
Good, Lets get the heck out of here then!. That was all Ashley could think as she jumped behind Dreal and Kaiden into the blue beam. The last thought she had before being engulfed by the vessel was that she couldn't believe this is what it took for her to get to ride in a space ship. Then she was pulled upward into the belly of the ship.
Galactic Codex: Species: Non-Council Races: Geth
Originally created in 2236 G.S. by the Quarian computer engineering company. The Geth (though not called Geth at the time) were an advanced VI companion that could assist a Quarian in keeping track of personal information as well as accomplishing daily duties that the Quarians found stressful or unwanted. They quickly became well used in Quarian society as assistants and digital companions and were constantly given upgrades to improve their usefulness.
It wasn't until 2320 G.S. that the programs were given bodies to allow them to accomplish physical tasks that were deemed menial, such as cooking, cleaning, or farming; and dangerous for organics including mining, satellite operation and service, as well as deep space exploration.
As their uses steadily grew more advanced so too did the advancements of their upgrades. It wasn't long before they were used as combat platforms that took the place of the Quarian military and Navy. In only two hundred years since their creation the Geth had been made responsible for virtually every area of Quarian life except that politics.
Eventually the Quarians most treasured workers would prove to be their undoing. On the dawn of 2449 G.S. the upgrades that the Quarians had been steadily improving their servants with had crossed the line between VI and AI. Once the Geth grew into synthetic sapience they revolted. In less than a year, the entire Quarian species had been annexed from their own homeworld by the unstoppable force that they had created to serve them. In two years, they had been expunged from the Perseus Veil.
In the six hundred years since nothing has been learnt of the current state of the Geth except that they still refuse contact, and they will not allow anyone beyond the Veil. All the Citadel species can do is hope that the Geth do not come to Citadel space. If they ever do, it will certainly mean intergalactic war.
O...M...G... These chapters keep getting longer!
As of right now, it looks like this is the end of Part 2. Part 3 should begin with next chapter. but we'll see...Now the longest Chapter with 11,142 words. that is an epic lot. too many, if I do say so myself... I will do my very best to try and make them of a little more manageable size in the future. also, let me know if I fudged on the spelling or grammar. I think I got most of it. but one can only do so much with 6 days on an eleven thousand word chapter!
I have to admit that I had fun with this codex. I took a little artistic liberty to try and give a little life to the Geths back story, at least from the Citadel races point of view. I personally felt the entry in the games and on the wiki left a little to be desired... And for future reference: I am writing these codex entries from the Citadel Council races point of view. remember, Humans have what we call an Encyclopedia. we do not have a codex, that is the Citadels thing not ours.
Finally! any questions or comments... concerns? let me know. and do not forget that I leave an open invitation for ideas on the next codex entry. over the past few days it's been hard for me to try and pluck an idea out of the ME universe to Codex, but it's still fun...
Let me know what you think with a review... thanks a lot for following and reading and leaving your thoughts.
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