Were it so Easy
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Mass Effect or Halo franchise.
Rated M: Strong language and violence.
Chapter 1 - The End?
Hope.
What did that word mean? At first glance it is such a simple word, defining a state of mind that many find difficult to come by. It is, by definition, an optimistic state of mind based on the expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large.
But it is so much grander than many realise. It is the driving force between inventors and leaders alike. It is the catalyst of greatness, a compelling, universal ideal that applies to sentient life in its entirety. In a reality where many struggle to find happiness or the drive to push on, hope is what drives people to push themselves past pain and suffering, so that maybe the next day will be better, maybe the darkness that clouds so many countless sentient beings may finally perish.
Such were the thoughts that plagued the mind of one particular warrior, who found himself in the midst of a losing battle, a situation he was intimately familiar with, and a situation that he has pushed through time and time again with that one little word stuck in the back of his mind.
Hope.
Noble Six blinked the sweat out of his eyes, he coughed up blood, the taste of copper coated his palate like a second skin.
Pain wracked his entire body as the Spartan struggled to get up. Even with his superhuman durability, even with his nearly indomitable will, the soldier found himself struggling to stay conscious.
He wanted to close his eyes, to take a break just for five minutes, five seconds even.
No!
Six felt a strong grip on his gauntlet, his head turned to meet the source and he instantly recognized it. Clad in a suit of armor similar to his, Six instantly recognized the one man that he looked up to, the man that he followed through the depths of hell and back dozens of times.
Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan 117.
"You're not dead yet." John's deep, gravelly voice sounded distant, like a desperate search in a deep, dark cave.
The older Spartan hoisted Six up, and he shook himself from his disorientation, chambered a round in his MA5D assault rifle, and braced himself for what was to come.
He stared daggers at the massive figure across the hard light bridge. The remarkably tall figure, Didact, returned the gesture in kind. The nuclear device they brought with them sat directly between the two sides.
"You two need to buy me some time, distract him, otherwise we're finished," the distinctively female voice came from within the confines of MJOLNIR; Cortana. The two Spartans readied their weapons, Noble Six knew that only Cortana's plan would work here. As frighteningly powerful as the two legendary Spartans were, they cannot compete with the Didact.
"Still you persist. Filthy primitives you may be, but your resolve is… admirable," The mocking tone of the Didact still persisted as usual, but Six could detect the slightest hint of respect. That must have taken a great deal of effort on Didact's part.
He noticed the Chief's head incline towards him ever so slightly, that was the signal to-
Didact suddenly moved, the massive eleven foot tall figure moved so quickly that even the hyper quick Spartans could scarcely register it.
"Chief, move!" yelled Cortana. The Spartan-II rushed forward, narrowly dodging the rematerializing Didact on pure instinct alone. Six joined the older Spartan, unloading his magazine into the Didact in an attempt to get him to ignore the Chief.
As expected, the bullets pinged uselessly off of the hyper advanced Forerunner alloys. The hyper lethal holstered his rifle and lunged forward-
But the Didact blurred forward and struck the Spartan in the torso. That single strike contained enough kinetic energy to smash through the shields of Six's Mk-VI MJOLNIR and dent the very sophisticated titanium alloys. The hyper lethal flew backwards, he worked with the momentum and rolled back onto his feet. The Noble Six coughed up even more blood, and the pain in his torso seemed to double in intensity. It was as if his own body was trying to spite him.
Six's eyes narrowed as he watched the Didact grab the Master Chief as if he weighed no more than a sack of feathers and then slammed the older Spartan into the ground.
"Cortana?" managed John's gravelly voice as the much larger Forerunner picked the Spartan up by the throat and began to squeeze. John, strong as he was, couldn't pull himself free of the Didact's death grip. The Forerunner was just too strong, that advanced combat skin could amplify his strength to levels that would make even a mgalekgolo blush in envy.
"Got it!" She replied
Suddenly, much to Six's bewilderment, the hard light bridge seemed to come alive as a dozen human sized Cortana's slowly rose up from the Forerunner creation. The Didact, seemingly also bewildered, stared at the unusual phenomenon. He seemed to have forgotten that the Master Chief was at his mercy.
"So misguided," he chided arrogantly. "Your compassion for mankind is misplaced."
"I'm not doing this for mankind!" she aggressively retorted. As one they leapt forward and shackled the Didact to the bridge who was forced to drop the Chief and kneel almost submissively.
"Now Six!"
"Copy," Six deadpanned.
The Spartan rushed forward and latched a plasma grenade onto the Didact's torso. The plasma explosion, clocking in at thousands of degrees celsius, did nothing to the ancient Forerunner, much to Six's displeasure.
He knew that there wasn't much time left, that he had to act quickly before the Didact breaks free and finishes them off. Cortana and the Chief could finish the rest he knew. But not with the Didact still breathing… that's where he comes in.
He briefly thought about his brothers and sisters in arms, those who are dead and those who are still alive fighting the good fight. People that have fought through the worst of what the Human-Covenant war had to offer and stood strong in the face of insurmountable odds, always finding a way to stay hopeful that one day they might drive out the alien menace.
Chief, Cortana, Blue team, Noble team, Johnston, Thel…
It was time.
He didn't hesitate with his next order… or his next actions.
"Break the bonds Cortana. Now," demanded Six as he rushed closer to the Didact.
She did, but Six caught the slightest hesitation in her actions. Cortana wasn't a Spartan, but she understood the meaning of sacrifice and what was at stake. She could, in cases such as this, set aside her feelings in favour of the mission's success.
It was necessary, and Six was glad that the snarky AI was strong enough to make these choices.
"It's been an honour…" he heard her whisper, as dejected as he'd ever heard her.
Noble Six slammed into the Didact, mustering as much kinetic energy as was Spartanly possible. The half ton Spartan and muliton Didact were both launched off of the hard light bridge.
"Finish the fight John," said Six, as peaceful as he ever was.
Time seemed to slow down as the massive slipspace portal below got closer and closer. He closed his eyes and let peace overtake him. For the first time in Six's life, he was powerless to change the outcome, and he was okay with that because he knew that he had done his duty.
He felt his body's senses leave him, and suddenly, his world went black.
"3 hours, we've been out here for 3. fucking. hours, and we've seen absolutely nothing so far!"
"Shut up and keep your eyes peeled," Krotok growled.
The batarian sighed to himself. He couldn't blame the rest of his men for feeling the way they were. He was currently leading a team of eight batarians, and they were tasked with a routine patrol around their base of operations.
The scenery around them was quite pleasing to the eye; lush, thick vegetation spanned the entire length of the seemingly endless river parallel to their path and massive trees stood proudly as far as the eye could see. So great was their number that they would have looked like so many blades of grass from a bird's eye view. Beautiful, golden rays of light shone down from the planet's sun, cutting through the branches and leaves amid the peaceful songs of birds.
Krotok took a deep breath and smiled to himself. Just a bit longer and they can come back to base and enjoy the… amenities that were present.
Krotok frowned, it was no secret that a large majority of his race was involved in the slave business. Krotok always saw it as him just trying to make a living so that he could feed his family… there wasn't much else that he could do in his society. Besides, as much as he isn't as cruel as some of his peers and superiors, he didn't mind taking his stress out on the slaves every now and then. Their previous lives were definitely more posh and care free than his… they didn't know any suffering like him so they in a way deserved it, right?
The batarian shrugged to himself, he was a soldier operating under a non-government sanctioned slave trading organization. He wasn't a philosopher.
"Hey, don't you guys think that the base commander was a little off today?" inquired one of his men, a young recruit by the name of Grapo.
"Yeah I noticed it too…" another one replied, kicking a stone in mild irritation. "Don't like it when he gets antsy, bad things usually happen as a result."
Krotok shivered, he's seen just how their beloved base commander deals with the irritations of life. Not even his own men were safe from his wrath.
"I overheard some of the techies talking about something in the planet's orbit that they detected not too long ago. Apparently it's some kind of unidentified object that was giving off some weird readings."
"Damnit kid," growled Krotok. "You know what happens if the commander catches you snooping around right?"
He looked at the younger batarian and saw his face flash briefly in concern.
"Sorry sir…" he muttered. "Just figured that you guys had the right to know."
Krotok just shook his head. "Let's keep moving, we-"
Krotok stopped.
The rest of his team stopped and looked at him in concern.
"What is it?"
Krotok didn't answer, he looked up into the sky and squinted.
"Is that a… shooting star?" muttered Krotok.
"Yeah I see it too. I looked at today's forecast and it said nothing about any meteors in the next couple of weeks."
Weird.
Krotok watched as it streaked across the sky, getting brighter and brighter.
The batarian widened his eyes as realization dawned upon him.
"Everyone down, now!"
The formerly calm and composed team exploded into panicked action as each member frantically dove behind trees, rocks and uneven terrain amidst a storm of surprised curses.
Krotok himself dove behind a massive tree face first into the dirt with his hands thrown behind his head.
There was silence for several long seconds as they waited.
"Krotok, I think your eyes need some-"
The batarian in question was cut off by a loud explosion that caused Krotok to jump in surprise. The sound waves caused pain to resonate in his ears as he got his bearings and slowly stood up.
He heard pieces of shrapnel impact the ground around him, and more than a few pieces of dirt and stone bounced off of his armor.
Krotok frowned.
What the hell was that?
He quickly deduced the site of impact; a fairly sizable crater with steam pouring out of it.
Maybe this day won't be so boring after all.
Curious, Krotok and his team quickly approached the crater, eager to see its contents.
Once the steam began to clear, more than a few of the batarians gasped in disbelief.
Krotok was stunned, this was no space rock, it was a… mech!
His eyes gazed over the thing. It was humanoid in shape and its outer shell was a jet black colour. The armor plates were heavily dented and scratched in several spots, but the thing looked tough, those armor plates looked like they could deflect a round from a mako. He looked at his rifle and felt instantly emasculated at that thought. Apart from that it had a golden visor with a strange hexagonal pattern all over it. Krotok could easily make out the massive knife and weapons it had attached to it as well. There also appeared to be a wrist computer on its left arm… a seemingly primitive version of an omni tool.
Apart from all of that it was huge. None of the batarians present looked tall enough to reach its shoulders, and the thing looked about as thick as a krogan.
"What the hell is that thing?" someone muttered, voicing everyone else's thoughts.
Suddenly, a brilliant, gold light enveloped the thing, prompting the batarians to instinctively raise their weapons. The strange light disappeared after a few seconds, and the mech's limbs seemed to fall limp.
Krotok felt that something was wrong with this, judging by what he was seeing, he didn't think his team had the firepower to reliably punch through that armor. If this armored behemoth decided to reactivate and deem them hostile…
"I'm calling command, we're not taking any risks with whatever that is."
There was a series of agreements from the rest of the team, and without a second thought Krotok prepped his omni tool.
"This is Krotok reporting in," there was a very subtle urgency in his voice as he glanced at the mech, surrounded as it was by his friends. His gut told him to run. Something just felt very wrong about this situation. He could feel the adrenaline slowly pumping into his system.
"Do you have anything to report, Krotok?" came the response in the form of a very bored and irritated batarian.
"Yes, some kind of mech just fell from the sky, I don't recognise its design but it hasn't moved yet. I'm requesting back up to my position."
Like turning a light on, the batarian on the other end went from very nearly dying of boredom to practically bouncing off of the walls in anticipation.
"Understood! Just stay where you are. We're sending a company of troops to back you up." The batarian went silent. Signalling the end of the transmission.
Krotok's eyes widened.
An entire company?!
Over a hundred troops, that's no small force. He suspected that his superiors definitely know something that he doesn't. Or maybe they are just really paranoid. It was hard to tell sometimes.
Krotok lowered his omni tool slowly and stared into that impassive visor. Not quite knowing what the future may hold now.
I've got a bad feeling about this
"I've got eyes on at least twenty hostiles surrounding the compound. Three hundred sixty degree overlapping fields of fire… don't look too heavily armed though."
The man on the other end of the transmission frowned to himself as he continued to watch his prey through his binoculars. The Blue Suns mercenaries continued their monotonous, seemingly endless patrol routes throughout the relatively small compound.
They looked bored and tired. Most of these guys didn't have the military discipline that one would expect from a real soldier.
It made them all the more easier to pick off. With a few quick checks of the various humans, batarians and asari, it became clear that they indeed didn't have the benefit of heavy weapons on their side.
He keyed his omni tool
"Copy that Garrus, getting the same thing on my end. If we brute force through their defenses quick enough then we should be able to secure the objective before things get too ugly," said Shepard from his concealed position - a series of thick hedges separating him from the open field that surrounded the outpost.
"Everyone check in," he said.
One by one, he received replies from each of the members of his crew. He replayed the mission in his head one last time.
They were on an unnamed backwater planet tasked by the Illusive Man to retrieve a Cerberus asset that supposedly has actionable intel on Collector movements. Shepard scoffed at that idea; the Collectors have been almost unpredictable in their attacks and movements from the onset of their little crusade. How this one single individual is able to pull off what all of Cerberus along with Shepard's crew could not is beyond Shepard.
This was a complicated hostage situation. They were on the offensive against a larger force overlooking an open area; not ideal conditions. To remedy that, EDI was actually able to hack into their systems and forcefully lock the prison cell that held their man so that none of the mercenaries can just waltz in and execute him.
To solve the problem of crossing open ground, he had his team divided into three smaller groups.
A recon team of Garrus, Thane and Kasumi led by the former would provide real time intel and long range fire support for the other two teams. They were stationed on a large hill to the East of the compound - on Shepard's right. To the North, on the other side of the compound opposite to Shepard's team, was their distraction.
This team was led by Miranda and was composed of their heavy hitters. Grunt, Jack, and Zaeed.
Samara, Jacob and Tali would be under Shepard's direct command for this mission. The plan would be simple, Miranda's team would open up on the compound and try to attract as much heat as possible with some sniper support from Garrus' team. In the ensuing chaos Shepard's team would sneak into the compound and extract the hostage. If the enemy forces in the compound haven't been dwindled enough by the time this occurs, then both of the teams in the compound are to retreat to the extraction point with the help of team three.
Shepard took a deep breath. Despite the horrors of war he's witnessed in his extensive military career, he could never truly get rid of the adrenaline and jitters that come before every battle.
"Miranda, status?"
"In position, Shepard. They haven't seen us yet," she whispered. Shepard could tell that she was getting impatient too.
"Alright, we'll kick this off on your mark Miranda. Once the shooting starts things are gonna move quickly so we need to be quicker, understood?"
The crew responded with a series of "yes's", "affirmatives" and a "fuck off" from Jack's direction.
The commander tensed and gripped his Avenger assault rifle tightly. He could feel the seconds tick by slower as he waited for the inevitable.
Suddenly, the early morning silence, peaceful as it was, died out quicker than a pyjack in a room full of krogan. Gunfire and explosions could be heard from across the hundred meter or so field and on the other side of the compound. Even amongst the cacophony of war, Shepard could hear the powerful long range weapons of the recon team raining death on the unsuspecting enemies below.
"Now's our chance. Move, move!" urged the commander as he stood up and made for the compound at a sprint.
The three pairs of feet striking dirt behind him signified that his team wasn't far behind. As he got closer the gunfire and explosions got louder. He could distinctively make out the roar of a krogan followed by screaming.
Sucks to be those guys.
The team of fit combatants made it to the barbed wire fence in an exceptionally short amount of time. He crouched and trained his rifle on the series of military style barracks buildings on the other side of the fence.
Out of the corner of his eye, the commander could make out Jacob running his hands along the fence, leaving a residue as he went on; thermite paste.
"Get clear, this thing's about to get hot as hell," said Jacob, excitement present in his voice.
Shepard backed up from the fence and spared Tali a glance. The young quarian stared back at the man. She looked nervous yet was doing well to stay composed. Samara on the other hand wore an almost void-like calm expression; this day was just another drop in the ocean for her.
The thermite paste exploded quietly. This was a basic explosive, no special chemicals, just aluminum powder reacting with iron oxide to produce temperatures of up to two and a half thousand degrees celsius.
The metal fence melted almost instantly, it quickly pooled onto the ground as a hole was burnt big enough for everyone to fit through.
Quickly, Shepard and his team rushed through the fence, scanning the small buildings as they went.
Nothing.
It seemed that most of the base was focused on team two. There was no comms chatter from either of the teams because they were communicating on their own separate channel, calling out targets and what not.
Shepard smiled to himself, these mercenaries were far too undisciplined to leave a sizable force to watch their flanks. It just made their job all the more easier.
"I believe it would be wise to quicken our pace," said Samara, calm as one could ever be.
"Agreed, we need to-"
Shepard was cut off as a torrent of weapons fire lit up his team's position. Shepard leapt out of the way and dove behind a building on his left, but not before catching a smattering of rounds.
His kinetic barrier weathered the punishment, barely.
"Contact front!" roared Jacob, his rifle barked, sending suppressive fire towards the enemy.
"Eyes on?" called out Shepard, he blind fired his weapon in the direction of where he was hit, hoping to keep the enemy's heads down.
"They're in the target building! Second floor!" shouted Tali, she was positioned across the commander behind an adjacent building.
Shepard poked his head out. The building was a small two story concrete construction with a dozen windows that could be the site of an enemy.
"We don't have time for this," growled Shepard. He turned to his left and looked at Samara.
"We're gonna rush these guys quickly. Tali and Jacob, you two will follow in once we breach the building. Until then, start suppressing them," Samara nodded without hesitation.
"We're on it!" exclaimed the Cerberus operative.
Both Jacob and Tali opened up with short, controlled bursts, they received a greater volume of fire than what they were putting out. But that was about to change.
Shepard focused on his physical body, and felt the biotic energy course through his veins. He left the safety of his cover and rushed forward at inhuman speeds. The biotic sprint carried him at a velocity of around seventy kilometers per hour, fast enough that the building occupants couldn't intercept them in time thanks to the distraction provided by Tali and Jacob.
Samara and the commander reached the building quickly, and after sharing a quick glance, popped a grenade each into one of the windows of the second floor. There was a moment of panic as the mercenaries inside realized the plight of their situation, and then all Shepard heard was two heavy 'thumps' as the grenades shredded the victims inside.
Shepard looked at the asari justicar. "Breach the door."
Samara nodded, and with almost no effort at all, blasted the metal door off its hinges. The both of them rushed into the building, opening up on the disoriented mercenaries. Shepard dropped two of them with his rifle.
He heard a yell to his right, and instinctively spun around. The commander dropped his weapon and caught the omni blade equipped arm of one of the mercenaries - a human mercenary.
The ex-spectre quickly used the man's momentum against him, and flipped him onto the floor. It was second nature to the commander, years of rigorous hand to hand training made Shepard as deadly as any special forces soldier. But with his augmentations courtesy of Cerberus, Shepard could very easily kill any normal human in a scuffle.
Before Shepard could neutralize the downed enemy, several gunshots rang out inside the building, and the man's brain matter painted the floor around him.
Shepard looked up and saw Tali and Jacob entering the building, with the latter's weapon smoking. He nodded his appreciation and winced as his ears began to ring. Guns are normally very loud. But inside a building it's far worse. When a gun is fired in a building, those soundwaves bounce around walls and come back to you a dozen times within the span of a few milliseconds. Even with years of experience and training, it still hurts.
Apart from the gunshots outside, which have died down drastically, the building was quiet. Shepard assessed the aftermath, he looked around the building and saw another five bodies courtesy of Samara. One of the poor bastards, a batarian, was practically crushed like a tin can due to the asari's biotics, his blood and guts were splattered all over the back corner of the room where he was cowering. Shepard nodded to the justicar, she was a force to be reckoned with.
He keyed his omni tool. "Teams two and three, status?"
"Miranda here, we've almost cleaned up the hostiles. Just a few stragglers, Grunt has taken several gunshot wounds but is fine. No other injuries that I am aware of," Shepard nodded to himself, he's seen Grunt take entire thermal clips worth of ammunition and hardly flinch.
"Understood, finish up. We've just about cleaned up the target building and are about to free the hostage. Shepard out," he cut the transmission.
"Samara, Jacob, make sure the second floor is clear. Tali, with me."
Shepard approached the reinforced metal door at the end of the room. It seemed they had a special cell reserved just for persons of high interest. EDI was able to forcefully lock the door and scramble the codes so that the hostage couldn't be executed. It made the mission far less complicated.
The commander checked his omni tool for the new code EDI had generated and sent to him and entered it into the system. Immediately, the door opened and revealed what they had busted their asses over.
"Finally you guys showed up."
The man inside of the cell was… average. Brown eyes, short combed black hair, squared chin, not very muscular but still athletic looking and probably stood just under six feet.
The cell itself was completely barren, just a dirty cot that looked like it had been shit on more than once and a half broken toilet.
"So, you're the man of the hour," deadpanned Shepard matter of factly. He heard a gunshot from up above, no doubt one of the survivors being put down.
The man chuckled. "I'm flattered, but let's not get too intimate here," Shepard rolled his eyes.
"Look, let's not beat around the bush here. We saved your ass, and you've got intel we need on the Collectors. So if you'd be so kind as to bestow said intel upon us and we can go our separate ways, then that would be great."
Shepard curiously noted the man's expression change from one of humour to deadly serious.
"Look Shepard," he said. "I'll be honest, this intel isn't about the Collectors but-"
"Keelah, you're telling me we went through all of this trouble to save your ass and now you're wasting our time?" said Tali, anger mounting more and more as she spoke.
"Listen!" he hissed." Get your team together and we'll talk on your ship. What I'm about to tell you is something that I have kept even the Illusive Man in the dark. This isn't about the Collectors, but it's about something else that might just change the fate of this galaxy."
Shepard stared at the man. He wanted to so desperately call this man out on his bullshit. But from the way this man spoke, with such conviction and certainty, told Shepard that he isn't just wasting their time for the fun of it.
Shepard sighed. "Fine, but you damn well better not be wasting our time, otherwise I'm throwing you out the airlock."
The Cerberus operative chuckled bitterly. "Oh I'm not, you may not believe me at first, but you will when I show you what happened to one of the batarian slave groups."
So… it's been a while. Too long in fact. To those of you that have read my previous story, I apologize for disappearing for so long. Life got in the way and so I lost the motivation to continue for a may have noticed that my original story is gone. Truthfully I didn't think it was very good. So I figured that I could take that failure and hopefully turn it into something better. Hence the creation of this story. I'd like to aim for more originality here. Hopefully I didn't hit too many cliches along the way already. Anyways this chapter is kinda short; barely 5000 words but I figured this would be a great place to end it. Let me know if I should limit my chapters to 5000-10,000 words to maintain a reasonable upload schedule. Be generous with the criticism… I think you guys are too nice. Give me suggestions, point out errors… it's how I improve. Anyways, I don't want to type too much here so I'll finish with this: I've still got a lot of things to worry about so I won't always be consistent. But I hope I can use this chapter as more motivation to continue. It's great to be back and I once again apologize. Stay safe everyone!