Chapter 2
I don't own the awesomeness that is mass effect, Crysis, Fast and Furious, Marvel or Starwars
I do own my own life.
I also don't own the Fast and Furious, Star Wars or Marvel
This chapter has been reworked slightly
Story start
For the last few hours, I'd been making my way towards the dig site, for the most part things have been going well, I'd managed to take down five geth and thanks to coming across some downed marines I now also had chest armour and kinetic barriers. Something I wanted to get before but hadn't been able to, most of the marine's armour was worthless and full of holes but luckily one of the marines died after a headshot. After showing some respect I put on the chest piece and took one of the assault rifles. It wasn't anything flashy but they it was good enough, now however...
"Fuck fuck fuck!" I had just come across three geth and I wasn't in a good spot though. I'd been able to take down two of them the third had me pinned behind a boulder. It wasn't a situation I wanted to be in.
The bow was definitely effective, if I had to guess it was because the arrows were much bigger, heavier and also slower than normal mass effect rounds. My old bow shot arrows at roughly 318-420 feet per second, 21st-century guns shot bullets at over 2,600 feet per second and mass-effect guns were infinitely faster than that.
The kinetic barriers just weren't made or set up to stop slow-moving projectiles. Compared to modern metal shavings travelling down at immense speed, my bow was firing cannon balls, either they were completely overwhelming the kinetic barriers or it was going to slow to be picked up. Maybe when tech armour comes out they would be able to provide protection against my bow but for now, I had a huge advantage.
Biotic barriers could be a problem though, since it was more mental and instinctiveve. You see something and react instantly to suit the conditions. For example, having a brick thrown at you while a kinetic barrier wouldn't stop it there was no way a biotic would let it hit them if they saw it coming.
Also, while kinetic barriers could be calibrated or set up for certain situations to provide greater protection, say against a sniper or assault rifle for example. But unless you were a tech wizard like Tali I doubt it would be a good idea to adjust them mid-battle. Such adjustments also came at the cost of making the barriers less effective at the opposite end of the spectrum, for example you could make the barriers more effective at dealing faster or slower rounds than average but not both.
For a biotic the only problems started when they either didn't have the power to withstand a blow or the mental fortitude to hold the barrier up long enough. Samara was a good example for both of these, even though she was one of the strongest biotically capable warriors out there she had trouble holding back a Reaper driven swarm from getting to her. No matter how strong the biotic was I doubt they could withstand a round from a dreadnaught or radiation from a nuke.
However, the bow did come with its own problems and drawbacks, such as it was only really effective when I had the jump on them or if I could take them down before they fully reacted. After 4 to 5 shots though I'd lost my advantage and needed to switch tactics. In most cases it took one or two arrows to take down a geth, I managed to take the first geth down with no problem, with the second one scoring a couple of shots on my barriers and by the time I got to cover the third one had nearly brought my barriers down.
'Shit, I really need to get some better gear to use when the bow isn't an option.' I thought to myself as I flinched away from another burst of fire from the geth. My kinetic barriers might have been strong enough to absorb a few rounds but I wanted to keep them as a last resort and not 'I'll take that blow because I know the the invisible barriers will keep me safe.'
What could have happened if the geth hacked the interface that showed the strength levels of the kinetic barriers the same time they were doing all those other tech attacks so you would pop out of cover thinking your barriers were fully recovered but instead they were less than at a quarter? I didn't want to think about how many people could have died if they had done that. Plus I still hadn't gotten used to the kinetic barriers to know just how much was left without giving it a quick glance every few seconds. No the best thing was try to minimize shoots taken, use biotic shields when needed and leave the kinetic barriers to deal with the shots I either couldn't avoid or didn't see coming.
That still left me with the problem of though of me needing better gear, guns especially, I had a couple of ideas that I'd like to give a try. The first one was trying to save up and buy at least one good gun like a V, VI or preferably VII(4,5,6) avenger pistol or assault rifle. The problem with that high-quality gear was bloody expensive, I remember going to planet after planet to find enough metal to mine to buy a spectre level gun. In fact it was either because a did a new game plus or used a mod to get credits that I was able to buy a lot of good gear at all, other than that I just had to rely on what I found which I don't think would be a good idea for a plan A.
The other problem was also the fact in a year or two the majority of guns would be using thermal clips and since a gun using heat sinks was rare to see after that, aside from a few old guns that had been upgraded. There was a good chance I would have wasted a lot of money for a gun that within a year and a half, was no longer that good. I had a couple of ideas on why thermal clips became universal and replaced heat sinks that didn't include BioWare wanting a more shooty feely game instead of allowing the player to hold the trigger down.
1 they were cheaper to make, the higher quality guns such as the spectre only ones as said before cost a fortune, having a thermal clip could mean that it possible to produce a higher quality gun for a lot cheaper.
2 they lasted longer, if I had to guess overheating a gun cut down drastically on their life as all that heat couldn't have been good to the internal components not to mention the stories of overheating weapons breaking, bending and exploding, but with a thermal clip that would no longer be the case and would save any military force a pile of credits.
A third reason is that the thermal clip could hold, deal and cope with a lot more heat than traditional heat sinks could. Thus allowing them to fire more powerful rounds and considering that there was a number of older guns that will later be refitted like the Mattock, M-7 Lancer and Zaeed's old rifle this was likely true. In the end I think it was a mixture of all these reasons and more that the thermal clip guns took over, I also believed that the more expensive guns (the spectre grade especially) were either on par or superior to the guns that used thermal clips, but again they were extremely expensive.
All this left me with a couple of options, buy a decent to expensive gun and hope it can be upgraded or get one custom made with thermal clips and heat sinks. I decided to go with the second option, I was hoping I'd find some discarded thermal clips and then have a custom gunmaker on the Citadel design and manufacture gun for me.
I already had a couple ideas, one used a revolving set of thermal clips while heat sinks drained away any heat. This idea had two problems, 1 was that eventually the thermal clips would fill up and would need to swap them out which was doable, the harder problem was thermal clips as far as could tell were far to big to do this for a pistol which is the main weapon I wanted but it should work for larger weapons such as assault rifles, shotguns and snipers. My second idea was to have thermal clips lining the inside and open when overheating much like mass effect guns already did with heat sinks passively draining the heat away. I think out of both these ideas that was the better one, t would be expensive but I think I had a solution.
About a week after coming here I noticed something strange, while there were plenty of 21st-century films that I remember watching and sequels that were made afterwards. There was also a number that I remember watching that didn't seem to exist on the extranet nor was there any mention of them anywhere else. This could be because, either because they were completely forgotten which I doubted or for some reason they were never made.
This seemed to indicate that I was in a sort of parallel world, either way, the movies that never existed included the Fast and the Furious franchise and Star Wars. There might have been more but those were the onces that stood out. I immediately realised I could use them to make money.
These franchises had generated millions in income, income I could use. So in my spare time I wrote down everything I could remember about all the movies before essentially rewriting it, starting with the Fast and the Furious. While the overall script was the same the characters were all different, Dom was a krogan, he was too much of a badass to be anything else, Letty was an asari and instead of being his sister, Mia was his daughter while Brian was a Turian and Jesse was a quarian. The rest were a mix of races.
So far I only managed to rewrite Fast and Furious 1, I only spent an hour a night at most going over it and a few days before I went on my hunting trip I sent it to a movie company what's been having a dry spell of good movies recently and was also a rival of the company that made the Blasto series.
Collapsing my bow and holstering it on my left hip I grab my pistol which was on my right. Coming out of cover my shields were able withstand the rounds from the last geth before I lash out with a pull, pulling him right towards me. When he got close I lashed out with a botic punch from my left fist sending him back. After he hit the ground I fired bullet after bullet into him nearly over heating the pistol in the process.
"Yeah, I definitely need to get better weapons." I said out loud before I continued on
Eventually I made it to a valley that looked vaguely familiar with two geth positioning a man over a dragon's tooth. As if it was on cue a marine I recognised as Ash came tearing around the corner chased by two drones before throwing herself to ground and taking them out with perfectly aimed shots. She then sees the two geth and the man, watching in morbid fascination she gets to her feet just in time to see...all three ripped off their feet by a biotic pull before one of the geth is taken out by an arrow. Coming to her senses Ash pulls out her assault rifle to take out the last geth she manages to nearly drop its shields before it too is taken out by an arrow. With the threat gone she turns around in time for to see me sliding down the side of the valley.
"Where did you come from...wait your not a marine who are you?" asked Ash catching sight of my chest armour before realising that's the only armour I had
"No, name's Callum. I was on a hunting trip some distance away, when I saw that ship coming down. I thought something was happening so I headed over. Along the way I passed a downed marine unit and after paying my respects I took a chest piece and assault rifle, it made dealing with these things a lot easier."
"Wait, you make it sound like you already took a couple out? With what, that bow?" asked Ash with disbelief
"I did and this isn't just any bow, say hello to the Predator from Crytex industries, it uses the latest of mass effect innovations and mixes them with time tested and much older bow technologies. It has an incredible draw weight range, at the moment its set at 87 pounds which is enough to take out most things that don't have thick armour and are smaller than an elephant. It then uses mass effect technology to amplify that even further, the draw weight may only 87 but the force the arrow hits with is well over that and I can program it to either penetrate through or distribute all that force into the target. The drop off is also virtually nothing which means it can hit targets from an incredible distance-just short of what you need a sniper for really." I said proudly
"Yeah...but you can shoot a lot more quickly with a rifle than a bow." responed Ash as she goes to check on the man that the geth was holding who seemed to have passed out but was otherwise okay.
"I know, while I do love it it does have a niche. I've mainly been using to take out as many geth as I can before I switch to assault or pistol to finish them off. My shields can only take so much damage after all and if there is more than one geth shooting at me chances are that by the time I get one the other would be close to dropping my shields." I admitted
"Speaking of your armour you kind of look like one of those guys that dress up in costumes and old gear and play out historic fights only got it completely wrong. I mean bow, sword and assault rifle...wait why do have a sword if you were on a hunting trip?" asked Ash strangley
'Shit.' I thought to myself, the reason why I brought the sword with me was because of the husks and I didn't think Anderson would let me stop off and pick it up
"I was re-reading an old novel called the Ranger's apprentice and packed it on an impulse, plus it's been sometime since I practised with it." I answered
"Huh, well I guess a wasn't that far off with my earlier comment then." said Ash before she tries to awaken the unconscious man and eventually succeeded
After the awakened man, (who was called Mike) was assured that he was indeed alive and well we had to decide where to go next.
"We need somewhere safe to leave Mike before we decide what to do next." I suggested
"Hold on, Mike? If we find a safe place then you should stay there too." argued Ash
"No offence but your the only other person out here that I've seen alive. If you're going to save anyone your going to need all the help you can get." I replied
"...Fine, but both of you are to stay at the back and get out of there if anything bad happens understood!" said Ash firmly
"Agreed, the bows better with some distance anyway. So where do you think we should head?" I asked "The way back is too open for my liking, besides anyone who's made it that far out should know to keep going."
"There's some temporary houses a short distance away so we'll head there, lets move out." said Ash taking charge
Before we left I had a long look over my shoulder I didn't know why Shepard didn't show up but I hoped they weren't that far off. In the game it didn't matter what detures you took, how long you had a conversation, even how quick you were. You always arrived at the exact same time unless it was time specific and even then the mission started the same.
I mean I spent most of my time flying to every planet and moon and going over every inch with the mako and still got to Illos in time to follow Saren where in the real world the Reapers would be invading while I was getting the mako out of a ditch. I had to assume that there was some delay from either the trip, the geth or Jenkins death. I was actually hoping I'd wind up in a spot where I'd be able to save him but I guess that wouldn't be happening.
Soon we arrived where the beacon used to be, as in the game there were some geth waiting for us. I can't remember how many there was in the game but here there were four. The first two were easy to take out as everyone was focusing on Ash even when she took cover so I only had to use by biotic shield once to stop a couple of rounds. The two remaining however would be much harder to get, one was on the left behind some crates too thick to shoot through while the other was behind a rock formation, we couldn't shoot at one without exposing ourselves to both. Also, the pass we had to go through to get that far was narrow, so it would be two geth shooting at one human.
Judging how she had stopped, Ashley could also see the danger and was thinking of a way to deal with it.
"I've got an idea but I need you to keep an eye out for the one behind the rocks." I said
Eyeing me Ash said "Fine but be careful."
Stepping forward I switch to my assault rifle, summoning my biotics I lob a singularity over to where the geth was hiding behind the crates. As expected the geth started to get pulled up by the singularity, when it did the other geth came out of cover to shoot at us trying to protect its fellow geth. Thankfully Ash kept him busy long enough for me to put several rounds into the floating geth before I threw a warp to detonate the singularity. Once that was done the last geth was easy to deal with.
Walking through the place where the beacon stood originally Ash pauses.
"What's wrong?" I ask
"It's jus- no, never mind. The research camp isn't that far ahead lets keep going." said Ash
A couple of minutes later we came across the research camp...and the dragon's teeth full of husks. For some reason they didn't lower, maybe they weren't ready yet? When Ash moved towards them I stopped her.
"I wouldn't do that, they're definitely not alive and the geth just didn't set these up for decoration I don't know what they do but I'd stay well clear." I suggested
"S-shouldn't we take them down at least?" asked Mike speaking up
"Someone needs to make sure there isn't a trap and I sure do not have the skills to make sure it's safe to do so." I said "For all we know they'll detonate if we get close, listen someone will take them down when it's safe to do so. But for now we need to get you somewhere safe and keep an eye out for more survivors." I said walking over to the temp housing that I knew held the scientists, one of which I knew must have somehow caught a glimpse of Saren. Halfway there I notice something very familar, a thermal clip. Pausing I bend down and pick it up, it was slightly thinner and longer than it was in the game but other than that they looked almost identical.
"What's that?" asked Ash curiously
After some more examining I answered, I couldn't say that I knew what it was or that I'd seen one before after all
"I think its a removable heat sink." I said putting it into my pocket "I think it's from the geth."
"Isn't that kind of inefficient? It seems like a step backwards so why would the geth do that?"
"The problem with mass effect guns is the overheating and the damage it causes over time. If these can absorb all the heat from firing then that means it stays away from anything delicate, preventing damage and saving on maintenance and repair costs later on. It also might mean that their guns could be more powerful if they can deal with more heat than a traditional heat sink could and they can fire as much as they want before they need to replace the heat sink.
Considering most weapons except the higher grade ones are prone to overheating if you don't pay attention it's a huge advantage. Also, if I had to guess the geth are able to store a number internally, they don't have organ so I they probably have space to spare."
"Now that you mention it, other than from an overload I don't think I've seen a geth gun overheat." thought Ash out loud as I continued on the temp housing "I better tell someone about this as soon as possible."
"Hello anyone in there?" I asked knocking quietly, when there were noises of shuffling but the door remained shut I turned to Ash "I think there is someone in there."
Eyes widening Ash gently pushed me out of the way and stood in front of the door "This is Ashley Williams of the second division. I am ordering you to open that door!"
Moments later the door opens and a female scientist appears "Quick come inside!" after we do so she immediately shuts the door behind us "Thank the creator that there are more survivors, we thought we were the only ones left with those things outside." said the female scientist
"Where is everyone else? I there should be at least a half-a-dozen marines here." asked Ash
"T-they gave their lives so that we could get to safety, th-then those things skewered them...oh my God." the female scientist seemed seconds away from a breakdown and it seemed Ash could tell as well
"Calm down, your going to be safe in here, what your name?" asked Ash
"I'm Dr Warren and this is my assistant Manuel, we were here to study the beacon." said the now identified Dr Warren
"And where is the beacon by the way? We just passed the place where it was a day ago."
"It was moved to the spaceport to be picked up by the alliance sometime today, it took longer than expected as a lot of port workers, or anyone nearby really has been hesitant in coming into work." said Dr Warren
"That's good right?! That means that help should be coming soon." said Mike hopefully
"Your right, you just have to wait here until help comes. Dr Warren is there anything you can tell us about the attack?" asked Ash
"Just what I said before, but the attack came upon us seemingly seconds after that ship descended. Then the marines bought time we found a safe place to hide, we've been hiding here for the last few hours." said Dr Warren
"Safe? We are not safe, the time of humans has come to an end, it only a matter of time before only ruins and corpses remain." spoke up Manuel
"Is there anything else you could tell about the attack, anything else you could have seen?" asked Ash ignoring him
"I saw him, their leader, their prophet the turian! Their dark master leading them to our destruction, he was here before the attack." said Manuel
"That's good to know." said Ash dismissively, not that I could blame her, I too thought he was crazy but after the mass effect 1 I'd realized he knew more than anyone gave him credit for.
"Dr Manuel, can you describe him?" I ask
"His eyes were piercing but lifeless, seeing everything but caring for nothing. His arm showed the proof of his allegiance to his master and his followers..."
"That's enough Manuel, I'm sorry but Manuel is...unique, madness and brilliance are two sides of the side of the same coin and..." whatever Dr Warren would have said next was cut off by the sounds of a firefight outside.
"Shit, Callum with me, everyone else stay here and lock the door." said Ash unfolding her assault
Coming out the door we were immediately charged by husks, while Ash opened fire with her assault rifle I knew from experience that it would take a shit ton of bullets to take them down so I drew my sword and chopped the head off of the first husk to approach us before thrusting into the chest of a second one. With three more coming at someone wearing N7 armour that had to be Shepard I casted a lift before slamming them to the ground making them easy to finish off.
"Nice work Kaiden, when did you learn how to do that?" asked a female voice
"That wasn't me commander." argued Kaiden
"Then who was it?" asked commander Shepard looking at Ash and me
"It was me commander." I said stepping forward
"And you are?" asked Shepard
"Callum, I work as a farmer nearby." I said
"And when you saw people needed help you decided to come in your self." answered Shepard for me, her voice a mix of approval and disapproval before turning to Ash "And what about you, how do you fit into this?"
"I'd just escaped from a geth unit, the rest of my unit...didn't make it. With Callum's help we managed to bring in a survivor and with a couple of others that are hold up in that temp housing behind us." said Ash
"Don't blame yourself, one of your men sent out a live vid feed that reached us in orbit. From what we saw there was nothing more you could have done. Now we are looking for the beacon, do you have any idea where it might be?" asked Shepard
"Thank you ma'am, as for the beacon the researcher in charge said it was delivered to the space port this afternoon." answered Ash
"Good that settles that, also have either of you seen a turian around?" asked Shepard
"Wait what?! That guy was telling the truth?" asked Ash surprised
"What's the problem?" asked Shepard seriously
"One of the survivors said he saw a turian leading the geth, I didn't take it seriously because he was unhinged and as far as I know no turians lived here but now..." trailed Ash
"Hold on that can't be right, Nihlius was with us commander when we landed. He certainly couldn't have been here before." interrupted Kaiden
"True, so either your survivor imagined it or it another turian all together." finished Shepard
"Hold on commander, don't you think it would be a good idea to let this Nihlius there might be a turian leading or helping the geth?" I ask hoping she'd say yes
"Why is that?" asked Shepard curiously
"Up till now all we've seen is geth killing organics, if there is a turian helping this geth and this Nihlius sees them he could assume that their a friendly and get shot in the back while he's trying to help them."
"So you want the commander and call up and say that there 'might' be a turian helping the geth, what does this look like?" asked Kaiden
"Don't know but I'd say they have a messed up looking arm, either augmented, prosthetic or just odd armour over it." I answered
"How'd you figure?" asked Ash
"Manuel said his arm was the proof of his allegiance to his master and his followers, I don't know who this master is but as his followers are geth the arm must look geth like or have some sort of geth tec on it." I answered
"That's a bit of a stretch, I hope you don't have a habit of jumping to conclusion." said Shepard
"...actually Commander, Callum found something earlier that he believes to be removable heat sinks but I think he might be correct there."
"Really?" asked Shepard seriously "Show me."
Taking out the heat sink I show it to Shepard before she herself shows it to Kaiden
"What do you think?" she asks
"Well it does look like it was designed to hold heat." admitted Kaiden "But we should have an engineer confirm it."
Shepard seems to think for a bit before handing me back the heat sink and opening her omni-tool.
"...Hey Nihlius." said Shepard,
"What is it Shepard." replied Nihlius
"Apparently someone saw a turian with a weird arm leading the geth, we're not sure whether the witness is reliable though but just in case I'd keep an eye out."
"...understood Shepard, I'm nearly at the spaceport now and I'll wait for you there." said Nihlius before hanging up