Destiny Lost

by Twisted Fate MK 2

The Gods left remnant together, with the statement they would never return to it or influence it. Only, that wasn't true, was it? The God of light, ever the hypocrite and liar, didn't abandon Remnant. Instead, he reincarnated someone to do his bidding and bring Remnant to them. Cue, the now dead Pyrrha Nikos and the God of Darkness' ideas. / Supporter Requested by Espacole & Spork

61. Dread Space - Finale

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Official Supporters:

Compulsive Reader, The Impossible Muffin

Adeptus Militaris, Wilger

Commissioner, Gib, Death Daddy, Le Spork, Polemoduke

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Beta(s) :

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Requested By :

Espacole and Spork

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The last Batarian ship exploded in a splash of vibrant blues, oranges and inky smoke that filled the space around the derelict as the Normandy circled over it, skirting the stable space the Reaper itself helped maintain. Joker monitored the debris field for a long moment before he eased back, powering the Thanix down and dropping the Kinetic Barriers to standby mode.

"So," he sighed, cueing the comms, "anyone out there?"

After a long moment, to his surprise, he heard a quiet, "Joker?"

"Solus?" He smiled, "That you?"

"It is." The Salarian answered, "On board shuttle with Charlie team, returning from operations. All our objectives, complete."

"Any casualties?" He asked, worry suddenly pushing back to the fore, "Why are you answering and not-"

"We can all hear ya, ya brittle gagglefuck." Massani grunted through the static and fig, "Salarian has the better comm-link. Somethin', somethin', personal comm relay back on board he's pingin' off of. We're about a minute outta dock."

"Send coords." He ordered, waiting as they came around - near to the front of the ancient machine. "I'll come around to-"

"Joker." EDI cut him off, "Motion detected at the fore of the Reaper."

"Motion?" Not the shuttle - EDI wouldn't have mentioned it. But if not them, then… He leaned forward and engaged the primary active shielding again, "EDI, get a LADAR scan on the motion and put crew back to combat-"

"Energy build-up." EDI cut him off again, "The Reaper is active!"

"Banking!" He barked into his comm-line as a finger flicked a key, broadcasting his words across the ship. The Normandy pitched suddenly and sharply, their stabroad Kinetic Barriers screaming warnings across his console as whatever shot had come their way glanced off. Gritting his teeth, he snapped, "EDI, wave the shuttle off - tell them to engage stealth and hide!"

"Complying." EDI answered, throwing up a steady vid-feed of the front of the Reaper, where only one of its few intact 'fingers' were moving, slowly and sparking all the way, as it tried to follow them, grinding against the edge of the Cerberus facility attached to its side. "The Reaper is only partially active - it is likely we are only engaging defense protocols."

"Yes, and?" He grunted, angling down sharply and grimacing as someone in the CIC screamed and something smacked into something else. "Get into your damn ready-seats!"

"If we disable the 'finger' it is likely the Reaper will be unable to attack us."

"And if we do," he added, "we could blow it away. And Shepard with it!"

"I am not recommending the Thanix cannon." EDI said, calm and patient as Joker juked and ducked, angling out and using the rubble of the asteroids nearby to try and break up the targeting systems. "The derelict lacks Kinetic Barriers. The Thanix would, as you surmise, rip through it and cause cascading damage. However-"

"The light batteries wouldn't." He sighed, "Right?"

"Precisely."

"Pulling that off is…" He frowned, "Tricky, even for me."

"I know." EDI answered, voice softening, "I… I have faith in you, Jeff."

He flinched - and that almost caught him as another shot blasted apart a chunk of asteroid and showered their Barriers in the debris. And their armor, too, as smaller pieces managed to bypass the weakened shields and come home. Nothing pierced, though, judging from the sensor suites located along their outer hull. But after a second, he nodded and took a deep breath as he banked around one of the larger asteroids so closely his dorsal hull almost scraped against it.

"Alright, here goes somethin'..."

Angling so tightly around the edge of the asteroid that he was pushed to the side - and felt his ribs crack for it - he punched the accelerator and spun, like a drill towards the incoming Reaper. EDI kept his feed steady, though, and as another shot came in he leveled out and forced himself just out of its way. It seared just over his his port wing, alarms blaring as some of the armor melted away when the Barriers failed, but he couldn't angle further away. He was locked in, on target, and jerking away now would just force a second pass.

He couldn't risk it…

At just over two hundred meters he banked up and opened fire, peppering the 'finger' as it tracked him. The shots were inaccurate but there were enough to overcome that, mostly, peppering the Reaper hull on one side and trailing left, then along the digit. Fire lanced up it as it siezed and he banked away, and EDI swapped to a rear camera so he could watch it seize up, fire bursting from its joints until it finally went up and snapped away - along with a small chunk of the upper hull. The fire bathed the outside of the Cerberus facility but stopped there, and he smiled.

"Defenses disabled." EDI reported, "The Kodia has sent coordinates. I recommend we collect them and hope the others are able to exfiltrate on their own."

"If not," he frowned, "then well have to redeploy."

"Indeed." EDI hummed, "I will gather intelligence from the ground team. Just in case it is needed."

He nodded and turned his attention to running status checks. Something EDI could do faster, he was sure. But they both knew he needed the distraction right now, with Shepard on a much less dead Reaper than they'd been told to expect. Because of course it was.

"Should know better than to trust food from a rusty can." He muttered, "Especially if it comes out the end of some gross metal squid."

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The entirety of the Reaper, and the Cerberus-built walkways, trembled as something hit the hull and something else went up while they knelt, holding onto crates and railings and waiting it out with gritted teeth. It only lasted a few seconds, but after, it was replaced with a sudden, long groaning sound, as if the entire structure were resettling. Like old buildings she'd been in, now and again across dozens of worlds. When that, too, settled down she stood, sweeping a look across the cavernous, wire and light strewn roof thirty or so feet up.

"What was that?" Nikos asked as she, too, stood and Legion joined her.

"Weapons fire." Her Krogan rumbled, trundling ahead a few steps and watching the roof carefully until his eyes tracked distantly ahead of them. "I smell smoke. That way. Whatever hit sparked fire."

"Towards the lab." Shepard sighed, "Perfect."

"Our sensors are detecting structural damage to the upper and forward quadrants of the derelict as well." The Geth reported, "Nothing alarming at the moment. If more damage is sustained, however, there will be risk."

"What else do you detect?"

"Nothing." The Geth answered, turning towards her with a slow, lethargic, almost… Somehow unhappy flicking to its head flanges. "We would need direct access to systems to measure more. What we are already gathering is itself more 'a likelihood' than 'a fact'."

"How do you mean?"

"Damage was sustained, plus the noise, and several-degree shifts of some of the overhead lighting." Legion answered the spear-wielding woman, "All leads us to conclude structure damage. And, likely, accommodation on the Reaper's part as well."

"It's alive?"

"Not likely." Grunt grunted, turning to them. "More like an autonomic response. Or, well, as close as a Reaper gets to one."

"Autonomic. Great…" That didn't make her feel much better, to say the very least. But she shrugged, checked her hand cannon over in just a bit of paranoia, and asked. "Do you, uh, smell anything else?"

"Hmmm…" Grunt turned, closing his eyes and inhaling deeply a few times. Finally, he said, "Metal. Blood. Oil. More blood… A lot of it. And something… Different. Wrong and out of place."

"Husks?"

"Maybe." He answered, opening his eyes and shrugging. "Haven't smelled 'em enough to get a real taste."

"Damn." She sighed, "Forward, then, and eyes open."

They all snapped out their responses and fell back into formation, and they made their way further through the deafeningly quiet Reaper.

For several long minutes, that's all they did. Walk in silence, occasionally flinching as something in the distance fell, clattering down with a muted echo far off in the distance. After a while, Shepard started to notice things. At first, things she chalked up to her nerves - because even she was shaky about being inside of a Reaper. Less lighting overhead, tighter walls and walkways that spindled around blockages that spanned form the 'roof' of the place down past them to the rolling, wirey 'floor' of it. And, under it all, the familiar sort of tingle at the back of her neck that came from being watched.

Then, as they rounded a massive, cord-covered sort of column, the space opened out into a wide, more open area.

Like just inside the air-lock. But much, much darker, the overhead lights down almost to the last, the space taken up by a two story research complex made up of three long, rectangular stacks, two to the bottom and one on top with stairs fixed into place leading up them to a reinforced hatch in the middle of the upper section. Wires ran up from it to the roof, vanishing in the darkness, and more descended through holes cut in the grating. Still more stretched out to either side, reaching out to a quartet of heavy gun emplacements equidistant around the laboratory in a basic square formation. Each one had been disabled, if not destroyed, the cannon's housings ripped open and its inside dragged out and spilled across the flooring.

And there was so much blood… Just splashed all across the walls of the complex, and the grating, and the tops of the cannons.

"By the Dark Brother…" Nikos murmured as they stepped forward, eyeing the destruction around them in a near daze. "Where are the bodies?"

"I don't know…" She murmured, nodding at the dented hatch, "But the data-store is in there. That's the important part for our-"

"Motion detected." The Geth suddenly warbled from where it had gone to stand by one of the guns, watching past the data-storage facility. After a mere second it added, "It is Delta Team. Krios is being supported by Polendina - we surmise he is wounded."

"Shit." She snarled, "Nikos, take your Geth and meet them. Grunt, with me."

None of them argued, which she was thankful for, and with the Krogan in tow she stormed up the stairs to the hatch.

It had a simple code system that she punched her own, Cerberus-issued authorization - supposedly only superseded by the Illusive Man's personal code - but in spite of its groaning it stayed shut tight. Sighing, she flicked the Krogan a look and bobbed her head at the door. He smirked and turned, punching a hole into the hull right beside the frame of the door and rolling his shoulder.

Then, he pulled-

And the gunfire started, making Shepard spin, watching as the rest of her team fell back around the corner and threw themselves into cover behind the ruins of the guns. More accelerator fire answered them, along with a punchier sound accompanied by long rods of metal that soared by and came down in the decking beyond, and she scowled.

"Hurry, Krogan." She ordered, "We've got a real fight on out-"

Suddenly, the doors sagged in and punched out, metal screaming against metal, as a tendril of bone and flesh spiralled out of the confined space. She and the Krogan were both sent flying, rolling across the decking as the upper section of the data-storage housing came apart, a fleshy mass pushing it apart and pushing up on tendrils that emerged from the lower sections like some sort of horrifying, off-blue and pink-splattered jellyfish covered in armor and sent straight from hell itself.

"Commander Shepaaaaaaard." A high, happy voice, warped by machinery, called out as another tendril descended, followed by a swarm of them, carrying circles of blobby, metal-studded flesh down to loom over them from on high, their bottoms ringed by jagged bones for teeth. A tiny shape she recognized as a child stood on one, laughing brightly, "Are you here to play with me, too?"

Shepard blinked, long and slow…

"Nope." She said, and then staggered up and bellowed, "Nikos!"

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"Nikos!" Pyrrha heard the voice even over the din and turned from her spot behind a slab of armored metal. Shepard met her gaze and pointed up at the roof, "Bring it down! Now!"

"But, that will decompress-"

"Do it!" The woman bellowed before one of the monstrous starfish descended between and she and Grunt went to work fending it off.

"Alright…" She took a breath and leaned her head back against the metal, reaching for the new power once again. A power that came slower than it first had, once again, her Aura flaring painfully as ever as she reached out.

Above them, past the blobby, blue-grey and pink monstrosities that descended down towards them, she felt the cables shudder. The plating buckle. But it fought her, somehow, resisting her pull even as her Aura flushed away, desperately pulling at it until-

"Gah!" She cried out as something slammed down into her, shattering her concentration and forcing her breath out through her teeth. She blinked up at the massive tendril and then gasped as she was wrenched up into the air and dragged in towards the bony mouth of the beast. "Oh- No!"

Milo shifted in her hand and cracked loudly, rifle rounds ripping away parts of its fleshy body even as it turned her upside down. She felt sharp,bony shards screaming against her Aura as she was dragged in by smaller tendrils that wrapped tight around her legs and felt her heart race-

Then, suddenly, the larger tendril twined around her detonated in a spray of meat and metal and bone and she suddenly dropped, sliding free of the tendrils as more rounds punched into its mouth and gore sprayed out through its maw. And then out above it in a spray of color as a shudder passed along the monster and she finally dropped. She slammed down back-first into the decking and felt her Aura finally give out, falling away in a splash of color as talons closed around her arm and dragged her into cover.

"You good?" The Turian asked, looking down on her.

"Y-Yeah, I-" She blinked, "Did you do that?"

"Yeah, and no, I don't know how." He sighed, waving her off and raising his voice, "Polendina, focus on those… Things! Cut us a route back through Alpha's path."

"On it!" The android chirped from a few feet away, standing and raising a fist, particle energy flaring in long bursts through the air as the monsters tried to close in and she cut away chunks of them.

"Legion, help Krios- He caught a round to the leg." Garrus ordered sharply, turning and calling out, "Everyone else, retreating fire! Explosives on the big things, rifles on the indoctrinated-"

"And the Husks!" She heard Shepard call out, turning as the woman slid into cover beside her, covered in blood and oil and with her Krogan loping along behind her, reloading his heavy shotgun and letting a laugh rumble free. "Exfil should be waiting at Alpha-infil. Data-core is toast and I want us out so we can hit this base with the Thanix!"

"Covering!" Garrus called as Shepard yanked her up, "Go!"

As he and Grunt stood, peppering fire at the huddled masses of monsters and men, Penny lead them back the way they'd come, warding off the monsters with long blasts of particulate fire while rounds chased them. Several pinged off Pyrrha's Kinetic Barrier, and her heart thundered in her chest for each one as they made their way.

Until, with a shuddering heave and a thunderous 'whump' something further up the cavernous space went up. Smoke washed towards them quickly and then, just as quickly, it rushed back the way it had come. Along with their air, a great force dragging them all further in, towards where the sound had come from.

"No!" The child above them called out as her monster was dragged down, "This isn't fair! The game doesn't go like this! I'm supposed to- Ack!"

Pyrrha watched the girl stagger and collapse, drifting through the air as she was sucked away and then turned, watching Shepard's arm lower as the monsters fell limp and slipped away. Shepard turned to meet her gaze and then turned away, marching off as the building in the center floated away. Mag-boots holding her down, she and the others followed, trudging against the suction until it finally died out.

She heard her comm cue on and Shepard breathed out, "Nikos, I had to-"

"It was a mercy, right?" She asked, "The Reapers took her mind."

"Right…"

"Then we can only pray for her soul." She answered, "All else is too late or too little."

"Yeah." Shepard answered, "Let's just get home. Without the data-core, we'll have to figure out something else for the IFF…"

"A good plan." She nodded, "Although, if I may, I would rather see this place destroyed."

"Agreed." Shepard answered, "I'll have Joker target its power systems, or at least punch holes until it shuts down. Drop it into the core below. Even this thing can't survive that."

Pyrrha nodded and let the Commander cut the feed before she sighed and pressed a hand against her bruised ribs.

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And here is why I don't do horror - I never, ever know how to properly pay it off.

Anyways, what was showcased here is more of a taste. An appetizer. I know it'll still feel like a bit of anti-climax, but the FOCUS was on getting multi-squad maneuevers in AND showcase some hint of what the Reapers will be like. Just wait for ME3…

Anyways, as to why the Abominations all dropped when the girl died-

The Reaper isn't fully dead, it's just lost its processing. It's brain dead, so to speak. So it found something to serve the function. At least, that was the idea. A sort of director, much less intelligent but workable, to help it get fixed up. Also is, uh, set up for later payoff.

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Alank :

Well, glad I got somebody! Lol

Knightwolf :

Appreciate the compliment. When the Reapers are properly here, instead of this lesser one, you'll see so much more. Hue hue hue.

Sebine :

How? Lol

Captain Dick Scratcher :

Oh there was an intelligence. Just not a Reaper one, lmao.

But yeah, a big issue with me is always ENDING horror. Always ends up feeling anti climactic.