The desolate, lifeless plains stretched away into the distance, and the frankly the flat terrain offered nothing to look at. Well, that wasn't entirely true. The plains weren't lifeless. Everywhere one looked, the brown rocks were covered with green moss, the only significant life that could be found on the whole planet. They turned red as the sun rose over the horizon, highlighting the barren emptiness of the world. The only features that could be seen was a small mound of dirt, pulled up from the ground by the hard work of the miners, and a small shanty town of prefab buildings that stood in the shadow of her own prefab home.
"Another day in Paradise," said the Terran woman to herself as she came out of her home, scoffing contemptuously at the name for the place. Idly, she considered returning to her home, and just watching the news feed some more. The night had brought some interesting developments, and there seemed to be something happening on one of the nearby worlds in the Exodus Cluster. She was genuinely curious to see what all that was about, but she decided that her job had to come first, especially if she ever wanted her tour of duty here to be over.
"Up and at'em you lazy bums!" she shouted, knocking on a few of the prefab roofs as she passed them by, much to the annoyance of those inside. Not that the eclectic mixture of people complained too much. They were growing used to the Terran woman's early rise, and they did get paid more the more they mined, so it worked out to a next positive. Looking down, she watched as the eclectic mixture of species climbed out of their prefabs, yawning, stretching, and most putting on the armor that helped in their work.
They were all micronians from across the galaxy. Asari, turian, quarian, batarian, even a few micronized Terrans, all slowly getting ready for another day in the mines. This was the result of Virmire having that one element everyone in the galaxy wanted, eezo. Deep in Terran space, this particular cache of the stuff belong to the Federation, but as they'd found out from two previous planet cracks, the stuff was very vulnerable to energy overload. Pumping too much power into it caused the stuff to break down, thus, it was best to mine by hand, and with a more delicate touch than most full sized Terrans were capable of.
"Bucket Head, Four Eyes, get your asses in gear!" she cried as she made her way around the small town, and reached two of the houses that stood slightly apart. Unlike the more mundane homes of the miners, these two were armored domes, declaring to one and all that the occupants were military, part of the Ground Forces of the Federation. One had a special attachment to the home which looked like a solid block of metal, just sitting there, while the other had a pod like thing with a clear glass bubble over it.
"I'm up, you harpy," said an older voice from inside the dome with the pod next to it. Coming out from inside was a batarian of middle age, whose four eyes seemed to stare off in four different directions as he came outside. Still groaning and complaining, the man climbed into the pod beside his home, which instantly hummed to life, a small glow of a mass effect field springing up from beneath it, before it took off into the air. Turning around, the Terran allowed the pod to settle between her shoulder blades, hearing the now familiar chirping of her armor as it linked with the thing.
"System linked, eezo core charged, all systems go. I'm going back to bed," said the voice in her ear, and Shepard sighed. While she stood there, the door to the other home opened, allowing its occupant out into the daylight. Shiny, blue metal had the morning sun glinting off it, as the geth platform strode from his home, and then walked over towards the cube, pressing its palm against the thing, which then opened itself up on one side.
"This unit wishes you a good morning," said the geth in her ear, and the woman nodded down at him.
"And to you. Now boot up and get ready. We need to get our patrol started," she ordered, the platform turned to her, nodding, and revealing one of the more defining features of it. Namely, where most geth platforms were things of smooth lines and odd patterns, this one had a very asymmetrical hole in its chest. Said hole was soon filled as the platform walked into the cube, running a spike into that hole as it walked forward, producing a rather disturbing scraping sound as it impaled itself.
Before one could really process the scene, the cube changed, the opening folding closed as the rest of the unit came out. First, arms came out of the sides, allowing it to pick itself up, while legs slowly came out of the bottom. After a few seconds, the thing stood up, the body a bit thin compared to the Terran's own, but still serviceable, especially as the arms quickly ran through a few of their configurations, from claw hands, to gatling guns, to what looked like an egg whisk with a glowing dot in the center of it.
"Warframe online, Corporal Shepard, you appear to be more focused on your work today than before, may this unit inquire as to why?" asked the geth warframe as the two of them walked away from the miners, who were happy when the pounding footsteps finally vanished over the horizon and they could get to work.
"Well….well because we just hit our eighth month anniversary," she admitted as they walked, her hands balling into fists, and then going flat again.
"Hmm, your tone suggests that you find this situation to be different than most of your other reassignments," responded Legion as he followed her step matching step.
"Isn't it? We've been reassigned to garbage posts plenty of times, like that whole stint on Eden Prime a few years back, that place was just boring. But usually, those last a month or two, tops. We've been here a lot longer than that, and there's a lot less to do," she told the geth, who seemed to consider her words.
"This unit has compiled a listing of all our postings, and must conclude your data is accurate. This unit wonders as well why the reassignment order hasn't come," admitted Legion, and Jane was about to go off on a spiel about how no one truly appreciated what they did, when her radio crackled a little as the batarian added his voice to the conversation.
"Have either of you considered that while you two do great work, and I mean compared to almost anyone else, you also disobey orders, and often break things in the course of your actions," he told them.
"I never disobey an order in combat," stated Shepard directly, and the batarian just groaned.
"Yeah, well, combat isn't the only time a soldier is expected to follow orders. Also, need I remind you that the last time you disobeyed an order, you broke a moon," added the four eyes, and Shepard wished she could shake him a bit, but his pod had it's own gravity field, so he wouldn't even feel it.
"It was only a small one, and I think the new ring made the planet look a lot less drab," she countered, and Charn just groaned he was about to say something else, when suddenly all three had alarms blare in their ears. Instantly the batarian, who had been leaning back, hoping the two would shut up so he could take his nap, sat straight up, and began to study the display, even as Shepard's eyes got an overlay of what he was seeing.
"Underground activity? I thought they were digging west today. Isn't that where the next payload is?" asked Shepard, wondering if maybe they should start towards another sector, as she'd heard the miners complain often enough about her footsteps shaking the tunnels.
"They are going west, the northern deposits are smaller, no need to go after them until….SHEPARD JUMP!" the batarian went very quiet for a moment there, as he studied the display, and then shouted almost deafeningly into his mic. Without waiting for an explanation, Shepard followed the order, leaping as high as she could, even as she felt the mass effect field around her reduce her weight, allowing her to sail into the sky, Legion soon joining her to provided a steadying hand.
Looking down, she was about to question just what the heck was going on, when the ground quite literally exploded where she'd been standing, rocks and dirt hurled in every direction away from the center of the blast. That sound that soon echoed over the plans, as the clatter of debris fell away was a roar, and in the center of the dust cloud, one could clearly see a writhing mass living tissue, armored plating, and enough blade like appendages to make even Shepard herself self conscious about her blade, all wrapped around a creature that was sticking up out of the ground at half again her own height, and probably even more beneath the surface.
"By the Masters! What is that thing?" swore the Terran as she floated above it, watching the thing squirm, arms that looked like massive scythes digging trenches into the ground.
"Thresher maw," came the breathless response of the batarian, and Shepard scoffed.
"Yeah, yeah, big worm. Tell me, does it bleed?" asked Shepard, pointing her palm down at it.
"It should, why is that impor-," before he could finish the question, Shepard's palm shot a bar of blue light down at the thing, which impacted the armored plates just above the thing's eyes, causing the plate to give a little, pressing it closer to the one behind it.
"Because if it bleeds, I can kill it," she said, kicking away from Legion, over the protests of her partner as she began to rain blue fire onto the worm, causing it to look up, and roar at her. Shepard's response was to roar right back at it, as she reached onto her belt and drew her sword, the thing unfolding to its full sixty foot length as she came down, using the force of her fall to increase the impact the weapon would have. Of course, the thing was quicker that she expected, and one of those bladed arms whipped out at her, knocking her aside, and causing her to crash to the ground, sending up another shower of dirt.
"Shepard-Corporal," said Legion in that monotone voice of his. Shepard could still hear that note of concern, as the warmframe began to circle overhead, arms unfolding from beneath the main body, and laying into the thing with gatling fire.
"I'm fine, Legion, this thing just caught me off guard," commented the Terran, as she rose back to her feet.
"If you're fine, then I'm ordering you to beat feet. We are not going to try and fight a thresher maw on foot," commanded Charn.
"Aw, where's your sense of adventure, Four Eyes," chided Shepard, holding her sword out to her side as she considered her options. Not seeing a way to get close to the thing, as it seemed to randomly move around, the arms flailing at the geth in the sky, as if trying to drag it closer.
"I gave you an order Shepard!" shouted the batarian, as Shepard herself charged forward, ducking between the arm blades of the thresher maw, and stabbing upwards with her blade as she fell to her knees. Sliding through the loose dirt at the thing's base, her weapon skidded along the armored hide of the maw, causing sparks to fly from the carapace, but doing little more than that, before the woman was forced to leap away as one of the blade arms somehow reversed its direction, and slammed itself down where she had been a second before.
"Sorry, Master Sergeant, but our assignment is to protect this planet from all aggressors, and right now, this thing is being plenty aggressive," countered Shepard as she rolled away from a follow-up strike from the maws other bladed arm.
"Against this thing, the best idea is for you to start running in the opposite direction of the camp, while we call in some long range support. Preferably the type in orbit," explained Charn.
"You're sure this thing will follow?" asked Shepard, as she leapt between the blades this time, narrowly avoiding being vivisected by them.
"It should. You feet are the loudest thing on this planet, and these things are attracted to sound vibrations," answered Charn. Retracting her blade, Shepard took off running as the thing slashed at her again. Legion, having been listening, tried to fire a bit more at the thing, his shots at least cracking the carapace, even if the slugs themselves weren't enough to do any real damage.
"It's times like these I wish Legion still had missiles," commented Shepard as she ran, trying to outpace the thing just enough to keep it interested. Sadly, it wasn't interested at all, as it roared at her back once, before it turned, and then dove underground again, moving in the direction of the mining camp.
"I thought you said this this was attracted to sound!" demanded Shepard, pivoting on her foot and blasting at the ground around the thresher maws seismic signature, trying to at least get the thing to surface again.
"This unit's data confirms Charn-Master-Sergeant's assertion. Hypothesis, there is something in the camp making a more pleasing vibration," said Legion, firing at the ground in the same pattern as Shepard. At the same moment, Charn's fingers were flashing over his console, quickly running calculations and strategies, while also opening a comm channel.
"This is Charn to all hands in the mines. We have a thresher maw incoming to your location. I repeat, a thresher maw is attacking. Get out of your holes and into the shelter on Shepard's home. Use the long range comm there to get us some reinforcements," he ordered, before resuming the sims in front of him.
"Shepard, blast twenty degrees north of the last shot, aim for the lichen," commanded Charn, and Shepard did as ordered, getting a nice geyser of flame from the ground as her blasts hit, causing the thresher maw's roar to echo muffledly through the plains, before the beast itself rose from the dirt.
"Deep lichen colony," explained the batarian, and Shepard nodded, as she began to lay into the thing again with her blasts. Her palm shooters did nothing to the thing, however, and she didn't want to dare get close now, as those blades could somehow whip around at angles that the things worm like body really shouldn't allow.
"Smart, but now how do we kill it?" asked Shepard, dodging another claw as it reached out towards her.
"That thing's hide can take reentry friction and impact. I don't think you have anything on you that can match that sort of heat and force. For now, we contain it, then we get the guys in the sky to fry it. Whatever you do, don't get too far away from it, though," advised Shepard as she dove between two slashes again, firing her palms towards the joints where the arms and torso of the beast met.
"Yeah, what, does this thing shoot lasers out of its eyes?" she asked, suddenly getting inspiration to fire at the eyes as she landed. Unfortunately, the thing just twisted itself out of the way, so her shots hit only hard carapace instead.
"Worse, acid spit. Stuff's supposed to be corrosive enough to melt starship armor, and I really would hate to have to break in a new Terran to ride," he informed her, and Shepard idly considered turning her back towards the maw and letting it tear the pod off her back. She had to banish that thought as Legion did another strafing run of the thing, and she followed up with her palm blasters, trying to press the carapace where he struck it. She did get a satisfying crack, but it seemed the thing was smart, turning itself so the injury was facing away from any further attack as it struck with its arms again
"Charn-Master-Sergeant, this unit is now out of ammunition for its small arms. Requesting further orders," said the geth as it sailed away from the fight a little ways. This proved to be ill advised, for as if on cue from the warning, the maw arced back, and then shot forward, a glob of bubbling green goo coming out of its mouth. Legion, being in a warframe, dodged the assault easily enough, looping out of the way, only for the thing to throw two more in rapid succession, leading the targeted AI so it could only dodge one.
"This unit has taken structural damage, minor hull fractures, repairs ineffective," said the monotone voice as the warframe went straight upwards.
"Legion, bail out. Shepard, catch him," ordered Charn, and then warframe had a small shape detach from the rest of it. Quick on the uptake, Shepard ran for the falling platform, sliding between another slashing move from the maw, and then leaping into the air. Her hand outstretched, she felt a tingle as the mass effect fields around her body consolidated into a cushion above her palm, one the geth fell right into, before she brought him close to her chest, curling into a ball, and landing on the ground below with a sound like an explosion.
"We just lost air support," said Shepard sardonically, as she braced for this battle to become a lot harder.
"Negative, Shepard-Corporal. Air support has merely become heavier," said the geth over her comms, and Shepard turned around to find the warframe falling out of the sky, the maw roaring at it as it fell, and even hurling another glob of acid. Not that this did anything to the now empty shell body, which continued to plummet, finally striking home on the monster worm with a rather sickening crunch of meat and carapace. Hit hard enough to shatter those already weakened bits of its armor, the maw fell over, seemingly dead.
"That thing took a lot of punishment. Why weren't we warned something like that was on this planet," complained Shepard as she brushed off her arm, holding Legion in her hand as she walked towards the corpse.
"It shouldn't have been here at all. This planet isn't the sort of world a maw likes. No where near enough large game to feed something like that here," commented Charn as he began to run every scan he could of the beast.
"Well, obviously we need to update the data on them," she told him, whipping out her sword, and preparing to make sure the beast was good and dead by stabbing it in the eye. Before she could, however, a strikingly familiar sound began to echo over the plains.
"Breetai's eye," swore the Terran, as not one, but six more thresher maws burst up out of the ground nearby, all of them rather obviously miffed over their dead comrade, and something in their insectile gaze told her they blamed her for the murder.
"That...that's not possible," stammered out Charn, and then he quickly turned the mass effect field to maximum, allowing Shepard's foot thrusters to move her like skates on a child, hovering just over the ground, and moving with surprising speed for something as large as she was.
"You didn't tell me these things were pack hunters!" shouted the Terran, firing at the worm hord, two of which dived down, while the other four began to fling even more acid at her, burning deep welts into the rock where the lakes worth of stuff struck.
"They're not! Thresher maws aren't even found on the same continent usually, outside of mating. This is unprecedented," answered Charn, shifting the ME field so that Shepard was jerked to the side, just in time to avoid one of the thresher maws coming up from beneath her and skewering her with its claws.
"Yeah, we'll report it to the science journals when this is over. Now how's about you check on our backup!" complained Shepard, firing at the newly emerged maw with her free hand, before leaping over another acid spit glob.
"This is Charn to the camp, what's the ETA on some reinforcements," sent out the batarian, still trying to keep his eye on everything the sensors reported so he could maintain the field around his partner, and keep her moving.
"Sergeant, this is Telos Vran, we've got a problem," came the answer seconds later, and the batarian grumbled to himself at the asari's words.
"Yeah, we've got a problem. It's called six thresher maws trying to slice or melt us," he told her, wondering what in the name of plebs could be important enough to not call for help.
"Six thresh-by the Goddess," said the asari breathlessly.
"I'm fairly certain we could use more real world help. Now what's happening with our reinforcements?" asked Charn, while lowering the mass of Shepard's body so she could leap over one of the maws as it blasted out of the ground in front of them.
"I'm afraid to say, they're not coming. All long range communications are inactive," said Telos, and Charn swore again.
"What do you mean inactive? Are we being jammed?" demanded Shepard, as she fired a few blasts on the ground around her, causing more explosions of fire that man the maws beneath the ground surface there, rather than catching her as she slid across the plains on her heel jets.
"Negative, it's more like no one's answering. The hypernet buoy is still active, and the fold space comm works, but we can't raise anyone with them," she told them, and this time Shepard was the one to swear.
"Then we need closer firepower. Shepard, what sort of heavy weapons do you have in that fort you call a home?" asked Charn.
"I don't know what your ta-" began Shepard, who supposedly had only her armor on this assignment, command not trusting her with anything stronger than that.
"This is no time for lying to your commanding officer, woman! Now, what have you got?!" demanded the batarian.
"An old twin buster rifle. It's a memento of my mother's crew on Shanxi, the same one she used to disable the Talons' support frigates back then," admitted the Terran, and Charn nodded, calculating vectors, fields, and everything else in his pods computer, trying to ignore the readout that was telling him he was down to less than fifty percent power, and dropping fast.
"Legion, what about you? Any heavy arms?" asked Charn.
"Negative, this unit's arsenal was inside the warframe body, and did not deviate from assignment parameters," said the geth.
"Alright, we still need to keep these things away from the camp. Legion, do you think you can handle a fastball special?" Charn spoke as he began to run further sims, detailing battle plans and the like.
"This unit's structural integrity is quite sound," answered the AI, and Charn began to refocus the ME field around it, buffering it as best he could for the trip it was about to take.
"Okay, plan is we send Legion to the camp, he retrieves your gun, and gets into onto an ore loader to get it out to us. Then we blast these things back to space dust," explained Charn, and both the geth and Terran nodded. Still floating on her heel jets, Shepard spun in place once, adding momentum to her toss as she opened the hand holding Legion, and hurled him through the air in the direction of the camp. He wouldn't quite make it all the way, but he did land well outside the thresher maws area of interest, as the worms continued to pursue Shepard.
"Legion, I stored the gun in my personal locker. The code to get inside is-" she began.
"Password Backwards," finished the geth, and the Terran woman was about to protest, when the maws hurled even more spit at her, forcing her to flare her right jet and send her careening away from the new lake of acid that soon splattered onto the ground.
"The password to your personal storage is 'drowssap'?" asked Charn, trying to keep a conversation going as his fingers continued their flight over his controls, trying to conserve as much power as possible.
"Nope, it's 'Password Backwards'. Got the idea from an old human 2D vid," she informed him, before blasting out with her palms again. They continued to dance around the worms, trying to keep them interested, for several minutes, as they waited. Beyond them, back in the camp, Legion rushed past the shelter beneath Shepard's home, and made for the towering door that led inside the main structure. Quickly connecting to the primary computer inside, the geth opened the door, even as he rushed past towards the spot where a loader vehicle sat idle.
A few keystrokes, and Legion had the transport up and running, the flatbed behind him flipping back and dumping a load of rocks onto the ground before he gunned the engine hard, and made for the door to Shepard's domicile. Luckily, she had a ramp for easy micronian access, allowing him to literally drive the thing into her home, only lightly scraping the doorframe as he screeched to a halt. Accessing the computer again, he caused a nearby closet to open, revealing the blocky form of the twin buster rifle.
"This unit has visual on the weapon," the geth transmitted, even as it climbed out of the cab of the vehicle and then shot up the side of the closet. The rifle was by far larger than him, almost three-quarters as long as Shepard was tall. That didn't seem to fluster the the geth, however, as Legion climbed his way up behind the weapon, and then began to push. Servos in the platform's joints protested against the strain they were being put under, grinding and whirring loudly, but Legion ignored them as he put every joule of energy he could behind his push, finally causing the rifle to tetter forward, before falling, landing right on the bed of the loader.
"Weapon acquired," he transmitted, before leaping back down. Reentering the vehicle, the geth activated the bed's me field generator, causing the rifle to clatter a bit as it was locked in place. The instant he confirmed the weapon wouldn't be going anywhere, Legion shot off out the door, and drove as quickly as he could towards the pair, who were still skating over the plain on Shepard's heel jets, staying just ahead of the six massive forms of the thresher maws.
"This unit has visual on your position," he informed them, and saw the head of the armored Terran turn towards him.
"Legion, incoming!" shouted Shepard in his ear, and the geth turned the wheel hard to one side, just before a glob of bubbling acids splattered onto the ground where he'd been. Taking this to mean he needed to be a bit more defensive, Legion ceased his straight line course, and instead began to swerve wildly around even more spit globs that were hurled at him, the route taking him ever closer to his target. Before he got there, the geth gunned the engine hard, and then dove out of the cab, landing with a blast on the ground, even has the loader sped straight towards Shepard. The reason for his abandonment became clear when the vehicle suddenly got tossed upwards, bits of it spraying around the flat plain, as a thresher maw shot up out of the ground beneath it.
"I got it!" Shepard declared, leaping into the air, and then grabbing the left handle of the rifle. Taking the other in her right, she flicked the latch key with her fingers, and separated the two sides out, before laying into the thresher maws with huge beams of yellow light. Unlike her palm blasters, which were more police than military level, this weapon was far stronger, and the two energy arcs tore right through the thresher maws, cooking their eyes in their sockets, and causing the carapace to crack from the heat. One fell dead instantly from the shot, but the other dove, as steam poured from beneath the shell.
"Burn worms!" she cried, as she fired again. Somehow, the worms seemed to sense the attack coming, and dove into the dirt again, burying themselves beneath the earth.
"That's not gonna save you!" she told them, and began to fire into the ground. Of course, like with some of her own shots, gouts of flame poured out of the ground, as deep lichen colonies were set alight by her fire. Sadly, her shots may have caused damage to the terrain, but the thresher maws were unharmed, as they dove deeper than her rifle could penetrate.
"This isn't good, we have to keep them away from the camp!" said Shepard, and Charn, behind her, just grumbled at the obviousness of the statement, while he ran the numbers. Legion, in the meantime, ran up to where they were, and using his own eezo core, leapt four dozen feet into the air, and grabbed onto the outside of Charn's pod, gripping it tightly in his three fingers hands.
"Okay, we have one chance. These things are smart, but they have to see a tactic before they can adapt to it. If we can take out all five of the remaining maws in one shot, we win," he explained, and Shepard nodded.
"Yeah, good plan, but how do we go about that?" asked Shepard, annoyance in her voice as she looked down at the ground, her display overlaying the seismic sensors readouts of where the worms were.
"Only one option. Use the resonance function on your rifle," he told her, and that seemed to bring Shepard up just a little short.
"You do realize that leaves me with one shot, right?" asked Shepard, looking down and trying to get a good angle.
"Then you had better make that one shot count!" ordered Charn, and Shepard nodded, latching the two rifles together again, and then hitting the large red buttons on the sides of their grips. The instant that was done, a whining sound began to echo over the plains, as Terran, batarian, and geth tried to calculate where to fire to get all of their foes in a single blast.
"Shepard, jump!" ordered Charn after a moment, and without questioning it, Shepard did just that, using her jets to sail into the sky. The moment she was off the ground, the thresher maws all emerged from the dirt, blasting their way out from underground, and looking about for her. Smirking, Shepard took aim at a spot about equidistant between them. Pulling the triggers on her weapon, the things whine, which had seemed to be growing ever higher, stuttered to a stop, before death itself emerged from the barrels.
Twin lines of fire raced around each other, looping and coiling like living things. The maws below, looking up, might have thought, if they could, that the sun itself was falling towards them. Whatever thoughts or instincts did reach those brains of theirs, it was far too late when one decided to dive, as the shot hit the ground, and instantly Shepard was flung away, as a dome of fire began to consume the planet below. The clouds, silently drifting blue bits of fluff, were torn apart by the winds, and the noise was deafening as it echoed outward into infinity.
Landing hard, Shepard tried to keep her eyes on the assault, watching as the top half a sphere, appearing to be a dome made of light, began to expand from where she had fire. The forms of the worms, what parts of them were above ground, were soon consumed by that light, not even surviving as silhouettes. When the light slowly faded, the fires of destruction going cold at last, there was a wound on the world, a deep bowl cut into the once featureless plains, and one could see bits and pieces of five huge worms burned into the edges.
"Targets down, beginning post battle assessment," said Charn as Shepard, using her jets, slowly guided herself back to the ground, right one the edge of the bowl. Landing heavily on her feet, she crouched a little, allowing Legion to leap of her back, before standing tall again, and then eyeing the twin buster rifle in her hands.
"My armor's protoculture engines are down to twelve percent. If this armor were military grade, rather than a civil defense model, this wouldn't have been an issue," commented Shepard as she began to dump a load of steam out of the tanks of her rifle, letting the excess heat vent into the atmosphere, as she and Legion began the walk back towards the camp.
"Pod's power plant is down to eighteen. Considering everything we did, however, it should be dead. I suppose I'm a better pilot than I thought," added Charn, as he vented the pod's heat sinks as well, while also stepping down the ME field so the generators could rest a while.
"This unit's primary platform has suffered minor structural damage, however the primary power plant is at thirty-six percent," said Legion as a last, while running system diagnostics on his platform, finding a few bumps, one overstressed servo that would need to be replaced, and seven others that would require tuning. Overall, this was the most strain he had ever put on the platform, speaking of how desperate the situation had been.
"Computer readout says our sync ratios were...twenty-nine percent? That can't be right," said Charn, going over the details of the report.
"That's almost three times our best, isn't it?" asked Shepard.
"A few points shy, but yes, it's far and away our best performance as a three unit team," commented Charn, letting the battle play out on his display. Of course, five minutes later, just as the camp came in sight, all three of them got a red flag on their sensors.
"You have got to be kidding me? More of them?!" shouted Charn, turning his head so he could look behind, and just as the sensors said, something blasted its way out of the ground, showering the trio with dirt clods as it roar in a slurred tone at them. Curious at this, Charn zoomed in, and just stared at what he saw.
"That's the one Legion slammed his warframe into, half the skull is caved in," he said in shock, and then was thrown to the side as Shepard leapt away from a spray of acid, having to keep her feet away from Legion. The geth, for his part, shot off towards the camp in the distance, as the spray fanned out randomly, some of it even backwashing onto the maw, as the crippled jaw refused to open all the way and let it out.
"How is this thing still alive?! I can see its brain, and chunks of that appear to be melting," demanded Shepard, as her partner turned his pod back to power, allowing him to stand up again against the force of her movement, as she dodged an odd strike, as the thing literally threw a chunk of one of its arms at her, the bladed tip burying itself easily into the soil of Virmire.
"Thresher maws are hardy things. I've heard stories of ones that have been cut to pieces and come back, but I thought those were just stories," commented Charn, trying to run the data, and find some way to kill this thing.
"Yeah? Well, let's see just how survivable this one is. Make me as light as you can, and on my signal, reverse it!" she demanded, tossing her useless rifle aside, and instead drawing out her blade, which quickly snapped to full length, and she held in her hands straight up.
"Your plan sounds dangerous," said Charn, even as he did as he was told, figuring it would take too long to come up with something else, and considering their low power and lack of weapons, it was doubtful anything he could think of would work anyway.
"Well then, let's get dangerous!" she cried, before charging, sword first, as the maw, which roared defiantly at her, even as the spit dripping from its mouth melted the connections to one of its mandibles, causing that part to fall to ground with a thud. Shepard, reciprocating the roar, didn't falter, even as drops of the acid began to strike her armor, eating holes in the metal as her barrier was focused entirely on making her lighter. If those drops got through to her flesh, she didn't show it, instead leaping upwards just before she got close to the maw, who swiped its one good claw at her, before staring upward as she sailed into the sky.
"Die monster, you don't belong on this world! Now Charn!" she hefted her blade aloft, and then pointed it straight down, Charn reversing the ME field so that instead of making her light, it made her several times heavier, and so she dropped like a rock. Almost a thousand feet she fell, but her course never wavered, and the injured, probably insane maw, didn't trying to twist or deflect her strike, instead letting her blade pierce its brainpan, the mass of the Terran slamming hard into the worm and causing it to fall with a crash to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dirt and debris as it struck down, obscuring the scene to the miners watching in the distance.
When the cloud cleared, Shepard stood there, one hand on the hilt of her weapon, breathing hard, as her legs felt at least bruised, possibly broken. Beneath her heel though, the maw squirmed and writhed for only another few seconds, before it was at last silent, leaving her there, standing over her kill. An hour later, Jane Shepard, now Sergeant for her actions, Charn, and Legion, were onboard a scout class ship, sailing away into the heavens, while an entire squad of armored Terrans took over her post. Strangely, despite their new guardians being more numerous, and far better armed, the miners would actually say in later days they felt safer with the Terran woman to protect them.