Hey all! Welcome back to another chapter. Hope you enjoy...
SO! Let's answer some reviews and get this party started.
Guest Jun 29th: What did Dubbo do...?
Alan Iza: Again what did Dubbo do...?
Japanese Optics: If you would give me an actual example I would be happy to fix it.
Fer82: Soon my dude
Parker59: Eerah
Guest Jun 15th: Well, I've never seen Naruto so... But anyways, I feel like the Master Chief is freaking out but dealing it right now in the best way he can. It's my interpretation. And yeah, I've had gotten some criticism in the past that the Shepard 'I created' is a little bit...too much so I'm trying to scale him back a bit. Or at the very least try to justify it and make it less annoying.
pointvee: I wrote the Council races refer to them as the Shangheili, and a decent portion of Halo refer to them as the Elites out of habit. At least that's my justification.
RandomReader: I'll keep that in mind. Maybe right that the navy's uniforms are like that of the old g uniforms... and I'll stop using laser rounds.
ghost33365: Just shorting it. It's the same and intended.
FORGEMaster: Rah.
The Master Chief took a step forward and froze.
The rifle felt immensely heavy in Shepard's hands. Sweat trickled down his checks… This...this didn't feel real… Shepard felt like he was watching himself. That he was watching himself go off the deep end, slowly and slowly losing it.
Now...it all seemed like a joke… This whole conflict. This whole effort. Like some sick, tragic joke. Emptiness. Meaningless. Pointless.
That's what it felt like… To the point that no matter what happened, no matter if Shepard or the Chief made the first move...it wouldn't matter.
Shepard wasn't sure if he was going to leave this place alive. In the corner of his eye, he saw Liara ready a biotic energy field in one hand, ready to protect herself and Shepard. In the other hand she held her Carnifex pistol, aimed center mass at the Master Chief.
...In that nothingness...in that numbness, it was as if Shepard was seeing her face for the first time. The dark blue freckles….the eyes that still somehow maintained the innocence and optimistic curiosity, now surrounded by dark circles and skin creases that told a story of worry and frustration.
She really was beautiful…
Her face turned to him...Slowly, deliberately...
He thought of a future… After this war….somewhere peaceful and quiet. Somewhere where he was no longer tired… With her… With children...Children who will grow up to be so much better than him… To do things he had never done... To never have to endure this.
He imagined her there...in the serene place. No weapons. No need for biotics. Both of them in civilian attire for once... Her holding their child, tending to her….
To be at peace
"SHEPARD!" She screamed.
Shepard looked forward. The Master Chief was right in front of him. The hulk grabbed him by the chest plate. The Chief threw him a good few meters into the console. Shepard felt the wind knocked out of him. He was down on his knees, gasping for air, fumbling to maintain a grip on the rifle.
Before the Master Chief could step forward to finish off the Commander, Liara unleashed a wave of eezo energy that knocked the Spartan back. He reached his hand down, ripping into the metal floor to gain balance. As the Chief was pushed back a couple more meters, his hand tore into the floor. He ripped off a chunk of metal and threw it at Liara. She surrounded the object in a warp field and pushed it aside.
Shepard quickly and unsteadily got to his feet.
"WREX! TALI! GET DOWN HERE!" Shepard screamed into the comms. He felt electric ripples throughout his armor. More than likely, when the Master Chief grabbed his armor he somehow damaged the kinetic barrier generator.
...Jesus.
Shepard reached down into his waist belt and grabbed a thin armor block. He lifted it onto his face, and it transformed into the iconic N7 helmet. He put it on.
He knew one punch from the Chief...and more than likely he'll be dead. Slow enough to get past the kinetic barrier, but fast enough to crush his ribs.
Shepard raised his Mattock, and without any second thought, without doubt…. Without reasoning or interjection he fired a controlled pair. It bounced off the Chief shields.
The Master Chief took cover behind a small metal spur that ran along the outlying wall in the hallway.
...Oh my God…
Only now did Shepard realize that the Master Chief was 'merely' trying to incapacitate them. He didn't reach for his rifle or a deadly weapon of any sorts…
What had Shepard just done?
What did I just do? Shepard thought as he and Liara made for cover at the end of the walls that connected to the console room.
"JOHN!" Shepard said, scared and unsure. "It doesn't have to be like this! There can be another way!"
The only response was silence. Shepard heard a faint click…
The Master Chief turned around and fired a four round burst from his silver assault rifle at Liara, forcing her deeper into cover. He advanced slowly towards the two at a walking pace, firing four round bursts at each of them.
Liara channeled a singularity, and shot it a couple meters down the hallway… The bullets from the assault rifle were trapped in the singularity. The rounds were stopped midair, collected into the dark blue and black ball of light.
Because their rounds were eezo based, the singularity wouldn't affect them. Shepard peaked out and fired another control followed by a incinteration round fired from his Omni-tool. It hit the Spartan in the chest. A spark of yellow light ignited, surrounding his whole body. It quickly faded.
Shepard ducked back into cover. He loaded a concussive shot into the grenade launcher. Peaked out and fired the round. It stopped the advancing Spartan in his tracks. Liara threw a warp energy ball, knocking him back.
The Spartan unclipped something from his belt and tossed it at the two.
"GET DOWN!" Shepard and Liara jumped out of the way. The frag grenade exploded, sending debris and fragments that hit Shepard's kinetic barriers. Luckily.
He looked back up. The Spartan was already there. He again grabbed Shepard by the collar, ripped the Mattock out of his hand, and threw him across the console room. Shepard immediately threw another incineration ball from the ground. It hit the Spartan's shields. This time the yellow light burst in all directions.
The Spartan still pushed forward. He tried to land a fist on Shepard's chest. Shepard rolled out of the way… The metal floor dented under his fist.
The Spartan used his other hand to grab Shepard's arm plate and...ripped it right off the undersuit. In Shepard's free arm, the Omni-sword digitized to life. Orange holographic segments formed in his hand and shifted movements to create the saber. Shepard swung it, slashing through the Spartan's armor.
The Spartan released his grip from Shepard's arm. Shepard rolled out of the way.
From behind, with eezo assistance Liara leaped into the air. A eezo swarm of energy formed as she swung down her hand. The Spartan immediately turned around and sidestepped the strike. He pulled out his k-bar.
Liara dodged the swing from the knife.
Shepard pulled out his carnifex. With an unsteady hand, he pulled the trigger. Two rounds hit the Chief in the back. One round hit his shotgun, right in the foregrip. The Spartan unsheathed his shotgun, spun around and fired off the round present in the chamber. Shepard's kinetic barrier was working, but he felt some pellets hit the metal plating. The momentum punched his body.
Immediately, in what had to be less than a second, the Spartan swung around, and used the barrel of the shotgun to strike Liara in the face.
She was knocked back. Shepard could see a line of purple blood eject from her mouth. In response, she looked back and all Shepard could see was pure anger.
She formed a massive warp storm in her hands, and launched it at the Spartan.
He was knocked off his feet and flew into the air. He landed a few meters back. Instead of yellow light reforming around his armor, it was merely covered in black and blue morphing light. Sparks of electricity burst from different areas along his armor plates.
He was still. His assault rifle laid next to him
Shepard rushed to Liara. "Are you alright?"
Liara touched the slash that ran across her check as purple blood slowly oozed out of it. "It stings...I've had worse."
Something struck Shepard in the shoulder. It lodged in between the ball and the collarbone, missing the armor plates and piercing the undersuit.
He looked down.
It was the Spartan's k-bar.
After he threw it at Shepard, the Spartan grabbed his assault rifle, and before Liara could raise a shield, he shot her in the left kneecap.
Despite her wearing heavy armor, it seemed the momentum of the round did some damage. She screamed, kneeled down on her good knee. She ignited a singularity. The Spartan jumped out of the way, behind the consoles and the pillar of light.
Shepard looked to the k-bar, and without any second thought, ripped it out. He heard gushing sounds as blood followed. He gritted his teeth, trying not to scream.
Liara opened up her Omni-tool and applied medi-gel to them both. It immediately soothed the wound, but Shepard's arm felt painfully numb, and it was hard to move.
Shepard turned to the dead body of Shilia...It moved.
The Chief had grabbed her body, used it as a human shield…
This fucking monster.
Liara, with whatever little energy we had left, formed another singularity in front of him.
It immediately collapsed. She fell on the ground in a coughing fit. Gasping for air, she placed a hand on her chest, convulsing blood and saliva.
Something hit Shepard's faceplate….
He was on the ground….He felt...floaty…. He saw Liara crawl over. She placed Shepard's head in his lap and pulled out her carnifex… But she didn't open fire.
She grabbed Shepard's armor and dragged him back away from the Spartan. Something came down the elevator door. He could see a large black box.
Liara continued to drag him away from the console, away from the entrance. She began to apply medi-gel to herself, then Shepard.
Shepard managed to look at the Spartan and noticed an Avenger assault rifle in his hands. He approached cautiously, steadily and callously aimed at Commander Shepard.
Shepard felt blood drip down his cheek. It intermixed with sweat and pooled at the bottom of the helmet. He reached up, pulled off the helmet. The round of the avenger rifle ripped off a chunk of metal from the left .
The Spartan missed on purpose.
The Commander could see Liara's arm shake as she held the carnifex. She was still gasping for air. She dragged Shepard back some more.
"Don't...No don't…" She begged between coughing fits. "Just take the bomb…"
"Liara…" Shepard said weakly. "What are you doing…?"
"Don't kill him…" Tears began to form and rolled down her cheeks.
Shepard tried to reach for his carnifex, but he felt Liara grip his hand. Grip it tight.
The Spartan slowly backed towards the bomb. His aim was still fixed on Liara and Shepard. "The Elites are beginning to evacuate civilians. I'll order them to pull out whoever we can."
It won't be enough. There will still be millions of civilians trapped on the surface.
He reached the bomb, and with sheer force dragged it. Metal scraped against the floor, unleashing sparks that flew in various directions. The Spartan reached the console. He began to input commands on a keypad attached to the box.
Shepard wearily got up. Liara didn't stop him this time…
"Who ordered you to do this?" Shepard demanded.
The Spartan didn't answer. He continued to input commands.
"It was Lord Hood, wasn't it?" Shepard continued. "Whatever is here...Even the Reapers wanted to contain it.
"This is Forerunner."
The Spartan briefly stopped. He turned to look at the Commander. "You saw what happened here. If we don't stop it here, there's no telling how much damage they can do."
"Who's they?"
There was an echoey sound...Something was screaming… It was that same scream Shepard heard on the radio
...
Boshet…
Blue Team was already halfway towards the elevator doors when Shepard sent the order to scan the contents of the package...
Then all hell broke loose.
Without warning, Linda and Kelly had bogged them down while Fred pushed the package to the elevator. Every time they tried to move an inch out of cover, Linda was there. A slightly missed sniper round or warning shot that forced them to stay in cover.
The only way to move from cover to cover was due to Samara and Thane's biotic shield. It was able to withstand a few sniper and rifle rounds, but it couldn't last long enough to get anyone to the elevator doors.
Tali knew the Spartans were only trying to incapacitate, not kill. Thus they returned the same level of force. Chikita fired off electrical storms that partially drained their shields. Thane and Samara launched biotic bursts that kept them on their feet. Ashley tried their best to launch concussive rounds.
A confusing game as the Spartans prevented Tali and the team from reaching the elevator. It wasn't until they heard a burst transmission, a scream from Shepard that the game changed.
"WREX! TALI! GET DOWN HERE!" Shepard sounded panicked on the transmission, and that was...rare.
Thane and Samara immediately formed a combined biotic bubble shield. Tali stepped out of cover.A sniper round bounced off the shield, and it was intended to hit right in the middle of her visor.
Tali fired off her carnifex at Linda, currently the most dangerous of the three. Ashley joined in to provide suppressive fire while Grunt and Wrex began to move around the sides.
Boshet…
Shepard needed help, and Tali was wasting time.
"Normandy, this is shore party!" Tali said on the comms. "We need assistance immediately! The Spartans have turned! Shepard's in trouble!"
"What the…? Okay, roger that!" Joker said on comms. "I'll launch EDI and Cortez on the Kodiak to provide CAS and possible evac!"
Tali and Ashley ducked back into cover once the shields failed. Grunt and Wrex were about halfway to the elevator, now pinned down in cover.
One of the Spartans peaked out and fired off their assault rifle, sending a spray of bullets that broke one of the artifacts near Tali.
Probably a few million credits down the drain.
"Time to show 'em who's boss." Tali heard over the radio. She wasn't sure if it was Wrex or Grunt's voice.
Again, Samara and Thane raised a biotic shield. This time it pushed forward, allowing Tali and Ashley to move up to the next set of ancient artifacts and metal stands. Hopefully, they were at least pinning down the Spartans. Tali She saw one of them move out of cover, towards Wrex.
Fred tackled...a full-sized Krogan to the ground. Not just some kick out of the legs, but he fully lifted the Krogan battlemaster into the air and threw him on his back. Wrex quickly got up and aimed his entire body and the Spartan's chest.
Fred, somehow, was able to hold his ground.
Grunt joined in. He also aimed his body head first right into the Spartan. It was enough to push Fred unto the floor. Before the two could jump on him, Kelly sprinted out of cover and delivered a heavy blow to Wrex's face with the butt of her rifle. A burst of blood exited his nose.
Fred side-swept Grunt's leg, knocking down the Krogan
As Ashley and Tali reached the next echelon of cover, the biotic shield burst just in time. A sniper rifle scraped the edge of an artifact that was on the metal stand Ashley used for cover. Dust and debris flew off right into Ashley's eyes. She buried her head into her arms to try and get it out.
That's why you always wear a helmet, you Boshet.
Fred and Kelly were able to push the two Krogans off. Fred pulled out a knife from his armor, clawed his way to Grunt and stabbed him deep in the stomach.
It seemed to only piss him off. He got back up and grabbed the Spartan's arm.
He tried to drag him down, only to receive a punch in the face by Fred's free arm.
It seemed to daze the Krogan for a minute. He shook his head, war cried and rammed his free fist into the Spartan's visor.
Fred was taken aback for a split second.
Thane and Samara formed another biotic entity, this time aimed at the two Spartans. They concentrated on Kelly first, pushing her back so Grunt and Wrex could focus on Fred.
Tali immediately exited cover and began to spray her shotgun in a frantic fashion just to keep Linda pinned. Ashley joined in, firing off her Avenger rifle with concussive shots interlaced after each burst.
Linda jumped out of cover. The rounds seemed to deplete her shields, but she was still able to aim her pistol.
She fired at Tali. The kinetic barrier absorbed a decent majority of the impact. Still, being a much larger and more 'physical' based round, it did give her a good punch in the stomach. She saw on her hud indicator that her kinetic barrier were already half depleted.
Keelah.
Tali didn't want to see what those AP sniper rounds could do.
After a few rounds, Linda's shields burst. Instead of ducking into cover, like reasonable people would do, she began to sprint at Tali.
Tali couldn't even react before a metal hand gripped her throat and tossed her into the air like a ragdoll. She flew maybe a good dozen meters and landed on her back. Hard. The air was kicked out of her lungs. She looked up to find that Linda turned her attention on Ashley.
Somehow, Ashley ducked the first blow intented for her head. She activated her Omni-sword and tried to stab the Spartan's stomach. Linda immediately gripped her wrist, and began to crush it under her hand.
Ashley screamed out in pain and collapsed on her knees. She dropped her Avenger rifle.
Samara activated another biotic bubble and aimed it at Linda. The blue and black energy surrounded the Spartan, and without her energy shields the energy seemed to eat at her armor.
Linda let go of Ashley's wrist. However, Thane without the Justicar's assistance, wasn't able to hold back Kelly. She was able to break free of the warp field and threw Wrex onto the ground.
Ashley wasn't getting back up. She was gripping her wrist. Tali could see that the blue and white armor metal was crushed, and blood seemed to be seeping out of the torn pieces.
Tali scrambled to her feet, forcing her lungs to catch their breath. She reached Ashley and began to apply medi-gel. It seemed to soothe some of the pain, and the bleeding stopped.
She looked over. Somehow, Kelly had reached Samara. Samara tried to encase her in a biotic singularity, but the Spartan was able to push through. Through the black and blue energy, she managed to land a punch on Samara dead center.
She immediately went down. Something told Tali that if it weren't for the warp singularity, Samara would be dead.
Tali noticed something… The elevator doors… They were open.
And she made the decision.
She grabbed Ashley by the arm (the non-injured one) and quickly guided her to the elevator.
They reached the doors. Linda turned around and fired off shots from her pistol.
Tali dragged Ashley in and punched the elevator button and…
Nothing happened.
She punched it again.
One of Linda's shots again was slowed down by Tali's kinetic shield and hit her chest.
Wrex grabbed Linda. Tried to draw her attention.
Tali punched the elevator door a third time. Still nothing.
What the hell…?
She opened up her omni-tool to begin running diagnostics. As if it could help to determine what was wrong with a millennium old computer.
Linda began to fire shots again. One hit Tali's arm. She felt something puncture, but not deep enough to hit the skin.
Ashley reached up and pressed the elevator button. The doors closed and they began to descend.
...Did she get lucky?
Tali began to hear screaming.
...
The Master Chief stepped away from the package, and raised his rifle into the air. Raised it toward the general direction of the scream.
Shepard looked around, dazed and numb. He was seeing double.
Liara stood up, limping. Her skin seemed translucent. Her expression nearly dead as she tried to hang on.
"Those aren't Reapers are they?" Shepard asked.
The Chief nodded. "Worse."
The Spartan's attention was drawn away from the package… Maybe, if Shepard was fast enough, he could somehow deactivate it.
Something began to form throughout the outer walls. Hints of dark blue lights that appeared in thin lines. Symbols and logograms. Within them, Shepard could see two beads of blue light. They looked like eyes.
Dozens upon dozens of eyes.
A hand gripped the edge of the floor, where it dropped off into a shadowy oblivion.
It lifted itself and…
It was much taller than Shepard, than the Spartan.
Like the architecture of this building, it had smooth metallic pieces with hard cut geometric edges. Massive bipedal legs that lead to a thin and angular insectoid body. Its arms were smooth, and instead of hands there was an elongated rifle on its left hand and a long blue energy sword on its right. On its back was a large triangular sack filled with similar blue lights. Angular pieces jutted out from the sack at rhythmic intervals
And its face... Covered in a metal helmet that formed a large t-shaped visor upfront, its face was pure black save for the two blue beads of light and a thin white line which acted what Shepard assumed was its mouth.
Around six or seven more climbed up onto the surface floor. Each with the same armament. Floating above them were large robotic drones. Again, they were geometric and angular with smooth metal surfaces. They had three small claws that surrounded a single blue eye in the center.
"Blue Team! We've got Prometheans and Sentinels down here!" The Chief said on an open comm.
He knew what these were. These hulking machines. Shepard glanced at its sword...That was the thing that slashed Shila open.
Liara limped to Shepard, Carnifex out.
They were edging closer and closer towards them, making those low pitch screams.
Were these the Forerunners the UNSC tried to hide? Were these the ones who constructed this place?
The Chief stepped forward. He loaded a new magazine into his assault rifle and aimed at the nearest hulking monster.
Shepard and Liara took a step back, ironically towards the Master Chief. Shepard looked down the hall. There was another monster down there too.
The nearest monster tried to swing its sword at the Spartan. The Master Chief open fired. He dodged the swing, continuing the spray of fire directly into the monster's face.
The others converged on the three.
The Chief got in close and smashed the butt of his rifle against the first monster. A yellow light seemed to burst in the exact spot that the monster got hit. Its very matter melted away in bright yellow shards, slowly spreading across its body. It completely dissolved its whole body. The yellow shards broke up and grew smaller and smaller until it completely disappeared. All that was left was a ball of light that hovered a few inches off the floor.
One of the monsters charged at Shepard and Liara
It fired its rifle. An blue beam aimed at Shepard…
It completely went through the kinetic barriers and hit Shepard in the knee. He felt a deep sting, but he knew it was nothing medi-gel couldn't fix. He gritted his teeth and tried to keep his bearings.
It began to swing its sword. Shepard ducked down and fired his Mattock straight into its gut. Liara also began to fire her Carnifex. They both backed up. Shepard made sure to back up towards the bomb.
One of the flying drones attacked the Chief. A blue light ray was ignited from its eye These Forerunners were mostly focused on the Spartan.
The Master Chief's shields were slowly drained, igniting that same energetic yellow light that surrounded his body. He turned to the drone and unleashed another barrage of bullets. It quickly went down.
A hand grabbed the Commander and shoved him to the floor. Shepard looked up into the eyes of one of those monsters. A body that even towered the Spartan. Its helmet began to open up revealing its face. It almost seemed to pop out. Its face...was a human skull draped in burning blue light. Shepard felt its heat as it screamed. Each spark of light that fell from the skull sinched Shepard's skin
A blue ball of light struck it in the face. Liara followed with her Locust, firing round after round in various parts of its body. Shepard reached down and grabbed his black widow weapon block. It unfastened into the weapon. As the monster looked away, Shepard open fired.
Multiple rounds into the creature's chest. Shepard's arm felt like it was about to tear off. He rolled out from under the monster and continued the rate of fire.
Combined with Liara's fire, they slowly depleted the thing's shields. Where the last round hit, it began to dissolve into that light.
As the monsters and drones continued to engage the Spartan, he was driven further away from the package.
And before he took the chance… Shepard remembered… even the Reapers tried to quarantine this place…from them…
He quickly looked around. Christ, they were toying with them. Attacking only one at a time… If they converged all at once….
The UNSC knew far more than they did… What if they were right? That this place needed to be destroyed?
But using a planet buster…? There had to be, must be another way.
Shepard sprinted towards the package. He activated his Omni-tool. "EDI! Get a read! Tell me how to shut it off."
The Master Chief turned around, only to get tackled by another monster.
Liara raced towards Shepard. She took a deep breath and formed a biotic shield around the two.
Shepard began to input commands into his Omni-tool. EDI spoke. "Shepard! The bomb isn't activated, but we're ready a massive energy spike from the temple itself. Something is happening."
Shepard turned. Three monsters were slowly walking towards him. Down the hall, the elevators opened…
He saw Tali and Ashley. They charged forward, firing on the monster that was blocking the hall. Tali unleashed Chikita. The monster turned around. It had a different kind of weapon, firing a burst of light that forced Ashley and Tali to duck into cover.
Shepard turned back to the Spartan. The Master Chief had torn the arm off one of the monsters and was using one of its weapons to fight off a drone. But he made it clear that he was fighting his way towards Shepard.
...At this point… Shepard had to consider the possibility of abandoning the Spartan if it meant saving the rest of Thessia…
Shepard and Liara concentrated on the monster down the hall. And with their combined fire along with Tali and Ashley's, the monster fell pretty quickly this time.
The two rushed over to an exhausted and injured Liara and Shepard. They also looked pretty worse for wear, with wounds and cuts all along their suits.
"What the hell happened?" Ashley asked.
As the Spartan killed another monster, all the Forerunners turned his attention to him.
"Doesn't matter," Shepard responded. "We have to get this bomb out of here and get it to the Normandy!"
"If only Wrex and Grunt made it…" Tali muttered.
Shepard looked back. The Master Chief had grabbed one of the drones and threw it at a monster. While it didn't do much to it, the drone was ripped into pieces.
"Help me move it!" Shepard ordered. Tali and Ashley began to pull on the large hinges while Liara and Shepard pushed. Liara activated a biotic warp around herself, hopefully giving her more strength.
They slowly moved it, inch by inch, a lot slower than the Spartan's pace.
Shepard looked back… More of those monsters began to appear. A blue light began to form in front of them. Small shards materialized into one of those monsters out of thin air. However, he was much larger with blue spikes on his back…
They all focused on the Master Chief… And he kept fighting, trying to reach Shepard.
They kept pushing towards the elevator door.
"Shepard, that energy spike is rising!" EDI reported.
A blast of bluish-white light consumed the room. Shepard looked back into the center of the console room. Where the pillar of white light was, it had now transformed into a blue stream surrounding a white ball of light.
"KEEP PUSHING!" Shepard ordered.
He felt a hand grab his collar, and he was pulled back and lifted into the air.
The Master Chief had cut his way through the Prometheans...That was…
How? How did he do it so quickly?
The blue stream and white ball grew.
Shepard looked into the Master Chief's visor… All he saw was his reflection.
Shepard grabbed something from the Chief's belt. It looked like a small blue ball. He pressed a red indent on top and it ignited into an electric flame.
Shepard screamed and shoved it into the Chief's chest plate. The Spartan quickly looked down, and without hesitation unsheathed a knife.
Shepard felt it enter his stomach. The Master Chief tossed him into the light. The Spartan followed him. That plasma light still burning on his armor.
"SHEPARD!" Liara screamed