XxX-XxX-XxX
Official Supporters:
Obsessive Readers, Laurel
Compulsive Reader, The Impossible Muffin
Commissioner, Gib, Death Daddy, Le Spork, Polemoduke
If you want to be on the Supporter list, PM me for details or join our private server for details. Hope you enjoy reading my stories, please leave me a comment to let me know if you did, or where I can improve. Link here, where able to be seen : /2UZncAm
Second link here, remove ( and ) and it SHOULD work : D(i) (slash)kfhkfUb
Beta(s) :
XxX-XxX-XxX
Requested by : Laurel
XxX-XxX-XxX
"Atmospheric contact imminent. Atmospheric contact imminent. Atmospheric-" His fist punched the button on the side of the console and the VI chirped quietly while he added that damn thing to the list of things he wanted cut out.
He knew they were about to hit atmo - he could see Tuchanka in front of them, taking up nearly all of his vision.
"Brace for-"
"We have Mass Effect generators." His Krogan companion grunted, "We shouldn't feel-"
As expected, slamming into the first proper feet of Tuchanka's tempestuous atmosphere was too much for the untested inertial dampeners to handle. If he had to wager, they'd scaled it off of Kodiak shuttles' systems and just upgraded what they could take. Or upscaled. He wasn't entirely sure which, precisely, would be the better word for it.
But, regardless, when they hit it the entire pod shuddered around them, and John eased back into his seat as muted but oh-so-familiar tremors rocked through him.
It was nostalgic, and deeply so, being back here. The pod was different, he had a co-pilot - or co-rider, at least - and he was very much not dropping onto a Human world. In fact, he was dropping on an alien one to fight humans which, he realised, was the peak of irony. But he didn't dwell on it, flicking a gaze over to the environmental monitor beside him and pursing his lips.
"Breaching cloud cover in fifteen seconds." He grunted shortly, "Eyes open."
"They don't know we're-"
"Krogan," he cut the alien off, taking control of the pod's thrusters with the barest hint of a wobble as controls were handed off by the VI, "always assume they're expecting you. WHen you don't, you get a flak round through your hull."
"Eh." The alien rumbled, "Fair."
Finally, with a final, gentle tremor, they punched through the clouds and he could see below them, where a nearly uninterrupted sea of rubble, sand and rock stretched on for miles, cast in the deep darkness of night-time. A few clearer areas dotted the stretch of brown, speckled by lights, where scavengers had levelled out what could be and set up homes and workhouses throughout the centuries, but the only real break was the gun installation. Which itself was dotted by damage and ruins, with size enough to have two builds on top of it, one at the base of the towering gun, where segments of roofing had collapsed in. Rubbled was heaped around its base, which confirmed his suspicion that it was built onto a raised platform or hill - which would make an assault harsher on them - and the gun itself had huge, scrappy looking lengths of reinforcement crawling along most of its towering, brightly lit barrel.
"Doe."
"Grunt." He responded, turning as the Krogan's face, resting in the crook of his own seat, appeared on his right-side window. "What is it?"
"Enemy camp." He grunted, projecting a vid-feed from the nose of his own pod onto Doe's left-hand window like he'd been using the pods for years already.
The image was laced in fuzz thanks to its position near the very tip of the nose, but John could still make out the blocky grey shapes in the gun's shadow. Unlike Krogan construction, which tended to be thrown up wherever it could be, these were neat and ordered in a perfect square made up of four long rectangles inside what seemed to be a perimeter wall made of heaped rubble that ran around it in a wide semi-circle, each end connecting to the cannon complex's base.
"Good catch." The Krogan had to have been searching - it was well hidden in the gun's shadow and for obvious reasons. "You want to deal with it?"
"You're going to." The Krogan nodded, inputting a command that projected his view of the weapon installation onto the same left-hand window, then projecting a red square around the camp and a blue one around one of the buildings on the complex, far to the right facing the same way as the gun. "Make some noise, pull back and hold. The rest of us will get in through there."
"Acknowledged, Sir." He was, to be honest, not thrilled by the plan - but if the Krogan was headed in through the back, he expected they anticipated Cerberus being ready for that and hitting them hard. He was more than happy to let the Krogans take the brunt of that. "After?"
"Too many unknowns to plan." The Krogan answered, "Do what you want."
"Understood." He nodded, flicking a look to the altimeter and running the math through his head. "Thirty seconds to landing."
"Adjust course," Grunt ordered, "and good hunting."
He nodded and let the line die, turning the pod to drop nearly a kilometer away to the rough south of the complex and pinging that to Grunt's pod. Grunt pinged him back a moment later, with coordinates just over a kilometer away to the north-west. Which meant that, barring any obstacles, John and his Krogan partner would get to the complex first by minutes which, combined with what he was sure Grunt would like to be an infiltration ahead of an assault, could hopefully give them plenty of time to take dealing with the camp.
Most of that was, of course, them hoping without a hint of a reason to.
But most plans had a lot of that, honestly, when you got down to it.
"Reorienting." He grunted, spinning their pod lazily so he was on the bottom. "When we hit, you should have point."
"Understood." His partner rumbled, "Try not to smash us to mush, eh?"
"Right," he sighed, "I'll look for the soft rubble then."
The 'soft rubble' he picked out was a longer slab of ancient Krogan concrete that had laid out in the sun for, he was sure, centuries. Even from here, he could see the old pockmarks of heavy munitions blown across its front. How long it had survived, and how many people had used it for cover, he had no idea.
Whatever the answer, their pod ended its long vigil with the fire of braking thrusters and then the fury of their pod careening into, and through, it.
Beneath it was a gap between the formerly-sturdy block of concrete and a thin layer of light rubble beneath it, scattered over bare that heaped around his viewport. But his Krogan partner clambered out above him without any apparent trouble, reaching back in for his gear before he grunted for John to spin the pod's seat-gurney. Which he tried to do, keying the command several times and feeling the assembly jerk him to either side, shaking him in his harness until he sighed.
"It's stuck." He called up, "I'll hand my weapons up and climb."
"Got it." The Krogan rumbled, "Hurry. Someone could have spotted the braking thrusters."
He did, unclasping his harness and rolling like a man who'd done it dozens of times as he fell. Which, to be fair, he was a man who had done it dozens of times - crash sims were a dime a dozen in Marine training, let alone ODST training. His weapons, collapsed as they were, were easy enough to pass up, followed by his ruck. Clambering up, he stood in the wide, Krogan seat and grabbed the gently misshapen edge of the pod, pulling himself up before a shadow passed over him and he was pulled bodily out of the hole.
"Here." The warrior rumbled, shoving his kit into his arms and turning. "Hurry."
He nodded, pulling the pack back into place and setting the Locust on the back of his waist. Out here, in the open, he favored the Mattock and let it expand in his hands while he eyed the distant gun emplacement. Searchlights had sprung to life, presumably at the explosion of their entry, but he couldn't see movement outside the wall. Which meant they didn't know what the explosions they had to have noticed were, which told him Cerberus didn't have spies in their work-crews at least - or that the information hadn't been passed down.
Either way, he moved forward to a taller pile of rubble to watch the gun-base and said, "Set it off."
"Mhm."
As they moved off, perpendicular to the base instead of towards it, the pod behind them sparked to life, fire burning just before placed charges in the nose and rear thrusters went off and they exploded. This way, even if someone was on the way, it would look like nothing but errant debris. Which would turn what little they'd lost in orbit to their advantage, since debris had been scattering across Tuchanka ever since they took the cannon.
Losses turned to assets - the UNSC would have been proud.
XxX-XxX-XxX
It took them just past an hour to get within close proximity to the gun-emplacement, between the rough terrain and their needing to get there unnoticed. The outer rubble wall used to keep the camp beyond secure enough was tall, nearly thrice his height, but roughshod and poorly planned out. From the images he'd seen, they didn't have walkways, either - which meat they were safe enough crouched here, under the gun and near the corner, where you couldn't see from above. Why the Krogan who built it had tolerated such a vulnerability he didn't know, but he wasn't going to complain now.
Gently, he slid the Omni-Gel pack into one of the crevasses and withdrew, attaching the last couple of explosive charges to the back of his belt and skirting along the rubble-wall all the way to the actual one at the base of the gun, where the Krogan was waiting, pressed against it as if trying to fuse into it.
The Krogan met his gaze by turning his head, keeping one eye facing up at the wall's edge and turning the other on him. "Done?"
"Mhm." He nodded, "Both sides."
"Good." The Krogan rumbled, hefting a heavy looking, blocky grey shotgun and smiling toothily. "Whenever you're ready."
He took another moment to take a breath, mentally catalogue their simple plan and his role in it, and then raised his Omni-Tool and keyed the first explosion.
The charges he'd just planted, those closest to them, went off first with high-pitched shrieks of packed, relatively directed Krogan explosives lathered in Omni-Gel that ripped apart rock, concrete and metal and hurled it away. He could hear the buildings inside the perimeter wall try and fail to hold up under the onslaught, too, as glass shattered and metal screamed apart and fell onto the hard rock. In the silence that followed, he heard a few groans of different tones echo out from the other side of the wall, followed and drowned out almost immediately by shouts and orders. He waited until he heard boots on rock before he hit the second button, setting off charges on the other side in a much more narrow spread that would, by his measure, take out a third building.
"A trick!" He heard a heavily synthesised, warped voice shout from around the corner of the rubble as the two drop troopers moved silently towards it. The same voice went on, "Back! Find cover and deal with it!"
Once again, he waited and listened - this time until the sound of armored boots on rock started to fade.
Then he stood and grunted, quietly, "Now."
He let the Krogan warrior go first, rounding the corner, ducking his head and charging with a quiet snarl while Doe followed behind him.
The Centurion he'd heard issuing commands was the closest to him as he rounded the corner, but his Krogan companion already had a meaty hand around his helmet, so Doe ignored him. Past him, turning as the Centurion screamed in surprise, were three Troopers in various states of armor. His Mattock's heavy rounds beheaded one as he turned and two shots took him in the throat, and four more rounds caught two more in their stomachs as their rifles came up. One collapsed soundlessly as his stomach was ripped apart by the two shots John gave him, and the other stumbled back and tripped over one of a dozen other dead Troopers scattered across the ruined camp, ripped apart by his explosive charges.
There were four more surviving Troopers further away, between the destroyed and still standing prefabs at the other end of the open area, but his Krogan companion was already charging them, hurling the dead Centurion ahead of him to bowl over the nearest Trooper. John followed more slowly, picking off another before the Krogan slammed shoulder-first into one of them with enough force to hurl him away, reeling through the air. The final standing Trooper managed to dump half his magazine into the Krogan as he turned, but the alien only snarled and levelled his shotgun, nearly blasting the man in two.
"Targets down." John called as he crossed the distance, smoothly putting two more shots into the Trooper pinned under the dead Centurion. Turning, he spent the last rounds of his magazine pulse-checking a couple of the more intact Troopers laying on the ground. As silence, fell he gestured at the final prefab and grunted, "Clear."
"Mhm." The Krogan rumbled, pacing over to the last standing prefab and booting the door open. Pitching a grenade in and following its explosion, he turned and grunted, "Clear. Now what?"
"We find a way up."
"Hmph." The Krogan grunted, turning and gesturing at a new lift that had been built recently, its support struts bolted directly into the ancient stone behind it. The lift itself was little more than a flat square covered in dirt, but his attention was already elsewhere.
Turning, he looked over the bodies, counting them and humming, "Fourteen…"
"What's the problem?" The Krogan rumbled quietly, watching him slowly, purposefully lazily replace his thermal clip.
The ODST only hummed, turning slowly to appraise the ruined prefabs. Finally, eyeing a warped bunk bed laying on its side, he asked, "How many beds did you see in that one?"
"Ten. All doubles…" The Krogan answered, "Why?"
"Twenty beds, four buildings. Eighty beds, eighty soldiers." He muttered, pulse started to race as anxiety and paranoia built up over years rushed through him. "How many do you think are needed to operate the gun and keep perimeter?"
"Not fifty six…"
"Mhm." He nodded, pacing over to the building he'd destroyed with the second burst of explosives. A woman was half-buried in metal, there, dressed in a fitted suit.
Unlike the armored suits the Troopers wore…
Finally, after another heartbeat, a flicker of something passing over some of the ruined prefabs caught his attention. It was barely anything, just a faint shimmer of shape and light that didn't fit. Without his training and experience back, he wouldn't have even noticed it. He spun on his heel and snapped four rounds at it that flicked off barriers as the woman appeared and rushed him, crouched low and with a sword in hand. He backed away, peppering her as she came, but her hand just moved, Biotic power warping the space in front of her to deflect the incoming fire.
Snarling, he grabbed his Mattock and threw himself at her as she reached him, which seemed to surprised her just enough for him to clock her on the shoulder with it.
She staggered under the blow, but sank to a knee and spun when he brought another down, bleeding his hit off to the side and turning his momentum against him. As she turned, she thrust her sword up towards his face and he jerked to the side and then back, barely dodging the follow-up slash she brought down across his breast. Jumping to the side, he flicked a look to where the Krogan was fighting, half of another woman in one hand, a sword sprouting from his shoulder, and his shotgun swinging like a club at a third sword-wielding woman.
So, no help coming from that direction…
The woman in front of him lunging yanked his full attention back to her and he snarled, ducking under the blow and snapping out a light punch to her chest. It did more to destabilise her than hurt her, but his follow-up to the front of her helmet did both, sending her staggering back a step while she shook her head and he backed away, grabbing at the last Krogan explosives with one hand and the Locust with the other.
She recovered faster than he expected, though, ducking under the burst of fire he sent screaming towards her chest. Spinning on a palm, she turned and raised a fist, a Biotic micro-blast ripping into his chest like a small rocket. It burned, even in spite of his armor, but he just grit his teeth and let it pitch him back as he turned, throwing the Krogan explosive at her.
She leapt to the side, of course, raising his sword - but he set the charge off anyway.
Most of its force went into the ground, but it did enough to stagger her. So he charged, slamming shoulder-first into her and grabbing her right hand by the wrist before she could thrust her sword in. They fell and he fought her attempts to bring the sword back in, only managing it thanks to his position above her, leveraging his grip on her wrist to keep her hand from turning. But she was stronger than him, her implants and gene-tailoring more than out-stripping his conditioning when put head to head. At the same time, he struggled to get the Locust up to her side while she held his hand, kicking her knees into his side while he tried to get it around to kill her.
Finally, when one of the weak, flicking slashes of her sword glanced off his helmet, he snapped, "Hell with it!"
And slammed his helmet into her relatively less armored head. Three times, until he felt something snap and she coughed, the face of her mask warped where he'd apparently smashed her nose. Seizing the moment, he let her sword arm go and leaned back, grabbing the Kassa's foregrip with his second hand and yanking it around in spite of her weakened, but still strong, grip to pour a half dozen rounds into her sternum, ruining it and leaving her limp and wheezing with a fist-sized hole just below her heart.
Staggering up, he turned and raised the weapon, sighting down the woman his partner was fighting with. She was wounded, now, with one arm hanging limp. But his partner was, too, with a bloody mess where one eye had been and two fingers laying in the dirt. Frowning, he put a burst of automatic fire into the small of her back and another into the back one of her legs and she toppled, screaming in pain and surprise, and then terror when the Krogan lunged and brought his foot up to slam his heel down, into her face.
"Raaaaaagh!" The alien roared, staggering wearily away from the dead woman and reaching up to pull the sword out of his shoulder before he turned to John and nodded his thanks.
"Don't mention it." He sighed, lowering his Locust and sighing, "Even here, cloakers are bastards…"
"Why…" He turned, looking down at the dying woman behind him. "W-Where…"
"You don't know?"
"Mom…" She slurred, almost ignoring him as he knelt and frowned. Her head lolled towards him, "We were… Settling in. W-Why… W-Where…"
"Tuchanka." He answered quietly, curiosity tugging the words out of him in spite of himself. "Where did you think you were?"
"Safe…" She murmured, "At… At a… Sanctuary…"
Finally, she went still and he turned as the Krogan reached him, rumbling, "What was that?"
"I don't know." Beyond that Cerberus soldiers were more or less indoctrinated, with a handful of caveats. Standing, he added, "We need to keep moving. The other team should-" Gunfire interrupted him and he sighed, turning to retrieve his rifle and grunting, "-Be making contact."
"Sure." The other soldier rumbled, "I have plenty more fight to go."
John just nodded, setting troubling thoughts of the Cerberus woman aside.
XxX-XxX-XxX