In my incredibly long life and all the things I had been through and endured, it had only been the second time I had been knocked out by a mountain.
The first time had been when the demons dropped one right on top of me, this time it was to cushion the impact of my sudden entry to only god knew where.
But if I were honest, it wasn't the worst thing. Being able to take a couple of moments to let his mind relax after putting an end to the Icon of Sin once and for all wasn't bad. Through a sliver of anger remained.
I should have known that bitch Khan Maykr would have had a trump card up her sleeve in the off chance I screwed up her plans. But rigging that damn thing like a nuke when it died? That was on a whole different level. If I hadn't already killed her, I'd do it again for that little surprise.
It was a good thing a portal opened up when it did. I was far more than the mortal I used to be, but I was pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to walk away from a blast like that. The problem was that I didn't know where I had been sent.
For the time being I would just roll with it. Wherever I ended up couldn't have been any worse than the countless other places I have been over the centuries
I could use a vacation from all the demon killing I've done.
X
Flynn's eyes blinked open and took in the cracked ceiling of the cave above him. His suit's internal clock telling him that only a couple of hours had passed since he crashed into the mountain.
Running a system check, he was satisfied that none of his equipment had been lost or damaged from the impact before standing up. Brushing the dust and bits of rock off his armor as he got a better look at his surroundings.
From what he could see, and what he had seen upon entry, the chamber he landed in was part of a much larger system. But he had no way of knowing exactly where he was until he got topside.
Trying his comms, the slayer frowned when he didn't get a response from the fortress or Hayden. Scanning the local channels the praetor suit could pick up, the only responses he got back was an odd series of clicks like morse code.
Shaking his head, Flynn pulled out his shotgun from the suit's quantum backpack and attached the auto-fire barrel. Wracking the pump to chamber a fresh shell, he made his way to an opening in the chamber and down a long tunnel beyond. Mentally wondering where it was he had been sent, while at the same time preparing for something to attack him at a moment's notice.
X
Elsewhere in the mountain, within a series of ruins from an age long past, a lone woman could be seen behind a forcefield suspended in the air within a sphere of energy.
She was, however, not a human woman.
Her skin was light blue with a tentacle-like fringe on the top of her head, dressed in a body suit that a scientist would wear that hugged her curvy frame. Her blue eyes scanned around the room she was imprisoned in anxiously, searching for a means to escape.
Liara T'Soni had seen and earned much in her 106 years of life. Despite her young age by Asari standards, she had accomplished much in her field studying the extinct Prothean race. Spending fifty years learning everything she could about the empire that once encompassed the entire galaxy, studying ruins and examining artifacts that she had discovered overtime.
But the last thing she was expecting was the events that transpired on her recent dig.
Her and her small team had come to the planet Therum in the Knossos system to examine Prothean ruins that had been unearthed. Things had been going well, until they lost contact with the surface. The next thing they knew, Geth were attacking.
Geth, a machine race created by the Quarian people over 300 years prior that drove them from their homeworld due to the synthetic's rising against their creators. Since then they had remained in the system the Quarian homeworld of Rannoch was located...until now.
Liara had used her biotics to attack the invading machines while she and the others fled. But they were overwhelmed. Now she was all that was left, and in her attempt of finding salvation ended up entrapping herself in some kind of defense system within the ruins.
Now she was stuck. The Geth and the Krogan battlemaster leading them couldn't get to her, but she couldn't get out either. And without access to food and water...her time was limited if she didn't find a solution.
She'd been searching around the room she was trapped in hoping to find some way to bring down the forcefield keeping her suspended when she heard and felt a loud crash that shook the chamber the ruins were found in.
At first she was afraid that the Geth were attempting to use explosives to make their way to her and at the same time ran the risk of causing the mountain to collapse around them. But then nothing happened afterward.
That was a couple hours ago. And now the young Asari was beginning to lose hope that she would actually escape her confinement and those pursuing her.
Sighing, Liara closed her eyes and tried to think of something when she heard another crash followed by the sounds of gunfire. Snapping her eyes open, she searched for the source just as a wall in the back of the chamber behind where all the mining equipment that had been set up exploded. The bodies of several Geth being thrown into the room among the rubble in pieces.
Through the opening, a large figure wearing green armor stomped inside. The upper-half of a Geth trooper impaled on a long blade attached to their left wrist with a type of shotgun in their right hand, barrel still smoking.
Liara swallowed thickly, not knowing what to do but at the same time hoping that whoever this was wasn't another enemy.
X
Flynn looked at the one-eyed machine that was stuck on the end of his Doom-Blade. At first he was hit with a wave of nostalgia when he had seen the small squad of synthetics cross his path, memories from his previous life coming to the forefront before they opened fire on him.
After that he simply did what he did best; Rip and Tear.
The machines stood no chance against the slayer's power as he tore them apart. Spearing one on his blade and shooting it in half before grabbing the last one and driving it through the cave wall where he now stood in another chamber.
With his targets down, he pulled the still twitching machine from the end of his Doom-Blade and got a better look at it. Scouring his old memories as something about it seemed so very familiar.
"Um...h-hello?" Flynn snapped his head up at the soft, feminine voice that spoke out. Dropping the dead synthetic as he crossed the cave, past the equipment used for mining and up to a structure built into the rock. A type of forcefield stood in his path, but it was the alien woman floating in an energy bubble inside that held his attention the most.
"C-Can you hear me out there? I'm trapped and need help!" she said louder, sounding desperate.
The slayer was frozen in place...that was how he recognized the machines. The sight of this woman, this Asari, nailed the point home and he finally knew where he was. It had been a place he knew very well before his death and still remembered even after all this time.
Liara looked at the stranger and felt uneasy. This figure was much bigger up close. He had to have been at least a foot and a half to two feet taller than she was and looked to be made of pure muscle if how he wore that armor was any indication.
He also exuded an aura of power the likes of which she had never felt before. But it was his eyes that got her the most. Staring out behind the visor of his helmet and seemed to pierce right through her.
"H-Hello? Can you hear me?" she asked hesitantly, wondering if she was making a mistake in asking for assistance from such an intimidating figure.
The slayer blinked and nodded before reaching out and touching the forcefield. The energy being emitted formed a hardlight barrier to keep people out, something he already knew...but he was getting a closer look to see if he could find a weakness in it.
Thankful that whoever it was could hear her, Liara continued to speak. "It's some kind of defense field. I activated it by accident fleeing from the Geth." she explained while shaking her head, "I still can't believe it. Geth. Never thought I would see the day they would leave-" she was cut off when the stranger slammed his fist into the barrier.
"W-What...what are you doing?!" she exclaimed in alarm. "You won't be able to-"
Flynn slammed his fist into the barrier a couple more times, channeling more and more strength into each strike as the field began to waver a bit. The Argent energy coursing through his body crackling along his gauntlet as he reared back and delivered a powerful blood-punch into the center of the forcefield.
There was a small explosion as the two forms of energy clashed before the barrier shattered in a burst of pixelated light.
The backlash of the field breaking sent a small shockwave throughout the room. Having no effect on the slayer, but it overloaded the barrier keeping Liara suspended causing it to deactivate, dropping her to the floor under her.
She had been in so much shock seeing the supposedly impenetrable barrier breaking like cheap glass she barely registered hitting the ground until a second or two after the fact. Shaking herself, she looked up to see a large, armored hand reaching out to her.
Reaching out slowly, she accepted the offered help and was pulled to her feet with strength that made her feel light as a feather. The Asari maiden looked up at her savior and discovered she was right about the height difference between them, having to crane her neck just to meet his eyes through his tinted visor.
"T-Thank you. I didn't know how much longer I would have lasted in here." Liara said graciously.
Flynn nodded, causing the Asari to tilt her head in confusion. "I am Liara T'Soni. May I know the name of the one who saved me?" she asked.
The slayer activated his wrist blade, making Liara recoil in fright before he leaned down and started to gently carve out words into the stone floor with the tip of his blade. She watched as he spelled out the name 'Flynn Taggart' between them.
"Flynn Taggart?" she asked, getting another nod. "Can...Can you not speak?"
The slayer shook his head. He had lost his voice long ago, constant moments of crippling rage while he fought had all but destroyed his vocal cords. But he hadn't cared, instead letting his actions speak for him.
"Oh...I am sorry." Liara said, feeling a little guilty from the small revelation. "It is nice to meet you, Mr. Taggart."
Flynn shook his head and tapped his first name on the floor with his Doom-blade before retracting it. Letting her know to use his first name. "Okay, Flynn." the Asari amended with a small smile.
Movement above had them looking up. "We must leave quickly. The Geth are being led by a Krogan battlemaster and will be after us." said Liara before making her way to the back of the room to a large platform in the middle of a wide shaft that went toward the top of the mountain.
"I believe this was a lift at one time, it should take us to the surface." she said as she activated a holopanel in the center of the platform. They slayer joined her and pulled out his plasma rifle and slapped the heat blast mod in place.
Momentarily surprised at the odd weapon appearing in Flynn's hands, Liara went back to the console and activated the large lift. Causing them to ascend through the ruins until they reached the top floor. The barrier blocking their way deactivated allowing them to step off, but it also deactivated an adjacent barrier where a squad of Geth stormed forward being led by a Krogan in silver armor.
"Surrender. Or don't, that would be more fun." the larger alien grunted while hefting a large shotgun. "Either way, we'll be taking the doctor with us."
Liara glared at their opposition, "I'm not going anywhere with you!"
"Not an option. Saren and your mother want you. And Saren gets what he wants." the Krogan replied as he and the Geth raised their weapons, "Spare the Asari. If you can't, it doesn't-"
A hail of blue plasma bolts cut through the air and mowed down the synthetics. Overloading their kinetic barriers and burning through their armor in seconds, some of the bodies going critical from the energy rounds and exploding in bursts of electricity and sparks.
The slayer aimed at the Krogan and fired the excess heat built up in the gun. The shockwave destroyed his own barrier and frying his shotgun making it useless.
Roaring a battlecry, the battlemaster charged Flynn with biotics flaring around his frame. The slayer met the charge head on, slamming his knee in the rampaging Krogan's face with a sickening crack. He followed up with a powerful headbutt that cracked the large alien's headplate and then an uppercut that sent him landing hard on his back.
Two more Geth shock troopers came through the opening and opened fire on the slayer. Their pulse rounds hitting the praetor suit's plates and doing nothing more than gaining the one wearing its attention.
Flynn clenched his fists and ran at the two synthetics, dropping low and sweeping the legs out from under the closest one, unsheathing his Doom-blade at the same time and beheading the Geth before it could hit the ground.
The remaining shock trooper backed up, firing its pulse rifle at the rampaging human as he came for it next. Swatting it's rifle out of its hands, the slayer grabbed the Geth platform by the neck, he then grabbed it around the middle, fingers digging into its metal frame as he lifted it off the floor.
With barely even a fraction of his strength, Flynn raised the machine over his head and proceeded to tear it in half. Sparks and white synthetic fluids sprayed in different directions as he held the two halves of the Geth in each hand. Dropping the pieces long enough to crush the synthetic's head under his boot.
The Krogan coughed and groaned, orange blood oozing from the cracks in his headplate and broken nose as he looked up, the slayer now standing over him. "What the hell are y-" he was silenced when Flynn's Doom-blade was driven through the side of his head until it came out the other side.
Pulling the blade free, the slayer shook the blood off before retracting it back into his gauntlet, turning his attention to Liara who had paled at the sudden display of brutality and approached her. Putting a hand on her shoulder, snapping her out of her stupor and motioning with his head toward the exit.
Liara nodded, taking a deep breath as they moved past the dead Krogan and headed to the entrance of the dig site.
X
Commander Jane Shepard wasn't having a good day.
It had only been a week since the mission to Eden Prime where she and her team had found themselves neck deep in a Geth invasion. Losing a member of her squad, along with the Council Spectre that had been with them, before having a nightmarish vision burned into her brain from an ancient beacon belonging to an extinct alien race.
From there she'd been all over the Citadel, proving to the council that one of their best was a traitor while at the same time gathering together a rag-tag group consisting of a C-Sec detective, a Krogan mercenary, a young Quarian on her rite of passage, a survivor of the Eden Prime attack, and an L2 biotic.
After they convinced the council of Saren's betrayal, Jane had been given the title of the first human Spectre and was tasked with tracking him down and bringing him to justice. Given the helm of the Normandy and her crew from her predecessor Captain Anderson, she set off into the traverse on her first lead.
One of Saren's co-conspirators, a powerful Asari Matriarch named Benezia, had a daughter who was an expert in Protheans and was said to have been on the planet Therum in the Knossos System.
One the one hand, if she was working with her mother as well, they'd be able to interrogate her for any information on Saren's plans. On the other, her knowledge of the Protheans would help the Commander understand more about the vision from the beacon and its connection to the mysterious Conduit that Saren was after.
After dropping planet side in the mako, the team fought through several squads of Geth on their way to the dig site where the doctor they were looking for was said to be. When the path became too narrow, they left their tank behind and continued on foot.
Which leads to the present. Jane and her team were just outside the entrance to the Prothean ruins in a firefight against a squad of Geth with the addition of an Armature. The larger synthetic keeping them pinned down with its main cannon while the smaller units kept trying to flank them.
"Kaidan, Tali, overload that thing's shields!" the Commander ordered as she took out a Geth shock trooper. The human biotic and the Quarian engineer stood from their cover and unleashed the electrical attacks from their omni-tools on the Armature, the combined assault causing its kinetic barriers to spark before deactivating.
Garrus and Ashley fired their sniper rifles on the larger target now that it was vulnerable, trying to find a weak spot with Wrex joining them by firing explosive 'carnage' rounds from his shotgun.
Finishing with the smaller units, the rest of the team joined the assault. Throwing a barrage of grenades, tech mines and every kind of ordinance at their disposal. "Aim for the optic or leg joints!" Tali shouted, throwing another tech mine close to one of the Armature's legs.
The large Geth charged its main cannon and fired, forcing the team back into cover as dirt and debris showered over them. "Could really use the mako now!" Garrus called out, switching to his assault rifle when his sniper rifle overheated.
"Keep the pressure on! That thing can't hold out forever!" Jane shouted as she kept her trigger firmly pulled with the tank-sized synthetic in her sights.
The Armature sent out a series of loud clicks as it took a couple steps forward, charging its cannon for another attack-
A series of explosions against its back sent it stumbling forward. Swinging its head around to address the new threat, it was met with three rockets straight to the optic, causing it to let out a metallic screech of surprise.
Shepard and her team paused when they saw the sudden shift in their target. Movement behind the Armature drew their attention to a large man in green armor with a strange looking rocket launcher on his shoulder running straight at it.
In nearly a blink, the launcher disappeared and another weapon that looked like a large, futuristic ballista appeared in their hands. The barrel glowed a bright red before launching a wide beam of energy that sheared clean through both of the Armatures left legs, the synthetic collapsing to the ground without the support.
With its optic broken, and unable to stand without two if its legs, the large Geth struggled to move despite the damage as the armored stranger stomped up to it. The cannon in their hands disappeared like the rocket launcher had and was replaced with a double-barrel shotgun with a grappling hook mounted under the barrels.
The Armature raised its head, clicking wildly as its cracked and sparking optic looked at the organic that had taken it down. It's last logged memory were the two barrels aimed at it before being offlined.
The back of its head being blown out from the powerful buckshot
X
Flynn looked at the remains of the Geth Armature, the barrels of his super shotgun still smoking.
He was honestly expecting more out of the tank-like machine. But considering what he was used to fighting it was hardly a fair comparison.
The sound of multiple footsteps had him looking over his shoulder at the squad he had just assisted. He knew each of them well, but none as much as the red-haired, green eyed woman in black and red armor that was leading them. N7 proudly displayed on her breastplate.
This was Commander Shepard.
"Thanks for the assist." she said with gratitude, but still had her rifle in hand incase things turned south. "You with the science team?"
The slayer kept staring at her for a moment before shaking his head. "No? Then who are you, and why are you here?" asked the Commander.
Flynn, cracked his super shotgun open. Ejecting the spent shells and loading new ones. "Hey! The Skipper asked you a question!" Ashley demanded, finger tightening on the trigger of her own weapon.
Snapping his prized weapon closed, Flynn sent the Gunnery Chief a deadpan look through his visor that unnerved her greatly. A strange, primal fear traveling up her spine, almost as if she were looking death in the face.
She hadn't felt this way once in her life, not even on Eden Prime with her squad dying around her.
"He doesn't speak." All eyes trained on Liara as she approached them. "Do not take offense, but my...friend, is mute. But he saved my life from the Geth."
"Doctor Liara T'Soni, I presume?" asked Jane, focusing on the Asari while keeping the massive armored man in her line of sight as well.
Liara nodded, "Yes. I can only assume you've come looking for me as well. Can I ask why?"
"Saren Arcturus betrayed the council and orchestrated the attack on Eden Prime." the Commander started to explain, "My team and I are tasked with tracking him down and your name came up as a possible lead."
The young Asari looked troubled before nodding, "Yes, the Krogan that was leading the Geth assault mentioned Saren...and my mother. We haven't spoken in years, but I never thought she would join something like this. But why would the Geth be sent after me?"
"You're a Prothean expert. Your knowledge would be invaluable to Saren's cause." said Garrus.
Liara nodded, "That would make sense. But I don't understand how-" Flynn suddenly shoved her behind him and fired the meathook of his super shotgun. The attachment snatching a Geth hopper out of the air mid-leap before retracting back with the flailing synthetic.
When it was within range, the slayer's Doom-blade impaled it through the stomach before ripping upward. Slicing the Geth clean in half up through its head.
The team was stunned at the sudden kill, except for Wrex who grinned. "I like your style." he said grinning.
"We should get back to the Normandy to continue this talk. No telling if there are more hostiles lurking around." said Jane, her green eyes scanning around them incase any more Geth were laying in wait.
"You sure that's a good idea, Skipper?" asked Ashley while motioning to Liara and Flynn. "How do we really know she's not working with her mother? And how are we expected to trust her friend if we can't even question him?"
The Commander sent the Gunnery Chief a look, "Because I highly doubt Benezia would have the Geth try to kill her only daughter, no matter how estranged they may be." she turned her attention to the armored giant next to the doctor, "And with how he took out that Armature, I'm pretty sure we'd be trading rounds instead of attempting to trade words if he was a threat."
She approached the slayer, "You're not going to give us any trouble, are you big guy?"
Flynn shook his head, double barrel resting on his shoulder. "Alright then." Jane put a finger to her ear, "Joker, we found the doc. Come pick us up."
"Roger that, Commander. ETA ten minutes." the Normandy's pilot responded.
The ship came down from the atmosphere at the designated time and the team with their newest additions stepped onboard. Upon arrival, the crew was on edge when they saw Liara, the daughter of one of their enemies...but they quickly became pale when they saw the Slayer in step behind her
Behind his visor, Flynn smirked at the reactions he was receiving. Reminding him of the UAC eggheads freaking out at his arrival at the BFG-10000 facility.
The slayer cracked his knuckles, the sound echoing off the hull around him and making several people flinch.
This was going to be one hell of a time.
A/N: And just like that, the Mass Effect plot has just been ripped a new one. And the Normandy crew just gained a rage-fueled, weapon toting, reincarnated super badass. Saren, the Collectors, and the Reapers themselves have no idea the shear level of Hell coming their way. And much like the demons, they too will fear the mark of the beast.
Everything is looking good from my end, let your thoughts be known my readers!