Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or Mass Effect franchise
Author's notes: Hope you all enjoyed the last chapter, now that we are at the end of phase 1. To address some of the reviews
1) Regarding the weapon named "Fusion rifle", I totally came up with that on my own. Since I never played or followed Bungie's Destiny franchise ever, I was not aware that the weapon with the same name already exists. Just to be clear, this weapon has the appearance of the hydra from Halo infinite, but shoots protostar rounds created from hydrogen fusion.
2) Regarding the guest review - Thanks for your detailed input. Some of the choices I made in the writing were intentional. I am trying to balance the ancient humanity with the traditional UNSC as Tier-1 species. Besides, Ancient humanity has hundreds of languages, some of which were created by studying other cultures of their time. They even have a language which is a mix of human and forerunner Jagon or Digon, they also follow glyph system. But they all will be covered in the later chapters. So the English language is basically passed down through genetic memories by chance to modern humans, that's all. Next, Benezia may be in her matron stage, but she just realized all the accumulated knowledge in her life time is just a drop in the galactic ocean, thus her surprised expression. She just learned that there were ancient beings that evolved in a way she could never comprehend.
Hope these helped. Here comes the next chapter...
Chapter 11: Race against the time part-2
In the Citadel space, the council species, especially the Turians and Asari had their fleet of cruisers and dreadnaughts assembling near the super structure forming a 'W' like pattern. The Council learned that Saren was going to show up with the geth forces to attack the citadel, so they ordered the citadel fleet to be prepared for the counter-attack. The Destiny Ascension, Asari dreadnaught and the biggest ship in the space took the center position, leading the charge.
"Admiral, the hierarchy's 4th and 6th fleet are in position, awaiting your command" A turian officer in the command bridge said, within a dreadnaught. The Turian ships had the highest number since they are considered the biggest military force with the highest number of ships.
"Good, Let's wait for Matriarch Lidanya's order's to engage. All ships, stand by" the Turian admiral ordered over the comm to which he received the acknowledgement.
Meanwhile citadel control was monitoring the entire nebular cloud including the mass effect disturbances around the relay.
"Citadel control, do you copy? This is Matriarch Lidanya from the Destiny Ascension. What's the sitrep?" the Matriarch who is also the captain of the Asari flagship asked.
"This is citadel control, we read you. So far, we haven't read any spike in the mass effect field around the relay joint. We will keep you posted on the situation" a human officer spoke through the comm.
"Acknowledged, Lidanya out" she said as she turned to her lieutenant.
"Lieutenant? In case a code red situation arises, order the shuttle bay to prepare a vehicle, and be ready to extract the councilors immediately" Lidanya ordered.
"Aye aye mam" the lieutenant acknowledged.
On Ilos
Shepard, Liara, Tali and Garrus met with the Prothean intelligence, Vigil. Vigil gave them all the information on the Reapers and their cycles of countless harvest. The Normandy crew were stupefied after learning the true nature of the Reapers even though they, including the protheans have no idea on their origins. But right now, all the crew cares about is stopping those machines from repeating galactic annihilation again.
"So Vigil, tell us what to do. How do we stop the Reapers from pouring in?"
"The conduit is the key to stopping the Reapers. During the final stages of the war, our people were on the cusp of unlocking the secrets of the Reapers and by extension, their mysterious mass relay technology"
"So are you saying this conduit is some kind of physical object?" Tali asked.
"No just any object. It was a small scale mass relay replica built by the prothean scientists. Ilos was a top secret research facility isolated from other colonies. Here, our greatest minds pooled in their ideas and theories to study the Mu Relay. They finally understood how they worked and how it is connected with the other relays. Using this, they found a direct shortcut that will send people into the Citadel. It works in pair, one on Ilos and a receiver in the Citadel itself. This relay pair is not connected to the rest of the relay network" Vigil said which stunned the Normandy crew.
"By the spirits! The presidium has a small scale mass relay, just like the one you described. But we thought that was nothing more than a monument, a piece of art. No! This conduit basically a back door to the citadel!" Garrus said with unnerving realization. Shepard was even more curious to learn what happened and what did the Protheans achieve.
"What happened next? Did the Reapers find out about this research?" Liara asked.
"No, We cut off this world from all sorts of contact with other colonies. We knew our species have been completely decimated. So we made sure the Reapers left the known galaxy before this experiment started. Years, even decades passed till that day came. But this facility was running low on power and supplies. I placed the surviving protheans in the cryogenic stasis. But when the power ran low, I had to cut off supply on some of the stasis pods to conserve power. By the time the Reapers left the galaxy, only few key personnel were left alive, a few more than a dozen protheans" Vigil said which horrified the others. But Shepard even though didn't like what he heard, he understood the contingency in that scenario.
"By the goddess! You pulled the plug on all the Protheans?" Liara asked, her pacifying mind couldn't comprehend the brutality.
"The situation was unprecedented, even for me. But my actions were the sole reason any hope remains now. When the surviving scientists reached the citadel through the conduit, they found the keepers working on a hidden section in the citadel. The scientists studied the keepers and realized that those creatures were the key to the Reapers invading the galaxy every 50,000 years" Vigil said which drew confusion among the crew.
"Wait, keepers? I know they are weird, but they don't bother anyone in the citadel. They just work on maintenance" Shepard said not understanding how those docile creatures are even in this picture.
"That's what everyone thinks. But they have a secret purpose. Once in 50,000 years, when the Reapers are ready to invade the galaxy, they send out a signal to the keepers. Those creatures in turn activate a mechanism in the hidden section that turns on the citadel relay. The next moment, entire Reaper forces from the dark space directly enter the citadel space starting their destruction. But the protheans who learned this, installed a software that manipulates this signal. So when the Sovereign sent the signal to the keepers, the keepers ignored it this time, thus trapping the Reapers in the dark space" Vigil said. Now they all understood why Sovereign and Saren together were looking for the conduit.
"So that's why Saren wanted this conduit. He wants to bypass the citadel's external defenses" Tali said in her trembling voice.
"Correct, once Saren hands over control of the Citadel to Sovereign, that machine can directly activate the citadel relay manually and open the doorway to the Reapers in dark space" Vigil said.
"And start the cycle of extinction once again" Garrus finished it for him.
"No, we will stop Saren and Sovereign, whatever it takes" Shepard said with determination.
"Take a copy of a data file in this terminal. It contains a virus that will corrupt the security protocols and temporarily grant you control of the Citadel's master control unit. Using that, you can block Saren and Sovereign's access to Citadel relay" Vigil said.
"Wait, master control unit!? What the hell is that? I've never heard of such thing" Garrus said as he was confused, since this is the first time he is hearing about such a thing.
"Follow Saren, he will lead you there eventually" Vigil said.
"Tali, get the file. Saren is already a step ahead of us. There is no reason to wait any longer" Shepard said. Tali reached out to the terminal and copied the file in her omni-tool.
"What you are about to do today will change the fate of this galaxy forever, if you hurry" Vigil said. Even its emulated voice had the expression of hope which Shepard recognized.
"We will, Vigil. Lets move out folks" Shepard said as the four walked the same way back and reached the top level using the same elevator. Once outside, they got back into the Mako with Shepard in the driver seat.
"Shepard, we are reading geth signature up front" Liara said after the scanner beeped.
"Good, then we know which way to go" Tali said.
"We all looked up to the Protheans as the paragon of civilization. But we were just fooled by the Reapers, just like the others" Garrus said as he locked and loaded the Mako's main cannon.
"Don't worry Garrus. We will get there on time. We have come too far to let Saren win" Tali cheered the Turian up.
Shepard stomped the accelerator pedal hard as the vehicle cruised forward at top speed through the broadway. They reached the end of the tunnel path to descend down and go straight to reach a boulevard. It was a main road with many buildings on the sides. The road was filled with water stream.
*MISSILE EXPLOSION*
"Damn, the geth have us on their target. Garrus!?" Shepard barked.
"Keep it steady Shepard! I am firing!" Garrus yelled as he fired the cannon that blasted a few geth primes on the far side. The Mako cruised through the wide road, turning zig-zag against the broken walls.
There were several geth troopers and primes opened fire on the Mako. Shepard was unfazed as he charged forward. The shields flared as he saw the numbers coming down slowly. But Garrus managed to kill them using the main cannon and 50 cal gun. As they moved through the city road, they entered a tunnel which lead to another broad pathway beneath the city. As Shepard entered the tunnel, Mako came under attack by several geth forces.
Garrus managed to kill them using the main cannon to kill the prime. But then suddenly, the vehicle was blasted by two big energy bolts that rattled the passengers.
"Shit! We have got a colossus. Move behind that wall and do a parallel parking" Garrus said as Shepard charged the Mako towards the fallen wall and turned left covering the vehicle except the cannon. The cannon was above the wall's height. Garrus immediately targeted the colossus and hit it with the first round. Its shield flared in response. Then he used the 50 cal to fire at the geth. Meanwhile the Mako luckily missed a couple of energy bolts from the Colossus. As the cannon charged 100%, Garrus fired another round which took out the shields. But by this time, Mako was stuck by another energy bolt without missing the mark.
"Gotta say, that geth's got a great aim!" Garrus said as he fired his 50 cal again which did only minimum damage. As the cannon once again charged full. Garrus fired another round which destroyed the colossus.
"Phew! Colossus is down. We are free to move" Liara said as Shepard drove the Mako out of the cover and moved towards the colossus's position. There wasn't any resistance after that. Mako's shield recharged as it drove through the next section. It lead another road that descended down and the pathway more ruined with over grown trees and plants. Shepard moved the vehicle through the pathway as everyone saw a glint of blue light at a distance.
"Something is coming into our view" Shepard said as he drove the Mako further down only to see a mass relay like structure that was powered up as they could see the circular rings spinning actively.
"Damn! That's the mass relay vigil spoke about, the conduit!" Garrus said loud.
"We don't have time to admire its view. We need to get faster towards it and reach the citadel on time else Saren will give Sovereign control of the citadel" Tali said.
"Alright then. Fasten your seat belts as this is going to be a hell of a ride" Shepard said as he charged the Mako towards the conduit.
Back in the citadel space
The human, turian and asari officers in the citadel control were working on the terminals. But all of a sudden, one of the terminals, where a human was working, suddenly flared up.
"Whoa whoa whoa! Check this out!" the human officer said.
"What is it?" a Turian officer asked spooked by the human.
"The mass relay just lit up. Several mass effect fields are detected besides the structure" he said in tense as he ran his hands on the hologram.
"Affirmative! Reading several disturbances, unknown energy signatures! I think we have hostiles incoming" another asari officer acknowledged the same.
"Then lets send out a warning to the citadel fleet that war is coming" the turian said as they prepared the comm.
"Attention all citadel forces! The citadel mass relay is reading multiple hostile incoming! I repeat hostile signatures detected! Prepare to engage!" the Turian officer sent out a warning to the fleet.
Aboard the Turian dreadnaught, the bridge officers received the warning.
"Admiral, you have to hear this. Citadel control is reading unknown energy signatures near the relay" a turian officer spoke.
"This is it folks, the geth has arrived. Prepare the fleet to form delta formation and get firing solutions on the hostile ships, NOW!" the turian admiral barked.
Aboard the Destiny Ascension, the asari bridge officers received the same warning.
"Captain, Citadel control has detected hostile signatures near the relay. The turian fleet is preparing to engage in delta formation" an asari officer spoke.
"Looks like Saren and his geth forces have arrived. Send a warning to the council and get ready to extract them. Get the rest of the fleet, ready to engage the hostiles on my mark!" Lidanya barked the orders.
"Aye aye!" the officer replied as they all worked to prepare the fleet to engage the geth.
The mass relay's core glowed actively as the rings started to spin at high speed. Then after few seconds, several lines of energy appeared as the geth ships dropped out of FTL one by one into the normal space. After all the geth ships, finally the Sovereign exited the FTL to reveal itself as its size shadowed the smaller geth ships.
Sovereign and the geth ships cruised through the nebular cloud at high speed towards the Citadel. There were around 48 geth ships among which 5 of them were dreadnoughts and rest of them cruisers. Sovereign's metallic hull crackled in red electricity.
All the ships came within the citadel's range and immediately open fired on the citadel fleet.
"The geth ships are firing at us!" the turian bridge officer said loud.
"Evade and engage the hostiles!" the admiral yelled.
"Engage enemy forces!" Lidanya ordered.
The rain of heavy plasma descended upon the citadel fleet as the turian and asari fleet struggled to evade the attack. One of the geth dreadnaught's plasma round had a direct hit on a turian cruiser which burned its hull bright all over as everyone watched the ship exploded and the shockwave travelled through the nebular gas cloud. Destiny Ascension took the cruiser's plasma attacks as its shield's took the hit. The asari and turian fleet opened fire on the geth ships and sovereign. Soon the citadel space turned into a massive battle ground. Some geth ships took a fatal hit and died, but a majority managed to swarm on the asari dreadnaught. DA was taking more hits that started to shake the hull. Some of the rounds from geth ships hit the citadel and the buildings in it, creating fires across the place.
"Ahh! Captain, the geth are swarming on us. We already lost a couple of ships!" The asari officer spoke as the bridge shook on impact.
"Then forget about the hostiles. Contact the citadel control and evacuate the councilors!" Lidanya said.
"Citadel control! Do you read!? Citadel control-...*BANG*"
Saren and his geth troops meanwhile have already infiltrated the citadel control and killed the officers in the place as they all lied dead on the floor on their own pool of blood. Saren then accessed the main terminal to shutdown the security counter measure. Then he waved the geth to follow him to the next destination, which is the council tower.
On Ilos
Meanwhile Shepard and the crew drove the Mako at top speed ignoring the fire from the geth juggernauts in a straight path. There was no time to engage the hostiles as they could see the conduit was slowly powering down.
"Hurry Shepard! The conduit is going to close!" Liara yelled. Shepard pressed the pedal so hard beyond its position as the Mako neared the mini relay as it appeared quite bigger. Once the gap was closed, the relay's core charged the Mako and the vehicle blasted through the mass free space at FTL speed vertically above.
"WHOA!" Garrus yelled in both tense and excitement as they watched the Mako moving through the mass free space. They saw the stars warping around them as a bluish white energy trail in the mako's bow glowed. After 10 minutes of FTL travel, the Mako exited the mass free space and suddenly popped out into an entirely different, yet familiar environment. But then Shepard realized they have reached the other side of the relay, which is the citadel but close to 50 feet in the air.
"Ahh crap! Hold on!" Shepard yelled as the Mako hit the floor as the suspension system took the shock throwing the crew out of their seat as the Mako slide at high speed.
"Keelah! I don't want to die, not now!" Tali cried out loud.
Shepard found his legs on the brake pedal as he hit it hard. The Mako's inertia changed as it got toppled upside down, sliding through the floor and hitting a debris, thus coming to a halt. But the vehicle also crushed and killed a couple of geth troopers to bits and pieces when it exit the conduit.
After a few mins of losing consciousness, the crew slowly made their way out of the toppled vehicle, coughing as they shook their head to pass the disorientation.
"Everyone good?" Shepard asked as he took out his shotgun. Garrus helped Tali and Liara to get on their feet, combat ready.
"We are good. Though can't say the same for the citadel. Look around" Tali said as they observed multiple fires in the presidium, holes from explosions.
"Damn! Saren already launched his attack on the citadel. Not sure how the fleet is handling the stress" Garrus said.
"I am assuming a lot of casualties. We also don't know if the councilors made it out alive too" Liara said.
Suddenly they all heard a loud shrill, a highly familiar one which they heard it on Eden Prime and recently on Virmire.
"Damn! Husks, engage!" Shepard yelled as he fired his shotgun killing one husk. Liara killed another by using her biotics to crush it under pressure. Tali used her shotgun to blast a husk's face that blew to bits as it fell down lifeless. Finally Garrus killed the last one with a concussive shot that exploded sending the husk's body parts flying.
"Well, that is over. Let's check that terminal to get the status of the citadel" Tali said as they got near the Avina terminal whose hologram glitched popping in and out.
"...-ATTENTION! LOSS OF POWER DETECTED IN LEVEL 3, 5, 7, 8 AND 9. LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS ARE FAILING. CIVILIAN CASUALTIES REPORTED IN SEVERAL AREAS. UNKNOWN SYNTHETIC LIFE FORMS DETECTED-..." the VI kept rambling the same thing.
"Guess the situation is much worse than we thought. That elevator still has power. It should lead us to the citadel tower" Liara said.
"Then lets move" Shepard said as the 4 moved towards the elevator in the opposite direction. They also saw a few dragon's teeth spikes to the left and right which explained the reaper husk presence.
The four took the elevator and Shepard pressed the button, closing the door as the elevator moved upwards. Saren Arterius was in the citadel council chamber as he walked aggressively killing a couple of keepers with the geth rifle. A platform formed in front of him with a large holo terminal. Saren input a few commands.
Meanwhile, the turian and asari fleet were engaged in combat. Destiny Ascension meanwhile extracted the councilors and separated itself from the rest of the fleet to keep them from harm's way.
All of a sudden, the citadel arms started to close as they slowly moved towards each other.
"The citadel arms are closing! Don't let them get inside the structure!" Executor Pallin barked over the comm in a broadcast channel. He was in the C-Sec quarters mobilizing the forces to engage the geth while monitoring the situation from the C-Sec control.
The turian and asari fleet minus the DA engaged the geth fleet and Sovereign. The ships fired the heavy mass rounds, of which some hit the geth crusiers as they exploded and some on the unknown space where something was approaching them at high speed, which was evident through the cloud's sudden turbulence.
Then the citadel fleet witnessed a huge black ship, ignoring the turian and asari ship attack approaching them at great speed, ramming a turian dreadnaught as if it was a weak wooden door. The ship exploded to bits and pieces in seconds as the trailing geth crusiers and dreadnaughts managed to destroy a couple of citadel ships.
The Sovereign then moved inside the Citadel through the empty space as the citadel arms were fully closed and sealed away. The Reaper cruised through the space as the cities in all the arms glowed as if it was night time. Sovereign finally reached a huge edifice as it slowed down and landed on the structure, holding its grip using the metallic tentacles piercing the tower.
Back with Shepard and his team, the elevator all of a sudden stopped moving.
"What happened?" Liara asked in tense as they saw through the glass door. They could see cities in all the arms.
"Keelah! The citadel is closed. I guess Saren already has control of the station" Tali said on a hunch.
"We can't waste time. Lets move out and walk" Shepard said as he used his biotic punch to shatter the elevator glass. Then everyone used their helmet and activated the magnetic field in their boots. Then everyone stepped out with 90 degree inclination downwards. This revealed the open pathway which was in fact the defense and communication center around the citadel tower.
"Whoa! This orientation is going to make me throw up inside the helmet" Garrus quipped.
They started to jog forward with the rifles ready. After turning left which led to a corridor. Geth troopers began to open fire on them, jumping from the sides.
"I was wondering when they would show up" Liara said they all took covering position returning fire at the geth. Once the geth troopers were finished off, they moved forward and after exiting the corridor, it led to another large open area that had some structures like holding clamps, antennae. But what really captured their attention was the big reaper in the distance.
"Holy shit! Look at the size of that thing! How are we even gonna defeat it?"
"Once thing at a time Shepard! We have multiple geth hostiles on our way. Besides, watch out for that reaper's arm. Its stomping and shaking this whole place up" Garrus said as they watched the geth troops flanking from left and right.
"Liara, with me!" Shepard said to which she followed Shepard as Garrus and Tali took to the right.
Liara sent a singularity to hurl the geth troops into the air Shepard sent a biotic shockwave that sent those geth crashing on to the others. But then suddenly an explosion rocked Shepard sending him flying back though the biotic barrier protected him from severe injuries.
Shepard got back to his feet to see it was a krogan with a missile launcher. Shepard immediately lunged forward and took out his shotgun and shot multiple incendiary rounds on it to burn the shields away. The krogan was about to clothesline him, but Shepard slid under and got back up and used the biotic push to force it back, though the armor absorbed most of the impact. Shepard then fired an explosive round that that totaled the shields and burned the armor. Then Shepard fired a round that splattered the krogan's head as it fell down dead. Liara took care of the remaining geth.
"I am starting to hate this!" Shepard cursed under his breath.
Meanwhile Garrus and Tali took care of the remaining geth. Garrus provided cover as Tali used her shotgun and combat drones along with AI hacking to turn everything to their advantage.
They regrouped at the central platform.
"Guess that's over, but we still have to cover one thousand two hundred meters to reach the council tower and upload the file" Tali said bringing the map from her omni tool.
That's when they saw multiple geth dropship flying past them to the next sector.
"Great! They are sending in reinforcements! Let's move" Shepard said as the four jogged through another narrow corridor, similar to the first one and reached the next area that was crawling with geth and few krogan.
"Ohh damn!" Garrus cursed seeing so many troops in the place.
"I think we need to take them out from here. No way we can move forward" Liara said tensed looking at how dire their position have become quickly. That's when Shepard noticed the anti-aircraft defense guns and that gave him an idea
"Garrus, those are AA guns. Can you calibrate them to target the incoming geth dropships?" Shepard asked.
BOOM*
Suddenly they heard a lound explosive sound and the place shook. It was the Sovereign using its arm to stomp the place.
"Fine, but I need covering fire" Garrus said as he switched to the assault rifle and charged forward firing bursts of rounds at the geth.
"Team, lets take the heat away from Garrus" Shepard said to which Liara and Tali nodded as they three burst out of their cover and opened fire on the geth and the krogans. Tali used her hacking skills to hack one geth trooper and one prime which started to open fire on the other platforms. The prime had superior rifle which tore through the other geth. Then she sent one more combat drone towards the krogan.
Shepard used his sniper rifle with phasic rounds to target the krogan to directly puncture its armor. The prime made the job easy by burning its shield and the combat drone sent electrified attacks at the krogan, killing it with overwhelming attacks.
"How is it coming Garrus?" Shepard asked.
"Just need few more minutes" Garrus said. Once the enemy numbers were thinned by the trio, a couple more geth dropships arrived for reinforcements. One of the dropship used its heavy gun to kill the hacked prime as its exploded into pieces.
"YES! DONE! Now watch my magic" Garrus said as he rendezvous with the three.
The AA guns began to move and rotate towards the geth dropships and fired heavy mass rounds tearing through the dropship hull. They were blown to bits. But it wasn't over, a few more dropships arrived which the AA guns targeted.
"I think they will keep coming. Lets use this chance to evade this place" Shepard said as the four dodged enemy attacks and used the chaos to escape the place as they have no chance of surviving there. Also to get to the next area, they have to get past the hot zone.
Finally the four reached the next narrow corridor where the geth troopers and a prime fired upon the group. The four used the same tactics to finish them all. At the end of the corridor, Garrus stopped them all.
"I think, I just found a shortcut to the council tower" Garrus said bringing his map in his omnitool as he was looking on the ground, precisely at something.
"What shortcut?" Tali asked.
"See this hatch? This leads straight on top of the elevator to the council chamber" he replied as he highlighted the same in the omnitool map.
"Good, let me open this up" Shepard said as he took out his shotgun and blasted the hatch open.
"That's one way to do it" Liara said as the four entered the small hole. Once they dropped a few feet, they saw another opening which had enough space for only one person to crawl through at a time. They four crawled through one behind the other and at the end of the tunnel, they hit the elevator's top.
"Yes, we have hit the elevator. Let me open the top hatch" Shepard said as he opened the elevator hatch and the crew entered the elevator finally taking off their helmet, breathing the open air for the first time.
"You guys ready?" Shepard asked to which others nodded. Shepard then pressed the button as the elevator moved towards the tower's position. After 3 mins, it stopped at the final destination as the door opened. The Normandy crew came out only to see fires everywhere raging with dead people from all species, lying on the floor. The council tower was a total mess.
'By the goddess! All this death and destruction! What does Saren even gain from this?" Liara asked with sadness in her heart seeing the ugly side of the war.
"Saren will pay for every life lost. He's gone too far!" Garrus said with anger.
"Let us move. We need to upload the file and open the citadel arms. We can't dwell on what's happened so far. They are out of our hands" Tali said comforting the others and shift their focus into the mission.
"Tali's right. Let's stop Saren so further bloodshed can be prevented" Shepard said they walked through the mini stairs walking past the corpses of civilians, C-Sec and geth. Then finally in the distance, everyone observed a figure in front of a holo-screen.
"There he is! Let's go!" Shepard said as he and the others sprinted towards his position.
"SAREN!" Shepard yelled as all the others pointed rifles at him.
Saren turned and grinned at the crew. But everyone was shocked to see the state he is in.
"What the hell-...happened to you!?" Shepard asked. Saren's body appeared cybernetically more enhanced with lots of wires and implants. But beneath that, his biological body was mutating into something else with protrusions and some kind of sage green spores leaking out of him.
"Sovereign helped me ascend into higher being" Saren in his much more distorted grunting tone.
He then suddenly threw a couple of grenades towards them as he leapt backwards behind the holo-screen.
"DAMN!" Shepard yelled as the four dodged to the left and right as the grenade explosion threw them by force.
"Where is he!?" Garrus asked loud as they all heard a humming sound, brimming with power. Suddenly, they all saw Saren rising through the smoke in his floating platform.
"I was surprised, you all wouldn't make it here, Shepard" Saren said with a grin.
"Had to clean up your mess by killing hundreds of your machine followers. So sorry if we kept you waiting!" Shepard responded with sarcasm.
"Does it matter now? You've lost already. In a few minutes, Sovereign will have full control of the citadel's systems. The relay will open and the Reapers will return" Saren said with grit and determination.
"Well I've got a few tricks up my sleeve to stop your bullshit!" Shepard clapped back.
"You survived our encounter on Virmire. But I've changed since then. Sovereign has upgraded me, as you can see" Saren said which shocked the others.
"You let that Reaper implant you!? You've definitely gone mad" Liara chided him.
"Liara T' Soni!? What a surprise! Have you ever wondered what your mother Benezia is doing right now?" Saren asked which shocked her and also angered since she turned to dark side because of him.
'You are a MONSTER! You turned my mother into joining your cause!" Liara yelled in anger.
"Well, right now, she is beyond anyone's reach in a star system unknown to anyone. So don't bother me with your petty insults" Saren said which confused the others.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Garrus asked.
"You see, I sent her on a mission, to find the unknown planet that kept showing up in the prothean vision. Benezia was smart, she identified the star alignment and found the destination. If you had even half the intelligence your mother had, you would found it by now. But what can I say, such a disappointment!" Saren said grinning as the Normandy crew. Shepard was stunned to hear that as he knew exactly what Saren was referring to. The mysterious planet, a ring shaped object orbiting it.
"No way! I have seen that planet in the visions too, but Liara was not able to find anything from that. That means Matriarch Benezia found what the Protheans have been looking for in their time to stop these machines! Then there is still hope for us all!" Shepard said smirking.
"But too late now, Shepard. Besides, you don't understand the bigger picture here. There is a place for us organics in the new order. The Reapers need men and women of action. People like us" Saren said.
"But based on what Vigil said back at Ilos, I don't think there is any place for the organics. The Reapers just keep feeding lies to work for them in harvesting the other organic species and then discard them like trash. That is what we are to them, an disposable trash!" Tali chided back.
"No, Sovereign recognizes your value. You've impressed it. Surrender to the Reapers and you will be spared. Join us and we can find a place for you" Saren said.
"I would rather die than be a slave to those machines!" Shepard said loud in anger.
"Then you will all die. Everyone you loved, every person in this galaxy you've cared about, they will all die! That is the fate of you all" Saren replied coldly.
"Sovereign has total control over you that you have lost your ability to think for yourself" Shepard castigated him.
"No, this relationship is symbiotic. Flesh and steel, unified and intertwined. The strengths of both and the weakness of neither. I am a vision of the future, Shepard. The evolution of all organic life. This is our destiny. Join sovereign and experience a true rebirth!" Saren said and Shepard had enough of his stupidity as he sprang out of cover to face him.
"You know what? the council always called you their best spectre ever. A lot of other spectres aspired to be like you even though you are heartless, ruthless and had a special hatred for humanity. But despite that all, I thought I could give you a chance to redeem yourself. To make you understand and realize who you truly were, who you truly are! And what you have become now" Shepard said.
"And I am still doing this for us all! I am doing my job to protect everyone! We don't stand a chance against the Reapers. The only way we can all hope to survive is by submitting to them!" Saren said.
"That's exactly what Sovereign wants you to think! Don't you see, Sovereign is just lying and manipulating you!? You have seen the beacon's visions, You know what they did to the Protheans! Do you truly believe that those machines will spare us all!? All Sovereign wants from you is a way to bring its buddies from the dark space and after that, you are no longer needed. Sovereign will instantly kill you the minute it believes you are no longer needed!" Shepard said.
"No-...I-...Urrrhh-...I don't-...believe you! We can't stop the Reapers!" Saren spoke as the Normandy crew began to sense that Saren was trying to fight the indoctrination.
"No, together we can! I have a plan! Just step aside and let me walk through so that this invasion doesn't happen!" Shepard spoke with resolve.
"But, the Protheans never stood a chance! What good are we!?" Saren asked as he grunted while fighting back the indoctrination effects.
"C'mon Saren! Some part of you must still believe this is all wrong! You can fight this! Join me and we will stop Sovereign" Shepard said.
"Maybe-...Maybe you are-...RRAAAAHHH-...!" Saren spoke as he started to growl in pain as his flesh started to mutate as bone protrusion and claws began to sprang out of his limbs and body and long tentacles began to slowly creep out of his wrists. Saren was struggling hard to control.
"What is happening to him!" Garrus asked shocked as his cybernetic body began mutating into something.
'SAREN!" Shepard called out load as he tried to approach him before stopped by the others.
"Shep-...Shepard! I can't-...Can't fight it! I-...I am sorry! But-...Bu-...You keep fighting for us all-...*BAM*" Saren took his pistol and shot himself in his head, blowing his brains out. His vision blackened in an instant as he fell from his floating platform crashing through the ceiling glass to the bottom floor as his mutated body laid dead.
Shepard and the others ran towards the holo screen to look at Saren as he laid dead, no longer recognizable.
"*SIGH* Poor bastard! All this time, he was fighting Sovereign's control, trying to break free. If only we had known sooner, we could have helped" Shepard said with regrets, Shepard still prayed mentally for his peace in the afterlife.
"Shepard, I know its hard. But this is not your fault. Its time. We need to upload the file to break Sovereign's hold on the station" Tali said placing her arm over his shoulder. Shepard turned to look at her and nodded.
The four then moved towards the holo screen as Tali uploaded the file into the citadel's mainframe. The console beeped in response.
"Shit! It worked. Now we have control of the station!" Shepard said as he felt the absolute victory inching towards them.
"Open the arms and try to open a comm channel to contact anyone" Liara suggested. Shepard opened a communications channel. Immediately an emergency SOS was heard by everyone.
"*STATIC*-...the Destiny Ascension. Main drives are offline, Kinetic barriers down to 40%. The council is on board. I repeat, the council is on board!" the asari navigator said. Then they all surprising heard a familiar voice responding to the distress call. It was the Normandy's flight lieutenant.
"Normandy to the Citadel. Normandy to the Citadel. Please tell me that's you who opened the channel commander!" Joker asked.
"Were you expecting someone else Joker?" Shepard asked with a smirk.
"We caught the distress call, Commander. I'm sitting here in the Andura sector with the entire Arcturus fleet. We can save the Ascension. Just unlock the relays around the Citadel and we'll send the cavalry in!" Joker said.
"Commander, If your human fleet comes in, the fight is going to get ugly. Are you ready to sacrifice your people's lives in this fight?" Liara asked. Shepard was in a dilemma as to what to do.
"This is bigger than humanity, commander. Sovereign is a threat to everything in this galaxy!" Garrus spoke his point of view.
"Precisely, that is why we may need your fleet to fight sovereign and not waste the resources trying to save other ships" Tali spoke her mind. Shepard took all the three's words into consideration and they were all right.
"What's the order, Commander? Come in now to save the council or hold back?" Joker asked who too was listening to the conversation.
Shepard took a minute to think. Tali is right about not wasting the resources. Garrus is right about doing the right thing and Liara is concerned about sacrificing life. To him, he never was a fan of the council as they always made things hard for him in this mission. But is it the right thing to do? To let them suffer when there is a chance to save them? Besides, even if things escalated the way they did, the council favored humanity and made him the man, the Spectre he is today. Atleast for that, he can return the favor. With all this in his mind, Shepard made a decision.
"I am opening the relays now, Joker. We need to save the Ascension-." Shepard said turning to look at the others, "It is the right thing to do" Shepard said as the others smiled at him and gave a nod of approval. Shepard then pressed the button in the holo screen.
Near the relay...
The Normandy and the Alliance fleet dropped out of the FTL en masse near the mass relay as Normandy was in the front leading the charge. All the ships cruised through the nebular cloud.
Then Admiral Hackett's voice echoed throughout the fleet.
"All Alliance ships, move in! Save the Destiny Ascension" Hackett ordered.
Meanwhile on the DA, the asari navigator got positive pings on the channel.
"Commander! We are picking up reinforcements!" the navigator said running her arms through the hologram.
"Its the Alliance! Thank the Goddess!" Lidanya said with a bright smile on her face.
"All ships, open fire on the geth!" Hackett ordered as the Alliance vessels including the fighters began firing their guns and cannons.
Soon the citadel space was filled with new fire exchange as the geth ships and the Alliance ships fired at each other. The Alliance ships were able to destroy the geth cruisers, but the geth dreadnoughts were able to return fire at the alliance ships destroying their cruisers and fighter crafts sending out multiple explosions and shockwaves through the cloud.
The citadel space was filled with plasma and mass accelerator rounds glowing with energy. The Alliance dreadnought's shields held the barrage of geth attacks. Both parties began to lose ships.
"Damn it! We are losing the ships! Divert cruisers to the right, Keep the dreadnoughts in the front! Begin diversionary bombardment!" Hackett ordered as the dreadnought reinforced the Destiny Ascension, engaging the geth, while Normandy and the cruisers began moving towards the Citadel whose arms began opening.
"The citadel arms are opening! All cruisers and Normandy, Concentrate fire on Sovereign!" Hackett ordered.
"Destiny Ascension, you are all clear, I repeat, You are all clear!" Joker said over the comm as he flew the Normandy towards the citadel and scanned the space to give the green light to DA that it can escape the battlespace.
Normandy charged towards the big Reaper that was holding itself in the citadel structure, as its existence is revealed to all the other ships. Joker flew the Normandy around the Reaper as the cruisers charged their cannon.
"All ships! OPEN FIRE!" Hackett ordered as cruisers and the fighters fired their cannons towards the Sovereign. But all the combined fire power didn't even scratch the Reaper's shields. Suddenly, the black machine raised one of its tentacled arm and fired a glowing red energy beam towards an Alliance cruiser. The beam tore through the shields and hull as the ship exploded in a bright nova. Sovereign then raised two more arms to fire two energy beams that destroyed two more cruisers.
"Damn it! Sovereign is too strong! We need to evade!" one of the cruiser's captain barked.
"Negative, this is our only chance. Take that monster down" Hackett ordered. But by that time, one of the Alliance dreadnought was blown to bits sending shockwaves across the nebular cloud.
"Admiral! We lost SSV Kyoto! Sensors are still reading 10 geth cruisers and 3 dreadnoughts" an alliance bridge officer spoke.
"Keep up the pressure!" Hackett said. Meanwhile Normandy was firing its weapons dodging the Reaper's attacks though it wasn't doing any good. Sovereign's shields were holding out effortlessly on the combined Alliance's attacks. Two more cruisers were blasted in the space by its energy beam.
Meanwhile...
Shepard, Liara, Tali and Garrus reached the lower level to take a look at Saren's mutated corpse.
"This looks bad! Real bad! Did the Reaper's implants do this to him?" Liara asked confused.
"No, I don't think this mutation has anything to do with Sovereign. This is something else" Shepard replied.
"I think its better to burn the corpse, just to make sure. I have never seen anything like what happened to him" Garrus said.
Then all of a sudden *INTENSE GROWLING*
"Holy shit!" Shepard cursed as Saren's corpse suddenly came alive as it started to mutate even more and tremble.
"What the hell!" Garrus was petrified in fear.
The thing that no longer resembled Saren got up as its body began to mutate heavily with multiple protrusions and tentacles as its body gained more sage green and yellow brown mass, and it grew upto 10 feet tall.
"RRRRAAAAAAAHHHHH!" the being roared so loud that shattered the glasses around them. For a moment, The Normandy crew were deeply horrified at the sight of the being, as it looked like this entity can't even exist in wildest dreams. The entity was leaking sage green slime like fluid along with some spores or mist in the air.
*BOOM*
The mutated monster stomped the ground that sent tremors and swung its protruded arm and tentacles hard.
"WATCH OUT!" Tali exclaimed as the protruded bone spike and tentacle hit all the four so hard it cycled their shields and smashed their biotic barriers.
"AHHH!" all the four screamed in pain as they flew back hitting the pillars and wall. The monstrous being approached Liara as she fired biotic energy bolts which didn't even hurt the entity. Liara was terrified that she might die in that very instant.
*SHOTGUN BLAST* Shepard fired his shotgun with incendiary rounds on it back that made the being flinch in pain.
"RRRAAAHH" the being growled as it turned and immediately grabbed Shepard by his throat and threw him to the wall.
"AHH!" Shepard grunted in pain as he felt being smashed against the wall by brute force.
Garrus and Tali unloaded their assault rifle and shotgun with incendiary round that burned its flesh, but used its protruded spike to puncture Garrus's suit and hurt Tali.
"Ahh crap! That things cracked my suit! How are we gonna kill this thing!?" Garrus asked as he was on the ground trying to get up.
Meanwhile the alliance fleet suffered heavy losses. Many cruisers were destroyed by the Sovereign as the fleet numbers thinned. They didn't expect Sovereign to be this tough that the combined assault by 12 cruisers was nothing to it.
"Sir, We aren't gonna last much longer here. There is still one geth dreadnaught and 7 cruisers. We have taken heavy losses" the bridge officer in the dreadnaught spoke.
"After all these attacks for several minutes, we can't even get past Sovereign's shields! We need to retreat. We no longer have the firepower admiral!" another captain from one of the surviving cruiser spoke.
"All surviving ships, fall back to the relay. There is nothing we can do here. We need reinforcements" Admiral Hackett said in a grim tone that expressed defeat. Joker who heard the conversation.
"What! No! You can't do that! Shepard and the others are counting on us!" Joker said.
"We lost so many ships, flight lieutenant. Sovereign is tearing through us. We need to link up with the rest of our fleet in the Sol" Hackett said.
The cruisers began to retreat from the Citadel as the surviving 2 Alliance dreadnaughts began to stop firing their weapons and retreated from the station's proximity to go back to the mass relay. The geth ships pursued them to finish them off.
When all things looked bleak...
"Admiral, sir!? We are picking up unknown gravitational anomaly near the relay space" an officer spoke.
"What!? Is it more geth!?" Hackett asked in tense.
"No! Its not geth, its not coming from the relay. Its-...my god! Sir, take a look at the live footage!" the officer spoke. As this transmission was broadcasted, all the alliance ships turned on the live footage of the space where the ships picked up the anomaly.
They all watched as all of a sudden, a bluish white vortex appeared and a large black mysterious alien ship with blue lights in its hull, popped out of it and the vortex closed behind.
"Oh my god! Is that-...What ship is that!? Doesn't match any pattern from any civilization, including the geth!" one officer spoke.
"Admiral, you need to check this sir! The ships is more than twice the size of Sovereign, 5 kms long and no traces of Eezo energy signature anywhere in the ship!" another officer spoke in a hurry.
"No Eezo!? How the hell is that even possible!?" Hackett barked over the comm.
Aboard the Normandy, Joker along with Kaiden, Wrex and Ashley were looking at the footage in the bridge.
"Damn! Is that another new enemy!? Doesn't look like geth! What shall we do, Admiral!?" Joker asked through the comm.
"My god! Look at the size of the thing! The design-...we have never seen a ship like this before. It looks like it can wipe us all out!" Ashley said tensed at the appearance of a new ship.
"Shepard and others are still in the Citadel. We need to bring them back!" Wrex said.
"Sovereign tore through our fleet Wrex, and we can't even touch it. We don't even know what this new ship that even dwarfs Sovereign, will do to us! Never thought a day like this would come. Are we defeated, after all this crap we went through!?" Kaiden cursed himself as he felt despondent and bilious.
Aboard the UNSC Vengeance...
"Benezia, we are dropping out of slipspace. Be ready" the Spartan said as they both stood in the bridge's glass window. The ship dropped out of the alternate dimension into the purple nebular cloud. The spartan went to one of the navigation terminal and turned on its holographic computer.
He then steered the ship towards the Citadel as the 3-D hologram of the station and all the other ships appeared in the bridge's command terminal. The Spartan then manipulated the hologram to get the details.
"Oh no! Those are geth ships. The citadel is already under attack!" Benezia said with grim despondence and sadness. Even with Destiny Ascension, she wasn't sure if the entire Citadel fleet was strong enough to take care of the geth ships and Sovereign.
John picked up a glowing red light in the hologram on the citadel. He touched it and took it in his hands separately and magnified it only to reveal what it was.
"Sovereign" the Spartan said as immediately the memories of the ancient Reaper war and flood war flushed his mind, trying to overwhelm him. Atleast that's what would happen to a normal soldier, brimming with PTSD at the mere sight of this machine. But the Spartan is a super soldier who has fought a lot tougher enemies. He was now determined to get more answers from this thing.
"I-..I was its unwilling slave until 343 Guilty Spark freed me from its indoctrination" Benezia spoke as the effects still haunt her.
Soon they both watched the ship coming out of the cloud's hidden view only to be exposed to the ugly battlespace that was filled with millions of broken ship parts creating a debris that can blind any ship navigator. Spartan and Benezia saw the surviving ships of various designs.
John noticed human life signs on some ships and synthetic intelligence in other ships. Then a big ship that revealed asari life signs.
"Looks like these geth ships and Sovereign have been overwhelming the others" the spartan said.
"There are geth cruisers and dreadnaughts. The destiny ascension-...by the goddess! The ship has taken heavy fire. In case of emergency situation, DA is supposed to evacuate the council as part of the protocol. Then by that, the councilors are in the DA as we speak. Can we save them?" Benezia asked with hopelessness, since she was clearly shown that the geth and Sovereign had superiority in the fight.
"Yes" the Spartan answered which made Benezia raise her eyebrows as she wondered how his one ship can defeat the enemies, even if it were bigger than the other ships. The Spartan went back to the command terminal and entered a few commands that highlighted the geth ships in red. Then he activated the ship's omega laser cannons.
Back with the Alliance fleet, the surviving ships regrouped as they were being chased by the geth fleet.
"Sir, sensors are detecting energy buildup along the ventral side of the unknown ship" an officer spoke.
"It must be its weapons. Prepare to engage the new enemy!" Hackett said.
"Sir, but the line of sight of the energy buildup -...is towards the geth dreadnaught!" the officer said which stunned the Admiral.
"What!?-...*BOOM*"
A powerful purple-white beam hit the geth dreadnaught and blew it to dust as the explosive shockwave sent ripples through the cloud, shaking the alliance ships.
"HOLY CRAP!" Joker exclaimed in shock as the Normandy crew watched the geth dreadnaught was turned into a pinata.
"That ship destroyed a geth dreadnaught like a paper weight!" Ashley was shocked to see the new ship's fire power.
"Is that ship helping us, the alliance?" Kaiden asked in confusion.
"What the hell just happened!?" meanwhile Hackett asked through the broadcast channel.
"Sir, that ship fired an energy pulse that blew the geth dreadnaught" the officer said which shocked the Admiral.
"What kind of civilization has a ship with that kind of fire power!?" Hackett asked stunned at the sheer might of the alien vessel.
*BOOM* one more energy round destroyed the last geth dreadnaught. Then the unknown alien ship took out the remaining geth cruisers with missiles that exploded with the flare of a nuclear bomb, but on a very small scale. These missiles travelled at mach 40. This explosion didn't just shatter the geth cruisers, but completely vaporized them.
Then the ship moved towards the citadel.
"Sir, all the geth ships have been eliminated. The ship's trajectory is slightly shifted. Its headed towards the Citadel. What is happening sir!?" the officer asked.
"Gentlemen, I think that ship is headed towards Sovereign. Whether we like it or not, whether that ship is somehow our ally or not, But right now, we need all the help we can get. The tide has turned to our favor now" Hackett responded.
Meanwhile aboard the UNSC Vengeance, the Spartan eliminated all the geth hostiles.
"All the geth are eliminated! You just killed them in one shot!?" Benezia was shocked to see the firepower of this ship, to experience it first hand.
"Ancient Humanity was truly formidable! If modern humans learns from them, they will become unstoppable!" Benezia thought about the future consequences of the ancestors meeting their descendants. But right now, she had to shove those thoughts aside as they have a reaper to destroy.
The Spartan didn't answer her though. He instead, steered the ship past the human vessels and brought himself to the line of sight against Sovereign, the Reaper, his old enemy. John immediately scanned the Reaper as the 3-D hologram brought the image with all the possible details. But one in particular intrigued him. This Reaper Sovereign was only 37 million years old based on the material scan. This immediately confirmed one thing for him.
"Not only the Reapers survived, but they gathered enough resources to build them over time too. Could the gravemind be behind this?" he thought with curiosity while also being cautious. He was now determined to study the Reaper's personality matrix to interrogate it and also secure its memory banks intact. To achieve this, he needs to kill the Reaper, but not blow it to bits.
"We need to study this Reaper's personality matrix and its memory banks. Cortana will need them intact" the Spartan said to which Benezia looked at him.
"What are you going to do then? You are just going to disable it somehow?" she asked.
John strategized that all the ships weapons could blast it to pieces and will leave nothing to recover. Then it dawned upon him.
By that time, The alliance ships watched the Reaper preparing its weapons against the new alien ship. As the beams hit the hull, its shields popped up in that spot for a moment absorbing the damage.
"This is incredible! Those beams tore through our ships, but this new vessel takes it like its nothing!" Hackett commented as the Alliance ship was in safe distance observing the fight.
Sovereign began firing its energy beam towards the UNSC Vengeance. 3 more red beams launched by the Sovereign, hit the ships which were all neutralized by the shield.
The Spartan immediately switched the weaponry to the main fibril cutter or Matter disintegration beam projector as its called. The energy stream from this weapon can destroy ships and even send a planetary atmosphere into a nova. But John had to be careful, he made the necessary mathematical calculations in his mind to compute the energy output. Once he got the answer, he tuned the fibril cutter's energy precisely. Then he sent the activation code which started to arm the weapon in the ship's nose.
"Sir, the unknown ship is building up energy once again, but this time, in the nose!" the alliance officer spoke.
The UNSC Vengeance's fibril cutter began to glow with bluish white energy. Once the right energy output was reached, the weapon fired a straight beam towards Sovereign. The energy travelled at near light speed hitting the Reaper. The Reaper's shield stood no chance against the power of ancient human weapon. The beam destroyed the shields and punched a hole through the hull. In a few seconds, the red electricity began to crackle all over Sovereign as its top body exploded in a fiery display of fireworks, leaving the lower body of the Reaper intact. The Reaper finally lost its hold on the edifice as its remaining body slowly fell lifeless. The Reaper was in free fall towards one of the Citadel's arm beneath as it crashed over the city with a minor explosion.
The entire surviving alliance fleet watched this spectacle in shock.
"Sir! Sovereign-...its-...its dead!" the alliance officer spoke.
"We have won people!" Hackett said over the comm which drew a loud applause from all the crew members in all the ships.
"That ship just one shot Sovereign itself while others even including the DA suffered losses. I don't know if this is good or bad. Either way, we have an unknown ally or a much bigger threat at hand" Kaiden commented.
"C'mon man! We've been getting our asses whooped. Like it or not, that ship is the reason we are still alive" Joker hit back at him.
"No, Kaiden is right. Just because it killed Sovereign doesn't mean its friendly. But if its an enemy, then I don't think, any of us is ready to fight THAT" Ashley said with concern in her voice.
"Fine, now its time to get the Commander and the others out of the Citadel" Joker said ignoring the negative comments.
"Commander Shepard, do you read me!? Commander!?" Kaiden called out over the comm but there was no response which raised concerns among the crew.
Aboard the UNSC Vengeance, John has accomplished his mission. The fibril cutter managed to kill the reaper keeping his core parts intact which he can retrieve for Cortana to study.
"Sovereign is finished" the Spartan said.
"By the Goddess! You did it!" Benezia said with extreme happiness. But all of a sudden the hologram beeped which confused the Spartan. He immediately highlighted the red marker and expanded it as it revealed a creature and 4 life signs, a human, a quarian, an asari and a turian. But the creature's image concerned John. Then he ran a scanner which revealed what that creature was. The name sent shockwaves in his mind as the memories of his war against these creatures kept running like a flash film.
It was a flood creature.
"Benezia, stay in the ship! I need to leave. We have a bigger problem on the Citadel!" Spartan said as he rushed towards the elevator door.
"Spartan, wait! Where are you going!?" Benezia asked as she tensed.
"No time to explain. Stay here!" the Spartan said as he travelled the elevator down and made his way back to the fighter craft hanger.
In the Citadel...
"RRAAAHHH-...*BOOM* *BANG*" the monstrous creature was manhandling the Normandy crew as they were barely trying to survive. All the four were bloodied as their armors were damaged. Tali's suit got punctured and the infection already began to take toll on her.
"Shepard, in this closed space, we won't last another minute, lets go to the top" Garrus said as they were limping. They saw multiple blocks of broken structures stacked which they used to climb. But due to the injuries, they couldn't move fast. Liara was the first to climb up as she grabbed a cable to crawl up. Shepard meanwhile used the shotgun with incendiary rounds to fire at the creature which growled in pain.
"Guess this sucker has a weakness for heat" Shepard said breathing heavily. Garrus fired a concussive shot which exploded on it body.
*LOUD GROWL*
The creature was angry as it charged forward. Shepard waited for few seconds for the gun's mass effect chamber to cooldown. Then he fired another round the slowed the creature, buying time for others to climb to the top level. After Liara and Tali were safe, Garrus and Shepard made their way, just in time before the creature could grab their limbs.
All the four were catching their breaths.
"C'mon! We can't wait here. That thing is still alive and unscathed!" Shepard said as he pushed others to move faster.
"Shepard-..I-...uhh-..." Tali all of a sudden fainted and fell to the floor.
"Oh no! Her suit is punctured. Quarians can't survive out in the open, exposed. She needs emergency medication" Liara said in tense and anxiety. Shepard felt like he let his team down. Shepard carried her in his shoulder.
"Come, lets move!" Shepard already injured, carried the unconscious Tali as Liara and Garrus limped besides him as they moved as fast as they can. But all of a sudden, they heard a loud thud behind them. They turned back for a second and saw the monster break through the floor and leap high to reach their level.
"Damn! That thing is so close to us!" Garrus said as they all moved forward. Garrus loaded his concussive blast. But before he could fire, the creature grabbed his legs and pulled him and dragged him through the floor.
"GARRUS!" Shepard called him out loud as he and Liara fired their assault rifle to no effect. The creature was holding Garrus upside down and was about to kill him with its protruded arm spike, but before it could deal the death blow.
*MULTIPLE DIRECTED ENERGY ROUNDS*
"RRAAAAHH-..." the monster growled in pain as it dropped Garrus down to the floor. Shepard immediately dragged him back to safety.
"What happened!?" Liara asked at the sudden turn of events.
They watched as the creature was hit by several bluish white directed energy rounds as the creature writhed in pain.
"Oh my god! Look over there! There is someone-...some-...thing!' Shepard called out as the three with Shepard holding Tali looked past the creature to notice a bulk armored giant, 8 ft tall in a fragments of green armor plates with black body suit underneath. The armored being had a golden visor. This new being looked like, as if death itself has descended down to mortal plane.
The creature immediately attacked the new comer with its tentacles which the armored being evaded at a speed not possible for its size, with precision. Then it holstered its rifle on its back and picked up a metal staff and all of a sudden it extended itself to its height with a long and curved energy blade like thing on both the ends of the staff.
The armored being charged towards the monster at great speed and leapt high in the air and slashed the body of the creature. He then immediately chopped the legs of the monstrosity which made it fall short. Then as a final death blow, the armored being slashed the place where its head used to be. The creature fell flat in 3 pieces as it died away.
The armored being then powered down its staff and placed it in its lower back. Then it walked towards the four who were looking at that being, feeling powerless and overwhelmed, as they felt the heavy thuds in every step it walked. Then it stopped in front of them.
"Who-...what are you!?" Shepard asked looking at the being, a bit terrified.
"Spartan Sierra-117, We need to move, right now" it said with authoritative tone, in a familiar language with familiar words which made the four glance at each other in shock and confusion.
"Ohh-...this is getting better and better" Garrus muttered as the three stood up. The being then looked at the downed quarian as it scanned her.
"I am reading multiple infection in that Quarian's bloodstream. Without medical attention, she will die in few hours" the armored being spoke.
"Yes, we know! Can you help?" Liara asked, though treading cautiously. The armored being calling itself Spartan pressed a button on the armor in his right forearm. It summoned a 3-d mini hologram as he entered a few commands.
"Yes, we will leave to my ship where I can help her. Meanwhile, we also need your leaders to meet us there" the Spartan said as they all watched an alien fighter craft approached them and turned 180 degrees and opened the the door in 4 fragments.
The Spartan gave a nod to follow him as Shepard carried Tali as the crew limped their way into the alien ship.
One thing was sure, this day has gotten more weird than ever.
To be continued...
Author's notes: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. With this, the ME1 phase of the story is over and from now on, it will be its own story with elements of ME2 and 3 borrowed. Will see you all in the next chapter.
