Post by DS on May 6, 2010 21:25:30 GMT -5
Notes: So everyone knows, this is a fan-based story about Mass Effect 2! I do not claim ownership of anything that's Bioware's, and I also say that if I change anything in the storyline of this (cause I plan to add some non-canon material of my own), it is NOT canon, not true and something I totally made up. Just so everyone knows! Hope you enjoy this, as this will be my first written work ever (except for essays and RPing... but that's different). Thanks for reading!
A Soldier's Story
- Mass Effect 2 and 3 Fanfic -
By Dastevenator
Looking back on his life, Shepard remembered how his life had been. Born into a spacer family, both of his parents in the Navy and they were always on the move. Decent education, joined the Marines right when he graduated. Early in service, he had been at Elysium when put under attack by batarian slavers. Had single-handedly held off a whole platoon while waiting for reinforcements to come. Afterwards, he had been awarded many medals and awards, given praise. He couldn't remember everything precisely that day... He had then gone through several more years of service till his position as the XO on the SR1 Normandy under Captain Anderson. Thats when his life got complicated. The Geth, Saren, Reapers... Those times seemed like the hardest, yet best times of his life. A good crew, a family, who had all fought together to stop Saren and the Reapers. Garrus, Tali, Ashley, Kaiden, Wrex... All good people. While he usually kept the professional side always up, in those few times that he was able to let go, they all reminded him of the family he never had. Garrus being like a brother-in-law; Liara, the niece; Tali, the niece or younger sister he never had; Kaiden and Ashley being very close friends; Wrex, a fellow soldier, friend and occasional mentor; Joker, the comedy relief for the whole crew; then finally Doctor Chakwas, the mother figure for everyone.
And now, he was finishing off what was left of the Geth with them all. That was why the Normandy and it's crew had been sent to this system, to investigate the three most recent missing vessels. While most thought it was slavers or pirates, they had to ensure it wasn't Geth. Standing in his private quarters and putting his armor on, he nearly fell over as the alarms went off and the ship shuddered violently as a blast hit it. Running out of his quarters, he went straight for the main crew deck and pulled on his helmet. In seconds, Ashley had joined him and was putting her own helmet on as she stopped behind him, with fire everywhere and people running for escape shuttles nearby. "Shepard!"
As Shepard stood in front of a console and typed out a command, he ensured his helmet was on correct then spoke. "Distress beacon is ready for launch." As Ashley secured her own helmet, she watched her CO carefully. "Will the Alliance get here in time?" A sudden explosion was felt behind them and nearly sent Ashley to the floor, only Shepard grabbing her kept her up. "The Alliance won't abandon us. We just need to hold on. Get everyone into the escape shuttles." Reaching up to grab a fire extinguisher, Shepard used it quickly on a fire nearby, then tossed it to Ashley. Glancing up from using the tool, she said firmly. "Joker's still in the cockpit. He won't evacuate. I'm not leaving either." Shepard felt a cable hit his back then another explosion nearby, turning to Ashley and pushing her in the general direction of the shuttles. "Go, I'll get Joker and haul him out of here!" He turned to type in another command into the near destroyed console. Ashley hesitated, watching him. "Commander." Shepard kept himself from staring for a moment as he worked, then glanced at her. "Ashley, go. Now." She stood a moment, then nodded. "Aye aye sir." She turned and ran for the shuttles, helping fellow crew run for them.
Shepard turned to face the console for a moment, slapped the control for the anti-fire system, then got a faceful of a explosion and backed away. Turning, he began running down the crew deck's corridor, past the mess hall table and up the stairs. As the doors unsealed, everything went dead silent except for the slight whoosh of air for a moment. As he walked across the deck, the only noise her heard was his own breathing, but he saw many unnatural things. The destroyed deck, the gaping hole in the roof and the planet above, glowing metal as it barely cooled down. It was all horrible. He focused on walking towards the cockpit though, pushing aside floating chairs on his way to Joker. Then suddenly he passed through the mass effect field and could hear and move normally.
He ran up to Joker and stopped next to him, gripping the helmsman chair to stable himself. "Come on, Joker! We have to get out of here!" Joker continued to try and gain control of the ruined vessel, his eyes intent behind the breather mask. "No! I won't abandon the Normandy! I can still save her!" Shepard watched as his hands flew over the controls for a moment before leaning forward. "The Normandy's lost. Going down with the ship won't change that." Joker considered it for a moment then nodded sadly. "Ya... okay. Help me up." Shepard began helping him up when Joker spoke, his eyes wide in alarm. "They're coming in for another attack!" Then suddenly the Normandy shuddered violently as another beam hit. Shepard ran over to the field and saw the beam tearing through only meters away, then ran back to Joker. He grabbed his arm and quickly pulled him up, getting a loud grunt of pain from Joker. "Ah! Watch the arm!" Shepard wrapped Joker's arm around his neck and helped him to the nearby evac shuttle. As it opened and he let Joker settle in and slam the protective railing on, a sudden explosion occurred behind him as the Normandy fell apart bit by bit. Seconds after the first explosion, a chain reaction occurred and sent Shepard flying. Joker yelled out in shock, watching from the insides of the shuttle. "Commander!" Shepard watched the beam nearing Joker's shuttle closer and closer. "Shepard!" He watched the beam only a moment, then suddenly slammed his fist on the launch button, letting the evac shuttle seal and suddenly jettison away.
Floating in space for a moment, seeing the Normandy being torn apart and the shuttle launching away, Shepard had a moment of peace before the ship was rocked by several more explosions, sending him flying into a wall then into the vastness of space as the Normandy was torn apart by multiple beams, destroying it utterly. Breathing deeply, Shepard suddenly felt and heard his hard suit leaking air, growing short on breath and feeling colder and colder. He gripped his throat as he began to suffocate, felt his suit grown hotter and hotter as he entered the atmosphere. Then suddenly, everything was gone and he felt nothing...
Darkness... Darkness... Then he felt life come into reality again as he heard noise, then awoke slowly. Blurry eyed, barely awake, he glanced about the strange room, hearing voices. The first proved to be female. "There. On the monitor. Something's wrong." A second voice spoke right afterwards, this one male. "He's reacting to outside stimuli. Showing an awareness of his surroundings." His sight faded out a moment, then came back... with a beautiful woman in plain sight walking towards him. He'd never seen her before. The male voice returned. "Oh my god, Miranda. I think he's waking up." There was urgency in his voice if he read it right. Then the man and woman both came into view, looking down at him worriedly. The woman spoke again. "d**n it, Wilson! He's not ready yet. Give him the sedative!" Shepard tried to look at her and touch her, then she looked down and continued talking. "Shepard-- don't try to move." She grabbed his wrist and pushed it gently down to his side. "Just lie still. Try to stay calm."Shepard suddenly felt his heart pumping and his eyes going about. The man's voice, Wilson if he remembered right, spoke urgently. "Heart rate still climbing. Brain activity is off the charts.... Stats pushing into the red zone. It's not working!" The woman, Miranda, was walking out of sight again. "Another dose. Now!"
Shepard heard tapping at a console, then suddenly his eye-sight began fading and he couldn't move easily as the sedative they spoke of flowed through him. "Heart rate dropping. Stats falling back into normal range.... That was too close. We almost lost him." Miranda's face looked down from above again, directly over his face. She glanced at the out-of-sight man, anger in her voice. "I told you your estimates were off. Run the numbers again." She looked back down at him, then he felt his head fall down and sleep embraced him again.
Only what felt like a short time later, he heard a muffled voice, then suddenly crystal clear as he awoke. "Wake up, Commander... Shepard, do you hear me? Get out of that bed now -- this facility is under attack." Waking up fully, Shepard stiffly stood up and checked himself, feeling sore and tired but... alive strangely. He remembered suffocating, falling into the atmosphere... He mentally shrugged then followed Miranda's instructions and got his armor. Quickly pulling on his armor and taking the pistol, he checked it and found it with no thermal clip. "This pistol has no thermal clip" Sheperd noted annoyed. He turned and proceeded for the door, listening to Miranda as she spoke of the canisters about to explode. He ducked behind a piece of cover, felt and heard the explosion, then jumped up and ran through the door. Finding a pair of thermal clips on the floor, he picked them up and slammed one into his pistol, checked it to make sure it was fine, then brought it up and proceeded through the next door. Jumping over the barricade, he saw a LOKI mech taking aim at him. Bringing his pistol to bear, he fired a few rounds into it, then aimed for one in it's head, blowing it off. He ran up to it, noticing his kinetic barriers had taken a hit. He needed to watch for that...
Running over to the downed mech, he picked up it's pistol and ejected it's thermal clip, taking it for himself, then ran up the stairs and into another room. Taking cover quickly behind a railing, he saw a small squad of mechs come out and begin attacking. Quickly taking the bulk of them down with well-placed shots, he proceeded forward, relieved them of their thermal clips, then proceeded forward through several corridors untill he came to a railing. Seeing a grenade launcher, he picked it up, just in time to see more LOKI mechs come through the doors below. Taking aim, he let off a round and blew apart the mechs, followed by a bigger explosion from a nearby gas tank. He took the elevator down, ran through the fire, and proceeded into a room where several log computers were at and a pair of crawling mechs. Firing a round into each, he then went to the computer's and listened to them, one of Miranda's then one of Wilson's. Both were about him it seemed.
He left once they were finished and found a man fighting mechs from across a small canyon. He seemed shocked to see him, then proceeded to fire a few rounds at the mechs and took cover. "Shepard, what the hell--" As he took cover next to the man, Shepard took aim at the mechs and blew one apart, then hid behind cover. "Who the hell are you and where am I?" The man, known as Jacob, quickly explained where he was, who he was and what was happening, at least as far as he knew. "And now, we gotta deal with these mechs." He stood and sent a wave of biotic power at a mech, sending it floating helplessly into the wall while they shot it. A massive firefight started between the two parties, with mechs being blown apart mercilessly. Within minutes, the mechs were all blown to pieces or unable to even stand. Holstering their pistols, both men glanced at each other and shrugged. Shepard asked a few questions, then recieved a radio signal from Wilson. "I remember Wilson. He was there when I first woke up." Jacob nodded and explained quickly, they subsequently both headed for the nearby door and went along several service tunnels, combating a few LOKI mechs before finally reaching Wilson.
Wilson laid on the ground clutching his leg, a bloody hole in his leg. "Arrgh, the bastards got me in the leg." He motioned over to the wall, specifically a medical station. "Get me some medi-gel, quickly..." He groaned painfully, pressing tightly on the wound to keep it from bleeding. Jacob quickly kneeled down and began working on the wound while Shepard walked over and acquired the medi-gel, bringing it back for Jacob to use on Wilson. After several minutes of discussion, with Shepard finding out both were with Cerberus and what had happened in the station, the group turned to head for the door leading them to the shuttle bay... to find a small squad of mechs coming through already. Diving for cover, Shepard, Wilson and Jacob quickly returned fire and then blew the crates in front of the mechs apart, which tore the mechs apart. Standing, they continued onward and after a large firefight with a pair of small mech squads, they reached the door to the shuttle. Wilson limped to the door and quickly tapped in a command. "Hurry, we gotta get out of here before--" The door opened in front of him to reveal Miranda. "Miranda! But your--" She aimed down immediately and fired Wilson in the throat, ending his life in seconds. "Dead?" She had a look of disgust for a moment, then turned to find Shepard aiming a pistol at her. "Why did you execute him? We could have gotten some information from him!" Miranda shrugged. "He betrayed us. I wasn't going to risk your safety, not after two years of work in bringing you back. Now I suggest we leave now before more mechs attack." She turned and walked towards the Kodiak shuttle, with Jacob and Shepard following along behind.
Minutes later, the shuttle soared away from the large station and then sped into FTL space. The shuttle ride was mostly quiet the whole way, till just before the shuttle was to exit FTL space. Miranda and Jacob both asked Shepard questions about things that had happened in his past, how he handled it, and what he did afterwards, then the shuttle sped out of FTL and headed for a massive station. Docking and heading for a waiting room, Shepard was told to enter. Upon entering, he stood on a small platform for a moment before it started projecting a field about him. Then suddenly, he was looking upon a man who could only be the Illusive Man. They both stared at each other for a few moments before speaking. Human colonies disappearing, the Lazarous Project, and a new mission. All proved interesting, even great for Shepard.
And a short time later, Shepard and his new squad were all back in the shuttle and heading for Freedom's Progress. Upon landing, Shepard checked his gear. A M-8 Avenger assault rifle, the M-3 Predator, the M-100 Grenade Launcher, a M-92 Mantis sniper rifle, and a M-23 Katana. A impressive armament for himself, while his squad-mates were equipped with lighter amount of weapons of their choice. As they explored the empty colony, they found only signs of a sudden disappearance, no explanations. Except for one thing, which came a little after exploring for a hour. They opened a single door into a small house and found it to be unoccupied. Around half-dozen armed quarians sat within, then stood immediately and drew weapons, along with Shepard and his squad.
A male quarian quickly yelled out as he aimed his assault rifle. "Stop right there!" Then suddenly one of the quarians in the rear walked forward and pushed his rifle down as she passed. "Prazza, you said you'd let me handle this!" As she turned to face Shepard, she halted and seemed to gape. "Wait... Shepard?" The male quarian, Prazza, suddenly twitched his rifle upward, ready for a fight. "I'm not taking any chances with Cerberus operatives!" The now-recognized Tali brought up her hand, standing between the two groups. "Put those weapons down!" She turned back to Shepard and said hesitantly. "Shepard? Is that... you're alive?" Shepard nodded, a warm smile on his lips. "Remeber when I gave you that geth data, Tali? Did it help you complete your Pilgrimage?" She nodded. "Yes, it did." She turned back to Prazza. "Prazza, weapons down. This is definitely Commander Shepard." Prazza slowly put his assault rifle into stand-by mode and on his back. "Why is your old commander working for Cerberus?" Tali blinked and glanced at Shepard, then back at Prazza. "I don't know. Maybe we should ask." She turned to Shepard, awaiting a answer patiently.
Shepard considered for a moment, then spoke. "Cerberus rebuilt me, but I'm not taking their orders. We can discuss the specifics once I know why you're here." Tali nodded, glancing at her own squad then back at Shepard. "One of our people was here on a Pilgrimage. His name was Veetor. We came to find him." Shepard nodded to Tali and glanced at his squad. "If Veetor survived the attack, he may be able to tell us what happened." Tali paused a second before replying. "That's the hope. We've seen him, but he might not be in the best state to answer questions. He was injured and, ah, nervous--" Prazza cut in at her last sentence. "She means that he is unstable. Combine that with damage to his suite's CO2 scrubbers and an infection from and open-air exposure, and he's likely delirious." Tali continued after that, stepping from foot to foot in discomfort. "When he saw us landing, he hid in a warehouse on the far side of town. We suspect he also programmed the mechs to attack anything that moved." Shepard nodded, thinking to himself for a moment before replying.
"Veetor's the only one who can tell us what happened here. We should work together to find him." Tali nodded as well, now her stance much surer. "Good idea. You'll need two teams to get past the drones, anyway." Prazza looked skeptical, glancing from Tali to Shepard. "Now we're working with Cerberus?" Tali turned and glared at Prazza. "No, Prazza, you're working for me. If you can't follow orders, go wait on the ship." Turning back to Shepard, she continued. "Head for the warehouse through the center of the colony. We'll circle around the far side and draw off some of the drones to clear you a path." Shepard nodded and pulled out his assault rifle. "Make sure to stay in radio contact." He began walking to the door, with Tali and her squad following along behind. "Will do. Good luck, Shepard. Whatever happens... it's good to have you back." Shepard glanced over his shoulder at her and gave a small grin, then opened the door and led his squad down the path to the center of the colony while Tali and her's went down a side alley.
As they proceeded down in between and through buildings, Shepard and his team engaged several small sqauds of enemy drones, always diving for cover only seconds before the rockets or bullets began impacting on their cover or flying over their head, then they would return fire with more accuracy and tear apart the mechanical drones. Suddenly over the radio, Tali called in. "Shepard! Prazza and his squad rushed on ahead. I told them to wait, but they wouldn't listen! They want to find Veetor away before you get here!" As Miranda and Jacob commented about the situation, Shepard replied to Tali while rolling into cover behind a large crate, barely dodging a rocket blast from a already-in-place drone. "Roger that Tali. Were moving as fast as possible!"
Firing a burst of kinetic fire into the drone, Shepard ran out of cover and through a burst of fire, seeing bullets soaring in front of him and feeling a few hit his side barriers while he sprinted for another piece of cover. While Miranda and Jacob finished off the last few drones, Shepard pulled himself over a high railing and dropped ten feet onto the ground below, then ran for a large docking bay door. "Tali, if you can, get this door open!" He motioned for Jacob and Miranda to take cover at the edges of the door, then he crouched down behind a pile of crates. The blast door reamined motionless only for a moment, then it was unlocking and pulling up, revealing a firefight in process.
Prazza's squad had stupidly engaged what appeared to be a YMIR mech... and were being slaughtered. Seeing a pair of quarians being torn apart by the chain gun, then another being crushed by the mech's large foot, Shepard sighed and motioned forward. Jacob and Miranda rushed forward, launching a rear attack on the mech and drawing it's attention. As it turned to engage them, Shepard circled around it as well, pulling out his grenade launcher. Taking aim, he began firing several rounds of the heavy explosive, seeing every single one of them collide with the mech's back. First, the barriers went down. Then a pair of rounds connected with the heavy armor of the mech, blasting it away and leaving a gaping hole in it's back. It still kept firing through, and now turned to face Shepard. Ducking behind another big crate, he quickly set his grenade launcher down and pulled out one of the heavy rounds, then put it on his back again.
Suddenly he saw the crate begin to fall apart as the mech fired hundreds, maybe thousands of rounds into it, then a missle. Rolling away, Shepard stood and ran flat out to the mech, circled it, then jumped onto it's back. Arming the grenade, he stuffed it deep into the blown away part of the mech, jumped off and ran like the wind for cover. He turned right before the entering cover and pulled out his rifle. Activating the disruptor ammo in his rifle, he took aim at the slow-moving mech's back and fired a sustained burst, the rounds ripping through the shields and hitting the grenade shell. It detonated violently, tearing apart half the mech. It stood only a moment, then fell over like a giant, unable to move as the power core was damaged. Seconds later, the body was blown apart by it's own reactor, causing a large explosion that sent Shepard flying back a couple feet.
Once the chaos had settled down, Shepard and his suqad walked through the ruin of the battle and headed for the nearby building that the surviving quarian squad members had crawled into. Finding Tali treating them, Shepard hurried over to start helping, though Tali waved him away, telling him to fidn Veetor. Nodding, he went out and headed across the open piece of ground to the warehouse he was supposedly in. Upon unsealing the door, they saw a male quarian sitting in front of a large computer screen, tapping away, speaking to himself. "Monsters coming back. Mechs will protect. Safe from swarms. Have to hide. No monsters. No swarms. No-no-no-no-no."
Shepard slowly walked forward, careful to not spook the delirious quarian. "Veetor?" The quarian continued to tap commands into the console, eyes fixed on the screens. "No Veetor. Not here. Swarms can't find. Monsters coming. Have to hide." Shepard paused a moment, tempted to try physical contact but decided againest it. "Nobody's going to hurt you anymore." Veetor continued to just tap at the console, not even noticing that newcomers had entered and were speaking to him. Jacob spoke up then. "I don't think he can hear you, Commander." Shepard typed in a command into his omni-tool, glancing up to hear Veetor going on about 'monsters', 'swarms', and how the mechs would protect him. Deciding to try and snap him out of it, Shepard sent a signal to shut off the computer screens, making Veetor pause then seem to finally notice them. "You're human. Where did you hide? How come they didn't find you?"
Miranda decided to finally speak up it seemed as she asked her first question, obviously of several. "Who didn't find us?" Veetor paused a moment, then hesitantly spoke. "The... the monsters. The swarms. They took everyone." Shepard decided to insert himself in the 'interrogation', hoping to keep the questions calm and quiet. "Why didn;t the colonists fight back, Veetor? What happened?" Veetor turned to the screens again, obviously scared once again. "You don't know. You didn't see. But I see everything." He quieted down and typed in something on the console. A second later, the screen popped up again with what looked like security cam footage. Miranda peered carefully at it, seeing the many images of what looked like locusts, strange individuals, pods, and other things. "Looks like security footage. He must've pieced it together manually." As the image fell onto one of the individuals, Jacob barked out a surprised question. "What the hell is that?!"
Miranda peered closely, then nearly gaped in total surprise. "My god. I think it's a Collector." Shepard's own eyes also widened behind his rebreather helmet, the name striking home. "d**nit... They're very rare to be seen correct?" Miranda and Jacob both nodded. "They usually work through intermediares, like slavers or hired mercenaries. If they're involved with the Reapers somehow, it could explain what happened to the colonies." Jacob nodded. "The Collectors have advanced technology. They could have a weapon that disables a entire settlement at once." Veetor continued speaking, with Shepard, Jacob and Miranda listening carefully. "The seeker swarms. No one can hide. The seekers find you. Freeze you. Then the monsters take you away." Shepard nodded, watching the images carefully as the Collectors gathered the colonists in strange pods. "What happened next?"
"The monster took the people onto the ship, and then they left. The ship flew away. But they'll be back for me. No one escapes!" Veetor glanced at the screens in fear. Jacob replied quietly. "I think thats probably all we're getting out of him Commander." Shepard nodded, then turned back to Veetor. "We appreciate what you told us. You were very helpful."
A Soldier's Story
- Mass Effect 2 and 3 Fanfic -
By Dastevenator
Looking back on his life, Shepard remembered how his life had been. Born into a spacer family, both of his parents in the Navy and they were always on the move. Decent education, joined the Marines right when he graduated. Early in service, he had been at Elysium when put under attack by batarian slavers. Had single-handedly held off a whole platoon while waiting for reinforcements to come. Afterwards, he had been awarded many medals and awards, given praise. He couldn't remember everything precisely that day... He had then gone through several more years of service till his position as the XO on the SR1 Normandy under Captain Anderson. Thats when his life got complicated. The Geth, Saren, Reapers... Those times seemed like the hardest, yet best times of his life. A good crew, a family, who had all fought together to stop Saren and the Reapers. Garrus, Tali, Ashley, Kaiden, Wrex... All good people. While he usually kept the professional side always up, in those few times that he was able to let go, they all reminded him of the family he never had. Garrus being like a brother-in-law; Liara, the niece; Tali, the niece or younger sister he never had; Kaiden and Ashley being very close friends; Wrex, a fellow soldier, friend and occasional mentor; Joker, the comedy relief for the whole crew; then finally Doctor Chakwas, the mother figure for everyone.
And now, he was finishing off what was left of the Geth with them all. That was why the Normandy and it's crew had been sent to this system, to investigate the three most recent missing vessels. While most thought it was slavers or pirates, they had to ensure it wasn't Geth. Standing in his private quarters and putting his armor on, he nearly fell over as the alarms went off and the ship shuddered violently as a blast hit it. Running out of his quarters, he went straight for the main crew deck and pulled on his helmet. In seconds, Ashley had joined him and was putting her own helmet on as she stopped behind him, with fire everywhere and people running for escape shuttles nearby. "Shepard!"
As Shepard stood in front of a console and typed out a command, he ensured his helmet was on correct then spoke. "Distress beacon is ready for launch." As Ashley secured her own helmet, she watched her CO carefully. "Will the Alliance get here in time?" A sudden explosion was felt behind them and nearly sent Ashley to the floor, only Shepard grabbing her kept her up. "The Alliance won't abandon us. We just need to hold on. Get everyone into the escape shuttles." Reaching up to grab a fire extinguisher, Shepard used it quickly on a fire nearby, then tossed it to Ashley. Glancing up from using the tool, she said firmly. "Joker's still in the cockpit. He won't evacuate. I'm not leaving either." Shepard felt a cable hit his back then another explosion nearby, turning to Ashley and pushing her in the general direction of the shuttles. "Go, I'll get Joker and haul him out of here!" He turned to type in another command into the near destroyed console. Ashley hesitated, watching him. "Commander." Shepard kept himself from staring for a moment as he worked, then glanced at her. "Ashley, go. Now." She stood a moment, then nodded. "Aye aye sir." She turned and ran for the shuttles, helping fellow crew run for them.
Shepard turned to face the console for a moment, slapped the control for the anti-fire system, then got a faceful of a explosion and backed away. Turning, he began running down the crew deck's corridor, past the mess hall table and up the stairs. As the doors unsealed, everything went dead silent except for the slight whoosh of air for a moment. As he walked across the deck, the only noise her heard was his own breathing, but he saw many unnatural things. The destroyed deck, the gaping hole in the roof and the planet above, glowing metal as it barely cooled down. It was all horrible. He focused on walking towards the cockpit though, pushing aside floating chairs on his way to Joker. Then suddenly he passed through the mass effect field and could hear and move normally.
He ran up to Joker and stopped next to him, gripping the helmsman chair to stable himself. "Come on, Joker! We have to get out of here!" Joker continued to try and gain control of the ruined vessel, his eyes intent behind the breather mask. "No! I won't abandon the Normandy! I can still save her!" Shepard watched as his hands flew over the controls for a moment before leaning forward. "The Normandy's lost. Going down with the ship won't change that." Joker considered it for a moment then nodded sadly. "Ya... okay. Help me up." Shepard began helping him up when Joker spoke, his eyes wide in alarm. "They're coming in for another attack!" Then suddenly the Normandy shuddered violently as another beam hit. Shepard ran over to the field and saw the beam tearing through only meters away, then ran back to Joker. He grabbed his arm and quickly pulled him up, getting a loud grunt of pain from Joker. "Ah! Watch the arm!" Shepard wrapped Joker's arm around his neck and helped him to the nearby evac shuttle. As it opened and he let Joker settle in and slam the protective railing on, a sudden explosion occurred behind him as the Normandy fell apart bit by bit. Seconds after the first explosion, a chain reaction occurred and sent Shepard flying. Joker yelled out in shock, watching from the insides of the shuttle. "Commander!" Shepard watched the beam nearing Joker's shuttle closer and closer. "Shepard!" He watched the beam only a moment, then suddenly slammed his fist on the launch button, letting the evac shuttle seal and suddenly jettison away.
Floating in space for a moment, seeing the Normandy being torn apart and the shuttle launching away, Shepard had a moment of peace before the ship was rocked by several more explosions, sending him flying into a wall then into the vastness of space as the Normandy was torn apart by multiple beams, destroying it utterly. Breathing deeply, Shepard suddenly felt and heard his hard suit leaking air, growing short on breath and feeling colder and colder. He gripped his throat as he began to suffocate, felt his suit grown hotter and hotter as he entered the atmosphere. Then suddenly, everything was gone and he felt nothing...
Darkness... Darkness... Then he felt life come into reality again as he heard noise, then awoke slowly. Blurry eyed, barely awake, he glanced about the strange room, hearing voices. The first proved to be female. "There. On the monitor. Something's wrong." A second voice spoke right afterwards, this one male. "He's reacting to outside stimuli. Showing an awareness of his surroundings." His sight faded out a moment, then came back... with a beautiful woman in plain sight walking towards him. He'd never seen her before. The male voice returned. "Oh my god, Miranda. I think he's waking up." There was urgency in his voice if he read it right. Then the man and woman both came into view, looking down at him worriedly. The woman spoke again. "d**n it, Wilson! He's not ready yet. Give him the sedative!" Shepard tried to look at her and touch her, then she looked down and continued talking. "Shepard-- don't try to move." She grabbed his wrist and pushed it gently down to his side. "Just lie still. Try to stay calm."Shepard suddenly felt his heart pumping and his eyes going about. The man's voice, Wilson if he remembered right, spoke urgently. "Heart rate still climbing. Brain activity is off the charts.... Stats pushing into the red zone. It's not working!" The woman, Miranda, was walking out of sight again. "Another dose. Now!"
Shepard heard tapping at a console, then suddenly his eye-sight began fading and he couldn't move easily as the sedative they spoke of flowed through him. "Heart rate dropping. Stats falling back into normal range.... That was too close. We almost lost him." Miranda's face looked down from above again, directly over his face. She glanced at the out-of-sight man, anger in her voice. "I told you your estimates were off. Run the numbers again." She looked back down at him, then he felt his head fall down and sleep embraced him again.
Only what felt like a short time later, he heard a muffled voice, then suddenly crystal clear as he awoke. "Wake up, Commander... Shepard, do you hear me? Get out of that bed now -- this facility is under attack." Waking up fully, Shepard stiffly stood up and checked himself, feeling sore and tired but... alive strangely. He remembered suffocating, falling into the atmosphere... He mentally shrugged then followed Miranda's instructions and got his armor. Quickly pulling on his armor and taking the pistol, he checked it and found it with no thermal clip. "This pistol has no thermal clip" Sheperd noted annoyed. He turned and proceeded for the door, listening to Miranda as she spoke of the canisters about to explode. He ducked behind a piece of cover, felt and heard the explosion, then jumped up and ran through the door. Finding a pair of thermal clips on the floor, he picked them up and slammed one into his pistol, checked it to make sure it was fine, then brought it up and proceeded through the next door. Jumping over the barricade, he saw a LOKI mech taking aim at him. Bringing his pistol to bear, he fired a few rounds into it, then aimed for one in it's head, blowing it off. He ran up to it, noticing his kinetic barriers had taken a hit. He needed to watch for that...
Running over to the downed mech, he picked up it's pistol and ejected it's thermal clip, taking it for himself, then ran up the stairs and into another room. Taking cover quickly behind a railing, he saw a small squad of mechs come out and begin attacking. Quickly taking the bulk of them down with well-placed shots, he proceeded forward, relieved them of their thermal clips, then proceeded forward through several corridors untill he came to a railing. Seeing a grenade launcher, he picked it up, just in time to see more LOKI mechs come through the doors below. Taking aim, he let off a round and blew apart the mechs, followed by a bigger explosion from a nearby gas tank. He took the elevator down, ran through the fire, and proceeded into a room where several log computers were at and a pair of crawling mechs. Firing a round into each, he then went to the computer's and listened to them, one of Miranda's then one of Wilson's. Both were about him it seemed.
He left once they were finished and found a man fighting mechs from across a small canyon. He seemed shocked to see him, then proceeded to fire a few rounds at the mechs and took cover. "Shepard, what the hell--" As he took cover next to the man, Shepard took aim at the mechs and blew one apart, then hid behind cover. "Who the hell are you and where am I?" The man, known as Jacob, quickly explained where he was, who he was and what was happening, at least as far as he knew. "And now, we gotta deal with these mechs." He stood and sent a wave of biotic power at a mech, sending it floating helplessly into the wall while they shot it. A massive firefight started between the two parties, with mechs being blown apart mercilessly. Within minutes, the mechs were all blown to pieces or unable to even stand. Holstering their pistols, both men glanced at each other and shrugged. Shepard asked a few questions, then recieved a radio signal from Wilson. "I remember Wilson. He was there when I first woke up." Jacob nodded and explained quickly, they subsequently both headed for the nearby door and went along several service tunnels, combating a few LOKI mechs before finally reaching Wilson.
Wilson laid on the ground clutching his leg, a bloody hole in his leg. "Arrgh, the bastards got me in the leg." He motioned over to the wall, specifically a medical station. "Get me some medi-gel, quickly..." He groaned painfully, pressing tightly on the wound to keep it from bleeding. Jacob quickly kneeled down and began working on the wound while Shepard walked over and acquired the medi-gel, bringing it back for Jacob to use on Wilson. After several minutes of discussion, with Shepard finding out both were with Cerberus and what had happened in the station, the group turned to head for the door leading them to the shuttle bay... to find a small squad of mechs coming through already. Diving for cover, Shepard, Wilson and Jacob quickly returned fire and then blew the crates in front of the mechs apart, which tore the mechs apart. Standing, they continued onward and after a large firefight with a pair of small mech squads, they reached the door to the shuttle. Wilson limped to the door and quickly tapped in a command. "Hurry, we gotta get out of here before--" The door opened in front of him to reveal Miranda. "Miranda! But your--" She aimed down immediately and fired Wilson in the throat, ending his life in seconds. "Dead?" She had a look of disgust for a moment, then turned to find Shepard aiming a pistol at her. "Why did you execute him? We could have gotten some information from him!" Miranda shrugged. "He betrayed us. I wasn't going to risk your safety, not after two years of work in bringing you back. Now I suggest we leave now before more mechs attack." She turned and walked towards the Kodiak shuttle, with Jacob and Shepard following along behind.
Minutes later, the shuttle soared away from the large station and then sped into FTL space. The shuttle ride was mostly quiet the whole way, till just before the shuttle was to exit FTL space. Miranda and Jacob both asked Shepard questions about things that had happened in his past, how he handled it, and what he did afterwards, then the shuttle sped out of FTL and headed for a massive station. Docking and heading for a waiting room, Shepard was told to enter. Upon entering, he stood on a small platform for a moment before it started projecting a field about him. Then suddenly, he was looking upon a man who could only be the Illusive Man. They both stared at each other for a few moments before speaking. Human colonies disappearing, the Lazarous Project, and a new mission. All proved interesting, even great for Shepard.
And a short time later, Shepard and his new squad were all back in the shuttle and heading for Freedom's Progress. Upon landing, Shepard checked his gear. A M-8 Avenger assault rifle, the M-3 Predator, the M-100 Grenade Launcher, a M-92 Mantis sniper rifle, and a M-23 Katana. A impressive armament for himself, while his squad-mates were equipped with lighter amount of weapons of their choice. As they explored the empty colony, they found only signs of a sudden disappearance, no explanations. Except for one thing, which came a little after exploring for a hour. They opened a single door into a small house and found it to be unoccupied. Around half-dozen armed quarians sat within, then stood immediately and drew weapons, along with Shepard and his squad.
A male quarian quickly yelled out as he aimed his assault rifle. "Stop right there!" Then suddenly one of the quarians in the rear walked forward and pushed his rifle down as she passed. "Prazza, you said you'd let me handle this!" As she turned to face Shepard, she halted and seemed to gape. "Wait... Shepard?" The male quarian, Prazza, suddenly twitched his rifle upward, ready for a fight. "I'm not taking any chances with Cerberus operatives!" The now-recognized Tali brought up her hand, standing between the two groups. "Put those weapons down!" She turned back to Shepard and said hesitantly. "Shepard? Is that... you're alive?" Shepard nodded, a warm smile on his lips. "Remeber when I gave you that geth data, Tali? Did it help you complete your Pilgrimage?" She nodded. "Yes, it did." She turned back to Prazza. "Prazza, weapons down. This is definitely Commander Shepard." Prazza slowly put his assault rifle into stand-by mode and on his back. "Why is your old commander working for Cerberus?" Tali blinked and glanced at Shepard, then back at Prazza. "I don't know. Maybe we should ask." She turned to Shepard, awaiting a answer patiently.
Shepard considered for a moment, then spoke. "Cerberus rebuilt me, but I'm not taking their orders. We can discuss the specifics once I know why you're here." Tali nodded, glancing at her own squad then back at Shepard. "One of our people was here on a Pilgrimage. His name was Veetor. We came to find him." Shepard nodded to Tali and glanced at his squad. "If Veetor survived the attack, he may be able to tell us what happened." Tali paused a second before replying. "That's the hope. We've seen him, but he might not be in the best state to answer questions. He was injured and, ah, nervous--" Prazza cut in at her last sentence. "She means that he is unstable. Combine that with damage to his suite's CO2 scrubbers and an infection from and open-air exposure, and he's likely delirious." Tali continued after that, stepping from foot to foot in discomfort. "When he saw us landing, he hid in a warehouse on the far side of town. We suspect he also programmed the mechs to attack anything that moved." Shepard nodded, thinking to himself for a moment before replying.
"Veetor's the only one who can tell us what happened here. We should work together to find him." Tali nodded as well, now her stance much surer. "Good idea. You'll need two teams to get past the drones, anyway." Prazza looked skeptical, glancing from Tali to Shepard. "Now we're working with Cerberus?" Tali turned and glared at Prazza. "No, Prazza, you're working for me. If you can't follow orders, go wait on the ship." Turning back to Shepard, she continued. "Head for the warehouse through the center of the colony. We'll circle around the far side and draw off some of the drones to clear you a path." Shepard nodded and pulled out his assault rifle. "Make sure to stay in radio contact." He began walking to the door, with Tali and her squad following along behind. "Will do. Good luck, Shepard. Whatever happens... it's good to have you back." Shepard glanced over his shoulder at her and gave a small grin, then opened the door and led his squad down the path to the center of the colony while Tali and her's went down a side alley.
As they proceeded down in between and through buildings, Shepard and his team engaged several small sqauds of enemy drones, always diving for cover only seconds before the rockets or bullets began impacting on their cover or flying over their head, then they would return fire with more accuracy and tear apart the mechanical drones. Suddenly over the radio, Tali called in. "Shepard! Prazza and his squad rushed on ahead. I told them to wait, but they wouldn't listen! They want to find Veetor away before you get here!" As Miranda and Jacob commented about the situation, Shepard replied to Tali while rolling into cover behind a large crate, barely dodging a rocket blast from a already-in-place drone. "Roger that Tali. Were moving as fast as possible!"
Firing a burst of kinetic fire into the drone, Shepard ran out of cover and through a burst of fire, seeing bullets soaring in front of him and feeling a few hit his side barriers while he sprinted for another piece of cover. While Miranda and Jacob finished off the last few drones, Shepard pulled himself over a high railing and dropped ten feet onto the ground below, then ran for a large docking bay door. "Tali, if you can, get this door open!" He motioned for Jacob and Miranda to take cover at the edges of the door, then he crouched down behind a pile of crates. The blast door reamined motionless only for a moment, then it was unlocking and pulling up, revealing a firefight in process.
Prazza's squad had stupidly engaged what appeared to be a YMIR mech... and were being slaughtered. Seeing a pair of quarians being torn apart by the chain gun, then another being crushed by the mech's large foot, Shepard sighed and motioned forward. Jacob and Miranda rushed forward, launching a rear attack on the mech and drawing it's attention. As it turned to engage them, Shepard circled around it as well, pulling out his grenade launcher. Taking aim, he began firing several rounds of the heavy explosive, seeing every single one of them collide with the mech's back. First, the barriers went down. Then a pair of rounds connected with the heavy armor of the mech, blasting it away and leaving a gaping hole in it's back. It still kept firing through, and now turned to face Shepard. Ducking behind another big crate, he quickly set his grenade launcher down and pulled out one of the heavy rounds, then put it on his back again.
Suddenly he saw the crate begin to fall apart as the mech fired hundreds, maybe thousands of rounds into it, then a missle. Rolling away, Shepard stood and ran flat out to the mech, circled it, then jumped onto it's back. Arming the grenade, he stuffed it deep into the blown away part of the mech, jumped off and ran like the wind for cover. He turned right before the entering cover and pulled out his rifle. Activating the disruptor ammo in his rifle, he took aim at the slow-moving mech's back and fired a sustained burst, the rounds ripping through the shields and hitting the grenade shell. It detonated violently, tearing apart half the mech. It stood only a moment, then fell over like a giant, unable to move as the power core was damaged. Seconds later, the body was blown apart by it's own reactor, causing a large explosion that sent Shepard flying back a couple feet.
Once the chaos had settled down, Shepard and his suqad walked through the ruin of the battle and headed for the nearby building that the surviving quarian squad members had crawled into. Finding Tali treating them, Shepard hurried over to start helping, though Tali waved him away, telling him to fidn Veetor. Nodding, he went out and headed across the open piece of ground to the warehouse he was supposedly in. Upon unsealing the door, they saw a male quarian sitting in front of a large computer screen, tapping away, speaking to himself. "Monsters coming back. Mechs will protect. Safe from swarms. Have to hide. No monsters. No swarms. No-no-no-no-no."
Shepard slowly walked forward, careful to not spook the delirious quarian. "Veetor?" The quarian continued to tap commands into the console, eyes fixed on the screens. "No Veetor. Not here. Swarms can't find. Monsters coming. Have to hide." Shepard paused a moment, tempted to try physical contact but decided againest it. "Nobody's going to hurt you anymore." Veetor continued to just tap at the console, not even noticing that newcomers had entered and were speaking to him. Jacob spoke up then. "I don't think he can hear you, Commander." Shepard typed in a command into his omni-tool, glancing up to hear Veetor going on about 'monsters', 'swarms', and how the mechs would protect him. Deciding to try and snap him out of it, Shepard sent a signal to shut off the computer screens, making Veetor pause then seem to finally notice them. "You're human. Where did you hide? How come they didn't find you?"
Miranda decided to finally speak up it seemed as she asked her first question, obviously of several. "Who didn't find us?" Veetor paused a moment, then hesitantly spoke. "The... the monsters. The swarms. They took everyone." Shepard decided to insert himself in the 'interrogation', hoping to keep the questions calm and quiet. "Why didn;t the colonists fight back, Veetor? What happened?" Veetor turned to the screens again, obviously scared once again. "You don't know. You didn't see. But I see everything." He quieted down and typed in something on the console. A second later, the screen popped up again with what looked like security cam footage. Miranda peered carefully at it, seeing the many images of what looked like locusts, strange individuals, pods, and other things. "Looks like security footage. He must've pieced it together manually." As the image fell onto one of the individuals, Jacob barked out a surprised question. "What the hell is that?!"
Miranda peered closely, then nearly gaped in total surprise. "My god. I think it's a Collector." Shepard's own eyes also widened behind his rebreather helmet, the name striking home. "d**nit... They're very rare to be seen correct?" Miranda and Jacob both nodded. "They usually work through intermediares, like slavers or hired mercenaries. If they're involved with the Reapers somehow, it could explain what happened to the colonies." Jacob nodded. "The Collectors have advanced technology. They could have a weapon that disables a entire settlement at once." Veetor continued speaking, with Shepard, Jacob and Miranda listening carefully. "The seeker swarms. No one can hide. The seekers find you. Freeze you. Then the monsters take you away." Shepard nodded, watching the images carefully as the Collectors gathered the colonists in strange pods. "What happened next?"
"The monster took the people onto the ship, and then they left. The ship flew away. But they'll be back for me. No one escapes!" Veetor glanced at the screens in fear. Jacob replied quietly. "I think thats probably all we're getting out of him Commander." Shepard nodded, then turned back to Veetor. "We appreciate what you told us. You were very helpful."
Next chapter soon...