Chapter 7: Broken Home

 Chapter 7:Broken Home

I moved up into the cockpit with all my equipment ready, with a cold determination filling my veins. A doom loomed overhead regarding the ship that I pushed through.Leaving deadened emotions in its wake. Daniel was no where to be found which led me to assume that he was preparing himself. I took a cursory look at the ship's controls which seemed immensely less complicated than normal ship controls would warrant. Only a few basic navigational which seemed quite simplified as well as weapon functions. Yet strangest of all was the fact that the current course was on what seemed to be an autopilot, something which was considered unwise in anything more than a civilian cruiseliner.

“So what do you think” Daniel's voice reverberated from behind me with a cold echo.

“I think it seems crazy that a ship like this can be piloted so simply” I looked at the controls in greater detail hoping to find that the simplicity was an illusion but found no evidence of such

“That's the beauty of it. This ship was designed to be handled with minimum crew and to accomplish that they implemented a web of artificial intelligences each monitoring a different system with heavy restrictions. It gets the same job done that would normally take dozens of crew members but only needs one person to plot a destination, and that person needs very little training.” I turned around to see him in a full suit of heavy armor, the ceramic plates extended at least 4 inches away from his shoulders and the plating seemed particularly thick around his torso. Which was now much thicker than his was a few minutes earlier by at least half of a foot. All of it shone a cyan blue.

“How do you keep them from collaborating? Sharing information,and taking over the ship?” I was somewhat worried that we were sitting inside a ship that could start taking over

“Each AI is run on a separate circuit. None of them interact with each other in any way. If one somehow breaks out of its circuit there are security measures to deactivate it until it can be replaced or repaired. Unfortunately it takes a lot of space.”

“So that's why the ship is so much smaller inside than it appears on the exterior. Any other features I should know about?” I was now finding my curiosity piqued by the possible abilities of the ship.

“Aside from having a stealth system that is identical to the original Normandy? Nothing much.” He walked to the side wall and touched a certain spot of it. At his touch a part of the wall moved away, revealing a control panel. He began pressing buttons at the holographic display.

“What are you doing there?” I asked, desiring to know more about the ship.

“Preparing for our mission. No one will be aboard once we leave so we will have to use the ship's pick-up function.We deploy a beacon and it flies in on our position. It isn't the stealthiest option but it will have to do.” He continued pressing at the controls

“What about as soon as we leave though? We can just have the ship sitting on planet inactive and we can't pilot it off world once we are out right?”

“Already thought of that. I hate to do it but there seems to be only one way to fix that particular issue.” He spoke with the distinct lack of emotion I had noted when he first spoke. A concerning thing for a man who up until this point had been fairly light hearted.

“What? What do you plan to do?”

“I have to link the AI programs together. It's the only way we can get the ship to keep the stealth system active, fly out of range of the dreadnought, deactivate the stealth system and then reactivate it when we need to be picked up”

“That could lead to so much hell! That could destroy, us, the ship, and the mission. Do you really wanna take that risk Daniel!?” My rage at the idea of unleashing such a danger came swiftly and without hindrance.

“I have to! I owe him that much...” His eyes averted and a sorrow filled his eyes that I had scarcely seen.

“Whoever it is down there we are going for.... He isn’t just someone you know... He’s a friend isn’t he?” I scanned his face for any sign as to his relation to this stranger.

“An old friend who I owe a great deal” he faced me, a cold mask hiding his emotions. “ We need to do this, I have to know. Don’t forget that you have a stake in this fight too, the ship was spotted there. It may still be around the system.”

I thought it out and steadily came to the realization that this was a risk that had to be taken. Daniel had stuck his neck out for me and there was something much bigger at risk here.

“I promised you we would find him... I won’t go back on my word.” I spoke honestly as my mind went back to the days of my old squad and how we had always given each other our all.

“That means more than you know Jason” He pressed a few more buttons at the console and it receded back into the wall. “Everything is set... We still have a few minutes before we get there though.”

“Where exactly are we going?” I asked, leaning into one of the cockpit walls.

“A planet called Antictra. We set up a facility there for some of our members to investigate illegal activity near Omega. This was the only report that didn’t fit standard activity. The planet is cold and empty but that’s what made it useful for us. The only other thing that is really worth noting is that it has a very strange surface. It is almost constantly being struck by asteroids which was one of the largest problems when we built the facility. Which is another reason the ship can’t stay in orbit.”

“Couldn’t the same also apply to the dreadnought?” Even mentioning the ship sent a chill down my spine.

“The ship is very powerful and obviously advanced. It could have sort of high-power shielding we don’t know about.”

“Do you have the facility schematics?”

“In the other room. Follow me and I will show you” he walked down the hall leading to the cockpit into a room which seemed nothing more than an empty space between rooms. He activated his omni-tool and a large circular pedestal about 6 feet in diameter rose from the ground and stopped about hip height. Metal plating receded from it’s surface as another identical pedestal dropped slowly from the ceiling but stopped much quicker than the other had. Both made an electronic sound and a hologram appeared in between the two pedestals. Complete detail of a facility, including air ducts, emergency exits, and power lines, across multiple buildings was on display. four buldings extended with many rooms in each, a purpose bound to each one that I could not guess at. However the four were dwarfed when compared to one in the center of the circle arrangement of the buildings. It rose 5 floors and held a massive power center at it’s base.

“That’s the main building with most of their research. The others contain dormitories, security, things like that. That is where we will be headed, but we will be landing on the far side of the base” he pointed to an area on the opposite side of the projector from me “Here. We can enter in from this building and check for personnel, then we head to the center of the base.”

“It seems like you are planning more for a rescue mission than a check-up.” I said, noting his foreboding tone. My hands rested on the projector and my vision flickered for a short second, leaving my world in darkness for a flash.

“I will just feel better once we see them. I don’t like this, it’s all too....unknown” He still had no confidence in finding survivors. I realized then that he was almost as fearful of the ship as I was.

“So if there is a fight...” I broke into silence for a moment “Are you prepared for what you might see”

“Yeah....Yeah I am. It wouldn’t be the first time, and I doubt it will be the last” He seemed lost to memories. Brooding over an obviously dark and painful past.

“We can do it and we will find them. I told you we would.”

“I know you did, yet nothing can put to ease the fear of seeing a dead friend.” He paused for a moment “Here, I found this and thought it might help, it’s a shield generator for a combat hard-suit. I know you don’t have anything aside from your built-in armor but I figured you might want an extra layer of protection.” He handed me a small circular object that was a common sight on the backs of soldiers. I took it in my hand and moved it towards my back where it snapped into my body, attaching itself at the center of my spine along my ribcage. The heads-up display in my head began showing a reading for shields and I knew that it was synchronized to my body.

My mind flashed back to the way Biggs’ bullets barely did any damage to the husks on board the ship and asked “Do you have anything with a little more firepower? I might need a bit more than my pistols if there is a fight.”

“All I have is my own gear. I had hoped to get you to an outpost to get outfitted before this showed up. I do have some armor piercing rounds that I can apply to both of our weapons though if anything happens” A tune played from his omni-tool, he checked it for a moment and gathered his weapons: pistol, a submachine gun, and a sniper rifle.”We are here, we are just outside of the base area” He placed his helmet on his head, a click and hiss indicated that it was sealed. “Now come on” He walked down the hall to the airlock with me on his heels. The doors sealed behind me as we both walked into the small room. It began depressurizing, the door at the far-end unsealed and we walked out into the planet.

A short drop was all we needed before we hit the planets surface. The ground was hard and felt like metal to my bare feet. The land was pitted with scores of holes which were likely from the meteorite collisions. The surface was bent and molded in such strange and fantastic ways that I could only stand and gape at the experience for a full second before I remembered the task at hand. Daniel interacted with his omni-tool again and the Gravelines took off quickly, leaving us alone on the surface of the strange world. Just over a small hill which crested and had a trail curving back into itself was the facility.

“Well there’s the buildings, no damage that I can see. Come on, there is a door on this side” he took his first steps tentatively and then began moving faster while drawing his sniper rifle. I was trailing behind him and when he reached the crest of the hill he fell prone and pulled the rifle to his eye. He scanned the building while I searched it with my own eyes. Absolutely no signs of battle were apparent from our angle, nothing out of the ordinary.

“Do you see anything Daniel?” I had hoped that the enhanced vision caused by his scope would give him a better idea of the rest of the facility.

“Nothing...It’s strange, normally we would have security on the exterior doing scouting in case of attack but even they aren’t... Can you see anything with it?” he placed the sniper rifle in my hands and I searched the area with the scope, my eye bumped against the rim and my vision flickered again. This time when my sight came back I wasn’t looking through the scope but I still had the enhanced vision. I could see with better magnification and clarity than I had with it. It was only because of it that I saw that on the far side of the base, far away in the atmosphere, the ship; titanic even at this range, sat waiting.

“Oh my god....It’s here! The ship is here!” My mind raced in view of it. I wondered if it would attack, if it had spotted us, if it would try and take me back.

“What?! Where?!”

“You can’t see it from here, not with this scope. We need to get inside, fast!”

Without another word we both sprinted down the hill towards the facility. A door was just ahead of us as we charged to the wall.

“Alright let me get this door open” He typed into the console adjacent to the door. “Damn it! Someone must have changed the codes, the ones I have aren’t doing anything!”

“Can you hack into it?”

“Negative, this console is on a separate and very complicated system. Hacking is impossible from this side”

“Could the door be forced open?”

“It could work, but you would need to be incredibly strong, stronger than...” His voice broke off as he realized the implications I was making

“Get ready, I have a feeling I won’t be able to keep this thing open long.” He took position behind me as I readied myself at the door.

With a flick of my thoughts the blades in my arms advanced from their sheaths. I braced my arms and aimed them straight at where two thick metal sheets joined and became the door. The blades pushed into the seam where the metal met with little resistance, with only slight effort the knives were completely through. With a heavy grunt and a heave I forced the door open partially and could see the emergency lights flickering inside the room beyond. I pushed harder and harder until the door was open just enough for a person to slip through.

“Go! I don’t know how long I can keep this up!” Sweat beaded from my brow as I held the doors open with all my strength.

Daniel rushed past me into the room when a synthetic voice from within said “Closing emergency airlock doors.” He glanced back in horror as metal sheets dropped from above, directly onto where I was standing

I quickly planted my foot on one of the door panels and launched myself from it, barely clearing the door before the emergency seals clamped shut. The room began to re-pressurize with a hiss. Daniel readied his SMG while I sheathed my weapons and activated my cloak. Oddly, the system now showed me with my combat outfit equipped with no flaws in it’s detail except for the wrist area having a slot for both the knives to extend and the guns to fire from the projected suit. My pistol was drawn and at the ready by the time the door on the opposite side unsealed and opened.

I took point as we led into the room beyond into what seemed to be a security checkpoint. The room was large and deathly quiet, a path ran straight from the door into two different directions, each one wrapped around a large cylinder in the center of the room then separated to the left and right sides of it. To the right of us was desks and weapons lockers, but no personnel. With deliberately slow steps I moved to the desks’ entrance to see two bodies on the ground, surrounded by blood. Both men wore casual clothing with pistols matching the design of my own. One man had a pistol still in its holster while the other had it fallen a few inches from his hands. I dropped to a kneel beside them both and turned them both over so that their chests faced skyward. Each one suffered three wounds in the chest cavity.

“My god... They must have attacked quickly to get these guys so quickly.” Daniel’s voice seemed unnaturally loud in the empty silent space

“Indeed, the came from that door over there” I pointed to one of the doors on either side of the cylindrical pillar “Each guy tried to face that direction before being taken out. They must have entered from the far side of the base, closer to where we saw the ship.” My gaze wandered the area, analyzing, thinking. “To get this far without being detected...they must have hit fast and hard, disabling communication as they went.”

“Then this isn’t a rescue...”

“We don’t know that! There’s still the main tower in the center! They probably barricaded in there.”

With a blink my vision changed. In the top right area of my vision a schematic matching the one from the projector table flickered and flashed into existence. Completely 3D with all possible avenues that had been on the original image. Two blips were on the diagram in the room we stood in, indicating the direction each of us were facing. Another adaptation had entered my system without my consent... It was enraging to think my body was changing more and more, leaving more of who I was behind.

I forced such thoughts out of my mind with a shove, if I began such brooding I wouldn't be able to stop. I crouched and checked the two men for anything of use however if anything had been on them, it was removed. All that was on them was their pistols and their clothes. During my search I saw their dog-tags with the fallen soldier's names inscribed on them, a small prayer escaped my lips.

“Is now really the time to be giving them their last rites?” Daniel's voice was callous and cold but seemed to be withholding great emotion

“Respect for the fallen must never be forgotten” I rose from the corpses to see Daniel holding his gun ready towards the doors.

“True but in a compound full of who-knows-what with a massive ship in orbit is probably not the most opportune moment.”

With a sigh I ignored him and drew my pistol. The image in my eyes gave me a perfect layout of the building and allowed me to plot a good course. One of the hallways led to a long corridor with another room identical to this one on the other side while other had an identical corridor but led to a barracks. It was a very quick decision for which path would be better taken, the corridor would be an easy kill zone for an enemy and the security men had been facing that direction when they had been gunned down. Plus the barracks would be a likely place for survivors.

“Come on, best path is this way.” I took the lead from Daniel and led us up the stairs on the opposite side of the large pillar.

The door at the top of the stairs had to be forced open in a process similar to the airlock door. But it gave up with much less resistance and no emergency doors sealing on my head. As we left the door's threshold I found myself becoming more wary and on edge, constantly expecting a geth or husk to emerge from the other side of the curved hall. A quick glance behind me showed that Daniel was just as anxious as I was, his finger was right on the trigger and ready to fire at a moments notice.

We had reached the door at the end and I was preparing myself for prying open another door when Daniel stopped me.

“I just want to check.” he said as he pushed a few holographic buttons on the door.

As he pressed the final button the door gave out a small dong. Daniel looked back at me with a gaping jaw and concerned look at the granted access. I pushed past him and opened the entrance with my gun in my right hand with my extended blade protruding just beneath it.

The sight that greeted me made my stomach turn. Bodies left and right were impaled on large metal spikes, many of them were in different degrees of transformation into husks. Those that were not thrust upon the spikes were flayed and horribly mangled, leaving gruesome corpses on the ground in and around the bunk. Behind me, I heard Daniel retch.

“Why the hell would machines do this?!” Not a single living soul was visible from the door and the bodies were more and more mutilated the further away they were.

“I don't know... Maybe they want this to seem like a pirate raid? It would explain why. Though they should know that we have seen the spikes before” he referred to the spikes that Alliance Soldiers had started calling 'Dragon's Teeth'

“Unless...” My line of thought was cut off as I saw three of the husks twitch at the tip of their spike hosts. Immediately after, the sound of metal scraping against metal roared and echoed through the walls. The teeth retracted into it's base and the husks slowly separated from them.

My gun was pointed directly at the skull of the closest one before it moved an inch. Daniel had recovered and was working on applying armor-piercing ammunition when they stood, laying their heavily emaciated feet to the floor. Their blue illuminated eyes gazed, unblinking, at us. The mechanical meta-humans simply stood unmoving until their gaze passed upon me; a horrid gurgle tore from their half-dead throats as they charged in an almost drunken stumble.

The bullet flew with a slight buck as the bullet flew directly into the husk's forehead. The projectile struck hard and dented its head but did not pierce the armor, leaving its forehead with a strange crushed appearance but leaving very little lasting damage. Before the creature moved more than an inch I emptied three more bullets into it but it still had no damaging effect.

Realizing that my approach was not working, I knew I had to switch tactics. With a swift movement of my arm I holstered my pistol and rushed head-on at the husk I had shot with both of my knives unsheathed. I dashed and leaped at it, both blades forward. Its long gangly arms closed around it's chest and held me back from making a death-blow but both of my legs slamming down on its body threw it off balance. I flew back from the impact and stumbled while the husk used this opportunity to stop its fall and barrel towards me with the claw-like fingers it possessed. I swiftly matched the being's speed and we both collided. The claws scraped my skin but did not find purchase in my armor while my blade found itself buried deep inside the target's ribcage.

I pushed myself away from the husk's body with my arm covered in a sickly green fluid. The creature appeared dazed from the blow and before it could recover, I extended my arm and shot it point-blank in the chest with my integrated weapon. This bullet went straight through the armor with no resistance and the machine collapsed to the ground with a thud. I turned in time to see Daniel grappling with another husk a few feet away, two of his weapons were on the floor a few feet away from him with his sniper rifle still strapped to his back. I pointed my arm in it's direction and, with great care to avoid hitting Daniel, shot it in the neck, tearing a large chunk of it's mechanical neck off, nearly decapitating it. It fell with it's head connected to the body by a barely intact spine.

“Thanks” Daniel said after a few pants of breath “It got to me before I was able to activate the armor-piercing rounds and knocked my weapons away.” He walked to where they had fallen and retrieved them, leaving his pistol in his hand.

“Wait! I thought you had activated it half-way through the attack. My handgun did nothing at the beginning but my wrist one tore right through them after that.” I looked back at him, puzzled.

He simply looked back “Can't be. I hadn't even applied it to my weapon, hell I don't even know if it is compatible with your wrist guns.”

I looked back at my wrists where, beneath the hologram, my arms had been changed. The weapon must have been upgraded as part of the system that was being placed in my body. It must have analyzed the weapon when I first touched it and made improvements.

S**t now I am saying it thinks? I must be going crazy

I wiped that thought away instantly. I had trained myself to wipe away emotions. Certain emotions got in the way of duty and self-doubt was among the worst. We continued our walk forward, skirting the corpses. The barracks were massive, a pillar in the center divided four long halls, each one was lined with bunk beds and each hall was lined with bodies of it's former residents.

Before we continued on we checked each body. I was shocked at the state of transformation on some of their bodies, many of them had lost over half their biological parts. I knew that my gun would simply delay their rising, fire would be the only way to ensure their demise.

A quick survey of the room revealed emergency batteries adjacent to a service closet. I began rigging them beside the greatest concentration of impaled bodies while Daniel diffused the fire suppression system. I was forced to push some of the speared corpses so they would be caught in the blast; they were surprisingly heavy and took great effort to move. When all was set and done all the extinguisher devices were rendered inactive and all the bodies were set to burn.

I took note of all the dog-tags that were still recognizable before setting off the blast

We got out of that room quickly as the room began filling with rancid smoke. After seeing how much of the slaughter had taken place in that room we gathered tha any survivors would be in the tower in the center of the complex. It was the most secure position and it was where the data would be. The display of the buildings from my eyes showed that there was only two rooms standing between us and the tower. The first room was just a hall identical to the previous one, the second one was a massive atrium which was one of the only two ways into the tower, the second way was on the opposite side of the base. This room was also the only other part of the facility that touched was multi-storied

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“That atrium is going to be a kill-zone if they are still in the facility” I spoke to Daniel who had been long silent. He hadn't spoken since we had left the barracks, something about the sight had left him disturbed, something I could hardly blame him for.

“Then we fight through them. Nothing stops us from finding out. We...I need to know”

“And I will be by your side the entire time” I put my arm on his shoulder as he fiddled with his omni-tool, ensuring that our armor-piercing rounds were properly functioning

I refocused on the firearms fused to my arms. Something about them had made them strengthen beyond that of a normal weapon after they had first integrated. Another piece of evidence that the machine inside my body was much more adaptive than any of us had thought.

Daniel spoke up again “You have a plan for them if they are in there?” his voice showed little doubt that they were indeed present

“Yeah, I do. You stay behind me with your sniper rifle, wait until my signal to start firing and stay behind good cover. I will keep them distracted and maybe take a few out myself. We just have to be careful, multi-level combat can help us as much as hinder us and we are dropping into the middle of three floors.” I spoke as I would have to Ronald and Meagan before a standard mission, as though all was routine but still had to be reviewed.

“Roger that, I'll give 'em hell.” He carried a level of violence in his voice that I had not witnessed before in him. It was a bit unexpected.

The hall to the atrium went by without incident, we both made our final preparations before opening the next door. Though I wish I had been able to find out how to activate my biotics, they hadn't worked since Omega and such abilities could prove useful in a firefight.

As soon as the door opened we were greeted with the sound of gunfire Daniel crouched low with his rifle and threw himself into a walk-way wall which was (fortunately) plated with bullet-proof glass. He was keeping his head low and his visibility minimal. I threw myself into the nearest cover, a cargo box that someone had left haphazardly around, and brought my back to it. I took a quick glance above my makeshift cover and saw no sign of an enemy nor did I see one on our floor. I moved to a piece of cover further up which appeared to be a custom-made barricade and looked on the floor below to see about two dozen geth forces closing in on a group of 10 men two of whom I saw were pinned down and injured separate from their main force.

Daniel held his rifle steady, aimed at one of the synthetic combatants below. I repositioned myself so that I was stationed directly above the flank of their forces, curiously, they seemed to be completely oblivious to our presence. That changed when we opened fire. I shot down-ward onto one of the opposing forces which triggered Daniel to fire his weapon straight into one of the larger units. The one that I had fired upon deactivated immediately whereas the one Daniel struck merely shrugged off the blow with it's powerful shield. It turned to face me with the massive weapon in it's possession, yet as I took cover from it's impending hail of bullets it stopped and returned to firing on the human soldiers below.

This continued for nearly a minute as we continued opening fire on their units, only to be ignored once we left their sight. The two troops that were separated lay bleeding onto the metal ground they had fallen on after another machine fired upon them. As I spotted that I flew into a rage, my mind remembered images of the past and I felt a fury burn in my heart. Something about these fallen men reminded me of my past, a past I refused to let happen again.

I jumped from the second floor straight onto one of the geth, it's body broke my fall as it was crushed with a blade in it's chest region. The blade pulled free covered in a white residue as I charged to the nearest enemy adjacent to me, once more my mind pulled into familiar motions as I stabbed it into its metal neck, cutting all processing it had. Another unit turned to fire on me but was cut short by Daniel blowing a hole in its head, covering the floor behind it with debris and white liquid. Two other of the force began opening fire on me, their weapons were quickly depleting my shielding as I jumped onto a wall in behind them. They had barely turned to face me when I sprung off the wall and landed directly behind both of them, A quick blade into each of their chests pierced their armor and ended them.

I rushed to cover as more of them opened fire on me, my shield had been completely depleted in the crossfire and it would take a while before I could take another foray into their numbers. The sounds of weapon fire was permeated once every so-often by Daniel's thunderous rifle. Two more men had fallen since we had begun but the geth numbers had dropped from two dozen to about 15. Seeing the fallen men once more sent my mind into intoxicated rage as I extended my blades once more.

Two more robotic drones fell before my shields fell once more. This time a few shots connected with my body; some only grazed while one had punched a deep hole into my shoulder. Bright blue luminescent fluid leaked out but could only be seen once it fell past he hologram on my body. The wound barely inhibited my ability to fight, only slightly throwing off my aim and the pain was (strangely) negligible. I once again flashed to my time aboard the dreadnought, how I had punched right through armor without pain and realized that my nerves must have changed as well.

I ran back into the fray as soon as the shields charged once more. My arms grew hot as I eliminated 3 more foes. The largest of the group, which appeared to be a strangely modified massive Geth Prime, still hadn't fallen despite a constant pounding between both Daniel and the survivors. Every shot stopped helplessly against it's shielding. The only way to bypass it's shield would have to be melee or heavy weapons but the personnel and Daniel lacked the equipment necessary to pursue either course. It dawned on me that only I would be able to attack the giant.

First thing was first, destroy the smaller troops first.

“DANIEL!” I roared over the din of combat while I once more waited for my shields to recover “CONCENTRATE ON THE SMALLER ONES!” I had hoped he had heard but one of the enemies rounded the corner of my cover. I lifted my arm to fire but was interrupted when another troop rounded the other side. They both were ready to fire. My mind succumbed to instinct as I jumped straight into the air up about 10 feet. I pivoted in the air until I was facing them and I fired at both who had not moved due to the suddenness of my actions.

I landed exactly as I had launched before both bodies hit the floor.

As I looked back into the firefight I saw that only the large prime unit remained. Apparently, the soldiers must have heard my advice and focused on the weaker group. The prime was now focused on me but was not firing or moving, only staring at me as the soldiers all fired on it to seemingly no effect.

It released a massive screeching sound that echoed through the entire room. Everyone stopped firing at once as it continued its gaze. I glanced at the others and noticed they had all fallen to the ground, unmoving other than subtle breathing patterns.

What the hell?! How did it do that? WHAT did it do?

The thoughts raced in my head as it took a slow deliberate step in my direction, then another. It continued its slow march until it was merely 4 feet from me, gazing with its singular light eye. Part of me wanted to open fire but at the same time I knew the shot would have done nothing unless I was within the shield.

A three fingered hand extended towards me, it's weapon was dropped to the floor with a clatter. It simply stood towering above me, unmoving. I reached a tentative hand towards it. As I made contact my mind went black

YOU! Our escaped agent.

The voice from the ship, the very voice of hell itself. The entire facility disappeared from sight, replaced only by darkness as I heard it within the confines of my skull.

We did not expect to find you here. What are you doing here?

As its voice quieted my mind began flashing through my own memories, each being examined with lighting speed. I felt the alien presence against my thoughts as it moved through the experiences of the last few weeks. It lingered on the conversation with Hackett for just a moment then stopped.

So it seems the unlikely has happened. It said ominously our own plans must accelerate then.

I extended my own thoughts, on the assumption this voice could hear them. What! What plans?! What did you want with me!? My rage boiled at the cause of all my recent troubles Why did you change me?!

A moment passed before it spoke once more. Because you were unfit for our plans. You are ours, all you are and have done belongs to us. You are now ours. You will become an instrument of our will, you have changed nothing.

Before I could question the voice further the arm pulled away and my surroundings once more appeared before my eyes. The geth stood completely still, its gaze turned and seemed to stare into nothingness.

I reacted immediately, I charged forward and jumped, shoving my leg forward and hitting it square in the chest. Denting it's armor and staggering it but doing next to nothing. It snapped out of it's stupor and jumped back. Flying a dozen feet, past it's discarded weapon. It arms changed at landing, the plating pulled back on both arms revealing a holo-projector while the other was some sort of folded metal. The projector pulled away into a circle, from the circle a massive shield pulsed into existence, covering about a third of it's body. The folded metal turned into a massive blade, as soon as it fully extended; a glow overtook the entire length of it, shimmering and humming with energy.

A slight shuffle was the only warning I had before the space I had been occupying was cut through with the blade, cutting clean through the bullet-proof glass I had been using for cover. Before the monstrous machine could prepare for another charge; I ran forward to it and replicated the jumping rush I had preformed earlier, this time however I used my blades as my driving force. The weapons barely affected the armor of the behemoth, only grazing the plates. Before I lost my opportunity I fired, each shot punched a hole about 2 inches in diameter into it's thick chest. I couldn't tell how deep it penetrated but it barely seemed to affect the 10 foot giant. I had to dodge a blade as it sliced towards me, I jumped off of it's chest but was caught by the edge of the blade midair.

I screamed in pain as I landed, the blade tore into my side just below my ribcage. My vision darkened at the pain of the deep slice, my glowing blue blood fell to the floor below. I could only hope that the blade hadn't pierced any organs. My right arm had been rendered crippled as any great amount of movement was nearly impossible. I fired with my unscathed arm only to see the impact hit it's hand-shield, an electrical shock flared.

This showed me two things. One: that the shield would electrify me if I touched it. Two: That it's main shield was disabled while it was expending energy on it's weapons.

The monster of a machine moved towards me with it's arm ready to shield-bash me. There were no signs of movement from anyone else, it was clear this fight was just between us. I jumped straight up into the air with all the strength I could muster and landed on the second floor, the machine began moving up the large stairs towards me as I rushed to where Daniel had fallen

I got to his fallen form, still breathing, before the prime got half-way up the stairs. I quickly grabbed his omni-tool, regretting my decision not to bring one with me, and activated it's display. I scanned it's functions and saw exactly what I had hoped would be there. I stood and waited for the monster to come to my level. As it reached the same floor as me it stood still, glaring once more with it's weaponry ready. It began running, each step hitting the floor with a heavy thud. I matched it's pace without hesitation, sprinting directly towards it with the omni-tool ready. When I reached 15 feet of it I took to the air with the device pointed forward.

I slammed into the shield with massive force, the omni-tool struck first and for a fraction of a second I felt an intense burning sensation through my entire body but the sensation disappeared as swiftly as it came on as I activated the omni-tool's energy drain function and all of the power to the shield, and through the shield the geth, pulsed through my own shield and me. I was filled with power as the shield vanished. I dropped to the ground and the geth stood unmoving, it's light dimmed as it was forced to deactivate, then collapsed to the ground.

My legs buckled as the pain from my wound made a comeuppance, my blood fell to the floor and formed a small pool. I could see Daniel slowly rising and eyed the area confusedly, as his eyes fell upon me he ran and slid to a stop right beside me.

I felt tired and could feel myself losing strength quickly but I found the energy to say to him “Survivors first”

He nodded his head as I handed him his omni-tool so he could better administer treatment, he applied one dose of medi-gel to stop the bleeding then ran to help the others.

I lay there for a few minutes before Daniel came back up to me with a grim look in his eye. I brought myself up to my feet, using a nearby guardrail for support. The pain had subsided slightly with the medi-gel and my head had cleared.

“How are they?” I said, referring to the others.

“They... Didn't make it.” He spoke very slowly “The sound that thing released killed them, they weren't strong enough, not with the wounds most of them had.”

“I see...” I walked down to where they had all fallen. My heart felt heavy in my chest at the bodies, I felt as though I had failed them. I raised my voice to speak “Daniel, they died for their duty, protecting the data, and their families, their friends.” I had hoped it would grant him some measure of peace.

“Yeah, and now we have a lot of stairs to walk up, elevator upwards is out.”

We walked the steps as quick as my tender body could handle, Daniel never moved too far away, helping me where I needed it. My thoughts were still darkened with my conversation with the voice. Questions clogged my mind and it always led to fear. As we reached the top floor he entered the pass-code into the door, it opened without a problem and the room inside was filled with computer displays displaying varying data. A single body sat in the main chair, unmoving, dead.

“Oh god no” Daniel's voice was fearful and sad and I knew immediately that this was the friend we had come to save “no no NO!”

He ran to the body and hugged it tightly, tears ran down his cheek onto the body as he cried into his dead friend “YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO DIE!” he cried “You saved me once so long ago...why couldn't I do the same?...” his voice died into more tears as he cried

A few minutes passed before he rose from his mourning, his eyes bloodshot and puffy. He faced me and slowly said “This man saved my life....and now he's dead, I had hoped that of all the deaths here he would be one of the survivors.”

“How did he even pass? It looks like they locked this place up as the attack began.” I said, his body showed no sign of trauma.

` “He killed himself. Every high ranking officer has orders to commit suicide in the event of an invasion if it's likely they are to be captured. He must have seen the others taken out and assumed the odds were nil.” his voice was melancholy

“I see.-” before I could continue a metallic scraping tore through the air, ripping apart the quiet air. The sound reverberated from behind me and I turned to face it. The door was ripped apart and shoved to the side, the giant geth prime struggled to rip an entrance for itself.

“WHAT?! How much does it take to kill this damn thing?!” My frustration turned to rage as I began firing with my guns in rapid succession towards the machine. Daniel pulled his weapons and began firing just as quick as I.

The monster machine ripped an opening big enough for it to fit and drew its weapons as it entered the room. Before I could react it smashed into me with it's energy shield, sending me flying into a wall. My vision flickered black with the electricity flowing in my veins, the world spun around me. My last sight was Daniel using the terminal with the behemoth not far behind before my vision failed and I finally succumbed to darkness.

Author's Note

Switched to a new program so indention is an issue right now. Please try not to let it damage your view of the writing.
Main opinion I am looking for is consistency (Had to change certain things) and dialogue (how does it flow, word choice. etc.)