Post by mantis on Jul 28, 2008 8:42:58 GMT 1
Hi, people. This is my first attempt for story from Mass effect universe. Hope you will enjoy it and feel free to comment.
1…Escape
Drezxzal shortly looked over his shoulder. His pursuers were sixty metres behind him. Turian wandered, why they did’t start shooting. Maybe they enjoy this hunt. Maybe they want to capture him alive. Heck, he haven’t done anything to deserve such fate. All this happened three days ago in some notorious bar. He simply defended himself, when three humans started insult him. And it wasn’t for the first time, he should add. Drezxzal is short tempered, so he responded with some harsh words. Human leader answered in similar way, so the argument escalated to melee. Drezxzal was outnumbered, so he drew out pistol to even the odds. Turian didn’t want to wait for humans to attack, so he shooted first. Armor piercing bullet ran through belly of first human, leaving a solid hole in wall behind him. His comrade froze in panic. He was armed only with knife, so he was no match for turian with pistol. After realizing that he turned and ran out of the bar they were in. Although his friends were out of action, he was decided to beat that turian bastard to unconscious for, what he said. He pulled out his own pistol and trained it at turian’s chest. “No fighting here!” asari bartender yelled, when she noticed the incident. Two krogan mercenaries leaped from chairs and rushed to the combatants with assault rifles. Drezxzal muttered curse towards the human leader and jumped through the window. In this bar all drinks were paid, when waiter or waitress brought them, so Drezxzal needn’t worry about that. Bullet flew pretty close to his head, so turian accelerated, even if he was running near his top speed. He shown incredible alacrity, when dodging bullets from the enraged human.
Soon comrades of that ass joined him and Drezxzal was almost pinned down to the ground by crossfire. Where should I go now, turian asked himself. He did’t know this landscape very well, in addition his pursuers considerably outnumbered him. Somewhere on the right exploded grenade. That was bad. Very bad. Drexzal looked over shoulder once again, to learn, what’s the situation. Pursuers were scattered, each running for his life. That was weird. Blast from sniper rifle have explained that all. Drezxzal turned head back forward, but he overlooked root of some tree. His legs stopped, however his body continued moving, so he landed near that damned root. “You are dead, turian,” Drezxzal heard from behind. Two steps, then silence. Drezxzal rolled aside, so the bullet dig into the ground. Enemy has advantage over him, but Drezxzal wasn’t coward. “Turian never give up,” he whispered and bounced fist towards human’s face. That punch set human off balance, so Drezxzal knocked pistol from his hand. Human hunter looked scared. Without weapon, he was naked. Drezxzal took a deep breath and knocked him out.
Now, he must continue. Drezxzal didn’t know identity of his savior, but he didn’t care. He was alive and that was all that matters. His thoughts were interrupted by steps. Drezxzal turned around, but noticed no one coming. Suddenly from behind tree came humanoid figure. His or her camouflage was perfect, that’s why Drezxzal wasn’t able to see him or her before. When Drezxzal surveyed the figure thoroughly, he reached to conclusion, that he or she must have been quarian. “Not even word of thanking,” said quarian, after Drezxzal finished his surveying. “Thanks for saving my butt,” Drezxzal replied. “By the way, why did you interfere?” “Shouldn’t I?” asked quarian huffily. Drezxzal raised hands in defense. “It was mere curiosity, nothing more,” he replied quickly. “Seven humans against one turian, that didn’t seem a fair fight to me,” quarian explained. “It was not fight, it was hunt,” Drezxzal noted. “Why they were hunting you, then?” quarian asked. “Forgive me my manners, I forgot to introduce myself, I’m Drezxzal,” said turian, as he didn’t catch the question. “Call me Zanexi,” quarian responded baldly. “That’s male or female name?” Drezxzal asked. “Female of course,” replied Zanexi, “You should move on, they will soon come with greater firepower.” She has a point, Drezxzal thought. “Do you know the landscape? I don’t,” said Drezxzal, after he looked around. Quarian sighed. It was weird noise, faithless thank to her breathing mask. “Follow me then, near here, there’s an old unused bunker,” she told him not very happily.
2…Fumble in the darkness
The bunker was very good place to hide. Its entrances were well disguised and thanks to security systems, it was extremely difficult to break in. the complex was huge, Drezxzal counted up six underground floors. The entire bunker was supplied from a nuclear reactor in the lowest floor, and thanks to strange plants, that created friendly atmosphere it was possible to survive for decades. But something was wrong here. The location of bunker wasn’t logical at all. There were no other bunkers nearby, that would create barrage of fire, only this complex. It rather looks like research facility, than fortification. But there were no signs of research, no clues that would say anything about purpose of this facility. Zanexi have lived here for some time and revealed nothing valuable, except for main computer, that has so superb protective systems, that even she wasn’t able to hack the computer. There are probably stored all important data. Not that it mattered, Drezxzal needed only a shelter till the mess outside calms down.
Zanexi looks like hostile and unpleasant creature, but after a few conversations, she appears quite friendly. She just didn’t trust anyone, till he or she proved trustworthy. It was wise in that time and place. Drezxzal decided to search the entire complex, because there could something interesting and besides, he had nothing to do anyway. Zanexi tolerated him in her little fortress, time after time she spied something from Drezxzal past and another reason, why is he being pursued by group of pissed off humans. At this time she was also willing to answer his questions. Sometimes they were meditating on balcony in third floor, narrating stories they experience. Drezxzal told her about his service in turian military forces, some stories from First contact war and why has been dismissed from army. Zanexi spoke about her time with Fleet, her travels and troubles with geth. She was old enough to see the Geth rebellion. More Drezxzal learned about his mystic companion, more he liked her. Sometimes he wondered, if that was his fate to meet her. Without her intervention, he’d be probably slain by human mercenaries. In the meantime, Drezxzal was trying to improve his fighting skills at the shooting range or contact combat with Zanexi as sparring partner. She was pretty good at it, her blows weren’t as strong as Drezxzal’s but she was faster and more agile. That was other thing that surprised Drezxzal, he found warehouse loaded with plenty of guns and armor. Anyone, who ran this research, wanted it not to fall in enemy hands. In the bunker, there were weapons and equipment for a small army.
“How old is that?” asked Drezxzal one day, with gesture including all around. Zanexi shrugged. “I have no idea. When I came, it was there for a long time. When I tried to dig out some information about date of build, computer showed me message, that didn’t make sense. After deciphering the text I understood, that the construction began roughly in between 20180 and 2184, it is difficult to say accurately.” “Did you come across anything saying about purpose of this facility?” Drezxzal asked curiously. “First I thought it was secret military base, but there are no garages for rovers or other combat engines. It seems weird,” Zanexi replied. Drezxzal nodded, he thought the same. “Maybe a support point,” suggested Drezxzal after thinking for a while. “Unlikely. The soldiers were probably not supposed to leave the complex, they were here to protect someone else,” Zanexi objected. “So, because of this, I assume that this is a research facility, right?” stated Drezxzal. “Yeah, but only devil knows, what they were researching,” Zanexi added. “Weapons? Artificial intelligence?” “It could be everything,” Zanexi told him, “Let’s go down to the main computer. There must be a way to hack it.”
Eline quickly looked around. This landscape seemed unfamiliar to her, but she recognized the hill that Matriarch was speaking about. Base must have been somewhere near. So far Eline could remember, there were five entrances, each through heavily armored security door with damned good security system. In addition to that, they were camouflaged pretty well. She looked around once again and this time she noticed a small mark made on the surface of a boulder. Eline drew out a pistol, checked if she have loaded it with toxic rounds and then she started to thoroughly search this place. Yes, there it is. Eline pressed one stone, which was in fact well disguised button. That revealed a small security panel. Eline punched in code from matriarch, but nothing happened. Perhaps wrong code. Once again. Still nothing. There were two possibilities. First, Matriarch gave her wrong codes (unlike), second, someone have broken into the base and subsequently changed the codes (that’s right one). But how open a door that could resist even hit from anti-tank cannon? Force will be useless now, so Eline pull out an omnitool. With small charge she blew up the mounting of security panel and removed it. She was expert in electronics, so she knew how the gate lock works. It took her several seconds to deactivate the security protocol, so she can use function of emergency opening. The base was grim and dark, but Eline knew way to the main computer. She silently ran to the stairway and stuck to the wall. Occupant of this base must have noticed her arrival, so she must be ready. She surveyed stairway with her combat sensors, to learn, if the way is clear. Then she started slowly descent to the sixth floor. After reaching each level Eline checked her surroundings with combat sensors, but noticed nothing. Dammit, they must have known she’s coming, so they will be waiting in the last floor. Eline wondered, if she should switch pistol for assault rifle. Rifle had no silencer, but with it, Eline would take down any opponent far easily. Before reaching the sixth floor Eline start collecting element zero to put up protective barrier. Then she drew an assault rifle, took a deep breath, threw flash-bang grenade to the door and after explosion she charged in.
In room there were two enemies: female quarian and male turian. The flash seemed to blind only turian, the facial shield of quarian’s mask protected her from sharp light. When quarian noticed Eline, she fired burst in her direction. Lucky for Eline, barrier caught all bullets. Eline took nearest eezo and unleashed its energy against that damned quarian. Her opponent was struck with force of one thousand newtons, which was sure not pleasant. Shock pushed her against wall, knocking her unconscious. One blind and one stunned enemy, that was piece of cake. Eline trained her weapon at turian. He ducked for cover, so Eline couldn’t hit him. That means blind already wore off. Eline stuck herself to nearest wall. This won’t be so easy combat after all.
Drezxzal saw door open subsequently a flash-bang grenade landed before him. After flash he saw only darkness. Then he heard impact, Zanexi must have hit the wall. “Damn you bastard,” muttered Drezxzal towards the assailant. When blind wore off, he noticed a lightly armored asari run for cover. He set his rifle to automatic fire and popped out of cover. Once he saw that blue bitch, he squeezed the rifle’s trigger. Asari responded in same way however she must have stronger shields. Drezxzal jumped back behind cover and immediately checked shield status. Thirty five percents. Next burst would be lethal. His opponent was waiting for his next move. Drezxzal tried to quickly work out the best tactics. After roughly speaking half minute asari jumped from behind corner and bounced her fist towards steel box Drezxzal was hiding behind. The box was lifted and then pushed towards turian warrior. Drezxzal jumped to the side in last second. Box flew next to him and crashed to pillar. That damned asari was biotic! That was hell bad. Drezxzal stood to his knees and fired burst towards asari. Her burst have overloaded Drezxzal’s shield so last four bullets have found their way to Drezxzal’s skin. Drezxzal was in desperate situation. His opponent was pretty good fighter, in addition she was a biotic and Drezxzal was injured pretty badly. At that point Zanexi joined the combat. She grabbed some disc from her belt and threw it at the asari. It seemed to be a mine. Disc exoploded and after explosion Drezxzal can hear alarm signalizing, that asari’s weapon overheated. Asari cursed and fell back to the stairway.
“That blasted quarian threw sabotage mine on me,” Eline sweared. Now she will have to wait till rifle cools down, which will take about two minutes, or switch for a pistol (use pistol against two combatants with assault rifles is suicide). Eline grabbed some more eezo and prepared pistol. It will be far less effective, but better than fight with bare hands. After an eye blink quarian charged in, so Eline lifted her to the air. After that she took another burst from that goddamned turian. Eline quickly checked her shield status, which caused her dismayed look for a moment. Her shields were down. Eline pushed herself into the corner, so the turian wouldn’t be able to hit her. Dammit, when she was assigned to that mission, she reckoned with resistance, but not expected that two aliens could cause her such troubles. After three second of peace a bullet ricocheted from stairs and almost pinned down Eline to the wall. She ducked and crawled forward. That turian was cunning beast. While she was moving towards enemy another random bullet scratched her armor at the back. Finally she is at the corner. She popped up from cover and sent some toxic bullet to the turian’s belly. But that beast also fired and his burst knocked Eline off the feet. She dropped pistol during the fall, so now she was weaponless. Drezxzal continued firing on her, but most of bullet missed. She picked up a small amount of eezo and used it to knock assault rifle from his hands. At that moment she was hit by falling quarian and passed out.
Zanexi checked Drezxzal’s condition with mediscan. He was badly injured, one of his lungs was pierced at three places in addition he was poisoned. Zanexi stopped bleeding, covered injuries with medigel and quickly applied antidote. Drezxzal didn’t perceive anything from it, because he lost consciousness. Mostly because of injuries, but poison was also guilty. After treating Drezxzal’s worst wounds she turned her attention to asari. Searching of her belongings brought no clue of her presence here, but she was obviously an enemy. What was she looking for? There was only one interesting thing: main computer. It contained information both of them wanted to posses. Zanexi returned to search and after while she was rewarded with an optical storage disc. Decryption took Zanexi only several seconds. So what we have here? An old access code to the base, plan of the facility and surrounding landscape. There was also one more part, but when Zanexi tried to decrypt it, the disk exploded. Hell good safety fuse. Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by an intruder alert. Who might that be? She grabbed her rifle and started running to the surface. Whoever disrupted her rest, will return with deep scars.
3…Old friend
Zarg stared at bunker entrance door with suspicion. The interface panel was removed, so that damned turian might place proximity mine on the door. Krogan bounty hunter pulled out omnitool and searched every millimetre the door. “No mine, that’s good,” whispered Zarg with relief. But now he must find a way to open this goddamned door. It was made from extremely resilient matter, so it can be damaged with neither gunfire nor explosives. “Where’s the problem, krogan,” asked one of humans that accompanied him. Zarg didn’t bother with answer instead he turned his eyes to the panel. He didn’t know much about electronics but he could bypass security. After a few seconds door opened. Zarg grabbed assault rifle and rushed into the bunker followed by four humans. Everything looked quiet, but there must be someone. From what Zarg heard, that turian wasn’t aware of the bunker, so there must be someone else. His thoughts were interrupted by gunfire. Zarg jumped behind nearby steel box and checked the shield status. Forty percents, that was good. He popped from cover and fired a short burst to the direction gunfire came from. From behind a pillar flew a small disc. Zarg cursed and jumped backwards to get out of mine’s explosion range. Humans were far slower. The mine burned them and in addition explosion increased temperature, which led to overheating of their weapons. It must have been the sabotage mine. Zarg ran forward to the cover closer to the enemy. He noticed female quarian running down the stairway. “Let’s get her!” shouted the human leader. His comrades nodded in agreement and rushed after her. “Stop, you idiots, it’s a trap!” Zarg yelled, but no one listened to him. Their mistake. His senses told him truth, it was really a trap. Human mercenary, who stepped on the first stair, was shredded by two proximity mines. His mates stopped and stared at him with horror in their eyes. “You’re not used to be hunted, are you?” Zarg said derisively. Human leader wanted to sent him to hell, but it wouldn’t be a good idea to piss off heavily armored krogan.
Zanexi fell back to the sixth floor. She could defeat four humans, but the krogan would shred her to bits. In each floor Zanexi left a small present for her pursuers. Most likely it won’t stop them but it might at least slow them down. But what now? Drezxzal lost consciousness, so she is alone against three humans and one krogan. “I can aid you,” said a pleasant voice behind her. Asari must wake up. Zanexi turned face to her and spoke with distrust: “No way. You will stay, where you are.” “You don’t have much chance against them, have you?” asari objected. “You even don’t know their numbers,” Zanexi retorted. “Two are more than one,” asari tried to persuade her. “Forget it,” Zanexi replied in a hostile way. “I will have to cooperate with you, they aren’t my friends either,” asari continued. Zanexi wondered. She didn’t trust the asari, but her words were reasonable. “Alright but if you double cross me you are dead woman, did I make myself clear?” Zanexi answered. When asari nodded, Zanexi released her and returned assault rifle to her. “Bring it on,” asari muttered, when she was holding her rifle again. Maybe she will survive this. This quarian could help her a lot.
Eline leaned her rifle against metal box for steady aim and waited for combat to begin. Quarian threw some sabotage mines to the bottom of stairway and took position against her. “This waiting’s gonna kill me,” Eline whispered to herself. She was used to wait for her prey, but this time she had disadvantage. Where the hell they are? When she saw their leader, shiver ran through every fibre of her body. This krogan bounty hunter tried to kill her for half a year, because of twenty thousand credits for her head. Or it was hatred to anything that resembled humans? No, it must have been the former. He normally worked with humans, although he didn’t like them at all. Or perhaps he had some quarrel with her Matriarch. Something Eline wasn’t aware of. What the hell is he doing here? Krogan gave her gaze full of despite and hatred. Her look was cold, emotionless, only machine-like stoutness. Whatever was between them is long gone. Friendship was replaced with void, all her feelings for him fainted so there was nothing left. Half year ago she would act differently but know he was just an obstacle in her way. Why am I considering this, she wondered, now I should focus on combat. She squeezed the rifle’s trigger and ran to the next cover. Against living tank such as Zarg hit and run was the best tactics. Krogan stopped for a while to let his human co-belligerents outrun him. Mines that Zanexi set exploded, one of humans fell onto the ground seriously burned. Heat buildup overheated their weapons once again. While they were switching for pistols, Zanexi gunned them down.
Zarg knew that the human idiots won’t endure long against their foe. She was tricky and unpredictable. The mines fried one of them, the rest was mowed down by quarian’s assault rifle. Zarg’s shield status was at sixty percents, so he can withstand one or two more attacks. He changed rifle for shotgun and ran into the room. His blast hit the treacherous quarian with maximum effectivity, but she was still standing. She must have powerful shielding indeed. Presently he was roughly pushed towards the wall. Force of shock knocked shotgun from his hands leaving Zarg in little disadvantage. After landing he immediately stood up and throw small amount of eezo against the quarian. It wasn’t enough to stun her, but it was sufficient to set her off balance. Then he pulled out his heavily modified assault rifle and surveyed room through weapon’s scope. That little blue jade was hiding behind the large steel box. He could lift that box to rid her of the cover but at that time he was exposed, so… …so what? Fury darkened his mind. Krogan yelled a dreadful war cry and charged forward continuously firing at the box Eline was hiding behind.
Eline was now in difficult situation. She couldn’t move due to the torrent of gunfire around her and the krogan was closing with astounding speed. Her only hope was the quarian. Stamp of heavy combat boots reached almost to her, so Eline decided to make desperate move. She leaped from the cover and planning to strike him down, but Zarg knocked her down first. One hundred and twenty kilograms inflicted really great force. Eline landed roughly on the ground, impact took her breath away and all she saw was a blurred figure of something resembling krogan in full battle armor. She was ready to die but krogan suddenly turned round. A second later she passed out.
Zarg was ready to beat that blue jade to death, but flurry of bullets from behind forced him to draw attention back to quarian. His shield was at nineteen percents. That was not very stimulating. To even the odds Zarg used element zero to knock assault rifle from quarian’s hand. He expected her to run for cover, but she surprised him. She grabbed a small disc from her belt and tossed it to Zarg’s feet. “Blasted quarian,” krogan swore. The mine was too close to avoid its explosion. Mine has overloaded his shield so now he was protected only by armor. But that was not all. This mine seemed to disrupt his concentration because his biotic had no effect. He tried to crush that damned quarian, but nothing happened. Zarg had greatly underestimated his foe, which might have fatal consequences. “Not today,” he mumbled before he started retreat. Quarian managed to hit him three times, before he reached cover. “This cries out for revenge,” Zarg whispered when he was racing to the surface.
1…Escape
Drezxzal shortly looked over his shoulder. His pursuers were sixty metres behind him. Turian wandered, why they did’t start shooting. Maybe they enjoy this hunt. Maybe they want to capture him alive. Heck, he haven’t done anything to deserve such fate. All this happened three days ago in some notorious bar. He simply defended himself, when three humans started insult him. And it wasn’t for the first time, he should add. Drezxzal is short tempered, so he responded with some harsh words. Human leader answered in similar way, so the argument escalated to melee. Drezxzal was outnumbered, so he drew out pistol to even the odds. Turian didn’t want to wait for humans to attack, so he shooted first. Armor piercing bullet ran through belly of first human, leaving a solid hole in wall behind him. His comrade froze in panic. He was armed only with knife, so he was no match for turian with pistol. After realizing that he turned and ran out of the bar they were in. Although his friends were out of action, he was decided to beat that turian bastard to unconscious for, what he said. He pulled out his own pistol and trained it at turian’s chest. “No fighting here!” asari bartender yelled, when she noticed the incident. Two krogan mercenaries leaped from chairs and rushed to the combatants with assault rifles. Drezxzal muttered curse towards the human leader and jumped through the window. In this bar all drinks were paid, when waiter or waitress brought them, so Drezxzal needn’t worry about that. Bullet flew pretty close to his head, so turian accelerated, even if he was running near his top speed. He shown incredible alacrity, when dodging bullets from the enraged human.
Soon comrades of that ass joined him and Drezxzal was almost pinned down to the ground by crossfire. Where should I go now, turian asked himself. He did’t know this landscape very well, in addition his pursuers considerably outnumbered him. Somewhere on the right exploded grenade. That was bad. Very bad. Drexzal looked over shoulder once again, to learn, what’s the situation. Pursuers were scattered, each running for his life. That was weird. Blast from sniper rifle have explained that all. Drezxzal turned head back forward, but he overlooked root of some tree. His legs stopped, however his body continued moving, so he landed near that damned root. “You are dead, turian,” Drezxzal heard from behind. Two steps, then silence. Drezxzal rolled aside, so the bullet dig into the ground. Enemy has advantage over him, but Drezxzal wasn’t coward. “Turian never give up,” he whispered and bounced fist towards human’s face. That punch set human off balance, so Drezxzal knocked pistol from his hand. Human hunter looked scared. Without weapon, he was naked. Drezxzal took a deep breath and knocked him out.
Now, he must continue. Drezxzal didn’t know identity of his savior, but he didn’t care. He was alive and that was all that matters. His thoughts were interrupted by steps. Drezxzal turned around, but noticed no one coming. Suddenly from behind tree came humanoid figure. His or her camouflage was perfect, that’s why Drezxzal wasn’t able to see him or her before. When Drezxzal surveyed the figure thoroughly, he reached to conclusion, that he or she must have been quarian. “Not even word of thanking,” said quarian, after Drezxzal finished his surveying. “Thanks for saving my butt,” Drezxzal replied. “By the way, why did you interfere?” “Shouldn’t I?” asked quarian huffily. Drezxzal raised hands in defense. “It was mere curiosity, nothing more,” he replied quickly. “Seven humans against one turian, that didn’t seem a fair fight to me,” quarian explained. “It was not fight, it was hunt,” Drezxzal noted. “Why they were hunting you, then?” quarian asked. “Forgive me my manners, I forgot to introduce myself, I’m Drezxzal,” said turian, as he didn’t catch the question. “Call me Zanexi,” quarian responded baldly. “That’s male or female name?” Drezxzal asked. “Female of course,” replied Zanexi, “You should move on, they will soon come with greater firepower.” She has a point, Drezxzal thought. “Do you know the landscape? I don’t,” said Drezxzal, after he looked around. Quarian sighed. It was weird noise, faithless thank to her breathing mask. “Follow me then, near here, there’s an old unused bunker,” she told him not very happily.
2…Fumble in the darkness
The bunker was very good place to hide. Its entrances were well disguised and thanks to security systems, it was extremely difficult to break in. the complex was huge, Drezxzal counted up six underground floors. The entire bunker was supplied from a nuclear reactor in the lowest floor, and thanks to strange plants, that created friendly atmosphere it was possible to survive for decades. But something was wrong here. The location of bunker wasn’t logical at all. There were no other bunkers nearby, that would create barrage of fire, only this complex. It rather looks like research facility, than fortification. But there were no signs of research, no clues that would say anything about purpose of this facility. Zanexi have lived here for some time and revealed nothing valuable, except for main computer, that has so superb protective systems, that even she wasn’t able to hack the computer. There are probably stored all important data. Not that it mattered, Drezxzal needed only a shelter till the mess outside calms down.
Zanexi looks like hostile and unpleasant creature, but after a few conversations, she appears quite friendly. She just didn’t trust anyone, till he or she proved trustworthy. It was wise in that time and place. Drezxzal decided to search the entire complex, because there could something interesting and besides, he had nothing to do anyway. Zanexi tolerated him in her little fortress, time after time she spied something from Drezxzal past and another reason, why is he being pursued by group of pissed off humans. At this time she was also willing to answer his questions. Sometimes they were meditating on balcony in third floor, narrating stories they experience. Drezxzal told her about his service in turian military forces, some stories from First contact war and why has been dismissed from army. Zanexi spoke about her time with Fleet, her travels and troubles with geth. She was old enough to see the Geth rebellion. More Drezxzal learned about his mystic companion, more he liked her. Sometimes he wondered, if that was his fate to meet her. Without her intervention, he’d be probably slain by human mercenaries. In the meantime, Drezxzal was trying to improve his fighting skills at the shooting range or contact combat with Zanexi as sparring partner. She was pretty good at it, her blows weren’t as strong as Drezxzal’s but she was faster and more agile. That was other thing that surprised Drezxzal, he found warehouse loaded with plenty of guns and armor. Anyone, who ran this research, wanted it not to fall in enemy hands. In the bunker, there were weapons and equipment for a small army.
“How old is that?” asked Drezxzal one day, with gesture including all around. Zanexi shrugged. “I have no idea. When I came, it was there for a long time. When I tried to dig out some information about date of build, computer showed me message, that didn’t make sense. After deciphering the text I understood, that the construction began roughly in between 20180 and 2184, it is difficult to say accurately.” “Did you come across anything saying about purpose of this facility?” Drezxzal asked curiously. “First I thought it was secret military base, but there are no garages for rovers or other combat engines. It seems weird,” Zanexi replied. Drezxzal nodded, he thought the same. “Maybe a support point,” suggested Drezxzal after thinking for a while. “Unlikely. The soldiers were probably not supposed to leave the complex, they were here to protect someone else,” Zanexi objected. “So, because of this, I assume that this is a research facility, right?” stated Drezxzal. “Yeah, but only devil knows, what they were researching,” Zanexi added. “Weapons? Artificial intelligence?” “It could be everything,” Zanexi told him, “Let’s go down to the main computer. There must be a way to hack it.”
Eline quickly looked around. This landscape seemed unfamiliar to her, but she recognized the hill that Matriarch was speaking about. Base must have been somewhere near. So far Eline could remember, there were five entrances, each through heavily armored security door with damned good security system. In addition to that, they were camouflaged pretty well. She looked around once again and this time she noticed a small mark made on the surface of a boulder. Eline drew out a pistol, checked if she have loaded it with toxic rounds and then she started to thoroughly search this place. Yes, there it is. Eline pressed one stone, which was in fact well disguised button. That revealed a small security panel. Eline punched in code from matriarch, but nothing happened. Perhaps wrong code. Once again. Still nothing. There were two possibilities. First, Matriarch gave her wrong codes (unlike), second, someone have broken into the base and subsequently changed the codes (that’s right one). But how open a door that could resist even hit from anti-tank cannon? Force will be useless now, so Eline pull out an omnitool. With small charge she blew up the mounting of security panel and removed it. She was expert in electronics, so she knew how the gate lock works. It took her several seconds to deactivate the security protocol, so she can use function of emergency opening. The base was grim and dark, but Eline knew way to the main computer. She silently ran to the stairway and stuck to the wall. Occupant of this base must have noticed her arrival, so she must be ready. She surveyed stairway with her combat sensors, to learn, if the way is clear. Then she started slowly descent to the sixth floor. After reaching each level Eline checked her surroundings with combat sensors, but noticed nothing. Dammit, they must have known she’s coming, so they will be waiting in the last floor. Eline wondered, if she should switch pistol for assault rifle. Rifle had no silencer, but with it, Eline would take down any opponent far easily. Before reaching the sixth floor Eline start collecting element zero to put up protective barrier. Then she drew an assault rifle, took a deep breath, threw flash-bang grenade to the door and after explosion she charged in.
In room there were two enemies: female quarian and male turian. The flash seemed to blind only turian, the facial shield of quarian’s mask protected her from sharp light. When quarian noticed Eline, she fired burst in her direction. Lucky for Eline, barrier caught all bullets. Eline took nearest eezo and unleashed its energy against that damned quarian. Her opponent was struck with force of one thousand newtons, which was sure not pleasant. Shock pushed her against wall, knocking her unconscious. One blind and one stunned enemy, that was piece of cake. Eline trained her weapon at turian. He ducked for cover, so Eline couldn’t hit him. That means blind already wore off. Eline stuck herself to nearest wall. This won’t be so easy combat after all.
Drezxzal saw door open subsequently a flash-bang grenade landed before him. After flash he saw only darkness. Then he heard impact, Zanexi must have hit the wall. “Damn you bastard,” muttered Drezxzal towards the assailant. When blind wore off, he noticed a lightly armored asari run for cover. He set his rifle to automatic fire and popped out of cover. Once he saw that blue bitch, he squeezed the rifle’s trigger. Asari responded in same way however she must have stronger shields. Drezxzal jumped back behind cover and immediately checked shield status. Thirty five percents. Next burst would be lethal. His opponent was waiting for his next move. Drezxzal tried to quickly work out the best tactics. After roughly speaking half minute asari jumped from behind corner and bounced her fist towards steel box Drezxzal was hiding behind. The box was lifted and then pushed towards turian warrior. Drezxzal jumped to the side in last second. Box flew next to him and crashed to pillar. That damned asari was biotic! That was hell bad. Drezxzal stood to his knees and fired burst towards asari. Her burst have overloaded Drezxzal’s shield so last four bullets have found their way to Drezxzal’s skin. Drezxzal was in desperate situation. His opponent was pretty good fighter, in addition she was a biotic and Drezxzal was injured pretty badly. At that point Zanexi joined the combat. She grabbed some disc from her belt and threw it at the asari. It seemed to be a mine. Disc exoploded and after explosion Drezxzal can hear alarm signalizing, that asari’s weapon overheated. Asari cursed and fell back to the stairway.
“That blasted quarian threw sabotage mine on me,” Eline sweared. Now she will have to wait till rifle cools down, which will take about two minutes, or switch for a pistol (use pistol against two combatants with assault rifles is suicide). Eline grabbed some more eezo and prepared pistol. It will be far less effective, but better than fight with bare hands. After an eye blink quarian charged in, so Eline lifted her to the air. After that she took another burst from that goddamned turian. Eline quickly checked her shield status, which caused her dismayed look for a moment. Her shields were down. Eline pushed herself into the corner, so the turian wouldn’t be able to hit her. Dammit, when she was assigned to that mission, she reckoned with resistance, but not expected that two aliens could cause her such troubles. After three second of peace a bullet ricocheted from stairs and almost pinned down Eline to the wall. She ducked and crawled forward. That turian was cunning beast. While she was moving towards enemy another random bullet scratched her armor at the back. Finally she is at the corner. She popped up from cover and sent some toxic bullet to the turian’s belly. But that beast also fired and his burst knocked Eline off the feet. She dropped pistol during the fall, so now she was weaponless. Drezxzal continued firing on her, but most of bullet missed. She picked up a small amount of eezo and used it to knock assault rifle from his hands. At that moment she was hit by falling quarian and passed out.
Zanexi checked Drezxzal’s condition with mediscan. He was badly injured, one of his lungs was pierced at three places in addition he was poisoned. Zanexi stopped bleeding, covered injuries with medigel and quickly applied antidote. Drezxzal didn’t perceive anything from it, because he lost consciousness. Mostly because of injuries, but poison was also guilty. After treating Drezxzal’s worst wounds she turned her attention to asari. Searching of her belongings brought no clue of her presence here, but she was obviously an enemy. What was she looking for? There was only one interesting thing: main computer. It contained information both of them wanted to posses. Zanexi returned to search and after while she was rewarded with an optical storage disc. Decryption took Zanexi only several seconds. So what we have here? An old access code to the base, plan of the facility and surrounding landscape. There was also one more part, but when Zanexi tried to decrypt it, the disk exploded. Hell good safety fuse. Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by an intruder alert. Who might that be? She grabbed her rifle and started running to the surface. Whoever disrupted her rest, will return with deep scars.
3…Old friend
Zarg stared at bunker entrance door with suspicion. The interface panel was removed, so that damned turian might place proximity mine on the door. Krogan bounty hunter pulled out omnitool and searched every millimetre the door. “No mine, that’s good,” whispered Zarg with relief. But now he must find a way to open this goddamned door. It was made from extremely resilient matter, so it can be damaged with neither gunfire nor explosives. “Where’s the problem, krogan,” asked one of humans that accompanied him. Zarg didn’t bother with answer instead he turned his eyes to the panel. He didn’t know much about electronics but he could bypass security. After a few seconds door opened. Zarg grabbed assault rifle and rushed into the bunker followed by four humans. Everything looked quiet, but there must be someone. From what Zarg heard, that turian wasn’t aware of the bunker, so there must be someone else. His thoughts were interrupted by gunfire. Zarg jumped behind nearby steel box and checked the shield status. Forty percents, that was good. He popped from cover and fired a short burst to the direction gunfire came from. From behind a pillar flew a small disc. Zarg cursed and jumped backwards to get out of mine’s explosion range. Humans were far slower. The mine burned them and in addition explosion increased temperature, which led to overheating of their weapons. It must have been the sabotage mine. Zarg ran forward to the cover closer to the enemy. He noticed female quarian running down the stairway. “Let’s get her!” shouted the human leader. His comrades nodded in agreement and rushed after her. “Stop, you idiots, it’s a trap!” Zarg yelled, but no one listened to him. Their mistake. His senses told him truth, it was really a trap. Human mercenary, who stepped on the first stair, was shredded by two proximity mines. His mates stopped and stared at him with horror in their eyes. “You’re not used to be hunted, are you?” Zarg said derisively. Human leader wanted to sent him to hell, but it wouldn’t be a good idea to piss off heavily armored krogan.
Zanexi fell back to the sixth floor. She could defeat four humans, but the krogan would shred her to bits. In each floor Zanexi left a small present for her pursuers. Most likely it won’t stop them but it might at least slow them down. But what now? Drezxzal lost consciousness, so she is alone against three humans and one krogan. “I can aid you,” said a pleasant voice behind her. Asari must wake up. Zanexi turned face to her and spoke with distrust: “No way. You will stay, where you are.” “You don’t have much chance against them, have you?” asari objected. “You even don’t know their numbers,” Zanexi retorted. “Two are more than one,” asari tried to persuade her. “Forget it,” Zanexi replied in a hostile way. “I will have to cooperate with you, they aren’t my friends either,” asari continued. Zanexi wondered. She didn’t trust the asari, but her words were reasonable. “Alright but if you double cross me you are dead woman, did I make myself clear?” Zanexi answered. When asari nodded, Zanexi released her and returned assault rifle to her. “Bring it on,” asari muttered, when she was holding her rifle again. Maybe she will survive this. This quarian could help her a lot.
Eline leaned her rifle against metal box for steady aim and waited for combat to begin. Quarian threw some sabotage mines to the bottom of stairway and took position against her. “This waiting’s gonna kill me,” Eline whispered to herself. She was used to wait for her prey, but this time she had disadvantage. Where the hell they are? When she saw their leader, shiver ran through every fibre of her body. This krogan bounty hunter tried to kill her for half a year, because of twenty thousand credits for her head. Or it was hatred to anything that resembled humans? No, it must have been the former. He normally worked with humans, although he didn’t like them at all. Or perhaps he had some quarrel with her Matriarch. Something Eline wasn’t aware of. What the hell is he doing here? Krogan gave her gaze full of despite and hatred. Her look was cold, emotionless, only machine-like stoutness. Whatever was between them is long gone. Friendship was replaced with void, all her feelings for him fainted so there was nothing left. Half year ago she would act differently but know he was just an obstacle in her way. Why am I considering this, she wondered, now I should focus on combat. She squeezed the rifle’s trigger and ran to the next cover. Against living tank such as Zarg hit and run was the best tactics. Krogan stopped for a while to let his human co-belligerents outrun him. Mines that Zanexi set exploded, one of humans fell onto the ground seriously burned. Heat buildup overheated their weapons once again. While they were switching for pistols, Zanexi gunned them down.
Zarg knew that the human idiots won’t endure long against their foe. She was tricky and unpredictable. The mines fried one of them, the rest was mowed down by quarian’s assault rifle. Zarg’s shield status was at sixty percents, so he can withstand one or two more attacks. He changed rifle for shotgun and ran into the room. His blast hit the treacherous quarian with maximum effectivity, but she was still standing. She must have powerful shielding indeed. Presently he was roughly pushed towards the wall. Force of shock knocked shotgun from his hands leaving Zarg in little disadvantage. After landing he immediately stood up and throw small amount of eezo against the quarian. It wasn’t enough to stun her, but it was sufficient to set her off balance. Then he pulled out his heavily modified assault rifle and surveyed room through weapon’s scope. That little blue jade was hiding behind the large steel box. He could lift that box to rid her of the cover but at that time he was exposed, so… …so what? Fury darkened his mind. Krogan yelled a dreadful war cry and charged forward continuously firing at the box Eline was hiding behind.
Eline was now in difficult situation. She couldn’t move due to the torrent of gunfire around her and the krogan was closing with astounding speed. Her only hope was the quarian. Stamp of heavy combat boots reached almost to her, so Eline decided to make desperate move. She leaped from the cover and planning to strike him down, but Zarg knocked her down first. One hundred and twenty kilograms inflicted really great force. Eline landed roughly on the ground, impact took her breath away and all she saw was a blurred figure of something resembling krogan in full battle armor. She was ready to die but krogan suddenly turned round. A second later she passed out.
Zarg was ready to beat that blue jade to death, but flurry of bullets from behind forced him to draw attention back to quarian. His shield was at nineteen percents. That was not very stimulating. To even the odds Zarg used element zero to knock assault rifle from quarian’s hand. He expected her to run for cover, but she surprised him. She grabbed a small disc from her belt and tossed it to Zarg’s feet. “Blasted quarian,” krogan swore. The mine was too close to avoid its explosion. Mine has overloaded his shield so now he was protected only by armor. But that was not all. This mine seemed to disrupt his concentration because his biotic had no effect. He tried to crush that damned quarian, but nothing happened. Zarg had greatly underestimated his foe, which might have fatal consequences. “Not today,” he mumbled before he started retreat. Quarian managed to hit him three times, before he reached cover. “This cries out for revenge,” Zarg whispered when he was racing to the surface.