By The Endless Walker and Some_Bloke.
(Contains contributions from Aspiegrrl and other authors.)
The following is an archived version of a forum RP, that started out as a small joke but ended up being a whole story. There was a part 2 and a part 3 but both of them were lost, when AFF was shut down, this one was salvaged.
The RP takes place in the Mass Effect universe but deviates, majorly to involve aspects from various other things, such as Doctor Who, The Walking Dead, Red Dead Redemption, Half Life, Fallout, Supernatural, Being Human and a bunch of other franchises as well as the author's own personal canons.
I decided to make this blog page, to commemorate it as it's around two years since this was made. Though there is an archived version on AFN, nothing lasts forever, so I figured that giving it it's own webpage was a great way of immortalizing this RP. All credit goes to any authors who were involved in the crafting of this story, I'm simply archiving it here, technically not even publishing it.
I've always looked fondly on this story as it was the first time that I ever got my ideas down on paper, though it's not the most organized RP I've ever been a part of (mostly, because of me XD) it is definitely one of the biggest scale ones and I feel like it set me on a course to create plenty of other RPs, characters, plots and who knows, it may be the first step on the path to me writing my own book one day.
I remember this as being one of the most fun RPs to work with as the authors all had great ideas, good imagination but most of all kept it grounded and manageable, a combination that makes a dream group. Unfortunately, I only remember Aspiegrrl's contributions as I'm not sure who joined us later, in parts 2 and 3, if you were a contributor and happen to stumble upon this page, feel free to let me know in my AFN/ASDC private messages.
I hope that I'm able to invoke nostalgia, inspiration, hope or maybe even despair, by sharing this. Anything would do really.
Walker
**A stealth combat shuttle is in orbit, on board are Some_Bloke, Garrus,
Liara, Jack, Tali, McCoy, Lisabeth, Grunt, Bobba Fett and Regann
Zieeden vas Enterprise
- Regann Zieeden vas Enterprise
Some_Bloke: Our mission is as follows. This colony is under attack, several warlords are looking for an ancient piece of technology known simply as "THE WIN". This artifact has unstoppable power and these warlords are fighting to the death over it. The colony is being evacuated as we speak...Our mission is to assist with the evacuation but above all, prevent these warlords from obtaining the artifact.
**The shuttle lands and they step out.**
Some_Bloke: Regann, you and Cortez stay with the shuttle. Lisabeth. You stay behind and assist with hacking and update us on anything useful. Tali, Bones. Assist with the evacuations. Garrus, Grunt, Bobba, Liara, Jack and myself will move into the area and clean up the mess. I will be updating Lisabeth and Cortez every hour, if you don't hear from me. Get the hell out. Move out people.
**Some_Bloke, Liara, Garrus and Bobba walk towards the town**
Bobba: I've seen Regann in combat. He's pretty good, why didn't we take him with us?
Some_Bloke: He has three major fears...Reapers, the undead and giant spiders...
Jack: Aren't we all a little afraid of giant spiders?
Garrus: Fair point.
**They move further into the town**
News reporter: And it appears as though Alliance special forces are on their way. What can you tell me about what's happening here?
Some_Bloke: Just let us do our jobs and less people will get hurt.
**Jack pushes the camera out of the way as they continue walking**
**They see the rubble from the pub and a destroyed tank in the distance**
Bobba: What a waste of good scotch.
Lisabeth: **over radio** You have zombies in your area...
Liara: How many?
Lisabeth: I can't tell. But it's a hell of a lot.
**Garrus sees the zombies attacking AspieGrrl**
Garrus: Oh, looks like we found them. Incoming!
**Some_Bloke throws monkey bombs, diverting the zombies away while the rest of the team begins gunning them down**
Some_Bloke: Bones, we have a civilian for emergency medical extraction. She's pretty messed up.
McCoy **over radio**: How bad?
Some_Bloke: Really messed up.
McCoy: Damnit. I'm a doctor not a mind reader.
Jack: We've got more of these undead bastar*s coming our way!
**The team begins opening fire again**
Liara: There's no end to them.
**They spot The Endless Walker in the distance, laughing**
Jack: I'm gonna wipe that smug looking grin off of your face!
**Jack charges up a fist and hits the ground, creating a large crack and a hole to appear in front of them, approaching zombies fall through and Jack leaps over, Bobba uses his flamethrower on the zombies, burning them**
Bobba: I'll deal with these bastar*s. Just focus on the warlords.
Grunt: Looks like you'll need an extra gun...
**Some_Bloke nods and runs around the hole followed by Garrus and Liara, they continue running as Grunt and Bobba fight off as many zombies as possible**
**Jack sprints towards The Endless Walker, who raises more zombies, she pelts them with biotics and continues. Some_Bloke, Liara and Garrus follow closely behind**
Some_Bloke: Cortez. We're going after one of the warlords. I'll keep you posted.
**Shuttle comes into view, Regann is armed with an assault rifle and fires into the crowd of approaching zombies.**
MEANWHILE
Tali: Damn. She's pretty messed up. Is there anything you can do?
**McCoy says nothing and injects AspieGrrl with something, Tali raises a pistol to the wreckage of the pub, to come across ConLang**
Tali: But...You were dead...
ConLang: Didn't you just hear me?! I'M FIREPROOF**
**Tali freezes ConLang and shatters him with three shots**
Tali: Problem solved...
The endless walker gets a massive biotic punch which sends him flying into a nearby window, The Endless Walker get's impaled on a piece of glass
"Got the Fu... *sighs* Flight Lieutenant..." She then continues to punch through the horde.
The smashing sounds from the distance cause many of the crew to be distracted for a few seconds. A few seconds is all that was needed for Con Lang's body to disappear. Prompting Mcoy and Tali to follow the blood trail.
Some_bloke and his team are too busy fighting the horde caused by The Endless Walker's bile bomb. They hold off fairly well thanks to Garrus' rugged manlyness, however, another herd comes pouring out of the bar cutting Some_Bloke's group into 3 leaving Liara no choice, but to fall back alone to a side alleyway.
Some_Bloke, Jack and Garrus move towards the burned out ruins of the tank. Jack creates a bionic force field to stop the zombies and calls for the rest of her squad to get within it's protective barrier as they barricade the pawn shop.
Some_Bloke goes to follow them, but notices Liara's pistol near one of the treds of the tank. Fearing the worst he goes to investigate only to notice, yet another swarm coming from a nearby alley way. With little option Some_Bloke hides under the tank using Liara's pistol to to stop the zombies from reaching him. With Jack barely keeping her force field up, Garrus trapped within it and everyone else being either preoccupied, drunk or "dead." He crawls under the tank and tries shoots as many as possible, before realizing that there is too many of them and he is down to one shot.
To avoid being mauled to death he turns the gun on himself, before he pulls the trigger, however, he notices that the hatch to the below part of the tank is open allowing him to crawl through and hide inside the wrecked tank.
Liara, unfortunately unarmed has to resort only to her biotic powers, which are beginning to weaken. She ends up falling back into one of the abandoned buildings barely holding off the horde. Quickly sealing the door she breathes a sigh of relief, before realizing that she wasn't alone.
A shadowy figure walks towards her, it did not appear to be human as it had a shambling stance. The figure revealed itself to be The Endless Walker with a large piece of glass sticking out of his chest. The Endless Walker pulls the piece of glass out laughing as he does it. He throws the glass to one side...
Suddenly, the creature is jumped from behind. A possibly psychotic teen girl dressed in a casual clothing and a bow-tie wrapped a chain around his neck, proceeding to flip him then sprinting out and leading Liara safely behind a barricade.
The glasses full of combustible material clink in her belt as she races safely across the line, before grabbing two and chucking the lit improvised incendiaries into the horde.
IN THE PAWN SHOP
Bobba: So what's the plan?
Jack: I wish I knew.
**Grunt reloads his shotgun**
Grunt: We fight, or we die...That's the plan.
Bobba: Thanks, but I intend on staying alive today. I didn't climb my way out of the Sarlac pit only to be torn apart and eaten by the undead. We need an ammo check.
**They check their weapons, Grunt has four rounds left, in her pistol Jack has six, Bobba is out of fuel from the flamethrower but has five blaster rounds left, one missile and two grenades.**
Bobba: Try to get in contact with Cortez or Slander. Cortez'll probably be able to air-lift us out.
THE TANK
Some_Bloke: **relieved** Garrus, you son of a ***!
Garrus: Just about made it out...
Some_Bloke: You seen Liara?
**Garrus shakes his head, to which Some_Bloke kicks the wall and grunts angrily**
Garrus: She can handle herself, you of all people know that.
Some_Bloke: I know that... It's the not knowing part that really gets me... Can you radio Cortez or Slander?
Garrus: Em... **checks around, realizes that his radio is outside** Damn...I dropped it when that herd came after me. What about yours?
**Some_Bloke holds up a broken radio**
Some_Bloke: Well I know that Jack and the others are safe...For now and Tali beamed up with Bones...
Garrus: See if we can find any extra weapons, ammunition or anything...
THE BARRICADE
Liara: Whoever you are, thank you...
**The two continue running. Liara tosses a small shock wave of biotic energy at a zombie that appears behind the teen.
THE TANK
**Some_Bloke's radio comes to life**
Lisabeth: Garrus, Harry. Anyone.
Some_Bloke: You hardly ever call me by my first name.
Lisabeth: I was worried. I'm picking up your life signs in the tank. But you'll have to make a break for it.
Some_Bloke: Are you OK?
Lisabeth: Fine, Regann's injured though.
**Some_Bloke and Garrus climb out of the tank to see the approaching shuttle hovering over the cliff, the two sprint towards it**
The Endless Walker: You have accomplished nothing, your attention has been grasped by those more powerful than you. That which you know as the win is your salvation through destruction.
**The shuttle doors open and Lisabeth is standing there, armed with an AK47, she pumps a round into the horde behind Some_Bloke and Garrus, Garrus jumps on-board and takes Some_Bloke's hand, pulling him up.**
Lisabeth: Grunt, Bobba, Jack, Liara...If any of you are out there get your *** over here now!
**The next thing seen is a horde flying after being hit by a large shock wave, Jack, Grunt and Bobba are seen in the distance, on the roof of the pawn shop, the shuttle flies over and the three of them jump aboard. The shuttle is about to leave the colony for good**
Some_Bloke: What about Liara?
Cortez: I'm sorry. But this entire colony will be nuked within two hours, as commanded by the Alliance.
Some_Bloke: Screw the Alliance...
**He grabs some extra rounds and an assault rifle as well as a grenade launcher, some monkey bombs, tactical binoculars and a sniper rifle and pistol**
Garrus: You're going to get yourself killed...
Some_Bloke: I'm not leaving her to die.
Lisabeth: Hey.
**He turns around and she hugs him, taking him completely by surprise, she lets go** Try not to get yourself killed.
Regann: Good luck sir...
**Some_Bloke steps onto the roof above the pawn shop, looking down at the horde...**
The Endless Walker notices a figure drop from the shuttle, "why come back here?" He wondered looking at the undead masses clawing at the pawn shop... then it hit him, the girl, any fool would risk his life for a girl right? Except for him.
The Endless Walker shoved his way to the front of the "queue" and looking up at the figure. "Ha, courageous fool, reminds me of myself actually..." he looked around to find something that he could use to get up to the pawnshop roof.
The Endless Walker found his way up to the top of the roof by climbing a pipe (all those hours of ICO weren't wasted after all.) He looked around, but couldn't see the commander.
The Endless Walker was then ambushed and thrown onto the floor of the roof, the commander drew his gun as The Walker drew his. There was a long pause before The Endless Walker laughed.
"You still haven't accomplished anything, you think you have, but you haven't..." he berated the commander "Even pulling that trigger won't permanently kill me, you know?"
The commander couldn't tell if he was bluffing, but he sounded confident.
"You want the girl and I want to get out of this mess with my head in one piece... oh yes I know about that, you're little blue Asari chick? You'll never make it to her without my help..."
"Why do I need you?" The commander inquired "All I need from you is your body to be ID'd, but I don't even need that!"
"You think you can ID me by my body? Nah, this body isn't mine... t'was someone else's, who's? Who cares right?"
The Endless walker sat up carefully, not making any sudden movements.
"All I know is, there's about 2000 geeks between you and her... and every-time you or your foolish friends went in guns blazing more found their way here... Hell I don't even know how screwed you are... If you want to get to that girl? Never mind get her out, you'll have to trust me."
"Why the hell would I do that?" The commander raised his gun
"Because I'm your only chance."
- Regann Zieeden vas Enterprise
Some_Bloke: Our mission is as follows. This colony is under attack, several warlords are looking for an ancient piece of technology known simply as "THE WIN". This artifact has unstoppable power and these warlords are fighting to the death over it. The colony is being evacuated as we speak...Our mission is to assist with the evacuation but above all, prevent these warlords from obtaining the artifact.
**The shuttle lands and they step out.**
Some_Bloke: Regann, you and Cortez stay with the shuttle. Lisabeth. You stay behind and assist with hacking and update us on anything useful. Tali, Bones. Assist with the evacuations. Garrus, Grunt, Bobba, Liara, Jack and myself will move into the area and clean up the mess. I will be updating Lisabeth and Cortez every hour, if you don't hear from me. Get the hell out. Move out people.
**Some_Bloke, Liara, Garrus and Bobba walk towards the town**
Bobba: I've seen Regann in combat. He's pretty good, why didn't we take him with us?
Some_Bloke: He has three major fears...Reapers, the undead and giant spiders...
Jack: Aren't we all a little afraid of giant spiders?
Garrus: Fair point.
**They move further into the town**
News reporter: And it appears as though Alliance special forces are on their way. What can you tell me about what's happening here?
Some_Bloke: Just let us do our jobs and less people will get hurt.
**Jack pushes the camera out of the way as they continue walking**
**They see the rubble from the pub and a destroyed tank in the distance**
Bobba: What a waste of good scotch.
Lisabeth: **over radio** You have zombies in your area...
Liara: How many?
Lisabeth: I can't tell. But it's a hell of a lot.
**Garrus sees the zombies attacking AspieGrrl**
Garrus: Oh, looks like we found them. Incoming!
**Some_Bloke throws monkey bombs, diverting the zombies away while the rest of the team begins gunning them down**
Some_Bloke: Bones, we have a civilian for emergency medical extraction. She's pretty messed up.
McCoy **over radio**: How bad?
Some_Bloke: Really messed up.
McCoy: Damnit. I'm a doctor not a mind reader.
Jack: We've got more of these undead bastar*s coming our way!
**The team begins opening fire again**
Liara: There's no end to them.
**They spot The Endless Walker in the distance, laughing**
Jack: I'm gonna wipe that smug looking grin off of your face!
**Jack charges up a fist and hits the ground, creating a large crack and a hole to appear in front of them, approaching zombies fall through and Jack leaps over, Bobba uses his flamethrower on the zombies, burning them**
Bobba: I'll deal with these bastar*s. Just focus on the warlords.
Grunt: Looks like you'll need an extra gun...
**Some_Bloke nods and runs around the hole followed by Garrus and Liara, they continue running as Grunt and Bobba fight off as many zombies as possible**
**Jack sprints towards The Endless Walker, who raises more zombies, she pelts them with biotics and continues. Some_Bloke, Liara and Garrus follow closely behind**
Some_Bloke: Cortez. We're going after one of the warlords. I'll keep you posted.
**Shuttle comes into view, Regann is armed with an assault rifle and fires into the crowd of approaching zombies.**
MEANWHILE
Tali: Damn. She's pretty messed up. Is there anything you can do?
**McCoy says nothing and injects AspieGrrl with something, Tali raises a pistol to the wreckage of the pub, to come across ConLang**
Tali: But...You were dead...
ConLang: Didn't you just hear me?! I'M FIREPROOF**
**Tali freezes ConLang and shatters him with three shots**
Tali: Problem solved...
The endless walker gets a massive biotic punch which sends him flying into a nearby window, The Endless Walker get's impaled on a piece of glass
"Got the Fu... *sighs* Flight Lieutenant..." She then continues to punch through the horde.
The smashing sounds from the distance cause many of the crew to be distracted for a few seconds. A few seconds is all that was needed for Con Lang's body to disappear. Prompting Mcoy and Tali to follow the blood trail.
Some_bloke and his team are too busy fighting the horde caused by The Endless Walker's bile bomb. They hold off fairly well thanks to Garrus' rugged manlyness, however, another herd comes pouring out of the bar cutting Some_Bloke's group into 3 leaving Liara no choice, but to fall back alone to a side alleyway.
Some_Bloke, Jack and Garrus move towards the burned out ruins of the tank. Jack creates a bionic force field to stop the zombies and calls for the rest of her squad to get within it's protective barrier as they barricade the pawn shop.
Some_Bloke goes to follow them, but notices Liara's pistol near one of the treds of the tank. Fearing the worst he goes to investigate only to notice, yet another swarm coming from a nearby alley way. With little option Some_Bloke hides under the tank using Liara's pistol to to stop the zombies from reaching him. With Jack barely keeping her force field up, Garrus trapped within it and everyone else being either preoccupied, drunk or "dead." He crawls under the tank and tries shoots as many as possible, before realizing that there is too many of them and he is down to one shot.
To avoid being mauled to death he turns the gun on himself, before he pulls the trigger, however, he notices that the hatch to the below part of the tank is open allowing him to crawl through and hide inside the wrecked tank.
Liara, unfortunately unarmed has to resort only to her biotic powers, which are beginning to weaken. She ends up falling back into one of the abandoned buildings barely holding off the horde. Quickly sealing the door she breathes a sigh of relief, before realizing that she wasn't alone.
A shadowy figure walks towards her, it did not appear to be human as it had a shambling stance. The figure revealed itself to be The Endless Walker with a large piece of glass sticking out of his chest. The Endless Walker pulls the piece of glass out laughing as he does it. He throws the glass to one side...
Suddenly, the creature is jumped from behind. A possibly psychotic teen girl dressed in a casual clothing and a bow-tie wrapped a chain around his neck, proceeding to flip him then sprinting out and leading Liara safely behind a barricade.
The glasses full of combustible material clink in her belt as she races safely across the line, before grabbing two and chucking the lit improvised incendiaries into the horde.
IN THE PAWN SHOP
Bobba: So what's the plan?
Jack: I wish I knew.
**Grunt reloads his shotgun**
Grunt: We fight, or we die...That's the plan.
Bobba: Thanks, but I intend on staying alive today. I didn't climb my way out of the Sarlac pit only to be torn apart and eaten by the undead. We need an ammo check.
**They check their weapons, Grunt has four rounds left, in her pistol Jack has six, Bobba is out of fuel from the flamethrower but has five blaster rounds left, one missile and two grenades.**
Bobba: Try to get in contact with Cortez or Slander. Cortez'll probably be able to air-lift us out.
THE TANK
Some_Bloke: **relieved** Garrus, you son of a ***!
Garrus: Just about made it out...
Some_Bloke: You seen Liara?
**Garrus shakes his head, to which Some_Bloke kicks the wall and grunts angrily**
Garrus: She can handle herself, you of all people know that.
Some_Bloke: I know that... It's the not knowing part that really gets me... Can you radio Cortez or Slander?
Garrus: Em... **checks around, realizes that his radio is outside** Damn...I dropped it when that herd came after me. What about yours?
**Some_Bloke holds up a broken radio**
Some_Bloke: Well I know that Jack and the others are safe...For now and Tali beamed up with Bones...
Garrus: See if we can find any extra weapons, ammunition or anything...
THE BARRICADE
Liara: Whoever you are, thank you...
**The two continue running. Liara tosses a small shock wave of biotic energy at a zombie that appears behind the teen.
THE TANK
**Some_Bloke's radio comes to life**
Lisabeth: Garrus, Harry. Anyone.
Some_Bloke: You hardly ever call me by my first name.
Lisabeth: I was worried. I'm picking up your life signs in the tank. But you'll have to make a break for it.
Some_Bloke: Are you OK?
Lisabeth: Fine, Regann's injured though.
**Some_Bloke and Garrus climb out of the tank to see the approaching shuttle hovering over the cliff, the two sprint towards it**
The Endless Walker: You have accomplished nothing, your attention has been grasped by those more powerful than you. That which you know as the win is your salvation through destruction.
**The shuttle doors open and Lisabeth is standing there, armed with an AK47, she pumps a round into the horde behind Some_Bloke and Garrus, Garrus jumps on-board and takes Some_Bloke's hand, pulling him up.**
Lisabeth: Grunt, Bobba, Jack, Liara...If any of you are out there get your *** over here now!
**The next thing seen is a horde flying after being hit by a large shock wave, Jack, Grunt and Bobba are seen in the distance, on the roof of the pawn shop, the shuttle flies over and the three of them jump aboard. The shuttle is about to leave the colony for good**
Some_Bloke: What about Liara?
Cortez: I'm sorry. But this entire colony will be nuked within two hours, as commanded by the Alliance.
Some_Bloke: Screw the Alliance...
**He grabs some extra rounds and an assault rifle as well as a grenade launcher, some monkey bombs, tactical binoculars and a sniper rifle and pistol**
Garrus: You're going to get yourself killed...
Some_Bloke: I'm not leaving her to die.
Lisabeth: Hey.
**He turns around and she hugs him, taking him completely by surprise, she lets go** Try not to get yourself killed.
Regann: Good luck sir...
**Some_Bloke steps onto the roof above the pawn shop, looking down at the horde...**
The Endless Walker notices a figure drop from the shuttle, "why come back here?" He wondered looking at the undead masses clawing at the pawn shop... then it hit him, the girl, any fool would risk his life for a girl right? Except for him.
The Endless Walker shoved his way to the front of the "queue" and looking up at the figure. "Ha, courageous fool, reminds me of myself actually..." he looked around to find something that he could use to get up to the pawnshop roof.
The Endless Walker found his way up to the top of the roof by climbing a pipe (all those hours of ICO weren't wasted after all.) He looked around, but couldn't see the commander.
The Endless Walker was then ambushed and thrown onto the floor of the roof, the commander drew his gun as The Walker drew his. There was a long pause before The Endless Walker laughed.
"You still haven't accomplished anything, you think you have, but you haven't..." he berated the commander "Even pulling that trigger won't permanently kill me, you know?"
The commander couldn't tell if he was bluffing, but he sounded confident.
"You want the girl and I want to get out of this mess with my head in one piece... oh yes I know about that, you're little blue Asari chick? You'll never make it to her without my help..."
"Why do I need you?" The commander inquired "All I need from you is your body to be ID'd, but I don't even need that!"
"You think you can ID me by my body? Nah, this body isn't mine... t'was someone else's, who's? Who cares right?"
The Endless walker sat up carefully, not making any sudden movements.
"All I know is, there's about 2000 geeks between you and her... and every-time you or your foolish friends went in guns blazing more found their way here... Hell I don't even know how screwed you are... If you want to get to that girl? Never mind get her out, you'll have to trust me."
"Why the hell would I do that?" The commander raised his gun
"Because I'm your only chance."
The commander punched his enemy across the face.
"She is more than some asari chick!" He spat angrily
The commander lowered his gun for several moments, only to raise it again.
"You're responsible for all of this. And I care about that body. Fuc*ing demons. I really hate demons. The last one I came across was lucky to be dead when I was done with him, or rather it..." He continued threatening his enemy.
His enemy raised his hands.
"I am not a demon..."
"Then what the hell are you?"
"So much more..."
MEANWHILE
Liara and the teen stopped in an abandoned warehouse, that appeared to have been made into a base or a holdout of some kind.
"Who are you?" Liara asked
"It does not matter." Her savior replied "It does not matter who I am, all that matters is survival."
"I'd at the very least like to know a little about the person who saved my ***."
"No time for that..."
MEANWHILE
Some_Bloke continued to raise his pistol as his enemy approached.
"Stalkers are demons too...Are you one of them?"
His enemy shook his head.
"Nope." He continued to approach, to which Some_Bloke raised the pistol to his enemy's head.
"Then what the fuc* are you?"
"I think we need to focus more on the current situation."
"I hate Stalkers with a passion...You should be relieved you're not one of them."
Finally, he lowered his pistol.
"You were the last person who saw where she went...Where is she?"
"Headed in that direction..."
His enemy pointed towards the edge of the town.
"We head over there, then." Some_Bloke continued
"Like that?" The Endless Walker laughed, good luck, "if you are lucky you will have at least 1 of your limbs left in order to hop or drag yourself to her."
Some_Bloke looked at the horde of zombies screaming for blood and somehow knew that his enemy was right.
"What do you propose?" he asked bitterly
"To get to your target... you're going to need... guts." The Endless Walker smiled and rose to his feet and then approached the edge of the pawnshop roof to examine the current horde.
He examined each member of the horde before he chose the zombie suitable for his plan. He then turned around and made a noose out of some nearby cables.
"Now for phase one" he said tying a noose a the end of the cable, he put the far end of the cable in Some_Bloke's hands. "Hold that as tight as you can, we may only have one shot at this..."
The then approached the ledge and looked over at the horde and threw the rope over. The noose landed round the neck of a quite fat male zombie who didn't seem at all phased by it.
"PULL!" The Endless walker called
The two of them pulled on the cable, pulling the zombie up onto the roof. The zombie was heavy so it ascended slowly.
"If you aren't a stalker or a demon... then what are you?" Some_Bloke asked whilst pulling the fat zombie onto the roof.
"Hell I don't know" The Endless Walker admitted "biologically I'm no different from these fellah's down below."
"A zombie?"
"Not exactly, more like a ghoul or 'walking corpse,' I was human once, but died and after a strange encounter was resurrected... like my friends here I don't feel pain and I can't die through most means, but well you can see why being like them is a problem."
"So what makes you any different?" Some_bloke asked with his voice strained by the weight of the zombie.
"Well unlike them I am fully aware in case you haven't noticed, I'm faster, smarter and friendlier than they are. Also if I die somehow then I'll posses the next person's corpse who dies of natural causes. Like this fellow, he was an Alliance soldier who was shot by geth after being betrayed by his own unit."
The old corpse was interrupted as the zombie had made its way to the roof, with a bit more puling they got the zombie successfully onto the roof.
"What now?" Some_Bloke asked, exhausted.
The Endless Walker equipped his hatchet and smirked "Now? We need guts..." He then hit the zombie's limbs and torso the smell was difficult to stomach even for a hardened commander, but The Endless Walker just kept hacking away at the creature.
"Now..." the Walker sighed, "We need to make you smell like one of them..." The Endless Walker picked up piles of zombie guts and gave them to Some_Bloke to rub on his N7 Armour. "You need to be covered in them." He laughed as he hacked at the creature some more...
Meanwhile
"Where are we even going?" Liara asked
"Off the streets..." her savior replied
"But..."
Suddenly they were interrupted by the shattering of nearby windows, they looked to see if it was zombies, but it was something new, something more terrifying.
Animated mannequins.
Something caught the mannequins' attention...
"Come on you plastic bastar*s!" Came a voice that Liara recognized instantly...
It was Garrus.
The mannequins approached him and he turned to run, only for zombies to come from almost nowhere in the other direction. Garrus did the only logical thing, he pulled out his sniper rifle and began firing into the crowd whilst walking back.
"Go!" He shouted
Liara and her savior fled from the warehouse and ran in the other direction. Liara was hesitant to leave Garrus behind, but he could take care of himself.
MEANWHILE
His enemy had finished covering Some_Bloke's N7 armor in the zombie's remains.
"How long will this last?"
"Just cross your fingers and pray to gods you don't believe in that it doesn't rain..."
"God, the smell is repulsive."
Some_Bloke was lowered into the streets, followed by his enemy, they began walking in the direction Some_Bloke had suggested.
MEANWHILE
Garrus was pushed into the back of an alleyway.
"I love this rifle!"
He was vulnerable, but so were his enemies. He continued shooting into the crowd of mannequins, their lack of heads would make them blind...
He fired again, only to hear a click, he proceeded to check his ammunition
"Damn."
The mannequins were now closing in on him as he resorted to his assault rifle, pumping more and more rounds into the oncoming horde.
MEANWHILE
Some_Bloke and The Endless Walker continued walking through the horde, their pace began to quicken as they heard gunfire.
"Leave them, we're just here for the girl, remember?" The Endless Walker pointed out
"It was my job to keep as many civilians alive as possible. I won't whoever that is behind." Some_Bloke protested
The gunfire stopped
"See, we'd never have made it..."
"I suppose you're right..."
MEANWHILE
As one closed in on him, Garrus felt something grab his by the pack and without warning he was pulled up onto the small building.
"Lisabeth..." He began
"Thank me later, you heroic idiot. Right now, we need to find the others and get the hell out." She replied, strain in her voice as she pulled him up.
Slung over her shoulder was an AK47, and she was also armed with a machete and a revolver. The two then proceeded to climb upwards onto a higher part of the building.
A figure approached from behind them. He was wearing a blue hoddie drenched in blood and was laughing. Lisabeth turned around to face him and some fear appeared in her eyes.
"Jeff?...But, you're dead..." She pointed out
He continued to laugh.
"I never die..." He continued
"We'll see about that..." Garrus replied
"You still moping about those gunshots?" The Endless Walker asked as he swaggered down the street.
"Could have been Liara you know..."
"No it couldn't have, those shots came from a rifle... she had a pistol."
The two of them arrived at an alleyway where a mass of corpses were lay as landmarks of a recent battle.
"Hmm... guess this is where our friend with the rifle was..." The Endless Walker said examining thermal shells which had been discarded. He then followed the trail and saw a door which was heavily barricaded, the job looked rushed, but it should hold.
"You think they went in there?" Some_bloke asked still looking out for zombies.
"Yeah... most likely... GARGH F..."
Suddenly The Endless walker was knocked to the floor by a mannequin which appeared out of nowhere. Some_Bloke shot it, knocking it to the floor.
The mannequin then sat up again and continued walking towards him.
"Use these!" The Endless Walker yelled sliding some thermal clips across the floor. "They're incendiary!"
After loading the ammunition into his assault rifle he shot the mannequin causing it to burst into flames. It had melted by the time it reached him into a puddle of plastic and some rather trendy clothes.
The Endless Walker examined the remains of the puddle "Alright... I have lived for a long time... I've seen some seriously messed up sh**, I've seen beings of the supernatural and the paranormal fighting each other. But, walking shop window dummies? Hell no, I'm drawing the line." The Endless Walker moaned whilst pulling himself to his feet.
"I've been to hell and back, literally." Some_Bloke pointed out "I've seen weirder than this. Still, better keep moving.
As the two were about to turn another, corner they did not hear the voices coming from above them, due to an approaching horde of mannequins.
"Run!" Some_Bloke shouted, the two sprinted in the other direction
"Oh really, Turian? I have survived a lot of shi*. I think I can survive you..."
"Shall we put that to the test, or are we just going to keep talking?" Garrus mocked
Jeff drew his blood-stained knife, to which Garrus and Lisabeth both aimed their pistols at Jeff's head.
"You brought a knife to a gunfight." Garrus continued.
Jeff just stood on the spot, laughing.
"I've seen what you look like under that armor, and quite frankly I was disappointed. Quarrians too, maybe later on I'll cut open that suited bitc* of yours..."
"How about you drop dead." Lisabeth snapped "Your mind-games in an attempt to fuc* with us, aren't working.
Some_Bloke and The Endless Walker turned another corner, coming to a dead end
"Ah, shi*." He spat, running a hand through his own hair.
"I can picture it now, Turian." Jeff continued to mock. "I've watched the way you've looked at each other."
Garrus was filled with rage, his urge to pull the trigger on this serial killer was increasing dramatically.
"Of course, if you kill me you'll never know how to stop this..."
"Why are you doing this?"
The Endless Walker turned to Some_Bloke, raising a pistol
"I'll do me, and then myself."
Some_Bloke in looking around spotted a way out. He instantly attempted to climb.
"Give me a boost or something..."
The Endless Walker obeyed and Some_Bloke pulled him up onto the fire escape. The mannequins below climbing on top of each other in an attempt to grab at their prey.
"How much time do we have left, before the nuke." The Endless Walker asked
"An hour and a half... At least." Some_Bloke replied grimly.
MEANWHILE
Liara and the teen continued running from the horde of living mannequins. It had been a while since she had last heard gunfire, but she assumed that Garrus was OK.
The living mannequins were far behind, but eventually the two of them would run out of breath and have to stop running.
Liara then spotted something in the corner of her eye, on top of a building stood two men. She recognized one instantly. Harry.
"Hey!" She shouted
Some_Bloke spotted the two of them instantly
"Liara!" He shouted back, relief in his voice.
The mannequins were closing now. But something inside of Some_Bloke ignited. He climbed down the fire escape and jumped into the horde of mannequins, armed with his Katana he decapitated a handful and emerged on the other side, an arm on his shoulder, which he pulled off and pumped two bullets into.
"Liara!" He shouted again, decapitating another mannequin.
The Endless Walker simply looked down, taken aback by what had just happened.
Some_Bloke began leading the horde away from the building as well as Liara and the teenager.
He sprinted, turning right and almost falling. The mannequins continued approaching, determined to get him.
In the confusion, Liara and the teen had climbed onto the same building as The Endless Walker.
MEANWHILE
Garrus had had enough, he stepped towards Jeff and aimed the pistol right between his eyes. Before he could pull the trigger, something grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him off of his feet. He gasped as he looked up to see a sorceress. AspieMomma. She instantly turned her attention to Jeff, raised a hand and he exploded from inside out, splattering the roof in blood.
AspieMomma then turned her attention to Lisabeth and Garrus, a sick smile on her face.
The two of them ran up the fire escape dodging the falling mannequin bodies that appeared to be raining down. They got to the top of the stairs before seeing The Endless Walker, "You!" the psychotic teen scowled lunging at him with a knife. The Endless Walker dodged her causing her to fall through a window.
"Nice one..." he laughed to himself before climbing up the fire escape.
"Wait! You can't just leave us!"
"Sorry, I don't remember you ever being my problem..."
Liara then sighed and gave him up as a lost cause, she then turned her attention to the next wave of mannequins.
The Endless Walker took a few more steps before looking back, he saw Liara holding them off and sighed in disgust.
"You've gone soft in your old age..." he mumbled before turning back, he equipped his sawed off shotgun and fired at one of the mannequins blasting it's head clean off.
"In that window! I'll hold 'em off!" he called
Liara nodded and obeyed, climbing into the abandoned building. The Endless Walker after firing his second shot crawled in behind her...
MEANWHILE
Some_Bloke continued running, he climbed over an abandoned car, which would slow down the mannequins for at least several seconds.
Then he heard it. The sobbing, coming from a nearby building, he drew his shotgun and turned on the light as he slowly and cautiously opened the door.
The sobbing grew louder as he approached. The light caught the creature by surprise. A witch.
It looked directly at him
"Balls."
Without warning, the creature charged, screeching. He knew that the screeching would attract others, in panic he fired a shot but missed. He did the only logical thing and ran.
MEANWHILE
AspieMomma looked directly at Garrus, then back at Lisabeth.
"You're probably wondering what I'm doing here. I seek the win. I will have the win."
"This entire colony will be nuked within an hour and a half." Garrus pointed out
"Oh I don't intend to be around by then..."
"You're wasting your time. If you truly want the win, go and find it." Lisabeth continued
AspieMomma thought about torturing this woman, but decided against it.
"Very well...I shall search for it."
Garrus turned to Lisabeth with some surprise.
"You're letting her go?"
Lisabeth said nothing and instead reached into her left boot, pulling out a strange looking artifact.
MEANWHILE
The teen was pulled to their feet by Liara.
"Is he helping us now?"
"It looks like it anyway..."
"Can we trust him?"
"We don't exactly have a choice..."
The two continued, reaching the door at the end of the room and walking into a long, dark hallway. There was something at the very end...Something terrifying. Shivers were sent down Liara's spine and she gestured the teen to stay quiet The creature had not noticed either of them yet and they continued walking. A look of fear came to Liara's face.
"Run! Don't look back!" She ordered, fear in her voice.
The creature continued pursuing them...
Suddenly it stopped and staggered to the sound of a gunshot, The Endless Walker appeared firing his Mauser pistol and emptied an entire clip into the figure.
"That answer your question?" He asked with a smirk.
They approached the creature and bought it into the light.
"What is it?" the teen asked, still unsure as to whether or not it was truly dead.
"Dead" The Walker answered.
He then stopped,
"Can you hear that?"
"Hear what?" the teen asked
"sounds like... a humming noise." The Endless Walker followed the sound, that the others could only hear faintly now that he had mentioned it.
The three of them continued down the corridor, and down a stairwell to the basement.
"Keep going down here from what I remember there was a basement in this building."
"What's there?" Liara asked
"I'm more concerned with what I know won't be there..." The Endless Walker replied.
Eventually the stairwell was blocked off by a large barricade, stacks of furniture left to block the way.
"Guess we will have to take the elevator shaft..." The Endless Walker muttered whilst walking towards the elevator.
"But... there is no power" Liara was quick to remind him
"You don't need power to climb down the shaft." The Endless Walker laughed, forcing the door open.
Upon climbing down the old service ladder and on top of the elevator on the basement floor, they lowered themselves in through the service hatch and into the basement.
The source of the sound wasn't coming from the basement, but that didn't put a stop to the Endless Walker's curiosity.
Whilst Liara and Teen looked for anything useful in the basement, The Endless Walker pushed his ear against the wall and tapped every now and then.
"You were with the commander weren't you?" Liara asked
"Yeah... was for a time..." he replied
"Why?" she asked
"I was helping him find you, now I've found you and lost him. Proves how Gods and Goddesses like to laugh whilst I make plans."
"I take it you want the 'win?" Liara sighed
"The what?" The Endless Walker turned to her in confusion.
"The win? The artifact that you were fighting over..." she continued
"Is that what raised the dead?" He asked in confusion, "if so then that is what I am looking for."
The conversation was cut short by the sound of a hollow wall being knocked by The Endless Walker. "I F***ing knew it!" He laughed, "this building... hell this whole street all belongs to the same person!"
"What?" Liara and Pyromaniac Teen asked at the same time.
"I've seen this plenty of times, some scientist tries to set up a research center in the city, but with a generator that makes a noise like that obviously people will ask questions. So the easiest thing to do is buy the whole street and leave those houses as derelict or decoys."
"So... you think that there is a generator behind there?" Liara inquired
"Generator, machine of somekind... we can find out if I could create a small enough explosion or hit this wall with such a force that we could break through it."
Liara reached into her pack, "I have this grenade..." she said offering it to the old corpse. He gently took it and threw it at the wall, it then stuck, the three of them took cover behind some crates as it detonated.
As soon as it detonated, several husks came pooring out, screeching and sprinting towards the group.
"To the lift!" Liara called
The three of them ran to the elevator and the Teen and The Endless Walker pulled the door across, it was a wire mesh designed to stop people from falling out of the lift, but it wasn't strong enough to hold off the 200 husks that were all clawing at it.
Liara climbed up the service hatch and the others quickly followed, The Endless Walker sealed the hatch with his hatchet and breathed a sigh of relief.
"We having fun yet?" he smirked.
"Not even remotely." Liara replied with some bitterness
"Oh come on!" The Endless Walker continued, attempting to add some humor.
They made their way down another corridor.
"Strange..." The teen pointed out
"Not at all..." The Endless Walker replied
MEANWHILE
Some_Bloke rested on a wall and looked up
It began to rain and Some_Bloke noticed that several walkers were looking at him with hunger.
"Bollocks."
The scent must be wearing off.
He could outrun them, he thought. He turned the corner only to come face to face with the witch, she screeched again.
"Oh come on!" He shouted and continued to run, it was no use and the witch was gaining on him, she knocked him off his feet and began to claw at his armor. He reached for the shotgun, grabbed it and shot the witch in the stomach, her guts covered his armor.
Still on the ground and exhausted, he noticed several walkers limping in his direction, he pulled himself to his feet, grunted in pain and began limping.
He continued onwards. The walkers still some distance behind him.
MEANWHILE
"So what happens now?" Garrus asked Lisabeth
"We get the hell out..."
"What about the others?"
Slander light a cigarette
"That I do not know...It's your call Vakerian."
"We go back for them..."
Lisabeth set out any possible weapons
"Let's do a weapons check first."
She placed her AK47, revolver and machete on the ground in front of them as well as ammunition. Garrus placed his sniper rifle, assault rifle and pistol on the ground as well as leftover ammunition.
MEANWHILE
Liara, The Endless Walker and the teen reached the end of the corridor, at the end was a door with a light shining from it.
The Endless Walker drew his pistol, while Liara charged up some biotic energy. The teen on the other hand drew a crowbar.
The Endless Walker kicked the door open and a look of shock came to his face.
"Impossible..." He spoke, taken aback.
In front of them stood a large pit, it had nothing, but a guardrail in the room to stop them from falling in. below was an orange pulsating field, of what was unclear, but it didn't look terrestrial.
"A volcano? In here? How?" The Endless Walker asked in confusion.
"It's not a volcano... that's... the nestene consciousness!" She stammered in amazement.
"You can make sense any time now..." The Endless Walker snorted.
"This is what has been controlling the mannequins... it's living plastic!" Liara explained
"Oh wow!" The Teen girl looked into the pit, but jumped back as it snarled at her.
"Think this is controlling the dead folk too?" The Endless Walker inquired, not taking his eyes off the Nestene consciousness.
"No... it can only control plastic." Liara confirmed.
"Well, let's kill it then!" The teen interrupted drawing her gun.
"NO!" The Endless walker interrupted her. "We don't need to kill it, the nuke will take care of it..."
"How... how do you know about the nuke?" Liara asked in amazement, "only those in the briefing room knew!"
The Endless Walker reached into his coat pocket and pulled out Garrus' radio. "One of your friends dropped this and your rather chatty pilot told me everything. I imagine I sound somewhat like your friend, or maybe he just believed your friend had a sore throat." He laughed.
"May I?" Liara asked
"Sure take it, I don't know how to change it's frequency anyway... I'm too old for all this space age tech" he handed the radio to Liara.
"I don't know I'd imagine I'm the eldest in this room..." she said with a smile.
"How old? Erm... if that's not too personal." The Endless Walker asked hesitantly.
"107" she said with confidence
"203" he said back at her "Sorry lady, but there's only room for one old git in this crew."
"How is that possible for a human?" She asked nervously
"You're forgetting the most important thing... I'm not human."
The three of them left the nestene consciousness behind and continued to the other building.
"Up at the top of this place... that's where your 'win' will be... and where my answers await us."
As they opened the door to the other building, a man stood on the other side, armed with a pistol.
He was wearing futuristic Paladin armor and had an eye patch over his left eye. His hair was combed. The man had dark hair, however he had dyed it blue and was black.
The armor itself had a large gold cross from above the stomach area upwards to the neck. It was a mixture of white and gold color-wise.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that..."
"Who the hell are you?"
"It does not matter...What does matter is that the win has to be destroyed."
"You're a Paladin, right?"
The man nodded
"Now please, step away or I shall be forced to use violence."
MEANWHILE
Some_Bloke was about to give up, the limp was really getting to him. The walkers were closing in also. He was out of breath and so turned, firing his pistol into the horde of walkers, aiming for their heads he was able to take out a small handful, they dropped like rag dolls.
He tripped over something and landed on his back. He looked to see that it was a dead body. He breathed a sigh of some relief, only for the dead body to grab for him, snarling. Shock came to his face and he pulled himself up, as did the walker. He fired a shot, hitting the walker in the head.
He turned to see what stood behind him.
"Bollocks."
MEANWHILE
Garrus was lowered to the ground by Slander, who proceeded to follow him, it appeared that the coast was clear. Her radio blared the following.
"Lisabeth, good news. The strike has been delayed."
"Shut up, Regann." She snapped, whispering.
The noise had not attracted any walkers of mannequins as yet surprisingly, but it would not be too long before they arrived to investigate the noise.
Slander and Garrus quickened their pace.
MEANWHILE
The radio went off
"Is anyone listening on this channel."
Liara responded
"Hello."
"Liara, oh thank god. It's Garrus. What is your location?"
The Paladin nodded again.
"If they can get you out of here before the strike and get you away from the win, that suits me..."
Liara gave the exact location.
"We're about twenty minutes away. Hang in there." Garrus replied
"What about the strike?"
"It's been delayed. Should give us enough time to get out..." Slander replied
The Paladin did not allow his guard to drop.
The Endless Walker pushed to the front, "Outta my way old man I've got places to be!"
The paladin pushed him and knocked him back, "I won't warn you again..."
The Endless Walker smiled "Bet you say that to every guy who stands in your way..." he then quickly threw a punch to the paladin and slammed him against the wall.
"Now... you're going to stay here, I don't want your damn 'win!' If you need me to I'll destroy it! I'm getting my answers and if you try to stop me I will shove a magnet down your throat and watch you implode!" he balled at the paladin.
He let go of the paladin who lunged for him and they both fell to the floor the paladin equipped his pistol and fired at The Endless Walker, but couldn't hit him. The Endless Walker kicked the gun out of his hand and started to strangle the paladin.
"Stop now!" a voice interrupted
It was Liara, who pointed the paladin's pistol at The Endless Walker. "Let him go... now!" She ordered.
"If you insist" The Endless Walker muttered bitterly dropping the paladin who chocked and gasped for breath.
"Why do you care so much? About the zombies anyway?" the teen asked.
"I think... I think I know who maybe controlling them, let's just leave it at that. If it is him, then he is the biggest threat here... and I want to put him out of his misery."
"Paladin... it was never made clear what the 'win' is... could you explain?" Liara inquired
"The 'win' is a trap... the paladin interrupted, it's a corrupted Prothean beacon like the ones reported on Eden prime and Vermire... it was set up as a way of using the information download against the protheans during their war 50,000 years ago, but the intended protheans never reached this one. It's still active and anyone who touches it... will be immediately indoctrinated." The paladin rose to his feat, "The... 'win' may or may not have been activated by the people who own... 'owned' this building." Either way they must be stopped...
"At the top of this elevator... we will be able to go to the 'Admin office,' there will be the 'win' and there it must be destroyed!"
"What're we waiting for?" The Teen interrupted... "We need to destroy this thing!"
"No... I cannot risk it!" The paladin cried, "Any one of you could turn on me at the promise of power! Or the ending of suffering! Do you trust eachother?" The three of them turned their attention to The Endless Walker who stood with his hands in his pockets. "Really? Take it, it's yours! I told you I want the b*stard who raised the dead's head!" Unconvinced, but with no evidence otherwise they turned their attention back to each other.
"I'm sorry... I wish there was another way." The paladin sighed drawing a super sledge hammer.
"Prepare yourselves!"
"I thought the Reapers were on our side now..." The teen pointed out
"That's the worst part, becoming indoctrinated by this beacon will give you information to take control of the Reapers..." The Paladin replied
"If you wrong person were to get it, it would be disastrous for all species." Liara continued out
"What exactly does it have to do with all of the zombies?"
"You can request other information and power...Looks like someone used it to raise the dead."
"Obviously as a distraction..."
The four of them entered the building, armed. The Paladin however had switched from his war hammer and was now wielding a powerful assault rifle, the same color as his armor.
MEANWHILE
Standing before him was none other than AspieMomma
"But...You're dead." He stammered
"If that is so, then why am I standing before you now?"
"That's exactly the question I'm asking myself."
Garrus and Lisabeth stepped into view behind her.
"I knew you'd come back, Vakarian!" Some_Bloke shouted with humor and relief
Lisabeth cleared her throat.
"Oh of course, you too, Lisabeth."
AspieMomma had ignored their conversation was currently attacking the oncoming horde with the same thing that could have brought about it's creation...Dark magic.
"Fighting fire with fire!" She laughed, manically
Within a few minutes, the horde was gone. Garrus whistled. AspieMomma approached, pushed Slander to the ground and pulled something out of her boot.
The artifact. AspieMomma examined it and threw it to the ground.
"This is not the win. And if it was, Garrus would be dead by now. You would have shot him..."
"Then what the hell is it?" Lisabeth asked bitterly while pulling herself to her feet.
"It's a long story, I'll tell you on the way."
AspieMomma walked ahead.
"Can we trust her?" Garrus asked
"She's using us for now, so we're safe...Be prepared to pump a round into her skull though..." Lisabeth whispered
MEANWHILE
The four of them stepped into the elevator and headed for the admin office. However, the elevator jammed half-way up.
"Looks like someone knows were here..." The Paladin pointed out.
"How do you know?"
"I scouted this building earlier, it has full power and emergency back-up power. They've jammed the elevator on us..."
"Or maybe some A** hole just spilled coffee on the control panel... either way, we're stuck." The Endless Walker mumbled pushing buttons on the elevator randomly.
"There should be a service hatch! Like before right?" Liara snapped in a moment of inspiration.
"Yep, I think I see it" the psychotic teen added
"Hmm... it looks like it has a 4 digit code on it... I can hack it with my omni-tool, but it will take some ti-" Suddenly Liara was interrupted by gunshots which destroyed the lock on the service hatch.
"You're welcome..." The Teen muttered.
The Paladin gave Liara a boost and pulled himself up, "before I pull them up I want to talk to you about your companions... can you trust them?"
Liara paused and sighed, "The time I've known them has been a matter of hours, but... the girl saved my life, she has a level head and she seems honorable at least."
"Do you know the other one?" The Paladin probed, Liara shook her head "I don't know him, but he helped my friend that has to count for something right? He's reckless and dangerous, but I believe him when he says he wants to help us.. I mean he wants the answers, it's after he finds them I'll be worried about him turning on us."
"I know who he is..." the paladin sighed, "We have a file on him..."
"Who is he?" Liara asked with some fear in her voice.
"I don't know what he is... but I know who he is... He was a drug smuggler in the 1800s to early 1900s. He was gunned down in a saloon after a job went bad, they say the devil himself reached out and revived him to do his bidding. They say that he is no longer human, but... He's cruel, ruthless and has been known to burn small communities to the ground. He's killed children, the old, the weak and we suspect he may have caused two incidents like this to happen before. Out of two reports of the dead coming back to life he... or someone like him was reported in both of the reports."
Liara looked somewhat disturbed by the information "I don't think we have the luxury of picking our allies now..." she sighed pulling the teen up.
"I'm not saying that, I'm saying be wary of him... no one truly knows what his intentions are. He's the kind of guy who's set the entire planet on fire on a whim, at times a great ally, but at others a liability."
"I understand, but we've had people like that before... Jack for example and we were able to trust her." Liara interrupted.
"But was she a walking nightmare from beyond the grave?"
The Endless Walker interrupted them both after pulling himself up, "Thanks for the help" he muttered. The four of them climbed the shaft, Liara went first, followed by the paladin, followed by the Teen and then The Endless walker.
"I see the top!" Liara called
"Get the door open then!" The Teen called
"I maybe able to pry it open... could you pass me that crowbar you picked up?" Liara asked
The Teen passed the prying device up to Liara who managed to wedge it into the door. Liara pulled, but the door was too heavy, this caused her to slip. Quickly she clutched hold of the ladder, but dropped the crowbar which fell down the shaft.
"Nice one..." the Teen sneered.
"Sorry... I lost my balance there."
The paladin then hit the doors open with his hammer, the group carefully made their way onto the top floor and once read continued down the corridor to the admin office.
"Wait..." The Teen interrupted, "there's the "executive office!" she pointed at the sign at the end of the corridor breaking off to the other end of the top bar on the T shape.
"Ignore it" the paladin grunted, "we want the admin office..."
the group then continued on to the Admin office.
The psychotic teen skipped up to group*
"I found this..." She held up a sonic screwdriver and made a face.
"...in one of my pockets. Do you think it could be useful?"
MEANWHILE
Some_Bloke picked up the artifact, handed it to Lisabeth before the three of them followed AspieMomma.
"So, what can you tell us about the artifact?" Some_Bloke asked
"You want the long detailed story, or the nutshell?" AspieMomma replied
"Nutshell. We don't have much time." He continued, abruptly
"OK, basically, the artifact links up to the win, it allows the user to access the win safely and obtain it's true powers. You would basically become the equivalent of a god."
"No one should have that much power..." Some_Bloke pointed out in a serious tone.
"No one expect for me."
"No way."
AspieMomma stopped in her tracks
"Why did you think I wanted it?"
"I'm afraid that I can't let you do it." He threatened
"I could destroy all three of you with a thought. You don't want to mess with me..."
Some_Bloke and AspieMomma were now making direct eye contact and dangerously close to each other, he had his hand grabbed onto his Katina, she on the other hand was charging up fistful of black magic
MEANWHILE
"By the way Jack wasn't."
"Then what was this Jack character exactly?"
"Troubled..."
They approached the admin office and checked ammunition supplies before entering. They were greeted by a blue light...It was a normal office, only there was a blue light filling the room, at the very end was a portal of some kind.
"Of course..." The Paladin muttered, surprised
"What's on the other end of this thing?" The teen asked curiously.
"The end of our quest. What lies in front of us is not a portal to another dimension but somewhere in-between our galaxy and another. This is the smallest mass relay ever created.
MEANWHILE
AspieMomma turned directly to Lisabeth and hit her with some kind of energy, she was knocked off of her feet and the artifact flew directly towards AspieMomma who grabbed it, raised her other hand and opened a red portal in front of her. She stepped through it and it began to close. Some_Bloke instantly jumped through it, followed by Garrus who had something in his left hand.
When they arrived on the other side, AspieMomma landed casually, Garrus Some_Bloke and Lisabeth on the other hand landed with a thud, arriving on other sides of the room. Lisabeth put her head in her hands and groaned.
"You actually made quite a good action figure." Garrus added with humor.
"Shut up Vakarian." She groaned
"Wait, that's what happened?!" Some_Bloke asked
"Pretty much..." AspieMomma replied "The spell wore off when you came through the portal..."
Lisabeth raised her gun to AspieMomma
"You do that again...And I'll have you an injury." Lisabeth threatened
"I thought it was funny." AspieMomma replied, mocking her
She stepped back and cleared her throat.
"Anyway, moving on."
AspieMomma ran unnaturally fast, arriving at the Admin office to be greeted by four different people. She recognized Liara and she recognized the uniform of another. A Paladin.
Garrus, Lisabeth and Some_Bloke arrived shortly afterwords, weapons drawn. He was relieved to see Liara alive.
AspieMomma raised both of her hands.
"I will have the win..."
"I doubt that...You're outnumbered. Either you're shi* at counting or you're simply crazy." The Endless Walker replied with humor
"I'm crazy."
She knocked everyone off of their feet before running through the small mass relay.
"We have to stop her." The Paladin was desperate now, even possibly afraid but attempting not to show it.
"Freeze!" a voice called
The group turned around to see a young human scientist pointing a pistol at them. He looked scared, whether it was from the events he had just seen or the overall situation was unclear.
"Great... more distractions.." The Endless Walker muttered to himself.
"Wait... you aren't mannequins!" The Scientist cried
"No Sh*t, what gave us away?" The Teen replied sarcastically.
"I thought they had found a way up... I take it you are here for the beacon... codenamed 'W.I.N?"
"Yes, we are" Some_Bloke replied taking control of the situation.
"You know that someone has already activated it... right? It's dead!"
"Dead?" Garrus asked in confusion, "then what the hell is through this portal?"
"What it unleashed..." The scientist sighed
The scientist lowered his weapon and pulled up a nearby chair.
"I imagine that you have heard the rumours... here are the facts. The W.I.N is a prothean beacon which was dug up here 10 years ago..." he started
"We know all this!" Liara interrupted.
The scientist looked somewhat annoyed with the interruption but continued anyway
"You know who uncovered it? Dr Crowley and his team... consisting of I and a few others. We worked for Cerberus..."
"This can't be a Cerberus operation!" Garrus pointed out, "Cerberus were disbanded after the war with the reapers!"
"Yes... but Crowley could not let the last 8 years of his life die like that, he funded the research with his own money. He sacrificed everything possible in order to get us here."
"Get you... where?" The Paladin asked in confusion "Surely all the beacon needed was a simple touch."
"Yes... the beacon was touched when it was uncovered 6 years ago, the DR had a plague of visions upon touching it, but after it was over he said nothing, except 'I need to record my findings.' He went into his office and we didn't see him for the next week or so. We just continued on deciphering the prothean artefacts that we uncovered at the time.
Then... Sovereign happened, an actual reaper killed in the heart of the citadel! This proved to Dr Crowley that his visions were true and... The 'voices' were that of a higher being."
"Voices?" Some_Bloke interrupted
"Yes, he claimed that a voice told him what to do, all the time in fact, it interfered in every aspect of his life. He never needed to obey the voice, he had free will, but he eventually submitted to its demands.
After Sovereign happened he emerged from his office and called for us to cast aside the 'junk' we had been collecting over the years. He had found us 'salvation' though our study of the prothean influence on this planet wasn't anything to do with that we were just happy to have some instruction. Overnight the researched stopped and the experiments began, Crowley claimed that Cerberus ordered him to study indoctrination, though I'm sure they hadn't contacted him since Sovereign... The first thing he had us do was bring the nestine consciousness here."
"The what?" Garrus asked.
"It's the core mind for the plastic creatures you have probably seen walking the streets." Liara pointed out, "seeing one in a human colony is... well it would be a rare occurrence if it had happened more often, but the truth is it has never happened."
"Well I can't wait until it cooks..." Garrus mumbled "I had to discard my favourite rifle because of it!"
"The consciousness was easy to indoctrinate, we had the advantage of using its lust for power as a sort of... 'Carrot' approach and reminding it that it and its plastic creatures were stuck in the signal's radius as our 'stick."
The scientist paused with a disturbed look on his face, he sighed and carried on.
"At first the Nestine Consciousness could revive plastic and that was enough for us, Crowley somehow kept it under control at the time and we had no idea that..."
"He was indoctrinated..." Liara said with sympathy.
"Yes... he was slowly losing himself and we had no idea..." The Scientist shed a tear for his former colleague before swivelling his chair around towards his desk.
"We... Crowley didn't feel that the manipulation of plastic was enough, 'the consciousness can do more!' he insisted 'it can be a militarial marvel!' his next step was 'reanimating the dead' he believed it was possible, to turn any fallen soldier or wronged civilian into ranks for Cerberus or the Alliance..."
"That's disgusting! The alliance wouldn't have allowed that!" Some_Bloke interrupted.
"The Alliance didn't seem too picky on who they chose for their allies back when the reapers were invading. Me being here is proof that you and your Alliance would take anyone who could shoot a gun if the cause is just." The Endless Walker was quick to remind him. "Not a bad policy really..." He then mumbled.
"We had the signal strength, but we couldn't do it, it wasn't possible! We could manipulate every bit of plastic in 100 miles at least, but not 1 corpse budget. The tests were all deemed as a failure. Then... Cerberus collapsed and the reapers were... defeated, in a sense. The war had ended and our research was for nothing. Crowley couldn't stand that, with no funding and no cause he lost his mind and poured every last credit he had into the funding of this research. He started using his own people as test subjects instead of refugees or the dispossessed. The boom of budget that the Lazurus project bought upon Cerberus was over and Crowley had 'only just begun' that was when he focussed on the next best thing. The Husks, if he could control the husks with the nestine consciousness then... well I don't need to tell you how powerful he would have been."
"Didn't Cerberus control husks before?" Liara asked
"Yes, but that research was... not the same, ours gave the user direct control over every individual unit, it created a hive mind which could be easily exploited. We came close, but we could never perfect it, to take control the host at the centre needed to be impaled on the same spikes that creates a husk, we wanted a pin prick at best, but impaling was all we got. Obviously anybody who got control died within a matter of seconds and the husks went wild, forcing us to lock them in the basement."
"Dr, I know this taxing for you, but... I have another question if you would allow me?" Liara began "If the nestine consciousness failed to create walking corpses... how come we had encountered them?"
"They... they are alive?" The Scientist looked astounded, and swivelled towards the monitor.
"The template! A template must have walked through the field!" He cried.
"Template?" Some_Bloke asked in confusion.
"The nestine consciousness... it needed a template, something like the walking corpses to come into contact with its field! Something or someone was or is here! Have you encountered anyone who appears to be like them?"
The group all turned to the Endless Walker who just stood in bewilderment. The scientist then saw him and got up to examine the old corpse. "A few years ago you would have been a God send!" the scientist muttered.
The Scientist went back to his desk and put his head in his hands,
"The Portal! What's in the portal?!" The Paladin called.
"Only Crowley knows... the rest of us, have no idea."
"Where's Crowley?" Some_Bloke demanded
"In the executive office... he's likely to shoot you if you go in, he's lost his mind."
"Fine we don't need that we can find out what is through this portal by going through it!" Garrus interrupted, "I suggest that you take 3 of us and the rest get picked up by Joker, we aren't going to need the evac on the other side of that portal!"
Some_Bloke nodded, and looked down at the desk.
"It appears to me that the team being evacced will need all the help they can get right? We also have a machine in... I'm sorry where's the husk machine again?" The Endless Walker added
"Crowley's office"
"Right... that means that I'm the only one who can go in there anyway... I can cover the evac team by taking control of the husks, I won't die obviously and you people can go through the portal. That Asari and the people you don't take with you probably need evacuating, you choose who you take with you and I'll cover the other team with ever husk I'm able to control."
"You think I'll let you have control of an army of husks?!" the paladin interrupted. "I'll die first!"
"Listen old man you keep on like that and that might happen."
"Look this place will be nuked anyway, the most I'll have is a half hour, say I go rogue and kill you all the worst I could do is release a few hundred Husks in the countryside!"
"He has a point and we will need something to counter against the zombies. Especially since that doctor probably won't be much use in combat." Liara insisted.
"We're taking him? Fine... I can't be bothered today..." The Endless Walker mumbled. "Your order chief... who are you taking with you are and who are you sending to the shuttle?"
Some_Bloke stood over the desk and kept a clear face, not letting anyone aware of the pressure he was under, especially Liara. He stood there for at least a minute making up his mind, a minute that seemed like hours to him. Paladin's were expert in combat, but at the same time he needed someone that he trusted by his side. Lisabeth while being suprisingly strong would be better use on the Normandy, and the spell AspieMomma had used combined with the nestine consciousness also in the area during the period of which she was an action figure of some kind as Garrus had put it would have side-effects of some kind.
He made up his mind and stepped back from the desk.
"Liara, Garrus...And"
"Aouran." The Paladin replied
"That's a bit of a strange name." The teen pointed out.
"I'm a Paladin, remember?"
Something else occurred to Some_Bloke.
"What was that thing you had earlier?" He asked the teen
"What, this?" She replied, pulling out the sonic screwdriver.
"We might need that..." He pointed out
She shrugged and tossed Some_Bloke the sonic screwdriver.
It was settled, the scientist, the teenage girl and Lisabeth would be lifted out.
Some_Bloke, Aouran, Liara and Garrus would head through the portal.
"You sure you want to do this?" Some_Bloke asked his undead companion
"Of course..." He replied
They would do a weapons check before heading through the portal. The Paladin offered Garrus a rifle that he recognized instantly.
"Thanks. I was afraid I had lost this..."
"My pleasure, Turian. Let prepare to go into battle."
"Liara, can I talk to you?" Some_Bloke asked
The two stepped into the the room connecting to the admin offce and shut the blinds.
"I already know what you're going to say..."
"I know..."
"You're not suggesting that we?.."
"Up to you..."
Instead, they mind-melded.
The others had a brief idea of what was going on, mainly Garrus and Lisabeth. The teenage girl was slightly curious but rejected asking questions when they entered the room again.
The Endless Walker left the room and walked slowly and cautiously towards Crowley's office, as Some_Bloke, Liara, Garrus and Aourann checked weaponry one final time.
The Endless Walker stopped at the door and turned to the group, "Considering that I'm dying for y'all... you couldn't do me one last favor could you?" He asked hesitantly.
"Depends what it is..." Some_Bloke replied.
"Since this cycle is ending for me I need to tie up a loose end, take this envelope and send it to earth it's for a guy named "Aimes."
"Couldn't you have sent the message through a computer?"
"No, not that message, that's the sort of message you sent to people without a computer if you had any guts."
Liara took the envelope and stuffed it into her pack.
The Endless Walker left the Admin office and continued to the Executive office. He was then shot in the lower back, lower shoulder and upper shoulder. The shot blew his arm off and exposed his rib cage, the force of the blast knocked The Endless Walker to the floor.
Aouran appeared behind him "I'm sorry this isn't my way, but I don't have time to test your strength" he sighed, "monsters like you should not have that kind of power." He walked away, leaving The Endless Walker's corpse in the hallway outside of the executive door. Hopefully no one would know he had done it and if they did it would be too late for he would have gone through the portal.
Aouran placed himself back into the room carefully, trying not to draw any attention to himself. "We heard a gunshot is everything alright?" Liara asked catching him off guard, "yes... he just encountered some resistance, nothing he couldn't handle I guess." The paladin didn't sound confident, but he covered the recent events up rather well.
"We don't have time to lose! Get in the portal!" Some_Bloke ordered
"You people know what to do! Take Dr... I'm sorry I never got your name?"
"Stevens... Dr Stevens" The Doctor replied.
"Right take Doctor Stevens with you and get on that shuttle, I don't know if this portal has an exit point, but well..."
The group left the room as Some_Bloke and his team left and jumped into the portal.
The evacuation team left for the corridor and turned towards the elevator. The group were too busy to notice the corpse outside of the Executives room. They continued down to the elevator.
As the elevator doors shut, The Endless Walker's fingers started to twitch. "Son of a... the F***er took my arm off!" he cried pulling himself to his feet. The paladin's gunshots took off his left arm and his left ear though he felt no pain and his condition could not kill him, it would inconvenience him in combat situations. His torso looked a wreck from where Jack impaled him and where the paladin shot him.
"Stick to the plan..." he muttered heading to the executive office, he stood in the way of the automatic door and drew his Mauser pistol. He did a quick ammo check.
"1 round... better make it count."
He entered the room to be greeted by gunfire, all the shots missed him prompting him to shoot back. His shot hit Dr Crowley in the chest and knocked him on his back,
"Taking control of the husks is all that matters now..." The Endless Walker scowled as he entered the room.
"My life's work... this power is mine!" Crowley wheezed, he stopped to cough up some blood still reaching for the husk mind-control machine.
"You got this power by exploiting the weak... in that sense I'm hardly any worse off than you."
"You're a monster!" the pathetic old man cried.
"At least I'm labeled as a monster... you? You've served your purpose, your time is up!"
"You take my power! Then you mock me?!" the old man wheezed
"I'd finish you off, but I'm out of clips... as soon as I take control I'll see to it that you get the death that is fitting."
The Endless Walker entered the field, the field read brainwaves which were the key to controlling the hive mind. He pushed the green button which prompted the husk spike to impale him. His head was jerked back by the machine that held it in place.
The sensation would be impossible to describe, being able to see through a million eyes as one. Being able to move 1 million fingers as 1 flick of the hand.
"Right first things first..." he scowled
Two husks in stasis revealed themselves and stood in front of him obediently.
"Leave nothing behind!" The Endless Walker barked
The two husks began tearing at Crowley's body causing a spine chilling scream which echoed through the corridor and which could be heard in the elevator shaft.
The group in the elevator, still unaware then approached the lobby door. The street was full of walkers and autons which were both under the nestine consciousness' control.
The group nervously stepped out onto the street and drew their weapons. All stood silently as if everything in the room was waiting for one event to spark a massacre.
Suddenly every window in the street smashed open and a horde of 2000 husks came poring out like a burst dam. The horde descended upon their rivals and tore the zombies and autons limb from limb. The Teen psychotic and her group advanced.
Something was spotted on the horizon. Something rather large.
A tank
Not just one, but several. They threw several husks aside like rag dolls and approached the building. Lisabeth knew immediately what they were planning and was about to intervene when several brutes came into view.
They engaged in combat with the tanks, keeping them away from the building.
Lisabeth watched the sight for several seconds and then stepped back and ran alongside the teenage girl and Dr Stevens.
"He can handle himself, we need to keep moving." She pointed out
MEANWHILE
Some_Bloke and his team arrived in a large dark, tunneled area. There was one red light in the distance, however.
The interior itself was full of piles of scrap from what appeared to be Protheon technology and Reapers
"What is this place?" Liara asked
"Let's find out." Aouran replied, walking ahead slightly
"This reminds me of the Collector base." Garrus pointed out, scanning the area
"We need to focus on the task at hand..."
Approaching further into the tunnel, Liara came across what appeared to be the body of a dead Protheon.
"Goddess, what happened here?"
"Again, I think we'll find out when we get to this red light..." Aouran snapped
"Nothing wrong with a little curiosity." Some_Bloke replied, taking charge
"Curiosity killed the cat."
"Satisfaction brought it back..."
Aouran quickened his pace, the rest of the team followed him, Some_Bloke taking the lead.
They turned a corner to come face to face with an old fear...
A swarm of Collectors...
The four of them drew weapons and were prepared to fire. There was a brief pause and then Some_Bloke approached the Collectors cautiously, all of them were attached to some kind of wire, their eyes were shut also. The wires led to a large overhead structure.
"They're in stasis." Liara concluded
"Oh, well that's a relief." Garrus replied
"We'd better keep moving."
AspieMomma stepped into view over a console.
"Yes, Garrus it is..."
The four of them raised their weapons.
"Step away from that console or we will open fire." Some_Bloke demanded
There was a brief pause.
"Nah." She replied, mocking him.
She charged up a fist and destroyed the console. Instantly the structure above the Collectors released the wires, the Collectors opened their eyes
"Balls." He replied
The Collectors were released and turned their attention directly to the team.
All the husks converged onto the tank, all of them threw themselves at it and hanging off the beast, weighing it down. The Tank resisted heavily by punching, crushing and pummelling any husk that got in its way, but the weight of the husks became too much slowing it down.
The husks then proceeded to start tearing and clawing at the tank, ripping up its skin, muscle and eventually nerves the tank swayed trying to throw as many as he could off, but got weighed down. The tank slowly fell on its back as it called out in anguish as it was being torn apart. The group continued "Where are we getting picked up?" Lisabeth asked Cortez on her radio while running through the streets. "Top of the pawn shop is the best I can do, sorry guys!" He replied regrettably.
The group continued fighting off the horde, until a brute got in their way. "A little help here!" she called to the husks, the husks looked up in recognition and about 200 of them sprinted down the street to their aid.
The brute stopped for a few seconds and got ready to charge, before it could launch itself at the rest of the group it burst into flames and staggered backward.
"Go! I'll hold it off!" The psychotic teen called prompting Lisabeth and Dr Stevens to run to the pawn shop.
"Let's see what you've got you big, dumb, son of a-" suddenly she was interrupted by a brute that had found its way behind her. The brute’s claw managed to stab her; the brute picked her up and threw the half dead girl to one side.
Lisibeth turned around to see her companion lay in the streets, though she set off for her more walkers appeared from out of the sewers and immediately started following her. She sighed regretfully before she fell back to the pawn shop with Dr Stevens.
Many of the husks still remained at the door of the research centre; the husks looked up to see more walkers appearing from up the street.
The husks then swarmed the horde as if the streets had been painted blue and grey, tearing the brute's armour off and pounding it. Whilst the fighting was going on, one thing caught The Endless Walker's eye, the psychotic teen lay in the streets.
The husk that saw the body stood up straight, making it look almost human. It then paced itself towards her nervously as if he was expecting her to jump up and try to kill him. The husk then picked her up, and walked through the battlefield carrying her to the pawn shop.
The brutes proved to be quite a challenge for The Endless Walker's husks, since they were not getting as much attention due to his new priorities of getting the teen out.
"Look!" Dr Stevens called, pointing at the husk carrying the girl. "Quick clears the way!" Lisibeth cried shooting at the hordes below. Dr Stevens looked around for some way to make himself useful. He noticed The Endless Walker's cable that he used to pull the zombie up with before.
"Quick!" he called "find some more of this cable!" Lisibeth holstered her weapon and pulled some cable from the floor nearby. The two of them found 4 cables which they used to make 4 nooses. The husk had finally shuffled its way to the pawn shop; it looked up at the two of them and tilted its head.
The 4 nooses were thrown down, "We don't have any other options! Put her arms and legs in each one!" Dr Stevens called. The Husk obeyed carefully placing her in the support and making sure they had a firm grip round her wrists and ankles.
As Lisibeth and Dr Stevens hoisted their injured up the lone husk kept a lookout for any nearby walkers who could have gone after her. With a lot of effort the two of them managed to pull the teen on the rooftop and placed her carefully on the ground.
"Just got to wait until Cortez picks us up!" Lisibeth sighed, "Then we can pick up that zombie guy and get out of here..."
"Coming to pick you up, ETA 5 minutes!"
"Ok, but we will need to go back for someone!" Lisibeth replied.
"You don't have time!" Cortez cried, "You have 10 minutes, 5 max if we don't want to risk getting caught up in the blast!"
"You said it was delayed!"
"It was time is up, the nuke is being deployed it's not negotiable!"
Suddenly she was tapped on the shoulder by one of the husks; she turned to it as it stood as a relay between the two.
The husk shook its head, unable to speak it still made its message stand out clear. "You can't go back" Lisibeth turned towards the horde and saw the mess between her and the tower. There was no way she could have reached the tower in 10 minutes, never mind fight her way to the top of the building alone and back.
She sighed and was tapped on the shoulder again.
She turned to the husk that stood before her waiting for her response.
"I'm sorry we can't go back for you..."
The husk just nodded slowly in acknowledgment
"You knew we wouldn't be able to... didn't you?"
The husk took a long pause before nodding again.
"Thank you..." Lisibeth whispered as the shuttle deployed.
The shuttle arrived and Dr Stevens was assisted in taking the injured teen aboard.
"C'mon!" One of the guards called "We have to go now!"
Lisibeth took one last look at the husk that stood watching the shuttle, "you have 5 minutes... make the best of them." She said entering the shuttle; she turned to look at the husk one last time before the door shut. The husk then turned around and rejoined it's breatherin in the horde.
"5 minutes huh? Better make the most of it." The Endless Walker muttered drawing a sword from his coat, the sword was somewhat old fashioned, but it had a pistol built into the hilt. The pistol was an old time pistol from the 1600s.
He then sliced through the spike with his sword and dropped to the floor. He looked up with a grin before rising to his feet; he then began striding towards the exit and continuing on out of the executive office.
Lisabeth, Dr Stevens and the girl managed to make it out in the shuttle. Lisabeth placed her head in one hand and grunted in pain. Dr Steven approached her.
"Miss Salander, are you OK?"
"How did you know my name?" She turned around, facing him to see he was holding a pistol.
"I'm sorry but I need to do this."
The teenage girl was far too injured to do anything. Cortez far too busy flying the shuttle.
"Do what?"
"The nestine consciousness, part of it exists in your mind..."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"I saw what the woman did, the one your friends went through the small mass relay after. Her spell..."
"When it dies, whatever happened to me will be gone. Killing me to prevent it controlling my mind is pointless...I was only like that for a few seconds after all, you can thank Vakerian for that."
While Salander assumed that the scientist would stand down, she kept her guard up, reading to strike him at any time.
"Is....that what the Turian meant..." The girl spoke weakly
"You heard that?"
She nodded weakly
"Whatever you plan to do to me, Dr Stevens...It's not going to happen." She threatened
"You're unarmed."
"I don't need to be armed to handle you." She replied, grimly
Dr Stevens stepped back and lowered his weapon.
"I'm sorry, I...Just didn't want to see Crowley's research go to waste."
Salander looked sympathetic towards him for several moments, before kneeing Dr Stevens in the gut, causing him to fall to his knees and punching him across the face. She knelt down and the two made eye contact
"If you ever raise a gun to me again, or bring up that incident...I'll kill you." She threatened bitterly, not a sense a bluff in her eyes.
She pulled herself to her feet and sat down. The teen watched in shock before falling asleep, the sedatives given to her by Dr Stevens had finally kicked in.
It was at this moment that a flash of light filled the shuttle, the nuke had been detonated creating a mushroom cloud and a magnificent wave of energy.
The survivors watched the explosion as the shuttle ascended.
"Let's just hope there is another way out of that portal..." Dr Stevens muttered.
"My sweet. I'll find you." The teen muttered in a delerium.
It had been a whole hour since AspieMomma had awakened the Collectors and the team was losing ground.
Some_Bloke and his team were currently gunning down as many Collectors as possible. But it would not be too long before they would be overwhelmed. Some_Bloke would need to give some kind of order soon, but he was panicking. He did not expect this to happen. The Paladin noticed a large door and pointed to it.
"Everyone! Head for the door! Move!" Some_Bloke ordered
The four of them fled to the door, which Liara quickly opened by hacking. As they entered small, empty room, Liara shut the door, a bullet whizzing past her head.
"So, what now?" The Paladin asked.
Some_Bloke remained silent, he knew the stakes. AspieMomma could not find the beacon or it would be the end of everything. But at the same time, the number of Collectors only grew. The knocking on the door began. There must have been at least one hundred Collectors outside, impatiently waiting.
Some_Bloke stood against the wall and slid down it, landing with his head in his hands.
"Well?" The Paladin asked, growing impatient.
"We won't make it." Some_Bloke replied hopelessly
"I know...But that does not mean that we have to give up." Garrus protested
Some_Bloke pulled himself to his feet.
"Alright...Open the door."
While hesitant, Auronna proceeded. Some_Bloke thought of a poem he had read in that cottage in Ireland while hiding from the Reapers...It was hung up on the wall and while the war was years ago, he memorized every word of the poem.
He shut his eyes and under his breath he recited it for what he believed would be the final time...
Once more into the fray
Into the last good fight i'll ever know
Live and die on this day
Live and die on this day
He opened his eyes as the door opened...
The group continued fighting throwing more than all they had at the collector horde, trying to advance to make some progress.
Though they took down scores of them more kept coming, the group were running out of thermal clips and Liara's biotics were getting weaker. For Some_Bloke time seemed to have slowed down as if he was in a dream sequence. He slowly looked around as his comrades, friends, lovers and even those he would call family would soon fall. He hung his head in the hopelessness of it all, there was no way out.
"No way out..."
"No... way out?"
He then looked up and noticed that he and his team had managed to make some progress after all and another door was in view. His face lit up at the realization that escape was possible, he just had to push a little bit more.
Inspired by this he drew his gun, firing at the incoming collectors, the fire in his soul burned hotter than ever before. He was interrupted in his trail of thoughts after a collector appeared with a jetpack lunging for him. He turned around quickly to see it fall to the sound of gunshot.
"Good shot Garrus!" He called to his companion, "Huh?" Garrus asked in confusion before punching an incoming collector.
"That... wasn't you?"
Suddenly two or three collectors got cut down to size, and fell to the floor. The Endless Walker revealed himself, wielding his pistol sword with his remaining arm. His torso looked a shambles and was barely holding together with most of the ribs that were exposed before cracked or broken due to the fighting or due to the husk spike.
The group continued to push forward through the horde of collectors Liara made it to the door first and hit the switch to open it.
"C'mon!" she called to the group.
The four men continued cautiously towards the door, shooting, beating or slashing through any collectors who got in there way.
Upon getting to the other side, Liara hit the button to close and lock the door.
"Thought you'd died..." Some_Bloke panted
"I had things to do first" the ghoul said with a smile.
"The evacuation group did they...?"
"Yeah, they made it. But the nuke went off, the way back has been cut off since the relay was destroyed. I was the last thing to go through it."
"Any other way off out of here?" Some_Bloke asked
"Aww, crap I thought you'd be able to tell me that!" The Endless Walker sighed.
"What happened to your arm?" Liara asked with some concern.
"I er..." he then glared at the paladin "I ran into some resistance... the old man... crow, cowley... whatever his name was, he was packing heat." The Endless Walker scowled, he got his due though...
"What now?" The paladin asked changing the subject.
"Now?" Some_Bloke replied puling himself to his feet.
He then took a few steps forward before giving an Exhausted sigh.
"I know we've exhausted, but we just have to push a little bit more... we keep going until we find her or her target and we neutralize it!"
"How do you plan to neutralize a woman who can kill you with a thought?" The Walker scoffed.
"I was hoping you could help me with that..." Some_Bloke sighed.
"Lisabeth, now that she's not here...I'd like to say made a pretty good action figure." Garrus joked, sounding out of breath
"Shut up, Garrus." Some_Bloke replied with humor.
"What are we talking about?" The Endless Walker questioned
"Oh, just something that happened earlier."
"I have an idea of what went down." Liara pointed out
The group continued onwards.
"Right...Here's the plan." Some_Bloke spoke with authority...
"The Endless Walker will have to distract AspieMomma along with myself while the rest of you attack from each different angle. Remember she may be powerful, but she can die. Just as easily as everyone else..."
MEANWHILE
Lisabeth Salander felt as if the weight of the entire world had lifted from her shoulders. The thing in the back of her mind, attempting to gain some control had gone with the nuke, but remained for several minutes. The nessicene consciousness was dead...
Bones was currently tending to the teenage girl. Salander had informed him that she had not revealed her name to anyone.
Some parts of this young girl remind her of herself a little and she smiled slightly, looking into space. Another part of her knew that the others were OK...
AspieMomma had technically died before, at least twice from what she's heard and seen. Hopefully this time she would stay dead.
MEANWHILE
The Endless Walker and Some_Bloke approached AspieMomma as she stood in front of the beacon, ready to activate it.
"Oh hello boys!" She began, mocking them, when there was no reply a look of sarcastic disappointment came to her face.
"Lady Luck must be on my side today..." The Endless Walker smirked raising his sword.
She chuckled to catch them off guard, then fired a fireball at them both. The two of them dodged the attack and Some_bloke drew his pistol and fired at her.
"Sh*t! I can't hit her!"
"The bullets are melting before they can reach her; it looks like some sort of force field. Better do this the old fashioned way!" He then lunged forward slashing at the witch, seeing this coming she quickly leapt back and cackled. She was then interrupted by Some_Bloke's katana which swung in her direction. She blocked the attack with her staff and blasted them both away with a wave of energy.
The Endless Walker looked up to see his companion still bringing himself to his feet. He then marched toward Aspiemomma to quickly stop.
"!"
He looked down and noticed that his ribs were loose; he quickly just smashed them with the hilt of his sword and continued marching towards her.
She fired a number of attacks at him, quickly dodging them he carried on the assault, but fumbled when an unexpected fireball caused him to resort to evasive manoeuvres. He spun in the air and slashed at her, but caught her staff instead.
He then proceeded to swing forward to try and hit her with his left arm, remembering that he no longer had his left arm when it was too late he ended up swinging on his sword that was stuck in her staff.
She then shook him off causing him to hit the floor with a thud, "I wonder..." she hummed, ignoring her, the old ghoul jumped to his feet and started another assault only to be stopped in his tracks by a purple aura.
The sorceress had a similar aura around her hand and she was holding her hand out with her fingers held apart.
"So... you are susceptible to necromancy! Interesting..."
She then raised her index finger causing The Walker to press his sword against his neck.
"Now on my command... I want you to get sawing; when you're done you'll make a fetching trophy." She laughed turning her attention to Some_Bloke.
"Hey!" he called to her, "I'm not done with you hag!" He barked.
"No... you aren't you've only just begun with me, for the next 10 years I'll be able to carry your severed head as proof of my victory on this day! You will be a living symbol of my power!"
She then proceeded to walk around to his left and stood watching as his sword slowly cut through his neck.
"Any last words ghoul?"
"Yeah, just some advice... you ever make a pistol that can only fire one shot?
Make sure it fires two!"
Before she could do anything to stop him, The Endless Walker pulled the trigger on his pistol sword. The shot hit Aspiemomma in the shoulder causing her to spin as she hit the floor.
Now free of her control The Endless Walker approached the witch ready to give the finishing blow. She quickly sat up to meet his sword as he placed it under her chin as a deterrent.
She then fumbled around trying to find something to do, "err... call it a draw?" She finally asked in desperation.
The Endless Walker frowned at her for a while before lifting his sword. "Alright" he sighed, "neither of us are on top form today anyway"
"I know when I'm staring defeat in the face" she smiled; The Endless Walker sheathed his sword and gave her a hand. Liara, Garrus and The Paladin showed up behind her aiming at her. "I knew you were there..." she laughed limping towards the centre of the room. She then created two portals. As she limped to the first one.
"Freeze!" Garrus called to her, causing her to stop. "We're taking you in!"
"Well I ain't guarding her, we have 1 man unconscious and I'm an amputee, that leaves only two of you who are able to 'escort her' back to the Alliance."
Garrus scowled, knowing that he was right, it took everything to get to this stage and with so many injured and exhausted people on the team there wasn't any way possible they could keep a prisoner. "Fine, get out here..." Garrus mumbled holstering his pistol "but this isn't over!"
"Don't worry; I don't intend it to end yet, another day perhaps?" She then left the group behind as she went through the portal cackling.
"What now?" Garrus asked looking for orders.
Liara stepped forward, "She left a portal for us, we can esca-" they quickly heard a thud coming from the nearby door as collectors had swarmed in. "Jesus!" Garrus called opening fire on the horde.
"Get the commander and get out of here!" The Paladin cried beating the collectors off with his sledge hammer. Garrus picked Some_Bloke up, and ran through the portal with him. The paladin was second to fall back followed by Liara who stopped and turned.
"You aren't coming?" She asked the old corpse
"Nah, not onto an Alliance ship... they will have some awkward questions as to how Pvt Louis Shaw survived being shot in the gut..." he laughed "besides this body won't hold anymore, better go out in style right blue?"
"It's Liara... Liara T'soni" she corrected him.
"Well see you around Dr T'soni." he replied with a smile, Liara let off a faint smile before stepping back through the portal leaving her undead companion behind. The portal closed before him, as The Endless Walker watched the last of the portal's energy disperse into the air. He turned his attention to the collectors and scowled.
"What's this?" He grunted "A sorry lot of phantoms?!"
"Let's see what you're made of!" he mocked them. He then drew his sword and gave a smirk to the incoming horde.
The four of them landed with a thud on a bay of some kind.
"Where are we?" Garrus asked, pulling himself to his feet.
"Hello..." Came a voice, on the radio. It was Joker.
Liara instantly picked it up
"Joker?"
"Where the hell did you guys go...I'm picking up your signal from a nearby planet."
"I knew we shouldn't have trusted the sorceress." Aouran spat bitterly, also pulling himself to his feet. "God knows where she's left us."
An hour later, a shuttle came into orbit, lifting the team off of the nearby world.
Two hours later, Some_Bloke awakened in the medical bay to the face of Bones.
"You've been out for a while."
"How long?"
"A few hours, at least."
He lay back, running a hand from his forehead to his chin before pulling himself up.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"I'm still Commander. I need to find out what happened."
He walked to the observation room, where the team was gathered.
Liara immediately stood up and approached him.
"You need to rest..."
"Just tell me what happened?"
Lisabeth entered the room
"Did the bitc* die?" She asked with some bitterness
Liara shook her head
"Damn it."
Some_Bloke himself was shocked
"What about the win?"
"No one can access it, now that all ways into the base have been destroyed."
"What about dark magic? Surely AspieMomma could enter it again..."
"We're currently tracking her down." EDI interrupted
"Fuc*ing better. Some_Bloke replied with bitterness.
He then looked around
"Where's The Endless Walker..."
"He...He didn't make it."
Some_Bloke turned around and punched the wall.
"Goddamn it!" He shouted "This is the last time she gets away..."
MEANWHILE
In deep space...AspieMomma sat on her throne. She'd gotten away again. She couldn't get the win. But she did have one thing on her side, the key. She'd have it studied, tested. She would unlock it's power and when she did...Oh the fun would begin...
