Mass Effect: The Butcher, The Hero and The Survivor

I do not own anything to do with the mass effect universe since all of that belongs to Bioware and EA. I only own my Oc Marcus Blackwood and any other oc character's I decide to make while Verana Wolff is owned by Ketsueki No Kuki.

Eden Prime Beacon retrieval part 2

"Yes sir, the beacon its gone" I informed Anderson as I scanned the empty dig site and only saw multiple foot prints all jumbled around to get a clear reading, blood from various members of the two twelve and marks where bullets entered the ground.

"Ashley Williams of the two twelve has joined us and thinks that it was taken to where the researchers and two thirty two are staying so we're going to check there"

"Alright I'll let Nihlus know, keep me updated" Anderson's voice came from my omni tool.

"Also sir you should know that the geth are here, we already put down a lot of them and we lost Jenkins just as we touched down to a bunch of their drones" I said as Anderson let out a sigh.

"W-We will give him a burial and inform his family once you have returned, remember get the beacon before the geth does" Anderson ordered with slight worry in his voice before he hanged up while I glanced up at everyone else who was watching out for more geth.

"The mission hasn't changed guys, Ashley since you know where the researchers camp is you lead the way" I said as Ashley nodded her head before we left the dig site by going up a slop.

"So Williams have you seen a turian spectre running around?" Verana asked as I watched her walk up beside the gunnery chief while scanning the surrounding area.

"There aren't any turians on eden prime, not sure if I was able to tell you if he or she was spectre anyway" Ashley said as Kaidan as he walked over to the both of them.

"Well you would if you see him, carries enough firepower to wipe out an whole platoon" Kaidan said with slight admiration his voice as I landed my hand on his shoulder.

"Luckily he's fighting with us otherwise we'll have a hell of a fight, Right John?" I said with a grin on my face as John chuckled slightly.

"I don't know with my combat abilities, V's biotics and your tech skills we might be able to subdue him" John said as me and Verana nodded our heads in agreement.

"Well like I said no turians but I'll be sure to let you guys handle him just in case" Ashley said with a small smile on her face.

"Smoke" Verana suddenly said making us stop and stare at her.

"What smoke?" John replied as V just pointed making us turn our heads to see the thick black billows of smoke in the distance.

"See smoke" Verana said as I took off in a sprint.

"Lets move!" I said as we all ran towards the smoke silently hoping that it isn't bad as we think.

Once we got there we saw dead marines littering the ground and bunkers on fire which was making our mini smoke signal.

"Damn it the geth hit this place hard" Ashley spoke with anger in her voice as we stared at the destroyed area.

"We don't know if anyone survived or whoever done this is still here which makes it a good place for an ambush" Kaidan chimed in as we glanced around.

"Noted, everyone weapons ready lets search this place slow for survivors and enemies" I said as we adjusted our grips on our guns and began to swipe across the small camp.

It only took us a couple of minutes to find bullet filled corpses littering the ground along with three large spikes that each had thin humanoid corpses pierced on them.

What made us silently paid our respects was the fact that they had their skin removed along with muscle and eyes.

"These are the same spikes from earlier" John informed as I stared up at the spikes in disgust

"Marc can you find out what happened to them?" Verana asked as I simply nodded my head and pressed a button on my omni tool which activated my eye patch before I scanned the first corpse which brought up lots of information and charts about the body condition.

"What the hell, this can't be right?" I muttered silently as I stared at the text.

Name: Cole Stevens, Age: 23, Species: Human, Blood type: B, Gender: male, Heart Rate: 0%, EEG: No Activity, Body Water: 0%, Cybernetic Implants: 100% Condition:Asleep

"What's wrong?" John asked as I quickly tapped the button on my omni tool and adjusted the settings on my eye patch and scanned the next body.

Name: Alexis Stevens, Age: 23, Species: Human, Blood type: B , Gender: female, Heart Rate: 0%, EEG: No Activity, Body Water: 0%, Cybernetic Implants 100% Condition:Asleep

"Baxter am I reading this right?" I said as Baxter's icon appeared in my line of sight.

"I detect nothing wrong with your eyesight or tech, I've run tests to discover that the bodies have recently had their blood, water and organs converted into synthetic materials and cybernetics which is keeping them alive while their brains are dead from lack of oxygen" Baxter said while I simply stared at the corpses "Would you like me to run more tests?"

"Yes I wanna know how the geth are able to do something like this" I said before turning to face everyone "From what I just gathered they are dead with synthetics and cybernetics keeping them alive and currently asleep so we should move carefully from now on"

And just as I said that the corpses began to groan and shake while the spikes quickly retracted into their bases.

"Everyone back up now!" Shepard yelled as we all dashed back while the corpses yanked themselves off their bases and glanced around before they stared at us with their glowing blue eyes.

"Kaidan, V hold them still, John, Ashley with me we unload a couple of rounds into their skulls" I ordered as they rushed towards us while Kaidan and Verana quickly stuck their hands out which froze the undead creatures in their tracks with stasis fields.

I lined my assault rifle up with the middle one's head and glanced at Ashley and John who also was aiming at their targets before I nodded my head and we unload a couple of rounds which dropped them to the ground along with fragments of theirs skulls and dark bluish red blood.

"So we just killed zombies right?" Verana asked as she tapped one of the now dead people with her foot.

"From what I just scanned yes zombies, I'm going to find out more the rest of you can continue looking for survivors" I said as everyone walked away with their fingers on the trigger just in case they encounter anymore of those things.

I let out a sigh as I stared at the corpses before crouching down and scanning a skull fragment that looks like it belongs on the outside of a ship with it dark grey color and glowing blue lines.

"Baxter store everything I scan in a new folder called husk" I said as I began to scan a couple drops of blood.

"Of course but why husk if you don't mind me asking?" Baxter said as his icon appeared on the corner of my vision.

"Because if they had some control of themselves they wouldn't of attacked us, which means they're nothing but husks of their former selves" I said as I scanned an eyeball with the pupil giving off a blue glow.

"Marcus you find anything?" Verana asked as she walked over while I put down the eyeball.

"I got enough information to make a detailed report, what about you guys?" I asked as she pointed to a small bunker that wasn't on fire.

"We found some scientist who hid when the geth attacked, I also knocked one of them out" Verana said as I gave her a questionable look.

"Alright why did you punch him was he armed, hostile?" I asked as V formed a small smile.

"He was crazy, wouldn't shut up when John told him to calm down and I wasn't in the mood to listen to deranged nonsense" Verana said while I just shook my head while trying not to smile and failed "Though it's all good since the female scientist gave him some pills earlier and told us that the beacon was taken to the spaceport that is a few meters away"

I was about to say something before a gun shot rang out and everything was quite.

"Was that Nihlus?" Verana asked with a look of concern as I tried to call Nihlus who wasn't answering.

"He also missed his hour check up which means something wrong, John, Kaidan, Williams lets move now!" I yelled as I quickly rushed in the direction of where the gunshot came from while the rapid footsteps behind me let me know that everyone else was fast on my tail.

"W-What the!, everyone look up!" Kaidan shouted as he stopped us and pointed into the sky.

My eyes widened as we all stared at the claw like ship that was rising higher and higher into the sky.

"Does that mean the enemy is retreating?" Ashley asked as a bullet slammed against my shields instantly turning our attention to the geth and husks rushing towards us.

"If they are then they must of gotten left behind" Verana said as I ducked behind a large metal crate while everyone else dove for their own cover before we returned fire.

Once we managed to defeat the geth and husks with John and myself killing the three remaining geth with a combination of me hacking one of them and forcing it to gun down the second one in a hail of bullets and shoot off the third ones legs before John emptied two bullets into each of their glowing faces.

Everyone was on alert as we made it to the metal platform and found Nihlus dead on the ground in a pool of his own dark blue blood and a single hole between his eyes.

"Damn it, I knew the geth are dangerous but I didn't know they are able to take out a spectre" I said as we all watched Verana kneel down and close his eyes.

A sudden bang rang out before John instantly pointed his gun at the nearby crates.

"Show yourself!" John ordered with contained anger in his voice as the rest of us trained our guns on the crates "Or we open fire"

"D-Don't shoot my name is Powell I'm human!" A male voice cried out with obvious fear before a man with a brown beard and wearing dock worker clothing quickly rose from behind the crates with his hands up.

"What are you doing there?" John asked as he took a step closer "Did you kill him?"

"Wh-What n-no I didn't kill him!" Powell quickly stammered out in fear as sweat began to run down his face "It was another him!, Another one of his species!"

"What do you mean?, another turian?" Verana asked as Powell quickly shook his head.

"Yeah that's right another turian was here and they seemed to know each other since your friend kept his guard down which allowed the other turian to shoot him in the back" Powell said as I let out a irritated sigh at how fucked this mission just became.

"What was this other turian's name?, If Nihlus kept his guard down they must of been on friendly terms" I said as Powell gained a thoughtful look on his face.

"He called him Saren and he was here before your friend got here" Powell said as he stared down at Nihlus's corpse "He just shot him without hesitation"

"Alright we know who killed Nihlus and can deal with the bastard later right now we need to focus on the mission" Verana said as we all nodded our head in agreement "Now Powell where is the beacon we was told it was taken to the spaceport this is the place right?"

"Yes it's over on the other platform you need to take the cargo train down there" Powell said as he pointed in the direction where there are a set of stairs going down.

"You should get somewhere safer" I said as Powell just nodded his head and walked away "Come on lets find the beacon"

We all walked down the stairs and got onto the cargo train before two bullets tore through John's right shoulder and stomach making him drop to the floor.

All of us quickly raised our guns and opened fired towards the front of the train where a bunch of geth along with their drones are.

"Damn it!, Wolff, Williams, Alenko cover me I'm getting John!" I ordered as I dashed out of cover and grabbed John by his uninjured arm before dragging him behind a large crate.

"John you alright bud?" I asked John sporting a hard pained look on his face.

"Yeah nothing a little medi gel can't fix, wipe them out I'll be fine" John said with a grin as he activated his omni tool and press a button before gel began to sweep over his wounds making he let out a grunt then sigh of relief.

I just nodded my head before leaning out of cover and aimed at a geth wielding a sniper rifle that already had a target in its sight.

I just smirked and pulled the trigger dropping the geth with three bullets in its chest and one hole in its head while Ashley who rushed next to me took down a much larger geth with two blasts with her hurricane shotgun.

"That's all of them" Verana said as she slammed the two remaining geth together before flinging them off the cargo train.

"Nice work guys" John said as he stood up and leaned on Kaidan for support as we walked to the train controls and turned it on before the train moved down the track at a nice quick speed.

"Does anyone else hear that beeping noise?" Verana asked as the train slowed down to a stop while I activated my eye patch and looked in the direction of the beeping to see the geth setting up bombs.

"Yeah they just set up bombs so we better hurry" I said as we got of the train and got into cover as a small group of geth quickly approached us while firing.

I popped up with Kaidan as we took down two geths with quick burst of fire while Verana held up a large geth that struggled to break out of her biotic grip.

I saw Ashley use cover to get in close before she tore open its chest by unloading a couple of shotgun rounds before Verana tossed the limp machine into four geths making a pile.

"Throwing a grenade!" John yelled as he set the timer and threw the disc grenade that attached to the large geth before exploding sending bits of geth everywhere.

"Alright everyone pick a bomb and don't mess up since from the looks of it just one of them can take out a good chunk of this place" I said as I ran over to my bomb with the timer already at four minutes "It's a simple six coded bomb it should only take a couple of seconds to defuse"

After saying that I instantly went through all the known codes which my teacher taught us and only nodded my head when the the timer stopped at three minute fifty eight seconds.

"Speak for yourself some of us fell asleep during tech class" Verana said as I heard her let out a frustrated sigh before the sounds of bullets hitting metal could be heard.

"Damn new plan everyone deal with the geth I'll defuse the bombs" I said as I moved over to Verana's bomb while she and everyone else returned fire.

"Good plan also you better hurry mines at two minutes" Verana said with a cheeky grin as she pulled a geth towards her before stabbing it through the head with her bladed gauntlet.

I just shook my head and went through the same pattern as before ending her bomb at one minute forty five seconds. Kaidan covered me as I went over to his bomb and quickly defused it at five minutes.

John used a grenade to blow up five geth which allowed me enough time to get to his bomb and shut it down with four minutes twenty three seconds.

"Ashley with me lets move up!" I ordered as I was stuck behind a crate with Ashley while two large geth fired at us with shotguns.

"Yes sir we'll go when they reload" She said as our cover soaked up more bullets before they stopped firing "Now!" With that Ashley moved out first as she shot the closet geth in its leg with her shotgun taking it completely off and quickly followed up by shooting off the other geth's gun arm.

I span around her and unloaded a couple of bullets into the still standing geth's head making it collapse with a thud before a loud boom let me knew Ashley dealt with the crippled geth.

I quickly moved to the bomb and saw that it had twenty seconds left making a grin form on my face at the challenge in front of me as I quickly put codes in and formed an even larger grin when the timer flashed with five seconds left before powering down.

"Thank god that's over" Ashley said with a sigh of relief as I stood up and made my way back to the group.

"It's not over yet we still have to find that beacon" I said as we walked down a couple of stairs and stared at this grey machine with green pulsing energy.

"That's the beacon" Ashley said making Verana laugh.

"Well that was easy, Marc call Anderson and let him know we've completed our mission" Verana said as she and everyone began to look around while I turned on my comm.

"Captain, first Nihlus is dead a dockworker told us that a turian named Saren shot him" I said as Anderson let out s barely restrained growl full of anger "Captain?"

"Nothing just wondering how the council will react to a spectre died, damn it we'll deal with that later what about the beacon did you find it?" Anderson said as I stared at a large scorched section of the earth and remembered the claw ship taking off.

"Yes sir I'm looking right at it" I said as I glanced to my left and saw John, Verana and Kaidan talking with each other.

"Good I'm sending the shuttle to your location and a couple of marines to retrieve Nihlus and Jenkins, eta five minutes" Anderson said as the comm ended before I heard a sharp gasp and saw Ashley being dragged towards the beacon that is glowing brightly.

"Williams!" I shouted and instantly rushed over before tightly wrapping my arms around her waist and planting my feet down trying to stop but whatever was dragging her was now pulling the both of us.

"Power Mode" I said as I felt the pulling force get weaker allowing me get a solid footing so I was able to throw Ashley behind me.

Power Mode at 0%

When that warning appeared I could only widen my eyes in shock at how fast the energy was gone before I was yanked off my feet while the glowing green light of the beacon covered my vision.

After that there was nothing but mind breaking and brain taring pain as grotesque images of humanoid creatures being twisted and warp by tech and other things I couldn't describe quickly appeared and vanished in a matter of seconds before my ears were assaulted by a loud boom like someone fired a shotgun next to my head.

After the ringing stopped the beautiful eden prime sky came back into my vision along with the concerned look of Ashley, V, John and Kaidan while my head was still throbbing with pain.

Though when everything started to turn black as I was quickly loosing consciousness I only had one thing in my mind before I passed out.

What the hell just happened.

And that's the ground team finding the beacon, When Marcus wakes up they will deal with the aftermath of everything that just happened.