Next Great Adventure Edge of the Abyss

The Mass Effect series is the property of Bioware studios and E.A... Harry Potter is the sole property to J.K. Rowling. This written story is not an attempt by me to rip-off these individual's works but to combine both into a great new story.

Ch. 5 planet of hell part two

SSV-Normandy Therum Knossos system Artemis Tau cluster

Harry heard the announcement from Joker about reaching their destination and began preparing his equipment and armor for the mission. He packed both his shotgun and his assault rifle on the magnetic clamps on the armor before strapping on the hard suit. It was at the end that Harry put his helmet on activating his custom built VI HUD. The VI built into the armor had received a large upgrade after the mission on Eden Prime. Harry had installed several new programs that would monitor his surroundings picking up additional data from any battle field situation and provide possible weaknesses of any given target and possible escape routes if the target was too sturdy. If Harry was honest with himself the VI in his armor was getting closer to an AI with every upgrade he did. Unlike most people in the galaxy Harry had an optimistic view on Artificial Intelligences. He was a big investor of Synthetic Insights the only company in Citadel space that had special permission from the council to actually study and build AI's. He and Benezia had debated early in their relationship on the nature of AI's with Benezia making several strong points about her anti-AI position. But in the end Harry had convinced her that if given the correct answers to their questions about their creation an AI would have little reason to attack an organic. Harry did have sympathy for the Quarians and their plight but he also used to feel that if the Geth had emerged from the Veil with friendly intentions towards organic races then he would have supported opening dialog with the Geth. But the Geth's brutal attack on Eden Prime had changed this view. Now Harry wanted to see every single Geth platform and all of the software wiped out for good. Opening the door of his quarters Harry made his way to the elevator that would take him to the engineering deck where the rest of the team was gathering. The elevator took a few minutes to reach its destination but when it did arrive it was to the sight of the rest of the ground team preparing their weapons and armor. The Quarian Tali was prepping her outdated Atirn shotgun making sure that the gun would continue to fire when in use. Wrex was looking at the assembled group with a sneer on his reptilian face. The Krogan seemed particularly focused on the former C-Sec agent. Garrus was looking at his sniper rifle which was a Titan four making sure that the gun was perfectly calibrated. Gunnery chief Williams was assembling her Lancer assault rifle one last time but Harry also noticed a striker three sniper and a Hurricane shotgun attached to her armor. The lieutenant was prepping the standard issue Hahne-Kedar pistol he had been issued and looked to be quite calm. Shepard was wearing her N7 armor without the helmet letting the world see her black hair. She seemed to be carrying what looked to be an advanced Quarian sniper rifle and her shotgun. It also appeared that Shepard had decided to take one of the Normandy's marines with them. The man who appeared to be 2nd lieutenant Tholm Benton. The man was not wearing a helmet showcasing his black buzz cut hair hazel eyes and slightly crooked nose. He was equipped with an aqua blue heavy mercenary armor. Tholm was carrying a Hurricane five and python four sniper rifle.

Shepard made a signal for the Alliance personal to enter the Mako while Harry was left to the job of getting the aliens into the tank. The Mako had been built by the Alliance for two reasons. One to give the marine teams on their frigates extra firepower while groundside on any planet in the galaxy with a solid surface. And two to replace the ageing grizzly tank whose main drawback had been the lack of seats in the tank and to upgrade the cannon to produce a deadlier mass accelerator round. The tank could seat a squad of twelve two in the pilot and copilot seats. One in the gunner's seat and nine in the back. While Williams, Alenko, Benton, Tali, and Garrus arranged themselves in the back, Wrex was in the gunner's seat with a nasty smirk on his face. Harry took the co-pilots seats next to Shepard who was in the driver's seat.

The hanger door slowly lowered allowing Shepard to gently move the tank forward off of the fixed container that would hold the tank during space travel. Just as soon as the tank was off the container. Shepard then made a quick announcement to the passengers.

"Everyone strap yourselves in we are moving out in a few moments."

Harry could hear Tali asking Garrus why they need to be strapped in when Shepard gunned the gas sending the tank flying through the air. Tali let out a horrified scream as the tank began descending towards the drop zone that Pressly had made beforehand. When the tank hit the ground next to two lava lakes Tali was still screaming and it took Garrus and Ashley a minute to calm her down. Wrex let out a chuckle after Tali had quitted down.

"If you are as scared of the Geth as you are of the drop Quarian then perhaps you should stay on the ship and leave the fighting to real warriors."

"Wrex she is not as experienced as you are. Give her time to get used to the drops."

"Defending an untrained whelp that is new Basilisk."

"I know that this quarian will surprise you Wrex maybe someday she will be strong enough to serve as part of your Krantt."

"Maybe when she has a bit of training until then she is still weak but she would be better than the Turian."

The rest of the tank's crew had little to no idea what the two were talking about but understood the insult to Garrus. The Turian was glaring at the gunner's seat. Shepard cut any further talking by moving the tank slowly forward down the hill.

After about five minutes of moving the squad ran into their first sighs of geth activity. Destroyed and smoking transports with dead bodies littering the ground around them. Benton shook his head in disgust while Ashley said a prayer for the fallen quietly. Alenko looked at the bodies with a sad expression before going stone faced. Garrus's face was wrought with anger and Tali spoke a phrase in kelesh that only Harry understood. The mako continued until it reached a cross road point. There at the point was the first dead geth platform surrounded by several Eclipse mercenaries who when checked by Tali found that the shields on each of them were burnt out by the weapon that the geth platform had been using. The weapon appeared to be like the standard issue assault rifles of the galaxies armies but used an interesting "clip" instead of the used heat sinks. Harry immediately ordered Tali to gather the weapon and the remains of the spent clips for further study back aboard the Normandy. If the geth had somehow figured out a way to fire their weapons faster than organic armies then the council and its own scientists should be informed about it. The mako continued on from there down one of the paths and was stopped by the sound of a drop ships engine which was detected by the Mako VI system. The drop ship which had been hiding in the nearby hills roared out of cover and immediately deployed several geth vehicles. Tali quickly informed the team that the Vehicles were called armatures and that each contained nearly a thousand geth programs. The drop ship then ascended to orbit probably to pick up more armatures.

"Wrex open fire on the walkers. Now! Shepard get us moving."

"Rodger that Basilisk."

The mako moved from its position and then shook with its cannon firing a single slug at the nearest walker. The slug hit the walker right in its face pushing the monster back several inches. The walker then tipped over and blew up spectacularly. The other two walker stumbled before continuing to advance. Wrex shot another slug at the next closest walker but the shot was a little too high and slammed into the hill side. The walker responded by firing their main guns launching two slugs surrounded by super-heated plasma in the direction of the mako. Shepard who had vast experience with a mako zoomed out of the slugs way and found another position where Wrex shot the next slug. This slug hit one of the walker six legs forcing it to walk a little unsteadily towards the mako's new location. The forth shot hit the further back walker in its body doing no foreseeable damage to the vehicle other than a single small crack Again Wrex and the walkers fired. The slug from the wounded walker hit the mako while the second one flew just above the tank. The slug from Wrex hit the wounded walker in another of its legs sending the walker into the lava pool it had been standing near.

"Shields down to sixty percent commander. Another two hits like that and we will be toast"

"Thanks lieutenant for that wonderful image."

"Shepard get me as close to the last walker as you possible can!"

"What in god's name are you going to do to that thing hit it several shotgun blasts."

"Just watch Shepard."

Then with a loud crack that echoed in the Mako Basilisk had disappeared from sight. This surprised Tali and Benton and confused Wrex. The Eden prime ground and surprisingly Garrus just blinked their eyes. The VI then announced that there was a friendly on the ground.

Harry pushed some of his biotic energy into his legs making him run at an astonishing speed towards the armature. The vehicle look at the figure coming straight for it and fired a slug at the organic. Another loud crack moved Harry even closer to the walker and when he was within 5 feet of the walker he attacked. Harry launched a levitation attack and lifted the armature into the air before throwing an over powered warp straight into its body. The warp tore into the crack and ripped it apart revealing more of the inner wires and then exploded the small eezo core. The cores destruction set off a chain reaction that blew the walker into hundreds of little pieces.

Ashley Kaiden, Garrus and Shepard had seen or heard of things like this from Basilisk but Tali and Tholm had never seen anything like that before, Wrex just shrugged his shoulders and kept moving the cannon around looking for any other walkers. Harry then with a silent pop entered the Mako and pushed Shepard onwards.

The landing party continued down the track occasionally finding active geth platforms and walkers. The quickly becoming standard mode of attack for the Armatures was for Wrex and Harry to work as a team to rip them apart. Then Wrex would turn the Mako's machine gun on the platforms destroying them. With that the assault team made its way towards the dig site before they were stopped by a large barricade with several geth weapon emplacements.

Wrex launched five slugs from the cannon at the turrets kick starting the small battle. The geth programs inside the turret on the right were a little slow reacting to the threat and were instantly vaporized by the two slugs sent their way. The other two turrets then open fired at the mako. Shepard gunned the APC out of the way and got to a position where the Mako could fire its slugs again. The battle was ended when Wrex launched two slugs into the final turret.

"We need to find a way through that wall."

"I have an idea Basilisk. 2nd lieutenant geth the C-16 out we are blowing up that wall."

"Right a way ma'am."

Tholm was deployed before making his way to the center of the wall. He then began placing the Alliance's breeching charges before getting back in the Mako which was moved to a safe distance. With an ear-shattering boom the wall imploded sending pieces of it into the lava pools nearby. The explosion to the party's surprise destroyed nearly a hundred geth platforms which were behind the wall patrolling the tunnel which led to the dig site. The team continue forward and in a half hour they were at the campsite where the Archeologists had been staying.

The camp was a mess with the bodies of Eclipse mercs, scientists, geth platforms and disturbingly enough several dead krogan littering the ground. Shepard and Harry were in front of the diamond formation with Wrex and Ashley on the left, Kaiden and Tali on the right and Tholm and Garrus in the rear. Just as the group was about to enter the mine shaft that led into the Prothean ruins was an ambush sprang.

Twenty regular geth troopers came out of various crates from around the entrance and opened up with their weapons. Harry dove into cover behind a large crate of food stuffs with Shepard right next to him breathing deeply. Harry came out of cover and fired of a Carnage shotgun blast at the center of the geth formation. The blast shattered four platforms turning them into white fluid goo. The geth then to the surprise of the team called in reinforcements. These reinforcements took the shape of 45 more platforms that came out of the mineshaft. The platforms of this group were snipers, troopers, shock troopers and a single Juggernaut which began throwing its heavy cannon shots at the team. Shepard peeked around the corner of the crate and fired her sniper at the Juggernaut's head. The shot staggered the machine before it continued its advance. Kaiden and Wrex were using their biotics to destroy the troopers and to bottle neck the Shock troopers. Garrus, Tholm and Ashley were trying desperately to take out the Snipers who were trying to take everyone's heads off. Tali was desperately using her Omni-Tool to try sabotaging the Juggernauts shields. Harry saw some barrels and quickly transformed them into a swarm of cheetahs which were then directed at the troopers. The cats slammed into the rear of the geth lines causing chaos and allowing the teams snipers a chance to pick off their opposite numbers. But the Juggernaut kept advancing towards the biotics not even flinching when three cats attacked it. The Jug just smacked two of the cats breaking their necks and wounding the third who tried to crawl away but the Jug advanced and crushed its spine with a metal foot. The Jug reached Kadien and Wrex and slapped Kaiden across the face sending him into another crate knocking him out. Wrex unleashed his Carnage blast at that moment stunning the machine for a few seconds before it came to its senses and continued forward trapping Wrex in a corner. By that time the rest of the geth platforms were lying dead at the team's feet. Everyone was rushing to Wrex's position just as the Jug was about to smash Wrex a loud shot rang out. There Standing behind the Jug with a smoking shotgun was Tali. The shot from the gun overloaded the Jugs Shields and blew its head off. The machine stood for a moment before falling down to the ground.

Wrex looked at the Quarian for a few moments before breaking out in a chuckle.

"I guess I was wrong about you girl that took a quad to do. Meet me in my space when we get back onto the ship for some lessons about shotguns."

Wrex then gently slapped Tali on the back which got a squeak of fright from Tali.

"I told you that I was correct in bring her along Wrex."

"Yeah, you were right. I'm still not going to let that Turian be a part of my Krantt though."

While this was happening Tholm and Ashley had rushed to Kaiden's side to make sure he was okay and to start applying medi-gel to his wounds. Shepard was dosing her right side with medi-gel to stop a bad wound she had taken from a sniper. Garrus was making sure to put a bullet in each of the platforms heads. Harry turned from Wrex and Tali to one of the reasons he had chosen Shepard, her calm persona.

"Shepard we need to get Kaiden back to the Normandy he has a few broken ribs. Thank God they didn't puncture his lungs."

"Gunnery Chief you and Lieutenant Benton get Alenko to Dr. Chakwas. Garrus stay out here and provide over watch from a secure location make sure no more geth follow us in or get out. Everyone else form upon my six."

"On it Commander."

Harry followed Shepard, Wrex and Tali down the mine shaft and into a dark narrow tunnel.

As the four man team made their way into the ruins they found more bodies. Though the bodies were kicked out of the stair way for a clear pathway down. At the bottom of the stair they found two more geth troopers. Shepard pulled her sniper up and quickly shot both in their flashlight heads which explode with white fluids. Shepard then gave the all clear sign and moved onwards. The group continued until they reached the elevator which led downwards to the lower levels of the prothean ruins. Once in the elevator Tali spoke up suddenly.

"Wrex why are you so pessimistic for your people? I mean besides the Genophage."

"It's because of the fact that not one of my own race seems to care about the survivability of the Krogan. You saw the dead bodies out in the camp. Those krogan can no longer help keep our gene-pool stronger. They choose a life of violence and easy credits. Every year more of my people die like that shrinking our population. I think that in the next two hundred years the Krogan will be extinct. That is my reason."

The rest of the way down was silent. Harry felt an incredible set of guilt come forward. He had approached his contacts in the STG about a possible Genophage tampering project. He felt that the Genophage was needed for a controllable krogan population but at the same time he wanted the birth rate of the Genophage to be slightly higher. Wrex was right about the time that the Krogan had left. Spectre reports listed that the Krogan had at most two hundred five years till extinction.

The elevator all of a sudden shook and then to everyone's horror fell at a fast rate till it hit the ground. Luckily no one was hurt from the fall.

"Tali, try and fix the elevator make sure that it is total prepared for our escape."

"Right Shepard it will take me a few minutes to fix."

"Shepard you get to the rear and let me take point. Wrex stand to my right and be ready."

The team moved into position and slowly made their way down the stair case. Just as they were about to hit a prothean clean white wall they found the bodies of several drones and platforms in front of a blue barrier. In that barrier in a blue bubble was a young Asari. The Asari looked up and saw them and shouted

"Father?! What in the Hades are you doing here?"

"Liara. Calm down. As soon as I learned that my target was hunting you I made a beeline for your last known location."

"Thank the gods. I thought I was going to die in this ruin. Father you must be careful there is a Krogan battle master in here. He is currently trying to get past the barrier."

"Thanks for the information now let me get you out of there."

Harry opened up his Omni-Tool and began running a protehan decryption program. In a few moments the barrier came down and the bubble popped getting Liara down. She stood up and then flew to her father and hugged him tightly.

Grace' Pov.

As soon as I saw Basilisk's daughter I was mesmerized. She was the blue that most Asari were. The thing that drew me in was her stunning emerald green eyes that made butterflies appear in my stomach. Maybe I will get a chance to meet her truly.

"So this is you whelp Basilisk. Never thought you an Asari man."

"It's an acquired taste Wrex. Liara I would like you to meet Urdnot Wrex Mercenary. And Commander Shepard my protégée."

"It is nice to meet both of you. Now we must hurry and get out of here before…"

"Before I show up. Nice try doctor you aren't getting away so easily."

Shepard, Wrex and Harry turned to see a synthetic black head plated Krogan with evil purple eyes in Colossus armor standing in front of their escape route. By his sides were two other Krogan with Moscivin Shotguns at the ready.

"Well well well. Basilisk it seems we have run into one another again."

"Weyrloc Gound an unpleasant surprise. I thought that I had killed you on Meyopis. You know where I popped your head plate and then stabbed you with a very small knife."

That comment made Wrex shiver in fear a little while Liara and Shepard looked a little disgusted.

"Oh that was just a flesh wound. I got better. And then I learn that I have to capture a little target here on Therum for Saren. Discovering you here is just a bonus. Hand over that little bitch. She cost me several geth platforms and drones and delivering her to Saren will cover the costs."

"I think Gound that you are out matched and outgunned. It is five against three."

"Hah I only see four of you an old washed out Krogan, a pathetic human and your Civilian. You are the only true threat and once I am done with you you're going to be screaming in such delicious pain till I kill you myself."

"He was also counting me you ugly Bosh'tet."

The krogan turned around to see Tali pointing her shotgun at one of the bodyguard's heads before unleashing a carnage. The shot slammed into the krogan and disintegrated him completely. Harry, Wrex, Shepard and Liara to attack Gound and his remaining guard. Wrex shot out several pellets from his shotgun at Gound pushing him back. Shepard and Liara attacked the bodyguard with Liara throwing several warps while Shepard fired with her sniper. The two attackers managed to overwhelm the guard's shields and kill him. Harry launched a blood boiling hex at Gound catching him in the chest where he immediately started screaming in pain. Harry then closed the gap and put two pistol shot in the krogan's head. Gound jerked a little for a moment then laid still.

"Come on let's get out of here. Tali is the elevator fixed?"

"Yes Basilisk it's fixed. I also made it run twenty percent faster so we should be out of here quickly."

The team ran to the elevator and pushed the button sending them upwards.

Aboard the Normandy in the conference room Harry and the rest of the ground team were talking about what had happened on Therum. At the end of the discussion it was decided that it would be up to Harry and Shepard what would be done about Liara . Harry then dismissed everyone else but Shepard and opened the Comm- buoy communicator to the Council. Tevos, Valern and Sparatus appeared before them after about six seconds and the debriefing began.

"What do you have to report for us Basilisk?"

"A lot of disturbing things Tevos. Saren has begun to hire a large number of Krogan mercenaries to supplement his geth forces. Thankful according to my contacts in the Terminus the Blood Pack is staying away from any contracts that Saren is giving out so these Krogan are likely free lancers. Also the geth have developed a faster system of firing their infantry weapons. Right now the tech experts here on the Normandy are studying one set while two more going to be dropped off for the STG. Therum's Prothean ruins are still intact unfortunately the scientists here were massacred by Saren's forces. If more are going to be sent it might be a good idea to send some sort of official military force to protect them. Anything to add Shepard?"

"Other than the fact that the Eclipse forces on site were destroyed like wet tissue paper. Than no."

"We must keep up the pressure on Saren Basilisk. Our finance agents are trying to track down where Saren and Aethyta are getting their money from but we are hitting firewalls on every front."

"I will have some of my contacts look into Saren's Finances. Maybe one of them can help with it."

"Basilisk. I do need to speak with you on the Citadel about some important business. Please come whenever you get a chance."

"Of Course Tevos. Goodbye Councilors."

The council disappeared from view leaving Harry and Shepard alone.

"Shepard good work down there. Now if you will excuse me I have to speak with my daughter."

Harry left the room and proceeded down to the med-bay. Shepard was just about to leave when the Comm went off.

"Hey Commander it's Joker. Admiral Hacket just hailed us from Arcturus. Said he has some important business for you to handle."

"Put him through Joker."

Back on Therum

The still air of the prothean ruins was disturbed when all of a sudden the shape Weyrloc Gound appeared from the darkness. His eyes were burning with rage and the bullet wounds that Basilisk had given to him had closed up. Gound activated his Omni-Tool and called a nearby geth ship for pick up. He would have his revenge.

I' m back people. Sorry for the long wait. In the months that have passed since my last update I have been taking care of my family going to school and working forty hours a week at my job. I would like to thank all of you for being patient for me. I do hope you like my Sub villain for Harry to face throughout Mass Effect One he was a bitch to write. I would also like to thank Mkeeg 91 for his OC Character Tholm Mkeeg 91 if you are reading this I really do encourage you to start the drafts for Tholm's adventures. I am still taking OC characters so send me those messages and please add some evil characters for Cerberus. I would also like to acknowledge polarpwnage for his review in July and to say this in response. Quantum Entanglement communicators are freakishly expensive but they were not created by Cerberus. They have been around Citadel space for a long time. The reason why not many are made is because of as you pointed out they are expensive. But with Harry having been alive for a long time don't you think the man would have saved up every credit has made plus interest. Since the next update is a long time a way I have decided to try the Forum thing again. Since people were having a hard time reaching the thing I have looked up how to reach it. Just go to Google and Type in Next Great Adventure Edge of The Abyss Forum. The top result should lead you to it. I did post a topic earlier today and when I have time I will add more topics for discussion. And for a finale note if any of you are interested in Destiny and Mass Effect Fan fictions I have one that may interest you it's called Whole New Galaxy by myself. Check it out and see what you think of it. Please read and review and thank you again for your patience.