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Text

"Dialogue"

"Dialogue in a language I can't understand."

Dream Sequences and Flashbacks

Breaks…..

"Recordings"

Chapter 9: My Demons

"What the hell is that!?" Miranda yells.

"What? You haven't seen a giant space lobster before?" I ask with a shaky voice.

"We should get back in your house. If this is a slave raid then it is unlikely they will search for people all the way out here," Miranda says.

That would be the smart thing to do. But I've never been that smart.

We walked inside and down into the basement. Miranda paled when she looked at the dead bodies of her comrades.

I open the crate I use as a table and I see that my body armor is still inside of it. I pull out the under-armor bodysuit and start putting it on. I hiss as the suit goes over my cuts and burns from earlier that day. After the suit is on I put on the plated armor. Once I boot up the armor I feel a prick in my arm followed by cool ice running through my veins, the telltale feeling of Medigel entering my system.

My H.U.D. boots up and I see that Miranda is staring at me. I ignore her and put the Talon pistol on the sidearm slot of my armor.

I open up the smaller crate I use as a chair and I see that my weapons are still intact. I equip a shotgun, sniper rifle and I hold my Mattock assault rifle.

"Do I get my weapon back?" Miranda asks me impatiently.

"No, I like it," I say as I toss her my old pistol.

"You can stay here if you like but I'm going to go out there," I add.

"No, I still need those samples so I need to make sure that you get out of this alive," She replies.

Crap, hopefully, she doesn't mess with my plans.

…..

A few hours later

Ever since I saw the Reaper I've been fighting my way back to town, specifically the area Shepard lands.

There are not a lot of Geth here other than drones, but considering they can swoop out of the trees at any moment we have had to move slower than I would have liked.

Let's just say I don't want to die like a chump. Or like a Jenkins.

Even though she tried to abduct me just a few hours ago I am really trying to make sure Miranda stays alive. Although I'm not too worried about it. She knows how to take care of herself.

My Omnitool tells me that we're only a few minutes away.

That's when I hear the roar of a ship's engines, I look up and I see what appears to be the Normandy flying by.

We better hurry up.

…

"Why the hell are you running?" Miranda gasps as she tries to keep up.

I ignore her and keep going.

As I am running up to the ridge that overlooks the landing area I can hear some people talking, then I hear the whirring of Geth drones.

When I reach the edge of the ridge I hear a voice that I think is Shepard's yell "Jenkins, look out!".

I can see the drones in attack position ready to tear Jenkins apart, so I start unloading on them with my assault rifle.

Can you "unload" on something if your gun has infinite ammo? Whatever that doesn't matter.

Anyway, between me, Kaidan, and Shepard we take the drones out very quickly.

Right after the drones are destroyed Miranda catches up to me.

Kaidan runs up to Jenkins to see if he is alive and Shepard points her weapon at Miranda and I and asks "Who are you?"

While this is going on Jenkins sits up and moans, I hear Kaidan say that he is going to be okay.

"Uh… I'm Jon," I turn to Miranda and say "And this is my... side-piece and her name is... Reaganomics Lamborghini,"

Miranda gives me a glare so intense it could boil steel.

I pretend I don't notice it.

"Hey, do you guys need any help? I'm a guy with a gun and I have recently discovered I am pretty decent at killing Geth" I say.

Shepard pauses for a moment then lowers her gun. She then says "Alright, welcome to the team Jon and… Reaganomics... My name is Shepard and this is Kaidan and that person moaning on the floor is Jenkins."

After the introductions, she then goes to check on Jenkins as I climb down the ridge to meet them. It's pretty cool that Jenkins is alive, I wasn't sure if I was going to get there in time to save him.

She patches me into their comms and says "Jenkins is going to be okay but his leg got pretty shredded, he is going to stay here where the Geth have already been cleared."

"Yeah, I killed all of the Geth in the eastern woods so he should be safe here," I add.

"Wait, these are Geth?" Shepard asks.

Shit.

With some quick improvisation, I say "Yeah, I've seen some old pictures of them and these just look like more advanced versions of them."

"Geth! They haven't been seen outside the veil in over 200 years!" Kaidan says

"Well, they are here now. They must be here for the beacon, let's go!" Shepard says.

As we start moving Shepard asks "Hey Jon, do you know what is going on?"

"No, we were in the woods. For the last few hours, I have been trying to get my way back to town." I answer.

She nods and adds "We can talk later, for now, we got a colony to save."

As we are walking I realize we are now entering the small wooded area right before we meet Ashley, and there are also some more Geth.

"I can hear Geth up ahead," I say.

"Good ear," Kaidan says.

We go into the fight fully alert and aware. The drones are harder to shoot in the woods because they hide behind all of the trees.

This is going by a lot quicker now that I'm with Shepard. The drones slowed us down a lot when we were trying to get here but Shepard is just knocking them down one after the other.

A drone flies almost directly at me, Miranda uses here biotic throw, then I use a biotic throw to smashed it against a tree.

"You are biotics?" Shepard asks us.

"Yep," I respond for the both of us.

Not to be outdone Kaidan destroys the last one with another throw.

We are moving a lot faster than I would when I am playing the game, I would comb over everything but Shepard is just worried about saving lives. But she isn't missing things, she just does everything a lot faster.

As we leave the wooded area we can see Ashley running towards us. I immediately get my sniper rifle out. I'm pretty sure that in the cutscene where you first see Ashley a civilian gets spiked.

When I look through the lens I see the guy down the path being held by one Geth while another is just watching.

I'm not a particularly great sniper, but I am passable. I manage to make a shot hitting the Geth holding the guy.

He gets free, starts running and hides behind the same spot that Ashley scrambled to.

As Shepard and Kaidan move forward to engage the enemy and secure the civilian I do some sniping.

After we mop up the Geth I walk towards the rest of the group. I overhear Shepard talking to Jenkins over the Comms, she tells him to expect a civilian heading his way. The civilian I saved runs off in Jenkins' direction.

When I get over to them Ashley says "Gunnery chief Ashley Williams of the 212, You the one in charge here ma'am? To Shepard.

They proceed to have a conversation that I have heard a dozen times while I played the game so I kind of zone out. But I tune back in when I think they are wrapping up.

"We could use your help, Williams," Shepard asks Ashley.

"Aye, aye, sir. It's time for payback." She responds.

Shepard pauses then says "Have you seen a Turian SPECTRE around here?"

"I've never met a Turian on Eden Prime," Ashley replies.

Wait, for my plan to be believable I need to know what Nihlus looks like. Of course, I already know what he looks like but they need to know how I know.

"What does this Nihlus guy look like so we can identify him?" I ask.

"He has a black carapace with white facial markings." Shepard answers.

"And he is carrying enough firepower to wipe out a platoon," Kaidan adds.

After that, we start making our way forward.

…..

We start making our way to the dig site and just as we get there we see the Geth. We get into cover.

We destroy them pretty quickly. I use the Talon, it is really good, it's like a slightly more accurate but weaker shotgun. It has surprisingly little recoil.

Miranda (a.k.a, Reaganomics Lamborghini) seems to be staying in the background, I suppose that because she is a spy she wants to leave as little an impression as possible.

When we walk into the center of the dig site Ashley says "The beacon should be right here. It must have been moved."

"By who? Our side? or the Geth?" Kaidan asks.

"Hard to say. Maybe we'll know more after we check out the research camp." Ashley asks.

"You think anyone got out of here alive?" Shepard asks.

"Yeah, there's got to be somebody alive up at the camp," I say.

Shepard puts her hand to her head and nods, she must be talking to Nihlus on the radio.

As we walk up past the dig site, we see some more spikes.

"This is a good place for an ambush, keep your guard up," Kaidan says.

The spikes deploy the husks, somebody says something about them but I'm already shooting at them.

The Talon does great work when they get closer. Everyone else uses their shotguns to destroy the husks.

I'm really starting to like this gun.

As we walk through the camp Shepard and Kaidan walk straight to the door where the two scientists are hiding and hack the door open.

I just stay out of this conversation, Shepard is easily able to get them to calm down, even the crazy one.

Instead, I just climb on top of the roof of the building and take out my sniper rifle and look through the scope. I point it towards the space dock. I pull out a detonator that I had also hidden there and is connected to the shock grenades I had planted underneath the ground around that area. I hold the detonator in a way where no one else can see it.

I see Nihlus.

I have to be careful how I do this so I don't seem too suspicious.

"Hey Shepard, I think I see Nihlus by the dock"

"Really?" She says

That's when I see Saren.

"There is another Turian, no facial markings, white carapace. It looks like he has a synthetic arm." I say.

"What are they doing?" Shepard asks

"They are just talking," I reply

I'm keeping the detonator ready while we are talking.

"Nihlus has his back turned, he must trust this guy," I say

"I wonder who he is?" Kaidan asks.

"Shh…." I say.

That's when I see Saren pull out the gun and point it at Nihlus, I set off the detonator.

I then say "He pulled a gun on him! But they were interrupted by some sort of explosion!"

Shepard says "We need to get down there!"

…..

We pass the people that locked themselves in that building who are running a smuggling ring. They should still be safe in there.

We get to Nihlus' body and Kaidan begins examining him and says "He is alive but unconscious."

We hear some rustling and Ashley says "Something is moving behind those crates!".

That dude sleepy dude comes out from behind the crates and yells "Wait! Don't shoot! I'm one of you! I'm human!"

Shepard says "Sneaking up on us like that nearly got you killed!"

That guy says "I… I'm sorry. I was hiding. From those creatures."

The guy says "My name is Powell." I don't remember that... "I saw what happened to that Turian. The other one tried to shoot him but they were both hit by a crap ton of electricity."

Shepard talks to the guy some more to corroborate my story I don't take it personally she needs evidence and she just met me. I hear him say Saren's name.

"What happened after that," Shepard asks.

"Well the Saren guy was was pretty messed up from that shock. He crawled over to a cargo train that had that beacon on it. I knew that beacon was trouble. Everything's gone to hell since we found it. First, that mothership showed up. Then the attack." Powell says.

They talk about how he had been asleep on the job. That's when I jump in, we weren't able to talk to the people in the building about the smuggling ring so it's time for me to do some bluffing.

I speak up and say "I know about the smuggling ring you and Cole had, I was going to bring it to the police tomorrow but I never got the chance."

Miranda raises an eyebrow at me in surprise.

He starts panicking, sputtering and denying it, but he eventually admits it.

Shepard asks Powell "Is there anything hidden nearby that we could use against the Geth?"

"A shipment of grenades came through. Nobody notices if a few small pieces going missing from military orders." Powell replies.

What a douche

"You greedy son of a bitch! We're out here trying to protect your sorry ass and all you can think about is how you can rip us off?!" Ashley says.

He offers up an excuse, but Shepard makes him hand over the grenades.

Shepard convinces the guy to change his ways and all that. Honestly, it's really weird watching her work, she just has a weird, charismatic aura.

He even hands over that other piece of tech he was hiding.

Since Nihlus is stable we leave him in the care of Powell, they are told to hide and wait.

We fight our way to the train and leave.

When we get there we see the bombs.

"Shit, bombs," I say, with a lot less surprise in my voice than I had hoped for.

Shepard and Kaidan quickly disable it while Ashley, Miranda and I watch for Geth.

We make our way through the port, I biotic charge a Geth behind a pillar and take its position as my own cover. Then I give cover fire as Shepard disables bomb after bomb.

We get to the area with the beacon and finish off the enemies, I make sure to stay well away from it. Shepard gets everything out of the storage lockers eventually they check out the beacon.

Shepard goes on comms and says "Normandy, the beacon is secure. Request immediate evac. We have two wounded nearby, Nihlus and Jenkins."

Kaidan says "This is amazing. Actual working Prothean technology. Unbelievable!"

Ashley says "It wasn't doing anything like that when they dug it up." (It's glowing now)

Shepard is talking on the radio again, I hear her say "Roger Normandy, standing by."

Kaidan starts walking towards the beacon.

Here comes the moment that starts it all.

He starts getting pulled towards it. Shepard runs towards him and throws him out of the way. She gets lifted into the air and starts twitching. Kaiden tries to get her down, but me and Ashley hold him back. The beacon explodes and we walk up to Shepard to make sure she's ok.

"And so the plot thickens," I say.

"What?" Kaidan asks.

"Uh… nothing?" I answer.

…..

Kaiden and Ashley went to go get Shepard back to the ship. They tasked me and Miranda with picking up Nihlus.

As we got to Nihlus I stopped, pulled out the Talon, and flared my Biotics.

"This is where we part ways," I say firmly.

She turns to me and says "Certainly not, I have the opportunity to get on the Normandy! It's easily the most advanced ship in Citadel space!"

"This is non-negotiable Ms. Lamborghini," I say.

After a tense standoff, she says "Fine, but I want my gun back."

"No! You can just get another one, and I've never seen one of these before!" I reply.

She glares at me, thinks for a moment, then walks away. She is definitely muttering something under her breath.

I turn to Nihlus' unconscious form and realize I have to carry the guy all by myself.

Shit.

…..

Hey guys, I'm back from school!

- Understandable

VODKA18 - Thanks

Aelyx - That's a good idea, I did end up deciding to just hide his involvement with because I figured there was no good explanation for them just being in that one spot. But still, that's a cool idea.

Koseta.a - It never is his day.

Twitch (Guest) - Yeah that would have been a good idea. But unfortunately, the SI is not always that smart.

Lisbjerg123 - Don't forget a lot of luck!

MrPowell - It turns out not much, I mostly just wanted her out of there so the story could progress.

Tom712 - Yep, Kai Leng is dead AF.

Vmage2 - Thanks man, I usually mess something up as far as grammar goes.