CH26

(Here's my last funny to you all before I completely go, this is for the reds, and blues, and all the colours of the rainbow. Oh about that past racially suggestive jokes on Mexicans, I'm not racist, but I forgot to put in all the others, I couldn't really get a good idea for either Swedish or Chinese, or Japanese, but that's probably in the rewrite I'll do for this story, either than that, enjoy the last episodes of the RVB full cast, and the Meta. Anyone have that last joke about Saren earlier in the story I deleted it from my files and thus I can't get it back, also I'd like some suggestions for the ending, but nothing to extravagant, the MC needs to come back!)

And thanks to only 1 vote, we're stuck with getting Tali a ring, come on guys.

Also I'm going ahead and finishing the whole story as soon as possible, I have exams in the next month for HSC and they are the worst, I won't be back for a while… a good long while.

Happy Birthday to anyone and everyone named Chris, as my friend's birthday was today, on that note, I remember the death of a good fried Aldo, rest his soul, he died from cancer 4 years ago.

XXXXX

Operation: Cake or Death? (Anyone who gets the reference gets a medal.)

XXXXX

Collector Base

The reds and blues, and all the others stood back and watched, this was it, an army of bugs and a walking tank, if there wasn't any more of an incentive to add to their predicament the damned reaper Harbinger was in control of the damned things as well.

"Here you stumbled into oblivion, in capable of understanding what you face, and now it is time, it is time for your judgement foolish beings of flesh and… what are you doing?" Harbinger asked.

The reds and blues were arguing over what they should do next, with Tex throwing her fist about and Doc trying to get clear of Wash and his Cerberus pals. Church was trying to get things cleared up for the reds and Caboose, meanwhile Tucker was hitting on Miranda, who was ironically hitting back with her fists.

Jacob was trying to figure out what the hell the reds brought and what the locust Donut had was doing. And there was the odd fact that there was something approaching the hangar, and it was big.

"CRASH" And as it struck a single piece headed straight for the CAMERA! "CRACK"

[Technical difficulties please wait…]

The secondary camera came online, even though the last one had come at a rather hefty price which will be deducted from someone's account after this expensive scene. "Hey, what's the big idea?" Sarge growled at the author, and from ED. "Well I'm not the one who planned on crashing the ship through the front door." Sarge replied one last time. "I didn't get a better amount of time to plan for that one, come on! You know how hard it is to get a good idea, this was at least a 3 week plan… and besides you have all the foresight for this!" "Well that maybe but that's because I improvised the idea at the time, and also I was watching Spriggs for the last 8 days so don't get me started on the flaws."

Back to the story… The hatch to the small freighter opened and a yellow figure clad in armour hopped out and said. "Hey guys, did I take a wrong turn at Elysium or what?"

"Sis? What are you doing here?" Griff asked.

"I got wasted after a whole night at Elysium, and then I was on my way to my house and then I saw a pretty light… and then I just went…. On…."

"Wow I can hear the air." Miranda commented.

"Yeah tell me about it." Jacob agreed.

The Meta honestly didn't care, it just wanted to kill the fuckers who left him to die in a frozen block of ice for the last season, and that was enough to grab everyone's attention when it began to run at them. Everyone took aim to fire, except Griff who just bolted for the back and watched the whole fight. The first ones to fire at the Meta were Simmons and Tucker, their bullets hitting an impressive kinetic shield, and then they were abruptly stopped as the Meta grabbed the two and chucked them.

Sarge fired at 5 feet and pelted the Meta like a true badass while taking a few steps back and then ducking as the collector enhanced Meta pummelled the wall where he stood. It was then that Sarge fired a heavy slug the round smacking into the armour and shields and winding the Meta if just temporarily, the armoured walking tank didn't spare a second thought as it at super human speeds grabbed the shotgun and pulled Sarge away and then tossed him over to the side of the room with inhuman strength.

The rest of the group then opened up, with Donut firing with surprising accuracy with the locust walker at the approaching Meta. However they were in for some more surprises as the Meta crashed into the blasts with an energy shield, it seemed as though the collectors had thought about the UNSC tech still inside of all their suits. The enhanced shields took the brunt of the damage while the Meta ran at them.

Tex and Wash went up to meet with the Meta head to head, their hands up in defensive stances as they took to the Meta's own hand to hand combat finesse. The three clashed, blows exchanged in complex patterns, Wash and Tex were both skilled and experienced soldiers from the Freelancer Corps and weren't going to be taken down as easily as the others would. Meta dodged the batters and jabs thrown about between them, as they passed quickly into getting closer the Meta then countered, the brutal counters coming in at impressive speeds.

Wash soon found himself being hammered backwards, he wasn't going to give up, his freedom from this hell hole was almost over, he damned wasted so much of his life, and he wasn't going to let the Meta or damned anyone to stand in the way of his freedom… he lashed out and began to counter with ever growing intensity, but the Meta's own super human strength and speed was overwhelming. And with the fact that the Meta had enhancements from the collectors and the reapers, it wasn't going to be a simple walk in the proverbial park.

Tex was also under the strain of keeping the Meta at bay with her hands, the blows exchanged seemed to hurt a lot more than just bruise, she took almost a dozen strikes before she began to feel the burn from the fists of the Meta. She watched as Wash then began to formulate a means to get at the Meta from her. He took to the fight with sheer intensity and distracted the Meta, dodging a blow to his sternum he jabbed the Meta in the face and began to enrage the walking tank. The fight began to focus more on Wash and Meta as Tex took a moment's reprieve.

Wash under cut a direct strike to his face and then grabbed the Meta's right arm and then struck into the chest of the Meta and began to hammer it back with his elbow. The Meta grew increasingly annoyed and then used its free arm and grabbed Wash's left and then pulled him around in an unavoidable pummelling, the Freelancer took strike after strike to his helmet and then his visor cracked. The Meta then began to dent the suit that Washington was wearing, until a sharp crack to his hand dropped the battered Freelancer.

It was enraged, how many more distractions until it got the actual chance to kill something or someone? It turned to see that there was Tex, who had in the time that it took the Meta to hammer Wash to grab a very long barrelled Mini-mass driver-gun, the 7 barrelled gun rotated. "Hey, remember me?"

The Meta didn't even bother as bullets began to rip through the air around it, it dove right into cover as mass accelerator rounds pelted into the plates around it, Tex wasn't sure if she was missing the chance to kill Wash was a bad thing, the traitorous prick deserved to be in a number of places, but his record had been cleared as far as the UNSC or Cerberus cared.

She shoved the thought away and focused on the Meta, Wash was doing what he was doing to survive, and she was doing the same, but with a greater reason behind her purpose for being here. The mini-gun soon overheated and the heat sinks dropped to the ground as the gun finally gave out to overheat. She watched as the Meta jumped out from its cover, it had taken a light beating as far as anyone was concerned, but it was mad as hell.

"What can't take the heat?" She ridiculed the now infuriated Meta.

That clicked the Meta into a run, or by the RvB crew's term as a bolt run, the massive tank ran in a straight line for Tex. She was no honest idiot, and she knew what to do, as the Meta closed the distance, she drew out her knife and then took up a combat stance. Meta knew this same move, back on the ice shelf when the team dumped him into the ocean. Meta broke into a roll and dived forwards to then grab the black armoured freelancer.

But as he grabbed Tex he noticed something wrong, the freelancer vanished into scattered particles of light, what replaced Tex was a glowing M40 grenade. The Meta could only twitch as it was consumed by the blast. It watched as it soared through the air and landed onto the ground nearby, hitting the deck hard. Meta attempted to recover, however as soon as he limped to his feet, he felt something heavy suddenly shove him back down.

"You should have remembered that one…" Tex grinned.

Meta hadn't expected that as much as the tactics used by Washington, Meta growled and grabbed Tex's leg, but it wouldn't budge. She smiled and said.
"Wash wasn't the only one who got an upgrade."

She absently removed her foot and then kicked the Meta over, he landed on the floor hard again, this time he wasn't just angry. He was damned pissed. He decided to abandon any thoughts aside from pummelling Tex into the floor. He picked himself up and faced Tex; he broke into a sprint once more and bolted himself at her as fast as possible…

Tex dodged the first blow and struck the Meta in the jaw in an uppercut with her fist, that didn't stop Meta, he reasserted himself and grabbed Tex's arms and slammed his knee into her sternum and then abruptly kicked her backwards. Tex regained a footing and dodged another punch; she then leapt up and twisted a kick to the head of the Meta, making him stagger back. He then threw another jarring kick to counter her, but missed scant inches as she twisted in a vertical summersault and avoided his strike.

It was then Meta realised something, he couldn't win, with all the power he had, the only result that he could come to was to finish his final directive, death. Meta continued to attack, running at Tex, punching directly as she finished her summersault, she bent backwards and avoided the attack and then countered him. Brining her legs up, Tex grabbed the Meta by the waist and then slammed him into the floor on his head.

Meta registered the damage to its visor and soon realised that its HUD was gone, but that didn't matter, it continued to make its run, Meta halted as it suddenly felt a strange feeling, it looked down to see an energy blade cut cleanly through its torso.

"Hey asshole, bet ya didn't see that?" Tucker grinned.

Meta grabbed Tucker and tossed him aside, and then as Meta brought his attention back to the fight, the whole crew of the RvB squad jumped in, excluding Lopez who is somewhere else. Also to note the fact that all the collectors were now dead and that the remaining blue suns got fried by Donut, but that's for a later explanation. Caboose and Sarge made a run, Caboose using his incredible strength to grapple the Meta and Sarge pumped a dozen rounds into the sternum of the Meta.

The armour was useless at a point blank shot, the carapace was riddled with holes, and Meta stepped up its suicidal plans and expertly shifted its weight and lifted Caboose up and swung him over his head and landed the blue onto Sarge. The crash of the two didn't stop the assault that the Meta suffered, a punch was landed to Meta's head as it was suddenly grabbed by a terrified Griff, Simons didn't like the fact that he had to beat the Meta over the head with a rifle rather firing it.

Church followed up and rammed his sniper under the head of the Meta and fired, even he couldn't miss that shot. But the Meta continued unhindered, tossing off Griff and smacking Simon's silly and then kicking Church in the stomach. Grasping its head it realised how bad the damage it had suffered began to affect it that was until.

"Hey Meta…" Turning about he was shot.

Sarge recovered with his shotgun fully loaded in record time, the buck shot snapped the Meta back, the armour finally gave out, but even as blood began to pour from the wounds Meta walked on, threatening to rip apart Sarge, but Sarge took a few steps back and fired as he went. (I love the Halo 1 shotgun; it was overpowered and awesome at a heck of a lot of ranges.)

"Come on boy, you… think you can take me on?" Sarge smiled. "Nobody ain't taken on Sargent Murphy Miles in ten years, just' cause I hated being a lieutenant didn't mean I ain't competent."
(I took it to liberty to think up a suitable name, and also I think a few of those who know who Mitch Miles Murphy is then you'll get the idea.)

A few more shots before Meta grabbed Sarge by the throat… again and tossed his shotgun aside. As he was being strangled he grunted.
"You knocked my 'SHOTGUN' away…"

The others didn't get it… "SHOTGUN DAMMIT!" That was the cue, a moderate rumble and the Meta noticed something, what was that sound? "Hey asshole!" Griff yelled.

The warthog slammed into the Meta's side and then onto the front bumper and drove it into the group of collectors who suddenly realised what was happening. The Meta was stronger enough to take the damned car, but what surprised it was the fact that there was something inside the car… a constant beeping and then a loud blast of noise, 5 high explosive orbs of M70 Anti-tank explosives lay inside.

The Meta could only think. "Son of a Bitch…"

The resounding explosion knocked everyone over, Miranda and Jacob had only finished calling for help when they watched the whole spectacle unfold, the Meta was sure not to get out of that right?

And thus we should be thankful for Sarge who quotes.
"Heaven ain't getting up again now… ha."

The others recovered to see what had happened and they all agree.
"So what now?"

"THUMP" The group looked at the spot where Meta had been. "You're fucking kidding us…"

The rubble exploded, the Meta stood out, its helmet glowing and its body altered, it looked as though the collectors did more than just fix him up.
"We are Meta, we are the ascension!"

(Second Last, or Third!)

XXXXX

Normandy

In the opaque coloured interior of the Normandy the crew bustled about, Shepard had received the images of the next location, the place was identified by Liara as Ilos and with that being confirmed Shepard and Daniel had planned out their next action. However things hadn't been as simple as it was earlier, the council wished to speak with them before doing anything.

Daniel was being debriefed once again, this time with the crew, he was adamant about having the Citadel being reinforced if his fears were right. He watched as the councillors materialised once again, the whole team was here, including Dot and Vinaya.
"Commander Shepard, Lieutenant Daniel, we have gone over your final report from the events on Virmire, we send our condolences for Lieutenant Alenko, but this was for the best."

"It happens in combat councillors, a hard decision we had to make." Daniel responded clearly.

All of Noble knew of the sacrifices and thus this was no different, the only thing that they could do was continue their efforts to deal with the Geth and the Reapers. Daniel listened as the council replied on his suggestions of the defence of the Citadel and the search for the Conduit. The attack on Ilos in the edges of the Terminus systems was critical on stopping the reapers from returning.

Valern addressed them clearly. "Lieutenant Daniel, we have taken to your suggested defence and have called the Citadel fleet to full alert if Saren was to launch an attack he would find no grasp."

"What about the Conduit, Ilos is the critical point amongst all of this, if the conduit is there, then the reapers will find a way to get to the galaxy, we can't risk this."

"We also can't risk startling the Terminus systems lieutenant, the presence of a fleet near the Terminus systems will spark the systems to begin a confrontation to which may as well end violently. That's a worse risk to us than what Saren is threatening the Citadel with." Valren replied.

Tevos added to Valern's statement. "You need to see from our point of view lieutenant, the Terminus systems are well beyond your jurisdiction. The fact that following your suggestion will most likely start a conflict with the Terminus systems is too great a risk, their situation is chaotic at best and can be highly unpredictable, but should a Council fleet appear the Terminus systems may unify even temporarily to threaten the stability of the galaxy."

"So what sit on our asses and wait for the reapers to appear? Saren's not going to bother with the fleet; he's going for the conduit while you're sitting ducks." Shepard said annoyed.

"Commander you should remember your position, the citizens of the council is unwilling to risk being put in danger." Maelon replied.

"Well then how are we going to defend them if the threat is sitting right on their front door?" Daniel countered.

"As we have said Lieutenant the fleet will be waiting for them to make their move." Tevos attempted to assure him.

"If this needs to be further discussed then we shall decide, for now you and the Normandy must wait." Valern said hastily.

The communication cut out and Wrex said.
"Those bastards think that Saren wouldn't attack? Huh they are either really blind or just stupid."

"Or both, this is why I think that the sheer amount of Bureaucratic bullshit that they shove into everyone's face is pointless, I don't even want to know what they think they're trying to avoid."

"Probably accepting the fact that there's an actual threat, damn I have politics." Shepard commented.

"We'll we better prepare, I have a feeling that things aren't going to end well." Daniel said as he walked off.

XXXXX

After the meeting Daniel sat in his room with Tali, she and him had been quiet for over 3 hours, which was a record considering this was their room, the fact that the decision weighed so heavily on Shepard to make sure that the others lived even at the cost of one other was a burden he didn't wish to carry even with Shepard.

"So, I guess this is just being part of war?" She asked.

"Yeah, you know the feeling now, but don't get too caught up in it, you only knew him as the guy next door." He replied.

"So, what do you think we should do?" She asked.

"Just keep up our job, the galaxy needs saving, and Kaiden wanted us to succeed. I'm sure that he's quite contempt with his decision." He said.

Daniel had received the package only the few hours after Kaiden had died, the small ring looked perfectly crafted, this was marriage, he did wonder what it would be like, finally dedicating his life to something either than killing or duty. He honestly didn't know what he planned to do now, the ring shimmered in his hands in the lighting of the room.

'Was this the best time?' He thought. He was hesitant and he didn't know if this was the best time, but after such things had happened in the few hours, he might as well have just gone to the gym, but the ring was in his hands now and he wanted to make sure that this opportunity didn't pass him. He looked over to her, and then he asked.
"Hey Tali?"

The quarian turned her head over to him. "Yeah?"

His mouth felt dry, probably arguing with the council, but he couldn't care less, he had stared down at the most fierce living beings in the universe and had lived to see another day, what could possibly make him so hesitant in this?
"Tali… will you marry me?"

XXXXX

"Okay, Garrus, why now?" Anders asked as she lay next to the turian in their shared room.

"What is something wrong about what to do in the future?" He asked.

"Oh, don't play coy with me; letting me stay at your place after the hunt for Saren? What do you take me for?" She said with a bit of mock cheekiness.

"It was just an offer…" He said innocently.

"I was kidding Garrus." She kissed him.

It was then a loud scream came from the outside of their room.
"YES!"

XXXXX

Viriana and Jorge were sparring; this was what they did for most of their time as a couple, if one was to assume that they were an actual couple. But this partnership that they had seemed to work well for the two of them, they spent their free time doing training together, and it seemed to work well. They were avoiding strikes from each other.

Viriana decided to sneak a punch as she used her biotics to amplify a strike and knocked Jorge down on his back, she leapt on top of him and said.
"Had enough?"

Before he could answer for her query, a loud scream made the two jump in surprise.
"YES!"

XXXXX

Shepard had to meet with her two lovers, they didn't seem to get along and both were attempting to support her for her decision, but it seemed more and more like an argument rather than a talk. The two were going at this for the whole time and there was little she could do either than pinch the bridge of her nose and simply wait for the two to calm down.

But this whole day seemed to not help with the fact she had bottled up most of her aggravation and thus she shouted. "Will you two just shut up for one moment?"

And suddenly a scream from somewhere a reply came.
"YES!"

XXXXX

Dot was talking to Vinaya, who was speaking to Joker about using her holo form for pornography, he was trying to seem as innocent as possible, because Vinaya might accidently let him slip from his chair at full speed into the wall nearby. As much as the prospect of testing his reinforced bones on the wall, he'd rather not test fate or physics.

"Look Vinaya, what have you got to lose, you're beautiful, and I can see why most of the other guys think the same, except maybe Daniel, but still." He said.

"That's not the point Jeff, those holo images are going to spread like wildfire and as much as I like the idea of being in front of the sports illustrated of this galaxy, I think that the last thing I need is to appeal to the wrong crowds!" She said annoyed.

"Look here then, if I get a profit from this then I'll give you a cut…"

"Jeff, please don't tell me you put me on Fornax!"

He was about to just reply with some witty comeback when someone shouted. "YES!"

Jeff paled as Vinaya suddenly jarred the gravity in his chair and swung him out at full speed. He could see the wall on the other side of the CIC suddenly catch up with him as he said.
"This is gonna hurt…"

XXXXX

"YES!" Tali screamed as loud as she could.

She had hugged Daniel and now they were on the floor, with her grasping him as much as she could.
"So I take it that you're happy?" He asked with some surprising strain, she was gripping him rather hard.

"Yes, of course Daniel, this is so unexpected and I don't know what to say either than yes, if that's the correct way in which it was supposed to go!" She shouted.

"So why are you still shouting?" He asked.

"I have no idea! I think it's the fact I have a defence mechanism just to blabber on about practically anything to just avoid talking about anything related to a subject." She finished.

"So, how does Tali Vas Normandy sound?" He asked.

XXXXX

Sovereign

Lopez cleared out another damned mess on the floor; he honestly didn't know why Saren even bothered. But it seemed as though Lopez caught a break when the meat puppet finally decided to help him out of that frozen rock and back into action. Lopez had a pretty good idea of what to do soon, seeing as the damned asshole had his back turned.

Lopez calculated his options and weighed them on his own opinions and what he honestly thought; until conflict resolution was finished he'd then decide what to do. And if he did it right, then that scaly faced prick was going to get what for once he was done with this mess. He still couldn't believe that the hourly pay rate hadn't changed since he arrived in this galaxy; he honestly hated the fact that aliens had dislikes for other ethnic races on top of that.

"Lopez, have you seen my toilet paper?" Saren yelled from the bathroom.

Lopez laughed quietly to himself as he looked under his cleaning trolley, all the tissues on the ship, right at his fingertips… this wasn't so bad.

(He ha, Lopez is going to finish our story for us and soon the final chapter will be completed. But honestly why didn't anyone ever vote for Tali's engagement gift? I mean I posted it up for about 4 weeks.)

Our final vote before this ends, should we save the council or not?