Chapter 6: This Is War

Alright whats up guys, wanna say thank you for your kind words of encouragement. They mean a lot to me. But for the love of good leave more reviews! I don't care if it says that the chapter sucked let me know. Your feedback matters. Seriously. Also I don't know if any of you guys took up my offer about playing online ME3 for PS3. Because someone called Shakeitup0369 something sent me a friend request and I'm kind of freaked out. So yeah. WTF. Also I want to tell you that I put a lot of time and effort into this chapter. So REVIEW! Or you don't get anymore chapters. Also quick shout out to He who is awesome, you may wanna wait til this story is done before you finish your story. Just a suggestion, you don't have to listen to me. Also, as I have stated in my other fics, that if I get enough reviews or followers/favs I will make you guys an original book cover for this story. Let me know if you're interested or not.

Anyway. ENJOY!

"Departure to Palivin in two minutes," EDI's voice filled the cabin of the shuttle that Shepard was aboard, along with Wrex, Garrus, Tali, Samara, Javik, and Jack. The other shuttle had the rest of the crew. The plan was simple, the two team would land and regroup to carve a path for the other ground forces. The Normandy is the only ship that had the stealth FTL so technologically advanced, and even with Reaper's being disabled they still had some targeting and firing power. Plus the Reaper's have set-up AA-Guns on the planet, ran on Turian and Reaper tech, so the guns were unaffected by the jamming signal. Luckily they were not going in alone, the Geth somehow have managed to be unaffected by the jamming signal, and offered to be of assistance, considering they too have FTL stealth drives. The Geth allowed other species to board their stealth ships and are backing up the Normandy team. Shepard smiled, "This will show them," he thought happily.

"Lunching shuttles," EDI announced, "Prepare for a bumpy ride." Shepard smiled, he couldn't help but noticed how much more human EDI had become. He trusted the AI like everyone else on his team, hell she had pulled his ass out of the fire a lot before and during this war. He was glad that she took over Dr. Eva's body, even though she nearly scared the hell out of him at first. "Time to get prepped," he thought. "Garrus think you can pass around some armor piercing ammo," he asked and Garrus nodded, "Jack pass around some warp ammo, I don't want anyone being killed by a Banshee. Also I'll give you guys some incendiary, disruptor, and cryo ammo. Understood?" They nodded in understanding, normally Wrex would try to act like a bad-ass and refuse the mods, but he rather not take chances with Reapers. They all exchanged the modified ammo's and kept it ready.

They felt the shuttle begin to rumble, meaning that the AA guns had spotted them, they weren't too worried, Cortez was flying the shuttle and he was one of the best pilots they had ever seen. Their shuttle was getting knocked around, sure, but not a single shot hit or grazed them. Plus Steve had new look of determination in his eyes, Shepard was not sure where it came from, but he was glad Steve had found it. It was not longer before they touched ground, Shepard opened the hatched, "Alright this is it," he shouted through his N7 breather, "GO GO GO!" He watched each one of his squad exit the shuttle and could not help but feel a sense of pride. He could not explain why he felt it. But he knew it had something to do with the loyalty of the people who followed him. He was the last to leave the shuttle, armed with his Phalionx assault rifle, modified Black Widow, a Palidin V, and his modified Scrizmar shotgun, he was more than ready for anything.

His team had taken cover behind fallen statue of a Turian, there were Reaper ground troops all over the place, however with out their masters to aid them, the synthetic monster were acting on there most basic instinct and core programing, kill. However they were not as intelligent as they once were, in fact they acted like a single Geth on a lone platform. However, despite the lack of intelligence, the Marduars and Cannibals were still threats. Shepard learned that the hard way, before getting to cover, his shields were broken by a hail of laser fire, his new armor held against the heavy fire. Once behind cover with his team, his brain started crafting a plan.

He had Jack and Samara create a barrier. He order Garrus to switch to his sniper, as did he, he took Wrex and Garrus took Javik, and Tali stayed behind to help cover Jack and Samara. Shepard and Wrex took up position on the right flank, while Garrus and Javik took the left. Wrex was using an assault rifle, using incendiary ammo, and unloading his weapon into Cannibals, while Shepard used disruptor ammo, and nailed a bunch of Marduars right between the eyes. Wrex made his usual smart-ass remarks every-time a Cannibal went down, and filled the air with his usual laughter. Shepard was more than glad he never even considered sabotaging the Geonphage cure, he preferred to have this Krogan an ally than an enemy. Shepard could hear the sound of Husks being slaughtered by a shotgun, and he just knew that Tali was protecting Jack and Samara. Then he heard Garrus shouting his usual catch-phrase, "Scoped and dropped" he smiled, there is no other group of soldier that Shepard rather fight beside with, than the men and woman he had come to know and trust. They put down wave after wave of Reaper troops, but they just kept coming, and although they were relatively easy to put down, the squad was running low on thermal clips.

"Where the hell is our back up," shouted Jack. Shepard himself was curious as to what happened to their back-up, Kaidin was leading the other team, and if the team did run into trouble they were more than capable of handling it. So where were they? They couldn't be dead, they couldn't be. Liara couldn't be dead! He thought to himself, he gripped his weapon tighter. "They'll be here, just keep up the pressure!" he shouted. And so they did, but it seemed that everyone was very low on clips, while Shepard had barely gone through half of his. He looked at his team then back at the incoming wave of Reapers. He took a deep breath, he was going to give them some breathing room.

"Garrus!" he shouted, the Turian turned towards his direction, and answered. "I'm going to try and take some of the pressure off us, give me your shield modulator," he said bluntly. Garrus looked surprised, but did as he was asked, and help add te shield mod. "Just make sure to be careful," Garrus said, "Liara will kill me if you die again. And quite frankly she scares me now more than ever." Shepard laughed and thanked his Turian brother and rushed out of the barrier, he could hear protest from the others, but he ignored them, he was already being pelted with laser fire, but his shields were holding nicely. He gunned down a Cannibal with his shotgun, and plunged his omni-blade into a husk. In a short, but bloody, minutes Shepard had killed all the Cannibals and Husks. All that were left were some Muardurs but their aim was useless. The end of the battle seemed in sight, until Shepard heard that god awful scream, that belong to a Banshee.

His heart skipped a beat, the Banshee easily made it's way towards him, it looked like the end, but then out of no where two biotic warps, a reave, and a Carnage shot, ripped through the Banshee's barrier. Shepard did not waste anytime, he pulled his Palidin hand-cannon out and shot three rounds. Two into the Banshee's eyes and one into it's head. And it dropped dead letting out it death wale. Shepard fell to his knees to catch his breath, he took off his helmet and tossed it away, it had about three cuts from where lasers grazed it. He chuckled a bit, he had beaten death once more. "SHEPARD!" shouted a loving and familiar voice, Liara's voice. She reached him quickly and threw her arms around him, he could see tears in her eyes. Instantly he felt terrible that he had caused her this. "I'm alright," he breathed. She let out a sigh of relief, kissed him on the cheek, and looked into his eyes. Then she looked mad, "What were you thinking," she demanded, "You could've been killed!" Shepard would have argued with her, but the sound of a Brute was not far away, and when in sight it looked awful. The Brute was staggering as if it were a drunken animal of sorts. If it were under different circumstance Shepard would have laughed, but instead he brought took out his Black Widow and loaded it with armor piercing rounds. He had the Brutes head in his sights, but he was waiting for the perfect moment to make shot through it's eyes. A second later and the moment can into view, without a second thought he squeezed the trigger and watched the bullet go right through the Brutes head, which exploded once the bullet left. The headless corpse fall to the ground. He then looked back to Liara who stared at him in awe for a second. "The Brute had better chances than them," he motioned to the hundreds of other Reaper corpses. She gave a soft laugh, "I suppose you're right," she answered. They got to their feet and regrouped with the other who were now behind the fallen statue.

Miranda, Garrus, EDI, and Kadin were looking over a holographic layout of the terrain that would lead them to the first AA gun, going over a plan that they had formed. The AA gun that they had picked was currently unprotected by an actual Reaper, so that made it their first target. EDI pointed out that all the other AA guns were connected by a fuel-line of sorts and that a well placed explosive charge could successfully destroy the other AA guns. The AA guns were about the size of a large skyscraper, and had about twenty to forty levels that were used for maintenance The path to AA gun was fairly clear, but scans from scouting drones showed that there would be heavy resistance once inside. Even with their numbers, they would be outnumbered and out-gunned. Unless they got reinforcements, their attack on the AA gun looked like a suicide mission. Which of course they were all used to by now. They could not risk breaking radio silence, considering it was still unknown the extent of the jamming signal effect on the Reapers.

It looked like they were out of options, until five large shuttles landed nearby. Shepard, Wrex, and James checked out the one closest to their position. Not leaving this to chance, all three had their weapons out and aimed at the shuttle. The hatch opened just a crack, releasing a loud hissing sound. Once it fully opened, James, Wrex, and Shepard were surprised by the passengers. Inside the shuttle, contained, a female Turian, a male Krogan, two N7 soldiers, a Quarian, a Volus, an Asari, a Vorcha, and a Geth hunter. All armed to the teeth, knives, thermal clips, you name it they probably had it. The Turian and Asari wore black armor with similar patterns, blue and red stripes, so it was safe to assume they were from a mercenary group. The Volus had a sniper, that looked similar to a Widower rifle, with some personal touches. The Quarian was male, looked like your average one, excepted for what looked like a C-Sec symbol on his arm. The Krogan had armor like Grunt's but it had Talon colors on it. The Vorcha was just your average Vorcha, but it had a tattoo on it's opposite shoulder that had the letters "C" and "A" surrounded by a bunch of guns. One of the N7's looked like a Phantom so she must be an infiltrator, the other looked appeared to be a Slayer. The Geth hunter looked like a normal one, but it had a symbol that resembled the Vocha's tattoo. They all aimed there weapons, it was a basic Mexican stand-off.

After a few seconds of silence, Shepard spoke up. "My name's Commander Shepard," he simply stated, "Are you the back-up we were promised?" The diverse squad lowered their weapons, and looked at him in awe, except for the Krogan, Vocha, and Geth. Finally the Quarian, Asari, Turian, and N7's stood in salute. The slayer spoke-up first, "Yes sir! Our orders are that once on the ground that we are to be under your command." He stood in salute, Shepard felt award when people treated him this way. "Thank you," he waited for the man to answer. "Lt. Kyle Nash. SIR!" he answered so proudly. "Thank you Lt," Shepard answered, "All of you at ease. First thing you need to know, that I'd prefer you treat me like any other officer and not to address me as 'Sir' all the time. Understood?" They all answered with and "Understood, sir!" Shepard knew this was going to take some getting used to. He directed the soldiers over towards the statue they had taken cover. There he ran into the other, all returning with more soldiers with similar logos as the Vorcha and Geth. Plus in each group was a Geth unit, Shepard assumed that the Geth units were the shuttle pilots. Soon the sun was starting to set, and with details of the plan sent to everyones' onmi-tools, Shepard order the team's to move out and find shelter in near by buildings.

Shepard and his team had taken shelter in what may have been a hotel of sorts. They assigned two to a room. Shepard shared a room with Liara, of course. Shepard, now removed of his armor, was extremely tired, after all the fighting he had done today. Liara placed her hands on his shoulders, then placed them on his chest, and kissed his neck. Although he enjoyed it, there was something on his mind that was bugging him. "Liara?" he asked. "Hmm?" she responded. "Do you recognize the symbol, that some of those soldiers had?" he asked. She was silent for a minute, then had an "Aha" look on her face. "Yes," she softly said, "It's the symbol for the new Council Armada, it's a newly developed military service that consists of soldiers from each species. And if I'm not mistaken they only accept the best soldier into there ranks." Shepard thought about that for a moment. The council had taken made some good choices while he was unconscious. And now he had some of the best soldiers in the galaxy under his command. Tomorrow the Reapers are in for a nasty surprise.

Alright so this is probably my longest chapter for this story so far. Anyway as I stated above let me know what you think about what I've done so far. A please let me know about that cover thing. I really wanna post it up. I'm an art student, and I need to get my work out there so I can be recognized. If you don't it's fine like I said, it's all up to you guys. I REPEAT! REVIEW! And also if anyone out there plays ME3 online with PS3 look me up. My screen name is Darkice1516. Anyway.

REVIEW!

(I'D like to apologize to all of you real readers about this, but it must be said I DO NOT take jokes about suicide lightly)

ALRIGHT I DON'T KNOW WHO, BUT SOMEONE TOLD ME TO GO KILL MYSLEF BECAUSE THIS STORY SUCKS. WHOEVER YOU ARE, LET'S JUST SAY YOU'RE LUCKLY THAT I CAN'T FIND YOU! I HAVE ALMOST KILLED MYSELF YOU JACKASS, DON'T JOKE ABOUT THAT STUFF. WHOEVER YOU ARE BE GLAD I'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO FIND YOU, CAUSE MOST LIKELY I WOULD KICK YOUR ASS STRAIGHT TO HELL!