Sunday 6 October 2013

Revenge - Part 3

Revenge managed to convince those who he had indoctrinated to come to his giant metal form.
It didn't take much doing. Krogan weren't exactly the strongest creatures when it came to mental capacity.
The controlled group lowered themselves on to large metal spikes on its interior so the tips pierced their skin. Blood started leaking out of their bodies and gently dripped on to the floor.
Then Revenge began the transformation.
Reaper nanomites entered the bodies of those who were sat on the "dragon's teeth" as they were called by the other races in the galaxy. They began to convert their major organs into a synthetic equivalent. Their hearts. Their brains. Slowly their flesh began to change colour. They began to become a dark grey as the nanomites twisted and converted their flesh.
Now Revenge had an army.

"So," Thomson said, "What class of Reaper is it? Is it a destroyer, a flagship... what?"
"I don't know. The datapad contained no information about what it was. All we know is that it has to be destroyed."
There was a high pitched scream.
"... What was that?" Emi asked, grasping Thomson's forearm in fright.
"I don't know," said Bei, "But we should check it out. Someone might be in trouble."
"It didn't sound like a cry of fear, Bei," smiled Humin, "It sounded like a war cry."
"Defensive positions!" yelled Srateris, scrambling for his sniper.
They had set up a small camp next to the Falcon. It consisted of four tents. One for Thomson and Emi, since they didn't mind sharing. "... We definitely don't mind sleeping in the same tent," Emi had said. Then Humin had a tent to himself, and so did Srateris and Bei.
Thomson grabbed his M-8 Avenger and pressed it against his shoulder, levelling it in his hand. A moment later, each one of the group apart from Emi was armed.
Luckily the sandstorm had stopped, giving them a reasonable view of what was around them. The air was still clogged with dust, however, which obscured their sight ever so slightly.
But they could clearly see shapes moving. Grey, deformed shapes that were coming towards them. All but one were running. The other was using biotic jumps to close in, a few metres at a time. There were blue flashes every time it moved closer.
There was an explosion of sand and Bei disappeared, a slight hole left where she had been before.
"Bei!" Emi cried.
Thomson took quick aim and began firing in bursts at the incoming enemies to maintain his accuracy. There was a bolt of light that erupted from the muzzle of Srateris' Black Widow and two of the creatures dropped, a hole through their heads caused by the same round.
Only when the enemies came close enough, they could see what they were.
They looked like Husks with a Krogan - almost reptilian - body. Their skin was twisted and grey. The creature that was teleporting towards them was a Banshee - an Asari who had been converted by the Reapers.
Asari were naturally powerful biotics, and even when turned, they still kept their abilities. This led to them being well... problematic to say the least.
One of the Reaper-Krogans dropped with a single shot to the head from Thomson's rifle. Srateris' sniper fired again and hit the Banshee, but with no effect. It had a biotic barrier surrounding it, he would be lucky if he even damaged it.
The Banshee screamed angrily and used more biotic jumps to come even closer. It seemed to be smiling at them, showing its sharp teeth. Its long claws scraped together, making a sound similar to dragging chalk across a blackboard.
Humin fired his plasma sub-machine gun at the Banshee, staggering it despite the biotic barrier that surrounded its form. The Banshee's hand started glowing blue and it launched a biotic warp at Humin. The Salarian dived to the side to avoid the potentially life-threatening attack, and it flew centimetres past him.
Thomson fired his Avenger in full-auto, hitting the Banshee's barrier. The combination of his rifle, the Black Widow and the sub-machine gun managed to weaken the biotics until only its heavy armour remained.
He swept his hands wide and made several Krogan shoot backwards with a biotic shockwave, then summoned a mass effect field in his hand, throwing it at the Banshee to prevent its barriers from regenerating.
The Banshee biotic jumped towards Emi, who was trying to hide behind Thomson for protection against the Reaper enemies. It came within a few metres of him, so Thomson drew a knife and slashed at the heavily armed enemy. The blade had no effect, not even cutting through its thick skin. But it served its purpose and gave the Banshee another target but his girlfriend.
The Banshee grabbed him by the helmet and lifted him into the air with a single hand. It screamed at him, so loud it hurt his ears. It drew its arm back, claws outstretched and ready to plunge into his stomach.
That was when he raised his hand and threw a biotic warp directly into its face.
The lack of a biotic barrier meant that it's face was ripped apart almost instantly. It screamed, this time in pain, and it hit the floor. Dead.
"Thomson!" Emi yelled from behind him. He spun, just to see her legs being entwined by a thick vine about as thick as his wrist.
The plant that the roots belonged to was as grey as the Krogan, leading Thomson to believe that the Reaper had also gained the ability to change plants as well.
The main part of the plant was shaped like a dome, with a thick mouth in the middle. The mouth contained row after row after row of sharp thick teeth that flexed hungrily as Emi started being dragged closer. She screamed, so Thomson quickly reloaded his weapon and shot the plant several times in the grey dome.
The roots suddenly relaxed as the plant died. Emi got to her feet.
Thomson was grabbed from behind and lifted off the ground. He turned his head, just to look into the face of a Reaper-Krogan. It punched his helmet once, twice, three times, then dropped him on the floor. Whilst stars were flashing behind his eyes, it raised its arm and prepared to crush him against the ground.
There was a flickering behind the creature, then Bei appeared after deactivating her tactical cloak.
"Hey! Bosh'tet!" she shouted. The Reaper-Krogan turned, and she raised her shotgun. A blue beam hit the enemy in the face, and it fell heavily into the sand.
Emi rushed towards Thomson. She slid slightly in the sand as she got near him. She knelt down and held his hand in hers, "... Are you alright?"
Thomson nodded, and grumbled, "Yeah just give me a moment..."
"Is that it?" Srateris asked, "No more enemies? Bei what happened to you?"
"Thresher Maw," she sighed, "But don't worry, it gave up."
There was a gentle rumbling. Thomson got to his feet and rubbed
"Uh... Bei..." said Srateris, "Thresher Maws never give up..."
A long almost worm-like creature exploded from the surface, making a screeching sound. Its skin was also grey and deformed. It hissed angrily at them and launched a globule of acid towards them.
The group dived out of the way. The thick liquid spilled over the makeshift camp, landing on their supply of first aid equipment. The acid sizzled through the metal of the box easily, and it started cutting through the kits that were inside.
Srateris fired his sniper, but the Thresher Maw seemed to sway and avoided the potentially lethal round.
Bei took out a small spherical device from the pocket on the skirt part of her suit. She pressed the top, and threw it.
The grenade detonated a moment later. It didn't do much to the creature but blacken some of its skin, but it still let out an angry screech and dived back underneath the ground.
Thomson moved Emi away from the acid-covered equipment and stayed close to her so he could make sure she was safe.
The Tresher Maw appeared a moment later, but Humin activated his Omni-tool and the creature froze, white lightning dancing across the surface of its body. Neural shock.
Thomson formed a singularity in his hand - the attack, he remembered, that he used on the two Cerberus agents back on the Citadel before they had been arrested. It was a sphere of dark energy that contained a point of nearly infinite mass. It could only last a few moments before dissipating, but in that time it tended to drag anything in its radius towards the centre.
He threw it and the singularity caused sand around the Thresher Maw to rise into the air, giving Srateris enough time to bring the animal down with his sniper.
The group let out a sigh of relief.

They were certainly good, Revenge noted, but he had seen plenty of weaknesses. The Quarian who had a firearm underestimated the enemy, which was easy to exploit. The Salarian had hesitated when it came to using his gun, which, being a sub-machine gun, could prove somewhat problematic for him in close-quarters combat. The Turian had been too eager to use his sniper, when, judging by Revenge's scans, he had plenty of more suitable weapons at his disposal.
Then its mind went to the weakest links in the chain, the other Quarian and the human. The human had been a considerable biotic. Not the strongest, but not the weakest by far. The Human had potential, but his lack of biotic training and the low frequency of his attacks meant that he had relied more on his firearms. Meanwhile, he was trying to protect the second Quarian female, which indicated that they were emotionally attached to each other, it thought. The Quarian female who had no weapons or powers to use was statistically the weakest out of the entire group. But she was Revenge's advantage in the upcoming battle, which increased her importance several hundred times. The weakest, and yet the most important. Emotional attachments were somewhat unusual things. But they were incredibly easy to exploit and manipulate to his advantage.
His sensors started picking up a life form close to his base. It directed its visual optics towards the humanoid figure, who was wearing a dark cloak. A hood covered the figure's head, so not even with its advanced sensors, Revenge couldn't see its face.
It powered up its weapon system and revealed its red spinning orb of energy by folding two pieces of its shell to the side. Revenge was about to fire when a voice suddenly hissed into its mind, "Stop!"
By all physical means, Revenge could not have heard the figure's voice from so far away. It was almost like the voice was inside the Reaper network.
Where emptiness had been before in its consciousness, data began to flow. Revenge connected to the stranger's mind. A vast and complicated array of different codes flowed into its system.
A humanoid figure had managed to connect to the network of the Reapers - impossible.
"I believe we are after the same thing," said the stranger through the network that connected them both, "Revenge. You are the last of your kind, I am the first of mine. We have both being wronged. I am more powerful than you think, Reaper. You decided to call yourself Revenge? Rather simple, but effective. I never knew Reapers had any reason for a name. But you're different, aren't you? You can feel. The Crucible weapon, though it didn't kill you, did harm your consciousness, didn't it?"
Revenge decided to be silent.
"If you're Revenge," continued the dark figure, "You can call me Vengeance. Together we can harvest the galaxy. What do you say?"
Revenge analysed the situation quickly. Having a second powerful being - yes the stranger was indeed powerful, its biotic readings were off any measurable scale, and although its form appeared to be damaged, the humanoid contained synthetic equipment and a weapon system even it could not identify.
Having someone as powerful as the stranger would be a tactically sound move. And if they were after the same thing... the figure could prove useful.
Revenge broke its silence with a stream of data into the mind of Vengeance, which translated as, "I'm listening."






Vote time!

Now Revenge and Vengeance have teamed up, there's a quick vote just because I'm wondering who you think Vengeance is. Here are the choices.

1. An psychotic enemy who has not appeared in the story so far. A tech expert who managed to hack into the Reaper network. Though empty, the network still had residue indoctrination energy, making Vengeance go insane and believe what the Reapers do.

2. A person from one of the group's past who had been wronged and now wants revenge. Srateris, Bei, Humin, Thomson and Emi all have had a relatively action-packed lives and they are bound to have created enemies without their knowledge. Maybe it could be a background character who had been unknowingly treated badly. People create demons.

3. An old enemy of one of the group who has decided to get revenge because they well... can.

4. An old friend, maybe an ex-crew member, who had been abandoned after the main story and felt they were treated unfairly by Thomson as he left to be with Emi and dislikes the situation they were left in. Maybe there had been a shuttle accident which resulted in a head injury, resulting in a lack of any kind of emotional control.

5. Someone who had been indoctrinated by the Reapers on Tuchanka.

6. A rogue Geth unit who disagreed with the situation between its race and the Quarians.


If you wish to vote, just put the number at the end of your comment.


Note: This is not voting for which one it will be, it is voting for which one you THINK it will be.

2 comments:

  1. Being eaten by a plant would have been a rather embarrassing way to die. Good thing she got away. ^^

    So. Hm. What I think it'll be... Hmm... Number six. ^^

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  2. One, I thiiiiiiiiiiink . . .

    *is making my judgement mostly from the language used to describe the options*

    *oh, is that cheating? :P*

    As far as my judgement goes, you write the action pretty realistically and it's described in a way that makes sense to your brain clearly, which I think I said before but oh well. :)

    That's a good assessment of weaknesses. :) It's good when the characters start being assessed in the story, because it tells you more about them without requiring the reader to actually work. XD

    #ChaseForBookNine

    ReplyDelete