Mass Effect: Invasion

[slut_in_white]

35 days ago, Rachel MacDonald was dropped in the middle of the remote Rockies with nothing but what she carried in a standard Alliance officer's gear pack. She was N6 - second highest officer combat ranking - and this was her last test before she would become N7.

She was supposed to have made it back to base inside of a week, but the day after she had been dropped off, she saw what she had thought was a massive meteor shower and her GPS signals dropped, and she never got them back. She could still make it back without, but it took much longer because it was much easier to miscalculate her exact position, especially since the iron deposits in the mountains made her compass useless for days at a time. She had to backtrack several times because she had missed a mountain pass when she measured north as a few degrees off of true north.

Things only got worse from there. She came out of the mountains miles from base and discovered nearest city, Aspen, utterly destroyed. It hadn't taken her long to encounter the first husks, and she knew abruptly what was happening. Shepard was right. The Reapers had come for Earth. Fucking brass never listens when it matters.

She made the trek to base, taking a round-about route to avoid the worst of the Reaper forces, and went looking for survivors. She found none, but she did kill a husk who looked suspiciously like her old CO. She thought she hadn't even liked him, so she was surprised when she had to fight off tears after blowing his head off. That wasn't like her at all, but maybe she could cut herself some slack; the world had just ended, after all. It wasn't so abnormal to want to cry over it a little.

While there, the only bit of useful gear she found was a HAM radio. They didn't use satellites and the tech was so old that the Reapers either hadn't checked those frequencies or didn't consider it enough of a threat to jam. She heard a call from the Alliance on it: an encoded message, informing all remaining military assets to gather in Vancouver at the airbase there to organize a resistance. So, the next day, she left and started north.

That had been three days ago. She was in Aspen again, looking for supplies enough to last her until she hit the next major city on her as-of-yet unplanned route north. The city was a disaster zone, but most of the useful goods were intact. She stood outside a grocery store, frowning at the darkened entrance while she tied her long auburn hair up in a knot at the base of her neck.

"Well this is a trap if I've ever seen one." From what she had seen, the Reaper forces were smart, and knew enough about humans to know that we'd have to come looking for food eventually. It was the perfect place to set up an ambush, but that didn't really stop Rachel from needing to get in.

She wore standard Alliance light armor, currently printed in urban camo, not that she was trying to hide at the moment. It was broad daylight and she stood in the middle of the street. A massive, alien-looking pistol hung from one hip and a standard issue pistol hung from the other. There was a huge, sleek-looking shotgun slung across her lower back, beneath a small pack with her gear in it.

Frowning, she began to climb up the pile of rubble next to the door, aiming for the air vent next to the big sign proclaiming the name of the store. She yanked it off then climbed inside. It was only the fact that she was tiny - just only five feet tall and fine-boned - that allowed her to fit. She crawled slowly through the vent until she found another grate, this one looking down into the store. The space wasn't big - she could see almost the entire store from where she was. Six husks, two marauders. Not bad. She could handle that. Quietly as she could manage, she pulled the grate off, then jumped down.

Just before hitting the shelf she would have landed on, blue light bloomed around her and she arced abruptly toward one of the marauders, smashing into it and knocking it off balance. The light settled on time for anyone watching to see Rachel blast the marauder's head off with her shotgun.

All at once, the husks began to scream and run toward her, while the other marauder began to pace slowly down the aisles, seeking a good vantage point from which to shoot her.

Rachel growled in response, a fierce smile on her face. "This is for every human you killed in this city, you sons of bitches. Come get me!"

 

[gearhead73]

Ethan Price did his best to maintain his visual on the young woman standing in front of a grocery store in what was left of Aspen. He was lying prone close to five hundred yards west of her position with the crosshairs of his scope trained on the center of her back. He had the sun at his back and the landscape around him provided plenty of concealment, keeping him safely out of her view. He was exactly where he liked to be, hidden a good ways away with a clear line of sight and an elevated firing position.

As he watched the young woman survey the situation his mind began to wander back to a time a little over a month ago when life as he knew it still existed. He had been a technician at a local Ford dealership, making decent money and planning on asking his long time girlfriend if she would do him the honor of being his wife. He had had "the talk" with her father and had secured his blessing. It was an old fashioned thing to do, but he had always had an appreciation for tradition and the old ways things were done.

There had been no warning when the attack started and he had barely made it to his home to gather his weapons and bug-out bag before all hell broke loose and everything that made Aspen home started going up in flame and smoke. He had run to the mountains for cover where he met several of his friends and acquaintances who immediately wanted to organize a fight against whatever enemy had destroyed their homes. It turned out many of the men and women in the group had ties to a local militia organization known as Treadstone who offered weapons and supplies to mount an offensive.

In their haste for retribution, they had failed to gather intel on their enemy and had grossly underestimated their strength. In minutes, Treadstone, a group numbering close to three hundred were reduced to a scattered few that once again sought refuge in the mountains. Their weapons were no match for flickering beams of light that could vaporize entire groups of people at a time used by the alien forms that now controlled the city.

The situation quickly changed from one of taking a fight to the enemy to one of survival. Having been an avid outdoorsman and homesteader most of his life, Ethan was well equipped to live off the land. He was confident that he could last up here for months on end if need be, but there was still a part of him that wondered if any of his loved ones had managed to survive as well.

He had slowly made his way to the outskirts of the city to where he lay now. It wasn't that he needed food, but the small store in his field of view was one of the last remaining buildings that was still standing. He watched as the young woman climbed a pile of rubble and tore a section of the store's sign off revealing and access to the inside. Ethan had noticed her outfit and recognized her as a soldier. He figured she must have a good reason for not simply walking through the front door, but crawling through an air vent to enter the building.

When he lost sight of her, he did a quick visual scan of the area to make sure there was no one else around. Seeing nothing, he sprung to his feet grabbing his rifle and moved quickly and carefully toward the store. She was the first person he had seen in the last few days and if she was in fact military, she would have information on what was happening.

Ethan had made it to the outside of the building when he heard the report of a rifle from inside followed by a female voice yelling, "This is for every human you killed in this city, you sons of bitches. Come get me!" There were a few more gunshots mixed with flashes of blue light that he had seen during his encounters with the aliens.

Ethan hated close quarters fighting. He liked being yards away, where he had less chance of taking a round, but she was in a fight, and he needed to make sure she would be alive to answer all of his questions. He slung his rifle on his back and grabbed his twin 1911s from the thigh rigs he was wearing. It was too dark for his scope to be of use, so he was going to have to use the pistols. "Headshots only." he said to himself before taking a few deep breaths and stepping inside.

 

[slut_in_white]

Rachel spun around to see half of the husks running kamakaze toward her. She threw her free hand forward and a burst of blue light exploded on the ground before her. The core of the flash bounced forward about a foot, then exploded again. Then skipped and exploded. And again. The little explosions blasted clear down the aisle, sending all three of the husks flying into the shelves. She walked toward them, firing her pistol once into each of their heads to make sure they stayed down.

She took a step out of the aisle only to have a flash of red whiz by her, driving her to step back into the cover of the aisle, cursing. She grit her teeth and stepped back out, this time immediately charging into the hail of gunfire that the marauder aimed at her, the bullets glancing harmlessly off of the aura of blue light around her. She slammed into the marauder and fired, her pistol shot hitting the marauder's shoulder. The creature screeched but didn't go down. She hissed angrily and glanced over her shoulder at the oncoming husks. She was surrounded.

Rather than take cover, Rachel slammed her hand into the ground at her feet, the crackling aura of her biotic shield pouring down her arm and into the ground, exploding outward and sending all of the enemies around her flying - but also leaving her without much protection. She blasted the chest cavity of the nearest husk open and stepped into another aisle, disappearing into the shadows deeper into the store to recover her shield and come around behind the marauder for an attempt at round two.

 

[gearhead73]

The fight inside the store was every bit the shit storm that Ethan had feared it would be. There were flashes of light both red and blue, followed by the bodies of the reanimated flying everywhere. He had just turned into the international foods isle where he had thought he had heard fighting, when all hell broke loose. He watched as the young woman slammed her fist into the ground sending a blue sphere of light outward from the point of impact and pushing everything around her, including Ethan hurling backward.

It felt as if a solid wall of air impacted his body, lifting him from his feet and flying backward into a Coke display. He hit the floor with a thud dislodging one of his pistols and sending it scooting across the floor. He rolled to a crouch and fired four rounds rapidly, double tapping two of the zombie-like figures that had landed not too far from him in the head. He ran toward his other pistol, scooping it up and firing twice more catching a rather intimidating figure right below what he could only guess would be the nose, sending it to the ground in a heap.

"Where are you?" he yelled out hoping that she would answer.

He thought that if the two of them could coordinate their efforts, they stood a better chance of taking out every threat in the store.

"I've got three down over in isle six, how many more are there?"

 

[slut_in_white]

Rachel lifted her head and paused instinctively at the sound of another person's voice. Hell, this was the first time she had seen another person since she'd been dropped in the mountains. Somehow she couldn't bring herself to care who it was or what they were doing here - it was just an immense relief to know for sure that she wasn't the only one.

He said he had killed three. She frowned thoughtfully. "There should only be one enemy left. Was one of the ones you took down the maurauder or were all three of them husks?" That would define what the remaining enemy was.

Before she got an answer, however, she heard the distinctive shriek of a husk and whipped around to see the ugly thing barreling down the aisle toward her. She drew the massive, alien pistol at her hip and fired once. Instead of a traditional bullet, the gun fired a bright blue, rather large ball. The size of the projectile made it difficult to aim, so it was a weapon better suited to close range, but the damage it could do...

The little ball stuck to the husk's leg and, initially, didn't seem to do anything. Rachel just smiled as the creature continued toward her. Two steps later, there was an ear-ringing explosion, and the husk's entire lower body was blown away by the detonation of the little ball stuck to its leg. "Well," she said to herself, watching the upper torso of the husk twitching on the floor, "that takes care of that."

She pointed her fingers into a gun shape up above her head and released a little bit of biotic energy, sending a biotic flare up toward the ceiling, letting whoever this man was know where she was. She then pulled her backpack off her back and started grabbing small, easy to carry food. She could hunt a little and knew how to gather whatever food she might need, but having some extra supplies for backup was always a good idea. It was why she had come here in the first place.

 

[gearhead73]

"There should only be one enemy left. Was one of the ones you took down the maurauder or were all three of them husks?" he heard a female voice ask.

It was comforting to hear her. It had been a little while since he had seen anyone and knowing that he was the only one in the fight was strangely comforting. Asto her question, he didn't have a clue. He didn't even know that these things had names, let alone what they were. Ethan looked at the three bodies, noting the differences.

She had indicated that there was only one "maurauder", so he guessed that it was the thing that looked so much different than the other two. He reasoned that the other two must be "husks" and he noted the appearance of the three for future reference.

He was just about to answer, when he heard something similar to gunfire followed by a loud shriek. Apparently the battle wasn't over and after a quick check of his pistols he proceeded toward the noise cautiously. He had just made it to the end of the isle when an explosion rocked the inside of the building sending cereal, blood, guts, spit and ass everywhere.

"Holy shit!" he muttered under his breath as he wiped some goo from his face with his sleeve.

He heard a sizzle and followed by a muffled "poof" and saw a blue flare bounce off the ceiling. He guessed that she was marking her position and from what he could tell, she was about six isles over.

"You clear?" he shouted to her as he crouched a bit and continued to where he thought she was.

"Don't shoot." Ethan said as he enetered the canned food isle where she seemed to be gathering supplies. He held his pistols in front of him but pointed to the ceiling to show he meant no harm.

 

[slut_in_white]

Rachel smiled widely at the approaching man. It had been far, far too long since she'd seen another human face. Or hell, any face that wasn't half-machine. She slung her pack up over her shoulder and walked toward him.

"Good god, it is nice to meet you. A friendly face means a lot these days." She held out her hand for him to shake. "Lieutenant-Commander Rachel McDonald, Alliance Navy." They shook hands while Rachel frowned thoughtfully. "You're the first person I've seen alive since the attack. How did you survive?"

 

[gearhead73]

As he got closer Ethan decided it would be best to holster his pistols. It had been a few days since he had seen anyone and he didn't want to inadvertently start a conflict with the first person he came across. He watched her stand and sling her pack over her shoulder and walk toward him. She was shorter than he had thought when he saw her through the scope. He guessed that she wasn't more than five foot tall, and petite. Yet, he could tell that under that suit that she was wearing that she was strong for her size.

Her red hair was pulled back into a ponytail that had come loose a bit in the fight. Some errant strands of hair had fallen and hung over one side of her face covering one of her emerald green eyes. She looked young, but there was something in the way that she carried herself that screamed confidence.


"Good god, it is nice to meet you. A friendly face means a lot these days." she said extending her hand to greet him. He took it in his and was surprised at her firm handshake. "Lieutenant-Commander Rachel McDonald, Alliance Navy." she said with pride, as she introduced herself.

"Ethan Price, auto mechanic and citizen of the wasteland formerly known as Aspen." he said with his typical sarcasm when he didn't know what else to say.

"You're the first person I've seen alive since the attack. How did you survive?"

It was Ethan's turn to frown. "When the first wave of the attack hit we ran to the mountains. I hooked up with some friends of mine that had ties to a local militia group. They helped us arm ourselves and led a charge to try to take back the city. We were no match and soon we had to take back to the mountains to find cover."

He slid his rifle from his back and lowered his backpack to the floor. He bent and grabbed a few cans of fruit cocktail and stuffed them inside.

"I grew up in these mountains, so I know how to live off the land, but I came back into town just to see if anyone was left. That's when I saw you come in here. I noticed the uniform and thought maybe you might have information about what's going on."

 

[slut_in_white]

Rachel nodded, listening carefully to Ethan's story.

"Yeah, I have a little bit of an idea. I was just at the base, looking for survivors. I picked up a radio message from Vancouver." She sighed, shaking her head. The news hadn't been good. "Turns out Shepard was right. The Reapers really were coming. Fucking brass. Never listen when it counts." She sighed, releasing the tension that clenched up her shoulders whenever she thought about it. She'd been pissed when the Alliance had ripped Shepard's reputation to shreds over her warnings about the Reaper invasion.

"You're supposed to listen to fucking war heroes, not ignore them because you don't like what they're saying," Rachel ground out, frowning. She rolled her shoulders, then smiled apologetically at Ethan. "Sorry. It's a sore point with me. And probably with every other survivor out there right now. Anyway, the Reapers tore apart the entire planet in one big simultaneous attack. They hit every major country on the planet, all within a few minutes of each other." She looked him in the eyes, her own gaze full of sorrow. "I was kind of hoping this might be localized to the coast, or maybe just to North America... but it's not. We lost everything. The fleets withdrew out past Arcturus Station. They say they're preparing to make an attack on the Reaper fleet over Earth, but who knows how long that'll be. Seems like we're on our own for a while."

She paused and started for the door. "The resistance is gathering in Vancouver. They're calling all military and anyone else who wants to help to head up there and join. I'm on my way there, but I figure there's safety in numbers, if you want to come with me..." She looked back at Ethan, trying not to look too hopeful.

 

[gearhead73]

The weight of hearing that the attack was worldwide became almost too much to bear as he listened to Rachel speak. Ethan had never given much thought that this same kind of destruction could be happening all over the world. He guessed that it was easy to forget that there is life outside of Colorado when you had sent your whole life in the same town where you were born.

"The resistance is gathering in Vancouver. They're calling all military and anyone else who wants to help to head up there and join. I'm on my way there, but I figure there's safety in numbers, if you want to come with me..."

He thought about the long journey to Canada, on foot no less, but as he thought about the destruction he had witnessed he realized that there wasn't anything worth waiting around here for anymore.

"Let me grab a few more things." he said as he headed back down the aisle. "A journey like that will require more than just a few cans of fruit."

He walked over the snack aisle and grabbed a handful or two of jerky snacks. Meat could be hard to come by on the trail, and there was enough sodium in this stuff that it probably had a shelf life of two years. He grabbed some trail mix as well, and then headed to household supplies. He grabbed six pairs of seventy two inch long shoe strings. Cordage was another staple that he always carried with him. It had a thousand uses and was light enough to carry several feet of it. He grabbed boxes of matches and some candles to waterproof them with later along with a few other odds and ends that he had learned could be essential years ago. He walked back to where his new companion was waiting and did a quick function check on all of his weapons. He took one last look around trying to commit the last relic of his home to memory before heading towards the door.

"So do I call you Lieutenant-Commander? Or maybe Rachel? I haven't spent a lot of time around military personnel, so I am not sure what the protocol is."

 

[slut_in_white]

Rachel smiled at his question. "Rachel's fine. The titles are really only strictly required among other members of the military in any case, and I'm pretty sure a lot of the normal decorum went out the window with the invasion."

She stood at the door, hands on her hips, waiting for him. Tugged her hair loose out of its elastic while she waited, and pulled it back again in a quick braid. "So, you can shoot." She motioned to the rifle on his back. "I've never seen anyone with a specialized weapon like that who didn't know how to use it. What else can you do?"

There was a crash outside and Rachel spun, her pistol out and held at the ready. Time felt frozen for a moment as her gaze scanned their surroundings... only to lay eyes on a cat that had just knocked down a garbage can to scavenge in it. She growled, rolling her shoulders in an attempt to relax. "Sorry," she mumbled, looking back at Ethan apologetically. "It's hard not to get kind of jumpy these days."

 

[gearhead73]

"Rachel it is then." he said with an easy smile.

He was making his way to the entrance where she was standing waiting, going through his mental checklist one more time making sure that he hadn't forgotten anything. The sunlight outside the doorway backlit her form affording him an opportunity to get a good look at her for the first time. He had known she was shorter than him, but in the darkness of of the store and the excitement of the fight he hadn't been able to take notice of much else.

Although she was wearing a uniform that no doubt was some type of body armor, it was form fitting and outlined her feminine curves perfectly. He almost tripped on some debris as he watched her release her hair from the ponytail and shook her head letting cascade below her shoulders before putting it back up into a braid. He had thought she was cute before, but now, seeing how she was put together, coupled with the way she was able to handle herself in a fight made her almost irresistible.

"So, you can shoot." she said pointing to his rifle and bringing his mind back to the present. "I've never seen anyone with a specialized weapon like that who didn't know how to use it. What else can you do?"

He smiled as he slid the customized Remington 700 SPS from his shoulder. He looked it over, reminiscing with every nick and scratch. Each one brought back a memory of time spent with family and friends that were now gone.

"My dad bought me this rifle when I was fifteen to go prairie dog hunting with him and my uncle. God I sucked then. I couldn't hit the side of a barn from inside." He chuckled softly as he remembered his dad's frustration when trying to tech him how to breathe right and focus on pulling the trigger. "My ole man was in the Marines and with a little time and practice, he had me deadly at just a little over 600 yards. I've been hunting and shooting every since and now I can make things dead at a half mile. I have carried this rifle with me every since and she has never let me down."

He took a few steps closer so he could hand the rifle to Rachel for her inspection. He wondered if she had ever used such rudimentary weapons or if she had been taught with the more advanced weaponry that came with all of the bells and whistles.

"As for what else I do, I'm a mechanic by trade, or at least I was. I don't suppose there will be a lot of call for that now, but who knows. The world may get back to normal someday."
He had oustretched his arm to hand her his gun when a crash outside caused them both to draw their pistols, ready to fight. They both soon discovered that it was just a cat jumping around on some debris and they both seemed to breath a sigh of relief.

"Sorry," she said softly and looking back at him apologetically. "It's hard not to get kind of jumpy these days."

Ethan reholstered his sidearm and smiled. "Jumpy is good, it will keep us both alive."

He walked past her outside and looked to the sky closing his eyes and enjoying the feel of the sun on his face. It was still early in the afternoon, but they had a long way to go and he didn't think they should spend too much time out in the open like this. He didn't know if there would be probes coming here after not hearing from their soldiers, but he didn't want to take the chance.

"I guess we better get moving." he said glancing back to her. "I figure we have about another four hours of daylight to travel, and then we can find a place to camp for the night. There are hunting cabins scattered all over these mountains, we might be able to find one and have shelter to sleep in. You good?"