Nexus Effect

Ch.77

“Connection established. Greetings, Grey Wolf.” The entity known as Lupus contacted Hunter through his armor’s communication. “Before we can meet, I wish to test you.”

“What’s in it for me?” Hunter messaged his question, waiting for a reply.

“If you pass, I will ally myself to your cause and give you not only the human prisoner, but valuable information regarding a certain super-soldier project. Lose and people will die.” Lupus informed him of the terms as the complex was filled with the howls of animals. “The timer starts n-.”

Hunter cuts her off as he unleashed a wave of Ki energy and destroyed the complex in an explosion. As he stood in the middle of the crater, he spotted an elevator shaft leading deeper into the earth. Jumping down, he crushed the elevator after landing on it and hopped out of the shaft. Walking through the dimly lit hallway, ignoring the whimpering cries of the mechanical animals, the silent Marine arrives at a heavy set of blast doors and slices through them.

Within the large open area sat the giant LI ship known as Lupus, shaped like a wolf. “I, uh, w-what just happened?”

“Doesn’t matter. I won, now give me what you promised or die.” Hunter demanded impatiently.

“Y-yes sir! I’ll start playing the recorded conversation!” Lupus flinched as she began to play it for him.

“Congratulations! You are the first of many successfully augmented Atlas super soldiers. You have been selected to eliminate Commander Shepard, she and those under her command are deemed expendables by Cerberus. They must be removed before their failure to stop the Reapers pave the way towards Humanity’s doom. Just as well, she traded her very own humanity to look like that bitch Empress, just to survive. The traitor is a weakling and it shows. Purge the tainted from the face of the galaxy and Mankind will reign supreme over all.” Hunter’s blood ran cold as he knew that voice all too well. Not only that, Cerberus had finally succeeded in their Atlas project.

“The Commander! I have to warn her!” Hunter was about to leave before a giant paw stopped him.

“Wait! There’s more!” Lupus insisted and played more.

“Oh! Make sure to bring Reject Company. While they didn’t make it through like you, they still have their uses. They will be the cloak that will shroud Illum in chaos and mayhem, while you are the daggers that will kill your targets with precision and without warning.” Goddamn you Bounty!

[1001100 01101001 01101110 01100101]

“Okay people, we need to check our corners and keep our six covered.” Penny called out to Tali, Miranda and Garrus when they landed on the Towers courtesy of Seryna flying them there.

“Yes, Commander.” Miranda said as she fell to the left of Penny, Tali to the right and Garrus to the back, eyeing the rear as they started walking into half finished towers while Seryna flew off with the taxi shuttle. She did her part, they would just have to deal with their exfiltration themselves.

“Well, this is safe.” Tali groaned when they entered the building to head down empty corridors, with plastic hanging here and there. Walls, doors and floor panels were missing and they headed for Dantius’ office in the other tower. They would have to cross an unfinished bridge that was several hundred feet above the ground with extreme wind shear.

They turned a few corners before they witnessed some Salarians be gunned down by white-painted B1 droids. Penny immediately opened fire and the others followed her example, quickly eliminating them. Once the danger was over, Penny stopped by the Salarians to find one had died and the other was barely alive. Tali gave him Med-gel and they found out Dantius was killing her workers. Once he was stable, they left him to get back to safety while they proceeded further up the unfinished tower.

“I can’t believe she’s killing her own workers.” Tali snarled furiously.

“She’s a criminal, panicking and has an assassin on her ass. She’s targeting anyone she feels will stab her in the back.” Garrus snarled as they moved through the floor they were on, killing waves of droids and Eclipse mercenaries. After today with Eclipse assaulting them over Miranda’s sister and now working for an evil bitch like Nassana, Penny was going to ask Nora or Yola to dismantle their organization.

They checked for survivors of the work staff, but they only found dead bodies. Penny felt anger rise in her at all of the innocent civilians slaughtered like animals. Miranda had started to fling Batarians and turians around like they were dolls. Tali was sending drones out left and right as she took cover and hacked any system she could to give them an advantage. Garrus was taking headshots at anyone dumb enough to peak out into his sights. By the time they eliminated all threats on this floor they reached an elevator and slowly had to clear a few waves of guards rushing down to stop them.

“Well, they know we’re here, so they’re focused on our war path. This might help Thane, but it also means we might miss him. We need to move faster.” Penny huffed when they got on the elevator to the next floor. The combat there was much the same as the first, but in much tighter quarters, leading to Penny and her team sticking to a ramp near the Elevator while the B1s just walked right towards them. Penny knew the mercs were staying by the next Elevator, but they needed the B1s gone before they moved up to take them out.

“Die you fuckers!” A human roared at her team as he fired a rifle at their cover.

“Miranda!” At Penny’s shout, the biotic cast a singularity that pulled the man off his feet and left him a floating target for Garrus to take out.

“What is going ON down there?! Can anyone hear me?!” Nassana called frantically through the console in the corner of the room and Penny huffed after she shot it while they passed.

“Sorry Nassana, they can’t hear you anymore.” Penny was going to enjoy this. Either way, tonight Nassana Dantius dies, either by Thane’s hand or her’s. She didn’t like being played for a fool and this bitch dared to manipulate her into killing one of the woman’s sisters. A slaving pirate or not, the fact she participated in sororicide disgusted her greatly.

“I know they’re coming. This is a choke point, they won’t get past me.” An arrogant Batarian huffed into his comms just as Penny’s team got out of the Elevator. “I know, come on. It’s me. I’m worth five of the others.”

“What’s that about not getting past you?” Penny asked with wry amusement in her tone and he turned around.

“...Well shit.” His quite reasonable response made Penny snort.

“Listen, there’s four of us, you’re next to a very breakable window hundreds of feet from the ground. Considering we caught your pants down, I’m willing to let you walk if you decide to be civil.” Penny offered and the Eclipse merc huffed as he slumped.

“Yeah, I’ll just walk out of here.” He sighed before passing the group and getting on the elevator.

“The bridge to the finished Dantius tower is just ahead, through an unfinished lab.” Miranda explained after she looked at her map. “It’s a great place for an ambush, since it is the only way across, then there is the powerful wind shear.”

“Alright, it’s pretty open. Garrus, your skills better be top notch right now.” Penny told her turian friend before they walked around and up the ramp to the unfinished lab floor.

“Did you forget who you’re talking to?” Garrus replied sarcastically as they passed through the empty lab, though there was some banging on a nearby door.

“There seems to be a finished closet, there could be survivors in there.” Tali pointed out when they approached the noise and Tali hacked the lock to open the door. Inside were three salarians and one very dead Eclipse merc.

“W-who are you?! S-stay back!” One of the salarians panicked as he brandished his pistol at them.

“Kid, if you shake any harder you’re going to shoot yourself before you shoot any of us.” Penny gently chastised the obvious civilian who had never used a gun in his life. “You’re also holding it wrong. You need your thumb to wrap around the back and stabilize the other side.”

“L-like this?” The worker fixed his grip and Penny approached to point at the gun and his hand.

“No, no. Here. Like this. You need to brace it, wrap it, squeeze it. It’s a gun, not a toy. There. Since you’re new to it, always use both hands too, use your offhand to stabilize-.” Penny was interrupted by Miranda tapping her shoulder.

“Commander, you can teach civilians self-defense later. You lot can go down the tower, it’s safe now.” Miranda butt in and the three workers all nodded, the one with the gun holding it like Penny showed him and leading them down. That kid must only be a few years old. Sure, an adult by salarian standards and genetics, but he reminded her of her kids. Kids she didn’t get to raise, because they raised themselves in such a short time.

Penny put her hands to her stomach, full of longing. She didn’t just want kids. She wanted to raise them. The feeling was so powerful, she felt depression creeping up on her like a specter for the Spectre. “Shepard!” Penny perked up at hearing Hunter’s voice and she looked around as her friends checked the body and speculated on it being Thane’s work. “We have a situation!”

“Hunter?” Penny felt afraid. Some powerful instinct within her screamed at her to listen to him. That if her mate was calling to warn her, that she should. N-no. Wait. Those were Urta’s thoughts, not her’s, but she will heed him. “What’s wrong? What did you find?”

“Cerberus’ Atlas project is complete and they’re coming after you!” That made Penny’s metaphorical heart race, her unnecessary breath to quicken, her synth-suit to simulate sweat.

“Penny?” Garrus hissed and shook her shoulders, causing her to look into the eyes of one of her dearest friends. “Penny, what is it?” He never called her Penny unless he was worried.

“It’s Cerberus. Hunter told me that they’re sending their Super Soldiers after us.” Penny shuddered as she looked around, feeling like every shadow was potential death. “I...I think I need to get back to the Normandy, for safety. I feel like I suddenly have an assassin after me.” Penny leaned into her friend, her big, strong friend, who hugged her and protectively looked around. Why did she feel so vulnerable after Hunter’s warning?

“Then wait. Thane Krios! If you’re here, please, we don’t want to stop you. You’re one of the best assassins in the galaxy! If there is one after Shepard, could we implore you to help defend her?” Miranda called out and for moments the group got no response.

Then a green-scaled Drell dropped from the ceiling in the center of them and had his back to Penny as he scanned the room. “I was planning to wait until you had Nassana distracted, to make her death swift and as painless as possible. However, your premonitions are correct. Someone is hunting Shepard. She has done too much good for me to ignore her plight when I can help.”

“There’s the traitor! Kill them all!”

[1001100 01101001 01101110 01100101]

I blearily came to my senses to discover I had, somehow, with tits the size of small cars, wound up in a bedroom with a beautiful asari sleeping in my cleavage with her cunt against my lips, Ashley sleeping atop my breasts proper and both Yola and Jack still snuggling the far sides of my boobs as they dozed. How the fuck did they get me into this room? Where is this room?

Oh~ no, hangover~! It’s not even the next day! Curse you Chrysie~! You may have made me able to get drunk, but why include the hangover~?! Curse you Mind-In-Charge! You didn’t have to come back while I was sleeping once you were finished ruining Eclipse and thousands of criminals that call Illium home. Great, now I’m talking to myself when I’m not partitioned!

Anyway, did they at least get the container with Aethyta’s mod-milk out? Oh, over in the corner. Okay then, I have no reason to remain immobile...except that I’m acting as a bed for four people. I just had to smile at the fact I can casually get so fucking gigantic I can be a bed for people. Now then-.

“Nora?! If you can hear me, help Penny! Cerberus has sent Atlas to attack Illum!”

I felt dread fill me along with Hunter’s words, so I dove back into the extranet and poured into the remaining droids at Dantius Towers. “Wha-hey! This droid isn’t-!” I shot the Eclipse mercenary in the way, multiple times over from every droid connected to the network. The idiots didn’t stand a chance. I stormed across the bridge with all haste and shot out the glass doors and windows blocking entry to find chaos.

That’s when I saw the Atlas super soldiers engaged with my girlfriend, her team and Thane Krios, the greatest assassin in the Milky Way. He was fending off a couple with his own form of alien kung-fu, but these fully armored troops had strength beyond mortal men. After taking a closer look, I couldn’t help but feel disgusted. They were literally copying the Doom Marines and their warriors!

I proceeded to barrage them all with gunfire, which forced them away as I moved to help Penny’s team. “Hey, honey!”

“Nora!” My girlfriend hugged the nearest droid I was communing with. “I’m so glad you’re here. Can you find the others? I need to know if they’re okay.”

I nodded as I looked through every security camera throughout the city. Everything was in complete disarray with Cerberus invading the planet without warning. The streets were flooding with horribly disfigured soldiers that shot at anything on sight. There were Atlas kill-teams going around destroying infrastructure and designated targets of interest. Shit, they’re working fast! Looking at the Normandy, she was heavily protected by Pillar, Collateral, Grunt and the other crew members that helped fend off Cerberus trying to rush them.

“The city is overrun with Cerberus, killing at random and taking out key points. The Normandy is protected by Pillar, Collateral and the others.” I informed the others while still participating in a firefight ourselves. Unfortunately, we were being pushed back slowly. I was losing droids.

“What about everyone else?!” Shepard shouted before one of my droids were destroyed. The absolute fuck?! B1s may be basic, but they’re still made of lightweight titanium alloy! Damn you Cerberus and your new weapons! “Nora, focus! I need you to keep searching!”

“Grenades!” Garrus warned us when the Atlas fragged our position, forcing us out of cover and I lost more droids in the explosion.

Before they could deliver the final blow, we were all blinded by a flash of light, but I was able to recover quicker to see Berserker savagely waste Cerberus’ super soldiers like a whirling dervish consisting of just one blade. He did this with only his sword while wearing casual clothes. I guess he didn’t have time to throw his armor on in the rush to get here from the club he and Runner had gone to. Or maybe it didn’t matter to him either way.

“Ugh! Who threw that-whoa...” Miranda gasped at the carnage Berserker had wrought, along with the fact he’s covered in blood and guts.

“Oh, keelah.” Tali turned away from the gruesome sight.

“Um, wow. Just...wow.” Garrus was at a loss for words.

“Usually this sort of violence I would deem unnecessary, but they have senselessly ended innocent lives.” Thane commented stoically, only mildly disapproving of the display.

Berserker swung his blade to fling blood off of it and he held the sword upward near his face with his brow pressed against the fuller. “O’Almighty Father, my Gods and my Ancestors. Please forgive these mortals of their Sins, for they have been led astray by the Deceitful Tongues. Absolve their wayward souls of the Tainted Guilt that plagues them. Unshackle their spirits from the Disgrace and Dishonor that weighs them down. Purge the Fear, Doubt and Regret from their minds. Let them finally know Peace and suffer not the Demon’s Treachery ever again. By my Blood, I swear they are deserving of it. Amen.”

After that we felt a presence wash over all of us and Berserker let out a sigh of relief as he lowered his sword. I can’t speak for the others, but that was the most potent display of religion I’ve ever seen, even more than when Urta first communed with Wrekrov.

“That was an inspiring prayer you gave. I hope that it would be enough to guide their souls to a better hereafter.” Thane bowed his head and Berserker grunted.

“Thanks, but it isn’t over.” Berserker rebuked and to prove his point, he deflected an arrow with his sword. The shot came from outside the building and somewhere far away. “So you finally decided to join, Bounty?”

“She’s not the only one~!” A voice sang out as a portal opened up and two demonic women came out. “So, wanna play with us big boy~?”