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Mass Effect: The Helldiver Saga, The Last Cycle	By : Veyron722skyhook Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 6104 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or it's characters. They belong to Bioware and EA. No money/profit is made by me from this.

Chapter List
- 9
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- 11
Good few bits of action in this chapter.

Not much more for me to say really. Enjoy!

Chapter 10

Return to Tuchanka

Austin had Recently been able to get more information out of Victus and had found out that one of the Turians on Tuchanka was his son. That certainly explained a lot.

"This crash site's a nightmare." Said Austin. "EDI, try to raise Lieutenant Victus."

"Yes sir."

"For a Turian commander, what happened here isn't good. Especially considering the Turian code." Said Griffin.

"And that it's the Primarch's son is bad for the family I take it?" Sarah asked while gently patting Urz who was sat down next to her.

"Exactly. Promoting family without merit… well, as Garrus would say "It can bit you in the ass." said Austin.

"What's strange is the Primarch knows that." Said Griffin.

"Major, I have to land well back from the crash site." Said Cortez.

"That the best you can do?" Austin asked.

"Yes sir, but the Reapers seem unaware of our presence. You might get the jump on them."

"Alright. Set her down. Let's save this platoon."

"You got that right." Said Griffin.

As the group hoped out, Urz sniffed the air a few times then barked excitedly, obviously recognizing the very familiar atmosphere of his home planet.

"Welcome home, boy." Austin smiled.

Urz gave a few more happy barks before falling silent, obviously knowing that they still had a job to do and they couldn't stick around. That was one of the good things about Varren, they were just as intelligent as dogs, perhaps even more.

"EDI, did you raise Lieutenant Victus?" Austin asked into his comm.

"Yes, but the connection is bad."

"Patch us in." said Austin. "This is Sir Major Shepard of the Helldivers. Do you read?"

"This is Lieutenant Tarquin Victus of the Ninth Platoon. We're pinned by Reaper Harvesters and taking heavy casualties. Also there are pockets of my men scattered along the crash trajectory."

"Lieutenant, I need you to fire a flare so we can find your position." Said Austin.

Not a second to soon, a flare shot up into the sky. The source didn't look to far away.

"Got it."

"Things are getting worse by the minute. My men are dying." Said Victus.

"This sounds bad. Let's move."

"Shh! See 'em?"

Everyone quickly went into cover and gently peered out. There were a few Cannibals round the corner. So far, they weren't aware of their presence.

"Deal with them, nice and quietly. We don't want them to call for reinforcements." Said Austin, swapping his assault rifle for his Raptor sniper.

Both Sarah and Griffin caught on and they aimed at a Cannibal each.

"Ready."

"Ready."

"Open fire." Said Austin.

All three Cannibals fell at the same time. With the area clear, the continued on. Along the way, Sarah noticed that Austin was throwing some small devices onto the walls every so often. They would screw into the walls and then activate with a red light.

"What are those?" she asked curiously.

"Laser net mines." Austin replied.

"How do those work then?" Sarah asked, curious what these laser mines could do.

"It's derived from a new tactic we developed during a simulation. The idea is the device projects a net of lasers and you then shoot a husk into them. Cuts them apart." Griffin explained.

"Don't your plasma cannon's already do that though?"

"Husks are much stronger. Somehow the shots don't kill them as easily. This way's quicker and more effective." Austin replied.

The group then rounded a corner and finally came upon what looked like a crashed escape pod. There were a few bodies nearby.

"Escape pod… and our first casualties." Sarah sighed.

"Survived the crash just in time for a harvester to take 'em out." Said Griffin bitterly.

"Wouldn't be so sure of that. They've been burned." Said Austin, examining the singed corpses.

"The Draco?"

"Maybe. But I hope we're wrong."

The group continued on through the tunnels. Eventually, they could start to hear the sound of gunfire.

Sure enough, more Cannibals could be seen round the corner firing at a small squad of surviving Turian who were taking cover from the incoming fire.

"Okay, I have a visual on the enemy… and there's an escape pod just beyond. Looks like the Turians are in tough." Said Austin. "Enemies up ahead don't know we're here."

"Surprise on our side of once. Good." Said Sarah.

"Perfect opportunity for me to test me latest invention then." Said Griffin.

Surprisingly, rather than ready for a sync shot, the demolition expert holstered his minigun and took what looked like a large mine from the back of his combat belt.

"Cover your ears, sister" said Austin, sensing where this was going.

"Relax. I'm not gonna do what I did on that purgatory ship." Griffin chuckled.

The device that Griffin was holding then seemed to extended away from his hand on a small chain until it hung almost half a metre or so from his gauntlet. The demolition expert then brought his arm up and started to twirl the device very fast until it was almost a blur.

Eventually, Griffin released the device and let it fly. The device flew a few metres before it landed on the ground near to where the Cannibals where. Rather than roll on the ground, t surprisingly adjusted itself while in mid-air and landed neatly upright. It then beeped several times which drew the attention of the Cannibals.

It was only a few seconds though before the device stopped beeping and exploded with enough force to cause a cave in. Fortunately it didn't, but it was stills o large that took out al the Cannibals.

"Hmm, that wasn't bad actually." Said Austin, somewhat surprised. "What do you call them?"

"IME's." Griffin replied.

"I'm assuming you've got more then? Cause they may come in handy." Said Austin.

Right as they went to check on the Turians, an unwelcome sight suddenly swooped down from the sky.

"Heads up!" one of the Turians called as the Draco swooped over them and landed very near to the crash site.

"Not again!" Austin cursed, ducking into cover just in time to avoid the Draco's breath of fire.

"Assuming direct control!"

Under Harbinger's control, the Draco was even stronger than before. It could resist almost anything and it's attacks were a lot more ferocious.

"Think one of those IME's might do enough damage to him, Griffin?!" said Austin as he blind fired a few shot from his Revenant and some plasma shots.

"If I set one high enough it might. I can't make any promises though." Griffin replied.

"Well it's worth a shot. We won't last long against him at this rate."

Griffin quickly took another IME from his belt and twirled it several times before he let it fly. Harbinger spotted it and tried to burn it, but Griffin had designed the devices to be fire proof.

The IME attached itself to the Draco's face just below the eye. Harbinger quickly seemed to sense that there was danger.

"Releasing control!"

The device exploded, taking a huge chunk of the Draco's face with it. Wounded badly, the dragon quickly retreated and flew away.

"It's falling back!" said one of the Turians.

"Thanks for the help, Major." Said another "We'll rendezvous at the crash site."

"Do you read, Major? Do you read?"

"Shepard here. What's your status?" Austin replied.

"We're in deep, Major. What's your ETA?" Victus asked.

"Hang tight. We're on our way."

As the group rounded another corner however they found something new blocking their path.

There was a new type of husk that had just killed another Turian. It was undoubtedly a Salarian.

This new type of husk didn't look to extensively modified compared to other husks. A noticeable addition though was to the Salarian's horn and to its hands and feet. The horns were extended more into what looked like small tentacles and the hands and feet were more clawed and web like.

As the husk noticed them, it roared with a rather high pitched hiss. At the same time, a very long tongue emitted from it's mouth.

"Great! Now we've got Salarian husks too." Said Sarah.

Surprisingly, the Salarian husk then brought its head back and spat hard. The stuff only just missed everyone but it hit Urz's armour.

"Can these things not get any lamer abilities?" said Griffin.

Griffin's comment seemed a bit premature though as they started to hear afain hissing sound. Austin looked to source and found to his horror that the stuff that the husk had spat at them earlier was actually acid and it was eating away at Urz's armour.

Get the plate off him! Quick!"

Both Austin and Sarah frantically worked on trying to remove the armour plate. Using all his enhanced strength, Austin was able to rip the plate right off just in time before the acid got through and risked hurting Urz.

"I take that back now." Said Griffin.

"Nobody tries hurts booboo and gets away with it!" Sarah yelled as she fired at the husk, only for it to leap out of the way and onto a nearby wall.

"Booboo?" Austin asked.

"We'll talk about it later." Sarah replied.

The Spitter, as the husk could be called, proved extremely difficult to fight. In fact, it remained Austin of the Geth hoppers that he'd once fought while hunting down Saren.

Worse still, the tongue could easily wrap around them if it got too close.

"Stay clear! Don't let it's tongue catch you." Austin advised, just as Griffin managed to avoid a lash from the Spitter.

Urz then did something very surprising. The Varren bit intot he tongue hard and pulled. He pulled so hard in fact that that Spitter could no longer grip to the wall and was pulled to the floor.

"Now! While it's down!" Austin yelled.

Griffin didn't have to be told twice. He quickly charged up his gauntlet and bright it down with full force on the husks head, crushing it completely.

"I already hate those things." He said.

"Come on, let's find the rest of the Turians." Said Austin.

It didn't take long before the group finally found Victus and the rest of the Turians who'd all held up near the crashed ship.

"Lieutenant Victus?"

"Major Shepard, my men and I are in your debt." The Lieutenant replied. "Thank you for coming for us."

Before anyone could speak further however, Urz started growl and bark loudly at the tunnels they'd just come out of. Everyone knew what that usually meant.

This was further confirmed when Austin's omni tool started bleep. This time though, it was a different sort of beep, more like an alarm.

"Uh oh!"

"What's that?" Sarah asked.

"Proximity alerts! They're converging on our location." Said Griffin, un-holstering his mini gun and arming both his shoulder cannons.

"Hold your ground! We'll make our stand here." Said Austin.

Several more Spitters crawled out from the different tunnel entrances.

"Let's see how they like these odds." Said Austin, activating a function on his omni tool.

The Helldiver had made sure to put laser mines on each tunnel entrance just in case they got ambushed. This would definitely prevent anymore husks from joining the fray, and although some Spitters had already made it through, they would still come in handy.

A Spitter lunged Austin, but he quickly fired his plasma cannon at it. The shot hit the husk in the chest sending it flying… right into one of the laser nets.

As had been explained earlier, the net cut the Spitter into several tiny pieces, killing it instantly.

Griffin meanwhile fired at two more Spitters, but they moved before his shots could hit them in time and plasma simply flew unfazed through one of the laser nets.

The Demolition expert fired another, but that one missed too as the Spitter the shot had been intended for jumped up to the ceiling and then crawled along it with an almost cat like speed towards him.

Just as it lunged it's tongue it him however, Griffin was able to counter it. Allowing the Spitter's tongue to wrap around his massive Gauntlet he then pulled hard, bringing the husk crashing to the floor. He then stomped on it hard with oen of his feet and fired both plasma cannon's at the Spitter. The combination of two plasma shots was enough to disintegrate the husk entirely.

Another Spitter lunged at Austin, but Sarah was able to parry it's lunge with her N7 Valkyrie. As it hit the ground, Austin unloaded an entire clip into the husk from his Revenant.

Only too late however did he notice that two more Spitters were heading right at Griffin.

"Griffin, watch out!"

Griffin sadly wasn't' able to react in time either and both the Spitter's pounced on him.

Sarah was about to shoot to try and shake them off, but Austin stopped her.

"Don't! You might risk hitting him. Don't worry, he's got this." He said.

"You sure?" Sarah asked worriedly.

The N7marine's doubts however were quickly put to rest when Griffin suddenly grabbed both Spitters by the neck and hauled them up with all his strength.

"Yep. He's got this."

With both Spitters struggling to break free from Griffin's grip, the Helldiver turned his head between the two so that his targeting laser could lock onto both of them for his plasma cannons.

Just as both cannons were about to fire however, another new type of husk suddenly burst out of the ground and roared at him. Before Griffin could react in time, the massive husk swiped him hard, sending him flying just as his plasma cannons fired, sending debris all over the place.

Sarah turned to see what had happened only to see the husk right in front of her. Only too late did she realise how close the creature was before it hit her heard, sending her flying into a pile of rubble. It was as Sarah managed to recover from the disorientness that she was able to see this new husk fully.

There was no mistaking the armour it worse, or the massive triangular shaped helmet it wore. This husk was a Helldiver. It was impossible to tell what kind of Helldiver it was though due to how much the Reapers had changed it, but it certainly wasn't human.

This Hellbringer, as it could appropriately called, stood at nearly 2.5 metres, allowing it to essentially tower over even the Helldivers. Various parts from a Helldiver's armour protected vital parts of the husk, such as it arms, legs, torso, and even the head.

A part of the head was left uncovered by the helmet. Although the mouth was covered, there were gaps in the helmet for four large mandibles to stick out.

In addition to this, the hands had secondary thumbs, blades stuck out the elbows and the Hellbringer even had a second set of smaller arms.

Just as the Hellbringer was about to reach for Sarah, Austin was quick to intervene with a slash from his sword.

"Get away from my sister!" he yelled.

Surprisingly for a husk, the Hellbringer seemed to back away in retreat. It emitted a slight war and surprisingly even gave a motion for another Spitter to attack.

Austin only found this most odd for a moment before he snapped his mind back to the situation at hand as the Spitter lunged forward only to be impaled on Excalibur and then slammed against the wall.

Another one appeared, but Austin's plasma cannon, which had been set to automatic quickly locked on and fired, sending it flying against a pillar and snapping it's neck. Austin then turned back to the one that was still impaled on Excalibur and fired again. At close range, the plasma was able to do enough damage to take the head off.

Griffin meanwhile was finally able to punch out of the rubble he'd been buried under. Not a second too soon however, another Spitter pounced on him. This time however, Griffin wasn't going to let himself get caught off guard again. Using his huge strength, he tackled the Spitter to the ground and delivered several hard and fast punches with his gauntlet.

Despite this though, the Spitter's tongue kept trying to wrap around something and was flailing wildly. Left with barely any other alternative, Griffin reached for the tiny dissolving liquid capsule contained in a small pouch on his thigh that all Helldivers had and shoved it hard into the Spitter's mouth as it began depositing the liquid.

As the liquid slowly melted and dissolved the Spitter's head, it started to struggle less until it finally went limp.

A sudden growl however alerted Griffin to another presence behind him and he was only just able to duck in time to avoid a swing from the Hellbringer who had decided to re-join the fight. Using the swing to his advantage, Griffin clenched his gauntlet into a fist and swung, punching the husk straight in the face.

To Griffin's surprise however, the punch didn't have the effect he'd thought it would. The Hellbringer simply turned back to him, simply flexing one of the mandibles he'd hit. Roaring furiously, the husk made several more swing at Griffin which he either dodged or was able to block.

Annoyed by this, the Hellbringer's right arm started to change. It seemed to somehow transform into some kind of gun/blade arm. The husk's arm now had the appearance of crab's pincer, the outer blade longer than the other. In-between the two blades was even what looked like a small cannon.

"Oh shit!"

Griffin just narrowly managed to dodge another swipe from the Hellbringer as it swung and lunged with its new blade like arm.

Desperate to try and slow the Hellbringer down, Griffin took another IME from his belt. Just as the device's chain extended however and he prepared to through, the Hellbringer brought it's blade arm up ready for downward strike on him.

As if it was a reflex action, Griffin quickly swung the IME upwards, smashing the Hellbringer right in the face with the actual mine. The good thing about these IMEs was that they were very strong and also wouldn't detonate until they were attached to the surface. This was a safety device Griffin had built into them just in case they missed their target our didn't attach to a surface properly.

As the Hellbringer staggered back, trying to regain balance, Griffin looked in surprise at the IME, suddenly realising that he'd just found another thing they could do.

"Huh. Imagine that. It never occurred to me that these things could be used like a flail." He said.

The Hellbringer swung again, but was once again met with another hit from Griffin.

Though both opponents were large, the Hellbringer was slightly slower than Griffin. Mostly any lunge or strike the Hellbringer used was met another blow to the face or to some other body parts by Griffin's IME.

The Hellbringer attempted another lunge and Griffin turned to smash the IME into it's arm. However he ended up getting it slightly wrong and the IME's chain became wrapped around the Hellbringer's blade arm.

The husk immediately try to shake Griffin off and swung it's arm hard, taking him with it. As the chain slid off, Griffin was able to roll back onto his feet and in a crouched position whirled round and threw the IME at the Hellbringer.

"Eat this!"

The IME attached to the Hellbringer's armour and started to beep. The Hellbringer only had a few moments to notice this before the device detonated.

The explosion obscured all view of the Hellbringer and a large part of the level above collapsed on top of it. There was very little chance that any husk could survive that.

"Area secured." Austin panted as Urz managed to kill the last Spitter and they were finally able to get their breath back.

"Thank you for saving so many." Said Victus.

"What happened here?" Sarah asked.

"He screwed up!" one of the Turian soldiers accused, seizing Victus.

"Stand down, soldier!" Victus ordered.

"These men are dead because of him!"

"I said stand down!"

"Hey! We just saved all your asses, so everyone just calm down!" said Griffin, quickly separating the two using his massive form.

"Lieutenant, what's going on here?" Austin asked.

"I made a bad call. This is all on me." Victus replied regretfully. "I chose caution and clever tactics over a head on attack—and my men paid the price."

"You mean the crash?" Sarah asked.

"Yes. We could see on holo the Reaper forces were blocking our intended path—staying on course guaranteed heavy casualties. So I chose a safer route, skirting the enemy, and that took us low and through these ruins. When we encountered resistance, there was no room to maneuver. Suddenly we were in a fight for our lives. A lot of my men lost their fight." Victus explained.

"Owning your mistake takes guts. But you have to get over it and move on." Said Austin.

"Of course. It's just fresh right now. Our mission's still a failure. When we've stabilized the injured, we'll head back to the fleet." Said Victus.

"Your abandoning your mission?" Griffin asked.

"We're down over thirty men. It'd be suicide." Victus replied.

"What exactly did you come here to do?" Austin asked.

"There's a bomb on the planet. We were sent to diffuse it."

"A bomb? How big?" asked Griffin.

"Enormous. Cerberus has it." Said Victus.

"Lieutenant, if Cerberus has that bomb, you have to finish your mission." Austin immediately.

"Haven't these men sacrificed enough?" Victus asked back crossly.

"I understand. This kind of sacrifice is the hardest to ask for, but your men signed on for it, and so did you." Said Austin.

"My men have lost hope, Major. Even if I wanted to finish the mission, they don't."

"It's your job to make them want to."

"How?"

"Their sacrifice means that others will never face what they faced today. Remind them that those sacrifices have no honor if the mission fails."

Victus took a moment to consider this before he then walked up to his men.

"Men, I own what happened today, but we have to carry on!" he said.

"No, we don't. Who cares about a few dead Krogan? It's over!" one of the soldiers refused.

"We are Turian, and we will not let Cerberus succeed. Our sacrifice is the difference between life and death for this entire galaxy! Let the heroes of the Ninth Platoon be remembered for performing their duties with bravery!" said Victus motivationally. "All right, men! Shuttles are arriving any minute- we're moving out!"

That seemed to do the trick.

"Major? Come with us." Said Victus. "We're a shell of what we were- we could use some help."

"Send me the NavPoint. I'll see what I can do." Said Austin.

"Thank you. That'll give us time to do a little recon, see what we're up against." Said Victus.

"Victus, you have a second chance here… make their sacrifice count." Said Austin.

"Understood, Major. Hope to see you at the rendezvous."

As everyone left however, they failed to notice that a small pile rocks nearby was moving, as if something was buried underneath, trying to get out...

"A Cerberus bomb? What the hell is going on? And what do the Turians have to do with it?" Zartrack asked.

"Coordinates Victus gave me place it in the Kelphtic Valley. It's a heavily populated area. That's all I know." Austin replied.

"My gut says something's not right here." Said Hackett. "Anyway, how many troops does Cerberus have on this bomb?"

"I don't know yet. All I do know is that we can't' have them detonate that bomb." Said Austin.

"Keep us posted, Shepard." Said Zartrack.

As the holograms vanished, Austin headed intot he war room. He had a bone to pick with the Primarch.

"Primarch Victus." He said.

"Impressive work on Tuchanka. I'm grateful that-"

"Why didn't you tell me about the Cerberus bomb?!" Austin demanded. "Why hide that? What else are you keeping from me?!"

"I have nothing for you." Said the Primarch.

"For our alliance and the whole resistance to work, I need to trust you." Said Austin.

"Our friendship is new, Major. Would you trust me with information that puts your people-puts Earth-at risk?" Victus asked.

"Why would I jeopardize our alliance by lying to you now? Doesn't make sense." Austin replied.

"Decisions like these weigh heavy on me. When I was a general, I could pass them up the chain of command. But now, I'm all I've got." Said Victus. "Know what I mean?"

"Perhaps. And…"

"And… and that's all."

Seeing that he wasn't going to get something as basic as an apology out of the Primarch, Austin turned to leave.

"Wait, there is one more thing, Major." Said Victus. "Thank you for saving my son."

Next one of course will contain the bomb and hopefully a romance scene.

See you soon!
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- 11
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Mass Effect: The Helldiver Saga, The Last Cycle