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Mass Effect: The Helldiver Saga, Alpha Origins	By : Veyron722skyhook Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 6171 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: 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
- 14
- 15
- 16
Hey eyerone! Sorry this took a while. Had quite a few distractiosn with work and other matters, but I finally managed to finish this.

Now there's an importnant announcement I need to make regardining this story. Some might have noticed that the YEAR 4 title now long er says "The Rise of Hydra" instead, it now says "The Rise of Hellspawn"

Yep. I've changed the name. I want you all to knwo this was nto a decision that wa smade lightly. I thought long hard about whether I should do this or not. I've always felt that Hydra wasnt' the best name for me to pick and wasnt' original enough, especially since it's more associated with Marvel. So in the end I deicided to change it to Hellspawn. It's more original, it sounds a bit more intimidating, and it fits the story a lot better. So I stand by my decision.

I've already made this change to previous chapters as well, so this is how it'll be from now on.

Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter. It's not quite as long as I hoped it would, but I'd say it's decent. We also learn a truth and finalyl meet another new character.

YEAR 4, The Rise of Hellspawn

2176: 4 Years after the battle of Elysium

12 Years before the Battle of Arkadia

"With the intel gone, we were once again out of leads. But fortunately, we got lucky again with another chance. But this was going to be anything but a walk in the park. Though we did finally learn who it was we were after, little did we know what would soon come after…"

Chapter 15

The Shadow & The Hawk

Fortune it seemed had smiled on Alpha after their latest loss. They'd recently been informed by the Arkane Council that a man named Ash Walker had some information on this anonymous organization they were attempting to track down and he wanted to come in with it.

Having been warned by Walker in advanced that the organization were aware of this as well and had sent some of their own soldiers after him, Alpha had been instructed to meet him and get him back to Arkadia safely where'd hand the data over.

Having arrived at the rendezvous point however, they found that someone might have beaten them to it. The house that Walker had instructed them to meet him had been ransacked and there were a few bodies. No sign of Walker either.

Before Alpha could do a more in depth search however, they suddenly heard a voice outside. They quickly fell quiet and activated their cloaks.

One of those dark armoured mercs they'd first encountered during one of the raids, appeared to be communicating with more of his men through his comm. He appeared to be alone.

Without saying a word, Austin nodded to Dah, giving him the confirmation that he wanted to spy to take him out stealthily. Dash took out one of his pistols and very carefully moved closer.

To make it easier, the merc then turned his back to the slightly open door. Dash readied to fire as soon as the merc had finished his message. That way they didn't alert the other mercs. Few brief seconds and he finally ended his call. Dash then lined his gun up and fired one silenced shot to the merc's head.

The merc jarred slightly then went limp and fell back onto Dash. The Scout took a quick moment to survey outside in case someone else might have noticed. No one capable of posing any danger had noticed.

"Clear." He said as he dragged the body out of sight.

With the coast clear, everyone else deactivated their cloaks.

"Overseer, this Alpha. We're at the rendezvous, but no sign of the package." Said Austin.

"Copy that. What's the situation?" Telrass asked.

"Messy. The house is ransacked, Walker must've bugged out." Austin replied.

"Understood. I'll track his omni tool and try to get a fix on him." Said Telrass.

"What do we do in the meantime?" Troy asked.

"Keep our eyes open and get ready to do some hunting." Ventra replied.

"Alpha, this is Overseer, I've got Walker on comms. Patching him through directly." Said Telrass.

"Hello? Are you there?" Walker's voice asked over the comms.

"Mr Walker, my squad's at the rendezvous ready to get you out." Said Austin.

"Someone tipped them off, they're after me. I'm on the move. You'll have to come to me. The market. Hurry!" said Walker.

Sticking to the rooftops of the buildings, Alpha headed over to where the marketplace was.

"There he is. Visual on Walker." Said Ventra.

From below they could see Walker. He was wearing a hoodie in order to avoid notice and was also sticking to large crowds. At the same time more of the mercs had appear dint he streets and were looking for him.

"Hostile contacts, dead ahead." Said Sandra.

"Protect the VIP. Engage all hostiles!" Austin ordered.

Alpha fired a few stealth shots which took out some mercs, but that quickly caught the attention of the other mercs and a firefight quickly erupted. The crowds panicked and immediately scattered. Walker was able to use this to his advantage and he attempted to flee with them. One of the mercs however spotted him and attempted to fire on his position, forcing the man to dive for cover.

The entire market quickly turned into a war zone. The mercs fought just as hard as they had last time, but at least now they didn't have any tanks, which was good since Alpha didn't have the Hellraiser with them right now.

Alaara managed to fire quite a few biotic pulls, enabling everyone else to shoot the mercs one by one.

"Alpha, this is Overseer. We're gonna make an attempt at the LZ, see if we can pull the VIP out." Said Telrass.

"Overseer, be advised, LZ is hot." Austin warned.

"Understood, Alpha. We'll do our best."

The gunboat soon came into view and started to hover near to where Walker was,

"Hurry up!" said Walker as he waved his hands.

A sudden shot went right over Walker's head and at the gunboat.

"RPG!" Kraan yelled.

"Watch it, INCOMING!" Telrass yelled.

Alexa just managed to move the gunboat away in time and the shot flew past her.

"Sorry, Alpha, it's too tight down there. We're gonna have to bail." Said Alexa.

The gunboat quickly disappeared from view.

"Get clear, Alexa. We'll rally at secondary." Said Austin.

"Roger that. Good luck."

Walker was forced to run despite that several more mercs were still firing at him. Despite that Alpha provided what cover fire they could however, one shot ended up hitting him in the left arm.

"Agh! I've been shot! Where the hell are you?!" he said.

He quickly ran to a nearby cable car that had been abandoned during the crowd's panic.

"Form up on me. We've got some climbing to do." Said Austin.

"Alpha, this is Overseer. We've got a fix on the VIP's omni tool signal. We'll keep track of him for you." Said Telrass.

"Copy that." Austin acknowledged.

"They're in the streets looking for me! What the hell are you doing?!" said Walker.

"We're clearing them out along the way. Sit tight." Austin replied.

"This is Walker. Can you hear me?"

"We read you. Go ahead." Austin replied.

"I'm at the safe house. How much longer?" Walker asked.

"Two, maybe three minutes. Are you secure?"

"No! They're right outside!" Walker replied.

"Just stay calm, alright? Keep your head down." Said Austin.

"I should never have trusted you! And your people give me assurances?"

"I assure you, we'll get you out, IF you do what we tell you." Austin said sternly, now getting a bit irritated by Walker's attitude.

"Just hurry!" said Walker impatiently. Only a few seconds later though…

"Shit!"

Gunshots then followed.

"Walker? Walker!" Austin yelled.

No response.

"We need to move. Now!"

Alpha quickly doubled their pace and were soon at the building. Only one life sign was registering inside.

"Ready to breach." Said Austin as everyone readied themselves. "NOW!"

Alpha burst, in, guns at the ready. Walker lay dead on the floor. Standing over him was a very familiar, but unwelcome face.

"You again?!" said Austin as he and Alpha raised their guns at the Helldiver Slayer.

"We have to stop meeting like this, Alpha." Said the Slayer jokingly.

"I'm only gonna say this once, Slayer. Hand over the data, or we will shoot you." Austin demanded as he and the others pointed their guns directly at her.

"Oh you're not the first Helldiver to say that to me… and you won't' be the last." The Slayer simply said. She then threw a flashbang grenade at the floor, temporarily blinding Alpha. She then leapt out of the window and took off into the streets.

"AFTER HER! She's not getting away this time!" Austin yelled.

Everyone immediately ran. Eventually they were forced to split up as they attempted to try and cut her off. With Dash being the fastest runner, he stayed on the Slayer's tail.

The Slayer quickly used her bitoics to propel herself over and ran into the construction sight. Dash soon followed, forced to climb over instead.

The Slayer took cover behind several stacked pipes and whipped out one of her pistols. She hadn't expected Dash to be this quick to keep up with her, let alone the rest of her squad. Clearly she had made them very desperate.

Taking a few deep breaths, she gently popped her head out and looked. No sign of her pursuers. Perhaps she'd lost them.

Suddenly there was a loud crash and several of the workers scattered as Kraan burst through a nearby hut and charged straight in her direction.

The Slayer immediately fired several shots, but at a range this far they did no damage whatsoever to the Krogan Helldiver's armour. He continued his charge, ploughing right through a fence, smashing a shipping container aside and finally started to knock the pipes aside.

The Slayer broke into a run again and retreated. Already she could see her path blocked by another wall. On top was the foundations and scaffolding for the building since it was being built on elevated flat ground. Once again using her biotics to propel herself, she jumped up just as Kraan smashed into the wall sending bricks and concrete flying everywhere.

Not daring to look back, she continued her sprint, jumped onto the scaffolding and started to climb up the building's beams.

Since Kraan was the heaviest and not the best climber, Ventra would have to take over. Using a nearby crane, he ran up it's arm.

One of the Salarians workers onsite meanwhile was trying to ward off the Slayer with a welding torch.

"GET BACK! GET BACK!"

The Slayer however remained unfazed by this. She swiftly leant back, allowing the welding torch to miss her by a few centimetres an then swung her foot which connected directly with the Salarian's jaw. He lost his balance and fell off the beam. Not even stopping to look, the Slayer continued her climb.

Ventra unfortunately noticed the Salarian fall too late and it was already too late. The poor alien fell to his death. Now all the more determined to catch the Slayer he leapt from the crane's arm onto the building. At the same time, the Slayer neared the top. Two Salarian security guards attempted to fire at the Slayer but she shot first before they could even aim. Both fell dead instantly.

As Ventra finally caught sight of the Slayer she suddenly leapt from the beams onto some pipes that were currently suspended in the air as they hung from the arm of a much taller and larger crane. While Ventra backed up slightly then made his own jump, the Slayer began climbing up the cable. She was already near the top by the time the Turian landed.

Rather than go through all the climbing that the Slayer had just gone through however, Ventra instead used his ingenuity. Disengaging the lock on the crane's mechanism and releasing the pipes it was holding up, the cables suddenly started to shoot back up, taking him with it.

While the Slayer was now trying to find her way on top of the crane's arm, Ventra worked on doing the same.

After getting on top, the Slayer tried to look for a way down. In her rush to try and get away from her pursuer she hadn't considered that there was no way down from here. A she looked around frantically she then spotted Ventra who had now climbed on top. She immediately drew her pistol again and pulled the trigger several times.

But no shot came out. The gun simply clicked with each pull. She was out of ammo.

Knowing that in the time it took her to get her other pistol Ventra would tackle her, she instead threw the now useless gun, hoping that it throw the Turian off balance. That plan however quickly backfired when Ventra easily caught it in one hand and threw it back at her. Unprepared for this, the Slayer failed to catch the gun and it hit her in the helmet, causing he rot lose her balance. She just managed to catch hold of the crane to prevent herself from falling.

Ventra quickly hopped down to the same level just as she managed to regain her footing. Pulling herself up slightly, she then kicked Ventra using both feet. The Turian Helldiver was knocked back slightly but he held on tight as well. The two began to exchange a series of blows while at the same time trying to keep their balance and not fall off. Even for a Helldiver, this height was a long way down.

A sudden thrust from the Slayer's hand managed to get a grip on his neck, but Ventra was quick to return this with several punches to the stomach. He then managed to deliver a kick to the inside of the Slayer's leg, temporarily causing her to lose her balance.

Still maintain her hold on Ventra however, she used this to pull him. The Turian just barely managed to grab onto the crane again as the Slayer let go, hoping she'd throw him to his death.

With the Turian struggling to pull himself back up, the Slayer seized her chance. She pulled herself back up on top of the crane and ran along it until she was certain she had the distance right. There was a nearby building she could get to and use to get back on ground. The jump to that though was too far. Even with her biotics, she'd never make it. In-between that and the crane she was on however was another crane. It was still quite a jump however. One wrong step or mistimed grip and she'd fall.

Taking a deep breath, the Slayer leapt. Ventra watched in almost amazement as she landed just right on the second crane and then jumped again and landed on the nearby building, rolling as she did.

For him, that would not be easy. He was much heavier than she was and he didn't' have biotics. He'd be damn lucky if he was able to jump the distance. Taking a deep breath, he jumped…

He fell for a few seconds, but soon got close enough to the crane. Right as he felt his foot touch it however, it slipped. The Turian just barely managed to grab onto something before he fell. Using all his strength, he pulled himself up.

The Slayer meanwhile once again broke into a run, leaping over and diving under any obstacles in her way.

Ventra just had one jump left. This time he knew he'd be alright. He'd be landing on flat ground that was more than big enough for him not to fall off.

As it turned out however, he overshot it a little bit. He still landed, but as he rolled while landing he ended up falling over the edge and landed rather hard on a nearby vent, denting it rather hard.

Shrugging this off however, he quickly resumed the chase.

The Slayer then used her biotics to make a massive leap onto the roof of another building, Ventra knew already he would never make that jump and he was forced to skid to a halt.

The Slayer looked back at him. Despite her face being hidden, she did look as though she was smiling smugly.

Right as she turned to run however, she suddenly found Troy standing in front of her with a gun aimed at her head.

"Hand it over, mademoiselle." He ordered casually.

The Slayer slowly turned to face him. Despite that she had a gun pointed at her, she did not seem angry or anything. She still remained calm.

Very slowly, she took the data out of one of the pouches on her belt and slowly held it out to try. Right as the spy tried to take it however, she suddenly threw it up into the air. With Troy's attention fully focused on the data, he failed to notice the Slayer suddenly snatch the gun out of his hand and kick him hard in the stomach causing him to stagger back right as the data started to fall again and the Slayer caught it in her hand again.

Troy though wasn't' about to give up and he put both his fists up.

"Come on. Put it up." He said challenging, but it had an undeniable sign of nervousness.

The Slayer simply remained unfazed by this. With an almost casual sense, she delivered a swift kick to Tory's head which immediately knocked him to the ground.

"Ow."

At the same time, Austin quickly appeared as well, having followed Troy onto the roof and had just seen the whole thing. He sighed. Clearly the spy wasn't very used to fist fights, especially with a Bounty Hunter.

The Slayer caught sight of Austin and immediately broke into a run again with the Helldiver in pursuit. She wa sable to jump onto another nearby roof, but soon realised she'd made a mistake. It was a dead end and the next nearest roof was too far away and too lwo down for her to jump safely, even with biotics.

"Nowhere to run now, Slayer." Said Austin as he slowed down.

The Slayer slowly turned.

"Normally I'd stay and fight you, but I have some data to deliver. So, as your French friend would say… adieu." She said.

To Austin's' surprise, she then backed away and jumped off the edge. As Austin ran up to the edge, he suddenly felt a huge gust of wind push against him as a dropship slowly hovered up into view… with the Slayer stood on top.

"Bollocks!" Austin swore.

Right as the Slayer hopped inside the dropship however, Austin took a small tracer from his combat belt and threw it at the Slayer. It attached to her back without her ever noticing.

The rest of Alpha finally managed to join Austin just as the dropship sped away.

"Merde! That's twice now." Said Troy.

Austin didn't say anything and simply remained silent. Secretly, he was already formulating another plan in his mind.

Austin had tracked the Slayer to power plant only a few miles or so outside the city. This time he was on his own. He'd felt that the reason the Slayer had always won was because she exploited Alpha's numbers, whereas the slat time he had fought her by himself he'd actually won. He reckoned this time he'd have the advantage. True it was probably against protocol, but he felt it was necessary to get this data. They probably wouldn't get another chance for years.

He continued tracking the tracer as it took him inside the power plant which, was all closed down due to the late hour, up the stairs until he was on top of one of the platforms. To his surprised though, the beeping only intensified, with still no sight of the Slayer. He moved forward a few more steps and the beeping soon turned into a high pitched constnant beep. This confused Austin a lot.

But then he looked down. There on the ground was the tracer.

"Nice work, Austin. You walked right into a trap." He sighed in his head.

Sure enough, he quickly heard the Slayer's deep, altered voice behind him.

"Turn around."

Austin slowly turned. The Slayer had a gun aimed at him. Though Austin had his sword out already, he didn't want to do anything stupid.

"Did you really think I wouldn't think you'd put a tracer on me?" she said. "You Helldivers are so predictable. "

"Then you should know we don't' give up." Said Austin.

"Very true. And you especially, your reputation really does precede you." Said the Slayer. "A natural alliance soldier even now as a Helldiver."

Austin was slightly surprised by her saying that, but he did his best not to show it.

"That was a long time ago." He simply said.

"I used to be in the Alliance myself, you know. Did quite well myself, even became targeted as a possible Helldiver candidate." The Slayer explained. "But my CO grew jealous. He thought that he deserved that and not me. He framed me. Staged an accident that killed my whole unit and caused the loss of my eye. I was blamed for it all and dishonourably discharged." The Slayer explained. "I lost everything because of his jealousy..."

Austin did almost feel a bit of sympathy for the Slayer now. Because of someone's jealousy she'd become this. I things had been different…

"But I butchered that fucker." The Slayer added bitterly, suddenly causing Austin's feelings to change. "Broke back into the base and gouged out both his eyes for what he did to me. Unable to go back, I turned to this lifestyle. That's when I realized however that I was good at it. I slaughtered dozens across the galaxy, each kill increasing my reputation. I'd found my calling. So really, we're cut from the same cloth, you and I."

"I am nothing like you!" said Austin defiantly.

"You really think so? Tell me, how many have you killed in pursuit of what you call peace?" The Slayer asked.

"I've killed, yes. But always with good reason. But you… you kill for money, you kill for sport. You hunt my kin and take their armour." Austin replied.

"You of all people should know, Shepard, that peace is not the natural order of things in this galaxy. You're either the Predator, or you're the prey. And right now, the way I see it, you are the prey… and I am the predator."

"Proud of that, are you?" Austin asked.

"What happens, happens. To be honest, I used to find it quite dull." Said the Slayer as she started to circle the platform. Austin did the same. "Before I started hunting your kind and was just a normal bounty hunter, my enemies fell like domino, one after another. Not once did I feel threatened. I was adrift. Without challenge, without purpose… At times, I even envied my prey. At least they had a cause to die for. And then… I met him."

"Who?" Austin asked.

"And I knew what I'd been missing. He taught me how to hunt the most challenging prey in the galaxy… Helldivers. His ideals gave my life meaning. Ideals, Shepard. What are yours?" The Slayer asked.

"I… protect the weak." Austin replied.

"Still?" The Slayer asked, clearly unimpressed. "So naive."

"And if I must kill to protect them, then so be it."

"It seems we have less in common than I thought." Said the Slayer as she lowered her gun.

"I'll take that as a compliment." Said Austin. He could tell now that this was quickly going to turn into another duel.

"If you would kill for your ideals, then surely you are ready to die for them." said the Slayer. Unknown to Austin, behind her back she was holding a suit jammer in her other hand.

Before Austin could react in time, she then threw the device and it attached to Austin's chest. Immediately, his suit went offline and he fell on his back.

The Slayer walked up to the fallen Helldiver and stood over him, pinning him to the floor with her foot. She then removed the device and allowed him to move again, but she kept her gun pointed directly at his head.

"You were such a fool to take me on alone." She said mockingly. "I've always admired the armour you Helldivers use. Kartalrium coated Kevlar armour plating over a fluid suit mesh armour layer. Nice. Unless of course, you know exactly… where… to shoot."

The Slayer then poked her gun right into the left side of Austin's abdomen, the barrel just barely fitting in-between where the armour plates separated… and fired. The round pierced right through Austin's suit mesh, though his skin and into his body. An almost agonizing pain shot through the Helldiver's body and he could already feel blood pouring from the wound.

The Slayer temporarily took her foot off him and turned her back to him, obviously to gloat a bit. Seizing what little time he had, Austin quickly activated his omni tool and administered all the medi gel he had. It was enough to stop the bleeding at least, but the round still remained inside, and the wound still open. As a result, Austin was still in roughly the same amount of pain as he had been before. He'd hoped the medi gel would be enough, clearly he'd been wrong.

"I'll admit, you've been my most challenging opponent. No Helldiver's ever survived more than one encounter with me, let alone two." Said the Slayer. She then aimed directly at his helmet. "But now, I can finally relax… and kill you."

Summoning up all the strength he could, Austin then suddenly grabbed the gun, forced it to the side away from his face and then head-butted the Slayer really hard. Temporarily disoriented, the Slayer staggered back onto one knee. As she did however, she drew both her guns and blind fired, hoping to at least land a shot. By then however, Austin had vanished from her sight.

"You can't hide from me, Shepard! I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN!" she yelled, holstering her pistols and switching to her sniper rifle.

From his hiding spot, Austin could see the red dot and beam coming from the Slayer's rifle as it swept over the area like the beam of a searchlight as she began searching for him.

"I need to find a first aid station." Austin winced in his mind as he clutching his still painful wound.

The medi gel had stopped the bleeding, but the wound still wasn't fully healed and the round was still inside his body. Sure he'd live now and wouldn't bleed to death, but if he didn't get the wound properly sorted, there was no way he could continue fighting. To make things even harder for him, he'd used all his medi gel on stopping the bleeding alone. That round had been particularly nasty. Right now his armour had injected him with some painkillers to at least nullify the pain. They wouldn't last thing, and even with those, Austin still couldn't fight.

He quickly began scanning the area for a first aid station. This being a usually heavily worker populated area, there was bound to be at least one. It'd be stupid not to have one, especially if there was an accident.

Within just a few seconds, his suit located a nearby first aid station. Taking care to avoid, the Slayer's targeting laser, Austin climbed down from the platform and managed to get inside the nearby building.

Once he was sure he was safe and out of sight, he then walked up to the first aid station.

True he could've taken off his armour and just used a bandage, but with the Slayer hunting him that was a bad idea. If she suddenly found him with his armour off, he'd be dead before he even realized she'd found him.

He opened up one of the pouches on his combat belt and took out a small device. This small medical device would enable him to get the round out. The painkillers though were going to wear off very soon, so the experience would not be pleasant. He also couldn't try and get it out by hand using traditional tools. He was no doctor and there was too large a risk of him literally making a bloody mess of it.

He'd have to act fast though. Once the round came out, the wound might start bleeding again, and he needed to seal it up. Already he could feel the pain of the wound again as the painkillers began to wear off.

Taking a deep breath he activated the device and gently eased the end of it into the wound. It stung like hell and the Helldiver girt his teeth as the device began probing small little robotic arms around trying to find the round. His free hand gripped the table so hard it was beginning to crush in his hand.

Mercifully, just as the pain reached its worst, the red light on the device switched to green indicating that it was now locked onto the round and it could be pulled out. Very slowly and gently, Austin began pulling. The pain became even more unbearable, but it only lasted for a few seconds before Austin finally felt a welcome relief as the bullet left his insides.

He set both the device and the blood coated round on the table and then administered more medi gel. The pain slowly disappeared altogether and the wound finally sealed itself up completely.

Austin took a few deep breaths and then put the rest of his equipment back. He also restocked on all the medi gel he could carry. This time he was very determined to finish this rivalry between him and the Slayer.

The Slayer continued scanning the area with her sniper rifle, her finger itching to pull the trigger the second she spotted Austin. In his wounded state, he was bound to slip up, and when he did she'd take the shot.

She was caught completely off guard however, when someone suddenly grabbed her from behind, swung her around, grabbed her sniper rifle and suddenly kicked her in the stomach which knocked her back and caused her to lose grp of her sniper.

As she skidded to a halt, she looked up at her attacker. TO her surprise, there was Austin. It was as if he'd never been injured at all the way he was moving.

"What?!"

Austin then brought the sniper down onto his knee, smashing it in two.

"No more tricks, Slayer. Here and now, just you and me, and our blades." He said, letting all his guns to drop at his feet.

For a moment, the Slayer considered using her pistols, but her desire to get even with her opponent got the better of her. He wanted to die by a sword rather than a gun? So be it. She'd let him have this temporary joy. It would be short lived.

"I couldn't agree more." She said as she did the same. "Come then, Shepard. Let us settle this once and for all."

The two immediately charged and clashed swords, both drawing sparks as they clashed.

"Considering the last time we fought like this, I'm surprised you'd go along with it." Said Austin.

The Slayer didn't reply at first and instead suddenly back flipped, kicking him right in the helmet and temporarily disorienting him.

"Don't think you'll beat me so easily this time. I've learned much since then. Allow me to show you." She said.

She then used a biotic charge to shoot forward. Soon as she stopped she then leapt into the air and spun.

Austin just managed to counter the attack. As he did, he thrust forward with the Slayer then countered. As the thrust failed however, Austin then pulled up, letting the momentum of the pull bring Excalibur with his hand. He then let go of the sword and as it continued flying upward he switched his hold on the grip. Now he held it backhand and attempted a backhand stab. It was an old trick that Zartrack had taught him.

To his surprise however, the Slayer blocked that too and they both ended up in a blade lock.

"Interesting. Your mentor is Alkatran Zartrack, yes?" The Slayer asked.

This came as a bit of a shock to Austin. How had she known that? No one but Zartrack and his students knew moves like that and as far as he knew all those students were accounted for.

"How did you… Who are you? You say you were in the Alliance, yet you fight like a Helldiver. There's no way you could've learned all that just from hunting us." He said.

"I'm afraid that's for me to know, and you to find extremely irritating."

She then forced Excalibur to one side using her right hand sword. Her left hand meanwhile was brought back and charged with biotics. By the time Austin realized what she was about to do however, he was unable to react in time.

"Go to hell, Helldiver!"

The Slayer punched him right in the helmet, the force of the biotic punch sending him flying practically a mile away from the platform.

The flight was eventually stopped by a nearby pipe. Slowly the Helldiver managed to get back up, using his sword for support. There was no denying that move had taken its toll on him. He was dazed and disoriented, not to mention a little nervous now. It seemed the Slayer had indeed learned much since their last sword fight. Not to mention she was also using her biotics this time.

He had to admit, her use of them was almost quite fascinating. For human biotic she was very powerful, especially considering that humans weren't natural biotics and required implants. Austin could only assume she had an illegal modified implant that was either more powerful or less taxing on the body than usual.

As the Helldiver finally managed to steady himself, he suddenly spotted the Slayer land on the pipe not too far away from him.

"I'm still waiting to be impressed." She said mockingly.

This time Austin went more on the offensive and attacked more, trying not to give the Slayer any room for her to attack. As she spun to block another attack however she then turned the tables. As Austin thrust, she parried with on sword and spun. She then thrust using the other sword. It was off though and missed it's intended target, but it did strike a blow on Austin by cutting his side as it went in-between his plates and cut through a bit of his suit mesh.

The cut was only enough to draw a little bit of blood but it had been deep enough to hurt a fair bit. As the Slayer thrust again with both swords, Austin managed to pin both with Excalibur as they became lodged in-between the main blade and it's blade guard, effectively trapping them. Seizing the chance, Austin decided to get even with the Slayer. He delivered such a strong punch it actually sent the Slayer flying into the air. Not as much as it had been with him, but enough to make her feet leave the ground.

Once again however, the Slayer used this to attack. As she spun, she suddenly activated her biotics and used them to charge herself right into him, crashing the both of them straight through the pipe they'd been fighting on, right through one of the nearby buildings, through and oil tanker which quickly caught fire from the rupture and finally onto a concrete floor. Then quite a lot more of the refinery soon caught fire as well, practically surrounding the two in an arena of fire.

The Slayer back flipped off her opponent and continued until she was a decent distance from Austin, enabling him to get up.

Austin could now no longer deny how exhausted he was now. Why had he been such a fool to think he could take the Slayer on alone again? Why had he assumed this was the right course of action?

Summoning up what strength he had left, he managed to get back up, now really struggling and unable to stop his legs from shaking, not to mention the aching he had in his chest. That was definitely going to leave a bruise.

"This ends now!" said the Slayer, drawing her swords again and charging.

She jumped into a spin which Austin managed to back away from, his back leaning back slightly as a reflex action. The Slayer thrust twice with each sword, with Austin only just managing to parry each strike. A mistimed move however allowed the Slayer to cut him across the side.

A swift kick to his leg also sent him spinning in the air before he landed on the ground again. Using the momentum from this however, Austin quickly got back up and attacked again. The Slayer though once again parried his attack.

She then slashed at his back, both her blades cutting into his armour and once again cutting him. This was then followed by another swift spin kick before Austin had time to react, sending him to the floor. He was quick however to roll back onto his feet, shrugging the stinging injury off.

The Slayer had to admit, she was impressed with the Helldiver's endurance. She almost felt disappointed that she'd have to kill him. Such a worthy opponent for someone like her was rare.

She used another biotic dash which Austin attempted to slash at, but missed, nearly losing his balance as he did.

The Slayer then attacked from behind. Austin managed to block one sword, but the other went lower and ended up slashing his leg. Getting desperate now to try any attack, Austin attempted a thrust. The Slayer however pinned it under her right arm behind her back. Her left arm then hooked around his neck and with an almost frightening amount of strength, she suddenly pulled him off his feet and threw him to the floor, the impact knocking all the air out of his lungs.

As Austin rolled onto his front and attempted to stand back up however, the Slayer black flipped, landed on top of him and thrust her left blade right into his left shoulder, pinning him to the ground and emitting a cry of pain from him.

Unable to move with the sword pinning him in place, and his shoulder now burning with pain, Austin found himself unable to move. He was able to rotate his helmet just enough however that he could see the Slayer on top of him, expressionless mask of a dead Helldiver staring right at him.

"Know that you die having earned my respect, which is more than can be said for most." She said, raising her other blade and preparing to stab him in the heart.

Right before she could thrust however, a shot suddenly hit the sword, knocking it right out of her hand.

The Slayer immediately looked to where the shot had come from. On one of the upper levels was a figure on some kind of bike and holding a sniper.

"WHAT?!"

The figure then immediately holstered the sniper and the bike suddenly shot forward off the edge. The Slayer, unable to react in time, was hit by the bike as it landed and she went flying into some of the wreckage that the earlier explosions had caused. At the same time, the bike also managed to knock away the debris that had pinned Austin's arm earlier.

The bike then skidded to a halt, and it was now that Austin was able to see the rider more clearly. He was a Helldiver. A Ranger by the looks of him.

The Helldiver looked down at Austin and then extended his arm.

"Come with me if you want to live." He said.

For a moment Austin hesitated, but when he suddenly noticed the Slayer smashing her way out of the wreckage, he quickly took the Helldiver's hand who then pulled him onto the bike and immediately sped off.

By the time the Slayer had managed to free herself, she knew she had no chance of catching them, nor could she hit them with her sniper at this range.

Though Alpha were pleased to their Commander unharmed, the tone among them wasn't the best. At the same time, they weren't so happy to see Austin.

Alaara especially looked almost furious. In fact before Austin even got a chance to speak, the second he removed his helmet she suddenly slapped him really hard.

"How dare you! How dare you just leave us and go off alone like that! What were you thinking?!" the Asari yelled.

"I thought I'd have a better chance if I took her on alone." Said Austin, still a bit shocked at the fact Alaara had just hit him that hard.

"We're a team, Shepard! We stick together! Don't ever do that again." Said Sandra, taking her secret bond mate's side in this argument.

"Alright, alright. I'm sorry." Austin apologised.

"You'd better be."

"Well at least I know you're taking the Lieutenant role seriously." Said Austin managing a slight smile. "And, at least my plan did succeed."

He then took the data out of his combat belt and held it up for everyone to see.

"You got the data?" Leena said in surprise.

"Just barely. I would've been killed if not for Hawk." Said Austin.

"Hawk?"

Austin gestured to the Helldiver that had saved him earlier.

"That's my codename." The stranger said.

"But what's your real name?" Sandra asked.

"Does it matter?" Hawk simply replied.

"Have it your way." Sandra sighed.

"What were you doing int hat area anyway?" Ventra asked, a small hint of suspicion in his voice.

"I was simpyl int he neihborhood and spotted the conflict. Figured your Commander coudl use a hand." said Hawk.

"He saved my life. I owe him for that." Said Austin. "Anyway, Leena, start decrypting the data and let us know what you find."

Leena took the data and began the process of decrypting it on her terminal.

"By the way, Shepard. In case you're interested, we finally found some intel on the Helldiver Slayer. Took some digging, but we eventually found something solid on her." She said.

"Who is she?" Austin asked.

Leena pulled up the intel on the huge main screen so that everyone could see. Sure enough, there was the Helldiver Slayer's picture along with a rather extensive amount of intel.

"Tyranny Azula. A.K.A The Helldiver Slayer. Before that, originally known by her Bounty Hunter alias, Shadow." Leena narrated. "Former Alliance military, falsely accused of getting her squad killed and was dishonourably discharged as a result. Broke back in however and exposed the truth. From there, she apparently became a Bounty Hunter. Her career under the name Shadow lasted only about two years before she somehow vanished, She resurfaced a year later, only now going under the name Helldiver Slayer. Beyond that though, no other intel exists."

"This certainly explains where she received some of her training, but she fights like one of us, plus she knew that General Zartrack taught me. I fear there's more to her than we know. She obviously must've received extra training during her disappearance, but from who though? That's what I want to know. I recall her mentioning something about a "master" but beyond we've no idea who that is." Said Austin.

"Do you think she's connected in some way to these raiders we've been tracking?" Ventra asked.

"I doubt it. They're probably just another employer to her." Austin replied.

A short while later, Leena finally managed to finish decrypting the data. Her reaction seemed somewhat mixed though.

"Okay, well I've got good news and bad news. The bad news is there's not much intel. The good news however is that it does at least make some mention of who's been behind these raids." She said. "A terrorist organization called Hellspawn."

"That sounds more like something we'd have. The Arkanes are often known for giving us names with the word "Hell" in them." Said Dash. "Wonder if that says something about them…"

"Dash, shut up." Said Kraan.

"Anyway, I already checked through every single database we have, even some of the…" "restricted ones. There's nothing affiliated with us under the name Hellspawn." Said Leena.

"Then I doubt it's coincidence. They've presumably chosen that title for a reason." Said Austin. "You sure there's nothing else?"

"Only the name of their leader. Nothing but speculation though. The only thing intel agrees upon is his name… The Commander."

I've already started work on the next chapter, and all I'll say is that it's gonna quite a dark one. Alpha are about to finally come face to face with their arch enemy.

Hopefulyl I wont' take as long, so see you next time. :)
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Mass Effect: The Helldiver Saga, Alpha Origins