Adult-FanFiction.org : Games

Mass Effect: The Helldiver Saga, The Collector War	By : Veyron722skyhook Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 6240 -:- 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
- 16
- 17
- 18
YES! At long last after all these weeks, it's finally finished. First of all, I am so sorry that you've had to wait so long for this, and I hope that this has been worth the wait.
Now, I have a bit of interesting news that should interest some of you. I have finally decided to get a BETA reader to help correct some of the mistakes I make, such as the missing words. I've already found one that has the right qualifications, and I have sent her PM asking if she is available. Just waiting for her to reply back now. So with any luck, future chapters will now be completely spotless.
Anyway, enjoy this chapter. Next up will be Haestrom, the Kasumi's loyalty mission since I really want to do that one afterwards and finally Thane. After that, we'll see what happens.
Until then, please do enjoy this and leave a review. I worked very hard on this.

Chapter 17
Best Served Cold, Part 2
Still the fight between Austin and Shadow continued. The odds really weren't in Austin's favour. Right at that moment however, he saw an opportunity. He charged at Shadow, knocking them both over the edge of a balcony and sending them both into a large pile of rubble.
Both opponents where left rather exhausted by this. Shadow it seemed however just wouldn't stop. The Phantom got back up on her feet and swung a punch at Austin. The Helldiver dodged under it however and he swung back at Shadow. Austin's fist however was blocked as Shadow grabbed it in her left hand. Shadow then went for another punch, but Austin caught her cybernetic wrist in his free hand. But then, something very unexpected happened.
Shadow's cyborg hand started changing shape. It seemed to morph into some kind of flamethrower. Almost instantly, flames shot out of it and right at Austin face as he tried to push the arm away. His helmet kept him safe from the fire, but he could still feel the extreme heat.
For several long seconds, Austin felt as though there was nothing he could do. Just at that moment however, he saw an electrified cable dangling loose from the ceiling, and it was sparking.
Without much of a choice, Austin gave Shadow a violent head butt with his helmet. The blow knocked Shadow back slightly and her grip on his right hand loosened. He quickly wrenched it away, grabbed the cable, and thrust it into Shadow's neck.
Shadow seemed to spasm violently as the volts electrocuted her. The volts then went haywire and exploded, sending both of them flying in separate directions.

Alpha Squad and Sarah where all taking very deep breaths. When they'd been in the corridor earlier, the lights had gone out again. This time though, something had tried to attack them. They hadn't seen what it was, but whatever it had been it was massive. It would've killed them if they hadn't managed to escape from it.
"What was that thing?" Sarah panted.
"I'm not sure. But whatever it was, it definitely wasn't human." Said Alaara.
At that, something large crashed right through the ceiling. Everyone immediately pointed their guns at the wreckage. They saw a figure of some kind moving amongst the dust. Eventually it cleared… to reveal Austin, slightly battered, but definitely alive.
Liara immediately ran up to her bond mate and helped him up.
"Are you alright, Austin?" she asked.
"I'll live." Said Austin.
"Shadow?" Griffin asked.
Austin nodded and looked up at the hole he'd just fallen through.
"She'll be back." He said.
"Then we'd better get moving. If we can find the comm array, we can get off this planet." Said Sandra.
"We're not going anywhere until someone's brought me up to speed!" said Sarah defiantly.
Neither Austin nor Alpha Squad argued with the N7 marine. The Helldivers spent the next several minutes bringing Sarah up to speed and explaining everything to her. She had been a bit surprised by some of the news, but she didn't interrupt and simply listened.
There was a long silence after Austin had finished the story. Finally, Sarah broke the silence.
"So this team your building, are you still recruiting?" she asked.
This question puzzled Austin slightly. Why would Sarah ask a question like that?
"Yes. Why?" Austin asked cautiously.
"Because I'm joining you. I've spent two years mourning you, and I'm going to make sure you come back this time. Mom, dad, and I are not losing you again." Sarah replied.
Austin was very surprised by this. In fact, all of Alpha Squad where surprised by this. Sarah actually wanted to join the team?
"I… well, I…" Austin stuttered for while. Eventually though, his mind was made up. "Well, that's great. But we'll discuss this properly once we've got off this planet."
Before Sarah could reply however, the lights once again started to flicker and the ground shook. The roar once again returned. Once again it was close. And then there came the sounds of heavy footsteps.
"Run!" Sarah shouted.
Before Austin could even say anything, Liara grabbed his arm and pulled him along with her as the Helldivers and Sarah ran.
Eventually, their path led them into the complex's kitchen. Without much of a choice, everyone hurried in. Sarah shit the door behind them, but there was no lock. All they could really do was turn off the lights.
As Leena flicked the switch, the footsteps got even worse, and then the sound of very heavy breathing could be heard. Almost as if it was right outside the door. Alpha Squad went to activate their cloaks, but when Austin tried his, it seemed to fizz and crackle. Austin looked down at the floor. It was all wet; none of their cloaks would work. Even if it was only their feet that got wet, that still seemed to affect the cloak.
The light's flickered again before they finally died. Everything went dark. All they could see now was the faint bits of light from outside that was seeping in through some of the windows.
"There's something moving out there." Said Dash nervously as he looked out of one of the glass windows in the kitchen. He could see something, but the glass made the image far too blurry.
"I think it's coming for us." He said, doing his best to stay calm.
"Hide! Get out of sight, quickly!" said Austin.
Everyone hurried and hid behind several of the cooking units inside the kitchen. Austin hid with Sarah and Liara behind the one nearest to the door.
Once again the whole complex seemed to shake. This time it was even more intense. Whatever Dash had seen moving out there was drawing closer. The light's flickered back on very briefly. But what everyone managed to see just for a second froze them solid. For a split second, the lights had cast a shadow on the windows. The Shadow of an absolutely massive creature standing right on the other side. Right outside the kitchen! Austin's heart started to beat very fast in his chest. He had seen that shadow before. But it could it have really been…?
Dash had hid near to where he'd originally been. The breathing was no very close. Dash shivered slightly as he watched the windows steam up slightly with each breath.
"Keep quiet! Nobody make any sounds!" Austin hissed quietly.
Another shake came. This time it nearly sent everyone off their feet.
"Bloody hell! What's happening?!" said Dash.
"Dash, keep qui…" Austin went to say. But he was interrupted by a small clicking sound.
Everyone looked in horror at the door. Sure enough, the handle was moving. It clicked several times as it was moved up and down several times. None of them dared look further and they made to move as far back as they could from the door. An icy chill crept up all their spines and Goosebumps formed on their skin under their armour, despite their suit's internal heating.
The door handle clicked several times, and then there was the unmistakable sound of the door slowly sliding open. Everyone else was too frightened now to look but Dash had a full of the door. He had no choice but to watch as the door was slid open and he saw a massive clawed hand appear around the edge. And then… very slowly, the rest of the creature came into Dash's view. What the Helldiver scout saw nearly made him scream.
Austin dared not look to see what this creature was. He could not see it, but he knew it was now inside the kitchen. Austin shuddered with each sound of the creature's deep breathing. It did sound a bit strange though. It almost sounded as though the creature was struggling to breath. Or as though it was trying to breath through punctured lungs, and Austin definitely knew what that was like.
Suddenly, everyone jumped as there was sound of a small crash and a light suddenly came on. The room was now filled with what looked like the beam from a flashlight. The sound of breathing was now replaced by several loud snarls. The creature must've knocked something over by accident which had activated the light.
Austin did his best to breathe steady as he listened to the creature snarl and roar at the flashlight before it finally seemed to regard the light as harmless. Several footsteps could be heard… and then the creature stepped into the flashlight beams path.
Austin was close to being petrified as he saw the shadow of the creature once again. There was no mistaking it this time. This was definitely the creature he had seen break out of one of the tram carriages earlier. The shadow's shape was an exact match.
He couldn't tell for certain how big this thing was just from the shadow, but judging from its size, it had to be at least 3 metres tall. From the looks of its shadow, it also seemed to have 4 arms. It's main two where not touching the ground and they looked like they had spikes of some sort sticking out of the wrists. The lower second pair of arms remained on the ground at all times and looked as though they where being used by the creature to walk. That was certainly and interesting biology that Austin had never seen before. A creature that used its lower arms to walk while the main arms where free to do what they wanted.
The shadow of the creature looked around and sniffed the air several times. The creature's shadow even seemed to show the warm mist clouds of air that came out of its mouth with each breath. The head looked like it was ridged and had organic armour plating on it.
The shadow seemed to get smaller as it worked away from the flashlight, but still remained in the beam. Part of the shadow was then blocked by one of the cabinets. Rather frighteningly, this was also the same one that Austin, Liara, and Sarah where hid behind.
The shadow seemed to look around a bit more before it then leant on the cabinet. Then an odd sound filed the room. It sounded like gulping or drinking. Then Austin remembered that the reason the floor was all wet was because a nearby tap had been left on and the sink was blocked in both holes, causing an overflow. In their haste to hide, no one had turned the tap off. The drinking sounds continued as the creature drank loads of the water with each gulp.
Austin finally dared to risk a glance as he very slowly looked over the edge. The view was greatly obstructed because there where large amounts of meat hanging from hooks over the cabinets. Between the gaps however, Austin could see small glimpses of the creature. It was indeed massive. Austin still couldn't see the creatures' head because it was behind one of the large pieces of meat, still drinking from the overflowing sink of water. But its skin was definitely visible.
Its skin was very dark. Despite the darkness, there where hints of brown on the skin, so the overall skin tone was a very dark drown colour. What parts of the skin where visible to Austin where not a pretty sight. Many patches of skin where either very blackened or pale. A few bits even looked dead and some others even looked as though they where so dead that they where decaying. Worse still, there where signs of burn marks, cuts, and scars.
The creature then moved slightly, allowing more of its body to be visible. Austin still couldn't see its form fully, but he saw more of its hulking body. He almost felt sick in his stomach when he saw the creatures' chest.
The creature was so thin that's its skin practically hugged its bones. Worse still, the creatures' ribcage was hideously deformed. So deformed in fact, that several of the lower ribs where growing out of the creature's chest like spikes. They where even grew upwards so that they looked like some sort of chest guard armour, except with bones.
The creature's zombie like chest rose and fell with each long breath it took. It was then that Austin noticed that the creature was missing quite a lot of skin on the chest and the stomach which actually exposed its internal workings. How was this thing even still alive after all that it must've endured?
The slurping sounds stopped as the creature stopped drinking the water and looked around, sniffing the air and even nudging one of the pieces of meat hung up in front of it.
It was then that Austin noticed the large burn marks on the creature's hide. They where brand marks, similar to how Earth cows where sometimes branded with a hot iron to mark them properly. At first, Austin didn't understand the marks, but his eyes soon refocused, and the Helldiver saw that they weren't letters, they where numbers. 1 and 3.
"13!" Austin read out in his head. Could it really be…? No! It couldn't be!
Before he could think further however, one of the large meat pieces was flung aside and the creature's face came into view, snarling.
Austin immediately ducked back down again in fright. Fortunately, the creature didn't see him, but he had a feeling that it could sense that there was fresh, live meat nearby. Austin risked one more look and looked over the cabinet. He wished he hadn't now, as the creature's head was now right above him. This did at least give him a full view of it now though.
The creature's head was firstly large. Its mouth was filed with several gaps to show that it had over 3 rows of razor sharp teeth. When Austin looked into the creature's eyes, he saw nothing. All that was there was an empty whiteness, no pupils at all. As he had also seen from the shadow of the creature's forehead, it was rigid and covered by some sort of crest. It was solid bone and seemed to have several spikes and elongations on it. This actually reminded Austin of the crests of some Krogan who had similar spikes grow from there's. One of each of the creature's two sets of arms came into view.
Sure enough, the main set where long and slightly thin. They had hands with three clawed fingers and a thumb, and both arms had a very long and very sharp looking, bone spike sticking out of the wrist.
The second set weren't as thin and had more muscle on them, most likely a result of these arms having to hold up the creature's body all the time. The ends of the arms where a slightly odd sight. Instead of hands, they had some sort of odd hooks on the end. They curved inwards so that the weight could be properly supported on them, and it also mirrored the way an Earth Gorilla would support its weight on its knuckles.
The rest of the creature's scarred and dead looking body came into view. It was now that Austin saw that this thing almost looked as though it was made out of more than one creature. What was he looking at? A Frankenstein monster? Because that was what it was looking like. Both the main arm and their shoulders looked a but out of place compared to the rest of the body, and the second set of arms also looked as though they where taken from a large crab, but with a slightly different bone and skin structure. Austin also guessed that the crest was mutated from Krogan. This certainly explained why this thing looked zombie like.
The creature sniffed the air again and moved forward slightly over the cabinet. As it did, its main right hand pushed slightly on a large board. Sarah hadn't noticed that she'd been resting against this and she got pushed forward with it. The N7marine froze in fight, praying that the creature wouldn't notice her as it took one of the large meat pieces into its mouth and started to eat hungrily on it.
Both Liara and Austin had also noticed this and they held their breath as they watched the creature chew the meat with its teeth and then slow it. Seconds felt like hours as they waited for the creature to move again. They could only hope that it still failed to see them. Because the creature's eyes where nothing but pale white, it was impossible to tell what kind of eyesight it had or whether it could see in the dark, and no one was willing to take any risks with this thing.
Finally, the creature moved. Mercifully, the board also settled back against the cabinet with Sarah on it.

Unknown to everyone else, Ventra had very slowly and quietly taken his sniper bow out, had removed the bow and had very quietly placed a round in the gun. As he looked round to line up his shot however, Griffin suddenly grabbed the gun as well and pulled it away.
"No!" the demolition expert hissed as he tried to yank the sniper rifle out of the Turian's hands.
"Let go!" Ventra hissed back as he tried to shake the sniper out of Griffin's grip.

Austin noticed the very quiet struggle that Ventra was having with Griffin. He wanted to tell them to stop it, to whisper to Ventra to do as Griffin said. But he couldn't. Even if he whispered, the creature that was currently right above him, Liara and Sarah might still hear him.
The creature then did something very frightening. It moved off of the top of the cabinet and then moved around. It stopped for a moment as the Helldivers came into its view. The pale white eyes glared at them. Somehow though, it didn't attack. Austin, Liara, and Sarah dared not move a muscle. Still though, the creature didn't attack, even though there was live prey right in front of it.

Griffin was still trying to stop Ventra from shooting. There was no guarantee that the shot would kill the creature instantly, plus he'd give away there position. Firing off a shot would get them all killed.
Despite Griffin's best efforts though, Ventra still refused to let go. The two Helldivers glared at one another as they struggled.

The creature still continued looking. It was like it knew there was something there, but couldn't see it.
"Why isn't it attacking?!" Austin thought as he stared into the creature's pale white eyes.
The creature sniffed the air several times and seemed to move in closer with its mouth hanging open slightly, baring its three rows of razor sharp teeth. Each hot breath from the creature dispersed out of its mouth as condensation.
Then something very unexpected happened. The creature's white eyes seemed to roll backwards and disappear. In their place, where proper eyes, pupils and everything.
Now it made sense. The white eyes weren't eyes at all, they where covers! Austin had seen something like that before. Earth Sharks often made their eyes white to protect them whenever they attacked their prey.
Now Austin had a clear view of one of the creature's eyes and he looked closely at it, still not moving. He had seen eyes like that before. Eyes like the ones this creature had where motion sensitive. Now it made sense as to why the creature wasn't attacking. It couldn't see them because they weren't moving.

Ventra was now struggling more than ever to wrench his sniper out of Griffin's hands. The creature was right up close to Alpha Squad's leader. He had to do something. He kept pulling. Slowly, he could feel that Griffin was losing his grip.
The creature was now so close to them that, they could hear the creature's heart beating inside it's scarred and mutilated chest. It couldn't see them, but it was still giving the impression that it knew there was something here. It seemed to sniffing more this time and as it did, it seemed to be moving closer to Sarah.
"I think it can smell your perfume." Austin whispered so quietly that Sarah and Liara just barely heard him. The creature seemed completely oblivious to the sound.
Sarah didn't know what to do. Like her brother, she too could tell by the creature's eyes that it would only see her if she moved so she dared not move a muscle, but at the same time, she knew that the creature might eventually discover that it's prey was right in front of it if it kept smelling her scent like that.
It didn't smell the Helldiver because their suit's hid nearly everything. Their pheromone signatures heat and smell where safely hidden. Sarah on the other hand was only wearing an N7 defender armour, which wasn't designed to hide things like that.
The creature's mouth opened wider now. Sarah had a feeling that the creature wasn't being fooled anymore. It could now tell that there was something in front of it, something it couldn't see but smell.

Ventra had had enough now. Using all his strength, he yanked the sniper rifle right out of Griffin's hands and pointed it right at the creature. Just as he was about to fire however, a noise suddenly echoed throughout the hallways. It was a sort of rumbling sound, almost as though the facility was slowly becoming unstable.
The creature slowly looked up as it registered the noise. It almost looked slightly nervous at this. The white lids once again rolled over it's eyes and it started to retreat. The creature hissed and snarled slightly before it slowly made it's way out of the door.
Everyone immediately gave a heavy sigh and relaxed.
"Don't ever do that again!" Griffin snarled at Ventra who had put his sniper back on his back. The Turian just didn't answer.
"What was that thing?!" said Dash as he got up, still shaking a bit.
"I have a hunch, but I really hope I'm wrong." Said Austin as he helped Sarah up, who was also shaking.
"What would that be then?" Alaara asked.
"I fear it may have been that thing that I saw break out of the tram." Austin replied.
"Tram?" Sarah asked as her head suddenly bolted up.
"Yes. Talking of which, there where Alliance demolition charges on the tracks that derailed it. Was that you?" Griffin asked.
Sarah nodded. "We where trying to cut off reinforcements." She said.
"Well, I hate to break it too you. But you blew up a cargo tram instead. They where transporting supplies and something else called Experiment 13." Said Dash who had now stopped shaking and was starting to calm down a bit now.
"Experiment 13? I've heard that name before. I overheard a conversation between several Cerberus troops. They said that Experiment 13 was being shipped here. They sounded almost scared. Briefly said that it had been responsible for the deaths of over 20 people." Said Sarah.
"You think that… creature was it?" Said Leena.
"Maybe, but we can't worry about that now." Said Austin. The Major then turned to his sister. "Sarah, where's the rest of the Alliance marines that you where with?" he asked.
"They're all dead. I'm all that's left now." Said Sarah regrettably. "Shadow's trap worked it seems."
"Do you know if this complex has a comm array? We need to contact the Normandy." Austin asked.
"I think so. My team and I managed to get the schematics of this place briefly before Cerberus tracked us down." Said Sarah. She activated her omni tool and uploaded the schematics to everyone.
Sandra then projected a holographic image of the complex onto the ground in front of them. Everyone knelt down around it.
"Looks like the comm array isn't too far from where we are now." Said Sarah as she pointed to a station that was wired to a large dish on the outside of the complex in the snow.
"Right, we head there first and contact the Normandy. After that, we had for the station's reactor core and set it to overload. We're not leaving this place standing." Said Austin.
"What about Shadow?" Sarah asked concernedly.
"If we run into her, we'll deal with her. Otherwise, we just hope she perishes in the blast." Said Austin.
"Sounds like a plan." Said Alaara.
"Then let's get going." Said Austin as he and the others stood up. They made sure that they where careful going out of the kitchen. They really weren't in the mood for anymore surprises.

Shadow groaned as she was slowly picked up from where she'd landed by being thrown several walls. She found several figures standing over her. As her sight slowly came back, she found that they where the rest of Cerberus group that she'd left in order to go hunting. Miranda and Jacob where with them.
"It's about time you showed up." Said the Phantom as a Cerberus Centurion helped her up.
"You should've waited for us, Azula. Shepard or the others could've killed you." Said Miranda.
"Others?" Shadow asked, a bit confused. She had assumed that Shepard had come alone.
"His whole team are here. Alpha Squad." Said Jacob.
"Damnation! Spread out and search the area! Find them!" Shadow yelled as she picked herself out of the wreckage, shrugging off the help of her Cerberus allies who had come to her aid.
"Search the area? But Shadow, they're gone!" one of the troopers objected.
His objection however was short lived when Shadow's knives slid out of her fingers and she plunged them right into the trooper's heart. The trooper gave a sharp cry of pain before he died and Shadow pushed his body off, her cybernetic claws now dripped with blood.
"Any further objections?!" the Phantom asked coldly as the other Cerberus troopers backed away in fright and remained silent at the sight of the bloody knives.
"Search the complex! Bring me those Helldivers!" Shadow yelled.
"No!" a voice objected behind her.
Shadow immediately froze. Someone had just refused her. Shadow slowly turned round. She had already known from the voice who it was.
Sure enough, Miranda was stood out from everyone else and had her gun pointed right at Shadow.
"You dare defy me, Lawson?!" said Shadow, slightly taken aback by this, but not surprised. She and Miranda never had seen eye to eye.
"This has gone far enough, Azula! Your hunger for revenge will be the death of us all. I won't have it anymore. I the Illusive Man could see you now, he would agree with me. I hereby relive you of your command!" said Miranda forcefully.
All of the other Cerberus troops stood back. They had worked with Shadow before and they knew what the Phantom did to people who turned on her.
"Miranda, you'll get yourself killed!" said Jacob.
But Miranda ignored him and still kept her gun on Shadow. Surprisingly, the Phantom wasn't angry. In fact it seemed as though she was laughing under her helmet.
"You've made a grave mistake, Lawson." She said.
The two women started to slowly circle one another. Miranda kept her gun on Shadow, but the Phantom didn't reach for her sword like Miranda thought she would. Nor did she activate her wrist cannon.
"You don't scare me, Azula. I knew from the beginning that you where a mistake. You put Cerberus to shame." Said Miranda.
Shadow then laughed historically.
"You honestly think that I care about Cerberus anymore?! You are such a stupid bitch." She laughed.
At the mention of Shadow calling her a bitch, Miranda lost her temper and fired a shot.
The gun shot didn't do any damage at all and simply bounced off of Shadow's armour. The Phantom simply looked at where the round had hit and simply looked at Miranda with a look of smugness.
"Enough of this charade." She said as she walked up to Miranda.
Miranda immediately panicked and fired more shots. They just bounced off as well. Eventually Shadow got to close. Before Miranda could react in time, Shadow snatched the pistol out of her hand with her cybernetic hand and slapped Miranda in the face with her other, causing the Cerberus operative to fall.
"You're pathetic, Miranda. You boast of all perfect genes you have, yet you never live to a single one of you. The only thing you do right as strut around show off that pretty little ass of yours. Your father chose poorly when he kept you." Said Shadow. The Phantom then turned her back and slowly walked away. "Now fall in line. I won't tell you again."
Just as Shadow finished her sentence however, a small biotic warp hit her in the back of the head. The Phantom slowly turned to see Miranda getting back up, her nose bleeding slightly and her biotics flaring.
"I see. It's going to be like that now, is it?" said Shadow. She reached down and unclipped her sword and belt from her right hip and threw it to the Centurion.
Once again, the two women circled one another. Some of the troopers even started whooping and cheering slightly at the upcoming catfight. Jacob simply looked at the sight fearfully.
"You'll pay for what you said." Said Miranda coldly.
"Bring it on then, Cerberus bitch." Said Shadow.
Sure enough, Miranda attacked first and the two engaged in an extremely violent fight. They punched and kicked on another, they pulled each other's hair, they exchanged biotic punches and attacks even used some of the debris against one another.
Miranda was much better with her biotics, but Shadow's speed, agility, and strength outmatched hers greatly. Worse still, the cybernetic implants and her extreme rage didn't help either.
After several long minutes, Miranda felt herself tiring. Shadow on the other hand only seemed to go even more berserk. The Phantom's punches where so hard and fast that Miranda felt as though her jaw and ribs would crack and break any minute.
Now being beaten almost to the point of death, Miranda tried one last desperate attempt. She charge up her biotics as much as she could in her right hand and threw the punch at Shadow. But Shadow caught the Cerberus operative's wrist in her arm and gave it a very violent twist before the biotics could be properly unleashed.
Miranda screamed in pain as the bones in her wrist where completely broken. Taking advantage of Miranda's weakened and bloody state, Shadow punched Miranda several fast times with enough force to break her neck and then threw her to the ground.
Miranda made one desperate attempt to get up, but Shadow smashed away a bit of loose wall and it fell on Miranda.
Everyone fell silent as Shadow gazed down at her unconscious opponent. Miranda may have been defeated, but she had put up a hell of a fight. Shadow felt bruises all over her chest and breasts, her hair still sting from being pulled and she could taste blood in her mouth.
"Fucking bitch!" she spat as she literally spat out blood. "Anyone else?" she then asked threateningly as she looked at everyone. No one apart from Jacob said anything. He was crouched above Miranda and had her injured and almost beaten to death body in his arms.
"I won't fight you. But I won't follow you either." He said defiantly.
"Have it your way, Taylor." Said Shadow coldly. "You can stay here and rot with that freak."
Without another word, Shadow and the rest of her troops left, leaving just Jacob and an unconscious Miranda, who was bleeding very badly now.

All of Alpha Squad kept guard on the area as Austin, Sarah and Sandra made the communication to the Normandy.
"Alpha Squad to Normandy, do you copy?" said Sandra.
"We're receiving your signal, Miss Whryte." Came EDI's voice in reply.
"Who's that?" Sarah asked, slightly surprised to hear EDI's voice.
"That's EDI. The Normandy's AI." Austin replied.
"You have an AI on board?" Sarah asked.
"It's a long story. I'll explain later." Said Austin. He then went back to the message.
"We need evacuation from these coordinates." He said as he typed in the coordinates of the complex and sent them to the Normandy.
"The Normandy's systems have been repaired, but they still need more time to before we can fly again and reach you." Said EDI.
"Take your time. We have something else we need to take care of here anyway." Said Sarah.
"Is that Sarah?" came Joker's voice.
"Hello, Joker. Good to hear from you again." Sarah smiled.
"Same here, Lieutenant." Joker replied.
"It's Commander now, actually." Sarah corrected.
At this, everyone started to snigger slightly, trying to contain their laughter. Only Sarah and Austin didn't get it.
"What's so funny?" Sarah asked.
"Now we have to call you Commander Shepard." Dash said, still trying hard not to laugh too much.
"Oh, I see now. Yes, very funny." Said Austin sarcastically. He turned to Sarah, who still didn't get it. "That's what I'm often remembered by when I did all those deeds several years ago and when we stopped Saren." He explained.
Sarah then understood and nodded. She did give a small chuckle though.
"And I believe you've promoted again if I've heard right… Major." Sarah smiled slightly under her Death Mask.
"Well… I don't like to boast." Said Austin.
Sandra finished the call to the Normandy and deactivated the comm array.
"Call sent. We have maybe half an hour before the Normandy get's here." She said.
"More than enough time." Said Austin.
"Before we go, you might be interested in that console. It contains information on what Cerberus have been doing here. May even have more information on this Experiment 13." Said Sandra.
Austin, Sarah, and Liara went up to the console and activated it.
The information was immense. This sort of information would definitely benefit the Arkanes and the Helldivers. As Leena began copying the data onto her omni tool, Austin typed Experiment 13 in the search.
He wished he hadn't now, as his worst fears where realised. The holographic interface changed to show a long list next to a holographic image of the exact same creature that they'd been hiding from in the Kitchen.
"So you where right. Experiment 13 is that creature." Said Liara.
Austin went to the top of the contents and started reading.
"Experiment 13. Cloned from the DNA of a dinosaur and mutated and blended with skin tissue from Husks taken from Eden Prime and the Citadel. Further gene mutations where applied during growth. 13 demonstrates uncontrollable amounts of violence. Upon first examination, 13 attacked and killed nearly 20 Cerberus soldiers and scientists. 13 was been ladled as extremely dangerous and is to be kept under constant surveillance. 13 has been placed in extreme isolation from the other Experiments and has continued to show uncontrollable amounts of violence. Consequences are far too horrifying to imagine of Experiment ever broke free of confinement." He read out.
"Looks like it lived up to it's name then." Said Sarah.
"What do you mean?" Liara asked.
"The number 13 is often considered to be a very unlucky number among humans. It's had a long and bad history. This experiment just continues that. It was unlucky for Cerberus because it resulted in over 20 deaths." Sarah explained.
"That certainly makes certain parts of human history make sense." Said Liara.
Austin went back to the console and continued reading.
"13 is carnivorous and only ever eats meat. One test later proved that 13 prefers fresh blood as well and will always eat living prey while they are still alive. 13 hunts by using a combination of smell and sight. Eyesight is movement based and can only see prey that is moving. This has proven handy for studying the Experiment further. 13 however must only be approached when wearing special gear that hides pheromones and smell as it can smell prey even if it can't see them." He read.
"So that explains everything. I knew I shouldn't have worn this perfume today." Said Sarah.
"Isn't that the one I gave you for your birthday?" Liara asked.
"Let's stay focused here, Liara." Said Austin.
"Sorry, love." Said Liara.
Austin went back to reading further about Experiment 13.
"A weakness that 13 does appear to have is that it has a fear of fire. The fire does no hurt 13, but the constant movement of the flames confuses it's vision and makes the Experiment panic. This has proven useful when we have had to move 13 to a different cell, but we have had incidents where 13 has panicked too much and attempted to fight, resulting in the injuries and deaths of scientists and troopers. Many tests we have done have shown that 13 is dangerously intelligent. Even problem solving intelligence due to the DNA tampering giving it a secondary brain and large brain mass. As of yet, 13 has not attempted to escape from it's cell. But we fear it will try eventually. To make us even more concerned, the Illusive Man has recently requested that 13 be moved to the Artus complex. He thinks that 13 is the ideal test subject for the experimental mind control devices and that we can finally tame the creature. We have made sure that it is impossible for 13 to escape the tram it is being brought on, but we still worry that this is what 13 has been waiting for. If it escapes, we may never be able to find it. 13 can survive on the hostile conditions on Krelldoor, so there's no telling what it can do out there. Worse still, if it manages to get itself off-world, the consequences are too terrible to imagine. As if Project Overlord didn't have me worried already. Latest log, Dr Gavin Archer." Austin finished.
"So Cerberus created that thing? Now I have another reason to hate them. Creating a monster like that…" said Ventra.
"At least we know a bit more about it now. We use fire, that should drive it off." Said Liara.
"That's if we run into it again. If we're lucky, we won't encounter it." Said Austin. "Let's get to the complex's core."

They all took a very slow pace through the facility. They also listened out for any sign that Experiment 13 might be nearby. Austin had also told them that if there was any sign of movement, they where to freeze immediately and not move.
After walking through the dark and unlit corridors for what felt like hours, they finally reached their destination. The main reactor room was very large. The main central pylons where currently down inside the ground floor. Above them was a balcony that went all around the entire area.
"Okay, raise the reactor pylons and set the charges." Said Austin.
"Sarah walked up to a small control panel on the far side of the room and pressed a few buttons. Five reactor pylons slowly rose out of the ground. There where four of them with a much larger fifth one in the centre.
Griffin handed everyone an explosive charge and the Helldivers went to work on planting the charges onto the pylons.
Just as they where almost finished however, an alarm sounded throughout the entire area and the pylons suddenly retreated back into the floor. Everyone immediately went into battle formation.
"Stay sharp. I don' t think we're done with Cerberus yet." Said Austin.
There was long wait. Nothing happened. Then, a small device suddenly landed at their feet. Only too late did they notice that it was a flashbang grenade. The grenade detonated and Austin was temporarily blinded by a very bright light.
By the time it had cleared, Austin found that he was on his own. Then suddenly, several lights came on around the balcony. Then there came the sound of what sounded like a cry for help. Austin looked to the source of the noise and saw a wounded Alliance marine on top of the balcony.
"Help me." Said the marine weakly. But he was interrupted as a plasma shot suddenly hit him in the back and he fell over the edge.
Shadow and several other Cerberus troopers appeared on top of the balcony where the marine had just been, all laughing evilly. Austin immediately reacted and aimed his plasma cannon at Shadow. He'd just about had enough of this Phantom.
"Ah ah ah. I wouldn't do that if I where you." Said Shadow as she shook her cyborg finger warningly. "Show him what we got."
To Austin's horror, a large Cerberus centurion walked forward with a female figure dangling from the neck in his hand. It was Sarah! Plus, he could see some of the others had been captured as well. Shadow had clearly learned from last time.
"So Shepard, you here for the Alliance marines, your sister, or me?" Shadow asked confidently. She had power here now.
"I was only here for Sarah and the hostages." Said Austin as he switched off the targeting laser on his plasma cannon and it stood down. "But now, I'm taking you down too!"
Shadow didn't seem at all frightened or intimidated by this and simply laughed.
"Oh, I'm shaking in my boots." She laughed sarcastically.
"Aren't you scary." Taunted the Centurion as he laughed with Shadow.
"You're about to find out." Said Austin coldly.
"Are we really?" Shadow replied. "Listen, I'm what you might call… a Collector. Not the type your after, but still a Collector. If someone wants it, I like to think I have it. And if I don't have it, I'll get it."
Shadow then reached behind her back and took out one of the spikes on her back. This particular one had no skull on it and was just an empty spike.
"Now, I have a spike right here with your name on it, just waiting to have a skull impaled on it. And, as luck would have it, here you are, standing just where I want you. So, are you gonna be a good boy and give up now?" Shadow taunted.
"You're not giving orders here anymore, Shadow!" said Austin defiantly.
"I was hoping you'd say that." Shadow smiled evilly.
Several other normal Phantoms suddenly uncloaked on the high railings surrounding the arena shaped room.
"Look around you. These people are all begging to join up with my team. But unfortunately for them, I only take the best. And today, best means whoever can kill you!" said Shadow.
Shadow then gestured to all the other Phantom's.
"He's all yours, girls! It's initiation time!" she said.
All the other Phantoms leapt over the edge and landed around Austin, surrounding him. The Helldiver looked around for a moment, counting his enemies. He knew know how this was going to be. Austin slowly placed his Revenant on his back and drew Excalibur out of the holster on his back.
All the Phantom's went into fighting stances with all their swords pointed at the Helldiver. One Phantom lunged first and Austin blocked the blow and parried it. The parry was so fast that the Phantom didn't react in time and Excalibur cut her throat open. The other Phantom's reacted and swung at Austin. The Helldiver blocked and swung back at another Phantom, but this one ducked and then somersaulted over the Helldiver.
"They'd make good ninjas, and they'd certainly be a challenge for Xun. I'll give 'em that much." Austin thought as another Phantom lunged at him but missed, allowing him to counter the blow by breaking her arm and then stabbing her in the back.
Another Phantom lunged at him, but the Helldiver blocked the blow and then suddenly whirled around. His elbow connected with the Phantom's helmet which temporarily disorientated her. Seizing his chance, Austin ran the Phantom right through.
Shadow was growing irritated by this. Shepard had now killed three of the Phantoms and in just 10 seconds.
"Maybe I didn't make myself clear. If you don't kill him, you don't join me, so I kill you anyway!" Shadow yelled.
The other Phantom's seemed to respond to this and their swings and strikes seemed to get more aggressive. Austin however kept his cool and continued either parrying the blows, or striking and lunging back.
Austin however quickly attacked back and delivered several fast strikes on another Phantom, which she just managed to block. Another Phantom noticed that her comrade was in danger and she grabbed Austin by the special bit of armour that went over his neck and just below his helmet.
Before the Phantom could throw him anywhere however, Austin brought his left arm down on hers, causing the Phantom to lose her grip. Austin then swung his arm to the side and hit the Phantom right in the face, causing her to lose her balance and stager away from the others.
Austin then swung at another nearby Phantom. Unlike the others, this one failed to respond in time and Excalibur carved right through her armour, she was dead within seconds.
Austin then attacked another Phantom, but this one had learned from the others mistake. The Phantom brought her blade up and blocked his. Before Austin could react in time, the Phantom kicked him in the stomach so hard that sent him onto the floor.
Shadow, her troops, and some of the Phantoms laughed at this. Austin however was quick to get back up and went back into a fighting stance. The Phantom that had just kicked him earlier swung her sword at him, but Austin parried this blow. Another Phantom attempted the same move, but she simply got the same consequence.
The other Phantom that had kicked Austin earlier attempted another attack, but she did at exactly the same time as Austin then switched to attacking the other Phantom right next to her. As the Phantom missed her strike, she nearly hit another Phantom, but this one just managed to block the blow.
The Phantom that Austin had attacked meanwhile had parried his attack and had managed to pin his sword to the side. This rendered Austin unable to move and the Phantom seized her chance. She smashed her wrist into Austin's helmet, causing him to stagger backwards. This time he didn't fall over, but it did disorient him a bit.
Despite his skills, Austin knew that he couldn't beat them all. Their where still 10 more of them, and only one of him. Then there was also Shadow, and the other Cerberus forces still on the balcony above him.
As Austin managed to counter a lunge from another Phantom, causing her to be thrown into another Phantom and knocking them both to the ground, he noticed the supports to the balcony. A well placed plasma shot might just collapse it, and maybe… just maybe, he could free the others.
As he managed to cut down another Phantom, Austin activated his plasma cannon and aimed it at the support. He didn't have a clear shot, but he didn't have much choice. Hoping that it would hit, Austin fired.
The plasma shot through the air and just managed to hit the support. It slowly cracked and bent and the whole balcony gave way. It tumbled to the ground in a massive heap of rubble.
All the other Phantom's where left rather stumped by this and simply pointed their swords at Austin.
Shadow punched her way out of the wreckage. Several of her troops also followed, but there was no sign of Alpha Squad or Sarah. Austin smiled under his helmet. It looked as though it had worked. Now he just had to wait for the right moment.
"Well played, Shepard. Even I wouldn't have thought of that in this sort of situation." Said Shadow as she kicked away more of the debris until she was free.
The Phantom's still didn't do anything and waited for their mistress's order. Austin and Shadow now circled one another.
"I've had enough of this now, Azula. Stop hiding behind all these soldiers and fight me yourself. Or are you too much of a coward now?!" Austin taunted.
"Proud and insolent youth!" Shadow growled as her left hand reached for her sword.
Shadow's blade was not as fine as Excalibur. In fact, hers was more the usual sword that Phantom's where given. The blade was specially infused with some biotics powers though which enabled Shadow to throw it and summon back with her biotic powers.
"Prepare to meet thy doom." Said the Phantom as she drew her sword out of it's holster and pointed it at Austin.
Austin attacked first and swung at Shadow. The Phantom immediately parried the attack with her blade and attempted a counter attack by extending the knives out of her cyborg and swinging at Austin. The Helldiver however brought the blade on his elbow up just in time to block the attack.
That however didn't stop Shadow and she gave Austin a violent push and he smashed against the wall. Austin however was quick to recover from this and he jumped at Shadow, stabbing at her in the process.
The Phantom parried around the attack and threw Austin away. Immediately, the other Phantom's surrounded the Helldiver and pointed their swords at him.
"Leave him!" Shadow yelled before they could attack Austin. "He's mine!"
"Now!" Austin yelled.
As soon as the words left Austin's mouth, all of Alpha Squad and Sarah suddenly jumped out of the shadows and started fighting the Cerberus troopers.
Despite that all of her forces where now being attacked however, Shadow didn't let up and lunged another strike at Austin. Their duel continued amongst all the other fights until they ended up in a blade lock with one another.
"This ends here, Shepard! Only one of us will walk away from this fight." Said Shadow.
"Very well then, Azula. Ready to lose the other one?" Austin taunted.
"Not this time!" Shadow growled, and she pushed Austin off of her before going back into her fighting stance.
Austin found Shadow to be a lot more challenging this time round. When they had last fought, Shadow had used her right hand, hence why Austin had cut it off. Now she was fighting with her left and her skills seemed even better than before. The only logical conclusion could be that Shadow was ambidextrous, so she had not really need to relearn her skills again, she had just had to get used to using her left hand to duel now.
The two blades clashed against one another so hard that each strike drew sparks. While Shadow was more aggressive in her strikes, she was very light on her feet, plus her martial arts training and slim form gave her the added speed that she needed. Austin on the other hand had more experience with fencing. He usually did compared to his opponents. He maintained a calm and controlled speed as he swung, thrust and parried at Shadow. He also had a bit more strength than her, so his strikes had the same amount of force as hers. Austin's armour also gave him a slightly better reflex advantage than Shadow, so he was able to keep up with her speed.
Overall, both where evenly matched opponents. Whatever weaknesses one of them had, worked to the other's strength, and whatever strengths they had, worked to the others weaknesses. It was almost as though they where perfect mirrors of one another.
As the rest of the fighting continued around them, Austin kept trying to think of something.
"Her advantage: Her cybernetics. My advantage: Her rage." Austin said in his head as he missed a hard blow from Shadow.
Shadow then attempted a low swing at Austin's middle section. The Helldiver narrowly managed to avoid this by performing an awfully complex move that he'd learned from Xun a long time ago. Just as Shadow's swing got close, Austin seemed to just roll right over his opponent. Now he was behind her. Before he could attempt to attack Shadow from behind however, the Phantom whirled around and, her cybernetic hand clenched into a fist. Austin had only just enough time to dodge under it as her cyborg arm swept over him and punched away a huge chunk of a pillar behind him.
Once again behind Shadow, Austin attempted a swinging strike at her, but the Phantom reacted fast. Shadow brought her cybernetic right arm up in defence as Excalibur swung at her. There was a metallic clang as her cyborg wrist blocked the sword.
Shadow couldn't help but be rather unnerved by this. If she'd still had her proper right arm now, she would've lost it again with that move. Plus, that had been very close to her helmet. Another second too soon or to late and Excalibur might have also cost her another eye.
"Cut it rather close there, didn't I?" Austin taunted.
"Shut up!" Shadow yelled as she pushed her cyborg wrist forward, as well as Austin blade and made a swing at him with her own. The Helldiver managed to block it. He then went for another attack at Shadow, but the Phantom his wrist and pushed it to one side. As she made a very high lunge at him however, Austin brought his blade up just in time and pushed the attack away.
The two opponents exchanged several glancing blows, swipes, lunges and parries at one another as they moved back and forth across the room as the rest of the battle with Cerberus continued around them.
Another downward strike at Shadow from Austin missed it's target, allowing the Phantom the chance at an opening. She brought her blade above her head in both hands and went to bring it down on the Helldiver. Austin however brought his left arm up and it blocked Shadow's arms. As he pushed the Phantom off, Austin made another swing at his opponent. Shadow returned this with an upward swing, but Austin quickly turned out of the way. Shadow was quick with her reflexes though and she then changed the upward swing to a downward one. Austin also reacted fast though and whirled around again. He pushed hard with Excalibur as Shadow brought blade down on his with such force.
The two opponents once again glared at each other through their lock and through their helmets. From inside his Helldiver helmet, Austin risked a few glances at some of the other Helldivers.
Liara was duelling with another Phantom with her sword. Both her and the Phantom where evenly matched with sword training, but Liara was slightly better, plus her biotics where way more powerful. Biotics that Liara was putting to very good use.
Alaara and Sandra where fighting off both another Phantom and a Nemesis, Kraan and X-5 where concentrating on the mechs, Ventra and Garrus had stuck to the high ground and where shooting with their snipers. Leena was also up top with the snipers as she used one of her auto turrets and Dash was fighting with several Cerberus troopers alongside Griffin. Sarah meanwhile was duelling with a Centurion using her omni blade. The N7 marine didn't do fencing like her brother, but she had learned a few tricks from him. Tricks that she was putting to good use against the Centurion.
Austin pushed Shadow off of him. The Phantom whirled around and the two simply glared at one another as Austin advanced slowly on Shadow and she backed away slightly.
Austin then made a high lunge at Shadow's head, but she moved her head back before the sword touched her. Shadow then swung up at Excalibur and her blade met Austin's once again. Shadow kept pushing as she attempted to parry Excalibur out of Austin's hand. The Helldiver however did not let go.
Still the duel continued as Helldiver and Phantom battled back and forth across the spot where the pylons where. From the looks of things, everyone else was holding their own quite well against Cerberus. Liara in particular was now duelling with two Phantoms at the same time. Austin would need to remember to try and spar with her again when he could find the time.
The shear speed of the duel was almost a blur as the two struck violently, swung their swords at one another, and parried each other's attacks.
A small twist from Shadow's wrist caused Austin's blade to end up a bit too far out and Shadow kicked him. The Phantom lunged at the Helldiver as he spun, but Austin still managed to block Shadow's attacks.
Irritated by this, Shadow made a two handed swing at Austin, but the Helldiver managed to stop spinning just in time and blocked the attack with his own two handed defence. The Helldiver then swung at Shadow, but she dodged it and used her cyborg hand to punch Austin very hard in the helmet.
As Austin whirled around from the punch however, he simply punched Shadow back and she too spun as she was knocked back. The two opponents simply glared at one another for a long time before Shadow finally struck again. Austin countered several of Shadow's strikes and even just managed to block the Phantom's other attack as she tried to elbow him in the face.
Austin pushed Shadow away which caused the Phantom to end up facing away from her opponent. Austin saw this as huge opportunity and he lunged at the Phantom. Rather surprisingly though, Shadow still managed to block and parry the blows, even with her back turned.
Shadow then whirled round again and the now struck back at Austin properly. Once again though, Austin dodged or parried her attacks. He could no longer deny that he was starting to break a sweat a bit. This didn't come as too much of a surprise though. Shadow had always been his most challenging opponent.
Shadow made a side thrust at Austin, but the Helldiver parried it away. He then grabbed Shadow blade arm and attempted to swing at Shadow's head. The Phantom managed to stop it, but Excalibur got extremely close to her helmet. Shadow pushed the blade away with all her might and gave Austin a very sharp kick in the helmet.
Austin staggered back very far and ended up I some of the destroyed scaffolding of the destroyed balcony.
Shadow slowly made her way towards him, scraping the end of her sword on the ground as she did so. The Phantom once again swung at Austin and the duel resumed. Due to the confined space, both opponents' swords left scratches and marks all over the place as they duel underneath and inside the scaffolding, which eventually resulted in Austin managing to kick Shadow against a nearby ladder. The Phantom moved out of the way however just as Austin attempted a downward strike on her and Excalibur ended up severing the already broken ladder in half.
Shadow backed away very slowly as Austin advanced on her, both opponents ready to strike again. The fighting all around them was now heating up. Liara had managed to kill one of the Phantoms she'd been duelling with and was now fighting the other one back to back with Sarah, who was also still fighting the Centurion with her omni blade.
Austin once again lunged at Shadow with Excalibur, the Phantom countered all the attacks but the final two handed one knocked her back. Austin swung again at her, but she ducked right under it.
Once again, the two opponents glared at one another for a long moment, waiting for the other to make the first move. Shadow then made a very surprising move as she swung upwards, scraping her sword against the ground and chucking sparks at her opponent in the process.
As Austin was temporarily blinded by the sparks, Shadow locked blades with him and pushed him right up against the wall. Both opponents' swords scratched violently against the wall and left very deep marks.
Austin managed to push Shadow off but she once again lunged at him. As both opponents duelled against wall, they seemed to cause all sorts of different marks. Finally though, Shadow's elbow connected sharply with the Helldivers helmet and he staggered back into the clear. Still neither side was gaining the advantage. The Helldivers where good, but it seemed as though Cerberus was just as good. Austin could only hope by some miracle that he managed to kill Shadow. Without her, the rest of Cerberus probably wouldn't fight so well without their leader.

Sarah was starting to sweat inside her N7 armour. The Centurion she was fighting against was putting up a very hard fight which was starting to tire her out. She might have been good with an omni blade, but she was nowhere near as good as her brother.
Suddenly, the Centurion gave her a very violent kick, sending her flying into another room connected with the large generator room. Sarah struggled to get back up as the Centurion followed her through the hole.
Just as the Centurion readied for a strike however, the whole place suddenly shook. Sarah immediately froze as this happened. No! Surely it couldn't be happening again!
But sure enough, Sarah could see a large shadow through a nearby doorway being cast by a unseen creature just around the corner. Sarah knew that shadow immediately. It was Experiment 13! The noise of all the fighting was obviously attracting it, not to mention how hungry it must be for live prey.
All of this was happening behind the Centurion, so he didn't see it. But he too froze when he started to hear 13's heavy breathing. Sarah remembered what her brother had read about 13's movement based vision and remained absolutely still. The Centurion on the other hand, slowly turned around. Although he did it very slowly, that was still enough for 13 to see him as the creature slowly rose up to its full height on its second pair of arms right in front of the Cerberus soldier.
The Centurion was petrified as he looked in shock at the massive creature standing in front of him. 13 snarled at the Centurion as he froze, the freeze however was only temporary and the Centurion threw his gun up and pointed it at 13. The Experiment however moved just as fast and thrust one of its hands forward. The spike stabbed right through the Centurion's armour and also came out the back as well. Sarah did her best to look away as some of the Centurion's blood sprayed onto her armour.
The Centurion grimaced in pain as 13 hoisted him up to eye level. He was now helpless in the grip of this savage creature. 13 gave a hungry snarl which sounded almost like an evil grin as it bore all three rows of its razor sharp teeth. Despite the Experiment's lifeless eyes, it looked hungry.
The Centurion struggled violently to free himself as he got closer and closer literally to the jaws of death. Surprisingly, 13 did seem a bit put off by the Centurion's struggles, but this was short lived as the Experiment's other hand closed around the Centurion's neck and snapped it.
Sarah immediately shut her eyes and looked away as the Centurion went limp in 13's hands. This would not be a pleasant sight.
Sure enough, 13's mouth opened wide and it started eating. Sarah could hear the loud sounds of crunching armour, bones being broken, teeth cleaving through flesh, and the very disturbing sound of 13 feasting hungrily on the Centurion.
After several painful seconds, Sarah risked a quick glance. 13 had ripped off the Centurion's entire left arm, a massive part of the chest, the head, and even had a the other arm dangling by a small flesh strand.
Sarah quickly looked away from the sight, fearing that she might be sick at the sight. She looked at 13's shadow instead. As she looked however, 13 seemed to start acting odd. It sounded as though it was sniffing the air or trying to listen. Then it looked through the hole she'd been kicked through before.
Sarah's eyes widened with horror as she realized what the Experiment was doing. It was still being attracted by all the fighting in the reactor room. 13 gave another snarl as it slowly made its way through the hole, still carrying the mutilated Centurion body.

The fighting still continued inside the core room. Alpha Squad where holding their ground, but Cerberus was still putting up a fight. Austin and Shadow meanwhile where still duelling. Neither one of them was winning and Austin was starting to tire.
The two ended up in another blade lock and tried desperately to push each other back. The two enemies glared at one another.
"So what now, Shepard?" Shadow panted slightly. "We be two even matched opponents locked in an epic battle until judgement day?"
"Or you could surrender?" Austin suggested.
Shadow did not take kindly to this and pushed even harder. Before things could go any further however, a sudden scream of pain distracted them both. Experiment 13 had burst through the window and had caught one of the Phantoms in its jaws.
Both Austin and Shadow temporarily separated as they watched the Experiment. The other Cerberus troops seemed to panic at the sight of this monster but somehow they still seemed to want to continue fighting. On the plus side though, this did confuse manage to confuse 13 slightly as it's movement based vision was rather stumped by all the fighting and the Experiment had trouble distinguishing everything properly.
The Experiment emitted a blood curdling roar and entered the fray. Ventra immediately took notice of 13. He quickly detached his bow from his sniper so it was now just a bow, and took an arrow out of the special quiver on his back. Within seconds, he sighted along the arrow and released the string.
The arrow shot right at Experiment 13's hide and pierced the Experiment's skin, but somehow it didn't seem to hurt. 13 only uttered a simple grunt of pain rather than a scream. Rather unluckily, the Experiment even seemed to know where the arrow had been fired from and it swung both its main arms at the balcony. Garrus and Ventra just managed to get out of the way in time, Ventra managing to grab Leena in the process as 13's arm smashed through the entire balcony and brought it tumbling to the floor.
Ventra ended up right at 13's feet, and unfortunately for him, 13 saw him. Just as the creature prepared to attack however, the chain that appeared to be hanging around its neck tightened. Griffin and Dash had managed to get a hold of it and where now pulling as hard as they could on it. Fortunately, this seemed to do the trick and 13 now turned its attention to them instead.
Griffin ducked to avoid 13's swing, but Dash didn't react fast enough and the Experiment's arm knocked him half way across the room. Dash smashed rather hard into a wall and was left temporarily disorientated. So much so that he failed to notice a Phantom standing right over him, and with her sword in hand.
Griffin however, saw this just in time. Quick as he could, the targeting reticule appeared inside his helmet. It locked onto the Phantom and Griffin wasted no time in firing. Griffin's dual shoulder cannons flipped out from behind his back and they fired two large balls of plasma.
The Phantom only just noticed this in time before the plasma hit her and she screamed as it practically dissolved her.
Dash slowly got up as he managed to clear his senses. He simply nodded to Griffin as a sign of thanks. The demolition expert nodded back.
Experiment 13 meanwhile had abandoned the two Helldivers and had now gone back to picking off some of Cerberus forces. During the whole commotion, Kraan and X-5 had been dealing with some of the more heavily armed troopers. Unfortunately for them however, that was group that 13 was now attacking.
Both Kraan and X-5 continued fighting as they tried desperately to dodge the swings from 13's large arms. Instead, the attacks ended up killing the lesser armoured Cerberus troopers. 13 smashed several of them aside before it smashed one that managed to topple Kraan to the ground.
13 also noticed this and prepared to crush the Krogan with it's arm. Before it could however, Ventra saw this. Ventra quickly took two arrows from his quiver and aimed at 13. He knew this wouldn't kill the Experiment, but it would at least give Kraan enough time to get out of the way. Ventra released the string and both arrows shot at their target.
Experiment 13 roared in pain as the two arrows pierced its flesh, causing it to stagger backwards and away from Kraan, who quickly got back on his feet.
The rest of the fighting was still happening throughout the entire room. Ventra in particular was now on a slightly higher ground and was fighting with two troopers. The two sharp blades on his bow came in very handy for this and he also had a large combat knife on his back. Just as he cut down one of the troopers and stabbed the other one however, he saw 13 looking up right at him. It seemed the Experiment had seen him moving earlier and it lunged at him. The Experiment's massive jaws snapped several times at the Turian Helldiver as he managed to avoid the rows of teeth.
Just as he tried to run however, he tripped on a loose bit of metal. 13 now had a clear shot at him and its mouth started heading at him. Just before the teeth touched him however, 13's head suddenly pulled back. The chain had got caught on something.
Ventra immediately saw this as an opening. Ignoring the slight pain in in his shoulder from falling on it, Ventra ran at the Experiment's head and climbed up. 13 immediately tried to shake the Turian off, but with the chain holding it against the balcony, those efforts where in vain.
Ventra wasted no time in taking another arrow and aiming right at where 13's brain was. As he released the string however and the arrow shot at 13's hide however, something rather surprising happened. Instead of going through, the arrow simply bounced off. Although it left a mark ad 13 did seem to emit a small howl of pain, it clearly hadn't done any significant damage. Ventra had feared as much that 13's crest was too hard. He was beginning to doubt whether this thing could be killed now. That had probably been the only way of critically injuring 13, anything else didn't seem to hurt it, not even bullets.
Ventra knew that he had now just made 13 even angrier, and he quickly jumped off the creatures head, just as it gave a very violent pull and the chain around its neck broke completely. The Experiment took a moment to regain its bearings. Then it noticed one particular figure among the fighting. Shadow.
Shadow was rather unnerved by the sight of this abomination, but it took more than that to frighten her. She calmly stood her ground and activated the plasma cannon in her cyborg arm as 13 snarled at her. She aimed at 13 and pulled the trigger. However, instead of a bolt of plasma cannon firing out, nothing happened and there was nothing but a clicking sound.
Shadow looked down at the plasma cannon and opened up a small compartment on it. It was empty. Shadow found this extremely odd. Where had the plasma cores gone?
"Lost something?" she heard a voice say.
Shadow looked to see Austin standing on one of the high levels holding two glowing bullet like objects in his hand.
"Bastard!" Shadow swore, realizing that Shepard had done the exact same thing that she'd done earlier when she'd taken the thermal clip out of his gun. To make matters even worse for her, 13 had seen the movements she'd made and it was now on to her. The Experiment snarled at the Phantom and lunged at her, Shadow reflexes however enabled her to dodge 13's massive jaws as they snapped at her.
As 13's teeth just managed to miss her, Shadow swung her sword at the Experiment's head. To her surprise however, although the sword hit 13's crest, it didn't cause any damage whatsoever. All it did was just leave a scratch and sparks, but no blood. Rather to Shadow fright even, 13 almost seemed to smile and make an attempt on what could very easily seem like a laugh.
13 once again snarled at Shadow and snapped at her several times. The Phantom's agility enabled her to dodge the Experiment, but only just. Shadow had fought several opponents in her time, but this… creature was something else.
13 snapped at the Phantom again. But this time, Shadow jumped onto the Experiment's head. 13 struggled violently to shake the Phantom off, but she hung on very tightly.
Austin watched from the higher levels as Experiment 13 attempted to shake Shadow off of its head. He wanted for him and the others to run, but at the same time he felt that his was wrong.
13 then suddenly screamed in agony as Shadow stabbed her sword into its hide. At this, Austin knew that he couldn't let this happen. 13 may have been a vicious creature, but even it didn't deserve to die in this way. It was after all just an animal following it's instincts.
All the other Helldivers watched in shock as Austin took a running jump and leapt onto 13's back. Shadow noticed this and withdrew her sword from the Experiment's back. Somehow, the Experiment now seemed completely oblivious to the two opponents that where sword fighting on its back and it simply went back to hunting and killing the rest of Cerberus.
"He's mad!" said Dash to Griffin as the two continued fighting with the Cerberus troopers they'd been fighting.
Surprisingly, Griffin was doing very well at this. Because all the troopers where at close range, he couldn't really use his minigun on them. Instead he'd resorted to using it as melee weapon. The large blade on the front was proving very useful. Plus, Griffin was putting his larger gauntlet to good use as a punching hand.
"Think I'm getting the hang of this." He chuckled to Dash as he knocked away another Cerberus trooper with the minigun. Dash smiled back at him under his helmet, which was only interrupted when Griffin quickly pushed his head down to then punch a Nemesis in the head with is gauntlet.
Shadow had no more patience for Austin, especially in this situation. She made a low lunge at his legs, but the Helldiver's wrist turned with some skill and blocked her attack, making her stumble slightly. The Phantom quickly regained her balance and eyed her opponent. Austin beckoned to her with his sword. He wanted a challenge it seemed. So be it.
The two swordsmen exchanged a flurry of blows, parries, feints and ripostes on the back of Experiment 13, who was still completely oblivious to the sword fight on its back as it resumed its attack on the other Cerberus troopers.
Austin then accidently lost his balance for a moment and toppled over. Shadow seized her chance and delivered a lunging blow at Austin. Right at the last moment however, the Helldiver managed to get back up and blocked the Phantom's sword. The two ended up in a blade lock and kept trying to overpower each other with their strength.
"Still you fight like a young man. Eager to begin, quick to perish." Shadow snarled right before she delivered a swift punch to Austin's stomach.
The punch was so hard that it knocked Austin right off of 13's back and he hit the ground very hard. In fact the sheer weight of his armour left a rather large dent in the grated floor.
"Ha! I can read your every move!" Shadow laughed as she jumped down from Experiment 13's back and landed on her feet.
Austin was slowly getting back up but he was very dazed by the kick. His chest really hurt from landing on it. His senses where clear enough though that he could sense Shadow slowly approaching him from behind. This had gone far enough! Very carefully, his free hand gripped the handle of his combat knife and he gently withdrew it from its holster on his chest.
Shadow readied her blade for the finishing move to run the Helldiver right through. Just as she brought her blade down however, Austin swung round and knocked the Phantom's attack aside with Excalibur. Shadow wasn't phased by this, but that was before Austin's other arm thrust right at her. She only too late noticed the combat knife in his hand right as it carved right through her armour and straight into her heart.
"Read this… bitch!" Austin growled right as he then ran Shadow through with Excalibur as well.
Shadow simply looked in horror at the two blades impaled in her chest. All she could do was stare at Austin's Helldiver helmet as she felt the life leave her and her vision went dark.
Austin withdrew both the knife and Excalibur from Shadow's chest and watched the dying Phantom stagger back slightly, clutching the wound in her chest which was now leaking lot of blood.
What happened next took Austin completely by surprise. Experiment 13 suddenly grabbed Shadow in its jaws and hauled her up into the air. Shadow could only scream in agony as 13 shook it's head from side to side so violently that the Phantom's lower half was literally torn away from her body.
13 swallowed the upper half, then scooped up the other half in its mouth and swallowed. Although he couldn't tell for certain, Austin was sure that 13 had enjoyed the taste.
The Helldiver couldn't help but smile slightly as he breathed a sigh of relief. Shadow was finally dead and he really doubted that she'd make a surprise comeback again. He seriously doubted that the Phantom could survive being ripped in half.
Austin made sure to stay absolutely still as 13 looked around slightly. The Experiment still looked hungry for more live prey. Painfully long seconds passed as 13 looed in Austin's direction. Then 13 started looking elsewhere.
Just as it did however, there was rather large explosion very near to Austin causing him to stagger to the side slightly from the force. Austin looked in the explosions location to see that Griffin had fired a plasma shot in his direction by accident since the demolition expert had a Nemesis wrestling with him with one of her hands trying to grab at his plasma cannon.
Austin relaxed for a moment, but then he realised that he'd moved.
"Oh crap." He groaned as he saw 13 drew itself up to its full height, then it snarled and roared at him.
All Austin could do now was run and dodge 13's jaws. He had no idea how he was supposed to kill this thing. Nearly everything they'd tried had failed. 13 also seemed to be snapping at the other Helldivers as well. There were no more Cerberus troopers in the reactor room now, so they were the only food the Experiment could have now. As Austin now knew, 13 always preferred to eat its prey while they still alive.
Suddenly, Austin felt his foot slip and he tumbled to the ground.
13 stood over the stumbled Helldiver who was trying to get back up. He couldn't get a good grip on the floor. Something on the floor was making it very slippery. Just as 13 opened its jaws to grab the Helldiver though, a sharp pain suddenly surged from its neck. The experiment looked to see an arrow embedded in its neck.
13 looked to the source of the arrow to see Ventra once again on the high ledge from earlier.
"Over here you ugly bastard!" the Turian yelled.
13 roared angrily at the Helldiver and attempted to claw and bite at him as Ventra kept distracting the experiment long enough for Austin to get back up.
Austin eventually managed to get back on his feet. As he did, he looked at one of his hands. It was covered in oil. Austin then looked at the rest of the ground and saw that that too was covered in oil. It had leaked out of a nearby tank somewhere. It was at that moment that Austin suddenly remembered. 13 retreated from fire, and 13 had the perfect weapon for setting it alight.
"Ventra!" he yelled.
The Turian looked to Austin. Unfortunately, so too did Experiment 13. Austin quickly held up the hand that was covered in the oil so that Ventra could see.
"Light it!" he yelled.
Ventra nodded, immediately understanding. As 13 began snapping at Austin again, he took another arrow from his back. This time, he clicked a small switch on his bow and a flame lit up from a small muzzle on the end. The flame quickly ignited the tip of the arrow and Ventra now had a flaming arrow in his hand.
Ventra brought the string of his bow back to his chin, sighted along the arrow and waited. He was not going to fire until Austin was clear of the oil. If he got this wrong, he could just light Austin on fire.
"Anytime now!" Austin yelled worriedly as he managed to dodge 13's jaws.
13 waited just a little longer before he finally let the string loose and the arrow shot right at where 13's feet where about to be. Austin heard the shot and jumped, just as 13's jaws made another snap at him only to catch nothing but thin air.
13 saw Austin once again land on the floor. Just as it readied for a strike however, Ventra's arrow whizzed past it's face and the fiery tip made contact with the oil. Almost immediately, the oil ignited and a massive fire barrier immediately ignited right in front of the massive experiment. The massive barrier of fire just managed to separate Austin from 13 as the experiment skidded to a stop in front of the fire.
Sure enough, 13 seemed to look around desperately. The white slits retracted from over the eyes. They now looked worried, confused. As expected, the constant movement of the fire was confusing 13's vision. The Experiment did indeed now look and the verge of panicking. It roared at the fire in a vague attempt to make the fires retreat. Nothing happened. 13 started panicking even more and desperately tried roaring again, this time it's roar was more drawn out and almost in fright.
After several roars of fright, the Experiment knew that this barrier would not retreat. 13 slowly began retreating. In the process Ventra, who was still on the balcony, failed to notice that 13 was retreating his way. As 13 swung around to head away from the fire, it knocked one of the supports. Ventra lost his balance as the balconies support cracked.
"VENTRA!" Leena screamed as she watched the balcony collapse into the fire, taking Ventra with it.
13 gave one last mighty roar before it finally retreated into the shadows and disappeared from site. It was over.
"VENTRA!" Leena cried as she fell to her knees, almost on the point of tears.
Everyone else was completely speechless. They had just lost one of their own. They had never thought this would ever happen, considering all that they'd been through and survived. Especially Ventra. Ventra always had been the survivor of the group.
"I… I've lost him. And I never told him… I never told him anything…" Leena sobbed.
"Something I should know?" said a voice.
Everyone head's immediately turned to the source of the voice. There stood Ventra, rather singed from the fire, but definitely alive. To everyone's surprise, Leena then moved faster than she had ever done in her life as she got back up into her feet and flung herself at the Turian as she hugged him. The Turian was very surprised by this, but he quickly hugged the Quarian back.
"You were saying…" Ventra asked, surprised.
"It can wait." Said Leena, not willing to reveal her little secret in front of everyone else.
"You always where a survivor." Said Garrus as he patted Ventra on the back.
"You sure you're alright, Ventra? You look very burnt." Austin asked concernedly.
"I'm fine. My sniper though sadly wasn't so lucky." Ventra replied as he held up a very badly burnt sniper rifle. Even Austin could tell that the sniper was way beyond repair. His old one after all had suffered the same fate when he'd died two years ago.
Everyone looked rather sorry for Ventra, but the Turian didn't seem disappointed at all.
"I actually preferred the bow anyway. I'll think I'll just stick with that from now on. Besides, should let Garrus try and catch up." He said.
Garrus and Austin simply chuckled. Suddenly, there was the sound of a door opening. Everyone immediately whirled round, guns at the ready. Even Ventra tossed aside his now useless sniper rifle and once again unfolded the bow from his back and drew another arrow.
Rather than the expected Cerberus soldiers however, in the doorway was a single man carried a bloodied woman in his arms. Both had Cerberus logos on their uniforms.
"Please. Help her. She's going to die unless she gets medical attention." Jacob begged.
"They're both Cerberus. I say kill them." Said Alaara.
"Does it look like we're in any condition to stab you in the back. We'll do anything you want. Clap us in irons, take us prisoner. Hell! We both surrender. Just please help Miranda. I can't lose her." Jacob begged again.
Austin slowly lowered his M-76 Revenant.
"Alpha Squad, stand down. We do not kill a person when they have surrendered." He said.
"This is Cerberus you're talking about, Shepard. You honestly think they'd show us the same courtesy?!" said Alaara, slightly surprised that the Major would let two Cerberus troopers live.
"I hate them just as much as you do, Alaara. But you know the Helldiver code as well as I do. Plus, this is my call." Said Austin calmly.
"Yes sir." Alaara eventually replied. She did sound a bit reluctant though.
"Griffin, give Lawson some medi gel." Said Austin.
Griffin nodded in acknowledgement and gently took Miranda's unconscious body from Jacob.
"You, keep your hands where we can see them. I may have agreed to help you, but that still doesn't mean I trust you." Austin continued.
A few minutes passed as Griffin and Sarah worked on applying the medi gel to Miranda's wounds. Eventually, the bleeding stopped and the wounds slowly sealed back up.
Miranda groaned slightly as she opened her eyes. Jacob knelt down next to her.
"What? Where am I?" Miranda groaned.
"You're still in Arturus station. Relax, you're in safe hands now, Miranda Lawson." Austin replied.
"Helldiver Company isn't what I would call safe hands." Miranda wheezed as she clutched her side in pain.
"Hey! Be nice! We just save your life, Miss." Said Griffin harshly.
"Don't talk to her like that." Jacob objected.
"You looking for a problem?" Griffin asked challengingly.
"Well, I found you didn't I?" Jacob replied rudely.
That immediately threw Griffin over the edge and he lunged at Jacob. The two wrestled with one another before the rest of Alpha Squad managed to separate them.
"Enough! Both of you!" Austin yelled as Griffin and Jacob where pried apart. The Major turned first to the demolition expert. "Griffin, calm down!" He ordered sternly. He then turned to Jacob. "And you, you're practically our prisoner now. So you'd better watch who you talk to like that!"
"I apologise." Jacob replied coldly.
"Wait, I know you. You're that Jacob Taylor bastard, aren't you?!" said Sarah.
"You know him?" Austin asked, surprised.
"Not personally. He was an Alliance corsair a few years ago. He defected to Cerberus a few weeks after the Geth attacked Eden Prime." Sarah explained, giving Jacob a cold look as she said it.
"I choice I'm now beginning to regret." The man replied.
"Really? You regret joining Cerberus? You expect us to believe that?!" said Alaara sarcastically.
"Listen, I have a proposal for you all." Said Jacob.
"Make it quick then. I have little patience for Cerberus." Said Austin.
And with that, Jacob voiced his proposal to Alpha Squad. His proposal, of defection.

Best that I stop it here. I should have Chapter 18 up soon. I promise you now that the wait for that one will not be as long. I'll admit now that I did get a bit of writers block while writing this and I just needed a break. Now it's gone and I'm fully motivated to get back to writing.
See you soon. Just like to say also, Shadow won't be making a comeback anymore. She's definitely dead. I can also say that Experiment 13 will make a n appearance in ME3 as well. I was going to kill him off at the end, but I've come up with a much better idea that allows him to live.
Anyway, hope you've enjoyed this, and see you soon!
- 16
- 17
- 18
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Mass Effect: The Helldiver Saga, The Collector War