The battle did not subside. Periodic shelling from orbit could not help the mercenary rabble break through the Red Army soldiers. Through clouds of dust and explosions, fierce, well-coordinated fire rained down on them, grinding the living and mechanical forces of the mercenaries like a meat grinder.
The ancient ruins, along with the traces of the archaeologists' work, created a good defensive position, allowing the guard company, despite being outnumbered, to control all approaches.
At the same time, the "Argentum" operatives were hastily retreating to eliminate the threat to the Prothean beacon and valuable specialists...
In this chaos, the shot of a sniper rifle sounded almost inaudibly.
"Predictable," – Shep read from the lips through the scope a moment before the bullet left his weapon. Realizing what was about to happen, he began to move, without confirming the hit, making a dash from his chosen position.
The Ghost casually turned his head aside, responding to the danger with a wave of his hand, simultaneously dodging the maliciously hissing reactive bullet and counter-attacking the sniper.
Behind the lieutenant colonel, a real hell broke loose. The perch atop the ancient ruins was destroyed by a monstrous telekinetic strike. Invisible energy ground stone into weightless powder, nearly turning Shep into a bloody mist. His speed, many times exceeding that of an ordinary person, was barely enough to escape death and dismemberment.
The crunch of ancient concrete and stone drowned out the distant cannonade of orbital fire on the surface. It also drowned out the answering fire of the ATGM batteries with its loudness, completely suppressing the barking sounds of the coordinated fire of the Red Army soldiers, who were gradually pushing the armed rabble from the excavation site.
As an excellent telekinesis user himself, he managed to anticipate the attack, but not its power, starting to move before the invisible vise closed. "Dangerous! I could only repeat something like that with concentration and preparation," he noted, seeing the result of his commander's dash towards the target.
The Plutonium sword, describing a furiously buzzing arc, rushed in a bluish streak towards the neck of his former comrade. The living dead, who had become a ghost of himself, did not block or counterattack. Instead, he chose to dodge, saying:
"Too big a swing," the words flew from his lips, giving his face a semblance of its former life.
Dodging the thrust, twisting his torso, the Ghost struck the sword of justice with a fist from below, forcing the two-handed weapon to fly upwards. Deliberately slowly, as if for show, the fallen one struck with two polymer pulverizer brass knuckles, creating a bright flash. It momentarily blinded both the eyes and the electronics of his opponent's armor, causing him to momentarily lose his rhythm. The fallen one took advantage of this mistake, accelerating instantly. Now the dead man blurred into a gray shadow in his dash.
Argon's polymer pulverizer.
Closing in on his opponent, he landed a simple boxing "one-two," forcing the commander of "Argentum" to defend himself with a sword that was inconvenient for close combat. The old polymer pulverizers knocked a puff of sparks from the blade, instead of piercing the visor of the heavy spacesuit.
Returning the interfering weapon to his spatial backpack, Plutonium unceremoniously tried to reach the ghost with a right hook, then a spinning kick, forcing the dead man to break the distance. The helmet of the "Argentum" commander cracked from the missed hook.
With a jump, Shep left his position, not having time to shoot. Taking his mistakes into account, he changed the type of ammunition from kinetic to laser, hoping not for penetration power, but for speed, but he underestimated the experience of his former mentor. This time, behind the lieutenant colonel, a biotic deformation flashed, compressing a good ten meters of stone and earth into a ball. If he hadn't changed direction at the last moment, running along the wall, then neither the protective field nor the armor would have saved the officer. If a tank had gotten under the invisible press, it would have been crushed.
Falling onto the ancient road, extinguishing his momentum with a roll, he now, relying solely on experience, summoned a storm shield, whose protective field generators were half depleted by a shot from a plasma pistol.
The Ghost fired without aiming, from the hip, but nevertheless almost melted the triplex of Shep's spacesuit helmet. The dead man traded the opportunity to kill one opponent for a blow from another, taking a hundred-pound fist to his outstretched left forearm.
Grabbing Plutonium by the hand, which he hadn't had time to retract after the blow, the former hero extended it forward, sending him flying with a throw. Instantly turning, he fired again, only noticing the gray shadow with his peripheral vision.
The plasma beam pierced the chest of the felinid, an operative from the squad, who had decided to attack from behind, hoping to hit the former commander and founder of the squad in the neck. The sentient cat dropped his knife, trying to twist in the air hoping to escape death, but it was too late. The former boxer's fist simply swept him away, breaking his neck, crushing his nape.
Before the dead body could fall, the Ghost grabbed it by the tail, smashing it like a club against the head of a shark, whose jaws flashed dangerously close to the living dead. The sentient shark, which had broken through half a company of mercenaries, was stunned by such a move, momentarily hesitating, which proved fatal.
Throwing aside the body that had lost its form after the blow, the Ghost finished off another "Argentum" fighter. The inhumanly strong hands of the dead man gripped the predator's jaws, tearing the operative's mouth apart. But even that was not enough. Knowing the sharks' resilience, the fallen hero struck off his opponent's head with a blow of his hand.
Scarlet blood spurted in a terrible fountain, mixing with the dust in the air, turning into black mud. The decapitated body took a few more steps before falling. The severed head rolled to the boots of the resurrected dead man, leaving a dark trail behind it.
Kicking the terrible projectile with his foot, disrupting the aim of another operative, knocking the laser repeater from his hands, the Ghost met Plutonium with a barrage of blows. Nechaev took the blows of the pulverizers on his block, raising the polymer sphere.
The defense absorbed this stream with a clang. The unbreakable transparent film, capable of withstanding a shot from heavy tank weapons, rippled, deforming but not bursting.
Instead of answering, he just ducked, letting a burst of fire pass over him, released by the operatives on his mental command. Through his eyes, in conditions of poor visibility, the fighters saw the target and knew where to shoot.
For the first time in the battle, the Ghost's personal shield activated. The hail of bullets, plasma beams, and laser pulses caused his defense to flicker only twice.
The experienced enemy tore himself from the line of attack with telekinesis, instantly redirecting the flow of invisible energy onto his enemy.
Exploding the ground, the telekinetic wave scattered the shooters, who had managed to partially evade the energy ram. The "Argentum" fighters did not stop firing, achieving a couple more hits, mostly distracting, drawing the dead man's attention.
"Eat lead!" Nechaev shouted, firing a shotgun, causing the Ghost's protective screen to flash, disrupting his rhythm. Although he received a shot from a plasma pistol in return, which made his own defense flash, he continued his barrage, not stopping at one portion of buckshot with a shifted center of gravity.
As if from a machine gun, he emptied the entire ammunition of the weapon, allowing his fighters to change positions. The buckshot dug into the stone ruins, struck sparks from the archaeologists' equipment, and whined as it scattered across the excavation site, pursuing the dodging Ghost.
On an exhale, right on the run, Shep fired three reactive bullets from his rifle, changing the angle of fire after each shot. He, perfectly understanding that he wouldn't hit the agile opponent, acted smarter, attacking the place where he was supposed to be in a moment.
Three reactive rounds forced the dead man to change direction, exposing him to an attack by a new opponent... The Ghost's hand managed to grab the polymer tape at the last moment, preventing it from wrapping around his neck or crippling his face, blinding him.
Seeing this, Katerina spun the cutting cloth like a top, hoping to sever his hands. Her former mentor, friend, and first commander, who had taught her combat, sent a current through the polymer, destabilizing it, forcing the woman to dissipate the tape so as not to get a shock...
What he didn't expect was that from her shadow, in the blue glow narrating the work of the spatial backpack, her mechanical copy would flutter out. As soon as the mirrored mask flashed in the flashes of weapon fire, the robot immediately rushed into battle.
The left twin.
Spinning like a top, Katya and the Left unleashed whipping ribbons at him, as if dancing on the wreckage, fluttering in ballet steps, after the former mentor. The thinnest cloths, transparent as crystal, cut through stone and belated mercenaries, turning them into bloody mince and neatly chopped debris.
"Interesting," the Ghost said, slamming his fist into the ground. His figure was enveloped in a purple flash of mass effect. Several dozen spikes created by him pierced the fresh bodies of the dead mercenaries. Another moment, and black-violet blotches, shimmering with steel, burst from under his cloak.
Swarms of nanobots attacked the dead, reviving and changing them, turning them into puppets, obedient to the will of the reapers, like the Ghost. Bones deformed with a disgusting crunch. Like an invisible sculptor-maniac, with the hand of an experienced vivisector, the invisible one sewed crude mechanics into the bodies of the revived creatures, making them stronger, faster, angrier. Excess flesh and organs crumbled into greasy dust, being reprocessed to improve the monsters.
"Kill the scientists!" the Ghost commanded the husks, driving Katya, the Left, and Sergey, who had flanked him, away with biotics...
Shep was about to fire again, but he was stopped by the commander's order to the squad: "Evacuate the civilians and the artifact!" Grinding his teeth, hesitating for precious moments, the lieutenant colonel broke away after the other operatives.
He understood the justification for the order. Katya and Sergey could fight on equal terms with the Ghost, but his mind also yearned for battle, wanting to end the existence of this creature. The lieutenant colonel did not want to leave his friends alone with this monster. None of the squad members present here wanted to do this, but their commander's order demanded otherwise.
"Don't spare the bullets..." Argon's words echoed in Shep's head, spoken before he left for his last mission, from which the living dead returned with a familiar face. He too had left almost alone into the darkness of space, and, as it turned out later, knew about the trap awaiting him, voluntarily ascending the block. Argon believed that this way he would give his comrades a known variable, thanks to which they could stop the hidden enemy. And so it happened. Just knowing about his capabilities, they managed to prevent many misfortunes...
The explosion of one of the enemy cruisers brought Shep back to reality. The roar of the fighters' afterburners, hastily turning away from the defeated giant, was accompanied by flashes of small-caliber anti-aircraft guns firing a barrage.
One of the USSR machines was unlucky, and, losing a wing plane, it fell out of the wedge. The flaming fighter crashed into the battle-torn excavation zone, bounced like a pebble skipped on water, to explode on the next impact, ramming the wall of an ancient building, several dozen meters in front of the lieutenant colonel. Although he wore a sealed helmet, he smelled the very scent of burning fuel, with notes of scorched flesh.
Casting aside his doubts, he rushed to the center of the excavation, where the beacon was discovered and where the scientists and archaeologists had taken shelter, along with Academician Lebedev, who had personally arrived to inspect the find, despite CERBER's protests. The scientist, one of the main scientific and political figures of the Union, famous for his eccentricity, did not want to hear any warnings.
The prophet of science simply waved his hand, for the first time in Shep's memory, ultimatumly saying: "I must be there, and you know why." And CERBER, along with "Argentum," had to give in. The prediction was a prediction, and reconnaissance understood the significance for the future, but the loss of Lebedev here and now or his capture was a catastrophe...
Waving away an ordinary Geth that decided to crack his skull with a steel hand, the lieutenant colonel riddled the machine that jumped out of the flames with plasma, finally abandoning reflection. Returning the pistol to its holster, he raised his rifle, knocking a mercenary Krogan with a heavy cannon out of the way with a shot, who had previously been successfully exchanging fire with a detachment of Red Army soldiers, gradually driving him into a corner. Having dealt with the enemy, the detachment switched to the next target, acting as a single organism.
A biotic glow flared. A roar sounded. Shep felt Katerina throw all her telekinetic might at the Ghost, and he was forced to oppose biotics with one of the skilled users of polymer abilities.
Without slowing down, the operative twisted the Turian's neck with a blow of his hand on the run, breaking away from the tank's shot. The machine, which had come out of the hands of weaponsmiths from Palaven, and had somehow ended up with the mercenaries, turned its turret, fired a new salvo, swaying on its anti-gravity cushion.
The human deflected this projectile with telekinesis, changing its trajectory, directing it towards a luck soldier's shuttle landing. The projectile hit precisely in the gap between the opening ramp and the hull, killing the entire landing party, and additionally twisting the pilot's cabin.
A hail of burning debris drummed against the ancient buildings, leaving a smoky trail in the dusty air. Clanging with twisted iron, the lieutenant colonel evaded another attack from the vehicle, which frankly couldn't keep up with turning its turret for the nimble target. Expecting this, Shep fired a harpoon, hooking onto a partially collapsed wall, soaring upwards.
At the highest point of his flight, his rifle fired three bullets. The first crushed the tank's engine armor, the second knocked off the technical hatch cover, and the third disabled it, causing the multi-ton machine to crash to the ground and freeze. Not finishing off the defeated equipment, giving the Red Army soldiers practice in throwing grenades, the operative landed on the roof, which gave him a view of the slaughter...
Thrown back by Plutonium's blow, the Ghost, breaking through the wall, stopped, finding himself surrounded by ordinary soldiers. A moment to assess the situation. He killed all five, who, despite all modifications, did not understand what had happened. He didn't spare even the two girls, breaking one's back and impaling the other with a pulverizer. Ordinary soldiers could do nothing against the former commander of "Argentum."
The dead man dodged the reactive bullet with ease, again only slightly shifting his body. The operative literally felt the touch of dead eyes before the living dead created a dark sphere very close to him. Regretting once again that he had left the reactive backpack on the "Normandy," the lieutenant colonel pushed off the roof, firing a harpoon towards the next house. The winch's pull coincided with the explosion.
He was thrown against the building. If he had been an ordinary person, he would already be dying from broken bones and internal organ damage. The force of the impact was such that the triplex of his spacesuit helmet cracked. The wall could not withstand such abuse, collapsing inward, covering Shep from above.
He allowed himself to lie on the concrete debris for exactly one second, listening to his body, before getting up, clearing the stones with his hands. Wiping the broken glass with his hand, restoring his vision, the lieutenant colonel saw his squad mate destroy two husks on the other side of the street.
The monsters created from the dead were losing their resemblance to anything familiar. Their flesh had dried out. Mechanical parts became more apparent. At the same time, their strength and speed increased, which did not help the monsters against the operative, but... as soon as they were killed, a roar full of pain and horror sounded from the next street.
"Petrovich!" Shep called the paratrooper over the radio, sending a mental image with a map and turrets.
"Go to hell!" came the breathless voice, illustrating with a return image a step-by-step instruction on how the lieutenant colonel could go in the indicated direction so as not to get lost, surely reaching his destination. "My stumps can't keep up with you! Everything will be ready now, commander. Let's give the five-year plan instead of going to hell!"
Petrovich. Just Petrovich. A paratrooper, an engineer, a hero, and just a good guy.
The paratrooper, who had just arrived, assessed the situation with an engineer's eye and began to work, not forgetting to shoot from his assault rifle. Feeling secure about his rear, the operative rushed towards the beacon. Reaching it simultaneously with two other comrades, they opened a simple door, not bothering with the procedure of entering passwords or confirming authorizations. The "Collective," seething with rage and death, urged them on.
Quickly descending to the underground level of the excavation, they terrified the scientists, who had taken refuge in the hall where the beacon was discovered, to death. The ancient device itself, which they simply didn't have time to lift to the surface, was just an artifact, not showing any signs of functionality, although everyone knew otherwise.
"Out!" Shep commanded, scanning for the academic. Lebedev, along with his mechanical protégé Koklyuks, were at the foot of the ancient device. It seemed that the battle and the underground vaults shaking from nearby orbital impacts, showering everyone with dust, did not affect them. They were simply discussing some scientific calculations.
The beacon.
"Comrade Lebedev..." the lieutenant colonel began, still politely.
"I'm not leaving here! What must happen has not yet happened!" the academic and head of the Academy of Consequences cut off, immediately returning to the conversation.
"If only we knew what exactly was supposed to happen," Shep said with a sigh, knowing, like everyone else, the academic's calculations in general terms. His commander knew only a little more, so as not to influence the outcome. The only one who knew a more complete version was Comrade Sechenov, and even then not everything. Therefore, no one knew for sure what was in Lebedev's head and why he had been guarding this secret for a whole century.
This, along with the battle, irritated the man, who was now considering: grab him by the scruff of the neck or hit him with the butt of his rifle so he wouldn't wriggle during transport. Now he didn't care who was in front of him. He had an order to extract all valuable specialists, and he would fulfill it. Whether they wanted to or not.
Leaning towards the latter option, Shep was about to gently, with all his love, hit the mechanical dummy with a dead consciousness inside in the head first, and then the scientist under the jaw, but Sergey, launched into flight by biotics, broke through the vault and didn't let him. The Ghost flew in next, with the Left and Katya pressing him.
Pulverizers and resonant claws, colliding, generated whole waterfalls of sparks. The woman and the robot demonstrated miracles of flexibility, like water, not allowing the former boxer to touch them, continuing the fight in the air.
Timing it right, Katya tripped the dead man's supporting leg with a polymer whip. A transparent material tentacle yanked his arm, disrupting his tempo, allowing the woman and the robot to strike at the breach. The Ghost's shield finally gave way, flickering one last time. Thin, needle-like claws slid along the armor plates, scratching the paint and tearing the opponent's billowing cloak, who twisted like a gymnast, preventing them from reaching his heart and liver.
The pistol slipped from Shep's holster with a speed unattainable for an ordinary person. The scientists only saw the weapon appear in his hand and release a swarm of small plasma spheres, which, hissing in the dusty air, flew towards the horror-emanating humanoid, blurring into blue streaks. Others, who blinked, could only notice the completion of Sergey's justice sword strike, which, with a hum, tore through the air, aiming to sever the monster's head from its shoulders, against which he had once sworn to fight.
Only to the one who had once responded to the call sign Argon did it matter. Having died to something more than just his own ego, he grabbed the hands of two gymnasts, pulling them, dragging the woman and the robot. Continuing his movement, the Ghost sent the ladies flying, accelerating them with a telekinetic blow, bending down, almost standing on the bridge, letting the plasma starfall pass over him. Spinning on his feet, he, raising his hands, clamped the sword of the "Argentum" commander in invisible tongs. Blocking the weapon, the fallen hero kicked Sergey in the stomach, wrenching his weapon from his fingers.
He did this so quickly that the stones from the breached vault had not yet finished falling, continuing to crumble, blurring into a black-and-white blotch for the scientists, scattering gray glints. It is unknown how it would have ended, but at that very moment, one of the cruisers that had broken through to the excavation site supported the retreating mercenary forces with fire from its guns.
The calibers, created to destroy giants in interstellar space, caused a local earthquake. One of the shining spears crashed next to the collapse. The force of the impact was such that one of the dungeon walls evaporated, connecting it to the surface with a new path. The blast wave picked up the stunned Katya and Sergey, pressing their bodies into the Prothean beacon, which began to work upon contact with them.
Branching green lightning began to strike from the device. The Left didn't have time to dodge, and a surge of energy engulfed her body. The Ghost managed to jump away, getting off with only a relatively small portion, scorching his hand and depriving him of all remaining nanomachines of his masters. Shep, standing furthest from the cutting edge, managed to materialize a storm shield and deploy a plasma curtain. The reinforced generators withstood both the blast wave and the artifact's fury.
An emerald flash flooded everything, leaving a glare on the eyes. The beacon stopped working, allowing the living but wounded fighters to fall. The robot was still functioning, but froze like a doll, unable to move due to melted joints.
"Get everyone out!" Shep shouted, summoning a sword to his right hand, and lunging.
Realizing that the shield would only hinder him, he threw it at the Ghost. The dead man, who had been thoroughly roasted, cut it with a trophy blade. Throwing aside the sword, he met the lieutenant colonel's direct blow.
The man dodged, but not completely, receiving a glancing blow to the helmet, which was torn from its mountings by the force of the impact, almost breaking his neck. This became the trigger for his rage, which flared brightly in the general neural network.
With a movement of his wrist, he broke his weapon into two short swords, simultaneously shedding all bodily limitations. His muscles and ligaments began to tear from the speed with which the operative began to move. His polymer echoed him, sensing the owner's emotions, igniting without command, burning itself, giving more heat.
A whirlwind of blades and fire descended upon the Ghost. The pulverizers shrieked, repelling the first onslaught, but the dead man moved slower than at the beginning of the fight. The battle had not passed without a trace for him either, which did not prevent him from defending himself successfully.
Geth heretics began to descend in a new pass, opening fire immediately, forcing two operatives to engage in battle to give the civilians time to escape along a safe path.
Pushing Shep back with a kick, the Ghost further increased the distance, drawing his pistol... aiming it at the unconscious Katya and Sergey, but not firing. Instead, he said in a completely untired voice:
"Choose, Artyomka. Me, my comrades, or the artifact? But we both know what you'll choose," the monster in the human body stated to the frozen lieutenant colonel...