Si-Lin Vas Rah ran desperately through the ruined streets of what used to be downtown London. The Quarian dove over a low wall, quickly pressed her back against it, and groaned at the hopelessness of her situation. She had lost her squad, was down to her last thermal clip, and for some reason she couldn't get her bloody shields to recharge. She felt naked with nothing but her environmental suit left to protect her, but she couldn't give up now.
"I just had to insist on being on the ground," she complained to herself, barely audible amidst the gunfire and explosions. She drew her Black Widow sniper rifle from her back. An upgrade of the M-98 Widow Anti-Material rifle, the Black Widow wasn't quite as powerful but it retained the originals ability to pierce up to ten inches of nearly any known material while maintaining lethal velocity and boasted a three round clip to boot. It could also take your arm off if you were stupid enough to fire it without training or reinforced plating in your suit. Lucky for her, she had both.
"Cloak," Si-Lin said. Immediately the air shimmered around her and she watched herself disappear. "At least that still works." She thought aloud. She spun around, bringing the rifle up to her shoulder and bracing herself on the wall. She took in the scene in a split second.
The Reaper forces had been hot on her heels. Three Marauders and two Husks were closing in on her position. Si-Lin took a deep breath and brought the scope to her eye. As she did micro-processors in her suit began pumping Adrenaline through her system, honing her senses, causing the world around her to slow. She lined up her first shot and squeezed the trigger. The rifle slammed into Si-Lin' shoulder but she didn't falter. Through the scope Si-Lin could see that she had been on target and lined up her second victim. Another deafening blast, another dead Marauder. Si-Lin lined up the last and fired. The last of the Marauders fell, dead, to the ground. And they said Quarians made bad snipers because of the helmets. As she pulled away from the scope she felt a ripple of energy pass over her that told her the cloak was gone.
Now there were only the Husks to deal with. One was charging straight at her. Si-Lin had just enough time to replace the Black Widow on her back before the Husk was just on the other side of the wall, right where she wanted it. She grabbed the cyberneticly twisted abomination by the throat, yanked it over the wall, and slammed it on the ground with surprising force. Quarians may have been a little fragile with their easily compromised immune systems but they were far from weak. With her other hand she drew up her Omni-Blade and brought it down on the husk with full force. The Husk went limp, one down. In the chaos she had lost track of the other. She began to scan her surroundings when it jumped her from behind. Si-Lin resisted the urge to panic, instead falling backwards to the ground stunning the Husk. She then flipped over and plunged her blade into it.
Si-Lin took the momentary calm to gather her thoughts, but the calm didn't last. A horrible shriek split the air. "Oh Keelah… please no…" Si-Lin frantically tried to find the source. Her stomach dropped. "Banshee…" Si-Lin's brain was screaming at her to run but her feet stayed rooted to the ground. She had no ammo, no backup, and no escape. The air around the Banshee pulsed blue and in an instant it had materialized two feet away from her.
Purely on instinct, Si-Lin finally turned away and attempted to run but as she did she felt the Banshee's elongated fingers close around her helmet. Despite herself she couldn't help but wonder how the spindly fingers were strong enough to hold her. She felt herself being lifted off the ground. The Banshee turned her until they were face to face, well face to visor. The Banshee’s cold, dead eyes sent waves of pure terror through Si-Lin’s entire body. The Banshee drew its other arm back. Si-Lin knew what was coming. She closed her eyes.
Her last conscious thought was regret that she had let the Reapers beat her. Then came the terrible pain of the Banshee's arm, warped into a blade by its biotic power, piercing Si-Lin's stomach. She felt the arm being pulled out, felt herself fall to the ground, and then there was nothing.
I cursed loudly at the “Mission Failed” screen that was clearly mocking me.
“What the heck just happened?” My friend Mack’s voice came through my headset.
“My control disconnected for no bloody reason and by the time it came back on the Banshee had me.” I explained.
“Well that sucks,” Mack replied.
“Tell me about it.” I glanced up at the clock. “Hey, the girl that’s gonna be boarding with me will be here soon. I gotta clean the place up
a bit.”
“I can’t believe your roommate is a pony.”
“Yeah, neither can I.”
“So remind me again how it isn’t weird that a man with a girlfriend is sharing a room with another chick.”
“One: We’re not dating right now, she wanted a break. Two: It’s not like we're sharing a bed. She has her own room. Three: She’s a pony.”
“And that makes it less weird because-....”
“Screw you.”
“Is that the best you can come up with? I thought you were a writer.”
“How about we continue this later?” I asked brushing off the usual banter.
“Indeed.” He replied and went offline. I took off my headset and pressed the home button on my X-Box 360 control. I pulled up the music player and tapped into a playlist on my laptop.
“Ah the wonders of wireless internet routers,” I mused aloud as harmonic bliss accompanied by that kind of bass that massages your very soul filled the room. I looked around at the cans and plastic wrappers that littered the room and was mildly surprised. I had only been here a week and already the den/kitchen was a disaster area.
The layout of the apartment was simple. Two bedrooms, one bath, a small utility room with a washer and drier, the den and kitchen were the same room and it was a pretty decent size. And as an added plus, it was on the fourth floor so it had a nice view. I really had scored with this one. As I finished taking care of all the trash there was a knock on the door.
“It’s open!” I yelled, turning the music down a bit. I turned and watched as the door opened and a white unicorn with a neon blue mane and tail and two bridged eighth notes on her flank stepped in, closing the door behind her with a kick.
“You must be Nick.” She said.
“Yep, and that makes you Vinyl Scratch.” I replied.
“DJ Pon-3 at your service,” she said with a grin.
“Well, welcome to our home away from home.”
“Not bad,” She nodded, taking in the room. “Bigger than my flat back home.” She lifted her saddle bags from her back with her magic and sat them on the table before sprawling out on the couch.
“Is that all your stuff?” I asked. Grabbing my 360 control and settling in my recliner.
“Nah, just the essentials,” She replied, “The rest is in the mail.”
“Gotcha,” I started booting up my game again.
“So what is this?” Vinyl asked.
“Mass Effect 3,” I replied and went into a brief explanation of the series. While I talked I started up a multiplayer round by myself just to kill a bit of time. “So what are you studying?” I asked changing the subject before I went into a thirty minute rant on the history of this fictional universe which I knew way to well.
“Music engineering. This place has some pretty sick technology that could really help my mixes. What about you?”
“Creative writing for entertainment. If everything goes as planned I’ll hopefully be writing stories for video games.”
“Sounds cool,” She replied. I checked my phone.
“It’s getting about dinner time, wanna put in a movie and order a pizza?”
“I could go for a cheese and daisy, sure.”
“Uhh, I don’t think Pizza Hut does daisies.”
“Right,” Vinyl said with a small laugh, “That’s gonna take some getting used to. Just cheese is fine.”
“Alright,” This semester is going to be interesting…