Mass Effect: Element of Kindness

by CommanderApplejack


Primarch

Chapter 178

Primarch

The shuttle shuddered unusually as it made a rapid descent down to the moon, Fluttershy's eyes fixed on one of the screens showing the burning planet in the sky outside.

"You okay Feathers?"

"We've got a friend down there," Shepard said bitterly.

"Boyfriend to be exact," Fluttershy added.

"Well... shit."

"He'll be okay, Garrus is one of the toughest warriors around," Liara comforted her.

"LZ is hot Commander!" the pilot called out from up front.

"James, open up the hatch. Fluttershy, pick off the bastards," Shepard ordered, the two immediately jumping into action. As the hatch opened Fluttershy lined up her rifle and started taking shots. One after another the husk's remnants of their brains got blown out as Fluttershy systematically took out the reaper forces.

"We've got an opening!" she reported back to the commander as the last one fell.

"Understood. Set us down!" he ordered to the pilot, the shuttle setting down and letting the team of four out before flying off again to the safety of the Normandy.

"More husks!" Liara called out as the former humans charged at the newly arrived troops, flinging her biotics at the things. Both Shepard and James opened up with their rifles while Fluttershy joined in with the biotics. the group of husks absolutely got obliterated and it didn't take long for the group to get to the first turian barricade.

"Where's your commanding officer!?" Shepard called out to the soldiers manning it.

"Straight ahead, past the corner at the next barricade!" one of them called back. No more husks got in their way and the turians at the other barricade swiftly let them through.

"General?" Shepard asked as he found the turian in charge of the outpost and recognised the rank.

"Commander Shepard, I just got word you were coming down. General Corinthus," the turian replied, not taking his gaze off the screen he was looking at. "What do you need of me?"

"I need to talk to the Primarch."

The general finally looked up from his screen and frowned. "The primarch, Fedorian, is dead. His shuttle was shot down when he tried to leave the moon for Palaven an hour ago."

"That'll complicate things... how bad are things general?" Shepard asked.

"Lost about four hundred men in this sector over the last half an hour. The idea was to set up positions on this moon as an advanced position to flank any force, sound strategy just..."

"Irrelevant," Shepard provided.

"Exactly. The sheer force of these things just makes them immune to that kind of tactic. The primarch found that out the hard way," he grunted. "I would give you the name of the next primarch but our antenna array got damaged."

"Where is it located?" Shepard asked, General Corinthus pointed in a direction outside the camp.

"Northwest, I'll have a squad get-" the general was interrupted as a massive flying reaper monstrosity came flying over.

"HARVESTER!" a soldier shouted as fire was poured into the air. "It's going for the airfield!"

"Damnit. Fluttershy, Liara, go to the radio tower and fix it. James, with me, we are going to kick that thing's ass," Shepard ordered. Fluttershy and Liara immediately split off and headed for the tower. A squad of turians waiting for them at the gate leading to the antenna.

"Husks overran this section, we haven't been able to take it back," their leader, a sergeant, explained quickly.

"I can run diagnostics on the thing if we can get to it, if we work fast we may be able to get it up and running before we're overwhelmed," Liara proposed, getting a laugh from the sergeant.

"With all due respect lady, I'm not sure what difference the two of you will make compared to the two squads here."

"With all due respect back, please open up this gate and let me demonstrate," Fluttershy said without any humour in her voice. She really wasn't in the mood for any bullshit while her boyfriend was out there somewhere in this highly deadly environment.

"Lead the way," he shrugged, letting the gate open and got his men through spearheaded by the pegasus and asari.

"First, let me..." Fluttershy's wings lit up in a biotic aura. "...clear a path!" A singularity soared through the air and pulled the large group of husks that had occupied the space around the antenna off their feet and broke their bodies. "We're clear!"

"Mother- Alright, move up to the tower!" the sergeant called out to his men, the turians kicking into gear and taking defensive positions around the antenna while Liara went to look at the antenna and tried to figure out why it was malfunctioning.

"The problem isn't fixable from down here!" Liara called out as husks climbed up from below in an attempt to retake the ground they'd just lost. The turians were able to handle the stream for now but the sounds coming from the cliffs in the distance didn't inspire confidence that would last.

"I'll get it!" Fluttershy called out, flying up to the top of the antenna and starting the scanner to feed data for Liara to read out from below.

"Found the fault! Sending instructions!" Liara shouted up over the roar of the machineguns. Fluttershy's omni-tool beeping as it received the data and she immediately went to work fixing the problem. Halfway through Fluttershy took a break to shoot a husk off of a turian before his face could get clawn off, before finishing the repair.

"It's done! Get out of here!" she shouted, remaining in the air to take shots at the groundbound husks. The volume of them charging was getting a serious problem even as the heavy new rifle Fluttershy had nailed multiple of them at once. The turians below didn't waste a second retreating back to the safety of their compound, a veritable hoard of husks beind them.

"OPEN FIRE!" the sergeant shouted at the crews manning the heavy machineguns as the two turians at the back of the pack were grabbed from behind and downed. An eardeafening roar sounded over the plain as the husks were shredded on mass. "Damnit, I hate those things... thanks for helping us out, those were some damn good tricks."

"No problem," Fluttershy nodded, turning as a massive explosion came from the direction of the airfield. Shy immediately opened a radio channel. "Commander, what's going on?!"

"Nothing to worry, we cleared out this mess," Shepard immediately replied. "Head back to the General."

"Copy that, see you in a sec," Fluttershy closed the channel and swiftly got back to the command post, Shepard and James arriving not long after.

"What have you got, General?" Shepard asked of the turian commander.

"Well, succession would be easy in normal circumstances, but with this many MIA and KIA..."

"General, I don't give a crap who it is. I need someone to talk to!" the commander told the general, straight to the point.

"I'm on it Shepard, I'l get you your primarch." Fluttershy would be able to recognise that voice anywhere.

"Garrus!" Fluttershy exclaimed, jumping right into his arms.

"Good to see you too," he smiled back at his girlfriend, putting his sniper rifle on his back to free up the hand to scratch Shy behind the ear.

"Vakarian, sir!" the general straightened up and snapped a salute.

"At ease general," Garrus told him.

"What are you doing here? Why aren't you on Palaven itself?" Shepard asked, relaxing slightly in the company of a friend.

"We lose this moon, we lose Palaven. I'm the closest damn thing to a reaper expert we have so I'm..." Garrus hesitated. "...advising."

"Message from Palaven Command, the next primarch according to them is General Adrien Victus," the General interjected.

"His name's crossed my desk before..." Liara muttered.

"Know him Garrus?" Shepard asked the turian.

Garrus let Fluttershy down who was purring happily. "I was fighting alongside him this morning. Career soldier, popular with the troops, has a bit of a reputation to play fast and loose with the rules which doesn't get him in the graces of high command. Not to say he isn't brilliant, he gets results."

"Sounds like the person we need," Shepard said.

"Exactly, we both know conventional strategy isn't going to win this war. He might be our best shot to beat the reapers," Garrus agreed. "We had to split up but I can lead you to where he was last reported going."

"Then we have no time to waste." Shepard turned to the General. "Good luck out here."

"Take that luck with you, you're going to need it," the turian replied before the group was off into the barren landscape of the moon. Fluttershy flew slightly above and acted as sentry while Shepard and James took point with Liara and Garrus on support behind them. After finding some stragglers who gave further directions they eventually saw reapers airdropping in units further up, the sound of a fierce raging battle sounding from the besieged location.

"That sounds bad," James commented.

"No reaper is taking this Primarch from me!" Shepard shouted as he went into a full sprint.

On the location of the battle various new forms of husks revealed themselves, turian looking creatures with guns but those weren't the most notable. Two massive brutes were busy turning some cover behind which turians were taking refuge into scrap metal, massive vices made out of cold metal acting as their hands.

"Fluttershy, Garrus, take the far one!" Shepard ordered, taking Liara and James to take on the one closest.

"Take to the air, make it mad!" Garrus called out to his marefriend who was pretty much already doing what he'd asked her to do. The first shot of Shy's rifle glanced off the thing's armour, taking some of it off but mostly doing nothing more than shift its attention from mauling some turian's cover to finding out what hit it. Garrus also opened up on it, using his assault rifle to get as much material downrange at the massive brute.

"Careful, it's charging!" Fluttershy called out to Garrus who was behind cover to replace his thermal clip. He barely rolled out of the way before the brute smashed through the cover, getting up and firing behind him to put some distance between it and himself.

It stumbled, looking disoriented for a moment, something Fluttershy was going to take advantage of. Dropping from the sky like a stone she activated the omni-blade around her wrist and rapidly jabbing it into the brute's back, taking off before it could retaliate. It had clearly done some damage as one of its arms didn't move well anymore.

"JUST DIE ALREADY!" Garrus roared, having switched out to his sniper rifle and shooting the thing as quickly after each other as he could. Fluttershy landed next to him and charged up a biotic attack, the brute seeing his two tormenters next to each other got ready to charge again. The thing was lifted just off the ground but that was enough to avoid the charge, armour plates being shredded off its body, allowing Garrus to fire a set of accurate shots into the thing's internals. The brute staggered as it dropped from the biotic lift, taking a few more rounds before falling over and dying.

A little further up Shepard was busy doing the same thing Fluttershy had done and using his omni-blade to hack off the brutes head, succeeding pretty much at the same time as the pony and turian. The auxiliary forces had all been shot down by the turian unit that was also present. "You two good?" Shepard called out to Garrus and Fluttershy.

"Never been better!" Garrus called back, looking around for the turian they were looking for.

"General Victus?" Shepard called out, hoping he'd respond to them.

"Yes?" one of the turians in the fortified positions came forward.

"Commander Shepard, Alliance navy."

"Ah, commander, I know who you are. What brings you here?..." He then noticed Garrus approach. "Vakarian, where did you go?"

"Heavy reaper unit on the right flank, I believe your exact words were 'Get that thing the hell of my men!'," Garrus replied with a smirk.

"Appreciate it," he replied, turning back to Shepard for business.

"General, I'm here to inform you that Primarch Fedorian was killed and you are next in succession," Shepard informed him, Fluttershy could see the shock in his eyes and feel it coming off him.

"I am the new primarch?" He said more than asked in disbelief.

"Yes. And I need to discuss the release of Vindica and the commitment of turian resources for a superweapon project to kill the reapers," Shepard continued to press him.

"Commander, our people are stretched as it is, I may be able to release the Equestrian dreadnaught for a detachment of Alliance cruisers but I cannot throw turian support in whatever your people have cooked up with the pressure we are under now," general Victus stated, getting a grasp on himself. "We need someone to take off the pressure off either our navy or army."

We do have some relations in high places that could possibly help out... Fluttershy thought.

1. We might be able to get the Migrant fleet to support?

2. The Asari might be able to help with their fleet?

3. We could try to get help from the krogan?

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