//------------------------------//
// Collectors Part 1
// Story: The Displacement of ponies across the Multiverse
// by DemonWolf
//------------------------------//
Shepard stood in the briefing room on the SR2 Normandy, looking at the odd group of companions that he and Sparkle had collected. Most of their other allies would be staying on the ship, defending it or holding other fronts against the Collectors.
“Alright, we’ve gone over the teams and plans. Everyone knows their objectives. We will make contact within 2 hours, I recommend you do what you need to prepare and get some rest. All team report to the hangar bay for drop 30 minutes before start of the op.” Shepard ordered evenly, leading the crew to disperse and do so.
“So Gaige bring any new weapons with you?” Sparkle asked trotting out of the briefing room.
“Yup, between my freaky mechanical knowledge and Vinyl’s freaky void tech, we came up with something. We call it gigabass, and the effects are super effective on both synthetics and organics. And I have my trusty Syringe gun so I’ll be able to keep you guys standing.” She responded, falling in between Garrus and Sparkle.
“You guys made another bass cannon?” Sparkle asked with a smirk.
“Let’s hope this one has better directional aim than the last one. The Doc was pretty mad about having to help repair eardrums.” Garrus said with a smirk.
“One little mistake with the bass cannon. The mission was a success.” Gaige responded, flopping her arms to her side.
“True, it was amusing to see that squad of Collectors fall over clutching their heads.” Garrus agreed with a small laugh.
“You know, if you had worn your helmet like a proper solder that wouldn’t have hurt as bad as it did. I walked out with my ears intact.” Sparkle shot over with a smile of her own.
“But then you ladies couldn’t see my handsome face.” Garrus replied turning the scarred side of his face to them.
“And that would be a problem, I would much rather look at the Lieutenant Commander’s cute plot.” Gaige responded winking at Sparkle.
“I agree, it is a nice view.” Garrus said winking as well.
“You guys are horrible.” Sparkle said a faint blush crossing her cheeks.
An hour and 45 minutes later, everyone was sitting in the hangar bay. The main comms channel was buzzing with orders.
“Commander, we are receiving heavy fire, we need to clear the LZ!” Joker called, out as the ship was made a sharp turn, shaking everyone within. The explosions could be heard flaring off the shields.
“Commence operation… Titanfall.” Shepard ordered causing Sparkle to snicker. Soon after, the sounds of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star began playing over the comms, in front of the ship, a large black portal opened that was keeping pace with the ship. A giant green robot with a single head cam came out falling and flailing about.
“Its called a Mobile Suit! Not a Titan, wrong world!” The pilot yelled, the pilot being a very confused undead humanoid in yellow and black ninja garb.
“Suck it up Scorpion, you agreed to use your Leo unit for this!” Shepard called. The mobile suit slammed into the plating of the Collector base, sliding across the ship hull. Having a desirable effect of clearing the landing zone, allowing the Normandy to line up for landing.
“I didn’t agree to being a hockey puck!” Scorpion cried firing off random shots in the direction of the anti-ship guns. Some of the shots hit home, blowing up the guns at seeming random. Tripping over a random cropping of damaged hull, Scorpion’s Leo unit fell over, squashing a squad of heavy gunners.
“That man is a disgrace to warriors everywhere.” Grunt said, watching the idiot of a pilot slam into things and fire at random.
“Mr. Grunt that isn’t very nice.” Fluttershy squeaked out while cowering by Sparkle.
“Krogens don’t need to be nice.” Grunt said with a huff.
“Or bathe.” Sparkle shot back.
“Yeah, that’s the Krogan Battle Stench. It kills enemies in droves.” Joker said over the comms while rolling the ship to avoid fire.
“Very funny Joker, should I come share some Krogan humor with you?” Grunt said grinning.
“I’m good. I think your blunt sense of humor would break every bone in my body. Commander, touchdown in 30 seconds.” Joker said starting to count down.
“That’s the point.” Grunt said as everyone braced themselves.
“Brace for impact!” Joker said as the ship lurched and spun around tossing everyone around.
“Thanks for the landing.” Garrus said shaking his head.
“You’re welcome, We’re here commander. That big mech is keeping most of the Collectors off us.”
“HOW DO YOU STEER THIS THING?!” Scorpion screamed as he tossed a giant grenade at an incoming ship.
“Okay each team has their objectives let's get going.” Shepard hit the hatch release and everyone rushed out into the expanse of space. Collector weapons fire came down upon the team. Everyone spread out and began punching a path through the groups of Collectors.
Sparkle charged her magic, and disappeared with Garrus and Gaige. Moments later, sniper fire came raining down on the Collectors, heavy units began dropping, leaving weaker units for Shepherd’s fire teams to take out. Fluttershy rode on Grunt’s back, cowering as they trudged along.
“Commander, why are we bringing this, pony?” Grunt asked irritated at being a taxi.
“You’ll see when we get inside! Just move up! Sparkle’s group has cleared a path!” Shepard ordered as he gunned down a Collector drone that swooped down at them, and they moved with all haste to the nearest airlock.
“Commander, we have more drones coming in behind us.” Tali called out while ducking enemy fire, a few shots glancing off her shields.
“Everyone in, Sparkle we’ll see you on the other side.” Shepard ordered, taking a few pot shots as everyone made their way into the tight airlock.
“Hey Grunt, what do you call a Krogan in a tight airlock with a pony?” Shepard asked as the airlock pressurized.
“What?” Grunt asked.
“A Krony.” Shepard said with a chuckle, and getting a groan from everyone else.
“A horrible pun is not one of the last things I want to hear.” Jack said glaring at the commander.
“Just trying to lighten the mood. Jack, Legion, make sure Tali gets to the ship core. We’re headed towards the command center.” Shepard reminded them as the door opened to a surprisingly empty corridor.
“See you soon Commander.” Tali said as her squad left.
“Okay team, we’re heading up. Keep an eye out for Sparkle’s squad.” Shepard ordered, leading his team in the opposite direction. The team moved quickly through the corridors taking, out collectors as they went.
“Sparkle, can you teleport us again?” Garrus asked as weapon’s fire pinned them all down.
“I need a few, without knowing the place there’s a lot of bad things that could happen. Gaige can you cover me?” Sparkle asked her horn glowing.
“You know it,” Gaige reached out her prosthetic arm, smirking as she summoned her Deathtrap from its pocket void location. “Number 5 Alive!”
The Deathtrap’s laser swept through a group of Collectors, severely wounding them as a different squad shot at the bot. Rounds hit the shield, causing fire to erupt around it, doing decent damage to the drones not behind cover. Swinging around, the bot shot lightning from its hands, disrupting a heavy unit’s actions, and arcing to the other drones around it.
With focus on the psycobot of death, Garrus got up from cover and began unloading his assault rifle into a Collector dropping it to the floor ice forming around the wounds. Gaige laughed madly as she swung her gigabase around and held the trigger down.
“Lets clean up this mess!” Gaige said with a knowing smirk. As her shield expired, causing a nova explosion Sparkle teleported her out of fire and up by her. “It’s a symphony of suds!”
“Pun later shoot now!” Sparkle said as her magic pulsed sensing around for a more clear area. “Maintenance tunnels a few decks over, this is gonna be tight.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Garrus said watching the deathbot explode. “We need evac now.”
“We’re going!” Sparkle said, magic enveloping the team as Gaige ducked behind cover. A blip of light later, and the Collectors were at a loss as to what happened.
“Bring me the quadruped.” an eerie robotic voice said. Watching as Sparkle's team left one area of the ship and appeared in another area near by.
“By your command.” the collector leader said as it began sending out orders to the drones.
“So uh Shepard what’s going on here?” Grunt asked as a collector flew over his head and across the hanger they had entered.
“Fluttershy is beating up the collectors.” Shepard said shooting a downed collector in the face.
“I see that but why is she giant and everything?” Grunt asked watching the now hulked Fluttershy pick up a fighter craft and chucked it at a door a group of collectors had come out of.
“Collector got a lucky shot on me, I’m medi-geled up and fine. However it kinda pissed her off.” Shepard answered with a smirk enjoying the show. As the sealed door they needed to go though was a casualty of Fluttershy’s rampage.
“Should we, I don’t know, help her?” Grunt asked kicking a collector back into the chaos.
“No let her have her fun, however.” Shepard said casually, “Hey Grunt can you do me a favor?”
“What Shepard.” Grunt asked, his admiration for the little pony growing, as she just ignored the Collector’s attacks. Rounds bounced off her muscles like bouncy balls.
“You mind going down there and asking her to rampage in the direction we need to go?”
“Why don’t you go.” Grunt asked, not relishing the idea of getting into that fray.
“Because I said you should go.” Shepard stated.
“Well I think she’ll respond better with you than me.” Grunt stated.
“You’ll be fine.” Shepard said patting him on the shoulder. “And besides think of this not as a request but as an order.”
As the two of them argued there was a flash of purple light and a familiar equinoid form appeared hovering in front of Fluttershy. Sparkle appeared to speak with the giant who got more angry and started crashing through walls in the direction of the command center. Sparkle then disappeared again.
“That works.” Shepard said as he and Grunt took off after the raging pony.
“I do like your friends here Shepard.” Grunt said grinning as he was running.
Elsewhere Sparkle, Gaige, and Garrus, were running with a group of collectors hot on their heels.
“Gaige why did you do that?!” Garrus yelled, ducking a shot.
“I thought it was a good idea!” She responded dropping an incendiary wubnade behind her. The high pace music setting several collectors on fire.
“We can argue about the merits of battlefield actions later.” Sparkle said trotting ahead of them, “we need to find cover and reduce their numbers.”
“In these tunnels, I don’t think we’ll get much cover.” Garrus stated.
“And I’m too low on magic to teleport all of us.” Sparkle said before getting an idea and stopping. Sparkle grabbed a thermal grenade from her back and tossed it against the wall, hoping it would melt a hole and let them escape to the other side. Instead a massive explosion rocked the corridor, tossing the pursuing Collectors back and everyone else forward.
“What did you do?” Gaige asked noticing the lack of bullets flying at her, and the smoke covering one end of the corridor. Gaige didn’t hear a reply looking around she saw Garrus on the ground knocked out and Sparkle was missing. “Sparkle!”
“Gaige, Garrus? Status report, Sparkle just dropped off EDI’s scanners what happened?” Shepard’s voice came over the com-link.
“Shepard, this is Gaige. Sparkle used one of her thermal nades to try and open a path and kill some collector bastards. It looks like it hit a fuel line or soemthing. I’m okay, Garrus is… Garrus is okay but unconscious. Sparkle… Sparkle is missing.” Gaige replied over the radio.
“Shit, okay stay where you are, we’re on our way.” Shepard stated.
“Commander we do not have time for you to make a detour. The sabotage teams will be arriving at their locations soon. We need you to take out that leader.” EDI’s voice said over the radios.
“Damn, you’re right. Wait Sparkle gave me this for these situations.” The sound of twinkle twinkle little star played over the radio as Shepard cut out, a minute later he was back. “Gaige the old guy says help is on the way.”
“Alright I’ll get Garrus up, let me know what’s happening.” Gaige responded looking over Garrus, she began patching him up before applying medi-gel.
“Roger.”
About a minute later Gaige heard the familiar sound of bells and a portal opened letting three figures out. Gaige recognized Nuada as the new Displaced Sparkle had been gushing about, but the anthro-wolf and demon pony were new to her.
“Gaige, Starswirl told us Sparkle’s in trouble.” Nuada said rushing over, his beam saber out and ready.
“She just went missing, I can feel she’s still alive through the token, but she’s not responding.” Gaige said as Garrus finally got his head situated.
“Let's not do that again.” Garrus said looking about, “where is Sparkle and who’s these guys.”
“Sparkle is missing, these are our reinforcements.” Gaige explained, “Nuada another Displaced and…”
“Bestla, Officer of the GXP in our world.” the she-wolf said bowing a little.
“Cinder, succubus pony.” the demon looking pony said with a sultry smile.
“Time’s wasting, Bestla start tracking Sparkle’s communicator, if we’re lucky they missed blocking it. Cinder try feeling for her, she should be one of only a few biologicals here. Miss Gaige, take your friend here and regroup with Shepard, we’ve got this.” Nuada said giving out orders.
“Aye.” Bestla and Cinder said as they began working.
“We can help.” Gaige said helping hold the disorientated turian stand.
“Three man team rule, we can move through here faster without you. In addition, Shepard will need your help supporting the other teams more than we will.” Nuada said starting down the corridor. “Don’t worry Gaige, we’ll bring Sparkle back even if I have to tear this whole ship to pieces.”
Gaige just watched as the trio ran off Nuada quickly taking the lead. Leaving her and Garrus to get back to Shepard.