Mass Effect: Equus

by Pabulos

Chapter One: A March through the Tedious Sand

'Oh by all that is holy and sacred stop this unbearable pain!'

Heavy, and in a stream of pain.

Commander Augustus Shepard sat up with a loud groan, the back of his eyes felt like someone had poked him with a hundred needles. Every time he tried to open his eyes another flood of pain surged through him, and every slight touch sent a painful warmth that traveled across his skin. His head felt like someone had brought a sledgehammer down onto his head, then proceeded to play whack-a-mole with his body until every bone in his body felt like it'd been broken.

It was after ten long and intolerable minutes his senses recovered to tolerable levels, with his feet upon the steady ground and cracked eyes looked forward. He was able to see his surroundings with a soft breeze which swept over the dunes, to ankle level a soft moving blanket of sand toggled over the landscape. As Shepard saw sand everywhere so long the eye reached, the scorching sun came down unrelentingly upon him.

'Got to find someplace with a shadow, and quickly.'

His thoughts rang on repeat while he marched onwards, his eyes scouted all around for a cave to hide in. Luckily, for him, It wasn't long before he found a cave to escape the sun's wrathful grasp, his march over there aided by the support of his M-7 Lancer he leaned on. Once undercover he checked out what other weapons might have transported over, a smile cracked across his lips with a cheerful chuckle.

Shepard discovered that his Graal Spike Thrower hanged on his back together with his M-6 Carnifex that hanged around his belt, his trusty equipment he'd used for a while now on his missions.

'Glad to see my weapons have somehow remained on my person during this strange event...'

After he arrived under cover he used this opportunity to take off his N7 armor to get some fresh air onto his skin, and sat against the chilly rock afterward, but not before he checked if the air was safe to breathe. After a quick read from his Omni-tool to determine if the air is safe or not, he stripped down and dematerialized his armor. He let out a soft sight while he sat with his back against the stone in nothing but a tank shit and sweatpants, he enjoyed the less warm stone surface.

'At least the air is safe.'

Being out of the most dangerous situation now, without having to worry about dying under the sun, it left him able to think about his current bizarre predicament.

' Still, I can't figure out how I arrived in a desert of all places, I'm more or less surprisingly alive and well. I should have been spaced with the explosions that happened, not to mention burned to a crisp once more if I'd gotten dragged by Earth's gravitational pull...'

He didn't even know where to start and think what might have happened for him to be alive and kicking, as with all reasonable explanations. He should've been dead, more so than the first time.

The questions would have to be asked later, and worry was something he couldn't do right now. Shepard raised his arm with his Omni-tool appeared seconds after.

"This is Commander Augustus Shepard of the SSV Normandy, are there any Alliance personal on this frequency?" He called out with naught but silence coming back in return.

"I repeat. This is Commander Augustus Shepard of the SSV Normandy. Are there any Alliance personal out there on this frequency? Please Respond." He tried a second time, but like the first attempt, nothing but silence came back in return

"I repeat again, to all survivors out there, this is Commander Augustus Shepard of the SSV Normandy. Admiral Hackett? Joker, EDI, Hammerhead, Sword fleet, Tali, anyone?” Once again, as the first and the last. No response was uttered out over the comms.

'Great, no response. Seems like I'm the only one here.'

After the third attempt, with the same result as the first, he stopped his attempt to see if any other were out there and waited till nightfall befell the desert. Once night had fallen, having taken a quick nap during the day. He ventured outside again with his armor on, reforged with his fabricator as it gave adequate warmth during the cold desert night.

He marched throughout the night, only having brief breaks in-between. With the sight of a more greener existence coming into view, the savannah which resembled something plucked right out from the African planes. It was a pleasant change of sight with its trees that dotted here and there, not to mention bushes of all shapes and forms that was about.

But this slight positive development was short lived.

Augustus' ears picked up a low pitch growl which became audible, quick on his reflexes and finger on the trigger. Some alien creature seemed to have followed him, having not noticed it at all, as it became apparent to him why he hadn't spotted this creature stalk of him.

The flimsy reflection of light rapidly collapsed as it revealed the strange combination of a tiger head that split apart into four pieces upon a lion's body, not to mention a scorpion's stinger attached to where a normal fluffy tail would be.

'Oh, great. What in God's name is that Mad Doctor's petri dish experiment... and its ability doesn't flicker as the Geth's does...'

Augustus didn't hesitate to raise his M-7 Lancer toward the strange creature, its mouth opened that allowed him to see an array of sharp teeth going down the throat in a circular manner. It began to circle around him with its stinger wiggling back and forth, his aim followed as it sidestepped to the left.

The reality around the beast then became flimsy with its body vanished into the air, its growl ensued. The sudden gush of wind, which blew past his head, made him dash backward with his rifle raised to accelerate a few shots directed toward the same direction.

Augustus hit the ground, the force sends dirt flying up, as it enabled him to get a visual of the creature with a large portion of the dirt landed upon the beast's body. After that, now visible, it was nothing else than to point his M-7 Lance and pull the trigger to send down damnation to the beast. Its whimpered cries rolled out as Augustus scored a direct hit, going right through the head, as its lifeless body fell like a rock sinks in the water of a river.

He looked around the area to see if anything else might have the balls to come at him in the attempt to gain a meal, as he shot a few rounds down into the ground to make it rain brown. But, luckily, every piece of dirt send sky-high came back down without a hitch, no beasts of a similar nature hung around his immediate vicinity to attempt a sneak attack to get a bite out of him.

'God, how I have missed these type of models! Much more suited for situations where you're constrained with insufflation material to fabricate Thermal clips! I know we wanted to have more firepower to send toward the enemy, but these models sure bring back memories.'

Augustus let out a sigh as he eyed the beast, his stomach began to growl with his mouth starting to water. He made his Omni-tool appear to analysis the beast to determine if its dextro or levo-protein based, with his hope being that it'll be levo-protein based for him to be able to digest it and not starve. The result, which brought a frown on his face, turned out to be dextro-protein based, meaning he wouldn't be able to digest to gain nutrient from it.

'Ah, damn it! Would've been nice to get some food into my system...'

With this unfortunate result, having kind of hoped to get some food. He walked away from the dead creature since he couldn't eat it, making it a horning beacon for any stomach growling predator within the vicinity.

It was when the sun had reached its zenith on the blue sky, constantly watching, that he picked up the sound of water slamming against strange large rocks in the middle of a small river, the water crystal clear for him to see the button of the stream. After he conducted some tests with his Omni-tool, making sure it was safe for him to drink. He went onto his knees himself and began to scup some water into his folded hands to drink from after the tests came back it was safe for consumption, feeling his throat rejuvenated with the cold water which flushed down.

Augustus dipped his whole head into the small river, its cold flow being a pleasant sensation to have run across the skin. The water droplets ticklish glided down his cheeks with his once submerged head coming up for air. As he shakes his head and ran a hand across his face as he stood up on his two feet, taking a prolonged breath of air into his lungs as he s

'How divine it is to feel cold water against the skin, would've only been better if I had some body wash and shampoo to clean myself.'

But, despite Augustus' desired wish, he didn't have such luxury to daydream about such things, not for now at least.

Once he matched through the water and stepped onto the other side, the water went to his waist with a current too weak for it to sweep him off his feet with the current. Augustus noticed a faint brown dot move across the boundary of his vision, it stroked a curiosity as to what this moving object may be.

It became more apparent that the small brown dot Augustus saw was the movement of a wooden wagon, built in the image of the very old wild west of the nineteenth-century during the gold rush. As Augustus laid eyes on this it brought up a lot of questions, but still pleased to see that this planet had some form of civilization.

The most forefront of questions: Who left this wagon with naught a starch on the wood or holes in the clothed roof? Where are the people who owned this wagon at exactly? Why is there an old fashioned wagon in a place like this?

When Augustus took a peek inside the weapon he found unopened wooden crates, untouched and not a scratch on the wood with a logo of an apple stamped on its side. His curious side got the better of him as he opened one of the crates with his Omni-blade, making a clean, as he pulled the top lid without any difficulties.

What he discovered inside made his heart jingle with glee, raised cheeks with a small grin, as he reached into the crate and fished out a delicious looking red apple. Augustus didn't hessitate as he began to devour apple after apple, pulling out the small seeds to eat the core as well. As before long, with the sun slowly coming to a set, he sat up against the wooden wall with a relaxed sigh that left him.

'To be honest, only been about close to two days since I arrived. This situation here is far more comfortable than anything I've faced the last six months... simple survival in nature, instead of having to be stressed out with the fate of the galaxy on your shoulders.'

Tiredness unexpectedly fell over him, having finally gotten some food into his system and not at the risk of swiveling up. Augustus now felt the effect of having wandered the desert all night and all day in this savanna, his eyes felt like anvils had somehow fused together and now pulled his eyes down.

Augustus laid down close to the button part of the wagon to look into the sky with a smile, his hands behind his head to serve as a pillow of sorts upon the wooden floor.

'Would have loved to wake up to you beside me, Tali... Hope you're not suffering too much because of me...'

Author's Note:

Glad to have this chapter finished, I'm going to bed now!

If you see any miss spelling or grammatical errors, can't all be perfect, I'll be happy if you point them out!

Comments

[SuperSaiyanDiclonius]

Applejack is gonna Beat. His. Ass.