chapter 15

"I vote next time that we avoid following the distress beacons to deserted backwater planets," Jackson kicked at the base of the large rock, "that or avoid having Boss Lady drive the clearly delicate Mako off the side of a mountain."

"It is a tank, meant for taking a serious beating." Jane pointed out as Jason slid down the slight incline until he came to a stop next to them.

"Correction, it was a tank," a gesture towards the obvious smoldering ruin at the bottom of the hill was enough to explain the fate of the Mako, "now all you have left is six tons of scrap metal sitting in a crater after plummeting down a mountain!"

"I think it was two mountains actually," Ashley said as she slid to a stop not that far from Jane, "though from the way we were careening all over the place, I couldn't tell."

A small avalanche of rocks and dirt heralded the arrival of Wrex as he bounced the last few feet before coming to a stop a few yards away, grumbling loudly as he regained his balance.

"I asked for a fight Shepard," he snorted, shaking the excess dirt off his armor, "not a suicide plunge off a cliff and I hate walking."

"We're already there," John spoke up as he pointed off in the distance, "we'll investigate and then radio for pickup."

Sure enough, a few hundred yards away sat the blurred image of what would later turn out to be the unfortunate missing Marines as everyone picked themselves up and started walking in that direction, though Jason was on edge. Without the Mako, they were as good as dead when that Thresher Maw reared up from the ground, but they had a resident Thresher Maw killer on hand, a glance over at Wrex reminded him that Krogan had challenged the largest known predators in the galaxy in a one on one fight without vehicle support, only whatever weapon they could carry.

Jackson was already bemoaning the loss of the Mako as Jane bickered back and forth with him for a few minutes, because any kind of stealth approach was ruined when a six ton tank fell down the side of a mountain and exploded into flames, then again earlier scans had revealed nothing aside from the mysterious distress signal emitting from the surface before they had dropped. Discreetly checking his combo weapon over, he had still not given the weapon a name other than Prototype One, he made sure the most powerful ammo mods he had were in place as well as the making sure the shotgun was firmly switched to the Carnage setting and made a mental count of all the grenades, explosives and gear he had along on this trip as well.

The good news had been that John had ordered everyone to carry at least two of Jason's homemade explosive charges, Jackson on the other hand opted to carry four, including his rifle and the overpowered sniper rifle. Turned out that John couldn't fire it without the fear of breaking his shoulder while wearing his armor every time he pulled the trigger, so Jackson was the only one who could fire it without hurting himself for now because Wrex didn't have the patience for sniper rifles.

"If we catch these guys napping I am going to be pissed," Jackson grumbled as they could finally see the outline of the vehicles in the distance clearly now, "maybe we could abuse your Spectre privileges and borrow a ride from these guys Bossman."

"Doubt it," Jason watched as John lowered his rifle with a grim look on his face, "I seen signs of a serious fight and no survivors, keep your eyes open people."

Everyone had their game faces on after that as they carefully approached the beacon, burned out tanks and smaller vehicles easily seen by now as what appeared to be rocks earlier could now be identified as bodies, dead bodies as they reached the edge of the killzone.

"Fan out, search for survivors." Everyone picked their way among the scattered wreckage and corpses, resorting to omni-tools to scan for signs of life.

It took six minutes for everyone to complete an entire circuit of the site, not one survivor to be found, but Jason had scanned several traces of organic acid that was unknown as they regrouped at the beacon itself, which was the only thing still operational.

"Anyone else think this is fishy?" Jackson asked as he approached the beacon, "The only thing still working in what looks like an effective ambush, no signs of damage or even how it got here."

"No Alliance identifiers either," Jane said as she was busy tinkering with a control panel on the side, "in fact this is a little too high grade to be civilian."

"Something isn't right here," Ashley stood up after she slipped the dog tags off another Marine, "these guys are Recon, at least N5, bunch of bona fide badass operators that could stand toe to toe with anyone."

"Only bodies are human," Wrex pointed out the obvious while Jason was busy examining the sole Grizzly main battle tank, "it seems familiar."

KA-THUMP!

The loud echo could be easily heard as everyone dove for cover, though nothing happened for several seconds before John called out from his position near a half melted truck, "Anyone know what that was?"

"I hope I'm wrong Shepard," Wrex called out, "I think it's a Maw Hammer."

"What the hell is a Maw Hammer? Some kind of cannon?" Ashley asked as she slid into cover next to Jackson, who was busy looking off into the distance at something nobody other than himself could see while Jason was already working on the Grizzly as fast as he could before the tell-tale rumble of something big coming could not only be heard, but felt as well.

"Some pyjack called a Thresher Maw," Wrex snarled as he wracked his shotgun, "and it's coming for us."

"Did you just say that a…"

"THRESHER MAW!"

Like some kind of twisted apparition from a really bad nightmare, the Thresher Maw breached through the ground some twenty meters away like an oversized plant stalk shooting up, but this thing was far uglier. It towered some fifty meters off the ground, a quick guesstimate would say the thing had to be ten meters thick in the body at least as its head, four long blue tendrils waving to and fro and the mouth peeling back to reveal teeth that resembled broadswords arranged in a circular manner that disappeared from sight before it let loose with the loudest screeching roar that added to the effect.

"Definitely not good!" Jackson yelled as he opened fire, him and everyone else for that matter as the Thresher Maw just kind of sat there soaking up the damage.

"Incoming!" Jane warned everyone as the Thresher Maw reared its head back and let loose with a glob of smoking acid the size of a Volkswagen towards them, which sailed over their heads before hitting the ground some twenty meters behind them harmlessly.

"We need to get the fuck out of here," Ashley cursed as her rifle overheated, "that thing will tear us apart!"

"Jackson I need a hand over here!" Everyone turned to see Jason tinkering with the side of the Grizzly as the Thresher Maw roared again and spat another lethal projectile towards them.

John seemed to clue in on what he had in mind, "Covering fire! Distract that thing!"

"On it!" Wrex shouted as he launched a Carnage blast toward it, which served to get its undivided attention for now.

"Okay so the plan is to make this tank work, kill that thing and call it a day right?" Jackson asked as he handed over omni-gel while the fighting could be heard behind them, though it seemed the others were only annoying the monster as Jason held up two sparking cables and smashed them together to complete what he hoped would be a primary power circuit.

"Close, we need to get that thing to come in closer," Jason replied as he nodded towards the turret, "see if it will start when I give you the go ahead."

Jackson was already halfway through the hatch before the Thresher Maw decided enough was enough and disappeared beneath the surface for now as everyone stopped firing.

"Where did it go?" Ashley's worried voice could be heard over the com as Jason continued working on the tank.

"It's circling us," Wrex spoke softly as the ground not too far away could be seen moving, almost like a shark through water, "baiting us to open fire or run."

"We can't stay here," Jane whispered even though she had a full helmet on, "that thing will kill us for sure if we stay."

"It knows that Shepard," Wrex snorted as he turned to watch the mounds of roiling dirt display a disturbing pattern, "it wants us to make a run for it."

"First Geth, then fucked up Thorian, now we got smart fucking Thresher Maws to deal with?"

"Wrex? Any suggestions?" John asked.

"We need to lure it out, away from the direction we need to go," Wrex turned to give them a look, "anyone who wants to run can do so now."

"That would be suicide," Jane pointed off in the distance, "those hills are half a kilometer away, we head back, climb the biggest rock we can find and call for a rescue."

"One problem Commander," Jason rang out as he applied the finishing touches, "that thing is sitting between us and those hills, so we can't run that way."

"Are you two almost finished with whatever you are doing?" Ashley shot back, "We got bigger problems than a broken down tank."

"Bigger problems she says, broken tank she says," Jackson sarcastically remarked as he stuck his head up from the turret, "this tank has a three hundred millimeter mass accelerator cannon that is largely undamaged, so even if it can't move, we got some serious firepower here."

"That could work," Wrex suggested, "only problem is that we need that Thresher Maw to come up and hold still long enough for us to kill it."

"Something tells me that it isn't going to be that simple," Jane shook her head sadly after she hopped up onto the back of the Grizzly to have a look at it alongside Jason, "half the systems are either short circuited or melted, which means we might get a round off or have it blow up in our faces, forget about waiting for the cooldown on this thing, it would take at least a minute."

"So then we distract the damn thing for at least a minute," John answered as the rising lumps of dirt were getting closer, "before it comes up from underneath us."

Jackson shook his head before tossing over his explosive charges and a spool of demo cord he had stashed on his person over to Jason, "Here you go bro."

"What are you doing?" Jane asked rhetorically before Jason gave her a deadpanned look.

"I don't think we have enough to kill that thing," Ashley said as she caught on to what he had in mind as she forked over her charges as well, "maybe the explosion will scare it off long enough for us to make a run for it?"

Wrex shook his head while he was handing over his own charges, "They are drawn to loud noises, it is how they hunt, that and the carapace on them is thick enough to deflect much larger explosives."

"I'm not going to latch them onto the damn thing for Christ sakes," Jason grunted as he tied his fashioned bandoleer across his chest, "I'm going to give it something to hunt around for while you guys hopefully shoot the damn thing from a distance."

"A decoy," a lightbulb or at least the Mass Effect equivalent lit up above John's head, "so you're plan is going around dropping the explosives and detonating them to lure it away from us."

"Whelp," Wrex gave him a look before shrugging, "if you pull this off I just might have to respect you."

Jackson pointed out over to the approaching Thresher Maw, "Uh guys, that thing is getting closer, so hurry it up because I can't shoot through dirt with this thing."

"This is insane," Jane scolded as she attached her charges to his belt, "so insane that it just might work."

"Any advice Wrex?" Jason asked, mostly to humor the older Krogan as he lit up with a biotic glow.

Wrex shrugged a massive shoulder, "Don't get killed," then under his breath so only a few of the others could hear him mutter, "because the Quarian wouldn't like it if we came back without you."

Jason snorted as he charged out into the flat open space, though most people would think twice about speeding towards a Thresher Maw with the intent to purposely annoy a massive subterranean predator as an act of insanity or desperation.

Either way, they had their work cut out for them.

XXX

KA-BOOM!

"Ha! Suck it you oversized worm!" Jackson whooped as he score yet another direct hit on the completely unaware Thresher Maw that was too busy chasing after Jason to notice the tank before it was too late.

Jason discovered it was actually pretty easy to trick it into thinking that the explosives he was scattering around the vicinity was something worth eating, that and it could pick up the seismic disturbances his feet made whenever he completed a charge or ran away from the bomb site before it came tearing up through the ground. From there it was as simple as shooting fish in a barrel, Jackson would line up the turret and put a massive round into the side of the Thresher Maw before it could escape again as Jason had already planted another bomb and detonated it just as Jackson fired.

That way the Thresher couldn't pinpoint the origin of the Grizzly as easily and it continued to distract the angry Thresher, but the plan seemed to be working.

Each time the Thresher took a direct hit, it made an entry wound the size of a soccer ball and an exit wound roughly the size of a manhole cover, it was a main battle tank cannon meant to take out hard targets from a couple of kilometers, so it had the power to completely shoot through the body of the Thresher without any difficultly. The only problem was that the turret was slow and had a difficult time lining up for each shot, couple that with the fact that it was harder to hit the swaying head then it was the trunk just above ground level made it that much harder to land an actual kill shot on this thing.

In fact, each time it would come up, it would raise a little bit less of its body each time, exposing less of itself each time.

"How many times do we have to shoot this thing?" Jane asked over the com link while Jason was occupied with running away from another planted bomb as the angry Thresher sank beneath the surface with a shriek.

"Dunno, we've hit it like six times already," Jackson replied before he traversed the turret over to the left, "it has to be feeling it by now."

"It is injured and that makes it even more dangerous," Wrex gruffly reminded everyone as they watched another geyser of explosive powered dirt fly upwards, the rumblings increasing as the Thresher ran after the latest source of noise, "we need to be cautious."

"Can…(pant)..someone…(cough)…kill….this…(wheeze)…fucking…..thing…(pant)…already?" Jason gasped as he watched another round fly straight and true through the side of its neck, "I'm…really…tired."

"How many bombs do you have left Jason?" John asked over the com as the Thresher could be seen wildly slinging acid spit everywhere in hopes of hitting something.

"Eight…(gasp)...more."

"We need it hold still for a little longer or we'll just piss it off before we can kill it," Wrex advised before he said something that stunned everyone present, "Jason, hold still and shoot at it next time it comes up."

"What!?"

"Just do it, it'll concentrate on you long enough for us to shoot it right through the head," Wrex had some merit in his plan, "just dodge out of the way to avoid getting killed and we'll do the rest."

Jason dropped another bomb and sprinted towards the Grizzly in hopes of lining the damn thing up for a point blank shot, "Gotcha."

"You know, I think we just might pull this off," Jane said as she applied another patch onto the circuits because they were melting as fast as she could apply them in order to keep the turret operating, "gonna have to say I've never killed a Thresher Maw before."

"You get used to it Shepard."

Right about then the Thresher came up through the topsoil on a mission as Jason abruptly turned around and blasted it with a Carnage shot.

That served to get its attention as it dropped its head down and leaned back like a striking cobra, a faint gurgling noise could be heard as Jason stopped firing as the Thresher prepared to launch the world's biggest loogie at him.

"Going left!" His shouted warning was mostly for Jackson's benefit so he wouldn't be in danger of getting shot as he dove out of the way in time to avoid an acid bath.

"Smile you sonofabitch!" Jackson gloated as he fired the cannon again.

That got an immediate reaction.

Even though he was wearing a full helmet that was soundproofed, the ungodly shriek was loud enough to make him drop to his knees before the Thresher let loose with an almighty roar that could have shaken the heavens before it smashed into the ground and disappeared.

"I think we've gone and royally pissed it off now," Ashley said before she turned to look at Wrex, "think we scared it off?"

It was surprising how well Wrex could pull off a deadpanned expression, "Not even close."

"Uh guys, what is it doing now?" Jason asked as the ground began to broil like a lake of molten lava as he unsteadily staggered towards solid ground.

"It is circling, chasing its own tail," Wrex sounded concerned, "Its making a whirlpool to trap its prey underground."

"Never heard of that before," John said as they all watched the whirlpool grow larger.

Jason was too busy sprinting across the shifting ground to notice something important before it was too late as everyone watched on in horror.

The ground directly beneath his feet exploded upwards, sand, dirt and rocks falling away to reveal the Thresher Maw coming up out of the ground in search of its illusive prey.

"Holy shit," Jackson blinked before he spoke what was on everyone's mind, "is he riding that Thresher Maw?"

Jason wished someone had either a drone or Joker was watching from orbit because he was standing on top of its head as it spewed a jet of acidic spit in random directions, blindly trying to hit something as he grabbed onto whatever he could hold onto and began hauling himself up.

"We can't shoot with Jason clinging onto that damn thing!" Jane shouted as she could only watch.

"I know!" Jackson was frantic about now as he keyed his com, "Jason! Can you hear me?"

"Yeah I hear you," Jason growled as he dodged to avoid the lashing tentacle and kept climbing upward, "I think we need to seriously rethink our strategy here."

"Can you jump clear so we can shoot it?" Jason eyed the ground, a long fifty meters below him before he looked up at the top of the head, less than six meters away.

"I've got a plan," Jason smirked as he began climbing, the rough patches of scales easily providing hand and footholds for him to use even though the Thresher Maws was doing its best to trash around, making an already difficult task nearly impossible.

"Oh this I got to hear," Jackson sarcastically waved his hands around even though no one could see him inside the turret, "what are you going to do? Shoot its eye out or something?"

"Or something."

Jason struggled with the concept of stuffing whatever explosives he had into the cracks of its scales one handed while holding onto the bucking Thresher Maw near the top of its head as fast as he could because he was worried the damn thing would go underground again before he managed to pull off what had to be the craziest stunt in the world.

"Get ready because I don't know it this will just give it a headache or blow its brains out of its ass," Jason warned as he attached a simple tether line and got ready to throw himself off of a living Thresher Maw before the explosion killed him, that or else gravity would do it, "here goes nothing."

"This is gonna be good," Jackson cackled as he rubbed his hands together before grabbing onto the controls, "once your clear I'll let him have it."

"This is fucking nuts," Jason groaned as he took a deep breath, "alright on three, one...two…aw fuck it three!"

XXX

John simply watched as the miniature figure of Jason plummeted down the long neck of the Thresher, bouncing off the sides of its massive body, looking more like a ragdoll falling down a cliff than someone obviously in control before a spectacular explosion near the top of its head drove the monster forward by a rather large margin as everyone could hear Jackson snicker over the com link.

"Looks like that thing has a fiery afro."

BBBOOOOOMMMSSSHHH! (Main cannon going off, so sue me)

The follow up shot was also just as spectacular, it went right through the gaping mouth and out the back of its head, adding to the overall effect of blasting its brains out before the massive carcass simply dropped to the ground with a teeth rattling earth shaking thud that caused everyone to lose their balance and fall down, the beacon toppling over and exploding in a shower of sparks.

"Jason, you copy brother?" A short burst of static, "Are you there, come on answer me!"

"Ugh," the reply brought a cheer from everyone present, "can we never do that again?"

"No promises you deranged psycho," Jackson laughed, "you know I think it fits."

"What, my foot in your anal cavity?"

"No, Psycho as your moniker," Jackson climbed out of the turret and glanced over at the others, "because I've got Juggernaut and you'll be Psycho."

"Hurray," the sarcastic tone carried through as a familiar shape came walking out of the dust, "now can we get on with the second part of this mission?"

"Uh Jason, we killed the Thresher Maw," Ashley pointed out, "we're gonna call Joker and bug the hell out of here."

"Wrong," John said as he checked his rifle scope, "we're going to find whoever activated that Maw Hammer and get a few answers."

Jason laughed as he came to a stop and brushed some guts off his shoulder, "I guess that means you want whoever it is alive?"

"Yes," John answered as he started walking off in some direction, "now follow me, because I can see some kind of structure over there."

Wrex grumbled, "I hate walking Shepard."

"It's okay Wrex," Jackson nudged the larger Krogan with his elbow, "we can always leave you to kill the second Thresher Maw that shows while we investigate that building."

XXX

"Definitely some kind of tower," John whispered as he remained perfectly still behind his rifle, "I see only one way in or out and that is through the hatch next to the landing pad."

"Long range heavily modified shuttle parked on the landing pad Bossman," there was a brief pause, "we just made sure no one is going to be flying it for now."

Two distinct figures could be seen sneaking around the shuttle, one of them tossing a vital component aside they had just torn out of the rear thruster before they reached the door. Wrex and Ashley were right behind them, setting up behind the shuttle to provide covering fire in the event things went to shit as John kept looking for anything that would signify that whoever was inside had detected them.

"I don't see any markings," Jane hunkered down behind a set of binoculars next to her husband while keeping an eye out on their surroundings in the unlikely event someone was trying to flank their position, "could it be some kind of smuggler hideout?"

"With a Thresher Maw at their beck and call, they have one hell of a security system," John growled as he adjusted his aim slightly, "must be why they are inside, waiting for the Maw to kill us off and leave."

"So do we just knock or kick the door in?" Jackson asked while Jason was busy removing the control panel.

"Reinforced blast door capable of withstanding a lot of abuse," Jason rattled off as he continued in his task of hacking the door open, "I would love to watch you kick it in, but we need to get inside before whoever it is hears us."

"Eh, blow a hole in the side of the thing already," Jackson whined, "I don't have the patience for this."

"Seconded." The familiar raspy tone of Wrex could heard in the background.

"Hold position everyone," Jane ordered as she got up and started moving closer, "we'll regroup at the door and get inside."

"Uh Boss Lady, the door is opening."

Sure enough the door was opening alright as Jason spun around and punched the first person walking out the door holding onto a large box as Jackson opened fire at another target not visible to the others.

"Contact!"

Jason suddenly jumped to his feet and charged inside the building brandishing his weapon with Jackson hot on heels.

"I said hold position damn it," Jane cursed as she took off a full sprint with John keeping pace next to her, "everyone follow them inside and secure any prisoners or intel you can."

"It's not like they have a self-destruct charged wired into the…"

KKKKAAAAA-BOOOOOOOOMMMM!

Everyone was knocked backwards as the top portion of the tower exploded into a ball of fire, sending shrapnel and wreckage everywhere as the shuttle burst into flames as well, fortunately for Ashley and Wrex, they had moved away from it as Jane got back to her feet and keyed in her com.

"Ground team report in."

"Williams here."

"Urdnot."

A short pause and then, "Oh shit I'm going to be feeling that in the morning, Juggernaut and Psycho reporting in."

"What the fuck happened?" John groaned as he hauled himself upright.

"The building seems to have exploded," Jason waited a moment before tacking on, "and it wasn't me."

Jane let a sigh of relief as she watched the two wayward members of her ground team come staggering out of the smoke as the entire building was now fully engulfed in flames, everyone wisely regrouping near the only body, blown free of the building as she marched right up to Jason and crossed her arms.

"Why the hell did you run off like that?" Jane was mad, no pissed as she was ramping up for a real dressing down before Jason dropped to one knee next to the corpse and rolled it over.

It was a gruesome sight for sure, it had been the person Jason had knocked out before the blast melted half of his face off and shove a four foot piece of metal through his chest, but Jason was tapping the insignia on the left side of the chest.

"I remember this symbol Commander," he looked up and snarled, "this is the same one plastered all over the facility we were created at."

Jackson also took a closer look before letting a long whistle, "Guess we can never catch a break from these guys, would it be too much to ask for that at least?"

John broke the silence with a simple question, "Are you sure?"

A biotic aura washed over Jason as he reached down and plucked the insignia off and crushed it in his fist, "Positive."

"Looks like things got a lot more interesting," Jane sighed as she activated her com, "I'm sending Joker the coordinates for pickup, we'll search what's left once the fire dies down and be on our way to the Citadel."

Jason remained where he was for a moment before he dropped the crumpled hunk of metal and stood up, giving the building one last look before nodding, "Volunteering for recovery duty."

"Shouldn't you sit this one out?" Ashley asked as she removed her helmet, "With nearly getting killed twice you should take a break."

The withering glare she received was enough to cause everyone to back up a few steps, "Never mind."