SIDE STORY – Battle On Thessia (1)

This side story takes place between chapter 77 and chapter 80.

--

As mentioned before, the reinforcements were Tali, Shepard, and RR. They never stayed too long in one area, as many places needed help.

RR had hacked the Asari communications ( she tried to do the same with the Geth, but to no avail, as Sovereign was helping in that area), so they knew where to go and the number of enemies they would face.

Shepard was helping a civilian go to safety, in a nearby bunker. After she did that, RR approached her, '' Commander, 500 meters to the right, there's a few Asari pinned down. They were requesting assistance.''

BANG

After killing a nearby husk, who had just gotten transformed, Shepard nodded at what RR said. '' I got it. Can you destroy that for me?'' She was pointing at the device that transformed others into husks.

''Certainly.'' RR took a grenade out of somewhere and threw it at the thing.

BOOOM

Tali, who had been looking at the Geth corpses all this time, trying to hack into their communications, sighed, '' Still no luck.'' 

She could hack the Geth for a few moments, and control its movements, but that's it

The Quarian then noticed RR and Shepard were ready to leave the area, so she got closer, '' How are you both doing?''

While Tali had the least experience in battle, she was adapting quite well to the situation. The training she had with Samale helped, even if little.

Shepard looked at the numerous corpses of Husks, Geths, and the lucky Asari who weren't transformed into a monster, '' ... I had better days, but I'm good.''

She was a soldier. She was trained to ignore the carnage around her and focus on her mission, but it seems the scenario in Thessia was so bad she was having difficulty on that front. Still, she would not quit the fight, unless she was dead.

While RR was here with her body, the AI was trying all this time to find a way to end the jamming of interplanetary comms, but the Reaper was more advanced than her, so until now, no such luck. She still responded to Tali, '' I'm good. Now, let's rescue more.''

With RR leading the way, the trio went toward the group of Asari that asked for help. They killed any Husk or Geth on the way there, with their shield being depleted a few times, but they suffered no damage. Their armor was top-notch, after all.

On the way there, Tali asked, '' Do you think, if they were better prepared for the attack, they could've saved more civilians?'' 

Deep down, she knew the response but still asked the other two.

'' Maybe. Even Samael was taken by surprise by this attack, so it's difficult to say.'' Shepeard gave her opinion.

'' If this attack was on Earth-'' Before Shepard could continue, RR interrupted.

'' If this attack was on Earth, they would still probably succeed, but I doubt they would be able to leave the planet alive. Not even the Reaper.'' RR knew exactly the type of protection Samael had put on Earth. The situation was going to be way different than now.

Also, Thessia was in this precarious situation because they weren't battle-oriented. It was also one of the reasons the Reaper was sure the attack would be a success. If this attack occurred in Paluven or Tuchanka, the Reaper would probably die in battle. The rest of the galaxy, most likely would be even worse than the current Thessia.

'' We have arrived.'' While they talked, they never stopped walking, so they finally arrived at their destination.

The trio took cover and looked around the place. They could not see much, but Shepard asked RR, '' The number of enemies?''

RR had a few drones flying all around Thessia, and while the majority was destroyed, she still had a few. '' 35 Geth, 89 Husks, 39 Asari ... 38.''

'' Tali, do your thing!''

'' Gladly.'' Tali was an Engineer and could hack, even if little and briefly, a Geth, and cause confusion in their ranks. That's how the trio managed to gain the upper hand in most of their battle until now.

Tali asked RR for a Geth who was away from the main group. She could not get too far away from RR, as it was the AI that had some sort of covering field that allowed the trio to remain undetected in the Geth radar.

Before the unlucky Geth could even begin to comprehend what had happened to him, he had no control of his body anymore.

'' You have 16 seconds!'' Tali urged.

'' Send him to the middle of their ranks and cause mayhem.'' Shepard had already thought about what to do with their chance.

Tali nodded and did just that.

The hacked Geth got closer to the main group, who was gunning down the Asari who were hiding in a nearby building. Before the others could react, it started to shoot at the Geth.

The machines, clearly confused by what was happening, shot back. The hacked Geth, before dying, used a grenade to kill as many as he could.

Tali, RR, and Shepard took the opportunity to wipe out the Geth. The husks really become a problem if they are in a big number, and thanks to the explosion, the hacked Geth, and the Aasri who noticed the situation, they handled the creatures quite easily.

It took only a few minutes for them to win this battle. The now 29-alive Asari approached the trio, '' Thank you for that. We would not have held for long.''

The 29 alive were counting the civilians... they had 100 in this group when the battle on Thessia started.

'' Don't need to thank me, not for this.'' Shepard was only doing what needed to be done. No one with a sane mind would turn their back on someone in this situation.

'' Commander, 2,3 Km from here there is another group of Asari needing help.'' RR suddenly said with urgency.

Shepard nodded and looked at the ramaing Asari, '' I won't ask you to join us, but please take the civilians to a safe place.''

'' We will do so.'' 

Out of the 29 survivors, only 5 were combatants.

After that, the trio left the place and continued to help where they could.

--

30 MINUTES LATER

They had received Samael's message not long ago but had their hands full at the moment. HELL, ever since the battle started they had their hands full, so they could not contact him.

The trio killed many and helped even more, but the situation seems to only get worse for them. The number of enemies never decreases, with more and more husks appearing, outnumbering the Geth by dozens.

Only RR was still in her top form, as she never gets tired.

Suddenly, RR stopped in her tracks, as the trio was going to help in another location.

'' RR, what's wrong?'' Tali asked with concern. It was the first time RR had done that since the battle began.

'' All communications got jammed.'' RR said in a dark tone of voice. Anyone with a brain knew this was bad for them.

Shepard immediately felt something big was going to happen, ' Let's hope it's just a feeling.'

But now, the trio was stuck. They were relying on RR using Asari comms to decide where to go, now they lost that.

'' LOOK UP!'' Tali suddenly screamed and pointed to the sky.

At the sky, the Reaper, who stood still since the beginning, started to move. The machine seems to come to life, with a few openings appearing in its body. 10 seconds later, a Red beam came off of it. It looked like death.

'' COVER!'' Shepard screamed as she lunged towards the ground, with a huge sound and an even bigger shockwave following soon. RR and Tali did the same.

BOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

No sound was heard even after 30 seconds passed since the beam was launched. Tali and RR got up first, then helped Shepard.

After a few moments, Shepard finally gathered enough strength to look at where the beam hit and noticed it was the Asari Temple. A symbol of the Asari.

It was totally destroyed. The Reaper was also leaving the planet, with the Geth ships doing the same.

'' Before all comms got jammed ... Samael said he was going there.'' Tali said in a small voice, but anyone who knew her could hear the despair underneath.

The trio looked at each other and could see the worry in each other faces. They rushed to the temple, to see if they could help in any way, shape, or form.