Horizon Colony, the Terminus Systems, Saturday Evening
. . .
Fandom's... debatably finest weren't the only people still active on Horizon. A large white-and-black ship orbited around the colony. It had arrived about fifteen minutes ago, maybe just a little more.
A three-man team had touched ground. Now, the sound of gunshots interrupted the buzzing intermittently - and it was getting closer.
Dean
"Yeah, this is a great plan," Dean muttered, sticking close to one of the buildings as he listened to the gunfire.
Jack
"I know," Jack agreed. "Too bad I don't have a better one."
Dean
"Yeah, yeah. Try not to die," Dean said, looking around a corner before making a dash for the next building.
Jack
"I feel like I've heard that somewhere before," Jack noted -- and, just to show off,ran fast enough to be at the next building before Dean.
Dean
"You get shot doing that shit and I'm just gonna laugh." Dean was a friendly guy like that.
Jack
"And then die painfully," Jack shot back, straining his hearing to see if he could figure out a way past whoever was shooting.
Garrus
"--this is starting to feel a little too easy," a strange, reverbing, rasping voice shouted. More gunfire. "It's practically target practice-- ah! Scoped and dropped!"
. . .
"Don't get cocky!"
That voice was definitely human. Male human.
"We got more Collectors coming up on our six!"
Not just their six-- a faint buzzing could be heard behind Dean and Jack, too.
Other Jack
There was a faint buzzing sound and a rippling of blue light, and then:
"Not anymore." The woman behind that voice sounded bored, almost smug. The buzzing briefly faded, but then returned to full strength:
" -- aw, crap."
Dean
"Well that sounds like a party," Dean replied, looking around the corner to check out their new 'friends'.
Jack
Jack nodded grimly as he also snuck a look. "Not sure I'd trust whoever's out in this."
Collectors
A tightly concentrated beam of... something struck the wall right above Jack and Dean's heads.
A second one followed moments later - cutting a whole lot closer this time.
Dean
"Come to space, he said. It'll be fun, he said," Dean muttered, attempting to shield Jack from the shrapnel. Because he was an idiot with a martyr complex. "My whole freakin' life is John McClain moments. We gotta move."
Jack
"I noticed," Jack ground out, and ducked behind a low wall that seemed to provide some shelter. "Any idea where we should go? From here, it all seems equally bad."
Shepard
The voices were getting louder. "Okay, this section's cleared," Shepard yelled. "Opening up this door in three... two..."
On the other side of the clearing (well, clearing - there were a lot of improbably chest-high walls) a set of very large white doors slid open, revealing a squad of three heavily armed people.
Dean
"C'mon," Dean said, grabbing Jack's arm to get over to the nice folks with guns. They were either going to be help or be a brand new stockpile of weapons to use.
Jack
Dean had a good idea. Jack broke free of the other man's arm so he could move faster and scuttled to the other side of the space, occasionally taking a break to drop behind something when the shooting started up again.
"Who are you?" he called, once they seemed close enough to shout over the buzzing.
Shepard
A bunch of people who were aiming their guns at them, that's what they were-- but only for a moment.
The man at the front lowered his weapon first. "My name is Commander Shepard," he called. "We were looking for survivors--"
Garrus
"Keep your heads down!" Garrus bellowed, aiming at a Collector a couple of feet behind Dean and blowing its head off with his sniper rifle. "Awww, yeah."
Dean
"Well, we're not freakin' zombies," Dean snapped. "We've got a couple more."
Other Jack
"That one was mine, Garrus," the woman -- young, with a shaved head and more tattoos than bare skin -- protested, before turning her attention to Dean and Jack.
"Yeah? Come up and tell Shepard about 'em. Don't get killed on the way."
Jack
"We weren't planning on it," Jack grumbled, but did as he was told. He only had to pause once along the way to shoot a Collector. "I'm Jack," he said. "This is Dean. Did you say Commander Shepard?"
Wasn't he dead?
Shepard
Funny. Shepard had only been back on his feet for a couple of months now and he was already way too used to that tone of voice. "I got better," he said preemptively. "Look, do you have any idea how to get to the defense towers?"
Dean
"Great, space Lazarus. How'd that even happen?"
Dean was... Less than impressed by resurrections after his own.
Jack
Jack looked like he wanted to know the answer to that one too.
"We don't know about the towers," he said, because it seemed like a question worth answering. "We're visiting, we don't live here."
Shepard
Shepard ignored the how-did-that-happen question with the effortless grace of a stampeding elephant. "Okay," he said. "Then stick behind us or find somewhere to hide. We're going to try and blast these things out of the sky."
'Course, that would be easier if there wasn't another swarm of Collectors building up nearby.
Garrus
"Screw hiding," Garrus said, taking a glance away from his sniper rifle to size up Dean and Jack. "If you're armed, we could use some extra back-up. These Collectors play a hard game."
Jack
"We're both good shots," Jack said, figuring Dean wouldn't mind being spoken for this once. "Not as familiar with the weapons as I'd like to be, but we can take care of ourselves. Lead the way."
Other Jack
The female Jack seemed skeptical about this. Blue energy was still crackling around her as she added, "Okay, but don't expect us to save your asses if you get in over your heads."
[[ continues from here. ]]
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