A General Everything

At a bar on Earth by the Ocean. The cool wind flowing through the open air pavilion. Shepard takes another drink, sitting with Garrus and Wrex. The group of friends and heroes of the Normandy are still celebrating their victory. It’s after dusk but the stories keep getting passed around as much as the drinks are. One of those stories . . .

Garrus – “What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to kill?”

Wrex – “That’s a tough one. I’ve fought a lot of battles in my life. Counting the Thresher Maw in The Right.”

Garrus – “Ok, what about a first encounter story?”

Wrex – “Yeah I’ve got plenty of those.” takes a drink, “What do you have in mind?”

Shepard – “How about the Geth?”

Wrex – “My first time fighting the Geth. Huh, well there is this one time. When I was a young mercenary a long time ago. I was hired muscle on a raid way out on the far side of the Traverse. We’d just finished raiding a weapons stockpile and were carrying the loot back to the ship through a canyon. I remember thinking it was the perfect place for an ambush. That’s when no less than a Geth Prime drops in front of me. I was in the back, so when the party got a glance at the Prime they took off running. Cowards.

So I grab the heaviest shotgun in the pack I was carrying and aimed for it’s head. You couldn’t get away with that now. Half the time the weapons are empty. But this was before thermal clips so everything was ready to go. I shot as fast as my gun could reload and when it would overheat I just did a roll over to the pile on the ground and grabbed another one.

But I hadn’t even knocked its shields down. Those weapons over a hundred years ago were crap compared to the ones today. That Geth just stared at me, it looked confused, didn’t even fire . . .

That had me worried. It was analyzing me because when I tried to grab another shotgun it blasted the ground where I would have rolled into, that is if I hadn’t gotten out of the way.”

Garrus – “So what did you do then?”

Wrex taking another sip – “So I had to change tactics. I ran right up to it, dodged a melee from its arm cannon and jumped on its back.”

Garrus – “Ha ha! What were you trying to do?”

Wrex – “I was trying to rip out every tube of wires I could get my hands on. But it didn’t seem to do anything. It just spun around and grabbed me. Tried to pull me over the top of it’s head. But I fought back.”

Garrus – “What did you do?”

Wrex – “I bit its head off.”

Garrus – “And that worked?”

Wrex – “No, its head just hung there by a cluster of wires. It was really disoriented for a few moments. Which I took the opportunity to shoot the rest of its shields down. But it quickly reoriented to the damage and shot back.”

Garrus – “Gees.”

Wrex – “They were tough bastards back then. Or at least they seemed to be. It got me pretty good in the back before I ducked behind a boulder for cover. Still have the burn marks from the plasma. I kept shooting from behind cover and punched a bunch of holes in its armor  but it kept moving. It creeped up right behind the boulder and it was about to grab me again when I jumped up, onto the boulder. Jumped off the boulder and bit its head again. This time I had the leverage of my own body going up over the Geth Prime and ripping its head clean off.”

Shepard – “Let me guess it kept fighting like a Chicken with its head cut off.”

Wrex – “A what?”

Shepard – “Nevermind.”

Garrus – “It’s an Earth bird, you cut off its head but it keeps running.”

Wrex – “That’s creepy. No the Geth Prime was dead, but after I killed it. Things got interesting.”

Garrus – “What happened?”

Wrex – “Then I met my first Colossus.”-

Garrus – “No way, a Geth Prime and a Colossus? Solo?”

Wrex – “In case you’d forgotten I’m a Krogan Warlord. I’ve got plenty of stories to tell. Without having to make any of them up.”

Garrus – “I wasn’t implying anything. Go on, tell us what happened.”

Wrex – “Ok, so I was headed out down the canyon towards the ship when I start noticing these bodies on the ground. One after the other every merc from the raid was shot down by plasma artillery. Then I notice about 100 yards up was the Colossus. But it hadn’t seen me yet, so I search through all the crates on the ground and I find one full of grenades. So I grab a bunch and put them in a satchel before going after the Colossus. That’s when I noticed a ridge on my left. I was able to sneak up onto the ridge and drop on top of the Colossus’ back. That’s when the fun began. It tried to face me, but I was on its back so it just spun around with its head strangely starring at me. It was the funniest thing. I almost slipped off when I grabbed a loose panel. One of the other mercs must have shot it. I got my grip back and I tore it off. Grabbed one grenade, primed it, threw the entire satchel in and then the one in my hand. I jumped off and barely got away before it blew. What I didn’t know was that the grenades were all the High Explosive variety and my armor got pelted in the back with shrapnel.”

Garrus – “Just a few more battle scars for the collection.”

Wrex – “Well the part of my back with plasma burns stung like hell. Still I walked away that day with the entire take and a new ship.”

Shepard – “So the Geth did you a favor.”

Wrex taking another drink – “It was no favor. I had to kill them.”