First In Line (Gmod)

"Cerberus made me the ultimate assassin! You have no chance against me!"

"Kai Leng, was it? Let me tell you something. It doesn't matter who you are, what you do, how good at it you are, or how often you do it."

"Such grand bravado. Do you really think that, vermin?"

"Oh, I know it. I was raised in an actual warrior culture. From a very young age, we are taught not to just fight, but to survive and overcome foes far greater than ourselves. I know this. I lived this. I continue to live this. So you can be the greatest assassin, warlord, general, soldier, abomination, demon, and so on and so on and so on. None of that matters to me."

"And why is that?"

"Because you were trained and made in a lab. I was forged in battle and from a lifetime of struggling. I was trained to fight. To hunt. So you and everything that makes up Cerberus and the Reapers...you are all the same single thing to me, regardless of size and ability."

"O-oh? And what would that be?"

"....prey."

Kai Leng had fallen back on his training, sending the platoon he'd been assigned to attack the strange bounty hunter. They were better armed and armored, augmented with Reaper technology, and had all been veterans in past lives. Alliance soldiers and seasoned mercenaries had fallen to them and even the mighty Commander Shepard and their team had a rough time with them. The bounty hunter was using antiquated weapons and bore less armor, standing alone amidst ruins and rubble.

Kai Leng knew this should have been an easy win.

Kai Leng was wrong.

Each soldier fell, one by one, collapsing from well placed shots and brought down by practiced hand to hand combat. Kai Leng witnessed as one of the most experienced Cerberus platoons fell with shocking ease. His fortitude wavered for only a moment. These were skilled soldiers, but they were only soldiers. Drawing his blade, he charged the bounty hunter.

In a fight that he felt lasted for hours but knew only lasted for minutes, Kai Leng swung and thrusted his blade. Sparks flew as new scratches formed on the hunter's armor, parrying the blade with gauntlets and practiced hand motions. When the blade was sent flying from his hands with powerful open-palm strike, Kai Leng resorted to his martial arts skill. Blows landed and he could feel the pressure strike unarmored flesh, but the hunter did not react. Instead, the blows provided openings in Kai Leng's defense that the hunter took full advantage of.

And so it went. Kai Leng's strikes were either parried and strikes returned or they landed and were dealt back three-fold. Increasingly exhausted, Kai Leng could feel bruises forming, his breathing hitching, and fresh cuts bleeding across his face and under the cloth of his suit. There was only one option left: create an opening and retreat.

Only, the hunter seemed to know what he was thinking and one strik delivered a powerful kick to Kai Leng's knee, filling the air with grotesque crack of cartilage and bone. He screamed, the sound echoing over the distant battle around them as stalwart defenders fended off the weakening Reaper invasion. His scream was cut short as he felt hands grab his arm and another crack filled the air, his limb broken at the joint.

He collapsed, no longer able to support his own weight. Upon seeing the hunter standing before him, he scrambled away as a burst of adreline numbed the pain for vital moments. Gasping for air, he spoke.

"W-w-wait! I am an instrumental tool to Cerberus! We have resources and vast influence! One of your skills could be of great value to us!"

The hunter had begun his approach, taking long, slow steps.

"Let me contact my people and I can secure a place for you amongst us!"

The hunter's stride continued.

"Whatever you're being paid, Cerberus can pay you ten tim-twenty times as much!"

The hunter did not pause.

"Name your price! A command position? A ship? An armada? Power? Money? Name it and it's yours!"

The hunter stopped in front of him.

"Get me back to my people and I can vouch for your worth! It'll be as if none of this ever happENED!!"

Kai Leng struggled to finish his sentence as the hunter's grip tightend around his throat. It was at this moment of fleeting introspection that he realised he had filled the role of many of his victims. He recalled the many people who seemed confident with their mechs and bodyguards, their positions and wealth, their status and connections in society. He recalled how their attitudes changed when they realized he was not intimidated by any those things. Status meant nothing to him. He did not care for authority outside of Cerberus. No amount of money could buy his loyalty or stay his hand. No pleading could convince him to spare their lives once he had been assigned to end them.

"Look at me now. I'm just like them. Scared and begging for my life."

The legions of victims he had slain, all their faces began to flash across his mind. First in various expressions of fear and despair. Then in expressions of anger and hatred. Finally, that gave way to smiles and gleeful grins that could only be seen as malicious and cruel. All of that, directed at him, he knew.

"No. Not like them. I killed them because I was told to. I'm dying because I brought it on myself. Now, they'll be waiting for me."

The hunter's grip tightened further and Kai Leng saw his reflection in the visor he was brought closer to. His face was red from the lack of air. Grime and blood caked his face while his hair was drenched from his sweat. Panic was in his eyes.

"Like I said before," the hunter spoke, "you're all just prey."

Kai Leng heard those words echo in his mind. He heard them echo even as the snap of own neck filled the air around him. In his final moments, he felt weightless as the hunter released his throat.

"Prey...we're...all just...prey."

His last moment of life ended as his body landed atop the pile of corpses that had been his troops. The light in his eyes faded. His heart stopped beating. The last breath in his lungs finally left.

Kai Leng was dead. Those he'd slain now avenged.

The hunter grabbed the weapons he'd dropped while fighting the assassin. Ancient weapons, even by the standards of the people he'd allied himself with. Commander Sheperd had offered them to him as gifts, saying they were incredibly rare but could be used if needed. The Mandolorian checked them and found new dents and scratches on the surface of each one, but otherwise saw no real damage.

A boot firmly planted on Kai Leng's chest, the Mandolorian looked over his shoulder. Troops he had brought with him and sent to aid the local garrison were approaching, waving to get his attention.

"Sir! Enemy forces are pulling back! We're moving to engage the largest concentration of Reaper troops and reinforce the 501st! Are you joining us!?!"

The Mandolorian looked once more at the broken body of the assassin, committing the man's face to memory. He wouldn't have cared enough to track him down to the center of a Reaper invasion had it not been for one thing: he'd murdered his friend.

The Drell had been dying already, though he made no mention of it when they'd first met. He had been the first friend he'd made in this universe, second only to Commander Sheperd. Both had welcomed him and offered him a place in their team and as part of their family. He had earned their respect and they earned his in turn. They had grown close to be like siblings.

He had killed the man who killed his brother. Now, he was left in the midst of a war for survival against a seemingly unstoppable force. Sheperd had left to rally the galaxy against the Reapers and had asked him to help however and wherever he could.

His kin had died fighting the Reapers' pawns. His kin still fought the Reapers themselves. He would honor this family and the one he was forced to leave behind.

"Rally up on me. We're moving through the subway to avoid the rubble and flank the enemy's position from behind."

He jogged to join them, keeping pace with them as they moved.

"Sir, are you sure about that? Do you even know where we're going?"

He turned to the private, one of the newest additions to the unit. Young and inexperienced, the foundling had the heart of a warrior that would not stand by as the galaxy bled.

Still jogging, he looked over the rest of the soldiers. The soldiers he'd helped to train and lead. The soldiers who wore helmets similar to his own, of which many wore the icons of different foes ranging from Cerberus to beasts to even a scyth and skull to represent the Reapers. Many were unmarked but certainly now blooded fighters, having now tasted battle and survived.

He looked to these men and women of human and alien origin and shouted to them the only thing needed to restore their confidence. The one phrase all Mandolorians knew. The one phrase these men and women, the Mandolorian 1st, knew by heart.

"This is the way!"

As one, they were restored. Bruised, tired, and worn with wrented armor, half spent weapons and munitions, and bloodied bandages. They were restored, determination filling them. As one, they shouted their new birth right.

"THIS IS THE WAY!!!"

The hunter would protect his pack, would lead his pack, would honor his pack. Because this is the way.