Chapter 23: Omega Return Part 3
"What have I unleashed on the galaxy?" the voice of the quarian scrapper quavered while he stared at his shaking hands.
Before him in shining glory awaited my new arsenal.
Using Cerberus's backdoors into all the top Alliance databases, we stole the research and schematics for the T5-V Battlesuit - an expensive N7 power armor initiative - scaled it up to krogan physiology, and made it using tempered titanium gold.
The suit itself was a technomancy marvel, its synergistic systems able to provide me with a passive bonus of 27.5% to weapon damage, 25% to power damage, 65% to melee damage, and 50% to my health and shields. All that existed passively while I wore the suit and just stacked onto my biological prowess (Grunt has all the powers in the Krogan Warlord & Warlord Rage ME3 Multiplayer Trees with the extra 15% base health and shields found in the standard Rage Tree)
With the massive increase in my armor capacity and the improved and integrated smokestack system from my previous build, I had achieved AFK ROFLMAO levels of durability. Someone would need to blast me with the main guns of a ship to get rid of me now, and that is the way I like it.
The Devastator Mode was another piece of technomancy genius that boosted the power of my gun's another 30%, increased their thermal capacity 20%, and their accuracy and fire rate by 25%. Toggling on devastator mode didn't even slow me down like it did in the ME3 multiplayer because of the increased energy supply from the two top of the line tank power cells I carry on my shoulders. Devastator Mode, Tech Armor, and Fortification when used in tandem pulled just enough energy to slow down my tech power cooldown time, but the combination was much too powerful for me to care about that.
My guns are all custom now, made using more titanium gold (a very low friction material meaning way more thermal capacity) and other top of the line materials in the krogan brutalism aesthetic while integrating the best aftermarket modifications in the terminus systems and all the research the Normandy teams had discovered and developed. They were largely inspired by their predecessors (the Carnifax, Viper, Claymore, Revenant, and Krogan Battle Hammer), but out performed them in every baseline metric. We hadn't reinvented the wheel or even pushed the technology of the Mass Effect universe forward, we just took the best of everything available to us and put it together in the smartest way possible with our absurd budget.
It felt good to wield weapons made for krogan hands, but in truth most krogan would have trouble bringing them into combat, between my own super soldier strength and the boost from my power armor the weapons felt as light as any other, but were in fact absurdly heavy. We had designed an equipment set that was effective, but in no way efficient.
Donning my gear for the first time felt like a dream come true. Watching my systems come on line sent a shiver of joy across my sack. I'd been a pretender to the title before this, but now I was Lord Death of Murder Mountain. The Mt. Everest of Murder Mountains.
Aria had scheduled us a nice stress test in a condemned apartment complex. She didn't stay long after the fireworks started, but when she left she did so as the quarian scrapper's new employer. He'd never create anything on this level again, he'd never have a team like Beta Team nor an end user as powerful as me, but the experience of working with us on this project would catapult him to new heights in the arms game.
My testing ended when the last building in the complex collapsed into a smoking ruin. I'd used my entire kit extensively and didn't have a single hiccup. If anything, seeing the devastation first hand exceeded my imagination. The numbers on a data pad didn't compare to hosing down a building in an seemingly endless stream of high velocity high caliber incendiary slugs. I tore down buildings with machine gun fire, shotgun blasts, sniper rounds, even my side arm not to mention my over the shoulder grenade launcher, but the most fun I had was when I sparked up my blazing hot omni-shield, grabbed my golden krogan battle hammer (think Halo gravity hammer, got pimped out by the Tenno), and reenacted scenes from my favorite TV show White People Renovating Houses.
As we left, I turned to look upon my work and saw that it was good.
"Remind me never to make fun of you and Ken ever again." Jack spoke with an excited light in her eyes.
I looked down on her - a sight that would make most people shit themselves - and asked, "Who the fuck is Ken?"
She looked confused right up until Zaeed and I started laughing our asses off.
The ground team met up later that day for dinner, a buffet at one of Omega's classier hotels. They charged per person on a species by species basis, but the bastards charged me twice the krogan ticket price. I got them back by eating four times what an average krogan could, it wasn't easy but I had the understanding of my limits, the knowledge to control my pace, the courage to face the unrelenting tide of food, and the diligence to persevere against the colossal challenge. Eventually the Volus owner of the hotel came to beg me to stop.
In a rare showing of grace and mercy, I put the fork down.
"I hope everyone has had enough time now to rethink their life choices." Shepard began the after dinner meeting, "Between Grunt showing everyone exactly what he can do if you give him FU money and his subsequent opening of a personal pocket dimension in his stomach, I for one know that I'd have hesitated to enlist in the Alliance Navy if I'd know I could end up fighting people like him."
"Thank the spirits he wasn't alive during the rebellions," Garrus commented, "otherwise headbutt would be the most common language used in space."
"And the reapers would have a whole lot more twam coming their way." I challenged the turian to deny me.
"Probably." he agreed.
"Whether or not the galaxy would be a better place under Grunt's rule, we need to get back to preparing for our attack on the collectors." Shepard brought the meeting into focus, "We had a close call on the cruiser, but we are all recovered and ready to go on. The Illusive Man gave us a lead to follow, but I am hesitant to jump right into another situation he has orchestrated."
"If it will keep for a bit, we should let it keep." I told her my opinion, "The team is strong, but not as strong as we could be, and a lot of people still have outstanding business to finish before we hit the Omega 4 relay."
"Damn straight!" Zaeed barked, "We still need to hit Vido on the little fiefdom he has set up on Zorya."
"Pragia." Jack growled.
"The Gernsback." Jacob added.
"The Greybox." Kasumi spoke up.
"Sedonis." Garrus kept the disgust in his voice from turning to a full on snarl when he named his betrayer.
"My son." Thane said in disappointment.
"And I have a trial waiting for me back on the Flotilla." Tali finished the list of problems we needed to deal with.
"Not to mention any other ways we need to save the galaxy before we leap from the frying pan into the fire." I noted while thinking about when we would get the message about Project Overlord and the N7 missions we'd been handling between our various team building stops.
"Alright." Shepard nodded her head, her decision made, "We'll go to Sorya next."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
JManM
JManM Grunt has evolved from a dungeon boss to a raid boss, I've given up trying to figured out how to explain certain tech abilities beyond throwing my hands up and shouting TECHNOMANCY, and we have some foreshadowning of were the story is going next.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone