Disclaimer: I do not own or make any claim to the Mass Effect universe or the characters contained in this story, all of which are owned by BioWare and Electronic Arts. This is simply my interpretation of some events within the game universe.
[AN: Welcome to my variation of the Suicide Mission, because, you know, there weren't enough of them already...
Anyway, this one is part of the same continuity as all my other ME fics and it will largely stick to canon, though there are a couple of minor differences:
- The Collector forces are a mix of the ME2 form and ME3 version, basically taking the best form both and combining them here.
- Many of the squad have different armours; Miranda gets a set of Inferno armour, Jacob has Cerberus Assault Armour, Jack, Thane and Samara all get vacuum proof armours, Kasumi has a set of Alliance 'Shadow' class armour on beneath her usual attire, Tali has her ME2 Alternate Appearance armour, but in her usual colours and Garrus get's the incredibly awesome Terminus armour set from the ME3 Alt appearance pack.
- The giant T-100 will be changed to something a bit more 'Reaper-y'.
So that's the changes, and now that you're aware of them, I hope you enjoy the first chapter. /AN]
Normandy SR-2, Position Unknown (February 23, 2186, 1600 hours, Ship Time):
All of the ground team had assembled in the briefing room and were variously standing, sitting or resting against the wall. They were decked out in their usual combat gear, and then some.
No one had expected this mission would be easy, and the space-born part of the approach certainly delivered; hairpin manoeuvres, deadly astrophysical phenomenon and a technological marvel pushed to- and beyond- it's limits. Now they were itching to get out there and fight on their terms.
The rhythmic beat of the Commander's boots reverberating through the room alerted its occupants to his imminent arrival and they all tensed expectantly, waiting for their orders as he strode into the room and took his position at the head of the meeting table.
"Well, we're here. We can't worry if the Normandy can get us home or not; we all knew this was probably going to be a one way mission when we signed on, and right now all we need to worry about is how to remove this base from existence. EDI, if you'd please."
A holographic form of the Collector Base sprung into being above the table. Shepard began manipulating the image, stripping away layers and marking points.
"All of the energy signatures seem to be clustered around here," he said, pointing to a large glowing section of the station set in a large central chamber that appeared to run the length of the station for at least two kilometres. "So that's where we need to go if we're going to overload the core and blow it sky high."
"Shepard-Commander, insufficient data is available to determine if a core overload will have sufficient yield to completely destroy this installation," Legion stated, head-flaps whirring as it processed the new information.
"It might not, but if we can knock out the core, then it won't be able to generate the mass effect fields to keep it in a safe orbit around the black hole."
"Like the dead Reaper," Jacob said, nodding in understanding.
"Exactly, blow the core and whatever's left falls into the black hole," Shepard smiled darkly, cold rage tempering the steel in his voice. "Now all that's left is to get there."
Garrus spoke up first.
"It looks like there are two main paths, but they both hit bulkheads before they reach the Central Chamber and I don't like our chances of getting through those in a timely manner."
"A single individual could enter this ventilation shaft; it runs parallel to the other paths and opens up beyond the bulkheads." Thane proffered, he himself not being a stranger to utilising unconventional entry points for infiltration.
"Practically a suicide mission; I volunteer," Jacob said, no trace of apprehension in his voice.
"A nice sentiment, but you don't have the technical skill to override the security systems in time. Shepard, you need a tech expert to get those doors open," Miranda stated as she too mulled over the puzzle that the base provided.
Shepard had drawn a similar conclusion and had a plan was rapidly taking form in his mind.
"Alright, we break up into two teams, one down each path to keep the Collector's off balance and distracted until we can get the doors open. Tali, I need you on this," he said, ignoring the urge to grind his teeth in agitation at the thought.
Though he hated to send her on such a dangerous assignment, he also knew that she was the best choice. She had the most experience with Collector systems and her environmental suit would give her some degree of protection from the heat being vented, whereas Kasumi and Legion would be at a comparative disadvantage.
Tali stood up slightly straighter and nodded emphatically.
"I won't let you down."
Shepard smiled behind his polarised visor and returned the gesture.
"I know. I'll take a smaller team down the right-hand passage; Legion, Thane, Jacob, you're with me. The rest of you will take the left-hand path. Garrus, you've got command of that team."
A single nod from the black-armoured Turian answered him. Turning his attention back to his team at large, he surveyed them quickly; they were ready.
"Alright, you all know the score. The Collectors have taken thousands of people, hundreds of thousands; and now we're here to make sure of one fact: Not. One. More."
Grunt slammed his fists together in anticipation while nods and salutes answered for the rest of the crew.
"Grab the rest of gear and be ready to move in twenty. Take as many clips as you can carry and if you think you're going to use it, grab it; no sense in going light on this mission."
No one on the team could be accused of skimping on fire power as they assembled in the battered cargo hold.
Jacob had a Katana shotgun, Phalanx pistol and a proto-type automatic variant of the Mattock, which he had quickly dubbed the auto-mattock, as well as sporting an M-77 Missile Launcher on his back.
Legion was carrying its immense Widow rifle, a Geth pulse rifle, a plasma SMG and it had even grabbed a spare plasma shotgun.
Thane's load out was little different from usual, with his Viper and Tempest, but he also had a Phalanx attached to a holster on his thigh.
For his part, Shepard had his Scimitar and Phalanx but had switched out his usual Vindicator for an Avenger and picked up a Hurricane SMG for good measure. He had also opted to take the Cain, much to Grunt's joy, on the basis that if there would ever be a time that he would need it, it would be now.
The other members of the team were similarly heavily armed and were also dripping with thermal clips; there would likely be none to be found on the base. Once they were all assembled, both teams split off to move to their separate entry points where they would breach the corridors on Shepard's mark. The ventilation shaft was nearby Shepard's entry point so Tali accompanied his team on the way there, hanging back slightly so she could talk to Shepard alone.
They walked side by side, neither sure of what to say. It was Shepard who spoke first, turning to face her.
"I'm sorry I asked you to do this, but…"
She stopped walking and grabbed his hands, giving them a reassuring squeeze.
"Don't be, I'm the best option and you know it. Kasumi couldn't last long enough with to the heat and you need Legion's firepower, plus that hole must impact his heat dispersal systems."
"I'm not talking about the vents; I'm talking about all of this. You deserve better than a Suicide Mission to the Galactic Core, hell everyone here deserves better than this. I'm sorry for dragging you into this; if I had never let you join me back on the first Normandy-"
Tali interrupted him sharply, her voice a mix of frustration, exasperation and conviction.
"Then I may never have completed my Pilgrimage, or I might have been dead on Freedom's Progress, or dead on Haestrom, or perhaps I'd be dead because you never stopped Saren and the Reapers would be harvesting the Galaxy right now… and I would never of had the chance to be with you. I asked to join the original Normandy and I wanted to join you on this mission. I'm with you, by your side, whatever happens, because that's where I want to be."
Smiling at the determination behind her words, Shepard stepped closer to her and pressed his helmet against her visor.
"Alright, just… be safe."
"I will. I know you will get us all out of here, safely; it's what you do," she stated softly, locking eyes with him as they parted their embrace.
Shepard's smile was sadder now but no less genuine. He wasn't sure what would happen on this mission but he knew that fatalities were all too likely. Still, her confidence in him was a much needed boost.
"Thanks Tali. See you soon," he said as they parted ways before the assault began.
"Legion! Take out that Scion!" Shepard shouted, throwing himself into a roll to avoid the pulsing biotic field directed towards his previous cover.
He was answered by the thunderous boom of Legion's Widow and the sight of the Scion's integrated cannon being blown in half as the oversized tungsten round tore through it, then its skull and finally ended in a deep crater in the far wall. The giant monstrosity let out an unintelligible bellow as it crashed to the floor.
"Threat neutralised."
Thane put down the last couple of Collectors in the room with his usual calm precision as his Viper chirped twice and two Collector skull's exploded as the rounds fragmented inside and ripped them apart.
They were making good progress towards the central chamber, but the Collectors had quickly worked out what they were doing and had thrown everything short of a Reaper at them. Garrus reported that a similar situation was facing Team two but they were also making good progress.
Shepard's main concern was if they realised what Tali was doing; he doubted they had sensors inside their ventilation system when the air was over 200oC, but if they discovered her, she wouldn't be in a position to fight back, or they may find a way to trap her in there until the heat killed her. So far she had been shadowing Shepard's team in an effort to stay out of the Collector's sight, but he didn't know how long that would last, or how long her suit could cope with the heat.
Pushing the thoughts from his head he focused on picking his way across the uneven surface of the base and scanning for hostiles. They were coming up to a large cavern with more of the uneven terraces leading down towards another narrow hallway.
Thane heard them coming first and at his warning they dropped into position, waiting for the Collectors to make their appearance. Soon the buzzing of their wings filled the cavern and the first trio landed.
One was greeted by a round fragmenting inside its skull, the second was met with a quick burst to its upper torso and head from Jacob's 'Auto-Mattock' while the third was bifurcated at the waist, courtesy of Legion's rifle.
The Collectors were quick to react and changed their approach to land behind cover. Jacob managed to knock a pair of them out of flight with a biotic throw, and it sent them into a nearby wall with enough force that the crunching of their exo-skeletal armour could be heard on the other side of the room.
That left five on the other side of the room; easy pickings for Shepard's team.
Shepard and Jacob began to move up while Thane and Legion covered their advance. Shepard had switched to his Hurricane as he approached the partial wall that the Collector's were taking cover behind. He motioned for Jacob to hang back as he came up short of the wall.
Something wasn't right here. The Collector's had always attacked relentlessly, down to the last drone; it wasn't like them to sit and wait and the last thing he was going to do was charge in blindly.
"Legion, can your rifle punch through this wall?" He asked.
"Yes, the wall is composed primarily of an artificial crystalline resin. This weapon is capable of penetrating approximately 126.3 centimetres of this material and still retain the necessary velocity to terminate a target, but we lack the capacity to determine the location of the hostile forces," it replied.
"What about your combat drone?"
The Geth's head flaps wiggled in understanding as it processed the question and strategy being implied. After a brief silence it replied, already anticipating what he was going to ask next.
"Combat Drone is ready, we will proceed on your mark."
"Do it."
Legion's combat drone flickered into life in front of it and made its way to the wall in front of Shepard before rounding the corner and discharging its stun weapon into the nearest Collector. The cannon-like roar of the Widow came immediately after as Legion determined the position of all of the Collectors behind the wall from the drone's video feed.
The first round punched clean through the wall and a spray of orange ichor, along with the surprised warbling of the remaining Collectors indicated he had scored a hit. The second round followed two seconds later and the same spray of orange blood erupted but it was quickly obscured by the explosion that followed. One of the remaining Collectors was blasted off the edge of the cavern as the explosion hurled it out from behind the wall. The already weakened wall came apart and chunks were hurled across the cavern while the overpressure wave was enough to knock Shepard over, even shielded as he was by the terrace in front of him.
As the dust cleared it was obvious that the blast had killed the remaining Collectors, and Thane and Legion quickly made their way towards the blast zone.
"Shepard! Shepard! Are you alright?" Tali's frantic voice came over his private comm as he roused himself from the rubble, noticing a new dent on his breastplate where the armour had stopped a piece of flying rubble.
"I'm fine Tali, just a little explosion."
"Just a little expl-!" She said in exasperation before cutting herself off. "Fine, but we'll talk about his later."
"Yes, we will, don't forget that."
He could hear her sigh and take a moment to compose herself.
"Okay, you're right. I'm moving on to the next section, only a couple more to go after that, then I can open the doors," her voice was much calmer again, focused on the mission.
"Good, how's the heat?"He asked, his own concern for her safety now colouring his voice.
"It's hot, really hot, but the suit is still able to handle it. I can already feel it starting to seep through, though."
"Okay, we'll try and pick up the pace a bit."
Turning his attention back to his team that had made their way over to him he heard Jacob ask the question they had all been wondering about.
"Ah, what the hell was that?"
"Hypothesis: Drone Collector was carrying a high yield explosive device set to detonate upon that unit's termination," Legion's synthesised voice intoned.
"A Dead Man's Switch. They were expecting one of us to come rushing around the corner and then cause the bomb to go off," Shepard elaborated, nodding in agreement with Legion's assessment; it certainly fit the evidence.
Moving on through the hallway they reached another chamber, even larger than the previous one, ceiling vaulted high and dripping with resinous stalactites.
An inhuman moaning echoed through the cavern as husks and abominations began to crawl up the sides of the ledges and across the walls in an attempt to reach the intruders.
Shepard whipped up his Phalanx and drew a bead on the nearest husk, putting a trio of rounds centre of mass and letting the thermite mixed into the ammo block ignite and wreath the cybernetic monstrosity in flame. It fell to the ground, its grating scream reverberating throughout the cavern as still more husks approached.
The team fell into position and began picking off the husks with precision, not giving way to the panic and fear that would likely have overwhelmed a normal squad of soldiers.
The air was filled with the whine of Legion's plasma SMG and punctuated occasionally by the booming of Shepard's Phalanx and Jacob's Katana and the dull whisper of Thane's suppressed Viper.
One husk snuck up behind Legion and was about to lunge at the Geth when the mobile platform caught it's skull mid motion and plasma cascaded down its arm, thoroughly erasing the husk from existence, all while keeping its SMG trained on the husks in front of it. Thane dealt with another via a biotically assisted open palm strike to the sternum that shattered the husk's cybernetically reinforced ribs and sent it careening into those behind it before smoothly stowing his Viper and unleashing an extended burst from his Tempest.
The team was quickly pushing back the husk assault when the buzzing of wings was heard in the distance, followed quickly by their owners. The Collectors dropped onto the terraces on the opposite side of the cavern and immediately opened fire on the exposed group.
All four of them quickly slid into the nearest cover they could find, relying on their shields to take the brunt of any fire in the interim. Shepard reached cover just as he saw the amber beam of a Collector particle weapon carve a clean line in the ground where he was standing less than a second ago. Quickly extending his Avenger, he re-holstered his Phalanx and readied his rifle, snapping over cover to fire a quick suppressing burst and check on the location of the remaining husks; they were much closer than he'd have liked.
Then, because things weren't going well enough already, an ominous and sickeningly familiar glow surrounded one of the Collectors as it became an avatar of Harbinger.
"I will direct this personally," the Reaper's voice bellowed, reverberating through the cavernous room.
Shepard had to think fast. The husks were nearly on top of him and he couldn't get out from cover to fight them while Harbinger and the sniper were still active. But this was why he had a team.
"Thane, take out that sniper! Jacob, focus fire on Harbinger and when his barriers are down, take him out, Legion! I'll deal with the husks and remaining drones."
He knew it would be at least ten seconds until both targets could be taken out, and it would be less than three before the husks reached his position, but that wasn't going to be a problem.
Stowing his Avenger while drawing his Scimitar, he dived out from cover as the first husks leapt over the low terrace. He focused on the collector drone at the back of the formation and half-a-second later he had slammed into the unfortunate drone with enough force to shatter its spinal column before bringing his assault shotgun to bear on the two drones closest to him; they were both quickly cut down by the hail of incendiary shotgun pellets shredding their armoured chests.
"Stop Shepard!" Harbinger's avatar growled at the human that dared defy him. Having them focus on him was all part of Shepard's plan, however, as it freed up his squadmates to take out their targets.
The sniper brought its particle rifle to bear on Shepard and the weapons immense damage output quickly chewed away at his barrier levels. A round impacting it's barriers from behind staggered the Collector, straight towards the oncoming form of Shepard, who unleashed a pair of shots from his shotgun to completely drop its barrier. The rounds had enough force to cut deeply into its left shoulder and spin it around, just in time to have Thane put a round between its two left eyes.
With the sniper taken care of and Harbinger preoccupied with Jacob's assault, the Commander could turn his attention to the remaining husks, seven in all. They were clambering their way towards his squad's position, having given up on chasing him. Once again he charged into the husk towards the rear of the group and proceeded from there.
The targeted husk was turned into a ragdoll by the impact and crumpled in a heap at the base of one of the rock pillars dotted around the room. The next had the better part of its abdominal cavity excised by a blast from his shotgun while another two fell from the next blast. He was vaguely aware of Legion firing another round from its rifle, causing the Harbinger avatar to collapse into ash.
Stowing his shotgun instead of pausing to expel the clip, he slammed a biotically powered fist into the side of the fifth husk's emaciated skull, instantly severing its spinal cord and whatever tech the Reapers had implanted. By now the remaining two husks had turned their attention back to him, but he had already anticipated this. Clenching his right fist, his omni-blade rapidly fabricated, extending to its full two foot length and locking in place. With a thrust it impaled the husk in front of Shepard through the clavicle and on through the remnants of the heart, then the spine. Quickly withdrawing the blade, he thrust it backward as the blade re-aligned itself on his arm, extending out beyond his elbow and catching the final husk underneath the jaw, the bone offering little resistance to the monomolecular blade as it pierced the through the top of the creature's skull.
A single shot signalled an end to the fighting in that room as Shepard put a round into the head of the paralysed husk standing in front of him, before re-holstering his Phalanx and discarding the flash forged omni-blade and allowing the still impaled husk to fall to the ground, the blade shattering on impact with the crystalline floor.
"Come on, let's keep moving, the Central Chamber isn't far," he ordered said, before breaking into a jog in order to reach the next room.
This time the Collectors were waiting for them, Harbinger standing at the front of at least twenty. The Collectors opened fire as soon as they saw Shepard crest the rise and Harbinger generated a singularity in front of his path in an attempt to slow him down, but Shepard wasn't planning on waiting.
Instead of advancing through the Collectors overlapping fields of fire, he simply bypassed them, slamming into the Captain near the back of the wall and putting a burst from his rifle through its skull as insurance. The other members of his squad took up positions and began picking the now distracted Collectors off while Shepard advanced into their ranks, ducking and weaving his way between the pillars and terraces that acted as cover in the convoluted landscape while firing bursts from his weapons into them, switching as the thermal clips reached capacity.
A combination of a biotic throws, omni-blades and fire from his weapons had brought down Harbinger and all but three of the remaining Collectors when Tali's voice erupted over his comms.
"Shepard! I'm trapped. They sealed the passage in front of me with a grate and used a bulkhead to shut the path behind me. The heat- Keelah, it's hot in here! I don't know how long my suit can hold out," she panted, her voice laboured with the heat already taking its toll on her body.
"Shepard Commander, we can access the nearby console and override Collector security protocols."
"Do it, we'll cover you!" he shouted as Legion dashed towards the nearby outcrop.
"Understood, bypass will take approximately 23.4 seconds. Initialising."
"The grate should be down shortly Tali, just hold on," he said in a rather vain attempt to reassure her.
Legion still needed fifteen more seconds when dual lances of blue-white energy raced towards it, carving a path across the floor and threatening to destroy both it and the delicate console.
Seeing what was about to happen, Shepard summoned a barrier around himself as he charged the source of the attack, a Praetorian that had just landed on the edge of the cavern, in the hopes of knocking of its aim enough to allow Legion to finish the bypass.
It worked, the Praetorian's attack went wide of its mark, but now Shepard had to deal with five tonnes of living assault platform bearing down on him with little room to manoeuvre.
The Praetorian screeched and began stabbing its wickedly sharp front limbs towards him as he dove underneath the Praetorian's legs and scrambled out the other side before it could crush him with its heavily armoured carapace. Firing his Hurricane until the clip reached capacity, Shepard continued to draw the massive construct away from the rest of the squad, all of their rounds being easily absorbed by the Praetorian's immensely powerful barrier as it rose above the terrain and made a beeline for Shepard as he alternated between carefully picking his way across the ground and firing up at the looming behemoth. Jacob managed to get its attention by hitting it with a trio of missiles, giving Shepard the opportunity he needed to slip past the Praetorian and move back into open space.
"Shepard, the grate's open, I'm continuing forward," Tali's voice came over his comm again, her breathing was shallow but the relief in her voice was clear.
"Good…get the door open…for Team two…we shouldn't…be far behind," he replied in between bursts of fire.
Now that Legion was adding it's fire to the Praetorian, its barriers eventually failed and rounds began impacting its armour, causing it to fire off another salvo with its twin particle beams before it suddenly collapsed on the ground, legs tucked tightly under its body.
The squad stopped firing, unsure of what to make of this.
Before any of them could speak, though, the Praetorian began to shudder violently as golden fire spread across its steely carapace. This coincided with the audible buzzing of Collector wings and the telltale groans of husks as they approached the cavern.
The Praetorian sprung into the air as a chilling voice reverberated throughout the room.
"We are assuming direct control of this form," Harbinger's voice boomed from the now possessed Praetorian.
Knowing that there was only one option open to him, Shepard ordered a tactical withdrawal.
"Run! Get to the doors!" He shouted to the other three members of his squad as he fired back at the now rapidly approaching horde. They barrelled through the final hallway until they reached the main doors that led to the Central Chamber.
"Tali, we're about to reach the door and we've got a lot of hostiles coming our way."
"The door is unlocked and Garrus and the rest of Team Two are already in position to provide covering fire," she assured him.
"Okay, we're coming in hot, ETA 10 seconds."
The sound of muffled gunfire and explosives could be heard by the rest of the squad waiting behind the blast doors as they waited for them to open. Sure enough, ten seconds later the doors began to part and Thane, followed by Jacob dove through the widening gap with Legion and finally Shepard following soon after. They joined the rest of the squad at the door and added their fire to it, cutting down the Collector forces as they approached.
"Tali, get the door closed and seal it, as secure as you can make it," Tali remained concentrated on her work, fingers tapping furiously on her omni-tool and the haptic interface of the door control as the doors began to slide slowly shut.
Shepard could see the Harbinger controlled Praetorian at the end of the hallway, its 'eyes' glowing with blue-white fire as it prepared to fire it's dual particle beams. But instead of the predicted beams of hyper accelerated sub-atomic particles, a salvo of rockets was released from pods lying dormant until now under its external armour.
The rockets traced bizarre spiralling patterns through the air as they sped towards the doorway. Everyone hit the deck as they saw the incoming barrage and most of the missile either exploded harmlessly against the now mostly closed door or sailed overhead, impacting the far wall. Jacob moved too slowly however, and a rocket caught him in the side which overwhelmed his kinetic barriers and cracked the armour beneath, but didn't penetrate.
The door sealed shut with a dull thud and Tali typed a final flurry of commands into her omni-tool, effectively securing the door against anything short of it being blown apart.
Breathing heavily from the exertion of the last half an hour, John turned to Jacob to find that Mordin was already running scans and injecting painkillers and antiseptics around the wound site. The white ceramic of his armour was charred and cracked but otherwise he didn't look any worse for wear, though there was a good chance he would have a broken rib or four and some burns around the wound site.
"Look Doc, I'm fine. The armour will hold me together long enough to get this mission done. Why don't you go treat someone else?" Jacob said with a grimace as Mordin administered a final cocktail of drugs via injection ports near the wound site.
"All other injuries treated. Received similar response from most of ground team," the Salarian huffed with indignation. "Wait! Tali'Zorah refused treatment until both teams accounted for…" he started as he stood up and moved towards the Quarian engineer still fiddling with the door controls.
"You alright?" Shepard asked as he approached the prone Cerberus soldier.
"I'm good, Shepard, ready for action; just help me up," he replied with determination as he tried to hide the wince of pain while Shepard helped him to his feet. The Commander clapped him on the shoulder and nodded before moving on to see Garrus while Mordin tried to treat Tali.
"Good to see everyone made it out in one piece, any major injuries or problems?"
"Just the usual minor scrapes, bruises, burns from Collector particle rifles. Mordin's patched everyone up and we're ready to move," Garrus said with a forced smirk.
Shepard saw right through it, however. The effect of the pressure of having people under his command again was all too obvious to his closest friend, but he needed Garrus if they were going to get through this.
"You did a good job Garrus; I knew you could get them through."
"I know, and thanks for trusting in me… even when I didn't," Garrus replied, the forced levity largely gone from his voice, but that wasn't a bad thing as far as John was concerned.
"What are friends for?" The Commander said sincerely before giving him one more meaningful nod and moving over to Tali while Mordin tried (with limited success) to get her to submit to treatment.
"Must insist upon running basic medical scans. Telemetry from suit shows marked increase in core temperature and signs of thermal shock. Already running a fever, may have resulted in complications. Must be treated immediately!" Mordin said, his tone sounding more urgent than usual.
"Hmph, fine…" she relented as she slumped back against the wall and let out an exhausted sigh and a small sniffle. She shot back to alertness when she realised Shepard was approaching.
"Oh! Hey Shepard."
"Nice work Tali, I knew I could count on you. Say, what happened to your hood?" He asked as he noticed charred and discoloured patches all across the purple fabric that adorned her suit.
"Oh, that. The fabric sort of caught fire when I was stuck behind that grate, and it was even a fire retardant fabric!"
"But you're okay, right?" He asked, not even attempting to mask the concern in his voice.
"Yes, I'm fine! Like I keep trying to tell Mordin, my suit is very good at keeping me healthy and I haven't received any punctures yet."
"Still, need to run tests. No sense in avoiding simple medical procedure that could save life, even on Suicide Mission," Mordin interrupted.
Before the debate could continue, Miranda's voice came over everyone's comm.
"Shepard, you need to see this..."
[AN: And there you have it, chapter one of three down.
I'd love to know what you think, as I have had limited feedback relating to my combat writing and there's also a lot of characters to deal with, so please point out any inconsistencies.
Thanks again for taking the time to read./AN]