The heat of the desert planet adds to the chaos around me. The walls of the converted colony keep out the ever present sand storms for the most part. It doesn't matter though. I'm in the middle of a far different, far worse kind of storm at the moment. Dozens of pirates armed to the teeth are shooting at me and my squad with more combined firepower than a turian dreadnought. I'm crouching behind the ruined husk of an armored personnel carrier I'd blown up minutes before. The sound of bullets whizzing and striking objects nearby is constant. There's a giant grin on my face.
In front of me is the main colony building five stories tall and around a hundred meters long surrounded by a thick, five meter high wall. Connecting to it via sky bridge is a much thinner but just as tall squarish building that must have once been a command post. The base was perched on a canyon edge probably to make sure it couldn't be attacked from all sides. Over the precipice and far down one of the planet's few rivers coursed though it was mostly moving sediment. We're being shot at from what seems like every window in both structures. The enemy had started off strong but piles of their dead littered the courtyard in front of the main building.
The sound of small artillery booms and thuds in my ribcage. Somewhere nearby a few dozen of the Normandy's marines are lighting up the horizon with mortars and mounted cannons. The pirates have back up but we're using their own defenses to keep their friends at bay. Above us shuttles are circling and waiting to extract us. It's only a matter of time before too many pirates show up with bigger guns. Inside the base however time is running out for the gang's leader and his death is the signal to pull out.
"Got them on the run now!" I shout to my squad. Up ahead Samara and Jack were decimating the right flank in front of the building's main entrance with thunderous biotic destruction. Dr. Mordin Solus and Tali'Zorah vas Normandy were providing cover fire and omni-tool attacks from the left. The center was reserved for yours truly, just the way I liked it.
Peeking around the corner I spotted a trio of pirates up ahead of me trying to line up shots on my biotics. I'm about to rush them when a bullet bounces off the smoking metal near my head and I involuntarily jerk back behind cover. "Goddammit snipers!" I yell into my mic. "What am I paying you people for if there's pirates taking shots from the roof!"
Turning the corner I dash at the trio before they can squeeze another trigger. The world slides into slow motion around me as I ramp up into a charge that will slam into my enemies with wrecking ball force.
"You're not paying us at all Shepard." Garrus snapped as he took the head off the pirate who had the nerve to shoot at his commander. Up on high from a mountain cliff overlooking the settlement the turian was flanked by the mercenary veteran Zaeed Massani and the geth sniper Legion. Standing by their camouflaged position Jacob Taylor had his arms crossed while the others popped off shot after shot.
"This is ridiculous." Jacob complained. "Why didn't I get a long range rifle for this mission?"
"Maybe you should have remembered to bring one, shit head." Massani laughed while pulling the slide back on his gun.
The blast from Legion's enormous Widow rifle shook the plateau and it said, "Perhaps you should submit a requisition order Taylor-soldier."
"Sassed by a geezer and a damn flashlight." Jacob muttered under his breath.
The impact knocks the pirates from their feet and sends them scattered across the ground. By the time two of them regain their senses one is already dead and I'm running up on the second. Encased in the best armor available on the planet with many cosmetic embellishments the batarian had time to draw his sidearm. Swatting the pistol away with one arm I strike with the other. Armor plated bones, muscles reinforced by nanomachines and metallic weave, a custom suit enhancing motion and thousands of reps combined into a vicious blow that would have broken a heavy mech in half. On organics the effect was much more harsh and the batarian's skull gave way to my power gloved hand.
The third gets a single shot off and it hits my shield with a soft thud as I close the distance between us. I duck a second shot and lunge forward with my foot. It crashes into the pirate's chest causing his armor and ribs to snap like plywood as he tumbles away with a mortal wound.
Only the barricade at the front of the building is left now. Somewhere inside a tyrannical human who calls himself Black Boot was running the show. He and his gang had executed hundreds of the planet's native inhabitants already. The crab-like mindartians were poor by galactic standards and made easy targets for the ruthless pirates. One of their number makes the mistake of leaning out of a window to take a shot at me. With a biotic tug I yank her out into the air and she plummets screaming to her death as I take cover behind one of the base's own pre-made barriers.
"Kasumi, I still have active turrets and a locked front door!" I shout while my Kassa Locust telescopes out in my hand. "If you want to take care of that sometime this week that would be nice!" I add while peppering the defense turrets' shields with automatic fire.
"Kind of busy right now Shep." the master thief said as she bypassed firewall after firewall to access the base's datasphere. It was not easy to do with bullets whipping by and explosions going off what seemed like every other minute.
"You're his teacher, can't you teach him a little patience?" she asked Thane Krios. Standing with his back to the wall the drell assassin leaned out into the sky bridge and placed a shot between the eyes of a human pirate some thirty meters away.
"A work in progress." he offered as the battle raged around them. A couple of bullets crashed through the window glass less than a meter away.
"A piece of work more like it." Kasumi grumbled as she finally gained access to the systems.
"Weapons are close to overheating." Thane announced after adding another pirate to the body pile accruing at the other end of the hallway.
"Won't be a problem for people like us now will it?" Kasumi asked with a smile.
The thick blast doors to the base slide open and the turrets near them abruptly stop functioning. The surviving pirates retreat into the base but my squad concentrates fire on their position and many are cut down trying to flee. Leaping up out of cover I give orders on the move. "Jack, Samara, on me! Tali and Mordin, I want their data captured before they can wipe it! Sniper team, eyes out for stragglers, infiltration team, cover the exits!"
Bounding into the entrance my biotics fall in line behind me. While both were as beautiful as they were deadly the two of them could not be more opposite. The asari justicar Samara lived by an uncompromising Code that embodied the highest values of her people. The convict Jack was an avatar of human suffering forged by years of cruelty and injustice. They only shared two important traits: both were devoted to me personally and both were savage biotic powerhouses who killed without mercy.
The pirates had formed a firing line behind hastily erected barricades some ten meters into base's main hallway. They unleashed a punishing volley on us and slugs pelted my shield like hot rain. Surging forward anyway I wait the critical milliseconds for Jack to turn their barricades into flattened metal. I see the blue flash out of the corner of my eye and pray it will get there in time. Out pacing me her biotic shock waves race ahead and tear the fortifications apart just as my shield is about to fail me.
I slide into two of the pirates and my charge kills one that was already crumpled from Jack's attack. The rest are disoriented, groggy and afraid. I'm exactly where I need to be to cause the most amount of damage. Guns are ripped from hands, elbows crush down on throats, fists shatter bones and armor alike while brutal techniques snap necks. The ones lucky enough to have a chance to escape me do not get by Samara. Lifting them off the ground she smashes them repeatedly into the wall until they're gone.
The whirlwind ends. There's no one left to hit. Scores of pirates have fallen to my squad by now and there can't be many left. My scientist duo brings up the rear while I shake the fluids of the dead from my gloves. "Move it you two!" I bark at them. "There's information that needs saving!"
They scuttle down the corridor with Tali's drone alongside them. I watch the quarian a little longer than is necessary. I'm needed elsewhere but preferably she'd be right behind me so I could personally make sure no harm came to her. No matter. She could take care of herself.
I knock my fists together. Back to it. "All right. Upstairs we go. Looks like the elevators are offline and they'll probably have the staircases heavily guarded."
"You bet your ass they will." Jack agreed. "They set up the place like they were expecting an invasion."
"Perhaps we should avoid their defenses then Shepard." Samara reasoned.
"Good thinking. Okay, break's over ladies. Jack, this floor has a terrible view. Show me the sky."
Her body flares up like a blue sun and Jack grunts in exertion as she amps up her considerable biotic talents. Thrusting her outstretched hands in the air a column of blue energy springs to life and hammers into the helpless ceiling. The building shakes as Jack obliterates the floors foolish enough to be in her way. Stepping back from the hole she just made the human fugitive watches the remnants of her work come crashing down in pieces. The building's newest ventilation shaft is just wide enough for a formerly dead person to get thrown through.
"What the hell just happened?" Garrus squawked over our comm units.
"Just doing some renovations. Carry on." I reply. When the dust clears out I look up and can indeed see the planet's dusty firmament from the bottom floor. "Good work Subject Zero." I compliment.
"Fuck you Shepard, don't call me that."
I grin and turn to the justicar. "Fifth floor if you don't mind my dear."
Wrapping my body in blue light Samara hurls me upward towards my objective. I really am having entirely too much fun.
The automated turrets are no match for the combined efforts of Mordin and Tali'Zorah. Four ruined gun platforms were still hot and sizzling while the quarian genius hacked a particularly well encrypted door. Behind her the salarian watched for any organics trying to stop them.
"Mission going smoothly. Many hostiles disposed of. Great service to locals." Mordin said and sucked in a breath. "Good to get out of the lab once in a while."
"Sometimes I'd prefer to stay there." Tali said while continuing to work.
"Why don't you? Shepard would allow it. Closeness to you. Value as a quarian contact."
"I said sometimes, Doctor. It would feel wrong being safe back on the Normandy with all of you being shot at." Tali explained. "Oh come on you little-"
The doors opened suddenly and revealed the contents of the room.
"...bosh'tet..." she trailed off.
Making his last stand ingloriously behind piled up crates and desks Black Boot cowers in what used to be his command post. His last handful of men hide with him and I'm sure there isn't much fight left in any of them. With guns drawn me and my strike team block the only doorway out. "Give it up Boot." I command. "You've got two options. You can surrender and face trial or die right here, right now."
"You think I'm stupid Shepard? I'd get the death penalty anyway!" the pirate leader called out.
"If you cooperate, give us intel and help me dismantle the rest of your gang I'll see to it you get life in prison. Same goes for the rest of you, surrender and you won't be harmed. But you'll do the maximum amount of time."
I hear a clatter and a pirate jumps out from behind the desks with his hands up. "Don't shoot, I sur-"
Jack's plasma shotgun kicks and hits him square in the chest. The unfortunate pirate screams as he goes down and is dead almost before he hits the ground.
"JACK! What the hell are you doing!" I yell.
"Sorry Commander, I thought you were bluffing with that prison offer." she shrugged.
"Uh no!"
"Oh. Okay. My bad."
"When do we ever shoot unarmed prisoners!" I rage.
"Hmm. Never, now that I think about it." the biotic adept said.
"They are evil men Shepard." Samara chimed in. "I would have killed them as well."
"That's it! Both of you, give me your guns!" I command.
"What?"
"You heard me! Your gun privileges are revoked-"
"Go to hell Shepard!" Boot cried and his men open fire on us.
"Goddammit!" I shout over the din. "Bring that roof down on them!"
The three of us concentrate our total biotic power on the structure above Black Boot and his men. Rending stone and metal we drop that corner of the room on their position in a deafening avalanche. Debris explodes out in a fast moving cloud and turns the room into a swirling dust bowl. I wave the clouds away from my face and stroll casually over to what is left of the pirates. A not quite dead turian outlaw struggled to free himself from the rubble and I put a round in his back as I pass by.
Throwing aside a beam I come upon the quickly departing Black Boot. He had taken a large chunk of broken off roof in the chest and was gurgling the last of his breaths out. I look down and laugh a little despite the situation.
"What Shepard?" Jack asked.
"He's wearing brown boots." I remark.
"Very funny, Commander."
Incredibly the pirate was still alive enough to somehow laugh as well with his remaining strength. Frothy pink spittle bubbled up from his lips with an altogether unpleasing sound.
"What's he so happy about?" Jack said.
Black Boot made a few more gurgling sounds and I was about to put him out of his misery when Tali's frantic voice came into my ear. "Shepard!" she said as shrill as I'd ever heard her. "This place is wired to blow up!"
"What!"
"The bombs are linked to someone's vital signs, I'm trying to reroute them but you need to stop killing people!"
The three of us looking down at the rapidly dying Black Boot and a stab of panic hits my stomach like a krogan blade. "Clear the building! Now, now, now! Run!" I yell and take off for the room's exit. "Tali, get out of there!"
"Wait, I think I can-"
I lose her voice as the blood pounds in my ears. Spotting a window on my right I nearly skid into the wall trying to slow myself down enough to turn towards it. "Down here, move, move!" I yell at my biotics as they bolt past me towards the window. We make a mad dash forward and when they are a few meters away from the glass I bring up both hands and literally throw them out of the building with my biotics.
There aren't many times when I have willingly jumped out of a five story building but I make an exception. Hurling myself through the shattered glass I try to prep a landing cushion when the bombs go off. The sandy horizon is the last thing I see before I black out.