Oneshot: Menae reunion
(A short story based on the world of "Mass Effect", written by Balea Vakarian. World and Characters created by Bioware and EA. I don't own any rights, all rights belong to Bioware and EA
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I tried to capture the feelings that I always have when my Shepard lands on Menae to rescue the primarch. And most important: Get together with Garrus again ;) The excitement to pick up space husband again and the sorrow of seeing the whole galaxy burn.
For me it's more exciting compared to Omega, simply because the relationship starts officially after Omega. I hope you enjoy it.)
The shuttle flew low over the surface of the moon orbiting Palaven. Down on Menae it looked like hell had released its most vicious demons. The organized turian military seemed to lose on so many fronts. Shepard had problems comprehending what chaos happened right down there. She had escaped the inferno taking place on earth, just to stumble into the next one. For the mission she had to hold her shit together. As much as it hurt her heart deeply to not interfere in the fighting against the reapers back home, the evacuating of the primarch was her first and most important priority. In the hurry of the recent events, she couldn't inform herself much about Fedorian, but it didn't matter after all. The Alliance needed him, and more importantly they needed the turian soldiers.
Shepard observed the battlefield while they approached the landing zone and wondered how much might be left of the well-known turian army after the encounter with the reapers. She didn't allow herself to dwell on these dark thoughts. Lieutenant Cortez' voice cracked in her comm: "Commander, I found an accessible area to drop you off. Sorry to tell you, but you have to reach the camp on foot."
"That's great, thank you Cortez. Watch it when you fly back to the normandy." She looked over her shoulder and nodded towards James and Liara to signalize them to get ready. Shepard prepared herself with activating her tech armor and cocking her sniper rifle. The 'M-92 Mantis' laid heavy in her hands and gave her the familiar feeling of concentration and tension. Both attributes were needed to stay clear in a battle. As the shuttle approached the rock overhang, its doors slid open and she aimed at the head of a crawling husk. Bang! His head exploded and Shepard's mind turned itself completely into combat mode.
The ground troop jumped on the rocky surface and started to shoot directly at the waves of husks converging them. James was an overwhelmingly keen soldier, killing husks without observable effort. Liara supported her companions with biotic explosions and protective shields or barriers. Quickly the numbers of enemies dropped and only some moments after their arrival the trio stood there, surrounded by eliminated husks.
"Everybody alright?" Shepard made sure that her squad mates were okay. "Aye commander." James didn't even need to catch his breath. "Great, so let's head to the camp."
A nearby turian soldier gave them directions. As usual Shepard ran ahead of the little team, she always considered it the duty of the commander to be the vanguard of a squad. She wanted to be the first to come upon an enemy. However, she missed Garrus dreadfully on her six. She could always count on him, knowing he had her back. Not even once, the turian sniper left her flanks exposed. James Vega was a good and reliable soldier, but it wasn't the same with him. Not only did he lack the training for sniper rifles, he also didn't share a long and intense friendship with Shepard like Garrus did.
After returning from the Omega-4-relay and the successful destruction of the collector base, she was imprisoned by the Alliance. They had every right to take her in custody after her connection with Cerberus. But because of all the sudden chaos in the galaxy, she didn't have a chance to make arrangements with Garrus. He was summoned to the turian embassy for god-knows-what kind of new assignment. Shepard didn't have a chance to contact him from earth. And after the reaper attack in Vancouver, the important tasks popped in her Normandy terminal like flowers in spring. Although she tried to reach him via his old accounts and the general communication channels, but he never replied.
With long and heavy steps they headed in direction of the turian camp. Shepard dispelled all thoughts about Garrus and his absence, she was in the middle of a war zone and needed to focus for their mission. She could hear Liara's light breath through her earpiece. A few scattered husks attacked them on their run, but they were nothing more than a minor inconvenience for the three of them. The shrieking zombies didn't stand a chance against the two soldiers and the skilled biotic.
Inside the camp it wasn't hard for her to spot the general. The mobile command centre was located in a protected half-opened container. Shepard counted five turian strategists focussed over a table which appeared to have a map of the war zone. She asked Liara and James to come with her, making a big step onto the container.
"General?" she knew the turians already noticed her presence. But she addressed their leader anyway.
"Commander Shepard. I heard you'd coming, but I didn't believe it. General Corinthus."
"I've come to get primarch Fedorian." The general's eyes narrowed while his head sunk a little deeper over the map table.
"Primarch Fedorian is dead. His shuttle was shot down an hour ago as he tried to leave the moon."
"That's gonna complicate things. How bad is it general?"
"We just lost about 400 men in half an hour. We set up camps on this moon as an advance position, to flank the enemy. A sound strategy. Just-"
"-irrelevant." She finished his statement.
"Exactly. The sheer force of the reapers seems to make them immune to that sort of tactic. The primarch and his men found that out the hard way."
"I'm sorry, I hear he was a good man."
"And a friend. He would have been an outstanding diplomat." The sorrow in his voice was obvious, but also the fact that as a general he won't let this loss overcome his strategic skills.
"So what happens now?"
"The turian hierarchy provides very clear lines of succession." Liara replied instead of the general.
"Right. General Corinthus?" The general was typing information on his omni-tool to let a tag appear on the map.
"With such heavy casualties it's hard for me to be certain who the next primarch is. Palaven command will know. However, at the moment contacting them is impossible. The comm tower is out, husks are swarming that area. We can't get close enough to repair it. "
"Don't worry general, I get your tower operational."
"Thank you commander, I take care of things at this end."
"Alright let's go." Shepard gathered her squad mates and with a glance at the map she got all the directions she needed. On their way out of the camp on the other side, everybody picked up additional ammo. Shepard headed towards the clearly visible comm tower. As advertised by the general a large group of husks attacked them while they weren't even in reach of the tower.
Shepard saw that a few turian soldiers came to help them with the husk problem. She knew it wasn't necessary, although help was always appreciated. "Get back to the camp defensive line! We handle this."
Shepard took cover behind a rock and gave some well-placed shots with her assault rifle, taking out two husks before they even knew where the shots came from. Liara was concentrated on pushing the attackers from the nearby cliff directly with a strong biotic throw. She didn't pay attention to her flank, so Shepard left the vanguard position to James Vega and joined Liara with a quick roll over the ground. She sliced a husk in two with a heavy attack of her melee blade and the cybernetics of the dying zombie crackled in the air. Vega was apparently capable of holding the line so Shepard could stay with Liara, protecting the asari's flank and James' back.
As soon as the attacks stopped, Shepard checked out the manual control of the comm tower. "Oh dammit, the panel is done. Someone has to climb up and fix the override. Liara?"
The asari hopped on the ladder, climbing up. "On my way, commander. If you can keep husk from climbing up behind me, I'd appreciate it." Shepard nodded at James, and preparing herself for more enemies.
The waves of husks were larger in number this time and the two soldiers had a hard time to keep the zombies off of the tower, mainly without Liara supporting them with her biotics. Shepard was glad, that James was with his shotgun, she couldn't stop the enemies from coming closer than she would like them to. More than once the husks could manage to grab her arms and try to kill her, but her melee skills were well trained and she didn't let those attacks lower her concentration. James almost seemed to have fun with blowing one empty face away after another.
Neither counting the dead bodies around them nor the time that passed, the general's voice in her earpiece took her out of her tension.
"Commander Shepard, coming?"
"Go ahead." He replied while shooting another husk.
"I have information from Palaven command. Please return asap."
"On our way." Liara jumped from the ladder giving her commander a victorious smile. Shepard smiled back, her way of saying Good job. There was time enough for deeper conversations later.
The squad headed back the short distance to the camp, helping the defensive soldiers to take out as many husks as possible. With a well located singularity, Liara managed to pull the remaining three husks up into the air, and James had an easy job to hit the floating targets.
The commander arrived back at the command centre receiving a respectful nod from the general.
"What have you got?"
"As your partner said, succession is usually simple. But right now, the hierarchy's in chaos - so many dead or MIA." Shepard got impatient.
"I need someone, I don't care who, as long as they can get us the turian resources we need." Before the general could reply, a familiar voice from behind answered teasingly.
"I'm on it Shepard. We'll find you the primarch."
This voice. Shepard would recognize this voice in a million. Everywhere. Even in a war zone, between all those turian soldiers and dead bodies. Her body almost flew around, in direction of the voice. His voice.
He made his final steps towards her and she stared at him, for what felt like an eternity. It was him. Heavy armored in silver and blue. Sound and safe. Equipped with his sniper rifle and his smile. And she had missed both equally. And as the seconds passed and her heartbeat began to race in her chest, Shepard could see that nothing had changed between them. All the months separated didn't harm the relation they shared. The exact definition was yet to be negotiated again. But still, main thing was they were reunited. Euphory kicked in and right now she felt that they could actually win this battle, even the war. With him on her six, what could go wrong? They defeated Saren. They protected the citadel from Sovereign. They destroyed the collector base. Dammit, they travelled through the Omega-4-relay and came back alive. The last thing he told her, before the Alliance officer took her away, came to her mind again: There is no Shepard without Vakarian. Truer words were never spoken. A relieved and happy smile lightened up her face.
"Garrus!"