Team Phoenix
How Shepard met with Team Phoenix, thus forming and impromptu alliance.
"Communication encryption indicates the presence of Cerberus, Shepard" EDI provided "However I am detecting communications with altered encryption in the same channel."
Her tone made the commander stare at the robot beside her "Could it be the deserter faction we heard about?"
The Robot nodded "It is highly probable."
Cortez spoke from the cockpit making Diana turn his way "We've got visual commander; it doesn't seem as if they have detected us…." He leaned to a side, looking directly at her "you might want to check this out commander."
Diana nodded and pulled herself to her feet to activate the screen, which descended from the ceiling to allow the whole strike team to watch.
A bunch of Cerberus troops had been deployed around a massive door -a hangar, from the look of it- and there were a few defenders; the unarmored ones were dressed in the common white, black and yellow slacks of Cerberus, but the armored ones wore a set of black-and-red bulky armors with round, golden visors that covered most of their head.
It was these who were doing most of the job of keeping the Cerberus forces away from the door, while the others appeared to be a group of refugees that had been cut-off from the main group.
Shepard watched the screen for a while until she gasped "Cortez get us down there quickly!"
"What is it, Shepard?" Garrus asked, his mandibles twitching. For all answer, the human pointed at a particular black-clad figure and the Turian's mouth hung open. "Taylor. I guess that answers the question of where he ended up after the Normandy got impounded."
"Impounded?" Kaidan asked with a raised eyebrow "Really Garrus? You make it sound as if you guys had a run-in with the authorities over a speeding ticket"
The rest of the crew chuckled.
"I don't recognize those armors" Liara interrupted, pointing to the figured in red and black "are they Cerberus too?"
"Might be." Diana answered with a grimace. The only real thing she wanted from Cerberus right now was the Illusive man's head on a plate and Kay Leng's corpse at her feet. After the citadel coup and their stealing the Prothean VI on Thessia, she was out for blood… as was most of her team.
"We're here Commander" spoke Cortez opening the side door for them to climb out of the Kodyak. "I've detected incoming Cerberus reinforcements; ETA 10 minutes."
Shepard nodded, unclipping her precision rifle from her back, which unfolded and was ready for use as the scope fell to level with her eyes. "You heard it people! We have the element of surprise, let's use it. Kaidan, you and Vega have point, Liara, Tali, cover their flanks, Garrus and I will snipe those bastards to kingdom come!"
They all nodded and silently moved forward, Shepard kept a look-out for Jacob, really wanting to see him again. The six month she had spent in the 'cooler' because of what happened with the Alpha Relay; they had enjoyed themselves that one night before their raid of the collector Base, but in truth she only did that because of her fall-off with Kaidan. Right now they were acting civil, but there was still much to do in order to clear the water between them… not that she had the time to do it, with the Galaxy coming apart around them.
She found and climbed over a pile of crates and used the top-most as cover. It was far from ideal, but it gave her the advantage of higher ground, where she could snipe to her heart's content. "Kaidan, charge once we open fire. You want to catch them with their pants down."
"Understood."
Diana wanted to sigh at the iron in the marine's voice, but trained her eye to the scope and looked through it, taking in the sight of battle and trying to discern just who the men in red armor were.
"Target acquired" That was Garrus' way of telling her to stop distracting and concentrate.
She aimed down her sights and prepped the shot "Fire!" she squeezed the trigger and an instant later saw a Centurion's head explode from the impact, she moved the sight a little to the left and fired again, gaining another headshot "Two down Vakarian, what's your count?"
She heard him chuckle over the comm. "You're too slow Shep," she heard him shoot again "that's five for me."
Diana smirked and felled two more troopers in rapid succession "Trying to catch up Vakarian?"
The Turian grumbled "that reaper was shot by the fleet Shepard, it doesn't count!"
"Oh? And just who painted the target for them?" Diana heard Tali snigger through the comm. "I could have aimed at its foot."
More grumbling from her favorite Turian "It still only counts as ONE."
"Focus, children." Liara chided them, joining the fray with her biotics and that sweet grenade-launching pistol they found on Thessia.
Shepard took down another Centurion and crippled a guardian, whose shield had been pried away by one of the red-armored men. She took aim again, only to see the man in red armor punch a hole through the Guardian's chest, causing the gory mess to fall at his feet.
Pinned between two forces, the remaining Cerberus elements fell less than a minute after the Commander's team joined the fray.
Diana jumped down from her position and walked briskly to the front line, before Kaidan and Vega had time to mess things up. Her eyes roamed the place until they found her target. "Jacob!"
The dark-skinned man turned in her direction as one of those men in red armor was aiding him to walk. "Shepard! You sure are a sight for sore eyes!"
The commander smiled, but then frowned when she noticed the wound on his side "You're hurt!"
"It's nothing, really." He shrugged and then grimaced "although maybe I should get it looked at."
Diana heard a scoff from her right and turned to see another of those red-armored hulks. He was almost a head taller than her and as wide as Vega. "I'm sure he would have said the same even if we had to scrape him from the wall." The man stopped a meter away from her and looked her up and down. It was only then that she noticed the half-erased logo of Cerberus printed on his armor.
"You're Cerberus too?" her hand twitched at her side, barely resisting the urge to go for her shotgun.
"Allow me to make introductions" Jacob offered "Commander Shepard, meet Captain Arlen Arenius, head of Phoenix Team."
"Arenius?" Garrus spoke from behind Shepard, he, apparently, didn't have the restrain Diana had, since his assault rifle trained on the armored man that had addressed her. "That name is Turian! How can a member of Cerberus have a Turian name?!" his voice had an edge that Shepard hadn't heard since the incident with Sidonis. Apparently taking on a Turian name was a grave offence.
The man called Arlen nodded "Yes" he looked briefly at the Turian, but then refocused on Shepard when he answered "I was adopted by General Victus Arenius before I was taken by Cerberus."
Diana heard the annoyed click of Garrus' mandibles as he processed what he had been told. Still trying to rein her nerves in, she asked "are you like the other Cerberus forces…?" she motioned to his armored bulk.
For answer he removed his helmet, and Diana was hard pressed not to gasp at the sheer beauty that was his face. He had some noticeable Arabian traits that were lost to all but those born in Earth.
"Goddess" Shepard heard Liara's whisper thanks to her hearing augmentations, but apparently so did the captain, because he chuckled.
"No commander, we're not indoctrinated" he made a grimace "We decided to make our escape when we found out about that procedure." The influx of his voice hinted at something particularly gruesome "If you're trying to catalogue us, I would have to say that we're more like yourself."
"ME?!"
"Despite appearances, Cerberus hasn't really changed, nor has its modus operandi. Just as they did with subject Zero, they needed a control group to test the augmentations placed on your body", his hardened gaze fell on her, but despite his words Diana did not detect any hint of resentment or malice in it "once you escaped from the Illusive man, he continued with the experimentations until he achieved a technological stand-still… which was surpassed once he was able to adapt reaper technology salvaged from the collector base" his gaze became even more intense "I suppose I have you to thank for that commander."
Shepard bristled "I destroyed that base exactly because I didn't want that bastard to get his hands on it! I-!"
Arlen raised a hand and smirked "That is precisely why I ought to thank you. The fact that you destroyed their base won us the time to plan our escape." He nodded in her direction "Apparently the Illusive was so angry at your decision that he, for one moment, forgot about us. It was enough."
The sound of a new voice broke Shepard's concentration, making her look back towards the hangar door where she found that Jacob, aided by the other member of this so-called Phoenix team, was speaking through a console; moments later the door opening.
"Perhaps we should continue this discussion inside" Arlen offered smiling down at Shepard, and later down the road at Liara, whose cheeks turned violet.
Diana half turned to Garrus before she too walked towards the door "You know this General Victus?"
"You do as well, only you know him as Primarch Victus." She turned to gape at him as he shrugged "I heard that he had adopted a child, but always thought him to be Turian. Never thought to ask." His grey eyes turned to hers "I can do so when we return to the Normandy."
Still stunned and not knowing what else to say, Shepard nodded "you do that".
They entered the base where Shepard discovered that she hadn't been wrong, it was indeed a hangar, where many hands moved to loads a line of shuttles with what appeared to be scientific equipment.
Diana then saw a dark-skinned woman run to meet with Taylor and the man helping him walk and that, after exchanging a few words and her placing her hands on his face, she left with her, leaving their armored escort behind.
She looked around and was treated into the uncommon experience of watching Liara behave like a teenager while the man named Arlen talked to her with a small smile painted in his handsome face.
Shepard willed herself to look away from them when another sound came from up the stair, where a door opened to let in yet another hulk in phoenix armor. This one too was without a helmet and, although he wasn't as handsome as the Captain, there was an air about him that made one feel at ease. The man looked down from the rail "Captain, there is chatter in their communications."
Arlen sighed and his eyes landed on Shepard "tell me commander, are you in the mood for killing some more of Cerberus troops?"
Her grin turned feral "let me at them".
-0-
Between the three members of Phoenix and her own team, they had pushed Cerberus' reinforcements back long enough to activate the AA-guns and give the deserters a greater chance to escape from the planet. They had already fenced off the troops that had broken into the base and were now waiting for the hangar doors to open so that the shuttles could fly away. In the meantime, however, they had some time to reload and prepare for what she was sure, was going to be a hard fight.
During their fights she had discovered a few things about the members of Phoenix team: the first was that they all could compete with a seasoned asari in terms of raw biotic capabilities; the second was that size did matter, because any of them could carry a geth spitfire like it was nothing more than a shotgun; and the last, but most important and shocking was that she finally remembered where she had seen them before. They too had been in the N7 program, at least the three she had met so far. They had graduated one generation before hers and she remembered that they held the highest scores in the academy until she arrived. After that, only one remained to their name, and that was the biotic control test, simply because she had no aptitude for it. Her field was computers, not making things fly with one's mind.
"Penny for your thoughts" Kaidan leaned back on the wall beside her, his eyes trained on the three ex-Cerberus. He hadn't let them out of his sights the whole time, as if he was expecting them to betray them. "I don't know the other two, but that Arlen guy…. I think I've seen him before."
"And you should, he graduated from the N7 program a year before I did."
His eyes bugged out and he turned to stare at her "¡You're pulling my leg!"
She chuckled and shook her head "Not at all. And I figure that they calling him 'Captain' isn't a hoax either. That guy was as good as they come."
"Good looking too, apparently"
Shepard smiled crookedly and watched him from the corner of her eye "¿Jealous Kaidan?" the man coughed.
"¡I'm not!"
And still the vehemence of his words… "and here I thought you didn't like Liara." She looked back to her blue friend and found her talking amiably to Arlen, who kept smiling.
"You know it's not Liara I fancy." he said with a soft tone, making her smile.
She looked sideways at him, and found him looking back at her, his eyes gentle and that sensuous mouth of him trying to bite down a smile.
She let her smile show and placed her hand over his.
Turning around, Kaidan entwined their fingers together.
-0-
The fight had been worse than hard, especially after a few atlases landed right in front of them.
Between her and Garrus' shots and Kaidan biotics, they had broken the mecha's cockpit and killed the pilot, while the phoenix's destroyed the other one.
When the third landed, Vega was only just getting into the now unoccupied atlas and most were still trying to fend off the remaining troops. Liara and Tali tried to stop it by themselves, but were barely able to leave cover before a rocket made them shrink back.
When she saw this, Diana ran for all she was worth, planning to take the mecha by surprise so that it would let up its attack on her teammates; but was thoroughly surprised to see it fly and hit a wall on the other side of the platform and, right between it and the spot where Liara an Tali hid was that Arlen guy, kneeling on the ground breathing hard and coughing up blood.
"Holy damn Shepard! Did you see that?" she heard Vega shout, but she barely registered it, for she was already jumping on top of the vehicle, and using his heavy melee to break the canopy, and shoot at the pilot.
She didn't have time to process just what kind of prowess would be making an atlas fly ten feet and crash into a wall for any biotic, let alone a human. Hell, she wasn't entirely sure that Samara or Aria would be able to do it. Shaking her head "Alright everybody, back to the shuttle!" she covered their backs while her team ran to the platform where Cortez was already waiting.
Cerberus troopers kept coming, trying to swarm them. She killed a few more, before she turned and bailed, hoping to escape the incoming fire. That, however, wasn't necessary, because Vega was already mounted on top of the turret on one of the Kodiak's sides.
She reached the shuttle and Cortez pushed the small vessel to its top speed in order to escape the incoming fire.
In one of the corners of the cargo hold were Tali, Garrus and Kaidan speaking in hushed tones, while Vega kept stealing glances to the guys in red armor sitting together on the opposite side of the vessel. Only Liara was breaking the tension felt in the room by sitting beside the Phoenix team, applying what appeared to be a wet cloth on Arlen's forehead.
Vega saw her approaching and immediately said "That's one shitload of power commander, would be a pity not having it on our side, don't you think?" Shepard raised an eyebrow and the marine continued "Your Turian friend and the others aren't very thrilled by their presence, though."
Diana shrugged "It's Cerberus, I can't really blame them" she looked between the two groups and sighed "and still, they helped us out. I can't overlook that either."
Vega gave her one of his half-smiles "Just so you know, I'm all in for letting them join the fight."
She patted him on the armored shoulder "I know you are" and kept walking towards her old friends. "Geez, you could cut the tension here with a knife" she said once she reached Garrus and the others.
"I don't thrust them Shepard…. After what we've seen of Cerberus…" Kaidan shook his head
"And still," Tali added "they had ample opportunities to shoot us in the back and they didn't!"
"Sure they did, but is still could be a ruse to win our thrust…" Garrus' mandibles twitched, letting Diana know that he was more than a little frustrated. "I am with Kaidan here, we can't thrust them."
"Well, I can't quite turn them away either" Diana interrupted their tirade while Tali shook her head desperately "They did help, and I'm all for second chances." That comment made Garrus wince, surely he had remembered about that Sidonis fiasco, when she didn't let him take the shot.
"But this is entirely another matter!" continued Kaidan "After what they did to you Shepard, I-"
"The brought me back to life" she very nearly growled and, for once, Kaidan shut up "sure, they had their schemes, but they did bring me back. I didn't see the Alliance or you jump in joy at the fact at the time." The marine grimaced "Now you can either stay here and whine all you want, or you can thank them for helping out. I myself am doing just that."
She stormed away from them and to the other side of the room, where Liara kept fussing about Arlen, and the other two members of phoenix grinned and chuckled on the side.
"I'm fine, really, it's just a slight headache." Diana heard Arlen answer, trying in vain to keep Liara's hand away from him "and no, I don't need an injection."
Shepard smiled, remembering just what a worrywart Liara could be sometimes. "Everything alright over here?"
Liara looked up to her and pouted "he won't let me look for more wounds. That crash against the Atlas could very well-"
"Get real" one of the other two guys interrupted "what you really want to do is get his shirt off!"
Liara's skin became an interesting shade of purple that, apparently, went all the way down and underneath her clothes.
"I-I swear it's not like that!" she denied, but she was still blushing like a virgin, which, Shepard pondered, might actually be true.
The two guy chuckled some more, while Arlen shook his head and looked up at Diana "Anything we can help you out with commander?"
She smiled but the gesture faltered when she saw a new drop of blood coming out of his nose. "Yeah. I was wondering if you have anything to do after this."
Liara fussed for a while more cleaning the trail of blood while the man rolled his eyes "I've got every intention of going back to the rest of my team and then joining the alliance."
Shepard's smile returned "the rest of your team?"
The man nodded "there are 63 of us."
Shepard gaped "WHAT?!"
The man shrugged "The illusive man scooped many involuntary voluntaries to test his augmentations, thus the size of the group. Most of them are disabled for physical work, after losing one or more libs during the enhancement procedures, some even lost the uses of their bodies below the neck, but we are still able to do much."
In his voice, Shepard could hear the belief and pride every commanding officer has for his soldiers, and the fact that not even one of them was, no matter the circumstances, was incapable of accomplishing their orders.
"Let me pass in a good word to general Hackett. I'm sure he'll find a good use for the lot of you."
"Thanks commander"
She smiled and turned about "and Liara, if you want to make a more thorough inspection of his state, I suggest using your own bed for it".
"SHEPARD!"
Author's notes: Yup, still alive & kicking... and trying to finish the Unavoidable War.
About the UW, I've re-read the story a docen times and I didn't like the way it was written and the feeling of it being rushed, so I'm re-writing it to appease my perfectionism :P
AS always, I'm open to comments, doubts and questions, either through reviewes or PMs, though I must warn you that it might take me some time to answer them
Later.
Kumitzin