A/N: Some of the things in Mass Effect 3 didn't make much sense, like Cortez and Traynor appearing out of the blue before Palaven when they were clearly part of the retrofit team for the Normandy. Thus they get to make an appearance before they do in the game, as it makes a little more sense. Also, a note on the dates that I put at the start of most of the sections in the story: I'm quite pernickety, and so all those dates are just my way of making everything fall into place in terms of when in the timeline everything happens. It also gives my characters a chance to celebrate Christmas...
Day Three. Jupiter orbit, Sol System, Local Cluster
It had been three days since the Normandy had escaped from Earth. Three days spent hiding in the solar system, trying to evade the Reaper ships combing the system, and picking up escape pods from the annihilated First and Fourth Fleets during breaks in the patrols of Reaper ships combing the system for survivors. Shepard stood behind Joker's flight seat, keeping a watchful eye on the pilot's activities while they made their way through another search pattern close to the gas giant of Jupiter. Behind her worked Specialist Cleveland on the ship's navigation – she hadn't been trained in any particular roles as a crewmember on a ship, but Shepard had faith in her and the young marine had yet to disappoint.
"Commander, we've found another pod, just inside Jupiter's gravity well."
"Intact? Any life signs?"
"It's intact, but we can't tell from this far out, Commander. We need to pick it up and bring it onboard before we can be sure."
"Thank you, Specialist. Joker, take us towards Jupiter. There's another intact escape pod that we can pick up from there." Commander Jane Shepard turned and walked from the bridge, heading down into the CIC to where the rest of the crew stood working. Specialist Traynor, one of the crew members working on the Normandy when it had begun its violent escape from Earth, stood in what had been Yeoman Chambers' station during Shepard's war against the Collectors, monitoring any additional communication inside the system. Her help had been invaluable in the past three days, allowing the Normandy a chance to rebuild her skeleton crew from scratch. Cleveland, a biotic adept, was one of the three marines they had picked up from escape pods and from the protective cells inside disabled vessels. She and two others, Corporal Atkins and Private Wallace, were the beginnings of a marine team that could support Shepard on ground missions. Lieutenant Vega, a hulk of a marine who had been present during Shepard's incarceration, led them, but his additional role as the man maintaining the armoury was proving troublesome while trying to form the marines into a cohesive fighting unit. To add to the problem, Vega also was assigned as a part of Shepard's team, and so that left only Atkins, to lead the ground team while Shepard's squad was in the field.
"Commander."
"Yes, Traynor?"
"We're approaching the escape pod, but I'm not reading any communications from inside it. Initial readings show it to be from the dreadnought SSV Everest, which was destroyed with the First Fleet on Day Zero. I still cannot pick up any life signs, and its onboard oxygen supply is low based off of what we can tell."
"Thank you, Specialist. Have the hangar bay prepare for pick up, and signal Lieutenant-Commander Williams to make her way down there."
"Of course, Commander."
"Has there been any luck with our communications yet? Can we make contact with Hackett or any of the surviving Admirals yet?"
"Yes, I think so, Commander. The ship's VI, EDI, has been conducting repairs and tests on the QEC; she reports that it should be usable to contact the SSV Orizaba via the primary QEC connection."
"Excellent. I will be in the Communications Room if needed."
Lieutenant-Commander Ashley Williams strode out of the elevator onto the hangar bay, the half a dozen crew members there preparing for the retrieval of another escape pod, the tenth one in three days. An atmospheric barrier was raised beyond the entrance to the hangar bay, protecting the crew inside from the cold vacuum of space outside. The display in front of her highlighted the approach the Normandy was making, dotted lines showing where the frigate needed to be placed to successfully recover the pod.
"Joker, we're coming in too far to the left. Adjust our course by a few degrees to port." Joker applied a very slight course correction, the Normandy edging to the left by a few degrees, before straightening out and continuing towards the pod, the pilot expertly lining the vessel up so that the pod began to pass effortlessly through the barrier and into the hangar bay.
Williams pointed to the crew member responsible for the extendable service crane that would capture the pod before it crashed to the deck thanks to the Normandy's inbuilt gravity. Despite the three days onboard, she had barely had a chance to know any of the names of the crew that manned the stations around them. She only knew Lieutenant Cortez, and that was because the pair had spent a good deal of time working to supply the crew with the right kit for their jobs. "Alright. Hit it, grab the pod." The arm extended out towards the pod, grabbing it before it could smash into the floor of the hangar. Gently, the crew member brought it down to rest on the floor of the bay; placing it in the groove cut for the Kodiak shuttles and withdrawing the arm back away into its storage above the single Kodiak stored in the hangar.
Four crew members approached the pod, two carrying first aid gear and the others with cutting tools, in case the occupants were trapped inside. On a signal from Williams, the pod's external console was brought online, commands from the Normandy's systems overriding the locking mechanism on the armoured shutters sealing it closed. Williams made her own way towards the pod, triggering the holographic interface to open the shutters, the thick metal sheets rumbling open. Inside sat five helmeted soldiers in the flight seats, a sixth man tied down on the floor, medical equipment attached to the pads on his armour. A seventh crew member, without armour, sat in the last remaining escape pod, breathing from a regulated oxygen mask. The man closest to the entrance snapped his head, peering straight at Williams as his hands triggered the release on the flight seat. Pushing the metal bar above his shoulders, the marine ducked out of the entrance to the pod, a flash of red on his right arm and shoulder betraying his position and status within the Alliance. The remaining soldiers, all marines from the armour they wore, followed suit, the rear being brought up by the serviceman without the armour. As each man stepped from the pod, the personnel with medical equipment ran scans with their omni-tools, checking each marine for injuries. The marine with the red stripe pointed them towards the restrained soldier, the medics rushing off to extract him from the pod.
Williams approached the red-striped marine, who snapped a smart salute when he noticed her approach. Removing his helmet, the marine's distinctly average-looking face peered out, eyes slightly bloodshot from staring at his helmet's HUD for the past three days. "Staff Lieutenant Naylor, ma'am, reporting for duty. Thanks for the rescue."
"No worries, Lieutenant. I'm Lieutenant-Commander Williams, and welcome to the SSV Normandy SR-2."
"The Normandy? As in the stealth frigate?"
"The very one. Commander Shepard's in charge. She's up in the communications room on the CIC deck. You're an N7, correct?"
"Aye, ma'am. Part of the Paladin stream, so I'm a sentinel. At least, one with no biotics."
"I see. And the rest of your group?"
"There's Sergeant Roberts, a biotic sentinel, and Corporal Clarke, a Vanguard, who were part of my marine platoon, and Privates Westmoreland and Campbell, both members of the Everest's marine guard. There's also Serviceman Mira, who's a navigator by trade."
"Alright. Listen, we need people to build up a marine team. I'd like to stick your two, as well as you, with them for now. You're relieving command from Lieutenant James Vega. The two privates can join your team if you need them, but they may be reassigned if needed. Report to deck two and Commander Shepard, Lieutenant. Elevator's behind us. Dismissed."
"Aye aye, ma'am." Naylor saluted, before he began making his way towards the elevator, leaving Williams to debrief the five remaining members of the pod in turn. Roberts and Clarke both took the assignment to the marine team well, while Westmoreland and Campbell found themselves being assigned to guard duty on the combat deck, protecting the way towards the sensitive War Room behind the CIC. Westmoreland took this rather well, Campbell wishing for action but accepting her posting as a marine should. Williams finished by talking to Mira, who could take over from the marine currently doubling up for the ship's navigator. With the necessary assignments assigned, Williams notified Shepard of the additions to their crew.
Naylor reached the elevator, calling it down to take him up to deck two. A few seconds of waiting passed, but when the doors opened, Naylor automatically snapped to attention, throwing a quick salute to the figure exiting the elevator car as did the five others in the escape pod with him.
"At ease, N7. You salute me like that once more, or call me ma'am, and I swear I will toss your sorry arse out of the nearest airlock. It's Commander or Shepard, okay?"
"Yes, ma'am. I mean Commander. Staff Lieutenant Naylor reporting for duty."
"At ease, Staff Lieutenant. You're my new ground team commander, correct? What do you specialise in?"
"Aye, commander. I'm a Paladin sentinel, so no biotics, but I've never needed them." Shepard nodded at this, motioning the lieutenant towards the armour and weapon lockers. She grabbed the set of standard N7 armour from her locker, travelling over to the weapons desks while pulling off her dress blue overcoat.
"Lieutenant, I know you've only been deckside for a few minutes, but I need you to pick two men and deploy down to Mars with my squad. We'll brief you on the Kodiak down to the planet. You'll also be introduced to Lieutenant Cortez. He's our shuttle pilot."
"Aye, aye, commander. I'll take Roberts and Clarke. They're two marines from my platoon. All we need are some more thermal clips and new oxygen supplies."
"Right ho. There should be some in one of the open supply cases. You've got five before we take off." Shepard began changing into her armour as Naylor walked over to his marines. Roberts and Clarke had been told by Williams that they were to deploy a few minutes ago, and were already loading themselves up with thermal clips from the salvaged supplies that had been picked up by the Normandy. Quickly grabbing enough thermal clips for his Eagle heavy pistol, as well as his Vindicator battle rifle, the Lieutenant started searching through the supply crates for the oxygen tanks that were compatible with his Inferno suit of armour. Roberts passed him a pair of the oxygen tanks that she had already found with Cortez' help, before attaching oxygen tanks to her own armour and locking her own helmet into place. Clarke meanwhile had already completed his own checks and was already boarding the Kodiak, joining Ashley and Vega in the crew compartment and bolting himself into a flight seat. Shepard was the last in, rocking up after Naylor and Roberts had taken their seats, and nodded to Cortez. The mission was on, and there was no time to lose from the perspective of the Spectre.
Day Three. Mars Archives, Sol System, Local Cluster
"Okay. Admiral Hackett has ordered us to rendezvous with a scientist at the Mars Archives. Her name is Liara T'Soni, and she's an asari expert on the Protheans. Ashley, James and myself will go in from the main landing pad at the facility and try and locate her from the. Sergeant Roberts and Corporal Clarke, I want you two to stay with Cortez in the shuttle. Keep an exit for us open in case anyone tries to attack the place. We've lost contact with the station, but that is to be expected given the damage to communications infrastructure that the Reapers have done, so we're not sure whether the staff there know that we're arriving."
"Hey Commander, what about me?"
"Sorry, Naylor. I forgot about you there. I want you with my team, but if there is trouble at the facility, I want you to find a back door entrance and get to Doctor T'Soni as quickly as you can. Our ETA is to the landing pad is two minutes. Cortez, do we have any updates?"
"Just the one, commander. I'm within range of the Archives for standard communication, but I'm receiving nothing from the base. Whatever is happening down there, it isn't good."
"Damn. Any signs of Reaper activity on the planet?"
"Not even in Lowell City, Commander. I'm coming over the archives now with everything broadcasting our approach, but there's no sign of any Alliance welcome party. The entire base is basically silent."
"Alright. Naylor, you're up. We're deploying you in via a back door to the facility. Find T'Soni, get her out." The Kodiak's door opened, the marines inside being pulled slightly towards the open door as the oxygen inside was suddenly sucked out into nothingness. As the passenger compartment was opened to the Red Planet's atmosphere, Naylor's oxygen supply kicked in, a steady stream of air beginning to flow around his helmet as he concentrated on regulating his breathing before deploying. The Kodiak pulled low towards the roof of the facility, slowing down to give Naylor a chance to safely jump out of the compartment, rolling as he hit the rood to break his low-gravity fall. As he picked himself up, his eyes were drawn to a massive cloud approaching the archives. Lightning periodically lit up the cloud of red dust, the storm rolling ever forward over everything in its path.
"Shepard, I'm on the ground. You have a massive sandstorm coming in towards the base. No idea on how long we have until it arrives, but when it hits, it will be big."
"Thanks for that, Lieutenant. We believe Dr T'Soni is in the main office section of the facility. You're right above them now. A little tip, they don't like hull breaches." Shepard cut the radio channel as the Lieutenant proceeded towards the airlock into the facility, beginning the vital procedure that would allow him to enter into the atmosphere of the facility's interior. As the pressure regulation finished, the inner door opened, Naylor being greeted by a pair of barrels belonging to the standard-issue M-8 Avenger assault rifles.
One of the security guards shouted at the top of his voice, the sound being amplified by his helmet's own speaker systems. "Hands where I can see them!" Naylor shrugged, showing his hands were clear and that his weapons were all still attached to his back.
"Lieutenant Naylor. I'm assigned to the SSV Normandy. I'm here for a Doctor Liara T'Soni; she's a scientist working on the archives."
"Do you have authorisation?" Naylor's omni-tool lit up, the typed order that Shepard had received from Admiral Hackett checking out with the security guards. After a brief explanation about safety procedures, done on the fly as they walked, the Lieutenant was taken by the two guards into the depths of the facility, past hundreds of offices and work stations all filled with some of the brightest minds in humanity and the Alliance. Where Naylor would have expected the place to be filled with people hurriedly talking like a pack of salarians, the extreme circumstances following the invasion of the Reapers had put everyone on edge. Guards were posted at every major chokepoint within the facility, prepared to lock the station down at a moment's notice if a Reaper was to arrive on the planet. So far, the synthetics had ignored Mars, focussing on Earth instead, but the Alliance was unable to make good the break, as every ship capable of evacuating civilians was either lying in a variety of pieces in space or fleeing as fast as possible from Alliance-controlled space.
As the guards rounded a corner, the station shook for a single time, as if an earthquake tremor had passed through the area. To the guards it seemed nothing, but to the Alliance marine walking behind them, it felt like it was something worrying. As the trio made their way towards the offices inside the archives, another tremor rocked the facility, this time the guards and scientists all pausing as the vibrations subsided.
"Where is Doctor T'Soni, Sergeant?"
"Erm… shit! She's in Office 032, just down the hall. Crap, Jenkinson, we need to get to the security office, now!" The guard sergeant pointed through another checkpoint, the guards there pulling rifles from a hidden compartment within the wall. The lights in the facility turned red, a visual alarm quickly spreading throughout the facility. Naylor began running down the hallway, passing through two checkpoints, the guards there too preoccupied in preparing for whatever was causing the vibrations to stop him. The mission, and thus reaching T'Soni, was paramount, but the scientists here were not military-trained. If the base was attacked, they would be caught in the crossfire, and would be at huge risk if they couldn't be evacuated by the security personnel in time.
"049… 048… 047… 046… damn it, this is taking too long!" Naylor shouted into the mask of his helmet, speakers deactivated, as he barrelled past another checkpoint, the guards there hastily trying to lock down the corridor he had just been charging down. The lights in the station began to flicker, a warning ringing out over the speakers when they returned to full brightness a second later. The computer announcement was warning of intruders inside the station. Naylor drew his N7-issued Eagle heavy pistol, checking the thermal clip inside it before activating the armour-piercing ammunition modification he preferred to use. "035… 034… 033… 032!" More doors passed as he finally reached the supposed office of Liara T'Soni, the open/close hologram on the door still a bright green. The guards were yet to lock this section down, giving Naylor a few seconds to get the doctor and leave. He hit the hologram, the hologram blinking for a few seconds before opening into the office, and opening to another gun barrel quickly being pressed against the forehead of his helmet. "Not again."
"Who. Are. You?" The gun was an M-6 Carnifex, a heavy pistol favoured by mercenary leaders and soldiers in close combat situations. If it was fired at this range, he was guaranteed to be killed instantly. The person behind it was asari, as expected, lacking any distinctive facial markings bar thin black lines covering where a human would have eyebrows. She was definitely a "young" asari, maybe two to three hundred years old by Naylor's guess, but the details weren't important at that point.
"I'm Staff Lieutenant Naylor, N7, with the SSV Normandy, Doctor T'Soni. I'm here to get you out and get you to a rendezvous with Commander Shepard."
"What? What about Shepard, where is she?"
"She was deploying planet side last time I checked. I know you have no reason to trust me, but we have no time. Intruders are in the Archives as we speak."
"Goddess above! Let me get what research I have." The asari lowered the pistol, running back to her desk and collecting as many datapads as she could from the mess covering her own desks. She pointed Naylor to a marine-issue seabag, relentlessly passing the datapads to him as he tried to carefully place them inside. By the time he was finished, Liara was quickly downloading every scrap of data from her terminal onto her omni-tool and into any device that could store data. Another tremor, this time much more violent, shook the entire area, the sounds of an explosion and shouts following behind the vibrations. Naylor shouldered the seabag, leaning out of the office's door to see what was going on.
Three white-armoured troopers ran through the nearest security door, periodically opening office doors and filling the interior with gunfire and grenades. The screams of the unlucky scientists caught in their path washed down the hallway. One of the troopers snapped round, seeing Naylor's helmet flash in the light as he dived back into the office. Bullets sparked on the walls of the facility as two of the three ran towards him, firing as they went, only to be blocked as the door slammed shut in front of them as Naylor's omni-tool bypassed the security on the door and locked it down tight. Behind her desk, Liara was finally finishing downloading everything, but she noticed that Naylor was locking the door, the only way in or out of the room.
"What are you doing? We're now trapped inside here!"
"The vents!"
"You have to be joking! I'm not going in there; it's far too small for the two of us!" Naylor ran towards the air conditioning vent, pulling the grille off despite the asari's complaints.
"You go first, I'll be following! Try making it towards the landing pad, that's where Shepard was due to land at!" Silently protesting, Liara used Naylor's hands to boost herself into the ventilation shaft, turning on the spot to give a hand to the Lieutenant as he pulled himself up. The pair began clambering through the vents, oblivious to the peril of the remaining scientists below them. A quick tap to Liara's leg, and she stopped. The same clanging noises that they had been making seconds before were being heard behind them, from where the entrance to the ventilation shaft in Liara's office was. Naylor caught a flash of white in the reflection around the corner of the vents. "They're behind us. Go! GO!"
Liara and Naylor bolted through the shaft, pulling themselves along as quickly as they were able. As they slowed down before they turned another corner, the white-armoured troopers found themselves with a direct line of sight to the pair of them. Bullets sliced through the vent, smashing into Naylor's kinetic barriers, being violently slapped away into the walls. Liara pulled herself around the turn, Naylor following as he blind fired his Eagle towards the troopers, aiming to suppress them rather than kill. The firing relented, allowing Liara and Naylor a chance to increase the distance between them and the troopers.
"Where the hell is the asari?" The distorted voice of the troopers carried through from the corridors below the vents. Liara stole glances at the scene below through grates in the bottom of the vent shaft, but recoiled when she saw the mangled corpses of Alliance guards and scientists scattered around in crimson pools of their own blood.
"She wasn't in her office. They reckon she escaped into the vents. There's also the rumour of an N7 in the facility."
"Tell Delta Team to find her. If there is an N7 here, they'll be on their own. We can ignore that one for now."
"But what if it's Shepard? She's N7."
"Shepard's either dead on Earth or fighting on Earth. You're dismissed." Liara moved over the troopers silently, gasping slightly as she saw the symbol on their shoulder pads.
"Doctor, what is it?"
"Cerberus." The word meant little to Naylor, aside from an old, ancient Greek myth concerning a three-headed dog and the gates of hell. Hearing sounds of movement resuming in the vents behind them, Naylor and Liara resumed their escape towards the landing pad. Another flash of white ahead of them, and two Cerberus troopers crawled into view a dozen or so yards down from a T-junction in the vents. The troopers were blocking the path that Liara and Naylor wanted to take, and being unable to pass them without a confrontation, Liara froze. Naylor took the initiative, almost throwing her down the other vent and activating his omni-shield. The shield was too big to fit inside the vent, but the superheated surface cut straight through the metal edge of the shaft. Pulling himself a few feet forwards toward the junction, he activated the shield again, cutting a massive gap into the ventilation shaft and blocking it off from the troopers pursuing them.
"Lieutenant!" Liara's one word cry alerted Naylor to another problem – to repeat what he had done for the other two troopers, Naylor would need a few more minutes. And by that time, the two Cerberus operatives would be on top of him. "Hurry! Hurry!" The Lieutenant pulled himself along as quickly as the confined space allowed, propelling himself along the fork in the T-junction by planting his feet against the metal wall and pushing off. The two crawled onwards for another few minutes, trying to shake the Cerberus troopers behind them, but their advantage was eroded when Liara took a long turn, almost running into the fan at the end of the vent, having to double back towards their pursuers.
"Doctor, look ahead and to the right! There's a grille!" The asari crawled forwards, more bullets striking the metal around them as she started kicking the metal grating, getting nowhere against the reinforced metal rivets holding it in place. With a single cry, she slammed her foot onto the grate, the rivets giving up and the metal falling away from where it had been held in place. "Get going!" Taking the bag with her research, Liara ducked out of the vent, jumping down onto a stack of crates below the exit and using her biotics to steady her fall. Naylor pulled himself out backwards, sliding out at speed and skidding off of the crates. He barely stopped in time, rolling over as Liara jumped down onto the floor. The troopers made it to the end of the vent, one drawing his M-96 Mattock rifle and aiming it at Naylor's head. Were it not for the asari below him, Naylor's next move would have been an involuntary spasm as his body was hit by a high-velocity bullet.
A singularity erupted into existence in front of the trooper as he tightened the finger he placed around the trigger, drawing the trooper and his comrade out of the vent and into the gravity well of the biotic talent. Liara looked up at the Lieutenant, who drew his Eagle, sighting it on the two troopers and sending a round into the chest of the two of them. The bodies fell to the floor, Liara walking over and firing two shots into their heads as they lay incapacitated on the floor. Naylor vaulted off of the crates, rolling as he hit the floor. Seeing the discarded M-96, he attached the weapon to one of the unused hardpoints on the back of his armour, the weapon compacting down to its reduced size as soon as it was held in place by the armour. Three figures walked round past a rover, one raising his rifle, pointing it at the pair before a second forced the barrel towards the floor. "Easy, Vega. She's with us."
"Shepard! Thank the Goddess you're alive!"
"Liara, good to see you."
"I was worried when the reports stopped coming in from Earth. They hit the planet hard?" Shepard nodded, removing her helmet and instructing Vega and Ashley to do the same.
"It was hard to leave with everything going on." Ashley's voice carried the extreme weight of emotion.
"Liara, just exactly how did you end up in the vents? Naylor here was told to rendezvous with us at the landing pad. When he didn't show, we moved here."
"Staff Lieutenant Naylor proved very helpful."
"We made our way into the vents when Cerberus broke into the area. It was the only way to make it out of the offices without a fight on our hands. But thankfully we have most of Doctor T'Soni's research with us." Emphasising his point, Naylor lifted the shoulder bag full of datapads, the tablets clinking against each other as they were raised and lowered.
"Hallelujah, we finally have some answers!"
"Easy James, it may not be as much as you hope for. Liara, what do you have?"
"I have something – plans for a prothean device, one that could possibly wipe out the Reapers. Well, they are in the Prothean Archives."
"How did you find them?"
"Process of elimination, mixed with a lot of desperation." Liara walked towards the window overlooking the archive building, towering above the mine that the archives had originally been found in. Shepard followed, Naylor, Ashley and Vega following behind the Commander. "When you destroyed the Alpha relay, you bought us some time while the Reapers travelled through FTL to the Kite's Nest. But you were under investigation by the Alliance, and I knew that I had to do something. Hackett knew it too, asking me to use my experience as an archaeologist and information broker to find a way to stop the Reapers. Thankfully, Hackett got me access here and kept me updated on your status.
"In any case, my work paid off. The Archives are full of data that the Alliance hasn't had a chance to analyse yet, an overwhelming amount." Liara tried to suppress a smile. "I wish I had had a chance to do something like this earlier in my life."
"Still the scientist then." Shepard smiled, placing a hand on the asari's shoulder. "I'll guess I'll believe all this when I see it. Where do we find the plans for the weapon?" Liara looked out at the archives, leaning against the window sill in silence. "Where, Liara?" The tone of Shepard's question wasn't positive; the inflection the commander used sounding more like a mother talking to her misbehaving child than one used between old friends. Liara's response further fuelled this, her head dropping slightly to stare at Shepard's boots and her tone becoming more submissive, like that of the misbehaving child.
"In the archives, across the main tramway. And right through Cerberus's forces."
Naylor and Liara hung at the back of the group, checking for any Cerberus stragglers as Shepard led Vega and Ashley through towards the pedway. Shepard had told Cortez in the Kodiak, along with Roberts and Clarke to cover any exits if Cerberus reached the archives first. But the sandstorm was already hampering communications with the Flight Lieutenant, and Naylor knew that it would be but a matter of minutes before they lost contact completely. The Paladin had his Eagle heavy pistol drawn in his right hand, and his left arm ready to deploy an omni-shield at barely a mental impulse. Liara was looking about with her Carnifex, a biotic barrier shimmering around her as she moved. The mood in the group was tense, but Vega and Shepard were trying to break it with a conversation that neither of the two at the back paid attention to.
"Doctor, why do you think Cerberus is here at the Archives? They were hell bent on catching us when we bolted the first time."
"I think that they are here for what you and Shepard are here for, Lieutenant. A way to stop the Reapers."
"But why now? Why here?"
"The Protheans came close to stopping the Reapers. From what I have found out, they had plans to destroy them using this weapon, but they ran out of time. For what reason, I do not yet know." Liara snapped her pistol up at the sound of a sudden drop of a thermal clip, staring intently as Vega looked sheepishly at the rest of the group, taking up the offended item. "I would guess that anything powerful enough to destroy the Reapers just might be something Cerberus would be interested in."
"I take it that's bad, right?"
"Do you have much experience with Cerberus, Lieutenant?"
"Other than an old bit of classical mythology, no. I doubt I want to really deal with them after this anyway." Liara laughed, but her enjoyment was short lived. Spying something ahead of her, she paused. Something was wrong, very wrong.
"That airlock is not supposed to be open."
"Shepard! The data is being erased!" The Illusive Man's hologram dissipated with a smirk, the portable QEC dropping to the floor and exploding in a cloud of sparks and smoke. Liara's hurried typing on the archive's main interface did little to break the tension that was boiling within the room. Someone or something else was there, in the room, and was single-handedly hampering the efforts of the five to recover the blueprints for Liara's weapon.
"Where from?"
"It's local!"
Shepard drew her Katana, frantically looking around the room for the source of their latest problem. "James, Naylor, keep your eyes out for anyone siphoning data. Ashley, the same!" Naylor was on guard at the door to the archives, just beyond the tram station where the last of the Cerberus forces had been killed where they stood. Since then, they had made their way into the archives, and Liara had been frantically working to locate the information she wanted. As it was turning out, that information was proving hard to find.
"Hands where I can see them!" Ashley's shout came from one of the booths on the outer ring of the chamber, the locations for one of the master terminals. Naylor briefly saw the figure the Lieutenant-Commander was hollering at – a female dressed in a white bodysuit and with unnatural looking hair covering her neck and jaw line. The unknown person suddenly kicked out at Williams' chest, winding her, before slamming an electrically-charged omni-blade into the console she had been siphoning the data from. The action destabilised the power matrix for the archives, the once-green glow it emitted now disappearing altogether and prompting a yelp of surprise from Liara, the asari frantically trying to restart the archives. The white figure began running, straight towards Naylor as Shepard and James began firing warning shots at her.
Naylor primed his omni-shield, swinging around and shunting it straight towards her torso, but the figure rolled out of the way and delivered a lightning-quick combination of kicks and punches, slamming the Lieutenant's head back against the nearest wall with a particularly vicious uppercut. Dazed and slumped on the floor, he could only watch as Shepard, Ashley and James ran past him, firing as they went and concentrating solely on the escapee instead of him. The dizziness also stopped Naylor from hearing Shepard order Liara to check on him, the asari running over and looking for visible injuries, and checking for signs of concussion or damage.
"Lieutenant, how many fingers am I holding up?" Naylor's vision swam back into clarity as the asari raised her index and middle fingers, as well as extending her thumb.
"Ah, damn it, two, not including your thumb! I'm fine, let's go!" Liara backed away and nodded, extending a hand for Naylor to pull himself up with before taking off after the chasing group, Naylor following hot on her heels. The chase had progressed up onto the roof of the facility, a large access hatch open and venting the atmosphere. Quickly climbing up the access ladder, both Liara and Naylor watched as a white-painted Cerberus Kodiak flew into view, door open to reveal a trio of assault troopers firing down on the running form of Shepard below them. Naylor's hand immediately went to the release switch for his pistol, but he realised that, thanks to the shuttle's kinetic barriers, were he to try to fire the rounds would be slapped away before they could reach their target. The pair ran after the shuttle, Shepard far ahead and climbing up another ladder onto a raised section of the roof. The female they were chasing was already far ahead of the Spectre, and Liara stopped as she saw the figure quickly make the jump from the raised section of the roof ahead of them towards the open door to the shuttle, which took off towards orbit as soon as she was aboard. Shepard cried out over the communications, but the dust storm, relentless in its advance towards the archives, was disrupting the communications that they were sending out.
"Joker? Cortez? Anyone?" Shepard knew that without help cries were answered when a blur suddenly tore through the sky, descending at rapid speed towards the rising Cerberus Kodiak. An almighty crash could be heard echoing around the archive buildings as an escape pod smashed into the top of the Kodiak, crumpling the top of the vehicle's hull beneath it, burning out the engines and flinging it down to the roof in front of Shepard in a ball of flames. James, Ashley and Shepard had been flung to the ground by the impact, only recovering as the Normandy hove into view through the dust storm above them. Ashley hauled James to his feet, quickly turning around as the main door to the Cerberus Kodiak shuddered under the force of an impact. Another impact and it broke free, smashing into Williams and knocking her off the raised section of roof, the Lieutenant-Commander tumbling the twenty or so feet down from where she had been standing to the level where Naylor and Liara were staring dumfounded at the events ahead of them. The distinctive bark of a shotgun could be heard numerous times in rapid succession from the roof ahead of them, followed by a string of mild curses.
"Naylor, Liara, get Ashley on board. We've got the synthetic. We need to leave!" Liara and Naylor ran over to the immobile form of Ashley Williams, both gently lifting the body between them and moving it carefully over to where the Normandy was descending to, taking the utmost care to avoid dropping Ashley's body or moving it too violently. As Liara stepped gingerly onto the lowered boarding ramp of the frigate, she looked up at Naylor as he did so.
"What synthetic?"
A/N: Cortez would never crash a shuttle like Vega does, so I changed that. Mechanics and gravitational fields are such wonderful things...
This originally started as one of the shortest chapters in the fifteen chapters that I had pre-written, but after editing it, it somehow reached its current length of nearly seven thousand words. I've never written a chapter that long. Ever. The longest thing I've written so far, barring this, was a chapter on the party in the Citadel DLC, and that was mainly all the dialogue from all the conversations that you get during the 'mission'...