"Fuck! We're pinned down," Rigby shouted as he ducked back into cover. From across the hall a stream of suppressive fire was falling nonstop on Rigby and the others.
"Someone get a grenade in there and flush him out!" Talens was crouched against an upturned metal desk, screaming into his headset.
"I'm all out! I spent my last one saving your ass, remember?" Rigby yelled into his mic.
"Fine. Head to my 10 o'clock and flank them!"
"Flank them? I think you inhaled a little too much red sand Jimbo. Every piece of cover between them and us has been blown to pieces. Nothing but a killing ground!"
"That's Corporal to you Lance Corporal!"
"Are you fucking kidding me Talens? We're about to get fucking killed in a musty fucking basement on some godforsaken moon in the middle of nowhere and you're bitching to me about rank?"
"Cut the chatter and hold fire." Talens and Rigby immediately stopped arguing upon hearing the familiar, albeit cold, voice.
"Lieutenant? Why would we –"
"Shut up and do what he says. Don't forget you don't ask questions of a superior officer, Corporal." Rigby said. Talens glared at him but lowered his pistol anyways. The two of them peered around the cover they were squatting behind and saw a dark figure drop from the ceiling behind the Batarians on the other side of the room and dispatch them in near total silence. Two minutes later Shepard had crossed the room to where they still squatted.
Rigby grinned as Shepard approached. "If I didn't think it would kill me, I think I might just kiss you commander."
"Let's just be grateful you still have some common sense then, huh?" Talens said, walking towards Shepard.
"Where's the Major?" Shepard asked brusquely.
"About that…" Talens started, his eyes falling to the floor.
"For God's sake man up would you?" Rigby motioned behind him with his thumb. "The Major's alive Lieutenant, though I can't say the same about the rest of his squad."
Shepard moved past Rigby, his face still expressionless. Sure enough, the Major was sitting against the wall, his legs haphazardly splayed out in front of him, his head hung in a confused daze.
"Major." The soldier, who's eyes were nothing like the playful eyes of the man who had initially led them into this battle, slowly picked up his head and looked at Shepard.
"Lieutenant. You're alive."
"I am." There was a brief pause in the exchange as Shepard waited for the Major to respond. Instead, he kept staring at the pistol in his hand blankly. "What about your squad Major? Where are they?"
"I don't…" The Major started, his mouth still hanging open.
"They're dead." Rigby came up beside Shepard. "Look inside the stairwell. Seems like anyone who didn't go down in the initial firebombing either died from overexposure to Red Sand or some crazy suicide run some of them seemed to make. Those are the guys at the top of the stairs who've been mauled by gunfire."
"Major, why did you're men run straight into enemy fire?"
Suddenly the Major snapped back to life. "We were trapped Shepard! Between the Sand and the smoke we couldn't breath! I had to watch my own men suffocate to death! I watched them burn! We couldn't go down because they had blown the wall and the stairwell was full of debris and we couldn't go up because they were waiting for us! First guy who tried – Garza – got a rocket to the chest! Those bastards knew they were already condemned to die and pulled out all the heavy artillery! There was nowhere we could go, nothing we could do. Nothing I could do. There was nothing I could do…" All the sudden, the commanding officer fell quiet again.
Shepard saw that the Major was done. No longer fit for command as his superior officers would later put it.
"There's nothing we can do about it now. Our orders remain Major. We should move out now before the situation gets any worse than it already is."
"Move out? Move out and what? Just leave them here? Can't you see the bodies Shepard? Can't you see them?" Major Kyle got to his feet and gave Shepard a crazed look.
"I see them Major. And they're dead."
"You!" the Major pointed at Shepard, whose face was now thoroughly caked with dried blood. "It's your fault! Why didn't you get these doors open faster? You wanted them dead! I've heard about you, you know! I've heard about what the other officers say about you! They say you're dead! Cold and unfeeling and inhuman! I know about that kid you killed!" That private was as good as dead when I shot him. "I know you killed him, cut him up, and turned him into a bomb! And I know you killed enough Turians while you were at it that instead of sending you to an insane asylum – where you belong – they covered the whole thing up and gave you a slap on the back!"
If only I could kill you right now. "Major, those are nothing but rumors. The reason I couldn't get here in time was because I was trapped in the lab upstairs. I was about two seconds away from an acid bath. But I got out and I came here. Orders are orders and I don't leave jobs unfinished." Talens eyed Shepard warily.
Rigby stepped forward. "The LT's right Major! It's this damned Red Sand. It messes with your head. The LT's back and he's going to get us through this." Talens jabbed Rigby in the ribs. "No - you're going to get us through this."
"I…yes, yes you're right. I'm sorry Lieutenant."
"Not at all Major."
"So what's the plan?" Talens shifted in his armor and looked at the Major.
"We uh…we'll…"
"We know for sure now that the Batarians are concentrated in the lower levels, Major. And I know for a fact that the west stairwell heading down is still clear. Rigby how are you for grenades?"
"All out LT," he piped back.
The Major started his nodding his head. "Ok, yea. We search the fallen and gather whatever we need and keep heading down together."
"Copy that Major." Shepard motioned to the rest of the squad and started checking over his weapons. And they call me crazy.
With Shepard back with the squad they began once again to operate like a well-oiled machine. Shepard took point and called out targets for the Engineer and Talens to use their tech abilities on or for Pinnell and Akitsu to unleash their biotics on. The Major's nerves were to frayed to hit the broad side of a barn; for the time being, there was nothing Shepard could do but keep a close eye on him.
The nine of them cleared the subsequent floors mercilessly quickly. Rigby eventually started keeping a running tally of how many Batarians each took down.
"Ooh! Headshot! That makes nineteen for me and how many for you?" Rigby looked over at Talens.
"First of all, keep your eyes where the enemies are and second of all, there's no way this count is anywhere near fair."
"And how's that, Corporal?" Rigby pronounced the infiltrator's rank with a touch of sarcasm as he popped up behind a Batarian and delivered a shotgun shot
"It's just how the squad works. I overload the shields and I make their weapons blow up in their hands. You're nothing but a kill thief really."
"Might I mention, Corporal Talens, that we overload shields and explode weapons? Plus if this is a competition you guys have already lost. The Lieutenant's already in the forties." The engineer saw Rigby's face visibly fall.
He turned his head away from the engineer and coughed "Fangirl."
"All clear." Shepard said into his mic just as the young woman was about to interject.
"Hey LT! Check this out!" Shepard turned towards Rigby who was standing near a weapon's locker on the far side of the room.
"What is it Lance Corporal?"
"Guess the Batarians don't think much about hand weapons!" Rigby gleefully pulled out a long, curved blade.
"Don't take anything you don't know how to use." Shepard walked over and, after taking a quick once over pulled out a nine-inch combat knife/knuckleduster.
Rigby was about to put the blade back when the Engineer called out: "I'll take that." Rigby (along Pinnell and Akitsu) looked at her with a surprised look. "Seriously?"
The young woman cocked here eyebrow. Rigby grinned. "Yes, Ma'am! Any other surprises?" He looked over at Akitsu.
"What? Because I'm Japanese? Dude, it's the twenty-second century."
"Pinnell?"
"I'll stick to biotics."
"Fair enough. I'm pretty sweet in the hand-to-hand department myself." Rigby turned and started after Shepard.
"What about me?" Talens asked as the group started moving towards the stairs.
"Please, you haven't been within twenty feet of the enemy this entire time. Stick to your sniper." Talens was about to protest but, under Shepard's commanding glare, thought better of it.
Shepard led the squad down the stairs and was surprised when he came to the landing.
"Hey! We finally reached the bottom!" Rigby pointed out.
"I doubt it." Shepard stated darkly. "Major, any suggestions?"
The Major looked at Shepard with those same, glazed over eyes he had had since the squad had first found them.
"Right. Weapons up and eyes out everyone. Shepard will take point." Talens watched the Major look back at Shepard for approval. Shepard gave an almost imperceptible nod.
The group stepped out of the stairwell and into the main room. Shepard held up his right hand in a tight fist.
It was bizarre. The room was completely empty. The ceiling and walls were completely barren. Shepard would've said the same for the floor, had it not been for the circular metal plate that stretched from wall to wall lying flat on top of it.
"Move forward men." It was the first time the Major had spoken since being found in the stairwell without being prompted by Shepard.
Talens saw the flash of annoyance that crossed Shepard's face. If we weren't here…
Rigby and the others looked between Shepard and the Major.
Shepard stared hard at the Major before speaking. "You heard the Major."
The group of nine moved forward into the room, inevitably stepping onto the metal plate.
Shepard had been braced for…he didn't know what. Something. But as they moved deeper into the room nothing happened.
"Major?" Shepard looked over the man wondering if he had somehow managed to pull himself together.
"Fan out and look for exits." Shepard was surprised by the confidence with which the Major spoke. Had he been wrong? He had written the Major off as broken, irreparable, useless. Yet he seemed…No. Shepard couldn't be thinking about this when the most dangerous part of his mission yet was likely approaching.
"Lieu-Major!" Rigby shouted out. "I think I found something!"
"What is it soldier?"
"I think this is a door. You can almost not see it but see this opening here?"
"Engineer! What do you make of it?" The woman hurried over.
She scanned the door with her omnitool and input a few commands. "He's right Major. But there's no console in sight. I'm guessing the only way to open it is from the other side."
"So we blow it open." The Major said.
Talens stepped forward. "I don't think that's possible Major. Judging by these scans the doors are too thick for any of our explosives to be able to do any real damage."
"Well I don't see any alternatives Corporal. Engineer, set the explosives."
"Copy that Major." The young woman placed explosives along the opening and armed each one. She moved back towards the middle of the room where the rest of squad had moved out of the blast radius. One beep from her omnitool and the explosives went off.
It was at that moment that Shepard felt a warm tingling throughout his body. Less than a second later his back, hip, and hands started burning. "Remove your weapons now!" he shouted out. He reached behind him and quickly grabbed for the pistol on his hip and the shotgun latched on to his lower back. Once he had thrown them to the floor he grabbed for his sniper and assault rifle. Around him the others could be seen doing the same.
Shepard heard a voice come on what must have been the loudspeakers: "I applaud you humans for being able to make it all this way. Unfortunately, this is as far as you will come." The voice, distinctly Batarian, laughed out.
Shepard watched as the weapons strewn across the floor glowed red-hot and finally exploded.
"Impressed? A certain scientist we picked up while raiding one of your colonies made it for us in return for his daughter's life. Or at least that's what we had promised him."
An overload field, Shepard thought to himself.
"Let's see how long you last without your weapons…humans."
Shepard watched as a half dozen hatches switched open each containing three to four Batarians. Each one began simultaneously firing on his squad, still trapped in the center of the room. Shepard felt his suit inject him with adrenaline.
Pinnell's kinetic barrier is depleted almost instantly.
Akitsu releases a singularity in the center of the room.
Talens pulls the Major to the ground.
One of the two Delta Squad members is killed by the first sniper shot fired.
Shepard reaches the northeast corner hatch.
The Batarians start sliding forward, feet first, pulled by the singularity.
Shepard draws his combat knife.
Pinnell manages to unleash a pull along the southern wall.
Shepard gasped as the artificial adrenaline faded from his system and found himself standing in front of a group of four Batarians. He reached for the nearest one and pushed the Batarian's left hand away, allowing him to swing the combat knife in his right hand up into the alien's chest multiple times. Holding the Batarian with his left hand, Shepard swung the knife into the next Batarian's throat and pulled it forward, slicing the alien's neck nearly in half. Shepard turned around again and pushed the Batarian he was still holding forward into the remaining two. Shepard grabbed his next victim's neck with his left hand and viciously swung the knife in his right hand into the slaver's face repeatedly. Shepard turned to the last Batarian and moved his left leg behind the alien's right, grabbed his armor by the collar and rammed his knife once into the Batarian's face, once in his chest, and once in his groin. Shepard let the slaver drop to the ground and ran back out into the main area.
Between the pull field and Akitsu's singularity, almost half of the Batarians had been pulled over the metal plate. Still active, the overload field effectively disarmed the Batarians while the singularity severely inhibited their movement. In the northwest corner, the Engineer and Talens had managed to dispatch their own hatch's Batarians and were using their weapons to shoot down those being pulled in by the singularity.
Shepard kept close to the walls to avoid the effects of the singularity which was weakening by the second. He turned into the next hatch and, using the knuckledusters of his knife to full effect, punched the first Batarian square in the jaw before snapping his hand rightward and driving the blade of the knife into the other Batarian's neck. He reached back with his left hand until he found dying Batarian's gun arm and pulled it forward, firing the gun straight into the chest of the Batarian staggering from the recent blow to his face.
Looking back out into the room, Shepard saw Akitsu lift a Batarian up into the air before Pinnell slammed him back down. Rigby had moved back into the center of the room where he manually finished off any surviving Batarians with deadly efficiency.
Shepard sprinted over to the next hatch where another Batarian waited, his shotgun already out. As Shepard started putting his hands up in false surrender he saw a familiar red blast cause the shotgun to explode.
"You can thank me for that later Lieutenant." Shepard heard from his headset. He made a mental note to buy the young woman coffee sometime.
Shepard moved in, his left hand up near his head, and gave a quick jab to the Batarian's lower abdomen. The alien leaned forward, head down, in defense giving Shepard the opportunity to send one final, fatal blow straight down into the base of the Batarian's neck.
This time, when Shepard looked back out into the main room, the fighting was over. He slowly walked out of his hatch and surveyed the room. Everyone was still there save the two Delta members. Considering the situation, Shepard considered them acceptable losses.
Shepard waited for the rest of the squad to slowly make their way to the center of the room.
"Good work team." The young woman smiled prettily. "But we still need to find a way out of here."
"There's a ladder in the hatch behind me Lieutenant," Akitsu offered.
"Then that's where we'll go. Where's the Major?"
Talens pointed to the far wall where the Major sat curled against the wall. Guess I wasn't wrong after all.
"What do you want to do Lieutenant?"
"Give him a gun and leave him here. Once we carry out our orders, we'll return for him," Rigby nodded his head in agreement.
"We can't just leave him up here alone!" Talens pointed out. "Let me stay with him."
"Not happening Corporal. There's a lot more Batarians down there than there are up here. Live ones anyways. Maybe you're forgetting there're only six of us left who can fight. I can't afford to let any one of you stay here and babysit him."
Talens glared at Shepard who responded with a cold, unwavering stare in turn.
"Now show me that ladder."
A/N: For those of you who enjoyed this please review! If there's enough people who want it, I'd be more than willing to write up possible Akuze or Skyllian Blitz oneshots as well.