Chapter 3: Archangel
The Turian vigilante. No name. No origin. Idealistic. Deadly. Brilliant. Just appeared out of nowhere. These were the only answers Shepard got, from each of the mercenaries, about who is Archangel. Even his own men didn't know who he was. Shepard made a measure of each merc faction's strength. Finding every weakness he could exploit. Their battle plans. He wanted to be ready when they had to exfiltrate.
Traveling through the mercenary base, he managed to reprogram the mechs so they would immediately turn on their masters. All this information and sabotage was all just setting up the battle to come. Shepard was in full Kestrel armor gear. Its base color was black, with white stripes and dark-brown camouflage coloration. Eventually Shepard, Mordin and Zaeed reached Sergeant Cathka who was at work on the Blue Suns gunship.
"'Bout time you got here," he grumbled.
"You were waiting?"
"You just need to set yourself up with the other mercs. We're hoping that you'll distract Archangel while our infiltration team gets him."
"Will you be joining us?"
Cathka laughed. "Tarak doesn't pay me to fight. I just draw the battle plans and make sure his gunship runs." A light came up on his terminal. He looked to the team standing nearby. "Bravo team, go, go!"
The squad ran off over the barricade. Cathka's visor darkened. "Now I have to get this gunship back to a hundred percent." He started working on the circuit board near one of the engines.
Shepard saw a wielder next to the terminal. He picked it up and walked up to Cathka and said, "You're working too hard." He stabbed Cathka in the back with the wielder. It immediately melted through his armor and stayed in his body. The wielder short-circuited, filling the merc's body with electricity. Cathka body went into a seizure and he screamed. The energy of the wielder ran out and Cathka's body fell to the ground with smoke wafting off of his corpse. Shepard made a casual withdrawal from the area, leaving Cathka's body to rot behind the gunship, out of sight from the other guns-for-hire.
Another squad went over the barricade. "Archangel is in trouble," Mordin stated.
"Then what the hell are we waiting for?" Zaeed spat out.
The mercenary with the grenade launcher fired a round in Archangels direction. It missed him completely and hit the back of the room he inhabited. Archangel came out of cover and took down the grenadier with a sniper round.
Shepard's group jumped over the barricade. He cracked his knuckles and said, "Come on. Time to give these guys a surprise of our own."
Mordin launched a ball of fire at the closest merc to them. Flames engulfed his body. Shepard could feel the heat of the flames around his exposed mouth. The smell of charred flesh wafted in the air. Zaeed fired a concussion round at the second mercenary. The sound of his spine breaking was heard. If he wasn't dead, he was paralyzed.
The third mercenary looked back and yelled, "They're with Archangel!" He was quickly silence by an AR round to the head. They moved quickly over the bridge to encounter a freelancer standing next to a bomb he was setting up. Shepard overloaded the bomb sending him flying across the room.
They raced across the room and up the stairs to see two freelancers trying to pry open the door that led to the Turian vigilante. They didn't stand a chance against the barrage of rounds that came their way. The holographic display on the door went from red to green, signaling that it was unlocked. They cautiously opened the door, hoping that Archangel didn't set up a trap for them. It was clear. They entered inside and saw the blue-armor clad Turian looking through his scope.
He raised a finger signaling to give him a second. A freelancer peaked around the corner on level one. Archangel fired a round blowing his head to pieces. He let out a loud sigh as he lifted himself off of the ground using his rifle as a crutch. Archangel sat down on a crate and said, while taking off his helmet, "I don't know who you three are, but the fact that you haven't tried to kill me yet, or that you killed every freelancer to reach me, means you're not someone I pissed off."
"Garrus?" Shepard gasped. His body went ridged.
"Wait, Shepard?" Garrus said back.
Shepard pressed a few buttons around his helmet to free his head from the kestrel helmet.
"I-I thought you were dead."
"Garrus! You have no idea how good it is to see you."
"You know Archangel?" Zaeed asked.
"Hell, yes. He was on my mission to take down Saren. What are you doing on Omega?"
"Keeping my skills sharp," he quipped. "A little target practice."
"Are you alright?"
"Been better, but it sure is good to see a friendly face. Killing mercs is hard work. Especially on my own." The signs of exhaustion were clear. Garrus was at his limit.
"We'll we're here, but getting out won't be as easy."
"No it won't." Garrus slid off the crate and raised his sniper rifle. "That bridge saved my life... funneling all those witless idiots into scope." He turned to face the bridge. "But it works both ways. They'll slaughter us if we try to get out that way." He pointed.
"Just staying here isn't the best idea."
"It's not all that bad. This place has held them off so far. And with three of you... I suggest we hold this location, wait for a crack in their defenses, and take our chances. It's not a perfect plan, but it's a plan."
"If we work as a team, we'll pull through this."
"Right. Let's see what they're up to." Garrus moved over to the window and looked through his sniper scope. "Hmm. Looks like they've realized that their infiltration team failed." Garrus handed the sniper rifle to Shepard. "Take a look. Scouts. Eclipse, I think."
Shepard looked through the scope and saw the mechs' faces were lit yellow. He smiled. "More than scouts, but we won't have to worry about them."
The mechs walked about halfway across the bridge and stopped.
"Clever," Garrus commented. "Rewrote the IFFs?"
"Yup," Shepard replied nonchalantly. He sat by the ledge and planted his elbows over the edge and rested his head on his hands in a child-like fashion.
Garrus sat down next to his while they watched the first couple of Eclipse mercs go over the barricade only to be mowed down by the mechs. It was a moment of rest as they watched the mercs get killed one by one.
"So where the hell have you been for the last two years?" Garrus asked. There was an amount of anger in his voice. "Why didn't you try to contact your team?"
Shepard sat back up and sighed. "I kind of did die, Garrus. My body was recovered by Cerberus who proceeded to repair the injuries I sustained from the attack on the Normandy. I was in a coma for the last two years during the process. I only woke up from it a few days ago."
"You're with Cerberus now?"
"No!" Shepard shot back. Garrus backed a little, shocked by the outburst. Shepard took in a breath to calm himself. "Sorry. They implanted me with a control chip, Garrus. I didn't know until I got to Freedom's Progress to investigate the colony disappearances. There I ran into Tali."
"Tali?"
"Yeah. One of the Cerberus operatives who was with me wanted to test it out and they ordered me to kill her."
Garrus leaned forward. "She's not-"
"No. She's alive. I was able to resist the chip with help from Tali."
Mordin was close to adding in the conversation, but Zaeed grabbed him by the shoulder and shook his head. The two needed to catch up.
"With her support I was able to resist the chip long enough to kill Miranda, the operator. Long story short, I hijacked the ship they built for me and rescued her crew. Ties with Cerberus are completely severed."
"Good to hear. Did you find out who were responsible for the colony abductions?"
"The Collectors. I spoke with Aria. They started collecting humans shortly after Sovereign attack the Citadel."
"So they're working for the Reapers."
"Too much of a coincidence for them not to be."
An YMIR mech was carried out over the barricade. Garrus attempted to stand up, but Shepard grabbed his shoulder and shook his head. He settled down.
"So the control chip?"
"Removed. Thanks to Mordin here. We don't have to worry about them trying to control me. I have a ship and crew. We'll be making a stop at Zorya and then straight to the Citadel."
"Why Zorya?"
"Taking care of some Blue Sun mercs for Zaeed here."
The mech exploded leaving Jaroth running across the bridge. Shepard and Garrus stood up and fired. The sniper and AR rounds went through Jaroth ending his life.
"Heh, got Jaroth. Been chasing that little bastard for months. We still have Blood pack and Blue Suns left." Garrus looked through his scope. "They seemed to have fortified the other end, but nothing else..." An explosion rocked the building. "Ah, hell. It seems they're taking the underground entrance. Well they had to use their brains eventually. Shepard I need you to go down and close the shutters."
"We should split two and two." Shepard put his helmet back on.
"You sure? No idea what you'll face down there."
Shepard looked to Zaeed. "Zaeed, keep Garrus alive."
"Roger that Commander."
"Alright, just head down. Close the three shutters. The entrance to the lower area is just behind the stairs."
VVVVVV
Tali entered the firing range. It was still another week before she was to go to Haestrom to do research on the dying sun. Why they would study a dying sun in geth space, was beyond her. She wanted to do something productive in her free time. A couple of Marines were using basic M-3 Predator pistols. They were shooting holographic models of geth.
Tali took out the pistol Shepard gave her. Shepard gave her some instructions concerning the weapons she received. These weapons were different. She examined the white pistol. It was unusual in its shape. She remembered reading that this was a prototype pistol. The M-5 Phalanx wasn't even issued to N7 operatives yet. To test it out was a privilege.
She picked a booth. Tali opened the heat sink chamber and slid a heat sink in. The instructions mentioned that the pistol would fire six shots before needing a new heat sink. Tali held the pistol up. She held the white handle that connected the bottom of the grip to the middle of the gun. There was a button on the white handle that made a blue laser sight appear. Tali took aim at the first holographic geth. She fired a round. It had a good kick, but she immediately adjusted for it.
Bang... Bang... Bang... The laser sighting made the accuracy of the pistol unreal. The round went exactly where the laser ended. Bang... Bang... The heat sink was expended. She opened the chamber releasing the heat sink.
The pistol was in working order. It was time to test out the new shotgun. She's been eyeing it since Shepard gave it to her. It looked like a heavy weapon. Tali pulled it out and unfurled it. Despite its size, its weight was no more than a standard shotgun. Must have been made out of a special alloy. The instructions mentioned that this was a two-type fire shotgun. First type allowed for rapid firing, and second type allows for a charge shot, similar to a carnage shot.
Tali took aim. Three geth holograms appeared. She pulled the trigger releasing three beams of blue colored projectiles that annihilated the three holograms. The two other Marines stopped their shooting and stared at Tali's weapon.
"Where did you get that?" one of them asked.
"Commander Shepard stole a bunch of these from Cerberus. He gave one of them to me."
"Wait is that a geth weapon?" the other asked.
"Yeah. Apparently Cerberus came across a geth weapons cache. This geth weapon shoots three beams of super-heated plasma." Tali took aim at three more holograms. She charged the weapon releasing three large projectiles. The shot created twice as much heat as a regular shot. The two Marines took a step back from witnessing the shot. Tali stroked the barrel of the shotgun and smiled.
VVVVVV
The last of the Blue Suns mercs were taken out. Garrus cautiously came out of cover. He scanned the room. A humming came from the window. He looked to see a gunship come into view. "Archangel!" Tarak screamed from the gunship.
Garrus tried to take aim at the gunship only to be pelted with rounds from its machine guns. He rolled to take cover. Shepard saw the gunship from the stairs and ran back to the room. He reached there in time to watch it fire a missile. The explosion caught Garrus. Shepard watched his best friend's body go limp on the ground.
Shepard's bared his teeth. "Garrus!" He glared at the gunship. Shepard could swear he could see the Batarian merc laughing. "You bastard..." he growled under his breath. "You bastard!" he roared. Shepard pulled out his missile launcher and fired at the gunship. In between missiles he threw warps to melt the ship's armor. Zaeed contributed to the attack with his AR. Mordin used his pistol, but focused on using his incineration blasts.
The glass on the gunship cracked and fell apart. Shepard could see the look of shock on the Batarian's face.
"You killed my best friend, you son of a bitch," Shepard said with pulling the launcher's trigger. The missile flew and blew the cockpit to pieces along with the pilot.
The gunship beeped widely as it swayed in the air and crashed into the barricade of the mercenary camp. The area erupted into a sea of fire.
Shepard rushed to his friend's side. There was a lot of blue blood around him. He was quiet, but when Shepard placed a hand on him, Garrus gasped for air.
"He's still alive! Mordin call in a shuttle extraction now!"
"I don't think he's going to make it," Zaeed commented.
VVVVVV
Kaidan finished setting up the targeting matrix on the Guardian laser towers. He closed the cover and packed up his tools. Kaidan saw some colonists watching him. He smiled and awkwardly waved to them. The colonists frowned and shook their heads.
"Not making friends, Commander?" Lilith said while walking up to Alenko. Lilith was Horizon's representative.
"They haven't been too friendly since I got here." They walked together towards the garage. Any colonist they ran into usually gave him a glare.
"These people came here to get away from the Alliance. They just see these towers as the Alliance treading on their world."
"There have been a number of attacks on Human colonies out in the Terminus system. We're just trying to help."
"I know." There was a brief silence between them before Lilith broke it. "Have you heard the rumors?"
"What rumors?"
"Oh... There are rumors that Commander Shepard is alive."
Kaidan stopped walking. "That's... That's not possible. I was there. I saw him die."
"Did you actually see him die? Did they ever recover his body?"
"He got spaced. No one could have survived that."
"There have been news reports that he's been spotted on Omega."
"Look it's probably just rumors."
"There's more. The ship he's traveling on has the marking of Cerberus."
"There is no way in hell he would work for them! Look I should to contact Anderson. Maybe he can shed some light on this. Even if he is alive, I can't even imagine he would ever work for them."
"I'll speak with you later then, Commander."
Kaidan rushed to his pre-fab unit. It situated by the Guardian laser control. His terminal opened up giving him a direct line to Councilor Anderson.
"Commander? Good to hear from you." Anderson noticed the distressed look on his face. "Something wrong?"
"I've been hearing some rumors here, Councilor. About Shepard."
Anderson eyes widened.
"Is Shepard alive?"
"We have some eyewitnesses saying he is," he reluctantly answered. "But we haven't been able to confirm anything."
"There also are rumors that he's working for Cerberus."
"I'm sorry, Alenko, but like I said, none of our intelligence agencies have been able to confirm anything. We are looking into it and you'll be the first to know once we find out."
Kaidan nodded. "Alright. Do you think the rumors are true? That he's alive?"
"Honestly I just don't know. But Shepard has done the impossible before."
VVVVVV
Jacob leaned over the conference table. A look of distress on his face. Shepard approached the table, eager to know his friend's fate.
"Commander. We've done what we could for Garrus, but he took a bad hit."
Shepard lowered his head waiting for the bad news.
"The docs corrected with surgical procedures and some cybernetics. Best we can tell, he'll have full functionality, but..."
The doors opened again revealing a scar-faced Garrus. "Shepard."
"Heh, tough son of bitch. Didn't think he'd be up yet."
Shepard turned to him with a smile.
Garrus walked into the room. "Nobody will give me a mirror. How bad is it?"
"Hell, Garrus, you were always ugly," Shepard joked. "Slap some face paint on and no one will even notice."
Garrus let out a laugh, but quickly ended it when he felt the pain of his scars shoot through his face. "Don't make me laugh, damn it. My face is barely holding together as it is. Ah, probably for the best. Everyone's always ignoring you and hitting on me. Time for you to get a fair share at it."
Shepard shook his head. Jacob gave Shepard a salute and leaves the room.
"So how did you get on Omega?"
"I tried going back to C-Sec but there was so much chaos, that I couldn't really make any difference. I came to Omega. Plenty of criminal scum and no red tape to get in my way. A perfect fit. Eventually people heard of my exploits and others join me."
"What happened to them?"
Garrus looked away in shame. "I was betrayed. One of my men, Sidonis, called me away for a job, but when I got there he wasn't there. By the time I got back to my hideout all but two of my men we killed."
"You sure it was a betrayal? What if Sidonis was a casualty?"
"I've checked. He cleared out his bank account on that day and then took a shuttle. I lost all my men, except Sidonis, that day. Someday I'm going to change that."
"I'm sorry for your loss. I wish I could have been there sooner."
"Well, you were down with a bad case of the dead so I can't blame you," he joked.
Shepard let out a chuckle. "It really is good to have you back on my crew Garrus." He went quiet as if deep in thought. "Garrus, at the moment this ship doesn't have an XO." Shepard looked him in the eyes. "I'm promoting you to that position."
Garrus' mandibles spread wide open in shock. "Wh- You sure?"
"Garrus, there's no one I trust more in this galaxy than you, well maybe one other person. But she'll be given another position. Anyways... Your skills in tactics are unmatched. Will you accept the position?"
"Yeah, of course. Though might I ask who you trust more than me?"
A large grin came across Shepard's face. "Tali."
Garrus didn't say anything. He just stared for a good minute before bursting out laughing. He had to hold himself up with the table. "I knew it. I knew it!"
"Was I that obvious?"
"You spent most of your time down at Engineering talking to her on the first Normandy. So you finally told her."
"Yes. She'll be rejoining our crew after her next mission. I'll be making her the Chief Engineer."
"I'm sure it's because of her skills and not because she's your girlfriend."
"Of course."
"Joker owes me a lot of creds." Garrus let out a laugh. "A Salarian Science Officer, a Quarian Chief Engineer and a Turian XO. I don't think the Alliance would approve of this."
"Maybe not, but this isn't an Alliance ship. This is my ship."
