Mass Effect 2: Moments
By: Shadow Chaser
Author's Notes:
I hope this to be the beginning of a series of one-shots and vignettes dealing with Shepard and the crew of the Normandy SR2. For reference, my Shepard is a female Paragon with hints of Renegade. I've played this Shepard twice through, one with a romance one while staying true to my ME1 love interest Kaidan so these stories will have on occasion the different romances or non-romances.
Additional Note:
A little AU based on "Farewell."
Story:
Title: Protector
"Joker get us out of here!" the urgency in Shepard's voice could not be as plain as day as she stomped off of the barely working elevators and past the navigation map, pushing her way past the rest of the crew who were manning their stations, most of them still injured, but willing to do their jobs to get the hell out of the Collector Base.
"I'm trying Commander- oh shit!" Joker swore just as the ship rocked to the left, sending everyone who was not buckled into their seats flying towards the bulkheads.
Shepard barely grabbed hold of an empty seat, but felt her already battered body slam into the bulkhead before the ship righted itself and she grimaced. That definitely left some of her ribs bruised as she continued forward, grabbing onto the back of the chairs for support and climbed her way towards Joker who looked like he was bleeding freely from several cuts and what looked like a nasty electric burn across his left bicep to shoulder.
"Status!" she shouted over the din of explosions and screeching metal.
"Got another of those Collector ships on our tail…looks like they had more than one bugging out on us!" Joker's voice was strained and she could see EDI's code lines running faster than normal as both A.I. and pilot tried to maneuver the ship towards the angry red mass relay, still glowing and pulsating with its mysterious mass effect source.
"Any time now…" Shepard tried to suppress the urgency in her voice, trying to remain calm, but another hit to the ship threw them to the right and she glanced up as control panels hissed and sparked. Dancing away from it, winced as one electric bolt jolted through her armor and into her shoulder. She frowned as her arm started to feel numb from the effects…
"EDI…now!" the blood-red arcs of power filled the viewport and just as Joker punched the button to spool up the mass relay to jump out of the core, a lacerating blast tore through the Normandy, sending everyone who was not buckled down flying through the air as the gravity generators died.
Shepard found herself flying through the air, unable to get her bearings before she spotted an overhead beam about to fall on Joker. She immediately grabbed the nearest chair and wrenched herself forward, intercepting the piece of metal before it could crush her pilot. An incredible pain blossom in the back of her head and neck, stars filling her eyes before she blacked out.
The Normandy SR2 hurled out of the Omega 4 mass relay with an incredible speed and force, spinning this way and that as thrusters tried to realign the ailing and heavily damaged ship before just as suddenly something deadlier hurled out of the mass relay, yellow beam-like weaponry blazing at its target, determined to kill it.
Joker fought the controls, ignoring the pain in his shattered shoulder. He knew that he probably all of his bones, if not most of it, had hairline fractures. One with hollow bones did not get thrown around that roughly and come out without any injury of sorts. He just hoped he lived to see the end of this. "Come on…" he muttered under his breath as he tapped a few of the power systems to reroute whatever he could to get his ship to move. Already, acrid smoke and sparks from the broken and battered ship filled the bridge, but he resolutely blinked the tears out of his eyes from the smoke. It had to be hell back there…
"Hang on Commander…" he muttered, hoping that Shepard was still behind him, silently giving him her encouragement.
"Jeff, thrusters are almost non-responsive, we need-"
"I know EDI; just give me as much power as possible into that and into the weapons. We're gonna shoot that son of a bitch down," he cut off the A.I. wrenching the controls around.
Suddenly the comm. system crackled in a broadband transmission and Joker nearly wet his pants in relief at the voice that came over. "Normandy SR2, this is the Kyoto, we've got your six, hold on…"
"Alenko, that you?" he keyed the comm. back, unable to keep the relief out of his voice as he pulled hard to starboard and dove under a beam that barely touched the skin of the Normandy.
"Looks like you left the party in a hurry," Kaidan's voice came back, tight with emotion. "All ships, take down that son of a bitch," he ordered. Though Joker could not see the ships from the viewport, and with the radar completely mucked up after so many blasts to their hull and armor, he did see brilliant beams of light and missiles fired past the Normandy.
"EDI, we've got anymore left in the Thanix Cannons and Javelins'?" he asked.
"Just a little more," EDI's voice replied back coolly before she blinked her 'eye' turning red, "firing them now."
Joker watched through the barely working targeting system as the Collector ship that had been pursuing them was destroyed in a spectacular fashion. Letting out a loud whoop, he grinned and turned slightly in his seat, expecting to see Shepard with her usual cheeky grin on her face, ready to congratulate him.
Instead, what he saw horrified him. Pinned beneath a piece of overhead metal sheet that had fallen during the attack on the Normandy was Shepard, unmoving and bleeding heavily from numerous injuries. A quick glance up made him see the Normandy's inner wires and tubes running fore and aft the ship and he realized, that his Commander had protected him by attempting to divert the falling piece of metal away from him, enabling him to continue to pilot them to safety.
"No…" the whispered denial fell from his lips. He had seen her die once already…to save him. And now, she had done the same again, even though they were nothing more than friends. "No…Shepard, don't do this…"
He quickly keyed the comm. next to EDI's station, "Dr. Chakwas! Miranda! Anyone?!! Shepard's down!!"
~END~