AN:- This is basically the end of the Prologue. Four Chapters in.
Chapter Four: Man Down
Before Shepard could shout her next order an explosion ripped open part of the carriage and they ground to a stop. Bullets peppered the windows and they started to crack almost at once. "Cover!" She barked and they dropped down, drawing their weapons and crawling to the edges of the tram. She pressed up against it and readied her sniper rifle, waiting until the window shattered before stepping up and sighting in one fluid motion.
The rifle bucked against her shoulder and one of the Cerberus troops dropped with a hole clean through him. Corresponding fire from her flank told her that Ashley and Liara had found targets as well, and sure enough two more troops dropped as their shields failed to hold up against the onslaught. The final man drew a grenade but before he could throw it she drew her pistol and shot him through the wrist. The blast took out part of the wall of their tram car even as it drew level with Shepard's team.
"Over we go."
They jumped into the other car and Liara set it in motion again. Collecting the ammunition from the bodies they reloaded and checked their shields and armour in the brief respite before the far door opened to reveal an empty station.
"I guess Cerberus just doesn't have the numbers these days," Shepard said as they stepped out through the hole and made their way to the back of the room.
Liara opened the door at the back of the room and they stepped through into the Archive proper, where straight ahead the Prothean relic glowed faintly in a green forcefield. There was an access terminal just in front of it that was thankfully still functional.
"Ash," she said.
She didn't need to say anything more. Williams moved off immediately to secure the room, sweeping her rifle back and forth into every nook and cranny. Liara went to the terminal and Shepard moved up behind her, drawing her pistol and holding it ready.
"Shepard." The voice sent chills down her spine. She turned to see his familiar blue hologram stepping out of nothing behind her. Liara whirled around, snatching up her own pistol.
"Illusive Man," she said.
"Fascinating race the Protheans. They left all this for us to discover, but we squandered it. The Alliance has known about the Archives for more than thirty years, and what have they done with it?"
"What do you want?" Shepard growled as Liara went back to the computer.
"What I've always wanted. The data in these Artefacts holds the key to solving the Reaper threat." He gestured with his cigarette.
"I've seen your solution. Your people are turned into monsters."
"Hardly, they're being improved."
"Improved?"
"That's what separates us Shepard. Where you see a means to destroy, I see a way to control. To dominate and harness the Reaper's power. Imagine how strong humanity would be if we controlled them."
She shook her head. "You've gone too far. The Reapers will kill us all if we don't stop fighting each other."
"I don't expect you to understand Shepard. And I'm certainly not looking for your approval. You were a tool. An agent with a singular purpose, and despite our differences you were relatively successful. But like the rest of the relics in this place, your time is over."
"Enough talk." She turned away from him. "Liara."
"Don't interfere with my plans Shepard. I won't warn you again."
She didn't bother looking back. "Duly noted."
"Shepard! The data, it's not here." Liara's fingers flashed frantically over the keys.
She turned back and was unsurprised to see his hologram had disappeared. Liara was still talking.
"It's being erased."
"Damnit. How's he doing it?"
"It's local, someone's uploading the information."
Shepard's head snapped up and she found Ashley, across the hall from them and just rounding a corner.
"Hey, step away from the console. Now!"
Shepard moved, but apparently not fast enough. Ashley went flying away as someone threw her and the relic suddenly depowered. Shepard rounded the corner to see Dr Eva Core, sprinting away at top speed.
"She's got the data!" Liara shouted, and Shepard took off after her running. They fled through the open door, but instead of heading to the tramway she cut hard left, faster than Shepard would have thought possible. Shepard cut across to try and catch her, but all she saw was a foot disappearing up a ladder.
"What is she?" Liara was hot on her heels.
There was no time for talking though. Shepard threw herself up the ladder and came out onto the roof again. Overhead a shuttlecraft swooped in low and ahead, too far ahead, she saw Dr Core. There was a landing pad nearby, she would be heading for it for sure.
The intention, when she had been rebuilt, had been that she could trigger her implants at will, she hadn't had much time to practice, but she had started to learn how to do it now. She forced herself to speed up, then push past the barrier where her mind told her that it wasn't possible to go that quickly. Her legs responded, the mechanical impulse triggers firing and activating the artificial muscle fibres in her legs.
The distance closed and she was able to fire off a shot from her pistol that sparked off a kinetic shield. She heard Ashley over the comm unit. "James, you read me? Cerberus has the data. Get the Normandy down here now!"
The Cerberus shuttle came in low again, they were barely feet from the landing pad. Dr Core spun on her heel and fired half a dozen shots, all of which hit Shepard's shields. Her accuracy was unerring, and Shepard was forced into cover.
The shuttle was right on the edge of the pad now, and Dr Core kept up her fire, keeping Shepard pinned.
"She's getting away!" Liara had joined her, but was also kept behind cover as the Cerberus troops on the shuttle opened fire as well. "Damn it!" Shepard opened her comm unit. "Vega! Normandy! Anybody?"
The shuttle door closed and it pulled away. The three of them rushed onto the platform and opened fire, but their small arms couldn't do anything to slow the shuttle down as it angled for escape. It started to rise when out of the dust cloud the Normandy's shuttle emerged, static electricity sparking off it as it headed down for the pad.
"Get ready for a chase," Shepard said, turning to her team.
"I don't think that's going to be an issue." Ashley was pointing up to where the Normandy's shuttle was on a direct collision course.
"What's Vega…"
Shepard was cut off as the shuttle's smashed together. Fire gouted out of the side of the Ceberus shuttle and it was forced off course as Vega drove it down towards the pad.
"Move!" Shepard yelled, turning and sprinting for cover again as the shuttles spiralled in. She launched herself over a low railing as they came crashing down, scraping along the pad with a harsh metallic grinding that set her teeth on edge. More explosions rocked the platform as the two shuttles came to a screeching halt.
She jumped up and back onto the pad, avoiding the fire that was quickly spreading out from the Cerberus shuttle, which was almost entirely destroyed. The front of the Normandy shuttle was badly damaged, but it still seemed to be functional, and at least wasn't actively on fire.
The door opened and Vega came tumbling out. "Normandy's en route. They'll be here soon."
Shepard looked over to where Liara and Ashley were limping towards them, supporting each other as they walked. The Normandy shuttle had landed between them, and the ire was getting dangerously close. Just as she was breathing a sigh of relief the smoke from the shuttle coiled and shifted.
Shepard saw it happen in slow motion as her implants kicked in, her danger sense going into overdrive as Dr Core emerged from the fire, springing out in a single bound and slamming into Liara and Ashley. Liara was sent skidding along the ground as Ashley went for her gun. Shepard moved, feeling as though she was dragging herself through mud. Her senses were on overdrive but her body wasn't responding right.
"Ash!" Vega's voice reached her through the muck even as she heard the cracks of blows.
Rounding the shuttle she had her pistol out and in hand, training it on the glistening chromed body that had been Dr Core. Clearly she was some sort of android then. No sense going hand to hand. She had a hand around Ashley's throat and had lifted her clear off the ground, leaving her feet kicking wildly.
"Let her go."
Dr Core spun to put Ashley between Shepard and herself, touching her free hand to her head. "Orders?" She said.
Whatever was said on the other end, she moved like lightning, spinning around and slamming Ashley hard against the side of the downed shuttle.
"No!" Shepard yelled, opening fire. Bullets sparked and pinged off the metallic body as Core drew Ashley back and slammed her down again, the metal of the hull denting slightly where Ashley's head had hit it.
As the android prepared to slam her again one of Shepard's bullets broke through the skin of her jaw and she jerked forwards. Sparks began to pour out of the bullet hole and Core turned to look at Shepard. She only had a few bullets left in the clip and she fired both, putting a double tap right between Core's eyes. The first bullet didn't penetrate but the second one did, and like a puppet with the strings cut the body dropped to the ground.
"Grab that thing," Shepard shouted to Liara and Vega even as she ran to Ashley, who was lying desperately still against the shuttle. "Bring it with us."
The storm overhead shifted again and the Normandy appeared out of the sky, swinging down towards them. Joker's voice broke through the fuzz of static and interference. "Shepard, we got Reaper signatures in orbit."
Her instruction in field medicine screamed at her not to do what she was about to do, but they were out of options. In the far distance away from the base she could see the black shape of a Reaper descending already. Either she risked further injury or they weren't leaving with Ashley in tow. Bending down she lifted her as gently as she could manage, trying to support her head and keep it as still as possible. Vega had the robot in his arms while Liara ran for the cargo bay of the Normandy.
Before the airlock had even closed Joker had them pulling away.
/|\
She ran for the medical bay, past rows of faces she didn't recognise and improvements and modifications she hadn't been informed of. Liara and Vega were right behind her as she sprinted to a bed and gently laid Ashley across it. The medics pushed past her and began to open up her armour, revealing her face, so bruised and swollen she barely looked human.
Shepard slowly backed away from the table. She didn't recognise a single one of the medical staff. Not Chakwas or any of her old staff. She shouldn't have been surprised, after all Chakwas had technically signed with Cerberus, but it filled her with a deep unease to see Ashley under anyone else's care.
Liara stepped up next to her and took her arm gently. "Ashley needs medical attention. We have to leave the Sol system."
I know.
"The Citadel is our best chance, we can find help there."
She still couldn't respond. Liara triggered her own comm unit. "Get us to the Citadel Joker."
"Roger that."
Hold on Ash. Vega had put the android down on the bed across from Ashley. She finally found her voice. "See what you and EDI can learn from that thing."
As if summoned, her earpiece chimed again. "Captain. I'm receiving a signal over the secondary QEC, I believe it's from Admiral Hackett."
A minute. That's all I need. Sixty seconds. "Patch me through."
"I'll forward it to the comm room."
Shepard marched out of the bay, Liara right next to her. It didn't even occur to her until after she had left the medical bay that she wasn't entirely sure of the new layout, but apparently Liara was in the know, and guided her gently through an elaborate war room to a hologram relay of Admiral Hackett. "Shepard are you reading me? Captain Shepard."
The connection was still patchy. "EDI, can you clear this up?"
"I'll do my best."
The hologram sharpened a little and the static diminished. "Did you get to the Archive?"
"I was there, so was the Illusive Man."
Hackett nodded. "I was worried Cerberus might try something. Did you get the data?"
"Most of it. He downloaded some before I could stop him. EDI and Liara are analysing what was recovered."
Liara stepped up next to her and Hackett nodded to her. "What have you learned? Was it worth the effort?"
"Preliminary evidence suggests the data is a blueprint for a Prothean device." Liara keyed something into the console and a new hologram appeared, a rotating blueprint for an enormous construction of some sort.
"Device?" Hackett asked.
"A weapon, massive in size and scope, that's capable of unquantifiable levels of destruction."
"Send me the data. We'll do our own analysis. If Liara's instincts are right this might be the key to stopping the Reapers."
"I hope so." Shepard took a breath to steady herself. "Lieutenant Commander Williams was critically wounded. We're taking her to the Citadel."
"Sorry to hear that Shepard. But we both know this is just the beginning. Talk to the Council, show them what you've found. With luck, they'll give you all the support we need."
"And if they don't?"
"Do whatever it takes to get them on board"
No problem. She straightened and saluted. He returned it and nodded to her. "I'll be in touch soon, Hackett out."
Shepard headed back out to the War Room, pausing in the doorway and staring at it. Her ship had been taken from her again, and changed again. She wasn't ready. For all her admonishing the Defence Committee for the same thing, she wasn't nearly ready for this.
"Shepard?" Liara was at her side, looking at her with concern clear in her eyes. "EDI is extracting data from the Cerberus machine. We'll have details to present to the Council by the time we reach the Citadel."
She cleared her throat. "And Lieutenant Commander Williams?"
"The Medical Team has done what they can for her. She needs proper medical attention soon." Liara leaned against the circular table at the centre of the room and stared at the holographic surface. "The Admiral's right. It's going to get worse isn't it?"
"Unless we stop the Reapers, yeah."
"I've looked at the data. This weapon could be the answer, if we can build it. I get the sense you don't quite believe it though."
Shepard came to stand next to her, their hands almost touching. "You didn't see what they did to Earth. How is one weapon supposed to stop them?"
"What are our options? You know we can't win this conventionally. Shepard. Isn't it worth trying at least?"
She didn't have an answer for that. In her heart she couldn't quite believe in any hope, even a faint one. "I'm gonna check on Ashley and James. Make sure we're ready to present our findings to the Council."
"I'm sure the Council will see the need to help."
Shepard pushed away from the table and headed back for the CiC. "It'll be a hell of a short war if they don't."
AN:- Not a great deal to add. The real game begins in earnest from now.