Chapter 7: The Devil Himself

At the head of the group was a Turian. He had a dark brown carapace with and bore traditional Turian war face paint. It looked like a big, green H on his face; with the joints where the vertical and horizontal lines meet covering his eyes like a raccoon's mask. One of his mandibles was also gone; doubtlessly a souvenir of battle. "So" The Turian said in a low growl "You must be the infamous Commander Shepard. I still can't decide whether your attack was an act of courage… Or stupidity."

"Probably a bit of both" I replied dryly as my hand slowly reached for my pistol. There was a symphony of clicks and clacks as the dozen or so pirates snapped to attention and focused on me. "Don't try anything cute, Shepard" The Turian leader said, his own pistol pointed at my chest "I didn't get to be leader of the Ghosts of Doradus by being an idiot."

"So, you're Tanis Taverenoc? Wrex said with a smirk "You look taller on the holo-screens"

"And you must be Urdnot Wrex, the Krogan who pals around with Shepard" Tanis returned his gaze to me "Well, I'm afraid even a Krogan Battlemaster isn't going to save you, Shepard. Thought I must applaud you for defeating Jil'ara. She was one of my best."

"Oh yeah" I said as I massaged my chin "She and I really hit it off"

"Hmm" Tanis scoffed "Funny guy. Well you won't be smiling for long. Even now, my forces are…" But at that point I stopped listening to Tanis, I hadn't realized it before, but Kaiden was in the perfect position, hidden behind Wrex's massive bulk, to type on his Omni-tool without anyone seeing. He looked over at me and gave a wink. I returned with the smallest of nods. Kaiden pushed the last button his Omni-tool and to the pirate's left one of the tarps lurched up with a mechanical groan. The pirates swiveled around; weapons aimed, but didn't fire. The 

instant their guns were off of us, I turned and broke into a run and the others followed my lead. We ran off I hoped we could get to the other side of the warehouse and maybe find another way out. I looked over my shoulder as I ran, curious to see what horror Kaiden had unleashed. The thing under the tarp fired a blast of blue energy and 2 pirates instantly disintegrated. The remains of the tarp disappeared under the withering gunfire that ensued. Underneath was a stolen Geth Colossus: an elephantine, quadrapedic walking Geth tank. I could only surmise that Kaiden had hacked into its systems and rewired its IFF systems so that it would recognize us as friendlies and the pirates as enemies. The Colossus was more then enough of a distraction for us to slip away.

I looked at my mission timer. Before we left the warehouse, Kaiden managed to find another computer and downloaded as much information on the contents of the warehouse as he could. But it would never be the same as having the contents itself. According to my clock, we had about 15 minutes left before the Geth showed up to lock this place down. We had to be out of here by then. "Commander?" Ashley piped in over the COM. "What is it Williams?" I replied.

"I think we've found something you may be interested in."

"It's a cache of Alliance weapons" Garrus said "There's some tactical warheads here we might be able to use." Suddenly I skidded to a halt, a sudden realization dawning on me. "Shepard?" Liara asked "Are you alright?" I barely heard her; I was having a brainwave, my thoughts racing and formulating a plan. And then I had it. "Commander?" Garrus said over the COM "What is it?"

"Garrus, I have an idea" I said "Tali!"

"Yes Shepard?"



"I want you to arm those bombs."

"Which ones?"

"All of them."

"ALL OF THEM!?" Ashley and Garrus exclaimed.

"All of them" I confirmed stoically.

"Commander, with respect, have you gone insane!?" Ashley cried "I don't think you realize just how many bombs there are here!"

"Actually, I hope there's enough" I said "Tali, can you rig all those bombs to a single timer?"

"I-I think so" Tali said hesitantly.

"Commander, I-" The Gunnery Chief started. "Ashley!" I interrupted "I know this sounds crazy, but I only have one request right now; and that is that you guys to trust me!" There was a pause over the COM, and 10 agonizing seconds later Ashley responded "Yes sir, we'll get it done. Williams out."

"Your plan is crazy" Wrex said "But I like it"

"You plan to leave the explosives" Liara said "So that when the Geth arrive, they will be destroyed?"

"Yeah" I said as we started running again.

"Do you think this will work?" She asked.

"I hope so" I confessed "I'm making this up as I go"