A/N: Well its time for another chapter. I'm doing my best to pump these out but its been a mess on the home front for me. Also I'm still writing on my phone so its a little difficult. Thanks for sticking with me though and I appreciate the support. Please read and review, I haven't got any lately and that's kinda saddening.
Ch 7: Garbled Communication and Continued Pursuit
Shepard grabbed two attachements off the back from of his utility belt. He brought them together and they attached with a mechanical whirl. Taking out a grappling hook attached to a length of high tensile rope, he inserted into the device and with a burst of air compensated with a miniuature mass accelerater, the hook shot out in an instant and buried itself in the building across the street, angling down towards the street.
Testing its hold by giving it a few firm tugs and giving a satisfied head nod, he began attaching the zip-line harness.
"We have a group of batarians coming through the hall, Shepard." Liara's voice called out quietly behind him from her spot at the door. She had it propped open just enough to see out of. "Whatever your plan is to get out of here, we need to do it fast"
"Almost done over here, need just another minute." Shepard called out as he finished attaching the harness to the line and snapped the hook onto his armor. Just as he finished, gunfire erupted from the hallway and Liara slammed the door shut. She barricaded it by biotically ramming the apartments sparse furniture against the door. She hurried over to Shepard, looking at the rappel line suspiciously.
"What's all this?" She asked delicately
"Zip-line" Shepard answered bluntly. Liara looked at him with incredulously, not understanding what a he meant.
Shepard looked at her and it took him a second to realize that she didn't comprehend the concept of the zip-line.
"Duh." He expressed, smacking his palm on his forehead. "A zip-line is an human invention. We originally used it to transport cargo in mountainous regions back on Earth, before people realized that it can be used to ferry people too. Asari probably never had a need for anything liks this"
Liara smiled and shook her head no. Asari were all naturally biotic so that's what they used to move objects and people.
"Humans are such a resourceful people." She mused which made Shepard chuckle.
"We had to be to survive. Thats how my species thrives. Not necessarily great at anything but adaptable to almost everything."
Liara assesed Shepards statement and surmised it to be more or less true. Humans as a species weren't strong or hardy like the turians and krogan, they didn't have the mental prowess of the salarians, nor did they posess the longevity or the natural biotics of the asari. What they possessed was what seemed to be an ambition that knew no bounds and an incredibly adaptive mindset that put other races to shame.
Suddenly there was a crash against the barricaded door to the apartment, the metal door cracking in multiple places from an explosive round.
"Guess that's our cue." Shepard said as he grabbed the hand hook and held out his hand for Liara. She blushed as she took hold of his hand, the man pulled her close and she wrapped her arms around his neck and waist.
"Don't drop me." She giggled as she landed a kiss on his cheek for good luck.
Just as Shepard was about to launch them down the line, the door finally burst open and a group of batarians flowed into the room.
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" A batarian yelled, as the whole group trained their weaponry on the couple.
"Sorry fellas but we have pressing engagements elsewhere!" Shepard laughed as he jumped out of the broken window, speeding down the zip-line. Liara held onto him for dear life, not knowing that the military issue zip-line would speed them along as fast as it was.
Moving into the building to assist his recon squad that was in position, Slopaz saw his human quarry propelling off the top floor of the building.
"Up above, he's rappelling down the the complex! Shoot to kill!" He ordered to his team as they began firing at Shepard and Liara.
Liara instinctively threw up a barrier around them both in defense.
"Good thinking babe." Shepard lauded to her as he squeezed her close. Looking out he noticed that they were zipping over rooftops that could be traversed easily so he made the choice of detaching them from the harness. After dropping a few feet they landed solidly on a roof.
Liara looked at him for an explanation as he activated his omni-blade.
" Don't know if they tracked the end of the line. Could be a trap. Plus unless they get up here, we have the high ground." He justified as he cut the line with a quick slash. Liara noted his analysis and nodded in approval
"What's the plan for contacting the crew on the Normandy?" She asked as she checked her weapons ammo stores.
"Lets lose these guys first then we can call the Normandy and figure out an extraction point."
Liara agreed with a nod and followed Shepard's lead. They bounded over the rooftops looking out for any surprises along the way. Just as they crossed over to the third roof, a spherical object came flying up from street level and rested by their feet.
"Grenade!" Liara called out as she dove away from it, grabbing Shepard along the way. The explosive detonated a few seconds later, covering the couple in sharpnel. Shepard was the first to recover and immediately checked on his mate.
"Liara, you ok?" As he gathered her in his arms.
"F...fine" she coughed out. "The blast just burned out my barriers." She answered reassuringly.
Shepard sighed in relief. Just then he heard the pounding of footsteps coming from the opposite corner of the roof. He turned to see a small team of batarians coming up a fire escape on that side. He grabbed Liara and drug her over to the low cover of some machinery close to them as he unholstered his Mattock assault rifle.
He peeked over the top to get a count of the group of enemies who were looking around the roof. Shepard counted five batarians. Two looked like the standard trooper class. There were another two in lighter armor then the standard troopers so he figured that they had to be biotics. Lastly there was a batarian who seemed to be engrossed in his omni-tool, so Shepard pegged him for an engineer
Coming back down, he quickly tried to formulate a strategy. Suddenly a biotic field enveloped Shepard and violently ripped him over the ledge. As he landed on his back in a heap, one of the troopers pointed his omni-tool at him and shot something at him. As the blast got closer to him, it flash configured into a type of net that engulfed Shepard, trapping him on the floor.
"Shepard!" Liara cried out as she charged up her own biotics and sent the strongest Singularity she could muster at their assailants. A batarian biotic stepped up and as his biotics surged he outstretched his arms. What he did next, Liara couldn't believe. The batarian swatted the oncoming Singularity field and deflected it away from his comrades.
As Liara stood there awestruck, the engineer activated his omni-tool and sent an electrical charge through the net Shepard was trying to escape. That snapped Liara into action. She took out her Phalanx pistol and immediately dropped a trooper who seemed to neglect to charge his shields.
The batarians opened fire on the asari as she dipped back into cover.
Shepard continued to struggle with the net that he was trapped in. The electrical charge had momentarily stunned him, along with shorting out his omni-tool which left the omni-blade not an option.
'C'mon Damon think! Liara needs help!' Shepard thought to himself hazily. He then remembered he had a combat knife strapped onto his utility belt in case of some kind of emergency or when his omni-blade wasn't usable.
Liara was trading shots with the SIU troops, trying to buy Shepard time to escape his binds, but the batarians were pressing their advantage. The engineer would constantly drain Liara's shields with a barrage of tech attacks while the troopers were combining firepower and biotics to keep the asari on her heels.
Liara threw another Singularity at the batarians. This one wasn't deflected away by one of the biotics and expanded, beginning to lift the enemy squad off the ground. Seeing her opportunity, Liara sent a warp field, curving it over her cover and into the miniature black hole.
The resulting biotic explosion sent the cursing batarians sprawling out in all directions. Hearing the telltale sound of a biotic detonation Shepard stopped his frantic sawing at his entrapment and looked up. Seeing that Liara was the cause he smiled and finished cutting through the net
"Dammit get off!" He yelled as he broke free of his binds. Stretching his muscles a bit as he stood up sighing. He never did like being confined.
Liara looked in his direction as she heard his defiant shout, relieved that he was free from constraints. She got up from behind her cover but in her relief she failed to notice a batarian straining to get up on his feet.
Shepard saw the batarian right as he got to Liara. She was wiping her brow as she was winded from the fight and biotic effort. Shepard's heart stopped when he saw the trooper aim arm, omni-tool flash forging into gauntlet adorned with a trio of large blades.
Shepard rushed forward as the trooped pulled the trigger on his device with fanatically cold eyes. The blade shot from him with blazing speed right at Liara.
One blade cut through the asari's shoulder as Shepard shoved her out of the way; the other two blades embedding themselves into the Commander's shoulder and chest as he replaced her.
Pain shot through him as the blades tore through his armor and lodging into the flesh and muscle beneath. Shepard slouched forward due to shock numbing his focus. The batarian saw his chance and readied another salvo of blades to shoot into the human.
Battling through the searing pain shooting through his left side, Shepard clutched the pistol on his hip and brought it up sharply. Finding the strength he pulled the trigger several times.
Bullets smashed into the head and chest of the batarian and the life drained out of him as he collapsed onto the ground. The pain was too much for Shepard and he fell to a knee.
"Shepard, are you..." Liara started as she recovered but upon seeing the ends of cruel looking knives protruding his body "Oh my!? Are you all right?" She ran her hands comfortingly over her anguished lovers face.
"Yea I'll be fine." Shepard grunted, winching as he wrapped his good arm around her waist. "Are you ok?"
"Damon, don't worry about me. I'm fine, but we gotta do something about those wounds." She said as she knelt down running her hands lightly over the knife piercings. "These are gonna have to come out"
Shepard chuckled painfully, "What? Don't care for the new additions?
Liara chuckled at his undying wit with love. "They don't really suit you." She snorted, rolling her eyes a little. "Brace yourself, this is going to be painful." She warned him as a hand braced itself on his chest.
"Do it."Shepard gritted through clenched teeth. He knew that what came next wouldn't be pleasant. Pulling knives out one's never body never was.
Liara sighed and said "Ok, on three...One." Shepard began to quiet his mind, using Liara's beautiful face as a tether to concentrate on. "Two..."
There never was a three. As soon as the count of two ended she yanked the knife embedded in his shoulder clean out with a swift hard pull. Liquid hot pain took seized all of Shepard's left side.
"Oww! Geezus, I thought.." Shepard began to protest but Liara had other plans. She yanked the second knife right out of him before he could finish complaining. Another wave shot through Damon as his arm was freed of all intrusions.
"Sorry, my love." Liara comforted soothingly as she knelt down to his level to hug him through his monetary anguish.
"That a bad Chakwas move." Shepard jeered at Liara. Somebody must have taken a few field first aid lessons from the Normandy's back in the day. He would be sure to scold her half heartedly later.
"Well I may have gotten some tips from her back on the SR-1" He knew it.
The asari gave Shepard a quick peck on the lips as she reached the medi-gel on this belt. "You need some of this." She found her bounty, opened it up and pooled the salve into her hand. Rubbing them together a few times she then began to gently rub the medication onto his wounds
Shepard winched a little but soon the his adrenalin began to bottom out allowing his suits painkillers take effect. "Feels a lot better, thank you Liara" Shepard hugged her close, savoring the feeling of holding her. As he held her, the Commander noticed something. One blade must have gotten past him as there was a gash along her shoulder.
"Liara, you are hurt.,," Shepard said solemnly. He gave her a worried look, seeing a bit of purple blood seeping from her cut. Grabbing more medi-gel from his belt he smeared it onto her wounded shoulder. She winced a tad but otherwise kept her composure.
"Always saving me." She said with a sigh. He chuckled. Liara always saw Damon as as amost mythical, a selfless knight in modern times. She had never a more heroic person.
"I do what I can. You know I'll always protective of you." The human said as he started to get both of them up. "Plus you know, you are the Shadow Broker and all." Shepard quipped in closing as he pulled the asari up to her feet with him.
"Oh by the Goddess." Liara laughed, shaking her head. Shepard face was beaming hearing the smoothe giggles come from his girl.
"Shall we?" Shepard said motioning her that her he had the strength to leave. She nodded with her last few chuckles. He moved over to the stair case that those last few batarians climbed. Peering over the ledge, he couldn't detect any back-up marching up. He next started scanning the buildings within distance of them.
The next few looked like they might have some kind of rooftop access. That would be perfect for them to use to get onto the ground. He didn't know communications ability of the SIU so he was nervous about contacting the Normandy. He was worried they might be able to intercept his transmission, nor of they could break his signal encryption.
He was going to have to take a chance. Contemplating, he wondered if the batarians knew Earth's military history? He signaled T'Soni to follow him. As he headed for the next rooftop, he opened an emergency broadcast channel to EDI on the Normandy.
Onboard the Normandy, Joker was twiddling his thumbs, becoming more frustrated by the minute and feeling pretty helpless.
"Jeff," EDI spoke up, her holographic avatar springing up beside him and giving him a startle.
"Holy shit!" Joker yelped, broken free from his daze. "What's up EDI?"
"I'm receiving an emergency hail on coded channel Alpha Niner."
"Alpha Niner...that's gotta be Shepard! Lets hear it also get Garrus and Miranda up here."
" They have already been notified. Patching you through"
Static was heard at first but then a distorted voice came through.
"November Sierra Two, November Sierra Two. This is Delta Sierra Actual."
"November? Sierra? What the hell is he talking about?" Joker questioned, confused by Shepard's choice of words. As he was trying to wrap his brain around the mystery, Garrus and Miranda appeared on the bridge.
"November Sierra Two. I repeat: November Sierra Two, this is Delta Sierra Actual, do you read?" Again, came Shepard's distorted voice through the radio channel. Garrus' s mandibles flared, his brow creased in concentration.
"Sounds like code. Maybe Shepard is concerned the batarian's have decrypted our communications?" He surmised.
"It's NATO phonetic." Miranda muttered.
"What's Neytoh? Some kind of human language?" Garrus questioned Lawson.
"In a sense." Miranda began to explain. She quickly gave the turian a short human history lesson on how in the twentieth century of the human calander after two massive and destructive global wars on Earth a military alliance was formed between various countries along the Atlantic ocean. These countries promised military aid to any member who was attacked and held a joint armed force.
"So let me guess, since humanity thrives on diversity, this organization needed some kind of unified language for sending transmissions?" Garrus deduced.
"You catch on quick Vakarian. Must be that detective training." Miranda applauded him. Garrus mandibles flashing out to give the turian equivalent of a grin. "Joker you can't tell me that you don't know this. You are a pilot since the Normandy doesn't have a dedicated communications officer, you should know military radio code."
"Hey! I just fly the ship. I wasn't trained to decipher code. Besides its the twenty second century now, we have highly coded radio now. I'm sorry I don't know an antique radio code." Joker retorts in defense.
"I guess that's why Shepard is Commander." Garrus laughed at the jeering going on between the two humans. "Can somebody answer him? Might as well not leave him out on Omega with who knows how many Batarians."
Gunfire rang out around Shepard and Liara. On their way down to street level, they ran afoul of another enemy squad as they were searching the building.
"Almost to the lobby!" Liara called out, covering Shepard's back as they were descending the complexes main stairwell. More gunfire erupted from above them, slamming against walls and banisters around them with a few bleeding out their shields.
"This stairway is too exposed, come on! Shepard called, kicking in a door next to him. Bringing up the schematics of the building on his omni-tool he scanned to see their location
"Seems like we are on the second floor." Shepard said quickly looking around. They seemed to be in another hallway with apartments along each side. "Would you care to scout ahead, Liara? I'm going to set a quick trap."
Liara just rolled her eyes and laughed. "Try to not bring the building down around our ears, hmmm?." She called out ahead of him. Shepard gave a look of mock astonishment that she would even suggest such a thing.
As she walked down the hall, Shepard began to put the door back in place. It was an older style, not automatic so he placed it on its hinges and quickly welded it shut. Now it would take a few blows to break it in. He could hear footsteps coming down the stairs so he knew he had to be quick.
He checked his equipment, two mines were left along with a small assortment of biotic and frag grenades. Taking a mine and combining it with a frag grenade, he placed it just beyond the door, he set the trip laser to an ultraviolet frequency and took off down the hall.
As he made his way down the hall he heard something slam against the shut door, followed by shouting. As he came to the end of the corridor, Liara was looking out a window and down a fire escape.
"It looks clear. We can use this to get down to the street." She said pointing down into an alleyway.
"Good, lets go, we got about a minute till they breach that door and boom." Damon said making an exploding gesture with his hands. That was all the asari needed to hear as she began climbing out the window. As she got out and slid down the fire escape there was a crash on the opposite end of the hall. Shepard turned around to see the door being blown off its supports.
The door crashed to the ground just before where he had placed the mine. Sighing with relief he faced down his pursuers.
"Come on fellas I'm right here!" He yelled down the hall, trying to goad the batarians into his trap. They looked at him and began to follow.
"Hold it!" A voice shouted from the rear of the pack. A batarian in heavy armor stepped through the soldiers. This one must have been thier commanding officer.
"Lets not be hasty now gents." He said with a cool confident swagger. "The great Commander Shepard, running like a varren. Now that's a sight we should savor." He gloated.
His words grated against Shepards mind, a flame trying to entice a moth closer but Damon held his ground. He needed to keep a clear head, the batarian was but a few steps away from triggering the humans trap.
"Idle threats don't scare me batarian. You trapped me, but I seem to be evading your squads quite nicely."
"Yes, Shepard you known quite the disappearing act, but that won't save you from us. Doesn't matter how many of us you gun down, our lives mean nothing compared to the sparks lost when you destroyed Aratoht's relay." The batarian challenged, taking another step forward jabbing an accusatory finger at the Commander.
Bahok. Still it all echoed back to that damn colony. Shepard knew he did the right thing, but the agony of what he had to sacrific to just slow down something as horrible as the Reapers.
"I did my best, damn it." Shepard said.
"Not good enough!" The batarians roared.
"I'm sorry. I did my best." Shepard apologized, trying to not look as defeated as he felt.
"Now you pay for your crimes!" The batarians roared again, igniting with a biotic aura flare surprising the man.
'Damn, another biotic.' Shepard groaned mentally. That's when he noticed that the biotic aura had uncovered his trap and the Batarian caught it.
"Ahh, trying to trick my group into another trap?" He laughed as he picked up the mine with a biotic field, surveying it. "Looks like a mine that we deploy, stolen off one of my defeated brethren no doubt."
Now Damon was nervous. He hadn't planned on meeting a batarian who could see through his deception, now he was at a disadvantage. Best not to show it though.
"Well damn. Never thought I'd find a intelligent soldier among your ranks today." He laughed as he wiped his brow while slowly backing towards the window, hoping his voice didn't convey his slight trepidation.
"Humans, always assuming they are the king of the hill."
"That's us all right."
What happened next Shepard didn't expect. The biotic sent the mine hurtling down the hall at him!
'Can't catch a break for shit!' Shepard yelled inwardly. He had a split second to make a move and he let his training take over. He made his move for the window and jumped while grabbing his pistol. In midair he twisted around and the adrenaline surging through his system gave him the focus to put two shots on the flying explosive.
The mine exploded, engulfing the hall in fire and shrapnel. Shepard was blown right out the window, being once again being licked with searing flames. Shepard winced as he was hurled against the building opposite the explosion and tumbled down the wall.
He hit a trash disposal receptacle on the way down and landed on the ground with a harsh thud. Feeling like he took a charging krogan head on, he barely heard Liara cry out his name as the world went black.
