Robocops and Robbers 9

Shepard calmly surveyed the destruction caused by his team as behind him they set charges at the base of the ship. Above him, which was really below him if one were to go by orientation of the ships, hundreds of Geth lay shattered on the ground due mostly to Wrex's massive rifle. Shepard was privately contemplating dubbing it the Mulcher.

It seemed that no matter how advanced the target, a ton of Krogan and bullets would reduce it to lumpy paste in no time at all. Wrex had been very happy with his new toy, and had taken to cackling like a maniac every time he squeezed the trigger.

Shepard would also admit to wanting to join in on the fun.

There is a blast from behind him, and he turns to see that a ten foot hole in the bottom of the ship had been shattered open. There wasn't even a hint of hull plating remaining and he has to ask, "Just how much omnigel did you use?"

Wrex looks sheepish as the other two turn their eyes to him and glare, "All of it."

"All of it? Even the medigel?"

"Yeah."

"Well congratulations Wrex, you just volunteered to be our meat shield."

"I thought I already was?"

"No, before you just liked being in front," Shepard tells him, "Now, we want to be in the back."

"What's the difference?" Wrex snorts

"Nothing much, just perspective," Shepard admits, "Plus it'll make me feel better."

Wrex laughs and jumps into the hole. The sound of gunfire echoes out of the hole, and then the returning sound of Wrex's mulcher. When that dies down, he calls to the other three, "Alright, they're dead. Let's go."

Shepard, followed by Liara and Kaidan, enters the ship with rifle raised. There is a brief second of disorientation at the gravitational focus being flipped completely on it's axis, but training and focus keep them from getting distracted as their guns point at the dead Geth plastered over the wall.

"Huh, painted Geth," Kaidan notes as he blinks at the walls, "kinda reminds me of a Van Gogh painting."

"Who?" Wrex and Liara ask at the same time

"History later, killing Geth now," Shepard demands and points Wrex down their first corridor.

The Krogan hefts his mulcher and starts to stride through the hallway, his massive bulk making it necessary for Kaidan and Liara to peek around his waist while crouching so that they could actually see ahead. Shepard, in his heavier armor, didn't bother and instead guarded their rear.

This turned out to be the best spot next to Wrex's, as the number of Geth trying to sneak up on the four of them was nearly a third of what was trying to take them from the front. As a result, he was gladly putting his marksman mastery to use as he turned flashlight after flashlight off in the permanent sense. He would have been having fun if it weren't for the perpetual laugh track.

Wrex was as happy as a kid in a candy store. Every time he thought he may run out of targets, a dozen or so decided to pop around a corner and try to take him on. He would angle his new favorite toy, which he was thinking of naming 'Kalros,' and a few seconds later he would be again despairing at the possibility that he wouldn't have any more targets. He was having so much fun that he couldn't help but laugh, constantly.

Liara was happy, she didn't have to take much fire and could occasionally offer a barrier or a biotic push to slip the Geth into the air for easier takedown from either Shepard or Wrex. By the end of this sieg, she hoped that she would impress Alex with her skills. She was careful to keep her hopes to the subconscious, though, and her focus on the immediate present.

Kaidan was not having as much fun as Shepard and Wrex, and wasn't as happy as Liara to be relegated to support. He was a decorated Marine and one of humanity's best Biotics for fuck's sake, he shouldn't have been stuck in the middle of a parade of death with nothing to do but make pot shots at targets already doomed to die without his intervention.

It was this happiness sandwich with a miserable ham that made it to the Mass Effect Core, and Shepard gave the order, "Kaidan, check Infiltration Team's omnigrenades."

Kaidan nods, though he wonders why the commander had made up a name for the other team. A quick update to his HUD and he knows where to look for the charges, and he is surprised to find that they are still in place. And then he sees that there are additional charges that the infiltration team had not mentioned.

"Sir, we've got a problem," He says when he gets back to Shepard

"What've we got?"

"Extra explosives," Kaidan tells him, "Set around the Core, not ours."

Shepard narrows his eyes, then nods and turns to Wrex, "We're heading back the way we came."

"What?" Wrex turns from his latest victims to Shepard, "Why?"

"The Geth are gonna blow their own ship," He tells the Warlord, "I'd rather not be on it when it goes."

"Ah," Wrex nods, and without another word he sets off back the way they had come.

"Kaidan, rearguard, I need to warn Infiltration," Shepard orders, and while the Major nods, he presses a finger to his mic and calls, "Murphy, Garrus, you read?"

"Yeah, we read," Garrus's voice crackles into their ears, "What's the situation?"

"Kaidan just finished checking the explosives around the Core. He found more than you set."

"Shit, you think the Geth are planning on blowing the ship to keep us from getting any new intel?"

"That's exactly what I'm thinking," Shepard agrees, "i'm pulling out my team, suggest you do the same."

Garrus turns to look at Murphy, who frowns. They had been so close, literally a Geth away from taking the nod to each other, and wave for Ashley and Tali to move towards the wall nearest them.

"Set enough explosives on that wall to crack it open," Murphy tells them, "We're going to need a quick exit."

The explosive expert and the tech expert nod and dive across between covers as Murphy and Garrus suppress the Geth Prime that had been giving them trouble. The massive Geth was the last one in the bridge, and unfortunately they did not have Wrex and his cannon to take care of it.

While Tali and Ashley worked to set their explosives, going so far as to add the kitchen sink, the two Spectres were flanking the Prime. The Geth platform was concentrating its attention on Murphy, judging the cyborg to be the bigger threat. It stomps over to his cover, ignoring the smattering and skittering of multiple rounds compressing on its hardened alloy, and kicks the console that he had been hiding behind.

Murphy and the console are sent flying, and the Geth takes aim at the soaring Robocop. It gets off two shots, one managing to shatter Murphy's visor while the other misses, before Garrus tears a hole in it's side with his sniper. The high powered rifle hisses as it lets off steam, and the Turian sprints across the bridge so the Prime can't do the same thing to him.

Robocop collapses his visor, knowing that having half an active HUD was worse than having none at all. He had suffered a lot of disorientation in the past, when he hadn't been able to collapse it. A quick glance at Tali and Ashley tells him where they are in setting the explosives, and with that glance he has a plan. Pulling himself to his feet, Murphy narrows his eyes at the Prime as it advances on Garrus. Raising his pistol in one hand, he quickly empties the clip into the Geth's spine.

This doesn't do much more than return it's attention to him, but that had been the plan. He retreated, raising his second pistol and double tapping the Prime's flashlight as his other cooled down. The Geth raised it's own rifle, but a shot from Garrus's sniper renders the weapon useless. The Prime regards the rifle, then drops it and charges Murphy with intent to squish.

Murphy hears the women moving into cover behind him as he speeds his backstep. Five feet before the Prime reaches him, he hits explosive caked wall. Two feet before the Geth is set to stomp him, Murphy dives under its upraised leg, jumps into the air, and kicks it against the wall. The kick sends the Prime crashing into the explosives, and Murphy behind another console.

As soon as most of the cyborg Spectre is behind cover, Ashley detonates the explosives.

The world turns white for an instant, then the boom hits and sends everyone not already on their asses into that position. Ashley is the first to recover, and peeks over her cover, "Alright, Geth Prime down."

"Of course it is," Tali exclaims, loudly, "That blast was strong enough that I think it nearly ruptured my eardrum, through my suit!"

"Yeah, I've got an echoing in my ears right now," Garrus pipes up as he pulls his feet up. Turning to Murphy, he skips to the point, "Alright, you've got the hacking know how, what do we do?"

"They've probably set their explosives to detonate as soon as they detect an intrusion," Murphy tells them, "So we're going to be off the ship when the hacking starts."

"How are we going to manage that?" Tali asks

Muphy holsters his pistols, raises his right hand, and pops the spike out. Then he does something that only Garrus knew he could do, and pulls his hand off at the mid-forearm. Tali and Ashley stare as Murphy stabs his hand into the console in front of him, then he looks up at the Quarian and tells her, "Download your hack program into my hand, when we're off the ship, I'll start the process and we'll get as much data as we can before this place gets blown to kingdom come."

"Your arm can be detached?" Ashley asks as Tali steps up to the arm and gets to work

"Yeah," Murphy nods, and his smile is audible as he tells her, "A few decades back I tried to see if they could be upgraded with rockets, but the RND guys told me it was a really stupid idea."

"You wanted rocket arms?" Ashley frowns, "I thought you were a serious guy?"

Murphy raised an eyebrow, "Ashley, do you have any idea what it's like to have your emotions repressed for half a century?"

"Ah, no?"

"Well I do," Murphy waves his left hand, "And I can tell you, that is where the idea that I'm a serious guy comes from. My brain chemistry was monitored and suppressed by expert neurosurgeons before I managed to get control of OCP. So, what you've got now is the real Alex Murphy."

"Right, sorry sir."

"Nah, it comes up with everybody," Murphy assures her, patting her on the shoulder, "Even other species. Garrus asked the same thing his third day as my partner."

"It was awkward," Garrus tells her

"I can imagine," Tali steps up to join them as she speaks, telling them, "All set, Murphy."

"Alright, everyone through the hole," Murphy tells them, and one after the other, the team dives out of the hole in the side of ship's head. While they fall, Murphy contacts the distraction team, "Shepard, how you doing?"

"We're almost at the exit," Shepard tells him,as the commander take the knees out from under a Geth before it can get a shot at Kaidan. "three corridors away. What's your status?"

"We're out," Muprhy tells them, "Sailing out and away as we speak."

"Got it, Shepard out," Shepard disconnects, then turns to his team, "Double time, people."

Wrex grunts, and his steady stride turns into a charge, his massive bulk smashing as many Geth as Kalros mulches. Liara and Shepard pick up the pace, with Kaidan not a second behind. The berserk rush was not expected by the Geth, and they quickly leave the dozen that had been coming up behind them in the dust, and crash through the doorway to their entrance hole.

Twenty Geth wait for them, but Wrex mulches the first few while Liara and Kaidan shatter another few with their Biotics and Shepard tosses his last grenade. The Geth are destroyed or knocked away from the hole enough for the team to dive through the hole in the base of the ship. They soar through the opening and start their slow descent the hundred feet to the deck of Grid E.

"Spin!" Shepard orders, and almost as one, they spin to aim their rifles at the hole in the ship, where the Geth had started flinging themselves out of or taking aim from, "Fire!"

The four start firing, and light after light goes out. While they fall, Shepard relays to the Infiltration team that they had exited the ship. The team impacts Grid E as the Geth Ship is released from its moores. The last clamp holding onto the ship pushes it, and the ship gently coasts out of its prison, still suffering from the shot that had disabled around an hour and a half earlier.

Shepard, Wrex, Liara, and Kaidan watch as the ship coasts for a few thousand feet, hemorrhaging atmosphere and Geth platforms, before it explodes. Shepard lifts his hand to the side of his helmet and asks, "Murphy, we get anything?"

"Yeah, a planet. Virmire."