Chapter 9

John Murphy: In The House – In A Heartbeat

October 16th, 2185
9:12pm, Omega time
Archangel's hideout

"It's been almost twenty minutes," Garrus breathes next to me, looking over the bridge through his sniper scope. "Where have they gone to…"

"Probably regrouping," I say, moving to stand next to him and taking a glance ahead through my rifle. It had been far, far too quiet. We've been working through the waves steadily for hours upon hours now, and they've paused before, presumably to try and work out some kind of new plan. But not for this long. Something is definitely off about this… "You think they're going to try for a bigger push of troops?"

Garrus shakes his head next to me. "No. They've already tried that a few times, and it's not got them anywhere. You'd think they'd work out sending people to rush across that bridge is a bad idea eventually, but obviously not."

"They're using freelancers," I point out. "They don't care about the casualties, just want to try and wear us down. And they're not doing a bad job of it." I slump down on the wall, leaning my back and head against it and taking slow, deep breaths. What the hell is taking Shepard so long…

"Then why would they give us a break?" Garrus muses. "We've been going through soldiers quickly, actually. Maybe they ran out of freelancers and have to wait for more."

I nod my head slowly, thinking it over. That does make sense, but some part of my brain is nagging me that something about that theory doesn't quite add up. Then again, given the situation, the fact I'm being paranoid doesn't exactly come as a huge shock. "Or they're just trying to lull us into a false sense of security. Make us leave our posts, then strike while we're away."

"How stupid do they think we are?"

"Given everything they've tried so far, I think they're kind of banking on us being stupid. They'll have to start using their brains eventually," I reply. "Not that I'm resenting a chance to catch my breath. How're we doing for ammo?"

"Fine, but we're almost out of grenades," he mutters. "At this rate, we should be able to hold for another few hours."

A few hours? Shit, I was kind of hoping for a few days… "And if Shepard doesn't show up by then? Have we got a contingency?"

Garrus looks down at the floor, then back up at me. "We die," he says simply, sending a chill running through me. "So you'd better hope your memory isn't letting you down."

"That's it?" I ask incredulously. "After everything we've been through, you'd just roll over and die?"

"I'm being realistic," the turian grunts. "This is a good place to defend because it's isolated. The only way they can get in here is that bridge. Which means it's also the only way we have of getting out, and I chose it because you told me Shepard was coming to get us. So I hope you haven't held anything back about that, either."

"Oh, not this again!" I snap. "You know why I did what I did. You'd come to terms with it!"

The turian laughs at me humourlessly. "Come to terms with what? You not being able to trust me from the beginning?"

"I do trust you, Garrus! And I know you! Tell me I was wrong hold it back. Tell me you wouldn't have acted like I said you would have." Garrus looks back at me in total silence, face hidden beneath his helmet. "Look, you can lie to yourself about it all you want, but don't try lying to me. I did what I had to, and I never expected you to take it well, but you know I was right to do it," I say quietly. "And it should have worked. We both know that. I couldn't have predicted what happened."

Garrus sighs despondently, then walks over and sits against the wall next to me. "That's why it pisses me off. If I'd known, I'd have still made a bad judgement on it. But then my bad judgement got us into this mess in the first place."

I feel my anger dissipate hearing the slightly forlorn tone in his voice, instead replaced by a feeling of almost overwhelming fatigue and sadness. Omega has done this to us…and whatever happens tonight, if Shepard shows up or not, it's a relief to think that I'll be leaving it behind. Dead or alive. "This wasn't your fault. The mercs got to Sidonis, and we did what we could. Hell, if anyone had bad judgement here, it was me. Thinking he could change or something. But don't blame yourself."

"It was his fault," Garrus growls. "But I should have been more careful anyway." He shakes his head. "I didn't mean what I said about not being able to trust each other. It's just…damn it, this is getting to me."

"Me too," I sigh, then look over at him. "But we can make it. I swear to you, we're going to get out of here." I'm not even sure I believe the words myself, but I have to say them. Both of us need a glimmer of hope, and I'm going to hold onto it, however irrational it might seem. "You managed by yourself in game. With the two of us…they shouldn't stand a chance."

"That's true," he nods, then looks over at me, face still concealed by the helmet. "Thanks. For calming me down, for just being here-" He suddenly stops mid-sentence, lifting his head slightly, tensing up. "You hear that?"

Huh? "Hear what?" Garrus holds up a talon for silence, and I close my eyes, trying to exclusively focus on the world around me and blocking all other senses out. Maybe he's just getting paranoid…no, wait, I hear a sort of low humming noise, that's getting progressively louder in each passing moment. "I'm getting that now. You know, it does sound really familiar…"

Then, it suddenly clicks.

Oh, FUCK.

"GUNSHIP!" Garrus yells, pushing me down fully into cover and hurling himself prone as the hum becomes a roar, and heavy machine gun fire rips into the wall behind where I was only a few seconds ago. Of course, Garrus got attacked by the gunship once before it came around for the second attempt…why do I always remember this shit after it happens?

"Give it up, Archangel!" the pilot of the ship yells through its external speakers. "You can't beat a gunship!" It doesn't sound like Tarak…damn, he must only decide to pilot it later. Killing him now would just be too easy, wouldn't it?

"You hear that, man?" I say, feigning offence. "Says we can't beat a gunship. We managed with a Reaper, right?"

"Shut up and let me think," the turian growls. "We don't have the firepower to take it down from here, but I should be able to disable some of the critical electronics with a sniper shot."

I raise an eyebrow under the helmet. I know he can't actually see it, but force of habit. "You can do that with one shot?"

"The gunships they use are cheap," Garrus explains. "They pack a lot of a punch, but most of the circuitry and weapon systems are located towards the top of it. One round should be enough to put it out of commission, at least for a while."

"If we try and snipe from up here, we'll get ripped to shreds before we can even stand up and aim!" I shout over the roar of the gunship's engines. Getting progressively closer. At this rate, he'll get close enough to have an angle to shoot us behind the balcony… "Cheap gunship or not, I don't fancy those weapons!"

"Only one of us needs to snipe!" the turian replies. "The other can distract him from the lower floor, make him descend so there's a clearer shot from up here!"

I roll my eyes within the helmet. "I can guess what I'm doing, then!"

"You're the athletic one," Garrus shoots back. Does he sound slightly amused by all this? Crazy bastard… "He'll rip you to shreds if you try and take the door, though. But, if you go over that rail there…" He points to the waist high barrier overlooking the lounge below. "That should let you get into cover."

"What?" I yell. "Are you fucking mental? I'll break my legs!"

"There's a couch below, that'll cushion your fall!" he shouts. "It's not that high!" The engines are almost deafening now, and I can see the top of gunship emerging over us. Whywhywhy… "Go!" I freeze up slightly, looking at him. Garrus isn't impressed. "GO!"

I push off from a crouched position, not even bothering to give what I'm doing any thought as I burst for the rail, at any moment expecting a heavy round from the gunship's machine gun to tear through my chest. He must not have been expecting this, though, since he hasn't opened fire…I place one hand on the rail and throw myself over it, yelling just as a burst of machine gun fire flies over my head and makes me flinch instinctively. Shit, now I'm gonna fuck up the landi-

I smack into the lip of the couch with my side, grunting in pain as I barrel roll off it and sprawl to the floor. As soon as that ship descends, he's gonna have a clear shot…trying to ignore the pain in my side, I clumsily scramble to my knees and open up my omni-tool, rapidly inputting commands as I see the gun start to descend from the top of the window. Come on, just a little more time…

There's a slight clicking noise, as my armour suddenly becomes fully transparent around my body. Perfect! The gun begins roving around, searching for its now cloaked target, as I make a rush for a more secure position. It's only going to last me about seven seconds, and I'm running with a slight limp, but it lets me get towards the kitchen area.

There's good cover here, behind the sofas…but I need to keep that gunship distracted. And the best way to keep someone targeting me is to piss them off. I just had a really, really stupid idea. He can't see me from my location, so I quickly open the fridge and grab myself a bottle of Tupari (levo-amino). No-one likes a cocky bastard…

I unscrew the top, walking just into the gunship's line of sight, and tilt the bottle towards him with a cheery wave.

Come and get me, you son of a bitch.

I hurl the bottle at the ship, diving back behind the wall as the pilot goes absolutely crazy with the machine gun, taking the bottle out in mid-air and tearing up most of the furniture in front of the window. Bastard! I've still got about few seconds before my cloak recharges, and I want to keep him distracted. Plus, there's a perfectly good bit of cover across the room from me…and my side isn't feeling too bad now. Time for a sprint!

I wait for the gun to stop firing, then burst out, pointing my pistol out vaguely in the gunship's direction as I go and squeezing the trigger as fast as I can. I may as well be shooting peas at the fucker, but it's enough to draw his attention, strafing the room once again as I slide on the smooth floor behind another couch, slider on the pistol snapping back and automatically ejecting the heat sink as I scramble to keep low.

I grab another sink, ramming it into the base of the gun, then snapping the slide back into place with a quick press onto the catch holding it back. Laet worked wonders making it like this for me…frankly, the old design of handguns is way better than the stuff they make in this day and age. Laet'd probably be freaking out if he was here right now, poor bastard…

Another burst of gunfire draws my attention back to the situation at hand, ripping through the upper portion of sofa and making me hurl myself prone. Too bad they're not bulletproof, like in the games…what the hell is Garrus doing? I snatch a quick peek over the top of the sofa, and-

ROCKET!

I shoot back down faster than I thought was even possible, as the missile streaks past and explodes against the back wall, the force of the blast slamming my back into the sofa and showering debris from furniture over me, clattering against my armour as I instinctively shield myself from the explosion. Fucking Christ! I almost pulled a Garrus there…not cool. I don't think I'm quite badass enough to take rockets to the face just yet.

Crap, that gunship is going to target him again if he thinks I'm dead…so I reach my hand up and over the lip of the mostly destroyed sofa and stick my middle finger up, chuckling to myself as I hear the pilot growl slightly from the ship's loudspeaker. Enraged people make more mistakes…

But even someone blinded with rage is going to wreck this couch soon enough. I set off the cloak again, pushing myself up and away from my ruined cover as the gunship decimates it completely with gunfire. How fucking long does it take to line up a shot? Seriously? I go to the window the gunship's trying to shoot me through as it still targets the couch, leaning on it with my forearms and trying my best to seem bored as I materialise.

"Good effort, mate!" I yell. "A few seconds earlier, and you've had got me!"

"I'll kill you, you bastard!" the voice over the speakers shouts, and I prepare to duck back down…just a sniper rifle sounds and the ship suddenly lurches to the side, accompanied by curses from the pilot. That's some truly impeccable timing by Garrus…though, it still shouldn't have taken this long!

The gun is still aiming at me, but presumably the weapons ain't working, otherwise that guy would be lighting my ass up right now. I stand up fully, and shrug apologetically at the gunship. "See, this is what happens when you buy second-hand! Cheap, but so unreliable!"

"Screw you!" the pilot screams back. "This isn't over! You can't hold out here forever!"

"Watch me, asshole!" I shout, as the gunship clumsily retreats back into the distance. I hold the defiant pose for a few seconds, until it's out of my line of sight…then breathe out deeply, laughing with a mixture of adrenaline and relief. Bastard almost took my head off with that rocket…and now my life isn't in immediate danger, the spot where I impacted with the couch is aching horribly. I might have cracked a rib doing that…fuck, I hope not. And it's not like Montague's around to help me out, either.

Still, at least that's the gunship taken care of. For now, anyway. Plus, being attacked by it once means Shepard's cue to enter should be any time soon, since Sergeant Cathka is going to be pulling work now to repair that thing. The thought reignites lost hope in my chest as I ascend the stairs slowly, recovering my breath and holstering my pistol. We're not just going to lie down and die. She'll be here. And until she is, we fight to survive.

Garrus looks over at me as I walk into the room, helmet concealing his face, but I know he'll be smiling underneath it. I mean, we did just take down a gunship with one shot, so no doubt he'll be feeling smug about that. "Nice distraction job," he says admiringly. "Gave me a clear shot at the bastard."

"Yeah, after about five minutes," I say sarcastically, taking a seat at the wall again. "Even with the tactical cloak, that was way too close! What the hell took so long?"

"Hey, you try sniping a moving target that's barely any bigger than a datapad," he shoots back.

"You try hurling yourself off a balcony and almost getting blown up."

"Shut up, sit down and check your ammo," he growls, but there's a friendly tone behind it as I follow his 'suggestion'. "They'll be pissed now. Which means we'll have a few more waves coming our way. You ready?"

I sigh slightly, looking at him. "I've been doing this for hours now, so yeah, I'm pretty warmed up."

"Good," he nods. "Melanis would have been proud of you using the tactical cloak like that, you know." I feel a little surge of guilt thinking about her…but he's right. I can imagine her smiling a little bit seeing me do that, even if she tried to hide it. And then probably having a go at me afterwards, just because.

"I know," I reply. "She taught me well." I take a quick glance over the balcony ledge again, frowning slightly at the sight of yet more freelancers. "This is terrible. They're like lambs to the slaughter. Throwing their lives away just because we're worth a few credits."

"That's Omega," Garrus shrugs. "This is about survival. I think Wrex said something that would be fitting here…"

I chuckle slightly, thinking back to the krogan. "Anyone who fights us is either on the merc's payroll or stupid. Killing the former is business. Killing the latter is a favour to the galaxy."

"Exactly," the turian laughs. "Come on. We've lasted this far, we can keep going for a bit longer."

I nod my head firmly, then settle my eye back on the scope, lining it up on a freelancer. I guess I owe Melanis for the tactical cloak…seeing as it saved my life back there. Too bad I wasn't so thankful going through the training process with her.

As I pull the trigger, then switch targets, I can't help thinking back. To the day I finished my training with her, to the day where I started in this whole damn business for real…

A/N: Well, this should give you an idea of how the story is going to pan out now! Basically, after every 'case' the situation in the house will develop a little further, and trigger a memory in the past. That's why it's a little shorter than usual, but hey, at least that means getting it out quicker!

So, next up, we flash back to the first real case, get some conversation with Melanis in, and lay down the fabric of what's to come. Exciting times!

And with that, thanks for reading, reviewing and everything else that makes me happy, and I'll see you next chapter!