A/N: Sorry no chapter yesterday, wasn't feeling well and was in a bad head-space. Rest of the week should flow as planned.
Also, I have ordered a laptop that should be in my hot little hands by the middle of next month. This means I may actually get to post on occasion from home….**insert evil grin here**
The cool touch of medi-gel immediately soothed her split knuckles as Liara gently tended to them. Propped on the floor of the asari's room, her back against the foot of the bed, Shepard simply sat, watching the ministrations with distant eyes.
"I heard the crack," Liara told her, glancing up at her gaze. "Chakwas will need to look at it."
"You know I'll hear no end of this," Del said, smirking without mirth. "Ten minutes back in command of the Normandy and I've broken my fingers again."
"Well, one day you will learn not to hit things even more stubborn than you are," the asari teased slightly, grateful for the chuckle in response, however faint and weary. Finishing with the medi-gel, she wiped her hands clean on a soft rag from the kit resting nearby, closing it and sliding it to the side before she shifted to sit beside the human. Wrapping an arm around her, Liara lay her head on Del's shoulder.
Enveloping the asari, Shepard hugged her close, just reveling in the calm she always seemed to bring. "I missed you, Tianlán…"
"I missed you too," Liara whispered.
They simply sat for a while, secure in each other's warmth, reminded that despite Wyatt and the Reapers and the war…for right now, this moment, they were together in a place of calm that nothing else could touch.
Chin resting on Liara's head, Shepard felt weariness and exhaustion seeping over her again. Emotions could drain energy as fast, if not faster, than physical activity could…and the day had been filled with an overabundance of both. Not wanting to fall asleep, she let her eyes roam idly around the room, then lifted a brow as her sights caught on something.
"You still have that chain?" she asked. "The one Jack gave us?"
Liara lifted her head, following Del's gaze toward one of the equipment boxes she had been unpacking. The shimmering lengths of metal were just visible within it. Releasing her hold on Del, Liara leaned over and grasped the box, pulling it closer and withdrawing the chain.
"Yes, indeed," she said as she held it. "I have been doing some research on it the last several months, during my downtime on Mars."
"Only you would consider doing more research as a break from doing research," Del joked faintly. Liara half smiled at her.
"Kind of like you getting into bar fights to wind down from getting into gun fights," the asari teased lightly.
"Touché, Dr. T'Soni," she conceded. "So, did you figure out anything about it?"
"Yes, some. It is fascinating…and a little disturbing," she said as Del touched the links of metal curiously. The alloy was strange, so smooth it almost felt like silk.
"Oh yeah?"
"My initial thought was that this chain was Prothean, or at least contemporary. However studies show it is far older than that."
"Older? How old? It's not Reaper tech, is it?"
"No, I do not believe it is Reaper tech either, it does not match the data from known samples. It is over 80 million standard years old."
Shepard stared, letting the lengths of silver slide through her hands. "That old? And it looks this good? Where the heck did some Cerberus thug find it?"
"I do not know," Liara said. "The alloy is unfamiliar, and seems completely impervious toward physical damage or degradation of any kind. It also immediately absorbs and contains any biotic energy that comes into contact with it. It is tied endemically to the control cube, which tunes automatically to the DNA imprint of the last person to have touched it. Only that person can unfasten the chain or harness the energy stored within it. Indeed, I am less astonished by its age and condition, and more surprised that in all that time, the cube was not separated from the chain and lost."
"Yeah. I can't even keep matching socks together for longer than a day," Del snorted. "Jack mentioned that she was 'shocked' with this as punishment, if she tried to use her biotics against the scientists as they were moving her around," Del noted. "So…it's meant to imprison, or torture…?"
"The chances are that the society that created this is so far beyond our realm of understanding, that we cannot even begin to speculate what its true purpose originally was," Liara told her. "That it can be used for such things now is certainly not in question, but for all we know it could have been a mark of honor, or some kind of test of adulthood. It could be a component to some larger device or vehicle…we most likely will never know."
"Well, keep it close, at any rate," Del told her, passing the chain fully back to Liara's hands. "Can't tell when something like this might come in handy, and better it's in your hands than someone else's."
"Yes," the asari agreed, carefully winding it up again. "I would hate to think of what would occur were someone like the Illusive Man to get hold of this. That man is a shiver waiting for a spine to run down."
Shepard snorted faintly, lifting her brows with a smirk. Liara looked up at her with mild surprise.
"What?"
"Didn't know you were poetic, T'Soni," she teased gently.
Liara gave her a half-smirk and a sideways look, returning the chain to its box. "You have to admit, it is an apropos metaphor."
"Ooh, and with the big words and everything…you know how that turns me on."
Liara chuckled, hugging her tightly again, kissing her cheek softly before her fingers stroked at Del's hair. They lingered a bit on the new silver streak, her head inclining as she regarded it.
"Don't like it?" Del asked self-consciously, lifting her hand to touch it as well. "I could always dye it I guess-"
"No," Liara replied. "I do like it, actually. It makes you seem…distinguished somehow. Not that you were not distinguished before, of course. I just…the wound-"
"I know. It was a close call." Del twined her fingers in the asari's, lightly kissing her knuckles. "If you like it, I'll keep it."
"I do," Liara agreed.
Enveloping the asari in her arms, Del held her close. Just feeling her near seemed to make everything else fall away, and right now, Shepard desperately needed that. Despite the fact that they were on the Normandy together, time spent in one another's company would likely be short and precious. Liara had more than enough to keep her busy with the Broker network, and Del would be up to her eyeballs in running the ship and getting everything together to try and make a difference in this war.
God help us get through this…she thought sadly. I don't know if you're there or if you can even do anything, but please…if there's a way through this, help me to find it and be strong enough to see it through.
The War Room was a mad-house as Shepard strode onto it, half-heartedly tossing off a salute in echo of the dozens shot her way the moment she appeared.
Dr. Chakwas had treated her hand the night before, declaring the fingers only mildly fractured and giving Shepard a stern look that told her she'd better behave with them. Even so, Del had detected a bit of nostalgia in that gaze. With everything going on, Helen took solace in the fact that some things never changed…even if those things were Shepard hitting things she shouldn't.
Del was dressed now in a full hard-suit and weapons pack, the handle of her katana standing out oddly beside the sniper, assault rifle, and pistols on her hips. Liara, striding along on her heels, was similarly decked (sans sword, of course), her face solemn as she followed Shepard from the lift and into the chaos.
Haley, Traynor, Vega and an unfamiliar man were waiting at the center console as they entered.
"Ma'am, we are ten minutes out from Palaven…ETA fifteen until we reach Menae," Sgt. Haley provided as Traynor accessed the console.
"We have the planet on our scanners," she stated. "We are reading dozens of Reaper signatures in orbit or groundside on Palaven itself, and another six around Menae. The Turian Fleet is engaging so the entire area is a hot zone."
Palaven appeared hovering over the console, surrounded by the faint ghosts of Reapers and ships. The planet seemed to be on fire, thousands of glimmers of ember orange writhing over every dark continent, barely seen through clouds of shifting smoke.
Liara gasped at the sight of it, letting out the faintest moan. "Oh…Palaven…"
"The Normandy is going to have to keep at the outskirts of the battle," Shepard ordered, reaching out herself and switching the feed to Menae. The moon didn't seem to be faring much better. "We'll have to take the shuttle in to retrieve the Primarch."
"That's where I come in, ma'am," the unfamiliar man saluted. "Lt. Steven Cortez. I work dockside maintenance on the Kodiak and MAKO and will be filling in as shuttle pilot."
"Good to meet you, Cortez. We'll find out soon if your nerves are steady enough for the job…this isn't going to be an easy drop."
"The main turian coordination efforts on the moon are here," Traynor supplied helpfully, indicated a small region on the south equator. "The Primarch is most likely to be there, or they will know how to best find him. Their communications array seems to be down so we cannot contact them directly."
"I hope that is not a bad sign…" Liara murmured.
"EDI, have Joker get us in as close as possible to the moon without compromising the Normandy. Cortez, it'll be up to you to get us the rest of the way in. Let's move, we need to be dirt-side as quickly as possible."
As they turned to go, Liara glanced worriedly at Del. "Is that what it is like at Earth?"
Shepard's expression told her all she needed to know, her voice low as she said, "Worse."
"Del, I am so sorry…"
"Don't be," the captain replied firmly. "We're going to put a stop to it. Minds on recreation, Tianlán. Let's get down there and show these fuckers what's what."
As the group strode out, Traynor looked back at the console, adjusting their own communications array so that there would be little chance of disruption between the ship and their ground-team. As she did, she gave a nervous little smile. "She's…shorter, than I imagined."
"What? Who?" Haley asked stiffly. She blinked up at him, surprised at the gruffness of his response. He had almost a boyish face, pleasant enough, but his manner always seemed so tense, his nose almost perpetually wrinkled, as if constantly smelling something faintly bitter.
"Captain Shepard," she replied congenially. "She's…well, shorter than I figured. Not that she's short, I just…I suppose the vids always just made her look taller somehow."
"The news exaggerates," he replied. "Images and content."
"You don't like the captain much, do you?"
"I do my job, Specialist. What I do or do not think about my superiors is of no relevance. I do my job and obey orders."
She watched him stride out, then shook her head, refocusing on what she was doing. She's definitely shorter than she seemed on the vids, she thought as she worked, then felt her cheeks heat. Shorter…but twice as lovely-…
She shook her head once, sharply, coloring more as if someone could possibly have overheard her. Stop that now, Sammi…mind on your work.
It was bad enough, given all those comments she'd made about EDI's sexy voice without realizing the VI was actually an AI…she hardly needed to get distracted at her job because of her new captain was not only a living breathing legend, but-
Stop it, Sammi…just stop it!
{Captain, you're in as close as I can get you but be careful…we're at the fringes but there's a small cluster of Oculus heading our way. EDI and I will keep the heat off you as best we can,} Joker reported as Cortez lifted the shuttle out of the bay and into the black. Shepard stood in the arch between compartment and helm, one hand gripping a rail to steady her as she looked over Cortez's shoulder.
"Understood. Cortez, you may have to do some dancing."
"I can make a MAKO dance, the Kodiak is no problem," he reassured. "I'll get you dirt-side safe.
"Palaven's a mess," Vega commented, turning her head. He and Liara were watching the fight outside thanks to the feeds piped through to the body of the shuttle. "Dios, to think of Earth this way-"
"Don't get distracted," Shepard ordered sternly. "We'll be hitting the ground hot and I need your mind in the here and now, LT."
"Yes, Cap..of course."
"Hang on," Cortez warned, and the shuttle swooped as he avoided a rogue Oculus that darted his way.
The Normandy had encountered the things before, back in the galactic core months ago when they'd passed through the Omega Four relay. The nasty little devices were the size of squadron fighters and seemed to fulfill much the same role, providing fire support for the larger Reaper dreadnoughts. The Alliance had dubbed them 'Oculus' since their single red MHD weapon port made them look like big metal eyes.
Despite the inertial dampeners and the mass effect fields, the shuttle shuddered and rumbled faintly in response as the edge of one blast from the Oculus barely skidded over the hull. She heard Cortez curse faintly, then readjust his course.
"Normandy snagged it, we're clear," he reported. "Scans are showing the LZ is crawling though…they got husks up to their armpits."
"Get us in low and get this door open. We'll clear the LZ," she barked. Hauling her helmet off the rack she pulled it on and snapped it down, Liara and Vega doing the same. She drew her rifle and nodded at the asari.
"Been a few months out of the game," she hedged. "You ready for this?"
"Just point me at them," Liara told her, making Vega chuckle.
"I knew I liked you, Doc," he teased.
As the door hissed and began to lift, Shepard snapped her rifle up to her shoulder. "All right, let's mow a path."
Unlike Earth's moon, Menae had a thin atmosphere and nearly standard gravity. It had been used as a military outpost by the turians for years, and they had established a heavy military presence on it when the Reapers initially entered the system, in order to flank their forces.
A tried and true strategy that had served them well before completely failed in light of the sheer force of the Reapers. They had been able to keep very little heat off of Palaven itself and nearly a third of the forces on Menae had been wiped out within the first day. Though not the biggest fleet in the galaxy (an honor that belonged to the quarians), the turians were arguably the strongest…and they were being wiped out as if they were nothing.
As the shuttle doors opened Shepard saw the gray, silted dirt of the moon blowing in heavy clouds. She could see part of the reinforced wall of an outpost, a few sentries grim-faced as they fired steadily into the relentless wave of husks. She didn't pause, but opened fire herself the moment the door had cleared far enough.
Cutting through the indoctrinated beasts, they forced them back from the wall far enough for the shuttle to lower, and finally touch dirt. Instantly the trio was on the ground, Liara setting a barricade around them and forcing the husks back through sheer biotic energy as Vega and Del continued to fire.
Unable to feel fear, hesitation, or defeat, the mindless abominations kept on, scrambling over broken rock, back-lit by the flash of the devastating aerial war going on behind them. Reapers loomed on the horizon, striding in their endless harvest and, overlooking all, Palaven simply burned.
"Gate's this way!" Vega called out, and Shepard paused in her firing only long enough to clear her heat-sink and urge Liara in that direction. The three edged toward the wall, putting the heavy structure to their back.
At a lull Liara let her barrier drop, using her biotics instead to sweep half a dozen of the things off the rock they were clinging to and back into oblivion. Shepard gave the area a quick scan, then nodded. "We're clear."
"Open the gate, we've got friendlies!" a sentry called, the portal behind them irising wide a breath later.
Entering a reinforced courtyard, surrounded by armed soldiers, it was still not surprising that Del didn't even feel remotely safe. The outpost was an illusion, a dream of safety in the nightmare surrounding them. All it would take was a single one of the dirt-side Reapers to turn its MHD toward them and they were all done for.
Pushing that out of her mind, she gripped one of the turians by the shoulder as she strode, drawing him along a pace or two. "I need to find your Primarch! Who is in charge?"
"General Corinthus!" he replied, pointing at a sheltered prefab not far from where they were. Heading that way, she quickly measured the man who seemed to be giving the orders, his eyes almost never moving from his report display even as he barked direction.
"We've got a unit cut off to the south, we need reinforcements," he noted as Shepard drew near. "What is our status on communications?"
"Still down, we've got a team making repairs at the tower now but the husks are pressing hot around the area."
"Shift Omega team over to cover them, we need that tower back up," he ordered, his citrine eyes flicking momentarily up toward Shepard. "Captain, I must say I'm a bit surprised to see the Alliance on sight. I suppose it's too much to hope that you've come with a whole fleet?"
"Sorry, General," she replied. "Much as I'd love to we're not here to reinforce Palaven. We're here looking for Primarch Fedorian-"
"Well, then you're shit out of luck," he countered. "He's dead. His shuttle was shot down an hour ago as he tried to leave Menae."
"Fantastic," Vega grumped.
"I'm sorry to hear that General," Shepard told him, "but it doesn't honestly doesn't change what you or I need. You need this war to stop…so do I. I need someone in authority who can call a war summit to address the Reaper threat on all fronts. With Fedorian dead I need an alternate. Who in High Command can call and chair a summit?"
"Communication between Menae and High Command has been spotty at best. We haven't been able to reach anyone off the moon in nearly an hour…given the pressure Palaven is under I don't even know if anyone in HC is still alive. The Primarch has a successor, we just don't know who it is yet, and won't until we can talk to our people!"
"Sir! Sir," a young turian ran up, panting. "Sir, they've nearly got the array fixed but we have a massive wave coming toward the southern wall!"
"General, my people and I will go and reinforce that wall," Shepard told him, knowing that even if they had communications and got a name, it would do no one any good if they were completely over-run.
"Thank you, Captain. Hopefully by the time that wave is clear I'll have a name I can give you, but I can't promise anything."
Turning, leaving the shelter, Shepard strode toward the south. A small handful of men were rushing that way to reinforce the barricade. Gripping Liara's shoulder, Shepard ordered, "Get up there on the left, near those rocks…keep anything that gets onto the wall from getting over it. Vega, to the right, keep your gun hot and those men protected."
As the pair trotted off, Shepard's eyes landed on the center of the wall…or rather, the great big ALC gun sitting upon it.
She grinned.
In boot and then her first assignment, Shepard had specialized in heavy weaponry. Anti-tank, anti-craft, anti-low-craft, artillery and mine-work. As Kasumi had noted once and as many others had observed over the years, Shepard got oddly excited when very large things exploded or fired around her, especially if they did so at her cause. Put the handles of an anti-craft weapon in her hand and she was galvanized to an almost demonic fervor.
Later, she had spent some time aboard the Alliance's small single-man fighters and had been a hairs' breadth away from joining the fighter battalions as a combat pilot…which to her, was simply being behind the controls of a great big gun that flew. That's when she'd been approached for the N7 program and after much soul-searching, had decided to accept.
In the years since, she had never been behind the stick of a fighter again, but on occasion something like this happened…which was nearly as good.
Gripping the fire supports of the ALC, Shepard swung the arm sized turret barrels toward the encroaching husk horde and grinned a grin that would have made Dante shiver to see. It was not fire and brimstone per se that she rained down upon the pestilent horde of twisted humanity…but it was a wrath of judgment nonetheless.
The fist-sized ammo accelerated to super-sonic speeds by a small mass effect field tore through the husks as if they were tissue paper, fire spitting three clear feet from the muzzles of the wide barrels. Shepard swung the weapon in a wide arc, ripping a swath through the enemy that soon had them clambering over mounds of their own shredded dead.
The noise was, of course, incredible, her helmet acting automatically to dampen the concussion and preserve her hearing. Unprotected her eardrums would have been irreparably ruined in the initial burst alone.
Though Liara and Vega were in place to pick off any husks that managed to circumvent the massacre, not a single one made it through, each just as stupidly charging right up the middle regardless of the mounting dead.
Then, a bellow that was audible even with the sound of the heavy gun, and the piles of shriveled ash and dying cybernetics flew apart as a demon burst through them.
Del only had time to think what kind of goddamn brute is this? before the thing was under her range of fire and slamming into the wall with all the force of a freight train. The three or four shots that had opened up orange-sized holes in its hide didn't even seem to slow it down.
The shockwave of impact dented the metal just below her and swung the unlocked gun around. Shepard felt her grip torn free of it and was flung into the air. Even as she fell, she tucked into a roll, striking hard rock with her side and shoulder and tumbling. Stunned, blinking, she forced herself to her feet, drawing her assault rifle in the same motion.
She had not been the only one knocked free. Two or three turians had also tumbled, and the beast had one in its massive paw, slamming the poor fellow's broken body like a rag-doll against the ground. Shepard swiped the dust away from her face-plate and opened fire on the monstrosity a breath before she saw a flash of blue.
Liara leapt off the top of the wall in a graceful lunge, her body alight with blue fire that sent her drifting lightly to the ground. As the beast oriented on her, Shepard stitched a pattern of bullets over its side. It was enough to get its attention and it turned, snarling.
What it was, Del could scarcely imagine. It looked like a bastard child of a turian and a krogan, grotesquely lumped together, pumped with enough steroids to kill an entire z-gee ball team, and fitted with an extremely short temper. That it was Reaper tech was unmistakable, its body and eyes shimmering with cybernetics.
As it turned toward her Liara sent a slam across its face hard enough to stumble it, then tried to entangle it in a singularity. It threw off the biotics as if swatting a fly, and lunged toward the asari as Del launched into the air, tossing her assault rifle away.
The gleam of a katana blade caught the light, the weapon plunging into heavy hide, driven there by the weight of her leap. Gripping the handle tightly as the brute arched and bellowed, she planted her boots against its back. Grabbing hold of one of the stubby ridges lining the back of its huge shoulders, she tore the katana out and threw her weight upward, plunging it down once more…this time into its oddly skinny neck.
It was like stabbing into a tree, or into power cables. The katana speared the neck completely through but she was unable to withdraw it. Feet planted on its broad shoulders, hands gripping the handle of the sword as the monster thrashed, Del wrenched and twisted, trying to loosen it enough to haul it free.
Clawed hands groped upward, trying to reach her, as the beast dropped to its knees. Another biotic crack rocketed into its jaw, breaking skull and teeth with the force. Clenching every muscle in her body, Shepard gave the blade one last wrench, the razor-sharp edge of it finally slicing through the synthetics and nearly severing the head altogether. As it collapsed she hopped off its back, stumbling in the dirt and grasping Liara's arm, even as she looked around.
"You all right?"
"I am fine," the asari panted.
A few of the turians who had fallen turned their guns on the remaining handful of human husks still mindlessly attacking the wall as Vega's voice filled her ear. The man had managed to retain his place up above, and now was looking down, palm plastered to his helmet.
{I used to think those stories about you were fabricated,} he chortled. {If I hadn't seen it with my own two beautiful baby browns I never would have-}
{Well, believe it,} Another familiar voice broke in. One of the turians turned from the ruins of a dead husk and started toward Shepard and Liara, shedding his helmet as he went. Panting, out of breath, Garrus Vakarian nevertheless managed a grin. "She's almost as unbelievable as I am, though I'm still more stylish."
The careless curls of white smoke drifted past, forming first eldritch patterns and wisps, then caressing fingers that seemed to slide momentarily past his hair before vanishing again. The faint surge of nicotine, the soothing warmth in his lungs…both almost pointless now. It seemed he craved the cigarettes more and more, and yet they did less and less to calm or sate him.
Casting aside a hovering screen, he turned to look at the asari contemplating him in silence. Eír was a valuable tool to have, if a dangerous one, but she had the most annoying habit of answering his calls and then not saying anything, watching him in utter silence and always, always, forcing him to be the first to speak.
"There you are," he said, nonplussed. If that was the game she wished to play he saw no harm in allowing her to think she had the upper hand. Her hatred and fuel for revenge coupled with her unparalleled biotic power made her a very handy tool to possess…and it usually paid to keep the tools happy until they had outlived their usefulness. "I have a task for you."
"I am listening."
"Are you familiar with Grissom Academy?"
"No."
"It is a school for human students, a place for biotics and others with exceptional gifts. Most of the students have been evacuated from the school and sent home in light of the Reaper attack on Earth, however our intelligence network has discovered that several top students have elected to remain behind. With the Alliance distracted by the Reaper threat, the opportunity to retrieve these students is prime. We could use their singular skills."
"I doubt they'll go willingly," she said disinterestedly.
"You'd be surprised what people in frightening situations will do 'willingly'," he told her. "At any rate, we're taking no chances. Our infiltration team will be fully armed, though they are going to take as many of the students as they can alive. I would like you and your brother to accompany them."
"I told you I was at your disposal, but Shepard is my top priority-"
"I know, which is why I know you'll be perfect for this job. One of Shepard's former crew, a strong biotic named Jack, is instructing at the Academy and has remained behind with her students. She is powerful…nowhere near as powerful as you, of course, and she used to be one of ours. One of Gellian's, point of fact."
Eír stiffened at that, drawing straight, her eyes piercing. He knew he had her then, but he continued on.
"We could use her back. More importantly, Shepard is extremely protective of her crew, former or otherwise. Chances are if we take the Academy and her friend, Captain Shepard will show up sooner or later to address the situation. I'd rather not have a confrontation at the Academy itself. It would be much preferable if we can lead Shepard into our territory, under our conditions…but preference may not factor into this. The woman is stubborn, skilled, and has an irritating knack for sniffing out what she shouldn't. If she does show up at Grissom…I'd like you and Thug there waiting for her."
All trace of indifference had banished from her eyes. "If she does come, we will rip her apart," she warned.
"That's fine. As interesting as the prospect is to have Shepard in Cerberus hands alive and intact, even if just for dissection…it is far too dangerous. I need her out of the way, and your particular brand of 'out of the way' will suit just fine. Captain Shepard and whoever she brings along for the ride are yours to do with as you please, should they appear at Grissom. The students and staff of the Academy, however, are not to be harmed if avoidable. I am transmitting you the coordinates now to rendezvous with our team. From there, it will take you two days to arrive at the Academy."
Eír said nothing before she cut the call, her form vanishing into fading light, but her smile said everything. There was no possibility in that smile for love, charity, or mercy.
The Illusive Man didn't know if Shepard would actually end up at Grissom Academy or not…he supposed in the long run it didn't matter. One day, sooner or later, she was going to come face to face with the living wrath that was Eír Seko, and when that day happened, the entire galaxy would tremble both with the force of her death and the rebirth of the human race.