Shepard Likes Rocket Launchers
~Chapter 10~
Author's Note: The whole ME1 Saren fight didn't make much sense to me. He was a Spectre, he should understand cover, not just be dancing around on a floaty platform. And his whole skeleton being an uber-rocket spitting death machine didn't make much sense either. So things will be a bit different…
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The Mako emerged from the tunnel.
"Joker? Get the Normandy back to the Citadel, ASAP! Don't worry about us, we'll be there! Go, go!"
Joker, sensing the urgency in his commander's voice, bit back a witty remark. "Aye aye. We're on our way." Their radio link cut off as the Normandy FTL-ed away.
Before them, a long, exposed trench stretched forth several hundred meters. At the end of it was their objective: The Conduit stood, core pulsating, prongs sizzling with blue energy. And between them and it, more than two dozen geth Colossi, Armatures, and rocket troopers stood guard.
"Please don't tell me we're just going to charge the Conduit and hope we don't die," Tali pleaded.
"Hey Tali," said Shepard. "Guess what?"
He didn't wait for a response, simply flooring the accelerator. Tali groaned and covered her faceplate with her hands, afraid to watch.
A geth plasma bolt slammed into the vehicle. "Barriers at 80 percent." noted Garrus.
From the left, a trio of rocket troopers unloaded into them, the vehicle rocking with the impacts of at least six direct hits. "Barriers at 20 percent!" warned Garrus again.
They were about halfway to the structure. A Colossus stood straight in their path. Tali peeked out from behind her hands. "Shepard? You've noticed we're going straight towards that Colossus, right?" asked Tali.
"Yeeaaaaaah…" replied Shepard, gritting his teeth.
The Mako barreled towards the Geth walker. But before the two met, the Colossus managed to unleash its plasma bolt. The Mako shuddered with the impact, an alarm going off inside the passenger compartment. "Warning," the Mako's VI spat out. "Barriers disabled. Retreat recommended."
"Barriers are down," reported Garrus.
Then the front of the vehicle plowed into the Colossus. It screeched, its legs collapsing and head folding as the Mako continued forwards, knocking the walker off its legs and carrying it along. Shepard didn't flinch, continuing to hold down the accelerator. Eventually, the Colossus slid off the Mako's hood, and the Mako's tires rolled over it.
The Conduit stood before them, a mere hundred meters away, tantalizingly close. They sped towards it, as fast as they could.
But rockets were faster. And their barriers were down.
A second volley of rockets slammed into their unprotected vehicle from behind. Tali shrieked as a fire burst into existence behind her before turning and extinguishing it with an omni-tool cryo-blast. "Bosh-tet rocket geth," she grumbled.
Garrus looked into the damage readout worriedly. "They're through our armor! We take one more rocket, and we're done for!" The compartment alarm continued to blare. The vehicle's VI continued to complain. "Warning. Barriers disabled. Hull integrity compromised. Immediate retreat and field repairs recommended."
"We don't have time for repairs," said Shepard. "Hang on!"
They had arrived at the foot of the Conduit. A bolt of brilliant blue energy shot forth from its core, enveloping the Mako in light. Then, with a flash, the vehicle vanished, catapulted deep through a mass-less corridor into space…
The Normandy wheeled around, streaking past the ancient superstructure, engines positioned for a jump. And nothing happened. "The hell," grumbled Joker.
"Why aren't we jumping?" muttered Pressly in confusion.
Outside the viewport, the relay loomed, still, cold, and unresponsive.
Two geth patrols held position by the Conduit exit. Their flashlight heads scanned back and forth, making sure that no organics came anywhere near. Their auditory sensors could pick up the faint noises of gunfire, elsewhere in the Presidium. Suddenly, the Conduit's rings began to pick up speed…
The Mako appeared with a flash, slamming directly into them. It bounced once before flipping on its side, suspension collapsing due to a hull already severely damaged by weapons fire. It slid a good ten meters before screeching to a halt, drive system thoroughly wrecked, geth hydraulic fluid leaving a smear on the floor.
The vehicle's occupants poured out of the hatch, quite nauseated by their tumble. Tali retched. "I think I'm going to be sick. Do you have any idea how hard it is to clean barf out of this helmet?"
"I don't know," replied Shepard, climbing to his feet,"about as hard as it is to clean headlight fluid out of a vacuum cleaner?"
"What?" said Tali, puzzled. "Headlight fluid? Headlights don't need-"
Garrus interrupted her. "Oh. Spirits."
Shepard followed his gaze upwards.
Around them, the Presidium was in flames. Debris sat in piles along the normally pristine walkways, and the fires cast an eerie orange glow over the clean white walls.
And there were bodies.
Garrus rushed forwards, running his omni-tool over the limp form of a salarian. He shook his head sadly when he saw the scan's results.
"Dead," he spat, sub-harmonics humming with emotion. "I doubt the geth left anyone alive here."
Tali pulled her pistol and fired a few rounds into the geth their vehicle had accidentally run down, making sure they were deactivated. Shepard grunted, prying a rocket launcher from its mount on the ruined Mako. "We can mourn them later. Let's get moving. We've got to stop Saren."
Garrus nodded, walking forwards and calling the elevator.
"Wait," Shepard said before he entered it. "I've got a better idea."
The Citadel's arms closed slowly. Too slowly. As the Citadel's defense fleet was slowly but surely torn to shreds by geth plasma fire, Sovereign slipped forwards, plowing through a turian cruiser, and between the station's arms. The arms sealed shut, and Sovereign proceeded forward unimpeded, latching onto the Citadel tower…
The elevator dinged. A pair of geth Destroyers raised their weapons, prepared to shred anything inside the car.
But as the door slid open, they saw nothing. They lowered their weapons and continued to stand guard…
And they were immediately blasted to bits by well-placed rockets, fired at them from a ceiling hatch. Shepard dropped from his improvised entrance, immediately rolling to cover. Tali and Garrus followed suit.
"I cannot believe," panted Tali, "that we just walked up the side of a skyscraper. Towards a giant monster ship."
"Upside down, too," added Garrus. "Thank the Spirits for mag-boots. Did I ever tell you how turians feel about heights?"
Shepard rolled his eyes. "Sovereign is already here. We don't have much time. Let's go." He dashed out of cover, up the stairs, firing his assault rifle.
His friends rushed to follow him, overloading geth shields and weapons as they went.
At the very pinnacle of the tower, Saren stood. The master control unit flickered to life before him. His journey was over. Sovereign would be pleased. He would be allowed to ascend…
The sound of explosions from behind him interrupted his thoughts. He turned to see a certain human soldier who had become quite a nuisance for him, rushing madly up the stairs towards him. Saren quickly moved forwards, into cover. Shepard, catching sight of him, slid to the right behind a sturdy pillar. His squad was right behind him.
"Shepard," spat Saren. "The thorn that has been in my side since Eden Prime. Tell me, what do you hope to accomplish by this meaningless violence?"
"I could say the same to you!" retorted Shepard from behind his cover. "You're the one who brought a geth army to the Citadel!"
"You think you can stop this?" growled Saren angrily, peeking out from his own cover. "That you can subvert our destiny? We will ascend. You cannot run from fate itself, Shepard!"
"Destiny!?" shouted Shepard. "Listen to yourself! Sovereign's manipulating you! Can't you see that?"
Saren faltered slightly, but stayed behind his cover. "I… The Virmire research base had… interesting results. But you destroyed that yourself, Shepard. When Sovereign sensed I was having doubts, he… upgraded me."
Shepard did a double take. "You let Sovereign implant you?! Are you insane!?"
Saren stood from his cover, allowing Shepard to see him clearly. Garrus pulled out his rifle, but Shepard held up a hand to stop him from taking a shot. "Look at me, Shepard," Saren hissed. "Do you see?"
Garrus's mandibles twitched. Saren's body was... no longer turian. A bizarre array of synthetic parts protruded from him. Tubes extended into his flesh. Limbs were entirely converted to a dull grey metal. Faint blue lights glowed from underneath his skin…
"I am an image of perfection," Saren said. "A perfect synthesis of flesh and steel. The strengths of both, the weaknesses of neither. I am the vision of our future, Shepard!"
Shepard shook his head. "Sovereign's controlling you through your implants! You were a Spectre, Saren. One of the best, even. Use the judgment that got you there and look at yourself now!"
"You think I want our civilization destroyed?" spat Saren back. "That I am a madman, insane, wanting only death and our cities in flames?"
He took a step forwards.
"No," he panted. "I… I am the only sane one left! By doing this, I win their favor. And they will allow us to serve. My way is the only way any of us will survive!"
"Not the only way," said Shepard, standing out of his own cover to face Saren. "We can still stop them. Stand aside and we can keep them back."
Saren shook his head. "It doesn't work like that," he muttered. "They don't need the Citadel relay to reach us. It may take them a few months, perhaps even a year or two, but their power is beyond our understanding. Distance is no issue to them. They will come to us."
"And together, we can use that time to find a way to defeat them!" shouted Shepard. "Don't be blind, Saren! There is a way!"
"I no longer believe that, Shepard," said Saren sadly. He raised his pistol.
Shepard dove back into cover, Saren's gunfire tearing through the space in which he had stood.
"Well, that didn't work," he grumbled.
"What did I tell you," Tali said to him, prepping her shotgun.
Suddenly, something landed at their feet. It was a familiar disk-shaped object, flashing with a subtle red light. The light blinked faster, and faster…
"Oh crap," muttered Garrus.
The three of them scattered, the grenade detonating between them. Shepard, diving back unto the central stairs to avoid the explosion, fired at Saren with his assault rifle as he dashed for cover on the other side of the room.
Saren quickly crouched back into his own cover. "You're good, Shepard," he admitted. "But I'm better. I've been doing this since you humans managed to crawl out of your home system. You might as well surrender now. Perhaps Sovereign will allow you to-"
A rocket suddenly slammed into his side, putting down his shields and sending him staggering. He coughed, triggering his shield boosters and firing in the direction of his attacker as he retreated to more suitable cover.
"I'm better than you in one way, Saren," he heard Shepard shout. "I don't stand around delivering monologues in the middle of a firefight!"
Saren growled and unfolded his geth pulse rifle. Playtime was over.
Admiral Hackett stood on the bridge of the Kilimanjaro, gazing out of the viewport. The Arcturus Prime relay sat, dark and unmoving.
A messenger ran up to him. "Sir," the young ensign said, breathlessly. "The Citadel's gone to shit. Distress calls are coming in faster than we can track them."
Hackett turned. He'd known the geth would be trouble. He'd even petitioned the Council to give the Alliance permission to station ships to help reinforce the Citadel. But he'd been ignored, and now the Alliance Fifth Fleet sat by Arcturus Station as the thinly-stretched Citadel Fleet was torn to shreds.
"What's the status of the Normandy?"
The ensign tapped into his omni-tool, and then shook his head. "No updates, sir. They're still missing."
He took a breath. "Sir… The situation there may not be salvageable. With the relays disabled, there's no way we'll reach them in time with just FTL drives. We may need to prepare for the possibility that the Citadel will be lost to the geth, and position the Fifth Fleet to secure our own-"
Hackett folded his arms behind his back. "Negative. We are not abandoning the Citadel. Fifth Fleet will stay in position, waiting for the relay to come back online. Normandy's still out there."
His subordinate took a breath, looking into his omni-tool. "Sir, the brass may disagree."
"Then they can go to hell," grumbled Hackett. "I've got faith in Shepard. And so does Anderson. The Citadel will not be lost."
"Understood sir," the ensign said before rushing off.
Shepard gestured forwards, and Tali and Garrus, on the other side of the room, leapt over their cover and moved up.
Saren, hearing their footsteps, peeked from his cover and flung a biotic projectile at the two of them. Tali managed to dive to the side to avoid it, but Garrus, in his heavier armor, was caught in the field. It threw him ten meters backwards, slamming him into the wall and disabling his shields.
"Garrus!" shouted Tali, looking over at the armored form of her turian friend. He grunted, staggering forwards slowly into the open. Saren turned from his cover, pulse rifle aimed carefully. He managed to unleash several rounds into the other turian before Tali sabotaged his weapon from afar.
Saren cursed, swapping out his pulse rifle for his pistol once more.
"Garrus?" Tali rushed over to her friend, helping him to drag himself back into cover. "Are you hit?"
"Yeah, a bit," grunted the turian. "Armor saved me, though. Just a little bruised."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Shepard had continued to circle around, rocket launcher held at the ready, waiting for an opportunity. Saren had him on lockdown now though, constant pistol fire keeping him pinned down.
"Guys?" Shepard said into his radio. "A little help here?"
Garrus lifted his sniper rifle. He took a breath and held it…
Tali raised her omni-tool and deployed a tech overload projectile. It detonated directly on Saren, decreasing his shield strength by about half.
Garrus pulled the trigger. With a crack, his rifle spat out its supersonic projectile directly into the shields protecting Saren's head. The force of the impact made the other turian stagger. With a tell-tale flicker, Saren's shields went out.
That was all Shepard needed. He leapt from cover and fired a volley of three rockets at the rogue Spectre.
In a last ditch attempt at survival, Saren called upon his biotics to create an emergency barrier. The first rocket slammed into it, the explosive force making Saren slide back. The second detonated on it as well, completely obliterating it. The third hit Saren square in the chest, sending him flying backwards, crashing through a section of glass floor down into the garden area below.
Shepard dashed forwards to the master control console. He raised his omni-tool, transferring the Ilos data file into the system. Almost immediately, system diagnostics popped up on his omni-tool display. He had control.
"Vigil's data file worked!" he said excitedly. "I've got control of all systems." He then frowned at the readouts. "The relay network has been… disabled? I had no idea the Citadel had the power to do that."
Garrus walked up to join him, Tali at his heels. He walked with a slight limp, wincing with every step he took on his bruised leg. "Quick," he advised. "Open the station's arms. Maybe the fleet can take down Sovereign before it's too late."
Suddenly, a light on the master control unit's display flashed. Shepard ran his omni-tool over it, linking into the data stream. Communications suddenly flooded in.
"This is Executor Pallin. Somebody give me a status report!"
"Sir, the Presidium is lost. All officers have pulled back into the wards. We'll try to hold them off in the access corridors."
"And the defense fleet? What's their status?"
"… Listen for yourself."
"This is the Ina'inga. Us, Rabano, Aldock, Keless, Rorehy, Ardash, Ceryer, Kinona, and the Ascension are all that's left! The geth fleet's got us pinned next to the Citadel. If we stay here, we're dead, but if we try to move, we're even deader!"
"What!? The defense fleet consisted of dozens of ships, even after the patrols were increased. You're all that's left?"
"Affirmative. The Ascension is taking too much fire! If we don't get reinforcements soon, the Council's going to bite it right here."
"Damn," muttered Garrus. "I didn't realize it was this bad."
"We've got to reactivate the relay network," said Tali. "Let reinforcements arrive."
"Working on it," Shepard replied, tapping furiously at his omni-tool.
The communications link picked up a new voice. "This is Admiral Hackett of the Alliance Fifth Fleet. Does anyone hear this? We are standing by in Arcturus to provide assistance, but the relays have been disabled."
"Got it!" crowed Shepard. "Relays should be coming online." He turned to the communications link on the master control unit to respond to the latest signal. "Admiral? This is Commander Shepard. I'm in the Citadel Tower. We've managed to activate the relays. The Reaper, Sovereign, is latched onto the tower. Once the Council is safe, you have to destroy it. At all costs, Admiral. The galaxy is at stake here."
"Shepard? How the hell… Never mind. Understood. Fifth Fleet is incoming."
The Widow relay's rings spun up, the blue glow in its center rapidly returning. With a cascade of flashes, dozens of distinctive four-engine Alliance ships jumped into the system, behind the geth fleet.
"Alliance ships, move in," Hackett ordered. "Protect the Council. Draw fire away from the Destiny Ascension."
They unloaded. Spinal cannons spat out heavy slugs at C-fractional velocities, smashing through geth shields and hulls.
But the battle was far from one-sided. Geth ships wheeled around to face the new threat. Plasma projectiles easily tore through Alliance barriers, scuttling three cruisers and ten fighters in a matter of seconds. Geth torpedo fire was fierce as well. GARDIAN systems defended against dozens of them, but the geth barrage consisted of hundreds. Fighters sacrificed themselves, blocking torpedoes with their own craft to prevent them from reaching the larger ones. But some still got through. Frigates and cruisers disintegrated in balls of fire.
The Alliance ships retaliated in kind. Disruptor torpedoes were launched in waves, detonating entire geth cruisers in impressive displays of firepower.
"We're picking up reinforcements!"
"It's the Alliance! Thank the Goddess."
The few remaining Citadel Defense Fleet ships, reinvigorated, joined in with mass accelerator and missile fire of their own. Geth cruisers dropped faster than flies in a pizza oven. The battle, it seemed was won. The Citadel's arms began to open, and Alliance ships began to fire on the last remaining threat, Sovereign…
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