Commander, I believe I've found something that may be of some use." EDI chirped at Shepard.
"Lay it on me." Shepard voiced as she set her cup of coffee down.
"I was analyzing some of the information Liara forwarded to us and I came across something interesting. She tagged a planet in the terminus system, the same galaxy we found Audrea. There appears to be a massive Cerberus base located in the area."
"That's not surprising. They're like a fungus that just keeps cropping up." Shepard sneered disgustedly. She may have been resurrected by the Illusive Man's scientists, and may have unlimited resources thrown at her, but in her heart she would always be Alliance. She had seen too many disturbing things that had come from Cerberus hands, and to many people's lives destroyed for their pursuit of progress. Shepard couldn't wait for the day she would be able to shove it all down his throat.
"The location of the base isn't the interesting part commander. They have named the base Mount Delphi."
"Mount Delphi?" Shepard voiced her surprise.
"Yes, I cross referenced that to human Greek mythos; Cerberus has a penchant for such names. Delphi was located on Mount Pernassus. It was a shrine dedicated to the god Apollo, the god of light, truth, knowledge, medicine, music and prophecy. Delphi was the residence of the Pythia, an oracle that Apollo spoke through."
"I appreciate the history lesson EDI," Shepard had half zoned out when EDI started her text book rambling. "But what am I supposed to be interested in?"
"Shepard, you are not paying attention. Delphi was the home of an oracle. Audrea was titled Project Oracle. I believe there is a correlation between Audrea's project and the Cerberus base Delphi."
The commander frowned at this, considering the implications. Audrea had become part of the crew. Shepard could see how driven she was to catch up on all the nuances of life that had changed, and learn control over the biotics that had been infused into her. Chakwas had commented on numerous occasions what a talented physician she was; Mordin praised her as a competent research assistant. Audrea was excellent at hand to hand and competent with a rifle. Even Samara praised how quickly she was gaining control over her biotics, though most of it seemed to be defensive.
For the longest time Shepard had thought that she might be a spy, but that was just her paranoia. She'd seen the near bestial behavior when they'd rescued her. That wasn't something you could duplicate at will. The more Shepard watched Audrea the more at ease she became with her. The crew all around enjoyed her company. She was easy going, intelligent, honest, and had a general curiosity about everyone on board. Shepard had found her in various conversations with the crew. She'd discovered her down in Jack's hidey hole, natural friends laying out strings of longwinded profanity about Cerberus. Another time she had walked in to speak to Grunt only to find them roaring at each other.
"No! Use your second diaphragm to push it from your core!" Grunt had yelled at Rea as she was coughing through a scratchy throat, protesting that humans only had the one.
Occasionally she'd be down in engineering with Tali, learning the basics of tech that had far outstripped her knowledge, or in with Zaeed tearing apart a rifle.
The strangest thing Shepard thought she had seen was her and Thane sitting in the observation deck staring out the window together. Neither were meditating, she had seen both them and Samara do that plenty to know what it looked like. They had just been silent and still. She had skulked around for a bit to see if they were going to strike a conversation after she'd left, but no such luck. They appeared to just enjoy the silence of each other's company.
It was kind of creepy.
"Joker," Shepard called out over the com. "EDI's about to give you coordinates, set course."
"Right, Commander."
Shepard knew she would do as much as for Audrea as she would for anyone else on her crew. It didn't make Shepard feel any less uneasy about her. Deep in her gut she knew there was something significant about Rea and this entire oracle business didn't bode well. She just hoped it wouldn't come to bite her in the ass.
Break
Audrea was running experiments with Mordin when Garrus slid into the science lab. They were running experimental combinations with her own DNA to see if there were any benefits they could utilize for other species. The unique eezo infused cells did strange things to everything from her metabolism and brain functions to stamina and skin regeneration.
Mordin was humming to himself cheerfully and occasionally Rea would sing along if she knew the song, though the salarian was continually correcting her lyrics. She'd just laugh and enjoy a whole new version of earth musical theatre.
She looked up as she heard Garrus guffaw at the two of them. There was a beaker in her hand, about to be placed on a burner, and a dropper of some substance the turian didn't even want to guess at.
"Shepard wanted me to let you know that we're on our way to a Cerberus base, Delphi."
"Delphi!" Rea exclaimed, thoughts immediately flying toward ancient history. "Project Oracle…"
Her hands had dropped to her sides, science implements still in her grasp.
"Careful!" Mordin cried, plucking beaker and dropper out of her hands. "Highly volatile, handled improperly could cause explosion, possible hull breech. Results damaged. Rea knows proper handling procedures. "He scolded softly.
"Sorry Mordin, this just took me by surprise."
"Shepard wants you to suit up; you're coming in with us."
Rea quickly started clearing away her work space, leaving Mordin to finish and rushed to put on her armor. The commander had procured her a set when they were on the Citadel, saying that eventually she was going to need it. Eventually had come sooner than Audrea had expected. When she'd clicked the last piece on she was surprised at how light it actually was. She was use to the ancient body armor from her war that weighed a ton. It wasn't as flexible as she would have liked but again, more than what she was accustomed to.
Audrea strode toward the command deck, approaching Shepard's side. The commander nodded toward her, and went back to her leaning position over Joker's seat.
"What do you mean you're not going to be able to keep the Normandy in orbit?"
"Commander, I've detected specialized sensors on the planet's surface. They won't be able to detect us at first, but any prolonged orbiting will trigger alarms." EDI patiently stated.
"Are we able to get the Normandy through the atmosphere?"
"Not a problem commander." Joker said smugly, "I'll just swoop in, and I should be able to land a few clicks from their base. You can take a shuttle from there."
"Do it."
In no time the Normandy was on the dusty ground and the shuttle was racing toward Delphi. As they approached with the setting sun behind them, they soon saw this was going to be more difficult than first anticipated.
Shepard had always been a make it up as she goes tactician, using gut instinct and sheer luck to pull her through, but this wasn't something she could storm with guns blazing.
Garrus whistled low. "They weren't kidding about the Mount part."
Mount Delphi was a large base positioned on top of a massive plateau that rose imperiously into the sky. Anti-aircraft guns and sentry towers circled the outside, pointed in every possible direction.
"I guess they don't want any visitors. Don't take us up; they'll just tear the shuttle apart, set us in the shadows to the south." Shepard instructed.
They stood in the shadows of Mount Delphi, discussing different tactics and dismissing each in turn. Shepard sighed heavily, not seeing any way to make it to the top without getting everyone killed. It was looking like they were going to have to scrap the mission and return to the Normandy.
Shepard turned to Rea, preparing to apologize for the bad luck. She hadn't said anything while they were trying to strategize and the commander was almost annoyed. They were doing this, in part, for her and she couldn't seem to be bothered to suggest anything. Not that it mattered, there wasn't a way up.
Shepard opened her mouth and stopped when she saw the look on Audrea face.
Her dark hair was pulled back from her face, tightly and green eyes gleamed brightly. Her weight was on one leg with hip cocked to the side and her arms were crossed over her chest. She had one had hovering slightly finger pointed absentmindedly, tracing the air in front of her. It was the smirk on her face that stopped Shepard.
"What is it?" She inquired.
"I can do this."
"Do what?"
"I can get up that cliff."
Shepard laughed incredulously at her.
"What, you going to sprout wings and fly up?"
"No, I will use my arms and legs and climb it."
Shepard felt like calling bullshit, but in the few months that Rea had been on board, she had never once claimed to be able to do anything. She either did, or didn't, but never made false claims on her abilities. The serious look on Rea's face showed nothing but confidence.
"You're serious about this." Shepard wasn't sure if that was a question or a statement even as it left her lips.
"I am. I'm a world class climber and have scaled some of the hardest cliffs on Earth. The rock is tough, won't crumble under my hands, and I can see several potential paths up. Of course, I won't really know until I'm on it, but if this gets me some answers it's worth the risk."
Shepard considered this for a moment. It seemed crazy, impossible, but the confidence that rolled off Rea as she made her claim swayed the commander.
"Is there anything you need?"
"There are some items from the Normandy that would make it easier. There are the harnesses used for external ship maintenance that will work, the clips are almost the same as my carabriners. They won't be much use on the climb itself, but I'll be able to tack myself to the rock if I need to rest. And I bought a chalk bag while we were on the Citadel. I'm not sure why I did at the time; I guess I just felt naked not having one. Good thing though. I'll haul a rope up with me and we'll all be able sneak in right under their noses."
"If you're certain."
Rea nodded once, and they shuttle rushed off to the Normandy for her to gather her supplies. In less than twenty minutes it was back in its previous spot, and a good portion of the crew gathered to help with the assault, when she reached the top.
Audrea started stripping off the pieces of her armor, carefully placing them in the shuttle door's opening.
"Wait, you can't go into that base without armor." Tali protested.
"I couldn't possibly climb in this. There's not enough flexibility in it." Rea thought she heard a snicker from the back. "Besides, I'm not going in the base, just to the edge."
She finished shucking the last of her armor and stood in form fitting under armor, thin and flexible, and completely without protection. She stepped into the repurposed harness, and clipped the chalk bag to her side. The rope she tied to the opposite side, planning on letting it trail up behind her. There was no sense carrying all that weight on her person the whole way.
Thane appeared beside her as she approached the cliff.
"This is not necessary Rea. I am also an able climber and can take your place, if you wish it."
She gazed into his unreadable eyes for a moment, and then gave him a brilliant smile.
"No worries Thane. Rock climbing is different than building scaling, and I've had as many years of practice at mine as you have yours. Besides this is my mountain to climb."
Thane bowed to her slightly in concession and Shepard handed her an ear bud so they could communicate. Rea slid it in and walked steadily toward the cliff face.
"Umm…" Audrea hesitated, with her hands on the stone. "Don't worry about me if I start talking to myself. It's just something I do sometimes when I climb."
She gripped the stone tightly and pulled herself upward, ignoring the snort of amusement from an unknown member of the peanut gallery.
Grip, flex, stretch.
In no time her team mates had receded to specks below her, and Audrea was alone on the cliff side with her thoughts and the whistling wind.
A/N Originally I had planned to have this, the ascent and the assault all in one chapter but it'll just be to much, so you'll have to wait.;p
Still looking for a Beta to help me steer away from lameness. I do so hate lameness so someone please give me a heads up if I start going that direction.
As always R and R=D