AN:- Kinda weird having to go back and try and remember what I was intending when I wrote these chapters.
Chapter Ten: Primarch Victus
Gunfire flashed overhead from the defenders on the walls as they sprinted out onto the airfield. Husks were everywhere, battering at the few fighters that had landed for repairs. Shepard sighted with her sniper rifle and blew one off the top of a ship. Garrus fired as well, throwing one of them to the floor. Vega handled the ones still on the floor, his assault rifle a constant drone as he fired, reloaded, and fired again.
They were starting to make headway in clearing the pad when the harvester buzzed overhead again, and a dozen shapes dropped from it, smacking hard to the ground and kicking up dust. Shepard turned to target them, expecting to see more husks, but before the dust had even cleared gunfire came out of the nearest cloud, sparking off her shields.
She fired blind, but her shot fizzled against the distinctive static of a kinetic barrier. The dust was quickly clearing, and a whole new shape stepped out of it.
"What the hell is that?" Garrus gasped.
He didn't need to ask, it was horrifyingly obvious. The last time she had seen anything like this Saren's desiccated form had been holding her down, ready to punch a hole through her head. It was a turian, turned into a husk and given a gun. She cycled her rifle and quickly sighted, firing again and taking the thing's head clean off.
"Stay on the husks," she said, hearing her voice shake as she turned back to the fighters. Vega was still firing fast, keeping the husks back. Shepard switched to her submachinegun to keep up the pace. Garrus paused a minute longer before adding his fire as well.
The rest of the husks cleared up in no time, falling under the combined fire of the turians and Shepard's squad. The harvester didn't return again, though Shepard had a feeling they'd be seeing it again at some point. They gathered up some more heat sinks and made their way back to the compound. Garrus's leg made a slight whirring whenever he stepped, he clearly had a new brace.
As they stepped back over the barricade Corinthus pinged her again. "Shepard come in."
"Go ahead."
"Still trying to raise the Primarch, but we've got trouble back here at the main barricade. If the Reapers breach it, we're done."
She restrained the sigh. "On my way."
She picked up the pace, double timing it over to the main barricade, hauling herself up the ladder and stepped over to a mounted turret. She heard Garrus and Vega settling in next to her, keeping the flanks covered. The viewscreen opened and she saw dozens of husks swarming towards them, the harvester flying around and dropping them in droves.
The trigger was obvious enough. She squeezed it down and the gun began to spew out heavy bolts, the barrels sliding back to prevent recoil. She strafed from left to right, mowing down dozens in the first pass alone. Garrus and Vega added their surgical fire to bring down any she missed. Heat sinks fired out of the sides of the gun periodically as they ran dry but she kept firing, sweeping left and right to the full extent the turret could manage.
Overhead the harvester came in again and she tilted the barrels up, pouring bullets into it. It seemed to be almost impervious to the bullets, and as she watched something huge dropped from it, crashing down into the down and kicked up a huge plume of dust.
She shifted targets down to whatever had just landed, but it moved like a blur, unfolding and slammed two massive arms down into the dirt. It looked almost like a gorilla, but before she could target it or get a good look it charged the barricade, slamming hard into it. The wall buckled and bent and she was kicked out of the turret.
"Holy hell," Vega shouted. "What is that thing!"
She staggered to the edge of the wall, drawing her pistol. "Brace yourselves!"
It slammed the wall again and she fell, sliding down into the dirt. At once she was grabbed and thrown out and away from the compound. She rolled to a stop several metres away, getting to her feet and diving for the nearest cover she could see. Her gun was down in the dirt but she still had her rifle, which she drew.
Looking out from around the boulder she saw what it was that had attacked her. At first she thought it was a husk of a krogan, but then she realised that the head that dangled on a long stalk of bone and electronics was of a turian. She grimaced and ducked back into cover as it started to charge. She didn't imagine it was going to go down easy. The boulder she was behind shook from the impact of the thing, but it protected her.
She jumped out, jamming her gun right into the obscene hole where the krogan head had been removed and fired. The powerful round tore straight through the thin stem that attached the head to the body and the whole beast keeled over, thudding heavily into the dirt.
Shepard leaned back against the boulder, sliding slowly down it and resting the rifle on the ground.
"Shepard, Corinthus here."
She could have cried at the unfairness of the situation. A single second to be able to breathe was all she needed. "What's the word on the Primarch?"
"Still can't get a stable comm link."
"Okay." She forced herself to stand, waving to Garrus and Vega. Enough of this. "I'm going on foot. Shepard out." She signalled Garrus and Vega to join her and waited for them to climb down and get to her. "Garrus," she said as soon as he was in earshot. "Take me to the last place you saw Victus."
"Aye aye."
He didn't waste anymore time, heading right out away from the base, keeping up a fair pace considering his leg. Shepard matched it easily, with Vega puffing along behind. The man was clearly in excellent shape, but no one could keep up this sort of pace for very long. Even with her implants she was starting to feel the effects of so much running and combat.
"How far?" She called as they ran.
"Should be pretty quick." Garrus sounded out of breath too, though not as bad. "Unless we find trouble."
Not like that ever happens.
They came out of a small rocky canyon and suddenly had a clear unobstructed view of Palaven, burning below them. Garrus slowed, staring up. "Damn it, look at Palaven. That blaze of orange, the big one." He pointed, and she saw a patch of flame that could have been engulfing a whole continent. "That's where I was born."
"Still have family there?" Vega asked, coming up beside them.
"My dad. A sister."
Garrus turned away, starting to jog again. As they moved Shepard kept pace with him. "How bad is it?"
"Three million lost the first day. Five the second."
She could only imagine the numbers were the same for Earth. Possibly even worse. She pushed that fear away, not willing to face it quite yet. "How's your military holding up?"
"Look around. That should give you some idea."
"You're putting up a good fight." Just not good enough.
Garrus clearly heard the last part in her voice. "For now. But how long's it take before the fight's kicked out of you? If they'd only listened to your warnings about the Reapers. We might've been ready."
"Maybe." No matter her anger at how the Council had treated her she still didn't see what they could have done had they believed her from day one. "Hard to figure how you prepare for something like this."
Around another corner a small band of husks was waiting for them. Shepard skidding to a halt and opened fire in the same movement, blasting the heads off two of them with a single pistol shot each. Garrus and Vega fired as well and the others went down.
"Shit I hate those things," Vega grumbled as they moved on again. "And New York is crawling with these creepy bastards? Never should have left Earth."
"It's gonna be bad all over," Shepard said.
"Leaving the fight just pisses me off."
"But you're here asking Victus to do the same thing," Garrus drawled. "Leave the fight to make nice in some boardroom."
"This summit is the only chance we've got," she said, stifling any argument. "None of us is beating the Reapers alone."
That stopped all conversation. She had to talk to Vega. There was a deeper discontent in him, that much was becoming very clear. Garrus might have been snarky, but he at least seemed to have confronted the old anger he had held. Maybe he had finally come to terms with letting Sidonis live in the last few months. She hoped so.
The terrain grew increasingly difficult to traverse as they rounded blind corner after blind corner. She had always hated fighting in close quarters, part of why she had found herself so drawn to sniping. Being trapped in claustrophobic tunnels of rock was not her idea of fun.
The rocks finally gave way to a more open area, a half dozen husks attacking a band of turians. Shepard's squad added their gunfire to the turians' and helped them bring down the enemies, jogging up to them. One was injured, and at least two more dead lay nearby, but half the squad was still standing and armed.
"Soldier," Shepard said, nodding to the one in command insignia. "You ok?"
"Yes sir, we'll make it."
"Have you seen General Victus?" Garrus asked.
"Half hour ago, headed South."
"Okay." Victus could have done a hell of a distance in half an hour. She just had to hope that he had bunkered up somewhere closer. "Good luck."
"Yes sir."
They turned to leave when a sonic boom almost flattened them. They dropped to the deck, weapons ahead, and scanned forwards. A fighter came spiralling in from above and ploughed into the dirt, kicking up a huge plume of dirt as the fighter came to a halt. It left fire in its wake that almost reached their little huddle.
"That was a little closer than I'd like," Vega said as they picked themselves up.
"I'll say," Garrus drawled.
Shepard looked up to see one of the turian cruisers ablaze from aft to stern. Even as she watched a red Reaper beam sliced it in half and it tumbled in two pieces, each fractured segment breaking up again and again until it was barely scrap metal and dust.
"How many troops in that crash Shepard?" Vega said quietly. "Fifty? Seventy-five?"
"Not sure."
"Sounds about right," Garrus said.
"Hard to see a beautiful ship like that go down."
"Not to mention the men serving on her."
"Yeah." There wasn't much more she could say. "Check the fighter."
She didn't hold out hope, and sure enough Vega and Garrus needed only a second to check it. "No survivors," Vega reported. "Damn it."
"Crash like that, it's not surprising." Garrus was trying to sound like his usual self, but she could hear the pain in his voice.
"Move out."
The terrain grew rocky again up ahead, and they were forced to climb it, which meant putting their weapons away as they scaled a rock face. Shepard moved fast, not happy about being unarmed in such hostile territory. As they climbed Vega piped up again.
"So Captain, you really think this summit'll work? I mean asari? Salarians? Where's the krogan and batarians? Where's the meat?"
"It's not that easy." She didn't much feel like explaining why the batarians couldn't be joining them.
"The batarians took the first hit when the Reapers arrived," Garrus said, saving her the trouble. "Not much left of them. And the krogan have never forgiven us for the genophage."
"Right. Turians sterilised them."
"Salarians came up with it."
"And the krogan hate them both for it," Shepard cut in.
"So they won't be joining us," Garrus finished.
"Too bad. I fought with a krogan. They're tough sons of bitches."
Shepard thought immediately or Wrex and Grunt. Having both of them on side would have almost made her think they could take the Reapers out on their own.
At the top of the cliff they could just see a small fortification in the distance. Right where a group of harvesters were dropping more troops.
"That looks bad!" Vega said.
She already had her rifle back in hand. "Double time! No Reaper's taking this Primarch from me!"
She set off at a sprint towards the compound, knowing they wouldn't be able to catch her. She willed her enhancements to activate, wishing Miranda had bothered to install mnemonic commands of some sort. As she ran she lifted her rifle to her eye and time seemed to slow, giving her the time to find one of the turian husks and blow its head clean off.
Dropping the rifle she found she was flying down the slope to the barricade, which had been ripped apart by something huge. She scanned the area and wasn't surprised to see another of the huge brutes, wreaking havoc at one end of the compound. The turians were clearly focusing most of their fire on the brute, but that left them vulnerable to the other husks attacks.
A new heat sink loaded she swept the gun up again on the run and found another one of the turian husks, which was pouring fire at something she couldn't see. Her shot took its right arm off and it dropped its gun.
She was close to the broken barricade now. Snapping the sniper rifle to her back she drew her pistol and vaulted over the smashed wall, firing as she went. Some of her clip found targets, dropping a husk or two, but most went wild. She had succeeded in drawing the attention of several dozen husks though, and they turned to her, the ones with guns opening fire while the others charged at her.
Smacking the heat sink free she dived to the side, rolling to cover behind a pile of boxes. She reloaded and stood, emptying the clip into all of the husks swarming her. Surgically precise headshots brought all of them down and she ducked behind cover again, only left with the turian husks firing at her. Reloading again she crawled to the other end of the cover. One thing her years of experience had taught her was that the husks had never been clever when it came to strategy.
Bullets continued to shred the boxes where she had been as she stood again and fired, bringing down one of the enemy's shields and then putting a double tap into its skull. She shifted aim even as the live turians came back to help her, adding their fire to the onslaught and bringing down the last two husks. Only the brute now remained.
Garrus and Vega had finally caught up with her, skidding to a stop and panting heavily. "Need a hand Captain?" Vega managed to gasp.
"If you wouldn't mind." She racked a new sink into her sniper rifle and stepped out to find the brute, which was now beating on one of the tactical centres. "If you can get his attention."
Both men nodded and ran out, opening fire and hollering at the top of their lungs. Vega went with a nice traditional, "Hey, over here ugly!"
"Look at me! I'm a target!" She grinned hearing Garrus over the comm, but it was having the desired effect, and the brute stopped its attack to see the two of them. It padded towards them, but they had split up to present two targets, and it seemed to be having some difficulty choosing which one it wanted to go after first.
She took advantage of its confusion to target the neck joint again, waiting until she had a straight shot as it lingered a moment before firing. The shell hit the neck joint, not quite severing it but doing enough damage to collapse the brute to the floor, dead or dying. The turian soldiers swarmed in to finish it off and she collapsed her rifle, glad of the moment to breathe.
One turian in amongst the crowd was the obvious leader, and once he had organised the cleanup he turned to march over to her.
"General Victus?" She said as he approached.
"Yes."
"I'm Captain Shepard of the Normandy."
"Ah Captain, I know who you are. I can't wait to find out what brings you out here." He noticed Garrus walking over and cocked his head over. "Vakarian. Where did you go?"
"Heavy Reaper unit on the right flank. I believe your exact words were, 'get that thing the hell off my men.'"
"Appreciate it." The General had almost as much of a talent for sarcasm as Garrus. Maybe it was just a turian thing.
She brought the conversation back to the point. "General, you're needed off planet. I've come to get you."
"It will take something beyond important for me to leave my men, or my turian brothers and sisters, in their fight."
Garrus stepped next to Shepard. "Fedorian was killed. You're the new Primarch."
"You're needed immediately to chair a summit and represent your people in the fight against the Reapers," Shepard added.
"I am Primarch of Palaven? Negotiating for the turian Hierarchy?"
"Yes." No sense sugar coating it.
He got over his confusion quickly enough, shaking his head at her. "I've spent my whole life in the military. I'm no diplomat. I hate diplomats."
"What makes you think you're not qualified?"
"I'm not really a 'by the book' kind of guy. And I piss people off. My family's been military since the Unification War." That was bound to cause complications if the wrong humans ended up on the committee. "War is my life, it's in my bones. But that kind of passion is deceptive. Can make you seem reckless when you're anything but."
"War is your resume. At a time like this we need leaders who've been through that hell." The parallels to Anderson were obvious to her. In a time like this she would take a military leader over an Udina any day of the week.
"I like that. You're right."
"And honestly, uniting these races may take as much strength as facing the Reapers." She pointed up to Palaven. "See this devastation Primarch? Double that for Earth. I need an alliance. I need the turian fleet."
He nodded, straightening and seeming to gain an extra measure of importance. "Give me a moment to say goodbye to my men."
She nodded and he marched away to his troops.
She could feel Garrus' uncertainty as they watched him leave. "Without him down here, there's a good chance we lose this moon."
"Without him up there there's a good chance we lose everything," she replied.
He walked away, looking up at Palaven as well. A Reaper was crossing right over the moon, heading straight for the planet. "Look at that! And they want my opinion on how to stop it? Failed C-Sec officer, vigilante, and I'm their expert advisor?" He chuckled, but it was bitter, and turned back to her. "Think you can win this thing Shepard?"
"I don't know Garrus. But I'm sure as hell gonna give it my best shot."
His laugh this time was a little more sincere. "I'm damn sure nobody else can do it. For whatever it's worth, I'm with you."
"Welcome aboard." She noticed Victus walking back. "Are you ready Primarch?"
"One thing. Captain I appreciate your need for our fleets, but I can't spare them. Not while my world is burning." She had feared as much from the moment they hit the system. "But if the pressure could be taken off Palaven…" He was already a hell of a diplomat, she had to give him that.
"That's a pretty tall order."
"We need the krogan." Oh boy. He really did have the mind of a politician, and a pretty shrewd one at that. "I can't see us winning this thing without them. Get them to help us, and then we can help you."
She nodded and signalled Cortez to make the pickup. She walked a short distance away to find a suitable LZ, followed closely by Garrus.
"The krogan," she said quietly when they were out of earshot.
"Looks like your summit just got a lot more interesting."
AN:- There are a couple of minor continuity notes. In my version of ME2 Garrus as wounded in the leg so badly during the Collecgor attack that he needed a leg brace to move around.
When writing Shepard, I like to imagine that when Cerberus brought her back they enhanced her in as many ways as they could. Which is why I think she can go head to head in melee with krogan and why time slows when you look down the sniper scope. However, since Shepard was woken up early, Miranda didn't have time to install proper ways for Shepard to activate her implants. Also, and in the ME2 book I had Chakwas discuss this, the enhancements are still working within a human body, which wasn't designed for doing things like that. So if Shepard overstretches herself then she could do serious damage.
Garrus yelling 'Look st me I'm a target' is a reference back to my Mass Effect 1 novelisation, where he got the attention of a turret by yelling the same thing. That in turn was a reference to Doctor Who, where Matt Smith's Doctor got the attention of some Daleks by doing that once.