Chapter 9
Miranda's situation was not a good one to say the very least. Tired, nearly drained from constant usage of her biotics, and steadily running low on ammo, Miranda was ill-equipped to deal with a squad of Cerberus-engineered Turian clones with Mattock Assault Rifles trained on her. It didn't exactly help that she now also had several Turian prisoners to worry about.
As it stood, the "Legionnaires" as they had been dubbed by the head cloner, wasted no time in opening fire, and it would have all been over right then and there had Miranda's shields not been up. She managed to weather the barrage just long enough to force the Legionnaires back with a biotic blast. She shouted out to the Turian prisoners to take cover as she did this.
The Legionnaires were not incapacitated for long. They resumed fire quickly, but at least by then Miranda and the Turians were all behind cover. Even so theirs was a terrible position. Miranda needed to find something to even the playing field and fast.
She looked around desperately for anything in the environment to use. Finally, she noticed what looked like a fuel tank hanging above on the ceiling.
Deciding to follow Zaeed's example on Zorya, Miranda fired two shots into it. The first to rupture it, and the second to create a fiery explosion that disoriented the Legionnaires for a few precious moments that Miranda exploited with ruthless precision. Headshots via her Carnifex (and Overload to both drop their shields and stun them) downed two of the Legionnaires before Miranda was forced behind cover again.
Verash periodically popped out from behind his cover to pepper the remaining Legionnaires with fire from his pilfered Tempest SMG. With Miranda continuing to use Overload to disrupt their shields, Verash finally managed to drop one…right before another Legionnaire landed a shot that hit him square in the arm.
"Dammit!" Verash shouted as he fell back behind cover. It was then that the Legionnaires ceased fire. One of them turned to the others and motioned for them to move in on Miranda and the Turians in what the former Cerberus loyalist instantly recognized as a flanking attempt. Deciding not to give them the opportunity now that her shields had recovered, Miranda turned to Verash and motioned for him to position himself against one of the Legionnaires while Miranda did the same for the other.
Miranda waited patiently for the Legionnaires to close in before hitting it with a Warp to stagger it and a headshot to finish it. Whipping around, she watched Verash skillfully grab the Legionnaire's rifle, and jam the butt-end of his Tempest into his throat. This staggered the Legionnaire just enough for Verash to wrench the Mattock out of the Legionnaire's grip, albeit at the cost of a fierce kick to the stomach that sent him on his back. The Legionnaire planted his foot down on Verash and applied pressure, intending to crush his lungs, but Miranda had other ideas. She shot the Legionnaire in the head, damaging its helmet extensively and knocking it back, and enabling Verash to trip it, causing it to fall on its back. Verash then put his stolen Tempest to its head and fired.
It was a short-lived victory. The last Legionnaire shot Miranda in the arm, causing her to drop her Carnifex and gasp in pain and agony as blood flowed freely from her arm. She clutched her arm tightly and applied pressure to stop the bleeding as Verash cut down the last Legionnaire with the Mattock of the one he had just killed.
"Cerberu-er, ex-Cerberus lady. You okay?"
Miranda spun around and glared harshly at him. "What do you think?" she snapped. "It hurts but I'll live…for now" she finished bitterly. Come on, we need to keep moving or we all die.
The Turian prisoners nodded and kept moving, all of them arming themselves with the Mattocks of the dead Legionnaires as they did. Miranda, still clutching her bleeding arm as her other hand held her Carnifex limply in hand, led on, if for no other reason because only she knew the way out. Even though common sense dictated that she stay behind now it wasn't an option. She was the only one who knew the way out…
By now, alarms were blaring throughout the complex, with a voice on the intercom stating the painfully obvious about how intruders had breached the cell, freed the prisoners, and damaged the cloning chambers.
The group continued, stopping only at a Medi-Gel dispenser so Miranda could heal herself and some of the more injured Turians. Then they moved on forward, gunning down what few Cerberus forces stood in their way. Finally they returned to the entrance of the cell, and as Miranda could clearly see, they were just in time.
Moments Ago:
Jack's head was throbbing and her entire back was burning as if on fire upon being forcibly slammed into the wall once again by her clone's biotics. Spitting out a mouthful of blood, Jack glared fiercely at her doppelganger with murder in her eyes and her biotic field consuming her in a bluish-aura yet again. Snarling in anger and fury, Jack fired out with her biotics in a massive blast that looked straight out of a video game. And the effect of it smashing into her doppelganger was a pretty spectacular one to behold to, blasting away some of the clone's armor and knocking her into the opposite wall with at least as much force as her last attack had Jack.
Refusing to let up for even a moment, Jack rocketed forward at her doppelganger via her biotics and continued to hurl Warps and other Biotic blasts at her clone. When the dust settled, Jack was hunched over, panting, and blood trailing down her nose due to over-usage of her biotics.
"HAD ENOUGH YOU FUCKER? HUH? DO YOU WANT SOME MO—"
Jack was cut off when a biotic blast hit her square in the chest, tearing up her shirt and sending her flying through the air and knocking her on her back. No sooner did Jack attempt to force herself up did another biotic attack send her hurtling through the air, followed by her being lifted into the air by a biotic aura and then viciously slammed into the floor, breaking her nose and briefly incapacitating her. Looking up as her vision threatened to go black at any moment, Jack could see her clone, now with her armor missing pieces and scorched from being hit with biotics so many times holding her remaining sword to Jack's head. Her doppelganger's face showed no emotion whatsoever. Not empathy nor contempt. It was just as blank as could possibly be, and it was not a look Jack had ever, ever, worn in her life.
Cut down by my own fucking reflection and the bitch can't even make a sneer or a smile…
Present
Miranda could see very clearly who Jack's assailant was, but as it stood she wasn't surprised in the least. Based on the logs she had read, she was all but certain that Jack's was the DNA being used for Project "Phantom". It also meant that what came next was more then a little cathartic.
Extending a hand, Miranda trapped Jack's doppelganger in a biotic field before she could deliver the coup de grae. Wasting no time, Miranda viciously hurled the trapped clone into one of the walls with as much force as she could, before then slamming her into the floor, the other wall, and then the floor once again. Finally, after repeating this a second time, Miranda sent the clone flying straight into the front wall…and then hurled the clone's intact sword at her with a second biotic throw, impaling the doppelganger on it and pinning her to the wall where she slumped over dead.
Miranda turned to see a bloodied and battered but still living Jack stagger to her feet, smiling weakly as she spat out some blood. The Convict's eyes fell upon her now very dead clone.
"You enjoyed that too fucking much"
Miranda shrugged and said quite simply: "Catharsis."
Jack rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I suppose. Too bad there are no clones of you for me to rough up…"
The two were interrupted when a biotic shockwave blasted through the air, knocking Miranda and most of the Turians back. Miranda leaped back to her feet to see that Richard himself was now opposing them, backed up by more Legionnaires, one whom shot one of the Turian prisoners dead while Richard sent another flying backwards with a Throw. The other Turians opened fire, their Mattock shots steadily punching through Richard's biotic barrier and the Legionnaire's energy shields before Richard conjured up his biotic whips and viciously lashed out, cutting down one Turian, then another, and then two more. The others were sent flying in opposite directions via his biotics before another strike of his whips knocked Miranda down as well. Yet another strike from his whips disarmed her.
Not to be beaten so easily, Miranda fired out another biotic blast from both of her hands. The blast dispelled Richard's biotic barrier and whips but by then there was little stopping him. He closed the now small distance between them, grabbed her arm and slammed it hard against the wall. Miranda struggled fiercely to no avail. With his other hand, Richard grabbed the back of Miranda's head and glared at her intensely, his blue eyes as frozen and soulless as two chips of ice.
"I've waited far too long for this"
And then without any other warning Richard savagely forced Miranda's lips to his own, kissing her as aggressively as possible before breaking the kiss. No sooner did he Miranda spat in his face.
"You're nothing but an animal now Richard"
"You hurt me Miranda. And now I will hurt you until you literally beg for death"
"Hey dick-hole!"
Richard turned around and received a biotic blast to his handsome face that forced him back and forced him to release his grip on Miranda who sent him hurtling backwards on his back with a biotic strike of her own before then grabbing her Carnifex.
"No one gets to filet the cheerleader but me, got it?"
Richard rose to his feet and re-conjured his biotic whips as he did so. He turned to his remaining Legionnaires: "Kill them all. No mercy"
"I don't think so"
And no sooner did the familiar voice ring through the air was the entire front entrance to the base blown to bits by rockets. Then slowly moving through the flames came the source of them: an Atlas Mech, now commandeered by Shepard. He aimed the mech's armaments at Richard and the Legionnaires.
"Now I don't know who you are but I'd strongly recommend you put those guns down and stand down. This doesn't need to get any messier then it already has."
Richard scoffed. "Of course it does. I've been waiting far too long for this day. Not even you will stop me Shepard"
And with that, Richard zipped forward in a biotic charge at Miranda. And all hell broke loose.
Shepard opened fire on the Legionnaires, cutting them all down with ease while Miranda backpedaled as Richard came at her, unceasing in her relentless torrent of SMG fire directed at him. Finally, he seemed to stagger, but he continued to come at her. Again, he lashed out with his biotic whips, disarming Miranda of her Tempest.
But before Richard could finish her off, he was shot repeatedly by shotgun blasts, each one tearing through what remained of his defenses and sending blood flying. After being hit by three such blasts, he collapsed. Miranda turned to see Jack with her Katana Shotgun raised.
Turning back to face Richard, Miranda could see that he was done for. He was bleeding everywhere and blood was seeping out of his mouth. He smiled weakly as he looked at her.
"Always remember Miranda…I'm a monster you made…you're the real villa—"
A single shot from Miranda's Carnifex to Richard's head silenced him for good. Tears flowed down her face but she brushed them away. It was over. Richard was a ghost who would now remain just that.
"I'm sorry…." Miranda whispered.
She turned to Shepard as he finally exited his Atlas Mech.
"We're done here" Miranda said simply. "Let's get these Turians out of this hell-hole"
I've noticed that Miri gets a couple different interpretations from writers. Some portray her as a female Illusive Man or Kai Leng (scary image there) as in, completely indoctrinated into Cerberus with an unflinching "ends justify the means" philosophy and just as ruthless as anyone else in Cerberus. Basically the very thing Jack's always said she is. One writer (who shall remain anonymous) even had her sympathize with Project Overlord!
Others opt for a more sympathetic portrayal, showing someone who is not so much evil as deluded and for all her being cold, ruthless, and down right nasty towards others at times is a good person at heart who upon seeing how evil her organization is becomes disillusioned with it.
Needless to say, I prefer the latter interpretation, and while one could argue that the former "makes more sense" due to Miri having been with Cerberus for so long (19 years assuming she joined shortly after her father "created" Oriana), I don't agree, as the game itself seems to show otherwise. What I got out of the way she was in the game was someone who can be ruthless but isn't heartless. After all, does she not oppose her father's Husk facility? She also says that what was done to Jack was without a doubt a mistake. And she opposes the decision to keep the Collector Base intact just as much as anyone else. That does not sound like someone who is willing to do whatever it takes no matter what. Maybe she was like that for a time, but I think that Shepard helps change her for the better (assuming we're talking Paragon or Paragade here) That, and (for me anyway) the former is just impossible to sympathize with whereas the latter is.
I hope I didn't make Jack an Miri too chummy too quickly for people's tastes. It is supposed to be their relationship improving, but let me know if I maybe rushed it.