Miranda shoved Jack, hurling her out of the way even as she dove the opposite direction. The stasis pod the Collector had been lying in tore through the air where they'd been standing, slamming into the wall hard enough to leave cracks in it. The creature itself hovered in place, body blackened and charred, with amber light leaking out from the network of cracks in its skin. Sickly yellow energy gathered in one hand, the other was wrapped Solus's throat. The creature held the professor almost half a meter off the ground. Off to one side she could see Tali'Zorah's limp body, sprawled over another of the stasis pods. Despite his disadvantageous position, the professor wasn't out of the fight. His omnitool glowed, and he drove a punch into his attacker's face. Fire blossomed from the impact point, washing out to engulf the creature's head.
From inside the conflagration came that deep voice again. "YOU CANNOT RESIST."
The Collector tightened its fingers, and even from several meters away, Miranda could hear the crackling protest of the Salarian's armor. She snapped her pistol up, hammering a trio of shots into the Collector's torso. The shots impacted on its barrier, sending out miniature explosions of sparks, but doing no apparent damage. They got it's attention though. It shifted, interposing Solus between itself and Miranda. It's free hand shot out, that ball of yellow energy crackling with black lighting shooting past the struggling professor and Miranda was forced to dive to the side again. The energy ball changed direction, catching her mid leap. It detonated against her barrier, the explosion hurling her to the ground. She bounced twice, and slammed into the wall. Even through her armor and barrier the impact dazed her. She struggled to move though, knowing there would be a follow up attack, and desperately trying to get out of the way. Blearily she saw the second orb, this one black with yellow lighting, floating almost calmly towards her, and despite its pace knew she wouldn't be able to dodge it, she was just too groggy.
From off to her side, somebody shouted, and shockwave of indigo energy lashed across the floor and intercepted the floating orb. The energies mixed and detonated, cracking the floor in the two meter radius, and buffeting her with backwash. The collector snapped it's gaze off Miranda, and she followed it. Jack had regained her feet. She'd lost her shotgun during the fall, and had biotic energy cupped in each hand as she advanced on the creature.
"I will destroy you!" She snarled, the light from her hands intensifying.
Miranda's eyes widened and she grew cold. Jack had almost limitless power, but her control was lacking at the best of times. If she threw that much power at the Collector while he was still holding Mordin... Jack cocked her arm back, preparing to unleash her fury.
"No!" Miranda shouted, trying to shove herself back to her feet. Jack shot a glance at Miranda, and the momentary distraction cost her. The Collector didn't bother throwing another of its biotic attacks, instead, it used the closest thing to hand, Mordin. A flare of biotic energy shot the fully armored Salarian out of its hand, directly at Jack. She abandoned her strike, trying to roll out of the way, but wasn't fast enough. Mordin's flailing leg caught her on the side of the head, the impact spinning her and dropping her to her feet. It gave Miranda an opening though, and she unloaded the rest of her pistol's thermal clip into the Collector.
"THESE ATTACKS ARE POINTLESS." It thundered, and sent another of its paired biotic attacks lashing at her. Miranda had expected that, and she shot her hand out, biotics flaring into shield. She caught the first attack, dissipating its force into the energy of her shield, it pushed her back, but not much. The second attack detonated on contact. Heat washed over her, and oily black flames started to chew at the edges of the shield. That wasn't a biotic attack at all! It was more similar to the incendiary attack omnitools could generate. The Collector was blending biotics and tech. She gritted her teeth. That would be a pain in the ass. Keeping one arm extended in front of her to keep the shield in place, she rose. Her other hand holstered her pistol and drew her submachine gun. It had barriers, and if she wanted to get through those, she'd need the increased rate of fire.
"What the fuck, cheerleader!" Jack bellowed as she scrambled back to her feet. Solus lay a few meters past her. The Salarian wasn't moving. Jack called power back to her hands. "I fucking had him, bitch!"
Miranda gaped at the younger woman. What the fuck? Was she really doing this right now? The momentary distraction cost Miranda, and she had to scramble to get her shield back in place to intercept the Collector's next attack. Her footing was bad, and the impacts drove her back a meter. Jack shouted again and swung an arm out in a looping underhand throw. Indigo energy crackled out from her fingers, cascading across the floor in a devastating shockwave. Miranda had seen that attack toss YMIR mechs around like children's toys. The Collector sidestepped it, insectoid wings buzzing to life and lifting it out of the way. Unguided, the energy smashed into the machinery behind it, shattering it.
"PITIFUL." The now flying Collector drove directly for Jack. Miranda whirled with it, weapon up and spitting fire. She knew she caught it a couple of times, she could see the flashes of impact, but she didn't stop it, and then it was between her and Jack and she couldn't shoot for risk of hitting the other woman. Jack apparently didn't share her compunction, and she sent two more lances of energy at the creature barreling down on her. It raised its hand, flaring its own biotics to deflect the first attack, and rolled out of the way of the second. That attack roared past it, and Miranda was forced to leap to the side to avoid it.
"Watch out!" She shouted at Jack. But the other woman was too busy dodging the Collector's attacks to pay attention. The creature was on her, swiping with elongated, claw like fingers outlined in dark fire. Jack dodged the first swipe, and managed to get interpose her armored forearm between herself and the follow up attack. She snarled as fingers wrapped around her arm, then she was wrenched from her feet as the Collector whirled and hurled her at Miranda. They collided in a flare of biotic energies as their barriers impacted each other, and they fell to the ground with Jack to top of her.
"YOU ARE VERMINE." The damn thing sounded smug. It retracted its wings and began to stalk forward, violent energy gathering in each of its hands. Miranda scrambled out from under Jack, bringing her weapon up and emptying it at the Collector. Her heart sank as it didn't even try to dodge. The shots chewed into it, shattering to dust against its barrier and it just kept coming. Her thermal clip overheated, and the weapon fell silent. Next to her, Jack had climbed to her knees, and she sent another shockwave at the Collector. The creature crossed its arms, using the energy it had been holding to deflect and disrupt Jack's attack. The biotic strike that should have devastated it split and splashed around it, ripping chunks out of the floor but leaving it totally unscaithed.
"Oh, fuck you!" Jack panted. Miranda couldn't blame her. At the pace Jack had been throwing around power, she'd have been exhausted too. She ejected the spent thermal clip from her gun and fished for another, she wasn't as used this armor as her usual jumpsuit though, and the usually smooth and practiced motion took an extra few seconds as she had to find the correct pouch. That was a few seconds to long, because even as she brought the reloaded weapon back on target, the Collector gathered a fresh strike in its fists.
"THIS WILL DESTROY Y-" It's mocking scorn was cut off by a thunderous roar, and its head abruptly rocked to to the side. Another blast caught it in its back, sending it stumbling forward. It whirled on it's new attacker. Tali'Zorah stood behind it, shotgun at her shoulder. The Collector flung its gathered energy at the Quarian and she ducked back behind the pod she'd been thrown on in the initial blast. The attack shattered the pod, and sent her stumbling back, but there wasn't enough power left to do much else. She hit it with another blast from her shotgun, then looked at Miranda.
"Don't just sit there, kill this Bosh'tet!" Her third shot only grazed the creature, chips of blackened armor cracking off and scattering to the ground but doing no appreciable damage. Miranda stared at those pieces. The shotgun blast had hit it, it's barrier was down! Miranda whirled on Jack. They didn't have long, and they needed to hit it with the heaviest punch they could.
"Jack," She ordered, "warp detonation. I'll lift, you hit."
For the briefest second it looked like the other woman was going to argue, to tell Miranda to go to hell, but then her frown shifted into a hungry smile and she nodded. "Fuck yeah."
That was good enough for her, and Miranda turned back to the Collector. It was advancing on Tali, back to them and more energy gathering in its hands. Miranda reached out and caught the bastard in a biotic grip. Lift was one of the more advanced techniques a biotic could learn, manipulating the gravity around a target to send it floating off the ground for a short time. Recently she'd been using it as a prelude to slamming them back into the ground with bone shattering force, but right now she didn't bother, because Jack was already reading the knock out punch. Lift might be one of the more advanced techniques, requiring precision and focus, but warp was one of the most basic. It was one of the first technique combat biotics learned, and anybody with the skill could do it, all it really took was raw power. The conflicting and rapidly changing energies of a warp field could tear most unprotected targets apart, and it was a solid offensive move in its own right. Combine it with another ongoing biotic field though, and things got messy. Still prone, Jack flung out her hand at the floating Collector, unleashing the single strongest warp ball Miranda had ever seen. The supercharged attack hit the creature, came into contact with Miranda's own lift field, and detonated in a thunderous explosion. The pieces of meat that dropped out of the dissipating azure cloud were hardly recognizable.
For a few seconds the only sound in the room was Jack and Miranda's labored panting. That had been closer than she wanted to admit. Miranda was going to have to increase the threat rating for those things. Gingerly, she pushed herself to her feet. Her barrier had taken most of the damage she'd suffered, but she was going to feel this fight in the morning. Beside her, Jack was finally sitting up. She offered the other woman her hand. Miranda still didn't like Jack. The unstable woman was still a threat to her position, and just a general pain in her ass, but she was glad she'd been here. Jack hesitated, then accepted her hand, letting Miranda pull her to her feet.
"YOU HAVE ONLY DELAYED THE INEVITABLE." Miranda almost dropped Jack as she whirled on the voice. The remains of the fallen Collector were levitating, its body dissolving into ash as the light retreated from its skin. For a moment she thought she saw the outline of something else in the light, then it exploded.
"Remains are highly combustible, interesting. Potentially useful?" Her eyes tracked a faint line of smoke back to where Mordin Solus still lay. The leg that had hit Jack was clearly broken, bent at an unnatural angle,. Despite that, he'd popped himself up on one arm, the other held his still glowing omni-tool out in front of him. Next to her, Jack whistled. Miranda didn't disagree. The leg had to hurt like a mother fucker, but there was no indication of it in his voice. She glanced back at the pile of ash that was all that was left of the Collector. Well, they wouldn't be taking that back with them. She finished hauling Jack to her feet, then crossed to Mordin.
"Professor, how bad is it?"
He looked up at her. "Leg is broken. Have already applied medi gel. Walking will be, problematic."
That figured. One of them would have to carry him out. She was torn. On one hand she needed to get Mordin back to the shuttle, but she also needed to find Shepard. Even as she thought that, her comm crackled to life. "Shepard to Miranda, what's your situation?"
She activated her own mic. "Miranda here, we're ok, but Professor Solus has a broken leg. What happened?"
"We kicked one hell of a beehive. Looks like we were right about this being a trap, the Turian signal was a fake. We beat back their first first attack, but we're cut off from you. Get Mordin back to the shuttle and hold your position there. EDI's found us an alternate route, we'll fight our way to you." He actually sounded excited at the prospect. She rolled her eyes.
"Understood." She wanted to say more, but she didn't. Now wasn't the time. He disconnected and she turned to look at her people. Jack had recovered her shotgun. She and Tali stood a little ways off from the pile of ash, pointedly not looking at it. "Alright." Miranda said, adopting a tone of command. "Shepard's team's cut off from us, so we're heading back to the shuttle. Tali, start getting that door open. Jack, watch the other door."
To her surprise, Jack listened to her, turning to face the door Shepard had left through while Tali started toward the other door. Miranda reached down and helped pull the professor to his feet. She slipped one arm under his injured side, taking some of his weight. He nodded his thanks to her, then slipped his customized Carnifax pistol off his belt and held it in his off hand. They might be battered, but they weren't out yet. Tali did something, and with a faint swoosh, the doors slid open.
Miranda raised her submachine gun. "Alright people, move out."
I used the butt of my rifle to knock a husk back as yet another group of them swarmed us. The pitiful creature stumbled backwards and I lashed out with a stomping kick that bent one of its knees almost completely backwards. By all rights, that should have taken it out of the fight. On any living enemy it would have, but the husk wasn't living, at least, not in any way that mattered, and even as it fell it tried to claw at me. I leaned away from the strike and I brought my leg swinging around and down in an axe kick that crushed its skull. That did the trick and the body just went limp.
A little off to my right, Grunt swung a massive hammer, sweeping aside a pair of husks that had tried to swarm him. That was their only real attack strategy after all. They'd come at us in packs, hoping to drown us in weight of numbers. If I'd just had the two other teammates I usually took with me on missions, it might even have been a problem. But not with six of us. Husks were only ever a problem when they could swamp you and overwhelm you with numbers, good tactics for a team of disposable shock troops, but useless against a team as large as them. The remaining husks tried anyway, I don't think they were intelligent enough not to, but my team cut them down before they could even reach us.
They might not have been a threat, but the husk attacks did manage to accomplish one thing, they slowed us down. All around me I could hear the ship coming back to life. This little ambush had been expertly planned from the very beginning. The fight with the Turians, the apparently false communications that brought us here, all of it designed to bring me here. If Joker and EDI were right, this was even the ship that had killed my old Normandy. At this point, it was starting to feel a little personal. More than anything I wanted to take my team and strike out for the bridge of this ship, to carve my way through the Collectors until there wasn't a single fucking bug person left on this damn ship. But I couldn't. They'd planned this too well. The tactical response to an ambush was to attack into it, disrupt the attackers and push them onto the back foot, and that was exactly what I wanted to do. The strategic response though, was to fall back. I might be able to beat the waves of drones they were throwing at me, but if this ship managed to get fully powered before I got out of here, then the new Normandy was going to go the way of the old.
So we continued on, following the path EDI had found back to the shuttle. Twice more we had to fend off groups of husks attempting to slow us down, but we pushed through. The drones gave us a little more trouble, but we worked the plan I'd come up with during the briefing. Since the Collector's all relied on barriers, I'd formed my squad into two firing teams. Two of the team would hammer away at the drone's barriers with automatic weapons, warp or concussive shot, and as soon as we took it down, either Garrus or Thane would kill it with a headshot. That way, the Collectors never got a chance to activate their fail safe, and we didn't have to deal with one of the super powered assholes. It had worked too, so far at least. It was a slower strategy than I'd have preferred, but in this case I was reminded of one of the first lessons I'd learned in combat. Slow was smooth, and smooth was fast. We were taking longer to kill the whole group than we might have if we spread out our attention, but we were going through each group faster overall.
The path we were on led us to another of the organic looking, wide open areas. It was the third or forth we'd run across, and I slowed the team down a little as we entered it. The Collector's had a nasty habit of flying in from unexpected angles in these rooms, and rushing through it would just get us into trouble. From our current position I could see a pair of L shaped ramps slanting down to a flat area, broken up by sparse cover. If I was the Collectors, this is where I'd put my main effort to stop somebody. The floor below was a killing field that had to be crossed to reach the door, and just because there wasn't currently any visible threat…
EDI's synthetic voice broke into my speculation. "Commander, I am opening a door on the far side of the room. There is significant heat build up in this vessel's engines. I'd advise you to expedite your progress."
Well, there went the slow and steady approach. I wasn't losing another Normandy. I took a step forward onto one of the ramps, then another one. When nothing happened I continued forward. The Collectors sprang their ambush just as I reached ground level. A handful of husks came barreling around the far corner of the room. They weren't the problem though. Behind them floated a fucking Praetorian.
"Oh, shit." Kasumi breathed next to me. I couldn't blame her. The hovering monstrosity pivoted towards us, and I swore it's four glowing eyes fixated on me, personally. Well, fuck. The creature screeched, the sound coming from the dozens of husk heads crammed into its carapace beneath the main pair of eyes. Then those eyes flared even brighter, and twin lines of lighting lashed towards me. I dove to the side, barely getting out of the way of that blast. The fucking laser eyes chewed a half meter frough in the ground where I'd been standing, and continued on through my team. Most of them got out of the way, but Grunt was too slow. The beams caught him as he tried to dodge, and the massive Krogan was picked up off the floor and hurled backwards to smash into the base of the landing we'd just descended.
"Scatter!." We'd planned for these guys too, and step one was get far enough apart that it couldn't focus on more than one of us. Step two was shoot it, alot. "Thane," I barked, "husks. Everybody else, kill that thing."
As he ran, the Drell assassin threw out a hand, smashing the closest of the husks to the ground with a throw field. The rest of my team brought weapons to bare on the Praetorian and started pouring fire into it. I gave it a few seconds, then barked the next order. "Concussive shot!"
This was also part of the plan, wear the bastard down with automatic fire, then hit it with attacks designed specifically to break barriers. My rifle bucked as I launched the high density round, and it's contrail was joined by another as Garrus added his shot, and then a third from behind me where Grunt was shoving himself out of the dent he'd made in the wall. All three projectiles hit the monster in rapid succession, hammering it with concussive force. Each of those shots dissipated their energy in a wave, striping their targets of the layered biotic fields that made up barriers. Three in a row like that shredded the Praetorian's defenses, and I saw the sparks and chips of armor fly as shots started to hit the armor directly.
It wasn't idle as we hammered it though, and even as it continued its inexorable drifting advance, those eyes glowed again, sending another line of crackling energy at Thane. He sidestepped it neatly enough, but the effort made his sniper shot go wide and the husk he'd been aiming at charged Samara. She caught the techno-zombie in a biotic grip and hurled it sideways into another one. Both of them went down in a tangled mess, and she returned her attention to the Praetorian.
"Pour it on!" I bellowed. I was firing may Mattock as fast as it could cycle, the rile's heavy rounds digging visible chunks out of the creature's organic armor. We didn't have long though, because if this thing was anything like the one I fought on Horizon then any second now it would- The monster surged forward and brought both its front legs crashing down at Garrus. He rolled out of the way of the strike, but not the follow up blastwave of biotic energy. Garrus was sent staggering backward, his shields stripped, momentarily dazed. The Praetorian lashed out with one of its legs, catching my friend full in the chest and flinging him backwards. Garrus crashed back to the ground a few meters away, rolling, skidding, and losing his rifle in the process. Amazingly, he kept his head through it all, ripping his pistol from his hip and firing from the ground even as he slid to a stop. The heavy shots pinged off the monsters restored barrier.
I swore. That's what I'd been afraid of. We were back to square one. There was one bit of good news, in its attempt to kill Garrus, the Praetorian had actually killed the last two husks, leaving it alone against my team. That was a bad place to be. I started to circle around to where the creature had come from. On the other side of it I could see Kasumi doing the same thing. She was pouring fire into the monster, her Locust spitting out a stream of hyper sonic darts that steadily chewed away at its defenses. I swapped to my own sub gun, wanting rate of fire over greater damage. The individual layers of a barrier could stop almost anything short of a sniper rifle dead in its tracks, but they were also fragile enough that smaller caliber rounds worked just as well as larger. This thing had to have hundreds of layers, and I wanted to shred them as fast as I could. Once we'd opened it back up to actual damage, we'd have to hammer it as hard and fast as possible. To that end, I keyed my comm.
"Samara, Kasumi, we're on the barrier. Grunt, Garrus, Thane, as soon as its down hit it with everything you have." As if it had heard me, the monster swung around towards me. Its freaking eyes started to glow again, and I readied myself to spring out of the way. The blast came, I dove, and energy ripped a trough ten centimeters deep in the floor where I'd been standing. I took the impact on my shoulder, turning my dive into a roll that let me come back up on one knee and continue to pour fire into the fucker. The Tempest ran through its entire thermal clip in a matter of seconds so I swapped in a fresh one. I triggered another concussive shot, hoping I'd timed it correctly. The shot shredded more of the Praetorian's defenses, but not enough. Samara came into view around the creature's right flank, her own assault rifle, an Alliance M-8, tucked into her shoulder and still hammering out rounds. She was concentrating her fire on the mass of husk skulls tucked into the creatures mid section. One of her shots got through, smashing one of the disgusting faces into a ruined mess. The Praetorian let out a screeching insectoid bellow and reared up, putting its armored belly between us and the faces. I grinned, it had a weakness. The Praetorian whirled on Samara, bringing down its front legs crashing down at the Justicar. She flung her hands out, biotic energy swirling around them, and she shot backwards, evading the strike. That gave me an idea. As the thump of Garrus's heavy pistol and the steady crack of Thane's sniper rifle joined the noise, I keyed a direct message to Samara.
"Throw Grunt."
She looked at me. I couldn't read her expression through the face mask. "What?"
"Throw Grunt at the Praetorian. On my count" She stared at me for a moment, then shrugged and nodded. I switched over to Grunt's private comm, shooting a glance at him as I did. He'd pulled himself out of the wall, and was charging back into the fight to bring his shotgun to bare. "Grunt, hammer time."
The Krogan didn't bother arguing or asking questions, he just dropped his shotgun and pulled the massive weapon from his back. The hammer had been a gift from Wrex, a present to congratulate him for killing the Thresher Maw during the insane Krogan adulthood ritual. Grunt loved the thing, and I had to admit, it was great for smashing husks. As it just so happened, I had a bunch of husk skulls that could use a good smashing. I started running toward him, one hand holding my Tempest out to spray fire at the Praetorian, the other held above my head fingers splayed. As I ran, the monster pivoted, eyes starting to glow again as it tracked me. I curled a finger, starting the countdown. The eyes flashed and lightning started to rip at the ground just behind my feet. I stayed just ahead of it, and as the countdown reached one I dove, straight at Grunt.
I hit the ground hard, and rolled to my back just as a slightly surprised Krogan flew over my head. Samara had caught Grunt in a biotic grip and catapulted him over me. He recovered quickly, and roared as he rocketed toward the Praetorian. The Collector creature roared back, rearing up in the start of its barrier generation sequence. Grunt didn't let it finish. He got his whole body into it starting low and swinging the massive hammer around in an arc that ended on the Praetorian's upraised mass of faces. The titanic blow, aided by Samara's biotics, hit, well, like a hammer, shattering husk skulls and smashing the monster's attempt to reconstitute its barrier. The gathering biotic energy released in a shockwave that threw Grunt a good ten meters backwards, sending him crashing back to the ground back where he'd started his charge. He'd done his job though. The Praetorian thrashed about for a few seconds, clearly in pain, screeching and scrambling at the air. Finally, it drove its own front legs into the gaping hole my Krogan had smashed in its face. Instantly its started to disintegrate, and in moments it was gone, leaving behind nothing but a rapidly dissipating cloud of ash. From his second crater of the day, Grunt bellowed his triumph, thrusting his hammer into the sky in mockery of his defeated foe.
"Well that's something you don't see everyday." Kasumi quipped.
I shoved myself to my feet. I wanted to take a second to catch my breath, but over my comm EDI reminded me that the ship was almost at full readiness. There wasn't time for us to wait around. "We're not out of this yet." I growled. We waited just long enough for Garrus and Grunt to pick up their dropped weapons, then started out again, EDI feeding me directions. A couple more groups of Collectors tried to stop us, but after using a Krogan cannonball to smash a Praetorian, a few groups of drones were fairly anticlimactic. We made it back to the Shuttle through a door that had been closed when we arrived. Jacob and Zaeed were still there, as were the bodies of several husks. Miranda and her team however, weren't there.
I was just reaching to key my comm when the doors we'd originally went through cycled open. Tali came through them, one arm supporting Mordin who was dragging one leg. She hurried him forward and Garrus and I ran out to meet her, the rest of the team fanning out into a firing line behind us. "Miranda, Jack?" I asked as we skidded to a stop next to them.
"Right behind us." Tali said, passing Mordin off to Garrus. "They delayed the Collectors long enough for me to Mordin back here." Even as she spoke I could hear the approaching sound of gunfire. Moments later Jack sprinted into view, followed closely by Miranda. A tension I hadn't realized I was holding released and I let out a sigh. They were going to make it. Then a group of husks came boiling out of the corridor I'd come through. They surged towards the two women, already between them and us. I shouted something and snapped my rifle to my shoulder, but I knew it wasn't going to be enough. My shots dropped one of husks, but the rest boiled towards the two women. In seconds they'd be on them. I started to run forward, rifle still firing. I had to do something.
Then I heard Jack shout, and a shockwave rippled across the ground from her. It hit the massed husks like a wrecking ball, tossing them a meter in the air and leaving them to hang for a second. Miranda's voice followed Jacks, and one of the husks in the center of the group suddenly exploded with azure energy. The detonation scattered the remaining creatures and Jack and Miranda sprinted through them. They waved frantically at me, and over my comm I heard Miranda's voice. "Don't just stand there! Move!"
They tore past me, and turned to follow them. In a mad scramble we piled back aboard the shuttle, and EDI punched it before the doors closed. This wasn't the leisurely flight we'd taken to get to the ship either. Acceleration pushed us against one and other as we rocketed back to the Normandy. I was out of the shuttle before we'd even fully landed and tore ass to the elevator.
"EDI? Whats going on?" I demanded as I waited for the fucking lift to rise.
"The enemy vessel has come fully back online. Mr. Moreau is attempting evasive maneuvers."
The doors slid open and I sprinted up to the cockpit. Joker was muttering to himself while his hands flew over the controls. A brilliant stream of all too well remembered golden light flashed past overhead and I instinctively ducked. That light had killed my last ship. "Joker-" I started.
"Not now, Commander." He interrupted me. "EDI, get us the hell-" The entire ship shook. I clamped my hands on the back of Joker's flight seat to keep from falling. A dozen lights flashed amber and starting blinking insistently. Joker swore.
"EDI?" I demanded.
"Minor hullbreach on decks 2 & 3. I have already rerouted all systems. Would you like me to initiate a jump?"
"YES!" Joker and I shouted in unison.
"Please state a destination."
"Not here!" Joker spat, throwing the ship into a looping roll to bring us up around another of those blasts. The light from the Collector's weapon was blinding for a moment, and I had to shut my eyes against it. When I reopened them the starfield outside the viewports had been replaced by FTL.
I let out a sigh and thumped Joker on the shoulder. He grunted and looked up at me, rubbing the spot gingerly. "Minor hullbreach?" I asked.
"Yeah," he said defensively, "minor, as in, not major. You can tell by how we've gotten way and you aren't floating out in space again."
I briefly considered hitting him again, but decided against it. Joker really was one of the best pilots in the galaxy. If we'd gotten hit, it wasn't his fault. Of course, depending on how much damage we'd taken, I might change my mind. "Drop us out of FTL in a few minutes and get us heading back to Illium. And get me a full damage report."
Joker nodded, and I left him to it, heading back towards the conference room. Unless I missed my guess…
"Commander," EDI said, "The Illusive Man is waiting for you on the QEC." Yup, right on time. I replayed what the AI had told me about the Turian message being a fake. EDI'd picked up the forgery using Cerberus detection protocols, protocols that The Illusive Man had written himself. He'd known it was a trap, and again he hadn't said anything. I set my jaw . I'd be happy to talk to him, there were a few things I wanted to say myself.
"I'll be right there." I growled.