Author note: sorry for another delay, this chapter simply took a while to write.
Thermopylae
The batarian group moving up to flank and eliminate Shepard hadn't been too discouraged by the cessation of gunfire; presuming that since they had received no message informing them that their prey was dead, the engagement must have concluded in a stalemate with the human pinned down and ripe for the killing upon their arrival.
This is why they were somewhat perturbed when they arrived at their destination and found no humans, living or dead.
What they found were the mutilated corpses of their fellow privateers, hanging limply (and not just by their limbs) from various walls around the area. Ordinarily, Shepard would have hung them next to each other, in deference to the traditional method of warning off pirates back on Earth in the days of the British Empire and whilst the world ran off of the wind as opposed to fossil fuels or nuclear or Mass Effect technology, or gone back in time further still and impaled their heads on spikes, but, regrettably, he simply didn't have the materials.
Instead he improvised, exploiting cracks and flaws in the damaged concrete and impaling some of the thinner areas of batarian anatomy with various knives he had found on the persons of the deceased, so that they were pinned to the walls.
In morbid fascination, two of the living batarians moved forwards to examine the corpse of the nearest of their ex-comrades, and found something rather disturbing even when taking into account the circumstances; words had been carved into his flesh.
They read; this way towards enemy. The batarians exchanged puzzled glances about half a second before a carefully placed charge detonated, shattering the bones in their legs with the concussive blast, and, rather more significantly, bringing the wall down on top of them, burying them up to their necks in rubble.
The other four moved forward to dig them out of the rubble, albeit cautiously, checking for signs of further snares. This slow movement, however, made them exceptionally easy targets. Four quick shots rang out, the high calibre sniper rounds smashing into their legs, brushing their kinetic barriers aside, rending armour and shredding flesh and bone alike. The four batarians joined their comrades in their agonised screaming, rapidly bleeding out as they thrashed on the ground.
Shepard didn't even bother to deign to reveal himself; the batarians were no longer a threat, and he felt that they deserved a less straightforward demise for underestimating him. Even with medigel they would remain immobile and that one of them would be able to apply it correctly to their wounds in their present condition was unlikely.
And then, of course, there was the fact that there was still more gunfire in the near distance, which meant that Cameron would be requiring assistance again. He moved quickly off in the direction of the conflict.
Another running battle with fifteen batarians. More of the same civilians in a state of near total panic. The asari appeared to care about her survival enough to be applying her latent biotic potential, whilst the salarian tried to calm the other non-combatants down, understanding that simply fleeing in all directions would not ensure their survival. Cameron was having difficulty in holding them back, and the situation was more complicated than last time. Shepard could find no vantage point from which to shoot that provided a viable angle, and in any case; the batarians were too close to the allied species. Once they became aware of an enemy sniper, they would simply charge into the midst of the group, taking their chances against the sporadic returned fire of the five that were still armed, and render him useless until he could close in on them, until which time they would feel free to fire on him.
And it wasn't a good idea to destroy his prospects in an Alliance trial in case the deal with Cerberus fell through. Instead, Shepard strafed around the skirmish until he had access to the route that would allow him to get between the two parties with maximum efficiency and speed, so that he could give his charges some breathing space.
He moved, and almost immediately came under fire that was a trifle too accurate for him to be entirely confident of his decision. He managed to consistently evade the stream of bullets, but it was slowing his progress and he had no time for this-
Shepard dropped, skidded on his knees for about a metre, raising and sighting down ELE's scope even as the psychopath began the motion, the change in altitude providing him with the window and the stability required to locate and execute the batarian that was firing upon him-
Which resulted in two others turning their guns on him. Abandoning grace in order to survive, he flung himself sideways before scrabbling half to his feet and running almost doubled over in order to reduce his profile as he moved to escape their line of sight.
Their accuracy was apparently not the equal of their fallen comrade, which was why Shepard just about managed to make it to a low hill of debris, more like a large molehill that rose to less than a metre off of the ground, but just about managed to hide him from the batarian's bullets if he lay on his stomach, just below its crest.
However, the diverted attention allowed Cameron, the asari and the salarian to rally the troops, so to speak, and they managed to set up a reasonably effective fusillade that sent the batarians ducking. Shepard, however, refused to consider himself in their debt, or them out of his, on the basis that he had been in no real peril, and that if he had been, Miranda (a person to whom he wouldn't be ashamed being indebted), would have come to his aid.
In any case, he was provided with a window that he was able to use to rise out of cover and sprint for the enemy held positions, leaping over a large shard of concrete to smash the shocked batarian hiding behind it in the back of the head with ELE's stock, slamming his face into the concrete to afford him time to raise the barrel to rest under the alien's chin and pull the trigger, sending blood and brain matter and shards of skull flying, before Shepard vaulted back over the debris and ducked away from the fire that was coming his way now that his thirteen remaining foes had overcome their surprise. Five of them created suppressing fire that destroyed Cameron's attempts to coordinate a resistance with her charges, leaving her with one remaining option; close with them herself.
Relying on her shields to give her a moment's protection, she ducked out of cover and fired short, precise bursts that consistently impacted with the heads of her targets, lowering their shield strengths and decreasing the accuracy of their fire whilst they fought the compulsion to avoid the rounds that were hitting them, despite the fact that they were, in reality, doing no damage.
Understanding what she was trying to do, the asari sent a biotic wave at Cameron's targets, knocking them from their feet and affording Cameron with the time she needed to move out and advance on Shepard's attackers, at the moment at which he once again vaulted his cover, staying low, and landed on the ground at a crouch, his weapon aimed immediately at one of his foes, who was removed from the equation when a sniper round all but decapitated him, such was the level of destruction it inflicted on the alien's neck.
Shepard didn't wait to examine the creature's last moments, however, already rising to his feet and running left, towards the five that had been focussing on keeping the civilians doing what they seemed to do best; cowering. They were scrambling to their feet and reopening fire on Cameron, who had almost reached them. Unwilling to fire on Shepard and risk harming about half of their force, a batarian simply yelled a warning that transpired to be entirely counterproductive.
Instinctively, all of the batarians turned to face Shepard, who was almost upon them, leaving Cameron free to fire on them as well as continuing her advance, which meant that the batarians were facing a threat on both sides and didn't have time to prioritise them, or even bring their guns around onto Shepard before-
A quick hip shot from ELE just as he reached them, hitting an enemy in the abdomen, erasing his shields and ripping through a section of the armour before flying out of the back of the alien and continuing its course to lay a heavy dent in the shield strength of the alien standing behind him before the round's motion was finally arrested. Shepard discarded the rifle, drew and slashed a batarian throat with a knife from a coat pocket, then drew his sidearm, fired three shots at extreme close range to weaken another alien's shields, simultaneously throwing the knife so that it hit immediately after the final bullet and embedded itself in the privateer's eye.
Shepard then shot the batarian that had had his shields eliminated by the round from ELE, killing him instantly, before knocking aside a hasty blow from a knife wielding batarian and spinning him into the blast of the final creature's shotgun, snapping his neck to end his struggling before opening fire-
On a corpse that fell to reveal Cameron standing behind him, wielding an assault rifle. Almost immediately, however, they came under fire from their remaining seven attackers and Shepard dived into cover on the other side of the low, ruined wall that the batarians had been using for cover whilst they assaulted the civilians, whilst Cameron, being shielded, could afford to be slightly less hasty in mirroring the motion. Shepard resolved never to go anywhere without a kinetic barrier generator ever again.
"Better late than never." Cameron commented, a level of admonition in her voice.
"Be grateful I'm here at all." Shepard retorted. "How far to the landing zone?"
"Less than a kilometre." Cameron replied. "But there's been no sign of any deploying shuttles, yet."
"So what you mean to tell me," Shepard surmised, his voice growing testy, "is that we've been summoned to a killing ground in the false hope that we'd be getting some reinforcements? Delightful. I wish this sort of thing happened to me more often, if that were even possible..."
Without waiting for a response, he leaned out of cover, receiving a barrage to the ground around him in return whilst he clipped off a couple of rounds at the batarians, before retreating to safety again.
"They know they can't shift us from over there." He thought aloud. "They're going to have to charge us. And there are seven of them and two of us, and I'm not properly equipped. This could go badly..."
He let Cameron react to this little bit of pessimism, which was of course, entirely accurate, before turning to shoot her a devil may care grin, baring his reddened teeth savagely, listening intently as the enemy advanced, hoping to take the two humans by surprise and minimise casualties. "But when can't it?" he finished a second before he vaulted the wall, firing as he went, his trenchcoat flaring out behind him as he landed in a half crouch, mere metres from his foes who continued their charge.
Behind him, Cameron stood, and opened fire with her rifle as the batarian charge carried them towards her and the psychopath, her bullets doing little to slow them, and not damaging their shields enough to bring any of them down before they reached her.
The batarians opened fire in the last couple of metres before they reached the two humans, their barrage heavy but inaccurate, a mixture of bursts from assault rifles and clusters of shotgun rounds that flew around the Californian, smashing into her shields and then her armour, bruising her and sending her backwards, her accuracy unaffected, whilst to her right, Shepard rolled under the fusillade, and lashed out at the legs of the batarian before him with his own, bringing him to the ground whilst Shepard arose, placing his pistol against the alien's forehead and pulling the trigger as he did so.
He blocked the batarian on his left from turning his shotgun on the human, and stomped on the back of the privateer's knee, forcing him down onto it before delivering another clinical execution with the pistol in his hand, before releasing the corpse to open fire on the batarian before him, then yanking on the gun in the alien's grip in order to spin in past his defences and deliver a stunning elbow to the side of his head, before twisting back around to face his opponent, seize him by the throat and place his pistol against the creature's forehead.
Using the dazed humanoid as a meat shield, Shepard closed in on the other four aliens, who were trading bullets with his female companion, before shooting his captive and letting the corpse fall and discarding his pistol as the rearmost foe turned to bring his shotgun to bear, the psychopath slapping against it, slowing its motion allowing his simultaneous jab to the batarian's forehead with his left hand to connect, before bringing his right hand up to grab the alien's neck and wrench the creature's head, snapping its spine.
Cameron brought down one of the batarians assaulting her a moment before her overtaxed assault rifle overheated, resulting in her stepping forward to lash out at one of them with her almost useless weapon, without any clear plan of action in her mind; close quarters combat was something she had never had to practise. She swung the stock of her weapon at the batarian's exposed head, the quick motion making it past his guard, and staggering her almost as much as him when it connected and sent him stumbling backwards in time for her to turn and stare down the barrel of a shotgun in the grip of her other opponent-
To have it turn away from her and finish the batarian that was trying to get back up, before Shepard wrenched it from the privateer's grasp, struck him across the face with its stock, before turning the weapon on the final foe and pulling the trigger.
He went and retrieved his weapons, then turned to her and assessed her condition; armour damaged and breached, but with no really significant wounds. Apparently, she was doing the same thing for him, with a disbelieving expression on her face. He allowed himself an arrogant smirk as he walked past her in the direction she and the civilians had been going, watching the sky. Still no shuttles.
The landing zone was filled with civilians, amateurs carrying scavenged weapons and a couple of men who had the bearing of soldiers, tasked to capacity simply keeping order whilst everyone waited apprehensively for the promised salvation to arrive or for their destruction in the form of more batarians. Many of them eyed Shepard apprehensively as he approached with his contingent of battered, bloodied and all in all rather fortunate (relatively speaking of course) survivors. He never even joined them, standing separate in the shadows of a ruined building at the edge of the open landing zone, apparently lost in thought, but carefully watching and listening for any sign of more foes, when a flash of something pale caught his eyes; Miranda's face staring at him. She beckoned.
He stood up straight and took up his sniper rifle, turned to leave when a voice behind him asked
"Where are you going?"
Cameron's voice. He sighed, mentally planned various quick and quiet methods of execution to avoid attracting attention, but decided to at least attempt to bluff instead. He turned to her.
"A force of batarians is out there. Judging by how long it's been quiet here, they're grouping together for an assault en masse, and it is my intention to keep them away from the landing zone, where they could easily prevent the shuttles from landing." A plausible scenario that reflected his likely actions in such a situation.
"Need some company?" That was unexpected...
"I work better alone. Look after your precious civilians; they may need it."
He stepped back in order to turn and walk away; she moved forwards, an emotion in her eyes that he had trouble identifying. She was close, now, close enough to touch and kill with ease, standing on her toes, reaching up for him-
Shepard blocked her arms, she sank back down. "What happened to hatred?"
"I judged what I didn't know or understand."
"And now you think you do? Don't try to humanise me, Cameron. Humanity is weak."
"I know. Goodbye, Shepard."
The cynical yet uncaring grin returned to Shepard's face as he watched her turn away and mirrored her action, walking off into the ruins, knowing Miranda would make contact momentarily-
Before him were perhaps as many as fifty batarians, moving through the dead city towards the pitiful defences of the evacuation point.
"Oh, bloody hell..."