Chapter 16: School House Rumble pt3
Tali was upstairs in the room Jack, Kelly and the students used as a bunker hard at work with the terminal before her. As she worked she could hear the nervous chatter of the students behind her, she didn't blame them before all of this started they were only focused on typical teenage things. Now they had to deal with a group of people hunting them down and ancient machines terrorizing their homes and their families, it would be too much for any person to bear. Kelly came up and calmed the students down, and then came over to the quarian. "How's it going?" she asked.
"Almost done" Tali said. She looked at Kelly for a bit, the woman had changed a lot in just a year, back during the mission against the Collectors Kelly was very happy-go-lucky and peppy. She was one of the few Cerberus members Tali liked right of the gate, though she was Cerberus she truly believed she doing the right thing. Now she was much stronger. "It's good to see you again, Kelly"
Kelly smiled. "You too, Tali, I was worried when I heard about Earth" She then looked down at Jack on the lookout with Shepherd and Miranda. "Jack was too, even if she doesn't admit it" she said. "How's the crew?"
"Well, Garrus and Jacob are back with us, and Mordin is on the ship helping to broker peace between the Krogans and the Turians so the turians can help with Earth"
"I'm glad everyone's doing well and there's some hope for us" Kelly sighed. "Between the reaper reports and Cerberus going insane, it has been hard trying keep the students spirits up" Tali nodded in acknowledgment, the war had been hard on everyone she could only hope that the Crucible can end it before things get worse.
"Any family?" she asked.
Kelly lowered her head. "One, my mother, we been distant since my dad died when I was fifteen" she said. "Me joining Cerberus hadn't help things, but still I worry about her…" Kelly's talk about her distant mother made her think of her father, even though she was still angry with him some part of her worried about him. While the Migrant Fleet was as large or larger than the turian's fleet, their ships and weapons were centuries old and it wouldn't take much for the reapers to wipe them out. She shook her head and went back to work.
Moments later, Kelly, Tali and the students went downstairs and met with Shepherd, Jack, and Miranda. "Done" Tali said approaching the team. "All the cameras are under Sanders' control"
"Okay, tell me again why the cameras are so important, again?" Shepherd asked. His com opened.
"We need to reach the Cerberus shuttles. The cruiser won't auto-target friendly ships, which mean we'll have a fighting chance at escaping" Sanders explain.
"By giving her the cameras, she can find a path, from boxing us in" Miranda said. "Genius"
"So what's the fastest way out of here?"
"Through the Atrium, but Cerberus had sealed the doors"
Shepherd smirked. "Not a problem for our number one genius…" Tali nodded and went to the door and worked her little fingers fast, after a moment, the lock turned green and opened. The PA then sounded.
"Students of Grissom Academy, the station is sealed. Commander Shepherd can't save you…"
Shepherd frowned. "Want a bet, asshole?"
"All he can do is get you killed. Surrender peacefully, and you won't be harmed" The students looked at each other, unsure if they could do this. Cerberus was doing a very good job preying on their confidence, but from what Jack told him about them, they were very capable. However it didn't mean anything if they believed they were defeated before they started.
"Damn it, they're messaging everyone. Students, switch your omni-tools to privacy mode, so they can't track you" Sanders said. The student's pressed the button and the man talking went away.
"What if they're not lying…?" Rodriguez asked nervously.
"They're lying, trust me on this, besides you held your own against them, and you've been taught by the best" Shepherd said. "You can do this"
Kelly put a hand on her shoulder and smiled at the girl. "He's right, you'll be fine, Julia"
"So put on your balls and kick some ass, all of you" Jack said.
"Yes ma'am!" Her students said.
"We'll shadow you from above, while you draw their fire" Jack said.
"Sounds like a plan, but play it safe" Shepherd said. Jack nodded and her team went upstairs. The team headed downstairs and was met with Cerberus forces, there was an Atlas accompanied by countless Centurions, Guardians, and Combat Engineers.
"They came out in force, didn't they?" Tali asked.
Shepherd cracked his knuckles. "Good that means more for us to kill" To his right, he could see the engineers setting up their turrets. "Rookie, can you handle engineers?"
Tali smirked. "On it!" The Quarian hacked the turret and the gun turned on their former allies, while she handed the engineers, Miranda and Shepherd dealt with Centurion and Guardians. Shepherd used his singularity field to separate the guardians from their shield, while Miranda froze the Centurions in their tracks. While the team was focused on the lesser enemies, the Atlas was targeting them, only to be hit with biotic fields. The team looked up and saw Jack and her students pelting the heavy mech with biotic fields.
"Alright, kids kick their asses!" Jack said. The mech changed targets and aimed its weapon at Jack. "Barriers up!" Prangley and Rodriguez moved up front and created a huge barrier; the missile hit the barrier and made their legs buckle a little. "Smith, Langley, Chan and Grayson wipe them out!" The four kids glowed blue, and simultaneously fired wrap fields at the mech, while Jack and Kelly was shooting at it. Eventually it became too much for the mech, and it exploded.
"Not bad…" Shepherd said with a smirk. The team finished the last trooper, and they went on to the next area to their side, until they were met with more troopers. Shepherd opened his com.
"Kahlee, we're past the Atrium, we should be at the hanger shortly, after we deal with Cerberus"
"Understood, I'm taking the back route with the other students, I'll meet you there"
"So far, so good…" Miranda said. "Let's hope we keep our luck going…" The biotic students pelted the troopers with more biotic fields, playing havoc with their defenses; Shepherd took out his Arc Projector and fired at Cerberus' reinforcements, stunning them while Miranda and Tali wiped them out. More troopers came in above them shooting at them; Shepherd and team went upstairs and were stopped by two turrets and were approached by two Guardians. Tali summon Chatika to distract the Guardians and then hacked the two turrets. While the engineers and troopers were busy, Shepherd and Miranda came in close with shotguns and flames respectively.
Meanwhile, Jack's team was holding their own against some Centurions and Troopers. Langley and Chan pulled them while Smith and Grayson wiped them out with warp fields. After they fell more came, Rodriguez got shot in the arm, and cried in pain. "This isn't dodgeball, Rodriguez! Keep your barriers up!" Jack ordered. "Prangley, slap some medi-gel on her" Prangley nodded while Grayson and Smith took his place with the barrier.
Rodriguez winced when the medi-gel was applied to her arm. "I'm okay, I can keep fighting!" She said.
"Like hell you are, stay down! So help me if you die on me, I will kick your ass!"
"Yes ma'am!" Cerberus came at their side, and Kelly shot of them in the head.
"Stay away from our kids!" Kelly said shooting the third trooper. Chan spoke up.
"Ma'am, Cerberus is behinds us" Jack glowed blue and blew them away with her shockwave.
"You come after my kids, and you Cerberus fucker are dead, you hear me?!" When the last trooper fell, Jack's comm opened. "Yeah…?"
"You guys, alright up there?"
"Rodriguez took one in the arm…because she didn't watch her barrier!"
"Commander, Jack we've reached the shuttles" Sanders said.
"Were you spotted?" Shepherd asked.
"No, but I have no doubt that they're on to us, you need to hurry" Shepherd went in the next room, where they heard voice coming from their side. The team went to cover and saw two Cerberus troopers talking to three people inside a barrier. The barrier wasn't made of dark energy, but by some kind of device which meant they weren't biotics.
"That's an impressive barrier, Octavia. Our files states you were a genius at shield technology" one of the troopers said. "Your talents are wasted with the Alliance"
Octavia frowned. "I could say the same with you and Cerberus"
"How long do think you can keep this up? Eventually the battery will run out, and you and David will be all ours" Shepherd's eyes widen at hearing the name.
"David? Does he mean David Archer?" Tali asked. "He's still here?"
Shepherd frowned. "Looks like it…" Shepherd went out of cover and trapped them in a stasis field, and Miranda threw a warp field instantly killing them. They walked forward and met three people, a dark-skinned woman with short black hair, an Asian man tending to the device next to him and a bald fair-skinned young man. The bald man looked up and smiled, it was David, the young man Shepherd and Tali had rescued from that hell on Aite. "W-who are you?" Octavia asked nervously. "Stay back!"
"I'm Commander Shepherd with the Alliance, I'm here to help"
"I didn't buy it from the last guy and I've got no reason to buy it now" David got up and walked up to the barrier.
"The square root of 906.01 equals…" He looked so much better than he was months ago.
Months ago
"QUIET! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!" Another glow happened, and it condensed into a ball of light and dives to the ground causing a brief blinding flash, revealing David…real David… Shepherd and Tali gasped in horror at what they saw, it was worse than what Shepherd saw.
"Oh my god…"
"Keelah…"
They were treated to a grisly sight of a naked young man suspended upright in midair with nearly a dozen cables tapping into his arms and nervous system. His eyes were kept forced open, fluid on them that was certainly not tears. A pair of feeding tubes extended down his throat, keeping him from dying, forced into this living hell for as long as his captors deemed it necessary. His skin was deathly pale, from being in the darkness for so long, despite being force-fed David was emaciated, with a lot of the system not working from David's rampage the feeding tubes didn't as good as it was supposed to.
"Quiet…please make it stop…." Voice spoke up.
"Wait, Commander!" Archer ran to them, without warning Shepherd punched the scientist with a look of pure hatred on his face. The spectre was beating the life out of Archer, Tali ran to Shepherd trying to stop the spectre from killing him, even though it was what the scientist deserved. Shepherd's breathing was hard, not from exhaustion but from the rage he felt for the man, Tali hadn't seen him this angry since the X-57 incident two years ago. When Shepherd calmed down enough, he spoke with a rough voice.
"You son of a bitch, he begged you, BEGGED YOU!" He growled.
Archer got up, bruised and bloodied from Shepherd's assault from earlier. For his credit, Archer didn't cower in fear, but Tali could tell he was afraid. "I know how this must look, but I never intended any harm to come to him. You must believe me"
"Believe you? You lied to us so you can keep this horror a secret" Tali said angrily. "I should let Wayne kill you for you what you did"
"It's not how I planned this, it was an accident, seeing David communicate with the geth…it all seem harmless" Archer said.
"And before you knew it you were running your own hell" Shepherd said with venom.
"I had no choice! The demands…"
"THERE'S ALWAYS A CHOICE! I had to watch my sister die in my arms, and you…you still had your brother and YOU DO THIS!" Shepherd yelled.
"Any war we fight with the geth will be bloody, I had to find the way to avoid that, I did what I had to do!"
"So you decided to play god with David's life and with the lives of the people here, you disgust me"
"If my research spares millions of mothers the loss of their sons and daughters, then I can rest easy."
"Tell that to your brother and try to justify that to him" Tali hissed. "Thanks to you, he will never be the same"
"The damage may not be permanent, he may recover some semblance of his mind" Archer said.
"Maybe, but not here and not with you" Shepherd said pulling up his com.
"What are you doing?"
"I've seen enough of you cruelty to know he'll never be free, I'm taking him away" Shepherd said.
Archer took out his gun and pointed at him. "No! He's too valuable!" Shepherd bioticlly took the gun away and took out his omni-blade and stopped before his neck.
"I should kill for what you've done here, but…" he looked at David "…David doesn't need this, he needs help" he said. He then grazed Archer's neck with blade, making it draw blood. "If I get the slightest hint that you're going to come after David again, or restart these experiments, I will carve you up like the gutless piece of shit you are, and I will make sure your death is slow and painful as possible" Shepherd dropped the mortified scientist and released David.
Now
"30.1" Shepherd simply said.
David smiled at him. "Hello Commander Shepherd" Octavia and her friend looked at him.
"David, you know him?"
"Yes, he rescued me from Cerberus, sent me hear, made it quiet" Octavia took down the barrier.
"Sorry"
Shepherd shook his head. "Don't worry about it, I'm more impressed with how you kept yourselves safe" he said. "Jack and the biotic students are up there, stay close, we'll get you out of here"
"Okay, thanks" She said walking away leaving David.
Tali smiled. "He looks better, healthier"
"I remember you, Miss Tali…" David said. "Sorry"
"You have nothing to apologize for, I just glad we were able to help" she said.
"How are you doing, kid?" Shepherd asked.
"I'm fine, I've been counting…"
"What?"
David smiled. "The number of days you've lengthened my life" he said. He looked at the door behind him. "The security office, I hacked the door, guns lots of guns. Goodbye"
Shepherd nodded. "Take care, kid" The team went to the security room, and equipped themselves before moving on. They went on to the next area, and saw a lone engineer talking with the other troopers next to them was an Atlas mech he just fixed. Shepherd snuck up to the engineer and gutted him before entering the mech. He turned on the mech, the systems were all green and he closed the hatch, it seems the reinforced glass was the only thing that engineer weren't able to fix. He pressed a few buttons and activated the shield to compensate for the ruined hatch. Shepherd opened his com.
"Jack, how are you guys?"
"Shit, Cerberus got us pinned; get your ass over here!" Jack said.
"On our way, just hang on!" Shepherd said. "Let's go!" They entered the next area and saw Jack and her students fighting the troopers off. Shepherd fire the Atlas' missiles at the centurions and troopers, while Miranda and Tali dealt with the guardians. The shield sparked and the side door came several troopers, as powerful as the Atlas was it could not turn on a dime. Tali summoned her drone as Miranda burned them as they approached. From the top floor, troopers came in from the side to flank Jack's team. As they passed one of their generators, Kelly shot it and stunned the troopers; Jack glowed and blew them back with a shockwave. When their load was lightened, Jack and the other moved to the exit. After all of the waves of ground troops were down, an enemy Atlas came through the door where you entered.
"Jack?"
"We're all in, get your ass out of there" Shepherd activated the auto-pilot and the self-destruct. Shepherd got out and the team made it over to the shuttles, while the mech walked towards the enemy mech. As the shuttle escaped, the last thing they could heard was the sound of an explosion, they made their way back to the Normandy.