The plan, in broad strokes, was for Weaver to lead the frontal assault on Saren's base together with Shepard. Once they got past the first gate to the outer courtyard area, Shepard's team would split off to take care of the remaining AA guns. Those inside the compound itself were too well-protected for air strikes, but were vulnerable to ground assault. With those down, we could land forces in shuttles on the shuttle pads at the back of the base, which would help relieve the pressure on the frontal bottleneck. The plan would create an opening on the narrow rear approach to the base, which I would exploit with a team of Technopaths.
Shepard and Weaver walked off to catch up and plan their assault in more detail, which allowed me some time to catch up with my own operatives. The same Dagger group that had handled the lunar installation had landed their craft in a lonely corner of the beach right after Shepard arrived in the Mako. That is, it had been lonely; almost immediately after they landed, the area had been crawling with nosy STG operatives. Unfortunately for them, all their scanning equipment seemed to malfunction whenever they tried to scan the microfrigates. Not that this discouraged them, on the contrary, it just made them more curious and determined.
Working in teams wasn't something Technopaths did often. Most of us were lone wolf operatives both out of operational necessity. We weren't many, and as intelligence agents we needed to be everywhere at once. Rarely did more than two team up for any one mission. Not that we never did, it was just overkill for most missions.
This time, however, overkill was just what the doctor ordered. The cleverly named 'Shadow' team was to move into the operational heart of the base, sabotaging the defensive efforts any way we could, extracting any and all useful information from the compound before Saren or his Geth had a chance to wipe it, and clearing the location of plan B: If at first we don't succeed, apply giant bomb directly to area.
We were of course hoping it wouldn't have to come to that. With the anti-air defences taken care of, the base's defenders attacked from multiple approaches, the Geth's electronic warfare capabilities suppressed by my team and Caesar, and the Geth fleet held in orbit by Archangel, we should be able to capture rather than destroy the facility. That, at least, was plan A. Time would tell how it would fare upon contact with the enemy.
My squad was an interesting bunch of former and current misfits. There were six of us, and of all current operatives we were the ones most used to working as a larger unit, having played a role in some of the most important battles in the final days of the Terminus Wars. Among them was Tela D'Naara, an asari matron who had joined the Corps after her formerly staunchly liberal Tarath'shan made a visit to the Hegemon's Palace on Khar'Shan and came back decidedly less so. Before this she had been a Shadow Broker contact, and by extension my contact, on the Batarian homeworld. She had barely survived the extraction, and decided to become a Technopath after she was introduced to the programme after life-saving surgery aboard the then still-unfinished Archangel. She wasn't the first biotic technopath, but she was the first asari technopath combatant. Before her, all asari to take the implants got the 'light' version only, and specialised in long-term infiltration.
Like me, Tela became something of a prototype platform. The complexity of our implants required extensive testing that computerised models couldn't do, which meant that each implant and system went through a thorough cycle of in vivo testing before being approved for use in other operatives. I was the primary test subject for most of the implants, which meant that I was far less specialised than most operatives. The same could be said for Tela, though her implants were mostly geared toward improving and increasing her biotic capabilities. And increase them they did.
Biotic technopaths were a terrifying force on the battlefield. With redundant barrier capacitors and severely oversized amps, biotic implants that went far deeper and were a lot more complex than anything available on the mass market, Tela could tank a Mako round at centre mass without breaking her secondary shield gate.
The other biotic on the team was an exiled Batarian named Chen. He had been part of Tela's cadre while she was still a Harath'krem, and had been exiled and forced to work as cannon fodder for a Hegemony-sponsored pirate warlord in the Terminus after she had been declared Reyja'krem and persona non grata on Khar'shan. Tela rescued him after the ship he was held on was defeated and nearly destroyed during one of the Network's pacification campaigns in the eastern Terminus. He joined our cause shortly after and had spent the last couple of years directing those pacification efforts.
The human, a colonial German named Dietrich Freiss, was a former N7 who had been forced into retirement after sustaining serious and crippling injuries during an op on deployment with the Corsairs in the Traverse. Unfortunately for him, he had been identified after the operation and the Alliance had been forced to denounce him as a rogue operator in order to maintain plausible deniability with regards to the Corsairs. Our contacts with the group and within the N-programme sent him our way, initially for an officer and instructor post, but when he realised that undergoing Technopath implantations and training meant he could return to the field he did so without hesitation. Freiss was a weapons specialist, excelling in the use of any and all firearms, but his favourite by far was a heavily modified Revenant machine gun.
The final two members of Shadow team were the Renem twins, Shala and Marel, both vas Archangel. Quarian twins were exceedingly rare, and opinions on them were split within the Migrant Fleet. Some considered them a drain on Flotilla resources, since Quarians were normally only allowed a single child per family. Others viewed them as a blessing, representing an unexpected increase in a slowly dwindling population. The twins were both infiltration specialists, though they had complementary expertise. Shala'Renem was one of the best hackers and saboteurs in the galaxy, while her brother Marel was an expert recon sniper. They were also unusual as far as Technopaths went, as they always operated as a pair.
Quarians were particularly well-suited for infiltration roles as Technopaths. The insulting stereotype of the low-life suit rat actually worked in their favour. They would regularly be suspected of theft, robbery, and other petty crimes, but never of something as 'sophisticated' as espionage, infiltration, or assassination. Plus, few people even noticed them, and those who did never looked very closely at them. Some cheap scanning technologies could detect our cybernetics, but there was nothing out of the ordinary with a part cybernetic Quarian, as far as most people knew. And during Terminus ops, the fact that the twins could go without the suit allowed them to pass as indentured Terminus colonial Quarians who had acclimatised to the premises. In other words, they looked like they belonged and should be ignored.
Their role on Shadow squad would be sniper cover and horde management. Hording was a tactic devised for combat with or against large numbers of synthetics. The idea was simple enough: Turn the enemy forces against each other. Regular battlefield hacking was limited by omni-tool hardware and processing power, but Technopaths had massively increased computational capacity and electronic warfare capabilities that allow us to control far more synthetics at the same time. Hording, specifically, was a protocol for creating and maintaining a self-replenishing "horde" of synthetics to act as a vanguard force. With Geth, a platform's hosted runtimes would manage to reassert control eventually regardless of what kind of computer power you threw at it, so the trick was to "manage" the horde by eliminating those platforms before that could happen. None were more experienced or skilled at this than Shala'Renem vas Archangel.
"Messenger. Good to see you again."
It was hardly a surprise that Freiss was the first to notice me arrive. The man was trained to operate in close-knit teams, and always had an eye out for friends and other acquaintances these days.
"And you, Operative Zeta."
Compartmentalisation was an important aspect of our operational procedures. The names and identities of our operatives were unknown to most, even on Shadow team I was the only one read in on all identities. The twins knew each other, of course, and were otherwise known to everyone, but they knew none of the others, and Tela knew mine and Chan's identities but not Dietrich's.
"I heard you spotted some targets on your approach?"
The man, who was wearing a somewhat bulkier version of my own armour minus the coat, handed me a holo tablet with an updated tactical overview of the compound.
"I was about to send this to the STG captain." He gestured for me to zoom in on the inner compound. "They know the frontal assault is coming, and have moved more forces to those lines, as expected. But here," he pointed at a structure marked in red at the edge of the inner compound, "They have another AA emplacement."
First snag. "Add that to our list of objectives, then. Shepard's squad is handling the one in the outer courtyard."
"We might have to split up to do that effectively. The gun is off our path"
He was right, of course. In the games, Shepard's Shadow team could save the AA tower for last, to clear the air for the Normandy. But that was not our plan. Clearing the airspace quickly was vital for allowing our troop transports to land, which meant we would either have to rush through and double back again, or split the team halfway through.
"Maybe send the twins? I can work as a relay for the horde management, that way we won't have to give up the vanguard force."
He nodded and waved a hand in a vaguely dismissive motion. "It will be overkill still with Chi and Mu up there, but why not."
"You think we should send Mu with them?"
"Between Merel's sniper rifle and Mu's Kishock that would give us some excellent sniper cover from that tower. They'll be able to cover the entire inner compound from there."
I nodded. "Make it happen. I will catch up Chi."
I admit, I was looking forward to seeing Tela again. She had been a good friend for years, and was one of very few people in the galaxy who knew my real identity. That was was also why she was trusted as the primary contact between the Technopaths and the Shadow Broker. Apart from myself, that is, but I was formally – and, in a sense, publically – an independent contractor.
She was standing off to the side, conversing with one of Kirrahe's lieutenants. Or rather, fending off his attempts at conversation. After two centuries in Batarian society, and nearly half a decade liaising with Hetta T'Lang, the woman was more than capable of keeping a nosy Salarian at bay.
"My employer is not subject to Council law, Salarian. We are based and operate outside of recognised Council borders. So no, even if I could, I would not deactivate our 'sensor-scattering technology', as you put it."
I had to stifle a chuckle so as not to break character as I walked up to the bickering pair.
"STG authorisation code," I cut off the Salarian before he could protest, "Aegohr Sigma 5, Messenger. Cease your activities at once."
Big black eyes blinked at me one, two times, before he opened his omni-tool to run the code through. When the screen flashed an affirmative at him, he barely looked up as he muttered an apology and walked away to gather his men.
The tall Asari standing next to me snorted. "When did you plant that one, boss?"
"Three years ago. Sur'kesh."
"Ah." She whistled through her teeth, "Well, at least something good came of that clusterfuck."
The remark made me wince slightly. Operations on Sur'kesh were rare, because they were too risky and usually too messy. Only one had taken place three years ago, and it had been… unpleasant. Myself, Tela, and Rho had infiltrated an STG outpost we had learned was central to the organisation's ill-advised plan to study the Yahg for eventual uplifting. The plan was to facilitate the escape of the Yahg subjects, and ensure their deaths in the chaos that followed.
It had not gone well. The moment those creatures escaped, everything had gone to shit. They had somehow figured out how to disable their implanted failsafe devices, which allowed them to live long enough to got halfway out of the base before we managed to corner them and put them down. Tela was severely injured in the melee, and required months of therapy and further enhancements before she could return to the field.
"Small favours. So," I attempted to change the topic, "Thoughts on the plan?"
"It will go tits-up the moment we engage the enemy," she scoffed, a vague grin forming before she continued, "It's as good a plan as any other, boss."
I couldn't help but smirk behind my mask. Indeed.
...
"So… frame armour? Really?"
Her old friend had collapsed his helmet into a thick collar around his neck, allowing Shepard to see him smirking at her remark. The two of them shared a lot of history. Part of that history included his first attempts at using frame armour, an old Alliance T5 model. He had called it "the fanciest coffin he had ever had the displeasure of trying on". The Alliance had clearly agreed with the then-N5 commando, as the T5 project had been killed off entirely shortly thereafter.
"This old thing has been my standard combat gear for the last two years," he grinnd. "The Quarians and the Volus are quite experienced with both exoskeletons and mechanically assisted full-suit armour. They worked wonders on the old T5 design."
"They would have had to, for you to wear it. And to make it safe for everyone else when you do."
"Hah!" He slapped her shoulder, making her stumble slightly. "Still blaming me for that toe incident, are we?"
"Incident?" She glared at him, incredulously. "I was out of commission for two weeks! You flattened by reinforced combat boot!"
Weaver gave a lopsided smile as he turned away a bit, a touch of guilt crossing his features. "Yeah, well… that's one of the things they fixed. A better mass effect core with adjustable output. In the standard setting it feels like wearing light armour."
"My feet thank you sincerely."
"You know, you really should be thanking…"
"Don't say it!"
"…Aaron."
"God damn it, Weaver…"
Her old friend's face was firmly set in a serious expression as he got himself ready for what was clearly a prepared speech. "Look, he's half the brains and muscle of all of this! And I'm not just talking about the T6, here."
Hang on… "What do you mean, 'half the brains'? He has a partner?"
It didn't matter how skilled Weaver had become at deception and information discipline over the years, Shepard still read him like an open book. The look that came over his face at her question, though brief, was enough. That deer in the headlights look all but confirmed she was right.
"I am not at liberty to discuss Corps management matters and secrets, Shepard," he replied quickly as he regained a neutral expression.
Shepard hissed through her teeth. "I knew he was still hiding something."
With a speed that belied his size, Weaver whirled around and grabbed her shoulder, turning her to face him directly.
"Damn it, Jane, not all secrets people keep are theirs to reveal!"
He might as well have slapped her across the face, for the effect his harshly whispered words had on her. She was sure no one else had heard, but that name… he knew not to use that name. Ever.
Shepard's eyes narrowed to a glare as she snarled her response. "Low. Fucking. Blow."
The former N7's face softened as he raised his arms in mock surrender.
"Sorry, Sprite, but you blind yourself sometimes. Someone has to point out to you when you're being a hypocrite." He smiled, genuinely, before adding, "It's what you always liked about me, remember?"
She frowned, reluctant to acknowledge his judgment. He was right. She knew that he was right, as he always was. But more importantly, to her at least, he was always brutally honest.
"You say what you mean and you mean what you say," she grumbled, pausing for a few seconds to collect herself before continuing. "He just… he doesn't respect the chain of command, and he's one of those wheels within wheels types. It's just… I can't…"
"Pot. Kettle. Black." Shepard glared at him, but he continued undeterred. "You don't like him because he reminds you too much of yourself, in uncomfortable ways. He's a good man, Sprite, and an invaluable asset. You know this, even if you refuse to admit it to yourself."
"Fine!" She huffed, "I'm giving him a chance. Now can we drop this?"
He nodded. "What do you want to talk about? The op?"
"We've got time." She smiled mischievously. "You never told me why you're wearing that tank. Doctor's orders?"
The blush that followed was the reason Shepard would never tired of teasing her old friend.
...
"We have engaged in full force. Shadow, you are go."
"Affirmative."
It was a bit of a climb down the cliffs to reach the narrow beach passage that served as our path of entry to the rear of Saren's base. Our two biotics had simply jumped down. I could have followed them, due to my eezo conduit and my implanted mass effect core, but I decided to indulge in one of my former passions and work my way down alongside Dietrich and the twins.
"Hurry up, boss!"
Sigh… "You're not helping, you know."
"Neither are you. That's kind of the problem, boss. Get down here!"
"Heh," Dietrich interrupted our banter, "I've missed this! We need to do more team ops!"
"You say that every time, Zeta."
"That's because it's true, Chi!"
Shadow team, though we had no collective designation outside of this particular op, was one of just three trained Technopath teams, and by far the most experienced. However, that still added up to just a few ops per year, only one or two of which counted the full team. For Dietrich, who was used to the tight-knit squads of Alliance Special Operations, that had been a particularly difficult adjustment. His current liaising position with the Corsairs had been something of a compromise for him.
After a few more seconds, and several witty quips from my team members – apart from the nearly always quiet Chen – the last of the team reached ground. Last, amusingly, was Dietrich, whose armour and gear made him by far the heaviest member of the team. As soon as his boots hit the ground, though, his gun was up and at the ready, and he gestured for the rest of the team to get a move on as if we hadn't just been waiting for him.
As we advanced, we got continuous updates from the front, with Weaver acting as a mobile command and information hub. It was mostly a passive effort on his part, with Caesar doing most of the actual work and thus allowing the Major General to focus on his front line soldier's duties. Weaver had been considered for, and even offered, the Technopath implantation procedures, but he had refused. His T6 frame armour was the next best thing, allowing him to not only act as a sensors and comms relay on the ground, but also to continuously analyse the situation and make tactical adjustments when necessary, all the while fighting very effectively on the front lines himself.
The frontal assault was going well. Our forces' electronic warfare capabilities appeared to have surprised the Geth, and they had been forced to fall back behind the cover of their larger coordinating units and the stationary firewall sentries that protected the compound from virtual attacks. This, in turn, meant that the bulk of the charging defenders were Krogan berserkers – mostly inexperienced clones – and hordes of husks, which were all kept at bay by concussive fire from our front lines and electroconcussive mortar shells from our rear support.
The first significant pushback came at the deployment of several squadrons of canopy bomber drones. Taking position over No Man's Land, just within cover from the firewalls, they unleashed rocket barrages on our front. This would be bad enough in itself, but the really bad part was that their Canopy turrets kept the incoming mortar shells from ever reaching the ground, which in turn allowed the Krogan and husk horde to advance. The drones were effectively protected from our own anti-air equipment, and those that were brought down by small arms fire were easily, and quickly, replenished. They did, however, have one crucial weakness. Limited internal space meant they had to both rearm and refuel frequently. And as it happened, Shadow team was quite near their depot.
Getting there was surprisingly easy. We hadn't expected much resistance on the outer perimeter, but the very few sentry platforms we did come across presented no challenge at all. I figured they were probably stationed as intelligent sensor sentries, which would mean things would get progressively harder as the local consensus adjusted their tactics to our detected presence. By the time we got to the drone depot, we had a small squadron of a half-dozen Geth acting as our vanguard force, and they helped keep the unarmed returning drones from reaching the depot before we destroyed it.
"The drone depot is down, they can no longer rearm or replenish their number."
"I read,", Weaver's voice came through the radio, "Lines Two and Three, coordinated concussion strike, spread front, at T minus three seconds from my mark. Follow up with concentrated fire on the drone line! Mark!"
It was a risky manoeuvre, but Weaver knew what he was doing. The husks were getting too close, and the Krogan were nearly within charging distance. A concussive strike from two of the front three lines would only give us a few seconds to focus on the drones, and we might take some hits from their rockets as lines Two and Three got out from behind One's cover shields to launch their attack, but those few seconds and what remained in action of Two and Three should have been enough to knock the remaining drones out of the sky.
And as it turned out, it was. Not ten seconds later did we hear the distinct thud-and-crackle of the mortars as they once more impacted the ground, signalling an end to the enemy charge at our front. In fact, the combination of our entrenched forward position and the distance the enemy counter-attackers had covered meant that a majority of their force was now stranded in No Man's Land, their retreat cut off by our mortars. Meanwhile, Shadow team was making good time. The defenders had yet to adjust to our presence, no doubt overwhelmed by the force at their front gates. However, our Geth vanguard was completely gone, with Shala directing the platforms to destroy each other before the hosted runtimes reasserted themselves. Which meant that as we moved toward the gates of the compound itself, Tela and Chen were taking point and fortifying their barriers. Their very, very thick barriers.
"Eyes front! Contact!"
Tela's shout was all the warning we got before all hell was unleashed upon us. It turned out that the Geth had adjusted their tactics, and they had been rather clever about it, too. They had snipers – Turians, at least four of them – in well-protected balcony positions in the rock above the gates, and all the gates had opened on us just as we reached half-way between the cover of the rock tunnels behind us and the gates themselves. Out poured a small horde of indoctrinated Salarians wielding various small arms and tech launchers, and behind them lumbered about half a dozen Krogan Battlemasters alongside twice that number of vat-grown clones. Not a single Geth platform was to be seen.
"Looks like they decided against providing us with more weapons. Bunker protocol! Vanguards, break their lines!"
Bunker protocol was a fairly simple doctrine. When faced with overwhelming firepower, and not enough time and/or cover to deal with it safely, reinforce all shields, barriers, and armour, deploy omni-shields, and hold position while you whittle them down by the numbers. Under ordinary circumstances, snipers would force you into cover and in the process make themselves the primary targets. Under Bunker protocol, your goal was to kill or disable as many of the opposition's forces as you could as quickly as possible, without moving. Normally, this would allow the enemy snipers to just unleash on you. Such a shame, then, that the snipers would find their weapons were no longer functional.
The counter-attack was brutal and highly effective. Firing nearly non-stop with my Cyclone in one hand and my Kessler in the other, I focused on the Salarians, specifically on breaking their shields as quickly as I could. Behind me, Marel's sniper rifle barked in a rhythm perfectly timed to the weapon's cooling cycle as he kept the Battlemasters from charging into the fight. He was helped in this by Dietrich, whose Revenant thundered an endless stream of searing hot metal that tore down the Salarians whose shields I had kindly taken care of for him, and then continued past them to impact the shields of the Krogan warriors behind them.
Meanwhile, Tela and Chan was wreaking absolute havoc on the areas of the enemy front which could not be covered by the rest of the team. Forgoing firearms completely, the two of them were a biotic wrecking crew as they barrelled through the enemy lines, swatting away Salarians and Turians with ease. The efforts of the few Asari who joined the fight, presumably to even the playing field in terms of biotic power, were laughably underpowered in comparison. One of them had tried to capture Tela in a powerful Singularity, only to have the orb caught by the Technopath biotic and thrown back at her in the form of a Flare. The explosion was blinding, and apparently signalled the Battlemasters that another change in tactic was in order.
All six of them charged out at once, thundering through their own lines on the side I was focusing on. To their credit, the change of tactic worked in the sense that it forced us to change our focus accordingly. Unfortunately for them, that meant that we were all now focused on them, and I am certain that after the first dozen or so mines and grenades they were regretting their decision to ever join up with Saren in the first place. One of the Battlemasters managed to pick himself up and retreat back into the base while his comrades fell all around him, though I was certain we had not yet seen the last of him. What I did find curious was that this Krogan, and some of his krantt, were wearing what had clearly been Blood Pack armour once upon a time. There was something else familiar about him, but I had a battle to focus on so I scheduled a review of the battle recording for later.
Not that I had to focus for much longer; with the Krogan gone and the biotic support obliterated, the remaining force was pacified in short order. You could tell from the way they were organised that they were skilled fighters, well-trained and experienced, even if the slightly erratic behaviour of the forcefully indoctrinated Salarian shock troopers confused the picture a little. Mercenaries with this level of skill were hard to come by outside of the established PMCs, and most of those were well-tracked by the Network. I could only conclude that these were former Blue Suns and Eclipse, refugees from the Terminus Wars picked up by Saren before we could ever get them on our radar. Which was worrying; that meant that parts of his operations had been sailing under our radar for much longer than we had previously assumed. This wasn't really a surprise, the man had been a Spectre for the entirety of that time and had vast resources available to him, but it was still worrying considering the amount of resources we had dedicated to keeping track of his endeavours.
A few final snaps from our weapons left only the snipers, whose weapons had finally come back to life as the on-board VI self-recovery cycle completed. The snipers were stuck in their positions, and they knew it. There was no exit back into the base from their perches, their only options were to either get back in the fight or surrender. Being Turians, and probably veterans of the Terminus Wars who might even have fought against the likes of us before, the latter wasn't even an option. Dutifully, they popped out of cover to line up their shots, predictably aiming for the only obvious sniper in our team. Unfortunately for them, that sniper was dramatically more skilled than them, and he picked off the two on the left before they could even get a bead on him. Meanwhile, I had switched to my Serpent at the end of the skirmish and levelled it at the one perched directly ahead of us, right above the gate. I was nowhere near as skilled with my marksman's weapon as Merel was with his rifle, but one straight shot like that I could do with ease. The final sniper had been slightly slower than the rest of his mates, and managed to register what happened to them before he suffered the same fate when a bolt from Chen's Kishock nailed him to the rock face behind him by his throat.
"All clear. Move up, breach the gate."
We all scrambled to fall in behind Tela, still leading our pack with Chen right behind her. That's usually how it went, the Batarian would rely on his biotics until the tactical context required him to draw the Kishock, after which he would rely on the gun while tanking whatever was thrown at him with his ridiculous barrier strength and brutal-looking tech armour. The gun was heavily modified, its modifications based on one of my personal and on-going pet projects. The bolt fabricator had been angled to feed into a three-bolt magazine curving down around the barrel, and it had been modified to shunt excess heat into a liquid metal heatsink within each bolt. The charge mechanism had been changed away from the standard Kishock trigger-hold-and-release cycle, to an automatic charge with a regular customisable trigger. The operator could still 'cock' the gun after each bolt, which would fabricate a new one, or they could fire up to three shots before reloading one, two, or three times to reload as many bolts into the magazine and barrel. Perhaps most importantly, the piece of crap mass effect engine that powered the standard Kishock had been replaced with a high-end variant, which was the only reason the weapon was even able to fire three charged bolts in succession without melting down completely. Properly aligned rails also minimized the well-known target deviation problem which normally kept the Kishock from ever being considered a viable sniper's weapon, though its range was still limited. That couldn't be helped; the range of all mass effect weapons was determined by the size of its grains and the barrel velocity in a non-linear fashion, where the regained mass of the projectile as it left the barrel inevitably caused friction and drag effects that would make it disintegrate, simply stop, or veer entirely off course after a certain distance.
Looking over the tactical readouts, I saw no armour penetrations for anyone in the squad, though Merel's shields had shattered toward the end of the skirmish which had allowed a couple of bullets to impact his armour. Light pistol rounds, from the looks of things, so he was never really in any danger. Impressively, Tela's reinforced barriers had held up throughout, never dropping below 20%, and they were now steadily increasing back to full stand-by strength. Chen's barriers had shattered, but they hadn't come anywhere near to breaking his tech armour and the barriers had begun their recharge before the battle even ended. Personally, I'd had to re-deploy the omni-shield on my left arm two times, and I had lost a few tech armour plates on my coat. My shields had dropped to 50% at one point, after the entire left flank had focused fire on me the first time they saw my omni-shield shatter, but that was nowhere near a point where I would worry at all.
"Boss, we have some terminals. This appears to be the main cargo warehouse, the terminals may have useful shipping information."
"Shala, plug in and grab whatever you can."
"Plugging in and grabbing everything. Got it."
Cocky. I shrugged. Not unearned, I guess.
...
"Enemy have retreated in full numbers behind their gates. Beginning Phase 2."
Shepard hadn't fought many battles with Salarians, but she would easily admit to being impressed with the way Kirrahe was directing the battle. Aided brilliantly by Weaver and herself, of course, but the overall direction of the attack fell to the Salarian.
"Williams, right flank, high, by the turret!"
"Got him!"
A loud snap from the Alliance marine's sniper rifle sent one of the wall-crawling Geth tumbling over the wall where it had attempted to perch itself. The muted hiss and loud beeping that followed had Shepard quirk an eyebrow."
"High-caliber bullets?"
"And high-velocity rails, Ma'am." Williams deftly switched her still-cooling sniper rifle for her shiny, new assault rifle. "I figure if I'm to use that thing I might as well go for power and precision. Continuous fire I'll handle with this baby."
The Commander snorted when Ashley proceeded to actually pat the rifle on the scope before she pulled it up into her shoulder ready to continue to Phase 2.
This part of the plan was relatively simple, and most of it demanded only that her squad hold for the next phase. The mortar fire from the back would shift to impact behind the wall, while a barrage of carnage rounds, heavy grenades, and rockets were launched directly at the closed gates and any exposed weak points in the wall, while the lines marched steadily toward said wall. The effect, hopefully, would be that the defenders would be forced away from the wall and into the protective cover of the canopy turrets protecting the inner compound. The moment the outer wall was breached, the plan was to rush that breach and expand it quickly to allow the full force to enter. If the wall wasn't breached by the time they reached it, grapplers would be deployed when the wall was reached and biotics would be used to clear the wall for climbed entry while breaching charges were set on the gates. The inevitability of multiple points of entry should add more pressure on the defenders to abandon the outer perimeter and retreat to the inner compound to reinforce the defence there.
Once the outer compound was breached, her squads would form up and make left for the AA tower. She wasn't expecting any trouble on the tactical side of things, even though both Kaidan and Ashley lacked direct experience with N7 Invasion protocol they were more than familiar with the standard three-man squad special operations tactics. With Shepard directing them from her unit leader position, they should be fine leading their own squads. As a bonus, it would allow Shepard more freedom than usual to do her own thing and get into the thick of it. It wasn't something everyone could do, leading from the front and directing squads while erratically jumping around the battlefield. It had taken Shepard years of practice and experience to learn how to be unpredictable to the enemy while at the same time supporting her own squads without getting in their way or otherwise forcing them to continuously change their focus.
"Fire! Fire! Fire!"
The noise that followed Weaver's command was ear-shattering, as countless explosive and concussive munitions blasted their way from their front lines to impact the structure ahead of them. Immediately after the thunderous impacts came the first mortar detonations from inside the outer compound, the explosions followed by loud screeching and crackling as violent electrical discharges scorched and fried the synthetics on the other side. The organic contingent didn't get off easy, either, judging by the bellowing Krogan roars of pain and the ear-piercing howls and screeches of the husk horde. And… was that Vorcha she heard? Oh this is gonna be fun!
"Again!"
Another round, she estimated this would be repeated another four or five times before the front lines reached the wall and the rear lines took over. That's where most of the biotics and snipers were, and between their singularities and sniper rifles they would have no trouble keeping the battlements clear.
When they reached the wall, everything became a blur of activity. The mobile battlements of Line 1 dropped their massive omni-shields and scrambled to set their breaching charges, while the volume of fire from the rear lines increased accordingly. They could not possibly maintain their current strength of attack for long, and they knew it, the only reason for the massive burst of intensity was to provide as much cover as possible for the breach. It succeeded; it didn't even take half a minute before the first charges were set and detonated, successfully blowing the gates' closing mechanisms apart and allowing the front line biotics to force them open.
No time was wasted in charging into the outer compound, with the vanguard and sentinel classes leading the pack to tank whatever fire would come their way from any enemies able to see through the insanity and confusion that no doubt ruled their front lines. There really wasn't much left to handle, though, as most of the Krogan had evidently retreated into the inner compound with what remained of their husk horde. What was left of the Geth was quickly taken care of, their collective intelligence having taken a hit from the quick and dramatic reduction in their number.
My turn!
"Williams, Alenko, round up your squads and form wide on me!"
Shepard really liked N7 Invasion protocol, particularly when she was allowed the Squad Command position. It allowed her the freedom to fight to her strengths like no other tactical protocol. She'd become quite adept at commanding her squads with minimum explicit input in the form of, well, commands, but in the smaller three-man standard squad formations it was often necessary. In the SC position, however, most of that job was delegated to the squad leaders – Williams and Alenko – and she could go off and do her thing, as long as she helped keep the squads' efforts focused where they were needed.
N7 Invasion protocol or not, she had found that the trick was to identify whatever uncovered flanks and blind spots the squad might have and focus her efforts there, being as much of a harassing presence as possible so that the enemy would focus on her. This would free her squads up to do their job as they were trained to, which allowed for effective combat without unnecessary direction on her part. Often she could do her directing through her actions, perhaps by suppressing enemies she considered low priority to make the higher priority ones better targets for her squad, or by staggering high-priority targets in hit-and-run attacks. Against larger groups of enemies, the best course of action was often to jump into the middle of the group, which although it interfered with her own squad's optimal lines of fire allowed her to tie down the enemy into clumps that could be handled more easily when she inevitably jumped away again. This tactic was less predictable for uninitiated squad mates, which was why it was one of the tactics she always explicitly trained her people in so that they knew what to do when they saw her do something that on its face seemed stupid. This was also why she preferred to work with other biotics, as she would always leave a singularity behind before jumping away, and detonating that would generally have devastating consequences.
"Listen up," Shepard got her team's attention on the radio, "Wrex, Zorah, your squad leader is Williams. Vakarian, Kryik, you report to Alenko. Follow their orders! I don't give a damn about your ranks or your experience, this is N7 Invasion protocol and if you're not Alliance you are not trained in this tactic. So follow. Their. Command. Copy?"
A chorus of affirmatives followed, with not even a grumble of dissent. Shepard was hard to work with at times, no one knew that better than her. But she commanded respect, and demanded compliance. Even Kryik, technically her XO, had no trouble ceding his rank to whomever she deigned more fit to the task at hand.
She brought up her omni-tool and entered a few commands into her tactical interface, sending a simple tactical brief to the entire team.
"This is our approach. Williams, your squad covers the left flank. Alenko, you go right. Keep to cover where possible, cover each other where not. I will attempt to corral and control the enemy forces down our middle, creating kill zones of opportunity."
At the affirmative nod from her squad leaders, she deactivated her omni-tool, reinforced her barrier, readied her pistol, and started running. "Let's go!"
…
[Extraction and preliminary analysis complete.]
What did we get, C?
[The terminal was restricted to the local logistics systems, but we can correlate that data with data from our satellites and the wider Network to look for patterns which should reveal more of Saren's connections and habits. The data itself contains some shipping content information.]
Weapons? Slaves? Mercs?
[All of the above, though mostly bioengineering supplies and equipment, and other medical equipment.]
Supporting the idea that Saren uses this base mostly for his Indoctrination research and Krogan cloning projects.
[Indeed. There is one thing that worries me, though. A rather large amount of explosives is unaccounted for.]
How do you mean?
[I mean, these are explosive charges that have not been used by the defending forces as of yet. They are also not accounted for in any of the logistics systems, which includes the base's munitions storage facilities.]
Could they have been sent off-world?
[I don't think so. Everything is logged, loading and unloading, and these crates were unloaded and then never seen again in the system.]
That's… ah, shit. That's a problem.
"Messenger to all troops, be aware: Parts of the base are likely to be booby-trapped. Large amounts of explosives are missing from warehouse inventories. I'm transmitting schematic signatures now, suggest calibration of all sensor platforms for detection."
A sharp hissing breath sounded next to me in response to the new information. "Tits-up, boss. Told you."
"We're not there yet, Chi."
"Hey, if you know you're heading into a hurricane, you gotta prepare for it."
"We were always heading into the hurricane. Just a little bit worse than we thought it would be."
"Messenger."
The voice was easily recognisable. "Weaver?"
"We found them."
"Bad?"
"Mines. Last 20 metre stretch before inner compound wall. Sensors detect cavities below ground."
Well, shit. Pit trap. The fight to reach the inner compound was always going to be a stalemate at best, a distraction effort while we focused on taking down AA cover so that we could overrun them on two fronts. In that respect, the mines didn't really change anything. However, it changed the likely response of the defenders. They would know that our attackers would have trouble reaching the wall, and that would reduce the pressure on their own defensive lines. In turn, this would allow them to distribute their internal defences better, which meant… oh.
"Damn it. Stick to the plan, stay out of the minefield. We'll have to change our tactics on this end."
We had been about to breach the final gate of the warehouse complex we had entered through, and were approaching the part of the compound containing the prisoner holding pens and, crucially, the final AA emplacement. Which would now probably be significantly better defended than we had counted on.
I motioned for the team to halt and gather. "We're changing our approach. Shala, Merel, and Mu, I want you to lag behind the rest of us. By the time we get here," I indicated a position on the tactical display that took us significantly closer to the AA tower approach than we had originally planned, "I want you to have quietly doubled back around this section to get to the tower entrance."
Dietrich nodded slowly. "Minimally slowing our approach to provide better cover for their assault. You want us to be a distraction."
"Exactly. Getting this close to the tower should draw defenders to focus on us, and leave themselves more open for the twins and Mu."
"It's also going to allow the guards and whatever else they have in the holding pens to attack us in the open, boss."
Tela was right, as she often was, but of course I knew of that consequence already. The original plan had been for myself, Dietrich, and Tela to stick to close quarters to allow the enemy's numerical superiority to work to our advantage. This tactical adjustment threw that out the window, and allowed yet another counter-assault in an open area, and this time we were only half the force.
I looked more closely at the area we would likely be stuck in before coming to a decision. "You're right, of course, and we'll just have to deal with it. There's limited cover there, that pillar at the base of the tower. Zeta, use that cover as best you can to cover myself and Chi. I'll be shoring up my protection and getting up close, Chi will do the same."
"So no change there for me."
"Yeah, business as usual for you, Chi. We'll try to tie them up, keep them off balance, just cause as much carnage as possible."
"Increasing our distraction factor even more." Dietrich nodded as he realised where I was going with this, "Which should make the other group's ascent quicker, so that they can provide sniper and EWF cover sooner. I get you, Sir."
"Good. Stack up. Let's get going."
Tela and I took position directly in front of the wide doors, and we both reinforced our armour and barriers as we got ready to rush head-first into what was going to be a mess of a battlefield in an annoyingly open area. I drew my sword with my right hand and kept the Cyclone in my left, held behind my active omni-shield.
"Archangel actual to Messenger, come in Messenger."
"Messenger responding."
"We have company. Relay exit signatures."
The team had held position as the call came in, and all eyes shifted in my direction at the news.
Did they bite? "Friend or foe?"
"It's the remainder of Saren's fleet. Sovereign's with them."
[They bit.]
Beneath my face mask I allowed myself a grim smile. "Well then. Break orbit, use the moon for cover. Ready weapons, orbit approach intercept protocol. They'll smash through anyway, let's limit our losses. And Rho?"
"Yes?"
"Revelation protocol is now active. You know what to do."
...
Author's notes: I don't own Mass Effect. If I did, I would hire someone to help me stick to an actual schedule for this.
So I failed completely at sticking to a schedule. Between family holidays and starting in a new job I've just not had the time to update. However, I've started a new approach to writing these chapters which should (hopefully) mean more frequent updates as I get going. I'm writing the chapters by hand, pen and paper, on the Tube on my way to and from work. Which means I don't have to slot massive blocks of time where I sit in front of my computer writing this stuff, I just need to transcribe from paper to digital. Which I do quite quickly.
If it weren't for this chapter being quite important for setting up some major divergences from canon story progression, I would probably have put it out a fair bit quicker. As it is, I had to make sure it covered everything it needed to cover and did so well. I hope I succeeded. The introduction of Shadow team feels fairly rushed to me, but that's how it had to be. It serves a purpose, too: Aaron has this whole backstory, a decade of work and experience within the ME universe that will inevitably rear its head within the story. I don't really want to have these things be slowly introduced, because I'm balancing the perspectives of Shepard and Aaron; I want the reader to be 'read in' at a level somewhere between the two of them, to be surprised by some developments in the same way Shepard is. At the same time, I want the reader to experience Shepard primarily from Aaron's perspective, but slowly contextualise her through her own in interactions with people she actually likes. It's proving to be a tough balance, actually.
Thank you for all your reviews, I enjoy them all immensely and aim to respond to them all, if not here then by message. Please leave a review if you enjoyed it, or if you didn't, any and all constructive feedback is appreciated!
rantingbanshee provided a pretty long critique of Shepard's, uhm, particular personality issues, and presented his view that I shouldn't be following canon so closely. I've answered some of the general points made fairly elaborately in past commentaries, and I also gave some more in-depth answers directly to rantingbanshee. It was a good conversation, actually. The gist of it is that he's not really wrong on most of these things, but they don't really matter. The ultimate point is that Shepard got to where she is, and is as important as it is, due to a confluence of factors mostly stemming from her narrative positioning. The combination of her skill and publicity following her role in the Skyllian Blitz tied the Alliance's hands, and they were forced to fast-track her ascent despite the very real concerns about her personality and discipline. The public loves her and she has very real and very strong supporters in powerful positions within the Alliance (such as Anderson and Hackett). Her involvement in the events at Eden Prime, including her exposure to the beacon and her position as humanity's first Spectre, makes her a narrative pivot that is key to Aaron's and Ceasar's plans going forward. Even if they could have 'gone it alone', as it were, they simply considered that a less powerful approach than what they're going with. And for good reason, as will become evident very soon.
Goldspark1 is in awe of the Archangel. I can't blame them.
Gauss Frigate enjoyed the fleet combat. I'm glad, I was a bit worried about how that came across. And don't worry, as you can probably tell from the end of this chapter there is more to come.