Joan, Garrus and Thane stood in shock as they took in the sight in front of them. As it was, the collectors were using the liquefied humans to make some form of human reaper. The thing was both disturbing and repulsive, the thought that many human lives were lost to this abomination saddened her. They concluded that in order to finish the dreaded machine they would need millions of human lives; lives that would be found on her home planet, Earth. The idea angered her.
But as usual, her thoughts were interrupted by the oncoming collectors that were closing in on them, "Garrus! Switch weapons! Thane! Snipe them!"
"On it!" Garrus called, pulling out his assault rifle, Thane took cover and immediately took down two collectors.
The firefight lasted awhile; the tubes on the human reaper were being protected by steel barriers that would occasionally open. When they would, Joan fired a few clips into two of the tubes. She fell forwards as she took a few shots in the back. Rushing to cover, she was quickly intercepted by a harbinger controlled collector.
He grabbed her by the throat, threatning her.
"Shut the fuck up!" She yelled as she kicked the collector sharply on the ribs. He loosened his grasp on her and she took the chance to grab her pistol and fire a few shots into his head. The collector fell and dropped Joan. She hastily crawled to the edge of the steel boxes and started firing at the collectors with her assault rifle.
Her eyes scanned the layout; Garrus was pinned down by three collectors and Thane switched his sniper rifle for his pistol as he made his way towards Garrus, killing them with one shot each. Joan took aim and started shooting at the collectors that were trying to block him from getting to Garrus. Finally, Thane took down the last of the collectors that were swarming Garrus.
"Shepard! Incoming!" Garrus yelled. Her head turned to her right and she saw another horde of collectors heading their way. She looked up at the human reaper, the tubes were exposed again, only three left.
"Get the tubes!" She ordered as she jumped over the barriers and threw a grenade at the collectors, trying to weaken their shields. For a few moments, she was the only one shooting at them; trying to draw the attention away from her teammates so they could take down those tubes.
Thane suddenly appeared at her side, "Siha."
"I'm running low on thermal clips," she told Thane, switching to her pistol, "I don't know how much longer we can keep this up!"
He threw a biotic charge at the collectors and sniped the last of them down before Garrus shouted, "Tubes are down!"
Both of their eyes fell onto the human reaper as it fell from the tubes holding it up. She ran towards the edge of the hovering disk to see the damage; both Thane and Garrus joined her.
"Shepard to ground team, status report!"
She heard Jack's voice answer from the other end of the radio, "Jack here, I'm tagging them as they come along, but feel free to call for an exit anytime!"
"Head for the Normandy. Joker—prep the engines, I'm about to overload this place and blow it straight to hell."
"Roger that commander," he responded as she prepped the explosives, "Uh, Commander? You got a message from the Illusive Man, EDI's patching it through."
"I wonder what he wants," Garrus mused, prepping his omni tool for contact.
"Shepard, you've done the impossible," he praised.
"I didn't do it alone, I was part of a team," she replied, annoyed, pressing some buttons on the screen, stealing a glance at Thane, "The best."
"You've acquired the collector base," he started, "I'm looking at the schematics EDI uploaded, a timed radiation pulse will kill the collectors on board but keep the machinery and technology intact."
"If you're suggesting what I think you are…" she trailed off, sickened by the idea of saving the dreaded vessel.
"This is our chance, Shepard. They were building a reaper, that framework, the knowledge, it could save us," he argued. Trying to persuade her.
She got up and faced the holo Illusive Man, disgusted, "They liquefied hundreds of thousands of people, and you want to save this piece of shit? No. I'm blowing it up."
"Don't be short sighted, our best chance at defeating the reapers is to turn their own resources against them," his tone of voice suggested that he would not give up without getting what he wanted, "We cannot ignore this opportunity. They were working with the reapers directly, who knows what information is stored there? The base… is a gift."
"A gift? You are seriously deluded if you think that this horrendous place is a gift, you'd probably want to build your own reaper if you were given the chance."
"My goal is to save humanity from the reapers, at any cost. I've never hidden that from you. Imagine how many lives would be saved if we saved this base and used its technology against the reapers. Imagine the lives that will be lost if we don't. You died fighting for what you believed, I brought you back so you could keep fighting. Don't be so quick to discard this facility, think of the potential."
Joan thought about it for a moment. She was used to death, it was always around her, even when she was back on Earth as a child. But keeping this thing intact seemed… wrong. Once they were finished with the humans, who would they turn to next? The Asari? The Turians? The…. Drell? Her eyes landed on Thane as the thought crossed her mind. His eyes closed slowly and he nodded slightly, without any kind of words, she understood.
"We'll fight, and we'll win without it. I will not let fear compromise who I am," she replied with conviction. She turned towards the screen and continued arming the explosives.
"Think about whats at stake, about everything Cerberus has done for you. You—" The communication cut off.
She turned slightly as Garrus shrugged, "I hate whiners."
Thane chuckled as he walked over and handed the circular device to Joan, she took it from him and planted it on the screen, closing it she warned, "Let's get out of here. We got about ten minutes before the reactor overloads and blows this whole place apart."
The platform started to shake violently. Thane looked at her, bewildered. Her eyes looked up to meet the big, red, glowing eyes of the human reaper.