Chapter 25: Leaf on the Wind
Shepard stood behind Joker's chair in the cockpit. She was fully suited up and geared, all that she needed now was some Collectors to kill.
"Beginning jump. Hold on people." Joker spoke over the Normandy's PA system.
Shepard clutched the back of Joker's seat while watching him guide the ship in for the relay jump. Shepard watched the relay pulse with energy, an energy she could feel vibrating through the ship.
"Commander!" Jacob called out over the comms. "The drive core just lit up like a Christmas tree."
"It's fine, I'm handling it." Tali snapped back. Shepard couldn't help but grin, Tali could be very possessive when it came to the core of their ship.
"Jumping in 3…." Joker began flying next to the relay. "2…" He counted, the vibrations in the ship intensifying. "1!"
At Joker's last word, the stars in front of them blurred into a bunch of lines. They raced forward at a speed that only light could match. Their trip was over in seconds and they rapidly decelerated.
"Evasive maneuvers! Hold on people!" Joker called out when they stopped. They found themselves square in a ship graveyard. Joker rolled and banked the ship in hair pin turns to keep them from crashing into the massive field of debris around them.
"Nice flying Joker." Shepard breathed out, looking around them. "Must be the other ships that have tried coming through before us."
"Must be." Joker replied, his hands darting around on his console.
"Shepard, we have incoming hostile ships." EDI told her after a moment.
"Carmine!" Shepard barked out.
"Way ahead of ya Sarge!" Rah's voice laughed back.
Shepard looked out the viewports just in time to see Rah's fighter race up and behind them.
"Come and get some!" Rah laughed.
"EDI, give me a view of what's going on." Shepard ordered the AI. "Joker, find the Collector homeworld."
Shepard looked to a new screen that appeared next to her. It showed four red dots being engaged by a smaller blue one that raced past a large green one. Even as she watched, one of the red dots blinked out from view. Shepard spotted another red dot racing towards the green dot in the center of the screen.
"Joker, we've got one on us." Shepard pointed out to the pilot.
"On it." Joker replied, his voice almost far away with concentration.
Shepard looked out the viewports and then looked away. She couldn't watch the debris racing towards and around them without being a backseat driver.
For achingly long minutes they played a game of cat and mouse between the Normandy and the hostile ship, a defence drone. Rah had dealt with the first four drones and was now chasing the one attacking the Normandy.
"Hope that shielding holds up Shepard." Joker grit out when shudders began running through the ship.
"Joker!" Rah barked to the pilot.
"WHAT!?" Joker snapped back.
"Leaf on the wind." Rah replied, his voice deadly calm, yet somehow a grin was still there.
"You clever little shit." Joker replied and Shepard looked to see Joker grinning like mad.
"What is…?" Shepard began but was silenced when Joker began doing maneuvers that she didn't think was possible to do in a frigate.
Shepard grit her teeth and only just held down her breakfast while Joker put the Normandy though seemingly impossible maneuvers and tight gaps. After a minute of this, Rah yelled out in joy and then raced past them. Shepard looked to see no more red dots on the screen. Both she and Joker let out breaths they didn't know they'd been holding.
"We're clear Sarge." Rah's voice told her. On the screen that EDI had pulled up, Rah was just ahead and to the left of them.
After searching for a few minutes, Joker flew them into a large space free of the debris. At the other end from them, a massive space station sat waiting for them.
"Be ready people. We're on approach to the Collector base." Shepard told the team over their comms.
"And here comes an old friend." Joker grit out. Shepard looked to see the Collector ship that had been following her for over two years was leaving the station.
"Garrus, let's show them our new teeth." Shepard smiled grimly.
"Just give the order." Garrus replied, his own grim joy in his voice.
"Fire soon as they're in range Joker." Shepard told the pilot. Joker nodded and gunned them towards the Collector ship.
"Carmine, stay back. We don't need you dying on us." Shepard ordered the N7 at seeing that he was keeping up with them.
"Yes sir." Rah replied and broke formation with them.
Once the Normandy was in range, the Collector ship opened fire. Joker rolled and dodged the beam of energy. Soon as it stopped, Joker grinned at the ship.
"Try some of this!" Joker grinned and slammed a button on his console.
Shepard could feel the power being drawn into the guns. A moment later, two massive bolts of blue energy raced towards the Collector ship. Both struck home, causing catastrophic damage to the other ship.
"HA! TAKE THAT YOU SONS OF BITCHES!"Joker yelled at the dying Collector ship.
Shepard thought they were in the clear, but the Collectors had other ideas. In its death throes, the Collector ship managed to get one last shot off. They were too close to evade it, and one thruster took the brunt of the attack.
"Shielding has failed, port thruster damaged, prepare of impact." EDI told them all coldly.
Shepard held on for dear life while Joker glided them towards the station. They crashed in and slid along the hull of the station of several clicks before finally coming to a stop.
"Status report!" Shepard barked out. When they crashed, Shepard had been thrown from her feet. She hauled herself up and looked to the displays.
One by one, the members of the ground team sounded off. There was a heavy silence when Rah didn't check in.
"Carmine, you out there?" Shepard barked, looking over the damage report EDI was displaying for her.
"Our outward comms are down Kat." Tali informed her. "We can't send anything in or out. Only the PA system works."
Shepard cursed to herself. She let out a sigh when she finally understood all the damage.
No comms, hull integrity is at half on the bottom of the hull, and one of our thrusters is shot. Just great. Shepard ran a hand over her face. This was going to be a one way trip for them for sure.
"Shepard." Joker got her attention, pointing out the front viewports. In front of them, Rah's fighter landed and only a few laser burns were on the wings.
Rah climbed out of the fighter and waved. He gave her hand signals to say that he would sweep the area and wait for them out there.
"Everyone in the briefing room. We need a plan." Shepard ordered over the PA systems. "EDI, get me the schematics of the station, I know there was some on the data from the Collector ship."
Shepard turned and walked to the briefing room. Just a moment after she started walking, her omni-tool lit up with the stations blueprints.
Shepard looked around the room at the assembled team. She could see the determination and fire in all of their eyes. All of them knew going into this that it could very well be a one way trip. All of them were willing to do this for the galaxy that would never know about their sacrifice. All of them were ready, just like Ash was way back on Virmire.
"There's no turning back now ladies and gentlemen." Shepard began, her voice cool and even. "The shot that the Collectors got on the Normandy damaged one of our thrusters. Unless we can get it fixed in time, this will be a one way trip for all of us."
Shepard looked around and was glad to see that no one was phased in the least. All of them looked at her, expecting her to tell them something that they could use, something they didn't know.
"Tali, I'm going to ask that you stay back. I need you to get our bird flying again. You're the only one I know of in the 'verse that could do it." Shepard looked to her Quarian friend.
"Some duct tape and spit will have her good as new Kat." Tali joked. "I'll have her ready when it's time to get out of hell."
"That still leaves the rest of us." Shepard looked around to the team. "Our goal is to blow this base to hell and back."
Shepard tapped a few keys on the conference table and the schematics of the Collector base appeared in the center.
"There is a massive amount of power centered here." EDI told them all, making an area near the top of the ship for everyone to see.
"Our goal people, is to overload the systems there and cause the base to implode. All we have to do, is get there." Shepard told them all. She held in a grin at seeing everyone listening intently and also studying the base.
"There are two different routes we can take to get there." Shepard told them all, on que EDI highlighted the two tunnels that lead in the direction of the power source. "One path is unblocked, but only a few of us can go in and fight at a time. The other is a straight shot there, but there are several blast doors blocking the way."
"Shepard, there is a maintenance shaft here that will allow someone to open each door as the team comes across it." EDI told them, a much smaller tunnel became highlighted while she spoke. "There are checkpoints that the person in there must be cleared through by anyone in the first route."
"Anything else about this shaft EDI?" Shepard asked the AI, knowing that it couldn't be that simple.
"The shaft also serves as a heat vent, whoever is in the tunnel would need to be able to open the doors extremely quickly." EDI told them and a heavy silence fell over everyone.
"Suicide mission in a suicide mission." Jacob mussed, breaking the silence. "I volunteer Commander."
"No." Shepard looked him dead in the eye, daring him to argue. "EDI said so herself, you need to be able to open the doors fast. You don't have the tech skills for that Taylor." Shepard turned her gaze to Legion. "Legion does."
"Acknowledged Shepard-Commander. This platform has sufficient processing power to navigate the Collector systems." Legion responded, almost happily.
"You've dealt with the Collectors before?' Shepard asked, surprised.
"We Geth have. We had to repel an attack by the Collectors that tried to convert more of us to the Old Machine's ideals." Legion replied.
"Makes sense." Shepard nodded.
"So how are were splitting up then Shepard?" Garrus asked, turning them back to the plan.
"I'll be taking Samara and Grunt with me through the smaller route." Shepard told them all. "The rest of you will be going down the larger one."
"Who are you putting in charge of the other team?" Miranda asked. "You need someone that can lead effectively."
"Sure as fuck ain't going to be you." Jack muttered. Shepard shot her a look to can it, surprisingly the biotic woman did.
"Carmine will be leading you." Shepard told them all. She could see the looks of shock and confusion. None of them really knew Carmine that well aside from Jack, they weren't even aware that he'd been an option. Shepard knew that he had what it took, and he could do it the best. Should he have not joined her, Garrus would have been leading them.
"He's more capable a leader than I am. Worst case scenario, you only have to deal with him being your CO for today." Shepard told them all. A few smiled at her grim humor.
"Any questions?" Shepard asked, looking around at the assembled faces around her. "None? Good. We leave in twenty people. Gear up for a long outing."
With that everyone left the briefing room. Shepard already had her gear ready, so she headed out of the room and strode to the airlock. She sealed her helmet around her just incase and opened the airlock. She stepped out onto the haul of the Collector base, slightly thankful that the airlock was only a few feet from the ground.
She looked around for Rah. She didn't need to look far and found him digging around in the back of his fighter.
"Rah." Shepard opened up her suit speakers.
"Sarge." Rah grunted in response. He pulled out a large metal backpack and slung it over his shoulders. The pack had a larger version of the laughing skull that was inked on his back along with a metal tube running from its bottom right corner outward.
"What's going on?" Shepard asked, looking at the odd piece of gear.
"Bringing out an old friend." Shepard could hear the grin in Rah's voice. She knew she had one of her own at seeing him pull out the machine gun he'd picked up on Elysium.
"What's the plan Sarge?" Rah asked, hooking the tube from his pack to a slot on the machine gun. Shepard figured it had to be an ammo feed for the weapon.
"We're splitting up. Going down two routes. I'm leading one with Samara and Grunt. You've got the other one." Shepard told him, watching him strap a dozen grenades onto his belt.
"Anything special I need to know?" Rah asked, his voice was calm and calculating.
"There will be blast doors blocking your way, Legion will take care of that." Shepard replied, amused to see that he still managed to equip a small arsenal on his armor.
"I'll keep 'em alive Sarge." Rah told her and closed up his fighter.
"All that firepower just for you?" Shepard asked, pointing to the assault rifle, three SMGs and four Carnifex's he'd managed to strap to himself.
"No." He replied coolly. "All I need is this." he hefted his machine gun. "The rest is for the others if they need fresh weapons. No point in needing to scrounge up a new gun in the middle of a firefight if one can be thrown to you."
Shepard and Rah both looked to the Normandy when they heard the airlock opening. Out from the ship, their team started dropping to the ground. All of them geared and ready to kick some Collector ass.
"Keep them safe Carmine." Shepard told her friend.
"With my life Sarge." Rah replied coolly.
"That's what I'm afraid of." She sighed to herself.
A/N: So I'm a Firefly geek and coun't resist the references to the show that I put in.
Hope you all liked it! The rest of the Collector base will come in the next chapter.