Chapter 26

The team had been running up the Spire for what seemed like ages.

"I still can't believe your species ever won the War," shuddered Terric.

"If the rest of his race is half as mad as Shepard," Shiala smirked, "how could there be room for doubt?"

As Shepard rounded another corner, he took sight, gunning down a husk. After what they'd been through, the climb up the tower had seemed ridiculously simple.

"Don't forget competent," quipped Shepard, "and talented."

Shiala laughed, "of course, Commander."

The asari gestured with her arm, drawing up a group of Cannibals into a Reave field. As the Remnant rose into the air, paralyzed, Shepard flung a Biotic Slam into the mass, causing a cascade of detonations that all but vaporized the husks.

"That's Captain..."

Terric continued to take point, felling husks left and right with his assault rifle. His omnitool was ablaze, sending forth Overloads to stagger the foes, as he send round after round through their skulls. The husks fell like wheat to a scythe.

Terric felt he understood, at last, the gallows humor with which Shepard comported himself. It simply masked the cold, barely calculated calm within. The batarian hadn't truly appreciated the horrors of the Reaper invasion until it decimated their homeworld. But Shepard...he'd dealt with this burden for far longer, years before anyone else would believe him. Hell, many had tried to lock him away for it.

Terric had thought raider skirmishes against the Council races had been bad enough. The Reaper War eclipsed anything that had come before. Now he could understand the SPECTRE's cavalier attitude...how many years of battle would it take, for Terric to become the same? Could he remain as optimistic as Shepard, or would he become a jaded wreck?

Terric counted his blessings, and thanked his luck that it was this particular human who had found him. Shepard continued to lead his team through the dark metal hallways, until Shiala beckoned for them to stop.

Shiala brought up her omnitool, "looks like the signal's coming from over here..."

Terric grunted, "let's hope that's the last of the husks then..."

The SPECTRE shook his head, "we should be so lucky..."

As they crested a set of stairs, the team came up to an alcove. It seemed they were better than halfway up the spire. Windows peered into the deserted wastes outside, offering them a bird's eye view of the arid lands surrounding the tower. The room was a large semicircle.

Shepard drew up against a locked door. After the long haul to get here, hacking the door was comically short. Still, better to take his breaks where he could. Shepard ushered the rest of the squad through the doors. He followed them into what seemed like a large research lab. The ceiling rose high, several floors worth. Against the opposite end of the room, he could see more windows, several conduits, and most importantly...

"Those have to be the central controls," sighed the asari, with relief, "the large computer bank there."

Shepard began to decode the messages on the central computer, his omnitool's protocols making short work of the encryption on the databases.

'I'll have to thank Liara for the upgrades,' he thought, grunting appreciatively.

Terric frowned, as several bits of data streamed onto the screen, "hold up, what's that?"

Shepard stopped the data download, focusing on the symbols that had drawn Terric's attention, "do these look familiar to you?"

The batarian remained silent, mulling over his thoughts. He glanced surreptitiously at Shiala.

Shepard nodded, "secure the perimeter, make sure we have an exit."

The asari glanced askance at the two, but slowly nodded.

He turned back to Terric, crossing his arms, "alright, what is it?"

"What I told you before was true Shepard, but I had other goals too."

The SPECTRE nodded, "I know."

"You KNEW?!"

"I suspected, I've played the game long enough," shrugged the human, "I know never to believe in coincidence. So what were you doing, intelligence gathering?"

"Of a sort," Terric grunted, as he scanned through the data, "these symbols, I've seen them before Shepard...they're batarian..."

"What," wondered Shepard, "are you sure?"

The batarian nodded, "my clan has been at odds with another. This other clan is part of the conservatives, those who still believe in the war against humanity. We had intel that the Akesh Clan was dealing in secret weapons testing, but this..."

Shepard shook his head, thinking over the ramifications. This was a human colony world, with a base that had been host to a Remnant occupation force. Now, they had learned that the resources in the spire belonged to batarian hard-liners.

"This can't be good," spat Shepard, "it means someone is in league with the Remnant...trying to take control of the Reaper forces we've been fighting."

Terric shook his head, "it's more than that...take a look at this..."

The batarian brought up a document on the display, "the authorization info has been redacted, but check the resource statement."

"Data caches and resources received from Paladin," read Shepard, "transmit results to Command upon completion. Who is Paladin?"

Terric shook his head, "none of the clans have the technical resources to fund something like this, and not just monetarily."

Shepard nodded, "and the only ones with access to info on this tech were involved in the Reaper War..."

The batarian nodded, "I know it sounds...absurd, and there's no hard evidence; but could Clan Akesh be working with...Cerberus?"

The SPECTRE shook his head again. Cerberus was defunct, ravaged in the final war with the Reapers. Miranda had made it part of Orthos' goal to mop up the dregs. However, if some had survived, he couldn't see them uniting under a banner, just to team up with a extremist batarian clan...the two would, by rights, be bitter enemies.

"There's something else, another player," pondered Shepard, "we aren't seeing the whole picture. Perhaps this Paladin has been gathering up the old Cerberus network that didn't join Orthos."

"Wouldn't Orthos know?"

Shepard shook his head. Miranda was resourceful, but only the Illusive Man had enjoyed access to all the knowledge and resources that Cerberus held. Anything was possible in this power struggle to draw those old resources. In fact, Miranda had suspected this outcome. But whoever had been gathering up the dark dregs of the old Cerberus, they had done a damn good job. If Miranda, or someone as well connected as Liara, didn't know about them...

Terric came across another schematic, "shit...they were working on making an infantry mounted version of this Dampening Field."

Shepard's eyebrows twitched at this last statement, "what the hell would that do to someone with Biotic Amps?"

"From what I'm reading," muttered Terric, "it could fry the amps right out of your body...perhaps even tech amps, in time. Our only luck is that the weapon is still in testing phase. We need to destroy this data before anyone else can access it, especially if it is Clan Akesh."

Shiala was drawing back up to them again. Terric began to access the safety protocols with his omnitools, "alright, I am blocking outgoing signals, which should buy us enough time to download and destroy-"

Suddenly, the screen before them went black. A series of characters appeared on the terminal, coalescing into a sentence.

'NOT THIS TIME CLAN VERRAD...'

An emotionless electronic voice began to issue from the speakers of the terminal, "EVACUATE...SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE ENGAGED..."

Before anyone could reply, a large portion of the ceiling caved inwards. Shrapnel flew in all directions as the metal grating fell, smoke billowing everywhere from the torn environmental cables.

"Shit, that's all we needed," coughed Shepard, "alright people, on your feet, let's scrub that data and move!"

As the SPECTRE's vision cleared, he noticed a large shadow drop from the ceiling, landing with a resounding thud, which shook the floor. Shepard peered into the shadows, and two glowing lights peered back, angry red with a golden pallor. Whatever it was, the damn thing was huge...he could see the silhouette filtering through the smoke.

"What the hell," demanded Terric, "is THAT?!"

The smoke cleared, and Shepard came face to face with a hulking monstrosity. It towered above him, easily over ten feet tall. It seemed an unholy amalgamation of multiple vorcha. Viscous green liquid spattered down to the floor from its maw, as the claws on its large arms scraped against the floor.

The Berserker brought its arms up quickly, much faster than Shepard would have thought possible. Shiala rammed into Shepard's side, as they dodged the attack. The conduits behind them fried, the terminal emitting sparks.

"It's the overloaded Dampening Field!" spat Terric, "a direct hit will kill us!"

The beast seemed to be recovering, and Terric took the opportunity to close the distance. He emptied his shotgun dry into the beast, but its shields took the brunt of the force, the armor barely chipping away. The Berserker thrashed with its gargantuan arms, flinging the batarian away like a rag doll.

Terric slammed against the wall with a crunch, and fell to the floor. His prone body went limp, and the batarian's eyes rolled to the back of his head. Shiala thrust her hands before her, creating a large biotic Singularity around the beast. The Berserker gnashed its teeth, managing to creep forward slightly.

"Quickly!" urged the asari, "I don't know how long I can hold the damn thing!"

Shepard screamed in defiance, as he began to fling Warp fields at the creature. A series of biotic detonations rocked the behemoth. It's shields dropped with a sharp pop, as its armored chitin shell began to warp, sloughing off in layers. Shepard's nerves began to burn, blood dripping down his nose. He was taxing his amps to the limit, the effort taking its toll on his body. The SPECTRE ignored the white-hot throbbing in his skull, continuing the attack.

Despite their efforts, the Berserker still wouldn't go down. It raised its hand, a violet light emitting from the biotic amp in its arm. Shepard knew he couldn't move in time...he was dead...

With a cry, another bulk slammed against the monstrosity. The biotic attack exploded in the Berserker's face. Terric cried out in agony, as the close range Dampening Field overloaded his amps, causing small explosions to rack his body. The batarian screamed against the pain, wrapping his fists around the Berserker's throat.

Terric grinned defiantly, blood flowing from a dozen wounds. The only thing that held him together seemed to be his armor, "got you...you bastard."

Before the Berserker could so much as growl, Terric activated a switch in his armor. Giant shards of shrapnel flew like spikes from his suit, eviscerating the Remnant behemoth. The flying slivers cut through its unshielded body, as the beast flung him away. With a final groan, the Berserker collapsed, as if a puppet's strings had been cut.

Shepard drew up to Terric's side. The batarian braced himself against a terminal, dark red streaks trailing along the railing behind him. He was barely breathing, coughing in fits, blood leaking from the corner of his mouth.

A morbid part of the SPECTRE's mind wondered at how it was little different from human blood. He supported Terric, sitting him up straight against the terminal. Shepard went pale, as he felt the damage along Terric's neck, his hand coming away thick with blood and viscera.

Terric coughed, "sorry Shepard, that damn gun of his fried my biotic amps...there's holes where the contacts should be..."

Shiala gasped, drawing up behind them, "if that had hit us..."

The Captain gestured to the central conduit, "download the last bit of data off those drives, before this place blows..."

Already, bits of scaffolding began to fall, various screens flickering as the power surged through the breakers, blasting the circuitry here and there. Shepard wasn't paying attention, bringing his focus to Terric.

"Why didn't you tell us?" he demanded, "this was a suicide run for biotics..."

"Wasn't using them," Terric chuckled, wincing in pain, "besides, when did that ever stop you? It's okay...we put a stop to their plans..."

Shepard shook his head, "Balak won't get away with this."

The batarian pulled an amulet from his neck, forcing it into Shepard's hand, "not Balak, probably not...it's all there...I'll have to...entrust it to you..."

Shiala lightly tapped Shepard on the shoulder, nodding as he turned, "can we get him up?"

"I can't move," said Terric, "my body's in tatters...the shock would kill me..."

Shepard shook his head, unable to say a word.

Terric weakly pushed Shepard's shoulder, "go, my tech amps are the only thing keeping me alive. My omnitool is slowing the destruct, as well as blocking any outgoing signals about the research here...it's a win for us..."

"No it isn't," replied the SPECTRE, in a clipped voice, "looks like I failed again..."

Terric pondered a moment, then laughed, "I think I understand you better...the cycle has to stop sometime...right? Else, we can't start over..."

Shepard nodded, "we could have been good friends."

"We were better...we were good...enemies..."

Shepard grasped Terric's hand one more time, "honored enemies..."

Shiala pulled Shepard's shoulder again, "if we want to make it out alive, we need to head to the Mako now..."

Terric glanced bemusedly at the human before him. He'd never have believed he'd give his life for a human, but he could regret nothing, "get out of here, I got this..."

Whatever his comrades said, Terric couldn't hear it anymore, his vision beginning to blur. He only closed his eyes for a moment, it seemed, and they were gone. Terric struggled to remain conscious. Until the facility blew, he had to block the signal, and buy time for Shepard to get out.

He smiled, his last few missions playing out in his head. It had been good work, honorable work. He could ask for none better to continue the job. Shepard was accomplished, he would get it done, he had to. Terric saw the conduits in front of him catch blaze, sparks flying from the computers. Shrapnel and glass flew, signaling the death knell of the spire.

After decades of fighting, Terric was tired...he sighed, as he closed his eyes at last...finally it was time for rest...