A/N: So, here's the second part of the Suicide Mission. Please allow me to apologize for the silly and campy chapter title. :D This was written while listening to the OST track 'Reaper Chase' on loop. I heartily recommend it as a fitting listening music for this chapter. Heck, if you haven't listened to the OST, I urge you to correct that mistake as soon as possible, it is full of epic goodness.
Chapter 35 - Your Base Belongs to Us
"The main control room is right above us. The route is blocked by a security door, but there's another chamber that runs parallel to the one that we're in," Shepard lays out the situation before her team. "However, thermal emissions suggest that the chamber is overrun by seeker swarms. Mordin's countermeasure was not built to withstand so many at once. We would be... processed as soon as we set foot into that chamber."
A lot of grim faces stare at her after that comment, until Samara speaks up. "I might be able to generate a biotic field to keep them at bay," she says. "Enough to protect a small team if they stay close."
"It's worth a shot," Miranda agrees. "In fact, any biotic here could maintain such a field. How do you want to play this, Shepard?"
"Let's split in two equal groups again," Shepard says. "I'll take Samara and Jack with me to provide the biotic fields. Kasumi, Thane, Grunt, you're with me. The rest follow Garrus as you create a diversion along the main passage. We'll open the security doors from the other side to let you through."
"Shepard, you better be there in time, I'm not letting these freaks get me again," Zaeed growls, taking a practice aim with his assault rifle. "Appreciate getting me out of there."
"She'll be there," Garrus says, looking at Shepard with nothing but utter confidence and trust in his eyes. "The Commander will come through for us, and we will do the same for her. Is that clear?" A chorus of cheers resound in reply.
"All right. Let's move out, people!" Shepard shouts, turning back to her turian friend. "Good luck, Garrus. See you on the other side." Garrus nods with a small smile, before leading his team away.
"Shit, shit, shit!" Jack curses, trying her best to maintain the biotic field as they cross the heart of the chamber, crawling at frustratingly slow pace to allow the biotic specialists to maintain their concentration. Around them, the chamber is gusting with the seeker swarms, like massive grey mosquito clouds, bouncing at the biotic barriers, and fortunately for them getting deflected at every attempt.
"We need to pick up the pace," Thane says, in one of those rare moments when his pistols are not firing to drop yet another ambitious Collector drone. "The longer we take, the more reinforcements they will summon!"
"Going as fast as I'm able, so can it fish-face!" Jack snaps back.
"Keep at it, don't panic!" Shepard adds warningly, thankful for the fact that the biotic field also protects them from the Collector weapons fire, and those seeking to harm them actually need to get close enough to pass through the barrier. In such close quarters, their secret weapon in the shape of Grunt usually rips apart every Collector who dares to approach.
"Direct intervention is necessary." Yeah, except that guy. He's still a fucking pain in the ass, Morgan thinks grimly, watching as the Harbinger yet again launches his attacks at their biotic fields, aiming to disable them and leave them vulnerable, sitting ducks before the seeker swarms. She drops on her knee and brings the sniper rifle in position, the small laser dot focusing on the brow of the possessed drone. A quick, gentle push of the trigger, and the skull in the scope shatters from the heavy impact. "Destroying this body gains you nothing."
Indeed, it almost feels as if the Harbinger is correct. With a limitless supply of drones to possess, there is no way to shake him off, but fortunately, they can now see the exit of the chamber, just a small descent with relatively few Collectors and husks in their way.
"Shepard... having difficulties... maintaining..." Samara manages and Shepard turns around to see that the asari together with Grunt and Kasumi are lagging behind, unable to keep up.
Goddamnit. "You can do it, Samara, I know you can," she speaks pleadingly, encouragingly. "Everyone, keep the Collectors off her. We can do this!"
"Asari; reliance upon alien species for reproduction shows genetic weakness." Shepard recognizes the voice she really did not want to hear right now, coming from far closer than she would like to. A massive warp field hits Samara's biotic barrier, almost shattering it. The fuck he needed to show up right now!
"Fall back, Jack, we need to wait for the others," she shouts, frantically trying to spot the Harbinger in the sights of her sniper rifle, but they are too far ahead, too many obstacles back in the way to get a clear shot. "Drop the barrier, Samara! Grunt, Kasumi, grab her and run to us! Jack will protect you!"
A heavy blast explodes in the middle of Samara's biotic field, mere moments after Shepard has given her orders, Morgan's mouth still wide and now it does not close, watching the scene before her in shock. Grunt and Kasumi are thrown off their feet, but they recover quickly, and charge back towards them, Grunt dragging the smaller human with him to safety.
Samara is not as lucky.
Her body is launched through the air following a violent explosion, falling right at Shepard's feet, blood pouring profusely from deep wounds in her chest and neck. Not good. Not good! Without thinking, she bends down and picks up Samara's limp, broken body in her arms, hoping that there is something that can still be done.
The entrance is less than fifty yards ahead of them, with only a half dozen husks in the way. She decides to risk it, knowing that the only way to save Samara is to hurry the hell up. "Fuck the barriers! We're almost there, just run! Run for the entrance!"
Their disorganized, panicking lines charge for safety, shooting the husks as they run by them, but fortunately their exposure to the seeker swarms is not long enough for them to suffer permanent damage, Mordin's countermeasure proving adequate to at least get them into the safe chamber, closing the heavy security doors behind them.
"We're pinned down against that door," she hears Garrus' frantic voice on the comms, finally clear from the swarm interference. "We need them open, now!"
"Kasumi!" she shouts out to the thief and the Japanese girl rushes towards the locked security doors, starting to work on getting them open, as Shepard gently lowers the badly wounded justicar on the ground, noticing that she is still conscious, albeit just barely.
"Hold on, Samara, medi-gel is on its way," Morgan whispers, rapidly trying to administer what healing she can, even if the rational part of her mind realizes that it won't do much good.
"Don't bother, Shepard... too late... for me," Samara says weakly, trickle of blue blood flowing from the corner of her mouth and through her nose. "Promise... you find Morinth. Finish my job... promise..."
Shepard takes the asari's hand in hers, bitter tears falling on Samara's armor. "I promise. I'm sorry I... failed you, my friend..."
"Not your fault... don't... blame..." Samara's head rolls to the side before she can finish. Morgan wipes the tears away from her face, rising from the ground, knowing that despite Samara's words she will never stop blaming herself for this failure.
There is no time for grief, however, when Kasumi finally manages to force the security door open. The distraction team is under such heavy weapons fire from what feels like hundred of Collector drones, that Shepard briefly wonders how are they even still alive. "Suppressive fire! Cover their exit!" she yells to her team, switching to her assault rifle and spraying the incoming Collectors with bullets, Grunt, Thane, Jack all providing support.
One after another, the distraction team flee through the doors, Zaeed as the last one. "Get those doors closed, girl!" he shouts at Kasumi, plowing down one drone after another. "Move it! We don't have the whole day to wait until you're done!"
Kasumi swears and gives an angry look to Zaeed, her concentration breaking momentarily. "Fall back, Zaeed!" Shepard shouts to the old mercenary who seems to be overtaken by some sort of berserker rage. "Fall in line, your shields are about to fail!"
Eventually her orders manage to penetrate Zaeed's brains and he slowly walks backwards, continuing to fire. The door is finally starting to slide shut, but is doing so agonizingly slowly. Shepard pushes Grunt away from the line of Collector fire, when she hears his shields fizzling, even as she knows her own are at a critically low level. There is only a small gap of two feet in the doors, no more, when Zaeed's shields also give out.
Only two more shots pass through the doors before they close for good.
The first one plunges into Zaeed's left shoulder, forcing him to throw his head backwards from the force of the impact.
The second one rips into the side of his head where he was shot twenty years ago by Vido Santiago. The shot takes off half of his face, smearing blood and bits of his brains on the wall behind them.
Rage is a hell of an anesthetic... but it's not that good, Shepard thinks grimly, watching Zaeed's lifeless body topple to the ground.
"Dibs on his Fornax collection!" Grunt roars, completely inappropriately.
And suddenly we're down by two... Shepard curses mentally, as she quickly takes a look around to survey the surroundings they have ended up in. "Focus, people!" she shouts out, knowing that they cannot dwell on the casualties suffered so far. "We will honor the fallen later, but for now, we still have work to do! I think... those there are platforms similar to the ones we saw on the Collector ship. They should take us up to the main controls. We are getting close to our goal, we cannot falter now!"
"They will cut through those doors soon enough," Garrus remarks, grimly pointing at the security door, the only barrier between them and hundreds of determined Collectors. "If we're all up on those platforms, we'll be easy pickings."
"I was getting to that," Shepard nods. "We need to leave behind a team to guard these doors." She looks around, satisfied when she sees ample opportunities for cover. "This might actually work. The position is well defendable and they will be easy targets coming in through those doors. Your only worry should be running out of ammo."
"So a small team goes on to overload critical systems while the rest stay here to hold the line?" Jacob asks. "An unenviable task, but we're all behind your decision, Commander."
"If we do this quick, the Normandy may be able to extract you before the critical systems overload," Shepard says, trying to bolster the morale of those who would remain behind. "Can you confirm that, EDI?"
"There is a suitable zone for extraction nearby," the AI replies after a brief analysis of the scans. "Sending the location."
"Tali, Garrus, with me," Morgan orders quickly. Not just because I want to give them the best chances of survival. Also because I trust them the most. They will never let me down.
"The next few minutes will determine the fate of this mission," she addresses her team, as Tali already starts to work on hacking the platform controls. "The galaxy depends on us. You know this already, there is not much more that needs to be said. Make me proud. Make yourselves proud," Shepard finishes as the platform takes off to carry them towards the central control chamber.
The platform floats through the massive chambers deep inside the Collector base, filled with pods and tubes linking them all together. "Those tubes all seem to connect to... whatever it is over there," she points ahead to the end of the cavern-like chamber.
"The tubes are feeding into some kind of superstructure," EDI explains over the comms. "It is emitting both organic and non-organic energy signatures. The readings suggest something massive."
"But the only thing we know of such scope that could be part organic and part synthetic is..." Tali starts, before being interrupted by Garrus.
"A Reaper," he states grimly.
"Don't worry, EDI... we see it..." Shepard says, her breath catching from the horrific sight opening before them. The tubes all as one feed into a massive, incomplete carcass, hanging suspended by wires and four larger feeding tubes, and even if it is incomplete, Shepard gets the distinct impression that the Reaper which the Collectors are building is meant to resemble a shape of a human being.
"Okay, and now we know the reasons for the abductions and the Reaper interest in humanity," Garrus realizes. "They are building a human Reaper."
"How very flattering," Shepard says, bristling with anger. "I guess they acknowledge that we are the superior species of this cycle. Oh, how fortunate we are!"
"Do you think that... they would have still targeted humanity, if not for… what we did?" Tali humbly suggests.
"If I hadn't led us to Sovereign's destruction," Shepard suddenly realizes what she means, it is like a sharp, painful stab in her chest. "No... I don't think that before Saren's invasion... they even considered humanity remotely interesting. If I... if I hadn't been there, maybe the Collectors would currently be harvesting the asari or turians..."
"You say that as if it were your fault, Shepard," Garrus says, putting a hand on her shoulder. "But come now, Commander. You know that Saren had to be stopped."
"I know, I'm not feeling guilty," she replies, suddenly remembering something Mordin told her when confronted about the genophage. "Still... responsible. Still, consequences of my actions." She readies her assault rifle. "And we're not going to stand here and watch them complete this monstrosity." She points at the four massive tubes collecting the genetic material from the supply lines and injecting it into the carcass of the Reaper. "Those seem to be holding it suspended in the air. Let's take them out!"
"The experiments will continue, Shepard," there is that loathed voice again, and several other platforms are closing in, bringing Collector forces with them. "You do not yet comprehend your place in things."
"I guess it was too much to hope for, that they would just sit and watch us bringing down their creation," Garrus curses, taking aim, and moments later a headless Collector assassin is thrown off from one of the approaching platforms.
"We can try to hold them off while you work on those injection tubes, Shepard," Tali suggests.
"Fine with me," Shepard agrees, starting to pepper the structural weak points with her carefully measured shots. Unfortunately, the Collectors quickly realize their plan and rally to put on more pressure on them, forcing Morgan to come to Tali and Garrus' aid, or risk them getting overwhelmed.
"Turian; you are considered... too primitive," the Harbinger drones on, his biotic nova attack catching Garrus in his cover and throwing him back, the turian struggling to get back on his feet.
"Garrus!" Tali exclaims, leaving her cover in an ill-advised moment to unload a few shots at the Harbinger. All she gets for her efforts is a heavy shot from a nearby Collector guardian, catching her in the side and dropping her tech barriers.
Shepard looks at the Reaper above them. With her taking potshots when able to, it is by now already rocking, threatening to fall. "Focus, Tali! On three!" she shouts to her quarian friend.
"On three what, Shepard?" comes the frustrated reply.
"Look up, see the exposed tube at four o'clock?" Shepard asks. Tali quickly nods. "On three, I want you to break cover and shoot it. Can you do that?" Another nod comes. "Alright... one... two... three!"
Tali falls immediately after unleashing the shot, her tech barriers not sufficiently recovered to withstand the barrage of attacks aimed at her. Fortunately the injuries seem light, as Shepard quickly takes aim and destroys the last shreds of wiring keeping the Reaper suspended above Harbinger's platform. She feels the heavy fire penetrating her own shields, sharp pain coursing through her body, she sees the sprays of her own blood as she falls with her back on the platform, but even so, she knows she has done what was required.
"Take a look upwards, you stupid piece of shit!" she yells, watching the Reaper tumble down with a violent screech, smashing into the Harbinger's platform and taking the remaining Collector forces with it down into the depths of the chamber.
"You have only delayed the inevitable," she hears the last words of the Harbinger, pleased to detect a degree of annoyance and frustration seeping into them.
"Tell it to someone who gives a fuck," she mutters, injecting a dose of medi-gel in her aching frame, feeling it quickly take effect and allowing her to rise. Morgan is relieved to see that Garrus is up as well, shaking his head from the daze, and Tali is also up and about, even if her suit is ruptured yet again, meaning that the quarian will need a more serious medical attention later.
"Can you get this thing to move to the control chamber?" she asks Tali, the quarian immediately starting to work on the platform controls, sending them traveling through the chamber again. "And once we get there, set their systems to overload. Let's blow this little house of horrors to kingdom come."
"Gladly," Tali says, still busy with her hacking efforts.
"Joker?" Shepard calls out on the comms. "Start moving the Normandy to the extraction spot. Tell the ground team to be ready to move. This place is going up in flames in a few minutes!"
"Copy that, Commander. We're on our way," Joker promptly responds. A brief moment later she hears his voice on the comms again. "Err, Commander, I have an incoming message from The Illusive Man. Patching it thr-"
"Don't. Terminate the connection," Shepard replies firmly.
"...beg your pardon, Commander?" she can literally see Joker's eyes going wide from surprise.
"You heard me. I'm not interested to hear what he has to say, especially not now when we are fighting for our lives!" she shouts. "Don't you get it, Joker? After this is done, I'm going to screw him twenty times over! I'm going to take his ship and bring it back to the Alliance. I am going to cut all ties with Cerberus and if he has a problem with that, I will cut off his balls with my omni-blade. Got that?"
"Uh... yeah, Commander," Joker sounds a bit disturbed. "Would have been nice to be aware of such plans… just saying."
"Nah," Shepard answers dismissively. "Didn't want to spoil the surprise for you. I know how much you love surprises."
"Uh-huh," Joker merely replies. I'll apologize to him later. First we need to make sure there is a 'later'...
"Alright, the reactor is set to overload in ten minutes," Tali says, having finished fiddling with the controls.
"Good job," Garrus nods. "Although... when you disabled the critical systems... wouldn't that cause this platform to lose altitude?"
Tali turns towards Garrus, facing him with a long stare. "Oh yes. Good point," she finally admits. "As the humans would say... oops?"
"Ground team, come in ground team!" Joker's voice is full of panic, as he agonizingly waits for response, fearing that the last line of the defense has been broken.
"Joker," finally Miranda responds, through a lot of heavy arms fire. "What's the sitrep?"
"Move to the extraction zone ASAP!" Joker shouts. "This place is rigged to blow in... less than six minutes!"
"This is going to be a little risky, we're under heavy fire," Miranda replies, continuing to fire away at the persistent drones, by now slowed down by the amount of dead bodies at the door, forming an impromptu line of barricades. "Alright, Jack, Legion, Kasumi, head for the LZ, now! Move!" Lawson shouts to her entrenched comrades. "We'll cover your retreat!"
Jack doesn't need to be told twice, she fires off a heavy shockwave scattering the Collectors at the entrance, refreshes her biotic barriers and is already running to safety, Legion not far behind. Only Kasumi hesitates slightly. "Who's going to cover you?" she asks, looking at Jacob in particular.
"Don't question my orders! Just go!" Miranda yells, irritated at the disobedience.
Kasumi no longer hesitates, activating her cloaking and leaving the cover, but in the thick of the gunfire, a completely stray shot that would have otherwise missed everyone, catches her invisible shape and disrupts the cloaking, leaving her completely vulnerable to the incoming barrage.
Things happen so fast that she cannot even blink an eye or do anything to prevent the horrible sequence of events. She is suddenly aware of someone's body interposing between her and the Collector attackers, getting ripped apart by series of shots, falling heavily on top of her, giving their life for hers.
She opens her eyes to see Jacob's head pressed against her chest, his body heavy and sluggish on top of hers. "Jacob? Jacob!" she exclaims, hoping for an answer, but the rapidly growing pool of warm blood under her implies there will be no reply. "Oh gods, no... no, Jacob... no..."
There is a worried voice, screaming somewhere in the pitch black darkness surrounding her. "Commander! Commander Shepard!" it shouts at Morgan, forcing her to draw an agonizingly painful breath. "Come in, Commander! Shepard, respond!"
"Joker?" she manages weakly, opening her eyes. She is still somewhere in the central chamber, deep in what seems like a pile of rubble, remains of the crashed platform.
"Commander, you're alive!" the voice rejoices. "2:45 to the detonation, Shepard! We need to get you out of there! Drop us your location!"
"Sent," she replies, starting to look around, hoping to find Tali and Garrus. She notices the quarian first, slumped against the wall nearby, unmoving. Dreading the worst, Shepard approaches her, shaking all over as she reaches down to touch Tali's limp hand. "Oh gods... everyone but you, Tali..."
The quarian's hand suddenly grips hers tightly, and a tremor runs through Tali's body as she shakes herself back to consciousness. "Gods, Tali... don't scare me like that," she feels like a giant weight has fallen off her chest. "Don't you ever scare me like that."
"I... don't feel so good, Shepard..." Tali groans, slowly getting up. "Garrus, where's Garrus?" she asks worriedly.
Together they look around, finding Garrus nearby, lying face first in the rubble and groaning in pain as a heavy metal panel is slowly crushing his spine. With their last bits of strength, Shepard and Tali move the panel away and pull Garrus back up on his feet, ignoring his pained protestations, knowing that time is of essence.
"1:35," Joker reminds her on the comms. "Almost at your location, Commander. Start moving!"
"I know we're hurt and bleeding all over, but come on, only this last bit remains..." Shepard tells them, starting to climb up the pile of rubble, back towards the location Joker has pinpointed on her visor's HUD. And as if they have not been through enough already, suddenly she hears the familiar swarming sound of the Collector drone wings as a group of them arrives to harass them, one of their foes immediately becoming possessed by her old friend, the Harbinger. "Oh, fuck this!" she yells, shooting wildly at them, at least buying Tali and Garrus some time to escape. "C'mon, double time, people! Almost there! We can't die here! What fucker would have written a shitty script like that?"
"Human, you've changed nothing," she can hear Harbinger's voice behind her, as she turns around and just runs, not bothering to fire back, hoping her shields would hold. "Your species has the attention of those infinitely greater."
"1:15!" panic is once against starting to seep into Joker's voice on the comms. "Hurry up, we still need to get clear of this place!"
"That which you know as Reapers are your salvation through destruction," Harbinger is still close behind, and suddenly her left thigh explodes in pain, but she does not even spare a second glance as to why, she simply forces herself to keep running, to ignore the pain, to get through it.
"One minute! Where are you people?" Joker shouts.
"There's the Normandy!" Tali yells, first one up the steep climb, as the Normandy appears in front of them, a blessed, welcome sight.
"Jump, Tali!" Garrus exclaims, almost throwing the lithe quarian across to the Normandy's airlock, then looking back at Shepard with growing concern, seeing that she is slowed down by her injuries. "Come on, Commander!" he yells, drawing his rifle and picking off a couple of drones that have almost caught up with Shepard.
"Get inside!" she screams back to him. "I'm right behind you!" Only a few more yards. I can do it... I can do it!
"45 seconds!" Joker yells. "We really need to leave... NOW!"
Finally, she reaches the top of the climb and without hesitating, Morgan leaps through the air, flailing madly with her arms. Hate this so much, hate this jumping business, she thinks as someone, probably Grunt, picks her up as easily as if she was a mere feather and throws her inside the docking bay, where she can bleed out on the floor in relative safety.
"40 seconds," Joker comments. "All airlocks sealed, prepare for immediate extraction."
"Did the ground team make it?" Shepard asks, lying on the docking bay floor, eyes closed, feeling someone taking care of her injuries.
"All save for Jacob," Thane replies, his words setting Morgan's insides in another bitter twist.
"20 seconds," it is Joker on the comms again. "Leaving the Collector base."
"Plot the course for Omega, Joker," she responds to his worried message with hysterical giggling. "I think after this I need to hit Afterlife for a round of drinks. We all... deserve that."
"10 seconds," now it is EDI again. "Safe zone reached. Preparing for the relay jump."
Moments later, the blindingly white light of the explosion seems to penetrate even the darkness of the docking bay. For a while Normandy is getting rocked with tremors, but soon the ship steadies itself. Finally, Morgan feels the tension and the adrenaline starting to bleed off, as the true understanding of what they have achieved slowly settles in.
"We've done it. I've done it... for you, Liara," she whispers, tears starting to freely flow down her cheeks, and she does not give damn about anyone watching. "I'm coming home... to you. Time to come home..."