I know I have not posted on this fic in a long time, so I'm sorry about that, but here is the next chapter and I will have another one up for y'all as soon as I can. Thanks to all my followers and reviewers. Enjoy!
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The shuttle had several alarms going off as the shields started to hiss against the solar radiation. Claire looked around the shuttle as Garrus adjusted the settings for his shields next to her apparently completely unphased. Zaheed whispered something to his rifle as he stroked it as if it were the white cat out of an old James Bond film. Grunt fidgeted obviously ready to be out of the shuttle and fighting. Jack looked more pissed than usual but that was probably because Claire had forced her to wear full armor on the mission instead of the shielded jacket Luke had signed over to her.
"Any intel on the LZ?" Jacob asked locking his helmet into place.
"Nothing. We couldn't get an accurate scan through the solar radiation. Everything is frying from probe sensors to visual scans. There's just too much interference," Joker responded over the radio.
"At least radio signals are making it through," Zaheed said tapping his ear piece.
"That's only because of the booster added to the shuttles comm system. Once we're planet side, expect moderate to severe signal interference," Garrus explained stowing his sniper rifle back and checking the sight on his assault rifle.
"Everyone stay close and in formation. No heroes," Claire ordered.
"Speaking of heroes, where's the king of the boy scouts? Aren't I usually on his team?" Jack asked loading a few extra thermal clips into her leg pouch.
"He's on another mission," Claire said shortly.
"Some super secret spy stuff?" Jack mocked charging the firing chamber of her shotgun.
"Yeah, super secret. Shhhh," Claire responded putting her finger up to her helmet where her mouth was. Honestly, she wanted to know what he was up to as well. The fact that he was so secretive about it and only took half his team made her uneasy. Liara withholding information about the mission worried her too.
"Whatever. What's the deal with this place anyway?" Jack asked. "What's so special about some quarian?"
"She's an old friend that I trust and one of the smartest tech engineers I've ever seen. She'll be a big help. Trust me," Claire explained glancing over at Garrus.
"She was also on the old Normandy with us," the turian added.
"Great, another touching reunion. Ugh, gag me," Jack groaned.
000
The sun shown down on them like a spotlight causing their shields to sizzle. Claire had never heard her equipment make that sound before. Could it just be the radiation from the star, or was there something adding to it from the planet's atmosphere? No, the cortex had flagged this system for irregular solar radiation. It had to be the the star.
"The briefing wasn't kidding about the solar radiation. Its playing hell with my shields," Garrus said as the group took shelter in the shade allowing their shields to recharge before pressing onward.
"Have we picked up any radio chatter from Tali or nyone with her?" Claire asked.
"I'm actively scanning all channels but nothing yet. Must be the solar radiation," Garrus responded. Claire nodded before waving everyone on.
They advanced slowly through the ruins making sure to not arouse any enemy units that might be lurking among the crumbling buildings. The quiet seemed to be getting under Grunt, Zaheed, and Jack's skin. They wanted to start fighting. To be honest, Claire wasn't feeling very comfortable with the silence either. There was always something that went wrong on a mission. An ambush, a trap, unexpected enemy reinforcements, something that caused the plan to go wrong. It wasn't like she hoped for something like that to happen, but she had come to expect it.
"Got something. Some kind of gate up ahead and there's some recent damage to the door on the right," Zaheed said pointing.
"Let's check it out. Grunt, Zaheed, with me. Garrus, Jack, cover the gate," Claire ordered increasing her pace.
She could see blood on the door. Judging from the color, it was quarian. It was to bright of a shade of red for it to be human. Please don't let that be Tali's blood. She hadn't meant to let her mind go there immediately, but the worst possible scenario always seemed to find her.
"Do not fire unless its geth," Claire said activating the door. A grumble for Zaheed and a reluctant nod from Grunt let her know they would obey. As the door opened the three surged in but found nothing alive. Two quarians lay against the wall surrounded by seven geth troopers.
"Quarian marines. Tougher than I thought," Zaheed said kneeling next to the corpses.
"Wait, 'til you meet Tali. She's a hellion with an omni-tool if I've ever seen one," Claire said allowing herself to take a relieved breath. She figured Tali wouldn't be killed so easily, not after seeing her in action on Freedom's Progress. "She's not here. Let's keep moving."
Garrus activated the gate leading to the rest of the compound as as the team moved into formation to continue forward.
"Jack and Grunt on point, Zaheed with me in the middle, and Garrus on rear guard. We know the geth are here. Once you confirm any geth, weapons free," Claire ordered.
"Hell yeah, I like that," Jack exclaimed overcharging her shotgun.
Not more than five seconds after Claire had given the order, a geth drop ship swooped down and dropped a squad of troops directly in their path. Grunt charged forward grabbing one of the synthetics by the chest piece and using it as a shield while he blasted away at the others with his shotgun. Jack used her biotics to rip one of the enemies in half before hurling the pieces into another trooper. She pulled her pistol and put three rounds in the troopers head before covering Grunt's assault. For not having worked together much before, they seemed pretty well in sync with one another.
"Captain, another patrol up ahead and it looks like they have a prime," Zaheed said leveling his rifle.
"It never goes smoothly. Why can't it ever go smoothly?" Claire said raising her own weapon.
000
The shuttle jolted nearly throwing Luke to the floor as the craft closed the distance between them and the drop off point. The storm surrounding their drop point was unlike anything Luke had ever seen. High gust winds sent tremors through the shuttle and lightning threatened to knock them out of the sky with every flash.
"I've never seen anything like this," Miles said bracing himself against the wall.
"Oh come on Miles. This is not as bad as that insertion on Aequitas with the anti-air defenses and sand storm," Luke replied locking his helmet on and strapping another ammo belt across his chest. He assumed there would be an army manning that whole ship. They would most likely have to kill a large number of them.
"Hopefully there will be less broken bones than that time," Mary said locking her own helmet on.
"How many bones were broken?" Liara asked looking around the group.
"Three including me," Luke answered patting his left wrist. "Was out of action for three weeks."
"Even though you were supposed to be out for six weeks, stubborn ass," Abby jested nudging Luke.
"Did you really expect anything else from me? Come on. Stealth insertion in two," Luke said pulling his pistol.
"Roger that," the team responded in unison. Luke looked over at Liara. She looked focused, but not on the task at hand. He pulled her off to the side as the shuttle settled and prepared for the drop.
"What's rolling around that brilliant mind of yours?" Luke asked softly.
"Faren. I know the reports say that he is alive, but I'm afraid," Liara answered.
Luke sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder. "If there is one thing that I'm sure of, its that Faren is just as hard to kill as I am. He'll be here, and after we get him, we'll get some payback," Luke assured her.
She nodded and locked her helmet on before following him to the door. A few seconds later, the door opened and without hesitation, the members of the wolf pack leaped out landing lightly on the deck of the ship.
"Katie, keep the shuttle in outer orbit. If you don't here from us in four hours, return to the Normandy and report the mission failed with the whole team lost. I don't want Claire coming out here after us if we fail," Luke ordered over the short range radio.
"Roger that, Alpha, but don't go dying on me," she responded as the shuttle pulled away and climbed back out of the atmosphere.
"You really want your sister to give up on you if we don't take this rust bucket?" Miles asked taking cover and as the team started to move toward the bow.
"I don't plan on taking the ship. The Shadow Broker is a necessary evil in the galaxy. If we can manage it, I'd rather rescue Faren without having to eliminate the Broker. But, if we get captured or killed, I don't want Claire coming here to try and avenge us," Luke responded.
"I understand, but I do plan on causing trouble for the Broker," Liara stated as Luke waved the team forward.
"Of course, that's the pack is better at than anyone else in the galaxy," Luke answered.
"Yeah, causing trouble on a massive scale that pisses off the maximum amount of people possible," Miles added raising a few chuckles from Abby and Mary.
"Thank you. All of you for this," Liara said as they continued forward.
"Thank us by watching your step. As much as I like sky diving, I think it would be called sky frying on this planet," Luke said spotting a massive jolt of lightning pass both below and above the ship.
Luke took point in the formation and started moving forward. HE did not expect that much resistance in the storm, but he was worried that the shuttle's approach may have been noticed. If that were the case, the Broker would send out at least a few patrols to make sure they were alone, and if those patrols were silenced before reporting the all clear or called him his teams position, they would be in a fight for their lives. Stealth was their best option for surviving the mission without casualties.
"Luke, I think we better get inside soon. It will be easier to pick off any guards once we're out of this storm," Abby stated checking behind them before continuing forward.
"Let me know if you see a welcome mat anywhere," Luke responded. Even with all the moving parts on the ship's hull, he had not seen any maintenance hatches or entrances. Could the Broker really have no escape point on the upper area? What about maintenance? Surely they did not deploy a shuttle in this kind of weather to make small repairs.
"Should we ring the bell?" Miles asked pointing to the multitude of lightning rods lining the beast's back like a porcupine.
"What do you have in mind?" Luke asked.
"We run some wire between a few sensors and one of those rods. When the lightning hits, it will fry the sensor and they will have to send someone to repair it. Watch where they come from and follow the trail back to an entrance," Miles explained.
"Works for me," Mary stated.
"I'm in," Abby added.
"Worth a shot, then. Cover me while I run the cable," Luke said using omni-tool to scan for a sensor cluster.
"But won't this let them know that there is someone here?" Liara asked.
"That's a risk we'll have to take. We need a point of entry or blueprints for the ship. Both would be preferable, but I'll take an entry point where we can interrogate someone for directions," Luke said looping the cord around the sensor node.
"Alpha, movement at twelve o'clock, distance 45 meters," Abby stated.
"Damn, do they know we're here?" Luke asked taking cover.
"Negative. Looks like a routine patrol," Abby responded.
"Alright, stay hidden and let them pass. We'll follow their path back to an insertion point move forward from there," Luke ordered.