Interloper 2: Chapter 37

The inside of the Hammerhead fell silent, the only sound coming from outside.

"Say again, Joker, I'm not sure we got that last one," Shepard called. The radio crackled softly before Joker's voice came back through, clearer this time.

"We received a message from Tali. Do you want me to pipe it through to you, or are we picking you up?"

"Bring the Normandy in, we're done here," Shepard said. She raised a hand at my uttered protest and made the signal to rise. I shook my head and dropped a comm. buoy to mark the final objective for later pickup before depressing the emergency ascension jets. The bright blue flames lit the cockpit from the underside and a jolt ran through the tanks that felt like a kick to the seat of my pants. The chilly interior warmed rapidly, setting off a cascade of sharp pings as the metal heated up. The tank plowed upwards through the gale, going nose up to slice through the sheets of snow and hail. Upwards and upwards we rose, like a cork suddenly released in water. The air cleared at long last as the Hammerhead rocketed from the blizzard. The jets cut out as the last of the fuel slipped through them.

"Pop flares and hold on," Shepard ordered. I did as ordered and braced myself against the metal frame around me. For a second, nothing happened. Then there was a roar of fierce engines and the shark-nosed prow of the Normandy flashed overhead. For a spilt second we were weightless as the ship's mass effect field washed over us. There was a sharp tug to the side and we were caught firmly in the hanger's arresting beam. The engine noise fell to a dull roar and we tipped skywards, back into space

The rear hatch hissed open and we were bathed in a wash of warm air. I shivered despite the heat as pins and needles ran up and down my chilled fingers. The rest of the tank's small crew similarly shook themselves before making their way one by one out into the hanger. I left last, shutting down the strained and tired sounding engine. It spun down with a rattle and I unclipped myself from my harness. I shuffled rearwards to join Garrus and Shepard as they talked to one of EVA's holographic platforms. Joker's head floated above it, projected form the cockpit.

"…and as I was saying, Commander, simple encrypted video recording. Tali said you should probably listen to it alone."

"Probably doesn't want it piped through to Cerberus," Shepard noted, "We're alone down here, Joker. I'm sure whatever Tali has to say, she won't mind a few of the old guard listening in. Play the message."

"Playing." Joker's face disappeared and was replaced by a foot tall image of a Quarian. Even in stark blue I recognized the banded suit of Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, or was it vas Neema now? Either way, Tali stood before us now obviously agitated, even angry from the way she almost shook. Beneath her newly shortened cowl the lights of her eyes bobbed as if under a deeply furrowed brow.

Shepard… she began, …I know you're working for Cerberus now, and I know we didn't part on the best of terms after Horizon, and I know you are on one of your missions. But if you can find the time… something has… Tali looked away. Her hands worked at something held between them. It is my father. He's been charged with treason, which might mean exile if he's found guilty. Normally this would be an internal matter, but given my connection to you, the Admiralty Board will allow you to open a SPECTRE investigation. The case looks bleak, but if there's anyone who can find a way of this… Please, the coordinates to the Migrant Fleet are included in this recording. Hurry, the trial will be held by the end of the week.

I sat worrying outside the briefing room. Tali's father arrested for treason. I had almost forgotten I had sent the message to the Admiralty Board. And now after weeks, months bouncing off of comm. buoys and hitching rides in the nav. arrays of passing freighters, it had arrived. I wasn't looking forward to meeting Tali face to face. Odds are she wouldn't have any idea I had sent the incriminating tipoff, but seeing her oscillate between angry and forlorn was sure to tear at me. With luck, Shepard would see the Geth parts and somehow manage to convince the young Quarian that it was better to have her father alive and banished than dead and buried. From there the road was unclear, an increasingly common feeling. Would she still join the mission with her father still alive? Would she stay with him and continue his work? I tried to think back and remember how the events had played out in Mass Effect. I came up blank, only the vague outlines of an infested science vessel and a show trial rattling around my head.

"Liddle?" I jumped with a start. I bolted to my feet and sketched a salute as Shepard and company piled out of the spacious conference room. She returned the gesture and touched me lightly on the shoulder. "You dodged out of their pretty quickly, something wrong?"

"Nothing wrong, Commander. Just had to walk the chill out my feet," I lied. Shepard laughed and made a show of rubbing her hands together.

"I know that feeling. Remind me never to head down to a planet cold enough to kill us again. You got the gist of the briefing though, right?"

"Tali's in trouble, something about her father smuggling Geth parts?" I mumbled. The Commander nodded. "So are we going to head there? I know Tali means a lot to you."

"The Normandy will be heading over as soon as the coordinates we received have been decrypted. You have a different mission. Walk with me." She motioned and I followed. We turned left, moving towards the armoury at a slow walk. "You remember the mech spelling bee we ran into a while back?"

"Of course, have you dug up something new?"

"I was about ready to let it go, but Cerberus just got done sending down a probe. I don't know what they found down there, but it's lit a fire under their ass. They want me to take a two day journey out of my way to shut down what they're calling a rogue plant."

"You think there's more to this?"

"Wouldn't be sending you if I didn't. With Tali's father on trial within the week, we don't have time to go running off on the Illusive man's whims, but I'm curious as to what has him so bent out of shape. Grab a team of two, Zaeed and Elisabeth should suffice. And be careful, the mechs might not be as friendly on this world."

I was about to respond when the general alarm blared twice, the signal that the Normandy was engaging stealth mode. Joker's voice followed it over the intercom.

"Er… Commander, you're going to want to take a look at this."

"On my way, Joker," she responded into her radio. "Hold that thought, Liddle. Let's see what's gone wrong this time."

There it was again. It hung like a malevolent bat above the bridge holoprojector, it's harsh angles glinting from reflected starlight. The shape it cut in the dark of space was unmistakable. The Shadow Barge.

"How the hell did this thing find us again?" Shepard growled. Her eyes were fixed on the blocky Q-ship. The Shadow Broker's personal meat cleaver had once again stationed itself about the system's mass relay and didn't show any signs of budging. Instead it orbited the relay slowly, making a show of opening every gun port. Either it had undergone a few upgrades of its own, or this was the first time it unsheathed its full might.

"Maybe they'll be kind enough to let us know," Joker said. "Receiving tansmission."

Commander Shepard, the Shadow Barge's captain spoke in his grating filtered voice. Once again we meet on the field of battle. For one so adept at escape you show a disturbing lack of care in covering your tracks. Illium, Omega, and even now you broadcast your location.

The bridge crew looked back and forth amongst one another, a few man and women nervously checking their stations for any sign of a beacon or signal. Shepard stared hard-faced at the image of the ship that stood between her and freedom.

"Cut in a relay, I want to talk to this son of a bitch," Shepard said to no one in particular. The comms. officer rushed to fulfill her order and handed her a small hand mic. She thanked him and thumbed the device on. "Normandy to Shadow Barge, I thought you'd given up on being humiliated. Are you going to try and convince me to turn myself in again? Or maybe try to bribe my crew out from under me?"

The Shadow never tires, Commander. And such deceptions and manipulations will not be required today, for my orders have been changed. My pursuit of you has become… costly, too costly, the Broker believes, to justify further attempts to capture you. I am here for one reason, to remove you from the playing field. Now, you can come and face me, or I can wait for you to run out your stealth drives and be forced from cover. It's your choice really, I'm a patient man. Good day.

The transmission ended. The Barge continued its lazy course like some high tech ancestor to the great white sharks of Earth, slow circles, never too far to engage anything running for the relay. Shepard was the first to stir.

"Joker, how much time can you give us under stealth?"

"Maybe an hour, Commander. The ship's still running a little hot from the atmospheric pick-up. I can give you a little stretch time, nearly another half an hour, but we won't be in any position to fight once we drop back into view."

"Thank you Joker. Continue our present course for now, minimal power. I need some time to think." She set down the microphone and for a brief second a rare look of concern crossed her brow. She studied the ship, the system, anything to gain an edge. The situation didn't look optimistic. One by one Shepard expended the options open to her; false distress signals, mechanical decoys, and the like. The Shadow Barge resolutely refused to react. Instead it just continued its slowly orbit about the relay.

"Twenty minute window, Commander," Joker reminded her. Shepard nodded gravely. Her eyes swept the room and seemed to linger on every crew member as if to weigh them.

"Run out the guns, beat to quarters, and get a fair wind in our sails," She said quietly.

"Commander?"

"We're going to fight them, Joker. No more running. I think we're all pretty tired of running from this jumped up pirate." There were murmurs of agreement from among the bridge crew, but they did not hide the fear in many of their eyes. Shepard stepped up onto the command podium and regarded them approvingly. "We come in from behind them, where they least expect. Vent the heat sinks at the head of the attack run to confuse their targeting. We hit them as hard and as many times as possible before they can react."

"Commander, I'll agree that the Normandy is the biggest and baddest frigate in the Terminus Systems, but that bulk freighter outmasses us by a good factor, and outguns us by maybe more. I won't have another ship shot out from under me, Shepard, I can't." Joker's voice sounded strained, almost at the end of his nerves.

"I bet they don't outpilot us," Shepard said with a wolfish grin. She had caught Joker in a trap he couldn't escape from. "Bring your a-game, Joker, we're going hunting." Joker let out a long drawn out sigh.

"Aye, ma'am. EVA, roll out the ECM, give 'em the full red carpet treatment. Garrus, you ready?"

"Am I ever not?"

"Alright, here we go," Joker laid both hands on the haptic dashboard. "Atomic batteries to power. Turbines to speed."

The Normandy put on a burst of speed as the oversized Tantalus drive crackled with energy.

The bulky Shadow Barge hung in space, projected high into the air above the galaxy map. While alert, it was looking in the wrong direction to catch a glimpse at the small frigate that rocketed toward it at just barely sublight speeds. The Normandy splashed across their scopes with a burst of superheated coolant that roiled out behind it like the tail of a comet. Before the Shadow Broker's headsmen could react, they were under attack. Bright beams stabbed out from the Normandy's belly, miniaturized hydrodynamic weapons that impacted against kinetic barriers. Only one lanced through to score a deep furrow in the armour of the larger freighter.

And then they were past them. Joker pulled the Normandy up and away, using thruster to put the Normandy into a tight orbit of the Barge while maintaining a front-on approach. Again the blue lances shot out to score another deep cut. But now the enemy was ready. They ripped back at the gnat that chopped at them. Solid mass effect rounds began to fill the space between them as one attempted to pin down the other. Unable to keep his orbit, Joker broke away.

"Keep us out of range of the spinal gun!" Shepard yelled as the ship shook from repeated impacts. Joker didn't answer, mind locked onto the situation playing out in front of and around him. He tipped the ship on its nose and dove hard to pass under the Barge. The bigger ship opened up with ventral missile tubes. The javelins erupted just ahead and behind the ship. Joker swore and hit the emergency reactive thrusters. The Normandy shot downwards like a stone and avoided being bracketed. The maneuver took them out of range again, so Joker took the time to play his speed advantage. He danced the ship about and pulled back into an attack run. Weathering the storm, Garrus cut loose with another burst of the Phoenix cannon. The shot was knocked wide by a hit high on the frigate's shoulder.

"We're hulled, Commander!" a crewman yelled. "Engineering's venting atmosphere."

"Lock it down!" She replied, "Joker, see if you can't dance us around a little more!"

"Hey, I'm tangoing for all I'm worth, that thing just has too many guns!" He put more power to the engines regardless. The Normandy twirled, wound, and dove until its engines screamed, but the wash of fire continued. As liquid hot tungsten ripped out guns and armour alike, the Barge simply rolled lazily to expose more weapons.

"Hydrodynamic reservoirs at twenty-three percent, Commander," someone choked out. A fire had started on the bridge as another round skipped across the upper hull. I rushed to the sparking workstation and pulled a wounded crewman free of the blaze. Miranda was at my side in a heartbeat battering down the flames with uplifted extinguisher.

"This is a bloody worthless fight, Commander!" she yelled in an uncharacteristic break from her usual ice cold demeanor. "We should withdraw under cover of stealth and call for Cerberus reinforcements!"

"Too late for that, we're too hot to go to stealth," Joker said, still unnaturally calm. His eyes didn't move as hands flew across keys faster than could be tracked. He made a hard and faster swoop to unleash two javelins upon the Barge's unshielded port side. They warped the hardened metal enough to knock out an opposing missile tube, but the enemy still had many more. More return fire tore ragged holes in our ship. An engine blew out as we passed, sending us into a headspin. We stopped spinning slowly, but the strain was too much. We were dead in the water. Commander Shepard cursed bitterly.

You are beaten, Shepard. Give up now and I will ease your passing. You really don't want to force me to board you. It will not be… pleasant. The Barge's captain's oily voice grated over the ship's speakers. Know that you have been a worthy opponent. It has been a long time since I faced a challenge such as you. Sad really, I had hoped that you'd put up more of a fight.

Shepard stared icily at the stuttering holographic representation of her foe. "Hand out small arms and prepare to resist boarders." She said simply. There was venom in her voice powerful enough to kill a man. The crew stood gawping at their Commander. Shepard turned to me. "Liddle, you will cover the forward airlock. Kill anything that tries to get in that way."

"Of course, Commander." I saluted and drew my faithful Stinger. It shook in my grasp. As I took up position behind the turn towards the outer door, I wished I had been encased in my suit of armour. I took a slug of spiked medigel to still the shaking. Outside, the Shadow Barge loomed, thick grasping legs unfolding from beneath it like those of a black spider. It slowly descended until it matched velocities.

Something bright flashed between us. And another. A third one flashed by, this time impacting on an outstretched leg. It exploded in a bright ball of fire. A much bigger shape, an arrowheaded frigate by the look of it, shot by blurred by speed. More explosions trailed behind it as its surprise attack wreaked ruin upon the floundering Q-ship.

What the... the voice was cut off by a snarl.

"Joker, quick, while he's distracted!" Shepard yelled. Joker nodded and threw all the power that remained to him into turning the nose of the ship. He held his hand gingerly over the firing controls as the thrusters cut out.

"Almost… there…" he jammed down. The bright blue of the Phoenix cannon lanced out one final time and pierced deep onto the open pits of the leg well. Through some providence it found something important in its hungry search into the Barge's vitals. Explosions rocked the freighter. Our mysterious ally looped around for a second run. Between us we split the Shadow Barge open like a ripe peach.

There was only…. Supposed…. To be one…" The captain's voice lost its mechanical filter, revealing the clipped and high pitched voice of a salarian before the signal collapsed. The Shadow Broker's enforcer died as flame belched forth to be snuffed out by the vacuum.

Raucous cheers rippled through the ship. Shepard collapsed heavily against the banister of her command podium and wiped a grimy red forelock from her eyes.

"Joker, lock down the guns and start running the repair crews. Miranda, patch us through to our rescuers." Miranda pushed aside a frizzled lock of her own hair and complied. The holoemitter fizzled and displayed a dark skinned man lounging confidently in what looked like a more traditional command chair. He wore what looked like Alliance blues, though they were decorated with gaudier embellishments than regs usually allowed.

"Commander Shepard," he said warmly, as one officer might address another. "I'm glad to see the rumors of your death were wildly exaggerated. Pretty tight scrape you got yourself into there."

"I'm sorry," Shepard replied. "You seem to have me at a disadvantage. Who are you and what outfit are you with?"

"Liuetenant Commander Jacob Taylor, Alliance Corsairs. Run out your docking tubes and we'll send over some fresh work crews, you look like you need a hand."

Author's Note:

Sorry for the delay on this one, break ended up interfering with the whole "being good at writing" thing. If all goes to plan, I'll have another Vanguard of Vengeance up, with more Interloper to follow over the weekend. This marks the end of the Shadow Barge arc, I hope you guys enjoyed the space action.

-Liddle out