Disclaimer: Bioware owns all, sadly.
Chapter 39
Chaos.
Shepard could think of no word more descriptive for the scene her eyes beheld. The batarian Reaper continued to pull itself free from the ground, the landing pad collapsing as soldiers scurried to clear the field. Red-hot appendages swept back and forth, sweeping the length of their perimeter and obliterating anything in their path. Rachni tore through the ranks of modified batarians, but still they pressed forward. Krogan assisted with the attack, battle hardened and gritty, strangely comfortable on the moon's volcanic surface.
The commander blinked as a bead of sweat dripped down her brow, tickling and itching as it went. She turned toward Kaidan who crouched beside her, awaiting her orders before moving from cover. Miranda and Garrus had already changed position, weaving through the remnants of industrial piping, demolished by the Reaper's initial blows. They were only yards away from their objective, and Shepard felt her blood boil with adrenaline.
"Almost there, Commander." Miranda's voice trickled through the comm., doing little to assuage Shepard's nerves. "Objective in sight."
A shadow fell upon their small group and Shepard ducked further into cover just as the Reaper appendage whipped by overhead. She ignored the heat coming off it, the violent burst of wind as it passed, turning her attention once more to her two officers.
In the distance she saw Miranda dive into cover, her usual poise abandoned momentarily for safety's sake. Garrus followed by a few yards, the distance between them slowly shortening. Shepard breathed deeply, forcing her body to remain still as she watched, the only thing she could do at the moment. She released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding as Garrus ducked into cover beside Miranda, his confirmation over her radio a relief.
"We're in position, Shepard." Garrus stated. "Ready to deploy viruses on our end."
"Good," Shepard nodded even though they couldn't see her. "Deploy viruses."
"Back-up useful," Mordin quipped. "However, possible unnecessary use of resources. Potentially wasteful."
The commander turned her head slowly and shifted to view Mordin. The elder salarian crouched next to her, eyes peering across the field to their viral counterparts. His omni-tool flickered brightly, a steady stream of data pouring down his display.
"You don't approve?"
He blinked and met her gaze. "Approval not necessary. Outcome unknown. Better to utilize dual deployment for consistency purposes."
Shepard mentally shrugged, choosing instead to switch on her own omni-tool. "Whatever you say, Mordin. Ready?"
"Ready." He blinked again, a wry smile creasing his long face. "Glad we agree."
"Miranda, we're deploying viruses now."
The yellow light of her 'tool flickered against her armor, dusty and scratched and in desperate need of a vigorous scrubbing. She ducked down again as another appendage screamed by overhead, smashing a network of piping on their flank. The sound was muffled through her helmet, but Shepard still cringed as the rough metal squealed and ground together. She made a mental note to adjust the harmonics on her earpiece.
"Shepard?"
She shook her head and turned awkwardly to meet Kaidan's questioning face. "Hold tight. I'll let you know when we're ready."
He nodded, frowning as he checked the ammo count on his pistol. She watched him a moment longer before turning back to her omni-tool, the readouts flashing ominously. The commander punched in a series of commands, correcting errors in calibration, and tried again. EDI had made such a task look effortless on the Normandy. Too bad they couldn't use her now.
"Twenty percent complete, Shepard." Miranda's voice rang through the comm.
"I've got twenty-five." Garrus stated, "and counting."
Shepard peered over their cover and studied the crumbling landing pad. Miranda and Garrus were far enough away from it for the moment, but still close enough for the virus to take hold. Frowning, she pulled out her widow and sighted down the scope, surveying their position.
A flash of light caught her attention, armor flashing against the red sand. She adjusted her scope, cranking it to the highest setting before resuming her scan. Again a flicker of light caught her eye and she swore.
"Garrus! Miranda! You've got incoming on your six! Make ready."
She heard Garrus grumble through the comm. as he readied his rifle. Staccato gunfire echoed across the field before a fireburst lit up their position, bright sparks dancing momentarily before being snuffed out. The report of an SMG could be heard above the din, its signature sound clearly belonging to Miranda. Shepard shot a worried glance at Kaidan before sighting down her scope once more.
"Garrus is hit," Miranda cried, her usual calm demeanor strained.
Shepard keyed her mic. "Wrex, I need your krogan to move to Miranda's position and take out those batarians."
"As you say, Shepard." He rumbled. "Krogan incoming."
"Banks, I need a medic on our right flank." Kaidan extended his arm toward Shepard, his omni-tool displaying the readout of the battlefield. "Sector 5 Alpha."
"Roger that, Commander Shepard. Corpsman en route."
Shepard turned her attention back to Miranda's position briefly before Mordin interrupted her.
"Viral output at fifty percent. Reaper firewalls problematic."
The commander pursed her lips, knowing what was coming next. She turned to Kaidan and, meeting his eyes, nodded succinctly. "You're up, Kaidan."
His dark eyes held hers a moment longer before he shot out of cover, dashing across the sandy rise toward the Alliance LZ. She watched him go, his back to her as he struggled to maintain his footing. Red dust whirled around his figure, wind and heat battering his frame as he grew more and more distant in her vision. She finally turned back around, focusing her attention on her omni-tool after he disappeared over the rise.
"I'm at forty percent, Mordin." She met the doctor's gaze, his large eyes unblinking. "The firewalls are problematic."
A smile tugged at the corners of Mordin's mouth, but he said nothing, covering his head protectively as an appendage whipped by. Shepard ignored the heat and wind as she poked her head out of cover. The Reaper was slowly making progress, its mammoth form inching forth from the earth. The commander found herself hoping they would have enough time to seriously damage, or even destroy it, before it got loose. Given her mediocre hacking ability, however, she doubted it was possible.
"I'm at the shuttle, Shepard." Kaidan's voice over the comm. interrupted her dark thoughts. "Proceeding to bypass main controls."
A large explosion at the edge of her vision caught her attention. Grunt laughed maniacally through the comm. as he readied another concussive blast, krogan charging the line from Miranda and Garrus' position.
"Flammable. Or inflammable." Mordin quipped. "Either way works."
Shepard shot him an incredulous look. "What?"
"Draws attention away from virus. Any distraction good."
Shepard checked her omni-tool as Grunt and his team let loose with another blast, fireworks sparking brightly in the soot-choked haze. The readout was at sixty percent, firewalls still holding.
"Miranda," Shepard barked. "What's your status?"
She heard the ghost of an echo as an SMG fireburst resounded through the ruined outbuildings, the metal piping coiled and twisted into almost unrecognizable forms. Thunder raged on the wrecked landing pad, sands and metal paneling shifting wildly as the Reaper twisted within. Shepard swore. The Reaper would not need much more time before it was free.
"Viral deployment at fifty percent, Commander." Miranda reported, her voice harsh. "I'm having a bit of interference. The batarians are not cooperating."
"Garrus?"
"Took a concussive blast. The corpsman moved him to a makeshift aid station. He was still alive last time I saw him, if only barely."
Shepard pushed back the anxiety threatening to overwhelm her senses, focusing instead on hacking the Reaper. She looked to Mordin who nodded subtly, his own omni-tool flashing brightly against their cover. Data streamed down her readout and she worked furiously to keep up with it, her fingers flying across the interface, adjusting settings as needed. She was no match for the Reaper AI, she knew this, but still she had to try.
"I'm in, Shepard." Kaidan reported through a burst of static. "Establishing remote connection now."
"Seventy-five percent complete." Mordin stated, his eyes still glued to his omni-tool. "Reaper firewalls still problematic."
Another blast of heat buffeted them as a Reaper appendage whined wildly by. Shepard ignored the urge to crouch further into cover knowing there was no point. She would worry once it started scouring the ground for targets rather than trying to maintain its balance and gain a foothold in loose sand.
Impatience pumped through her veins as her omni-tool pinged; seventy-percent complete. "Get your ass moving, Kaidan. I need that shuttle."
"Working on it, ma'am. Five more minutes."
Shepard swore again, unlatching her widow from its casing. She readjusted the sights, targeting the top left of the Reaper's four eyes. As much as she despised batarians, they were nothing compared to this hideous monstrosity.
The Reaper sparked continuously, Alliance gunfire ricocheting off its metallic hide. She could hear Banks' voice as background noise, a consistent stream of profanity as he encouraged his men and berated the enemy. Her old DI probably would've appreciated that. She crooked a wry smile and fired, a flash of fire sparking from the Reaper's eye.
Another blast lit of her field of vision, fireburst exploding off her right flank. She zeroed in on the position, noting a band of krogan and rachni violently engaged with a squad of modified batarians. She saw Grunt charging into the fray, Miranda providing suppressing fire.
"Connection established, Shepard." Kaidan reported, and Shepard ignored the surge of relief she felt at hearing his voice. "I'm on my way back."
She sighted and fired another time, relishing the pain in her shoulder as a welcome distraction. Mordin clucked beside her, intelligent eyes alight with satisfaction.
"Download complete." He nodded curtly. "Shielding virus deployed."
"Good," Shepard nodded, if only to herself. She glanced down at her omni-tool's readout; eighty percent.
The ground rumbled beneath her, sands heaving and shifting under her weight. A deafening thunder echoed through the ruined field, grinding, screeching as the Reaper broke free from the earth. Kaidan crested the rise amidst the maelstrom, moving swiftly towards her position and running awkwardly in the shifting sands. A bolt of panic shot through her system as Shepard felt a blast of heat whip across her body. She opened her mouth to warn him, but Kaidan saw too late the appendage bearing down on him.
He dove to the ground, but was brushed aside by the red-hot appendage. The commander watched in horror as Kaidan was flung mercilessly across the sand, his body limp as it rolled down the rise, stopping not ten feet from her. Shepard burst out of cover, crouching low and skittering along the loose sand. She ignored the sounds of battle behind her, the curses of the Alliance lieutenant on the radio, the haunting cries of the rachni in the distance; her thoughts were only for his safety.
She crashed to the ground, rolling his body over and scanning him with her omni-tool. His armor was dented and scorched and she winced at the ragged gash on the right side of his chest plate. A breath she didn't know she'd been holding escaped when the bio-readouts came back positive. Shepard punched in a series of commands and injected Kaidan with a dose of medigel, all the while trying to control the panic slithering up her spine.
She pressed a hand to his helmet, careful to keep him still, wishing that she could feel his warm skin beneath her touch. Dark eyes fluttered beneath his visor and he shifted slightly as red sand whipped by on a gust of hot wind. Slowly, in a moment that seemed to last forever, his eyes focused on hers and she could have wept with relief.
"Shepard."
Reality came crashing back, the noise of the battlefield once more registering in the commander's mind. She checked the bio-readout of her omni-tool again, and satisfied for the time being, pulled Kaidan into cover with her. Shepard propped him up next to Mordin, the doctor scanning him once more, an occasional clucking sound escaping from his thin lips.
"Clipped by Reaper." Mordin announced. "Minimal biological damage. Recommend patching suit."
"I'll get right on that," he rasped as the doctor continued to scan him.
"Kaidan, are you able to access remote shuttle controls?" Shepard hadn't meant to sound so callous, but she had a job to complete.
He nodded, wincing as he placed a gloved hand on his helmet. "Yeah. I can do that."
Shepard eyed her omni-tool again, the readout reporting ninety percent completion. "Do it. Now."
He moved slowly at first, shifting his arm awkwardly to access his omni-tool as Mordin worked to mend his armor. Shepard wrenched her attention away from him as the ground rumbled again and peered carefully out of cover.
The Reaper had broken free of its earthly bindings, but because of its enormous mass, still struggled to remain upright. Sparks continued to flicker against its heated hull, flaring brightly on occasion when either Grunt or Wrex launched an explosive blast.
A soft whine sounded from overhead and Shepard looked up to see the familiar form of a UT-47 grace the hazy sky. Maneuvering thrusters fired as it climbed ever higher, moving into position over the ruined landing pad, centered over the Reaper's mammoth form.
"Do it now, Kaidan."
He grunted in acknowledgement, fingers flying over the controls of his omni-tool. Shepard watched as the Reaper flailed below, its appendages whipping wildly across the remnants of another outbuilding. Metal screeched, twisting into bizarre shapes, made all the more malleable by the heat radiating off the Reaper.
Another whine sounded through the sky as the shuttle slowly descended, gears grinding with sand as the emergency doors to the power supply opened. A slight burst of sparks trickled out, followed by a thick blue liquid, falling gracefully through the air and coating the Reaper in a viscous fluid.
An ear-splitting shriek thundered throughout the field, harsh and deafening as it echoed across the plains. The Reaper struggled as the coolant slid across its hull, its movements growing ever more erratic. Appendages flailed uncontrollably, violently impacting the earth. Ground forces scurried across the field, eager to escape the reach of the crazed synthetic. Shepard watched through her scope in morbid fascination as thin lines, delicate as webbing, raced across the Reaper's metallic hull. Its armor had begun to crack.
"Concentrate fire!" Shepard ordered, and was answered with the welcome echo of multiple projectiles.
Firebursts lit of the landing pad, sparks flying from the Reaper's hull. Still it continued to struggle, appendages red-hot and violently erratic in their movements. It managed to pull itself upright, armor cracking like eggshells and flaking off.
"Kaidan, do you still have control of the shuttle?"
"Yes, Shepard. What do you need?"
She turned to him and smiled wickedly. "I need you to crash it."
He cocked his head, a crooked smile on a tired face. "Can do, Commander."
A blue glow lit up the hazy sky as the maneuvering thrusters fired once more. The UT-47 veered awkwardly to the left, then back to the right before plummeting violently from the sky. The Reaper flung an appendage recklessly toward the shuttle, but gravity had taken hold and the Kodiak plunged into the Reaper, erupting in a spectacular display of carnage.
Fires lit up the hazy sky, burning a bright white before being quickly snuffed out, the blast scattering debris across the ruined landing pad. Smoke, dark and roiling, billowed through the air, barely concealing the Reaper's appendages as they continued to wave erratically in its death throes.
Shepard paused, glancing down as her omni-tool pinged; one hundred percent. She turned her attention back to the field of engagement, steadying her breath as the movements of the Reaper slowly subsided. Appendages drooped, tips waving aimlessly before brushing the ground. Sparks continued to flash brightly even as the Reaper's eyes grew dull.
She turned to Kaidan and met his eyes, sparkling with excitement and mirth underneath his dusty helmet. They had done it.
O o O o O o O
Shepard wove through the ranks of injured on the crew deck, making her way into medical. Dr. Chakwas had volunteered the Normandy for clean-up duty, treating some of the wounded soldiers from the moon and those they were able to pick up in survival pods. The commander nodded curtly to them as she passed, uncomfortable with the acknowledgement they offered her. She was no longer Alliance. She no longer deserved their salutes, but that tiny fact didn't seem to stop them.
Kaidan waited for her next to the examination table, Garrus' prone form lying atop it. His armor was gone, stuffed away in one of the doctor's lockers, no doubt, and what Shepard could see of his body was wrapped in bandages. The turian pulled his bed sheet up roughly, mandibles barely twitching.
"You don't want to see me, Commander, naked as the day I was born." He coughed. "Might be too much for you."
She sidled up next to Kaidan, her shoulders brushing softly against his. "Hell, Garrus. You were always too much for me."
He coughed again, sputtering. "Torturing me never gets old, does it Shepard."
A soft smile tugged at the corners of her lips. "I'll leave you to rest Garrus – just wanted to see how you're doing."
His mandibles twitched again, trembling beneath the bandages on his face, eyes twinkling as he nodded. Shepard left his side, leaving Kaidan to watch over him, and maneuvered through the medics to find Chakwas. The doctor wiped her hands on a towel as Shepard approached, expertly tossing it into a biohazard bin.
"Commander?"
"Status, Doctor?"
She leaned against the wall and crossed her arms, shooting Shepard a tired look. "Medical supplies are running low and we've taken on as many survivors as we can find. A lot of them aren't injured too badly, but we have a few like Garrus and Jacob."
Shepard frowned, concern creasing her brow. "How are they?"
Chakwas bit her lower lip as she formulated an answer. "Garrus should be fine as long as his cybernetic implants hold up. He's been blown up before and survived. Jacob," she sighed and shook her head. "I don't know. His wound was pretty deep, although the corpsman did an exceptional job patching him up. I recruited him and put him to work down in the cargo hold triaging the wounded as we speak."
"So Jacob will recover?"
"He's stable for now, but his condition is still fragile and may change at any moment. I've done all I can, Commander. The rest is up to him now."
Shepard glanced around the med-lab, the normally pristine facility overcrowded with injured and spotted with blood. "What can I do to help?"
The other woman shook her head and for the first time, Shepard could clearly make out the lines of age on the doctor's face. Chakwas brushed back a silver hair and met the commander's eyes. "We've done all we can for now, Commander. The rest will just have to take care of itself."
"Okay, Doctor." Shepard bit her lip in thought. "Let me know if the situation changes."
Chakwas nodded, straightening as she turned toward her desk. "Believe me, Commander. You'll be the first to know.