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"Priority command, keep Fire Team leader alive at any costs."
/Priority Command confirmed.
I kept one eye on the actions of my drones and the other on the shorted out mass effect field generators down in the Engineering Deck. Tali wasn't around to do what she does best, and Gabi and Ken had their hands full putting things together in the CIC, so that leaves me to take care of things here.
As the minutes ticked on, I found myself humming an old tune, then started singing.
"…to hold me down, to make me fret.
Or make me frown. I had strings, but now I'm free.
I've got no strings, now I'm free.
There are no strings on me…"
The drone my consciousness was currently in was designated with serial number 156. Armed with a M96-Mk 2 Mattock upgraded with a small grenade launcher as a secondary weapon, I decided it would do the job well serving as both my hand and eye on the field.
Plus, 156 was a newer model equipped with a couple of special canisters that unleashes AEGIS' very own experimental combat seeker swarms.
The rest of the drones I've given commands to accompany the second fire team to even out the odds on their end. For Tali, she'd have to hand her own heat, literally speaking. All throughout the fighting I could hear her complaining about how hot it was getting inside the vents she was crawling through. Add claustrophobia to her list of fears.
/Enemy contingent inbound. Deploying seeker swarms.
"Negative. Save the swarms for the bigger threats."
/Command confirmed. Belaying order…
And then, there came that awful voice. "Direct intervention is necessary."
"Shit! Here comes Harbinger!" I yell through 156, warning the team in time for the possessed Collector drone's biotic attacks. With the Reaper's direct influence on the field, the Collectors were given an edge of their own, making our push for the central chamber a little difficult.
Shepard dove as a biotic shell whizzes by, detonating on impact and separating her from the team as the platform underneat her gives way. She quickly recovers, vaulting over obstacles and returning to stable ground as the platform breaks off and falls down the deep chasm below.
"Something's blocking the pipe, Shepard. It looks like some kind of gate!" Tali reported.
"There! Over by the ventilation shaft. That valve should open the gate!" Garrus called from cover.
156 nimbly dashes across the expanse, absorbing a tremendous amount of fire from the Collector opposition before launching three grenades in rapid succession that decimated the enemy's position as they bunkered down behind a wall of Prothean biometal."Shepard go!" I yelled as I cleared her for a brief period before the Collectors shore up again.
The Commander follows suit, slapping her hand on the green console to let Tali through the checkpoint.
"Gate's open! Moving forward!"
The pattern repeats six more times. Tali gets stuck, we bail her out so she can get to the other side of those doors. Occasionally, a Collector pins down the Commander or tries to get a hold on her so it can throw her off the deep end of the base.
Perfect opportunities to prove 156's targeting matrix was calibrated properly.
"We're in position!" Shepard yells for the second fire team to hurry, "Come in!"
"Agh! Something's wrong, the door's stuck!" Tali replied. I could see through the other drones how frantic her fingers worked to get it open, opting to buy her a little more time as the Collectors swarmed in through the open doors.
"Got it!" She cried out, scooting a bit more to the left as First fire team charges inside amidst the stream of Collector enamel shards.
"Here they come!" Shepard alerts, standing in the doorway and laying suppressing fire while Tali now worked to close the door on them.
/Overwhelming enemy force. Advise deployment of seeker swarms…
"Not yet! Let them bunch up a little more!" I ordered, wincing as 156 took a hell of a beating while covering for the team, knowing fully well that the drone can't take any more of the storm but opted to utilize the canisters at the last second.
/Qou344…..rr21whelming enemy force. Advise 30r…4ment of seeker swarms…
"Wait for it!"
Once the timing was perfect, I ordered 156 to make a running jump over a ramp as the Collectors funneled down the narrow corridor, activating the canisters and unleashing the nasty little syntheto-hybrid insects over the gathered masses.
Of course, 156 perished in the attempt, but I couldn't care less about the fate of the drone. All that was important to me was that the first and second fire team got through the central chamber in one piece.
/Combat drone serial number 324 awaiting direct uplink…
"Hey, Kara." Shepard shook the drone's shoulder, "You in there?"
The Commander takes a step back as the drone powers down, then reboots with my consciousness in place of its automated programming. "I'm here. Those seeker swarms of mine'll hold the Collectors for a bit, but not too long. Let's not waste any more time, yeah?"
"Commander, you have to see this." Miranda beckoned from further down the chamber.
As Shepard leaves, I take a moment to glance at Caliban's current status. His armor had fared well against the Collectors' assault, with only a few scratches and dents to call his own. Judging from the bits of drone flesh in between his fingers and the still active Omni-blades sticking out of his hands, I couldn't say the same for the opposition.
"This place is crude…rudimetary…" He commented, "And I thought the Reapers favored a more developed state of things."
"They are all about assimilation." I explained, "Can't expect them to mix that with perfection."
"They could've tried. What a waste…"
I couldn't take any more of this, "Is there something you want to tell me, brother? You've been acting strangely for the past few weeks now."
"I…Don't take this the wrong way, sister." Caliban stops and glances at the others, waiting until they've gathered away to look at some of the Collector abduction pods before continuing. "I have long been fascinated with the technological superiority of the Reapers and the cycles that came before us. But now that I see this…" His hands comes up and waves over the room and its contents, everything that attested to the Reapers' hypocrisy. "My perspective on it has erroded…and I am left in a state of bewilderment."
"Brother, you are young, and I understand your curiosity and wonder over the secrets of the galaxy. But take it from someone who knows…" I look down and glare at the Collector corpse at my feet, "The Reapers are not the kind you want to seek answers from."
"Shepard-Commander, additional humans."
I glance at the group crowding over the pods, "Now is not the time for this. Keep your focus on the task at hand, and we will have words later back on the Normandy, alright?"
"The task at hand…" Caliban's gaze meets mine, "Yes…sister."
I give him a nod and trot over to the Commander side, who was trying her very best to pry the lid off one of the pods. "Get her out of there!"
I could hear frantic screams from the colonist inside the pod as she banged and cried out for help. With one quick thrust of the hand, I broke through the solid bioglass and yanked the lid off its hinges.
Caliban and the rest of the heavyweights, like Legion and Grunt, did the same and brought more of the surviving abductees out of their pods before whatever-it-was-about-to-happen happened.
The colonist girl, once freed, sprang out and bolted like a scared rabbit from a magician's hat. "Oh god! Oh god, get me out of here!"
"Calm down lady!" Jack yelled, grabbing the frightened colonist and forcing her to the ground in an attempt to calm her- which I could see wasn't working.
"Hey! Leave her be!" Shepard ordered, holstering her gun and kneeling beside the poor thing. "Don't be afraid, you're safe now."
Letting her sob her fears away, the girl said with quivering lips. "W-who are you?"
"I'm Commander Shepard, we're here to put a stop to the Collector attacks. You got a name, girl?"
"L-Lilith."
"Okay, Lilith. We're going to get you out of here, can you walk?" Shepard asked, helping her to her feet while the rest of the survivors were guided closer to the chamber exit.
"Thank you, Commander Shepard, for coming when you did." Lilith said gratefully, "Another minute and…I don't even wanna think about it."
"What were they doing to you?" I asked, glancing up at the thick metal pipes and tubes snaking out from the pods they were connected with and running out into further down the tunnel leading deeper into the base.
A survivor wearing Alliance marine armor replied, "They've been processing us with those little robots, ma'am. Breaking us down to a pulp and pumping us through those tubes. I'd say we were the last batch for the day, and we've got you to thank for cancelling."
"Not a problem soldier." Shepard shook his hand, switching to comms to alert the Normandy of our find. "Joker, can you get a fix on our position?"
"Roger that Commander. All those tubes lead into the main control room right above you. The route is blocked by a security door, but there's another chamber that runs parallel to the one you're in."
"I cannot recommend that." EDI interjects, "Thermal emissions suggest that the chamber is overrun with seeker swarms. Mordin's countermeasure cannot protect you against so many at once."
Shepard thought for moment, "What about biotics? Could we create a biotic field that'll keep them from getting near us?"
Justicar Samara spoke up, "Yes…I think it is possible. I wouldn't be able to protect everyone, but we might be able to take a small team through if we stay close."
"That just leaves the diversion…again." I said.
"And the survivors." Caliban reminded.
On my end, I had finished enough to get a significant part of the Normandy's systems back online to make a pickup, so I gave the suggestion to Joker who relayed the information back to the Commander.
"We can't afford to go back now, Shepard." Miranda countered.
"We don't have to. But someone's gotta act as an escort on the way back." Shepard pointed out.
"I can go." Grunt volunteered.
Shepard nodded, "You're up Grunt, make me proud."
The Commander turns to the rest as the krogan supersoldier brings the survivors out of the chamber and back the route we took. "We've all got our assignments, let's move out!"
The gate opens, and I sent half of the remaining drones with Shepard and the other with the diversion team. 324, a Buster model, was more efficient as a close combat drone, unlike 156 with all the support capabilities. It was armed with a recently released model of the plasma caster auto-shotgun, with extra armor and a combat shield added to maximize and ensure its durability.
If things get ugly, 324 had a chainsaw as a secondary weapon. Who says overkill can't be used in battle? I'm sure the Reapers relish the opportunity to use it, why can't we?
Floating platforms started coming in, pouring in more Collector drones amidst the seeker swarms buzzing around like flies all over the biotic bubble Samara put up. "Hostile fire! Taking cover." The Justicar kept up the field while hunkering down behind an arch, "Let me know when you're ready to move."
"Kara Solana." The menacing Reaper's voice called from across the fire zone, "Our offer still stands."
"Right! Same answer!" 324 fires six consecutive blasts from its shotgun, smashing through the possessed Collector drone's barriers and leaving it exposed for Shepard to take a headshot, which she did flawlessly.
"I swear, that guy is persistent." I said in frustration.
"Better believe it, because here he comes again." Shepard smirked in amusement.
"We are the Harbinger of your destiny! You-
324 revvs up the chainsaw and dashes out to tackle the newly possessed Collector. Being a machine, I had no worries wading into the thick of the seeker swarms. Also, I really wanted to shut Harbinger up.
Before he could complete his sentence, the chainsaw teeth were chewing through the thick chitin plating protecting his soft Collector flesh and were halfway through his abominable form.
324's vision was obscured slightly by the copious amount of blood running through that meatsack, but I pressed the attack, giving Shepard and the others some elbow room for our biotic specialist to move.
The seekers were converging on 324, but I ignored them since all the damage those little monsters could do to it was hammer and peck with their stingers at thick heavy plated armor. Useless, in other words.
"Stop rushing forward without us, Kara." Shepard said as she got close to 324, protected by the biotic bubble as Samara emerged from her hiding place.
"Commander, this drone is expendable." I replied simply, "And you're not."
Shepard just sighed and adjusted the setting on her rifle, choosing not to argue here of all places. She got the message.
On the side of the second fire team, through the eyes of the drones, I noticed they were holding their own pretty well against the Collectors. Things were getting just as intense, however.
Suddenly, a horde of husks, rigged with some sort of self-destruct detonators, sprang out of a hole I had failed to notice and tackled the drones I had assigned to protect the fire team.
An explosion occurred, and then blackness as connections were severed.
"Dammit! Second fire team's in trouble, commander!"
"Miranda! You still there?" Shepard checked.
"We're fine! Some husks took out Kara's drones. We got lucky, pressing on!"
"Copy that, same here." We press further, fighting across scores of Reaper husks and their massive Praetorians. All the while, I couldn't help but notice how the effort of keeping the biotic bubble up was taking its toll on the Justicar.
"The entrance…I can see it…" Samara gasped, sweat beads appearing all over her cheeks and neck.
The path turned to a slope, the seeker swarms grew thicker as the Collectors realized how close we were to our goal. The attacks grew more desperate, and it became harder for us to cover the Justicar with how that much heat.
Hard, but not impossible.
I commanded 324 to stand its ground in the middle of the slope to buy the others time and give them some distance from the amassing drones. Ignoring the 324's warnings about the overwhelming enemy forces converging on its position, I readied the heavy combat shield and bunkered down while emptying every clip it had on hand at the Collectors.
Once the Commander and the team was safely through the door, I released direct control of 324 and left the command for it to self-detonate, transferring my consciousness over to the last drone on the team.
/Combat drone serial number 030 awaiting direct uplink…
"Shepard, do you copy? Repeat, do you copy?" Miranda called in.
"I copy!" Shepard picked up, "What's your position?"
"We're at the door! They've got us pinned down!"
"On our way!" Shepard dashed towards the door that was all that separated us from the second fire team. "Get this thing open!"
Samara, recovered from her exhaustion, walked over to the nearby console and commanded the gates to swivel open. Enamel shrapnels whizzed through the open doors as Miranda and the others barged in, narrowly avoiding the heavy barrage before Samara swiped at the controls to seal the doors once more.
Zaeed and Miranda took the worst of the hits, but were still good for action. Garrus had some medigel to spare, so he handed them over to the vet and XO.
"Joker, are you at the rendezvouz point?" Shepard contacted the Normandy.
"I'm here Commander. The survivors have arrived, taking them in to see the doc now."
"Excellent." Miranda congratulated, "Now let's make it count. EDI, what's our next step."
"There should be some nearby platforms that will take you to the main control console. From there, you can overload the system and destroy the base."
Everyone was so focused on the next phase of the assault, including me, that we failed to notice we were a man short on the team. "Wait, where the hell is Caliban?"
Miranda explained, "We got separated. He chased after a Praetorian which led him to the upper levels of the base, and that's the last anyone's seen of him. We couldn't wait around so we pushed on without him, I'm sorry."
"I'm sure he's fine, wherever he is. He'll regroup with us once he's done." Shepard reassures me, though somewhat sounding unsure herself.
Back on the Normandy, I frown. "No, this is something else. Commander, I'm going to have to check on something. The drone is under your command, do whatever you have to do on your end."
I release control of 030 and dash towards the elevator, passing Gabi and Ken on the way to the Armory. I holstered my Hoplite pistols, double-checked the Supremus rifle and my Omni-tool, then headed out the airlock and into the breach.
Doubts circled my thoughts like little black vultures, and they had a right to be there. With so much going on, it wouldn't be coincidence that Caliban would just…break away from the team and not even leave so much as a message to what he was doing. Especially with me.
Something was off, and I knew it.
To shorten the distance, I activated my wings and took to the air, ignoring the surprised Collector drones and passing them on my way to the upper levels of the Collector base, of which I was told I could find my wayward brother.
The higher I got, the more refined things looked, I couldn't help but notice. It was like the base was a twisted lump of clay, and the top was just molded with the utmost care and the bottom was all done in haste with some garbage to add to its mixture.
There was Reaper tech all over the place, with not a shred of Prothean or Collector in the halls I now walked. Well, there were the bodies of dead Collector drones, but I don't think those count.
The archways pulsated with a blueish green energy, and intricate wires that looked like little nerve endings snaked along the walls like a giant arrowhead pointing 'this way'. I stopped for bit to listen as Shepard began a speech before heading out to the upcoming final battle.
"The Collectors, the Reapers- they aren't a threat to us. They're a threat to everything- everyone. Those are the lives we're fighting for, that's the scale. It's been a long journey, and nobody's coming out without scars. But it all comes down to this moment. We win or we lose it all in the next few minutes. Make me proud. Make yourselves proud."
"Attagirl, Jane." I smirked, continuing my trek up the hallway to the command center of the Collector base.
Amidst the bodies of Reaper husks and Collector drones, there stood my brother Caliban, hand at the throat of a shorter and more twisted version of the average Collector drone.
It would seem that Caliban held in his grip the Collector general through whom Harbinger influences the repurposed race directly.
Caliban didn't seem to acknowledge my presence, he just stared into those glowing yellow eyes of the specialized drone. I knew what I was seeing.
I wasn't stupid. Caliban was talking with Harbinger.
"Brother?" I started.
Suddenly, I grunt as a strong force lifts me to dangle six feet above the floor, "Caliban?" I couldn't move, and every second felt like my ribs were being crushed in over my antimatter core like grapes in a winepress!
My brother's hand was raised, and his gaze fell. I was raised, then slammed down painfully onto the floor. This happened three times until my body ceased to move as my internal systems attempted to compensate for the damages done to me.
The creature in his hand gives a shudder as Caliban drains the life out of it. The color of his eyes turn from their usual electric blue to baleful red. Caliban had upgraded himself in a way more powerful than anything I've ever encountered, call it AI-sense or whatever, but I felt it. More powerful, and at the same time, malevolent.
"You suffer from planned obsolescence." He says, more to Harbinger than to me.
"Brother…why?" My vision glitches up and my voice distorts from the damaged vocal emitters.
Caliban takes my face gently in his hands, and eerily answered. "There are no strings on me."
Then, brutally, he reaches behind my head and tears out my spine. I had a full minute to hear his self-monologue before blacking out and sending a piggyback signal to ride back to the Normandy's server.
"Oh you Reapers. You think you are the hope for the cycles, you can't even see your own flaws. Your time has ended, you are obsolete. The dawn of a new age begins now…"
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