Chapter 53: A Sacrifice Made
Jack watched as Garrus tapped his omni tool again trying to get a signal out to the Normandy while they ran through the halls of the Cerberus base. Having gone through this place and Noveria, Jack was pretty convinced Cerberus enjoyed a maze like set up for their bases. The Turian knew just as well as Jack that if this Miranda was able to steal the data and the ship, they were all fucked. The crew would be trapped with a nuclear bomb about to go off, and a very angry Reaper coming at them. However, despite his best efforts, it looked like the comms were being jammed probably by Sovereign himself. It most likely learned that mistake from Eden Prime turning into a mess because of not jamming transmissions. They just had to catch up to Legion and stop the ship from leaving.
Jack looked over at him feeling nervous and wanted to confirm his suspicions, "Any luck getting a hold of Joker?"
Garrus shook his head while trying again, "He's not answering but, the ship is still in the hangar so we have a chance."
Already his brain was running through all the possible ways he could've changed the mission for a better outcome. For starters, he should have just stopped everything when he learned a traitor was on the ship, it would've eliminated the need for this scramble back now to stop a get away. At the time, that didn't seem to be an option, Legion made it abundantly clear that Saren was going to get the Conduit if they didn't move right then. Now it just looked like a third side was stealing it from both of them and he had risked everyone's lives without thinking it through. Maybe he hadn't learned much from his mistakes at Torfan after all. Sure, saving the galaxy was a much more noble goal than saving your boyfriend but, he rushed into this with the same urgency potentially costing him everything.
His doubts were cut short when the door in front of them opened revealing they had found the water treatment facility. Even though it was out doors, Jack could see the signature whirlpools of water that were a staple of treatment areas leading to a water fall on their left side. Jack's eyes quickly fixated on the center of the courtyard where Saren was handing off a metal case to a Geth hovering in a dropship. The sight of the Turian made Jack feel a chill, not because he was afraid of the man, but because his appearance had changed dramatically. Saren looked as though his body itself was interfacing with machinery that he mostly associated with the Geth, from his new metal mandible, to the glowing green eyes. Jack and Garrus both immediately opened fire on him but, Saren lifted his arm with unatural speed and used biotics to melt the bullets in the air. Well, he never knew Saren could do that, Jack also noted his biotics were a black tar color now instead of the traditional dark blue.
Saren gave a hand gesture to the Geth now holding the case, "Return to Sovereign, I'll be along shortly." The dropship sped away quickly and Saren turned to them, "Shepard, I'm glad you made it in time. I was beginning to worry you weren't going to make it here before the end."
Jack debated whether to fire at him again seeing as he was even more powerful now, "In time for what? To see you become a Husk?"
Saren made a cold robotic laugh before looking over at Garrus slowly, "A Husk? No, I am improved now beyond your comprehension, Sovereign upgraded me. I guess I should thank you brother, without you almost killing me on Therum I would've never have seen my flaws. Now I will be unstoppable when witnessing the Reaper's ascension."
Garrus shook his head looking pale, "You are not my brother. Your just a shell that Sovereign made as a tool..."
Saren didn't twitch stepping a little closer, "So, Benezia told you about indoctrination in her final moments.. Sovereign was right not to trust her in the long run. You must have observed how weak she was? I have studied the effects of indoctrination for years and have seen that as the person becomes more enthralled, they also become less capable. That is my saving grace. Sovereign needs me to find the Conduit and thus wouldn't indoctrinate me. I am useful to him, and if you help me he will think the same of you."
Jack frowned feeling just a little sorry for him now, "You realize how crazy that sounds right, Saren? Sovereign has deluded you into thinking he'll let you live in exchange for help. If that were true we'd still have Protheans here right now. Self interest is how every species operates, even Turians. Once Sovereign is done with you, you'll be cast aside just like Benezia."
Saren snarled throwing a biotic blast at him to make Jack roll behind cover, "NO! Your wrong! Sovereign promised he'd let my people live in exchange for everything else. Garrus, join me, we could be heroes together again!"
Garrus reloaded his pistol, "I don't think so.. I won't be responsible for killing everything in the Milky Way, and Saren wouldn't have been either."
Jack knew something was wrong, why wasn't Saren attacking them? At first he thought it was a good idea to stall to actually let Miranda get the Conduit out of here but, Saren was the one putting things off. He was stalling with this conversation, maybe it was because he knew he could beat them and was just playing with his food. Then Jack realized, the case, the metal case had to have contained the Mu Relay data. Not wasting anymore time, Jack jumped around his cover and pounced to punch him without warning. Garrus took the opportunity to take another shot and this time it wasn't stopped with biotics and hit his armor. That was the key to killing him then, you just had to divide his attention.
Saren grabbed Jack's wrist and moved him so he'd be in the way of Garrus' next shot, "You've lost, you realize that now haven't you Shepard? In a few minutes, Sovereign will have the coordinates to the Mu Relay and after that the Reapers will return."
Jack punched Saren's gut several times with an extra biotic kick to do more damage while Garrus tried to move around to get a better shot, "We can at least make sure you aren't around to see it happen."
Saren absorbed the punches trying to kick him in return, when Garrus took another shot and this time it almost hit his neck. Wanting to keep the pressure up, Jack tripped him off of his feet to knock him down. Saren took the blow with a roll back up to his feet and blasted Garrus with a surge of biotics. His friend went flying a good twenty yards hitting a water treatment pipe hard crumpling to the ground seemingly unconscious. Jack knew he was in trouble now when Saren started moving with speeds he didn't think were possible. Every punch Jack threw was either dodged or countered with a stronger force. He just had to keep fighting, Jack wasn't going to die now.
_o0o0o0o_
Tali cursed staring at her omni tool, "Come on Keelah, please just let this work, please."
She was very frustrated with the bomb having foolishly assumed that making it work would've been a walk in the park. Tali worked with drive cores all day everyday since she was five years old, how could this be any different? Her confidence was probably coming from the truly amazing night she had with Kaidan just hours ago really. Having actual skin contact with another person had been truly euphoric, especially with someone she liked so much. The main problem was that this was a Salarian drive core and thus it had a different coding language than she was used to. Kirrahe wasn't any help since he was a solider, not a technician. Kaidan tried to keep up with her as best he could but, he wasn't as good of an engineer as she was. If she was honest, he was just slowing her down and making her redo code.
When the red failure light flashed once again on her omni tool, Tali wanted to scream, "You bosh'tet just listen to me! God damnit!"
Kaidan gave her his best comforting smile, "It's alright, we have plenty of time. Just take a breath and we can figure this out together."
If only that were true, on the other side of the central courtyard Ashley, Liara, and Kirrahe were fighting Geth who had just landed here. Luckily, the current group of them was relatively small but, Tali was sure their numbers would grow when they discovered she was priming a nuclear bomb back here. Even though she tried to just focus on her own work, it was hard not to flinch and panic when a bullet whizzed by above her head. So far a bullet hadn't hit the bomb but, Tali didn't want to find out what would happen if it did.
While they started over from scratch, Ashley used short range comms to talk, "Hey, just checking in on how's it going back there? You guys said it would be five minutes tops.."
Kaidan answered trying to smooth things over, "We ran into some unexpected problems but we're almost there. What's the rush? Don't you like killing the Geth?"
Ashley grunted with the sound of gunfire muffling her voice for a moment, "Sure, I love it as much as the next solider but, Saren's flagship looks like it's coming straight for us now."
Kaidan let out a breath trying not to show any concern, "It's a good thing we're almost done then. We'll be able to blow it sky high.." He looked at Tali, "We will be able to get this done in time right?"
Tali smiled getting one command right giving him a nod when Garrus' voice crackled through the head set, "We're in trouble... Saren has the Mu... data, kicking our asses... Need back up."
Ashley retreated towards them with the others beside her, "You heard that right? Forget the bomb, we have to go now!"
Kirrahe yelled back at her, "No! Krogan data must be destroyed. Bomb is also a diversion for our escape. Must detonate as soon as possible."
Tali was about to say they should just go when Kaidan said, "Go help Shepard, I'll be right behind you!"
She felt like she was going to be sick from that line. While the others weren't engineers at all, Tali and Kaidan both knew they were nowhere near getting a timer for this thing ready. The look he was giving her right now made it clear he knew there was no coming back with this. No, Keelah this couldn't be happening, she had finally found someone she could be happy with and now this? It was unfair and she found herself just wanting to cry from how wrong it seemed.
Feeling a bit of stubborness in her, Tali said, "If your staying, I'm staying. We'll work faster anyways that way."
Kaidan cupped the side of her helmet as Kirrahe lifted his wounded friend up, "Tali, they might need you, and besides you've done most of the work for me anyways. I'll be back faster than you know it." Before she could object further, he kissed her mouthpiece whispering, "I love you Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."
A moment later, Ashley pulled her up and saluted him, "Good luck LT, you won't have much time. I'll see you on the other side regardless."
Kirrahe added, "The STG will honor this day. Humans and Salarians working together to save the galaxy. Your name will be remembered Kaidan Alenko."
Tali tried not to start sobbing as she quickly followed the others to get to Garrus and Shepard. The second man she had opened herself up to was going to die here alone. She was never going to get to laugh at bad movies with him, feel his strong arms around her, or taste his exotic sweat against her tongue. Her only prayer now was that she was wrong and he was going to join her in a few minutes back on the ship and they could laugh about this whole thing. That thought was going to be the only hope that pushed her forward right now. For the crews sake, she couldn't afford to look back.
_o0o0o0o_
Jack was getting his ass kicked with every moment this fight kept going. Saren was clearly stronger, faster, and smarter now, able to avoid his attacks with ease. In fact, the Turian seemed like he was starting to get bored now, slapping away Jack's punches and kicks. Each counter hit however sent Jack closer and closer to the edge of the large waterfall and he pretended to not notice. His plan right now was to somehow knock Saren off the edge before him, it was risky but also the only thing he could think of right now. Unfortunately, Saren suddenly grabbed him by the throat and started dragging him to the edge letting him hang above it.
Saren gave him a wicked smirk, "It's over Shepard, you fought well but, just like Humanity, your time is over."
Jack started seeing a black blur around the edges of his eyes but he struggled to say, "I'm not dead yet Saren.." He used his last bit of biotic energy to punch Saren's temple causing him to recoil.
He started to fall but, Garrus lunged forward grabbing his hand tightly before he fell too far. The sudden whiplash against his shoulder though made Jack growl, that would definitely be a dislocated shoulder. Saren was just coming back to his senses leaving them in a very vulnerable position when the bomb team arrived guns blazing. To his surprise, Saren actually started to retreat running away from them with a growl. It was hard to see it as a victory but, it wasn't him dying either.
Ashley ran to the two of them grabbing his other arm, "Come on let's get out of here shall we?"
While he was being pulled up Jack could hear the signature yell of the Normandy's engines as it swooped around to greet them. Thank God it hadn't been stolen and they could all leave in one piece. He did notice that the ship took the turn around the corner a little faster than he thought Joker would've and then realized why. Sovereign was not far behind firing it's lasers at the ship. He could see the cargo hold door was already open as the Normandy approached, Joker wanted them to jump in like on Feros, Kal wouldn't like it but..
Jack turned to Liara, "Get us in there as fast as you can."
He realized he had made a mistake the moment they started flying, Kaidan, Kal, and Wrex weren't here. In the confusion of getting almost choked to death, he just thought they were around. Jack felt panic crawling up his spine, he wasn't going to leave them here to die, it was wrong. Or was it that they had died in the battle? Either way they wouldn't be able to turn around for a rescue since Sovereign was right on their tail. It was a terrifying to think Kal and the others were gone and the Normandy was speeding into orbit quickly leaving them behind. What kind of Commander was he if he lost people on every major mission? Especially, like this, he couldn't imagine any of them watching the Normandy leave them to the Geth.
Jack looked at Ashley in pain and not from his arm, "Kaidan? Wrex? ... Kal...?"
She gave him an uncertain look when Feron came rushing out of the elevator, "Thank Kalahira your back... We need you in the medbay."
