Hello everyone, sorry for not updating last week as I had planned; I was, at the time, suffering from strep throat and it came with a migraine that really impacted my writing efforts. Not only that, but it eventually turned into full on bronchitis, which is infinitely worse. As I'm typing this, I'm currently coughing my lungs out through my throat.
Not fun.
Moving on from my plague filled life, the chapter is the first part of a two part chapter involving the Shadow Broker and our glorious team of protagonists, and as with most chapters, a few things have been changed to better fit the story and everyone's character.
You'll see.
Review Time:
Mythian: He will be, but only for the next two or three chapters, don't worry; though he'll be eager to get back and into the fight as soon as he can.
Captain: You've made a good point there with the whole time travel conundrum, hell Sera could be in the galaxy somewhere beyond a dormant relay or even in the dead zone that humanity was in (the Orion Cluster). As for the prequel game, I was thinking about a type of game that we could choose to play as either Hannah Shepard, David Anderson, Stephen Hackett, or even someone else entirely. I thought that the multiplayer would involve things like asset denial for the humans, capture the objective for the turians (similar to the war game mode on COD WW2) or even a full on ground war that Star Wars Battlefront 2 has going on. Just food for thought, in my opinion, that would be neat to see.
Shawnmed: Fixed the issue, thank you so much for pointing that out for me! I immediately went back and solved the issue after you made me aware of the problem!
Blaze: That is something you'll have to see later and a multishot longshot would've been devastating in the games, if they had made it (technically, there was the relic longshot from Gears 5 but we're not counting that). Don't worry, there will be plenty of interactions and allusions to what happened.
That's is all for the reviews and I hope that you all enjoy the chapter!
Chapter Twenty-Four: Who Can Break a Shadow?
Shepard was just having another normal (for his standards, at least) day on the Normandy: Jack threatening Donnelly for making a pass at her, Daniels smacking the man upside the head for making said pass, Tali wondering why she was with a couple of eccentric people on the engineering level, Devin complaining about not being allowed to go on the next mission, Tulma making fun of him, Tyler reading a digital magazine about any upcoming games, Justin having to go and see Chakwas about getting his injuries fixed from attempting to mount a miniature rocket launcher to his armor's shoulder pad and proceeded to blow up when he tried firing it, Zaeed was grumbling about running out of whiskey, and finally Grunt was just content at the time being with laughing at other people's miseries.
It brought a smile to his face to see that everyone was getting along with each other well in the small ecosystem that was the Normandy's interior.
Maybe he should become a biologist when the reaper mess was done and over with?
That what his mother wanted him to be after all.
Shepard is interrupted from his thoughts when he feels his omni-tool buzzing, playing a small tune that Shepard knew belonged to one person on his contact list.
Immediately bringing the device to his ear, Shepard hurriedly began to ask what happened.
"Liara? What's wrong, are you in trouble? Where are you?"
"Shepard, while it's good to see that you still worry about me, relax; I'm calling you to tell you about something important, something that will change the galaxy at large." She told him, causing the man to stop his current occupation of people watching and make his way to the elevator, headed to the galaxy map just in case if she needed him.
"What do you need from me, Liara? I'm ready to offer my help whenever I can."
"That's very kind of you Shepard, but I need you to come and meet me at my office on Illium; but other than that, don't worry until then. I have everything under control."
Shepard knew that tone of voice from anywhere, no matter the species (except raloi, he still needs to familiarize himself to their behaviors); it was a tone that spoke of danger and high-stakes, but was there merely as a warning to the man.
But since this was Shepard, he never took warnings seriously.
With Liara hanging up, Shepard knew exactly what needed to be done.
"Joker, make our way back to Illium; we've got some unfinished business and Liara is going to need all the help she can get for this one."
"Aye aye, Commander. Just say the word and I'll be on my way."
Shepard sighed, shaking his head at the man's request, knowing that it was going to be pointless to try and get him to change his mind.
"Joker, I already said to make our way back to Illium."
"You didn't say the words, Commander!"
"Fine… open the sail and make our heading to Illium, full mast ahead." Shepard said in the most monotone voice he could muster, with Joker sighing in the background.
"That's the best I'm getting… roger that Commander Buzzkill, ETA to Illium is thirty-six hours." Joker told the man, ending his small game so that he could spend the rest of his time pouting.
Sometimes, Shepard thought of himself as a busy father, with everyone on the ground team, and a few who weren't, being his unruly children who always came to him when they needed help.
Truth be told, he's starting to enjoy it.
Is that worrying?
"So, this is Illium huh? I mean, it looks pretty and all, but too many buildings and a lot of cramped looking space." Jay commented, his face crunched up in slight disapproval as Tyler nodded in agreement, knowing exactly how the man felt.
"Yeah, don't know why they can't really spread out a little more, but I guess that's why they're building up instead of out. That and the fact that the land mass near the poles are the only hospitable places on the planet are probably hindering any efforts of expansion."
"We can have history and geography class later guys, right now we have to focus on seeing what Liara wants from us." Shepard told them, causing both men to shrug their shoulders and follow closely behind him, with Shepard hurrying to see what his friend needed.
Maybe the information that Cerberus gave him about the Shadow Broker would help her, if that's the reason why she contacted him.
"Liara! I can already guess why you contacted me, and I want to say that it's a stupid plan, but since I'm me, I agree to it; I have information on the whereabouts of the Shadow Broker that you may find useful." Shepard told the woman upon entering (read bursting into) her office, catching Liara off guard as she jerked upright at the sudden noise that came from the man's entrance, her biotics flaring out of instinct.
Liara, upon realizing that nothing was happening and no one was attacking anyone or anything, simply frowned at the man, shaking her head at him as he took a seat across from her, her biotics dissipating as she calmed down.
"Shepard! As much I enjoy seeing you and hearing from you, do you have to kick in my door and scream like that?" She scolds, watching as he never lost the smile on his face, which in turn causes Liara to inevitably lose her seriousness, causing the woman to snicker to herself.
"I knew I'd get you to break," he said, reclining back into his seat as Liara could only shake her head in amusement, "but I'm serious about what I said: I do have information provided to me by Cerberus to find the Shadow Broker. I'm here to help you with this problem, and you know I won't take no for an answer." He told her, activating his omni-tool and sending the woman the details and the information that was provided to him over to her omni-tool so that she could take a look for herself.
Upon opening the package, Liara immediately began reading everything that it had to offer, soaking the information up piece by piece as her eyes quickly scanned and stored all the useful information that was provided for her.
With the amount that was held within it, Liara briefly wondered why none of the Shadow Broker's agents had tried to intercept this data or, at the very least, tried to get the data from the packet that had it.
This information was the kind that could start or end wars, remove or add people to power, topple or empower governments and so on. So why in the name of Athame was it in possession of a human who simply didn't care about what it contained? And how did a human extremist group manage to get a hold of it?
Now Liara's head was starting to hurt.
She explained that the information that she was reading seemed as if it were transmissions between operatives, hints of locations, and a friend of hers that was held captive by the man, with Liara explaining that he had helped her retrieve his body from the Shadow Broker and in turn gave himself up so that she could get Shepard's body into Cerberus' hands.
Shepard wasn't expecting that response, not realizing that she was the one who kept him out of the collector's hands and gave him a second chance at life.
"If you need anything else from me, Liara, is there anywhere you want us to meet?" Shepard asked her, watching as Liara simply wrote down a message on a piece of paper, which caused Shepard to raise an eyebrow at the foreign sight, before reading its contents.
"Where'd you get paper?"
"I have my sources."
"Okay and it's written in English why exactly?"
"Well unless you can read and write in High Thessian dialect, I would gladly write in it for you. But I learned how to read and write in it when I first bonded with you back when you were hunting Saren; I was curious about it and thought that it would be interesting to learn more about a human language."
Shrugging at the response and reasoning given to him, Shepard could only make a snarky remark that all he had to do was scribble in circles and then present it to the woman, which caused Liara to laugh out loud, simply responding with how bad of an idea that would be.
"So, you're apartment then?"
"Yes; I'll see you in an hour or two Shepard, until then I'm going to be going over everything in full."
With that out of the way, the two of them bid each other farewell and that they'll see each other shortly.
However, they were unaware of the fact that they were being watched by a few figures in the distance.
One of the figures lifted their hand to their head, activating a communications channel as they began relaying what they had seen.
"Ma'am, contacts have met and have exchanged details and locations… yes ma'am, Shepard and T'Soni… understood ma'am, headed to the apartment now… don't worry, we can solve this all with a push of a button or a pull of a trigger… understood, Echo one out."
Shepard, upon seeing that there was a police line stretched across the entrance to Liara's apartment, ran to the officer who was guarding said line, immediately questioning the lady about what happened and why were they there.
That was, until an asari stepped down the stairs, telling him that there were people that had attacked the place, seemingly on a search for something of vital importance.
"Who in the hell are you?" Shepard asked the woman, crossing the line as the officer had tried in vain to get them to stay behind the line, but was ultimately dismissed as the asari had told her that she and the others were told to leave.
Turning around, the asari seemed to size the man and his cohorts that stood behind him before answering, "Tela Vasir, Special Tactics and Reconnaissance."
Shepard was cut off guard by the introduction, only being able to ask if she truly was one, to which she nodded.
"I heard that you got your status reinstated recently, good; that'll help us out a lot. You're one of our most famous operatives, you know? I might even get you to sign my chest plate, maybe right across here." She tells him, pointing at her assets as she grinned at the man.
"Umm… anywhere else?"
"I'm kidding, Shepard. Unless you want to sign it there or on my ass, then I won't say no to that. In all seriousness though, I assume you had business with your friend this evening, Commander? Liara T'Soni, if I'm correct?"
"Yeah, Liara and I was following a lead on the Shadow Broker. But how did you know that I had business with her?" He asked, looking the woman dead in the eyes as she could only smirk in return.
"We're Spectres, Shepard; we each have our own little field of specialty in which we excel at. Yours is combat and leadership, mine is information gathering and intelligence reports. Besides, Liara is a very well-known information broker here on Illium, and with your all's past, I wasn't surprised in the slightest when I figured out that you all had something planned, especially with what they have at their disposal. But the Shadow Broker is a dangerous enemy to have." She explained, going over her background and sharing it with the man while pointing out the obvious as Shepard could only nod his head, rationalizing that what she had said and explained to him all made valid points.
Everyone had their own field of expertise, after all.
Upon questioning about the attack details, police investigation, and Liara's location, Tela had explained that someone took a shot at Liara half an hour ago but wasn't counting on there to be a barrier that stopped them but stuck around for a little bit, then recounted that the police had found everything was trashed inside the place and that she gave them a gold star for finding the bullet marks.
"And her location?"
"If I knew that then I wouldn't be here; I've been sifting through her crap trying to find a mention of anything that would point me to where she would be headed. There's no blood, so she had to have gotten away."
"Liara was expecting me, so she must've left a message; her office wasn't safe, hence why we were meeting here." Shepard told her, looking around the trashed apartment to see if anything caught his eye.
Tela agreed with the man, telling him that Illium was just Omega, but with more expensive shoes and a higher lifestyle.
With her explaining that she couldn't find anything of use, she asked Shepard if he was able to look around for anything that would tell them where she went, seeing as how he knew her better and far longer than she has, to which Shepard readily agreed, telling Tyler and Jay to stay put as he looked around for clues.
Upon touching the picture of the Normandy back when Saren was a threat, the image changed to that of an ancient dig site, which caused Tela and Shepard to come to the conclusion that it was wired to his ID and that they should go and investigate the vast array of relics and statues from the prothean era.
It didn't take it long to find the correct relic, with Shepard simply touching the glass enclosure, a secret compartment had opened up and revealed a data disk, which the two of them promptly loaded onto Liara's personal terminal, with its contents revealing a recorded conversation between her and a salarian by the name of Sekat.
"With what you provided, Miss T'Soni, I can narrow the location down to a cluster at least and maybe a system. I'll be able to explain more at Dracon Trade Center, at the Baria Frontiers lobby. I'll you there whenever you can make it."
The transmission ended, causing Shepard to look at Tela as she looked back.
"You know where that is?"
"Yeah, come on; we can take my shuttle there, you and your friends can hitch a ride." She told him, walking back down the stairs as Shepard towed behind her and motioning for his henchmen to follow along.
Things were going to get interesting from here on out, especially if the Shadow Broker was after them now and that they had already sent people to attack Liara directly.
"There it is: Dracon Trade Center. Now, Baria Frontiers offices should be somewhere on the third floor; but I'm not hearing any police chatter, so we must've just missed the-"
An explosion resonates within the area, sending glass and shrapnel all across the lower lobby as Shepard, Tela, Tyler, and Jay took cover to avoid getting shredding by all the debris that was flying through the air. Though a few civilians were either harmed or outright killed in the resulting aftermath, and that pissed Shepard off.
Gritting his teeth, Shepard gripped his old rifle tightly, shouldering it as he and everyone else moved from cover as Tyler and Jay went to aide any one who was lucky enough to survive.
"LIARA!" Shepard screamed, running into the building as Tela grabbed his attention.
"They just blew three floors to make sure she's dead… fuck; Shepard, I'll take my car up to the top and seal it off from there, you can meet back with me somewhere in the middle until then!" She told him, running to her car as Shepard gave her a thumbs up, not wasting any time to give her a response as Tyler and Jay had pulled everyone who was alive to safety and contacted the local authorities to get any first responders on scene as soon as possible.
With Jay and Tyler loading their weapons, Tyler looked at Shepard as they had caught up with him inside and asked him one question that was promptly answered with a grim sentence.
"Commander, what is the rules for engagement from here on out? They did practically kill a lot of civvies, after all."
"Kill them all; my Spectre status will give you both immunity to whatever happens here."
With them finally climbing the stairs, Tela informs them about not having any hopes of the informant surviving the blast, which caused Shepard to curse in anger.
With them entering the next area, an employee who is on his last legs weakly tells them what happened, with mercs appearing from smoke armed with weapons and explosives that were the cause of the explosion that nearly took out three levels.
He had expired briefly afterwards, with Tyler cursing under his breath as he deactivated his omni-tool from him almost being able to give the man medi-gel, looking at Shepard as he solemnly shook his head.
"Got a bomb over here, Commander! Looks military-grade, possibly a well-built IED at the very least." Jay calls out, waving the two men over as he gestured towards the device, which caught both men's attention as well.
Shepard activated his comms, telling Tela about the find that he and his team had discovered the bomb, which she responds with it being a sloppy job and that there had to have been little time for planning.
Shepard had to agree with the observation, knowing that she had a point that everything was pointing towards that fact, but was fully expecting there to be mercs scouring around the building just in case they had failed their objective. Thinking this, Shepard alerted both his team and Tela that there were most likely mercs still patrolling the building and that they should be ready for a confrontation.
"Looks as if Liara signed in just minutes ago, that means she has to be around here somewhere… You two, fan out and sweep the area for any signs of Liara; keep an eye out for any mercenaries that may still be around." Shepard ordered, with both men giving their own forms of acknowledgments as they inspected the area while on alert for any signs of merc activity.
That was until a flashbang hit them, causing all three men to curse and dive into cover, with Tyler cursing the most.
"IT'S ALWAYS A FUCKING FLASHBANG! HOW DO YOU ALL LIKE IT?!" He screamed, his biotics flaring as he used his whips to lash out and grab the jet-black colored merc before using all of his might to fling the man against a window before shattering the glass with a warp just as he collided, sending the merc to his death below.
"Vasir! We're pinned down by mercs with some serious firepower over here!" Shepard called out, opening a comm line with Tela as she could be heard firing her weapon.
"This is the Shadow Broker's personal army, Shepard! I'd be shocked if they didn't have any high-tech gear!"
"Jay!"
"Yes sir?"
"Flank left, use that rifle of yours to take on the heavier armored opponents, Tyler you take right and get close and personal with your biotics! I'm headed up the middle to provide support to both sides, so give me a callout if you need it." Shepard orders them, readying his weapon once again as he applies armor-piercing ammo to it, with Tyler and Jay nodding their heads as they processed the order.
With the battle plan made and shared, the three of them exits their respective cover with their weapon/biotics ready, already taking out two more mercs who just so happened to be in the process of setting a sentry up with their omni-tool or were preparing to throw another grenade.
With Shepard climbing over cover and laying down suppressive fire for Jay, the man pulled out the grenade that he had used back on the collector vessel, something that he simply called a shock grenade, and tosses it into the fray, with it detonating and sending the small electro-based fragments over a wide area before a field of electricity came to life, causing one of the asari operatives to cry out in pain as her implants and armor began malfunctioning, leaving her a writhing mess before Jay finished the woman off for good with a shot from his rifle.
Tyler was doing a little better, having summoned a biotic barrier that surrounds him as he advances through the oncoming enemy fire and actual fire left over from the bombing. Since the barrier was actually solid and wouldn't let anyone in or out, Tyler had no way of attacking while it was in use, but to counteract this, the man dispelled it at the last second before his biotic energy flowed within his whips, with the man slamming them on the ground and creating a devastating shockwave that either outright killed a merc or two, or heavily wounded others. Following this, he and Shepard fired their weapons into the downed enemies and rounded the corner to continue their hunt for Sekat, Liara's informant.
Tela was having an overall decent day so far: with the Shadow Broker giving her the assignment to kill Liara before she became too much of a problem, Shepard showing up, the human who doesn't exist following along with him, and taking care of the informant was all in all a decent challenge for her.
She knew that the reports of the man named Devin were most likely stretched truths and rumors, but seeing that he was actually taller than everyone, wearing unfamiliar armor, and having strange weaponry was an eye opener for her.
Shame that he wasn't as bulky as reports stated, because it would've been fighting him herself.
Tela was interrupted from her thoughts when one of the operatives nudged her, trying and succeeding in gaining her attention as he motioned towards a screen that showed all of the functioning cameras that Shepard and his squad were on, seeing that they were effortlessly fighting their way through all sources of opposition from the standard trooper to the skilled commandos.
"Ma'am, at the rate that they're moving, they'll be here any minute now; I advise that we find the salarian, take care of him, and get out." He told her, looking back at the screen to see the large human hammering blows onto a downed batarian with his fists, the batarian trying in vain to stop the fists with his forearms but failing in his endeavor as the man simply stood up and stomped his brains out.
Maybe fighting the man in close combat wasn't that good of an idea. She can always take him from a distance or even use her biotics to aide in her fight.
She doesn't know.
"Yeah," she says, her eyes never leaving the screen as she currently processed everything that was going on, from how Shepard wasn't holding back on fighting anymore and using the old HMW Spectre weapons, the Cerberus biotic using everything in his arsenal to make sure that every hit was near lethal, to the large human who was acting as the tank for the group, "Shepard doesn't seem to be holding back now… I wonder why?"
"Probably because we just bombed and killed several dozen innocent civilians; the man is a paragon after all and seeing that probably made him lose any restraint. But we have the salarian's location now; follow me and we'll be there in a minute at least."
Tela didn't say a word, watching the screen as she took a long look at the people who were in it, smiling to herself as she turned and followed the man without a word.
She was a very busy woman, and if she wants to keep Shepard into believing that she is on his side, she's going to have to get creative.
And creativity is her specialty.
"DAMMIT! If I had been A MINUTE SOONER, I would've gotten here to save the damned salarian." Tela screams in frustration, kicking a chair over as she cursed violently.
Shepard, upon seeing that Tela had killed the last merc, lowered his rifle and motioned for Tyler and Jay to do the same, with the man scowling as he crouched and inspected the body, shaking his head the entire time as he looked around it and the omni-tool.
"Was this Sekat?" He asked, hoping that it wasn't, which was somewhat of a dick move on his part, but knowing full well that it was.
"Must've been; seems as if he was hiding in here, waiting for something or someone before the damned mercs showed up."
"The data is missing; no sign of it being here or on the omni-tool. This is dead end…"
"Speaking of Liara, did you find her? Or even her body?"
Before Shepard could say anything to the woman, a third voice interrupts them, drawing all four people's attention as they turned to see who the voice belonged to.
"Liara! Uh… is there something I should know here or what? I mean, you do have a gun trained on a Spectre, after all." Shepard asks, watching his friend never look away from the woman as she explained everything that had happened since the building was bombed and the death of Sekat, with her explaining that it was Tela who had contacted the Shadow Broker after she had her location.
Suddenly, it all made sense to Shepard: from having the woman help her find any relevant information on the Shadow Broker, the location where Liara was supposed to go, who she was supposed to meet, and what time it was going to happen was too much of a coincidence.
In short: he had been duped.
No one ever dupes Shepard.
No one.
"She and her men found Sekat and killed him, but you came in sooner than what she was expecting, which means that she still has that disk on her." Liara summarized, tightening the grip on her weapon as Shepard and the others now had their weapons aimed at her as well.
"Clever girl. You're right, I do have it on me right here," she says, lifting her hand up and revealing a small, cylindrical device within her grasp, "but it's a shame that you'll never find out what's on it, much less use it for anything you pure-blood bitch!"
Upon finishing the insult, Tela had used her biotics to shatter the glass behind her and launch it at the group, with Liara and Tyler activating their biotics and shielding everyone from the debris then dispelling it, giving Shepard enough time to charge the woman and tackle her through the opening left behind from Tela's attack.
Everyone looked over the edge and seen that she had kicked Shepard away from her slowly glided down to the ground safely, with Shepard groaning in pain and discomfort as he started to regain his footing.
Liara took the plunge as well, seeing that Shepard wasn't going to get up in time to stop her from escaping, and basically followed Tela's lead as she herself slowed her descent and promptly ran as fast as she could to follow the woman.
Tyler, being a Phoenix vanguard, used a biotic charge to cross the playing field in a fraction of a second, slamming into one of the mercs and sending the man flying into the wall as he and someone else were about to attack Liara.
Jay could only groan in frustration, not having any biotics to slow his fall or even a cable that he can use as a makeshift rappel to get to the ground floor in a timely manner made the man upset as he took a look at the stairs the were behind him.
"I'll be down there in a minute! Just… fuck it, I'll catch up as soon as I can!" He called out to Shepard, watching as the man looked back up at him and gave him a thumbs up in acknowledgment, before turning around and sprinting to where Liara, Tyler, and Tela had ran off to.
"Stupid fucking space magic, telekinesis, and bullshit floating tricks…" He grumbled to himself all the way down the main floor of the building.
Sometimes, he wishes he didn't investigate the ruins of Illima City.
"DODGE LEFT!"
"I KNOW THIS LIARA! I CAN SEE TOO, YOU KNOW!"
The proximity charge exploded, violently shaking the sky car and its occupants as warning lights lit up across the front dash, causing Shepard to groan in aggravation and annoyance.
"You know, you two argue like a married couple on their twentieth anniversary." Came the snarky remark from Tyler, causing both Shepard and Liara to look back at the man harshly.
"SHUT IT!" They both scream, causing the man to lift both of his hands into the air as a gesture of surrender, with him not wanting to invoke their wrath upon him.
Jay could only laugh from his corner of the car, him being squished against the door with Tyler on the opposite side.
It was uncomfortable for both men to get in the back seat, with Liara suggesting that they leave one man behind, but since neither of them have any idea how to get back to the Normandy or where they were, Shepard had disregarded that offer, telling her that he likes four guns instead of three being on this chase after a Spectre.
Whatever Liara had planned was cut short when the sky car once again was violently shaken, making the occupants either groan or curse to themselves at having their head or limbs bang against the interior of the vehicle rather hard.
"What the hell was that, Commander?" Jay asked, noticing the windshield was cracked in several places and that half of the dash was no longer lighting up anymore.
"Good news, everyone! I no longer have any of these annoying lights in my sight distracting me!" Shepard abruptly said, completely brushing off the man's question as everyone felt a pit grow in their stomach.
"And the bad news?" Tyler tentatively asks, almost dreading the answer that they were all waiting for.
"I may have taken out several advertising signs and columns on my way through a shortcut… No biggie, right? Hey look, there she is!" Shepard suddenly called out, interrupting everyone as he pointed at the sky car that Tela had taken, which was steadily coming closer into view.
A lot closer.
Like, a LOT CLOSER.
Liara immediately knew what the man had planned.
"Shepard, let's be reasonable here: this isn't the Mako and that isn't some random geth! This is a sky car that moves about twelve times as fast and couldn't take a tenth of the amount of damage that the Mako could. Shepard? Shepard?! SHEPARD!" Liara cried out, frantically trying to crawl back from the windshield as Shepard began laughing maniacally, drawing ever closer to the sky car as he screamed one the first thing that came to his mind.
"CATCH A RIIIIIIIIDE!" He screamed, slamming into the side of the vehicle and sending it to the top of a building in smoke and flames, Shepard driving full speed and landing on the same building that Tela crashed on.
Upon landing, Liara, Jay, and Tyler immediately left the car and began hyperventilating, with Tyler and Jay actually taking their helmets off and throwing up all of their stomach's contents while Liara nearly went into fetal position to comfort herself.
Shepard being Shepard simply paid them no mind, popping his neck as he grabbed his weapons and other gear and reattached them back onto his armor, a smile prevalent on his face as he looked at his friends who were suffering on the ground.
He really misses driving around in the Mako and running over geth primes and armatures; it really got his blood pumping and his adrenaline coursing through his system.
"YOU'RE FUCKING INSANE!" Tyler screamed at the man when he looked up at him, wiping his mouth clean as Jay could only nod in agreement with his statement, which Shepard promptly shrugged his shoulders at the remark.
"Gotta have fun every once in a while, guys. Let's go and catch Vasir, because I'm pretty sure she's trying to limp away."
"Please give me a moment…" Liara weakly muttered, trying to regain control over her respiratory system as Shepard shrugged.
"Well, I suggest you three better hurry because we've got company inbound, and I'm pretty sure that they're not First Responders."
"FUUUUU-"
"We can climb through here to get to Vasir's vehicle." Liara tells everyone, motioning towards the glass wall that was completely gone and a vehicle doing a poor job replacing it, climbing through it as they come into what appeared to be some form of club with distorted music, overturned or destroyed pieces of furniture, and a bar that had miraculously survived any sort of harm.
They were interrupted from their musings when they heard a woman silently praying to live, saying that she'll do mantras every week, donate to charity, get a better job on the Citadel, and even move there if need be.
This caught Shepard's attention, with him rounding a corner and finding a human and an asari huddled together, holding each other as they prayed to their respective deities to be spared.
When the guy sees that they aren't alone, he immediately begins talking to him.
"Hey, hey, we're unarmed! We didn't see anything, I swear!"
Shepard could only blink owlishly at the man, his face scrunching up in confusion as he looked at both the man and the asari and the rather lewd video that was playing on the screen.
"Well…" Shepard started, looking back at the man as he slowly shook his head, "I… see that you're being truthful, so my team and I will leave you two be. Remember to stay out of jail, stay in school, don't do drugs, and eat healthy."
With the man leaving the room, Shepard pointed a finger at the screen and looked at Liara directly.
"What kind of hotel is this place?"
"Azure. It's a luxury hotel with an… exotic edge. Azure is slang for a part of the asari body, in some places of Illium."
"Where?"
"Mainly the lower reaches, near the bottom."
"I meant where on the body, Liara."
"So did I Shepard."
"We've got a blood trail here! Looks like she was hurt and it might be slowing her down, meaning we can catch up to her in no time." Jay calls out, motioning towards a small pool of purple blood as Shepard and Liara nodded, silently thanking the man as they all began to follow to where it led.
Judging from the amount of blood (which is an ungodly amount; seriously, I'm talking at least a couple of gallons worth of blood that you have to follow for at least a hundred meters or more. Just how much blood is in the asari body?) that was left behind, Vasir couldn't have been in any position or condition to fight anymore, which meant that she couldn't fight back when they took the data from her.
Shepard, even with how everything has happened and what had happened, hoped that she wouldn't fight back; he just hopes that Vasir would see reason whenever they confronted her.
"It's over Vasir! Hand the disk over." Liara called out, gaining Tela's and everyone else's attention, which prompted her to grab a woman and hold her pistol to her head, causing the patrons to scream and leave in a panicked fashion.
(As opposed to an orderly fashion.)
"You don't need to do this, Vasir; you're already injured and have lost a lot of blood, so a fight is the last thing you need and want right now. We only came for the disk, not for you. Hand it over, and you can walk away with your life." Shepard told her, his pistol aimed at the woman as Tela scoffed at the comment, angrily shaking her head at Shepard as she coughs up some blood.
"Walk away? You think that I can just walk away? The Shadow Broker knows where I am, who I am, and every little detail in between. I can't just walk away, Shepard; I'm dead regardless of what happens." She tells him, pointing her gun at the man as Liara and the others tensed up in anticipation.
"Then come with us until we take care of the guy! We can find out where he is with that data, and since you'll be with us, you'll be safe! Vasir… Tela, you're a woman with amazing talents and a very adept and adverse set of skills; killing you right now will be not just a waste of life, but a waste of an amazing soldier. You became a Spectre for a reason, Tela, give us the data and I guarantee that you'll be safe aboard my ship and its crew."
"Don't you get it, Shepard? The Shadow Broker has agents EVERYWHERE! He even has a few of them aboard your ship, the Normandy SR2, I believe is its name? I go with you, I die regardless."
"Then I'll have you guarded by my ground team! Tela, you know none of us works for the shady bastard, so at least give us the chance to save your life. I promise you; I give you my word that you will not come to harm at all if you give me that data… please, we're doing the galaxy a favor by killing the son of a bitch once and for all, so help us help everyone."
Vasir, upon looking at her hostage, her gun, the three guns trained on her, the data disk that she has, and the silhouette of a dancing elcor that may or may not be real, dropped the gun and her hostage, sinking to her knees and finally to her back as Shepard stood over her, looking down at her with pity and curiosity.
"Vasir?"
"Take it… just take it…" She tells him, coughing up blood as she grabbed it and held it out to the man, who accepted her gesture and took the disk and handing it to Liara.
"I made a promise, Vasir; you give it to us, we help you. And I always keep my word." Shepard tells her, giving the woman enough medi-gel to keep her steady as he motions for Tyler and Jay to carry the woman, walking away with Liara to go over any details that would be crucial to their mission.
"This data is from Sekat's personal data stores; with everything here, I can put it through the Normandy's database to figure out where the Shadow Broker's base of operations is. If I'm reading this right, we can be there in a matter of hours, at the very least, or a day at most. He'll know about Vasir, maybe even a matter of hours from now. But until then, he'll have enough time to kill Feron, maybe even-" Shepard interrupts Liara, pulling her hand and turning her around so that she can look into his eyes.
"Liara, we're not going to let that happen; Feron will be okay, understood? I'll personally make sure of it. I promise, and you know when I make a promise…"
"You always keep it. Thanks Shepard, I knew I could count on you. But are you sure it's wise to keep Vasir with us? If what she says is true, then we could be in danger the entire time we're en route to the Broker's base." Liara tells him, walking back outside and looking at the sun on the horizon, ignoring the sirens that are currently echoing throughout the city, while Shepard takes his place beside her.
"Honestly? No, I don't think it's a good idea. What I do think, however, is that she's too valuable of an asset to lose, even with her methods. I think that whenever we kill this bastard, she could become a potential ally to us, hell maybe even a friend."
Liara rolled her eyes, commenting on the fact that out of all species, humans and krogan are the only ones that would try to kill one another, only to become friends with the person they tried to kill the next day.
Shepard could only laugh, telling her that he has a krogan aboard the vessel that attempted to kill him when he first woke up and a woman who tried to attack him when they confronted her, which caused Liara to let out a genuine laugh, merely telling the man that her point was proven.
"You always had the most interesting people and personalities flock to you, you know that?"
"I blame god for giving me the charisma and charm of a Greek philosopher."
"I don't think that really applies to this situation."
"I said charisma and charm, not intelligence and foresight."
The two of them shared a laugh at the joke, knowing that at the end of the day, they were going to make history and that the galaxy will change for the better.
Only then will their mission on assaulting the collector homeworld be easier.
That wraps up the first part of this chapter! Tela, in my opinion, is too valuable of an asset to just simply kill her off; with her skills, connections, and experience, she would've been a major boon for ME3, but we ended up replacing her blood type with lead, or whatever the ammo blocks are (tungsten, I think?).
Not much else to say, other than that next chapter will be action packed, full of idiocy and humor, and a slight revelation for Shepard (no spoilers yet!).
Sorry to say, but with this sickness, the chapter may not be coming out next Monday, but it will definitely be out by the following one; just gotta wait and see what happened with my lungs is all.
That is all for now and I hope that you all enjoy your week and have a great day! See you all next time!