It's been an entire month since I last updated anything on fanfiction here: life had really let me down during the past month here, from taxes to moving most of my belongings into storage so that I can move in with a friend, ultimately deciding that moving was going to a lot more expensive than what I had at the time, having to relocate and transfer jobs a few times, bills hammering me down, taxes to file, and so much more that it'd probably be an entire chapter on its own if I were tell every one of you about it in detail. It caused me to go into a hiatus and forced me into a writer's block, but now that it's all over and done, I'm back here to tell you all that this story will not die. I am not abandoning it or the other one, but I will say that from now on this story will be updated every 2 to 3 weeks, as weekly updates weer beginning to get to me as well as everything else.
My other story will be updated soon this month, like maybe around semi-late February, don't worry.
Nothing else to say other than I am deeply sorry for not informing anyone on what has happened via a notice, but rest assured that I'm back in the swing of things.
Without further ado, it's Review Time:
Blaze: You're correct in that matter, but it was Tyler (or it should have been if it wasn't him) calling Shepard insane, not Jay. It's not that he couldn't make that jump, it's that he didn't want to risk getting hurt from a fall of more than forty or fifty feet. Tela only knew the description of the armor that Devin wore ( a giant, bulky set of armor that could take a lot of punishment with a set of glowing blue optics and a cog of the chestpiece), she had no idea that the man was not in fact Devin and was merely basing her opinions of what she knew about the man's characteristics; ie, tall and wearing strange armor. She is in no position to do that, Shepard and co will personally make sure of it.
Zero: I'll take that as a compliment!
Paragade: It was more for me to not have the story drawn out into nearly 50 chapters (which to me, 25 is insane and I never thought I'd see the day) but not only that, I have decided that Jay was being treated unfairly and, as a way to make up for that error on my end, chapter 26 is going to solely about him and through his eyes. As for that second part; I will not confirm nor deny these allegations.
That's all for the reviews, and holy shit, I never thought I'd see the day when we get to over a hundred followers and over 200k words! Thank you all so much for your continued support and I hope that I'll continue living up to your expectations!
Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter Twenty-Five: We Can Break a Shadow
"Ms. Vasir, if you do not stop moving, I will have you restrained while I am trying to reset your elbow properly." Chakwas scolded the groaning asari, a frown adorning her face as she shook her head at the interruptions coming from the woman who was currently in a bed.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Came the slightly uneasy response from the woman, her head weakly tilted to the side to look at the doctor as Chakwas held a scanner in her hands.
"The asari and human female body types are vastly similar, Ms. Vasir; you should know this by now." She told her, setting the scanner down and forwarding the contents to a nearby display terminal and nodding to herself at what had appeared before moving a surgical camera and positioning it over Vasir's left arm.
"What's the thing for?"
"It has an x-ray function that allows me to see what I'm doing and what needs to be done."
"What do you need to do?"
Stopping for a brief moment, Chakwas looked up at the woman and simply smiled at her, her expression filling Vasir with dread.
"This." Is all that she said before grabbing the woman's arm and pushing it back suddenly, causing Vasir's eyes to shoot wide open as she let out a weak scream, the pain from her elbow no longer being dislocated and reset now coursing through her entire system.
Chakwas nodded to herself in satisfaction, pulling the equipment out of the way as she ran a few more scans on the sore and irate asari while said asari was giving her a look that could kill, if they were able to.
"You did that on purpose; that was more force than necessary and you know it." Tela accused, gritting her teeth as Chakwas simply smiled her once more, telling her that she didn't know what she was going on about before leaving the woman to her own devices.
Tela let her head drop to the bed, groaning out loud once more as the painkillers were finally taking effect and relieving her pains slightly.
That was when the door to the med bay opened once more, making Tela look over to see who had entered the room, ready to open her mouth and say something to the unwelcomed visitor but stopped herself when he seen that it was a human sitting in a wheelchair.
"So… you're Tela Vasir; honestly, given your Spectre role and identity, I figured that you'd have an equal chance at fighting Shepard… I was somewhat correct, I suppose." He said, stopping by the foot of her bed to take a look at her before rolling himself to the back corner of the room, bringing up his omni-tool and began watching a video on it.
"Who in the hell are you?"
"Devin, or as you may know me by my callsign Onyx. Pleasure to meet you." He told her, his sarcasm thick as he didn't look up at her.
"I thought that the other person was-"
"That's Jay; he's a good kid with a good head on his shoulders, but he is in no way me. Besides, he has a marine variant of the COG armor, I was army and Onyx Guard… well, I guess since he was an escort of a First Minister, he'd be an Onyx Guard as well…" Devin trailed off, rubbing his chin with his free hand, scratching at the small beard that was growing from the lack of shaving that he's done in the past month.
Being in a medically induced coma for a couple of weeks and sicker than a dog will do that to you.
The next ten minutes were spent with Tela asking him questions about why he was in the room, to which Devin explained that Shepard had told him about the situation that she was in and that he needed someone trustworthy to make sure nothing happens.
Tela was surprised that Shepard was actually keeping his word, knowing that he could've killed her or left her to die, by the hands of one of the two agents aboard the Normandy.
Probably why he had that enormous pistol holstered by his side, and from the reports and footage that she's gathered from the man, it is extremely effective against opponents with little armor and shields.
Even more so to one's who have neither.
She wonders what kind of stories the man could tell and seeing as how she's currently confined to the med bay for a while, she has to make the most of her time by learning all that she could about the man.
Surely he has something interesting to tell her?
"There's no damn way that happened, especially after you joining special forces too." She told him, looking at the man as he nodded his head at the accusation, twisting his torso to show her a large scar that ran up the side of his ribcage.
"On my life, I swear it happened; the bastard came charging my squad and I with a knife made from rusted sheet metal and had stabbed me right in the side here, but luckily enough the armor I had at the time was made from osmium and reinforced steel and had actually wedged the thing in me to the point that the bastard didn't have enough time to register that it was stuck before Garret blew the fucker's brains out!" Devin told her, laughing as he looked at the scar with remembrance crossing his features, a smirk adorning his face before suddenly disappearing.
"God that was excruciating; my left lung was cut up badly, the surgery was painful, the meds were good, and the ribs were reconstructed with minimal effort… god I hated the summer variant army combat gear. That's why I loved the new armor I received shortly after; better materials, better quality, more durable, and actually protected your body with high quality under armor."
"I'm surprised that you survived something like that; knowing that your lung was fucked up and that you were out in the field meant that you were far from medical aid."
Devin snorted at that, leaning back into his chair as he told her that it definitely wasn't a cakewalk.
For the past hour, the two of them shared war stories, idle conversation, and were joking around with one another. Every now and then, either Garrus, Tyler, or Tulma would come by to check on them and see if they needed anything from drinks to food and provided them whenever they were requested.
Tela, during the time, had relaxed herself into her bed, thoroughly enjoying herself and her time spent with the man.
Who would have thought that the man that the Shadow Broker had sent her after was an excellent conversationalist?
"So the turian, Tulma Sparatus, seems awfully chummy with you."
"So?"
"You two fucking each other yet? If so, then I'd love to see just how pissed Sparatus will be when he finds out the that niece of the most powerful turian alive is banging a human."
Devin sighed, shaking his head and rolling his eyes as he frowns at the woman, telling her that Sparatus didn't hate humans as much as everyone believes and that he and Tulma aren't sexually intimate with each other yet, due to the mission at hand and what lies ahead of them as a whole with the reaper invasion.
"And after?"
"After, we'll do whatever the fuck we want."
Tela laughed at that, knowing where the man was coming from and that she respected him for not caring about the implications that could possibly happen if word was to get out about the two of them being an item.
She herself never really cared about the political side of things; only that she completed her missions and got the desired results.
Their conversation was interrupted when the door opened once more, a crew member walking into the room with a data pad held within her grasp as she looked at Tela and Devin with a blank face.
Devin was slowly inching his hand closer to his boltok, just in case if things were going to get ugly.
"Hello ma'am, what brings you here to our humble abode?" Devin asked her, his voice calm and level as he never took his eyes off the woman and the loose-fitting lab coat as she took another glance at the data pad and set it aside.
"I'm just here to take a few scans of our patient, Devin; due to the nature of the scans, however, I do need to ask you to leave for Ms. Vasir's pri-"
Devin immediately cut the woman off, telling her that there was zero chance that he was leaving the room and that if anything was going to happen then Chakwas needed to be the one to do it.
He and the woman stared at each other tensely, neither moving a muscle until the woman sighed, backing off from the request as she knew that the man wouldn't leave for any reason.
Upon her leaving the room, Devin looked back at Tela and seen that she had let out a sigh of relief, easing her body back into the bed as she let her head fall to the pillow beneath it.
"You okay?"
"Yeah," Tela started, turning to look at Devin with a thankful nod, "I know you don't have to do this, that you can let whatever you want happen to me and let the operatives here finish me off like a sick varren, but I really do appreciate you, Shepard, and everyone else keeping me safe. Heh, from all I've seen, read, and heard about, you'd make a fine Spectre, Devin. Maybe after Shepard is finished with this suicide mission, I can take you back to the Council and maybe pitch in a request for you to begin training as a Spectre?" She told him, smirking at the flat look that the man had giving her in return.
"Why me as a Spectre? I'm good and all, but there are people out there who are infinitely more qualified to be one than I am. Besides that, I have to buy my own shit and last I checked, I'm practically poor."
"Well for one your regenerative abilities, yes I've heard about them, two you're black ops, that much is obvious, three you're capable of fighting off krogan with your bare hands, four you're imposing as shit, five you've got a sick setup with your armor and weapons, and finally you can definitely be a leader when the situation calls for it. How do I know this? I seen the footage of you and your squad back on Omega and how you assumed command and reeled everyone back into the fight with clear minds and calm demeanors. Point is Devin; you'd be perfect for the position. Besides, it'd definitely score you points with the Sparatus family and whoever else is out there whenever you and dear sweet Tulma comes out as a couple… that and Spectres can go to any fine dining establishment and get seats immediately for however many guests they want. When was the last time you treated her with a night out that she enjoyed thoroughly?" She explained, throwing some very good points at the man and even going as far as manipulating his feelings so that he would most likely accept, or at least think about her offer.
Groaning into his hand, Devin rubbed his forehead as he dragged his hand down his face, then looked at the smirking woman with narrowed eyes.
"You're manipulating my feelings; a low blow, if you ask me."
"Why I don't even know what you're talking about, Devin; I'm merely telling you the perks of being a Spectre."
The door opened once more, drawing both the occupant's attention as they seen it was the same woman from before as she strode over to the window and pulled the blinds over to conceal them, then promptly handed Devin a data pad as she told him to read it.
"What's this?"
"That is a written form from Chakwas explaining what I am going to be doing with Ms. Vasir, Devin. She signed it herself, as you can see at the bottom there, and with that being said I'm going to have to ask you to leave for her privacy." The woman held a smirk on her face, believing that she had won the battle and Devin had to admit, it WAS signed by the good doctor so that had meant something to him.
By something, it actually meant nothing and as such, Devin casually looked at the woman and snapped the data pad in half with his left arm, not even bothering to look at it and the glass that was now lodged into his hand, as he stared at her shocked face with narrowed eyes.
"This doesn't mean jack shit to me lady; whatever you need to do, do it now because I'm not leaving this room."
"That will be a breach of privacy, and the patient-"
"Look lady, I don't care if he's in the room or not; I'm not bashful in the slightest and if he wants to see my tits and my azure, then I'll show them to him. Point is, he can be in here while you do your thing and I don't mind it one bit." Tela told the woman, her arms crossed over her chest as the woman groaned in frustration.
"You two aren't going to make this any easier for me, are you? Whatever, it's a bed-ridden traitor and diseased freak in wheelchair." She said aloud, reaching into her lab coat and pulling out a carnifex hand-cannon.
Before she could do anything, the room echoes with three gunshots, Tela jumping at the sudden noise as the woman's chest violently exploded as Devin shot her twice and the last shot to her head, painting everything within two meters in her blood, skull fragments, and brains.
Tela could only stare on in shock at the grotesque display before shaking it off and holding her head in pain, groaning as her hearing was surely damaged and experiencing tinnitus.
Devin could only groan at having blood stain his white shirt, holstering his boltok as he stared at his shirt in mild contempt.
"Great… now I'm going to have get another shirt."
"You're worried about a shirt while a literal body is on the floor and blood is splattered all over the place?" Tela asked the man, seeing as he had a frown on his face while he only nodded to her question.
"But… it was comfortable."
"You're unbelievable."
And that was when several people came in through the door, weapons raised and ready for any contact, Chakwas, Jay, and Miranda being in the group as well.
Looks like Devin is going to have to explain exactly what happened and why there is a mutilated body staining the floor.
That, and he needs a new shirt.
Maybe while getting a new one he and Tulma can figure out how Jay got here, maybe shed some light on what all he did before they found him and what had happened during the fight with Morinth back then. Even what happened with Kasumi.
Today's going to be a busy day, that's for sure.
Today is a busy day for Shepard: Hagalaz turned out to be the planet that the Shadow Broker is hiding on, but the planet is constantly changing temperatures on a whim, the oceans boil and snap freeze every day, the meridian of the planet is constantly experiencing multiple mega storms that can mask a ship's readings and signature, said storm is currently throwing lightning bolts at them as if Zeus himself was pissed, said lightning almost fried Shepard, Liara had taken control of the mission as soon as they had landed, and he had just gotten word from Joker that one of the operatives that the Shadow Broker had planted on his ship was found and promptly killed by Devin and that cleanup was currently going on.
Without missing a beat, he knew that the man had used one of his own weapons instead of a standard issue one; Joker never uses the term cleanup to describe body removal, the term he uses for that is disposal.
Disposal means body is generally in one of two pieces, cleanup means gore galore.
(Heh, that rhymed.)
Sighing to himself and shaking his head, Shepard knew that Devin was only doing what was best at the time and that it had probably sent a message to the other operative to not go for Tela for a very long while, or at all.
Maybe; those types of people never really did get a hint when it was literally shoved in their face.
"How is your turret firing accurately with those missiles in this environment, Justin? The wind should just carry it off before it has a chance to detonate." Liara asked the young man, watching as Justin was fiddling with his omni-tool while avoiding gun fire.
"Well ma'am, that's the beauty of Boomer here; his on-board VI is so sophisticated that it takes in practically every scenario on the battlefield and corrects itself within seconds to find the best and optimal firing solution on any designated target. Everything from barometric pressure, distance, windage, rain, trajectory, environmental obstacles, and much more to ensure that the missiles hit their target! Observe." He told her, finishing typing out a command for his pride and joy and watching as it turned its barrels towards the YMIR mech that lumbered onto the battlefield.
It fired two missiles at it, but due to the environment and the sheer excessive wind speed, both of them missed their mark by a wide margin and careened out into the distance before exploding. Then, after a few seconds of the machine analyzing what had occurred, it fired yet another missile to gauge its new targeting system and miraculously the shot landed, stumbling the mech back a single step as Justin cheered on, before cursing suddenly as he dived down into cover yet again to avoid getting shot.
Shepard could only shake his head at the sight, a grin appearing on his face as he cooled down his weapons.
"Justin, you can stop trying to impress every new squad mate we get with your pet while we're surrounded by electrical pylons, on the hull of the Shadow Broker's ship, and currently getting shot at by their men. Besides, you can tell her all about it when we're back on the Normandy." He told the man, receiving a mock salute from him as he went back to shooting at the mercs that were being pushed back by the turret's firepower.
He really needs to get those schematics back to Hackett and Anderson, get them out onto production as soon as possible so that every unit in the Alliance can have one ready to be deployed when the reapers show up.
… now he wants to see how Justin's turret would fare against them.
"Hey Liara! Are you sure that hacking program you got on the door is even working?"
"It should be, Shepard; though it is illegal on Illium and didn't even come with a warranty."
"You tested it, right?" He asked, seeing that the woman had locked up from the abrupt question before quickly going back to shooting the mercs.
"Here comes more of them."
"Tell me you tested it, at least!"
"No time!"
A round whizzes by Shepard and hits the wall beside him, causing the man to get back into cover as he hits the thermal release on his rifle once again.
There were still over a dozen combatants left on the field, including a heavily damaged YMIR, that the three of them needed to take care of as they waited for Liara's door hack to finish, but with how many well-armed mercs there are, and all of their high-end guns, Shepard was beginning to get concerned about running out of thermal clips and if that happened, they'd have to rely on Justin's turret and their offensive abilities even more so than they already are. They just need to create a small opening so that they can grab the clips so that Justin and Liara can have a fresh batch.
'There's an upgrade idea, if I ever thought of one.' Shepard thought to himself, preparing himself for a run to avoid getting hit.
Dashing out into the open, Shepard fires blindly into the cover that the mercs were using, suppressing them as he used his left hand to grab any clips that he could see and stuffed them into his carrying satchel before going back into cover, waiting for his weapons to cool down as he radioed Liara what he was doing.
"Incase you were wondering, I was getting you two some thermal clips from the mercs who won't be using them anymore, because we're an hour into this mess and I know for a fact that you two don't have unlimited like I do. I got like… six here so that should do you two for a little bit."
"Not that we don't appreciate the gesture, Shepard, but it'd been better if all of us went together so that we can make sure that we have the thermal clips ready to be used at that moment, instead of waiting for you to get back to us." Liara told him, the sounds of her biotics being used in the background telling Shepard that she was most likely conserving ammo and had switched to her biotics to help with that conservation.
Then Justin joined in.
"Unlike some people Shepard, I and Boomer appreciate your thoughtfulness."
"See Liara? They appreciate me."
"You both are just grown up children in uniform and holding weapons." She joked, laughing the objection that Justin had gave while Shepard tried to plan on how to make it back to them without gaining a few extra holes in his body.
"Justin, have your turret provide covering fire for me while I fall back to your all's position."
"Got it, Commander! And… there! Now's your chance to get back here and give us some gun food, Commander."
With that said, Shepard leapt from cover and sprinted across the hull of the ship, making sure to fire his rifle at the mercs to add more pressure on them to make his retreat more successful and jumped over a fallen pylon, coming to a roll as he crawled back against cover as Justin cheered him on.
"Nice roll." He commented, taking a thermal clip from the man and inserting it into the mattock that Shepard had given him.
"Thanks; I've been learning about how to properly roll and dodge while in a set of full armor and seeing as how Jay and Devin does it in armor that's twice this one's weight and how effective it seems, I thought I should give it a try." He told him, leaning out of cover for a moment to see how many is left.
The turret, which Shepard suspected would've happened sooner or later, had shut down due to overheating, the constant use that it's been going through for the last twenty minutes putting a strain on its systems finally catching up with it and causing it to shut down to cool off. That had put Shepard's plan in a sore spot, seeing as how they'd be reliant upon the thing for crowd control and to take on the bigger and more durable targets for them while they deal with the mercs.
"How much longer is this thing going to take Liara?"
"I… don't know, Shepard; but it should be soon, I'm sure of it!"
"I miss the days when you can slap omni-gel onto a keypad or a terminal and get through a crate or a door but no; everything had to change while I was dead. Stupid politics and stupid reforms."
"Not a lot of people were happy, that's for sure."
Justin had screamed which had gained the attention of both Liara and Shepard, both of them seeing that he had jumped out of cover and was currently carrying his turret back with him behind cover, all the while his shields were depleted and his armor sparking as rounds were glancing off of it.
Shepard, upon seeing that the man was trembling, carefully made his way to the young man, asking him what was wrong before seeing that a piece of shrapnel was sticking out the side of where the barrel and the frame met.
"No… no, no, no…" He muttered to himself, gingerly touching the piece before tightly gripping his hand, shaking the entire time as his breathing became erratic.
"They'll pay dad… they're all going to fucking pay dearly… I'll KILL YOU ALL!" He screamed, reloading his carnifex and equipping his mono-molecular knife within his other hand, making sure that all of his equipment was ready for the hell that he was about to unleash upon those who had harmed his baby.
Before Shepard could stop him, the man had leapt from cover and charged the remaining six hostiles with the intent to kill.
Things were about to get interesting.
'Stab in between the third and fourth rib, twist the blade, and jerk out; this should guarantee the heart to get shredded on both human and asari targets, making this spot the perfect target for an easy kill.'
'Take knife and throw it into next target's unprotected shoulder, aim pistol and fire three rounds into the head to break the shield, tackle target and reclaim knife then use it to slit the throat. Target will lose consciousness in seconds followed by death a minute after.'
'Use this time to advance upon stunned hostiles, blood on blade can double as a poison against turians, use that for my advantage. Avoid incinerate blast, throw gun at him for distraction, dive into him and use free hand to deliver throat punch. As he grabs his neck, use knife to stab three times to the side of the stomach area, then finish him off with a stab to the neck.'
'Last three are panicked, firing erratically at me with little success; need to finish this and get into cover. Reclaim pistol, fire the rest of my rounds and holster it, grab biotic nullifier grenade and prime it for impact detonation, toss it and watch as it works against both asari, maybe both human, not the salarian. Charge them with a lift grenade ready, tossing, another success. Liara used a throw on one, sending her off the side of the hull; fell to her death. That leaves the last two, one of whom are ready for hand-to-hand.'
'Grab knife yet again, hold it in reverse, wait for her to strike. Dodge the attack she threw; sloppy, sluggish as well. Effects from the grenade? Possible. Might have to contact Mordin about this, see if we can enhance it further. Grab extended arm with both hands, one at the wrist and the other at the should, bring it down against the knee and break the elbow. Keep a firm hold and twist even more, target is no longer fighting back, push her to the ground and end her life quickly with her own gun with a shot to her head.'
'One left.'
"JUSTIN!" Shepard called to the man, seeing that he was now advancing on the lone salarian who had threw his gun down and surrendered to them, but from the way Justin was walking to him, it seems as if he wasn't interested in taking prisoners.
He needed to stop this from getting badly out of hand.
He grabbed Justin's shoulder and turned him around, blocking the punch that was sent his way with his left forearm before headbutting the man, knocking him on his ass as he now cradled his broken nose.
Kneeling down to him, Shepard looked at him with pity as Justin lowered his head and held his eyes closed, shame covering his face as he refused to look Shepard in the eyes.
Looking at the salarian, Shepard tells him to leave before anything else happened, while Liara came to inform them that the door was now open and that they should head inside.
"I fucked up…" Justin said quietly, more to himself than to Shepard, to which the man shook his head.
"No, you just lost control of yourself for a moment there; emotional breakthroughs happen a lot on the field and I don't blame you, but you need to calm down." He told him, lifting him off the ground and placing his hands on his shoulder.
Before Shepard could react, Justin had grabbed ahold of him and held him tightly, his breathing labored as he shook.
"It's all I have left of my dad… I just… I just hate to think that it can be destroyed at any moment out here."
With him letting go, Shepard gave him a look of understanding, telling him that he understands the pain about losing his father very well, but regardless of what happened, he should always push forward for the man.
Justin could only nod at that, walking alongside the man and grabbing his helmet and putting it back on, all the while Liara looked at the man with mild uncertainty.
"Where'd you learn to fight like that, Justin? From what I can tell, you've never shown you were capable of doing any of that." She asked him, seeing that he had turned his head to look at her as he removed the shrapnel from his turret and placed it back within its container.
"I was in the Alliance Marine Corp for a year and a half, ma'am; passed basic and AIT with flying colors and was practically the top of my class. I'm a decent shot with automatic rifles, but I prefer a DMR any day of the week, but I was the best of my class in hand-to-hand; out of the two hundred and sixteen of us, I was ranked first out of all of them and had the privilege of applying all the skills we learned throughout the time I was there on one of the drill instructors. I beat his ass, simple as that. Went on after that to become an engineer, worked on my turret, and eventually landed a spot as an N1 recruit. Shortly after that, we were headed to the SSV Houston on the Citadel when Sovereign and the geth attacked, destroyed our ship, killed most of our men, my CO included, and left me with gunshot wounds and impaled on some piece of metal. That hurt a lot. They medically and honorably discharged me and sent me home after that mess was sorted through. I guess I still retained all the information from hand-to-hand training, though I don't like using it for obvious reasons." He told them, walking down the pathway as both Shepard and Liara listened intently about his story and how he was able to accomplish all he did.
"How old are you?"
"I'm only twenty-three, Commander. I'll be twenty-four in seven months."
"Damn, all of the messed-up shit only started happening to me when I was at least twenty-six or seven."
With Justin nodding his head, the three of them continued walking down the pathway, making several turns as they navigated the labyrinth that was the Shadow Broker's lair.
"Just how many of them are there?"
"Told you so."
"I'm gonna make a guess and say at least a dozen or so throughout this hallway." Justin said, firing his mattock down the hallway as the Shepard and Liara pushed forward to get closer so that the mercs wouldn't want to push them.
Within seconds, three are dead and seven more take their place as they come out of hiding behind pillars or barriers and fire their weapons at them, causing the three of them to sigh yet again.
Having to push forward and get back into cover every few minutes was getting very tiresome, so much so that Justin had came up with a very unorthodox method of bypassing them.
"You want to what?" Shepard asked him, looking at the man with confusion as Justin only nodded.
"You heard me."
"We don't even know where it goes!" Liara pointed out, her hands in the air as she gave her piece of protest.
"Which is why we have EDI mapping the way for us by letting her scan everything."
"And how would we accomplish that? Last I checked, the Shadow Broker probably has this entire ship a dead zone to outside scans."
"By having EDI connecting to this relay device-" Justin tried explaining, only to interrupted by Shepard.
"That's a camera that you tore off a wall."
"A camera that still has a CONNECTION to the ship's system! We have EDI hack into this thing, she can download the ship's layout and send it to us so that we can navigate through here!"
"Justin," Shepard started, his blank look slowly forming into an evil grin, "that has got to be the smartest thing that's come out of your mouth ever; let's do it."
"I aim to please. EDI, did you get all of that?" Justin radioed, hooking the camera up to his omni-tool and feeding it power so that it would activate.
"Yes Justin, though I would advise you to remove the lens from the camera so that the security feed wouldn't show up on any monitor or terminal in the ship and reveal your location. That and I'll disable remote tracking so that they won't be able to find you while we're using it. Downloading now… done; sending a map layout now. Try not to die so soon; I'd hate to see the only gift you'll ever receive be wasted so soon."
Everyone was quiet when they head that, staring at the camera with a perturbed look as EDI chimed in.
"That was a joke."
"Right… well, let's get in there; these vents won't lead us to the big guy themselves." Justin said, shooting the vent off and grabbing onto it, climbing inside as Shepard tossed the container in after him before promptly following his lead, with Liara shaking her head to herself at the incredulity of the situation, but ultimately deciding to follow along as well.
If you can't beat them, join them.
"How much further? It's getting cramped in here, you know."
"Six feet, so calm your tits, Commander."
"It's hot in here."
"Because you're working too hard on pushing yourself, Liara; do more of a sliding motion than a crawling one, it helps conserve energy."
"I WOULD'VE LOVED TO KNOW ABOUT THAT TWENTY MINUTES AGO!"
"Ow, no need to scream…" Justin pouted, bashing the vent open and dropping out of it and onto the ground, wiping himself off and stretching for a moment before catching the container that housed his turret.
Shepard and Liara made it out of the vent and sigh with relief, stretching and taking a moment to relax as they caught their breath before getting ready to move again.
With the three of them finally paying attention to where they were, Justin let out a whistle as he seen that they were in a very small supply room that housed thermal clips, grenades, and other supplies that a person would need to stock up on for their gear.
"We're headed towards the prison block, where they're keeping Feron…" Liara trailed off, looking at the map they had with disbelief, before diving into cover as a group of mercs came around the corner and began firing at them.
"That was fast." Justin commented, tossing the camera he had to the side as he drew his weapons and returned fire with vigor.
"I'm not surprised in the slightest, nothing ever goes right for us. Nevertheless, let's take care of these assholes and find Feron for Liara, after that we're killing the damned Shadow Broker once and for all." Shepard said, his Spectre shotgun ready and loaded as the three of them found themselves in a very tight and confined corridor against several hostiles.
Liara was getting desperate, as evident from her using her biotics to literally ragdoll people into walls and through windows, seemingly putting all of her force into the attacks as Shepard and Justin fired their weapons into the downed mercs or those who weren't hit with biotic energy.
Shepard used the butt of his shotgun to bash someone's head, firing the weapon into them twice as they tried getting back up and continued to follow closely behind Liara, his shields getting hit from both sides as Justin was taking care of everyone on his side with his scimitar shotgun.
While it wasn't as strong or as effective as Shepard's shotgun, it still did the job as it took down two mercs in one clip, but was starting to fall behind as when one merc fell, one or two more would take their place. It was beginning to get hectic, with how they were being surrounded on all sides by mercs who were out for their blood, when Justin once again came up with an idea.
"Hey guys, give me all of your grenades and any other explosives that you may have on you!"
"What why? It's way to packed in here to be using explosives."
"Trust me, Commander; I have some omni-gel on my omni-tool here and with the right know-how, I'll be turning our simple grenades into a very large, very powerful bomb."
Upon hearing that, Shepard smiled once again, handing the man three grenades and motioning for Liara to do the same.
"Thanks for believing in my stupid ideas yet again, guys. Now, keep me covered while I just prime and hash all of this together; it should only take about… twenty seconds, if that." He tells them, activating all the grenades and explosives that they had on them and dumping all of his omni-gel onto it, kneading the gel to where it contained all the explosives that they had on them into one big IED.
And with time to spare, Justin began hacking the locked door behind them, keeping his head down so that he wouldn't get shot by a stray, or not-so stray, round.
"How much longer do we got until we get through that door, Justin?!" Liara called out, throwing out a warp at a gas line and shooting it, causing it to explode and kill two mercs were unfortunate enough to be close to it.
"A minute, just hold out for a little longer!"
"We don't have a little longer!" Shepard told him, activating his omni-blade and dragging a merc who had charged him over their cover and then stabbed him in the head with the blade, going back to using his rifle to lay down a constant stream of death as Justin was beginning to sweat from the stress of the situation was taking its toll on him.
"Start shooting the gas lines! Don't question me, just do it!" Justin ordered once the doors opened, Shepard and Liara doing exactly as they were told before running into the hallway that the door led them to.
Justin had a grenade set on a timed charge of five seconds, with it primed and ready to explode once he let go of it.
With his arm curled back, Justin gave the twenty or so mercs a one-liner.
"Sayonara, bitches!"
With that said, he throws the grenade and sharply turns on the balls of his feet, sprinting through the hallway just as the grenade detonated, igniting the gas that filled the air that then caused to IED to explode, killing off everyone that was close enough to it and destroying the door that they had went through and causing the ceiling to collapse on top of it as well.
Justin had fallen to the ground after coming through the door at the end of the hallway, taking his helmet off so that he could breathe clearly as Shepard and Liara sat down against the wall to catch their breath as well.
Justin, without making an attempt to get up, gave a weak cheer of success, throwing his right arm into the air as he did so, before letting it fall back down on top of him.
"That… was the stupidest… most idiotic and asinine plan to have ever existed; thank god it fucking worked." Shepard said, laughing out loud as he grabbed his gear and slid Justin's turret to him.
"You would've forgotten that back there, had I not grabbed it."
"Thanks Commander, you're a life saver."
"Yep, now let's move on; don't want the mercs getting to us now while we're vulnerable."
With that said, Shepard, Justin, and Liara stood up and dusted themselves off, making sure that they had everything they needed before heading off deeper into the ship, each step bringing them closer to the Shadow Broker.
"FERON!"
The shout that came from Liara woke the drell up, the man wearily looking around as he tried to gain the bearings on his surroundings, before looking at the quickly approaching asari.
"Liara?" He asked aloud, his voice weak from the experiences that he had went through, as he looked up at the woman as she began looking over him and then went to a terminal and began typing commands into it.
"Just hold on, Feron; we're getting you out of this- this machine."
"No Liara, wait-"
Whatever he was going to tell her was stopped when the machine that he was strapped and connected to begin violently shocking him, causing the man to scream out and convulse in pain.
Liara stepped away from the terminal in shock, knowing that if she were to mess with it any more, then Feron would very likely die from the torture.
"I knew this looked too easy to be true; that thing is rigged to hurt Feron if someone was to try and free him from it. My guess is that the Shadow Broker has the key to getting him released from that machine and the only way to find it is to find the boss themselves." Shepard told her, placing a hand on Liara's shoulder as he looked towards the door on the opposite side of the room and back to Feron.
"He's correct Liara; this chair is connected to the Broker's info network and to get me out of it, you'll need to shut off the power. You try and pull me out now, my brain cooks." He warned, taking a moment to catch his breath as he laid his head back.
"The Broker will be waiting for you all, you know that right?"
"We're counting on it. Just sit tight for a little bit longer Feron, we'll get you out of this mess." Shepard tells him, giving the man a nod as he and the others readied their weapons.
"I'll try not to go anywhere," he joked before looking at a door behind them, his head motioning towards it, "that room is a supply room, in it should be thermal clips for all of your weapons and maybe a few grenades for you all, if you need them. This fight won't be easy."
"If it was easy, then it wouldn't be fun! Let's move out people; we've got to make light of a shadow." Shepard told them, heading through the door which Feron told them about.
"That was an awful, awful joke." Liara told him, receiving a laugh from Justin as Shepard silently mocked her.
Only one thing went through Feron's mind as they left the room to fight the Shadow Broker.
And that was electricity.
The room they had entered was dimly lit, numerous terminals activated and had information scattered all over every single one of them, but what had the group's attention was the figure who was seated at the far end of the room, sitting patiently as they were reading and scrolling through various articles of information as Shepard, Justin, and Liara had their weapons trained on the elusive figure.
The Shadow Broker.
Upon getting closer to the man, they realized that he was no ordinary citizen of the galaxy, in fact he didn't look like a species that neither Shepard or Justin has seen before.
Liara, on the other hand, knew exactly what he was.
Before Liara could open her mouth, the Shadow Broker beat her to the punch.
"So… I assume you're here for the drell, aren't you Liara T'Soni? Reckless, even for you Commander Jonathon Michael Shepard."
"So you know my name, big whoop; it isn't like everyone in the galaxy knows it already. Besides, being reckless got me this far in life: from surviving Akuze, defending Elysium, stopping Saren, coming back from the dead, and now standing before the great and powerful Shadow Broker. Come to think of it, I'd say that's success in this day and age." Shepard remarked, his signature grin on his face as he kept his weapons trained on the behemoth.
"Regardless of what you call it, Vasir was still successful in her mission, even with her betrayal; she brought you two back to me and as such, I can finally send your body to the collectors, Shepard, and get rid of T'Soni once and for all. Besides, Ms. T'Soni, Feron betrayed me when he gave Shepard's body to you and he is now paying the price that comes with betrayal." He retorted, bringing up a display for everyone to see as he motioned to it.
"You may be thinking that this was bound to happen sooner or later, but the fact is that this isn't the first time that someone infiltrated this ship and succeeded in their mission, and I am not the first Shadow Broker. Not only that, Commander, but the offer with the collectors still stands. But enough of this idle and redundant conversation; I don't have the time to waste on humoring you three any longer and there's business that I need to attend to."
"You're pretty confident for someone who has nowhere left to hide." Liara said, stepping closer to the thing as it only scoffed it in return.
"You travel with interesting and rather fascinating companions, doctor; the prototype sentry gun that your friend carries would be a major boon for defenses across this ship and would sell well amongst the militaries and mercenaries of the galaxy."
"You're not putting a hand on anyone, besides you're not the only one who has information on people here: you're a yahg, a pre-spaceflight species quarantined on your homeworld, after you massacred the Council's First Contact party. This ship and its base are older than your planet's discovery, meaning that sixty odd years ago, you were brought here and kept as trophy by the previous Shadow Broker then took over, after killing the person. Not only that, but you were a slave… or a pet for that entire time. How am I doing so far?"
After finishing that analysis, the three of them watched as the yahg stood up from his seat, towering over even the krogan, before slamming his armored hand down, breaking the desk in half before using one of the pieces and throwing it at the group.
Shepard and Liara dived out of the way, but all Justin could do was stand and wait as the table slammed into him, throwing him back more than a dozen feet before coming to a stop as he lied motionless on the ground.
"JUSTIN! You'll pay for that you son of a bitch!" Shepard screamed, his rifle kicking against his shoulder as he fired at the yahg who simply took the gunshots with a grain of salt, grabbing a revenant machine gun with one hand and fires it back at both Shepard and Liara, causing the two of them to get back into cover to avoid getting hit.
"He has impressive strength; I'll give him that much." Liara dryly commented, her face grim as she looked at Justin's motionless body.
"He doesn't dead," she told Shepard, motioning for the man to take a closer look at his chest, "but he isn't going to be feeling good in the morning when he does get up. We need to finish this fight soon or else we're not going to make it."
"I know that Liara, but we need to hit this bastard with everything we got; that's why I'm using the Cain."
"Shepard-"
"I have three shots with this thing, but I need you to pull Justin to safety and well out of the blast radius; besides, he's pissed me off enough this week."
Nodding at what Shepard had told her, Liara readied her biotics as Shepard leapt from cover, his rifle firing at the yahg as Liara pulled Justin's body far from the fight, accidentally causing him to hit a few more pieces of debris while silently cringed about not meaning to do that.
Shepard had overheated his rifle twice now, the Broker's shields finally collapsing and making the thing growl at him in frustration, causing it to shoot directly at the man as Shepard narrowly avoided the shots as he dived out of the way and behind a pillar.
Grabbing the Cain, Shepard pointed it at the ground and held the trigger, causing the barrel to open and expand out, a red and orange glow coming from the inside as the eezo capacitors overcharge the slug to its maximum potential.
When Shepard heard the signature ding come from the weapon, he turned the corner and watched as the slug came out of the barrel and almost instantly collided with the shocked yahg, causing the room to become bathed in a flash of light and a large explosion that shook the room that they were in, no doubt causing damage to the structure surround them.
When the light died down, it was revealed that the yahg had used a form of shielding to protect him from the hit, but not without harm as it appeared that blood was coming out of the weirdly shaped mouth as he was panting in exhaustion.
Liara took a chance and fired several shots from her pistol at it, but to no avail as the rounds merely deflected off the barrier and into the walls.
Cursing to herself, she tells Shepard that the barrier was kinetically sensitive to attacks and would deflect energy and gunfire while it was active.
"Guess we do this the fun way then." Shepard growled out, popping his neck and his knuckles as he ran towards the immobile yahg, breaking the shield and landing a few punches on its face before it could recover.
When Shepard went for the last punch, the yahg had formed an omni-shield and used it as a battering ram against Shepard, hitting the man with his full force and sending him flying as he roared in anger.
Shepard could only chuckle as he pulled a tooth from his gauntlet.
"What's the matter? Did that hurt?" Shepard taunted, dangling the tooth in front of him and putting it in his side satchel for safe keeping.
It's not everyday that you get to punch the Shadow Broker and keep one of his teeth as a trophy.
"Now's not the time to piss him off, Shepard."
"Too late."
With the Cain cooling off, Shepard and Liara dedicated their rime to avoiding the pissed of yahg for as long they could, the two of them flanking from both sides as they continued to lay down fire, whittling the shields down until they were depleted, which prompted Shepard to use the Cain against him but was ultimately stopped when the nigh-impervious barrier formed over him, rendering the plan useless as it had proved to have been able to withstand a shot from it already.
Groaning in frustration, Shepard once again charged the yahg, ramming into him as it had pushed back against him and ultimately won the battle of strength as it had once again used its shield to bash Shepard into Liara as she came in to help the man fight off and win the fight.
Groaning in discomfort and pain, Shepard had looked around and discovered that his Cain had been knocked off of him as well, landing somewhere near Justin as Liara quickly helped the man get back up to his feet before the two of them quickly dived into cover once more.
"How are we supposed to get through that damn barrier so that we can kill this fucker!" Shepard cursed out loud, slamming his fist into their cover as Liara took a long look at the machine in the center.
That was when it struck her about what they needed to do.
"Shepard, do you see that thing in the middle of the ceiling?"
"The light show? Yeah, what about it?"
"If you can get him to bring up his shield once more, I've got an idea that should work for us." She informed, her biotics glowing in anticipation at what she had planned.
Shepard, somewhat knowing what she was going with but not fully understanding what was going to happen, nodded his head in understanding, his weapons ready as he grabbed them and raised them towards the Shadow Broker.
If they wanted to make sure that he was going to die, then he needed to make sure Liara had everything prepared.
And Shepard always made sure everything was prepared for his friends on the battlefield.
All Justin could do was groan in pain, taking his helmet off and grabbing his head in pain as he twisted and turned on his side to see what was going on.
It appeared as if Shepard and Liara was fighting space bigfoot and that Liara was doing something to the lightshow that was going on above all of them.
Turning his head, he seen that Shepard's Cain was lying on the ground only a few feet from him and that it appeared to still have some charge left in it.
Slowly putting one arm in front of the other, Justin slowly, groggily, and painfully dragged himself to it and grabbed it, flipping to his back as he seen Liara attempting to break to light.
He didn't know why she was wanting to break something that was solid, but he was pretty sure that she was breaking the thing holding the light in.
His headache suggests that he has a concussion.
With that thought in mind, he shakes his head to get a clearer picture on the scenery before him as he began charging the cannon of death, which caused Liara to turn and look back at the noise that it was making.
"Ma'am… I would advise you to move, please." Is all that he said, holding the trigger for a few more seconds as Liara's eyes shot wide open in alarm as she quickly scrambled to get well out of the explosion.
With the charging reaching its climax, Justin let go of the trigger, sending the slug straight into the light and detonating it, causing not only the intense heat and explosion to practically disintegrate the yahg's armor, but the energy released from the machine had encompassed the thing and practically vaporized it, with everyone on the ground from the amount of damage that was wrought within the room.
Justin could only say one thing, just as darkness was surrounding his vision yet again.
"Heh, stole your kill."
That's this chapter and it officially marks the end of the Shadow Broker dlc! Sorry again for not posting an update, but this chapter is nearly 10k words long, without author's note, so I guess having a long chapter is better than nothing right?
Like I said at the top, next chapter is all about Jay and his experiences in the ME universe and in his pov as well.
Not much to say, so I'll see you all next time!