I do not own Mass Effect or any of the characters.
Finished
David watched as the last tube exploded. As it fell, its hand smashed into a platform that was approaching, dropping it and the Collectors on it. David sighed in relief, letting his Tech Armor deactivate to recharge, as his omni-tool's sensors weren't picking up any other life forms around them.
"Is that it?" Jack asked.
"For the moment," David nodded. "Not for long, I'd guess."
"Shepard to Ground Team, status report!" Shepard said.
"We're holding them for the moment, Commander," Thane's voice replied. "But they're pushing hard. I'm not sure how much longer we'll be able to hold this position."
"Head to the Normandy!" Shepard said. "Joker, prep the engines! I'm about to overload this place and blow it sky high!"
"Roger that Commander," Joker said as Shepard knelt by the station's main control console, which was wired to the core, apparently. "Uh, Commander, I've got an incoming message from the Illusive Man. EDI's patching him through."
"Oh this aught to be good," David grumbled. His omni-tool beeped and he answered the message, his omni-tool projecting a hologram of the Illusive Man behind Shepard.
"Shepard, you've done the impossible," the Illusive Man said.
"I was part of a team," Shepard said. "They all risked their lives for this mission."
"I know," the Illusive Man said. "Their efforts will not be forgotten. You did what you had to do, and you acquired the Collector Base. I'm looking at the schematics EDI uploaded. A timed radiation pulse would kill the remaining Collectors but leave the machinery and technology intact. This is our chance Shepard. They were building a Reaper. That knowledge, that framework, could save us."
"Fuck no," David said. "Blow it up. Destroy everything."
"They liquified people," Shepard said. "Turned them into something horrible. We have to destroy the base."
"Don't be short-sighted," the Illusive Man said. "Our best chance against the Reapers is to turn their their own technology against them."
"Fuck that!" Jack scoffed. "This place is horrible! It makes the Teltin Facility look like a daycare! Using anything here is just wrong!"
"If we ignore this opportunity, that would be wrong," the Illusive Man said. "They were working directly with the Collectors. Who knows what information is buried there. This base is a gift. We can't just destroy it."
"Yup, we're done here," David said, ending the call. "Blow this place up so we can leave."
"Right," Shepard nodded, kneeling by the console again. "Tali, care to loan me a grenade?"
Tali snorted and handed one over, Shepard quickly sticking it to the small hexagonal pillar the console was formed around before pushing it back down into the core.
"Let's move," Shepard said. "We've got ten minutes before the reactor overloads and blows this whole station apart."
Just then, the platform lurched violently and a deafening, sour tone shrieked through the air. David groaned, looking to the others just as one of the Reaper's arms rose over the platforms, grabbing onto the left end.
"I told you so!" David said, raising his rifle as the Reaper's other arm grabbed the other end of the chain of platforms, raising itself before emitting that same tone as before as a roar of rage.
Everyone opened fire instantly, targeting the eyes and the mass effect core on its chest. The Reaper didn't show any noticeable reaction, but they had no better ideas. David launched a ball of explosive gas into the mass effect core and the explosion shook the platform, as well as rocking the Reaper backward and finally earning a shriek. Suddenly, the sphere in its mouth began to glow as energy began to charge and everyone targeted it, only to drop as it flashed and sent a dozen massive blasts of energy, or maybe explosive gas, flying at them.
"Hey Shepard, maybe you wanna use that particle beam?" Jack suggested.
He nodded, swapping his rifle for it just as the Reaper lowered itself below the platforms again. David looked around, waiting for something to happen, but after a moment, the Reaper rose. Then, the cycle began again. It shrieked at them. They shot at it. It charged a blast from its mouth. They ducked into cover for the blast, and then it ducked into cover. On the fourth repetition of the cycle, after what David had counted of five minutes, it began to do something else, its spine arched backward and David's eyes widened.
"Move!" he shouted, grabbing Jack and sprinting for the next platform over.
Shepard likewise pulled Tali off of the one they were on, heading in the other direction, and a moment later, the tail exploded up from below the platform, sending it spinning and flipping away. However, it also removed its cover. Everyone opened fire, Jack hurling a Warp, Shepard following it up with a throw to set off a biotic detonation, Tali sending a Combat Drone to self destruct inside the core, and David firing several exploding omni-bow bolts into its eyes and core. Finally, its Mass Effect Core exploded, smaller explosions beginning to tear through its torso and neck, leaving behind an inferno of flames. The Reaper shrieked, rearing back, then fell forward, its right arm falling toward the platforms. David's gut dropped instantly. The Reaper crashed down on the chain of platforms instantly, all of their anti-gravity tech exploding. The platforms began to list heavily and Jack began to skid toward the edge, shouting in fear. David dove after her, catching her right hand with his left before catching and exposed cable with his free hand, grunting as he jerked to a stop, Jack clinging to his arm with both hands. Below them, the Reaper crashed down on something, David couldn't tell what, and an explosion bloomed, the concussion hurling her back up onto the platform and threw the platforms all in the other direction. They began to fall rapidly this time, and Jack and David clung to each other as they rolled toward the other edge. They slammed into a low wall and stopped, Shepard and Tali barely remaining on their feet on the same platform. All around them support struts and platforms shot up past them as they fell and the other platforms fell past them, some exploding against one part of the ship or another. Finally, an explosion sent them spinning toward a wall and David yelped, grabbing Jack and overloading his omni-tool to supercharge his shield, which he extended to her just as she likewise formed a barrier around both of them. Then, they exploded into a wall hard, the platform embedding itself in it as debris crashed down around them.
After a moment, David woke as something heavy and metal crashed to the ground and groaned, looking around. Shepard was walking over to Tali to check on her while David and Jack were pinned under a massive metal plate. He groaned, unwrapping his arms from Jack and bracing them on the metal. He growled in effort pushing, and after a moment, he managed to get it off of Jack enough for her to slip out from under it and grab it. He slid himself out from under it and she let it drop, then pulled him up, David sucking in a harsh breath as pain speared through his left leg from the middle of his thigh. He held a hand to it and grit his teeth. Of all the time to have a broken leg.
"EDI, how long do we have?" David asked.
"Two minutes," EDI said, David and the others all swearing loudly.
"Run!" Shepard shouted.
Jack took David's left arm over her shoulders instantly and began to run, David hobble running as fast as he could to keep up. Then, Seekers swarmed into the tunnel behind them, along with Collectors. Shepard and Tali fired back into them as they ran, but David could hear the Seekers gaining rapidly.
"Human," Harbinger's voice called out. "You have changed nothing. Your species has the attention of those infinitely your greater."
They skidded around a corner just as Cade managed to dig a syringe out of his pocket, one filled with the strongest local anesthetic money could illegally buy, which he'd been saving for an emergency since the Collector Ship. He jabbed it into his left leg and it auto-injected the pain killer just as they skidded around a corner.
"Those that you know as Reapers are your salvation through destruction," the Harbinger continued.
All feeling in David's left upper leg faded in seconds and he pushed off of her, beginning to sprint alongside her just as they passed a side hallway Collectors were swarming toward them from. He shot a handful of bullets at them but didn't slow his sprint. Bullets began to fly past and around them, forcing the Seekers to break off in favor of the Collectors shooting at them. Then, as they sprinted toward a platform that dead-ended in an open shaft, the Normandy rose from below the edge. The airlock opened and Joker stepped into view with Garrus, both opening fire at the Collectors. Bullets began to slam into the ship around them, but they made no move to stop. Debris began to fall from above, smashing the edge of the platform. Tali jumped first, then Jack. David leapt off with his right foot and barely cleared the jump. A massive chunk of debris exploded down on the platforms that had been attached to the edge of the open floor, breaking them loose and dropping them. Cade began to open fire as well as Shepard jumped. He barely managed to slam into the edge at armpit level and Tali grabbed him instantly, hauling him up into the airlock as the others all fired at the Collectors, Jack holding a barrier to block the Collectors' bullets for the airlock while letting them shoot out of it.
"Get us the fuck out of here!" Shepard ordered just as he managed to roll into the airlock. David slammed the controls, sealing it as the Normandy pulled away from the platform, EDI gunning it instantly.
They all hurried inside, Joker, Tali, and Shepard heading for the cockpit while David leaned back against the wall he'd inevitably be thrown toward, Jack leaning into him and deactivating his helmet for him.
"We made it," Jack smiled.
"Don't count us out yet," Cade said, hearing EDI counting down from ten. "We could still die."
"Then I want to die happy," Jack said, kissing him.
He smiled, kissing her back just as the ship lurched in the initial detonation. He wrapped his arms around her, feeling her fear of dying starting to creep into the kiss, and held her tightly. Then, the ship reached the Mass Relay and the force of accelerating pressed Jack into him harder, despite the kinetic dampeners, and he smiled. Now they had made it. Jack sighed in relief, kissing him for a few more seconds before pulling away.
"Let's get you to Chakwas," Jack said.
"Preferably before she uses that scanner I upgraded," David said.
Jack laughed and nodded, taking his left arm over her shoulders again and helping him away from the airlock.
David sighed, setting his head back against the wall. He was lucky. It wasn't a full break. Just a deep muscle bruise and a nasty crack in the bone. It'd heal in about three days, apparently, as long as he could resist walking on it. Around him, the others were cleaning their weapons after the mission, a couple looking at datapads. He, on the other hand, was doing the only thing he cared to. Sitting against the wall with Jack nestled into his side and his arms wrapped tightly around her. Finally, Shepard walked in, looking around at them all before taking a deep breath.
"As of now, this is no longer a Cerberus Vessel," Shepard said. "I'm done with the Illusive Man. Miranda, Jacob, if you can't accept that, or you want to return to Cerberus, that's up to you. We can drop you off wherever you want."
"Nah, I'm done," Jacob said. "After the shit the Illusive Man pulled on that Collector Ship, and then wanting to keep that base, I'm done."
"I agree," Miranda nodded. "I can't continue to work for an organization that would use what the Collectors did."
Shepard nodded. "Alright. Then I suppose it's time to decide where everyone's going to go from here. Earlier in the mission, when I left for a mission on my own, I went to the Aratoht System to investigate claims of the Reapers' arrival. I stopped it, but at the cost of blowing up the Batarians' Mass Relay and killing everyone in the system. I'm going to turn myself in to the Alliance and face whatever punishment they deem fit. You all should decide where you go. Dismissed."
He turned and walked away. David sighed, leaning his head against Jack's and she tightened her arms around him.
"I suppose that's it then," David said. "Our job's done."
"I guess so," Jack said. "So. What now?"
"I believe I remember agreeing to a beach," David said.
Jack laughed, nodding. "Sounds familiar."
He smiled, kissing the top of her head, and she curled into him tighter, closing her eyes.
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