Strong, sharp fingers wrapped themselves around Liara's throat from behind, choking off her yell of surprise into a raspy gag. She immediately dropped the small relic in her hands and grabbed desperately at the hands squeezing her throat as the harsh chuckle of another vorcha barked out behind her, its rancid breath warming the back of her neck.
Liara thrashed side-to-side, trying to wriggle out of its grip as the pulsing pain of air deprivation began to set in. Instinctively, she tried to suck in a gasp of air to no avail, instead softly wheezing at a fresh spike of pain as she fell to one knee. Her vision began to gray on the edges as the hands choking her tightened, scraping her skin with the edges of chipped talons. Looking around frantically for any escape, Liara felt a dull fog begin to set over her as thinking became more and more difficult. Another surge of pain washed through her as she dimly realized she had only seconds left before she passed out.
Spurred by this sudden realization, Liara desperately grabbed at the fingers on her neck once again, scrabbling for any purchase. Managing to latch on to a single, knobbly digit, she wrenched it backwards as hard as she could, pulling with all of the desperate strength she could muster. Slowly bending away from her throat, the finger began to give way until with a sharp crack the vorcha released her, howling in pain. Falling to her knees, Liara sucked in as much air as she could between the choked coughs racking her body as she massaged her tender neck with one hand. Still coughing roughly, Liara brought one foot up beneath her and turned to look over her shoulder just in time to see the vorcha wildly swing it's uninjured hand towards her in an open slap.
The blow caught her on the side of the jaw, talons slicing open a groove in her cheek and sending her spinning back onto the ground. Her back slammed into the ground as Liara's head bounced off of the rock floor, momentarily dazing her as another choked scream ripped out of her. Blearily looking up, Liara squinted to see two copies of the vorcha hovering around each other as her eyes struggled to focus. Digging her heels into the stone beneath her, she began scooting away from it as quickly as possible while rubbing her eyes with one hand, trying to dispel the numbness in her mind and ringing in her aural cavities.
Suddenly, her back ran into a plate of something smooth and strangely cool, and looking up Liara found herself pushed up against one of the four Prothean sculptures in the center of the room. Still struggling to take any sort of substantial breath, Liara looked back down to see her assailant crouched several feet away, cradling its right hand close to its chest. One finger on its right hand was now hyperextended backwards at a horrible angle, and the vorcha whimpered in pain as it gently grabbed the digit. A keening wail filled the room as with a sickening crunch, it wrenched its finger back into place, and Liara covered her mouth as a sudden wave of nausea swept over her at the sight.
Another painful cough broke out of her, and at the noise the vorcha snapped its gaze up towards her, beady eyes now practically glowing with pure malice. The vorcha immediately broke out on all fours into a run, screaming incomprehensible gibberish at her as in a single leap it dove towards Liara with its talons outstretched.
Unable to move out of the way, Liara felt energy surge to her fingertips without even thinking. She raised up a hand to meet the incoming claws, and a blast of blue light filled the chamber as the vorcha rocketed backwards and up into the stone ceiling with a wet crunch, before it slowly fell back to the ground with a thump.
Hand still raised and tingling with biotic energy, Liara quickly looked around the rest of the chamber, only to find herself alone once again. She leaned her head back to rest tiredly on the sculpture behind her, sighing as she rubbed at the scrapes on her neck. Attempting to readjust herself, a sudden deep sense of fatigue made itself known as Liara's muscles screamed in protest at the sudden movement. Groaning softly, she took a deep breath and shook her head once to clear her mind in preparation.
In one swift movement, Liara picked herself up off of the ground, grinding her teeth together as her overexerted muscles shrieked in protest. Stiffly walking back to where she had dropped the Prothean artifact, she gingerly picked it up and flipped it over in her hands to check for any new damage. As she turned it around in her fingers, the metallic surface of it reflected back without so much as a scrape on the surface, much to Liara's relief. Huffing out a soft, "Thank the Goddess," she ran one hand across the length of the metallic flame before grasping the delicate chain attached to the base, choosing after a moment of deliberation to hang the relic around her neck.
A rasping howl broke the silence of the room, causing Liara to flip back towards the hole in the ceiling her attacker had emerged from. A second voice responded to the first in a series of short barks, followed quickly by yet another voice as the cacophony of vorcha began to increase in volume. Feeling her breaths quicken as her pulse started to pound, Liara slowly backed away, eyes riveted to the ceiling as biotic whisps began to raise up off of her arms.
Just as she began to think that maybe she should have spent her time looking for an exit rather than photographing archaeological finds, a small deluge of pebbles and dust dropped from the ceiling as yet another feral vorcha dropped into the room, followed only seconds later by two others as they fell nearly on top of each other. With no time to hide or flee, Liara instead began charging her biotics in the seconds before they saw her. Moments later, three sets of angry red eyes turned her way, and alarmingly fast all three began tearing towards her with spittle flying from their mouths and talons outstretched. Closing her eyes, Liara brought her hands up together in front of her chest, focusing on the rush of power building within her, before with a cry she thrust her hands out in front of her.
A punch of bass filled the air, quickly followed by three separate dull impacts and indignant squeals of pain. Opening her eyes, Liara found herself inside a small dome of blue, flickering energy about five feet in diameter. On the other side of her barrier, the three vorcha howled and screeched, slapping and raking their claws against it over and over. Liara grunted as the strain began to build, and to her dismay the barrier shrunk a couple inches inward before she stretched her arms out once again to reinforce it.
A bead of sweat began to drip down her forehead as the onslaught continued, the vorcha savagely beating down on this thin blue shield between them and their prey. While she considered herself a talented biotic in her own right, Liara found herself discovering that projecting a barrier at full strength was a much different affair than trying to hold off several bloodlusted vorcha while in her last sputtering dregs of stamina.
A particularly strong two-handed blow from the largest of the three shattered her brief introspection, and to her horror the barrier flickered, then collapsed completely. Sensing weakness, the vorcha raced forwards only to run face first into a second barrier, this one barely large enough to encompass Liara's outstretched arms. A wet sensation began to grow on her face as blood dripped from her wound, and her splitting headache from earlier returned with a vengeance. Stamina pushed absolutely to her limit, Liara found her arms beginning to shake with effort as the tips of her fingers began to go numb. Talons only inches away from her face now, the vorcha began to cackle darkly. A brief flare of disdain punched through the haze of pain and effort fogging Liara's mind as she realized that she was about to be torn apart by three particularly stupid vorcha. At least she wouldn't be alive to see how her mother would never let her live it down.
From off to her right, a husky voice yelled, "Open fire!" The chatter of gunfire filled the room, causing her ears to ring as a deafening hail of bullets echoed around the stone walls. The three vorcha were lifted completely off their feet, carapaces bursting open as the rounds tore through them and hurtled them away from Liara to land unmoving on the ground in a a second later, Liara's barrier finally gave out, energy dissipating around her as she collapsed onto her knees with a grunt. Unable to muster the strength to keep herself upright, Liara began to tip over onto her side as her vision flickered.
"Woah there, doc, stay with me." A pair of strong hands gripped Liara's shoulders, holding her upright. Blearily looking upwards, all Liara could make out through the haze of exhaustion was a blotchy shape that probably resembled a person if you squinted a bit. The voice from before continued, "Let's get you patched up a little, huh?"
The hand on her left shoulder vanished, only to reappear a moment later on her forehead as a smear of cold medigel was swiped across her brow. The ringing in her ears immediately began to fade away, followed by her retreating headache as the fog around her finally began to lift. The hand gently turned her chin to the side before it came to rest on her cheek, gently cupping her face before applying another dose of medicine. The dull pain that Liara hadn't even noticed quickly disappeared, and as her faculties returned to her Liara blinked the last of the pain away as she finally looked up towards her rescuer.
Squatted in front of her with one hand still gently cupping her face was the most striking human Liara had ever seen. Her eyes immediately jumped to a short crop of windswept dark hair, shaved on the sides and casually brushed over to one side. Eyes trailing downward, she was met with a face of light brown skin framed by a strong jaw and an arched nose. Her lips, downturned in concentration, were marked with a single scar on the left of the top lip, and looking up she saw a matching slash through her left eyebrow.
The woman blinked, and suddenly Liara found herself staring directly into the eyes of her savior. Rich brown, almost golden eyes met her gaze unflinchingly, and like a switch had been flipped Liara found herself pinned by a suddenly overwhelming, almost predatory presence. The woman stared back at Liara for a second, then two, gaze moving from eye to eye as she seemed to evaluate her. Eye contact never wavering, the woman tilted her head to one side as she began to speak in the husky voice from before. "Doctor T'soni, right?"
Suddenly unable to speak, Liara nodded dumbly. The woman blinked again, lips slowly curling into a lopsided grin as she finally shifted, pulling her hand back as she stood. Face feeling suddenly cold, Liara looked up towards the woman as she extended a hand down towards her. "We're The Shepherds, and we're gonna get you out of here."
Liara swallowed thickly, wincing as her throat twinged with pain. The woman above her arched a brow quizzically, and with a flash of embarrassment Liara realized she was just staring up at her. Feeling a flush begin to build in her cheeks, she quickly reached up to grab the woman's hand. The woman smiled again before, in a single yank, she hauled Liara up to her feet with one hand. Surprised at the mercenary's sudden strength, Liara stumbled forwards into her. The woman immediately stepped forwards and grabbed her shoulders to brace her, and once again Liara found herself held up effortlessly by this human. Looking down, Liara's eyes widened as she realized the woman was sleeveless, only wearing what looked like an armored vest over an athletic shirt and some cargo pants. This revealed two very well-muscled arms, which as Liara watched flexed subtly underneath her weight. She swallowed again, throat suddenly very parched as her face burned even warmer.
Finding her footing, Liara quickly stepped back out of the woman's grasp. "Thank you for your assistance." She coughed again, frowning at the hoarseness of her voice. "You arrived just in time to save me from becoming vorcha food, I think."
The woman crossed her arms with a reassuring smile. "Don't mention it Doctor, we're just happy to help." She turned to look past Liara's shoulder, grin fading away to be replaced by a focused frown. "Tali, what do we got?"
Turning around to follow her gaze, Liara noticed for the first time the two other figures in the room with her. Standing directly underneath the hole in the ceiling was an imposing turian, clan markings marred by several scars and holding a large rifle in his hands. On the other side of the room, a quarian in a purple envirosuit had an omni-tool out as she jumped from scanning the Prothean sculptures and the three corpses lying on the floor. The quarian, presumably Tali, looked up towards them. "Well these metal sculpture things are projecting a weak mass effect field, probably intended to hold up something between them."
Liara absentmindedly grasped for the artifact hanging from her neck as the human woman sighed. "I meant more like is there anything we should know about these guys," as she nudged one of the vorcha with a booted foot.
"Ah. Right." Tali scanned over the three corpses again, carefully stepping around the blood beginning to pool on the ground. Suddenly stopping, Liara heard her softly mumble, "Keelah…" as she slowly began to back away from the bodies.
Stepping away from Liara, the human walked over to stand next to Tali with a worried expression. Looking up as she approached, Tali deactivated her omni-tool and turned towards her. "Shepard, something is very wrong with these vorcha." Shepard motioned for her to continue, and a tense breath filtered through the envirosuit speakers. "I mean I'm an engineer, not a doctor, but even I can tell that vorcha aren't supposed to have vitals like this."
Intrigued by this new topic, Liara started to drift towards them as Shepard nodded. Tali pointed towards the dead vorcha as she continued, "You'd have to get someone else for a real analysis, but even with an omni-tool you barely pick up any sort of brain activity at all."
"They were rather animalistic compared to other vorcha I've encountered." Tali and Shepard turned to look at Liara, who felt her cheeks warm once again at the attention. "They've been chasing me for hours now, but I'm not sure that they even know how to speak."
Tali turned back towards Shepard. "It doesn't make any sense, it's not like someone could have forced them to do this to themselves. Why would they choose to turn into this?"
Before Shepard could answer, another guttural shriek echoed through the cavern, quickly followed by several answering howls. Liara felt her skin begin to crawl with dread as her heart began to thump against her chest, and as she watched the turian guarding the hole in the ceiling chambered a fresh thermal clip as he turned over his shoulder. "Shepard, I'm pretty sure it's about to get pretty crowded in here."
Without hesitating, Shepard drew a large shotgun from her back. "Alright people, that's our cue to leave!" Tali immediately drew her own shotgun and moved over towards the turian while Shepard turned towards Liara. Meeting her eyes, Liara once again found herself pinned beneath the human's searingly intense gaze. "You ever shot a gun before, T'Soni?"
Liara blinked as distant memories of a rough voice preaching the value of self-defense lessons as part of a growing child's curriculum began to surface. "Once or twice, perhaps."
Shepard nodded to herself, continuing to stare with a contemplative gleam in her eye. A second later, she shifted her shoulders and lifted her shotgun up with one hand as she apparently made her decision. In one swift movement, she drew the large pistol holstered on her hip before holding it out towards Liara grip first. "You should probably take this, just in case."
Brow furrowing apprehensively, Liara gingerly reached out and wrapped her fingers around the weapon, nearly dropping it to the floor at the sudden weight in her hands as Shepard removed her hand. Dismayed with how uncomfortable it felt in her hands, Liara looked back up towards Shepard. "I do not think I will be much help with this."
Shepard barked out a short laugh before slapping Liara on the arm, nearly hard enough to knock her off balance. "You just might be surprised." Motioning for Liara to follow, she turned over her shoulder and started quickly moving towards the hallway exiting out of the chamber. Still holding the pistol out away from her body like it might attack her, Liara quickly jogged forwards to catch up.
Shepard led the group out of the room, taking her customary place at the front of the pack. Keeping her eyes up for trouble, she pumped the slide on her shotgun once to chamber a new round before looking back over her shoulder. Behind her, Tali was sticking directly to the doctor's side, her own shotgun up and ready for trouble. Bringing up the rear was Garrus, rifle trained on the hallway behind them.
Gaze briefly flicking back towards the asari doctor, Shepard furrowed as she ran a critical eye over her. Her face and hands were both covered with various scrapes and bruises, and a concerning dark purple line was beginning to form around her throat. Further down, one shoulder sported a large gash in the shoulder, and around the spot a large purple stain had begun to spread.
The doctor stumbled suddenly as her foot caught on a rock, and in an instant Shepard was at her side to stop her from falling over as she muttered, "Stay with me, doc." She shifted her shotgun into one hand and grabbed the asari's injured arm with the other, propping her up as she regained her footing. On her other side, Tali quickly moved forwards to take the lead position as the group began to move forwards through the twisting stone hallways once more.
They moved quickly around tight corners and thin hallways, occasionally moving through more blue-lit chambers as the mineshaft punctured into another ancient Prothean room. Behind them, another harsh screech echoed through the air every couple seconds, and Shepard felt her jaw begin to clench in anticipation as each new vorcha cry began to sound closer and closer. She broke out into a light jog once again, urging forwards the rest of the group as they worked to stay ahead of the approaching screams.
To her right, the doctor coughed roughly with a wince as she turned towards Shepard. "You know," she began, voice bouncing as she ran, "I don't believe I ever caught your name."
Shepard swept her shotgun over a side passage dumping out into their hallway to check for any creeping vorcha before turning back to her right. Giving a brief two finger salute, she replied, "Shepard, at your service."
The doctor managed a strained grin as she responded, "Liara T'Soni, at yours." She paused, then furrowed her brow with a perplexed expression. "Wait, so you're Shepard and your mercenary company is named The Shepherds?"
From behind them, Garrus' two-toned voice piped up as he helpfully interjected, "Technically, they're spelled differently."
Without turning around or slowing her pace, Tali shouted back, "Shepard's name is actually spelled wrong if you look up the word in human."
Shepard sighed in exasperation, feeling the beginnings of a headache start to build. Looking back towards Liara, she saw the doctor looked halfway torn between confusion and laughter. "The rest of the crew thought it would be funny, so I was overruled when we chose a name. Also," she continued as she redirected her shout towards her traitorous teammates, "it's not spelled wrong if it's a name, I've literally told you all this before."
Her crew chuckled mischievously as they rounded another turn to find themselves facing a familiar shattered hallway with a pulverized boulder sitting in the middle. Tali, still at the front, slipped past the boulder first, holding her gun up in the air as she clambered one-handed past the broken stone to avoid banging it on anything. Shepard followed quickly behind her, leaping past the remnants of the stone before turning around to hold her hand out towards Liara. "Here, the footing's a little tricky."
Liara came to a stop before the boulder, taking in the collateral damage reflected in the blown-out hallway, before she gracefully lept directly on top of the boulder and off the far side in two smooth movements. Landing in the tunnel behind the rubble with a huff, she brushed off a bit of dust before standing back up in front of Shepard, who's brows had started to migrate towards her hairline. Awkwardly rubbing one arm, Liara turned away to look down the hall, at which point she stopped in place. "Was one of you injured earlier?"
Turning to follow her gaze, Shepard frowned and replied, "No, we're all fine- oh." On one wall of the tunnel, a humanoid silhouette of someone with their arms and legs comically splayed out had been blasted through the wall. Farther into the tunnel, Tali began snickering as Shepard's headache intensified at the memory of malicious mine fungus. "It's a long story, just uh, maybe be careful with biotics around the local flora."
Liara tilted her head in confusion, but before she could say anything the tunnel rang with the sound of gunfire. Snapping her gaze back behind them, Shepard saw Garrus crouched on top of the pile of rubble, assault rifle firing in short bursts. Climbing completely over the ruined boulder, Garrus shouted, "Shepard, we got company!" Shepard leaned past him to look for herself, only to find a small horde of rabid vorcha charging her, all screaming angrily and thrashing around to squeeze past each other. Garrus emptied the rest of his magazine into the crowd as Shepard started firing her shotgun towards the closest targets, blowing several of the closest completely off their feet with pained screeches.
Pulling her fist back, Shepard felt biotic energy surge through her chest as she punched forwards, blasting the frontline of the horde back. More groans and grunts filled the air as the vorcha began to pile up on each other, desperately flailing as they were trampled underfoot by the horde behind them. Turning away, Shepard started sprinting down the tunnel, waving the rest of her team forwards and shouting, "Go go go!"
The rest broke out into a flat run, racing through abandoned tunnels as the sounds of raging vorcha continued to approach. Risking a look over her shoulder, Shepard blanched as only a hundred or so feet behind them a rolling wave of vorcha rolled around a corner, slamming the lead creatures into a wall behind their collective momentum. Redoubling her efforts, she slammed her boots into the stone and took short breaths through her nose as the burn of sprinting long distances began to prickle in her calves.
Skidding around one final turn, Shepard pushed Liara forwards as they emerged back out into the main body of the mine, the abandoned minecarts only fifty feet in front of them. Shepard motioned towards them, yelling "Tali, Liara, get those carts started! Garrus, help me lay out the welcome mat!"
Tali and Liara blew past her as Shepard started to slow, with Tali climbing into one empty cart and Liara effortlessly vaulting into the other. Each quickly moved over towards the control panel, and the metallic coughing of old machinery spinning up began to echo around the mine. Without stopping, Shepard turned on one foot, now quickly walking backwards as she slammed a fresh thermal clip into her weapon. Rolling her shoulders back to ease the tension building there, she looked over to Garrus as he took his place to her right, rifle raised and primed to fire. The cacophony of raging vorcha continued to build, and as Shepard raised her own gun she allowed a predatory grin to break out across her face. "Same rules as last time, Vakarian?"
They both took another step backwards as a small explosion echoed out behind them, followed by Tali loudly cursing in Khelish. Garrus reached forwards, making minute calibrations to the scope on his rifle as he rattled off, "One kill is one point, explosions don't count, and winner buys at the next bar." He paused, then made another adjustment. "Or I can give you my order now, just to save time."
Shepard's eyes snapped forwards as she spied motion in the shadowy tunnel fifty feet in front of her. Feeling energy flow out across her shoulders as biotic whisps started burning around her, Shepard let out a low chuckle, muttering, "Cocky bastard."
The vorcha horde broke out into the mine like a tidal wave, releasing dozens upon dozens of the insectoid creatures into the space before them. Without hesitation, Shepard opened fire, dull punches of her shotgun punctuating the constant stream of bullets Garrus let fly. The front line of vorcha were immediately scythed down in a cloud of shattered chiton, tripping up those following immediately behind as the pair unloaded into them as well. Shepard's aim constantly changed, using her shotgun to mulch any vorcha that got too close while Garrus fired off precise bursts into the wall of enemies before them.
In seconds, Shepard's clip ran dry as she fired into the mob running her down. Rather than waste time reloading, she flipped the shotgun onto her back and slammed her fists together as she engulfed herself in biotic power. Directly ahead now, three vorcha seized the opening in gunfire and sprinted forwards, jaws open and dripping with spittle as they collapsed on her. Letting out a fierce cry, Shepard charged forwards as her biotics surged with power, slamming into the middle vorcha with a satisfying crunch. She immediately lunged to her right, slamming her fist through the chest of one with a burst of blue light before ducking backwards once more. A puff of wind gently brushed her face as claws slashed through where she had been a moment before, the remaining vorcha tumbling past her. Not allowing it to recover, Shepard dashed forwards, leaping into the air with both hands raised above her before slamming down and detonating the corona of energy around her in a nova that shook the floor.
The shockwave obliterated the vorcha below her, as well as several others that had begun to approach. Standing back up in the brief lull, Shepard whipped her shotgun back out and slapped another thermal clip into it as she backpedalled furiously. To her right, she saw Garrus reach into a compartment on his armor before tossing a device out into the crowd, which promptly detonated into a plume of fire that sent bodies flying in all directions.
Suddenly, the roar of engines filled the mine, and risking a look behind her Shepard saw both minecarts slowly starting to pull forwards. Tali started furiously waving towards her, and in the other cart Liara raised her hands to yell, "Shepard, come on!"
Turning on her heel, Shepard dodged a particularly brave vorcha as it dove towards her. Sprinting away from the jaws quite literally nipping at her heels, Shepard fired off several wild shots as she shouted, "Garrus, get your bony ass out of there!"
A shot rang out, whizzing narrowly past her head, and instinctively Shepard ducked as she ran. A moment later, a second shot followed, and directly behind her Shepard heard a vorcha gurgle in pain as it fell to the ground. Looking to her left, she saw Garrus parallel to her as they sprinted towards the minecarts, now starting to move away from them with speed that increased by the second. Breathing heavily, Shepard dug deep and surged forwards in a desperate sprint, dashing across the last distance between her and the cart before leaping forwards. Soaring through the air for a brief moment, she slammed into the rim of the cart, groaning in pain as the metal edge caught her in the stomach. Feeling her boots bounce off of the tracks zooming past underneath her, she heaved herself forwards, rolling awkwardly over the edge and onto the floor of the cart.
Sitting up as soon as she caught her breath, she found Liara standing over her, pistol raised and firing shot after shot into the horde behind them. She stood with a grunt, briefly checking her shotgun to confirm it hadn't been damaged before looking across the tracks to the other minecart. Across the way, she saw Garrus kneeling in the cart, popping off shots every few seconds to deliver bullet after bullet to each unfortunate vorcha that approached him. Behind him, Tali had activated her omni-tool, and with a few button presses a large combat drone materialized in front of her, beeping happily before it turned to fire off its own weapons.
Looking back towards the crowd chasing her own minecart, Shepard was dismayed to see that not only were the vorcha keeping pace with their cart, but they were starting to gain on it. Liara fired off three more shots, managing to hit one in the leg and topplie it over, as she shouted over to Shepard, "You'd think the miners here would have invested in transport that's faster than running."
Firing off several shots of her own, Shepard yelled back over the sounds of gunfire, "Yeah well I don't think they were counting on outrunning rabid vorcha when they built this place."
Liara's next shot clipped a vorcha on the shoulder, unbalancing it and causing it to run face first into one of the wooden supports built into the mine. The sound of creaking wood filled the air, and with a crash an entire wooden walkway smashed into the tracks behind them, flattening a good ten of the creatures. She turned to Shepard with a shaky grin. "It seems that you may be right."
Sensing a brief break in the fighting, Shepard cocked her shotgun before nudging Liara gently with her elbow. "Hey, seems like you're not terrible with a gun after all, huh?"
Liara rolled her eyes, lifting the pistol with a disdainful expression. "Well the kick from my first shot knocked it completely out of my hands, so I'm not so sure."
Chuckling, Shepard turned to inspect the cart controls, ensuring that no crashes were imminent. Just as she started to muse about possible ways to increase speed, Tali's voice rang out from her left as she shouted, "Shepard, look out!"
Whipping around, Shepard was slammed into the back of the cart as something sharp and heavy plowed into her. Wincing, she looked up to find two vorcha now clinging to the side of their cart, with a third picking itself up off the floor with a snarl as it turned towards Liara. Across the way, Shepard saw that the pack of vorcha had almost completely caught up to Garrus and Tali's cart, and that some of the stragglers were starting to peel over to their side.
Shepard, adrenaline spiking and heart rate jumping, immediately blasted two shots into the vorcha in front of her, killing it instantly and punching a fist sized hole through the floor of the cart. Muttering a casual, "Oops," to herself, she raised her weapon to fire only for her target to be completely blown off of the cart in a pulse of biotic power, sailing through the air before it slammed into a nearby stalactite with a crunch. In front of her, Liara glowed with blue energy as she turned towards the last vorcha, hands raised and crackling with power.
Sensing its untimely demise, the last vorcha lunged forwards, wildly swinging an open palm into Liara's chest before she could react. The force of the blow sent her staggering back into Shepard, who was forced to drop her shotgun to catch Liara before she flew backwards out of the cart. With a heave, she righted Liara just in time to see the vorcha leap up off of the rim of the minecart, landing heavily on a wooden catwalk as they passed underneath it.
Shrugging at the creature's sudden retreat, Shepard turned instead to Liara to see her frantically raising her pistol before firing blindly upwards towards the escaping vorcha. Ducking out of the way of her wild shots, Shepard forced the pistol down, exclaiming, "Shit, doc, calm down."
Liara whirled on her, eyes blown wide in panic. Gesturing frantically towards the vorcha, which now was running parallel to them on its catwalk, she yelled, "It stole the artifact!"
Frowning, Shepard looked back up to see the vorcha glaring directly at her with its beady little eyes. Squinting, she realized that one of its hands was clutched to its chest, and held there seemed to be some sort of small metal sculpture. Turning back to Liara, she shrugged. "I don't think there's much that we can do about that one."
Liara, however, wasn't even looking at her anymore, instead staring at something farther down the tracks. Suddenly, she furrowed her brows in concentration and turned her gaze to Shepard. "Boost me up."
"What?" Leaning past Liara, Shepard saw that the wave of approaching vorcha was once again starting to draw near. "Where would you even-"
Starting to run towards her, Liara cut her off. "Now!"
Instinctively sinking into a crouch with a panicked, "Oh shit," Shepard clasped her hands together just as Liara lept towards her, catching one boot in her palms before flinging her upwards as hard as she could. Liara soared through the air, arms spread wide to balance herself, and just as she reached the top of her leap another catwalk swept underneath her as she landed in a run. Pinwheeling her arms, she leaned dangerously to one side as the boards beneath her groaned loudly, causing Shepard to wince in alarm. Before she could react, Liara lept again, soaring across an empty chasm before her to land firmly on another catwalk across the tracks, now sprinting with her pistol in hand as Shepard trundled along below.
"Jesus Christ, she's insane." Balling one hand into a fist that sparked with energy, Shepard whirled around to unleash a rolling shockwave into the mass of vorcha now directly behind the cart. Bodies flew flailing into the air as the vorcha all tripped over each other, allowing Shepard to turn back to desperately try to keep track of Liara above her.
Shepard's heart seized as the scientist reappeared mid flight, once again leaping from catwalk to walkway. Apparently unconcerned with the prospect of falling onto the tracks, Liara lept from platform to platform, finding footholds that Shepard never would have imagined and bouncing between crumbling wood and stone outcroppings while somehow maintaining speed.
Ahead of her, the vorcha clutching the sculpture ran like its life depended on it, clinging to the stone wall of the mine and scrabbling forwards as quickly as it could. Cracks rang out through the mine as Liara raised her pistol and started firing potshots in between leaps. Several glanced off the stone only feet away from the vorcha before ricocheting off into the dark, but none found their mark as the vorcha continued to scramble away.
Liara herself seemed to be losing steam as the gap between her and her quarry slowly widened, accentuated by the occasional stumble or near-miss as she continued to clamber across the ancient mine. The vorcha, seemingly realizing the inevitability of its escape, started to chuckle in a raspy voice as it leapt off of one stone wall towards another walkway across the mineshaft.
Suddenly, in a flash of blue-white light, the vorcha froze in midair, sculpture dangling from its grip precariously. Looking around, Shepard spotted Liara stumbling forwards with one glowing hand outstretched towards it, before she suddenly turned and yelled, "Shepard!"
Realizing the vorcha was far too far away for her to hit it with a shotgun, she turned across the mine towards Garrus and Tali as they fended off another wave. "Garrus!" The turian immediately snapped his gaze over to see Shepard point up towards the vorcha, still frozen in stasis. "Take the shot!"
Shepard watched as Garrus moved without hesitation, raising his rifle up over Tali's head, taking a single heartbeat to line up the shot, before pulling the trigger with a loud crack! The shot punched directly through the vorcha, dispelling the stasis field as the creature began to fall limply to the floor, sculpture slipping out of its fingers.
A raw "No!" split the air, and Shepard's heart jumped into her mouth as Liara dove without hesitation off of her platform, arms outstretched. Time seemed to slow as she fell through the air, fingers stretched out desperately towards the glimmering piece of metal. With no time to think, Shepard moved on pure reaction, biotic charge building up around her before she even realized what was happening. Vision tunneling in on the sight of Liara just beginning to fall directly towards the tracks below, Shepard stepped one foot up onto the rim of her cart, slung her shotgun onto her back, and charged forwards.
Propelled at impossible speeds, Shepard slammed into Liara midair with a grunt, propelling them both diagonally towards the tracks on the left side of the mine. For a brief moment, Shepard's momentum carried them both, until suddenly her stomach dropped out as gravity reasserted itself and plunged them both towards the tracks rushing past below. Shepard squeezed her eyes shut in anticipation as she tried to rotate midair to place herself below Liara as a cushion.
Suddenly, a flicker of movement appeared below them, and just before they slammed into the wood tracks below the second minecart appeared below them. The pair slammed into the metal floor with a thud, knocking Tali into the side of the cart and nearly flattening Garrus. Groaning, Shepard rolled Liara off of her before sitting up, rubbing her lower back once before pulling herself upright. To her right, Garrus picked himself up off of the floor as he yelled over the rush of air, "Nice of you to drop by."
Ignoring him, Shepard quickly kneeled next to Liara as she sat up against the minecart wall with a soft moan of pain. Brow furrowed, she placed a hand onto her shoulder as she quickly inspected her for injury. When she found no obvious fractures or cuts, she patted Liara firmly on the shoulder once as she yelled, "You alright?"
Liara coughed once, groaning again as she shifted to sit straighter. Suddenly, she froze, before breaking out into a smile and holding up the small sculpted piece of metal in front of her, clutched tightly with both hands. "I feel excellent, Shepard."
Looking back towards Shepard, her smile faded as she tilted her head to the side with a frown. Leaning to the side, she looked out towards the now empty cart on the far side of the tracks, and as she puzzled together what had happened her mouth dropped open in shock. "Shepard, what if you had missed?"
Shepard grinned as she stood, quickly rolling her shoulders back in a stretch as she bounced on the balls of her feet. "I try not to."
Turning back towards the rear of the cart, Shepard drew her shotgun and moved to join Garrus as he continued to lay down suppressing fire. Targeting those closest to her, Shepard mowed down several rabid vorcha, clearing enough space for Tali's drone to move in and start firing rockets into the largest pockets of enemies. Smoke and fire began to fill the mine as explosion after explosion killed scores of vorcha at once, and behind her Tali started to laugh victoriously as the space between them and their pursuers grew.
The sound of wood creaking filled the air, and Shepard watched as a catwalk directly above one explosion collapsed in a pile of shattered boards and metal. Feeling an idea start to form, Shepard closely followed the trajectory of the next missile, which soared through the air to shatter a large stalactite, raining chunks of stone down upon wailing vorcha. A wicked grin started to spread out across Shepard's face, and she quickly turned to face Tali as she yelled, "Can you make it do that again?"
"What?" Tali briefly turned to look at her, hands still rapidly moving across her omni-tool to control the drone. Shepard pointed towards the pile of rubble receding behind them, and as Tali looked up a worryingly evil chuckle began to filter through her mask. "Oh, I absolutely can do that again."
Beside Shepard, Garrus lowered his rifle as he grumbled, "I hate it when you give her ideas."
The sound of rock exploding filled the air, and Shepard turned to see another slide of rubble collapse behind them, closely followed by several ruined walkways all piling on top of each other as Tali's drone methodically fired missile after missile into any structural weaknesses it could find. In less than a minute, the mine behind them was completely swept away by piles of rubble and ancient debris, and any vorcha still chasing the group were quickly crushed or swept away by the wave of debris.
A final, wailing cry echoed through the air as the minecarts zoomed away, shooting out of the cloud of dust now filling the air. Coughing and waving a hand in front of her to clear the air, Shepard stowed her shotgun before clapping Garrus on the shoulder. "Make sure no stragglers come after us, yeah?" Nodding sharply, Garrus raised his rifle once again as Shepard turned back towards Liara as she still sat in the middle of the cart. "Still doing alright, T'Soni?"
"Yes, I believe I will be fine." With a grunt, she stood to her feet, massaging her bruised throat for a moment before leaning back and meeting Shepard's gaze with one brow raised. "I am curious, are all of your jobs this harrowing?"
To her side, Tali barked out a short laugh as Shepard grinned lazily. "Only the fun ones, doc."
Frowning quizzically, Liara tilted her head as she regarded Shepard, until after a moment she turned away and began inspecting her wounds. Satisfied that the immediate danger had passed, Shepard turned her gaze further down the tunnel, watching as their cart rolled ever closer towards the exit.
A second later, Shepard blinked and turned back towards Garrus. "Oh by the way, I'm allowed to count biotically enhanced hand-to-hand, right?"
Garrus paused, before turning back over his shoulder to face her. "I'm pretty sure the rule was as long as nothing explodes, then that still counts."
"Good to know." Shepard sniffed and rubbed her nose. "Oh, an unrelated note, my final count was forty-three."
Garrus stared at her, unmoving, as Shepard innocently inspected her fingernails. Several seconds later, she heard an exasperated, "Shit," before he turned back to face down the tunnel. Biting her lip to contain her grin, Shepard had just turned back towards the tunnel ahead when she heard, "I'm not buying you anything top shelf, so don't order anything fancy."
Shepard huffed out a laugh. "Wouldn't dream of it."
so i've discovered that either all my chapters are gonna be a lot longer than i thought or i'm gonna have way more chapters than i expected, so oops i guess? anyways hope you all enjoyed learning what cam shepard looks like bc i love her very much. honestly if you guys don't like it just feel free to imagine whatever shepard you want, or i guess if you really like it i can try to figure out how to attach a picture if that helps. also i'm having a lot of fun balancing liara's awkward me1 vibes with being incredibly capable and badass at the same time. also i love all of you who have commented, especially if you happen to comment on every chapter directly after i post it. you're the best. anyways my tumblr is still shebberd if anyone wants to talk to me about this, and i hope you guys enjoy!