Shepard sighed in exhaustion as she took her seat in the Kodiak, removing her helmet as she did so. She felt the shuttle turn, and she was pushed back against her seat as they accelerated into orbit, where they'd regroup with the Normandy. She gazed out of the viewport, and a small smile graced her lips.
The Collector ship was almost invisible, hidden as it was by a seemingly unending tide of drones, fighters, and other craft spewing forth from the Dreadnoughts bowels. From this distance, it didn't look like a threatening warship, it looked more like a bloated corpse being picked apart by voracious swarms of ravenous insects.
Shepard was drawn back to reality when she heard Miranda's voice crackle over the Kodiak's comms. "Commander, the Illusive Man would like to speak to you when you arrive."
Shepard's mood immediately nose dived. "I'll talk to him when I'm ready."
A brief pause, then. "Understood Commander."
Shepard removed her helmet as the Kodiak entered the Normandy's cargo bay, and waited as it repressurized, before she slid the door open and moved to the elevator, taking it up to the Captain's quarters for a much needed shower. She removed her armor, and placed it back inside her locker, breathing a sigh of relief as she felt the weight removed from her body, followed quickly by her clothes.
She stepped into the shower, and felt a brief shock as the cold water hit her bare skin, sending ripples through her nervous system, before it gradually began to warm up.
Shepard placed her hands against the wall and leaned forward, allowing the water to wash down her head and back as she began to contemplate her next move.
She considered putting off answering Jack Harper's comm purely out of spite, but decided that he probably did have a good reason to be calling, and she should see what he had to say. After that though, she was going to see what exactly Okeer was working on.
Shepard tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for Jack to take the cigar out of his mouth and tell her why he was calling. She waited for what felt like an eternity, to the point where she started to think he was purposefully dragging it out just to spite her for calling him by name.
She smirked, amused at the thought. Finally, he pulled the cigar from his lips, and exhaled a cloud of smoke. "Shepard, good work on Horizon. The end results of that confrontation are better than I could have hoped."
"If you're talking about the ship, I hate to break it to you, but Kara's not going to share anything she finds with you."
Jack gazed at her dismissively. "Kara knows what's at stake, perhaps you could convince her to see the bigger picture."
"She probably is thinking of the bigger picture. Now let's move onto why you called me."
Jack nodded. "We've dealt a serious blow to the Collectors, but we still don't know where they're located, so we can't hit them. Until Kara finds something, I'd recommend you continue building up your team. I've sent three more dossiers to your computer.'
"I'll get started now."
Shepard was about to head to the fourth deck where Okeer's tank was located, but decided she wanted some backup in case it turned out to be risky. She activated her omni-tool, and contacted Kara. "Can you meet me on Deck 4? I think it's time to see what Okeer was working on."
"I'll be right there Commander." Kara responded.
While she waited for Kara at the elevator, Shepard skimmed through the dossiers Jack Harper had sent her. Two of the recruits were on Illium, and Tali, the third, had been spotted heading to Haestrom. Shepard idly wondered what Tali was doing there, and if she'd even be able to join the Normandy considering her responsibilities to the Migrant Fleet.
Her gaze snapped upwards as she felt the floor tremble. "Hey, did you find anything on that ship yet?" Shepard asked as Kara came into view.
She shook her head. "No. As soon as they detected my ships enter the system, they began to purge their systems of any information we could use. So we still have no idea where they're operating from. The ship itself however is ours, and the technology we can glean from it should prove beneficial. I've already begun to have Collector weaponry analyzed, and we should be able to devise adaptations to their weapons soon"
Shepard nodded, at least their was some good news. "Won't that start a political nightmare though? Aren't people going to fight over what's left?"
"True. The vessel is within Human territory, but is not within the Alliance's borders. I believe it would be best for the Turians to "dissect" the ship after I'm through with it. Given their role in Council space, their military stands to gain the most from this boon."
Shepard chewed her lip as she thought about that. Tactically, it made sense. The Turians had the largest military in the galaxy. But even so… "Don't you think it should go to the Alliance?"
Kara had expected that from Shepard, and immediately countered. "It's true that all evidence seems to suggest the Reapers are targeting Humanity specifically, but the Alliance isn't in a position politically or militarily to take full advantage of this opportunity. They'd just be under pressure from the rest of the galaxy to share it."
Shepard nodded. It made sense, but it still felt wrong. Before they could continue their conversation, the elevator came to a halt, cutting it short. They turned left, and passed through the door, stopping when they reached the pod.
Shepard took a brief look behind her, and Kara nodded. She was ready.
Rocket was sitting in the cargo bay on fifth deck, cleaning his weapon, when his ears shot up and swiveled, his head following shortly after. He'd heard what sounded like thunder, and as he turned to look, he saw Kara crashing through the fourth deck, followed shortly by a Krogan.
"Flark!" He cursed as he raised his weapon. He fired off two shots, both impacting dead center on the Krogans' skull accomplishing nothing but two scorch marks on the stone like plating. The creature's blue eyes swiveled to look at him, and it snorted in amusement, before it began to advance on him. Rocket growled, but before he could do anything else, Kara's massive frame came into view as her fist, with the full force of her body behind it, slammed into the Krogan's jaw.
From where Rocket was standing, it felt like two freight trucks had slammed into each other mere feet from him. The Krogan was thrown backwards, sent crashing into crates behind him.
Kara snarled, and bared her fangs. Okeer's efforts seemed to have paid off. If she had punched anything else that hard, it would have simply exploded from the sheer force. All except another of her kind. The Krogan got back on his feet, and popped his jaw back into place, then laughed.
"You're strong." He chortled. "This'll be fun." He let out a savage roar, and charged.
Kara planted her right leg behind her, and crouched down, lowering her center of mass, just as the ball of rampaging muscle crashed into her. She slid backwards several feet, but stayed standing. Two titans of muscle stood locked together, each growling and snarling at the other as they fought for domination.
Kara hissed. He was as strong as she was, but she'd be damned if a krogan would outsmart her. She quickly took her right arm and wrapped it around the top of the Krogan's right arm, whilst simultaneously twisting her body. The Krogan's momentum carried him forward, and Kara's sudden maneuver sent him crashing to the ground, with her on top of him, pinning his arm. He struggled to get back on his feet, but Kara quickly adjusted her weight and force on his arm, keeping him pinned.
Kara felt a thud reverberate through the deck, and saw that Shepard had dropped through the hole that the Krogan had torn open when he tackled Kara. The Human walked past Rocket, who had his rifle trained on the Krogan, and knelt, so she could better look the stony creature in the eye.
The Krogan's reptilian eye swiveled, and stared at her. "Human, female."
"My name is Shepard. Okeer seemed to think you were important. Why is that?"
The Krogan's eye narrowed, almost as if the mention of Okeer aggravated him. "Okeer… In the tank, I heard a voice. It told me my purpose was to… Overcome, to survive."
"Overcome what?"
"The Genophage." He growled.
So that was what Okeer was up to. Shepard thought. It made sense. After all, why else would a Krogan warlord start experimenting with Krogan genetics. He was trying to find a way to circumvent the Genophage. And from the look of this thing, he succeeded.
"And what do you want?" Shepard asked.
The Krogan hesitated, then answered. "I want what all true Krogan want. To fight."
Shepard smirked. "Well then you're in luck. I need strong warriors on my side. Join my team, and I promise you'll get exactly what you want." Shepard nodded to Kara, who reluctantly released the Krogan, allowing him to stand.
Shepard gazed up at him, as he raised himself to his full height. He was larger than the average Krogan, nearly as large as Kara herself, and he stared down at her as he thought.
"Very well Shepard. I will help you. But if your enemies are not strong, I will have to kill you."
"You'd have to get through me first." Kara growled from behind him.
He turned, and smiled, making it clear he'd like a rematch. "Alright, whatta we call you?" Rocket asked, shouldering his rifle.
"I heard many names in the tank… Warlord, legacy, grunt… Grunt. That will do."
"You want us to call you Grunt?" Rocket asked. Grunt nodded, eliciting a snicker.
Joker was resting on the helm, trying to ignore the ever present feeling he was being watched, and how much EDI freaked him out when he heard footsteps behind him. He swiveled in his chair, and waved half heartedly as he saw Shepard come to a stop.
"Hey captain, where're we headed?"
"Haestrom. There are reports Tali was sighted there."
"Are you sure Commander? I mean Tali might, "might" not like the idea of having to work with more AI's."
"Have they been giving you trouble?" Shepard asked, referring to Serina and EDI.
"Well, Serina's weird. Talking to her doesn't feel any different than talking to anybody else, which is really creepy when you think about it, like you forget she's not just some girl, she's a hyper advanced "construct" that can vent the air on this ship whenever she feels like it. And you just know she's thought about it before."
"You're being paranoid." Shepard said, trying to ease Joker's nerves.
"Actually I have thought about it." Serina's voice chimed in, her holographic avatar appearing on a display next to them. She performed the "I've got my eyes on you" gesture, and the display quickly winked out.
"I assure you, will do everything in my power to protect this ships crew from any potential threats." EDI's decidedly less human voice chimed in.
"Hmph, and she calls me paranoid." Joker muttered under his breath as Shepard shook her head and turned to leave, headed up the elevator back to her quarters.
Kara received a notification to ready up nearly half an hour before they arrived at Haestrom, along with Jack, Grunt and Rocket.
As the squad assembled in the cargo bay, Kara approached Shepard as she stepped off the elevator. "Commander. Are you sure we should bring Grunt?"
"Do you have a problem with him?"
"Grunt seems to me to act more like a rabid animal than a warrior."
Shepard looked out of the corner of her eyes across the bay at Grunt, who was pacing impatiently as he waited for Kara and Shepard, clenching and unclenching his fists as he did. "Maybe, but I don't think it would be a good idea to sideline him so soon."
"That only supports my point."
"If something does go wrong, do you think you can take him?"
"If our previous conflict is any indication, yes."
"Then relax."
Kara simply huffed, and followed Shepard into the shuttle.
As the shuttle decelerated for a landing, Kara gazed out of the shuttle's window. She watched as a large, insect-like creature scuttled into the sunlight, only to spontaneously burst into flames mere seconds after exposure. Kara shifted her gaze to the array of stony structures in front of her as Serina brought up a brief summary of Haestrom's history. An old, abandoned Quarian colony, lost to the Geth after their rebellion following the Quarian's attempt to exterminate them.
Apparently the system was colonized to study the odd behavior of the star, nearly three hundred years ago. And from the readings the Normandy detected as it entered the system, the sun had deteriorated rapidly in that time. Which normally would have taken at least tens of millions of years, given its size.
Kara let loose a low growl, and looked away from the window as EDI spoke over the squad's comms. "Avoid the sunlight, the radiation will fry your shields."
"Copy EDI, thanks for the heads up. We're hitting the ground in five!" Shepard barked, and everyone readied up. As soon as the shuttle came to a stop, Shepard pulled the door open, and Kara and Jack burst out, and into covering positions as the rest of the squad followed. Kara swept her rifle across the empty structures, more as a way of reassuring her comrades than actually covering them.
For human soldiers, urban combat was one of the most dangerous situations to be in. Behind any doorway or window could be a potential hostile, requiring the soldiers to be in constant states of high alertness and stress. But in a city made of stone and metal like this, vibrations could carry for miles. And that was probably Kara's greatest asset, even more so than her augmentations: an unrivaled, borderline supernatural situational awareness.
As the team advanced, Kara moved calmly, almost relaxed, and Shepard picked up on it, somewhat relaxing herself. They ran quickly between pillars of shade created by the looming structures that surrounded them, their armors sensors pinging in protest as their shields were scrambled from the brief exposure.
They reached a closed gate, preventing them from progressing any further. Shepard paused, looking around for an alternative path, when Rocket shouted, catching her attention. "Hey! I can hear Tali on a computer in that building." He barked, pointing to the building on their right.
Shepard moved through the building's doorway as Kara took guard outside. She spotted the corpses of several Quarians, and winced, before heading to the terminal on the other side of the room. She activated the monitor, and Tali's "face" appeared on screen. "Shepard!" The woman yelped in surprise, before regaining her composure. "I'm glad you're here. This mission went wrong almost as soon as we got here… I had a team defending that position, are they…"
Shepard shook her head sadly. 'Damn it!" Tali hissed. "I locked the controls to that gate. Give me a second and I'll unlock it for you."
A pause, and then a device flashed green, indicating the gate controls were unlocked. "It worked. Where are you?"
The sound of gunfire began to echo through the terminal's speakers. "I'm inside the building the Geth are shooting at."
Shepard turned, and entered the command to open the gate, then looked back at the computer screen. "Hang on Tali, we're on our way."
More gunfire, followed by shouting. Tali's head snapped to face the direction the shouting came from, and then she shot Shepard a quick glance before leaving. "Make it quick."
Shepard shouldered her rifle, and gestured for her team to form up. "Tali and her people are getting shot up, let's give them a hand."
"With pleasure." Kara responded as she raised her own weapon.
Tali shut down the terminal, and bit back a flash of relief. It was good to see Shepard, but she wasn't here yet, and Tali's team wasn't going to last much longer if she didn't do something. She moved to join her squad outside, and fired her shotgun at a charging Geth prime, ripping through its shields and blowing a sizeable chunk of its torso apart.
Just like old times. She smirked to herself as the Geth collapsed. But her smile faded as the fallen was quickly replaced by dozens more. Tali ducked back behind cover as they opened fire. Tali felt something strike the hood covering her head, and she turned left, only to see the Quarian who had been standing there had taken a high caliber round through his mask, blowing his head open, and covering her in his brain matter.
She felt a pit in her stomach. The gunfire stopped, and she looked right, and opened her mouth to issue an order to fall back, but her words died in her throat as she saw only the corpses of her former squadmates.
Tali grit her teeth, and looked around, searching for some way to stall the Geth's advance, when her eyes halted on the doorway above her, and suddenly, she had a plan. She turned left, plucking a satchel charge from her fallen comrade, and armed it.
With a heavy breath to prepare herself, she burst forward. She saw her shields collapsing as the Geth fired on her, but she didn't slow down. She slammed the satchel charge on the pillar by the doorway, and entered the building, bullets flying past her as she did.
Just as the door closed, one final round cracked through her shields, and punched through her left shoulder. Her body was so full of adrenaline, she barely felt it as she triggered the detonator.
An explosion shook the world around her, and the sound of stone cracking filled the air as the pillar in front of the doorway collapsed, preventing the Geth from following her.
She didn't relax however, even as the adrenaline subsided. Instead, she locked the door and destroyed the door controls, one final obstacle for the Geth, and immediately began to treat her wounded shoulder. She applied medi-gel to the wound, wincing as she felt a horrid sting radiate through her arm as the anti-bacterial medicine started its work. The gel hardened, sealing the wound, protecting her from any risk of infection.
She fought to catch her breath, and turned to look back at the doorway. The Geth would get through eventually. She vented the buildup of heat in her weapons, and found the closest thing to suitable cover she could find inside the building.
She crouched, and uttered a silent prayer that Shepard would arrive in time.
Shepard leapt to the side as a missile cut through the air she'd occupied an instant ago, and felt her bones rattle as it detonated behind her. Jack retaliated by using her biotics against the Geth who fired the missile, pulling the machine effortlessly into the air, only to be blown apart by Grunt like it was nothing more than a mechanical skeet.
Shepard was about to push herself back onto her feet, when she felt something yank her straight into the air and set her back on her feet. She didn't bother looking to see who had picked her up. "Thanks." She said as she snapped her rifle upwards and fired a burst into a Geth trooper, ripping it apart.
Kara grunted behind her, and Shepard saw three balls of hissing plasma sail past her, burn through the shields of a Geth Destroyer, and melt its armor and circuits, killing it.
With the first batch of Geth taken care of, Shepard and her team advanced, taking care to remain in shade or cover as much as possible, so as to minimize their exposure to the scorching sunlight.
They reached the top of a ramp leading to a large structure at the apex of a wide, open area that was populated by a Platoon of Geth heavy infantry, which was supported by a Colossus. As Shepard's team approached, the rear guard of the Geth forces that had been lying in wait opened fire, and Shepard ducked back into cover with a curse as her shields collapsed. She felt several rounds impact her armor, and she felt a dull stabbing pain in her gut,
Kara placed a hand on Shepard's shoulder, and the two swapped places as Kara settled into a firing position by the corner. With Rocket atop her shoulder, and Jack behind her, the three of them began to return fire, killing several Geth troopers. Shepard's armor automatically applied medi-gel to the wounds, and she scanned the area while she waited for her shields to recharge. She saw a Quarian on the other side of the ramp, nearly 15 meters away.
Shepard was forced to turn her attention back to the Geth as she heard the sound of missiles shrieking through the air. But before any of the projectiles reached their targets, Jack reacted quickly, using her biotics to throw the missiles back towards the Geth positions, killing the weaker Geth troopers. "Get fucked!" She shouted in excitement as she watched the explosions.
Neither Jack nor Kara were able to capitalize on the opening however, as the Colossus swiveled, and opened fire with a hailstorm of heavy fire. Kara ducked back into cover as her shields were practically dissolved, and she yanked Jack back with her, while Rocket was nearly thrown from her shoulder from the sudden movement.
"Huddle up!" Shepard barked. Rocket hopped off Kara, and joined Jack and Grunt while they moved to Shepard's side. Kara remained near the corner, firing her rifle single handed while she kept the rest of her safe behind cover.
"Jack, hit them with a singularity. Rocket, you and I are going to cover her. When it's up Grunt, you're going to hit the infantry as hard as you can. Kara, use your missile launcher to take out the Colossus."
Everyone moved into position to follow the orders. Jack in front, with Rocket almost underfoot and Shepard behind, followed by Kara and Grunt. Jack waited for Shepard to give the word as she heard dozens of rounds sail past her head by mere inches. "Now!" Shepard roared.
Jack spun around the corner in a crouch, Shepard above her and Rocket below, each sending round after round that cracked into shields and melted through armor as Jack conjured the singularity into existence, yanking the remaining Geth infantry into the air.
Kara dashed out of the safety of the wall, and fired all six missiles inside the launcher at the Colossus. The machine reacted quickly, and destroyed two of the missiles mid-flight, the next two slammed into the Geths shields, shattering them.
The final two struck the target directly, one impacting the center of the platform's elongated "neck", the other striking it dead center in its flashlight head, practically decapitating it.
Grunt was a fraction of a second behind Kara, and with a thunderous laugh, he fired his rifle with rapturous glee, tearing apart the helpless bodies of the Geth with round after round until his rifle overheated. Grunt didn't even waste time holstering his rifle, he simply dropped it, and yanked his shotgun from its holster, and began to finish off the hapless survivors.
Shepard moved to join the Quarian while the rest of her team secured the area.
The Quarian, was adorned in an almost intricate array of red and black fabric that covered his suit. He shouldered his rifle as she approached, and dipped his head. "I don't know who you are, but that was some damn fine soldiering."
Shepard nodded in greeting. "I'm Commander Shepard. You are…?"
"Kal'Reegar, Quarian marines. We accompanied Tali'Zorah Vas'Neema here to protect her while she completed a mission for the Admiralty Board, but well… as you can see, things didn't go over so well."
Shepard looked the man up and down, and noticed a wound in this thigh. "You're hit."
"Hm? Oh that. Don't worry, the puncture's already sealed and I'm swimming in antibiotics, I'll be fine."
Shepard rolled her head, feeling her neck crack and pop as she did. "Where's Tali?' She asked.
Kal pointed to the building the Geth had surrounded. "She set up in there. Come on."
Shepard followed the marine as he led the way, walking past the smoking corpses of the Geth, and more than a few still bleeding Quarian corpses. Shepard cast an uneasy gaze at the Geth Colossus, trying to ignore the lump that had formed in her throat. It was destroyed, but it remained standing thanks to its four legs. She felt a nervous shudder overtake her as she tore her gaze away.
They came to a stop as they reached the doorway. There was a lot of rubble that blocked the way, some of it had already been moved out of the way by the Geth. Shepard's team quickly began to finish their work. Reegar tried to help, but a firm order from Shepard (followed by a threat to break one of his legs from Kara after he tried to ignore said order) and he reluctantly allowed himself some rest.
The remaining debris was cleared quickly, and Shepard tapped the nearby console to open the door, only for it to flash red, locked.
Kara stepped forward, and banged her fist against the door. "Tali? It's us. The area is clear; open up."
A moment passed, and then: "Kheela, am I glad to hear your voice. I can't open the door, I destroyed the controls so the Geth couldn't get in."
"That was smart." Rocket commented.
Kara stepped back from the door, nearly 10 meters, and gestured for everyone to clear the way. Once they were safely out of the way, Kara sprinted forward, slamming her body into the door, near the crease between the two halves. The doors caved inward down the middle, and Kara used the small opening to push them open.
She rolled her shoulder, easing the pain in her limb as Shepard entered the building.
Tali holstered her shotgun, and breathed a heavy sigh of relief as she saw her friends enter the room. "You have no idea how good it is to see you again." Tali said to Shepard as she drew her into a hug, her ordeal finally over.