Chapter 37
A Reaper attack force was pouring into the system from the nearest Mass Relay. Last time I had been in this situation it had been a ruse by the Normandy to get me out of trouble but there was no such luck this time around. As soon as that fact had been confirmed a truce was immediately agreed upon on the ground. There was no other choice; even my hatred of my father didn't run deep enough to change that.
What civilians that were still alive in the compound were ordered to evacuate toward the mountains to the south for their protection (my father wanted to take them in for emergency conversion into Cerberus footsoldiers but that idea was quickly vetoed by those of us with a conscience). I had no idea if they would make it or what they find when they got there. I could only hope they would have a longer life expectancy than any of us were likely to achieve.
Everyone that was left gathered themselves around the entrance to the central tower. At first, we relied on the data feeds streamed to our omnitools to see how things were progressing. The Reaper hunting pack emerged through the Relay in force, with two troop ships backed up by half a dozen Destroyers. A tiny force in comparison to the invasions of any of the major systems, small even in comparison to the number of ships orbiting the planet but it made no difference.
The civilian ships broke instantly, taking flight from the moment of the Reaper's arrival. There were a handful of non-Cerberus military vessels in the theater but they didn't last any longer. They were all here either seeking refuge or to drop off others who were. Most of them had faced the Reapers at least once already and turned tail to survive. As expected they stuck to the same survival strategy now. Many tried to flee beyond the outskirts of the system to avoid being tracked but a considerable number tried to make a break for the Relay the Reapers had just emerged from. The Destroyers took potshots at them as they passed but didn't attempt to pursue.
Only the Cerberus ships stood their ground against the invaders. Three heavy cruisers and five light frigates that could not retreat. Predominantly crewed by implanted Cerberus soldiers, we listened as their captains desperately tried to countermand my father's orders and flee. Instead, under his instructions (and against my advice) they attempted to tackle the Reaper fleet head-on. The results were depressingly predictable.
With the system under their control, they turned on the planet at speed, and pretty soon we no longer needed the data feeds to see what the Reapers were up to. As they hit the atmosphere they slowed down, compelled to do so by the sudden mass changes they were forced to undergo. Either dark shapes suddenly marred the clear Horizon sky as they came into view and we looked, waiting for our doom to arrive.
"Still glad you all came?" I asked bleakly while holding Ori tightly in my arms. Nalar stepped over and placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder.
"Always."
"Is there any way out of this?" Kallen asked anxiously as a red beam of light shot across the sky to demolish a planetary defense cannon about five klicks to the north.
"The Deceivers still out there, in stealth mode," Marie replied, her voice slightly muffled from being buried in Jackson's chest. She looked up before continuing.
"I told them to make a loop around to avoid Reaper patrols but they'll be back to pick us up in two days."
"Two days? What are they coming back to retrieve, our charred corpses? God this is like being back on Korlus all over again," Kolvar muttered bitterly.
Another beam of red light arced overhead and sliced through the monorail we could have used to evacuate. We had ignored it for the very same reason.
"Almost wish I still had the rest of the League by my side," Melnar said, calmly counting thermal clips behind the first barricade.
"They were impressive fighters," I admitted. "Though I have to admit I'd be happier having the Normandy crew at our side."
"That lot? Oh come on, Lawson. No offense but we left them in our dust on Noveria."
"Yeah, that is what it's called when you run away," I commented with a half-smile.
"That was the mission param-"
"Aria has a fleet patrolling the Terminus looking for small Reaper bands like this," Kallen interrupted suddenly, turning toward the direction of the Relay as if he expected her ships to emerge at that moment. Nothing.
"Are you going to be okay?" I asked him.
"I'm doing my best to hold it together here Lawson, I just thought-"
"Yeah. It would be nice if Aria showed up right about now," I said quietly.
"Destroyers are pulling away," Jackson commented. He was right, now that the planetary defenses and major infrastructure had been destroyed most of them were turning around and heading back into orbit. One Destroyer remained, guarding the troop ships as they came in for their final approach to land about two klicks south of us.
"Okay, we're still here," I stated, returning to my no-nonsense tone of voice.
"Looks like we were right, the Reapers are going to try and physically invade so they can get their hands on the data from my father's experiments. Now most of us really couldn't care less about protecting his secrets but if the Reapers get that information they will be free to vaporize this entire facility from orbit. So our job is to hold this line and keep the Reapers away from the labs."
Sightseeing over we gathered ourselves up quickly to head to our agreed positions on the barricades but I stopped for a moment to turn and face Marie.
"Two days?"
"Two days," she confirmed.
"Place your bets now," Kolvar grumbled.
It took some time for the Reaper troops to reach us from their staging ground. We passed the time as productively as we could, building up the barricades, laying charges, and gathering up any additional ammo we could lay our hands on. Others dealt with the waiting time differently, drinking and chatting loudly to anyone that would give them their time. As long as it kept them from panic, I was happy to leave them to it.
I was just stepping through toward the forward barricade with another box of thermal clips when to my surprise I found Melnar standing dead still just behind the defenses. I stepped closer, into his line of vision but he made no acknowledgment of me at all. Listening closely I could hear him mumbling quietly, the words too indistinct to make out. I reached out to touch his shoulder but there was still no response.
"Melnar-" I began to say, only to notice, just at that moment, that his hands were pressed together against his chest in the traditional Salarian symbol of prayer. Instantly I pulled away as realization struck and started to apologize but all around me the call was already going out. We had incoming.
Within seconds, Melnar broke from his trance, snatched up his rifle, and begun peering through the scope. For a moment he diverted his glance my way and gave me a half-smile to show that he hadn't minded my interruption. Then Nalar, Marie, Jackson, and Kolvar arrived to join us at the barricade and there was no more time for interaction. From miles back the Reaper let out a foghorn blast that cut across the distance and seemed to reverberate in our minds. The same sound also seemed to signal the moment for the Reaper charge. The battle had begun.
The first wave was all melee infantry, Brutes, Vanguard, and Husks. The Brutes in particular were the most terrifying, for such vast hulking forms they were still able to throw themselves across the distance at horrendous speed. If they had made it to the barricades in force that might have been the end of us there and then, powerful as they would undoubtedly prove to be at close quarters but their size worked against them in the open terrain, drawing the fire of hundreds of defenders. Still even this proved to be not entirely to the Reaper's disadvantage. As the Brutes drew our fire, many of the Husks and Vanguard slipped through our lines to engage our forces directly.
I sat at the front of our defenses, unloading Shockwave after Shockwave to scatter these unshielded foes while my friends used rifles to pick off any enemies that slipped through the destruction. The Reaper forces fell in droves but they had troops to spare and worse still, the melee fighters had given them the distraction they needed to move up their artillery units. From the other end of the field, a dozen Ravagers (modified Rachni that carried heavy cannons on their back) rained hell down on our positions, driving us into cover. This gave the Reapers the opportunity they needed to move their ground fire units into place and a host of Cannibals, Marauders and Banshees swept onto the field to dig into positions with cover.
The fight then dragged out for hours of protracted combat, with fire exchanged by both sides from positions of cover. Three times they made heavy pushes with melee units in the hope of overwhelming our defenses and three times we pushed them back. But as the day wore on our numbers were steadily depleted by the constant battle, our ammunition was running low, and our biotics were growing tired.
The Reapers waited until late in the evening to make their final play. Just as the light was fading completely, we noticed them, a couple dozen dark shapes moving across the sky. They were difficult to make out at first, as unremarkable as a small flock of sparrows coming in to roost. It was only as they got closer that we realized the scale, the flap of those massive wings as the air wing of Reaper Harvesters swooped in towards us. With desperate haste, we turned what AA guns we had toward the pack but it was already far too late.
The pack strafed the battlefield with artillery fire from their head-mounted canons. Friend or foe meant nothing to them as they set out to obliterate everything in the courtyard. As the shells started crashing down around their ears, our civilian militia broke ranks and fled back towards the Tower. To the Cerberus drones the bombardment meant nothing, but leaving them here would simply mean throwing them away.
Exhausted though I was I immediately leapt to my feet and ordered the withdrawal. Barking orders loudly, I knew I would have to display absolute authority and control to have any hope of maintaining an orderly retreat. Not that it would be easy as, to my horror, I saw that Reaper ground forces were pushing forward again, ignoring the punishing barrage from above. Soon some of our people were fleeing in blind panic. Abandoning all cover to get away from the invading forces, they were easily gunned down by the troops further back.
Jumping into the fray I beheaded a Vanguard that was about to pounce on a civilian. Turning around I spotted a group of Husks running through the crowd, trying to split some of them away from the main crowd. With a single gesture, I lifted their bodies off the ground and crushed them mercilessly, before tossing the remains aside. But then even I was forced back as a Brute came charging into the breach. It smashed through the barricade but I managed to leap aside at the last second to avoid being crushed. Behind me, I heard it impact with something solid but I didn't waste time looking back.
Up ahead the crowd was pouring through the entrance and into the relative safety of the Tower. It was a slow process, with panic making it harder for the huge mass of people to squeeze themselves through the doors but gradually they were filtering through. Nalar and Kolvar were with me, fighting a rearguard action on the stairs to buy what time we could. I had no idea where Melnar or the others were. Holding the doors was tough, brutal work but eventually a space opened up behind us and we retreated back to the tower (dragging the trigger happy Kolvar behind us).
Once inside we had enough Cerberus troopers holding the doors that I felt confident enough in our security to head downstairs and find Kallen in what was now our command bunker.
"How are we doing?"
"Badly," Kallen replied, as he looked up from the monitors he was studying.
"But it could be worse. Our scopes picked up some more weapons fire outside the facility just before they went offline. Might be there are still some of our fighters outside putting up some resistance. If we can-"
"It was Cerberus," Kolvar stated flatly.
"I saw gunships coming in just as we left. Looks like the Illusive Man's sending in reinforcements."
"Then we're saved," my father stated smugly, his confidence rapidly returning to him.
"Those gunships will clear the field out there and the skies, giving us a free run out of here."
"Possibly, if the Harvesters don't shoot them down first," Kallen rumbled.
"But we have a more pressing concern. Small groups of Reaper ground troops are infiltrating the outer perimeter in several places. We think they're trying to find and release the ones we have in lockdown here. You know, the ones you created for your little science experiment and then wouldn't let me terminate?" he added with a meaningful glance at my father.
"What?" I asked, rounding on my father in a nanosecond.
"Those specimens represent countless hours of research. In any case, it's not a concern. The cages are rigged, we can still terminate them whenever we choose to."
"We could have done if you had given me the code already," Kallen snapped.
"Now the Reapers have started their hacking efforts, they're shutting down our systems one by one. I'm not even sure I still have access to-"
He swore loudly at the console. It didn't take a genius to work out what it meant. Suddenly I heard a commotion coming from behind us but I didn't care, I was too focused on my father's latest blunder.
"So we're about to be ripped apart by your latest creations, all because you don't know when to quit?"
"That's typical of you Miranda. Never able to see the larger picture at hand."
Red mist bled into my vision with every word he spoke. I wanted to throttle this man, this monster for everything he had ever done to me. The need rose in me like a physical wave that felt impossible to repress. That is until I heard a voice so completely out of place that it startled me out of the dark visions I had in mind.
"Why don't you save the family drama until after I have what I came for?"
That voice was unmistakable. Its towering arrogance, laced with sarcasm and venomous disdain wasn't something you ever forgot easily.
Into the room strode Kai Lang, the Illusive Man's number one thug. At his flank stood a phalanx of Cerberus Phantoms but it was the man himself that concerned me most of all. A former N7 Alliance soldier equipped with every possible cybernetic enhancement that Cerberus could give him. Ruthless. Brutal. Sadistic. The only one the Illusive Man trusted to take out Shepard if it needed to be done.
We were in trouble.