Chapter 3

The scorching sun was already starting to drop below the horizon before they arrived. As expected, they slowed down once they got closer to the compound and started nervously edging forward, anticipating an attack at any moment. Their caution was understandable given that lack of armor was the Hammerhead's main weakness but I knew meeting them at the gate would have been hopeless.

We could have hurt them certainly, but all they would have needed to do was fall back out of range and wait for their auto-repair module to work its magic. Having watched Shepard pilot the original prototype, I understood the tactics they would employ only too well.

But when they approached the outer walls they found them silent and abandoned. Far from emboldening the attackers, this revelation gave them pause, bringing the convoy to a halt while they considered their next move. By now they knew I had warned the others, they knew that I would have a strategy planned out and they knew my reputation within Cerberus. If we weren't going to run or offer ourselves up as an easy target then this mission was about to get a lot more troublesome.

Nevertheless, it was clear that someone was taking command and getting their minds back onto the task at hand. I saw one of the vehicles leading the convoy onwards, into the compound itself, and to my surprise saw that it was sporting a familiar symbol. The image crudely painted onto the bodywork was of an eye at the center of a cross. It wouldn't have meant much to most people, even most members of Cerberus, but I recognized it instantly.

Alexander Kolvar was one of a handful of field operatives I had personally trained in my years at Cerberus. I remembered him as being arrogant and xenophobic but a surprisingly quick study when it came to learning new skills. One of those people that seem to pick things up effortlessly, much to the annoyance of those of us that had to work so much harder to achieve our goals. The symbol was some kind of family crest if I recalled correctly. It was a reminder that his family was descended from old Earth aristocracy, as if that somehow still meant anything in this day and age.

Both as a field agent or an operation leader, I had never rated him much, but that was probably based on a slight bias on my part. That he had some talent was undeniable, his test scores spoke for themselves after all. What had held him back in my estimation is how little effort he ever put into his work. Laziness and apathy like that tends to cause teachers to doubt the student will ever fully realize their potential. Certainly, it meant I focused my attention elsewhere, on students that weren't so arrogant as to think they already knew everything.

Still useful as it was to know the identity of the man leading the attack I doubted it would make a difference in this scenario. I was positioned up on the highest point of the entire compound, a tower that had a commanding view of the entire area with Kroll, a pair of Vorcha, and a sniper rifle. I watched with interest as Kolvar halted the convoy, not long after they passed through the main gate, and started offloading several squads of soldiers.

An interesting choice on his part. Obviously, they would have been safer in the vehicles, but there were advantages to this strategy as well. As the squads spread out they presented a secondary threat that I would need to keep track of. Unpredictability is the number one threat to a well-prepared defense plan.

'Good move Alex,' I thought, though I wasn't really phased. Those troops would be an annoyance but the convoy was still the primary threat. Breathing out slowly, I lined up my rifle against the kill zone where we planned to make our ambush.

Thankfully the convoy followed our intended route for them as they progressed, not that they had much choice. Inside the compound, there wasn't much room for vehicles to maneuver between the sheer, rusting metal walls. They did their best to get off the main path as much as possible, using the Hammerhead's jump jets to cross ground most vehicles would've found impassable. A nice trick, but I'd already seen what those things could do first hand. Every move they made, every shortcut they took drove them closer and closer to my intended destination. I found myself silently willing them on, impatient for the fighting to begin so that I could remove this obstacle and focus on the task of finding somewhere new to hide.

I was still watching them intently when I heard a gun cocking right behind my head.

"Nice try 'Jack'," Kroll snarled from somewhere behind me.

"But I think I'll just hand you over to them, see what kind of reward they offer me."

"The only 'reward' you'll get from Cerberus is a bullet in the head," I warned him again while still keeping my gaze on the convoy below that was now less than a minute from the ambush zone. The idiot could scarcely have chosen a worse time to try and make a move. I was needed in the battle, my plan hinged on it, so this little sideshow was something I had no time for. Any earlier and he'd just have been an annoyance, but right now, it was deadly.

"I'll take my chances human. Maybe Cerberus will be grateful for all the trouble I'm saving them."

The convoy was almost in position. For the ambush to succeed I would have to settle this right now. Standing up slowly, keeping my back to him, I raised the rifle high into the air, holding it one-handed in surrender. As he followed this motion carefully, he ignored my left arm falling casually to my hip, the palm turning back to face him. A simple flash of blue light was all it took. My biotics slammed back hard against the far wall.

"Kill her," Kroll called out, presumably too dazed to continue the fight at the moment. I glanced down at the convoy and saw them rounding the final corner. No time!

But I still had to deal with the Vorcha rushing at me first. I turned fast enough to catch the first one off guard, grabbed an arm to stop its claws from slicing me open, and coming alongside it I planted a foot in the joint behind its right knee, forcing it to the floor. Turning on the spot, I whacked it on the head with the butt of my rifle and saw it collapse but that left my back exposed to the second one. It raked its knife-like claws straight through the thin clothing and into the flesh beneath. Pain flared through my senses but I forced myself to ignore it, needing to end this quickly.

Without turning round I jabbed the rifle backwards viciously into the Vorcha's gut, taking the wind out of him. As he doubled up in pain, I turned and vaulted straight over its back, to put some distance between myself and the others. I turned to see the fighting below had already begun. I could see shots flying in the main courtyard but I had no time to work out who was winning. With no other options available I held the Vorcha in place with one hand and lined up a shot with the rifle across its back. My aim wasn't perfect. I only caught the outer edge of my target but it had the intended effect. The auto-repair module of one of the Hammerhead's was now out of commission. Without it, it wouldn't last long in an ambush.

Kroll finally recovered from the hit he took earlier and began firing in my direction, forcing me to generate a barrier with my biotics. At that moment, the Vorcha I'd decided to use as an impromptu rifle stand suddenly twisted round and snapped at my hand, almost severing a couple of fingers with its razor-sharp fangs. I fell back instinctively, dropping the rifle to avoid getting bitten. The Vorcha advanced on me, claws at the ready, forcing me to use another biotic throw to knock it back. I considered going for the rifle again but I could already see Kroll charging in, a jagged knife clutched in his hand so I forced myself to ignore it and instead charged straight for him.

We met in the center of the room and struggled over the weapon, oblivious to the pitched battle being fought beneath us. Kroll held his own against me better than I had expected. I didn't know much about his history but clearly, he'd been trained by someone, most likely Blue Sun mercs. Certainly, he knew his way around hand to hand combat just well enough to keep me at bay while the Vorcha recovered. As the three of them tried to surround me, I wondered if I wasn't in some trouble here, only to notice that they had stopped looking at me.

The shuttle I had spotted earlier had pinpointed the location of the sniper that had fired at the convoy and was now swooping in to wipe us out. Acting on instinct I ran for the window, knocking Kroll through it in my haste to get out of the kill zone just as the shuttle started firing. We fell from the tower as it started to explode above us.

Of course, to stop this being suicide, I was forced to generate a biotic field around us that reduced the effect of gravity in the local area (the field that gets created was too generalized to exclude Kroll). We kept falling but at a much slower rate than normal. An easy enough maneuver for any skilled biotic to pull off over a short distance.

Unfortunately, the height of the tower meant that I was forced to release multiple biotic pulses to guide us down gradually. I felt my concentration slipping as the effort took its toll. An average biotic will want at least a minute or two between each use of their abilities. I could normally cope with about half of that in cool down time but even I had limits. My vision grew dark as we fell, losing track of where I was. I only knew that I couldn't stop until I felt us reach the ground.

I was severely weakened by the time we finally hit the deck below us. With my head swimming, my only thought was that I needed to get moving again quickly but my body just wasn't cooperating. I knew it wouldn't last long but at that moment my limbs felt like they were set in lead.

"We've got her. She landed on the bridge just south of your position."

A Cerberus assault trooper, dead ahead. He was speaking to someone on the radio but I couldn't hear the other side of the conversation. Given thirty seconds of rest I could have taken him out easily, but I didn't think I was going to get it.

"Yeah, I'll take care of it."

I couldn't see the gun but I could imagine it. Unable to stand, I closed my eyes and waited. My thoughts were of Ori and how I wouldn't be around to protect her anymore. So much for being 'perfect'. She wasn't the only person I was letting down but she was the one that hurt the most. I promised to keep her safe and-

I heard two gunshots from behind me but the pain I expected never came. Instead, I opened my eyes to see the trooper slumping to the ground and Kroll standing behind him with a pistol in his outstretched hand.

"Cerberus bastard," he grunted to himself.

I ignored my splitting headache and forced myself to stand up quickly and face him, expecting him to gun me down next but he made no move to attempt it. We stared at each other, the sounds of gunfire and battle still loud in our ears but irrelevant while another threat lay closer at hand. As my strength returned I considered using my biotics on him again, of chucking him off the bridge and leaving him for Cerberus. But he hadn't tried to attack me yet and his behavior was... well confusing, to say the least.

He looked away first and turned towards the north where there was still heavy fighting.

"We need to get out of here," he pointed out.

"You expect me to trust you?"

"That's up to you human, but we don't have time for games,"

I nodded reluctantly.

"Do you have a way out of here?"

Kroll pointed over the side of the bridge at one of our vehicles that was driving on the road below us. Clearly, someone had ignored my warnings about attempting to escape. As I watched, the truck slowed to a halt, not far from the fighting so that Vorlak and his troops could climb aboard.

"Don't be absurd, we don't stand a chance out in the open," I pointed out.

"We can't stay here human," he replied.

He was right. Even as he said the words I could hear more troopers heading our way, their heavy boots ringing loudly on the metal staircase. When I glanced at the enemy convoy, I realized we'd been extremely fortunate. Two of their vehicles were out of action; one in flames after losing the auto repair module and the second trapped beneath it where the driver of the first had panicked and crashed right into him.

One of the Hammerhead's was still running. The road was blocked but that wouldn't stop Kolvar for long. He'd find another way out of the compound sooner or later and on the open plains he'd catch up to us in minutes. We couldn't run and with the shuttle still hovering somewhere above us, we couldn't hide either.

Staying put was still the smarter move but there was no way I could prevent the retreat now. If I stayed behind I'd be left to face dozens of Cerberus soldiers alone. A part of me wanted that more than anything, no more reliance on others, no more hiding, just me against Cerberus. Then I saw John climbing onto the truck, one of the last to do so before it set off again.

Swearing and cursing under my breath, I shouted at Kroll to follow and jumped down onto the truck just as it passed under the bridge. Big as it was, there still wasn't really enough space on the roof for all of us (especially with Vorlak taking up so much room) so several Vorcha and Krogan climbed down a hatch into the vehicle. The rest of us would have to stay up top and wait for the inevitable attack.

Defending such a big obvious target wouldn't be easy. Already the shuttle was back, swooping overhead. Assault rifles were passed around amongst those still up top and we fired a few warning shots upwards. Hardly enough to do any real damage but it dissuaded the pilot from trying to fly down into the metal canyon where there would be no room to evade our attacks. Knowing the terrain as well as we did, it wasn't long before we made it outside the walls and began taking a direct, off-road route towards the nearest city.

The shuttle tried to close in again once we were outside but there was one factor they hadn't quite counted on: Vorlak himself. For the battle, he had chosen to arm himself with two massive chain gun weapons. Each one was heavier than a grown man could lift but he bore them on his back with apparent ease.

As the shuttle darted in to attack, thousands of rounds ripped through the sky, driving it back. Giving up on this attempt, the shuttle tried firing on us from a distance but the truck's kinetic barriers (while not up to much) held long enough for Vorlak to take aim again. The shuttle pulled back and tried coming at us from different approaches but it was like a hummingbird trying to harass a tortoise. We couldn't pull away from them, but they didn't have the firepower to seriously hurt us either.

Unfortunately, that was about to change drastically as the remaining Hammerhead finally found its way out of the compound and began speeding after us. We accelerated to our top speed, pushing the engine to its limits but it made little difference. We had been outside the complex for twenty minutes now but the Hammerhead closed the gap again in less than five. I took one last look at our destination but the city still appeared no larger than my own thumb. When I turned around the Hammerhead came in firing, a half dozen rockets sent shooting straight for us.

Whoever was driving the truck swerved violently to the right, causing three of the missiles to miss us entirely. Two more collided with the side of the truck, draining its barriers completely. The last almost passed right over us, until it grazed the top of Vorlak's shields. The shockwave threw us all backwards, but I was lucky. With Vorlak's bulk shielding me from the worst of it (he barely seemed affected), I rolled over and over on the roof of the truck but managed to stay on board. I was glad to see John seemed to be okay as well, but others had been less fortunate. Some had been thrown off entirely and I spotted Kroll hanging off the edge, clinging onto the side for dear life. Reluctantly I used my biotics to help him back up. Much as I didn't like it, we were going to need him.

Vorlak had turned his guns on the Hammerhead, exploiting its weak armor to land some heavy blows that forced it to fall back out of range. The damage looked bad but unfortunately not enough to stop it from repairing itself. In the meantime, the shuttle was taking advantage of this distraction to sweep in low. It didn't bother with its weapons this time, ineffective as they had proven to be. Instead, the loading door opened and a dozen Cerberus soldiers jumped out to join us.

Acting instinctively, I pulled Kroll back and created a singularity over to the side to draw the nearest troopers in. Singularities are an advanced biotic technique that generate a single point of intense gravity, almost like a tiny black hole. Limited in range but enough to trap a few soldiers and because the singularity's position remains constant relative to the planet, we soon left them far behind. Eventually, the field would dissipate and they would be absolutely fine, aside from the long walk home.

Free to turn back and see how everyone else was getting on, I was the first to spot the danger. Our group of renegades and misfits were giving as good as they got to Cerberus' forces but behind them, unnoticed, the Hammerhead was already getting its act back together.

I could see Alex's backup plan falling into place. The distractions, the soldiers sent to keep us occupied and then, a swift execution by his own hand. Our kinetic barriers were down and nothing, not even the presence of his own men, was going to stop Kolvar from wiping us out now.

Out of options, I presented my rifle to the creature that less than an hour ago had tried to kill me (Kroll had lost his own during the missile strike).

"Cover me."

Not leaving him time to think of betraying me, I charged forward into the fray. Weaving and ducking in and out of mostly hand to hand fights between Cerberus troopers and Vorcha, I avoided the fighting wherever possible. I felt a stab in my gut as I passed John by, surrounded by three assault troopers, but the battle meant nothing right now. Occasionally the soldiers of my former employer did block my path, only to be felled with a well placed shot from behind me. Good to know Kroll was good for something at least.

Vorlak was standing at the back of the truck, firing up at the shuttle that had just dropped off troops on us. It was well out of range and he wasn't having much effect but he didn't seem to have noticed. If he'd been human I think he would have had a bottle in one hand, shotgun in the other while he yelled obscenities at the fall of his empire.

He had no idea how to handle a conflict on this scale. He was built for thuggery, not warfare but right now he was exactly what I needed. I increased speed as I reached him, running clear up his back before he knew what was going on. I'd taken him by surprise and luckily could say the same for Kolvar as I emerged from behind the enraged Elcor. I like to think I could actually see his look of shock staring at me from behind the windscreen as I powered up my omnitool and drove it deep into the drive mechanism.

This time the damage was irreparable, even for a Hammerhead. The vehicle immediately started to veer off to the right in what was likely to be an undignified crash. Almost any human alive in that situation would be looking at either death or capture at that moment. If they weren't killed in the crash there would certainly be no hope of escape. However my "perfect" genes, much as I resented them offered me other options.

Rapidly calculating the trajectories in my head I used the energy I had held in reserve for one last biotic maneuver. A charge that launched me away from the doomed Hammerhead and back onto the truck (just about).

Clinging to the edge I limply clung on, feeling exhausted. It always felt damning when I was reminded that my genetic engineering had kept me alive all these years but right now I just cherished my survival. And survival it was, I could see, as the last remaining Cerberus troops jumped down from the truck and the shuttle turned back to aid its colleagues on the ground. They had had enough for the time being. Somehow, despite everything thrown at them and our own infighting and lack of discipline, this group of misfits had managed to hold out.