Chapter 14

"I read you EDI," I replied automatically. I was giving away my true identity by doing so but I had to trust that Shepard would not have asked her to contact me in this manner if he didn't have an extraction plan in mind.

"Capacitors are almost fully charged. Please avoid contact with any metallic surfaces in the next few minutes."

Hang on, what? Dammit, she must not have been able to access the cameras down here (assuming there were any). I looked around at the metal plated floor, walls, and ceiling in frustration. Clearly whoever had come up with the plan hadn't considered the possibility that I would have nowhere to go. Around me, the Cerberus agents were reacting to the sudden revelation regarding my identity, but I paid them no mind. EDI's instructions took higher priority.

Finally, I spotted my best chance, a plastic toolbox or something like it, abandoned on the floor nearby and just large enough to stand on. I barely made it on top when the first of the static discharges started to surge through the station. Great arcs of electricity leapt from every surface frying anything (and anyone) they came in contact with en route. The Phantoms and other Cerberus troopers were the worst affected. With their bodies riddled with metal implants, they seemed to actively draw the energy discharges towards them. Wherever they were stuck the lightning would melt through their armor and flesh exposing the mechanical horror that lay beneath the surface. Often they would withstand the first few jolts but one by one they succumbed to the damage inflicted.

Eventually, the discharges died down and stopped as the device ran out of energy. Clearly, there had been more faults with it than the director had realized though truthfully I saw EDI's hand in this. She must have hacked into the station systems to cause an overload. Unfortunately, I couldn't ask her what the next stage of the plan was meant to be because the VI console was fried, but it wasn't hard to guess.

The shock had taken out all of the Cerberus guards, now it was just a matter of getting off the station and calling the Normandy for a pickup. I briefly glanced out of the window, wondering if I could spot it, but no. Given the one weakness of the stealth drive, I knew Joker wouldn't make the mistake of flying within sight of any of the station's windows.

"Stay exactly where you are Miss Lawson, I'm afraid I don't have time for any more theatrics."

It was Cordanoy. I turned round to see that he too had managed to follow EDI's advice about staying out of range of the electrical discharges. Everyone else in the room was down but he'd acquired a pistol from somewhere and had it trained on me. The expression his face was angry but calm. Clearly he felt that he still held the upper hand here. He couldn't have been more wrong.

I dived immediately into a roll that brought me almost face to face with him. He fired the gun once, twice but I ducked below his line of fire easily and was on him in a flash. My left arm snaked out to where he was holding the gun, dragging its sights away from me before knocking it out of his grip with a single blow from my free arm. He looked surprised by the speed I had come upon him but that soon gave way to pain as I brought him down with a vicious kick to the shin, before smashing him in the face.

By the time he'd managed to get back to his feet again, I had the gun trained on him. He took in the reversal of roles and nodded to himself slightly. He was unreadable as ever but I knew what the look on my face would be telling him: You can't pull off the same kind of stunt I managed and if you even try I will shoot you. Which, useful as he was to me, I absolutely would do if he became a liability to my escape.

"So what happens now, Miss Lawson?" He asked with the tone of a man testing the waters.

"The Reaper is still coming. Even if you could find a way off the station, nothing will change that."

"No," I agreed. "But we should have a shot at making a break for the Relay while it's busy destroying this place."

He scowled now, real anger coming out to bury his fear.

"You would leave this installation for it as bait just to give yourself time to get away? This base is the single most effective weapon we have against them!"

"So far I'd say its effectiveness seems pretty limited. Besides you're assuming I'm giving you a choice. Now tell me which one of these maintenance tunnels will lead us out of here."

He shook his head slowly.

"None of them I'm afraid, we'll have to go back to my private elevator and through the command center."

"I hope that's your warped idea of a joke."

He smirked towards me.

"All the tunnels here only lead further into the mechanism, or so I've heard. I didn't personally involve myself with the layout of the lower levels."

Annoying I believed him and I certainly couldn't afford to waste time blundering around in that dark maze while the Reaper was still bearing down on us.

"Fine then, take off your kinetic barrier generator."

"Excuse me?"

"You didn't think I'd forgotten did you?"

The grimace I caught from him told me otherwise and he hesitated from removing it.

"Hurry up," I instructed. "The shield might save you from my first shot but we both know that it won't make a difference in the long run if I have to kill you. It'll just take me longer."

Though that wouldn't have been the case if we had gotten back upstairs and met resistance. Presumably he had hoped the shield would give him time to get away from me if I was distracted. Still he conceded my point and took it off, throwing it out towards me as instructed. Keeping my eyes on him I retrieved it and fitted it to my own suit. Now armed, armored, and shielded it felt like I was back in the game, even without my biotics.

"Let's go," I said, pointing to the elevator. It didn't feel like there was anything else worth saying.

Cordanoy was quite happy to follow my directions as it took him in the direction he wanted to go (namely towards more of his guards that could be used to deal with me) but he found himself aghast at what we discovered. The operations room was just the same as the activation room we had just left, the floor strewn with fallen Cerberus soldiers.

"Looks like the malfunction extended further than we thought," I commented with mild humor before directing my prisoner to one of the nearest consoles. At my order he activated it and I was able to see a complete layout of the base for the first time. Not willing to waste any more time I swiftly committed it to memory and selected the most expedient route to shuttle bay that would allow me a backup if need be.

Our progress along the corridors was slow but largely unimpeded at first. Our only delay was my desire to avoid any major enemy contact while I had a hostage in tow. When I did encounter someone it was one of our deputy heads of security, bent over an injured trooper, trying to help him. I shot him in the back of the head without hesitation, just as my training mandated. I didn't have time to do anything else and in any case, I'd seen him lead the executions of some of the people I'd handed over to Cordanoy.

Our first real obstacle came in a very unusual form, a squad of soldiers blocking our way. Obviously the fact there was a squad still active wasn't unusual, but they definitely weren't ordinary Cerberus soldiers. Fortunately they weren't looking my way (they were clustered around a computer terminal) so, pressing my gun flush with Cordanoy's head to ensure he didn't get any ideas, I stopped to observe them.

Typing away on the console itself was an advanced Cerberus infiltration mech. I had never actually seen this model before but I'd had a peek at some of the original designs not long before I left the organization. "She" (because for some reason our engineers assume women make better infiltrators) was talking mainly with the helmeted Turian next to her. Behind them stood a weird green skinned alien whose species I had never even seen of before and Kroll.

That last one told me everything I needed to know about this group. They had to be Vorlak's men, possibly contacts he'd called in after loosing so many fleeing the Hades (though where he found that green bug eyed one I can't imagine). These new recruits of his had the look of battle hardened mercenaries, not cannon fodder so I decided my best bet was to switch to the secondary escape route.

Knowing the director would be keen to contact anyone that might be able to help him I grabbed him by the arm and dragged him towards our new route before he had a chance to catch sight of the group. He stumbled and resisted slightly so I laid a hand on his shoulder and gave him a hard shove forwards. This time his stumbling nearly caused him to fall over but he got the message and we started making good progress forward. That is at least until we suddenly found our route blocked by a very large, very angry Elcor.

The fact that our arrival round the corner had surprised Vorlak just as much as it did us was the only thing that saved us. As soon as the guns activated we were back around the corner, listening to the rounds pinging off the bulkhead. Good grief, those weapons could cut through an armored car, let alone a person! I waited patiently for the noise to stop but Cordanoy had other ideas, namely pushing me out of cover to be shredded.

Not a bad plan, but I was waiting for him to try and make a move from the second we ran into enemy contact. Reaching back I wrapped my arm around his to immobilize it before slamming his head into the wall and then my pistol into his face for good measure. As intended he slumped to the ground following this abuse and I left him there for the time being. As difficult as it would be to lug his unconscious body to the shuttle bay with me, allowing him any chance to interfere could be lethal.

I emerged back into the corridor to face Vorlak. Trying to run would only have allowed him to nail me with a barrage of fire at the first long corridor but unfortunately he was ready for me this time and I wasn't prepared for what he had in store for me. In addition to the two chainguns he had mounted on his back he also had a rocket launcher. I ran towards him as the first barrage came in, firing at the massive target he presented.

Staying close to him helped, at that range it was harder for him to bring his heavy weapons to bare effectively but my shots weren't really having any impact. I dreaded to think how powerful the shield generator he was able to carry was but I could see it made my gun look like a pea shooter in comparison. Worse yet Vorlak was quite happy to be at close range, all the better to crush me in person.

He lashed out at me with both front legs, one after the other, and then over and over again forcing me to use every tactic of evasion I could think of to stay out of range. Blocking wasn't to be considered, his blows were so powerful I saw them dent the walls and when I tried to kick back it was like hitting a wall of muscle. If he wasn't even feeling my attacks then hand-to-hand combat clearly wasn't going to work but maybe there was another way I could use his slow turning circle to my advantage.

Sliding underneath him I spied a downed Cerberus trooper laying on the ground nearby. The extra firepower would make my plan easier so I rolled over to him and grabbed the sub-machine gun he no longer needed. In the time it had taken to do this Vorlak had turned back towards me so again I charged straight at him at top speed. For a moment it looked like he would get his chance to take my head off but a timely duck got me safely past him.

As soon as I was through I started spraying fire indiscriminately at his back while he tried to turn round and face me again. It would be slow and dangerous, taking him on this way. One mistake from me would mean my immediate death but at least it was a way of taking him. My thoughts were of John (the Krogan) as I threw everything I had at him.

So focused was I on my efforts to kill the Elcor that I almost didn't hear the soft sounds of footsteps behind me. They were incredibly quiet, virtually unnoticeable under the stamping of Vorlak trying to get his bulk facing me again. But I did hear it and so at the last second I turned round and brought up the gun (the only thing I had) to protect me just in time to deflect Kolvar's swing. He had a knife (more of a short sword really) in one hand and pure hatred in his eyes.

"You left me to die," he hissed.

His attacks came in quickly and aggressively at first but not wildly or in a way that left him easily open to counter attack. Overwhelmed by this unusual focus from him I was forced back into the defensive, blocking his moves one by one and thanking my lucky stars that Vorlak wasn't able to open fire with Kolvar standing so close. But he kept me on the back, driving me towards the Elcor's crushing strength until I broke his flow by squeezing the trigger.

By this stage my gun was pinned between us, pointing downwards so the shots tore into the floor around his feet. I was pleased to see him fall back in surprise (and possibly pain I couldn't be sure). It meant his kinetic barrier had been confiscated when he'd been taken away (presumably he only had the knife because it had been concealed somewhere). Now I could go on the offensive.

Backing up he threw out his free hand and sent a biotic warp hurtling in my direction. I sidestepped this and grabbed his outstretched arm, ducked underneath as I pivoted round, and then hauled downwards with all my strength. Both of us were pulled into a roll that left us on the floor but I at least had known what was about to happen. Taking advantage of that I drew my pistol again swung round and aimed it at his head to-

Slam! His biotic push knocked me against the far wall and pinned me there, spreadeagled against it. He was on all fours, but he was managing to keep one arm up in order to hold me in place. He climbed to his feet slowly, clearly enjoying the power he now had over me. With a simple flick of the wrist and flex of the fingers, he drew me forward off the wall again only to slam me back against again even harder. The impact knocked the wind out of me and I could feel a trickle of blood running down the back of my neck.

He had me secured in a biotic field, completely under his power. I struggled but found myself unable to move while he stepped forward, his knife glinting slightly as it caught the light as he prepared to strike. Desperately I focused on my own biotics, trying to bring to bear enough dark energy to break free but I couldn't. I was dazed, disorientated, and when I tried all I achieved was a splitting headache that grew in intensity until I was forced to stop. So no one was more surprised than me when a biotic field swatted Alex aside.

It was the strange green alien I had seen from before, along with the rest of that squad and Nalar. They were still battling some surviving Cerberus troops but they had clearly just pushed through to get towards me. The new squad was good, even as I watched, the Turian turned on a dime and took out a sniper that was about to pick off one of his men. A clean headshot made in a split second with no warning? Well, that made identification much easier, this was Shepard's squad.

But clearly, without Shepard, I realized as I saw the Turian I had identified as Garrus Vakarian still barking orders. Tactical as ever he sent Nalar and the human (who I could now see was wearing Alliance combat armor) back to deal with Cerberus while he directed the rest of his forces to focus their fire on Vorlak. The Elcor did his best to keep them pinned down but he couldn't cover all directions at once and they were slowly whittling down his shields.

As they worked to bring him down for good Kolvar had gotten back to his feet with murder in his eyes. First thing he did was to hurl his knife at the mech catching "her" in the shoulder and knocking her down before she could react. Then he tried launching a biotic strike at Garrus only to see it intercepted by the green alien. Alex's lips curled upwards slightly as he began to launch attacks at the alien, testing his new opponent biotically. He gradually was ramping up the ferocity of his attacks until suddenly he turned round to shout something at Vorlak.

I couldn't hear what was said but it seemed like they were arguing mid-battle. Kolvar was clearly getting angry about something, but I had no idea why until I noticed the new squad's rearguard had taken care of the Cerberus troopers and was coming back to help them. I forced myself to my feet as well, in an effort to at least appear to still be in the fight. That seemed to finally decide the matter for them. With a cry of frustration and a salvo of rockets to cover their escape they ceded their position and fled round the corner out of sight.

I almost fell over again but Garrus was at my side, helping steady me.

"I guess this makes us even after Omega," he said with his usual dry humor.

"We need to go after them," I replied in my best no nonsense tone of voice.

"Oh you can count on it, on one condition."

I just frowned at him, not sure of what to expect.

"You have to agree to stay with the main group, and not run off ahead looking for revenge," he explained but before I could deny that that was what I was after he simply added.

"I used to see in that expression in the mirror every morning. Don't worry, we'll get these bastards, whoever they are."

"Uh, I had a prisoner, as well," I said, pointing towards Cordanoy's unconscious form. He glanced over at the man and sniffed.

"I'm guessing he's with Cerberus? Alright then. James, you pick him up, and let's get moving. Far as I'm concerned, the sooner we get off this station, the better."

We did our best to pursue our two fugitives but Vorlak had left more of his Vorcha behind to slow us down. We pushed through their squads with relative ease, delayed but not seriously hindered by them. As I fell back in with the team it started to feel just like old times, despite the new additions.

"How long do we have until the Reaper reaches the base?" I asked after we polished off a group of ten Vorcha blocking our path.

"Let's just say I wouldn't get too worried about it," replied Garrus with a mischievous smirk on his face.

"The Reaper was a fictional construct, the result of a series of sensor malfunctions I created in order to deceive Cerberus."

The explanation came from the mech, but the voice was EDI's, the Normandy's onboard AI. Suddenly everything that had happened made so much more sense.

"You hacked the station to create a fake Reaper threat and then rigged the weapon to overload when they tried to fire on it?"

"Affirmative. Though based on my analysis the weapon would not have functioned as intended, even without my tampering."

At that moment Garrus got a ping on his omnitool.

"Sir, it's Cortez, we've got a situation here."

"You don't have to call me 'sir', Lieutenant. What's going on?"

"Entrance to the hanger is still sealed sir, but someone's trying to break in. I give it about another minute before they get in."

"We might know who you mean," answered Garrus after giving me a sideways glance.

"We're in pursuit and will be joining the party in five. See if you can stall them for a while."

"I'll do my best. Cortez out."

We raced towards the hanger where I swiftly came to realize that 'Lieutenant Cortez' must have been the shuttle pilot that flew Garrus' team in. That shuttle was now in the air, keeping Vorlak and Kolvar pinned down under heavy fire. As soon as they saw us running towards them though they decided to make a break for it.

They sprinted towards one of the other shuttles as fast as they could but I could see immediately that Vorlak was in trouble. Elcor might be surprisingly swift for their size but he still couldn't keep up with his partner. As they separated I could see in my mind's eye what would happen when Cortez pulled the trigger. No matter what kind of shields Vorlak was carrying they wouldn't stand up to an artillery strike like that. And I'd see John avenged I told myself.

Or so I had thought. Just before Cortez fired, Kolvar noticed what was happening, and to my frank astonishment he turned back and headed straight for his endangered ally. Stopping just in front of him, he threw his arms out and tried to use his biotics to deflect the round before it impacted. He succeeded, just barely, but he could have just as easily been killed.

I remember thinking that wasn't the Alex I had known but it didn't matter at that stage. This was an extraction so Garrus' focus was on getting us into the shuttle and out of there in short order. Kolvar had made it to a shuttle as well but as soon as he got it outside he began broadcasting our position to all of the ships in range. All we could do was return to the Normandy and make a run for the Relay, calling the Deceiver to fall in behind us.