Chapter 21: Into the Den
"Shepard. You need to see this."
The group turned as one and saw the vast cavern filled to capacity with innumerable organic pods, those strange chrysalises found on both Horizon and on the Collector ship. Of course, they were here. The sheer scale of the room was overwhelming.
It was a vast city, if the Normandy crew didn't know better it would not have been remise to call this vast chamber a necropolis. For a split seconded Shepard wasn't reminded of pupae in termite mounds or ants nest that the others had equated it. To her it bore the remarkable rebalance of cocooned sacrificial bodies in a trove deep within catacombs dedicated to an old gods right out of Lovecraft - Yog-Sothoth, Cthulhu, Dagon, in Shepard's reality—Harbinger most certainly belonged to that list of Eldritch horrors.
Miranda approached one of the cocoons finding a dark-haired human woman within. The face was not familiar to her. "It looks like one of the Colonists," Miranda said.
Shepard approached with measured calculating steps and touched the pod's transparent lid. Within was a brunet woman, she was young maybe twenty-six give or take a year. There was a patch on the left shoulder of her field jacket that marked her as part of Horizon's Agricultural Guild. The imprisoned woman was shifting frantically in her torpor as if in the throes of REM sleep.
"There's more! Over here!" Thane called out as he was standing before Kelly Chambers' pod.
The others of the flagship crew also stood before the stolen members of the Normandy. Their eyes scanning the pods trying to find some release catch or command interface that would open the pods. So far they had found nothing of the sort only a tendrils of tubes and pipes like so many spiders webs.
Samara chanced to look behind her feeling the pressure in the room shift. It was slight not unlike diving into the deep end of a swimming pool but now so great as to pop one's eardrums. The shift however was notable enough to gain her attention and cause her to turn her head to see one of the ventilation ducts begin venting steam.
Shepard could see the young woman's face beginning to burn. "Oh, God! She's still alive."
The Colonists now awake and aware of her plight banged helplessly on the transparent wall of her chrysalis …no her coffin. Her screams muffled but pinched high in agony to rip through the ears. She wasn't burning she was being boiled by the very 'air' within that dammed shell. There was no help for her.
YOU CANNOT SAVE THEM ALL SHEPARD. THE ASSENETION WILL CONTINUE. YOU WILL FAIL. YOU ARE SMALL, INSIGNIFICANT.
Shepard ignored the trolling Reaper. "Get them out of there!" Shepard barked dashing to another pod. "Hurry." she was desperately trying to find a release catch, a lock, anything, that would free the captives. Gods what she wouldn't give for a precision mass-effect tool right about now. If she or any of the other biotics used their dark energy powers it could—no they would destroy the capsules and the very lives within they were trying to save.
Behind her, the others were banging on the sides of chrysalis with the butts of their weapons.
Wait a second! Precision mass effect. Goddess, why didn't she think of it before? The asari forged blade she wielded during a shadow-charge along with her Omni-blade was meant to harness the dark energy of its wielder. Freeing the blade from the sheath at her left-side Shepard pulled on the reserves of the mass effect energy generated by her cells and pushed it out from her hands into the hilt and blade of her sword.
She repeatedly struck the glass of the capsule closest to the unfortunate liquefied colonist. The glass of the chrysalis shattered; she got the occupant out and went onto the next, and the next. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tali rescue Kelly. Garrus had Gabby, Thane had Keneth, the others were safely freeing more and more kidnapped crewmembers.
Crewmen: Sarah Patel, James Luceno, Hakim Ford, and Alester Theron, all worked stations along the perimeter of the CIC.
Yeomen: Richard Haddely, Zach Mathews, worked alongside Valerie Kim and Robert Cole. They manned Normandy's tactical stations along the 'neck' of the frigate between the cockpit and the CIC.
From CIC's Security were Bert Rodriguez, and Amy Dolfi
Miranda had just freed Dr. Chakwas. Just as she fell Shepard was there to catch the good doctor in her arms. Gingerly the Specter lowered the older woman to the deck. All around her more and more were being freed until they had them all out. She saw all their faces and knew all their names.
Ensigns: Grant Imahara, Tegan Copeland. Belinda Cornish, Marian Amell, and Jude Reeves-all worked the stations along the inner parameter the CIC's Galaxy Map, the latter was often the pilot of the shuttlecraft dropping the flagship team off on whatever mission they were deployed. Save for the last mission where it was Garrus that had been their pilot. The last mission where the rest of the Normandy's crew had been taken.
Following them were Privates: Johnny Fredericks, Jenny Goldstein, and Thomas Hawthorn also handled ship's security.
Chief Gunny: Vadim Rolston who handled the armory.
The last to be freed was Mess Sergeant Rupert Gardner it was Grunt that made sure the man in charge of the food and strangely enough the ship's plumbing was free and safe.
That was all twenty-seven of Normandy's skeleton crew accounted for. Not a single one of them had been juiced. Shepard's relief that she got to her people in time was palpable.
"Doctor Chakwas, you okay?" Shepard turned her attention back to the woman she held, the woman who had saved her life more times than the Specter cared to count. The Specter's voice was huskier, more labored than normal—softer.
From the decking, the white-haired physician looked up and smiled wearily to the bright blue eyes looking back had here. "Shepard…you…you came for us." There was awe and relief in the old grey eyes stained with tears.
Shepard moved closer and placed and hand on the woman's shoulder. "No one gets left behind." She helped Chakwas to her feet.
Kelly limped up to the Specter's side. She was noticeably holding her side. "Thank god you got here in time. A few more seconds and…I don't even want to think about it." her whole body was trembling. Shepard didn't know why she did it but she moved closer to the redhead and put her arm around the ex-Cerberus agent and pulled her into a hug.
Kelly desperately held onto her hero, openly weeping and she didn't care who saw it. The tears flowed harder when she felt Shepard gently squeeze her shoulder before she disentangled herself from the red head's hold and moved once again to Chakwas's side.
She saw Chambers wipe the tears from her face and try to stand a little taller despite the heavy bruise in her ribs and recalling how she had gotten. The Collector had backhanded her in the torso just before Urz…oh poor poor Urz and tried to saver her only ending up mutilated by the fucking bug. There she said it –or thought it and she didn't care who heard her use profanity.
"The Colonists were…processed. Those swarms of little robots...they…they...melted their bodies into grey liquid." Chakwas's grey eyes looked up overhead to a vast network of tubing and pipes. "Then they were pumped through these tubes."
"Why are they doing this?" Shepard asked to no one in particular. "What are they doing with our genetic material?"
"I don't know. I'm just glad you got here before it happened to us." Chakwas said, her voice still shaken of which no one could blame her for.
"So are we," Miranda said. "But we still have a job to do. We've done well so far, let's hope we can finish the job."
Shepard tapped the side of her helmet. "Joker, can you get a fix on our position?"
* Roger that Commander. All those tubes lead into the main control room, right above you. The route is blocked by a security door, but there is another chamber that runs parallel to the one you're in.*
* I cannot recommend that. Thermal emissions suggest the chamber is overrun with seeker swarms. Mordin's countermeasures cannot protect you so many at once.* EDI interrupted.
Shepard's mind worked fast and came up with a solution. "What about biotics? We can create a biotic field to keep them from getting near us."
It was Samara who spoke. "Yes. I think it may be possible. Barrier bubbles fields were used to protect against your reaves before you summed the tsunami's. I won't be able to protect everyone, but we might be able to get a small team through if they stay close."
"I can do it too." Miranda offered.
"You ain't the only one Cheerleader, me and Shepard can create em' too."
"I am not as adept but I am a biotic as well." Thane reminded them all. It was true the drell was a biotic but he rarely used his dark energy powers that most forgot that he could in face use biotic powers.
"In theory, any biotic can" Miranda agreed. "Shepard, who do you want to maintain the field?"
Shepard knew they were all very powerful biotics—save for maybe Thane. Jack was potently the most powerful human biotic other than herself. However, that was arguable since the gestalt Shepard's biotic abilities weren't purely human anymore and add to that the knowledge that came with the beacons of the prothean mastery over dark matter. There was another biotic here that was as powerful as Jack, and that was their resident Matriarch. Asari were naturals. The choice was obvious.
"Samara, you and I will lead a small team through the Seeker swarms. The rest of you will provide a diversion by going through the main passage. We will open the security doors from the other side and meet you there."
"Who should lead the diversion team?" Garrus asked, assuming he already knew the answer.
"Miranda, I want you on this." The Commander's choice surprised everyone, including Lawson.
"I'll keep the defenders busy while you slip in the back," Miranda vowed.
"What about me and the rest of the crew, Shepard? We're in no shape to fight." Chakwas asked, her head shaking.
*Commander,* Joker piped up on the comm-system, as always the Flight Lieutenant was listening in on the conversations. This time however it was not eavesdropping on conversations between two lovers. "We have enough systems back online to do a pickup run. But we need to land back from your position.*
"We can't afford to go back, Commander," Garrus said hating himself for pointing that fact out.
Shepard looked at her stolen crew and the few faces she didn't recognize. They must belong to one of the colonies. At least she had saved some of them. "You'll never make it on your own without help. I'll send someone with you." She looked from Garrus to Mordin and made her decision. The only one that was presently viable.
"Mordin, you operated a clinic on Omega in one of the more dangerous sections during a plague and kept everyone in lockdown alive. You also ran missions with the STG on Tuchanka and survived—team intact. I trust you can do the same for the crew and the others."
"Consider it done Commander." The former STG agent bobbed his horned head. "Joker, send me a map of the Landing Zone. We will meet you there."
*Roger that, Professor. Sending to your Omni tool now.*
"Mordin, before you and the others move out make sure you arm up with the weapon from the fallen Collectors. The bugs particle SMGs and assault rifles are effective against armor and shields—even theirs. There might not be enough for all of you to arm yourselves but there will be enough for some of you that can manage it. I know your minds and bodies are taxed, I appreciate that, but if you can help defend those that can not, I need you do to so."
Because they needed it, because morale could encourage soldiers to do the impossible, Shepard moved forward and touched all twenty-seven of her people on their shoulders and said as she moved amongst them. "I am proud of all of you as you should be of each other and yourselves. Mordin, keep them alive." She moved back to her original position
"Tali, Jack, with me. We all have our assignments. Move out." Shepard moved to take point of Team Maco
Garrus blue eyes fell not to his Commander but to his wife. This might well be the last time he saw her. The mother of his future children. True their children if they could be called children at this point were only frozen fertilized eggs in Mordin's lab.
I love you Tali. He said though not aloud and not for the first time he wished he shared a telepathic/empathic bond with his wife in the like that Shepard shared with her bandmate Liara. Come back home, Sweetcheeks.
ME~ME~ ME~ME~ ME~ME~ ME~ME
The circuitous path snaked around half walls, corridors, and bulkheads leading the companions further down and down into the base.
"Let's go, Commander. Stay close, I cannot protect you if you leave the barrier." Samara informed the others.
"Roger that. You heard her people move out, steady and precise."
The first half klick was slow going, outside the Samara's bubble the bugs insistent droning buzz made everyone's teeth itch.
*Miranda here, team is in position, all we need …crackle…Shepard.*
"Damn, the swarms are interfering with radio contact." groused the Specter. "Ready for this?" She motioned her team to continue to move forward.
They had only gone fifty paces before Samara called out a warning of incoming enemies.
The first assault came from above. Four no… five troopers. Shepard and Jack both activated their control over dark energy sending it into the heat sinks of their weapons to case the projectiles to become warp ammunition. Such, were exceptionally effective against enemies enhanced armor and shields, weakening them against biotic attacks and tech assaults.
WE ARE ASSUMING CONTROL
"Oh no, you're not!" Tali snapped back even as she sent her drone to fire on the golden glow of the floating bug. The lasers cut through the barriers, in that instant the quarian fired her plasma shotgun…the one she snatched of a geth jugernought back on the Heretic's base.
The others of Maco squat seized whatever cover that could be found, bunkered down, and painted their targets, ever mindful that if they took one step outside of Samara's bubble, they were done for.
Over the radio's crackle came Miranda's voice. *Acquiring target*
ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME
The main force held the line. Kasumi back to back with Miranda had set up an efficient kill zone. Tech combinations of overload and neuroshock were exceptionally effective—cripple their armor then cripple their minds. Their bodies were so wracked with pain they were unable to take any action, leaving them wide open for a kill shot.
"Acquiring target," Miranda called out over the radio—both to her squad and Team Maco, not knowing if the later could hear her transitions.
The husks and abominations rushing their position were dispatched by the left flank. Dancing in and out like some spectral acrobat was Kasumi utilized a deadly combination of flash-bangs and shadow strikes. Once she stuck the enemy in the back with her omni blades thus crippling their armor Grunt punched through the carapace with point-blank shots with his claymore. It was difficult to discern which was louder over the din of battle the ringing blast of the krogan's shotgun or his zealous full belly laugh after each kill.
Holding point Miranda unleashed slams and leashes against the abominations that once dead exploded, in a blaze of bone and muscle viscera shrapnel. If done swiftly enough the rancid ruby husks took out a few of their own as they detonated.
Pink mist cloaked the air around them. In that haze of flash-bangs and viscera, The team switched between the elements setting enemies ablaze one moment and in a second breath freezing them.
On a broken platform one level above them were the snipers: Garrus, Zaeed, Legion, and Thane. Bodies prone the Black Widows propped up allowing the quartet to effectively and efficiently zero in on targets. The frozen ones shattered when those in fire melted to the deck after taking a bullet or two or four to the cranium.
ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME
WE ARE YOUR GENETIC DESTINY
And it starts. Harbinger, just couldn't keep his metallic-eldritch mouth shut.-couldn't keep from antagonizing the Specter and her crew. Of course, he couldn't.
Shepard gritted her white teeth, her resolve, and pushed forward into a rush of husks and abominations. The only positive thing about being bottle-necked was there was no chance of being ambushed.
Team Maco had advanced once more, steadily eating the ground between them and their objective. Only to be forced to stop their moment once more as more squads of the enemy came in from the left but Maco had the high ground. No one here was a sniper even still the height advantage gave open opportunities for headshots and to arc biotics attacks over the barricades blow that the Collectors were using for cover.
"I cannot fight back from this position; tell me when you are ready to move out," Samara announced. She took a defensive position behind one of the corroded bulkheads.
I WILL DIRECT THIS PERSONALLY. THIS IS YOUR ANNIHILATION
The possessed Collector stayed back giving Shepard, Jack, and Tali ample time to duck its attacks. Without having to comminute the order both biotics returned with fire with singularities, warp-stasis, and a steady fire of shockwaves, reaves, and pulls. Tali swiftly dispatched an overload assault on the possessed Collector's barrier. By now they all knew it was one of the few effective masseurs against the enhanced creature's defensives.
Her attack was followed by both Shepard and Jack using singularities on the bug. Dark energies pulled at it from opposing sides ripping it apart and crushing it at the same time.
The combined force of mass effect energies caused a larger corona of gravitational power causing those around the possessed to be caught up into its vortex. While bodies tumbled in the air below their firing position Tali used both her drones to harass the Collectors, distraction them further. BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
"All clear, ready to move up Commander on your order." Samara's genteel voice said from somewhere in the background, causing the Specter to turn and look at the older woman before acknowledging the comment with a single head bob.
ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME
"Nice shot." Miranda complemented Thane whose shot landed between directly between a processed trooper's four eyes with an incendiary slug, feeling it. "Time to spread them out. Capture and hold the bug platforms. Do not enter another's firing solution." she warned the other five as they circled as a wolf-pack into new positions.
The Collectors] new wave came not from husks, abominations, or possessed troopers but in the octagonal hover-platforms they sued to circumnavigate the base's interior. Miranda's strategy was simple but logical.
Let the bugs come up. Meet them and kill them on the surface. Seize their platforms and fire on the rest, forcing the bugs to expend sixty percent to eighty percent of their current inbound forces in attempts to take Hammerhead's foothold.
It was the same strategy Garrus and Shepard had used on the bridge back on Omega when they waged war on the three main Mercenary guilds the Shadow Broker had hired to assassinate the Specter and her wife Liara.
"Secure to lines," Miranda ordered, directing the others to take possession of one of the hovering platforms.
To her right, Garrus dogged past volleys of fire from the floating platform activated the jet boosters on his boots. Once more the turian was exceptionally grateful for finding the prothean cache back on Ilos a year ago which included the gravity device he was currently wearing. At one time Shepard had mistakenly called it a gravity leveler until Tali fervently pointed out the problematic technical and scientific issues by labeling the device thusly. The devices went from grav-levelers to grav-locks so that the abbreviation could remain the same.
Those trained in GL use learned to fall 'up' soon enough to slow their 'descent' to a controllable fall, then to fall 'down' again onto whatever surface they wanted if they desired to stay on it for a while. Squad members particularly those without biotics learned that they were essentially using the equivalent to a biotic lift. GLs differed from meg-boots which relied upon magnetism to function in this regards as it functioned on non-magnetic surfaces
To this day Shepard wasn't at all convinced the GLs had any practical purpose other than functioning as meg-locks on hardsuits on surfaces that were not magnetic. Until now Garrus was inclined to agree with his Commander, now however he was able to 'fall' up towards the floating disks, compensate for the differing gravity to miss for at least the first round as the bullets flying through the altered gravity area will gain a new vector change not anticipated.
Thane a sniper as well took position as Garrus's spotter giving the turrian the necessary coordinates to make corrections on subsequent rounds, of course, as long as the GL wasn't changing the vector randomly and quickly the shots were true.
"Here's a little something to remember me by," Garrus growled, and shot each bug trooper in the head. Three bodies fell to the decking of the platform just as Garrus turned off the GL and dropped down onto the disk taking over the controls.
On the ground, Grunt pivoted and fired his shotgun from the hip. The burst struck the seconded bug in the side the trooper slammed to the ground as his finger tightened on his weapon's trigger as he died, A massive hole blossomed on the platting above the krogan's head.
He slammed a fresh heat sink into his weapon and continued to advance. "I. Am. Krogan. Fear. ME!"
As the team continued up the path, they encountered scion, more husks, and a pair of troopers, all of whom seemed to melt away under the combined assault by Hammerhead's sniper riffles, the former STG's assault weapons, and well-placed grenades.
ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME
"Hostiles, directly forward," Samara warned.
Shepard led her squad down the hall, past the corpses of Collectors that died trying to stave off the invasion of Normandy's soldiers. The bugs still came in increasing numbers, two, four then five of the Troopers became one of the possessed. Plasma rounds bounced from the bulkhead and angled right for them.
Shepard's shields took the brunt of it, and she returned fire, as did the rest of the team. Jack blew one trooper apart with a barrage of dark energy shockwaves. The rest were finished off by a combination of warp assault rifle fire, biotics, and Tali's plasma shotgun.
They were moving too slowly. They all knew it. They couldn't sprint down the twisting switch-back passages and remain under Samara's umbrella.
Ahead of them, the tunnel opened up into a vast open chamber—baring the look of some lost mitotic archipelago. The pillars teased Shepard's imagination making her think of the constructs as of shards of crystal or even and perhaps better yet as the Giant's Causeway of Ireland.
In that vastness was the tell-tail whirl of the octagonal mobile platforms. Aboard them were not the bugs but a near-full platoon of husks and abominations-the Collectors' disposable shock-troops
"I'll be here," Samara said taking cover against a far pillar. "Inform me when you are ready to proceed."
I AM UNSTOPPABLE.
Team Maco ducked behind fallen detritus and bulkheads. From here the team lobbed volleys of grenades, breaking up the first wave of enemies.
"Tali set your turrets, lay in omni- tripwires. Jack set singularities just ahead of the net." Shepard ordered
"Aye aye, Commander" Both quarian and ex-con confirmed they heard and understood their orders. Weaving between pillars and walls Jack and Tali created the net just as ordered. An omni latticework connected floor, ceiling, and bulkheads
Omni bowcasters taken from Donovan Hock's estate had been given to each member of the Flagship team and while they didn't always utilize the new weapons, those that did could never deny the usefulness of the monofilament tripwires. The bowcasters were exceptionally useful against the mindless husks. Who had not the intelligence to avoid or negotiate around the webbing.
Once laid out Tali and Jack dashed back for cover just as a flurry of plasma bolts rained in on their former positions. Ever mindful never to step outside the bubble in apropos to the constant barrage Maco Team became pinned down.
ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL
Far outnumbered the quartet needed one of Shepard's out of the box machinations. Desperation made her take a step forward to the edge of Samara's bubble. Only to be grabbed by the pauldrons and yanked forcibly back.
"Oh no, you don't!" Jack barked. "I know what you're thinking, Queen of the Girl Scouts. That tsunami thingy, you can't! Those swarms will kill you before you even start the reave. Think of another idea." Jack popped up and took a shot at the moaning abomination that lurched-ran towards their position.
Shepard didn't argue. Then a thought came to her. She and Shiala had killed a fraxon shark back on Thessia by trapping the massive shark in a warp-stasis-field then slinging a singularity into that bubble. It had ruptured the internal organs of the giant fish into chum killing it almost instantly.
Jack of course hadn't been there for that impressive display of biotic power. But after Shepard swiftly related the tactics of the assault the ex-con smirked madly.
"Let's do it." the younger woman grin became all teeth.
"Commander! The GLs we can use them." Tali piped up as the thought was still forming and coalescing in her mind. To illustrate her point she unclipped her device from her belt.
"Not possible, they'd take us outside the bubble…" Shepard started but stopped as Tali vigorously shook her hooded head, just as she popped one of the bugs in the head as it hovered directly above their position.
"Not us, for them."
Of course! Tali once theorized that an activated device with an adhesive agent flung at an enemy target would put them out of commission. Even if the target wasn't sentient enough to get rid of the device and fall back down they'd end up too high in the atmosphere, freezing and suffocating as well as irradiated. They'd end up drifting in space, repelled from all objects with gravity fields.
Before the grenade launchers went heavy soldiers always used hand-thrown munitions. Shepard always insisted her team always keep a few on hand, they had proven their worth from Elysium onwards.
"Make it work Tali. Do it fast." Shepard commanded.
"Somebody better start doing something real soon, we got more bugs on those flying disk things! Nine o'clock!" Jack slung her hands out sending out shockwave aver shockwave. There were just so damned many of the mother-fucking space roaches.
The enemy was encroaching on their position at a rapid pace. Shepard and Jack set up a tertiary lattice net-fortifying their position buying Tali time to create the GL grenades. Her fingers used to highly technical, delicate work. She'd had to admit things would have progressed more swiftly had she brought with her duct-tape from the ship's stores. But who has time to think about simplistic yet extremely useful adhesive on high priority rescue missions?
"Ready!" Tali declared triumphantly tossing Shepard one of the makeshift GL grenades.
ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME
"Fire! Fire! Fire!" Garrus commanded from his perch aboard the hijacked platform.
"They're swarming!" Mordin cycled from cryoblast to inferno rounds trying to push the enemy back. "Don't let them box us in."
"Choose your targets," Thane advised. It was easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of hostiles. They were all professionals, all knew to gage the target and eliminate the threat. Even when the enemy was a flood.
The Collectors were relentless, even as their casualties mounted up they still did not pull back from the assault, nor change tactics. They continued to spiral in from above in overwhelming numbers.
"Oh, crap," Garrus grunted as he saw another one of the octagonal platforms hovering above them. "We got more of those damned platforms!"
"Our position is not optimal!" Legion shouted above the din of gunfire and engines.
"Tell us something we don't know" Zaeed sputtered in sarcasm.
"Direct hit to the platforms' centrifuge will disrupt their communications."
Garrus and Thane looked towards each other with one of Shepard's 'I got an idea' expressions.
"Good to know." Garrus directed their disk towards the bugs
Amonkira Lord of Hunters, grant that my hands be steady, my aim be true and my feet swift. And should the worse come to pass grant me forgiveness
"See the rest through this.!" the assassin said just before he hit Garrus's GL sending the ex-cop to 'fall' up
"What the hell are you doing!?" Miranda snarled into her radio." Thane god damn it!"
"He's buying us time." It was Zaeed who answered.
The Collectors spun away from their unyielding assault on insurgents just in time to one of their stolen platform dash across the air intent on careening into their transport. They had not the time to pilot it away before-the explosion
ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME
The explosion of the three platforms lit up the air before them, filling it with angry red and orange flames obliterating not only a small portion of seekers but the incoming transports.
It was a breathing room but it would not last.
The team moved into the bowels of the structure, the spires stood several stories high, which was misleading. They wound down a curving ramp, the air was still and slightly stale and stinking with ozone. They slipped through heavily shadowed rooms, passed down spiral ramps, passing through galleries filled with strange forms, the walls and floors were made of the same burnished, heavily engraved metal that they encountered elsewhere on the base.
Heat hit them like a wall-not just the heat of the corridors, but the hot flecks carried by the smoke of the battle. Only their suits staved off most of the effects of battles, even still they felt sweat dampen their body gloves under their hardsuits. Their helms allowed recycled air to fill their lungs saving them from drinking in the feted air of the base.
Behind them each step was taxing Samara's reserves; she had never maintained her barriers for so long—not since initial training to become a Justicar. Each step she felt her strength waning. She set her jaw tight her resolve unbroken, the mantras of the Code reciting in her mind as she clung to the words that lent her power and focus.
Around her, the Commander and the other young women continued to fire and push back against the insectoids. All three of them just as determined as she to see this to the end—a new mother wanting to get back to her family, a new wife wanting to return to her husband's side, a young woman who put to rest her demons of a tortured past and now an open to a new world of possibilities.
Samara summoned all that hope, all that desire into maintaining the barrier if it failed her if she failed her team…they fell…they died-that wouldn't happen. She will not allow it to happen. She would get these young warriors to end.
ASSUMING CONTROL OVER THIS FORM.
The possessed trooper was coming in fast, too fast, and the Specter knew she wasn't going to get a kill-shot in time. The bug flew past its companions, as the Specter sprayed it with gunfire, emptied clip, she slapped a new clip into place, racked a round into the chamber aimed at the possessed trooper's head.
It fell only to have another take its place.
WE ARE YOUR GENETIC DESTINY
"Great he's on a loop." Jack groused.
Thank god someone else heard that. Shepard's hindmind said trying not to sound too relieved that she wasn't the only one Harbinger was trolling.
"Bucket-head you got another one of those handy bombs?" Jack roared taking a covering position behind a wall
"No, we used all of them on those platforms. " BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! "And don't call me Bucket-Head, Psychotic Biotic!"
Jack whipped her head around to Tali and winked "Then we do this the fun way." She turned back to the bugs slamming them with a warp just as The Queen of the Girl Scouts flung out one of her singularities.
"All clear Commander, let me know when you're ready to move up." Samara voiced.
Up and over, up and over. always going downwards, the broken bulkheads and flooring careered like so many broken bones.
ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME
"Now let's finish you off." Miranda's voice carried out over the din of gunfire. Challenging—defiant—victorious.
"Let that mother fucker dodge this!" Zaeed hoiked the rocket launcher onto his left shoulder and squeezed the trigger. The shot was true and slammed into the center of mass of the rushing scion and blew its chest wide open. Orange blood fountained straight up, splashing the remains carcass of the collector, the bulkheads only to come raining down the old merc in vicious gore as bug collapsed under its weight Zaeed paused, switched to his assault rifle, and started navigating the broken terrain to get to the Thane's crashed platform.
The fool lizard had slammed into the enemy craft with his platform, bringing them both down but threat of costing his own life with such a daring move.
Aided by the old merc the assassin found his feet only to be shoved back into cover behind the wrecked remains of the platforms. The enemies just kept coming and coming, there was no end to them!
Where was Shepard?
ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME
Finally, after numerous twists and turns, they reached the great bay doors,
"I'll hold on…as long as….I can… Samara's voice became strained as if it took exceptional effort to even speak and continue to maintain the constant drain on the matriarch's reserves of dark energy to hold the bubble aloft.
Tali positioned herself closer to the weakened matriarch acting as a guardian angel to the much older female. The engineer went as far as to program her defensive drone to hover close to Samara shielding her even as the Justicar shielded the rest of them.
"Hang in there Samara, I've got you covered." Tali encouraged.
Jack and Shepard forced their attention to the near-constant flood of Collector drones both possessed and free-willed and husks abominations and scions. Their reserves of dark energy not as taxed as Samara's were nearly depleted as well. They had to press on—to keep moving. They were dead if they didn't.
What was only three minutes at most seemingly stretched out into agonizing hours. Samara sensed rather than saw Tali targeting enemies and dispatching them as they came too close to their flanks. She looked and offered a pitiful relieved half-grin.
"I can see….the entrance." Samara wheezed out yet clearly relieved.
"Me too," Tali and Shepard said in unison.
"Hurry Commander." Samara's voice now thin—reedy—desperate. Safety was so close. So close.
Jack cut a glance behind her and winced when she saw that Samara was walking as if every bone in the asari's body was slowly being pulverized from within. The sheer amount of energy it took to sustain the bubble was staggering. If the Justicar didn't drop it soon she would fry herself, her brain would have an aneurism.
"Shepard, we need to get there soon," Jack said sounding worried, her lips compressed into a thin line. She could vicariously or rather perhaps a better adverb should sympathetically feel the asari's failing reserves. "She's not looking good."
"Let's movie!" Shepard urging them on, firing almost continuously as did Jack and Tali. The trio unleashed a storm of abilities both biotic and tech, there was an almost constant fire of weapons.
The entrance. Thank the Goddess! They made it. They made it!
Samara moved past the fallen bulkheads over the ledge of the open hatch, Tali and Jack behind her, Shepard holding out covering their six until they were all inside
"Keep it up"
"Hurry Commander!" desperation marred the voice of the asari.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
The hoard still came but now they were in, Tali rush the control box and slammed the blast doors shut effectively cutting off the bugs and zombies.
Samara dropped the bubble, shivered past the sheer exhaustion, and took a much needed much-deserved breath of air.
ME~ME~ ME~ME~ ME~ME~ ME~ME
"Do you copy? come on Shepard!" Miranda demanded. "Where are you?"
*I copy. What's your position?*
Sweet Jesus, the Commander finally answered Miranda thought: then said: "We're pinned down at the door. We're taking heavy fire."
*We're coming. Just hold on!* Shepard reassured. *Get this door open.*
From there side of course they could not see that it was the exhausted Justicar to heed the order.
Miranda came in holding her midriff, at first Shepard thought the former Cerberus Agent was gut shot but it turned out she was fine, only winded. The others though battered and exhausted yet lived.
Though she was every mindful to school her expression there was no disguising the relief flooding the Commander's features.
"Joker, are you at the rendezvous point," Shepard asked after tapping the radio receiver in her helm.
*I'm here Commander.* Joker answered, his voice clear. Apparently, the radio disruption the seeker swarms had caused in the causeway was not a problem in this hub. *Chakras and the others just arrived.*
EDI interrupted nearly repeating the pilots words.. *Mordin's group just arrived, Shepard, no casualties*
Miranda smiled. "Excellent. Now let's make it count. EDI, what's our next step?"
*There should be some nearby platforms that will take you to the main control console. From there you can overload the system and destroy the base.*
*Commander, you got a problem. The Collectors are massing just outside the door, it won't be long before they're through.* Joker warned. The upgrades sensors Thane had given the semantics for apparently were more useful than just scanning planets for mineral resources and anomalies. They were able to penetrate the Collector base's shields and give a concrete and cohesive report on hostile movement.
Shepard climbed up a docked platform, now was the time. "We need to finish this before they get through."
"Pick a team to go with you, the others can remain here and defend this position, that should buy you some time," Miranda suggested. There were times the Commander believed that Lawson forgot she was no longer a department head for Cerberus as her suggestions nearly came out as orders. She'd make a good XO that was most certainly true.
Shepard looked at all the faces and it seemed the choice was self-evident. "Miranda, Tali with me."
"I'm ready Commander." The quarian said in earnest and climbed up beside Shepard on the docked platform.
"Me too." Miranda echoed. "Anything you want to say before we do this?"
Shepard scanned each face once more, memorizing them. "The Collectors, the Reapers, they aren't a threat to us, they are a threat to everything," Shepard' hand swiped across the air emphasizing her words. "Everyone." her fist pounded into her palm. "Those are the lives we're fighting for. That's the scale." she paced now back and forth on the platform's surface as if she were commanded a stage and not a battlefield. "Its been a long journey, and no one is coming out without scars." at her words Grunt excited slammed both fists together and this wide krogan mouth turned into a very large crocodilian smile.
"But it call comes down to this moment. We win or lose it all in the next few minutes. Make me proud." her blue eyes looked to each face of her crew, her people, "Make yourselves proud."
"Well said." Miranda whose hand was on her hip and she actually smiled feeing the pride swell in her as did all the others. "Let's go finish this."
Just as Tali was about to engage the platform's engines, Garrus called out. "Hold on a sec, babe."
Behind the mask she frowned, now was not the time to be all husband a wify, and she felt rather embarrassed Garrus would make a public display of their marriage, on the other hand, she was deeply touched that he had. Then her frown turned into an expression of confusion as her husband did not approach her but Shepard.
Garrus stepped up to Shepard, at first his steps were confident, determined the queerly hesitant. "Commander a word." he wasn't asking. He turned and moved just out of earshot of his wife and the other humans.
Shepard acquiesced. "Garrus what is it?"
"Request permission to join team Maco on this last run."
"Denied."
He opened his mouth to protest but stopped when he saw the red and black gauntleted hand of his CO raise between them. "I shouldn't have to explain. But I will. You're my Trusted and the Normandy's XO, and Tali's husband. If we don't make it out I need you to lead them."
"Shepard…"
"I mean lead them."
Oh….lead them. Them not Normandy's crew, but Them as in lead the rest of the galaxy into war against the Reapers. Band the collective military might of the Council races and the other unaligned races against the Reapers…That lead them…
Oh, Crap.
Shepard nodded as it dawned on her Trusted's face just what she had meant.
"I need Tali to bear witness what is here. She needs to see and record what has been happening here and the just what the Collectors are doing with human genetic materials I don't know what they are up to but Mordin already pointed out once that humans are one of the most diverse species. It's why we made perfect testing subjects for Malian to cure the genophage. We don't know what those bugs are doing with human genetic goo but it won't be good. All I know is that it has everything to do with the Reapers.
"I'll have Tali record everything in one of her drones and transmit it to one of the drones that will be with you. I chose Miranda to lead the second assault because I know you. You'd sacrifice your own life to ensure your team gets out. I know you as I know myself. But I need you to survive and to lead them, Garrus.
"Whether or not Team Maco evacuates the central chamber you are to extricate yourself and the rest of Team Hammerhead. That's a direct order."
Garrus's mandibles flared in clear disdain for his orders. He was her Trusted, Spirits damn it. But he understood fully what was being asked of him. He saluted. "Roger that, Commander." That was the only answer that was needed.
"I'll see you on the other side, Vakarian." Shepard grinned. Then touched his shoulder as she would a brother, in fact, that was Garrus was to her. "I don't make it out of here. There's a holodisk I need you to give to Liara and my girls." another smile-thin this time. "I'll save you a seat in Heaven and buy the first round."
At that Tali engaged the controls of the platform and set its course towards the basses main control hub.