A/N: just FYI, I skip a massive chunk of game plot that takes place in the middle of this because it's irrelevant, soz :P
Also, glad to see folks are still reading these XD I write them for myself- Andromeda is my happy place -but it's nice to know folks are enjoying them :)
Bullets whined overhead, cracking into the sloping wall of ice behind Peebee and Cora as they crouched together behind a low wall bordering a small kett shuttle base atop a cliff on Voeld. The kett rounds carved chips of ice from the slope that showered over the two women. Several feet away, Sara knelt concealed amongst a pile of crates, head tilted as she peered through the scope of her sniper at the battle raging across the ground at the entrance to the base. Kett supplies and vehicles burned, turning snow to slush, and every kett stationed there seemed to be fighting off the angaran resistance. The distraction was well underway.
"Ryder, you bring us to the nicest places," Peebee sighed dreamily, checking over her pistol with her shoulders to the wall as she waited for a break in the kett fire so she could retaliate.
"I like to treat my crew," Sara played along with a grin hidden behind her helmet. She was tracking the progress of a kett chosen across the snow as he sprinted from cover to cover towards a group of angaran resistance fighters huddled behind the burning remains of a kett land vehicle. "How do you like your new coat?"
"Love it!" Peebee exclaimed. The bullets shredding the ice behind them halted and she peered over the wall, firing off a few rounds from her pistol as a wraith leaped over a stack of crates just ahead of them. She hunkered down again as the wraith flopped to the ground, uttering a pathetic gurgle before going silent and still. She brushed ice shards from the shoulders of a thick leather jacket lined with warm fur, a gift donated by an angaran resistance pilot who had been horrified that the crazy asari thought a thin coat would do for the freezing temperatures of Voeld. It was slightly too big, but Peebee seemed to think that only improved its qualities.
"Only the best for you!" Sara quipped.
"You two realize you're not actually on a date, right?" Cora asked uncertainly, looking between them both. They seemed to have forgotten they were in the middle of a life-or-death situation.
"Of course!" Sara gave a half laugh, adjusting her grip on her sniper, finger brushing the trigger, as the chosen she was watching broke cover once more. Her crosshairs settled over his head, tracked his course across the snow and ice. "Down you go," she murmured, squeezing the trigger. There was a deafening crack and green sprayed from the kett's skull as he crumpled limply to one side.
"Nice shot," Cora complimented her as Sara began lining up another.
"Pathfinder Ryder, charges are set," an angaran informed her over comms. Sara heard it at her ear, relayed through a tiny speaker inside her helmet.
She pulled her rifle back and sat with her shoulders to the crates as Peebee and Cora started forwards, putting pressure on the kett forces to push them away from the angaran soldiers.
"Brilliant," Sara replied. "Get your guys out of there and meet up with us. We need to be heading for the facility when those charges blow."
The plan was simple enough. Destroy the shuttles at the kett bases most likely to respond to an attack on the main facility to effectively strand them and stop them backing up their forces within the facility while Sara and the angara rescued the Moshae. The Tempest team was with one group of angara causing a scene at the entrance to the base so a second group could set up explosives and destroy the kett craft on the other side of the building. Several miles away another team, led by Jaal, was doing the same thing at another base. So far, everything had gone according to plan.
"No can do," came the grave reply, and Sara bit back a sigh. Of course there was a hiccup... "We have kett heading this way. They'll disable the bombs if we leave."
"We're on our way," Sara said, holstering her sniper over her shoulder and reaching for her assault rifle. "Sit tight."
Cora looked back towards Sara, hazel eyes questioning behind her tinted faceplate. She had heard Sara's half of the conversation and sensed a problem.
"We need to cross the base," Sara explained. "Bombers need our help."
Cora glanced over the battle raging around them, the huntress in her calculating the outcome of a hundred different scenarios at once. "We can skirt the fight using the walkways and move inside. It should be a clean run from there."
Sara nodded, swapping sniper for assault rifle and preparing to move out. "Don't engage unless you're seen, we don't want to draw unnecessary attention," she said.
"You hear that, Peebee?" Cora taunted her asari colleague.
"I am not above shooting you in the ass, Harper," Peebee called back without looking as she eyed up the pathway they would be taking.
Cora raised her eyebrows and glanced the Pathfinder's way.
"On that note, Peebee can lead," Sara ordered, eager to avoid arguments. "We'll follow you. And look sharp, we need those shuttles destroyed. There'll be enough kett in that facility without them scrambling reinforcements."
"Yes, ma'am!" Peebee replied and darted out across the snow. They moved forwards, keeping low and using as much cover as they could to avoid detection. They climbed a metal ramp and hurried across a platform cleared of snow and ice thanks to the ring of heat lamps around its perimeter towards the base entrance. As they dashed towards the open doorway that lead inside a kett stepped out from behind the crates it had been using as cover and shouldered its weapon, preparing to open fire. Without breaking stride Cora caught him in a powerful biotic lift and sent his body arcing through the air. The three women didn't pause to see where he landed as they hurried inside, feeling the temperature rise with each step. Sara saw the thin layer of frost coating her metal gauntlets began to melt and bead into water droplets.
"They must have figured out we're here for their shuttles and broke off from the fight to protect them," Cora spoke as they jogged along a corridor. Inside the base seemed deserted, all available kett outside dealing with the resistance. Alarms still wailed throughout the building, calling all personnel to arms.
"Well, they had to start using their brains at some point," Peebee commented, glancing into rooms as they passed, making sure they were empty to avoid any potentially fatal surprises.
"They could have waited until after we crippled them," Sara grumbled, AR held across her body, muscles tensed and ready for action.
"Hey, who wants their operations to run smoothly?" Cora asked, her stance deceptively relaxed as she hurried after her companions. "This kind of thing keeps you on your toes. As a huntress-"
"This way!" Peebee interrupted loudly, rushing through a doorway and leading them down a staircase.
Cora narrowed her eyes. "How do you know...?" She asked suspiciously, fairly certain Peebee was about to lead them on a wild goose chase through the base.
"I don't, I just guessed," Peebee admitted, now leading the way along another corridor. "But we need to go down to get onto the airfield, so..."
Cora looked sideways at Sara who simply shrugged and followed the asari. They both had to admit it was a fair point.
Apparently, Peebee had guessed right as moments later they found themselves facing a wide doorway jammed open through which they could see rows of shuttles crouched like a bizarre flock of dark metal birds spread across a flat sheet of ice and snow. The ice dropped off into a steep cliff overlooking a vast sea of white that stretched towards the dark smudge of a mountain range in the distance. Dotted across the ice plains below were patches of darkness that Sara knew were further kett structures and small bases. From here the kett craft could carry dozens of troops and drop them all over Voeld. Destroying those vehicles wouldn't just make their mission at the main facility easier, it would aid the angaran resistance in the long run too.
A firefight raged between the shuttles and the base, angaran fighters bunkered down behind the shuttles while around a dozen kett spread out between them and the base, taking up positions behind crates and portable shield walls, pushing ever closer to the angara.
Sara wordlessly motioned to Peebee and Cora, indicating flanking positions for them to take behind the kett. They would use the element of surprise to gain the upper hand, attacking the kett from behind while the angara fought from ahead of them.
As Peebee and Cora moved into place, Sara lay down on her stomach in the doorway, releasing her sniper and assault rifles from their magnetic harnesses over her shoulders, setting down the AR beside herself within easy reach. She would likely only get off a couple of sniper rounds before the kett began to turn her way. Her position was crude, with no support for her rifle and little time to pick her targets and make her shots. But she could make it work. She had to. Those bombs had to detonate.
Sara peered through her scope, surveying the scene ahead. The base was at the top of a slight slope before it evened out into flat land, affording her some height over the battlefield at least. She saw no angaran casualties and felt a flicker of relief, but it wouldn't be long before the kett overpowered the angara through sheer numbers. She marked several targets at the back of the kett group, took a breath, held it, and fired. Headshot. As the body fell she readjusted her aim, paused and fired. A second body crumpled, a puppet with cut strings. As she sighted on a third target the kett began to turn her way, sending retaliatory fire blindly towards the building. Her shot went wide. She dropped the sniper and rolled to one side, grabbing her AR and using the scant cover provided by the doorway to climb to her feet. Bullets raked the floor where she had been laying and then she heard the muffled boom of a biotic explosion and knew Peebee and Cora had sprung into action. She risked a glance around the doorway and was pleased to see absolute pandemonium had broken out amongst the kett as, with the attack coming from multiple directions, they had no clue which way to turn. They scattered, trying to find better cover, to regroup and reassess the battlefield. Sara scooped up her sniper and returned it to its position over her left shoulder blade, then sprinted down the slope to enter the fray.
She saw Cora streak forwards wreathed in rippling blue light. She crashed into a kett soldier twice her size and released the biotic charge she had built to send him sprawling across ice. As she finished him off with two rounds from her pistol Sara noticed a faint ripple in the air at her friend's feet. Panic seized her heart as she recognized the warning sign just before the wraith materialized.
She managed only a strangled shout of, "Cora!"
Cora whirled towards the shout but it was too late, the wraith clamped it's jaws around her lower leg and jerked hard. Cora went down with a yelp of pain. She landed on her back, helmet striking the ice with a crack that stunned her. Her pistol fell from her hand and clattered uselessly away, spinning across ice as biotic barrier and shields broke under the force of vice-like jaws.
The kett were coming together, recovering from the surprise attack. The angara were doing their best to keep their enemy occupied but Sara saw the kett homing in on Cora, now the weakest link. She bolted, sprinting forwards out across open ground in clear view of everyone. Stupid, she knew it was stupid, but in that moment the only thing that truly mattered was saving Cora.
Cora, who had lost her gun and didn't have the space to use a biotic attack for fear of damaging her leg further. Instead she summoned a second barrier to absorb some of the force from the wraith's powerful jaws while lashing out with the heel of her other foot, slamming it repeatedly into heavy bone plating. The wraith snarled and bit down harder.
Cora tipped her head back and let out an agonized shout, vision going dark at the edges as pain raced the length of her leg and up into her chest, white hot and all consuming. Fangs needled through armour, finding flesh and biting deep, keeping her immobile.
Sara ducked under a hail of bullets, running as fast as she could. She tripped under the impact of her shields absorbing a second round of shots, fell, rolled, came back up running. Her helmet flashed an icon on her faceplate, alarms warning that her shields were down.
"PEEBEE!" She screamed, spraying fire from her auto rifle at the approaching kett, forcing them back into cover as the angaran forces moved to intercept them. She threw herself into a slide to close the distance between Cora and herself, dropped her gun and gripped the upper and lower jaws of the creature pinning her friend and jerked her arms apart. There was a loud crack and the wraith howled. She forced it down into the snow with one hand as it writhed against the ground, claws scrabbling for purchase against ice. She called up her omni-blade with the other hand and punched down. The beast went still.
Peebee appeared beside her, using a biotic charge to cross the battlefield. She dropped to a crouch beside the two humans and threw up a biotic barrier around the three of them. A sphere of blue rippling energy shimmered into life.
"You fucking fool," Cora bit out through chattering teeth. She looked absolutely furious with Sara as the Pathfinder wrenched her blade free and shoved the corpse aside. "They could have killed you."
Sara ignored her and all but ripped the utility belt off her waist in her efforts to get at the spare medigel sachets she was carrying. Cora grit her teeth and lifted her shoulders enough to look down at her leg. It was a mess of blood and torn armour and fabric. She closed her eyes and let her head drop back.
She muttered a, "fuck." She would have to sit out the mission, get medical aid… Goddammit. She was already feeling pleasantly numb from her armours own medigel stores doing their part. The pain had receded to a dull throbbing.
"The resistance are dealing with the remaining kett," Peebee informed them over her shoulder.
"Keep that barrier up," Sara ordered, tearing open one of the medigel sachets.
Peebee nodded and faced front again. "Yes, ma'am."
"You listening?" Cora snapped at Sara.
"I think you're going into shock," Sara told her, spreading medigel over the ragged wound the wraith had ripped into Cora's leg. Cora barely felt it. Everything was starting to feel slightly fuzzy. She ran her tongue over her teeth, her mouth feeling full of feathers. She dimly recalled there was such a thing as too much medigel and began to rapidly blink to stay focussed.
"A wraith tried to rip her leg off, of course she's in shock," Peebee said sarcastically.
Cora simply glowered. "Don't be so dramatic." Peebee shot her a smirk, hearing the slur in Cora's voice. Cora glared harder.
"Lexi will fix you up," Sara said, more to reassure herself than Cora as she scrubbed her gauntlets in snow, turning it crimson with her friend's blood. She knew as a leader she should be the very essence of cool and collected at all times, but that was somewhat difficult when it was her best friend in danger. She took a deep breath to steady herself.
"I'm fine," Cora insisted, and struggled upright into a sitting position. Her limbs felt clumsy, disobeying simple commands. It was infuriating and she knew the others could see it.
"No, stop, I'm calling for an extraction," Sara pressed a palm to Cora's chest and forced her back down. Evfra was going to gut her…That was, if Cora didn't get there first judging by the expression on the blonde's face.
"Tempest can't land here," Cora protested.
"They'll give us coordinates," Sara replied firmly, swiping on her omni-tool gauntlet.
"There's no time!" Cora countered, raising herself up on her elbows.
"We'll figure it out," Sara waved a hand to cut off Cora's protest as she connected to the bridge of the Tempest.
Cora ignored the motion, "I'll take the Nomad. I can drive back while you carry on with the mission!"
"You're in no state to be driving anywhere," Peebee told Cora without looking as Sara turned away to speak into her radio. "Ooh, wait, I can drive you!"
"No way, I'll arrive in a worse state than I am now with you behind the wheel," Cora instantly shut down that idea. But it was true, she couldn't drive herself in her current condition.
Peebee glanced over her shoulder at Cora, "I know you're only saying that because you're delirious with blood loss."
"I'm fine," Cora said stiffly. She was certain the wound looked worse than it was. Her barrier had taken the brunt of the attack, her armour some more, and sure there was a lot of blood and it did look like Hell but… But she needed help. She hated to need help.
Peebee dropped her barrier as she saw the resistance fighters heading their way and stood to meet them, stuffing her hands into her jacket pockets. The kett had been dealt with.
Sara turned back to Cora, reaching for her shoulder and squeezing it comfortingly. "Tempest is heading to a pick-up point nearby. We'll get you in the Nomad and drive you out."
A loud boom sounded in the distance, like a canon blast, echoing through the frozen air. "That was the second team blowing the shuttles," Cora stated needlessly. Sara could see the plume of black smoke boiling skywards already in the distance. "You need to rendezvous with them and get them into that facility. Don't you dare compromise the mission because of me."
"Pathfinder, I can take your wounded," one of the angara offered, understanding the dilemma. The resistance fighters fanned out around them. Cora looked away to avoid noting the sympathy in their gazes. "She's well enough to explain the controls of your Nomad. Your ship can take me back to Techiix," the one who had spoken continued.
Sara stared at him for a good few seconds, then looked down at Cora and sighed. Considering the circumstances it was the best option. "Fine. Okay, come on. Set those charges to blow and let's get out of here. We have a moshae to rescue."
The mission was a success. The moshae was saved, the Cardinal was dead, and Sara had managed to rescue countless more angara from the clutches of the kett. They had learned what truly went on that facility, much to the heartbreak of Jaal. Discovering the reason kett abducted angara- to 'exalt' them, mutate them and turn them into kett- had been highly traumatic for him. He had been frantic and emotional at the moshae's bedside in the medbay as Sara spoke with her. Even in her fragile state, moshae Sjefer was more than happy to give Sara a tongue-lashing, angry that Sara had left the kett facility still standing in favour of rescuing the captured angara, despite promises of angaran pilots returning at a later date to bomb the facility. She was a force to be reckoned with, but had ultimately agreed to take Sara to the vault on Aya. As soon as the conversation was over Jaal left the medbay and sealed himself away in the tech lab to process the events of the past day. Lexi had promised Sara she would speak with him as soon as he was ready.
Lexi was now busy in the med bay looking after moshae Sjefer, who was understandably in need of medical aid after her ordeal.
Sara went in search of Cora. She knew Cora would still be angry with her, knew her actions during the firefight had been rash but... Cora was alive because of those actions.
Sara found Cora exactly where she had expected to: the bio lab, surrounded by her troughs of dirt and the spindly green shoots that would one day grow tall and strong, into plants with names Sara had since forgotten. Cora was sat in a chair piled high with pillows, her injured leg swathed in bandages and propped up on an empty crate. Her hazel eyes blazed as Sara entered.
"Hey..." The Pathfinder gave a tentative smile. Cora said nothing. Sara found a second crate and dragged it over to sit beside her. Sara continued, trying to fill the silence, "Lexi said she flushed the wound and patched you up. She said you might be a bit high and I shouldn't disturb you..." A potent cocktail of medigel, antibiotics and painkillers, enough to floor any human, was making its heady way through Cora's system. But Cora wasn't just any human and had spent her time on board the Tempest fighting through the fog of drugs to regain full cognitive function. She glared at Sara with a burning intensity that made the Pathfinder's gaze dart away nervously.
"Do I look high?" She demanded.
Sara's eyes flicked back towards her friend's. "No, no you look perfectly capable of murdering me and getting away with it..." she admitted quietly.
Sara didn't think she had ever seen Cora quite so angry. She was much more used to seeing Cora turn statue-still, expression blank, when annoyed. Now though her eyes burned furiously and her jaw was tight. She radiated menace.
"Um... You doing okay?" Sara asked awkwardly, already plotting an escape route. Cora most definitely was not okay.
"What you did?" Cora said, her tone harsh and clipped. "It was stupid. Reckless."
Sara rolled her eyes. Right, a Lexi-grade lecture was incoming about taking care of herself. The fact that she hadn't had one from Lexi herself suggested Cora hadn't told the asari doctor just how stupid Sara had been in coming to her aid. For that she had to thank her friend. At least she would only be receiving one lecture that day. "I don't care. I'm not leaving you to be a wraith's chew toy, idiot. Not ever. Protocol and battle-sense be damned."
"You're the Pathfinder," Cora hissed, "you're more important than me."
Sara glared and stubbornly insisted, "no." The thought of losing Cora, as well as her father and technically Scott, filled her with dread. She and Cora had bonded fast while training for the Pathfinder team. Cora was as much a sister as she was a best friend.
"Sara!" Cora cried in exasperation.
"I'm not leaving my best friend to be killed by those bastards just because I might be killed getting to her. That will never be an option," Sara folded her arms and scowled at the floor. "Besides, being the Pathfinder is no excuse to back out of a dangerous situation," she gestured with one hand to Cora. "You trained for the position, you'd become Pathfinder if anything happened to me."
"If? If?! The way you act if has become when!" Cora raised her voice, fingers gripping the arms of her chair hard enough to turn her knuckles white. "You're not expendable just because I get a promotion when you die. Forget about the job and think. This crew, this team? We are a family. How do you think it'll affect us if you get yourself killed pulling some crazy stunt?"
Sara hesitated, because Cora's words were uncannily similar to something Lexi had said to her once.
The fire in Cora's eyes died and her expression softened. She released her death-grip on the chair, hands falling into her lap as she caught Sara's gaze and held it. Those brilliant blues were troubled, and Cora knew she had started to get through to the Pathfinder. "You are strong and you are skilled but one day your luck will run out if you keep cheating death," she spoke quietly now, pleading. "I don't want to be there when that happens so please, think about what you're doing."
Sara bit her lower lip, feeling a hard lump of emotion in her throat, and then she lunged across the gap between them and threw her arms around her friend, burying her face in Cora's neck and hugging her tight. Cora was taken aback.
"Um, not the reaction I expected," she admitted, putting her arms around Sara and rubbing her back comfortingly.
"I'm an idiot," Sara mumbled into her collar. "I do stupid stuff just to prove I can. I promise I'll hold back on tempting fate but... There are certain situations that may call for breaking that promise."
"Well," Cora said, leaning back to look at her with a fond smile, "I'll try not to put you in that position again."
Sara gave her a small smile in response, hunching down with her forearms on her thighs. And then one corner of her mouth twitched up into the usual smirk, mischief dancing in her eyes. "It was pretty hot though, right? Me swooping in all heroically to save the day..."
Cora snorted. "You wish."
Sara gave a half laugh, watching her a moment before saying, "you know you're part of this family too? Losing you would tear us apart just as much as losing me through some epically stupid stunt."
Cora reached out and closed a hand over Sara's wrist. "No one is going anywhere," she promised.
Sara smiled faintly, giving Cora's hand an appreciative squeeze. "Well, you definitely aren't," she sniggered, looking down at Cora's leg. It was wrapped knee to ankle in thick white bandages. "Was that really necessary?"
"Kyros, the angara that brought me back, insisted. The fabric is soaked in... Something that does something. Apparently some angara have bad reactions to wraith bites, something to do with the acid. I'm not sure, they were telling me while I was high off meds," Cora explained. "I'm fine though," she added quickly as she saw Sara's brow knit with concern, "I think Lexi just did it to be polite... The bite looked worse than it was. I just have to have my foot up, which is even more uncomfortable than it looks." She heaved a sigh, watching her toes with what could almost be described as a pout. But Cora never pouted.
"You're more annoyed that you can't will your leg immediately better, aren't you?" Sara asked, fighting a grin. Cora was an even worse patient than she was, something Sara always found hilarious.
"Totally," Cora grumbled.