Mojave botanical exhibition park:
Shepard had an interesting relationship with public parks. She'd grown up in space stations and on Alliance void ships, and hadn't seen an honest to god tree until she was well into puberty. As a result parks always fascinated her even after seeing some of the most wondrous and terrifying sights the galaxy could offer. Of course, it helped matters immensely that she was sitting next to the man she loved and enjoying the feel of the sun on her skin as they watched the sizable crowd of people play in the small valley below them.
"I can see why you come here so often." Shepard said. "I like the feel of this place."
"There is a certain energy to it isn't there?" Thane said, smiling. "There's hope here, and discovery too."
"Too bad some people I know didn't make the jump with us." Shepard said, watching a group of kids tossing around a ball as they darted between a maze of bushes. "Liara loved to reminisce in parks, she could talk for hours about how she'd get in trouble digging for "ruins" in the park next to her childhood home."
"How long were you two together?" Thane asked, shocking Shepard a little.
"Thane…" She said before he raised a hand.
"Siha, I am not a jealous man and I know the love you have for me burns just as bright as mine does for you." Thane said, taking her hand and kissing her fingers. "But I am not a stupid man, I saw the way you two looked at each other in the Shadow Broker's lair, the history was there just waiting to be dug up again. You mentioned an Asari lover but never quite admitted that it was Liara."
"Thane, I didn't want to waste any time you had left." Shepard said. "What Liara and I had was amazing, but I love you and and now that we have a cure coming for Kepral's syndrome I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Liara will always be a friend, a very close friend, but I love you now and always."
"And I want to give the rest of my days to you, Siha." Thane said, pulling her close. "We are imperfect creatures Siha, but our love is not. I still love my first wife and that love brightens my memory of her every day, but that doesn't mean that I love you any less. If anything it makes me appreciate the beauty of our feelings, of your touch, every moment I'm with you. Your time with Liara is just as much a part of you as the time we spend together."
"You're very understanding its sort of annoying." Shepard said, leaning into him."Speaking of our time together, what do you think about grabbing some food and heading out to that spot outside Goodsprings for some time away from it all?"
"Are you sure you can won't be missed?" Thane asked.
"I should be fine, the SR-3's construction is going well, Tali is still deciphering the trans universal math, and Rex is up to something in the background." Shepard explained. "We should be able to sneak away for a few days without the whole world going to…"
She trailed off as Thane's expression soured and he stared at something on another hill top. Shepard followed his gaze and caught sight of a group of men half hidden under the shade of a tree, the only thing setting them apart from the civilians was the momentary flash of scopes in the fragmented sunlight. A cursory glance around the building showed three other armed groups, with one group headed by a soldier hoisting what had to be a bomb on their back. They split in a reluctant motion, savoring each other's touch as they both gradually made for the side arms on their hips.
"Eight men, all armed with assault rifles." Thane said, pretending to laugh at something she'd said.
"Two more by the main entry way probably others blocking emergency exits." Shepard said as she looked around the edges of the indoor park. "How do you wanna play this?"
"Armed reinforcements are three minutes away, but with Rex's speech today I'd imagine they're short staffed." Thane said, his fingers wrapping around pistol on his hip. "Six minutes until help arrives, conservatively. This building is equipped with shudders that can block most of the sun's light if activated, the main switches for them are at either end but there are three hydraulic releases at the apex of the dome above us. If we lower the shutters there will be a one minute window until the emergency lights come on."
"Your plan is to get into a gun fight in the dark?" Shepard asked.
"The shudders only block most sunlight, the surprise and low visibility will give us the edge Siha." Thane said, smiling. "That is if you don't miss of course."
"There's only one cocky alien man who can neg me about my shooting, and baby you're not a Turian." Shepard said drawing her pistol and aiming up at one of the releases.
Together they fired into the releases plunging the park into near darkness and the sound of gun fire.
?
"Are you sure they're all coming to the meeting even with Veronica at the speech?" Brent Buxton asked as he palmed the metal cylinder in his hand. "Cause my boys could only whip up one of these things, and if I don't get most of the council than I'll be wasting it."
"Relax Brent, Veronica called this meeting and made it mandatory." Sylas Regier reassured him as they walked down the hall towards the council chambers. "I had her put a discussion on the Couriers' reinstatement on the schedule just so we can get all the loyalists in the room. The highest level of Mojave government all in one room, waiting for your bomb to send them into the afterlife."
"It's not a bomb." Buxton corrected. "My boys call it a transportalponder, rednecked teleporter tech that basically rips em apart on an atomic level. No mess and no suffering."
"Oh semantics are hardly an issue now." Sylas said, stopping to adjust his tie in the blank screen of a deactivated Securitron. "Remind me to give the good general my security codes for when these are reprogrammed. I'd like a dozen or so for my new estate."
"Sure thing partner." Buxton said, adjusting a dial on his device. "Can we just get this over with?"
"Cold feet, Buxton?" Sylas asked as they started walking again.
"No, killing all the council members, including the ones loyal to our side, makes me sick but I'll do my part." Buxton said, glaring at the man. "Anything we gotta do to make a better world, right?"
"There's a good man." Sylas said, as they came to the door leading into the council chamber where he peeked inside. "There we are, everyone's here including that annoying Yankee Alyssa. Brent, let's give them their gift, shall we?"
Buxton stepped forward and after pressing a trigger on the device tossed it through the crack in the door before Regier pulled it shut. A moment later there came shouts of alarm and a deafening woosh sound from inside the chamber followed by silence. When Sylas opened the door all that was left of the council room was a smoldering stretch of concrete.
"There we go." Sylas said, patting Buxton on the shoulder. "Time for the real fun to start."
?
Somewhere in the mountains of Colorado
Cold mountain air tickled Alena's skin as she hopped out of the truck carrying her classmates and she took her first good look at the small community of Tesla's Reach. It reminded her of the village she'd grown up in, low long halls built so tightly packed that they almost looked like one big building, but the quickcrete walls and huge glass windows made it abundantly clear this wasn't her old village. As her classmates and chaperons piled out of the truck, grumbling and stretching as they did so, her eyes were drawn to the massive metal spire slowly rising from the center of the complex.
"What do you suppose that is?" She asked Mara as the shorter girl timidly stepped through the slush to join her.
"Looks like one of the comma towers Octavian put in our village." Mara said, jogging in place and smiling as she displaced the snow.
"Comms tower, you mean?" Alena asked, slipping her goggles off and absorbing every detail of the incomplete tower. "I wonder if it's one that can talk to Zeta in the sky, Father said he wanted to set up FTL communications all across the territories one day."
"You know I don't know what that means." Mara said, stopping her play to give her a look.
"Um, it means that you can talk to or send information to anywhere on the planet instantly." Alena explained. "If we ever have people living off earth then towers like those are going to be vital to keeping us all together."
"You're a font of information young Alena, as always." Fein, their oft outspoken and thick headed adult classmate said as he joined them. "Your father is a very wise ruler, communication is vital to maintaining control of your territory. Why my uncle Petri was usurped because he neglected to send his son a yearly message."
"My father doesn't rule anything." Alena reminded him, rolling her eyes at the silly man.
"Yet he arranges for his daughter's whole class to visit a wondrous place of learning at the drop of a hat." Fein said, wiggling his bushy eyebrows. "Accept it young Alena, your father is the master of the Mojave."
"Don't let the Courier here you say that, he's quite touchy about the subject." A tall woman in Brotherhood scribe garb said as she approached them. "Greetings all, I am Isabelle Burnrows head scribe here at Tesla's Reach. It is an honor to welcome friend from the Mojave to our humble outpost."
"Humble?" Aunt Roxanne said as she stepped up beside Alena. "This place looks like a library and a greenhouse had a baby."
"An interesting observation." Isabelle said, giving Roxanne a "fuck you and your stupid comment" smile. "Tesla's Reach is a fully self sustaining research facility, as such some of our space is dedicated to year round food production. It is the first of its kind and with the Mojave's help, hopefully just the first."
"I'm told you've been working with some of the samples retrieved from the seed vault." Penelope said, appearing behind Alena to rest her hands on her shoulders. "I've read some of Scribe Diaz's reports on radiation sustained fungi that he's submitted to the Mojave. Very revolutionary stuff."
Isabelle almost managed a response when a loud boom rang out in the distance and a wave of static electricity shook the air. Shouts came from the complex as rocket flew into the air, exploding into thick clouds of black smoke that seemed to vibrate in the air for a moment before expanding out ward like exploding ghosts. Alena gasped only for her lungs to burn and her vision to go blurry. She fell forward only for Penelope to grab her and throw her over a shoulder.
"Roxanne!" She slurred, her legs failing her sending them both falling to the ground. "Nerve…paralytic…and…EMP…"
Alena tumbled into the slush and came to a rest in a heap on the ground, unable to even turn her head as she looked passed the unconscious Isabelle to Tesla's Reach. Fires were burning in the greenhouses and she could see power armored guards fighting against people that were….taller than them. That couldn't be right, all of the Midwest Brotherhood wore armor that made them huge and there was no one but the super mutants that could stand toe to toe with one of them.
"Alena, are you alight?" Roxanne asked, kneeling down to check Alena's pulse. "Can you hear me?"
"Tired…" Alena muttered, looking up from the compound into her aunt's eyes.
"Stay awake sweetie, you have to stay awake for me, got that?" She said. "We're under attack and I need you to-"
She was cut off by a deafening crack and an explosion of blood that sent her flying backward. Alena let her head fall back and she whimpered at the sight of a massive humanoid in a skin tight black body suit standing a hundred yards away, a heavy assault rifle in one hand. It looked at her through a dark red visor and as it stepped toward her, Alena could hear a deep sickening laugh that chilled her blood. Grunting, Alena mustered every ounce of strength she had and focused on her metal arm, fighting through the burning haze until it responded to her thoughts. Through the fog, she brought her metal wrist down onto a rock and with a loud clunk extended a small nozzle just as the monster reached her.
"Target one and two secured." It said in a deep rumbling voice. "Nerve agent effective. Falling back to evac."
Alena mumbled out a battle cry and drove the tip of the nozzle into the thing's leg, whacking it once to switch the small welder on before she drove the tip into the leg. Blue fire burst out to fill the air with the smell of burning fabric and flesh, but the thing barely seemed to notice. It looked down at her, its huge eyes disinterested behind the visor as it kicked her arm away and stepped forward to pin the arm beneath its massive boot. With a twist, the thing split the arm off at the elbow seam and wrenched the arm, breaking it in two.
"Fa…father…help…" Alena mumbled as it reached down, grabbing both her and Mara before throwing both over its wide shoulders. "Jac…Jack…"
The last thing she saw before the blackness took her was the sight of Roxanne, her bloody chest steaming in the slush as the world was swallowed in shadow.
?
Secure holding cell, New Vegas:
Rose sat at her desk and set herself to organizing the colored pencils the doctor had given her. She was still getting used to being "awake" and all of the different colors helped keep her focused while the others mucked about in their shared head. That's how she spent most of her days, either drawing or making paper animals or reading all of the books her big brother and sister sent her. Deep down, Rose knew that they weren't really "her" brother and sister, but Penelope wasn't this Rex's real daughter but he said she called him father now. So it was okay for her to claim them too.
"You're still holding onto the delusion that you're getting out of here, aren't you?"
Rose looked up into a mirror she kept on her desk and into the eyes of Artemis staring back at her.
"I'm getting better." She said, looking back to her pencils and picking a particularly sharp red. "We're getting better, Artemis. When we're healthy enough, Roxanne said we can go outside with everyone."
"You're unbelievably naive." Artemis said, rolling her eyes. "We're murderers, killers of the highest quality, and do you really think they've forgotten that?"
"I haven't forgotten." Rose said, looking her defiant personality in the eye. "But Rexy was a killer too and he came back from the dark, he never became what our Rex became. We have good in us Artemis, means there's some in you too."
Artemis almost responded when a muffled thump shook through their cell. Rose's looked to the one way mirror lining one wall of her cell and winced as a think crack spread across the glass as another thump shook the cell. A familiar chill tickled her nerves and she felt her stomach knot as adrenaline hit her blood like ice water. Then the door to her cell swung open and Dr. Carroll stumbled in, blood staining her clothes as she fell against Rose's bed.
"Rose…" She muttered, reaching forward with something clutched in her fist. "We're under…attack. Get out."
"Dr, who's attacking-" Rose said, her words dying as Dr. Carroll fell to the floor her eyes blank, her breathing stopped.
With tears in her eyes she uncurled the Dr's fingers and plucked a small device from her hand. It was a teleporter transponder she recognized and just as she was about to use it, Rose looked up to see a man standing in the doorway to her cell. He was dressed in black body armor and had his rifle aimed at her head, red goggled eyes glaring at her.
"Don't move." He ordered.
"Let me take control." Artemis whispered in the back of her mind as Rose shrunk back against her desk, the pencil and transponder behind her back. "Let me save us."
"Tell me cripple, why does the Courier have you locked up here?" The man said stepping cautiously into the room.
"I'm…we're…I'm a prisoner from the New Legion." Rose said, pushing Artemis back down as the man watched her. "I was…an assassin for Octavian. The Courier captured me and has been poisoning me in this cell for months. Please, you have to save me."
"Assassin's get round the clock surveillance and a cell fit for a king these days?" He asked. "Alright pretty bird, looks like your assassin days are done, so why don't you give me one reason why I don't put a bullet in your head?"
"Let me handle this one." A different voice, her other protector personality Delilah's voice, whispered. "The transponder needs a moment to charge and he'll shoot us before it can activate."
"Okay." Rose said, slumping forward as Delilah came to the front, quiet strength filling her body as she looked into the man's face.
"Well sweetie, when I wasn't killing Octavian's enemies I was providing other services." Delilah said, her voice like silk as she arched her back and drawing the man's gaze to their "assets".
"Really now?" The man asked taking another step forward, his rifle lowering an inch.
"Yes sir." She purred, licking her lips as the transponder vibrated softly in her hand. "I was his favorite, very well trained fingers and all that. In fact, if you let me live I can show you just how good my fingers are."
"Evans." His radio crackled. "What's the status of the prisoner? Worth taking back with us?"
"The prisoner is proving her worth." The soldier said squatting down and pushing up goggles to look at her with piggy eyes. "We still have a thirty minute window?"
"Twenty five, but I can stall if you want to get your rocks off." The voice on the radio said. "For your bonus pay of course."
"Done." The man said, swinging his rifle around on his back and giving Delilah a come hither gesture. "You know I can't resist a red head."
"You're a dog but your pay is good." The voice said. "Just try not to get-"
Delilah never heard what the man was going to say and neither did Evans because she stabbed the sharpened point of the colored pencil into one eye, driving it in until she felt the familiar resistance of grey matter.
"I told you I had talented fingers." She said, flicking a switch on the transponder and disappearing in a flash of orange light.
?
Hoover Dam:
There was something about a place with history that always unnerved Rex. Maybe it was intuition or some cosmic curse, but Rex could always feel a place as he walked through it. The Hoover Dam was a perfect example of that, as he walked Rex felt the memories of the Second Battle for the dam come screaming back to life. He could hear the whine of the Boomer's bomber come darting in to drop death onto Legion soldiers and he could smell the scent of ozone as Securitron lasers herded the NCR off his dam. As he watched the crowd mill about from the backstage he could feel the weight of the future pressing on him just as the past did, and as he turned back to look at ED-E he wished he had fingernails to bite.
"Any word from Roxanne?" He asked.
ED-E let out a solemn beep.
"Keep trying, I want to know they arrived safely." Rex said, looking at Veronica and her contingent of council members thankfully lacking Sylas Regier as he was holding an event in his own community. "E, I want you to prepare the total recall program and load it into my Omni-boy. Something doesn't feel right."
The enhanced eye-bot let out a curious beep.
"I know I know." Rex said, patting his metal friend. "She's a strong kid and has two of our very deadly family members keeping watch over her and the others. It's just that I go to all the trouble of giving the Brotherhood a fucking top tier Comms tower and I can't even call my daughter."
ED-E let out a soothing beep and nudged Rex's shoulder.
"Thanks E, you know how to calm me down." Rex said, patting the eye-bot's frame again. "Though if you're going to use all of that new processing power to get all therapist with me we're gonna have to set some boundaries. I already get enough crap from the Autodoc."
ED-E booped at him.
"What do you mean I've been avoiding you already?" Rex asked, raising an eyebrow. "You and Legion have been thick as thieves and with all the time you've been spending with Alena…"
"Craster."
Rex looked to see who interrupted him and saw none other than Colonel Cassandra Moore approaching him, dressed in a formal uniform.
"Cassy, I was told you'd be here for the certification." Rex said offering a hand to the woman he'd personally booted out of the dam three years earlier. "No hard feelings?"
"Quite a few actually." The Colonel said, taking his hand and pulling him close to whisper: "You're in danger, Vorhees has been killing his way through command for the last two months. I need you to give most of my group asylum as soon as you can in return I'll give you all the information you want."
"Not the greeting I was expecting but here we are." Rex said. "Alright, get you and your people over to Lt. Maz in the north west corner of the seating area. Tell him that the Courier's comping you all rooms in the Tops and that you've all had something bad for lunch. He'll sort you out."
"Thank you Craster." She said. "We'll head that way, but I need you to distract Vorhees' daughter. Little miss diplomat back there."
Rex looked over her shoulder to where the rest of the NCR party was getting their land legs after the vertibird ride. Among them was Lenore Vorhees, he recognized her from some of the intel reports he'd gotten on the Vorhees family, and to his surprise he saw his grandfather in the mix. The old soldier scientist looked haggard and utterly terrified of the young woman standing next to him.
"Lenore Vorhees, more an academic fascist than a rabid one." Rex said, recalling her file. "Why is my grandfather here?"
"Your grandfather?" Moore asked, affecting a fake looking confused expression.
"Cassy, baby, we respect each other too much for bullshit." Rex said.
"He's defecting too, been real quiet about Vorhees' plan, says he'll only speak to you." Moore said.
"Well, I do love a family reunion." Rex said, walking towards them and raising metal hand in greeting. "Welcome folks, such a pleasure to have our friends in the NCR see us in our finest hour."
The collected NCR officials looked at him like he was a mythic beast that had just started talking to him, save for Lenore who just appraised him.
"Of course Mr. Craster, the NCR couldn't miss the day you open the dam and produce the power we so desperately need." She said, not offering her hand as the other began to drift towards Moore.
"The Mojave will be supplying power to the NCR at a much lower price than House would have I remind you." Rex retorted. "And let's be honest, if the Legion had taken it there wouldn't be a dam left for you to be salty about. So, bygones be bygones?"
"My father told me you were confident." Lenore said, rolling her eyes. "Regardless Mr. Craster, I'm glad you approached me as I have something for you.
"Ooh, gifts from the NCR." Rex said as she produced a holotape from a pocket in her vest. "More cease and desist letters from the Gun runners I hope."
"No, it's a selection from my private archives." She said, letting him pluck it out of her fingers before turning to look out over the edge of the dam. "He insisted that you look it over before your speech, said something about it reminding you of your roots, of the Dust you came from."
Rex froze as her words and the label on the tape registered. Memories of a Rose was written in faded ink on the disc's face and as Rex considered the words a cold flame lit somewhere deep inside his chest. His ghosts appeared then, his mother and father and broken Rose too, specters wavering in the sunlight like mirages. He looked at Rose and she nodded sadly as he activated the reader program on his Omni-boy, the hard light construct reading the tape and translating the information into a small display that drew a surprised look from Lenore.
"What is that?" She asked.
"A missed bit of information on your part." He said, as the first images appeared on the display.
They were of a small fishing village nestled among thick overgrowth with still images of people going about their business, but as Rex began to flip through the gallery it all changed. Images of flame raining down as incendiary grenades were thrown, of men and women on their knees as soldiers executed them, and of children being gutted in front of their parents. Rex's pulse became louder and louder as he dove deeper and deeper into the destruction of his childhood home, the noise becoming deafening when he came to an image of his parents bound and staring at the camera defiantly. He'd seen their dead bodies rotting in the ash filtered sunlight, but the sight of them defiant just seconds before their death cut deeper than seeing their corpses ever could.
"So it was Vorhees." Rex said to his mother and father. "My whole life, I was hunting him."
"Yes sprocket." His mother said, shaking her head. "He found us and…"
"My father hated your parents, did you know that?" Lenore asked, leaning against the guardrail. "Claimed your mother was a demented whore and your father a weak man with no loyalty."
"So he killed them for their personal failings?" Rex asked, his anger focusing every sense on her.
"He killed them because of you." She said, gesturing for him to continue the slide show. "You were meant to be the first of the next generation of NCR soldiers, perfect supermen and women who could finally dominate the world, but your father wanted you to be normal and left us with super mutant knock offs. For that, my father was obsessed with killing your parents and corrupting their work. Sullying all they'd created, including your little sister."
Rex didn't reply, instead he looked at the display and hovered a finger over the arrow that would continue the slide show. He knew what he would see if he did, he'd see Rose, five years old and so full of life being abused and broken. See the beginning of the horrible path that brought them back together only for Rex to mercy kill her ten years later.
"You don't have to look at it Rexy." Rose said, her hands coming up to gently hold his away from the display. "You don't need to hurt yourself like that."
"No." Rex said, breaking her grip and reaching up to wipe the disk. "I don't."
"You know he used to show us that as kids." Lenore said, chuckling darkly. "Dear old dad never touched us, never had to when he could just show us what he did to girls that fought him."
He didn't respond as he fought every fiber of his being not to draw his pistol and shoot her.
"So what now, Courier?" She asked, looking at him. "Going to shoot me and start a war or go and do your speech? Either way you're going to lose this fight."
"That's what people have told me all my life." Rex said, stepping closer and bringing his face close to hers. "House told me he was the master of New Vegas, Caesar said the Legion would rule the world, and bloated men like your father keep telling me that I can't win against them. But he we are Lenore, standing on the dam I took from all of them. Do you honestly think that I'd be giving a fucking open air speech atop the Hoover fucking Dam if I wasn't going to win the pot? No Lenore, I don't think I will shoot you, because I want you to get your bony ass into that Vertibird and fly back to the NCR so you can give your father a message."
"A message?" She asked, pressing herself against the guardrail as he looked her in the eyes.
"Yes." He snarled. "Tell your father that I am coming for him, that all of his clever little plans and tactics won't do him any good when he's drowning in quickcrete. That from where he's standing, high on the smell of his own shit, it must seem like he's king of the world, but the truth is the game was rigged from the start."
With that he turned and left the diplomat making a beeline towards Veronica. ED-E floated behind him and made a series of excited beeps as the palm of his Omni-boy started to glow with a steady white light. When he reached Veronica she tried to speak only for Rex to open his palm in front of her face, blasting her with a white pulse of light that sent her reeling back.
"Total Recall trigger: give me a large Atomic Shake and a double Brahmin burger. And easy on the agave sauce this time." He said, as he grabbed her by the shoulders. "Veronica listen to me, they're making their play now and I need you to remember the plan. It's going to take a few minutes for the Mesmer conditioning to wear off, but I need you. The Mojave needs you."
"Rex…what?" She stammered, green coloration fading from her eyes as the blocks in her memory were melted away.
"I love you Veronica." Rex said, kissing her forehead and patting her shoulders. "We will make it through this, just remember the plan."
With that he turned and walked to the stage, bypassing guards around the stage and hopping up to stand at the podium. The crowd quieted and hurried to get to their seats, every eye watching him as he gripped the podium with metal fingers. He crushed the wood gratefully, happy to have something to pour his anger in nerves into as he began his speech.
"Ladies and gentlemen, it's my honor to welcome you all to the Hoover Dam's official recertification." Rex began, looking past the crowd to where Moore and her group were being escorted inside. "Three years ago, the combined forces of the Mojave came together here to claim it not for the Bear or the Bull, but for ourselves. In those three years we have leapt forward technologically and culturally, with no finer an example than the twelve new macro fusion reactors housed within the Dam itself. Where we relied solely on its hydro power to light our homes and run our industry, now we can depend on a power surplus given to us by nature's most powerful energy source, fusion. It is with hope that I welcome you all to a new age of-"
Rex was cut off as a loud crack rang through the air and his head exploded into a spray of bone and grey matter.
?
The sound of gunfire and the smell of blood. Shepard had been baptized in both, and as she took cover behind a bench she let the battle high into her perception. Picking out targets from behind trees or rushing her across the open stretches of park, the latter she picked off with center mass shots while Thane suppressed the latter with a looted assault rifle. Closing the shudders had bought them thirty precious seconds before the emergency lights switched on, and the pair had put them to excellent use. Rushing the closest group and managing to take two down before the others could react and grabbing their rifles and slipping into cover. It had been ten minutes since then, and the couple had wracked up six more kills near decimating the group they'd hit first and starting to lessen one of the other two.
"Siha, the third group is arming a bomb." Thane said, splitting an attacker's head open with a well timed shot. "Looks to be six mini nukes wired into a plastic detonator."
"I saw." Shepard yelled, ducking behind the bench as their attackers unleashed another volley. "What happened to six minutes until back up?!"
"Didn't think of other sites being attacked." Thane yelled back, taking cover alongside her. "Comms are down and there's no response to a terrorist attack on a jewel of the Mojave, this isn't just one attack."
"You're probably right." She said, eyes narrowing as the gun fire around them stopped.
She sat up and her stomach dropped as she heard screaming from small display that usually held free fruits and vegetables. Shepard watched as some of the attackers pulled a young girl out by her hair from behind the display. Her vision focused in on the girl and she raised her rifle to fire at the men dragging her away only for it click, out of ammo.
"Thane, cover me." She said, drawing a saturnite combat knife from its holster and activating her Omni-blade.
Without a word, Thane stood and laid down cover fire for her as Shepard threw herself forward. Time seemed to slow and speed up all at once as it always did on the battle field, and in moments she was throwing her self at the terrorists. A saturnite blade slashing into the groin of one while her Omni blade slide upward into another's jaw as she shifted her weight, wrenching her body to slam both men down to the ground. Grunting, she pulled both blades from the dead men and looked at the girl.
"Get back into cover now!" Shepard ordered as she scooped a rifle off the ground and pushed the girl back behind the display.
Shepard turned and fired at the group still assaulting Thane, now reinforced by some of the men who had been arming the bomb. She almost ran to him then but out of the corner of her eye she spotted a group of civilians squatting in the light cover of a water pump with a group of the terrorists closing in on their positions, grenades in hand. Time stopped as she realized that she could reach Thane or the civilians, not both.
"No, please no." She muttered. "Not again."
She looked to Thane and saw that he was looking at her, acceptance in his eyes as he nodded. Shepard nodded back and with a curse on her lips charged the terrorists closing in on the civilians, laying down suppressing fire that made one drop his grenade scattering them. It exploded and Shepard rushed into the cloud of smoke and debris, pure adrenaline driving her as she came upon the shaken terrorists and fired a shot into one's chest before pivoting and driving her Omni-blade into one's throat. By the time she managed to dispatch the other two their compatriots had closed in on Thane and she watched as one fired a shot into his chest, splattering red blood over the bench as he fell to the ground. Reality seemed to bend around her and before Shepard knew it she was running at them.
They turned their guns on her and would have ripped her to shreds if a hail of laser fire hadn't come screaming from their left as a troop of Securitrons came rolling through the main entrance. Within seconds, the men who'd taken everything from her were dead and she was at Thane's side, his blood stained hand in hers as he coughed up blood. She looked into his eyes and held back tears as she saw the light begin to fade, felt him begin to slip away from her.
"Stay with me Thane!" She yelled. "Don't leave me!"
"Si…Siha." He sputtered, reaching up to hold her cheek. "My warrior angel…I will await you across the sea."
"I'll meet you there, love." She said, kissing his hand as it went limp and the man she loved slipped away. "I'll meet you there."