Kara was almost grateful for the additional Cerberus groups that popped up between the three women and the building they were heading for. Each engagement gave her a better feel for the heavy Avenger. She followed Shepard and Williams' lead in scavenging ammunition off of their fallen enemies, quickly gaining an appreciation for the universal design. It meant they never had to worry about running out of bullets - something that had been an issue more than once on the Fleet.
When they weren't mowing down Cerberus troops, Shepard told her about the Mars Archives and what they were hoping to find there. Kara was doing her best to keep up, but she was nearly positive that there were things flying right over her head. What the hell kind of world did these people inhabit? All the different types of aliens - long-dead or still around, evil robots that sounded just as bad as the Cylons…
Finally they made it over to a building, Shepard and Williams removing their helmets as soon as the door finished pressurizing. Kara pulled off her mask as the platform started to climb.
They entered into a large room with multiple ground vehicles (how long had it been since she'd seen one of those?) and screens. But no sooner had Kara started to get a feel for her surroundings than a clanging sound came from overhead, and her companions scrambled to find cover. Kara decided it would be a good idea to follow suit.
After only a minute, she located the source of the sound - someone was running through the air ducts, and someone else was chasing them - firing at them too. She felt a flutter of anxiety at not knowing what was coming, and kept her eyes on Shepard and Williams.
The air duct vent flew away and someone dropped to the floor. Only long years of practice kept Kara's mouth shut when it desperately wanted to open and yell out Motherfrakker!
Because the person who dropped down was blue. Like one of the aliens in old science fiction programs Kara watched late at night when she was a kid. She - Kara had to assume that breasts meant the same thing in whatever species this was - also had tentacles instead of hair.
The blue woman nimbly hopped over a set of barrels and paused when her pursuers - more of the Cerberus troops they'd fought outside - slid out of the air duct. An ally, then, presumably. She turned around, and - what the hell was happening? Her hand was glowing blue now?
Blue skin, blue glow - what was next, were those damned tentacles going to come to life and strangle someone?
The blue glow did … something … to the woman's pursuers, lifting them off the ground and spinning them in circles. Then they crashed to the floor with an audible thump.
Kara was shocked to see the woman walk forward and coolly shot one of them in the head. Twice. And then do the same to his downed companion.
"Damn, Liara," Williams muttered, which was Kara's first clue that the blue woman might not be a total stranger to her companions.
Shepard waited a heartbeat longer before stepping forward, a broad grin on her face. The blue woman whipped around, gun out, and then lowered it. Relief crested over her elegant features. "Shepard! Thank the Goddess you're alive."
"Liara," Shepard replied, stepping forward and pulling the blue woman into a hug. "Good to see you again."
Kara took a minute to inspect this new person - old friend, it appeared. Liara's face was remarkably like a human, but unmistakably blue in tone, a light cobalt in color. Where the hairline would have been on a human was instead coated with small white blue dots that lead back to her tentacles. She also had what looked like freckles under her eyes. Which of the thirteen other races in this corner of the universe did Liara belong to? Kara knew there was no point in even trying to guess.
"I was worried when the reports came in. They hit Earth hard?" Liara said.
Kara just stood there as Williams also moved forward. "Yeah. It was … difficult to leave," Williams said.
"Ashley. I'm sorry," Liara said, turning to look at Williams. "But why are you here? I thought you'd be heading to the Citadel."
"Hackett ordered us to come. Said you'd know what was going on," Shepard replied, forcing Kara to re-evaluate some things. Despite Shepard's stated rank of 'Commander', she'd been running around like she was in charge and made all of her own decisions. To hear that she actually took orders from someone else …
Shepard finally seemed to notice Kara again, and she turned slightly. "Kara, this is Dr. Liara T'Soni, an old friend of ours. She's a member of the asari race." Liara looked confused at that, but Shepard kept going. "Liara, this is Captain Kara Thrace. She's … a new ally. It's kind of a long story, and I'm not sure I understand it fully yet."
"I'll keep explaining it as we go," Kara promised. "It's nice to meet you, Dr. T'Soni."
"Liara," the … asari … said. "I haven't really felt like a doctor in quite some time. Not since I met Shepard, actually."
"Yeah, she's got a way of turning your world upside down," Williams said with a soft smile.
"Back to your question, Shepard, I do know what is going on," Liara said, starting to walk over to one of the windows. The others followed, Kara somewhat belatedly. "I've discovered plans for a Prothean device. One that could wipe out the Reapers."
"The Protheans were around 50,000 years ago, and got wiped out by the Reapers, right?" Kara asked, still determined to make this new information sink in so she didn't look like a complete idiot.
Liara looked puzzled, but nodded. Kara could only imagine what she was thinking - Why doesn't she know all of these basic things? "Yes. The Mars Archives is humanity's home for all the information that the Protheans left behind. There's still so much we don't know. It could take several asari lifetimes to understand it all. I knew the Reapers were coming back soon, and I couldn't sit by and do nothing. Admiral Hackett contacted me. He also knew we were running out of time. He wanted me to use my resources as the Shadow Broker to find a way to stop the Reapers."
"You're the Shadow Broker?" Williams interrupted. "Damn. You've come a long way from when we first saw you."
"Like most of us," Liara replied with a broad smile. "Or are you still afraid to call me friend, Ashley?"
"Not a chance in hell," Williams said, snorting in derision. "You can have my back any time, Liara."
Shepard cleared her throat. "The Mars Archives?"
"Yes, of course." Liara folded her arms across her chest and looked out the window. "My search lead me here. Hackett gave me access to the Archives and kept me updated on your status." She turned around and started pacing slowly. Kara tracked her movements "My work paid off. The Archives are full of data, as I said. I think I found what we need."
Shepard stepped forward. "Guess I'll believe it when I see it. Where do we find this weapon?"
Liara shook her head. "It's not a weapon, not yet. It's plans for a device. A blueprint."
"It's more than we had a minute ago," Shepard said, shrugging. "How do we get it?"
"The Archives are just across that tramway," Liara said, raising her arm to point at the tramway in question. Kara felt her stomach turning as, once again, she looked out onto scenery under an open sky. Sure, some of the ships had simulated atmospheres, but… this was real.
"Assuming, of course, that Cerberus hasn't locked it down," Liara continued.
"Is there any way they could be after the blueprint as well?" Shepard asked. "I was wondering what the hell they were doing here."
Liara sighed. "It seems likely. They were chasing me, after all."
"Cerberus always did want to get their hands on powerful and dangerous things," Shepard said ruefully.
"Let's beat 'em to the punch," Williams said.
As if in agreement, one of the far doors rattled. Sparks started coming through - Cerberus trying to force their way in, no doubt.
"Cortez, you copy?" Shepard said into her mic.
"Here, Commander. Interference is strong, but I can still make you out."
"Good. Be ready, Steve. More hostiles incoming." As she finished talking, Shepard ducked for cover, Kara and the other two following suit. Liara started glowing again as she peered around the corner at their pursuers. And smiled. It was not a nice smile.
"Not a problem for someone with biotics."
Kara watched in amazement as Liara thrust out her left hand and made the three Cerberus pursuers lift off the ground and start spinning around that bright area she had simultaneously created. She stared at it, mouth agape, before gritting her teeth and pulling out her gun. She would not be a liability. She was Starbuck, the best Viper pilot on the Fleet. Kara fired the Avenger at one of the Cerberus troops dropping from the air vent, dropping him to the floor before he had a chance to fire on anybody. Kara allowed herself a small, satisfied smile before ejecting the thermal clip and finding another target.
A bright flash caught her attention. Kara turned, gun raised, and that the glow was coming from Shepard's arm. This time she noted that the light source was a kind of of interface, which instantly put Kara in mind of some Cylon tech. A streak of orange fire shot out from the interface, traveling the short distance to one of their enemies and burning straight through his armor. Kara had to admit that seeing him flail around wildly, trying to put the fire out, was a rather satisfying sight.
Kara put a round into the last soldier standing and watched him fall to the ground. She turned to Shepard, then Liara. "What was - that blue thing you were doing? Bio-something?"
"Biotics," Liara said, giving Shepard another puzzled look before turning back to Kara. "Where did you say you were from?"
Kara sighed. "Somewhere very, very far away from here." She'd long since lost track of the number of jumps that they'd made, but she knew how long it had been and remembered clearly how often they had jumped at times. "Like, outside your galaxy - what's it called?"
"The Milky Way," Shepard supplied.
Liara's eyes opened wide with amazement and curiosity. "Outside the galaxy? Do you mean to say that there are humans outside the galaxy? Outside the mass relay system?" She turned to Shepard. "Think of what this could mean!"
"Oh, I'm thinking," Shepard said dryly. "But there's a bit more to it than that. Don't get too excited just yet."
Kara grimaced and took the cue to continue. "We've been traveling from our home for about three years. Don't know how long that translates to on your calendar, and I have no frakking clue where to even begin with that. We had to flee after the Cylons attacked. Those would be our killer robots that decided they didn't like taking orders and rose up to kill us all. Some of which-" she took a deep breath "-look human. We call those the skinjobs. And of course no one knew that the Cylons decided to make themselves look human-" She paused again. "Sorry. There were actually two Cylon wars. The first, more of a rebellion, took place before I was born. The second was more of a decisive first strike, involved the skinjobs, and killed billions. They wanted to wipe us all out and damn near succeeded. As far as I know, our Fleet is all that's left of our Twelve Colonies. And that's only about forty thousand people."
"Goddess," Liara breathed. "I'm so sorry, Captain Thrace. What you've experienced … well, I fear it's what we might face if we fail to defeat the Reapers. But how did you come to find Shepard?"
"We were looking for Earth," Kara said. "It's the home of the Thirteenth Tribe - uh, our lost cousins in our mythology," she said, nearly cringing at how much she was leaving out. It was so frustrating to be talking to people that didn't know all the basics. As soon as she had finished that thought, she realized that must be how Shepard and the others felt about them.
"How utterly fascinating," Liara said, more than a little wonder in her voice. "You must tell me about this mythology when we are done here. And you have to tell me how it differs, Shepard. Can you imagine? Two colonies of the same race reuniting after thousands of years apart? An examination of the similarities between the groups would be fascinating."
"You said that already," Shepard teased lightly. "I happen to agree, but we need to get this blueprint and get out alive first."
Liara nodded and turned to Kara. "You asked about biotics," she said, still radiating excitement, and began talking quickly on the topic. Kara did her best not to grimace as far too much of it flew over her head, but she thought she got the basics. Aside from the asari (who were all biotics), the ability to create mass effect fields was caused by in utero exposure to something called element zero. Liara diverted briefly from the subject to explain that element zero was what powered the mass effect relays. Kara followed that much - manipulation of element zero allowed these people to do things that her instincts and experience told her should be impossible. Shepard and Williams weren't biotics, and there weren't any others currently on the Normandy. Anyone with biotic abilities that wasn't asari needed a surgically installed amp to do anything with said abilities.
Kara resolved to point Liara in someone else's direction later - maybe Gaeta, if he didn't hate her for the loss of his leg. Baltar would have been better, but the slippery bastard was setting himself up as some kind of religious leader and could no longer be trusted. She briefly wished that he could be trusted. He'd be able to make sense of the scientific side of what these people had to offer better than anyone else. She shook her head to clear the thought. There were many things she wished that she could change, and realistically speaking Baltar was near the end of that list.
Kara went back to scanning the environment with the others, looking for signs of trouble. "Ahead," she said in a low voice when she spotted a flash of armor. Shepard nodded and hand-signaled to Liara and Williams to take cover on the other side of the room, then found a crate and ducked behind it, motioning to Kara to follow. They all got into cover before the Cerberus troops noticed they were there..
Shepard lifted her left arm and brought up that bright orange interface once more. Kara watched in fascination, trying to figure out what was going on. Shepard was clearly practiced at the use of whatever this was, zipping through holographic screens too fast for Kara to have any hope of following. Then a small sphere appeared in the air in front of Shepard. Kara's eyes widened. Shepard caught the expression and grinned, then mouthed two words. Combat drone. She lifted her head slightly to catch Liara and Williams' attention, and the other women nodded. Kara guessed that they had fought together enough times to have an idea of what was coming, if not an actual plan of attack.
Shepard turned back to Kara. She pointed to the drone, then held up a finger. Kara started to nod, then stopped, frustrated with herself. She couldn't assume that simple gestures meant the same thing to these people. She pointed to the drone and then in the direction of their enemies, paused, then pointed to herself and Shepard.
Shepard tilted her head to the side in confusion, then seemed to understand. She nodded. Kara nodded back. If they had both read each other correctly, Kara had just agreed to Shepard's plan to have the drone go out and draw fire before the four of them attacked. Shepard tapped at her interface - programming commands for the drone? The purplish sphere seemed to shimmer for a moment before it glided forward. Then she heard something that sounded like the crackle of electricity and bodies thumping to the ground, and Shepard stood.
Kara's combat instincts took over. She poked her head out from behind the crate and caught a glimpse of Liara and Williams doing the same. Liara's hand flared blue as she caught some of the Cerberus troops in that spinning vortex again, while Williams tossed a grenade that set several of them on fire. Kara saw that a few of their enemies were attempting to hide behind shields. Shepard's drone floated over to one of them and zapped, presumably as it had done before. The soldier staggered, giving Kara an opening to put a couple of rounds in his head
"Nice," Williams said to Kara before shooting at some of the soldiers caught in Liara's vortex. Kara thought she was starting to see a pattern. They were all taking turns creating openings for the others - Liara's vortex, Williams' grenades, Shepard's drone. Kara took advantage of those openings while wishing that she had something special to contribute. She hated feeling like dead weight.
By unspoken agreement they all waited a short time after the end of the fighting before standing to regroup. "Search the room for anything useful," Shepard ordered. "And then let's move on."