A/N: Well, it's that time again.
Responses to reviews are as follows:
AnarionRising27: Thanks a lot! It's been a while since the story had a decent length fight scene, so I'm happy to hear you liked it.
Egil the Skald: That's a good point, to be fair. It's been a while since I last played the ME games, so certain aspects of them aren't as fresh in my mind as I would like them to be. I've tweaked that slightly to make it more in keeping with the lore.
Chapter 27: Recovery
As she slowly ate from the tube of nutrient paste attached to the front of her mask, Shaela allowed her eyes to wander over the bunkroom's other occupants. They had all survived the events of a few hours ago with minimal consequences, only Rassen receiving any form of injury, and that had simply been a nasty bruise on his chest from being kicked by the Mandalorian who had ambushed him. The Jedi Knight had promptly healed himself without difficulty, but the whole situation didn't sit well with her.
Despite the fact that had she not deflected the blaster bolt from earlier successfully she would have died, Shaela had a horrible feeling everything had been a little too easy. It reinforced Shepard's statement that far more Mandalorians and batarians were currently heading for their positon. Given long-range communications were still down, it was still the case that none of them had the slightest idea when help would arrive. No, the worst was yet to come.
Shepard and Kasumi were sitting next to each other on a bed a few metres away from the one Shaela herself was sitting on, the two of them talking about something in quiet voices. Now they knew for sure their location had been found, the four of them had decided to enable all of the systems they had switched off. They still might not be able to call for help successfully, but they would at least be able to detect Mandalore and Balak's ships once they arrived in the planet's atmosphere. They had connected their omni-tools to the ship's VI, meaning they would be notified the second they had company. As a result, the four of them were able to catch a few moments of peace and, judging by how Shepard and Kasumi were barely talking above a whisper, privacy.
Turning her gaze away from them and trying to focus on something else so she wouldn't overhear anything about a topic that clearly was not meant for her, Shaela found her attention now turning to the man next to her, who had been almost silent since they had defeated the initial force. She was convinced something was troubling him, but she couldn't think of the right way to broach the topic, and so she had initially decided to give him some time to process whatever it was before asking him about it.
Rassen hadn't looked at her much during the time they had spent sat together resting, but the stony expression on his face whenever she glanced at him was leaving her increasingly convinced that whatever was bothering him wasn't going to be something he resolved on his own any time soon. After another few minutes she reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder, causing the human to stiffen at the contact, though he didn't look at her.
"Rassen," she said gently, detaching the now empty tube and placing it on the floor next to the bed before moving closer to him, "is something wrong? You seem a bit distracted."
The human didn't respond verbally at first, but if anything his expression grew more sombre, giving away that whatever he was keeping to himself was perhaps even worse than she had first assumed. "There is something I need to tell you," he said at last, finally looking at her, his exhaustion as a result of being out in Venture's brutal heat doing nothing to diminish the intensity of his stare. "I told you the whole truth of what occurred while we were apart, and I do not want there to be any secrets between us, Shaela. At the same time, though, I worry that telling you will only make you more worried about our current situation than you already are."
Swallowing despite having finished her food more than a minute ago, she shuffled even closer to him before leaning against his shoulder. "I don't think that's possible," she muttered. "What's coming for us… I know it's going to be bad, Rassen. Keelah, I can sense it's going to be bad."
Rassen sighed before gently shrugging her off and getting up from the bed. She felt her heart sink for a moment before he offered her a hand and pulled her to her feet when she took it. "We need to meditate for a moment," he explained as Shepard and Kasumi turned at the sound of them getting up. "We will be in the cargo hold if you need us."
"Understood," Shepard nodded, Kasumi giving them a small wave as the Jedi Knight walked to the door, Shaela hurrying after him as she felt her concern only continuing to grow.
They made their way to the cargo hold in silence, neither of them speaking during the brief period it took them to get there despite how badly Shaela wanted to ask Rassen what was wrong. The Jedi Knight opened the door once they arrived, revealing the stacks of crates pressed up against the walls before entering and then stepping to the side to allow her in. Muttering a quiet thank you, Shaela walked past him before turning as Rassen shut the door behind her and turned himself, leaving the two of them facing one another. It was then she noticed she had begun shifting her weight from one leg to the other, causing her to make a noise of frustration as she tried to stop herself from shifting, only to scowl at Rassen as he laughed quietly.
"I missed that, you know," the human said, nodding towards her legs before lowering himself to the floor and sitting down on the hard metal. "While we were separated, I mean."
Shaela huffed but allowed herself a small smile when she heard him laugh again as she sat down herself, both of them sitting cross-legged with their knees almost touching they were so close. "Why, though?" she asked curiously. "Of all the things to miss, why that?"
"Because…" Rassen seemed to struggle for the words he wanted for a moment. "Because… that habit is so, well, you, Shaela. I really have no idea how to express it better than that." His expression suddenly darkened, causing her smile to fade. "I kept secrets from you before," he muttered. "On Omega and then on this ship. Both times I hurt you doing that. I never wanted that to happen."
"I know."
Rassen nodded before continuing. "I am tired of keeping things from you. It never ends well, and you deserve the truth. You have always deserved the truth."
He took a deep breath, clearly trying to decide how to continue, causing her to lean closer, gently taking the human's face in her hands so she could kiss him, a spike of frustration flaring up when her mouthpiece pressed against his lips, leaving them separated by the barrier her mask provided. If she could take it off for just a moment… No, Shaela squashed that thought before the temptation could grow too strong. She might have made a relatively speedy recovery after last time, but she knew there was probably not even the slightest chance she would be better before the main Mandalorian and batarian force arrived if she removed the object in front of her face now. No matter how much she wanted to, they couldn't take the risk.
Rassen clearly picked up on her frustration, the human sliding one arm around her shoulders and the other around her lower back as the two of them remained in that position, as close to actually kissing as was possible without doing it. After a moment, though, she felt him pull back, and he gave her a sad smile as a few inches separated their faces.
"Soon, if we survive."
"When," she corrected automatically. "When we survive, Rassen."
"Of course." His expression darkened again, and Shaela braced herself for what he would say next. She knew she almost certainly wouldn't like it, but she still wanted to hear it all the same.
"I heard Zaressh's voice again."
Her heart dropped into her stomach. "When?" she asked reluctantly. "Today?"
"No," Rassen said slowly, avoiding eye contact for a moment before he seemed to summon the will to look back at her. "After my first sparring session with Shepard. While you were still building your lightsaber."
"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, feeling a stab of frustration but mainly concern. "You know I'm always here for you, Rassen."
"I know," he replied, sighing deeply. "In truth, so much happened so quickly afterwards that I forgot to tell you. I fully intended to at the time, Shaela, but you seemed so excited about your lightsaber that I could not bring myself to do it then. I am sorry it has taken this long."
"That's okay," the quarian whispered, adjusting her position so she could lean against the human's side, her head now resting on his shoulder. "What did… what did he say, then?"
Rassen's jaw tightened. "He told me that Shepard and Kasumi's situation is similar to what ours, yours and mine, was on Omega and that something like us being separated could happen to them… or something equally bad could happen to you."
She nodded slowly, thinking through what she had heard carefully. "And do you believe him?" she asked finally.
"Yes and no." The frustration and anger in the Jedi's voice was obvious. "I still have no idea what heeven is. On the one hand, I want to believe everything he tells me is false. An attempt to undermine my confidence and make me doubt myself… but the Force is a powerful thing, Shaela. Through it, it is possible to achieve a degree of precognition on occasion, though who learns what often varies between individuals. The future is always shifting, changing, responding to events occurring in the present. Even so, it is possible that if the voice really does belong to Zaressh and is not some part of me using his voice…"
Rassen trailed off, leaving her to finish his sentence. "Then he might know something we don't," she muttered. "He might already know how this all ends."
"Exactly."
She looked up at him. "Do you want my advice?" she asked softly.
"Always."
Shaela reached a hand up to cup the side of Rassen's face. "Ignore him," she replied firmly. "You can't trust anything he says. I know it's going to be hard, Rassen, but we can do this. Together. All four of us are going to survive. Then you and I are going to go to Rannoch like we agreed. I'll introduce you to my family, and, um…" she blushed as the human tilted his head at her pause.
"Since proper homes are still being built on Rannoch, we don't have much until they're ready. There are plenty of, um, clean rooms in the hospital, though."
"Clean rooms?"
Shaela huffed for the second time that day as she noticed the human was struggling to keep himself from laughing at her embarrassment. A thought suddenly occurred to her on how to turn the tables, and she allowed herself to grin before twisting sideways, placing a knee on the ground on either side of Rassen's hips and moving her hands to his shoulders. Grin widening as the Jedi Knight went very still, she leaned in next to one of his ears before speaking.
"Specially prepared rooms with almost no microbes where quarians can remove their suits. Every part of their suits, in fact. They're normally used for treatment, of course, but there were a few free the last time I was there." Shaela felt extremely nervous as she spoke, but the way the man beneath her barely seemed to be breathing gave her the confidence to continue without her voice giving it away. "I'm sure you can see the other use they have."
She heard herself gasp as Rassen's arms, still encircling her shoulders and lower back, pulled her down against him slightly, leaving their fronts just touching. "Perhaps," he whispered next to the side of her head. "But then again, perhaps not. Why not tell me just to be safe?"
Ancestors have mercy.
"I…" she managed, barely aware that her hands had begun to move down from Rassen's shoulders to his chest, as his hand on the small of her back had begun to rub circles there. "I…" she tried again, her breathing as shallow as that of the man beneath her as she noticed with a gulp that his pupils had dilated.
The moment instantly shattered as the door to the cargo hold opened, revealing Shepard, whose expression caused the two of them to instantly spring apart. Much like in the case of Kasumi when she had interrupted them, the commander either didn't notice or didn't pay any mind to the fact he had just barged in on a private moment, but demanding an answer as to why he had was the furthest thing from Shaela's mind as he gave both of them a look that told her what was happening just as effectively as words ever could.
As her omni-tool pinged to tell her she had received a message, Wessa turned away from the patient she had been talking to, gesturing for a nearby colleague to take care of the quarian behind her, who had suffered a suit breach. The poor man, a construction worker, had managed to immediately administer several powerful antibiotics to himself after multiple pieces of debris had lacerated part of his enviro-suit, which had thankfully prevented his condition from being life-threatening, the fact they were on Rannoch also helping. However, the violence with which he had been coughing was enough for him to require a short stint in professional care until he showed some improvement.
Opening the message as quickly as she could, the matriarch was at first unable to read its contents properly, as her eyes darted from one word to the next at a breakneck pace. Taking a deep breath to calm herself somewhat, she tried again, forcing herself to try and process the information before her at a reasonable speed.
The message was from one of Admiral Hackett's secretaries, not surprising given just how busy he had to be currently with the amount of reconstruction that still needed to be done. Wessa's brow furrowed as she read further and further, feeling a growing sense of relief as well as increasing confusion. Apparently she and Shaela's parents had not received the only call for help regarding a rescue of Commander Shepard, someone else who was with the quarian having also requested assistance. The message rather deliberately didn't say who that someone was, but it did reveal that whoever they were, they had a close working relationship with someone in a position of considerable authority, who had reassured the admiral that what the sender had claimed was almost certainly true and that it would be wise to send a small force to at least investigate.
Wessa's curiosity was certainly piqued now. There were only a handful of people in the galaxy the mysterious individual who had convinced Hackett could be. Her omni-tool suddenly pinged again, the device reminding her that she had scheduled an appointment with Shaela's parents that was due to begin shortly. Well, appointment was perhaps not the correct word. Neither of them were unwell in any way, but almost as soon as she had received Shaela's message and then forwarded it to the admiral, they had contacted her themselves, no doubt having seen she had received the message much like she had noticed they had.
It taken a great deal of willpower to inform them both that she couldn't meet with them immediately, although every part of her had wanted to. Shaela was one of her best students, and Wessa also considered the young quarian a friend. However, she had dozens of patients, some in serious condition, to consider, and she would have been unable to help them the next day if she had gone gallivanting off to meet with Shaela's parents in the middle of the night. It had not sat well with her at all that she had chosen to try and get some sleep instead, but the asari knew that Shaela would be horrified if she were to find out that those in the hospital had been neglected for her benefit.
With some time set aside to speak with the quarian's parents, though, Wessa had already made sure that everyone else could do without her for that brief period. As a result, she had no hesitation when it came to informing the same doctor from before that she had to leave for a moment but would return as fast as she could. Receiving a distracted nod from the salarian, who didn't even look away from his patient as he worked, the asari set off for her office, determined not to keep Shaela's mother and father waiting. Rissel would be there as well, actually. Shaela's younger sister had handled her older sibling's duties at the hospital very well indeed so far, and she knew its layout well enough by now that the matriarch had no doubt she was already with her parents, the three of them impatiently waiting for her.
As she walked quickly through the cobbled together but still spotlessly clean halls that led to her office, Wessa found her mind travelling back to the question of just who the individual that had influenced Hackett could be. Surely it had to be a government official, and a highly ranked one at that. Who else would have the ability to sway one of the most powerful people in the galaxy so easily?
Groaning as she leaned back in her chair, both hands massaging her crest as she did so, Liara allowed her eyes to drift shut for a moment. She needed to sleep, badly. But she just couldn't. She was too pent up emotionally, much too nervous to rest despite how her body cried out for it.
Ever since she had received Kasumi's message about how she, the strange man she had encountered called Rassen, and his quarian companion (who the asari now knew was called Shaela thanks to the thief) were attempting to rescue Shepard from Balak, someone she unfortunately remembered only too well, anything close to sleep had been unattainable. The revelation that Shepard was alive had been the best news since the war with the Reapers had ended. While she like most everyone else who knew him hadn't truly believed he had died, knowing for sure that he was alive was an amazing feeling.
But he was being held by a monster who had once attempted to wipe out an entire colony of innocents, and only three people were going after him.
For all of her agents, all of her resources, Liara had no idea whether Kasumi had been successful in the time it had taken for her message to arrive. Horizon was still silent, meaning her worst case guess, that the colony had been destroyed, was looking increasingly likely. The entire system was still dark, in fact, and while she had already sent a message asking Kasumi for more information, she had no idea when the thief would receive it. Given communications had been continually getting worse in that area for some still unknown reason, it might never arrive for all she knew.
The one productive thing she had been able to accomplish, however, had been ensuring Kasumi's message had reached someone with the ships to help her. Liara herself had possessed considerable resources upon taking over as the Shadow Broker, but much of what she had… inherited from the previous holder of the position had been lost thanks to the Reapers, her network of informers having suffered a considerable blow in particular. Admiral Hackett, though, she knew he would be able to help Shepard.
While many in the galaxy knew of the Shadow Broker's capabilities when it came to acquiring any kind of information imaginable, Liara was well aware that Hackett would have to at least mention where he had got the message from to some of the Alliance's other high-ranking members. While some of its more… conservative elements might be sceptical of the fact it had come from her, they would be more inclined to trust her word than the word of the Shadow Broker, whose aims were unknown to and often unnerved many.
As a result, she had sent him the message as Liara T'soni rather than as her secret identity, and she had received a reply soon after. While he was desperately trying to restore stability to the galaxy, Hackett was willing to send a small fleet to help Kasumi rescue Shepard, and the organisation of such a force had begun even before he had sent her confirmation.
She had then done everything she could to ease the preparations along. Required supplies had turned up with surprising speed, almost as soon as a request for them was put in, enough of the Broker's network remaining for her to assist preparations while making it look as though it was merely good luck. Again, she doubted the higher ups in the Alliance would approve if they knew the Shadow Broker was helping them. As it was, she had been careful to keep her involvement as the galaxy's most powerful information broker as subtle as possible.
While she had no way to know if the force would arrive in time, she did know it was about to set off, which unfortunately meant she didn't have time to slip an agent with a convincing identity aboard one of the ships without arousing suspicion. With unnecessary spaceflight heavily restricted as a result of the lack of resources and communications poor even outside of the area around Horizon, Liara doubted any members of the Normandy's past crews would be able to join in time. She herself could have made it, but doing so would have meant diverting a ship so she could reach the Alliance vessels before they set off, or using the requisitioned ship to head directly to Aratoht. Unfortunately, the only ones she knew for sure that were in working order and could get her to either location in time were all currently involved in assisting refugees with medical care.
Even so, she had sent messages to everyone who had ever fought beside Shepard on either Normandy. Hopefully some of them would be able to reach the task force and join it in time if they were close enough inside Alliance space.
And hopefully the task force itself would arrive before it was too late.
"How many do you think?" Rassen asked, a sinking feeling in his stomach as he saw the number of dots heading towards them as he stared out of the cockpit. He couldn't count them properly at the distance they were currently; it was too difficult to differentiate between the different ships at this range and so he kept counting the same ones multiple times by mistake. All he knew for sure was that there were a lot more than three… And a surprise attack, even one as well executed as the one they had used earlier, had no chance against so many.
"I don't know," Shepard replied, the older man's expression a grim mask as he likewise surveyed the approaching vessels. "My best guess is somewhere around three-hundred troops, though how many of those are Mandalorians and how many are batarians I have no idea."
"How many mines do we have set?" Shaela asked, her presence reassuring Rassen a little as she stood next to him, holding one of his hands as she likewise stared at the dots gradually increasing in size.
"Not enough," Kasumi shrugged, her attempt to appear nonchalant and raise spirits appreciated but not working as she struggled to smile convincingly. "Enough to slow them down and buy us time, though. Plus I can lock down the ship's ramp and all of its doors. They'll have to either override my program, which I don't see happening, or they'll have to blow through them with explosives."
"And how much time do you think all of that will give us?" Rassen asked. "Assuming we all survive until they run out of rooms to search."
The thief tried to give him an optimistic smile, but it came across more like a grimace. "I really don't know, Ras. It comes down to how many explosives they have and how many of them are familiar with proximity mines."
"We'll just have to hope that's long enough," Shepard stated firmly.
Rassen turned his attention back to him as the other man gave him a determined look before his gaze moved to Shaela and then finally Kasumi. "We know your messages from earlier almost definitely got through, and we know the Alliance will at least investigate what happened to Horizon," Shepard continued. "We might be on our own now, but hopefully we won't be for much longer. If we watch each other's backs out there, we can all make it out of this."
Despite the situation, Rassen couldn't stop the corner of his mouth from twitching upwards. Glancing at Shaela and Kasumi, he noticed they too were looking fractionally more positive. Turning his attention back to Shepard again, he blinked in surprise as the other man stepped closer to him, gripping his shoulder tightly, the commander's gaze so intense it seemed to stare into his soul.
"We can do this, kid. Are you with me?"
He could feel Shaela and Kasumi's eyes boring into the back of his head. Despite that, Rassen strangely didn't feel pressured into giving the response that was expected. The determination, the drive in Shepard's eyes convinced him in that moment that they could survive, that they could hold out for long enough for help to arrive, no matter how long it took.
Obviously Shepard had no idea if that was really the case, and Rassen knew he didn't. Despite that, however, he found in that moment he really did believe the older man. Now it began to truly dawn on him why Shepard had been so integral to the fight against the Reapers. It wasn't that he was an excellent soldier, not really. The truth was that Shepard was a leader who could inspire others to take on impossible odds and make them feel like they could overcome them.
Nodding once, Rassen allowed himself a small smile. "I am with you, Shepard," he replied firmly.
"I am, too," Shaela announced, still holding his hand but shifting closer and looking up at him before moving her gaze to Shepard, eyes filled with conviction as she too nodded.
All three of them turned to look at Kasumi as she wordlessly approached before pushing Shepard's hand off his shoulder and pressing her lips to the commander's, causing Rassen to raise an eyebrow while Shaela let out a quiet noise that sounded almost like a squeal. While he had guessed something of a romantic nature had occurred between them after the thief had gone to wait for Shepard to return to the ship, he hadn't known for sure, and Shaela hadn't told him what she and Kasumi had spoken about, meaning he was still rather out of the loop. Turning to look at the quarian as she stared at the couple with both hands over her mouthpiece, he shook his head at her reaction before returning his gaze to Shepard as the commander and thief broke apart after a moment, both of them grinning like idiots.
"Right…" Shepard trailed off, taking a moment to compose himself before continuing. "Everybody take up positions near the mouth of the cave. We hold them there for as long as we can. When they get through the mines, we fall back to the ship."
As his gaze moved over the small army of Mandalorians and batarians assembling in the valley below them, he checked his sniper rifle one last time. Glancing over at where Rassen and Shaela were crouching just to the right of the cave's entrance and then at Kasumi, who was on the left, Shepard gave each of them a nod before aiming down his weapon's telescopic sight in order to get a better idea of what they were up against.
As expected, the batarians were definitely far more numerous than the Mandalorians. While he couldn't tell the exact ratio for sure, they had to outnumber the armoured warriors at least three to one, though their comparative lack of organisation and personal protection made them less of a threat individually. Still, when there were so many of them, such observations didn't provide much reassurance.
Keeping his gaze focused solely on the individuals below him, Shepard strained to catch any sign of either Balak or Mandalore. Taking either or both of them down before their troops advanced towards their position might well throw the force into disarray, at least for a time. Given they needed every advantage they could get, removing them from the picture had to be a priority.
As the minutes passed with the teeming mass of batarians and Mandalorians only growing as more and more emerged from their ships, which they had been forced to land in a line stretching down the valley like the advance force had, Venture's stiflingly hot atmosphere grew tenser and tenser, the anticipation within the small army palpable despite how far away they were. A ripple suddenly went through the crowd as some members of it seemingly received the order to advance, a few squads comprised solely of batarians starting to break away from the main group before aiming their weapons at the cave as they shouted to each other to provide cover.
A minute passed before the two dozen or so individuals reached the base of the slope and began to ascend it, only to stop after a few metres as one of their number froze, the blood draining from his face visible to Shepard despite how far away he was. The batarian turned to shout at his comrades, only to vanish from sight as a proximity mine detonated right in front of him, obscuring him from view as the explosion threw a cloud of green rock and dust into the air.
Even as far back as he was, the noise still caused Shepard to wince at its volume as he manoeuvred the sight of his weapon onto one of the batarians he could still see before squeezing the trigger. The shot smashed through the man's kinetic barrier like it wasn't there, sending him crashing backwards to roll down the bottommost part of the slope like a ragdoll.
The other members of the advance party began firing wildly at the cave entrance, but none of their shots were even close to hitting anyone as Shepard fired twice more, dropping another couple of their number just as another batarian advanced slightly too far, the mine he triggered taking out both him and three more who were right behind him.
Breathing calmly, he slipped a fresh heat sink into his rifle after discarding the old one, allowing the remainder of the batarians to retreat back to the main force, their shouts audible but incomprehensible at this distance.
"What are they doing?" he heard Shaela ask, causing him to glance over at the quarian as she peered around the rock she was hiding behind in confusion, shifting her weight in anticipation as she stared down at the mass of enemies. The first wave hadn't got close enough to the cave for her, Rassen, or Kasumi to even remotely be in range to do anything, causing Shepard to feel a small amount of sympathy for her. There were few things as disconcerting as being in danger but not being able to do anything about it.
"Preparing for their next move," he replied simply, returning his attention to the main body as the surviving batarians re-joined it. "Mandalore or Balak, whoever ordered it, that was a test. They knew we wiped out their advance force, but they didn't know what exactly we're capable of. Now they know for sure we've been preparing, and they know there's a minefield."
"You understand large-scale military tactics the best of any of us, Shepard," Rassen began. "How do you think they will proceed?"
Shepard glanced in the Jedi's direction. "They'll wait to see if we have anything else in store for them. Once they realise that's our most effective trick, they'll send someone in to clear the mines while the rest of them provide covering fire. Either that or they'll launch a mad rush without caring at all about casualties, but I doubt it. They know the Alliance will investigate Horizon at some point and that they will pick up something is happening here on Venture pretty quickly. As desperately as Balak and Mandalore want to get hold of us, they'll want to lose as few of their people as possible doing so."
Realising one of the group had remained silent, he looked over at Kasumi, only to realise with a start that she had already been looking at him, amber eyes piercing in their intensity despite the short distance between them. Returning her gaze, Shepard made himself a silent promise. They would all get out of here somehow. He hadn't fought the Reapers and escaped death twice for it all to end here. No matter what, they would escape.
Somehow.