Master of the Ring
Chapter Ten: There's a breathless hush
"Is it supposed to look like Mordor, or is that just happenstance?" Harry wondered.
"Just the way this planet is." Lord White said. "Too far out from its sun to be very productive of any but the toughest of life-forms. I knew The Master when we -and The Doctor – were younger. He's not the type to revel in the bleak and barren. This just happened to be the most suitable place. Mostly because of that!"
He pointed to the most prominent feature on the holo-display. It had been a Borg cube, mostly intact. Clearly its crew had been cut off from the Collective in some way and had crash-landed it here. But the original structure had been added to, in an orderly manner that was more Cyberman than Borg. Additions which included numerous defensive structures.
"I am so glad we don't have to storm that!" Harry noted. "It'll be hard enough keeping the CyBorg amused while Shepards' people destroy the Core. Just like my ancestor did at the Black Gate. Sometimes I think there are only two ways to defeat a bad guy. Either you sneak around and destroy his systems while he's distracted with other things…"
"..Or you let him get you at his mercy, then jump him while he's monologuing!" White finished for him. "As I recall, you did both with Voldemort!"
"Sort of." Harry allowed. "But he didn't get any last words. I wonder what he'd've said?"
"I'd have got away with it if it hadn't been for those meddling kids!" Rose said from behind them, making Harry laugh. "Right! If you've finished recalling your glory days, Harry, you need to talk to your people before we board the landing craft!"
Most of them were folk of Numenor, many tall, dark-haired and grey-eyed as he was, but also a mix of all human ethnicities. Some had the pointed ears and rangy builds of Vulcan or Romulan heritage, while others were clearly of Klingon descent. They wore black tactical armour, with the badge of the Silver Tree. Among them were others in Ranger grey, and wizards, mostly in the red and gold of Gryffindor. A little to one side stood Aeldari warriors: Guardians, Dark Reapers, Warp Spiders and others.
"I'm supposed to make a rousing speech here." Harry began. "But I've never been great at that!
"I've been in my fair share of battles, I think everyone here has. So I'm not going to talk about honour, or glory, or even history. I'm just going to say that what we're doing today is going to be hard, it's going to be scary and it's going to be brutal. Not all of us are going to come back, and some of us are going to get hurt.
"But this time, it's not about politics, or territory, or money. It is, literally, about preserving who or what we are. The CyBorg have one purpose -to turn all of us, and every other race, into them! A few years ago, this whole quadrant faced the Daleks – most of you were probably in that war – and we thought those stakes were high. The Daleks wanted to destroy, to exterminate, all other life-forms. But the CyBorg are worse, much worse. What they want is to remake every living thing in their image, ultimate slavery except we won't even remember who or what we were.
"So what we do today matters! Matters more than perhaps anything any of us have ever done."
"So, do whatever you can, the best way you can. Look out for each other. Above all, remember, you're already heroes just by being here! You've nothing to prove, so don't do anything silly!"
Wolverines' group was very different from Harrys', composed of heavy infantry and assault troops. These included the Citadel Guard, Dwarf Combat Engineers and Aeldari Fire-Dragons.
"Right!" He said. "You all know what we're here to do. Stay loose, keep in touch and watch each others' backs! These CyBorg won't go down easy, but they will go down. Don't try to take 'em one-on-one and make sure you finish 'em off before you leave 'em! Do whatever works until it quits workin', then figure somethin' else out. Also, don't get killed -that's an order!
"Now, let's do this!"
Deadpools' force was more mixed than the others. He'd simply scooped up anyone who had the reputation for being vicious, sneaky and generally crazy. He also had the Klingon Mage, Havoth.
"OK, guys!" He said. "Let's get ready to RUMBLE!"
XXXXX
"Landing craft away!" The Enterprise computer reported. "Ground support craft escorting."
Admiral Picard was sitting in the CIC of the Enterprise Alpha. Thus far it had been a disorienting experience. Travel through the Webway was very different from Warp or even TransWarp travel. No stars seen as streaks of light, or the green-shot blackness of Transwarp. Instead there had been a multitude of paths, outlined in many colours, among which the Aeldari Navigators, Psykers all, seemed to choose effortlessly as Lothlorien drew the small fleet along, like flotsam in her wake.
But now, normal space was back. Picard had wasted no more than a glance on the small, bleak planet before turning his attention to the feeds from his fleet. The CyBorg pickets must have been set further out than he thought advisable. The only craft in orbit had been a destroyer-class vessel that had been promptly destroyed by the Dwarf cruiser. But now the alert came:
"Hostiles inbound. One old-style Borg cube and four CyberCruiser types. The cube is out ahead, the cruisers are in close formation. I'm also detecting six squadrons of fighters and two of corvette-class ships."
"Acknowledged." Picard said. "Launch all fighters! Group squadrons around Ironfoots' Axe. Master Elrond, can your Craftworld deal with the cube?"
"Certainly, but it will require all our concentration." The Masterseer replied. "We will not be able to give the rest of the fleet support until it is dealt with."
"Understood." Picard said. "Commander Thorgrim, Admiral Koth, Proceed on a direct intercept course with the cruisers, and engage at your convenience. The Enterprise, Vingilot and Master of Death will remain cloaked and position for a flank attack as soon as we're sure you have the CyBorgs' full attention!"
"Don't jump in too quickly!" Thorgrim replied.
"Agreed!" Koth put in. "I've been looking forward to this too long to have my fun cut short!"
Everything went smoothly at first. The Lothlorien – the size of a small planet – dwarfed the cube; but while her defences were unbreachable, her offensive weaponry was limited and the battle would be one of attrition. The Fist of Kahless was a Klingon battleship, with all the offensive power that implies, while Ironfoots' Axe was if anything even more formidable. The Dwarf vessel had the heaviest shielding Picard had ever seen on a ship, and he had been told that the hull, made from an alloy stronger even than duranium, was a metre thick at its thinnest; its' armoury included compact but incredibly powerful phase cannon, and a pair of immensely destructive mass-drivers.
The flanking group were about to engage when a new alert came through.
"More hostiles incoming! Another cruiser and two destroyers, coming in fast!"
Picard took in the situation. One of the Cybercruisers was already out of the fight, two were badly mauled, but the fourth was still fairly unscathed. The Fist of Kahless had taken several hits but was holding steady, while Ironfoots' Axe, despite heavy bombardment, was barely scratched.
"Vingilot, you'll have to execute the flank alone!" He barked. "Captains Addams and Worf, intercept the new hostiles!"
Then matters became energetic. Already battered by the Dwarf and Klingon vessels, the Cybercruisers now came under the guns of a Federation Super-Dreadnaught. The Vingilot bristled with heavy phaser cannon and railguns and carried hundreds of quantum and transphasic torpedoes as well as two prototype weapons. The Neutron Blaster fired a particle beam that disrupted both shield harmonics and the molecular structure of matter with equal ease. The Dark Energy Cannon was a mass driver which utilised dark energy fields as well as magnetic ones to accelerate metal slugs to near-light speed, geometrically increasing their mass and destructive potential.
A single shot from the DE Cannon was enough to break the undamaged cruiser in half, and the remaining two, already damaged, fell before a pair of phaser broadsides. In the meantime, the Master of Death had de-cloaked directly ahead of the enemy reinforcements, then just as quickly vanished again, to reappear in the rear of the cruiser. Ship Apparation had once been a high-risk manoeuvre, only undertaken in emergencies, but modern wizard ships, with their mithril hulls and Integrity Charms, could manage it easily. Cybercruisers, like old-style Cardassian ships, concentrated their armour and weapons toward the bow, leaving the stern relatively unprotected. This the wizard ship took full advantage of with a fusillade of augmented Reductor Curses and fireballs. The cruiser made the mistake of attempting to turn on its' axis, bringing itself beam-on to further fire that left it adrift and weaponless.
Captain Worf had taken advantage of being cloaked to take the Enterprise beneath the destroyers. Just as the wizard vessel opened fire on the cruiser, the Federation ship came up at a steep angle, raking the undersides of the smaller ships with phaser fire and wrecking both. At the same time, the cube broke apart into flaming fragments as the Aeldari weapons finally overcame its' shields and auto-repair abilities.
"Are we clear?" Picard asked, but before anyone could reply, a Borg sphere dropped out of TransWarp ahead of them.
XXXXX
Back when Harry was born, he knew, ground combat had always been the deciding factor, with air and sea power being mostly about logistics and support for infantry. Nowadays, it was different. Fighting on an alien planet left troops with nowhere to retreat or escape to in defeat if the space-borne forces were also beaten. But the space battle was in the hands of Jean-Luc Picard, with the support of experienced ship commanders. Harry had to try and stop worrying about it for now.
Their arrival had been noted, it seemed. Thousands of Combat drones, the Black Cybermen, were coming toward them. Marching steadily in square formations, they looked invincible. Which was probably part of the plan. Behind them, defensive positions were also being manned, but were currently holding their fire. Which made sense, shelling your own troops was counter-productive.
Harry sighed and turned to Rose. "Why do I keep doing this?" He asked. "All I ever wanted was a quiet life, but here I am again!"
She smiled at him, and recited:
"There's a breathless hush in the Close to-night -
Ten to make and the match to win -
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play and the last man in.
And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,
But his Captain's hand on his shoulder smote -
'Play up! play up! and play the game!' "
"That's something Oliver might have said!" He replied.
Rose nodded. "He was a bigger influence on you than you've ever realised, Harry! I only met him when he joined the White Council. He was very old, then, but he still had that attitude. Winning was important, but playing – doing your part for the team- was fundamental to him!"
"You're right, as always!" Harry told her, then turned back to the enemy, triggering his commlink.
"Greyhound One to Falcon, you are clear to attack. Bring the rain!"
The ground support craft came in low and fast, scattering high-explosive bomblets and strafing with railguns. The rigid enemy formations were broken, but the individual drones continued their march inexorably. The defensive positions returned fire with their own railguns, revealing their positions and allowing the aircraft to lock on with missiles. Each warhead contained a tiny speck of anti-matter, enough to cause devastating damage to whatever they hit. Then the Falcon flight withdrew, having lost a third of their number.
"Greyhounds Two and Three, engage targets of opportunity!" Harry ordered. "Fire at will!"
"Aww, what did poor Will ever do to you?" Deadpool wanted to know.
Harry allowed himself a grin, then shouted. "Greyhound One, follow me!"
They had picked their ground as well as they could. For a wide space around the cube, it was flat and hard, allowing the defenders an easy advance. But those who'd cleared it had left much of the debris around the circumference of the circle. It made for rough going, but provided a lot of cover.
"Hold fire!" Harry ordered. "Let them come to us!"
He waited until the leading drones came to a halt near the perimeter, and began scanning for targets, before he ordered his troops to open fire. The effect was devastating. A barrage of phaser and railgun fire, augmented by wizard spells and the lethal accuracy of the Dark Reapers, whose Launcher weapons could shred a Drone with a single shot.
A few drones changed tactics, charging forward to scramble round or over the cover and engage the attackers. But it was there that Harry had placed the Rangers, Aeldari Guardians and the Warp Spiders, all units skilled in close combat. He himself and Rose were there as well. Both capable of casting powerful spells, they also had other skills they could use. Rose had all her fathers' agility and ferocity, and much of his strength, as well as an adamantium-laced skeleton and claws – no drone was a match for her. Besides his magic, Harry had mastered the power of the Dark Energy generated by the lyrium core of the Elder Wand; he could render energy weapons useless, negate the forces that held an opponents' molecules together, or create micro-singularities that dragged enemies in while crushing them with intense but localised gravity fields.
Nevertheless, he managed to get himself into trouble. Leaping out of cover to save a Guardian, he was caught by a massive punch from a drone. His nanoprobe-enhanced body took no injury, but he was knocked several feet away onto his back, losing his grip on his wand, which skittered off across the rock. The drone came for him and without thinking, Harry drew Anduril, which hung at his side on Whites' insistence. Hoping to at least fend the drone off until help arrived, Harry extended the blade in front of him, and was shocked as the ancient, Dwarf-forged steel punched easily through the alloy armour and the advancing drone impaled itself on the sword.
Harry dragged Anduril free of the collapsing drone, looked up and saw another raising its gun. Then something very like a branch crashed through its torso, and it was lifted and flung away, revealing the tall, gangling figure behind. A wooden, masklike face grinned down at him.
"I am Groot?"
"I'm fine. Thanks!" Harry said, going to fetch his wand. "Are the others here?"
"I am Groot!"
Groot pointed away to where a green-skinned giant and a blue-armoured colossus were creating mayhem amid the now-faltering advance. Harry grinned, then saw the enemy reinforcements coming.
"Shit!" He said. "We'd better go and fetch them, mate! Reapers, give covering fire! Everyone else on me! You coming?"
"I am Groot!"
XXXXX
While Harrys' group was meant to look like it was setting up a bridgehead, Wolverines' was positioned opposite the nearest defensive emplacement to the perimeter. Configured for heavy assault. The aim was to mount a credible threat to the cubes' outer defences.
"How credible?" Logan had asked Harry, who had shrugged.
"If you can take it without too many casualties, feel free." He'd said. "The idea is to keep the CyBorg concentrating on what's going outside. Just don't let yourselves be pulled into the cube itself! Those things are labyrinths and not everyone has your sense of direction!"
The Dwarf commanding the Combat Engineers, Dori son of Dain, had his own advice. "Let me get my folk to those walls," he told Logan as they surveyed the target, "and we'll crack them open like piecrust!"
Logan led the assault as soon as the aircraft began to withdraw, not giving the enemy infantry time to regroup. His Guards had heavy tactical armour and carried phaser rifles and chainswords based on the design of the Space Marine weapons used by Titus. The Dwarfs had even heavier armour. They carried stubby but lethal carbines that fired bolts of superheated plasma, or compact, high-calibre slugthrowers. Each one also carried a broad-bladed axe forged from some dully-gleaming alloy, which had a power-cell in the handle capable of sending massive jolts of electricity up the shaft into the blades, or heating them white-hot. The Aeldari Fire Dragons carried their fusion guns, firepikes and Dragons' Breath flamethrowers. There were also a range of mechs, from the slender Aeldari Spirit Lords to blocky Dwarf constructs that bristled with weapons.
Logan himself had neither armour or weapon, relying on his speed, agility, instincts and claws. It wasn't really fair, he knew, but if the CyBorg couldn't handle it, that wasn't his fault!
The resistance was as tough as he'd expected, but no tougher. It was helpful that the air attack had rendered half of the emplacements' guns inoperative, and that the rest seemed to be programmed to avoid firing on their own people as much as possible. Wolverine took his time, not allowing any one element to get ahead of any other. The result was that they reached the walls with most of the force still intact and were able to get into a position where the heavy guns couldn't be depressed enough to fire on them.
That was when the Dwarf sappers and the Fire-Dragons came into their own. The Dwarfs unlimbered powerful sonic devices that crumbled rock and stone in seconds. Where metal plates were encountered, the Aeldari deployed adhesive Melta bombs that reduced them to white-hot pools. It took less than five minutes to create half-a-dozen useable breaches.
"Let's take this place!" Logan bellowed, and went through the nearest breach like a flying shadow, leaping over a hastily- constructed barricade and cutting loose on the drones manning it in a whirlwind of razor-sharp claws and unstoppable ferocity. Behind him, Dori raised his axe and followed with a roar of "Khazad ai-menu!", his men in a solid column behind him. The Cyborg gunners and guards were few in number, and apparently neither programmed nor equipped for close combat. Nevertheless, things became pretty hot for a while, before Wolverine and his troops had full control of the fortification. Then the call came through.
"Logan!" Harry said. "There's a shitload of reinforcements coming out!"
"Crap!" Logan said. "we better get ready to pull out!"
"Nah!" Dori told him. "They're moving slow. We've got time to make this place defensible!"
XXXXX
Deadpool was having far too much fun! His instructions had been simple. "Just do what you do best, Wade!" Harry had told him. What Deadpool and his people did best was create havoc! He himself was carrying two phaser pistols, two heavy slugthrowers, a plasma sword he had taken from a dead alien a long time ago, and a shotgun-like weapon which, instead of shot, fired a scatter of microbombs. The rest of his force were no less eccentrically-armed, as evidenced by the large numbers of burned, blasted, melted, overloaded or simply sliced and diced drones that lay around.
His force was light and mobile, specialising in close combat and sneak attacks, then disappearing and turning up somewhere unexpected. They were just wrapping up a phalanx of drones which had avoided the air bombardment when Deadpool came upon a perfect ring of dead drones. Half clambering, half wading, he reached the centre to find the towering figure of Havoth standing there.
"You doing OK, pal?" Deadpool asked.
The Klingon wizard nodded. "It has been some time since I exercised my abilities against muggles." He stated. "We usually develop our skills by duelling among ourselves. To be able to act without restraint is…refreshing."
He raised his gauntleted hand, palm upwards, in a lifting gesture. Twenty or so drones were yanked into the air. With a pointing finger, Havoth moved them several metres, before using a palm-down slamming gesture to send them crashing onto another advancing group. The results were devastating.
"As I said," Havoth remarked, "refreshing."
Deadpool left him to it. On the hunt for more prey he ran across a wiry little StarFleet Marine he'd recruited.
"Is that a bayonet on the end of that phaser rifle, Jonesy?" He asked.
"Yessir!" Jones replied. "High-density duranium, sir! Laser-sharpened. Nothing like a bayonet, sir! They don't like it up 'em, sir, they don't like it up 'em!"
You put him in just so you could use that line, didn't you?
Shut up. I could have made you all sing Men of Harlech. Have you heard Harry sing?
OK, I'll stick with the corny line!
Deadpool swung round and fired a blast from his shot-bomber, taking two drones down. He bounded over the wreckage, slinging his weapon and drawing his slugthrowers. A double fusillade made an end of another drone. A quick roll, coming up with phasers drawn to sweep across an advancing squad that had some of his people pinned down. Diving in with the plasma blade to finish them off.
"I love this job!" He crowed, and set off to commit more mayhem. Fortunately, he'd run out of nearby enemies when Harrys' call came in.
"Wade? We've got a ton of reinforcements coming! Logans' crew managed to take the North-West fortress, so he and I are going to hole up there and keep them busy."
"Gotcha!" Deadpool replied. "Me and my guys are gonna go to ground out here. That way, we can hit them in the back while they're concentrating on you, and keep an eye out for any heavy weapons they try to bring up."
"Good thinking!" Harry noted. "Who are you and what have you done with Deadpool?"
"Yeah, you and the hippogriff you rode in on!" Deadpool told him. "Catch you on the flip-flop, Your Majesty!"
Shepard did not want to think about the trip he'd just taken: the sensation of being yanked along by a hook set just behind his navel, the whirl of colours and a howling wind, all far from pleasant. It seemed the rest of the team felt the same, even Wexx, the big Gorn, looked greener than usual!
The stocky wizard, Aurelius MacMillan, seemed quite unperturbed, however, taking the metal hoop he'd had them all holding and shrinking it down to fit in the pouch at his side.
"So you do get used to that, then?" Shepard asked.
"Eventually." MacMillan allowed. "Portkeys aren't something we use a lot – by 'we' I mean wizards – we have a lot of other ways to travel. But it is a useful way of getting several people to the same place at once, even if most of them don't have magic."
"This place hasn't been used in a long time." Kaidan commented. "Are you sure it's the right location?"
"Well, I wasn't going to drop us in the middle of a crowd!" MacMillan pointed out. "This is the closest unused room to the Core. Why it's unused I don't know!"
"Borg." Talia said. "They tend to move equipment and crew around their ships to where they're needed. If there's nothing that needs to go in this room at the moment, they just won't use it until there is.
"I'm only detecting worker drones in the immediate vicinity. Remember, they'll ignore us unless we interfere with them directly. They're stronger than most organics and they don't feel pain, but have no combat programming. What they can and will do is alert combat drones to our presence and location.
"I do have a location on the Core, but only a vague map of what's between it and us."
"OK." Shepard said. "We go steady, and we go careful. Where possible, we should go around the workers to avoid getting near enough to interfere with them.
"Talia, Aurelius, take point. Gunny, watch our rear. Lara, there'll be some hostiles who aren't CyBorg. Keep a look-out for independent thinking!
"Move out!"
It was an unusual experience, moving through supposedly hostile territory at what amounted to a steady stroll. Talia was able to lead them round large groups of drones while Aurelius seemed to have a knack of finding the quickest way through the labyrinthine corridors.
"How do you do that?" Talia asked as he led them down yet another short-cut.
"Do you know what Cursebreakers do?" He asked.
"Break curses, I suppose." She said.
"True enough." Aurelius allowed. "But it's seldom a case of somebody coming to me with a cursed item and asking me to un-curse it. Curses can be laid on places, rooms, tombs, houses, caves and so on. They're used to protect hideouts, places where people stash ill-gotten gains or valuable and sacred items in general. So Aurors -wizard security – and wizard archaeologists often have to use Cursebreakers to help arrest fugitives, recover stolen property or excavate ruins. So we also have to be pretty good at finding our way around, handy at unlocking doors and detecting traps, and generally able to handle ourselves!"
"Useful to know!" Talia said. "I do the same with tech, pretty much. We should swap contact details after this is over, you never know when it might come in handy to know someone with complementary skills."
The door to the Core Chamber was no larger nor more impressive than any other door, except for the fact that it was a door, unusual in a Borg structure, where the norm was simply a doorway. It was also flanked by two Black Cybermen.
OK, Shepard broadcast through Laras' mind-link, we need to take them both out fast and quiet. Ideas?
I can take one from here, easy! Garun affirmed. But I couldn't switch aim fast enough to stop the other alerting the rest!
If I could get close enough… B'ragh said.
I think I could do that! Aurelius offered. The new Disillusionment Charm works on electronic surveillance as well as organic eyes. We've been using it as a cloak on our ships, but it's never been done in this type of situation before. I'm willing to give it a shot, Sergeant, if you are!
I am willing. B'ragh said at once. Colonel?
Worth a try. Shepard conceded. Take the one on the left. Garun, if they're spotted, take the one on the right down and we'll do our best with the other. Otherwise, wait until they hit! When you're ready, Aurelius!
OK! Aurelius acknowledged. Sergeant, stay behind me until I tell you otherwise!
He gestured with his wand, and he and the big Klingon vanished from sight. Garun took aim and waited. Then he heard Lara in his head. Now! He fired, and both Cybermen's heads exploded, one from his rifle shot, the other from the close-range blast of Gunny B'raghs' shotgun.
"They didn't get a peep off!" Talia stated as she made for the door. It took her precious minutes to hack the lock, but there was no sign of an alarm as the team headed into the room. The Core was apparently the only thing in there. A cone-shaped structure two meters in diameter at the base and perhaps three high, made of black metal but with patterns of blue lights pulsing across the surface.
"Don't think I could hack that even if we had time!" Talia said.
"That's not the job!" Shepard pointed out. "Kaidan?"
The teams' acknowledged demolitions expert, Kaidan was able to place a dozen high-explosive sticky bombs at strategic points around the cone in minutes.
"We've got company coming!" Talia warned.
"Fire in the hole!" Kaidan warned.
There was no cover in the room, but the charges were shaped so that most of the force was directed inward at the Core. The cone crumpled and collapsed to reveal a tall, slender spike of blue crystal, pulsing steadily with the same blue light, inside.
"The core of the Core." Shepard said. "Crap! Gonna need some more bombs, Kaidan! Wexx, you and I better cover that door!"
"Hang on!" Aurelius said, then pointed his wand at the crystal. "Reducto!"
The crystal shattered and the blue light went with it. "I was always good at that one!" Aurelius said.
Then the voice of the CyberQueen came out of the walls:
"The Core can be rebuilt. The drones in this structure are under my direct command. You are all worthy of upgrade. Resistance is futile."
"She may very well be right!" Shepard said. "Aurelius?"
"Afraid not, Colonel." The wizard replied. They've put their main shield up, and it's the same type the TimeLords use on a TARDIS. I can't get us out with magic now."
"Then we'd better use the door!" Talia called from the far side of the room. She had a panel off the wall and was rapidly adjusting the circuitry behind it. A large section of the wall suddenly sank into the floor, revealing a long, dimly-lit passage. "I think this is an emergency route in case they needed to get the Core out in a hurry." She explained. "It goes right to the outer hull!"
She hurried over and closed the door they had entered by. Lara fused the locking circuits with her phaser while Wexx and B'ragh dragged some of the heavier chunks of wreckage from the Core over and wedged it up against the door.
"OK, go, go!" Shepard yelled. "The only thing you've got to be scared of is me, and I'll be right behind you!"
They ran. The sound of cyber-blasters behind them urging them on. Talia arrived at the end first, and began frantically searching for the controls to the outer door. Aurelius levelled his wand and shouted "Alohomora!". The door fell outwards, forming a ramp, at the bottom of which waited a squad of dark-armoured Aeldari, whose leader gestured them forward.
Shepard and his team went down fast, in a crouching run that allowed the Dark Reapers to fire a volley over their heads into the drones that had already reached the exit. The ramp began to rise, but not before the last Marine had managed to clear it.
"Colonel Shepard?" The Aeldari leader asked. "I am Exarch Mablung. I have been sent to bring you to the King."
