Vanguard of Vengeance: Chapter 15
Commander Shepard was falling. Wind beat at her breast and clawed at her flailing fingers as she tumbled through the tearing metal staircase. For the first second, she found herself helpless. Her helmet filled with noise, the roaring of the storm around her and her own ragged breathing blotted out all other noise. She was jarred hard as her elbow caught on some stubby protrusion. Something popped in her suit and suddenly the swirling icy winds of Noveria were inside the helmet, sucking the air out of her lungs. She was jarred again as an extended antenna failed to arrest her fall. Instinctive training kicked in and Shepard felt her numbed fingers clasp around the ruined stanchion. Her gauntlet locked and held, but the metal screamed and tore out of the wall. And then she was falling again, tumbling and turning.
"Shepard!"
The weak call was barely loud enough to be heard over the roar of wind, but it was enough. Shepard's body assumed falling position almost entirely by instinct. Her limbs spread wide, catching the cold air and stabilizing her descent. Her eyes scoured the metal sides of the corporate city as they rapidly slid by, fixing after what seemed like an eternity on her salvation. Or it would be if she could just arrest her descent a little more…
"You a biotic or not, Evangeline?"
The ghost-voice shook the marine from her panicked daze. Of course. Stupid, Shepard, why didn't… She stopped herself; she'd have time for self-recrimination later. Now, she had to survive this fall and get back to her team. She gathered every strand of biotic power available to her in a swirling aura of purple-blue light. The effect was immediate, Shepard felt herself slow, the wind seemed to lose its purchase on her, and the shining metal walls began to resolve itself into sharp focus. Shepard reached with invisible hands, latching onto the smooth skin of the city and reeling herself in towards her target. Fingers grasped onto metal grating. Shepard let go of her biotics and felt her body gain mass again. Once again, the wind crashed back in around her, but this time, she had a firm hold on the world.
"Shepard?" the voice of Nihlus crackled in her head set. "Shepard, are you still with us? Damn it, talk to me."
"Shepard here," Evangeline called. Her voice sounded rough and breathy in her ears. "I'm still alive, for now." She grunted as she hauled herself up towards the exhaust grate that had saved her life. Her wounded elbow shook dangerously, drawing fresh spasms of panic in Shepard's chest. She pushed them aside and concentrated on lifting her aching body onto the narrow ledge that ringed the exhaust part. With shaking fingers, she laced a length of safety cord through the metal slatted vent cover and fastened herself to the wall of the city.
"I've managed to secure myself to some kind of ventilation shaft about…" she cast her gaze upwards. Up above, the curvature of the city walls hid the catwalk she'd slipped from. "… I don't know, about twenty meters down from your position. Climbing back up isn't going to be an option, not in this wind." Shepard shivered as another gust of chill air rushed past. The icy gale drove its way through the popped seals of her armour and chilled her to the core. She clapped a gauntleted hand over the offending joint and began testing the grate with her free hand. It remained resolutely within its frame.
"You'll have to find another way back to us," Nihlus said. "You mentioned some kind of ventilation shaft. Is it large enough to navigate?"
Shepard cast a dubious eye over the vent's dark interior. "It'll be a tight fit, but I think I can squeeze through, even in armour. This grate, though." She pulled harder at the blockage. It wobbled, but stayed put. "I'm going to have to cut through." Shepard reached for her combat stores. Each pouch on her belt was illuminated by her holographic HUD overlay, its contents revealed in stark green text hovering just in front of her face. Her eyes slipped over field rations, emergency flares, and spare oxygen. She opened the snaps on the air pouch. "I think I've found my way in. Keep going, I'll catch up to you."
"You're certain?" Nihlus' turian flanging fluctuated strangely, in a way Shepard hadn't heard before. It wasn't quite fear, though it held a similar edge. Concern? Worry?
"Yes, sir. Go find us a ride; it takes more than a mere six storey drop to take an N7 out of the game." Shepard clicked off her radio with a flick of the chin before Nihlus could respond.
"Alright, Kaidan, just you and me now," Shepard said, addressing the silent ghost-voice. "I remembered that I'm a biotic, but I also remembered that you used to be a hot hand with the tech… amongst other things," Shepard let a small smile dance on her lips. "Let's see if that story you told me about that time you broke your friends out of the barracks on Jump Zero was completely full of shit." She raised her activated omni-gauntlet and rammed the oxygen tank home into the quickly rearranged material port.
As a biotic, especially one specialized in CQB; Shepard's tech use aptitude fell well below established Alliance military averages. Not that a long progression of instructors hadn't tried their damnedest to drill the operations of circuit boards and mass effect fields into her head. Her head, already full of buzzing, biotic power, had been quite resistant to their lessons. Her training hadn't been entirely wasted on her, though, nor completely without impact.
Shepard ignited the torch on her homebrewed thermal lance. The bright orange-red flare lit the small culvert where she sheltered as her onboard stores of iron came to burn heat. "Just got one shot at this," she muttered into the wind. The torch sputtered as the oxygen stream threaded through its leaky connection. An indicator flashed on her HUD. She depressed her finger over the omni-tool controls. The lance burst forth, a volcanic stream of superheated metal. Shepard thrust the emitter tip right against the blocking grille and dragged the stream of sparks across the metal. The lance cut a scarlet line through the thin steel grille. Shepard's free hand came up to wipe her sweaty forehead. It thumped against her faceplate.
"Damn it," Shepard bit back further invective as her torch began to falter. "Come on, come on, come on," she pleaded. She clenched her fist, as if to squeeze just a little more out of the spare oxygen tank. The flare of the lance sputtered and died. "Of all the useless…" Shepard plucked the tank from her omni-tool and pitched it over the edge. She watched it spiral on the winds until it grew too tiny to see. She turned to survey her handiwork. She'd only managed to complete a little under half of her cut. "This'll… have… to do," she said through gritted teeth. She pounded on the weakened grate with both fists, the metal flexing dangerously back and forth. With a snap, she liberated the offending metal from its bonds. It flew over the head and was instantly snapped up by the driving snow, almost taking Shepard with it. She clung to the still warm edges of the grille tightly as the cut away segment clanged its way down the side of the city walls.
"Right, now that that's over with, all that's left is catching up with the others," Shepard muttered. She peered into the darkness of the vent. She brought up her omni-tool, setting it to passively home on the beacons of her friends. "Here goes nothing." She dove head first into the black.
"Come on, Evangeline, you can do this." Shepard reached out with a gauntleted hand. Finger tips brushed the polished metal, just shy of gaining a grip. Shepard felt herself begin to slip and fall. Stamping down on the tearing feeling in her gut, she hauled herself back up. The yawning hole in the floor of the ventilation shaft looked as impassable as ever. "Shit."
Shepard checked her locator one more time. Her allies appeared to be holding position slightly ahead of and above her. It should have been a short jog. It had turned out to be a nightmare. The tunnels that wound their way through the pulsing belly of Port Hanshan were both absurdly wide and skin-crawlingly tight at the same time, so low ceilinged that Shepard had been forced to scoot down their rattling metal length on her stomach. She shot the vertical junction an acid look.
"Maybe if I got myself turned around, go in backwards?" Shepard was shaken from her contemplations by an all too familiar sound. The pulsing clatter of weapons' fire echoed in the metal shaft, followed almost immediately by the buzz-rattle of geth platforms. "The others!" For a second, Shepard completely forgot the impossible nature of the junction gap. She swarmed forward, stretching out her hand to grab the other side. Fingers brushed the metal edge, just short of finding a grip. "No!" Shepard's biotics flared blindingly bright in the narrow tunnel. She stretched out with invisible hands of stressed gravity; biotic claws sank into the soft metal of the vent and held fast. Shepard's legs wheeled over empty space as she scrambled up and into the far tunnel.
The weapons fire up ahead continued unabated as Shepard clung to the floor of the vent, fruitlessly attempting to marshal her breathing and hammering heartbeat. Slowly, she came back to her senses. She thumbed on her comms. as she pushed herself onwards. "Hello, Normandy ground party? This is Shepard. What's the situation, who's shooting who?" Nothing returned on her radio. The only sound that filled the vent was a hissing static and the throbbing of the rolling gunfight. "Normandy ground party …" The comm. channel loosed a high pitched squeal before emitting a harsh popping noise and going silent. The faint scent of burning reached Shepard's nostrils. She swore and reached for her helmet. She yanked the exterior paneling for her earpiece open and tugged the fragile electronics out. The receiver was shot, its array almost completely burned away.
"Shit." Shepard threw the ruined earpiece behind her and set about working her way up the narrow vent. The gunfire drew closer and closer, until it rang loudly against the thin metal walls. Up ahead, blue light flashed through a slatted cover. Shepard blew out a strained breath of relief as she shuffled the last few meter. Beyond the grate, a battle raged across an expansive garage. Geth combat forms swarmed along one side of the cavernous room, firing from the ruins of what looked like bulky transport crates. Opposing them, the members of Nihlus' small party were pinned down behind the pockmarked hull of a partially disassembled ground crawler. The space between the two camps was afire with blue-white light as both sides filled the air with whirring metal. Explosions rocked the ground around the crawler as more geth dropped from the tangle of cables that blanketed the garage's high roof and took up positions in the branch-like catwalks. One of the four streams of fire lancing out from the party cut out abruptly.
Shepard bit down the panic that threatened to wash over her. Already her eyes were scanning the expanse of the hanger; taking in details faster than she could keep process them. Her jaw set as she found just the thing she was looking for. Almost directly below her stood a line of narrow parking bays. Most were empty, or else filled with boxy civilian vehicles or more of the tracked snow crawlers. One bay, however, partially concealed the sleek profile of a military model Mako. Shepard's face split into a smile for the first time that day. A wicked smile. She'd assumed the ERCS captain had referred to the IFV's unarmed civilian cousin when she'd spoken of Port Hanshan's 'Makos.' This, this was something she could work with. A plan leapt into Shepard's mind fully formed. It would take some luck, something Evangeline felt significantly short on, but the situation left very little choice.
Shepard sucked in a deep, faltering breath. Below her, the sounds of battle rolled together into a distant, heavy thrum. Shepard reached out with both hands, grasping the slats of the vent cover. It twisted away and fell to the ground. Shepard tried to stay low as her eyes scanned for any sign that she had been noticed. If the geth had seen her, they gave no signal. Instead they only drew their net tighter around the ground party.
So far, so good.
Shepard pulled herself to the edge and dropped silently to the ground. She landed hard, rolling to absorb some of the impact. The fall left her momentarily stunned and the battle's new closeness flooded her senses with noise. She propped herself up on one elbow and surveyed the scene. From the ground, the situation looked all the more desperate. Shepard stumbled to her feet, careful to keep the tangle of maintenance equipment and stationary vehicles between her and the marauding synthetics. The ghost grey hull of the Mako loomed, rear hatch invitingly open. Shepard pushed herself forward, ignoring the shooting pain in her legs that left her feeling like the inner lining of her hardsuit had been filled with crushed glass. Hands grabbed the sides of the hatch, and she was in. The Mako's interior was dark and unpowered. Shepard navigated her way forward by memory, reaching ahead until her hands met the surprisingly well padded gunner's chair. She levered herself in, whimpering slightly as abused shins met the edge of a dark console. She pushed the pain aside and grasped the controls. They remained unresponsive. She flailed at the controls, cursing. She crawled out of the chair and moved to the driver's console. Questing hands found the ignition switch and she hammered it repeatedly. The Mako stayed dark, inert. Shepard looked about the dark cockpit helplessly. Any standard issue Mako should have thrummed to life instantly. Then she remembered the plush seat, the custom paint job, and Captain Matsuo's words.
"I have not had much experience out on the barrier wall, but you won't be able to get those Makos started without my key."
Evangeline swore. She turned back to the Mako's dash and felt along it until she ran across something unfamiliar. There, on the very edge of the console, something blocky broke the otherwise graceful lines of the vehicle's interior. The box had smooth sides, but the top was broken by the steep valley of a card reader. The keyhole, but Shepard had no key. Frantically, she hammered the ignition switch again before falling to the floor of the Mako. Outside, the pace of the battle seemed to grow ever more desperate. More explosions landed not far from the Mako's hull and Shepard felt her teeth chatter in her head.
"Come on, Evangeline. Think back. You spent a week in the motor pool. What would old Chief Oris do?" Shepard chuckled darkly. Old Oris probably would have hit the engine with a spanner until he'd convinced it that it'd be wiser just to do what he wanted. Like that one time he'd run up against the new digilocked wheel boot Command had clamped on his beloved personal craft. He'd taken his trusty spanner to that little wonder of technology and …" Shepard stopped reminiscing and looked down at the darkened console again. Her hand found the box of the key reader and clamped down on its smooth, metal surface and pushed her already heated amp to maximum output. Flares of dark light flickered in the black and Shepard heard the tearing of tortured metal. The reader came away in her fingers and crumbled under the pulls of stressed gravity. She threw it aside and reached into the space left in the console. She rummaged amongst the broken wires and fished out the thickest cabling she could find.
"I sure hope this is the power," she muttered as she threaded the shredded copper strands back into an unbroken whole. She held her breath and flipped the ignition switch. The vehicle's engine gave a thick and throaty cough before roaring to life. Shepard let out a cry of triumph as the cabin came alive with blinking lights. Her elation was short lived. The nearest geth platforms turned their lamp-like heads towards the snarling infantry fighting vehicle and raised their weapons. The clatter of mass accelerator rounds broke over the vehicle's armoured hull like a storm. Shepard threw herself back into the padded gunnery chair and grasped the controls. The vehicle leapt at her touch, alive beneath her fingers. Her fist clenched over the stick, ready to unloose the shackles on the barely controlled lethality of the main gun.
Holo-screens flickered into life before her eyes. Bright sigils illuminated likely threats, painting her scope livid read. Shepard swung her turret towards the largest concentration of the enemy. Her thumb depressed the firing stud, launching a hypervelocity shell with a resounding *thump.* The shell burst amongst the pack of geth, scattering them and breaking them utterly. Shepard was already swinging her aim to track one of the larger platforms. Through the scope's zoom, the geth appeared to be regarding here with its one blue eye. Shepard put another shell right through its chest plate. She allowed herself a second's satisfaction before going back on the hunt. The geth had scattered under the new threat her Mako represented, splitting up to find individual cover. Shepard grimaced and eyed her ammo stocks. Not enough shell to waste plinking geth one by one, especially considering the buzzing, hopping machines had likely brought friends.
She thumbed over the weapon selector to engage her coaxial machine gun and peppered the nearest geth with red hot tungsten. Through the peripheral side scopes, she saw her party retreat around the now burning hulk that had once been a snow crawler.
No one left behind. Good.
She walked her fire across the room, letting it linger on any geth platform foolish enough to stand in place for two long. The loud chatter of the machine gun became a solid drone as Shepard depressed the stud and held it down. The beginnings of a smile crawled onto her lips. Her heart hammered in time with the gun.
"Come on!" She yelled at the scattering geth as they began to fall back, a retreat that began orderly and precise but soon melted into a rout under her constant scourging. "Come on! You want to kill me? You want to kill my friends? Stand and fight, you cowards. You… you damn machines! I'll kill all of you, just like you killed Kaidan!" The gun's drone turned to a choking clatter, then a high pitched wail that drowned out Shepard's own. The firing stopped. A deafening silence filled the smoky cabin. Shepard continued to hammer at the controls, trying to fire the dead guns through sheer force of will. Tears streaked her grimy cheek.
"Shepard?"
The commander whirled at the intrusion. The form of a turian stood silhouetted against the lights shining in through the rear hatch. Shepard squinted through the hot tears and just about made out the red and black of the man's hardsuit.
"Nihlus." The voice that spoke was raw and throaty. Shepard's hand went to her neck. "Reporting for rendezvous, just like I said I would." Shepard coughed as more drifting smoke teased her battered throat.
"I see that," Nihlus said, stooping to enter the Mako. "You made quite an impression. I don't know how I would have gotten us out of there had you not come along."
"The geth?"
"Hiding in shipping crates. We weren't able to identify who brought them in before they blew open and the geth swarmed out. I don't suppose we'll get much off them now." He shot a meaningful look over Shepard's shoulder. Through the front scope, the crates still glowed cherry and many of them burned with guttering flames. Her handiwork.
"I'm sorry," she started.
"Don't be, I prefer my limbs to evidence, anyway."
"Don't let Garrus hear you say that," Shepard said. Her voice had settled and her throat didn't feel quite so rough. Suddenly, she remembered the beginning of the fight she had seen through the vent cover. "I saw one of you get hit. Who? Are they alright?" Images of Vakarian splayed out behind the snow crawler or Liara cradling her leaking belly danced before her eyes.
"The prothean took a round to the shoulder. He's not happy about it, but he'll live. I guess they made them tough, back in the day."
"Good," Shepard said. "Good." A sudden feeling of weakness filled her and she almost deflated into the padded gunnery chair. True relief washed the last grimy vestiges of hopelessness and fear from her heart. "I suppose we'll be making our run at Peak 15 now."
Nihlus held up a placating hand. "We have a second to rest here. I have to contact Chief William's team, and our troops could use a breather. Even you look… less than optimal."
"Yes, sir." Shepard sketched a half salute. "I'll see you on the snow."
"Count on it, Commander. See you on the snow."
Shepard pulled herself out of the gunners chair and brushed past the council Spectre. She felt her body relax as she pulled a lung of fresh air. It was smoky on her tongue, but at least it no longer felt like the air of her own funeral.
All things considered, Noveria was quite beautiful, in its own frost-bitten, harsh, and full of terrifying drops kind of way. In fact, Commander Shepard had grown almost relaxed staring out of the forward screen on the drive through the blinding blizzard.
"Shepard, break right!"
Her calm was shattered as the snow in front of the Mako exploded in a sudden storm of metal rain. The stick fought her as she threw the vehicle into a tight turn. Tires chewed fruitlessly at windblown powder and the heavy tank continued its suicide charge directly at the enemy guns, though turned side on. Shepard's swerve kicked up a skirt of the powdery snow.
Up in the gunner's seat, Garrus hummed his own rendition of the Mako's muted 'seeking' tone. "Target locked, firing one," he stated calmly. The gun barked and the shell was away, cutting a short lived tunnel through the falling flakes. A scarlet flare lit on the nearby mountain side and the return fire stopped abruptly.
"Nice shooting, Officer," Nihlus crowed, slapping his fellow turian on the shoulder. "Commander, proceed. Everyone keep their eyes peeled for additional hostiles."
A series of acknowledgments rang throughout the cabin. Shepard gritted her teeth. The cannon's recoil had provided enough braking force to stop the Mako's slide, but the ground was still unsteady beneath her whirling tires. She goosed the powerful twin engines, looking for traction. The knobbly wheels bit deep into the snow, catching on the broken ice beneath. The Mako shot forwards, resuming its forward course.
The infantry fighting vehicle ate up the miles of the road to Peak 15 with contemptuous ease. Shepard strained her eyes staring out into the snow blind, but saw nothing. Only the white of the blizzard showed up on her scopes, while the howl of winds through the jagged peaks filled the audio pickups. "Not a whole lot out here to see," she said to the others.
"I don't suppose Binary Helix choose this location for its natural beauty," Garrus responded. "Wait, I've got something coming up on my scope. Looks to be about twenty meters, bearing: 23.19."
"I see it," Shepard said. Ahead, something grey and angular jutted from the snow. "Looks like the back end of one of those Grizzlies. Do we investigate?"
"Negative," Nihlus said curtly. "The holding team just repulsed a wave of hostiles. Log the location for later investigation, but keep us on our heading."
"Nothing good can come of this," Javik said ominously, breaking the silence he had kept since clambering aboard the Mako.
"You and me both, Javik. I… oh shit!" Shepard threw the Mako to the side once again, this time keeping the swerve controlled. A rocket rushed by, detonating behind the dodging tank with a thunderclap that shook snow from the shoulders of the mountain. "That was too close. Garrus, light this thing up!"
"As soon as I can find it in this cursed soup!" Garrus barked back. Another rocket rushed in, this time crunching against the Mako's upper barrier. It veered off madly and blew up in the air just off the vehicle's rear. Shrapnel rained down, sparking against the hull.
"Garrus!"
"Firing!"
The Mako rocked as another shell flew outbound. Shepard swore as the recoil jumped the tank in its path. She wrestled the Mako's course back on true, just in time for another shot to send it skating around.
"Can we cool it on the recoil? I'm driving here."
"You know, I'd love to engage these things with the co-ax, but somebody went and melted it." Garrus said. He triggered another round. The road ahead erupted in snow flash-boiled to steam as geth scattered every which way.
"Umm, Shepard. I think I see one of the big ones. Directly ahead," Liara chimed in.
"I see it," Shepard fought with the stick to avoid another of the slow moving rockets. Up ahead, one of the four-legged geth armatures loped forwards to greet them. "Everybody hold on, this is about to get bumpy." Shepard revved the engine. The armature seemed to recognize her challenge, as it slowed it's onwards plod to square off against the roaring Mako. Shepard smiled. Just like in the stories, she was the brave knight facing off the evil dragon. Only her lance shot thunder and lightning, and her horse ran on fusion. Old draconis stood no chance.
"Yeahh!" She let loose a war cry as she let go of the brakes. The Mako spun its tires in the snow. Across from them, the armature began its own charge. "Garrus, hold fire until its right on top of us!" Shepard yelled over the sound of the redlined motor. Tires caught ground, and the Mako shot forward. Shepard leaned on the accelerator until the Mako was bounding atop a wave front of thrown snow. The armature fired its head mounted weapons to no avail. Shepard plunged forward faster than it could track until the four legged thing grew huge in her scope. A wave of static washed over her. "Garrus, now!"
Garrus fired the cannon right into the armature, a shot that normally would have had little impact against the geth's powerful barriers. But Shepard was inside the shield bubble, and the Mako's cannon almost touched the geth's chest plate as it loosed its stored lightning. The shot stabbed right through the mechanical monster and erupted from its back in a plume of volcanic fire and molten metal. The barrel of the gun followed its shot into the hole, catching and shrieking horribly as the Mako continued on. The turret stood no chance against the sudden shock, and the cold-brittled metal shattered under the force. The barrel ripped free, carrying the gun's innards with it.
"Spirits!" Garrus swore as his firing controls erupted in sparks.
Shepard plowed onwards, leaving the eviscerated armature to keel over into its own ruined guts. It was a long time before anyone in the Mako spoke.
Up ahead, the towering edifice of the Peak 15 Facility filled the sky. Narrow towers pierced the clouds while vast metal tubes burrowed into the mountain it crowned like the roots of a mighty tree. Straight ahead, massive steel doors stood slightly ajar. Shepard pulled the Mako to a shuddering halt just in front of the entrance to what looked like a garage. She let go of the controls and clenched her fists to stop the shaking.
Nihlus was the first to speak. "Let's go get some answers."
Author's Note:
So, first off, I've recently gotten a small reduction in hours at work, which while not super fun for my finances, does leave much more writing time. So, with all this time on my hands, I am pleased to announce that Vanguard will be taken off hiatus for the foreseeable future. Expect semi-regular updates at the midpoint of every other month. Interloper will still update at the end of every month, as planned.
Secondly, and more exiting for me, at least, is that Vanguard has broken 50k words. I have to say, it's been quite a journey. I've been happy to share this with you, my readers, and hope that you'll continue to continue tuning in and leaving reviews. See you all in December of the finalization of the Noveria arc and the next step forward.
-Liddle Out
