Vanguard of Vengeance

Chapter 17

The Geth juggernaut loomed a full meter over Shepard as it stepped out of the shadows. The dim half-light slid off of dull red armour plates inches thick and glinted on the massive bore of a rifle longer than Shepard's leg. The massive platform threw back its head and let loose a deep electronic howl. Shepard brought her rifle up and pumped the trigger. Tungsten penetrators sparked and snapped off of blazingly bright kinetic barriers. The geth lifted its own weapon. There was a loud whine as the cannon sized rifle charged. Shepard readied herself. At this range, there was no point trying to evade before it fired. Moving now the Juggernaut would simply track her movements; Shepard had read the Alliance Intelligence reports on the Geth and she had no illusions of her ability to get ahead of the mechanical beast. She only had one chance, right as the juggernaut pulled the trigger. The world shrank to the space between her and her attacker. Lights flickered on the rifle as it readied to fire. Shepard felt her muscles tighten as every fibre of her body readied to snap into sudden motion. By instinct she called on her biotics until her body sang with dark energy. Dark purple motes swirled at the corner of her vision.

The whine stopped. Shepard's world exploded. The rifle bore glowed as it dumped its stored energy into a slug the size of Shepard's thumb. Fire bloomed from the barrel as the mass-less round ignited the air ahead of it. Shepard's body moved of its own accord. Boots scraped against steel grating and the small motes of biotic power grew to incandescent brightness. The geth weapon erupted in a bright lance that shrieked through the frozen air. It missed her by millimeters, the heat from the friction ignited round blistering the lacquer of her breastplate. The slug's trail dragged a miniature tornado across the room, buffeting Shepard and sending her sprawling. She tucked and rolled, regaining her feet and turning to engage. The juggernaut had already reacquired her and was preparing to fire again. Shepard fired back fruitlessly, scattering rounds across the combat space. Again the sun-bright lance erupted forth and once more Shepard leapt aside. The round clipped her shoulder this time, shattering the pauldron and slamming the Commander back against the wall. Shepard slid down the dented metal. Something had come loose in her helmet and was rattling about as she lifted her head. Shepard tasted blood. The juggernaut stopped across the floor, buckling the catwalk under its massive feet. The beast's shadow fell across her. The juggernaut hefted its rifle one handed, pressing the barrel to her head. The massive weapon whined sharply.

Something moved on the roof above. Shepard's breath rattled in her chest and her shoulder stung, but her mind remained sharp. Before, there'd been a slim chance of dodging the next attack. Now she had zero chance. The scenario had shifted and her mind was reeling to catch up. The something on the roof shifted again, edging closer to the juggernaut's massive form. Light flickered briefly above her, illuminating the something in silhouette. Shepard smiled. The plan clicked into place. Shepard pushed her biotics back into her limbs, fighting against the numbness that weighed on them. She clamped a hand down on the juggernaut's weapon and fired her Omni-tool. A burst of static sizzled across the surface of the gun, leaving a scorched trail. The spot she had grabbed heated beneath her fingers, leaving the metal cherry red. Massive twin radiator fins burst from the back of the rifle and seared the air. The juggernaut recoiled, pulling the rifle up and away from her. Shepard held on tight and allowed the massive construct to lift her to her feet, letting go before it could haul her into the air. She wavered on her feet before the geth. The construct made to swing its disabled weapon like a club. Shepard barely managed to dodge, throwing herself to the side. The weapon caved in the floor tile she'd just evacuated. The geth rapidly redirected its strike and made a swipe at Shepard's feet. Before its attack could land, the massive construct faltered and paused.

Shepard regained her footing just in time to see the dark shape detach itself from the ceiling above. It dropped with a swirling flare of green-black biotics. The snarling face of the prothean, Javik was briefly illuminated as he crashed atop the swaying juggernaut. The prothean struck downwards, his three fingered hand wreathed in the eerie biotic flame. There was a loud whumph as the dark energy discharged into the geth's outstretched pseudo neck. The impact was enough to buckle the plating around its head, a wound Javik was quick to capitalize on. The alien struck again, this time with a knife-handed blow that drove through the construct's defenses. Taking hold, Javik wrapped his other hand around the juggernaut's thick neck. Artificial muscles bulged across his ornamental armour suit as the prothean grit his teeth. With a terrible screeching sound, the armour around the geth's head began to stretch, to pop and crack as Javik threw his whole body against it. The juggernaut flailed back and forth trying to connect a blow with the new attacker. Javik held fast. With a final effort, he tore the pseudo head free from its mounting. The juggernaut emitted an ear-piercing electronic howl and made one last swipe at the prothean. Undaunted, Javik pulled his particle rifle from his back and let loose. The stream of hypervelocity particles cascaded down into the geth's body and filled it briefly with viridian fire. Then, with a snap, Javik cut off the torrent. The juggernaut stood frozen like a statue in the sudden quiet. Javik sneered.

"In the old Empire, constructs such as this were used only for training purposes." The rifle was already returned to his back. "Our rawest recruits faced one on their first day of training." He slithered down the frozen form of the geth and alighted in front of the dazed Commander. "Your companion appears to be broken."

"Huh?" Shepard asked. She shook herself to try and clear her head, but the creeping dullness had entrenched itself stubbornly behind her eyes. She looked around, feeling incredibly dense. "My…" her eyes landed on Matsuo, still frozen in place beyond the dead hulk of the juggernaut. "Captain Matsuo!" Shepard stumbled towards the captain of the guard. Concern blossomed across her face when she received no response. She reached out, clasping the other woman by the shoulder. Matsuo jumped with a start and underwent a full body shudder. "Hey, you alright?"

Matsuo turned. Fear was deeply etched in her face, robbing her of the professionally calm air she'd projected since their meeting in Port Hanshin. She slurred slightly as she spoke. "Fine. Just… well maybe not fine. I froze up. That thing." She stopped, her words choked in her throat. The woman cleared her throat and looked up at the geth. "I am sorry, ERCS puts us through some of the galaxy's most rigorous police training, but this… I'm a little out of my depth." Her voice had regained much of its stern composure. "Won't happen again." She gripped her weapon tightly to her chest and nodded sharply. Shepard shot her what she hoped was a reassuring smile. Matsuo visibly relaxed. Both woman flinched as there was a fresh burst of gunfire from above.

"If you two are quite finished, I believe that we were assigned a mission," Javik said bluntly. He two was regarding the fresh shooting with something caught between curiosity and confusion. "It seems the enemy has reacquired us."

"No, they aren't shooting to hit us," Shepard said. Above, the geth chittered to each other as they continued to pour fire into something. Further past them something else moved; an uncomfortable, sliding kind of sound that Shepard couldn't quite place. The fighting above picked up intensity. "I think we have a third party at play here."

"Friendlies?" Matsuo asked.

"I would doubt that," Javik answered. "It matters little. We must press onwards." He withdrew his weapon once more. "If you are not willing to lead the charge, allow me!" The prothean charged past her and head towards the ramp that would take him upwards, towards the fight.

"Javik! Wait!" Shepard charged her own rifle and took off after him. Something in her knees was making alarming popping noises, but the Marine pushed it aside. She heard Matsuo falling in behind. Ahead, Javik pounded up and into the battle. His weapon flared in the darkness as he yelled invectives in a deep voice. His anger was so jarring compared to his usual tranquil fury that it gave Shepard pause. She stood at the foot of the ramp, caught on the precipice between battle and the dubious safety of her current position. Another sharp crackle came from above as a geth platform was cut in half. The pieces clattered down the metal ramp, coming to rest at Shepard's feet. Shepard made up her mind.

She burst up the ramp, stumbling slightly as she crested the rise and plunged into the chaos of battle. She passed Javik and kept going, pushing past the aching in her joints and the burning in her lungs. Her heart beat furiously as rounds sparked against the wall behind her. She pressed onwards, running full tilt towards the small red light of the reactor's control panel. The battle fell away behind her, the world narrowed to the corridor between her and that thin catwalk. Her boots scraped and skated on the frost slicked metal grating, the whole structure seemed to boom under her footfalls. Her heartbeat roared in her helmet and with every rough puff of breath little jets of mist burst from a half-dozen ruptured seals. Shepard observed all these little phenomena with the detached distance of the terminal hypothermiac, the only relevant datum the decreasing distance between her and her goal. Something struck her roughly between the shoulders and sent her sprawling. Her body went through the motions of the combat roll, the long-drilled technique of converting the momentum of a hit into useful movement, but none of her limbs seemed to be in step with each other. Her first hint that something was wrong came when her helmet rang like a bell and her forehead smashed into the foam cushioning above her visor.

She lay there on the ground for a second, stunned. Somewhere far away, a muted battle still raged, filled with the blunted sounds of rifles and other, alien things that haunted the periphery of her senses. Shepard stretched out with numbed fingers and traced patterns in the frost. Her brain made familiar shapes out of the scratchings. There was a noise there too, bleating in her ears. Shepard wished it would stop. She tried to block her ears, but something got in the way. Shepard gave up on trying to quiet the noise and tried to roll over on her back. A nagging voice in the back of her head told her that there was something important she should be doing. Shepard ignored the voice, the floor here was so comfortable, and she was so tired. Her eyelids slid closed and stuck that way.

"So this is your play? You're going to lie down and die two meters from your goal?" the nagging voice said from right in front of her. Shepard opened her eyes just a crack, just enough to see a pair of Alliance issue combat boots. The boots seemed disapproving somehow.

"Go away, Kaidan," Shepard slurred. The words slipped around her tongue as if they too were coated with ice. They stung in her throat. "It's almost bedtime." Shepard could almost feel the warm blankets slipping around her. She tried to wrap herself tighter in the feeling.

"No chance, Marine. It's not time for you to sleep yet." The voice was soft and hard at the same time. Shepard felt herself flush at their intensity. Heat pooled in her cheeks.

"But I'm so tired…" Shepard's words drifted away from her into the closing silence. She was hot now, like a coal was being pressed to her skin. She pawed fruitlessly at the collar of her armour.

"Not yet, Shepard. Do you here that sound?" the voice asked. Shepard strained her ears. At the edge of the padded silence she could hear the abrasive chime. It echoed in the icy emptiness of her mind. "That's your medical alarm, Shepard. You're dying."

The words rattled the freezing Marine. She'd been so peaceful, so ready to just fall asleep here on the deck of the reactor chamber. Something stirred in her mired thoughts. A part of her had wanted it. That ticked the rest of her off. The coal pressed to her skin continued to burn her, hot as a fire. And then she was the fire. Her whole body raged with the indignation. She couldn't die yet. She had work to do. The drift back to consciousness was gradual and all at once, the split second it takes a camera lens to slip into focus. The world was sharp again, and it was cold. "Kaidan!" Shepard's hand reached out to grab ahold of his boots and closed on nothing. Frozen tears cracked on Shepard's cheeks as she gritted her teeth. Ahead of her the light of the control panel blinked. It was closer to one meter away, and yet even that distance it may have well been back on Earth for all the good it would do her. She felt so heavy. Shepard slammed her fist against the metal in frustration. Flecks of ice floated I the air around her, lit by purple static. A savage smile split Shepard's lips.

The biotic reached out again, this time channeling the indignant rage into a single, needle sharp thought. Move. Slowly, her arm reached out with jerky movements, a marionette in the hands of an amateur puppeteer. The hand formed a claw and the claw dug into the grated floor. She hauled back on the arm withal of her remaining strength and was rewarded by slipping precious inches towards her goal. She lifted the other arm and placed it past the first and hauled again. And again. And again. By inches she gained the catwalk until she lay just below the panel. The reactor toward above her, silent and inert and forbidding. She wouldn't be able to reach it from the ground. She screamed with impotent rage as she flailed at the ductwork, unable to find purchase. The light blinked unfeelingly above her. Already the fire was dying inside her, the flickering flames choking on the icy grip of the sepulchral reactor chamber. Shepard seized the last dying embers of her strength and poured on everything until she felt wrung dry. Her body flopped upwards, lurching to her knees. Before she could lose her grip, she slammed down hard on the red power switch. Something popped in the back of her skull and the lights went out before her eyes. She fell limply back to the catwalk, reeling and blind. Panic rose in the back of her mind. She clamped down hard on it, straining to see, hear anything. The slightest hint that it'd been worth it. Then she heard it. Klaxons blew and the ground below her feet rumbled. The steel transmitted the sound of something heavy grinding its way along frozen tracks followed by the sudden flood of fluids moving through pipes. The rumble changed pitch, became more, until the sound flooded her. It was then that she realized she felt warm again. Not the half-warm of delirium, but true heat spilling around her. The reactor vents. Relief filled her as the sound of machinery grew all around her. Weakly, she popped the seals on her helmet. It fell away in halves and the luxurious heat of the tethered sun that made up Peak 15's beating heart covered her shapes moved at the edges of Shepard's darkened vision. She let the darkness take her. She didn't have the energy to fight it either way.


Author's Note:

So, this isn't the resolution of the Noveria arc... again. Sorry about that. I really didn't plan on this section taking up as much room as the rest of the fic combined, but here we are. Needless to say, the upcoming reedits might end up chopping a little out. Or a lot. Let me know what you guys think. Either way, here is today's update. Hope you enjoy.

-Liddle Out