Interloper Rewrite: Chapter 21

The Road to Peak 15


"Hold still."

I jerked back from the application of omni-gel. The sting of the non-medicated nanoagents shot across the bruises and cuts on my face.

"Thanks, Liara." I wiped my sleeve across my face. My other arm, the one caught in the grips of my Omni-tool, was being looked at by Tali.

"How did you even manage this?" she asked, manipulating the gauntlet, "The mass effect emitters are all out of whack, and it looks like the interface has been scrambled. Wait… what's this?" She squinted behind her mask. "Is this the program you were trying to use? Keelah, Michael, how many of these third-party programs do you have running? I thought you were smarter than this. Here, I'll just delete this here..." The gauntlet loosened. "You should probably run a check through whatever you've loaded onto this thing."

"I'll be more careful," I assured her. Someone walked up in front of me and cleared their throat. I looked up to see an angry Shepard.

"You look like crap, Deputy," she said, arms crossed.

"You should have seen the other guy," I quipped. Shepard didn't laugh.

"Well, I bet the other guy isn't about to be saddled with a whole mess of paperwork for starting a barfight in a tightly regulated port city." She tossed me an optical disk. "Did you at least get the information you needed?"

"I'm sorry Commander, no. My contact didn't have anything on Anoleis," Liara said, standing and brushing off her knees.

"I guess you're lucky that we were more successful then. Our contact, Lorik Qui'in, wants us to find some files in the Synthetic Insights office. Those files will get us a garage pass, and Synthetic Insights will chip in a Mako."

"And you want us to help infiltrate the offices?" I asked.

"No, you will fill out that paperwork. Tali, I'm going to need you to hack us into the offices." The Quarian nodded and stood to follow the Commander. "Liara, you come too, I've got a feeling this might turn rough. She turned and walked away with the two aliens in tow. Liara made an apologetic face over her shoulder as they entered an elevator.


I sipped from the overpriced coffee again. It had long lost its piping hot steam, leaving only the bitter taste of abandonment. The cold, acrid brew did very little to help me keep my eyes pointing straight as they slipped over form 211-B: Damages Caused and Loss of Income (Adjusted). I read the little boxes again, my brain desperately trying to interpret the arcane warren of little fillable boxes.

"Wait, didn't I already fill this one out?" I muttered to myself, scrolling back through the battery of forms and affidavits that had been dropped off by the surly ERCS officer. The tablet chimed as a form I'd already completed was sent back for corrections. I dropped in on the table with a frustrated exhalation. I leaned back in my chair and rubbed at aching temples. I was making negative progress. Disgusted, I scooped the tablet back up and raised my stylus. The returned form popped up to the top.

"Affidavit of Intent to Secure Reentry to Port Hanshan. Due to logic error in completing Affidavit of Intent to Secure Reentry to Port Hanshan, Elanus Security Risk Control was unable to accept your document. Please complete a new Affidavit of Intent to Secure Reentry to Port Hanshan in full, starting with page one of six..." I saw red, and briefly considered hurling the tablet out into the street. Only the fear of having to fill out Form C-116, Intentional Destruction of Security Devices staid my hand.

Movement out on the avenue caught my eye. Shepard and her team had disembarked an elevator across the way and were hurrying in my direction. We made eye contact and they jogged over to my table.

"Up and at 'em, Deputy." Shepard tossed me a key fob. I turned it over in my hands to see it marked as belonging to a Sythetic Insights Mako. "Finish your paperwork later, we have to move now." Her voice was tinted with urgency and her eyes flitted from me to the security guards barely meters away. She shook her head slightly as I moved to follow her gaze.

"Aye, Ma'am." I shot up out of my seat, leaving the tablet to clatter to the table. Shepard nodded and took off down the avenue. The rest of the crew followed. "Hey, what happened?" I asked Liara, who was wringing her hands towards the back of the pack.

"Not here," she hissed back. She looked hastily over her shoulder at the nearest guard, who was watching us with a cocked head. Liara's face was lined with worry. The expression set my stomach fluttering with a fresh crop of nerves. We rounded a corner up ahead and we were moving through low ceilinged back alleys.

"We ran into some resistance sweeping the offices for evidence. I was right about that sergeant, crooked as they come." Garrus whispered to me as we walked. His fringe fluttered in distress and he had his handgun out, clasped in tightly clenched gauntlets.

"You mean you get into a firefight with security forces, and I get in trouble for starting a bar fight?" I asked incredulously. The Turian shot me a sharp look that slowly melted into a rueful smile.

"To be fair, you did start that one," Garrus replied. He quieted as we walked into an open garage. "I got a bad feeling about this," he said.

"You and me both," I said, scanning the area for evidence of the Geth and trying to find the nearest cover. Ahead of us, a crate rattled. I drew my shotgun.

"Relax, Deputy, it's probably just…" Shepard started, but at that moment a red dot appeared on her chestplate.

"Ambush!" I yelled, moving to knock the Commander out of the way. Garrus was faster though. He dove forward, knocking Shepard down and turning his momentum into a roll that carried him out of the line of fire not a second too soon. A white-hot sliver of metal tore through the space he had just vacated. In the back of the garage, crates burst open, revealing more Geth.

"At least now we know what was in those crates!" Garrus yelled.

I dove behind a thick stack of tires. Shots slammed into the thick rubber at my back. I ducked around the stack and fired blindly. I didn't hit anything, but the distraction was enough for the others to take cover and draw pistols. I hazarded a second glance, this time taking aim at a Geth platform. The shotgun blast tumbled the trooper. Its lights grew dark. The team kept firing, driving the Geth back.

"Follow them!" Shepard ordered, leaping the crate she was hiding behind. I fired from the hip, catching another Geth with a lucky scatter and readied to move up. Something landed heavily behind me. I turned slowly to find a hopper staring at me. I ducked to the left and the Geth matched me, the same to the right. The Geth reared up on its legs and shrieked its rattling scream. The single eye seemed to be studying me. Shots ricocheted off its barriers and the hopper bolted.

"Come on, Deputy, the Mako's just up ahead!"

"Yeah, I'm coming!" I yelled back. The hopper had disappeared completely. I left the now empty back of the garage and headed towards the waiting Mako.


The company Mako was probably the first example I had seen of a 'luxury' infantry fighting vehicle. The seats were plush, the back actually held a bar, and the walls where paneled with viewscreens displaying the environment beyond the armored shell. The finely tuned engine hummed under the touch of the pedals.

"Hey Commander, can we keep this one?" I asked as I pulled out into the blizzard.

"That's a negative, Deputy. And try not to destroy this one, it's a rental."

The white snow engulfed us as we plunged down into the valley. The thick tires of the vehicle stuck to the road admirably, biting deep into the frosty snowdrift. The path forward was narrow and the great rift yawned open to the side.

"Those are some pretty extreme drops," Garrus commented.

"The companies here on Noveria have always been paranoid," Liara added, "putting their labs out here helps to cut down on espionage."

"I bet the Geth cut down on espionage too, we've got company." Shepard pointed to the black shapes of the viewscreen. "Garrus, get on the gun." The Turian clambered up into the gunner's seat and lined up on the rapidly approaching Geth forces. The bright lance of the cannon blasted the attackers apart. The robotic foot soldiers scattered or were destroyed. I drove right past them. Garrus turned and continued to fire into the retreating Geth.

"We're coming up to a bridge," I said, "looks like a good place for a roadblock."

Sure enough, rockets began flying as we entered the mouth of the tunnel. The narrow deck of the bridge restricted my motion, but with speed I was able to avoid most of the damage. Halfway across the bridge, the Geth laid out a row of their hexagonal shields.

"Garrus!"

"On it!" the cannon flashed out and knocked holes in the line of barriers. More popped up behind, forming a second rank of hard light.

"I don't think this is going to cut it, Liddle."

I searched the instrument panel for something to get us out of this mess. The wink of a light caught my attention. The jump jets rocked the tank up and over the Geth barrier just in time. The tires crunched as the vehicle landed on the Geth engineers. Now streaming past the bridge, the road grew narrower and more treacherous. Other than the occasional sniper shot taken at distance, the drive grew eerily quiet.

"Where did they go?" Tali asked, peering into the monitors around her. "It makes no sense to set up one roadblock and then disappear."

"Maybe we destroyed all of the Geth that Benezia brought with her," Liara said.

"She's been shipping in these crates for a while now, I don't think she just brought a few dozen foot troops and had done with it," Shepard said. She was also scanning the canyon walls with a fierce intensity. We reached a second bridge without seeing another Geth. By then I was getting worried. This drive should have been a steady stream of random encounters as we made our way towards the research facility.

"Commander, is there any chance we can get the Normandy to do a flyover and look for heat signatures or something?" I asked.

"Through this?" Shepard replied, "The resolution would make any data we got back almost unusable. Also, the Normandy's on lockdown until Parasini makes her case against Anoleis. She'll unlock us once he's in custody."

My reply was cut short by a blast that took out a section of the road.

"Where did that come from?" I yelled. More shots came out of the blizzard, falling all around the Mako. Not being able to see the origin, I pushed the accelerator to the floor and attempted to weave around the continued bombardment.

"Try and pinpoint where those shots are coming from!" Shepard yelled. Garrus swung about and fired into the blankness.

"I can't see anything!" the Turian yelled down. A chance gust lifted the snow from the valley, revealing the opposite cliff face. It was studded with Geth turrets, each pumping out a solid stream of rockets. Garrus aimed carefully, managing to knock out a few, but the concealment returned. "Commander, that many turrets, we're not going to make it very far."

"We keep moving, look, there's another tunnel coming up. We can take cover there. Keep the pressure on the other side of the valley." I sped up, trying to reach the mouth of the tunnel before the road became impassable. The Mako shot through the opening just in time to avoid another volley. I brought the tank to a stop. "Do we have a map of this valley?" Shepard said over the dulled crash of rockets on the outer wall of the tunnel.

"I downloaded one as we passed through Port Hanshan," Tali said, "I can bring it up on one of these vidscreens." One of the rear-view screens was replaced by an image of the winding path we had taken. "It looks like we're only halfway to Peak 15."

"I think this loop might give us some cover if we take it like this…" the squad conversed behind me. I looked forward, worried. Dust was starting to filter down from the ceiling with every blast, and the ground was starting to shake rhythmically. And completely at odds with the tattoo of rocket hits.

"I think we might have company," I said, peering into the darkness. The squad didn't hear me, still talking about snowdrifts and slopes. "Hey, guys, I said I think we might…" I turned and stopped. Out the back of the Mako, I saw something that chilled my blood. Two Geth Armatures were laboring down the slope into the tunnel. I looked forward into the tunnel. In the darkness, the light of a further Geth construct lit up. "We've got to go!" I slammed down on the gas again. The acceleration tossed the squad about in the back of the Mako, knocking Garrus out of his perch. The Mako's headlights now illuminated the massive Geth platform. With no room to dodge, I plowed straight ahead. At point blank range, Garrus managed to grab a hold of the firing paddles and fired into the Geth. The kinetic barriers flashed as they clashed with our own. I veered right, running over the Geth's legs. The metal emitted a tortured shriek. The Mako roared out of the tunnel and back into the storm. Almost immediately the barrage started back up.

"We'll just have to hold on!" Shepard yelled, "Take this turn nice and shallow, the crest there should provide cover until the straightaway, then it'll be a mad dash to reach the next tunnel before we reach the Peak!"


"Is that it?"

"It looks massive."

"And surprisingly Geth free." The central spire of Peak 15 rose up out of view. I craned my neck to look up at the tower. "How do we play this Commander?"

"Pull up as close as possible, nice and slow. I don't want to be stuck out in the cold if things turn south." I complied, driving the battered Mako up to the double doors. The engine idled and died. "Take point, Garrus. We go in eyes open. We don't know what we'll meet once we open those doors, might be more Geth, might be Krogan, might even be Asari commandos."

"Commander, we're not exactly loaded for combat," Garrus said, "Tali and Liddle have shotguns, but the rest are sporting handguns."

"Then keep your eyes out for additional firepower once we get in there. Odds are a facility like this one had a security detail. Now move." Garrus dogged open the hatch and hopped out onto the hard packed ice. I scooped up my helmet and followed. Dropping down into place beside the door, Tali ran a bypass. The rest of the team stacked up, ready for action. The door cracked open and sucked a puff of outside air in. Garrus advanced over the dusting of fallen snow into the dimly lit opening.

"Here we go."


Author's Note:

Whoops, I accidentally uploaded next week's chapter yesterday. That'll teach me to build up a buffer.