Chapter 15: Choices
Exodus Cluster, Asgard System, Asteroid X57
Shepard
After dealing with the fixed and moving turrets on rails, Shepard parked up the mako and waited for team two to arrive. Maulden stood off to the side since his lashing out at Shepard, neither really wanting to speak to the other.
"Couldn't be bothered waiting for me to drive Shepard?" Ingersoll teased as she got close.
"Couldn't waste the time. We need to deal with whoever is left inside this bunker." Shepard told her. "Maulden and Wrex, you two lead the way in. Garrus, Kaidan, and Liara, you're with me and will back them up. Yang, Tali, and Ingersoll, you've got rear guard. Make sure whoever might be waiting in there doesn't flank us."
"Copy that Commander." Ingersoll answered.
Shepard knew that Maulden wouldn't be able to hold back so put him up front, better having his anger pointed toward more Batarians than at her as she'd have to respond properly next time.
Passing through the entrance which had multiple cameras up high, the team would then pass through an empty receptionist area that had a few extra grenades for them to use. Watching as the two leds made their way up the stairs, Shepard could make out a large tree tree with red leaves ahead. Must mean there is a rather large area ahead.
Wrex and Maulden paused as they neared the edge of cover with Wrex speaking. "Feels like an ambush Shepard. Lots of open areas."
"One peel off in either direction. Garrus and Kaidan with Maulden. Liara with me. You three remain here until called for or if somewhere looks vulnerable." There was silent agreement as the two leads split off.
They didn't even get two steps out before gunfire sounded off and everyone started moving with purpose. Shepard ran to her corner and leaned out, spotting a few Batarians opening fire on Wrex. Lifting her rifle and providing cover fire, she heard Liara move past her and into cover.
"They've got defence turrets!" Garrus warned. They were the flying sort but thankfully several of them had the ability to make quick work of those.
"Tali!" Shepard yelled.
"I'm on it Shepard." The Quarian answered, her omni-tool lighting up as started to cripple the machines, a couple dropping out of the air with the first blast alone.
Wrex's roars of joy echoed around the compound as he moved forwards. Ingersoll's rifle reverberated while singular explosions started to happen as fusion containment cells were targeted. Purposely or accidentally, Shepard couldn't care as the Batarians were closer to them.
"Shepard, staircases either side of our entrance." Liara informed.
"Secondary teams move to higher ground! Ingersoll with them." Shepard ordered, shifting herself out into the opening and feeling the impacts of rounds against her shielding.
Soon enough Maulden and Wrex were moving up on the entrance level while Tali and Yang remained at the entrance to catch any latecomers should there be any. The others all with elevation were supporting Wrex and Maulden while eliminating the few enemies they encountered.
Clearing up an office in a side area, Shepard and Liara held it from half a dozen Batarians as Wrex started coming up from behind them. Ingersoll relocated to them to get a better overview of the battlefield this underground building had quickly turned into. Word also came from Tali as reinforcements had indeed come from behind, but Yang seemed to be dealing with them handily. So they had set up an ambush, clear bastards.
Maulden's voice came over the comms fairly frequently too as he was swearing up a storm at the Batarians. Unable to blame him, Shepard just kept fighting and fighting, until eventually she along with Wrex, Maulden, and Garrus all met at some stairs opposite the entrance side. There was a prefab container near the stairs where the final Batarian came from. It was struck but not only Ingersoll's sniped round, but Wrex's shotgun blast and Maulden's too.
"Fan out. Search for any survivors and prisoners." Shepard ordered, though they were surprised before trying to get under way.
"You humans." A voice came from behind, causing Shepard to turn around with a hand on her pistol. "You're almost more trouble than you're worth." A Batarian addressed them from the top of the stairs, more of his kind and a couple of varren at his side.
"Let the hostages go and maybe, maybe you'll live long enough to explain yourself to the Council and the Alliance." Shepard answered, recognising the voice from before.
"I don't answer to the Council, or you. I'm leaving this asteroid. If you try to stop me, I'll detonate these charges and your helper and her friends are all going to die. His threat was quickly confirmed as Liara spoke on their comms.
"Shepard, it looks like there is some kind of device at the tree's base."
Fuck. Chewing her lip as she thought, it was Maulden that spoke up.
"Like fuck you're going anywhere you murderous scum!" He raised his weapon while Balak flicked the top of the detonator up and his men raised their weapons.
"Maulden!" Shepard yelled, yet again he was restrained by Wrex who had a large and powerful hand on Maulden's weapon, stopping him from raising it. I have to thank him when we get back on the ship. She watched Maulden and Wrex stare down once another for just a moment before addressing Balak again. "I can't just let you go, Balak. Not after what happened here." Shepard told him, hoping to find another solution, though given Maulden's last response and how she felt after, should she.
"This is nothing. You humans have done far worse to the Bataraians. We've been forced into exile. Forced to survive on what we can scrounge up. It's been like that for decades." Shepard could understand why he was angry at humans, but these ones hadn't done anything. As far as she knew they were noncombatants.
"Why these people? They didn't do anything to you or the Bataraians. No like myself or my cousin here. Don't you know, we're both heroes for what we did." She said with a smile, trying to get Balak to target her and Maulden and not the innocence they'd come to save.
"Oh I know who you are, Commander Shepard. The Hero of Elysium, and your friend there the Butcher of Torfan." His eyes narrowed at Maulden.
"Glad to know my reputation is well known within your kind." Maulden chirped with a smirk on his face.
"I'd be happy to drag both your corpses back home. But for now you should think about saving those pathetic humans. You wouldn't want more blood on your hands would you, Butcher." Balak began to smile, his long sharp teeth glinting at and taunting Maulden who was still struggling against Wrex to free his weapon. "You and your kind are the only reason we're in this position."
"Killing innocent people doesn't make up for the mistakes of the past. From both sides of the conflict." Shepard said, trying to sound sympathetic.
"We had no other options. The Council wouldn't help, your kind took over the systems we had already started colonising. Sometimes, you need to get someone's attention before they'll listen."
"So that's what Elysium and Torfan were, attempts to get our attention? You got it, and you fucking got what you deserved for your foolish actions before you ran like cowards." Shepard asked.
"Not that many got away. It was an incredible feeling, listening to your people beg for their lives." Maulden taunted in return.
Balak didn't appreciate that information and scowled, baring his teeth at the duo. "Enough! You couldn't, you don't even want to understand. I am done wasting my breath. Now step aside and let me go free, or you'll be picking up pieces of your friends."
"You can go-"
"Shepard!" Maulden yelled, but she only raised a hand to him.
"I will find you eventually. You cannot hide from me." She then warned.
"Maybe. But I made sure I'll be getting off this rock today. Those charges are still on a timer. Better hurry or there'll be a mess."
Balak started making his way out, moving past Kaidan who one of his men shoulder checked. Shepard told Yang and Tali to let the Batarians past before she made her way down to the bomb Liara had pointed out earlier and began to deactivate it when Garrus' piped up.
"Defence turrets! Balak must have activated them."
Gunfire broke out while Shepard worked. Getting hers done was easy, but they still had to scout the area for others. Thankfully it wasn't too difficult with so many of them and the turrets didn't give them too much trouble. Eventually she was convinced they'd found and deactivated them all after four were confirmed.
Simon then arrived with Yang and Tali escorting him and the hostages were released from where they had been held. One of them was a young woman came up to Shepard. "I can't believe you let Balak go, to save us. I expect you to just let us die. Sacrifice the few for the many."
"Then I'd be no better than the Batarians. Besides, Balak won't get away with this. I know who he is now, he can't run forever." Shepard answered confidently. "You must be Kate."
"I am… you sound like my brother. He was always so stubborn. But always willing to do the right thing… no matter what." The gears turned in Shepard's head as she pierced things together.
"Your brother, that was who Balak killed while I was listening?"
"Yes, Aaron. He was the one who convinced me to join the team here. Said it would be an adventure. I-I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but I should see to Aaron." Her voice gave away her grief and Shepard knew to get out of the way.
"Sorry for what happened. I'll get out of your way. And thank you, for helping me despite the risk."
"Thank you, uh, I don't even know your name." Shepard just smiled and gave her both name and rank. Then Kate thanked her properly before going to see to her sibling's body.
Calling Joker to organise a pick up, Shepard gave the order to move out. Maulden was first and foremost on her mind, him lashing out at her like that during a conversation with hostile forces, and gunning down those that she'd said could leave were things she'd couldn't stand for.
While they were waiting for the Normandy to land, Yang would come up to her. "Hey Shep, I'm glad you chose them over Balak. I know he might strike again, but I think it was the right choice."
"Hmm, I figured you'd be thinking more along the lines of Maulden in that regard." She admitted.
"Do I really come across like that much of an ass?" Yang asked with a chuckle. "My history with the military is rough. I served under General Ironwood like I told you before, but I stopped working for him as our differences in ideas began to go more against one another."
Shepard listened to Yang, but it seemed like that was all the blonde was going to say. "What ideas, what did the General do that made you stop working for him?" She wanted to know, needed to know. A person with ex-military experience was on her ship and she still served the Alliance.
"There was an attack on Atlas, the capital and most advanced nation on Remnant… General Ironwood wanted to focus on defending Atlas City, which was held aloft in the air by Dust. But in doing so, he ordered the city of Mantle, the city in which the floating city rose above, to be abandoned." There was another long pause.
"Civilian evacuation or wasn't there enough time?" Shepard asked.
"Evacuation." Yang scoffed at the word. "He abandoned them, took all military personnel and machines to Atlas to defend it. He said he could retake Mantle, so long as Atlas survived. My team and I disagreed, so we defied his orders and went to help out Mantle. He set his best team on us, we did battle, left them tied up and in Ironwood's office, and then went down to help protect Mantle with the other hunters and militia that wouldn't abandon the city."
"You mutinied and deserted the Atlas military." With Yang's nod Shepard wondered how far she could really trust the blonde. But Yang had said she was glad Shepard decided to save the few. "What happened after the attack? Did you and the General reconcile?"
Yang's shoulders slumped and her head hung. "I never saw the end of the attack. We used magic to save people from Atlas and Mantle, but we were attacked within a different… plane? Realm? I don't know, but we were warned not to fall, but I was tired and had taken damage, and I was blasted off the edge with a powerful attack. I fell, and then I ended up here."
The two remained in silence even as the Normandy touched down before them and everyone started boarding. Shepard placed a hand on Yang's shoulder. "Tell me if you think I'm acting like the General. We'll try words before a betrayal, agreed?" There was a simple nod from Yang before Shepard gave her a push towards the Normandy. "Go and relax, Tali tells me you've been reading history a lot and Liara still needs to teach you more about biotics."
"Yes Ma'am." Yang teased, walking backwards and giving a salute. With the blonde opening up and revealing something rather sensitive given her current position with another military, Shepard would have to take some time of her own to figure out how to treat the blonde.
Exodus Cluster, Asgard System, Normandy
Shepard
Filing a report for the mission and washing up, Shepard was about to call it a day when she was informed that the Council was waiting to be patched through. Wondering what they could want this time, Shepard made her way to the conference room.
As the familiar holograms of the Council appeared in their usual orange hue, it was the Salarian Councillor that spoke up. "We've received an urgent message from one of our infiltration regiments in the Traverse."
"I'm listening." Shepard answered while wondering what they'd be doing outside of Citadel space.
"We currently have several infiltration units scattered throughout the border regions of the Citadel space. This particular unit was gathering intel on Saren." His name immediately had Shepard's attention, more so than any other mission lately. Finally she'd get another chance to stop him.
"Don't keep me in suspense." Shepard said as she hid her eagerness for more information.
"Unfortunately, the message we received was little more than static. The infiltration team must be in a situation where they can't set up proper interstellar communications. But the message was sent on a channel reserved for mission-critical communications. Whatever they were trying to tell us, we know it was important. Considering you interest in Saren, we thought you might want to investigate this. Find out what happened to our team. The signal originated from the planet Virmir." The Salarian informed her.
"I'll look into it, Councillor, as soon as my team has had a rest." Shepard promised.
"The Council prefers not to become involved in the specifics of Spectre activities. We only want you to be aware of all your options, including Virmire. Good luck, Commander Shepard. We will keep you advised if we learn anything else." The Arari Councilor concluded before the communication went dead.
Taking a deep breath, Shepard headed out of the room. "Joker, set a course for Virmire. It seems Saren might have something going on on that planet."
"Roger that Commander. Advise you to take a rest, it'll take a few hours to get there." Joker responded, his advice was welcomed but she had already decided to go and take a break. Dealing with the Batarians had drained her a bit and decisions and actions made upon the asteroid weighed on her mind still.
She would take the lift down to the cargo hold though, checking to see how things were going. She would see Liara instructing Yang in biotics again with Garrus watching. Tali seemed to be tinkering on something off to the side, likely the Geth data she'd been given. Ashley was cleaning her weapons and armour and Wrex… she motioned for him to come over. He was slow in approaching but got the hint to get in as Shepard didn't move. Once they had started back up to the next level he spoke.
"What'd you want, Shepard?"
"Just to talk. I wanted to thank you for what you did back on the asteroid. After Maulden struck me, and then again when he went to fire on Balak. You stopped him and prevented things from escalating."
"It was easy, you humans are pretty weak compared to us Krogan." He boasted.
"I'll keep that in mind, I wouldn't want to piss you off." Wrex chuckled at that. She asked him to follow her again as she headed to her quarters, grabbing a couple of glasses and some more of the Thessian Temple. Once she had a bit in both glasses, she double took on the half empty bottle and then Wrex, handing the bottle to him.
"He, good call." He said before tipping it up and nearly finishing it in one go.
"Had that before?" Shepard inquired.
"I think so, the taste is similar… though, live as long as I have and most things start to taste that way."
"I can't imagine living for that long. But that's not why I asked you to talk." She would drink from her glass while carefully watching Wrex who remained quiet. "So your people, anything you can do to help them?"
"Nothing short of curing the genophage, but my kind has already tried that. Both on our own, and hiring outsiders to try and cure us. Seems like the rest of the galaxy just wants to be rid of us." Wrex sounded tired while explaining that, and not because of the mission.
"Garrus mentioned something before I helped him out. He mentioned that sometimes Krogan get testicle transplants to increase their virility, making the genophage ineffective against them. He said it doesn't work." Her cheeks were a little red while Wrex just laughed loudly.
"Asking if replacing our quads can cure the genophage? If it were that easy Shepard, I think the Krogan might not have been stopped at the rebellions, or at least our numbers would be much higher than they are now." He tipped the bottle back again, finishing it this time and setting it on the table. Shepard would finish one glass off and then push it towards the empty bottle.
"I figured as much." Sheaprd said as she got up, fetching a bottle of Elysium Brandy. She would pass it over to Wrex who raised a scaled brow. "I've been reading up a bit, it seems like the genophage only targets the females of your species." Hearing a grunt from Wrex, Shepard paused. "I'm sorry if this subject is too personal."
"Agh, it's fine Shepard. I just didn't think a human would give two shits about my people."
"Well our species haven't really interacted much have we. I think we need to give one another a chance." She smiled at him and grabbed her other glass. Wrex just continued watching her with a studious gaze. She knew Wrex wasn't an idiot, far from it considering how long he had lived for already. "Ever think about helping your people?"
"I try not to. Failed in the past, too much aggression. There's a lot of Krogan mercs out there. I'm always running into them. Half the time I'm being paid to kill them or protect people from them. But that's just part of the job. You don't pick who your enemies are." There was more to it than that, Shepard knew that much.
"Krogans are a dying species, you've said you've tried before, but did you have help with that?"
"Hmm, yes. When I tried to help my people, I told them we needed to focus on breeding. For a while, we were starting to get through. Some of the tribes started to join my cause and more children were being born. But one of the Warlords didn't take too kindly to this, maybe he feared I was raising a clan to overthrow him, or maybe he just wanted the females for his clan. Doesn't matter now though." Wrex said, dropping his gaze and surprisingly gently rotated the glass bottle in his hand.
"He attacked your clan? That was a stupid move on his part. If your work was helping your people, why didn't he try to assist?"
"My people are a warrior race, Shepard. We've been fighting each other ever since we became the apex predator on Tuchanka. But he didn't attack my clan, he invited us to a Crush, a meeting on neutral ground. We met at a place called the Hollows, near the graves of our ancestors. It's as sacred as any Krogan place can be. Violence is forbidden."
Shepard could already see where this story was headed and shook her head. "It was a trap, wasn't it?"
"It was, and I knew it too. But when your father invites you to a Crush… well, I figured even he would obey those sacred laws." That hit Shepard hard, he brow creased as she leaned back and crossed her arms.
"Your father was the warlord that opposed you?" Wrex nodded. "Fuck." was all she could think of.
"Jarrod was his name, and he was my father up until that day. We talked, he wanted me and the clan I had formed to join him. But he wanted to use us for more battles, waste our lives on pointless conflicts with other clans for the scarce resources Tuchanka had left. When he realised I wasn't going to join him, ever, he gave the signal. His men leapt from the graves of our ancestors like Krogan undead! The few that were loyal to me died quickly." A long breath came from Wrex before he opened and lifted the new bottle to his lips. As he lowered it his entire body slumped and he put his hands on the table. Shepard reached out, putting a hand on top of his. Wrex just looked up and stared for a moment. "I escaped with my life. But not before I sank my dagger into my father's chest."
Shepard would stare back at him, her thumb running back and forward over the rough leathery skin on the top of his hand. "I'm sorry, Wrex. That sounds… impossibly difficult."
"That is what my people have devolved to, fighting for scraps. That's why I try not to think about helping them anymore."
"And if someone, some people were willing to help?" Shepard asked.
"Ha! You planning on throwing your lot into helping my people Shepard?" At least he sounded a little amused at the thought.
"I'm not much of a scientist, but maybe I hear something in my travels that might benefit the Krogan in their bid to continue existing. I'll send it your way." She answered with a wink.
"Yeah, sure. I'd be open to some help from you Shepard. First the armour and now this, might be able to make something happen if you're serious about helping with the genophage. But for now, we should stick to finding Saren. At least that way I can then speak with the Council about how even Commander Shepard needed to enlist Krogan help." He chuckled.
"Might be that I'll put in a good word for you Wrex. See if something can't be done to increase the chance of viable pregnancies for your females."
"I'll hold you to that Shepard."
"Good, now go get some rest. We're heading after Saren again and we've only got a few hours until we arrive." She finished off her drink while Wrex sealed the bottle of brandy.
"Good talk, Shepard. I'll be ready when we arrive." Wrex guaranteed before heading off.
Shepard watched him leave from the door to her quarters, heading for her bed once he was out of sight. With her mind wondering what the unit of Virmire could have found, Shepard fell into a somewhat restful sleep as another shot of Saren waited just on the other side of consciousness.