XVI
Auld Lang Syne: Hand of Thine
Because Pitne For hadn't been allowed to leave the spaceport, he wasn't too hard to find. Not many bars or coffee shops catered to the volus. They found him at the third one they tried, wedged into a booth in the corner beside his guard. He'd hooked a beverage hose up to the port in his arm. Like the quarians, the volus drank all their nutrients on hub worlds. Unlike the quarians, it wasn't the germs that could kill them. Without their suits, oxygenated air and pressure conducive to the survival of carbon-based life forms could burst them open like overripe fruit—with a side of poisoning.
Pitne was watching the lounge singer across the way—fortunately a professional instead of a karaoke singer. Human, her hair dyed an unnaturally dark shade of red, she was dressed asari-style and leaning into the microphone, whisper-singing in a husky alto that sounded like she'd smoked a few packs too many. But Garrus had heard a whole lot worse.
Shepard nodded at the guard and perched on the top of Pitne's booth, looking down at him. He glanced up at her and slid closer to the exit. "Hello again, Earth-clan. Did you speak to the detective?"
"And the justicar, too, so cut the bullshit," Shepard told him. "Why are the mercs after you?"
Pitne raised his hands. "I know nothing about any mercenaries, Earth-clan," he protested. "I'm merely an innocent merchant trying to make his way in life."
Shepard snorted. "Innocent, my ass. The Eclipse are out to get you, and you know the reason why. I'm out to break into their base, so you ought to see how it's in your best interests to help me, you self-serving weasel."
Pitne For was silent for a long time. His air exchange filters worked loudly as the human singer wailed something that had been a hit on Thessia ten years back. Finally, the volus put his hands flat on the table. "Yes, you're right, Earth-clan. I'm desperate. I've got angry mercs after me and now this asari justicar. Let's talk. I smuggled a chemical onto Illium that boosts biotic powers in combat. It also is toxic. I may have, um . . . forgotten to mention that to the Eclipse. So they are perturbed and want to kill me."
"You're a swindler, and it's finally bitten you in the ass," Shepard summarized neatly.
Pitne didn't seem too disturbed by her evaluation of his character. "True and true, but I haven't survived as a merchant this long without being able to tell when there's a deal in the making. You want something."
Shepard sighed. "The Eclipse recently smuggled someone offworld. I need the name of the ship she left on."
Pitne paused, then fumbled in his pocket. "I don't know about their people-smuggling operations. They must keep records in their base. I do have a pass card they issued me to bring my goods in." He cleared his throat. "Well, I had to return that one, but I happened to make a copy." He slid the key card across the table to Shepard. She picked it up. "Take it, but be careful. Each Eclipse sister commits a murder to earn her uniform. They are all dangerous."
He gave them directions, and Shepard slid down from his booth. She started walking out, then paused. "Anyone want a snack?"
After they'd all taken a lunch break, they made their way to the building Pitne For had told them about—an otherwise-innocent-looking executive suite off the spaceport with its own small dock. The volus's pass card let them into the elevator that took them to the first level, above the garage, but before the door opened, a blue light flashed over them from head to toe. "Camera scan!" Garrus warned. "Be ready!"
The elevator door opened. "Powering up," an automated voice said. Tali's omni-tool flashed, and the LOKI security drone by the door exploded in a shower of sparks.
"I feel so welcome," Garrus said. "We should nominate them for a hospitality award."
"In your experience, are ruthless, murdering mercenaries welcoming of uninvited guests?" Tali inquired.
Garrus smiled. "Not usually, but there have been special occasions. Courtesy co-ops, that sort of thing." He saw a violet light flashing near the ceiling. Silent security system. Shepard had found a workbench by the door—probably the last place the Eclipse sisters checked their weapons before heading out on a job. She scanned something for the professor, then nodded at the rest of them.
Grunt almost jogged through the door ahead. Garrus frowned and hurried after him as the first shots broke out. Grunt roared and charged a tattooed asari with a shotgun, who went from determined to terrified-looking in less than a second. She tried to flare, but Grunt seized her arm, disabling her efforts. He rotated her body to catch no less than five different shots, grinning as the blood sprayed all over him, and moved to the right behind several cargo containers. He hurled the asari's lifeless corpse off of an open balcony, an easy port for Eclipse vehicles to enter and leave the base.
The benefit to Grunt's grand entrance, of course, was that every alerted asari in the room was now completely focused on him. Garrus heard Jack laugh behind him. He felt the energy build, and then she rocketed past him, illuminated by her biotics. A crate shot past Grunt to hit in the middle of a small knot of mercenaries. They scattered, shouting, "Get backup here! Now! We're under attack!"
Shepard and Tali fanned out behind him, and Tali's drone soared over the room, firing small but effective laser blasts. Shepard took a post over on the right. She held her rifle—in this team, the more unobtrusive the two of them were, the better. Grunt, Jack, and Tali would send the mercs into a panic, and he and Shepard could clean up.
Garrus selected and downed his first target, firing at Grunt across the room, but her friend raised a hand to a radio, nodded, took aim, and fired—not at Grunt, but at a container right in front of him and to his right.
The container exploded, and a red cloud of dust expanded in front of Grunt, opaque and menacing. As it touched him, he roared, and his body began to glow blue with a biotic reaction. The mercs took another shot at a container near Jack, and more red mist filled the air. She breathed it in, and Garrus focused on her face. Her pupils contracted, and the muscles of her face relaxed. She smiled, and the biotic field around her expanded.
Red sand, but more powerful and faster acting. The toxic chemical Pitne For sold? It obscures the battlefield, but it's a weapon too.
"Shepard, my scans confirm that the chemical compound will boost biotics. However, concentrated exposure will cause severe tissue damage. I recommend limited exposure," EDI's voice said over the radio.
"Jack! Stay away from that dust!" Shepard was already yelling. "You're good enough on your own!"
Garrus saw Jack's muscles ripple, like she wanted to disobey the order. Then he saw her swallow. The biotic field around her moved to her legs, she crouched, and leapt backward. Tali opened fire with her pistol, providing cover as Jack retreated. "Killjoy," Jack muttered under her breath.
"My specialty," Shepard told her.
"Eclipse forever!" an asari yelled over the field.
Garrus's visor was already set to scan for thermal. He looked past the chemical cloud—Grunt moving to another position in his peripheral—found an asari outline, and fired. He heard the sound of tearing flesh and saw her go down.
"Keep moving," Shepard told them. "Don't stay in any one position too long. Keep them guessing."
An asari, teeth bared, came leaping out of cover near Grunt, wreathed in dark energy. She hit him, and he slid back about a meter, but then squared his stance and grappled with her. He'd be fine.
"Target engaged," a synthetic voice said across the room, and semiautomatic fire broke out from a cheap, mass-produced weapon.
"Tali, you're—"
"I'm on it," Tali said, before Shepard could even finish. She went high, climbing up on stacked crates above the expanding, dissipating chemical cloud, flexed her arm, and Garrus saw the flash of a tech explosion through the mist. He reached behind him, pulled his helmet out from where it latched on to the back of his hardsuit, put it on, engaged the air supply, and charged forward into the fray.
Looking around, he whispered what he saw through his visor over the radio. "Two more by Grunt. Five up ahead. Mostly asari, but a couple of human women, it looks like. Two more LOKIs, Tali."
"I see them," Tali replied. He heard her slide off of her perch, heard armor on armor and the soft grunts of a melee fight off to the right. But just as the air in front of them began to clear, another canister came sailing through the air and erupted ahead.
"Gonna have to be our eyes, Garrus," Shepard said quietly. "Tell us where they are."
Garrus moved back toward Grunt's position. The krogan had the best perspective on the rest of the room. An asari came up on his flank. Garrus hit her hard with the butt of his rifle, brought his omni-tool up, and plunged its blade down through the gap at her neck. She gurgled on her own blood and fell silent, her features frozen in an expression of fear and hatred. Scanning the room, Garrus evaluated the outlines his visor was picking up.
"Shepard, one at eleven, thirty meters," he said. "Jack, there's three of them at one behind a makeshift barricade—I can see the interference in the heat signature." Grunt was at his back, and he heard the krogan fire behind him, heard a body fall. "Clear over here." He kept his voice low—they couldn't use hand signals in this cloud, but if an Eclipse sister heard him telling the others where the mercs were, they could guess where the others were positioned.
Fire lit up the room on the left, cutting through the mist and into Shepard's target. A woman screamed as her armor twisted and melted into her skin. The metal's glow outlined the woman he'd missed, crouching down beside her friend. As she rose to run, Garrus took the shot to take her down too, as Shepard finished up the living torch with a bullet to the head.
As Jack lit up blue, three sprays of bullets came at her, but she was already moving, diving behind cover as her biotics flew up—not at any of the targets Garrus had given her, but at the barricade in front of them. It smashed to pieces, sending the live mercs scattering. "Attack exceeds defense protocols," a LOKI said confusedly, before Tali lit it up and it exploded in a shower of sparks, blowing off the arm of the mech right next to it. Its gun went spinning to the floor, and Garrus rolled his eyes. Only thing the mech could do now was blow up, which it did—sending more dangerous sparks at the Eclipse sister that hadn't gotten far enough away. She cried out in pain.
"Yeah! That's what I'm talking about," Grunt said. "Aaaargh!" He ran to the left, the image of an out-of-control juggernaut, but his pistol shots were anything but uncontrolled. He got the slow merc in the thigh, one sprinting to the left in the shoulder. The shots didn't hurt them, but it finished taking out whatever barriers Jack and the crappy mech hadn't already taken down, and Tali, Garrus, and Shepard were all ready to follow up.
The third merc went spinning up into the air, and Jack shot her down, rising to her feet as the wind from the open balcony finally finished blowing the chemical cloud away.
Jack's muscles spasmed beneath her skin. The biotic field around her curled and fluctuated, very unstable-looking. The expression on her face was . . . odd. Somewhere between euphoria and irritation. Tali and Shepard came up to join Garrus and Grunt by Jack, ready to help if she needed it, but as they watched, she took several deep breaths. One by one, she curled her fingers into fists by her sides, and her biotics died down. Her pupils were still contracted, but her jaw was tight and her shoulders were square. She had it under control.
"You alright, Jack?" Shepard asked.
"These bitches aren't stupid," she admitted. "'Bout a year since I tasted a high like that." She shook her head. "I'm better than that. I'll try to keep that shit away from us. Throw it back in their pretty, blue faces. I'm not the only one that stuff can kill—just the only one that it'll help first. Just watch my back."
"You got it, Jack." Shepard promised. As Grunt forged ahead and Jack walked out on his flank, Garrus considered the biotic.
"You know, someday she might even be a soldier," he murmured to Shepard.
He'd meant it half as a joke, half as an expression of surprise, but Shepard agreed immediately. "There's more to her than she knows," she said quietly. "She's been through hell, and she's the product of that experience. Take her new places?" Shepard shrugged. "She can turn it around. She's young and smart and more willing to learn than you'd think."
"And him?" Garrus asked, tilting his head at Grunt.
Shepard frowned. "I don't know what's up with Grunt. Could just be he's young, too, but I'm a little worried. Eyes ahead!" Her voice turned sharp as more gunfire broke out in the hall ahead.
Garrus ducked into an alcove behind a pillar. The hall was thankfully clear of cargo containers of Pitne For's toxin, but there were three Eclipse mercs blocking their progression behind a makeshift barricade—bits of scrap and heavy plastic like you might find in a garage. They had to be near one of the places the mercs kept their vehicles.
Grunt charged the strongpoint, but an asari caught him in a biotic throw that hurled him back on his ass. He roared in frustration as all three Eclipse fired on him. Garrus saw his shields go down, but Tali and Jack were already going in, giving the mercs something else to focus on. One fired at Tali's drone, trying to take it out of action before it could start causing real damage behind their cover. Another was in a biotic duel with Jack. Dark energy bloomed and roiled in the corridor between them like a building storm.
Garrus's shot rang out with Shepard's, from the other side of the corridor behind another pillar. Two of the Eclipse went down, and Tali took out the third with two neat shotgun blasts. The corridor fell silent, and Jack walked back. She held out a hand to help Grunt up. He took it with a guttural growl, looking disgusted with himself.
"You're bleeding," Garrus informed him. A bullet had gone into his meaty, unarmored bicep. It didn't look too bad—the blood was oozing, not gushing. It had caught in muscle mass and had probably missed any major blood vessels, and the Eclipse were shooting bullets meant to take out other asari and humans, it looked like, nothing near what they needed for a fight with a krogan.
Grunt looked down at the wound. "Huh. Think it'll scar?"
"Not if Dr. Chakwas takes a look at it later," Shepard told him.
"Too bad." Grunt cradled his shotgun. "Can we go now?"
Shepard rolled her eyes and turned her wrist over. An application of medi-gel detached from her omni-tool to cover the wound. It would stop the bleeding and keep the wound from festering until they could get Grunt to the doctor, and some krogan could regen almost as fast as a vorcha, but he was going to have to walk around with the bullet until they could get out of here. Only a krogan could take a bullet like it was no big deal. But Shepard poked her finger at Grunt's breastplate. "You want a fight, and you think you're invincible," she said quietly. "But you're not. You're big and dangerous and can take a hell of a lot of punishment, but if you charge in without a plan, you will get yourself killed eventually. You're not just a weapon, you're a soldier. Act like it and practice some defense, or I can't use you. Got it?"
Grunt regarded her for a long moment, then he nodded. "Understood."
"Shepard," Tali called softly.
Shepard stepped back from Grunt and looked at her. Tali tilted her head at a nearby door. Shepard signaled to the rest of them—Quiet.
They regrouped around her, and then Garrus heard what Tali had—a voice praying in the next room, some sort of security station. "Oh, goddess, don't let them see me. If they do, don't let them kill me. What am I doing here?"
Shepard motioned for them to hold for several seconds. Then, pistol at the ready, she plunged into the next room. "Out where I can see you! Hands in the air!"
"Wait, stop!" an asari squealed, darting out into the open. "I didn't fire my weapon once! I pretended to because the other Eclipse sisters were watching, but I didn't really shoot! I came here to hide as soon as I could!" Her words came out in a panicked rush.
Garrus looked around. The asari was alone back here. The room was empty except for the consoles at the security station. The asari's knees were bent, half ready to kneel. She was unarmed, and her gauntleted hands were clasped in front of her as she begged.
Jack's biotics flared. "You're in an enemy uniform, and I'm gonna kill you!"
Grunt chuckled. "Maybe you can pretend to keep breathing."
"I'm not one of them! I'm new!" the mercenary protested. "I thought being Elnora the mercenary would be cool, but I didn't know what they were really like—"
Garrus was fixated on the uniform. The black-and-gold gauntlets, the "E" across Elnora's chest. Something Pitne For had said—he looked at Shepard. "Shepard. Jack's right. The uniform."
The volus had told them—every merc in this bunch of Eclipse had to murder someone to earn her uniform. This stammering kid was already a killer. Shepard's face hardened. When she spoke, her voice was soft. "Not one of them, are you? I'm not buying it."
Elnora's face contorted. "Screw you, bitch!" she cried. She lit up blue, and five shots rang out. Elnora collapsed in a spreading pool of violet gore, her head and torso destroyed beyond recognition. Garrus didn't know which of them had killed her. For once, he didn't want to. Killing cowards like Elnora the mercenary always left a sour taste in his mouth.
They headed back into the halls of the base. A set of steps curved around into a garage, like Garrus had thought, and the mercs had dug in here to make another stand. As they rounded the corner, a barrel came flying at them, but Jack lit up and caught it in a biotic field. With a cry, she flung it back away from them, exploding it in the faces of three incoming mercs. "I will kill you all!"
Another sickly red chemical cloud went up, and the mercs started coughing and cursing. Jack crouched, then using her biotics to augment her spring, rocketed forward to hit the ground. A shockwave cracked the cement floor and rippled ahead, and the three mercs immediately ahead were tossed up into the air with the force of the blast. Grunt and Tali moved forward together, Tali taking point—but another group of mercs started in on their flank.
Garrus moved left and forward at a fast jog, constructing a targeting solution as he went. Shepard faded out—heading to a position behind the enemy. "Check the turian and the blonde!" an Eclipse merc shouted. "These are the same bastards that hit Enyala's crew on that job by the private spaceport!"
"Damn it, where'd she go? Who the hell are these people?"
"Ask nicely!" Tali taunted the mercenaries, detonating a LOKI mech right next to the fuel tank on a hoverbike near the center of the room. The tank exploded, spinning one of the lieutenants entirely around. Shepard's incendiary hit her other side, and her burning corpse collapsed to the ground. A sharp, acrid smell filled the room.
"Shit!" someone cried. Garrus found her and fired, shooting her teeth through the back of her throat. Grunt picked up the body of another, hacked mech, and as Jack laid down some cover fire, he ran into a group of mercenaries with it, crushing one in a metal embrace, blasting another with the special, heavy-duty shotgun Shepard had picked up for him their first day on Illium. He laughed wildly, blood still leaking from the wound in his arm, eyes glowing with happiness. A kid in a candy store.
Garrus was holed up in a work station near the center of the room, sunk into the ground so mechanics could look underneath Eclipse vehicles. Most of the mercs in the room were occupied. Then someone broke out a rocket launcher. He heard it before he saw it—a whistle through the air. DANGER! HEAVY ORDNANCE INCOMING! his visor warned him.
Garrus dropped flat as the rocket shot past, feeling the temperature rise five degrees. He heard the roar as it detonated against a heavy-duty crate behind him. His visor tracked the next one coming, even closer—then he heard three pistol shots—the distinctive, deep retort of a Carnifex. The second rocket impacted above the work station behind him, and Garrus vaulted over the side, turning as he ran to see where the fire had come from. He only saw Shepard, one, last falling body, and a vehicle in the sky a bit too close to the building. Behind him, Jack clenched her fist as another merc screamed and fell into a mess of exposed organs and crumpled armor.
"They're onto us," Tali observed. "Well. You two, anyway."
"Guess we just have two of those faces, Shepard. Or I do."
Shepard smirked, but signaled them to move ahead. "Keep moving. Did you see that ship that flew off?"
Garrus hummed. "Might be in trouble if it comes back."
"Might be a good chance to test out the toy Mordin got us, though," Shepard said, glancing over her shoulder at the M-920 Cain the professor had researched and requisitioned for her. Garrus couldn't deny he wasn't curious to see the thing shoot—the specs said that for all there wasn't any fallout, the sheer speed and mass of the slugs it launched could have a comparative explosive power to a miniature nuke. He'd wondered why Shepard had equipped it to look for Samara and guessed she was as curious as he was.
Grunt chuckled, and they crossed the garage and moved forward into what looked like another checkpoint. There were a couple of computers here. Tali went up to one. Her fingers danced across the keyboard, and her wrist rotated in her omni-tool as she worked, searching for information. "There's a log here," she reported. "Could be the information Samara wants."
She tapped a key, and an audio file played over the speakers. "Well, it's official!" a female voice giggled. "Little, baby Elnora is finally a full-fledged Eclipse merc! I earned my uniform last night when I killed that ridiculous volus. Up close, exploding rounds! Blew the little bastard's suit wide open!" She laughed out loud again. "I can't wait to see some real action! Next time I go home, my friends are gonna be so jealous!"
The recording cut out. Jack scoffed, satisfied. "Elnora was the killer. I knew I smelled murder on that bitch."
Garrus glanced at her. "Takes one to know one, I guess."
She smirked coldly. "You bet your ass."
"Garrus," Shepard said. She nodded at Jack. "You did good, Jack. Nice job spotting her."
Jack subsided. "Anytime, boss lady."
"Detective Anaya would be interested in this," Garrus noted. Tali was already transferring the file over to Shepard. Shepard checked the tag, making sure the original location was preserved in the file.
"We can tip her off," she agreed. "Make sure she can close the case."
They walked through the door on the other side of the room and into a secondary hangar. The Eclipse mercs waiting for them opened fire at once. Jack threw them back in a burst of biotics, but Garrus knew immediately the two women skidding back on the floor were the least of it. He heard the roar of engines, and shouted above the din, "Get down! Gunship above!"
He and Tali dove behind a sturdy, concrete-and-silicon fuel control console as the bullets started up. High-pitched, rapid, deafening gunfire, echoing off the walls and the ceiling. Supply crates were pulverized in seconds, going up in clouds of woodchips and scattered clouds of drugs. The floor cracked in a dozen places.
And Garrus swallowed as the fear flooded him. His cybernetic ear began to throb. The outlines of the room turned fuzzy, and his breath came fast and shallow. He clutched his rifle, compressing his gauntlets into the hard edges, feeling the pressure on his palm.
"Keelah! What the hell do we do?!" Tali was shouting. Sparks showered over their heads. Chips of concrete fell to the floor around them—and the sound of gunfire was getting louder. Closer.
Pull it together, idiot! We don't have time for this! Garrus evaluated the situation in a moment. To the Eclipse, Tali would be the least threatening enemy in the room. The gunship would prioritize any of them before her, but Garrus and Shepard before anyone else. We're the ones they've seen, the ones they want to kill. Shepard had the ordnance to take the gunship down, and another piece of good news was that she was probably off their scopes right now lining up her shot, but without her, that ship was focused on him, and Tali was with him. If either of them were going to survive the next three seconds, they'd need some help.
"When I say so, run!" Garrus told Tali. "Jack, I'm going to need some help!" he shouted. "Alright! Now!"
At the same moment, he and Tali broke in opposite directions from behind the console. The gunfire followed him—87 . . . 71 . . . 59%! Then he was caught up in a biotic field and jerked away. His body hurtled through space, away from the stream of bullets, toward the wall. He tumbled head over heels over rifle, under a low ceiling and into cover. His back hit the wall so hard that even in armor, he blacked out momentarily on impact, the air knocked completely from his body. He opened his eyes a second later as vicious, throbbing pain spread through his back from the point of impact and every bone vibrated with protest. He shook himself, climbed to his feet and crouched behind an armored weapons crate.
He was crouching by the corpses of the two Eclipse sisters that had been stationed here. Grunt and Jack were squatting behind a pillar and another armored crate, respectively. Garrus nodded at Jack—she shot him a single glance to check that she hadn't killed him herself saving his life, flipped him off, and turned her eyes back on the gunship.
Having missed a target on its initial pass, the gunship was backing out of the hangar again in order to readjust its weapon—one of the only weaknesses of the model. But as soon as the ship was back out in the open air beside the building and outside of the hangar, Garrus heard a focusing whine and a click.
And then the sky exploded.
The Eclipse gunship blew apart in a blinding flash. The temperature of the hangar rose ten degrees, and a crimson mushroom cloud bloomed a hundred meters outside of the building like a sunset. Shrapnel rained down on the city below. Garrus, standing and walking out into the open, watched it fall. And three thousand civilians just crapped their pants. He hoped none of the shrapnel was big enough to hurt the people on the streets below—looking at it, he didn't think so.
"That one hit," he said, trying to keep the awe out of his voice.
Shepard stood beside him, the crimson cloud reflecting pink on her face. She patted the yellow-striped barrel of the Cain. "I think I like this thing."
"No kill quite like overkill?" Garrus suggested.
Shepard made a face at him. "Shut up. You alright?"
Garrus rolled his shoulders. As a matter of fact, he was in a fairly ridiculous amount of pain. "I could be a whole lot worse. Visiting Dr. Chakwas for a spine adjustment is, on the whole, better than being dead." As Jack came up, he smiled at her. "Thanks for the save."
"Hey, I got to throw you into a wall. I'm happy," she said.
Tali had joined them too. "You served as bait so I could get away. If Jack hadn't been there—"
Garrus cut her off, unnerved by the incredulous admiration in the quarian's voice. "But she was. Let's save the tearful professions of gratitude for later. Or never. That works too." He shrugged. "You'd do the same for me."
"I don't know that I could," Tali said frankly. "I froze back there. If it had been up to me, we both would have died, Garrus. Thank you. Really. Thank you."
"Really. Don't mention it," Garrus said.
"I want one of those guns," Grunt said, nodding at the Cain, eyes sparkling. "That was incredible."
"Unfortunately, it's pretty much a one-and-done kind of deal," Shepard said regretfully. "Out of charge now, and it takes more time and power to get it ready to fire again than we've got. Any other gunships we'll have to take down the old-fashioned way. Wish we'd brought Goto."
"Kasumi?" Tali said, surprised.
"I once saw her flip up onto a moving gunship and stab right through the cockpit to disable the controls," Shepard said with a wistful smile.
"Remind me not to underestimate her again," Tali noted.
Shepard hummed. "Mmmhmm. Move out."
The Eclipse base was still as they moved on. The mercenaries based here were probably dead behind them or staying away. They walked through the empty halls, checking the corners and the side rooms, looking for consoles and logs or any kind of record they could find that might tell them about this Eclipse cell's people-smuggling operations.
Shepard found something first. "Hold it," she called. Everyone paused to look at her. She was examining a datapad she'd found by a bunch of crates. "This looks like a shipping manifest," she reported. "It shows that Pitne For sold two thousand units of Minagen X-3 to the Eclipse, along with six hundred units of red sand."
Red sand was legal on Illium—but the Minagen X-3 variant the mercenaries had been tossing at them since they'd entered the base was banned. "This isn't the information Samara needs, but it proves that the volus is a criminal," Garrus said.
"Valuable information to the volus," Grunt suggested.
Jack scoffed. "Please. Have you been paying attention? Bet you fifty credits it goes to that cop."
Grunt glanced at Shepard. "Ugh. No bet."
Jack laughed. "Because I'd win. Come on, Girl Scout. Let's get what we need and blow this joint."
Garrus looked around. "What are we going to do about the drugs?" he asked. From everything they'd seen—the people-smuggling, the drugs, the murder—this Eclipse cell was just like the ones Garrus had seen on Omega or worse. "There's a bunch of murdering scum that won't be out on the street after this, but if we leave all this here, someone else will just pick up where these guys left off. We should report the base location to Anaya, too. Have her seize all the drugs and weapons in the base."
"Shit, remind me to toss you harder next time," Jack complained, shaking her head. "You're as bad as she is."
"It's not a bad idea," Shepard said. "Killing criminals is fine. Keeping them from coming back is better." She smiled at Garrus, and they entered the next room.
Once again, they weren't alone. A volus was staring at a can from a vending machine. He popped the tab, then realizing he couldn't drink it, he hurled it into the wall in a blue, biotic cloud. It crumpled and exploded.
"Who the hell is this?" Tali wondered.
The volus turned. His biotics flared. "I am a biotic god!" he proclaimed. "I think things, and they happen. Fear me, lesser creatures! For I am biotics made flesh." His biotics flared again, but his words were slurred, and he staggered as he walked.
"I don't know what drugs you're on, but stay back, and I won't shoot you," Shepard told him.
The volus raised a claw he couldn't hold steady. "You will regret your scandalous words! I am a great wind that will sweep all before me like a . . ." He lost track of his metaphor, then had a stroke of inspiration. "A great wind!" he finished, delighted. "A great, biotic wind! Yes, the asari injecting so many drugs into me was terrifying, but then I began to smell my greatness. They may laugh when I fall over, but they don't know what I know in my head: that I know that I am amazingly powerful. Fear me!"
Tali raised a hand to cover her face, a reaction more instinctive than useful. No one looking at her would know she was fighting a laugh if it wasn't for that hand. Jack wasn't so polite. She openly smirked, and Grunt chuckled.
"Are you part of Pitne For's trade group?" Shepard demanded.
"When I was mortal, I worked for Pitne," the volus confirmed. "Poor soul is probably terrified that I have not returned."
"He hasn't reported your disappearance," Garrus informed the volus. "Probably so his departure won't get delayed."
Jack made a face. "When the chips are down, even your friends will screw you for an extra cred."
"You've had the wrong friends," Shepard shot back at her without turning around.
The volus waved a claw and staggered. "Bah! I will wreak a just revenge upon his people! But first, the leader of these mercenaries is in the next room. I shall toss Wasea about like a rag doll!" He tripped and fell to his knees, then climbed to his feet, too high to actually stand.
"Shepard, this guy couldn't tie his bootlaces, much less fight," Garrus said.
Shepard rolled her eyes. "I know."
The volus was adamant. "I will tear her apart!" he declared. "My biotics are unstoppable!"
"Wasea will tear you apart," Shepard said flatly. "Take a nap. You'll feel better."
The volus turned around, lifting his arms above his head. "Are you mad? I'm unstoppable! Feasting on her biotic-rich blood will—"
Shepard stepped forward, and gently, pushed on the volus's back. He tripped and fell on his face this time, and when he climbed to his feet, he yawned. "But—great wind—biotic god . . . I'm . . . I . . . what was I saying? I'm . . . tired." He stretched and looked back at Shepard. "You . . . may be right. Yes, I'm tired. I'll nap. Destroy the universe later." He staggered back down the hall. Garrus hoped he didn't find it too disturbing to wake up in a room full of mercenary corpses.
He'll probably be terrified when he sobers up. But at least he'll live. "So much for godhood," he remarked.
Shepard shrugged. "I hear it's overrated."
"Useless," Grunt growled.
But the volus hadn't been completely useless. They knew they were outside the leader's office. Grunt ejected a heat sink to redistribute his shots. Garrus rolled his shoulders, trying to redistribute the dull, persistent pain in his back, and shot a glare at Jack. She smirked and took a swig from her canteen. Finally, Shepard nodded, and with Tali and Grunt on either side of her, she entered the room.
Garrus counted them around the room. Looked like eight guards plus Wasea, but these would be the most experienced mercs in the base.
Wasea had a red, tattooed pattern around her eyes and over her crest. She was trying to play it cool—no one was firing yet—but the corner of her mouth twitched down as she took a drink of water and examined a datapad. Her muscles were tight with barely controlled rage. Shepard signaled to them all, and they started to spread out.
"Everything's gone to hell since we smuggled that filthy creature offworld," Wasea remarked, letting her voice carry. "First a justicar shows up. Now you." She put her water and datapad down. "At least I can take pleasure in turning your head into a pulpy mass!"
Her voice twisted into a snarl as her biotics lit up and all her guards opened fire. A barrel came flying at them—Minagen X-3—and Jack bounded forward.
"No way, bitch!"
The barrel changed direction in midair and burst against the right wall. Wasea's laughter soared above the gunfire. "Now we're talking!" she cried. "You're lucky I'm killing you! If you're helping that justicar, you're deep into something terrifying!"
She raised both her arms, and two barrels came at Jack from either side. Jack caught one and tossed it into the other. The barrels came crashing down several meters ahead and to their right, closer to the enemy than to them, but the cloud of toxic chemicals blew out toward them anyway. Garrus had an idea then. He'd helped Grunt modify his guns last week—"Grunt! Concussive blasts at the center of the gas cloud! Help me disperse it!"
Weaving their way through the fire, ducking behind shipments in Wasea's office, he and Grunt worked to clear the way. Tali's drone hounded a heavy with a rocket launcher at the other end of the room, keeping her in close quarters, on the defensive. Shepard was dancing in and out of view, keeping Wasea's guard guessing. Every few seconds, a fireball or a rifle shot came at them from a different angle. "Damn it, where the fuck is she?" one of the asari asked, rolling away from another blast, her barrier completely depleted, and straight into Grunt.
Grinning, he punched her to the floor and blasted her in the face, leaving her head a pulpy mass. Garrus shot down the guard on his flank, fracturing her visor into her face first and following up with another, more penetrating shot.
Jack was dueling Wasea, shotguns and biotics, both their faces twisted in bloodlust and anger. The entire room was charged with the energy they were giving off. "You think you're in my league, human?" Wasea raged. "You're a child! A dead one!" One of her throws hit Jack full on and blew her back into a crate, but the moment Jack hit the ground, a wave of energy moved out from her. Grunt braced himself, Garrus jumped, Tali tripped, and Shepard was dark again, but Wasea wasn't ready and staggered back, falling on her ass. Jack was already up, jaw clenched, eyes bloodshot.
"I'm getting really tired of your mouth," she growled. A column of roiling energy crashed down onto Wasea. Garrus's visor tagged her barriers going down, and a blaze of fire turned the air around Wasea violet. Garrus's mandibles tightened. He focused on the guards.
He heard the whine of an incoming rocket and dodged right, but the Eclipse were retreating, moving back. Two mercs were by Wasea, covering her as she climbed to her feet. Her nose was dripping violet. Her armor was smoldering. Tali's drone appeared behind them and let loose. One of them dropped before the other saw it.
"Nothing is faster than Chiktikka vas Paus!" Tali cried. The other merc had overloaded the drone in a second, but the damage was done. Wasea and the guard beside her stepped over Tali's kill. Both of them ignited, and two enormous crates, six meters high and three meters wide, and at least that deep, moved aside. The other three remaining guards retreated back, but as Wasea and the fourth guard tried to close the makeshift gates, locking themselves in the back of the room, Tali, Garrus, and Shepard all opened fire. Wasea yelled, and another barrier blossomed around her. She moved backward as her guard fell down, and Grunt charged into the breach. He threw his weight behind his shoulder. In an astonishing feat of strength, he pushed one of the enormous crates back—half a meter. Enough. Jack took the other, sliding it back out of the way and striding forward, steaming biotic energy, panting.
As another Minagen canister came hurtling at Grunt, she yelled, throwing it back at Wasea.
Garrus heard Shepard laugh from close behind him, her quiet, grim amusement, and he could guess what she was thinking as the last four guards shrank back into cover at the very back of the room. Wasea was still changing position, trying to score a hit with her shotgun, but the biotic field around her was fluctuating wildly. Magnified in his visor, he saw that through the chemical cloud, her face was covered with a thin sheen of sweat, and her limbs were trembling. They're beaten. They know it. There was a familiar, warm satisfaction in his gut, and he knew he'd sleep well tonight. Another pack of murdering criminals gone. If Anaya and her placebo office could only manage to hold on to their ordnance and drugs, at the end of this week, Nos Astra would be a little better off for their visit.
He saw someone aiming a rocket launcher at Tali over some barrels in the back, took their shields. Her curse was enough to alert Tali to the danger. Tali swung around, but Shepard had already taken the shot. Wasea fired three blasts at her, but Shepard vaulted over two barrels, heading toward Grunt as she faded out. Gunfire followed her trajectory, but Garrus saw Shepard's heat signature double back, saw her outline crouch by Tali and raise her rifle to her shoulder again.
Wasea, still trapped in the gas cloud at the back of the room, was now leaking violet blood from her eyes as well as her nose. "You think it's time to stop playing with our food?" Garrus suggested as Grunt caught one of the last guards in an unguarded moment and she went down.
"Ugh, fine," Jack grunted. She clenched her fist, drew it to her chest, and Wasea, barriers down, twitching uncontrollably, floated up into the air. Jack jerked her head at Shepard, and the commander took the shot, putting the merc boss out of her misery. It was over in another five seconds.
Jack looked down at Wasea's corpse coolly for about a second. Her biotics dissipated, and she turned away. "Bitch," she muttered.
The room smelled like gunpowder and chemicals, asari and human blood. Shepard's mouth twisted into something halfway between a smile and a grimace as she looked at the grisly scene, but she nodded at Jack as she walked back toward Wasea's desk. "Jack, Grunt, Garrus, I want you all to see Dr. Chakwas when we're done here," she said.
"That toss back there?" Jack demanded. "I'm fine!"
Grunt looked down at his scabbed-over arm. "Hurt more to see the doctor than to let it go at this point," he remarked.
"And Dr. Chakwas will kill me if Jack didn't," Garrus told them both. "It's routine. Take some fire, a bad toss into a wall, you go see the doctor. If you're as fine as you say you are, she'll give you a clean bill of health and that'll be the end of it. But if you've got some broken ribs or a wound might get infected, it's better to know and treat it now than when she has to take you out of action for three days. It's a pain, but it's better not to whine and get it over with."
Jack made a disgusted noise, but didn't argue further. "Got it," Shepard said, shaking a datapad. "Let's get out of here. I've had enough of this place."
Samara had to be one of the strangest detainees Garrus had ever seen. She was sitting at least a meter off the ground in the decorative alcove behind Detective Anaya. She wasn't in cuffs, still had all her guns, and was shimmering with biotics. There was a perceptible energy current in the room that set Garrus's teeth on edge. Samara looked like she was meditating, but it wasn't making Anaya feel any better. As Garrus watched, her eyes ran over the same line on her screen four times. Her finger tapped the cursor nervously instead of scrolling, and there was a tic in her jaw.
Shepard nodded at Detective Anaya, walked past her, and handed Samara the datapad they'd recovered from Wasea's office. "I've got the name of the ship. Your fugitive left here two days ago on the AML Demeter."
The biotic field around Samara dissipated into the air, and the energy current around Garrus's skin dropped off to a comfortable level. Samara smiled with actual warmth. "Shepard, you impress me," she said, sliding off her perch to her feet. "You've fulfilled your part of the bargain, and I will fulfill mine." She bowed to Anaya. "I am ready to leave immediately if that will satisfy your superiors, Detective."
Anaya nodded. "You're free to go, Justicar. It has been an honor having you in my station." Her entire body had relaxed, and she grinned. "And it's nice you didn't kill me, too."
"The Normandy is docked near the trading floor," Shepard said. "We'll see you aboard."
Samara held up a hand. "I must be sworn to your service, so that I am never forced to choose between your orders and the code."
Garrus understood. If Samara's code would have compelled her to kill Detective Anaya even for following her orders to detain her, having her on the Normandy could be an issue. Who knew what the Justicar Code would say about working with people like Jack or even Jacob and Miranda? In the next few weeks, Samara would have to do anything Shepard said, but she was bound to her code first.
Samara knelt in front of Shepard. She lit up blue with biotics again. Her eyes glowed, and once again, Garrus felt the sizzling sensation his scales were about to crawl off of his body to get away from all the dark energy she had harnessed. He hadn't ever seen such focused biotic control. Usually, he was pretty confident facing off with biotics—they all had tells, signals, pressure points you could disable to take them out of action. But he wasn't sure he could take Samara out in a fight. On the one hand—good. If I can't take her out, odds are our enemies can't either. On the other—I'm really glad she's swearing this oath.
"By the code, I will serve you, Beth Shepard," Samara said. Her voice echoed and vibrated with her biotics, almost like subharmonics, but there was nothing to her undertones but power. Garrus swallowed. "Your choices are my choices. Your morals are my morals. Your wishes are my code." Her biotics flared out without a single movement on her part and faded away.
Jack huffed. "Not bad." Tali looked at Garrus, and he caught her amusement at Jack's jealousy like a bubbly wave. Not like she took out an asari mercenary boss almost entirely on her own a half hour ago or anything.
Anaya had stood, and she leaned against her desk, arms folded, looking at Shepard speculatively. "I never thought I'd see a justicar swear an oath like that."
Samara climbed to her feet. "If you make me do anything extremely dishonorable, I may need to kill you when I am released from my oath," she informed Shepard in an even, serene tone.
Jack snorted. "Don't worry about it. She's not the type."
But Shepard inclined her head in a gesture of respect, taking her cues from Anaya. "I can see that this is a very important oath, Samara. Thank you."
Samara seemed pleased by this. She smiled again. "Truly, the life of a justicar can get lonely. I admit, I am looking forward to serving with a company of honorable heroes." She looked around, smiling at the rest of them.
Shepard smirked. "'Honorable heroes' may be pushing it."
"Shall we return to your ship?" Samara asked.
"In a minute. I need to speak to the detective."
Anaya's forehead crinkled, and amenable, she walked back behind her desk and sat down. "Thanks for getting Samara out of my district," she said. "I can tell my granddaughters about meeting a justicar, and you've just upped my chances of living long enough to have grandkids."
"Going to see what else we can do for you," Shepard said. She floated the confession file off her omni-tool and over to Anaya's console. "I have proof that Eclipse killed the volus merchant."
"Let's see what you've got here," Anaya said. She played the file, and frowned. "Interesting, but I can't verify it. It would be inadmissible."
Samara stepped forward. "I vouch for Shepard and any evidence she brings forward."
Anaya made a note. "I accept the judgment of the justicar. We'll be glad to close the book on this one."
Garrus restrained the impulse to roll his eyes. Wonder what happens when the justicars aren't trustworthy.
"Never heard of this Elnora," Anaya mused. "Sounds like she was just starting her career. Did you take her down?"
"In the raid on the base, yes," Shepard confirmed.
"Thanks again. Okay, enough with all the congratulations. I've still got a spiraling crime rate."
Shepard regarded Anaya. "Yeah, about that. You should probably head back to the base at some point or other. Seize the guns and drugs the Eclipse had there. Keep anyone else from using them."
"Don't worry, I've already requested a team," Anaya told her. "We'll ship them to the holding facilities downtown. They're a little more secure than this office."
"And the volus, Pitne For. He's dirty." Shepard handed Anaya the other datapad they'd found in the Eclipse base. "You know it. Here's the proof. He smuggled in the Eclipse's stupidly toxic red sand and illegal weapons tech."
Anaya tilted her head, impressed. "I'll arrest him and his cohorts. This is a big help, Shepard. I can't do much to thank you, but we do have a small discretionary bounty fund." She typed a few lines on a document, and pressed a button. Shepard's omni-tool buzzed. "Take this."
Shepard looked at the readout. "Thank you, Detective. Glad we could help." She glanced at Samara, her lips tugging upward. "Now we can leave."
Back at the Normandy, Shepard stopped in the CIC before heading off with Samara for the usual tour and mission briefing. She took a long, measured look at Grunt. He was getting twitchy again, tapping his fingers against the barrel of his shotgun and grinding his teeth.
"Grunt—don't leave Dr. Chakwas's office after she gets that bullet out. Wait for me there," she said. "I think you and I need to have a talk."
"Yes," Grunt agreed. Without disarming or looking back at them, he stomped off toward the elevator. The rest of them watched him go.
"What was that all about?" Tali asked.
"Beats me," Jack said. "And you guys call me the psycho. If he goes off the rails downstairs, I'll tear his arms off."
"As nice as that is, I think we need to find a less permanent solution," Tali said drily.
"He's trying to keep it under control," Garrus observed. "You can see him reining it in. But something's wrong."
"Try not to worry too much about it," Shepard told them. "I'll have a chat with Grunt, Dr. Chakwas, and EDI later. We'll take care of it."
"Whatever. It's not my problem," Jack shrugged, heading toward the armory. After a moment, Garrus and Tali followed her. Garrus broke off with Jack from there to go see Chakwas as ordered, after promising Tali once again they would take an hour or two to enjoy their shore leave before it was time to ship out.
He was distracted from Dr. Chakwas's fussing over everyone in her med bay—and his amusement at how completely unintimidated she was by Jack or Grunt—when his omni-tool buzzed. Excitement surged through him like a current. "Doctor, excuse me," he said. "Are we good?"
"Jack's biotic throw doesn't seem to have disrupted your cybernetic implant," she said, shutting off her own omni-tool, "You didn't hit your head, and you don't have any broken bones or symptoms of whiplash. Still, Commander Shepard did well to have you come to me. It could have been a great deal worse, but you were lucky."
"Lucky, my ass!" Jack scoffed. "Saving someone's life is new for me, but I know better than to fuck it up by ripping them in half. He's fine 'cause I wanted him to be." She blinked. "Shit, what the hell is wrong with me?"
"You really want us to answer that?" Garrus teased.
"Fuck you," Jack retorted. "Next time you can pull your own ass away from the gunship."
"More gunships, Garrus?" Dr. Chakwas chided him.
"I like to stay on the edge."
"If only that weren't true," the doctor sighed.
"As fun as this is, if there's nothing else, I should probably get back to the battery."
Jack shook her head. "Shit. Only you spend as much time on duty on shore leave as you do when we're in the sky. You need to get laid, is all I'm saying."
"He needs a better fight," Grunt observed from his perch on the medical cot across the bay. "When's the next time we fight Collectors? I'm ready!" He pounded a fist into his other palm.
"You need to hold on. There's a bullet in your arm, and regeneration or not, you're not leaving here until it's out and Shepard and I have both cleared you for duty," Chakwas said sternly. "Garrus, however, is free to go. Now Jack, I've heard you all report, but I want you to tell me more about the chemical in that base."
Garrus waved goodbye and walked out of the med bay, trying not to walk too fast. But when he pulled up the message he'd received on his omni-tool in Chakwas's office, the familiar address was from Palaven, not Illium.
What the hell?
Garrus told himself he wasn't disappointed. It had only been a day since he'd seen Liara. Too soon for her to have found anything. Sidonis wasn't going to be easy to trace.
His omni-tool buzzed again. G? Are you in? Where the hell did you get the creds?
Garrus opened a new message. I told you I was doing some consultant work.
The reply came immediately. Enough that you can afford a 1750 credit write-off?
I can do it, Sol. I'll send more when I can.
We need the money. Just tell me it's not illegal.
Garrus hesitated. The Council had banished Shepard's operations to the Terminus systems for a reason. Cerberus was a recognized terrorist organization in Council space. But he wasn't in Council space, and in the Terminus systems, almost everything was legal. And when it all comes out, when they realize what we're doing here, they'll thank us. It's not illegal.
Just not Hierarchy-approved. Or anything you can actually tell us about.
There was a long pause, and then another message came through. Can you at least tell us where you are? That you're safe?
Garrus sighed. I've got some good people with me, Sol. Some of the best in the galaxy. And we're doing good work.
There was silence for a long time. Then—Mom had a good day today. She made lunch and everything. We watched a vid with Dad. It was nice.
Garrus frowned. You were home all day?
The nurse had to attend her sister's wedding. I took a personal day. Relax. Things aren't so bad I'm following in your footsteps just yet. A second later—We missed you. The money's fine. Let us know you haven't gotten yourself killed yet. But I don't know when we'll have another day like this one. The doctors have her on a new medicine. They said it might give her some more clarity. But we've heard that before. There's no real cure for Corpalis.
How are you holding up? Garrus asked.
Solana's reply was caustic. How do you think? We're doing as well as we can. Look, I'll talk to you later. Thanks for the help. Such as it is. Be careful.
Garrus shut off his omni-tool. He braced himself on the battery console. He had to take a shower. He had to eat something and figure out the next time he would have a chance to go argue with the Illium armorers. He needed to calibrate the gun, keep it in shape for when they flew out. He wanted to check back in with Shepard—see what was happening with Grunt. He did want to schedule something with Tali—she deserved a few hours of fun before the chance was gone.
But he couldn't move for a long time.
A/N: Grunt's issues continue! Chakwas returns! (I love Chakwas.) And this is a real Jack feature, considering it's supposed to be Samara's recruitment. I've found that Jack just plays off of Garrus very well. Samara will have moments to shine later on, though, never fear—though really Jack and Garrus could almost be described as frenemies by now, and due to Samara's reserve I don't ever see Garrus getting as close to her.
If you've got something to say, please leave a review. I love to hear from my readers, whether it's praise, constructive criticism, or just a random remark about something that got them thinking.
Best Always,
LMS
